"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.

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]

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]

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]

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]

The Jewel in Fort Benton’s Crown: The Grand Union

By Ken Robison

[Published in the 2 November 2007 Fort Benton River Press Grand Union Edition]

The Grand Union Hotel is both the oldest operating hotel and among the most important historic buildings in Montana. Built in 1882 at the height of the steamboat era on the Upper Missouri, the Grand Union welcomed weary travelers to spend a few nights in its luxury before they set out to less “civilized places” like Virginia City and points west. The architectural character of the Grand Union is unique with bricks carefully fitted into excellent bold decorations. Its extensive corbelling, wrought iron balconies and ornate chimneys were an impressive sight. Furnished with Victorian appointments, the dining room’s silver service, white linen and Bavarian china served the rich and famous. A ladies elegant parlor on the second floor, with a private stairway to the dining room, saved the ladies from exposure to the rowdy crowd in the saloon and poker rooms. The ornate lobby desk and broad black walnut staircase highlight the fine carpentry work throughout. No wonder that the opening ball for the Grand Union was “the grandest affair of its kind ever witnessed in Benton, and most probably in the Territory.”

The Grand Union, during its 125 years, has had many lives. It has been “the most luxurious” hotel between St. Louis and Seattle; it has been a “run-of-the-mill” hotel; it has been a “virtual flophouse” with rooms to rent for two bits; and it has suffered years of derelict closure. But today the grand old lady of Montana hotels shines brightly, restored to its golden era glory with modernity carefully folded in.

At the height of the steamboat era in 1879, William H. Todd had a dream. Fort Benton was booming with thousands of passengers and tons of freight arriving at the head of navigation on the Upper Missouri. With trails heading in every direction, Fort Benton was the transportation hub of bustling Montana territory. Todd bought Lot One, Block One, on the steamboat levee, forty-two feet of which fronted on Front Street and one hundred feet on Bond Street [now 14th].

The next year, 1880, William Todd, talked constantly about a grand hotel positioned to receive travelers as they stepped off steamboats and afford them a day or two of luxury before they departed into the frontier life. Todd convinced the optimistic businessmen of Benton that the town was a civilized and permanent community with a great future. By September 1880, a corporation was formed to raise money for The Benton Hotel Company. Within a month the contract was let to Storer and Storer to furnish locally made bricks. Cold weather arrived in November, closing out the booming building season before most of the bricks could be manufactured, and Benton went into its winter slumber.

In the spring of 1881, just as the weather warmed to permit resumption of brick-making and construction work, the brick makers dissolved their partnership and rumors began to fly that the new hotel would never be built. But W. H. Todd and his supporters were determined to press forward. In August ground was broken for the hotel with Todd in general charge of construction and Thomas Tweedy as architect and superintendent of construction. Legend has it that the hotel had no architect, rather the craftsmen simply designed it as they built. Yet, apparently the first elaborate plans were drawn up by an unknown Eastern architect, and then either downsized or ignored by Tweedy.

Plans were firmed up in August 1881 for a three-story brick hotel, 75 ft. 4 inches on Front Street by 80 feet 4 inches on Bond Street. The principal entrance was to be on Bond Street, and the ladies entrance on Front. The main entrance would lead into a lobby with a grand staircase ascending to the second floor. The dining room would front on the river, while the room at the corner of Front and Bond would serve as a saloon and billiard hall. The south room on Front Street could be rented for a barbershop. Just over one year later these plans came true.

By the end of August 1881 the granite foundation was in place and the first bricks laid with Frank Coombs, local contractor, supervising the brickwork that would eventually total a half million bricks. Tweedy insisted on best-seasoned wood for floor joists, and the project suffered delays in the supply of lumber. Meanwhile, Benton’s other hotels, the Chouteau House, the Overland, and the Centennial, were doing booming business. Building costs were escalating in the river city.

After slowing for the winter, construction on the new, yet unnamed hotel accelerated in the spring. The arrival of the steamboat Josephine on May 3rd, 1882 signaled the opening of another great year at the head of navigation. Boats began to arrive almost daily loaded with cargo for the territory and with fine furnishings for the new hotel. The steamer Helena brought carpet, stoves, and a grand piano. The Benton arrived with more carpeting, and ceiling and flooring materials. The Butte brought chairs and glassware for the new hotel. The Helena on its second trip brought walnut boards destined to be assembled into the hotel’s grand staircase.

In June plastering began, and a few days later the steamer Black Hills arrived with the doors and windows, tailor made in Auoka, Minnesota. Benton’s second trip brought sofas, settees, ladies’ desks, boxes of marble, dressers, beds and bureaus from Duluth. The hotel’s famous safe arrived in July on the Benton’s third trip from Bismarck. As the summer passed and the water level lowered, boats like the Butte had to land at Coal Banks with its cargo of seventy barrels of china destined to grace the tables in the fine dining room in the new hotel.

The name, Grand Union, was finally announced in the River Press on September 27th. The two words grand and Union, fit the post Civil War times, the “Grand Union” was the perfect name for the finest hotel in the West. In the midst of furious activity to complete construction, decorate the interior, and hire a staff, Tweedy resigned, and Whitman Gibson (W. G.) Jones, a master carpenter, was brought in to complete the carpentry work that was running behind schedule. Finally, the interior work was almost complete, and the hotel that cost about $200,000 to built and furnish was ready to open.

Bentonites got their first look inside the Grand Union Hotel on Thursday, November 2, 1882, and that evening “the grandest affair of its kind ever witnessed in Benton” was held, a grand opening ball worthy of the fine new hotel. An elaborate program unfolded over the course of the evening with dancing showing the 100 ladies in their finest. At midnight, a supper feast was served, prepared by Benton’s finest chef, young African American Alex Martin, assisted by Jerry Flowers and Samuel Jones, Reflecting the robust black community in Fort Benton at the time, the entire staff of eleven at the new hotel was African American, except two supervisors.

