Historical Fort Benton

Larger Than Life Frontier Character, Colonel John J. Donnelly

2012-01-28T08:24:00.001-07:00

Remembering Our Civil War Heritage and Heroes:
1861-1865

Larger Than Life Frontier Character, Colonel John J. Donnelly

By Ken Robison
For The River Press
January 25, 2012

This continues a monthly series commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War.

Frontier Fort Benton was a town of colorful characters, but they broke the mold with John J. Donnelly. In the span of six decades, Colonel Donnelly fought with distinction through the Civil War, led Irish Fenian Army invasions of Canada, led a civilian army in the Nez Perce War, served as Fenian agitator, Louis Riel advisor, attorney, county clerk and recorder, and probate judge, and was elected Speaker of the Montana House of Representatives. After this extraordinary career, even in the end, he died a uniquely spectacular death.

Who was this man of triumph and tragedy in frontier Montana? John J. Donnelly was born November 15, 1838 at Providence, Rhode Island of Irish immigrant parents. He was educated in schools of Providence and the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts. Moving west to Michigan, he studied law in the office of Sylvester Larned, of Detroit, Michigan, and was admitted to practice in November 1860 on the eve of the Civil War.

On November 18, 1861 at the age of 23, John J. Donnelly enlisted in the service of the United States and raised an infantry company. As Captain of Company G, his regiment, the Fourteenth Michigan Infantry, with 925 officers and men, was mustered into service February 13, 1862 at Ypsilanti, Michigan under Colonel Robert P. Sinclair.

The Fourteenth left Michigan on the 17th of April 1862 for St. Louis, Mo., and joined General Grant's army at Pittsburg Landing. It participated in the siege of Corinth, Miss., and when the enemy evacuated, the Fourteenth formed a part of
General Buell's army in the famous race with the Confederate army under General Bragg, to Louisville, Ky.

At Nashville, Tenn., the Fourteenth Michigan Infantry Regiment was assigned to the First Brigade, Second Division, Fourteenth Corps of the Army of the Cumberland, and served in that corps for the rest of the war. In November the regiment had a sharp encounter with Alabama troops at Lavergne, Tenn., when it captured a fort and took a large number of prisoners. After a series of marches and victories the regiment was at Stone River, Tenn., in January 1863 when it took part in that engagement.

Captain Donnelly led Company G until he was appointed engineer officer on the staff of Major General George H. Thomas, Commander of the Fourteenth Corps. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, Donnelly served with General Thomas during 1863-64, while Thomas was gaining fame with his stout defense at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863, saved the Union Army from being completely routed, earning him his most famous nickname, the "Rock of Chickamauga." General Thomas followed soon after with a dramatic breakthrough on Missionary Ridge in the Battle of Chattanooga. In the Franklin-Nashville Campaign of 1864, he achieved one of the most decisive victories of the war, destroying the army of Confederate General John Bell Hood, at the Battle of Nashville.
By 1864, Major General John M. Palmer had taken command of the Fourteenth Corps, and on August 5th, Lieutenant Colonel Donnelly was promoted to Full Aide-de-Camp on General Palmer’s staff. In the Civil War an Aide-de-Camp was a confidential officer appointed by general officers to their staffs. An aide-de-camp reported directly to his commander and took orders only from him. In a position of great responsibility, an aide was required to write orders, deliver them personally if necessary, and be thoroughly knowledgeable about troop positions, maneuvers, columns, orders of corps, routes, and the locations of officers’ quarters.

General Palmer effectively commanded the 14th Corps of the Army of the Cumberland in the Atlanta Campaign. Palmer's corps was a part of General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea and the actions to capture Savannah, Georgia, late 1864. During the March to the Sea, Colonel Donnelly was appointed assistant general superintendent of the military railway service in General Sherman’s department.
Throughout the war until his discharge March 14, 1865 Colonel Donnelly took part in many of the principal engagements of that great conflict, and was twice wounded, at Corinth and Resaca. One of his obituaries reads, “A braver soldier never drew his sword in any cause, and such is the testimonial of his superior officers and of the men who served under him.”
As the Civil War drew to an end, Treasury Secretary Chase appointed Colonel Donnelly as special agent of the Treasury department. During reconstruction days he settled all war claims against the United States government in the Carolinas and part of Georgia and handled enormous sums of money without any suspicion of malfeasance.

Little is known of this period in Donnelly’s life, except that Colonel Donnelly engaged in the wholesale grocery and commission business at Savannah, Georgia. In 1866 Colonel Donnelly closed out his business and came north to Michigan on account of the death of his wife, to whom he was married but a few days before entering the service in 1861.

Entering a new phase of his life, Colonel Donnelly plunged headlong into the Fenian movement, which was then at its highest, becoming one of the most prominent figures in the subsequent “invasions” of Canada. The Fenian Brotherhood was an Irish republican organization founded in the United States in 1858 by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny. Members were commonly known as "Fenians". O'Mahony, who was a Celtic scholar, named his organization after the Fianna, the legendary band of Irish warriors led by Fionn mac Cumhaill.

In 1866 together with many other Irish Civil War veterans Colonel Donnelly joined the Fenian movement to invade Canada to punish the English for their occupation of Ireland. The Fenians dreamed of capturing Canada, forcing the English to free Ireland in exchange for return of Canada. A thousand strong force of Fenian troops took the field in June, 1866, crossed the Niagara River into Ontario, defeated a company of Queen’s Own Rifles of Toronto, and captured Fort Erie. Shortly afterward the Battle of Pigeon Hill practically ended this outbreak. In this battle Col. Donnelly had 200 men in his command, and was able to hold his position from 9 o’clock a. m. until sundown, with 2,300 men opposing him. He had twelve men killed and seventeen wounded, with Donnelly among the wounded. He was captured, but escaped, and a large reward was offered for him.

We are the Fenian Brotherhood, skilled in the arts of war,
And we're going to fight for Ireland, the land we adore,
Many battles we have won, along with the boys in blue,
And we'll go and capture Canada, for we've nothing else to do.
— "Fenian soldier's song"

After the defeat at Pigeon Hill, Col. Donnelly drifted west and had a role in the Red River Rebellion of 1870, in which Louis Riel was the leader of the Metis and Cree. This collapsed as did another Fenian raid at Pembina, N. D. the next year. Donnelly came to Montana from Pembina, at the time of the boundary line survey, traveling with the survey party but not part of it. He settled in Fort Benton in 1872 to resume his practice of law.

In Fort Benton Colonel John J. Donnelly became a spokesman for the many Irish Democats of the town that included among others the Healy brothers, Matthew Carroll, John Tattan, and John Evans. Donnelly played a prominent part in the aftermath of the Cypress Hill massacre of 1873, when in 1875 Bentonites were arrested by federal officials and troops for an extradition hearing in Helena. The so-called “Extradition Prisoners” were released, and upon their triumphant return to Fort Benton, were welcomed by Colonel Donnelly with an eloquent speech, condemning governmental actions to surround the town and patrol the streets with armed soldiers, “while five of its most respected citizens were seized, chained together, and thrown into a military prison.”

In 1877 as Chief Joseph’s Nez Perce turned north from the Musselshell in their flight toward Canada, trader James Wells from Fort Claggett raised the alarm in Fort Benton. Col. Donnelly, warrior and leader of men, raised a company of 50 civilian mounted volunteers to hasten down the Missouri to the Cow Island. The men of Donnelly’s Company were tough men, experienced in the hard and dangerous life of frontier Montana. At least four, and likely more, of Donnelly’s men had extensive Civil War service, and three had recent service in the Seventh Infantry. At least three were Army scouts.

Donnelly’s Company arrived at Cow Island just after the Nez Perce had crossed the Missouri and were moving up Cow Creek. On September 27, 1877, Donnelly’s men engaged elements of the Nez Perce in a three-hour battle, with one man, African American Edmund Bradley killed. Fortunately for Donnelly’s Company the main Nez Perce camp was moving northward toward their fate at Snake Creek.

Popular and capable, Col Donnelly served Choteau County as Clerk and Recorder and Probate Judge, and was elected a member of the Twelfth Montana Territorial Legislative Assembly in 1881, being chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives. Throughout his time in Montana, Donnelly engaged in the practice of the law, and his last law partner in the 1890s became the talented young Charles N. Pray.

By 1885, Fort Benton was home for many Civil War veterans, and in early August of that year, Union veterans signed a petition to form a Grand Army of the Republic (G. A. R.) post. Among those signing this list was “J. J. Donnelly, Lieut. Colonel, 14th Michigan.”
Although not well documented, during 1883-84 when Louis Riel, leader of the Canadian Metis, was in exile in Montana, he spent time with Col. Donnelly. According to writer Joseph Kinsey Howard, Donnelly offered his support and advice, and the two met several times in Fort Benton. Donnelly advised him on the wording of petitions and military strategy and told Riel that he considered Riel’s dream of Metis freedom in western Canada a splendid dream. Riel’s 1885 invasion, defeat, and hanging must have been very hard on the old Fenian Donnelly.

Donnelly never remarried, and as he advanced in age his memories of battles lost and won in the Civil War, loss of his young wife, defeats in his glorious Fenian cause, loss of many of his Fort Benton Irish friends, the defeat of the Metis and loss of Riel, all must have weighed heavily on his mind. In November 1897, Donnelly was found lying in his bedroom with his throat badly cut and unconscious from loss of blood. Although he eventually recovered, the end was nearing for the old warrior. Yet, his drinking increased.

Two years later, in September 1899, friends became concerned over his strange absence from his usual haunts for several days. A search began, and Finlay Tower discovered footprints leading down to the water’s edge at the wing-dam at the end of Whalen bottom, and could find no place where anyone had come out. When last seen Donnelly had been drunk, and friends became concerned that the Colonel had met with some mishap. For weeks the search continued, but it was about a month later that remains were found on a sandbar on the south side of the Missouri river at the upper end of the Lansing ranch, having floated some 60 miles from the place where the tragedy occurred. Although badly decomposed, the remains were recognized as Donnelly. The remains indicated a determined case of suicide. He had filled his pockets with about 14 pounds of rocks, cut his throat from ear to ear, and completed his work of self-destruction by drowning. The coroner’s jury returned a verdict of death by drowning and self-inflicted injuries.

After a special requiem mass, the remains of the late Col. John J. Donnelly were interred in Riverside cemetery by pallbearers Judges DuBose and Tattan, Jere Sullivan, H. J. O’Hanlon, and G. A. R. veterans T. A. Cummings and R. S. Culbertson. A large number of his old friends attended the simple ceremonies at the graveside.

Joseph Kinsey Howard, in Strange Empire, eulogized Civil War veteran and Fenian leader Colonel Donnelly, “In September, 1899, the last of the Pembina plotters, last of the irreconcilables, perhaps last of the Fenian fighting men, joined his comrades. General Donnelly walked down to the Fort Benton levee, filled his pockets with fourteen pounds of rocks, slit his throat from ear to ear, and marched unfalteringly into the Missouri river.” And we might add, Colonel John J. Donnelly, Civil War hero, marched into history.

Note: If you have Civil War veterans in your family who settled in this area, we would be pleased to hear from you with copies of stories and photographs that we can share with our readers. Send your Civil War stories to mtcivilwar@yahoo.com or to the Overholser Historical Research Center, Box 262, Fort Benton, MT 59442.

Photos:
1. The goal of the Fenian Brotherhood is reflected in this patriotic lithograph, "Freedom to Ireland," by Currier & Ives, New York, ca 1866.
2. The Battle of Eccles Hill was part of a Fenian raid into Canada in May 1870. This scene is located near the site of the Battle of Pigeon Hill where Colonel Donnelly was wounded in the 1866 Fenian invasion.
3. This portrait of John J. Donnelly is the only image of the famed Irishman in the Overholser Historical Research Center.
4. Civil War Gravestone of Captain John J. Donnelly at Highland Cemetery.

Remembering Our Civil War Heritage and Heroes

2011-12-29T16:50:00.005-07:00

Since April 2011, the beginning of the first year of the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War, I've been watching to see what Montana is doing to commemorate that transforming struggle. While the Billing Gazette published a good early one-time article, I decided Montana needs to do better that that. I have begun writing articles for two separate Montana Civil War series. Both, focus on Civil War veterans, Union and Confederate, who came to Montana after the war. Each article tells about their early life, their experiences during the war, and their new life in Montana. The first series began in the Great Falls Tribune in September, 2011 and is published the last Sunday of each month in the Sunday Life section. This series focuses on Civil War veterans who came to Montana and settled in the north central Montana area. My second series started this week in the Fort Benton River Press and will focus on Civil War veterans who came to Chouteau County area.

Both of my Montana Civil War series are available on-line with the Tribune carrying a link to each article in the series. You can access the Tribune series by entering "Remembering our Civil War heritage and heroes - Great Falls Tribune" in Google.

An electronic edition of the River Press is now available, through subscription, on-line. Since the River Press requires subscription, I'll be posting these articles on my blog with the first in the series below:

Chouteau County Civil War Veterans and the Grand Army of the Republic

By Ken Robison
For The River Press
December 28, 2011

This begins a series commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War.

From April 1861 to April 1865, our nation fought the most brutal and decisive war in our history—the American Civil War. This year, as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, let us pause to reflect, “How did the Civil War affect us?” Some might think this is a curious question since that monumental struggle was fought between “The States” more than two decades before Montana became a state. Yet, the real answer lies in the profound impact the Civil War had on our state, our country and its people.

The Civil War answered vital fundamental questions—there would be a unified United States of America, and there would no longer be millions of enslaved Americans. The Civil War directly affected every section, every community, every family, and every individual. The war came at a time when the American West was undergoing settlement by non-natives although Fort Benton had long been a fur trading outpost on the Upper Missouri. Gold strikes in western Montana (then Washington Territory) in 1862 led to the rapid formation of Montana Territory in 1864, and the extracted gold and other mineral wealth helped pay the costs of war. The Civil War dislocated and relocated countless Americans from North and South—many came to the new Montana Territory to escape the ravages of war and to seek a brighter future.

The old saying that Montana was settled by “the left wing of General Pap Price’s Confederate Army,” was true only in part. Many veterans, both Union and Confederate, came to head of navigation on the Missouri to start new lives. In the coming months, this series of articles will showcase Union and Confederate veterans that had an impact on Chouteau County in the aftermath of the Civil War. Names like Robert S. Culbertson, Thomas A. Cummings, Dan Dutro, Thomas Coatsworth, John J. Donnelly, Winfield Scott Wetzel, George Crane, and others will be featured with their stories. Who were these men, how did they participate in the war, and what do we know of their lives and the lives of their families here in Montana?

By 1885, Fort Benton was home for many Civil War veterans, and in early August of that year, Union veterans signed a petition to form a Grand Army of the Republic (G. A. R.) post. Signing this list were the following veterans with their rank and regiment:
J. J. Donnelly, Lieut. Colonel, 14th Michigan
M. J. Leaming, Major, 6th Tennessee Cavalry
J. H. Rice, Captain, 27th New York
William McQueen, Regimental Quartermaster, 1st Iowa
J. L. Stuart, Command Sergeant, 6th Ohio
Max. Waterman, Sergeant, 35th Iowa
Dan Dutro, Musician, 150th Illinois
W. S. Wetzel, Corporal, 25th Iowa
George W. Crane, Corporal, 26th Illinois
T. A. Cummings, Battery C, 1st New York Artillery
E. W. Lewis, Private, 113th Illinois
George M. Bell, Private, 13th Maine
Thomas Coatsworth, Private, 46th Wisconsin
Frank Coombs, Private, 129th Indiana
James Werrick, Private, 129th Indiana
R. S. Culbertson, Private, 6th Ohio

The Fort Benton post was approved by the Montana G. A. R. and designated the G. K. Warren Post No. 20, G. A. R., Fort Benton. The name honored Brigadier General G. K. Warren, a hero at Little Round Top durig the Battle of Gettysburg.

At a critical point in the battle Union General Meade sent his chief engineer, Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, to find a way to block the advance of Confederate forces on the flank of Union forces. Climbing Little Round Top, Warren found only a small Signal Corps station there. He saw the glint of bayonets in the sun to the southwest and realized that a Confederate assault into the Union flank was imminent. He hurriedly sent officers to find help from any available units in the vicinity. Col. Strong Vincent, commander of the Third Brigade seized the initiative and directed his four regiments to Little Round Top. Upon arrival, Vincent received fire from Confederate batteries almost immediately. On the western slope he placed the 16th Michigan, and then proceeding counterclockwise were the 44th New York, the 83rd Pennsylvania, and finally, at the end of the line on the southern slope, the 20th Maine. Arriving only ten minutes before the Confederates, Vincent ordered his brigade to take cover and wait, and he ordered Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, commander of the 20th Maine, to hold his position, the extreme left flank of the Army of the Potomac, at all costs. Chamberlain and his 385 men waited for what was to come. For their heroic actions Chamberlain received the Medal of Honor for his conduct in the defense of Little Round Top. The citation read the medal was awarded for "daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on the Little Round Top against repeated assaults, and carrying the advance position on the Great Round Top. The 1974 novel The Killer Angels and its 1993 film adaptation, Gettysburg, depicted a portion of the important Battle of Little Round Top.

In December 1890, G. K. Warren Post No. 20, G. A. R., of Fort Benton inaugurated a series of campfires for social enjoyment during the winter. Lecturers from other parts of the state were secured at intervals to entertain the members. At a meeting held December 8, 1890, the following comrades were elected to the stations of office: John C. Duff, Commander; George W. Crane, Senior Vice Commander; Daniel Dutro, Junior Vice Commander; Thos A. Cummings, Officer of the Day; C. B. Hamilton, Quartermaster; Patrick Whalen, Officer of the Guard. The post was inspected by Assistant Inspector John J. Donnelly and everything found in regulation order. Col. Donnelly delivered a brief speech to his veteran comrades, which was highly appreciated and applauded.

The G. A. R was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army, US Navy, US Marines and US Revenue Cutter Service who served in the Civil War. Founded in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois, it was dissolved in 1956 when its last member died. Linking men through their experience of the war, the G. A. R became among the first organized advocacy groups in American politics, supporting voting rights for black veterans, lobbying the US Congress to establish veterans' pensions, and supporting Republican political candidates. Its peak membership was more than 400,000 in 1890, a high point of Civil War commemorative ceremonies. The G. A. R was organized into "Departments" at the state level and "Posts" at the community level, and military-style uniforms were worn by its members. There were posts in every state in the U.S., and several posts overseas. The G. A. R. maintained a strong presence in the Fort Benton community for many years as the aging veterans of the Civil War slowly passed from the scene. As this series develops, we hope to determine the last Civil War veteran in this area.

We have identified some 64 Civil War Union and Confederate veterans who lived in the Fort Benton, Big Sandy, Highwood, and Geraldine areas. We’ll begin next month with one of the most colorful Union veterans, John J. Donnelly. If you have Civil War veterans in your family, who settled in this area, we would be pleased to hear from you with copies of stories or photographs that we can share with our readers and add to our Research Center. We heard recently from Edward J. Snider who shared some great stories and photos of his Civil War ancestor Chapman Pennock, who is buried in Riverside Cemetery. We’ll feature Private Pennock of Company C, 18th New York Cavalry in the coming months. In addition, we’ll share photos of Civil War veterans with Muncie Morger for her Veterans display project. Send your Civil War stories or comments to mtcivilwar@yahoo.com or to the Overholser Historical Research Center, Box 262, Fort Benton, MT 59442.

Photos:
1. Brig. Gen. G. K. Warren, hero of the battle of Little Round Top, Gettysburg, and namesake for Fort Benton G. A. R. Post 20.
2. The menacing heights of Little Round Top in 1863.
3. G. A. R. Medal authorized by Congress for members of the G. A. R.

Chemidlin, the Curmudgeon Pioneer Printer

2011-08-10T13:14:00.000-06:00

By Ken Robison

This honors the 130th anniversary of the River Press and continues the series of frontier sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.

Nicholas T. Chemidlin served as chief assistant to Editor William K. Harber of the Fort Benton River Press for three decades from 1891 to 1920. Chemidlin first tried to emigrate to Montana Territory in 1864 with Captain James L. Fisk’s wagon train from Minnesota. The Lakota drove the Fisk train back that year in Dakota Territory with a bloody loss of twelve emigrants dead. Eventually Chemidlin made it to Montana Territory by 1867 and worked for Helena newspapers. In 1883 he came on to Fort Benton, then the booming head of navigation on the Missouri River. In June 1884, Chemidlin paid $1250 for 50 shares of The River Press, acquiring an 8th interest and becoming secretary of the River Press Publishing Company. Over the years Editor Harber and Chemidlin often used transient printers keep both the weekly and daily newspapers going through the 1890s and the quiet years leading into the homesteading boom of the 1910s.

In late 1919, the aging Chemidlin, whose health was declining, decided to retire, although the decision came only after months of difficult negotiations between Harber and Chemidlin. It is interesting that even in his final letters discussing the situation, Editor Harber consistently referred to his assistant as “Mr. Chemidlin.” After many months delay Harber was finally able to offer Joel R. Overholser the opportunity to replace Chemidlin. In return, Overholser asked two conditions: that he be allowed to buy stock in The River Press; and that the struggling daily be discontinued. Editor Harber agreed, and Overholser moved his family to Fort Benton to join the operation. On the 31st of December 1919, Joel R. Overholser bought Chemidlin’s 58 shares of stock for $1450. His son, Joel Francis Overholser, then age nine, remembers being impressed by Mr. Chemidlin, the Sioux Indian fighter, at his retirement banquet at the Grand Union.

In April 1920, the Montana Newspaper Association distributed an article about Nicholas Chemidlin to its weekly newspaper subscribers. Author E. R. Russell wrote the story of the old newspaperman under the title, “Pioneer Printer”:

N. T. Chemidlin, of Fort Benton, who has just retired from active work at the age of 77, is believed to hold the record for continuous service as a printer in Montana, if not in the west. Mr. Chemidlin performed his first work as a printer on the Helena Herald in 1867, and when he sold out his interest in the River Press at Fort Benton in January, 1920, he did his last work in that line.

At the time Mr. Chemidlin commenced work on the Herald, that newspaper had been in existence but a short time. Fisk Brothers had purchased a newspaper known as the Radiator and shipped its equipment into Helena from Virginia City, and re-christened it The Herald. A little later the Herald was purchased by Jim Whitlash, a big mine owner from Unionville, and the outfit was doing business in the upper story of a log building at the corner of Bridge and West Main street. The lower floor of the building was used as a hurdy house. Later the Herald company built at the corner of Broadway and Jackson streets.

Mr. Chemidlin also worked on the Rocky Mountain Gazette at the time it was run by Wilkinson, Ronan and McGinnis, and was also employed on the Helena Independent at different times.

Joins Stevens at Benton. In 1883 he was invited by Jim Stevens, then one of the proprietors of the River Press, to come to Fort Benton, and he remained there until he sold out in January last. The River Press was founded in 1880, and had as a rival the Benton Record, which had been in existence since 1895 [sic 1875]. On account of the rivalry between the two papers the River Press commenced the publication of a daily edition. This was quite an innovation for a town of the size of Fort Benton, on the frontier. This little daily hung on valiantly for 38 years when, finding its days of usefulness at an end, it quietly dropped out of existence in 1919.

Life Far From Spectacular. While he has witnessed many stirring events and momentous changes as Montana has emerged from small beginnings in territorial days to the progressive and front-ranking state of today. Mr. Chemidlin’s life has been that of a very necessary, if non-spectacular chronicler of events through the medium of the newspapers. He did not make a very determined effort to get into the millionaire class through mining, although reports of gold in Montana was his principal reason for coming west. He never had occasion to join in the work of the Vigilantes, but was satisfied with being a spectator of two of their executions at a reasonable distance. He has not mixed much in politics, although urged at different times to take office in Fort Benton. He did serve several terms at a salary of less than a dollar a year, as school trustee in the Fort Benton schools.

Two Attempts to Reach Montana. If Mr. Chemidlin’s residence in Montana has not abounded in adventure, his attempt to get into the territory from the east was not without thrills. He made two attempts to get to Montana in pre-steamboat days, the first one of which was unsuccessful on account of the interference of Indians, his expedition being compelled to get back to civilization after the loss of 13 of its number.

It was in 1864 when Mr. Chemidlin, then 21 years of age, first took passage with an expedition bound for Montana under the management and personal conduct of Captain James L. Fisk, who had been for several years engaged in expeditions to the west from Minnesota, some of which were in the service of the government. The means of transportation was wagons drawn by oxen and mules, making from 20 to 25 miles a day.

The expedition leaving in 1864 was known as the Third Fisk Expedition, and started from Fort Ridgley on the western boundary of Minnesota. [Ed. Note: When the expedition was organized at Fort Ridgely, it included Fisk’s staff, members of his protective escort, and other emigrants—a total of about a hundred wagons and some 170 people. August Chemidlin, a French-born farmer and watchman-tollkeeper of the Minneapolis Suspension Bridge, was in charge of the commissary, and his nephew, Nicholas Chemidlin, drove the commissary wagon.]

There were about 150 people [sic] in this expedition, most of them men, with a small escort of soldiers. They also had a small mountain howitzer, which later aided materially in saving the expedition from complete annihilation. The expedition was headed for the mouth of the Big Horn river, where it was reported that gold was being found, but which report was not well founded as it proved afterwards.

Encounter Marauding Indians. When 200 miles beyond the Missouri river in Dakota signs of Indians appeared and several attempts at raiding warned the travelers that they must be on guard day and night. It was afterwards learned that General [Alfred] Sully had been after marauding tribes along the Canadian line, and had scattered them and broken up their food supplies. Many of them had drifted south and this fat train looked good to them. The raids finally resulted in a battle, when the Indians attempted to appropriate the “wet” goods from a wagon that had been overturned in a coulee.

Thirteen Whites Killed. The breakdown of a wagon resulted in the dividing of the train, as those in the lead went on. This gave the Indians a chance of attack, which they took advantage of. The Indians were armed principally with bows and arrows, though there were enough of them who had taken guns from whites they had killed to make them a dangerous outfit, as the travelers found to their sorrow. Thirteen of the whites were killed and it was estimated that over a hundred of the 900 Indians were killed. [Ed Note: After three days of fighting in late August 1864, 9 were killed and five wounded, at total of 14 casualties. Overall 12 died, while wounded Louis Dostaler and Charles Libby, recovered.] The Indians in this raid were known as Unkappa [Sic Hunkpapa] Sioux. The expedition, disheartened, proceeded on west, harassed every day by the troublesome reds, but by the utmost vigilance was able to defend itself from any further serious attack.

Had White Woman Captive. Mr. Chemidlin, in telling of the return of this expedition, says:

“After fighting and traveling for a couple of days we concluded to camp, and while in camp the Indians sent a party with a flag of truce. They wanted to parley with the captain. The captain sent out two or three men to find out what they wanted. They said they were starving and wanted some provisions. They were asked how much they wanted. They said they wanted two wagon loads. They also said they had a white woman, a Mrs. Kelley, whom they had captured in Wyoming and they wanted to trade her for these provisions. [Ed. Note: Mrs. Fanny Kelly was captured 12 July 1864 west of Fort Laramie while traveling in a wagon to Idaho.] The captain sent them word that he would give them a wagon load of provisions and four yoke of oxen. But they refused it, saying it was not enough for them. So after parleying a while they concluded to leave us.”

Forced to Abandon Journey. “There were two soldiers left of our escort—two or three at any rate—and the first night after the fight the captain sent two of the men to Fort Rice on the Missouri, about 15 miles below where the city of Bismarck is now, where there was a company of the 30th Wisconsin regiment stationed. He sent them back for reinforcements, and they sent us a company of cavalry to relieve us. We were ordered back by the commander of the regiment. A ballot was taken by the party and we decided to turn back. So we went back with the relief to Fort Rice, and from there on down the Missouri in flat boats, with the 30th Wisconsin, which was ordered home.”

Indians Eat Poisoned Food. In connection with this disastrous expedition and the Indians who wrecked it, a story has been told which Mr. Chemidlin does not vouch for and of which all other members of the company were always extremely skeptical—a story of poisoned food. Most of the company would have agreed that the plundering murderers deserved poisoning, but of course none of them knew anything about it. The story got back east and was made much of by the newspapers. This is what seems to have happened:

On breaking camp one morning, while the Indians were still harassing the travelers, orders were given as usual to burn all camp refuse. Among other things on this particular morning was a box of damaged hardtack or crackers and that was left on the burning pile. No sooner had the camp been abandoned than the Indians were seen to rush in and the hardtack was rescued from the fire. Later it was learned that the hardtack had slain more Indians than the firearms of the whites and it was hinted that the doctor’s medicine chest had been used to season the crackers.
[Apparently some 25 Hunkpapas died from strychnine poison planted in the hardtack by the Cavalry escort. The War Department censored Capt. Fisk’s report of this incident for more than 100 years.]

Second Attempt is Successful. Mr. Chemedlin’s second attempt to get into Montana was more successful. This was two years later. In 1866 he was a member of what was called the “Hundred Dollar Men.” That was a company of 100 men who had paid $100 each to get to Montana—no particular point guaranteed. There was also a number of emigrants in the expedition who had made other arrangements for their transportation. This expedition was also a Fisk expedition and conducted by Captain Fisk. [Ed. Note: The headquarters staff of the 1866 Expedition included Nicholas Chemidlin, who again served with the commissary.] It took the northern route this time, leaving Fort Berthold. No trouble on account of Indians was experienced but the travelers were afforded a chance to see a scalp dance at Berthold indulged in by Gros Ventres who claimed to have been on a raid against some of their red brethren.

[Ed. Note: During this expedition, Chemidlin’s Fisk Train followed two weeks behind an emigrant train led by Thomas A. Holmes. A member of the Holmes Expedition, Luther M. Brown, described their arrival at Fort Benton: “August 15th the main train arrived at Fort Benton, at least eleven hundred miles from St. Paul. We had been on the road between Fort Ridgely and Fort Benton, seventy-six days, and that, too, on a road that we had made ourselves, with small exceptions. At Fort Benton we again came in contact with the world. Here we found quite a thriving little town which is known as Benton city. There are quite a number of white people, and more have since come in. At the time we arrived at the Fort they had not fully ‘adopted the habits and customs of civilization,’ but they could lie, swear, steal and drink whiskey with a remarkable degree of accuracy, and were hat might be called quite ‘heavy on the steal.’ They stole my jack knife for which I doubt if I ever forgive them. But seriously Fort Benton should it remain as it now is, ‘the head of navigation on the Missouri,’ will be quite a large town in a few years, as the Montana trade increases. There was last season before our arrival there, about 7500 tons of freight landed there by steamboats from St. Louis. . .”

Reached Benton in 1866. Mr. Chemidlin arrived in Fort Benton in August, 1866, where the party broke up and scattered to various places. There are very few of the party who can be located at the present time. W. O. Dexter, public administrator of Chouteau county, living in Fort Benton, is one of the few. Mr. Chemidlin, with 18 other hundred dollar men, went up Sun river to the south fork, about three miles from Haystack butte, and camped there for several weeks. They had heard of gold prospects in the hills there. Nothing of value, however, was found, and the party made its way to Helena, where most of them engaged in placer mining and Mr. Chemidlin began his work as a printer.

In 1872 Mr. Chemidlin married Miss Mary Cox, in Helena. They have two children, Miss Marie Chemidlin of Fort Benton and W. S. Chemedlin.

Like so many early Montana pioneers, Nicholas T. Chemidlin quietly lived and worked, but thanks to the historical series of the Montana Newspaper Association we know about his exciting emigration in the 1860s to the new territory.

[Source: River Press Publishing Company Stock Book and Minutes; MNA The Roy Enterprise 26 Apr 1920; Ho! For The Gold Fields Northern Overland Wagon Trains of the 1860s by Helen McDann White, Editor; Overholser Historical Research Center SC 36 Correspondence W. K. Harber and Joel R. Overholser]

Photo:
(1) Nicholas T. Chemidlin in the Press Room of the River Press.

(2) Legendary Editor William T. Harber

(3) The River Press home for more than a century.

(4) Fisk 1866 Northern Overland Wagon Train Minnesota to Fort Benton

(5) Elderly N. T. Chemidlin nearing retirement in early 1920.

The Life of the Community: The Fort Benton River Press 1880-2010

2011-04-25T11:15:00.001-06:00

By Ken Robison

[Published in the Special 130th Anniversary Edition of the River Press 13 April 2011]

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

Journalism in Fort Benton has a proud tradition. Only the Virginia City/Ennis Madisonian (which was established in 1873) is an older weekly newspaper than the Fort Benton River Press, which first published on October 27, 1880. One River Press editor, William K. Harber, is in the Montana Newspaper Hall of Fame, and another, Joel F. Overholser, should be. On this 130th anniversary of The River Press let’s look at this proud history.

Fort Benton’s first newspaper, the Benton Record, was established February 1, 1875. This was eleven years after the first Montana newspaper, the Montana Post in Virginia City. The long delay in starting a paper in Fort Benton likely resulted from the “wild and wooly,” transient nature of the town’s population, with just a handful of white women resident until the mid-1870s. By 1875, the fur trade and gold rush days were past, and Fort Benton had weathered a long depression lasting until the birth of the Canadian trade including the arrival of the Mounted Police. Fort Benton was becoming a stable, prosperous, and growing town.

The Benton Record became a daily on Feb 2, 1881, and continued until owner-editor W. H. Buck went broke in 1884. The Record is an important source for area history covering the early boom years of the town as it emerged from fur trading post to a regional transportation hub. The Record carried lists of steamboat arrivals, passengers, departures, and cargo, many historical articles by Montana’s first great historian Lieutenant James Bradley, and Frontier Sketches from the pen of wildly colorful Sheriff Johnny J. Healy, who was also business manager of the paper. Exceptionally valuable coverage of the Sioux, Nez Perce, and other Indian Wars flowed through the pages of the Record. The paper strongly advocated free navigation on the Missouri River and championed Fort Benton as the head of navigation. The Record was close to Benton’s Irish Fenian residents, and passionately Democratic in politics.

The Record had been in existence five and a half years, when the first steps were taken to found The River Press. James E. Stevens had gone to work for W. H. Buck on the Record in 1880, but disliked his boss intensely. When H. C. Williams and Thomas D. Wright suggested Stevens join them in a newspaper venture, he jumped at the chance. Stevens later admitted, “the three of us together didn’t have $50. . . but we had lots of days work up our sleeves.” After a talk with Timothy Collins of the Bank of Northern Montana, the trio found backing from local citizens, chiefly on the partisan Republican political side.
James Stevens continued, “We bought a $2,300 outfit from the Helena Herald, which was then putting on a new dress and making other changes, including a new press. We paid the Herald $1,500 down and gave a mortgage for the balance. We borrowed $1,700 from the citizens of Fort Benton and it cost the other $200 for the freight from Helena. That was the start of the Fort Benton River Press . . . The first issue of The River Press was dated October 27, 1880. Timothy E. Collins, Scott Wetzel, John W. Tattan, John Power, Jeremiah (Jerry) Collins, Billy [William H.] Todd, and other leading citizens of Fort Benton took a turn at the crank in honor of the event. Billy Todd, who was managing Murphy, Neel & Co.’s store was an old Helena Gazette printer of former years.”

H. C. Williams, editor for the initial issue, proclaimed, “We present to our readers this week a paper which in typographical execution and general appearance is equal of any in the west.” Editor Williams claimed Fort Benton was big enough for two papers and said they had not come to sow seeds of dissention, but dissention there was. The first issue of the new River Press was printed in a large log cabin with an adobe exterior, once Jim Nabors’ “hotel,” near Main Street. This building was on the site of the current H-O Parts Plus. With Editor Williams, J. E. Stevens operated the mechanical department and Thomas Wright served as business manager.

Fifty years later, in 1900, old time Fort Benton resident Al. G. Wilkins sent a letter of congratulations to the editor of the River Press recalling that first winter. Wilkins wrote: “I am pleased to congratulate the River Press on its 50th birthday as I knew it in its infancy, just fifty years ago, and helped to keep the fires burning through the hard winter of 1880-1881 by hauling cordwood fourteen miles through two feet of snow to enable the force to continue their good work. I am proud to reflect back through so many years and note the progress of the River Press. There were two papers printed at Fort Benton at that time—the Benton Record and the River Press. It was an evident fact that through lack of business one or both had to fall, but the friends of the River Press helped to boost it over the hump and today, I believe the few old timers that are fortunate enough to be alive are elated over the outgrowth of their work. I received eight shares of stock in the River Press for the wood it took to carry it through that memorable hard winter, and I am pleased to know that it has not been snowed under since.”

The River Press started with two disadvantages: its publishers were comparatively new to this part of Montana; and there was already an established newspaper in the town that many thought too small for two papers. Editor Buck of the Benton Record was not amused and sourly welcomed its new competitor, proclaiming that the new upstart would not live a month. The stage was set for dueling editorials over many issues over the next few years such as the hot topic in 1882, when the staunchly segregationist Benton Record argued for a separate school for Benton’s growing number of African American and mixed race children. The River Press argued forcefully for integrated schools, supporting the school board in their decision for a single school. Despite a boycott promoted by the Record, the integrated school prevailed. The journalistic squabbles in fact helped the circulation of both papers—after all, you had to buy both papers so that you did not miss anything.

To put pressure on its upstart competitor, the Record started a daily in February 1881, doubtless aiming to kill the upstart with a five days to one volley of abuse. The Press countered with The Daily River Press, also a five-day-a-week publication, which began operation on June 6, 1882 and remarkably continued until January 1, 1920. The daily began as a four-page paper, while the weekly was a 5-column eight-page newspaper.

By June 1881, Jerry [Jeremiah] Collins bought the interest of H. C. Williams in The River Press, and later in August Collins and Stevens bought out T. D. Wright. By then they had dressed up the look of the newspaper and considerably expanded the job printing department. Advertising patronage increased and public acceptance grew, and The River Press rapidly gained a dominant position in Northern Montana.

In August 1882 shares of stock were sold, and The River Press Publishing Company incorporated in December 1882, with Collins and Stevens taking half of the stock and being retained as editors in charge. At the first annual meeting of the stockholders December 4, 1882, J. C. Bothine, President, was in the chair. Trustees elected included J. E. Stevens, Jerry Collins, George Steell, W. J. Minar, and H. G. McIntire. The next day the stockholders met again and elected J. E. Stevens, President; George Steell, Vice President; H. G. McIntire, Secretary; Jerry Collins, Treasurer. Collins was appointed General Manager (and editor) at a salary of $30 per week. About twenty others held stock in small amounts, including William J. Harber, who bought the Stevens stock in 1883. While earlier The River Press had been a republican-leaning independent in politics, with the organization of the stock company, controlling interest moved solidly to republicans, and The Press became recognized as a republican journal.

