author
W. H. (William Henry) Ryus
b. 1839
A frontier storyteller with firsthand memories of the old Santa Fe Trail, he wrote about stagecoach travel, Plains life, and encounters on the American West in the 1860s. His best-known book blends memoir and historical adventure in a voice shaped by lived experience.
1 Audiobook
The second William Penn : a true account of incidents that happened along the old Sante Fe trail in the sixties
by W. H. (William Henry) Ryus
About the author
Very little biographical information about W. H. Ryus is easy to confirm online beyond the basics attached to his published work. Library and book records identify him as William Henry Ryus, born in 1839, and list him as the author of The Second William Penn.
That book, published in the early 20th century, presents a true account of incidents along the old Santa Fe Trail in the 1860s. Catalog descriptions and public-domain editions describe Ryus as a stagecoach driver on the old Santa Fe Trail, remembered for his skill in dealing tactfully with Native peoples and soldiers during a dangerous period of western travel.
Because reliable personal records are scarce in the sources I found, it is safest to remember him mainly through his writing: a firsthand chronicler of frontier movement, conflict, and survival whose work preserves one slice of trail-era American history.