An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 6

Author: Miller, Joaquin, 1837-1913. cn
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1216

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The first college term commenced iu September, 1890, with forty four students enrolled. The second year the enrollment was fifty five, and the third year it was in- creased to 133. Rev. R. E. Smith was the first agitator of the college. He secured 235 acres of valuable land and $15,000 in money. In 1889 Dr. Tower was elected President of the college, and since that time he has done a large amount of work toward raising funds for it, both in and out of the State, and has succeeded in putting the institution on its present auspicious basis. The cost of the college building was nearly $50,000. Measures are now being taken to liquidate the indebtedness. It is ex- pected that the college lands will sell for sufficient to make a $100,000 endowment fund. With its present board of trustees and its able faculty, it bids fair to be- come one of the leading educational institutions of the State and of the country.

MONTANA'S FIRST INHABITANTS.

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

called Porcupine river. This is a bold and beautiful stream, 112 yards wide, though the water is only forty yards at its entrance. *

* The water of this river is transparent, and is the only one that is so of all those that fall into the Missouri. From the quantity of water which it contains, its direction, and the nature of the country through which it passes, it is not improbable that its sources may be near the main body of the Saskashawan; and, as in high water it can no doubt be navigated to a con- siderable distance, it may be rendered the means of intercourse with the Athabaska conn- try, from which the Northwest Company derive so many of their valuable furs.

* * We saw vast quantities of bnf- falo, elk, deer (principally of the long-tailed kind), antelope, beaver, geese, ducks, brant, and some swan. The porcupines, too, are numer- ous, and so careless and clumsy that we can ap- proach very near without disturbing them as they are feeding on the young willows. Toward evening we also found, for the first time, the nest of a goose among some driftwood, all that we have hitherto seen being on the tops of broken trees, on the forks, and invariably from fifteen to twenty feet or more in height.

* * * May 4 .- There are, as usual, vast quantities of game, and extremely gentle; the male buffalo, particularly, will scarcely give way to us, and, as we approach, will merely look at ns for a moment as something new, and then quietly resume their feeding.

" In the course of the day we passed some old Indian hunting-camps, one of which con- sisted of two large lodges fortified with a circu- lar fence twenty or thirty feet in diameter, and made of timber laid horizontally, the beams overlying each other to the height of five feet, and covered with the trunks and limbs of trees

that have drifted down the river. The lodges themselves are formed by three or more strong sticks, about the size of a man's leg or arm, and twelve feet long, which are attached at the top by a withe of small willows, and spread out so as to form at the base a circle of from ten to fourteen feet in diameter. Against these are placed pieces of driftwood and fallen timber, usually in three ranges, one on the other, and the interstices are covered with leaves, bark and straw, so as to form a conical figure about ten feet high, with a small aperture in one side for the door. It is, however, at best, a very im- perfect shelter against the inclemencies of the seasons.

" May 5 .- We had a fine morning, and, the wind being from the east, we used the sails. At the distance of five miles we came to a small island, and twelve miles farther encamped on the north, at the distance of seventeen miles. The country, like that of yesterday, is beautiful in the extreme. Among the vast quantities of game around us, we distinguish a small species of goose, differing considerably from the com- mon Canadian goose, its neck, head and beak being much thicker, larger and stronger in pro- portion to its size, which is nearly a third smaller; its noise, too, resembling more that of the brant, or of a young goose that has not yet fully acquired its note. In other respects its color, habits, and the number of feathers in the tail-the two species correspond. This species also associates in flocks with the large geese, but we have not seen it pair off with them. The white brant is about the size of the com- men brown brant, or two-thirds that of the common goose, than which it is also six inches shorter from the extremity of the wings, though the beak, head and neck are larger and stronger. The body and wings are of a beautiful pure

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

white, except the black feathers of the first and second joints of the wings. The beak and legs are of a reddish or flesh-colored white; the eye of a moderate size, the pupil of a deep sea- green, eneireled with a ring of yellowish brown; the tail consists of sixteen feathers equally long; the flesh is dark, and, as well as its note, differs hut little from that of the common brant, which

HON. R. S. FORD, president of the Great Falls National Bank and one of the prominent business men of northern Montana, is a pioneer of 1864.

