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 18
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"In the first place, we had to have blacksmithing done, and we had no tools, so we set out to make some. We had a broadax and we drove it into a block of wood and used it for an anvil. We had a sledge, and made a pair of bellows out of some wood and our rubber coats. There was a nail hammer with the outfit, and with it and the sledge, and the anvil and a forge we got together, we managed to make the other tools we
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absolutely needed. We made our own charcoal, and finally got that part of the preliminary work done.
"We had no lathe to turn the shafting, and we finally rigged a contrivance in the cabin wall to thrust one end into. We fixed up a wheel for the other end and made a belt out of rawhide to turn the thing by hand until we got the shafting turned. The lathe was even more primitive than the black- smith shop, but we got the work done after a fashion, although it was a slow process.
"After that we whipsawed some lumber, made our water wheel, fitted up the mill, and got out several thousand feet of lumber before spring set in. That was my first winter's work in Montana, and it was a hard one, too; part of it was all the more trying because I had my face eut up in a little unpleas- antness with the road agents about that time.
"We had no belting, and we made some of rawhide, but there was no way of keeping it dry, for we had a water mill. We heard of eighty feet of six-inch belting at Bannock. I went over and tried to buy it. The man that owned it had no use for it and said so, but he wouldn't set a price and I made him several offers, finally telling him that I would give him $600, all the money I had with me. He wouldn't sell even then, and I had to go back without it, and we made a shift to use a can- vas belt that we made ourselves. It was a poor affair, but we got along somehow.
"Lumber brought high prices, though, and we made some money after all our trouble. We got $140 a thousand for sluice lumber, and $125 for common lumber. The sluice lum- ber was finished on the edges and the other wasn't. The sec- ond year we started a yard at Nevada City, and I remember that the demand was so great that whenever we expected a wagon in there would be a crowd of men waiting for it, who wouldn't let me get to it at all. As soon as the binding was
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taken off the load, they would make a rush for the wagon and every man would take off what he could carry. The demand was so keen that they felt justified in taking it by force, and I wouldn't even have a chance to keep an account of what was taken. As far as I know, however, it was always correctly accounted for and I do not believe that there was ever a stick that went out that way that I didn't get my pay for."
The reader will notice that Mr. Holter spoke of having "a little unpleasantness with the road agents." The story of that occurrence is now fresh in my memory. It was this way :
Mr. Holter was on a return trip from Virginia City, Dec. 11, 1863, when he came very near being killed by highwaymen, who were then terrorizing the country with their violence. George Ives, the leader of a gang of desperadoes, and some of his companions, had met Holter on the way near the mouth of Big Hole, and had evidently been keeping track of him, think- ing that he might sell some goods which he had in Virginia City, and that on his return he would have some money. Mr. Holter had marketed some articles in Virginia City, but, as it happened, he did not draw the money for them. This time he was returning with the two yoke of oxen without the wagon, and at the point of the road where the trail over the hill strikes the gulch, just below Nevada City, Ives and his companion, Erwin, passed him, and, as they went by, one spoke to the other, addressing him as George. They went on ahead and took the lower road by Laurin's place, but Holter with his oxen took the upper road. When near the crossing of Brown's gulch, Ives and Erwin, finding that Holter had taken the upper road, galloped their horses and met him. They began business at once; Ives drew and leveled his revolver on Holter, standing about four feet from him, and ordered him to pass over his money. Holter said that he did not have any, but Ives said that he knew better, and made him turn all his pockets inside
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out. Holter passed over his empty purse; Ives examined it and then threw it away; and he gave him his pocketbook, in which there were some papers and a small amount of postal currency. Ives was angry at not getting money, as he evi- dently expected. He ordered Holter to leave the road and follow their trail. Holter remarked that as they had the drop on him he supposed he would have to obey. Just then he turned and spoke to his cattle, turning instantly again only to see Ives deliberately aiming at his head, and Ives discharged his pistol just as Holter threw back his head. The bullet en- tered Holter's hat just above the band and grazed his scalp, cutting the hair as smoothly as with a razor and taking the skin off part of his brow. For a moment Mr. Holter was stunned, and would have fallen had it not been for the fact that he was near the oxen and threw his arm over the neck of one of them and