“Worden’s Market” – A Missoula Icon by Robert Giffin

Worden’s Market – A Missoula Icon by Robert Giffin

In 1890 in Missoula, Montana, Tyler Worden and Charles Bishop founded a small Missoula business. Starting out as Bishop and Worden’s Grocery, it was abbreviated in five years to simply Worden’s Grocery with Tyler buying out Charles but unbeknownst to either of them at the time, they had started what would become a real Missoula Icon.

To dispel some of the myths (yes, there are myths), Worden’s Market is not related at all to the Worden Trading Post established in Hellgate in 1860 by Frank Lyman Worden. THIS was the first store in the area and indeed in Montana territory (because it was previously Washington Territory when the store was built), but it was not at all related to what we call Worden’s Grocery or Market today. Indeed, it wasn’t even in Missoula originally, it was in the original settlement of Hellgate and was actually called ‘Hell Gate – Worden & Co’. It was basically a log cabin structure and there is a picture of it in the Mansfield library at http://exhibits.lib.umt.edu/omeka/items/show/470.

Later on, it was moved to Missoula as ‘Worden & Co Dry Goods’ (Frank Worden was also partnered with another Missoula founder C.P. Higgins) and was in an office block at the corner of Main and Higgins (not sure which corner though but likely where the First Montana Bank is now). This all comes from the 1885 book ‘History of Montana’, Warner, Beers and Company, Chicago, IL.

From http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Francis_Lyman_Worden, “In 1863, Worden and Higgins moved to Deer Lodge, Montana, and opened a store there. By 1866, they’d established a full milling operation in Deer Lodge, complete with sawmill and gristmill.[1] In 1868, Worden and Higgins sold their business interests in Deer Lodge and, with Washington J. McCormick, planned 100 acres of the townsite of Missoula.

In order to remain competitive, Worden and Company merged with Murphy, Hart and Company, a general merchandise company, to form Murphy-Worden and Company in July 1886. Then, in 1902, the Murphy-Worden Company was replaced by Murphy-Greenough and Company.

Today, Worden’s Market in downtown Missoula is only a few blocks from Worden’s historic 1874 townhouse, the city’s oldest residence.

So, this is the myth, that Worden’s Market that was located at 434 North Higgins Avenue, is the logical ‘heir’ to the Frank Lyman Worden store that was first in the territory. But nothing could be further from the truth OR, I can imagine, as embarrassing to a Tycoon like Frank Worden (A run down grocery store? Really? That’s my legacy?).

That Worden & Co Dry Goods Store, the first one in the territory, folded up into a different company, first in 1886, and then again in 1902. That ‘store’ has been gone since 1886, especially as anything related to a family-owned business. Frank Lyman Worden likely made a lot of money on these transactions. But while Frank Lyman Worden is indeed a founder of the city and we owe a lot to him, let’s NOT attribute things to him that are not his, I am sure he would appreciate that.

So, I have established that what we call Worden’s Market was NOT the first store in Missoula, dispelling the common myth. I also have no doubt that between 1860 and 1890 there were many other entrepreneurial folks in the territory / state opening family-owned grocery or general stores in and around Missoula (people gotta buy food!), so it wasn’t even the second, or the third, likely not even the tenth.

My relatives (also related to the Frank Lyman Wordens, but distantly) came to the area from Canada in the late 1800s. One of these, Tyler Worden, partnered with Charles Bishop to open what was likely just another small family-owned grocer in Missoula at the time, Bishop and Worden Grocery on 41 Higgins Avenue in the ‘Roberts Block’. It is THIS store, not Worden & Co Dry Goods, that the store that was at 434 North Higgins, and indeed the current Worden’s Market at 451 North Higgins, owe their true lineage to.

While it may not have been the first store in the territory, it started as and remains ‘family-owned’ and a grocer, and it maintains the Worden name as it has through 6 other owners since the Wordens sold it in 1966, starting with George and Laura Sherwood and ending with Tim and Exie France who are the current proprietors.

More on the sale of the market to the Sherwoods can be found at http://oldmissoula.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1074:qworden-storeq-finally-leaves-family&catid=5:places&Itemid=3. The Sherwoods sold it to Bert and Bonita Nelson in 1976 who then sold it to David Phillips. In 1978, Cly Evans partnered with Phillips before it was sold to the Frances and moved to its current location at 451 North Higgins.

