Ellen Baumler's Blog, page 35

A Second Perspective on the Fourth of July in Alder Gulch, 1865

While yesterday's post presents one view, here is another recollection of the same celebration. In her reminiscence, Girl from the Gulches , Mary Ronan recalls the Fourth of July in Virginia City, 1865. The Civil War was finally over, and hostilities that pervaded even the most remote mining camps in Montana Territory had calmed and lessened. Mary remembers that it was “a day atingle with motion, color, and music.” People thronged on the board sidewalks and footpaths, and horses and wagons cro...

The Fourth of July in Alder Gulch, 1865

Much has been made of the lines of allegiance drawn in Montana over the Civil War. Mary “Mollie” Sheehan Ronan danced for joy with her southern friends upon Lincoln’s assassination, and Harriett Sanders wrote of celebrations Southern women planned over Lincoln’s death. But Julia Gormley tells a different tale about Civil War loyalties in Alder Gulch. When word reached the gold camps, about ten days after Lincoln’s assassination, stores closed and flags flew at half staff. There were appropria...

Reeder’s Bricks

Louis Reeder was a Pennsylvania brick and stone mason who came to Helena in 1867 not to mine, but to build. He knew that the community would need fireproof buildings, and that is how he intended to make his fortune. Soon he had a number of contracts, and he saved his money and invested in property. One of these properties was a collection of buildings that spread up a narrow alley. Reeder added to them. Eventually, thirty-two tiny one-room apartments offered miners better living conditions th...

Friday Photo: Turk Greenough

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, Byerly CollectionRodeo champion Turk Greenough enjoys the view of the Beartooth Highway above Rock Creek Gorge circa 1939.

P.S. Remember Turk's rodeo star sisters?

Shoebox Annie

Alice Finnegan’s great book Goosetown: In Their Own Words puts the spotlight on oldtimers who grew up in this Anaconda neighborhood. Shoebox Annie is one memorable character that many recall with mixed emotions. She lived in Goosetown in the 1920s, but so great was the impression she left that even those growing up in the 1950s avoided the area of Alder and Commercial where her house once stood. Shoebox Annie carried a shoebox out of which she sold soap, shoelaces, and other items. She also c...

Langford Peel's Tombstone

When Helena became the territorial capital in 1875, the capital city wanted its buildings and community resources to showcase its importance. A federal assay office—one of only five in the nation—opened in Helena in 1876, and so did Central School, the first school in the territory with  graded classrooms. The rise overlooking the gulch was the best, most visible location to build the school, but that entailed moving part of the City Cemetery, active since 1865. It was neither an easy no...

Friday Photo: The Bob Saloon

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 981-837The cowboys in this L.A. Huffman photo are enjoying a lazy day off at Bob Leavitt's Saloon in Jordan, Montana, circa 1904. The horse, on the other hand, looks ready to go. I hope your weekend is just as relaxing.

Fritz Augustus Heinze

Butte Copper King Fritz Augustus Heinze was dashing, aggressive, and unscrupulous. Women adored him, and he lived a fast and colorful, albeit short, life. In 1893 he formed an alliance with Copper King William A. Clark against their mutual rival Marcus Daly. After Daly’s death in 1900, Standard Oil Company acquired Daly’s influential Amalgamated Copper Mining Company. Heinze and Clark challenged its political and economic power. But mining fortunes made quickly could be lost just as fast. Sta...

Childhood at Garnet

Elizabeth Farmer Smith wrote wonderful descriptions of her childhood at Garnet in the 1920s. Her father was a mining engineer and the family spent three summers at Garnet beginning when Elizabeth was ten. She recalled what fun it was to slide down the mine dumps on pieces of tin. She rode in the empty ore cars as the men pushed them back into the mine to reload and watched her father scrape the mercury tables at the end of the day. The balls of mercury caught the gold, and when enough had acc...

Friday Photo: Miner's Union Day

Montana Historical Society Photograph ArchivesN.A. Forsyth captured this stereograph view of the Miners' Union Day festivities in Butte circa 1910 and called it "A Great Day in Butte, Miners' Union Day."