William Drummond Stewart and Same-Sex Desire in the Rocky

MEN in University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln and London EDEN WILLIAM DRUMMOND STEWART and SAME-SEX DESIRE in the ROCKY MOUNTAIN FUR TRADE William Benemann © 2012 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Benemann, William, 1949– Men in Eden : William Drummond Stewart and same- sex desire in the Rocky Mountain fur trade / William Benemann. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8032-3778-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Stewart, William Drummond, Sir, 1795 or 6–1871. 2. Homosexuals—Great Britain—Biography. 3. Fur traders—West (U.S.)—Biography. 4. Fur trade—Social aspects— West (U.S.)—History—19th century. 5. Homosexuality—West (U.S.)—History—19th century. 6. Male friendship—West (U.S.)—History—19th century. 7. Frontier and pioneer life— West (U.S.) I. Title. HQ75.8.S74B46 2012 306.76'6097809034—dc23 2012008489 Set in Fanwood by Kim Essman. Designed by Nathan Putens. For Kevin Beanntaichean àrda is àillidh leacainnean, sluagh ann an còmhnuidh is coire cleachdainnean, ‘s aotrom mo cheum a’ leum g’am faicinn . Acknowledgments Writing history is often the art of following a slender thread wherever it leads. For anyone writing early gay history the fi rst challenge is find- ing a thread to follow, and for the thread that led to this book I have to thank Jim Wilke, whose article in Frontiers magazine fi rst alerted me to the life of William Drummond Stewart. Wilke in that 1998 article lamented the lack of books on early gay American history and suggested a number of topics that someone should write about someday. Here, so very many years later, I answer that call. My travels in pursuit of Sir William’s story led me over many miles and into many archives. Many institutions throughout this country and abroad deserve my gratitude for the numerous ways they aided my research, but a few should be singled out for particular mention. The staff members of the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming were beyond question the most accommodating archivists I have ever encountered. They opened Mae Reed Porter’s research fi les to me in a way that made my stay in Laramie phenomenally pro- ductive (with the lagniappe of being able to eat my lunch each day surrounded by Alfred Jacob Miller’s paintings of Sir William and Antoine Clement). The archivists at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh went above and beyond the call of duty to provide me with the ribbon-tied bundles of Stewart family papers, even when a labor strike intervened at the least opportune time. Closer to home, I gladly make a long-overdue acknowledgment of the staff members of the Interlibrary Borrowing Service at the University of California, Berkeley, who for my last three books have conjured out of the ether the most obscure publications and delivered them swiftly into my hands vii just at the moment I most needed them. The service they provide to scholars is beyond measure and beyond price. One individual deserves special recognition: William R. Johnston, emeritus director of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Dr. John- ston not only opened his personal research fi les to me, he also slipped me in the back door of the building before the museum opened to the public and hosted me to a lunch at which he frankly discussed his views about Stewart’s sexuality. He was particularly helpful in volunteering to serve as liaison between the Miller family and me in my attempt to track down the originals of the letters Alfred Jacob Miller wrote from Murthly Castle. My memorable morning at the Walters began with Dr. Johnston quite literally racing through the museum in his excitement to show me Miller’s portrait of Antoine Clement. The generosity with which he welcomed me into his busy schedule is very much appreciated. My trips to the Missouri Historical Society (now known as the Mis- souri History Museum Library and Research Center) and to the National Archives of Scotland were underwritten in part by a research grant from the Librarians Association of the University of California. The university’s commitment to professional development and scholarly research even during these challenging economic times is a mark of how strongly it maintains the lofty goals upon which the University of California was fi rst established. I would not have been able to take advan- tage of the generous grant without the understanding and fl exibility of my employer, the University of California School of Law (Boalt Hall). Moreover, Berkeley Law’s unsurpassed collections of Anglo-American and international law were indispensable in my research. As will be demonstrated in the following chapters, much of William Drummond Stewart’s life can be documented only through court records. Once launched, all research projects provide unexpected pleasures. For