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 17
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court of the county of Missoula. While acting in the lat- ter capacity, he began the study of law and was admitted to the bar in January, 1877. He soon built up an extensive cli- entage and took rank as one of the leading lawyers of west- ern Montana. In 1869 he was elected a member of the leg- islative council for the counties of Missoula and Deer Lodge.
He once edited a weekly newspaper, and at a period when editors labored under difficulties and disadvantages of which the present generation can scarcely conceive. Then mails were but weekly and later on tri-weekly, and often in the winter it was from eight to twelve days between deliveries, there- fore an Eastern or California paper was seldom to be obtained so that the old-time editors had great difficulty in making up their editorial columns or securing clippings for the general news page. But, after all, the infrequent arrival of the mails was in favor of the Montana editor, for in those days few of the general readers of the territorial papers ever read an Eastern or a Pacific coast paper, consequently everything printed in their home paper was news to them, and the editor, who was sup- posed to be the writer, was praised as a smart fellow, when, in fact, it was often copied from other papers.
At the annual meeting of the Montana Press Association at Anaconda last fall, Judge Woody was present and was called upon to give his experiences as an editor. The judge arose, and, in a humorous way, said :
"I remember well when we received the news of the death of Napoleon III., in 1873. I wanted to write an editorial about him and give a short sketch of his career, but there was not a work of reference in town. Fortunately the San Francisco Chronicle, which was received, contained an ac- count of his death and also an elaborate editorial on his life and achievements, and from this I constructed an editorial which would have astonished the editor who wrote the one for the Chronicle.
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"These pilferings were hardly legitimate, but were excus- able under the plea of 'military necessity.' In the early days the editors of many of our weekly papers were not only edi- tors, but 'local,' and often proprietors, and they were required to furnish not only the copy, but the means to keep the paper running, which was not always easy to do when we shipped our paper by express from Helena to Missoula at twelve and one- half cents per pound, cash down, before we could get it out of the express office. Talk about 'steamer day!' No one ever rustled on steamer day as we were compelled to on the day when the express arrived with our week's supply of paper. We never failed to get our paper out of the express office, but it sometimes made us sweat blood to do it. In those days there was never a circus in the vicinity. There were no shows of any kind, and complimentary tickets to such entertainments were never seen by the editorial 'staff.'
"In those days, while we did not get any complimentaries, and but little wedding cake and wine, we received our regu- lar supply of threatened lickings, and the kickers of those days were more robust, muscular and dangerous than the kick- ers of the present time. Most of them wore six-shooters, which had a decidedly ugly look. It was not always safe to write what we deemed a complimentary personal, and on more than one occasion I raised a storm by printing what I deemed an innocent local. I wrote a harmless item-as I thought- concerning some school mams who were coming to Missoula to spend their vacation and incidentally mentioned that a bach- elor of the town, hearing of the intended visit of these school mams, had caused a new picket fence to be constructed around his bachelor quarters in order to protect himself from inva- sion. Now I thought this was exceedingly clever, but just here I made a mistake. The bachelor friend was highly in- dignant and did not speak to me for more than a month, and
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when I received the next number of the New Northwest, of Deer Lodge, it contained a letter from one of the aforesaid school mams, in which she walked all over me with spikes in her shoes. This was a good opening, and in our next issue I returned to the fray a little, just vigorously enough to get the lady to go another bout. She came back sharper than ever in the next issued of the New Northwest, and thus it went until Captain Mills, the editor, shut her off, and that ended the fight.
"About this time there was quite a sensation in New York city concerning the 'Little Church Around the Corner.' At the time of which I write, Dr. T. C. Iliff, now of Salt Lake City, was stationed in Missoula as a Methodist minister, and was quite a young man. He had in the summer of 1872 erceted the church in Missoula now known as the Methodist church, and during the winter of 1872-73 he, with some other preachers, were holding a protracted meeting in the church. They had quite a revival. One day, during the time the meet- ing was in progress, I wrote a short local notice of it, in which I referred to the revival in the little church around the corner; and said something to the effect that Brother Iliff had brought into the fold 'Tapioca' and some other tough cases, and that, having succeeded so well with them, there was hope for 'Yeast Powder Bill' and some others in town.
