You might be surprised.
A lot of our conception of pioneers comes from our reading romantic naturalism into people who could be quite grim and prosaic.
We take it for granted that people who were just trying to survive had all of the aesthetic emotions that we have thanks to Thoreau and writers like him.
Thoreau to me is like Plutarch and James Boswell. Men who had enough free time on their hands to over analyze the world. Plutarch was certain that utopia was the simple life of the noble barbarian, and James Boswell thought himself quite the man for being able to make his allowance last out the month (though he rarely did).
I'm glad you like Thoreau's humor. I prefer Churchill and Kipling for their dark, yet humorous, commentary on human nature.