Old Missoula

Missoula’s Kelly Island is named for members of the Kelley/Kelly family who settled in the Missoula valley after their long journey across the sea and the continent. Two young Irish immigrant brothers, Owen Kelley, the oldest, and William Kelly, both recently from California and Idaho, came to Missoula in 1870, while a third brother, Patrick Kelley, joined them in the mid 1880’s. The two older brothers spelled their surnames differently throughout their lives and apparently were comfortable with it. No logical explanation for the spelling difference has been uncovered. Owen Kelley married an Irish girl, Susan Madden, in 1883, and raised a large family in Missoula while William Kelly never married. Patrick Kelley, their younger brother, arrived via the N. P. railroad in 1886. He was a widowed husband who brought 5 children and his mother with him from Rhode Island. One of Patrick’s children was named Owen and so was one of Owen Kelley’s 7 children. The same thing held true for the given names William and Mary. It can produce a convoluted puzzle when researching their families. The brothers’ 90-year-old mother, Catherine, died not long after her arrival in Missoula and is buried in St. Mary’s cemetery. She’s one of the few souls resting in a Missoula cemetery who was born in the 1700’s. Owen, Susan and Patrick Kelley are also buried at St. Mary’s cemetery, as well as seven of their children.

Three of Missoula’s William Kelly/Kelleys are sometimes a source of local consternation (they were not the only William Kelly/Kelleys in early Missoula). One of Patrick’s 4 sons, William L. Kelley, became a two-term Missoula County Sheriff in 1910, died in 1938 and is buried along with his wife, Clara Gendreau, at St. Mary’s cemetery. His cousin, William Kelley, age 48, the oldest son of Owen and Susan, died in Missoula in 1933 and is buried at the Missoula City Cemetery. William Kelly, the pioneer placer miner and brother of Owen and Patrick Kelley, died in San Diego, California in 1903 at age 69.

Extremely devoted Catholics, three of Sheriff William L. Kelley’s sons joined the priesthood, while his two daughters became nuns. Patrick’s daughter, Mary Alice, married a local boy, Hugh B. Campbell, who also became a Missoula County Sheriff and a local police magistrate. They had six children in Missoula. Hugh Campbell was sometimes fondly remembered as the ‘Grand Old Man’ of Missoula baseball who became the president of Missoula’s first professional baseball organization in 1911 and was credited with originally signing ‘Bullet Joe Bush,’ the Hall of Fame pitcher. Rivaling Hugh Campbell in the Missoula baseball world, Patrick’s son Owen Kelley, or ‘Ownie,’ was a renowned local baseball player, team organizer, and umpire for decades. He was also the operator of a local cigar store / pool hall, ‘Kelley’s,’ in the old Florence Hotel at Front and Higgins. He and his establishment were at times written about by people such as John Hutchens, Norman Maclean, Ray Rocene and John T. Campbell. Owen ‘Ownie’ Kelley’s daughter, Dorothy Ogg, was a lifelong Missoula resident who was often cited as a source of Missoula’s early history and was honored when a preservation award was created in her name.

Since Missoula was over 4 miles away, the two Kelly/Kelley brothers’ combined farm was first described as located in the Bitter Root, in deference to that nearby river and its valley. In fact, their place was sometimes called the Bitter Root Bend reflecting the huge loop the river makes as it moves toward its junction with the Clark Fork River. Although the brothers were active in the Missoula area prior to the existence of Fort Missoula, which was created in 1877, their place came to be described as one mile north of the Fort.

The brothers mined in many places throughout the West, most recently at Cedar Creek near Superior starting in 1869. As with many other early Missoulians they seemed to abandon mining as a primary way of life after Cedar Creek played out in the early 1870’s. Will Cave, a well-known local Missoula historian, mentioned Owen Kelley in a long article he wrote about Cedar Creek in The Daily Missoulian on July 3, 1921. Cave lived at Cedar Creek with his father as a youngster. He wrote that Owen was a partner in a Cedar Creek mining company named ‘Cayuse Flume Company’ along with Chris Hart, Ed Miller, Mike Farrell and Ed Kinney. Ed Miller was a prominent Orchard Homes pioneer whose family later donated property for the origin of the Orchard Homes Club. Cave found it curious that the Irish miners of the Cayuse company abandoned their claim to the Chinese, after it had seen some early success.

Other Cedar Creek mining companies featured several prominent Frenchtown family names, including discoverer Barrette, Cyr, Deschamps, Bisson, Hamel, Lalonde, Grenier, and the Lacasse brothers who stayed and worked there for a long while. The editor of the newspaper rightly posted the following comment in the same 1921 edition, “Cedar Creek had a lot to do with the development of western Montana. Some of the most prominent and substantial citizens of Missoula are here because they answered the call of its gold long ago.”

The Kelly brothers eventually worked a farm that stretched all the way from today’s South Avenue to South 3rd Street. Acquiring most of their property through preemption and homesteading, they together owned farmland measuring almost 800 acres. A map of their property is a patchwork affair that includes adjoining blocks of different sized tracts, one of which was 40 acres located on today’s Kelly Island. Their property was intersected by a section line which is currently known as Clements Road. An internet search of the BLM GLO interactive website reveals the aliquot section boundaries for their property acquired under the patenting process.

