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Frémont, John C.
John Charles Frémont (1813–90) was an explorer, topographer, military officer, and politician. He was one of the first two U.S. senators from the newly admitted state of California in 1850, and in 1856 the first presidential candidate of the Republican Party. He served previously as military governor of California in 1847.
Frémont was born January 21, 1813, in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, by his mother in diminished economic circumstances. In the 1840s, his work as an explorer of the Trans-Mississippi West gained for him the sobriquet of “the Pathfinder” in the national press and a national reputation. Educated at the College of Charleston, Frémont befriended South Carolina politician Joel R. Poinsett, who arranged for him to spend two years as civilian mathematics ...
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