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 45
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 45
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 45
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 45
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 45
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 45
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 45
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1876 he had been engaged in helping build the Crow agency on the Stillwater ; had run mack- inaw fleets down the Yellowstone; and had carried dispatches through the valley. Chas. Deal was another settler of the future Yellow- stone county in the spring of 1878. W. H. Claussen also came and settled in what is now the extreme western part of Yellowstone coun- ty; Olof Lafverson was a settler near Stillwater.
In 1879 came Charles R. Rugg, who lo- cated a ranch near what is now Park City; Sidney H. Erwin, who engaged in business on Canyon creek and several others.
Several more came the next year, and that part of the county lying along the north side of the Yellowstone became dotted with cabins. According to a census taken in 1880 by Lieu- tenant O. F. Long, of the 5th United States Infantry, the population of the Yellowstone valley from Benson's Landing (near the pres- ent city of Livingston) and Fort Keogh (Miles City ) was 588. Of this number 215 were men engaged in farming or other business, 158 were hired laborers, 73 were women, and 142 were children. The same authority gave the number of buildings in this stretch of country as 429; stated that there were 1,713 acres un- der cultivation; and there were 23,435 head of cattle on pasture ranges, 645 horses and 8,201 sheep. In the lower valley, between Miles City and the mouth of the Yellowstone there were 54 settlers.
Another census taken in 1880, published in Warner, Beers & Co.'s "History of Montana," but the authority for which is not given, placed the population of the upper valley (not stat- ing how far down the upper valley was sup- posed to extend) at 199, and that of the lower valley at 427. This census (probably an esti- mated one) gives the population of the valley by localities. From it we learn that Baker's battle ground and Huntley had a population of 37: Clark's Fork bottom, 150; Coulson, 50;
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HISTORY OF YELLOWSTONE COUNTY.
Junction City, and Sage Brush, 41. No figures are given for the settlement at Stillwater. These figures show that there was quite a set- tlement in that part of the valley, which three years later became Yellowstone county, but probably not so large as a first glance at the figures would indicate. Separate figures are given for Clark's Fork bottom, Coulson, and Baker's battle ground and Huntley, while it is probable that the populations of the last two named places are included in that of the first named.
An idea of the change that took place it! this part of the valley during the next two years may be gained from the number of votes cast at the November election of 1882. The census of 1880 disclosed the fact that there were in the neighborhood of 200 men, women and children in that part of the valley which later became Yellowstone county ; at the elec- tion in 1882 nearly 1,000 votes were cast in the precincts of Custer county which were set off the next year into Yellowstone county. This marvelous growth was the result of one agency-the building of the Northern Pacific railroad up the Yellowstone valley.
When the construction of the road began from its western terminus at Bismarck, people flocked into the country through which the road was to build by the thousands. These would come by rail as far as the road was constructed, and would then travel overland in all sorts of conveyances to get to the land of promise. The effect on the future county of Yellowstone was magical; land claims were taken at all points along the river; the little trading posts became centers of population and took on the airs of cities; new towns sprang up on the prairie; Billings, the "Magic City," arose from the alkali plains to a city of 1,500 or 2,000 people almost in a day ; people made fortunes in the traffic of town lots, on sites which a few years before no white man had ever trod; the chimes of church bells replaced
the war whoops of the savages. Such was the effect of the approach of the railroad.
Let us now consider for a moment this most wonderful agency in the reclamation of the all but uninhabited portion of the terri- tory of Montana-the building of the North- ern Pacific railroad through the Yellowstone valley. In early portions of this history we have told of the early surveys for this road through the valley, so now we shall take up the story of the actual construction.
Under the charter granted to the Northern Pacific company by the United States govern- ment, the railroad company had legal rights to build through the Crow reservation, and the Interior department recognized this right. But the officials of the road thought it would be wise to satisfy the Indians, so terms were made with the Crows, by which their consent was gained to traverse certain portions of the reservation by the payment of $25,000. This was done in 1881, under the brief reign of A. H. Barney as president of the company.
