• BONANZA BACKGROUND

Part 1 – The World of “Bonanza”
by Becky Sims
December 2001 – February 2003
Ver. 3, revised September 2003

“Bonanza Background” has been a long time in the making, and was compiled from information I've gathered from shows, from people who've seen episodes I haven't seen yet, some of it is my speculation based on behavior I’ve seen in episodes, and some (especially in Part 2) consists of my personal opinions and preferences.

Feedback, corrections, and additional information are very welcome and will be incorporated if possible. Email them directly to me at <BeckyS91@cox.net>

Thanks to Sharon B and Irish for major corrections, comments and suggestions on the original document, Gwynne and Kate P. for major input into the revision, Rick for straightening me out on the geography as well as other information, as well as to many others for shorter – but no less significant – contributions to both versions.

Please note that I make no claim to ownership of the characters or situations – bless Mr. David Dortort for creating this wonderful world! – they are owned by Bonanza Ventures. Otherwise, ©2003 (as allowable) by Becky Sims

Please do not reproduce in any form, except for downloading or printing once for a fanfic writer’s personal use – which would be considered a compliment.

CONTENTS:

Part 1 – The World of “Bonanza”

Introduction

The Setting
– Nevada
– Virginia City
– Climate
– Lake Tahoe and Surrounds
– Indians

The Cartwright Men
– Ben
– Adam
– Hoss
– Joe

The Wives
– Elizabeth
– Inger
– Marie

Additional Characters
– Hop Sing
– Candy
– Jamie
– Griff
– The Sheriffs
– The Doctors
 

Part 2 – Writing “Bonanza” (and other Western) Fanfiction (next page)
Some Comments for Fanfic Writers
– The Cartwrights
– Out of date/out of place words
– Some basic medical information
– Variant spellings
– A second look at variant spellings: dialogue
– Female names
– Mary Sue
– The “awe” factor
– H/C, torture and why a story exists
– The geography
– Plots we’ve seen before
– What belongs to whom?

References and Further Reading
– Nevada and Western History
– Nevada Fiction
– Writing – The Mechanics
– Writing – The Art
– Other interesting and useful books and materials
– Writers who inspire me
 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Part 1 – The World of “Bonanza”

INTRODUCTION

I got started writing this “background” because someone said they were having a hard time writing Hoss, and did anyone have some thoughts on the subject.  Well, of course I did.  Then someone else asked for background on the mothers, so I wrote that up, too.  It’s grown quite a bit since then, with suggestions and questions submitted from many writers, readers, and even some confirmations from people who worked on the show.  (And I welcome comments and corrections – that’s one reason this is a revised version!)  One more note: sometimes my punctuation in writing this thing may look a little odd and not quite adhere to the proper rules – it’s put together this way for clarification, particularly when I’m presenting long lists of information, and to simplify loading onto internet pages.

My reasoning for posting this publicly is to help writers avoid some basic mistakes both historically and with the Bonanza world – unnecessary mistakes that distract readers from the plot. Bonanza fans, like in other fandoms, have extensive knowledge of the Cartwrights’ world (fictional and historical), and if you’re going to change it, you should know it and have a darn good plot reason.

Bonanza takes place in the early Comstock era of Virginia City, Nevada, beginning in 1859 when silver was discovered on Sun Mountain (Mt. Davidson).  The term “bonanza” refers to a strike of rich ore, and is used as in “the mine was in bonanza” as opposed to “borrasca” when the ore petered out.  (Note:  not in “a” bonanza.)  “In November, 1870, an immense bonanza was found in the Crown Point mine . . .” (Dan DeQuille, “The Big Bonanza”)

Heroes of the story are the Cartwright family: Ben, the father, and his three sons: Adam, Hoss and Little Joe.  Later additions (after Adam left) are “Candy” Canaday, who becomes the ranch foreman; Jamie, a red-headed boy that Ben adopts; and Griff KIng, a convicted prisoner who comes to live and work on the ranch under Ben’s watchful eye.  They all live on a large ranch called the “Ponderosa,” which is located west of Virginia City in the Sierra Nevada range of mountains, along the shore and to the east of Lake Tahoe.  Although the primary business of this region was silver mining, there had to have been ranches to provide beef for the residents of Virginia City, and lumber was a prime crop since it was desperately needed to shore up the mines for further expansion.

From the shows we know that Ben had three wives, each giving him one son. If (as Mr. Dortort stated in press releases the year the show began) the boys are about 6 years apart and Joe was 17 in the first season which took place in 1859, then Adam was probably born in 1830, Hoss in about 1836, and Joe around 1842.  This is stretching historical accuracy a bit, as Joe was supposedly born on the Ponderosa in the big house, yet Lake Tahoe (initially called Lake Bigler) wasn't discovered by Frémont, Carson and Walker until 1844.  But hey, the show fudged the facts all the time.  Bear this in mind as you read this section – these are historical/geographical facts, but if they don’t fit what you’re doing . . . well, you wouldn’t be the first to rearrange them in favor of a good plot!
 

THE SETTING

NEVADA

The show takes place in what we now know as western Nevada, but which was, at the time of the first season of the show, Utah Territory.  There is some dispute as to whether Mormon Station (now Genoa) or Gold Canyon (now Dayton) was the first settlement; both were established in 1851.  There was also a trading post in Eagle Valley on the Carson River branch of the California Trail.  Eagle Valley was first settled by ranchers in 1851, and they called the trading post Eagle Station, supposedly from the eagle which had been shot by the owner of the station and was mounted over the station door.  In 1858, the valley was formally surveyed for a town and was named Carson City in 1860.

The area became Nevada Territory in 1861 (“Nevada” from the Spanish meaning snow-capped) and entered into statehood on October 31, 1864, to tilt the balance of power in Congress in favor of President Lincoln’s position on slavery, as Nevada would enter the Union a free state.  The silver of the Comstock (the strike was named after Henry T.P. Comstock) was critical to the Union’s solvency during the Civil War. The words “Battle Born” appear on the current state flag, although “The Battle Born State” was not adopted as the State Slogan until 1937.
 

VIRGINIA CITY

Virginia City was the second most important city in the west after San Francisco from the discovery of silver in 1859 until the bust of 1875, when stockholders and others lost one hundred million dollars.  It was built literally upon a mountain of silver – Mt. Davidson – and from 1859 to 1882, well over $292 million of silver was produced (and those are not current dollars, but the dollars of the time). There was a disastrous fire in 1875, with another in 1879.  By 1880, the silver began to run out and the population dwindled.

During its heyday (the years of the show), there were four banks, six churches, an opera house, and the only elevator (commonly known as a “rising room”) between San Francisco and Chicago.  There were also 110 saloons and gambling houses, including the Bucket of Blood and the Sazerac.  Some had mahogany or ebony bars that were inlaid with intricate ivory or brass patterns.  Over the elegant bars were murals painted by some of the best-known artists of the day.  The best actors and musicians traveled to Virginia City to perform.

The streets were much busier and the town much noisier than any of the episodes ever showed.  There was a constant barrage of noise from the mines and the stamp mills, and six-horse stages, mule trains, Wells Fargo express wagons and horsemen packed the streets every day.  The Ophir, Gould & Curry, and the Kentuck were a few of the bigger mines, and the Territorial Enterprise really was the newspaper, and is, in fact, still in operation.  The first few episodes, such as “The Saga of Annie O’Toole” and “The Philip Diedesheimer Story” came closest to an actual rendition of the times.  There was also a greater ethnic diversity than was ever shown, and the greater portion of the population consisted of miners, not cowboys.

Several episodes feature historical figures and events.  Actual people include Mark Twain, Sam Bryant, Lotta Crabtree, Adah Menken, Charles Dickens, Philipp (note the spelling difference) Diedesheimer, Major Ormsby, William Stewart, Princess Sara, her father the Paiute chief Winnemucca, Squaw Charlie, and even Farmer Perkins, although the timing was not always accurate.  Winnemucca, however, did not really have a son named “Young Wolf.”   Annie O'Toole is based on Eilley Orrum, who married Sandy Bowers.  They built a beautiful mansion just west of Washoe Lake at the foot of the Sierras, which was shown at the end of the episode, and is still standing.  The attack on Wilson (really Williams) Station and the resulting Paiute War really happened (though over a period of several months), and the Pony Express really ran nearby, through Carson City and over the Sierras on the route south of Lake Tahoe.  The Transcontinental Railroad was built through the Sierras at Donner Pass with extensive use of Chinese labor, and was operational in 1869.
 