The ball continued with more dancing until the early hours of the morning. The Benton Record dedicated much of its next edition to the grand ball and the new hotel, in elaborate detail. The proudest man on the scene must have been W. H. Todd, who after years of dreaming and fifteen months of construction at last was standing in the lobby of the Grand Union contemplating the great future of the hotel and Fort Benton.

The first guest at the Grand Union was Alex Staveley Hill, a British capitalist and Member of Parliament. Other 90 plus guests in the 55 small rooms that first night included Hill’s brother, Fort Benton’s most prominent citizens like the Conrad family, T. E. Collins, Hans Wackerlin, W. S. Wetzel, W. S. Stockings, Paris Gibson, and prominent visitors from San Francisco, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, New York City, St. Louis, and many others. Ironically, two years later sheep farmer Paris Gibson would found the town of Great Falls at the confluence of the Missouri and Sun rivers. The arrival of railroads at Great Falls would, more than any other factor, accelerate the decline of Fort Benton and the demise of the Grand Union.

Since it was un-ladylike for a lady to walk through the men’s world of the lobby and saloon, the Grand Union had a side door. A lady would enter the hotel by that door and climb a staircase up to the woman’s parlor on the second floor. When nature called, guests would go out the back door of the hotel across a catwalk to a two-story high 16-hole outhouse.

The men’s saloon was a lively place, especially when the many cattlemen and cowboys came to town. Drinking and gambling sometimes led to the birth of legends such as the time when two cowboys bet whether one could ride his horse up the lobby staircase all the way to his room on the third floor. The bet was made, and the cowboy went out to the street to untie his horse. The cowboy led the horse through the front doors, mounted him, and made it up to the first landing before the night clerk heard the commotion and took action. The outcome of the bet was settled, when the clerk shot the rider, so goes the legend.

The dawn of the New Year, 1883, brought another boom navigation year, but the end was near for steamboating. The Utah Northern Railroad had long since opened the era of railroads in Montana, but late 1883 brought the Northern Pacific into Helena. Equally threatening, the Canadian Pacific railroad arrived in Alberta. The days of Fort Benton as transportation hub both north and south of the Medicine Line were at an end, and Fort Benton’s population plunged. Shocking evidence came in May 1884 when the Benton Hotel Company assets went at a sheriff’s sale to a banking firm—at least Benton bankers took over.

The challenge for a series of hotel men in Fort Benton over the next two decades then became how to keep the magnificent Grand Union operating and make it pay. In 1899 local businessmen J. H. Green and B. F. O’Neal bought the hotel for $10,000. Major remodeling took place about 1900, and in 1917 Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lepley took on the challenge.

While river traffic had ended, and Great Falls and Lethbridge now transportation hubs, Fort Benton sank and then began slowly coming back, riding the good years in cattle ranching and by the early 1900s the homesteading boom. Fort Benton settled into a long era as agricultural center for Montana’s golden triangle, with the good and bad that come subject to the weather and commodity prices.

During the 1930s and 40s, the Grand Union went steadily down hill. The bedrooms, once among the best in the west, gained a reputation for having a permanent insect population exceeded only by the disreputable Choteau House. Stories made the rounds about time spent at the not-so-grand Union including the following:

“I had just climbed into one of the creaking brass beds and beginning to get drowsy when I heard some weak voices singing. I couldn’t make out the words at first, but by holding my breath they came more clear. It seemed to b two men. I listened carefully in the silence:

‘Pull for the shore, boys, pull for the shore.’
Was it a ghost? A group of drowned crewmen from one of the steamboats? Again it came:
‘Pull for the shore, boys, pull for the shore.’
Though the voices were weak, they seemed to come from right under the bed. Getting my flashlight, I looked under. There in the pot were two bedbugs on a matchstick singing:
‘Pull for the shore, boys, pull for the shore.’”

Charles Lepley died in 1941 and his wife, May, took over the operation of the Grand Union until 1951 when she sold the hotel to Harold Thomas and his wife Margaretha, the legendary Superintendent of Chouteau County schools. Many of us, including this writer, have fond memories of visits with Margaretha at her suite in the Grand Union. I’d return from my overseas assignments with the U. S. Navy bearing a few sterling spoons acquired from Japan or Singapore or other ports of call and proudly present them to Margaretha to add to her dazzling collection.

By this time, little “grand” remained in the hotel in the eyes of Harold Thomas as related to Jerry Madden of the Montana Parade:
“The lobby, dining room, and saloon were ghosts of a once elegant era. Rooms were threadbare with straw mattresses sill sprawling on sagging springs. Two public bathrooms on each of the three floors were the only personal sanitary facilities. . .
One day shortly after we moved in . . . a friend of mine asked me how in the hell I ever got into this mess. The only answer I’ve been able to find is that the building offered a challenge to a restless soul and a stubborn nature.”

The one-man restoration effort of Harold Thomas likely saved the structure, which by then was on the National Register of Historic Places. Over a quarter-century, Thomas removed the colorful, but dangerous, chimneys, sealed holes, repaired cornices, painted, added structural supports, put in new plumbing and wiring, and fumigated.. In 1979 Mr. and Mrs. Thomas sold the hotel to Levee Restorations. Despite their good intentions, they could never raise the funds needed to move the hotel back into operation.

Fortunately, in 1995 the Jim and Cheryl Gagnon bought the boarded-up hotel, then owned by a contractor in Helena who ended up with the title when the previous owners couldn’t pay him for work he’d done. The Gagnons moved to Fort Benton in 1997 and on November 2, 1999, reopened the front doors after a multi-million dollar restoration. Restoring the old hotel was a labor of love for the Gagnons, and the result has been a model for keeping the best of the old while subtly adding modern amenities for today’s traveler. Masterful restoration combined with good business practices, and exceptional hard work and sacrifice have enabled Jim and Cheryl to keep the Grand Union going as the priceless jewel in Fort Benton’s crown.

Fort Benton has played a major role in every era of Montana history. Few towns in the country better present their historic past with major museums and a research center celebrating native American culture, the fur trade era, the Upper Missouri River, steamboating and overland transportation, the shared past with our Canadian neighbors, open range ranching and agricultural homestead farming eras, The preservation of the Grand Union is one of Montana’s great historic preservation success stories. The 125th anniversary is both a celebration of the hotel and a tribute to Jim and Cheryl Gagnon and the many past proprietors of the grand old Grand Union.

