Historical Fort Benton

Vinegar Jones Cabin Christmas Ornament

2009-07-06T13:13:00.004-06:00

The Official Christmas Ornament for 2009 for the city of Great Falls has been selected. In honor of the 125th anniversary of the founding of Great Falls, the ornament will feature The Vinegar Jones Cabin. This little 14 x 20 foot cabin was built at 501 5th Avenue South in the Spring of 1884, the first year of the Great Falls townsite. The builder was Fort Benton carpenter Josiah Peeper. In 1890 Whitman Gibson "Vinegar" Jones bought the Cabin and moved it across the avenue to 516 5th Avenue South. Until his death in 1931, Vinegar Jones carefully maintained the Cabin, taking pride in the fact that this was the first permanent structure built on the Great Falls townsite.

In 2002 the Great Falls/Cascade County Historic Preservation Advisory Commission took over care of the Cabin for the people of Great Falls. This first permanent home in Great Falls, and the only building remaining from 1884, the first year of the townsite, now stands in a place of honor in the city's premier park, Gibson Park.

The 2009 Christmas Ornament will be available for sale at $15 at the City Planning Office on the lower level of the Great Falls Civic Center. The ornaments, designed by Great Falls artist Sheree Nelson, are numbered, for example, #1 of 750. Just 750 are available and are expected to sell quickly. All money raised from sales will be used for historic preservation in Great Falls and Cascade County, Montana.

Fort Benton honors Irish hero at festival

2009-07-01T10:13:00.002-06:00

From The Irish Emigrant Online: http://www.irishemigrant.com/ie/go.asp?p=story&storyID=4612

FORT BENTON, Mont. – Fort Benton’s Summer Celebration will take on a new Irish theme this year in honor of the dedication of the city’s latest statue; a $40,000 bronze bust of Thomas Francis Meagher, Montana’s Irish former governor and Civil War hero.

The festival begins Friday night with a performance by the Montana Agricultural Center of "The Coroner's Inquest Into the Death of Thomas Francis Meagher," a play based on a book by Paul Wylie that attempts to solve the mystery surrounding Meagher’s death.

Saturday will be a day full of Irish dancing, foodstuffs and bars serving exclusively Guinness. The festivities will conclude with the statue dedication ceremony at 1 pm on Sunday.

Local band the Shamrockers will perform all weekend long, and even wrote a new song specifically for the beloved Meagher.

The green theme is expected to draw the biggest crowd the Fort Benton Celebration has seen yet.

Summer Celebration with an Irish Flare

2009-06-29T11:13:00.005-06:00

The Thomas Francis Meagher Memorial on the Historic Steamboat Levee Commemorates His Death at Fort Benton on the Evening of 1 July, 1867.

From 26-28 June Fort Benton became the Hibernian Capital of the World. Members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians assembled from across Montana and as far away as Buffalo, New York, to pay homage to General Thomas Francis Meagher. Over the weekend, events included Paul Wylie's play Friday evening, "A Coroner's Inquest Into the Death of Thomas Francis Meagher"; the Summer Celebration Parade on Saturday morning with Hibernian marchers, dancers, and musical groups from Anaconda, Helena, and Great Falls; the Meagher Memorial Dinner With an Irish Flair attended by over 100 on Saturday evening with main speaker Lt. Governor John Bohlinger and Irish dances by Helena and Anaconda ladies and lassies; and the Dedication of the Thomas Francis Meagher Memorial Sunday afternoon at the historic steamboat levee with singing of the U.S. and Irish National Anthems by Jack Kelly and speechifying by General Meagher (played by Frank Crowley) and Governor Brian O'Schweitzer.

The Thomas Francis Meagher Monument was dedicated Sunday afternoon, June 28th.

The Second Cavalry Association Reenactment Group at the Dedication Ceremony

General Thomas Francis Meagher on the Fort Benton Levee Shortly Before His Death in 1867

Author Paul Wylie Signs Copies of his Excellent Meagher biography, The Irish General.

In Honor of Thomas Francis Meagher

2009-06-26T14:05:00.005-06:00

In 2008 Fort Benton's Summer Celebration was named "Montana's Event of the Year." With a theme of "Summer Celebration With an Irish Flare," Fort Benton will hold the 2009 Summer Celebration 26-28 June while honoring the most outrageously colorful of Montana's Territorial Governors--General Thomas Francis Meagher. The weekend events will include Paul Wylie's play Friday night "A Coroner's Inquest into the Death of Thomas Francis Meagher"; Montana's Ancient Order of Hibernians will march in the Saturday morning parade; an Hibernian banquet will be held Saturday evening; a traditional Catholic Mass will be held at the gazebo in Old Fort Park Sunday morning; and at 1 p.m. the new Thomas Francis Meagher Memorial will be dedicated on the historic steamboat levee. General Meagher, played by Francis Crowley of Helena, will speak at the dedication. Governor Brian O'Schweitzer will give the main address, followed by the unveiling of the new Memorial. Fr. Frank McGinnis will bless the memorial.

Two years ago, one of the Helena Hibernians while visiting Fort Benton called the Overholser Historical Research Center. Ken Robison answered this visitors' questions about Thomas Francis Meagher's fateful visit to Fort Benton July 1, 1867, about where the general spent his time, and where he fell from the steamboat G. A. Thomson. Ken added a final suggestion, that the Hibernians place a statue on the Fort Benton levee to commemorate General Meagher's death in Fort Benton. Sure enough, the Thomas Francis Meagher Division of the Helena Hibernians went to work on the project, enlisted the support of Fort Benton friend and talented artist Bob Morgan. Two years later, almost to the day, the new Thomas Francis Meagher Memorial is being dedicated. Long live the memory of "The Acting One--General Thomas Francis Meagher!"

My New Book -- Fort Benton

2009-06-22T14:34:00.010-06:00

On July 13, 2009, my new book, FORT BENTON will be released by Arcadia Publishing.

FORT BENTON tells the story of Fort Benton on the Upper Missouri through postcard images and accompanying stories.

Fort Benton is the head of navigation on the Missouri River, the “birthplace of Montana,” and it’s history spans every era in Montana’s development. Fort Benton, founded in 1846 as a fur trading post and named for Senator Thomas Hart Benton, is Montana’s oldest continuously occupied white settlement. Built on a broad river bottom along “nature’s highway,” American Indians crossed the north-south ford, and Lewis and Clark navigated the waters before white settlement. Arrival of the first steamboats from St. Louis and completion of the Mullan Wagon Road from Walla Walla in 1860 heralded the steamboat era bringing gold seekers, merchant princes, scoundrels, soldiers, North West Mounted Police, and eventually women and children to the wild frontier. Then came the railroads, open range ranching, and homesteaders by the thousand. Today, Fort Benton serves the agricultural Golden Triangle and presents its colorful history through cultural tourism.

The Fort Benton Legend of General Thomas Francis Meagher

2009-06-21T11:58:00.006-06:00

By Ken Robison

This continues the series of frontier sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.

At midday July 1st, 1867, General Thomas Francis Meagher with a militia escort of at least six men rode hard along Montana’s Benton Road, down the opening from the bluffs overlooking wild and wooly Fort Benton, and entered the pages of history and the stuff of legends. About ten hours later, the former Acting Governor of Montana Territory, heroic Civil War leader of the famed Irish Brigade, and Irish revolutionary leader General Meagher was dead--his death shrouded in mystery and his body lost to the depths and swift current of the spring rise Missouri River.

After recovering from war wounds, General Meagher came to frontier Montana as Territorial Secretary and became Acting Governor upon the departure of Governor Sydney Edgerton in 1865. The brilliant, but brash and unpredictable, Secretary and Acting Governor, with his wife Elizabeth, were the center of the social and political scene of the new territory during these booming gold mining days. Revered in Fenian Irish and democratic circles, Governor Meagher fought political battles with the strong Lincoln republican element. Arrival of newly appointed Governor Green Clay Smith in the fall of 1866 relieved Meagher of many of his demanding duties. However, Smith left the territory in early 1867 to escort his family up the Missouri River to Fort Benton, and Meagher again took on the demands of Acting Governor. By the spring of 1867, Montana Territory faced an expanding settler population and a perceived threat from Indian tribes. Ever hard charging, General Meagher called for federal troops, only to be answered by a promise of a federal arms shipment to the new Army post Camp Cooke on the Missouri at the mouth of the Judith River. Meagher determined to go to Fort Benton either to receive the arms there or to embark a steamboat to go down to Camp Cooke.

General Meagher departed Virginia City about June 17th accompanied by an escort of from six to twelve militiamen. He arrived in Helena June 19th, spent several days, and left in ill health for Fort Benton about June 22nd. The next day on the Benton road, the General met returning Governor Green Clay Smith and his family, who had arrived at Fort Benton June 20th on the steamboat Octavia. With their brief meeting, General Meagher again relinquished the governorship.

By the evening of the 23rd of June, General Meagher and his escorts arrived at Johnny Healy’s little trading post at Sun River Crossing. On the road from Helena, Meagher suffered from severe dysentery. In the words of Meagher biographer Paul Wylie, “years of drinking and the rigors of his chaotic life had taken their toll.” For the next week, Meagher remained at Healy’s post recovering from his illness. A week with colorful Irishmen Healy and Meagher and others, no doubt drinking and swapping tales must have been something to behold. The evening of the 30th of June, a blacksmith working for Huntley’s Stage Line reported enjoying an evening dinner “laughing and joking” with General Meagher’s party at Healy’s little 12 x 12 feet log dugout.

Early the next morning, General Meagher and his escort departed Sun River Crossing for Benton arriving tired and dusty around noon on the 1st of July. The view they saw from the bluffs overlooking Fort Benton is today hard to imagine. The head of steamboat navigation on the Missouri River in the 1860s meant just that. During the year 1867, some 41 steamboats departed St. Louis and after the long 2,400-mile trip through snags and rocks and sand bars arrived at the Fort Benton levee between the 25th of May and the 8th of August. These massive boats, from 150 to 250 feet in length, carried an average of 200 tons of freight bringing a total of more than 8,000 tons to the Fort Benton levee.

At the Fort Benton levee July 1st were four steamboats, all sternwheelers, the Amaranth, G. A. Thomson, Gallatin, and Guidon. The Amaranth, commanded by Captain James Lockhart had arrived two days earlier bringing 225 tons and 12 passengers to Fort Benton. The G. A. Thomson, under Captain J. M. Woods, Clerk J. Stewart, and pilot John T. Doran, landed the previous day with 200 tons cargo and 68 passengers after a long, hard 67-day trip from St. Louis suffering damage from a collision en route. The steamer Gallatin, under Captain Sam Howe, arrived at the levee earlier the morning of July 1st with a load of government freight from Camp Cooke. The Guidon, commanded by Captain James L. Bissell, acting throughout the boating season as tender on the Upper Missouri, arrived June 20 with 225 tons and 57 passengers plus an additional 130 passengers from Camp Cooke that had been stranded by the earlier sinking of their steamboat Nora. The Guidon was moored astern the G. A. Thomson at the Fort Benton levee on July 1.

Two other recent steamboats had just departed the Fort Benton levee. The Ida Stockdale, commanded by young Captain Grant Marsh, arrived June 29, with 20 passengers from the James H. Trover, which was grounded on a bar 45 miles below the mouth of the Musselshell. Another noteworthy boat, the Octavia, under Captain Joseph LaBarge arrived June 20 with a cargo of 174 tons and 70 passengers including Governor Green Clay Smith and his family. The trip of Octavia had been marred by the murder of an English nobleman, Captain Wilfred D. Speer of the Queens’ Guards. Speer was shot point blank in the head by U. S. Army sentry Private William Barry, an Irishman and part of a contingent of 100 soldiers from the 13th Infantry Regiment en route Camp Cooke. The Octavia had departed Fort Benton down river June 25th although the murder of the Englishman was still the talk of the town and the incident added to the animosity and tension of the Irish/English conflict.

Some 800 tons of freight had arrived on the levee during the past week. Part of this massive cargo had been loaded and was already moving along the Benton Road, but several hundred tons remained on the levee. Many wagons and men, hundreds of oxen, mules, and horses were loading, unloading, and moving from the levee through the streets of Fort Benton and onto the trails leading in every direction from Fort Benton. From four to eight yoke of oxen drew each wagon, which could carry about two tons of freight. Each wagon train made a stunning show.

The sleepy little river town of today was booming and bustling day and night during the steamboating season in 1867. A traveler returning to Montana Territory several weeks earlier on the steamer Waverly, was surprised at the growth in Fort Benton, writing, “Arrived at Benton we found that place much improved. We may say in general terms, that every one has new buildings, and the place has arrived at the dignity of two hotels, saloons and gambling tables.”

“Improved” or not, frontier Fort Benton was earning a reputation with “the bloodied block in the West,” and in the summer of 1867 businesses like Mose Solomon’s Medicine Lodge and The Jungle were roaring with day and night life of all kinds. It was from the second story of The Jungle’s flimsy frame earlier in June that infamous Eleanor Dumont, better known as Madame Mustache, left her blackjack game, sprinted across the street to the levee, flourished two pistols and warned off the pilot of the Walter B. Dance, reported to have smallpox aboard. Just after his arrival, Governor Green Clay Smith had witnessed a brawl spill into the street from the Medicine Lodge, a discharged fireman from the steamer Guidon with a bowie knife and another man with a derringer. Sheriff William Hamilton arrested both men but the absence of a Justice of the Peace forced their release. The fireman regained his knife and immediately confronted Governor Smith, who proceeded personally to subdue the man with a club. Adding to this wild and wooly environment, tensions had risen with Native Americans during recent months, reports had come of the latest Fenian invasion of the British Possessions the previous year, and territorial political and social antagonisms had increased. As General Meagher rode into town weighing heavily on his mind no doubt was the fact that he was in debt, out of work, and the subject of immense controversy, beloved by some, hated by others.

Republican leader and political adversary, Wilbur Fisk Sanders was present in Fort Benton at the time awaiting the arrival of his family coming up the Missouri on the steamboat Abeona. Sanders greeted General Meagher and his escort and spend part of the early afternoon with him. Fort Benton merchant I. G. Baker met the general on the levee and invited him to dinner at Baker’s house across from the levee. During their conversation, Governor Meagher announced that he was going down river to receive the arms shipment.

General Meagher spent much of the afternoon next door in a back room at Baker’s store where he read, greeted visitors, and wrote correspondence. It was there that Meagher wrote his last letter, imploring secretarial auditor Ming to pay back wages to ease his serious financial woes.

After spending the afternoon at the I. G. Baker store and eating supper at Baker’s house, Meagher boarded the steamboat G. A. Thomson to spend the night. He was never seen again, and his body was never found. Did he die from Vigilante justice? Trip and fall from a weakened railing? Jump in frustration over failed finances? That is the great mystery of General Meagher’s death in Fort Benton and the birth of a legend.
Paul R. Wylie’s The Irish General Thomas Francis Meagher carefully sorts through the conflicting accounts of the general’s last day. Wylie explores the accounts of Wilbur Fisk Sanders, I. G. Baker, pilot Johnny Doran, and others, and examines possible suspects ranging from the Vigilantes, anti-Irish hotheads, enemies such as Indian agents Augustus Chapman and Major George B. Wright. These accounts, conflicting often in detail and tone, make fascinating reading. Wylie also weighs the evidence for an act of suicide or a tragic accident to explain the death. The Coroner’s Inquest into the Death of General Thomas Francis Meagher, to be held at the Ag Center Friday evening June 26th, will hear testimony from all these accounts. The Inquest to be held just five days short of 142 years after Meagher’s death will be entertaining for all, and all will no doubt go away with a favorite theory.

So, here is mine. During the afternoon on July 1st, General Meagher was sober but still suffering from severe dysentery. During the afternoon I. G. Baker offered Meagher several glasses of blackberry wine, commonly used then to cure diarrhea. Accounts vary about where Meagher dined that evening, either with Pilot Johnny Doran on board the G. A. Thomson or at Baker’s home. Most likely, the general had supper at Baker’s home leaving by 7 p. m. Toward dusk, Meagher sat with a group of men in front of Baker’s store. The party got loud, and Meagher began exhibiting possible symptoms of delusion and paranoia, expressing concern that his enemies were about to do him harm. Apparently, Doran got Meagher to the steamboat G. A. Thomson. There, Meagher, Doran, James M. Woods, captain of the boat, and others began drinking in the boat’s salon, and Meagher became inebriated. Meagher and Doran then may have once more gone ashore for a short while. Doran got Meagher back to the G. A. Thomson and into the cabin of Captain Woods, the outside door of which faced the water, some time after dark. Meagher got ready for bed, and Doran left him thinking his friend was asleep and proceeded to the lower deck.

About 10 p. m. Doran heard a splash in the waters and heard the cry of “man overboard,” probably uttered by the boat’s black barber who was on watch and had caught a glimpse of a man in the water. Most likely General Meagher, dressed in his underclothes, suffering from exhaustion, too much to drink, and his severe bout of diarrhea, opened the cabin door to go onto the upper deck to relieve himself. There he stumbled and fell overboard from a portion of the deck that had been damaged by an earlier collision with part of the deck railing broken off.

At least four witnesses saw Meagher fall from the boat. One credible witness, Ferdinand Roosevelt, then Wells Fargo agent at Fort Benton, saw Meagher fall overboard and testified that there was no attacker and that General Meagher had been drinking heavily. A correspondent from the Montana Post was on board the steamer Guidon at the time and heard the plunge, briefly saw a head in the water, and then all was still. Pilot Doran described the waters as "...instant death – water twelve feet deep and rushing at the rate of ten miles an hour.” Floating lifebuoys were put out, lights were lit, and a boat was launched and every exertion was made first to recover and later to locate the body of the general. The search continued for several days before it was called off. It would not be the first or the last body never to be found after drowning in “the big Muddy.” General Meagher body was lost to the ages but his spirit lived on.

Upon hearing the news, Governor Smith issued a proclamation ordering tributes of respect and offering a reward for recovery of his body. Flags of Governor Meagher’s native land and adopted country were flown at half-mast as a mark of respect to his memory. A large “citizens’ meeting” was held in Helena to mourn the General’s death proclaiming “our country has lost a true patriot, a friend of universal liberty, a sympathizer with the afflicted of all nations, a foe to tyranny, a fearless and intrepid general, a man of genius and of eloquence, who, at all times was ready to sacrifice personal interest for the public good.”

Ironically, Fort Benton returned quickly to normalcy with steamboats coming and going with regularity. The G. A. Thomson left for St. Louis at noon on the 2d [of July] “with some twenty passengers, the majority of whom were returning pilgrims, disgusted with the country.” Fort Benton “had a gay time on the 4th” [of July]. At noon, all available ordnance of the town “belched forth the joyous proclamation of the only American national holiday.” At 2 o’clock on board the steamer Antelope, a large audience assembled to listen to the “finest, most terse and appropriate” fourth of July oration by Col. W. F. Sanders, preceded by the reading of the Declaration of Independence by Major Wright. In the evening the celebration was closed by “a squaw dance in a large hall on the levee, well attended by all shades of female aborigines, most of whom, although well versed in the arts of the mazy dance, resisted all attempts at conversation, astonishing St. Louis gentlemen, who honored the floor with their fashionable selves.” Innumerable fights occurred and “the inhabitants enjoyed themselves as well as could be expected under the circumstances.” By then the search for General Meagher’s body had been suspended.

In a letter from Fort Benton dated July 6, “Fleet-Wing” reported that the Gallatin arrived that evening and landed a battery of six twelve pound mountain howitzers, 2,500 stand of muskets, and an immense amount of ammunition for the use of the Montana militia. General Meagher’s arms had arrived, but he was not there to meet them.

As you visit today’s Fort Benton, you see a small, quiet river town with a big history. Look over Fort Benton from the bluffs and imagine the town in 1867 going full blast night and day. Imagine the long levee filled with up to eight steamboats at a time, hundreds of tons of freight piled on the levee, and hundreds of freight wagons and muleskinners filling the streets. When you walk the streets and tour the still standing I. G. Baker house, imagine the Irish General sitting there, eating his last midday meal with I. G. Baker. As you read the interpretive sign on the levee, imagine General Meagher sitting at a table in the back room of the Baker store spending his last afternoon. As you visit the Museum of the Upper Missouri look at parts of two surviving crates addressed to “His Excellency the Governor of Montana Territory” and used to ship the arms from the federal arsenal at Frankfurt. As you walk the levee, imagine General Meagher greeting Sanders and many well-wishers. See the 200-foot steamboat G. A. Thomson moored alongside and General Meagher restless in his stateroom just before he stepped out the cabin door and off the deck into the cold, swirling current to his watery grave. Pause at the new Thomas Francis Meagher Monument on the levee to pay homage to the exceptional Irish revolutionary hero, the brave Civil War leader of the Irish Brigade, and the larger than life early Montana territorial saint and sinner. You are in Fort Benton, Montana--Meagher country!

[Sources: Paul Wylie’s The Irish General; Joel Overholser’s Fort Benton World’s Innermost Port; John G. Lepley’s Birthplace of Montana A History of Fort Benton; Montana Post 29 Jun, 6, 13, 20 Jul 1867; Helena Herald Weekly 3, 10 Jul 1867; Rocky Mountain Gazette 6 Jul 1867]

Photos:

(1) General Thomas Francis Meagher, Civil War Leader of the Irish Brigade.
(2) General Meagher and His Militia Escort Riding Down the Benton Road July 1, 1867.
(3) Federal Arms Shipping Cases Addressed to “His Excellency The Governor Montana Terr.” on Display at the Museum of the Upper Missouri.
(4) General Meagher Falling into the Missouri River.
(5) Or did General Meagher Jump?
(6) Governor’s Proclamation $2,000 Reward for Recovery of the Body of General Meagher.
(7) Rocky Mountain Gazette Death Newspaper Mourning the Loss of General Meagher.

Obituary: General Thomas Francis Meagher

2009-06-21T11:44:00.002-06:00

[Thomas Francis Meagher drowned in the Missouri River at Fort Benton July 1, 1867, 142 years ago. Just as Fort Benton will finally have a coroner’s inquest into his mysterious death this Friday evening at 7 p. m. in the Ag Center, the River Press now carries his obituary.]

Thomas Francis Meagher was born on the 3d of August 1825, at Waterford, one of the oldest and most renowned cities of Ireland. At the age of eleven he was sent to the Jesuits at Clongowes Wood College, County Kildare, Ireland. He remained there for five years, and was then sent to Stonyhurst College, the celebrated seminary of the English Jesuits in Lancashire, England. Here he devoted himself to his studies, and became a favorite with his fellow students. At the close of his collegiate course at Stonyhurst he carried off the silver medal for rhetoric, and was acknowledged as one of the foremost orators of that school of rhetoric and eloquence.

On leaving Stonyhurst, it was his intention to become an officer in the British army; but O’Connell at that time had raised what was recognized by some as the flag of Irish nationality, and Thomas Francis Meagher three aside his prospects as an officer in the British service, and boldly threw himself into the national cause, as it was magnificently presented to him by that greatest of Irish patriots. In the abortive attempt of ’48, he therefore exposed himself to the power of the British Government; and, after the feeble and futile efforts among the mountains of Tipperary, he was arrested and transported for life, (never again to see his native land) which sentence still held good at the time of his death.

Renouncing his parole, he made his escape from Van Deiman’s Land [Tasmania Island] and arrived in New York on the 27th of June 1852. Immediately on his arrival, the citizens of all parties enthusiastically welcomed him. The Common Council of New York presented him with a complimentary address, and invited him to a public procession and the hospitalities of the city. This he declined in a very eloquent letter, alleging as his principal reason for so doing, that those who had shared the danger and misfortunes of the attempt to free his native land were still in captivity, and that it would be unworthy of him to accept any ovation while they were in exile. For the first three years of his residence in the United States he devoted himself to lecturing before the Literary societies of the great cities North and South and became acquainted with the leading men of both sections.

Early in 1856, he started the “Irish News,” but wishing to have a more active field for the exercise of his talents, he sold out in 1858, and went to Central America. The results of his explorations in that country appeared in a series of charmingly written articles in “Harper’s Magazine.”

On his return from Central America the war of rebellion broke out, and although attached to the South from personal associations of the most cordial character, he still felt and saw that it was his duty to sustain the authority of the United States, and he determined to support it by his presence in the field. Of his brilliant career in the field we are all-cognizant; suffice that the famous Irish Brigade under his command won imperishable laurels all through the Peninsular campaign, and participated in all of the important battles.

For his gallant and devoted services in defense of the National cause, president Johnson placed him on the list of brevets, on the termination of the war. He was appointed Secretary of Montana in 1865, and arrived here in October of that year. Since his arrival in Montana he has prominently identified himself with the material interests of the Territory, ever aiding them with that earnest, impulsive generosity of spirit, which was a marked characteristic of his nature.

Gifted with talents of a high order, and endowed with a liberal education, his efforts on the rostrum or in the study, were among the most brilliant of the day. Rich in the lore of ancient days, a ripe scholar, an observing traveler; uniting with the quick wit of his native land a fervid fancy and identity toned by the pathos of an exile’s life, his forensic appeals were models of beauty and eloquence.

In social life he was courteous, amiable and hospitable, and a welcome guest in every circle. The intelligence of his untimely death spread a shadow of gloom over every heart, and the public tributes of respect are but the exponents of the sincerest sorrow by the people.

[The Montana Post July 6, 1867 carried this original obituary.]

General Meagher second wife, Elizabeth Townsend and a son Thomas Francis Meagher III, by his first marriage, survive him. A statue commemorates General Meagher’s heroic life on the front lawn of the Montana State Capitol in Helena.

[Photo: TFMeagher in Civil War Uniform]

The Battle of Cow Island

2009-04-13T12:47:00.003-06:00

[In this article the Irish story-teller Michael Foley relates his experiences at Cow Island in late September 1877, when the Nez Perces forded the Missouri River and skirmished with the small garrison stationed there to protect government and private freight stored from arriving steamboats. His interviewer Harry M. Miller, a reporter for the Belt Valley Times, fortuitously captured this story for just two weeks later in 1901 Mike Foley passed away. Despite some hyperbole and the language of the 19th century, Foley's story is generally accurate and in far greater detail than any other account of this small, but important fight. Except for the Cow Island fight, the subsequent Cow Creek Canyon fight, and the Nez Perces encampment between these two engagements, Howard and Miles would not have caught and captured Chief Joseph and most of his Nez Perces, sadly ending their long trek on the Trail of Courage. Ken Robison]

How Ten Men Defeated Three Hundred Nez Perce Warriors the Story of the Battle at Cow Island, When Chief Joseph’s Band Was Repulsed by the Determined Stand of a Little Body of Brave White Men.

Justice of the Peace Michael Foley is just about the busiest man we know of in these parts. The judge is a democrat and last fall was elected as a justice of the peace for the East Belt precinct.

Now the judge has never studied Blackstone, and he probably would not be considered a reliable authority on law in general, but it has been found that usually, his decisions stand the test of an appeal in the higher court. One thing is certain, and that is that no man has ever dared to question the judge’s honesty upon all occasions.

