John Henry Weber
John Henry Weber was born in Denmark, emigrating to the United States to work for the Ordnance Department of the United States Army. He worked as a clerk at the lead mines owned by the government in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. While there he met numerous successful fur traders and became friends with one named William Ashley. In 1822 he joined the Ashley-Henry Fur Company on a trapping expedition, a group which included Jim Bridger and Jedediah Smith.
After their arrival in the area of the Yellowstone River the party split into independent brigades, with Weber assuming the leadership role of the brigade which explored the Bear River region before spending the next few years trapping and hunting in the area of northern Utah and southern Idaho. Weber dispatched Jim Bridger down the Bear River in the winter of 1824-25 to determine its course, a trip in which Bridger came upon Great Salt Lake.
The following spring a portion of Weber’s brigade encountered a British trapping expedition led by Peter Ogden Skene. In a dispute over trapping rights, enough American employees Skene were convinced to leave the British company and join Weber’s brigade that the remaining British withdrew to Snake River.
Weber wintered in the Great Salt Lake region in 1825-26 assigning his name to the Weber River. In the spring he attended the 1826 fur trapper’s rendezvous, an annual event in which the trappers met to sell their furs and replenish their supplies to remain in the mountains. Following the 1826 rendezvous Jedediah Smith, with two partners, bought Ashley’s share of the company. Ashley returned to Missouri, where he later entered politics.
With his friend no longer with the expedition, Weber too returned to Missouri. The name he placed on the Weber River led to the naming of Weber Canyon as well as Weber County. Eventually these place names led to the name Weber State University, otherwise there was no relation to the trapper. Weber returned to the employ of the US Government, rising to the rank of Superintendent of US government lead mines in Galena, Illinois before he retired in 1840. He died in 1859, a suicide.