Reminiscences of the Mullan Military Road Expedition
By Ken Robison
This continues the series of historical sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.
In August 1860, 148 years ago and before there was a Montana Territory, Army First Lieutenant John Mullan, Jr. led a military expedition to construct a wagon road from Fort Walla Walla in Washington Territory to Fort Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri River. Departing Walla Walla in June 1859, Lieut. Mullan’s men carved the road through the mountains of Idaho into Montana, arriving at Fort Benton in August 1860.
One of Lieut. Mullan's hard working men was Charles Schafft, an immigrant born in Berlin, Germany in 1838, who enlisted in the U. S. Army in 1853 at the age of just 15years old. He was promoted to Sergeant, and served in Company D, 3rd Regiment, U. S. Artillery. By 1858, Schafft was out of the Army and living in San Francisco. When news came to California that Lieut. John Mullan would lead a road-building expedition across the Northwest, and Charles Schafft decided to sign on. Many years later, when Schafft began working for the first Fort Benton newspaper, the Benton Record, he wrote a series of "Literary Contributions”. Schafft's first contribution was a reminiscence of his time with Lieut. Mullan, building the Mullan Military Wagon Road. As you read Schafft’s account, remember that it was written long ago and printed in the January 2, 1880, Benton Record Weekly. Charles Schafft wrote:
Commencing at Walla Walla in Washington Territory, and terminating at Fort Benton, in Montana, is located one of the oldest public roads in the Territory. Its construction was commenced and consummated nearly a quarter of a century ago, and although much of it is as yet a public convenience, and was to within a year or two, the only wagon-road connecting at least one county with its neighbors and the outside world, much abuse has been heaped upon the superintendent [Lieut. John Mullan] of its original location, when instead, he should have some credit with honor upon the pages of our history. From time to time short, but erroneous articles related to the "Mullan Road" have appeared in the local papers, intended as "Bits of history," and many inquiries have been made by private parties in regard to the road and its builder, with no satisfactory answer. As most every early event in our history is of some interest, the writer was induced to prepare an article from personal experience and memory on the subject in hand.
It should be remembered that twenty-five years ago [1855] very little was generally known of what was eastern Washington Territory, and of what is now Montana, except and mainly from the official and necessarily brief report of Lewis & Clarke and the vague accounts given verbally by unlettered employees of the fur companies. The whole country was looked upon as a primeval wilderness, fit only for the Indian, the trapper, the hunter, and no least of all the zealous missionary. The section called Montana was then deemed far more remote from civilization than Alaska is now.
Under the administration of Jeff. Davis, as Secretary of War, several expeditions were organized 1854-55, to explore the various Territories, make topographical surveys, and report upon the feasibility of constructing railroads. Col. Williamson, of the Engineering Corps, had charge of the central part. Lieut. John G. Parke, also of the Engineers, surveyed and explored the southern portion between San Diego, California, and El Paso, Texas, while Gov. I. I. Stevens, of Washington Territory, was placed in charge of the northern reconnaissance and surveys. Among the officers assigned to duty under the latter, were Lieut. Doleson and Lieut. John Mullan, of the 4th Artillery. Governor Stevens, who was Ex-Officio Superintendent of Federal Affairs for his Territory, was advised by his instructions to make treaties with Indian tribes, and report upon the general resources of the country visited, with the view of inducing the formation of settlements. The country was thoroughly explored, and scarcely any Indian tribe was left without a treaty of some kind. During the winter 1854-55 the expedition cantoned in the Bitter Root Valley, near the present site of Stevensville, and in July the following year a treaty was made with the Flatheads, Pend 'Oreilles and Kootenays, who confederated as one nation, with the Flathead, Victor, as head Chief. The year terminated the work, and the Governor made a detailed report to the Departments, which was duly printed and published. Among the recommendations made, was the construction of a military wagon-road from the Columbia to the Missouri, which was to serve not only for the cheaper transportation of troops and military supplies to far western posts, but also for the benefit of enterprising emigrants who might select homesteads in some of the beautiful valleys on the line of the road. This recommendation was approved of, and an appropriation for the purpose was made by Congress 1857-58. Lieut. John Mullan, who ranked Lieut. in the army, as an engineer of ability, was selected to open up the road.
The writer hereof, who was in San Francisco in April, 1858, with Frazer river as his objective point, reading one day in the papers the arrival of Lieut. Mullan and a corps of assistants en route to Walla Walla, felt induced to approach the Lieutenant when already on the Oregon steamer, and seek for employment on the expedition. Mullan's arrival and his departure for Oregon to open up a wagon-road to the Missouri river, created some excitement in San Francisco at the time, and the expedition was looked upon much the same as a trip to the North Pole is looked upon now.
The Dalles, in Oregon, being the last place connected then with steamboat transportation, was selected as the rendezvous, and the expedition started from thence and reached its real point of departure without mishap. Work was then commenced and proceeded from Walla Walla for a distance of about fifty miles to the mouth of Tricanyon creek, as which point operations were suspended on account of the retreat of Col. [Edward] Steptoe, who had been up the Palouse on a military reconnaissance, with a force of troops lightly armed and mounted on horses unbroken to stand fire. The Indians were unwilling for the whites to penetrate their country, and had advised Steptoe to return; but upon his insisting to go on, fire was opened by the Reds, more as a defiance and a warning, than to kill. In trying to return the fire, some of the recruits were thrown from their horses. A panic was created which resulted in a hasty retreat. Of course the road expedition could not go forward in the face of defeat, nor was it proposed to fight its way through unknown numbers of apparently hostile Indians, and consequently had to await further events.
General [William S.] Harney, who was then at Vancouver trying to settle the San Juan question, took prompt measures to punish the Indians, and Col. [George] Wright with all forces that could be collected, was dispatched against them. The campaign resulted in the utter defeat of the Indians, who had congregated quite an army out of nearly all the tribes between the Rocky mountains and the Columbia, and it also resulted in opening the Walla Walls country, which had heretofore been Indian territory, to settlement.
As the war consumed the whole summer, the road expedition had been disbanded, to be reorganized in the year following, and a small extra appropriation was made by Congress in 1858-59 to cover and make good losses sustained in stock and supplies.
In the spring of 1859 the expedition had its rendezvous again at the Dalles, where Captain [Thomas] Jordan, Post Quarter-master, furnished the necessary supplies and transportation for its escort of fifty men drawn from the 3rd Artillery at Fort Vancouver. Lieut. Mullan hired about one hundred men who were bound to serve by certain conditions, the ordinary wages paid being $50 per month, and the old army ration. To break his men a little to the labor required, some work was done improving the old emigrant road between the Dalles and Walla Walla, the latter place being reached in June. And now the expedition fully equipped and organized, was really ready to commence operations in earnest. We left Fort Walla Walla in June 1859, a few days after the departure of Major [Pinkney] Lugenbeel, who had gone with two companies of the 9th Infantry to establish Fort Colville, and proceeded to the mouth of Tricanyon, where a rock breastwork called Fort Taylor, had been built during the Indians war. At this point we crossed the Snake river, and the conditions of service were once more read to the men, while the settlements were easy of access.
A day of twenty miles travel, early in the hot month of July, took us from Snake river to the left bank of the Palouse, immediately above its picturesque falls; thence the road was located up the Palouse and over to the St. Joe valley. Little hard work had so far been required, except the occasional grading of a side hill or a crossing, but the descent to the St. Joe needed the construction of a heavy grade and some corduroy work. In this beautiful valley (now a reservation for the Coeur D'Alenes) we made a time camp. Two ferry boats had to be built, one for the St. Joe and the other to be taken around by the lake to the Coeur D'Alene river. Swampy bottoms had to be corduroyed, and a road had to be cut through the timber over the Coeur D'Alene range, which divides the two valleys. When we reached the Coeur D'Alene river, it was at a point twenty miles below the Mission, and the expedition crossed in the boat built on the St. Joe. To follow up the river required time and work, on account of timber, swamps and grading, and it being already in September continuous rains made it disagreeable for the men. Arriving at the Mission, we had the Bitter Root mountains in our immediate front, and the difficulties to be encountered through them, a distance of 75 miles to the Missoula river, were painted so formidably, even by the missionaries, that winter quarters began to look a long ways off. Had the object of the expedition been solely to construct a road for the accommodation of travel, and had not official instructions prevented, it is probable that Mullan would have diverged here and built the road around Pend 'Oreille Lake, which would have avoided the mountains, but lengthened the distance over eighty miles. There had been a difference of opinion between Stevens and Mullan in regard to the feasibility of railroad construction through the mountains, and the facts in the case were to be determined definitely by a party of engineers taking a line of levels from old Fort Walla Walla as the starting point.
Mud Prairie, eleven miles above the Mission, was fixed upon as a depot camp. This prairie, naturally a swamp, was made more so by the previous heavy rains, and had to be partly bridged to get the wagons to its upper end. An examination of the surrounding hills found them full of springs and impractical for grading. We were now at the main barrier of the entire road, and it was a serious one. The pass on both sides was obstructed by an almost impenetrable heavy growth of pine, cedar, tamarack and fir, long since thinned out by frequent firs occurring almost annually for the past twenty years. The mountains hugged the streams so closely that numerous crossings or time-consuming or laborious grades, were unavoidable. The timber on the line of the road had been set on fire, probably by Indians, and everything looked smoky, dismal and discouraging; but gloves had to be laid aside now, and working parties provided with eight or ten days' rations were pushed ahead to cut out, inch by inch as it were, the timber marked by the engineers, who were crawling through the undergrowth, unable to see more than a few feet before them. The road followed the bottom of the canon, because it would have taken nearly a whole summer's work to grade the hills, even if that were practicable; as it was it took nearly the whole month of October to open a merely passable way for the wagons from Mud Prairie to the summit, a distance of only twenty-five miles, and the men were working hard from the earliest dawn till dusk. Mullan, who did not hesitate to put his shoulder to the wheel, was ever among them, to instill courage and hurry up the work. A fall or two of snow began to warn us of the approaching winter. While at Mud Prairie a Quarter-master's train brought out the winter supplies for the military escorts, which necessitated double tripping on part of our teams to the next depot at the foot of the mountains.
Early in November the next depot was established on the east side of the mountains, at what is now called Packer's Ranche, on the Reguis Borgia river [St. Regis River near today's Superior, MT]. The work down this steam was somewhat lighter, because the timber was more open, but headway was made slowly on account of the numerous crossings. Winter having now set in for good, made it still harder on the men, and the indispensable work cattle began to suffer for want of feed. It had been thought all along that we could find winter quarters in the valley of the Missoula, but it as impossible to get there, and reluctantly the order was given for the building of a winter camp at the leaving of the Reguis Borgia, about thirty miles above its mouth. The camp was called "Cantonment Jordan."
Mullan, who had his winter supplies shipped to Benton, with the expectation of having easy access to them from the Missoula valley, found himself disappointed, and had to begin making drafts on the Quartermaster for stores. The citizens of the expedition having exhausted and worn out their supplies of clothing and other necessaries, began to suffer for want of shoes and bedding, and anxiously began to look for the arrival of Messrs. Friedman & McClinchy, Sutlers to the outfit, who were on the road from Walla Wall with a pack train of one hundred animals loaded with merchandise. These merchants had started for the camp rather late in the season, and with overloaded animas, and after they passed the Coeur D'Alene Mission and began to enter the mountains, their animas gave out and perished for want of feed or owing to the effects of the cold. Their merchandise had to be abandoned, and was promiscuously scattered all along the road from Mud Prairie to the foot of the mountain. Friedman reached the camp with only two or three packs, and a few loose animals. The loss of the train was felt severely by all concerned, and the owners of it were at a clear loss of $10,000. Mullan, it was said, was interested in the loss. Some few of the abandoned goods were got to camp by soldiers, who hauled them over the mountain in hand sleds.
Winter quarters being established, and it being likely that the supplies would run short, some of the men were released from their engagement and allowed to proceed to the valley. The others were kept steady at work.
During the winter an order arrived from Washington that the War Department advised it would send four or five hundred men as recruits up the Missouri the following spring, for Forts Walla Walla, Colville, etc. and specified that Mullan was expected to be at Benton in time with his wagons to furnish transportation for those troops. This order necessitated the prosecution of the work more vigorously than ever, and the soldiers who had heretofore performed no labor, were called into requisition, and sent ahead to aid in road building. It was necessary to have the way open for travel necessary to have the way open for travel as far as Hell Gate Ronde, with the earliest spring, and most of the grades up the Missoula river were dug out of the deep snows of mid winter. Most of the work animals perished, and a new supply had to be sent for to Camp Floyd, in Utah. There was not much enjoyment in this winter camp. As early as possible in the spring of 1860, the expedition moved over the laboriously made road to Hell Gate; thence as rapidly as wagons could be got over obstacles up the Hell Gate canyon to Deer Lodge, and thence over a comparatively open country to Fort Benton, and arrived there in due time to furnish the desired transportation to Major Blake and the recruits. On the return to Walla Walla some important work was done by the soldiers, and the road had been opened and the wagons had rolled over it both ways; but it was like all new roads, a hard one to travel.
Upon recommendations made by Major Blake, who was authorized to inspect and report upon the work done, and who reported very favorably, Mullan was sent again into the field early in 1861 with a new [second road-building] expedition to do more necessary work and improvements. This expedition had with it only about fifty hired laborers, and an escort of one hundred men from the 9th Infantry. The road this time crossed Snake river at the mouth of the Palouse, and thence followed the Colville road twenty miles to Cow creek, and thence over an open prairie to Antoine Plants, on the Spokane river; thence up the Spokane around Coeur D'Alene Lake to the Mission, abandoning entirely the road made the previous year from Snake river via the Palouse and St. Joe valleys. There was no difference in distance on the new route taken, but it was entirely a prairie road, with the exception of thirty-five miles between the Lake and the Mission, where considerable work had to be done over spurs of mountains. The main part of the labor to be performed lay in the Bitter Root mountains, and between the Missoula river and Deer Lodge, (the only portion of the country where the Mullan road is yet distinctly marked, and where it was always be known by its proper name.) A careful examination of the pass revealed the fact that either a continuous grade would have to be made for a distance nearly fifty miles, or that the road would have to remain along the bottoms of the canyons. Grading was found impracticable for the want of means and time, therefore the old road had to be retained. Much work was required and done to clear it of fallen timber, and to level standing stumps with its bed. The many crossings of the stream were a serious draw-back, and Mullan tried the experiment of bridging. Timber being plenty, rough bridges were easily and quickly constructed, but in most instances the embankments were very low, and it was not expected that the bridges would withstand any high freshet, as at most they were only intended for temporary structures. Leaving the mountains proper, many repairs and improvements were made along the Missoula river, and to save crossing it, and establishing of ferries, it was decided to retain the road made before. The Hell Gate canyon, where but little work had been done the previous year, had yet to be attended to, and winter quarters were built on the left bank of the Big Blackfoot, near its mouth.
The camp was called Cantonment Wright. Most of the soldiers were distributed in small parties along the canyon, and the grades on the Hell Gate were broken from the ground during the winter of 1861-1862, one of the severest known in the history of this country, and the work went along very slowly. A fine bridge, covered with whipsawed lumber, was thrown over the Big Blackfoot, but being severely damaged by the unusually high freshet of 1862, it was soon after replaced by a private toll bridge. Late in December two horse thieves, Butler and Williams, were followed and arrested in Deer Lodge Valley, by authority of Lieut. Mullan. They received no jury trial, but were both fastened together by the legs, and rendered efficient service in digging out rock for the filling of the piers of the Blackfoot bridge. In the spring they were set at liberty with some good advice for their future guidance.
In January 1862, a citizen connected with the sutler store, while en route to Deer lodge, had his feet frozen, and medical assistance being unable to reach him in proper time, the amputation of both legs became a necessity.
Near the ending of May 1862, Mullan, who had just been promoted to a Captaincy, having fulfilled his instructions, disbanded the expedition; many of the citizens going East via Benton, and the soldiers returning West. Captain Mullan, on account of private affairs, found it necessary to resign his commission in the army.
It was customary while constructing the road to set up posts or brand trees, at convenient points, with the letters "M. R." military road, and the number of miles from each terminus. Those brands were intended as guides, and also to keep off trespassers. Notwithstanding some of the best portions of the road were "taken up," and toll was collected, while the most sections requiring much labor for improvement were severely left alone for free public use. So outrageous became the trespassers at last, that the legislature of Montana found it necessary to enact a law declaring the Mullan road to be a "free public highway."
That the portion of road between Walla Walla and Deer Lodge, (upon which much money and time had been expended,) fell into disuse, was the result of various apparent causes. Owing to the Eastern war no troops or military supplies were sent over it; the discovery of gold in Montana and Idaho diverted emigration from it, and in western Montana there were no markets to tempt freighters to try it. Mullan expected the road would be used, and by use improved. In many of the swamps, and where grass was scarce near camping places in the mountains, he had caused grass seed to be scattered to provide good feed in the future, and fine timothy patches can now be found as the result. It was one of his projects to have a mail route established between St. Paul, via Benton and Portland, Oregon, with a branch coming in from Leavenworth and connecting in the Missoula valley. It being claimed that by this route Oregon would receive its mails quicker than by the old routes. A part of the road he built will probably long remain in public use, notwithstanding the fault-finders who never saw the principal part of the work, and whose imagination can't picture the hardships endured by those who toiled upon it. General Sherman, who traveled over it, did not condemn it, nor did he advocate the building of a new one, but he found the old location good and important enough to cause it to be reopened, if only as a military necessity. It is not reported that the troops who worked on it last summer had more efficient engineers than Mullan but they had to obey orders likewise, and could not deviate from the assigned track, which is yet and long will be a subject for much improvement.
