Old Missoula

Prof. Reitz Doused With Foul Water, Seltzer And Rattlesnake’s Best.

Followed to His Hotel Amid a Shower of Overripe Hen Fruit – Who’s to Blame?

Prof. E. C. Reitz proprietor of the Garden City Commercial college received rough treatment last night shortly after midnight at the hands of a Missoula mob. The affair occurred at the Florence hotel. The crowd was composed of men, well known in town, who gave the professor some idea as to what it was to be in the hands of a mob. Prof. Reitz has many enemies in Missoula, which were contracted through his connection with the so-called reform movement. With others he opposed the running of the variety theatres, and commenced a deadly warfare that was successful in closing them. Prof. Reitz was an instrument in the hands of others and the reform movement. He was credited with being their detective and spy, in watching places which it was claimed were run contrary to law. For some time there has been speculation as to how promptly the gambling law would be complied with, and last night when the new law, prohibiting gambling was to go into effect, Prof. Reitz, accompanied by his assistant Prof. Rouser were down town about midnight, and it was thought by more than one that they had come down to spy around and see whether the law was recognized. That they had a right to come down and frequent places that other men do without being molested is beyond question. There were, however, people in Missoula who did not propose to grant them that privilege. The two visited several saloons, and especially the ones where a game of faro had been conducted, as also did many others, who were on hand to attend the funeral of King Faro.

As Reitz and Rouser were coming past the Florence hotel, someone from the second story window dropped the contents of a bucket of slop upon the head of Prof. Reitz. He rushed into the bar room of the hotel, which was well filled with men. Many of them jeered him in anything but a pleasant manner. Being considerably wrought up by such usage, Prof. Reitz was not slow in expressing himself in a gentlemanly manner. About this time some one came up with a seltzer bottle, and pressing the tube, the contents began to fly upon the professor. This done he walked into the hotel office and was there confronted with the end of a water hose and was commanded to get out of the hotel, as they were going to scrub out. He did not go and water, with all force was turned upon him. His clothes were wet through to the skin and still he remained, until he was finally evicted bodily from the hotel. He and Prof. Rouser started toward the Rankin house, a block away, when they were pursued by the same mob and egged until they entered the Rankin.

About this time Chief of Police Angevine came upon the scene and the crowd dispersed. Professors Reitz and Rouser were taken home by the officers. None of the mob were masked and all who took an active part in the affair are well known and warrants for their arrest may possibly be sworn out.

When the outcome will be is unknown but it is thought to be the beginning of some measure to stop mob law in Missoula.

 

The above article appeared in the Daily Missoulian on July 1, 1897.

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After considerable turmoil in city circles, a grand jury convened later that month and three men, William Brayton, George Omer, and Joseph K. Wood, were arrested. They were required to post $500 bail and ordered to appear in court on July 21 for arraignment. The three were then indicted for ‘riot’, but in a district court trial on July 30 the men were acquitted.

O’Brien Creek “City” – 1958

 

Faint Traces of O’Brien Creek ‘City’ of Half Century Ago

By John A. Forssen

The valley of O’Brien Creek, which stabs deep into the Grave Creek Range on the western edge of the Missoula Valley, is virtually uninhabited today.

Half a century ago, it contained a bustling town supported by a sawmill. It had two railroads, a narrow gauge line connecting to Hayes Spur and a standard gauge road with a Shay geared locomotive that fed logs to the mill.

Only the faintest traces of the town remain among the waving grass of the only wide spot in the O’Brien Creek Valley. And barring the way to the scene are fences which mark private property.

The foundations of the school, leveled to the ground, can be distinguished, and the broken stub of the school pump remains. Depressions in the ground along the edge of the bench show where outhouses of the town’s residences stood.

A few persons remember. John W. Cook of Seattle, who was a child in the unnamed town, wrote The Missoulian a letter giving some of the history of the place and sending the old picture reproduced on this page.

Charlie Graves, dude ranch proprietor, remembers. He was a boy there, too, and with some of his playmates just about destroyed the Shay engine as the result of some innocent fun.

Deputy Sheriff Clark Davis remembers. He was fireman and later engineer on the “dinky” engine of the narrow gauge railroad.

The town grew up with the Harper & Baird Lumber Co.[1] mill, operated by Bill Harper and Tom Baird. They first set up a mill in O’Brien Creek around 1905, about three miles west of the Maclay Ranch.

At first the logs were carried to the mill on chutes. Remains of the chutes are still visible in some of the side canyons. Logs were placed side by side and end to end with hewn faces tipped toward each other to form miles of chutes. Among the lowest grade woods workers were chute greasers, usually youths, who swabbed heavy grease on the chutes. Of a higher grade of workers were those who threw dirt on the chutes near the lower end to slow the logs enough so they wouldn’t tear down the mill on their arrival.

Later, the mill was moved to a site farther up the creek and a new system of chutes was constructed. In about 1907 the mill was moved to its final location, which became the site of the town during the eight years the mill operated there. The mill, which cut 30,000 feet of lumber a day, employed about 30 men, and another 30 worked in the woods.

The narrow gauge railroad was built by Harper and Baird to haul lumber to Hayes Spur, a siding on the Northern Pacific Railway at the site of the old Buckhouse Bridge, about a mile west of the present Buckhouse Bridge.

The distance of about five miles represented quite a trip for the dinky engine and five or six small cars of lumber, even though it was downhill out of the gulch, Davis recalled.

Getting back up with a train of supplies was even more of a problem. Davis said the engine burned lots of slab wood to make the trip and recalled that the steam pressure had to be just so.

The engine and rolling stock occasionally jumped the track but there was no need to call a wrecker. Davis said the crew would simply get a heavy timber and use it to pry the locomotive and cars back on the rails.

When the mill was moved to its final location, a standard gauge railroad was built 4 1/2 miles up the creek, with spurs up some of the hillsides, to haul the logs to the mill.

This railroad was powered by a locomotive driven by gears instead of the piston and rod arrangement which was familiar when steam locomotives were in use. The engine was built by the Shay company, the other common type of geared locomotive used in logging being built by Heisler.

Graves recalled that he and some other kids used to have fun by pushing a small handcar up the grade from the mill and then coasting back down, using a stick thrust down against the roadbed as a brake.

On one occasion, the stick broke and the car rolled free down the grade, faster and faster. One by one the boys jumped. Graves, aged about 8, was afraid to jump. Harry Cook, who was watching over young Graves, finally talked him into leaping just before the handcar hit a heavy car of rails. The car of rails was jolted into motion and it rolled down and hit the Shay engine, shoving it out onto a trestle.

Tom Baird was watching the incident from the mill and had visions of the $20,000 Shay engine being run off the end of the trestle.

But the engine was stopped by the timber bumper at the end of the trestle, and long afterward the marks of the wheel flanges showed in the bumper.

Did Baird whale the far out of the boys? He did not – he had brakes put on the handcars.

O’Brien Creek had been settled long before it had its short-lived town. Ed Hayes[2], at the age of 19, filed a claim on land in the valley and extending south in the 1860s, but he was below the required age of 21 and couldn’t hold it. Soon after the valley had one of the first sawmills in the area.

David O’Brien, for whom the area was named, was one of the early settlers, and he lived there until 1888.

Later residents included some colorful characters. Louis Vaughan, who ranched in the valley, reputedly was a Jesse James rider. He never came right out and said so, but he often told children of neighboring ranches of detailed adventures of the James gang, adding more than once that the notorious outlaw “had feet under my table.”

Graves remembers seeing him “fan” a gun. In this maneuver, used by gun fighters of the old west, the heel of the left hand was used to strike rapid blows on the hammer of the pistol held in the right hand. It was regarded as a faster way to empty a double-action revolver than by pulling the trigger.

“He did it like lightning,” Graves remembered.

Among the mill employes were Black Al Fowler, the sawyer, and Long Mac McDonald, who wrestled logs onto the saw carriage. The bull cook was Tom Sparks, who afterward was for many years elevator man at the Masonic Temple and became widely known.

