USA > Idaho > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 87
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 87
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 87
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774
GENERAL DEVELOPMENT.
Benton has 1,000 inhabitants, and is a well-built, thriving town. A substantial iron bridge 875 feet
The events of 1888 were the completion of the wagon-road and railroad bridges, the establishment of great reduction works, the holding of two terms of court, which cleared the moral atmosphere to a considerable extent, the building of a jail and two churches, the completion of the Sand Coulee rail- road, the creation of a board of trade, and the erection of a large number of business buildings, the public-school edifice, and two hotels, one of which is among the best in Montana. Another newspaper, the Leader, was estab- lished June 16, 1888, In October the city was incorporated, and Paris Gib- son chosen mayor. A hundred years from now, when Great Falls is a great city, these details of its origin will not be without interest or value, but quite the reverse.
Paris Gibson came to Montana in 1879 to engage in sheep-raising, and his consequent observations of the conntry led to his fortunate investment in land at the falls of the Missonri. I have no data concerning his previous life.
Hon. H. P. Rolfe was born in Vt in 1849, and educated there, choosing law for a profession. He came to Montana in 1876, and was for two years snpt of public schools in Helena. During 1879 he was managing editor of the Butte Miner. He next removed to Fort Benton, where he practised law, bnt in 1884 located permanently in Great Falls. He was elected probate judge in 1886, serving one term, but prefers to keep out of politics.
George W. Taylor was born on a farm near Lexington, Ky, in 1853, raised and educated in his native state, where he also tanght school for several years. He came to Montana in 1883 and studied law with Hon. J. K. Toole, being admitted to the bar in 1884. Immediately he located at Great Falls, the first lawyer there. He was appointed county attorney on the organization of Cascade co., and in 1888 elected to the same position. He was a candi- date for reelection on the state ticket of 1889.
E. G. Maclay was born in Penn. in 1844, and removed with his parents to St Louis when a child. He came to Montana in 1863, and for twenty years was engaged in freighting, after which he entered mercantile life. He was the first merchant in Great Falls.
Ira Myers, born in Ohio in 1839, went to Colo in 1859, and came to Mon- tana in 1863. Mining and cattle-raising was his business until 1884, when he erected a saw-mill at Great Falls, and has been in lumber business ever since. He was one of the organizers of the Electric Light Co. of Great Falls, of which he is president, and is one of the principal owners in the water-works.
H. W. Child was born in 1855 in San Francisco, and educated there, being a clerk iu the stationery-house of H. S. Crocker & Co. from 1870 to 1875. He came to Montana in 1876, engaging in various enterprises until 1882, when he became general manager of the Gloster and Gregory mines. In 1887 he removed to Great Falls as manager of the Montana Smelting Co.
H. O. Chowen was born in Minneapolis, Minn., in 1859, and educated there. He came to Great Falls in 1884, in the employ of Paris Gibson. In 1885 he organized the Cataract Mill Co., to which he gives his special atten- tion, but is largely interested in city real estate.
J. H. Fairchild, born in Maine in 1856, removed to Minneapolis at the age of 9 years, and was there educated. He studied medicine and graduated from the Pennsylvania Medical College in 1880, and was surgeon of the Phila hospital for two years. He then practised a year in Minn., after which he came to Great Falls, where he now practises his profession. He was elected mayor in the spring of 1889.
A. G. Ladd was born in Maine in 1851, and educated in his native state. He studied medicine at the Maine Medical College, Portland, gradu- ating in 1878. He came to Montana and purchased a cattle rancho in what is now Cascade co. in 1883, living on his land and practising his profession. When Great Falls was organized he removed to the town, but retains his land and stock.
775
TOWN OF BENTON.
long spans the Missouri at this place, at a cost of $65,000. The town has electric-light and water-works systems, a fire department, board of trade, a public- school building costing $33,000, a court-house costing $60,000, two fine hotels, one costing $50,000, and a First National bank building costing $20,000, besides private banks, handsome mercantile houses, several churches, a hospital, and other evidences of the intel- ligence and prosperity of its citizens. Benton is in the wool-growing district of Montana, and the town is supplied with wool compressors and warehouses for the convenience of shippers. But although the coun- ties of Cascade and Choteau have been regarded as grazing distriets, good crops of cereals are raised upon the bench-lands, as well as in the rich soil of the val- leys bordering upon streams, and the quality of the up- land grain is superior, while thirty bushels to the acre is garnered from land that has not been irrigated. It is but recently that the value of these northern pla- teaux for farming purposes has impressed itself upon the consciousness of a people chiefly interested in mining and grazing-in gold and grasses-to which should now be added grain. The opening of the great reservation extending from the Missouri river to the boundary of British Columbia has added 18,000,000 acres of government land which is open to settlement, embracing the Milk river valley, traversed by the St Paul and Manitoba railroad. With all these fertile acres, and a transcontinental railway, northern Mon- tana has a grand future, by no means very distant, in which Benton will have its share.15
Will Hanks was born in Ohio in 1860. He came to the Sun river coun- try in 1883, and established the first newspaper between Fort Benton and Helena, the Rising Sun. In 1885 he removed to Great Falls, establishing the Weelky Tribune, but sold it in 1887, and went into real estate business. When, in the spring of 1889, the Cascade bank was organized, he was elected its vice-president, which position he now holds. He is also chairman of the board of county commissioners, to which be was elected in 1888.
