Old Missoula

Missoula’s Pioneer Keim Family

One of Missoula’s most fascinating pioneer family stories began with Levi Keim who arrived in Missoula in 1870’s. He had mined in California in the 1850’s, in Florence, Idaho in the early 1860’s, and later in Montana’s Beartown area. He then traveled back to California for a while, but returned to Montana again in the 1870’s. His son Frank, born in California, followed him throughout his journeys and became a well-known Missoula citizen, beginning in 1871. Some of the Keim family’s story is found below. It begins with grandson Custer Keim’s interview in The Missoulian in 1973. Custer lived in Missoula and Victor, Mt. where he died in 1993.

Levi Keim – 1832-1910

Frank Keim – 1858 – 1932

L. Custer Keim – 1902 – 1993

 

Victor’s Custer Keim Collects Missoula History

By Jo Schloemer – Missoulian Correspondent

Victor – The front page of each Missoulian states it was founded May 1, 1873.

But the first issue of the daily paper – “A paper devoted to the development of Montana and the Interest of the people” – was actually published on Feb. 28, 1873.

An original copy of the paper, along with issue number two, dated March 7, 1873, is owned by Custer Keim of Victor. The April 30 centennial issue of the Missoulian includes a copy of Keim’s number two Missoulian. Number one is too fragile and yellowed with age to copy.

Keim inherited the century-old Missoulians from his father. At age 14, Frank M. Keim was doing chores for Judge Frank Woody. When Woody purchased a printing press and type from the Cedar Creek Pioneer News (near Superior), and started The Missoulian, he told Keim he “might as well learn a trade.”

Beginning as a “printer’s devil” – sweeping floors and putting type back in the correct slots – Frank Keim learned the newspaper trade.

“Every letter was set by hand, the letters were put in a ‘printer’s stick’ and formed into a column,” Keim said.

Keim said there were advantages to the old-fashioned method of newspaper printing. “Dad learned to spell. I never saw him misspell a word, and grammatical errors were almost unknown in the papers in those days,” he said.

In those days, The Missoulian was a weekly paper. It was Frank Keim who started the first daily paper in Missoula. Founded on July 4, 1888, The Evening Item was a political paper that kept readers informed on the whereabouts of the Republican candidates. Such news items as “There has not been a Republican in jail for over a month,” were also included in the Evening Item.

Frank Keim came to Missoula as a child in 1871 to “strike it rich” with his prospector father. Although Keim said his family did not find gold in Missoula, they did find other treasures.

“My father would take me to the plays. I loved the theater,” Keim said. He explained that Missoula was a mecca of theaters – with names such as Gem, Empire, Union Opera House, Stage, Harnois – and his father printed the programs for all of them.

Keim has boxes of the beautifully printed programs. Among other treasures from the past in the Keims’ comfortable new home northwest of Victor is a collage of photographs of prominent Missoulians. Lovely Florence Hammond (the Florence Hotel is named after her) is in the center surrounded by faces including those of C. P. Higgins, Emma Dickinson (the first teacher in Missoula) and her husband W.H.H. Dickinson, the first postmaster, Keim has identified 46 of 48 faces.

Another vestige of the past is an engraved invitation to a hanging, sent to Frank Keim in 1890 from W. Houston, the sheriff. A picture of the four Indians who were to be hanged was etched in gold on the reverse side of the postcard invitation.

“It’s a good thing some traditions have changed,” Keim said while displaying the invitation.

Regarding the newspaper trade, Keim said, “Newspapers come and go in Missoula. To name a few, there’s been the Daily Dispatch, the Missoula Sentinel, the New Northwest.”

Although The Missoulian has lasted for 100 years, news stories have changed. An article in Keim’s 100-year-old Missoulian stated that “A San Francisco bride is suing for a divorce on the ground that she was intoxicated when she married.”

 

The above article appeared in The Missoulian on May 5, 1973.

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Custer Keim was the editor of his class “Annual” his senior year at MCHS in 1919. He died in Victor in 1993. Below is his obituary from The Missoulian on March 17, 1993:

L. Custer Keim

Victor – L. Custer Keim, 90, a longtime resident of the Bitterroot Valley, died of natural causes Monday, March 15, at Community Hospital.