CLIMATE

Climate varies drastically, depending upon location.  The western slopes of the Sierras (in California) are more heavily forested than the drier eastern side.  There is always a lot of snowfall in the mountains, sometimes a devastating amount – as the Donner Party found out (winter of 1846-7).  Virginia City is dry and prone to severe winds known as the “Washoe Zephyr,” strong enough to generate stories of not only hats and umbrellas flying through the air, but mules as well.

While it certainly rains in California and Nevada, they do not have nearly as many thunderstorms as the Midwest and Eastern United States.  These storms are terrifying and extremely dangerous when they do occur, in large part because of the combination of altitude and lightning strikes.  Hail can also be very dangerous, as there is little cover in the higher reaches of the mountains.  Summer afternoon storms are normal for the Sierra Nevada, but clouds in the morning indicate something more serious on its way. Summer temperatures can feel quite hot in the mountains due to the high altitude and clear air, but they generally drop to a comfortable level at night.  Winter weather can be dangerously cold if caught without proper clothing, but as the thousands of Sierra skiers can attest, it’s wonderful when it’s clear.

Streams are generally cold to freezing cold, particularly in the spring, as they’re fed from snowmelt.  They can be extremely dangerous, not only for the temperature, but because of surprisingly strong, swirling undercurrents and the slickness of wet granite rocks and stones.  Note, though, that most of the rivers in the area of the Ponderosa will be smaller, more closely resembling a good-sized creek.  They get much bigger as they pass through the mountains and down to the plains.
 

LAKE TAHOE AND SURROUNDS

A quick note on the famous map – it’s not oriented with North at the top, but with the East on the top.  It also is geographically inaccurate, but gives a sense of the sweeping distances of the Ponderosa Ranch.

Lake Tahoe is a freshwater lake surrounded by the Sierra Nevada range of mountains.  It is located on the eastern edge of the mountains and is fed by numerous small streams.  It is drained by the Truckee River to Pyramid Lake, about 60 miles to the northeast.  It measures 22 miles north-south and 12 miles east-west, with a total area of 193 square miles.  Its surface is at an altitude of 6,229 feet, and the maximum depth is 1,640 feet.  The intensely blue lake took its name from the Washoe Indian word meaning "big water."  The first white man to visit it was soldier-explorer John C. Frémont, in 1844.

There are two passes over the mountains to California in this immediate area.  One is to the north of Lake Tahoe, which the Donner party took, and is quite close to where I-80 now passes (The Truckee-Donner Trail).  The other is to the south of Lake Tahoe (the Johnson Cutoff for the Carson Trail: Carson City to Sacramento via Junction House and past Hangtown, which is now Placerville), which most people chose to take after the Donner party was almost completely wiped out in 1846.  Stagecoaches and supply wagons generally took the southern route as well.  There were additional passes both north and south.

Marlette and Spooner Lakes are on what we think of as the Ponderosa, south of the ranch house.  Spooner Lake is the smaller and farther away, and is east of the middle of Lake Tahoe.  Neither are natural – Spooner Lake was constructed in 1927 for irrigation storage.  Marlette Lake is north of Spooner Lake and 1500 feet above Lake Tahoe, and a trail along Marlette Peak is 1,000 feet higher. This lake was created over a period of five years in the mid-1870s as part of the system built to bring water to Virginia City via the great Flume.

There are now several trails in the area, including one that runs east from about where the Ponderosa ranch house would be down to the Carson Valley Plain through Ophir Canyon, which comes out behind the Bowers Mansion. It's suitable for hiking and horses, but it's not likely any wagons or buggies ever took that route.

Mt Rose is to the north of Lake Tahoe, and just to the east of the lake the mountains drop sharply to the Carson Valley Plain.  Washoe Lake is about 20 miles to the east of the north tip of Lake Tahoe, and Virginia City is about 20 miles to the east of Washoe Lake.  Reno is about 20 miles north of Washoe Lake, and Carson City, the seat of state government, is about 4 miles south of Washoe Lake, making it about even with the middle of Lake Tahoe.  If the Ponderosa ranch house is toward the north end of Lake Tahoe, then Virginia City and Reno are about 40 miles away, and Carson City is about 24 miles away.

This, of course, is not at all how the geography is set out in the show, and it is up to individual writers to decide how much of reality they choose to use.  (Personally, I tend to include the modern lakes in my vision of the Ponderosa.) The ranch runs along the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe and extends to Washoe Lake.  It stretches from the southern edge of Lake Tahoe up to Mount Rose, and a finger supposedly reaches almost to Reno.  This makes the claim that the Ponderosa covers 1,000 square miles actually a bit underestimated.  Virginia City can supposedly be reached on horseback within an hour or so, when in reality it takes an hour by car.  Oh, well.  In addition, it would be very difficult to have the cattle anywhere near Lake Tahoe – most of it is a very steep slope from the peaks to the shore.  The main herds would just about have to have been down in the Carson Valley unless, as one person put it, the cattle all had two short legs.

It’s not clear how Ben came into possession of all his land, though in the episode “To Own the World,” they show various deeds and grants that prove Cartwright ownership.

Other towns and cities within a few days’ travel of Virginia City during the 1860s (before the railroad) are Placerville (originally Hangtown), Downieville, Nevada City, Stockton, Sacramento, and San Francisco.  Sacramento was the capitol of California and a large metropolitan center by the 1860s.
 

INDIANS

There were three tribes in the area – the Paiute of Pyramid Lake (there were also Paiute of the Walker River), the Bannock Shoshone, and the Washoe.

The PYRAMID LAKE PAIUTE lived off of the nuts of the piñon (pine) trees of Sun Mountain (Mt. Davidson) and fish from Pyramid Lake, near what is now Reno.  There are variants for the spelling of “Paiute”: Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins used “Piute” in her biography of 1883, and histories written at the time use “Pah-Ute”, perhaps to differentiate from the Ute to the northeast.

The WASHOE INDIANS lived in the area around Lake Tahoe.  According to their legends, when the Maker scattered the seeds of humanity, a few were left over.  With all other areas taken, he gave the Washoe the place he had saved for himself – Lake Tahoe – which became the center of their lives for over 400 generations.  The strength of the Tribe is the family unit.  Groups lived at the Lake and in the high mountains in spring and summer, then they moved to the lower mountains in the fall to gather pine nuts.  Winters were spent in the lower valleys where Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Minden and Gardnerville are now located.

The BANNOCK PEOPLE drifted down into the Tahoe region from the northeast where their lands encompassed parts of what is now Montana, Idaho, Yellowstone National Park, northern Utah, Nevada and California.  According to Diana Yupe, a Shoshone Bannock archaeologist, they don’t have a specific culture so much as a “lifeway” that encompasses everything around them.  “Tribal People are responsible to the past, present, and future because they have not divorced themselves from the part of their being that is the natural environment.”

If anyone has more information on the Indians of the area, I’d love to hear from you.
 

THE CARTWRIGHT MEN

In the way of fanfic writers everywhere, the emotions of the Cartwright men are presented in fan fiction with great detail as they are faced with tremendous physical, intellectual, and emotional challenges.  Since this is, after all, why a lot of us are obsessed with reading fanfic as well as writing it, I won’t quibble, but it’s worth remembering that these are men of the mid-nineteenth century: an era of hard-headed practicality even in the pursuit of a dream.  The Transcontinental Railroad is a perfect example.

However much we need to see these emotions expressed verbally and physically, it is likely that men of this time rarely if ever displayed their feelings as openly as we want.  How much a fanfic writer chooses to hold to the events and realities of the time is entirely up to them, though, and varies tremendously from writer to writer and from story to story.  Thank goodness.

Wardrobe for all of the Cartwrights seemed to be somewhat experimental in the first few years, sometimes with rather surprising combinations – most likely to take advantage of the new color television technology.  Memorable is Ben’s long lavender neckerchief, and the time when it seemed he and Adam traded clothes – Ben in a black hat and shirt and Adam in a soft, light gray hat – and one of the first appearances of the dark red shirt (“The Sisters”).  Around the third season, they settled into more consistent outfits.
 

