Friday Photo: Boxing

Happy Friday!

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 90-87.3-13

This boxing match within a hand-held rope ring entertained the men of state senator Kenneth McLean's sheep camp. Evelyn Cameron snapped the photo in 1905.

P.S. Remember the time Cameron scandalized Miles City?

Grand Union Hotel

Fort Benton’s beautifully restored hotel, the Grand Union, once welcomed travelers to the Gateway of the Northwest, offering them a luxurious refuge before they set out for less civilized destinations. Its opening in 1882 came at the end of the steamboat era when Fort Benton was still an unchallenged hub. But the very next year, the Northern Pacific stretched across Montana, bypassing Fort Benton and ending its reign as the Chicago of the Plains.


Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 947-095


In its heyday, the Grand Union was the “Waldorf of the West.” It had a saloon, a grand dining room, a saddle room for cowboys to store their gear in winter, and a secret lookout room where guards could supervise gold shipments. A separate ladies’ stairway led to elegant parlors, since proper women never entered rooms adjoining saloons. Each bedroom had black walnut, marble-topped furnishings and its own woodstove and fancy chimney. From its vantage point near the docks, the Grand Union witnessed the arrival of everything from stamp mills to grand pianos brought by steamboat and transferred to freight wagons. The regal Grand Union reflects prosperity and optimism in a town unaware of the imminent coming of the railroad and the disastrous effects on its economy.

Have you ever stayed there?

From Montana Moments: History on the Go

Castle, Montana

The town of Castle in Meagher County was a wild camp where men died with their boots on. In the 1880s, two thousand residents rivaled the likes of the great camps of twenty years before. In the 1890s, the town’s death was rapid as people left by the dozens. Their log cabins waited forlornly for owners to return and claim the household goods and belongings they left behind. But they never returned, and the buildings fell into decay. Two last residents kept up hope that the town would again come to life. Joseph Hooker Kidd and Joseph Martino were the last holdouts, optimistic that Castle would revive. In 1936, as Kidd and Martino wintered in their neighboring cabins, the snow piled up in drifts as deep as forty feet. The winter was extremely severe and supplies ran out. Kidd decided to go eight miles up the road to Lennep for groceries. By evening, his cutter and exhausted team had only gone three miles. He stayed the night at the Grande Ranch and the next day made it to Lennep. On the return trip, Kidd again shoveled drifts until he finally got within a mile of Castle. His team would go no farther so he turned them loose and set out on foot, reaching Martino’s cabin late that evening. After some hot coffee, Kidd started out for his own cabin five hundred yards away. A few minutes later, Martino heard Kidd call out and saw him stagger. When Martino reached him, Kidd was dead. The population had been cut in half, its last resident left to foolishly dream that a great strike was still in Castle’s future.

The scattered remnants of Castle, Montana
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 940-607

P.S. Remember the Thanksgiving-day murder at this ghost town?

Thanksgiving at the Madison House 1903

If you're tired of eating turkey after yesterday's feast, you might want to try out some of these dishes...

The Madison House was Virginia City’s best hotel from the 1890s into the twentieth century. The hotel consisted of seven connected buildings, all at slightly different levels. For this reason it was nicknamed the seven-story hotel.

“Seven Story Hotel.”  Sanborn-Perris Map Company, Virginia City  1907.

Proprietors F. W. Allen and Dennis Mahagin set a nice table in the early 1900s. On Thanksgiving Day in 1903, the Madisonian invited those who might be unfortunate to be away from their own family firesides not to let the day pass without enjoying a good dinner. The Madison House prepared an especially elaborate meal, which was served between 4:00 in the afternoon and 8:00 in the evening. The published menu for Thanksgiving was indeed a delectable one. The first course included New York or fresh oysters, cole slaw, or consommé, and relishes. The salad course included lobster salad in mayonnaise. For the main course, diners could choose baked salmon, boiled ox tongue in wine sauce, roast prime rib of beef, roast goose with baked apples, macaroni in red wine—presumably for vegetarian guests—and of course, young turkey with oyster dressing, cranberry jelly, and pineapple sherbet. The choice of vegetables included mashed and steamed potatoes, braised sweet potatoes, French peas, or asparagus on toast. For dessert the offerings included mince pie, sliced green apple pie, English plum pudding with brandy sauce, walnut ice cream, assorted cakes, and grapes, cheese, apples and mixed nuts. The Madison House closed as the town declined in the 1920s, and its seven buildings were later torn down. The memory of that wonderful Thanksgiving dinner in 1903 is preserved only in the archives of the local newspaper.