Cook, whose letter reveals an amazing memory for detail, said the first school was a log structure at the foot of Haggerty Gulch, at the east end of the open portion of the valley. This was replaced in 1908 with an unpainted board school farther up the valley. The teacher there in 1910 was Miss Laura Cool, who has been Mrs. I. A. Haswell[3] of Missoula for the past 40 years.

This building was replaced in 1911 by one of planed lumber which was painted white. Cook recalled that it had a new world globe, a dictionary on a stand, four reflector style oil lamps and a new water bucket, all remarkable for the community.

Going into the real luxury class, the school board had a well dug, eliminating the trip by older boys to get buckets of water from a spring. The stub of this pump still remains among the waving grass.

Attending the school quite regularly was Zeke, a giant Great Dane, one of two pups of a dog purchased by the Cook family from an Uncle Tom’s Cabin troupe in Missoula in 1907.

Cook started school at the old Willard building in 1906 with Miss Minnie Spurgin as a teacher. Miss Fannie Robinson taught the second grade. The Cook family lived in a cottage in the orchard of the Prescott place, near the State University, and moved to O’Brien Creek in 1908. They moved back to town in 1911 after spotted fever had killed several O’Brien Creek residents.

Now, nearly half a century later, spotted fever and the unnamed town in O’Brien Creek are gone. Vaccines produced by research have ended spotted fever, and the inexorable processes of time have wiped out the once-thriving community.

 

The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on October 5, 1958.

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“Rover’s Rest” – Missoula’s Famous Hobo Hotel – 1929

“Stiffs” Hate “Dehorn” Addicts

Respectable Hoboes Bar Drinkers of Wood Alcohol From the Hotel De Bum, Noted Local Institution

By Thomas Duncan

The blown-in-the-class Stiff or Hobo, as he is commonly called, hates the Hi-Jacker, the Canned-Heat Artist and the Dehorn. I learned that the other day when I went down into the Jungles where the hobos hang out to get the Low Down.

The aristocrats of the box-cars, on arriving in Missoula, go down to Hotel De Bum, otherwise known as Rover’s Rest. The resort is located on the Milwaukee tracks, where the Bitter Root branch of the Northern Pacific crosses.

When the new arrival approaches the hotel one of the first things to attract his eye is a sign painted on the door, “No Dehorns allowed.” To those familiar with the lingo of jungle-land the sign has a significance. The sign refers to those tramps who drink “dehorn,” and “dehorn” itself is a drink made by mixing wood alcohol with water. Sometimes, when they can get it, the juice of fruit or berries is added to give the drink a more pleasant flavor. When the boys have mixed up a batch of this stuff and drink it, the results are about the same as come from any intoxicating liquor. Sometimes, though, “dehorn” causes blindness or insanity.

Another beverage is made by extracting the alcohol from “canned heat” and the effects are about the same as from “dehorn.”

Now and then the Dehorns move in on the respectable bunch at the “hotel,” and as there is neither manager, clerk nor bellboy on the job to keep order, the sober ones take it upon themselves to see to it that the roughnecks are ejected. Sometimes it turns out in a free-for-all, but as a rule the more temperate ones accomplish their purpose; that is, unless there are too many for them to manage. In the conversation one of the boys observed, “Dem Dehorns won’t let none o’ us decent guys sleep, and dey come down t’ d’ joint in d’ middle o’ d’ night all canned up and we hav t’ trow ‘em out.”

The “Hotel.”

On entering the lodge the newcomer observes both the luxury and peacefulness of the place. There are several double-deck bunks with mattresses on them, a table, heating stove, and over the table on a shelf is an alarm clock, ticking the time away until it will awaken one of the men to catch the next freight out. Several of the men were asleep; snores issued forth in competition with one another. An old man of about 70 was lying on his bunk reading one of the “confession” magazines. No sheets were on the mattresses, but the boys didn’t seem to mind a little thing like that, for they are used to sleeping ‘most anywhere.

Outside the door is always a load of wood which adds considerably to the comfort of the guests at Rover’s Rest these chilly nights. The wood has been put there through the kindness of the Polleys Lumber company and the tramps appreciate it. The hospitality of the place is known for hundreds of miles along the line, both east and west. The “hotel” was put up by the lumber company to protect its yards.

In the court behind the resort, the fire places have been built from scraps of old iron and here it is the Stiffs cook up feeds and boil out their clothes. Between two cottonwoods a clothesline has been stretched and it does duty nearly every hour of the day. Near the fires, which are kept burning most of the time, are packing boxes and crates which are used for tables, and on them practically every kind of a cooking utensil is to be found, together with knives, forks and spoons. They have been left there for anyone to use who wishes.

Tempting feeds are often cooked up and when there is any money in the crowd, it is pooled to buy a supply of meat and groceries for the bunch.

Three colored adventurers from the South were preparing breakfast. The can of coffee on the fire came to a boil, and nearby on one of the packing boxes was a can of fresh-fried sausages. The [Black Men] were hopping about in delight, tending to this and that, while one of them was serving the scrambled eggs and toast on the lids of tin cans. The table was set and they were ready to “have at ‘er.” It was a breakfast fit for anyone, and while they were laughing and talking, one could hear mentioned such cities as Memphis and Birmingham and the names of “gals” they knew down there.

“Hey, Slim.”

Someone was calling. I turned and saw a couple of neat-looking young fellows in working clothes. “Had breakfast, Slim?” one of them asked. I told them I had, but went over to talk and asked which way they were headed. They were both going to the coast and had stopped off in Missoula to clean up and wash their clothes before continuing on with their journey. When they had finished and I had heard at least a dozen times about the high cost of living, as was demonstrated by the small piece of liverwurst they had bought for their 39 cents, one of them gathered up the remainder of the meal and carried it to an old colored fellow who began to eat as if he had not had the pleasure in several days.

The old [Black man] was on his way to Tacoma and said he had stayed in jail there all last winter because he had no other place to sleep. When he was in the jail he was permitted one meal a day and that was “rotten,” he said.

Leaving the “hotel” for the Jungles east of Higgins avenue bridge with another fellow who was on his way up town to the employment office to see about a job, I met a couple of tramps coming toward us on the track in front of the Milwaukee depot. They were evidently new on the road or else awfully dumb, for they asked where it was the city was putting on the free feed for the Stiffs. When we told them we knew nothing about it, they told us that all along the line they had heard the city barbecued a beef for the tramps every day. When we told them someone had been “stringing” them, they refused to believe us and headed on down the track to find the mythical barbecue.

The “Jungles.”

East of the Higgins avenue bridge, in the trees by the irrigation ditch, were nine hobos, some sitting by the fire and three or four lying about among empty Sterno cans in the grass. The place is favorite with the Dehorns and Canned Heaters and one of the boys was very evidently sleeping off the effects of a spree. Another fellow was improving his mind reading the “Literary Digest” and was so interested in the subject matter he did not notice who came or went about him.

Beside the smoldering fire sat a man with his shoes off, applying cold cream to his feet. He said his feet were in bad shape and then went on to tell that kerosene would do just as well and added that the oil would cure most any kind of bug or snake bite. On the man’s hand was a scar which he said was caused by the bite of a rattlesnake down in “Arizony.” With emphasis he impressed upon me the fact that if it had not been for his having a can of kerosene handy at the time, he would not have been there to tell me the story.

“Big Shots.”

Often the residents of Missoula are host to some of the most distinguished knights of the road, for the visitor to the jungles will hear casually mentioned the names of such famous men as Dirty Face Jack, Frisco Slim, Marmon Red and others who pass through at least once a year.

Many of the men who travel about the country on the boxcars have regular trades which they follow when they can get work.[1] Others are from the “hoosegows,” as they call the jails.