BEN

Benjamin Cartwright is the father of three sons, whom he loves fiercely.  While he is strict with them, enforcing good manners and good work habits, no one else had better mess with his boys.  He is organized and driven to succeed.  He always remembers the human side of every situation, though, and won’t profit at the expense of his neighbors, among whom he counts the Paiutes.  He looks to the future in all things, from the conservation of the trees on his ranch to the political implications of what goes on in the territory.  He is a natural teacher, using every opportunity and circumstance in daily life to help his sons learn, particularly moral and ethical lessons.  He also has a tendency to “adopt” young men and women in need of guidance, treating them as he treats his own sons and helping them find their way in life.  He feels at something of a loss when dealing with little girls, but handles them with love and tenderness and things usually work out just fine.

While Ben has a deep appreciation for literature and music, he sees them more as things to enrich his life as opposed to being essential to his well-being.  He’s traveled widely (thanks to his time at sea) and knows the most astonishing collection of people, who invariably turn up as guest stars in trouble.  He has relatives, though with the exception of his (older?) brother John’s son, Will, I've never seen the shows in which they appear.  I believe there is a Cousin Muley Jones, and a female cousin named Clarissa.  I think Ben called Martha Cartwright Dorcas’s daughter (Samantha) fourth cousins to his boys.  These seem to be Cartwright relatives, not those of his wives.  In one of the sequel movies (which many of us choose to ignore), Ben has another brother named Aaron.  Ben’s best friend seems to be Roy Coffee, at least throughout the “Adam years.”

Ben loves and enjoys women for who they are, intellectually and emotionally, as well as for any physical attraction.  He’s very comfortable and gallant with them as long as they aren’t actively chasing him, as in the case of the Widow Hawkins (“The Burma Rarity”).  Even so, he easily overcame his aversion to her company when it seemed someone was trying to swindle her.

He has a great sense of humor and, more importantly, knows when to laugh at life.  The loss of three wives has given him perspective, and typically the everyday little problems don’t bother him.  He is deeply though not overtly religious (except in the first episode, “A Rose for Lotta”), and feels himself blessed by his three sons and his ranch.

Ben's language is not formal, but it is invariably grammatically correct.  He rarely slurs his words (of which Hoss is continuously guilty), and he doesn't swear, with the memorable exception of "Hellfire and damnation!" (again in “A Rose for Lotta”). He is drawn in the first few episodes as a hard, God-fearing man who gives no quarter to anyone, including his sons; but Lorne Greene softened him quickly to a more sympathetic man who shows his love for his boys easily and comfortably.

He is an average rider, having spent his young adulthood at sea, and rides a buckskin horse called “Buck.”  He shoots accurately but is not a particularly fast draw (though he beats a bad guy to the draw in “Vendetta” – but that episode has so many unbelievable things happen that I tend to ignore it).

Ben is well educated and intelligent, and though he is perhaps not quite as smart as his eldest is, he has seen a lot of the world and is a quick and accurate judge of people and situations.  It’s not clear what his schooling was, but he seems to have taken every opportunity to learn on his own.  He has expressed his views of higher education (Adam's in particular) by stating that “education is a fine thing as long as it doesn't get in the way of a person's thinking!”  Ben is warm-hearted and, once his spread was thoroughly established, open-handed with friends and newcomers alike.  He will give you just about anything, just don’t try to take it.

Ben is approximately 6 feet tall and has luxurious steel-gray hair in the first seasons that whitens to a lovely silver-white.  He has fierce black eyebrows over beautiful dark velvety brown eyes.  His age is never stated, but it's feasible that he was about 21 when he married Elizabeth, considering he was First Mate on the Wanderer, the clipper ship captained by Elizabeth's father, Abel Stoddard.  (I'm not judging by his looks, but rather by his possible years at sea, assuming he started as a cabin boy.)  If so, he would have been born in about 1808, making him about 50-51 in the first year of the show.

In the first several seasons, Ben usually wears a cream-colored shirt (sleeves turned up twice) with a medium-brown (“buckskin” colored) leather vest, brownish pants and brown boots.  This later changes to a darker sort of muddy-gray shirt (darker than Joe’s) and almost olive-colored pants.  When he dresses up, he wears suits with beautiful brocade vests and looks absolutely wonderful in silver-gray.
 

ADAM

Adam is the oldest of Ben’s sons (about 29 at the beginning of the show), and the only one born in the East.  The profic by Calder states that his middle name is “Milton” but most of us reject that rather enthusiastically.  Personally (and I’m trying not to put too much opinion into this document), I think it’s more likely his middle name would be Stoddard, his mother’s maiden name.  There is absolutely no indication in the episodes as to his real middle name, though, nor is his date of birth ever given.  Everybody has birthday parties except Adam.  According to the way everyone in Boston was dressed on the day he was born, it’s likely he was not a summer or winter baby, but there’s no indication of whether it would have been spring or fall, although two fanfic writers I know who are obsessive researchers decided separately that he was born in the spring.

His mother died within hours of his birth and, in his travels across the country, he knew cold and hunger as constant companions.  He rarely complained and never whined, habitually keeping his discomforts to himself, although he did follow his father into a general store in Illinois to tell him he didn’t feel well, thus meeting Inger for the first time. (Some fanfic writers have said that Ben and Adam spent at least one year with Ben’s brother John in Ohio.  Although this makes sense, no one has been able to verify it from a show, though.)

Adam early developed a questioning mind that absorbed learning from any source.  We assume that Ben taught him to read, as it seems they never stopped anywhere long enough that he could have attended school.  Ben patiently answered his son’s every question, always willing to help his child learn from any situation.  This intellectual relationship continued into adulthood, though Adam no longer needs to ask his father for answers to any but the most confounding emotional situations.  Even then, he is likely to proceed methodically, his body language proclaiming that he wants support delivered verbally, not physically.  He will occasionally put an arm rather hesitantly around his father’s shoulders, but the only physical contact he seems truly comfortable with is when the only thing handy to lean on is his brother Hoss’s shoulder.

Adam acted on his love of learning by going east for several years to attend college, although I don't believe the exact number of years was ever stated.  Fanfic writers have used from three to five years, which all seem reasonable, depending upon whether or not he stayed after graduation to continue his studies by apprenticeship – the only way to really learn architecture at the time.  Which college he attended is never stated, though he says in one episode that he studied architecture (“My Brother’s Keeper”).  There was no architecture degree as we understand it at the time – and the term “architect” was not a professional designation, covering what we now consider builders as well as designers.

A lot of fanfic writers say he went to school in Boston, but this is never stated in a show.  I think it comes about because it’s logical – Boston had two of the best universities in the country, Harvard and Yale – and because that’s where he was born.  Also, if Abel Stoddard were still alive (which is also never stated), it would make sense for Adam to attend a university where his grandfather lives.  It is apparent from another episode that he was in New England (“A House Divided”).  Most people assume he attended Harvard, but in fact Harvard had no architecture program at the time.  Yale was much more “radical,” so there is a case to be made that he attended that school instead.

Adam loves music and literature, as well as having a thorough understanding of mathematics and engineering principles (“The Philip Diedesheimer Story”).  He apparently studied voice while in the East as well (“Wooing of Abigail Jones”).  He has a beautiful baritone and will entertain his family and occasionally guests by accompanying himself on the guitar.   The folk song “Early One Morning” is one of his favorites.

His language is an interesting mix of educated and casual, depending upon his audience.  He is very precise and accurate in his word choice and sentence structure when discussing anything technical, but “ain’t” slips quite often into his speech when he is out with just his brothers.  He also has a biting, sarcastic sense of humor which often comes out in devastatingly acerbic comments.  Even when he chooses not to say anything, his body language can convey his thoughts quite clearly (“Bank Run”).