In addition to weighty problems of the law, the solution of which occupies a very large part of the judge’s time, he owns a ranch a few miles down the creek that requires some of his personal attention. That is not all, he has a contract to haul all the mine props up to the mine from the place they are unloaded from the railroad cars and while he makes no professions of being a particularly wicked man, he seems to be determined to have no rest, so he had himself appointed deputy license collector for the Belt district. With these manifold duties devolving upon him, it can readily be understood that the judge is not an idle man. In fact, the judge’s propensity for active labor is so marked that some of his friends have been heard to remark that they would be willing to bet their last white chip that when he went to his “eternal rest” he would kick over the traces and go to work. But the judge can’t help it. He comes of a long line of ancestors who for centuries have toiled among the shamrock and potato fields of Ireland. it is just as natural for him to love to work as it is natural for nurse girls to love policeman. he was born with the spirit of hustle upon him and he has been hustling ever since that momentous occasion. He hustled away from home and across the ocean when a mere boy hustled for grub among the “yellow kids” on the Bowery of New York, hustled his passage down the east coast of America, across the Isthmus of Panama and up the western coast, landing at the Golden Gate in 1861. He hustled among the early pioneers of Idaho, Washington and Montana and some day he will hustle himself into an honorable grave and 10 to 1 will register a kick with old St. Peter because he can’t come back and shovel dirt in on his own coffin.

Like many of the pioneers, he has enjoyed prosperity, suffered poverty and met adventure.

There have been times when he had several thousand dollars of his own in his inside pocket. He was among the early settlers in the Neihart-Barker mining districts and now owns mining claims there that, with silver at $103, would yield him a rich competence.

There have been times when he spent his last two-bit piece and went hungry for days at a stretch.

Adventure! Well, Justice Foley has had his full share of the hair raising variety. Probably no other man in the state of Montana has stood face to face with death, on land and sea, as often as has the Judge.

He was a deputy sheriff in the early days of the Barker mining camp, and in his time he has bumped up against some pretty tough characters.

Upon more than one occasion he has looked down the yawning depths of the barrel of a six-shooter when the nervous trembling of a finger would have sent his soul into eternity; yet no man ever saw Judge Foley display the pallid flag of fear.

Chief among his adventures in the early days of Montana was that historical occasion upon which he and nine companions fought and defeated Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians and his band of 300 fighting savages.

Robert Vaughn, in his book, “Then and Now,” makes brief mention of a fight that occurred between Chief Joseph’s Indians and some men that were camped on Cow island in the Missouri river, below Fort Benton. That fight was probably one of the most remarkable of the many bloody battles in which the Nez Perce Indians engaged during their retreat from Idaho, across Montana towards the Canadian Line. It seems almost incredible that 10 men could successfully withstand repeated attacks by such a howling horde of scalp hunters as composed Chief Joseph’s band at that time. After Joseph’s capture a few days later he told General Miles that the little band at Cow island were the hardest fighters he had ever been up against.

The writer dropped into the Judge’s office the other day to get the story of this battle and right here might be mentioned a little coincidence that will probably strike some of our readers as being a little bit odd. When I opened the door and stepped into the little office where justice and peace settle neighborhood quarrels and fine petty offenders I found the Judge intently studying a piece of not paper that was yellow and ragged with age and upon which there appeared some writing.

The judge’s face was wrinkled and screwed into a frown that suggested dun bills. “Good morning, Judge; what have you there, a due bill?” “Yes, sir,” and the judge slapped the paper down on the desk under his hand. “Yes, sir, I have a due bill and every time I get it out and look at it I very nearly lose my patriotism. Read it.” He passed the paper over the desk. It contained the following memorandum:

“Cow Island, on Missouri River, Montana, September 26, 1877.--The following is a true and correct statement of losses by the Nez Perce Indians while in charge of the government freight at Cow Island on the 22nd of September, 1877, at which time said Indians burnt and destroyed 250 tons of government and individual freight:
“Cash................................. $475
“Trunk..................................... 5
“Two robes.............................24
“Two blankets.........................24
“One suit clothes.....................40
“One suit clothes.....................30
“Michael Foley.”

“Now, if you had fought an army of red devils for 30 hours, trying to defend government property, and had had a sort of an idea all that time that your scalp was going to be dangling from an Indian war belt, and had lost every measly red cent you had on earth, you would rather expect the government to make your loss good, wouldn’t you? Yes, well, so did I, and while my claim was duly presented, not one cent of it was ever allowed. That’s why I don’t always feel as patriotic as a good citizen should.”

“Judge, do you know that I came in here to ask you about that very light, and it was a bid odd that I should find you with this paper in your hand, don’t you think so?"

“It was funny, wasn’t it. So you want me to tell you about the Cow island fight?” The Judge removed his glasses and laid them upon a copy of the Montana code. “Yes, certainly I will tell you about it. By the way did you ever hear why this island was called Cow island? Away back in the early part of the nineteenth century some traders found a lonely, solitary cow on the island. She was hundreds of miles away from any others of her kind and was probably the pioneer cow of Montana. Without doubt she had been stolen from some white settlement away down east and driven into the wilderness by the Indians. The traders named it Cow island. The island contained several hundred acres of land and was covered with as pretty a growth of cottonwood timber as ever I saw. I have heard that some of the Indians made their headquarters there in the early times and I guess there have been enough pow-wows and dances and Indian romances on the island to make two or three of Fenimore Cooper’s novels if they were all known and written up. Some one was telling me just the other day, that the island is gone; has been eaten up by the hungry current of the Missouri river and that the place don’t look like it did when we had our little scrap there.

“I reckon that fight of our was about the warmest thing Cow island ever saw.” The Judge was smoking a pipe filled with fragrant tobacco. For a long time he sat tilted back in his chair, gazing at the floating blue clouds of smoke that circled above his head. Even the writer began to see tomahawks, scalping knives and war bonnets in the smoke.

“Yes, I’ll tell you about it.” He ran his hand back over his shining crown. “You see I haven’t a hair on the top of my head,” and there was just the glimmer of a twinkle in his eye. “What? Oh, no, the Indians didn’t take it, but they came pretty derned near it, and don’t you forget it.

“About the first of September, 1877, Col. George Clendenin appointed me as clerk to ship freight from Cow island to points in Montana, principally Deer Lodge, Fort Shaw, Helena and Missoula. At that time the water in the Missouri was very low and boats were unable to reach Fort Benton. The Josephine line of steamboats unloaded at Cow island and it was this freight that I was looking after. The government had an engineering outfit working at Dalphin rapids, a few miles further up the river. About the 20th of September they moved their commissary stores down to Cow island. A sergeant, a corporal, and seven soldiers were in charge of the supplies. They piled the stuff up at a point about 100 yards above were the government supplies were piled and covered it with tarpaulins and pitched their tent immediately alongside.

“We were not camped on the island, but along the east bank of the river. To keep the water from running into their tent and supplies in case of a storm, they dug a ditch about 2 1/2 feet deep all the way round. The dirt from the ditch they threw up on the outside. To that little ditch and wall of dirt we 10 men, later on, owed our lives. For 30 hours we lay behind that little earthen breastwork and, with our Winchesters kept death and a howling horde of savages at bay.

“We had heard that the Nez Perce Indians were heading for Canada, closely pursued by General Howard, but we had figured out that they would cross the Missouri river at Claggett and we did not anticipate for a moment that we would see any of them.

“About 3 o’clock on the 22nd of September we saw some Indians coming down the bluffs on the west side of the river and it was not long until Joseph’s entire band had crossed over to the east side where we were camped.

“We got inside the little bank of dirt and waited for developments. Joseph, Looking Glass and several others soon came down near to us and made signs for us to come out. I had seen them both in Washington, and knew them as soon as they got up where I could get a look at them. I went out unarmed to meet them. Joseph had an interpreter with him who spoke very good English. He asked me who was in charge of the big pile of freight. I told him I was and then he wanted to know who owned it and asked if we had any whisky or ammunition. I told him that we had no whisky and that all the ammunition we had was a little for our own guns, which was the truth.

“Joseph said something to the interpreter and the interpreter turning to me, asked: ‘You know who Indians are? pointing to Joseph and Looking Glass.'

“Yes,” I replied. “You are Chief Joseph and Looking Glass. I was among your people in Washington before I came here; my heart has always been good toward your people. I know you very well.”

“Joseph seemed rather pleased at my little speech and then told me he wanted me to give them something to eat. I told them to go to the big pile of freight and take what they wanted. I went with them down to the freight pile and the squaws took several sacks of sugar, some hams, hard tack and a lot of other truck. They carried it about a half a mile up the river to a little bench land where the whole lousy outfit had a feast and pow-wow.

“While the squaws were carrying awy the provisions Joseph told me his men would not fight us. He said: ‘We are across the water from the old woman’--meaning General Howard--’and I want to get in a good country where my young men and our horses can get plenty to eat.’

“I told him that around the Little Rockies and the Bear Paw mountains the country was covered with buffalo, deer, antelope and elk and that grass was as high as his ponies’ backs--and that was the truth, too.

“Well, after they had filled up on government bacon and hard tack the whole outfit pulled and moved over the bench into a little basin out of sight of our camp.

“I did not like the move and stole up into a little ravine from where I could see what they were up to. After they had all gone over there the bucks sat down in a circle and began to pass the pipe. I noticed that about one-fourth of them passed the pipe along and would not smoke. I felt pretty sure that that meant trouble for us, and I went back and told my comrades that we were in for it; that the Indians were going to fight us.

“The Dutch corporal laughed at me and said, ‘they won’t fight us. Joseph has given us his word.’

“All right,’ I replied, ‘you wait until about sundown and see if I don’t know something about Indians myself.’

“Sure enough, just about sundown, while we were all standing around drinking coffee and eating hard tack, there was the w-h-i-z, w-h-i-z of bullets in the air, followed by the crack of a dozen rifles. One of our men was hit in the palm of the hand while in the act of taking out a piece of hard tack.

“‘In the ditch with your guns!': I yelled, and down we went into the little breastwork, every man with his Winchester.

“I don’t know how it happened, but I took command of that little party and while I dare say we did not fight according to army tactics, I rather think, as the preacher says, that we ‘made our influence felt.’

“Well, sir, there was about 200 Indians lined up on the hill east of and above us and the way they dropped lead into our little circle of breastworks was simply a terror.

“We hugged down in the ditch on the side next to the Indians and their shots all went over our heads or landed in the dirt bank. Well, after a few minutes of that sort of thing we began to get hot about it. I had a made-to-order Winchester rife that was the best gun I ever handled. When I took a look along the sights of that gun and got the pumping machinery into motion something usually dropped and I want to tell you that several things dropped on that occasion. I noticed that the rest of the boys seemed to understand their guns pretty well and I reckon it was not more than a few minutes before we had all those Indians driven out of sight.”

“Did you hit any of them?”

The Judge paused for a full half-minute. “Oh, no, of course we didn’t hit any of them; they were a nice lot of Indians and just fell dead to be accommodating.”

“One would suppose,” he continued, “that that night would have seemed endless to us 10 men, lying behind out breastworks with a horde of savages circling around the outside determined to get our scalps. On the contrary, however, the hours were so full of excitement that morning came before we scarcely realized that night had set in. All night long the Indians kept firing into us. One of the soldiers, a fellow named Buck Walters was shot in the shoulder.

“There was a coulee just north of the pile of freight, that led back from the river, and through this coulee the Indians were able to get at the pile of freight without us being able to see them. Working on the side of the freight pile furtherest away from us, they carried everything away they wanted and set fire to the remainder. I believe they intended to carry everything away they wanted and then rush in and kill us, but the fire they started lit things up so well that we could see in every direction and we soon convinced them that it was decidedly unhealthy for an Indian to get out in the light.

“Ah, sir, but that little scene in the drama of Joseph’s retreat before General Howard, and just before his capture by General Miles, had the stage setting that was awe-inspiring, brilliant and tragic. There were 250 sacks of bacon in the freight pile ad when they began to blaze the flames leaped higher than the surrounding hills.

“West of us rolled the turbulent Missouri, looking, in the light of the fire, like a river of blood and flame. East of us rose the bluffs, across the face of which flitted strange and grotesque shadows, called into shape by the leaping and jumping flames. Ever and anon we could see dashes of fire, like the blaze of a fire fly leap out from some shadowy place and then would come the song of a bullet over our heads or near us, followed by the report of a rifle.

“Four or five times during the night the Indians tried to rush in on us, but we always met them with such a volley of lead that they would retreat out of sight. We fired 600 rounds of ammunition that night. I believe the fire was what saved us, though.

“When daylight came there was not an Indian in sight. we kept pretty quite for awhile fearing they were laying for us to show ourselves, but after cautiously getting up for a few seconds at a time without anything happening we finally decided they were gone. We began to stir around and stretch ourselves then. Pretty soon, after sun-up, however, two bucks appeared on the top of the eastern bluffs. They appeared to be making signs to others to come up and help kill the lying white men. I dropped down on one knee, took deliberate aim with my trusty old gun, and fired first at one and then at the other. They jumped up in the air and tumbled over like a deer that had been shot through the heart.”

"Do you mean that you killed them?”

There was another pause during which the judge eyed his interrogator.

“No, of course I did not kill them; they just died of heart disease,”--and then he went on with the story--”We did not see any more of the Indians for an hour. After about that long a bullet came--z-i-p-p--into the sand right among us and several seconds later the report of what we though must be a small cannon came reverberating up the river.

“On the point of a bluff about 800 yards down the river from where we were, we could see a puff of smoke floating slowly away on the breeze. While we were watching this smoke we saw another puff belch forth from near the top of the bluff and about two seconds later another big bullet whizzed through the air and we all ducked our heads like a lot of geese.

“Well, sir, that thing kept up for an hour. We did not know what to make of it and rather enjoyed it. We could see the little puff of smoke spring up and then have plenty of time to dodge down into the ditch before the ball would come, and then we would jump up and shout defiance at the red devils before the report would reach us. We really like the sport. I heard afterwards that the gun was one that had been built to shoot elephants with, and that Joseph’s crew had taken it from some Englishman they had captured in the National park. They ‘got next’ to how to use it all right for at a distance of 800 yards they could put a bullet into our little circus ring every time. After about an hour of that sort of target practice with their new gun, the Indians withdrew and we saw nothing more of them.

“Early in the morning of September 22, I had loaded out some bull teams for O. G. Cooper, now of Choteau, and one for Frank Farmer, who died recently. The Indians went up Cow creek and overtook these freight teams. They killed a man named Bradley, who was with Cooper, and burnt and destroyed the wagons and goods. Cooper and Farmer escaped and came back to Cow Island being very much surprised to find us alive. They went to Fort Benton and on the day they left, Colonel Clendenin came down the creek along. When we told him what happened he said, “Well, Mike, it is too bad I was not here to help you whip the scoundrels.’

“Colonel Clendenin told me that one of the North-West steamboats, while trying to get over the shallows at Grand Island, 20 miles below, got stuck on a sandbar. He thought that there was a doctor on the boat and that it would be better to take the two wounded men down there, where they could be taken care of. We had some flatboats and skiffs tied up along the river bank, but the Indians had turned them all loose except one small skiff that we had dragged up into the brush and they had failed to find. After the dusk of evening began to fail--that was the second day after the fight--we put the two wounded men in the skiff, and leaving the other men in the camp, Col. Clendenin and I started down and pretty soon we were hailed by a party from the bank. They turned out to be the Fort Benton volunteers, with Major Ilges, Col. Donnelly and Judge Tattan in the lead.

“They wanted us to go back and show them the ford across the river and join them in the chase after the Indians. We explained to them that we were taking wounded men down to the steamboat and also advised them not to cross the river. They were only 75 of them all told, and we told them we could not hope to do anything with the 300 fighting bucks with Joseph and if they went after them they would only get killed. I told Colonel Clendenin that if he wanted to go all right, but that I had had quite enough for one round. The colonel stayed with me and went down to the steamboat. The volunteers went up to our camp, crossed the river and followed the Indians. The only thing in God-a-Mighty’s world that saved their lives was the fact that Joseph thought they were the advance guard of General Howard’s command. As it was, one man was killed and the volunteers came back to Cow island pell mell and went home.

“We got the wounded men to the steamboat about 11 o’clock that night leaving them in the care of the doctor whom we found on the boat. They both recovered. I was so dead tired and exhausted, not having had any rest for three days and nights, that I told the colonel to go on back to our camp while I would lie down and sleep a few hours and would be back to our camp by 10 o’clock. We had to walk back, not being able to pull the boat against the current of the river. The colonel started at once while I stretched out on the floor of the boat to get some sleep. The purser called me about 4 o’clock in the morning, and I started back.

“When about half way and trudging along at a pretty stiff gait a bullet suddenly kicked up the dust just to one side of me and almost instantly another whistled through the air so close to my face that I could taste it. I saw the two red varmints before the crack of their guns reached me. They were off to my right about half way up the buffs and 300 yards away. Well, you can just bet I wasn’t long in getting action on my old Winchester.”

The Judge paused as if expecting something.

“What became of the Indians?”

There was just the glimmer of a blaze in the judge’s eye as he again took his feet down off the table and leaned over the desk.

“It strikes me, young man, that you ask some mighty foolish questions. How do I know what became of the Indians? I reckon they just got tired and laid down there to dream of the happy hunting grounds. Say, did you ever see a scalped Indian? No? Well, I have, and don’t you forget it either.

“Down at my ranch I have a handkerchief such as Indians sometimes wear around their heads. There is a bullet hole in it and even yet some dried splotches of blood. I picked it up on the spot where the Indians first fired upon us. I have also a fine hair brush that I picked up in the same place and they had evidently dropped when we fired into them.

“A few days after our fight, General Howard and staff arrived at Cow island, camped all night, and the next afternoon started down the river to join General Miles. A few days later occurred the historic capture of Chiefs Joseph and Looking Glass.” -- Harry M. Miller of Great Falls, in the Belt Times.

[Source: Belt Valley Times/Great Falls Tribune 13 Jul 1901, p. 5]

Charlie Russell Is The Bloomin' Hero

2009-04-13T12:42:00.002-06:00

New Play By A Former Great Falls Man, The Scene of Which Is Laid in Montana and Charley Russell Is the hero--It Will Shortly Be Produced.

[Note: Has anyone ever heard of this play about Charlie Russell? This story appeared in the 16 August 1906 Great Falls Daily Leader]

At last Charles M. Russell, cowboy artist, horse wrangler, sculptor, story teller and all-around good fellow, has been handed a bunch of real fame. A play has been put together by a couple of enterprising young men of St. Paul, which threatens to be produced on a real stage with Russell as the hero.

Russell is the only artist living who can reproduce the real west of the past, on canvas, and once upon a time he consented that a cigar be named after him; that was supposed to be the limit, and “C. M. Russell, the Cowboy Artist,” decided then and there to go out of the fame business. But the cigars were as smoke compared to the latest, a four-act play of the wild and woolly kind, with Indians, cowboys and different varieties of jiggeroos, written by a former Great Falls man on an inspiration furnished by Russell. At least that is the way it is advertised in the St. Pul Dispatch’s dramatic news. Mr. Thode, author of the new play, was formerly a resident of this city, and his mother and brother make their home here at the present time, the latter being engaged in the express business. The Dispatch says:

“A play written by two St. Paul men and submitted recently to George Fawcett has evoked a very favorable opinion from that experienced actor and director. The new work, a four-act comedy drama, was written by Alfred J. Thode and Stanley E. Hills. They have entitled it fetchingly, in this day of wild west drama, “The Cowboy Artist.”

“Unlike Clyde Fitch and many other native dramatists who have put the west behind the footlights, Messrs. Thode and Hills know the people and the life that they describe. They lived long among the miners and the ;cow punchers.’ It was the sight of C. M. Russell, the ‘cowboy artist,’ in a Montana saloon, surrounded by Indians that suggested the theme of the new play. The authors have placed the action in and around Helena, Mont. They have chosen a recent but picturesque period--the outbreak of the war with Spain.

“Mr. Fawcett, who was pleased especially with the correctness of the western life and characters, believes that the play would require merely a few technical changes for transformation into a possible Broadway success.”

John L. Clarke's First Oil Painting

2008-12-15T15:38:00.002-07:00

Real Oil Painting by Indian Louis W. Hill Discovers Red Man Artist in Glacier National Park.

[The talent of John L. Clarke, grandson of pioneer fur trader Malcolm Clarke and his Piegan Blackfeet wife, as a master wood-carver is well known. This story from the Daily Missoulian of 24 March 1912 is far less known.]

This is the unvarnished story of John Clark[e], a halfbreed Glacier park Indian. He never had seen a pot of oil paints, but he was a born artist and came into the light of things artistic with nature as his only teacher. Like all prodigies John, of course, remained to be discovered and the brush paints had to be furnished him before it really became known that he could reproduce in oils the marvelous scenic beauties which charmed him in his Rocky mountain environment.

Louis W. Hill is president of the Great Northern railway, but he lives his soul-life painting landscapes out in Uncle’s Sam’s mountain wonderland—Glacier national park.

One day, after traveling over the picturesque trails, Mr. Hill noticed his Indian guide sitting outside the Swiss chalet sketching with a stub lead pencil upon a rough board.

“What are you making, John?” he inquired, looking over the Indian’s shoulder.

“Huh, no make—just putting down what Great Spirit heap up hisself,” said John, intently adding the finishing touches to the outline of Two Medicine Falls, with the imposing mountain background, just as the eye sees it in the distance, looming up beyond the pretty waterfall, through the narrow vista which the fir-lined creek leaves open to the turbulent stream’s glacier source at the “top of the continent.”

“Superb!” exclaimed the amazed white critic, who had enjoyed the tutelage of some of the world’s most renowned scenic artists.

The red man was enthusiastically bombarded with a volley of eager questions concerning technique, etc. All of which was as Greek to the absorbed Indian sitting there using his lap for an easel. Simplified explanations of the white man only brought a mile over the bronze face. The Indian more astonished his admirer with the childlike statement that he liked the mountains and streams much, and just marked out the pictures of his eyes as a pastime.

Mr. Hill said no more to the guide because the fellow couldn’t talk art, but the artist-railway magnate did a lot of thinking that day, during the ride back over the trails to his private car at Midvale, Mont., the eastern gateway to park. Before leaving for St. Paul he again broached the subject to the redskin. John,” he said, “I’ll send you some paint and I want you to do that eye picture over for me on canvas.” The Indian looked rather puzzled, at first, but Mr. Hill finally made him understand just what he wanted. So, on returning to St. Paul, the railway chief ordered some paints, brushes and pieces of canvas about two and one-half by five feet sent to the nature artist up in the Rockies.

Just after Christmas Mr. Hill was busy at his desk pouring over matters pertaining to the operation of his great transcontinental railway when an express package was handed him. He unrolled it and was suddenly taken back to “God’s Own Country,” as he expressed it. There, before him, was Two Medicine falls and surroundings in the mountain fastness, clothed in all the radiance of its gorgeous, natural garb.

The original color painting, beautifully framed, now adorns a place in the costly art collection of at the Hill mansion on Summit avenue, St. Paul.

[Source: Missoulian Daily 24 Mar 1912, p. 12]

The Falls of the Missouri and The Birth of Great Falls

2008-12-15T15:14:00.001-07:00

by Ken Robison

[Partially adapted from the writings of Martha Edgerton Rolfe, Great Falls’ first woman settler]

We take for granted and under appreciate the majesty of our river, the mighty Missouri River. Early pioneer residents knew they were at this unique place because of the river and its spectacular falls and giant springs. They proudly showed the falls, the springs, and the river to every visitor. Great Falls was the new “Niagara of the West,” the Cataract City.

From its founding in the spring of 1884, the town of Great Falls grew very slowly. The arrival of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway in 1887 (later to become the Great Northern Railroad), greatly accelerated the growth of the town as dams were built to supply power and smelters and refineries to provide jobs. The founding settlers of Great Falls came from every direction, with some from established communities of Fort Benton, Helena, and the Sun River valley. Other early settlers came from the Midwest, Canada, and the East, while many came across the Atlantic Ocean as immigrants to this new land.

The first woman settler in Great Falls was Mrs. Martha Edgerton Rolfe, daughter of Montana’s first territorial Governor, Sydney Edgerton, and wife of founder Paris Gibson’s surveyor and lawyer, Herbert P. (H. P.) Rolfe. This remarkable woman, Martha or “Mattie” Rolfe, wrote about the fledgling little city in articles carried in the important Montana News Association historical series as inserts for Montana’s weekly newspapers. These stories were written under Martha Edgerton Plassmann using the name of her second husband, Theodore Plassmann. In 1939 after Mattie’s death her daughter, Mrs. Edith Maxwell, assembled a tribute to the early settlers of Great Falls, based on her mother’s observations. This was published in Great Falls Yesterday under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the New Deal. This account is partially adapted from the various writings of Martha Edgerton Rolfe Plassmann.

The spot on which one day the city of Great Falls was to be located is a beautiful and picturesque place on the bend of the Missouri River just below its confluence with Sun River known by the native Indians as Medicine River, where the foot of Long Pool widens to form lake-like Broadwater Bay. It is just above Black Eagle Falls, the first of the series of magnificent falls that give the town its chief reason for being. The site lies on a gentle slope rising from the river bank to the plains east and south with a charming view of the valley of Sun River and the distant Rockies to the west. Tall bluffs on the north and west follow the course of the river except for a break formed by Sun River valley.

The banks of the Missouri were lined with cottonwood trees, willows, and small brush, and the land north of lower Central Avenue was a grassy marsh. There were innumerable springs bursting forth from the east and south slopes and on the bottom lands. White Bear Islands lay in Long Pool above the mouth of Sun River. Gravelly Prospect Hill, called Lookout Butte by the Blackfeet, was south, and north across the river was Indian Hill, later known as Smelter Hill, where stood a tepee sheltering an Indian lookout who watched the movements of the buffalo herds and was on the alert for the approach of an enemy.

Where the Missouri narrowed below Broadwater Bay to form rapids in its rock ledges, its course became shallow and was used by countless herds of buffalo as a ford. Down the river on its south bank was the Giant Springs remarkable for its beauty and volume of its flow, the largest freshwater spring in the United States. The mystery of its source was long undetermined, though it is now known that Giant Springs has probably existed since the last ice age. The springs are a terminal point of the Madison aquifer, which begins about 75 miles south in the Little Belt Mountains. Sulphur Spring on the north bank, across from where Belt creek enters the Missouri, was a favorite watering place for wild game, and Indians used its waters for their curative powers.

The most remarkable and interesting features of the place were, the five falls of the Missouri, in the order of their occurrence: Black Eagle, Colter’s, Rainbow, Crooked, and Great Falls. From time immemorial the river in this lonely spot had dashed over the precipices in clouds of foam and spray and presenting a spectacle of beauty and grandeur scarcely rivaled in nature.

It seems strange that this region, so attractive in appearance, lay so long untouched by white civilization; that no trading post or mission was planted there or that no small settlement grew beside the ford. The explanation may lie in the fact that it was far from the chief “highways” of pioneer days and did not form a link between any considerable centers of population. Soil and grass conditions were not as favorable close to the site as in valleys such as Teton, Chestnut, and upper Sun River. Hostile Indian tribes met in battle here on the trail to buffalo, which also may have deterred the missionary and the settler from locating at this place.

Where Great Falls is now, immense herds of buffalo in former times crossed the Missouri on their way from the high plains along the east front of the Rockies to their summer grazing grounds in the Judith Basin and the Musselshell valley and were in turn followed by the Blackfeet tribes which lived on the plains east of the Rockies, and the Salish, Kutenai, Nez Perce, and Pend d’Oreille tribes from the valleys west of the Rockies on their hunting expeditions. The fording place, where the Great Northern railway bridge crosses the river directly above the first rapids was the only shallow crossing for nearly 40 miles in either direction and was marked by deep-worn trails. The Gros Ventre and the Crow frequently came north to hunt the buffalo when they returned to the northern plains. It was inevitable that the region near the ford should be the scene of many bloody encounters between the hostile tribes which met here.

The Indian tribes far down the Missouri told Lewis and Clark of the falls, describing the cottonwood tree with the black eagle’s nest in it on the island below the uppermost falls. When their expedition reached the vicinity of the falls they portaged from the mouth of Belt Creek to a point opposite White Bear Islands above the present city where they made camp and celebrated the Fourth of July in 1805, the first ever commemorated in Montana. The Lewis and Clark portage route is now commemorated by the Great Falls Portage National Historic Landmark.

