AUGUST 2023 Ghost Towns and History of Montana Newsletter From The River Press (Fort Benton) Aug 17, 1898 FAIRVIEW MINE NOW HAS RICH ORE. PROPERTY AT SHERIDAN JOINS THE PRODUCERS AFTER MUCH EFFORT. March 21, 1935: (By United Press) Sheridan, Mont., March 20.—One of those events which makes the mining the romantic gamble it is has taken place at the Fairview mine, seven miles from here on Wisconsin creek. The Fairview was first discovered in the eighties. Although never a tremendously rich producer, Fairview yielded more than $50,000, mostly in gold and silver, to its original operators. Early operators suddenly lost the original vein, and the Fairview was abandoned temporarily. Operations were revived in the period between 1910 to 1915, and again in 1916, in an attempt to find an extension of the original vein. Perhaps about $25,000 was spent in this exploration work, up to the time the Hall brothers and Raymond Roositer, president of the Sheridan State bank assumed ownership. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Accessed via: montananewspapers.org F. C. Gilbert, Butte mining engineer, and School of Mines instructor, became interested in the situation, and thoroughly mapped the property. He was convinced high grade ore still could be found In the old workings and tried to interest new capital but was unsuccessful. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz
P a g e 2 Ghost Towns & History of MT Newsletter In 1934, C. M. Roos of Helena took over the property and began new development work. He shipped a fair grade of ore to smelter from the old workings, but his men did not find the larger ore body they expected. Roos chatted with Gilbert one day found he was familiar with the situation and engaged him to map out a new plan of development. Gilbert hunched that the original vein should be sought in the hanging wall —all other searchers had ignored this. The first slash into the hanging wall opened up another vein—three feet wide and running $80 to the ton. Oddly, this new find was only six feet ahead of the old workings, and Roos had paralleled the vein for more than 100 feet while working on low grade ore. Roos' men have begun to sink on the vein and the first shipment ran higher than the sample, averaging 2.78 ounces of gold and 11 ounces of silver. A truckload shipment of two and one-half tons netted more than $100 per ton.- The Mineral Independent Newspaper (Superior, MT) Accessed via www.montananewspapers.org Bannack frame shack used as early capitol. From the Dillon Examiner Newspaper- January 14, 1931 The bill organizing Montana territory passed both houses of Congress on May 24, 1864. Two days later it was signed by President Lincoln and the district was erected into a commonwealth and a governor was appointed. Sidney Edgerton was a resident of Ohio and had served two terms as a congressman from that state when President Lincoln appointed him Chief of Justice of the new territory of Idaho. That was in 1863. He left Akron in June of that year in company of his family and his nephew, Col. Wilbur F. Sanders, and arrived by ox team at Bannack, the eastern border of Idaho, on September 17, 1863, in time to attend a miner's court, "where the judge and jury took a recess every half hour to have a drink". He returned to Washington when Montana was created, to learn that he had been named governor of the new territory. He called the first election in the new territory for October 24, 1864. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz
P a g e 3 Ghost Towns & History of MT Newsletter Susie Marr House- The small-scale simplicity of Susie Marr’s house belies the owner’s rich life. Marr emigrated from Scotland in 1870. In Virginia City, she managed household affairs for banker, William Morris, his wife, and their six children. In turn, Morris took care of Susie and gave her this house, which she shared with her brother, William Marr, a widower. The Marrs were Masons, an organization that formed a caring social circle and set Susie, a maid, and William, a store clerk, on an equal plane with more affluent community members. William, who ran unsuccessfully for sheriff, served stints as Virginia City’s postmaster and county clerk. Susie frequently visited her Masonic Sisters of the Eastern Star outside Virginia City and rubbed elbows with Montana’s elite as a Virginia City delegate to the 1893 Chicago World’s Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Fair. In 1910, when Susie was sixty-five, brother William died, and Susie’s employers, the Morrises, moved to Bozeman. Nevertheless, Susie remained in Virginia City for another twenty-five years, eventually bequeathing her house to the Masons and moving to the Helena Masonic Home, where she lived to age ninety-seven. -The National Register of Historic Places in cooperation with https://mhs.mt.gov/ COTTONWOOD CITY ONCE WAS MECCA OF LARGE AREA- SERVED LIVESTOCK AND MINING INTERESTS IN JUDITH BASIN Dec. 25, 1941. In the early eighties before the Lewistown of today was established and when the livestock and mining interests of the Judith basin were served by little trading points or posts scattered about that rich section of the state then far remote from lines of railroad, there was a little town about six miles south of the site of the present city of Lewistown known as Cottonwood. It was at the crossing of Cottonwood creek and boasted a post office before Lewistown became even a name. Today there is nothing to mark the old town except remnants of buildings. Among residents of Cottonwood in the early eighties was George J. Bach, who was manager of the Charles Lehman & Co., general store, and who is now living in San Diego; L. W. Eldridge, who took up a ranch and engaged in the cattle business; David L Shafer, who filed a desert claim entry upon land about a mile from the town in 1882, and Edward Brassey. Brassey was attracted to Cottonwood and afterwards located about five miles from the town, where the post office of Brassey was later established and of which he was postmaster. He moved to Lewistown and was the first school teacher in that town. The general store of Charles Lehman & Co., was one of the principal business establishments of Cottonwood, having been started by the late Charles Lehman, a pioneer merchant of Montana, whose several sons were afterwards for many years intimately connected with the various business enterprises of Lewis
