Homestead Teachers

The homestead boom brought thousands of immigrants and challenged teachers who had few resources in one-room schools. Charles Beardsley, at seventeen, had a college degree and a provisional certificate when he began teaching at Five-Mile School in eastern Montana. He boarded in a student’s home for thirty dollars a month. His board was the only money the family earned that entire year. Beardsley wrote: “Bedbugs infested the house. In my bedroom, which was nicely whitewashed, the bed stood in four pans of kerosene to prevent the bedbugs from finding me. I never got a single bite but at night when I was reading, the heat of the kerosene lamp focused on the ceiling and the bedbugs gathered up there for a merry circle dance.” The family had bitter ongoing feuds with local relatives. They also kept a pack of hound dogs that bayed all night. They wore shoes only on Sundays, carrying them to church and only putting them on once they were inside. These colorful folk spoke an odd New England dialect and read an archaic kind of music. But they left a permanent impression on the young teacher. Beardsley wrote that the children in this family were very fine, for all their odd behaviors, and they so loved to learn. This rich experience inspired Beardsley’s life as an educator, and he enjoyed a long career following his avocation.

Charles Beardsley likely taught in a school similar to Betts School in Cascade County.
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 98-24.17

Friday Photo: Skeleton Teacher

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 74-104.256 GP

I'll bet a lot of teachers start to feel this way toward the end of the year. This undated photograph was taken by Edward Reinig, most likely in a Helena classroom. Does anyone recognize the location?

Friday Photo: Missoula Track Meet

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 2006-26.30

Boys wearing track uniforms from various Montana high schools line up for the start of a race at a track meet in Missoula in 1910. The officials stand at the right side of the photo. This track meet was probably held at the University.

Thomas Dimsdale’s School

Health was among the many reasons that people came west to the booming gold camps. They believed that the high mountain climate could cure tuberculosis, but they did not realize that primitive living conditions and brutal winters could neutralize healthful benefits. Thomas Dimsdale was one of those pioneers afflicted with tuberculosis who came west for the mountain climate. He opened a private school in the winter of 1863-1864. Students paid two dollars a week to attend classes in this tiny cabin, which stood on Cover Street in Virginia City.

Thomas Dimsdale. Courtesy Yanoun.org

Later, as editor of the territory’s first newspaper, the Montana Post, Dimsdale wrote an account of the vigilantes in installments for the newspaper. It became Montana’s first published book, The Vigilantes of Montana, and is still in print. Mary Ronan was a student of Dimsdale's, and she later recalled in Girl from the Gulches, “Professor Dimsdale was an Englishman, small, delicate looking, and gentle. I liked him. It seemed to me that he knew everything. In his school all was harmonious and pleasant. While his few pupils buzzed and whispered over their assignments, the professor sat at a makeshift desk writing, writing, always writing. When, during 1864, The Vigilantes of Montana was being published at the Montana Post, I thought it must have been the composition of those articles that had so engrossed him. We children took advantage of Professor Dimsdale’s preoccupation and would frequently ask to be excused. We would run down the slope into a corral at the bottom of Daylight Gulch. We would spend a few thrillful moments sliding down the straw stacks.” Dimsdale was appointed the first territorial superintendent of schools in 1866, but he died soon after from the tuberculosis that brought him west. The tiny cabin, in ruins in a Virginia City back yard, was moved out of harm’s way to Nevada City in 1976.

The Dimsdale School in its present location in Nevada City

Central School: Most Prized of the Lot

Red bricks mark two time capsules that lie beneath the sidewalk along Warren Street in front of Central School. Children ceremoniously placed them there a few years ago, confident that the school would still stand in 2055 for other generations of children to open. Central’s alumni brick project, begun a decade ago, illustrates how this historic school on its prominent vantage point is not just a building. The school itself is a time capsule of the memories of generations and the living heart of the Helena community. Bricks along the Warren Street sidewalk, bordered by small handprints, complement the time capsules and commemorate alumni and teachers from 1913 to the present time. Central’s importance, however, goes back much farther than 1913.

Officials broke ground for the first Central School, originally called the Helena Graded School, on July 29, 1875. City fathers put a great deal of thought into its location. Helena was still a rough-and-tumble gold camp, but its inclusion along the projected Northern Pacific Railroad’s route gave it new prestige. That fact, coupled with the locating of a federal assay office—one of only five in the nation—at Helena, helped wrest its designation as territorial capital away from Virginia City. In preparation for this honor, city fathers planned the best school in the territory on the most visible site. The location was so critical and the site they selected so perfect that it was worth the effort to relocate the city’s cemetery, established on that prominent ridge in 1865. Helena Graded School opened in January 1876, built with 350,000 Kessler bricks. It was the first school in Montana Territory with separate classrooms for the various grades, a high school curriculum, and a kindergarten.  By 1889, Central School was perhaps not the most architecturally pleasing, but of Helena’s seven public schools it was the “oldest and most familiar structure in the city and….the most prized of the lot."