A Mild Thanksgiving in Wild Miles City, 1882

Miles City was a wild town in its day. Wooden false fronts, wide dusty streets, and saloons where whiskey flowed made the town on every cowboy’s route and a place where a good time was easily found. Cowboys and soldiers at Fort Keogh frequented the numerous houses where the ladies entertained them lavishly, for a fee, of course.

Miles City prostitutes and patrons in a parlor house reception hall.
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, Morrison Collection

But for one day in the 1880s, an unusual atmosphere pervaded the air. The Miles City Daily Press noted after Thanksgiving Day in 1882 that seldom had there been such a mild holiday. The weather that day was clear and brilliant and the temperature balmy, precisely the kind of day one would choose for a holiday. And so Miles City gave itself up to relaxation and enjoyment. The bank and the post office were closed although citizens received their daily mail. Stores were open early for shoppers planning holiday meals, and by noon, all stores had hung their closed signs in their windows. Visitors flocked into town from neighboring settlements and reaches to see what fun might be going on. But, said the paper, there was only the mildest type to be found. There was never a more sober and orderly day witnessed in Miles City. The saloons were all open and they were well patronized and did a brisk business, but the patrons were all unusually well behaved.  Unlike the usual barroom scuffles and rowdy behavior, the spirit of good behavior seemed to hover over all. Miles City was in it glory that Thanksgiving night in 1882, and it was gratifying to record that not a single disturbance occurred to mar the general harmony that had prevailed throughout that pastoral Thanksgiving Day.

May yours be as pleasant.

Mining Camp Thanksgiving

Abraham Lincoln set a precedent during his presidency proclaiming the national observance of Thanksgiving the last Thursday in November. In 1863 Harriet and Wilbur Sanders, the soon to be famous vigilante prosecutor, spent their first Montana Thanksgiving at Bannack.

Wilbur Fisk Sanders. R.A. Lewis, photographer
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives

Goods were scarce, freight was slow arriving, and no one even thought about serving a turkey. Near neighbors invited Harriet and Wilbur along with Henry Edgerton, Sanders’ uncle, to Thanksgiving dinner. This neighbor wanted to make a good impression on the family. Edgerton was the newly appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Idaho Territory, which then included present-day Montana. Their host offered the invitation well in advance. He miraculously procured a turkey—an unheard of, unbelievable luxury—for thirty dollars in gold dust, and paid a fortune to have it freighted all the way from Salt Lake City. Harriet wrote later that their Thanksgiving meal was as fine and beautifully cooked as any meal she ever enjoyed in New York City’s finest restaurant. Unfortunately, their host failed to make a good impression. In early January, just weeks later, Sanders and the vigilantes saw to the hanging of Sheriff Henry Plummer, the same man who had hosted their Thanksgiving Day feast.


Bill for the coffin and burial of Henry Plummer
Montana Historical Society Archives



Thanksgiving Day Murder at Elkhorn

The silver mines at Elkhorn yielded $14 million and the mining camp once had more than 2,500 residents. Three passenger trains arrived weekly on the Northern Pacific’s branch line.


Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives

In 1893, the Fraternity Hall Association built the town’s architectural and social centerpiece. Fraternity Hall was aptly named: the town’s various fraternal organizations, including the Masons, Oddfellows, and Knights of Pythias, shared its upstairs lodge room. Dances, traveling theatrical troupes, graduations, prize fights, and other public gatherings at Fraternity Hall bound citizens together. The building’s outstanding architecture blends the western false front with a sophisticated twist. A unique neo-classical style balcony is suspended above the entry. After the Silver Panic of 1893, the mine began to play out and operated only off and on until 1931 when the Northern Pacific removed its tracks. Fraternity Hall has endured time, neglect, and heavy snows to become one of Montana’s most photographed buildings.


Gilliam's Hall and Fraternity Hall in Elkhorn

Although local lore says that an argument over a dance led to a murder at Fraternity Hall, the true incident actually began at a Thanksgiving Eve dance in 1889 at Gilliam’s Hall, Elkhorn’s other substantial surviving building. A shortage of women compelled Thomas King and George Peters to dance together. Manager Mat Fogarty asked them to stop. The ensuing quarrel later became a huge free-for-all bar fight at Lloyd’s Saloon. Taking their fight into the street early on Thanksgiving morning, King shot and killed Fogarty. Thomas King was hanged at Boulder for the crime in June of 1890, several years before Fraternity Hall was built. And this was especially noteworthy because King’s hanging was the first in the new state of Montana.

P.S. It makes Thanksgiving in Virginia City seem downright tame, doesn't it?

Friday Photo: Pet Turkey

Have you started preparing for a big Thanksgiving dinner? This boy looks like he'd rather not eat any turkey.

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 950-354

The caption of this c. 1920-1924 Montana Department of Agriculture photo reads: "Two prize winners from the turkey country. The bird eats grasshoppers and the boys eat the birds. The new turkey industry ships a half-million dollars worth in addition to home consumption."

P.S. Remember these turkeys that collected gold in their gizzards?

Pete Zortman Comes Home

Oliver Peter Zortman came west in 1888, lured by gold discovered in eastern Montana’s Little Rocky Mountains. He struck it rich several times, ran a cyanide mill, and left his name on the town of Zortman. He was part of an elite group—one of very few to leave the Little Rockies with a small fortune in gold.

Zortman, Montana, 1908. Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 951-885

He joined the Masons in Chinook and eventually ended up in Big Timber where he died of cancer in 1933, penniless. No stone marked his final resting place, but the local newspaper that documented his passing mentioned that he was buried in a hand-dug pauper’s grave. A few years ago, Zortman residents decided to honor their namesake. It was no small task to discover Zortman’s unmarked resting place. A long search led to Zortman’s membership in the Masons. The leatherbound records of the Big Timber Masonic Lodge offered details of Zortman’s funeral. With permission from Zortman’s relatives, several veterinarians, a Chinook undertaker, cemetery workers, and assorted Zortman residents oversaw the exhumation. The remains of Pete Zortman surfaced from the chocolate soil in Big Timber’s Mountain View Cemetery with some difficulty. Water from an irrigation ditch immediately flooded the hole as the backhoe dug. Three feet of muck was removed, and pieces of the coffin and Zortman began to surface. The yellowed bones were placed in a newly made pine coffin and loaded onto a truck. On August 27, 2005, a vintage hearse carried the pine box to the Zortman Cemetery. A smattering of relatives and most of the town of Zortman attended the graveside services. Pete Zortman was home.

Civil War Vets

In honor of our veterans...

Montana’s earliest African American population carried the very real memories of slavery and its associated implications. Most of the first black Montanans were born into slavery or had parents or ancestors who were slaves. Many of them saw service during the Civil War. Upon President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the Union stepped up its recruitment of black volunteers. By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 black men, or 10 percent of the Union Army, had served as soldiers, and another 19,000 had served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war—30,000 of them succumbed to infection or disease. Black volunteers did many necessary jobs and earned a salary of ten dollars a month, with three dollars deducted for clothing. White soldiers received thirteen dollars a month with no deductions. Three black Union veterans who later made their homes in Montana were Jack Taylor of Virginia City, Moses Hunter of Miles City, and James Wesley Crump of Helena. In the Union Army, Jack Taylor took care of officers’ horses and learned the craft of teamster. Moses Hunter reenlisted after the war, served in the Southwest, and by 1939, was eastern Montana’s only living Civil War veteran. James Crump lied about his age and joined the Union Army. When his superiors discovered he was only fourteen, he convinced them to let him serve out his three-year term as a drummer. Crump thus was the youngest Civil War veteran in Montana, and because of this, he often carried the flag in parades and proudly held the flag at the laying of the cornerstone of the Montana State Capitol in 1902.