P a g e 4 Ghost Towns & History of MT Newsletter town. But little mention of the town of Cottonwood can be found in Montana historical references but it seems to have been started in 1881 or 1882 and the Lehman store was built sometime between 1882 and 1884, as the first advertisement of the store appeared in the June 19, 1884 issue of the Mineral Argus, a weekly paper published at the mining town of Maiden. George J. Bach, who was a nephew of Mrs. Lehman, managed the store for the last five years of its existence until its destruction by fire on the night of July 19, 1892. The building was struck by lightning and Alexander Lehman, a son of the proprietor, who was sleeping in the store, was stunned by the bolt but finally managed to make his way from the burning structure and gave the alarm. The building was entirely destroyed with a loss of $5,000 on the structure and $20,000 on the contents. The Cottonwood post office had been located in the store with Bach as postmaster. He managed to save the post office books and, according to the Fergus County Argus of Oct. 14, 1892, he delivered them to the Lewistown postmaster on Oct. 8 after having been unable to find anyone who was willing to assume the duties of the office. STORE NEVER REBUILT- Apparently that ended the Cottonwood post office and the Lehman store was never rebuilt, but the business was transferred to Lewistown where in the same month the firm established business in the Landt building and in time became one of the leading institutions of that place. Charles F.W Lehman, the head of the various Lehman stores, who died March 19, 1911, and who had been identified with the development of the territory and state of Montana for nearly half a century, had led a fairly adventuresome and interesting career. Born in Germany, Aug. 15, 1828, he came to America when he was 17 or 18 and for a time worked upon a farm in the east, later going into the southern states where he worked upon railroad construction work, finally taking a contract for which stone was furnished by contract labor. This aroused the hostility of working men's unions who objected to the prison labor feature of the undertaking and they delegated a man to put an end to Lehman by the pistol route. When found by the hired assassin Lehman was seated in a hotel but fortunately for him his assailant was not a dead shot and the first bullet went wide of its mark. Lehman calmly arose from his seat and advanced toward the would-be assassin, who, unnerved by the unexpected demeanor of his intended victim, sent the remaining shots at random. Lehman laid hold upon the thug, wrested the gun from his Charles Lehman and Co. Store, Cottonwood, Montana, Courtesy of Lewistown Public Library and www.mtmemory.org
P a g e 5 Ghost Towns & History of MT Newsletter hand and threw him out of the hotel. This determined the union upon other tactics and they proceeded to reason with him along other lines, after which, for a consideration, Lehman agreed to leave the place. DID CONTRACT WORK- During the Civil war Lehman engaged in contract work in St. Louis until he and a partner joined a wagon train for the west, intending to go to Denver to open a store. Attacked by Indians most of the party deserted the enterprise and Lehman and his partner were compelled to return. However, they organized another wagon train and proceeded to Denver where they engaged in business and where Lehman at one time owned the land upon which the Colorado capitol now stands. He then went to Leadville and later to California where he worked for a time in the placer mines. From California he moved on to Portland, Ore., then to Boise, Idaho, and then to Walla Walla, and for two years operated a pack train in the Blue mountains. Coming to Montana he first entered the placer diggings in Alder gulch but soon moved to Helena where he engaged in the mercantile business. While still located there he established stores at Cottonwood and Utica in the Judith Basin, and in 1895, after the opening of his store in Lewistown, he removed to that city where he remained until his death. His widow, who was a Miss Bach and to whom he was married in 1869, is still living in Lewistown, although several of his seven sons have since located in California.