The huge ‘Orchard Homes’ development began in 1900 under the direction of Sam Dinsmore and R. M. Cobban, two Butte real estate men. A Missoulian article on March 30, 1924, explained that the entire development consisted of 6 separate additions. That article gave a somewhat incomplete description of the area, but it still provided valuable information. Several of the original large farm owners were mentioned in that article. It stated the last surviving original resident of the section was Mrs. Ed Miller, while Otto Benson was the Orchard Homes development’s first resident. It also gave a short profile of Michael McCauley whose ranch sat at the base of what is now called McCauley Butte. McCauley was one of the original settlers in the area and has descendants still living in the area to this day. His property was not a part of the Orchard Homes development:

“Orchard Homes addition No. 1 was made up from the Higgins ranch, No. 2 was known as the Gannon ranch, No. 3, the Douglas Ranch; No. 4, the Miller Ranch; No. 5, Spurgin ranch, and No. 6, Foley ranch.”

Again, the article neglected some of the Irish settlers, including William Kelly, Booths and Farrells, who combined sold hundreds of acres of property not long before the Orchard Homes development began in 1900.

It’s believed that the Kelly brothers initially attempted to live on the island but abandoned it when the Missoula River flooded them out. They eventually resided on higher ground to the south of the island. Owen Kelley’s final residence was located on the bench of land just south of 7th Street near what is now Rosecrest Drive. His house was still in existence in 1963 and was featured in a Missoulian article on 9/5/1963. That year it was finally razed by its owner Ken Richardson and his brother Robert. Noting that the Kelley cabin was one of the oldest in the area, the article quoted Mike Griffin, a retired local fireman who had known the Kelley family as a youngster. Griffin stated that he believed the Kelley cabin was built in 1874. He also noted that Owen came to the area in 1870. He had first stopped in Helena, he told Griffin, but with the vigilantes hanging people every so often and with other such activities he decided to move on. Griffin stated that Owen lived in another cabin and then “married a girl from New England visiting here before moving to the ‘new’ home.” Owen’s wife, Susan Madden, was born in Ireland and lived in Boston prior to coming to Montana. Griffin also noted that after Owen Kelley’s death in 1920, “a bank took over the homestead due to financial troubles and such, and R. T. Richardson, father of Kenneth and Robert, purchased the property in 1923. Since then, the property had been farmed and rented from time to time.”

Pioneer William Kelly’s home, currently owned by Don Stone on what is now Clements Road, was not far from Target Range School. It was known in the 1930’s as a drinking establishment called The Pepper Pot. William’s home was likely built by 1886, or a bit sooner, since he hosted Patrick’s large family when they arrived to Missoula 1886.
Pioneer Owen Kelley, with others, was credited in the Missoulian with putting in the main Missoula irrigation ditch in the late 1870’s. His name still appears on documents relating to the ditch, although it was spelled incorrectly. The ditch ran from downtown Missoula near the University to Target Range and is still in use today. Branches of the ditch run for miles throughout the Target Range area, under various names. Water rights under the ditch have at different times been a contentious issue. The ditch likely survived because it was constructed prior to the arrival of the railroad in 1883. Large claims of water rights occurred in connection with the development of Orchard Homes as well as with the arrival of the N. P. Railroad.

The BLM GLO website also provides a valuable source for researching the patenting history of the entire Orchard Homes – Target Range community. Familiarity with using that site reveals a group of local Irish names, including Foley, McCauley, McMurray, O’Brien, Booth, Gannon, Farrell, Miller, Lynch and a few others. Which Irish lad settled in that area first is debatable but was likely either Tom Foley or Terrance McMurray. They both arrived in the area in the 1860’s. The childless Foleys, who lived on a farm of several hundred acres at the end of what is now South Avenue, were fondly remembered for taking in a sick Father Ravalli and nursing him back to health over several weeks.

Below are two biographical sketches about Missoula’s Kelley/Kelly brothers, taken from “The Illustrated History of Montana” by Joaquin Miller, published in 1894: (See pages 609 and 629.)