Adam designed and built the big ranch house according to “The Philip Diedesheimer Story”, although many writers have speculated that he would have been too young to be completely responsible and so must have had assistance with the technical details.  Joe told his half-brother Clay (Marie’s oldest son) in “The First Born” that Ben built the house with his bare hands, and "I was born in that little room upstairs."  This would have made Adam, at most, eleven years old when it was built.  (More than a few have speculated that the age of the designer might account for the rather confusing arrangement of the upstairs bedrooms.)

The oldest of the Cartwright sons loves and protects his brothers against all outsiders, though he’s not at all above taking either of them down a peg or two himself.  He doesn’t even back down to Hoss, who is taller and outweighs him by probably a hundred pounds.  This is demonstrated both at the end of The Hayburner, when Hoss runs from his anger, and toward the end of She Walks In Beauty, when Adam allows his brother to beat the crap out of him when he could have walked away instead.  There are only two instances where I’ve seen Adam lift a hand to his brothers, and even then, it is an open hand, not a fist (“A Rose for Lotta”, “A House Divided”).  He also routinely champions the underdog, and sees and cultivates potential in people even when they prove themselves unworthy.  (He tells Tom Wilson in “Thanks for Everything, Friend” that Tom wanted to be friends with Adam for what Tom could get out of it, and Adam wanted to be friends with Tom for what Adam could do for him.)

Adam willingly attends church with his family, but otherwise doesn’t demonstrate any particular interest in religion.  It's likely that he has a very solid grounding in the subject from his years in college as well as discussions with his father, and probably prefers to present his position intellectually rather than from personal conviction.  That he takes comfort from religion, though, is evidenced by his interest in his father’s readings from the Bible in the episode "The Avenger," when he and Ben are in jail about to be hanged for murder.

He is very attractive to women.  He is well aware of women’s reaction to him but, like his father, he looks for substance.  Generally, the younger and less experienced women steer clear of him, preferring Joe, whose fun-loving approach to life and sexuality is less intimidating to them.  Surprisingly for someone who openly declares that a man should think things through thoroughly before acting, when Adam falls in love he falls hard and fast, often deciding in a matter of days that he wants to marry the woman (“The Savage”).

He is an excellent rider, having worked from horseback from about the age of eight or nine, and he boasted once (“The Hayburner”) to his brothers that he was the best judge of horseflesh in the territory (and they agreed).  He rides a sorrel (some call chestnut) that has a white blaze down its forehead and three white socks.  The horse is known in fanfic as Sport, but that seems to be because that is the name of the horse Pernell Roberts rode, not because anyone actually heard it used in an episode.  Adam tends to refer to his horse as “boy.”  Occasionally a fanfic writer will call his horse Beauty, which is the name of the first horse used in the series.

Both horses are very spirited, continually throwing their heads.  This could be a manifestation of their inborn spirit – that Adam chooses horses with the competitive desire to always be in the lead, as a horsewoman explained to me.  It might also have to do with the rider, though, as Sport was a bit calmer in one show when Joe rode him (“The Crucible”).  (A side note: the horse they gave Pernell Roberts in the movie “Ride Lonesome” acted just the same as Sport.  Horses react to the personality of their riders – I'm not quite sure what that says about Pernell.)

Sport is certainly attuned to Adam’s moods – the end of “A House Divided” illustrates this beautifully.  When Adam is tearing himself away from his family to move back east and practically leaps into the saddle, Sport takes off as if rocketed out of a chute.  As they ride along the Tahoe rim the next morning, though, Sport is just plodding along, head relaxed and bobbing a bit as Adam contemplates the home he believes he’s left for good.  Then, after Joe rides up and the relationship between the brothers is mended, Sport perks up again and practically bounces after Cochise. (Sport is beginning to generate his own collection of fanfic, and since they are generally written by people who have ridden a lot or know horses quite well, they are often well worth reading for their insights into horse behavior.)

Although the Cartwrights tend to defer to Hoss when tracking is needed, Adam is the one who leads the hunt for mountain lions (“The Last Trophy”), and he and Joe hunt down the rogue wolf in “My Brother’s Keeper,” indicating that they all have a certain amount of skill.

Adam also has a hand in the cattle breeding operation and won first prize with his bull at least once.  He’s a fast and accurate shot, though he doesn’t fire in anger or from impulse – the first episode, “A Rose for Lotta,” establishes his quick draw credentials when he outdraws a professional gunman.  Adam maintains rigid control over his feelings, preferring to allow his intellect to guide him, but if any of his family is in danger he can be absolutely ruthless in his efforts to save them.  Anger, controlled by intellect and fueled by endless determination, has proved the downfall of enough opponents that the people who know him tend to try to stay on his good side.

In stark contrast, he relates extremely well to children.  He takes them seriously and they respond by either loving him without reservation (little girls – “Blessed Are They”) or making him an object of hero-worship (little boys – “The Jacknife”).  Many fanfic writers have speculated that this is because of his experience in helping to raise his two brothers, particularly Joe.  It’s quite an “AWWW” moment to watch Adam willingly tying bows in a little girl’s hair or trying to dress her doll (“Blessed Are They”).

He has very close emotional ties with his father, though he doesn’t show it often, rarely even putting an arm around Ben’s shoulders.  One fan speculated that Ben is the only person who can see straight into Adam’s heart, which makes Adam very uncomfortable.  Adam never hesitates, however, to stand up to him.  A classic example is at the beginning of “The Savage” when he and Ben argue about the importance of windmills and an education.  Joe referred to that argument as “Bunker Hill, Concord and Yorktown, all rolled up into one” and wisely stayed outside until it was over.

Thomas Thompson, in his book “One Man With Courage” which took place after Adam left the Ponderosa, said that “Adam, the eternal scholar, was in Europe studying advanced architecture and design.”  I kind of like that, although the episode “Home From the Sea” states that Adam has become a sailor.  I, like another writer I know, find it difficult to believe that he would have been a deckhand – more likely a supercargo.  In the episode “The Unwritten Commandment,” Joe tells Andy that they’ve had a letter from Adam saying that he’s in Paris and will be spending the winter and spring there.  Take your pick.

Adam is approximately 6’2” and weighs around 200 pounds, most of it in his chest and shoulders. His eyes are hazel (of the brown variety) with flecks of gold and green, but often appear almost black when he is angry or in the shadows.  He has a heavy beard, which he has to shave for a second time before going out for the evening.  He also has the deep chest of the professional singer, which could account for some of the lovely resonance of his voice.

While not a dandy, he appreciates good-looking clothes, and wears things that set off his dark good looks.  In the early shows he has a variety of outfits, but later tends to darker work clothes (deep red shirt and black vest, changing eventually to all black).  His sleeves are almost always turned up a couple times above his wrists, and he will occasionally roll them up above his elbows, showing quite a set of biceps.  (There are women who are in love with his forearms and hands.)  He rolls them back down again and fastens them when he puts on a coat.  For all but about the last year and a half, when he tends to wear a boxy yellow coat all the time, he also turns up in a black leather vest.  Adam is stunning when dressed up in a white shirt with black string tie, black jacket, pinstriped black pants and black hat, which emphasize his dark eyes and flashing smile.  There are several instances, though, where it seems his father has simply brought him a suit jacket before they attend a function (“A Passion for Justice”) as he appears to be wearing his black work clothes under it.
 

HOSS

The middle of the Cartwright sons is the largest and the gentlest.  He was born on Ben's trip west, probably somewhere in the western third of Nebraska but before Ash Hollow (northwest of Ogallala), where his mother died.  He was named Eric after Inger’s father, but young Adam reminded his parents that Inger’s brother, Gunnar, had hoped they would call their first boy ‘Hoss’ after him.  (‘Hoss’ means ‘a big, friendly man,’ which is what Gunnar’s mountain friends called him.)  Adam isn’t remembering the conversation quite correctly – Gunnar said he hoped the boy’s friends would call him Hoss, but Ben looked at Inger, then at Adam, and said they’d try both and see which stuck.  One look at young Adam’s eyes probably told him that the baby would be called as Gunnar had wished!  Ben will occasionally call his middle son “Eric” when he wants the truth out of Hoss for some infraction – it’s that parents’ long slow stretch of the name that makes his son gulp, stand up straight and immediately come out with the truth.