The Legend of Tillie the Moonshiner

By Ken Robison

[Published in the Fort Benton River Press 16 May 2007]

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

Tillie Wallace was no angel. She got caught—the only lady known to be prosecuted for running her own moonshine operation in Montana during Prohibition from 1919 to 1933. But Tillie was more than a moonshiner. She was also a mother, a widow, a homesteader and rancher located northwest of the bustling cow and railroad town of Square Butte in southern Chouteau County.

“Tillie” or Mathilda J. Wallace was born in Minnesota in 1879, married at age 17, and in 1910 lived in Minnesota with her husband Joseph and 8-year-old daughter Carmilla. By 1912 Tillie was a widow, and she and Carmilla headed west on the Great Northern Railroad to homestead in southern Chouteau County.

In the early years all went well for homesteader Tillie, and in 1919 she proved up her claim to receive patent to 317.45 acres. Over the years, Tillie acquired more land and her place became known as the Tillie Wallace Ranch, but then the hard times of the 1920s struck. A friend of hers that she owed money to agreed to furnish her with a still and let her pay off what she owed him by making moonshine whiskey. Tillie agreed to the deal in hopes of paying off the mortgage and saving her farm. She set up the still in a crude granite stone shack with a metal roof hidden among the large granite boulders some 75 feet above her ranch buildings. The shack’s location gave a clear view of The Sag, both east and west, with a towering cliff wall in back.

Tillie was in the moonshining business for several years before
Federal agents J. Q. Adams and Richard Ginn [what a great name for a revenuer] raided the ranch late Saturday afternoon January 2, 1932. The agents searched the ranch, seized a completely outfitted 75-gallon still operation in the stone shack, and destroyed six 50-gallon barrels and three 10-gallon kegs. She admitted to the officers that she had been in business for some time and that she had ‘run off’ the last batch about two weeks ago.

In April 1932, Mrs. Mathilda Wallace went before Judge Charles N. Pray in District Court in Great Falls on a charge of “possessing machinery to manufacture liquor.” She pleaded guilty, insisted that she has never sold any whisky except to two people, and emphasized that she did not drink herself. Her lawyer related her sad tale of financial troubles and her efforts to save the farm. The agents testified that they found cobwebs over the barrels and that the still hadn’t been used for a long time. Legendary Judge Pray fined Tillie $50 and then empathetically suspended the fine after placing her on probation for three years.

Around the time of the raid on the Tillie Wallace Ranch, the same federal agents also successfully raided the Smoke House pool hall and “soft drink” joint in the town of Square Butte. The agents arrested 81-year-old William Fitzmaurice for violating the national prohibition law by “possessing liquor and maintaining a nuisance.” They seized one-third of a gallon of moonshine whisky hidden in an ice cream container in the back room.

The same day in April 1932 that Tillie went to trial before Judge Pray so did old William Fitzmaurice. His attorney made a strong plea for leniency, and Fitzmaurice pleaded guilty. As the story unfolded, the unidentified owner of the pool hall had left town to go down to Canastota for his health, so he hired Mr. Fitzmaurice to run the place while he was gone. Fitzmaurice had lived in Cascade County for thirty years, and his lawyer told the Judge that his client didn’t know the whisky was there until the officers raided the place.

Judge Pray looked at the old man, whose eyes were clear in spite of his years. The prohibition agent confirmed the statement of Mr. Holt and said he had never heard of anything against Fitzmaurice. When they went there, they were after the proprietor, and they were still looking for him. Judge Pray fined Fitzmaurice $50 on his plea of guilty and then suspended the fine on three years’ probation.

By 1932 the great social experiment of prohibition had failed, and the country waited anxiously for repeal. The federal agents brought the moonshiners and bootleggers in, and the courts, in many cases like those of the two Square Butte operations, let them go. In Tillie Wallace’s case, she was unable to keep the ranch going without the moonshine income and in 1935 she sold out for $10.


p. s. Tillie Wallace may also have been a murderer. We are tracking down rumors and will tell you more about this later.


[Sources: Set in Stone The Square Butte Granite Quarry by Henry L. Armstrong and Marcella Knedler; GFLD 4 Jan 1932, p. 8; GFLD 27 Apr 1932, p. 8; US Census 1900-1930]

Photos:

(1) Tillie Wallace Still Site [Photo by Henry L. Armstrong]

(2) Typical Still and Moonshine Equipment [Great Falls Tribune Photo]

(3) “First Woman ‘Moonshiner’ Is Arrested” [Great Falls Leader Photo]

Cowboy Up! The Master Saddlers of Fort Benton

By Ken Robison

[Published in the Fort Benton River Press 31 January 2007

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

If early Montanans rode “tall in the saddle,” that in measure was due to the work of the master saddlers of Fort Benton. During the 1870s ranching began to develop in historic Choteau County, and by the early 1880s open range ranches extended in every direction from Fort Benton. Ranches meant horses, and horses meant an increasing demand for saddles, bridles, harnesses, and other equestrian equipment.

The large mercantile houses in Fort Benton like T. C. Power & Brother offered saddles and other supplies to ranch customers in Montana and southern Canada, but it was only a question of time, before saddle makers would open for business in Fort Benton.

We may never be certain when the first saddle and harness maker opened shop in Fort Benton to fill the rising need, but we do know that L. H. Rosencrans moved from Helena to Fort Benton to become the first known saddle maker in 1876. L. H. Rosencrans, saddler, was open for business by February 2, 1877. His wood frame shop, built by Gus Senieur, was located next to the Benton Record office on the corner of Front and Bond (today’s 14th) streets. Rosencrans’ first ad carried in the February 16th Benton Record stated he was prepared to take orders for any style of harness, saddle, bridle, halter, collar, belt, or whip and that he was prepared to make old harness or saddles “good as new.” His shop over time became known as the Pioneer Harness Shop.

