Thomas Bridges
He was born in the city of Lenton, Nottingham, (England) in the year 1842.
Died in the city of Buenos Aires July 15, 1898, to the 56 years of age.
The mission was Anglican in Land of the Fire
In 1856 G. P. Despard and their adopted son Thomas
Bridges (13 years) arrive at the Island Keppel (Falklands). Begin
the regular trips to the channel of Beagle.
In 1857 the missionaries carry the first yahganes to Keppel. Thomas
Bridges studies its language. The mister Despard does the first
list of words yahganes.
In 1863 in the trip of Pardon Thomas Bridges speaks the natives in its own tongue, and desire its confidence.
In 28 of May from 1871 the Reverend Bridges performs the first baptism
in the Island: the son of the gentlemen Lewis, born in the Falklands,
with the name of Frank Ooshooia Lewis[1].
September 30, 1871 arrive at Ushuaia in the Allen Gardiner the
Rvdo. Thomas Bridges, its wife Mary Ann Varder and its daughter
Mary, of nine months. They are the first white that are
established finally in the Land of the Fire.
November 6, 1871 the first marriage in the Land of the Fire is carried
out, among the Indian Cooshirijiz and Wepoilikeepa. The religious
ceremony is conducted for the Rvdo. Bridges.
In 18 of June of 1872 is born the first white boy in the Land of the
Fire, Thomas Despard Bridges. In this epoch there was only 7
white inhabitants, and no doctor.
April 23, 1879 is born Bertha M. Bridges (of Reynolds), first
born white woman in the Land of the Fire. Died April 13, 1968.
In 1880 the missionaries count since this year with the whaling one
Leelom in Ushuaia, with the one that Thomas Bridges explores all the
channels fueguinos. First rowboat established in the zone.
In 1882 the Southern Expedition is carried out Argentina. The
Lieutenant Giacomo Bove, the Good Captain Stone and the Doctors Decio
Vinciguerra, Carlos Spegazzini and Sunday Lovisato, pass February and
March in the Island of the States (Ovens Tip ship) doing studies.
From March to May study the channels fueguinos with Thomas Bridges in
the San José, wreck in the bay Slogget, and rescues them the
Allen Gardiner.
Among 1882-1883 the Scientific Mission at the end of Ovens is
performed. The captain Luis Martial (francés),a embroider
of the ship Romanche and with a numerous team of scientists, passes a
year in the Bay Orange, studies the natives and observes the traffic of
Venus, December 6, 1882. First climatic registrations, etc.
The Captain Martial baptizes to the islands set against Ushuaia with
the names of the Flia. Bridges.
The June of 1884 Thomas Bridges raises a census of the yahganes; 273
men, 314 women and 413 children. Total: 1000 persons.
In 1885 is built the first school in Land of Fire, in the Mission anglicana.
In 1886 a new census is performed by Thomas Bridges: 397 yahganes in
all the archipelago (among October and December of 1884 there had been
a great epidemic of measles, by which die the half of the
yahganes). New epidemics of escrópula, pneumonia and
tuberculosis.
September 29, 1886 Thomas Bridges leaves the Mission and Argentine
citizen is done. The President Rock, in name of the Government
and in gratitude by his multiple works with the natives and
shipwrecked, presents him with lands. Bridges chooses Harberton,
and thus the first stay in the archipelago is founded fueguino.
In 1887 Thomas Bridges and children open a path since the stay Harberton to Ushuaia, the first one by the coast.
Contributions to the region
The Rvdo. Bridges and its family are the first stable group of residents of Land of the Fire.
Bridges learned the tongue of the natives and could relate to them
peacefully, helping thus to the establishment of other white families
in the archipelago.
Educated to the Indians. Religious and secular education offered them before baptizing them.
Created schools, shops, estates, labor lands and an asylum.
Bequeathed a dictionary of Yahgán English, of
some 32.000 words, that with the vocabulary Ona of the Salesian Father
José Beauvoir, constitute contribute them more ponderables to
the study of the linguistic regional one.
Traveled through the channels fueguinos, being then a great
collaborator with the scientific expeditions that went to that zone.
Bibliografía
- Belza, Juan “In the Island of the Fire”, buenos aires, Editorial
Historic Institute of Investigations of Land of the Fire, 1974.
- Braun Menéndez, Assembling, “Mr. Thomas Bridges”, -illustrious
Gallery of men of the Patagonia-, in Magazine Argentina Southern, year
I SAW, N° 63, buenos aires, 1934
- Bridges, Esteban Lucas, “The last confine of the land”, buenos aires, Editorial Emecé, 1952.
- Bridges, Thomas, “The bordering south of the Republic –The Land of
the Fire and its inhabitants”, in Bulletin of the Geographical
Institute Argentine, I Take VII, buenos aires, 1886.
- Bridges, Thomas, “The Land of the Fire and its inhabitants”, in
Bulletin of the Geographical Institute Argentine, I Take XIV, buenos
aires, 1893.
- Fitte, Ernesto J., “The first protestant missionaries in the region
magallánica”, in Bulletin of the National Academy of the
History, buenos aires, 1964.
- Godoy Manríquez, Carlos Jorge (Director), “The Great Book of the Patagonia”, buenos aires, Editorial Planet, 1997.
- Prosser Goodall, Scrapes Natalie, “Land of the Fire”, Bs. Ace. -Ushuaia, Editorial Shanamaiim, 1979.
- Pamphlet: “Miscellany of the End of the World”, buenos aires, Municipal Direction of Tourism of Ushuaia, 1992.
[1] Juan E. Belza, in its work “In the Island of the Fire”, says
that Frank O. Lewis was the first boy born in the Island.
http://www.uca.edu.ar/facultades/derecho/pigpp/patagoniahoy/historia/personalidades/bridges.htm