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 But little mention of the town of Cottonwood can be found in Montana historical references but it seems to have been started in 1881 or 1882 and the Lehman store was built sometime between 1882 and 1884, as the first advertisement of the store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
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