staggered against the animal. On iCcovering his senses, his first impulse was to pick up a new ax and a handle that had dropped from under his arm. Ives at this instant, seeing that his first shot had not killed, raised his gun and deliberately aimed again at Holter's heart, but the gun snapped. Seeing a possibility of escaping, Holter jumped in front of the cattle and got on the other side of them before Ives could fire again. The off oxen suddenly started up and crowded the others onto the mounted desperadoes, diverting their attention and making them move back. During this commotion, Holter at once thought of some beaver dams in the creek a few yards away and broke for them. The road agents, seeing some men with a team coming up the road, went off in another direction as un- concerned as if nothing had happened. Holter then made his way to a cabin on the lower road, where "One-Eyed Reilly" and his associates lived. Here he tried to borrow a rifle or get them to go back with him, but they refused him any assistance
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whatever. From their answers and conduct, Mr. Holter be- came satisfied that they were confederates or silent partners with the road agents. As it was then growing dark, Holter went back to where he had left the oxen. After having un- yoked them, he recovered his hat and went up the gulch and stayed over night with Stuart, Malcolm Morrow and Charles Olsen, who were then mining there. It turned out that the reason Ives' pistol only snapped the time he tried to shoot Holter the second time was that at Lauren's Ives, being already pretty full and being refused any more liquor, he had amused himself by shooting at the decanters and had but one shot left.
After getting back to camp, thinking and talking to his part- ner about the matter, Mr. Holter made up his mind deliber- ately that it was his duty above all things to arm himself and hunt up Ives and kill him or perish in the attempt. His part- ner did all he could to persuade him to give up the idea, but at last said that he would go with him. After outfitting them- selves, they both started out to hunt Ives, when at the very first place they stopped they were told that Ives had been hanged. The news made Holter feel very badly, not because Ives was hanged, but because he was not present to assist with the job.
The first quartz mill Mr. Holter said that he saw in the territory was on the Monitor lode in Bevin's gulch, and not far from his sawmill. The stamps were made of wood with iron bands around the bottom to keep them from splitting, and spikes were driven thickly into the wooden stamp to receive the blow when striking the ore.
The next year Holter and his partner started lumber yards at Virginia City and Nevada City in Alder gulch, and the same summer Holter, with two other men by the name of Cor- nelius and Olsen, built some water works in Virginia City. This was rather a hard undertaking, for everything had to be
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invented anew from the ordinary way of building water works. The piping and hydrants had to be made of logs, and there was no way to procure a manufacturer's auger with which to bore the logs. As high as $150 apiece was paid for three augers made by a blacksmith for the purpose. Mr. Evensen, his part- ner in the sawmill, had gone back to Denver to get more ma- chinery and a planing mill. He purchased a freight outfit, consisting of oxen and wagons, and secured a second-hand plan- ing mill, but was unable to get any machinery, so he loaded up with provisions and started back. On his return he was snowed in on Snake river, where he lost most of his outfit. What re- mained of the goods was brought on pack animals into Virginia City in the spring of 1865 at 10 cents per pound freight. But good prices were obtained for these remnants, however. Ten- penny nails were sold at Virginia City for $150 per keg, in gold dust. These were again retailed at $2 per pound. Some flour had arrived in Virginia City, and the price had dropped from $150 per sack of ninety pounds to $60. Holter reshipped what flour he had to Helena, where it was disposed of at $100 per sack.
That winter he bought a second-hand portable steam engine and boiler, and had managed to make a sawmill and move it onto Ten Mile creek, about eight miles west of Helena. To this was added the planing mill his partner had bought in Den- ver, Colo., and which was the first one of the kind in Montana. Soon afterwards the firm opened a lumber yard in Helena, at a point which is now the corner of Main and Wall streets. While the price of lumber at Virginia City had been $125 per thousand for common and $140 per thousand for sluice or flume lumber, the price at Helena was only $100 per thousand for common lumber. In the latter part of June, 1865, Mr. Holter bought out Mr. Evensen and took in his brother Martin as a partner, and the firm became known as A. M. Holter & Bro., and the demand for lumber was increasing very fast.
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In the autumn of 1866 Mr. Holter went East by the Overland stage. The price for transportation to Omaha was then $350 in gold dust, or $700 in currency. While nearly a month on the road to Chicago, he said that after deducting stop-overs it took him but seventeen days and nights actual travel. It was the quickest trip on record up to that date.
