Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
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The Jefferson Valley Museum will be graced with the expertise of Timothy Gordon, owner of Gordon Appraisals in Missoula, on Saturday, September 9, 2023. Gordon is known internationally for his expertise in appraising fine art and the sale of rare objects. The Jefferson Valley Museum is extremely fortunate to have Mr. Gordon offering informational appraisals for area people who would like to know more about their antique items. Timothy Gordon will be at the museum on Saturday, September 9th from...
AUGUST, PART II 125+ YEARS AGO: The second half of August 1897 in Montana was a tough one when it came to the loss of life. Near Missoula, a woman died from burns when the hay wagon she was riding on caught fire. Near Helmville, a poor family lost all three of their children when the home burned down, probably from the children playing with matches. A music teacher in Great Falls tried suicide with morphine after he took a young student for a nude swimming excursion and she drowned. Jefferson...
The Whitehall Rotary Club held its annual picnic at the Jefferson Valley Museum on the evening of August 15th. Rotarians from Butte, Helena, and the Twin Bridges/Sheridan area were part of the celebration. Montana's Rotary District Governor Rick Powers and his wife Nikki from Anaconda were special guests. The club has been holding its catered picnic at the museum for the past four years as an annual celebration of the Rotary fellowship. The Whitehall club holds regular meetings on Tuesday...
8 YEARS AGO: AUGUST PART I: While the weather is in the news a lot right now in early August, it did not make headlines back in 1897. Here in Montana, there were headlines about mine injuries, suicides, and the price of silver dropping to 55.5 cents per ounce while lead was bringing $3.60 and a woman killed by lightning in Granite County. The following news items are taken as written from the August 6 and 14, 1897 editions of the Jefferson Valley Zephyr. Waifs From Waterloo: Arthur Hunt and...
8 YEARS AGO - July Part II July 1897 was a super-hot one. The mid-section of the U.S. was sweltering and there were close to 850 deaths recorded from the heat across the nation. Chicago led the death toll with 87 followed by Cincinnati and St. Louis. Miners were flocking to the Klondike seeking their fortunes after reports of gold nuggets as large as a guinea hen egg. Utah was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the arrival of Brigham Young and his pioneers in the Great Salt Lake Valley as...
July, Part I: 125 YEARS AGO Headlines in the July 2 and 9, 1897 Jefferson Valley Zephyr were gruesome. A Shapeless Mass-Richard Vine Crushed by the Wheels of a Car After a Night at Columbia Gardens; A Domestic in the Home of a Well-Known Minister Mysteriously Disappears; Had Yellow Fever-A Veiled Lady Spreads Death Among the Crew and Passengers of a Pacific Liner; Without Warning-A. H. Porter of Phillipsburg Killed by the Contents of the Revolver of Harry Cohn; and Disgusting Scene-Citizens of...
JUNE, PART II June 1897 was a busy news month, especially the second half. In Missoula, a large stable owned by the Higgins brothers was burned by an arsonist resulting in the death of five horses and a young 16 year- old practice boy. In the Big Hole Basin, William Christenson, a wealthy landowner known as the terror of that country, was shot by Sheriff Smith when he tried to escape justice. Outside of Montana, Mason City, Iowa was struck by a cyclone that killed several people and left a destr...
JUNE, PART I All was not quiet in Montana back in June of 1897. A sheepherder had been killed by a group of renegade Cheyenne and seven more deaths followed. Ranchers were arming themselves and fear was rampant in eastern Montana. In western Montana, bets were being placed at the racetrack in Anaconda where nearly 150 horses were listed. In the eastern United States, new appointments were being made for federal government offices; a Christian mission in China was attacked and all were feared...
May, Part II As of now, the Kentucky Derby was a big event in 1897. Typhoon II won the 23rd running followed by Ornament. Second place received a tidy sum of $700. A San Francisco millionaire made the front page for his arrest after spitting on the floor of a streetcar. A 12-year-old boy died in Waco, Texas when a severe wind, rain, and hailstorm blew several buildings from their foundations and damaged many others. In Asotin, Washington, a cloudburst sent a wall of water down into the valley th...
MAY: Part I By May in 1897, the long cold, snowy winter had finally receded and allowed spring to arrive. While the rest of the country and the world were embroiled in war, natural disasters, and front-page crime, life was still a little more docile here in our valley. People in Virginia were shaken by an earthquake; the Globe Savings Bank in Chicago had failed due to the mismanagement by its officers; in Fresno, California, a spurned man killed a woman and her daughter and then himself; war...
April, Part II In 1897, April was ending with similarities and some definite differences to events in the current day. Macedonia was being invaded by Grecian insurgents; Theodore Roosevelt was nominated to be assistant secretary of the Navy; the second fastest boat in the world, the torpedo boat No. 3 went 25 knots an hour on its trial voyage; hogs arriving at the Chicago stockyards in March were averaging 8 pounds lighter than February and 16 pounds lighter than the previous year; severe floodi...
April, Part I By April 1897, people in our Jefferson Valley were ready for spring. It had been a long snowy winter. Around the USA and the world, the weather was just one concern. Politics, war, and natural disasters were making headlines. The war in Cuba was still raging, and the House of Representatives in Washington D.C. was debating a tariff on gelatine glue and on unrefined bauxite. A massive break in a Mississippi levee required 10,000 men to try to keep the situation from getting any...
