Old Missoula

 

A Shining Mark.

 

Death of an Estimable Lady One of Missoula’s Pioneers. (Morning Missoulian Sept. 9, 1892)

 

Mrs. P. J. Kline died in this city yesterday afternoon of bronchitis, after a very brief illness.

 

The death comes with the suddenness of a shock to the entire community and to most of the many friends of the deceased scarcely any of whom knew she was ill. Mrs. Kline had gone out with the Worden camping party a couple of weeks ago and had left it to go to Wilds’ Hot Springs in the Bitter Root where she stayed until day before yesterday when she again joined the party at Darby. Night before last she was quite ill with bronchitis and came down with the party yesterday morning. She seemed greatly improved yesterday morning, but when she reached the city she became rapidly worse and at 4:15 yesterday afternoon she succumbed to the fell destroyer despite all that could be done by loving relatives and the best medical skill. Mr. Kline is still at Wilds’ Hot Springs, and when his wife left him she was in comparative health.

 

Mrs. Kline was one of the pioneers of this county and the wife of P. J. Kline of this city. She was born in Pennsylvania in 1829, and was consequently 63 years of age. In the year 1851 she was married to Henry W. Miller, and in 1859 they came west to Colorado. From there they moved to Montana in 1862, coming across the plains and stopping in this county, at Frenchtown. Mr. Miller died in 1869. In 1876 Mrs. Miller married P. J. Kline and they have since then resided in this city. The deceased leaves a husband and four daughters – Mrs. Frank L. Worden, Mrs. J. P. Reinhard, residents of this city, and Mrs. Alvin Lent and Mrs. W. C. Allerton, who reside in the state of Washington. The deceased had also a number of grandchildren and a host of warm of loving friends throughout Montana to whom she was endeared not only by her sunny disposition, manifested in the early days during times of common trial and hardship, but also by her many sterling qualities of mind and heart.

 

The time for the funeral has not yet been set. Mr. Kline will arrive today and the daughters in Washington will probably be present for the funeral.

 

 

 

Resolutions of Sympathy

Adopted by Division 262, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.

Missoula, Sunday, Sept. 11, 1892.

Whereas, The never failing messenger of death has once more descended among us and blotted from the roll of our friends one who was ever ready to extend the hand of sympathy and assistance to the needy and distressed; therefore,

Resolved, That in the death of Mrs. P. J. Kline, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers of Division 262 have lost a friend who has been a support to us in our day of trial, and the community of Missoula has lost a member who was never forgetful of her duty as a Christian, and a benefactor of the needy, and one who was a living exemplifier of the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would be done by.”

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be spread on the minutes of our meeting, and the same be presented to the relatives of the departed friend, to all of whom we extend our heartfelt sympathy in this the hour of their sorest trial.

E. J. Powers

F. J. Dormer,

J. Anderson,

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Division 262.

 

 

The information below is an extract from the footnotes of the Francis Lyman Worden Biography Part III @ Genealogy.com by Steven Shook:

 

A contemporary witness to the arrival of the Millers in western Montana, Alvin H. Wilcox, records in his reminiscences: “About the twenty-fifth of August a man and his wife and two little girls with a yoke of oxen and a wagon, was driving by where I was at work and stopped a minute to rest. He said he had driven all the way from southern Colorado with his ox team and family, and was on his way to Oregon, that they had left the main route of travel on Snake river for fear of the Indians, and had come through by way of Deer Lodge and down the Hellgate river. When I told them it was three hundred and sixty miles to the nearest settlement beyond, the woman declared she could never ride that much farther and expressed herself delighted with the beautiful valley where they then were and wished she could stay and go no farther….The man’s name was Henry Miller. The name of the older of the girls who was ten years of age was Lucretia Miller, who was a few years afterwards to become the wife of Frank L. Worden….The Miller family remained at Frenchtown [Hell Gate], and he was a member of the first board of County Commissioners of Missoula county after the organization of Montana territory. About the tenth [twenty-second] of September another little girl was added to the Miller family.” A. H. Wilcox, Up the Missouri River to Montana in the Spring of 1862, Manuscript (p. 13), in the library of the Historical Society of Montana, Helena, Montana.