While East he purchased a new steam sawmill; also ma- chinery for a door and sash factory, and appliances for a dis- tillery and an assortment of general merchandise, which he shipped by the way of St. Louis and Fort Benton, but as some of these purchases did not reach St. Louis in time to go on the first boat it was nearly two years before they reached Fort Benton. Freight from St. Louis to Fort Benton was then 12 cents per pound, and from Benton to Helena 10 cents per pound.
Holter had spent most of the winter in Chicago, and, when ready to return, was married to Miss Loberg on the 6th of April, 1867. Their wedding trip, as Mr. Holter tells it, was an enjoyable one, the bride journeying to Montana by way of St. Louis and the Missouri river route to Fort Benton, then by stage to Helena, while the groom came by the way of Salina, Kan., then by the Overland stage over the Smoky Hill route, by the way of Denver and Salt Lake, with sixteen other pas- sengers. Each passenger was furnished by the stage company with a rifle and ammunition, for the Indians east of Denver were then on the warpath. Fortunately, the Indians did not make an attack, but great inconveniences were met by the burn- ing of stage stations and the killing and stealing of the stock by the Indians. Mr. Holter said that at one place all hands lay three days and nights in a haystack, for there was no stock to draw the coach, and at one time the same mules had to be driven three drives, aggregating seventy-five miles, on account
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of the burning of the stations and the killing of the stock. He said that one of the stations was on fire and the roof falling in as they passed it, but he finally reached Helena after "staging it" twenty-five days and nights.
He said that at Salt Lake City he was informed that the steamer Gallatin, on which his wife was a passenger, had been captured by the Indians, and, at different points along the Missouri river, she, in turn, was told that all the overland stages on the road to Montana had been captured by the Indians. This unpleasant news caused considerable uneasiness on both sides at the time. But this remarkable wedding trip ended by Mr. and Mrs. Holter's having a happy meeting in Helena.
On his return to Helena, Mr. Holter erected a building on Main street, where the Pittsburg block now stands, and, after the arrival of the goods in the fall of 1867, he opened a gen- eral merchandise store. The sawmill, also the sash and door factory and the distillery, were completed during 1868 and 1869. The sash and door factory and the distillery were the first of these industries erected in Montana.
In 1869 Mr. Holter sustained a loss of about $40,000 by fire; the sawmill and planing mill were burned in March, and a month later the first big fire occurred in Helena, in which he sustained a loss.
The Rumley mine was discovered in 1871, in which Holter purchased an interest, and started negotiations with Frederick Utch of Cologne, Germany, for his right in the United States for the then existing patent on the Utch concentrating jig. He had one of these shipped to Montana, but it took a long time to get it here, as it was shipped by way of the Union Pacific railroad, which was then being built; consequently it laid a year at Rawlins, Wyo., but finally arrived, and was set up on the Legal Tender mine, east of Helena. Along in the early 70's he erected the first concentrator in the Rocky mountains
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on the Rumley mine. The mechanics were inexperienced, and it soon became evident that the machinery was not of sufficient strength, and the venture was a failure, with the exception that it showed what could be done in the way of concentration by properly erected machinery, and Montana is today the fore- most in concentrating ore by this process.
In the spring of 1877 he purchased a part of the Parrot mines, which proved to be one of the best investments he ever made. In 1880 this property was organized into the Parrot, Silver and Copper Company.
In 1879, on account of ill health, Mr. Holter took a trip to Europe, spending most of the time in Norway and Sweden, and returned to Montana in about eight months.
In 1878 Holter & Bro. built a sawmill on Stickney creek and started a lumber yard at the mouth of Sun river, with George Wood in charge, where Great Falls now stands, and erected a planing mill at that city in 1885.
In 1880 Mr. Holter and others purchased the Elkhorn mine at Ketchum, Idaho. In 1881 he became interested in the Ma- ginnis, the Kit Carson, the Stuart, the Silver Bell, Peacock in Idaho, and in the Elkhorn mine in Montana. In 1882 he be- came identified with the Helena Mining and Reduction Com- pany, which was afterwards changed to the Helena and Living- stone Mining and Reduction Company, which established the East Helena plant in 1SSS. In 1884 the same company erected the first street railway in Helena and also organized a gas company in the same city.
