Old Missoula

Socialists did well in Missoula, Montana in 1914. Three prominent local government offices were filled by Socialist candidates for the first time ever. Missoula Mayor, Andrew M. Getchell; Missoula County Sheriff, Richard Whitaker; and Missoula City Commissioner, Dale Hodson, all Socialists, won their contests in 1914 and made local history.
What accounted for the success of these 3 Missoula Socialists? It had never happened before, nor would it ever again.
Voters were likely affected by several current events, including widespread civil unrest, labor strikes, and financial panic.
The national economy went into a harsh recession in 1913 and was still struggling in 1914. It was severe enough that it caused both American and British stock exchanges to close for several months in 1914 because of the financial turmoil.
The beginning of WW1 in Europe in the summer of 1914 caused alarm everywhere, including Montana, even though the United States remained neutral until April of 1917. Unsettling German and Irish allegiances and biases affected many Montana citizens’ attitudes deeply. Support of Great Britian’s European war was far from uniform.
Hostilities in Mexico were ongoing and escalated in April of 1914 when several thousand American troops invaded and occupied the Mexican port of Veracruz. Francisco ‘Pancho’ Villa and his men were active in the Mexican revolution during this period. Villa and these events were closely followed by Montana newspapers, especially when Montana soldiers became involved along the border.
The famous Ludlow Colorado Massacre of miners’ families occurred on April 20, 1914. About two dozen women and children were killed by members of the Colorado National Guard and a private militia that was hired by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, allegedly owned by John D. Rockefeller Jr. It was the result of a long and deadly strike by Colorado coal miners. Intense fighting immediately erupted between Colorado strikers and mine owners, killing dozens more people. President Wilson finally ordered Federal troops to Colorado on April 29, 1914.
Closer to home, labor unrest in nearby Butte, Montana in 1914 affected Missoula financially and politically. Lumber production in Missoula and nearby mills depended heavily on Butte’s demand for mining timber stock. Severe chaos hit Butte in June 1914 when distraught miners dynamited the Miner’s Union Hall and began rioting. Following a summer of havoc an office of The Anaconda Company was dynamited in late August, causing the Montana governor to declare martial law and activate nearly 500 National Guard soldiers who patrolled Butte for over 2 months.
Reflecting these extraordinary times, Butte had already elected a Socialist Mayor and several Socialist city councilmen. They weren’t the first in Montana, either. In 1903 Anaconda was the first Montana city to elect a Socialist mayor and several other city officials.

2 Missoula Socialists Win City Offices – 1 Wins County Sheriff
Two of Missoula’s approximately 300 practicing Socialists, Andy Getchell and Dale Hodson, won in the city election on April 6, 1914. Getchell, born in Minnesota in 1860, was a seasoned Northern Pacific engineer who came to Missoula in 1905. He beat a strong hometown Republican candidate, Ronald Higgins, a young attorney who was one of seven sons of C. P. Higgins, a co-founder of Missoula. The tally was 975 votes for Getchell and 940 for Higgins. Getchell’s younger running mate, Dale Hodson, ran for a city council Commissioner position, beating incumbent T. A. Price, 1030 to 874. Many Missoula people often ran for almost every city office as Socialists, but these two were the first party members ever elected for anything in Missoula. It wasn’t altogether unexpected. Socialists had been active in Missoula for a decade, regularly furnishing candidates, but now unusual circumstances finally led them to success.

Richard J. Whitaker, born in England in 1863, was the Socialist party candidate for Missoula County Sheriff in the November 1914 general election. In a close race he beat Republican John E. Gannon by less than a hundred votes. He promised to resist the ‘perquisites’ commonly associated with that office; an overly generous travel budget and the “excessive amounts” generated by prisoner boarding were two of Whitaker’s campaign issues. Behind that were taxes, fines and license benefits associated with prostitution and gambling establishments that were well entrenched. These had plagued Missoula for decades. Of these two issues Whitaker quickly led an attack on local gambling, yet he seemed to avoid Missoula’s prostitution sites. As you will see there was an explanation for it.

