8 INTRODUCTION. 



that class of tireless, brave and heroic pioneers, of which the 

 author is a notable example. 



An attempt to narrate,, even in epitome, the incidents 

 which have characterized the life of this Montana pioneer 

 would transcend by far the normal province of an introduc- 

 tion, yet it would be culpable neglect were there failure to 

 advert to their more salient expressions, for he stands promi- 

 nent, not merely in a local way as one of the founders of the 

 city of Billings, Montana, but also as a leading student of 

 physical, natural and geologic history, and as an acknowl- 

 edged authority on the flora and fauna of the Rocky Moun- 

 tain region. He is known as a "dead shot" hunter, and such 

 journals as the Turf, Field and Farm esteem him as a val- 

 uable correspondent and contributor to their columns. 



Descending from good old English and Irish families 

 of the long ago, Dr. William A. Allen is far more proud of 

 his relationship on the paternal side with Ethan Allen, the 

 "hero of Ticonderoga," and on the maternal, with the dis- 

 tinguished Benjamin Franklin. He was born at Summer- 

 field, Noble county, Ohio, on September 2,. 1848. His finish- 

 ing literary education came to him in an Ohio normal 

 school, and, showing marked mechanical tastes, he early be- 

 came both a blacksmith and a maker of guns. In 1877 ne 

 started for the Black Hills. At Spearfish, now in South 

 Dakota, he joined an emigrant party of 250 persons, here 

 commencing his twenty-five years of adventurous western 

 existence and hunting exploits. 



Starting for Bozeman, in far off Montana, the strenuous 