He was born Sept. 22, 1902, in Missoula, to Francis M. and Agnes Hennessy Keim.

He graduated from the University of Montana in 1924. He worked for Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Co., and was outside plant engineer for many years prior to his retirement in 1961. He married Florence Stoll in September of 1966.

Scholars and authors often consulted Custer, a widely acknowledged authority on Montana and other western history.

Survivors include his wife, Florence, at home; one brother, Neil Keim, Hungry Horse; three grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.

Graveside services will be conducted at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Missoula City Cemetery.

The family suggests memorials to the St. Labre Indian School in Ashland, or to the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Town in Billings.

Whitsitt Funeral Home in Stevensville is in charge of arrangements.

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Frank Keim, Early Resident of City Claimed by Death

Old-Time Missoulian Was Miner, Rancher, Newspaper Worker.

Frank M. Keim, old-time newspaper worker, miner and rancher and a pioneer Missoula resident, died at a local hospital at 8:30 o’clock Saturday morning, following an illness of about six weeks. He was 73 years of age.

Mr. Keim was born in California, October 15, 1858. He came to Missoula with his father in the early spring of 1871, 61 years ago, driving the entire distance in a buckboard wagon. He attended school at Frenchtown for a time, boarding at the pioneer Miller home, and later went to school in Missoula, staying at the D. J. Welch home during the 1872-73 school year, and attending school for the last time in 1878.

In the summer of 1873, he went to work for Frank H. Woody on the Weekly Missoulian, which shortly before had been changed from the Missoula and Cedar Creek Pioneer, established about 1870. Working up rapidly from the position of printer’s devil, he soon became an expert type-setter, all type being set by hand at that time.

In 1877, Mr. Keim’s father acquired the Bearmouth stage station, located about a mile from the present station of Bearmouth, and the boy took the job of carrying mail by horseback from Bearmouth through Beartown to Yreka, 18 miles distant, making the round trip every other day for the two years the men remained at the station.

Mr. Keim wrote a lengthy account of his experiences at the time of the McKay’s Gulch massacre in June, 1878, the account appearing in the April 2, 1916 issue of the Sunday Missoulian [see below]. Despite the fact that the bodies of John Lynch and John Myers, killed that very day by a band of Nez Perce Indians, were found at old Springtown, directly on Mr. Keim’s mail route, he insisted on making his usual trip to Yreka, unaccompanied. This he did without trouble, only to find the next day that the Indians had gone on to Willow creek and killed a party of miners there. The Indians finally were captured and killed near the mouth of the East fork of the Bitter Root river by Lieutenant Thomas Wallace and 20 soldiers from Fort Missoula.

In Mining District.

Leaving Bearmouth in 1878, Frank Keim and his father went to Clinton, where they were among the first to file claims in what later became the well-developed Wallace copper mining district. Named originally for Lieutenant Wallace, the name was changed to Clinton to avoid confusion with the Wallace, Idaho, mining district.

When not engaged in mining during the ensuing years, Mr. Keim worked as a typesetter for various of the newspapers of Missoula’s past. For a few months in the summer of 1888 he and two partners ran the Daily Item, the first daily newspaper in Western Montana, in competition with the Weekly Missoulian. Later he worked for the Higgins brothers on the daily Western Democrat, and when it suspended publication with the bank failure of 1893, Mr. Keim, with Harry Pierce and David Markell, leased the property for a year and started the weekly Western Democrat. Mr. Keim, who by that time had captured the record for setting the greatest amount of type in a week in any Missoula plant, did the typesetting, Mr. Pierce tended the press, and Mr. Markell edited the new paper. It continued publication for almost two years.

Mr. Keim also worked at various times for the old Missoula County Times, the Missoula Gazette and the Daily Missoulian. For many years also he printed the programs for the Union opera house and the Harnois and Gem theaters.

Student of History.

From 1909 to 1915, he was engaged chiefly in mining on his Clinton property, and after that time, he spent about two years in the quartz region around Martini creek, in Idaho. He has been employed continuously since 1917 in the physical plant of the State University. He was at one time a member of the city council and public administrator, and was a charter member of Missoula Typographical Union, No. 277, which he helped organize in 1891. He was a member of all branches of the Odd Fellows and held all offices in the order. He was a member of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneers, having missed the requirement of Montana Pioneers’ society membership by less than a year. His hobby was Montana history, particularly with reference to Montana Indians, and having been with Private Lockwood on the field the day after the battle of the Little Big Hole in 1877, he was regarded the greatest living authority on that subject.