15 Prominent among the citizens of Benton and Montana is John M. Boardman, a native of Ill., where he was born on Dec. 2, 1855. He received a commercial training in the great wholesale house of Marshall, Field, & Co., of Chicago, where he held a responsible position for several years. In 1879 he
776
GENERAL DEVELOPMENT.
The northeastern and eastern portion of Montana remains a great stock range, of which Miles City, in Custer county, is a shipping centre, and the third town in population in the state. A board of stock com- missioners, with a member in each county, looks after the administration of the written and unwritten laws concerning the sole industry which rivals mining in Montana,16 and to which a very large amount of its
removed to Montana, where he engaged in the cattle business in the vicinity of Fort Benton. In 1885 he merged his stock in the Milner Live-stock Co., whose herds are among the largest in the state. As vice-president and man- ager of this company he has contributed largely to its prosperity, and aided perhaps more than any single individual in building the cattle interests of northern Montana. As an instance of his popularity, it may be men- tioned that he was elected in 1889 to the first state legislature of Montana, and was also the first republican elected in Choteau county to any legislative office.
C. E. Conrad was born in Virginia City in 1850, and there was raised and educated. At the age of 18 years he came to Montana, arriving at Fort Ben- ton June 30, 1868. He began life here as a clerk in the employ of J. G. Baker & Co., of which he is now a member. In 1882, when the First National bank of Fort Benton was organized, of which W. G. Conrad is prest, he was chosen vice-prest, which office he still holds. He is also largely interested in cattle and sheep, owning an interest in the Benton and St Louis Cattle Co. He was a member of the state constitutional convention of 1889.
Joseph A. Baker is a son of the J. G. Baker above referred to, who was born in New Haven, Conn., in 1819. He was a pioneer in the west, having been a post-trader in Iowa, Kansas, and Montana. He came to Fort Benton in 1866, and established the business which still bears his name. In 1880 the father retired to a home in St Louis. Joseph A. was born in Westport, Mo., in 1850, but came when a lad to Fort Benton, where he assisted his father in his business until 1878, when he engaged in the cattle business for himself, continuing actively in it until 1886, when he was elected cashier of the First National bank of Fort Benton, in which office he remains. He was elected state senator from Choteau co. to the first state senate of Montana.
John W. Power was born near Dubuque, Ia, in 1844, and remained on his father's farma until 20 years of age, when he went to Fort Randall, Da, where his brother, T. C. Power, was a post-trader, remaining in his employ until 1867, at which time both came to Fort Benton, and went into business to- gether under the firm name of T. C. Power & Bro., which firm is still in existence. T. C. Power resides in Helena, but John W. is permanently located at Benton, where he has large interests.
Jere. Sullivan was born in 1843, in Ireland, 30 miles from Cork. In 1850 his parents immigrated to Canada, where he was educated. At the age of 18 years he came to the U. S., residing for a time at various points until 1865, when he came to Montana, arriving at Fort Benton in July of that year. He followed mining until 1874, when he located at Fort Shaw, on Sun river, where he opened a hotel, remaining there until 1879, when he removed to Benton, where he again kept a hotel. He was elected mayor of Benton in 1886 and 1887, and was chairman of the republican county committee in 1888 and 1889. He is owner of large interests in Fort Benton.
16 Prominent in that district, which was formerly in Choteau co., but in that portion which is now Fergny co., at Fort Maginnis, on the east flank of the Judith mountains, is Granville Stuart, president of the board of stock commissioners. Stuart has been frequently mentioned in the early part
777
RELIGION AND EDUCATION.
money capital is due.17 It is contended by these cap- italists that the government is unnecessarily jealous of their aggressiveness, for the territory occupied by them is too broken for agriculture. Opinions change with circumstances, and expediency will determine the limit of indulgence which the future shall discover.
