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Monthly Features 2008
Page history last edited by Jeff Malcomson 10 mos ago
December 2008 - A Christmas Tree for the Capitol - Again!
As we recover from the stupor of the Thanksgiving Day feast and the adrenaline rush of Black Friday, many of us will take to the forests, parking lots, and tree farms in search of the perfect Christmas tree to grace our front rooms for the duration of the holidays. This year also marks the third time that a tree from Montana will stand tall at the capital as the nation's Christmas tree.
The first occurred in 1958, when the Libby Chamber of Commerce presented a seventy-five foot Engelmann spruce to President Dwight Eisenhower as "the nation's community Christmas tree." The Libby paper gushed, "Lincoln county, Montana, is a singularly appropriate locality from which to choose the nation's Christmas tree. Over 80 percent of its surface is covered with evergreens, some four-fifths of which grow on Kootenai National forest land. J. Neils Lumber company, a division of St. Regis Paper company, operates Montana's largest sawmill at Libby; while Eureka, 65 miles up the Kootenai river, is known as the Christmas tree capital of the world. The county currently ships about one million Douglas fir Christmas trees each year."
Local sawyer, Red Stout, had the privilege of sawing the tree off of its stump as employees of the J. Neils Lumber Company lowered it gently onto a log truck for transportation to the railroad. Stout used a presentation chainsaw given to him by Elmer Larson of the Remington Arms Company. The Libby Chamber of Commerce created a folder titled "A Gift from the Mountains of Montana" commemorating the tree, which included etchings of the cutting and shipment of the tree drawn by Dick Hennessy. President Eisenhower wrote a thank you letter to Libby Chamber of Commerce president, Carl J. Temple, "I want especially to send my appreciation to you and the people of Libby and Lincoln County."
The next tree from Montana to be sent to the nation's capital was harvested in 1989 and again came from the Kootenai National Forest. Jeanne Spooner, U.S. Forest Service public information officer, told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, "Two years ago, the Forest Service sent letters to the nation's forest, giving us an opportunity to submit a letter stating why the 1989 tree should be selected from our forest. Our forest responded, telling them that this was Montana's centennial year and, in addition, that Eureka had declared itself the Christmas Tree Capital of the World." The Capitol Christmas Tree Committee selected an Engelmann spruce as well as a nearby alternate in case of a mishap.
Bill Crismore, local contract logger and president of the Montana Logging Association, had the honor of cutting the tree. As 175 folks looked on including several protestors carrying signs stating "Don't Hack the Yaak," Crismore cut the tree and fate took a malicious twist. As the tree came off its stump a cable line went slack causing it to tilt toward the crowd of spectators. Crane operator Calvin Stubbs averted disaster by swing the tree and dropping it over the log trucks and missing the crowd. Jitters aside, the group moved a couple of miles up the road and watched as Bill Crismore and team successfully cut the alternate tree. Without further incident the tree made it to Washington, D.C. where Speaker of the House, Tom Foley, threw the switch lighting the tree on December 13, 1989.
This year the nationís Christmas tree once again came from Montanaófifty years after the first. Follow the story of the 2008 Capitol Christmas Tree harvested from the Bitterroot National Forest at http://www.capitolchristmastree2008.org/. For other resources regarding Northwest Montanaís Christmas tree industry please consult the related resources.
Sources:
- The Western News (Libby, MT), October-December 1958, October-November 1989.
- Bozeman Daily Chronicle, November 13, 1989.
- Montana Historical Society Research Center vertical file - "Christmas trees."
MHS sources related to Montana's Christmas tree industry:
- Andrew E. McWhirter Interview, October 23, 1985 (Oral History 693).
- Joe and Hazel Stoken Interview, January 12, 1988 (Oral History 1539).
- Don and Winton Weydemeyer Interview, May 1980, (Oral History 161).
- Montana Forestry Division Records, 1896-1987 (Record Series 283)
- Flanagan, Darris, The Montana Christmas Tree Story: An Historic Saga of Boom and Bust, Stoneydale Press Publishing Co., 2006.
- Wellner, C.A., Management Practices for Christmas Tree Production, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1947 (PAM 3560).
