Robert Vaughn

Born in Wales in 1836, he emigrated to the United States and became one of the early settlers in Montana. He is best known for Then and Now; or, Thirty-Six Years in the Rockies, a memoir that draws on his own experiences to describe pioneer life, conflicts, and rapid change in the Rocky Mountain region.

Outside his writing, Vaughn was known as a rancher, farmer, and businessman in Montana. His life in the territory gave his work its strongest quality: it reads less like distant history and more like remembered experience from someone who was there as the region was being transformed.

He died in 1918. Today, his book remains of interest to listeners who enjoy memoir, Western history, and firsthand accounts of the American frontier.