By late 1884, Editor Buck went broke and the Record financially went under after sporadic publication for several years. Its fine printing plant was moved to a warehouse in preparation for a Sheriff’s sale. The River Press was quartered on Main Street in the lower floor of the Odd Fellows Hall, beside the new furniture store of Ferdinand C. Roosevelt. This building was on the site of the current home of Wally and Muncie Morger. On July 8, 1885, the River Press building burned out along with Roosevelt’s store. Fortunately, the Record’s modern press was available for the Press to continue operations in a new location. Only one edition of The Press was missed due to the fire. The Press moved into a fine brick building at 1212 Front Street, which had been the home of the Davidson & Moffitt Saddlery from 1881 to 1883. The River Press stayed in this location for more than 108 years

Jerry Collins was instrumental in the formation of the Montana State Press Association in Butte August 20-21,1885. Editor Collins was elected the Press Association’s first “corresponding” secretary and printed the proceedings at The River Press. By 1887, Collins had moved on to the new town of Great Falls, where he became publisher of the Great Falls Tribune. The following year, Collins sold the majority interest in The River Press to William H. Todd, a committed Democrat, and Democrats had taken over the board of trustees led by Charles E. Conrad as Presiden. On August 13, 1888 William H. Todd became manager, and he named Daniel Searles, also a partisan Democrat, editor.

Several men and women left marked imprints on The River Press. One was William K. Harber, an Englishman, who stepped off a stagecoach in Benton on January 23, 1884. Fort Benton’s population at the time probably was 2,000. It was the smallest city in the nation with two dailies. The town and the papers were in trouble. The Canadian trade had ended in 1883 with the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Empty storefronts were appearing on what had once been busy Front Street. Steamboat traffic from St. Louis and upper Missouri river ports was declining as the railroad moved westward.

As the 1880s passed, Montanans were looking forward to statehood, and in 1889 Choteau County merchant giant Thomas C. Power, a Republican, campaigned for governor. During the campaign, Editor Dan Searles turned his River Press against the favorite son, and Democrat Joseph K. Toole squeaked into the governor’s office by 576 votes, carrying Choteau County by 32. In addition, Editor Searles urged the defeat of T. C. Power’s brother, John W., running for state senator in Choteau County.

As consolation after his narrow loss in the governor’s race, T. C. Power with Wilbur Fisk Sanders, both Republicans, in a hotly contested election, were selected by the Montana legislature for the U.S. Senate as the state’s first two Senators, serving from January 2, 1890. Throughout this campaign, The River Press became even more vitriolic against Power and the Republicans. After Power’s selection for the Senate, The River Press refused to honor Power with the title “Senator Power.”

In October 1890, The River Press declared war on Senator Power, his brother John W., and their empire, T. C. Power & Brother. In an editorial on October 15th entitled “The Power Bros.” Editor Searles wrote:
“The River Press did not propose to enter into a discussion of the business affairs of the Power Bros. or of their business relations with the citizens of Fort Benton and of Choteau county. The people of northern Montana know all about the firm and have formed their opinion concerning it. They generally concede that its grab all policy has seriously injured this city, but they know that all the Powers in the world cannot kill it. The firm may succeed in crushing out all opposition as it has succeeded in crushing out many small houses, but it cannot destroy the natural advantages of the place which, some day, will make it one of the most prosperous cities in the state.
“Neither the [Helena] Independent nor [Butte] Miner correspondents, nor the [Helena] Journal man nor his correspondent “Old Timer: can give the people of this county any pointers concerning the firm. They know all about it, and the River Press, recognizing this fact, was content to leave Mr. John W. Power and his candidacy for the state senate to their tender mercies. But the truth of history must be vindicated, and the Journal’s “Old Timer?” in his amusing floundering in fact and fiction, makes it necessary for the River Press to vindicate it. In giving the history of the early settlement of Fort Benton “Old Timer” either ignorantly or purposely leaves the impression that John W. Power was in front of the procession of that noble army of men who blazed the trail into Montana and made it possible for others to follow them without enduring the hardships and privations of pioneer life. The impression is a wrong one. The house of T. C. Power & Co. was not established in Fort Benton until 1867. John W. Power was then selling hay in Dubuque, Iowa. He came to the then territory in 1868—a year in which over 40 steamboats landed at Fort Benton and when it was the liveliest and most prosperous town in Montana. John experienced his first dangers and trials of pioneer life in the wild and wooly west when he stood behind his brother’s counter in his city and traded a cup of sugar for a buffalo robe with the Indians who daily flocked to the place with furs and pelts of all kinds. The next year found the blooming modest John in Helena in an agricultural implement house, next door to John R. Watson’s on Main street, owned by his brother Tom and in charge of the late John M. Sweeney.
“We have traced the personal history of Mr. John W. Power thus far simply to prove that “Old Timer” knows nothing about it. It is not necessary to look farther into it. He became the junior member of the firm of T. C. Power & Bro. and there he is found to-day. What that firm has done from the year 1873, when it was mainly instrumental in causing all of northern Montana to be set off into one vast Indian reservation that it might, with others, control the whiskey and fur trade of the northern Indians, down to the present time is, as we have stated, pretty well known to the residents of Choteau county. “Old Timer” is ignorant or purposely misleads the readers of the Journal. We will show it.
“It is a well known fact that when the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba railroad entered the state it proposed to make Fort Benton its western terminus and that the Montana Central would be built from this point. In anticipation of this all the ground between the bluffs upon both sides of the river was surveyed and platted. A large flat a mile and a half below the city was also surveyed and platted. A fine imposing court house, the largest public school building in the state, a larger hotel than either Butte or Helena has, and several fine business blocks and private residences were erected.
“All this was done in anticipation of Fort Benton becoming a railroad center. The place was booming and times were lively. Men came in from Helena and from the east to invest their money and grow with the place. But they were crowded out or crushed out. Col. Broadwater, A. J. Davidson and Paris Gibson were among the number. The latter started a small lumber yard here. T. C. Power & Bro. shipped it in by the steamboat load and by selling at cost drove him out of business. Lumber then went up. A. J. Davidson brought in a big stock of harness and saddles, etc. T. C. Power brought in a larger one and undersold him. Col. Broadwater proposed to build a saw mill here. He was swindled out of his mill site. Men brought in drugs and medicines. T. C. Power & Bro. brought in drugs and medicines. Others started jewelry shops. T. C. Power & Bro. soon had more clocks and watches and silver and plated ware to sell than any one in town. A furniture store was started only to be closed by a larger one opened by T. C. Power & Bro. Wholesale liquor and cigar stores were met by a wholesale liquor and cigar department at T. C. Power & Bro.’s. Books and stationery stores were compelled to compete with T. C. Power & Bro. And so it ran along through the whole line of trades. They even started an opposition hotel to the Grand Union because the latter was not built where they wanted it built. Their latest venture is the starting of a newspaper in the city to run out the River Press because the latter cannot conscientiously recognize the senior member of the firm as a United States senator.
“The hoggishness of the firm became so pronounced that before the railroad reached here Mr. Paris Gibson, who had been one of the greatest sufferers by the oppressive dealings of the Power Bros., pulled up stakes, went to Great Falls and obtained a title to some land there. He then directed the attention of Mr. James J. Hill to the place, and we all know the result. Fort Benton was left out in the cold and one by one those in the city who had been victims of the Power Bros.’ oppressive competition followed Mr. Gibson to Great Falls and are now among the most prosperous and enterprising citizens of that phenomenal town.
“These are the facts in the case and every old timer in the country knows them. If the Journal’s “Old Timer” had confined himself to the truth the River Press would have had no occasion to refer to them at all. It has done so now simply to preserve the integrity of the record. Now that the Journal has invited a discussion of this subject we propose to notice in the near future other matters in which it will appear that the Power Bros. propose not only to override all opposition in business matters in Choteau country, but to ride into office on the backs of the very people who are striving to build up a living business here which the firm itself has done so much to cripple or destroy.

Editor Searles continued his attacks against both T. C. Power and his brother John throughout the fall of 1890. By the end of November, Senator Power had had enough, and he retaliated against the River Press by withdrawing his substantial advertising patronage. In response, Jerry Collins blasted back with an editorial headlined “The River Press Boycotted.
“The firm of T. C. Power & Bro. has commenced a boycott against the River Press. The motive is easily surmised. During the past campaign this paper was outspoken in its denunciation of the course pursued by Thomas C. Power to obtain a seat in the United States senate. It also gave a number of good and sufficient reasons why the people of Choteau county should not support John W. Power for the state senate. To avenge itself for the unpleasant exposures which the River Press was forced to make the arrogant, domineering firm now seeks to drive the River Press out of Fort Benton or to seriously cripple it. The firm started the boycott by withdrawing all its patronage from the office, stopping its papers, daily and weekly, and advising its friends to do the same. The attitude of the firm towards this paper is on a line with that which it has pursued toward every other business enterprise in the city during the past few years. It evidently thinks it owns the bodies and souls of the people of northern Montana and proposes to ruin any man or set of men who dispute its claim or title thereto. The firm will tolerate no opposition and seeks to destroy what it cannot put down by fair business methods. In pursuance of this well known and long continued practice the selfish, partisan outfit has turned its batteries against the River Press. As this paper has no apologies to make to Tom Power or his big fat brother [Author’s emphasis] for what it has said concerning them, the boycott which they have inaugurated against it means war to the knife and the knife to the hilt. If the River Press go down in the fight it will go down with its flag nailed to the mast head and unfurled to the breeze.”

In addition to the boycott, Tom Power started an opposition Republican newspaper, The Benton Review, under editor Charles L. Harris. A group of leading Republicans, Jere Sullivan, Charles L. Harris, J. M. Boardman, George W. Crane, and Charles E. Miller, incorporated The Review Publishing Company. In the first issue of The Benton Review on August 28, 1890, Editor Harris proclaimed, “Politically, the Review will be republican, but not one of that rampant class which can see no good in anything that did not spring from its own party and which is continually on the war path in search of the scalps of those who are disposed to differ with it in regard to what each may consider to be the proper mode of dealing with public affairs, either local, state or national, as is so frequently the case among journals in all parties.”

On October 1, 1890, Searles’ River Press carried a long, critical article about the T. C. Power firm and his new newspaper. This editorial was followed by another, blasting Tom Power’s company for crushing opposition and driving Paris Gibson out of Fort Benton.

By 1891, T. C. Power was acquiring a majority interest in The River Press from W. H. Todd, who saw the handwriting on the wall, and Editor Dan Searles moved on to Great Falls in April to work for the Democrat Tribune. Todd’s resignation as manager and treasurer of The Press came on September 19, 1891. By January 1892, the Republican take-over was complete with the election of Republicans Thomas A. Cummings, President; George D. Patterson, Vice President; and Jere Sullivan, trustee. William K. Harber became editor and manager of The River Press with Tom Power’s take-over, and continued until Harber’s death in 1922. Editor Harber satisfied Power, and the ads came back to help keep the Press alive. The Benton Review quietly closed down operations in January 1892. In Joel F. Overholser’s opinion “there were never any efforts by Thomas C. Power, or brother John, local manager of Power businesses here [Fort Benton], to control or influence stands taken by the River Press except the implied ‘just keep off my back.’”

By the Presidential election in the fall of 1892, The River Press was safely back in Republican hands, featuring on its editorial page large woodcut portraits of Republican candidates Benjamin Harrison of Indiana for President and Whitelaw Reid of New York for Vice President. Featured also was the slate for the State Republican ticket. In a bit of bi-partisanship both Republican and Democrat tickets for Chouteau County were listed. The Press took special pleasure in opposing Timothy E. Collins of Great Falls, Democrat candidate for Governor, with headlines such as “Caught in the Act. T. E. Collins Makes a Futile Attempt to Steal Valuable School Lands.”

A quiet, soft-spoken Englishman, William K. Harber was skilled in the newspaper trade from experience in England, including serving as the London correspondent for the Northwest at Deer Lodge, Montana Territory. His arrival at Fort Benton in January 1883, from England was to protect a loan he made to a brother, W. J. Harber, for an interest in the River Press. W. K. Harber returned to England to marry Fannie Hart at Saffron-Walden February 6, 1889, and they spent the rest of their lives in Fort Benton. Harber was editor during the great open range ranching days, and he invested in local ranches. As editor and manager, Harber showed skill and a fine command of language. One Montana editor reflected, “He seldom wrote an editorial, but when he did it went the rounds of Montana’s newspapers.”

Safely republican, during the 1900 election of William McKinley as President, The River Press lamented, “Choteau County Laurel’s Lost. A few days after the presidential Election the River Press claimed for Choteau county the distinction of being the banner republican county in Montana, her plurality of 469 for McKinley electors being the largest among the official returns made public at that time. We must now regretfully surrender the palm to Custer county, which comes to the front with a McKinley plurality of 503; which secures to her the proud honor that we fondly hoped was ours. We doff our roughrider hat to the loyal republicans of Custer county.” This commentary was carried in the Anaconda Standard of December 15, 1900.
During the turn of the 19th century battle of Montana’s Copper Kings, William Andrews Clark emerged successful in controlling most Montana’s newspapers including the Great Falls Tribune. Clark became U. S. Senator by buying votes and newspapers. Some publishers were able to remain independent, especially those in rural areas. Dennis L. Swibold in Copper Chorus, his study of the Montana Press, wrote, “Men such as William K. Harber of Fort Benton’s River Press . . . would come to deplore the corruption that scrambled Montana politics and corroded their profession’s credibility. After the storm, they and other Progressives would argue passionately for reform—and Montanans would listen. But the stain on Montana journalism would linger for decades. The legend of the state’s copper-collared press was no mere fiction.” Ironically, in 1886 W. A. Clark had bought 8 shares in The River Press, which he later transferred to Jerry Collins and W. H. Todd. The River Press was one newspaper in Montana the infamous Clark did not control.

The little River Press spoke loudly during this period as Editor Harber took on the corporate giants and their mouthpiece newspapers. Writing in the September 13, 1903, Press, Harber asked, “Is it not the mission of these newspapers to serve their masters? When the interests of the corporations and the general public conflict, is it not reasonable to assume that corporation-owned newspapers will work for the success of their proprietors?”

In the words of Dennis Swibold, “Harber’s criticism of the [Clark’s Amalgamated Copper] company and newspapers carrying the company’s water rang loudly in rural areas beyond Anaconda’s direct influence.” Editor Harbor wrote on November 18, 1903, “Corporation ownership of Montana newspapers and corporation interference in Montana politics are not dictated by an unselfish desire to promote the welfare of the general community.”

Editor Harber led promotion of reforms such as a direct primary law in Montana, woman’s suffrage, higher mining taxes, legislation by initiative. Dennis Swibold writes, Harber “made an elegant spokesman for Progressive Republicans east of the Continental Divide.” President Teddy Roosevelt and his Republicans in Montana such as Congressman, then Senator Joseph Dixon enjoyed the strong support of The River Press.

In the Republican landslide election of 1906, Choteau County’s “favorite son” Charles N. Pray, just 37 years of age, was elected to serve as Montana’s Representative in Congress, defeating popular Democrat Thomas J. Walsh.
The River Press of September 19, 1906, headlined on its front page, “Pray For Congress. The Favorite Son of Chouteau County Is Highly Honored by Montana Republicans. Nomination Made By Acclamation and Followed By Enthusiastic Demonstration.
“The happiest people in Montana Saturday night were the friends of the Hon. Charles N. Pray, Chouteau county’s popular and efficient prosecuting attorney, who was the recipient of congressional nomination honors conferred by the republican state convention at Helena. It was a red-letter occasion for Mr. Pray and his multitude of friends in various parts of the state; it was a day of triumph for those who, to the best of their ability, have urged and worked for the nomination of the favorite son of Chouteau country for representative in congress. . .”

With the strong backing of The River Press, Pray swept to victory throughout Montana, carrying Chouteau County by 1310 votes to just 395 for Democrat Thomas J. Walsh. Within ten years of his arrival in Montana from Vermont, young Pray was serving as Montana’s lone Congressman and working to create Glacier National Park. The River Press supported Pray throughout his six years in Congress as he skillfully moved the park legislation through the House despite the opposition of powerful Speaker “Uncle Joe” Cannon. Pray succeeded in passing important new homestead legislation, increasing the patent to 320 acres and reducing prove-up time to three years. In this and many other measures directly impacting Choteau County and its homestead boom, Pray enjoyed the solid support of The River Press.

A decade later, Editor Harbor was still taking on the Great Falls Tribune and its master, Amalgamated Copper, writing in the River Press on March 26, 1913, “It has been announced from time to time that the Amalgamated is ‘out of politics,’ but its lobby and other legislative agencies have not yet disappeared from public view.”

The River Press had one other competitor over the years, the Chouteau County Independent, established by the Schmidt Brothers in 1910 at the beginning of the homestead boom in the area. The Independent operated by B. H. Kreis and William H. Jenkinson, lasted well into the agricultural depression until 1925 when it was purchased by The River Press and discontinued. Other Chouteau County “boom” newspapers popped up at Highwood, Carter, Loma, Square Butte, Montague, Floweree, Genou, though most of these lasted but a few years. In addition the Geraldine Review published for fifty years, 1913-1963, and the Big Sandy Mountaineer, begun in 1921 continues today.

Chief assistant over the years to Editor Harber was Nicholas T. Chemidlin, who first tried to emigrate to Montana Territory in 1864 with Captain James L. Fisk’s wagon train from Minnesota. The Fisk train was turned back by the Lakota in Dakota Territory with a bloody loss of twelve dead. Chemidlin came to Benton via Helena in 1883, and bought an 8th interest in The River Press. Harber and Chemidlin, often with transient printers, kept both the weekly and daily newspapers going through the quiet years leading into the homesteading boom of the 1910s.

On to the scene came young Joel R. Oversholser to homestead in the Egly community near the Goosebill in Chouteau County in 1913. Oversholser, born May 31, 1885, on a farm near Polen, Iowa, worked for several newspapers in Iowa, before he and his new bride Beulah Fuller joined the homestead stampede promoted by the Great Northern Railroad. Overholser proved up his 320 acre homestead and worked for The River Press as time permitted, until he got title to the land in 1916. He then bought the Moore Independent in the Judith Basin and operated it for three years.

In early 1920, Editor Harber offered Overholser the opportunity to replace the retiring Nicholas Chemidlin. In return, Overholser asked two conditions: that he be allowed to buy stock in The River Press and that the struggling daily be discontinued. Editor Harber agreed, and Overholser moved his family to Fort Benton to join the operation. His son, Joel F. then age nine, remembers being impressed by Mr. Chemidlin, the Sioux Indian fighter, at his retirement banquet at the Grand Union.

The great editor William K. Harber died in 1922, and the Tom Power stock came on the market upon the latter’s death the following year. With financial help from Mrs. Fannie Harber, Joel R. Overholser, by then editor of the paper, was able to take controlling interest. Mrs. Harber loaned the needed money to the new editor with no security beyond his signature, saying “my husband trusted you also.”

A high point for the memory of Editor Harber and for The River Press came in 1970, when the Montana Press Association elected Editor William K. Harber to the Montana Newspaper Hall of Fame.

Nora E. Harber, a daughter, had inherited her father’s fine editorial writing and business abilities, and she continued to worked at The River Press for many years until a stoke, ultimately fatal, ended her long career on December 3, 1967.

Editor Joel R. Overholser kept The River Press operating during the agricultural depression of the 1920s that extended into the national depression in the 1930s. In 1930, Editor Overholser wrote: “With this issue of the River Press this newspaper completes fifty full years of service to Fort Benton and Chouteau County. Fifty years in any line of business for an institution is a long time, but in the western states where settlement was of a more recent date than throughout the eastern portion of the United States, this is indeed, a long period of time.
“Twenty-six hundred weekly publications have been issued from the River presses in that length of time to say nothing of the hundreds of daily issues which have been put out. From 1883 to 1920 the River Press issued, in addition to its weekly newspaper, a daily and possibly 11,100 days news was chronicled before the daily passed into history. For a good many years Fort Benton had the distinction of being one of the smallest cities in the northwest to be furnished with a daily newspaper.
“. . . There have been ups and downs in the newspaper business in Fort Benton the same as in all businesses but throughout the years the company has been able to meet the demands of the people of this section, and gradually add to its equipment until today, we believe that we are safe in saying that this newspaper has one of the best equipped newspapers plants in the state for a city the size of Fort Benton.
“It is interesting to go through the old files of this newspaper and see the progress that has been made in Fort Benton. A copy of every paper printed in this office, with the possible exception of a very few, is on file in bound volumes in this office. [Note: This is true today in 2011.] The publication of items of 41 years ago and twenty years ago was started about 1920 and has proved a very interesting feature of this newspaper for the past ten years and we believe that all, both old and young, are interested in these items as shown by the numerous letters received at this office and the many words of comments expressed.
“It has been the aim of the present publishers of the River Press to give to our many readers a newspaper furnishing as nearly all the news of the county as is possible of interest to Chouteau county readers. That we have partly succeeded in our efforts is manifested by the growing list of readers in all parts of the county.”

One of Editor Joel R. Overholser’s four sons, Joel Francis, showed early interest and ability in the newspaper business. Joel F., who was two years old when his father came to Montana to homestead in 1913, graduated from Chouteau County High School in 1928. He received a B. A. degree in journalism from the University of Montana in 1932, after working on the student newspaper, the Kaimin, and returned to Fort Benton to work on the River Press. Joel F. served in the U. S. Army during World War II, from 1942 to 1946, and then returned once again to Fort Benton to work with his father on The River Press.

Joel R. Overholser, his son recalled, “spent more than seventy years at the printing trade and a half-century of those in The River Press. . . For forty-seven years, he was the guiding spirit . . .” At one period, Joel R. was an officer of the Montana State Press Association, but he resigned in panic when scheduled to be elected president at the next convention.

The decades of the 1940s and 50s were golden years for the Press, and Joel F. emerged as Montana’s premier newspaper historian, injecting a steady diet of historical articles in the small weekly. During these years, The River Press was far more important than most Montana newspapers, and it is likely that the River Press carried more significant history in its weekly pages than most dailies.

Over the years, The River Press has published historically important special editions. The first, in July 1926, honored the annual meeting of the Sons and Daughters of the Society of Montana Pioneers in Fort Benton. A second special edition was issued in honor of the 10-12 June, 1937, St. Louis to Fort Benton Boat Race. The Fort Benton Centennial Special Edition, published August 21, 1946, received an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History in recognition of its outstanding contribution to American local history. Joel F. Overholser wrote this edition shortly after his return from service in the U. S. Army during World War II. In 1960 Overholser assembled a Centennial Steamboat Edition of the River Press to commemorate the arrival of the first steamboats at the Fort Benton levee in 1860. For the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976, The River Press issued a Bicentennial Edition. More recent special editions have honored the 125th Anniversary of the Grand Union Hotel and the 150th Anniversary of The Mullan Military Wagon Road.

With a seamless transition from father to sons, Joel F. Overholser took over editorial operation of The River Press while Leland, Joel’s brother, took over bookkeeping. During these years, Joel F. published the weekly paper and spent countless hours reading and researching Montana history, building meticulous and extensive index entries and vertical files.

In 1973, The River Press converted from letterpress to offset printing, and began to have the paper printed in Shelby.

Joel F. Overholser served as a member of the Montana Constitutional Convention in 1972, and wrote a pageant, “Wagons to Whoop-Up,” that was presented during the Whoop-Up Trail celebration. He served as a member of the Montana Lewis and Clark Memorial Committee in 1976, and in 1984 he received the Montana Historical Society Board of Trustees Award as Fort Benton’s resident historian. A final tribute came in February 1995, when he was honored at a reception in Fort Benton attended by many residents and Governor Marc Racicot. The day was proclaimed Joel F. Overholser Day in Fort Benton by Mayor Roger Axtman.

In 1980 Joel F. Overholser retired to write a book based on his lifelong research on the history of Fort Benton and the Upper Missouri. Joan Stewart, daughter of Leland Overholser, took over editorship of the newspaper. Joel’s book, Fort Benton, World’s Innermost Port, was published in 1987, packed with great detail and insight into Montana’s most historically significant region.

The day after the sale of The River Press in 1993, Joel sadly came to visit John G. Lepley at the new Museum of the Northern Great Plains/Montana State Agricultural Museum. Joel said, “What am I going to do, I don’t have an office any longer.” Lepley’s answer came back, “I’ve got an office for you, here at the Ag Center.” They quickly made arrangements for Joel’s historical archives to be merged with the Museum archives. Joel’s office in the Ag Center from 1993 until his death in 1999 was a welcoming research center for a constant stream of historians and researchers. Today, this operation continues under the non-profit River & Plains Society as the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center, named in his honor.

In 1992, as The River Press owners Leland Overholser, Joan Stewart, and William A. Johnstone worked toward selling the paper, they had a four-person staff from the Liberty County Times in Chester come in to manage The River Press. Sharon Dunham, who had been a reporter-photographer for the Liberty County Times, became The River Press editor in January 1993. This relationship lasted for three months, and then Leland Overholser and Joan Stewart again took over the publication of The River Press. In May, 1993, Stan and Esther Tichenor, who had previously owned The Townsend Star, purchased The River Press. At this time, Stan’s brother, Daryl Tichenor, owned The Madisonian, Montana’s oldest publishing weekly newspaper, so the two brothers owned the two oldest weekly newspapers in Montana.

The week after purchasing The River Press, Stan and Esther Tichenor hired Tim Burmeister as a writer and photographer. The Tichenors moved the printing of The River Press from Shelby to Great Falls. In February 1994, they moved The River Press office from 1212 Front Street to its current location at 1114 Front Street, the former location of the Farm Service Agency offices.

Tim Burmeister was named editor of The River Press in 1994. While Burmeister was gone from February 1998 to February 1999, Curt Wall was editor of The River Press for four months, and Larry Thornton was editor for ten months. Tim Burmeister returned as editor in May 1999. Mike Tichenor purchased The River Press from his parents, Stan and Esther, in July 1999. Tim Burmeister purchased The River Press from Mike Tichenor in October 2007.

Recent years have seen a shift in form and substance with a heavy emphasis on local photography, Chouteau County community reporting, and historical sketches by historians from the Overholser Historical Research Center.

The River Press continues operations today as it celebrated its 130th Anniversary on October 27, 2010. Locally owned and community focused, the Press carries on its proud journalistic tradition.

[Sources: River Press Minute Book and Stock Book; Joel F. Overholser Vertical File Notes; The Press Gang A century of Montana newspapers, 1885-1895. By Sam Gilluly; Copper Chorus Mining, Politics, and the Montana Press, 1889-1859. By Dennis L. Swibold; various Fort Benton River Press; John G. Lepley Oral History; Tim Burmeister.]

Photos:

1. River Press issue No. 1 [Tim may want to take a photo of this first issue]
2. The First River Press building, a long wood and adobe building.
3. Second River Press Building [This is the Lithograph I set this morning. The second River Press location in first floor of the Odd Fellows Hall on the corner of Bond and Main streets
4. W. K. Harber, famed editor of The River Press 1891-1922, member of the Montana Newspaper Hall of Fame
5. Joel F. Overholser
6. The Third River Press Building.

The Travelling River Press Correspondent in Territorial Montana

2011-04-25T10:14:00.006-06:00

By Ken Robison

[Published in the 20 April 2011 River Press]

In this era of the internet and day round television news, it is hard to imagine the life and times of correspondents for newspapers 125 years ago. News in those days travelled by word of mouth and in the pages of the local newspaper such as the Fort Benton River Press. No better illustration of this contrast can be found than the activities of Ed C. Garrett, correspondent for The River Press, during an extended trip he made in 1889 to the western end of [then] Choteau County. Garrett’s mission was to sell subscriptions to the Daily and Weekly River Press and to report the latest news and developments in the western perimeter of Montana’s largest county stretching from the eastern front of the Rockies to the Little Rocky Mountains.

Leaving Fort Benton the 19th of October, 1889, in a carriage drawn by the River Press’ spirited horse Bucephalus, Ed Garrett embarked on his trip to the upper Teton and Piegan districts “in search of the golden fleece of subscriptions to the River Press and Stockman [newspaper, also published by The River Press]. Garrett relates his adventure:

“Following in the ancient route of Broadwater’s bull teams for about 8 miles, we (your correspondent and the cayuse), then switched to the right. We soon passed through several prairie dog towns, the inhabitants of which, being asked to subscribe, all disappeared into their holes. This struck us as rather an evil omen, and after ten miles more of nothing but bunch grass, we reached the state of mind of the young lady in the poem:
The melancholy days have come,
The saddest of the year,
When the young maiden’s fancy
Turns to thought of l—g—r b—r.

“At this juncture we overtook a magic lantern man on his way to Choteau and Dupuyer to give exhibitions to the people of those parts. After ascertaining that he had no slides in his box containing Montana election returns as they appeared on the Journal transparency in Helena the night after election we gladly made up with him. We soon learned that he was a genial soul (he will be down to have some posters printed in a few days) and knew the governors of both North and South Carolina. So we compared notes and discussed the government irrigation problem. We found that the cayuse made better time by following directly in the wake of the magic lantern wagon.

“Thus jogging along we soon reached Capt. Nelse’s place [pioneer Nelson Velleaux] on the lower Teton, but the captain with three or four of his neighbors had gone to Benton to make final proof on their lands. This was especially unfortunate as we had intended giving a brief sketch of the captain’s life to the readers of the River Press.

“The hay, potato and berry crops along the Teton are immense, but by reason of the dry season the oat crop is about 2/3 that of last year. Mr. McBriarty has put up 250 tons of hay near the crossing of the Teton, for the winter feeding of his 5,000 sheep. We saw Mrs. Grandchamps going home with a wagon box full of berries. The bushes were literally weighted down with them, and it would be a pleasant and profitable undertaking for those in Benton who like jelly to organize a berrying expedition, providing this Indian summer weather lasts.

“We stopped over night at Trannum’s. Mr. Trannum regaled us with reminiscences of the early days in California, he having gone there in ’50. He is now engaged in cattle raising and ranching and for current news reads the River Press.

“On the Teton between Tannum’s and Choteau, are located the sheep ranches of Wm. Zimmerman, Chas. Bannatyne, Gobbins & Hefferman, and A. B. McDonald, and the home ranches of the North Montana Cattle Co., and the Sands Land & Cattle Co. The stock along the Teton seemed to be in good condition, though we saw but few range cattle, as they are drifting further north.

“On the evening of the second day, in the soft mellow light of the setting sun, we arrived in sight of the town of Choteau and the beautiful valley of the Teton. The valley here expands to a width of three miles and is well settled with thrifty ranchmen and stockmen to the base of the mountains, a distance of twenty-five miles. Still there is room for more. The river is spanned by an iron bridge 110 feet long, built last summer. On reaching Choteau we found the principal topic of discussion to be whether a new steady clock like that on the Benton court house should be put on the belfry of the school house or whether it would be better to buy a real enterprising clock.

“Dr. J. E. Walmsley, acting coroner, with a jury composed of A. E. Paisley, James Brown, Chas. Depage, Wm. Hagan, Chas. Drift and James Hanay returned to Choteau Tuesday evening from Pen d’Oreille coulee where they held an inquest on the body of a dead man found by the round-up last week. The place is about 55 miles from Choteau and on the road leading from the main Fort Conrad and Benton road to John Zimmerman’s place. The jury’s verdict was “Death from unknown causes.” There were no marks of violence. The man’s name is supposed to be Fred Bergman, as a check on the First National Bank of Fort Benton for $157.60 dated August 13, payable to Fred Bergman or bearer, signed by A. B. McDonald, was found in his pocket. It is thought he got lost in the smoky weather several weeks ago and perished from exhaustion. A cloth overcoat fur lined, a pair of blankets and some tobacco were found a half a mile from the body. The man had on dark grey trousers, a sack coat and vest of dark blue cloth, considerably worn. The body was buried where found. The man is not known at Choteau. [Signed] Pilgrim.”

From Choteau, Ed Garrett moved on to Piegan and the Blackfoot Agency with stops enroute at Bynum, Dupuyer, and Robarre. As he has done throughout his trip, Garrett reports on the people, economy, range conditions, and events with an emphasis on what is new on the ranches and in the towns. Garrett’s narrative continues:

Joe Kipp's Place

“The first stopping place on the road from Choteau to Piegan is Bynum, 14 miles out, on Muddy creek, a stream which sets a good example to some people we know by occasionally drying up. Geo. A. Fry keeps a general store here and carries a good stock. A. L. Collins is landlord of the hotel. Grant Graves is presiding genius of the “Shepherd’s Joy,” a resort for the children of Pan from twenty miles around. Here they meet to discuss social and philosophical problems. The herders generally believe in a future state of sheep ranching where herding, dipping and shearing will be unnecessary.

“The sheep ranches of O. G. Cooper & Martin, S. F. Ralston, Jr., Bynum Bros., C. W. Cooper, A. J. Cowell and Clark Bros. are located in this vicinity. The Clark ranch is doubtless the model sheep ranch of Montana. Beginning in July, 1884, with 2,600 ewes and 700 lambs and buying 1,000 ewes the next year, after selling 3,600 wethers and killing mutton for ranch use, the firm has now 20,000 sheep, of which 10,000 are breeding ewes. Their wool clip this year was 97,000 pounds and the increase 6,751 lambs. In five different bunches the percentage of increase—marked—and all strong, healthy lambs was as follows: 95, 97, 101, 103, 106. The 05 per cent was in the band of yearling ewes. This is considered unprecedented in western sheep farming, and the result was only obtained by the closest care and attention. During the lambing season canvas tents are distributed over the range for the protection of the lambs, and at night a herder is always on duty. The latter has been found a most profitable expense. The firm has just had shipped 100 thoroughbred Shropshire, Leicester and Oxford Down bucks which will be bred with the finest Merino ewes to increase length of staple and size of sheep. All ewe bunches have been graded and bucks are put in accordingly to produce a uniform clip. The sheep are divided into eight bands and are all carefully and systematically attended to; are treated to salt once a week in winter and in summer to salt and sulphur. All improvements are of the most substantial character and all the ranch work is done with the utmost system. Eight sheds 60x170 feet, well ventilated with a capacity of 4,000 sheep each—although not over 3,000 are usually driven in—are located on the different streams. At the home ranch, besides dwelling house and sheds, are carpenter and blacksmith shops, machinery hall, bunk houses, store houses, granary and stables. The firm raise their own grain and have 1,500 tons of hay in stack on the ranch. There is nine miles of ditching and fifteen miles of fencing. A pile driver contrivance—the invention of Mr. B. Percy Clark—is used to drive fence posts. It is fixed to the hind end of a wagon and, besides the team to pull the wagon, requires three men and a horse to work it. It will set 200 post firmly in ordinary ground in a day.

“A telephone line twenty-one miles long, with seven stations connects the home ranch with outlying ranches. This will prove a great convenience, and during winter storm and blizzards the owners will be saved many anxious moments and hard rides.

“C. W. Cooper has built a new shed on his ranch and will run two bands of sheep this winter.

“Twenty miles north of Bynum is the town of Dupuyer, the center of a large extent of pastoral country. In this neighborhood on Dry Fork, Dupuyer, Sheep and Birch creeks over 50,000 sheep grazed during the summer.

“J. F. Burd has a cash store here and is building up a good trade.

“B. R. Fowler is the village blacksmith, A. Grillenberger furnishes three meals a day, nice and hot, and Geo. McGill dispenses Kentucky elixir to a thirsty public. Dr. H. A. Gillette heals the sick.

“In the vicinity are the sheep ranches of S. C. Burd, Wm. Smiley, E. E. Leech, C. R. Scoffin, L. T. Hagere, Davis & Jones, McCuaig & Gearing, Gensman & Jones and John Zimmerman. All these parties have good sheds and other improvements and plenty of hay.

“The best improvement, however, that was noticed was the large number of young sheep men who have changed their lonely state of two or three years ago by taking a wife. Does not the cabin look brighter, boys, and the grub taste better? We don’t see how those old fogies up the creek can get along any more. If they can’t catch on why don’t they try the River Press commission agency?

“ The magic lantern man gave an exhibition at Dupuyer. The boys had filled his coal oil lamp half full of water, but the practical joke was not a howling success. Several northern whiskey smugglers were among the audience and when “Washington praying at Valley Forge” appeared one of them asked: ‘Is that a British subject?’ the next subject happened to be the execution of Andre and some one called out ‘there’s your British subject.’ As there were a number of pole haulers present the manager did not think it safe to show ‘Kiel killing Capt. Scott at Fort Gray.’

“We met Mr. S. L. Potter, deputy sheep inspector, here. Sam knows an acarus scabiei when he sees it.

“The mines of Dupuyer and Birch creek coal companies, eighteen miles from here, produce a very good quality of coal, a considerable quantity of which is sold at Fort Benton and Choteau.

“Robarre is the jumping off place at the crossing of Birch creek, eight miles north of Dupuyer. Kipp & Co. have a store and hotel conducted by Geo. Edwards. Thomas & Magee are the proprietors of the saloon. Birch creek is the dividing line between civilization and the Indian reservation and he who crosses here leaves Hostetter’s bitters behind. On the reservation side near here are the ranches of John Wren and James Fisher, formerly of Choteau. They have an excellent location for either sheep or cattle.

“Charley Chouquette, an old timer well known in Fort Benton, also resides on the reservation. At the time the Dearborn county scheme the new county should be named ‘Choquette’ or ‘Dearborn,’ but as the bill didn’t pass Mr. Choquette doesn’t worry.

“On this side of the creek Frank D. Cooper has lately purchased several ranches and is making extensive improvements in the way of sheds, corrals and fencing. In connection with Robert C. Cramer he will run a large band of sheep here this winter. By the way it is also rumored that Bob also has aspirations for a better life and will soon lead to the altar an accomplished young lady of Bynum.

“T. E. Williamson, of Choteau, and Walter Adams, also have sheep ranches on Birch creek.

“We met here Baron Max Grutthus, of Russia, on his way to St. Mary’s lake with Guide Schultz, for a five weeks hunt. The baron is an exile for five years on account of a few hasty words spoken at a students’ meeting. Who wouldn’t be an exile to Montana. Under the lamb-like climatic influences he would soon forget like the lotus eaters, that there is any other county in existence.

