Mountain View School for Girls

The Montana legislature created the Boys and Girls Industrial School at Miles City in 1893. This reformatory was for boys and girls who were either in serious trouble with the law or had nowhere else to go. It was one step toward the establishment of the juvenile court system that came about in 1907. Some felt strongly that there should be separate industrial schools for boys and girls. One of these advocates was Dr. Maria Dean, a Helena physician whose practice specialized in the diseases of women and children. A great humanitarian, Dr. Dean took up many causes during her lifetime, but she felt most strongly about separating boys and girls in detention. Dr. Dean worked tirelessly with other women’s groups toward this end, and finally, in 1919, legislator Emma Ingalls sponsored a bill establishing the Mountain View Vocational School for Girls in Helena. Dr. Dean died just weeks after the bill passed. The first six girls were transferred from Miles City to the new facility seven miles north of Helena in April 1920.



Stewart Hall, 1961. Image clipped from "State of Montana Vocational School for Girls"
Montana Historical Society Research Center

By 1922, fifty-three girls between the ages of nine and eighteen lived in cottages on the campus. Some were orphans, some were runaways, and others had behavioral problems. Until the 1950s, harsh discipline included solitary confinement and lock up. By the 1960s, there was more emphasis on education and less on punishment. In 1996, the school closed and the Montana Law Enforcement Academy moved in. A few buildings, stables, and attic graffiti recall the former use of the campus.

From More Montana Moments

Sedition

Montana had one of the nation’s harshest sedition laws, making it illegal to speak out against U.S. involvement in World War I. Among the dozens of people who went to prison for this crime, Janet Smith was the only woman who did time at Deer Lodge. She and her husband William ran the post office at Sayle south of Miles City and had a ranch in the Powder River country. Mrs. Smith was famous for her cooking and often fed dozens of cowboys at her table. She stood accused of bragging that if the people revolted, she would be the first one to shoulder a gun and get the president. She called the Red Cross a fake and said the disabled, insane, and convicts should be killed to save food instead of the government’s restricting it from the rest of the population. The jury found her guilty. The judge gave her five to ten years, and she was taken from the courtroom sobbing.


Montana Historical Society Research Center, Montana State Prison Records

Her husband had also made seditious statements and was found guilty. Author Clemens P. Work in his book Darkest Before Dawn suggests that the isolation of ranchers like the Smiths made them particularly vulnerable, not realizing the implications of their casual talk. “In 1918,” Work writes, “what was skeptical became unpatriotic, what was thrifty became miserly, and what was opinion became sedition.” Janet Smith served twenty-six months before the Supreme Court reversed her conviction on the grounds that the language with which she was charged was not specific enough to convict her. William Smith was paroled at about the same time. What happened to the Smiths after their release has yet to be discovered.


Montana Historical Society Research Center, Montana State Prison Records

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?

Helena’s Paul Revere

I'll be doing a reading and book signing for my new book, More Montana Moments, at the Montana Historical Society Thursday evening at 6:30. It's free! I hope you can make it.

Here's a "moment" from the book:

Helena suffered numerous serious fires in the early years. Merchants sometimes had to rebuild their businesses more than once. Jacob Feldberg lost his clothing store to the fire of 1869 and understood the devastation it could cause. In 1871, another fire threatened Main Street. Jacob ran to help the firemen. “Go away, Jacob, and leave us alone,” they told him. “You are too small to be of any help.” Jacob was a man of very small stature, but he did not give up. He looked around to see what he could do. Wind was whipping through the gulch, and he saw burning embers flying up Broadway. Jacob yelled at the onlookers to follow him, and they ran up the street as firebrands stuck their backs and sizzled at their feet. There were few houses except for a row in the first block of Fifth Avenue behind the courthouse. The neighborhood men were all away fighting the fire on Main Street, and Jacob found women and children madly throwing buckets of water on their homes. Jacob and his followers led horses to safety and turned out the cows, pigs, and chickens to fend for themselves. They thought the fire was nearly under control when a burning ember flew into a woodpile, which burst into flames. Jacob leapt upon a barn roof just as it collapsed and found his way into a kitchen. He gathered all the pots he could find, organized a bucket brigade, and saved the neighborhood. Ever after that, Jacob Feldberg was a hero, and for spreading the word of the fire, he earned the nickname “Helena’s Paul Revere.”