Getchell, born in Minnesota in 1860, ran for Mayor on a platform promising a better system of public improvements. He vowed to create a new street commissioner job which would superintend and inspect all public works. The condition of Missoula’s streets was a constant source of local derision. He vowed to also reduce the city police department budget by consolidating and eliminating jobs he deemed inefficient and duplicative.
Getchell’s most ambitious plan called for public ownership of the city water system, which was then owned by Missoula Light and Water Company, a private subsidiary owned by Butte copper king, W. A. Clark, who bought Missoula’s water company in 1905. One of the richest men in the west, Clark’s local influence was immense. He had a hand in Montana’s economy for over 50 years, starting as a persistent peddler in almost every mining camp in early Montana and concluding as a corrupt U. S. Senator who was initially drummed out of office before returning like a noxious bull thistle.
(After Clark’s death in 1925, the water company was sold to the Montana Power Company in 1929. It was then privately owned until 2017 when Missoula Mayor John Engen, after a long and costly battle, finally led the city to purchase the water company.)
Getchell had a habit of choosing his words carefully and expressing his thoughts in a surprisingly gracious, yet forceful manner. He had earlier published a well-written inaugural address that was printed in the local Daily Missoulian.
“In taking up the reins of municipal government, I need but to remind you that ‘not words, but deeds, are wisdom’s highest ornaments.’ As servants of the people our duty is to do things, rather than talk about them. Our work must speak for itself.”
The local newspaper praised Getchell’s address as “the result of careful deliberation and shows, apparently, a conscientious desire to give Missoula an economic, progressive administration.”
Getchell’s 32-year-old running mate, Dale Hodson, a candidate for city council commissioner, was a partner with his brother Paul in a local business – Missoula Marble Works. He grew up in Bozeman, Mt. and married May Busch, a Dillon, Mt. normal school graduate who taught primary school. Hodson became one of city’s two commissioners.
In 1911 Missoula adopted the ‘commission’ form of city government where a mayor and two elected city councilmen/commissioners combined to run the city. Since 1883 Missoula had used an ‘aldermanic’ form of city government where the mayor and several aldermen ran the city. This new commissioner form of government lasted until 1954.
When the two Socialists, Getchell and Hodson, took office in 1914, they served with William Houston, who was decidedly not a Socialist. While Mayor Getchell effectively controlled the city, one of his primary hurdles would be dealing with Houston, a cranky 61-year-old Republican councilman and former County Sheriff with a long, lurid history in the Missoula community. As the County Sheriff, Houston presided over 5 local hangings in the 1890’s, 4 of these being Native Americans. He was a physically large man with a combative personality to match it.
Another of Getchell’s hurdles were the remnants of the ‘Committee of Ten’ which came about during the previous Mayor’s administration. The Committee was generated by members of the local chamber of commerce and the like. In 1913 Mayor J. M. Rhoades had to deal with this handpicked ‘Committee of Ten’ which had been appointed by the city council to look for possible savings. That Committee caused a petition to be written that called for Rhoades’ removal and the election of a new mayor to replace him. They accused Mayor Rhoades of ‘reckless extravagance,’ but Rhoades then successfully defended his record, pointing out several inconsistencies in the Committee’s accusations. The “Committee of Ten” had several citizens who were connected with the Missoula Mercantile Company and its owner, millionaire A. B. Hammond, as well as other local businesspeople. Their influence, especially that of banker J. H. T. Ryman, was instrumental in Missoula politics for a long while.
The 3 Socialists of 1914 had their own “local committees” to deal with. Active Socialists in Missoula County were commonly members of 4 separate groups, or ‘locals.’ These locals were in Missoula, Bonner, Arlee, and Stark, which was west of Missoula representing mining and lumber workers in and around Nine Mile and Alberton. Bonner’s Socialists were sometimes tagged as ‘Finns,’ which reflected a large group of Scandinavian and Finnish loggers and lumber workers employed by the Anaconda Company’s Bonner lumber mill.
The biggest of the locals, in Missoula, had its own central committee and a Socialist constitution which required allegiance to the commonly held standards of Socialism, best represented by the doctrines of Karl Marx. The theory that Capitalism represented a backward and destructive system of government held sway in all Socialist circles.

Eugene V. Debs
At that time the leading national American voice of Socialist principals was the labor activist, Eugene V. Debs, who visited Missoula on at least 6 occasions. He first spoke at Missoula’s Union Hall in 1897 while his final appearance was at Harnois (formerly Liberty) Theater in 1923.
Debs started out as a railroad union activist and helped found the American Railway Union in 1893. While leading a strike by that union, he was arrested for evading a court order and imprisoned for 6 months. After leaving prison he helped create the Socialist Party of America and ran for President in 1900. He was also involved in creating the I.W.W. (Wobbly) organization in 1905, although he later denounced it. Debs ran for the U. S. president’s office a total of 5 times between 1900 and 1920, receiving over 900,000 votes in 1920. He was again imprisoned for his speeches under the Sedition act in 1919. He was in prison while running for president the last time in 1920. President Harding commuted his sentence in 1921.
Debs usually attracted large audiences wherever he spoke. In October 1908 he gave a short interview to a Weekly Missoulian reporter just after his “Red Special” train pulled into the N.P. yard and they waited for an oncoming train to clear out. Debs’ train was 5 hours late, but a large crowd was still waiting for him.
Below is an example of one of his speeches – recorded by a Missoulian reporter:
“We are here in the interest of a national party and an international movement. This year is to mark an epoch in that it will bring the awakening of the working class. You should have seen the demonstrations that have been accorded us ever since we left Chicago. A few years ago the smallest hall was too large for a socialist meeting; now the largest is too small.
“I wish to call your attention to the two old parties – the too old parties, I might as well say.” Here the speaker arraigned the democratic and the republican parties and their principles in a bitter harangue that evoked the highest enthusiasm from his audience, who frequently interrupted him with applause. He claimed that both parties were attempting to deceive the working class and that neither one had “any use for the man that works.”
“There is a new spirit in the land,” continued Mr. Debs. “This spirit is not satisfied with talks on the tariff, bank deposits and railroad rate regulation. What the working people in town and country want to know is how they are to secure the full product of their efforts, eliminating profit, interest and rent. There is machinery enough and land enough to abolish poverty and give all the beautiful things of life to all instead of to the few, as at present. Our trip through the rural districts has proved that the farmers realize they are exploited by private ownership of the railways, which are public highways. As a result they are ready to take their place beside the workers in city shop and factory. . ..”
The reporter ended his article with a unique description of the Missoula visitor:
“The Man Himself”
“No matter how fiery Eugene V. Debs may be in his oratory, no matter how incendiary his sentiments, his personal appearance belies his profession. Debs looks more like a retired minister than anything else. A long, thin nose, the face of an ascetic, a short and wrinkled alpaca coat, trousers of an out-of-date cut, a light-colored “floppy” slouch hat, heavy-soled shoes – all these incidentals go to make up a man of appearance benevolent rather than malevolent. Debs may be an agitator and his ideas may approach the anarchistic, but he does not look the part.”
From Missoula the Debs’ “Red Special” train proceeded to Butte.
(For Socialists ‘red’ symbolized the blood shed by the working class in their struggle against oppression and capitalism.)