The 1860 Wisconsin census gives insight into Rosencrans’ origins. In that year John and Mary Rosencrans lived in Beloit, Rock County, Wisconsin with a large family including twin boys, Lucius and Lucian, born in April 1847, and a son Milo, born in 1851. Lucian H. Rosencrans arrived in Helena in 1866, one of the first saddlers in Montana Territory, and he remained in Helena for the next decade before moving on to Fort Benton. In June 1880, Lucius, sometimes Lucas, or most often simply “L. H.” Rosencrans lived in Fort Benton and was employed in the saddle and hardware business. In the census of 1880, his twin brother Lucian lived in Helena, and their younger brother Milo was a stock raiser operating out of Fort Benton.

L. H. Rosencrans worked in Fort Benton until June 1883 when he sold his business to William Glassman. He married Marcella that same year 1883, and they remained in Montana until about 1890. The Rosencrans then moved on to Freeborn County, Minnesota with L. H. still working as a harness maker.

William Glassman sold his Cheyenne Saddle Shop in Helena in early 1883, moved to Fort Benton, and on the 13th of June of that year bought the Rosencrans saddlery. William Glassman was born in Davenport, Scott County, Iowa in November 1858 of parents born in Germany. He came west by way of the cattle country of Colorado and Wyoming, and in 1878 was in Miles City. In Fort Benton, Glassman operated his saddle and harness shop at Front and Bond streets. In October 1885, he departed Fort Benton, eventually moving on to Utah. There he went into the real estate business and became active in Republican Party politics. In 1900 Glassman worked as a journalist and lived in Ogden, Utah with his wife Evelyn and two children. William and Evelyn Glassman were married about 1883, and their oldest child, Ethel, was born July 1884 in Fort Benton. Their son, Roscoe, was born in Utah in May 1891. Glassman became a leader of his party in Utah, was elected speaker of the lower house of the Utah legislature, and served as mayor of Ogden.

August Beckman, Fort Benton’s second saddle and harness maker, arrived May 17, 1878 from St. Louis with his family as deck passengers on the steamboat Red Cloud. Beckman had graduated from one of the largest saddle and harness firms in St. Louis. By late May of 1878 his stock of goods had arrived, and Beckman opened the New Harness Shop on Front Street. In June 1880 Beckman, born about 1840 in Germany, worked as a harness maker and lived in Fort Benton with his wife Louisa, also German born, and their four children, all born in Missouri.

In late 1880 Beckman built a two-story 35x40 brick building for his saddlery on Franklin Street between Baker (16th) and Power (17th) streets. His wife Louisa ran a boarding house, the Cosmopolitan Hotel, and restaurant on the upper floor. August Beckman sold his business to S. J. Kline on May 30, 1888, and went into ranching on the Teton River in the 1890s. Both August and Louisa passed away in the 1890s.

The Davidson & Moffitt harness store operated in Fort Benton from 1881 to 1883. This Fort Benton store, managed by John Moffitt, was a branch of the Helena business of A. J. Davidson. The January 1881 Holiday Edition of the River Press, reported that Davidson & Moffitt had recently completed a one-story brick building during 1881 and would add a twenty feet addition in the spring of 1882. Their store was located next to Murphy, Neel & Company, at Front and Arnoux (12th) streets. Davidson & Moffitt were agents at Fort Benton for the celebrated Concord harness and kept in stock “everything required by a horseman.” Besides their saddle and harness business, they dealt in wool, hides, and robes. The store closed in September 1883, and the River Press later purchased the building.

The longest in business and best known of Fort Benton saddlers was Joseph Sullivan. Sullivan with partner V. K. Goss moved to Fort Benton from Deer Lodge at the urging of Johnny Healy. The 1881 Holiday Edition of the River Press reported that this new firm had just commenced business in September in a building formerly occupied by J. J. Kennedy meat market. By July 1882 Goss ended the partnership and returned to Deer Lodge. The well-known sign, “Jos. Sullivan, Saddler’, hung for years over the door of the 1865 building that had housed the Blackfeet Agency and treaty of that year, located on Front Street next door to the Benton State Bank on St. John (15th). The front face of this historic building was log; an addition of adobe was added, and later a third frame structure was added to the rear.

Joseph Sullivan made friends with the cattlemen of the open range, and Charles M. Russell was a special friend. Sullivan died in Fort Benton in April 1940 after 59 years in the business, operating his renowned shop a bit until just before his death. The old building he occupied the entire time was saved and moved to Great Falls by Charles Bovey as an important part of Frontier Town at the Fair Grounds. Jos. Sullivan’s Saddlery was later moved on to Nevada City where it stands today.
Vanderlyn K. or V. K. Goss was born about 1854 in Michigan. In June 1880 he lived in Helena, working as a harness maker, before he moved on to Deer Lodge to form a partnership with Joe Sullivan. After his short time in Fort Benton, Goss married Miss Lou Watson of Mason City, Iowa in early July 1882 in Fort Benton and returned to Deer Lodge to resume business.

Joseph Sullivan was born in Ireland in December 1857 and came to the United States in 1860 as a child. Some sources claim that Sullivan was born at Port Chester, New York about 1860. Young Sullivan visited a brother in St. Paul in 1880 and kept going west to Montana Territory, arriving late that year. For a time he worked in a harness shop in Bozeman, before joining with V. K. Goss to operate a saddlery in Deer Lodge. Joe Sullivan married Rosa V. McQuillan, an early Fort Benton teacher, in 1885 in Dubuque, Iowa, and they had two daughters, Marie B. and Mary G.

Shortly after coming to Fort Benton, Sullivan received an order for 500 lightweight saddles for the North West Mounted Police, so he hired five or six more workers to help meet that order. At that time he had about a dozen employees. Sullivan made saddles for the big T. C. Power concern. Sullivan once said that two cinch saddles were most popular when he first came to Montana, but the mode changed to the three-quarter rig, one cinch. In the words of Joel Overholser, “Sullivan saddles went as far north as Edmonton and south to the Colorado line, and every puncher on the northern ranges knew or knew of Joe Sullivan . . . Joe Sullivan was a crusty old timer; a friend recalled that cowboys would hock their outfits to him to prolong a spree, get a tongue lashing later and be sent back to work with saddle and gear—they usually paid up next time.”

