USA > Montana > Then and now; or, Thirty-six years in the Rockies. Personal reminiscences of some of the first pioneers of the state of Montana. Indians and Indian wars. The past and present of the Rocky mountain country. 1864-1900 > Part 16
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"Clarke county was afterwards divided, and the county of Skamania created, and we became a portion of the last named county. The legislature then divided Skamania and created Walla Walla county, and then we became a portion of Walla Walla county, with our county seat located on the
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land claim of Lloyd Brooks, on the Walla Walla river, in the present State of Washington. Walla Walla county was after- wards divided and we became a part of Spokane county, with the county seat located at Fort Colville. We remained a part of Spokane county until December 14, 1860, when the legisla- ture of Washington Territory divided the county of Spokane and created the county of Missoula, with the county seat at or near the trading post of Wordenx & Co., Hell's Gate Ronde.
"The county of Missoula, as first established, embraced all those portions of the present counties of Missoula and Deer Lodge, lying on the west side of the main range of the Rocky mountains. Missoula county remained a portion of Wash- ington Territory until Idaho Territory was organied on the 3d of March, 1863, when it became a portion of that ter- ritory.
"The first legislature of Idaho created Missoula county, and located the county seat at Wordensville. On the 26th day of May, 1864, congress created Montana Territory, and the first legislature, which met at Bannock, created, on the 2d day of February, 1865, the county of Missoula, and located the county seat at Hell's Gate. From the foregoing it will be seen that Missoula county has at different times comprised a portion of four territories and five counties.
"Probably the first white men who visited this portion of Montana were Lewis and Clarke, who, with their party, some- time during the summer of 1805, entered the Bitter Root val- ley from the south, through a pass known at the present time as the Big Hole mountain, a small valley near the head of Bitter Root river, where the party of Lewis and Clarke first met and gave the name of Flatheads to the tribe of Indians now known by that name. ,
"A number of years since the writer was well acquainted with Moise, the second chief of the Flatheads, who was a
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boy at the time Lewis and Clarke passed through the Bitter Root valley and well remembered the event and many cir- cumstances connected therewith, the party being the first white men ever seen by these Indians. Moise was a warm and de- voted friend of the whites from the time of his first meeting with them up to the time of his death, which occurred about 1887.
"Western Montana has been occupied from time im- memorial by three different tribes of Indians, to-wit: The Salish-called by Lewis and Clarke the Flatheads, and by which name they are generally known-the Kelespelmns, now. exclusively known by the French name of Pend d'Oreilles, and the Kootenais. These tribes speak dialects slightly different, and most probably constituted at a remote date one tribe or nation. They have a tradition that they came from the far north, but this tradition is exceedingly vague and indefinite.
"From the time of Lewis and Clarke's expedition up to about the year 1835 to 1836, we have no definite knowledge of what transpired in this portion of Montana. At a
very early date a number of Canadian voyagers and Iroquois Indians from Canada visited this country, and sometime be- tween 1820 and 1835 the employes of the Hudson's Bay com- pany visited it for the purpose of trading with the Indians and extending the power of dominion of that gigantic com- pany, but these early adventurers left us no available data from which to write their travels and adventures.
