Old Missoula

National Story in 1867

In 1867 the Missoula area although young was prominent enough to attract the attention of Harpers Magazine.

In those days it was Harper’s New Monthly Magazine and the month was October.

Thomas Francis Meagher wrote an article on “Rides Through Montana”* which appeared in that issue under the pen name Col. Cornelius O’Keefe, an early day resident of the Missoula area Meagher undoubtedly had met.

Territorial Governor

Meagher was a brigadier general and commander of the Irish Brigade in the Civil War and later secretary and acting governor of the territory of Montana much of the time from 1865 until his death July 1, 1867, when he fell from the deck of a steamer at Ft. Benton and drowned in the Upper Missouri River.

Meagher wrote of “a fine saw mill at Missoula Mills.” He said that “the mill turns out flour as well as lumber.” It was the property, Meagher wrote, of “Messrs. Worden and Higgins, which cost $30,000, the machinery of which came all the way from St. Louis.”

Tells of Frenchown

He also wrote in the same article of a visit to Frenchtown and the first home built by Moses Reeves in 1857. He said that he was delighted to find several farms “under the handsomest cultivation.” According to Meagher, the Tipton farm had corn, oats, potatoes, wheat, every other kind of grain and vegetables, and no less than three hundred fruit trees – pear, apple, plum and peach. All, he wrote, “with the exception of the peach, thriving vigorously and promising the sunniest results.”

He also commented about the excellent farms of Mr. Spencer of Tennessee and of Mr. Miller of Pennsylvania.

Sketches by Toffts

In a note to Harpers dated June 17, 1867, about two weeks before his death, Meagher wrote from Virginia City, “This will be the first illustrated paper ever published upon Montana.” He told the magazine that special mention should be made that the sketches accompanying his article were made by Peter Toffts, an artist who accompanied him on his “Ride Through Montana.” Included in the sketches were those of the gristmill and sawmill constructed at what is now the north end of Higgins Bridge as the first buildings in Missoula, of the Flathead Agency and of the Mission of St. Ignatius.

*Rides Through Montana by Thomas Meagher – begins on Pg. 568

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