tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22559369964921197042024-03-12T20:55:17.099-06:00Historical Black Americans in Northern MontanaBlack Americans have played an important role in every era of Montana history. York came first, but black fur traders, steamboatmen, ranchers, farmers, tradesmen and women followed. This site is a tribute to Black Americans in Northern Montana. The Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton is dedicated to historical research and writing about our colorful history. All photos and writing are copyright Ken Robison.Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-80373554474929635842015-02-22T10:46:00.000-07:002015-02-22T10:46:45.377-07:00Moses Hunter: Montana’s Last Civil War Veteran<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Remembering Our Civil
War Heritage and Heroes:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1861-1865<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Moses Hunter: Montana’s Last Civil War
Veteran</span></b> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
By Ken Robison<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">For The River Press<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">February 25, 2015<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="color: #2c2c2c; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is the thirty-fifth installment of a
monthly series commemorating Union and Confederate veterans of the Civil War
who came to Montana during or after the war.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="color: #2c2c2c; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Honor of
Black History Month, this is the story of Moses Hunter who volunteered to serve
in the Union Army just before the end of the Civil War. He remained in the Indian
Wars Army for twenty years. Descendants of Montana Civil War veterans are
encouraged to send their stories to </span></i></b><a href="mailto:mtcivilwar@yahoo.com"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">mtcivilwar@yahoo.com</span></i></b></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="color: #2c2c2c; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moses Hunter enlisted in the Union Army on
April 26, 1865, and that raises the question, “When did the Civil War end?” The
date often cited is April 9<sup>th</sup> the day General Robert E. Lee
surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. But was that the end? Well, no, not really. The
4<sup>th</sup> Michigan Cavalry captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis on
May 10<sup>th</sup>. The last battle was the Battle of Palmito Ranch, Texas on
May 12-13, while the last significant Confederate force to surrender was
Cherokee Brigadier General Stand Waite with his Indian soldiers on June 23<sup>rd</sup>.
The last actual Confederate force to surrender was the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">CSS Shenandoah </i>on November 6, 1865. Technically, the Civil War
continued until President Andrew Johnson formally declared the end of the war
on August 20, 1866.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Returning to Moses Hunter, he was born into
slavery October, 1842, on the Hunter plantation near Norfolk, Virginia. Hunter
recalls his father, Jock Irving, was a slave on the same plantation and changed
his name to Jock Cowans after the Emancipation Proclamation brought his
freedom.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Those were troublous days,” Hunter recalled.
“Everybody was talking about slavery. My father’s ancestors were brought to the
United States in slave ships and sold to white plantation owners in Virginia. I
knew my father was looking forward to the time when there would be no slavery.
I came to feel, as I grew up, that something should be done about it. I felt
that it wasn’t right for my people to be looked upon as property. I can
remember when black folks were sold like cattle. They had to go with the white
man who bid the most money for them. I didn’t like the thing.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hunter continued his reminiscence, “I
remember when the Civil war broke out. I was getting pretty well along in years
then; a young man who thought there should be no slavery. Marse Lincoln called
for volunteers. I was too young, but when I grew older [around 20 as he
remembered], I ran away when Marse Lincoln made his last call [for troops] in
the winter of 1865-66.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Young Hunter went to east Tennessee and
enlisted on April 26, 1865, at Greenville, Green County. Enlisting for three
years in Company H, 40<sup>th</sup> Infantry Regiment United States Colored
Troops (USCT), Hunter went off to war. The 40<sup>th</sup> Infantry USCT had
been organized at Nashville in February 1864 and attached to 2<sup>nd</sup>
Brigade, 4<sup>th</sup> Division, District of Tennessee, Department of the
Cumberland. During 1865-66, until the regiment mustered out on April 25, 1866,
Hunter performed railroad guard duty in defense of the Louisville and Nashville
Railroad.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moses Hunter was honorably discharged at
Chattanooga, on April 25, 1866, although he was given credit for two years’ service
in the Army. He returned to Virginia in the spring of 1866, back to his old
plantation where he worked on a railroad for a year. Hearing about Indian
warfare then going on in the West, he headed west to Knoxville, Tennessee,
where he enlisted in the post-war Army.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On April 3, 1867, at Nashville, Hunter was
sworn in for three years service as a Corporal in Company I, 38<sup>th</sup>
Infantry Regiment USCT. Most of the 38<sup>th</sup> Infantry was sent marching
from Leavenworth, Kansas, then the end of the railroad, across the plains to
Texas. En route they were stricken with Asiatic cholera and forced to bury the