He was born in Simpson county, Kentucky, January 14. 1842, and is of English and Irish ancestry who emigrated to America and settled in New York previous to the Rev- olution. Ilis grandfather, Robert Ford, was one of the pioneer settlers of Ohio; and his father, John C. Ford, was born there, but when a child his parents moved with him to Kentucky ; when he grew up he became a carpen- ter as well as farmer, and married Miss Henrietta Simp- son, a native of that State and a descendant of the family in honor of whom Simpson county was named. He con- tinued to reside in Kentucky till his death, in his thir- tieth year, leaving his widow with four children. Her brothers removed to Missouri in 1855, and she with her children went with them and resided there until the war came on, when she returned to Kentucky, where she died in 1873, in the fifty fourth year of her age. In relig- ious faith both she and her husband were Baptists: both were honest, honored and respected people.

The son, Robert Simpson Ford, was educated in the public schools of Westport, Missouri. In 1861, when the war broke out, he was nineteen years of age, and was obliged to go either into the army or to the West. By the advice of his mother he came West, arriving at Nebraska City, where he became engaged in freighting to Jules. burg and Fort Laramie. During the first year he worked for wages; in 1862 he became assistant wagonmaster; in 1863 he was given charge of a train of wagons; and in 1864 he came to Montana, in charge of an ox train of merchandise. After his arrival here he continued in the freighting business, with his large ox trains, hauling freight from Cow Island to Fort Benton, and thence on to ITelena and other points, for four years. During all this period he camped out most of the time, and with his wages so earned contributed to the support of his mother and the younger children.

In 1868 he returned 10 Kentucky to see her. Ile re- mained there till the following spring, when he went to Colorado and purchased 300 Texas cows, drove them to Montana and sold them in the Beaver Head valley that fall. Again he returned to Denver and remained there till the apring following, when he bought 700 head of callle and remained with them till the summer of 1871, when he brought them to the Sun River valley in Mon- Inna, built a cabin a mile and a half above the point where the city of Great Falls now stands, wintered his

in form and habits it resembles, and with which it sometimes unites in a common flock. The white brants also associate by themselves in large flocks; but, as they do not seem to be mated or paired off, it is doubtful whether they reside here during the summer for the purpose of rearing their young.

"The wolves are also very abundant, and are

stock there and in the spring sold them. Returning to Colorado again for still more cattle, he purchased a drove of 1,250 and wintered them at the same place; and thus he became one of the pioneers of the Sun river valley.

In the spring of 1873 he moved to within four miles of the town of Sun River, located a ranch in the Sun River valley, and continued his stock-raising and dealing in cattle. For a number of years he furnished the Gov. ernment at Fort Shaw with their beef cattle, doing a large business and meeting with satisfactory success.

In 1878 he returned to his native State, Kentucky, and married Mias Sue McClanahan, a native of that State, and she returned with him to his fine ranch on Sun river. There he continued to improve his property, building a good residence and continuing to make money rapidly until 1886, at which time he sold the most of his stock and became a money lender. In 1891 he changed his res- idence from his ranch to Great Falls, still retaining his Sun River property.

In 1891, in company with John T. Murphy and E. G. Maclay, he organized the Great Falls National Bank, with a capital of $250,000, and he built in the city one of the fine two story business blocks. He was elected pres- ident of the bank, and has since made the management of its affairs his principal business, for which he is specially qualified.

In politics he has always been Democratic. In 1875 his fellow-citizens of Cliotean county chose him as a Rep- resentative to the Territorial Legislature, which convened the following January. After serving his term, in a man- ner satisfactory to his constituents, the people of Choteau and Meagher counties elected him to the Territorial Sen- ate, and in that body he served honorably throughout his term. In 1884 he was elected County Commissioner, and also performed the many embarrassing duties of that office satisfactorily. Besides the attention which Mr. Ford has given to public affairs, he has always attended strictly to his own business matters, and hence his great success In this way the poor boy of twenty years of age has come to the wild West and made himself independent in financial affairs and a leading man in the public welfare.