In a tribute to Sullivan in 1940, Overholser wrote, “The death of Joseph Sullivan, pioneer Fort Benton saddler and harness maker, marks the severing of another of Montana’s links to her colorful and picturesque past . . . The men who built the saddles which were cinched onto the hurricane decks of Montana broncs never received any part of the credit going to the cowpuncher who had made a good ride, but they deserved some of it, for when they built their saddles, they built them to last. Joe Sullivan was one of the last of these old-time saddlers.”

A one-time employee of Sullivan’s, Arnold Westfall, operated his own shop on Front Street between St. John (15th) and Baker (16th) streets for a quarter century, from about 1904 to 1931. He made some of the saddles sold by T. C. Power. Westfall was born in August 1862 in Iowa, came to Fort Benton in 1891, and married Hannah E. Johnson in 1893. Hannah was born in Norway and immigrated to the United States in 1881. Arnold and Hannah Westfall had a daughter, Ethel L., born October 1893 and a son, Arnold J., born in February 1898. In 1931 Westfall suffered a stroke and had to close his business. He passed away April 23, 1933.

Little is known of Sam J. Kline (or Cline) who came to Fort Benton in June 1882 to work for Sullivan & Goss. At some point in the 1880s, Kline opened his own harness business on Franklin Street. In May 1888 Kline moved his shop from Franklin to Front Street. Other saddle and harness makers also may have opened their own businesses in Fort Benton over the years after working for Sullivan or other saddlers.

Through the decades, the saddles of Fort Benton’s talented artisans have retained their interest and prestige with ranchers and collectors. Modern day master saddle maker, Dr. Richard Sherer of Denver, triggered this article after he restored a saddle by William Glassman and saddlebags by Joe Sullivan and asked for biographic information. Closer to home, you can see seven Sullivan saddles, some dating from the 1890s, and three Westfall saddles in our remarkable display of historic saddles at the Museum of the Upper Missouri. They are a fitting tribute to the great saddle makers of an important era in Fort Benton’s history.

[Sources: Benton Record (BR) 5 Jan 1877; BR 2 Feb 1877; BR 16 Feb 1877; BR 2 Jun 1878; River Press (FBRP) Holiday Edition 28 Dec 1881; FBRP 16 Jun 1883; FBRP 1 Jan 1884; FBRP 12 Aug 1885; FBRP 21 Oct 1885; FBRP 23 Jan 1901; FBRP 21 Jan 1942; FBRP 5 Aug 1970; FBRP 14 Aug 1974; Sun River Sun 14 Feb 1884; various U.S. Census; Fort Benton World’s Innermost Port by Joel Overholser]

Photographs:

(1) Fort Benton’s first saddler, L. H. Rosencrans, advertised in the Benton Record

(2) Testimony for William Glassman saddles by cowmen in the Judith Basin in the Sun River Sun

(3) August Beckman’s “New Harness Shop” Ad in the Benton Record

(4) An Ad for Davidson & Moffitt from an 1881 River Press

(5) An Ad for Sullivan & Goss from an 1881 River Press

(6) Joe Sullivan standing on the left in front of his famed “Jos. Sullivan Saddler” store on Front Street in Fort Benton with friends artist Ed Borein, rancher Julius Bechard, and an unidentified man

(7) Arnold Westfall, Fort Benton saddler

Hope & Opportunity: Homesteading in Montana 1909-1920

By Ken Robison

[Published in the Fort Benton River Press 11 July 2007. The article accompanied a Homestead Photography Exhibition at the entrance to the Museum of the Northern Great Plains during summer of 2007. This Exhibition will be in the Great Falls Public Library during May-June 2008.]

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


The men and women who came to claim free land in Montana through homesteading faced many trials and tribulations as they worked through the good and bad times. Visual insight into the experiences of these hearty men, women, and children will be on display throughout this summer at the entrance to our Museum of the Northern Plains. The exhibition is built from the broad collection of imagery and memorabilia held at the Overholser Historical Research Center and the River and Plains Society Museums. 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 towns, ranches, farms, rivers, and people, stop by our Overholser 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 digital photographic archives. Meanwhile enjoy the exhibition this summer as you reminisce about our forefathers when you visit the Museum of the Northern Plains, the Montana State Agricultural Museum, and the Homestead Village.

When Abe Lincoln signed the original Homestead Act into law in 1862, he reportedly announced, “This will do something for the little fellow.” The Act allowed “the little fellow,” men and unmarried women, American citizens age 21 or over, to claim up to 160 acres of public land and make homes for themselves and their families. David Carpenter filed the first homestead entry in Montana by 1 August 1868 on a claim just north of Helena. The first woman to file a claim was Margaret Maccumber of the Gallatin on 8 September 1870. Five years were required to patent or receive title to the land in those early years.

It wasn’t until the early 1900s that homesteading in Montana dramatically began to increase. Hardy Webster Campbell developed dry land farming techniques and the Great Northern Railroad promoted homestead settlements in Montana. In 1909 Campbell pronounced, “I believe of a truth that this region [including Montana] . . . is destined to be the last and best grain garden in the world. Good farming can be done here even better than in the humid region, but the work must be understood and carefully applied.”

Congress passed an Enlarged Homestead Act in 1909 allowing 320-acre claims and more flexibility for homesteaders to work at other jobs part of each year away from the claim. In 1912 the “prove-up” period was lowered from five to three years. With extensive advertising and promotion the homestead land rush to Montana was under way. Among the homesteaders pouring into Chouteau County during this period were my Robison grandparents, who with the related Applegate and Withrow families came by rail from Missouri to the Square Butte Bench area.