The expedition spent much time mapping and examining the surrounding country and the falls, and a number of mishaps and adventures took place during their stay. Sacagawea, the famed Indian woman, became dangerously ill while in camp at the mouth of Belt Creek, but found relief by drinking the water of the sulphur spring near the opposite shore of the Missouri. She, her husband, Charbonneau, and Captain Clark were exploring the banks of the Missouri just above Great Falls when they were overtaken by a terrific rain and hail storm. They took shelter under some shelving rocks when a wall of water rushed down it. Clark saw it in time to save himself and Sacagawea, burdened with her child, and with the help of the terrified Charbonneau brought them to safety, although the water was waist high before they could scramble up the steep side of the ravine. As it was they lost some articles of value. Clark’s compass was later recovered, but his umbrella which he must have cherished highly to have carried it on the long and arduous expedition was lost forever unless some future explorer unearths it from the mud at the bottom of the ravine or from the debris on the banks of the Missouri. The expedition attempted to construct a boat of skins stretched over an iron framework, but were compelled to give it up as a failure. White, or grizzly bears which abounded in the trees and brush of the river banks made hunting extremely hazardous, and several of the men, including Captain Lewis, narrowly escaped death in their encounters with the ferocious animals. The members of the expedition made two canoes from cottonwood logs, deposited the iron boat frame and a few other articles in a cache on a bluff near the islands, and set forth on their journey up the river.

A half century later, in 1854, Governor Isaac I. Stevens, while exploring this region for a practicable northern railroad route, examined the falls and their surroundings and described them in his painstaking reports. A member of the Stevens expedition, 1st Lieutenant John Mullan, was commissioned to build a military road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton in 1858. He made a preliminary survey through the site of Great Falls for a route up the Missouri, but abandoned the project because of the difficulties of building through the Missouri canyon. In 1859-60, Lieut. Mullan completed construction of the Mullan Military Wagon Road linking Fort Benton to Walla Walla. The Mullan Road from Sun River Leaving to Fort Benton lay well north of the Great Falls area.

The military explorations of Captain William F. Raynolds in 1860 covered the upper Missouri region, but only touched upon the river at widely separated points. One of these was at the falls of the Missouri where he noted the black eagle and its nest in the tree on the island below the first of the series of falls and decided it must be the same which was described by Lewis and Clark.

The Northern Pacific railroad, advancing through North Dakota was ready in 1872 to extend its surveys from the base of the Rockies to Bismarck. Thomas P. Roberts, a member of its staff of engineers, was detailed to make a reconnaissance from Three Forks down the Missouri to Fort Benton to ascertain its capacity for navigation by light draught steamers. On July 27, 1872, the party set out in a 24-foot boat to map the course of the river, determine its flowage and take sounding for depth. Mr. Roberts writes interestingly of the noteworthy landscape features a number of which he and his party gave names. From Half Breed rapids to a mile below the mouth of Sun River, the Missouri passes over the flat bed of what was once an arm of Glacial Lake Great Falls, with a hardly perceptible current. This stretch of calm water with a channel depth of ten feet throughout, Mr. Robert’s party named Long Pool and considered it the most striking feature of the upper Missouri. The expedition reached the lower end of Long Pool on August 6th, remaining there for several days to await the arrival of a wagon and ox-team from Sun River to transport the equipment over the 20-mile portage. Instructions were to survey for a railroad around the falls if the upper river was navigable. The reconnaissance showed that light steamers could pass over it if wing dams were constructed to deepen the channel where islands divided the flow, and the boats were cordelled over Half Breed rapids. They surveyed a line for the projected railroad and made an examination of the falls. Roberts saw a large cottonwood tree with its top broken off on the island below Black Eagle Falls. “Among the branches still remaining is a black eagle’s nest. When I first approached the place, riding, and appearing on the bluff above it, an old eagle sailed out directly toward me and soared immediately over my head, so close that I became alarmed for the safety of my hat. After a moment’s survey it lighted on a jutting rock within a hundred feet of me, where it remained until one of the men coming up discharged a pistol at it before I could stop him. He missed the eagle. As I had a good opportunity to judge the age of this bird, his feathers being soiled, torn and otherwise old looking, I came to the conclusion that probably he was the same eagle, whose nest in the same position, on the same island, was seen by Lewis and Clark in 1805. . . The sight of this eagle was to me one of the most peculiarly pleasant incident of our reconnaissance.”

The incidents that led to the establishment of a city at this spot were told by Paris Gibson, its founder, in an article written in 1890: “In the spring of 1879, [when Paris Gibson resided in Fort Benton] while stopping at Fort Shaw for a few days, I saw for the first time a copy of Lewis and Clark’s expedition and noted with much surprise its description of the falls of the Missouri river.” Although Gibson resolved to visit the falls as soon as possible, it was not until the summer of 1881 that he, in company with H. P. Rolfe, explored the area of the falls of the Missouri. Gibson realized that Rolfe, the lawyer and surveyor, was the man he needed to lay out and help establish the city of his dreams, a ‘Minneapolis’ on the Missouri. In May 1882, Gibson and Rolfe made camp under a big cottonwood tree, just below the head of the rapids, and “devoted a few days to a careful exploration of this great water power, of which but little had hitherto been known. There were no settlers here at that time save one Lucus Caranza, who occupied a small cabin on the west side of the river, and who had evidently selected this place because it was one of the most solitary, out-of-the-way spots in this part of Montana.”

Paris Gibson had been an early settler of St. Anthony Falls, Minnesota, from which Minneapolis grew, establishing the first flour mill and later, a woolen mill. The panic of 1873 swept away his property and he came to Fort Benton, Montana in 1879 to rebuild his fortune in sheep ranching. He and his partner Henry McDonald, brought in one of the first bands of sheep in northern Montana. It is not difficult to understand why, as one of the first to use the water power developed at St. Anthony, Gibson’s imagination was immediately captured by the possibilities of the immense power which might be produced at the falls of the Missouri. In addition, although Gibson does not credit them, both John K. Castner founder of Belt and Robert Vaughn of Sun River promoted the possibilities of the area to him. Gibson continues his story, “I was so impressed with the belief that an important city could be built here that I decided at once to take steps to acquire the water power and the most important lands at the head of the falls for townsite purposes. It then became apparent that a man should be found with large resources and who at the same time was a believer in the possibilities of the far west.

“In looking over the field it occurred to me that James J. Hill was the man . . . As I had known Mr. Hill since we were young men, I immediately opened a correspondence with him as to the falls of the Missouri enterprise, which resulted in a meeting with him in St. Paul on November 25, 1882, only months after I first examined the falls [in detail].
“I had in the meantime secured nearly all the essential or vital points around the falls and at the head of the rapids. A notable feature of this meeting was that it did not occupy more than an hour, during which time Mr. Hill examined my maps and listened to my report as to the water power, coal, iron and other resources of the surrounding country.
“A short agreement was made in duplicate, in which our mutual relations to the enterprise were stated, and equipped with a large amount of land script I was, after a few hours, on my way back to Montana. Doubtless my ability to acquire a large tract of land in a solid body at the falls of the Missouri was due largely to Mr. Hill’s prompt action at the time, as it enabled me to survey and locate the most desirable tracts before our plans were known to the public . . . Mr. Vaughn and surveyor Rolfe were the only persons in Montana besides myself who at the time knew for what purposes these land entries were being made.”

When Gibson first saw the future site of Great Falls, Lucas Caranza, or Conance, as it is spelled in the land office records, was the sole resident. There was, however, a lumber yard, with George Wood in charge, established by A. M. Holter & Bro. in 1881 on the west bank of the Missouri directly below the mouth of Sun River. The company had a sawmill at Stickney Creek and rafted the lumber down the Missouri to the Sun River yard which was to serve the needs of Fort Benton and the settlers in the surrounding country. They took a section of desert land extending from Sun river down the west and north bank of the Missouri for two miles, but failed to get water on it so let it go by default.

Other settlers had come and gone. Robert S. Ford had taken a claim about a mile west of the Missouri and north of Sun River, and Colonel Broadwater had had a claim near Ford’s in 1872 close to the junction of the two rivers, but neither made final proof. In 1879 Wyllys A. Hedges made an entry on the land relinquished by Broadwater and had acquired title to it on November 20, 1880, the first homestead in the later limits of Great Falls. Robert P. Walker took up a desert claim on the west side in 1880, obtaining title to 160 acres of it as a homestead 20 June, 1884.

In August of 1882 Paris Gibson, with Sidney Edgerton, Charles Gibson and H. P. Rolfe made final selection of the site and made a preliminary survey of the town preparatory to placing script on it and in the winter, after Gibson had formed a partnership with J. J. Hill, it was secured by soldiers’ script and additional land was filed on.

Among those who settled on land included in the townsite in 1882 were Charles Gibson, Frank Pottle, James Kelly, Tim Collins, George B. Rivers, David Wallace and Lucas Conance. Most of the land was taken as timber claims although they were entirely destitute of trees, the remainder represented homestead entries and desert claims. On January 23, 1883, the greater number of these claims were relinquished by the settlers and obtained by Hill and Gibson by the use of soldiers’ script. Through an act of Congress, veterans of the Civil War could secure additional homestead lands and were not required to live on them. It was a common practice of land speculators to buy up this script to gain possession of large tracts of land along railroads. It is probable that “Red Mike” Hendrickson, Pat Hughes, John Woods and John Hackshaw, whose names do not appear in the land office records but who were among the earliest settlers, held as squatters, without giving notice of entry, the land they settled on for Gibson until he had the script to secure it.

Title to government lands could be gained in several ways. A timber claim must be located in forest land; a homestead required residence and planting a specified number of acres to crops; a tree claim, that water must be brought on the land by a ditch. A squatter was one who settled on new or unsurveyed lands which entitled him to certain rights as a locator.

In July-August 1883 H. P. Rolfe led a team on the ground again to make the final surveys. The survey team included Rolfe as chief engineer and leader of the expedition, Frank Potter, John Woods, James Mattson, David Archer, and cook Norman Jones. In the words of David Archer:

“We left Fort Benton with a team and wagon loaded with all the necessities of making a prolonged camp, including a large tent and a small row boat. We followed the old freight road that went to Helena and Virginia City and which I had been over fifteen years ago. When we got to our destination, we were on the west side of the Missouri River. We put hobbles on the horses and left them and the wagon on that side of the river and took everything except a couple of sacks of oats, across the river in the boat and on a raft, that we made. We could look across the river, most anytime while we were working, and see that the horses were all right, as the whole area was flat and covered with Buffalo grass. We would row across the river, each evening and give the horses a feed of oats so they would stay around the wagon.
“There was not a building, of any kind, where the City of Great Falls stands today. There was, however, one small log cabin near the Giant Springs but this area was not included in the original townsite. It was my job to drive the stakes and I drove a numbered stake at every corner of every block in the original townsite. We were about equally divided in our opinions as to the future of Great Falls. Personally, I could not see that it would ever have a chance to amount to anything and based my reasoning upon the fact that there were no railroads and the big falls would prevent the steamboats from ever coming any closer than Fort Benton, so it looked to me that if there was to be a city it would have to be Fort Benton. Anyway I was only here for what wages I could earn and did not have any money to invest in city lots.
We found rattlesnakes to be very plentiful here and all of us had many close calls of being bitten. I killed twenty four of them, during the six weeks that we were on that job.”

Johnstown was a hopeful settlement on the west side, later the site of the Great Northern roundhouse, consisting of a stopping place and a barn. This place was named for John Largent, the well-known pioneer, and was conducted by E. B. Largent. C. N. Dickinson, who paid his first visit to Great Falls in the summer of 1883, found Rolfe’s camp on the south bank of the Missouri (later the site of Black Eagle Park and now Memorial or Centene Stadium), and the crew surveying at Giant Springs. George Chichester came this spring and took up a ranch on the site of the Ayrshire Dairy. The nearest post office was Ulidia, an evanescent village across the river from today’s Cascade, and the postmaster journeyed to it once a week to bring the mail to the people at Great Falls.

Johnny Wood built a log cabin on Tenth avenue south in the autumn of 1883, and in the next spring the fledgling townsite of Great Falls began with Fort Benton carpenter Josiah Peeper building a small 14 x 20 feet fir log cabin at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifth Street [later 500 Fifth Avenue South]. This cabin was the first permanent residence built in the new townsite of Great Falls. Today, this little cabin has survived the years, fires, demolition permits and is known as the Vinegar Jones Cabin. The city’s first residence now stands in a place of honor in Gibson Park.

In May, 1884, H. P. Rolfe brought his family from Fort Benton to move onto their pre-emption claim, in what is now known as the ‘Rolfe Addition.’ Mrs. Martha Edgerton Rolfe described their life in the fledgling town:

“Our [claim] shack stood near the intersection of Twenty-sixth street and Third avenue south. It was an unsightly structure, built of rough boards, sides and roof covered with tar paper, giving it a funereal appearance. Its situation in part atoned for the shack’s deficiencies, as it commanded an extensive view, from the Highwoods in the east, to the curve of the Belt mountains, to the far-away Rockies, shutting off the head of the verdant Sun river valley in the west. The only disfiguring feature in the landscape was constituted by the few small, board shacks, glaringly yellow in the bright sunshine, where dwelt a few homesteaders on part of the present city’s site. All of these were men, and none had their families with them, the majority being bachelors. . . .
“To cross the river, a crude ferry was provided at the upper end of Broadwater bay. There was also said to be a ford somewhere near the bridge, but I never saw anyone attempt its passage, although at low water, this might have been feasible.
“Most of the supplies for the pioneers of Great Falls, came from Helena or Fort Benton, and were brought by wagons when ordered by individuals. There being no place to store them, and no ice for their preservation during the hot summer months, but small amounts were kept on hand. Careful planning was required on the part of Great Falls’ sole housewife to avoid a famine, neighborly borrowing being out of the question.
“Fresh meat was rarely obtainable and then only when a small amount was brought in for sale by Chris Dickinson. Bacon and ham were the stand-bys, and for vegetables, potatoes now and then. I do not remember seeing any fresh fruit that season, but dried fruit took its place.
“There were no wells or springs, with the exception of Huy’s spring, a small brackish pool west of us and some distance away. All water was brought in barrels from this spring, and had to be used sparingly. It was unfit to drink, but we drank it, notwithstanding.
“The road leading to Belt and the Highwoods was about were Second avenue south is now, and was not far from our house. Our lamp, after nightfall, served as a beacon light for the belated travelers over this highway, for which they often expressed themselves as being grateful. Roads were not so good then as now, and in the shadows cast by twilight or moonlight were deceptive. It was difficult to tell whether one was driving on comparatively level ground, or if the next revolution of the carriage wheels would lead to a drop of several feet; and over a stretch of prairie it was hard to steer one’s course, after twilight or darkness obliterated all landmarks.
“The wildness then of the country about Great Falls may be judged when it is known that a small herd of antelope passed our house almost every evening, on their way to drink at Huy’s spring. Once, when we were at dinner, an antelope stationed himself not a stone’s throw from our window, and watched us curiously as we do the animals at a zoological park. He did not seem in the least frightened, but examined us at leisure before joining the rest of the herd.
“I had brought some fine Plymouth Rock chickens from my former home at Fort Benton. They were of frying size, and we expected them to furnish a welcome addition to our limited food supply. Alas for our expectations! At midday a coyote trotted over the hill from Boston Heights, and slaughtered them right and left before we put it to flight.
“Our shack was lined with sheeting in the laudable effort to render it more presentable. A pack rat approving of it, established himself behind the sheeting. There it raced up the sides and overhead, making a tremendous racket that was not conducive to slumber. It became a general nuisance until--yes--and after a dose of strychnine had ended its life. We found it when it made its presence evident, this time silently, behind the lining of our dining room.
“Mosquitoes swarmed to such an extent that we were forced to fight them day and night, and men wore nets over their heads, and gauntlets on their hands while working.
“Rattlesnakes abounded. None came into the house, but they were plentiful without. Other varieties of snakes were numerous, and there one summer’s day, I first saw a blue racer. For an instant it shone like a jewel in the grass, then vanished. I do not like snakes, but that one excited my admiration. It was beautiful.
“In July came terrible hail and thunder storms. The hail cut the tar paper roofing, and the sun when it came out, completed the business of melting the ice, and continuing the shower within the house, when outside the storm had ceased.
“There was no monotony in this kind of life, but it was lonesome with no other woman within many miles until my cousin, Miss Sarepta Sanders came to file on a claim beyond the townsite. Our family consisted beside my husband and myself, of a young girl [Lelia Rolfe], a niece of Mr. Rolfe, who later became Mrs. Silas Beachly, and our four children [Mary Pauline, Harriet Louise, Helen Marston, and Lucia Ione], the youngest but three months old.
“All that summer the surveyors were at work. streets and avenues were defined, although invisible to all others. Stones marked their beginning, and it was edifying to be told, when riding along a grassy expanse, with not a vestige of wheel tracks, or even a path, unless one made by buffalo, ‘This is Second Avenue North and (consulting a map) oh, yes, Second Avenue North and Eighth street.’ We tried verily to see it, but couldn’t although we seemed impressed.
“By this time, it was common knowledge throughout the state that it was proposed to build a city that would bear the name of Great Falls, and the news was met with an almost universal shout of derision. ‘What is there to make a city at that point?’ it was asked. ‘The coal mines of Belt, or the silver mines of Neihart? They are too far away. As for agriculture, in that vicinity, there is but little and the cattle men do their trading at Helena or Fort Benton.’ But what the pioneers of Great Falls lacked in numbers, they more than made up in faith. Not for one instant did they permit themselves to doubt they were laying the foundation for a great city. Most of them were men of education, and endowed with imagination, which was surely needed in this instance.
Mattie Rolfe concluded her account: “Picture if you can, the broad sweep of country lying between the bend of the Missouri and the hills to the south, and extending to the upland where lies Boston Heights, this covered with high grass, and with no trace of human habitation save a few board shacks, and you can readily understand the residents of other towns regarding the Great Falls proposition as a colossal joke.”

C. N. Dickinson’s tent and two Townsite company’s tents were erected close to the old ford near today’s Mitchell Pool. These signs of progress added to the illusion of a city and must have impressed empire-builder James J. Hill with the scope of the enterprise when he came in June of 1884 to look his investment over. He stayed but one day but that was sufficient for him to inspect the falls, Giant Springs, and the coal prospects at Sand Coulee. Coal was a vital necessity to the railroad he planned across Montana which otherwise would be compelled to haul supplies of it for great distances. The great beds of good, bituminous steam coal at Sand Coulee doubtless did more than anything, except the potential water power of the falls, to induce Hill to build his rail line to Great Falls. When he left he gave assurance of this, and the town began to develop in earnest. Although Paris Gibson believed what Hill saw at Great Falls that day was the beginning of his plan for a transcontinental railroad, but it is a matter of record that Hill earlier had that in mind when the Manitoba railroad was organized, and planned at that time to ask Congress for half the Northern Pacific land grant to the Rocky Mountains.

Other cities of Montana had their beginnings in the turbulence of the gold discoveries or as stopping places on the trail from one mining camp to another. Some became ghost towns, while others found new sources of mineral wealth, or developed with the settlement of agricultural lands and the advent of the railroads, and achieved a certain orderliness. All started as a huddle of cabins beside the trail or close to the diggings, their streets mere paths which following the lines of convenience.

This was not so with Great Falls. Wide streets arranged in gridiron fashion, expansive grounds for parks, the railroad right-of-way and yards were all platted before a building was erected. those who came in the town’s infancy intended to make their homes here and shared with its founder a great faith in its future. The early residents were of a type unusual to western towns, a large proportion being young people of education, of business and professional classes, who set high standards for the embryo city which never failed to amaze the eastern visitor who expected to find a village of uncouth frontiersmen. The geology, botany, ornithology, agricultural and stock-raising potentialities, the history and scenic values of the surrounding country were studied by men trained in the sciences who proclaimed their discoveries to the world as well as to their fellow citizens. Everyone was informed as to the advantages of living in so remarkably endowed a city. Small wonder that the neighboring towns were envious, yet skeptical, grown weary of its boasting, and were inclined to scoff at its pretensions, dubbing it “The Future Great” and The City of Wind, Water, and Future.” Unlike many boom towns, however, its boasting was justified and time would prove that many of its most extravagant dreams would become true.

The year 1884 saw other limited building, board shanties being the prevailing type of architecture. George E. Huy’s shack followed Rolfe’s, then the Townsite company built an office opposite the site of the Park Hotel, and Walker and Carter opened a restaurant built of boards and canvas. Ira Myers brought a portable sawmill and commenced operations at the present location of the city water works. On October 22nd Murphy & Maclay opened a store, built by Whitman G. Jones, with W. P. Wren in charge.

Mrs. W. P. Beachly, who came with her husband on July 18th, noted there were only two other women here at that time, Mrs. Rolfe, who came in May and Mrs. William Wamer, proprietress of a lodging and boarding house constructed of boards and canvas at the corner of Third Avenue and Third Street South. The Wamers put a roof on a shed to provide sleeping quarters for the Beachlys.

In the spring a raft of lumber from Holter’s mill went over the falls and was lost. The water being very high and swift, the men in charge could not stop it when it reached the Sun River yard. The horses and wagon were shoved overboard and saved, and the men managed to swim ashore.

Across the river the rival town of Johnstown began to loom up. A store and restaurant were added to its facilities and a regular stage service began with service to Sun River, the “jerky” coming through every other day. Soon Johnstown acquired the first post office.

Great Falls became a voting precinct of Choteau County, and the first election was held in the fall with H. O. Chowen, George E. Huy and James Walker as judges. John Higgins, son of Mr. and Mrs H. H. Higgins, was the first child born in the fledgling town in 1884. By winter the population was down considerably from the high during the year of about 150, as the H. P. Rolfe and others took their families back to Fort Benton or Helena for the hard winter.

The following year, 1885, there were signs indicating the permanence of the town. In January the citizens of Great Falls petitioned the county authorities at Fort Benton for a division of Great Falls school district to form a new district at at the townsite stating there were 17 children of school age in the town. Professor O. C. Mortson and Major Fields drove the 50 miles to Fort Benton from Sand Coulee, then a settlement of ranchers on Sand Coulee Creek below Gerber, to protest the division. They held that while the district as a whole could support two schools the population of Great Falls was too small to provide revenue sufficient to build a school house and support a school. Despite the opposition division was effected, and Great Falls became school district No. 9. A log school house was built during 1885 and stood for many years at the corner of Third Avenue and Fifth Street South. Rev. James Largent served as teacher, and there was an average attendance of 40 children after the school opened in the fall of 1885. The first trustees were Paris Gibson, H. P. Rolfe, and J. T. Lee, while Silas Beachly was clerk.

Whitman G. Jones, the contractor, began construction of the first flour mill in the fall of 1884 for Chowen and Jamiston on the river bank just south of the east end of the old wagon bridge on First Avenue North. Ed Canary built the foundation, and Charles Remp, George Armstrong, Norman M. Jones, and John Amons were employed in the construction. A grand ball was given on March 17, 1885, to dedicate the mill. The building had a roof, but the glass for the windows had not arrived so burlap was tacked across the window frames to keep out the cold. The rough floor was covered with canvas for dancing. Vade Hull of Sun River brought an orchestra composed of soldiers from Fort Shaw to provide the music. There was a large crowd despite the cold weather, with many coming from Sand Coulee and Sun River, and they danced until broad daylight to celebrate Great Falls’ first ball. When the flour mill was completed that fall, machinery was bought in from Minneapolis, shipped by train to Helena and transported to Great Falls by freight wagons.

Will Hanks, publisher of the Sun newspaper at Sun River, moved his plant to Great Falls and began publication of the Weekly Tribune, the first newspaper on May 14th, 1885. Its columns were filled with informative articles boosting Great Falls and the resources of the region. In the winter of 1885-86 the Holter company in association with others put a ferry across the Missouri to meet the needs of increased traffic.

A large crowd assembled at the school house on Christmas night to witness the distribution of presents from the Christmas tree among the little ones. The popular verdict was that it was a success in every way with about 50 children present. The day was perfect, bright and warm, and among the adornments of the school house were pansies that had been gathered that morning from the only bed in town. The school room was tastefully decorated and the Christmas tree, with its weight of presents, glistened and sparkled in the light of numerous wax candles. The exercises performed by the Sunday school scholars were excellent. The vocal music rendered by Mr. and Mrs. Will Junkins was highly appreciated by all present. Old Kris Kringle in the person of Professor O. C. Mortson, was alike the delight and fright of the little ones, but his impartiality in the distribution of the presents among them soon dispelled their fears, and all went “merry as a marriage bell.” Among those who participated were Rev. Largent, Philip Gibson, W. I. Hickory, S. A. Beachly, Albert J. Huy, Mrs. Largent, Mrs. Pratt, Mrs. Ladd, and Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Junkins.

During the winter of 1885-86, news came that a railroad line, the Montana Central, was being surveyed from Helena through Prickly Pear canyon and that it was a subsidiary of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway Company. The Northern Pacific, its competitor, had already looked over northern Montana as a field for future expansion, and it was necessary for Hill and his associates to move quickly to secure this route which was essential to their projected transcontinental railroad. Colonel Dodge, their representative, had selected the route and the work of surveying and construction under Colonel C. A. Broadwater was rushed. Meanwhile Hill had secured a right of way across the great Indian reservation, which occupied all of northern Montana east of the Rockies, and was perfecting his plans for the extension of the Manitoba to Great Falls.

In April, 1886, A. Nathan established a men’s clothing store on Central Avenue between Park Drive and Second Street near the Townsite company building. E. Rubottom opened a paint shop and store, later known as the Como, and William Albrecht built a furniture store that continued in its original location, 111 Central Avenue, into the 1940s. During the summer of 1886, Edward Simms came from Sun River with his new bride Elizabeth, the first black Americans to settle in Great Falls.

Ben and Alex Lapeyre’s drugstore, then in a building two doors east of Beachly’s store, celebrated Independence Day by opening its doors to the public. The first prescription they filled was written by Dr. J. H. Fairfield and was for an ointment to treat the burns incurred that day by a youthful celebrant, Herman Nebel, who was Great Falls’ first newsboy. Other events of the day were the races held on the river bank west of the present Milwaukee station, the dance given at the Park Hotel in honor of its opening, and the flag raised before the hotel that had been sewed on the first sewing machine in town.

Keen interest was aroused in 1887 in a proposed new county of Cascade to be formed from portions of Choteau, Meagher, and Lewis and Clark counties. The population of Great Falls reached 1,200 at the beginning of the year, and the town initiated a movement to make it the county seat. The bill was presented at an extraordinary session of the Montana legislature convened by Governor Leslie. The measure met with considerable opposition from residents of Sun River and the towns of Fort Benton and Helena, but it passed. The first Cascade County officers, whose terms began December 19, 1887, were: commissioners, Charles Wegner, J. A. Harris, T. A. Wall; sheriff, George Steele; treasurer, Arthur E. Dickerman; county clerk and recorder, James W. Matkin; probate judge, H. P. Rolfe; assessor, Richard T. Gorham; county attorney, George W. Taylor; superintendent of public instruction, Bessie Ford; coroner, J. H. Fairfield; public administrator, J. W. Stanton. The county offices were in the Minot block at 203 Central Avenue. T. W. Wall failed to qualify as county commissioner and E. R. Clingan, a businessman of Belt, was appointed to fill his place.

