Jerry Hall Who Do You Think You Are?

I left home at 16 and went to Paris.

My mom made me a bunch of fabulous clothes,

I had them stuffed in my back-pack,

but I was so lucky, you know, I just met Helmut Newton

and started modelling.

Within a month, I was on the cover of French Vogue.

I think it's part of my family's pioneer spirit.

If you want to do it, just go do it.

Texan-born Jerry Hall

is among the most photographed women in the world.

As one of the original supermodels,

she has graced the cover of Vogue,

starred in films

and appeared on the London Stage.

She and Mick Jagger were together for 23 years

and they have four children.

Elizabeth and Georgia are both models, I'm very proud to say.

Very successful. I'm showing off a bit now!

I know that my father's side of the family originally came from England.

Here is a photograph of my mom and dad.

My mom was so pretty.

They wanted her to be a model when she was younger,

but my dad wouldn't let her.

I know that my mother's family

are direct descendants of the first families

who went to Texas in the early 1820s.

Sadly, she passed away two years ago.

SHE SNIFFS Mm, I'm going to get all teared up.

But I really want to find out for her.

I have no idea where our pioneering spirit comes from.

I suppose it's in the genes. We'll find out.

Jerry lives in Richmond, Surrey.

Her younger son, Gabriel, still lives at home with her.

So, Gabe, you're going to be curious to find out about our family?

Yeah, I'm very interested.

Er, you've always told me they're from Texas,

-but I'd really like to know where beyond Texas we're from.

-Yeah.

I was born in a house in Harwood.

We had a farm - and it had no electricity and no running water.

You know, my mom had five kids, so it was quite a tough life.

That's me as a little girl with my four sisters and Mom and Dad.

You look just like Georgia there.

Gabriel loves history

and he is extremely proud of my father's war medals.

He was with General Patton on all of his campaigns.

And that's when he came home on leave, when Linda was born.

My father sadly passed away in 1977.

He's called John Hall.

I'd like to find out about his English heritage.

Why they went to Texas.

You know, where they came from, what they did.

I know that my great-grandfather, when he came to America,

he worked as a foreman on the railroad.

You know, we were always told they came from Oldham.

Jerry is starting with her father's side of the family.

She's on the trail of her great-grandfather, James Hall.

I'm not sure what profession my great-grandfather did,

but I know that Oldham at that point was very big on textiles,

fabric dyeing, which would tie in with me becoming a fashion model.

JERRY LAUGHS

So, I don't know.

I don't have a picture of my great-grandfather.

I've got a picture of my great-grandmother, Parthenia Hall.

-TANNOY:

-'Ladies and gentlemen,

'we're making our final approach, where this service will terminate.'

-Wow!

-Hi, Jerry.

Hello. Nice to meet you.

It's lovely to meet you. Let's go on in.

Jerry hopes social historian Emma Griffin can answer

the question about what James Hall did before he went to America.

Wow! Oh my gosh!

So, this is obviously a restored cotton mill.

Oh, wow!

So, my great-grandfather, James Hall, worked in a cotton mill?

Yes. So, he would have worked in something very similar

to this mill that we're in now.

-Amazing.

-All the different machines on the same floor here.

MACHINES WHIRR

They must have gone a bit deaf!

We could find out a little bit more about what he did,

-if we look at the 1861 Census.

-Oh, yeah? How exciting!

I've got a copy of that here,

and your family are mentioned down there.

Oh, my goodness, yeah.

James, there he is.

And he's ten years old and a cotton piecer.

So young.

Yeah, so young to be at work.

James Hall first started work in the mill as a piecer,

repairing broken lengths of cotton as the machine spun the yarn

and wound it onto spindles.

Children were used for this dangerous job

because they could squeeze in and around the moving machinery.

We know that as an adult, he's a card room jobber,

and that means he's basically supervising now

-all the men and women who are using these machines.

-Wow.

There's a few other documents that we've got about James Hall

that might be of interest to you.

Right. Oh, his marriage.

-He's getting married.

-Oh.

Wait a minute, so James Hall married Martha Ann...

..Standeven.

Martha Ann Standeven.

Oh, OK.

Cos the only one I knew about from my father's side was Parthenia.

Don't know where she comes from.

-So, this is Martha Ann...?

-Sorry, so your great...

-OK, so your great-grandfather is James Hall...

-Yeah.

..and you think your great-grandmother is Parthenia?

So, he married twice.

Now, one of the nice things about the Census is,

we can track families at every ten years.

Right, so this is another one?

So, another Census, we've moved on to 1881, let me pass that to you.

Oh, exciting.

So, we can see a little bit more about what's happening to James now.

-So, there he is.

-There he is. OK.

James is 30...

..and his wife...

