born there in 1832. He has always been an active and useful citizen. He
was a member of the Montana Territorial Legislature three terms--once
in the council--and was a member of the Constitutional convention in
1889. Mr. Gillette now resides in the Dearborn valley, in Lewis and
Clark county, where he owns one of the largest and best stock ranches
in Montana. He has a large herd of cattle and several thousand sheep.
He is considered to be one of the wealthiest men in the state and one
of the most honorable in his dealings with his fellow men.
ROBERT VAUGHN.
May 21, 1900.
A MEAL IN THE INDIAN CAMP.
One of the Diamond R. Company’s men had been down about the falls of
the Missouri river looking for some oxen that had strayed away. He
came up the valley to my house. He told me that there were six Indian
tepees a little ways above the mouth of Sun river and that there were
five horses that he thought belonged to me not far from the tepees. He
gave a description of them and I could see that they were my horses.
I mounted my saddle pony, which I always had at home, and went to the
place where the horses had been seen, but I could not find them. I
went to the Indian camp (now Sun River Park belonging to the city of
Great Falls). A fine old Indian came and met me. I told him that I was
looking for horses, describing them and making my brand, the letter V,
with my finger in the dust on the ground. He said that he had seen them
and that they had galloped away over the hill, at the same time making
signs and pointing his hand in the direction the horses had gone. I
thanked him; then he asked me to come to his tepee. I went with him,
and when we got to the camp he called on a young Indian to come and
take my horses to good grass. He took me to his own tepee and brought
from his wardrobe a very fine buffalo robe, spread it upon the ground
and asked me to sit on the robe. I accepted the invitation. Then he
filled his pipe with dried red willow bark (kin-ni-ki-nic) and after
lighting and smoking it, long enough to get the pipe going in full
blast, he handed it to me. Although I never indulged in smoking a weed
of any kind, at this time, to please the old fellow, I passed the pipe
around with him half a dozen times, and, of course, I had to take a
whiff every time he did; after that I asked to be excused, telling him
that my heart was good and that I knew his heart was good also. In the
meantime he had told his wife to give me some victuals (much-a-muck).
She took about one dozen grains of coffee and put it in a piece of
buckskin and pounded it between two stones and made me some coffee;
she brought it to me in a tin cup, and also some dried antelope meat.
No one could be treated with more respect by an Indian than I was by
them. Bringing the best robe, and presenting the pipe of peace, as this
Indian did, is one of the most courteous acts an Indian can do for a
man. When I told him that I was going to leave and go over the hill to
get the horses, he ordered the young Indian to bring my horse. I gave
the old fellow fifty cents in silver and he was much pleased, and I am
sure I was, for I was treated royally. I found the horses on the other
side of the hill where the Indian told me they had gone. This was in
the summer of 1873.
ROBERT VAUGHN.
Jan. 21, 1898.
[Illustration: INDIAN CAMP.]
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF WHAT IS NOW MONTANA.
No doubt it will be of interest to many, especially us Montanans, to
know the history of the first settlement of this state and which was
made in the western portion in 1841. Knowing that Hon. Frank H. Woody
of Missoula is one of the old pioneers and among the oldest residents
of the city of Missoula, I wrote asking him to give me a brief history
of western Montana. In reply he sent me a carefully prepared paper
written by himself some two years since, giving a very complete early
history of that part of this state, also a letter containing valuable
information on the same subject and giving me permission to make use
of so much of his writings as I desired. No one is better qualified to
give such a sketch than Judge Woody, for he has been a resident of what
is now Montana for over forty-four years. The following are extracts
from Judge Woody’s letters:
“All that portion of the state of Montana bounded on the north by
the British possessions, on the east by the main range of the Rocky
mountains, on the south and southwest by the Bitter Root mountains,
and on the west by the one hundred and sixteenth degree of longitude,
at one time constituted a portion of the vast domain of the great
Northwest, known as Oregon Territory. When and by what means the
government of the United States obtained possession of the great
Territory of Oregon are facts not generally known. Oregon was for a
great number of years claimed by the United States and Great Britain,
and was held in joint occupation by citizens of both nations. Great
Britain claimed by the right of discovery, and the United States by the
right of discovery and by virtue of the French cession of the Territory
of Louisiana of April 3, 1803, and the treaty of limits with Spain of
Feb. 22, 1829, and also by right of actual occupation of soil for a
great number of years. The ‘Oregon Question’ engrossed the attention
of congress and came near resulting in a war between the United States
and Great Britain, but the matter was amicably adjusted by the treaty
of June 15, 1846, by which the forty-ninth parallel of latitude was
established as a boundary line between the two nations, and the United
States became the sole and undisputed owner of all that portion of
Oregon lying south of that line.
