USA > Montana > Yellowstone County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 11
USA > Montana > Park County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 11
USA > Montana > Dawson County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 11
USA > Montana > Rosebud County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 11
USA > Montana > Custer County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 11
USA > Montana > Sweet Grass County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 11
USA > Montana > Carbon County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 11
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treaties of 1855. Subsequently the mission in the Bit- ter Root valley was revived, and the Flatheads were taught there until the removal to the reservation at Flathead lake, which reserve included St. Ignatius mission, when a school was first opened in 1863 by Father Urbanus Grassi. In 1858 the missionaries at the Flathead mission had 300 more barrels of flour . than they could consume, which they sold to the posts of the American Fur company on the Missouri, and the Indians cultivated fifty farms, averaging five acres each. In their neighborhood were two sawmills.
The treaty referred to in the above was held in July, 1855, at a point about eight miles below the present city of Missoula. The ef- fect of this treaty was far reaching.
During the late fifties that part of Montana lying west of the Rocky mountains received a few more settlers. This part of the history of our state is very ably told by one who was & resident of the country at that time, Judge Frank H. Woody :
In the fall of 1856 several parties who had been spending the summer trading on the "road" relin- quished that business and came to the Bitter Root val- ley and took up their residence, among whom were T. W. Harris, Joseph Lompre and William Rodgers.
During the winter of 1856-57 the population of the Bitter Root valley was larger than it again was until the fall of 1860.
Up to this time no settlement had been made in the Hell Gate Rounde. Soon after the arrival of Mr. Pattee he contracted with Major Owen and commenced the erection of a grist and sawmill at Fort Owen. In the latter part of December, 1856, McArthur, having determined upon the erection of a trading post in the Hell Gate Ronde, dispatched Jackson, Holt. Madison, "Pork" and the writer to Council Grove to get out necessary timbers to erect the buildings the next sum- mer. Our quarters consisted of an Indian lodge, and we fared sumptuously on bread and beef, with coffee without sugar about once a week. The snow fell deep during the winter and the weather was quite cold, but we lost but little time, and by spring had gotten ont a large quantity of square timber. In the spring Mc- Arthur paid us off for our winter's work, each man receiving a cayuse horse in full for all demands. With the coming of spring there was a general breaking up of all winter quarters and not many men were left in the country. James Holt and the writer remained in the employ of McArthur, broke about eight acres of land and sowed it to wheat and also planted a garden. This was the first attempt to farming in the Hell Gate Ronde. The potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips and onions
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HISTORY OF MONTANA.
grew well, but the wheat, while in milk, was completely killed by a heavy frost on the night of August 14, 1857. McArthur was absent during the entire summer and fall, having gone to Colville and thence to the Suswap mines in British Columbia. In those days we did not have our daily paper and telegraphic dispatches from all parts of the world, but thought ourselves fortunate if we got one or two Oregon papers in six months; eastern papers we never saw. The following will show our isolated condition: The presidential election was held in November, 1856, but we knew nothing of the results until about the middle of April. 1857, when Abraham Finley arrived from Olympia with a govern- ment express for the Indian department, bringing two or three Oregon papers, from which we learned that Buchanan had been elected and inaugurated president.
Few events of historic interest occurred from the fall of 1857 to the fall of 1859. During the spring and summer of 1858 an Indian war in the Spokane and lower Nez Perce country cut off all communication with the west and placed the settlers of this country in a dangerous situation. Congress having made a large appropriation to build a military 'wagon road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton placed Lieuten- ant John Mullan in charge of the work. He organized his expedition at The Dalles, Oregon, in the spring of 1858, but was forced to abandon it on account of the Indian hostilities. He again organized in the spring of 1859 and constructed the road over the Coeur d'Alene mountains as far as Cantonment Jordan on the St. Regis Borgia, where he went into winter quarters, send- ing his stock to the Bitter Root valley. During the .vinter the greater portion of the heavy grades between Frenchtown and the mouth of Cedar creek was con- structed. In the spring of 1860 he resumed his march and took his expedition through to Fort Benton, doing but little work, however, between Hell's Gate and Fort Benton.