Other sources:
November 2008 - Highlighting the Doris Brander Papers and Montana Women in Military Service for America (WIMSA)
When asked why she decided to volunteer for military service during WWII, Doris Brander, a native of Malta, Montana, told her interviewer:
"I think most of us women that volunteered in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and coast guard did it out of a sense of adventure, but also because we knew that until the war was over, both in Europe and in Asia, things would not go back to normal. So by pitching in and helping, we felt we would get things back to normal faster. We wanted to do what we could to stop the war."
The twin motivations of seeking adventure and answering a call to service pulled Doris to Washington D.C. in 1941....initially to work for the War Production Board. Like many of her generation the attack on Pearl Harbor solidified her desire to serve in the military. Hearing of the newly authorized U.S. Navy's WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) Program, which was signed into being by President Roosevelt in July of 1942, Doris enlisted in that program. Following training Doris worked for the Bureau of Naval Personnel as a clerk/stenographer. She was eventually able to transfer back to Montana to serve. She earned the rank of Chief Yeoman before leaving the service in February 1946.
Following military service, Doris married and settled into ranch life near Avon, Montana; becoming active in many women's organization including National Organization of Women, and the Equal Rights Council. At the age of 51 she began attending college at Montana State Universityóultimately earning a master's degree in Public Administration. Following graduation Doris worked as director of medical records for Montana State Hospital Warm Springs Campus.
Through the years Doris' military service was a source of deep pride...
"Women love their country as much as men, and I am really proud to have been part of the forerunners who opened up the way for the young women of today to serve in more areas that we were allowed..."
In 1989 when Doris heard that a memorial was being planned for women who served in the U.S. Military she immediately signed up to help...
"In November of 1989, I saw an article....on Armistice Day...that said there was going to be a memorial for women. I decided somebody had to do something in Montana. So first I had the governor proclaim a day and took that proclamation and mailed to all the libraries in the state....appealed to the American Legion and VFW to find the women in their areas because that will be the only way we will ever know all the names"
The Women's Memorial was authorized in 1987 by the U.S. Congress, but no federal funds were allotted for its construction. The Women In Military Service For America (WIMSA) Memorial Foundation, Inc. formed that year to begin fund raising and gathering information about women who served. From 1989 until her death in 1995, Doris Brander worked to register as many of the 4800 estimated Montana women veterans as could be found, and played a major role in raising over $50,000 for its construction. Her efforts included working with the Governor, the seven Indian Reservations, and all 56 counties in Montana to pass resolutions in support of the memorial. She recruited an army of volunteers to scour county records for discharge papers, enlistment records from the Adjutant General's Office records (housed at the Montana Historical Society), and encourage families to share personal records of women who served.
Ground was broken for the memorial, located at the Ceremonial Entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, in 1995 and opened to the public in October of 1997.
Sources:
Three separate collections in the Research Center archival collections document the life of Doris Brander and her efforts on behalf of WIMSA:
- The Doris Brander Papers: These records contain subject files on Brander's work for Women in Military Service for America (WIMSA); scrapbooks from her work with the Deer Lodge Valley Chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW), the Equal Rights Council, Montana Senior Citizens Association and organizations related to her career in medical records and public administration; and personal papers consisting of WAVE newsletters (1943-1945) and military discharge papers (1946).
- Doris Brander Oral History (OH 1276): in this 1992 interview, Doris discusses her decision to volunteer for service in the WAVES program; her life in Washington D.C.; her experiences as a woman in the military; WWII era Montana; her work for WIMSA; and pride of service.
- Women In Military Service For America Records (MC 343) include discharge papers for Montana women who served in the military from WWI to Vietnam and in peacetime (1945-1990); correspondence with volunteers across the state regarding the project; honor roll lists of woman veterans compiled by county volunteers and letters and news releases from the national WIMSA organization.
WWII related collections include:
- Adjutant General's Records (RS 223) which include registration cards for service men and women for WWI and WWII.
- 20th Century Veterans Oral History Project which includes over 100 recordings of the experiences of Montanans in all branches of service and from various military campaigns; including World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam Conflict, and the Persian Gulf War.
