Good morning,




Today will be a little different. I will offer a few comments and then there will be a biography followed by the history lesson.



About aliens:



From the very concept of this great nation aliens played a significant role in its development. One in particular was Francis Salvador, a Portuguese Jew. He came to South Carolina and established a 7,000 acre plantation between Charleston and Georgetown. Within a matter of months, he joined with Colonel Andrew Pickens' militia in the area around Seneca, SC (230 miles from his plantation) in an attempt to subdue the Creek and Cherokees that were raiding settlements in the area and killing all the inhabitants. The militia was ambushed and Salvador was captured and tortured to death in an unspeakable manner. He did not have to go. His property was not in danger. But he went. There are many, many instances of Irish immigrants that fought for the Union and the Confederacy during the War Between the States. There was Col. Francis Meagher (pronounced "Marr") who was the commander of the famous Union "Irish Brigade" who were Irish immigrants and cut to ribbons at Fredericksburg and at Antietam. Then there was Major General Patrick Cleburne and his all Irish immigrant "Wild Geese" that fought for the Confederacy. Both units fought with unparalleled ferocity. There were 10,000 European Jews that fought for the Confederacy. I can name you several Italian immigrants that were Medal of Honor winners. I am not saying that all immigrants are heroes, they are not, but some are.



On Joe Wilson:



It was Joe that yelled out "You lie" to the President at his speech about Health care. Joe apologized for yelling out when he did but he did not back off from what he was talking about. That remains to be proven or disproved. There are some of my fellow South Carolinians that feel embarrassed by this in light of the trouble with the Governor. They are afraid that the rest of the states will think we are a bunch of yahoos down here. I will tell you who are the yahoos. It is the people of Massachussetts for re-electing Barney Franks over and over, or Connecticut for Chris Dodd, Nevada for that imbecile Harry Reid, California for that jackass Nancy Pelosi, and many, many more, they are the ones that need to be embarrassed.



