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Zebulon Montgomery Pike

Male 1779 - 1813  (34 years)


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  • Name Zebulon Montgomery Pike  [1
    Born 05 Jan 1779  Lamberton, Mercer, New Jersey Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Gender Male 
    Died 27 Apr 1813  Toronto, York County, Ontario, Canada Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Person ID I3291  Jerry Milo Johnson
    Last Modified 29 Mar 2015 

    Father Zebulon Montgomery Pike,   b. 18 Sep 1751, Woodbridge, Middlesex County, New Jersey Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 27 Jul 1834, Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, Indiana Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 82 years) 
    Relationship Natural 
    Mother Isabelle Brown,   b. 20 Jul 1753, Southold, Suffolk County, New York Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 25 Dec 1809, Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, Indiana Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 56 years) 
    Relationship Natural 
    Married 17 Apr 1775  New York City, Kings County, New York Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    New York Marriages, 1600-1784 11 Jul 1775  New York Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Notes 
    New York Marriages, 1600-1784:
    • New York Marriages, 1600-1784 about Zebulon Pike
      ´uª0 Spouse 1:´tabª´uª0 Isabella Brown
      ´uª0 Spouse 2:´tabª´uª0 Zebulon Pike
      ´uª0 Marriage Date:´tabª´uª0 11 Jul 1775
      ´uª0 Record:´tabª´uª0 M. B.
      ´uª0 Volume:´tabª´uª0 XXIII
      ´uª0 OSPage:´tabª´uª0 94´/uª
    Family ID F1085  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Clarissa Harlow Brown,   b. Abt 1783, Stringtown, Boone, Kentucky Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Abt 1847, Sugar Grove, Boone County, Kentucky Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 64 years) 
    Married 1801  Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. Clarissa Brown Pike,   b. 24 Feb 1803,   d. 01 Feb 1837, Sugar Grove, Boone County, Kentucky Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 33 years)  [Natural]
    Family ID F1079  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBorn - 05 Jan 1779 - Lamberton, Mercer, New Jersey Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarried - 1801 - Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDied - 27 Apr 1813 - Toronto, York County, Ontario, Canada Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Photos
    Portrait of Zebulon Pike
    Portrait of Zebulon Pike
    Zebulon Pike
    Zebulon Pike
    Portrait from 1810 publication
    Zebulon Pike
    Zebulon Pike
    Portrait of Zebulon Montgomery Pike by Charles Willson Peale, ca. 1807, oil on canvas.

    Documents
    Journal - An Account of a voyage up Mississippi River
    Journal - An Account of a voyage up Mississippi River
    Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1779-1813)
    "An Account of a voyage up Mississippi River from St. Louis to its Source . . . August 9, 1805 -April 30, 1806" [copied by Nicholas King]
    Manuscript journal, September 23, 1805
    A Sketch of the Mississippi
    A Sketch of the Mississippi
    "A Sketch of the Mississippi from the Town of St. Louis to its source in Upper Red Cedar Lake. . . Taken from the notes of Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike . . . 1805 and 1806."
    St. Louis: ca. 1806
    Manuscript map
    A Sketch of the Mississippi (page 2)
    A Sketch of the Mississippi (page 2)
    "A Sketch of the Mississippi from the Town of St. Louis to its source in Upper Red Cedar Lake. . . Taken from the notes of Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike . . . 1805 and 1806."
    St. Louis: ca. 1806
    Manuscript map
    Captain Pike's Map of New Spain
    Captain Pike's Map of New Spain
    http://www.sonofthesouth.net/texas/zebulon-pike.htm
    Journal - An Account of a voyage up Mississippi River (page 2)
    Journal - An Account of a voyage up Mississippi River (page 2)
    Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1779-1813)
    "An Account of a voyage up Mississippi River from St. Louis to its Source . . . August 9, 1805 -April 30, 1806" [copied by Nicholas King]
    Manuscript journal, September 23, 1805
    Zebulon Pike
    Zebulon Pike
    Pike's manuscript field map of his side trip to Pikes Peak, from the Journals. Photograph by Earl McDonald, NARA.
    Field Notebook
    Field Notebook
    Zebulon Pike
    [Notebook of maps, traverse tables, and
    meteorological observations, 1805-1807]
    Field notebook, September 8-September 25, 1805
    Courtesy of the National Archives,Washington, D.C. (104)
    Map of the 'Santa Fe Trail'
    Map of the "Santa Fe Trail"
    Zebulon Pike
    [Map of the "Santa Fe Trail"],
    St. Louis: ca. 1806
    Manuscript map
    An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi
    An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi
    Zebulon Pike.
    An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi, and Through the Western Parts of Louisiana . . . During the Years 1805, 1806, and 1807.
    And a Tour Through the Interior Parts of New Spain
    . . .in the Year 1807.
    Philadelphia: C. & A. Conrad, et al., 1810.