Getchell & Hodson
One of Mayor Getchell’s proposals called for a reduction in the police force, eliminating an assistant police chief and a plainclothesman. Another called for changes in the city’s street department and the creation of a street commissioner. But Getchell’s most controversial idea involved taking control of the city’s water system.
The Missoulian newspaper published a long article regarding Getchell’s first city council meeting on May 4, 1914. The meeting started cordially with commissioner Houston elected as vice president of the council at the suggestion of Mayor Getchell. Houston was also appointed the head of the department of streets and alleys. Hodson then took over the department of public safety, a position formerly held by Houston. This position supervised the police department.
Harmony was short lived when Houston began a string of objections to Getchell’s new proposals, starting with the appointment of a new city health officer. Houston wanted to abide by the former precedent and use local physicians. The council agreed.
Houston then objected when commissioner Hodson moved to make William Beacom the street commissioner. “I don’t think that’s exactly fair to me,” Houston said. “My relations with Mr. Beacom are not very agreeable, and in justice to me you ought not to make him my assistant. He has vilified me and my family, and I don’t see how we can get along together.”
After a short discussion Getchell stood his ground.
“Mayor Getchell explained that Mr. Beacom would be supposed to take the place of Robert Irvine, present street foreman, and of high-priced inspectors of improvement work. ‘We will see to it that he earns his money,’ he [Getchell] said.
“Mr. Price [outgoing commissioner] said that Robert Irvine had been paid day wages, that his duties consisted of rising early in the morning to take care of horses, of attending to the city dump, of flushing sewers and cleaning gutters. ‘You won’t expect Mr. Beacom to do that, will you?’ he [Price] asked.
“Mayor Getchell laughed and said that he wouldn’t.
“Commissioner Houston argued that the salaries of paving inspectors are paid by the owners of the property in the districts concerned.
“Mr. Rhoades [outgoing Mayor] cut into the argument at this point. ‘I suggest,’ he said, ‘that you buy boxing gloves for Houston and Beacom.’
“That’s good with me,” said Houston. “I’m 61 years old but I’m still there.”
Among the list of city officials appointed at this meeting were James L. Wallace appointed as city attorney and Tom Kemp, former assistant chief, appointed as chief of police. Kemp and Beacom were later elected Missoula Mayors; Beacom elected 5 times. James L. Wallace, an attorney and socialist leader in Missoula, later became a beacon of hostility when he represented I.W.W. people accused of sedition during W.W.1.
The same day that Getchell presided over his first city council meeting the local chamber of commerce announced they would hold its annual track-meet rally at the Palace Hotel. This iconic annual interscholastic track-meet event for high school kids was held for more than 50 years in Missoula. It was managed by a group of volunteers, many from the administration at the University of Montana.
In June 1914, the Missoula city council adopted an ordinance to buy the city water plant and requested its owners to present an answer to an offer of purchase of Missoula Light & Water Company, which was refused. Mayor Getchell then took formal steps to purchase the water plant in August 1914 when the city hired a Kansas City, Mo. engineering firm for $2,000, to investigate and appraise the cost of that action. The firm was also tasked to provide an estimate for building an entirely new plant. The engineering firm, Burns & McDonnell, presented their cost estimate for the purchase of the existing water plant as $460,000. Alternate new plant estimates using water from the Blackfoot River and Rattlesnake Creek were also provided. The city council voted to present the first offer to the owners, Missoula Light and Water Co., in January 1915. That offer was declined by the water company early in March.
The city council then passed an ordinance in June 1915 to hold a special city election to decide if Missoula should build a brand-new water plant. The city would pass bonds in the amount of $500,000 @ 5% for that purpose. The newly elected city councilman (not a Socialist), John Brechbill, voted against that ordinance citing the negative responses that became known to him.
Owner opposition to the purchase of the water company as well as to the building of a new plant was instantaneous. Sophisticated ads in the local newspaper called into question the results of the engineering firm on everything from estimated water usage to hidden costs. Leading the anti-water-bond charge was W. L. Murphy, attorney for Missoula Light and Water Company and judge Walter Bickford, their lead attorney. Bickford represented W. A. Clark’s affairs in Missoula for years.
The city held the special water bond election on August 3, 1915. Only property owners were allowed to vote and a total of 1,378 were found to be eligible to vote. Ballots were simplified to read Yes, or No. The water proposal was defeated when about 1,300 citizens voted 2 to 1 against the proposal.
Internal discord plagued the local Socialist party during this period. Early in 1915 several members of the Missoula Local party initiated a recall petition for the removal of Getchell and Hodson. A Daily Missoulian article stated that these two were accused within the party of extravagance and “general inefficiency.” At a Local meeting in January, Getchell, Hodson, and city attorney James Wallace were accused of disobedience and violating the Local Socialist constitution and demands were presented calling for their trial and expulsion if found guilty.
When queried about the recall petitions commissioner Hodson was quoted saying, “It’s all because we wouldn’t do what Mrs. Plassman wants us to do.”
Martha Edgerton Plassman was the acknowledged leader of the Socialist movement in Missoula at the time. An accomplished writer and former newspaper editor, she furnished a host of letters and articles about socialism to Missoula newspapers. (She also later wrote general interest and historical articles under the pseudonym Anne Hawkins – see on Oldmissoula.) She was the daughter of Montana’s first territorial governor, Sidney Edgerton. She quickly provided a response to Hodson’s charge, stating, “The further assertion that there is any faction of our local that is ‘fighting’ the mayor and commissioner is absolutely without foundation.”
Coincidentally with this, Mayor Getchell fired 2 Socialist city administrators whom he had hired earlier: City treasurer Frank C. Hall and City engineer H. E. Rolfe. Rolfe was the son of Martha Plassman. According to a Missoulian Sentinel article, both Rolfe and Hall had been “active within the socialist local in opposing Mayor Getchell and Commissioner Hodson.”
Another Missoulian Sentinel article on Feb. 8, 1915, explained their removal thus:
A dramatic incident of the afternoon was brought about by the query, flung from the floor, by Mrs. Freeman at Mayor Getchell, “Why did you discharge City Engineer Rolfe?”
“Because he was too busy meeting anti-administration committees and I had to hire someone to do his work,” responded the mayor.
From her seat in the audience, Mrs. Rolfe is said to have rejoined, “You lie!”

