A century and a half before the Kennedys and the Clintons, the Frémonts and the Custers were American power couples. John and Jessie Frémont and George and Libbie Custer pioneered the phenomenon.

So what made the Frémonts and Custers so famous? In popular culture, the husbands became all-American, if tarnished, heroes. Frémont mapped swaths of the West in five expeditions and helped lead America’s conquest of California. He was nominated as the newborn Republican Party’s presidential candidate in the 1856 election. During the Civil War, Custer was the “boy-general” who led cavalry charges that routed rebel forces in a score or more combats. He achieved immortality for his “last stand” with 262 of his men against thousands of Indian warriors during the battle of the Little Bighorn. But above all they helped spearhead “Manifest Destiny,” the belief that Americans have a God-given right to expand their nation across the continent and beyond to the ends of the earth.

Then there were their wives. Although little known today, Jessie and Libbie were nearly as famous as their husbands. Each served as her husband’s political muse, offering candid advice and spurring him to higher ambitions. They were vivacious women who loved entertaining and being the center of attention. They were also courageous and followed their husbands into the dangers of war, the frontier, and the wilderness.

Proudly backed by their wives, Frémont and Custer committed epic acts in epic times that brought them enormous fame. Yet eventually each self-destructed. The reason was simple—serious character flaws and hubris made each man his own worst enemy. Becoming adored heroes at an early age warped each to believe that he could get away with anything. Once extolled as symbolizing America’s greatest traits of courage, decisiveness, and ingenuity, with time John Frémont, George Custer, and, by extension their wives, have increasingly been reviled for representing imperialism, racism, and genocide.

A critical reappraisal is overdue. As usual, the truth shifts far from the extremes. The Old West’s First Power Couples neither celebrates nor demonizes the Frémonts and the Custers. Instead each is explored as an extraordinary, gifted, flawed, unique individual who was half of a unique couple that made history and advanced America’s Manifest Destiny, for better or worse.

Author: William R. Nester

Binding: Hardcover

ISBN: 978-1-940322-44-5