October 2008 - The Mystery of Valentine Thuma's Diary
In 1976 the Montana Historical Society received a small handwritten Civil War diary by Valentine Thuma from a Jefferson County District Court judge. As part of a clean-up of our online cataloging, I recently came across the diary and began to wonder why it was in Montana. A penciled note on the diary indicated it was used as an exhibit in a court case. A search of census records gave no indication he ever lived in Montana. National census records had no record of him except on the 1860 Ohio census. There appear to be no Civil War service or pension records for him. The diary itself indicated he served from April-August of 1861. It also gave his birth date as June 22, 1838.
Via a genealogy website's query system, I discovered that Elizabeth Trescott of the Gettysburg National Military Park was also searching for him. We began corresponding. Gradually I began to piece together his life.
A search ofFamilySearch.org located a family group sheet, showing Valentine, his parents Jacob and Leah (Hiskey) Thuma, and his brothers and sisters in Richland County, Ohio. It also showed that he married Martha Bechtel there in 1860.
I located a typescript copy of the diary at the University of Missouri, Columbia's library. Their cataloging indicated that he re-enlisted and served in Alabama. He then disappeared totally. On Pastfinder website, I discovered that Martha divorced him in August of 1865. I still had no idea what his Montana connection might be.
My first big break was on Google Books, where I found a court case in the 1897 Montana Reports. The case involved a lawsuit by John Berkin, administrator of the estate of Valentine Thuma, also known as Charles Hadley, against Hadley's former guardian Henry J. Marsh, for misappropriation of funds of the Estate. The case notes indicated that he had been declared insane in 1880 and that his guardian had petitioned to declare him dead in November 1890. Bingo!
I then searched the 1870 Montana census for Charles Hadley and found him farming near Whitehall, Montana, with $1000 in real property and $1975 in personal property. He also appeared on an 1867 Jefferson County census. The BLM/GLO Records website showed that he homesteaded T2N, R4W, West Ω of West Ω of Sec. 16, proving up in 1875. A topographic map finder then showed that property to be about 4 miles north of Whitehall on Whitetail Creek.
I am nothing if not persistent when I get on a search. I decided I had to make a field trip to the Jefferson County courthouse to look at the actual court case. There was a quite fat triple-fold folder on the case. It turned out to be a goldmine.
Valentine/Charles became partners with Henry J. Marsh. The partners developed a prosperous horse and cattle ranch. About 1878 Hadley travelled to Indianapolis for an operation. While at the National Surgical Institute in Indianapolis, he began having mental difficulties. The Institute transferred him to the Cincinnati Sanitarium in Ohio. His partner petitioned the district court on May 2, 1880, to declared Hadley insane and appoint himself as guardian. In May 1882 Thuma/Hadley left the Sanitarium and went to Holt County, Missouri, to live with his brother Daniel Thuma. Marsh auctioned off his partner's property a month later for $10,192.44. On November 16, 1890, the Jefferson County District Court granted a petition to declare him dead. In 1894 John Berkin, administrator of his estate sued Marsh claiming misappropriation of the estate. The court denied the suit and the Montana Supreme Court upheld the lower court decision.
I went back to BLM/GLO Records website and discovered that Henry J. Marsh had homesteaded on the land adjacent to Hadley's. One wonders if he had ulterior motives in getting his partner declared incompetent.
But did Hadley/Thuma really die in 1890, or did he pull another disappearing act? The fact that Berkin petitioned to have him declared dead implies that he may not have actually died but might have disappeared from his brother's care seven years earlier in 1883. Will we ever know?
September 2008 - The Life and Times of Evel Knievel
How did a juvenile delinquent from Butte, Montana, become an international celebrity? The answer is simple: by leaping over buses, foundations, and canyons on his motorcycle while breaking nearly every bone in his body. Although, Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel, passed away after a three-year bout with a terminal lung disease in Clearwater, Florida on November 30, 2007, his reputation as America's legendary daredevil lives on.