- Courtesy of the Big Timber Pioneer, Accessed via: http://montananewspapers.org THE PRIORITY OF EDUCATION After the silver crash, believing there was a great loss of students, Granite decided to keep only Miss M.I. Wolfe, as principal and Miss S.K. Coonan, as Assistant and to open the school October 2. The two teachers were retained at a lesser salary of $110 and $75 a month. Then the Granite News column, October 5, 1893, published this article: “When school opened Monday it was found that two teachers could not control the large number of pupils in attendance, and the services of Mrs. J.E. Trumbell were brought into service. Miss Sligh was employed temporarily, awaiting the arrival of Miss Wolfe from Anaconda…over 100 pupils were enrolled and the attendance is swelling daily." The only change noticeable was the large attendance of children who had appeared for the first time in the Philipsburg School. Demonstrating examples of the mettle that kept the community of Philipsburg alive was the issue of education and was discussed with many different means explored to raise the needed money for a permanent building. As early as May 4, 1893 The Mail stated “The whole (school) Board is a unit on the question of increasing the school facilities, but the manner of doing it is where the difference of opinion comes in. A committee has been appointed…Trustee Pizer, of the committee, reported at the meeting that Angus McDonald wanted $2,000 per acre or $6,000 for three acres out where the baseball grounds are. Mrs. H. Schnepel, wanted $8,000 for five acres nearer to town. The Board was unanimous…that these figures were too much for the district to stand…Trustee Chris Jacky thought that the present site could be made to answer every purpose and suggested that steps could be taken to have the town board of Aldermen condemn
P a g e 6 Ghost Towns & History of MT Newsletter the street between the two pieces of property owned by the district in order that they might be in one parcel of land. Then a good substantial brick building could be built, and there would be plenty of play ground. Trustee, Huffman agreed with Mr. Jacky.“ Ultimately, a mill levy was passed by the City of Philipsburg and Contractor Charles Suiter won the bid to construct a High School Building. By early December the Citizen Call, announced the new school was almost completed and should be turned over to the school trustees by the fifteenth with a new term of school starting by January 4. Finally, The Mail, happily announced on January 9, 1896 the: “...school house was completed and Mr. Charles Suiter turned the building over to the school board. The board accepted the building with an agreement that $5 per day equaling $275.00 does not have to be paid to Mr. Suiter due to the building not being completed on the agreed date. School will open next Monday. The teachers hired are: Prof. J.S. Gifford, Miss Annie Price, Miss M.C. Ryan, Miss Amy Short, Miss Madge Short and Mrs. Eugene Smith.” The janitor hired was Harry Rust, at $50.00 per month. To fill in the void while the school was being constructed, the Citizen Call October 30, 1895, made a comment about some one starting a private school and “…Mrs. F.H. Titus and Julius Hansen will open a private school in the private buildings owned by A.S. Huffman on California Street. They have secured the seats and other furniture of the old school house and will probably be ready for children on next Monday morning. There will be two departments, Julius Hansen will teach the grammar and Mrs. Titus the primary department. The terms have not been fully decided upon as yet, but it is believed that the tuition will be $2.50 per month.” The following week there were twenty students in attendance on Monday and thirty were expected by the end of the week. I did not find any more reference to the private school once the new building was completed. The original frame school house was then “remodeled for court house purposes.” When the modern current Court House was erected, this still solid frame building was put on skids and moved to Porter’s Corner where it became known as the Vince and Maxine Fessler house (November 23, 1934). The Philipsburg High School dedication was held on February 21, 1896, and the entire front page of the Philipsburg Mail was dedicated to the event. A.R. Dearborn gave the opening address. It was originally named the Philipsburg High School. The first graduating ceremony was on May 27, 1898, comprised of Clara D. McDonel, Mary A. McKenzie (Burks), Pearletta M. Scott (Kroger), Lulu B. Rust (Lively), Fredrick W. Kroger, William H. Loughrin, and Vincent D. Doody. A classmate William B. Calhoun enlisted in the Spanish American War shortly before graduation, so did not attend the services. By January 1904, school enrollment was looking up. An open letter to parents from Principal, G.T. Bramble, asked them not to send children that recently turned six years of age to school in January as the teacher already had nearly seventy first graders. To add more students would make it impossible for her to give new
P a g e 7 Ghost Towns & History of MT Newsletter comers enough attention to pass them on to the second grade that spring. He continued on to explain there were plans to make two first grade classes in the fall. In March of 1904, the School Board of District No.1, decided to again submit to the voters of Granite County the concept of a County Free High School, that was voted down by fifty one votes in 1900. The County Free High School election issue passed, with a majority of seventy five votes, needless to say the votes all came from the southern part of the county. There were only fourteen votes for the school in Bearmouth; one in Stone; one in Garnet; and two in Drummond. There was a rumor that the election would be contested but the Mail felt the rumor just gossip. Trustees appointed were: R.R. McLeod, Valentine Jacky, John Kaiser, Albert Schuh, James McGowan and Edward Lannen and the County Superintendent would also be a board member. The May school report showed attendance of fifty eight students in the High school; twenty nine in the eighth grade; forty three in the sixth and seventh grade; thirty eight in the second sixth and fifth grade; forty six in the third and fourth grade; forty two in the second third and first second grade classes; fifty three in the other second grade class; and sixty five in the first grade. This made a total of 372 