"Be it known that there were then in town two rather hard cases, known by these titles. 'Tapioca' joined the church and became a bright and shining light-for a short time. Well, Brother Iliff and my other Methodist friends took great um- brage at my little item and appointed a committee, headed by Brother Iliff, to wait on me and demand some kind of a re- traction, all of which they did not get.
"However, the storm soon blew over and Brother Iliff and I have ever since been the warmest kind of friends. Such
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were a few of the amenities of early journalism in the Wild and Woolly West."
Frank H. Woody is now, and has been since his election in 1892, the district judge for the Fourth judicial district of Montana, which comprises Missoula and Ravalli counties.
Thus, in brief, is the history of the first settlement in the state of Montana, and also a short biography of one of her first pioneers.
Dec. 18, 1899.
ROBERT VAUGHN.
MONTANA THEN AND NOW.
Montana ! The name carries with it the "legend of the aborigines" who called it "Tay-a-be-shock-up," or "Country of the Mountain," a name appropriate and expressive that its beautiful significance will ever suggest a synonym as perma- nent as "The everlasting hills."
It was created a territory by act of congress approved May 26, 1864, and admitted as a state into the Union February 22d, 1889. As now constituted, Montana covers all that vast region lying between the 45th and 49th parallels of north latitude, and the 104th and 116th meridians of west longitude, extending 550 miles from east to west, and nearly 300 north to south, a total of about 150,000 square miles, or nearly 100,- 000,000 acres. We can more fully appreciate the meaning of these figures when we remember that the six New England states and the great state of New York would not cover this area, that Minnesota and Iowa could be turned over upon it and a margin left for Connecticut to rest upon, or that Eng- land and Wales, Ireland and Scotland combined do not near equal it in size.
In another letter I have spoken of Montana as an infant, and well I may for she was "then" only a few days old, her population was only a few hundred gold seekers, her wealth was undeveloped, except a limited number of gold placer claims; "then" it was thought fit for nothing else. Her civil courts were but those of the miners' courts that were held in the open air or in some miner's log cabin. No one can give a description of what Montana was "then" better than Judge
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Wade in Joaquin Miller's "History of Montana." He said : "History tells the story of race movements and migrations and the planting of laws and institutions in new countries, but there is nothing in the history of the migration of races more interesting or remarkable than the story of the march and journey of the masses of men, women and families from the states over plains and mountains to the gold fields of the Pacific slope-a marchi more perilous than that of Xenophon and the ten thousand, and the establishment of law and or- der in a vast and desolate region, and such law as would se- cure individual rights and promote and protect the mighty in- dustries and enterprises which arise therein.
"These hardy pioneers, these builders of states yet to be, more venturesome than Columbus or Marco Polo, found them- selves in a new world, full of resources and surrounded by new and strange conditions. They were beyond the reach of law. They were effectually beyond the protection or con- trol of the government of the United States. These mineral lands had not been declared open to exploration or purchase. There was no means of acquiring title. These immigrants, miners and prospectors were trespassers upon the public do- main, and as between themselves actual possession was the only evidence of ownership.
"They organized miners' courts, preserved order, protected life and property, and adjudicated rights, and commenced the conquest and reclamation of a vast unexplored country that has since then added so much to the wealth and power of the United States.