Born in Butte on October 17, 1938, Knievel was raised by his paternal grandparents, Ignatius and Emma Knievel, who operated a tire service in Butte. As a youngster, Knievel built a ramp out of his grandfather's garage doors, lit them on fire, and charged neighbor kids 2 cents to watch him crash his bicycle off the burning ramp. After dropping out of high school at age 16, Knievel tried his hand at a variety of occupations including stealing hubcaps, underground mining, playing semi-pro hockey, selling insurance, and cracking safes. During these years Knievel became a familiar guest of the Butte City Jail, where he is currently memorialized in historic tours of the abandoned jail. In fact he derived his nickname one evening in the drunk tank at the jail when he ended up sharing a cell with another Butte legend, Joe "Awful" Knofel; the jailer provided the handle "Evel."
Knievel parlayed his interest in fast machines from a partnership in a Washington Honda dealership into a series of dangerous stunts beginning with a jump over a pit of venomous snakes in Moses Lake, Washington in 1965. Two years later Knievel made headlines by flying 141 feet over the fountain at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, but the landing jarred Knievel from the Triumph motorcycle and pitched him into the concrete. For the next 29 days Knievel remained in a coma with multiple rib fractures, a broken hip, and crushed pelvis. When Knievel awoke he found himself a national celebrity, proclaiming himself, "The Last Gladiator in the New Rome."
The Caesar Palace crash, captured on film, catapulted Knievel from a local stuntman into an international daredevil immortalized in toys, film, and pop songs. The height of his career peaked on September 8, 1974 when he attempted crossing the Snake River canyon aboard a steam-propelled jet cycle. A malfunctioning parachute landed Knievel and his X-2 Sky Cycle in the Snake River; while he wasn't seriously injured, the crash forever tarnished his fortunes. Three years later Knievel attacked his publicist, Sheldon Saltman of Fox Studios with a baseball bat, landing Knievel in prison and terminating his Harley Davidson endorsement.
After years of hard living and numerous stunt injuries, Knievel received a liver transplant and garnered the headlines again in 2002 by promoting a weekend festival of motorcycle stunts in Butte known as Evel Knievel Days. His son Robbie continues the family tradition, jumping buses for adoring crowds across America.
Sources:
The information above was derived from a non-authorized biography of Knievel entitled, Evel Incarnate: The Life and Legend of Evel Knievel, Steve Mandich, Sidgwick & Jackson, 2000.
August 2008 - Early development of the Cat Creek Oil Fields
It is generally accepted that the first discovery of oil in Montana was made on August 10, 1864, twelve and a half miles from where the Bozeman Trail crosses the Big Horn River.1 Although not sufficiently documented to earn its place as the first, an earlier sighting was mentioned by William Aldridge. In 1855, he and his party of emigrants, heading northward, spotted oil seepages - one at Soap Creek and one at the Musselshell crossing.2 And in May 1880, Granville Stuart was scouting out a new cattle range in the Musselshell River area and proclaimed "there are petroleum indications all through here and someday Montana will produce oil but it is worthless now."3 There had been various areas throughout Montana considered to have oil producing potential and when drilling first began in 1901, many of those areas were tapped. None of these sites proved lucrative and it took two more decades before that potential was realized.
In late 1919, near Winnett, Montana, the Frantz Corporation began oil exploration on a creek flowing into the Musselshell River and on February 19, 1920 the company drilled the well that established Cat Creek as Montana's first commercially productive oil field.4 According to Curley Meek, one of the first drillers in the Cat Creek area, "there was no place to store the oil, so it was dammed up in a coulee and given away to ranchers and farmers as sheep and cow dip until they began using it in their cars."5 The situation of the initial drilling at Cat Creek was further described in Pages of Time: A History of Petroleum County, Montana. "With no storage facilities available, oil flowed into a coulee where people from all over the countryside came to look at it...The oil was of such high gravity it could be used directly in tractors and even Model T's, and it was free to all comers. Tanks were immediately constructed, and during the summer Frantz Corporation laid a two-inch pipeline to Winnett."