They have a daughter, Clara, who's one.

Clara Hall.

This tells us the street they're in.

Waverley Street.

Waverley Street is still in existence,

so we can go and have a little look at Waverley Street.

-Oh, how exciting. God, I'd love to see that!

-Well, let's do that...

-Wow!

..and we can see the houses that they're living in.

Oldham was once the cotton spinning capital of the world.

In James Hall's time, there were over 200 working mills,

surrounded by housing built for the workers.

So, this is the house. One more, this is it, Number 18.

It's lovely.

A real, classic mill worker's cottage - two up, two down, brick...

Amazing. Amazing.

Just next door is his sister and the one down there is his mother.

Oh, you're kidding! Wow!

So, all of your family were in these three houses altogether.

-Oh, my God, right next door?

-Yes.

We're keeping a track on not just him,

but the rest of his family and this is a birth certificate.

-And he's named his son "James".

-Yeah.

It's their first born son, I think this has got to be, hasn't it?

Wow. So, when was he born?

-The date's right up here in the corner.

-1882.

They've got baby Clara, who's living here as well.

And then that is...?

1881, we've got this document here.

18...

And we're looking at a ship's manifest.

-Oh! Liverpool.

-Yeah.

And we can see that he's sailing from Liverpool.

Right. So, that's when he went to America.

-So, what happened to his wife?

-Well let's...

You see, this tells us exactly who's on this ship that's bound...

-And if we look for James, there's James...

-Yeah.

James Hall, 31.

Went with one bag, without his children or his wife.

That's right.

Oh, he's done a runner! LAUGHTER

He's done a runner.

-This is from 1881.

-Gosh.

So, if we just think about that birth certificate

that we saw a moment ago, that's 1882.

So...

..that means the baby was born after he left.

-That's right.

-Aww. That's a bit caddish.

Aww. He's left his children. He's left his wife.

He's left his children and his wife.

Gosh. And gone to Texas.

-Looking for a new life in the USA.

-Wow!

Well, I've found my great-grandfather's house.

I don't know, you know, the baby was born after he left,

so I don't know what happened.

And you know, I have to go and find out how he met my grandmother,

Parthenia, my great-grandmother,

whether he was a bigamist, or whether he got a divorce, or what.

It's very confusing, so I think I have to go and find

where they keep the records in Texas.

See if he was a cad.

OK. So it was 18, 16 and 14.

Oh yeah, I have to get right over here to get it, get all three.

-TV:

-'Plenty of sunshine through today, with seasonal temperatures.

'We should reach our normal high of about 82 degrees by this afternoon.

'Clear skies tonight, with a low near 70.

'Increasing cloudiness tomorrow...'

I have a spirit of adventure, to go off to Paris alone at 16

and seems like a lot of people in my family just kind of leave home.

I mean, why would James, you know...

..leave his family and leave Oldham and come to this whole new place?

We knew that he worked in the railroad,

but you know, how he went from being in the cotton business,

in a factory all of his life,

to Texas and the railroad...

So, that's why I'm here in Houston,

to try and find what happened to him and also...

..that woman was not my great-grandmother.

An adventurous cad. God!

Seem to always meet those kind of people!

Jerry is meeting historian Ken Stavinoha

at the Houston Public Library.

-Hi, I'm Ken Stavinoha.

-Nice to meet you.

Very nice to meet you. Shall we go to the library?

So Ken, why would my great-grandfather

have come to the States?

So, there was a lot of opportunity.

Texas in particular was growing.

They were looking for good people to populate the country,

as well as the railroads were looking for people

to help them expand.

Yes, cos we know he was a railroad foreman.

Well, that makes perfect sense, because the 1870s and 1880s

were a peak construction period for railroads in Texas.

This is from the Galveston newspaper

and this is really about a month before James would have emigrated.

They want to complete the branch from Harwood to Gonzales.

So, that's... I was born there and lived there,

in Harwood, when I was a baby.

"Intersecting and controlling

"the heavy business of a section of county of unsurpassed fertility

"and being rapidly settled by immigrants of the very best class."

Mass production of steel in the 1880s

caused a boom in American railroad construction.

More than 6,000 miles were built in Texas alone

and companies were running out of local labour.

Immigrants, like James Hall, were tempted over to the United States

with the promise of high wages and a piece of their own land.

Railroad companies would despatch recruitment agents

to places like the North of England,

where there was a plentiful supply of labour.

They put advertisements and letters in local newspapers.

This is one of them here -

the Liverpool Mercury - and of course, it's very small print.

If you'll look at that passage.

"A young man can land with little money

"and get work at once by taking the first thing that offers -

"only he must be the right kind,

"for we want good men in Texas."