"Montana had a history before it had a name; it enacted laws and established courts before it had a legislature or judges; it planted a state before it was born a territory. The period from the discovery of gold in 1862 to the organization of the territory in May, 1864, was an era of government and
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control by the inherent force and majesty of American citi- zenship, unaided by executive, legislative or judicial depart- ments, and as to mines, mining and water rights, this era con- tinued until July, 1866, and May, 1872, when congress opened the mineral lands to exploration and purchase, and validated the miners' rules and regulations theretofore existing. The first courts in what is now Montana were miners' courts, presided over by judges elected by the miners of the districts to enforce miners' rules and regulations by and for themselves. Besides providing for themselves a system of mining law, the people acting together were compelled to exercise their original criminal jurisdiction, which corresponds to the right of self defense in the individual."
At this time new gold discoveries were constantly made, and a rush would follow, or "stampede," as it is called in a min- ing country. This attracting all classes, and among them, the very lowest element, until criminals and outlaws from other places flooded the country and were getting so bold that the well disposed people were compelled to get together and or- ganize for self-defense. At this time comes the work of the vigilance committee, which will always be a thrilling chapter in the history of this great state.
The following was written by one of those that were here "then :" "In the wake of every gold 'stampede' follow a horde of thieves, robbers, desperadoes, criminals of the worst class and refugees from justice. Too idle and thriftless themselves to take up the pick, shovel and pan, they prey upon the honest miners and despoil them of their hard-won treasure. And Montana, during the gold excitement of 1862-3, was no ex- ception to the rule. Among the later arrivals were some des- peradoes and outlaws from the mines west of the mountains. In this gang were Henry Plummer, afterwards the sheriff, Charley Reeves, George Ives, Moore and Skinner, who, as soon
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as they got 'the lay of the country,' commenced their nefarious operations. These ruffians served as a nucleus around which the desperate and the dishonest gathered, and quickly organ- ized themselves ino a band, with captain, lieutenant, secretary, road agents, and 'outsiders.' They became the terror of the country. When the stampede in Alder gulch occurred in June, 1863, and the discovery was made of the rich placer digging's, there, many of the dangerous classes were attracted thither. Between Bannock and Virginia City a correspondence in cipher was constantly kept up. To such a system were things re- duced that horses, men and coaches were marked in some man- ner to designate them as fit objects for plunder. The head- quarters of the maranders was at Rattlesnake ranch, in the upper Beaverhead country, and a favorite resort was Demp- sey's Cottonwood ranch. The plan of operations of the road agents was to lie in wait at some secluded spot on the road for a coach, a party, or a single individual, of whom informa- tion was given by their confederates, and when near enough, would spring from their cover with shotguns with the com- mand, 'Halt! throw up your hands!' And while a part of the gang kept their victims covered others would 'go through' their effects. A failure to comply with the order or any hes- itancy in obeying it, was sure to cause the death of the person so disobeying; and, indeed, if there was probability that any information which a victim might communicate would result in danger to themselves, he was shot, on the principle that 'dead men tell no tales.'
"By the discoveries of the bodies of the victims, the con- fessions of the murderers before execution and other informa- tion, it was found that one hundred and two people had with- in a few months certainly been killed by these miscreants in various places, and it was believed that many more had shared the same fate. The whole country became terrorized,
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and, although the few ranchmen and dwellers in the mining camps knew the road agents, they dared not expose them for fear their lives would pay the penalty. Some action on the part of the honest portion of the community to check these wholesale murders and robberies and bring their perpetrators to justice became imperatively necessary. But what was to be done? It was four hundred miles to the nearest man who was authorized to administer an oath. Clearly no relief could be had from the law. The conclusion that something should be done was hastened by the murder and robbery of Lloyd Magruder and his party, the sum stolen being over four- teen thousand dollars. They were murdered by a number of road agents whom they had unknowingly hired to drive their teams. Magruder was well known and very popular through- out the whole region. This culminating outrage of the des- peradoes led to the formation of the vigilance committee late in the year 1863. Five men in Virginia City and one in Nevada City took the initiative in the matter. Two days had not elapsed before their efforts were united, and when once a beginning had been made the ramifications of the league of protection and order extended in a week or two all over the territory. From the 21st of December, 1863, to the 14th of January, 1864, twenty-four of the desperadoes, including the leaders, Henry Plummer and George Ives, were captured and hanged at various places. Every one confessed, or there was testimony to show, that he had murdered one or more men. This vigorous action of the Vigilantes brought to an end the terrible deeds of blood and rapine of the road agents in Mon- tana, and criminals of all classes and grades fled for their lives."