About 23 in the start of the show, Hoss seems in many ways older than his years.  He is wise in his insights into human nature, although he is the one most easily hurt by others.  Since he is always willing to believe the best about anyone, he is the one most taken advantage of by others.  He seems to accept this as a natural part of living, and refuses to change his outlook simply because he’s been wrong – he never grows cynical.  He has a very playful side, which comes out most often when he’s with Joe.  He is easily talked into all sorts of hare-brained schemes by his younger brother and usually comes to regret it later.  This never stops him, though, from getting involved in the next one.

He has little interest in “learning” as defined by his older brother, although he has tremendous respect for Adam’s knowledge and takes advantage of it as needed.  (He states in “The Scapegoat” that Adam taught him to dance.)  He sometimes gives the initial impression of being big and stupid, but he isn’t by any means.  His knowledge is of a different sort than Adam’s, and all of the Cartwrights respect him for it.  One of the fascinating things about Hoss is his interest in science and inventions, as one writer put it: quite unique in a man who seemingly has little interest in standard education.  He attempts to fly (“Ponderosa Birdman”), helps young Albert Michelson with his experiments on the speed of light (“Look to the Stars”), and among other adventures, helps a young inventor with a steam-driven car and buys a rifle that shoots around corners.

He is content with his place in life, and is never happier than when out with nature’s creatures.  He seems to be the best tracker of the four Cartwrights (“The Hopefuls”, “Showdown”), though the others are certainly capable.  Hoss is by far the best of the family with animals, whether they are domesticated or wild.  He understands them, and they trust him even when hurt and afraid.  He treats people who are wounded in body or spirit the same way, and they tend to trust him easily as well.

Stories are appearing in which Hoss is afraid of water, or at the least, hesitant to go into the lake to swim.  I haven’t found an episode that states this, although I’ve heard that swimming skills were not as prevalent in that era as now.  One would think that Ben, as an ex-sailor, would teach his sons to swim, but even that isn’t necessarily true.  My grandfather, who sailed on his uncle’s merchant ship as a young man, said that many of his countrymen never learned to swim – “the seas that could toss a Newfoundlander from his dory, you couldn’t live in anyway.”  So the jury’s out on this one, and I’d appreciate any info anyone has.

Hoss has a deep and natural religion.  While all of the Cartwrights attend church, Hoss seems to find his greatest connection with God when outside or with animals.  He has a special place – a meadow – where he goes when things are overwhelming (“The Newcomers”).  He also told his father, when he was injured in “Peace Officer,” that he saw his mother in a dream, and she told him a story about the Vikings.  It’s obvious from Ben’s reaction that they believe Hoss saw Inger.

He is close to both of his brothers, but the relationships manifest themselves in very different ways.  Joe is the brother he “plays” with and has fun with, and he protects his little brother fiercely from anyone who would hurt him physically or emotionally.  Joe is sometimes quite frustrated by this, yet he also realizes it is simply a manifestation of Hoss’s deep love for him, and so he usually accepts Hoss’s help much more easily than that of Ben or certainly Adam.  Hoss is quite often called to be the peacemaker between his two more volatile siblings, trying to calm them and explain their points of view to each other.  Often, “for Hoss’s sake,” they’ll give up their arguments with each other.

While Hoss is Joe’s best friend and partner in crime, his relationship with Adam is quite different.  He is the family member to whom Adam seems most emotionally attuned.  (Watch their body language when they are all standing near each other.  Adam will usually be turned away or blocking himself in some manner from Joe and Ben, but if Hoss is nearby, his body will be open to him.)  It is Hoss who is finally able to comfort his older brother when Adam is forced to kill his best friend (“The Dark Gate”).

Hoss has a comfortable, accepting, loving relationship with his father. While his two brothers will often hold back from Ben as they try to work things out for themselves, Hoss has no hesitation in asking Ben for help or advice on any subject at any time.  He knows his father may not have an answer but will be able to tell him something that will help him figure out the answers for himself.

He is also the Cartwright son who seems to get elected to explain things to their father.  It’s quite entertaining to watch the boys pass the buck to each other.  When Joe gets tangled up in his explanation, and the normally articulate Adam is unable to put his feelings into words, it’s Hoss who explains simply, clearly and beautifully what is in their hearts (“The Gift”).

Hoss is not a saint, however.  He looks out for his own best interests, when doing so will not actually hurt anyone.  In “The Hayburner,” he is supposedly backing his and Adam’s horse but puts a bet on Joe winning.  He had no hesitation (or shyness) when Delores (“Ponderosa Matador”) decided he was the biggest, strongest and bravest of the three sons and went off with her without even a glance at his poor bedraggled brothers.  (Of course, he was pretty bedraggled, too!)

He has the most casual language of any of the Cartwrights, and it is peppered with colorful descriptive phrases (no, he doesn’t swear – the closest he gets is “dadburnit”), such as “ornerier than a bull stuck in a mud-hole.”  He has a great sense of humor and loves to laugh, and though he’s almost never the originator of any practical jokes, he probably laughs the loudest when they happen, even to him.

Hoss rides well, probably a bit better than his father, though not with the grace of either of his brothers.  His horse is a black part-Morgan with white socks.  Hoss calls him Chubb (he was originally called Chubby, but it was later shortened to Chubb).  As befits a man of Hoss’s size, his horse is big-boned and strong.  Hoss shoots well and, like all the Cartwrights, is extremely accurate.  Again, though, he doesn’t have the speed of his two brothers.

He is shy with women, seeming much more comfortable with girls who are quiet and sweet.  The one main exception was the very beautiful Regan (or “Reagan”?) Miller, who could have had any man in San Francisco but chose Hoss, at least for a while, because he wanted them to grow old together.  He loved her for her own sake, not because of her beauty, and she found that devastatingly attractive – although in the end it wasn’t enough for her, and she returned to the city.

His appetite is legendary, although he doesn’t like cheese (“The Rescue”), and his brothers just can’t believe he can tell what their cook, Hop Sing, is fixing for dinner when they are five miles away.  Hoss is always right, though, and Joe has lost a nice little bit of money betting against his brother’s nose.

At 6’4” and close to 300 pounds, Hoss is a physical force to be reckoned with.  He is not a handsome man and knows it; he is shy and even a bit bashful with ladies, but children invariably like him and trust him easily.  He has blue eyes the color of a pale summer sky and wispy light brown hair that always looks like it needs to be combed.   He wears a white Sugarloaf hat (called a “popped” Sugarloaf these days because it isn’t shaped) that has a very tall crown, a white shirt, loose brown vest and brown pants, and always looks rumpled.  When Hoss dresses up it usually consists of putting on a clean shirt, a black string tie and a rather rumpled looking light brown jacket.

Although Dan Blocker died towards the end of the show and so Hoss was written out of the series as also having died, many fans and fanfic writers choose to ignore this, and Hoss lives to a ripe old age in their hearts and stories, if not in the actual show.
 

JOE

Joseph Francis Cartwright (“Little Joe”) is the youngest and liveliest of the family.  A bit wild and erratic during the “Adam years,” he later settles down into a mature and thoughtful man.  He was born on the Ponderosa and had his mother longer than either Hoss or Adam – Joe states that she was killed when he was “just a little kid, not even five years old” and “I was born in that little room upstairs (“The First Born”).  He was named Joseph after Ben’s father.

The episode “The Storm” states that Joe spent a significant amount of time in New Orleans as a child, but no other episode verifies or provides support for this.  The producers of the show “The Ponderosa,” however, seem to have latched onto this one episode as an authority and have the family living there for something like eight years.  Why they could pick up on that little fact and run with it yet completely ignore the “My Love” episodes is beyond understanding.

Supposedly Ben fell into a deep depression on the death of Joe’s mother, though there is disagreement among fanfic writers as to how long it lasted – anywhere from a week to months.  (I’ve never seen an episode where this was explained, so I don’t know the source, although it is briefly alluded to in Thomas Thompson’s 1966 profic, “One Man With Courage.”)  Adam supposedly took over the duties of the ranch and fathering his two brothers during this time, which, along with the 12-year age difference, would lead naturally to his treatment of Joe as more of a child than a sibling who is growing into a man.  Joe resents this treatment, and it is often a source of discord between them.

