The Legend of John Garrison

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood for something, sometime in your life.
~Winston Churchill~

Throughout history, there have been many examples of men and women who stood for family values. Perhaps the most unlikely of these, and the most unknown was John Garrison. This quiet, bear of a man was born around 1828 in little York, New Jersey. I found tons of material for his true-life story. Unfortunately, they all differ in facts. One thing is constant in every article. John Garrison was an amazing man. This is my take on his life.

Were they asked, Those who did not know him well, which was just about everyone, would tell you he was one of the meanest men they had every met. They would warn you, “Stay away from that one. Draw a wide berth. He’ll kill you quick as look at you.”
Even his friends, who were very few in number, would caution you on the dangers of getting too friendly with him. “One mistake, one misspoke word could see you in mortal danger.“

It has been this author’s experience that the quiet people of this world are very often misunderstood. This is particularly true if you happen to be a giant in a land of average sized people. The average height for men in the 1820’s was 173 centimeters or five foot eight inches tall. Reports have John at over six feet tall and weighing more than 200 lbs.



John Garrison, while slightly introverted, was an intelligent man and a deep thinker. He was solitary in nature, preferring the company of his horse to that of people. Men and women of this nature very often discover it difficult to find their niche in this world. He tried his hands at many occupations over the course of his seventy-six years. These endeavors included serving in the Navy, serving in the union Army as a sharpshooter, a Merchant, A Deputy Sheriff in Custer County, Montana, a digger of gold, and as a wood-hawk; supplying cordwood to the steamboats of the Colorado River. If you asked him, he would have told you that the occupation that gave him the greatest pleasure in life was being a Mountain Man.

By 1844, John Garrison, now twenty, grew weary of this world and its wars. People baffled him. He just could not understand why people acted the way they did. Murders and rape, war and politics, nothing seemed to work for the common good of the people. In truth, John wanted nothing more than to settle down and raise a family. Yet how could he bring his offspring into such a cruel and hypocritical world? Disgusted, he left the service, packed up only what he could carry, purchased a Hawkins, 30-caliber rifle, and set out for the Rocky Mountains. His goal was to live his life in peace as a Mountain Man. He wanted to trap beaver, hunt for his food, and generally just be left alone, unhindered by man and their machinations. So desperate was he to get away from humankind that he left it all behind without any foreknowledge of what it takes to survive in the wild. Dependent upon his intellect alone, he forged ahead.

His adventures in the untamed Rocky Mountains were documented through the stories of other Mountain Men. It is told that he struggled dearly at first. Only great fortune, his keen intellect, and the good nature of one Chris Lapp, a.k.a. Bear Claw, a veteran Mountain Man who happened upon him during a grizzly hunt, saved him from the fate of the foolish. Many were the disillusioned man who sought the bosom of the Rockies that met an ill fate in their first few months. Most find themselves either carted off the mountains in a box or buried in an unmarked grave.

Instead, John Garrison thrived. At this point, he changed his name to Jeremiah Johnson. It has been reported that during his life, he also went by the names John Johnson and John Johnston. However, none of the names he chose for himself carries the notoriety or inferred ferocity as the name given to him by the Crow Indians. In 1847, he was given the title “Liver-Eating Johnson” by the most war-like and revered tribe of Indians in the region.

Having learned all that he could from his friend Bear Claw, Jeremiah set out to live his life in the solitude he savored. It was not long before he had established relations with the “Flat-Head” tribe of Western Montana and traded with them regularly. This “trade agreement” came about not out of necessity as he could make do for himself mountaineering. Rather, he knew that to trade with the Flat-Head meant he would be accepted and un-harassed while he lived and trapped on what they considered being their land.
There are several accounts as to how Jeremiah came to be married. One account lends to the notion that he somehow offended a sub-chief of the tribe with which he traded by offering him a gift that would be impossible to match. This led the highly ranked Indian to give Jeremiah the ultimate gift…, his daughter.

Another version of the legend, and probably closer to the truth, states that the Squaw, named Swan, was gifted to the lonely Mountain Man to show the tribes appreciation of him. Jeremiah had killed some of their enemies. The “scalps” he had presented to the Flat-Head as gifts.

In either case, Jeremiah soon grew fond of Swan and they settled down in a cabin they built on Crow land to raise a family. For the first time in his life, John “Jeremiah Johnson” Garrison felt true happiness. He felt secure enough to want to raise children in an environment he could control, away from the influence of what he deemed as failed humanity. He and Swan looked forward to teaching their children how to live in and love the beautiful Rocky Mountains.