Owen Kelley

“Owen Kelley, one of Montana’s respected pioneer farmers, was born in Cavan, Ireland, in 1835, a son of Patrick and Catherine (Evans) Kelley, also natives of that country. They were industrious farmers and devout Catholics. The father died at the age of forty-five years, after which the mother came to reside with her sons in Missoula, her death occurring when ninety years of age.
Owen Kelley, one of six children, four sons and two daughters, received his early education in his native land. When only fifteen years of age he started alone on the long sea voyage to America, to make his own way in the world in the “land of the free.” His first work was in Connecticut, in a cotton mill, for which he received 75 cents a day, and boarded himself. He was subsequently promoted until he received $2 per day. In 1858 Mr. Kelley started for the Golden State, and, after arriving in San Francisco, mined on the Yuba river, in Siskiyou county, also in various other places, meeting with fair success. From that place he went to Florence, on the Salmon river, shortly afterward to Boise Basin, Idaho, and in July, 1865, came to Montana, first locating at Helena. After mining and prospecting for a time, Mr. Kelley went with the Sun river stampede in the winter of 1865, and during the journey many of the miners suffered severely with the cold, a number having been frozen to death. Our subject mined with good success at Beaver Gulch, his largest nugget of gold being worth $56. He also mined at Cedar creek, but like all miners, found and lost money.
From that place he came to his present location, in the Bitter Root valley, four miles west of where stands the beautiful and thriving city of Missoula. In that early day Mr. Kelley pre-empted 160 acres of land, also homesteaded 160 acres, has since added another 160 acres, and now owns one of the finest farms in his section of the county. The land is adapted to the raising of wheat, oats and all kinds of vegetables. In partnership with his brother, William, Mr. Kelley is extensively engaged in the stock business.
September 15, 1883, our subject was united in marriage with Miss Susan Madden, also a native of Ireland. They have four children, – William, Nellie, Mary and Owen. Mr. Kelley has always taken an independent course in political affairs, casting his vote for the best man. The family are strong adherents to the Catholic faith, and aided liberally in the construction of the fine church edifice in Missoula. He has always been a man of industry, economy, and integrity, and his success is well earned and richly deserved, as is also his good name which such a course in life has secured for him.”

William Kelly

“William Kelly, a successful farmer of the Bitter Root valley, was born in Ireland, in 1837. When only a lad of fifteen years he voluntarily left his native land for America, and his first work here was in a factory in Connecticut, for which he received fifty cents a day and boarded himself. Being an active and willing worker his wages were soon advanced to $2 a day. From 1857 until 1861 Mr. Kelly worked in a woolen factory, where he also received $2 per day. In the latter years he crossed the plains to California, via the Isthmus, immediately began gold mining in Yreka, from 1862 to 1868 mined with good success in Florence, Idaho, and in the latter year joined his brother Owen in Deer Lodge county, Montana. They mined for a time at the head of Deer creek, afterward went to Cedar creek, and then decided to purchase land in the rich Bitter Root valley. The brothers located side by side, our subject securing 320 acres, on which he has ever since resided. For the past three years his wheat has averaged forty bushels to the acre, his oats sixty bushels, and during the present year his potatoes yielded 300 bushels to the acre. Since their residence in Montana, the brothers have been extensively engaged in the stock business, and have met with the success that their enterprise and fidelity deserve.
When the Nez Perces Indians threatened the lives and homes of the settlers of the Bitter Root valley, Mr. Kelly volunteered in the service, and served at the Lo Lo under Captain King. They succeeded in preventing a fearful massacre.
Mr. Kelly has never married. His mother made her home with him until her death, at the age of ninety years. The Kelly Brothers are among the many brave sons of Ireland who have sought and found independence and a competency in a foreign land.”

William Kelly died in San Diego in 1903. He had sold his property in about 1898 and moved to California in 1902. An article in the Butte Miner stated that he sold his farm for $9,000 and had been “taking life easy.”

Owen Kelley remained at his home until his death in 1920. He and his wife, Susan Madden, had 3 additional children following the biography posted above in the historical article. His youngest daughter Florence, who attended school at Target Range, passed away at age fifteen in 1918, likely dying from Spanish Flu. The remaining family sold what remained of their property not long after Owen’s death and moved to Missoula.

The Kelly brothers were mentioned in a long Missoulian article, “Frontier Days in Montana – The Hanging of Harley at Beartown,” by the Philipsburg pioneer Frank D. Brown in 1916. The article focused on the miners of Bear Gulch near Drummond, who organized a group of miners in 1867 to expedite the punishment of one Jack Harley, who was caught and detained after robbing a fellow miner. Brown’s article avoided giving specific names involved in the man’s hanging, but he did attribute the following to the Kelly brothers: “The punishment adequate to the offense committed was the subject of much discussion among the miners. It was about an even break among the numbers present as to whether he should be hung or driven out of the camp. Being inclined to the latter proceeding, and ascertaining that two votes were only lacking to save him from death, I went down to the claim of the Kelly brothers (presently residents of the Bitter Root valley) and told them the situation. It was their opinion that Harley was a better citizen dead than alive. The verdict of the miners was substantially to that effect.”

Owen Kelley was invited as an honor guard guest to pioneer Granville Stuart’s funeral in Deer Lodge in 1918. He and several other nearby pioneers had a lot in common with Stuart, arriving as young men in the West when it was largely unsettled and witnessing its incredible development. Many early Montanans arrived after following various stampedes for gold in Colorado, California, Idaho, Montana Territory, and even Canada. While some of their lives are well documented, like Granville Stuart’s, most were not. Still, many of their stories can be found in sources such as Joaquin Miller’s “The Illustrated History of Montana,” and M. A. Leeson’s “History of Montana,” both of which are easily available on the internet.