In June, 1860, Frank L. Worden and C. P. Hig- gins. under the firm name of Worden & Company, started for Walla Walla with a stock of general mer- chandise for the purpose of trading at the Indian agency, but. upon their arrival at Hell's Gate, they de- termined to locate at that point, and accordingly built a small log house and opened business. This was the first building erected at that place, and formed the nucleus of a small village that was known far and wide as Hell's Gate, and which in later years had the repu- tation of being one of the roughest places in Montana. During this year four hundred United States troops un- der the command of Major Blake passed over the Mullan road from Fort Benton to Walla Walla and Colville.
During the fall of this year a number of settlers came into the country and new farms were taken up at Frenchtown, Hell's Gate and the Bitter Root val- ley, and during the winter of 1860-61 a considerable number of men wintered in the different settlements.
In the spring of 1861 Lieutenant Mullan organized another party and started for Fort Benton to finish up the road he had nearly opened the year before. His expedition was accompanied by an escort of one hun- dred men under the command of Lieutenant Marsh. The expedition came as far as the crossing of the Big Blackfoot river, where they erected winter quarters and named them Cantonment Wright, in honor of Colo- nel, afterwards General, Wright, who quelled the In- dian war of 1858 so effectively. During the winter the heavy grades in the Hell's Gate canyon were con- structed.
The first marriage in this part of the coun- try, according to Judge Woody, was solem- nized at Hell's Gate on the fifth of March, 1862, and the first law suit held within the present bounds of Montana was tried at Hell's Gate in March of the same year. At that time the territory was included in Missoula county, one of the political divisions of Washington terri- tory.
The first permanent settlement in Montana to reach the distinction of being called a town was established on the upper Missouri, where the town of Fort Benton now stands. The set- tlement was named in honor of United States Senator Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, who was also the attorney for the American Fur company, the concern which erected the fort there and gave the settlement the name. The fort was built in 1846 and was used by the fur company for a trading post for twenty years. While still occupied by the American Fur com- pany other traders entered into the merchandise business at this point. Located as it is at the head of navigation of the Missouri, it served its first purpose as a trading post, and after- wards as a distributing point for all the new northwest. From the time of erecting the fort up until the early seventies Fort Benton was essentially a fur trading town, enjoying in ad- dition the advantages of an occasional visit from a steamboat.
Many miners came by this route, and the town during the early mining days was a "lively" one in the full western significance of the word. Hundreds of people passing back
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HISTORY OF MONTANA.
and forth would pass through and almost in- variably sojourn a few days. Often there would be no boats on which to take passage, and the sojourner would be obliged to remain for several days, yes, even weeks, until a boat would arrive. Often the last boat of the sea- son had left, and then they would construct mackinaws and descend in them, often a fleet going together for protection against the In- dians.
Fort Benton was the freight distributing point for all the mining country of the upper courses of the Missouri, except when an occa- sional freight train would come overland from the neighborhood of Salt Lake or some other southern point, which traffic was small in com- parison with that which passed through Fort Benton.
From its earliest days until 1880 the town enjoyed a reign of prosperity. Fort Benton was known throughout the entire northwest as the town of its day. The completion of the Northern Pacific railroad, the Utah & North- ern and the Canadian Pacific cut off immense tributary territory ; and when the Great North- ern was completed and thriving towns sprung up along it, Fort Benton fell off greatly in pop- ulation and importance.
West of the Rocky mountains, as has been stated, several settlers had taken up land and were engaged in farming on a small scale and in stock raising. Captain LaBarge, a steam- boat owner and trader, had built a fort near Fort Benton on the Missouri and was actively engaged in for trading and selling supplies to those who chanced to pass through this point to the country further beyond. In 1862, while west of the mountains, he visited the Deer Lodge river, and so fascinated was he with the valley that he laid out a townsite where the Cottonwood creek empties into the Deer Lodge river, which is a few miles above the Little Blackfoot, and called the town LaBarge. At an earlier date than this settlers had been mov- ing into the valley, and by the time LaBarge
platted the town, there were some 75 settlers. In 1856 John F. Grant built a home at the con- fluence of the Little Blackfoot with the Deer Lodge river, the first building erected in that part of the country. Two years later, in 1860, the first houses were built where the present town of Deer Lodge stands. Among the early settlers of this town were the Stuarts. The plat as laid out by Captain LaBarge was ignored, and buildings were erected without any regard for streets. James Stuart and oth- ers employed William DeLacy to survey the town, and from then on it was called Deer Lodge City.