During the fire season when forest fires are continually “blowing up” in this district, the word passes all along the road and men flock here to go to work for the forest service. Some are harvest hands on their way to new fields, many of them recently went through to Washington to pick the apple crop. Others who have made their “stake” are on their way to the coast and points south, where they will winter.

Hunting Jobs.

The tramp of today is forced by circumstances, in many instances, to travel from place to place in search of a new job. He is a builder of bridges and tunnels. He works in logging camps and on all manner of construction jobs. They all have their stories and talk of Chicago as “Chi” and Cincinnati as “Cincey.” One man told of seeing Toni Lombardo, the Chicago gangster, shot on the street. Another said he knew Scarface Al Capone personally, as well as many of the other racketeers. He was fresh from Chicago and knew all the latest dope on the gang wars, had driven a liquor car and knew the methods of the booze operators in the Windy city.

When on the road the experienced Stiff, as he prefers to be called rather than Hobo, if he has any money, does not take it with him but sends it ahead by post office money order, for he knows of the hi-jacker and his methods. One fellow told of his experience with hi-jackers and said that at one time he with about 20 other men, who had recently been paid off in the harvest fields near Great Falls, were in a boxcar traveling at night. The hi-jackers swung into the open door of the car from the roof. The first man into the car pulled some newspapers from his coat and set fire in them, thus making a torch. Immediately his partner swung into the car and in a moment had his pistol out and ordered the harvest hands to line up facing the wall of the car. Then the hi-jackers made short work of taking the money, which amounted to several hundred dollars.

There are two more Jungles in the city besides those mentioned, one on the river bank below the city dump and the other on the river bank a few hundred feet west of the Van Buren street bridge. There are no real Jungles on the Northern Pacific. There would be if water, shade and resting places were convenient. However, men do congregate on the west end of the Northern Pacific yards, but only long enough to catch the next train out.

 

The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on October 20, 1929.

 

Attempts to remove and eliminate the transients from the Polley’s Mill location were unsuccessful for many years. An article in the Missoulian two years later in 1931, stated that “Rover’s Rest” would be boarded up because of health problems, but another Missoulian article the following year noted that men were still spending nights in the “shack” during the cold weather. That would have been in the middle of the ‘Great Depression.’

While the shack may have been eliminated, men were still camping in this spot when this author noticed them when exploring the area, and while trekking to the McCormick Park swimming pool in the 1950’s. Closure of the Milwaukee Rail line in 1979 probably spelled the end of camping in that area.

The great stock market crash occurred over September and October 1929. 4 days after the article above appeared, on Oct. 24, 1929, the market fell 11%, the day given the title of “Black Thursday.”

A native Missoulian, the author of the above article, Thomas Duncan, was the son of revered Missoula judge, Asa Duncan.

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Four Missoulian Views of Weeksville – “Tough Railroad Town”

 

Tale of Forgotten Cities Is Recited

Old-Timer Tells of Weeksville, Where Bandits Were Hanged

A story of a community of more than 5,000 persons which virtually sprang up over night and then disappeared as suddenly was told yesterday by an old-timer Missoulian, who has lived here since the Northern Pacific was completed.

That city is Weeksville – and her history is similar to that of three others which housed workers connected with the construction of the Northern Pacific railway in the early ‘80s. Weeksville is not one of the famous dead cities of the west – there is hardly a trace of it left, whereas the dead cities were of permanent enough construction to leave evidences of the life that once throbbed through their thoroughfares.

The history of Weeksville was brought to mind through the discovery of the skeletons of the two bandits, “Ohio Dan” and “Barber Jim,” last week. Both of these men were known to the old-timer.

The old-timer went to Weeksville in the fall of 1882, when he was clerking for the Eddy-Hammond Mercantile company, the predecessor of the Missoula Mercantile company. He was very young in those days, and had gone first as a representative of the company to Shannonville, west of the present site of Thompson Falls, in the spring of 1882. Shannonville was a city of same type – a tent city made up of gamblers, merchants, railroad workers and Chinese.

In the summer of the year above mentioned, the inhabitants of Shannonville “pulled stakes” and moved eastward to Thompson Prairie, the new operation end, with Weeksville the new track end. The store followed the crowd, but the old-timer moved on to Weeksville, where he set up a store as a representative of his company. He stayed in Weeksville during the fall and winter of 1882 – 1883.

Weeksville, which now is represented only by a station – more even than the other frontier towns – then had a population of more than 5,000, counting the floaters. Its term of life was longer than that of the others because of two rock cuts which had to be blasted out.

As an example of the magnitude of the rock work, he described one blast which occurred. A large chamber was constructed, into which was transferred many tons of powder for the one blast. There were other blasts almost as large, he remembers.

There is a cloud in the mind of the old-timer as to the identity of the two men who were found. As he remembers it, they were buried on the flats and not in the bank. Also the description by which certain old-timers had identified the skeletons stated that “Ohio Dan” was identified because one leg was shorter than the other. As to the burial place, the old-timer said he could be mistaken because he had left Weeksville for Last Chance two days before the men were executed.

But he had a definite explanation for the reason of Ohio Dan’s lameness. Dan had got into a row with an express messenger on a train and reached for his gun. As he grabbed his weapon he accidently pulled the trigger and the bullet clipped off the tip of his heel. Consequently Dan used crutches for the short remainder of his life.

When the old-timer met Ohio Dan, he was a hard-worker, making ties for the Eddy-Hammond company. Finally he got in with a “bad bunch of fellows” and got to gambling and into other deviltry.

The capture of the two bandits came as a result of a decision by the railroad company to clean up some of the “bad men” of the district. There were bad men there, old-timer says, and they were nervy men, well able and ready to defend themselves – and they were dead shots. At the time the clean-up started there had been a large number of hold-ups, sluggings and some murders.

Weeksville, and her sister towns which too have disappeared, were rough frontier towns. They were “wide open.” The railroad workers would come to town every two weeks and stay until they had spent their earnings and then return to work. Every man “packed a gun” in those days, and some of them used them. It was not that these men were looking for trouble but each man was the defender of his own rights. The professional man carried his gun out in the open where everyone could see it, the same as anyone else.

At its height Weeksville contained approximately 1,000 who were merchants, saloonkeepers or gamblers. Some had their families there. Western chivalry decreed that in any case women were respected – and that tradition was lived up to, the old-timer avers. When a saloon or gambling den opened up, the signal of its opening was to throw the key into the street, because from that day to the end it never would be closed.

When Weeksville was done for – when the railroad forces were moved farther east to the last stand of the frontier towns during the railroad construction, the businesses and sporting places moved likewise to Last Chance, at the confluence of the Missoula and Flathead rivers.

Last Chance was so named, the old-timer explains, because it was the last where one could get a drink before he entered the reservation.

“Many people will be skeptical concerning a recital of the days when the Northern Pacific was built,” said the old-timer. “But it is true. It was a repetition of the old frontier days when the Union Pacific was stretched across the continent. Perhaps the nearest to a revival of the frontier days as we knew them was during the gold rush in Alaska, when Dawson was such a camp.

“It is an experience that one can get only by living in that environment,” concluded the old-timer with a wistful smile and a far-away look in his eyes.

 

The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on March 2, 1924.

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An article in The Weekly Missoulian in 1909 painted a slightly different picture of hangings described above. See excerpt below:

“At Weeksville five road agents, or thugs, as they were called, met their fate. They had been murdering people for some time, and in some cases would even kill a man for his watch or for fun, just to be doing something; but at last they were caught and brought up before a court composed of the settlers and found guilty. Then Judge Sanders, the man for whom our county was later named, sentenced them to be hanged. Three were strung up to a large fir tree, which is still standing, just across Weeksville creek bridge. Two more were shot while trying to get away and the sixth was crowded so closely by the men that he jumped into the river; he was fired upon and when almost across the stream he went down. Some thought, he was shot while others thought he was seized with cramps and drowned. He was not seen after that, until about 10 years later when some of the old settlers recognized a man who was brought up for stealing horses as the same fellow. This time he didn’t get away so easily. He was sent to the penitentiary for a term of one year. Crooked as he was, he must have had lots of grit to come back to the place from which he was driven years before.”