Most of the facts in regard to Mr. Keim’s life were related to The Missoulian reporter by Will Cave, long-time Missoula resident, who first met Mr. Keim at a “community Christmas tree” party in December, 1872.

Mrs. Keim died January 12, 1913, and his only sister died in infancy. He is survived by a brother, W. H. Keim, of Willows, Cal., and by four sons – Francis F. Keim of Judith Gap, L. Custer Keim of Helena and Charles P. Keim and E. Neil Keim of Missoula.

The funeral services will be held at the Marsh & Powell chapel at 3:30 o’clock Monday afternoon. The Odd Fellows’ lodge will conduct the rites. The pallbearers will be Will Cave, Dr. M. J. Elrod, Charles Bloomquist, Andrew Logan, Dr. W. E. Schrieber and Fred Zeh. Burial will be in the Missoula cemetery.

 

The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on March 13, 1932.

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Final Call Comes To Pioneer

Levi F. Keim, Trail Blazer and Argonaut, Crosses the Great Divide.

Levi Follmer Keim, plainsman and argonaut, the pioneer of two states, crossed the great divide at 2 o’clock yesterday morning into the Undiscovered Country. Death came to this venerable citizen after a long illness, which had been acute for a couple of months. His death was not unexpected but the announcement that the end had come brought a feeling of sorrow to Missoula’s older residents who had known Mr. Keim for years and had learned to respect his sterling honesty and good citizenship.

The life which ended yesterday morning had been abundant in interest and fraught with much hard work. Mr. Keim was one of the adventurous band which crossed the plains in quest of gold in California; he had blazed trails in Idaho, Nevada and Montana and always he had been true as steel. He was blunt and outspoken but nobody who knew him ever doubted his word. He was industrious and frugal but he was one of those who were destined to pave the way to wealth for others, though never amassing fortunes themselves.

Mr. Keim was born in Pennsylvania in 1832, January 11, being the date of his birth. When he was nine years old he went with his parents to Wabash county, Indiana, where he grew to manhood. In 1852 he started to cross the plains but met with discouragement and returned home. The following year, however, he went to Platte City, Mo., and joined with a man named Sweeney in the management of an ox-train across the plains to California. After the usual hardships the outfit reached the coast and Mr. Keim located in Sacramento, where he worked in a restaurant until he had made a stake.

Then he went to the mines in Yuba county, working at Young’s Gold Hill and at Galena Hill. Here he remained until the fall of 1857, when he went back east, by way of the isthmus. Landing in New York, he proceeded at once to his old home in Indiana and, during this visit, he married Julia Ann Abshire. This was in January 1858. In the spring of that year he returned to California, where he remained, most of the time at Galena Hill, until the early sixties when he went to the placer diggings in Idaho. Here he lived for several summers, working most of the time at Florence.

In the spring of 1866, with a party of friends, Mr. Keim went to Portland and from there to Lewiston, Idaho. Thence he went to Walla Walla and there he outfitted for a packtrain journey into Montana. He reached Elk creek, near where Garnet is now, and went to work for Stone & McKevitt.

He remained in Elk creek only that summer and in the fall went to Nevada, where he spent the winter at Austin. In the spring of 1867 he went to Comptonville, Cal. For three years he remained there and then, in 1870, went to Sebastopol, in Sonoma county. After a year in that place he started with his son, Frank, for Montana and arrived in Missoula county.

The year 1871 Mr. Keim spent in farming in the Frenchtown valley. The following year found him mining on Moose creek, near Bear gulch. In 1873 he was employed by the government at the Blackfoot agency. In 1875, leaving the government service, he returned to Moose creek, where he mined for two years.