He has had five children, but only two are spared to him by the hand of death. namely, Lee McClanahan and Shirley Samuel, both at home; and it is hoped that they may live to be a blessing to their honored parents and an honor to the great State of which they are native sonA.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

of two species. First, the small wolf, or bur- rowing dog of the prairies, which are found in almost all the open plains. It is of an inter- mediate size between the fox and dog, very delicately formed, fleet and active; the ears are large, erect and pointed; the head long and pointed, like that of the fox; the tail long and bushy; the hair aud fur of a pale, reddish- brown color, though much coarser than that of the fox; the eye of a deep sea-green color, small and piercing; the claws rather longer than those of the wolf of the Atlantic States, which animal, as far as we can perceive, is not to be found on this side of the river Platte. These wolves usually associate in bands of ten or twelve, and are rarely, if ever, seen alone, not being power- ful enongh singly to attack a deer or antelope. They live and rear their young in burrows, which they fix near some pass or spot much frequented by game, and sally out in a body against any animal which they can overpower, but on the slightest alarm retire to their bur- rows, making a noise exactly like that of a small dog.

"The second species is lower, shorter in the legs, and thicker than the Atlantic wolf. Their color, which is not affected by the seasons, is of every variety of shade, from a gray or blackish brown to a cream-colored white. They do not burrow, nor do they bark, but howl; they fre- qnent the woods and plains, and skulk along the skirts of the buffalo herds, in order to attack the weary or wounded.

"Captain Clarke and one of the hunters met this evening the largest brown bear we have seen. As they fired he did not attempt to attack, bnt fled with a most tremendous roar; and such was his extraordinary tenacity of life, that, although he had five balls passed through his lungs, and five other wounds, he swam more

than half across the river to a sand-bar and sur- vived twenty minutes! He weighed between 500 and 600 pounds at least, and measured eight feet seven inches and a half from the nose to the extremity of the hind feet, five feet ten inches and a half round the breast, three feet eleven inches round the hock, one foot eleven inches round the middle of the fore-leg; and his claws, five on each foot, were four inches and three-eighths in length. This animal differs from the common black bear in having his claws much longer and more blunt; his tail shorter; his hair of a reddish or bay brown, longer, finer and more abundant; his liver, lungs and heart much larger even in propor- tion to his size, the heart particularly being equal to that of a large ox; and his mane ten times larger. Besides fish and flesh, he feeds on roots and every kind of wild fruit.

May 6 .- The morning being fair, and the wind favorable, we set sail, and proceeded very well the greater part of the day. The country continues level, rich and beautiful; the low grounds wide, and, comparatively with the other parts of the Missouri, well supplied with wood. The appearances of coal, pumice- stone and burned earth have ceased, though the salts of tartar or vegetable salts continue on the banks and sand-bars, and sometimes in the little ravines at the base of the hills.

* * The game is now in great quan- tities, particularly the elk and buffalo, which last are so gentle that the men are obliged to drive them out of the way with sticks and stones. The ravages of the beaver are very ap- parent. In one place the timber was entirely prostrated for a space of three acres in front on the river, and one in depth, and a great part of it removed, though the trees were numerous, and some of them as thick as the body of a

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

inan. * * * For several days past the river has been as wide as it generally is near its mouth; but, as it is much shallower, crowded with sand-bars, and the color of the water has become much clearer, we do not yet despair of reaching the Rocky mountains, for which we are very anxious."

For nearly a century now the simple and direct story of those first explorers has stood the tests of closest observation unchallenged. Equipped with incalculable courage and en- durance, calm judgment and sober observation, directed by the greatest minds the Republic has yet produced, provided with all that science had as yet laid in man's hands to work with in- telligently, it would be a bold historian, nay, more, a vain and conceited one, who would attempt to intrude his own observations and opinions where these men passed and left a path of enduring light. No apology need be ten- dered by any historian for quoting their sim- plest utterance when in line with the history of Montana; for, however mueh his heart might be in his work and however well-informed he might be concerning it, he could never eqnal this narrative of theirs. For it surpasses in clear, simple truth and unostentations brevity those books of antiquity which have always charmed every school boy who sipped at the Pierian spring of the Latins.