By the spring of 1881 the road had been pushed on to Glendive. That spring work was begun there on the Yellowstone division, and in December the track had been completed to Miles City, a distance of 78 miles. The grade had been completed a few miles beyond that point during the winter, but no track laying was done. Work was actively prosecuted dur- ing the spring and summer of 1882, and late in the summer the track reached Billings. The Billings Herald of August 10, 1883, thus mod- estly announced the arrival of the track to the railroad bridge just east of the city: "It is with infinite gratification that we chronicle this week the most important event that has thus far occurred in relation to this community. At 4:17 o'clock on the afternoon of Thursday, August 10, the Northern Pacific track reached the bank of the Yellowstone river opposite the town of Billings." Again, on August 17, the Herald said : "This afternoon at 5:30 the first
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HISTORY OF YELLOWSTONE COUNTY.
passenger train will reach the bridge, and each day thereafter the trains will run regularly to Billings."
It was August 22, however, before trains were running into the town. The work was pushed forward all that fall and winter. The
track reached Livingston in December, and Bozeman on March 14, following. The whis- tle of the locomotive through the Yellowstone valley closed an important epoch in the history of the future Yellowstone county and began another one.
CHAPTER III
SINCE COUNTY ORGANIZATION-1883 TO 1907.
So far this history has had to deal with the events that took place in the territory of Yel- lowstone county before the county was formed. Now we are to tell of the creation of the county and the events that have taken place since that time.
Yellowstone county was carved out of a region which only a few short years before had been wrested from the possession of hostile Indian bands. The country that was taken to form the county may be said to have been ir- rigated with human blood. Before the time of the arrival of white men to this territory, even before the coming of the Crows and Sioux Indians, we are told that predatory bands of western savages came to these plains and fought one with another; later the Sioux, Crows and other nearby tribes repeated the dreadful drama among themselves; then when white men came to the country the bloody scenes were continued ; the savages turned their weapons upon the whites, and the whites re- taliated.
But these dreadful days were brought to a close. The race of civilization won the coun- try. The hostile savages were whipped into submission. The railroad built into the coun- try, bringing with it thousands of settlers to
build homes in this land that had been drenched in blood-the land that now became the won- der of all who saw it. To one unaccustomed to the ways of the west conditions can hardly be realized. Here was a country, which in 1873 had not a white soul in its boundaries, asking in 1883 for the formation of a county -and getting it-claiming to have a popula- tion of several thousand people and an assessed valuation of nearly $2,000,000.
Unattended by the scenes of strife which marked the birth of so many of Montana's counties, Yellowstone county came into being . without a fight-to-a-finish campaign. Custer, the parent county, was the largest in the United States at that time. It was far too large for the comfort and convenience of the people of the fast settling Yellowstone valley. The long distances of travel to and from the county seat made a heavy expenditure for mileage of wit- nesses, jurors and others who were obliged to make the trip to Miles City on official business. In a speech in the house of representatives, when the bill was being considered, Repre- sentative P. W. McAdow stated that when Custer county was attached to Gallatin county for judicial purposes it had been often neces- sary to travel from 700 to 900 miles in going to and returning from the county seat of Boze-
18
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HISTORY OF YELLOWSTONE COUNTY.
man ; that even now, with Miles City as the seat of government, the trip was a long and tedi- ous one of 200 to 400 miles; that this made court proceedings very expensive and was the principal source of the debt that then burdened the county ; that many of the witnesses drew from $60 to $80 for mileage alone.
These facts made the formation of a new county a positive necessity, according to the people of the west end of Custer county. Hap- pily the people of Miles City and the eastern part of the county to a great extent agreed. The plans for the erection of the new county were laid in the summer and fall of 1882. The matter was discussed fully at both the Demo- cratic and Republican conventions, which were held at Miles City before the November elec- tion. Both conventions decided that it would be best for all concerned to have the county divided. Therefore this agreement was reached : The west end of the county should have the naming of the members of the legis- lature on both tickets, while the east end should supply the candidates for all the county offi- cers, so that when the new county was formed it would not be necessary for Custer county to supply the vacancies that would be caused by the division of territory.
