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 THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION Executive Office, State of Montana. Helena. Nov. 14, 1891. The second year of statehood has filled the full measure of prophecy. From every source comes the glad news of prosperity and contentment. Every business interest has increased with the year. The mines and mills are in full blast. Stock and range are prepared to challenge the winter, and agriculture, made certain of maturity and prolific of yield by irrigation, is opening a new field for capital and labor. Our people are generally employed and the government is felt, if at all, most in its benefits and least in its restraints. These are ample to demand our recognition of divine favor, and to call for a day of thanksgiving and prayer. Now, therefore I, Joseph K. Toole, governor of Montana, do accordingly appoint as such, Thursday. Nov. 26. A. D. 1891. On that day let business be suspended and give the great heart of humanity a chance to do good. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Joseph K. Toole Courtesy of wikiwand.com state to be affixed. Done at the capitol this 14th day of November, 1891. By the governor. Joseph K. Toole. L. Rotwitt, Secretary of State. -The Columbian Newspaper (Columbia Falls, MT), Nov. 19, 1891, Accessed via: www.montananewspapers.org William Bell was Bannack, Montana’s first citizen to die of illness on November 12, 1862. The Dillon Examiner reported “ In a rude cabin of Alder Gulch, at this early time, a good man and true, our brother, William H. Bell, lay dying of mountain fever. When he felt that death was nigh he expressed to his brother Masons who attended him a desire to be buried with some, at least, of the funeral rites of our fraternity. There was no lodge of Masons; there was no monitor or book of Masonry in the camp, nor was it known how many of the order could be mustered, for they never as yet had met together. A request for all Masons in the gulch to meet at Miller’s cabin, on Yankee flat, was responded to by a hundred or more. All were delighted that the number of Masons was so great, and it was then and there resolved to form a lodge in which good men and true might assemble and meet on the square without the odious presence of the ruffian element…". Bell is buried in the old cemetery on the hill overlooking Bannack. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz
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