In 1886 he, with others, organized the Helena Concentrating Company. This company afterwards erected the first concen- trator in Idaho, at Wardner. This, however, has been replaced by a larger and more modern plant. In 1886 this company pur- chased an interest in the Helena and Victor Mining Company, and erected a concentrating plant at Victor. The same year
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Mr. Holter and others organized the Livingston Coal and Coke Company, and opened the mines and built a washing plant at Cokedale in Park county.
In 1887 the Holter Lumber Company and the A. M. Holter Hardware Company were incorporated, of each of which com- panies Mr. Holter is president. In 1888 Mr. Holter and others purchased the properties at Wardner, Idaho, now known as the Helena Frisco, and constructed there a large concen- trator, which was destroyed by the riot at Frisco in 1892, but has been rebuilt. In 1890 he and others organized the Cas- cade Land Company.
In 1892, in company with his family, he took another trip to Europe, being absent about five months. Again, in 1892 and 1893, Holter and his partners did a large amount of de- velopment work in the Trail creek district, now known as Rossland, B. C.
In 1891 the same parties purchased the Blue Canyon coal mines, and commenced building the Bellingham Bay & Eastern railway. In 1892 they organized the Coeur d'Alene Hard- ware Company at Wallace, Idaho. Mr. Holter was one of the promoters that erected a Peck Montana concentrating plant at Corbin in 1891, and another at East Helena in 1898. This process promises to revolutionize concentration. In 1898 they organized the Sand Point Lumber Company, at Sand Point, Idaho.
Going back a little, Holter and others organized the Mon- tana Lumber and Manufacturing Company, in 1888. This company met with a heavy loss in 1895 by the burning of its sash and door factory at Helena. The next year they bought a half interest in the Capital Lumber Company, and the two companies were, in 1898, sold to the Washoe Copper Company.
I am personally acquainted with A. M. Holter, and have been since he located his mill on Ten-Mile creek. Then I kept a
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butcher shop in Nelson gulch and furnished him meat for his men.
Mr. Holter is a Republican in politics and the first of that party who was elected to office in the city of Helena. He has held several offices, always with credit to himself and satisfac- tion to his constituents.
In 1868 he was elected a school trustee and served three terms. He was elected to the territorial legislature in 1878, and in 1880 was elected a member of the city council of Hel- cna and was honored with the presidency of that body. He was elected a member of the house of representatives of the state of Montana in 1888. He has also held the office of presi- dent of the Helena board of trade. He was president of the Pioneer Society of Montana, and delivered a very able address at the annual meeting of the society in 1890.
Mr. Holter's success in life is due to his own efforts. He has carved out a liberal competency for himself and family from the rugged forces of nature, and the struggle has left the impress of vigorous resolution and tenacity of purpose upon his character. His judgment has been called into requisition on many occasions of public importance, and he has always been foremost in every effort for the advancement of the public weal. He is a man of quiet and unassuming demeanor, recog- nizing his old-time friends wherever he meets them-whether poor or rich, it makes no difference to him. As a far-seeing man of business affairs, he stands almost without a peer.
Mr. Holter was born June 29, 1831, at Moss, on the eastern shore of Christiana Fjord, Norway. He came to the United States in 1854. His wife was a native of Modum, Norway. They have five sons and one daughter.
And "now" A. M. Holter dwells in one of the finest man- sions in the state and is surrounded by one of the most cul- tured families in the city of Helena.
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I could name scores of others that came to the territory in the early days, who endured all kinds of perils and hardship, besides being in danger of being killed by Indians or highway- men, and who never flinched from "putting their shoulder to the wheel" from that time to this. Always engaged in enter- prises that were of benefit to the people as well as to them- selves and to the general progress of the country.
It is because of my familiarity with the subject of this sketch that I selected Mr. Holter as an example to give the people of today an idea of the work of the pioneers in the early days of this state.
October 25, 1899.
ROBERT VAUGHN.
THE INDIAN.
Before going any further I will endeavor to give a brief sketch of the Indians and their behavior in Montana from the time I came into the country in 1864 to the present time.