Many homesteaders came, but far fewer stayed. The wet years of the mid-1910s turned to dry years toward the end of this first decade, and the term “free land, no guarantee” became all too true. Our farmers of today are largely descended from the hardy first generation of homesteaders, who held down their debt in bad times, tenaciously worked hard and acquired more land in good times. We hope you enjoy our sampling of the images of these pioneer homesteaders as they arrived by Great Northern train, located their claims, built their claim shacks, established schools for their children, and carried out their daily work in the fields and in the homes.

Through the generosity of the McCardle family, you will see a model homestead, based on the A. J. McCardle homestead located near Flogan Coulee in the Hawarden area east of Geraldine. Built by son Leon McCardle, the model shows the 1912 sod claim shack build by his father. The other buildings are also built of sod, and the model provides an excellent example of an original homestead in Chouteau County.

Although many photographers took the photos in our collection of homesteading photography, two of them left an exceptional record of the own homesteading experience. Willard E. Barrows was an exceptional and prolific photographer. Barrows came from Nez Perce, Idaho, filing a homestead in the Pleasant Valley Community, February 7, 1910. Barrows lived and recorded nearly every aspect of the homestead period from 1910 to 1920. His interest in photography continued until the late 1940s. (Willard E. Barrows 1873-1951)

Using 4 by 5 inch dry-plate glass negative photography, Alexander DuBois recorded his adventures in Montana from 1914 to 1920. Alex came from the Midwest where he had taught high school and acquired the name “Professor.” Whether he was cutting timber and making ties for the Great Northern at Belton, visiting and recording the life of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Baker at their Upper Highwood ranch, or working on his own homestead near Teton Ridge, Alex DuBois captured the action in a remarkable series of photographs. Alex and his wife Alma left their homestead and Montana by 1920, and moved to the Midwest where Alex worked as an electrical engineer in Chicago and Minnesota. (Alexander DuBois 1866-1966)

Among the photographs on display are several by Willard Barrows showing the arrival of the family in an emigrant car, loading their belongings on to wagons, moving on to the claim, breaking sod with a Case Steam Engine, a four-horse team pulling a bottom walking plow, three horses and two boys on a walking plow, celebrating Thanksgiving in 1912 inside the claim shack, building a sod claim shack, the LaBarre country school and the first Pleasant Valley school, wash day on the prairie using some clever “pedal power” techniques, children playing around the claim shack.

Photographs by Alexander DuBois show him building his claim shack, tents and claim shacks in winter, hauling and stacking hay, breaking sod and plowing with an eight horse team, a binder and team of horses cutting oats, stacked wheat in the fields, and a threshing outfit on the move complete with a cook house and milk cow.

Animals were important on the homestead. DuBois took many animal photographs including one striking photo of his wife Alma holding a young coyote pup in her arms inside the claim shack. Children are shown playing with toys inside and outside the house.

The chance for free land and opportunity proved irresistible to many. But homesteading was not a free lunch. It involved hardships that are difficult to imagine today. Setting off into an unknown, undeveloped area that to many appeared as a barren and harsh landscape was but the first of many challenges to face them. Some hoped for a second chance and a better life in an occupation for which they were ill prepared. Some were lured by the railroads with advertising for “a land of milk and honey.” Over time about 25% survived and succeeded in their homesteading experience. The other 75% failed, lost their land, and moved on. Those that persevered and prevailed paved the way for future generations. Descendants of these hearty homesteaders today live on the farms and ranches of Chouteau County.

(Sources: Montana’ Homestead Era by Daniel N. Vichorek; Homestead Days by T. Eugene Barrows)

Photos:

(1) A Threshing Outfit on the Move. Photo by Alex DuBois [Overholser Historical Research Center]

(2) Sohn’s Binder & Team Cutting Oats. Photo by Alex DuBois [Overholser Historical Research Center]

(3) Young Coyote in Arms of Mrs. Alma DuBois. Photo by Alex DuBois [Overholser Historical Research Center]

“Like a wall of fire through a cane break”: The 1903 Fort Shaw Indian School Girls’ Basketball Team Sweeps Through Northern Montana

By Ken Robison

[Published in the Fort Benton River Press 17 January 2007]

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


By the spring of 1903, the relatively new sport of basketball was sweeping through the state of Montana, and the girls’ basketball team from the Fort Shaw Indian School was emerging as an invincible force. During March of 1903, the Fort Shaw girls played the Agricultural College in Bozeman. In the words of the Great Falls Leader, Fort Shaw played their “most brilliant game,” defeating the older college girls 18-0 and scoring the first shut-out in Montana basketball history. The Leader sports editor gushed on to say that the Fort Shaw team “is walking through the state like a wall of fire through a cane break.” The Fort Shaw girls barnstormed this tour with convincing wins over Butte Parochial (modern day Butte Central), Bozeman, Boulder, and the university girls in Missoula.

Most spectators in Montana never before had watched a basketball game. A Great Falls Leader sports writer described the action in Luther’s Hall in the first basketball game ever played in the Electric City:

“Talk about excitement! Two wrestling matches, a football slaughter, three ping-pong tournaments, a ladies’ whist contest, a pink tea, and one Schubert musical recital combined, would fall short in comparison with one game of basket-ball as it is played. It was the first game ever seen in Great Falls, but there will be others. Five hundred and forty people paid cash at the box office for admission last night, besides those who had purchased tickets previously, so that in all there were over seven hundred people present, and the hall was packed like a sardine box, over 300 people standing about the end and sides of the wall. It was a success from a box office standpoint, and the shouting and enthusiasm would indicate that it also was a success from the audience point of view.

“Basket-ball is a game where you can be comfortable, carry the colors of your team, yell as loud and as long as you desire, wear your best bib and tucker, and witness a howling football match with the slaughter house elements cut out, while at the same time keeping your clothes and conscience as clean as the driven snow. The game is easy. To see it is to understand all about it, and this makes it a game above all others for the ladies. At each end of the hall there are hung about ten feet above the floor, what are termed baskets, but which are really dip nets, with an iron ring eighteen inches in diameter forming the top. The idea of each team is to get the round fat ten-inch football into their dip net, and when they do so it counts two--sometimes it counts one--but the referee obliging stops and tell what is, so there is no darkness upon this point.