Over the next few years, continued development of the Cat Creek oil fields resulted in an increase in the area's population and the legislature voted to form a new county. Sectioned off from eastern Fergus County and named for its successful oil production, Petroleum County officially became Montana's 56th and final county in February 1925.6
Endnotes:
1 The Butte (Mont.) Miner, April 22, 1923.
2 Ibid.
3 Granville Stuart, Forty Years on the Frontier (Cleveland, 1925), Vol. II, p. 124.
4 Petroleum County Public Library, Pages of Time: A History of Petroleum County, Montana (Lewistown, Mont., 1990), 140.
5 The Great Falls Tribune (Mont.), February 23, 1964.
6 Alan H. Patera, "Cat Creek , Montana,", Western Places: A Chronicle of Western Settlement (Winter 1993), 41.; Roberta Cheney, Names on the Face of Montana: The Story of Montana's Place Names (Missoula, Mont, 1990), 207.
Other sources:
Oral History 182, an interview with Curley Meek, has been digitized and is available online http://cdm103401.cdmhost.com/u?/p267301coll2,1294
July 2008 - Joseph Scheuerle
Visitors this summer to the Montana Historical Society Museum are being treated to an exhibit entitled Sitting Proud: Indian Portraits of Joseph Scheurle. Scheurle (1873-1948) a little-known Western artist also designed commercial artwork that appeared in the Great Northern Railway's See America First campaign, which prominently featured Glacier National Park. The Research Center has digitized one of these items, a map called Recreational map of Glacier National Park, Montana :Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta.
June 2008 - Granite Mountain/Speculator Mine Disaster
With this month's feature we wanted to remember those men that lost their lives ninety-one years ago this month in the Granite Mountain/Speculator Mine Disaster, which occurred in Butte, Montana.
On June 8, 1917, at about 11:30 p.m., a fire began in the 2,400 foot level of the Granite Mountain Shaft of the Granite Mountain Mine, owned by North Butte Mining Company. The fire was touched off by shift boss Ernest Sullau when his carbide lamp ignited some oil-soaked electrical cable, which was part of an effort to install a sprinkler system in the Granite Mountain's 3,700-foot shaft. Flames roared up the shaft to the surface and into the night sky. Of the 410 men who went to work on the night shift, 165 died. Most of them succumbed to deadly carbon monoxide gasóamong those who perished Ernest Sullau who returned to the depths of the mine in attempt to save fellow miners. It was the worst catastrophe in the history of Butte mining.
James D. Moore, one of the shift bosses of Granite Mountain died just before the crew of rescue men reached their place of refuge. His last thoughts were of his wife.
Dear Pet
This may be the last message you may ever get from me, the gas broke in about 11:15 pm. I tried to get all the men out, but the smoke was too strong, I've got some men with me into a drift and put in a bulkhead, if anything happens to me, you better sell the house and go to California to live, You know your Jim died like a man, and his last thought were of his wife that I have loved better than anybody on earth, We will meet again in Heaven, Tell my mother and the boys good by, With love to my Pet and may God take care of you.
You're loving Jim
The next letter was written the following morning
Dear Pet
We are waiting for the end, I guess it won't be long, We are taking turns in rapping on the pipe, so if rescue men be around they may hear us, Well dear wife try not to worry, I know you will, but trust in God, everything will out all right, There is a young man here of the name Clarence Marthy. He has a wife and two children, Tell her we all did our very best, but the cards were against us,
Good by loving wife.
Sources:
May 2008 - A Memorial Day Huzzah!
As we take time this Memorial Day to reflect on the sacrifices that our service men and women have made for us, we should also take time to acknowledge the dedication and service of those who "served" our military personnel. As such, this month's feature is comprised of a series of excerpts from letters written by John W. Bock to his parents of Sidney, MT. John joined the United States Army on February 1, 1941. In January 1942, he successfully completed and received a certificate from the School for Bakers and Cooks, Quarter Master Corps U.S. Army Fort Lewis, WA Company E 116th Engineers 41st Division. He served overseas in the Pacific Theatre on the New Hebrides Islands. John W. Bock received his honorable discharge from the U.S. Army on September 28, 1945.
Sept. 15, 1942
Dear folks,
...Another cook and I are cooking for a work crew of 50 men. Our camp is on the bank of a river & all the grounds had to be cleared of brush before we could set up camp.
