Old Missoula

Mrs. Margaret McCauley, Resident of Missoula 60 Years – Shook Lincoln’s Hand

Mrs. Margaret McCauley, age 91 years and a resident of Missoula for nearly 60 years, died at a local hospital Tuesday night following a short illness.

Mrs. McCauley was born in Ireland in 1842 and came to the United States at the age of 17 years, making her home at Washington, D. C. Attendance at a reception given at the White House by Abraham Lincoln, January, 1865, a few months before his assassination, when she was 23 years old, was one of the memories always cherished by the aged woman, who made her home on the old McCauley ranch in the Orchard Homes district.

At the White House reception she had the honor of shaking hands with Lincoln. She attended the performance, “Our American Cousin,” in the old Ford theater at Washington the week before Lincoln was shot and on the evening of the assassination – Friday, April 14, 1865 – she witnessed the escape of the man who attempted to kill Secretary Seward.

Witnesses Escape.

She often recalled that the man entered the secretary’s sickroom, slashed Mr. Seward’s throat with a knife, then inflicted wounds upon the secretary’s two sons and three nurses before escaping. Mrs. McCauley lived across the street from the Seward home and saw the man flee on a horse. The excited neighborhood did not learn for some time that President Lincoln had been shot the same evening.

Mrs. McCauley came to Montana on a stage coach in 1870. Just before reaching the state, the stage coach was held up by road agents who the night before had robbed another coach of $100,000 in gold.

To Missoula in 1875.

Mrs. McCauley took up her new home at the Blackfoot agency, near Helena, where her husband was the Indian agent. She came to Missoula about 1875, and has lived on the McCauley ranch in Orchard Homes since.

She is survived by three sons, George, Robert and Charles McCauley, all of Missoula, and two nieces, Mrs. Arthur Brisbin, Missoula, and Miss Mary Powers, Eureka.

The body is at the Lucy undertaking place. Funeral arrangements have not been made.

The above obituary appeared in The Daily Missoulian on January 11, 1933.

 

Funeral services for Mrs. Margaret McCauley will be held at St. Anthony’s church at 10 o’clock Friday morning. Rev. Father D. P. Meade will conduct the services and burial will be in Missoula cemetery.

The pallbearers will be John Flynn, John Taylor, C. E. Sharpe, J. T. Cranney, Dan Maloney and W. P. Maclay.

Mrs. McCauley had been a resident of Missoula for nearly 60 years. She was a native of Ireland and crossed the plains to Montana in 1870.

The body is at the Lucy undertaking place.

The above notice appeared in The Daily Missoulian on January 13, 1933.

 

Major Michael McCauley

Yesterday’s announcement of the death of Major M. M. McCauley occasioned general sorrow about Missoula, older citizens among the business men, who knew the dead man best, expressing regret at his demise. The remains will be interred in Missoula cemetery Sunday afternoon, funeral services under the auspices of the Missoula lodge of Masons to be conducted at the family residence near Missoula at 1 o’clock.

Major Michael M. McCauley was born in County Leitrim, Ireland February 21, 1824 and emigrated to the United States when about fifteen years old, landing in New York City, where he resided until the year 1851, when he joined the Argonauts for California, making the trip by way of Panama, crossing the Isthmus on a mule.

He remained in California until 1865, when he came to Montana. While he resided in California, he was engaged in mining and various other enterprises. While in California, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the San Joaquin Mounted Rifles, by Gov. John B. Weller. In 1858 and 1861 he was commissioned captain of the Stanislaus Guards by Governor John G. Downey.

In 1865, he came to Montana, and engaged in mining at Blackfoot City, then a flourishing mining camp, and remained there engaged in mining until, 1868, when he was appointed Indian agent for the Flathead Indians, and stationed at the Jocko Indian agency, where he remained until he had served out the full term of his appointment, and making one of the most satisfactory Indian agents that ever occupied the same position at that agency.

In 1870, he was appointed by President Grant an Indian agent for the Blackfoot Indians, and stationed at the Blackfoot agency, where he fulfilled the duties of his office to the satisfaction of the Indians and the government.

In 1870, he was united in marriage at Washington City, D. C. to Miss Marguerite McCarthy. This marriage was blessed with seven children, four of whom are still living. Robert McCauley, Chas. McCauley, George E. McCauley and Mrs. Louise Logan, wife of W. F. Logan and all of whom are grown.

After having retired from his duties as Indian agent, Maj. McCauley selected for himself and family a beautiful spot for a home on the Bitter Root river, near Fort Missoula, where he and his family have ever since resided, and where he breathed his last in sight of those grand old mountains, that he loved so well.

Maj. McCauley served two or three terms as a member of the board of county commissioners, and rendered valuable service on said board.

Maj. McCauley was a man of extensive reading and progressive ideas, and was a most valuable citizen, in the community in which he lived. He leaves, surviving him, his widow and the four children above named. He was a member of Missoula Lodge of A.F. & A. M., which order will have charge of the funeral services.

The above obituary appeared in The Missoulian on April 26, 1902.

Missoulian Editorial April 26, 1902

Michael M. M’Cauley.

Missoula without Major McCauley will be lonely. He was such a conspicuous figure for so many years that not to meet him on the streets occasionally, not to hear his kindly greeting, his forceful and original comments upon current matters, will stun and bewilder for awhile. It will take all of us a long time to get used to his absence. A great deal of man was packed into the major’s compact frame. He was gentle, kindly, shrewd and inquisitive, full of solicitude for your welfare and eager to tell about his own. Boyish even in his old age there was a breath of spring about the major that made him a delightful companion.

Major McCauley had passed the allotted age of man. Into his 78 years of life was crowded much of adventure, stirring incident, the ups and downs of western life in the days of gold; and in all, the square, ruddy-faced, pleasant-voiced little Irishman was able to hold his own. He had a dauntless heart. Fear wasn’t in him. His opportunities were limited in youth. He had but the smattering of an education when he reached this country at the age of 15 from the west of Ireland, but he had ambition and a good set of brains to begin with. He was observant and studious. An omnivorous reader he soon became possessed of a fund of useful information. He was up to the time of his death, continually trying to find out something. He studied men as well as books. He knew scrubs as well as thoroughbreds, and so outspoken was he that no man he disliked was kept in ignorance of the fact.

Few men were better posted on ancient and modern history than Maj. McCauley; he kept abreast of current events. He was an ardent Boer sympathizer and every scrap of information about the struggle in South Africa was seized with avid interest. In his last days it could be said of him that he feared God and hated Cecil Rhodes.

Ambitious. Maj. McCauley aspired to position. Successful or defeated he accepted the fortunes of war philosophically and never became despondent. With an eye for the beautiful he chose him a home on the banks of the beautiful Bitter Root river and his declining years were spent in comfort, surrounded by a loving family and with a sufficient to satisfy his modest wants. Pioneer, sage, man and brother, he was a splendid type of the fine old Irish gentleman.

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