 

The excerpt above is from the Weekly Missoulian on November 12, 1909.

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Will Cave, the Missoula historian, also addressed the Weeksville hangings in one of his Missoulian columns in 1922 – excerpt below:

The Weeksville Vigilantes.

During the winter of 1882-3, while “Hallett’s Army” was building the grade and laying the track for the Northern Pacific railroad along the Clark’s Fork, they established winter headquarters and chief supply point at Weeksville, eight miles west of Plains. Gamblers, thugs, desperadoes galore gathered at this point to prey upon the laborers who were drawing down regular pay checks. Robbery and murder soon became everyday occurrences. It is probable that in comparison to its population as well as in consideration to its relatively brief period of existence as a “town,” Weeksville was one of the toughest if not the very toughest place which ever sprung up in the west, and which I realize, is a mighty strong assertion. Under conditions then prevailing, the location was just sufficiently removed from legal authority to stimulate the natural tendencies of the lawless to extremes of violence, that lawless element evidently presuming the situation such as to render its activities as practically immune from any reckoning for its misdeeds. This condition of affairs prevailed pretty considerably for so long a time as comparatively unknown laborers were the only victims, but at length, when one night on the Weeksville bridge, but a stone’s throw from the headquarters, the company physician was held up and robbed, the better element discovered it was time to call a halt. A Vigilance Committee was formed which in accomplishment did no discredit to its forerunners of ’64. The Weeksville committee did not confine their work strictly to the use of the hangman’s knot, but often used the trusty Colt or Winchester to as deadly purpose.

The Case of “Billy the Kid.”

I have no data from which to draw details, with one exception. During the summer of 1882 there was a “bad man” gambler and thug around Missoula who had tacked on to himself the nickname of “Billy the Kid,” in emulation of the notorious Arizona bandit. I have seen him often. When he became a victim of the Weeksville committee, a current narration of the manner of his taking off still remains in memory. He was called to the door of a saloon, by the committee and told to run. He was started in the direction of the river which was distant about 100 yards. By the time he reached the water’s edge he was carrying so much lead that, plunging in, the 50 feet depth of water there precluded the necessity of any formal burial. There were three men hanging from one tree near town one morning. The Vigilantes’ operations lasted over only a few days, but were complete. It was estimated that in one month through murder or by the activities of the committee, between 30 and 50 men died “with their boots on.” During the summer following, it was nothing whatever uncommon to find a corpse along the edge of the river anywhere below Weeksville.

The above excerpt is from The Sunday Missoulian on February 19, 1922.

 

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Probably the most accurate Weeksville story – 1941

Tales of Long Ago: Weeksville

By Dan Arms.

As Told to James W. Faulds

Weeksville, 84 miles west of Missoula, during the fall of 1882 and winter and spring of 1883, was the principal construction town along the Northern Pacific on the western section of the railway that was being built east to connect with the construction from the east at Gold creek – 61 miles east of Missoula. In fact Missoula is almost in the center of the gap that was to be closed by the completion of the railroad at Gold Creek in 1883.

Weeksville had one hotel, five restaurants, four general stores, 10 saloons and two hurdy gurdy dance halls.

A population of 1,000 increased 500 at night by the workers who came to town for relaxation. All travel was by stage or other horse-drawn vehicles.

During the winter of 1882 and 1883 the town got tough. Many of the workmen were held up and robbed during the night life and a number of times slugged men were thrown in the river which bordered the town. Some came to the surface down the river and were identified as men working in the vicinity of Weeksville. Because of this the people of Weeksville and vicinity proceeded to plan a stop to the lawlessness. During January, 1883, a Vigilante committee was organized at a railroad construction camp four miles east of Weeksville. Notices “3-7-77” were posted at the camp and at Weeksville. The figures in those days were well known to all as a warning to those without visible means of support to leave the vicinity. The railroad camp was known as No. 13. Many who were leaving the camp took up their abode in Weeksville. Word was sent to the camp about its undesirables taking up their abode in the town.

One afternoon a party of Vigilantes came from Camp 13 to Weeksville, took one “Billy the Kid,” not the “Arizona Kid,” near the river to hang him. While the Vigilantes were getting a rope over the limb of a tree, the “Kid” tore loose from his captors, ran to the river, out onto the ice and jumped into the water and disappeared in the current. While he was running to the river many shots were fired at him and he fell once, but got up and made it to the water.

After this many were seen taking the railroad grade for the west. Shortly after, while the Vigilantes were giving one “Blondy” the third degree, he was promised he would go free if he told who had been doing the “holding up” and taking money from the men who were working on the construction when they came to town on pay days. His list as given to the Vigilantes contained among others, “Billy the Barber” and “Ohio Dan,” who were then on their way west toward Idaho.

The Vigilantes went to the superintendent of construction and told him the story. He gave them an engine and caboose and told them to go west on the railroad line. They found the pair at Clark’s Fork, Idaho. They were brought back to a point two miles west of Weeksville and hanged.

During highway construction a number of years ago a steam shovel working in a cut of sand uncovered the skeletons. All that remained were bones, shoes, with only the soles and frayed leather. A $10 gold piece and a $20 gold piece were found, along with part of the sweatband of a hat. Also there was a barber’s hone, which is now in the possession of William G. Brooks, then state fire marshal, who was on the scene when the bones were uncovered.

The only safe in Weeksville was in the general store of Eddy, Hammond & Co., a branch of the Missoula store. This firm later became incorporated as the Missoula Mercantile company. Large sums of money were kept on hand to pay off the men who were working in the sawmills and woods nearby. A faro dealer who had a $5,000 bank roll always left his money in the safe during the day while he slept and called for it in the evening when he opened his game, which ran through the night. One evening, when leaving with his money, he said he would not bring it back in the morning as he heard the store was to be robbed. Immediately the manager and clerks buckled on .45 Colts revolvers, placed shotguns loaded with buckshot at convenient places and gave out word the store was ready for any holdup. But it was not attempted. The tipoff from the gambler probably saved the day.

During the winter of 1882 and 1883 there were 2,000 white men and 5,000 Chinamen working on construction between Heron and Plains. No construction machinery was used, the work being done by manual labor, team and scraper.

 

The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on September 21, 1941.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/352372326/

 

Dan Arms was long time Montana resident starting in 1882, when he went to work for the Eddy & Hammond Co. in Missoula, and at points west. He saw many of the key events in Western Montana’s growth throughout his life. He died in Missoula in 1943.

James Faulds was a Missoulian reporter, correspondent, and editor for almost 40 years – 1920 to 1958. His father, J. R. Faulds, at one time was publisher of the Stevensville, N. W. Tribune.

Victory Field Goes On Auction Block (1954)

Victory Field in southeast Missoula is passing from the city’s athletic picture and entering a new phase of existence which will see it as the site of homes.

The Board of County Commissioners will sell the land in the field May 3 at 10:30 a.m. at the Courthouse. The map accompanying this article shows how the ground in the area is platted as Hammond Addition 7 to Missoula and how it has been broken up into lots.

Officially the land is called lots 1 to 16, both inclusive, in block 60, and lots 1 to 16, both inclusive in block 61, Hammond Addition 4, but it was redesigned by agreement of city and county officials.

Money from the sale will go to the Missoula county airport fund and will be earmarked for use in erection of buildings at the Missoula County Airport, west of the city. Land at Hale Field, south of the city, was traded to the High School Board of Trustees in return for the practice field.

The Victory field dedication game was played Oct. 6, 1934, when Missoula defeated Whitefish.

Only a few high school varsity games were played at Victory Field, none after the lights were installed at Dornblaser Field in 1937.

However, the Missoula B team has played all of its home games at Victory Field through the past 20 years, and the Spartans, the Bombers and the freshmen all have used it for practice.

