2 The Battle of Gettysburg. 3 A statue in honor of Sacajawea in Portland, Oregon. 4 Sitting Bull was dressed in full war regalia. 5 Historic Fort Benton, where Brother Van ate jerked buffalo meat. 6 Brother Van visiting a Blackfeet medicine lodge. 7 The ceremony of adoption into the Blackfeet tribe. 8 Indians were terrifying settlers everywhere. 9 Brother Van’s dispatch to the Helena _Herald_. 10 Chief Joseph, leader of the Nez Percés at Big Hole. 11 Dr. Thomas C. Iliff and Brother Van, who had many adventures together. 12 Brother Van was “hail fellow well met” with the people. 13 Brother Van shot the herd leader in the head. 14 The Van Orsdel Home for Nurses at Helena. 15 Great Heart with a Blackfoot brother. 16 A copper mine at Butte. FOREWORD GRATEFUL acknowledgment is hereby given for the interest and helpfulness shown by many people in Montana while I was collecting material for this book. To have known Brother Van better has been a joy, and to have met his beloved people “out where the west begins” has been a privilege. The readers of this biography owe much to the Rev. George Logan and to the Rev. A. W. Hammer, both old-time friends of the pioneer missionary. From them have come stories and tales of adventure which could not have been forced from the boyishly modest preacher himself. The story is sent out with the hope that through it some young people may add a new name to their list of heroes. STELLA W. BRUMMITT. CHAPTER I A BOY AT GETTYSBURG “NOW, boy, watch and you’ll see one of the sights of the war! Our troops are going to charge and take that battery.” It was the first day of the great battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863; and the Confederate cavalry leader, General Jenkins, at his post on a sheltered hillside, was pointing out to a rough-clad, barefoot boy from a near-by farmhouse the movements of the troops on the opposite side. As William Wesley Van Orsdel had heard at home of the battles in which his ancestors had fought, he may have wondered if some time, he, too, would march away to war. He had never dreamed that while he was still a boy one of the most important battles in modern history would take place in the quiet fields and on the wooded hills surrounding the little farm where he lived. The opening of the battle found him ready to take his part whatever it might be, even though he could not be one of the fighters. He soon found that there was no lack of opportunity to help. Fearlessly he went back and forth among the men of both the Northern and Southern armies, carrying water to the wounded no matter what the color of the uniform they wore, and relieving the distress of many a stricken soldier.