Harry Morgan – Early Game Warden by Mildred Chaffin – [Friend of Pike Landusky / killer of ‘notorious’ Frank Brady]
Harry Morgan
The following article is from “Cabin Fever” by Mildred Chaffin, published in 1988, and from “My Forty Year’s Scribblin’s” – available at Mildred Chaffin’s website: Chaffincamp.com
‘Harry Morgan – Early Game Warden’ by Mildred Chaffin:
Harry Morgan was an early-day game warden of note. Those who remember him well say that he tempered his method of enforcing the law with an old time consideration for those in need.
Says Warren Skillicorn, “He never snooped. He never came into anyones’s home looking into steam kettles or dipping his hands in the flour bin looking for wild meat like some of them did.”
Warren went on to say, “Harry would ask people’s names and inquire about their employment situation and their families. If someone was ‘down and out’, no job, no money and no meat, he would look the other way, saying, “Don’t watch me, watch your neighbor. If someone reports you, I have to take you in.”
On some occasions the warden was known to go out and get a deer for a needy family. But woe be unto anyone who tried to put something over on him. However, it did happen –and the perpetrator got away with it.
A story goes that the warden received a report that a man was found killing wild chickens out of season. Mr. Morgan was obliged to investigate which meant a trip from his home at Ovando into the Swan Valley. Upon reaching the home of the transgressor he found three freshly killed grouse in a bag. The man did not protest, but requested time to clean up before starting the journey to Missoula for trail. He invited Morgan to have a snack while he waited. While the warden was having a leisurely cup of the coffee, the offender’s partner surreptitiously ‘borrowed ‘ the bag of chickens and returned it without the warden’s knowledge.
Arriving in Missoula, the warden took his charge before the judge. “I hope you have the evidence with you, Mr. Morgan, “said the judge. “Yes sir, I have,” Morgan answered, whereupon he emptied the bag before the judge’s eyes and out tumbled three headless Plymouth Rock hens!
In the early days of his association with the (then) Fish and Game Department – before roads were improved enough to make the automobile an accepted mode of travel – Morgan covered the territory on horseback. He often put his saddle horse in Skillicorn’s stable and made an overnight stop there. On one trip he came bearing five pounds of hamburger saying, “You folks must get awful tired of wild meat!”
Harriett Whitworth of Arlee says, “He was my friend!” As a very small girl she accompanied her mother and other relatives and friends when the Indian bands made their annual treks into the South Fork of the Flathead for their winter’s meat and buckskin to tan. She remembers the procession meeting Morgan on the trail. They would pause for an exchange of greetings and a friendly discourse during which the warden would take the small girl’s hand, put something in it and close her fingers tightly. As soon as he was on his way the Indian party was on the trail again, she would open her hand with anticipation to find something there. “Maybe a dollar, “ she remembers, smiling.
Warden Harry Morgan was part Indian himself – a friend of both Indian and white people. He perhaps served the longest term of any warden in the Seeley, Ovando, and Swan area.
Another article about Harry Morgan appeared in ‘The Montana Wildlife Bulletin – August 1944’.
With The Wardens . . .
Harry Morgan was appointed a Deputy Game Warden April 1, 1913. He began work under Jake DeHart, who was then the State Game Warden. The District assigned him was the northern part of Powell county and the Clearwater and Swan River drainage in Missoula county, with headquarters at Ovando, Montana – his present headquarters.
In telling of his early life in Montana, Mr. Morgan relates:
“I was born January 6, 1863 at Fort Benton in the old Doby Fort, the son of Captain John Morgan. When my mother died in the spring of 1871, Dr. J. S. Glick of Helena came to Fort Benton and took me back to Helena with him. He was a great friend of my father.
“At that time, Fort Benton was the end of navigation on the Missouri River. Stages and freightors took passengers and supplies on to Helena from there. I. G. Baker, T. C. Powers and, I believe, Hugh Kirkendall, were then freighting from Fort Benton to Helena. When we left Fort Benton on the stage for Helena, we ran across a large herd of buffalo about 26 miles from Fort Benton. The stage driver estimated there were several hundred thousand buffalo and we had to wait two or three hours for them to pass. The buffalo were migrating north to their summer range and would not have stopped for anything.
“In the fall of 1873, Henry Schniple, a stockman from Philipsburg, made his annual trip to Helena for supplies. I went to Philipsburg with him to work on his ranch and remained there until 1876. Then I left and attended school in Philipsburg for one year.
“In 1879 I worked for William Wallace, a stockman and rancher. I broke horses and helped round-up cattle to take to the Judith Basin. On the trip it was necessary to night-herd the cattle to keep them from straying. We trailed them through Townsend, up Sixteen Mile Creek, over the Divide and down to the American Fork of the Musselshell River to Martinsdale. From Martinsdale we travelled down the River, cut across to Judith Gap, then to the forks of the Judith River, following close to the Arrow Creek Trail to Fort Benton. The Brooks cattle outfit was the only one ahead of us.