victims every morning before starting on that day’s march. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moses Hunter with Company I and a second
company of the 38th were left at Leavenworth, Kansas to perform guard and
chain-carrying duty for construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. Hunter and
his company followed the line of building through Kansas, Colorado, Utah, and
on to present-day Los Angeles, and then back to Omaha. Hunter later recalled
experiences when his company was engaged in guarding construction of the
railroad. “His unit was called upon at times to fight the Comanche. He
remembers the ambush by Indians of the Beecher . . . command on the North Fork
of Republican river when his unit arrived a little too late and found the
entire command massacred. [Lieutenant Frederick Beecher and 21 men were killed
during an attack by a large party of Cheyenne on the morning of September 17,
1868. The surviving Army soldiers were rescued on September 25 by a troop of 10<sup>th</sup>
Cavalry (colored) and the 38<sup>th</sup> Infantry.]<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“His detachment left Fort Wallace [westernmost
frontier post in Kansas] and hurried over the Smoky Hill route to reach the
scene. Several minor brushes with the marauding Indians molesting work on the
railroad were also a part of his contacts. Of skirmishes there were many, he
said, with the United States soldiers always coming out with victory.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the early summer of 1869, Company I was
ordered to rejoin the 38<sup>th</sup> Infantry in Texas, and marched down
through the Indian Territory. Once the 38<sup>th</sup> was re-united, it was
consolidated with the 41<sup>st</sup> Infantry to form the 24<sup>th</sup>
Infantry Regiment. The 24<sup>th</sup> was formed November 1, 1869, under
Brevet Brig. Gen. Ranald S. McKenzie, and Hunter with his company became Company
I of the new regiment. Four months later Corporal Hunter was discharged April
3, 1870, at Fort Richardson, Texas.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hunter apparently returned briefly to
Tanners Creek, Norfolk, Virginia where he was recorded in the U.S. Census of 1870
with Hunter family members. On June 29, 1870, Hunter re-enlisted in Company I
of the 24<sup>th</sup> Infantry Regiment with promotion to Sergeant. The 24<sup>th</sup>
Infantry began its existence with companies stationed at forts Davis, Stockton,
Concho and McKavitt, Texas, along the southern edge of the Great Staked Plains
[aka The Llano Estacado] in northwest Texas. This area was described in a regimental
history of the 24<sup>th</sup>: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“That country of beautiful rivers, grass and
grassy plains, teemed with game. The buffalo overran the plains in the autumn;
immense herds of antelope, thousands of deer, while wild turkeys, quail, duck
and geese were everywhere—not to speak of cattle run wild, by the thousands
free to anyone. The wild Indian lived almost secure on the staked plains and
raided the settlements every full moon. ‘Wild’ was the characteristic of the
time, place and things.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fort McKavitt was the 24<sup>th</sup>
Infantry (Colored) regimental headquarters, garrisoned with four companies of
the 24<sup>th</sup>, two companies of the 25<sup>th</sup> Infantry (Colored), and
two troops of Cavalry. In the spring of 1871, Colonel Abner Doubleday, Brevet
Major General, the hero of Fort Sumter and a Corps Commander at Gettysburg, assumed
command of the regiment while Company I was commanded by Captain John B.
Cunningham and First Lieutenant Samuel E. Armstrong. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 24<sup>th</sup> regimental history
described the environment: “Texas at that time was . . . the most remote and
unknown of all of what was then called ‘The Frontier,’ to which all officers
expected to be sent and some were not.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“An irregular cordon of posts guarded the
Rio Grande (by treaty terms), and the settlements along the edge of the plains
with remnants of the former cordon inside and those along the old ‘Pecos Trail’
to California.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“At each post were two or more troops of
Cavalry, which were ‘out after Indians’ more or less all the time, the Infantry
also making scouts and furnishing detachments at sub-posts and guarding stage
stations. The climate was invigorating, the country a fair land so big and
boundless that a sense of freedom permeated the mind and heart . . .<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“At the interior posts we lived the wild
American frontier life, scouting, fishing and home life at the posts; while on
the Mexican frontier we lived the life of Old Spain, with the Alcade, the
Padre, the guitar and the fandango.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“. . . The Southern Indians were not fighting
like the Sioux and Cheyenne, and pitched battles were rare; but a constant
‘chasing Indians’ was kept up to keep them in some sort of subjection, the
‘Indian problem’ of that region being settled only by the extermination of the
buffalo.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Some incidents of life there might be
interesting. . . . Lieutenant Armstrong [of Company I], with some hundreds of
recruits and insufficient guard—not his fault—while in camp on the plains between
Concho and Stockton, was run into by a horde of Indians returning from a raid
in the lower country, and all his mules—nearly 200—taken, leaving him helpless
on the prairie. An Indian was killed close to Fort McKavitt—in fact, they were
scattered through the country in small bands of 5 to 15, all the time; they
were Kiowas and Comanches on the northwest and the Kickapoos and Lipaus about
Fort Clark. About the spring of 1872 they captured a train at Howards’ Well,
above Ft. Clark, tied the teamsters to the wheels and burned them to death, and