                         John (Liver eatin’) Johnston


John Johnston was born John Garrison somewhere in New Jersey in 1823. He was in the American navy during the Mexican War when he got into a fight with an officer and nearly killed him. He deserted, changed his name to John Johnston, and headed to the Rocky Mountains to be a fur trapper and mountain man. He was a fair sized man at 6’0” tall, over 200 pounds and red haired. He went to Saint Joseph, Missouri via river boat and headed west. He was a greenhorn and knew nothing about trapping and survival in such a hostile land as the Rockies and it was clear that he would not survive without guidance. That guidance came in the form of John “Old John” Hatcher. Hatcher was an icon in the American west and was well known as an expert in hunting, trapping and survival. They met when Johnston was bending over a creek in western Nebraska checking a beaver trap. Hatcher walked up behind him without making a sound and said “Yer back makes a great target for a red man’s arrer’ (arrow).” Johnston jumped like he was thunderstruck and turned and looked the image of a mountain man. Hatcher was in his mid-forties, dressed in buckskin head to toe, beaver skin cap; buffalo skin moccasins, medium build, dark tan, blond wavy hair to his shoulders and a blond beard. He was also pointing his rifle at Johnston’s chest. He and Johnston became acquainted and Hatcher decided to take this greenhorn under his wing and teach him the ways of a mountain man. The first thing Hatcher taught him was that western Nebraska had been trapped out of beaver and mink for years and they headed for Hatcher’s cabin on the Little Snake River in northwestern Colorado on the Wyoming border. From there for a period of years, Hatcher taught Johnston how to hunt, trap and survive in this wilderness. He also introduced Johnston to other mountain men such as “Bear Claw” Chris Lapp, “Big Foot” Wallace, “Arkansas Pete” Arnold, Del Gue, “Mad Mose”, Anton Sepulveda, “Hatchet Jack” Ireland, John “White-eye” Anderson, “Senor” Wyatt (he would kidnap Mexican girls from time to time), “Apache Joe” Millardo and many other trapper/hunters. Most of the trappers worked in pairs for survival reasons and Johnston chose Del Gue as his primary partner although on occasion he would take others. Del Gue was known for his waxed moustache that was six inches long on either side. One day John Hatcher turns to Johnston and tells him that he can have the cabin that he is “Going on down toarst (toward) Santee Fee (Santa Fe) then go lay my bone by the sea.” Johnston was stunned but just nodded and watched Hatcher disappear headed south never looking back. Johnston decided that he needed a wife and met up with the chief of a Flathead village and bargained for one. The chief sold him his daughter named “The Swan” for two horses and three knives. Johnston took Swan back to Hatcher’s cabin to live. After about four months Johnston left and headed to the winter buffalo hunt leaving Swan alone. However, she was not totally alone, she was pregnant. Johnston returned three months later only to find Swan’s bones scattered about the cabin along with the bones of an unborn child. Johnston could tell from the “sign” that it had been Crow Indians that did this thing and swore a blood oath to take his revenge against the Crows. The first couple of Crows that he killed he cut open their abdomens and extracted the liver and took a bite so that those that found the corpse would know who did the killing, especially the Crows. An unconfirmed legend is that the Crows appointed 20 of their mightiest warriors to go kill this white man that had made the Crows the ridicule of the other tribes, especially the Blackfeet. The only specification was that they had to take Johnston in hand-to-hand fighting. That was a tall order for anyone because Johnston was an expert in fighting with nearly any weapon including fists. After killing scores of Crows, he became known as “Dapiek Absaroka” or “killer of the Crows.” In each and every fight he was in where the Indian was killed, he removed their livers, eaten or not. Legend has it that he was captured by the Blackfeet and was being held to be sold to the Crows for a tidy sum. He escaped from the Blackfeet, cut the leg off one of the braves at the hip and headed for Del Gue’s cabin 200 miles away. He used the leg both as a weapon and sustenance for the trip. It was winter and a frozen leg made a formidable weapon. According to the legend he made it to the cabin forty pounds lighter and more dead that alive but he had survived. In hand-to-hand combat Johnston used his legs almost as much as his hands. The force of his kicks was legendary. The trappers had a “rendezvous” every year in the spring to sell their pelts and buy fresh supplies. For years the rendezvous was held in the Green River valley in south central Wyoming and the trappers elected a “policeman” to keep the peace. There were many fights because whiskey salesmen were there too and the trappers had not tasted alcohol for a year and we drinkers know what that means. Anyway, on one particular rendezvous Johnston was elected policeman and one day he found two Indians circling each other knives in hand. He simply grabbed the two by the neck and bashed their heads together, killing them both. That was not his intention but the result was the same. In another fight in which he was involved he kicked the man so hard that he was permanently lamed. He was a bad-ass, ya’ll. He made a substantial amount of his income by selling Indian scalps to the English. During the Civil War he was a scout with the US 2nd Colorado Cavalry. The US used plains Indians as scouts and sometimes as cavalrymen. The CSA used Cherokees, Creeks and Seminoles in the same capacity. After his first battle, Johnston went out on the battlefield and started collecting scalps off all the Indians, both friend and foe. His commanding officer stopped him and Johnston never did understand why they would leave money on the field. Eventually Johnston made his peace with the Crows and led a relatively sedentary life afterward. Johnston also had a wood yard at the intersection of the Missouri and Musselshell Rivers. He would cut lumber and leave it out for the steam powered river boats that hauled freight and passenger on the rivers and they would leave him cash in a secret cache. His later years were spent as a law enforcement officer in Coulson and Red Lodge Montana. He tired of that and went on his last trapping expedition on the Milk River in Canada with Del Gue and “Arkansas Pete” Arnold. Pete arrived first and built a cabin and corral. While scouting around he was shot and killed by an Assiniboine brave. Next to arrive was Johnston. He found Pete’s wolf worried bones and began tracking the Indian that had done the killing. After five days he caught up with the Assiniboine and killed him with a kick and knife to the chest. Naturally, he extracted the liver. When he got back to the cabin Del was there and they gathered up Pete’s bones and took them back to Yellowstone where they were buried. Johnston died in an old soldiers home in 1900 in Los Angeles and was buried in a nearby cemetery There was a movie made starring Robert Redford that was loosely based on the life of Johnston named Jeremiah Johnson. In 1974 Johnston was disinterred and brought to “Old Town” near Cody, Wyoming and re-buried. Robert Redford was a pallbearer. Those mountain men were essential to the settling of the west because of their knowledge of the terrain and methods of survival. I would have loved to have been there…But then again, maybe I was.


