T H E J E F F E R S O N MAP
A.
.MONG the records which have preserved for future generations the story of the pioneering of the Hastings Cutoff, none exceeds and few match in interest the extraordinary Map of the Emigrant Road from Independence, Mo., to St. Francisco, California, which was published in New York in 1849 by T . H. Jefferson as the fruits of an 1846 journey to California by way of the Hastings Cutoff. So rare is this map, only three copies known to exist, that its vital bearing on the Hastings Cutoff long escaped attention and has only come to be generally appreciated since the publication of George R. Stewart's book about the Donner party, Ordeal by Hunger, which appeared in 1936. In December, 1945, the California Historical Society reprinted 300 copies of the map and its brief Accompaniment, thus for the first time making it generally available to scholars. Not unnaturally, this edition itself promptly went out of print, and already copies have become difficult to find.
The strange thing about T. H. Jefferson is that down to this writing his map has been the sole evidence that such a person ever existed. His name is not mentioned in any of the known diaries or reminiscences of 1846; there appears to be no record of him in California; and although his map was published in New York City, from which it has been inferred he lived there, the only Thomas Jefferson the New York City directories list from 1842 is a colored porter, not the likeliest of candidates for the honor of having produced one of the great American maps. The researches of Dale L. Morgan in frontier newspapers have now identified Jefferson by name in the immigration of 1846, and confirmed New York as his place of residence, though whether city or state remains to be established. Fittingly enough, this shred of evidence comes from the Jefferson City, Mo., Jefferson Inquirer, of May 13, 1846, which paper quotes a late issue of the Independence Western Expositor as saying: " W e notice among those going out, Col. W m . H. Russell, Dr. Snyder, Mr. Grayson, Mr. McKinstry, Mr. Newton, and others from below,—Messrs.