We bake our own bread biscuits & occasionally a pie. We have a Dutch oven made out of a gas drum ñ works fine.
The jungle abounds with wild hog. Went pig hunting last Sunday with three of the boys. We have three good pig dogs & they brought a big boar to bay.
I finally got in a shot that finished him. Have the lower jaw for a trophy. It has a pretty good set of tusks. There doesn't seem to be a great variety of wild game. ...
Nov. 25, 1943
Dear folks,
Crawled out of bed at 5 this morning. My job toward dinner was making pie. Made 4 mince & 3 pumpkin size 18 by 24.
The menu ñ turkey, mashed spuds (fresh), gravey, dressing, H.K. corn, dill pickles, fruit cake, pie, sweet rools, fresh butter, ice cream & coffee & cranberry sauce. About all a holiday means to us is a hell of a lot of extra work. Ma I can understand a few things I wasn't able to see before. ...
Hello Helen ñ saw the show, "Holiday Inn," the other nite. When Bing sang the song White Christmas it made me very home sick. I wanted to be home so I could help you sing it to.
For some reason it made me remember you...
Merry Xmas to you all
Love,
John W. Bock
Feb. 7, 44
Hello folks,
... Today I'm serving, trying to serve, dehydrated potatoes. It breaks my heart but my arm gets a much needed rest. I'm slightly faged after a 9hr. stretch of cleaning stoves cutting up mutton etc.
In the dehydrated line we can serve you, are going to serve you, spuds, onions, cabbage, carrots, bean & pea soup, apples, apricots, prunes & figs, & don't let me forgot one of the most important - eggs, yes & milk & raisins & when in the hell will it all end.
I say to my partner Smoke, "guess we better milk the cow." Smoke doesn't say a dam thing but reaches for the milk cans. Our gives 24 to 32 gals. Depending on the size of the cans. We put a little water in the can we dump 5# of powder in & we beat hell out of the dam stuff to try & get the lump dissolved. You'd be surprised, after cooling for 36 hrs. the stuff is actually good to drink. It sure beats Pete Andersons stuff.
The boys want to play a game of Pinochle so - ...
3/15/44
Hello folks,
... We get fresh fruits & vegetables but not as often as we would like & could use. Get plenty of fresh meat but the hell of it is that most of it used to wear wool. As yet we cooks haven't found a way to disguise the stuff & it could sure use a good disguise. We hate like hell to put out something we know the boys ain't going to eat. We lose interest when our shift menu calls for lamb chops or roast lamb. But what the hell we can always through it in the garbage...
Sources:
John W. Bock Papers (Small Collection 2465) MHS Research Center
April 2008 - The 1865 Flour Riot in Virginia City, Montana Territory
Food was essential to the immigrants traveling across the country to settle in Montana and the west. Their very survival depended upon how well they had planned their food supply. Even after their arrival in Montana, though, the early pioneers often faced difficulties in providing some of the most basic foods for their families. In Diamond City in 1867, one enterprising woman baked pies and sold them to miners for $1.50 each. Eggs were also a high-value commodity, selling for as much as $3 per dozen in the early mining camps.
The flour riot of 1865 in Virginia City is one of the more extreme examples of food shortages in early towns in Montana. Due to heavy snows in the winter, freight trains into the town were virtually stopped by April and provisions were becoming increasingly scarce in the town. "Flour was hoarded like gold dust, and was almost as precious," according to one recounting of the incident. The price of flour reportedly rose from as low as $14 per 100 pounds to as high as $150 in gold. The price of this basic staple rose so high that a riot ensued and a "flour committee" was formed on April 17. The crowd of people organized a search of cellars and stores in the town for hidden caches of flour. One store, Taylor, Thompson & Co. who had a stock of flour "barricaded their door, piled the flour up in front, and placed men behind the sacks, armed with double-barreled shotguns."
After gathering all the flour they could, the rioters moved the flour to Leviathan Hall in town. They decided upon a price of 27 cents a pound for Salt Lake flour and 30 cents a pound for St. Louis flour. Each man was allowed to purchase only ten pound of flour for himself and five additional pounds for each family member. Despite this, many citizens of Virginia City continued to go without flour and the staple became increasingly rare and many feared starvation. Not until the spring, when snows melted and a freight train hauling flour that had been snowed in near the Snake River finally arrived in town, did the price of flour drop back down to $40 per sack.