Mullan was one of the pioneers of this country. His name became permanent by a public work of peculiar difficulties, and those that are acquainted with the circumstances well know that he rather lost than make a fortune during the time he was employed upon it. There certainly is some credit due him.
[Signed] C. S.
So, what became of Charles Schafft after the expedition? As he related in his account, in January 1862 "a citizen connected with the sutler store, while en route to Deer lodge, had his feet frozen, and medical assistance being unable to reach him in proper time, the amputation of both legs became a necessity." That "citizen" was Charles Schafft! In the words of Lieut. John Mullan:
"I here mention, with regret a sad accident that occurred to a citizen in passing from one to another of our camps, and which will tend to show the degree of cold we experienced during January [1862]. He (Charles Schafft) had left one of the camps with the intention of going to the Deer Lodge valley. Night and severe cold overtaking him before he could reach another camp, he halted to build a fire, and being wet endeavored to slip off his moccasins, when he found them frozen to his feet. He became alarmed, and retracing his steps reached the point he had started from, late at night, but with both feet frozen, and on their being thawed in a tub of water all the flesh fell off. The poor fellow suffered intensely, and his life was only saved by his suffering the amputation of both legs above the knees; the operation performed by Dr. George Hammond, U.S. Army. A purse of several hundred dollars was raised for him, and he was left to the kind charity of the Fathers of the Pend d'Oreille mission, where he remained up to the date of our leaving the mountains."
Despite the handicap of the loss of his legs in March 1862, Charles Schafft remained active in Montana as the new Territory was formed, and by 1864 he served as a county officer in Missoula County. Two years later he became postmaster. In 1880 Schafft moved on to Fort Benton where in addition to his literary contributions to the Benton Record, he worked as a bookkeeper for Robert Mills of the Centennial Hotel. Later, Charles Schafft returned to Missoula, where this remarkable man died March 2, 1891 and was buried with a Union veteran's headstone to mark his grave.
As we near the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Expedition at Fort Benton and the completion of the Road, we can value the unique perspective of Charles Schafft's account of the Mullan Military Road Expedition.
Sources: Benton Record Weekly 2 January 1880, p. 4; U.S. Army Register of Enlistments 1798-1914, p. 240; 1870 U. S. Census Missoula County; 1880 U. S. Census Choteau County; Headstones Provided for Deceased Union Civil War Vets; Mineral County Museum "Blazing the Mullan Road."
Photos: (1) Lieutenant John Mullan, leader of the difficult road-building expedition from Fort Walla to Fort Benton [OHRC Photo]
(2) Colonel Edward Steptoe, whose disastrous military defeat in 1858 delayed the Mullan Expedition for one year [OHRC Photo]
(3) Wagon master John A. Creighton assembled his wagon trains at The Dalles to provide logistical support for the Mullan Expedition [OHRC Photo]
(4) The Mullan Road cut along the Bitter Root mountains near Superior, Montana. This May 2008 photo shows the difficult task of road building through the mountains [OHRC Photo]
(5) The route of the Mullan Wagon Road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton [From Pioneer Trails West]
05 August 2008
Our Historic 5,000,000th Tractor
The International Harvester Model F-1066 Farmall 5,000,000th Tractor
By Ken Robison
On February 1, 1974, at 9 a. m., International Harvester made history, producing its 5 millionth tractor. When this historic tractor, Serial #2610172U035153, was produced at International Harvester's Farmall Plant in Rock Island, Illinois on February 1, 1974, IH became the first manufacturer to claim the production of 5,000,000 tractors. The orginial press release photo caption reads: "In special ceremonies at International Harvester's Farmall Plant, Rick Island, IL, Stanley F. Lancaster, vice president, marketing, Agricultural/Industrial Equipment Division, Chicago, and local beauty, Valerie Robb, 22, hail production of the company's record 5,000,000th Tractor on Friday, February 1. IH is the first tractor to claim this distinction and marked the event with an assembly line commemorative celebration." [see two internet images from the unveiling: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/results.asp?keyword1=66&keyword2=farmall&subject_broad_id=1&subject_broad=Agriculture&subject_narrow_id=39&subject _narrow=Tractors&search_type=advanced&sort_by=date&boolean_type1=and
The tractor came equipped with nearly every option IH offered along with a special paint scheme, chrome exhaust, grill and rims. The following two years, the historic tractor was featured at fairs, conventions, and shows across the United States.
On September 26, 1976, this tractor was offered at auction to all International Harvester [IH] dealers attending a new series 86 Tractor announcement in Chicago. Of 177 entries, the winning bid of $40,086.86 was submitted by the Montana IH Dealer group. The keys to the tractor were presented to these dealers on November 5, 1976. It was immediately announced that the proceeds from the auction would be used to establish a Research Program under the direction of Montana State University for a study to further improve tractor operating efficiencies. The Montana IH Dealer group at that time consisted of thirteen implement dealers across the state of Montana. In the years following, the tractor was rotated around the state for showing by IH dealers.
By the early 1990s, only three of the Montana dealers remained in business. These dealers, the Musick Implement Company of Denton, the Big Sky Equipment Company of Conrad, and the Kamp Implement Company of Belgrade, decided to present the 5,000,000th Tractor to the new Museum of the Northern Great Plains in Fort Benton. This museum is designated by the Montana State Legislature as the official "Montana Agricultural Museum." On the 15th of June 1995, the tractor arrived in Fort Benton, where it remains today on display at the Museum of the Northern Great Plains.
This historically significant tractor is an important part of agricultural history, not only in Montana but also across the United States.
The 5,000,000th IH Tractor as it appears today:
By Ken Robison
On February 1, 1974, at 9 a. m., International Harvester made history, producing its 5 millionth tractor. When this historic tractor, Serial #2610172U035153, was produced at International Harvester's Farmall Plant in Rock Island, Illinois on February 1, 1974, IH became the first manufacturer to claim the production of 5,000,000 tractors. The orginial press release photo caption reads: "In special ceremonies at International Harvester's Farmall Plant, Rick Island, IL, Stanley F. Lancaster, vice president, marketing, Agricultural/Industrial Equipment Division, Chicago, and local beauty, Valerie Robb, 22, hail production of the company's record 5,000,000th Tractor on Friday, February 1. IH is the first tractor to claim this distinction and marked the event with an assembly line commemorative celebration." [see two internet images from the unveiling: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/results.asp?keyword1=66&keyword2=farmall&subject_broad_id=1&subject_broad=Agriculture&subject_narrow_id=39&subject _narrow=Tractors&search_type=advanced&sort_by=date&boolean_type1=and
The tractor came equipped with nearly every option IH offered along with a special paint scheme, chrome exhaust, grill and rims. The following two years, the historic tractor was featured at fairs, conventions, and shows across the United States.
On September 26, 1976, this tractor was offered at auction to all International Harvester [IH] dealers attending a new series 86 Tractor announcement in Chicago. Of 177 entries, the winning bid of $40,086.86 was submitted by the Montana IH Dealer group. The keys to the tractor were presented to these dealers on November 5, 1976. It was immediately announced that the proceeds from the auction would be used to establish a Research Program under the direction of Montana State University for a study to further improve tractor operating efficiencies. The Montana IH Dealer group at that time consisted of thirteen implement dealers across the state of Montana. In the years following, the tractor was rotated around the state for showing by IH dealers.
By the early 1990s, only three of the Montana dealers remained in business. These dealers, the Musick Implement Company of Denton, the Big Sky Equipment Company of Conrad, and the Kamp Implement Company of Belgrade, decided to present the 5,000,000th Tractor to the new Museum of the Northern Great Plains in Fort Benton. This museum is designated by the Montana State Legislature as the official "Montana Agricultural Museum." On the 15th of June 1995, the tractor arrived in Fort Benton, where it remains today on display at the Museum of the Northern Great Plains.
This historically significant tractor is an important part of agricultural history, not only in Montana but also across the United States.
The 5,000,000th IH Tractor as it appears today:
15 July 2008
"Shorty," We Hardly Know Ya
By Ken Robison
Shorty Wallin is a tall mystery! Several months ago I received a query from Dr. Paul Fees of Cody, Wyoming asking what we had on "Shorty Wallin." He came to us because he'd come across a "Charlie Russell style" illustrated letter that Shorty had sent to Vic Alexander, a buddy of his working for the Hollywood Saddlery in California in the 1940s. The letter read:
"Howdy Vic:
How would you like to be camped in a log house like this, up here in the cow country. You've been here so you savvy what i mean.
You an i we rode for a spread one time heap long time back many moons in the belt mts.
This feller standin here is a crow Indian buck. He owns a heap of range. He keeps fat for he lives on wild meat the year round includin Buffalo meat Elk & Deer,
Well i am still on the pay roll on this old cow spread. There is 300 antelope on this mans range. Including some 5000 rattle snakes that live in the rocks. Well Vic tell your lovely wife & girl hello. I am your very Meek & Humble wild Range Critter
From Black Hawk Shorty Wallin."
Shorty Wallin’s sketch of the Square Butte Ranch in 1943
Shorty’s sketch of a Crow Indian
All I knew was that Shorty Wallin wrote a letter in August 1943 with a return address of Square Butte Ranch [the W. P. Sullivan Ranch in those days] in an envelope postmarked at the post office in Square Butte Montana. We had nothing on Shorty Wallin in our files at the Overholser Historical Research Center, so I turned to old-timer Frank Mayo of Square Butte. Frank didn't let me down.
In the early 1940s, Frank was about 11 or 12 years old and helped out during haying season on the Sullivan Ranch. The Ranch was a big outfit surrounding the tiny town of Square Butte at the eastern base of Square Butte Mountain. Frank remembered Shorty Wallin as a cowhand working on the Ranch in those days. Shorty was short, perhaps 5 feet two inches, with broad shoulders and a little potbelly. He was graying some with bushy eyebrows and about 40 years of age. Frank recalls that Shorty had been a jockey in his younger, thinner days. He rode well and was a good, but not "top hand." Shorty liked to go drinking with the boys. On occasion he’d go to the town bar drinking on a Saturday night and not show up back at the ranch until the next Saturday.
One time Frank was helping hay on the Ranch. Shorty was driving a buck rake and inadvertently brought a rattlesnake in with a batch of hay where they were stacking. The rattler stirred up the horses, and the excited horses bolted breaking a broad beam on the stacker. The boss W. P. Sullivan was furious, and the snake hid inside the haystack.
Frank remembers that Shorty kept some "art stuff" in the bunk house, and he had the impression that Shorty "wanted to be Charlie Russell" but didn't have the talent.
One more clue about Shorty comes from Dr. Fees who believes that Shorty once worked on another ranch in southeastern Montana, the Bones Brothers Ranch near Birney in Rosebud County. The Bones Brothers Ranch, long owned by the Alderson family, is on the National Register of Historic Places for its historic association with the evolution of the livestock industry in the Tongue River Valley and with the development of dude ranch tourism. One of the Alderson brothers, Floyd Taliaferro Alderson, had a long career as an early cowboy actor under the name Wally Wales. Ironically, Floyd Alderson’s favorite hobby was landscape painting.
That’s about all we know of Shorty Wallin, the drifting cowboy. Where he came from and where he went remains a mystery. If you know, share your Shorty Wallin stories with us at riverplains@mtintouch.net.
Shorty Wallin is a tall mystery! Several months ago I received a query from Dr. Paul Fees of Cody, Wyoming asking what we had on "Shorty Wallin." He came to us because he'd come across a "Charlie Russell style" illustrated letter that Shorty had sent to Vic Alexander, a buddy of his working for the Hollywood Saddlery in California in the 1940s. The letter read:
"Howdy Vic:
How would you like to be camped in a log house like this, up here in the cow country. You've been here so you savvy what i mean.
You an i we rode for a spread one time heap long time back many moons in the belt mts.
This feller standin here is a crow Indian buck. He owns a heap of range. He keeps fat for he lives on wild meat the year round includin Buffalo meat Elk & Deer,
Well i am still on the pay roll on this old cow spread. There is 300 antelope on this mans range. Including some 5000 rattle snakes that live in the rocks. Well Vic tell your lovely wife & girl hello. I am your very Meek & Humble wild Range Critter
From Black Hawk Shorty Wallin."
Shorty Wallin’s sketch of the Square Butte Ranch in 1943
Shorty’s sketch of a Crow Indian
All I knew was that Shorty Wallin wrote a letter in August 1943 with a return address of Square Butte Ranch [the W. P. Sullivan Ranch in those days] in an envelope postmarked at the post office in Square Butte Montana. We had nothing on Shorty Wallin in our files at the Overholser Historical Research Center, so I turned to old-timer Frank Mayo of Square Butte. Frank didn't let me down.
In the early 1940s, Frank was about 11 or 12 years old and helped out during haying season on the Sullivan Ranch. The Ranch was a big outfit surrounding the tiny town of Square Butte at the eastern base of Square Butte Mountain. Frank remembered Shorty Wallin as a cowhand working on the Ranch in those days. Shorty was short, perhaps 5 feet two inches, with broad shoulders and a little potbelly. He was graying some with bushy eyebrows and about 40 years of age. Frank recalls that Shorty had been a jockey in his younger, thinner days. He rode well and was a good, but not "top hand." Shorty liked to go drinking with the boys. On occasion he’d go to the town bar drinking on a Saturday night and not show up back at the ranch until the next Saturday.
One time Frank was helping hay on the Ranch. Shorty was driving a buck rake and inadvertently brought a rattlesnake in with a batch of hay where they were stacking. The rattler stirred up the horses, and the excited horses bolted breaking a broad beam on the stacker. The boss W. P. Sullivan was furious, and the snake hid inside the haystack.
Frank remembers that Shorty kept some "art stuff" in the bunk house, and he had the impression that Shorty "wanted to be Charlie Russell" but didn't have the talent.
One more clue about Shorty comes from Dr. Fees who believes that Shorty once worked on another ranch in southeastern Montana, the Bones Brothers Ranch near Birney in Rosebud County. The Bones Brothers Ranch, long owned by the Alderson family, is on the National Register of Historic Places for its historic association with the evolution of the livestock industry in the Tongue River Valley and with the development of dude ranch tourism. One of the Alderson brothers, Floyd Taliaferro Alderson, had a long career as an early cowboy actor under the name Wally Wales. Ironically, Floyd Alderson’s favorite hobby was landscape painting.
That’s about all we know of Shorty Wallin, the drifting cowboy. Where he came from and where he went remains a mystery. If you know, share your Shorty Wallin stories with us at riverplains@mtintouch.net.
13 July 2008
A Lot of Fort Benton History
If you are researching early Fort Benton or Choteau/Chouteau County History, you may have discovered a site called "A Little Fort Benton History." This is a flawed site!
While this site has usefull biographic sketches of early Fort Benton, it fails to show source attribution. It is taken, without credit, from Michael Leeson's History of Montana. Rather than using this "pirate site," I'd recommend you use the valuable University of Montana Digital Collections. These digital collections provide easily searchable access to both Leeson's History of Montana and the later Progressive Men of the State of Montana.
Access the UofM site at: http://www.lib.umt.edu/research/digitalcollections/default.htm
HISTORY OF MONTANA 1739-1885
A history by Michael Leeson of Montana's discovery and settlement, social and commercial progress, mines and miners, agriculture and stock-growing, churches, schools and societies, Indians and Indian wars, vigilantes, courts of justice, newspaper press, navigation, railroads and statistics, with histories of counties, cities, tillages and mining camps; also personal reminiscences of great historic value; views characteristic of the territory in our own times, and portraits of pioneers and representative men in the professions and trades.
This book, originally published in 1885, is a 1,367 page reference exploring topics such as the exploration and occupation of Montana, Indian history, wars, trading and military posts, mining, newspapers, churches, and societies during the time between 1735 and 1885. The book includes treatments of 13 Montana counties as well as personal "reminisciences" from several notable Montanans. The book also contains over 500 illustrations of people, buildings, farms, ranches, and natural features of the era.
Progressive Men of the State of Montana ca 1903
This book was originally published about 1903. It is an 1886-page reference work containing over 2500 biographies, nearly 200 of which are illustrated with portraits. From Charlie Russell to all the early governors, there are biographies of most people who were prominent in Montana history between the 1850's and 1900.
This computerized edition shows images of every biographical sketch and picture, just the way they looked in the original book. The whole book is also indexed by last name, Montana county, and Montana city. The "Search" link searches words in all indexes, but does not search the text of biographies. It's good for finding first names.
While this site has usefull biographic sketches of early Fort Benton, it fails to show source attribution. It is taken, without credit, from Michael Leeson's History of Montana. Rather than using this "pirate site," I'd recommend you use the valuable University of Montana Digital Collections. These digital collections provide easily searchable access to both Leeson's History of Montana and the later Progressive Men of the State of Montana.
Access the UofM site at: http://www.lib.umt.edu/research/digitalcollections/default.htm
HISTORY OF MONTANA 1739-1885
A history by Michael Leeson of Montana's discovery and settlement, social and commercial progress, mines and miners, agriculture and stock-growing, churches, schools and societies, Indians and Indian wars, vigilantes, courts of justice, newspaper press, navigation, railroads and statistics, with histories of counties, cities, tillages and mining camps; also personal reminiscences of great historic value; views characteristic of the territory in our own times, and portraits of pioneers and representative men in the professions and trades.
This book, originally published in 1885, is a 1,367 page reference exploring topics such as the exploration and occupation of Montana, Indian history, wars, trading and military posts, mining, newspapers, churches, and societies during the time between 1735 and 1885. The book includes treatments of 13 Montana counties as well as personal "reminisciences" from several notable Montanans. The book also contains over 500 illustrations of people, buildings, farms, ranches, and natural features of the era.