Sportsmen say plenty of rock grows on the gridiron itself.

The track and field has been used for nearly all of Missoula high school’s track meets in the past 20 years and Spartans have scored some notable triumphs there. Butte Bulldogs have been able to beat them at Victory Field, three times in all, probably the only dual meet losses.

Part of the stands were moved to the Legion baseball field on Stephens avenue in 1942, leaving about half.

Victory Field is the place where Missoula high schools [illegible] track and field teams have been developed from the freshman through the B squad to the Spartan varsity all these 20 years.

Colonel George F. Weisel supervised the building of the field.

The history of the ground dates back on official records until well before the turn of the century. According to an abstract of the property on file at the courthouse, Truman and Thomas K. Andrews located and claimed a water right for the property on May 21, 1880. They claimed all the water from Deer Creek above the falls near the mouth of Pattee Canyon. (There is no fall at this location now, nor has there been in recent years.)

The Northern Pacific Railway sold the land to the South Missoula Land Co. for $3,360 in 1889, according to a deed dated Sept. 23, that year. The South Missoula Land Co. sold the property to the county July 3, 1925, and clearing of the site for eventual use as an athletic field started the following year, eight years before the dedication game was played.

The field, when laid out, was all by itself on the southeast of the settled part of Missoula. Little by little the city has moved toward it and then moved around the field. Now the land is well within the settled area.

The sale will be a public auction at the front door of the Courthouse. No bid will be accepted for less than 90 per cent of the appraised value of each lot. The appraised value of the corner lots is $2,750 and the appraised value of the inside lots is $2,000. The corner lots are 77 feet by 130 feet and the inside lots are 60 by 130 feet. The county will reserve mineral and oil rights in the property, and also reserve the right to reject any and all bids.

The field is bounded by Maurice avenue on the east, Woodworth avenue on the south, Arthur Avenue on the west and Hastings avenue on the north.

The Missoula County Airport, where new buildings will be constructed, is about 5 miles west of Missoula. It was opened in June 1941. A new administration building was constructed in the last few years, and a smoke jumper center is now under construction.

Hale Field, also involved in the land transaction, was opened by Robert R. Johnson and Nick Mamer in 1927.[1] Johnson may move his flying service to the county airport. An elementary school, the Lewis and Clark School, is being erected in part of Hale Field and a high school athletic practice area has been completed at Hale Field. A proposal to construct a second high school plant on Hale Field will be voted upon May 8. Johnson would lease county buildings at the airport should plans materialize.

 

The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on April 25, 1954.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349667067/

 

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349667067/?terms=evans%2Bhastings%2Bwoodworth

Pathetic Scene – Missoula Mercantile Windows

 

Sad Recollections.

A Show Window Brings Up the Past to Husband and Wife.

One of the most pathetic scenes witnessed in Missoula for a long time occurred in front of the Missoula Mercantile company store last night shortly before 9 o’clock. There were few people on the street at the time, but those who saw what took place were moved with compassion for the couple whoever they were. They came from around Higgins avenue and turned east on Front street, evidently on a walk through the business portion of the city, and were taking in the sights of the different displays of holiday goods which are being shown in the windows of the several stores. From their dress and demeanor they belong to the well to do class and were unmindful of anyone watching them. In fact no one paid any attention to them until they came in front of the east window of the dry goods department of the Missoula Mercantile company store. As soon as the woman glanced in the window she burst into tears and going up to the window she cried until it seemed her heart would break. Her husband could not keep his tears back, either from the same sorrow or from seeing his wife in tears. The cause of their sorrow has already been described in the Missoulian as one of the most beautiful scenic effects at window decorating ever seen in the city, which is nothing more nor less than a Christmas scene representing a little girl sparingly clad leaning against a fence surrounding a mansion wherein a Christmas tree can be seen. Of course it is only a picture, or scenic effect, but the idea is good and artistically carried out.

A person who was an eye witness, anxious to find out if there was not something which caused the sight to sadden them, determined to investigate and politely spoke to the couple who were standing before the window. When asked about it they frankly told their enquirer that a few years ago when they were not in as good circumstances as they are now, they had a darling little girl with curly yellow hair, the same as the image in the window. It was back east and the time was Christmas. She went down town along with some older children to view the show windows, and inside of an hour she was brought home a corpse, having been run down while crossing a street. Unfortunately at that time they did not have the wherewith to make their child happy with a Christmas tree or Christmas presents, so they let her go down to the shops to satisfy her little eyes on the beauty and luxury around her and it resulted in her death. It was amid their tears they admitted this much, when all at once they seemed to start at the fact that they were confiding to a stranger. Noticing their embarrassment the person with whom they were conversing promised to withhold their identity, for they admitted they were residents of Missoula, and while they were not ashamed of their past life or the death of the little girl they did not want it publicly known about the scene in front of the show window last night.

However, this much was given for publication by one of the party who saw them.

 

The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on December 15, 1896.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349026940/

 

The scene in the Missoula Mercantile window above was described in the Missoulian the previous day:

One of the best scenic window decorations ever exhibited in the windows of the dry goods department of the Missoula Mercantile company is now on exhibition in their windows. It is the handiwork of C. C. Sanders who is an artist of exceptional taste as evidenced by this, his latest production. The scene is midwinter at Christmas time, showing a mansion with snow covered roof. The surroundings, including the yard, fence, trees and street are covered with snow and frost. On the trees are a few snow birds looking down upon a poor little girl who stands in the street leaning on the fence and looking mournfully in on a beautiful Christmas tree in the mansion which can be seen through the windows. The child in the street looks almost lifelike and the production of the scene throughout has called forth praise from every one who has seen it.

 

The excerpt above appeared in The Daily Missoulian on December 14, 1896.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349026923/?terms=%22little%2Bgirl%22%2B1896

Drownings / Dangerous Ferrys / Handsome Harry’s Buried Gold / William / Cyrus / and Charlie McWhirk

 

“Hell Gate is Humping High” [1872]

Missoula Ferry Gone – Louis Caro Drowned

The Hell Gate is humping high, from all accounts, although the Deer Lodge and upper tributaries are behaving in a highly creditable manner. On last Saturday night, at 10 o’clock, McWhirk’s ferry boat at Missoula broke away, with Mr. Winslett, Louis Caro and the ferryman on board, and also Winslett’s team and wagon load of flour. Winslett and Caro jumped off at once, and the former got ashore. Caro was drowned. The ferryman staid on board for some distance, but finally jumped off and swam ashore, leaving the flour and ferry boat to the will of the waters. The next morning Mr. A. H. Ross and another person went some distance down the river in a skiff in search of the body of Caro, but without success. It is understood he had considerable money on his person when drowned. We have been unable to learn anything of him, other than that he resided in the Bitter Root Valley. It is rumored the boat was recovered.

 

The above article appeared in The New North-West (Deer Lodge, Montana) on May 25, 1872.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/143603029

 

M. A. Leeson’s ‘History of Montana’ says William McWhirk and Mccune used a wire rope to operate their ferry across the Missoula river, starting in 1871.[1] [Missoula’s 1^st bridge washed out the summer of 1871.]

 

Below is a short item regarding the above accident from the Bozeman Avant Courier on June 13, 1872:

M. D. Fulkerson of Stevensville, has been appointed administrator of the estate of the late deceased, Louis Caro.

Messrs. McWhirk & McEwen, have with commendable haste replaced their lost ferry boat by a new one of somewhat larger proportions, which they located a little above the former place. It is thought to be more secure now since the current is equally divided there.

 

https://www.newspapers.com/image/174770790/?terms=louis%2Bcaro

 

There exists one mention of a Louis Caro at Virginia City, Montana territory.

Another mention of a Louis Caro appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on December 24, 1868:

“Louis A. Caro, a native of France, was yesterday admitted to citizenship by the Fourth District Court.”