This was done, so far as members of the lower house was concerned, Messrs. P. W. McAdow and J. J. Alderson, Democrats, and S. H. Erwin and F. H. Foster, Republicans, being nominated. Messrs. McAdow and Erwin were elected. For council, C. G. Cox, Democrat, defeated Walter Burleigh, Re- publican. Although Mr. Cox hailed from the east end. he did not oppose the division.
Thus the friends of the proposed county were given the reins. There were not hard feelings and jealousies manifested as there have been in more recent division agitations ; in fact, the press of Billings took no more than common interest in the proceedings-which is an unusual proceeding in a movement of this nature.
One of the principal matters of discussion while the bill was being drafted was the ques- tion of a name for the new county, and more enthusiasm was worked up over the selection of a name than any other feature of the bill. The name first proposed, and by C. A. Wus- trum, was "Yellowstone," and that gained a pretty general advocacy. But there were some who favored the name "Billings," and early in January a petition was circulated in Billings, directed to the Montana legislature, asking that "Billings" be the name of the new county. The petition was extensively signed by the prominent citizens of the proposed county seat town, which made it appear the more pop- ular one. However, the friends of "Yellow -. stone" won the day, and that was the name in the bill when the act passed and became a law.
A message announcing the passage of the bill by the council was received in Billings about half past two on the afternoon of the 23rd. Immediately flags were hung out, bon- fires lighted, and anvils fired. An impromptu mass meeting was held at the opera house, in which speeches were made by Messrs. Mathe- son, Quivvy, Bates and others. Arrangements were made for a formal ratification meeting to be held at the court house on the following day.
Billings was named the county seat. John H. Gerrish, Fred H. Foster and Paul Mc- Cormick were named a board of county com- missioners, who should have charge of affairs until after county officials should be elected on the second Monday in April, and this board was empowered to create election precincts for the election. The boundaries of Custer and Gallatin were changed to conform with this act. The new county was prohibited from contracting any indebtedness exceeding two and one-half per cent of the assessed valuation and the salaries of the county officials were specified. The manner of bringing about a settlement with Custer county was provided ;
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HISTORY OF YELLOWSTONE COUNTY.
and provisions was made for transcribing rec- ords from the Custer county books.
Yellowstone county's birthday is March 3, for on that day in the year 1883, Messrs. John H. Gerrish and Fred H. Foster ( Paul McCor- mick being absent) met for the first time as a board of county commissioners in Billings. The first official action was the selection of Mr. Gerrish as chairman of the board. Election precincts were created, polling places named, and judges of election selected for the election of April 9, in accordance with one provision of the enabling act.
One of the first things to be considered was the settlement with Custer county, and at this initial meeting of the board a resolution was passed to the effect that the board should meet with the Custer county board at Miles City on March 5 for this purpose. John McGinnis was employed as legal adviser to the Yellow- stone county commissioners. The Northern Pacific railroad furnished passes for this trip, for which the board was extremely grateful. The Yellowstone board met at Miles City on March 5, 6 and 7, there being no quorum of the Custer county board until the last named date. The two boards could not agree on a set- tlement, and it was decided to postpone action until a later date. Now the act creating Yel- lowstone county stated that the settlement should be made on a certain date, but pro- vided for no further action in case a settlement could not be made on the date specified, and therefore the act, in that particular instance, was defective. The matter hung fire for a long time. Custer county finally brought suit for the collection of $57,547, alleged to be the amount due from Yellowstone county. The case was tried before Judge Coburn in Decem- ber 1885. The court held that it was not a matter for the courts to decide, but rather a case for legislative action. Judge Coburn left the case exactly as he found it, and it was years before a settlement between the two counties was brought about.
Soon after the new officers went into pow- er, succeeding the election of April 9, 1883, the question of a court house was considered. At a meeting on May 7 Wm. B. Webb, one of the commissioners, was instructed to contract with the Minnesota & Montana Land & Im- provement company for the "building formerly occupied by H. Clark & Co." for a rental not exceeding fifty dollars per month for a term of six months, and longer if desired, to be used for county offices. The next day, however, these instructions were rescinded, and Mr. Webb was instructed to lease of Geo. B. Hulme the "lot on which the court house now stands" for a rental not exceeding $150 per year. The same official was also instructed to purchase the building known as the court house building at a price not to exceed $200 in county war- rants. He was also authorized to purchase furniture for county offices not to exceed $250 in value . In this modest manner Yellowstone county began its existence ; now it is housed in a $100,000 court house, the finest in the Yellowstone valley.