A buffalo soldier at the dedication of the Montana State Capitol in 1902
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives

P.S. Remember this invention by buffalo soldier William D. Davis?
P.P.S. What about Mingo Sanders and the soldiers of the Twenty-fifth Infantry?

Friday Photo: Bundled Up

Winter is here! Are you ready?

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 75-17 f9

Two-year-old Duncan George McDonald looks ready for the elements, but he must have been sweltering when he posed for this studio portrait taken on April 15, 1890.

P.S. Remember when girls were forbidden to go sledding?

Bryan for President 1896

Did your candidate win yesterday's election? Here's a look back at the 1896 presidential election, which disappointed four out of five Montana voters.

The Populist Party was one of the most significant third political parties in the history of the United States. In the 1890s, Populism grew among Midwestern and southern farmers who believed that the free coinage of silver would cause inflation, which would raise farm prices and thus benefit the depressed agricultural economy. The populist platform also advocated nationalization of railroads, a graduated income tax, and more direct citizen participation in government. In Montana, where silver mining was an important industry, miners backed the Populist Party, especially after the collapse of the silver market in 1893. William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech countered the Republicans’ backing of the gold standard.


A button from William Jennings Bryan's 1896 campaign

Montana elected three Populists to the state senate and thirteen to the house. Populism in Montana reached its peak in the presidential election of 1896 when Populists joined Democrats to back William Jennings Bryan for president. Bryan was an advocate of free silver coinage and spokesman for the cause of the poor man. Marcus Daly reportedly gave $50,000 to Bryan’s campaign and was its largest contributor. Butte and Anaconda especially embraced Bryan as a champion of the working man, the antithesis of wealth and power, and thus one of their own.


Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, cph 3f06263
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3f06263

Bryan carried Montana four to one in the election, but he lost to William McKinley. On the heels of his defeat, Bryan visited Montana the following August of 1897. Butte is famous for its hospitality, but Bryan received the greatest welcome Butte has ever bestowed on any visitor, and a poem, “When Bryan Came to Butte,” received national press. By 1906, Populism had faded and its free silver platform failed, but it left an important legacy. This included the eight-hour workday, direct election of senators by the people, the process of referendum and initiative, and a solid foundation for the Progressive era that followed.

P.S. I'll be signing books at the Montana Historical Society tomorrow (November 8) from 11:00 until 1:00. Plus there will be tea and cookies. Hope to see you there!

Election Day Special: Woman Suffrage

Women voters have been assiduously courted in this election, and they're likely to sway the outcome. Here's a look back at the history of women's right to vote in Montana.

When miners discovered gold at Grasshopper Creek in 1862, women in the United States could not vote, could not work in most professions, and could not attend most colleges. The road to woman suffrage was very long. Between 1869 and 1871, seven western legislatures considered giving women the vote. Montana was not one of them. Men dominated Montana Territory seven to one. There were a few small steps. In 1887, an amendment to Montana’s territorial constitution gave women the right to vote in school elections and the right to hold elected positions as school trustees and county superintendents. Equality stopped there. The authors of Montana’s first state constitution—all men—considered granting women the right to vote in 1889. But the idea met defeat forty-three to twenty-five. Montana women, however, organized in the 1890s, founding the Montana Woman Suffrage Association and the Women’s Protective Union in Butte, which was the first all-female union in the West.