He had a couple of things in his resume

that I think would have been very attractive.

He had experience with machinery, which of course,

when you work for the railroad, you're surrounded by machinery.

And it sounds like he also had some sort of supervisory experience.

Yes.

And why would he have come...?

Was it dangerous for the women and children, then?

Well, it certainly could be.

Obviously, if they're used to a lifestyle in the city

where there are provisions -

you have water, you have food, you have shelter -

coming to a place like Texas,

you didn't automatically have all of those things.

Plus, being out in the wilderness,

there were other things like disease that were rampant,

that you wouldn't necessarily experience in the city.

Do you have any kind of way of knowing if he brought his family?

Well, there is actually a shipping list.

This is from 14th October of 1882.

Oh yes!

So, he did bring... Oh, and there's the children.

Martha is his wife

and his daughter Clara and his son James.

Right. And notice that this is their destination.

They went to Luling. Wow!

A lot of my relatives are from Luling and around there, yeah.

So, that makes sense that... Yes, they were coming out to join him.

So that's... So how many... How much later was that?

This was 14th October, so it's a year about after he...

Oh, OK. So he wasn't a cad!

LAUGHTER

-Sorry. No, cos she's not my great-grandmother.

-OK.

So, I was trying to figure out what happened.

So, James didn't desert his family after all.

He was just selling up and moving here to make a better life for them.

But I want to find out what happened to Martha,

because she wasn't my great-grandmother.

Well, I've kind of got a bad feeling about her.

Jerry is now driving 140 miles due west of Houston,

to the small town of Luling,

where James' family arrived in October 1882.

Here we are, in Luling.

So cute.

Luling grew up around the railroad,

where James Hall was helping to build a spur line

from Harwood, south to Gonzales.

Luling attracted cowboys driving cattle north.

The combination of cowboys and railway workers proved dangerous,

and Luling soon earned a reputation for being

"the toughest town in Texas".

TRAIN HORN BLOWS

The line, which passes straight through the middle of town,

is still used for shipping freight.

Martha, Clara and eight-month-old baby James Hall

arrived here a year after Jerry's great-grandfather.

Genealogist Dorothy Landoll has been doing some research.

Jerry's hoping she can tell her how they fared.

I have some information here about James and his family.

Oh, right.

We have part of a letter here.

It's from Margaret Clegg, his sister in Oldham, England.

It's fragile, and there's writing on both sides.

"It would set our minds at rest if we had a letter.

"It's eight months since we've had one, so I must write...

"You must write as soon as you can.

"Every week is like a month.

"With kind love from all and your affectionate sister and mother."

And it says, "kisses to all the children".

All those kisses, that's sweet.

So, that means...

..something's happened to Martha.

Cos it's just "kisses to the children".

Well, we have The Galveston Daily News from December 30, 1883.

-Right.

-And read the part right in here.

Mm.

"The following deaths have been reported

"to the City Health Office

"for the weeks ending today."

And there she is, Martha Hall.

Disease of kidneys.

And do you know what happened to the children?

Well, we know that Clara was adopted by a friend.

JERRY GASPS

We have no record of what happened to little James.

It's assumed that he probably died young, but we have no record of him.

So, poor James, he's lost all of his family.

Do we know what happened to him next?

Well, having lost all of his family, he didn't give up.

The next thing we have is a deed.

Oh, so he bought land. And that was in...?

It was in August of 1884, almost a year after her death.

-"118 and a half acres...

-..Half acres...

-"..of land."

He's rebuilding his life in spite of all that he has gone through,

and then we find this lovely note.

Oh, OK. So, this is in October, 1886.

"Miss P Dunham,

"Please would you accept my company for a walk this evening?

"If so, please tell the bearer "yes"

"and I will be a Harvey's house at two o'clock prompt.

"James Hall.

"If no, please would you let me sit on the fence while you walk by?"

Ooh! "I remain your friend as ever, James Hall."

Ooh!

-So "P Dunham" is Parthenia?

-Yes.

And that's the marriage license.

Oh, wow!

"James Hall and Miss Parthenia Dunham."

And they got married in November 1886.

So, how long did it take from courting to marriage?

Ooh, not very long.

What?! That's a month later!

-But it may be...

-He's a fast mover.

So, how did it all turn out for them?

We have the 1910 Census.

Right. OK. So, there's...

James Hall, Parthenia, John, Annie,

Mary, Thomas, Margaret, Cecil.

"John" is John Travis Hall.

Right. So, that... He'd be my grandfather?

Right. They had a total of eight children.

They're living in Gonzales County on the land that he purchased -

the 118 and a half acres.

The spur from Harwood to Gonzales, the railroad,

-goes through his land, it was there when he purchased it.

-Oh.

And you might like to go and see the farm.