I have here gathered together some evidences of the material prosperity of Montana. It was once wit- tily said that mining-towns consisted of ophir-holes, gopher-holes, and loafer-holes. All that has been changed as far as Montana is concerned, if we except the ophir-holes, which are as much as ever sought after. Merchants are no longer compelled to store their goods in caves in the earth to protect them from fire or plunder; the rude first dwellings have been replaced by elegant, or at the least tasteful and com- fortable, homes; the fashions of good society prevail in place of unseemly revelry; education and religion are fostered,18 as in the older commonwealths.
of this history. It was through a letter from Mr Stuart to a brother in Colo describing the placer mines in the Rocky mountains that the sudden immi- gration from Colo to Montana took place in 1862. He was for many years a member of the Montana legislature, and school trustee since 1864. He was one of the first to prove that this was a superior cattle-raising region, and is himself identified with the cattle interests of the state. Mr Stuart was born in Va in 1834, and educated in Iowa. In the spring of 1852 he went to Cal., where he mined until 1857, when he, returning east, was, through circum- stauces already mentioned, detained in Montana, and becoming interested in the affairs of a new territory, made it his home.
17 Joseph Scott, of Miles City, is a representative cattle-raiser of his dis- trict. He was born in Tyrone co., in the north of Ireland, in 1844, and edu- cated there and in Phila, U. S. In 1867 he went to Idaho, mining at War Eagle mountain for 2 years. In 1869 he went to Utah, purchased some cat- tle and drove them to White Pine, Nev., where he remained until 1871, after which for 2 years he travelled about through Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah prospecting, and finally locating in Idaho in the track of the Indian war of 1878, by which he lost a good deal of property in stock. He then went to Elko co., Nev., and tried cattle-raising, but found the ranges over- stocked. In 1880 he came to Custer co., Mont., where he follows stock-rais- ing, still retaining an interest in Idaho and Nevada.
18 In 1863-4, Smith and Price, two presbyterian ministers, and the first protestant preachers to settle in Montaua, held services for a time in Virginia City, but it was not until 1872 that a presbyterian church was organized in that place, although other protestant churches had been, namely, the metho- dist church south, and an episcopal and catholic society. The last-named was under the charge of Father Giorda, the methodist church under that of A. M. Hough, and the episcopal church was cared for by H. H. Prout.
778
GENERAL DEVELOPMENT.
Education, being a matter of public polity, and not of private conscience, received more attention from the beginning, schools being formed under a school law in 1866. In 1867 there were two public-school teachers in Madison county, and three in Edgerton (Lewis and Clarke) county. The amount raised for their support and for school-houses was $7,709. The number of persons between four and twenty-one years of age in Montana was 1,920, of whom 222 attended school.19 Since that period the standard of education has advanced within the last ten or twelve years, until it is upon the same plane with the school systems of the older states. Children are admitted from four to twenty-one years of age; and fourteen years' tuition is required to be graduated from the high school, where one exists. Teachers' in- stitutes are required by law, to aid in promoting the best methods of instruction.
The school lands not being salable until the terri- tory became a state, the people were compelled to
Daniel S. Tuttle, of Otsego, N. Y., was the first missionary bishop of the episcopal church in Montana, appointed in 1866 to superintend Utah, Idaho, and Montana. He was a scholarly man, young and energetic, and labored efficiently in his field. At first a union church edifice was occupied by the protestant societies alternately, but it was ultimately sold for secular pur- poses. The methodists erected a church in Virginia City in the autumn of 1867, the corner-stone of which was laid on the 12th of September. As in most new countries, they organized in advance of other denominations, but in Montana they were divided by politics long after the cause which sepa- rated them was a lost cause. Helena was, ou account of its importance, the Dext field sought, the catholics being first on the ground, and completing the first building for purely religious services in Montana. Two young women, Sallie Raymond and Margaret Irvine, solicited contributions for the first church-bell in Helena, in the spring of 1867. Although religious exer- cises were held in the various towns and settlements, it required a few years for society to become sufficiently homogeneous to unite upon religious prin- ciples and decide to erect temples for their favorite practices. Accordingly most of the churches have becu built since 1872. The methodist church at Missoula was dedicated that year. The presbyterians did not begin seriously to organize until that year, when societies were formed at Deer Lodge, Helena, Gallatin City, Bozeman, and Virginia City, by Sheldon Jackson, J. R. Russell, and W. S. Frackelton. The presbyterian edifice at Deer Lodge was opened for services February 21, 1875, Russell being first pastor of the society. The catholics erected a new church at Helena in 1876. The protestant episcopal society of St Peter of Helena opened their church in October 1879, M. N. Gilbert pastor.