Progressive Men of the State of Montana ca 1903
This book was originally published about 1903. It is an 1886-page reference work containing over 2500 biographies, nearly 200 of which are illustrated with portraits. From Charlie Russell to all the early governors, there are biographies of most people who were prominent in Montana history between the 1850's and 1900.
This computerized edition shows images of every biographical sketch and picture, just the way they looked in the original book. The whole book is also indexed by last name, Montana county, and Montana city. The "Search" link searches words in all indexes, but does not search the text of biographies. It's good for finding first names.
22 May 2008
From Bison to Beef: The Open Range Era
By Ken Robison
This continues the series of sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.
During this summer the entrance to The Museum of the Northern Plains will feature a photographic exhibition in tribute to Montana’s Open Range Ranching Era [1870s-1900], when tens of thousands of cattle ranged freely across Central Montana. Through the pages of The River Press we will feature highlights of pioneer ranchers and cowboys from the open range days. This article sets the stage and presents insight into the Shonkin Round-Up and the life of the open range cowboy from the 19 June 1889 River Press.
From Bison to Beef – As the bison herds faded from Montana’s open spaces, cattle took their place. The open range cattle ranching era lasted for less than thirty years from the late 1870s to the early 1900s. Wide open ranges with vast herds in the thousands established Montana as one of the leading beef sources of the nation. Overgrazing as well as the tough late winter of 1886-87 with huge cattle losses led to changes in the 1890s. These changes accelerated in the early 1900s from the pressures of large numbers of homesteaders. The grand era of open range ranching came to an end. Today’s ranches, with fences and extensive haying operations, still provide the nation with Montana beef. This exhibition is a tribute to the hearty Montana open range pioneers, Milner, Kingsbury, Coburn, Baker, Lepley, Flowerree, Kohr, Conrad, Harris, and all the others.
“A Cattle Round-Up How the Shonkin Stock Grower’s Association Does the Work, and How the Cowboys Live.
A cattle round-up is a whole circus to a pilgrim, and sometimes two, with a half dozen clowns in the ring. He sees sights and scenes never witnessed in the east, and learns pointers in horsemanship, rope throwing and handling the wild rovers of the range not taught in the quiet pastures of his native land. His sensitive nature may be a little shocked at first, but if he possesses a grain of common sense he will soon see that every move is in harmony with the surroundings and that every operation is conducted according to the eternal fitness of things.
It is Business
with the cowboy, and while no unnecessary cruelty is practiced upon animals, sentiment is not indulged in when it interferes with the work on hand. They know what they have to do and they go in to do it in the quickest time and the best possible manner, and they generally ‘get there’ in good shape.
A day or two ago quite a party set out to Spring coulee, where the Shonkin Stock Growers’ association was holding a cattle round-up. Through the courtesy of Col. J. H. Rice, of this city, a River Press reporter found a seat behind his span of 2:40 steppers and in less than an hour and a half the twelve miles of separating distance were covered. A half dozen tents and as many wagons were ranged near the ever-flowing springs of the coulee and composed the temporary home of the twenty-five riders and other employes of the several stock firms which form the association. A number of the owners of the 30,000 head of stock running upon the range were present. Among them was Mr. J. M. Boardman, of the Milner Livestock company, who received the party with
True Western Hospitality
and a present day round-up dinner. The man who says these round-up outfits don’t live on the fat of the land doesn’t know what he is talking about. There are three messes in this outfit and each mess has an excellent cook. Boardman’s is a daisy. We have forgotten his name but not the excellent dinner he prepared for the party. To show that the cowboy lives like
A Fighting Cock,
while on the range at least, we will give the ordinary every day bill of fare as served upon the range: Ox tail soup, roast beef, veal pot-pie, tenderloin steak, scrambled brains, string beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, saratoga chips, hot rolls, wheat and corn bread, fresh ranch butter, cheese, blackberry, plum and apple pie, two or three different kinds of cake, tea and coffee, and the usual relishes, including pickles and chow-chow. No intoxicating liquors enter the larder of a well regulated round-up outfit, and none were found here. In fact, contrary to the generally accepted opinion of eastern people, the average cowboy is not bibulously inclined. As a rule they are an honest, hard-working, industrious class of young men of a free, frank, generous disposition, always ready for a little fun and not afraid of hard work. No class of young men has been more persistently misrepresented than
The Range Riders
of the west. Many of them have grown to man’s estate upon the ranges whose fathers are owners of herds or who are themselves working into the possession of a starter for one. The cowboy with the fierce curling moustache, brace of pistols in his belt, murderous looking knife in his ‘chaps,’ mounted upon a wild-eyed cavorting charger, whose bleeding flanks show the marks of heavy jingling spurs, and who announces himself as
A Bad Man
from ‘Ground Hog Glory’ or Hell’s Delight’ whenever he enters a town, exists only in dime novels and in the imagination of the sensational writers. He is not found upon the ranges of the west. There he is a peaceably disposed gentleman appearing to good advantage in society, but entertaining a deadly hatred of cattle thieves and who would leave his ‘best girl’ at any time to join a gang in pursuit of one. That’s about the size of our northern Montana cow boy.” [p. 1]
(Sources: FBRPW 19 Jun 1889, p. 1)
Photos:
(1) Partners M. E. Milner (right) and J. M. Boardman (left) came west in 1879 to Montana and began ranching in the Shonkin-Square Butte country [Overholser Historical Research Center]
(2) This sandstone bench was erected after his death in 1913 at the Old Fort Benton Park in tribute to open range rancher M. E. Milner [Overholser Historical Research Center]
This continues the series of sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.
During this summer the entrance to The Museum of the Northern Plains will feature a photographic exhibition in tribute to Montana’s Open Range Ranching Era [1870s-1900], when tens of thousands of cattle ranged freely across Central Montana. Through the pages of The River Press we will feature highlights of pioneer ranchers and cowboys from the open range days. This article sets the stage and presents insight into the Shonkin Round-Up and the life of the open range cowboy from the 19 June 1889 River Press.
From Bison to Beef – As the bison herds faded from Montana’s open spaces, cattle took their place. The open range cattle ranching era lasted for less than thirty years from the late 1870s to the early 1900s. Wide open ranges with vast herds in the thousands established Montana as one of the leading beef sources of the nation. Overgrazing as well as the tough late winter of 1886-87 with huge cattle losses led to changes in the 1890s. These changes accelerated in the early 1900s from the pressures of large numbers of homesteaders. The grand era of open range ranching came to an end. Today’s ranches, with fences and extensive haying operations, still provide the nation with Montana beef. This exhibition is a tribute to the hearty Montana open range pioneers, Milner, Kingsbury, Coburn, Baker, Lepley, Flowerree, Kohr, Conrad, Harris, and all the others.
“A Cattle Round-Up How the Shonkin Stock Grower’s Association Does the Work, and How the Cowboys Live.
A cattle round-up is a whole circus to a pilgrim, and sometimes two, with a half dozen clowns in the ring. He sees sights and scenes never witnessed in the east, and learns pointers in horsemanship, rope throwing and handling the wild rovers of the range not taught in the quiet pastures of his native land. His sensitive nature may be a little shocked at first, but if he possesses a grain of common sense he will soon see that every move is in harmony with the surroundings and that every operation is conducted according to the eternal fitness of things.
It is Business
with the cowboy, and while no unnecessary cruelty is practiced upon animals, sentiment is not indulged in when it interferes with the work on hand. They know what they have to do and they go in to do it in the quickest time and the best possible manner, and they generally ‘get there’ in good shape.
A day or two ago quite a party set out to Spring coulee, where the Shonkin Stock Growers’ association was holding a cattle round-up. Through the courtesy of Col. J. H. Rice, of this city, a River Press reporter found a seat behind his span of 2:40 steppers and in less than an hour and a half the twelve miles of separating distance were covered. A half dozen tents and as many wagons were ranged near the ever-flowing springs of the coulee and composed the temporary home of the twenty-five riders and other employes of the several stock firms which form the association. A number of the owners of the 30,000 head of stock running upon the range were present. Among them was Mr. J. M. Boardman, of the Milner Livestock company, who received the party with
True Western Hospitality
and a present day round-up dinner. The man who says these round-up outfits don’t live on the fat of the land doesn’t know what he is talking about. There are three messes in this outfit and each mess has an excellent cook. Boardman’s is a daisy. We have forgotten his name but not the excellent dinner he prepared for the party. To show that the cowboy lives like
A Fighting Cock,
while on the range at least, we will give the ordinary every day bill of fare as served upon the range: Ox tail soup, roast beef, veal pot-pie, tenderloin steak, scrambled brains, string beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, saratoga chips, hot rolls, wheat and corn bread, fresh ranch butter, cheese, blackberry, plum and apple pie, two or three different kinds of cake, tea and coffee, and the usual relishes, including pickles and chow-chow. No intoxicating liquors enter the larder of a well regulated round-up outfit, and none were found here. In fact, contrary to the generally accepted opinion of eastern people, the average cowboy is not bibulously inclined. As a rule they are an honest, hard-working, industrious class of young men of a free, frank, generous disposition, always ready for a little fun and not afraid of hard work. No class of young men has been more persistently misrepresented than
The Range Riders
of the west. Many of them have grown to man’s estate upon the ranges whose fathers are owners of herds or who are themselves working into the possession of a starter for one. The cowboy with the fierce curling moustache, brace of pistols in his belt, murderous looking knife in his ‘chaps,’ mounted upon a wild-eyed cavorting charger, whose bleeding flanks show the marks of heavy jingling spurs, and who announces himself as
A Bad Man
from ‘Ground Hog Glory’ or Hell’s Delight’ whenever he enters a town, exists only in dime novels and in the imagination of the sensational writers. He is not found upon the ranges of the west. There he is a peaceably disposed gentleman appearing to good advantage in society, but entertaining a deadly hatred of cattle thieves and who would leave his ‘best girl’ at any time to join a gang in pursuit of one. That’s about the size of our northern Montana cow boy.” [p. 1]
(Sources: FBRPW 19 Jun 1889, p. 1)
Photos:
(1) Partners M. E. Milner (right) and J. M. Boardman (left) came west in 1879 to Montana and began ranching in the Shonkin-Square Butte country [Overholser Historical Research Center]
(2) This sandstone bench was erected after his death in 1913 at the Old Fort Benton Park in tribute to open range rancher M. E. Milner [Overholser Historical Research Center]
Shooting the Pass: On the Mullan Road
Shooting the Pass: On the Mullan Road in a
Hudson Sport Supersix
By Ken Robison
This continues the series of historical sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.
Have you ever wondered about the fancy marble Mullan Road statue on the Fort Benton Levee? Who was Mullan? What was the Mullan Road? Why is it at Fort Benton? Well, here is the answer.
In the early days of the automobile in the 1920s, auto excursions were exciting features in the local newspapers. Every Saturday the Great Falls Leader carried an adventure to one destination or another. The Evening Leader of August 11, 1923 told of a trip made in a sport model super six Hudson along a portion of the historic Mullan Military Road.
Sixty-three years earlier, Lieutenant John Mullan led a military expedition to construct a wagon road from Walla Walla, Washington Territory to Fort Benton, then in Dakota Territory. Departing Walla Walla in June 1859, Lieut. Mullan’s men carved the road through the mountains of Idaho and western Montana, arriving at Fort Benton in August 1860. The historic Mullan Military Road is celebrated annually each May with a conference, this year in Missoula. In May 2010, the Mullan Road Conference will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Mullan Expedition in Fort Benton.
By 1923 the Mullan Road had faded from memory and was almost forgotten as Montana’s pioneers passed from the scene. Because of the friendship of Leader editor Ed Cooney and colorful Fort Benton and Great Falls character Whitman Gibson “Vinegar“ Jones, the Leader featured the Mullan Road, and Vinegar’s efforts to preserve it, in a Saturday auto excursion special. The story in the August 11 Leader read:
“On Mullan Trail Of Vinegar Jones. Shooting the Pass in Sport Supersix Hudson For Holter Where John Mullan Blazed the Birdtail Pass Through the Rocky Mountains for Generations to Follow and Drink of the Birdtail Spring on the Summit--Where Also Lived Whisky Brown in the Days of Real Sport.
On Mullan Trail headline in August 11, 1923 Leader
Log of Road from Leader to Holter Dam: 0.1 mile--Right on First avenue north. 12.9 [miles] R. [right] Vaughn. 21.5 L. [left] Lange’s. 22.4 Sun River. 24 L. Follow the Yellow-Green trail. 32.4 R. 43.5 R. 50.6 Top of the world. 51.9 L. 61.5 R. Sullivan Hill road joined. 72 L. Wolf Creek. Cross bridge R. R. track sharp left. 75.1 L. Gate. 76.3 Power house, Holter dam.
It is a far cry from the buffalo trail of Lieutenant John Mullan in 1860, to the Bird Tail highway of today over the Rocky Mountains within the confines of Cascade county. But we made it in a sport model super-six Hudson just like shooting down a beaver slide on a wet shovel. That is we made the distance between Great Falls and Holter dam by way of the Bird Tail pass a distance of 76.3 miles, in a sport Hudson of the Gies-Wight Motor company driven by Arthur Gies of the company, and logged out a drive which is magnificent in varied scenery and a pleasure to drive over. With 24 miles of hard surface road, from Great Falls to just beyond the old town of Sun River, and the rest of the road excellent, one crosses the divide without knowing that he has crossed it; there is no hill and no pull in the crossing, and the first time one makes the trip it is hard to realize that the divide has been passed.
1923 Sport Six Hudson automobile
The Ice Cold Spring. On the summit of the mountains, at the very top of the Rockies on the road is a small green flat of perhaps five acres, with a little lake tucked away against the side of the mountains on one side of the road, a little flat plateau, and on the opposite side of the road an ice-cold little spring bubbling up out of the rocks as though made to order. The day the super-six sport Hudson party crossed the divide it was more than warm--it was hot--but the little spring was as cold as ice-water, and Bill drank two quarts on the outward trip, and came back for a couple more on the return. In the scores of years that the spring has been known to the thousands who crossed the divide no one has ever thought to wall it in, and it is today just as it was before Lieutenant John Mullan found it 60 years ago, and Vinegar Jones found it 40 years ago.
John Mullan laid out the Bird Tail trail 60 years ago across the Rockies and for many years all the travel of freighting and stage coach days went over that road. Then came the iron horse and freighting went out of fashion, the Buffalo quit the prairie for the long trail over the Great Divide, and the Bird Tail road of the old days went out of fashion.
Stone Feathers of the Bird Tail
Enter Vinegar Jones. It remained for W. G. ‘Vinegar’ Jones of Great Falls to revive the trail, and bedevil the world, the people, and the board of county commissioners until the road became a thing of beauty and joy once more; it took years, near 20 of them, but Vinegar Jones came out of the ruck triumphant in the end, and the memory of John Mullan and the traveling public, owe to him a debt of lasting gratitude.
W. G. Jones, the pioneer who fought for 20 years to have the old Mullan Trail made an historic highway
‘Vinegar’ Jones is not really sour, as one might infer, but as he built the first vinegar factory in Great Falls and furnished the first home vinegar for this neck of the woods in the days of long ago it was natural that he should be tagged with a distinguished mark; it was a habit they had in the earlier days of Montana. Mr. Jones has a ranch near Great Falls, a home in town, and a ranch near Eagle Rock on the Bird Tail road, which he located over 40 years ago, and where his son, E. R. Jones, yet lives, and raises ever-bearing strawberries and the like, keeping a watchful eye on the Bird Tail road.
Old Eagle Rock Station
Yellow-Green Gobs. In the sport Hudson party, not Hudson sport party, there were Mr. Gies, Mrs. Gies, the Fishing Lady, Bill, a basket lunch, the minnow bucket and a gallon of iced tea. It was quite a party and just balanced the sport six to run smooth as if on skids. Thirty-five miles an hour and never spill a drop of water from the minnow bucket, which is moving softly some. Just beyond the old town of Sun River the first lane to the left is the Bird Tail road officially, although one can go by Simms also and have 14 miles more of hard surface road. However, the hand of Vinegar Jones marks the first lane west of the town of Sun River as official for there begins his famous Yellow-Green mark of the Bird Tail trail.
One day a year since, when the 20-year fight for vindication of the judgment of the late Mr. Mullan had borne fruit, in the way of work upon the road and the final straightening out through right-of-way proceedings of a more or less tedious procedure, Vinegar Jones took a keg of yellow paint, a keg of green paint, a couple of brushes for the same, his son E. R. to herd the jitney, and beginning at Sun River he smeared yellow and green gobs for 40 miles along the Bird Tail trail, to its meeting with the Sullivan Hill road on the west side of the Rockies. The work may not be artistic from the standpoint of an artist, neither geometrical, nor according to accepted rule, but the yellow and green is there for all to see: on telegraph posts, on fence posts, on rocks, on bridges on buildings, on even the roof of the world, are the yellow-green gobs of Vinegar Jones. What he was doing was marking the road, and he did.
There are other trail signs on the road, white and black, and red white and blue, but the yellow-green gobs of Vinegar Jones point the way like a lighthouse in the darkness of the night. And he did the work himself and paid for it himself. It was his personal tribune to the memory of the late John Mullan, and Vinegar Jones laid on with lavish hand.
The combination of orange green is an unusual one, but it harmonizes on the Bird Tail trail--except that the orange is above the green, which caused Mr. Jones considerable consternation when called to his attention by the board of county commissioners in way of an official joke.
‘Never wanted to hurt nobody’s feeling, nor meant anything,’ explained Vinegar Jones to the board.
‘I just wanted to mark the road down so it couldn’t be lost again like it was for more than 20 years and I did it the best I know how. I don’t want to hurt nobody’s feelings, and next time I paint it I’ll put the green on top.
