Our Town 100+ Years Ago: June, Part I

OUR TOWN 100+ YEARS AGO - June Part 1: June 1898, school is out for the summer, crops are growing, and headlines in the Jefferson Valley Zephyr highlight some national news. U.S. troops, by the thousands, have landed in Cuba to fight the Spanish invasion. Montana recruits for this war were among the healthiest in the nation, with only 6% rejected for physical disability. In Omaha, a young Salvationist, Miss Dorothy Mauer, used an ax to chop up artwork and sculptures she considered indecent. Flooding in eastern Montana was subsiding, and the threat to railroad travel was also dropping.

The contract for a new hospital in Billings was given to a Helena firm that bid $21,650 without plumbing; completion is scheduled for December 1. The following are taken as written in the June 3 and 10, 1898 editions of the Zephyr. Some have been shortened. The photo is an ad that appeared in the Zephyr on June 10, 1898.

SILVER STAR HINTS: Ten ten-horse teams belonging to Johnson & Bothwich of Butte passed through town last week from Virginia City, where they hauled ore for the Kennett Mining Co. en route to Philipsburg. On short notice, the Silver Star baseball club gave a social midnight hop Saturday evening. A good time was reported.

MAYFLOWER ITEMS: Miss Katie Yotter is rapidly gaining strength under the care of the natural resources of this health-giving mountain recess.

SUMMIT VALLEY GEMS: The spirit of enterprise seems to have entered our citizens. Improvements are going on all over the valley. The most notable is the flume Smith and Westmoreland built to convey water across Grey's flat for irrigating purposes.

THE HOME NEWS: Senator Cardwell departed yesterday for Butte and other points on a visit among friends. He says the stock interests have greatly benefited from the late heavy rains and will have a good year.

The road grader was taken out on Pipestone Road on Monday, where work is being done. The survey for the new road was made last spring; since nothing has been done, and many of the stakes have been removed by travel. Some road parts cannot be improved, such as the portion on the high sandy benches. The county road grader arrived in Whitehall last Saturday, and it is stated that some work is to be done on Whitehall streets, or at least upon such of them as are county roads. In all the years since The Zephyr was big enough to remember, there has been no work on the Whitehall streets or roads, though the Lord knows work has been needed badly enough.

The amount of rain during the past ten days has been sufficient to make the farmers cry enough, but the weatherman says we are to have plenty more of it. In eighteen years since the establishment of a weather service in the state, there has been no such rainfall in May.

Mr. and Mrs. S. D. Root expect to leave the first week in July for the new town of Montgomery, Dewey, or Sampson, whatever it is to be named, just four miles above Mammoth, where they will make their home, and Mr. Root will open a store.

Archie McDonald transacted business in Butte on Monday. Young Ronald McDonald embraced the opportunity presented by the absence of the head of the family to engage in mortal combat with an array of army beans, which he stuffed up his nasal organ. It took two doctors to restore the young gentleman to his normal condition.

OUR TOWN 100 YEARS AGO - June Part I: Just as 26 years earlier, June 1924 started with kids out of school for the summer and crops rising in the fields. Headlines in the Jefferson Valley News from June 5 and 12 included "Grasshoppers Threatening Menace to Jefferson County," "Whitehall Teacher Awarded $500 Scholarship for Work", "Sheriff Announces Re-election Candidacy," "Walsh Taken to Deer Lodge" (the convicted killer of Al Johnson, at Renova in 1923) and "The Wrong Name But the Right Man." The following articles are taken as written from the June 5 and 12, 1924 editions of the Jefferson Valley News. Several have been edited for length.

TWO YOUNG FOLKS ARE VICTIMS OF ACCIDENT: Saturday evening, while Misses Isa McFadden and Mary Wolverton were out riding on their bicycles, in some manner, the former lost control of her bike and crashed into the one ridden by her companion, with the result that Isa was thrown to the ground, striking on her head and shoulders and rendering her unconscious.

THE WRONG NAME BUT THE RIGHT MAN: Last Saturday afternoon, in response to a telephone message from Deputy Sheriff Williams, Marshal Waldo of this city placed in custody a man and woman camped on Pipestone Creek, on the Sanitary dairy ranch just south of the city limits. (the current location of the museum). From a description in the hands of the deputy sheriff, it was thought the man might be Wilson, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, who, it is alleged, shot and killed a deputy sheriff at the latter place. The man and woman were placed in the city jail until the deputy's arrival from Boulder. He gave his name as Dud Campbell and the woman as Pearl Johnson. Orders were received to hold Campbell as he was wanted for wife desertion and white slavery at Black Foot, Idaho. Both are still in the county bastille, awaiting the sheriff's arrival from Black Foot.

EMPLOYMENT SERVICE BY SCHOOL AGRICULTURAL DEPT.: The vocational agricultural department of the Whitehall high school will function throughout the summer this year, its main purpose in so doing being to give community aid and indirectly to help maintain and increase the enrollment of students for the coming year. In accordance with the policy of community service, a free employment bureau will be conducted for the benefit of the farmers to supply help during the busy season.

LOCALS: J. Sullender, who for the past two years has been employed as a section foreman at Edgar, Mont., has returned to Whitehall and is now in charge of the section between Whitehall and Waterloo on the Ruby Valley branch. Harry Dunn, who has been holding down the Whitehall-Waterloo section, has been transferred.

The frost and freeze that visited this section last Thursday night did thousands of dollars worth of damage to crops. From 80 to 90 percent of all fruit froze on the trees, which never happened in the Valley before.

BIDS WANTED: The Town Clerk of the Town of Whitehall will receive bids up to 7:30 P.M., Saturday, June 14th, 1924, for the construction of a firehouse, 26 four inches by 20 feet, 12 feet high in front and 9 feet in the rear, with the firewall. Ten-inch brick wall, concrete floor, two doors, and two windows; lath and plaster ceiling; plastered wall; 8x12 flue; concrete foundation 18 inches in the ground; shingle roof. All are complete in all respects, with concrete pillars for shafting. Work to be done subject to the approval of the Fire Committee. A. W. Robert, Town Clerk

AFTER ALL: When the smell and smoke and scandal of oil have cleared away, this republic will see a brighter day. Both parties have been caught in the same place, so the pot can't say to the kettle, "Go wash your face." After all the expense and political investigation, this government will go on to its higher destination.

PRICE OF BREAD REDUCED: We take pleasure in announcing that we are now able to reduce the price of the large loaf of Bon Ton bread to 12½ cents per loaf.