FAQ

Who the Preacher was is never explicitly explained. However, one might be able to piece together a plausible backstory for him with clues given in the movie.

The Preacher is highly skilled in hand-to-hand and melee fighting. As well as being an expert marksman. This suggests he was once a soldier or possibly a gunfighter as Sarah suggests when she confronts him. At some point he ran across Marshal Stockburn, perhaps in a similar situation where the Preacher was defending innocent people. Stockburn got the drop on him and shot him six times in the back. Miraculously, the Preacher didn't die. Perhaps the Preacher indeed thought he was spared for a reason and devoted his life to God and became a Preacher after this. Travelling from town to town to help innocent people from the tyranny of rich men.

Alternatively, he was always a Preacher, but felt the best way for him to defend the innocent is to know how to fight and shoot well. As when LaHood is describing the Preacher to Stockburn; Stockburn immediately knows who he's talking about. But dismisses the thought, because he was certain the man was dead.

It takes place in California and it's about prospecting for gold. So that is likely.

Hull says that he'd thought of drilling & blasting the rock with dynamite but he knows it could damage the stream the camp is using to mine gold. They need the water to sift thru the dirt & rock to separate the gold. Blasting the rock could damage the stream & either ruin their mining operation or make it more difficult to continue it. After the Preacher stands up to & beats Club, who broke the rock, the prospectors realize that working together they can finally break up the rock & remove it.

LaHood is panning for gold but in a much more mechanized way than Hull Barret and his colleagues. The water from the high powered hoses breaks up the gravel and, as it flows down the hill and through the sluices, any gold, which is heavier than the gravel and dirt, is separated out.

Additionally, LaHood's business also includes selling the soil and gravel that's cut out of the mountains. Gravel can be a useful supply material for construction projects and other endeavors in bigger cities in California & likely in the eastern United States. LaHood's gravel business is probably very lucrative as well.

LaHood wanted the prospectors land to further his business. The prospectors, like Hull Barret says, have their claims on file in Sacramento legally. LaHood knows this fact & knows he can't legally do anything to force them out so he has his thugs terrorize them repeatedly to scare them off. The prospectors know that there's gold to be found in their stream that will be worth more than what the Preacher negotiated for them, $1000 each, so they vote to stay. As it turns out, both Hull & Spider find gold, Spider finding a large chunk that was obviously worth more than $1000.