INTRODUCTION. 9 



existence of the frontier soon came to the party in full vigoi 

 in attacks of savage Sioux Indians, in which a number of 

 the company were killed and others wounded, Doctor Allen 

 being among the latter. Returning to Spearfish to reform 

 their organization, Doctor Allen was made the commander of 

 the train, which he divided into four companies. Their route 

 took them up the Belle Fouche River, past old Fort Reno, 

 through Wyoming, by the site of Buffalo and old Fort Kear- 

 ney, thence up Goose Creek, where, in a spiteful attack by In- 

 dians, one man was killed and others wounded. 



In the locality of the historic last battleground of the 

 gallant General Custer, they remained three days, which they 

 profitably passed in a careful study of the grounds, tracing 

 accurately the various movements of the contesting foes un- 

 til they ended at the pile of bones that showed where the last 

 white survivors met their death. Here the party divided, one 

 part going to the Crow agency, another by Pryor's Pass, 

 Sage Creek and Stinking Water crossing to Wind River, the 

 others, with Doctor Allen, going to Camp Brown and to 

 Bozeman,, the end of their journey. 



Various vocations have been followed by Doctor Allen 

 in the Great West. He was for some time a blacksmith, 

 having a shop at Bozeman, later an express messenger, the 

 government blacksmith at Fort Custer,. a stockraiser on Can- 

 yon Creek, in 1882 removing to Billings, then a mere cluster 

 of crude, primitive dwellings, where he erected the first house 

 in the Yellowstone Valley covered with a shingle roof. After 

 this he thoroughly pursued the study of dentistry in the Chi- 