As a gesture of loyalty for initially supporting their campaigns, Getchell, Hodson and Sheriff Whitaker were tasked with furnishing unsigned letters of resignation to the local Socialist organization prior to their election. If any of these candidates brought discredit to the Socialist party they could then be expelled, citing these letters.
As a result of the alleged effort by Getchell and Hodson to create an alternate Local Socialist party in response to a recall petition, the initial party suspended their membership, as well as that of City attorney Wallace and Sheriff Whitaker. Earlier a total of 31 local socialist members “severed” their Local membership from the party. In February 1915, copies of Getchell and Hodson’s resignation letters were made public and given specifically to Commissioner Houston. Getchell then threatened to sue Houston if he attempted to act upon their resignation letters.
After the local newspapers made front page headlines of this imbroglio, Getchell and Hodson quickly addressed these resignation letters. Getchell officially repudiated the letters by calling a special meeting of the city council and voting on it. While councilman Houston refused to vote, Getchell and Hodson each voted to “not accept” the other’s resignation.
At this point Getchell resigned from the Missoula Socialist Local, saying it had violated the constitution of the Socialist party because no referendum vote was called regarding this matter. He also stated, “I withdrew from the socialist local yesterday, but that doesn’t mean that I am not still a socialist.”
An example of internal discord within the Missoula Local came to light in March of 1916 when the Socialist city council held a “trial board” meeting regarding the dismissal of a Patrolman, P. J. McDonald. The Daily Missoulian headline remarked on some “Sensational Evidence” that came to light during this trial, quoted below:

Prejudices Color Hearing
Innumerable cross-cutting prejudices and animosities colored the hearing. Hardly a single witness, regardless of alliance, but admitted some reason for hard feeling toward McDonald or the city administration. Petty police-force jealousies, personal grudges against the once-socialist majority in the council and bitterness growing out of the schism in the socialist ranks which resulted in the expulsion from the party of the city hall group – all these entered into the trial of the case.
Though rival attorneys spent much time in jockeying for advantage in the record, the hearing was far from being a dry legal struggle. Some of the testimony was amusing, much of it was sensational. The men who crowded outside the railing in the council chamber found in the evidence much to hold their interest.
Machine History Told.
Alleged revelations of the back-room workings of the socialist machine, made by L. E. Stone, were easily the most valuable contributions to the gallery’s entertainment, whatever may have been their worth as evidence.
Stone declared that Mayor Getchell and Commissioner Hodson were determined to get rid of McDonald before they were elected. He pictured himself as one of the wire-pullers in the socialist local and told of conferences in which he and City Attorney Wallace and the two elected city officers had laid secret plans of action during the city campaign.
One of these plans, he said, involved the discharge of Patrolmen McDonald and Sweeney and the transfer of Commissioner William Houston from the department of public safety [chief of police] to that of streets and alleys.
“Wallace said that if he was made city attorney he would show that Bill Houston and The Missoulian [Joseph Dixon] were getting away with the biggest graft Missoula ever saw,” said Stone. “I sanctioned the proposal,” he continued, “as a result of that promise.”
The witness said that he himself had suggested two ways of getting rid of McDonald and Sweeney. His first plan was to call all members of the police force before the civil service commissioners for re-examination, thus, he anticipated, getting rid of both officers without difficulty.
“But Wallace said ‘No’ to that scheme,” Stone testified. “He said that ‘Dad’ Brooks was to be given a place on the force and that a re-examination would put him out on account of his age.”
Stone then suggested making the two officers city herders, he said. If they were to be made to catch dogs they would resign, he thought. This suggestion was not heeded, however.
Attorney Whitlock asked Stone what connection McDonald had with the supposed “graft.” Stone wasn’t sure. “I heard that he was go-between for Houston.” Neither was he sure what the “graft” was. “Wallace never gave us any facts,” he said, “but I got the impression that the redlight district was the source.”
Was Getchell’s Sponsor
Stone declared that he was the man who brought Andrew Getchell out in the socialist local as a candidate for the nomination for the mayoralty. “Getchell said he couldn’t win when I approached him. When I told him he could he said, “I haven’t the ability.” I said, “That job doesn’t need ability, all it needs is backbone.”
Wanted City Job
Under cross-examination Stone admitted that he had hoped to be appointed police magistrate when the socialist candidates were elected.
“You were pretty sore when you didn’t get the office, weren’t you?” City attorney Wallace asked. “You told Mayor Getchell you’d make him look like 30 cents, didn’t you?”
“I told him,” Stone replied, “that I had tried to make him the biggest man in Missoula, but he didn’t have the courage or the brains to go through with it and that now I was going to make him the smallest.”
Stone admitted that no one but the men involved was present at any of the alleged conferences. He also failed to remember conferences recalled by the city attorney in which a number of socialist leaders had participated. “Don’t you remember being in my office once with Billy Beacom and Anton Liedke when you said: “If you transfer Houston and remove McDonald and Sweeney you’ll uncover the biggest graft in the city?” Stone was asked.
“No,” was the reply.
“Haven’t you worked night and day to make this administration a failure?”
“No, I haven’t worked night and day, I didn’t have to. I might work night and day for a big job, but not for that.”

 

In March 1916 city attorney James Wallace, the Socialist attorney appointed by Mayor Getchell, produced a lengthy financial report of the city’s business during the period that the city operated under the new “commission” form of government. It was titled “What It Costs To Administer Missoula’s Municipal Affairs.” Most of the report covered the period from May 1912 to May 1916, although some statistics referred to items when the commission form commenced in July 1911. The report showed almost a 10% reduction in appropriations for current expenses during the term that Socialists ran the city – 1914 to 1916.