I'd love to. It's still there?

It's still there and part of it is still owned by family members.

Oh, my goodness!

James' job on the railway allowed him to buy and farm his own land

along the spur line where he was working.

Here, he raised his second family with his new wife, Parthenia -

Jerry's great-grandmother.

It's a long way to come from Oldham.

DOG BARKS

It's beautiful country.

So green, isn't it?

He must have found the greenest spot in Texas.

I was so excited to hear that my family,

some of my family still owns that original land that James Hall got.

And you know, I'm looking forward just to meeting them,

see who it is.

Somewhere here.

Oh, it says "Hall". OK.

This must be it.

So, is that my relatives?

Gosh!

Turn off the engine.

Oh, my goodness!

So, I haven't seen you in forever.

Do you remember me?

Oh my goodness! Hello.

How nice to see you.

Yeah, you too.

Nice to see you.

I'm OK, so far. Yeah, last time I saw you...

-Do you remember us?

-..you was in a crib.

Now, tell me, tell me who you are.

-I'm Joyce.

-Joyce.

-Annie and Cecil's daughter.

-Yeah? Oh.

Joyce is Jerry's father's cousin, and James Hall's granddaughter,

through his younger son, Cecil.

-So, that's Cecil's house?

-Yes.

And is it still...? People don't live there?

No, but they could, if it was cleaned up a little.

Er, you want to get in the back of the truck and...

-Yeah

-..we can go up there.

OK. I'd love to. Fantastic.

Well, I'll drive if I can. Y'all trust me?

-Yeah.

-OK.

CAR ENGINE STARTS

JERRY LAUGHS

So, this land was the original Hall land?

Yes.

And I still own...

I still own the part...

Part of this fence and part of the pasture here,

I still own it and the rest of them all sold their land.

It's beautiful though, with all the wild flowers.

And it's always cool.

Joyce has been searching for family documents and photographs

from when James Hall's family lived on the farm.

You remember her?

Is that...? Oh my goodness, is that Parthenia?

-Yes.

-Wow.

That's James' wife.

And this photo was taken on this land?

Yeah, I suppose it was, cos right back here behind this house

is a kind of a low spot.

We used to have... There used to be a three room house there.

Wow! So there's always been Halls having houses here.

She lived there with my mother and daddy and us,

until she passed away.

Oh. Amazing.

-They must have been so tough, in her time.

-Yes.

Well, I believe only the toughest ones made it, back then.

That's right.

Do you think you might recognise that gentleman in some way?

Oh my goodness! Is that James?

Do you know that?

We don't have no name for that picture

and that could have very well been him.

He certainly has my daddy's eyes, doesn't he?

I think he does.

Yeah. Bit scary!

LAUGHTER

And so, this picture was with the family photos?

-Er, yes, that's...

-And you think it's James Hall?

-That's the only one that we have, that could have been him.

-Wow.

Was a good looking guy, wasn't he?

James Hall raised his family, ran his farm

and continued to work for the Southern Pacific Railroad

until he retired.

He never returned to Oldham.

So, he's buried somewhere in there?

You need an axe to get through there now.

-Here is an obituary...

-Oh, my goodness.

..from James Hall.

"Funeral services were held at the family home by Reverend SP Harris,

"in the presence of a large number of friends and relatives,

"gathered to pay a last tribute to his memory.

"As the train on the Harwood branch passed,

"it stopped for a few minutes,

"the crew going over to view the remains

"and laying floral offerings on the casket."

That was sweet. And so, that's that railroad there?

-Yeah, that's...

-So, they just walked over.

That's where the rail train still goes by there,

every once in a while.

That's nice, that they stopped the train in his honour.

-Yeah, they sure did.

-TRAIN APPROACHES

I can hear a train. I can hear a train now.

-Just right over there is the train tracks.

-TRAIN HORN BLOWS

I was so proud to read his obituary.

James Hall seemed to be highly regarded by his railroad colleagues

and you know, this is the tracks that he was the foreman

and supervised the building of, and obviously,

that's where he saw this beautiful piece of land.

Very sad to hear about baby James and Martha.

I think my father's family had a very hard life.

He did make a success.

He married again.

He bought land and he had eight children.

And I, you know, luckily came down from them.

Growing up in Texas, we're used to going on these road trips...

..and I came home from Paris

and took my friend Antonio

down to my cousin Jo Nell's wedding, and we stopped...

He loved all these signs,

these beautiful, beautiful signs

and he took all these pictures of me

in front of all these signs.

He thought the American signs were so iconic

and quite artistic.

I was 16 on that trip

and you know, stopping everywhere.

It was great fun.

But I guess it's that sense of adventure.

When I was with Mick, we would just travel

and lived out of suitcases for seven years.

