DEATH OF ANOTHER PIONEER.---Another of the pioneers of the plains is gone. Col. William Bent died at his residence on the Las Animas, in this county on Wednesday, May 19th. He was one of a family famous in the annals of the West. The name of Bent is familiarly associated with the names of Carson, St. Vrain, Vasques, and other prominent pioneers. Col. Bent has evidently spent nearly forty years of his eventful life in the Rocky Mountain region. He had scarcely arrived at the age of manhood before his life of adventure began, and from that early period of his life until the present time his home has been in the far West. The fur trade, before the supply began to fail, was the special attraction that kept him away from the haunts of civilized men. To the prosecution of that business he brought courage, untiring energy, and a large degree of business capacity. Bent's Fort, which has for a long time been a prominent point on the maps of the plains and a widely known rendezvous for trappers, traders, and the motley population which throngs the frontiers, was erectded by him in connection with his surviving associate, Col. Coran St. Vrain. There long before the advancing wave began to roll in upon the country, Bent was accustomed to dispense to army officers and adventurous travelers such courtly hospitality as was strangely at variance with his wild and savage surroundings. He was one of a large family, all the members of which were of sterling and striking character, He was the brother of Charles Bent, the first military governor of New York [sic, should be "New Mexico"], after the conquest of that territory, who was murdered in the insurrection of 1847. His name will be long identified with the settlement and development of a very large district of country now rapidly filling with a permanent population. His estate is variously estimated at from $150.000 to $25,000 in value. We believe he was about fifty-nine years of age---Colorado Chieftain, May 23d.
