William Averill Comstock was born on January 17, 1842, in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, in the town of Comstock names after his father. After family setbacks & the death of his mother, William, at age four was sent to live with his siter, who had married a judge in Wisconsin. By the age of 18, Comstock had decided to move further west & became part owner of a road ranch at Cottonwood Springs, Nebraska. There, working as an Indian trader, he maintained tow employees & $500 in property. In 1861, his address was listed as "Pike's Peak, Nebraska Territory". Most assuredly, it was during this time that Comstock learned some of the ways of his native customers, their languages, dress & customs that later would serve him well. He then scouted for a short period of time in Wyoming at Fort Halleck & later, in 1865, moved to Western Kansas, establishing his famous Roose Creek Ranch, eight miles west of Fort Wallace. Here with abundant water & meadows od fine prairie hay, he was able to start a business providing Fort Wallace with forage for horses & livestock. From December 23, 1865 until January 15, 1868 he served with distinction as a scout at Pond Creek Station & Fort Wallace & was known as the "Ace of Scout".
In 1867, Lt Col George A. Custer requested that Comstock join him on the Hancock Expedition. Comstock led Custer's famed Seventh Cavalry over 1,500 miles through Kansas, Nebraska & Colorado in pursued of evasive Cheyenne & Sioux Indian. Custer, would later , "No Indian knew the country more thoroughly than Comstock. He was perfectly familiar with every watercourse & strip of timber for hundreds of miles in either direction. He knew the dress & peculiarities of every tribe, & spoke their language of many of them...he was perfect in horsemanship, fearless in manner, a ? ? & a gentleman by instinct, as modest & unassuming as brave". Comstock's bravery & skill were firmly established when the Seventh Cavalry's wagon train was attacked on its return to Fort Wallace & when he found the route back to ? ? ? Cavalry Lt. Lymon S. Kidder's ill-fated command, on Beaver Creek, near current Edson, Kansas.
In 1868, Comstock was in a dispute with a man named Wyatt, over payment for wood contracting which had been ? by Wyatt to Comstock. The bitter dispute culminated with Wyatt dying from gunshot wounds. Comstock stood trail & was later declared "not guilty" by a judge in Hays. In May of 1868, General Phil Sheridan requested Comstock's help in joining an elite group of scouts & frontiersmen being assembled to assist in subduing the hostiles that had been committing raids on the Saline, Solomon, & Smoky Hill River Valleys. In August, 1868, Comstock was ordered by Lt. Fredrick Beecher to track down the Cheyenne & persuade their leaders to stop their attacks. Comstock was joined by another scout named Abner "Sharp" Grover.
What the annals of history tell from that time forward, remain a mystery. What is known is that on August 16, 1868, William Averill Comstock died at the young age of 26. It was said that Comstock & Grover visited a Cheyenne village & upon leaving were attacked with Grover being injured & Comstock Killed. Many theories exist including the belief held by many of Comstock's Rose Creek Ranch, Surgeon Theophilus H. Turner, with whom Comstock helped find fossil specimens wrote, "I know of no one whose death would have produced so wide-felt an impression. He certainly a great loss. "The remains of the "Ace of Scouts" William A. Comstock, lie on a windswept Western Kansas prairie, testament to the man, his bravery, & the mystery that surrounded him.
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