“Near the mountains between Teton and Birch creeks on the numerous streams are located many settlers with small herds of cattle and horses; and it is a pleasant surprise after a lone ride of 25 or 30 miles over the prairie to come to one of the cabin homes, rough looking, perhaps, on the exterior, but within full of grace, comfort and hospitality. The refining influence of woman has come up the coulees and is going over into the utter mountains. Spruce up, boys, and look pleasant.

“On upper Sheep creek we found Chas D. Labreche and family, who had just arrived from the Dearborn. They are living in tents for the present, but as Mr. Labreche has ten children he will soon, with their assistance, have a good big log house knocked up. He has a herd of 300 head of cattle grazing here and has good feed and shelter. He has also started a store.

“The settlers along the mountains are very desirous of getting a weekly mail service from Choteau by Clark’s ranch as they have to go from ten to twenty miles for their mail at present. A school is also needed.

“We met here Daniel Boone, a descendant of the original Daniel Boone, and like him, a thorough hunter, trapper and frontiersman. Mr. Boone has lived in the mountains of Montana for twenty years. He is expert in making buckskin gloves, tanning the skins himself.

“On the upper Dry Fork of the Marias we were hospitably entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Buskirk.

“During our twelve years sojourn in Montana we have eaten no bread as good as that baked from Montana flour by Mrs. J. L. Collins of the upper Muddy.

“The settlers of three townships along the mountains are very anxious to have their lands surveyed and the plats placed on record in the land office so they can make their filings. Some of them have lived on their squatter pre-emption claims over five years, and by reason of the land not being surveyed they could not prove up and take homestead claims which they had in view. Two of these townships were surveyed in 1886, but through some error the survey was not approved. It would be a great relief to the settlers and of great benefit to the government if the surveyor general could survey these lands immediately, as many entries would be perfected at once. If, however, they are left unsurveyed for a year or two longer contests and litigation are sure to arise among the settlers.

“There is only one thing your correspondent regrets so far on his journey. We took on a travelling companion at Dupuyer who wagered that he would get a cash subscription for the River Press if we would represent ourselves at the next house as the new chaplain en route to the Blackfoot agency. This was an opportunity not to be lost, so we made the bet. On arriving we were duly introduced to the lady of the house, who certainly demonstrated that she had had some religious training, for after a few moments conversation she went into the yard and wrung the necks of several chickens. We heard her say in the kitchen, ‘Mary hurry up dinner ther’s a preacher here!’ At dinner came the ordeal of saying grace. We especially prayed for the sheepmen, and managed fairly well. After dinner the conversation ran to Indian and foreign missions, hardshell and softshell Baptists foreordination, etc. It was torture, and as soon as we decently could we folded our tents and stole away. The hear-earned subscription is enclosed. [Signed] Pilgrim.”

Early Dupuyer in the 1880s

Arriving at the Blackfoot Agency, Garrett continued his travelogue, emphasizing: “The Indians Becoming Civilized—School Facilities—The Indian Police—A Mild Winter Predicted—Rich quartz Discoveries, Etc. [Editor’s Note: Remember the terms in this report, written in the 19th century, may not be politically correct in 2011]

“Piegan, or Blackfoot agency, lies in the northwestern part of Choteau county, 125 miles from Benton on the right bank of Badger creek. The present agent is Major J. B. Catlin of Missoula, under whose management affairs are in a flourishing condition. W. J. Livingston is chief clerk, and J. P. Wagner is issue clerk.

“The reservation contains 1,760,000 acres. It is one of the best portions of Montana. The Indians, Blackfeet, Bloods and Piegans, belonging to the agency number about 2,000. Many of them live in comfortable log houses while others prefer the aboriginal tepee. A few farm on a small scale, but no general agricultural fever will ever break out among them. They have put up about 200 tons of hay for the winter use of their stock. P. Catlin, Henry Kennerly and Chas. Aubrey instruct the Indians in farming.

“For a period of ten years from 1888 the annual appropriation for the benefit of these Indians is $150,000. This money is to be used in the purchase of supplies, wagons, farming implements, horses and cattle and in building and maintaining schools and other institutions for their education and civilization.

“Two hundred brood mares and ten stallions were brought here last summer, also a large number of wagons and farming implements. Thirty Indians with as many wagons are now engaged in freighting supplies from Benton, for which they receive $1.25 per cwt. in cash. For other labor done for the government they receive $1 to $1.50 per day in tickets exchangeable for supplies from the government stores. Chief White Calf and other big and little Indians bask in contentment on a weekly ration of four pounds of beef and five pounds of flour, which is paid every Saturday. The sick and infirm receive an extra issue every Wednesday. About twenty good Montana beef steers are killed weekly to provide the sinews of peace. One thing, however, White Calf does not like; that is the presence at the agency of the colored troops, where a few occasionally come as escort to some officer or other military duty. The old chief thus draws the color line; “I don’t want them here. Let them go back to the place where they grew and turned black. My people are dark enough for me and I want to see them turn whiter.” He is afraid the color is catching.

“The agency boarding school is in charge of A. B. Coe principal, with the following assistants: Miss Cora M. Ross, teacher; Miss Isabella Clark, matron; Mrs. Belle Coe cook; Miss Kitty Kennedy, laundress; Miss Mary E. Pelky, seamstress. The attendance now is 21 boys and 12 girls, besides 15 day scholars. The children are bright and learn readily. Besides their studies the boys milk 15 cows and cultivate a garden the proceeds of which, beyond the consumption of the school, are devoted to buying extras from the government supplies. The girls are taught to work and sew. The accommodations for the pupils are rather limited, but the government will soon let a contract for the building of a large two story brick school house.

“The Catholics have also in course of construction a large frame building on Two Medicine creek, four miles from the agency, for which Miss Drexel, of Philadelphia, donated the funds--$17,000. This school will be known as the Piegan Indian Mission. It will be for full blood Indian children only, and the intention is to make it an industrial school like that at Carlisle, Pa. N. Monshausen is the architect, Joe Kipp contractor, I. A. Skinner, of Helena, has charge of the carpenter work and James Manix, of Sun River has charge of masonry and plastering. The main building is two stories high, 30x120 feet; wall of 6 inch studding and double boarded, filled in with concrete and lath and plastered. A main wall through the center divides the boys department from that of the girls. In each department on first floor are two school rooms, two play rooms and a parlor. The upstairs consists of dormitories, a chapel and nuns’ work room. A one story wing 30x115 feet is for kitchen, dining room and boys and girls infirmaries. Provision is also made for a bakery, laundry and wash rooms. The building will probably be completed by January first next. The workshops and priest’s residence will be built next year. A chapel 26x50 feet has already been built. With these two school houses completed the educational facilities will certainly be ample.

“The uniformed Indian police are quite a feature of the agency. They are twenty-four in number and are selected from the best men in the tribe. They are very prompt in enforcing the reservation laws and arresting their offending brethren. Chiefs White Calf, Big Nose and Tearing Lodge constitute a police tribunal to try misdemeanors committed on the reservation. Thirty days on the wood pile is generally the fate of the Indian caught drunk or with liquor in his possession. The guard house was empty on the day of our arrival, but we were informed that seven or eight bucks were sometimes in confinement. Despite all precautions some of the Indians manage to get hold of the fiery fluid occasionally. The liquor when taken from them is spilt by one of the policemen ceremoniously breaking the bottle on the agency flag staff al a crusader. It is said that a poor old squaw going by the flag staff shortly after one of these ceremonies picked up one of the glass fragments and sorrowfully licked it, thinking no doubt the while of Ingersoll’s rhapsody on sending a barrel of 18-year old to his friend.

“The Indians expect a mild winter. In this view they are sustained by several white men whom your correspondent met. Hugh Monroe, an old timer 105 years of age—of whom I may have occasion to write again—says that before a hard winter his rheumatism troubles him greatly; he has no twinges to speak of this year. Old man Ellis has observed that a hard winter follows a heavy equinoctial storm and vice versa. B. D. Labreche, of upper Sheep creek has noticed that the hair of cattle and horses, by a kindly provision of nature, is generally very long and wavy before a hard winter. It was so in 1880. This year the hair is short. Chad. Cartwright says that the bark of his dog is not any thicker than usual on the north side this fall. This is an infallible sign.

“Piegan is the home of Joe Kipp, the noted scout and guide. He has a general merchandise store here and has a good trade. R. L. McGonigal is in charge of the store.

“John Eldridge conducts the hotel. He has a good run of custom and provides the best beef steak in all Montana.

“The agency has no physician at present. The Indians look wise and say since the last doctor left nobody has died; but then they are prejudiced against white medicine men. Lately some rich quartz has been found in the main range of the Rockies directly west of here and in the opinion of old timers there will be several good mining camps before long. Of course prospecting and mining are forbidden on the reservation but the prospector and miner “get there just the same.”

“Coal is used at the agency from a vein on Two Medicine creek. [Signed] Pilgrim “

Garrett wrapped up his trip, returning to Fort Benton on November 13th. The trip home was an adventure in itself. Coming down the Teton on the afternoon of the 12th, Garrett was caught in a driving snowstorm. He was looking for the Hefferman Sheep Ranch, but missed the road that led to it. Luckily he met Mr. Hefferman on the road from Benton. Hefferman took the lead to drive to his ranch but in the blinding snowstorm got off the track himself. They finally ran across Hefferman’s herder and found their way to the ranch. After spending the night at the ranch, Garrett drove the 36 miles to Fort Benton the next morning. After resting a few days, Ed Garrett, the roving correspondent for The River Press, departed for another extended trip through the eastern side of Choteau County—but that is another story.

[Sources: FBRPW 30 Oct, 6 Nov, 20 Nov 1889]

The Saga of Pitamakan, the Pikuni Blackfeet Joan of Arc

2011-04-25T10:03:00.003-06:00

The Saga of Pitamakan, the Pikuni Blackfeet Joan of Arc

By Ken Robison

Nestled between Upper and Lower Two Medicine Lakes in Glacier National Park is one of the most remarkable and most beautiful waterfalls in America, Pitamakan, or Running Eagle Falls. In the spring so much water rushes over the upper falls that the lower falls is completely hidden. During the summer, as the river flow decreases, the water appears to change course and flows out of the lower falls, a jagged hole half way up the side of an almost perpendicular cliff. This is why white men named it Trick Falls. In recent years, the name has returned to its historic name, Pitamakan or Running Eagle Falls, to honor the memory of the only famous woman warrior of the Pikuni Blackfeet.

Pitamakan, or Running Eagle, is a man’s name, and it is a high and unique honor for a woman to be allowed by the Blackfeet to bear it. In fact this woman is said to be the only woman of the tribe honored by being given a man’s name. She died about 1836, but her name and her history were long known by older tribal members.

As a girl this woman’s name was Weasel Woman. She was the eldest of two brothers and two sisters, and her early years were spent in learning the domestic chores of the women of her tribe. Even though she had no interest in women’s work, she learned them well and did perform these duties whenever her mother became ill, or was not able to care for the family.

Weasel Woman’s real interests and talent were formed when her father, a respected warrior in the tribe, began teaching her to shoot a bow and arrow. Her skills soon became proficient so that she was allowed to go on buffalo hunts with the men, and she killed her share of buffalo. On one such hunt when she was 15 years old, the group encountered a large Crow Indian war party. In their attempt to flee, the horse of Weasel Woman’s father was shot from under him, and he was killed. She turned back, picked up her father’s body, loaded the fresh buffalo meat onto her horse, and escaped to her village. She was given great praise for her fighting spirit and her bravery in the face of the enemy.

Very shortly after the death of her father, Weasel Woman’s mother died of a broken heart. This left Weasel Woman responsible for her brothers and sisters, and forced her to make serious choices. Since she had no love for domestic chores, she brought a widow woman into the household to care for the family, and Weasel Woman assumed the role of family head. She carried her father's rifle with pride and perfected her hunting and fighting skills. She managed to keep the little family together.

Weasel Woman was a very attractive young woman and soon had many admirers among the young warriors of the tribe who wished to marry her. The girl refused them all, however, and it soon became apparent that her mind ran much more to war than to love. Wherever a party of warriors gathered for a dance or feast, she would be found looking on, listening to their talk. Whenever a party returned from war, she was foremost in hearing of their exploits and praising them. All she thought about was warfare and brave deeds.

As with much oral history, the times and events of Weasel Woman’s emerging exploits are blurred. One evening in her 20th year a large party of Blackfeet started out to cross the Rocky Mountains for a raid in the Flathead country. They traveled all night, and when day broke discovered that Weasel Woman was with them. The war chief bade her go home, but she calmly refused, saying, “If you will not let me go with you, I shall follow behind.”

The medicine man spoke up and said: “I advise you to let her go with us; something tells me that she will bring us good luck.”

“As you advise, so shall it be,” said the chief, and so the woman joined the band of warriors. No man of the party teased her or bothered her in any manner. Each one treated her as he would a sister.

On the edge of Flathead Lake a large camp of Flatheads was discovered with a party of their friends, the Pend d’Oreille. The Blackfeet waited till night and then quietly approached the circle of lodges of the enemy. Then Weasel Woman said to the war chief, “let me go in first to see what I can do. I feel that I shall be successful in there.”

“Go,” the chief told her, “and we will wait for you and be ready to help you if you get into trouble.”

Weasel Woman went into the camp and found where the best horses were tied—the fast runners, the Flatheads’ best racers and their stallions. They were picketed close to the lodges of the various owners. By the faint moonlight she was able to select the best horses and she made her choice carefully. She cut the ropes of three fine pinto horses, and led them quietly out to where the party of Blackfeet awaited. There she tied them and again went into the Flathead camp and again came out with three horses. Then she said: “I have taken enough for this time. I will await you here and take care of what we have.”

Then the warriors made many trips and brought out a number of the best horses of the Flatheads. Striking out for the mountains with them they finally reached the Blackfeet camp in safety without the loss of a single man or horse.
A few days after the party returned the medicine lodge was erected and the warriors, according to custom, gathered and related their exploits on the trip to the Flathead camp. Two or three young men who had performed their first exploits in stealing horses from the enemy were given their new names as warriors, and then an old medicine man called Weasel Woman and had her tell of her own performances in the Flathead camp—of going twice among the enemies’ lodges and taking six horses. All the Blackfeet shouted approval at that, and then the medicine man gave her the name, Pitamakan, or Running Eagle, a very great name. It was the name of a famous chief whose shadow had some time before gone to the Sand Hills, where the Blackfeet believe the spirits of the departed live.

After that Pitamakan did not have to sneak after a war party. She was asked to go, and Pitamakan had her first war experience with Crow warriors who had stolen horses from her village. Upon reaching the Crow camp, she and her cousin were responsible for reclaiming eleven of their horses. While the main party rested under cover on their way back home, Running Eagle kept watch from a nearby butte. She attacked two enemy riders trailing her main party, killed one warrior and took his rifle. Shooting both her rifle and his, she chased away the remaining rider.

After this experience, Running Eagle was directed by the tribal elders to go on a Vision Quest in order to learn her true destiny. During her ceremony, she slept in the cave under a waterfall and received a vision and the power necessary to become a successful warrior in the tribe. She was never questioned again by her people, and was given the respect of one who had received special powers from the Spirit World.

After many successful raids against the Sioux, Crow, and Flatheads, in all of which she distinguished herself as a warrior and showed the most extraordinary bravery, she, herself, was made a war chief and led expeditions on which warriors begged to be allowed to go because they believed that where she was leader, nothing but good luck could come to them. On the warpath she wore men’s costume, but at home dressed like a woman and was very modest and self-effacing. But she gave feasts and dances like the other warriors, as was her privilege, and the greatest chiefs and medicine men came to them and were glad to be there.

Once Pitamakan led a large war party against the Flatheads, and somewhere on the west side of the mountains fell in with a war party of Blood or Kainai Indians, one of the brother tribes of the Blackfeet. For several days the two parties traveled together, and then one evening the Blood chief, Falling Bear, said to Pitamakan’s horse herder: “Go tell your chief woman that I would like to marry her.”

The boy told the Blood chief that he could not give her the message. “She is not that kind,” the boy said. “Men are her brothers—nothing more. She will never marry and she would be angry with me for carrying your offer.”

The next day, as they were traveling quietly along, the Blood chief rode up to Pitamakan and said to her: “I have never loved; but I love now. I love you; my heart is all yours; let us marry.”

“I will not say ‘yes’ to that; nor will I say ‘no,’” the woman chief answered. “I will consider what you ask and give you answer after this raid.”

That very evening the scouts ahead discovered a large camp of Flathead and Kootenai—more than 100 lodges of them, and when night fell both parties drew close to it. Pitamakan then ordered her followers to remain where they were and told the Blood chief to go into camp and take horses, and he went in and returned with one horse.

“It is now my turn,” said Pitamakan, and she went in and brought out two horses. The Blood chief then went in and returned with two horses. Pitamakan went in and brought out four horses. The Blood chief got two the next time and Pitamakan got one more.

Then she said to the Blood chief, “Our men are becoming impatient to go in and take horses. We will each of us go in once more and then let them do what they can. So the Blood chief went in for the fourth and last time and came back leading four horses, making nine in all. And then Pitamakan went in and cut the ropes of eight horses and safely led them out, making in all 15 that she had taken. The warriors then went in and stole all the horses that could be driven easily, and the big double party headed for home.

On the next day the Blood chief approached Pitamakan and said: “I love you so much that I must have your answer.”

Pitamakan said: “I gave you your chance. My answer would have been ‘yes’ had you taken more horses than I did from the enemy’s camp. But I took most; therefore I cannot marry you.”

That was her way of getting around refusing to take the chief as her husband. She had beaten him, an old, experienced warrior, in one of the games of war, and he could not again ask her to marry him. The Blood chief felt very badly, but said no more.

Pitamakan went on to become a mighty warrior. She took part in many raids, and was permitted to tell of her adventures in the medicine lodge ceremonies. She became a member of the Braves Society of young warriors, and successfully led many war parties. It is told by old chiefs of the Blackfeet that Pitamakan was one of the first of the Blackfeet to use a gun in warfare, and she was a fine shot for those times of crude firearms. Three enemies fell before her musket in different fights.

Then, one day, she led a party against the Flatheads near the Sun River, and while she and her men were in the large enemy camp stealing horses, the Flathead cornered them and attacked. Pitamakan was clubbed from behind and killed along with five of her warriors.

So passed Pitamakan, which the French traders used to call the Blackfeet Joan of Arc. The whole tribe mourned her death and the next spring bitter warfare was waged on the Flatheads till more than six of their warriors had fallen in tribute to the brave young woman chief.

The beautiful waterfall between the lakes of the Two Medicine was the place of Pitamakan’s Spirit Quest, and it was named Pitamakan Falls in her honor. For many years Blackfeet children were told around the campfire at night of her exploits in war. It was later renamed Trick Falls in Glacier National Park, and the name Pitamakan or Running Eagle disappeared from white man’s history until the Pikuni storytellers passed on the story of this great Blackfeet woman. Through the efforts of The Apikuni Society (the James Willard Shultz Society) the name Pitamakan Falls was restored in 1977 to this historic and beautiful waterfall.

Today, you can visit fantastic Pitamakan Falls once again and enjoy the area sacred to the Blackfeet People.

[Source: MNA The Columbus News 7 Sep 1936]

More Tales of the Remarkable Rancher Milton E. Milner

2011-01-06T09:24:00.000-07:00

By Ken Robison

Milton E. Milner, who ruled the open range of Montana during the late 19th century, was larger than life. Yet, Milner remains shrouded in mystery. We are only just beginning to understand the scope of his life, his friendships, and his world travels. This Montana cattle baron truly roamed the hills of Montana and the cities and sights of the world. One clue to the great M. E. Milner comes from the writings of Elizabeth Shiell of Pendroy in this article she wrote in 1930, describing Milner’s ranch house in the Sag:

Ruins of Pioneer Ranch Home Remind of Enormous Holdings Once Managed by M. E. Milner. By Elizabeth Shiell. Pendroy, Dec. 11.—Strange and varied tales have been told of ranch life in Montana and among the most unusual is that about the habits and customs of the late M. E. Milner, who lived on a ranch about 17 miles south of Fort Benton in the Sag, the name of the valley through which Shonkin creek flows.

A lover of fine liquors, Mr. Milner kept a well stocked wine cellar. An admirer of ornate architecture, he built a house of many nooks, corners porches to jibe with the trend of the times in quality construction. Rich furnishing testified to his leanings for the extravagant things of the day and stained glass windows revealed his liking for the artistic. Though materials had to be hauled to the ranch by wagon from Fort Benton, Mr. Milner boasted of having perhaps the first bath room on a Chouteau county ranch.

More than that, Mr. Miler was living a life of his own liking in other ways. He was a bachelor. Whether he bore a dislike for women that might have been caused by a misfortune in younger life is not known, but he apparently was proud of the reputation he gained by never allowing a woman to visit his ranch other than possibly the wife of a foreman, who at one time was said to have been his housekeeper. Other than that single reference, his home gave shelter to none but men. A Chinese cook presided over the household most of the time.

The ranch house was built in the late seventies. One’s first impression as he drives over the rim of the hills surrounding the Sag would be that there are two houses, so many are the corners and porches and at so many different elevations is the roof raised. Rough stone fireplaces and ornaments of stone furnish still more angles and projections. Strange as this description may seem for a ranch house, the building has a simplicity of design when compared with other houses of the day that were fashionable on some ranches of wealthy landowners or that were built by wealthy men in towns. One could not guess the style of architecture. Parts of it would remind on of Swiss chalets, but other impressions are of the truly Montana ranch style.

Coming toward the ranch house one drives through green meadows dotted with trees and bushes. A large grove of elms and silver maples not far from the creek hides the house from immediate view from lower planes, and one must follow an unfenced trail along railroad tracks, through a gate and across a field before coming to the big, rambling gray log structure built by Mr. Milner some 50 years ago. His was one of the first cattle ranches in what then was the territory of Montana.

A visit in the house compels one to conduct quite a thorough inspection, so intriguing are the many observations possible in the home of this early day land baron of north central Montana.

All rooms are plastered except the dining room, which is paneled in dark wood, and one other that is unfinished. Many windows are of colored glass. All are screened and there are two screened porches.

Although arrangements of the rooms is inconvenient, the house boasts of such conveniences as built-in cupboards, dressers, chest of drawers, closets and the like. In the kitchen is a sink and a trap door leads to a cellar. There is also a small cellar—perhaps a wine room—under the unfinished room. The latter room probably was Mr. Milner’s den. Until a few years ago he kept a large collection of bottles, now lost or destroyed.

Some of the rooms are small and dark, but there are several large light and extremely pleasant compartments. There are three fireplaces, two of brick, and one of green and white glazed tile—and a bath room, probably the first in Choteau county.

Just as legends have been spoken and written of other subjects of early day life in Montana, so have peculiarities of Mr. Milner become legendary in this section of northern Montana. One hears that he was constantly having the house remodeled. The large unfinished room was being redecorated when he died.

Now the large house is occupied by employes during the haying season and whenever men are working in the vicinity. However, the most pleasant room, the one with the green tile fireplace is furnished for the Shonkin school teacher. Closed doors of the unused portion of the building give a mysterious and gloomy air to the house and most of the outbuildings are hidden from view by dense underbrush and tall weeds. On strolling about the place one is apt to come upon a sunken cellar or the ghostly, cobweb hung door of the smoke house.

Gardens that once were the pride of the ranch people are now overrun with weeds and tall grass and half hidden, are upright water pipes once used for irrigation. Water for the house and grounds was furnished by an artesian well from which a tiny stream still flows. Barns and corrals are used more often than other parts of the grounds and do not have the deserted look, but many trees in the yard are dying, with new ones growing in a way that may eventually reduce the once well-kept grounds to the state it was 60 years ago.

As peculiar as Mr. Milner was in many things, he had an interest in some things that would surprise even his friends. He would build bird houses about the grounds and would transplant bulbs, hollyhocks and other flowers. He would set out ornamental trees and would do many other similar things. Yet he would discharge a man on a moment’s notice, was overbearing and tyrannical and he spent most of his later days away from the gardens he so carefully planned and cultivated, when he developed his ranch from the wilderness of earlier days. [p. 8] [GFTD 12 Dec 1930]

Milton E. Milner Ranch Holdings

2011-01-06T09:17:00.003-07:00

"Milner’s Holdings Described by Hinsdale Writer; Early Day Foreman Still Lives on Ranch. By F. B. Gillette.

Hinsdale, Dec. 17.—A recent Tribune story described in complete detail the big ranch home built by the late Milton E. Milner, a pioneer land and cattle baron, at the Shonkin ranch. The article also refers to the fact that Mr. Milner owned other ranches in the Milk river country, one of these on Square creek near the Missouri river and opposite the mouth of the Musselshell and another in Square coulee on Larb creek near Hinsdale, these being the ranches which served to cause Mr. Milner’s claims to the immense area east of the Little Rockies between the Missouri and Milk rivers to their junction as his range.

The hard winter of 1886-1887 practically put Mr. Milner out of the cattle business but he restocked the following year with Texas cattle and in 1890 W. W. Jaycox, now living on his Truax coulee ranch, was engaged as manager for the Square Cattle company, of which Mr. Milner was sole owner, in the Missouri-Milk river range. He continued in that capacity for 20 years, when Mr. Milner closed out his business because of his advancing years.

Shipped 15,000 Yearly. In the bonanza days of the cattle business in the northwest range states, cattle were “roughed through” the winters, no thought being given development of hay ranches, nor was more native wild hay put up than was necessary to winter a few teams and saddle horses. Several seasons were necessary to “climate” Texas cattle, and severe winters of the northwest made this an expensive process.

Jaycox prevailed upon Milner to accept his own theory that northern Montana was cut out for a maturing range rather than for a breeding country, whereupon Milner purchased young Oregon steers by the trainload for many seasons and shipped them to his Milk river range. Soon Milner was shipping beef cattle by the trainload to the extent of 15,000 a season and his wealth accumulated.

Traveling widely throughout the United States, a familiar figure in many of its great cities, especially Chicago, Mr. Milner had long been a cosmopolitan and raconteur above the average. His European travels and expeditions into spots of historic beauty gave rise to fantastic ideas in decoration of the big house on the Shonkin ranch and upon his return to the ranch from these trips, he frequently imported mechanics and artisans with instructions to decorate and finish certain rooms in certain “periods.” Often the work when completed fell short of his notion as to what it should be, whereupon it was ordered town out and a different plan adopted.

Water was piped to this ranch from an elevated spring at a reported expense of $10,000. Ornate fences and hundreds of miles of barbed wire fences, an abomination to the true range cattlemen, offered another outlet for expenditure of large sums of money.

Small and dapper, Milner nevertheless, was a man of character and was arbitrary and quick to wrath, despite which he retained the loyalty and devotion of his foreman and employes of long standing, to a number of whom he made substantial bequests in his will. To the mother of a cowboy drowned while on duty in his employ, he paid a pension as long as she lived.

Victim of Regulations. Milner usually appeared on the range about the time the beef roundups were due at shipping points but he exercised only nominally the prerogatives of the “owner.” In the chill of late October, a bed tent was used where earlier in the season each cowpuncher rolled out his own bed in camp wherever the notion struck him.

On one beef roundup Milner dropped into camp, in which, by the way, there was a hard and fast rule that there should be no talking, no smoking and no lights after 8 o’clock in the bed tent. This rule was to insure rest for all hands, as each man stood night guard two house on and four hours off. Milner was full of stories of Paris, London, New York and colorful adventures amidst the white lights and protracted his tales interminably after the hour of 8. After the courtesy due a guest had been exhausted, a couple of dog tired cowpunchers, after a whispered pre-arrangement, seized Milner from each side, dragged him unceremoniously from his bed and, throwing him over a bedroll, held him down securely, while others piled out of their own beds to chastise him, whaling him with stiff leather legs of a pair of chaps. In the darkness he could not recognize his assailants, but with sunrise he admitted the justice of his punishment.

On another occasion, between Malta and the Little Rockies, Milner arrived at the beef roundup and an engrossed were the roundup hands in his stories that they deserted their places in the circle in which the cattle were held awaiting cars. On his return to camp from Malta, Jaycox found the roundup spreading towards all points of the compass with no one on guard. Finding Milner in the center of an admiring, circle of cowpunchers the foreman ordered the “owner” back to camp and scattered the men to their posts. Milner wended his way to camp, stretched out behind the bed tent, after telling the cook “that Jaycox had hurt his feelings,” and forgot his injured sensibilities in slumber.

They tell another story about the cook. While moving camp, he met a long string of freight wagons and teamsters on the Zortman trail and imbibed too freely from whisky flasks. He was unable to cook supper and did not revive sufficiently to cook breakfast, the following morning. When ready to move camp again after the meal. Jaycox wrote out his check, rolled him, and his bed to one side of the road and drove off.

Disposed of Ranches. Milner, with the approach of age, finally sold the Square Butte and Shonkin properties about the time the Milwaukee built to the coast, the railway company purchasing real estate for town sites and one ranch for a clubhouse for officials.

The Square coulee ranch on Larb creek was sold to the American Cattle company, the “Milliron,” and later passed into the hands of Tom Garrison of Saco.

The Square creek ranch near the Missouri has passed into the hands of John Etchart of Glasgow and forms an integral part of his immense ranch in the old Carpenter and Gibson area.

Jaycox, a packer in the Crook-Merritt campaigns against the Cheyenne Sioux in the seventies, cowhand and roundup boss between the Platte and Powder rivers about the time of the “Johnson county war,” sheriff at Casper, Who. In days of heroic deeds and a cowman in north Montana for the last 40 years, now lives on the Truax coulee ranch south of Hinsdale. Well up into the seventies, Jaycox is erect, active, keen of intellect, deliberate in speech, bronzed by years of exposure and has kindly gray eyes and a mass of gray hair. In his remarkable memory is a mine of information on happenings and characters in the range country from Cheyenne to the Canadian line for the last 60 years.
[p. 4] [GFTD 18 Dec 1930]

Some Fun with the Giant Spring

2011-01-05T20:41:00.003-07:00

Settlers Were Scarce and Homes Scarcer in Great Falls in the Year 1886. By Martha Edgerton Rolfe Plassmann.

Great Falls is undoubtedly the only city in Montana which originated in a well-matured plan and not from accident. It sprang into being at the behest of one man and its growth was expedited by a loyal corps of fellow workers. They were pitifully few, the pioneers of Great Falls, probably not more than 50 in all. These differed radically on questions of politics & religion; and the relative merits of St. Paul and Minneapolis; but they were a unit so far as the embryo city was concerned, and they labored early and late for its advancement.

The site was ideal—every one admitted that; but it was not more so than that of many other towns in our state. More than scenic attractions were required to build a large city. It was necessary to impress the world at large that this particular spot constituted the natural center of vast resources which sooner or later would be tributary to it.

In a former article, I have told how the paper city was advertised by its devoted adherents, it falling to me to steer the romance. The country at large was not then so thoroughly Babbitized that romance, not restricted to sex, had no place in it.

Celebrates Wedding Anniversary. It was in 1886 the incident I am about to narrate occurred. It is personal in character and only permissible because it was amusing. The young people living here at the time, having learned that the 8th of August was Mr. Rolfe’s and my 10th wedding anniversary, asked us to celebrate the occasion by giving a house party. None had ever been given here, for the very good reason no shack but ours was large enough to entertain even a small company.

We readily consented to this proposal and at once volunteers began to lay a dancing floor and to make other preparations for the coming event, while keeping an eye on the weather, trusting it would be fair. Then it happened. It was announced that the only tinsmith in town, and whose take it was to prepare the appropriate presents was not fully recovered from his late oblations to Bacchus. Would we postpone the party until he sobered up? We certain would, and did.

Nevertheless the day must be celebrated in some manner. We decided to drive to the Great spring, where our rare social gatherings were held. This being before the appearance of automobiles, time was required to get there in a cart drawn by a slow, but perfectly safe horse.

It was about noon we arrived, to find the others were there before us. Charles Webster, then editor of The tribune, and Del Chowen had their lunch laid out, and were nearly ready to fall to when they paused to welcome us to share their meal. This we declined, having come not to picnic but to have another view of the spring.

That summer, Herbert Chowen, we were informed, with his characteristic love of the beautiful, had set out on the island some coleus; castor oil beans and other decorative plants. We stopped momentarily to examine them and then went out to the end of the board walk where the spring discharges its waters into the Missouri.

Find Beer in Spring. Close to the walk I spied a couple of bottles of beer placed there to cool. I picked them up and holding them aloft, called the attention of the young men to the lucky find. At once there were loud cries of “Put them back! Put them back!” in tones that admitted of no argument; so put them back I did. This, remember, was long before prohibition was the law of the land.

This preface, although long drawn out, like those of Bernard Shaw’s was necessary in order to understand the sequel.

Two or three weeks after our visit to the spring, my cousin, Starr Carter, handed me a paper and with a merry twinkle in her eyes, said “Read that!”

I needed no second command to do so. Opening our only paper, The Weekly Tribune, I found a scholarly article on the Giant spring by one of our scientists—Fred Anderson. It opened with a verse from my poem, already published in these columns, and then proceeded to describe the spring; its algae and cress, the native variety found there before the introduction of the familiar kind. He then stated that in his opinion, the spring was the outlet of a subterranean stream, either a branch of Belt creek or of the Missouri. This view to my knowledge had never before been made public. It was a fine article; the best that has ever been written about the spring. I, under ordinary circumstances, would simply have laid it aside for future reference, had my eye not met a sentence I interpreted as a challenge.

The verses on the spring, as I have previously explained, were published anonymously. Fred commented on this, and called attention to the line “Crystal clear its unknown depths are,” and proceeded to prove this an inaccuracy, as with a line and two-foot rule, the depth could easily be ascertained, although the author, he said, evidently id not know this.

Well, it is true, I didn’t. But it furnished inspiration, and I could not leaver it unanswered. Supplied with pencil and plenty of scrap paper, I sought a quiet spot suitable for concentration. This I found, if I am not mistaken, in the back yard at the wood pile, just at sunset when, if ever, one is likely to be in a poetic mood, and evolved the following under the heading as given by the Tribune.

“The Source of the Spring. The latest theory founded upon recent important discoveries. The Tribune’s late scientific article again excites the poetic muse of ‘M.’

A farewell poetic infliction.”

With plummet and line I have sounded the pool,
I’ve measured its depth with a two-foot rule,
And proved, though I long have suspected the fact,
My muse on occasion might not be exact.

Still seeking for knowledge I crossed to the isle
And thence to the platform to dream for a while.
Surrounded by foam-crested wavelets that sung
Of caverns long traversed, and hills whence they spring.

While musing, I tested the excellent greens,
Admired the mint, and the castor oil beans,
The clusters of coleus scattered around.

The riff in the rocks I examined with care
When to my great wonder I chanced to find there
What to men of science may seem very queer,
Side by side snuggly hidden, two bottles of beer.

The inscription they bore showed plainly to me
The source of this underground river to be
Not in the Belt mountains, but much farther east,
At the outermost bounds of Wisconsin at least.

And what to a scientist seems stranger still,
The remarkable river must flow up hill,
For hundreds of miles, to being to us here
These stranded brown bottles of Milwaukee beer.

When completed, the lines were sent to our sole newspaper, where the title “True Source of the Spring naturally attracted the attention of the editor, promising as it did, the presentation in verse of some original idea regarding its origin, or the restatement of Anderson’s article in another form.

The office force of The Tribune was not large in those days, and all of its members gathered around Mr. Webster, to hear him read the contribution aloud.

He had not read far, before he exclaimed with a hearty laugh, “Now I know who wrote ‘The Spring,’ mentioning my name, and then went on with the reading. As it’s conclusion, Fred Anderson, who was standing near, moved by the literalness of the true scientist, and with a worried look on his honest face, questioned “But does she believe it?” [sec. 2, p. 1] [Great Falled Tribune Daily 14 Apr 1929]

The Travelling River Press Correspondent in Territorial Montana

2010-11-17T14:44:00.001-07:00

By Ken Robison

In this era of the internet and day round television news, it is hard to imagine the life and times of correspondents for newspapers 125 years ago. News in those days travelled by word of mouth and in the pages of the local newspaper such as the Fort Benton River Press. No better illustration of this contrast can be found than the activities of Ed C. Garrett, correspondent for The River Press, during an extended trip he made in 1889 to the western end of [then] Choteau County. Garrett’s mission was to sell subscriptions to the Daily and Weekly River Press and to report the latest news and developments in the western perimeter of Montana’s largest county stretching from the eastern front of the Rockies to the Little Rocky Mountains.

Leaving Fort Benton the 19th of October, 1889, in a carriage drawn by the River Press’ spirited horse Bucephalus, Ed Garrett embarked on his trip to the upper Teton and Piegan districts “in search of the golden fleece of subscriptions to the River Press and Stockman [newspaper, also published by The River Press]. Garrett relates his adventure:

“Following in the ancient route of Broadwater’s bull teams for about 8 miles, we (your correspondent and the cayuse), then switched to the right. We soon passed through several prairie dog towns, the inhabitants of which, being asked to subscribe, all disappeared into their holes. This struck us as rather an evil omen, and after ten miles more of nothing but bunch grass, we reached the state of mind of the young lady in the poem:
The melancholy days have come,
The saddest of the year,
When the young maiden’s fancy
Turns to thought of l—g—r b—r.

“At this juncture we overtook a magic lantern man on his way to Choteau and Dupuyer to give exhibitions to the people of those parts. After ascertaining that he had no slides in his box containing Montana election returns as they appeared on the Journal transparency in Helena the night after election we gladly made up with him. We soon learned that he was a genial soul (he will be down to have some posters printed in a few days) and knew the governors of both North and South Carolina. So we compared notes and discussed the government irrigation problem. We found that the cayuse made better time by following directly in the wake of the magic lantern wagon.

“Thus jogging along we soon reached Capt. Nelse’s place [pioneer Nelson Velleaux] on the lower Teton, but the captain with three or four of his neighbors had gone to Benton to make final proof on their lands. This was especially unfortunate as we had intended giving a brief sketch of the captain’s life to the readers of the River Press.

“The hay, potato and berry crops along the Teton are immense, but by reason of the dry season the oat crop is about 2/3 that of last year. Mr. McBriarty has put up 250 tons of hay near the crossing of the Teton, for the winter feeding of his 5,000 sheep. We saw Mrs. Grandchamps going home with a wagon box full of berries. The bushes were literally weighted down with them, and it would be a pleasant and profitable undertaking for those in Benton who like jelly to organize a berrying expedition, providing this Indian summer weather lasts.

“We stopped over night at Trannum’s. Mr. Trannum regaled us with reminiscences of the early days in California, he having gone there in ’50. He is now engaged in cattle raising and ranching and for current news reads the River Press.