"About the year 1835 to 1836 the Flathead Indians, who inhabited the Bitter Root valley, had gathered some little knowledge of the Christian religion from the Canadian voy- agers and Iroquois Indians, who visited the country for the purpose of trapping and trading for furs. The Flatheads were anxious to gain further knowledge and sent to St. Louis, Missouri, for a priest, or as they called him a 'Black Gown,'
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Three different parties of Indians were sent in as many dif- ferent years. Of the first party sent but little that is definite is known, except that none reached St. Louis. The second party, on their downward trip, were all killed by Indians -probably Blackfeet-near Fort Hall. The third party started in the spring of 1839, and in the summer of that year two of the party reached St. Louis. Of the two who successfully accomplished the journey, one was named Ignace Iroquois and he died at or near the St. Ignatius Mission, in Missoula county, sometime during the winter of 1875-76. The other was the father of a Flathead named Francoise Saxa of Bitter Root valley. The superior of the Jesuit establishment at St. Louis promised to send them a priest in the following spring. Ignace remained in St. Louis all winter and came up with the father in the spring. The other Indian came back the same fall to tell the news. In the spring of 1840 Father De Smet and Ignace came across the plain's and found a camp of Flatheads and Nez Perces near the Three Tetons, near the eastern line of the present state of Idaho. The father baptized a few Indians and came with the Flatheads to the Gallatin valley, near the place where Gallatin City now stands, and, finding that he could do little without aid, re- turned to St. Louis for assistance. In the spring of 1841 Father De Smet returned, coming by the way of Fort Hall. He brought with him two other fathers-Point and Mengar- ine- and several lay brothers, among whom were Brothers W. Classens and Joseph Specht, who are eminently entitled to the appellation of 'oldest inhabitants,' having been residents here for more than a third of a century. The party brought with them wagons and carts, horses, mules and oxen, and came by the way of the Deer Lodge valley and down the Hell's Gate canyon. These were the first wagons and oxen brought to Montana. In the fall of that year the first settlement was
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made in the Bitter Root valley by the establishment of St. Mary's mission on the tract of land upon which Fort Owen is now situated. During the fall and winter of the same year dwelling houses, shops and a chapel were built, and nearly all the Flatheads and some Nez Perces and Pend d'Oreilles were baptized.
"Probably the first farming attempted in our state was in the spring of 1842, by the fathers at the mission. This year they raised their first crop of wheat and potatoes. The same year the first cows were brought from the Hudson Bay company's post at Fort Colville on the Columbia river. About this time or a little later the fathers also erected a saw and grist mills-the burrs for the latter being brought from Bel- gium."
Those same mill stones, which are fifteen inches in diame- ter, with other relies of this early settlement, are now in the archives of the museum at St. Ignatius mission.
"After establishing the St. Mary's mission, Father De Smet returned to St. Louis, and thence to Europe, but returned to the Bitter Root valley in 1844, making his third trip, and bringing with him a number of fathers and lay brothers. Among the number was the well known and highly esteemed, the late Father Ravalli. St. Mary's mission was kept up until November, 1850, when the improvements were sold by Father Joset to Major John Owen. The bill of sale-now in posses- sion of the writer-bears date St. Mary's mission, Flathead county, November 5, 1850, and is, without doubt, the first writ- ten conveyance ever executed within the limits of Montana.
"In 1847 the Hudson's Bay company established a trading post on Crow creek, on the northern portion of the present Flathead reservation, and the place is still known as the Hud- son's Bay post. Angus McDonald, Esq., who came to the
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mountains as early as 1838 or 1839, was probably the first officer placed in charge of the new post.
"In 1849 Major Owen started from St. Joseph, Missouri, as sutler for a regiment of United States troops known as the Mounted Rifles, destined for Oregon. The troops came as far as Snake river, when winter caught them, and they built winter quarters on the bank of that river about six miles above Fort Hall, where they spent the winter. The camp was called Cantonment Loring and the place was long known by that name. Major Owen remained at Cantonment Loring until the troops resumed their march in the spring of 1850, when he relinquished his sutlership, and spent the sum- mer on the emigrant road, trading with the emigrants bound for California and Oregon. In the fall of 1850 he came to the Bitter Root valley, and, having bought the improvements of the Catholic fathers, erected a trading post at that point and christened it Fort Owen, a name which it still continues to bear. The fort was constructed of a stockade of logs placed in an upright position with one end planted in the ground. The stockade was necessary to protect the inmates and their property from the incursions of the numerous war parties of the Blackfeet Indians that continued to make raids into the valley up to 1855. It was the custom to drive the horses into the stockade each night during the spring, summer and fall of each year to prevent them from being stolen by the Blackfeet, and even this precaution did not always save them. One night a party of Blackfeet came to the fort, and, with knives and sticks, dug up some of the logs forming the stock- ade and drove away all of the horses belonging to the fort.