Here in this next quotation we almost catch our breath at the nearness which they came to the discovery of gold; for you observe they note the discovery of quartz in "numerous ap- pearances."

"May 11," proceeds the journal, "we saw and visited some high hills on the north side, about three miles from the river, whose tops were covered with the piteh-pine. This is the first pine we have seen on the Missouri, and it

is like that of Virginia, except that the leaves are somewhat longer. Among this pine there is also a dwarf cedar, sometimes between three and four feet high, but generally spreading itself like a vine along the surface of the earth, which it covers very closely, putting out roots from the under side. The fruit and smell re- semble those of the common red cedar, but the leaf is finer and more delicate. The tops of the hills where these plants grow have a soil quite different from that just described: the basis of it is usually yellow or white clay, and the gen- eral appearance light-colored, and barren, some seattering tufts of sedge being almost its only herbage.

" About five in the afternoon, one of our men. who had been afflicted with boils, being suffered to walk on shore, came running to the boat with loud eries and every symptom of terror and dis- tress. For some time after we had taken him on board he was so much out of breath as to be unable to describe the cause of his anxiety; but he at length told us that about a mile and a half below he had shot a brown bear, which imme- diately turned, and was in elose pursuit of him; though being badly wounded, he could not overtake him. Captain Lewis, with seven men, immediately went in search of him; and, having found his track, followed him by the blood for a mile, found him concealed in some thiek brushwood, and shot him with two balls through the skull. Though somewhat smaller than that killed a few days ago, he was a monstrous ani- mal and a most terrible enemy. Our man had shot him through the center of the lungs; yet he had pursued him furiously for half a mile, then returned more than twice that distance, and with his paws had prepared himself a bed in the earth two feet deep and five feet long, and was perfectly alive when we found him,

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

which was at least two hours after he received the wound. The wonderful power of life which these animals possess renders them dreadful; their very traek in the mud or sand, which we have found sometimes eleven inches long and seven and a quarter wide, exclusive of the claws, is alarming; and we had rather encounter two Indians than meet a single bear. There is no chance of killing them by a single shot, unless the ball goes through the brain, and this is very difficult on account of two large muscles which cover the side of the forehead and the sharp projection of the center of the frontal bone, which also is thick. The fleece and skin of this bear were a heavy burden for two men, and the oil amounted to eight gallous.

" May 12 .- The weather being clear and calmn we set ont early. On both sides of the river the country is rough and broken, the low grounds becoming narrower. The soil of the hills has now altered its texture considerably ; their base, like that of the river plains, is, as usual, a rich, black loam, while from the mid- dle to the summit they are composed of a light brown-colored earth, poor and sterile and inter- mixed with a coarse white sand.

"May 14 .- Toward evening the men in the hindmost canoes discovered a large brown bear lying in the open grounds, about 300 paces from the river. Six of them, all good hunters, im- mediately went to attack him, and, concealing themselves by a small eminence, came unper- ceived within forty paces of him. Four of the hunters now fired and each lodged a ball in his body, two of them directly through the lungs. The furious animal sprang up and ran open- mouthed upon them. As he came near, the two hunters who had reserved their fire gave him two wounds, one of which, breaking his shoulder, retarded his motion for a moment;

but before they could reload he was so near that they were obliged to run to the river, and be- fore they had reached it he had alınost over- taken them. Two jumped into the canoe, the other four separated and concealing themselves in the willows fired as fast as they could reload. They struck him several times, but instead of weakening the monster each shot seemed only to direct him toward the hunters till at last he pursued two of them so closely that they threw aside their guns and ponches and jumped down a perpendicular bank of twenty feet into the river: the bear sprang after them and was with- in a few feet of the bindmost when one of the linnters on shore shot him in the head and finally killed him. They dragged him to the shore and found that eight balls had passed through him in different directions. The bear was old and the meat was tough; so they took the skin only and rejoined us at camp, where we had been as much terrified by an accident of a different kind.

