You are probably familiar with Charlie Russells artwork, but if you havent read any of his stories, they are pretty good. He was raised around St Louis, but at about 16 years old left for Montana, it was 1880. He had some interesting times and knew a lot of interesting people. besides his artwork, some of the best of period Western art, he wrote quite a lot.
Heres at least one of his books online, the quote is most likely from this book. https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700941h.html
One of my favorites is A Savage Santa Claus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Marion_Russell
He was known to prefer to prefer the company of old frontier types and smoke and drink at the local social houses, aka saloons, and they came to hang around his studio as well. He gathered quite a lot of material to build his stories from. Some are tall tales obviously, though some are likely close to individuals stories or a compilation of things he heard from men he knew.
I need to look up more of Coopers books. I have his Book of the Rifle, and have read To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak The truth.