Nelson Story, Sr., letter, 1911 February 14

Nelson Story, Sr. (1838-1926) was a pioneer Montana rancher and entrepreneur. Born in Meigs County, Ohio, to Ira and Hannah Story, Nelson grew up on the family farm and briefly attended college. He traveled west to Montana during the gold rush of the early 1860s and, after achieving success in mining, invested in Texas cattle, driving a herd of 1,000 longhorn back to Montana from Texas in 1866 and establishing a ranch in the Yellowstone Valley. He later moved to Bozeman and became one of the town's wealthiest citizens. His many business interests in Bozeman included banking, real estate, and milling during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Story, with his brother Walter, also invested in Los Angeles, California, real estate. Story married Ellen Trent Story (1844-1924) of Platte County, Missouri, and the couple had seven children.

John Bozeman (1835-1867) was a pioneer western trailblazer. Born in Pickens County, Georgia, to William Bozeman and Delila Sims Bozeman, he came west to the Pike's Peak, Colorado Territory, gold rush in 1860, leaving behind his wife, Lucinda Catherine Ingram Bozeman and their three daughters. 1n 1862, he came to the area of what would become the Montana Territory. In 1863, he and John Jacobs blazed the Bozeman Trail to the Montana gold fields, a cutoff route from the Oregon Trail in Wyoming. In 1864, he laid out the town of Bozeman, Montana, which was eventually named in his honor. Bozeman was murdered on April 20, 1867, in mysterious circumstances that have remained unresolved.