“Between the baskets, or dip nets, there are a number of pretty figures traced upon the floor with chalk which forms the court, the outer boundaries being the first row of very excited spectators. The players are not supposed to play outside of the boundaries. Five girls on each side constitute a team, and two twenty-minute halves constitute the game. Last night there were three twelve-minute thirds, but that was entirely unaccording to Hoyle. The referee throws the ball up and then there is a mix, which makes the audience howl. A little bloomer girl shoots out of the pile and another little bloomer girl with short skirt over the bloomer part, hops on the first little girl, and the referee blows the whistle and separates the bunch. Then it all begins over again and half a dozen little girls slide head-first into the crowd after the fat ball and upset a few spectators in the slide. The referee blows his whistle and a very red-faced little bloomer lady with very much rumpled hair and both arms clasped tightly over the fat ball, emerges in triumph from the midst of chaos, and the crowd yells in ecstasy.

“More sliding, running, tumbling and mix-up; a little girl fires the fat ball for her fishnet and as it misses dropping in, the crowd groans ‘A-a-a-ah!’ in a tone which would indicate that the fishnet has been guilty of a personal affront. There are more mix-ups and half a dozen little girls manage to smash a chair, upset a fat man, break an electric light globe, and in the midst of it all a very excited little lady throws the fat ball toward the ceiling and it returns to fall safe in her fishnet, while the crowd yells like rooters, at Yale-Harvard finish. There is a rest between times and at the end the umpire announces the result and the audience comes out of a trance and declares the game to be the best ever.

“It might also be mentioned that the umpire is not killed in Basket-ball as in other ball games, and is a very pleasant faced young man armed with a time whistle and a package of chewing gum.

“For real fun and a chance to howl naturally, without appearing a rude, untamed person from Greater New York, basket-ball is the unadulterated essence of the proper thing and its initial appearance in Great Falls created a furor.”

Over a two-year period during 1902-03, Fort Shaw Superintendent F. C. Campbell built a traveling entertainment program far beyond simply the game of basketball. Drawing crowds of up to a thousand spectators, the Fort Shaw “show” typically consisted of music by a mandolin orchestra, demonstrations of Indian club swinging, literary recitations by scholars, followed by the main attraction, the basketball game. After the game, the host school often hosted a banquet or reception and dance for the Fort Shaw girls, completing the evening’s entertainment.

Despite the daunting travel schedules assembled by Superintendent Campbell, the girls met every challenge. Their opponents expected that the Fort Shaw team would arrive tired out from the travel and late hours, but the girls kept themselves in perfect condition. According to Campbell, “It might have been expected that they would be worn out, but they were too wise, and every game was played by the original members of the team, without substitution. Every afternoon, before a game, the girls took a bath and rub-down and then went to bed for a few hours and slept well. They would wake shortly before dinner, eat a light meal, have another rub-down and feel perfectly fresh when they went into a game.”

The Fort Shaw traveling road show drew huge crowds and rave notices in the press wherever they went. Campbell scheduled three types of contests for the girls. Against organized high school teams, Fort Shaw played a serious, conventional game of basketball. If the opponent had just organized a team, the Fort Shaw girls would provide a handicap, playing four of their girls against five or six opponents. If the host town had no team, the Fort Shaw girls would split their squad into two teams, giving an entertaining exhibition game of basketball.

In the absence of a girls’ basketball team at the high school in Great Falls, the Fort Shaw girls became “The Great Falls team,” receiving detailed press coverage by both the Tribune and the Leader.” To kick off a tour of northern Montana, Monday night, June 8th, the Fort Shaw team scheduled a game against the “first” Great Falls basketball team, the Grays, basically a club team since the Great Falls schools refused to organize a team. To even the match somewhat, the game was played under a handicap with the Great Falls team playing six girls, while the Fort Shaw team played only four girls.

The Great Falls Leader headlined the predictable result: “Was Absolutely Nothing To It. Four Little Indians Play Rings Around Six Home Girls. Just Like Shooting Fish. Nettie Wirth Makes Most Sensational Play Ever Recorded in Hall.” The Leader continued,

“There was a basketball game last evening at Luther’s hall between four little Indian girls of the Fort Shaw school and six little girls of the Great Falls teams. It was to have been a contest, but there was absolutely nothing to it and the four little Indian girls made rings about the home team at the final footing of 45 to 1, the worst score ever put up in the city.

“The game was intended to have been three little Indians against seven white girls, but Manager Hamill, of the home team felt that he would be taking too much advantage of the little Indians by allowing it to go that way and he made it six to four. It should have been seven to two. There were about 200 people present, and the little ladies all played with vim and dash, the only trouble with the home team being that they cannot play the game, while the Indians play like clockwork. It was one, two, three and a basket until the audience got tired of counting them and the Indians got tired of making them.

“The only count secured by the home team was on a free throw by Miss Pontet, saving a shut out. The sensational play of the evening, and the greatest ever seen in the halls was made by Nettie Wirth on a throw up of the ball, she reaching up and striking it square into the basket from the umpire’s hands, while her opponent gasped in astonishment.”

The Tribune added, “That the Great Falls Grays need coaching, and a great amount of it, is evident from the game which the girls of that team played with the Fort Shaw Indian maidens last night in this city . . . . Basketball is a splendid game, and one which brings rosy cheeks to the players, but to play the game as it should be played requires team work; and that is something which the local Grays lack to an alarming extent.”

The team lineups included the following girls:
Fort Shaw--Nettie Wirth, center; Genie Butch, right guard; Belle Johnson, left guard, and Emma Sansavere, forward. Left out was usual starting right guard, Josephine Langley.
Great Falls Grays--Edna Payne, center; Nellie Short, right forward; Flossie Solomon, left forward; Mamie Beckman, right guard; Mamie Longway, left guard, and Frances Pontet, substitute.