 

Another Tragedy for Missoula

A. H. Ross, one of the search party mentioned above, drowned tragically himself in July of 1872. The article below is from the Helena Weekly Herald on July 11, 1872:

Sad Accident Near Moose Creek Ferry.

A Prominent Citizen of Missoula Drowned.

The following special dispatch to the DAILY HERALD brings us the painful intelligence of a sad accident which recently occurred near Moose Creek Ferry[2], resulting in the death of a prominent merchant of Missoula, well known to many of our citizens:

Deer Lodge, July 9^th, 1872.

To the Editor of the Herald:

A special from Missoula reports the death of A. H. Ross, a druggist of that town. He left Missoula on the 6^th inst., with M. Bettner’s surveying party, enroute to Pend’Oreille Lake. The party consisted of Messrs. Bettner, Rhoades, Campbell, Deery and Ross. About one mile above Moose Creek Ferry, their boat ran into a whirlpool, swamped and went down. All were saved with the exception of Mr. Ross, who was drowned. Deceased was an enterprising young man, and the owner of a fine drug store in Missoula. His loss is deeply regretted.

John Winslett, who survived the Missoula ferry accident above, was one of the founders of Stevensville, Montana, in 1863. With J. K. Houk as a partner, he started that town’s first mercantile store a half mile south Fort Owen. Three Buck brothers bought the Winslett business in 1876.

 

McWhirks

William McWhirk’s history in Montana is a long one. With his younger brother, Cyrus, he is sometimes given credit for Missoula being noted as the “Garden City.” At least three McWhirk brothers[3] were in Missoula during the 1870’s, having come from Ohio, and though none of them remained in Missoula permanently, they left a mark. In 1871 Cyrus McWhirk patented 160 acres in Missoula, some of which was later registered as McWhirk’s addition. It covered what is now a large portion of the heart of downtown Missoula, including parts of E. Front, E. Main and E. Broadway; 160 acres equaling about 120 football fields; all of these north of the Hell Gate River.

William McWhirk had several Hell Gate connections. He was at Fort Hall in Idaho in 1852 where he worked two years for another prominent Hell Gate pioneer, Captain Richard Grant. He then whipsawed lumber, built a boat and ran the Snake River to Fort Boise where he operated a ferry for 3 years. In 1857 he moved to Walla Walla and is credited with opening the 1^st mercantile store there. In 1859 he sold out to Frank Worden (a Hell Gate Founder) and invested in a cattle and ranching operation. Cyrus, according to the census, also lived at Walla Walla in 1860.

By 1866 William had a financial setback and moved to Missoula where Cyrus had already settled. Cyrus appears in an informal census of Western Montana citizens taken in 1862-63, residing at Fort Owen. Another younger McWhirk brother, George Byron, also appeared at Missoula at about that time. The three came from Ohio, with William, born in 1827, the oldest male from a family of eleven children.

The McWhirks’ were prominent in early Missoula, operating a mercantile store, saloon, billiard hall and shooting gallery. Cyrus owned property east of town where he cultivated a large garden and planted fruit trees. According to Frank Woody, a man named Ritz brought a load of trees from Walla Walla with a large pack train and sold the trees in the Bitter Root and Missoula in 1867. McWhirks’ started one of Missoula’s first orchards from this shipment. Cyrus was credited with growing the first grapes in Montana and was harvesting plums from his trees by 1871.

William was on the school board for the 1^st school in Missoula in 1869. His children, Etta and Charles, attended the first classes under Emma Slack [Dickinson], Missoula’s first teacher. Several noted Missoula families sent children to this class, including two Higgins sons. As noted above William also operated a ferry across the Hell Gate River. By 1870 he was also overseeing a toll road, ferry and restaurant business near Cedar Creek (Superior) where gold stampeders had created a booming business. As with many gold stampedes this one petered out by the following year.

In 1872 William was back in Missoula and active in the local petition drive to secure a Military establishment, anticipating that Flathead Indians were an imminent threat. The petition letter stated that “we are far removed from any military post or garrison, and that during nearly the whole year our valleys are filled with Indians of different tribes connected with and in sympathy with the Flatheads.” Leading citizens organized a “military company” with C. P. Higgins as the designated Captain and William McWhirk as 1^st Lieutenant.

By 1874, the McWhirk’s owned a great deal of property in Missoula which they began to develop. A land surveyor, W. W. Johnson from Deer Lodge, helped create what became the McWhirk Addition. It covered an eastern portion of the town from Clay street across Rattlesnake Creek, almost to the base of Mt. Jumbo. Soon after the Johnson survey, the tract was sold to a group of local investors, including Worden, McCormick and Kennett. McWhirks also sold property on Front Street to John Rankin and 10 acres, near the river, to Alfred Urlin.

What was described as Missoula’s 1^st brick home was built by a McWhirk at about this time. Later known as the Hartman house it was located at 625 E. Front Street. It was eventually torn down in the construction of the current Madison St. bridge. One Missoulian article stated that Charles McWhirk, son of William, lived at 625 E. Front Street. A Missoulian photograph of the house (6/3/1951) shows a large 2 story building with a 3^rd story cupola. Another reputed McWhirk house, at 503 E. Front, was recently the subject of Missoulian articles which described its early building materials and their origin. It was thought to have been built about “1867 – 1869,” and was believed built for Cyrus McWhirk’s young bride.

Cyrus became a father in 1875. Earlier in 1870, it was noted that at age 33, he had married a girl 15 years old. Strangely, he appeared in court in 1876 and was fined $100 for attempting to “bring his wife up in the fear and admonition of the Lord.”

William’s daughter, 13-year-old Etta, was injured in the summer of 1872, and died that fall. William’s 16-year-old son, Charles, was recruited as a member of the complement of citizens and soldiers that stood bravely in the mouth of Lolo Canyon in 1877, attempting to block hundreds of well-armed Nez Perce Indians who were fleeing U. S. troops. Part Native American himself, Charles was hailed as a crack shot and one who would fight as well as anyone. The whole affair became known as Fort Fizzle and reminds us today that Montana was then rife with unsettled Native American questions and remains so to this day. William attempted to do his part when he brought liquor from his establishment and passed it around to those who needed to boost their courage.

George Hartman purchased the McWhirk house and garden property in 1878. A newspaper account pointed out that Hartman hoped to restore the McWhirk gardens to their former glory. In 1878 William moved to Corvallis, Montana where he opened another mercantile establishment and became heavily involved in local affairs. He died there in 1889. Cyrus moved to Fort Benton and died there in 1881. Illusive George Byron McWhirk, a civil war veteran, moved to Eastern Montana and apparently died in California in 1910.

According to the Helena Weekly Herald of 2/26/1874, the mother of the McWhirk family, Alvira, died in the Bitter Root valley in 1874[4] at the home of Horace C. McWhirk, when she was 70 years old. An article in the New Northwest newspaper two years earlier had noted that a Mr. McWhirk, 1 year from Ohio, was successfully farming on sixteen acres and lived sixteen miles from Missoula. The location, given this description, would have been somewhere near the present Ravalli county line. The article’s author, traveling down the Bitter Root, later stopped to observe several Indian women vigorously threshing grain from a field while their men were “inveigling fish from the river nearby.”[5] The author of this article very likely was Charles Schafft.

 

Charles McWhirk

Which brings us to another Charles who was almost as remarkable as Mr. Charles Schafft; Charles McWhirk, son of William McWhirk.

Charles (Charlie) McWhirk’s story is an interesting one that will likely never be completely unearthed, but parts of it are available with a little digging.

One researcher has found that Charles’ father, William McWhirk, married Margaret LaRocque in 1859, in Washington Territory. One family history states she was born in 1844 in Oregon and was the daughter of Joseph Sebastian LaRoque and Marie Ann Cayuse. They divorced in 1863 after having 2 children, Henry E. and Charles. She later married Louis Bonifer in Walla Walla and had two more children. Upon her death at Athena, Oregon in 1909, she refused to grant Charles more than one dollar of her estate, citing his refusal to correspond with her.

