The Ronan pioneer., 1917-11-02

made William T. Hamilton an Indian
fighter and frontiersman. Sickness
forced him at the age of 20 to give
up living as a social favorite in st.
Louis and forego career of business
and professional service to rough
it on the western plains and in the
Rocky mountains.
In search of health, after physi-
clans had declared he had only few
years more at the most to live, he
gave up home of wealth an luxury
and all the advantages that money
could buy and in the spring of 1912
set forth on hunting, trapping and
Indian trading trip.
Some of the associates of Bill Will
Jams and Jack Perkins, who COM
manded the party, which consisted of
eight free trappers, protested against
the taking Of SO slender and frail a
youngster as Hamilton believing that
he would get sick on their hands and
that during the journey he would
prove an encumbrance and probably
not survive. But Williams was in
sistent on his going and so when the
party turned it's horses westward
from independence, Mo-, where all
trappers outfitted in the early 40's,
Hamilton went along, clad in his first
suit of buckskin.
He proved to be valuable mem
Der of the party, learning to shoot
and trap as we'll as an old-timer with
in a short time and making friends
readily with the Indians, whose sign
language proved easy for him and
in the talking of which he eventually
came to be recognized as the most
expert among either red or white
men.
Wild Life Gives Him Health
From the time the party started,
Hamilton improved in health and
strength and the frail boy developed
into muscular man and hardy from
tiersman. The youngster, whose
death within short time from i'll
health had been predicted by st.
Louis best doctors, lived for 66 years
and 10 days longer, hardly ever ex-
periencing a sick day, and surviving
hundreds of combats with savage In
dians in which scores of redmen were
killed and many of his companions
met death.
In the declining years of his life,
which were spent near Columbus, in
the Yellowstone valley, most of his
time being devoted to hunting, trap
ping and fishing, "Uncle Billy" as
he was known to all pioneers, used to
delight in telling how he had fooled
those early day doctors in st. Louis,
every one of whom he outlived more
than a half century. Over forty
years before the grim reaper sum-
moned him in the spring of 1908, he
recorded the passing of the last of
the trappers who had protested his
joining the Williams expedition when
it left Independence in March, 1912.
Ostracized by Store Clothes
When Hamilton arrived at Inde-
pendence he was dressed in the very
finest of tailor mades, style and fash
ion showing in his every movement.
AS a result he was the butt of the
jokes of the frontiersmen, who play
ed all manner of pranks on the "ten-
derfoot" and asked Williams if he
expected to feed him to the Injuns.
1t didn't take the lad long to get
next, however, and he rushed over
to the frontier store and swapped
his fine clothes and trimmings for
two suits of good buckskin and was
soon dressed "a la prairie" while the
storekeeper made fully 100 per cent
on the transaction.
"There were many things in my
life that made me happy, but the hap
piest moment ever experienced was
when put on my first buckskin suit
and realized that looked just like
the trappers with whom was to as
sociate," Uncle Billy once declared.
81 was more proud of tnat suit than
anything I ever secured, unless it be
my first scalp and my first buffalo"
Incidents on the western journey
were vividly printed on the mind of
the lad and in latter years, when past
the four score and five mark, he used
to recall them in detail as perfectly
as when they took place.
Hunted With Roman Nose
The journey was through a hostile
Indian country toward the north
west, the first friendly Indians