This photo is identified as being Bill Drennan, Indian Scout and Companion of Kit Carson, and is supposed to have been taken about 1880. But it is attributed to Noah Hamilton Rose, who was born in 1874, and didn’t begin taking photos until about 1892. Rose was known to have copied old photos, but the quality of this image, and the setting, look very much like a ca. 1900 image to me. So is it Bill Drennan? Probably. Rose’s family is said to have lived in Ballinger Texas at one time, and there in the 1900 census we find William T Drennan, born May 1846 in Texas, occupation Liquor Dealer. Was he a ‘companion’ of Kit Carson? Well Kit Carson died in 1868, so it is just possible, but not too likely.

There are only two William Drennan’s listed as living in Texas in the 1860 census; one an 8 year old boy is probably the William T Drennan mentioned above — it is not unusual for his age to be off by 6 years some 40 years later in the 1900 census, the one nearer his birth is more likely correct. The second is his father, also William Drennan, born about 1798 in South Carolina. The elder Bill Drennan is a better candidate for ‘companion’ of Kit Carson, being only nine years older than Carson. But even if the original photo was taken in 1870, this Bill Drennan is too young to be born 1798 — so the image is more likely his son. Either the story got transferred from father to son, or the term ‘acquaintance’ might better replace ‘companion’.