19 The first public school of Helena was opened Dec. 3, 1867, and taught by William 1. Marshal and Mrs R. M. Farley. Rept of Superintendent of Schools, in Virginia Post, Dec. 14, 1867.
779
LITERATURE AND DRAMA.
support the schools by taxation. The amounts raised in the several counties varied from $9,207, in Yellow- stone county, to $33,766.91, in Choteau county, and aggregated, in 1884, $231,229.42, making an average of $17,786 of school money furnished for every county. The school fund collected in 1888 averaged twenty dollars annually for each child in Montana, of which amount $317,442.37 was from county tax. There were 316 school-houses, valued at $646,679; and the number of children of school age was 27,600; while the teachers were 442. Several of the counties hav- ing the largest school funds elected women for super- intendents. 20
Of the literature of Montana there is little to be said. Newspapers abound, there being, before 1885, one in every county except Jefferson, which was sup- plied from Helena. The leading journals were of unusual merit and interest, for interior newspapers.21
20 Teachers are the least publicly honored of all the public's servants. Superintendents have all been experienced teachers. Therefore, let me record here, for the honor of some of Montana's most deserving, the names of her county superintendents of 1884: Beaverhead, John Gannon; Choteau, Miss M. E. Johnston; Custer, A. C. Logan; Dawson, J. H. Ray; Deer Lodge, T. W. Catlin; Gallatin, Adda M. Hamilton; Jefferson, E. I. Fletcher; Lewis and Clarke, Helen P. Clarke; Meagher, Alice M. Darcy; Madison, J. C. Ma- hony; Missoula, J. A. T. Ryman; Silver Bow, T. J. Booher; Yellowstone, B. F. Shuart. Sixth Annual Rept of Supt of Public Instruction, by Cornelius Hedges, who has filled the office of territorial superintendent for many years, alternating with C. Wright and W. Egbert Smith.
21 I have noted the establishment from time to time of political and news journals, with the date of their origin and politics. The following were be- ing published in 1884: Lewis and Clarke county, at Helena, Herald, d. and w., rep., 1866; Independent, d. and w., dem., 1871; Montana Argus, w., Ger- man, 1883; Stock and Mining Journal, m., 1884; Christian Advocate, m., 1882; Montana Baptist, q., 1884; Montanian, d., local, 1884; at Sun River, The Sun, w., ind., 1884. Silver Bow county, at Butte, Miner, d. and semi-w., dem., 1879; Inter-Mountain, d. and semi-w., rep., 1881. Yellowstone county, at Billings, Post, w., rep., 1882; Herald, w., dem., 1882; Rustler, d., local, 1884. Gallatin county, at Bozeman, Avant-Courier, w., ind., 1871; Chronicle, w., dem., 1883; at Livingston, Enterprise, w., ind. dem., 1883. Custer county, at Miles City, Yellowstone Journal, d. and w., rep., 1879; Stock-grower's Jour- nal, 1884. Dawson county, at Glendive, Times, w., local, 1881; Independent, w., local, 1884. Missoula county, at Missoula, Missoulian, w., ind., 1873; Times, w., rep., 1883. Madison county, at Virginia City, Madisonian, w., dem., 1873; Montana Churchman, m., 1883. Deer Lodge county, at Deer Lodge, New Northwest, w., ind. rep., 1869. Beaverhead county, at Dillon, Tribune, w., local, 1881. Choteau county, at Fort Benton, River Press, d. and w., rep., 1880; Record, w., dem., 1881. Meagher county, at Maiden, Mineral Argus, w., 1883; at Townsend, Tranchant, w., local, 1883; at White
780
GENERAL DEVELOPMENT.
The dramatic taste of the people was not early de- veloped by the theatre. There has been too much real life among them to leave a craving for mimic life. The towns, also, were too small to support good com- panies. In 1866 Virginia City had a theatre, which was well patronized by its crowds of flush miners now passed away. Helena had then occasional seasons of the opera and drama. It has now a handsome opera- house. Miles City early supported a theatre, and all the principal towns had halls which served for musical and dramatic entertainments. When it is remembered that twenty-six years ago the first step was taken toward subduing the wilderness to the uses of civil- ized men, who could withhold the judgment, well done, hardy and energetic sons of America!
Sulphur Springs, Rocky Mountain Husbandman, w., 1875. Then there were the Pick and Plow, Bozeman, 1871; Times, Bozeman; Frontier Index, Butte City; Atlantis, Glendale; Bad Lands Cowboy, Medora; Frontier Index, Thomp- son Falls.