“On the Teton between Tannum’s and Choteau, are located the sheep ranches of Wm. Zimmerman, Chas. Bannatyne, Gobbins & Hefferman, and A. B. McDonald, and the home ranches of the North Montana Cattle Co., and the Sands Land & Cattle Co. The stock along the Teton seemed to be in good condition, though we saw but few range cattle, as they are drifting further north.

“On the evening of the second day, in the soft mellow light of the setting sun, we arrived in sight of the town of Choteau and the beautiful valley of the Teton. The valley here expands to a width of three miles and is well settled with thrifty ranchmen and stockmen to the base of the mountains, a distance of twenty-five miles. Still there is room for more. The river is spanned by an iron bridge 110 feet long, built last summer. On reaching Choteau we found the principal topic of discussion to be whether a new steady clock like that on the Benton court house should be put on the belfry of the school house or whether it would be better to buy a real enterprising clock.

“Dr. J. E. Walmsley, acting coroner, with a jury composed of A. E. Paisley, James Brown, Chas. Depage, Wm. Hagan, Chas. Drift and James Hanay returned to Choteau Tuesday evening from Pen d’Oreille coulee where they held an inquest on the body of a dead man found by the round-up last week. The place is about 55 miles from Choteau and on the road leading from the main Fort Conrad and Benton road to John Zimmerman’s place. The jury’s verdict was “Death from unknown causes.” There were no marks of violence. The man’s name is supposed to be Fred Bergman, as a check on the First National Bank of Fort Benton for $157.60 dated August 13, payable to Fred Bergman or bearer, signed by A. B. McDonald, was found in his pocket. It is thought he got lost in the smoky weather several weeks ago and perished from exhaustion. A cloth overcoat fur lined, a pair of blankets and some tobacco were found a half a mile from the body. The man had on dark grey trousers, a sack coat and vest of dark blue cloth, considerably worn. The body was buried where found. The man is not known at Choteau. [Signed] Pilgrim.”

From Choteau, Ed Garrett moved on to Piegan and the Blackfoot Agency with stops enroute at Bynum, Dupuyer, and Robarre. As he has done throughout his trip, Garrett reports on the people, economy, range conditions, and events with an emphasis on what is new on the ranches and in the towns. Garrett’s narrative continues:

“The first stopping place on the road from Choteau to Piegan is Bynum, 14 miles out, on Muddy creek, a stream which sets a good example to some people we know by occasionally drying up. Geo. A. Fry keeps a general store here and carries a good stock. A. L. Collins is landlord of the hotel. Grant Graves is presiding genius of the “Shepherd’s Joy,” a resort for the children of Pan from twenty miles around. Here they meet to discuss social and philosophical problems. The herders generally believe in a future state of sheep ranching where herding, dipping and shearing will be unnecessary.

“The sheep ranches of O. G. Cooper & Martin, S. F. Ralston, Jr., Bynum Bros., C. W. Cooper, A. J. Cowell and Clark Bros. are located in this vicinity. The Clark ranch is doubtless the model sheep ranch of Montana. Beginning in July, 1884, with 2,600 ewes and 700 lambs and buying 1,000 ewes the next year, after selling 3,600 wethers and killing mutton for ranch use, the firm has now 20,000 sheep, of which 10,000 are breeding ewes. Their wool clip this year was 97,000 pounds and the increase 6,751 lambs. In five different bunches the percentage of increase—marked—and all strong, healthy lambs was as follows: 95, 97, 101, 103, 106. The 05 per cent was in the band of yearling ewes. This is considered unprecedented in western sheep farming, and the result was only obtained by the closest care and attention. During the lambing season canvas tents are distributed over the range for the protection of the lambs, and at night a herder is always on duty. The latter has been found a most profitable expense. The firm has just had shipped 100 thoroughbred Shropshire, Leicester and Oxford Down bucks which will be bred with the finest Merino ewes to increase length of staple and size of sheep. All ewe bunches have been graded and bucks are put in accordingly to produce a uniform clip. The sheep are divided into eight bands and are all carefully and systematically attended to; are treated to salt once a week in winter and in summer to salt and sulphur. All improvements are of the most substantial character and all the ranch work is done with the utmost system. Eight sheds 60x170 feet, well ventilated with a capacity of 4,000 sheep each—although not over 3,000 are usually driven in—are located on the different streams. At the home ranch, besides dwelling house and sheds, are carpenter and blacksmith shops, machinery hall, bunk houses, store houses, granary and stables. The firm raise their own grain and have 1,500 tons of hay in stack on the ranch. There is nine miles of ditching and fifteen miles of fencing. A pile driver contrivance—the invention of Mr. B. Percy Clark—is used to drive fence posts. It is fixed to the hind end of a wagon and, besides the team to pull the wagon, requires three men and a horse to work it. It will set 200 post firmly in ordinary ground in a day.

“A telephone line twenty-one miles long, with seven stations connects the home ranch with outlying ranches. This will prove a great convenience, and during winter storm and blizzards the owners will be saved many anxious moments and hard rides.

“C. W. Cooper has built a new shed on his ranch and will run two bands of sheep this winter.

“Twenty miles north of Bynum is the town of Dupuyer, the center of a large extent of pastoral country. In this neighborhood on Dry Fork, Dupuyer, Sheep and Birch creeks over 50,000 sheep grazed during the summer.

“J. F. Burd has a cash store here and is building up a good trade.

“B. R. Fowler is the village blacksmith, A. Grillenberger furnishes three meals a day, nice and hot, and Geo. McGill dispenses Kentucky elixir to a thirsty public. Dr. H. A. Gillette heals the sick.

“In the vicinity are the sheep ranches of S. C. Burd, Wm. Smiley, E. E. Leech, C. R. Scoffin, L. T. Hagere, Davis & Jones, McCuaig & Gearing, Gensman & Jones and John Zimmerman. All these parties have good sheds and other improvements and plenty of hay.

“The best improvement, however, that was noticed was the large number of young sheep men who have changed their lonely state of two or three years ago by taking a wife. Does not the cabin look brighter, boys, and the grub taste better? We don’t see how those old fogies up the creek can get along any more. If they can’t catch on why don’t they try the River Press commission agency?

“ The magic lantern man gave an exhibition at Dupuyer. The boys had filled his coal oil lamp half full of water, but the practical joke was not a howling success. Several northern whiskey smugglers were among the audience and when “Washington praying at Valley Forge” appeared one of them asked: ‘Is that a British subject?’ the next subject happened to be the execution of Andre and some one called out ‘there’s your British subject.’ As there were a number of pole haulers present the manager did not think it safe to show ‘Kiel killing Capt. Scott at Fort Gray.’

“We met Mr. S. L. Potter, deputy sheep inspector, here. Sam knows an acarus scabiei when he sees it.

“The mines of Dupuyer and Birch creek coal companies, eighteen miles from here, produce a very good quality of coal, a considerable quantity of which is sold at Fort Benton and Choteau.

“Robarre is the jumping off place at the crossing of Birch creek, eight miles north of Dupuyer. Kipp & Co. have a store and hotel conducted by Geo. Edwards. Thomas & Magee are the proprietors of the saloon. Birch creek is the dividing line between civilization and the Indian reservation and he who crosses here leaves Hostetter’s bitters behind. On the reservation side near here are the ranches of John Wren and James Fisher, formerly of Choteau. They have an excellent location for either sheep or cattle.

“Charley Chouquette, an old timer well known in Fort Benton, also resides on the reservation. At the time the Dearborn county scheme the new county should be named ‘Choquette’ or ‘Dearborn,’ but as the bill didn’t pass Mr. Choquette doesn’t worry.

“On this side of the creek Frank D. Cooper has lately purchased several ranches and is making extensive improvements in the way of sheds, corrals and fencing. In connection with Robert C. Cramer he will run a large band of sheep here this winter. By the way it is also rumored that Bob also has aspirations for a better life and will soon lead to the altar an accomplished young lady of Bynum.

“T. E. Williamson, of Choteau, and Walter Adams, also have sheep ranches on Birch creek.

“We met here Baron Max Grutthus, of Russia, on his way to St. Mary’s lake with Guide Schultz, for a five weeks hunt. The baron is an exile for five years on account of a few hasty words spoken at a students’ meeting. Who wouldn’t be an exile to Montana. Under the lamb-like climatic influences he would soon forget like the lotus eaters, that there is any other county in existence.

“Near the mountains between Teton and Birch creeks on the numerous streams are located many settlers with small herds of cattle and horses; and it is a pleasant surprise after a lone ride of 25 or 30 miles over the prairie to come to one of the cabin homes, rough looking, perhaps, on the exterior, but within full of grace, comfort and hospitality. The refining influence of woman has come up the coulees and is going over into the utter mountains. Spruce up, boys, and look pleasant.

“On upper Sheep creek we found Chas D. Labreche and family, who had just arrived from the Dearborn. They are living in tents for the present, but as Mr. Labreche has ten children he will soon, with their assistance, have a good big log house knocked up. He has a herd of 300 head of cattle grazing here and has good feed and shelter. He has also started a store.

“The settlers along the mountains are very desirous of getting a weekly mail service from Choteau by Clark’s ranch as they have to go from ten to twenty miles for their mail at present. A school is also needed.

“We met here Daniel Boone, a descendant of the original Daniel Boone, and like him, a thorough hunter, trapper and frontiersman. Mr. Boone has lived in the mountains of Montana for twenty years. He is expert in making buckskin gloves, tanning the skins himself.

“On the upper Dry Fork of the Marias we were hospitably entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Buskirk.

“During our twelve years sojourn in Montana we have eaten no bread as good as that baked from Montana flour by Mrs. J. L. Collins of the upper Muddy.

“The settlers of three townships along the mountains are very anxious to have their lands surveyed and the plats placed on record in the land office so they can make their filings. Some of them have lived on their squatter pre-emption claims over five years, and by reason of the land not being surveyed they could not prove up and take homestead claims which they had in view. Two of these townships were surveyed in 1886, but through some error the survey was not approved. It would be a great relief to the settlers and of great benefit to the government if the surveyor general could survey these lands immediately, as many entries would be perfected at once. If, however, they are left unsurveyed for a year or two longer contests and litigation are sure to arise among the settlers.

“There is only one thing your correspondent regrets so far on his journey. We took on a travelling companion at Dupuyer who wagered that he would get a cash subscription for the River Press if we would represent ourselves at the next house as the new chaplain en route to the Blackfoot agency. This was an opportunity not to be lost, so we made the bet. On arriving we were duly introduced to the lady of the house, who certainly demonstrated that she had had some religious training, for after a few moments conversation she went into the yard and wrung the necks of several chickens. We heard her say in the kitchen, ‘Mary hurry up dinner ther’s a preacher here!’ At dinner came the ordeal of saying grace. We especially prayed for the sheepmen, and managed fairly well. After dinner the conversation ran to Indian and foreign missions, hardshell and softshell Baptists foreordination, etc. It was torture, and as soon as we decently could we folded our tents and stole away. The hear-earned subscription is enclosed. [Signed] Pilgrim.”

Arriving at the Blackfoot Agency, Garrett continued his travelogue, emphasizing: “The Indians Becoming Civilized—School Facilities—The Indian Police—A Mild Winter Predicted—Rich quartz Discoveries, Etc. [Editor’s Note: Remember the terms in this report, written in the 19th century, may not be politically correct in 2010]

“Piegan, or Blackfoot agency, lies in the northwestern part of Choteau county, 125 miles from Benton on the right bank of Badger creek. The present agent is Major J. B. Catlin of Missoula, under whose management affairs are in a flourishing condition. W. J. Livingston is chief clerk, and J. P. Wagner is issue clerk.

“The reservation contains 1,760,000 acres. It is one of the best portions of Montana. The Indians, Blackfeet, Bloods and Piegans, belonging to the agency number about 2,000. Many of them live in comfortable log houses while others prefer the aboriginal tepee. A few farm on a small scale, but no general agricultural fever will ever break out among them. They have put up about 200 tons of hay for the winter use of their stock. P. Catlin, Henry Kennerly and Chas. Aubrey instruct the Indians in farming.

“For a period of ten years from 1888 the annual appropriation for the benefit of these Indians is $150,000. This money is to be used in the purchase of supplies, wagons, farming implements, horses and cattle and in building and maintaining schools and other institutions for their education and civilization.

“Two hundred brood mares and ten stallions were brought here last summer, also a large number of wagons and farming implements. Thirty Indians with as many wagons are now engaged in freighting supplies from Benton, for which they receive $1.25 per cwt. in cash. For other labor done for the government they receive $1 to $1.50 per day in tickets exchangeable for supplies from the government stores. Chief White Calf and other big and little Indians bask in contentment on a weekly ration of four pounds of beef and five pounds of flour, which is paid every Saturday. The sick and infirm receive an extra issue every Wednesday. About twenty good Montana beef steers are killed weekly to provide the sinews of peace. One thing, however, White Calf does not like; that is the presence at the agency of the colored troops, where a few occasionally come as escort to some officer or other military duty. The old chief thus draws the color line; “I don’t want them here. Let them go back to the place where they grew and turned black. My people are dark enough for me and I want to see them turn whiter.” He is afraid the color is catching.

“The agency boarding school is in charge of A. B. Coe principal, with the following assistants: Miss Cora M. Ross, teacher; Miss Isabella Clark, matron; Mrs. Belle Coe cook; Miss Kitty Kennedy, laundress; Miss Mary E. Pelky, seamstress. The attendance now is 21 boys and 12 girls, besides 15 day scholars. The children are bright and learn readily. Besides their studies the boys milk 15 cows and cultivate a garden the proceeds of which, beyond the consumption of the school, are devoted to buying extras from the government supplies. The girls are taught to work and sew. The accommodations for the pupils are rather limited, but the government will soon let a contract for the building of a large two story brick school house.

“The Catholics have also in course of construction a large frame building on Two Medicine creek, four miles from the agency, for which Miss Drexel, of Philadelphia, donated the funds--$17,000. This school will be known as the Piegan Indian Mission. It will be for full blood Indian children only, and the intention is to make it an industrial school like that at Carlisle, Pa. N. Monshausen is the architect, Joe Kipp contractor, I. A. Skinner, of Helena, has charge of the carpenter work and James Manix, of Sun River has charge of masonry and plastering. The main building is two stories high, 30x120 feet; wall of 6 inch studding and double boarded, filled in with concrete and lath and plastered. A main wall through the center divides the boys department from that of the girls. In each department on first floor are two school rooms, two play rooms and a parlor. The upstairs consists of dormitories, a chapel and nuns’ work room. A one story wing 30x115 feet is for kitchen, dining room and boys and girls infirmaries. Provision is also made for a bakery, laundry and wash rooms. The building will probably be completed by January first next. The workshops and priest’s residence will be built next year. A chapel 26x50 feet has already been built. With these two school houses completed the educational facilities will certainly be ample.

“The uniformed Indian police are quite a feature of the agency. They are twenty-four in number and are selected from the best men in the tribe. They are very prompt in enforcing the reservation laws and arresting their offending brethren. Chiefs White Calf, Big Nose and Tearing Lodge constitute a police tribunal to try misdemeanors committed on the reservation. Thirty days on the wood pile is generally the fate of the Indian caught drunk or with liquor in his possession. The guard house was empty on the day of our arrival, but we were informed that seven or eight bucks were sometimes in confinement. Despite all precautions some of the Indians manage to get hold of the fiery fluid occasionally. The liquor when taken from them is spilt by one of the policemen ceremoniously breaking the bottle on the agency flag staff al a crusader. It is said that a poor old squaw going by the flag staff shortly after one of these ceremonies picked up one of the glass fragments and sorrowfully licked it, thinking no doubt the while of Ingersoll’s rhapsody on sending a barrel of 18-year old to his friend.

“The Indians expect a mild winter. In this view they are sustained by several white men whom your correspondent met. Hugh Monroe, an old timer 105 years of age—of whom I may have occasion to write again—says that before a hard winter his rheumatism troubles him greatly; he has no twinges to speak of this year. Old man Ellis has observed that a hard winter follows a heavy equinoctial storm and vice versa. B. D. Labreche, of upper Sheep creek has noticed that the hair of cattle and horses, by a kindly provision of nature, is generally very long and wavy before a hard winter. It was so in 1880. This year the hair is short. Chad. Cartwright says that the bark of his dog is not any thicker than usual on the north side this fall. This is an infallible sign.

“Piegan is the home of Joe Kipp, the noted scout and guide. He has a general merchandise store here and has a good trade. R. L. McGonigal is in charge of the store.

“John Eldridge conducts the hotel. He has a good run of custom and provides the best beef steak in all Montana.

“The agency has no physician at present. The Indians look wise and say since the last doctor left nobody has died; but then they are prejudiced against white medicine men. Lately some rich quartz has been found in the main range of the Rockies directly west of here and in the opinion of old timers there will be several good mining camps before long. Of course prospecting and mining are forbidden on the reservation but the prospector and miner “get there just the same.”

“Coal is used at the agency from a vein on Two Medicine creek. [Signed] Pilgrim “

Garrett wrapped up his trip, returning to Fort Benton on November 13th. The trip home was an adventure in itself. Coming down the Teton on the afternoon of the 12th, Garrett was caught in a driving snowstorm. He was looking for the Hefferman Sheep Ranch, but missed the road that led to it. Luckily he met Mr. Hefferman on the road from Benton. Hefferman took the lead to drive to his ranch but in the blinding snowstorm got off the track himself. They finally ran across Hefferman’s herder and found their way to the ranch. After spending the night at the ranch, Garrett drove the 36 miles to Fort Benton the next morning. After resting a few days, Ed Garrett, the roving correspondent for The River Press, departed for another extended trip through the eastern side of Choteau County—but that is another story.
[Sources: FBRPW 30 Oct, 6 Nov, 20 Nov 1889]

A Woman’s Perspective of Life on the Frontier: The Fort Benton Years of Martha Edgerton Rolfe--Part III An Adventure Down the Missouri River.

2010-11-08T13:08:00.001-07:00

By Ken Robison

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

Mrs. Martha Edgerton Rolfe, daughter of Montana’s first territorial Governor Sidney Edgerton and wife of adventurous Herbert Percy or H. P. Rolfe, left a remarkable account about life in Fort Benton in its transition years from lawless frontier town of the early 1870s to more peaceful transportation hub at the head of navigation on the Missouri River by the end of that decade. In Part I, published in the October 1, 2008, River Press, Martha Rolfe or Mattie, as her family called her, wrote about the hazardous winter trip the Rolfes made by stage from Helena to Fort Benton arriving in December 1879.

In Part II, published in the October 14, 2009, River Press, Mattie talked about her early years in frontier Fort Benton during 1880, the social scene, the military post, the passing of the Blackfeet through town after their last trip to the Judith, and the many activities of her husband Herbert P. Rolfe.

This Part III continues Martha Edgerton Rolfe’s story in 1881 as she embarks on an adventure on the steamboat Far West going down the Missouri River to visit her family in Ohio. Martha wrote [with my additions in brackets]:

After five years in Montana, I decided to spend the summer of 1881 at the home of my parents in Akron, Ohio, taking with me my two little girls, the oldest not quite four [Mary Pauline, age three and a half; and Harriet Louise, age one and a half]. Had my home been elsewhere than at Fort Benton, in order to reach the railroad, a long stage journey, with its attendant discomforts, would have been necessary.

Navigation of the upper Missouri had not then been abandoned and every season saw many steamboats tied to the levee at Fort Benton, where, in fur trading days, mackinaws and keel boats came and went, fetching supplies and bearing to St. Louis their loads of furs and dried buffalo tongues, that much prized delicacy.

Only during the brief period of high water could steamboats ascend so far. For this reason there were many applications for passage down river on the first boat that should arrive and which one that would be was always problematical. In 1881 the Far West, the most famous boat on the river, led the rest of the fleet and on it I obtained passage to Bismarck, hoping by doing so to prolong my visit east by a few days.

During the tragic year of 1876, this boat did valiant service for the government. Commandeered by General [Philip H.] Sheridan, it left Yankton about the middle of May to carry government supplies to Fort [Abraham] Lincoln, which it reached May 27th, with Captain [Grant] Marsh as both Captain and pilot, although Dave Campbell also acted in the latter capacity.

At Fort Lincoln, Mrs. Custer and other army ladies came on the boat,
took tea, and Mrs. Custer asked to be a passenger up the Yellowstone, where Captain Marsh was next ordered. Fearful of what his duties there might be, Captain Marsh would not consent, giving some plausible excuse. It was fortunate, considering what took place later. Taking on officers and soldiers, together with supplies for the cavalry, he steamed up the Yellowstone. General [Alfred H.] Terry ordered him to the mouth of Powder river, which he reached the first week in June [1876]. He then went to Tongue river.

Throughout that season, the Far West made a number of trips up and down the two rivers, serving as a dispatch boat, ferry, transport, gunboat, patrol boat and finally to become a hospital boat. After the battle of the Little Big Horn, it was ordered to the mouth of that river. For 53 miles it ascended the Yellowstone, cautiously nosing its way between the many islands and passing beyond the Little Big Horn under command of Colonel Baker and contrary to the judgment of Captain Marsh.

Returning to the mouth of the Little Big Horn, preparations were made for the reception of the wounded. Soft grass was laid on the lower deck and covered with canvas. This hastily improvised bed must have seemed luxurious to those who had been jolted over the long road from the battlefield and on it the wounded were transported down the Missouri [an amazing feat covering 700 miles in just 54 hours to Fort Abraham Lincoln].

Of all this history I was woefully ignorant at the time I engaged a cabin on the gallant little boat and for many years afterward. It was because of her being of light draft and easy management that Captain [Grant] Marsh chose her instead of the Josephine for that summer’s arduous work. There were accommodations for but few passengers and, unlike most river steamboats there as no ‘Texas’ on the upper deck.

Hardly was I full established on board and ready for the journey when the mule drawn ambulance from Fort Assinniboine drew up at the levee to discharge officers and their families, who had also engaged passage on the Far West. Among those were Colonel [Lt. Col. William H.] Brown, 18th Infantry Regiment and commander of the post, and his wife and son; Captain Cass Durham and family, and Major [William] Arthur, brother of President [Chester] Arthur, who was then paymaster. [Lt. Col. Brown recently promoted and relieve from duty at Fort Assinniboine, was proceeding with his family to his regiment in Texas.] Those, like myself, chose to journey on the first boat down the river to prolong their stay in the east.

But which would be the first boat? The Far West apparently had no further reason for postponing her departure, yet she lingered in an unaccountable manner.

Presently the Helena arrived, drew up alongside of the Far West, landed her freight and took on passengers while we watched, wondering why our boat was tarrying. The others wondered; I simply though the captain knew his business.

I overheard one of the army contingent inquire, ‘I wonder if we are to take one of those Indians?’ ‘What Indian?’ said I. ‘Why Sitting Bull’s band that is to be sent to Standing Rock agency. Had you not heard?’ When this conversation took place we were out of sight of Fort Benton, well on our way down the river, with the Helena a close companion by day and when we tied up to the shore at night. The army folk worried. I heard them talking about the situation. By special favor due to my army connections, I was admitted into their circle. [Martha’s brother Wright Edgerton was an Army Colonel.] Evidence of my singular good fortune appeared at the table, where my seat was next to a captain’s wife.

At that time the government gave large contracts to the river craft for carrying supplies to posts along the way and for those further inland in the Dakotas and Montana, where railroads had not yet penetrated. It naturally followed that the army received first consideration from those in command of the boats and there were rules of etiquette, as on ocean steamers, regarding the precedence to be accorded passengers, with army officers always given first place.

The trip would have been delightful but for the growing fear that our boat was to be one of those to take the Indians to Standing Rock. The weather favored us and the season was not far enough advanced for mosquitoes and buffalo gnats to be troublesome. From early morning until late at night we sped down the river, tying up at the bank generally at a woodyard, when it became unsafe to travel because of the difficulty of determining the channel and danger of sand bars and snags.

In the deepening twilight, the passengers sat on deck idly watching while the roustabouts went and came over the plank extending to the shore, fetching in wood or going for more, their work hastened by the reiterated commands of the mate watching them from the deck.

Now and then during the day a visit was made by an occasional passenger to the lofty pilot house from which a magnificent view could be obtained of the country for a long distance east and west, cleft by the sparkling Missouri. One could converse with the pilot, but his replies were given with his eyes straight ahead, noting every peculiarity in the treacherous current.

We passed the mouths of the Judith, Musselshell and Milk rivers, streams still bearing names given them by Lewis and Clark. In all that long distance where twenty years earlier herds of buffaloes crossing the river often impeded the progress of the boats, now but one was seen.
This, an ancient bull, wandered to the sheltering willows close to the water and became the target for every gun on board. When killed, the boat drew alongside, where, with the aid of a donkey engine, the crew hauled it aboard, to the consternation of at least one of the army ladies, who anxiously inquired, ‘Do you think they are going to feed us on that?’

The sight of it certainly was not appetizing. For days afterward, whenever meat appeared at the table, the woman referred to would ask the waiters, who well understood her squeamishness, ‘What kind of meat is that?’ With a broad grin, displayed a faultless set of teeth, the reply was always the same ‘Buffalo steak, ma’am.’ That woman became a vegetarian for the rest of the journey.

One afternoon, when several of the civilian women, myself among the number, were seated at the front of the boat, we caught sight of a large river on our right that stretched like a shining ribbon through the brown plains. What made the scene more impressive was that down it a steamboat was hurrying, omitting a long trail of smoke that shone white under the intense rays of the sun.

An army woman stood behind me, her hand on my shoulder as she exclaimed, ‘See there! See that boat! It is coming to join us. That makes it sure we are to take those Indians.’ Then her thoughts and speech took another direction. ‘I wonder if there are any nice people on that boat,’ she reflectively remarked; and then, lest she be misunderstood added, ‘any army people.’

This was too much for the civilians, one of whom retorted, ‘Mrs. ____ I wish you distinctly to understand that all the nice people are not confined to the army.’

Her prophecy regarding the Indians proved correct, as we learned a little later at Fort Buford, when the three boats, the Helena, Far West and the new arrival from the Yellowstone, whose name I have forgotten drew up side by side at the landing place. [This steamer was the General Terry.]

Shortly afterward officers of the fort came down to call on their brother officers on our boat. What they had to say did not tend to calm the fears of the already alarmed army people. That the rest of us feared less may be attributed to our ignorance.

Every effort was made to have the officers’ wives and children remain over until the next boat and stay at the fort, but the rest of us had no such invitation. Whether there were not sufficient accommodations for all of the women and children at the fort or it was thought civilians would be in less danger, I cannot say. However, after thoroughly debating the question, our officers decided to run the risk of a possible uprising of the Indians, rather than lose a few days in the east.

That night the Sioux held a dance and had a dog feast. Many of our passengers attended, and were treated in a friendly manner by the Indians. The squaws especially admired a little white girl, with long golden curls. They stroked her hair, as they smilingly uttered exclamations of delight. At least, so her mother interpreted the ejaculations given in a language she did not understand.

Next morning the exodus began. From the fort came wagons loaded with provisions for the exiles. Of what these consisted, I do not know, aside from hundreds of loaves of bread. As the teamsters bent to their task of unloading, the strong wind blowing pelted them with sand and distended their shirts until they looked like animated balloons.

Meanwhile the Indians were going down to the boats. Men, women and children, dressed in their best, crossed the landing planks to the lower deck and were stowed away like so many sardines.

A few of the chiefs were assigned to the upper deck, in deference to their prominence in the tribe. They ate and slept there. Which ones of these notables the Far West carried, I did not then have the curiosity to learn.

From the shelter of our deck, I watched them come on board. It was a sight never to be forgotten. Steadily the throng moved onward, with no disturbance in its ranks. A chance and uninformed observer might have thought they were excursionists; not a people banished from their country for which they had fought so desperately to repel the white invaders. It is now admitted they defeated Custer, retreating only when their ammunition was exhausted.

On this day of their enforced departure, the warriors, although unarmed and wearing neither war paint nor war bonnets, walked to the landing place with the bearing of conquerors. Several of them carried long pipes, the stems set with knife blades, five or six in number, and ranging in length from two to four inches. It struck me that the pipes might prove to be formidable weapons in the hands of determined men, who, from sheer force of numbers, might easily overpower the 13 soldiers assigned as drivers in each boat. It is not surprising that our army folk were apprehensive. How the 39 soldiers felt, no one ever knew.

The march to the boats was by no means a colorless affair. Blankets of every color the agencies provided for both men and women. Shirts and tunics of buckskin were adorned with bead embroidery and fringe. Here and there a woman could be seen, wearing a cape reaching below her waist, that would be worth $1,000. These capes were made of alternating rows of inch-wide dark blue cloth, its edges pinked and trimmed with the long white teeth of elk that glistened like pearls under the sun’s rays.

A few of the men had hats with a feather stuck in the side but the heads of most of them were uncovered, unless by a blanket to protect them from the stiff breeze that blew from the southwest, a summertime chinook.

While the Indians were going on board, we, who watched them from the boat, saw no soldiers. Those detailed for our protection were doubtless already there to receive their charges. The entire embarkation was conducted in an orderly manner until the last Sioux joined us. The cables were loosened and the three boats carrying Sitting Bull’s band began their journey down stream. I have heard different estimates of their number, ranging from 1,000 to 1,300. Whatever it might have been, there were enough to alarm the white passengers especially for the next 24 hours.

When we were nearing Fort Berthold, I went to the upper deck, where there were a half dozen young warriors. It was sunset, with the sky straight ahead of us glowing pink from the edge of the horizon line to the zenith. It looked as though we were steaming straight into it, following the course of the shining river.

At the front of the deck, facing down stream, the Indians stood, splendid figures of young manhood outlined against the sunset background. They were singing, apparently ignorant that they had a white audience, as they never glanced in our direction.

As they sang one and then another swung part way around, pivoting on his heels. This was not the first time I had heard Indians sing but never before did I recognize any melody. This was my introduction to Indian music, and this was music although extremely primitive.

As the braves sang, shrill boys’ voices from the lower deck took up the strain, not always in the same key. Some one who professed to know said they were singing a war song, as they were approaching an enemy’s country. It may have been a call to battle or a lament. It was all one to us who were ignorant of the Sioux language.

With the growing darkness, the song ceased. Reaching Fort Berthold, the three boats tied up side by side, although the captains had been importuned not to do so. Nor was this the worst. Planks were placed from boat to boat, over which the Indians could pass freely.

Our passengers were thoroughly frightened at the situation and the army officers, the worst. We gathered in the cabin to discuss the matter. Should we sit up all night? Everything tended to increase, rather than allay, our fears. In sheer desperation, I decided to go to my stateroom, where my children lay sleeping, unconscious of danger.

The door of my room [opened] on the deck and not on a passage. I attempted to lock it, only to find this could not be done. The lock was out of commission. All I could do under the circumstances was to barricade it by putting the washstand against it. This accomplished, I went to bed and to sleep, never awakening until morning.

As morning broke, an Indian child, in attempting to cross from one boat to another, fell into the water. Immediately a chief’s daughter plunged to its rescue. Child and maiden were drawn by the current underneath the boats and drowned. Immediately the Indians raised the death wail. This meant but one thing to the white passengers who heard it--their time had come; as they would be ruthlessly murdered. And I slept calmly through this by the side of my children, my dreams undisturbed by the commotion.

That day and the succeeding one found us reconciled to the inevitable and we came to regard the presence of the Indians as a show for our exclusive benefit. At the front of our deck, we sat hour after hour, watching what was going on below, and that was plenty. One man from Philadelphia solemnly remarked, ‘If I told the folks at home what I have seen today, they would not believe me.’ And this I could readily understand.

Unconcerned by our inspection, the Indians acted as if in their own tepees. They laughed and chattered, worked at bead embroidery, made love and ate and slept, even to the examination of one another’s heads for vermin that constituted a delicate morsel for the head of a family, but sent our fastidious army lady hastily to her stateroom ejaculating, ‘That is more than I can stand.’

As for myself, this was not my introduction to the ways of the Sioux. [That] took place 18 years earlier at Fort Laramie, when, in the summer of 1863, they gathered there to receive their annuity, and I, a girl of 13 years, with my family, had reached that point on our journey across the plains. Later we received visits from wandering members of the tribe and while passing one of their villages we were threatened with scalping if the requisite amount of ‘shug’ and ‘hog meat’ were not forthcoming. Fortunately, being in the neighborhood of a large train, we retained the provisions, and also our scalps. From this it will be readily understood that the Indian customs so shocking to others, were to me an old story.

After leaving Fort Berthold, none of us though it necessary to sit up nights awaiting an attack from the exiles, and the days, until our arrival at Bismarck, were spent in the manner I have stated.

Although we were assured soldiers were on the boat, we never saw them. Our apparent lack of anxiety arose from the realization of our condition. After leaving Fort Berthold there remained no other alternative than to accept whatever happened between there and Bismarck, where most of us took the train for our respective destinations.

All sorts of rumors were afloat about what happened later on the boat, none of which could be verified. One was that the Indians became so unruly our captain concluded it would be safer to go to Standing Rock by rail, turning over command of the Far West to his next in rank. This is not credible in view of their apparent contentment and willingness to abide by the terms of their surrender.

The rail journey was exceedingly tiresome. Father and mother met me in Cleveland. It was a great relief to me to have their assistance in the care of the children, as I was utterly exhausted. My delight at seeing them once more, was tempered on noting that they had aged and mother, especially, was not very strong.

[Sources: Memories of a Long Life by Martha Edgerton Rolfe Plassmann; Passengers on “Far West” Afforded Thrilling Experience When Sioux Tribe Is Transferred. Famous Missouri River Boar that Played So Important Part in Battle of the Little Big Horn Carries Sitting Bull’s Warriors from Ft. Buford to Standing Rock, Their Place of Banishment. By Martha Edgerton Plassmann, Montana Newspaper Association Big Timber Pioneer 7 Jul 1924; The “Far West,” Famous Missouri River Steamer--the Part it Played in Tragic Expedition Against the Sioux Indians. By Martha Edgerton Plassmann, Montana Newspaper Association, Sanders County Signal 30 Jun 1924.]

Photos:

(1) Legendary steamboat Far West.
(2) Captain Grant March, the greatest riverboat commander and pilot.
(3) Mrs. Martha Edgerton Rolfe

Move Over Shep . . . Check out the Dog-Tramp "Bum"

2010-11-05T12:57:00.002-06:00

The Dog Tramp. “Bum,” the Traveling Tourist Registered at the Manitoba Hotel in Great Falls.

We have read many stories of the sagacity of dogs, cats and other animals, but never until yesterday were we ever brought into personal surveillance of such a freak.

A great many of our townspeople have, no doubt, heard more or less of the railroad dog, “Bum” and may be somewhat interested to know that the traveling tourist and railroad pet is in our midst.

The curious feature of this dog is that he is strongly attached to railroad men and has a perfect abhorrence for any other person. He knows a railroad man when and wherever he meets him from the humblest section man to the great magnate, Jim Hill.

He has traveled from coast to coast and is especially partial towards the Manitoba and Northern Pacific, as on these roads he makes his home.

Bum goes to a place, where he always selects a railroad house and from his intimate acquaintance with railroaders gets the best of treatment, staying until he seems to become tired of laying around and the first thing you know the gentleman of leisure is at the depot taking the first outbound passenger to scenes more enchanting.

He came to Great Falls a few days ago and is now at the Manitoba house where he makes himself perfectly at home.

There is something very remarkable about such doings among dumb animals that almost leads one to think they have calculating and reasoning powers. Be that as it may one thing is certain and that is, that “Bum” is a professional tramp and that he lives on the fat of the land.

It is expected that he may go east any day, as he has made about the usual stay in Great Falls.

The dog-tramp, “Bum” took the afternoon passenger for the east yesterday [December 23, 1889]. He just came from St. Paul over the N. P. [Source: GFLD 22 Dec 1889]

Great Falls, Montana's All-American City

2010-09-26T17:48:00.003-06:00

Time for a little update for Fort Benton's suburb, Great Falls. My article is just out in the new issue of Destination Great Falls. Ben Chovenak does a fine job as editor and photographer.

Montana's "All American City"

Written by Ken Robison

Great Falls, at the head of five falls of the Missouri River and the confluence with the Sun River, began as “the city of wind, water, and future.” The unique setting stimulated many names over the years as Great Falls rose to acquire identify. Reflecting the falls of the Missouri, the first name for the town became “The Cataract City.” As the most prominent feature on the river, Lewis and Clark heard of the falls from the Mandan Indians during the winter of 1804-05. In the early years, every visitor was taken with pride to view the falls and the Giant Spring. Just five months after the first issue of the Great Falls Tribune, the weekly newspaper on September 12, 1885, proudly carried a long poem about the “Big Spring” and the falls by Martha Edgerton Rolfe, the first white woman to live in Great Falls:

Close beside the great Missouri,
Ere it takes its second leap,
Is a spring of sparkling water,
Like a river broad and deep.

Standing on its grassy margin,
While aloft the eagles soar,
Lazily, yet ever watchful,
One can hear the mingled roar

Of the falls of the Black Eagle
And the Rainbow swathed in mist,
Ghostly white then opalescent
Glows when by the sun-god kissed . . .

Paris Gibson was determined to found a “Minneapolis of the West,” a new industrial powerhouse modeled after Gibson’s hometown that he had seen rise from village to city in just two decades. When the first dam was built on the upper falls, Black Eagle Falls, providing hydroelectric power to new refining and smelting industries, Gibson’s newspaper, the Great Falls Tribune, declared that the new town, then just nine years old, had become “The Electric City.” The editorial read:

The Electric City. The remarkable success which has resulted to this city by the harnessing of a small portion of its vast water power, and the transmission of it to be used for various purposes by its conversion into electricity, must be a matter of serious study to a thinking man . . .

Great Falls is not only now a large user of electricity, but she will also have it for sale in the future to her sister towns in the state. When the loss by long distance transmission is overcome, we shall see our city supplying others with electricity, by means of wires and cables, cheaper by far than they can manufacture it themselves; and it also goes without saying that every new electric discovery every new invention for the adaptation of electricity to the industrial arts and sciences will only further tend to make Great Falls known as “The Electric City of Montana."

The rival newspaper, The Great Falls Leader, long carried on its masthead, “The Niagara of the West,” and other names such as the “City of the Falls” have come and gone.