this particular project it was the magical experience of connecting with a number of people who quite literally carry the dna of the story I was trying to reconstruct. I am very grateful to Hans-Wolff Sillem of Hamburg, Germany, descendent of Sir William’s companion of 1835–36, Adolph Sillem. Herr Sillem provided me with the correct fi rst name viii of Adolph as well as with a very valuable sketch of his ancestor’s life. Jan Wood of Devon, England, provided a similar service, as she is a descendent of another of Sir William’s companions, Charles Howard Ashworth. In this case also I started with only a last name and a few brief biographical details. Ms. Wood provided two long contemporary descriptions of Ashworth’s visit to America that fi lled in the sketchy story and revealed Ashworth to be a very colorful character indeed. For his gracious hospitality, unfl agging enthusiasm, and gentlemanly patience I am deeply indebted to Thomas Steuart Fothringham, the current laird of Murthly Castle. He and his wife, Kate, welcomed me and my partner to their estate and into their home, and we will long treasure the memory of a warm May afternoon spent sipping coff ee in the garden of Murthly Castle, talking about Sir William’s “very odd marriage.” Shortly after my return from Scotland I began to launch castleward an assault of inquiring e-mail messages on various arcana having to do with the Stewart/Steuart family. Mr. Steuart Fothringham was unfailingly patient with my pestering, pondered my theories with a bracing curiosity, and generously off ered me copies of family portraits and photographs to use as illustrations for the book. Perhaps with this biography I can begin to recompense the family for the unfortunate depredations of that other Yank. I would like to thank Les K. Wright of the Bear History Project and the Neshoba Institute, and Massimiliano Carocci of the University of London and the Royal Anthropological Institute for their close readings of the manuscript. Their knowledge respectively of queer masculinities and American Plains Indian culture helped to correct some misstate- ments and guided me along some very specialized exploratory paths. All remaining errors in the text are, of course, my own. Finally, I happily acknowledge my continuing debt to my partner, Kevin Jewell, who became my legal spouse during the writing of this book. He is my editor, my proofreader, my travel agent, my tech geek, my German and Scots Gaelic translator, my sounding board, and my best friend. In writing of William Drummond Stewart’s long and essentially lonely life, I realized anew how profoundly I am blessed. ix MEN in EDEN Introduction In 1980 art historian Ron Tyler traveled to Scotland in preparation for a major exhibition of the western paintings of Alfred Jacob Miller, an event planned for the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The artist had traveled west as far as the Rocky Mountains, engaged by the Scottish nobleman William Drummond Stewart in 1837 to document his journey to the annual fur traders’ rendezvous. Miller had subsequently spent many months at Stewart’s Murthly Castle in Perthshire produc- ing large oil paintings from his original watercolor sketches of life in the Rockies, among the earliest known images of the region. From the Caledonian Hotel on Edinburgh’s elegant Princes Street, Tyler wrote back to his colleague William Johnston in Baltimore: “This trip has proved once again that there is no substitute for on-the-spot research. In addition to the usual gleanings from the archives and dusty tomes, I picked up the real reason for Stewart’s disenchantment re his family: he was homosexual, or so a lady in Birnam told me, in a hushed voice and with a raised eyebrow, as if Stewart himself might come around the corner to contradict her.”1 Since 2006 I have felt very much like that informant in the teashop in Birnam, sensing that Sir William Drummond Stewart was lurking just around the corner — not to contradict me if I revealed that he was homosexual but to correct me if, in sifting through the hints and cir- cumlocutions, I got his story wrong. I have followed Sir William’s trail 1 from his birthplace (and his burial crypt) at Murthly Castle to the Wind River Range in Wyoming, from the brisk windswept walks of New York City’s Battery Park to the steaming streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans. In the process I have come to realize the wisdom of Ron Tyler’s dictum that there is no substitute for on-the-spot research. As I followed Stewart’s story, I ran across a litany of familiar names: explorer William Clark, Baptiste Charbonneau (son of Sacagawea), mountain men Jim Bridger and Jedediah Smith, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, Kit Carson, Washington Irving, John James Audubon, Sena- tor Thomas Hart Benton, Daniel Boone, John C.

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