This date in history September 15


1862    CSA General Robert E. Lee has sent CSA Gen. Stonewall Jackson to capture the strategically important city of Harpers Ferry, Virginia and the US arsenal located there. With his usual effectiveness Stonewall not only captures the city and the arsenal but added 70 artillery pieces, 12,000 rifles and 12,500 prisoners. After this coup Lee gathered Jackson and his army back to western Maryland just in time for the Battle of Antietam on the 17th. Stonewall was the epitome of a military leader seldom equaled in history.


1940    This day sees the turning point for the Battle of Britain. Hitler in his hunger for the domination of Europe needed the neutralization of England to ensure his success. He began with saturation bombing which was supposed to destroy the morale of the English people. Germany bombed day and night for several months but the English people were not swayed in their determination to resist. On this day the English fighter pilots downed 56 German planes in less than an hour. On this note the Germans backed off and turned their attention toward Russia.


1946    Movie director/producer Oliver Stone is born on this day. Oliver was born to a wealthy family and was seen as being very creative at an early age. He attended Yale for a short time but decided that this was not what he wanted so he went roaming the world. It is peculiar that many of the creative people in literature do the same thing. Anyway, Oliver walked away with many Oscars in 1986 for “Platoon” starring Charlie Sheen and Willem DaFoe. I have this movie but rarely watch it, it really disturbed me. Maybe that is what Oliver wanted. He gave us ‘Wall Street’ also starring Charlie Sheen along with Michael Douglas.


1890    Agatha Christie is born in Devon, England. Agatha started writing on a dare from her sister. Agatha’s first novel was The Mysterious Affair at Styles written in 1920. This novel achieved moderate success but in 1926 she gave us the Murder of Roger Ackroyd which turned out to be a blockbuster of a success. Agatha introduced us to investigator Hercule Poirot with this book. In 1930 Agatha gave us the first Miss Marple novel. Agatha has given us many very readable books; in fact her books have been made into 400 million copies in over 100 languages. She died in 1976 making the world a worse place.


1990    A 13 year old girl Melissa Benoit disappears in Kingston, Mass. while walking home from a friends house a short distance away. In spite of a huge search effort by the local authorities no clue was found. The local authorities finally asked for help from the FBI. The FBI went an unusual route and asked Melissa’s neighbors to take polygraph tests. One man tested as lying and a search warrant was obtained to search his house. Little Melissa’s body was found under a pile of rubble in the man’s basement. At trial the man claimed that he heard voices telling him to do it but the jury heard other voices and sentenced him to life without parole, the most severe penalty available at the time. At the sentencing the judge told the man “In Massachusetts’s history there was a time when a murderer once convicted would immediately be taken out to a gallows on the front lawn of the court house and hanged. I wish I had that option today.” Indeed.


Born today:


1613    French writer Duc Francois de la Rochefoucald. He said “Old people love to give good advice. It compensates for their inability to set a bad example.” Francois, you are getting close to stepping on my toes. Watch yourself, I don’t like Frenchmen anyway.


1857    US President William Howard Taft. While making a speech President Taft said “There is so much noise in here that I can’t hear myself talk.” Someone in the crowd yelled out “That’s OK, you aren’t missing anything.” There are smart-asses everywhere.


1894    French filmmaker Jean Renoir. After having a squabble with Daryl Zanuck of 20th Century Fox he said “Goodbye My Zanuck, it certainly has been a pleasure working at 16th Century Fox.” Ouch!


1904    US writer Sheila Graham. When speaking of Ronald Reagan she said “He has that sparkle in his eyes because he wears contact lenses which he has polished daily.” Reagan was NOT one of my favorite people.


Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.