 

Richard Whitaker – Socialist Missoula County Sheriff
In November 1914, Missoula County elected Mr. Richard Whitaker, a Socialist, as the new County Sheriff. He was the first and only Socialist elected to any Missoula County office. His earlier election foray was unsuccessful when in 1912 he ran for office of Missoula city commissioner and lost.
After his election controversies quickly came from all directions for Whitaker. Some of his opponents began a rumor questioning his citizenship since he was born in England in 1863. The Daily Missoulian newspaper soon squelched that rumor when it published the fact that he filed his citizenship declaration in Missoula County district court in 1891 and it was granted and signed by judge Frank H. Woody in 1894.

Whitaker then ran afoul of his local Socialist party in December when he hired Jack Rice as deputy Sheriff, a non-Socialist, who had been assistant chief of police in Missoula. Socialist party officials reacting to this appointment called for his resignation, something Whitaker refused to do even though he, like Mayor Getchell, had authored a resignation statement prior to being elected. He repudiated his resignation letter when he announced Rice’s appointment.
Whitaker’s main election opponent, Republican John Gannon smelled blood in the water at that point and in January 1915 he filed a quo warranto legal action against Whitaker, alleging he was unqualified to hold the Sheriff’s position because he had violated a ‘corrupt practices’ act by promising positions to voters before the election. Gannon cited a large attendance at a community picnic that Whitaker hosted at his ranch prior to the election. (Whitaker’s ranch was near today’s Whitaker Drive.) A trial date was set for March 10th with Judge J. B. Poindexter of the 5th Judicial District from Dillon.
On the first day of trial, it was agreed the case would proceed without a jury but would go directly to the court and Judge Poindexter. A list of over 100 witnesses was presented, Gannon alleging these voters had cast “bribed and illegal votes.”
An unusual incident occurred on the 1st day of the hearing when a Bonner Finnish Socialist, Henry Auvinen, a witness, was found in the courtroom listening to the proceedings. The Judge jailed him immediately but soon released him when it was explained that he may not have enough facility with the English language to adhere to the Judge’s ruling.
Testimony from H. E. Rolfe, the Socialist city engineer, revealed that he was responsible for a petition to recall Whitaker. Rolfe was a son of the locally prominent Socialist, Martha Plassman. According to the Daily Missoulian (3/12/1915) Rolfe testified “that he disliked him [Whitaker] because of his public utterances against Rolfe’s mother.”
In his testimony City Commissioner W. H. Houston “denied having any special animosity towards the socialists, but admitted, on cross examination, that they had made his position as a public officer ‘pretty interesting,’ that they had ‘practically retired him’ and that he ‘couldn’t do a thing.’”
Another witness, Leif Fredericks, stated that the “socialist picnic at the Whitaker ranch . . . was nothing more than a social affair and that there was nothing in connection with it of a political nature or that had anything to do with the defendant and his candidacy for office.”
Further witnesses were questioned regarding promises made by Whitaker which were either debunked or found not germane.
Probably the trial’s most important testimony came directly from Whitaker when he explained his relationship with Jack Rice, the non-socialist he had appointed as a Deputy Sheriff:
“While on the witness stand Wednesday Whitaker testified that he was not acquainted with Jack Rice before the election (Mr. Rice, now a deputy sheriff, being one of those named in the complaint as having received pre-election promises from the defendant), and that he had not even met him until several days after the election.”
Throughout the 3 days of the trial no witnesses were called by the defendant Whitaker. One of the plaintiff’s witnesses, attorney Ivan Merrick, testified that he himself had written articles about Whitaker and that Whitaker objected to one of these articles because it, “sounded too much like a bribe to the voters.”
Easily the most notable witness to testify was Joseph M. Dixon, the editor/owner of the Missoulian newspaper. A former Missoula County prosecuting attorney, Montana Congressman, U. S. Senator, and future Governor, Dixon had some things in common with Missoula’s Socialists, despite his Republican background. Their unspoken mutual hatred of The Anaconda Company likely colored their interactions in many respects. Dixon’s testimony that day was related to an editorial and articles he had written regarding the expenses the county accrued in boarding prisoners and the method of paying for such.
One of Dixon’s earlier editorials said the following about Whitaker:
“The lone socialist candidate to be elected to a county office is Richard Whitaker, who is to be Missoula county’s next sheriff. Mr. Whitaker, The Sentinel believes, will serve Missoula county well. He was elected on a platform that is unique; he has promised to serve the county for the salary that the office pays, to forego the “perquisites,” which, in popular imagination, and in fact, too, amount to a good deal of money in a year. Mr. Whitaker is an honest man; what he said that he will do is just what he intends to do. It is likely that he has established a precedent and that future candidates for this office, be they socialists or no, will be forced to make a similar promise before they may expect to be elected. Which will be fine business.”

[Dixon didn’t always pick a winner. He published an editorial that same day which backed the consolidation of the state universities, an especially volatile issue for Missoula residents. University President Edwin B. Craighead was soon fired for promoting that same proposition. In response to his strident local opponents (mainly banker J. H. T. Ryman), Craighead and his 2 sons then created a new Missoula newspaper called The New Northwest which is available on the internet.]

