HAMILTON, WILLIAM THOMAS

born Dec. 6, 1822, England died May 24, 1908, Montana, U.S. byname Wildcat Bill mountain man, trapper, and scout of the American West. Brought to America at age two, Hamilton grew up in St. Louis, Mo., and began trapping at an early age on the North Platte and Green rivers (in present-day Nebraska and Wyoming). He became an Indian fighter in the 1850s in California, the Northwest, and the Plains. In 1858 he set up a trading post in what became Missoula, Mont., and, while trading, held various jobs as county sheriff, Indian agent, and army scout. His memoirs, My Sixty Years on the Plains, appeared in 1905.