The St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway Company, which since the latter part of April had been pushing its extension westward from Minot, North Dakota, reached Great Falls on October 15th in record-breaking time. The event, so long awaited, was celebrated in fitting style with a parade depicting the trades and industry of Great Falls and Sand Coulee, sports including a boat race, sparking oratory, fireworks on Prospect Hill, and ending with a grand ball and supper. The depot was a railroad car set on the prairie near the present fair grounds. The railroad approached it by the high bench north of town through Wild Horse Lake rounding the bluff known now as Hill 57, but then jocularly christened “Jim Hill.”

This momentous development in the history of Great Falls was described in The Leader forty years later as follows:

“Forty years ago today, Oct. 15, 1887, a Great Northern engine, approximately one-third the tonnage of the oil burning locomotives now used, puffed importantly to a stop across the river from the present depot. It tugged a number of old fashioned passenger cars, bearing railway officials and important personages from the east. The train was the first regular one to come to Great Falls from St. Paul.
Every person of the 3,500 population of this city turned out to give a grand welcome to the first train. Numbers crossed the Missouri by means of the ferry boat then used. The first wagon bridge was not built until the following year.
With headquarters at the old Park hotel, a frame structure just completed and standing where the present Park hotel is now located, a group of business men planned the first gigantic celebration ever held in this city. ‘Jerries’ who had helped build the road vied with citizens for places in the ‘big parade,’ and the surprise of the day came when a number of horse drawn floats commemorating the coming of the railroad took their places at the head of the parade.
Indians, cowboys, gamblers, prospectors and many visitors from Helena and other towns, who had come here by saddle horse and buggy, continued the celebration far into the night. Six-guns boomed as celebrators ‘fanned’ their hammers. Officials and citizens made speeches.
The next day the railroaders were back at work laying track on the Montana Central grade to Helena, which had been built the year before. Work was done as quickly as possible. It was all labor and team work. The end of rail was laid in Helena on Nov. 19, 1867. Jim Hill came to Great Falls and stopped long enough to present a special train to the citizens of this city that they might attend the ‘coming of the railroad’ celebration in Helena.
Actual track construction of the line to Great Falls and Helena began at Minot, N. D., nearly 642 miles from Helena. The Great Northern was then known as the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba railway. Workers laid an average of 3.19 miles of track a day, 3,300 teams and 8,000 men worked on the grading, while 325 teams and 650 men handled the track laying.”

The Montana Central effected a junction with the Manitoba here when the railroad bridge was built across Sun River, and was competed to Helena on November 19th after overcoming a difficulty in crossing the Northern Pacific tracks there; the two railroads not viewing the matter eye-to-eye. Work immediately began on the branch line to Sand Coulee to make available its coal supplies for the railroad, and on the railroad bridge across the Missouri which would unite the lines.

A toll wagon bridge, a subsidiary enterprise of the Hill interests, as indeed were most of Great Falls’ early industries, was begun late in 1887. Two flat boats loaded with cement and tools for the bridge left Townsend about the first of October, negotiated Half Breed rapids without great difficulty but encountered trouble in the shallow steam channel near Ulm.

During the delay the men were employed in quarrying rock at that place for the bridge piers. Earlier in the year Nicholas Hilger’s steamer, “Rose of Helena,” made several trips from the upper end of the Gates of the Mountains to Great Falls at the rate of twelve miles an hour downstream and four miles an hour upstream.

The coming of the Manitoba greatly reduced stage traffic and routes but brought one important line into existence, that extending from Great Falls to Billings by way of Lewistown which tapped the rich Judith Basin territory. This line was operated by the Montana Stage company with Ed E. Corbin as superintendent.

Sandstone quarries at Fields and Ulm producing excellent building stone, a new Goodrich lumber yard, Holter’s lumber yard and newly established planing mill, Myer’s planing mill, and five brickyards supplied building materials for the rapidly growing town.

The Presbyterian Church, organized the preceding year with 13 charter members including Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Beachly, M. and Mrs. W. F. Junkin, Mr. and Mrs. James A. Walker, Frank Gehring, and John D. Ross, erected the first church building in Great Falls in 1887 at the southeast corner of First Avenue and Seventh Street South with Rev. John Reid, Jr., as pastor.

A water supply system was inaugurated under the management of Manery and Peiper, its mechanical equipment consisting of barrels hauled by wagons and a pail fastened to a long pole to dip water from the Missouri. A volunteer fire company, formed in January, 1888, pressed into service the water wagons as the need arose. The wagon first to reach the scene of the fire received a prize of $5 which gave color and zest to the performance.

Dunlap’s store, the first to sell groceries exclusively, located at Third Avenue and Second Street South; Kenkel’s shoe store; the Cascade Stables build by A. W. Paul; the Cascade Laundry at 117 First Avenue North, S. R. Jensen and F. G. Johnson, proprietors, were new commercial establishments. Sidewalks made their first appearance extending with but few breaks for a block or so on each side of Central Avenue’s business district.

On June 16, 1888, The Great Falls Leader began operations as a weekly newspaper. Under manager and editor H. P. Rolfe, Great Falls now had a Republican newspaper strongly advocating woman’s suffrage and political and social equality for black residents and other Republican principles. By October 21, The Leader had grown to a morning daily and for many years Great Falls had dueling newspaper editorials with the Democrat Tribune representing the interests of Paris Gibson and the Townsite Company and the Republican Leader. Upon the untimely death of Rolfe in March 1895 of typhoid fever, Mrs. Martha Edgerton Rolfe became the first woman editor of a daily newspaper in Montana.

Great Falls was incorporated as a second class city October 4, 1888. Paris Gibson was the first mayor and the council chambers were in the Minot block. The town acquired a jail, Episcopal and Methodist churches, the Milwaukee Hotel, some substantial business blocks among them being the Dunn, Phelps, Kingsbury and Collins blocks, and a fine brick school building, the Whittier, at the northeast corner of Third Avenue and Eighth Street North. Some residents felt the school board had erred in placing it so far from the settled districts of the city.

The Montana Smelting and Refining Company began the construction of a silver-lead smelter, under the management of H. W. Child, near Giant Springs in March 1889 and started operations in October. Brick from Great Falls and Helena was used in its construction. Coke from Pennsylvania, charcoal from Wolf Creek, and coal from Sand Coulee were used as fuel and provision was made for the future use of water power. The water supply was brought by ditch from Giant Springs. Silver-lead ores from Neihart and Barker formed the bulk of those treated and were supplemented by ores from Coeur d’Alene and British Columbia mining districts. J. L. Neihart, of his name-sake town, brought the first load of ore to be reduced in the smelter. There was fierce competition with the silver smelter at East Helena, belonging to the Helena and Livingston Smelting and Refining Company, which caused both companies to lose money. In 1891 the two companies consolidated under the name of the United Smelter and Refining company. The bullion, an alloy of gold, silver, and lead was sent to the company’s plant at South Chicago, Illinois, for refining. The smelter at Great Falls closed in 1899 when the properties passed into the hands of the American Smelting and Refining Company. Nothing remains today of the plant, the attractive offices or residences, which once made it a show place.

T E. Collins, Ira Myers and E. G. Maclay received a franchise for a water system in 1889, sold later to the Great Falls Water Company. The company immediately began the construction of a plant and built seven miles of mains and about 70 hydrants. It was re-organized under the Great Falls Water Power and Townsite Company which had, in 1890, built a dam at Black Eagle Falls and leased 6,000 horsepower generated by the new dam to the Boston and Montana Smelter. They enlarged and improved the works, increasing the capacity to 11,000,000 gallons per day. The plant was sold to the city in 1898.

In 1889 Thomas Couch, general manager of the Boston & Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining Company with important mining interests at Butte, selected Great Falls as the site for a new reduction works. The inducements were the abundance of water and cheap water power, as well as the proximity of the Belt and Sand Coulee coal mines. The construction of the smelting works started in early 1890 and treatment of the company’s ores began at this plant in March. A refinery was added in 1892 to produce copper in commercial form. In 1910 the plant became the property of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company.

The Boston and Great Falls Electric Light and Power Company, organized in 1890, was the first to use the power from Black Eagle Falls for city lighting and street railway purposes.

In 1890 an African Methodist Episcopal (A. M. E.) Church congregation was organized, and in July 1891, an A. M. E. Church opened at 916 Fifth Avenue South with Rev. J. H. Childress, as pastor and Ed Simms, A. W. Ray, and William M. Morgan, as trustees. Ray and Morgan has served with the 25th Infantry Regiment “Buffalo Soldiers” at Fort Shaw before coming to Great Falls. This black church was rebuilt at the same location in 1917 and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Black residents were segregated in the lower Southside of the city, could not join labor unions, and were restricted from many jobs. Despite this, with the support of the Republican Party, blacks progressed in several remarkable ways. In 1892 a young black, former buffalo soldier George Williams, was named one of four members of the Great Falls police force. Two years later, A. M. E. Church trustee William M. Morgan, was nominated by the Republican Party as one of two Great Falls Township Constables. In November 1894, Morgan went to bed after working that day as janitor at the Cascade County Courthouse and woke the next morning to learn that he had been elected Constable.

In 1891 the Belt Mountain branch of the Montana Central was extended to Neihart and Barker, and the Great Falls and Canada branch of the Manitoba, a narrow gauge line, was built to Lethbridge to tap its coal fields and to connect with the Canadian Pacific, and a short line was extended to the Boston & Montana Smelter.

Businesses that located in Great Falls in 1890 were: P. J. Rogan’ grocery store on Fifth Avenue South between Fifth and Sixth Streets; the Hub established by Andrew Thisted and T. W. Brosman; Troy Steam Laundry; Hammond Lumber Company, at Ninth Avenue North and Tenth Street; and the Great Falls Iron Works, under the management of L. S. Woodbury, at Eighth Avenue and Third Street North. In 1892 Kenneth B. McIver started the Jersey Dairy on his ranch six miles west of town; A. P. Curtin open a furniture store in the McKnight block, managed by D. R. Edwards; and Gust G. Minter opened a tin shop. The Paris Dry Goods store and the Royal Milling Company, connected with the Washburn-Crosby Company of Minneapolis and managed by W. M. Atkinson, were founded in 1893.

Great Falls had many community activities in the early nineties. The Northern Montana Fair Association had a race-track on the west side. Other sports were represented by tennis, cricket, bicycle, and baseball clubs, and the Minneshosho Boat Club. The Board of Trade was the forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce, and a Mining and Immigration Association organized to bring most of the early foreign workers to the city. Labor organizations were strong, and wages were good for the times.

Culturally and socially, Great Falls showed advancement. The Grand Opera House was formally opened on January 4, 1892, by McKoe Rankin and company with the performance of “The Canuck.” The Valeria Public Library, named after Paris Gibson’s wife and opened in 1886, was turned over to the city in 1892 with Miss Wightman (Mrs. H. P. Brown), as librarian. Excellent school facilities kept pace with the city’s grown. By 1893 there were six school buildings and a high school building was under construction. The first high school class graduated that year with four graduates: Gertrude Anderson; Lula Armstrong; Maud McNeil; and Josephine Trigg. Ten churches were operating by 1893 and two hospitals, one, the Columbus Hospital, in the Boston & Montana addition and the other, the Great Falls Hospital, on Central Avenue at 33rd Street. Secret societies flourished as well as social clubs like the Caledonian, Rainbow, and University clubs. Women’s interests were represented by church societies, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and several literary study groups. The Woman’s Suffrage movement was centered in the Political Equality Club, which with other suffrage clubs in the state made a strong fight to secure passage of a woman’s suffrage bill in the legislature in 1894, but were defeated. The state society of the Sons of the American Revolution was organized at Great Falls on February 22, 1895, and selected Judge C. H. Benton of Great Falls as president. A Free Silver Club formed at the same time and became active in promoting one of Montana’s foremost minerals.

Great Falls was never a frontier town in the same sense that Helena and Butter had been, yet it met with economic reverses as serious and overcame them with the indomitable courage deeply-rooted in the pioneer communities of the West. In common with all the rapidly expanding West the panic of 1893 was a serious blow to the town which had not developed its resources on a self-sustaining basis and was largely dependent on Eastern capital. Its fortunes reached a low point in 1895. The fall in the price of silver had greatly curtailed the mining and milling operations in Neihart, Barker, and Great Falls with a consequent reduction in their payrolls. The nation-wide railroad strike of 1894 severely injured the community so dependent on that industry. Wool reached its lowest price since the industry was established in Montana. Banks closed, businesses failed and private fortunes which had been amassed in the few short years since the founding of Great Falls vanished at a stroke. Great Falls received its first great set-back.

In the same spirit that they had dealt with problems in founding the city, its early settlers made the best of the existing situation and turned their attention to building a foundation for the future. To develop the land resources of the surrounding country, an agricultural society was formed on January 5, 1895. Discussed at the initial meeting were the irrigation of arid lands, the improvement of beef and dairy strains, the need for a local cheese factory and creamery, the planting of hard wheat for flour mills and barley to supply the breweries in place of the oats and soft wheat which were at that time the chief grains produced in the region. It was emphasized that 30,000 pounds of butter and great quantities of eggs, potatoes and other commodities were shipped in from Minnesota and North Dakota, amounting to half a million dollars a year to supply Great Falls. An effort was made to move the Montana State Fair from Helena to Great Falls, and failing this, plans were made for a county fair in October. The street railway company’s car barns, pavilion, and lighting facilities were used, and the the first Cascade County Fair was a success.

Cattle from northern Montana topped the Chicago market and brought the highest price in four years. The Burlington Railroad, then building its extension westward, was expected to come by way of Great Falls up the Sun River valley and over Cadotte’s Pass before the year ended. J. T. Armington of Great Falls and S. S. Hobson of Utica began constructing a telephone line from Great Falls to Lewistown, and Ira Myers applied for a franchise to build a city system that would provide service at half the rates of the Bell Telephone Company. Coke from the Belt ovens was tested in the Anaconda Smelter and found satisfactory which meant the assurance of another industry in addition to the territory tributary to Great Falls. The Boston & Montana Smelter began work on the addition of a large refinery to its plant in Black Eagle. The federal government appropriated $20,000 to build wing-dams on the Missouri River above Great Falls to deepen the channel for navigation purposes. A recurring dream since the settlement of Montana Territory had been to solve the problem of transportation through the mountain barriers between eastern and western Montana by a waterway on the Upper Missouri from Townsend to the mouth of the Sun River, and this was the final effort in that enterprise. The work, begun in April, furnished employment for forty to fifty men. Dams were constructed at Wicker’s Island, at White Bear Island, and at Fox’s Island half a mile above White Bear Island. Another wing-dam was built above the first great bend of the river to deepen the stream at that place.

The year 1895 marked the close of the first chapter in Great Falls’ history; her infancy was past. There were many indications that a new era was dawning. The encroachment of sheep and homestead farming spelled the doom of large open range cattle ranching. Ranchers that did not cease operations altogether were restricted to privately owned or leased land and to raising hay to replace the open free grazing. The railroads brought an influx of settlers to homestead “free” land suitable to farming. The homestead era began.

A little thing signifying that the old order had changed was that in that year the copper penny made its appearance in Great Falls. The Leader of June 29, 1895 editorialized that the old settlers viewed with disfavor the introduction. “One result of the hard times is the invasion of the West by the cent. So far we have been spared this infliction but we are surrounded by the enemy and cannot hope to escape much longer. Oregon is importing cents and they are in use in Minnesota. The good old days are departing. Scarcely a vestige of them remains. In those happy days now gone forever such a thing as “change” was unknown. Whatever was bought, a newspaper of pins or a sack of flour, the buckskin bag of gold dust was drawn from the purchaser’s pocket and carelessly thrown upon the counter. The fortunate merchant would then unfasten the string that bound the scales . . . After this gold age was past came the reign of the “two-bit” translated into a quarter of a dollar which it represented. Nothing smaller than twenty-five cents was then current. The nickel succeeded the “two-bits” and is still with us. We cling to it lovingly and shall not give it up without a struggle.” Since H. P. Rolfe died in March 1895, this editorial was written during the tenure of Martha Edgerton Rolfe as editor and manager of The Leader.

The dream which in 1884 created the city of Great Falls beside the mighty cataracts of the Missouri, had by 1895, been in large part realized. It had weathered the crises of its youth and was established on a firm foundation. With the courage and faith in its ultimate destiny as evinced by the pioneer founders, the early settlers of Great Falls now faced the boundless prospects of the new horizon.

“On the wings of lightning”: John Mullan With the Stevens Railway Survey Expedition

2008-12-15T15:03:00.001-07:00

By Ken Robison

This continues the series of historical sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.

During the period 1911-12, Editor A. L. Stone of the Daily Missoulian newspaper wrote weekly articles about the pioneers of early Montana and their escapades. The articles, titled “Following Old Trails,” proved so popular that Stone was encouraged to publish them in a book. In 1913 Following Old Trails was published with many of the articles printed for posterity. Among those left out of the book was a fascinating account triggered by an 1883 letter sent by early explorer Captain John Mullan to pioneer Frank Worden in Missoula. This letter caused Stone to write the following article about the “Historic Trailblazing” of then Lieutenant John Mullan during 1853-54:

There lies on my desk, as I write, a letter which is old but which has preserved through 30 years its interest and which, viewed in this long perspective, seems even more impressive, probably, than it did when it was received in Missoula in the spring of 1883. It is a letter written by the man who made the first exploration of the western Montana mountain passes to ascertain the feasibility of railway construction which should unite Puget Sound with St. Paul—Lieutenant Mullan.

The letter was written after the retirement of this renowned trailblazer. He had an office in Washington at the time and the communications was addressed to F. L. Worden, the founder of Missoula, and one of the comrades of Lieutenant Mullan during the years he spent in this region. The letter was, primarily, a business communication, but it contains a few paragraphs which are historically interesting.

“You say: Just to think that 20-odd years ago, you and I were struggling through Hell Gate canyon, never dreaming of making the trip in Pullman sleepers. Now my dear Sir, permit me to say that, if there was ever any conviction firmly lodged in my mind, it was the conviction that the day was coming when a line of Pullman sleepers would cross down through Hell Gate canyon. With me it was more than a dream—it was a conviction. It was for that purpose that our surveys were made and our wagon-road construction was conceived and, under my direction, were executed and, while there were plenty of persons who, 25 or 30 years ago, conceived that I had a mania on wagon roads and railroads, yet I thought I could see in the distance, coursing across the plains from Minnesota to Oregon, by the northern route through the Mullan pass and down the Hell Gate canyon, this same line of Pullman sleepers, making an overland trip from St. Paul to the Columbia in five days, so that now, when we are on the eve of realizing, the benefits of this overland construction, you can well imagine that my heart wells up with gladness at seeing realized one of the fondest germs [sic] of my life and fulfillment of so many years of hard and patient toil in the mountains, where I was so largely a pioneer, 30 years ago.

“I watch constantly the developments in your section of Montana, because there is no strip of the continent to which I am more wedded than the strip which includes the Rocky mountains of Montana, particularly the Bitter Root valley, my home in ’53-4, and your town of Missoula, where time and again I have camped with not a house within 100 miles and where I crossed the Hell gate river in ’54 amidst circumstances that vividly call to mind the dangers and disasters attending my little party while crossing the swollen stream during the June and July freshets of ’54.

“When I took hold of the celebrated land case of the settlers in the Bitter Root valley against the N. P. R. R. Co., in which I succeeded in wrestling from said company that entire valley and dedicating it to the permanent homes of the settlers then residing therein, it is no want of modesty in me to say that I threw into said case my whole spirit and zeal, because of the attachment I had for the early pioneers in that valley, which is the gem of the mountains.

“I look forward to the completion of this road at the end of the next six months, and it is not impossible at that time, I shall visit your section of the country on a flying trip to the Pacific, and, if not then, at some future time when it will suit both my convenience and my business.”

When I started to copy these paragraphs, I intended to reproduce only the first two, as they deal with the blazing of the trail which Mullan explored and established but the rest of the letter seemed to me so characteristic of the writer, as I pictured him from the descriptions which I have had from those who were his intimates and from what I know of his work in this region.

Missoula and the Bitter Root country have and always should have a lively local interest in Lieutenant Mullan. During all the years of his exploration and in the subsequent construction period, he made his headquarters in this region. His first permanent winter camp was Cantonment Stevens located near where Corvallis now stands. From there he conducted his reconnaissance to ascertain the depth of the snowfall, on the mountain passes and his observation of altitude. His construction camps were located all the way along the river between Missoula and the summit of the Coeur d’Alene pass.

It is the testimony of those who knew Lieutenant Mullan intimately, confirmed by the deliberate judgment of Governor [Isaac I.] Stevens, and borne out by the accuracy of the reports which he made, that he was an indefatigable worker, a conscientious zealot and in inspiring enthusiast. The second paragraph of his letter, which I have quoted, substantiates this verdict; it shows the earnestness of the man and reveals the sincerity of his purpose.

The first trail which the Stevens explorers were shown by the Indians was that which led from the Bitter Root up the Blackfoot, across the Cadotte pass, to Fort Benton. This was the Indian trail to the buffalo country; it was the route which the red men recommended to the pioneers in the quest of a way across the mountains. It was the natural way, perhaps, but it did not suit Lieutenant Mullan. He felt certain that there was an easier crossing of the divide and he looked about until he found it. And so we have the Mullan pass.

It was in 1853 that the Sevens expedition made its first trip through this region. It purpose was twofold. The exploration was expected to develop a northern transcontinental route and Governor Stevens was laying the foundations for the treaties with the Indian tribes which would make the construction as peaceable as possible. The second expedition entered Montana from the west, two years later, and it was crowned with complete success; we have seen how satisfactorily Governor Stevens dealt with the Indian tribes on both sides of the range.

Upon Lieutenant Mullan devolved the responsibility of the exploration of the region which is now western Montana. He explored every Indian trail he could find; he took observations and made careful measurements; he studied the Indians, the animals, the vegetation, the water supply—there was nothing which was overlooked which could in any way contribute to the useful information regarding the proposed railway route.

How thoroughly he labored and how successfully, is best told in the report which Governor Stevens made to the federal government and which comprises one of the most valuable contributions to the early historical records of this region. This report is voluminous and is prepared with the careful attention to detail which was characteristic of Governor Stevens. These paragraphs deal with that part of the work of Lieutenant Mullan which was local to Missoula:

“Lieutenant Mullan having learned from the Indians and half-breeds of the mountains the existence of a pass leading directly to Fort Benton, through which wagons could be carried with little of no difficulty, determined upon its examination, and if practicable, to test it by bringing wagons from Fort Benton to Bitter Root valley. With this view he started from Cantonment Stevens on March 2, 1853, for Fort Benton, following the Hell Gate valley to its junction with that of the Little Blackfoot; thence along the left bank of the Missouri to the Gate of the Mountains, when he crossed the river on the ice, and following along its right bank, reached Fort Benton on the morning of the twelfth. He found from 12 to 15 inches of snow on the main divide of the Rocky mountains, little or no snow in the valleys or on either slope. He found the route until reaching the Gate practicable and easy, but here the road passed over a succession of difficult pine-clad hills that precluded the possibility of a wagon route, save at great expense. The character of the country and the views of the Indians all went to show an easier location to the north, which would turn this detached bed of mountains and reach the foot slope of the divide by easy grades and little or no work. Completing his preparations, he left Fort Benton on the morning of March 14 with a loaded wagon drawn by four mules, and keeping on the high plateau near the route of the expedition of the preceding year, found a level prairie road from Fort Benton to Sun river. Thence to the Dearborn, keeping some miles to the south of Donaldson’s [Lieut. A. J. Donelson] trail, the route was excellent. From this point, keeping some distance west of [Civil Engineer A. W.] Tinkham’s route, in 15 miles he reached the valley of the Little Prickly Pear creek, which was half a mile wide, and well wooded. Up to this point he had met with no difficulty, but found an easy practicable wagon road, a measured distance of 124 miles from Fort Benton. Here the fallen timber in the valley of the Little Prickly Pear creek was the first obstacle met with. Selecting a suitable camp on this creek for his party, he set his men to work clearing the timber for a track, which for a short distance followed the valley bottom; but finding, as he ascended the valley, the timber becoming somewhat more dense, which involved a greater amount of work and time in its removal than he had at his disposal, he preferred taking the southern slope of a hill, and, gaining the top of a high plateau, follow this through the longer of the two routes.

“In 14 miles, descending from this plateau, he reached the Prickly pear creek a second time, which here flowed through a small prairie bottom. This creek rises in the main chain of the Rocky mountains and flows through two gaps or passes of two low parallel spurs that run northwest and southeast. By following the valley bottom of this creek you avoid all steep ascents and descents, and reach the foot slopes of the main range, the only work required being that of removing the timber and the building one or more small bridges over the Prickly Pear Creek.

“Gaining a high point of the river it was seen that for 30 miles above the Gate of the Mountains, from the point where the Missouri breaks through the belt range between the two Prickly Pear creeks, the country is one immense bed of mountains, extending southward along the Missouri to its three forks for 150 miles, and 15 miles wide, making it necessary for a road to turn westward and northward of this range or bed. These mountains are mostly well wooded, with an abundant and large growth of pine, and the rock formation principally granite. In the preceding November Mr. Tinkham had very cold and snowy weather during his journey up this part of the river, but it did not continue, nor interfere with his crossing of the mountains. After the middle of March Lieutenant Mullan found no snow on any part of his route, and had beautiful weather on his return trip from Fort Benton. Even at this early day of the spring the grass in the bottoms was putting forth; and returning with the same animals that he had taken from Cantonment Stevens, they were fat and strong, and subsisting only upon the grass found at each night’s camp. Wood, water and grass throughout the whole distance, from Fort Benton to the foot of the divide, was found at suitable and convenient points, a measured line of 150 miles.

“From the small Prickly Pear creek to the divide the country was an easily rolling prairie, with occasional strips of timber on either side. On the seventh night from Fort Benton, including the time occupied in the making of the road, he encamped at the foot of the mountains. On the morning of the eighth day, he crossed the mountains with no difficulty whatever, found no snow upon its summit, and the divide itself nothing more than a low prairie hill. He says: ‘Indeed the ascent and descent were so exceedingly gradual that not only was it not necessary to lock the wheels of the wagon in descending, but it was driven with the animals, trotting.’

“For a railroad line it would involve a cut 100 feet deep and half a mile long, which was the measured distance from base to base. He hardly imagined that he was on the waters of the Columbia until he recognized the distinctive and marked features of the valley of the Little Blackfoot. Leaving the divide, he followed done the broad and easy valleys of the Little Blackfoot and Hell Gate to the junction of the latter with the Bitter Root, finding no difficulty along the whole line. All the streams being easily fordable at this season and the forest being open, with little or no undergrowth, required but little work. For a good and permanent road, to be traveled at all seasons, the bridging of the Little Blackfoot and Hell Gate would be required at all the present crossings.

“In 14 days from Fort Benton, he reached Cantonment Stevens with his wagon—thus proving the complete practicability; and having measured the distance by an odometer, found his line only 40 miles longer than that followed by Donaldson, through Cadotte’s pass.

“In view of the easy grade the small amount of work required at first, put it in good condition for an emigrant line, and to maintain it in that condition, the abundance of grass, wood and water, and its direct connection with practicable lines to the east and west, he regards it the best route he examined in the mountain region.

“Something more, however, is due both to Lieutenant Mullan and his party and the exploration to which he contributed so largely, than the foregoing narrative of his several journeys. In the establishment of his quarters, the management of his command, and in his intercourse with the Indians, he evinced the soundest judgment, and the whole sphere of duty was filled by him in a manner entitling him to the warmest commendation. I will now give a brief statement of some incidents connected with his post in the Bitter Root valley.

