Old Missoula

Memory of a Pleasant Valley Brought Higgins to Hell Gate

Wagonmaster Higgins upon first breathing the fragrant warm air of the valley in which he was to help found a city several years later thought to himself that it “looked like the smile of God.”

Though other things occupied his attention, the memory of that valley lay tucked away in a corner of his mind, pleasantly to haunt him for many years.

Christopher Power Higgins, a son of Ireland, first came to the valley in July 1855 with the Isaac I. Stevens expedition, having come west with the party two years earlier. Officially, he was listed as wagonmaster, but in reality he was Gen. Stevens’ advisor and confidant.

Emigrated When 18

Already this son of Christopher and Mary, who immigrated to America to settle in Michigan when he was only 18, had enlisted in the army and shown signs of leadership.

He was born in Ireland, March 16, 1830 and was only 25 at the time of the Council Grove Treaty. He stood well over six feet, was sturdy and could use his fists as well as his brains when occasion demanded. Hazard Stevens says of him in the “Life of Stevens,” “Higgins, ex-orderly sergeant of dragoons, a tall, broad-shouldered, sinewy man, a fine swordsman and drill-master, a scientific boxer, was a man of unusual firmness, intelligence and good judgement, and quiet, gentlemanly manners, and held the implicit respect , obedience, and good will of his subordinates.”

Aided at Council Grove

It was due both to his physical powers and his moral support that Stevens’ treaty with the Indians at Council Grove was successful. It was he who once declared that he would “follow Stevens to Hell, if necessary,” to quell a potential mutiny.

On another occasion he was instrumental in helping Gen. Stevens prevent a massacre of the whites, planned by Cayuse Indians during a council in Washington Territory.

When the survey was completed, Higgins was commissioned as a captain in the army with orders to subdue hostile Indians. In 1856 he was assigned to the quartermaster department until 1860. In the meantime he had served two years in Walla Walla as government agent.

Married in 1863

In 1860 he purchased an interest in Worden’s store at Ft. Walla Walla, but he could not resist the pleasantly haunting memory of the Hell Gate Valley. Leading his merchandise on 75 pack animals, he and Frank L. Worden crossed the Bitter Root range and built their first store in western Montana at Hell Gate. Here Capt. Higgins met his future wife, Julia P. Grant, daughter of Capt. Richard Grant, a former employee of the Hudson’s Bay Co., who was then living on a ranch on the creek that bears his name. The couple was married in 1863.

One of Three

Capt. Higgins was appointed one of the three original county commissioners when Missoula County was created Dec. 14, 1860, by the Legislative Assembly of Washington Territory. He was also a member of a company which was granted a monopoly by the first Montana Legislative Assembly in 1864, to build a wagon road from Deer Lodge to Hell Gate. The company was empowered to collect a toll of $2 for each two-horse team using it.

In 1864 Higgins and Worden built a flour mill and a sawmill on the site of the present city of Missoula. In 1865 they moved their store to Missoula. They moved their entire stock, composed of merchandise and groceries to a one-story, log building, furnished on the outside with bricks.

Capt. Higgins recognized the purity of the Rattlesnake Creek early and helped establish a water system. His decisions were characteristic of a soldier and a man of foresight.

Whistle Well-Known

Across the street from his store, he built his home, the yard of which occupied the entire block. When his family began to increase, Capt. Higgins found it necessary to maintain some discipline among his lively sons. Each day at noon if his boys were not on time for dinner, he would stand in the yard with his little finger crooked in his mouth, give a shrill whistle, which could be heard in all corners of the town. As the occurrence grew in frequency the other residents began to remark “it must be noon-time because there is Capt. Higgins whistling for his boys.” He was the father of nine children.

Capt. Higgins home stood for about 18 years on the corner of Higgins and East Main street, being moved to the southeast corner of that block in 1888 when the Higgins Block was constructed.

In Legislature

After the creation of Montana Territory in 1864, Capt. Higgins became a member of the first Legislative Assembly and one of the incorporators of the Montana Historical Society of which he was a charter member.

Besides his mercantile interests, he engaged in banking business in 1870 and became president of the First National Bank in 1873. He was also interested in mining and cattle.

Intelligent Planner

The story of his rise from a private in the army to a bank president and a wealthy property owner, is one of thrift, judgement and intelligent planning. It was said of him that he always saved a large percentage of his pay, even when, as a private, it amounted only to eight dollars a month. Of this he would save four dollars.

But he was repaid for his thrift in 1889 when he built the Higgins Block. As part of the same structure he erected the C. P. Higgins Western Bank at a cost of $145,000. While he was preparing to open this new bank, his useful life was cut short after a brief illness Oct. 16, 1889, at the age of 59.