A more pretentious structure was the jail erected later in the year. The contract for this was let on August 20, 1883, to Nelson, Crowe & Gagnon for $5,845. The total cost includ- ing cells, was about twice the contract price of the building.
The tax levy for the year 1883 was 18 mills, divided as follows: Territory, I mill; county, 12 mills ; poor, I mill; school, 3 mills ; road, I mill. The assessed valuation was $1,- 663,553, which was the smallest of any county in the territory. The indebtedness was also the smallest, being $7,728.66, which, however, did not include the undetermined amount due Custer county.
The year 1884 was a noteworthy one in the history of Yellowstone county from a histor- ical standpoint. There was a slight reaction at this time from the prosperous years of 1882 and 1883. during which the county settled down to a normal standard. The prevailing hard times
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HISTORY OF YELLOWSTONE COUNTY.
of the year, however, were felt but slightly in this new country. The assessed valuation of the county showed an increase over the first as- sessment, amounting to $1.930,470. The county's indebtedness March I was $4,354.50.
Very few Indian troubles are to be recorded in the history of the Yellowstone valley after the building of the railroad, but there was one incident occurring in February, 1885, that re- called the early times.
Five Piegan Indians made a raid. from their reservation, crossed the Yellowstone at Clark's Fork river, to the Crow reservation, and stole fifty-three ponies from Plenty Coves. a Crow chief. They ran off these ponies, and picked up a small number more belonging to white men near Park City. Plenty Coves and three other Crows, accompanied by Joseph Tate. Chauncey Ames, Philip Sidle, Lee M. Owens, and three other white men, pursued and overhauled them at Hailstone basin, near Painted Robe creek, forty miles northwest of Billings. A fight ensued, in which Chauncey Ames and Joseph Tate were killed, and Owens and Sidle wounded. Four of the Piegans were sent to the happy hunting grounds. The fifth was wounded, but managed to escape. The horses were recaptured.
The county's assessed valuation in 1885 had risen to over $2,000,000. Its indebtedness. according to the April statement of that year. was $12,151.82, which did not include the still undetermined amount due Custer county. Some idea of the condition of the county may be gained from the fact that 53.084 head of cattle were listed with the assessors.
For many years the assessed valuations of the county showed a yearly increase. The fig- ures for the first nine years of the county's history are as follows :
1883
$1.663.553
1884
1.930.470
1885 . (estimated ) 2,000,000
1886
2.295.697
1887
2,025.248
1888
$2.316,072
1889
2,802,080
189 3,046,160
1891 3.831,732
These figures tell the story of advancement made during these years. During the late eighties and the first few years of the nineties the prosperous times that prevailed throughout the country at large also prevailed in Yellow- stone county. The citizens turned their atten- tion to securing trade from outside points, and for this purpose interested themselves in rail- road building. A pet scheme was the build- ing of a railroad from Billings to the Clark's Fork mines. The Billings, Clark's Fork & Cooke City Railroad company was organized to construct the road, but failed to connect the metropolis of the county with the mining coun- try. In February, 1889, a railroad was com- pleted from Laurel to Red Lodge, which was an event of some importance.
Yellowstone county was continually on the lookout for more territory, and the building of the railroad to Red Lodge offered an excuse to try for the "pan-handle" of Park county, in which was the coal mining country of which Red Lodge was the center. The railroad put the new mining town in closer touch with Bil- lings than it was with its county seat, Living- ston. So at the 1889 session of the legislature a bill asking for that part of Park county east of East Rosebud creek was introduced by Councilman W. Ashby Conrad, representing Yellowstone and Dawson counties. Park county. of course, fought the bill, putting forth as argument the fact that the Park county as- sessment levy was only 15 I-IO mills, while that of Yellowstone was 26 6-10 . mills : also that a strip of the Crow reserve intervened be- tween this "pan-handle" and Yellowstone county. The people of the Red Lodge country were not unanimous in their desire for annex- ation, and the bill was defeated.