On the other hand, Joe admires his oldest brother tremendously and works hard to please him.  A word of praise from Adam will light up his face with pleasure.  He doesn’t see any reason to do everything the way Adam wants, though, and will stubbornly stick to his own way of doing things if he thinks it will work as well.  He will also sometimes do things in a way that he knows will irritate or bother Adam, and it appears he does it either just for the heck of it or to shake his brother up a bit.

Joe is adorably handsome and knows it, though his ego is healthy rather than arrogant.  He will use his natural charm to get what he wants if he thinks it will work.  His attitude seems to be that it makes everything smoother and everybody happier, so why not?  He is perfectly capable of very sound logical reasoning, though he will also always take into account the human factor, just like his father.  He is much more likely than his oldest brother to use his intuition and creativity to solve a problem; and although Adam is pleased when Joe comes up with a viable solution, regardless of method, Adam also seems to have a slightly puzzled expression when it happens.  Joe appears to be delighted whenever he confounds his oldest brother.

He loves his big brother Hoss with a pure devotion completely untainted by the competitiveness or resistance to authority that colors his feelings for Adam.  Although Joe loves all of his family without reserve, Hoss is his best friend.  He also adores his father and usually confides in him when he's troubled; though sometimes he tries to work his problems out on his own, often only making the situation worse.  He will eventually go to his father, or very occasionally, one of his brothers for help.

His relationship with Adam has been turned by some fanfic writers into a non-ending and often vicious battle.  This is not supported by the shows.  Yes, they have their arguments (“House Divided”), but there are many more examples of them supporting each other with Joe looking to Adam for cues on how to deal with various situations.  Adam deflects attention from Joe to himself when he feels Joe has been threatened (“Lila Conrad Story”), listens to his fears and confusion, offering solid advice even though Joe has woken him up in the middle of the night (“The Hanging Posse”), and in one of the most poignant shows of brotherly love, tells his father that, since he and Joe can’t get along because of their differing views on the Civil War, he will leave the Ponderosa because “Joe needs you more than I do” (“House Divided”).  It should be noted by those who always have Adam chasing after a Joe who has run away, that in this episode it is Joe who rides after Adam and convinces him that the two of them can get along – and gets Adam to return home.  Conflict is the heart of a good story, though, so I don’t expect to see this particular storyline disappear, and have indulged in variations of it myself.  Just bear in mind that it has been taken to the extreme by some.

Joe is the most physically affectionate of the boys, though he adjusts his approach to the member of his family he’s dealing with.  Pa gets a hug and Hoss gets a nudge, push, or arm around the shoulder.  He rarely puts an arm around Adam’s shoulders, but when Adam is injured, ill, or desperately distressed, Joe reaches to him with a touch that is light, tender, and speaks volumes of his love (the end of “The Crucible,” as well as the end of “The Savage”).  Joe is also very reactive to touch.  His natural restlessness is easily tamed by an action as simple as his father’s hand on his shoulder.

Joe is, like his oldest brother, devastatingly attractive to women, but unlike Adam, young, inexperienced women fall for him as well as the older and more knowledgeable.   Joe loves women, all women, with a purity untainted by selfishness.  He’s as likely to flirt and make up to the elderly wife of an old family friend as with a pretty new face on the street and seems to be as pleased at making the one blush as the other.  He’s universally known as kind, gentle and fun with women, and never has trouble finding a girl to take to the church picnic.  His heart, when he gives it, is given wholly and completely.  Unlike his brothers, whose women choose for whatever reason to leave them, Joe’s girls all seem to die, which devastates him.

He is the only Cartwright son to have married, to a woman named Alice.  In a beautiful and heart-wrenching episode, he meets her, marries her, she gets pregnant, and then is killed when outlaws attack Joe’s home and burn it down.  The scene at the burned-out house where Ben tries to comfort Joe is one of the most heartbreaking of the entire series.  This show was originally written by Michael Landon for Hoss, but when Dan Blocker died, it was rewritten for Joe.

Joe is the prankster, the life of the Cartwright household, and seems to attract trouble in spite of his best efforts (the broken windows in “The Flapjack Contest”, “Bank Run,” and many, many more).  In the “Adam years” of the show, he is still under the guidance of his father, as evidenced by Ben’s frequently heard, “Joseph, get your feet off the table.”  Somehow, Ben never says anything of the sort to Adam or Hoss, though Adam certainly deserves it at times.  When Adam spits a matchstick on the floor of the living room after Joe gets a plum job breaking horses (he decides he might even save some of the money), Adam’s behavior rates only a glare from his father and a comment from Ben to Joe that he’s glad Joe is picking up “some” of his brother’s better habits (“The Hayburner”).

None of the Cartwrights take offense easily, but Joe is quicker to react than any of the others, particularly if he's already upset about something.  Part of that is his youth, but part is also his nature.  He quickly forgives, however, and genuinely forgets.  One of his most endearing and admirable traits is his ability to admit honestly and fully when he’s wrong about something, and then how he will do whatever it takes to fix the situation.

Fanfic has Joe hating visits from the doctor and generally refusing to accept how ill or injured he is, but I've never actually seen it in any episodes.  As one writer put it, though, his restless nature makes this a natural assumption.  Like all of the Cartwrights, children love Little Joe, easily sensing his kindred spirit.

Joe is afraid of heights, which is explained in the wonderful episode “Between Heaven and Earth,” and also mentioned in “The Dream Riders.”  His fear of the dark seems to be a fanfic creation, as no one I asked could remember an episode where it’s discussed.  On the other hand, in “The Stillness Within,” Joe tells Jamie that "I wasn't. I kind of liked it, something kind of quiet and warm about it." He goes on to say that Ben has told him that Hoss was scared of the dark and had to have a candle burning at night before he could go to sleep.  Many fans believe, though, that Hoss outgrew this very natural fear as he certainly seems to be comfortable in the wild as an adult, day or night.

Many fanfic writers have said that Joe had terrible nightmares after his mother died, and that Adam was the one who came to his room to comfort him.  General consensus seems to be that this came from the episode “Quality of Mercy,” where Joe has a nightmare and Adam is the one who comes to make sure he’s okay.  Also, if Ben was sunk in depression to the degree that even the scriptwriter Thomas Thompson believed (and wrote into his profic), then this follows logically.

Joe’s language is casual, though not as casual as Hoss’s.  He tends to drop the “g” from “-ing” words, but doesn’t use the colorful phrases of his next-older brother.  He’s more likely than Adam to say “ain’t”.  His sentences tend to be shorter than Adam’s and are generally close to grammatically correct, though he can certainly speak beautifully and eloquently if motivated.  There are times when his emotional appeals carry much more weight with an audience than the logic of his oldest brother.

Profic books (by Calder) state that Joe’s area of expertise on the ranch is with the horses.  Although Adam also busts broncs, Joe seems to do more of it than his brother.  Fanfic has him responsible for breaking and training horses for the Army, but I’ve not seen that in an episode myself, so can’t say the origin of the concept (unless it’s Calder, an unreliable source).  He certainly has an exceptional relationship with his pinto, Cochise.  He talks to his horse, lets him drink coffee out of his cup on the trail, and generally cares more about the animal’s welfare than his own.  Due to the use of various horses of both genders throughout the run of the series, no one seems to be sure if Cochise is a mare or a gelding.  A side note:  One of the later Cochises tossed his head around just like Sport, until he and Michael Landon met “head to head” one time.  Michael insisted they put a martingale on him.

Joe is about 5’10” and weighed about 135 pounds in the first season – quite slim, with the build of a teenager – but he built up to almost 150 by the time Adam left, filling out quite a bit in the chest and shoulders.  His eyes are actually of the green variety of hazel, but the clothes he wears often make them appear a stunning green.  His hair is curly brown, and turned gray when he was in his 30s.  When young, he did his best to tame it with lotions and such, but as he got older he just let it get longer and be curly.   Joe is lean but very strong, and more than one barroom brawler has discovered that being the smallest Cartwright doesn’t have anything to do with the power of his left hook. He’s left-handed – the only one in the family – and so his gun rests on his left hip.  He is a very fast draw, likely faster than Adam once he matures, and is deadly accurate.  He is as athletic as a gymnast and almost always vaults into his saddle.  One way you can tell if he’s sick or depressed is if he actually uses the stirrups.