About the first of August, 1862, John White and party discovered placers on Grass- hopper creek. These placers yielded from five to twenty dollars per day per man. This news soon spread to the settlements west of the mountains, to the few scattered miners in the gulches at the headwaters of the Missouri, and to the settlement at Fort Benton. No sooner had the intelligence reached these points than an onrush of gold seekers pushed forward to the new discovery. Before the winter set in scattered sojourners and settlers from miles in every direction had reached the new discovery and the camp was called Bannack City, after the aboriginal tribe which inhabited that region. At about the same time a strike had been made in the Boise basin and the camp called Ban- nack City. That the two settlements might be distinguished, the settlement in the Boise basin was named West Bannack; the other East Bannack. Later, however, East Bannack was most commonly known as Bannack City.
By the first of January, 1863, the town of Bannack had been laid out, and between 400 and 500 people had gathered there, most of them awaiting the opening of spring, when prospecting could be carried on. The news of new strike brought into Bannack that element not most desirable-reckless adventurers, out- laws and murderers-as well as the honest miner and fortune hunter. In a later chapter
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HISTORY OF MONTANA.
we shall deal more fully with the former class -which was effectively taken care of by the Vigilantes. Up to this time the stage road had not been opened from Fort Benton, and the t. inter's provisions were brought from Salt Lake City. Bannack was at this time in Da- kota territory ; later by federal enactment it be- came a town of Idaho territory, and in 1864 of Montana territory. From the organization of Montana territory in 1864 until February 7. 1865, Bannack was the capital city of Montana.
On the 9th of April, 1863, James Stuart, with a party of prospectors set out from Ban- nack, headed for the Yellowstone and Big Horn rivers. They were not only prospecting for mines, but also looking for favorable loca- tions for establishing towns. At about the same time another party left Bannack, the two par- ties having planned to join each other at the mouth of the Stinkingwater river. The Stu- art party consisted of James Stuart, Cyrus D. Watkins, John Vanderbilt, James N. York, Richard McCafferty, James Hauxhurst, D. Underwood, S. T. Hauser, H. A. Bell, Wil- liam Roach, A. S. Blake, George H. Smith, H. T. Gerry, E. Bostwick and George Ives. The second party was composed of Louis Simmons, William Fairweather, George Orr, Thomas Cover, Barney Hughes and Henry Edgar.
When the second company reached the ap- pointed place of meeting it was learned that Stuart and party had advanced toward Yellow - stone. Consequently they followed the trail of Stuart's party, but before overtaking it were met by a band of Crow Indians, who, after hav- ing robbed them of nearly all their belongings, ordered them to return from whence they came.
On their return to Bannack they halted on Alder creek to cook lunch. Here they discov- ered the famous Alder Gulch placer, a detailed story of which discovery will be found in the chapter devoted to mining history.
The people of Bannack believed that the party had made a strike and when he set out upon his return he was followed by 200 men.
Upon the arrival of the two hundred men, a mining district was formed, and in honor of the discoverer was named Fairweather. Dr. Steel was made president and James Fergus recorder. This was on the 6th of June. Vari- ous placers were discovered; excitement ran high and a stampede followed; the gulches swarmed with miners; and in a few months. it has been estimated, thousands of people had flocked to this district.
A town was laid out in Alder gulch and named Virginia City. In less than a year the town had a population of ten thousand people. Large business houses were erected; immense stocks of goods were brought in; all lines of business flourished. Virginia City was incor- porated on December 30, 1864, and the follow- ing were selected its first officers: Mayor, P. S. Pfouts; aldermen, Dr. L. Daems, Jacob Feldberg, Major James R. Boyce, J. M. Cast- ner, John Le Beau, James McShane, H. A. Pease and William Shoot. The city was divided into four wards, two aldermen being selected from each. In the years 1864-65 Virginia City reached the zenith of its pros- perity and had a populatiion of 10,000 souls. At the first election after the formation of the territory, Madison county cast 5,286 votes, Virginia City having 2,310, and Nevada, sit- uated a little over a mile below that city-a town which had sprung up about the same time-1,806 of the total number of votes cast.