The Indian is a born warrior. When an infant pappoose, his first toy is a bow and arrow. About twenty-five years ago I was in a Piegan camp just after they had killed an Indian of the Crow tribe, who had been stealing some of their horses. After mutilating the body beyond description, the pappooses had the hands that were cut off at the wrist; they were having great play over them, romping and throwing the dead Indian's hands at each other. By such means they cultivated the sav- age, warlike disposition in the young Indian minds from the beginning. Until lately, if they could not have the whites to fight, they would be at war with some other tribe. They always had their war paint prepared and their hatchets sharp ened, so they could go on the warpath whenever the evil spirit moved them. They were naturally treacherous, savage and cruel to those they were not at peace with, be it the whites or their own race, it made no difference. I do not know of any better testimony to show the Indian in his element than the illustration given by Ross Cox, an English gentleman, who, in 1813, came to what is now called Montana, by the way of Columbia. He was at the head of a fur trading company, and was a man of responsibility. He says : "We spent a comparatively happy Christmas, and by the side of a blazing fire in a warm room forgot the sufferings we en- dured in our dreary progress through the woods. There was, however, in the midst of our festivities a great drawback
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to the pleasure we should otherwise have enjoyed. I allude to the unfortunate Blackfeet who had been captured by the Flat- heads. Having been informed that they were about putting one of their prisoners to death, I went to their camp to witness the spectacle. The man was tied to a tree, after which they heated an old barrel of a gun until it became red hot, with which they burned him on the legs, thighs, neck, cheek and stomach. They then commenced cutting the flesh from about the nails, which they pulled out, and next separated the fingers from the hand, joint by joint. During the performance of these cruelties, the wretched captive never winced, and instead of suing for mercy he added fresh stimulus to their barbarous ingenuity by the most irritating reproaches, part of which our interpreter translated as follows: 'My heart is strong; you do not hurt me; you can't hurt me; you are fools ; you do not know how to torture; try it again; I don't feel any pain yet ; we torture your relations a great deal better, because we make them cry out loud like little children; you are not brave; you have small hearts, and you are always afraid to fight.'
"Then, addressing one in particular, he said: 'It was by my arrow you lost your eye,' upon which the Flathead darted at him and with a knife scooped out one of his eyes, at the same time cutting the bridge of his nose almost in two. This did not stop him; with the remaining eye he looked sternly at another and said : 'I killed your brother and scalped your old fool of a father.' The warrior to whom this was addressed in- stantly sprung at him and separated the scalp from his head. He was then about plunging a knife in his heart, until he was told by the chief to desist. The raw skull, bloody socket and mutilated nose now presented a horrible appearance, but by no means changed his tone of defiance.
" 'It was I,' said he to the chief, 'that made your wife a prisoner last fall; we put out her eyes ; we tore out her tongue ;
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we treated her like a dog. Forty of our young warriors'- the chief became incensed the moment his wife's name was mentioned; he seized his gun, and, before the last sentence was ended, a ball from it passed through the brave fellow's heart, terminating his frightful sufferings. Shocking, however, as this dreadful exhibition was, it was far exceeded by the atrocious cruelties practiced on the female prisoners. We re- monstrated against the exercise of such horrible cruelties. They replied by saying the Blackfeet treated their prisoners in the same manner; that it was the course adopted by all red war- riors, and that they could not think of giving up the gratifica- tion of their revenge to the foolish and womanish feelings of white men.
"Shortly after this we observed a young female led forth, apparently not more than fourteen or fifteen years of age, sur- rounded by some old women, who were conducting her to one end of the village, whither they were followed by a number of young men. Having learned the infamous intention of her conquerors, and feeling interested for the unfortunate victim, we renewed our remonstrance, but received nearly the same answer as before. Finding them still inflexible, and wishing to adopt every means in our power consistent with safety, in the cause of humanity, we ordered our interpreter to acquaint them that, highly as we valued their friendship and much as we es- teemed their furs, we would quit their country forever unless they discontinued their unmanly and disgraceful cruelties to their prisoners. This had the desired effect, and the miserable captive was led back to her sorrowing group of friends. Our interference was nearly rendered ineffectual by the furious old priestesses who had been conducting her to the sacrifice. They told the young warriors they were cowards, fools, and had not the hearts of fleas, and called on them in the names of their mothers, sisters and wives to follow the steps of their forc-
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