COLLAPSE OF THE LA BARGE-HARKNESS OPPOSITION.
The steamboat _Shreveport_, with the annual outfit of the new firm
for the year 1863, did not get above Cow Island on account of the
extremely low stage of the river. No other boat went as far as that
within two hundred miles. Harkness and John La Barge put the cargo
out upon the bank and hastened back to the assistance of the _Robert
Campbell_. This event further illustrated the incapacity of Harkness.
No arrangement was made for the transportation of the goods to Benton,
although he knew that a considerable portion of the freight belonged to
outside parties, and that the firm had contracted to take it through
to that post. This precipitate action was due in part to danger from
the Indians. In the year 1863 the tribes along the river were all in
a state of unrest, and some of them actually on the warpath against
the whites. Fort Union was practically in a state of siege all summer,
and the danger to steamboats was a very formidable one. It was held
by some parties that the sudden termination of the voyage was due to
news received of the famous discovery of the Alder Gulch placers and
the desire to go back and notify the firm; but of this there is not the
slightest probability. Whatever the explanation, the act itself was
disastrous upon the fortunes of the firm.
[Sidenote: NICHOLAS WALL.]
Among the number of outside parties who had freight on the _Shreveport_
was the firm of John J. Roe and Nicholas Wall, both of St. Louis.
Wall represented the firm in Montana and Roe remained in St. Louis.
Some little account of Wall’s career and his previous relations with
Captain La Barge will be of interest, to show how far a man may forfeit
the sentiment of gratitude when his business interests are in any
way involved. La Barge had previously been connected with Wall in a
business way. In 1861 Wall joined the Confederate sympathizers, in St.
Louis, and was captured by General Lyon in the affair of Camp Jackson,
St. Louis, May 10, 1861. The prisoners taken there were all paroled,
but were confined to the limits of the city. At Wall’s urgent appeal La
Barge became bondsman for his good conduct and secured his freedom of
action. He worked for La Barge during the rest of the season of 1861.
In the winter of 1862 Wall asked La Barge to assist him in getting to
Montana. La Barge gave free transportation on the _Emilie_ to Fort
Benton for himself and his goods, and advanced him seven hundred
dollars to get to the mines. Wall did a successful business in the
Deer Lodge Valley in 1862, and in the fall of that year returned to
St. Louis, where he entered into a partnership with John J. Roe. The
outfit which this firm were to send to the mines was taken up on the
_Shreveport_. It was through La Barge’s patronage that Nick Wall was
extricated from a perilous situation and placed in a position to do a
good business. His method of repaying his benefactor will presently
appear.
[Sidenote: LA BARGE, HARKNESS & CO. SUED.]
When Wall heard that the _Shreveport_ could not reach Benton and
had discharged her cargo on the bank at Cow Island, he organized a
wagon train and went down after his own freight and that of several
others. In the spring of 1864 he returned to St. Louis, where he and
Roe presented a claim to La Barge, Harkness & Co. for forty thousand
dollars’ damages, on goods that were not worth at the outside ten
thousand dollars in St. Louis. Captain La Barge agreed to pay the full
price of the goods and charge no freight, but his offer was refused.
He then told Roe and Wall that they could bring suit at once. Roe
replied that he was too sharp to think of bringing suit in St. Louis;
he would bring it in Montana, where he knew that the chances were much
more in his favor. Robert Campbell and John S. McCune, two of St.
Louis’ leading citizens, protested against this proceeding, and agreed
to give bonds for the full payment of all damages. Roe refused all
compromise and Wall returned to Montana and brought suit.
[Sidenote: COLLAPSE OF AFFAIRS AT FORT LA BARGE.]
In the meanwhile, affairs at Fort La Barge were showing the effect
of absence from that post of any responsible member of the firm.
Joseph Picotte, brother of Honoré Picotte, a distinguished trader of
the American Fur Company, had been left in charge in 1862; but word
having been received that he was not properly attending to his work,
he was relieved by Robert H. Lemon, who had been highly recommended by
Robert Campbell. Lemon proved to be of less account even than Picotte,
and actually took the wholly unauthorized step of turning the firm’s
property over for safe-keeping to the American Fur Company. The receipt
for this transfer, signed by Andrew Dawson, agent American Fur Company,
is still among the La Barge papers. The transaction took place August
31, 1863, and included not only the storage of all the firm’s property
at Fort La Barge, but the payment of their employees’ wages, and the
removal of the _Shreveport_ freight from Cow Island to Fort Benton.
The sum of one thousand dollars was to be paid for storage, and the
goods were to be held as security for the payment of this sum and all
other liabilities of the firm on account of wages, transportation, or
other cause. Thus the entire business of the firm at Fort Benton was
practically surrendered to their great rival, and the new “opposition”
was crushed almost at its beginning.
[Sidenote: OUTCOME OF THE SUIT.]
As soon as Wall began legal proceedings the goods were seized and
held, pending the outcome of the trial. This did not come off until
1865, when a verdict was rendered against La Barge, Harkness & Co.
of twenty-four thousand dollars, which was paid in due course. All
the firm’s property in Montana was absolutely lost, including a large
quantity of furs ruined by the long detention. The total loss amounted
to fully one hundred thousand dollars.
The lawsuit itself was an important one at the time. It involved the
rights and obligations of carriers on the Missouri River. It was the
first important legal case in the history of the Territory. It brought
into distinguished notice one of the picturesque and leading characters
in the pioneer history of Montana, Colonel Wilbur F. Sanders, who
became one of Montana’s first representatives in the Senate of the
United States. On the part of the defense the case was badly managed.
None of the principals was present at the trial, which was held at a
point nearly three thousand miles from their home. With a skillful
defense it would probably not have resulted so disastrously as it did.
[Sidenote: CAUSES OF FAILURE.]
The immediate result of the trial was the dissolution of the firm of
La Barge, Harkness & Co. It went out of business upon an honorable
footing. Every liability was paid in full, but so much of it fell upon
Captain La Barge that it seriously impaired his fortune. He cherished,
not without reason, a very bitter feeling toward some of the parties
who were instrumental in the downfall of his business, and particularly
toward the American Fur Company. There is no doubt that that concern
furthered the result in every possible way. It was a principle of
their business to crush all opposition, and they made no exception in
this case. But it is evident that the real cause lay in the reckless
management of affairs at Fort Benton and at the mines, and for this
Harkness was alone responsible.
[Sidenote: THE DIAMOND R COMPANY.]
The collapse of the La Barge, Harkness & Co. business marked the
inception of a system of land transportation in Montana which grew
to enormous proportions. It was known as the Diamond R <R> Company.
Among the ill-gotten gains of John J. Roe, in his successful effort to
break up a rival company, were a large number of oxen which La Barge,
Harkness & Co. had brought up the river to transport freight between
Fort Benton and the mines. Roe organized a transportation company,
using these oxen as a nucleus for commencing the business. By various
changes of ownership it passed into the hands of Montana men. It soon
became a great company, with a complete organization of agents, issuing
its bills of lading to all points, both in and out of the Territory. At
one time it employed no less than twelve hundred oxen and four hundred
mules, besides a large number of horses, and the sustenance of these
animals was a source of no slight income to the small farmers of that
section. It went out of business in 1883.
[Illustration: A STEAMBOAT AT THE BANK]