"In the fall of 1852, while hauling hay, a young man named John F. Dobson, from Buffalo Grove, Illinois, was killed and scalped by the Blackfeet in sight of the fort. The writer of this article has in his possession a diary kept by
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Dobson from the day that he left Illinois, in the spring of 1852, up to the day he was killed. The last entry that he made in it was on the day that he was killed, and is as fol- lows : 'Sept. 14, 1852. I have been fixing ox yokes and hay. rigging. Helped haul one load of hay. Weather fair.' The next entry is in the handwriting of Major Owen-apparently made the next day, and in these words: 'Sept. 15. The poor fellow was killed and scalped by the Blackfeet in sight of the fort.' These facts are only cited to show with what trials, dangers and privations the early settlers had to contend with in those days.
"In March, 1853, the Territory of Washington was organ- ized, and Isaac I. Stevens appointed governor of the same. He was also interested in an expedition fitted out from St. Paul, Minnesota, to make the first survey to determine the practicability of a route for a Northern Pacific railroad. This expedition arrived, in what is now Missoula county, in the fall of 1853, bringing with it a number of men who after- wards became citizens of Montana, among whom were Cap- tain C. P. Higgins of Missoula and Thomas Adams and F. II. Burr, who were for a long time residents of Missoula and Deer Lodge counties.
"In the fall of 1853 Lieutenant John Mullan, a member of the expedition, was directed to establish winter quarters in the Bitter Root valley and make certain observations during the winter. In the fall of 1855 Neil McArthur, an old Hud- son bay trader, having retired from the company's service, came to the Bitter Root valley, accompanied by L. R. Mail- let and Henry Brooks. McArthur brought with him a band of horses and cattle and located and occupied the buildings at Cantonment Stevens, having during the summer of 1855 concluded a treaty with the Flatheads, Blackfeet, Crows and other mountain tribes of Indians. The Blackfeet had, in a
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great measure, ceased making raids into the Bitter Root valley and lives and property were comparatively safe.
"The treaty between the United States and the Confeder- ated Flathead nation, consisting of the Flatheads, Pend d'Oreilles and Kootenai tribes, was concluded in a council held in July, 1855, in a large pine grove on the river about eight miles below the present town of Missoula and opposite to the farm of John S. Caldwell. The place was for a number of years known as Council Grove.
"In 1854 the first white woman came to the country now constituting Missoula county, and she was probably the first white woman who honored our state with her presence. In the next year a Mrs. J. Brown came from the East, and, while crossing the Rocky mountains, gave birth to a male child, now grown to manhood and a citizen of a neighboring state. She, with her baby and two little girls, rode alternately a stout, hardy Manitobian steer and a Canadian pony. She visited the Hudson's Bay post in the northern part of our country and remained several days, and then proceeded the same sea- son to Washington Territory. This was probably the first white child born within the limits of our present state.
"In the fall of 1856 several parties who had been spending the summer trading on the 'Road' relinquished that business and came to the Bitter Root valley and took up their resi- dence, among whom were T. W. Harris, Joseph Lompre and William Rogers. During the winter of 1856-57 the popula- tion of the Bitter Root valley was larger than it again was until the fall of 1860.
