Our Town 100 Years Ago...March Part I

In March 1899, there was plenty of news to report from around the world and here in the valley. Fighting was ongoing in the Philippines, and a front-page story made it clear that the government there was not fond of the U. S. forces. Our troops in Havana, Cuba, were fighting a typhoid fever outbreak that was not helped by the primitive sewage systems. A young man with the Northern Pacific in Helena chose suicide as the way to get out of his marriage. Montana Governor Smith vetoed a bill that would have allowed 20-round boxing matches in the state and commented, "The more I have thought this over, the more I am convinced that it will invite a class of people to our state that it could well get on without." George Dewey was appointed admiral of the Navy with a salary of $13,500 per year. The immense Windsor Hotel in New York City became an inferno that took 16 lives, injured 57, and left 66 listed as missing. Closer to home, the following news items, written from the March 1899 editions of the Jefferson Valley Zephyr, give a glimpse into life in our valley. The photo is an ad from the same editions.

MINES AND MINERS: Last week, the receiver of the Golden Sunlight properties near Whitehall applied to the United States court for permission to operate the property. Fred Bacorn filed his report as receiver of operations at the Gibbonsville properties. The report shows that bullion worth $9,039.57 and 138.55 tons of concentrates worth $4,924.41 were shipped during January, totaling $13,963.98. The operating expenses during the same period were $13,812.61.

William Owsley, who operates the Whitehall mine north of Whitehall, is currently working three men and will soon increase the force. He has ordered a 12-horsepower gasoline engine for this mine, and work will be pushed steadily on. The Whitehall has been considered a good piece of property in a good district, and the developments have encouraged other owners to go to work.

HOME NEWS: Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Noble moved last week from the Sheridan country to the J.W. Reed ranch, south of Whitehall. Mr. Noble has made a deal for the property and will make the place his home.

T.T. Black was in Whitehall Wednesday, perfecting the papers for the A.O.U.W. so that they might be forwarded to the proper officers and the death loss of W.H. Newkirk paid. William Howard Newkirk was born in Morgan county, Missouri, Feb. 5, 1844, and was 55 years and 19 days old. He came to Montana in 1865, when he was 21 years old, and settled first in Alder Gulch. The same year he moved to Helena, and near that city in the year 1869 was united in marriage with Sarah A. Butt. The following year, Mr. and Mrs. Newkirk moved to what is now known as the Newkirk place, a few miles south of Whitehall and across the river from Parrot. There, they resided until November last, when they moved to Summit Valley. During the marriage, thirteen children were born to them. Seven have died; one is buried near Helena, and six lie in the Fish Creek cemetery, where the father's body was interred.

Major E.G. Brooke, on Saturday, received a package of photographs of himself from sittings made on his recent visit to Helena. The expressions show him before and after Clark's election to the United States Senate, and the difference is so great as to make it possible to easily tell which is the "before" and which is the "after."

A.J. McKay went up to the terminus of the valley railroad Tuesday to call on his friend Murdoch McIntire, king of the Scotch and manager of earthquakes.

Monday morning, about 7 o'clock, a ferocious blizzard started, but it was the shortest on record, as it lasted less than an hour. During that hour, however, it did business in the liveliest fashion. The wind blew a regular hurricane.

MISS DOLLY SPERRY DIES AT THE HOME OF HER UNCLE, A.J. SPERRY: Miss Dolly Sperry died at Silver Star on Sunday, the 26th, at the home of her uncle, A. J. Sperry. Miss Sperry came to Silver Star from Wilmar, Minn., on the 27th of last May, hoping that the change of climate would benefit her health, her physicians claiming that only removal to a higher altitude could prevent her succumbing to consumption. For a time, she showed great improvement, but during the winter, which has been unusually severe, she gradually grew worse and on Sunday passed peacefully away at the age of 16 years and 5 months.

Dr. Barringer, at Whitehall Hotel, will positively extract your teeth without pain.

An old-timer told this paper that it was safe to prepare for a storm somewhere between the 10th and 20th of March every year. It arrived last Monday from the north, and though the cold was not intense, the wind and snow were very disagreeable.

Mrs. M.J. Garrity has been appointed postmistress at Homestake and was in Whitehall Wednesday executing the documents. The establishment of a post office there will accommodate quite a number of people and remove the annoyance of the very uncertain mail delivery with which the people on the Homestake divide have been contending.

Wednesday's westbound train carried a number of soldiers who were en route to the Philippine Islands. They were very young-some of them mere boys. The Montana soldier Henry C. Beecher, reported killed at Caloocan, March 15, is thought to be Claude Beecher, who was well known to a number of Whitehall people.

Whitehall is billed for a moving picture entertainment for this Friday evening. Life-like pictures of the late war are shown, naval and land battles depicted, etc. Besides being highly entertaining, the show is described as unusually instructive and inspiring. Admission 50¢; children 25¢.

WHITEHALL IS BEHIND THE TIMES: She has had no cakewalk. Let the junior mayor attend to the matter. Here are the directions for the walk: One has only to unbosom herself to confidence, relax the muscles of her body, remove the poker from the neck so as to allow the head to wabble from one side to the other, throw the shoulders backward so that the heels can touch them, hold the left arm akimbo, and with the right execute a highland fling movement, glide forward in rhythmic contortion and trust to the spectators for the rest.

J.R. Cochran of Silver Star went to Logan last week to meet his sister and niece, Mrs. R.B. Stafford and daughter Lulu of Dunkirk, Indiana. Mr. Cochran and his sister had not met for fifteen years, and this fact gave Jim a chance to get in one of his jokes. The lady did not expect to see her brother till she reached Whitehall, so at Logan, Mr. Cochran introduced himself as a railroad baggage hustler who had been asked to look out for her. The ruse worked so well that when Mr. Cochran made himself known, he had to do some heavy single-handed talking before Mrs. Stafford would accept him as the brother she had known as a "barefoot boy with cheek of tan." Mrs. Stafford and her daughter were piloted to Silver Star. They like Montana and will make their home here-if Mr. Cochran has his way.