Old Missoula

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.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349629736/

 

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

https://www.newspapers.com/image/343190783/?terms=%22mcwhirk%22

 

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

https://www.newspapers.com/image/343185932/?terms=mcwhirk

 

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

https://www.newspapers.com/image/343163586/?terms=mcwhirk

 

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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