“Oregon was organized as a territory by act of congress, passed in
August, 1848, and included within its limits all that portion of
Montana lying on the west side of the Rocky mountains.
“By act of congress approved March 2, 1853, the Territory of Oregon was
divided, and this portion of it became a part of Washington Territory.
The first legislature of Washington Territory created the county of
Clarke, named in honor of Captain Clarke, of the Lewis and Clarke
expedition. Clarke county extended from a point on the Columbia river,
below Fort Vancouver, to the summit of the Rocky mountains, a distance
of some six hundred miles. This portion of the present State of Montana
was then a portion of Clarke county, and was then for the first time
included within the limits of a county.
“Clarke county was afterwards divided, and the county of Skamania
created, and we became a portion of the last named county. The
legislature then divided Skamania and created Walla Walla county, and
then we became a portion of Walla Walla county, with our county seat
located on the land claim of Lloyd Brooks, on the Walla Walla river,
in the present State of Washington. Walla Walla county was afterwards
divided and we became a part of Spokane county, with the county seat
located at Fort Colville. We remained a part of Spokane county until
December 14, 1860, when the legislature of Washington Territory divided
the county of Spokane and created the county of Missoula, with the
county seat at or near the trading post of Worden & Co., Hell’s Gate
Ronde.
“The county of Missoula, as first established, embraced all those
portions of the present counties of Missoula and Deer Lodge, lying on
the west side of the main range of the Rocky mountains. Missoula county
remained a portion of Washington Territory until Idaho Territory was
organized on the 3d of March, 1863, when it became a portion of that
territory.
“The first legislature of Idaho created Missoula county, and located
the county seat at Wordensville. On the 26th day of May, 1864,
congress created Montana Territory, and the first legislature, which
met at Bannock, created, on the 2d day of February, 1865, the county
of Missoula, and located the county seat at Hell’s Gate. From the
foregoing it will be seen that Missoula county has at different times
comprised a portion of four territories and five counties.
“Probably the first white men who visited this portion of Montana were
Lewis and Clarke, who, with their party, sometime during the summer of
1805, entered the Bitter Root valley from the south, through a pass
known at the present time as the Big Hole mountain, a small valley near
the head of Bitter Root river, where the party of Lewis and Clarke
first met and gave the name of Flatheads to the tribe of Indians now
known by that name.
“A number of years since the writer was well acquainted with Moise,
the second chief of the Flatheads, who was a boy at the time Lewis
and Clarke passed through the Bitter Root valley and well remembered
the event and many circumstances connected therewith, the party being
the first white men ever seen by these Indians. Moise was a warm and
devoted friend of the whites from the time of his first meeting with
them up to the time of his death, which occurred about 1887.
“Western Montana has been occupied from time immemorial by three
different tribes of Indians, to-wit: The Salish--called by Lewis and
Clarke the Flatheads, and by which name they are generally known--the
Kelespelmns, now exclusively known by the French name of Pend
d’Oreilles, and the Kootenais. These tribes speak dialects slightly
different, and most probably constituted at a remote date one tribe or
nation. They have a tradition that they came from the far north, but
this tradition is exceedingly vague and indefinite.
“From the time of Lewis and Clarke’s expedition up to about the year
1835 to 1836, we have no definite knowledge of what transpired in this
portion of Montana. At a very early date a number of Canadian voyagers
and Iroquois Indians from Canada visited this country, and sometime
between 1820 and 1835 the employes of the Hudson’s Bay company visited
it for the purpose of trading with the Indians and extending the power
of dominion of that gigantic company, but these early adventurers left
us no available data from which to write their travels and adventures.