And Then Whiskey Brown. The road from Sun River is through a dozen miles of the irrigated Sun river reclamation and Crown Butte irrigated district. And then you come to the erstwhile home of Whiskey Brown, now a sheep ranch with house standing in a great grove of cottonwood trees to the north of the road. Whiskey Brown has long passed over the great divide, but in the days of real sport his was one of bright spots along the old stage and Helena.
“I always got something to eat for a feller,’ Mr. Brown would remark with a chuckle, ‘and the best drink of whiskey from hell to Whoop Up.’
And there is yet living testimony that he spoke truthfully--also that is how he received the handle to his ordinary name of John. Ah me, if Whiskey Brown could but have foreseen the drought of today he would have passed in his checks without a sigh!
Things Had Changed. Bill had visited the Whiskey Brown cabin when a 10-year-old boy, but the trees had grown, the hills looked smaller, and things seemed different. When Bill had made his last visit there were buffalo roaming about the face of Crown Butte and the Eagle Rock gap was full of them, while antelope dotted the prairies in thousands. The antelope and the buffalo have gone to join Whiskey Brown in the Spirit land, and only a grove of 50-year-old cottonwood trees, a sheep wagon in the grove, part of an old rock chimney standing in the middle of a heap of brown earth and debris mark the spot of vanished glory of a vanished day.
‘Things don’t look the same,’ said Bill, and then the machine shot on.
Eagle Rock Station. One station to the west and comes Eagle Rock gap, with Eagle Rock station and the home of the late Judge J. J. Farrell, who also was one of them in the early days, but not so early as Whiskey Brown. The old Eagle Rock station was the pride of the stage route, with its long log walls, dirt and earth covered roof, and warmth of welcome for the traveler in a lonesome country with a long ways between stops. The old station looks the same, and Bill almost hugged its whitewashed walls.
‘Now, that,’ said Bill, ‘looks something like, and the buffalo were over there, and I wanted to take a shot at them, but no one had a gun. They didn’t carry guns much in those days, unless they were hunting, or were bad men.’
And on beyond that, a few miles and to your right downstairs, sits the red painted home and barn of Vinegar Jones, nestling in a grove of cottonwoods and looking like something taken out of a picture and pasted down on the landscape. To your left stands Bird Tail rock. In the setting sun, with the rays lighting up the top of the big rock, it looks like a magnified tail of some gigantic bird with coloring pigment from the storehouse of God. In the early day they named objects of nature as they named objects of nature as they looked--and the Bird Tail rock is one of them.
Shades of Jim Lee. And then, just at the east side of the divide stands a tall lumber house of ancient design--the old freighting tavern of Jim Lee and last station east of the divide. If the old tavern, which it never was called, but is used to make the story sound better, could talk it could tell some startling tales of the days which are no more; of the days when the buffalo roamed, the Indian rode high and wide, and the cabin door was never locked, nor the stranger turned away. Anyhow, even if the old joint can’t talk, it can be read quite interestingly, as its rooms, two of them, are papered with newspapers dating back about 35 years, most of them being New York Heralds, with a Benton Press stuck in here and there for good measure, and a Helena Herald as a sort of afterthought.
One climbs the road to the top of the world without knowing it, for there is no more than a 7 per cent grade, and little of that. In the days of Mr. Mullan the reef of low rocks at the top of the world was blown out the width of a wagon and, worn away with time and travel, in latter times one jumped up several feet or fell down as the case might be, to pass through the door in the rocks, but now it is level. The commissioners let a contract to grade the west side of the mountain and take out certain large boulders, and when that is finished one will glide over without knowing it. The west side of the range is easy of approach, and without particular grade or any length to the top, and joins the Sullivan hill road about two miles from the summit.”
At this point The Leader excursion goes on to Holter Dam and an afternoon of fishing, but this is off the Mullan Road. From Fort Benton to the Helena, the Mullan Road formed the basis for the famed “Benton Road” that by 1862 was scene of hundreds of freight wagons, stagecoaches, and other conveyances during the exciting steamboat era of the 1860-80s.
A new book, “Montana’s Benton Road,” by Leland Hanchett pays tribute to the Mullan Road and the successor Benton Road through a fine combination of historic and modern color photos as well as exciting traveler accounts. As part of the build-up for the Fort Benton Mullan Road Conference in May 2010, we are working to mark the road with interpretive signage to commemorate the historic Mullan Road. In 2010 Lieutenant John Mullan and his expedition will come to life in Fort Benton.
Sources: Great Falls Evening Leader August 11, 1923 [the original article spelled Mullan incorrectly as “Mullen”; Montana’s Benton Road by Leland Hanchett, 2008.
Photos:
(1) Lieutenant John Mullan
(2) Mullan Monument at its original location near the Old Fort Benton Ruins. Today the Monument is on the Levee
Hudson Sport Supersix
By Ken Robison
This continues the series of historical sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.
Have you ever wondered about the fancy marble Mullan Road statue on the Fort Benton Levee? Who was Mullan? What was the Mullan Road? Why is it at Fort Benton? Well, here is the answer.
In the early days of the automobile in the 1920s, auto excursions were exciting features in the local newspapers. Every Saturday the Great Falls Leader carried an adventure to one destination or another. The Evening Leader of August 11, 1923 told of a trip made in a sport model super six Hudson along a portion of the historic Mullan Military Road.
Sixty-three years earlier, Lieutenant John Mullan led a military expedition to construct a wagon road from Walla Walla, Washington Territory to Fort Benton, then in Dakota Territory. Departing Walla Walla in June 1859, Lieut. Mullan’s men carved the road through the mountains of Idaho and western Montana, arriving at Fort Benton in August 1860. The historic Mullan Military Road is celebrated annually each May with a conference, this year in Missoula. In May 2010, the Mullan Road Conference will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Mullan Expedition in Fort Benton.
By 1923 the Mullan Road had faded from memory and was almost forgotten as Montana’s pioneers passed from the scene. Because of the friendship of Leader editor Ed Cooney and colorful Fort Benton and Great Falls character Whitman Gibson “Vinegar“ Jones, the Leader featured the Mullan Road, and Vinegar’s efforts to preserve it, in a Saturday auto excursion special. The story in the August 11 Leader read:
“On Mullan Trail Of Vinegar Jones. Shooting the Pass in Sport Supersix Hudson For Holter Where John Mullan Blazed the Birdtail Pass Through the Rocky Mountains for Generations to Follow and Drink of the Birdtail Spring on the Summit--Where Also Lived Whisky Brown in the Days of Real Sport.
On Mullan Trail headline in August 11, 1923 Leader
Log of Road from Leader to Holter Dam: 0.1 mile--Right on First avenue north. 12.9 [miles] R. [right] Vaughn. 21.5 L. [left] Lange’s. 22.4 Sun River. 24 L. Follow the Yellow-Green trail. 32.4 R. 43.5 R. 50.6 Top of the world. 51.9 L. 61.5 R. Sullivan Hill road joined. 72 L. Wolf Creek. Cross bridge R. R. track sharp left. 75.1 L. Gate. 76.3 Power house, Holter dam.
It is a far cry from the buffalo trail of Lieutenant John Mullan in 1860, to the Bird Tail highway of today over the Rocky Mountains within the confines of Cascade county. But we made it in a sport model super-six Hudson just like shooting down a beaver slide on a wet shovel. That is we made the distance between Great Falls and Holter dam by way of the Bird Tail pass a distance of 76.3 miles, in a sport Hudson of the Gies-Wight Motor company driven by Arthur Gies of the company, and logged out a drive which is magnificent in varied scenery and a pleasure to drive over. With 24 miles of hard surface road, from Great Falls to just beyond the old town of Sun River, and the rest of the road excellent, one crosses the divide without knowing that he has crossed it; there is no hill and no pull in the crossing, and the first time one makes the trip it is hard to realize that the divide has been passed.
1923 Sport Six Hudson automobile
The Ice Cold Spring. On the summit of the mountains, at the very top of the Rockies on the road is a small green flat of perhaps five acres, with a little lake tucked away against the side of the mountains on one side of the road, a little flat plateau, and on the opposite side of the road an ice-cold little spring bubbling up out of the rocks as though made to order. The day the super-six sport Hudson party crossed the divide it was more than warm--it was hot--but the little spring was as cold as ice-water, and Bill drank two quarts on the outward trip, and came back for a couple more on the return. In the scores of years that the spring has been known to the thousands who crossed the divide no one has ever thought to wall it in, and it is today just as it was before Lieutenant John Mullan found it 60 years ago, and Vinegar Jones found it 40 years ago.
John Mullan laid out the Bird Tail trail 60 years ago across the Rockies and for many years all the travel of freighting and stage coach days went over that road. Then came the iron horse and freighting went out of fashion, the Buffalo quit the prairie for the long trail over the Great Divide, and the Bird Tail road of the old days went out of fashion.
Stone Feathers of the Bird Tail
Enter Vinegar Jones. It remained for W. G. ‘Vinegar’ Jones of Great Falls to revive the trail, and bedevil the world, the people, and the board of county commissioners until the road became a thing of beauty and joy once more; it took years, near 20 of them, but Vinegar Jones came out of the ruck triumphant in the end, and the memory of John Mullan and the traveling public, owe to him a debt of lasting gratitude.
W. G. Jones, the pioneer who fought for 20 years to have the old Mullan Trail made an historic highway
‘Vinegar’ Jones is not really sour, as one might infer, but as he built the first vinegar factory in Great Falls and furnished the first home vinegar for this neck of the woods in the days of long ago it was natural that he should be tagged with a distinguished mark; it was a habit they had in the earlier days of Montana. Mr. Jones has a ranch near Great Falls, a home in town, and a ranch near Eagle Rock on the Bird Tail road, which he located over 40 years ago, and where his son, E. R. Jones, yet lives, and raises ever-bearing strawberries and the like, keeping a watchful eye on the Bird Tail road.
Old Eagle Rock Station
Yellow-Green Gobs. In the sport Hudson party, not Hudson sport party, there were Mr. Gies, Mrs. Gies, the Fishing Lady, Bill, a basket lunch, the minnow bucket and a gallon of iced tea. It was quite a party and just balanced the sport six to run smooth as if on skids. Thirty-five miles an hour and never spill a drop of water from the minnow bucket, which is moving softly some. Just beyond the old town of Sun River the first lane to the left is the Bird Tail road officially, although one can go by Simms also and have 14 miles more of hard surface road. However, the hand of Vinegar Jones marks the first lane west of the town of Sun River as official for there begins his famous Yellow-Green mark of the Bird Tail trail.
One day a year since, when the 20-year fight for vindication of the judgment of the late Mr. Mullan had borne fruit, in the way of work upon the road and the final straightening out through right-of-way proceedings of a more or less tedious procedure, Vinegar Jones took a keg of yellow paint, a keg of green paint, a couple of brushes for the same, his son E. R. to herd the jitney, and beginning at Sun River he smeared yellow and green gobs for 40 miles along the Bird Tail trail, to its meeting with the Sullivan Hill road on the west side of the Rockies. The work may not be artistic from the standpoint of an artist, neither geometrical, nor according to accepted rule, but the yellow and green is there for all to see: on telegraph posts, on fence posts, on rocks, on bridges on buildings, on even the roof of the world, are the yellow-green gobs of Vinegar Jones. What he was doing was marking the road, and he did.
There are other trail signs on the road, white and black, and red white and blue, but the yellow-green gobs of Vinegar Jones point the way like a lighthouse in the darkness of the night. And he did the work himself and paid for it himself. It was his personal tribune to the memory of the late John Mullan, and Vinegar Jones laid on with lavish hand.
The combination of orange green is an unusual one, but it harmonizes on the Bird Tail trail--except that the orange is above the green, which caused Mr. Jones considerable consternation when called to his attention by the board of county commissioners in way of an official joke.
‘Never wanted to hurt nobody’s feeling, nor meant anything,’ explained Vinegar Jones to the board.
‘I just wanted to mark the road down so it couldn’t be lost again like it was for more than 20 years and I did it the best I know how. I don’t want to hurt nobody’s feelings, and next time I paint it I’ll put the green on top.
And Then Whiskey Brown. The road from Sun River is through a dozen miles of the irrigated Sun river reclamation and Crown Butte irrigated district. And then you come to the erstwhile home of Whiskey Brown, now a sheep ranch with house standing in a great grove of cottonwood trees to the north of the road. Whiskey Brown has long passed over the great divide, but in the days of real sport his was one of bright spots along the old stage and Helena.
“I always got something to eat for a feller,’ Mr. Brown would remark with a chuckle, ‘and the best drink of whiskey from hell to Whoop Up.’
And there is yet living testimony that he spoke truthfully--also that is how he received the handle to his ordinary name of John. Ah me, if Whiskey Brown could but have foreseen the drought of today he would have passed in his checks without a sigh!
Things Had Changed. Bill had visited the Whiskey Brown cabin when a 10-year-old boy, but the trees had grown, the hills looked smaller, and things seemed different. When Bill had made his last visit there were buffalo roaming about the face of Crown Butte and the Eagle Rock gap was full of them, while antelope dotted the prairies in thousands. The antelope and the buffalo have gone to join Whiskey Brown in the Spirit land, and only a grove of 50-year-old cottonwood trees, a sheep wagon in the grove, part of an old rock chimney standing in the middle of a heap of brown earth and debris mark the spot of vanished glory of a vanished day.
‘Things don’t look the same,’ said Bill, and then the machine shot on.
Eagle Rock Station. One station to the west and comes Eagle Rock gap, with Eagle Rock station and the home of the late Judge J. J. Farrell, who also was one of them in the early days, but not so early as Whiskey Brown. The old Eagle Rock station was the pride of the stage route, with its long log walls, dirt and earth covered roof, and warmth of welcome for the traveler in a lonesome country with a long ways between stops. The old station looks the same, and Bill almost hugged its whitewashed walls.
‘Now, that,’ said Bill, ‘looks something like, and the buffalo were over there, and I wanted to take a shot at them, but no one had a gun. They didn’t carry guns much in those days, unless they were hunting, or were bad men.’
And on beyond that, a few miles and to your right downstairs, sits the red painted home and barn of Vinegar Jones, nestling in a grove of cottonwoods and looking like something taken out of a picture and pasted down on the landscape. To your left stands Bird Tail rock. In the setting sun, with the rays lighting up the top of the big rock, it looks like a magnified tail of some gigantic bird with coloring pigment from the storehouse of God. In the early day they named objects of nature as they named objects of nature as they looked--and the Bird Tail rock is one of them.
Shades of Jim Lee. And then, just at the east side of the divide stands a tall lumber house of ancient design--the old freighting tavern of Jim Lee and last station east of the divide. If the old tavern, which it never was called, but is used to make the story sound better, could talk it could tell some startling tales of the days which are no more; of the days when the buffalo roamed, the Indian rode high and wide, and the cabin door was never locked, nor the stranger turned away. Anyhow, even if the old joint can’t talk, it can be read quite interestingly, as its rooms, two of them, are papered with newspapers dating back about 35 years, most of them being New York Heralds, with a Benton Press stuck in here and there for good measure, and a Helena Herald as a sort of afterthought.
One climbs the road to the top of the world without knowing it, for there is no more than a 7 per cent grade, and little of that. In the days of Mr. Mullan the reef of low rocks at the top of the world was blown out the width of a wagon and, worn away with time and travel, in latter times one jumped up several feet or fell down as the case might be, to pass through the door in the rocks, but now it is level. The commissioners let a contract to grade the west side of the mountain and take out certain large boulders, and when that is finished one will glide over without knowing it. The west side of the range is easy of approach, and without particular grade or any length to the top, and joins the Sullivan hill road about two miles from the summit.”
At this point The Leader excursion goes on to Holter Dam and an afternoon of fishing, but this is off the Mullan Road. From Fort Benton to the Helena, the Mullan Road formed the basis for the famed “Benton Road” that by 1862 was scene of hundreds of freight wagons, stagecoaches, and other conveyances during the exciting steamboat era of the 1860-80s.
A new book, “Montana’s Benton Road,” by Leland Hanchett pays tribute to the Mullan Road and the successor Benton Road through a fine combination of historic and modern color photos as well as exciting traveler accounts. As part of the build-up for the Fort Benton Mullan Road Conference in May 2010, we are working to mark the road with interpretive signage to commemorate the historic Mullan Road. In 2010 Lieutenant John Mullan and his expedition will come to life in Fort Benton.
Sources: Great Falls Evening Leader August 11, 1923 [the original article spelled Mullan incorrectly as “Mullen”; Montana’s Benton Road by Leland Hanchett, 2008.
Photos:
(1) Lieutenant John Mullan
(2) Mullan Monument at its original location near the Old Fort Benton Ruins. Today the Monument is on the Levee
02 March 2008
"Shoot 'em Up": Guns From Our Historic Past
By Ken Robison
[Published in the Fort Benton River Press 5 March 2008.]
Once in a while browsing old newspapers can yield a real nugget. In the February 8, 1938 Great Falls Tribune, I found an absolute gem, titled, “Great Falls Man Has Unusual Collection of Weapons Used by Early Day Montanans. Earl Talbott Has Spent Much Time in Gathering Pioneers’ Firearms.” Accompanied by a photograph showing some of the historic firearms, the article describes many of the firearms that good men and bad men carried as they roamed frontier Montana.
The news article reads as follows; my comments are in brackets:
“Grimly reminiscent of the days when Montana was in its infancy and firearms were a necessity, a collection of rifles, revolvers and pistols that played a prominent part in pioneers days has been gathered by Earl Talbott, 1521 7th Avenue North, who is a member of the city [Great Falls] library board.
Much time was required by Talbott in collecting the numerous rifles and pistols, some of which were used by the men who maintained law and order during the pioneer days and others which were used by the ‘bad men’ of that time. Some of Talbott’s guns are nearly 100 years old.
His collection is not confined to the firearms used in the early days of the state but includes various types used during the World war [World War I], in the Philippine insurrection and during other troublesome times.