“ Boles and Major Reed had a trading post close to where Lewistown is now located and there I helped build a cabin for winter.
“That fall a big prairie fire started at Judith Gap and burned over most of the Basin, destroying a lot of cattle. The fire was so bright that antelope could be seen running at night in an attempt to escape the fire.
“Later in the fall, that same year, Pike Landusky came to Fort Benton with a six-horse team and a trail wagon. He asked me if I would like to live with him at his trading post on Flatwillow. He said he would give me $15 a month and since that was all I was getting from Wallace and doing a man’s work, I accepted as I would have only about 30 head of horses to look after so the Indians would not steal them. Pike Landusky did a lot of trading with the Crow and Flathead Indians when they came over from the Bitterroot in the fall to hunt buffalo. In trading with the Indians, a tin cup of sugar or 7 cartridges was traded for one antelope hide; one-half sack of flour for one buffalo hide. The Indians also traded Pemmican, which was made of dried buffalo meat, tallow, bone marrow and buffalo berries pounded and mixed together. Pemmican was then placed in sacks made out of buffalo hides; the sacks were sewed up and the pemmican would keep for years. It was prepared for eating by placing a skillet with water and made into a hash. Tons of Pemmican were shipped on boats to St. Louis.
“Pike Landusky’s trading post was 25 miles East of the Snowy Mountains. I went hunting with him up on Warm Spring Creek, over the Divide, down Chamberlain Creek (sometimes called McDonald Creek) on up to Pike Creek. However, we did not stay there long as a bunch of Sioux Indians rose up out of the sage brush and I sure traveled. They hung around two or three days and left for the Musselshell and Yellowstone country to steal horses from the Crow Indians. The Sioux were traveling afoot but did not get our horses.
“Another time a party of Indians attempted to steal our horses. We had quite a scrap and I was shot in the jaw, but not seriously wounded, with an old cap and ball pistol.
“It was necessary to corral the horses every night. The corral was built by digging a trench two and one-half feet deep, setting the posts up together and tramping the earth solidly so that the Indians would not be able to pull the posts up.
“In the spring of ’81, I worked during the cattle round-up for Two Dot Wilson at Martinsdale and then I went to Philipsburg and worked on ranches for a while. My next job was driving a team for a contractor by the name of Jack W. Hall. I then went to work on my own hook, hauling wood and railroad ties for the railroad to Philipsburg and also cut cord wood props for the mines.
“In August, 1885, I married Ophie U. Rider from Valipraso, Nebraska and we raised three girls and three boys.
“At the time of the crash of silver [1893], I went to Butte and worked in the Pennsylvania mine. Later I went back to Philipsburg and worked on different ranches, and did quite a bit of hunting and trapping, as well as helped a surveyor by the name of George Wilson survey mining claims. Wilson was killed in an automobile accident near Alhambra Hot Springs several years ago.
“In 1905 I guided and packed for Mr. Curt Dubois of Washington, D. C., who was mapping the Hell Gate Forest, now the Lolo Forest.
“In November, 1905, the officers were after Frank Brady, a notorious horse thief who took his stolen stock to Dakota. He was hiding out in Lower Rock Creek and we located him in Welcome Gulch. I was appointed to go with a marshall. I suggested that we both go inside the cabin and grab Brady but the marshall figured we would both be killed.
“We stayed there all night. At the barking of his dog, Brady came out of the cabin with a gun in his arms. When the dog started barking, I ran behind a tree and the marshall behind a rock. Brady pulled up to shoot but I was ready and let him have it. Brady’s shot fell 20 feet short of us. Brady tried to shoot again but I beat him to it and he died on the door steps. I looked around for the officer but he was gone. I hollered and he answered a quarter of a mile away.
“In 1906 I was appointed Forest Guard; in 1907 I was appointed Assistant Forest Ranger and resigned in 1913. On April 1, 1913 I was appointed a Deputy Game Warden, the job I still hold.
“I am a member of the Society of Montana Pioneers and we old timers are passing away fast and not many of us are left.”
Harry Morgan’s father, John Morgan, is a controversial subject in Montana History. Allegedly responsible for the murder of several Blackfeet Indians who visited his home not far from St. Peter’s Mission near Sun River, Montana, Morgan became the focus of the wrath of Blackfoot/Piegan retaliation. The killing of several whites led to further hostilities and contributed to what is known as the Piegan War of 1870, when Colonel E. M. Baker’s forces attacked a camp of Piegans who were not involved in hostilities. The event provoked a national outcry and tarnishes relations between Montana’s whites and Indians to this day.
