12 Facts About Russel Farnham

Russel Farnham was an American frontiersman, explorer, and fur trader.

Russel Farnham was born in Massachusetts in 1784 and left home to join one of two expeditions organized by John Jacob Astor to establish the Pacific Fur Company at the mouth of the Columbia River.

Russel Farnham hung the Native American from a sapling on June 1,1813; this incident caused a great deal of hostility between Farnham's party and the local tribes.

Russel Farnham traveled on foot crossing the ice sheet across the Bering Straits and into Kamchatka.

Russel Farnham suffered from exposure against the severe and inhospitable Siberian climate and, although leaving Astoria with a small backpack of provisions, suffered from malnutrition having been forced to cut and eat the tops of his own boots to survive.

Russel Farnham was the first American to make the journey, John Ledyard having twice failed to do so.

Russel Farnham made one of the first trips into the Midwest United States on behalf of the American Fur Company in 1817, and later formed a partnership with George Davenport trading with the Sauk and Fox in the Missouri Valley.

Russel Farnham founded Muscatine, Iowa, after leaving the Rock Island area some years later.

Russel Farnham remained in charge of the rival trading post near Fort Edwards and, in 1829, he founded another trading post several miles upriver at present-day Keokuk, Iowa which was run by Mark Aldrich.

Russel Farnham died of cholera in St Louis on October 23,1832.

Russel Farnham reportedly survived only two hours after having been attacked with that then new and fatal disease.

Poor Russel Farnham; he has paid the debt of nature after a life of uncommon activity and endless exposure.