We never stopped travelling.

Jerry is now investigating her mother's side of the family,

who also lived in Texas.

I do know that they were one of the first families that went to Texas.

I'd love to find out, for my mother, about her family.

She passed away two years ago.

I'd like to find out, you know, where they came from over here

and why they went to Texas.

Jerry has come to the state capital of Texas, Austin,

where she owns a house.

She's meeting up with her maternal cousins, Jo Nell and Sylvia.

So, Mama had this cedar trunk.

When I opened it up, I just couldn't believe it, you know?

I haven't even looked through all the photographs,

because she obviously kept these photographs from her mama

and they've been in the family.

Here's your daddy.

-And my mama.

-Oh, perfect.

Look at where they ...

Oh, he's so handsome and she's... They were pretty.

And then, Mama had these pins,

which are The Daughters Of The Republic of Texas.

That means it's the first families that settled Texas.

We're members through these people...

..Mary Margaret Wilkins and Isaac Best.

Isaac Best. It's a familiar name.

Yeah, I've heard of Isaac Best.

Though I don't know very much about him.

I'd love to know where he came from.

I don't even know where he came from.

Don't know anything about him.

I tell you, Mama would just love to find out about all this.

Absolutely.

The city of Austin was named in honour of Stephen F Austin,

who established colonies of settlers to farm land in Texas,

which became part of the United States of America in 1846.

Jerry wants to know how her own family

fits into the story of Stephen Austin's pioneers.

-Hello.

-Hi, it's good to meet you. Come on in.

She's meeting archivist Sharon Hill,

from The Daughters Of The Republic of Texas.

This organisation was founded

to honour the female descendants of those original Texas pioneers.

So, Sharon, I've come to find out about...

These were my mother's...

-Hm-mm.

-..and she passed away a couple of years ago

and these were her pins.

The most important name on that is Isaac Best.

-Oh, is it?

-That pin.

-Yeah.

And the one below it, Mary Wilkins, was his wife.

Oh, I see.

So, those two are the most important names who you're related to.

For a woman to become a member,

she has to trace her lineage before 1846,

but your relative, Isaac Best, was...

..goes beyond that.

He was one of Stephen F Austin's original 300 colonists.

Mmm. So, we're the real Texans?

-Yes. But it gets better.

-Oh, yeah?

It gets better. This is your lineage.

-Your parents...

-Yeah, and my grandmother...

Through their records, The Daughters can trace Jerry's mother's family

back through seven generations,

to Jerry's five times great-grandfather, Isaac Best.

And do you know anything about the Best family, cos I really...

Do you know like where they came from,

or is there anything in the records about them?

This is a list.

It's dated February 1823

and it shows...

It shows who was here first.

Oh, there he is. "Isaac Best.

"A man of family, but his family not yet come on.

"He is a man of good character.

"He's now here for the purpose of raising crop.

"Age 47."

In 1823, Texas was still part of Mexico.

This land was occupied by Native Americans,

like the Comanche and Apache tribes.

It had been their hunting and trading grounds for generations.

But immigrants like Isaac

were now being welcomed by the Mexican government

to come and settle this area.

During this time, Texas was used...

Mexico used Texas as a buffer zone,

to buffer the interior portions of Mexico from Indian attacks.

JERRY LAUGHS

Got those crazy Europeans over to get killed off by the Indians first(?)

-Exactly.

-LAUGHTER

So, let them get killed, we won't... Nothing will happen to us.

Goll-ee! LAUGHTER

Every settler to Austin's colony got a league of land,

which was 4,428.4 acres.

Wow! That was a lot of land.

Well, it was.

What did he have to pay for this?

100.

100 for 4,000 acres?

That's pretty wild!

And it was, it was good acreage.

His particular property was on the Brazos River,

-cos a river was very important for...

-How nice.

..cattle, crops, trade.

OK, this is just part of a tax list.

Oh.

-And there's a translation.

-OK.

And you might be able to find a name on there.

So...

Where is it? Let's see. Oh, Isaac Best.

"Married, age between 40 and 50."

So, five children

and four slaves.

He had slaves?!

-God!

-No, I know this can be something difficult to understand,

but during the time Isaac Best came here to Texas,

slavery was accepted all over the world.

-So, to have slaves...

-Well...

-..he would have been...

..none of these other people had slaves.

In Austin's colony in 1825,

69 families owned slaves.

That accounted for one fourth of the population.

His slaves more than likely helped him with the cattle on the ranch.

What else have you got?

Now, where did he come from? I really want to know.

Now, I'd like you to look at this document.

Ooh, OK. So that is...?

That's dated October 1823.

"October 1823, Land Deed.