He must have a closet full of green waist-length jackets, because he starts wearing them a few years into the series and never stops.  They seem to magically heal themselves of rips, tears, stains, and bullet holes, turning up in the next episode fresh and new.  The jackets have a fastener known as a “pull-through” which has leather thongs attached to the button.  This supposedly makes it easier to pull the button through the buttonhole, but I gather that actually getting them to work isn’t always easy.  (Ben’s vests sometimes have this kind of fastener as well.) In later years he wears black gloves a good part of the time – Joe may be protecting his hands from the hard ranch work, but Michael Landon added them because he thought they looked cool.  (He's right.)   Joe also wears the tightest pants of all the Cartwrights.  They're gray, and so leave very, very little to the imagination.  Joe's shirts tend to be neutral in color – sort of an earthy gray, and his hat is sandstone colored and short crowned.  The green jacket brings out the beauty of his eyes.    When he dresses up he usually wears a short jacket that shows off his backside quite well.
 

THE WIVES

ELIZABETH

The story of Ben’s first marriage is told in the episode “Elizabeth, My Love.”  Adam has fallen ill with a high fever (“It’s out of my hands,” says the doctor), and Ben sits at his bedside all night, his memories keeping him company.

Elizabeth Stoddard apparently knew Ben for quite some time before they were married.  Ben was her father's First Mate on a sailing ship called The Wanderer. Ben called her "Liz".  She had a wonderful sense of humor and seemed to view all strangers as potential friends, unlike her son who is much more reserved, probably from the life he’s led.

Elizabeth had dark hair and dark eyes, and was the shortest of Ben’s three wives at just over 5’2”.  She loved the arts and literature.  Her favorite story was Milton's "Paradise Lost," particularly the last paragraph.  She decided they should name their son Adam because of the book.  Fortunately Ben thought it was a good idea, because he knew how stubborn his wife could be.

She was weak when she went into labor, having been bedridden after a fall, and died almost immediately after giving birth to Adam, living just long enough to see him.  She had her music box open at her side while Ben read the last section of Paradise Lost out loud to her, and when she died, her hand closed the box, stilling the music. [The music box sits on the nightstand next to Adam's bed.  When the episode about Elizabeth returns to “modern day” and Adam wakes up, he discovers his father holding it, lost in thought.]

Elizabeth wanted Ben to follow his dream to travel to the West (though how they knew of it when it had barely been discovered at that point is something we won't discuss), and Elizabeth's father, Captain Abel Stoddard (and Ben's former captain) encouraged him.  (The Calder stories depart radically from this episode, inventing a strong antipathy between Ben and Abel – I can only believe, like the producers of The Ponderosa, that he never bothered to watch these pivotal shows.)  So while Adam was still just a baby, Ben set out in a buggy for the West, complete with driver and nurse.  We don't really know what happened to the driver, the buggy or the nurse.
 

INGER

Inger’s story is told in two episodes, “Inger, My Love” about their courtship, and “Journey Remembered” when Hoss is born and Inger dies.

The next time we see Ben and his son, Adam is about 5 years old and not feeling well.  Ben is driving a small wagon that bears a resemblance to that used by medicine shows (most people moving west did not use Conestogas – they’re too heavy), and it's obvious they've fallen on hard times.  They've made it as far as Illinois – the Sangamon Valley, to be precise – though again, the writers don't explain why it took so long to get such a relatively small distance.  The implication is that Ben has to keep stopping to work to buy supplies. It’s possible that they spent some time in Ohio with Ben’s older brother, John, though I don’t know if that was mentioned in an episode or is a fanfic invention.

Adam is a darling little boy: polite, of medium build for a boy that age, with beautiful big, dark eyes.

Ben meets Inger Borgstrom at the general store she runs with her brother Gunnar.  She has instant sympathy for Adam, who has followed his father in the hopes Pa will be able to make him feel better.  Adam falls for her big time - which is not surprising because she is pretty and very, very caring.  Inger is not as beautiful as Ben's other two wives (Marie is absolutely stunning), and calls herself “a big peasant woman,” but only major tragedies ever keep her from smiling and finding the best in life.  [Of the three women, I like Inger the best - I wish I could be more like her, always finding the good in everything.]

Gunnar wants to travel west to find gold, along with some not-so-wonderful companions, who call him "Hoss" because that's a mountain term for a "big friendly man."  (He turns up in “The Last Viking” as a Comanchero, but redeems himself in the end. Hoss is thrilled to finally meet his Uncle Gunnar, and Adam's grin the first time he sees him is absolutely delighted – he instantly loses all of his natural reserve, and you can see the love of a little boy shining from his eyes.)

Inger falls for Ben almost immediately, but Ben is still grieving for Elizabeth.  Ben finally gives in to his feelings and they get engaged, though Gunnar wants Inger to marry another man in town who would then finance Gunnar's trip west to find gold.  The other man beats Gunnar and blames Ben in an effort to get Inger.  Adam is at Inger's when a policeman comes looking for Ben and asks her if his father is a bad man.

Gunnar wakes up, though, and sets the record straight.  He sees how things are with his sister and finally reconciles to their marriage.  He tells them that when they have a son, he hopes the boy’s friends will call him "Hoss," which means “a big friendly man,” and is what Gunnar’s friends call him.  Adam agrees.

Ben remembers this much in the first show about Inger, while waiting for Hoss and Adam to return from a trip on Hoss’s birthday.  When they arrive, Hoss has his arm in a sling – explaining why they're late.  [In real life, I've heard that the sling was real, from when Pernell's horse went down in a chase scene, giving him a mild concussion and a sprained neck, and Dan's horse plowed into Pernell's and they went down, too, giving Dan a broken collarbone.]

In the next ep where we see Inger (“Journey Remembered”), the three Cartwrights are headed west through Nebraska in September.  [Why on earth they're only as far as Nebraska in September no one has ever explained – they'll never make it to Oregon or California leaving that late.  Conventional wisdom of the time said that wagon trains needed to be to Independence Rock (in central Wyoming) by the Fourth of July.  Of course, if this is really 1835, they probably didn’t know that yet.]

We find out that Inger is pregnant (though she doesn't look it) and that Ben didn't know.  Another anomaly – she has the baby shortly after, and how he didn't notice his wife was at least seven months pregnant with a baby the size of Hoss - well, some men are blind, but REALLY!

Ben is out with the wagon train’s guide trying to keep him from killing some Indians (he's only partially successful) when Hoss is born.  Inger wants to call the baby Eric after her father, but Adam is insistent – they promised Uncle Gunnar they'd call the baby "Hoss."

The little wagon train finally makes it to the Ash Hollow way station (most of the way across Nebraska), where they are attacked by the Indians Ben and the guide ran into earlier.  Inger is tucked into a corner of the small building with Adam and Hoss for the first attack, but when the guide is injured, she hands Hoss to Adam to take care of and takes up a rifle to help.  She shoots (can't remember if she hit anyone), but as she turns away from the window she's struck in the back by an arrow and dies moments later in Ben's arms.  Adam sits in his corner holding Hoss protectively, having seen the whole thing.  [Lorne Greene does a marvelous job with the death scene - I was just sobbing.]  They bury Inger at Ash Hollow and continue west. There’s a beautiful moment when the guide makes his offer to go out and give himself up to the Indians to save the rest of them.  Ben is torn, but then he looks at Adam.  This 6-year-old boy gives his father a very speaking look that seems to say, “Yes, let him go.  The baby’s life is at stake.”

Inger is the tallest of Ben’s wives at about 5’7” or so, and has blonde hair and blue eyes.  She was played by Inga Swenson, which may account for why some fanfic authors write her as “Inga” instead of “Inger.”

This episode comes about because Ben and Hoss are waiting for a mare to foal in their barn, and Ben finds his old journal and reads it to Hoss while they wait.  He says Hoss is just like his mother – Inger once kept the entire wagon train waiting while she helped a mare foal.
 

MARIE:

Marie is introduced in the episode “Marie, My Love.”   A side note, all four of the “wife” episodes were written or co-written by the same man, Anthony Lawrence.

