Louis and Narcissa Vasquez and What Happened to Hiram?

In the last blog, I mentioned that Narcissa Vasquez was a widow traveling west and accompanied by another man. I can’t find any mention of who he was or why he would abandon her and her two children at Fort Laramie but that is a sobering thing to contemplate. 

Remember, a woman at this time in history had very few rights of any kind so if she lost her husband along the route, she would have to be very strong to want to continue. And, I would imagine, strong meant opinionated, perhaps more vocal about things than the men at that time would have cared to hear. So, she was abandoned.

Louis Vasquez had not married before, as far as I can tell, until he arrived at Fort Laramie and met Narcissa. It would have been interesting to know what had transpired but when Louis offered her a job as cook at Fort Bridger, she must have been pretty desperate to leave Fort Laramie to take such a job. And then, after arriving in the wild, their marriage and six more children says even more about them both.

Narcissa must have had some of her possessions with her when she arrived at Fort Bridger because emigrant diaries talk about her home having had comforts that they hadn’t seen in a while. And she was an excellent hostess, inviting trail-worn women in for a moment of femininity. But the wilderness was foreign to her and it was uncomfortable.

When their young son, Hiram was stolen in 1847, I can’t imagine Narcissa’s panic. Like I said in an earlier blog, stealing children and keeping them as slaves or trading tokens, was part of the Native’s culture. The fact that Hiram’s older sister was able to outrun the kidnappers is admirable. All in all, this event had to color the way Narcissa felt about Fort Bridger and the wilderness she found herself in.

Louis Vasquez was very good at his work and while Bridger was away from the fort, Vasquez oversaw all the trading of goods and livestock. Over time, he also became one that Brigham Young preferred to deal with as his manner was much lower key than Bridger’s.

Eventually, Vasquez opened two stores in Salt Lake City in 1849 despite Brigham Young’s declaration that there would be no trade or commerce with gentiles. Vasquez was welcomed by the Mormons while Bridger’s movements and actions continued to be suspect.

From The Life of Hiram Vasquez by Zella Rae Albright

While it is not in my current timeline, I do want to tell you what happened to Hiram. He was held by Chief Washakie until 1852 when the then nine-year-old Hiram traveled with the Chief’s band close to Salt Lake City. He was not allowed to go into the town, so he went to bed early. In the dark of night, he got up, dressed and took the trail to the city where he went into a barn and doubled up like a jack knife in a dark corner.

He waited until women came to the barn to milk the cows to reveal himself, but he spoke no English. The women found someone to interpret, and they figured out that he had been stolen from Fort Bridger. He stayed with this family, indoors, for ten days. While with them, they cut his hair (he didn’t like the idea) and dressed him in new clothes including red boots. Then they returned him to his family at Fort Bridger. There is another account that states that he was recognized by soldiers and taken back to Fort Bridger. 

I’m not sure what reunion story is accurate, but can you imagine Narcissa’s joy to have her son return to her? Hiram went on the live until he was ninety-four and helped to found the city of LaVeta, Colorado in 1863 and may just show up in one of my future stories.

In this blog, I relied on an obituary written by the World Independent, June 8, 1939, featured on the “Find a Grave” website. Also, there are more details in an article written by LeRoy R. Hafen for the Utah Historical Quarterly, October, 1958 called “Mountain Men Before the Mormons.”