Edgar Samuel Paxson
Edgar Samuel Paxson was an American frontier painter, scout, soldier and writer, based mainly in Montana. He is best known for his portraits of Native Americans in the Old West and for his depiction of the Battle of Little Bighorn in his painting Custers Last Stand.
Paxson was born in 1852 to a Quaker family in East Hamburg New York. He spent most of his childhood in the woodlands of New York and Pennsylvania, learning to hunt and trap game with the help of his uncles. At age ten he worked as a drummer boy for new recruits during the American Civil War. His urge to explore the American frontier was fostered by uncles who had traveled west for the California Gold Rush, returning with stories of Indians, dangerous wildlife, and the harsh trek across America, and from family friends who lived in the New York frontier when the Seneca Nation ranged the woodlands. Inspired by his meetings with Kit Carson and Captain Jack Crawford in New York, he became restless to explore and by agewas travelling across America, ranging from Kansas to Canada. Eventually he made a home in Deer Lodge, Montana with his wife Laura MIllicent and child Loren.
Source: Wikipedia