Jacob Dodson A young black man in the West The exploring party was now on entirely on its
own in a very dangerous situation. Neither Kit
Carson nor Tom Fitzpatrick had ever been in this
part of the country. But, having faith in his
determined latitude, Frémont and Jacob
Dodson set out to scout an escape from the
mountains. The sounds:
Who was Jacob Dodson? Dodson, a free black youth, was employed as a servant in the family of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, Frémont's father-in-law. Said to have been six feet tall and very strong, Dodson was about eighteen years old when he volunteered to accompany Frémont's second expedition. Frémont valued his abilities and trustworthness, and, when things got rough, Jacob was always included with the strongest men of the party.
The financial report of the exploration lists him as a voyager and shows payment of $493 (about $50,000 today's dollars) for his services between May 3, 1843, and September 6, 1844, and with special mention in the government Report that "Jacob Dodson, a free young colored man of Washington city, who volunteered to accompany the expedition, and performed his duty manfully throughout the voyage."
As a member of Frémont's third expedition, and with Frémont's California Battalion of Mounted Riflemen, Dodson played an active part in the Conquest of California during the war with Mexico. It was also Jacob Dodson who accompanied Frémont and Don José de Jesús Pico on the famous ride in March of 1847 from Los Angeles to Monterey and back. "The ride of Col. Fremont in March, 1847, from the
ciudad de los Angeles to Monterey in Alta California--a
distance of four hundred and twenty miles--and back,
exhibits in a strong light the iron nerve of the rider, and
the capacities of the California horse. The party on this
occasion, consisted of the colonel, his friend Don
José de Jesús Pico, and his servant
Jacob Dodson. Each had three
horses, nine in all, to take their turn under the saddle,
and relieve each other every twenty miles; while the six
loose horses galloped ahead, requiring constant vigilance
and action to keep them on the path. The relays were brought
under the saddle by the lasso, thrown by Don Jesús or
Jacob, who, though born and raised
in Washington, in his long expeditions with Col. Fremont,
had become expert as a Mexican with the lasso, sure as a
mountaineer with the rifle, equal to either on horse or
foot, and always a lad of courage and fidelity."
Jacob Dodson later became a messenger to the United States Senate, and at the outbreak of the Civil War raised a regiment of 300 black men to fight for the Union, but President Lincoln refused their services. That Jacob Dodson was an educated and very capable person
is evidenced in a May 4, 1857 letter from Jessie Benton
Frémont to Elizabeth Blair Lee regarding the
preparation of Frémont's Memoirs: "All the
astronomical & tedious part of the work is finished, as
far as Mr. Frémont goes into it. If Jacob
[Dodson] were here he could get rapidly through
another part, but he seems dull about coming."
Most comes from Expeditions of John Charles Frémont , ed. Donald Jackson and Mary Lee Spence, 2 vols. Chicago, 1970 and * Herr, Pamela and Spence, Mary Lee, The Letters of Jessie Benton Frémont, University of Illinoise Press, Urbana and Chicago, 1993. And mention on these two websites: See also People of Color on America's Western Frontier, a site created and maintained by researcher Bennie J. McRae, Jr.
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Frémont:
February 5, 1844, near a pass in the snow-covered
Sierra Nevada.
February
16. I started with Jacob on a reconnoitring
expedition 
September
7, 1843 near 
Frémont's
Famous Ride
I
have found little information on Jacob Dodson. Any
contributions of further details are earnestly
solicited. The only very personal information I have
found is that, in his diary, expedition cartographer
