Old Missoula

Paxson Art Gets National Acclaim

Work Still Displayed In Local Buildings

Edgar S. Paxson was not a builder in the ordinary sense. The only building he erected in the Garden City was a little frame structure of a story and a half located on the back of a lot in the 600 block of Stephens avenue.

His trade was painting – painting wagons as his father had constructed them. But his painting went beyond wagons. The man Missoulians remembered as a quiet little man – except when he took it into his head to stand at the corner where Kelley’s was in 1928 and howl blood-curdling Indian yells in order to laugh at a tenderfoot passing by – emerged with artistic genius.

He was born in New York April 25, 1852, of Quaker parents. His father, William H. Paxson, was a carriage maker and Paxson eventually took up carriage painting in the shop. He got his early education in a log school and attended Friends College. He toured the country for a time, but returned to New York where he married Laura Millicent Johnson in 1874.

He turned westward with his wife, worked his way through the Dakotas and arrived in Montana Territory in 1877. His first long stop was at Ryan’s Canyon where he was a hunter and scout for some cattlemen. At one time he was a messenger between Ryan’s Canyon and Iron Rod and was captured by 30 Indians.

Varied Experience

Cowpunching, Indian trailing and hunting gave him experience which built up the background from which he depicted the days of old.

In Deer Lodge he evidenced his first interest in art. His fame soon spread and in 1880 he was called to Butte to paint a panoramic view. He satisfied the customer but never received the $800 which his customer had agreed to pay. He spent 24 years in Butte painting signs and buildings, in the meantime acquiring the skill which made him famous.

Starts Long Work

During this time in a studio perched high up on Anaconda hill, he painted his masterpiece, the Custer Battle. He started the work in 1895 and completed it after the Spanish-American War. It was the product of a long, detailed study. Paxson spent years investigating even the most minor details.

Of the 200 figures in the picture, 36 portraits were of men who were recognized by those who knew them. Much human emotion is shown – excitement, fear and viciousness.

His subjects were not strange to him, as he took an active interest in the Nez Perce War, 1877-78, and served ten years as a private rising to a second lieutenant in the First Regiment of the Montana National Guard. He served as a first lieutenant in the First Montana Infantry, U.S. Volunteers, in the Spanish American War.

Six – Year Tour

The Custer painting was exhibited at the World Fair at Chicago and was sent on a six-year tour of the eastern cities. His paintings were exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase exposition and he was represented in all the national expositions from that time on. His Custer painting hangs in the Elks Temple in Missoula.

Missoula County received an art treasury for $1,000 not long after the courthouse was built. Paxson covered the work of an interior decorator in 1912-1914 with the “Arrival of Father Ravalli at Fort Owen,” “Lewis and Clark’s Camp at Lolo Creek,” “A Montana Roundup,” “The Flatheads in the Buffalo Country,” “Lewis Party Crossing the Clark’s Fork,” “Flatheads Leaving Their Bitter Root Home,” “Governor Stephens’ Treaty With the Pend d’Oreilles, Flatheads, and Kootenais at Council Grove,” and “Early Transportation.”

Death on Nov. 9, 1919, ended his career. But his contributions and artistic genius were destined to live on. Paxson Grade School on South Higgins avenue was named in his honor.

The above article appeared in The Missoulian-Sentinel  Centennial Edition in 1960

Below is a link to an article by Heidi Kennedy on the story of Paxson’s Custer Painting:

http://www.truewestmagazine.com/custer-a-the-war-between-the-states/

Also, below is a link to an article on Paxson’s paintings by Hipolito Rafael Chicon, commissioned by the Missoula Art Museum:

http://www.missoulaartmuseum.org/files/documents/exhibits/PaxsonChacon.pdf