“About the year 1835 to 1836 the Flathead Indians, who inhabited
the Bitter Root valley, had gathered some little knowledge of the
Christian religion from the Canadian voyagers and Iroquois Indians,
who visited the country for the purpose of trapping and trading for
furs. The Flatheads were anxious to gain further knowledge and sent
to St. Louis, Missouri, for a priest, or as they called him a ‘Black
Gown.’ Three different parties of Indians were sent in as many
different years. Of the first party sent but little that is definite is
known, except that none reached St. Louis. The second party, on their
downward trip, were all killed by Indians--probably Blackfeet--near
Fort Hall. The third party started in the spring of 1839, and in the
summer of that year two of the party reached St. Louis. Of the two who
successfully accomplished the journey, one was named Ignace Iroquois
and he died at or near the St. Ignatius Mission, in Missoula county,
sometime during the winter of 1875-76. The other was the father of a
Flathead named Francoise Saxa of Bitter Root valley. The superior of
the Jesuit establishment at St. Louis promised to send them a priest
in the following spring. Ignace remained in St. Louis all winter and
came up with the father in the spring. The other Indian came back the
same fall to tell the news. In the spring of 1840 Father De Smet and
Ignace came across the plains and found a camp of Flatheads and Nez
Perces near the Three Tetons, near the eastern line of the present
state of Idaho. The father baptized a few Indians and came with the
Flatheads to the Gallatin valley, near the place where Gallatin City
now stands, and, finding that he could do little without aid, returned
to St. Louis for assistance. In the spring of 1841 Father De Smet
returned, coming by the way of Fort Hall. He brought with him two other
fathers--Point and Mengarine--and several lay brothers, among whom were
Brothers W. Classens and Joseph Specht, who are eminently entitled to
the appellation of ‘oldest inhabitants,’ having been residents here for
more than a third of a century. The party brought with them wagons and
carts, horses, mules and oxen, and came by the way of the Deer Lodge
valley and down the Hell’s Gate canyon. These were the first wagons and
oxen brought to Montana. In the fall of that year the first settlement
was made in the Bitter Root valley by the establishment of St. Mary’s
mission on the tract of land upon which Fort Owen is now situated.
During the fall and winter of the same year dwelling houses, shops and
a chapel were built, and nearly all the Flatheads and some Nez Perces
and Pend d’Oreilles were baptized.
“Probably the first farming attempted in our state was in the spring of
1842, by the fathers at the mission. This year they raised their first
crop of wheat and potatoes. The same year the first cows were brought
from the Hudson Bay company’s post at Fort Colville on the Columbia
river. About this time or a little later the fathers also erected a saw
and grist mills--the burrs for the latter being brought from Belgium.”
Those same mill stones, which are fifteen inches in diameter, with
other relics of this early settlement, are now in the archives of the
museum at St. Ignatius mission.
“After establishing the St. Mary’s mission, Father De Smet returned
to St. Louis, and thence to Europe, but returned to the Bitter Root
valley in 1844, making his third trip, and bringing with him a number
of fathers and lay brothers. Among the number was the well known and
highly esteemed, the late Father Ravalli. St. Mary’s mission was kept
up until November, 1850, when the improvements were sold by Father
Joset to Major John Owen. The bill of sale--now in possession of the
writer--bears date St. Mary’s mission, Flathead county, November 5,
1850, and is, without doubt, the first written conveyance ever executed
within the limits of Montana.
“In 1847 the Hudson’s Bay company established a trading post on Crow
creek, on the northern portion of the present Flathead reservation,
and the place is still known as the Hudson’s Bay post. Angus McDonald,
Esq., who came to the mountains as early as 1838 or 1839, was probably
the first officer placed in charge of the new post.
“In 1849 Major Owen started from St. Joseph, Missouri, as sutler
for a regiment of United States troops known as the Mounted Rifles,
destined for Oregon. The troops came as far as Snake river, when
winter caught them, and they built winter quarters on the bank of that
river about six miles above Fort Hall, where they spent the winter.
