Trapper, trader, miner, mountain man, Indian fighter, California pioneer Nathaniel Miguel Pryor was born at The Falls of the Ohio, near Louisville, Kentucky between 1798 and 1805. There is still controversey about his father, many believing him to be the son of Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor, famed of the Lewis & Clark Expedition and himself Indian agent and trader for “the far West”. The American fur trade had its headquarters in St. Louis. From there, hundreds of American fur trappers competed against the larger Canadian-British Hudson’s Bay Co. and John Jacob Astor’s fur operations. Trekking up into the Rocky Mountains and across the plains, Nathaniel Miguel Pryor trained himself to be a successful mountain man; showing profit at the annual rendezvous. In 1821, like his mythic father, Nathaniel Miguel Pryor, went exploring unmapped territory, now known as Colorado, on the way to Santa Fe. With partners, Jacob Fowler and seasoned trapper Hugh Glenn, Pryor and eighteen others wound a passage along the Arkansas River in November’s bitter winds. Louis Dawson was killed by a grizzly bear. They sat down to powwow with a massive gathering of Comanches, Kiowa, Arapahoes, Cheyenne, and Snake. Eventually, the party split for the trade. Fowler remained with the bulk of the goods at the mouth of the St. Charles while Glenn cautiously made his way into Mexico. Mexico had won its dubious independence from Spain and the American traders were welcomed by the new administrators eager for profit. After brief negotiations, Glenn sent for the rest of his men. On the 30th of January, 1822, Fowler left to join Glenn at Taos. The troupe remained there until spring. Returning to St. Louis, the Glenn-Fowler Expedition opened up the trade route to Taos, setting the stage for a golden age of fur trapping. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company, sometimes called Ashley's Hundred, was organized in St. Louis, Missouri in 1823 by General William H. Ashley and Major Andrew Henry. They posted advertisements in St. Louis newspapers seeking "One Hundred enterprising young men . . . to ascend the river Missouri to its source, there to be employed for one, two, or three years." Among those hired were Jedediah Smith, the Sublette brothers, Jim Beckwourth, Jim Bridger, Joseph Meek, Robert Newell, George W. Ebbert, Kit Carson,
and Nathaniel Pryor. Nathaniel Pryor found life suited him in Taos, but he needed work and found it at the Santa Rita copper mine until one October when Sylvester Pattie and his son rode up with illegal plans for California. Pryor and Tom Laughlin joined up for the descent of the Gila River. They fought some local tribes; killed some. They slipped down into Lower Mexico, then resurfaced in the Upper in March, 1828 and were promptly arrested as spies. Kept indefinately in the crude jail of the San Diego Presidio, Pryor, Laughlin, and the others watched Sylvester Pattie slowly die. Without passports or papers, the Mexicans could legally execute them. Finally, the day of judgment arrived. They were free to go. Most saddled up and rode, but Laughlin and Pryor remained. They had become Californians. The family lore records that Nathaniel Miguel Pryor gained the nickname “El Platero” by repairing some broken silver candlesticks and artifacts for Father Peyri of the mission at San Luis Rey. Father Peyri gave Nathaniel a letter for Antonio Rocha, a Portuguese friend in Los Angeles. Fame slowly turned to fortune and Nathaniel “Miguel” Pryor was baptized into the Catholic faith in 1836. His godfather was the largest vineyard owner in Los Angeles, Jean Luis Vignes. Pryor owned a vineyard there, too. Eventually taking over the large Rochas adobe and its lands, Nathaniel Miguel Pryor grew in color and prominence in the small sprawl that was Los Angeles. He was frequently seen sitting on the porch and watching the elegant Sepulvedas ride into the pueblo square along calle Primavera. At first, the most distainful had been Maria Teresa Dolores. She thought the “Yankee” had only come to rob, murder, and destroy. The Sepulvedas rode back to their rancho in Palos Verdes, but returned often. Maria Teresa grew into the most vivacious Sepulveda. In 1838 at about age 40, Nathaniel Miguel Pryor married 14 year old Maria Teresa Dolores Sepulveda at the mission San Gabriel. Within two years, he would be a father and a widower. His son, Pablo, was born in February 1839. Complications with the next son left him stillborn; the mother gravely weak. In September, 1840, she died, age sixteen. For decades, Nathaniel Miguel Pryor worked trades at Los Angeles. He warehoused for Abel Stearns’ hides on the coast. The tended his vineyard and sold grapes for wine. He was “in trouble” now and then for illegal otter fur trapping on Santa Catalina, but nothing that seriously affected his social status. By 1846, he was “the man about Los Angeles”. Made a regidore (councilman) for the city, in the summer of 1848 decided he would take another wife: Maria Paula Romero. Newspaper reports claim that Nathaniel Miguel developed epileptic seizures shortly before
his death in May, 1850. Five months after Nathaniel Miguel’s death, Paula gave birth to Juan Nathaniel Pryor, in September, 1850.
Pablo Pryor, c. 1860