So, what remains today of “The Electric City”? Coal plants in southeast and large hydroelectric plants in northwest Montana have “overpowered” the electrical production of Great Falls. Yet, the city at the falls has always been far more than power production. Paris Gibson did not found Great Falls alone. Beyond Gibson, the visionary, and the other pioneers, Great Falls has always been about the workers and their stories in all walks of life, the iron worker, the smelter worker, the railroad worker, the woman newspaper editor, the miner in the mountains, the cowboy on the range, the farmer (men and women) in the fields, the women and men blazing new paths, the troops marching off to war. Stories of the booming homestead years of the 1910s and the homestead “bust” in the early 1920s. Stories of the mothers and fathers, teachers, nurses, nuns and priests, the jazz players, the gamblers, the prostitutes, the baseball players and ice skaters.

While Great Falls has been known as “The Electric City,” it has always been more. Great Falls is the hub of regional agricultural with farming and ranching that through good years and bad provides a solid economic base. This city is a growing medical powerhouse for a large area. Great Falls has Montana’s largest military presence with the 120th Fighter Wing Montana Air National Guard at Gore Hill and the 341st (Minuteman) Missile Wing and RED HORSE Squadron at Malmstrom Air Force Base bringing a wealth of national and ethnic diversity as well as economic power to the community.

Great Falls has Montana’s greatest ethnic diversity with the largest American Indian and Black American populations in the state. The sports scene features high school and collegiate sports, national champion figure skaters, a strong hockey tradition featuring an Olympic Team captain and National Hockey League players, and baseball Hall of Famers and a team of future major leaguers. A strong cultural environment is highlighted by the renowned Charles M. Russell Museum and a Symphony that attracts the quality of internationally famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Today, Great Falls has the magnificent River, the unique Falls, the Big Spring, the exceptional River’s Edge Trail, the important Portage Route National Historic Landmark, the nation’s premier Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center, and an enormous economic potential from recreational and cultural tourism. With balance and diversity, at age 126 years Great Falls has gone beyond being “The Electric City” and today has emerged as “Montana’s All-American City.”

The End of the Fort Benton Chinese: The Celestial Kingdom on the Upper Missouri—Part IV

2010-08-03T22:10:00.002-06:00

By Ken Robison

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

Published in 28 July and 4 August 2010 Fort Benton River Press

In one of the few positive articles on the Chinese ever to appear in the Great Falls Tribune, the January 4, 1893 edition carried this editorial:
“The Chinese have a beautiful custom which they religiously observe on New Year day--that of paying promptly every cent they owe. Perhaps the custom would be quite as beautiful for Caucasians as Chinese and a few days after New Year better than never.”

Meanwhile, the Great Northern Depot in Great Falls bore a sign that read, “Chinaman don’t let the sun set on you here.” On occasion the racist Great Falls Tribune even tried to stir up trouble for Chinese in Fort Benton. In March 1902 the Tribune was not only urging exclusion of Chinese from Great Falls but also headlining, “Chinks Must Go. Citizens of Fort Benton Will Establish a Steam Laundry and Force Them Out . . . A movement is on foot here to put in a steam laundry at an early date. Investigations which have been made by a number of business men who are heading the movement show that the Chinese laundries here take in about $1,000 per month, if anything a little over that sum. This is sufficient to make a steam laundry pay from the start, if its work is good and the charges reasonable . . . Chas. H. Green has been placed in charge of the canvas of the town, and hopes to be able to report definite results in 10 days.”

The local Fort Benton “exclusion” operation drew a headline in the River Press “To Banish The Chinese” adding that the two Chinese laundries in Benton employed 15 to 18 men at different times of the year and urged “the manifest benefit to the town from having white labor employed in place of Chinese is patent to everyone.” Apparently nothing came of this scheme for the press quietly dropped the matter, and the Chinese laundries of Fort Benton continued for many more years.

Despite the growing anti-Chinese mood in the county, life for Chinese in Choteau County went on. The first Chinese marriage to occur in the county was solemnized at Havre when Mr. Y. P. Yup, a resident of Havre, and Miss Low Dey Gum, of Portland, Oregon were married April 7, 1902, by Reverend Stringfellow in the Presbyterian Church.

Benton law enforcement and courts played a relatively even hand with the Chinese in town during this period. Cornelius Manning assaulted a waiter in a Chinese restaurant and was arrested. Judge Sullivan ordered Manning held to await the outcome of the Chinese man’s injuries since it appeared possible that Manning had fractured the man’s skull by a blow with a pitcher. In early May 1902, Marshal Sneath reacted to an altercation between the Chinese manager of Lee Hing restaurant and a white customer over the price of a meal. The customer drew a six-shooter, “giving him the best of the argument until the marshal appeared. Judge Sullivan imposed a fine of $25. Later that same day Marshal Sneath was attracted to a shack next to the Sam Lee laundry “by weird and awesome howls which indicated murder, at the least. But after forcing the door he was greeted with the bland assurance: ‘Dat all right. China boy got bellerake.’”

Ah Fong, resident of Fort Benton for almost 25 years, died in May 1902 with the River Press covering his funeral. “The funeral of Ah Fong took place this afternoon, interment being in Riverside cemetery for the present. Deceased has been a resident of this city most of the time for nearly a quarter of a century, but at one time had a restaurant at Havre. He was able to read and write English and was quite well off some years ago, owning some real estate here but during his sickness for two years past has been supported by his countrymen.”

After the turn of the century and perhaps in reaction to the increased anti-Chinese sentiment in the community, news coverage about Fort Benton’s small Chinatown and Chinese decreased in the River Press. Except for occasional arrests for registration lapses and rare incidents with the law, the Chinese became almost invisible in Fort Benton society. Even Chinese New Years passed with scant mention in the press.

In early February 1903, the River Press reported simply that Chinese New Year was being celebrated with “considerable enthusiasm by the Mongolian race. Besides witnessing their display of fireworks, all who pass their places of business are invited to partake of Chinese nuts, candy, and a cigar.”

Ung Wing, the cook at the Overland hotel was arraigned before Judge Sullivan during the afternoon of February 10, 1903, on a charge of assault with intent to kill. The case was set for 2 o’clock but J. E. Stranahan, attorney for the defendant, asked for a postponement of 24 hours to prepare the case, which was granted on the receipt of a $50 cash bond. The River Press reported, “It appears that orders (at the Overland) got mixed, which is done occasionally at the best regulated hotels, and as raw eggs and coffee cups accompanied by plates seemed to be the principal articles of the order that was mixed this morning, the cook and waiter made targets of each other with the order. The cook served the first of the order, this being a raw egg followed closely by a coffee cup, and the waiter returned a volley of cups and dishes, after which the cook took to the alley and left the order as it was. Judge Sullivan will rehash the served order tomorrow.” The feuding parties came to court the next day. Ung Wing, the defendant charged with assault, was fined $20. Luther Bain, who took the “poke” at the Chinaman, was fined $7.

Fire was a constant threat in frontier towns. Fort Benton had wisely positioned water wells along Front Street (marked now by brick circles) and consequently had few fires there. Main Street and other parts of town were not so fortunate. In March 1903, the Chinese laundry building near the sawmill at Fort Assinniboine burned down and about $1,000 worth of soldier’s laundry was destroyed.

Chinese New Year in Fort Benton in 1904 was celebrated February 17 with the usual festivities. In China the “years” number from the beginning of the reign of each emperor, and the present monarch, Quong Sue, was crowned about thirty years ago. One week later, in Havre an unidentified man was arrested for making a murderous assault upon a Chinaman. The man had been eating at a Chinese restaurant, and when asked to pay up he drew a knife and inflicted a wound on the Chinaman’s head that required surgical attention.

Lee Sing was taken into custody in late February 1904, because he could not produce his residence permit. He was taken to Helena March 2 by a deputy United States marshal to have a hearing before the federal authorities. In April eight Chinese were arrested at Fort Assinniboine because they could not produce the necessary residence papers. They were to have hearings before U. S. Commissioner McIntyre, and probably were deported.

James Soo, a Chinese patient, died of consumption in mid August 1904, at St. Clare hospital. Soo was formerly a resident of Harlem. In September 1905, fire destroyed a Chinese log cabin on the corner of St. John and Main Streets.

In a sobering report in the Great Falls Tribune in November 1905 under the headline, “Back to China to Die. ‘Many people have a mistaken idea about Chinamen,’ said Deputy United States Marshal Young, who passed through Great Falls last night, en route from Helena to Port Townsend, Wash., where he will deport one of the yellow race.

‘’The impression generally prevails that the average Chink has plenty of money, or, at least, is seldom ‘broke.’ That is a mistake. It has fallen to me to arrest scores of Chinamen, principally upon the charge of living in this country without the proper credentials, in violation of the exclusion act. I have found, in a majority of cases, that they were short of money and frequently in destitute circumstances.’

“In company with Emil Schmidt, a Helena saloonkeeper, Deputy Marshal Young was on his way to Havre, where a Chinaman named Wah Lee was arrested several days ago, charged with not having papers in his possession to show that he was entitled to remain in Uncle Sam’s domain.

“Wah Lee was on his way to the coast from Minot, N. D. Upon reaching Havre, a federal inspector ordered the almond-eyed traveler detained until such time as the case could be investigated. Lee appeared to be sick, and has since been able to sit up only at intervals.

“It is believed that Lee was taken ill at Minot and decided to return to his old home in the Flowery kingdom, probably to die. Deputy Marshal Young thinks that the Chinaman will be fortunate if he crosses the Pacific Ocean alive.”

On May 29, 1907, Jim Charlie, proprietor of the O. K. restaurant in Havre, was assaulted in his kitchen early Sunday morning by Charles Woods, a Black American, and badly beaten up. The Chinaman was rendered unconscious and Woods then rifled a trunk, stealing about $35, and made his getaway. There were two assailants, one from whom watched the dining room while the other went back into the kitchen. Woods was captured a short time later by Chief Bickle. No money could be found on him.

Lee Sing had escaped deportation in 1904, and was now a gardener, when he was arrested and required to pay a small fine for selling the ever present opium in 1907.

Across the Medicine Line in Canada, riots occurred in Lethbridge against the Chinese in December 1907. A dispatch from Lethbridge reported: “Because they believed that a prominent citizen had been murdered in a Chinese restaurant, 1,500 men raided the Oriental quarter late Christmas night and left a wreck behind.
“Restaurants and laundries were smashed; doors and windows and entire fronts of buildings were reduced to splinters.
“The regular police of the town were powerless and a brigade of mounted police had to be called out to quell the riot.
“It was just after 9 o’clock that the mob began to form.
“The story had got abroad that Harry Smith, one of the best known ranchers of the cattle district of which the city is the center, had been fatally wounded in a restaurant.
“Curiously enough, neither Smith nor anyone else had been hurt, but even the police were misled by the tale, and two Orientals were placed under arrest and charged with his murder.
“An indignant mob gathered opposite the eating house and there was talk of lynching.
“Suddenly some one threw a rock that smashed a front window. In a moment the crowd was beyond control.
“Bricks and stones were hurled and when the doors had been broken the tables and chairs and dishes inside were smashed.
“The Columbia and Alberta restaurants were literally wrecked. What could not be conveniently smashed by the few who could get inside was passed out to the street to the howling mob in waiting and there demolished.
“At 10 o’clock a detachment of the mounted police appeared and the crowd scattered. Hundreds of the rioters merely shifted the scene of the pillage. Three blocks away, opposite the Arlington hotel, they cleaned out another Chinese restaurant and mishandled two Orientals who were captured within.
“Mayor Galbraith and Magistrate Townsend both addressed the mob and urged it to disperse, and as all possible damage had been done, it obeyed.”
In late 1908 the Enterprise Restaurant was still operating under a succession of proprietors, Lee Gee in October, Lee Shone & Brother in November, and Lee Hong & Company in December.

In late January 1909, the River Press barely mention Chinese New Year saying only, “The Chinese residents of this locality are celebrating their New Year today, the festivities being of the usual kind.”

Later that year the Press reported, “ A Chinese cook, who was known by the name Charlie Kong and who has been employed by various residents of this vicinity, was found dead in his room this morning by one of his fellow countrymen. The deceased had been on the sick list the past three weeks, and death is supposed to have resulted from pneumonia.”

The old time Chinese were dying off. In December 1909, Ah Que, the Chinese who has made his home in Armington for so many years, died Tuesday night, December 7th. He was an old timer in this part of the country having lived in Fort Benton, Neihart and Armington for the last 30 years. The remains were taken to Helena by John Gray where burial will be made.

By 1910 the Chinese presence in Chouteau County had decreased to 40 with just 12 in Fort Benton, 18 in Havre, 2 in Chinook, 6 at Harlem, 1 on the lower Teton, and 1 on Eagle Creek. Dick Lee, a 49 year-old single man born in China and in the U.S. since 1876 served as cook on a ranch near Eagle Creek, probably the McMillan Ranch. Lewis Luna, a 63 year-old man born in China and in the U.S. since 1865 worked as cook on the sheep ranch where Charles Schwandt was manager.

In September 1910, the River Press headlined, “Attempted to Commit Murder. A man who gives his name as John Smith, and who has been employed in the Grand Union hotel kitchen as dishwasher, was arrested by the city marshal Sunday morning on a charge of attempting to commit murder. The prisoner is alleged to have assaulted a Chinese cook, generally known by the name of Toy, apparently without provocation. “The victim of the assault was struck several times with a cleaver, one of the blows fracturing the skull and causing a wound that may have serious results. He is under the care of a physician, and in the event of death the prisoner will face a charge of murder.”

In mid November, the jury term of the district court opened, with the first criminal case of the term being that of John Smith, the defendant charged with assault with intent to kill. The alleged assault took place in this city in September, the victim being a Chinese cook named Lee Chung.”

The trial progressed as reported in the Press, “The trial of John Smith, accused of a murderous assault upon a Chinese cook employed at the Grand Union hotel was in progress in the district court today, William Toy, of Helena, acting as interpreter during part of the testimony. The latter was to the effect that there had been no trouble between the men, and that the assault was without provocation. The defendant, in testifying on his own behalf, declared he had no knowledge of striking the Chinaman with a cleaver, his mind being a complete blank as to the incident. The case was given to the jury at a late hour this afternoon.” The jury in the case of John Smith returned a verdict of guilty, and sentence was pronounced: “John Smith, convicted of assault in the first degree, was given a sentence of eight years.” Despite the trend toward increased violent against the Chinese, they continued to receive even-handed justice in Chouteau County courts.

Chinese New Year January 1911 was ushered in at midnight by the usual firing of firecrackers, and for two days the Celestials kept open house, entertaining their friends with various kinds of Chinese delicacies.

For the first time since the passage of the bankruptcy law in 1910, a Montana Chinese took advantage of its provisions. In December 1911, Charlie Wang Luk, proprietor of the Chicago cafe at Havre, filed a petition for bankruptcy in the federal court at Helena. The Chinaman gives his liabilities at $589.50 and his assets at $1,280, the greater part of which, however, are of doubtful value.

The local Chinese residents celebrated their New Year February 1912 in the usual quaint style Saturday, this celebration probably being the last of a series that dates back hundreds of years. It has been the custom in China to regulate their calendar by the changes of the moon, making 360 days in the year, but under the new form of government recently adopted it is believed this will be changed to the Julian calendar.”

Lee Kim, a Chinaman against whom the county attorney had filed a charge of assault in the first degree, and who has been held in jail about six months, was allowed to plead guilty to assault in the third degree. In view of his long confinement in jail the court fined the defendant $150, which was paid.

In 1917 the River Press carried advertisements for The Enterprise Restaurant, which was still in business on Front Street with Quan Shol, Proprietor. Jack Lepley remembers hearing that as a boy George Veilleux and other boys “explored” the basement of this building to find a series of upper and lower bunks arranged for opium smokers in this very old opium den. Today, this is today’s the Liquor Store portion of R J’s Toggery.

In January 1919, the Great Falls Tribune reported, “Noted Bar Goes to Chinese Firm. Old Havre Saloon’s taxidermy specimens to Be Retained; Cafe Changes Hands.

“The Mint saloon building, owned by C. W. Young, has been leased until February 15, 1924, by Wong Kim, Wong Sam and William W. Lee, a firm of Chinese residents of Havre who now operate the California cafe, and they will take possession on or about February 15. It is their intention to remodel entirely the interior, but retain the present fancy decorations and famous specimens of taxidermy of which Mr. Young was always very proud. In Havre’s palmy days the Mint was considered the finest bar in the city and the new proprietors are to pay a monthly rental of $225 for the building.”

Even the new town of Geraldine had a Chinese resident. Lou Wong came to Geraldine from Lewistown to open a laundry. In November 1919, Lou Wong died in his laundry in Geraldine. His body was taken back to Lewistown where a funeral was held. His short obituary reported that Wong was an old man who was well known in both Montana and Utah.

Montana attitudes toward the Chinese ranged from total exclusion in Great Falls to toleration in Helena, Butte, and Fort Benton. The prevailing feeling in Fort Benton seemed most influenced by economic conditions and by 1920 Chouteau County homesteads was suffering hard times. By then the Chinese population in Fort Benton had declined to six, although they were still in demand as cooks. In that year young 27-year-old China-born Owen G. Fat owned and operated a restaurant on Front Street with Lew Shu as cook. This restaurant was located in the Culbertson House block, between Black American Peter Burnett’s shoe repair shop and Japanese-American Tommy Matsumoto’s restaurant. Matsumoto, born in Japan in 1874, had come to the U. S. in 1900, and operated the Club Café on Front Street for about twenty years before moving to Great Falls to open the popular Club Cafeteria on Central Avenue.

Two other Chinese residents in Fort Benton in 1920 were Chow Heery, who operated a restaurant on Front Street and elderly 75-year-old Tom Mun, who served as cook at Jere Sullivan’s popular Choteau House hotel. The final two Chinese resident in Fort Benton were young American-born Chinese, Wong G. Ham and Young Yen, who were the cooks at Charles Lepley’s Grand Union Hotel.

In January 1922, a fire that was caused by hot ashes dumped near a wooden fence would have developed into serious proportions had it not been for prompt action by Henry Hagen about 3:00 o’clock Tuesday morning. The blaze was discovered by one of the tenants of the Hagen block who gave the alarm, and when Mr. Hagen reached the scene of trouble in the rear of the Chinese restaurant, the flames were creeping toward a block of frame buildings that it would have been difficult to save.

The last Chinese in Fort Benton operated the Quan Café until February 1923, when cook Wong Ming hung himself. As reported in the River Press:
“Wong Ming Hangs Self. Wong Ming, cook at the Quan Café hung himself sometime during Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. Upon opening up Wednesday morning, the proprietor, Tom Mum, noted Wong’s absence from his accustomed job and went upstairs to call him and upon opening the door found him, hanging from the door casing. Wong had driven a nail into the casing and used a small rope to carry out his purpose. No cause is known to exist for his act, more than that he was of a morose disposition and was given to times of despondency. He came here from Butte about two years ago and was 23 years of age. The body will be taken to Butte Thursday for burial, relatives of the Chinaboy living there.

“Tom Mum, who has conducted the Quan Café during the past few years, came here about eight years ago. He has decided to close the restaurant for the present at least and will go to Butte where he will secure employment. Mr. Mum is well liked and will be greatly missed by his patrons.”

Another perspective on this incident came from the Great Falls Tribune under the headline, “Cook Scolds Helper For Absence From Tasks But He Only Shivers In Answer; He Talks to Dead Man.

“Wong Ming, cook’s helper at the Quam restaurant here, was not on hand to help prepare breakfast Wednesday morning. The cook stormed around a while, did some of the odd jobs Wong was supposed to do, then went to Wong’s room fully determined to give the late sleeper a large fragment of his mind.

“Wong was standing just inside his room when the cook opened the door. He appeared to be shivering violently, a fact which the cook credited to the cold weather. All the cook said may not be translated here, but in substance his remarks were to the effect that Wong could warm himself by getting down into the kitchen and rustling about a fit.

“Wong made no reply, but kept on shivering. Thoroughly exasperated, the cook attempted to grab him by the arm. With the touch, Wong floated away from him a little ways and seemed to sort of stay suspended in the air. The cook was conscious of a prickling feeling along his spine, but he needed help in the kitchen. With a silent appeal to his ancestors, he tip-toed closer to Wong and this time took a grip on Wong’s arm that no shiver could break.

“Wong tumbled in a heap at the cook’s feet. Sometime during the night he had mounted a chair, driven a nail into the casing above the door, attached one end of a small rope to the nail and the other to his neck, kicked the chair away. He had been suspended, his feet just off the floor, when the cook opened the door and set the body to “shivering.” The cook did not notice the rope until the body fell.

“Employes of the restaurant say that Wong was in a cheerful mood when he finished up his work the night before and retired. His father and brother live in Butte, and it is expected that the body will be taken there for burial.”

Speculation at the time indicated that Wong Ming was hanged to scare-off the remaining Chinese in the town. Although never proven, the incident led Manager Tom Mun and staff to close the café the same day and leave for Butte. This sadly ended the era of the Celestial Kingdom in Fort Benton.

Despite the ending of the Chinese presence in Fort Benton in 1923, that was not the last word. The real ending appears to be the return of a Chinese man to the town about four years later, in 1927. Wally Morger, who was four years old at that time and the only son of the Fort Benton Town Marshal Earl Morger, remembers that a Chinese man named Chow Hoy approached Marshal Morger and asked if he would be interested in buying his home. The house had been built in 1912 in the Delatraz addition, and Chow Hoy had bought it in 1917. Chow Hoy wanted $500 for the house and four 35 ft. by 120 ft. lots. He indicated that the ethnic situation in town directed against the Chinese had fomented threats against him, a sentiment not unique to Fort Benton.

Marshal Morger approached his two uncles, Ed and Henry Davis, merchants in town, and managed to secure the money to seal the deal. Although the house was a small one bedroom, one bath home, it was well built and remains in the family today. Randy Morger purchased the home, at 1810 Franklin Street, three years ago. Wally concluded his story by saying, “The home holds many special memories for the Morger family.” To which we might add, the early Chinese on the Upper Missouri left many memorable stories we can all enjoy.

[Sources for all four parts: U.S. Census; Great Falls Yesterday, p. 12; Benton Record Weekly 20 Sep 1978; BRW 13 February 1880; BRW 27 February 1880; BRW 19 March 1880; BRW 2 Jun 1881;BRW 16 Jun 1881; BRW 18 August 1881; BRW 23 February 1882; BRW 16 March 1882; BRW 23 March 1882; BRW 17 August – 14 September 1882; BRW 5 October 1882; BRW 12 October 1882; BRW 2 June 1883; BRW 25 August 1883; Fort Benton River Press Weekly 2 April 1884; FBRPW 3 September 1884; FBRPW 4 February 1885; Great Falls Tribune Weekly 26 Dec 1885; FBRPW 20 Jan 1886; FBRPW 24 Feb 1886; FBRPW 15 January 1887; FBRPW 16 Nov 1887; FBRPW 8 April 1890; FBRPW 8 April 1891; FBRPW 24 Jun 1891; Great Falls Leader Daily 6 August 1891; FBRPW 10 Feb 1892; FBRPW 20 Jul 1892; FBRPW 12 August 1891; FBRPW 26 August 1891; FBRPW 29 June 1892; GFTD 4 Jan 1893; FBRPW 21 Feb 1894; FBRPW 6 March 1894; FBRPW 3 April 1895; FBRPW 28 August 1895; FBRPW 4 Feb 1900; FBRPW 27 Feb 1900; FBRPW 20 Mar 1901; FBRPW 2 Oct 1901; FBRPW 16 Oct 1901; Great Falls Leader Daily 24 Oct 1901; FBRPW 29 Jan 1902; FBRPW 5 Feb 1902; FBRPW 26 Feb 1902; GFTD 29 March 1902; FBRPW 2 Apr 1902; GFTD 7 Apr 1902; FBRPW 9 Apr 1902; FBRPW 30 Apr 1902; FBRPW 7 May 1902; FBRPW 14 May 1902; FBRPW 4 Feb 1903; FBRPW 11 Feb 1903; FBRPW 25 Mar 1903; FBRPW 17 Feb 1904; FBRPW 24 Feb 1904; FBRPW 2 Mar 1904; FBRPW 13 Apr 1904; FBRPW 17 Aug 1904; GFTD 3 Nov 1905; GFLD 4 Nov 1905; GFTD 30 May 1906; GFTD 30 Dec 1907; GFLD 11 Dec 1909; FBRPW 14 Sep 1910; FBRPW 16 Nov 1910; FBRPW 23 Nov 1910; FBRPW 24 Feb 1912; FBRPW 31 Jul 1912; GFTD 20 Jan 1919, p. 7; GFTD 13 Nov 1919; FBRPW 4 Jan 1922; GFTD 15 Feb 1923; FBRPW 21 Feb 1923; Ltr Sing Lee to C. E. Conrad 28 Oct 1898, Small Collection 185 Mansfield Library, U of M]

“With cattle on a thousand hills and prairies”: The Remarkable Milton E. Milner

2010-07-21T07:50:00.003-06:00

By Ken Robison

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

Long before the great A. B. Guthrie published his book “These Thousand Hills,” this cowman’s term was used by Judge F. E. Stranahan in a fine tribute written in 1934 to perhaps Montana’s least known, yet greatest open range rancher—Milton E. Milner. Friend to his many young cowboys as well as to the rich and famous, Milner roamed the hills of Montana and the cities and sights of the world. Painted by Frederick Remington and Charles M. Russell, investor and perhaps originator of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, M. E. Milner left a legacy through foreman W. P. Sullivan that extends on down to today.

More about Milner and his amazing accomplishments later, but meanwhile here is what Judge Stranahan had to say in the July 24, 1934 Grass Range Review under the headline, “Judge Tells About Ownership and Operation of Old Milner Livestock Company
“I have just sent out the last check that has paid the final distribution of the full par value of the capital stock and have accomplished the dissolution of a corporation that has written “finis” to one of the greatest cow outfits of the west, the Milner Cattle company, and I have been asked to write of this outfit and of its founder, Milton E. Milner. I am glad to do this, because I have read some articles that were not very complimentary to the latter.

“Mr. Milner was one of the pioneer cattlemen of Montana. In the earliest annals of the business he formed a co-partnership with John M. Boardman, and the firm of Milner & Boardman ran cattle for a time on the Shonkin range. After this partnership was dissolved, Mr. Milner entered the business on a much larger scale and formed his corporation. He was the only stockholder of it in the west. All others were eastern people, and the company operated in northern and eastern Montana, with ranches of many thousands of acres at Shonkin, Square Butte and other places, now owned by William P. Sullivan, who was formerly one of Mr. Milner’s foremen. The roundup and shipping points were principally in Chouteau and Valley counties.

“With cattle on a thousand hills and prairies, with scores of range riders to care for them, this corporation ran its life out and expired by lapse of time just as death ended the career of its organizer 21 years ago. The open range was then closing, and his work was done. For the stockholders and executors of the Milner will, I took charge and renewed the corporation mainly for the purpose of liquidation and closing out business affairs where Mr. Milner left them. Since its renewal I have been secretary of the liquidating corporation, and during that time, besides sending out checks for annual dividends, the original investment of each stockholder has been paid in full twice over, but that was not a marker to which they received in dividends when the company was a going concern.

“The business under the Milner management was a prosperous one, chiefly, I think, because his first great care was for those who actually did the work, for in their hands and subject to their loyal and efficient service, all the profit producing assets of the company reposed. His secondary anxiety was for those whose money was invested, and they revered him for his high character, his strict integrity and his careful business methods to such an extent that they named their children and their grandchildren for him.

“The Milner brand of humanism stood out in bold relief where the workers in the business were concerned. I have never heard of his like outside of fiction. To the men who handled the cattle he was like a loving father and no service on his part was too great for their comfort and advancement. If a young cowpuncher in his employ showed himself worthy and inclined toward a better education, Milner would take him out of the saddle and put him through school or college and pay all his expenses. Such a case came under my observation while carrying on the Milner estate and I enjoyed the privilege of watching over the young student in an Iowa college and of handing him $1,000 cash upon his graduation, in accordance with the provisions of Mr. Milner’s will.

“At the old Fort Benton ford of the Missouri river, where the Crow and Blackfeet war parties crossed to rob and fight each other for possibly a thousand years, the Milner outfit was crossing a beef herd for shipment many years ago. Charlie Mudgett was foreman of the drive. Charlie was one of those splendid cowboy characters now being sung and told of in song and story. Some of the beef animals were inclined to stall and turn back and refuse to take the water. To prevent that mishap, Charlie rode into swifter water than he expected. His horse’s feet were swept from under him and Charlie drowned. The grief of the employer at the loss of such a young man seemed boundless. A silver coin found in the pocket of the dead man was made into a watch charm and worn by Mr. Milner. He supported and cared for Charlie’s mother throughout his life as though she were his own and made provision for her in his will, when he could not longer care for her in person. But the most unusual gesture of affection and regret was Mr. Milner’s direction that, upon his own death, his body be cremated and its ashes strewn upon the waters of the ford where Charlie Mudgett lost his life. That was done.

“The ever popular romance of the wild west, now carried on almost exclusively by drug store cowboys, probably found its origin in the mind of Mr. Milner. One of the chief stockholders of Milner Cattle company was Nate Salsbury [Salisbury], a famous New York actor and theatrical man. On one occasion Mr. Milner suggested to Salsbury that he organize a show company to portray that wilderness of the western region. Salsbury was in doubt about it. It was a novel proposition. He told Milner the theatre was the glamorous land of make believe where some greater pretender who could lead and hoodwink the people in a most realistic manner was necessary to the success of such an enterprise, and where in all that wilderness out there could such a fakir be found.

“Milner told Salsbury he did not think that would be a stumbling block, that we had out here in the west one of the finest lookers and one of the biggest showmen he ever saw, who was called “Buffalo Bill” Cody, and so the great wild west show was born. Salsbury took it around the world with wonderful enthusiasm among his audiences until Bill thought he was the whole show and would quit unless it was turned over to him. Bill could fake Indians, stage robbers and cowboys, but the balance sheet and the show went on the rocks. Bill went broke but, like the soul of old John Brown, the romance, so auspiciously started, still goes marching on.

“Another nationally appreciated actor was James O’Neill, who was also a stockholder in the Milner company. He was a handsome man. I have seen him, some 60 years ago, fill a theatre to overflowing with ladies on a Saturday afternoon matinee. At the outset he put $7,000 in the company and often said it was usual for him to never again see a dollar of his ordinary investments, but that Milner had given him back his money so many times over that he was almost ashamed to take it. His son, Eugene O’Neill, world famous writer of plays, succeeded to his father’s shares upon the death of the latter.

“Mr. Milner may have indulged in some crochets. Who has not? Some people were not favorably impressed by him. He did not always follow their lines of conduct. His name had been Miller but he said he knew so many Millers who had misbehaved and there were so many pesky insects of that name who fluttered in such an annoying way around his reading lamp at night that he went into court and had his name changed to Milner. While he entertained the highest respect for the religious beliefs of others, he had none of his own. He did not take kindly to the supernatural. He was a man of education and refinement and possessed of considerable wealth and he was courteous and genteel and rather inclined to be chivalrous to the members of the fair sex. He never married. His life was lived in the rough and his idea was that the rough was no place for a lady. He contended himself with his large family of cowboys. He was a lover of the beautiful in flowers, plants and works of art and on his winter jaunts he gathered articles he keenly enjoyed in his ranch homes--quaint jewelry, garnished with precious stones; fine linens, tapestries, and choice fabrics of various kinds and beautiful etchings. In his will he said he would leave a list of his most intimate friends who were to receive gifts from his collection but he forgot to make up the list. His chief executor, A. H. “Bert” Davis, a foreman of the company, was so intimately acquainted with Mr. Milner’s desires that he made the distribution without the list.

“Mr. Milner had become so thoroughly attached to his cowboy family that he left the bulk of his fortune to them and the memory of that manly man is still green in the hearts of the beneficiaries of his bounty. What matters it, then, that no kindred hand soothed his last hours, that no storied urn marks his last resting place, that no animated bust tells his story and that the great river still sweeps his ashes downward to the sea." [Source: Montana Newspaper Association 23 Jul 1934 The Grass Range Review]

In his early career as a painter, Remington took a number of opportunities to paint portraits of westerners at work. In 1889, Remington accepted a commission from Milton E. Milner to show him and an associate, Judge Kennon, out searching for new cattle range in Montana Territory. Prospecting for Cattle Range is an example of Remington's early style, featuring realistic details, tight use of line and clearly articulated shapes.

Lot 2263
Frederic Sackrider Remington
American, 1861-1909
Trotter, circa 1885
Inscribed Dear Milton/I present to you this oil/reminisce of your past cowboy life/I am sure you miss it/Memorable fine days we will/treasure always/Remember?/Frederic R. (lr)
Oil on canvas mounted on canvas
30 x 22 inches
Provenance:
Milton E. Milner
Thence by descent in the family to the present owner
This work is accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the Remington Examination Committee.
Sold to a buyer from Florida for $67,000

Milton E. Milner, the original owner of the present work, was a shareholder in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Company, incorporated in 1887. A Montana cattle rancher, Milner commissioned Remington in 1889 to paint him and an associate out searching for new cattle ranges in the Montana Territory. Located near Fort Benton, Montana, the Milner ranch was incorporated in Montana as the Milner Live Stock Company in 1884, and was eventually renamed the Milner Cattle Company.

The pose of the horse and rider in Trotter is similar to that of another pair depicted on the left of the painting commissioned by Milner, Prospecting for Cattle Range (Collection Buffalo Bill Historical Center). The Frederic Remington Examination Committee, which has authenticated the painting, has suggested that there may be a relationship between the two works.

"See You On the Mullan Road" Articles from Special Edition Fort Benton River Press 20 May 2010

2010-05-28T11:43:00.002-06:00

Special 150th Anniversary Mullan Road Conference Edition of the River Press published 20 May 2010

By Ken Robison

David Parchen painting for the 150th Anniversary Mullan Road Conference depicting Fort Walla Walla, Lieutenant John Mullan, Wagonmaster John Creighton’s Wagons on the Mullan Road leading to arrival of the Military Expedition at Fort Benton August 1, 1860.

Celebrating 150 Years of the Mullan Military Wagon Road
1860-2010

By Ken Robison

During May 20-22, 2010, the River & Plains Society in Fort Benton will host the national 150th Anniversary Mullan Road Conference. This conference celebrates the completion of the Mullan Military Wagon Road in 1860, the first wagon road from Fort Benton to cross the Rocky Mountains to Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory, into the Inland of the Pacific Northwest. The 624-mile long Mullan Road joined the Missouri River with the Columbia River, blazing the path through the plains and valleys westward from Fort Benton into the rugged mountains of western Montana and Idaho. The road was built by US Army 1st Lieutenant John Mullan between the spring of 1859 and August 1860 with an expedition of some 230 combined military and civilian men. Parts of the original Mullan Road can still be traveled today, and, weather permitting, the Conference will included a field trip from Fort Benton into the Sun River valley past Birdtail Rock to the Dearborn River.

The Conference also will celebrate the arrival of the first steamboats at the Fort Benton levee July 2nd, 1860. When the Chippewa, commanded by Captain Joseph LaBarge, and the Key West, under Joseph’s brother Captain John LaBarge, moored at Fort Bento’s levee, it heralded the beginning of the steamboat era at the head of navigation on the Missouri River. Aboard the two steamers, belonging to Pierre Chouteau & Company (known as the American Fur Company), were owners Pierre and Charles Chouteau, their agents Fort Benton “Factors” Andrew Dawson and Alexander Culbertson, Indian agents, company employees, military supplies, and Indian trade goods. Also onboard the crowded steamboats were Major George A. H. Blake and his First Dragoons, some 300 soldiers who were poised to become the first, and last, direct military users of the Mullan Road on their way to Washington Territory.

A final exploration group arrived at Fort Benton in that amazing summer of 1860 before Lieut. Mullan, to await steamboat passage down the Missouri. The Military Reconnaissance Expedition of Captain William F. Raynolds had spent the past year exploring the Yellowston basin and had come down the Missouri River from the Three Forks, past the Great Falls of the Missouri, to arrive at Fort Benton July 14th. With the Raynolds Expedition was topographer Lieutenant James Dempsey Hutton, who took the first known photograph of the Fort Benton trading post from across the Missouri River. During that summer of 1860, there was no town of Fort Benton, only the trading post, and an opposition post, Fort Campbell, which by the spring of 1860 had been bought by Pierre Chouteau & Company. Yet, in the words of John Strachan, one of Mullan’s men, “Fort Benton has everything . . . a bakery, blacksmith, carpenter and cooper shops, trade offices for buying, others for selling and retail shops. Goods are sold at enormous prices . . . sugar is sold at $1 and up a pound and everything else in proportion. Business amounts to about $160,000 a year, with buffalo robes the staple of the trade.”

The 150th Anniversary Conference will begin May 20th late Thursday afternoon with a tour of Old Fort Benton, the reconstructed American Fur Company fur and robe trading post built in 1846-47 at the head of navigation on the Missouri River. Resident Mountain Man “Burnt Spoon” will lead the tour group into the 1850’s past to see the original Block House (Montana’s oldest permanent structure), the newly reconstructed log Stockade and Bourgeois House (the Factor’s Quarters), and into the Trade Store and Warehouse where the River & Plains Society will host an evening reception in the fur trade museum. The River & Plains Society is the non-profit that operates the museums complex in Fort Benton and the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center. A Fort Restoration Committee leads the effort to reconstruct Old Fort Benton.

Friday will be held at the Montana Agricultrual Center-Lippard Auditorium beginning with regional Mullan Road activity reports from Washington state, Idaho, and Montana. Morning presentations will include: “John Mullan Road Builder: An Army Case Study” by U. S. Military Academy instructor and Yale University doctoral student Ryan Shaw “Artists Gustavus Sohon and John Mix Stanley Images Along the Mullan Road” by Dr. Paul McDermott of Maryland; “Early Travelers Along the Mullan Road” by Lee Hanchett, author of Montana's Benton Road; and “Natural Resources along the Road” by Dr. John E. Taylor of Helena. The luncheon speaker will be Cultural Historian Bob Doerk discussing “Inni - The Buffalo of the Plains.”

Friday afternoon talks and demonstrations will include: “Mullan Road On-Line Resources Including a Google Earth Mullan Road Fly-Thru” by Dr. Bill Youngs of Eastern Washington University, and Ron Hall; “Sampling the Minckler Mullan Road Collection” which includes unique photographs, diaries, and material from Mullan's wagonmaster John A. Creighton, by Art Historian Thomas Minckler and Ken Robison; “Through Indian Country: Native American Perspectives on Mullan and Regional Development” by Dr. Richard Scheuerman of Seattle Pacific University; and “Actions to Designate the Mullan Road a National Historic Trail” led by Courtney Kramer, Gallatin County Historic Preservation Officer. Friday evening will feature a reception and dinner with Bruce Druliner aka “Burnt Spoon” bringing to life “Old Fort Benton in the 1850s through stories and songs.”