 

http://ww2020.net/wp-content/uploads/william_mcwhirk.pdf

 

Probably the finest story about Charles McWhirk is the last one, told by his friend, Missoula historian Will Cave in The Sunday Missoulian in 1942: [Quoted below]:

Link With State’s Past Broken By Death of Charles McWhirk

Report of the death of Charles McWhirk, 81, at Sula Friday, was to most who heard it of no greater significance than that one more pioneer resident of Western Montana had passed on taking with him a rich store of memories of his long life in this region.

To Will Cave, the death of Mr. McWhirk was not only the passing of an old friend, but the breaking of a link in the rapidly fraying chain that binds Montana of the present to its rich and colorful past. For Mr. Cave, slightly younger than the man who died at the home of a son Friday, was an intimate of his boyhood and he recalled many of their adventures together when they were Missoula school boys.

Son of William McWhirk, for whom the McWhirk addition is named, Charles McWhirk came to Missoula from Idaho, where he was born when that state was a part of Oregon territory. His mother was an exceptionally beautiful half-Indian woman of the Umatilla tribe, and Mr. Cave attributed to his Indian blood many of the traits and characteristics that made his friend a personality so out of the ordinary that he was remarkable in a day when remarkable and colorful personalities were the rule rather than the exception.

Game and fish were of such abundance in Western Montana in their boyhood that even the poorest hunter and fisherman could be assured of good results from any hunting trip or fishing excursion, Mr. Cave said, but added that even then the 17-year-old McWhirk, was known as the Boy Hunter and that his exploits and those of his English setter, Sam Patch, were known and related far and wide. He said that he recalled very well that on a day that they went fishing on Miller creek, 15 miles from Missoula, Charles had killed two deer and that he had remarked that this brought his total to 100.

In school McWhirk had excelled in scholarship and was the favorite of his teachers as well as of his fellow students, Mr. Cave said. When the Nez Perces came across the Lolo pass from Idaho [1877] the lad, at 17, was enlisted as a volunteer in the company of E. R. Kenny, who had been his teacher for several years. He served with this company at Lolo with the United States Army forces under Captain Rawn, who had just founded Fort Missoula. The encampment at Lolo was later to be known as Fort Fizzle, when Chief Joseph took his large band of Indians and escaped from the whites in his famous march. It has always been believed and was at one time generally admitted that Captain Rawn had performed a masterly feat in arranging this retreat, thereby sparing both the Indians and the whites needless massacre. The young McWhirk, however, performed the duties of a soldier with the best of his older but no more seasoned comrades, and his marksmanship was the envy of every man in the company. Mr. Cave said that he recalled even now with considerable poignance his own disappointment that he was left behind because he was too young to own a gun, whereas his slightly older comrade not only had a gun but a dandy.

In his early years, Mr. McWhirk was employed for a time by A. B. Hammond and later at Deer Lodge. In Missoula, he was a favorite with all prominent early-day Missoulians and a brilliant career was predicted for him. Removal of his family to Corvallis, where his father operated a store, changed the course of the young man’s life in the pioneer conditions that then prevailed, and he gradually became interested in pursuits that kept him close to the Bitter Root for the remainder of his life.

Mr. Cave said that news of Mr. McWirk’s death would bring back vividly to many of the pioneer residents of Western Montana memories of the brilliant and handsome boy who had come to Missoula with his parents in early days.

The body of the pioneer is at the Dowling funeral home in Hamilton. Funeral arrangements will not be made until word has been received from a number of relatives.

Married to Alice Byron Overturf, member of another pioneer Bitter Root family, Mr. McWhirk is survived by seven of their 14 children. These are Mrs. Henrietta MacKay, Mullan, Idaho; David V. (Jack) McWhirk, Cle Elum, Wash., Mrs. Ernest Townsend, Mrs. Ruth Lucas of Darby; Mrs. Martha Cruson and Donald McWhirk, Mill City, Ore., and Frank McWhirk of Sula.

There are 19 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren. Two grandsons, Martin Townsend and Paul Holt, are in the United States Navy.

 

The above obituary is from The Sunday Missoulian on July 26, 1942.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349212993/?terms=mcwhirk

 

In another of Will Cave’s many Missoulian historical articles,[6] he discussed early Missoula and his fascination with local theater. One [Charles Algernon Sydney] Vivian, founder of the National Elks Club movement and a showman, spent a few days in Missoula when Cave was a youngster.[7]

Charles McWhirk memories came up in this article:

“Charles McWhirk, now of Darby, son of the bully old pioneer, who platted McWhirk’s addition to the city, then a school boy something older than myself, was extremely apt in picking up airs, dances, etc. By the time [Charles Algernon Sydney] Vivian had concluded his engagement here, Charley knew about all of the songs as well as the dance. I soon learned them from him. I could show you the steps of the Vivian shuffle yet, if necessary.”

 

Will Cave wrote another article about explorer David Thompson’s ascent of Mount Jumbo, when the explorer came through the valley. He fondly remembered his experience with Charles McWhirk on top of that mountain[8]:

“Who was the first white man to stand upon the summit of Mount Jumbo? No, I am not going to lay claim to any such distinction, even if in April, 1878, Charles McWhirk and I did play a game of marbles on the tip top, it being certain that no other two small boys may dispute our being the first and probably the only youngsters to essay the national spring pastime at that particular point.”

 

“Handsome Harry”

Charles McWhirk and Will Cave were central figures in one of Missoula’s oldest mystery tales – the legend of “Handsome Harry,” his hidden grave, and his lost gold.

An article in the Weekly Missoulian in 1904 told the old story brilliantly: [Quoted below]

 

Searching For An Old Grave

Found On Rattlesnake Creek By Children At A May Day Party In 1878.

Alderman Walters, in his work of improving the Rattlesnake park by constructive driveways through its acreage, a few days ago unwittingly covered up an old grave which was a mute evidence of the early history of this section of Montana. Sunday, in company with Assessor Will Cave, Alderman Walters visited the park in the effort to locate the grave, in order that its identity can be preserved. The gentlemen were not exactly satisfied with their efforts and, although Mr. Cave could tell within a few feet of its location, he could not designate the spot upon which it is and later another effort will be made to determine the exact spot upon which it is.

Found at a May Day Party.

Last evening Mr. Cave gave the Missoulian the story of the old grave which is practically forgotten by the old residents of this section. On May 1, 1878, the school children of Missoula were enjoying a May day party in the groves which surrounded the Rattlesnake at that time. It was a merry party of young people which gathered at that time and they were spending the day in the manner of young people and the habits of boys and girls of that period were not a whit different than they are at present day. In company with Charles McWhirk, now of Darby and John Higgins, Mr. Cave was exploring the brush, probably on a hunt for birds’ nests or flowers, when the lads encountered the grave, not far from the creek bed and close to a thicket of willows.

Grave an Old One.

For a minute the lads stopped in their play in awe and surprise. Not one of them had ever heard of the Rattlesnake park being used as a burial ground and the discovery came upon them as a surprise most awesome. But, youthlike, they quickly got over the momentary shock which they received and were soon closely examining their find. Then it was noticed that a little cross was at the head of the grave and at the foot was a willow stake showing that someone had taken care to mark the grave, so that it would be known as a resting place of some departed spirit by anyone who should chance upon it. As a protection against the body being disturbed by wolves, bears, or other prowling “varmints” a layer of rocks had been piled on the grave and laid there systematically. Even then the grave was an old one and the mound which had once surmounted it had settled until the rocks which had been piled upon it were level with the ground.

The find was soon made known to the other children, who gathered around, and the sole topic of the conversation for the rest of the afternoon was the identity of the unknown who slept in the park by Rattlesnake creek.

May Be “Handsome Harry.”