In the trial’s final ruling, dismissing the case against Whitaker, Judge Poindexter addressed Gannon’s attorney, W. E. Moore, with a pointed criticism of his tactics:
“You have been riding your horse in the middle of the stream all along,” said the court to attorney W. E. Moore, chief counsel for Gannon. “Now, having failed to land safely on one side, you are attempting to land on the other. But you have gone too far. It’s too late. If I adopted your view I might as well disregard each rule of every lawsuit that has been brought in a court.”
Strangely, John Gannon was found dead at the Masonic Hall a month after the trial in April of 1915, allegedly dying of a heart attack. A long-time Missoulian, he had operated a livery business and at times served as a deputy county Sheriff.
Sheriff Whitaker attacked Missoula’s gambling underworld early in 1915 when he “visited” several cigar stores that featured slot machines in addition to cigars. Missoula law enforcement had earlier warned these establishments to get rid of the machines, but now they were back. After conferring with county attorney Webster, Whitaker gave them another warning which they promised to obey. He then gave the following statement to The Missoulian Sentinel, “I am determined to do away with slot machines, as well as all other methods of gambling. They serve no good purpose and the law forbids them.”
Soon after that he raided a gambling “resort” on E. Front Street that belonged to Henry Poitras. Eleven men who were found there were initially detained; 4 of them were arrested and held over to appear before Justice Phil Gagnon. The dealer of the game, Mr. A. H. Welling, was charged and fined $150 while the others were then freed. The Missoulian Sentinel noted that Poitras had faced gambling charges before.
Whitaker’s stance on gambling became more complicated later when Missoula’s 4th of July “Stampede” celebration took shape. Requests from the Stampede organizers to use “old-time” gambling devices in the Frontier town “resorts” were being seconded by the local Chamber of Commerce. The rousing Missoula Stampede had taken on a life of its own throughout western Montana and was a financial success. Adverse to that, a noisy group of citizens had let it be known that an impeachment movement was being planned if gambling of any kind were permitted at the Stampede’s Frontier town, even if “imitation money” were used. Whitaker decided to permit the ersatz gambling provided no apparatus was used. He stated, “Today I find myself between the devil and the deep sea for the first time since I took office.”
He was rescued the following day when a ministerial association met and after discussing the topic ruled that the games were not using devices, but only “reproduction of the times as they formerly were.” Nevertheless, Whitaker did visit the Stampede’s Frontier and seized devices he found objectionable. He continued to raid gambling sites throughout the remainder of his term.
One of Whitaker’s unusual jail residents was Gerald Higgins, son of C.P. Higgins, a Missoula founder and namesake of Gerald Avenue. He was detained at his Higgins ranch residence south of the city after his girlfriend/wife, Mabel Murphy Higgins telephoned the Sheriff’s office after Gerald allegedly cut her throat. Gerald and Mabel had been in a stormy relationship for some time prior to that and Gerald denied ever marrying her. By that time Gerald had already earned a reputation as a classic town drunk. He had allegedly attempted to shoot Mabel prior to this. Assistant county attorney Paul Dornblaser (the U of M icon) somehow earlier became involved when he wrote a notice that Gerald apparently refused to sign: “To the County Attorney: Sir will you kindly post the name of Gerald Higgins in the places where liquor is sold in Missoula county and request them not to sell any liquor to said Gerald Higgins.” Gerald avoided permanent jail time when he hired the dynamic attorney, Wellington Rankin (Jeannette’s brother) to represent him. This marked a period when Wellington obtained numerous pieces of Missoula property formerly owned by the Higgins family. Sadly, Gerald suddenly died at home the following year at age 28, the ninth and last child of Missoula’s most famous and unusual family. Only one descendent, Grant Higgins, survived this family and he died unmarried in Missoula in 1978.
Curiously, Whitaker seemed to avoid attacking another blatantly illegal activity, Missoula’s redlight district, likely because of the harm it would cause the city’s police budget. A Missoula Sentinel article in 1916 estimated the loss in city revenue by closing those businesses would amount to $15,000 annually. The article stated that the redlight women alone paid over $1,200 in November of 1916, while property owners, some of which were listed, accounted for over $500.00 during that period. In 1917 Whitaker’s successor, Sheriff James T. Green, soon found himself squarely in the middle of that controversy when the state attorney general, Sam C. Ford, carried out his election pledge to close all “restricted districts.”
In his campaign for office for a second term, as a non-partisan, Whitaker unwisely presented a fiscal statement alleging that his administration saved the county $11,000 when compared to the administration of the previous Sheriff William L. Kelley. The largest saving was purportedly in the county’s expense incurred while furnishing prisoners’ meals. The system for charging the county for prisoner meals was modified during Whitaker’s administration to cover only meals served, instead of per diem. His statement invited anyone who disagreed with his presentation to come forward.
Former Sheriff William L. Kelley accepted this invitation. He furnished a rebuttal that appeared in The Daily Missoulian on Sunday, November 5, which likely helped defeat Whitaker in the November election. He found Whitaker’s statement to be “misleading and absolutely false,” and went on to debunk the figures Whitaker had presented since Whitaker, among other things, neglected to include the expenses of two jailers and the salaries of two bailiffs. Kelley then presented a detailed financial report indicating that the expense of Whitaker’s administration for the period covered was more than his. He then invited public scrutiny of his public record.

In January,1917 Whitaker was the subject of quaint Missoula Sentinel article:
Former Sheriff Moves To Ranch
R. J. Whitaker Loads Automobile Onto Sleigh and Departs for the Country to Resume Old-Time Career.
FORGETS THE WEIGHT
R. J. Whitaker former Sheriff of Missoula county, has removed to his ranch south of the city, taking his automobile last of all. The car had to be loaded upon a big sleigh, since the snow is too deep on the hill roads to permit it going home on its own power.
Yesterday Mr. Whitaker drove into Missoula. Evidently it was the first time he had used horses for quite awhile. When he got ready to drive home, he got aboard without lifting the check weight. The horses would not budge while they were hitched and a “city hick” had to show the sheriff what was wrong with his “motor.” Mr. Whitaker said he would have a lot of fun getting acquainted with his ranch again, and he feels years younger since his official loads as sheriff have been transferred to the shoulders of another.

 

R. J. Whitaker got reacquainted with law enforcement work in 1925 when J. A. “Jack” Rice took over as Missoula County Sheriff and then appointed Whitaker as the undersheriff. This same Rice was appointed as a deputy under Whitaker when he became Sheriff eleven years earlier. Similar to Bill Houston, Rice was a physically huge man at 267 lbs. with a family of eight children. In a graphic display of family inheritance several of Rice’s Missoula descendants resembled his stature, including my schoolmate John M. Rice who passed on in 2024.

