Indians would take the trapped animals, steal pelts, and even kill trappers. There are many documented instances of trappers getting into scrapes with the locals. In this trapper’s life, Pilson might have had his first experience with American Indians. A trip from Laramie to Fort Hall, ID, a trip over 500 miles, could be contracted out for around $250 in 1842 and well known tracker William Comstock was paid nearly $125 each month for his services as a scout in 1868, almost 10 times the rate of a private soldier. Given these figures, it would be hard to imagine him earning more money working for the government in a fort, but as a scout he could earn much more. To put that in perspective, an East Coast carpenter would expect to earn not a penny over $550. Working for a fur company, one could receive a guaranteed salary of $200 per year, but in a good season a trapper could make ten times that sum. He would have entered the profession too late to capitalize on the beaver trade, a boom thanks to a European men’s hat trend, which faded in the 1840s, but could still have made an excellent living for himself. On the assumption of his former occupation as a trapper, we can also safely say that Pilson was likely engaged in selling pelts. Custer once described as “congenial employment, most often leading to a terrible death.” However, the profession was not without its hazards, on the contrary, scouts would face death or survival situations almost daily.
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Scouts would be needed by settlers, soldiers, cartographers, railroad companies, and scientists all of whom had an interest in exploring, documenting, and blazing the trails in the new frontier. It would also be of value to parties interested in taming the West. This knowledge would not only be immensely valuable to themselves, but also to their later employers who would depend on them as scouts not only for proper navigation, but also for sustenance and avoiding American Indians.
COMANCHE INDIANS HOW TO
Trappers knew how to survive on the land, what to eat, what not to eat, how to find water, how to track or “ read sign,” how to hunt, how to find paths, and they knew the country. However, this work would have been in addition to his work as a farmer, which is documented in an 1870 census of LaSalle County, Illinois. Many scouts were former trappers or hunters. Why did he move to Nebraska? What pushed him even further west in Wyoming? Why take work as a scout? Like many men of his time was there an even more lucrative profession that awaited him out west? We may not know what spurred his move west, but it would be safe to say that prior to his work at Ft. While that last sentence takes us right up to what we know about Pilson, it leaves out a terrible amount of detail. This resulted in him receiving several offers “to travel on a big salary,” but he refused every last one of them.Įarly in the 1860’s he arrived in western Nebraska, but would later end up in Fort Laramie, Wyoming where he would take up employment as a scout for the U.S.
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He was “a giant in size and in strength,” often performing feats of strength for the delight of onlookers. We are told he received his education in La Salle before moving to Moberly, Missouri “where he attained the age of manhood.” Reminiscent of the tales of young Abraham Lincoln, Pilson could wrestle and defeat any man for miles in any direction. Robert Pilson was born in 1840 in Woolwich, England and came to the United States at age 4, but an obituary from the Chicago Tribune states that he was born in La Salle, IL, however the rumor of his American birth is disproved by later census documents.
COMANCHE INDIANS FULL
What we do know of Pilson is so compelling, one can scarcely imagine what the rest of his life was like if it was as full of daring as our source implies. government and during his era that line of work would have some serious adventure to it. However, even if we know little of Pilson individually, we may make certain assumptions of his life courtesy of his occupation. We are told that he lived a life of “ many deeds of daring in his younger days,” and “ his many eccentricities during the closing years of his life,” but very little more. The story of Robert Pilson is an interesting one that we may never know in its entirety. Scout Robert Pilson Holding a Winchester Model 1866 Rifle Scout Robert Pilson Lot 3095: Historic Indian Wars Period CDV A.G.