The annual meeting and program for the Jefferson Valley Museum will be held on Thursday, April 6th at the Star Theater. The short meeting will start at 6:45 PM with the program at 7 PM. During the meeting, there will be a short review of the past year for the museum and the election of three board members will be conducted. The program this year will feature the history of the Whitetail area along with many historic photos. Jerry Keogh will be interviewed by one of the museum volunteers in an oral history presentation about the area and the...
March Part 2 The March weather "lion" was roaring in 1897 very much like now. The U. S. House of Representatives had just elected a new Speaker of the House, Republican Tom Reed; the U. S. supreme court ruled that states have the power to tax franchises of corporations, such as express, telegraph, and railroad companies; and the Mississippi river was flooding the lowlands of Arkansas. The following articles are taken as written from the March 12 and 19, 1897 editions of the Jefferson Valley...
The Jefferson Valley Museum will offer a second opportunity to hear the oral history program of Carrie "Bunny" Leyson Wall on Tuesday, March 21st at 6:30 PM. The program will be held at the museum barn. The program was originally presented on February 22nd but extreme cold and snow kept many people from attending. The program features the recording made in 1989 by Roy Millegan, Sr. when he interviewed Carrie. Historic photos help to highlight many of the people and places mentioned during the...
MARCH, Part I Like March 2023, in March 1897 the U. S. Congress was in session and discussing controversial issues. Two hot issues were the boundaries of the Alaska territory with Canada and a bill to prohibit the transmission of detailed accounts of prize fights by mail or telegraph. Federal officials were being accused of practicing deceit when it comes to a bill for opening the south half of the Colville Indian reservation to mineral resource development. In Montana, the Gallatin valley...
The second half of February 1897 had plenty of news events. National headlines in Whitehall's Jefferson Valley Zephyr included turmoil in the senate and a bill in the house to appropriate money for the armor plating of war vessels; a lavish inauguration was being planned for McKinley; a bank failure in Idaho hit close to home; and proclamations made by President Cleveland set aside seven areas of land referred to as forest reservations including areas in the Flathead, Lewis and Clark forest,...
The Jefferson Valley Museum will hold its third and final winter oral history program for this season on Wednesday, February 22nd at 6:30 PM in the museum at 303 South Division. The featured history is the interview done in 1989 by Roy Millegan, Sr. with Carrie “Bunny” Leyson Wall. Carrie lived in Silver Star, Neihart, and Whitehall, graduating from Whitehall High School in 1929. Historic photos will be shown to help enhance the listening experience. Previous programs highlighted the lives of Bernard May and Lena Brown Slauson. The annual mee...
FEBRUARY, PART I 1897 was starting out with turmoil and political division. There were calls in Washington D. C. for major bank reforms to help curb the financial problems in the country; a bill proposed to give money for the Nicaragua canal project was strongly objected to since it would give millions to a company worth only about one-half of a million; the war in Cuba was still raging; the Montana legislature put thumbs down on 53 bills and passed 16 which included the creation of Broadwater...
JANUARY PART II As January moved toward February, politics, and science were clashing. In Boston, a woman was removed from the courtroom because the defense council said she might hypnotize the witnesses. The eminent Dr. Berman was summoned from Germany to St. Petersburg to help the Czar recover from severe vertigo. In Montana, the legislature was gearing up for a new session with Democrats in the majority, and overtures to bring members of the populist party to their side were not going well....
The Jefferson Valley Museum will be hosting its second oral history program at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, January 18th at the museum barn. It will feature an interview recorded in 1989 by Roy Millegan with Lena Brown Slausen along with photos from the area. She and her siblings lived most of their childhood at Homestake. Three of her brothers attended school in Whitehall in 1929 and 1930 where all were outstanding athletes. Lena's grandparents, Charles and Elizabeth Flagg were among the first...
JANUARY, Part I, 125 YEARS AGO: As 1897 dawned, it was a new year with new tragedies and many of the same old problems. Sabotage to a railroad bridge in Tennessee caused the deaths of dozens of people. Aqueduct, New York experienced a serious riot over low wages and high food prices for those working on the Erie canal. Minnesota, South Dakota, and Nebraska were stalled under heavy snow and blizzard conditions while flooding was rampant in Illinois, Arkansas, and northern Michigan. The Spanish...
December, Part 2 Those living in December 1896 would be amazed at how things seem to be repeating in 2022. Wheat crops were failing in the "old world" causing famine; four banks in the eastern U. S. failed; there is public unrest in China against the ruling class, and crimes in other parts of the country make the front page of the Zephyr. The following news items are taken as written from the December 18 and 25, 1896 editions of the Jefferson Valley Zephyr. Mining News: Messrs. Cutler and...
In December 1896, the entire United States was in the grip of a strong winter. The Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads were struggling to keep their lines open due to heavy snowfall and a deadly rail accident occurred at the Mullen tunnel east of Missoula. William Steinway of piano manufacturing fame died of typhoid fever. Congress was making "Laws Without End" with 1456 measures on their calendar. The Treasury Department reported that the government spent more than it took in. Here...
NOVEMBER, PART II In November 1896, the elections were over, and people were able to focus on other concerns. In the West, flooding in the Coeur d'Alene area was of great concern with 100 cords of wood floating in the lake and train travel interrupted. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, Poison, Murder, and Arson Case was a headline. A well-known saloon keeper, John Mollberg, was charged with murder after putting arsenic in Moses Reeder's beer. Reeder knew who had burned down a competitor's saloon the day...