Blanche Whitaker, the noted music instructor at the University of Montana for 14 years beginning in 1896, was a sister-in-law of Richard Whitaker. Her husband, James “J. W. C.” Whitaker, an older brother of Richard Whitaker, was also born in Bath, England, and left a large family when he died near Petty Creek, west of Missoula, in 1896. Blanche, an Oxford trained musician, struggled to make a living for years in Missoula while raising a family of 12 children and giving private music lessons to local children (one being future Mayor John H. Toole). Whitaker bridge on the Blackfoot River was named in honor John Whitaker, one of their children.

 

Richard Whitaker Obituary (9/24/1943)
Colorful Career Is Ended by Whitaker Death
Richard James Whitaker, 81, resident of Western Montana for 60 years, died at his home, 401 West Sussex avenue, Saturday night. His death marked the end of a long and colorful life that began in Bath, England, in January of 1863.
Graduated from Independent college at Bath, Mr. Whitaker was, before he was 19, working for the bank of England. Feeling that his home country was not going to be rich with opportunity for a young man ambitious to make his way in the world, he went to Canada, where he joined an older brother in a brief homesteading venture. He had hoped to resume his banking affiliations in the new country, but an Indian rebellion altered this plan and it was never realized.
Indian Fighter
As residents of the United States remember their spectacular Indian uprisings, so do the Canadians remember the Reille rebellion when the Redmen of Western Canada disrupted the entire country. An observant youth, Mr. Whitaker had, during his two years of homesteading, learned the country thoroughly and he was immediately pressed into service by the government. He had freighted over the plains in the vicinity of Regina, Saskatchewan, and knew the location of all the watering holes. The rebellion was particularly hard to quell as it had been incited by white men, and as a scout for the mounted police Mr. Whitaker’s work was hard and dangerous. He was shot in the leg on one scouting trip and owed his life to an Indian woman. Weak from loss of blood, he managed to crawl to her home and she bound his wounds with mashed herbs. After some time under the woman’s care he recovered sufficiently to return to his duties.
Later taking up freighting again as a government employe, he was again attacked by Indians, his lead horses of a six-horse team being shot down. Cutting them loose, he was able by forcing the remaining four to full speed to make his escape.
Weather Caused Change
It was the terrible winter weather at Regina while he was freighting that ultimately induced Mr. Whitaker to quit the country. Caught between relay stops with a load of bailed hay, he sensed a storm coming and, with his companions, hastened to make a shelter for the horses. While the animals had food and shelter, two of them froze to death and the men fought for several days during the blizzard to keep themselves alive. This experience so disheartened Mr. Whitaker that at 21 he came to Montana, not intending to remain in the west under any circumstances.
Arriving in Missoula by way of the Blackfoot country, which had no trails other than the game trails of the Indians, he forced his horses, one saddle mount and two pack horses, over mountains and rivers to arrive here. He was ready to leave when Isaac Cyr, a Frenchtown valley rancher, noting his fine horses, asked him to work for him. He accepted the offer and after several years, decided to take up his own homestead on Whitaker hill, south of the city.
Former Sheriff
Mr. Whitaker, a widely-informed man, was prominent in political activities and served one term as sheriff, holding this office in 1915-1917. He was undersheriff under the late Jack Rice in 1924-28.
Married some years after he settled permanently in Missoula, Mr. Whitaker lost his first wife, Maude Prescott Whitaker, early in their married life. Thirty-six years ago he married Alice Johnson, who survives him. Surviving children are three daughters, Mrs. Marion Cane, Livingston, Cal.; Mrs. Victoria Youngren, Oakland, Cal., and Mrs. Millicent Estey, San Diego, Cal., and five sons, Leonard of Anaconda; Ronald of Oakland, Cal.; Richard of Portland, Ore.; William B., in the armed services, and Gerald E., who is a warrant officer in the Army at Atlantic City, N. J. Two sisters, Mrs. Millicent Richardson and Mrs. Victoria Savery, live in Bath. A third sister, Polly Whitaker, also resided there, but it is believed she is now dead as the family has had no communication from her for some time.
Mr. Whitaker was a member of the Episcopal church and Episcopal funeral rites will be conducted for him. The body is at the Stucky mortuary, where funeral arrangements are pending the arrival of relatives.
The above obituary appeared in The Daily Missoulian August 24, 1943.

 

Andrew M Getchell Obituary (11/15/1934)
A.M. Getchell Is Stricken Suddenly By Heart Disease
Former Mayor of Missoula Dies Late Wednesday Evening.
Andrew M. Getchell, a resident of Missoula for nearly 30 years, and of Montana for nearly half a century, was stricken by a heart attack at his home Wednesday night, dying while being rushed to the hospital. Death occurred shortly before 10:30 o’clock.
Mr. Getchell, a retired Northern Pacific engineer and a former mayor of the city, had been active in community affairs during all of his residence here. He was a member of Missoula lodge No. 13, A. F. and A. M., of the Brotherhood of Locomotive engineers, a member of the Knights of Pythias, and of Algeria temple of the Shriners at Helena, and for many years had been president of Union Hall company here.
Mr. Getchell was born in Glencoe, Minn., on January 18, 1860, and came to Montana in 1888, entering the employ of the Northern Pacific at that time. He had previously been employed by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway. He came to Missoula in 1905. In 1914 he was elected mayor, serving until 1916.
He retired as an engineer in 1928. Since that time he had been in fairly good health, members of his family said, though he had suffered from heart disease previous to the attack which claimed his life. He became slightly ill shortly before 9 o’clock Wednesday evening, but did not become seriously affected until a few moments before his death.
Mr. Getchell is survived by his widow, two daughters, two sons and two brothers. The daughters are Mrs. H. K. Powell and Mrs. C. W. Brayman, both of Missoula, the sons are Alton S. Getchell of Missoula and Dr. L. R. Getchell of Livingston. One brother, Professor Dana K. Getchell, is a missionary in Greece, and the other, Willis Getchell, resides in Eastern Montana. The family home is at 338 East Spruce street.
The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on November 15, 1934.