Talbott has made a successful attempt to authenticate the various exhibits and his catalogued index of firearms includes the following:
• A Halls patent U.S.S. North, manufactured in 1848 and of about .53 caliber. The gun was brought to Fort Benton in 1850 by Clemeaux, who was said to be the first white man married there; [Model 1848 Hall-North U.S. Breech-loading Percussion Carbine]
• A Burnsides Rifle Co. muzzleloader, .45 caliber and weighing more than 20 lbs., which was brought to Montana in 1868 by one of the early settlers on the Marias river; [Ambrose Burnside formed the Burnside Firearms Company in 1854]
• A Colts repeater pump, .44 caliber which was brought to Montana by Sam French in 1886; [In 1900 Samuel French lived in Great Falls]
• A Gallagher’s patent breech loader, .50 caliber, which was brought to Montana in 1868 by George Steel [Steell], who was a businessman at Sun River in the late ‘60s [1860s] and early ‘70s; [Gallagher Civil War Carbine] [George Steell was a freighter and merchant in early Fort Benton and the Sun River valley.]
• A Winchester model which was brought to Montana in a covered wagon in 1886 by H. M. Allison;
• A Sharps old reliable .40 caliber breech loader, which was originally owned by Jim Bostwick, who traded it to Dan O’Reilly after the latter was discharged from the 7th U.S. infantry in 1871. Bostwick was killed by Indians in 1877 and the gun is known to have killed at least five Indians and untold buffaloes; [Henry S. Bostwick was a civilian scout attached to Col. John Gibbon’s 7th Infantry at Fort Shaw. Bostwick was killed by the Nez Perce at Battle of the Big Hole with 1st Lieutenant James H. Bradley]
• A U.S. Ball’s patent, .50 caliber carbine, which was brought to Montana by Col. James Stanford when he came from Canada in 1875; [Colonel James T. Stanford, an early Fort Benton resident, served in the North West Mounted Police and the Montana militia.]
• A J. H. Rector cap and ball of about .43 or .44 caliber, which was owned by the grandfather of Sam French and which carries emblems of the Knights Templar and other York rite Masonic bodies and which was brought to Montana in 1886 but was used in New York and Wisconsin long before that time;
• A U.S. Providence Tool Co. .58 caliber rifle, which was used by John French in the Civil War;
• A Filipino wooden gun brought from the Philippine islands--Filipinos were armed with one actual gun to 5 men, and the other 4 men carrying wooden guns;
• A. J. Hollis & Sons, London, muzzleloader, which was brought to Montana in 1866 by W. S. Stocking when he settled on the Teton river (gun was manufactured about 1835); [W. S. Stocking brought his family to Fort Benton from Bannack in 1865, locating a ranch on the Teton in 1868.]
• A. Smith, London double barrel muzzleloader, which was manufactured in 1825, and which was brought to Fort Benton in 1854 by Ami Lapine;
• An Eilson double barreled muzzleloader, which was owned by Jerry Potts in Fort Benton in 1866. Potts left Fort Benton about 1874 when he went with Col. Macleod as a scout to establish the North West Mounted Police station at the site of Fort Macleod, Alberta; [Son of a fur trading father and Blackfoot mother, Jerry Potts served as hunter, interpreter, and scout at Fort Benton. With the arrival of the North West Mounted Police, Potts became their chief scout, advisor, and interpreter.]
• A U.S. William Mason-Taunton .58 caliber cap and ball, which was owned by John J. Healy, an early day sheriff; [John J. Healy arrived in the future Montana Territory in 1862. Based in Fort Benton, colorful Johnny Healy served as Whiskey Trader, sheriff, scout, newsman, and adventurer until the 1880s when he moved on to Canada and then Alaska.]
• A .38 caliber cap and ball, which was used by ‘Dad’ Emerson, who told Talbott of seeing the vigilantes in action and knew George Ives, Henry Plummer, ‘Clubfoot’ George and others, and who freighted between Fort Benton and Virginia City. He helped move soldiers from Utah to Fort Benton, traveling but 18 miles in 20 days;
• A flintlock rifle of .57 caliber, which was acquired from Indians at Fort Benton in 1845 by Jim Bostwick;
• An Enfield rifle, which was owned by Capt. Nelse Villeaux (Narcissus), who at one time was a Missouri river boat captain; [Captain Nils Veilleaux was an early rancher on the Teton River.]
• An old ‘6’ gun, which was owned by Tom Reynolds, who went to California in 1849 as a government scout and came to Montana in 1862;
• Another old ‘6’ gun, which was owned by Tom Beal, another 49er;
• A .45 caliber Colts revolver, which was taken from ‘Kid’ Curry, when he was jailed at Fort Benton; a double barreled cap and ball pistol; [Harvey Logan alias “Kid Curry” killed Pike Landusky in December 29, 1894. He was never jailed or tried for the killing, but gave the revolver to his sidekick Jim Thornhill. Thornhill was tried in Fort Benton, but acquitted, and the revolver was returned to him.]
• An American double action revolver, which was taken from James Wilber, who allegedly murdered five people in the Judith country and was arrested near Cascade (Wilbur is supposed to have hanged himself in the old county jail here); [James Wilber murdered a family of five in the Judith Basin in June 1889, and hanged himself in the Cascade County jail in Great Falls before he could be brought to justice.]
• A Hopkins-Allen double action revolver, which was taken from a bad man here in 1885.”
“Photo: Guns with a history are those in the collection of Earl Talbott, a small number of which are shown here. Revolver at top is that which fired the fatal bullet in the ‘Kid’ Curry-Pike Landusky slaying. Lined up in the row beneath are odd pistols used in the early days, from left to right, a 6-barreled pinfire revolver; a pinfire revolver handmade, unearthed by a plow in the Kibbey canyon area in 1880; another pinfire revolver, taken from a would-be bad man in Great Falls in 1885; revolver taken from James Wilber, allegedly the weapon with which he slew five persons in the Judith country; a muzzle loading flintlock pistol, brought from England in 1795 by ancestors of Frank E. Wilcocks, local resident; flintlock pistol, in working order, found on the Cow island battlefield near Glasgow by J. W. Tattan, who later became Chouteau county district judge, and pinfire revolver taken from Great Falls bad man in 1885.”
“Photo: At left, is a wooden gun used by Philippine insurrectionists. Next to it is the real gun it imitated. Other rifles, left to right, are a breech loading cavalry carbine, one of the first repeaters made; breech loading ‘muzzle loader,’ patented in 1848; Sharps ‘Old Reliable’ 40-caliber rifle of a type which killed most buffalo in early days, and flintlock musket which Jim Bostwick got from an Indian at Fort Benton in 1845. Bostwick was killed in the Big Hole in 1877. His widow kept the gun until 1896, then gave it to Sam French, who gave it to Talbott. Practically all of the guns shown are in good working order.”
The above are but a few of the firearms acquired by Talbott, all of which played an important part in the history of Montana. So, what happened to the Talbott gun collection? Earl Talbott lived in Great Falls until 1956, when he moved to Arizona. According to Nate Murphy, formerly with the Phillips County Museum in Malta, Talbott sold most of his collection to Gene Hansard of Rudyard, a fellow gun collector. In 1958 Hansard’s basement in his Rudyard home was filled with about 300 pistols, revolvers and rifles including the Kid Curry revolver, George Steell’s revolver, and others. Nate Murphy states that some of these historic weapons were lost in a fire at the Hansard home. In 1999 Hansard, then living in Great Falls, presented the Kid Curry revolver to Nate Murphy for the Phillips County Museum, where it is still on display. Hansard has since passed away, and at this point we simply don’t know where the rest of these historic weapons are located. Where are the weapons of Jerry Potts, Johnny Healy, and the many others of importance to our region? Perhaps a reader knows and will share with us.
Sources: Great Falls Tribune 8 Feb 1938, p. 7; Joel Overholser’s Fort Benton World’s Innermost Port. Falcon Publishing Co.: 1987; Jerome A. Greene’s Nez Perce Summer 1877 The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me—Poo Crisis. Helena: Montana Historical Society, 2000, p. 364; Mark H. Brown’s The Flight of the Nez Perce. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967, p. 264; Samuel K. Phillips, Jr.’s Lone Wolf in the Promised Land. Lewistown, MT: Ballyhoo Printing, 2002; Interview with Nate Murphy 27 Feb 2008.
[Published in the Fort Benton River Press 5 March 2008.]
Once in a while browsing old newspapers can yield a real nugget. In the February 8, 1938 Great Falls Tribune, I found an absolute gem, titled, “Great Falls Man Has Unusual Collection of Weapons Used by Early Day Montanans. Earl Talbott Has Spent Much Time in Gathering Pioneers’ Firearms.” Accompanied by a photograph showing some of the historic firearms, the article describes many of the firearms that good men and bad men carried as they roamed frontier Montana.
The news article reads as follows; my comments are in brackets:
“Grimly reminiscent of the days when Montana was in its infancy and firearms were a necessity, a collection of rifles, revolvers and pistols that played a prominent part in pioneers days has been gathered by Earl Talbott, 1521 7th Avenue North, who is a member of the city [Great Falls] library board.
Much time was required by Talbott in collecting the numerous rifles and pistols, some of which were used by the men who maintained law and order during the pioneer days and others which were used by the ‘bad men’ of that time. Some of Talbott’s guns are nearly 100 years old.
His collection is not confined to the firearms used in the early days of the state but includes various types used during the World war [World War I], in the Philippine insurrection and during other troublesome times.
Talbott has made a successful attempt to authenticate the various exhibits and his catalogued index of firearms includes the following:
• A Halls patent U.S.S. North, manufactured in 1848 and of about .53 caliber. The gun was brought to Fort Benton in 1850 by Clemeaux, who was said to be the first white man married there; [Model 1848 Hall-North U.S. Breech-loading Percussion Carbine]
• A Burnsides Rifle Co. muzzleloader, .45 caliber and weighing more than 20 lbs., which was brought to Montana in 1868 by one of the early settlers on the Marias river; [Ambrose Burnside formed the Burnside Firearms Company in 1854]
• A Colts repeater pump, .44 caliber which was brought to Montana by Sam French in 1886; [In 1900 Samuel French lived in Great Falls]
• A Gallagher’s patent breech loader, .50 caliber, which was brought to Montana in 1868 by George Steel [Steell], who was a businessman at Sun River in the late ‘60s [1860s] and early ‘70s; [Gallagher Civil War Carbine] [George Steell was a freighter and merchant in early Fort Benton and the Sun River valley.]
• A Winchester model which was brought to Montana in a covered wagon in 1886 by H. M. Allison;
• A Sharps old reliable .40 caliber breech loader, which was originally owned by Jim Bostwick, who traded it to Dan O’Reilly after the latter was discharged from the 7th U.S. infantry in 1871. Bostwick was killed by Indians in 1877 and the gun is known to have killed at least five Indians and untold buffaloes; [Henry S. Bostwick was a civilian scout attached to Col. John Gibbon’s 7th Infantry at Fort Shaw. Bostwick was killed by the Nez Perce at Battle of the Big Hole with 1st Lieutenant James H. Bradley]
• A U.S. Ball’s patent, .50 caliber carbine, which was brought to Montana by Col. James Stanford when he came from Canada in 1875; [Colonel James T. Stanford, an early Fort Benton resident, served in the North West Mounted Police and the Montana militia.]
• A J. H. Rector cap and ball of about .43 or .44 caliber, which was owned by the grandfather of Sam French and which carries emblems of the Knights Templar and other York rite Masonic bodies and which was brought to Montana in 1886 but was used in New York and Wisconsin long before that time;
• A U.S. Providence Tool Co. .58 caliber rifle, which was used by John French in the Civil War;
• A Filipino wooden gun brought from the Philippine islands--Filipinos were armed with one actual gun to 5 men, and the other 4 men carrying wooden guns;
• A. J. Hollis & Sons, London, muzzleloader, which was brought to Montana in 1866 by W. S. Stocking when he settled on the Teton river (gun was manufactured about 1835); [W. S. Stocking brought his family to Fort Benton from Bannack in 1865, locating a ranch on the Teton in 1868.]
• A. Smith, London double barrel muzzleloader, which was manufactured in 1825, and which was brought to Fort Benton in 1854 by Ami Lapine;
• An Eilson double barreled muzzleloader, which was owned by Jerry Potts in Fort Benton in 1866. Potts left Fort Benton about 1874 when he went with Col. Macleod as a scout to establish the North West Mounted Police station at the site of Fort Macleod, Alberta; [Son of a fur trading father and Blackfoot mother, Jerry Potts served as hunter, interpreter, and scout at Fort Benton. With the arrival of the North West Mounted Police, Potts became their chief scout, advisor, and interpreter.]
• A U.S. William Mason-Taunton .58 caliber cap and ball, which was owned by John J. Healy, an early day sheriff; [John J. Healy arrived in the future Montana Territory in 1862. Based in Fort Benton, colorful Johnny Healy served as Whiskey Trader, sheriff, scout, newsman, and adventurer until the 1880s when he moved on to Canada and then Alaska.]
• A .38 caliber cap and ball, which was used by ‘Dad’ Emerson, who told Talbott of seeing the vigilantes in action and knew George Ives, Henry Plummer, ‘Clubfoot’ George and others, and who freighted between Fort Benton and Virginia City. He helped move soldiers from Utah to Fort Benton, traveling but 18 miles in 20 days;
• A flintlock rifle of .57 caliber, which was acquired from Indians at Fort Benton in 1845 by Jim Bostwick;
• An Enfield rifle, which was owned by Capt. Nelse Villeaux (Narcissus), who at one time was a Missouri river boat captain; [Captain Nils Veilleaux was an early rancher on the Teton River.]
• An old ‘6’ gun, which was owned by Tom Reynolds, who went to California in 1849 as a government scout and came to Montana in 1862;
• Another old ‘6’ gun, which was owned by Tom Beal, another 49er;
• A .45 caliber Colts revolver, which was taken from ‘Kid’ Curry, when he was jailed at Fort Benton; a double barreled cap and ball pistol; [Harvey Logan alias “Kid Curry” killed Pike Landusky in December 29, 1894. He was never jailed or tried for the killing, but gave the revolver to his sidekick Jim Thornhill. Thornhill was tried in Fort Benton, but acquitted, and the revolver was returned to him.]
• An American double action revolver, which was taken from James Wilber, who allegedly murdered five people in the Judith country and was arrested near Cascade (Wilbur is supposed to have hanged himself in the old county jail here); [James Wilber murdered a family of five in the Judith Basin in June 1889, and hanged himself in the Cascade County jail in Great Falls before he could be brought to justice.]
• A Hopkins-Allen double action revolver, which was taken from a bad man here in 1885.”
“Photo: Guns with a history are those in the collection of Earl Talbott, a small number of which are shown here. Revolver at top is that which fired the fatal bullet in the ‘Kid’ Curry-Pike Landusky slaying. Lined up in the row beneath are odd pistols used in the early days, from left to right, a 6-barreled pinfire revolver; a pinfire revolver handmade, unearthed by a plow in the Kibbey canyon area in 1880; another pinfire revolver, taken from a would-be bad man in Great Falls in 1885; revolver taken from James Wilber, allegedly the weapon with which he slew five persons in the Judith country; a muzzle loading flintlock pistol, brought from England in 1795 by ancestors of Frank E. Wilcocks, local resident; flintlock pistol, in working order, found on the Cow island battlefield near Glasgow by J. W. Tattan, who later became Chouteau county district judge, and pinfire revolver taken from Great Falls bad man in 1885.”
“Photo: At left, is a wooden gun used by Philippine insurrectionists. Next to it is the real gun it imitated. Other rifles, left to right, are a breech loading cavalry carbine, one of the first repeaters made; breech loading ‘muzzle loader,’ patented in 1848; Sharps ‘Old Reliable’ 40-caliber rifle of a type which killed most buffalo in early days, and flintlock musket which Jim Bostwick got from an Indian at Fort Benton in 1845. Bostwick was killed in the Big Hole in 1877. His widow kept the gun until 1896, then gave it to Sam French, who gave it to Talbott. Practically all of the guns shown are in good working order.”
The above are but a few of the firearms acquired by Talbott, all of which played an important part in the history of Montana. So, what happened to the Talbott gun collection? Earl Talbott lived in Great Falls until 1956, when he moved to Arizona. According to Nate Murphy, formerly with the Phillips County Museum in Malta, Talbott sold most of his collection to Gene Hansard of Rudyard, a fellow gun collector. In 1958 Hansard’s basement in his Rudyard home was filled with about 300 pistols, revolvers and rifles including the Kid Curry revolver, George Steell’s revolver, and others. Nate Murphy states that some of these historic weapons were lost in a fire at the Hansard home. In 1999 Hansard, then living in Great Falls, presented the Kid Curry revolver to Nate Murphy for the Phillips County Museum, where it is still on display. Hansard has since passed away, and at this point we simply don’t know where the rest of these historic weapons are located. Where are the weapons of Jerry Potts, Johnny Healy, and the many others of importance to our region? Perhaps a reader knows and will share with us.
Sources: Great Falls Tribune 8 Feb 1938, p. 7; Joel Overholser’s Fort Benton World’s Innermost Port. Falcon Publishing Co.: 1987; Jerome A. Greene’s Nez Perce Summer 1877 The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me—Poo Crisis. Helena: Montana Historical Society, 2000, p. 364; Mark H. Brown’s The Flight of the Nez Perce. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967, p. 264; Samuel K. Phillips, Jr.’s Lone Wolf in the Promised Land. Lewistown, MT: Ballyhoo Printing, 2002; Interview with Nate Murphy 27 Feb 2008.
24 February 2008
Gallant Lieutenant James H. Bradley: “If his books could only talk!”
