The following are some of the people involved with mountains, mainly during the 19th Century. There will be further additions to the list in due course.
Charles Barrington 2 Susan Gavan Duffy
Richard Barrington 3 Elizabeth Hawkins-Whithed
James Bryce 4 Elizabeth Le Blond
Arthur David Mc Cormick 6 Mary Tighe
Richard Cotter 7 Beatrice Tomasson
Frederick Fitzjames Cullinan 8 Louisa Tyndall
Maxwell Cormac Cullinan 9. Frederica Plunkett
It was in the latter half of the 19th century, during and after the 'Golden Age of Alpinism' that the exploration of the Alps reached its climax. Invariably, this drive to climb mountains was undertaken by people of substantial means. It required considerable resources to finance travel to the Alps, to spend at least a couple of weeks there and then pay the fees of the local guides and porters in order to attempt a particular climb. These local men who lived in the mountains and were familiar with the terrain may, themselves, have had little inclination to reach summits but through their work with the wealthy 'tourists' they soon became accomplished mountaineers in their own right. Their services as guides allowed them to become summiteers without having the wealth of their employers.
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| Richard Cotter |
It is Richard (Dick) Cotter who fits the bill perfectly. He was born in 1842 in Macroom, possibly in the townland of Coolnafiddane (Coolinadane), but in 1849 he was on an emigrant ship, the Bridgetown, from Cork to New Orleans, where they landed on 26th December 1849 with his mother and siblings along with 260 other passengers. There seems to be some uncertainty about his family – the ship's passenger list indicates that his mother and two sisters accompanied him. Another source claims that he had three brothers before he left for the USA. A father is not mentioned and it seems likely that the family was traveling to join the father, who had already emigrated.
The complete family appears in the US
census for 1850 in Springfield, Ohio. The father, James, is a labourer, aged forty four, and Richard,
recorded as aged ten, is attending school. The mother, Mary was
thirty three and there were three siblings, Ellen (aged 8), John
(aged 4) and Mary (aged 2), all born in Ireland What happened to them
after that in unclear but James C. Sutton, a rancher and businessman,
is recorded as having 'taken Richard from an orphans home in St Louis
and gave him a home and such education as the Sutton children
received.' He may also have adopted Richard's siblings. At the age
of eighteen Richard asked Sutton for permission to go west and seek
his fortune in the gold mines, as some of the Sutton boys had already
done.
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| Cotter on tent. USGS |
He didn't succeed in 'striking it rich' but was hired instead as a 'packer' on the California Geological Survey, from 1860-64, under Josiah Whitney its director and they were among the first non native people to visit the now famous Yosemite Valley. Initially he didn't show much skill in the work of packing the mules but learned quickly and became a firm friend of Clarence King, a member of the survey team.
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| Mt Tyndall from Shepherd's Pass |
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| Mt Tyndall |
When the Survey of California was completed in 1864 Cotter joined the Western Union Telegraphic Expedition to British Columbia and Alaska from 1864 to 1867. This was the attempt to provide a telegraph link between Europe and America via Alaska and the Bering Strait. Cotter worked on the Russian American (i.e Alaskan) section of the expedition and wrote a report from Norton Bay on its progress in the Spring of 1866. They had worked through the severe conditions of the Alaskan winter unaware that the work was being superseded by the transatlantic cable that was completed in July 1866.The Russian American project was abandoned in 1867. Despite its apparent failure it has been regarded as the major reason for the purchase of Alaska by the United Sates....
In a local newspaper article of 1923, L.A. Osborn described the 'Passing of the Placer Miner' noted that 'Cotter lived in a little, low, log cabin..(in Jimtown)...he was the most fearless, bluff, outspoken man I ever knew. He had a deep religious tinge under all his high-fallutingness. He never drank...and has never received credit enough...(for his exploration of the Sierras and Alaska)'.
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| Gravestone. Findagrave.com |
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| Signature. Smithsonian Inst. |
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| Bryce. Wikipedia |
A notable feature of the people undertaking this activity was that they were wealthy. It required substantial financial resources to travel to the Alps, spend at least a couple of weeks there and to hire the necessary porters and guides to undertake expeditions that may have lasted for a number of days. John Tyndall's initial foray to the mountains may have been an exception because he 'got by very cheaply' but that was before he did 'serious' climbing.
The local people who climbed summits did so mainly at the behest of the 'wealthy tourists' who employed them as guides and porters because their knowledge and experience gained through hunting and other activities.
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| Russell. Wikipedia |
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| Cotter |
Many of the 'summiteers' wrote of the experiences and the result was that the interest in climbing mountains spread to many other regions in the years following the Golden Age. Some of the Irish who were involved in the second half of the 19th Century were the following and not all were wealthy:
James Bryce in many places
Henry Russell in the Pyrenees.
William Spotswood Green in Canada and New Zealand.
More about all these to follow.