"The Flour Riot of '65." Helena Independent, n.d. (From Vertical File).
March 2008 - Montana's Irish Heritage
From individual influences to their power as a group, the Irish have played an important and lasting role in defining Montana. From the beginning of the Irish famine, 1845, through 1921, over 3.7 million Irish left their homes in search of better lives. Almost 84% of these men, women, and children migrated to the United States in hopes of finding both religious freedom and the means of financial independence. This amazing labor force would, in the words of Historians Kerby Miller and Dave Emmons, do the "heavy work of industrializing societies" [Emmons, David M., The Butte Irish; Class Ethnicity in an American Mining Town, 1875-1925, (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990), 1-3]. No where is this more evident than in Montana where the Irish presence was felt in mining, railroad construction, homesteading, politics, and society.
Lists of Irish Montanans and their organizations offer clues to the importance of the Irish presence in Montana, both famous and infamous. Thomas Francis Meagher, Thomas Cruse, Martin Maginnis, James Sullivan, Marcus Daly, Bishop John Patrick Carroll, Thomas J. Walsh, Maggie Halligan, Con Kelley, and Daniel Hennessy have all left impressions on Montana History. Irish organizations profoundly influenced Montana's labor, social, and political evolution. Their associations not only gave communities a "sense of order" but also supported political and workers' rights [Emmons, David M., "Immigrant Workers and Industrial Hazards: the Irish Miners of Butte, 1880-1919," Journal of Ethnic History, vol. 5, no. 1, Fall 1985, pg. 43]. The Fenians and Clan Na-Gael organized Irish-Americans to assist in Irish Independence. The Ancient Order of Hibernians, not only provided traditional fraternal aid to its members' families, but supported early union activities. The enthusiasm which the Irish brought to their causes made them a primary target of the Montana Council of Defense, during WWI. This now infamous organization saw the Irish passion for homeland, freedom and workers' rights as seditious and anti-American.
The Irish significance has been documented by some of Montana's most prevalent historians and story tellers. These include:
- The Butte Irish, by Dave Emmons, is a thorough examination of the dynamics of the Irish working class community.
- The Irish General, Thomas Francis Meagher, by Paul Wylie, is a wonderful biography supported by Wylie's exhaustive research.
- Irish and Irish Americans in Helena, Montana, 1864-1916, by Anna Marie Moe, is a thesis written during Moe's senior year at Carroll.
- "We are Women Irish: Gender, Class, Religious and Ethnic Identity in Anaconda, Montana," by Laurie Mercier, Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Winter 1994, pg. 28-41, examines the effect Irish women had in adapting their heritage to Anaconda and the resulting effects on their community.
- "A Place of Greater opportunity: Irish Women's Search for Home, Family, and Leisure in Butte, Montana," by Mary Murphy, Journal of the West, April 1992, pg. 73-78, discusses the tensions between traditional gender roles and women's quests for independence.
The Montana Historical Society maintains the Thomas Cruse papers (MC 36) as well as dozens of other Irish Montanans' sources and Oral Histories. However, the Butte-Silver Bow Archives houses the "Irish Collection," one of the most complete collections of Irish-American community activities in the United States. This collection contains membership, financial, organization, and correspondence records from 1882 to 1935 of many social, literary, and fraternal organizations for the Irish in Butte, Montana. Organizations include the Ancient Order of Hibernians (Divisions 1, 2, and 3), Robert Emmet Literary Association, Friends of Irish Freedom, Gaelic League, Irish Volunteers of America, Thomas Francis Meagher Memorial Fund, and American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic, and Sunburst Club in Helena.
Evidence of the Irish legacy is not only historical. The mass migration to Butte every St. Patrick's Day is testament to the community's continued hold on American-Irish passions and traditions. The numerous festivals and musical displays, including Libby's March Irish Fair and Butte's August An Ri Ra, also bear testament to the state's heritage.