With his son, who had become his companion in all his journeys, Mr. Keim returned to California in 1876, going to Los Angeles county. He made a short trip into Arizona but did not remain there. In April, 1877, he and his son bought a span of mules and started overland for Montana once more. They drove through Nevada and Idaho, striking the Montana stage road at Malad City, and came to Missoula by way of Butte. Missoula was reached in June and the Keims remained here. In August of that year Mr. Keim was one of the volunteers who marched with Captains Rawn and Logan from Fort Missoula to head off Chief Joseph in Lolo pass. This campaign had an inglorious end at Fort Fizzle

That fall Mr. Keim bought the old stage station at Bearmouth and conducted it until July, 1878. In that year he and his son came down the canyon to Clinton, where they built the first cabin in the Wallace district. He always retained his interests there. From 1884 to 1887 he engaged in placer mining on Nine Mile.

In February, 1887, Mr. Keim sustained serious internal injuries in a railway wreck at Lloyd, near Garrison, and his hurt proved so severe that he was compelled to abandon mining. He came to Missoula and has lived here ever since. Mr. Keim was divorced from his first wife in California and was married again in 1889 to Mrs. Amanda Peg in Missoula; she survives him.

Mr. Keim leaves two sons, Frank of Missoula, and W. H., who lives in Willows, Cal. Two sisters, Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Messick, both living in California. Four brothers, also, survive; these are Samuel, at Lemhi, Idaho; B. F. at Oakland, Cal.; Daniel and Henry at Los Angeles.

The body of Mr. Keim will lie at the family residence on East Cedar street until Monday afternoon, when it will be taken to the Masonic temple, where the funeral will be held under the auspices of the A. F. & A. M. at 3 o’clock. The pallbearers have been selected from among his oldest Montana friends. They will be Judge Woodlock of Bear gulch, an old partner; Col. G. W. Morse, Fred Kennett, F. H. Woody, P. J. Kline and B. F. Smith of Missoula.

 

The above articled appeared in the Sunday Missoulian on May 29, 1910.

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Frank Keim wrote a letter to The Missoulian in 1916 regarding the McKay Gulch Indian killings of two miners from the Beartown area in 1878. He knew the victims and he and his father came close to becoming victims themselves. Frank relates one story of the incident and the capture and killing of the Indians.

 

Keim Writes New Version Famous Indian Massacre

Editor Missoulian:

In your issue of March 5, I read a most interesting story by Frank D. Brown, giving an account of the “massacre of McKay’s gulch,” in the summer of 1878.

The story was of special interest to me, as I was then living in that vicinity, and have a very vivid recollection of some incidents in connection with the raid that are not related in Mr. Brown’s story.

Thinking it might be of interest to Missoulian readers, I have taken the liberty to add another supplementary chapter to the article by Mr. Brown.

I think there is a slight error in his article regarding the exact course taken by these renegade Nez Perce Indians, which I first want to correct.

In his article Mr. Brown says: “Leaving Avon bluffs, they struck across the foothills and into the Hellgate valley near the present town of Garrison. Here they crossed to the south bank and followed the river down to below the William Wallace ranch. Here they turned to the south and went along the foothills of the Flint creek valley, etc.”

As a matter of fact, the day before these Indians crossed to the south side of the Hellgate, they had killed two miners near the head of “Top O’Deep,” a tributary of Bear gulch.

At that time I was a youngster, 19 years old and was living with my father, who was then running the Bearmouth stage station. This was in early June, 1878.

The day these Indians killed the two miners – John Lynch, and John Myers – I had ridden up from the stage station at Bearmouth to old Beartown, situated about eight miles up the gulch, to carry some express matter.

At that time there were 40 to 50 people still living at Beartown, which then consisted of two stores, a restaurant and two saloons. After delivering my express matter, I rode back that afternoon to the Bearmouth stage station. The old stage station was situated about a mile and a quarter east of the present Bearmouth railroad station and about one mile south of the Hellgate river. The old stage road from Missoula to Deer Lodge left the river at Bearmouth and ran across the foot hills to New Chicago, which is situated about four miles south of Drummond.

That evening some one came down to the stage station and told us about the killing of Lynch and Myers the day before at Lynch’s cabin, which was situated at old Springtown, about three miles up Deep gulch, a tributary of Bear gulch. It was supposed at the time that they had been killed by some Chinamen, who were then working over the old tailings in that vicinity.