"This was the narrow escape of one of our canoes containing all our papers, instruments, medicine and almost every article indispensable for the success of our enterprise. The canoe being under sail, a sudden squall of wind struck her obliquely and turned her considerably. The inan at the behin was nuluckily the worst steers- man of the party, became alarmed, and, instead of putting her before the wind, luffed her up into it. The wind was so high that it forced the brace of the square sail out of the hand of the man who was attending it and instantly upset the eanoe, which would have been turned bottom upward but for the resistance made by the awning. Snch was the confusion on board, and the waves ran so high, that it was half a minute before she righted, and then nearly full of water; but by bailing her out she was kept

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

from sinking until they rowed ashore. Besides the loss of the lives of the three men, who, not being able to swim, would probably have per- ished, we should have been deprived of nearly everything necessary for our purposes, at a dis- tance of between 2,000 and 3,000 miles from any place where we could supply the deficiency !

"May 17 .- We set out early and proceeded on very well. The banks being firm and the shore bold, we were unable to use the tow-line, which, whenever the bank would permit it, is the safest and most expeditious mode of ascend- ing the river, except under a sail with a steady breeze. *

* * The country in general is rugged, the hills high, with their sides and summits partially covered with pine and cedar, and their bases on both sides washed by the river. Like those already mentioned, the lower part of these hills is a rich dark loam, while the upper regions, for more than 150 feet, consist of a whitish brown sand so hard as in many places to resemble stone, thongh in fact very little stone or rock of any kind is to be seen on the hills. The bed of the Missouri is much narrower than usual, being not more than be- tween 200 and 300 yards in width, with an un- commonly large proportion of gravel; but the sand-bars and low points covered with willows have almost entirely disappeared: the timber on the river consists of scarcely anything more than a few scattered cottonwood trees. The saline incrustations along the banks and the foot of the hills are more abundant than usual. The game is in great quantities, but the buffalo are not so numerous as they were some days ago. Two rattlesnakes were seen to-day, and one of them we killed; it resembled those of the Atlantic States, being about two feet six inches long, of a yellowish brown on the back and sides, variegated with a row of oval dark

brown spots, lying transversely on the back from the neck to the tail and having two other rows of circular spots of the same color on the sides along the edge of the scuta: there are 176 scuta on the belly and seventeen on the tail.

66 * * Late at night we were roused by the sergeant of the guard, in consequence of fire having communicated to a tree overhang- ing our camp. The wind was so high that we had not removed the camp more than a few minutes when a large part of the tree fell, pre- cisely on the spot it had occupied, and would have crushed us if we had not been alarmed in time.

" May 19 .- The last night was disagreeably cold, and in the morning there was a very heavy fog, which obscured the river so much as to pre- vent our seeing the way. This is the first fog of any degree of density which we have ex- perienced. There was also, last evening, a fall of dew, the second which we have observed since entering this extensive open country. About eight o'clock the fog dispersed, and we proceeded with the aid of the tow-line. The country resembles that of yesterday, high hills . closely bordering the river. In the afternoon the river became crooked, and contained more sawyers or floating timber than we have seen in the same space since leaving the Platte. Our game consisted of deer, beaver and elk: we also killed a brown bear, which, although shot through the heart, ran at their usual pace nearly a quar- ter of a mile before he fell.

66 * * This stream, which we suppose to be that called by the Minnetarees the Mussel- shell river, empties into the Missouri 2,270 miles above the mouth of the latter river, and in latitude 47º 24" north. It is 110 yards wide, and contains more water than streams of that size usually do in this country.

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

" May 21 .- The morning being very fine, we were able to employ the rope, and made twenty miles. In its course the Missouri makes a sud- den and extensive bend toward the south, to re- ceive the waters of the Musselshell. The neck of land thus formed, though itself high, is lower than the surrounding country, and makes a waving valley, extending for a great distance to the northward, with a fertile soil, which, though withont wood, produces a fine turf of low grass, some herbs, and vast quantities of prickly pear. The country on the south is

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An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 6

Author: Miller, Joaquin, 1837-1913. cn Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis pub. co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Miller, Joaquin, 1837-1913. cn
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1216