Our Town 125 and 100 Years Ago: February Part I

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 county by taking parts of Meagher and Jefferson counties; and changing the name of the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts to The Montana State College. Here in the Jefferson Valley, people had their own issues to consider. The following articles are taken from the February 5 and 12, 1897 editions of the Jefferson Valley Zephyr.

The Helena citizens realize that a million dollar state house is out of the question and they have cut the demand down to $350, 000. That is much nearer the mark, but it is still slightly high for the times. A perusal of the eastern papers shows that the suffering and destitution there during the late storm was almost indescribable. The resources of the aid societies were exhausted, and thousands of poor had only one small meal a day. Montana people can have no idea of the scenes that are a daily occurrence in the cities of the east-we are certainly fortunate in that, as a people, we know nothing of the want that is afflicting the easterners.

The Home News: Bar Silver, 64¾c., Lead, $2.90, Copper, $12.00. The crop of ice is being harvested and it is a first-class article. The Broadwater County bill passed the senate 16 to 4 and went through the house, 48 to 12. Dr. Davis was called to Boulder on Tuesday as a witness in the trial of the man who stabbed C. W. Winslow about Christmas time. The Whitehall band will give a dance at the Band hall on February 22d, the Washington holiday. The boys are planning to have a big time. Chief of Police Tebo and a party of his friends were among last week's guests at Pipestone Springs. They returned to the big camp on Monday. The infant child of Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Harbison died Sunday evening and was buried on Monday. This was the second child of the family to die within a month. Whitehall has several boxers who are winning renown in the local field, and Raymond Conard is named as one who may challenge the winner of the Fitz-Corbett scrap. A child pulled down a lamp at the home of Chris. Park on Monday evening, and there was a close call for the building. The fire spread on the carpet, and the timely arrival of neighbors saved the place. W. W. McCall received a scalp wound at Lime Spur that is somewhat more severe than the one he got two weeks since. He came in to have the wound dressed and several stitches were necessary.

Hon. Ed Cardwell was in town Saturday and gave The Zephyr a piece of road news that will be of particular interest to the residents of the South Boulder section. On the first of March, he proposes to close his ranch gates to the public. For some months past he has permitted the public to pass through his ranch for the reason, he says, that the commissioners of this county refuse to make passable the road leading from this side of the slough to the Jefferson Island bridge. When the bridge was located Mr. Cardwell gave the county twelve acres of land for a road. The commissioners were to make the road a passable one, and to keep it in good repair. The slough mentioned now contains five feet of water, and the only way for travelers to get through was to pass over the Cardwell ranch. So far it has been all right with Mr. Cardwell, but he says that he cannot keep a man there to watch the gates and that on March 1 he proposes to close up the gates to the public. He believes that the commissioners will take cognizance of a condition that they have had for a year ignored, and will take some steps toward making the road a good one-such as the large settlement in that vicinity deserves.

February 1923 was still filled with turmoil and tragedy. French troops were occupying part of Germany; a magnitude 8.3 to 8.5 earthquake struck the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Soviet Union and sent a 25-foot high tsunami across the Pacific that killed at least 12 people on the island of Maui; 123 miners were killed in an explosion at the Stag Canon #1 mine in New Mexico when a train derailed and slammed into supporting timbers near the mine entrance; two organized crime gangs in St. Louis ended a tense eight-month truce when a member of the Rats invaded Hogan's territory and killed Hogan's lawyer; and Chuck Yeager was born on February 13th, who in 1947 would become the first person to break the sound barrier in a plane. In Whitehall, life was taking a slightly slower pace. The following articles are created from notes made by Roy Millegan, Sr. from the February 1 and 8, 1923 Jefferson Valley News. The photo shows several WHS students ready for their stage entrance in the school play.

Plans are underway to make the trip to Butte shorter and easier. Engineers have been looking at building a new route directly up the little Pipestone to the 19-mile house using the water grade. It would cut off at least seven miles. The current road, or as we like to call it – the trail, was built back in the 1870s to connect with the Virginia City to Butte route. There is also a lot of continuing talk about running a rail line from here down to Dillon; but, we all know how long that conversation has lasted.

Our local high school thespians have outdone themselves again. The cast and crew of 30 did an excellent job of presenting the musical Miss Cherry Blossom. We hope they took the time to attend the special lectures by Mr. A. W. Robert about banking and finance. This is a very important topic for these future adults to be money smart.

In other musical news, Mrs. J. R. Bairds will hold a piano recital at her home featuring the following budding musicians: Ann and Willis Lynch, Virginia Mills, Frances Hixson, and Helen Thompson.

A few news items were received from the agriculture side this week. Mr. Irvine has sold 430 pounds of baby beef at a nice price of $8.00 per hundredweight to some apparently very hungry people in Los Angeles. If you haven't seen Rusty Bryan around town lately it is because he is now in Helena working at the seed warehouse under Mr. Nelson Graves. Same for E. R. McCall, except he went to Butte to begin his new position as manager of the sausage room at the Hansen Packing plant.