At that time the old Mulkey road ran from the Hellgate river north via Reynolds city to Yreka. The Mulkey road crossed Deep gulch a short way east of old Springtown.

I was at that time carrying the United States mail from Bearmouth to Yreka, a distance of about 18 miles. I made the round trip every other day.

The next morning I started with my mail sack on horseback to make my usual trip via Beartown to Yreka.

When I reached Springtown, that morning, the miners were gathered there investigating the killing of Lynch and Myers.

Colonel George W. Morse seemed to be the leader of the miners. After an investigation on the hill back of Lynch’s cabin, he found unmistakable signs of Indians.

The pony tracks were plainly visible. As no one had dreamed that hostile Indians were anywhere in that part of the country, the discovery of “Indian signs” threw a new light on the murder of the two men. The miners insisted that it would be suicide for me to go on with the mail, but, boy-like, I said, “No, the Indians have come and gone and I am not afraid.”

I had been used to Indians all of my life and felt no danger from them.

As a small boy in Missoula, I had seen as many as three or four thousand Indians encamped where Missoula now stands. The south side of the river in those days was the favorite camping grounds for the Flatheads, Colvilles, Kootneais, Pend Oreilles and Nez Perce. They were always assembled here on their way to the buffalo country for their annual hunt.

They would meet at Missoula in order to make up a strong party to defend themselves from the hated Blackfeet, but that is another story.

The miners then wanted to send a guard with me, but I was not at all afraid and again said, “No.”

I remember that the bodies of both the dead men were lying there in the cabin. The day before, when they were killed, an old man, Jimmy Smith, who had a ranch near the mouth of Bear gulch, had been over to Yreka with a pack train. On his return, the day before, he was riding a young half-broken horse at the head of the train. As he rode down the hill into Deep gulch, he passed by an old abandoned prospect hole that had been dug alongside the trail, about 200 yards up the hill from Lynch’s cabin. As he rode by the prospect hole, the horse started to snort and shy away. The action of the horse caused Smith to look around to see what was the cause. He then noticed some dry limbs and brush had been recently thrown into the pit and on closer investigation he discovered the body of a man underneath the brush. Dismounting, he was horrified to discover John Myers, with a bullet hole in his back. Remounting his horse, he hurried down to Lynch’s cabin to notify him of his discovery.

When he arrived at the cabin he found the door open and the inside turned topsy-turvy, the furniture upset and broken as if there had been a hard struggle, and under the bed he found the dead body of Lynch himself. He had been hit in the head and his skull crushed with some heavy instrument, a hammer, I think.

He then hurried on to Beartown to notify the miners. No one thought about Indians, as there had been no rumors of hostile Indians since the Nez Perce raid of the year before.

There were several Chinamen working in the gulch at that time and in some way the report soon gained currency that the two men had been robbed and murdered by the Chinamen.

John Myers lived in Beartown and had started that morning to walk across the divide to Yreka. As I said before, I had to make a round trip with my mail sack and after spending some time at the miners’ meeting I mounted my horse and rode on to Yreka and returned that same afternoon, without having seen any Indians on the way. When I reached the stage station at Bearmouth that evening, my father told me that during my absence of the previous day on the trip to Beartown, some Indians had ridden up to the stage station from the east. At that time there was no one present at the station except my father and the Chinese cook. We, then rightly concluded that the Indians who had done the killing had evidently ridden from the hills to the south side of the Hellgate river. In heading south for the foothills of Flint creek, they had crossed the stage road about a mile and a half east of the stage station and had ridden back to investigate. At that time, he had thought little of the matter, and until I broke the news of the finding of “Indian signs” back of Lynch’s cabin we did not connect the two incidents.

There were four or five of them who had ridden down to the station. They talked to my father, but beyond some braggart remarks about “Injuns heap brave,” they did not molest him and rode back east and joined the main party, which then turned south and camped that night on Willow creek, which empties into Flint creek a few miles south of the present own of New Chicago.

Mr. Brown, in his story, tells of their visit the next day to the Morse ranch and the killing of the miners on Willow creek and of the pursuit of the band and their extermination a few days later on the headwaters of the Clearwater, just across the divide of the Bitter Root mountains in Idaho.

But to resume my story.