As we enter into March and contemplate the importance if wearing the green and the phrase '…irinn go Br·gh', let us celebrate those hardy souls who chose to leave their beautiful Ireland forever and invest in Montana.
February 2008 - African-American History Month - "Duke" Dutrieuille
With this month's feature we wanted to take advantage of not only African-American History Month but of the historical presidential campaign season as well. On September 24, 1892, John Lambert Dutrieuille, popularly known as "Duke," submitted a statement to the Helena Daily Independent regarding his views on which political party black men should support in the coming elections of 1892 (it must be remembered that women could still not vote at this time). Dutrieuille was born in 1837 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania of Haitian parents. He came to Montana in the early territorial days to operate a barber shop, living in Butte, Marysville, Helena, Fort Benton, and finally Belt. He married another African-American pioneer, Maria Adams, in Helena in 1880. As a young lady in 1875, she journeyed from Kentucky to Fort Abraham Lincoln in Dakota Territory to work as a house maid for Col. and Mrs. George Armstrong Custer. Maria and her sister later came on a steamboat to Fort Benton, where her sister soon died. Duke and Maria had two children, Frank and Marie. Following Duke's death in 1911, Maria moved from Belt to Great Falls where she lived until her own death in 1939. Duke's 1892 political statement to the Independent was significant in that he explains why he would no longer be supporting the Republican Party, which African-Americans typically supported out of gratitude for its association with Abraham Lincoln and many abolitionists. The following are excerpts from the statement:
"We were told twenty years ago that when our children grew up they would have had school advantages that had been denied their fathers, and would be fitted to compete with all comers. They have had advantages, especially in Montana, and to-day there are colored men and women in Helena who, so far as fitness goes, are as capable of filling positions of trust and responsibility as any one, but neither their ability nor their education counts for aught. After years of patient waiting and depending wholly, I may say, on the promises of that party that claims that we owe what we are to-day to its members, I firmly believe that the only solution of the great race problem lies in the disintegration or division of the colored vote. Whenever the votes of any class are solid there is nought to be gained unless they possess an overwhelming majority.
I have for the past twenty-four years supported the Republican party, and have no apologies to make for my change of base. In that twenty-four years I have failed to note anything that might in any way be called recognition or reward for faithful services rendered by the colored voters of the State of Montana. . . . When a white man changes his political faith he is never questioned, nor is his right to do so ever challenged. But let the negro dare to speak one word in favor of the Democratic party, the Prohibition party, or the young but vigorous People's party, and he is at once waited upon by some of the leading lights of the G. O. P. and shown the enormity of his proposed crime. 'What on earth do you mean? Do you not know that we fought for you, for your liberty?' Well, now, what does that liberty mean? It means the right to vote without let or hindrance the Republican ticket at state, county or municipal elections, and at general elections particularly. It means that we rescued you from slavery of the body to put you into a slavery of the mind and a slavery of the soul. You are to vote for the Republican party, no matter how venal, how corrupt they may be. Vote under the lash and after the election be ignored entirely until the next election season."
For more on the Dutrieuille family in Montana please see Small Collection 1584 at the Montana Historical Society Research Center. The MHS Photo Archives also has portraits of Duke and Maria Dutrieuille (Collection PAc 80-23). For more information contact Photo Archives at 406-444-4739 or photoarchives@mt.gov.
For information on similar historical materials in the collections of the MHS Research Center please see our
Study Guide to African Americans in Montana elsewhere in this Wiki.
January 2008 - Snow Balls
Cream 1/3 cup butter and 1/2 cup sugar together. Sift together 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup corn starch and 3 level teaspoons baking powder. Add all together alternately with 1/2 cup milk and whites of 4 eggs beaten stiff. Put batter in 8 well buttered cups, steam 1/2 hour, turn out gently and roll in powdered sugar. For sauce, use plain or whipped cream, with strawberries or chopped peaches added.
Mrs. O. C. Dallas
Source:
The Helena Cook Book: Containing Three Hundred Recipes
For additional information regarding Montana Historical Society cook book collection please see Cooking and Cookbooks
Monthly Features 2008
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