JAMES KENT STONE AND THE ALPS 273 JAMES KENT STONE AND THE ALPS BY J. MONROE THORINGTON (Four illustratiqns: nos. 64-67) MONG the problems confronting the Alpine historian dealing with early American ascents, none have been more puzzling than our lack of information concerning J ames Kidd, credited with two ascents of Mont Blanc, and the dates and routes of James Kent Stone, all in the period 185s- 6o.1 New material, recently discovered, supplies the answers and is presented here. Mention has been made elsewhere of the ascent in 1866 by Oliver Prince Buel (1838-99),2 of Troy, N.Y., and Dr. Le Roy R. McLean (1831-97). Buel graduated from Williams College in 1859 and was a lawyer; McLean received his M.D. from Albany Medical College in 1855. We can now record a hitherto unnoticed, privately printed pam­ phlet, republished from the Troy Daily News and Public Spirit and en­ titled 'An Account of the Ascent of Mont Blanc October 3rd and 4th, 1866, by 0. P. Buel '. On September 24 the two friends walked over the Tete Noire from Martigny to Chamonix, arriving in storm which continued and made an ascent impossible. Later in the month, when weather improved, they returned from Lucerne, regaining Chamonix on October 2. Their guides were Ambrose and Edward Simond, with Isaac Larraz [sic] as porter. Leaving the village on October 3 at 9· 30 a.m. they reached the Grands Mulets at 3. so p.m.; departed at 2.20 next morning and were onJhesummitat8.55· They remained for ten minutes, were back at the Gran"'is Mulets at noon, and, amid cannon firing, in their hotel at 4· I 5· It was a successful, routine ascent, which Buel calls the 369th of the mountain. He appends a list of thirty-three. Americans, including his own party, \\-·ho reached the top. This, incomplete and with the usual mutilated spelling, was copied from the 'Book of Ascensions' at Chamonix. What is new and interesting is that he states that James Kidd, listed under September 23'- 24, x855, came from Albany, N.Y. From the Chamonix records he includes, without comment or place of origin, the same name under July 19- 20, 1857. As we shall show, this is an erroneous duplication. Buel, by natning the climber's home city, implies that he knew the man. Prominent people on the Hudson river at that time were well acquainted with on·e another, and this clue led to the discovery • of biographical details. 3 JAMES KENT STONE AND THE ALPS James Kidd was born in Ballston Spa, N.Y., on September 19, I8o8, and became a prominent citizen of Albany. Mter a mercantile beginning he was made paymaster general of the State, with the rank of colonel, January I, 1847, and Albany county treasurer for the three years com­ mencing in 1848. There follows a period, part of which he spent in Europe; we do not know for what purpose or for how long, except that in • 1855, probably on sudden impulse, he ascended l\font Blanc. He was appointed postmaster of Albany and held office 1858-6I. He married (I) Jane M aria Shepard, by whom he had four sons; ( 2) Adeline Jerusha Pumpelly, at Albany, M~y 13, 1874. The second Mrs. Kidd was the daughter of Harmon Pumpelly, born at Salisbury, Conn., in I795, but living in Albany most of his life. When he died there in I883, he was one of the oldest men in the city. After the death of his first \vife ( 1830 ), having no business save the care of his property, he placed his two children in school and went to Europe, 'travelling in splendid style in a beautiful carriage with four horses and postillions in blue livery and an outrider also in blue'. In this manner he visited Italy, Switzerland, England and Germany. His eldest daugh­ ter Adeline Jerusha, who married James Kidd, was born in Owega, N.Y., in I832, and was still alive in 1911.4 'She has been in Europe many times and has been entertained by many of the most eminent of the nobility and great statesmen.' Her husband, James Kidd of Mont Blanc, died in Albany on lVIay 20, I 879, this marriage being without issue. The first American for whom we have documentary proof of two ascents of Mont Blanc is George Heard ( I837-75), the dates being July 17, I855, and September 4-5, 1857.5 At the time of his second ascent printed certificates were just being issued at Chamonix; previously they had been hand-written. Heard wrote on the back of his that the 'James Kidd' of I 8 57 was actually J ames Kent Stone, of Brookline, Mass. This