The night after the killing of Lynch and Myers, there was living at a ranch about a half a mile west of the stage station Billy Heany. Heany had a few pack animals, eight or ten, ranging out on the flat to the south of the station. The next morning his outfit had all disappeared except one old mule, which he found a day or two afterwards. Evidently the mule was too slow or didn’t suit the Indians and he had either escaped or been turned loose. Our own horses were not disturbed.

The day after the killing of the miners on Willow creek, George W. Morse rode down to Missoula and notified the commanding officer at Fort Missoula. Lieutenant Thomas S. Wallace, Company H, Third infantry, was immediately set out with 20 mounted men and a pack train in pursuit of the renegades. From the information furnished by Colonel Morse, it was almost certain that they would attempt to regain the old Nez Perce reservation in Idaho and Lieutenant Wallace rightly guessed that he might be able to head off the hostiles at the head of the Bitter Root valley. We afterwards learned that the Indians had crossed from Willow creek over to Rock creek and followed up to the head of that stream and crossed the divide into Ross’ Hole. Lieutenant Wallace reached the forks of the Bitter Root and hurried up the East fork to Ross’ Hole, but found no signs of Indians.

He then turned back, thinking the Indians might have passed in his rear. He soon found Jerry Fahey, with a pack train, enroute from Missoula to Gibbonville, Idaho. Fahey was encamped a short distance from the mouth of the East fork of the Bitter Root. He told Lieutenant Wallace that the day before the Indians had overtaken them and captured their cargo, he and his men taking refuge in the hills. Fahey’s cargo consisted largely of red eye whiskey, which the Indians had apparently declared to be contraband of war and proceeded to enjoy themselves in true Indian fashion. Evidently fearing pursuit, however, they hurried up the West fork of the Bitter Root toward the top of the divide.

Wallace with his command started in pursuit. Somewhere, just across the Idaho line, they discovered the rear guard of the hostiles, a lone Indian sleeping out his portion of the captured whiskey. Some of the soldiers wanted to shoot him as he slept, but Lieutenant Wallace forbade them doing so, fearing the report of the guns might be a signal warning to the other murderers, who were evidently somewhere in the near vicinity, so they quietly brained him with the butt end of a needle gun and hurriedly but cautiously proceeded.

They soon discovered the rest of them eating their dinner in an open space in a box canyon of the headwaters of the Clearwater river – 19 of them.

They found that the Indians had picketed their horses a short distance down the stream. Lieutenant Wallace then divided his command, sending some of his men around on the side hill so as to cut in between the Indians and their horses, while the remainder of the command advanced along the trail.

The Indians were attacked both in front and rear. When the fighting was over, there were 19 dead Indians, some say 18, as one of them probably escaped to tell the story to their friends at Lapwai.

Samuel Belew [Bellew] of this city was at that time commissary sergeant at Fort Missoula, and outfitted Lieutenant Wallace’s command.

Andrew Logan was then blacksmith at Fort Missoula and helped shoe the horses that were used on the expedition.

On December 8 Lieutenant Wallace met his death a few miles west of Missoula. He had been hunting out in the mountains south of the “Big Flat” and returning late that night he swam his horse across the Missoula river just below the intersection with the Bitter Root. The night was cold and when he reached the north bank of the Missoula river in some way his horse got away from him. The animal’s return to the fort next morning gave the alarm and a searching party was sent out. They found Lieutenant Wallace’s frozen body on the bank of the river. He lies buried in the cemetery at Fort Missoula.

It is of interest to know that the “Wallace mining district,” near Clinton, was named in honor of this soldier. The first discovery of mineral was made in that district in the latter part of the month of June, in which he had pursued the renegade Nez Perce. The country was then resounding with his praises and at the first meeting of the miners to organize the new district, it was decided to name it “Wallace” in recognition of his services in ridding the country of these murderers.

The first post office at what is now Clinton was called Wallace, but on the discovery that the Wallace Mining district in the Coeur d’Alenes and the founding of the present city of Wallace, the name of the Montana town was changed from Wallace to Clinton.

Yours truly,

Frank M. Keim.

Missoula, March 26, 1916.

 

The above story appeared in The Daily Missoulian on April 2, 1916.

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