P a g e 5 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r Kate Perry: First Woman in Camp On August 11, 1905 the Philipsburg Mail published the following letter: Lewiston, Illinois, July 31, 1905; I have been contemplating to write you for some time. You of course will not know me but I hope some of the old settlers will, if any are left after years of toil. I made quite a little money there. When I went up to Philipsburg, it was not much of a town, nothing but a mining camp. There were no women there. I had some cows and a horse. I built myself a shack on the side of the hill and it was the first building of any kind there. The men lived in tents and in holes dug in the hillsides. I peddled milk to them and would gather up their wash and take it home to wash. I got twenty five cents a piece for shirts and sold thirty dollars worth of milk a day. Two holes cut in my shack served as a door and window and I hung a blanket up to each. I slept on poles stuck through the shack and pine boughs thrown on them and a buffalo robe over them; that was my bed. I had no pillow. The roof on the shack was made of poles and pine boughs and dirt thrown on top and I cooked by a log. Philipsburg, Montana, 1870 by John Venandy, Courtesy of www.mtmemory.org Now mind there was not another woman in the camp or within twenty miles of me. When I relate this story here now they ask me were you not afraid of the men? No indeed, God Bless the miners, a better class of men never lived. I was treated like a queen. I lived there until fall and then took my cows and horse to better range for the winter. By that time the camp had been laid out in lots and had quite a good many buildings and the town had been named after the man who laid it out. If I knew that you would appreciate it I would give you my history from the time I arrived in Montana. I will say this much, that after all of my hardships and after having many cows and horses and a ranch, a schemer came along, he was the Pony Express man and persuaded me to marry him. Then the first thing was to sell out and take the money in gold dust and come to my old home where I now live. Perry sent the gold dust to Philadelphia to have it minted. As soon as it arrived, $18,000.00 he took it and skipped and I have not heard from him since. This was thirty years ago and now I am seventy-five years old and have nothing left but my old hands to make a living with. I will send you a copy of my marriage certificate. It reads as follows: Territory of Montana, County of Deer Lodge SS.; The undersigned, Justice of the Peace, did on the 27 day of January A.D. 1868 join in lawful wedlock L.S. Perry and K.C. Coyendall with their mutual consent in the presence of Henry Adams and John H. Bell. Signed John B. Van Hagen, Justice of the Peace, Philipsburg Township, Deer Lodge County, Montana. Will you please answer this letter and tell me what that town is and if there is anyone there that knew me. It would give a great deal of pleasure to a poor old forsaken woman. signed Kate Perry
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