is the man \vho became (I 86o) the first American member of_t 11.1e Alpine Club. In 1855 Kidd was the father of young children and had other respon­ sibilities. Having made one ascent of lVIont Blanc, there was no reason for him to return from America two years later to repeat th_ ~ adventure. we have no evidence that he did so, or narratives that would settle the question. It was a different matter for George Heard, a young experi­ enced climber living in Europe, \Vho went back to Chamonix in 1857 to take his brother up the mountain. He was a reliable observer and \vould certainly have known the identity of the American \vho ascended in July, only seven weeks earlier. Stone ancestry in Hereford, England, can. be traced back to I 550, reaching Massachusetts in I 639· The Rev. John Seely Stone (I 79 s­ I 882) 6, Protestant Episcopal clergyman, married Sophia 1V1orrison Adams • • • • • ,. ' ' . " • • • • • • T HE REv. ARCHIBALD M. MoRRI o } A:vrE l(E T TO E I t 1861, AT THE (1827-88), I~ 1866, N I 1 E YEAR AFTER AGE OF 2 0 , THE YEAR AFTER Ill ALPI E HIS ASCEN T OF MONT BLA 1 C. CAMPAI G r AND AT THE T I ME OF H I GRAD ATION FROM H ARVARD. CORNELIA FAY (d . r86g) } AMES ! (ENT TONE ( r 8 40-19 21), AT TH E T IME OF HER MARRIAGE TO F IDELIS OF THE CRO s. C UBA, I 9 I 6 . }AMES K ENT TO ·u I 1 r863. (Nos. 64-67) • • JAMES KENT STONE AND THE ALPS 275 (1802-38) in 1826, and by her had five children of whom only two, Archibald Morrison7 and Mary, were living at the time of her death. In 1839 he married his first wife's cousin, Mary Kent (I8o7-1901; daughter of Chancellor James Kent of New York), by whom he had six children, the second being J ames Kent Stone. Kent, as the latter was known, was born in Boston, Mass., on November IO, 1840. He spent the summer of 1856 with some of his family at Franconia Notch, N.H., and there developed a passion for mountains, climbing Mt. Pemigewasset and Mt. Lafayette alone. In .the autumn of this year, before he was sixteen, he entered Harvard with the class of 186o, but just at this time was invited by his half-brother, Archibald Morrison, now married, to join in a trip to Europe. Kent's eyes had been troubling him and, as he was so young, his family thought it best for him to withdraw from college for a year. He and his half-sister, Mary, with Archibald and the latter's wife, sailed for England, their journey following the conventional Grand Tour: London, Paris, Lyons, whence they rode down the Rhone to Avignon. 'As the nearer hills opened we saw plainly in the distance the snow peaks of the Alps I As we crossed the valley of the Isere, we had a particularly fine view of these hoary giants. On a clear day, Mt. Blanc is plainly discernible, but unfortunately to-day is quite cloudy.' From the tower of the Papal Palace' Mt. Ventoux, the last of the Alps, is plainly visible.' Then on to Nice, where a villa was engaged and a tutor came three times a week to give them lessons in French and Italian. From nearby heights Archie and Kent had thrilling views, extending from Corsica to the Col di Tenda and the dazzling snows of the Maritime Alps. In the following June (1857) they went north from Rome, by way of Florence, to the Italian Lakes and Switzerland. They climbed Mte. San Salvatore from Lugano: 'Above & below us on every hand were those softly green mountains of Italy, & its incomparable valleys, brightened by patches of no less than six crystal lakes . to the North, towering above all else, was the whole of the main chain of the Eastern Alps with Monte Rosa at their head!' On June I I he wrote to his father from Cadenabbia : ' Oh Switzerland! Switzerland ! How I long to be there! My very dreams are of glaciers & everlasting snows, fathomless gorges, & tameless torrents.' On June 22: 'We have crossed the Alps by the glorious Pass of the Simplon, & had our first taste of Switzerland. I've seen my first glacier & made my first Alpine snowball ... I almost went crazy there. Whew! no wonder! Bristling glaciers & cloud-wrapt snow peaks guarded us on every side, & before us was our first view into Switzerland. Six thousand feet below us in an almost perpendicular line lay the valley of the Rhone; & opposite us, rising like a giant wall on the other side of the valley lay the whole chain of the Bernese Alps.' 19 • JAMES KENT STONE AND THE ALPS They spent three \veeks at Geneva and two more at Chamonix.