Ben meets Marie (not Maria) D'Marigny (maiden name something like D'Olivier) in New Orleans in approximately 1841, if you work the dates backwards.  Her husband, Jean D'Marigny, had been Ben's foreman on the Ponderosa.  Jean and Marie separated – one month (I think) after their marriage, Jean found another man with his wife in their bedroom and assumed the worst.  It was a setup by Jean's mother who didn't approve of Marie, but Jean didn't stick around to find out.

Marie was pregnant with Jean's child, but the boy was taken from her by Jean's mother at birth.  Marie was told the boy died of some disease, though we find out later that he didn't – he turns up on the Ponderosa and becomes friends with Joe (“The First Born”).  His name is Clay Stafford, which is probably an alias, since his last name should be D’Marigny.

Marie is, as I said, a stunningly beautiful woman, with golden blonde hair and sparkling green eyes.  She's not the tallest or shortest of Ben’s wives – the actress, Felicia Farr, is reported to be about 5’5” or so.  She is quite petite in form.

Jean is killed in a stampede, saving Ben's life.  Just before he dies, he begs Ben to go to New Orleans to find his wife and tell her he forgives her.  Ben feels this is a sacred obligation and so he goes.  He falls in love with Marie, straightens out the blot on her honor, and takes her back to the Ponderosa with him.

At this point, it isn't clear to me how Adam received his new stepmother.  In one episode Ben says something to Adam about him having given her a hard time (and Adam ducks his head and agrees), but I think the rest of what may be written in fanfic is speculation, but certainly makes sense.  It would be a rare child who would immediately give his heart to a stranger after seeing the first mother he remembers killed right in front of him.

There's also some confusing information from one show about Joe having lived in New Orleans at one point in his childhood.  The girl in the ep "The Storm" was supposedly a playmate of his from that time.  No one that I know of has been able to reconcile that with the rest of the information we have.

Marie died in a fall from her horse, riding full-tilt into the yard of the ranchhouse.  According to Joe, he was four years old.  The ep about Marie comes about because Joe and Cochise take a fall in the very same place in the very same way and Joe is injured.  While waiting for the doctor, Ben remembers how he met Marie.
 

ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS

HOP SING

Hop Sing is a Chinese man of indeterminate age with a tremendous culinary talent, cooking year-round for the Cartwrights, including providing fine meals for visiting dignitaries while also managing to satisfy Hoss’s tremendous appetite.

Thomas Thompson, in the profic novel “One Man With Courage” (which was approved by David Dortort) stated that Hop Sing was a young man when Ben and Marie first came across him – he was being beaten by some local toughs.  Ben chased the other men off and took Hop Sing home with him until he got well, but Hop Sing never left.  He took up the duties of housekeeper and cook, and many fanfic writers have speculated that he also has tremendous talent with herbs and other healing potions and techniques.  (Badly needed on this ranch!)

He speaks stilted English, having trouble, as do many first generation Asians, with the letter “r” and with other confusing elements of grammar.  He is by no means a stupid man, but he’s found his niche and protects it, as well as his Cartwrights, fiercely.  Some fanfic writers have said that he learned English from Adam, and others believe that Joe learned a bit of Chinese from him.  I don’t believe this is shown in any episode, though I could well be wrong.  Both are certainly feasible, considering the ages of the boys when Hop Sing came to live with them.  Adam would have been about twelve or thirteen, and Joe just a baby.

Hop Sing is physically small and has a long braided ponytail (called a queue), but he has a strong, piercing voice, particularly when chasing Hoss out of his kitchen for stealing donuts or berating the Cartwrights for missing or being late for dinner.  He generally wears a blue outfit in a stereotypical Chinese style – sometimes it seems to be made of satin, others of cotton.  There is much about the televised Hop Sing that was stereotypical, but fanfic writers have expanded his role and abilities in ways that only honor the actor (Victor Sen Yung), the man, and his contributions to his family.

The Ponderosa version of Hop Sing is much more integrated into the family, and is not stereotyped.
 

CANDY

Candy served as the foreman of the Ponderosa on and off after Adam left.  His name is a shortened version of his real last name, “Canaday,” but to the best of my knowledge, he never states what his real first name is.  He’s about the same age as Joe, and came to have a place in the hearts of all of the family.

He had a bedroom in the big house, and ate meals with the family.  I think that although he never thought of Ben Cartwright as his father, he considered him a mentor and cared deeply for him. He called him “Mr. Cartwright.”  He was married at one time, and I think he and his wife divorced, but I haven’t seen that ep and so don’t know.

Candy is almost six feet tall and 175 pounds, which makes him long and lean, and has vivid blue eyes and black hair.  He typically wears a deep red shirt with black pants, vest and hat and a long neckerchief knotted at his throat.  He quite often wears his hat on the back of his head, allowing his wayward hair to curl onto his forehead.

I’d appreciate more information on him.
 

JAMIE

Jamie Hunter is an orphan who was adopted by Ben several years after Adam left.  Jamie was traveling with Dusty Rhoads after his real father, a rain-maker, died, and meets the Cartwrights when he tries to bring an end to a drought (“A Matter of Faith”).

Having Hoss as the oldest son, Joe the middle, and Jamie the youngest was an arrangement that seemed off-balance to a great many fans from the Adam years, and as a result of that and the tendency of scriptwriters to make Jamie whine, many Bonanza fans don’t care much for the character.  He can be written more sympathetically, but since having Jamie generally means there’s no Adam, many writers won’t include him in their stories.

Jamie had flaming curly red hair, blue eyes, and was 5’4” when he joined the family at the age of 14.  His horse was named Pepper.
 

GRIFF

Griff turned up in the last season, after Hoss died.  He was in prison and was released into Ben’s custody (“Riot”) after Ben takes an interest in him during an inspection that goes wrong.  Griff knew Candy a long time ago, but I don’t know many details about him.  [ed. note: for more see the Griff King Bio.]

He’s 6’2”, has curly brown hair and blue/gray eyes.  The actor, Tim Matheson, was 24 at the time.
 

THE SHERIFFS

Roy Coffee, sheriff of Virginia City, appeared in the middle of the Adam years and stayed around for quite a long time.  There were other sheriffs, but they tended to be corrupt, get shot and killed (one by Adam, another by Ben), or otherwise end up leaving the show.  Roy is an old friend of the family – Adam states that he’s “known him since I was a kid” (“A Knight to Remember”) which would be about 20 years.

Roy is an older man of Ben’s generation, with gray hair and a thick mustache, and a very casual way of speaking.  He wears striped trousers and a matching striped vest over a gray shirt.  While an easy-going sort of man, he’s nobody’s fool and quite often succeeds in keeping the peace through his wisdom and knowledge of his town.  He was married once, to a woman named Mary, and has no children.  He considers the people of Virginia City to be his family (“No Less a Man”).

At some point (“The Hayburner”) Roy gets a deputy named Clem Foster.  In the later episodes with Candy, Roy disappears and Clem is the sheriff.  Clem is a bit older than Adam, though not by much.  He’s moderately handsome, 6’2”, stocky, strong, and has black hair and blue eyes.

Other sheriffs seem to turn up for the sole purpose of having the Cartwrights discover they’re criminals, murderers, or just plain power hungry (“The Lawmaker”), although a couple just appear for an episode and then disappear with no significant lines or effect.
 

THE DOCTORS

There were several doctors, but the only one I remember at all well is Doc Martin (Paul).  He has his clinic in his house at the edge of town, and examines patients in his living room, letting them lie on a black leather chaise (“The Lawman”).  He’s a little bit younger than Ben, is quite a bit shorter, and also wears a vest, but over a white shirt with sleeve bands to keep the cuffs from falling over his hands.  He is a well-educated man, though also relaxed in his speech patterns when not discussing the condition of a patient. He seems to be an old family friend.

Other folks have mentioned Doctors Hickman and Kay, as well as Dr. Kam Lee (“Day of the Dragon”).

Anyone have more information on the doctors?
 

ONE MORE THING . . . THE HOUSE

That piece of furniture that is right next to the front door where they all put their gunbelts?  An antique dealer who knows Bonanza said it’s called a “sideboard.”  Many thanks!

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Please send any corrections or additional information to me so that I can make this as accurate as possible.  THANKS!  And I hope you enjoyed it and found it helpful.