Rickard A. Ross

Author: Rickard Anthony Ross is a native of Montana and a descendant of Montana Pioneers.

First to Arrive on Custer's Battlefield With the Montana Column

An historical biography based on the life of First Sergeant Frederick E. Server, great-grandfather of the author. Eighteen year old Fred Server came to the Montana Territory as a new recruit in the U.S. Cavalry. Arriving for duty at Fort Ellis in September 1873, he began a ten-year adventure that includes exploring the pristine wilderness of the Yellowstone, our first National Park, an ill fated 1876-77 mid-winter survey of the Snake River, and selected to be part of an Arctic Expedition to the North Pole; as well as suppressing the hostilities of the Northern Cheyenne, Lakota Sioux, Nez Percé, Bannack, and Cree Indians; and building a life as a Montana pioneer. Fred Server was among the first to come upon the remains of Lt. Colonel G. A. Custer's Seventh Cavalry on June 27, 1876.

Fred Server was the first of the author's family to settle in Montana. Following his military duty, he and his wife Anna operated a hotel on the Crow Indian Reservation until Fred Server's death in 1911. Fred Server is buried at the Custer National Cemetery adjacent to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. The biography is dedicated to the descendants of Montana Pioneers, Indian and non-Indian alike, who continue to make the Big Sky Country their home.