The Beginning of A Legend

Accounts of why Jeremiah was away when the Crow Indians raided his home vary. Two stand out. The first finds A Calvary troop from the Department of Colorado at his doorstep. A wagon train of settlers had broken down in the snow of Feather Mesa, a pass high in the mountains to the west. They needed a guide to affect a rescue. This account raises more questions than provide answers. How did they know where to find Jeremiah? Would a rescue mission of this importance start without a guide and depend solely on a trapper who may or may not be home when and if they found his cabin in the vast Rocky Mountain ranges?

The second account seems more likely as it is documented (3) that by 1847 the beaver trade in the Rocky Mountain Territories had all but dried-up. Jeremiah had to travel greater and greater distances to trap and trade. This meant leaving Swan alone when she carried his child. Jeremiah had established trade relations with the Flat Heads and the Blackfoot Indians. The Crow Indians were not so hospitable. They were an adulterous people who could not be trusted. He had conflicts with them before to the point of bloodshed. However, he had made a tenuous peace with them since and was living on their land.
In the winter of 1847, Jeremiah’s world came crashing down around him. Everything he had finally let himself believe about love, family, and that he could find peace in the mountains that he loved was wiped out with one heinous act. He returned home from a trapping/hunting trip only to find that the crow had savagely killed his wife and unborn child. Her rotting corpse lay in the drying blood in the doorway. Jeremiah was shaken to his very core. For days, he sat there on the floor of his cabin in a trance. Then, he took all the grief and sorrow and turned it inward. Jeremiah Johnson was no longer. In his stead was “The Crow Killer.” John “liver-eating” Johnson was born.

The mountain men were excellent trackers. Bear claw, who was one of the best trackers in the Rockies, had taught Jeremiah well. After he burned his cabin with his wife and unborn child tenderly laid to rest in their bed. He set out with little more than he had started with, four long years before, and tracked the raiding party that murdered his family. Whatever humanity Swan’s love had instilled in his heart was gone. It had died with her. Jeremiah found the murderous Indians and cold bloodedly rushed their encampment. As warlike as this tribe was known to be, it is a fair bet that they had never seen anything like this crazed white man. He killed all but one of the so-called braves. He made sure this dumbfounded survivor witnessed his assignation ritual of tearing open his murdered enemies gut with his bowie knife and devouring the liver. With a purpose deigned as a challenge, he allowed this lucky one to escape to warn the tribe that he would have his revenge.

It is said among the crow nations that their strength is measured by how mighty their enemies are. While lecherous, the Crow were also a proud people. Their way of dealing with one enemy was to send one warrior at a time. According to some accounts, over the next twenty to twenty five years John “Liver-eating” Johnson killed nearly three-hundred of the mightiest Crow warriors. His thirst for revenge was nearly insatiable. Using the Rocky Mountains as cover, He literally waged war upon the entire Crow nation. He was wounded several times over the years but never mortally.

In the latter years of his vendetta, it is lore that he was captured by the Black Foot, stripped naked and bound in a tee-pee with an inexperienced guard posted to watch him. Their intent was to “sell” him to their common enemy, the Crow, for (a handsome price) and to improve their relations with them. Apparently, Jeremiah had been on his way back from a visit with Swan’s family five hundred miles from the part of the Rockies he called home. During that night, he managed to slip his bonds and kill his guard with his bare hands. He retrieved his bowie knife and cut his victim’s leg off. Jeremiah then reportedly killed as many Back Foot as he could and used the severed leg for food on his trek home.

As a final footnote to this incredible legend, the diarists Lee and Kaiser reported having first hand knowledge of Jeremiah and a bloody encounter with the Sioux Indians on the banks of the Missouri River. 

Enemies? Yes, I would say that John Garrison had many enemies. He stood up for family values and the love of a woman. He fought against the world and its injustices. He knew in his heart that things should have been different and he set out to make them so. When that was taken from him, he fought back in the only way his enemies would understand. Many would say that he should have lost himself in those violent times. Nothing could be further from the truth. Eventually, Jeremiah left his beloved Rockies behind and went on to serve in the Union Army, receiving an honorable discharge. He was appointed to a deputy sheriff position in Coulson, Montana; and as a Marshall in Red Lodge, Montana. In the latter part of his lifetime, he made a difference in a world that desperately needed heroes and legends.
John Garrison 1824 – 1900. His body was moved to a final resting place in Cody, Wyoming. Robert Redford served as a pallbearer. (1962 words)