As one of those who have done much to foster the educational interests of Montana should be mentioned Cornelius Hedges, a resident of Helena, who in 1872 was appointed superintendent of public instruction, and after serv- ing for five years was reappointed in 1883, in which year he was also elected secretary of the Territorial Historical Society. A native of Westfield, Mass, and educated first at the Westfield Academy, then at Yale, and finally at the Harvard law school, he began the practice of his profession at Independ- ence, Ia, where in 1864 he published the Independent Civilian. During that year he came to Montana, and in 1865 to Helena, where he again practised law, and was appointed U. S. attorney and probate judge. To him is due the credit of first suggesting that the National Park be set aside for its pres- ent purposes, and in 1870 he was one of a party of ten by whom its site was explored and surveyed. He is also secretary of the Pioneer Association, and has long been connected with the Helena Herald, on whose staff he is recog- nized as a most able journalist, and as a ripe and accomplished scholar.
CHAPTER VIII.
PROGRESS AND STATEHOOD.
1884 -ISS9.
CONVENTION OF 1884-ELECTION OF DELEGATE AND LEGISLATURE-REPUB- LICAN AND DEMOCRATIC CONVENTIONS-TERRITORIAL OFFICERS-Gov. LESLIE APPOINTED-LEGISLATIVE SESSIONS AND ENACTMENTS-MEMO- RIALS CONCERNING MINERAL LANDS-THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAIL- ROAD-LAWS TO GUARD ELECTIONS-THOMAS H. CARTER, DELEGATE- B. F. WHITE, GOVERNOR-ENABLING ACT PASSED BY CONGRESS-CON- STITUTIONAL CONVENTION-FEATURES OF THE CONSTITUTION-POLITICAL TROUBLES.
As this chapter is to deal with the formation of the state government of Montana, let us go back to 1884, in January of which year a constitutional convention was held at Helena, an act having been passed by the thirteenth session of the Montana legislature authorizing an election for delegates to be held in November 1883. The election took place,1 and the convention met, forming a constitution subject to ac- ceptance or rejection by the qualified electors at the biennial election of 1884. The voting on adoption was light, the total vote being 7,197 less than the total for delegate to congress, which was 26,969. Of
1 The delegates were Robert Smith and Joseph A. Brown, Beaverhead co .; T. E. Collins and W. H. Hunt, Chotean; C. W. Savage, Wm Van Gas- ken, and S. R. Douglass, Custer; J. F. Malony, Dawson; J. C. Robinson, E. B. Waterbury, and Joaquin Abascal, Deer Lodge; S. W. Langhorne, R. P. Vivion, G. O. Eaton, F. D. Pease, and E. F. Ferris, Gallatin; E. McSorley and N. Merriman, Jefferson; Matt Carroll, J. K. Toole, C. Hedges, and George Steele, Lewis and Clarke; H. S. Howell and J. E. Callaway, Madi- son; W. J. McCormick, W. J. Stephens, R. B. Catlin, and R. A. Eddy, Mis- soula; J. F. McClintock, James Fergus, and W. F. Haas, Meagher; Thomas L. Napton, W. Y. Pemberton, W. A. Clark, Marcus Daly, J. C. Thornton, and Francis Medhurst, Silver Bow; F. M. Proctor and F. M. Greene, Yel- lowstone; Walter Cooper and A. F. Burleigh, Ist judicial dist; W. W. Dix- on and James H. Mills, 2d judicial dist; W. B. Hundley and T. C. Power, 3d judicial dist. W. A. Clark was elected president.
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782
PROGRESS AND STATEHOOD.
those who gave expression to their wishes, 15,506 were for and 4,266 against the constitution, the ma- jority being significantly large in favor of statehood, if we may judge by positive and not by negative evi- dence. However, nothing further came of the move- ment at that time, although it was not abandoned. E. K. Toole, democrat, was elected delegate to congress, and the fourteenth legislature, which has already been named, enacted laws highly creditable to the members and useful to the territory.
In May 1884, the republicans of Montana held a territorial convention to elect delegates to the national republican convention, their choice falling upon Wilbur F. Sanders of Helena, and Lee Mantle of Butte, with M. J. Leaming of Choteau, and Hiram Knowles of Silver Bow, as alternates.2 The prefer- ence of Delegate Mantle, as expressed in territorial convention, was for George F. Edmunds for presi- dent, and that of Delegate Sanders was for James G. Blaine.
The democrats elected Samuel T. Hauser of Helena and Samuel Ward of Butte delegates to the demo- cratic national convention. W. J. McCormick, one of the alternates, was made a member of the national committee, and S. T. Hauser a member of the noti- fication committee, this being the first occasion on which Montana was represented in a national conven- tion, and the first time also that territorial delegates were placed upon committees by one of them.
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