  • Notes 
    • http://noyes.rootsweb.com/wga137.html#I40231
      American explorer and soldier. He was born in Lamberton, New Jersey, and entered the United States Army about 1793. Pike was a lieutenant when in 1805 he was chosen by General James Wilkinson to find the headwaters of the Mississippi River. In the winter of 1805 and 1806 he reached Red Cedar Lake (now Cass Lake) and Leech Lake in Minnesota, erroneously believing them to be the Mississippi's source. The actual source, Lake Itasca, was determined in 1832. He also bought land from the Sioux people for the future site of Fort Snelling, which grew into the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

      In July 1806 Wilkinson sent Pike to explore the headwaters of the Arkansas and Red rivers. Pike traveled up the Arkansas River into South Park, a tableland in the Southern Rocky Mountains in Colorado. He also explored the region south of what is now Leadville, Colorado, and sighted and attempted to climb Pikes Peak. From the Arkansas River he turned south, crossing the Sangre de Cristo Mountains into the Spanish territory of New Mexico. The Spanish arrested Pike and imprisoned him at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Chihuahua, Mexico. He was released in 1807 and returned to the United States with valuable information about the geography of the Southwest. His report stimulated great interest in the settlement and trade of that region.

      Pike was commissioned a brigadier general at the beginning of the War of 1812. He was killed by the explosion of a powder magazine, April 27, 1813, while leading American forces in an assault on the capital of Upper Canada, York (now Toronto, Ontario).

      During his trips supplying the forts on the Ohio River, Zebulon had time to visit some of the planters whose estates lay on the river's banks. He never failed to stop at one plantation - Sugar Grove - which was fifteen miles below Cincinnati and owned by Captain John Brown. There was a good social reason for the stops here, for Captain Brown was the brother of Zebulon's mother (Isabella Brown Pike). But another reason presented itself in Captain Brown's dark-haired and pretty daughter Clarissa. She was his partner at dances held in the plantation house. Sometimes they walked by the river together, slipping away from the rest of the party. It was not long before they were deeply in love, but Captain Brown opposed the match.

      "A soldier for my daughter's husband, sir?" he said when Zeb asked for Clarissa's hand. "I cannot agree to it. What is your future? Garrison duty on the frontier, small pay and a few promotions. I want more than that for my daughter."

      Clarissa had anticipated her father's reaction. Now she showed that she had just as much spirit as he. She and Zebulon eloped to Cincinnati and were married over her father's protests. The marriage brought about a breach between the Brown and Pike families and Zebulon was not welcome at his father-in-law's or uncle's estate afterward. Although there may have been a breach in the relationship: Clarissa "Clara" is buried in the Sugar Grove Cemetery next to her father, Capt. John Brown, along with her daughter Clarissa Brown Pike Harrison and her husband John C.S. Harrison. Clarissa Brown Pike's husband, General Zebulon M. Pike, killed at the Battle of York (Toronto) Canada, is buried in the Military Cemetery, Sacketts Harbor, New York.

      Was commissioned at age 20 a first lieutenant and served for several years with the frontier army. The young lieutenant was then dispatched on a long and important expedition, setting out from St. Louis on July 15, 1806. He was instructed to explore the headwaters of the Arkansas and Red Rivers and to reconnoitre the Spanish settlements of New Mexico, being warned to "move with great circumspection...and to prevent any alarm or offence". After visiting the Pawnee villages on the Republican River, Pike (whose promotion to a captaincy occurred by routine on Aug. 12, 1806) moved up the Arkansas to the site of the present Pueblo, Colorado. Here, on a side trip, he made an unsuccessful attempt to reach the summit of the peak that bears his name.

      When the attack on York (now Toronto), Canada, was launched in April 1813, the immediate command of the troops was entrusted to then Brigadier General Pike. He led his men to victory, but was killed in the assault (April 27) when the enemy's powder magazine exploded. A distinguished officer who was at the Battle of York states that as he passed the general, after he was wounded, he cried, "Push on, my brave fellows, and avenge your general."

      As the general was breathing his last and the British standard was brought to him and placed under his head, he replied, "I die content."

      None of his sons survived to manhood. Several children were born to he and his wife but only one Clarissa reached maturity. In later years, Zebulon wrote to a relative that he had been the father of five children, but that all had died except Clarissa.

  • Sources 
    1. [S144] Descendants of Richard Pyke Pike, Catherine Edwards-Evans.

    2. [S400] New York Marriages, 1600-1784, (Name: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?ti=0&indiv=try&db=nymarr1784&h=2176;), http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?ti=0&indiv=try&db=nymarr1784&h=2176 (Reliability: 3).
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