Saturday morning begins with “Surveying along the Mullan Road” by Montana surveyor re-enactor Bill Weikel, followed by a field trip into the Sun River valley with bus guide commentary about the route of the Mullan Road and key historic, cultural, and geological features. Stops will be made at Sun River Leaving (Vaughn), Sun River Crossing, St. Peter’s Mission, and a box lunch at Birdtail Rock Stage Stop. Weather permitting the tour will continue on over Birdtail Divide to Dearborn Crossing and on to Fort Shaw. At this historic fort, Dick Thoroughman and other members of the Sun River Valley Historical Society will show General Gibbon’s original Military Quarters and will talk about Sun River valley history including the military at Fort Shaw Military Post and the later famed Indian Industrial School.

“Reconstructing Old Fort Benton”

By David Parchen & Bob Doerk

[Photos: 1860 photo of Fort Benton. This photo by Lieut. James D. Hutton taken in 1860 is the first known photograph of Fort Benton.

[Sketch of the reconstructed Old Fort Benton]

[Color Photographs of the entrance, the log stockade, the Block House, the new Bourgeois House, and the interior of the Trade Store and Warehouse.]

A good place to start the story of the reconstruction of Old Fort Benton is a vision of the past provided by the great James Williard Schultz in his book, William Jackson, Indian Scout. In his 1926 book, Schultz has his scout, Jackson describe Fort Benton of the late 1850s.

“Entering the big gate in the wall facing the river, one found on the right the carpenter shop and blacksmith shop. On the left, first a long warehouse and then the trade room for the Indians, where behind breast-high counters, were tiers and tiers of shelves upon which the various trade goods were displayed. Along the west side of the great inner court were three houses: another warehouse, the store for company employees, and the kitchen . . . the bourgeois, Andrew Dawson . . . lived and had his office in the upper stories of the western most of the houses on the north side of the court. The upper of the other three houses in the row were quarters of our clerks, Matthew Carroll and George Steell, and our Father who was the tailor . . . all the lower stories in this row were reserved for the use of the Indians who were continually coming to the fort to trade. All the houses on the east side of the court were occupied by the engages, or laborers and their families, and the gunsmith, the post hunter, and the general foreman and their families. . .”

What a picture this paints. What a great place this would be to go back in time and see. What a wonderful experience to enjoy!

This became our dream--to rebuild Old Fort Benton to provide a living history for all who enter the great gates and step back in time. In the early 1990’s we decided to move forward with a project to rebuild the Fort. What an economic benefit it could be for the town. What a legacy to share with future generations. So, we approached our parent non-profit organization, the River & Plains Society, and asked if we could form a committee to purse this project. They could give us no money, but we had their blessings and the use of their non-profit status so we could write grants. The Fort Restoration Committee was born, and we were on our way.

Before we got underway, we reviewed the fascinating history of Old Fort Benton. We found that in the late fall of 1846 footings were dug on the present site of the Fort. In the spring of 1847, the earlier Fort Lewis was dismantled and its logs were floated five miles down river. The new trading fort was completed during 1847, well documented by Father Nicholas Point who was staying there at the time.

Before Factor Alexander Culbertson was sent back up to Blackfoot country, he operated Fort Laramie where he’d been exposed to the joys of adobe buildings. Adobe homes were warm in the winter, cool in the summer, hard to burn down, and the walls stopped bullets. Culbertson directed that his house (the Bourgeois House or Factor’s Quarters) be constructed out of adobe. This began the gradual replacement of the original wooden logs with adobe, a transition that took thirteen years.

As the Fort weathered and the fortunes of the fur trade waned, Fort Benton underwent gradual changes. Accounts of travelers who entered its massive gate varied from praise to ridicule. Some like James Willard Schultz loved its safe harbor and others condemned the dusty, filthy interiors.

When the American Fur Company sold the Fort in 1865, the mature buildings were changing. Walls were torn down, and corrals added. The military was housed there in 1869, and the fort was finally mapped and measured.

After the military abandoned its Military Post Fort Benton in 1881, the fort passed into private ownerships. Buildings were abandoned, roof leaked, and weathering took its toll. Some buildings were town down so the adobe bricks could be reused and others collapsed from neglect. Dan Dutro and others took many photographs over the last years of the 19th century. The Fort site became a city park and in the early 1900s the Daughters of the American Revolution, with the help of businessman T. C. Powers and others, took steps to protect the last standing building, the Block House. They had the walls braced up, the exterior protected by a stucco shell, and the weight of the roof lifted off the walls and held up by posts and beams on the interior. This effort saved what is now the oldest permanent building in Montana.

These early “preservationists” planted trees, posed cannons, and eventually laid asphalt driveways through the park so people could drive around the old ruins. Visitors to Old Fort Benton such as Charles M. Russell had their pictures taken by the Block House or among the decaying ruins. The site has gone through many changes over the years.

The first steps we took in the reconstruction were to use the 1870 military map and dig test pits to see if we could locate where the walls had been. The map proved very helpful and accurate. When we got down to the cultural layer, we found that on either side of the adobe walls were artifact, beads, bones, broken pottery, nails, and even coins. Where walls had been, nothing was found. At the bottom of the wall, there was an abrupt change from clay (adobe) to sand and typical river bottom soils. In fact, it was very easy to locate where the walls had been.

Archeological digs were organized. These summer digs revealed that on the outside of the adobe walls, toward the river and three feet down, there were flat river rocks. We believe that the early Engages placed the flat rocks to help preserve the log walls. These original logs were probably taken down as the mud walls went up as the fort transformed from logs to adobe during the 1850s.

At the end of one summer dig, we decided to see if we could find the gatepost of the main gate. Using the military map, we measured where we thought the post should be. Approximately 12 inches down from the surface, we found one of the posts. Digging revealed a beautiful 14” x 16” by 4’ post. Amazingly, it was intact after all these years. And at the bottom of the post were a couple of flat river rocks. A cottonwood tree had destroyed the other post.

As the archeological digs progressed, artifacts accumulated and the old fort gradually revealed itself. We had other valuable sources to give us insight into the fort—journals and inventories kept by the American Fur Company and early oral histories recorded by Fort Benton’s first historian, Lieutenant James Bradley, during his years at Fort Benton Military Post in the early 1870s.

When the archeological digs were complete, the next step was to put in footings. Compacted sand and gravel was the base for thick, well-rebared footings. If we didn’t have funds to erect the brick buildings, at least we would have an outline of where the buildings had been. As it turned out, grant money came in and the first brick buildings, The Trade Store and Warehouse, were erected.

But before any construction could begin, research on every building was essential. Our research had us examining every old drawing, photograph, and written description our Research Center had on Old Fort Benton. The old photos of the decaying buildings were especially helpful because we could look inside and figure out construction details. The one original building from the days of Old Fort Benton, Montana’s oldest standing structure, The Block House, was a wonderful guide to how two-story buildings were put together in the 1840s.

From our wealth of historic material and images, Dave Parchen prepared rough drawings of each building in the Fort. Carpenters, log home builders, and brick masons looked over the rough drawings in detail. We listened to their advice, and where we had to speculate, we were able to make good, educated decisions. Finally, we hired a professional draftsman to execute the final drawings. We should emphasize here, we were on a shoestring budget and had to stretch every dollar.

The brick mason took one of our original adobe bricks and found a brick maker who could match it in both color and size, yet far more durable. Local contractors ordered all the timbers and wood. The wood was logged out of the Highwood Mountains to the south of us, just like the original timbers. Wiring was run underground and all plumbing and heating was put into the thick, brick walls. Insulation in the walls and the roof are virtually invisible. Every effort was made to have the buildings look as authentic as possible; yet modern and easily maintained.

One of the final touches to the exterior was to erect a sign over the main gate. From early drawings, we knew the sign was rather large, but we really didn’t known what was on it. All the forts of the American Fur Company, up and down the Missouri, had colorful folk art type signs to welcome the Native American traders. Out of the blue, a photograph of Fort Benton taken in 1860 was sent to us from Fort Union. The Beinecke Library at Yale University had long had the photo in its collection showing an unidentified fort, with the words “Fort Union ?” noted on it. In fact, it was a photograph of Fort Benton taken from across the Missouri River in the summer of 1860 by Lieut. James D. Hutton, a member of Captain Raynold’s Expedition. This photo showed a large sign over the entrance to the fort. Scanning the photo in the computer, enlarging and sharpening the image, combined with a couple of descriptions from newspaper accounts, we were able to put together the American Fur Company trading post sign. The sign showed the head of a bull buffalo with the American flag and the pennant of the American Fur Company crossed in the background and the words “Fort Benton” lettered below. We are confident it is close to the original sign that Lieut. Mullan and his Expedition saw on their arrival at Fort Benton in August of 1860.

More than a decade has passed since the east wall buildings, the Trade Store, Warehouse, Blacksmith/Carpenter Shop, and Main Gate were reconstructed to join to the original Block House. Our efforts have centered on the display and interpretation of many fur trade era artifacts in the River & Plains collection, and the acquisition of trade goods, robes, and furs. With the help of our Blackfeet friends, the Trade Store is furnished as it was in the 1850s and the Warehouse houses fur trade and Native American displays interpreting the fur trade years. For the past five years, we have had a resident fur trader, “Burnt Spoon,” [aka Bruce Druliner] giving daily interpretive tours and entertainment.

Funds slowly built up over the years for further construction. In the fall of 2009, we received a significant grant to match funds we had accumulated enabling us to proceed with major new construction. Late in the fall of 2009 we laid the foundation for the Bourgeois (Factor’s) House. Adobe look-alike bricks were ordered and plans are in place for construction to proceed in the spring of 2010. After the walls are up, the roof will be installed with a target date of mid-June. As money becomes available, we will complete the interior of the Bourgeois House, and once environmental and security controls are installed we plan to house an art gallery on the lower level and the Factor’s living quarters on the upper level.

An additional grant is allowing us to erect log palisades this spring, just as the original fort had in 1847. The log palisades remained in place until the 1850s when the fort’s original log construction was replaced by adobe walls. Similarly, the new log palisades will remain until completion of the final major building, the Engages Quarters. The new palisades will enclose the “courtyard,” and we will have painted tipi’s, wagons and a fire pit with wood benches in place for varied outdoor cultural activities this summer. The summer of 2010 is an exciting time in the process of reconstructing Old Fort Benton.

“Mullan’s Hardworking Wagonmaster John A. Creighton:
Sampling the Thomas Minckler Collection”

By Ken Robison

In a diary kept intermittently by John Creighton during 1859-60, he recorded:
“August 1, 1860 Arrived at Fort Benton on the first day of August 1860 with Lieut. Mullans Military Wagon Road Expedition from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton W. T. John Creighton Wagon Master.”

John A. Creighton was born about 1836 in Scotland. In June 1858 he assembled a US government wagon train from Fort Leavenworth going overland to Benicia Barracks, California, arriving November 15 after traveling a distance he recorded as 2004 miles. The train appears to have been intended to preposition wagons and supplies for 1st Lieutenant John Mullan and the 6th Infantry for the Mullan Military Wagon Road Expedition.

From his departure June 24, 1859, from Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory, with the Mullan Expedition until his arrival back at Fort Walla Walla October 4, 1860, with Major Blake’s Dragoons, John A. Creighton served as Wagon Master and leader of the 29 man escort of teamsters, cooks, saddlers, and blacksmiths. Creighton earned $100 a month and served Lieut. Mullan well. Yet, little has been known previously about this strong man. Through the Thomas Minckler Collection, much insight can be learned about the man and his place in history supporting the Expedition.

Wagon Master Creighton’s men included William T. Armstrong, eight muleskinner teamsters, ten ox driver teamsters, five other teamsters, J. Donely cook or teamster, Robert Daley carpenter or teamster, A. Brearly blacksmith, and William G. Mills saddler. A “List of Citizens employed as Wagon Masters, Teamsters, Cooks, Saddlers and Blacksmiths to the Escort of Lieut. Mullan on the Fort Benton Road” from the Quartermaster Department of Oregon at Fort Vancouver dated May 11, 1859 lists the names and salaries: Armstrong earned $80 a month while the other men received $50. Of the 29 names on this list, only six are carried on the Mineral County Museum list of known Mullan Road participants. So we have 23 new Mullan Road names to add to the master list.

[insert all or part of the Muster List]

Creighton’s Diary begins March 9, 1859 when he left Benicia Barracks at sunrise in charge of 140 US government mules en route to Fort Vancouver on the Barque Storm Bird, sailing about 5 knots and anchoring. By March 18 the Storm Bird had reached San Francisco, departing two days later for Fort Vancouver. Suffering from seasickness, to Creighton’s relief Storm Bird moored at Fort Vancouver April 4th. Two months later on June 12, Creighton left Fort Dalles with a government train for Fort Walla Walla, arriving June 21st to report to the Assistant Quartermaster. He remained encamped making preparations for the Fort Benton Road Expedition until June 24th when he struck camp and got underway.

[Insert photos of Creighton’s Diary]

During the early part of the Expedition, Creighton made frequent short entries, providing insight into progress, distances traveled, and the hazards lurking along the way. His June 27 entry was, “This morning we tried to swim our stock across the [Snake] River and failed but ferried our wagons across. Today I had to swim to save my life.” The next day they succeeded in swimming the cattle across without loss. On July 1st they traveled up the Palouse River “a little ways and lowered our wagons over a hill with ropes.” July 4th was spent camped on the Palouse River, with Creighton’s entry, “This the 4th of July not a shot fired. Everything very still. Lieut. Mullan party reached here today.”

Progress was slow for the Expedition. On July 7th Creighton noted, “This day we lay over while Lieut. Mullan’s party is making the road which is to cut in the side of the bluff.” Two days later, the wagons struck camp and “went up the river crossing it four times. The road being very good for the country. Camped on Palouse River. Distance 12 miles.”

On July 17th Creighton wrote, “Today we laid over nothing very serious happened. The distance from Fort Walla Walla to this camp is 158 miles.” After laying over for five days the road was finally ready, and on July 23, “This morning we struck camp and moved on going through some heavy timber and down a very steep hill into St. Joseph valley and camped on St. Joseph River. Distance 7 miles.” The entry for July 25th read, “Today we are laying waiting for the building [of] a flat boat to cross the St. Joseph River.” After a week the boat was finally ready, and on August 2 they ferried the wagons across St. Joseph River. “No accident happened.”

On August 6th, the entries in Creighton’s Diary abruptly end, and the pages that follow record some cargo inventories and miscellaneous information. One entry reads, “Of all the property in my charge for the Transportation of Lieut. Mullan’s Escort in charge of Lieut. Lyon.” The property recorded partially includes 7 horses, 6 blankets, 6 riding saddles, 36 mules, 7 sets of six-mule harnesses, 136 cattle, 28 wagons and boxes, 35 wagon covers, 73 ox yokes, 34 ox whips, 29 pack saddles, 1 box of horse medicines, etc. Other pages include lists of names and accounts that will take analysis to fully understand.

The final two entries in Creighton’s Diary include the following:

“August 17, 1860 Returned from Fort Benton to Fort Walla Walla with the Oregon Recruits on August 17, 1860.”

“October 4th 1860 Arrived at Fort Walla Walla on the 4th day of October 1860”

At Fort Benton, Lieut. Mullan met Major A. H. Blake and his 300 Dragoons. He transferred Gustavus Sohon to Major Blake, as a guide and interpreter to his command. In addition John Creighton with his wagon train also transferred to support Major Blake and his “Oregon recruits.” Lieut. Mullan recorded that to the “joint good services [of Sohon and Creighton] Major Blake was largely indebted for the success of his march. Such other of my men as could be spared were also turned over to him, so that, so far as our means could supply him, he had nothing of which to complain.”

The Minckler Collection includes several important letters from Lieut. John Mullan, Lieut. Hylan B. Lyon, and Lieut. Winfield S. Hancock. Lyon later became a Colonel in the Confederate Army, commanding the 8th Kentucky Cavalry that covered the Southern retreat to Vicksburg after their defeat at Champion’s Hill, and then later escaped from the siege of Vicksburg. Hancock became a Brigadier General in the Union Army, and later narrowly lost a presidential bid to James A. Garfield.

On April 17, 1860 Lieut. Mullan wrote a long letter to John Creighton from “Camp on Bitter Root” with coordination instructions. Lieut. Mullan directed, “In order to facilitate the movement of supplies for the working parties, I advise you to send one of your men down to Browns for his wagon . . .” In his 1863 report, Lieut. Mullan stated, “Our entire work to the Hell's Gate ronde was completed by the 28th of June, when our train was moved from our winter camp to the residence of a Frenchman, named Brown, where I had built a storehouse to leave such supplies as I did not care to transport to Fort Benton.”

On May 22, 1860, during the Expedition, from Cantonment Jordan 2nd Lieut. Lyon wrote in part, “Mr. Creighton. The road it appears will be finished sooner than I expected when I wrote yesterday and the orders I now send will replace those of yesterday . . .” The orders from Lieut. Lyon directed the movement of beef cattle for use by the expedition.

In June 1860 Captain Winfield S. Hancock wrote in a letter of commendation, “John Creighton was employed by me in 1858 as a wagon master in charge of a train with the 6th Infantry. He was recommended to me then being a teamster, as a suitable person for wagon master and an excellent teamster. I first made him an assistant wagon master and afterwards a wagon master. I never had a more active one in the performance of his detail. He was always faithful. His habits are good and he did not require watching . . . Winfd S. Hancock Captain A. Q. M.”

Later on Creighton’s return with Major Blake’s Brigade, Creighton received a letter from 2nd Lieut. H. B. Lyon reading, “John Creighton was employed in the Quartermaster Department USA as wagon master from about the 20th of June 1859 to the 1st of August 1860 under my direction, and in that capacity and in every other in which he acted he gave me perfect satisfaction.
“I can recommend him as a very trustworthy sober industrious and obedient man and one competent to do anything he undertakes. H. B. Lyon 2nd Lt AAQM to the Escort to the Fort Walla Walla and Fort Benton Wagon Road Expedition.”

After the Expedition John Creighton formed a freight company Creighton Crawford and operated out of Boise City from 1863 to 1865. He then moved to Elko, Nevada during 1868-69, before returning to the Oregon settlement. Not all business went well for Creighton and on October 16 1869 he filed bankruptcy papers in Elko, NV owing his former partner Crawford some $23,000, and many other smaller debts. On Christmas Eve, 1868 Creighton married Mary Jane McCully. They lived for some time at Union, Washington Territory, and then moved to Wallowa. John Creighton died in 1884, and his widow with their four girls Mary, Jessie, Mabel, and Rosa, went to Salem, Oregon. Thus ends this preview of the Thomas Minckler Collection and insight into Lieut. John Mullan’s wagon master, John Creighton.

Mullan’s “Men” Were Not All White Men: Mrs. Mary Lowry and Thomas Lowza Also Served on the Expedition
By Ken Robison

Mrs. Mary Lowry came with the Mullan Expedition in 1859, the first white woman to arrive in later Montana. Mary and her husband, John Lowry, were attached to the Mullan Expedition, she as cook and servant for the engineers, and John as a 24-year old, Irish born, private in the military escort. Mary spent a portion of the winter of 1859-60 at Cantonment Jordan on the Regis Borgia River in western Montana. Afterwards she became well known in that section. Having parted with her husband at Florence, Idaho, she associated herself with a bad and dangerous character named Matt Craft, and returned to Montana in 1863. In the autumn of 1864, Matt Craft shot and killed a young man named Crow after Crow allegedly insulted Craft's wife at the tent the couple lived in. One year later, Craft was killed in Missoula by Thomas Haggerty. In 1867 Mary Lowry married a Mr. Collins, but they too separated, and she drifted to California, where she died. [Source: Montana Newspaper Association, The Hardin Tribune 8 March 1920]

Thomas Lowza, a 25-year old African American born in Jamaica, served in the civilian contingent on the Mullan Expedition. He was recorded as a printer with the rest of the expedition in the September 1860 Colville Valley, Washington Territory U.S. Census. Nothing else is known of Thomas Lowza.

Lieutenant John Mullan’s Montana Explorations in 1853-54: Remarkable Work of Lieut. Mullan, Who Blazed Trails Ahead of Railroad; Called Pathfinder to Pacific Ocean.

By Martha Edgerton Plassmann,
Daughter of Governor Sidney Edgerton. Written in 1924.

Two men were examining the Mullan memorial at Missoula near the railroad station. One said: “Who was the Mullan; an Irishman, or a Scotchman?”

“I don’t know,” the other replied. “All I’m sure of is that he built the N. P.” [Northern Pacific Railroad]

This is about all the average person has learned regarding one of the most remarkable pathfinders that ever helped to make this region a charted locality, comprehensible to the rest of the world.

It was in the spring of 1853 that Governor Isaac I. Stevens of Washington territory received the appointment to head an expedition to find a route for a railroad from the upper Mississippi to the Pacific coast, part of his duty being to make a thorough examination of the Missouri and Columbia rivers, which were then comparatively unknown.

Governor Stevens and the greater part of his company, went overland from St. Paul, but a detachment was dispatched by the water route to Fort Union, at the mouth of the Yellowstone river, there to join the rest of the expedition. It reached the appointed rendezvous ahead of the overland party, and with this detachment went Lieutenant Mullan, the first we hear of him.

On arriving at Fort Benton, Governor Stevens decided to arrange for a council to be held with the Flathead Indians, and sent Lieutenant Mullan to act as his envoy, the first problem being to find the Indians. Naturally it would be expected that he would go west, to their little village of St. Mary’s, or its vicinity. Instead of this he forded the Missouri about 500 yards below Fort Benton and then went south, skirting the Highwood mountains, to the foot of the Belt or Girdle mountains, following the Shonkin part of the way.

He crossed branches of Arrow river [Creek]; six branches of the Judith river, and then followed the latter to its head in the Judith mountains but saw no Indians, although buffalo, ducks and geese were plentiful. Thirty miles from the Judith mountains he crossed the Muscle Shell [Muscleshell River] and going down that river a few miles, found the Indians and arranged for the council.

Hunting Ground of Indians. From this can be seen what an extent of territory was ranged over by the Flatheads when in search of game, always more plentiful east of the Rockies, and what risk they ran of attacks from Blackfeet, Assinniboines or Crows.

Returning from his interview with the Indians, Lieut. Mullan went to the head of the Muscle Shell, crossed a ridge, and then went down Smith River to the Missouri, and from thence to the Bitter Root valley, where Governor Stevens had preceded him.

At the conclusion of the council, Lieut. Mullan, and from ten to fifteen men were left in the Bitter Root to protect the Flatheads from the Blackfeet, who made forays into the western country, not for game, but for horses. A Blackfeet is recorded as saying “I take the first Flathead horse I come across. It is sure to be a good one.”

Lieut. Mullan established his camp ten miles above Fort Owen, that his men might be far enough away from the Indians, not to have trouble with them, and having arranged for the building of houses during his absence, he called the Indians together to assure them that although he would be away for a short time, his men would protect them from enemies, as well as if he were with them. He then set out on another exploring trip, up the Bitter Root to its sources, and over the mountains to the Wisdom, and Jefferson rivers, and then returned to his camp, which he had named Cantonment Stevens.

Between the last of November and the middle of December 1853, Lieut. Mullan followed this same route he had gone over in October, and then continued southward to Fort Hall, on the Snake River. He found little snow, except on the summits of the mountains; there was none in the valleys to his great surprise. On his way to Fort Hall he passed what he called Market Lake, giving it this name for the following reason. The lake gave every indication of being recently formed; that whole region having subterranean streams that often came to the surface. It was also evident that at no distant period this had been a paradise for game. Before the lake was formed, whenever the supplies of the trappers ran low, they would say “Let’s go to market,” and hasten away to the spot now covered by the waters of the lake, where vast herds of buffalo and deer roamed, and the hunters would soon replenish their larders.

In 1863 our wagon train passed this same lake, which was covered with what we though were ducks. Anything in the way of fresh meat was a luxury after a prolonged diet of bacon and ham, and our men joyously anticipated the meal they would provide for us. There was no trouble in shooting the birds, and camp was close at hand; but we had ham, and not duck for dinner, as the birds proved to be little else but skin and feathers covering a framework of bones. It was not Market lake for us.

Followed De Smet’s Trail. On his return journey, Lieutenant Mullan passed, at High Bank Creek, through the same canyon traversed by Father De Smet in 1840. He also went into the Deer Lodge valley, so named because of the many deer seen there, as well as antelope, while on the hillsides were mountain sheep and goats. It was a beautiful sylvan scene that Lieutenant Mullan gazed upon. Civilization has changed all this, destroying the luxuriant vegetation, poisoning the soil, and establishing a prison there.

This journey to Fort Hall and return to Cantonment Stevens occupied forty-five days, in which time a distance of seven hundred miles was covered; the mountains crossed four times, and this by four different passes, during the months of December and January 1853-54.

It has been asked “Did Lieut. Mullan ever pass through what is now the site of the city of Great Falls?” The answer to this question is contained in the record of his explorations.

Learning from the Indians and others of a pass leading directly to Fort Benton over which wagons could be taken, Lieut. Mullan determined to try it. He left the Bitter Root March 2, 1854, going up the Hell gate to its junction with the Little Blackfoot and from there to the Missouri, and along the left bank of the latter to the Gate of the Mountains, where he crossed the Missouri on the ice. From this point he followed the right bank of this river to Fort Benton. He found the road good to the Gate of the Mountains, but from there it was hard traveling. This route must have taken him through or in the immediate vicinity of Great Falls.

Two days after reaching Fort Benton, he started back to the Bitter Root, going up the left bank of the Missouri to Sun River, thence to the Dearborn and Little Blackfoot, finding the road excellent all the way. Among other parts of Montana explored by Lieutenant Mullan during the following month was the Flathead River, and north to the Canadian line. This accomplished, he went into Idaho, then a part of Washington territory, of which his chief, I. I. Stevens, was governor. Either on his way to or from the Clearwater, he passed by Lolo Hot Springs.

Tribute to Mullan. Governor Stevens states that he was most favorably impressed by the manner in which Mullan carried out the orders given him, and concluded by saying “Not one unpleasant thing occurred during his (Mullan’s) year’s sojourn in the wilderness which marred the propriety of the intercourse of his party with the Indians, or tended to diminish his influence over them.”

That the Indians did not like to have Lieut. Mullan leave the Bitter Root is undoubtedly true. But not altogether because of the well-merited affection they had for him. His presence there was a protection against the Blackfeet, who “were always the aggressors” and not withstanding the recently concluded peace with them, could not be trusted to abide by it.

In 1858 the government decided to build a wagon road from Walla Walla to Fort Benton, and Lieut. Mullan was chosen to put it through.

These explorations of Mullan’s may be tiresome reading for any who are unable to visualize this region as it was at the time they were undertaken. I can recall no wagon train from Fort Benton to Bannack in 1864, ten years after these journeys of Lieut. Mullan. Those who made the trip went on horseback, through the Prickly Pear canyon. Malcolm Clarke’s ranch, near the entrance to the canyon, was one of the stopping places eagerly anticipated.

All this country was a wilderness, relieved by a few missions, and the trading posts of the fur companies dotted hear and there. The Blackfeet, Assinniboines and Crows were powerful tribes, and none too friendly to whites. They roamed wherever their fancy led them. The Blackfeet went to the Judith Basin for game and berries; and into the Flathead domain to steal horses. The other tribes did likewise, only with a change of name of the invading territory and its occupants.

Into such surroundings came Lieutenant Mullan, and bravely undertook the task allotted to him, carrying it through successfully often at a season when other men would have stayed in camp . . .

By studying his itinerary it will be seen that, although he did not build the Northern Pacific, those early explorations greatly excited its building, and also to construction of the Great Northern. [Source: Montana Newspaper Association 4 Feb 1924 The Grass Range Review]

[Photos:
Governor Isaac I. Stevens
Lieutenant John Mullan

Mullan Trail Blazer

[From the Anaconda Standard Sunday Morning March 20, 1910]

[Editor’s Note: Despite the impact of Captain John Mullan on Montana, his death December 28, 1909 passed without notice in the press of Fort Benton or Great Falls. This article in the Anaconda Standard in March 1910 by James U. Sanders of Helena, oldest son of Senator Wilbur F. Sanders, serves as the best "obituary" this author has found in the Montana press.]

The recent death of Capt. John Mullan, jr. Washington at the advanced age of 79 marks the passing of about the last member of that band of explorers of this region. He was a man to whom Montana owes much, and it would be a credit to us if in the not distant future some new county to be carved out of our imperial domain should bear his name.

Lieutenant Mullan’s activities in this part of the Northwest began in the year 1853 as a member of Gov. Isaac I. Stevens’ expedition to explore a route for the Pacific railroad from St. Paul to Puget sound. General Stevens on the creation of Washington territory in 1853 was appointed governor of the new territory and was at the same time placed in charge of the exploration for the Pacific railroad by the northern route.

In 1853 provision was made by congress for explorations for railroad routes from the Mississippi river to the Pacific Ocean to be under the supervision of the secretary of war.

Jefferson Davis, then secretary [of War], organized five expeditions, the first to explore a line near the thirty-second parallel of north latitude, the second near the thirty-fifth parallel, the third near the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth parallels, the fourth near the forty-first and forty-second parallels and the fifth near the forty-seventh and forty-ninth parallels. The reports of those surveys published by the government fill 13 royal octavo volumes, one of the most valuable publications of the government printing office. Thirty-five of the 70 full-page colored illustrations of the volume containing the report of the exploration of the northern route are of scenes in what is now Montana, and from one, the view of Cantonment Stevens and Fort Owen in the Bitter Root valley, adorning the walls of the house of representatives in our state capitol, was copied.

Secretary Davis in submitting the reports to congress in 1855 expressed a preference for the southernmost route, desiring the Pacific coast to be commercially allied to the gulf states.

It is a matter of interest that Governor Stevens, in crossing the summit of the Rocky mountains at Cadotte’s pass in the present county of Lewis and Clark and entering the confines of the territory of Washington on the 24th day of September, welcomed the members of the party to the new territory and issued a proclamation establishing civil government therein. This incident is worthy of commemoration and the spot should be marked by the Historical or Pioneer society.

Governor Stevens’ memory is also worthy of commemoration by Montana. Lieutenant Mullan adds his testimony to the value of his labors, which he says have left to the country a very correct outline of the geography of the Rocky mountain sections examined.

As a preliminary to railroad construction, Stevens appreciated the necessity of a wagon road and emphasized in his introductions to Mullan the problem of a proper connection through a practicable mountain pass of the plains of the Missouri with the plains of the Columbia between the forty-fifth and forty-eighth north latitude. So Mullan considered that his connection with this great national highway dated from that time.

The expedition under Governor Stevens along the northern route is the only one of interest to us. It was divided into two divisions, the main one operating under Stevens from St. Paul west. The western division, under Gen. George B. McClellan, was to proceed to Puget Sound and work east through the Cascade and other mountain ranges and meet Stevens. Lieut. R. Saxton was to repair in the Columbia River, organize a party and establish a depot in the Bitter Root valley.

Governor Stevens considered for a time the proposition of chartering a boat, sending a party up the Missouri river and throwing it into the mountains immediately. But he gave this up, not being fully satisfied that a boat, for which he had secured a conditional charter at Pittsburg, could go up that river. So the party proceeded overland.

In this party besides Governor Stevens were several men whose names are familiar as those of pioneers in what later was to be the state of Montana: Lieut. John Mullan, Second Artillery, six years later detailed to construct a military wagon road from Walla Walla to Fort Benton on the Missouri river; F. W. Lander, who later constructed that great highway known as the Lander cutoff, which left the main overland trail in the South pass above old Fort Aspenhul and proceeded direct to Fort Hall; Thomas Adams and Fred H. Burr, remembered by many old-timers, were also in the party. The services of Alexander Culbertson were also secured to acquaint the Blackfeet Indians with the purposes of the expedition.

Lieutenant Mullan was assigned to a party to survey the Missouri river and establish a depot at Fort Union. His party left St. Louis on the American Fur Company’s boat May 21, with instructions to make as complete a survey of the Missouri river as circumstances would permit and to establish a supply depot at Fort Union. From Fort Union Mullan was detailed to survey the valley of the Yellowstone River, which he ascended to a point near the present city of Billings. From there he turned northward and explored the valley of the Musselshell and Judith basin and rejoined the main party at Fort Benton on Sept. 1.

Mullan was left in command of a party to explore the mountain regions of eastern Washington and the northwest part of Missouri territory, for this was before the creation of the territory of Nebraska, which came to the summit of the rocky mountains. He established his headquarters in the Bitter Root valley near Fort Owen, and explored the mountain regions, as he expressed it, “which included the sections whence flow the sources of the Columbia and Missouri rivers in a network of babbling brooks.”

Mullan states that the only information of this great region of country was the map left us by Lewis and Clark in 1805, with addenda given him by the more intelligent employees of the Hudson Bay Company or chance travelers in the country.

Governor Stevens had employed a wagon train from St. Paul to Fort Benton, but there he had decided that he would be compelled to employ pack trains.

At this time the only overland wagon road to the Pacific was via the South (Pacific) pass, which still probably remains the great highway across the continent.

The question of the navigation of the upper Missouri and Columbia rivers was then a subject of discussion, one or two small steamboats at that time meeting the necessities of the commerce of the Columbia, with the head of navigation at The Dalles. On the Missouri it is recorded that a solitary steamer engaged in the fur trade made an annual trip up that stream.

The region covered by Lieutenant Mullan and his party in 1854-1855 [actually 1853-1854] extended from the Kootenai River on the north to Fort Hall on Snake river, covering the mountainous portions of Montana. Mullan, at this early date, determined that the Bitter Root mountains presented greater difficulties than the Rocky mountains in the matter of wagon and railroad construction, so that perhaps its adoption 10 years later as the boundary between Idaho and Montana territories is not strange.

Lieutenant Mullan, with a small party, left the Bitter Root valley May 1, 1854 and, crossing the summit of the Rocky Mountains on the 10th, arrived at Fort Benton on the 14th. There he remained two days fitting up a wagon train, and started on his return on the 17th, again reaching the Bitter Rot valley on the 31st of that month. On this trip, in traveling along the Blackfoot, he said it was a misnomer to call it the Hell Gate, as the sun does not shine on a better spot on earth.

The actual construction of the military road from Fort Walls Walla to Fort Benton was deferred until 1859-1860, when the expedition was placed in the immediate charge of Lieutenant Mullan, and the Mullan road will live in history, although the iron horse has paralleled it for the greater part of its length.

J. Wiessner, the astronomer of the expedition, in submitting his report of the astronomical and meteorological observations to Captain Mullan, closed with the following remarkable statement:
“While I was drawing a profile of the road, and by attempting to represent all known heights of the mountains, of settlements and camps along the rivers, in valleys and prairies of Gov. (the late lamented general) I. I. Steven’s Northern Pacific Railroad district, between the longitude of the mouth of the Columbia on the west and Fort Union on the east, and within the parallels of 45 degrees and the northern boundary, your signature was found most wonderfully written by the pen of nature. From the Pacific, along the Columbia up to Mount Adams, down to the Cascades, up to Mount Hood and, down to The Dalles, the profile is an ‘M’; along the Columbia, the Walla Walla, the Touchet to the head of Reed creek, down to the Tukonon to where Lewis discovered the Snake river, up the Pelouse on to the high plains of the Columbia and down to the St. Joseph, the profile is a ‘U’; up the Coeur d’Alene to Sohon’s pass and down the St. Regis Borgia to the Bitter Root, the profile is an ‘L’; by the Medicine Rock, Dearborn, Sun river, over the plains to the right of the Teton, to Fort Benton and along the winding Missouri to Fort Union, the profile is a ‘N.’”

From the foregoing it will be seen that the M of this remarkable profile is written in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia river; the U is written within the state of Idaho, the first L representing the summit of the Bitter Root mountains, the Rocky mountains representing the second L and the A N being written along the Dearborn, Sun and Missouri rivers across the state of Montana to Fort Union on the east. Let the profile of the White mountains look to his laurels.

We have mentioned the Oregon trail. This old highway in its time was without doubt, the best traveled highway of history and was followed for two-thirds of its length by the Pacific Argonauts from 1848 till the completion of the first Pacific railroad in 1869. Along the Oregon trail again old Ezra Meeker, over 80, in arranging to take a rip this summer, retracing the trip which he took 58 years ago, a feat which he accomplished in 1906, visiting President Roosevelt at the White House and driving his oxen into New York city.

A bill is pending in congress providing for the marking of this old trail at prominent points and seeking to interest the historical societies of the states through which it passes, in the matter, surely a worthy cause. The sympathy which this proposition has aroused suggests that similar action should be taken with reference to the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition 44 years before the dedication of the Oregon trail. . .
J. U. SANDERS.
Helena, March 14, 1910.
________

In 1882 Mr. Sanders received this letter from Captain Mullan:
Washington, D. C., Aug. 30, 1882.
“J. U. Sanders, Esq., Helena, Mont.:
“Dear Sir: I acknowledge the receipt of your very full and satisfactory letter of the 20th inst., containing so graphic an account of the operations going on at this time at both ends and in the middle of the Mullan tunnel, and for which please accept my thanks.

“It would afford me exceeding great pleasure to be present next year at the celebration which you speak of in anticipation of the completion of this great work through the Rocky mountains, and if circumstances enable me to be present on that occasion I shall conceive it my duty to make an effort to visit you in Western Montana and see the result of the growth of that region, where 30 years ago I pioneered the first wagon across that section of the Rocky mountains. I have always had a most abiding confidence in the future growth and development of that, to me, most interesting portion of the Northwest and to travel through that country again at the rate of 500 miles a day, where we thought we were making a fair day’s work when we journeyed five miles a day on foot, will be to me a pleasure which can only be described by the enjoyment thereof.

“My advices from Oregon are to the same effect as you attest, to wit: that the western section of the road will reach Missoula some time about the end of the year.
J. M. Mullan

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

By A. L. Stone

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 included in 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. [John Mullan writes:]

“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 gems 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.”

[Editor Stone continued:] 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

Reminiscences of the Mullan Military Road Expedition:
Charles Schafft

By Ken Robison

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]

Building Mullan Road to Walla Walla Occupied Army Troop For Seven Years.

By Mrs. Martha Edgerton Rolfe Plassmann. Written in 1930.