"Up to that time no settlement had been made in the Hell's Gate Ronde. Soon after the arrival of Major Pattee he con- tracted with Major Owen and commenced the erection of a grist and sawmill at Fort Owen. In the latter part of Decem- ber, 1856, McArthur, having determined upon erecting a trad-
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ing post in the Hell's Gate Ronde, dispatched Jackson, Holt, Madison, 'Pork' and the writer to Council Grove to get out the necessary timbers to erect the buildings the next summer. 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 that winter and the weather was quite cold, but we lost but little time and by spring had gotten out a large quantity of square timber. In the spring MeArthur paid us off for our winter's work, each man receiving a Cayuse horse in full of all demands. With the coming of spring there was a general breaking up of winter quarters and not many men were left in the country. James Holt and the writer remained in the employ of Mc- Arthur, broke about eight acres of land and sowed it to wheat and also planted a garden. This was the first attempt made at farming in the Hell's Gate Ronde. The potatoes, car- rots, beets turnips and onions grew well, but the wheat, while in the milk, was completely killed by a heavy frost on the night of the 14th of August, 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 papers and telegraphic dispatches, containing the latest news from all parts of the globe, 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 presi- dential election was held in November, 1856, but we knew nothing of the result until about the middle of April, 1857, when Abram 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.
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"Few events of historical 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 Perces country cut off all communication with the west and placed the settlers of this county in a dangerous situation. Congress having made a large appropriation to build a military wagon road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton, placed Lieu- tenant John Mullan in charge of the work. He organized his expedition at the Dalles, Oregon, in the spring of 1858, but was forced to disband it on account of the Indian hostili- ties. He again organized in the spring of 1859 and con- structed the road over the Coeur d'Alene mountains as far as Cantonment Jordan on the St. Regis Borgia, where he went into winter quarters, sending his stock to the Bitter Root valley. During the winter the greater portion of the heavy grades between Frenchtown and the mouth of Cedar creek was constructed. 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. Higgins, un- der the firm name of Worden & Co., started from Walla Walla with a stock of general merchandise for the purpose of trading at the Indian agency, but, upon their arrival at Hell's Gate, they determined to locate at that point and ac- cordingly 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. During this year four hundred United States troops under the command of Major Blake passed over the Mullan road from Fort Benton to Fort Walla Walla and Col- ville. During the fall of this year a number of settlers came into the county and new farms were taken up at Frenchtown,
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Hell's Gate and in the Bitter Root valley, and during the win- ter of 1860-61 a considerable number of men wintered in the different settlements.
"On the 14th day of December, 1860, the bill creating Mis- soula county was passed by the legislative assembly of Wash- ington Territory. The county extended from the 115th de- gree of longitude east to the summit of the Rocky mountains and from the. 46th degree to the 49th degree of latitude, which included all that portion of Deer Lodge county lying west of the Rocky mountains.
"In the spring of 1861 Lieutenant Mullan organized an- other 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 hundred 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 Colonel, afterwards General, Wright who quelled the Indian war of 1858 so effectively. During that winter the heavy grades in the Hell's Gate canyon were constructed.
"On the 5th day of March, 1862, the first marriage of two white persons in Missoula county was solemnized at Hell's Gate; that of George P. White to Mrs. Josephine Mincinger. The ceremony was performed by Henry Brooks, justice of the peace, and who was afterwards known as 'Bishop Brooks.' This was probably the first marriage of white persons within the limits of the country that is now Montana.
"The first lawsuit ever commenced in Missoula county, or in fact in Montana, was commenced and tried at Hell's Gate, in the month of March, 1862, before Henry Brooks, justice of the peace. The proceedings were under the laws of Wash- ington Territory. A Frenchman called 'Tin Cup Joc'-other name forgotten-accused Baron O'Keefe with beating one of
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his horses with. a fork handle and then pushing him into a hole, thereby causing his death, and claimed damages in the sum of forty dollars and sued O'Keefe to recover that amount. The place of trial was in Bolte's saloon. A jury of six was impaneled and sworn to try the case. W. B. S. Higgins, A. S. Blake and Bart Henderson were of the jury. As the trial progressed the proceedings became less harmonious un- til it ultimately culminated in a bit of unpleasantness, the friends of the respective parties lent a hand and it was far from being a select or private affair. While the unpleasantness was in progress the court and the jury had fled for dear life, and when harmony was restored they were nowhere to be found. After considerable search the court and jury were captured and the trial proceeded. The case was finally given to the jury, and after a brief time they came into court and ren- dered a verdict for the plaintiff for forty dollars damages. The costs swelled the judgment to about ninety dollars. This was probably the most hotly contested case ever tried in the state. The defendant endeavored to take an appeal to the district court, but as that court was held at Colville, three hundred miles distant, he concluded to settle the judgment, which he did. Poor Bishop Brooks was, in 1865, killed in Uncle Ben's gulch near Blackfoot City, shot through a glass in a door by whom or for what cause was never known.