The district court convened in the young city for the first time on the first Monday of December, 1864. The territorial capital was moved from Bannack on February 7th follow- ing. The first newspaper published in the ter- ritory, the Montana Post, was established here August 27, 1864. November 2, 1866, a tele- graph line was completed between Salt Lake City and Virginia City.
In 1865 a freight line was established from Virginia City to Helena, thence to Fort Ben- ton. The first overland stage to California was in operation in the spring of the same year.
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The route was by way of Salt Lake City. A mail service was established in 1864 between California, Salt Lake City and Virginia City. In the fifth volume of the Montana Historical Selections is given an interesting account of the competition which then existed between the rival companies operating between Virginia City and Fort Benton. We quote from that document :
To show the quality of metal of which some of our people were made, and further to illustrate some of our financial conditions, conditions contemperaneous with the appointment of Gov. Smith to the territorial mag- istracy, it is well to recall the establishment of the overland stage line from Virginia to Helena in June, 1866. At that particular time Virginia and Helena were booming minings camps, and excitement was at fever heat. There were then competitive stage lines running daily between those points, and there were to be seen three six-horse stages, all well equipped, start- ing seven mornings in the week from each end of said places for the other. The rivalry was intense, times were red hot and every fellow was determined to "bear the market." All sides were gritty, and rates were cut until fares were reduced to $2.50, and expressage ac- cordingly. It so chanced that the "Overland" had as its superintendent a man of rare enterprise and intel- ligence, with genuine western nerve, and though the distance was one hundred and twenty-five miles and the roads were new, the time table was reduced, first from sixteen hours to fourteen, then from fourteen to twelve, and again from twelve to ten hours daily, including all stops, making an average of twelve and one half miles an hour the entire distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles. The struggle was long and bitter, the finality was the other stages "pulled off," and the campaign ended by leaving the track to the Overland. The competition being over, the cut rates ceased, and the old rate of $25.00 in "gold dust" or $35.50.in "green- backs," or as they were often contemptuously called, "Lincoln skins," was restored.
During the early days in Virginia City fabulous pricess were paid for provisions. Miners were paid from ten to fifteen dollars a day for their labor. Several hundred claims were located and gold was taken out at a furious rate. Besides the Virginia City district five other districts were organized on Alder creek-Nevada and Junction below Virginia City, and Highland, Pine Grove and Summit up the stream.
We will now return to the James Stuart party. As has been stated, this party was headed for the Yellowstone, prospecting for locations for townsites as well as for gold. Had these men stopped to prospect the country instead of hurrying to the Yellowstone they might have been the discoverers of the Alder gulch placers. They crossed the Madison, then the Gallatin and over the divide to the Yellow- stone, reaching that river on the 25th of April. They pursued their course down the river, and on the 5th of May arrived at the Big Horn river. Here they laid out a town on the east side of the Big Horn-a town which has not to this day been peopled. After having platted the townsite the party proceeded up the Big Horn. On the night of the 12th they were surprised by a band of Indians and three of the men were killed. On the 22nd of June the party arrived at Bannack City, having traveled several hundred miles, having located a town- site, but having found no precious metal.
The next town founded in the territory was Helena.
John Cowan erected a cabin in the fall of 1864, which was the first building in what is now Helena, the capital city of the great state of Montana. Hundreds of miners swarmed to the new camp, which proved to be one of the richest placers ever discovered. Miners' cabins sprung up, stores were established, and in a short time Last Chance, as the camp was first called, was a rival of Virginia City.
The day of christening had come, and the embryo city of Helena received its name. John Somerville, of Minnesota, acted as god-father. He gave it the name of St. Helena, in com- memoration of the resemblance of the location to the home of Napoleon. On after considera- tion it was decided to drop the "Saint." The christening took place at the cabin of Geo. J. Wood on October 30, 1864.
During the winter of 1864-65 a hundred or more cabins were built. In the fall of 1864 a committee was appointed to lay out streets
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and fix the size of town lots. No sooner had this been done than a mad rush was made for lots, and fabulous prices were paid for choice locations. The first hotel was built by Judge Wood on the corner of Main and Bridge streets. On the 26th of March, 1865, Rev. Mclaughlin preached the first sermon, and on the 16th of April inaugurated the first Sunday school. In the spring of 1865 Sandus & Rock- nell established a saw mill. John Potter was the first postmaster. The postoffice was in the Taylor & Thompson building on lower Main street. Prof. A. B. Patch opened the first day school in April, 1865, and the first public school house was erected and opened for instructions in January, 1868. Telegraphic communica- tion with the outside world was opened in Sep- tember, 1867.
