Lately, I've been thinking about Ellen's backstory and the people around her.
This is Angus McTavish, Ellen's mother younger brother.
Angus and his sister Catriona are Scottish and arrived in the USA in 1858 looking for a better future.
Catriona then meets Robert, a cavalry officer and they soon get married. Angus doesn't like Robert, he doesn't like military men, so you can imagine he is not going to like Wyatt either.
Angus lives up in the mountains as a hunter-trapper away from society. He works on pelts that Ellen then sells in town. So, she basically visits him once in a while to bring him some provisions, check he is doing fine and take those pelts to town. In one of those visits, Ellen's father wants Wyatt to accompany her.