Old Missoula

Practical Jokers Found Ways To Make Early Days Lively

In the early days of the Garden City, there was a light side to this process of making the city grow and prosper. Mrs. Tom Seely, longtime resident, tells of a couple instances.

Most everyone knew everyone in those days and the residents had dinners and dances to which they invited as many friends as cold be accommodated. Dr. Mills, as in the case of many physicians of that day, often was paid partly in meat and vegetables for his services. On one occasion he received three fat geese which he stored on the kitchen lean-to roof as there was no refrigeration then.

He invited everyone to a dinner, borrowing many spare chairs and dishes, but inadvertently and unfortunately he overlooked Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Reinhard (Sue K. Reinhard was the city’s first paid librarian).

Mrs. Reinhard, on learning of the dinner and its date, climbed a ladder and got the doctor’s geese, then invited everyone to a goose dinner at an earlier date, including Dr. and Mrs. Mills on the guest list. When the guests were seated, Mrs. Reinhard soberly revealed where she had obtained the geese, and much merriment followed. The Mills residence was where the Federal Building is now and the Reinhard home was across Pine street on the corner now occupied by the Watson Apts.

The Last Laugh

Dr. Parsons, another old-time physician here, was one of the best when it came to practical jokes. One day he called on Dr. C. W. Lombard, Missoula’s first dentist, with a few companions to inform him that he hated to divulge it, but there was a man down the street saying insulting things about him and his family.

The enraged Dr. Lombard joined the group and marched with them down Higgins avenue. When they reached the Missoula Mercantile Co. show windows, they pointed to the first male clothes dummy ever seen here, nicknamed Finnegan by the townspeople. Chuckling, they left Dr. Lombard to deal with the rascal.

That winter on a very cold January night, Dr. Lombard called on Dr. Parsons in the early morning hours to rush to Hotel Florence to care for a desperately sick man in room 30.

Dr. Parsons responded quickly, rushing into the man’s room. He threw back the blankets and there was the desperately ill patient – you guessed it, Finnegan the dummy. At that point Dr. Lombard and friends stepped from the room closet and left chuckling – the last laugh.