Anyone who is at all familiar with Montana history, or that of the Pacific Northwest, has heard of the Mullan road, but how many know its route, its length, or the reason for its building? Comparatively few, I fancy. Some of these points I propose to make clear in this article.
Today, as never before in the history of our country, is an age of road construction, that automobiles may speed over them from one end of the continent to the other, devouring the miles at a rate undreamed of in pioneer days.
Most of these highways in the northwest follow old trails, originally Indian paths that were broadened by white men who passed over them, and are now being cleared of obstructions; graded and smoothed--in some instances paved. They are better roads as a whole, than mid-western city streets in the days of my childhood.
Among these roads of the northwest, none is more noted than that laid out and built by Lieutenant Mullan, from Fort Benton to Walla Walla. It was a government undertaking to provide a military highway between these two points, in case of Indian outbreaks, then always possible.
Lolo Too Difficult. Before the road could be built there were the required preliminary surveys to determine the best route to follow. There were three trails Mullan could have taken in crossing the mountains to reach Missoula: that through the Lolo Pass; following Clark Fork, or via Coeur d’Alene and St. Regis. Lolo Pass was out of the question. Even now a highway over it is delayed because of the difficulties and cost of its construction. One who has been a passenger over the Northern Pacific between Missoula and Spokane at flood time can readily understand why Mullan did not choose the Clark Fork route, the one followed by the Northern Pacific. The neighborhood of Lake Pend d’Orielle, when I saw it, was one vast morass, where the ancient Oregon story might have been applicable. It was said an Oregon woman was seen wading through the water knee deep, and sounding it here and there with a long pole. When asked what she was doing, she replied, “Trying to find the well.” In the Pend d’Oreille region the wells, if there are any, must be equally hard to locate.
Mullan finally decided on the Coeur d’Alene--St. Regis route. When completed the road was six hundred and twenty-four miles long, but hundreds of miles had to be surveyed in addition, before the route was determined. Mullan said later he should have chosen the Clark Fork way through the mountains.
While he was engaged in the survey, war with the tribes just west of the Coeur d’Alene broke out. Surveying in that region was then impossible, and Lieutenant Mullan, instead of taking a vacation, offered his services to Colonel Wright, who was sent out to subdue the Indians, and made a thorough job of it.
Completes His Work. When the Indian troubles were ended, Mullan collected a company of a hundred men and set out on the first of July 1859, to complete the work so long delayed. His starting point was long delayed. His starting point was Walla Walla, from whence he proceeded in a northeasterly direction to the Coeur d’Alene, most of the way over a rolling prairie until he reached the heavy timber near the mountains and through them. The last two hundred and twenty-four miles was mainly open country.
There were 120 miles of timber felling and the grubbing out of stumps. What this meant in labor and time those best can testify who have tried it. Thirty miles of excavating were necessary and there were numerous bridges to be built, and Fort Benton was not reached until 1860, the road being completed during the summers of 1861-62.
Lieutenant Mullan spent seven years in putting this road through. Included in this time was his service rendered during the Indian war. He proved to be as good a military commander as he was an engineer, and many anecdotes are told of his heroism during the Wright campaign.
It was no easy task to build a road for over six hundred miles through the wilderness inhabited by none too friendly Indian tribes; both heroism and persistence were needed to accomplish it, and when completed it was no longer needed for military purposes, although a few soldiers passed over it.
A new use arose for the road when gold was discovered in Montana, as over it passed the miners from the west in their mad rush to the new diggings. Mullan’s survey resulted in the building of the Northern Pacific via Clark Fork, also in a more comprehensive knowledge of all that great region lying between its objective points of Fort Benton and Walla Walla.
Soon Needed Repairs. The Mullan road is said to have been soon in need of repairs, and that need continues, as those can testify who have lately passed over the St. Regis portion of it. The local authorities made repairs as they were held to be necessary, and must continue to do so in the future unless they are fortunately enough to secure government aid.
When first laid out, the Mullan road cost the government $230,000, and was not considered at the time of its building to be a very good highway. The remark concerning it is attributed to Father Cataldo, “The Mullan trail wasn’t much of a road. It was a big job well done, but we used to say Captain Mullan just made enough of a trail so he could bet back out of here.”
For the student of Montana history, there is some extremely interesting reading to be found in the report of Lieutenant Mullan that he submitted to the government. He in no way underestimated the difficulties of the task he undertook, as his experiences when with Gov. Isaac I. Stevens had taught him something of the country through which he must pass.
Passing north of Lake Coeur d’Alene, the mountains over which he must pass confronted him, and here arose trouble. The Indians, not wishing their land crossed by the road, did all they could to discourage him. They described the mountains as being unpassable. They never had heard of any one crossing them, nor were they willing to act as guides. Finally one--Augustine--agreed to go with him, but later refused to accompany him. Notwithstanding this, Mullan pushed on, fairly hewing his way over the mountains, where he testifies the hatchets were kept busy.
Indian Trail Impossible. It was almost impossible to follow the Indian trail. This, in places, was so steep and slippery some of the horses fell over the cliffs. Added to this were rock slides and fallen timber to impede his passage. Once at the summit, snow was found and plenty of it, through which the weary men and horses were compelled to flounder. At length the divide was conquered, and the company managed to reach the Hell Gate River.
Here Mullan’s topographer met Major Owen, and went with him to his fort, near Stevensville, making this the initial point of his second departure. He went to the Rattlesnake, and on up the Hell Gate River, crossing it fourteen times on the ice. The beaver had also been at work on the road but not in a helpful way for the human road builders, as they rendered it almost impassable. Any one can believe this who has attempted to tear down a beaver dam. I have tried it.
Reaching the head of Prickly Pear canyon, a blizzard set in, the wind blowing terrifically, overturning their tents and keeping them in constant fear trees would be uprooted and fall on them. They survived the night, however, but the morning brought no relief from the storm. On the contrary it must have increased in severity, as blizzards in this region are likely to do, and the strong wind, laden with ice particles made it impossible for the men to keep their eyes open while ascending the divide between the Dearborn and Sun rivers. They were forced to turn back to shelter.
Reach Sun River. Not far distant was a camp of Pend d’Oreille Indians, who would have received them hospitably and they could have been comfortable and it seemed advisable they should go there, or at least wait for a time before continuing the journey. The topographer feared if they did so it would be long before they could reach the farm on Sun River. He therefore decided to keep right on notwithstanding the severity of the weather. Had he realized the serious menace of the storm, he would have hesitated about exposing his men to it. They went on to the farm but in a sad condition, as many of them were badly frost bitten. In this respect, however, they were more fortunate than the soldiers who, later were the victims of a similar blizzard on Frozen hill.
Despite the storm, Mullan’s topographer did not fail to notice the features of the landscape. He speaks of Big Knee, Crown, and Square buttes.
Major Vaughn, then Blackfeet Indian agent, received the company on their arrival at the farm, and entertained them to the best of his ability. There their frozen members were thawed out, and they once more found themselves in a fit condition to go on.
It happened that Major Dawson’s interpreter was at the farm from the Fort Benton fur post. He kindly volunteered to act as their guide. The weather modifying, they again struck the indicated trail, which led them to the Missouri below the Great Falls.
From this point it did not take them long to reach Fort Benton, that was to see the end of the road, although it was by no means settled it should be approached by the route they had followed, for their return trip would be by another, at least part of the way.
They stayed but a short time at Fort Benton. Possibly they were apprehensive of trouble with the Indians, as Malcolm Clarke gave them a howitzer with an odometer attached to the wheel, by which they could know the distances traveled. It belonged to the government, and their being a government job, no objection could be raised at Mullan’s taking the gun. The odometer especially proved to be very useful. Only waiting to attach this valuable acquisition to the howitzer wheel, the company began the return trip, which they accomplished safely with no trouble from Indian attacks.
In his report Lieutenant Mullan acknowledges his indebtedness, in the early stages of his journey, to Father DeSmet’s book, “Oregon Missions,” which gave him many geographical and statistical facts.
He advised that a depot be built at the mouth of Sun River, to be a three company cavalry post, this post to supply a fur company post at Deer Lodge, and a one company post at Hell’s Gate, supplies to be shipped to the Great Falls from St. Louis. He was the first person on record to recognize Great Falls as a good distributing point. He also advised that the Indians be placed in charge of the war department. He spoke highly of the missions, their object being “to secure the Indians from the blighting effects of advancing civilization, which to them means death.”
[Source: Montana Newspaper Association 1 Sep 1930 Winifred Times]

On Mullan Trail of Vinegar Jones
Shooting the Pass: On the Mullan Road in a Hudson Sport Supersix

By W. G. “Vinegar” Jones

Editor’s Note: Have you ever wondered about the fancy marble Mullan Road statue on the Fort Benton Levee? Who was Mullan? What was the Mullan Road? 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 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.
By 1923 the Mullan Road largely had faded from memory 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 Great Falls Leader featured the Mullan Road and Vinegar’s efforts to preserve it their Saturday Auto Excursion Special of August 11, 1923. The Leader headlined:

On Mullan Trail Of Vinegar Jones. Shooting the Pass in Sport Supersix Hudson For Holter [Dam]. 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.
[Log of Road has been omitted.]
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.
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.
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.
‘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.
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 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.”
Editor’s Note: At this point The Leader excursion goes off the Mullan Road and on to Holter Dam and an afternoon of fishing. From Fort Benton to 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. An excellent recent 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. Lee Hanchett will be speaking at this 150th Anniversary Mullan Road Conference.
[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

From Walla Walla to Benton by Military Road Report of
Capt. John Mullan

Anaconda Standard Sunday July 26, 1908

In no way can the changes wrought in the northeastern portion of the United States in the last half century be more forcibly realized than by a perusal of a report submitted in the war department in 1863 by Capt. John Mullan, who had been in command of several exploring parties sent out by congress to locate and build a military road from Fort Walla Walla on the Columbia river to Fort Benton on the Missouri river.

The necessity felt by the government for a more thorough and satisfactory knowledge in detail of the geographical and topographical character of the country between the Mississippi river and the Pacific ocean, looking especially toward the location and construction of a Pacific railroad, called into the field in the spring of 1853, under authority from congress, several corps of engineers and explorers, whose mission it was to supply this desired information within certain limits of time and means.

Hon. Isaac I. Stevens was in command of the first expedition in 1853 and Captain Mullan was assigned as one of his assistants. This party rapidly and easily surveyed and laid out a good road from St. Paul’s, as the Minnesota metropolis was then called, to Fort Benton. Then the expedition entered the more difficult section of the Bitter Root range of the Rockies, where the lateness of the season, the difficulty of the county, the importance of the undertaking and the scarcity of supplies caused Governor Stevens to leave a small party in the field for further explorations, with Captain Mullan in command.

A Blind Undertaking. The only knowledge the explorers had of the country was that gleaned from the maps and data of Lewis and Clarke and such information as Hudson Bay trappers or chance travelers might be willing to impart. As one of the most essential aids for the construction of a railroad was a good wagon road, owing to the necessity of transporting all supplies for long distances from the eastern to the western depots, the value and importance of Captain Mullan’s work can be appreciated.

The limited commerce and travel along the narrow margin of the Columbia and the principal tributary, the Willamette, at that date gave employment to one or more smaller-sized steam craft, which were amply able to do the business of those who looked toward the Dalles as the head of steam navigation on the Columbia, or to Oregon City, the head of the Willamette; or the eastern watershed of the Rocky mountains a solitary steamer engaged in the fur trade, made its annual trips from St. Louis till it crept along the waters of the Missouri to a region where the red man walked alone, though a pioneer to the long line of steamers that must follow in the wake of the trade and development of this region constituted the only attempt made to test the further navigation of this noble river towards its sources in the Rocky mountains. Captain Mullan’s energies were to be directed to finding the shortest and most feasible route between the headwaters of these two rivers, and the field examined by him in 1853 and 1854 extended from the valley of the Kootenay river on the north to Fort Hall on the Snake on the south.

Indian Reformation. In the spring of 1854, from a half-breed named Gabriel Prudhomme, who had been a voyager and traveling companion of the earlier Jesuit fathers in their pilgrimage through the Rockies, Captain Mullan learned of an easy and direct route from his camp in the Bitter Root mountains to Fort Benton. The party left camp on the first of March, arrived in Fort Benton on the 14th and returned to their starting point in the Bitter Root mountains on the 31st of the same month. A messenger was dispatched to Governor Stevens with the news, which gave fresh hopes to him and his friends, as they were anxious to open this section by a line of immigrant travel.

This discovery led up to an appropriation of $30,000, the first of a series, to open a wagon road from Fort Benton to Walla Walla, and the party turned its attention to the country to the west. One of the engineers in the party examined the southern Nez Perce trail, but found it an impossible one, owing to snow and other obstacles, Clarke’s Fork, St. Regis, Borgia, Coeur d’Alene valley and Lolo pass were the other lines left to be examined, and to arrive at a just estimate of the advantages possessed by each route it was necessary for one person to make an examination of all of them. Clarke’s Fork was examined in the spring and, owing to the high water, was decided to be impracticable, although Captain Mullan later regretted that he did not choose this route, as he came to the conclusion that the extra expense of constructing a road above the high water mark would have been more than balanced by the difference in climate enjoyed by this route over that of the Coeur d’Alene valley, which was chosen.

Thinking, very naturally, that as the Coeur d’Alene route lay 50 or 60 miles south of the Clarke’s Fork road and the difference in altitude being small, all questions of climate would be in favor of the more southern route. Later examinations developed the remarkable fact that as one goes north in this mountainous region, within certain limits the climate grows milder, the snow less deep, that horses can travel all winter and the general characteristics of winter are all less servere.

As to Climate. In regard to this climatic peculiarity, Captain Mullan says: “If we take an isothermal line which crosses the country in the latitude of St. Joseph, Mo., and trace this line westwardly, we reach Fort Laramie, when, varying from the line of latitude, it trends northwestwardly and passes between the Wind River mountains and the Black hills of Dakota, reaching the head waters of the Yellowstone at the hot springs and geysers of that stream; thence again to the Beaverhead valley, crossing the main range of the Rocky mountains at Deer Lodge valley. In other words, the longitude from St. Joseph to the Rocky mountains has gained six degrees of latitude, which remarkable increment continues as we trace it further westward; for the lie crossing the range grasps the valley of the Hell’s Gate and keeps it until it reaches the Bitter Root, and thence, trending northwest, strikes Clarke’s Fork at the Pend d’Oreille lake; from this point it trends south and come to Walla Walla, in Washington territory. Thus we find the same climate along the Clarke’s Fork, Hell’s Gate, upper Missouri and the Yellowstone rivers that we find at St. Joseph, Mo. This is as true as it is strange, and shows unerringly that there exists in this zone an atmospheric river of heat flowing through this region, varying in width from 1 to 100 miles, according to the physical face of the country.

Over the Field. Captain Mullan completed his field labors in 1854, when the appropriation gave out, and was sent by Governor Stevens from Puget sound in January, 1855, to Washington with letters to the war department, urging it to continue the explorations. The subject hung fire from this time until the winter of 1857, when Governor Stevens was in congress and, owing to the latter’s interest and enthusiasm, Captain Mullan was again detailed to take command of a road-building party. This decision of congress was hastened by the Mormon disturbances, which brought the necessity of troops at the center of trouble forcibly before the government. Then the Indians along the Columbia rose to a tribe, and although they were defeated in the wars of 1856 and 1857, they were not quelled, and in 1858 occurred the defeat of Colonel Steptoe, which caused Captain Mullan to delay his expedition for the time being, as the escort of 60 men which General Clarke, commander of the department of the Pacific, had been directed to furnish him, could not be spared from Fort Walla Walla, and, in addition, it would have been impossible to construct wagon roads with the Indians in a state of open hostility.

Rather than remain idle, Captain Mullan offered the services of himself and engineers to General Clarke, who assigned him to duty on Colonel Wright’s staff as topographical officer. This gave Captain Mullan an opportunity of learning, at first hand, the nature of the country through which the road would eventually pass, as he knew it only from the reports and maps of others, and was uncertain as to where a road should be built. The Indian campaign was successful, Colonel Wright pursuing the Indians about 150 miles, and on the banks of a stream near the Spokane, which, Captain Mullan speaks of as the Nedlwhuald’s, caught up with them, hanged the Yakima chief, Qualtian, and several of the other leaders of the uprising.

Making Ready. Not wishing to await the action of the bureau and the decision of congress in regard to orders for another expedition, Captain Mullan journeyed to Washington, and through the aid of Governor Stevens an appropriation of $100,000 was made in March, 1859.

In June Captain Mullan had his command of 100 men assembled at The Dalles, in Oregon, and sent a part of them on ahead to run levels along the banks of the Columbia, in the Snake river to determine the feasibility of a railroad along this route.. In this advance party were several engineers who had had experience on eastern railroad lines, and they made note of the wood, sand, lime, stone, etc., which would be available for the construction of a Pacific railroad. They were to await the main party at Walla Walls.

G. Sohon, who had accompanied Captain Mullan on his expedition in 1853 and 1854, and who was familiar with the Indian languages and had great influence over the savages, was sent on with the advance party to Walla Walla, from whence he was told to proceed to the Coeur d’Alene country; from there he was to go to the Coeur d’Alene mission and from Father Joset procure such guides as were necessary and then to reconnoiter and determine where the best crossing of the Snake river could be made, and where was the best and shortest route between the head waters of the Palouse river and the Bitter Root valley. Father Joset and Captain Mullan had been in correspondence and the latter believed that through the Indians he could learn of a direct route. Unfortunately, the Indians were so bitter and the country proved so rough that, after many hardships, Sohon was recalled and Captain Mullan gave up all hope of finding a better route at this point than through the Coeur d’Alene valley.

On the first of July the whole party met in Walla Walla, and thence started on its long, arduous journey eastward, which ended at Fort Benton 13 months later, and on which they laid out 624 miles of road, built many bridges and gained for the benefit of the settlers and gold seekers much valuable data in regard to climate, topography and natural resources of the country.

The Route Traversed. The route traversed was from Walla Walla to the mouth of the Palouse; then the Snake river was crossed where one of the men was drowned, and then on to Fort Taylor, which was built in 1858. Whatever work was required en route in the way of excavations or bridges was done by the men as the train was moving, as the country was a rolling prairie.

It being a question in the mind of the commander as to whether the road should follow the main valley of the Palouse, or should strike across the high prairie country and follow the upper tributaries of this stream, Theodore Kolecke was sent ahead to explore both routes. The more northern route was chosen, which lay near Pyramid butte. The road now crossed the Ora Yatayeuse river and required little work until a tributary of the last named stream called the Teho-Teho-u-Seep was reached, after which they entered the most difficult portion of the basaltic basin which, owing to the deep ravines, and the bed of Spectre lake intervening, forced them to take a still more northerly course when they reached the prairie that separates the waters that flow into the Snake river from those that flow into the Spokane.

They now camped on the banks of the Nedlwhuald, where Colonel Wright had hung the Indians a year before, and after traveling over a country that required almost no work in the construction of the road reached the spurs of the Bitter Root mountains, where the difficult feats of road-building began.

The line chosen for the road lay on the southern edge of Coeur d’Alene lake, then continued four miles up the St. Joseph’s river. After crossing the latter it took the most direct route to the Coeur d’Alene river and to the mission of that name. In order to make the descent from the table land to the St. Joseph valley a bridge 60 feet long was constructed and a good deal of excavating had to be done.

Beautiful Valley. It was in this valley, which Captain Mullan extols as one of the most beautiful it was his fortune to see, that the Catholic fathers first established their mission, but, owing to the overflow of the lower portion of the valley, which made communication with the outside world difficult and prevented the extension of their fields, they removed to Coeur d’Alene lake.

The road from St. Joseph’s to the mission, 12 miles away, was constructed with some difficulty, as three bridges had to be built and a good deal of excavation done along rocky spurs. Two parties were sent out, one of which was directed to cross the mountains along the south fork of the Coeur d’Alene river, strike the Clarke’s Fork at or near Thompson’s prairie, procure Indian guides and an outfit and pursue investigations up the Clarke’s Fork to the Pend d’Oreille mission and return via the Bitter Root, recrossing the mountains via Sohon’s pass and thence to the main camp, which was busy making a corduroy road a few miles from the Coeur d’Alene mission. The other exploring party was sent forward to ascertain the best crossing of the Coeur d’Alene mountains and to continue examinations down the valley of the St. Regis to the Bitter Root and thence up it to Hell’s Gate valley. After careful consideration of the data brought in by these two parties it was decided to build the road up the valley of the Coeur d’Alene, and finally after much laborious work through dense timber the outfit reached the valley of the St. Regis the 1st of December.

Severe Winter. As they had been obliged to keep the stock in the mountains until they were covered with snow, many of them died from starvation. Captain Mullan had intended to spend the winter in the Bitter Root valley because of its mild climate, but as it was, winter overtook him and the best he could do was to make a point on the St. Regis. In order to do this he pushed his animals to the last notch of their endurance, dreading to be caught in a mountain gorge to battle out the winter or to contend with the high water of the coming spring. After becoming settled in camp the stock was sent 100 miles to the Bitter Root, but the ground was covered with snow and the animals so impoverished that many of them died en route. The beef cattle were slaughtered and the meat frozen and lasted in this condition until March. The camp was called Cantonment Jordan and the men spent the winter compiling field notes, making maps and busy with the ordinary camp routine.

Captain Mullan devoted a good deal of attention to measuring the snowfall, and many inquiries developed the fact that no Indian had been known to pass the mountains in the winter via the Coeur d’Alene route, but that the Clarke’s Fork trail was nearly always passable, which fact he wished he had known sooner.

Owing to the difference in climate enjoyed by the Bitter Root country the camp was moved and as the horses were still in no condition to be used, the men transported two months’ supplies on their backs through the dense timber to the new camp, where they constructed six bateaus and a large flat, the latter to be left at the crossing and the former to be used in transporting supplies to the river as the work progressed.

Aid From Indians. Captain Mullan then left the party in charge of Lieut. J. L. White and went to the Bitter Root valley and laid his needs before the Flathead Indians, who had always been friendly to him. He informed them that he needed 117 horses with park saddles and 15 or 20 men to accompany Mr. Sohon, who was to be sent to Fort Benton for supplies. The chief, Ambrose, appeared the next day, after Captain Mullan had stated his request with a bundle of 137 sticks, each of which represented a horse or a man. The Indians were paid for the use of their animals and the services of the men and returned in March from Fort Benton to the Bitter Root camp with 11,000 rations. A messenger was also sent from the Bitter Root to Salt Lake with a requisition on Colonel Crossman for 50 mules.

The messenger was caught in the mountains by deep snow, near the head of the Snake river, lost his horse, made snowshoes from his saddle rigging, and, though snow blind, made the greater portion of the 500 miles on foot, reaching Camp Floyd safely and returning on horseback with one companion, making the whole trip to and from within 50 days. Captain Mullan then went to the Pend d’Orielle mission for fresh vegetables, as many of the men were showing signs of scurvy.

Captain Mullan was anxious to reach Fort Benton as soon as possible and thought that the summer of 1860 would prove a good time for carrying out the proposition of Jefferson Davis—a military movement via the Columbia and Missouri rivers and the route which was then being laid out. If the soldiers could be transported across the country by this route, it would show that some result had been obtained from the expenditure of the money. The success of the steamers in reaching Fort Benton in 1858 and 1859 was one point accomplished, and then the fact that the forts in Washington and Oregon needed recruits and supplies and the fact Captain Mullan would reach Benton with a large and empty wagon train would make the spring of 1860 a proper time for testing the merits of the road. A messenger was dispatched to Washington setting forth the advantages of the route and requesting that 300 recruits be sent from St. Louis on the steamers belonging to Pierre Chouteau & Co. with four months’ supplies. Captain Mullan agreed to meet them at Fort Benton with his train with which they could make the trip to Walla Walla in 60 days.

Heading for Fort Benton. After procuring the vegetables Captain Mullan returned to the camp on the Bitter Root ferry and now every effort was made to reach Fort Benton in as short a time as possible. The road was made along the right bank of the Bitter Root river, with but one crossing of that stream, and an arduous cut made around Big mountain, which cost the labor of 150 men for six weeks. The next stretch of country of 60 miles to Hell’s Gate required the building of a bridge 150 feet in length and this part of the road was left in fine condition. The party then pushed on to the Blackfoot river, which was reached on the 1st of July, and a party was sent out to make a thorough examination of the Big Blackfoot and run a line of levels from the mouth of its tributary. Lander’s Fork, across the Rocky mountains, via either Cadottes’ or Lewis and Clark’s pass to the Dearborn river. This party was to join the main command at the crossing of the Dearborn river.

The Big Blackfoot was crossed by means of a wagon boat and a small bateau, the last named of these being transported the entire distance to Fort Benton, and in it some members of the party descended the Missouri to Fort Randall. While crossing the river Captain Mullan learned of the arrival at Fort Benton of Major Blake, with a command of 300 recruits, en route to Fort Walla Walla, who was awaiting the arrival of the exploring party with the wagon train. After a good deal of wire pulling by the friends of the new road the soldiers had been sent to Fort Benton and the government was saved $30,000 by the opening of the route.

The road up the Hell’s Gate required 11 crossings on this trip, but later all but one were eliminated. They followed the Little Blackfoot for some distance and reached the west base of the Rockies, crossed Mullan’s pass on the 17th day of July. They followed the coarse of the Big Prickly Pear and passed through the Prickly Pear valley, which Captain Mullan states abounded with game of all kinds. They crossed Little Prickly Pear, and as at one place the stream enters into a deep rocky canyon with no berme on either side, they were forced to make the road over a broken section, which they termed Medicine Rock mountain. As Major Blake was becoming impatience they descended into the valley of the Little Prickly Pear and made 18 crossings of the stream in order to save time.

On Medicine Rock mountain Captain Mullan states that traces of quartz were found and continual indications of gold, and the Indians told the party of gold which had been found two miles up a canyon, near the Big Prickly Pear. The route now lay over prairie hills to the Dearborn river, where dispatches from Washington were received setting forth a continuation of the appropriation. Camp was made at Bird Tail Rock, from there they proceeded to the Sun river, which was crossed at a ford where the Indian agency of the Blackfeet, in charge of Col. A. J. Vaughn, was located.

Easy Going. The remaining 55 miles to Fort Benton was over easy, almost level road and was made without incident, the end of the journey being reached on the 1st of August. A Mackinaw boat was in readiness and the soldiers and civilians, whose terms had expired, were sent down the river to St. Louis. The wagons were turned over to Major Blake, and on the 3rd of August Captain Mullan, after leaving several of his most competent men with the major as guides, left Fort Benton for Walla Walla, desiring to keep in the lead and make whatever repairs the road called for. The soldiers under Major Blake made the trip to Walla Walla from Fort Benton in 57 days and the feasibility of the route was demonstrated for future military movements to the western coast.

On his next expedition Captain Mullan desired to test the Laramie-Deer Lodge route, and with this in mind went to San Francisco, from there to St. Louis by stage, thence to Washington, where, owing to the chaotic conditions prevailing in 1860, he was forced to return to Walla Walla and take up work on his original proposition, which had previously been accepted, to continue work on the Missouri, making improvements on the road. He left Walla Walla the middle of May, 1861, and spent the winter in camp in the Bitter Root mountains at Cantonment Wright, which was located at the fork of the Hell’s Gate and Big Blackfoot rivers. The winter of ’61 and ’62 was one of unusual severity, the Indians losing the greater part of their cattle and stock.

In the spring of this year many of the bridges were washed away, necessitating new ones, and in many places the road was moved in order to place it as much as possible above the high water mark. Fort Benton was reached in June and on the return trip to Walla Walla, which Captain Mullan made almost immediately, he had the extreme satisfaction at seeing many settlers, emigrants and miners availing themselves of the road which he had planned. Late in August, 1862, he reached Walla Walla and auctioned his property at public sale and on the 11th of September started for Washington to make his report to the war department. He had been seven years on the work and had opened up a road 624 miles in length, at a cost of $230,000.

When Captain Mullan made his journey there were three grist mills and two sawmills in Walla Walla valley, one grist mill at the Coeur d’Alene mission, one saw and one grist mill at Frenchtown and the same number at the Pend d’Oreille mission; one sawmill at the Jocko river and one steam saw and one grist mill owned by LaBarge & Co., which they proposed to erect near the Deer Lodge gold mines, which were already coming into notice.

Prophecy Fulfilled. An interesting prophecy made by Captain Mullan has been fulfilled. He states that he expected that the buffalo would be exterminated in a few years and their places taken by thousands of bands of sheep and he also states that he hopes in time that the streams of the Rocky mountains would be harnessed and wool manufactories erected which would send to St. Louis via the Missouri an enormous quantity of wool and that this wool, together with gold, would be the principal exports of the Northwest.

In 1858 gold was discovered in British Columbia and in the next year Captain Pierce explored the Bitter Root mountains and discovered the Nez Perce gold mines. Within three years prospectors had spread all over Eastern Washington and then in their restless wanderings had uncovered the rich mines in the Big Hole and Beaverhead valleys, and Captain Mullan remarks in his report that “enough discoveries have been made to warrant us in thinking that the whole mountain system is gold bearing.” He also speaks of copper, sulphur, coal and iron indications which encourage him in the belief that the cherished scheme of a railroad to the Pacific will become a necessity.

In his special report of the Indians along the road he praises the Flatheads, which at that time numbered about four hundred. The other tribes mentioned are the Palouse, Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, Pend d’Oreilles, Snakes, Bannacks, mountain Nez Perces and the Blackfeet, the last of which are, according to the captain, the most numerous and the worst of the lot.

The white population found on or tributary to the road at this time is estimated at 1,000, found mostly at Walla Walla, Lewiston, Deer Lodge, Hell’s Gate, Beaverhead, Big Hole, Bitter Root and Prickly Pear. Two weekly papers were published in the region, at Walla Walla the Statesman and at Lewiston the Golden Age.

There were three Indian missions established along the line of the road—one among the Coeur d’Alenes, one among the Pend d’Oreilles and one among the Blackfeet. Captain Mullan pays the Fathers the highest tribute, both on account of their unvarying kindness to him and because of the marvelous influence for good which they had over the Indians.

In expatiating upon the wants of the country, Captain Mullan urges the establishment of a cavalry post at Deer Lodge and one at Hell’s Gate, which should receive their supplies from a military depot which he urges the government to build at the head of the great falls of the Missouri, at the mouth of the Sun river. Florence, Ore Fino, Fort Boise and the Coeur d’Alene mission also needed companies of soldiers, and the war department was advised to retain Fort Laramie, with a large body of troops always in readiness. Military roads were recommended from Deer Lodge to Salt Lake, from Fort Benton to Beaverhead valley, and from this valley to Salmon river.

The government was urged to establish mail facilities from Hell’s Gate to Fort Benton, from Deer Lodge to For Laramie and Salt Lake, and also a mail route from the Beaverhead valley to Florence City.

As to Railways. In discussing the Pacific railroad, the question as to whether the constitution of the United states would allow land grants or not was a mooted question. The fact that the country from the eastern terminus, St. Paul, to Walla Walla was almost wholly unsettled and that the road would be liable to the attacks of the Indians, and would have no tonnage from the intermediate points, was a deterrent feature in all the plans suggested for the immediate construction of the road.

Captain Mullan goes at length into the various questions affection the proposed railroad and reviews the matter from the time of Whitney, who first advocated a Pacific railroad in the ‘40s, gives elaborate explanations of the cost, different systems and routes and debates whether in view of existing conditions the credit or cash system of construction would be the better.

The sextant, transit and meteorological observations of the exploring party are given in the last part of the book, and those people who claim that the climate of the Northwest is changing and is no longer the same as it was in the early days have a reliable record with which to compare the conditions of the present and to discover whether improved conditions of lining account for the weather seeming milder or whether there really is a change for the better.

Celebrating the Mullan Road--Conference Wrap-up

2010-05-28T08:59:00.005-06:00

Celebrating 150 Years of the Mullan Military Wagon Road 1860-2010
Fort Benton, MT May 20-22

By Ken Robison

During May 20-22, 2010, the River & Plains Society in Fort Benton hosted the national 150th Anniversary Mullan Road Conference. This conference celebrated the completion of the Mullan Military Wagon Road in 1860, the first wagon road from Fort Benton to cross the Rocky Mountains to Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory. The Conference also celebrated the arrival of the first steamboats at the Fort Benton levee July 2nd, 1860. When the Chippewa, commanded by Captain Joseph LaBarge, and the Key West, under Joseph’s brother Captain John LaBarge. When these steamers moored at Fort Benton’s levee, it heralded the beginning of the steamboat era at the head of navigation on the Missouri River. Aboard the two steamers were Major George A. H. Blake and his First Dragoons, some 300 soldiers who were poised to become the first, and last, direct military users of the Mullan Road on their way to Washington Territory. The Conference featured a Photo Exhibit: “Going to the Mountains: Steamboating on the Upper Missouri 1860-1890.”

The 150th Anniversary Conference began May 20th late Thursday afternoon with a tour of Old Fort Benton, the reconstructed American Fur Company fur and robe trading post built in 1846-47 at the head of navigation on the Missouri River. Resident Mountain Man “Burnt Spoon” led the tour group into the 1850’s past to see the original Block House (Montana’s oldest permanent structure), the newly reconstructed log Stockade and the Bourgeois House (the Factor’s Quarters), and into the Trade Store and Warehouse where the River & Plains Society hosted an evening reception in the fur trade museum.

Mountain Man Burnt Spoon leading the tour of Old Fort Benton

With about 70 participants from New York to Oregon assembled Friday at the Montana Agricultrual Center-Lippard Auditorium, Coordinator Ken Robison began with regional Mullan Road activity reports from Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Highlighting these reports was announcement that the Lewis & Clark County/Helena Historic Preservation Commission will host the 2011 Mullan Road Conference, and that Walla Walla/Cheney, WA will organize to host the 2012 Conference.

Mullan Road Conference attendees from all over the nation

Morning presentations included: “John Mullan Road Builder: An Army Case Study” by U. S. Military Academy instructor and Yale University doctoral student Major Ryan Shaw; “Eye of the Explorer the Images of Artists Gustavus Sohon and John Mix Stanley From the Pacific Railroad Survey” by Professor Paul McDermott of Maryland; “Stories of Early Travelers Along the Mullan Road” by Lee Hanchett, author of Montana's Benton Road; and “Natural Resources along the Road” by Dr. John E. Taylor of Helena. The luncheon speaker featured Cultural Historian Bob Doerk discussing “Inni - The Buffalo of the Plains.”

Major Ryan Shaw, U.S. Military Academy at West Point

Friday afternoon presentations included the following: “Mullan Road On-Line Resources Including a Google Earth Mullan Road Fly-Thru” by Dr. Bill Youngs of Eastern Washington University, and Ron Hall; “Sampling the Minckler Mullan Road Collection” which includes unique photographs, diaries, and material from Mullan's wagonmaster John A. Creighton, by Art Historian Thomas Minckler and Ken Robison; “Through Indian Country: Native American Perspectives on Mullan and Regional Development” by Dr. Richard Scheuerman of Seattle Pacific University; and “Actions to Designate the Mullan Road a National Historic Trail” led by Courtney Kramer, Gallatin County/Bozeman Historic Preservation Officer. Friday evening featured a book-signig reception and banquet with Bruce Druliner aka “Burnt Spoon” bringing to life “Old Fort Benton in the 1850s through stories and songs.”

Muncie & Wally Morger at the Banquet

Executive Director Jack Lepley & Fay Todd at Mullan Road Conference Banquet

Saturday morning began in Fort Benton with “Surveying along the Mullan Road” by Montana surveyor re-enactor Bill Weikel, followed by a field trip into the Sun River valley with bus guide commentary about the route of the Mullan Road and key historic, cultural, and geological features. Because of the rainy weather, stops at St. Peter’s Mission and Bird Tail Rock had to be eliminated. Stops were made at the Fort Benton Overlook, CMR Museum Bison Exhibit, Sun River Leaving (Vaughn), Sun River Crossing, and Fort Shaw. At this historic fort, Dick Thoroughman of the Sun River Valley Historical Society showed General Gibbon’s original Military Quarters and talked about Sun River valley history including the military at Fort Shaw Military Post and the later famed Indian Industrial School.

Sun River Historian Dick Thoroughman in the original Fort Shaw Officers' Quarters

Fort Shaw Military Post

2010-04-29T14:51:00.007-06:00

Group of Time-Worn Buildings Still Standing in the Sun River Valley at Point About Thirty Miles West of Great Falls, Mark Site of One of Most Important Military Posts in Northwest. Was Center of State’s Social Activities. General Gibbon in Charge.

By Mrs. M. E. Plassmann

. . . On the thirtieth of June, 1867, about thirty miles west of the present city of Great Falls, a fort was built to aid in the control of this northern country and for the protection of travel between Helena and the head of navigation on the Missouri, at Fort Benton, as it was situated nearly midway between these two points. At first it was known as Camp Reynolds, the name being changed in August of the same year to Fort Shaw, in honor of Col. Robert G. Shaw of the 5th Massachusetts Volunteers, who was killed at Fort Wagner four years previously. [Editor’s Note: Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837 – July 18, 1863) was the colonel in command of the all-black 54th Regiment, which entered the American Civil War in 1863. He is the principal subject of the 1989 film Glory. He was killed in a failed attempt to capture Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina.—Wikepedia]

No lovelier site could have been chosen than that of the Sun or Medicine River valley, as it was named by Lewis and Clark. There was from it a fine mountain view of the Bird Tail divide to the south; of the Highwoods to the east; while the upper part of the valley was crossed by the main chain of the Rockies. This valley had been the favorite winter camp of the Piegans until the arrival of the soldiers.

Before Camp Reynolds became Fort Shaw, Major [William] Clinton [13th Infantry Regiment] was in command; but with its change of names came a new commandant in the person of Col. [I. V. D.] Reeves [13th Infantry Regt], who remained but a year when he was succeeded by Col. [George L.] Andrews [13th Infantry Regt.]. In 1869 Gen. P. R. de Trobriand, colonel of the 13th Infantry was in charge of the post. Like preceding commandants he stayed at Fort Shaw about a year, when Gen. John Gibbon, of the 7th Infantry, took his place [in August 1870].

General Gibbon had hardly become acquainted with his new surrounding before he undertook the improvement of the post. Water was brought to the fort through a ditch seven miles long; trees were planted, and a garden embracing forty acres was cultivated to the manifest advantage of all residing at the fort.