The 1910 U. S. Census taken on April 22, 1910, shows Harry N. Morgan (age 44) born in Montana to Missouri and Montana-born parents is a Forest Guard for the Government renting his home at 903 Cherry Street, Ward 1, Missoula, Hellgate Twp., Missoula Co., MT. Living with him is his wife of 25 years, Ophia M. Morgan (age 40) born in Nebraska to Kentucky and Nebraska-born parents, with 6 of the 8 children born to her still alive. Five of his children are living at home, all unmarried and born in Montana to Montana and Nebraska-born parents: Henry E. Morgan (age 23), an Odd Jobs Laborer; Mary D. Morgan (age 21), a Dressmaker at Home; Edna M. Morgan (age 15); Claude H. Morgan (age 10); and Ernest H. Morgan (age 7). Three Lodgers also live in the household.
The Montana Standard, Butte-Anaconda, MT, Saturday, August 3, 1957
State’s Oldest Native, Harry Morgan, Is Dead
MISSOULA – Montana’s oldest native, Harry Morgan, died Friday at a Missoula rest home. He was the first white child born at Fort Benton, during the Civil War, and came to western Montana when he was 10. Morgan, a past president of the Society of Montana Pioneers, was a veteran deputy game warden, serving the Blackfoot country from 1913 through 1947. His recollections of Montana’s early days, of Indian fights, gold strikes and stockmen’s wars, made him a prime favorite of Treasure State historians. He was born Jan. 6, 1863. His father, Capt. John Morgan, had come up the Missouri River a few years before with a company of Union soldiers, to take charge of Ft. Benton, the end of navigation for steamboats on the Missouri. Settlers, prospectors and supplies all reached Montana by that route. There were a few white men in the territory. After Morgan’s mother died, an Indian took him to rear. Capt. Morgan was killed in a battle with a war party of Blackfeet Indians, and Dr. J. S. Glick of Helena took the youngster when he was 7. Three years he went to Philipsburg to reside with Henry Schnipel. He grew to manhood in that Granite county town during its turbulent mining days, working in the town and on ranches. From 15 on, he was “on his own,” riding the range, hauling ore, cutting wood and mining. Later he was employed by the forest service, and spent much time as a guide for hunting parties. He was married to Ophi Rider on Aug. 27, 1885. The ceremony was performed by the late Frank D. (Sandbar) Brown, another moved to Ovando shortly before he became deputy warden. Mrs. Morgan died in 1943. Ten years later he moved to Missoula to make his home with a daughter, Mrs. E. G. Haugh. Other survivors are another daughter, Mrs. Mary D. Johnson of Three Forks; two sons, Henry Carl Morgan of Drewsey, Ore., and Ernest W., of Burley, Idaho; nine grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and several nieces and nephews. Funeral services will be at 2 p. m. Monday (MST) at Lucy’s Sunrise Chapel.
HARRY N. MORGAN
Montana’s oldest native, Harry Morgan, 94, died Friday morning. He was the first white child born at Fort Benton, during the Civil War, and came to western Montana when he was 10 years old.
Mr. Morgan, a past president of the Society of Montana Pioneers, was a veteran deputy game warden, serving the Blackfoot country from 1912 through 1947. His recollections of Montana’s early days, of Indian fights, gold strikes, and stockmen wars, made him a prime favorite of Treasure State historians.
He was born January 6, 1863. His father, Captain John Morgan, had come up the Missouri River a few years before with a company of Union soldiers to take charge of Ft. Benton, the end of navigation for steamboats on the Missouri. Settlers, prospectors, and supplies all reached Montana by that route.
There were few white men in the territory. After Mr. Morgan’s mother died, an Indian took him to raise. Captain Morgan was killed in a battle with a war party of Blackfeet Indians, and Dr. J. S. Glick of Helena took the youngster when he was 7 years old. Three years later he went to Philipsburg to reside with Henry Schnipel. He grew to manhood in that Granite county town during its turbulent mining days, working in the town and on ranches. From the age of 15 on, he was “on his own,” riding the range, hauling ore, cutting wood, and mining. Later he was employed by the Forest Service, and spent much time as a guide for hunting parties.
Mr. Morgan was married to Ophi Rider on August 17, 1885. The ceremony was performed by the late Frank D. (Sandbar) Brown, another Montana pioneer. The Morgans moved to Ovando shortly before he became Deputy Warden. Mrs. Morgan died in 1943. Ten years later he moved to Missoula, and had made his home with a daughter, Mrs. E. G. Haugh, 524 N. Pattee Street. He died at a rest home.
The Missoulian 1957
Morgan forest history
http://www.leighlarson.com/henry_norton_morgan.htm