Across The Fence: Here lies Major Alexander Culbertson

According to the definitive history of "The American Fur Trade of the Far West," written by Hiram Martin Chittenden and published by New York publishers in 1902, Major Alexander Culbertson died Aug. 27, 1879, and was buried in Orleans, Mo. Consequently, scholars of the American fur trade assumed the information to be correct.

However, Nebraska historian Charles E. Hanson Jr. discovered a 1940 biography in the Montana Historical Societies publication of "Contributions" that cited a different location and called into question the information given by Chittenden. A search by Hanson in 1950 reveal...