The First Garden. It was almost impossible, at that time, to purchase fresh vegetables at any price. The fort garden must have furnished a welcome addition to the regular fare of officer and private alike. The cultivation of this garden also demonstrated the fact that no richer land can be found in Montana than that of the Sun River valley.

[Editor’s Note: From March to October 1876 General Gibbon and his 7th Infantry Regiment formed the Montana Column to join General Terry in pursuit of the Sioux Indians and their allies. For this campaign see my blog: http://fortbenton.blogspot.com/2008/02/gallant-lieutenant-james-h-bradley-if.html]

General Gibbon, it will be remembered, was in command at the Battle of the Big Hole, where he attacked Chief Joseph’s following but was unable to prevent their escape. In this battle three officers were killed, one of them being Lieutenant Bradley, to whose journal we are indebted for the preservation of valuable information regarding the history of the Northwest. Gen. Gibbon and three other officers were wounded in this encounter. They returned to Helena where the other officers were entertained at Helena’s principal hotel, while General Gibbon, his wife and daughters, remained for a time at Hot Springs.

Military Popularity. The citizens of Helena vied with one another in showering attentions on these wounded men to such an extent that they must have been glad again to reach Fort Shaw where they could rest. General Gibbon cherished no such illusions regarding the superiority of white soldiers as that voiced in Collier’s by that none to veracious historian, George Creel. General Gibbon is quoted as having said Chief Joseph “Licked me like hell.” He also stated in effect that Joseph was one of the best soldiers and the most perfect gentleman he ever met. General Howard expressed the same opinion of Joseph, in slightly different language, and of the relative merits of red and white warriors we have testimony of General Eli Huggins, in November American Mercury, where he asserts: “The truth is that we have never seriously worsted the Indians in any conflict with equal numbers where they were all supplied with arms and ammunition. This is so, whether our forces were regular troops or hastily levied frontiersmen; we have always found them foemen worthy of our steel.” This is not the testimony of an eastern sentimentalist, but of a soldier who had campaigned in the West and knew the Indians. A brave man is always ready to give due credit to his opponent. Why not admit, and teach our children that the Indians outgeneraled the whites in the Battle of the Big Hole, and that of the Little Big Horn? Will it injure them now to learn the truth?

Back to Fort Shaw went the 7th Infantry to remain until it was relieved in the spring [of 1878] by that of the 3rd [Infantry Regiment], under the command of Col. John R Brooks. Ten years later a colored regiment, the 25th Infantry, Col. J. J. Van Horn commanding, was stationed at the Sun River post for two years, when the fort was abandoned, as a fort, to become an industrial school for the Indians, which was opened in 1892. I have heard it stated by one who is familiar with work among the Indians that it was a mistake on the part of the Interior department not to have continued this school, which is badly needed.

The Fort Shaw military reservation comprised 27,000 acres of land which, like that of the Assiniboine military reservation, was thrown open to settlement. This final event in the history of the fort took place in 1909. [Editorial Note; actually 1910]

Life at Fort Shaw. Only a person gifted with a vivid imagination together with some familiarity with pioneer military stations, can today picture Fort Shaw as it once was; but there are a number of pioneers living in the northeastern part of the state who knew it well. I am not of these, and my knowledge of the post is gathered from books and from hearsay.

In 1873, I was made painfully aware of its vicinity while making the stage journey from Helena to Fort Benton with Mrs. Sanders and her family when on our way east, via the Missouri. Somewhere near Sun River, in the early morning, my attention was attracted by a long file of men marching in single file, under charge of a mounted man. The gait of the men on foot struck me as being peculiar, and I could not account for it until their nearer approach revealed that they were connected by a chain, and I was told this was the chain gang from the fort being taken to work under the escort of a noncommissioned officer.

The sight affected us unpleasantly. Involuntarily I rebelled at the though of men being punished in this manner, although we were assured by an officer’s wife that none but those soldiers guilty of the worst crimes were punished like this. If such was the case, criminals must have been plentiful at Fort Shaw that summer. Discipline is necessary in the army, undoubtedly; but it is possible the private views it in a different manner from the way it appears to the officer’s lady.

Many Buildings Still Stand. That the buildings of the fort are still in fairly good condition indicates their having been constructed of more lasting material than went to the making of some of our earlier forts. Like Fort Laramie, Fort Shaw was built of adobe, and the officers’ quarters and the barracks were more comfortable than those of the ordinary frontier post, and the ground ha been rendered attractive by the planting of trees, which were kept well watered by an irrigating ditch General Gibbon had brought to the fort, and which made possible the cultivation of a garden there. Cottonwoods are of rapid growth if plentifully supplied with water, and General Gibbon remained long enough in command of the post to see them casting a friendly shade over Officers’ Walk, where they constitute a living memorial to the foresight of him who had ordered their placing.

During the twenty-three years Fort Shaw was a military post, from 1867 to 1890, it saw some lively times both in a military and social way. From it were sent our expeditions like that which culminated in the Baker massacre; the one to remove the half breeds from Sioux lands to Fort Belknap, at Sitting Bull’s request; and the attempt of General Gibbon to prevent Chief Joseph’s march northward. While the companies were away there were dull times at the post, as I an testify from having seen Fort Douglas under similar conditions, following the Custer battle, when most of the soldiers were in pursuit of the Sioux, leaving hardly enough men for post duties.

Quiet different was it in the fall, says Mrs. Roe. “After the return of the companies from their hard and often dangerous summer campaign, and settle down for the winter . . . we feel that we can feast and dance, and it is then, too, that garrison life at a frontier post becomes so delightful.

At this season gaiety was at its height along Officers’ Row. Luncheons, dinners, dances and theatrical entertainments rapidly succeeded one another in these favored quarters, while we are assured that the soldiers were not forgotten. They could attend the theatricals, take part in the religious services; and besides this, were there not drills, and special target practice? “and of course there were inspections.” Mrs. Roe says these were thoughtfully provided, and what more could a reasonable private ask in the way of jolly recreation! And yet Fort Shaw had its deserters.

Thanks to Mrs. Roe, the luncheons, dinners, etc., are not left solely to our unfettered imaginations, for she has given us a full description of them. In the fall of 1879, after the return of the commanding officer and his wife from Missoula, where they had spent the winter, “those of us who were at Helena and Camp Baker, feel that we must entertain them in some way. Consequently, now that everyone is settled the dining and wining has begun.” I would add that this matter of getting settled was by no means a matter of little account, resulting, as it often did, in hard feelings, due to the rule that the officers’ quarters were assigned according to rank. The “wining” as a matter of course, in those pre-prohibition days, was a part of the “dining.” Mrs. Roe continues: “Almost every day there is a dinner or card party given in their honor, and several very delightful luncheons have been given. And then the members of the old garrison, according to army etiquette, have to entertain those who have just come, so altogether we are very gay. The dinners are usually quite elegant, formal affairs, beautifully served with dainty china and handsome silver. The officers appear at these in full-dress uniform, and that adds much to the brilliancy of things, but not much to the comfort of the officers, I imagine.”

A Ghost Fort. With the above in mind, one can readily, when visiting Fort Shaw, picture it, not as a ghost fort, but with all its former life resurrected. The Stars and Stripes again float above the parade ground, and the companies go through their customary evolutions, or are entertained (?) by inspections. The day’s duties ended, along the walk in front of the quarters are seen the officers and their ladies, the former in full-dress uniform, and the latter in dinner costume, on their way to the house where their host and hostess await them. Or, if it is a Sunday, officers and soldiers betake themselves to church, where the Rev. Mr. Clarke, of Helena, holds services twice a month.

If we also are church attendants, we shall be surprised to hear the fine singing accompanied by an orchestra composed of two violins, clarinet, cello, oboe, and bassoon, and a choir of three sergeants, a corporal, and the drum major, with a doctor as organist, who had played in Washington, D. C.

Life, it may be inferred, was by no means monotonous at Fort Shaw in those early days, and it is not strange that Mrs. Roe should write: “It is nice to be once more here at this dear old post, particularly under such very pleasant circumstances. The winter East was enjoyable and refreshing from first to last, but citizens and my people have so little in common, and this one feels after being with them a while, no mater how near the relationship may be. Why, one-half of them do not know the uniform, and could not distinguish and officer of the Army from a policeman.

An Amusing Incident. This regrettable ignorance concerning the uniform on the part of civilians was displayed when my brother came home from Akron, on his furlough from West Point. He was in all the glory of his cadet summer uniform, and, like the boy he was, felt duly conscious of his appearance.

One day he went to town—for Akron was then merely a town, with its center a mile from our residence. There was some kind of a celebration under way, and my brother stationed himself at a street corner to witness the parade. He must have been a very conspicuous figure in his neat gray coat and white trousers, and undoubtedly attracted considerable attention.

The town band had recently purchased new uniforms. They were to be in the parade, as were bands from neighboring towns. The procession was fairly started, when a small boy sidled up to the West Pointer, and in his shrill falsetto that carried for a long distance, solicitously inquired: “Say, Mister, when is your band going to play? Fortunately, my brother was endowed with a keen sense of humor that enabled him to carry off the situation successfully.

[Montana Newspaper Association Cut Bank Pioneer Press 7 Mar 1927]

When Old Fort Shaw Was Montana’s Social and Entertainment Center

2010-04-28T15:50:00.003-06:00

By Mrs. Martha Edgerton Rolfe Plassmann

With dinners, dances, luncheons, teas and card playing for the officers, and target practice, drills an inspection for the privates, and occasional church-going for both, the list of amusements at Fort Shaw, in the days when it was a frontier post, is by no means exhausted.

There were private theatricals given by the officers and their wives, assisted by some of the non-commissioned officers and the post orchestra, which at one time numbered twenty pieces, and was probably the best musical entertainment in the Territory.

These entertainments were decidedly popular among the settlers in the vicinity, who came for miles around, as to a country dance, to attend them. Of one of these amateur affairs Mrs. Roe Writes, “It was surprising that so many of the Sun River and ranch people came, for the night was terrible, even for Montana, and the roads must have been impassable in places.” This was in 1879, an unusually severe winter. Mrs. Roe continues, “Even here in the post there were great drifts of snow, and the path to the theater was cut through banks of snow higher than our heads. It had been mild and pleasant for weeks, and only two nights before the entertainment we had gone to the hall for rehearsal with fewer wraps than usual. We had been there an hour, I think, when the corporal of the guard came in to report to the officer of the day that a fierce blizzard was making it impossible for sentries to walk post. His own appearance told better than words what the storm was. He had on a long buffalo coat, muskrat cap and gauntlets, and the fur from his head down, also heavy overshoes, were filled with snow, and at each end of his mustache were icicles hanging. He made a fine, soldierly picture as he brought his rifle to his side and saluted. The officer of the day hurried out, and after a time returned, he also smothered in furs and snow. He said the storm was terrible and he did not see how many of us could possibly get to our homes.

Nevertheless, those who were rehearsing were willing to essay it and all managed to reach their homes in safety. Those living in the garrison found their way, notwithstanding the fierce wind that was blowing, as they had the now banks along the walk to guide their way; but their progress was seriously impeded by the blown snow which filled the path.

Others, however, were not so fortunate. “Major Peirce undertook to see Mrs. Elsmere safely to her home at the subtler’s store, and in order to get there they were obliged to cross a wide space in between the officers’ line and the store. Nothing could be seen ten feet from them when they left the last fence, but they tried to get their bearings by the line of the fence, and closing their eyes, dashed ahead into the cloud of blinding, stinging snow. Major Pierce had expected to go straight to a side door of the store, but the awful strength of the wind and snow pushed them over, and they struck a corner of the fence farthest away—in fact they would have missed the fence also if Mrs. Elsmere’s fur cape had not caught on one of the pickets, and gone out on the plains to certain death. Bright lights had been placed in the store windows, but not one had they seen.”

The fact that the lights were invisible is not remarkable, if the two wanderers continued to keep their eyes closed, as when they set out. Such a storm as is here described cannot be said to be a common occurrence in Montana, and a winter of great severity is frequently followed by one milder than any known in the East. The winter of 1926 was an instance of this.

It is not strange that the settlers in the neighborhood of the fort should have availed themselves of every opportunity offered there that would serve to relieve the monotony of their existence. They were no weaklings, and never hesitated to go forty miles to a dance no matter what the weather. And this was long before the day of the automobile, when old Dobbin constituted the motive power.

Towards the last, there were bona fide plays given there by trained actors. In 1880, Katie Putnam and her company came up the Missouri [by steamboat] to Fort Benton, where they played for one night—not in a theater, for there was none there—but in a warehouse. The next day the company started for Helena, where they had an engagement; but learning that the Helena opera house would not be ready for use within ten days, they stopped over at Fort Shaw, where they played for a week. Their acting there was done on the credit system, the sergeant of each company listing the men who attended and deducting what they owed for tickets from their next pay. It worked all right, and the actors were not losers; on the contrary, they realized a goodly sum from their stay at the fort.

The story is told that Mrs. Gibbon, wife of General [John] Gibbon, then in command at Fort Shaw, was the first to being professional actors to the fort. It is said that she and her daughter, while passing through Prickly Pear canyon, noticed a new cabin there. Going to the door, they knocked, and were surprised when a woman confronted them. She was, as they later discovered, an actress who, together with her husband, an actor, had come from Europe to visit relatives living in that region.

This chance meeting with Mrs. Barr—for that was the name of the actress—led to her husband and herself leaving the canyon to make their home for the next two years at Fort Shaw. Their household goods were removed there in ambulances by the soldiers. The first play given by the Barrs, after their arrival at the post, was “Ingomar” with Mr. Barr as Ingomar, and his wife, Parthenia.

The playhouse was about 125 feet long, with the stage 35 feet wide and 24 feet deep. Dressing rooms and property room were in ell addition. The floor was of earth, and the scenic effects were not of the best, although they excelled those of Shakespeare’s time. When the footlights needed to be lowered, the orchestra turned down the kerosene lamps in front of the stage. It is perfectly safe to say that this rude hall always held an uncritical audience. It was ready to applaud enthusiastically any acting, however poor it might have been. But real artists visited it. Among these were Parepa Rosa and her husband Karl Rosa, the violinist.

In these days, when royalty deigns to visit this country at frequent intervals, few can understand the excitement caused by the arrival in America, for the first time in the Republic’s history, of an heir to the British throne. Albert Edward, however did not go West, and its inhabitants were thus unable to visualize the fact that princes, even those of Wales, do not differ in appearance from ordinary men, although their attitude towards the world is said to be of another character. They are the product of their environment, rather than of their inheritance.

Following the example of their liege lord the scions of aristocratic families confined their American investigations largely to the Atlantic coast. The great beyond, reaching to the Pacific, until recently saw but little of them.

Imagine then, in what a state of mind the garrison at Fort Shaw was thrown, when it became known in September, 1881, that the Marquis of Lorne, son of the Duke of Argyle and the son-in-law of Queen Victoria, the Governor-General of Canada, who was on his way east, would spend the night at Fort Shaw.

The whole post was in a fever of preparation the officers making arrangements for his reception and their wives devising menus and setting their quarters in order for the entertainment of nobility. The Marquis had as escort a company of the Canadian “Mounties,” arrayed in their brilliant uniforms, and with their queer little caps precariously set on one side of the head.

They were mounted on scrubby Indian ponies, which somewhat detracted from the effect they produced, as preceding the Marquis, they rode onto the parade ground and there separated into two lines, facing one another to permit the Governor and his staff to pass through. There was the usual ceremonious reception. In the midst of which the regimental band struck up that melody, said to have been composed in Germany, but now a national anthem of both England and America. With the first bar of “God Save the Queen,”—our own “America,” every Englishman and Canadian removed his head covering, whatever that happened to be, in silent testimony of their loyalty to their country. We are told that it was an impressive sight.

What I have given in this and foregoing sketches are but casual glimpses of Fort Shaw in its palmy days, in the hope that they will enable those who visit its site today to vision it as it once was in all the picturesqueness and its activities of its military existence. [Montana Newspaper Association Whitefish Pilot 4 April 1927]

Visiting the Ruins of North Montana’s Oldest Mission St. Peter’s

2010-04-26T10:12:00.002-06:00

Visiting the Ruins of North Montana’s Oldest Mission St. Peter’s. Erected Before Great Falls Had Been Thought Of. Log to St. Peter’s [40 miles]

The log may not be exactly right as to mileage, as the gear pin was out for a time during the logging from Cascade to St. Peter’s, but the figures are not more than half a mile or so off, there is but one road and there is but one St. Peter’s, which lies at the foot of Sullivan hill.

A trip to St. Peter’s Mission from Great Falls is something worth while and St. Peter’s is by far the oldest thing in shape of a mission in northern Montana--and its little old frame church is the oldest church in all of northern Montana.

The church alone is worth the trip, as it is quaint to the nth degree, as quaint things go in Montana. It was in this church that Henry Plummer, first Montana sheriff and chief of the road agents of the territory, hung in Virginia City by the Vigilantes some 60 years ago, was married to the first young school teacher who ever taught in the Sun River section. It was quite an event and one can think the old old church was a doomed cathedral to the young school teacher and the young road agent as they walked up the isle in the long, long ago.

The church was elaborate in its day, with a sort of a windmill-effect steeple, apart from the church, in which hangs the bell, the same being pulled by a rope to summon to prayers. The altar and the benches stand as they stood more than half a century ago, and the same floor answers. The place is old, almost tottering, the bell is cracked, the bell steeple shaky, and the church looks like an old abandoned homesteader’s shack of the better class. But inside, the floor, the walls, the seats, and all the surroundings, shine from repeated scrubbing, and everything is painfully neat. It is in use evidently, and its door swings open to the world, although there is no priest or padre to welcome, the services being at times and not as in the old days of the first church of northern Montana.

St. Peter’s was the first mission established by the Jesuits east of the Rockies in what is now Montana, was started on four sites, abandoned for eight years, and at one time was the leading academy for young girls in all Montana; at one time it housed 400 little Indian pupils being taught education and the Catholic faith, and it came into existence at direct request of the Indians, who invited Catholicism to come to them.

Once St. Peter’s mission had its site on the Missouri river near to where Great Falls now stands, in the Big Bend, and near to the sign board of Swift on the Great Northern; another site the gate of the Mountains above Cascade was chosen, until the final location was made at where the ruins of the old mission now rest.

For it is a place of ruins, having been given up several years since as a place of education because of fire having swept some of the large buildings. And then St. Peter’s, while once quite the thing, found competition in the cities growing up about the state for girl pupils--and the Blackfeet Indian reservation, which once reached down to near Cascade, was moved far north, and the red pupils were taken with it.

The founding of the mission, as it comes from the musty records, is of interest. The first Montana mission was that of St. Mary’s on the Bitter Root river, near Missoula, founded in 1841, or thereabouts.

The Blackfeet asked that a mission be established in their country so that the rites of the church might be given them, and in 1858 Major Vaughn, agent of the Blackfeet, forwarded a petition asking that a ‘blackrobe’ be sent them. Father A. Hoecken and Brother Magri were assigned in April, 1859, and located a mission on the Teton river near where Choteau now is located, immediately north of Priest’s butte. And this, by the way, is the reason for the name of the butte in question. March 13, 1860, the mission was moved to Sun river, where Fort Shaw now stands, and a couple of cabins erected.

In the spring of 1862, Father Imoda, Father Gieorda and Brother Francis DeKock and Lucian D’Agnostina located St. Peter’s mission six miles above the mouth of Sun river, above where is now Great Falls.

Log cabins were erected, and in 1864 Father Anthony Ravalli, the famous missionary father after whom Ravalli county is named, was located at St. Peter’s, as well as Father F. X. Kuppens, also a famous figure in Montana’s history in the building. In 1865 occurred the famous Sun river stampede, in which many men were frozen, some died and many more would have passed on but for the ministrations of Father Ravalli and his associates at St. Peter’s mission, within sight of the present city of Great Falls. In the winter of 1865 the present site of St. Peter’s mission was selected. In the winter of 1865-66 Father Imoda established camp at the new place and with the assistance of another priest and a number of Indians prepared logs, stone and all the necessary materials. According to a record left by Father Kuppens, they had plans that included all the different departments for chapel and community life; for school and industrial training. Lumber was hauled from Helena. During the winter, the work was never interrupted and the houses were virtually ready in the spring. On April 27, 1866, they abandoned St. Peter’s mission on the Missouri; on the same day they opened the new St. Peter’s mission. the next day they closed that mission temporarily.

It is probable that the mission was closed because of war being carried on by the Blackfeet, who were trying to exterminate the white brethern at that time quite industriously. The mission was attached to the mission of Helena, and from 1866 to 1874 the mission and all its belongings were in care of Thomas Moran, well known in Great Falls. Services were held in the little church right along, however, by traveling priests, and the bell, then not cracked, was rung regularly to call the faithful to worship.

In 1874, the mission was re-opened, and prospered for many years. There were the usual agricultural and stockraising activities to supplement the industrial school for Indian boys. By 1880, the Ursuline nuns were induced to come there and establish a school for Indian and half-breed girls. Within 10 years, St. Peters had accommodations for 400 children. the buildings were substantial, being of stone, and the school facilities were numbered among the best in the west.

However, the mission had one great handicap. The rapid settling of the region by the whites had caused the government to restrict the territory of the Blackfeet and, as a consequence, the Indians were now placed on a reservation some 100 miles to the north of the mission. So finally, a new mission nearer the Indians had to be established. At first this new dependency was located at Birch creek on the outskirts of the reservation. In 1885, it was moved to a more central location on Two Medicine creek.

White girls were taken to school and for a time St. Peters flourished. But fire followed fire, the Indian pupils were gone, the white pupils became fewer and fewer, and at last only was left the ruins of the once great St. Peter’s mission, crumbling beside the highway from Great Falls to Helena.

The land on which the mission ruins stand, and some 4,000 acres besides, is property of the Ursuline nuns of Great Falls, the same which established the Ursuline academy here a number of years ago, and is leased, the Ursulines receiving one-half of the product in vegetables, hay or stock.

It is an interesting place to visit, in the shadow of the great mountains, with little St. Peter’s creek tumbling through the ruins, chuckling of the days agone and of the history made since the gentle Father Imoda laid the first stone for foundation of a place wherein to teach the gospel of the man of Galilee.

It is a pleasant place to visit, well worth the visit, but don’t leave without seeing the little cemetery perched on the little knoll above the ruins, or your visit will miss much of its worth. In the cemetery lies the mortal remains of men and women who wrote history in Montana in the days when the writing was often done at the expense of life and all that one holds dear. There lie the remains of ‘Whiskey’ Brown, Jim O’Farrell and scores of mighty men and women of the old times who builded better than they knew, checked in at last, and passed on to make way for a newer and greater order of things--made possible through their having lived.

In the peaceful little churchyard of St. Peter’s with the mountains and the skies looking down, they sleep well, those men who dared, life’s fitful fever o’er!” [GFLD 10 Sep 1927, p. 7]

Saint Peter's Mission, An Historic Scenic Gem

2010-04-23T10:21:00.002-06:00

St. Peter's Mission April 2010

Saint Peters Mission One of State’s Most Inspiring Spots. Picnic Place, Yes, but More Than That; Resting Place for Forefathers. Ruins of Old Church Call to Mind Marriage of Henry Plummer, Road Agent, There; Pioneers Sleep on Little Hillside.

By Ed Cooney, Managing Editor, Great Falls Leader

. . . It is a beautiful place, is St. Peters, pretty to picnic, with a clear, ice cold stream running through, and big trees for shade. Not to mention ruins of what once was the greatest mission of Montana, and a place where hundreds of Indian, and many white, children learned the elements of education, not to mention religion. There are left now but the crumbling ruins of what was once a mighty educational plant; the cottonwood trees planted more than half a century ago; the old log church with its tottering bell tower, its unchinked logs; and the graveyard on the hill just west with its headstones of marble, its headboards of rotting wood, and its unmarked graves that have lost all shape of mound and mingle with the even grass and sod of the side hill once more.

It was in the old church that Plummer--chief of the road agents of a time long ago. Plummer, who was sheriff of all Montana, then Idaho. Plummer who was hanged with near two score of his road agents by the Vigilantes in Virginia City in the long ago--came to wed. A gentle school teacher of Sun River was the bride of the mighty road agent, but she knew nothing of that side of his life as she stood by his side at the old altar in the old log church, while the copper bell in the old tower rang proudly, far beyond half a century ago.

But that is only one of them. The old log church is still in use, with its old and worn stations of the cross, its rail, its simple cross and cheap Child in the Manger wrought in composition of a time long ago, and covered with sparkles of snow and winter.

It is worth the visit, if only to see the tottering steeple with its big brass bell, and the unchinked logs with the white wash coating. It gives one a weird feeling, and brings a catch to the breath.

And on the peaceful little hill, meant for a graveyard of a bygone people, Bill wandered and mused. There was the grave of John D. ‘Whiskey’ Brown, and his wife Catherine, sleeping side by side for more than 30 years--and above them is a marble tombstone, erected a dozen years or more ago by an old time friend who had prospered . . .

There is the tombstone of J. J. Parrel, Eagle Rock station, and a score more of men whose names spelled civilization, in a day when there was no civilization. . . .

St. Peters, by the way, is the third mission in Montana, St. Marys of the Bitter Root being the first, St. Ignatius of the Flathead the second and St. Peter’s the third. It was located first in 1859 at Priest’s Butte, just this side of the town of Choteau in Teton county, moved the same year or the next to Fort Shaw on Sun River, that on March 3, 1860.

On Feb. 14, 1862 St. Peter’s Mission was located ‘six miles above the mouth of Sun River on the Missouri river,’ and the place was named ‘Flood,’ the same name it bears today, only the name now is only that of a railroad flag station. The exact location of the Mission would probably be the Longeway ranch of today. In 1866 the Mission was moved to its present location. At one time 500 children were being taught there, but that was long ago.

Several fires devastated the buildings, stone though they were, the 1,100 acres property was leased and the Ursuline Sisters, owners of the property, came to Great Falls and the Ursuline academy here is the result a long jump from the St. Peter’s Mission of 1859 at Priest’s Butte, or 1862 at Flood, six miles above where Great Falls now stands. Ed Cooney. [Source: Great Falls Leader Daily 28 Jul 1928, p. 7]

Celebrating 150 Years of the Mullan Military Wagon Road

2010-04-18T18:23:00.000-06:00

By Ken Robison

During May 20-22, 2010, the River & Plains Society in Fort Benton will host the national 150th Anniversary Mullan Road Conference. This conference celebrates the completion of the Mullan Military Wagon Road in 1860, the first wagon road from Fort Benton to cross the Rocky Mountains to Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory, into the Inland of the Pacific Northwest. The 624-mile long Mullan Road joined the Missouri River with the Columbia River, blazing the path through the plains and valleys westward from Fort Benton into the rugged mountains of western Montana and Idaho. The road was built by US Army 1st Lieutenant John Mullan between the spring of 1859 and August 1860 with an expedition of some 230 combined military and civilian men. Parts of the original Mullan Road can still be traveled today, and, weather permitting, the Conference will included a field trip from Fort Benton into the Sun River valley past Birdtail Rock to the Dearborn River.

The Conference also will celebrate the arrival of the first steamboats at the Fort Benton levee July 2nd, 1860. When the Chippewa, commanded by Captain Joseph LaBarge, and the Key West, under Joseph’s brother Captain John LaBarge, moored at Fort Bento’s levee, it heralded the beginning of the steamboat era at the head of navigation on the Missouri River. Aboard the two steamers, belonging to Pierre Chouteau & Company (known as the American Fur Company), were owners Pierre and Charles Chouteau, their agents Fort Benton “Factors” Andrew Dawson and Alexander Culbertson, Indian agents, company employees, military supplies, and Indian trade goods. Also onboard the crowded steamboats were Major George A. H. Blake and his First Dragoons, some 300 soldiers who were poised to become the first, and last, direct military users of the Mullan Road on their way to Washington Territory.

A final exploration group arrived at Fort Benton in that amazing summer of 1860 before Lieut. Mullan, to await steamboat passage down the Missouri. The Military Reconnaissance Expedition of Captain William F. Raynolds had spent the past year exploring the Yellowston basin and had come down the Missouri River from the Three Forks, past the Great Falls of the Missouri, to arrive at Fort Benton July 14th. With the Raynolds Expedition was topographer Lieutenant James Dempsey Hutton, who took the first known photograph of the Fort Benton trading post from across the Missouri River. During that summer of 1860, there was no town of Fort Benton, only the trading post, and an opposition post, Fort Campbell, which by the spring of 1860 had been bought by Pierre Chouteau & Company. Yet, in the words of John Strachan, one of Mullan’s men, “Fort Benton has everything . . . a bakery, blacksmith, carpenter and cooper shops, trade offices for buying, others for selling and retail shops. Goods are sold at enormous prices . . . sugar is sold at $1 and up a pound and everything else in proportion. Business amounts to about $160,000 a year, with buffalo robes the staple of the trade.”

The 150th Anniversary Conference will begin May 20th late Thursday afternoon with a tour of Old Fort Benton, the reconstructed American Fur Company fur and robe trading post built in 1846-47 at the head of navigation on the Missouri River. Resident Mountain Man “Burnt Spoon” will lead the tour group into the 1850’s past to see the original Block House (Montana’s oldest permanent structure), the newly reconstructed log Stockade and Bourgeois House (the Factor’s Quarters), and into the Trade Store and Warehouse where the River & Plains Society will host an evening reception in the fur trade museum. The River & Plains Society is the non-profit that operates the museums complex in Fort Benton and the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center. A Fort Restoration Committee leads the effort to reconstruct Old Fort Benton.

Friday will be held at the Montana Agricultrual Center-Lippard Auditorium beginning with regional Mullan Road activity reports from Washington state, Idaho, and Montana. Morning presentations will include: “Going to the Mountains: Major Blake’s Army Dragoons on the Upper Missouri” by Washington State University doctoral student Marc Entze; “Artists Gustavus Sohon and John Mix Stanley Images Along the Mullan Road” by Dr. Paul McDermott of Maryland; “Early Travelers Along the Mullan Road” by Lee Hanchett, author of Montana's Benton Road; and “Natural Resources along the Road” by Dr. John E. Taylor of Helena. The luncheon speaker will be Cultural Historian Bob Doerk discussing “Inni - The Buffalo of the Plains.”

Friday afternoon talks and demonstrations will include: “Mullan Road On-Line Resources Including a Google Earth Mullan Road Fly-Thru” by Dr. Bill Youngs of Eastern Washington University, and Ron Hall; “Sampling the Minckler Mullan Road Collection” which includes unique photographs, diaries, and material from Mullan's wagonmaster John A. Creighton, by Art Historian Thomas Minckler and Ken Robison; “Through Indian Country: Native American Perspectives on Mullan and Regional Development” by Dr. Richard Scheuerman of Seattle Pacific University; and “Actions to Designate the Mullan Road a National Historic Trail” led by Courtney Kramer, Gallatin County Historic Preservation Officer. Friday evening will feature a reception and dinner with Bruce Druliner aka “Burnt Spoon” bringing to life “Old Fort Benton in the 1850s through stories and songs.”

Saturday morning begins with “Surveying along the Mullan Road” by Montana surveyor re-enactor Bill Weikel, followed by a field trip into the Sun River valley with bus guide commentary about the route of the Mullan Road and key historic, cultural, and geological features. Stops will be made at Sun River Leaving (Vaughn), Sun River Crossing, St. Peter’s Mission, and a box lunch at Birdtail Rock Stage Stop. Weather permitting the tour will continue on over Birdtail Divide to Dearborn Crossing and on to Fort Shaw. At this historic fort, the Sun River Valley Historical Society will show General Gibbon’s original Military Quarters and will talk about valley history including the military at Fort Shaw and the later famed Indian School.

Old Yogo and Millies' Hunting Cat

2010-04-11T11:08:00.006-06:00

P. W. Korell, Stanford Pioneer, Tells Yogo Gulch History in Address Before Women’s Club.
Special to the Tribune. Stanford, No. 6.—Judge J. H. Huntoon, Lewistown, and P. W. Korell, Stanford, spoke at a meeting of the Stanford woman’s club on local history.

Mr. Korell, who landed at Fort Benton in 1876, came into the Judith basin with the Yogo stampeders in 1880 and to Stanford in 1923. Referring to early days in the basin he says:

"Jack Wirth and I left Fort Benton Aug. 2, 1880, with two four-horse teams and wagons loaded with tobacco, four barrels of whisky, a crate of picks and shovels, flour, sugar and bacon. We were headed for Fort Maginnis and Yogo.

"Arriving at the Judith river Aug. 7, 1880, we camped on the flat now owned by C. M. Belden, formerly the Murphy ranch, half way between Utica and the Belden residence. We made camp in brush along the old channel of the Judith as a precaution against Indians, who were traveling across the country frequently.

"Whisky is Stolen. When I went to my wagon in the morning the wagon sheet was untied. Investigating, I found the load was short two 55-gallon barrels of whisky. Jack Murphy, Wirth and myself noticed grass had been tramped and w could see where the barrels had been rolled away.

"We followed the trail back and forth across the bottom until it was lost. The following January, in 1881, a man known as Cherokee Jim, coming from Yogo, stopped to kill a deer and found one of the barrels containing 20 gallons of whisky.

"Jim came down to the Murphy cabin, where the postoffice had been established after being moved from Yogo. It consisted of one empty beer case and a rubber stamp. Jim was feeling pretty good but refused to tell where he got his ‘jag,’ so he was followed when he returned to the cache and the barrel was found. Two years later the other barrel, empty, was found in a patch of brush on the Korrel ranch.

"At the time the liquor was taken, two white men were camped where the Utica schoolhouse now stands. One was known as Mike Henderson and the other, Aleck Jesup. The latter, years afterward served a term at Deer Lodge for burglary at Butte, dying shortly after he was released. Whereabouts of Henderson is unknown.

"Yogo did not produce the gold that was expected, the bedrock being too deep. Small bars paid only small returns. However, quite a number of miners remained, expecting to strike it some day.

"Among those who stayed was a colored woman by the name of Millie Ringold. Her faith was so strong in her mine, the Garfield, that she worked it for more than 30 years, doing anything she could to earn a few dollars, washing nursing white women and doing manual labor generally performed by men, returning at intervals to the hills to work her mine.

"Old Millie, as she was called, came to Fort Benton in 1878 as a maid for Colonel Switzer’s wife, and when rumors of the Yogo gold stampede came to Fort Benton, Millie was one of the first to hit the trail. She opened a hotel and restaurant and everyone could eat whether they had money or not, all promising to pay when the cleaned up bedrock.

"Millie had a coal oil can for a musical instrument, with which she entertained her guests. She would drum on it and sing southern songs as long as she had an audience.

"In after years, when dollars were scarce, many of her meals were provided for her by the cat, George Washington. It would catch a rabbit and bring it to the cabin, where it was enjoyed by himself and his mistress. Sometimes Bedrock Jim, another Yogo character, would share in the feast by providing potatoes and an onion or a carrot to make a mulligan. Millie died at her old cabin in Yogo and was buried in the cemetery at Utica by a few old timers.

"Bercham a Character. Jim Bercham, better known as ‘Bedrock’ Jim was another of the old guard who would not leave Yogo. He had his boxes going all the time, shoveling every day, and making regular trips to Utica for me to send his dust to Helena to the assay office. His cleanup averaged an ounce and a half of gold dust, which, at $16 an ounce, kept him in provisions.

"A few years later Mr. Weatherwax built a machine at the mouth of Skunk gulch to work some of his ore. The machine was all homemade and power was furnished by water from Yogo creek.

"One windy day he climbed on the wheel to lubricate it and, losing his balance, fell and was killed.

"Placer mining and prospecting since 1879 has been entirely abandoned on Yogo Creek. My predictions are that some day a corporation with money for development work will show the world that there is gold in Yogo and lots of it."
Source: Great Falls Tribune Daily 7 Nov 1931, p. 13]

Poker Jim, Montana's Oldest Chinese Resident

2010-04-11T10:58:00.004-06:00

“Poke Jim,” Aged Chinese Passes Away. Gambler of Early Day Mining Camps Known by Pioneers; Was 105 Years Old.

Special to The Tribune. Helena, Dec 28—News of the death of “Poker Joe,” an aged Chinese who died at the county farm in Powell county recalled to R. J. Quigley of this city that the man was a resident of Last Chance gulch when Mr. Quigley was a boy. Even then, the Chinaman appeared old. He spoke the English language fairly well and said he had come to Montana territory when Bannack and Virginia City were capitals. From Virginia City he had come to Helena when gold was discovered in Last Chance gulch. Later he drifted to Blackfoot City and to Ophir.

Mr. Quigley had nearly forgotten “Poker Jim” until a year ago last summer, when he was driving with his family in the vicinity of Blackfoot City. He learned that the Chinese was the only inhabitant of the ghost city. Mr. Quigley entered the cabin and in a bunk in the corner he saw what appeared to be a mummy, its clawlike fingers clutching the stem of an opium pipe. The man was awake and his beady eyes, peering from their setting of wrinkled parchment, fastened themselves on the sheepman’s face.

Taught Count in Chinese. If he remembered the days when he taught Quigley, as a boy in Helena, to count in Chinese, he gave no sign either by look or work that he recognized his caller. Seeking to rouse memory, Quigley counted to 10 in Chinese and paused. There was barely a flicker of the eyelids and a twitching of the lips. No sound came from the mouth but the eyes remained fixed upon Quigley.

Memory was gone, seemingly, yet it was evident that the Chinese managed some way to keep house and do what little cooking was necessary to supply his needs.

The cabin was clean, the floor swept and the cooking utensils behind the stove were scoured brightly. Mr. Quigley finally gave up an attempt to start a conversation. The eyes of Poker Jim followed him to the door as Quigley withdrew.

Speaks for Last Time. While a resident of Helena, Poker Him lived in the Chinese quarter. He worked as a placer miner on his own hook and spent his nights gambling. He was an inveterate poker player and because of that gained the sobriquet by which he was known throughout the early day mining camps and which he carried to his death.

So far as known, the last time he spoke was when Sheriff Lou Boedecker was taking him to Deer Lodge Nov. 30. In answer to a question, he told the sheriff he was more than 100 years old and that the trip to Deer Lodge would be his first visit there since he went to Blackfoot City 60 years ago. He was though to be 105.
[Source: Great Falls Tribune Daily 29 Dec 1931, p. 5]

2nd Printing for my book FORT BENTON!

2010-03-29T11:03:00.003-06:00

Arcadia Publishing has just advised that my book, Fort Benton, is out of stock, going into reprinting, and due out about the end of April 2010. FORT BENTON was released by Arcadia Publishing July 13, 2009.

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.