After a night at the Grand Hotel, the next morning, Tuesday the 9th of June, the Fort Shaw traveling road show consisting of orchestra, club swingers, scholars, basketball players, and chaperons, Superintendent Campbell, W. J. Peters and Miss Sadie F. Malley, boarded the Great Northern train to barnstorm through six towns in Northern Montana in six days. Two Fort Shaw basketball teams, called the “blues” and the “browns,” were scheduled to play a demanding series of exhibition games as follows:
June 9, Fort Benton.
June 10, Havre.
June 11, Chinook.
June 12, Harlem.
June 13 Glasgow.
June 14, Fort Peck, located at Poplar agency.

Tuesday evening Green’s Opera House in Fort Benton was the scene for the first exhibition game. The Fort Benton River Press reported, “The entertainment given last night at Green’s hall, which consisted of club swinging and basket ball by the Indian girls of the Fort Shaw Indian Industrial school, was a grand success, socially and financially. While both teams, the ‘blues’ and ‘browns’ acquitted themselves admirably in the games played by them, it was noticeable that the Misses Emma Sansavere, formerly a resident of Fort Benton, and Belle Johnson, a former resident of Highwood, were the favorites of the audience.”

Emma Sansavere, part Cree and the smallest member of the team, was born near Fort Assiniboine. Her mother, Mary Sansavere, was murdered about 1898 near Havre. Despite a concerted investigation by Chouteau County Attorney Charles N. Pray, no one was ever convicted for Mary’s murder. Belle Johnson, a part Piegan Blackfeet, was the daughter of early day miner, Charles Johnson, who came to Fort Benton by steamboat. Belle was born and raised near Belt and attended the Holy Family mission school on the Blackfeet reservation. Both Emma and Belle were exceptional athletes and basketball players.

The next day, the traveling show moved on to Havre. In the words of the Havre Plaindealer, “In every way a creditable entertainment was that given by the Fort Shaw Indian girls basket ball team at Swanton’s hall, Wednesday night. A match game between two teams was played before a large audience, many of whom had never seen a basket ball game, and but few had ever seen the Indian girls exemplify the sport. The Fort Shaw team enjoys the distinction of being the state champions, having defeated all the teams of the state. Briefly stated, the girls play a clever, fast and snappy game. The entertainment was fully enjoyed and was concluded by a dance following the game. Superintendent F. C. Campbell spoke briefly of the benefits of Indian education and of the progress made with the Indians who have come under Uncle Sam’s educational wing in this section of the state.”

Moving on to Chinook on Thursday evening, the Fort Shaw girls “gave an excellent exhibition of the game at the town hall . . . a very good and appreciative audience filled the hall.” After the exhibition was over the hosts held a social dance that continued until the early hours of Friday.”

Another day, another stop along the hi-line, this time at Harlem, where the Harlem Hearsay reporter in the Chinook Opinion reported, “The people of Harlem and vicinity were given a very pleasant and enjoyable time on Friday evening of last week, when the Fort Shaw Indian girls gave an entertainment consisting of a basket ball game and an exhibition of Indian club swinging. The game was a very good exhibition of team work and heady individual playing. In the first half the team work was somewhat broken on account of a substitute having to take the place of one of the regular players on the first team. The score at the end of the first half was 8 to 6 in favor of the first team. In the second half the substitute was taken off the first team and the remaining four regular players played the five on the second team. This was a big handicap, as it left one member of the second team free to play without any guard for interference, but the four played so much better team work, that the score at the end of the game was 25 to 10 in favor of the first team . . . . After the game several stayed to enjoy a social dance.”

On Saturday at Glasgow, the game proved so popular that the teams were asked to play again, so the girls played a second game on their return trip. At Poplar, the agency for the Fort Peck reservation, two games were played with admission charged at the first, while the second performance was free of charge to Indian children and the elderly.

Upon the return of the teams and chaperons to Great Falls on June 18th, Superintendent Campbell reported “The greatest interest in the game was shown at every place where we played, and I am satisfied that a team will be organized by the girls of each of the towns. We had a very pleasant trip, being able to travel in the daytime all the way, and the girls greatly enjoyed their visit, but are eager to get back to the school.” Campbell added, “The only unpleasant feature at any of those towns was the small size of the halls, it being impossible to accommodate all who desired to witness the games.”

The girls of Fort Shaw continued to play an exceptional brand of basketball. These remarkable young ladies were ambassadors for Indian education and trailblazers for their broad and popular acceptance as social and athletic equals. The next year, in the summer of 1904, “Montana’s team” barnstormed their way from Montana to St. Louis, Missouri. There at the St. Louis World’s Fair, the Fort Shaw Indian School Girls’ Basketball team gained immortality when they were crowned “1904 World Champions.”

[Sources: GFLD 16 Jan 1903, p. 4; GFTD 30 Jan 1903, p. 8; GFLD 2 Apr 1903, p. 6; GFTD 3 Jun 1903, p. 4; GFLD 9 Jun 1903, p. 7; GFTD 9 Jun 1903, p. 4; GFTD 11 Jun 1903, p. 3; GFTD 14 Jun 1903, p. 10; FBRPW 17 Jun 1903, p. 6; GFTD 19 Jun 1903, p. 3; FBRPW 17 Jun 1903, p. 6; Havre Plaindealer Weekly 13 Jun 1903, p. 1, 4; HPD 20 Jun 1903, p. 5; Chinook Opinion 18 Jun 1903, p. 5, 8]

Photos:

(1) The Fort Shaw Indian School Girls’ Basketball Team in 1903 [Great Falls Leader Photo 5 Feb 1904]









(2) How Basketball Is Played [Great Falls Leader Photo]
(3) Luther’s Hall in Great Falls, the “Home Court” for the Fort Shaw Indian School Girls’ Basketball Team. [Great Falls Leader Photo 19 Oct 1902]
(4) Green’s Opera House was located on the second floor of the Masonic Temple built in Fort Benton in 1880. Today, this historic building is the home of The Benton Pharmacy [Overholser Historical Research Center photo]
(5) Going To St. Louis for the 1904 World’s Fair [Great Falls Leader Photo 4 May 1904]