The first settlers in Butte were G. O. Hun- phries and William Allison. They left Vir- ginia City on a prospecting tour in May, 1864. After prospecting on Babboon gulch, above where Butte now stands, for some time they returned to Virginia City for provisions, and then, early in June. they returned to Butte, where they made their permanent residences. They discovered the Virginia, Moscow and Missoula leads, and were the formers of the Missoula company. The Black Chief lead, an enormous ledge, was discovered in the latter part of May, 1864, by Charles Murphy and William Graham. Copper was found in great quantities. The news of the new discoveries spread to other camps, and in a few weeks a hundred people were on the ground, and Butte City was laid out. During the fall placers were discovered by Felix Burgoyne on Silver Bow creek, and people gathered from all directions. A mining district was formed in the lower part of the gulch, which received the name of Sum- mit Mountain district. Silver Bow soon be- came a town and during the winter of 1864-65 was a lively mining camp, and many lodes were struck. During the winter of 1864 Ford & Dresser established a store in Butte. At
about the same time a store was being estab- lished in Silver Bow. In 1866 a furnace for smelting copper was erected by Joseph Rams- dall, William Parks and Porter brothers.
Not until 1875 did Butte assume the aspect of a city. About that time the quartz proper- ties were being developed. This required the labor of many men, and the cabins of the miners-no modern dwellings having been erected previous to this date-gave place to more substantial buildings, and in a few years more Butte was a substantial city with five thousand inhabitants.
In 1865 Hector Horton discovered the mines where the city of Philipsburg is now lo- cated. Many silver-bearing veins in this vicinity made sure the permanence of a town, and in 1866 a townsite was laid out.
So early as 1855 Lieutenant John Mullan and party discovered gold where the present town of Pioneer is located. Its mines were worked in 1862 and 1863, then abandoned, and again opened in 1865. Both placer and quartz were found in paying quantities, and in a few years Pioneer was a thriving town.
In 1864 J. M. Bozeman was dispatched by the government to look for a wagon road from the three forks of the Missouri to the red buttes on the North Platte. He was successful in his undertaking and the road was known as "Bozeman cut-off." During the month of July of the same year in which Mr. Bozeman laid out the road he founded the city which bears his name. The town was laid out at the foot of the Belt range, and tributary to it is a fine farming section of country. In the early days, before there was railroad communications, a stage line connected it with Virginia City and another with Helena. Bozeman, the founder of the town, met the ill fate of many of the pioneers, being killed near the mouth of the Shield's river April 20, 1867.
During the early days of the mining ex- citement some 30,000 or 40,000 people rushed into Montana; cities were founded and
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quickly populated; men engaged in all kinds of business and prospered. All this despite the fact that Montana was hundreds of miles from the usual transportation facilities. The matter of travel to and from this far away country, the bringing in of the mining machin- ery and the immense stocks of goods that must necessarily have been carried to care for the trade was an important one to the early settlers of Montana, and the subject is one full of interest, even of romance. For the follow- ing history of the early day transportation we are indebted to H. H. Bancroft's History of Montana.
Taking up the recital at 1864, there was at this time no settled plan of travel or fixed chan- nels of trade. There had been placed upon the Missouri a line of steamers intended to facili- tate immigration to Idaho, which was called the Idaho Steam Packet company. The water be- ing usually low, or rather not unusually high, only two of the boats reached Fort Benton --- the Benton and Cutter. The Yellowstone landed at Cow Island and the Effic Deans at the mouth of Milk river. The Benton, which was adapted to upper river navigation, brought a part of the freight left at the other places down the river by other boats to Fort Benton ; but the passengers had already been set afoot in the wilderness to make the best of their way to the mines ; and a large portion of the freight had to be forwarded in small boats. At the same time there was an arrival at Virginia City of 200 or 300 immigrants daily by the over- land wagon route, as well as large trains of freight from Omaha.
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