The camp was called Cantonment Loring and the place was long known by
that name. Major Owen remained at Cantonment Loring until the troops
resumed their march in the spring of 1850, when he relinquished his
sutlership, and spent the summer on the emigrant road, trading with the
emigrants bound for California and Oregon. In the fall of 1850 he came
to the Bitter Root valley, and, having bought the improvements of the
Catholic fathers, erected a trading post at that point and christened
it Fort Owen, a name which it still continues to bear. The fort was
constructed of a stockade of logs placed in an upright position with
one end planted in the ground. The stockade was necessary to protect
the inmates and their property from the incursions of the numerous war
parties of the Blackfeet Indians that continued to make raids into
the valley up to 1855. It was the custom to drive the horses into the
stockade each night during the spring, summer and fall of each year
to prevent them from being stolen by the Blackfeet, and even this
precaution did not always save them. One night a party of Blackfeet
came to the fort, and, with knives and sticks, dug up some of the logs
forming the stockade and drove away all of the horses belonging to the
fort.
“In the fall of 1852, while hauling hay, a young man named John F.
Dobson, from Buffalo Grove, Illinois, was killed and scalped by the
Blackfeet in sight of the fort. The writer of this article has in
his possession a diary kept by Dobson from the day that he left
Illinois, in the spring of 1852, up to the day he was killed. The
last entry that he made in it was on the day that he was killed, and
is as follows: ‘Sept. 14, 1852. I have been fixing ox yokes and hay
rigging. Helped haul one load of hay. Weather fair.’ The next entry is
in the handwriting of Major Owen--apparently made the next day, and in
these words: ‘Sept. 15. The poor fellow was killed and scalped by the
Blackfeet in sight of the fort.’ These facts are only cited to show
with what trials, dangers and privations the early settlers had to
contend with in those days.
“In March, 1853, the Territory of Washington was organized, and Isaac
I. Stevens appointed governor of the same. He was also interested in
an expedition fitted out from St. Paul, Minnesota, to make the first
survey to determine the practicability of a route for a Northern
Pacific railroad. This expedition arrived, in what is now Missoula
county, in the fall of 1853, bringing with it a number of men who
afterwards became citizens of Montana, among whom were Captain C. P.
Higgins of Missoula and Thomas Adams and F. H. Burr, who were for a
long time residents of Missoula and Deer Lodge counties.
“In the fall of 1853 Lieutenant John Mullan, a member of the
expedition, was directed to establish winter quarters in the Bitter
Root valley and make certain observations during the winter. In the
fall of 1855 Neil McArthur, an old Hudson bay trader, having retired
from the company’s service, came to the Bitter Root valley, accompanied
by L. R. Maillet and Henry Brooks. McArthur brought with him a band of
horses and cattle and located and occupied the buildings at Cantonment
Stevens, having during the summer of 1855 concluded a treaty with the
Flatheads, Blackfeet, Crows and other mountain tribes of Indians. The
Blackfeet had, in a great measure, ceased making raids into the Bitter
Root valley and lives and property were comparatively safe.
“The treaty between the United States and the Confederated Flathead
nation, consisting of the Flatheads, Pend d’Oreilles and Kootenai
tribes, was concluded in a council held in July, 1855, in a large pine
grove on the river about eight miles below the present town of Missoula
and opposite to the farm of John S. Caldwell. The place was for a
number of years known as Council Grove.
“In 1854 the first white woman came to the country now constituting
Missoula county, and she was probably the first white woman who honored
our state with her presence. In the next year a Mrs. J. Brown came from
the East, and, while crossing the Rocky mountains, gave birth to a male
child, now grown to manhood and a citizen of a neighboring state. She,
with her baby and two little girls, rode alternately a stout, hardy
Manitobian steer and a Canadian pony. She visited the Hudson’s Bay post
in the northern part of our country and remained several days, and then
proceeded the same season to Washington Territory. This was probably
the first white child born within the limits of our present state.
“In the fall of 1856 several parties who had been spending the summer
trading on the ‘Road’ relinquished that business and came to the Bitter
Root valley and took up their residence, among whom were T. W. Harris,
Joseph Lompre and William Rogers. During the winter of 1856-57 the
population of the Bitter Root valley was larger than it again was until
the fall of 1860.
“Up to that time no settlement had been made in the Hell’s Gate Ronde.