As a matter of course the discovery acted as a dampener upon the spirits of the young people present, for no one can be happy in the presence of death and the party broke up sooner than it would have done had not the grewsome (sic) find been made. On the way home the fact of the discovery of the grave was told to Mrs. Higgins and the lady gave it as her opinion that the body of “Handsome Harry” might sleep beneath the stones which marked the grave found that day. Whether or not it was he has not been determined, as the grave has never been opened from the day it was made until the present.

Now, “Handsome Harry” was a character who thrived in the early days of this section and the incidents which relate to his death and burial occurred during the time when the locality of Missoula was in Washington territory. There was no such town as Missoula then; instead, Hell Gate, situated a few miles below here was the promising point of this section and then was located in the center of population of Washington.

“Grizzly” Higgins in the Story.

Among the eccentric characters who made their home at Hellgate was one known as “Grizzly” Higgins. What his true name is Mr. Cave never learned, but he was a thrifty cuss and accumulated considerable of the coin of the realm, which in those days represented virgin gold dust as it came from the sluice boxes which were found in many sections of the territory of Washington and Dakota. At that time neither Idaho or Montana had a place on the map.

At the time of which this story deals, in ’62-3, “Handsome Harry” was a well known gambler and sport of this section. He never was known to work and he lived by his wits. During that year “Grizzly” Higgins became possessed of about $5,000 in gold dust and, that it should not prove too much of a worry to the old man, it was stolen one night.

Contains Buried Treasure.

“Handsome Harry” was at once suspected of the robbery, but as there was no place nearer than the capital of Oregon where justice could be dealt out to him at that time nothing was done in the matter, the people playing a waiting game until the arrival of a deputy sheriff who occasionally made a trip into the eastern portion of Washington territory.

Finally, one day a sheriff from Washington had occasion to visit Bannack on a business errand and on his return through Hellgate he was notified of the robbery and took the handsome lad into custody. Harry soon made confession of his crime and agreed to show the sheriff where he had hidden the gold dust which he had taken from “Grizzly” Higgins and said it was cached along the banks of the Rattlesnake, a short distance from where the stream leaves the mountains for the valley.

In company with the deputy sheriff and Old Man Pattee, after whom Pattee street and Pattee creek were named, the men started from Hellgate one day with the avowed intention of going up the Rattlesnake and digging up the cache which Harry had made.

The Last of Harry.

That was the last seen alive of “Handsome Harry.” In the evening the other two men returned to Hellgate and reported that “Handsome Harry,” their prisoner, had attempted to escape shortly after the Rattlesnake had been reached and that they followed him up and shot him to death. Both of the men asserted that Harry had met his death before he reached the place where the gold was claimed to have been cached. He was buried near where he fell, on the Rattlesnake, and for years the grave, which was obliterated in the march of progress a few days ago, was known as “Handsome Harry’s” last resting place by the old-timers who recalled the episode of the gold robbery by the find made by the school children many years ago.

Treasure May Still Be Buried.

About the killing of “Handsome Harry” there is a considerable difference of opinion among the old-timers who know all about the early days. Some say his killing was a cold-blooded murder committed by the unknown sheriff after the hiding place of the stolen gold had been disclosed; that he profited by the transaction and that he stained his hands with blood in order to take the ill-gotten gold to the coast and blow it in among the hurdy-gurdies of the populous cities. Others are of the opinion that the gold is still buried somewhere on the Rattlesnake and that “Handsome Harry” concealed his cache so well that $5,000 stolen from old “Grizzly” Higgins so long ago will never again find its way into the hands of man again.

Priests May Have Marked the Grave.

The fact that the grave was marked with a cross has been a puzzler to the old-timers of this section, but by many it is believed that either Harry’s friends or some of the good old Catholic fathers who made their homes here in the early days found the lonely grave and marked it with the cross of Christ in order that the world should know some day that a human being lay buried beneath the stones, awaiting the final trump of Gabriel to warn all men that the great day of judgement had come and that all were to be judged for the lives they lived during the time their earthly reign was in force.

 

The article above appeared in The Weekly Missoulian on April 22, 1904.

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Charles McWhirk – Professional Hunter / Fisherman

Charles’ fishing and hunting exploits were noted in several newspaper articles beginning when he was a young man. An example appeared in the New North-West of Deer Lodge in 1875:

Master Charley McWhirk is in a fair way to win the championship belt as a hunter. When but twelve years of age he used to go out and bag more chickens than the older sports; but as the weight of more mature years mellows his judgment he goes for the larger game. He has already brought four deer into camp from the mountains, besides going to school and scoring 95 on the teacher’s record. – 1875

 

Charley McWhirk – 15 years old killed 18 deer in a few days near mouth of Quartz. – New N. W. – 1875

 

William McWhirk’s store at Corvallis was the subject another article found in the Helena Herald in 1879:

“A mile drive brings me to Corvallis. There is but one store here, which is kept by Mr. Wm. McWhirk, a most courteous and hospitable gentleman. I soon discovered there was nothing to do but to camp with him, and after having done so solemnly vowed never to stop anywhere else when in that vicinity. At supper my attention was called to a chicken currey, which I for one considered with much pleasure and profit. Of course no bachelor could get up a meal like that, and after a time I mentioned that “no cook in Montana could surpass Mrs. McWirk.” William smiled and pointing to his son Charlie replied, “there she is.” I was surprised, but too busy to make further comment. I am glad to state that Wm. McWhirk is prosperous in business, having built up a large and remunerative trade.

– 10/16/1879 – Helena Herald

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In 1880 Charles briefly moved to Deer Lodge and worked as a clerk in an E. L. Bonner business. By the following year he moved to Corvallis, Mt. and began working for his father in his store.

 

Charley McWhirk hooked 110 fine trout in Rock Creek the last day he was out, and very kindly compelled our acceptance of a thithing. – New N. W. – 1881

 

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Not unexpectedly Charles returned to the Bitter Root and became a renowned professional hunting guide. Hunting in the Clearwater area, his clients were very happy with the trips described below:

“Yesterday a party of Denver sportsman, consisting of Messrs. Borcherdt, Mechlin, Daniels and Dr. Rivers returned from a month’s hunting trip in the Clearwater where they had been conducted by Charley McWhirk the well known guide who had promised to show them lots of game and sport and who succeeded most signally. The party bagged three bull elk, several deer and seven mountain goats. Game is very plentiful in the Clearwater this season.”

 

The article above is from The Western News (Stevensville, Mt.) 10/3/1900

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The following year another group spent 35 days with Charles and another guide:

“A. L. A. Himmelwright of New York and who was a member of the unfortunate Carlin party that got lost in the Clearwater several years ago, came in last week from a 35-days trip in the mountains. Chas. McWhirk and W. R. Waugh of Darby, the well known hunters, guided the expedition. The party went in by the Elk City trail. Mr. Himmelwright’s chief occupation was collecting views and taking elevations. The party ascended Ridge Mountain, of the Big Hole range, and found its elevation to be 10,450 feet, or 265 feet higher than Trapper peak, the loftiest of the Bitter Root range. The party found lots of game in the way of bear, deer, sheep, goats, fox, coyotes, etc., and while here Mr. Himmelwright expressed himself as being highly pleased with the trip and declared Messrs. McWhirk and Waugh as being the best guides he ever met.”

 

The article above is from The Western News (Stevensville, Mt.) 10/23/1901

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Old Friends

In 1914 Charles received a visit from one of his early Missoula friends, A. B. Hammond. By that time the wealthy Hammond had been gone from Missoula many years and was owner of a huge lumber producing business on the West coast, while still maintaining ownership of the Missoula Mercantile. A short Missoulian article didn’t dwell on the purpose of Hammond’s visit:

“A. B. Hammond and wife and H. C. McLeod and wife came up to call on Charley McWhirk last week, whom they had not seen for 25 years. Charley was bookkeeper for the old E. L. Bonner and Hammond Co. of Missoula.”[9]

There is some evidence that Charles’ father, William McWhirk, was a co-investor with Hammond and others in the Bitter Root railroad, built in the 1880’s.

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