By Ken Robison
This continues the series of historical sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.
[This article was published in the Fort Benton River Press 27 Jan 2007.]
If the books of young Lieutenant James H. Bradley could talk, what a story they could tell. Lieutenant Bradley, a brave soldier, was Montana’s finest early historian before his tragic death in 1877 at the Battle of the Big Hole during the Nez Perce War. This is the fascinating story of Lieutenant Bradley and two of the books from his library.
Lieutenant James H. Bradley, Fort Benton’s gallant soldier and first historian. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
In August 1870 the 7th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Colonel John Gibbon, arrived at Fort Shaw in Montana Territory. Captain Thaddeus S. Kirtland commanded Company B with three officers and 90 soldiers. In March the following year, 26-year-old 1st Lieutenant James H. Bradley joined Company B as second in command. One year later, in April 1872 Company B took over the Military Post at Fort Benton, setting the stage for Lieut. Bradley’s monumental contributions to Montana history.
This was a critical stage in the evolution of Fort Benton as it emerged from the fur trade era into a wild and wooly frontier merchant town. At this time just a handful of white women lived in Fort Benton, among them Mrs. Mary Beach Bradley, or in Army terms, Mrs. Lieutenant James Bradley. The great fur traders of the Upper Missouri, Alexander Culbertson, James Kipp, and other traders from Pierre Chouteau & Company, who had married Blackfeet wives, still lived in or around Fort Benton. Pioneers merchants like T. C. Power and I. G. Baker and others found Lieut. Bradley an inquiring and thorough chronicler of their experiences. The many encounters between Native Americans and newly arriving miners and settlers of the past decade were still fresh in the memory of the town’s inhabitants.
Lieutenant Bradley was a man of many talents. Born in Ohio in 1844, he enlisted before his seventeenth birthday in the 14th Ohio Volunteers in April 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War. Serving throughout the War during which he had seen heavy fighting and been held as a prisoner of war, Bradley was mustered out as a sergeant in July 1865. Commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in February 1866, Bradley received unusually rapid promotion to 1st Lieutenant. At the Fort Benton Military Post, Lieut. Bradley handled his military duties in Company B with ease and often served as Post Commander. In the words of Edgar I. Stewart, Lieut. Bradley had “definite scientific and historical interests, a man of infinite curiosity, who was interested in almost every item that came under his observation. As he talked to the old timers in Fort Benton, he assembled their stories as a labor of love and with the skill of an experienced historian. In the span of just five years, Lieut. Bradley assembled a remarkable record of diaries, journals, and letters from his historical research.
Company B remained at Fort Benton until September 1, 1875, when they were relieved and returned to Fort Shaw. With Montana’s most violent Indian Wars breaking out, tension and separation filled life at Fort Shaw. On the 17th of March 1876, a Battalion of the 7th Infantry, known as the Montana Column, with Company B and Lieut. Bradley commanding a Mounted Detachment left Fort Shaw for Fort Ellis to join the Yellowstone Expedition against the Sioux Indians. In one of the ironies of this campaign, at the very time Custer’s men were being overwhelmed, the Montana Column could find very little action. Lieut. Bradley’s Mounted Troops were first to discover the dead of Custer’s command on the Little Big Horn in late June 1876. Bradley chronicled this campaign in a journal that proved his skill as an observer and writer. His journal was first published in 1896 in Volume 2 of the Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana, and later in book form, The March of the Montana Column A Prelude to the Custer Disaster. The Montana Column returned to Fort Shaw October 6, 1876, and remained in garrison over the winter.
In late July 1877, Col. Gibbons and most of the 7th Infantry departed Fort Shaw to intercept the Nez Perce in western Montana. On August 9th at the Battle of the Big Hole, valiant Lieut. James H. Bradley was killed in action leading an assault by his Mounted Detachment of 7th Infantry on the Nez Perce camp.
With his death, his widow Mrs. Mary Bradley, who was expecting their second child, and small daughter, Mary, went by private coach to Fort Benton, boarded the steamboat Benton, and on August 17 departed down the Missouri River to return to her family home in Atlanta. Several months after arriving in Atlanta, Mary gave birth to Pauline, her second daughter. Two years later she remarried. Through the efforts of (later) General John Gibbon, Mrs. Bradley graciously presented her husband’s priceless manuscripts and historical research to the Montana Historical Society.
But what about Lieut. Bradley’s personal library? What was in it, and where did it go? We know two of the important books in this library: Oregon Missions of Father De Smet; and Volume One of the Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana. Here is what we know.
I recently purchased a well-worn first edition of the 1847 Oregon Missions and Travels Over the Rocky Mountains in 1845-46 by Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, S. J., a rare book in its own right. I found inscribed on the first page, “James H. Bradley U. S. Army. Fort Benton, M. T. July 1875.” Beneath Lieut. Bradley’s signature is that of “J. H. McKnight Fort Shaw Nov 1877.” J. H. McKnight served as post trader at Fort Shaw during the 1870s. From these clues, we can conclude that Lieut. Bradley got Father De Smet’s book either from an old timer in Fort Benton while he was at the Military Post or had it sent up the Missouri River on a steamboat. After Bradley’s death in August 1877, Mrs. Bradley either sold or gave the book to Post Trader McKnight before departing Fort Shaw for “the States.” My wife and I believe Lieut. Bradley’s historic treasure belongs permanently in Fort Benton, and are presenting it to the River and Plains Society for the Overholser Historical Research Center.
Inscriptions by Lieutenant Bradley and Post Trader J. H. McKnight in Father De Smet’s Oregon Missions. [OHRC]
The second book from Lieut. Bradley’s library has an amazing story to tell. This book, a battered copy of the 1876 Volume One of the Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana, bears the inscription, “To J. H. Bradley U S A Compliments W. F. Sanders Apr 19, 1877.” So, here we have Montana’s legendary Vigilante prosecutor and future Senator, Wilbur Fisk Sanders, presenting to Lieut. Bradley the inaugural volume of the Montana Historical Society series that would later carry much of Bradley’s valuable historic research.
Inscription by W. F. Sanders to Lieutenant Bradley [Montana Historical Society. [MHS]
The book has a further inscription reading, “On Aug 2, 1902, I found this book in a second hand store in Butte, but could not learn its history since the death of Lieut. Bradley, who was killed in the battle of Big Hole, Aug 9, 1877. It looks as though the book itself had been in an engagement judging from the bullet hole in the cover. Granville Stuart.” So, Bradley’s book had been “rescued” by Granville Stuart, one of Montana’s earliest and most famous pioneers. Stuart then presented the book to the Montana Historical Society where it resides today.
Inscription by Granville Stuart when he “rescued” Lieut. Bradley’s book in 1902. [MHS]
Pasted to the inside of the back cover of this book is an undated newspaper article:
“Bullet Punctured Volume. Recovered Copy of First Edition of the State Historical Society’s Work Turns Up in Butte.
Found in Second Hand Store by Mr. Stuart. The Book Had Been Presented to Lieutenant Bradley by Colonel Wilbur F. Sanders Four Months Before the Battle of Big Hole.
If books could speak, aside from the message they carry to readers through the medium of the types, then there is among the recent arrivals at the state historical library a volume that could relate a tale of absorbing interest.
The book in question is a copy of the first volume of Montana’s historical society, which was issued in 1876. For several years the edition has been out of print, and the society found it extremely difficult to locate one of the volumes. Last Saturday, while Granville Stuart, one of the trustees of the society, was delving among the articles in a second hand shop in Butte his gaze wandered to a copy of the edition. It required only a moment for him to close a trade with the dealer for the volume, and his next step was to send it to Mrs. Laura E. Howey, the librarian of the state library.
But interest does not attach to the book so much on account of the fact that it is one of the original edition as because of the history of the volume. The complete history of the book may never be known, but there is enough evidence to show that could it talk there would be an exciting chapter added to the state’s early day history.
The volume was presented to Lieutenant J. H. Bradley, of the United States army, by Colonel Wilbur F. Sanders, April 19, 1877, as is shown by an inscription in the book . . .
There is in the upper left hand corner of the volume a jagged bullet hole, but the shot was a glancing one as is shown by the fact that the leaves of the work are not mutilated. It is not regarded as likely that the book was carried on the field of battle by Lieutenant Bradley, but it is not impossible that it might have been among the officer’s effects near the scene of the engagement, where it was struck by some stray shot fired during the battle in which its owner lost his life. The date of the presentation and the date of the battle show that the book was in the lieutenant’s possession less than four months. The story of the volume from the day of the owner’s death to the time when Mr. Stuart found it in Butte is one that the historical society would be very glad to secure, and they may yet be done.
Bullet hole in cover of Lieut. Bradley’s book. [MHS]
The book is fairly preserved, with the exception of the binding and the many pencil marks that have been made by some thoughtless scribbler.”
We now know of two books from the library of Lieutenant James H. Bradley, Fort Benton’s first and finest historian. How many more are on the shelves of libraries around the country? Oh, to know their stories!
Sources: [Benton Weekly Record 29 Jun 1877, 17 Aug 1877; The March of the Montana Column A Prelude to the Custer Disaster by Lieutenant James H. Bradley; Volumes 1, 2, 3, 8 & 9, Contributions to the historical Society of Montana]
Photos:
(1) Lieutenant James H. Bradley, Fort Benton’s gallant soldier and first historian. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
(2) Inscriptions by Lieutenant Bradley and Post Trader J. H. McKnight in Father De Smet’s Oregon Missions. [OHRC]
(3) Inscription by W. F. Sanders to Lieutenant Bradley [Montana Historical Society. [MHS]
(4) Inscription by Granville Stuart when he “rescued” Lieut. Bradley’s book in 1902. [MHS]
(5) Bullet hole in cover of Lieut. Bradley’s book. [MHS]
This continues the series of historical sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.
[This article was published in the Fort Benton River Press 27 Jan 2007.]
If the books of young Lieutenant James H. Bradley could talk, what a story they could tell. Lieutenant Bradley, a brave soldier, was Montana’s finest early historian before his tragic death in 1877 at the Battle of the Big Hole during the Nez Perce War. This is the fascinating story of Lieutenant Bradley and two of the books from his library.
Lieutenant James H. Bradley, Fort Benton’s gallant soldier and first historian. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
In August 1870 the 7th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Colonel John Gibbon, arrived at Fort Shaw in Montana Territory. Captain Thaddeus S. Kirtland commanded Company B with three officers and 90 soldiers. In March the following year, 26-year-old 1st Lieutenant James H. Bradley joined Company B as second in command. One year later, in April 1872 Company B took over the Military Post at Fort Benton, setting the stage for Lieut. Bradley’s monumental contributions to Montana history.
This was a critical stage in the evolution of Fort Benton as it emerged from the fur trade era into a wild and wooly frontier merchant town. At this time just a handful of white women lived in Fort Benton, among them Mrs. Mary Beach Bradley, or in Army terms, Mrs. Lieutenant James Bradley. The great fur traders of the Upper Missouri, Alexander Culbertson, James Kipp, and other traders from Pierre Chouteau & Company, who had married Blackfeet wives, still lived in or around Fort Benton. Pioneers merchants like T. C. Power and I. G. Baker and others found Lieut. Bradley an inquiring and thorough chronicler of their experiences. The many encounters between Native Americans and newly arriving miners and settlers of the past decade were still fresh in the memory of the town’s inhabitants.
Lieutenant Bradley was a man of many talents. Born in Ohio in 1844, he enlisted before his seventeenth birthday in the 14th Ohio Volunteers in April 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War. Serving throughout the War during which he had seen heavy fighting and been held as a prisoner of war, Bradley was mustered out as a sergeant in July 1865. Commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in February 1866, Bradley received unusually rapid promotion to 1st Lieutenant. At the Fort Benton Military Post, Lieut. Bradley handled his military duties in Company B with ease and often served as Post Commander. In the words of Edgar I. Stewart, Lieut. Bradley had “definite scientific and historical interests, a man of infinite curiosity, who was interested in almost every item that came under his observation. As he talked to the old timers in Fort Benton, he assembled their stories as a labor of love and with the skill of an experienced historian. In the span of just five years, Lieut. Bradley assembled a remarkable record of diaries, journals, and letters from his historical research.
Company B remained at Fort Benton until September 1, 1875, when they were relieved and returned to Fort Shaw. With Montana’s most violent Indian Wars breaking out, tension and separation filled life at Fort Shaw. On the 17th of March 1876, a Battalion of the 7th Infantry, known as the Montana Column, with Company B and Lieut. Bradley commanding a Mounted Detachment left Fort Shaw for Fort Ellis to join the Yellowstone Expedition against the Sioux Indians. In one of the ironies of this campaign, at the very time Custer’s men were being overwhelmed, the Montana Column could find very little action. Lieut. Bradley’s Mounted Troops were first to discover the dead of Custer’s command on the Little Big Horn in late June 1876. Bradley chronicled this campaign in a journal that proved his skill as an observer and writer. His journal was first published in 1896 in Volume 2 of the Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana, and later in book form, The March of the Montana Column A Prelude to the Custer Disaster. The Montana Column returned to Fort Shaw October 6, 1876, and remained in garrison over the winter.
In late July 1877, Col. Gibbons and most of the 7th Infantry departed Fort Shaw to intercept the Nez Perce in western Montana. On August 9th at the Battle of the Big Hole, valiant Lieut. James H. Bradley was killed in action leading an assault by his Mounted Detachment of 7th Infantry on the Nez Perce camp.
With his death, his widow Mrs. Mary Bradley, who was expecting their second child, and small daughter, Mary, went by private coach to Fort Benton, boarded the steamboat Benton, and on August 17 departed down the Missouri River to return to her family home in Atlanta. Several months after arriving in Atlanta, Mary gave birth to Pauline, her second daughter. Two years later she remarried. Through the efforts of (later) General John Gibbon, Mrs. Bradley graciously presented her husband’s priceless manuscripts and historical research to the Montana Historical Society.
But what about Lieut. Bradley’s personal library? What was in it, and where did it go? We know two of the important books in this library: Oregon Missions of Father De Smet; and Volume One of the Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana. Here is what we know.
I recently purchased a well-worn first edition of the 1847 Oregon Missions and Travels Over the Rocky Mountains in 1845-46 by Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, S. J., a rare book in its own right. I found inscribed on the first page, “James H. Bradley U. S. Army. Fort Benton, M. T. July 1875.” Beneath Lieut. Bradley’s signature is that of “J. H. McKnight Fort Shaw Nov 1877.” J. H. McKnight served as post trader at Fort Shaw during the 1870s. From these clues, we can conclude that Lieut. Bradley got Father De Smet’s book either from an old timer in Fort Benton while he was at the Military Post or had it sent up the Missouri River on a steamboat. After Bradley’s death in August 1877, Mrs. Bradley either sold or gave the book to Post Trader McKnight before departing Fort Shaw for “the States.” My wife and I believe Lieut. Bradley’s historic treasure belongs permanently in Fort Benton, and are presenting it to the River and Plains Society for the Overholser Historical Research Center.
Inscriptions by Lieutenant Bradley and Post Trader J. H. McKnight in Father De Smet’s Oregon Missions. [OHRC]
The second book from Lieut. Bradley’s library has an amazing story to tell. This book, a battered copy of the 1876 Volume One of the Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana, bears the inscription, “To J. H. Bradley U S A Compliments W. F. Sanders Apr 19, 1877.” So, here we have Montana’s legendary Vigilante prosecutor and future Senator, Wilbur Fisk Sanders, presenting to Lieut. Bradley the inaugural volume of the Montana Historical Society series that would later carry much of Bradley’s valuable historic research.
Inscription by W. F. Sanders to Lieutenant Bradley [Montana Historical Society. [MHS]
The book has a further inscription reading, “On Aug 2, 1902, I found this book in a second hand store in Butte, but could not learn its history since the death of Lieut. Bradley, who was killed in the battle of Big Hole, Aug 9, 1877. It looks as though the book itself had been in an engagement judging from the bullet hole in the cover. Granville Stuart.” So, Bradley’s book had been “rescued” by Granville Stuart, one of Montana’s earliest and most famous pioneers. Stuart then presented the book to the Montana Historical Society where it resides today.
Inscription by Granville Stuart when he “rescued” Lieut. Bradley’s book in 1902. [MHS]
Pasted to the inside of the back cover of this book is an undated newspaper article:
“Bullet Punctured Volume. Recovered Copy of First Edition of the State Historical Society’s Work Turns Up in Butte.
Found in Second Hand Store by Mr. Stuart. The Book Had Been Presented to Lieutenant Bradley by Colonel Wilbur F. Sanders Four Months Before the Battle of Big Hole.
If books could speak, aside from the message they carry to readers through the medium of the types, then there is among the recent arrivals at the state historical library a volume that could relate a tale of absorbing interest.
The book in question is a copy of the first volume of Montana’s historical society, which was issued in 1876. For several years the edition has been out of print, and the society found it extremely difficult to locate one of the volumes. Last Saturday, while Granville Stuart, one of the trustees of the society, was delving among the articles in a second hand shop in Butte his gaze wandered to a copy of the edition. It required only a moment for him to close a trade with the dealer for the volume, and his next step was to send it to Mrs. Laura E. Howey, the librarian of the state library.
But interest does not attach to the book so much on account of the fact that it is one of the original edition as because of the history of the volume. The complete history of the book may never be known, but there is enough evidence to show that could it talk there would be an exciting chapter added to the state’s early day history.
The volume was presented to Lieutenant J. H. Bradley, of the United States army, by Colonel Wilbur F. Sanders, April 19, 1877, as is shown by an inscription in the book . . .