Central School students pose behind the school circa 1910. Photo by Edward Reinig
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 74-104.292 GP

The current Central School, designed by George Carsley, opened in 1915, built just behind the older school. Sydney Silverman Lindauer was among its first students. Like many other native-born Helenans, she moved away but never forgot her roots. Born in 1909, Sydney carried memories of Helena with her all of her ninety-six years. As she embarked upon her life’s final chapter, she shared her fondest thoughts. Foremost among them were cherished memories of Central School. During her attendance, both old and new schools stood together for a time until the old Central was razed in 1921 and the two symmetrical wings were added to the new building.

At Central School, Sydney found memorable teachers and lifelong friends including classmate Marjorie Stewart, daughter of Governor Samuel Stewart. The Stewarts were the first executive family to occupy the Original Governor’s Mansion. Sydney credited Central with the foundation that molded her into a celebrated columnist. She wrote for the Red Bluff, California, Daily News for forty-five years.  Sydney recalled never wanting to miss a day of school. She walked to Central even when the snow was higher than the top of her head. Trustees at the Lewis and Clark County jail shoveled paths for the students. Sydney and her friends somberly watched the guards sit on piles of shoveled snow with guns drawn. And she never forgot the Central cheer that went something like “Strawberry shortcake, huckleberry pie, V-I-C-T-O-R-Y.” Shortly before she passed away in 2005, Sydney asked for a Central brick with her name and the date “1919.” She did not live to see her name set in the sidewalk, but she knew it was there along with the names of many other alumni she had known.

The present Central School will reach the century mark in 2015, when the first of the two time capsules is slated for opening. It would be the first existing Helena school to reach such a milestone. Central’s continued presence on its prominent ridge is more than a school board issue. It is a community concern. Not only does Central School maintain a place of honor as a historic cornerstone of Montana’s public school system, it is the ambassador for all Helena’s historic schools. What happens to it sets a precedent. And its fate affects not only the immediate Central neighborhood, but also the community and those who travel here to experience Helena’s historic landscapes.

Support the preservation of this community icon at www.savehelenaschools.com, and if you have a Central School memory, please share it on the Montana Historical Society's Facebook page.

Langford Peel's Tombstone

When Helena became the territorial capital in 1875, the capital city wanted its buildings and community resources to showcase its importance. A federal assay office—one of only five in the nation—opened in Helena in 1876, and so did Central School, the first school in the territory with  graded classrooms. The rise overlooking the gulch was the best, most visible location to build the school, but that entailed moving part of the City Cemetery, active since 1865. It was neither an easy nor a pleasant task, moving a cemetery. Most graves were unmarked, and so in many cases it was a game of move-them-when-you-find-them. The method of burial in roughly and hastily made pine boxes or worse left corpses in various stages of decomposition. This made removal difficult and grisly. Another problem was where to put the newly unburied dead. Lewis and Clark County created Benton Avenue Cemetery in 1870, and so it provided the solution to the latter problem. Benton Avenue became the receptacle for burials clearly marked with tombstones or wooden markers as well as unmarked graves encountered during the digging of the school’s foundation. Among the graves transferred to Benton Avenue was that of desperado Langford Peel, killed in a saloon affray in 1867. A tombstone, five feet tall and expertly carved, marked his grave. The enigmatic inscription read in part, “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the lord. I know that my redeemer liveth.” Peel’s contemporaries viewed it not as religious, but rather as a curse against Peel’s murderer.

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives

Wilbur Sanders took the wooden tombstone to his house at nearby 7th and Ewing. There it rested in his attic until the 1930s when it was rediscovered and given to the Montana Historical Society. It remains in the collection today, a rare, well-preserved relic of Helena's earliest history. Peel himself lost out; his new grave at Benton Avenue was, and is today, unmarked.

Friday Photo: Arbor Day

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 953-669

Happy Arbor Day! These children from Kessler School in Helena planted a tree in Hill Park in 1915 in honor of railroad magnate James J. Hill.

P.S. The children of Betts School probably would've enjoyed having a tree around.
P.P.S Lots more photos of historic Helena.

And last but not least, check out my reflection on the ghosts of Butte.

Merrill Burlingame

Last week, Merrill G. Burlingame was inducted into the Gallery of Outstanding Montanans.