Rimini

John Caplice discovered a rich vein in 1864 and soon local mines drew a solid population to this area. The early settlement, first known as Young Ireland, lay nestled in the shadow of Red Mountain’s soaring 8,800-foot peak. In 1884, citizens petitioned for a post office, requesting the name of the town as Lee Mountain after the town’s most important mine. But Territorial Governor Schuyler Crosby informed the delegation that the post office was not inclined to approve names of towns that had more than one word. The governor had just seen a production of the play Francesca da Rimini at Helena’s Ming Opera House and loved it. He suggested the name Rimini, pronounced RIM-i-nee, after the Italian town of that name. But Irish miners assumed the name was Irish because Irishman Richard Barrett played the lead role. The post office was approved, but miners changed the pronunciation to RIM-in-eye and it stuck.

Rimini, c. 1924
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 950-606

Rimini boomed as the Northern Pacific Railroad’s Rimini–Red Mountain branch line hauled gold, silver, lead, and zinc ore to the smelter at East Helena. Local mines generated some 7 million dollars. The Hotel Rimini served delectable meals, and visitors from far-away places strolled along the main street. But mining waned, the post office closed in 1916, and train traffic ended in 1925. Mining remnants lie scattered everywhere. From 1942 to 1944 during World War II, remote Rimini was the U.S. Army’s War Dog Reception and Training Center where dogsled teams trained for search and rescue. Then the town became quiet. Today picturesque Rimini is a patchwork of time periods and home to a handful of residents.

From More Montana Moments
P.S. Remember how this mining town got its curious name?

Moss Mansion

The beautiful Moss Mansion in Billings—now a house museum—is a twenty-five-room residence built in 1903. It was the longtime home of the Preston Moss family. New York architect R. J. Hardenbergh, whose work includes New York City’s Waldorf Astoria, designed the elegant mansion. Mahogany and walnut woodwork, an onyx fireplace, rose silk and gold leaf wall coverings, and stained glass windows are among the luxurious details.
 

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 2004-17

Preston Moss arrived in Billings in 1892 on his way to Butte from Missouri and saw Billings’ financial promise. He became a prominent banker; helped develop the sugar beet industry, the Billings Light and Water Company, and the Billings Polytechnic Institute (now Rocky Mountain College); and with a partner ran eighty thousand head of sheep and several thousand head of cattle. He also pioneered the Billings Gazette and was instrumental in the creation of the Huntley Irrigation Project. He even started a toothpaste factory and a meat packing plant. Moss also promoted an idea he called Mossmain. This was a futuristic city he planned to build ten miles west of Billings. World War II intervened, and Preston Moss died in 1947, never realizing this dream. Melville, the Mosses’ middle daughter, was seven when her family moved into the mansion. She was a talented musician and played the harp, piano, and bass from an early age. Melville traveled the world and never married, but the mansion was her home throughout her life. She died in 1984 at eighty-two. Because of Melville’s good stewardship, the grand interiors remain unchanged today.

From More Montana Moments
P.S. Remember this Montana mansion?

Bannack School

Did you go to Bannack Days over the weekend? Here's a Bannack memory in case you missed it:

The Masonic Lodge in the ghost town of Bannack was designed to serve a double function as a fraternal meeting hall and a schoolhouse. The odd combination was really not so strange. Masons were a strong presence in Montana Territory and education of children on the frontier was one of the first considerations in the earliest mining camps. A double ceiling and floor between stories kept the ground floor school and the upstairs meeting room entirely soundproof and separate to protect the Masons’ secret rites. An outside stairway provided access to the meeting room. The final element the building required was a large, smooth piece of wood on which the lodge numbers and emblem could be carved. But Bannack had no piece of wood large enough or smooth enough for the purpose. Then a woman came forward and offered her treasured breadboard brought from her home back east. W. G. Blair carved the lodge numbers and the Masonic square and compass upon it. Workmen installed it beneath the peak of the roof. The Masons used the lodge hall only briefly, but the school long served Bannack’s children.