"Isaac Best selling land to James Tagert,

"State of Missouri, Township and County of St Charles."

Missouri. LAUGHTER

So, Missouri?

Gosh, I've never been to Missouri.

That's quite awful,

to find out he had slaves.

I suppose it was common in those days,

but no, that's kind of horrific.

I'm really curious to find out more about Isaac Best.

Jerry is now heading 800 miles north,

to where Isaac Best lived in 1823,

near St Charles in Missouri.

Isaac Best must have been a man of quite substantial means,

to take this family off on such a big journey.

He must have had a lot of wagons, he must have had some money.

Isaac Best and his family

were part of the massive expansion across America in the 1800s

that saw thousands of families migrating West.

We learnt in school about American history

and we learnt about the early days,

the early settlers, the pioneers,

you know, how many of them died.

We learnt about Daniel Boone,

how he was a trailblazer and a great hero...

..helped to make America what it is.

But I just can't believe my relatives did it, you know?

800 miles with children and in wagons -

they were pretty tough.

No, it is fun, that thing of being an adventurer, a pioneer,

just get up and go, you know?

Curiosity and bravery.

I've always enjoyed it and now, I see where I get it.

Jerry is meeting historian Mike Harris

at a place called Best's Bottom,

about 60 miles from St Charles.

Hey, hi.

Hi. I'm Jerry Hall.

I'm Michael Harris. How are you?

-Good. Nice to meet you. Thank you.

-Good. Nice meeting you too.

So, this is named after Isaac Best?

It is named after Isaac Best and his family, that's correct.

Oh. So, this is Isaac Best's land?

You are on Isaac Best's land right now.

-Oh, my gosh, how amazing!

-Yes.

Jerry, I think I've got something here you can help me with.

Ooh, this is exciting.

Now, one of the things that we're going to need here...

It's just a few items.

It's probably not as nice as the purse you've got...

-Ooh.

-..but let's put your arm in there, like this.

Wow!

-OK, that's good. Oh, we've got a few more of...

-I like that.

..few more little niceties to add to your fashion statement.

-Oooh.

-Let's put this on.

This is where you put your gunpowder?

That's gunpowder, that's a powder horn.

This is your priming horn.

-Ooh.

-And now, you're about set. Oh, one more thing.

Priming horn? Oh!

The last piece of the equipment...

-What a beauty.

-..would be this.

This is just like Daniel Boone's gun, isn't it? It's fantastic.

This is a 50 calibre Flintlock long rifle.

This is exactly the sort of gun

that Isaac Best and the people who were out here

-would have actually been using.

-Pow, pow, pow, pow!

Gosh, it's heavy.

-Yeah, it's very barrel heavy.

-It's beautiful.

They use this for hunting and of course, defence, if necessary.

What I have here is a document

-that shows a map that was drawn of this territory in 1814.

-Right.

You see, here's the Missouri River

and then over here, you can see...

Can you read this, what it says here?

Across from the mouth of this river.

-Is that "homesteads"?

-Yeah. It says, "Settlement of 20 families."

Oh, right. So...

And so, that's Isaac Best and those people who were living right here,

-right directly across from the Gasconade River.

-Golly!

And of course, this was the 1804 Treaty Line

that was drawn up between the Americans and the Sac and Fox.

-Indian territory.

-The Indian territory, yeah.

As they pushed west, the settlers colonised land

previously occupied by Native American tribes.

This created the Frontier,

which became a line of conflict

between settled America and Indian territory.

Isaac Best's land was right on this line.

So, this was all Indian land and they wanted it back.

Right.

These Indians would come down this region

and begin to attack the settlements down here, including Isaac Best.

Wow!

This is one that I drew up, kind of showing what...

-It's really good.

-..the farm looked like

when Isaac Best was probably living here.

Wow! That's...

Can you see anything on here that you think is kind of unusual?

-So, this was like a two storey building?

-Right. Right.

This two storey building here is actually...

-It would have been a block out.

-There's no windows.

Right. And so, instead you had small holes.

-Oh, yeah.

-What do you think those might have been used for?

-Like a fort?

-It was. Very good.

And remember, I showed you the map showing the 1804 line,

and that treaty that had been signed.

There was a lot of the Sac and Fox who were not happy with that at all.

But this is what Isaac Best and his family would have had to

kind of live with almost day-to-day, and of course, they would have

had to be careful, because they never knew

-what was going

-to

-come at them.

It must have been so frightening for them.

It was very frightening for most of them.

-He was pretty brave.

-He was pretty brave.

Extremely brave, to be able to live here.

So, they were real Cowboys and Indians.

Real Cowboys and Indians back then, yeah.

Pow!

Amazing.

