On this day in 1831, Nathaniel Hale Pryor, one of Lewis and Clark’s most trusted sergeants on the trek west, is believed to have died in present day Oklahoma. While some evidence indicates it may have been a day earlier, most sources agree on June 10.
He was born in Virginia and raised in Kentucky, the son of John Pryor and Nancy Floyd. He was a first cousin to fellow sergeant Charles Floyd, (left) the only member of the Corps of Discovery to die on the expedition.
As one of the “nine young men from Kentucky” he was 31 when the Corps set out in 1803. He was apparently known to Captain William Clark through his marriage to Peggy Patton in 1798. The Patton family had migrated to Ohio with Clark’s father, George Rogers Clark, two decades earlier.
Since only single men were selected for the Corps, historians speculate Pryor was divorced or more likely, that Peggy had died. Unfortunately, no record of Peggy Patton exists past her marriage to Pryor.
A bit of a jack-of-all trades, blessed with common sense and “good character,” Pryor served as the corps’ military administrator. He was a talented negotiator with the indigenous tribes and had some practical carpentry skills, as well.
After returning east, he remained in the Army and was named to escort 
Mandan chief Sheheka or Shahake (White Coyote) (left) back home on the upper Missouri. The chief had accompanied Lewis and Clark on the return trip to St. Louis, subsequently meeting President Thomas Jefferson in Washington. Pryor’s mission was foiled by an attack by the Mandan’s tradtional rivals, the Arikara. It would take nearly two years before Sheheke would finally make the journey.
Pryor mustered out of the Army in 1810 and obtained a trader’s license from governor of the Missouri Territory, his former mentor Captain William Clark. He opened a lead-smelting furnace on the Galena River but the enterprise didn’t go well. An attack by Winnebegos in late 1811 nearly cost him his life. Following a harrowing escape across the frozen Missouri, he found refuge for the winter with French farmers. Apparently finding civilian life too dangerous, he re-enlisted in the Army in time to fight in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812.
His second discharge in hand, he settled in the Three Forks area of the Arkansas River in order to trade with the Claremore band of Osage. Married to an Osage woman, respected and well-liked, Pryor was the perfect choice to be named acting Osage sub-agent by Governor Clark. His position was made permanent just months before he died.
A cause of death for Pryor, age 59, is not recorded. He is buried in the northeast Oklahoma town in Mayes County that bears his name. A memorial marker was dedicated on July 4, 1982, recognizing him as a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and Camp River Debois, One Lewis and Clark Trail, Hartford, Illinois, is 14,000 square feet of exhibits and artifacts detailing the preparation for the expedition in the winter of 
1803-1804. Visitors can actually walk through a replica of the 55-foot keel boat (right) used by the Corps of Discovery. The center is the first stop on the expedition’s trek to the Pacific. Admission is free and the center is open 10 to 5, Wednesday through Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday. For more information go to lewisandclarktrail.com or call (618) 251-5811. For information on the National Park Service’s Lewis and Clark Historic Trail, go to nps.cog/lecl, call (402) 661-1804 or wrote 601 Riverfront Dr. , Omaha, Nebraska. © Text Only – 2017 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain.