Nathaniel Hayden

  General Notes:

Research of J. Wittman and sent to me via postal mail Feb 2006 - in a biographical sketch - "Our subject rec'd very little schooling as his parents were constantly on the frontier, moving to CO in 1863 and in fact (Nathaniel) spent a large portion of his life on the frontier in a tent. He freighted the first load of Buffalo hides into Denver, it being 1866. In 1867we find him in the Black Hills, at the beginning of the rush there and he remained in the vicinity of Deadwood until 1881, during which time he was prospecting, freighting and mining etc. During that time he took a trip to TX and had some thrilling experiences in fighting the Indians. In 1881 (he) came to Yellowstone valley and engaged in hunting for the RR camps. When game became scarce he located on a ranch on the Rosebud river which he sold in 1884 and returned to the Black Hills and was occupied in freighting until 1887. In that year he journeyed again to Montana and for a number of years he was occupied in trapping and hunting wolves in the Rosebud valley and also did freighting....being a very skilled nimrod [mighty hunter] and is as well experienced in hunting as perhaps any man that could be found in his section..."

Nathaniel married Cordelia Catherine Clough, daughter of Unknown Clough and Unknown, in 1878 in Boulder, CO. (Cordelia Catherine Clough was born on 24 Jul 1855 in Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, Iowa.)