There is in the upper left hand corner of the volume a jagged bullet hole, but the shot was a glancing one as is shown by the fact that the leaves of the work are not mutilated. It is not regarded as likely that the book was carried on the field of battle by Lieutenant Bradley, but it is not impossible that it might have been among the officer’s effects near the scene of the engagement, where it was struck by some stray shot fired during the battle in which its owner lost his life. The date of the presentation and the date of the battle show that the book was in the lieutenant’s possession less than four months. The story of the volume from the day of the owner’s death to the time when Mr. Stuart found it in Butte is one that the historical society would be very glad to secure, and they may yet be done.
Bullet hole in cover of Lieut. Bradley’s book. [MHS]
The book is fairly preserved, with the exception of the binding and the many pencil marks that have been made by some thoughtless scribbler.”
We now know of two books from the library of Lieutenant James H. Bradley, Fort Benton’s first and finest historian. How many more are on the shelves of libraries around the country? Oh, to know their stories!
Sources: [Benton Weekly Record 29 Jun 1877, 17 Aug 1877; The March of the Montana Column A Prelude to the Custer Disaster by Lieutenant James H. Bradley; Volumes 1, 2, 3, 8 & 9, Contributions to the historical Society of Montana]
Photos:
(1) Lieutenant James H. Bradley, Fort Benton’s gallant soldier and first historian. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
(2) Inscriptions by Lieutenant Bradley and Post Trader J. H. McKnight in Father De Smet’s Oregon Missions. [OHRC]
(3) Inscription by W. F. Sanders to Lieutenant Bradley [Montana Historical Society. [MHS]
(4) Inscription by Granville Stuart when he “rescued” Lieut. Bradley’s book in 1902. [MHS]
(5) Bullet hole in cover of Lieut. Bradley’s book. [MHS]
Requiem for Fireside Books
By Ken Robison
On rare occasions something happening in Fort Benton's little "colony," Great Falls, will warrant an appearance in this blog. The sad closure of the great Fireside Books not only lowered the cultural level of the Electric City, but the closing passed without mention in the local press!
On October 1st 2006, the lights went out for the last time at 614 Central Avenue, Great Falls. On that day, Fireside Books closed its doors for business, and Montana lost one of its finest antiquarian bookstores.
Fireside Books and its proprietor, Niel Hebertson, represented the best in antiquarian bookstores. Opened in 1994, the store and its hard working owner, quickly established a reputation around Montana as a friendly place to find the rare book for the discerning collector or the common, used book to enjoy a good read.
But, Fireside was much more than a bookstore. Fireside was an antiquarian bookstore in the finest tradition of that dying breed. Niel Hebertson was always the gracious host, offering a cup of coffee and a pleasant environment for casual or serious conversation. His time was your time. He knew and cared about rare books, but he also knew and cared about people.
Fireside Books Closed for Business [Photo by Ken Robison]
A visit to Fireside had many dimensions. People came to buy a special present for a friend, looking through the fine offering of Montana history and western Americana. They came to browse through a truly great selection of children’s books, admiring the old style illustrations and covers that made yesterday’s books for children such a joy. They came to search through the comprehensive military selection that hinted at Niel’s earlier career an officer in the U. S. Air Force. Book dealers from around Montana and beyond stopped by Fireside to buy for their own stores selections that Niel often had priced lower than their own. Writers and historians came from north and south of Montana to buy from Niel’s fine selection and to enjoy conversation with a knowledgeable book dealer and western history buff.
And then there were the regulars who came again and again to share a special friendship with both Niel and his bookshop. Always, Niel paused from his work at his computer, poured two cups of coffee, and the fun began. For Bob, the conversation might range from early Fort Benton to the latest find related to Charlie Russell or Lewis and Clark. For Mark, the topics would span a wide range of military history and memorabilia. For Dwayne, the discussion might range from past military careers to collections of Montana political campaign ephemera. For Clint, the conversation compared hunting and fishing experiences. For Jack, the reminiscences might center on nightlife in Great Falls in the 1940s and 50s when he was young. With Ken, the topic de jour might relate to the latest historical nugget about early Great Falls found in dusty old newspapers at the Public Library or the latest treasure on eBay. But always, the conversation would include the latest on families, wives and children.
Where else in Great Falls could you walk into a store, sit down at a big table with a cup of coffee, and join a discussion with Hugh Dempsey, the great Canadian historian, or Brian Dippie, the fine Charlie Russell historian. Where else would you find Phil Aaberg, Montana’s musical treasure, and this author jointly interviewing Jack Mahood about the early days of jazz music in Great Falls including the unique Ozark Club, where as a young musician Jack played with some of America’s finest Black American jazzmen.
Owner Niel Hebertson on the left and Author Brian Dippie at Fireside Books admiring a Charles M. Russell rarity. [Photo by Bob Doerk]
Yet, today the lights are out at Fireside Books. The coffee and conversations are but a delightful memory of the past. And we ask why? The closure of Fireside came for several reasons. Great Falls is not a great bookman’s town. For many, a used paperback at the Jungle or a new sale book at Hastings or Barnes and Noble will do. The walk-in traffic diminished over the years with many book collectors turning to the convenience of the internet, finding their own selections on Abebooks or eBay or Amazon. And then there was the personal dimension. Several years ago, Niel suddenly became a single parent for his four small children. For four years, he balanced the raising of his children with the demands of operating Fireside Books. In the end, it was simply too much. Whether we knew it or not, we all lost when the lights went out at Fireside Books.
p. s. Is it not telling that the closure of this great antiquarian bookstore has not found a single word in print in the Great Falls Tribune!
Photos: (1) Fireside Books Closed for Business [Photo by Ken Robison]
(2) Owner Niel Hebertson on the left and Author Brian Dippie at Fireside Books admiring a Charles M. Russell rarity. [Photo by Bob Doerk]
On rare occasions something happening in Fort Benton's little "colony," Great Falls, will warrant an appearance in this blog. The sad closure of the great Fireside Books not only lowered the cultural level of the Electric City, but the closing passed without mention in the local press!
On October 1st 2006, the lights went out for the last time at 614 Central Avenue, Great Falls. On that day, Fireside Books closed its doors for business, and Montana lost one of its finest antiquarian bookstores.
Fireside Books and its proprietor, Niel Hebertson, represented the best in antiquarian bookstores. Opened in 1994, the store and its hard working owner, quickly established a reputation around Montana as a friendly place to find the rare book for the discerning collector or the common, used book to enjoy a good read.
But, Fireside was much more than a bookstore. Fireside was an antiquarian bookstore in the finest tradition of that dying breed. Niel Hebertson was always the gracious host, offering a cup of coffee and a pleasant environment for casual or serious conversation. His time was your time. He knew and cared about rare books, but he also knew and cared about people.
Fireside Books Closed for Business [Photo by Ken Robison]
A visit to Fireside had many dimensions. People came to buy a special present for a friend, looking through the fine offering of Montana history and western Americana. They came to browse through a truly great selection of children’s books, admiring the old style illustrations and covers that made yesterday’s books for children such a joy. They came to search through the comprehensive military selection that hinted at Niel’s earlier career an officer in the U. S. Air Force. Book dealers from around Montana and beyond stopped by Fireside to buy for their own stores selections that Niel often had priced lower than their own. Writers and historians came from north and south of Montana to buy from Niel’s fine selection and to enjoy conversation with a knowledgeable book dealer and western history buff.
And then there were the regulars who came again and again to share a special friendship with both Niel and his bookshop. Always, Niel paused from his work at his computer, poured two cups of coffee, and the fun began. For Bob, the conversation might range from early Fort Benton to the latest find related to Charlie Russell or Lewis and Clark. For Mark, the topics would span a wide range of military history and memorabilia. For Dwayne, the discussion might range from past military careers to collections of Montana political campaign ephemera. For Clint, the conversation compared hunting and fishing experiences. For Jack, the reminiscences might center on nightlife in Great Falls in the 1940s and 50s when he was young. With Ken, the topic de jour might relate to the latest historical nugget about early Great Falls found in dusty old newspapers at the Public Library or the latest treasure on eBay. But always, the conversation would include the latest on families, wives and children.
Where else in Great Falls could you walk into a store, sit down at a big table with a cup of coffee, and join a discussion with Hugh Dempsey, the great Canadian historian, or Brian Dippie, the fine Charlie Russell historian. Where else would you find Phil Aaberg, Montana’s musical treasure, and this author jointly interviewing Jack Mahood about the early days of jazz music in Great Falls including the unique Ozark Club, where as a young musician Jack played with some of America’s finest Black American jazzmen.
Owner Niel Hebertson on the left and Author Brian Dippie at Fireside Books admiring a Charles M. Russell rarity. [Photo by Bob Doerk]
Yet, today the lights are out at Fireside Books. The coffee and conversations are but a delightful memory of the past. And we ask why? The closure of Fireside came for several reasons. Great Falls is not a great bookman’s town. For many, a used paperback at the Jungle or a new sale book at Hastings or Barnes and Noble will do. The walk-in traffic diminished over the years with many book collectors turning to the convenience of the internet, finding their own selections on Abebooks or eBay or Amazon. And then there was the personal dimension. Several years ago, Niel suddenly became a single parent for his four small children. For four years, he balanced the raising of his children with the demands of operating Fireside Books. In the end, it was simply too much. Whether we knew it or not, we all lost when the lights went out at Fireside Books.
p. s. Is it not telling that the closure of this great antiquarian bookstore has not found a single word in print in the Great Falls Tribune!
Photos: (1) Fireside Books Closed for Business [Photo by Ken Robison]
(2) Owner Niel Hebertson on the left and Author Brian Dippie at Fireside Books admiring a Charles M. Russell rarity. [Photo by Bob Doerk]
18 January 2008
Shooting Fort Benton: The Early Photographers
By Ken Robison
[This article was published in the Fort Benton River Press 31 May 2006, and revised and updated in April 2008. The original article accompanied an Exhibition at the entrance to the Museum of the Northern Plains during the summer of 2006 and an Exhibition in the Great Falls Public Library during May-June 2007]
The magical setting of Fort Benton begs to be photographed—the grandeur of the mighty Missouri River, the broad river bottom, the rising bluffs. Yet we’ve never seen the first photograph taken of Fort Benton.
Almost certainly, that first photo was a daguerreotype taken by John Mix Stanley in 1853. Stanley brought a camera when he accompanied the Isaac Stevens Railway Survey Expedition to Fort Benton in 1853, and he took the first photographs of the Rocky Mountains. Stanley left photographs, lithographic illustrations, and paintings from that pathbreaking trip. Regrettably, Stanley’s photographs no longer exist, probably burned in the same Smithsonian fire that destroyed many of his oil paintings. John Mix Stanley’s lithograph is the first visual image we have of Fort Benton. That illustration of old Fort Benton and Stanley’s grand oil painting of Fort Benton founder, Alexander Culbertson, are now on display in the Hornaday Room at the Museum of the Northern Plains in Fort Benton.
Other early traveling artists came to the Upper Missouri bringing along cameras. Talented artist Karl Wimar brought a camera on his trips in 1858-59, although none of his photos are known to exist. In 1860, J. D. Hutton accompanied Captain William F. Raynolds on a topographic exploration of the Upper Missouri. Hutton’s amazing photograph of Fort Benton from across the river taken between 15 and 22 July 1860 is the earliest known surviving photograph of the old American Fur Company post. This important photograph is on display this summer at the entrance to the Museum of the Northern Plains as part of a new photographic display from the archives of the Overholser Historical Research Center. This exhibition focuses mostly on early professional photographers who resided in Fort Benton rather than the travelers.
Charles Bucknum, an army man with a camera, spent the summer of 1868 at Fort Benton, apparently with a detachment of the 13th Infantry Regiment. A Bucknum photograph of the old Fort is on display this summer. Charles R. Savage, the famed Mormon photographer based at Salt Lake City, came north to Montana Territory in the summer of 1868. In early August 1868, Savage visited Fort Benton and two of his exceptional carte-de-viste are on display. His photograph of the steamboat Success is the first known photo of a steamboat at the Fort Benton levee.
The earliest known “resident” photographer in Fort Benton was Washington W. Parker who spent the summer of 1877 in Fort Benton. Through his photographic advertisement in the Benton Record, we know of his presence, although we have no photos taken by him. In August 1877, Parker moved north to Fort Macleod. In the U.S. Census of June 1880, Parker was living and working with Edgar Train in Helena. Parker was born in New York about 1844. He returned to Fort Benton briefly in August 1880, but by October had moved on.
Traveling photographers came up the Missouri by steamboat to Fort Benton in the 1870s including Yankton-based Stanley J. Morrow in 1873 and wandering photographer William Edward (W. E.) Hook in 1878, 1879, and 1880. Hook later gained fame as the Pikes Peak photographer with a studio in Manitou Springs.
Two photographers arrived at Fort Benton in the spring of 1880 and spent the summer here. William Culver, who later gained fame as the premier photographer of Lewistown, came to Fort Benton. While his photographic equipment was being shipped up the Missouri River, Culver became partners with George Anderton in a photographic tent studio in Fort Benton. By the fall of 1880, Culver moved on to the new army post at Fort Assiniboine. We know of no Culver photos of Fort Benton during 1880, although he took an early scene of great falls of the Missouri.
George Anderton, formerly of the North West Mounted Police and the founding father of photography in western Canada, came to Fort Benton in May 1880 from Fort Macleod. He took important photographs of the buildings and people in Fort Benton during the boom period of steamboat navigation. One exceptional Anderton photo in our collection shows the Front Street levee in 1880. The backstamp on this image reads: “Geo. Anderton, Photographer, Fort MacLeod, N. W. Ter. Canada.”
The late summer of 1880 also brought Fargo photographer F. Jay Haynes to Fort Benton. Haynes had come up the Missouri from Bismarck on the crowded steamboat Helena with reporter M. H. Jewell of the Bismarck Tribune and 261 civilian contract workers enroute to Fort Assiniboine. At Coal Banks, Haynes, the reporter, and the workers, left the Helena to go overland to Fort Assiniboine. Over the next several weeks, Haynes took photography of the construction of the fort and the falls of the Missouri before arriving in Fort Benton. Inexplicably, Haynes took only four known photos at Fort Benton, before departing by mackinaw to return to Dakota. On the way down the Missouri, he took dozens of photos of the white cliff features, the river, and cloud formations.
Justus Fey, a German immigrant, came to Fort Benton in October 1881 from Deadwood City, Dakota Territory. Opening the City Gallery on Main Street, Fey immediately began recording the building boon that was underway. Don and Kathy Lutke used Fey’s photograph of the Pacific Hotel, taken in late 1882, as a guide in their restoration of the famed hotel. Among many other important photos, Justus Fey took an exceptional photograph of the steamboat Josephine on its arrival at the Fort Benton levee on 3 May 1882. Fey was a wandering man, and by 1883, he had equipped a wagon to use as a traveling photographic gallery. Over the next five years, until his death in Helena in 1888, Fey roamed moved through the Sun River valley, Great Falls, Butte, Marysville and Helena taking photographs of people and places.
On 27 June 1882, Simon Duffin and his wife arrived in Fort Benton from Winnipeg on the steamboat Butte. By December, Duffin opened a photographic gallery on Main Street opposite the I. G. Baker store. He gave half of his building to the city for a library. The Duffins remained in Fort Benton just one year, departing in the fall of 1883 for the States and eventual return to Winnipeg. Only a handful of Duffin photos are in our collection, and all of them are portraits signed "S. Duffin.
In November 1883, Civil War veteran and wandering miner Dan Dutro bought Duffin’s gallery. Dutro had served as a drummer boy in the 150th Illinois Volunteers in the war. His health suffered from the war years, and in June 1868 he came up the Missouri River on the steamboat Andrew Ackley to the Montana frontier. Over the next decade he worked as a miner and stonecutter, until his health forced him to seek less demanding work. By the early 1880s, Dan Dutro and his family settled in Fort Benton. Over the next two decades, Dutro remained in Fort Benton, compiling an exceptional photographic record. He photographed a wide span of Fort Benton history, the river, the people, the buildings, the scenes, the Native Americans, the ranches, and mines in the area. Among our collection of Dutro photos are two “hanging” photos taken of convicted murderers before their execution. The hangings were public events, and the photos posed the doomed man with various law enforcement and legal community officials.
Toward the end of Dutro’s photographic career, young Roland Reed came to Fort Benton. He apprenticed at the Dutro studios in Fort Benton and Havre during 1896-97. In 1897, Reed went north to photograph the Alaska Gold Rush. He then went to national prominence during a long career photographing Native Americans, especially the Blackfoot Indians. Many of his photographs were published in association with the Great Northern Railroad.
John G. Showell, another wandering man, spent time in Deer Lodge and Great Falls before opening a photographic studio in Fort Benton in 1899. We first learned of his presence in Fort Benton from an ad in the 1900 Montana Brand Book. Within two years, Showell was on the move again to Hamilton, Missoula and Stevensville. We have several photographs from Showell’s time in Fort Benton including two of his daughter Lois and one of a Chinese resident of the town. Written on the back of the latter is a wonderful inscription that this man with several other resident Chinese learned English from the wife of the Methodist minister in Fort Benton. John Showell spent his later years in Utah.
A final photographer among the early residents of Fort Benton was young Walter Dean. In July 1903, Dean arrived in Fort Benton to work in D. G. Lockwood’s jewelry store as an apprentice optician. Over the next year, Dean displayed exceptional talent as a photographer. His most famous photograph was taken in September 1904 when Charles M. Russell came to Fort Benton in company with the Third Cavalry on an overland march from Fort Assiniboine to Great Falls. Walter Dean and his camera were waiting as Charlie and two Cavalry officers posed outside Joe Sullivan’s Saddlery. Our photo of Charlie and the Cavalry is hand tinted, reportedly by Dean’s friend L. A. Huffman. Thanks to the generosity of Dean’s grandson, Gordon Dean, our Research Center has a strong collection of Walter Dean’s photographs from his year in Fort Benton including many views of the Third Cavalry in encampment on the grounds of the old fort. By 1905, Dean moved on to the new eastern Montana town of Forsyth where he became a prominent booster and photographer.