Again Judge Wade says: "Life, liberty and property were without any protection. The situation was desperate and un- paralleled. It was crime against society, criminals against
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honest men, murder and robbery against life and property. The people, few in numbers and scattered over a wide extent of country, were compelled to organize and confederate to- gether for self-preservation. They acted with deliberation. The supreme hour had come. They were to test their right. to live. Their calmness was not that of despair or cowardice, but of self-respect, manhood, American citizenship. They did nothing in the nature of mob violence or lynch law. Remem- bering the forms of law in their distant homes, where judge and jury tried men for crime, they organized citizens' courts with the miners' judge to preside, formed juries who listened to the evidence, had attorneys to prosecute and defend, and not until the testimony had excluded every doubt was a verdict of guilty returned; and when returned, without undue delay, uninfluenced by petty technicalities, maudlin sympathy, or unholy passion, it was, in an orderly manner, carried into ex- ecution. There is nothing in history like these trials. They were open and public; they were attended by the well dis- posed people and the desperadoes alike, all being armed and on the alert, some looking for the arrival of confederates and preparing to rescue the prisoners, and others, with their lives in their hands, ready to prevent the attempt. It required su- preme courage for a lawyer to prosecute, or for a witness to testify against, a prisoner at these trials."
"Now" Montana has its courts of civil and criminal juris- diction equal to any state in the Union, and the sturdy stroke of the miner followed by that of the mechanic, farmer, stock- man and manufacturer has brought out her hidden treasures, until today Montana is the wealthiest state in the Union in pro- portion to its population. The total value of the product of her mines and ranges for the year 1897 amounted to $69,139,675, or about $324 per capita of her population, which is about 210,000.
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To carry on the vast commerce given rise by this great wealth, Montana has in operation 2,928 miles of railroad, equipped equal to any railway system in the world.
The yearly lumber product is estimated to be worth $1,- 500,000. The coal product, at an average valuation of $2.60 per ton, is counted at $8,000,000. Nearly all of the lumber and coal are consumed at home.
The towns and mining camps that were "then" propagating crimes and greed, and filling the air with blasphemy, "now" have well selected libraries and are lavish in their expendi- tures to secure the best class of educational and beneficent in- stitutions. Forty years ago there were but two places of wor- ship in what is now Montana, and they were at St. Mary's and St. Ignatius' missions, where Fathers Giorda and Hoecken were teaching Christianity to the red men of the forest. The four religious denominations-Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics and Episcopalians-have in Montana "now" over two hundred churches, and other denominations will add sev- enty-five more to the number. There are social and benevo- lent organizations, and nearly every secret society known is represented with well-equipped lodges. "Now" Montana has 709 public schools, 55,473 pupils, and 1,186 teachers, and it has its normal school and school of mines, state university and agricultural college. It has 488 postoffices, eighty weekly and fifteen daily newspapers, besides ten semi-weekly and monthly journals.