“On October 8, 1853, he established his camp 10 miles above Fort Owen, at a point where there was excellent grass, wood and water, and where, in consequence of its being a little removed from the Indian camps, he could better regulate the intercourse of his men with them; and in November, notwithstanding his trip in the meantime to the Jefferson fork of the Missouri, he succeeded in getting into a state of forwardness the erection of four log buildings for the accommodation of his party, one being a storehouse. Leaving a portion of his party behind to continue the work, he started for Fort Hall, and on his return found the buildings ready for his reception. This was all done by the labor of his own party, the only additional expense being the hire of some oxen to haul logs, and the purchase of hardware, not amounting in all $25. There was a corral attached for animals. To this post he gave the name of Cantonment Stevens. Thus a considerable cost was saved to the government in the way of rent, and there were simple accommodations provided for the use of any subsequent party employed in continuing the work of the exploration, or for the home of an agent sent to the valley to reside amongst the Indians. These considerations were dwelt upon by Lieutenant Mullan in his correspondence with me.

“By this time the Indians who wintered in the valley, the Flatheads and some lodges of the Nez Perce, had learned to place implicit confidence in him. I had requested that he should give much attention to Indian affairs, do what he could to impress them with confidence in our government, and especially, to devote his energies, in concert with Mr. [James I.] Doty at Fort Benton to prevent all difficulties between them and the Blackfeet. [Doty, a scientific man, was left at Fort Benton for the winter of 1853-54 to make meteorological observations and to conduct a census of the Blackfeet.], The Blackfeet, to be sure, were always the aggressors, and the proposed Blackfoot council, which I had gained the consent of all the Indians to hold, and which I had so strenuously and so successfully urged upon the government, was by both, constantly presented to the Indians with whom they were respectively in contact, as the most effectual argument to dissuade, in the one case, from aggression, and in the other, from retaliating with undue severity.

“Lieutenant Mullan, besides constant and judicious intercourse with the Indians, always assembled them in council previous to starting on any expedition, informed them of his probable absence, and gave them good advice in reference to their own affairs. They were very glad to have him mediate in their disputes, and they cheerfully acquiesced in his decisions. So much solicitude did he feel in regard to Indian affairs, that he incorporated the following in a special report: ‘They (the Flatheads) received the intelligence of the council with much joy and to the coming summer as the time when they are to date a new and happy period in their nation’s history.’ And again: ‘The report of the council at Fort Benton has spread throughout the whole Indian country as on the wings of lightning and has been received as a harbinger of glad tidings to all.’ I received from him, at every opportunity, reports in regard to the Indian tribes, which were of the greatest service, and which enabled me better to comprehend their feelings, wants, and the proper mode to manage them. The fact that he left the valley in the fall of 1854 with the sincere regret of all the Indians who knew or had heard of him, is the best evidence of his services in connection with them. Not one unpleasant thing occurred during his year’s sojourn in the wilderness which marred the propriety of the intercourse of his party with them, or tended to diminish his influence over them.

“The individuals of Lieutenant Mullan’s party had equal respect for him, and they were generally cheerful and contented, and prompt to perform their duties. Yet the party was at all times on short rations of flour, sugar and coffee, and much of the time lived exclusively on meat. I received many letters from him referring to the entire dearth of articles which, in settled communities are considered almost indispensable to sustain life, and urging the necessity of dispatching a train with supplies as soon as possible. Yet there was no complaint, and his cheerful spirit impressed itself upon all of his men. I had found it impossible to get off a train in the fall and winter, and one did not reach him till June. Some of the provisions left for him the previous fall were spoiled. He passed through winter and spring quite well on the allowance to each man of four pounds of fresh beef a day. The Flathead cattle keep in good order through the winter, and no difficulty was found in purchasing beeves at reasonable prices.

“I have deemed it a simple act of justice to this most promising and meritorious officer to say this much. His judgment and discretion were equal to his boldness and resource, which qualities had been exhibited not only in his winter explorations, but to those of spring, when the streams were up and hazardous crossings had to be made. He made remarkable contributions to existing knowledge, both of the snows and the geography of the country, at a season of the year and under circumstances when most men would have done nothing. I left with him in October nothing but disabled animals for every sound one was used in connection with other parties. The day after my departure he moved his camp to the best grass of the valley, and on the sixth day afterwards he was in his saddle, with a portion of his party going to the waters of the mission. And such was his promptness and energy throughout.”

A L. Stone concludes, “Western Montana owes much to the
devoted service of this man [Lieut. Mullan]. The whole west is his debtor, but that obligation seems to me to rest more heavily upon our neighborhood than upon any other. He was one of our people.” [Lieut. John Mullan, of course, later gained fame during 1859-60 when he led the expedition that built the Mullan Military Wagon Road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton.] Missoula, April 20, 1912. A. L. S.

Sources: “Following Old Trails XLIII.—Historic Trailblazing” Daily Missoulian 21 Apr 1912; Reports of the Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean; Life of General Isaac I. Stevens by Hazard Stevens.

Photos: (1) Lieutenant John Mullan

(2) Governor Isaac I. Stevens

(3) Cadotte Pass

Meet "Old Waxey": Joseph D. Weatherwax

2008-11-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

By Ken Robison

Fort Benton has been home to many colorful characters over its long history, but few can top J. D. Weatherwax, or as his many friends would say “Old Waxey.” Over six feet tall and bearing a commanding presence, he made and lost fortunes, married and left families in “The States” and Fort Benton, and made his mark at every stop along the frontier from the Belly River to the Judith.

Born in New York in 1840, J. D. married Martha Sanks in Illinois, and by the outbreak of the Civil War they had two sons. During the war J. D. made a fortune in cotton and lost it. In 1867 he boarded the steamboat Agnes in St. Louis bound “for the mountains.” Arriving in Fort Benton, he worked his way into partnership with Scott Wetzel, and throughout the 1870s the firm Wetzel & Weatherwax became famous as an aggressive merchant house competing with the powerful T. C. Power and I. G. Baker firms. By 1871 Weatherwax was knee-deep in the “whiskey trade,” establishing Fort Weatherwax on the Belly River near Fort Whoop-Up.

In February 1875, the North West Mounted Police arrested Old Waxey for selling whiskey to Indians, and although the charge was never proven his outfit was seized, he was fined and held for six months at Fort Macleod. Old Waxey returned to Fort Benton, a hero among the local Irish Fenians. He “married” a young Piegan woman, Mary Bird Tail Woman, and they had at least seven children over the next decade. Many descendents live today on the Blackfeet Reservation. Old Waxey continued his Indian trade at Willow Rounds, but he stayed well south of the Medicine Line. Toward the end of the 1870s, Old Waxey withdrew from the firm and began ranching and serving as Choteau County commissioner.

By 1881 fewer buffalo roamed the fertile Judith Basin, and Old Waxey became one of the first ranchers. He built a log building in the fledgling town of Utica and opened the first store. An old ledger shows one unpaid account for saloon and clothing charges by cowboy Charlie Russell for $36.43, and by 1885 Old Waxey had extended too much credit to friends so he lost the store. A few miles above Utica in the Belt Mountains, J. D. opened a mine at Yogo. In October 1887, while working his promising mine, he slipped and fell striking his head and breaking his neck. Old Waxey is buried in an unmarked grave in the Utica Cemetery.

Tribal Warfare in the Medicine River Valley

2008-10-25T11:12:00.001-06:00

By Ken Robison

[Fort Benton River Press 12 Nov 2008]

This continues the series of frontier historical sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.

Oswald C. Mortson came to Montana Territory with the Seventh Infantry in 1870. When he died 32 years later, the editor of the Great Falls Tribune wrote: Professor O. C. Mortson “is gone from among us, but he has made the world a better and pleasanter place.” He became expert in geology, minerals, and fossils. Not least of Professor Mortson’s gifts to posterity were his little known historical writings. His Christmas gift in 1897 was a fascinating collection of anecdotes on the Sun River valley, or as the Native Indians called it, the “Medicine River.” In his account, Mortson presented details from an oral history by Blackfeet Chief Little Plume about a major battle between the Blackfeet and the Crows that decimated both Indian nations. Professor Mortson wrote as follows, and my comments and minor corrections appear in brackets:

The Sun or Medicine River, the second confluent of the Missouri River in Northern Montana, and draining an area of nearly 2,100 square miles, is one of the most interesting localities in the state, not only for its vast pastoral and agricultural resources, but also for its historical associations.

The printed record we have of Sun River is found in the travels of Lewis and Clark, who on June 14, 1805, first viewed the lower part of that fair valley from the bluffs above the Black Eagle Falls. On his return from the Pacific slope Capt. Lewis followed down Sun River valley for a long distance to reach his cache at White Bear Island. The captain praises the Medicine River valley (as Sun River valley was then termed by the Indians) for its streams of pure water, rich pasturage and abundance of game.

After these two visits of this exploring party, this section of Montana was over run by hunters and trappers belonging to various trading companies, especially the American Fur company, who built Fort Lewis near Pablo’s island in 1844 [1845], which was replaced by Fort Benton in 1846 [1847].

In 1859 an agency for the Blackfeet Indians was built on what is commonly known in the past as Sparks’ place. [Note: William R. Sparks settled in Sun River in January 1869 and proved up 115 acres, now part of the Toman Ranch.] About this period, Sun River valley was a common hunting ground for Blackfeet, Crow and Pend d’Oreille Indians, in search of game, horses, and scalps. Tradition among the Indians says about 1854 occurred the great flood in which year Sun River covered the valley from bluff to bluff.

It was, (as far as can be learned by the writer) somewhat later in the fifties, that there occurred that terrible three days fight between the Blackfeet and Crows, which decimated the two tribes. [Note: The time of this important battle is not entirely clear. Father Pierre-Jean De Smet sketches a similar Blackfeet-Crow battle that occurred in 1843 while Canadian historian Hugh Dempsey uses 1833, and Sun River pioneer Robert Vaughn has it in the early 1850s.] The following account was given by Little Plume a chief of the Piegans in an interview in 1884 with the editor of the Sun River Sun [Chief Little Plume was born about 1851 and died in November 1909. According to Robert Vaughn, Little Plume gave his account to frontiersmen James Gibson, Judge Burcher, and S. M. Carson, who was on the staff of the Sun River Sun under editor Will Hanks.]:

“When I was a boy and had not yet gained a name for myself in the annals of war, I was witness to one of the hardest fought battles ever waged in Sun River valley. The chief of the Piegans [identified by Hugh Dempsey as Bear Chief] and a small party of his followers were encamped on the river near the mountains, when one morning a deputation of Crows came in praying that a council be made, saying they were tired of war and wished to make a treaty that would insure peace between them for all time to come. To the council, the chief readily consented and stated that on the morrow everything would be in readiness to receive the Crow chief [Hugh Dempsey identifies two Crow chiefs Painted Wing and Spotted Lip], as their head men were not so far away but that they could be summoned by that time.

When the morrow came, the Crows and Piegans feasted together for the first and last time. The council had proceeded without even so much as a sign of hostility in the past, and as to the course to be pursed in the future, it was to be one that would make the Crows and Blackfeet as one nation. Everything had progressed to the satisfaction of all. The council had adjourned to give place to feasting and dancing during the night, and to gain time so that Skoon-a-tapse-quan, a medicine man, who had not yet arrived might be present at the final agreement [Hugh Dempsey and James Willard Schultz identify this man as Big Snake Person.] The feasting had been one unbroken round of pleasure from the first, and much good will was shown by both parties. Still the feast went on and yet the “Strong Man” had not arrived.

A few more stragglers from the main Crow camp further down the river now and then dropped in. Among a bundle of moccasins the prying eyes of the Piegan women found a fresh scalp which on closer inspection proved to be that of a Piegan. Fearing to cry out lest they should but give the signal for a general massacre, they quietly informed their chief [identified by Hugh Dempsey as Big Lake] of what they had found, and the chief as wisely said nothing, but after a little he quietly went out from the lodge, and, to his astonishment, he saw dangling from the neck of a Crow the identical burning glass with which the “Strong Man” was wont to light his pipe. He knew then that Shoon-a-tapse-quan would never give his consent to a treaty of peace with the Crows. Going back to the council he told the Crows that it would be impossible for him or his people to sign the treaty of peace until the “Strong Man” had given his consent, and further, that until such consent was given, they would be considered enemies. Having thus delivered himself he walked out, being followed by several of the leading men of both tribes, who enquired of his reason for thus breaking up the council. His only answer was to the Crows, whom he told to go to their camp and prepare for war.

The council having been thus suddenly broken up by the Piegan chief, it was deemed by the Crows, necessary to put as great a distance between the two camps as possible. They, therefore, hastily moved their camp down to the breaks, some 15 miles above where the village of Sun River now stands. Here they threw up fortification and prepared to meet the Piegans if pursued. The Piegans, on the other hand, sent runners to all the different camps, informing them of the murder of their medicine man, and the turn affairs had taken. By the time night came on the peaceful camp was broken by the hurrying tramps of over a thousand war horses, each carrying upon his back the sworn enemy of the Crows.

The particulars of the murder of Shoon-a-tapse-quan had been learned by several of the outside camps about the same time the chief discovered it. It seemed that the “Strong Man” had received the summons and had immediately set forth accompanied by his assistant, and when within a few miles of their destination, they were suddenly attacked from behind whilst in the act of lighting their pipes. The “Strong Man” received his death wound from the first blow, but his companion was only stunned, from which he recovered in time to see the murderous Crows hastily making off with the scalp of his leader dangling from the saddle bow of a young brave. Knowing that to stir or show any signs of life would bring certain death, he stay quiet for a long time, not even daring to raise his hand to his aching head, from which the scalp had just been torn. After lying in this position for a considerable time, he raised himself to a sitting posture from which he cautiously took in the situation, and seeing no signs of the Crows, he immediately made off as fast as his legs could carry him. Having arrived at the camp from which he and his companion had so hopefully started in the morning, he told of the tragedy in as few words as possible, and then fell exhausted on the floor of the lodge. Runners were immediately sent to all the outlying camps, informing them of what had happened and ordering them to at once repair to the camp of their chief. So rapidly does news travel in an Indian country that before darkness came on several hundred warriors were with their chief.

On the morrow the Piegan forces were largely augmented by these new arrivals and the chief deemed it best to immediately move against the Crows, who were reported by the scouts as being entrenched at what were then called the “Breaks,” every preparation having been made, the whole force moved forward in one vast column. When about where Alex Pambrin now lives they fell in with the Crows and drove their out-outposts into the trenches, and then commenced one of the most bloody battles ever fought between two nations having a red skin.

The Piegans, after fighting all that day and night, finally succeeded in dislodging the enemy, who, early in the morning, began to move on down the valley. After resting until evening, they again started in pursuit, and overtook the Crows at what the white men call the “Middle Bridge,” which is about two miles below the town of Sun River. Here, if you remember, a high point of bluff put in close to the river, affording great defensive advantages. This is where the Crows made their second stand. Bright and early on the morning of the third day the Piegans moved forward, and, against the most fearful odds, succeeded just as night was coming on, in driving the Crows out of their intrenchments; but, owing to the peculiar formation of the bluffs at this point, it was of no great advantage, as the ground immediately beyond was as well adapted for defense as that just lost.

The Crows had again intrenched themselves, and when morning came, yells of defiance answered the taunts of the Blackfeet. Both parties had received such reinforcements that the combatants numbered over 5,000 on either side, each bent on the extermination of the other; and so near did they accomplish this end that when the fight was won, over 500 Piegan warriors marked the spot where the final charge was made. For two days the fight continued, the Crows yielding but a little at a time. They seemed to still have some hope of victory, but fate was against them.

Just across the river from Robert Vaughn’s place [in present day Vaughn] they made their last stand. Here the hardest fighting was done, and when the last charge was made by the Blackfeet, the ground was literally piled with killed and wounded of both tribes. The Piegans were so crippled by the continuous battle that when the Crows broke from their cover and retreated down the river and across the Missouri, they were satisfied and made no effort at further pursuit. [The Blackfeet named this site “The Place of the Painted Wing and Spotted Lip Massacre."]

Although” said Little Plume, “it took the Blackfeet nation over 20 years to recover their strength, Skoon-a-tapse-e-quan was only partially avenged. As long as there remains a Crow and a Piegan, so long will there be war. When the last Crow shall have been killed, then, and not till then will the “Strong Man” be avenged.”

This is only one of the many battles fought in this valley by Piegans; or Blackfeet. Several years later a great battle was fought at Flowerree’s ranch, but not with the Crows. Old Man Monroe and Charles Chouquette and several other old timers took part in this.

In 1862 or 1863, Malcolm Clarke, killed by Blackfeet in 1869, near Mitchell, in Prickly Pear canon, established a trading post at the mouth of Simms’ creek, which was abandoned a few years later.

In 1865 occurred the memorable Sun River stampede, in which so many men lost their lives and others were crippled. By braving the icy blasts of 40 degrees below zero in their search for the gold fields which never existed.

In 1866 the Blackfeet burned their agency, killing its occupants.

In 1867 the Thirteenth Infantry headquarters and four companies of the same regiment arrived from Camp Cooke and made cantonment at the old mission near the ranch of Dave Churchill, and in August of the same year Fort Shaw was established, Lieutenant Colonel G. L. Andrews in command.

The same year John Largent bought a cabin of Goff, a trapper, which stood near the site of his present residence at Sun River.

In 1867 also John J. Healy built a cabin where H. B. Strong afterward lived [now Toman], therefore, Messrs. Healy and Largent were the first real settlers of Sun River.

In 1867-8, the bridge at the town of Sun River (since replaced by a steel truss bridge) was built by John Largent and Healy Bros.; and another one at the leavings by some German boys, in 1870. Henry Miller and a Frenchman built another bridge at the Churchill ranch known as the lower bridge. These three bridges, the upper, middle and lower, were built to secure the traffic, then of great magnitude, between Helena and Fort Benton, resulting from most of the freight for Montana territory being brought by steamboat to the latter place. Of course, Sun River was an important point on the route, and the upper bridge at the town of Sun River being the best as to location, as also to proximity to the fort, led to the two lower bridges falling into a state of innocuous desuetude and few marks are now found to denote their former existence.

In 1869 Robert Vaughn located what is now the Couch ranch, and he was the first settler to prove up on land in northern Montana.

From the first settlement of Sun River crossing, a state of desultory warfare existed between the whites and the Blackfeet Indians, and the town of Sun River was the scene of several skirmishes. The former residence of John Healy still bears marks of one of these conflicts, in which several Indians were killed, one being shot while climbing in at one of the rear windows, his body falling into the well. Another time a white man was killed down at the middle bridge, and one of the Indians who committed the deed was hung to a tree which then stood just back of John Traxler’s house [later Bill Leach Farm], while the other accomplice was taken to Sun River town and locked up in a cabin, being shortly after shot while trying to escape. At last these predatory incursions of the Blackfeet became unbearable and the military authorities decided to inflict a signal punishment on the tribe. In the early winter of 1869-70, Col. Baker, U. S. A., with detachments of the Second cavalry and Thirteenth Infantry, left Fort Shaw, and on the Marias river, below Conrad, wiped out a camp of Blackfeet, in which fight 173 Indians joined their ancestors. This [Baker Massacre] salutory lesson had a permanent pacific effect.

In 1870 the Seventh infantry, Col. John Gibbon commanding, relieved the Thirteenth infantry at Fort Shaw.

In the early ’70’s the South Fork country was not a desirable location for a quiet family. Owing to the isolated situation of this section it furnished all the requisites necessary for a safe harbor of refuge for pursued criminals, who, it is unnecessary to say, took advantage of it. Several highly sensational stories have consequently originated here, one of which is quite romantic and worthy of repetition, owing to the probable truth of it. During the early part of the ’70’s a portion of the famous Plummer gang, who operated throughout the territory, were hotly pursued by the vigilantes, made their escape into it, where they cached themselves until safe for them to return to their rendezvous. A short time after this, one of the gang who was chased into this section was captured in the lower country by the vigilantes, and just before he was swung into eternity he wrote a letter to his wife in St. Louis, telling her of a cache the gang had made of some $30,000 in coin in a cabin on a on a tributary of Sun river, in sight of the Haystack butte. A short time after receiving the letter the wife, accompanied by her son, came to this section and made a search for the missing treasure, but without success. She came back the second time and made that section her residence and continued the search, with what success is not known, as she suddenly disappeared, leaving no trace. Since that time repeated attempts have been made by various parties, and many is the lone shack whose floor has been torn up in the vain attempt to discover the cache.

In the summer of 1872, 200 soldiers from Fort Shaw participated in the Yellowstone expedition under Col. Baker, and in 1874 military roads were constructed from Fort Shaw to the British boundary and Camp Lewis (Lewistown), in the Judith Basin. The latter road crossed the Missouri river at Great Falls, on the present site of the railway bridge. About this time the last murder on lower Sun River by Indians occurred in a cabin near the site of lower Sun River bridge, when one man was killed.

In 1876 the Largent hotel was built at the town of Sun River, being the first brick building erected in the valley. In 1879 the Seventh infantry was relieved by the Third infantry, Lieutenant Colonel Brooks, commanding. In 1888 the Third infantry was relieved by the Twenty-fifth infantry, Lieutenant Colonel J. J. Van Horn commanding, and a short time after Fort Shaw was abandoned for military purposes, after being headquarters of the military district of Montana for 21 years.

With the withdrawal of the troops from Shaw, a new era, as regards the civilization of the northern Indians commenced in Sun River valley. Schools in place of bullets were to exercise their influence. In the early part of 1892, G. B. Grinnell advocated that Fort Shaw with its reservation be turned over to the Interior Department for the establishment of an Indian school. On Dec. 27, 1892, under the supervision of Dr. W. H. Winslow, the school was formally opened under the name of the Fort Shaw Indian Industrial School. The school is at present under the same superintendent, and under his able management it’s standing is second to none of the Indian schools in the United States. It is also somewhat remarkable that the children from the Blackfeet nation are in the majority, learning the arts of civilization and the ways of making themselves self-supporting, on the banks of the same river where their forefathers proved such a constant menace to settlers in earlier times.

Historically, not much more need be said regarding Sun River valley. The description of its towns and settlements practically pertains to a future article on its mineral, pastoral and agricultural resources. The foregoing brief sketches however may probably prove interesting to the citizens of Great Falls, within the corporate limits of which Sun River empties into the mighty Missouri. Twelve miles of railroad already extended from Great Falls up that magnificent valley, and when that line is extended to the upper settlements of the great South Fork country and direct mail routes established, then Sun River valley will proved no inconsiderable factor in the prosperity of Great Falls. [Signed] O. C. M.

[Sources: Great Falls Tribune Daily 24 Dec 1897, pp. 3-4; Sun River Sun 25 December 1884; “Indians Battled on Sun River in 1833” by James Willard Schultz in Great Falls Tribune 5 Sep 1937, pp. 14-15 and 12 Sep 1937, p. 15; A Pictorial History of the Sun River Valley, pp. 10-11; The Blackfoot Papers, by Adolph Hungry-Wolf, Vol. Four, pp. 1050-56; Father De Smet’s Life and Travels Among the North American Indians by Chittenden and Richardson, Vol III, pp. 1037-43; “Massacre at Sun River” in The Vengeful Wife and Other Blackfoot Stories by Hugh A. Dempsey, pp. 29-35; “Bloody Battle and Tragedies in the Sun River Valley” in Then and Now by Robert Vaughn, pp. 132-39]

Photos:

(1) Professor O. C. Mortson [OHRC]
(2) Blackfeet Chief Little Plume [OHRC]
(3) Map of the Sun River Battle Sites [OHRC]

A Woman’s Life on the Frontier: The Fort Benton Years

2008-09-22T13:36:00.000-06:00

A Woman’s Life on the Frontier: The Fort Benton Years of
Martha Edgerton Rolfe--Part 1
By Ken Robison

This continues the series of frontier historical sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.

Rare indeed is the account written about Fort Benton during its transition from the lawless era of whiskey trading of the early 1870s to the “civilized” steamboat transportation hub by the end of the decade. Although “civilization” began to come to Fort Benton with the arrival of women and children after 1875, we find few accounts of life in the little city at that time, and fewer still written from a woman’s perspective. What a treat then to find both a memoir written by a woman and a series of articles recording the life of her family and the social scene in Fort Benton from 1879-1884.

This remarkable woman, Martha Edgerton Rolfe Plassmann, was a true pioneer. Young Mattie, as she was known, first came to Bannack in what is now Montana, then Idaho territory, with her parents in a covered wagon in 1863. Her father, Sydney Edgerton, served as Montana’s first Territorial Governor. Just over one decade later in late 1876 Mattie returned to Montana as Mrs. Herbert P. Rolfe, when Herbert became the first Superintendent of Schools in bustling Helena.

From Helena, Martha and Herbert Rolfe moved on to frontier Fort Benton, arriving in December 1879 with two young children. The formative Fort Benton years found Herbert active in surveying, legal work, and politics, working hard to build a Republican party organization in a town dominated by Irish Democrats. Reflecting his northern birth, Herbert was a “Lincoln Republican,” called by their opponents “black Republicans” for their support for Abraham Lincoln, his emancipation of the slaves, and his attempt to integrate the former slaves into the politics and economy of the country. Martha shared the political beliefs of her husband, advocating suffrage for not only Black Americans but also for women of all races. Herbert’s hard work in Fort Benton not only improved the family’s financial situation, but attracted the attention of leaders in the community. Paris Gibson was impressed with the talent and drive displayed by Herbert and hired him in secrecy to serve as surveyor and lawyer as Gibson quietly moved forward with plans to found a town at the confluence of the Missouri and Sun rivers. The growing Rolfe family were among the first settlers in the new town moving there in the summer of 1884.

Both Herbert and Martha were remarkable achievers. Mattie had watched the course of events in Montana from the beginning of its territorial days, and, by virtue of natural ability and educational training and that happy faculty possessed by few of the pioneers of being able to record the history of Montana both accurately and entertainingly. Much of Mattie’s life was devoted to recording the history of the Treasure State. After the untimely death of Herbert in 1895, she became the first woman editor of a Montana daily newspaper, taking over the Great Falls Leader. Following the death of her second husband, Theodore Plassmann, in 1896, Mattie worked at many jobs to support herself and her seven young children. Mostly, though, she wrote historical accounts that were published in newspapers throughout Montana.

Fortunately, Martha Edgerton Rolfe Plassmann wrote about her life in frontier Fort Benton from 1879 to 1884. The story that follows combines portions of her unpublished memoir, “Memories of a Long Life,” and newspaper articles, “Rough Travel in Early Days: Runaway Stage Ride from Helena to Fort Benton” and “Frontier Days: Pioneering in Old Fort Benton--Living Conditions in the Old Missouri River Town in the Late Seventies.”

Part I describes the arduous trip of the Rolfes from Helena to Fort Benton. In the words of Mattie: “In 1879, my husband, Herbert Rolfe, having finished three years as superintendent of the Helena schools, graduated its first class from the high school, and been admitted to the bar, decided to locate at Fort Benton. This town, being at the head of navigation on the Missouri, was then the most promising in the state, with the sole exception of Butte. It was an important distributing point, and during the summer months, when the boats were running, business was lively. No one could then predict, what eventually happened, that the railroads would kill traffic on our magnificient waterways.

We left Helena [on a bleak early December day], going by stage, and with us were our two children, one but a month old. The weather was intensely cold for that time of the year, necessitating wearing many wraps to keep from freezing. Our stage was the two seated kind, known as a “jerky,” and with us were two other passengers, both men. These considerately took the front seats leaving us the back seats. Bundled up as we were, the six of us found the conveyance uncomfortably crowded, and I had difficulty in keeping my baby from being smothered.