A tribute to A. M. Getchell by Missoula’s 5-time Mayor W. H. Beacom appeared the Daily Missoulian following day:
“In the passing of Andy M. Getchell Missoula has lost one of its highest types of citizens. Generous to a fault, his hands were never closed to human need. Strong with likes, charitable with his dislikes. If the breath of scandal touched the garments of a fellow mortal he would not accept the naked charge as proof of guilt. He had to have proof. One could not know Mr. Getchell at all intimately, without becoming a better citizen.”

 

Dale L. Hodson Obituary – 1967
Dale L. Hodson Is Dead at 85
A long-time member of Missoula Masonic Lodge 13, AF&AM, Dale L. Hodson, 85, of 545 Blaine St., died in a local hospital Saturday afternoon.
Funeral services will be 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at Squire-Simmons-Carr Rose Chapel with Rev. Robert Anderson officiating. Missoula Lodge 13 will conduct graveside ceremonies at Missoula Cemetery.
Mr. Hodson was born May 21, 1882, in Sterling, Kans. He married May N. Busch in Bozeman Sept. 4, 1912.
He was a member of the Masonic Lodge for 64 years. He joined the organization in 1905 in Butte and later transferred his membership to Missoula Lodge 13. He was also a member of the Algeria Shrine and IOOF Lodge.
In 1927 he moved from Missoula to Arlee where he owned and operated a sheep ranch until 1935 when he moved back to Missoula to operate the Western Montana Marble and Granite Co. He retired in 1957.
Mr. Hodson served as a member of the police commission for the Missoula Police Department.
He is survived by his wife and three daughters, Miss Edna Hodson, Seattle, Wash.; Mrs. L. Bar ow (sic) Ghirardo, Richland, Wash., and Mrs. Bille Janssen, Plentywood, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
The above obituary appeared in The Missoulian on September 25, 1967.

Brief Missoula Socialist History:
Socialists had been active in Missoula for several years. As early as 1900 Missoula County listed election nominees for a Social Democratic Party, a Socialist Labor Party and a People’s Party.
By 1902 a Missoula Socialist club was holding meetings at Union Hall. Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist leader, came to Missoula and gave a speech at the Missoula Union Opera House in July, 1902.
In 1903, Mr. M. R. C. Smith was elected Missoula’s mayor as a candidate of The Municipal Ownership league which had ties to the Missoula Socialist club. Although Smith wasn’t officially a socialist, another candidate running as a socialist was defeated in that election.
By 1904 Congressional Socialist candidate, J. H. Walsh, gave a speech at the corner of Main Street and Higgins Avenue to a “good sized audience,” according to a Daily Missoulian article.
In 1904 Eugene V. Debs visited Missoula again and gave another rousing speech at the Union Opera House. He was a candidate for president of the United States for the second time, receiving 3% of the popular vote.
The Daily Missoulian reported Deb’s Missoula speech this way:
“P. D. Caulfield, social nominee for clerk and recorder, presided at the meeting and a number of the socialists of the county occupied seats on the platform . . . Mr. Debs spoke for nearly two hours and his audience followed him closely. He began his address by asserting that the workers have but one issue in the campaign, the overthrow of the capitalistic system and the emancipation of the working class from wage slavery.”
In March 1905 the Missoula Socialist party sponsored a complete ticket for the primary election. Candidates were picked for Missoula’s Mayor and four aldermen. None of them were elected.
In 1906 Missoula’s spring election ballot had 3 socialists on it, one for Treasurer. None were close in that election. That year the city of Red Lodge, Montana, elected a Socialist mayor.
In October 1906, the Socialists filed a large Missoula County ticket for the various offices. It had close to 25 local names on it.
In 1908 the Socialists called a Missoula County convention in conjunction with the visiting presidential candidate, Eugene Debs. They organized a ticket which ran candidates for all County offices as well as the several minor ones. They also adopted a platform at this meeting.
In 1908 Debs visited Missoula again while running for President a third time. He arrived on a train named “The Red Special.” A “large crowd” waited for him, while the train was several hours late.
A local reporter’s description of Debs went thus:
“No matter how fiery Eugene V. Debs may be in his oratory, no matter how incendiary his sentiments, his personal appearance belies his profession. Debs looks more like a retired minister than anything else. A long, thin nose, the face of an ascetic, a short and wrinkled alpaca coat, trousers of an out-of-date cut, a light-colored ‘floppy’ slouch hat, heavy-soled shoes – all these incidentals go to make up a man of appearance benevolent rather than malevolent. Debs may be an agitator and his ideas may approach the anarchistic, but he does not look the part.”
While campaigning Debs was sometimes accompanied by “Big Bill” Haywood, the labor organizer who was tried and acquitted of murdering the governor of Idaho. The Boise murder trial gained worldwide attention in 1907 when Haywood’s defense counsel, Clarence Darrow, skillfully eviscerated the government witness’s testimony and elevated his client’s socialist reputation in the process. Credited with founding the I.W.W., Haywood was subsequently convicted of espionage in 1918 and, while appealing his conviction, jumped his bail and fled to Russia. He died there in 1928.
In 1909 Missoula’s April city election of 1909 socialists nominated candidates for all 5 contested offices which included the mayor and 4 aldermen. Later that year Missoula became a focus of the entire Northwest socialist movement. Under the guise of the IWW mantle, dozens of Spokane demonstrators marched on Missoula with the intent of flooding the city jail. Several prominent socialist speakers had already been jailed there, including the famous Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.
Lewis J Duncan, socialist, was elected mayor in Butte, Montana in 1911. He served for 3 years. Also elected in Butte that year were a city treasurer, police judge, and 5 aldermen.
In 1914 Butte had 9 socialists on city council and a socialist mayor.