From purely a name standpoint, it has been in business constantly since 1895, although it would be interesting to have a gander at all of those different business licenses. But, I would say that certainly qualifies it as the longest running family-owned grocer in Missoula, and it is still going, although under different ownership, while most others have faded into history.

All of my relatives on my mother’s side have spent time in that store, working or otherwise. Indeed, most of Missoula has shopped there at LEAST once and many non-Wordens have worked there. My grandmother Frances worked there during the depression, she was the only one in her household with a job at the time and it is likely how she met my grandfather Henry Worden, son of Otis Worden who was the proprietor at the time. Henry’s brothers Orville and Roy ran the store after their father Otis passed while Henry went to the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1942 (better retirement for sure). Worden’s even produced a Montana State Senator. Tyler Worden, the original owner of the store went into politics, becoming first a Missoula City Councilman who was eventually elected to the State Senate, leaving the store to his brother Otis in 1898.

In total, the store changed location six times from 1895. Starting out at 41 Higgins Avenue in the Robert’s Block, in 1896 it moved to 126 North Higgins. In 1907 it moved to 109 East Main. In 1910 after Otis bought out Tyler it was moved to 501 North Higgins. In 1927 it moved to 401 North Higgins and I am told it was in the former location of a men’s wear shop that went out of business or moved (Yandt’s was the name mentioned). And in 1936, Otis moved it to the ‘classic’ location, 434 North Higgins. It now resides at 451 North Higgins, moved there by the Frances. Most of this information is attributed to the Missoula Magazine; Spring/Summer 2010: Worden’s Legacy by Kate Murphy page # 24 – Worden’s Market.

My mother Joyce and her brother George tell of sliding down the floors of the 434 North Higgins location (even I remember how uneven and creaky the floors were) toward the ice cream vats and sneaking their fingers in to get a taste. They were eventually banned from those vats and later from the store as ‘naughty little brats’, although George had to come back with his dad and wash vegetables. I have a bad picture of my grandfather Henry in what appears to be a store apron with his son George in his arms in front of the store in 1936 or 37 and it clearly shows a wealth of product (a lot of produce) displayed outside on the walk. More surprisingly it showed that granddad worked there, for at least a day! His brother Orville ended up owning the store after Otis died.

My Uncle George Worden tells of the woes of the big conglomerates coming in from out of town, referred to as the ‘red and whites’. They made it tough on the smaller family-owned businesses and many succumbed to them. It got so bad that the Wordens nicknamed their store the ‘black and blues’, due to the beating these big stores were handing them. But it also shows some guts and a bit of an attitude.

He also tells me that he lays claim to the moniker Keg Kapital of Montana. Uncle George worked for a beer distributor and began the process of convincing his Uncle, Orville Worden, that kegs were the next big thing! The Sherwoods brought it to full bloom when they bought the store, but the Montana Keg Kapital started with two Wordens, George and Orville.

The owners after the Wordens maybe saw something in the name, likely something that harked back to Frank Lyman Worden and the ‘First Store in Montana Territory’, that was worth keeping. Or maybe they were just too cheap to change the signage. Regardless, it remains Worden’s, NOT the first store in Montana territory or even Missoula, NOT part of the F.L Worden and C.P. Higgins enterprises, NOT the Hell Gate – Worden & Co, just a representative of my family tree in my home town of Missoula – and every bit a Missoula Icon as the rest.

 

Robert Giffin

(253) 347-1718

robert.h.giffin@gmail.com

 


[1] Worden & Higgins built a sawmill and gristmill shortly after moving from Hellgate to Missoula in 1865. Higgins and Worden earlier opened a branch store at Gold Creek, with James Stuart in charge, in 1862. These three, along with Walter B. Dance, then opened a store at Cottonwood City (Deer Lodge) in 1864 with James Stuart in charge. They actually opened another store at Virginia City in 1865 with Granville Stuart in charge. See article by Albert J. Partoll – Pacific N. W. Quaterly (July, 1949) Vol. 40, No. 3

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40486839?read-now=1&seq=4#page_scan_tab_contents

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