Soon after the arrival of Major Pattee he contracted with Major Owen
and commenced the erection of a grist and sawmill at Fort Owen. In
the latter part of December, 1856, McArthur, having determined upon
erecting a trading post in the Hell’s Gate Ronde, dispatched Jackson,
Holt, Madison, ‘Pork’ and the writer to Council Grove to get out the
necessary timbers to erect the buildings the next summer. Our quarters
consisted of an Indian lodge and we fared sumptuously on bread and
beef, with coffee without sugar about once a week. The snow fell deep
during that winter and the weather was quite cold, but we lost but
little time and by spring had gotten out a large quantity of square
timber. In the spring McArthur paid us off for our winter’s work, each
man receiving a Cayuse horse in full of all demands. With the coming
of spring there was a general breaking up of winter quarters and not
many men were left in the country. James Holt and the writer remained
in the employ of McArthur, broke about eight acres of land and sowed
it to wheat and also planted a garden. This was the first attempt made
at farming in the Hell’s Gate Ronde. The potatoes, carrots, beets,
turnips and onions grew well, but the wheat, while in the milk, was
completely killed by a heavy frost on the night of the 14th of August,
1857. McArthur was absent during the entire summer and fall, having
gone to Colville and thence to the Suswap mines in British Columbia. In
those days we did not have our daily papers and telegraphic dispatches
containing the latest news from all parts of the globe, but thought
ourselves fortunate if we got one or two Oregon papers in six months;
Eastern papers we never saw. The following will show our isolated
condition: The presidential election was held in November, 1856, but we
knew nothing of the result until about the middle of April, 1857, when
Abram Finley arrived from Olympia with a government express for the
Indian department, bringing two or three Oregon papers, from which we
learned that Buchanan had been elected and inaugurated president.
“Few events of historical interest occurred from the fall of 1857 to
the fall of 1859. During the spring and summer of 1858 an Indian war
in the Spokane and lower Nez Perces country cut off all communication
with the west and placed the settlers of this county in a dangerous
situation. Congress having made a large appropriation to build a
military wagon road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton, placed
Lieutenant John Mullan in charge of the work. He organized his
expedition at the Dalles, Oregon, in the spring of 1858, but was forced
to disband it on account of the Indian hostilities. He again organized
in the spring of 1859 and constructed the road over the Coeur d’Alene
mountains as far as Cantonment Jordan on the St. Regis Borgia, where he
went into winter quarters, sending his stock to the Bitter Root valley.
During the winter the greater portion of the heavy grades between
Frenchtown and the mouth of Cedar creek was constructed. In the spring
of 1860 he resumed his march and took his expedition through to Fort
Benton, doing but little work, however, between Hell’s Gate and Fort
Benton.
“In June, 1860, Frank L. Worden and C. P. Higgins, under the firm name
of Worden & Co., started from Walla Walla with a stock of general
merchandise for the purpose of trading at the Indian agency, but, upon
their arrival at Hell’s Gate, they determined to locate at that point
and accordingly built a small log house and opened business. This was
the first building erected at that place and formed the nucleus of a
small village that was known far and wide as Hell’s Gate. During this
year four hundred United States troops under the command of Major
Blake passed over the Mullan road from Fort Benton to Fort Walla Walla
and Colville. During the fall of this year a number of settlers came
into the county and new farms were taken up at Frenchtown, Hell’s
Gate and in the Bitter Root valley, and during the winter of 1860-61 a
considerable number of men wintered in the different settlements.
“On the 14th day of December, 1860, the bill creating Missoula county
was passed by the legislative assembly of Washington Territory. The
county extended from the 115th degree of longitude east to the summit
of the Rocky mountains and from the 46th degree to the 49th degree of
latitude, which included all that portion of Deer Lodge county lying
west of the Rocky mountains.
“In the spring of 1861 Lieutenant Mullan organized another party and
started for Fort Benton to finish up the road he had nearly opened
the year before. His expedition was accompanied by an escort of one
hundred men under the command of Lieutenant Marsh. The expedition came
as far as the crossing of the Big Blackfoot river where they erected
winter quarters and named them Cantonment Wright, in honor of Colonel,
afterwards General, Wright who quelled the Indian war of 1858 so
effectively. During that winter the heavy grades in the Hell’s Gate
canyon were constructed.