All went fairly well until, in crossing the Bird Tail divide, a spring broke. It could not be repaired, and there was no other coach at the station where we next stopped after the accident occurred. We were forced to go on in our disabled vehicle. No stage driver in those days drove slowly in consideration of his passengers; his duty was simply to get them to their destination on time. Our driver was no exception to the rule and so we bumped and clattered along over the rough road, trying vainly to keep warm, and save ourself from the frequent jolts, as the coach struck stones or other obstructions. By the time we reached Reinecke’s, we were completely exhausted from this dual effort, and my eldest child was crying because he feet were frosted. [Note, Mrs. Rolfe later identifies the stage river as Matthew Carroll, later of Diamond R prominence.]

At Reinecke’s, on Sun river, as at other stations along the route--notably Spitzley’s which was one of our first stopping places--we were well entertained. Mrs. Reinecke proved to be a former stage companion of mine, on the long journey from Franklin, Utah, in 1876, the terminal point of the Utah Northern railroad, to Helena. She, and her husband, treated us more as guests, than what we were; transient customers that brought them small financial return, and much work.

Stage stations were often far from other dwelling, and the main events in the lives of those who kept them were the arrival and departure of the stages. The time of their arrival was never certain, and their coming meant the hurried preparation and serving of meals for one or many people. This was especially hard on such women as did the cooking and had young children. At a station on this trip, I have a vivid recollection of one young woman who was hastening to get our supper, with a baby fastened in a high chair beside the stove, while another scarcely able to walk, clung to her skirt, and followed her every step from stove to table; from table to stove watching the strangers with curious gaze but never crying. I wondered how the woman could accomplish anything with such hindrances, and still never display impatience. At this station, the woman did the work, and her husband the entertaining. At Reinecke’s the division of labor was better arranged, husband and wife bearing an equal share.

Here, after we had rested awhile, and were once again warm, a hearty breakfast added to our comfort, and gave us courage to pursue our journey, which should end before the coming night. My baby was none the worst for the long hard miles we had already gone over, and could be expected to endure the few remaining. Her little sister, with her feet well protected from the cold by a pair of heavy woolen socks, kindly furnished by Mrs. Reinecke, no longer cried because of the cold. The day was sunny; we were warm and well fed and fortified to endure the coming hours of travel in the springless coach. Then the unexpected happened. When the coach drew up at the door we saw there was another passenger and one we recognized. An [Irish] old, old timer, who belonged to the fur trading days. He was the soul of gallantry, and never more so than when drinking, as he evidently had been on this occasion.

There was no room for him inside, had he cared for a seat there, for being an old timer, he chose to side with the driver, who gladly made room for him; securely buckled the boot about him, and away we sped.

As I have already said, the day was sunny, giving a clear shadow of the coach, and making it possible to see what was going on without, where the driver sat. First we noticed a flask being frequently passed from passenger to driver. This was not surprising, the biting air, notwithstanding the sun’s rays, called for extra stimulant. But after a while, I recognized that the stimulating was being overdone, and I became apprehensive as I saw the shadow passenger take the reins from the hands of the shadow driver, and seize the whip as well.

Then things began to grow exciting. The whiplash stretched out over the backs of the half wild horses that drew us, and the stage gave a lurch forward that, might have unseated us, had we not been wedged in so tightly. Over the level country we rushed, turning not a whit aside to avoid anything in the road, the wild Celt on the box industriously plying the whip, regardless of how the pace he set affected the shut-in passengers, infatuated as he was with the love of rapid motion. And the flask continued to be shared. With heads thrown back, one, and then the other would take a pull at the bottle, the shadowy rising and falling of an Adam’s apple, indicating accurately the number of swallows, of which they were fully enough to have verified the proverb, and made a summer--several summers in fact--and following every drink the whip was swung more vigorously.

The coach, to use a favorite but applicable expression, went forward by leaps and bounds; sometimes on four wheels, and sometimes not. I clung to my baby with one hand, and with the other held on to the side of the coach, expecting any moment might see us overturned. Then those two up aloft, totally unconcerned as to our fate, broke forth into song, accompanied by the crack of the whip; the galloping feet of the horses on the frozen ground; and the rattling wheels of the swaying and bounding coach beneath them.

Shut in the coach as we were, protests from us, against the terrific pace set by the drunken man who held the reins, would have been useless could they have been heard above the general racket. Figuratively speaking, we were on the knees of the gods; and if we could have been there in reality, it would undoubtedly have been a far more desirable position than what we then held.

My fear was not for myself, but for my children. In the event of an overturn, they would surely be crippled, if not killed. Fortunately they were ignorant of the danger, and managed to sleep notwithstanding the severe jolts to which we were subjected. We elders suffered the misery attendant on riding rapidly in a springless vehicle--almost unendurable backache and sideache.

At length we came to the summit of a hill, down which we tore at unprecedented speed until, reaching level ground, we bowled along through the main street of a village, and suddenly stopped with a jerk before a low wooden building with a front mainly in glass. We had arrived. this was Fort Benton’s hotel; and the end of our journey reached two hours and a half ahead of schedule time.

Bruised, stiff, and half frozen, we crawled out of the coach, and entered the sitting room of the hotel. Here I attempted to seat myself on a tete-a-tete placed invitingly near the redhot stove, but came near finding myself on the floor instead, this piece of furniture having but three legs.

Our bedroom that night adjoined the sitting room, and also had a door into the hall. The barroom must have been somewhere in the neighborhood, for all night long there was tramping up and down the corridor and once our door was tried. Tired as we were, it was impossible to sleep well with so much commotion without. The next morning at breakfast, we asked the puffy-eyed waiter who it was made such disturbance during the night. He mentioned the name of a paymaster of the army, and the president’s brother, who had just returned from Fort Assiniboine, and was stopping at the hotel.

“He done it, ma’am,” said our informant, “and wasn’t it a shame; and him an officer ‘nd a gintleman?”

With this adventuresome trip the Rolfes arrived December 8, 1879 to make their lives and fortune in Fort Benton. Part II will continue Martha Edgerton Rolfe’s account of life in frontier Fort Benton.

[Sources: Undated article by Martha Edgerton Plassmann in Missoula Public Library Vertical File MEP File; Memories of a Long Life by Martha Edgerton Rolfe Plassman; Benton Record]

Photos:

Martha Edgerton Rolfe [OHRC]
“Jerky” stage to Fort Benton [OHRC]
Overland Hotel, the Rolfe’s first residence in Benton City [OHRC]

The Celestial Kingdom in the Sun River Valley

2008-09-20T08:48:00.000-06:00

By Ken Robison
[Pending publication in Sun River History]

During the late 19th Century, the Chinese found conditions right in the Sun River valley to serve as servants for senior military officers at Fort Shaw and cooks for the most successful ranchers. Some of the earliest Chinese in the valley owned small laundries and restaurants in the town of Sun River. By 1880 there were at least ten “Chinamen” living in the valley. The Sun River Chinese were an extension of the Chinese long accepted, however reluctantly, and working in both Fort Benton and Helena. Newspapers, such as the Benton Record, often reported on events and personalities among the resident members of the “Celestial Kingdom.”

The 1880 U. S. Census recorded five Chinese in Sun River, three employed as cooks and two unemployed:

Ah Quay 28 born China Single Cook [6 months unemployed]

Ah Hang 30 born China Single Unemployed [5 months]

Ah Quang 48 born China Married Unemployed

Tong Ting 29 born China Single Cook

Ah Toy 25 born China Single Cook

The same census recorded five other Chinese working for officers of the U. S. Army Third Infantry Regiment at Fort Shaw:

Ah Lee 35 born China Single Servant in household of Regimental Commander Colonel John R. Brooke,

Charles Chinaman 35 born China Servant in household of
Army Surgeon Charles R. Greenleaf

Ah Wing 40 born China Single Servant in household of
Lieut. John W. Hennay

Ah Lee 23 born China Single Servant in household of
Lieut. F. B. Jones

China Jim 24 born China Single Servant in household of
Lieut. Joseph Hale

In May 1884 Wing Lee, or Jim Chinaman, opened a Laundry “Washee” in Sun River, advertising in the Sun River Sun “Washing and Ironing done on short notice.” Three months later, The Sun notified that Wing Lee had sold his business and was going back to China, yet Wing Lee and his laundry continued in business. In August 1885, L. D. Browning opened the Sun River Laundry in competition with Wing Lee’s business. In less than a month Browning realized his mistake, closed his laundry, and moved on to Helena, realizing that “he could not hope to compete with the Chinaman’s low prices.” By mid 1886, Wing Lee sold his laundry to Yuen Lee, and two years later Sun River had another yet another new Laundry, conducted by Lem Chong.

In October 1884, Ah Joe opened the King Bee Restaurant in Sun River, advertising in The Sun: “Tables Furnished with the Best in the Market. Travellers and day boarders will find this a good place to stop.”

Despite their small numbers, the Sun River Chinese celebrated their traditional New Year with a round of festivities ending in fireworks. The Sun River Rising Sun reported their celebrations: “Our local Chinese commenced the celebration of their New Year last Monday, and will close the round of festivities by a grand pyrotechnic display to-night. The Emperor of China has changed the calendar so that New Years comes one week later this year than formerly, but it is alee same John, and the festal is observed as though nothing had happened.”

When Fred C. Campbell became Superintendent of the Fort Shaw Indian Industrial School in 1898, he brought along Joe Ling to cook in his household. Although the Campbells departed in 1908, Joe Ling stayed on with the new Superintendent John B. Brown. In 1910 F. C. Campbell sent a remarkable letter to his long-time Chinese cook, “Dear Joe,” urging him to come cook for Campbell at the Fort Peck Agency, and concluding “A great many of your friends down this way have been inquiring if you are coming. I feel sure you will like the work and the people.”

By the turn of the 19th century, valley ranchers sought the services of Chinese cooks as a status symbol in the community, much as those in the Fort Benton area did. Successful rancher J. C. Adams employed Hong Ching as cook on his ranch. Hong Ching was born September 1867 in China, immigrated to the U. S. in 1882, and had been married for five years at time of the 1900 census.

Through an oral history by his daughter, Ida Johnson, Alvin Sauke observed the phenomenon of Chinese ranch cooks.
Emigrating from Minnesota to Montana in August 1908, Sauke arrived at the Great Northern station in Great Falls where he observed a big “Welcome” sign on the depot and another sign that read “Chinaman don’t let the sun shine on you here.” Great Falls "prided" itself that the town did not allow Chinese residents for many decades. Alvin caught the train to Vaughn the next day, and walked to Sunnyside. There, T. C. Power owned the Sunnyside Store, handling lumber, coal, and groceries. Sunnyside had a huge garden and was managed by J. Clarence and his wife Fay Adams Morgan. The Morgans employed both a Chinese cook and a gardener. Sauke remembers Morgan yelling to one of the Chinese to bring watermelon from the garden. Sauke remembered also that at the Floweree Ranch, manager Hamilton employed a Chinese cook and possibly a gardener, J. C. Adams had a Chinese cook, and possibly other ranchers in the valley employed Chinese cooks.

Sources: U. S. Census; Sun River Sun; Sun River Rising Sun;
F. C. Campbell Letter, from F. C. Campbell Papers in possession of Fred De Rosier; Oral History Alvin Sauke by Ida Johnson.

Photos:
(1) A Chinese gardener in Fort Benton [Overholser Historical Research Center Photo]
(2) Chinese cook at the Joseph A. Baker Ranch [Overholser Historical Research Center Photo]

Preserving Historic Landmarks

2008-09-07T15:09:00.000-06:00

[Written in 1916] Some months ago Frank D. Brown, the first historian of the Montana Historical society, first suggested the idea of permanently marking the route of the historic “Mullan Road” by appropriate monuments to be erected by the different towns and cities, through which ran the old military road from Fort Benton to Walla Walla.

The building of the road was a distinct achievement in the early history of the northwest. It was the first real connecting link between “the states” and the scattering fringe of white settlers along the northwestern coast line.

Trade and settlement in the inter-mountain country was prohibited by the absence of any means of transportation, beyond the head of navigation on the Missouri at Fort Benton. The building of the Mullan Road was the forerunner of construction work on the Northern Pacific railroad.

It is eminently appropriate that the people who now live in the territory that was opened up to white civilization through the efforts of these pioneer builders should pay this small tribute to their great work.

Poor indeed is the man or nation that takes no pride in the achievements of his or her progenitors. The State Historical society has done invaluable service to future generations in preserving the early history of the state.

All of us have heard much of the “Mullan Road.” How many of us can give any accurate account of the history of its construction or tell with any exactness its definite route or location beyond the general statement that it ran from Fort Benton to Walla Walla.

[Source: Missoulian in Fort Benton River Press 12 Jan 1916, p. 5]

Ken Robison Note: This proposal for marking the Mullan Road led within a decade to monuments to Captain John Mullan being placed at Fort Benton, Great Falls, Hellgate near Missoula, and several other places near the historic Mullan Military Wagon Road.

Captain Grant Marsh: King of Montana River Navigation

2008-08-11T15:22:00.000-06:00

By Ken Robison

This continues the series of historical sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.

On Saturday August 16th, 2008, Captain Grant Marsh, the greatest steamboat master and pilot on both the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, will come to Fort Benton one century after his last trip to our town. His trip to Fort Benton this year will not be by steamboat and he will not arrive at age 174, but rather in the form of Arch Ellwein, a colorful role player in an appearance at the Upper Missouri Monument Interpretive Center. This visit by "Grant Marsh" affords a good occasion for us all to learn a bit about his remarkable career on Montana's rivers.

On his last trip in July 1908, Captain Grant Marsh came to Fort Benton by train to meet the government steamboat Mandan. The July 17 Great Falls Leader covered this visit, drawing memories of the old days of steamboating on the Upper Missouri in the following article, under the headline “How Conrad Caught the River Trade. Steamboat Men in Fort Benton at the Recent Arrival of the Mandan Tell of a Successful Coup of the Early Days.

The sound of a steamboat whistle which is familiar to old-time residents of this city, brought a large crowd to the lower levee about 8 o’clock Thursday morning [July 15] to welcome the government boat Mandan, says yesterday’s Fort Benton River Press. Her trip up the Missouri river from Sioux City has occupied several weeks, part of the time being occupied in removing snags, and making new charts of localities in which the course of the river has been changed.

Captain [William H.] Gould, who is in charge of the Mandan, made several visits here in steamboating days, and is renewing acquaintance with many of his old time Fort Benton friends. The Mandan is a strongly built boat, constructed especially for river work, the hull and lower deck being covered with steel sheathing. Her bow is fitted with a derrick, from which is suspended a mammoth snag-lifting apparatus with iron jaws that will accommodate any obstacle that it is desired to lift.

Among the visitors who are in town to meet the Mandan is Captain [Grant] Marsh, one of the pioneers of the upper Missouri river steamboat traffic, who made frequent trips to this point in the 70’s, his last visit dating back to 1879. Captain Marsh relates many interesting stories relating to steamboating in early days, one of them relating to a business transaction with W. G. Conrad, the well known Montana banker, who was at that time employed by I. G. Baker.

Captain Marsh was in charge of the steamboat Josephine, which was loaded with a cargo of freight from Sioux City to Fort Benton, and as it was late in the season it seemed probable that the boat could not go further up the river than Cow island. Upon his arrival at that point, Captain Marsh found Mr. Conrad camped with three bull teams, and was informed that the low stage of water would prevent his reaching Fort Benton. He inquired the rate for hauling from Cow island to this city, and as it appeared to be exorbitant it was decided to proceed up the river, and the Josephine being of light draft managed to reach her destination.

Two larger boats were scheduled to follow the Josephine, and in the meantime Mr. Conrad had tested the depth of the water at various places between Dauphin rapids and Cow island by wading into the river and using a sounding stick. He discovered that the larger boats could not possibly pull through some of the shallow places, and patiently awaited their coming. When they arrived and the question of freighting the merchandise to this city was discussed, Mr. Conrad quoted a rate three or four times the steamboat rate from Sioux City.

The steamboat men refused to pay the price, and attempted to continue their trip up the river, but they soon encountered trouble and concluded to accept Mr. Conrad’s terms.

Captain Marsh will go down the Missouri river with the Mandan in the interest of the Benton Packet company, to inspect the conditions and report to Captain I. P. Baker, manager of that line, with a view of running a steamboat between this point and the mouth of Milk river. It is proposed to inaugurate this business the present season if possible.”

Captain Grant Marsh’s record of achievement on the rivers of Montana is stunning in terms of the number of trips, late season operations, and pathbreaking events. Captain Marsh earned the honor of Steamboat King of Montana’s rivers, the Missouri and the Yellowstone. Look at the record:

Year Steamer Events
1866 Luella In 1866 during the height of the Montana Gold Rush, Capt. Marsh received his first command, the Luella, and both the boat and Capt. Marsh became Upper Missouri River legends this year. Capt. Marsh, acting as both master and chief pilot, arrived at Fort Benton June 17 from St. Louis. Keeping Luella on the upper Missouri throughout the summer, Capt. Marsh returned to Fort Benton July 11 from Fort Union with cargo for the North West Fur Company. Capt. Marsh arrived Fort Benton for the third time August 10 with cargo and machinery salvaged from the steamer Marion at Pablo's Rapids. The first to remain so late on the Upper Missouri, Luella departed Fort Benton August 16, and dropped down to Cow Island for a September 3rd departure after boarding 230 miners returning to the States. Capt. Marsh piloted the Luella down the Missouri River through water barely two feet deep with a cargo of 2 1/2 tons of Confederate Gulch gold dust, conservatively valued at $1,250,000. This was the richest cargo ever to go down the Big Muddy.

1867 Ida Stockdale Capt Marsh brought this new construction boat from Pittsburgh to Fort Benton, arriving June 16. After bringing a second load including passengers and cargo from the wrecked steamer James H. Trover to Fort Benton June 29th, the Ida Stockdale took the Trover's machinery down to Fort Buford. Passing down river the Ida Stockdale was hailed 220 miles below Fort Buford by the military, who wanted Capt. Marsh to return to Fort Benton for a third time to convey Major General Alfred Terry, commanding the Department of the Dakota, and his staff. Stopping at the new Camp Cooke for one day, the Ida Stockdale arrived Fort Benton on August 5th and began a slow return to St. Louis.

1868 Nile Departing St. Louis the Nile steamed up the Missouri River arriving Fort Benton May 21, double-tripping back to Fort Hawley for the balance of her cargo. Returning to St. Louis too late for a second trip to Fort Benton, the Nile engaged in trade on the lower Missouri. In October the Army Quartermaster insisted that Capt. Marsh take a load of three small agencies to satisfy provisions of a new Indian Commission Treaty with Red Cloud and the Ogalalla Sioux. Although convinced that he would not be able to deliver to this late in the season, the Nile departed St. Louis October 15 for the Upper Missouri facing low water and impending icing. Capt. Marsh skillfully took the Nile up the Missouri to a point 140 miles above Fort Randall, where much of the cargo was offloaded and stored. Nile then steamed on another 150 miles to the Cheyenne River Agency, before heavy flowing ice stopped progress. The remaining cargo was unloaded, and the Nile turn southward as Capt. Marsh tried to escape the winter elements. At a point 25 miles below Fort Thompson, Nile became imbedded in ice for the winter.

1869 Nile Capt. Marsh began the year by extricating the Nile from her shelter position without damage from breaking ice and bringing her down St. Louis. This marked the first time a steamer had wintered on the Upper Missouri and returned downriver in the spring undamaged. After a quick turnaround, the Nile departed April 25 for a quick trip to Fort Benton arriving May 27 with Marshal "X" Beidler and "Liver-Eatin" Johnston aboard and returning to St. Louis by mid July.
Tempest In St. Louis Capt Marsh was contracted to go overland to Fort Benton, by mackinaw boat to Cow Island, and there take command of the steamer Tempest being held by a mutinous crew. Upon arrival, Capt Marsh immediately shut down the bar and supply of whiskey, bought the crew in line, and got the boat underway, steaming slowly down to St. Louis.
North Alabama Late in the season in October, Capt. Marsh successfully steamed the North Alabama northward up the icy river to deliver supplies to forts in the Dakotas up to Fort Buford. Twenty-five miles short of its destination, ice closed in solid around the North Alabama. The supply of vegetables aboard was transferred overland to Fort Buford. Ten days later the temperature moderated, and the North Alabama broke free to return to Sioux City November 15.

1870 [Kate Kearney] The St. Louis trade with the Upper Missouri waned with arrival of the railroad at Sioux City, Iowa, so Capt. Marsh engaged in commerce between St. Louis and lower Missouri ports.
[Ida Reese No. 2] Late in the season, Capt Marsh assumed command of the Ida Reese No. 2, and took this Durfee & Peck steamer from Sioux City to Fort Buford.

1871 [Nellie Peck] During this season Capt. Marsh supervised construction and then operated the new Nellie Peck on the Lower Missouri.
[Silver Lake] Late in the season in November, post traders at Fort Buford, Leighton & Jordan, asked Capt. Marsh to take command of the old, slow Silver Lake for a successful trip to Fort Buford. On the down trip, Indians fired into the Silver Lake 40 miles above Fort Rice, and Pilot Joe Todd was painfully wounded. The steamer was frozen up near Fort Thompson.

1872 Nellie Peck During this season, Capt. Marsh brought this steamer from Sioux City to Fort Benton on two trips, arriving May 18, the first boat in, and June 30. During the second trip the Nellie Peck, with a larger cargo, and the Far West raced each other from Sioux City to Fort Benton with the Far West overhauling and passing the Nellie Peck, beating her to the Benton levee by several hours. A new record was set for the trip from Sioux City to Fort Benton, just 17 days, 20 hours.

1873 Josephine By early 1873, Capt. Marsh joined other investors in forming the Coulson Packet Line, whose major contracts were with the military to carry troops and supplies up the river. Capt. Marsh moved his family to Yankton and began this season with his first trip from St. Louis up the Yellowstone River.
Key West Capt. Marsh then took command of the steamer Key West, and on orders from General Phil Sheridan he was selected by the Army to explore the Upper Yellowstone. This began Capt. Marsh’s long period of exploration and contract support for the Army on the Upper Yellowstone. His first trip from Fort Buford entered the Yellowstone May 6, steamed to a point 200 miles up the river, and was stopped by a reef of rocks two miles short of the mouth of the Powder River with General Sheridan and General "Sandy" Forsyth and staff onboard. Their mission was to explore the Yellowstone and select army posts on the Upper Missouri. Key West departed Fort Buford again on June 25 to act as transport and patrol boat for General David S. Stanley of the 22nd Infantry Regiment during the Yellowstone Expedition. This pathbreaking season ended with the return of the Key West to Bismarck.

1874 Josephine During this season, Capt. Marsh returned to Missouri River navigation, making three trips from Yankton and Bismarck to Fort Benton, arriving June 1, June 22, and July 22. Josephine made a late season fourth trip up the Missouri to Cow Island arriving August 28.

1875 Josephine Capt. Marsh began this season with a trip from Yankton to the new port of Carroll at the mouth of the Judith arriving May 10 as the Coulson Line tried to break Fort Benton’s role as head of navigation on the Missouri River. Capt. Marsh then returned to Yellowstone exploration, taking the Josephine with General J. W. Forsyth aboard 483 miles up the Yellowstone River some 75 miles above the Big Horn. Stopping June 7 just below "Hell Roaring Rapids" within 60 miles of the northeastern corner of Yellowstone National Park. No other steamer ever went that far up the Yellowstone River.
Far West Capt Marsh departed Yankton on September 24 for a late season trip with Army freight and recruits up the Missouri River to Carroll. At Carroll he left the Far West to take command of the Josephine for the return trip to see his family at Yankton.

1876 Far West Under Army contract, Capt. Marsh departed Bismarck in support of Generals Terry and Custer expedition against the Sioux. During the season, Far West remained between the Powder and Big Horn Rivers. Capt. Marsh steamed and warped the Far West up the uncharted Big Horn River to re-supply and rescue the survivors of the battle of the Little Big Horn. In a navigation feat never equaled on Western waters, Capt. Marsh brought more than 50 wounded survivors from Major Reno's command 700 miles down the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers to Fort Abraham Lincoln in just 54 hours, arriving at 11 PM July 5, 1876. This was one of the most remarkable exploits in Missouri River steamboating annals. It was Capt. Marsh and those he brought with him who relayed the fate of the Seventh Cavalry to the rest of the nation then celebrating its centennial year.

1877 Rose Bud In early spring, Capt. Marsh met this new construction Coulson Line boat at St. Louis and brought her to Bismarck. Once more Capt Marsh was chosen to move a high level Army delegation and supplies up the Yellowstone River, General Sherman, General of the Army and his party, were on an inspection tour of Montana military posts. With General Sherman’s party onboard, Capt. Marsh proceeded from the Yellowstone up the Big Horn and then the Little Big Horn to the new post under construction, Fort Custer. For the rest of the summer, the Rose Bud remained on the Upper Yellowstone shuttling Army supplies between the Tongue and the Big Horn rivers.

1878 F. Y. Batchelor In early spring Capt. Marsh went East to take command of this new construction boat, Capt. Marsh steamed from Pittsburgh to Fort Custer on the Yellowstone. After five more trips up the Yellowstone moving supplies to Forts Keogh and Custer during this long season, Capt. Marsh finally returned to Bismarck in early November.

1879 F. Y. Batchelor During this long season, Capt. Marsh made eight trips up the Yellowstone with Army supplies. In late September he departed Bismarck on a late season trip up the Missouri River to Coal Banks Landing with 100 Army recruits for the new Army post, Fort Assiniboine.

1880 F. Y. Batchelor This demanding season for Capt. Marsh began with five trips up the Yellowstone with Army supplies. He then made two trips to Fort Peck Reservation at Poplar River on the Missouri River. Even though very late in the season, the Army insisted that Capt. Marsh make a final trip up the Missouri to the mouth of the Musselshell, with a cargo of grain to support operations by General Miles. Departing Fort Buford in early November, Capt. Marsh navigated through extremely low water conditions to arrive at the Army depot on the Musselshell November 12th. By the 16th of November, snow began to fall and winter conditions set in as the Batchelor became imprisoned in ice near the mouth of the Milk River. Leaving the boat under guard, Capt. Marsh and part of the crew went overland to Yankton, suffering severely from the winter conditions.

1881 F. Y. Batchelor This year began with major flooding on the Missouri River at Yankton. Capt. Marsh departed early to the Milk River to extricate the F. Y. Batchelor and bring her down to Fort Buford. With the Batchelor, Capt. Marsh made one trip up the Yellowstone returning from Fort Keogh with a cargo of furs valued at an exceptional $106,000.
Eclipse Taking command of a new steamer, Capt. Marshoperated the Eclipse for the rest of the season. Again under Army contract, Capt. Marsh steamed up the Yellowstone as flagship of a five boat fleet up the river to Fort Keogh to bring 3,000 Indians held by General Miles for transfer to Standing Rock Agency.

1882 W. J. Behan In the spring Capt. Marsh bought the packet W. J. Behan, the last Upper Missouri River boat he would have. With the W. J. Behan, Capt. Marsh participated in one more notable event in late April 1882, transporting Sitting Bull and his remaining 171 followers from Fort Randall, where they had been detained after their return from Canada, up the river to Fort Yates.

For a decade and a half from 1866 to 1881, Capt Grant Marsh plied the difficult waters of the high Upper Missouri and the Upper Yellowstone, without ever losing a steamboat. He was a great Captain not least because he was a great pilot and master at low water operations. His reputation for achievement and professional skill became legendary. Grant Marsh earned the honor of “Steamboat King of Montana’s rivers.”

Sources: Great Falls Leader Daily 17 Jul 1908, p. 8; Joseph Mills Hanson, The Conquest of the Missouri Being the story of the Life and Exploits of Captain Grant Marsh; Joel Overholser, Fort Benton World's Innermost Port; William E. Lass, Steamboating on the Upper Missouri; William E. Lass, Navigating the Missouri Steamboating on Nature's Highway, 1819-1935; The Robison-Wahlberg List of Upper Missouri Steamboat Operations.

