First to Arrive: On Custer's Battlefield with the Montana Column, Frederick E. Server, Montana Pioneer, Soldier, and Explorer

“First to Arrive on Custer's Battlefield” highlights ancestor's role in Little Bighorn, Western history Extract from Billings Gazette, January 20, 2011

Rickard Ross never met his great-grandfather. But just about everyone who played a role in Montana's early history did. From first explorations of newly created Yellowstone National Park to Little Bighorn campaign of 1876, Frederick Erastus Server was there. Arguably, he was the first white man to discover the dead of the Little Bighorn battle. In 10 years with the 2nd U.S. Cavalry, Server worked out of some of Montana's major forts and participated in three Indian war campaigns before operating the first hotel at Custer and at Crow Agency. Among those frequenting his establishments and counted as friends were Teddy Roosevelt; clergyman Henry Ward Beecher; historians Walter Mason Camp and Eli Seavey Ricker; and Western artists Joseph Henry Sharp and Edgar Samuel Paxon. Ross heard many tales of his great-grandfather's exploits from his grandmother and father. His just completed his colorful ancestor's biography, published late last year by Upton & Sons, follows Server's trail from birth in Philadelphia in 1855 to death at Crow Agency in 1911. Realizing the breadth of his great-grandfather's role in Montana history, writing the book was to make sure that Server's history survived

His book is brimming with local history and especially with tales of Montana's storied military campaigns. Ross, from his great-grandfather's point of view, adds some perspective to the Montana column, to rendezvous with the 7th Cavalry near the Little Bighorn.