Show fifty famous FA frontiersmen by ELMO SCOTT WATSON original leather stocking TIIE ID a author has often been askeli ti I 1 in his mina m if r lie le had find any an orl original ginal of leathers lentfer lock ng for the character andl inam id 1 in a ph physical aleal sense different bals known to the writer in early life certainly presented abi themselves as mod recollections but bui in 1 a els through his moral sense this man of the forest fore at Is purely a creation THUS wrote 3 fenimore cooper in the preface to his big immortal leath er stocking tales and that statement stat emeD should pretty vie well I 1 I 1 dispose of vari olis historical characters whose claims to being the original leather stocking stock n have been advanced from time to time one of them Is tim murphy the fa morgan rifleman and scout scoot of the schoharie Scho harle but if you would look upon it a faithful likeness of the roan man who probably was most in coopers mind as he cre abed the character 1 I leather eather stocking stacking in the pioneers tile the first published of the 04 leath leather er stock stocking I 1 ng tales or Deer slayer in the book of that name so go to the town of baroga caroga N Y and bronze statue of gaze upon tile the heroic nicholas stoner which stands looking out over canada lake the son of old henry stoner a pioneer settler of broadalbin Broad albin N Y young nick became a crack shot with the long rifle almost as so soon in as he was wag big enough to carry one at the age ae of fifteen he enlisted in the continental tin army with his father and brother and fought at saratoga aliz kany hany in the rhode island iland I land campaign was at valley forge and shared in tile triumph at yorktown toward the close of the revolution old henry stoner returned home only to be killed and scalped scalded by the indiana and leave to his sons a heritage of nt hatred for the red men after the war nick stoner became the most celebrated hunter and trapper in new york and his fame was spread bj simms in ills his book the trappers of new york at the outbreak of the war of 1812 he marched away to battle again serving for three years most of the time as chief of for general dodge of the new york militia when the war was over he went back to its his hunting and trapping and ills his friendship with cooper during this period adds plausibility to the theory that he was the principal original of coopers famous frontier character although lie he served in many county offices until his death in 1853 the statue which stands fit at caroga baroga Is the best of his place in history as a hunter a trapper an indian fighter rind and so a nearly the personification a any man ever was of the typical frontiersman created by a great american novel novelist leather stocking ng leader of the lost trappers 0 ONE NE of the most romantic stories of the old west Is that of capt ezekiel williams and his lost trappers the story had its beginnings in the lewis and dark clark expedition esp edillon when those t two to o famous explorers upon their return to sc louis brought with them a mandan indian chief named big white the chief was royally entertained in st louis but in a short time he asked to be sent home an escort of 20 men was enlisted for this duty and they mere ere placed in command of capt ezekiel williams on april 25 1807 they set out from st louls louis and proceeded up the missouri until big white was once more among the mandahs Man dans this duty done they could have returned to st louis gut but williams and his big men had another idea and that was to explore the country on the waters of the missouri to trap for beaver and even to penetrate arill cross the rocky mountains so on up into the yellowstone country they went thre there they were set upon by hostile and lost five of their nu number I 1 aber retreating southward they fell in with the crows who killed the flie more of their number an and took all of their horses the party now reduced to ten men hastened on foot toward the headway tors of the south platte where they hoped to find a better pass through the mountains than lewis and dark clark had found that winter and the next spring the remnant of the expedition spent near the sources of t the arkan sas river and here they fell in with hostile Co manches who picked oil off their men one by one until at last a st only three of the original 20 were left these three were captain williams james workman and samuel spencer by this time they had no idea of which direction to take to reach a set clement captain williams was sure they were on the red river but the other two were mere eq equally bally certain that they were not far from santa fe so they decided to se separate pirate willia williams ms contin aed down the river and eventually reached fort cooper on the missouri workman and spencer headed toward the wind aher mountains and in a short time were hopelessly lost in the wilderness after nia many HY weeks of 0 wandering they finally truck struck tile the colorado riv river er and fell in with a 11 mexican caravan which took them to upper california the following spring they went to santa fe where they re bained as traders for the next I 1 years history hils has forgotten them now but they should be remembered I 1 as the it first americans to float upon the waters of tile RIO kio colorado ar and XI the ithe first to cross tile rocky mou mountains attl abos ajos south of lewis and darks clarks pass a 1933 western newspaper union |