Chapter IX: Preface (9)

“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 possession of the writer--bears date St. Mary’s mission, Flathead county, November 5, 1850, and is, without doubt, the first written 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 Hudson’s Bay post. Angus McDonald, Esq., who came to the 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 summer 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 stockade 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 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 follows: ‘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 organized, 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 afterwards became citizens of Montana, among whom were Captain C. P. Higgins of Missoula and Thomas Adams and F. H. 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 Hudson bay trader, having retired from the company’s service, came to the Bitter Root valley, accompanied by L. R. Maillet 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 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 Confederated 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 season 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 residence, among whom were T. W. Harris, Joseph Lompre and William Rogers. During the winter of 1856-57 the population 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 contracted with Major Owen and commenced the erection of a grist and sawmill at Fort Owen. In the latter part of December, 1856, McArthur, having determined upon erecting a trading 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 McArthur 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 McArthur, 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, carrots, 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 presidential 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 government express for the Indian department, bringing two or three Oregon papers, from which we learned that Buchanan had been elected and inaugurated president.

“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 Lieutenant 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 hostilities. He again organized in the spring of 1859 and constructed 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, under 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 accordingly 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 Colville. During the fall of this year a number of settlers came into the county and new farms were taken up at Frenchtown, Hell’s Gate and in the Bitter Root valley, and during the winter of 1860-61 a considerable number of men wintered in the different settlements.

“On the 14th day of December, 1860, the bill creating Missoula county was passed by the legislative assembly of Washington Territory. The county extended from the 115th degree 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 another 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 Mineinger. 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 Washington Territory. A Frenchman called ‘Tin Cup Joe’--other name forgotten--accused Baron O’Keefe with beating one of 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 until 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 rendered 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 organized 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 officers 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 Edgerton, an election was held for delegates to congress and members of the legislature. September 27, 1867, the first district court convened in Missoula county, Hon. L. P. Williston presiding. The first churches established in Montana were in Missoula county, the first being at the old Catholic mission 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 between 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 country 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 Carolina, on December 10, 1833, and on his paternal side was of Quaker descent, and on his maternal side of good old revolutionary stock. His early life was that of a farmer with very limited educational advantages. At the age of eighteen he entered New Garden Boarding school (now Guilford college), 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 satisfied 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 remained 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 Missoula 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 commissioners, 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 candidate. 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 court of the county of Missoula. While acting in the latter capacity, he began the study of law and was admitted to the bar in January, 1877. He soon built up an extensive clientage and took rank as one of the leading lawyers of western Montana. In 1869 he was elected a member of the legislative 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, therefore 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 supposed 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 account 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.

“These pilferings were hardly legitimate, but were excusable under the plea of ‘military necessity.’ In the early days the editors of many of our weekly papers were not only editors, 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 regular supply of threatened lickings, and the kickers of those days were more robust, muscular and dangerous than the kickers 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 bachelor 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 invasion. Now I thought this was exceedingly clever, but just here I made a mistake. The bachelor friend was highly indignant and did not speak to me for more than a month, and 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 erected 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 meeting 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 umbrage at my little item and appointed a committee, headed by Brother Iliff, to wait on me and demand some kind of a retraction, 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 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.

ROBERT VAUGHN.
Dec. 18, 1899.

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 permanent 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 England 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 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 march more perilous than that of Xenophon and the ten thousand, and the establishment of law and order in a vast and desolate region, and such law as would secure individual rights and promote and protect the mighty industries and enterprises which arise therein.

“These hardy pioneers, these builders of states yet to be, more venturesome than Columbus or Marco Polo, found themselves 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 control 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 domain, 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 control by the inherent force and majesty of American citizenship, unaided by executive, legislative or judicial departments, and as to mines, mining and water rights, this era continued 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 mining 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 organize 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 exception to the rule. Among the later arrivals were some desperadoes 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 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 organized themselves into 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 diggings 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 reduced that horses, men and coaches were marked in some manner to designate them as fit objects for plunder. The headquarters of the marauders was at Rattlesnake ranch, in the upper Beaverhead country, and a favorite resort was Dempsey’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 information was given by their confederates, and when near enough, would spring from their cover with shotguns with the command, ‘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 hesitancy 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 confessions of the murderers before execution and other information, it was found that one hundred and two people had within 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, 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 fourteen 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 throughout the whole region. This culminating outrage of the desperadoes 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 Montana, 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 unparalleled. It was crime against society, criminals against 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 together 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. Remembering 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 execution. There is nothing in history like these trials. They were open and public; they were attended by the well disposed 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 supreme 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 jurisdiction equal to any state in the Union, and the sturdy stroke of the miner followed by that of the mechanic, farmer, stockman and manufacturer has brought out her hidden treasures, until today Montana is the wealthiest state in the Union in proportion 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.

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 expenditures to secure the best class of educational and beneficent institutions. Forty years ago there were but two places of worship 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 seventy-five more to the number. There are social and benevolent 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 astonishment 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 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 resources, 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 extensive 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 works and smelters that reduce ore of the Rocky mountains to the amount of two thousand tons every twenty-four hours and here is operated one of the largest electric refining plants on the continent, 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 Southern Pacific railway, no Union nor Central Pacific, no Great Northern or Northern Pacific, neither a Canadian Pacific, nor 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.”

ROBERT VAUGHN.
Dec. 2, 1899.

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:

“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 prepared 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 unpacked 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.

“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 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 blacksmith 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 cut up in a little unpleasantness 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 canvas 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 lumber was finished on the edges and the other wasn’t. The second 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 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, thinking 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 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 evidently 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 entered 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 recovering 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 unconcerned 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 whatever. From their answers and conduct, Mr. Holter became 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 unyoked 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 partner about the matter, Mr. Holter made up his mind deliberately that it was his duty above all things to arm himself and hunt up Ives and kill him or perish in the attempt. His partner did all he could to persuade him to give up the idea, but at last said that he would go with him. After outfitting themselves, 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.