So, right here in this area

is where Isaac Best would have probably had his home

and in 1817, when US surveyors came through,

they marked it, the river came as far up as we're standing.

Now, this is a document that came from a fella

by the name of Lyman Draper.

Now, Dr Draper came in this area in the 1840s and '50s

and began to talk to these old pioneers who lived here.

So, start right about here, see what you can read of that.

"In about 1814, Isaac Best's family,

"residing on the north bank of the Missouri,

"above the mouth of the Loutre

"and not far opposite the mouth of the Gasconade...

"Best and William Callaghan were at Best's house

"and dogs spied Indians creeping up through the corn towards the house."

-See, dogs are good.

-Hm-mm.

"The dogs and these two white men kept the Indians at bay

"till Mrs Best and Mrs Callaghan and children

-"ran down and got into the canoe and escaped."

-Hm-mm.

"In the fight, Callaghan was shot through the thigh,

"a flesh wound, and they both escaped to Fort Clemson.

"Indians robbed the house."

Mad pioneers, coming out here.

It was... It took a lot of nerve.

It took a lot of nerve to live here.

Yeah.

With his family safe, but his home ransacked and pillaged,

Isaac Best travelled more than 50 miles

to the nearest town of St Charles, to report the attack.

He arrived here on the 8th August, 1814.

Dr Steve Dasovich has been searching through the archives in St Charles.

This is where we're going to go and look at all these great documents.

Great.

So, this is a very detailed list of items lost in the raid.

So, if we start right here.

"Account of Isaac Best.

"11 head of horses...

"..three feathered beds,

"four cotton counterpanes,

"eight linen sheets,

"two Lindsay blankets,

"two buffalo robes,

"suspenders and steel thimble."

So, it came to 1,572.

Replacement cost, I assume.

That was a lot of money then.

So, he reports this on the 8th August and it's at that time that

Isaac Best decides he's going to do something about these losses.

This is what he does.

Oh. "Isaac Best.

"Lieutenant Dodge's Command, Missouri Militia."

So, he joins the Missouri Militia?

-Yes.

-"War of 1812."

And this war was against the Indians?

Huh. Around here, mostly.

Technically, the war of 1812 is against Great Britain.

Britain felt threatened by America's growing economic power

and colonial expansion

and attempted to impose trade restrictions.

America responded by declaring war on the 12th June, 1812.

Britain engaged American forces by land and sea

along the Eastern Coast.

At the same time,

the British stirred up unrest amongst the Native American tribes,

who, cheated of land they thought was rightfully theirs,

now attacked American settlements along the Western Frontier.

With no military support,

settlers like Isaac Best formed their own private armies,

or militias, to protect themselves.

The people here in Missouri territory

viewed this much more as being an Indian war,

than something against Great Britain.

So, by and large, this is really, you know, the Frontier Americans,

if you will, against the Native Americans.

Must have been terrifying.

Men, women and children were fair targets

for both sides during this war, there's no doubt about it.

The unit that Isaac Best joins

winds up going to help the settlers and Frontiers folks

against the Indian attacks that were going on.

He joins what becomes a very famous unit,

this Lieutenant Colonel Dodge becomes a very famous

sort of Frontier figure, here in the United States.

It's under the command of Daniel M Boone.

Captain Daniel Boone!

Cool!

Now, that is not THE Daniel Boone.

Mounted Militia... Oh, it's not?

-That's Daniel's son.

-Oh!

"Mounted Militia of Missouri Territory."

Well, you know,

these folks were actually rather dangerous units to the Indians.

They were good at understanding how the Indians worked -

how they fought, how they moved.

Isaac Best's Militia brought some relief to the besieged settlers

along his part of the Frontier -

but it wasn't to last long.

The following spring, the attacks started again -

and this time, it was Isaac Best's eldest son who joined the militia.

So, this is the account of Isaac Best Junior's,

-one of the actions he found himself in.

-Oh, yes.

"19-year-old Isaac Best Jr."

This is in April of 1815.

"The Detachment proceeded several miles into the woods.

"Suddenly, they came upon a band of Indians.

"Savages outnumbered rangers by four or five to one.

"The militia men turned and fled with Indians in close pursuit.

"About midday, rangers reached the shoreline

"and turned to fire on their pursuers, who were closing in

"and the white men plunged into the water

"and swam toward a drift in the river.

"Looking back, Webber saw a savage swimming towards him

"with a knife in his teeth. JERRY GASPS

"The ranger dived under the surface

"and drew his own blade from its scabbard.

"He came up beside the red man and plunged the steel

"so deeply into the Indian's breast that he couldn't withdraw it.

"The savage body sank in the water.

"Only three men survived the chase.

"Best's body was taken from the river weeks later near Carondelet,

"a village below St Louis."

Gosh!