This 2012 photo shows Bannack's well-preserved Masonic Lodge, complete with breadboard.
Photo originally shared on the Montana Historical Society Facebook page.

By the mid-twentieth century, however, the building sagged. Its roof disintegrated, the windows stood open to the elements, and only shreds of paint covered the outside walls. The carved breadboard, once tucked under the roof’s peak, was removed for safekeeping. In 1954, Bannack became a state park, and in the 1970s, staff began preservation of the Masonic Lodge. Reinstalling the cherished breadboard to its original position was the final step, and there it remains today.

From More Montana Moments
P.S. remember this scandal at the Normal School in Dillon?

Arline Allen’s Embarrassing Innuendo

Yesterday I got a treat. My publisher gave me a handful of copies of my new book, More Montana Moments, fresh from the printer! You won't find it in most stores for another month or so, but the Montana Historical Society Museum Store does have copies available. Here's one of my favorite excerpts:

The Allen family long operated one of Helena’s most popular livery stables, the Allen Livery at Ewing and Breckenridge. The former stable has a long and colorful history and is Helena’s best-preserved reminder of this vital business. Its many “ghost signs” are also remarkably preserved. By 1867, William H. Allen established the business on his rich mining claim where he picked gold nuggets out of the dirt. Allen’s nephew, Joseph Allen, soon arrived to help out and eventually took over the business. Joseph built the current stone and brick stable around 1885. Contrary to popular belief, the upstairs never in its long history housed prostitution. Rather lodging rooms accommodated the livery’s hostlers and stablemen. Joseph Allen and his wife Lurlie had a daughter, Arline, who grew up around her father’s horses. She and her friends never learned to ride sidesaddle, but rode astride and wore divided riding skirts like other Montana women. Arline and her friends followed the trails all over the hills and had many adventures. But in 1912 when Arline was sixteen, both her mother and father died. Arline went to live with her grandmother in Virginia. She had a hard time because girls there never rode astride, but only sidesaddle. She found horseback riding and ice skating in long full skirts terribly confining and longed to put on her Montana divided riding skirt. Shocked, her grandmother would not allow it. On her first ice skating date in Virginia, Arline said to the young man, “If I could just take this skirt off, I could really show you something!” Arline spent the rest of her life trying to live that one down.

P.S. Remember the scandal caused by this divided riding skirt?

Extra! Extra! Laugh Kills Lonesome

I just handed the manuscript of my next book to my editor. It's a collection of the radio scripts I've been writing for "History on the Go," some of which have appeared on this blog (like this post about the Placer Hotel). I figured that since the book won't be on shelves until August, you all deserve a sneak peek. Here's the first entry of More Montana Moments:

Artist C. M. Russell carefully chose the subjects of his art based on personal experience. He, more than any other western artist, painted what he knew with great longing and nostalgia for the cowboy way of life he lived and loved so well. In 1925, a year before his death, Russell painted Laugh Kills Lonesome, a tribute to this vanishing cowboy lifestyle. He depicts an evening campfire scene, one that he probably recalled from his youth. He painted himself into the picture as an old cowpoke stopping by the warm and friendly circle for a cup of coffee and a hearty laugh at the end of a long day in the saddle. The title has been hailed as fine as the painting and several contemporary artists have used it and further interpreted Russell’s famous scene. One of these is poet Mike Logan. Another is musician-songwriter Michael Nesmith of the 1960s pop rock group The Monkees who went on to a stellar career as a songwriter and musician. His insightful, lyrical song “Laugh Kills Lonesome” plays upon the camaraderie and the universal power of humor. His lyrics tell the story that Russell meant to convey. The lyrics read in part:
  
All around the campfire stood seven dusty men
The cook was drinking applejack, the cattle were all penned
Someone must have cracked a wise one because the men began to grin
Their smiles shot out like sunbeams and made the night give in
Because
Laugh kills lonesome every single time
That's why Charlie Russell painted it
And why it looks so fine
Laugh kills lonesome every single time. 

And Nesmith’s lyrics still ring as true as the subject of Russell’s painting.


Montana Historical Society Museum Collection x1955.01.01. Click on the image for a big version.