It's possible that the woman standing in the car is Jeannette Rankin.
Postcard courtesy of Debbie Little Wilson. http://dlcowgirl.wordpress.com/

Woman suffrage repeatedly came before the Montana legislature and failed. And surprisingly, not all women favored suffrage. Those against it, called “Antis,” argued that no woman could possibly find time for politics without neglecting her family. Harriett Sanders, wife of pioneer attorney and politician Wilbur Fisk Sanders, countered the opposition, saying that suffrage made women better mothers. Better mothers kept better homes, and their children were better educated. Better homes and educated children in turn improved the nation. In 1913, Governor Samuel Stewart took up the cause of woman suffrage, and the amendment finally passed with only two dissenting votes in each house of the legislature. In 1914, women won the right to vote in Montana, six years before it became the national standard. In 1916, Montana women went to the polls for the first time.

Walter Marshall Remembers John F. Kennedy’s Montana Visits

With the election tomorrow, politics are on everyone's minds. The candidates are wrapping up their full travel schedules. Here's a look back at another president's memorable Montana travels:

Walter Marshall was a great showman, promoter, Democratic supporter, and founder of Helena’s famous Brewery Theater. His book, I’ve Met Them All, describes the dignitaries and politicians he knew personally. Marshall first met John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie as newlyweds in the mid-1950s when Senator Kennedy spoke at the Finlen Hotel in Butte. Then Kennedy visited Helena in 1960, just before his nomination as a presidential candidate. Marshall arranged the logistics. Kennedy spoke at the Marlow Theatre and at a formal dinner at the Civic Center. During dessert, Kennedy whispered to Marshall, “Can we get out of here? My drivers haven’t shown up and I need to get to the airport.” Marshall took him outside to his old station wagon, which was a garishly painted advertisement for the Brewery Theatre. Marshall’s three big dogs were in the back seat. They had a little time, so Marshall, always the promoter, seized the moment to show off his theater. All the way, the three big dogs licked the back of Kennedy’s neck. And Kennedy did not like dogs. But Marshall got him to the airport on time.


JFK greets the crowd in Billings. Photo by Cecil Stoughton.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, via Linternaute.com

After Kennedy’s election, the president spoke at the Shrine Auditorium in Billings. Marshall arranged the logistics. He drove his Brewery station wagon into the Shrine Auditorium to await Kennedy’s motorcade. When President Kennedy arrived, he recognized Marshall and the station wagon right away. “I am glad to see you, Walter,” said the President. “But I hope you left those blankety-blank dogs at home.” JFK visited Great Falls in September 1963. Fifty thousand people heard him speak. He told Marshall how much he had enjoyed that time in Helena and promised to return. Weeks later on November 22, an assassin’s bullet left that promise unfulfilled.

P.S. You can listen Kennedy speaking at the Yellowstone County Fairgrounds in 1963 here.

Friday Photo: Hunting Season

I hope you all enjoyed October's haunted history series as much as I did. For this week's photo, let's switch gears to another seasonal topic that has Montanans buzzing. And no, not the election.

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 948-563

Except for the vintage car, this 1913 photo looks pretty similar to what you might see on a Montana road today. Some things never change.

Bonus: These hunters might have used Mrs. J.W. Arthur's recipe for broiled venison steaks from the First Presbyterian Church of Lewistown's 1902 cookbook, Daily Bread: Compiled from Tested Recipes of the Ladies of Fergus County. Would you try it?

Steaks are usually cut from the leg or haunch. They are not good unless very hot. Put the dish in which they are to be served over a kettle of boiling water to heat. Put in it a piece of butter size of a walnut, one-fourth teaspoonful of salt, add 1 tablespoonful of currant jelly if desired. Grease the griddle with suet, lay steaks on it, broil over a hot fire, turning almost constantly, put them in the heated dish and turn them in the butter once or twice; serve on heated plates. The quantities given are for two steaks.

P.S. Remember this recipe for duck?