“Worden’s Market” – A Missoula Icon by Robert Giffin

Worden’s Market – A Missoula Icon by Robert Giffin In 1890 in Missoula, Montana, Tyler Worden and Charles Bishop founded a small Missoula business. Starting out as Bishop and Worden’s Grocery, it was abbreviated in five years to simply Worden’s Grocery with Tyler buying out Charles but unbeknownst to either Read More

Peter and Hannah Whaley – Pioneers

Peter Whaley Pioneer Goes Over The Divide Peter Whaley Veteran of Alder Gulch And Bitter Root, Answers Last Call. Peter Whaley, pioneer of Montana, passes away yesterday morning at his home on the south side, after a lingering illness. For weeks his death had been hourly expected, but his wonderfully Read More

Jacob Leiser – Missoula’s 1st Jewish Citizen

Jacob Leiser – Missoula’s 1st Jewish Citizen   Jacob Leiser Passes Peacefully Away Jacob S. Leiser died at 2 o’clock this morning. With varying conditions he has been ill for ten days. An attack of acute bronchitis that then caused him to take to a bed of illness developed the Read More

An Old Set of Books – Hellgate 1860

AN OLD SET OF BOOKS. A Flood of Light on Conditions and Prices in Hell Gate Back in the Early Sixties. Missoula, Nov. 26 [1897] Henry O. Worden of the firm of Murphy & Worden has in his possession a set of day books and ledgers that were kept by Read More

Western Montana – 1860 by Paul C. Phillips [Some Basic W Montana History]

Western Montana – 1860 [Some Basic Western Montana History – Less than 100 white people] by Paul C. Phillips[1] of the State University History Department The census of 1860 showed less than 100 white people living in what is now Western Montana, and practically all of these were men. Many Read More

Arthur Higgins – Scion of Missoula’s Higgins family – 1942

Son of City’s Founder Taken By Death Here Arthur Higgins, Last of Pioneer Family, Succumbs. By A. L. Stone. Arthur Higgins is dead – the word passed quickly along the avenue Monday morning. Along the avenue which bears the name of his famous father, pioneer of pioneers, co-founder of the Read More

‘1st’ Steam Thresher in Montana – John S. Caldwell – Grass Valley Pioneer

Montana’s First Steam Thresher – Missoula’s John S. Caldwell Steam Thresher – On Saturday evening last Mr. John S. Caldwell of Missoula county, arrived here, 14 days out from Corinne, with a thresher and patent separator, made at the famous Russell Manufactory, Massillon, O., and a portable ten-horse power steam Read More

Origin of Maclay Bridge – 1891

The Origin of Maclay Bridge – 1891 M. M. McCauley, Thos. Foley and Wm. P. Maclay were appointed viewers for a road across the Bitter Root river at the old ferry near the fort, through the lane between Thos. Foley’s and Wm. Kelley’s land, and thence east to the military Read More

John Shaughnessy’s Grand Central Hotel Dinner Bell

Dinner Bell Is Symbolic of Hotel Life in Early Days Here Back in Missoula’s early days when the sound of a bell was heard from the lobby and the sidewalk outside the Grand Central Hotel, there was a rush to the dining room to smack lips over an ample meal Read More

“Pretty Bill From Yam Hill” – Woody the Wise Guy

“Pretty Bill from Yam Hill – He never worked and he never will.” That is the way Frank H. Woody (now Judge Woody) introduced William C. Darnold to Mrs. Jim Buckley at a dance in Missoula in the fall of 1866. Jim Buckley was sheriff. He and Woody didn’t care Read More