"On the 3d day of March, 1863, Idaho Territory was or- ganized and this county became a part of that Territory and an election was held in the fall of that year for members of the legislature. The writer has no knowledge that any county of- ficers were appointed by the governor of Idaho for this county, and from the fact that Montana was organized on the 26th of May, 1864, he is of the opinion that none were appointed. In the fall of 1864, under the proclamation of Governor Edger- ton, an election was held for delegates to congress and mem-
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bers of the legislature. September 27, 1867, the first dis- trict court convened in Missoula county, Hon. L. P. Willis- ton presiding. The first churches established in Montana were in Missoula county, the first being at the old Catholic mis- sion established in the Bitter Root valley, and the next that of St. Ignatius mission. Prior to 1865 there was scarcely a protestant minister within the Territory of Montana. Bishop Tuttle of the Episcopal church visited Missoula in 1870, and the services held by him were the first by any protestant minister in the town of Missoula. In 1872 Rev. T. C. Iliff of the Methodist Episcopal church organized a congregation in Missoula. The first Presbyterian church was organized in Missoula in 1876.
"The first train over the Northern Pacific railroad reached Missoula August 7, 1883, and the last spike connecting the east and west divisions of the road was driven at a point be- tween Garrison and Gold Creek by Henry Villard, president of the road, on September 8, 1883."
Judge Woody came to what is now Montana in October, 1856, when the western portion of the state of Montana was a part of Washington Territory. He has resided in the coun- try ever since, and nearly all of this time in Missoula county, thus giving him a residence in Montana of over forty-four years. During all this time he has, without moving, been an inhabitant of three territories and one state. The western portion of Montana was, in 1856, Washington Territory, then became Idaho Territory, Montana Territory and finally the state of Montana.
Judge Woody was born in Chatham county, North Caro- lina, on December 10, 1833, and on his paternal side was of Quaker descent, and on his maternal side of good old revo- lutionary stock. His early life was that of a farmer with very limited educational advantages. At the age of eighteen
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he entered New Garden Boarding school (now Guilford col- lege), a Quaker institution of learning near Greensboro, North Carolina. After remaining at this institution one year, he taught school in the eastern portion of the state for six months. He then, in the summer of 1853, attended another Quaker school in Indiana, after which he taught school in that state until April, 1855, when he removed to Kansas. Not being sat- isfied with the country, and with a desire to see more of the West, he joined a merchant wagon train bound for Great Salt Lake, and remained with the train until it reached a point west of Fort Laramie. He then joined an emigrant party bound for Shoalwater bay, in the Territory of Washington, and re- mained with it until it reached Independence Rock, a once noted point on the Sweetwater river, near the South Pass, in the state of Wyoming. At this point he became sick and was forced to remain several days and eventually fell in with a party of Mormons bound for Salt Lake and went with them, reaching there August, 1855.
He remained in Utah until the fall of 1856, when he joined a party of traders coming to the "Flathead country" (now 'Mis- soula and Ravalli counties), to trade with the Indians, and about the middle of October arrived on the Hell Gate river, near where the town of Missoula now stands.
From that time until February, 1866, he followed different pursuits, engaging in freighting, mining and merchandising, and, on the last date named was, by the board of county com- missioners, appointed county clerk and recorder of Missoula county, which office he held continuously by re-election until the fall of 1880, when he refused to again become a candi- date. During a portion of this time he also filled the office of probate judge, which office had been consolidated with that of county clerk and recorder. For eight years of this time he also served as deputy clerk of the second judicial district
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