W. H. (William Henry) Ryus

Born in 1839, W. H. Ryus — William Henry Ryus — is remembered for The Second William Penn: A True Account of Incidents That Happened Along the Old Santa Fe Trail in the Sixties, first published in 1913. The book is presented as a memoir drawn from his own years on the trail, and later library and Project Gutenberg records identify him under the fuller form of his name.

In the book and its prefatory material, Ryus is described as a stagecoach driver and mail and express messenger on the old Santa Fe Trail. He became known as the "Second William Penn" because he was said to have built unusually friendly relations with Native communities during a period of conflict and hardship on the Plains.

What makes Ryus interesting as an author is the angle of vision he offers. Rather than writing as a distant historian, he tells the story as someone who worked the route himself, giving readers a direct sense of frontier travel, cross-cultural encounters, and everyday survival in the American West.