Merrill Burlingame's lifelong work and interest in Montana history earned him the nickname “Mr. Montana History.” In 1929 he joined the faculty of Montana State College (now Montana State University) and became chair of the history department in 1935, a position he held for 33 years. He wrote numerous works on Montana history, including The Montana Frontier, (1942); A History of Montana (with K. Ross Toole, 1956); and John M. Bozeman, Montana Trailmaker (1971). He also wrote texts pertaining to the history of Montana State University and researched local history related to Gallatin County. He was a founding member of the Gallatin County Historical Society and Pioneer Museum. In fact, Burlingame was keenly interested in museums and was the director of the Caroline McGill Museum which would later become the Museum of the Rockies. He also assisted in the reorganization of the Montana Historical Society where he was a member of the Board of Trustees from 1949 to 1978.

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 940-871

Throughout his life Burlingame was active in the Montana Institute of the Arts, the American Historical Society, the Christian Church, the masonic fraternity, and the Rotary Club. Merrill Burlingame died in Bozeman, Montana, on November 14, 1994, at the age of 93. His publications and the Merrill G. Burlingame Papers housed at the Montana State University Library special collections, as well as materials housed at the Montana Historical Society Research Center, continue to be an invaluable legacy as sources for scholars, students, and, researchers interested in Montana history.

Friday Photo: Rural Schoolhouse

Happy Friday! Here's a photo for all the kids and teachers who are back in school.


Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives PAc 98-24.17

The children of Betts School in Cascade County pose with their teacher circa 1917.

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?

Friday Photo: One-Room Schoolhouse

For the students and teachers who are finishing up the school year...


Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 90-87.63-3

The five students of Marsh in Prairie County, Montana, posed with their teacher on January 20, 1914. The photo was taken by Evelyn Cameron.

P.S. Remember the drama at Paris Gibson Junior High?

Paris Gibson Junior High Blows Up

Central High School in Great Falls opened in 1896. It took a creative community three years to build it. To prepare the uneven ground, sheepherders drove a herd of sheep around the site one hundred times trampling down the dirt. Huge logs floated to Great Falls on the Missouri River were shaved flat on all four sides and became the beams for the floor supports, attic framework, and stairways. The massive blocks of sandstone that form the walls came from a quarry near Helena and rest on a foundation sixteen feet thick in some places.

From National Register of Historic Places listing

Great Falls judged Central the best school west of the Mississippi. Its crowning feature, a huge Norman-style clock tower, arose out of the central part of the building. However, it was so heavy that it finally became unsafe, and the school took it down in 1916. According to locals, the custodian and his family lived in the school’s attic. A sink with running water and wallpaper on the walls made the apartment quite homey. The daughter, however, was embarrassed to live in the school’s attic. She would leave home early in the morning, walk away from the building before the other students began to arrive, and then walk to school with her classmates. In 1913, a brick annex with an auditorium and gymnasium doubled the size of the school. From 1930 to the 1970s, the school served as Paris Gibson Junior High. In 1977, it became the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art. But just before this adaptive reuse, movie makers blew up the annex in a controlled demolition for a scene in Telefon, starring Charles Bronson and Lee Remick.



The “M”

Here's a special edition "Montana Moment" in celebration of Valentine's Day. Be sure to read to the end.

Ever wondered about letters on hillsides? Many Montana communities display these letters, often visible for miles on barren slopes. These familiar icons seem to be a product of the American West.  According to the experts, the University of California Berkeley boasts the first hillside letter, a giant “C” displayed in 1905. Other colleges and universities soon followed suit. As land grant colleges became established in western states newly admitted to the union, they joined the tradition. Montana has 112 hillside letters, more than any other state. Carroll College in Helena, Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana Tech in Butte, and the University of Montana Western in Dillon all display hillside letters. Other smaller schools and high schools also joined the trend. The University of Montana’s “M,” however, was the state’s first.


Image from Hotdogger Blog

Students constructed Missoula’s first “M” of whitewashed rock in 1909. Throughout the early decades, upperclassmen used the “M” to exert authority over the freshmen who were responsible for its upkeep. The sophomore class replaced the first “M” with an upright wooden model outfitted with $18 worth of lights. A larger wooden “M” soon replaced the upright one, but students did not properly attach the pieces and a blizzard carried them off. Forestry students built the trail leading up to the “M” in 1915. It has since served university and community groups who have used the “M” to advertise events or causes, and it has seen demonstrations and pranks. And once, with the addition of giant letters, a creative suitor even spelled out the message, “MARRY ME!” If the offer was accepted, it is not on record.