Photos: (1) Captain Grant Marsh, great steamboat master and pilot [OHRC Photo]

(2) The government engineering boat Mandan [OHRC Photo]

(3) Steamboat Josephine at the Fort Benton levee in 1883 [OHRC Photo]

(4) The steamer Nellie Peck at the Fort Benton levee[OHRC Photo] [OHRC Photo]

(5) The Far West docked along the Yellowstone River [OHRC Photo]

Blazing the Mullan Road: Reminiscences

2008-08-05T16:28:00.000-06:00

Reminiscences of the Mullan Military Road Expedition
By Ken Robison

This continues the series of historical sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.

In August 1860, 148 years ago and before there was a Montana Territory, Army First Lieutenant John Mullan, Jr. led a military expedition to construct a wagon road from Fort Walla Walla in Washington Territory to Fort Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri River. Departing Walla Walla in June 1859, Lieut. Mullan’s men carved the road through the mountains of Idaho into Montana, arriving at Fort Benton in August 1860.

One of Lieut. Mullan's hard working men was Charles Schafft, an immigrant born in Berlin, Germany in 1838, who enlisted in the U. S. Army in 1853 at the age of just 15years old. He was promoted to Sergeant, and served in Company D, 3rd Regiment, U. S. Artillery. By 1858, Schafft was out of the Army and living in San Francisco. When news came to California that Lieut. John Mullan would lead a road-building expedition across the Northwest, and Charles Schafft decided to sign on. Many years later, when Schafft began working for the first Fort Benton newspaper, the Benton Record, he wrote a series of "Literary Contributions”. Schafft's first contribution was a reminiscence of his time with Lieut. Mullan, building the Mullan Military Wagon Road. As you read Schafft’s account, remember that it was written long ago and printed in the January 2, 1880, Benton Record Weekly. Charles Schafft wrote:

Commencing at Walla Walla in Washington Territory, and terminating at Fort Benton, in Montana, is located one of the oldest public roads in the Territory. Its construction was commenced and consummated nearly a quarter of a century ago, and although much of it is as yet a public convenience, and was to within a year or two, the only wagon-road connecting at least one county with its neighbors and the outside world, much abuse has been heaped upon the superintendent [Lieut. John Mullan] of its original location, when instead, he should have some credit with honor upon the pages of our history. From time to time short, but erroneous articles related to the "Mullan Road" have appeared in the local papers, intended as "Bits of history," and many inquiries have been made by private parties in regard to the road and its builder, with no satisfactory answer. As most every early event in our history is of some interest, the writer was induced to prepare an article from personal experience and memory on the subject in hand.

It should be remembered that twenty-five years ago [1855] very little was generally known of what was eastern Washington Territory, and of what is now Montana, except and mainly from the official and necessarily brief report of Lewis & Clarke and the vague accounts given verbally by unlettered employees of the fur companies. The whole country was looked upon as a primeval wilderness, fit only for the Indian, the trapper, the hunter, and no least of all the zealous missionary. The section called Montana was then deemed far more remote from civilization than Alaska is now.

Under the administration of Jeff. Davis, as Secretary of War, several expeditions were organized 1854-55, to explore the various Territories, make topographical surveys, and report upon the feasibility of constructing railroads. Col. Williamson, of the Engineering Corps, had charge of the central part. Lieut. John G. Parke, also of the Engineers, surveyed and explored the southern portion between San Diego, California, and El Paso, Texas, while Gov. I. I. Stevens, of Washington Territory, was placed in charge of the northern reconnaissance and surveys. Among the officers assigned to duty under the latter, were Lieut. Doleson and Lieut. John Mullan, of the 4th Artillery. Governor Stevens, who was Ex-Officio Superintendent of Federal Affairs for his Territory, was advised by his instructions to make treaties with Indian tribes, and report upon the general resources of the country visited, with the view of inducing the formation of settlements. The country was thoroughly explored, and scarcely any Indian tribe was left without a treaty of some kind. During the winter 1854-55 the expedition cantoned in the Bitter Root Valley, near the present site of Stevensville, and in July the following year a treaty was made with the Flatheads, Pend 'Oreilles and Kootenays, who confederated as one nation, with the Flathead, Victor, as head Chief. The year terminated the work, and the Governor made a detailed report to the Departments, which was duly printed and published. Among the recommendations made, was the construction of a military wagon-road from the Columbia to the Missouri, which was to serve not only for the cheaper transportation of troops and military supplies to far western posts, but also for the benefit of enterprising emigrants who might select homesteads in some of the beautiful valleys on the line of the road. This recommendation was approved of, and an appropriation for the purpose was made by Congress 1857-58. Lieut. John Mullan, who ranked Lieut. in the army, as an engineer of ability, was selected to open up the road.

The writer hereof, who was in San Francisco in April, 1858, with Frazer river as his objective point, reading one day in the papers the arrival of Lieut. Mullan and a corps of assistants en route to Walla Walla, felt induced to approach the Lieutenant when already on the Oregon steamer, and seek for employment on the expedition. Mullan's arrival and his departure for Oregon to open up a wagon-road to the Missouri river, created some excitement in San Francisco at the time, and the expedition was looked upon much the same as a trip to the North Pole is looked upon now.

The Dalles, in Oregon, being the last place connected then with steamboat transportation, was selected as the rendezvous, and the expedition started from thence and reached its real point of departure without mishap. Work was then commenced and proceeded from Walla Walla for a distance of about fifty miles to the mouth of Tricanyon creek, as which point operations were suspended on account of the retreat of Col. [Edward] Steptoe, who had been up the Palouse on a military reconnaissance, with a force of troops lightly armed and mounted on horses unbroken to stand fire. The Indians were unwilling for the whites to penetrate their country, and had advised Steptoe to return; but upon his insisting to go on, fire was opened by the Reds, more as a defiance and a warning, than to kill. In trying to return the fire, some of the recruits were thrown from their horses. A panic was created which resulted in a hasty retreat. Of course the road expedition could not go forward in the face of defeat, nor was it proposed to fight its way through unknown numbers of apparently hostile Indians, and consequently had to await further events.

General [William S.] Harney, who was then at Vancouver trying to settle the San Juan question, took prompt measures to punish the Indians, and Col. [George] Wright with all forces that could be collected, was dispatched against them. The campaign resulted in the utter defeat of the Indians, who had congregated quite an army out of nearly all the tribes between the Rocky mountains and the Columbia, and it also resulted in opening the Walla Walls country, which had heretofore been Indian territory, to settlement.

As the war consumed the whole summer, the road expedition had been disbanded, to be reorganized in the year following, and a small extra appropriation was made by Congress in 1858-59 to cover and make good losses sustained in stock and supplies.

In the spring of 1859 the expedition had its rendezvous again at the Dalles, where Captain [Thomas] Jordan, Post Quarter-master, furnished the necessary supplies and transportation for its escort of fifty men drawn from the 3rd Artillery at Fort Vancouver. Lieut. Mullan hired about one hundred men who were bound to serve by certain conditions, the ordinary wages paid being $50 per month, and the old army ration. To break his men a little to the labor required, some work was done improving the old emigrant road between the Dalles and Walla Walla, the latter place being reached in June. And now the expedition fully equipped and organized, was really ready to commence operations in earnest. We left Fort Walla Walla in June 1859, a few days after the departure of Major [Pinkney] Lugenbeel, who had gone with two companies of the 9th Infantry to establish Fort Colville, and proceeded to the mouth of Tricanyon, where a rock breastwork called Fort Taylor, had been built during the Indians war. At this point we crossed the Snake river, and the conditions of service were once more read to the men, while the settlements were easy of access.

A day of twenty miles travel, early in the hot month of July, took us from Snake river to the left bank of the Palouse, immediately above its picturesque falls; thence the road was located up the Palouse and over to the St. Joe valley. Little hard work had so far been required, except the occasional grading of a side hill or a crossing, but the descent to the St. Joe needed the construction of a heavy grade and some corduroy work. In this beautiful valley (now a reservation for the Coeur D'Alenes) we made a time camp. Two ferry boats had to be built, one for the St. Joe and the other to be taken around by the lake to the Coeur D'Alene river. Swampy bottoms had to be corduroyed, and a road had to be cut through the timber over the Coeur D'Alene range, which divides the two valleys. When we reached the Coeur D'Alene river, it was at a point twenty miles below the Mission, and the expedition crossed in the boat built on the St. Joe. To follow up the river required time and work, on account of timber, swamps and grading, and it being already in September continuous rains made it disagreeable for the men. Arriving at the Mission, we had the Bitter Root mountains in our immediate front, and the difficulties to be encountered through them, a distance of 75 miles to the Missoula river, were painted so formidably, even by the missionaries, that winter quarters began to look a long ways off. Had the object of the expedition been solely to construct a road for the accommodation of travel, and had not official instructions prevented, it is probable that Mullan would have diverged here and built the road around Pend 'Oreille Lake, which would have avoided the mountains, but lengthened the distance over eighty miles. There had been a difference of opinion between Stevens and Mullan in regard to the feasibility of railroad construction through the mountains, and the facts in the case were to be determined definitely by a party of engineers taking a line of levels from old Fort Walla Walla as the starting point.

Mud Prairie, eleven miles above the Mission, was fixed upon as a depot camp. This prairie, naturally a swamp, was made more so by the previous heavy rains, and had to be partly bridged to get the wagons to its upper end. An examination of the surrounding hills found them full of springs and impractical for grading. We were now at the main barrier of the entire road, and it was a serious one. The pass on both sides was obstructed by an almost impenetrable heavy growth of pine, cedar, tamarack and fir, long since thinned out by frequent firs occurring almost annually for the past twenty years. The mountains hugged the streams so closely that numerous crossings or time-consuming or laborious grades, were unavoidable. The timber on the line of the road had been set on fire, probably by Indians, and everything looked smoky, dismal and discouraging; but gloves had to be laid aside now, and working parties provided with eight or ten days' rations were pushed ahead to cut out, inch by inch as it were, the timber marked by the engineers, who were crawling through the undergrowth, unable to see more than a few feet before them. The road followed the bottom of the canon, because it would have taken nearly a whole summer's work to grade the hills, even if that were practicable; as it was it took nearly the whole month of October to open a merely passable way for the wagons from Mud Prairie to the summit, a distance of only twenty-five miles, and the men were working hard from the earliest dawn till dusk. Mullan, who did not hesitate to put his shoulder to the wheel, was ever among them, to instill courage and hurry up the work. A fall or two of snow began to warn us of the approaching winter. While at Mud Prairie a Quarter-master's train brought out the winter supplies for the military escorts, which necessitated double tripping on part of our teams to the next depot at the foot of the mountains.

Early in November the next depot was established on the east side of the mountains, at what is now called Packer's Ranche, on the Reguis Borgia river [St. Regis River near today's Superior, MT]. The work down this steam was somewhat lighter, because the timber was more open, but headway was made slowly on account of the numerous crossings. Winter having now set in for good, made it still harder on the men, and the indispensable work cattle began to suffer for want of feed. It had been thought all along that we could find winter quarters in the valley of the Missoula, but it as impossible to get there, and reluctantly the order was given for the building of a winter camp at the leaving of the Reguis Borgia, about thirty miles above its mouth. The camp was called "Cantonment Jordan."

Mullan, who had his winter supplies shipped to Benton, with the expectation of having easy access to them from the Missoula valley, found himself disappointed, and had to begin making drafts on the Quartermaster for stores. The citizens of the expedition having exhausted and worn out their supplies of clothing and other necessaries, began to suffer for want of shoes and bedding, and anxiously began to look for the arrival of Messrs. Friedman & McClinchy, Sutlers to the outfit, who were on the road from Walla Wall with a pack train of one hundred animals loaded with merchandise. These merchants had started for the camp rather late in the season, and with overloaded animas, and after they passed the Coeur D'Alene Mission and began to enter the mountains, their animas gave out and perished for want of feed or owing to the effects of the cold. Their merchandise had to be abandoned, and was promiscuously scattered all along the road from Mud Prairie to the foot of the mountain. Friedman reached the camp with only two or three packs, and a few loose animals. The loss of the train was felt severely by all concerned, and the owners of it were at a clear loss of $10,000. Mullan, it was said, was interested in the loss. Some few of the abandoned goods were got to camp by soldiers, who hauled them over the mountain in hand sleds.

Winter quarters being established, and it being likely that the supplies would run short, some of the men were released from their engagement and allowed to proceed to the valley. The others were kept steady at work.

During the winter an order arrived from Washington that the War Department advised it would send four or five hundred men as recruits up the Missouri the following spring, for Forts Walla Walla, Colville, etc. and specified that Mullan was expected to be at Benton in time with his wagons to furnish transportation for those troops. This order necessitated the prosecution of the work more vigorously than ever, and the soldiers who had heretofore performed no labor, were called into requisition, and sent ahead to aid in road building. It was necessary to have the way open for travel necessary to have the way open for travel as far as Hell Gate Ronde, with the earliest spring, and most of the grades up the Missoula river were dug out of the deep snows of mid winter. Most of the work animals perished, and a new supply had to be sent for to Camp Floyd, in Utah. There was not much enjoyment in this winter camp. As early as possible in the spring of 1860, the expedition moved over the laboriously made road to Hell Gate; thence as rapidly as wagons could be got over obstacles up the Hell Gate canyon to Deer Lodge, and thence over a comparatively open country to Fort Benton, and arrived there in due time to furnish the desired transportation to Major Blake and the recruits. On the return to Walla Walla some important work was done by the soldiers, and the road had been opened and the wagons had rolled over it both ways; but it was like all new roads, a hard one to travel.

Upon recommendations made by Major Blake, who was authorized to inspect and report upon the work done, and who reported very favorably, Mullan was sent again into the field early in 1861 with a new [second road-building] expedition to do more necessary work and improvements. This expedition had with it only about fifty hired laborers, and an escort of one hundred men from the 9th Infantry. The road this time crossed Snake river at the mouth of the Palouse, and thence followed the Colville road twenty miles to Cow creek, and thence over an open prairie to Antoine Plants, on the Spokane river; thence up the Spokane around Coeur D'Alene Lake to the Mission, abandoning entirely the road made the previous year from Snake river via the Palouse and St. Joe valleys. There was no difference in distance on the new route taken, but it was entirely a prairie road, with the exception of thirty-five miles between the Lake and the Mission, where considerable work had to be done over spurs of mountains. The main part of the labor to be performed lay in the Bitter Root mountains, and between the Missoula river and Deer Lodge, (the only portion of the country where the Mullan road is yet distinctly marked, and where it was always be known by its proper name.) A careful examination of the pass revealed the fact that either a continuous grade would have to be made for a distance nearly fifty miles, or that the road would have to remain along the bottoms of the canyons. Grading was found impracticable for the want of means and time, therefore the old road had to be retained. Much work was required and done to clear it of fallen timber, and to level standing stumps with its bed. The many crossings of the stream were a serious draw-back, and Mullan tried the experiment of bridging. Timber being plenty, rough bridges were easily and quickly constructed, but in most instances the embankments were very low, and it was not expected that the bridges would withstand any high freshet, as at most they were only intended for temporary structures. Leaving the mountains proper, many repairs and improvements were made along the Missoula river, and to save crossing it, and establishing of ferries, it was decided to retain the road made before. The Hell Gate canyon, where but little work had been done the previous year, had yet to be attended to, and winter quarters were built on the left bank of the Big Blackfoot, near its mouth.

The camp was called Cantonment Wright. Most of the soldiers were distributed in small parties along the canyon, and the grades on the Hell Gate were broken from the ground during the winter of 1861-1862, one of the severest known in the history of this country, and the work went along very slowly. A fine bridge, covered with whipsawed lumber, was thrown over the Big Blackfoot, but being severely damaged by the unusually high freshet of 1862, it was soon after replaced by a private toll bridge. Late in December two horse thieves, Butler and Williams, were followed and arrested in Deer Lodge Valley, by authority of Lieut. Mullan. They received no jury trial, but were both fastened together by the legs, and rendered efficient service in digging out rock for the filling of the piers of the Blackfoot bridge. In the spring they were set at liberty with some good advice for their future guidance.

In January 1862, a citizen connected with the sutler store, while en route to Deer lodge, had his feet frozen, and medical assistance being unable to reach him in proper time, the amputation of both legs became a necessity.

Near the ending of May 1862, Mullan, who had just been promoted to a Captaincy, having fulfilled his instructions, disbanded the expedition; many of the citizens going East via Benton, and the soldiers returning West. Captain Mullan, on account of private affairs, found it necessary to resign his commission in the army.

It was customary while constructing the road to set up posts or brand trees, at convenient points, with the letters "M. R." military road, and the number of miles from each terminus. Those brands were intended as guides, and also to keep off trespassers. Notwithstanding some of the best portions of the road were "taken up," and toll was collected, while the most sections requiring much labor for improvement were severely left alone for free public use. So outrageous became the trespassers at last, that the legislature of Montana found it necessary to enact a law declaring the Mullan road to be a "free public highway."

That the portion of road between Walla Walla and Deer Lodge, (upon which much money and time had been expended,) fell into disuse, was the result of various apparent causes. Owing to the Eastern war no troops or military supplies were sent over it; the discovery of gold in Montana and Idaho diverted emigration from it, and in western Montana there were no markets to tempt freighters to try it. Mullan expected the road would be used, and by use improved. In many of the swamps, and where grass was scarce near camping places in the mountains, he had caused grass seed to be scattered to provide good feed in the future, and fine timothy patches can now be found as the result. It was one of his projects to have a mail route established between St. Paul, via Benton and Portland, Oregon, with a branch coming in from Leavenworth and connecting in the Missoula valley. It being claimed that by this route Oregon would receive its mails quicker than by the old routes. A part of the road he built will probably long remain in public use, notwithstanding the fault-finders who never saw the principal part of the work, and whose imagination can't picture the hardships endured by those who toiled upon it. General Sherman, who traveled over it, did not condemn it, nor did he advocate the building of a new one, but he found the old location good and important enough to cause it to be reopened, if only as a military necessity. It is not reported that the troops who worked on it last summer had more efficient engineers than Mullan but they had to obey orders likewise, and could not deviate from the assigned track, which is yet and long will be a subject for much improvement.

Mullan was one of the pioneers of this country. His name became permanent by a public work of peculiar difficulties, and those that are acquainted with the circumstances well know that he rather lost than make a fortune during the time he was employed upon it. There certainly is some credit due him.
[Signed] C. S.

So, what became of Charles Schafft after the expedition? As he related in his account, in January 1862 "a citizen connected with the sutler store, while en route to Deer lodge, had his feet frozen, and medical assistance being unable to reach him in proper time, the amputation of both legs became a necessity." That "citizen" was Charles Schafft! In the words of Lieut. John Mullan:

"I here mention, with regret a sad accident that occurred to a citizen in passing from one to another of our camps, and which will tend to show the degree of cold we experienced during January [1862]. He (Charles Schafft) had left one of the camps with the intention of going to the Deer Lodge valley. Night and severe cold overtaking him before he could reach another camp, he halted to build a fire, and being wet endeavored to slip off his moccasins, when he found them frozen to his feet. He became alarmed, and retracing his steps reached the point he had started from, late at night, but with both feet frozen, and on their being thawed in a tub of water all the flesh fell off. The poor fellow suffered intensely, and his life was only saved by his suffering the amputation of both legs above the knees; the operation performed by Dr. George Hammond, U.S. Army. A purse of several hundred dollars was raised for him, and he was left to the kind charity of the Fathers of the Pend d'Oreille mission, where he remained up to the date of our leaving the mountains."

Despite the handicap of the loss of his legs in March 1862, Charles Schafft remained active in Montana as the new Territory was formed, and by 1864 he served as a county officer in Missoula County. Two years later he became postmaster. In 1880 Schafft moved on to Fort Benton where in addition to his literary contributions to the Benton Record, he worked as a bookkeeper for Robert Mills of the Centennial Hotel. Later, Charles Schafft returned to Missoula, where this remarkable man died March 2, 1891 and was buried with a Union veteran's headstone to mark his grave.

As we near the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Expedition at Fort Benton and the completion of the Road, we can value the unique perspective of Charles Schafft's account of the Mullan Military Road Expedition.

Sources: Benton Record Weekly 2 January 1880, p. 4; U.S. Army Register of Enlistments 1798-1914, p. 240; 1870 U. S. Census Missoula County; 1880 U. S. Census Choteau County; Headstones Provided for Deceased Union Civil War Vets; Mineral County Museum "Blazing the Mullan Road."

Photos: (1) Lieutenant John Mullan, leader of the difficult road-building expedition from Fort Walla to Fort Benton [OHRC Photo]

(2) Colonel Edward Steptoe, whose disastrous military defeat in 1858 delayed the Mullan Expedition for one year [OHRC Photo]

(3) Wagon master John A. Creighton assembled his wagon trains at The Dalles to provide logistical support for the Mullan Expedition [OHRC Photo]

(4) The Mullan Road cut along the Bitter Root mountains near Superior, Montana. This May 2008 photo shows the difficult task of road building through the mountains [OHRC Photo]

(5) The route of the Mullan Wagon Road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton [From Pioneer Trails West]

Our Historic 5,000,000th Tractor

2008-08-05T16:10:00.000-06:00

The International Harvester Model F-1066 Farmall 5,000,000th Tractor
By Ken Robison

On February 1, 1974, at 9 a. m., International Harvester made history, producing its 5 millionth tractor. When this historic tractor, Serial #2610172U035153, was produced at International Harvester's Farmall Plant in Rock Island, Illinois on February 1, 1974, IH became the first manufacturer to claim the production of 5,000,000 tractors. The orginial press release photo caption reads: "In special ceremonies at International Harvester's Farmall Plant, Rick Island, IL, Stanley F. Lancaster, vice president, marketing, Agricultural/Industrial Equipment Division, Chicago, and local beauty, Valerie Robb, 22, hail production of the company's record 5,000,000th Tractor on Friday, February 1. IH is the first tractor to claim this distinction and marked the event with an assembly line commemorative celebration." [see two internet images from the unveiling: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/results.asp?keyword1=66&keyword2=farmall&subject_broad_id=1&subject_broad=Agriculture&subject_narrow_id=39&subject _narrow=Tractors&search_type=advanced&sort_by=date&boolean_type1=and

The tractor came equipped with nearly every option IH offered along with a special paint scheme, chrome exhaust, grill and rims. The following two years, the historic tractor was featured at fairs, conventions, and shows across the United States.

On September 26, 1976, this tractor was offered at auction to all International Harvester [IH] dealers attending a new series 86 Tractor announcement in Chicago. Of 177 entries, the winning bid of $40,086.86 was submitted by the Montana IH Dealer group. The keys to the tractor were presented to these dealers on November 5, 1976. It was immediately announced that the proceeds from the auction would be used to establish a Research Program under the direction of Montana State University for a study to further improve tractor operating efficiencies. The Montana IH Dealer group at that time consisted of thirteen implement dealers across the state of Montana. In the years following, the tractor was rotated around the state for showing by IH dealers.

By the early 1990s, only three of the Montana dealers remained in business. These dealers, the Musick Implement Company of Denton, the Big Sky Equipment Company of Conrad, and the Kamp Implement Company of Belgrade, decided to present the 5,000,000th Tractor to the new Museum of the Northern Great Plains in Fort Benton. This museum is designated by the Montana State Legislature as the official "Montana Agricultural Museum." On the 15th of June 1995, the tractor arrived in Fort Benton, where it remains today on display at the Museum of the Northern Great Plains.

This historically significant tractor is an important part of agricultural history, not only in Montana but also across the United States.

The 5,000,000th IH Tractor as it appears today:

"Shorty," We Hardly Know Ya

2008-07-15T16:01:00.000-06:00

By Ken Robison

Shorty Wallin is a tall mystery! Several months ago I received a query from Dr. Paul Fees of Cody, Wyoming asking what we had on "Shorty Wallin." He came to us because he'd come across a "Charlie Russell style" illustrated letter that Shorty had sent to Vic Alexander, a buddy of his working for the Hollywood Saddlery in California in the 1940s. The letter read:

"Howdy Vic:
How would you like to be camped in a log house like this, up here in the cow country. You've been here so you savvy what i mean.
You an i we rode for a spread one time heap long time back many moons in the belt mts.
This feller standin here is a crow Indian buck. He owns a heap of range. He keeps fat for he lives on wild meat the year round includin Buffalo meat Elk & Deer,
Well i am still on the pay roll on this old cow spread. There is 300 antelope on this mans range. Including some 5000 rattle snakes that live in the rocks. Well Vic tell your lovely wife & girl hello. I am your very Meek & Humble wild Range Critter
From Black Hawk Shorty Wallin."

Shorty Wallin’s sketch of the Square Butte Ranch in 1943

Shorty’s sketch of a Crow Indian

All I knew was that Shorty Wallin wrote a letter in August 1943 with a return address of Square Butte Ranch [the W. P. Sullivan Ranch in those days] in an envelope postmarked at the post office in Square Butte Montana. We had nothing on Shorty Wallin in our files at the Overholser Historical Research Center, so I turned to old-timer Frank Mayo of Square Butte. Frank didn't let me down.

In the early 1940s, Frank was about 11 or 12 years old and helped out during haying season on the Sullivan Ranch. The Ranch was a big outfit surrounding the tiny town of Square Butte at the eastern base of Square Butte Mountain. Frank remembered Shorty Wallin as a cowhand working on the Ranch in those days. Shorty was short, perhaps 5 feet two inches, with broad shoulders and a little potbelly. He was graying some with bushy eyebrows and about 40 years of age. Frank recalls that Shorty had been a jockey in his younger, thinner days. He rode well and was a good, but not "top hand." Shorty liked to go drinking with the boys. On occasion he’d go to the town bar drinking on a Saturday night and not show up back at the ranch until the next Saturday.

One time Frank was helping hay on the Ranch. Shorty was driving a buck rake and inadvertently brought a rattlesnake in with a batch of hay where they were stacking. The rattler stirred up the horses, and the excited horses bolted breaking a broad beam on the stacker. The boss W. P. Sullivan was furious, and the snake hid inside the haystack.

Frank remembers that Shorty keep some "art stuff" in the bunk house, and he had the impression that Shorty "wanted to be Charlie Russell" but didn't have the talent.

One more clue about Shorty comes from Dr. Fees who believes that Shorty once worked on another ranch in southeastern Montana, the Bones Brothers Ranch near Birney in Rosebud County. The Bones Brothers Ranch, long owned by the Alderson family, is on the National Register of Historic Places for its historic association with the evolution of the livestock industry in the Tongue River Valley and with the development of dude ranch tourism. One of the Alderson brothers, Floyd Taliaferro Alderson, had a long career as an early cowboy actor under the name Wally Wales. Ironically, Floyd Alderson’s favorite hobby was landscape painting.

That’s about all we know of Shorty Wallin, the drifting cowboy. Where he came from and where he went remains a mystery. If you know, share your Shorty Wallin stories with us at riverplains@mtintouch.net.

A Lot of Fort Benton History

2008-07-13T15:28:00.000-06:00

If you are researching early Fort Benton or Choteau/Chouteau County History, you may have discovered a site called "A Little Fort Benton History." This is a flawed site!

While this site has usefull biographic sketches of early Fort Benton, it fails to show source attribution. It is taken, without credit, from Michael Leeson's History of Montana. Rather than using this "pirate site," I'd recommend you use the valuable University of Montana Digital Collections. These digital collections provide easily searchable access to both Leeson's History of Montana and the later Progressive Men of the State of Montana.