beat off a troop of Cavalry, killing Lieut. Vincent. They did the same thing
with a train near Ft. Griffen, nearly capturing General [William T.] Sherman
and staff, who were touring the frontier posts at that time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The [24<sup>th</sup>
Infantry] regiment remained in that section until the spring of 1872, when it
was changed to the Rio Grande posts: Brown, Ringgold Barracks (afterwards Fort
Ringgold), Duncan and Clark. This was the land of chaparral, the ebony tree and
the senorita, the “shuck cigarette: (the cigarette was then unknown at home),
and mescal, and joyously the youngsters took all of them, except the trees. The
duties of the troops were light, and while in thought we had troubles and
privations, we now look back from those times as the halcyon days. Ice was a
thing unknown. The water supply system was the water wagon and its eight
splendid mules which seemed to crawl around at the rate of one and five-tenths
miles per hour. The water barrels were supplied through a hole in the back
fence. Enforced abstention from the ‘benzene’ habit of those days was called
‘on the water wagon.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The list of
commissaries of those days and the other accommodations—if enforced on the
private soldier of today [about 1904]—would probably cause desertion. As a
fact, the necessities of the private soldier of today would have been luxuries
beyond the reach of the officer then.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 24<sup>th</sup> Infantry remained along
the Rio Grande until Sergeant Moses Hunter was honorably discharged at Fort Brown,
Texas, on June 29, 1875. Six months later, on Dec. 29, 1875, he re-enlisted in
the same company and regiment. The regimental history continued, “We remained
in that country until 1876. General Doubleday retired in 1872 and General
Joseph H. Potter became our Colonel. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“In the spring of 1875 a big scouting
expedition was organized to explore the plains under Lieut-Colonel Shafter, who
was considered the most capable and energetic officer of rank in the
Department. This expedition consisted of nine troops of the Tenth Cavalry, one
company Twenty-fifth Infantry (Capt. John W. French), two companies
Twenty-fourth “D” (Capt. Cunningham and Lieut. Markley), “F”, (Lieut Custer and
Beacon) and a company of Seminole scouts (Lieut. Markley) and Tenkawn scouts (Lieut.
Wood, Tenth Cavalry), and had its rendezvous at Fort Concho, the organizations
marching from Duncan about 200 miles. About the only thing known of these
regions at the time, as shown on the maps, was like that of the great West as
shown by the school atlas of two generations ago. [The Expedition extended from
May 10<sup>th</sup> to December 24, 1875] . . . to the Pecos River at Three
Rivers, New Mexico. This scout was the first mortal blow to the Indian
domination of that historic region, and the destruction of buffalo finished
them. . . .<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The next year, 1876, another big expedition
was organized again under Colonel Shafter, with troops of the Eighth and Tenth
Cavalry, companies of the 25<sup>th</sup> and companies D and F [but not Sgt.
Hunter’s company] of the 24<sup>th</sup>. Lieut. Markley commanded all
Infantry. This expedition was against the Lipaus and Kickapoos, who lived in
Mexico in a wild and rugged county. . . <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The
next year, 1877, a large force, —what in those days seemed an army—was
organized at Fort Clark under General McKinzie, consisting of troops of the
Fourth, Eighth and Tenth Cavalry and 10<sup>th</sup> and 24<sup>th</sup>
Infantry, but the Infantry took little part. Camp gossip had it that the idea
was to get up a war with Mexico, great irritation existing on the American side
from the raids by Indians harbored in Mexico, and from lawless Mexicans
stealing cattle.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sgt. Hunter was discharged on December 28,
1880 at a camp near Red River, Indian Territory, and re-enlisted again in Company
I, 24<sup>th</sup> Infantry Regiment. He continued to serve until December 28<sup>th</sup>,
1885 when he was honorably discharged at Fort Supply, Indian Territory, making
a total of 20 years of service in the United States army.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For almost six decades after leaving the
Army, Sgt. Moses Hunter moved from place to place, often living in soldiers’
homes. In 1900 he was living in Springfield, Monroe County, West Virginia,
recorded in the U.S. Census as divorced and working as a farmer. Ten years
later he was listed as a Union Soldier living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1916, Moses Hunter was admitted to the
Illinois National Home for Disabled Veterans at Danville, Illinois. At that
time he was 73 years old, standing five feet ten inches tall with gray hair. From
there he moved on to the National Military Home in Leavenworth, Kansas. By
1930, he had arrived in Miles City, Montana where he joined the household of
his daughter Suzie Thomas, Mrs. William B. Thomas.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through
Suzie Hunter Thomas we learn something of the Moses Hunter family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hunter married Mary E. Stoon of Virginia
about 1872. Daughter Suzie was born in Ringo Barracks, Texas in 1878. Suzie
first married an Army man by the name of Smith, and that likely is what brought
her to Fort Keogh and Miles City. In 1907 she re-married William Broviaur Thomas,
the son of a white cavalryman and his African American wife Sadie Butler—a most
controversial interracial marriage at that time and place. The rest of Moses
Hunter’s family is unclear since he was reported in earlier censuses as
divorced or widowed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Living in Miles City in February 1939, the
Montana News Association profiled Moses Hunter, “Today at either 94 or 95 years
