Often in his last years he would stand at his farm near Kansas City and look to the west, his failing eyes seeing little. He was an old man. Ah, but what those eyes had seen, and what the memory could recall! Years before, in 1822, a St. Louis newspaper carried and advertisement reading: “To enterprising young men. The subscriber wishes to engage one hundred young men to ascend the Missouri River to its source, there to be employed for one, two or three years. For particulars inquire of Major Andrew Henry, near the lead mines in the county of Washington, who will ascend with and command the party; or the subscriber near St. Louis.” It was signed by William H. Ashley.

AOWM – March 17