Our Town 100+ Years Ago - July, Part I (7/10/2024)

125+ Years Ago - July, Part I: The front pages of the newspapers in July 1898 were filled with war stories. Young men from Montana who had signed up for military duty were writing letters home from camp. A train wreck in Mississippi killed four members of Col. Torrey's regiment of rough riders. Men were making good money mining in Southwest Montana, and some were losing their lives in mine accidents. A passenger ship near Sable Island in the North Atlantic was struck by an iron sailing ship and went down with 500 of the 725 people on board. Murders in Livingston and the Big Hole were front-page news. The following local items are taken as written from the July 1 and 8, 1898 editions of the Jefferson Valley Zephyr.

The Rundell brothers could not fulfill all their orders for strawberries for the 4th owing to the scarcity of pickers. However, they made quite a large shipment. The irrigating season is now well underway. Here and there, in the beautiful fields of grain, silent figures in gum boots with shovels on their shoulders may be seen moping around. They are known here as members of the steering committee. They steer the water to the high places.

The Hotel Whitehall will soon be lighted throughout by the new acetylene gas light. The apparatus is now on the way, and Mr. Schmidt expects to have it in working order within a week or so.

Messrs. Parker and Haskins now spend all their spare time scorching up and down the streets of Whitehall. They expect to enter (and win) the bicycle races at Pony on the Fourth.

Ludwig Perrine, who lives in Elk Park, this county, claims to have been murderously assaulted while driving home from Butte. He was fired on from ambush, six bullets striking his horses and wagon. He reported the matter to the Jefferson County authorities.

On and after today, Uncle Sam will exact an additional fee of two cents for each and every post office money order. This will be paid cheerfully as it is a war tax. Another source of war revenue that will reach a large proportion of the public is the 1-cent tax on all telegrams sent.

100 Years Ago - July, Part I: The Jefferson Valley was facing another hot July in 1924. The front page of the Jefferson Valley News was filled with good and sad news. Emmett Douglass of the North Boulder area lost 300 yearling ewes after they ate lupine at, ironically, Suicide Camp seven miles south of Boulder. The Whitehall Trading Company was sold in a bankruptcy dale. There were three active clubs for boys and girls to fill in summertime hours: The Potato Club, the Canning Club, and the Poultry Club, with well-known members like Frank Crow, Marcus Pruett, Ferson Tuttle, Mary Wolverton, Carrol Speck, Marie Salvagni, and Angela Capp. Forty-one Whitehall soldier boys from Headquarters Company, 163rd Infantry, Montana National Guard, returned home from Camp Dixon near Helena. The following news articles are taken as written from the July 3 and 10, 1924 Jefferson Valley News. The photo is of Whitehall Women's Club members sometime in the 1920s.

Killed by Lightning in Saturday's Storm: During the severe rain and electrical storm that visited this section last Saturday afternoon, Albert Lambert, aged 65, was instantly killed, and Wm. Austin was severely shocked and burned while seeking shelter on the east side of a haystack on the A.B. Smith ranch, just west of the city limits, where they were working as hay hands. Undertaker S.H. Wolverton took charge of the remains, and they were laid to rest Sunday in the Whitehall Cemetery.

Miss Sallie Batterton has filed her intention to become a candidate for the nomination to the office of county superintendent of schools of Powell County at Deer Lodge. Miss Batterton is well-known in Whitehall, where she taught school in the grades during1915-17, and in Jefferson County, where she was a candidate for the same office in 1916.

William Riley Pyfer, of this city, and Miss Emma Leona White, of Manhattan, were united in marriage at the high school gymnasium in this city last Saturday night at 11:55 with Rev. R.H. Shaefer, of this city, performing the ceremony. Miss Mary Pyfer and Mr. Daniel Pyfer, the groom's sister and brother, were in attendance.

Mrs. Emmett Douglas and Mrs. S. D. Houghton attended the special meeting of the Woman's Club at the Christian church Tuesday afternoon. They heard the reports of the delegates to the biennial meeting of the General Federation of Women's Clubs held last month in Los Angeles.

New Models of Buick Six at the Tait Garage. The colored plate pictures of the newest Buick car displayed for the first time in Tuesday in Tait Garage's show windows attracted considerable attention. It is a new Buick designated as the "Standard Six." It has a wheelbase of 114⅜ inches, a valve-in-head engine similar to the engine now in use in the other models, four-wheel brakes, and low-pressure or "balloon" tires. The motor produces fifty actual brake horsepower. The wheels are of artillery type with hub flanges. Tire carrier with extra demountable rim, jack, new type high-pressure grease gun, full kit of tools, pump, tire repair kit, transmission lock, cowl or windshield type ventilator, rear vision mirror, automatic windshield wiper on all closed models.

Grace News Notes: Harry Cressap's team got away while standing in front of C.M. Johnson's store in Whitehall one day last week, but a bunch of men near at hand caught the runaways before any great damage was done. P.W. Keeny, of Vendome, and B. Chaney, of Renova, motored up to the Madison and spent the Fourth fishing. They report a fine catch. Mrs. Bud Harbor had the misfortune of losing 15 turkeys in one day last week. The coyotes did the dirty work.