Access the UofM site at: http://www.lib.umt.edu/research/digitalcollections/default.htm

HISTORY OF MONTANA 1739-1885

A history by Michael Leeson of Montana's discovery and settlement, social and commercial progress, mines and miners, agriculture and stock-growing, churches, schools and societies, Indians and Indian wars, vigilantes, courts of justice, newspaper press, navigation, railroads and statistics, with histories of counties, cities, tillages and mining camps; also personal reminiscences of great historic value; views characteristic of the territory in our own times, and portraits of pioneers and representative men in the professions and trades.

This book, originally published in 1885, is a 1,367 page reference exploring topics such as the exploration and occupation of Montana, Indian history, wars, trading and military posts, mining, newspapers, churches, and societies during the time between 1735 and 1885. The book includes treatments of 13 Montana counties as well as personal "reminisciences" from several notable Montanans. The book also contains over 500 illustrations of people, buildings, farms, ranches, and natural features of the era.

Progressive Men of the State of Montana ca 1903

This book was originally published about 1903. It is an 1886-page reference work containing over 2500 biographies, nearly 200 of which are illustrated with portraits. From Charlie Russell to all the early governors, there are biographies of most people who were prominent in Montana history between the 1850's and 1900.

This computerized edition shows images of every biographical sketch and picture, just the way they looked in the original book. The whole book is also indexed by last name, Montana county, and Montana city. The "Search" link searches words in all indexes, but does not search the text of biographies. It's good for finding first names.

From Bison to Beef: The Open Range Era

2008-05-22T13:54:00.000-06:00

By Ken Robison

This continues the series of sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.

During this summer the entrance to The Museum of the Northern Plains will feature a photographic exhibition in tribute to Montana’s Open Range Ranching Era [1870s-1900], when tens of thousands of cattle ranged freely across Central Montana. Through the pages of The River Press we will feature highlights of pioneer ranchers and cowboys from the open range days. This article sets the stage and presents insight into the Shonkin Round-Up and the life of the open range cowboy from the 19 June 1889 River Press.

From Bison to Beef – As the bison herds faded from Montana’s open spaces, cattle took their place. The open range cattle ranching era lasted for less than thirty years from the late 1870s to the early 1900s. Wide open ranges with vast herds in the thousands established Montana as one of the leading beef sources of the nation. Overgrazing as well as the tough late winter of 1886-87 with huge cattle losses led to changes in the 1890s. These changes accelerated in the early 1900s from the pressures of large numbers of homesteaders. The grand era of open range ranching came to an end. Today’s ranches, with fences and extensive haying operations, still provide the nation with Montana beef. This exhibition is a tribute to the hearty Montana open range pioneers, Milner, Kingsbury, Coburn, Baker, Lepley, Flowerree, Kohr, Conrad, Harris, and all the others.

“A Cattle Round-Up How the Shonkin Stock Grower’s Association Does the Work, and How the Cowboys Live.

A cattle round-up is a whole circus to a pilgrim, and sometimes two, with a half dozen clowns in the ring. He sees sights and scenes never witnessed in the east, and learns pointers in horsemanship, rope throwing and handling the wild rovers of the range not taught in the quiet pastures of his native land. His sensitive nature may be a little shocked at first, but if he possesses a grain of common sense he will soon see that every move is in harmony with the surroundings and that every operation is conducted according to the eternal fitness of things.
It is Business
with the cowboy, and while no unnecessary cruelty is practiced upon animals, sentiment is not indulged in when it interferes with the work on hand. They know what they have to do and they go in to do it in the quickest time and the best possible manner, and they generally ‘get there’ in good shape.

A day or two ago quite a party set out to Spring coulee, where the Shonkin Stock Growers’ association was holding a cattle round-up. Through the courtesy of Col. J. H. Rice, of this city, a River Press reporter found a seat behind his span of 2:40 steppers and in less than an hour and a half the twelve miles of separating distance were covered. A half dozen tents and as many wagons were ranged near the ever-flowing springs of the coulee and composed the temporary home of the twenty-five riders and other employes of the several stock firms which form the association. A number of the owners of the 30,000 head of stock running upon the range were present. Among them was Mr. J. M. Boardman, of the Milner Livestock company, who received the party with
True Western Hospitality
and a present day round-up dinner. The man who says these round-up outfits don’t live on the fat of the land doesn’t know what he is talking about. There are three messes in this outfit and each mess has an excellent cook. Boardman’s is a daisy. We have forgotten his name but not the excellent dinner he prepared for the party. To show that the cowboy lives like
A Fighting Cock,
while on the range at least, we will give the ordinary every day bill of fare as served upon the range: Ox tail soup, roast beef, veal pot-pie, tenderloin steak, scrambled brains, string beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, saratoga chips, hot rolls, wheat and corn bread, fresh ranch butter, cheese, blackberry, plum and apple pie, two or three different kinds of cake, tea and coffee, and the usual relishes, including pickles and chow-chow. No intoxicating liquors enter the larder of a well regulated round-up outfit, and none were found here. In fact, contrary to the generally accepted opinion of eastern people, the average cowboy is not bibulously inclined. As a rule they are an honest, hard-working, industrious class of young men of a free, frank, generous disposition, always ready for a little fun and not afraid of hard work. No class of young men has been more persistently misrepresented than
The Range Riders
of the west. Many of them have grown to man’s estate upon the ranges whose fathers are owners of herds or who are themselves working into the possession of a starter for one. The cowboy with the fierce curling moustache, brace of pistols in his belt, murderous looking knife in his ‘chaps,’ mounted upon a wild-eyed cavorting charger, whose bleeding flanks show the marks of heavy jingling spurs, and who announces himself as
A Bad Man
from ‘Ground Hog Glory’ or Hell’s Delight’ whenever he enters a town, exists only in dime novels and in the imagination of the sensational writers. He is not found upon the ranges of the west. There he is a peaceably disposed gentleman appearing to good advantage in society, but entertaining a deadly hatred of cattle thieves and who would leave his ‘best girl’ at any time to join a gang in pursuit of one. That’s about the size of our northern Montana cow boy.” [p. 1]

(Sources: FBRPW 19 Jun 1889, p. 1)

Photos:

(1) Partners M. E. Milner (right) and J. M. Boardman (left) came west in 1879 to Montana and began ranching in the Shonkin-Square Butte country [Overholser Historical Research Center]

(2) This sandstone bench was erected after his death in 1913 at the Old Fort Benton Park in tribute to open range rancher M. E. Milner [Overholser Historical Research Center]

Shooting the Pass: On the Mullan Road

2008-05-22T13:51:00.000-06:00

Shooting the Pass: On the Mullan Road in a
Hudson Sport Supersix

By Ken Robison

This continues the series of historical sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.

Have you ever wondered about the fancy marble Mullan Road statue on the Fort Benton Levee? Who was Mullan? What was the Mullan Road? Why is it at Fort Benton? Well, here is the answer.

In the early days of the automobile in the 1920s, auto excursions were exciting features in the local newspapers. Every Saturday the Great Falls Leader carried an adventure to one destination or another. The Evening Leader of August 11, 1923 told of a trip made in a sport model super six Hudson along a portion of the historic Mullan Military Road.

Sixty-three years earlier, Lieutenant John Mullan led a military expedition to construct a wagon road from Walla Walla, Washington Territory to Fort Benton, then in Dakota Territory. Departing Walla Walla in June 1859, Lieut. Mullan’s men carved the road through the mountains of Idaho and western Montana, arriving at Fort Benton in August 1860. The historic Mullan Military Road is celebrated annually each May with a conference, this year in Missoula. In May 2010, the Mullan Road Conference will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Mullan Expedition in Fort Benton.

By 1923 the Mullan Road had faded from memory and was almost forgotten as Montana’s pioneers passed from the scene. Because of the friendship of Leader editor Ed Cooney and colorful Fort Benton and Great Falls character Whitman Gibson “Vinegar“ Jones, the Leader featured the Mullan Road, and Vinegar’s efforts to preserve it, in a Saturday auto excursion special. The story in the August 11 Leader read:

“On Mullan Trail Of Vinegar Jones. Shooting the Pass in Sport Supersix Hudson For Holter Where John Mullan Blazed the Birdtail Pass Through the Rocky Mountains for Generations to Follow and Drink of the Birdtail Spring on the Summit--Where Also Lived Whisky Brown in the Days of Real Sport.

On Mullan Trail headline in August 11, 1923 Leader

Log of Road from Leader to Holter Dam: 0.1 mile--Right on First avenue north. 12.9 [miles] R. [right] Vaughn. 21.5 L. [left] Lange’s. 22.4 Sun River. 24 L. Follow the Yellow-Green trail. 32.4 R. 43.5 R. 50.6 Top of the world. 51.9 L. 61.5 R. Sullivan Hill road joined. 72 L. Wolf Creek. Cross bridge R. R. track sharp left. 75.1 L. Gate. 76.3 Power house, Holter dam.

It is a far cry from the buffalo trail of Lieutenant John Mullan in 1860, to the Bird Tail highway of today over the Rocky Mountains within the confines of Cascade county. But we made it in a sport model super-six Hudson just like shooting down a beaver slide on a wet shovel. That is we made the distance between Great Falls and Holter dam by way of the Bird Tail pass a distance of 76.3 miles, in a sport Hudson of the Gies-Wight Motor company driven by Arthur Gies of the company, and logged out a drive which is magnificent in varied scenery and a pleasure to drive over. With 24 miles of hard surface road, from Great Falls to just beyond the old town of Sun River, and the rest of the road excellent, one crosses the divide without knowing that he has crossed it; there is no hill and no pull in the crossing, and the first time one makes the trip it is hard to realize that the divide has been passed.

1923 Sport Six Hudson automobile

The Ice Cold Spring. On the summit of the mountains, at the very top of the Rockies on the road is a small green flat of perhaps five acres, with a little lake tucked away against the side of the mountains on one side of the road, a little flat plateau, and on the opposite side of the road an ice-cold little spring bubbling up out of the rocks as though made to order. The day the super-six sport Hudson party crossed the divide it was more than warm--it was hot--but the little spring was as cold as ice-water, and Bill drank two quarts on the outward trip, and came back for a couple more on the return. In the scores of years that the spring has been known to the thousands who crossed the divide no one has ever thought to wall it in, and it is today just as it was before Lieutenant John Mullan found it 60 years ago, and Vinegar Jones found it 40 years ago.

John Mullan laid out the Bird Tail trail 60 years ago across the Rockies and for many years all the travel of freighting and stage coach days went over that road. Then came the iron horse and freighting went out of fashion, the Buffalo quit the prairie for the long trail over the Great Divide, and the Bird Tail road of the old days went out of fashion.

Stone Feathers of the Bird Tail

Enter Vinegar Jones. It remained for W. G. ‘Vinegar’ Jones of Great Falls to revive the trail, and bedevil the world, the people, and the board of county commissioners until the road became a thing of beauty and joy once more; it took years, near 20 of them, but Vinegar Jones came out of the ruck triumphant in the end, and the memory of John Mullan and the traveling public, owe to him a debt of lasting gratitude.

W. G. Jones, the pioneer who fought for 20 years to have the old Mullan Trail made an historic highway

‘Vinegar’ Jones is not really sour, as one might infer, but as he built the first vinegar factory in Great Falls and furnished the first home vinegar for this neck of the woods in the days of long ago it was natural that he should be tagged with a distinguished mark; it was a habit they had in the earlier days of Montana. Mr. Jones has a ranch near Great Falls, a home in town, and a ranch near Eagle Rock on the Bird Tail road, which he located over 40 years ago, and where his son, E. R. Jones, yet lives, and raises ever-bearing strawberries and the like, keeping a watchful eye on the Bird Tail road.

Old Eagle Rock Station

Yellow-Green Gobs. In the sport Hudson party, not Hudson sport party, there were Mr. Gies, Mrs. Gies, the Fishing Lady, Bill, a basket lunch, the minnow bucket and a gallon of iced tea. It was quite a party and just balanced the sport six to run smooth as if on skids. Thirty-five miles an hour and never spill a drop of water from the minnow bucket, which is moving softly some. Just beyond the old town of Sun River the first lane to the left is the Bird Tail road officially, although one can go by Simms also and have 14 miles more of hard surface road. However, the hand of Vinegar Jones marks the first lane west of the town of Sun River as official for there begins his famous Yellow-Green mark of the Bird Tail trail.

One day a year since, when the 20-year fight for vindication of the judgment of the late Mr. Mullan had borne fruit, in the way of work upon the road and the final straightening out through right-of-way proceedings of a more or less tedious procedure, Vinegar Jones took a keg of yellow paint, a keg of green paint, a couple of brushes for the same, his son E. R. to herd the jitney, and beginning at Sun River he smeared yellow and green gobs for 40 miles along the Bird Tail trail, to its meeting with the Sullivan Hill road on the west side of the Rockies. The work may not be artistic from the standpoint of an artist, neither geometrical, nor according to accepted rule, but the yellow and green is there for all to see: on telegraph posts, on fence posts, on rocks, on bridges on buildings, on even the roof of the world, are the yellow-green gobs of Vinegar Jones. What he was doing was marking the road, and he did.

There are other trail signs on the road, white and black, and red white and blue, but the yellow-green gobs of Vinegar Jones point the way like a lighthouse in the darkness of the night. And he did the work himself and paid for it himself. It was his personal tribune to the memory of the late John Mullan, and Vinegar Jones laid on with lavish hand.

The combination of orange green is an unusual one, but it harmonizes on the Bird Tail trail--except that the orange is above the green, which caused Mr. Jones considerable consternation when called to his attention by the board of county commissioners in way of an official joke.

‘Never wanted to hurt nobody’s feeling, nor meant anything,’ explained Vinegar Jones to the board.

‘I just wanted to mark the road down so it couldn’t be lost again like it was for more than 20 years and I did it the best I know how. I don’t want to hurt nobody’s feelings, and next time I paint it I’ll put the green on top.

And Then Whiskey Brown. The road from Sun River is through a dozen miles of the irrigated Sun river reclamation and Crown Butte irrigated district. And then you come to the erstwhile home of Whiskey Brown, now a sheep ranch with house standing in a great grove of cottonwood trees to the north of the road. Whiskey Brown has long passed over the great divide, but in the days of real sport his was one of bright spots along the old stage and Helena.

“I always got something to eat for a feller,’ Mr. Brown would remark with a chuckle, ‘and the best drink of whiskey from hell to Whoop Up.’

And there is yet living testimony that he spoke truthfully--also that is how he received the handle to his ordinary name of John. Ah me, if Whiskey Brown could but have foreseen the drought of today he would have passed in his checks without a sigh!

Things Had Changed. Bill had visited the Whiskey Brown cabin when a 10-year-old boy, but the trees had grown, the hills looked smaller, and things seemed different. When Bill had made his last visit there were buffalo roaming about the face of Crown Butte and the Eagle Rock gap was full of them, while antelope dotted the prairies in thousands. The antelope and the buffalo have gone to join Whiskey Brown in the Spirit land, and only a grove of 50-year-old cottonwood trees, a sheep wagon in the grove, part of an old rock chimney standing in the middle of a heap of brown earth and debris mark the spot of vanished glory of a vanished day.

‘Things don’t look the same,’ said Bill, and then the machine shot on.

Eagle Rock Station. One station to the west and comes Eagle Rock gap, with Eagle Rock station and the home of the late Judge J. J. Farrell, who also was one of them in the early days, but not so early as Whiskey Brown. The old Eagle Rock station was the pride of the stage route, with its long log walls, dirt and earth covered roof, and warmth of welcome for the traveler in a lonesome country with a long ways between stops. The old station looks the same, and Bill almost hugged its whitewashed walls.

‘Now, that,’ said Bill, ‘looks something like, and the buffalo were over there, and I wanted to take a shot at them, but no one had a gun. They didn’t carry guns much in those days, unless they were hunting, or were bad men.’

And on beyond that, a few miles and to your right downstairs, sits the red painted home and barn of Vinegar Jones, nestling in a grove of cottonwoods and looking like something taken out of a picture and pasted down on the landscape. To your left stands Bird Tail rock. In the setting sun, with the rays lighting up the top of the big rock, it looks like a magnified tail of some gigantic bird with coloring pigment from the storehouse of God. In the early day they named objects of nature as they named objects of nature as they looked--and the Bird Tail rock is one of them.
Shades of Jim Lee. And then, just at the east side of the divide stands a tall lumber house of ancient design--the old freighting tavern of Jim Lee and last station east of the divide. If the old tavern, which it never was called, but is used to make the story sound better, could talk it could tell some startling tales of the days which are no more; of the days when the buffalo roamed, the Indian rode high and wide, and the cabin door was never locked, nor the stranger turned away. Anyhow, even if the old joint can’t talk, it can be read quite interestingly, as its rooms, two of them, are papered with newspapers dating back about 35 years, most of them being New York Heralds, with a Benton Press stuck in here and there for good measure, and a Helena Herald as a sort of afterthought.

One climbs the road to the top of the world without knowing it, for there is no more than a 7 per cent grade, and little of that. In the days of Mr. Mullan the reef of low rocks at the top of the world was blown out the width of a wagon and, worn away with time and travel, in latter times one jumped up several feet or fell down as the case might be, to pass through the door in the rocks, but now it is level. The commissioners let a contract to grade the west side of the mountain and take out certain large boulders, and when that is finished one will glide over without knowing it. The west side of the range is easy of approach, and without particular grade or any length to the top, and joins the Sullivan hill road about two miles from the summit.”

At this point The Leader excursion goes on to Holter Dam and an afternoon of fishing, but this is off the Mullan Road. From Fort Benton to the Helena, the Mullan Road formed the basis for the famed “Benton Road” that by 1862 was scene of hundreds of freight wagons, stagecoaches, and other conveyances during the exciting steamboat era of the 1860-80s.

A new book, “Montana’s Benton Road,” by Leland Hanchett pays tribute to the Mullan Road and the successor Benton Road through a fine combination of historic and modern color photos as well as exciting traveler accounts. As part of the build-up for the Fort Benton Mullan Road Conference in May 2010, we are working to mark the road with interpretive signage to commemorate the historic Mullan Road. In 2010 Lieutenant John Mullan and his expedition will come to life in Fort Benton.

Sources: Great Falls Evening Leader August 11, 1923 [the original article spelled Mullan incorrectly as “Mullen”; Montana’s Benton Road by Leland Hanchett, 2008.

Photos:

(1) Lieutenant John Mullan
(2) Mullan Monument at its original location near the Old Fort Benton Ruins. Today the Monument is on the Levee

"Shoot 'em Up": Guns From Our Historic Past

2008-03-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

By Ken Robison

[Published in the Fort Benton River Press 5 March 2008.]

Once in a while browsing old newspapers can yield a real nugget. In the February 8, 1938 Great Falls Tribune, I found an absolute gem, titled, “Great Falls Man Has Unusual Collection of Weapons Used by Early Day Montanans. Earl Talbott Has Spent Much Time in Gathering Pioneers’ Firearms.” Accompanied by a photograph showing some of the historic firearms, the article describes many of the firearms that good men and bad men carried as they roamed frontier Montana.

The news article reads as follows; my comments are in brackets:

“Grimly reminiscent of the days when Montana was in its infancy and firearms were a necessity, a collection of rifles, revolvers and pistols that played a prominent part in pioneers days has been gathered by Earl Talbott, 1521 7th Avenue North, who is a member of the city [Great Falls] library board.

Much time was required by Talbott in collecting the numerous rifles and pistols, some of which were used by the men who maintained law and order during the pioneer days and others which were used by the ‘bad men’ of that time. Some of Talbott’s guns are nearly 100 years old.

His collection is not confined to the firearms used in the early days of the state but includes various types used during the World war [World War I], in the Philippine insurrection and during other troublesome times.

Talbott has made a successful attempt to authenticate the various exhibits and his catalogued index of firearms includes the following:

• A Halls patent U.S.S. North, manufactured in 1848 and of about .53 caliber. The gun was brought to Fort Benton in 1850 by Clemeaux, who was said to be the first white man married there; [Model 1848 Hall-North U.S. Breech-loading Percussion Carbine]

• A Burnsides Rifle Co. muzzleloader, .45 caliber and weighing more than 20 lbs., which was brought to Montana in 1868 by one of the early settlers on the Marias river; [Ambrose Burnside formed the Burnside Firearms Company in 1854]

• A Colts repeater pump, .44 caliber which was brought to Montana by Sam French in 1886; [In 1900 Samuel French lived in Great Falls]

• A Gallagher’s patent breech loader, .50 caliber, which was brought to Montana in 1868 by George Steel [Steell], who was a businessman at Sun River in the late ‘60s [1860s] and early ‘70s; [Gallagher Civil War Carbine] [George Steell was a freighter and merchant in early Fort Benton and the Sun River valley.]

• A Winchester model which was brought to Montana in a covered wagon in 1886 by H. M. Allison;

• A Sharps old reliable .40 caliber breech loader, which was originally owned by Jim Bostwick, who traded it to Dan O’Reilly after the latter was discharged from the 7th U.S. infantry in 1871. Bostwick was killed by Indians in 1877 and the gun is known to have killed at least five Indians and untold buffaloes; [Henry S. Bostwick was a civilian scout attached to Col. John Gibbon’s 7th Infantry at Fort Shaw. Bostwick was killed by the Nez Perce at Battle of the Big Hole with 1st Lieutenant James H. Bradley]

• A U.S. Ball’s patent, .50 caliber carbine, which was brought to Montana by Col. James Stanford when he came from Canada in 1875; [Colonel James T. Stanford, an early Fort Benton resident, served in the North West Mounted Police and the Montana militia.]

• A J. H. Rector cap and ball of about .43 or .44 caliber, which was owned by the grandfather of Sam French and which carries emblems of the Knights Templar and other York rite Masonic bodies and which was brought to Montana in 1886 but was used in New York and Wisconsin long before that time;

• A U.S. Providence Tool Co. .58 caliber rifle, which was used by John French in the Civil War;

• A Filipino wooden gun brought from the Philippine islands--Filipinos were armed with one actual gun to 5 men, and the other 4 men carrying wooden guns;

• A. J. Hollis & Sons, London, muzzleloader, which was brought to Montana in 1866 by W. S. Stocking when he settled on the Teton river (gun was manufactured about 1835); [W. S. Stocking brought his family to Fort Benton from Bannack in 1865, locating a ranch on the Teton in 1868.]

• A. Smith, London double barrel muzzleloader, which was manufactured in 1825, and which was brought to Fort Benton in 1854 by Ami Lapine;

• An Eilson double barreled muzzleloader, which was owned by Jerry Potts in Fort Benton in 1866. Potts left Fort Benton about 1874 when he went with Col. Macleod as a scout to establish the North West Mounted Police station at the site of Fort Macleod, Alberta; [Son of a fur trading father and Blackfoot mother, Jerry Potts served as hunter, interpreter, and scout at Fort Benton. With the arrival of the North West Mounted Police, Potts became their chief scout, advisor, and interpreter.]

• A U.S. William Mason-Taunton .58 caliber cap and ball, which was owned by John J. Healy, an early day sheriff; [John J. Healy arrived in the future Montana Territory in 1862. Based in Fort Benton, colorful Johnny Healy served as Whiskey Trader, sheriff, scout, newsman, and adventurer until the 1880s when he moved on to Canada and then Alaska.]

• A .38 caliber cap and ball, which was used by ‘Dad’ Emerson, who told Talbott of seeing the vigilantes in action and knew George Ives, Henry Plummer, ‘Clubfoot’ George and others, and who freighted between Fort Benton and Virginia City. He helped move soldiers from Utah to Fort Benton, traveling but 18 miles in 20 days;

• A flintlock rifle of .57 caliber, which was acquired from Indians at Fort Benton in 1845 by Jim Bostwick;

• An Enfield rifle, which was owned by Capt. Nelse Villeaux (Narcissus), who at one time was a Missouri river boat captain; [Captain Nils Veilleaux was an early rancher on the Teton River.]

• An old ‘6’ gun, which was owned by Tom Reynolds, who went to California in 1849 as a government scout and came to Montana in 1862;

• Another old ‘6’ gun, which was owned by Tom Beal, another 49er;

• A .45 caliber Colts revolver, which was taken from ‘Kid’ Curry, when he was jailed at Fort Benton; a double barreled cap and ball pistol; [Harvey Logan alias “Kid Curry” killed Pike Landusky in December 29, 1894. He was never jailed or tried for the killing, but gave the revolver to his sidekick Jim Thornhill. Thornhill was tried in Fort Benton, but acquitted, and the revolver was returned to him.]

• An American double action revolver, which was taken from James Wilber, who allegedly murdered five people in the Judith country and was arrested near Cascade (Wilbur is supposed to have hanged himself in the old county jail here); [James Wilber murdered a family of five in the Judith Basin in June 1889, and hanged himself in the Cascade County jail in Great Falls before he could be brought to justice.]

• A Hopkins-Allen double action revolver, which was taken from a bad man here in 1885.”

“Photo: Guns with a history are those in the collection of Earl Talbott, a small number of which are shown here. Revolver at top is that which fired the fatal bullet in the ‘Kid’ Curry-Pike Landusky slaying. Lined up in the row beneath are odd pistols used in the early days, from left to right, a 6-barreled pinfire revolver; a pinfire revolver handmade, unearthed by a plow in the Kibbey canyon area in 1880; another pinfire revolver, taken from a would-be bad man in Great Falls in 1885; revolver taken from James Wilber, allegedly the weapon with which he slew five persons in the Judith country; a muzzle loading flintlock pistol, brought from England in 1795 by ancestors of Frank E. Wilcocks, local resident; flintlock pistol, in working order, found on the Cow island battlefield near Glasgow by J. W. Tattan, who later became Chouteau county district judge, and pinfire revolver taken from Great Falls bad man in 1885.”

“Photo: At left, is a wooden gun used by Philippine insurrectionists. Next to it is the real gun it imitated. Other rifles, left to right, are a breech loading cavalry carbine, one of the first repeaters made; breech loading ‘muzzle loader,’ patented in 1848; Sharps ‘Old Reliable’ 40-caliber rifle of a type which killed most buffalo in early days, and flintlock musket which Jim Bostwick got from an Indian at Fort Benton in 1845. Bostwick was killed in the Big Hole in 1877. His widow kept the gun until 1896, then gave it to Sam French, who gave it to Talbott. Practically all of the guns shown are in good working order.”

The above are but a few of the firearms acquired by Talbott, all of which played an important part in the history of Montana. So, what happened to the Talbott gun collection? Earl Talbott lived in Great Falls until 1956, when he moved to Arizona. According to Nate Murphy, formerly with the Phillips County Museum in Malta, Talbott sold most of his collection to Gene Hansard of Rudyard, a fellow gun collector. In 1958 Hansard’s basement in his Rudyard home was filled with about 300 pistols, revolvers and rifles including the Kid Curry revolver, George Steell’s revolver, and others. Nate Murphy states that some of these historic weapons were lost in a fire at the Hansard home. In 1999 Hansard, then living in Great Falls, presented the Kid Curry revolver to Nate Murphy for the Phillips County Museum, where it is still on display. Hansard has since passed away, and at this point we simply don’t know where the rest of these historic weapons are located. Where are the weapons of Jerry Potts, Johnny Healy, and the many others of importance to our region? Perhaps a reader knows and will share with us.

Sources: Great Falls Tribune 8 Feb 1938, p. 7; Joel Overholser’s Fort Benton World’s Innermost Port. Falcon Publishing Co.: 1987; Jerome A. Greene’s Nez Perce Summer 1877 The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me—Poo Crisis. Helena: Montana Historical Society, 2000, p. 364; Mark H. Brown’s The Flight of the Nez Perce. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967, p. 264; Samuel K. Phillips, Jr.’s Lone Wolf in the Promised Land. Lewistown, MT: Ballyhoo Printing, 2002; Interview with Nate Murphy 27 Feb 2008.