So, they didn't just lose aprons and pins and thimbles.

So, that was Isaac Best's son?

Isaac Best's son, Isaac Best Jr was killed in this engagement.

Terrible.

So, that might explain why their family decided to go to Texas.

-It could very well explain that.

-Got fed up with Indian attacks.

These Indian attacks were going on all over the place in the Frontier.

Must have been so frightening for the families.

I mean, it's quite a moral dilemma in a way,

because they're taking the Indians' lands.

But they don't see it like that, do they?

Hopefully, it fills some gaps in the family story.

Wow, tons.

It's like a movie.

It really is.

Steve has one last document.

It provides a clue to where Isaac Best's family came from

before they pushed West into Missouri.

"We do hereby certify that Humphrey Best

"has 400 acres in the District of Kentucky.

Kentucky County.

So, Humphrey Best is Isaac Best's father.

Oh.

I'm losing track at how many land grants they've had!

LAUGHTER Phew!

"Under our hands at Boonesborough,

"the 20th Day of December, 1779."

They came from Kentucky to Missouri to Texas.

Yes.

It's been amazing today to hear about Isaac Best.

I mean, really, it's just like a Western movie.

I mean, you know?

Cowboys, Indians,

savages swimming across the river with knives in their mouths!

Very, very brave people.

He was being attacked the whole time,

so he was having to defend his family and children...

..and constantly going from one frontier

to a farther frontier,

never settling down.

And very surprised to hear...

..that the story now goes to Kentucky.

I had no idea.

Jerry has traced her ancestors on her mother's side

back eight generations,

to her six times great-grandfather, Humphrey Best.

And she has retraced her family's footsteps

a further 400 miles due east from Missouri.

We are now in Kentucky.

I'm so excited to find out that my family came from here.

The journey West that Humphrey Best and his family undertook

was arduous and dangerous,

with the constant threat of attack.

There were no roads.

It would have taken them the best part of three weeks on horseback.

And they used to go down the creeks?

The streams and dry creek beds,

this would have been the roadways of the time.

So this was where

my great-great-great-great-great- great-grandfather came from -

Kentucky.

I don't know much about Kentucky, it sure is beautiful.

Jerry is riding out with Bill Farmer,

the curator of this historic fort at Boonesborough -

a reconstruction of what stood here

when Humphrey Best had his land, back in the 1770s.

This is called Boone's Fort. Does that name sound familiar?

Daniel Boone?

You could be correct.

Daniel Boone, the legendary pioneer and Frontiersman,

was famed for forging a trail out into America's Wild West.

He and his intrepid band of fellow pioneers,

known as the axmen, cut through the wilderness.

They have been immortalised in television series and films.

Boone is considered to be America's first folk hero.

So, Bill, I've come here to Kentucky because of this document,

which says that Humphrey Best...

was here in 1779.

He had land.

He was awarded the land in '79...

..on account of raising a crop of corn in this country,

in the year of 1775.

1775 was when Fort Boonesborough was begun.

The people - Daniel Boone and his 30 axmen

cleared a trail to Boonesborough.

They arrived here, first part of April.

OK? In order to grow that crop in '75,

it would have had to have been planted in late April or early May,

so that says he was here at the same time that Daniel Boone was here.

This is another document.

This is a listing of early people here at Boonesborough,

and there's a date right up here, it says '75,

and of course, we have several Boones.

We have Banton, we have Boyle, and...

-JERRY GASPS Humphrey Best!

-Yes.

-Oh, my God!

-Is that name familiar to you?

That is so amazing.

So, he was like, great friends with Daniel Boone?

-Very likely could have been.

-Well, yeah.

There's no way that he did not know and associate with Boone...

That is so cool.

..there were this few people, out here in the middle of nowhere.

Gosh! That is so cool.

Daniel Boone. What a hero!

That is amazing!

If you'd like to walk out the front gate there,

there's actually a monument to this place and...

-I'd love to. Thank you.

-..walk out here and have a look at it.

In front of the fort stands a monument to those original pioneers,

who carved a trail out West into today's Kentucky

and who settled here.

Oh, my God!

That is so amazing.

Humphrey Best, Moses Best, Stephen Best.

Three of them.

That's so great. Goll-ee!

Aw, I tell you...

My mom would be so proud.

So, they were so important in making America.

Brave men.

Pioneers.

SHE SIGHS

I found where I come from.

I can see now where I got that sense of adventure,

and I see it in my children.

I mean, they love doing things, travelling,

saying "yes" to everything.

I guess the pioneer spirit is living on.

My mother would have been so proud.

I'm so happy that I did this for her,

cos she always wanted to find out about her family.

And I just can't believe that such important information

was lost all these years.

But now, my children know.