Jessie Benton Fremont California Pioneer

Any history of California is incomplete without the story of this Jessie Benton Fremont who was one of the state's first notable pioneers. Author of all her husband's exploratory journals of the West, Jessie was intelligent, witty, gracious and beautiful.

Along with her husband John Fremont, she was passionate about abolition and together their efforts assured California's admission to the Union as a free state. She was presented at court in both England and France, lived in pioneer tents during the Gold Rush era, had audiences with Lincoln, and acted as an Army nurse during the Civil War.