Samples of the amazing work of Fort Benton’s early photographers will be on display throughout this summer at the entrance to the Museum of the Northern Plains. The exhibition is built from the broad collection of imagery and memorabilia held at the Overholser Historical Research Center. This community collection of photography belongs to the people of Fort Benton, and it will continue to grow through your generosity. If you have photographs of the town, ranches, farms, river, and people stop by the Center. If you can part with them, we will add them to the collection. If you can’t part with them, but are willing to share them with the community, we’ll scan them into our new digital photographic archives. Meanwhile enjoy the exhibition this summer when you visit the museums.
Photos:
(1) First known photograph of Fort Benton taken in 1860 by H. D. Hutton. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
(2) Charles R. Savage photographed the steamboat Success at the Fort Benton levee in August 1868. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
(3) Army Scout Charles Bucknum photographed the old fur fort in 1868. [From Overholser Historical Research Center]
(4) Talented Canadian photographer, George Anderton, spent the summer of 1880 in Fort Benton. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
(5) Justus Fey photographed the steamboat Josephine at the levee in 1882. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
(6) Dan Dutro’s “hanging” photo of murderer John Osness in 1894. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
(7) Young Walter Dean’s photo of Third Cavalry Encampment at Fort Benton in 1904. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
[This article was published in the Fort Benton River Press 31 May 2006, and revised and updated in April 2008. The original article accompanied an Exhibition at the entrance to the Museum of the Northern Plains during the summer of 2006 and an Exhibition in the Great Falls Public Library during May-June 2007]
The magical setting of Fort Benton begs to be photographed—the grandeur of the mighty Missouri River, the broad river bottom, the rising bluffs. Yet we’ve never seen the first photograph taken of Fort Benton.
Almost certainly, that first photo was a daguerreotype taken by John Mix Stanley in 1853. Stanley brought a camera when he accompanied the Isaac Stevens Railway Survey Expedition to Fort Benton in 1853, and he took the first photographs of the Rocky Mountains. Stanley left photographs, lithographic illustrations, and paintings from that pathbreaking trip. Regrettably, Stanley’s photographs no longer exist, probably burned in the same Smithsonian fire that destroyed many of his oil paintings. John Mix Stanley’s lithograph is the first visual image we have of Fort Benton. That illustration of old Fort Benton and Stanley’s grand oil painting of Fort Benton founder, Alexander Culbertson, are now on display in the Hornaday Room at the Museum of the Northern Plains in Fort Benton.
Other early traveling artists came to the Upper Missouri bringing along cameras. Talented artist Karl Wimar brought a camera on his trips in 1858-59, although none of his photos are known to exist. In 1860, J. D. Hutton accompanied Captain William F. Raynolds on a topographic exploration of the Upper Missouri. Hutton’s amazing photograph of Fort Benton from across the river taken between 15 and 22 July 1860 is the earliest known surviving photograph of the old American Fur Company post. This important photograph is on display this summer at the entrance to the Museum of the Northern Plains as part of a new photographic display from the archives of the Overholser Historical Research Center. This exhibition focuses mostly on early professional photographers who resided in Fort Benton rather than the travelers.
Charles Bucknum, an army man with a camera, spent the summer of 1868 at Fort Benton, apparently with a detachment of the 13th Infantry Regiment. A Bucknum photograph of the old Fort is on display this summer. Charles R. Savage, the famed Mormon photographer based at Salt Lake City, came north to Montana Territory in the summer of 1868. In early August 1868, Savage visited Fort Benton and two of his exceptional carte-de-viste are on display. His photograph of the steamboat Success is the first known photo of a steamboat at the Fort Benton levee.
The earliest known “resident” photographer in Fort Benton was Washington W. Parker who spent the summer of 1877 in Fort Benton. Through his photographic advertisement in the Benton Record, we know of his presence, although we have no photos taken by him. In August 1877, Parker moved north to Fort Macleod. In the U.S. Census of June 1880, Parker was living and working with Edgar Train in Helena. Parker was born in New York about 1844. He returned to Fort Benton briefly in August 1880, but by October had moved on.
Traveling photographers came up the Missouri by steamboat to Fort Benton in the 1870s including Yankton-based Stanley J. Morrow in 1873 and wandering photographer William Edward (W. E.) Hook in 1878, 1879, and 1880. Hook later gained fame as the Pikes Peak photographer with a studio in Manitou Springs.
Two photographers arrived at Fort Benton in the spring of 1880 and spent the summer here. William Culver, who later gained fame as the premier photographer of Lewistown, came to Fort Benton. While his photographic equipment was being shipped up the Missouri River, Culver became partners with George Anderton in a photographic tent studio in Fort Benton. By the fall of 1880, Culver moved on to the new army post at Fort Assiniboine. We know of no Culver photos of Fort Benton during 1880, although he took an early scene of great falls of the Missouri.
George Anderton, formerly of the North West Mounted Police and the founding father of photography in western Canada, came to Fort Benton in May 1880 from Fort Macleod. He took important photographs of the buildings and people in Fort Benton during the boom period of steamboat navigation. One exceptional Anderton photo in our collection shows the Front Street levee in 1880. The backstamp on this image reads: “Geo. Anderton, Photographer, Fort MacLeod, N. W. Ter. Canada.”
The late summer of 1880 also brought Fargo photographer F. Jay Haynes to Fort Benton. Haynes had come up the Missouri from Bismarck on the crowded steamboat Helena with reporter M. H. Jewell of the Bismarck Tribune and 261 civilian contract workers enroute to Fort Assiniboine. At Coal Banks, Haynes, the reporter, and the workers, left the Helena to go overland to Fort Assiniboine. Over the next several weeks, Haynes took photography of the construction of the fort and the falls of the Missouri before arriving in Fort Benton. Inexplicably, Haynes took only four known photos at Fort Benton, before departing by mackinaw to return to Dakota. On the way down the Missouri, he took dozens of photos of the white cliff features, the river, and cloud formations.
Justus Fey, a German immigrant, came to Fort Benton in October 1881 from Deadwood City, Dakota Territory. Opening the City Gallery on Main Street, Fey immediately began recording the building boon that was underway. Don and Kathy Lutke used Fey’s photograph of the Pacific Hotel, taken in late 1882, as a guide in their restoration of the famed hotel. Among many other important photos, Justus Fey took an exceptional photograph of the steamboat Josephine on its arrival at the Fort Benton levee on 3 May 1882. Fey was a wandering man, and by 1883, he had equipped a wagon to use as a traveling photographic gallery. Over the next five years, until his death in Helena in 1888, Fey roamed moved through the Sun River valley, Great Falls, Butte, Marysville and Helena taking photographs of people and places.
On 27 June 1882, Simon Duffin and his wife arrived in Fort Benton from Winnipeg on the steamboat Butte. By December, Duffin opened a photographic gallery on Main Street opposite the I. G. Baker store. He gave half of his building to the city for a library. The Duffins remained in Fort Benton just one year, departing in the fall of 1883 for the States and eventual return to Winnipeg. Only a handful of Duffin photos are in our collection, and all of them are portraits signed "S. Duffin.
In November 1883, Civil War veteran and wandering miner Dan Dutro bought Duffin’s gallery. Dutro had served as a drummer boy in the 150th Illinois Volunteers in the war. His health suffered from the war years, and in June 1868 he came up the Missouri River on the steamboat Andrew Ackley to the Montana frontier. Over the next decade he worked as a miner and stonecutter, until his health forced him to seek less demanding work. By the early 1880s, Dan Dutro and his family settled in Fort Benton. Over the next two decades, Dutro remained in Fort Benton, compiling an exceptional photographic record. He photographed a wide span of Fort Benton history, the river, the people, the buildings, the scenes, the Native Americans, the ranches, and mines in the area. Among our collection of Dutro photos are two “hanging” photos taken of convicted murderers before their execution. The hangings were public events, and the photos posed the doomed man with various law enforcement and legal community officials.
Toward the end of Dutro’s photographic career, young Roland Reed came to Fort Benton. He apprenticed at the Dutro studios in Fort Benton and Havre during 1896-97. In 1897, Reed went north to photograph the Alaska Gold Rush. He then went to national prominence during a long career photographing Native Americans, especially the Blackfoot Indians. Many of his photographs were published in association with the Great Northern Railroad.
John G. Showell, another wandering man, spent time in Deer Lodge and Great Falls before opening a photographic studio in Fort Benton in 1899. We first learned of his presence in Fort Benton from an ad in the 1900 Montana Brand Book. Within two years, Showell was on the move again to Hamilton, Missoula and Stevensville. We have several photographs from Showell’s time in Fort Benton including two of his daughter Lois and one of a Chinese resident of the town. Written on the back of the latter is a wonderful inscription that this man with several other resident Chinese learned English from the wife of the Methodist minister in Fort Benton. John Showell spent his later years in Utah.
A final photographer among the early residents of Fort Benton was young Walter Dean. In July 1903, Dean arrived in Fort Benton to work in D. G. Lockwood’s jewelry store as an apprentice optician. Over the next year, Dean displayed exceptional talent as a photographer. His most famous photograph was taken in September 1904 when Charles M. Russell came to Fort Benton in company with the Third Cavalry on an overland march from Fort Assiniboine to Great Falls. Walter Dean and his camera were waiting as Charlie and two Cavalry officers posed outside Joe Sullivan’s Saddlery. Our photo of Charlie and the Cavalry is hand tinted, reportedly by Dean’s friend L. A. Huffman. Thanks to the generosity of Dean’s grandson, Gordon Dean, our Research Center has a strong collection of Walter Dean’s photographs from his year in Fort Benton including many views of the Third Cavalry in encampment on the grounds of the old fort. By 1905, Dean moved on to the new eastern Montana town of Forsyth where he became a prominent booster and photographer.
Samples of the amazing work of Fort Benton’s early photographers will be on display throughout this summer at the entrance to the Museum of the Northern Plains. The exhibition is built from the broad collection of imagery and memorabilia held at the Overholser Historical Research Center. This community collection of photography belongs to the people of Fort Benton, and it will continue to grow through your generosity. If you have photographs of the town, ranches, farms, river, and people stop by the Center. If you can part with them, we will add them to the collection. If you can’t part with them, but are willing to share them with the community, we’ll scan them into our new digital photographic archives. Meanwhile enjoy the exhibition this summer when you visit the museums.
Photos:
(1) First known photograph of Fort Benton taken in 1860 by H. D. Hutton. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
(2) Charles R. Savage photographed the steamboat Success at the Fort Benton levee in August 1868. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
(3) Army Scout Charles Bucknum photographed the old fur fort in 1868. [From Overholser Historical Research Center]
(4) Talented Canadian photographer, George Anderton, spent the summer of 1880 in Fort Benton. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
(5) Justus Fey photographed the steamboat Josephine at the levee in 1882. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
(6) Dan Dutro’s “hanging” photo of murderer John Osness in 1894. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
(7) Young Walter Dean’s photo of Third Cavalry Encampment at Fort Benton in 1904. [Overholser Historical Research Center]
The Classic Lobby Desk in the Grand Union Hotel
By Ken Robison
[Published in the 2 November 2007 Fort Benton River Press Grand Union Edition]
In October 11, 1882 the Fort Benton River Press reported, “W. G. Jones and his men went to work for the lessees of the new hotel [The Grand Union] yesterday morning, making tables, etc., to which proceedings Mr. Tweedy object, and was inclined to get on the warpath. As a result, the latter [Tweedy] resigned his position as superintendent [of construction] and Mr. Jones will complete the carpenter work about the hotel.” Jones and his crew built much of the interior woodwork in Fort Benton’s grandest hotel including the classic lobby desk or counter that remains in use today.
The opening of the Grand Union, November 2nd 1882, was described in The Benton Record of November 9th as “The grandest affair of its kind ever witnessed in Benton, and most probably in the Territory.” The Record reported, “The office is under the superintendance of Mr. W. H. Todd, who officiates behind one of the finest hotel counters in Montana, which was made by Messrs. Jones & Merrill, of Benton. It is 16 feet long on its longest side and then curves back six feet, and upon it is stained glass set in a frame, and an aperture through which the clerk can see all that is going on and receive payments. The entrance behind the counter is through a glass door secured by a Yale lock. The entire counter arrangement is finished by those first-class Benton painters, Messrs. Keenan & Payne, and is in imitation of both American and French walnut, mahogany, and oak veneering, beautifully done, and the counter both in its fabrication and painting reflects great credit upon Messrs. Jones & Merrill, and Keenan & Payne in their respective crafts.”
In his Master’s thesis on the Grand Union in 1971, architectural student John Ellingsen describes the lobby desk as “more elaborate than any other in Montana, including even that of the Broadwater Hotel [in Helena] or the Montana Hotel of Anaconda (both of which were build after the Grand Union). Made entirely with hand tools, it contains almost as many mouldings as the rest of the hotel put together. On a project of this type, where the joiner did not have to make several hundred feet of the same contour, he could go ‘hog-wild’ producing elaborate designs to suit his fancy.
“The top of the desk consists of two huge boards held together by a row of perfectly fitting dovetails. Above it stands the cashier’s cage, the most fantastic bit of cabinet architecture in the building. It has an arched window, wide cornices, pilaster strips, and a generous amount of polychrome wood. The cage is made of black walnut and what appears to be maple in contrasting bands. The door to the desk, another custom job, is complete with a knob that would fit nowhere better than beside this ultra-fancy desk. The solid brass knob pictures a bird cast in deer relief.”
Later, in the early summer of 1883, the July 7th River Press announced that, “W. G. Jones is building a fine porch in front of the Grand Union hotel. The improvement will add much to the appearance of the finest hotel in Montana.” By July 15th the portico was complete, and 125 years later all who enter the Grand Union pass through it.
[From: “Never a dull moment: The life of W. G. ‘Vinegar’ Jones in Fort Benton in the early 1880s Part II” by Ken Robison in The River Press February 26, 2003]
Photos:
(1) Elaborate lobby desk at the Grand Union built by Jones & Merrill [Overholser Historical Research Center OHRC]
(2) Lobby desk as it looks today, 125 years later [Tim Burmeister]
(3) Illustration showing the Grand Union when it opened to the public November 2nd, 1882, with no portico present. [Benton Record OHRC]
(4) W. G. Jones built the portico for the Grand Union in July 1883 [OHRC]
[Published in the 2 November 2007 Fort Benton River Press Grand Union Edition]
In October 11, 1882 the Fort Benton River Press reported, “W. G. Jones and his men went to work for the lessees of the new hotel [The Grand Union] yesterday morning, making tables, etc., to which proceedings Mr. Tweedy object, and was inclined to get on the warpath. As a result, the latter [Tweedy] resigned his position as superintendent [of construction] and Mr. Jones will complete the carpenter work about the hotel.” Jones and his crew built much of the interior woodwork in Fort Benton’s grandest hotel including the classic lobby desk or counter that remains in use today.
The opening of the Grand Union, November 2nd 1882, was described in The Benton Record of November 9th as “The grandest affair of its kind ever witnessed in Benton, and most probably in the Territory.” The Record reported, “The office is under the superintendance of Mr. W. H. Todd, who officiates behind one of the finest hotel counters in Montana, which was made by Messrs. Jones & Merrill, of Benton. It is 16 feet long on its longest side and then curves back six feet, and upon it is stained glass set in a frame, and an aperture through which the clerk can see all that is going on and receive payments. The entrance behind the counter is through a glass door secured by a Yale lock. The entire counter arrangement is finished by those first-class Benton painters, Messrs. Keenan & Payne, and is in imitation of both American and French walnut, mahogany, and oak veneering, beautifully done, and the counter both in its fabrication and painting reflects great credit upon Messrs. Jones & Merrill, and Keenan & Payne in their respective crafts.”
In his Master’s thesis on the Grand Union in 1971, architectural student John Ellingsen describes the lobby desk as “more elaborate than any other in Montana, including even that of the Broadwater Hotel [in Helena] or the Montana Hotel of Anaconda (both of which were build after the Grand Union). Made entirely with hand tools, it contains almost as many mouldings as the rest of the hotel put together. On a project of this type, where the joiner did not have to make several hundred feet of the same contour, he could go ‘hog-wild’ producing elaborate designs to suit his fancy.
“The top of the desk consists of two huge boards held together by a row of perfectly fitting dovetails. Above it stands the cashier’s cage, the most fantastic bit of cabinet architecture in the building. It has an arched window, wide cornices, pilaster strips, and a generous amount of polychrome wood. The cage is made of black walnut and what appears to be maple in contrasting bands. The door to the desk, another custom job, is complete with a knob that would fit nowhere better than beside this ultra-fancy desk. The solid brass knob pictures a bird cast in deer relief.”
Later, in the early summer of 1883, the July 7th River Press announced that, “W. G. Jones is building a fine porch in front of the Grand Union hotel. The improvement will add much to the appearance of the finest hotel in Montana.” By July 15th the portico was complete, and 125 years later all who enter the Grand Union pass through it.
[From: “Never a dull moment: The life of W. G. ‘Vinegar’ Jones in Fort Benton in the early 1880s Part II” by Ken Robison in The River Press February 26, 2003]
Photos:
(1) Elaborate lobby desk at the Grand Union built by Jones & Merrill [Overholser Historical Research Center OHRC]
(2) Lobby desk as it looks today, 125 years later [Tim Burmeister]
(3) Illustration showing the Grand Union when it opened to the public November 2nd, 1882, with no portico present. [Benton Record OHRC]
(4) W. G. Jones built the portico for the Grand Union in July 1883 [OHRC]
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