students in the Grade and High School. The newly appointed Free High School Board set out to establish the school faculty, by electing Prof. G.T. Bramble as principal and Miss A.H. Price as his assistant at a salary of $1,500 and $900 respectively. They would hire two more teachers and secure about $700 in equipment. They obtained a lease for the upper floor of the District School building for a term of three years at $1,025 annual rent which included janitor and heat. Then Colonel George Morse from the lower valley (New Chicago) brought suit to restrain the newly elected board to establish the High School. The lengthy complaint basically stated that less than one hundred people had signed the petition to put the issue on the ballot; that two signers were county commissioner; that the other school districts did not have time to file a petition to have the school located in their district and so forth. After much legal wrangling, in 1905, The County Free High School was established with a business department in which bookkeeping, stenography, and typewriting would be taught. Three Remington Typewriters had been ordered and the other necessary apparatus were installed. A number of the graduating class of the previous year signified their intentions of attending the county high school and it was believed quite a large number of students from various parts of the county, would also attend. The lease was signed and school started on January 16, 1905. Of this beginning class fourteen students graduated in 1908. In 1910, there was discussion of erecting a building for a County High School. Since the high school had been established the county has been renting from Philipsburg School District No.1, the rooms and equipment necessary to conduct the school. The lease now in force was entered into in 1909 and would expire July 1911, and the facility was overcrowded. In 1909 a tax was levied for building purposes as provided by The High School Law. Four Mills were levied and created
P a g e 8 Ghost Towns & History of MT Newsletter $10,052.22, available by 1910. The plans discussed at that time were for making another levy to provide funds to equip and furnish the building. A site, the high school trustees had secured an option on, was 270 by 256 feet and surrounded on all four sides by streets, in the Churchill addition. The site was practically donated, the cost to the county being slightly over $100. The Mail articles never stated who the land belonged to, but August Greenheck owned the majority of lots on Church Hill, at that time. The district was in need of the room and the present lease would probably be the last one the county would be able to secure. There was on hand in the high school building fund the sum of $10,052.22, which was not available for any other purpose. Within a few months and careful consideration the school board decided to build a new Granite County High School. The school was completed in 1912 and served well until enrollment dropped during the second World War and it was discussed in 1946 to abandon the County High School. The citizenry arose to meet the crisis and the enrollment increased allowing the school to stay open. The High School at that time only received money per student and no other operating funds. After many good years the building was sold and is now a residence and museum of sorts and a new high school is located next to the original Grade school on School Hill. The grade school is a Historic Landmark and the oldest continuing operating school in Montana.–Courtesy of the Granite County History Blog Grade School by Jolene Ewert-Hintz The purpose of the Granite County History Blog (https://granitecountyhistory.blogspot.com/) is to share and seek information on the history of Granite County, Montana. In a few cases our topics will lap over into adjacent counties as mining districts especially do not respect the later boundaries imposed by politicians! It is a project of members of the Granite County Historical Society, an organization founded in 1978 by the late Barry Engrav of Philipsburg and now comprised of 8 members dedicated to preserving and interpreting historical documents, artifacts, and sites in the greater Philipsburg area. Our goal is to interest current residents, folks with family roots, and those with an academic interest in the area to add their knowledge to this blog as an ongoing project to deepen and in some cases correct the narrative of the people and events that shaped history in this part of Montana. The recent explosion of scanned historical documents onto the internet is making it possible to greatly speed up historical research, refine historical chronology, and deepen historical interpretation. Perhaps we are entering into a "golden age" of research into our past! Anyone with an interest in the Philipsburg area or Montana history is invited to discuss the topics of our posts, as well as their own data and sources, which we hope will create an ongoing dialogue about the area now known as Granite County. My/Donor Information: SUBSCRIBE TO THE GHOST TOWNS AND HISTORY OF MONTANA NEWSLETTER! Renewal? Y/N Send a Gift to: NAME____________________________________ NAME___________________________________ ADDRESS__________________________________ ADDRESS_________________________________ CITY______________________________________ CITY_____________________________________ STATE__________________ZIP________________STATE_________________ ZIP________________ Yearly subscriptions are $19.95 (published monthly). Please make checks payable to Ghost Towns & History of MT, LLC and send with this clipping to P.O. Box 932 Anaconda, MT 59711
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