An Eastern writer tells of the libraries in some of the cities of the West and expressed his aston- ishment at the intellectual character of the people. The facts are, as far as reading is concerned, that the people of the West are a long ways ahead of those of the East. The brightest, most energetic young men and women of the East make up the leading element of the West. There are more
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college-educated men in the Western cities than in cities of the same size in the East. People in the West are generally, more progressive than in the East. Few towns of the size of this (and none of its age) in the East have the electric lights, the miles of electric railroads, the telephone exchange, the churches, the public library, the elegant opera house, the fine public school buildings, the beautiful parks and, in fact, all the modern improvements which this city has. As to her re- sources, no one but nature herself can lay claim to placing them where they are. The many precipices, where the mighty Missouri plunges over one and then another with a force of several hundred thousand horse-power, the mountains of various minerals that are near by, the exten- sive coal fields that are at her doors, the thousands of acres of rich pasture and farming land that surround her. All these have been placed there by Him who created all things ; and it seems to have been kept in reserve for a permanent camping ground for the advanced civilization of the West. The great water power at the falls of the Missouri is "now" largely employed in operating reduction ยท works and smelters that reduce ore of the Rocky mountains to the amount of two thousand tons every twenty-four hours and here is oper- ated one of the largest electric refining plants on the conti- nent, where all kinds of metals are separated and refined. All this industrial growth has taken place during the last ten years. This is only a small portion of the development that has taken place in this state during the same length of time.
It is not Montana alone that has experienced these changes during the last thirty-six years. The "Then and Now" has revolutionized things in many other sections of the West as greatly as it has in this state. For "then" there was no South- ern Pacific railway, no Union nor Central Pacific, no Great Northern or Northern Pacific, neither a Canadian Pacific, nor
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any transcontinental railway in existence. "Now" it is safe to say that 30,000 miles of railway have been built west of the Missouri river since "then." And "now" great cities have sprung up on the sites that were "then" occupied by Indians and wild game. Verily, great have been the changes wrought in the mighty West by "Then and Now."
Dec. 2, 1899.
ROBERT VAUGHN.
A SAMPLE OF THE PIONEERS OF MONTANA.
Of all the instances in this book giving illustrations of the "then and now," not one is more striking than the following sketch of a once humble Norwegian boy, who, in 1854, landed in the United States with barely enough money to pay his first night's lodging, but who is now one of the millionaires of Montana. The young Norwegian referred to is A. M. Holter, one of Montana's first pioneers, and who now resides in Helena, the capital of the state. A sketch of the frontier life of such a man is a chapter well worth reading. It shows what a man with push, pluck and energy can accomplish.
The first place at which Mr. Holter resided after coming to the United States was Freeport, Iowa, and he remained in that state until 1859, making Osage his headquarters. In the spring of 1860 he joined the rush of gold-seekers to Colorado, then called Pike's Peak. By this time he had joined his brother Martin. After arriving in Colorado, the brothers went to mining and farming; in these pursuits they made some money, but nothing big. In the fall of 1863, in company with his partner, E. Evensen, A. M. Holter left Denver, Colo., bound for Alder gulch, bringing with them a small sawmill. It took them about thirty days to make the trip. After much difficulty, they arrived in Alder gulch. To give an account of this arrival, I cannot do better than to give the following which appeared in the Helena Independent Sept. 7, 1899, after an interview with Mr. Holter concerning his early days in Montana. He said :
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"The fact is that we-my partner and I-didn't get there until Dec. 1, 1863, and we selected a location on Ramshorn gulch. We managed to get our outfit as far as the summit between Bevin and Ramshorn gulches with teams, where we found deep snow and more snow falling. It kept on snowing; I remember seventeen days in succession that it snowed every day. We camped there under some spruce trees, with no other shelter, and the wind blowing all the time. There we made a hand sled to handle the machinery and built a brush road a distance of a mile and a half to get the machinery we had down to the creek, where our water power was to be had. We finally got the stuff down there and had a cabin up without doors or windows and moved into it the day before Christmas, 1863. We hung up our blankets on the door and window and pre- pared to make the best of it on Christmas day. The snow was then four feet deep and it was still snowing. In fact, we had snow all winter, although I do not remember that it ever got much deeper than that around us.
"I didn't know a thing about the sawmill business, and my partner, who had represented himself to be a millwright, proved that he didn't know much about it either. We un- packed our machinery and began to put it together and found that some of the parts that were necessary for its use were missing. The feeding apparatus was gone, among other things. We set to work and invented a new movement, which, by the way, was afterwards patented-by other parties.
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