Despite the fact that the people residing in Yellowstone county were enjoying prosperous
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HISTORY OF YELLOWSTONE COUNTY.
times, a poor showing was made at the 1890 census. There were at the time residing in the county only 2,065 people, of which 1,242 were males and 823 females; 1,670 were native born and 395 foreign born ; 2,036 were whites, 14 negroes, and the other 15 Indians and other colored people.
Again in 1891 was there an attempt to change boundary lines and extend the limits of Yellowstone county. The people of Red Lodge decided to ask the legislature for the creation of a new county. Failing to secure encouragement in this, they again asked for annexation to Yellowstone county. A bill to that end was introduced, but before action could be taken another event occurred which upset all calculations.
This was the approval by congress on March 3. 1891, of a treaty with the Crow In- dians, made December 8, 1890, throwing open to settlement that part of the reservation lying west of the divide between Pryor's creek and Clark's Fork, which included all that part of the present counties of Sweet Grass and Car- bon not already open to settlement. When this treaty was ratified by congress, only two days remained before it would be necessary for the Montana legislature to adjourn by limi- tation, and a struggle was precipitated for the possession of these lands between Park and Yellowstone counties.
A bill was introduced in the senate divid- ing the lands between the two counties, giving almost all the land to Yellowstone county, and March 3-the same day that congress ratified the treaty-it was passed by a vote of 10 to 4. It was taken immediately to the house and there referred to the committee on federal re- lations. This committee promptly amended the bill by giving a greater portion to Park county, making the dividing line run due south from the junction of the Yellowstone river with the west boundary line of Park county to the Wyoming line. The amended bill was re- ported on March 4th and a motion that the
report be not adopted called forth a lively dis- cussion. The motion was lost and the bill placed on general orders. Later in the day the bill was passed. On the same day it went back to the senate with the house amendment favorable to Park county. The senate would not concur and the house was asked to recede. The lower house would not recede, and the bill was lost.
Now, it will be remembered, the legislature of 1885 had passed an act providing that that part of the Crow lands lying west of the Big Horn river should become a part of Yellow- stone county when it was thrown open to set- tlement and attaching that country to Yellow- stone county for judicial purposes while yet it was Indian land, so the failure of the 1891 legislature to provide for the disposition of the ceded lands was a victory for Yellowstone county.
By proclamation of President Harrison in 1892 these lands were thrown open to settle- ment, which gave 1,800,000 acres of territory to Yellowstone county, making the total area 3.988,800 acres. It threw nearly one-half of the county on the south side of the Yellow- stone river, the ceded portion extending from the divide between Pryor's creek and Clark's Fork to the Boulder river and south to the "pan-handle" of Park county. At the next session of the legislature an attempt was made to take some of these lands in forming a new county to be known as Sweet Grass, but the at- tempt failed, and Yellowstone county con- tinued to enjoy the possession of this big tract until 1895, when it lost nearly all of the land it had gained in 1891.
What was colloquially known as the "hard times" period, beginning with the panic of 1893 and continuing for several years, fell upon Yellowstone county as it did all other parts of the state, and country at large. Busi- ness suffered from the general stagnation inci- dent to the financial crisis. Prices for farm products were extremely low, as well as for
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HISTORY OF YELLOWSTONE COUNTY.
wool, sheep, cattle and other products of an agricultural and stockraising country. Fortu- nately, the banks of the county remained firm and thus prevented the disasters that follow the failure of the financial institutions. But it was not long before it became evident that the intervening body which was obscuring the light was slowly passing from the disc of the finan- cial sun.
An event that assisted largely in the pass- ing of the "hard times" period was the exten- sion of the Burlington & Missouri River rail- road from Sheridan, Wyoming, to Huntley (Billings was the actual terminus), a distance Df 145 miles. The welcome news that the road was to be extended was received in Billings in April, 1894, and at 4:30 p. m. on Thursday, October 4th, of the same year, the first train was run into Billings over that road.
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