of age, residing with his daughter in Miles City, Hunter is slightly bent under
the weight of his years. His eyesight is becoming dim. His physical vigor,
however, despite his years is still good. His memory is unfailing. During the
years since his retirement from the army he has made his home at the soldiers’
home at Danville, Ill., and at Leavenworth, Kan., making occasional trips to
Montana, to be with his daughter and her family.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Concluding the 1939 profile, the newspaper
wrote, “Hunter so far as is known is the only Civil war veteran living in
eastern Montana.” For three more years, former slave and Civil War and Indian
Wars Army man, Sgt. Moses Hunter remained in Miles City until he passed away on
August 28, 1942 at the remarkable age of 99. This last known Montanan to serve
in the Civil War became the last Civil War veteran to die in Montana.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Ken Robison is a local historian and
author of<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Confederates in Montana Territory: In the Shadow of Price’s Army </b></i>and
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Montana
Territory and the Civil War: A Frontier Forged on the Battlefield.</i></b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Photo:</span></b><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">1. Sergeant Moses Hunter, Civil War and
Indian Wars veteran, is buried in Custer County Cemetery. [Courtesy of Find a
Grave]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-25525045268316319162015-01-30T12:03:00.001-07:002015-01-30T12:03:37.692-07:00Adeline Hoffman: From Slave to Servant, A Family Tradition<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Remembering Our Civil
War Heritage and Heroes:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1861-1865<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><b>Adeline Hoffman: From Slave to
Servant, A Family Tradition</b></span> By Ken Robison<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">For The River Press<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">January 28, February 4, 2015<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="color: #2c2c2c; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is the thirty-fourth installment of a
monthly series commemorating Union and Confederate veterans of the Civil War
who came to Montana during or after the war.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="color: #2c2c2c; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Honor of
Black History Month, Adeline Hoffman’s unusual story is featured as she
transitioned from slave to servant serving generations of the same family</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="color: #2c2c2c; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. In addition story of Union Private Alfred
Skaggs</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="color: #2c2c2c; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> is featured—Adeline lived for decades with the Skaggs family in
Montana. Descendants of Montana Civil War veterans are encouraged to send their
stories to </span></i></b><a href="mailto:mtcivilwar@yahoo.com"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">mtcivilwar@yahoo.com</span></i></b></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="color: #2c2c2c; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Adeline Hoffman, the Civil War and
Emancipation never happened. From slavery to freedom, Adeline served the same
Southern family, passing from generation to generation and locale to locale.
She was born a slave in 1848 on the plantation of Daniel Rhyne in Gaston
County, North Carolina. The Rhynes were a large, prominent family of German
descent, and later at least thirty-two Rhynes served in the Confederate Army
from North Carolina. In the era of slavery, slave marriages were not permitted
in the South. Adeline’s mother was a slave belonging to Rhyne while the nearby
Ford family owned her father. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The North Carolina Slave Census of 1850
recorded Daniel Rhyne’s slave property holdings: five adult males; two adult
females, one 55 years old, and the other 35 years old and likely Adeline’s
mother; and three children, two girls four and two years old (the latter likely
Adeline) and a male baby. While later dates recorded for Adeline’s age vary,
the predominant evidence is that she was born in May 1848.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a household slave, young Adeline served
the Rhyne family until the death of her master in 1856. Rhyne’s will allocated
his slave children to his sons and daughters. Margaret “Peggy” Rhyne, wife of farmer
Jacob S. Hoffman, became Adeline’s new owner. At that time the Hoffman family lived
on a plantation in Madison County, in southeastern Missouri, after moving west several
years earlier from Gaston County, North Carolina.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On receiving news of Daniel Rhyne’s death,
Jacob Hoffman drove by wagon to the Rhyne plantation to bring Adeline and her
younger brother and sister to Missouri. The two younger slave children were
destined to join other Rhyne relatives living in the Middle West. Hoffman with
the slave children headed west in the summer of 1856. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later in life, Adeline recalled that trip, “I
sure must have cried all the way back. I remember that grandpa (Jacob Hoffman)
gave me candy and tried every way to make things nice for me but I just
wouldn’t listen. I wanted to stay with my mother. Grandpa said he almost made
up his mind to turn around and take me back to her only she (the mother) had
gone to join my father.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“When we reached the Mississippi and the
ferry at Cape Girardeau I just closed my eyes and wouldn’t look until we were
over. I never saw the river just thought that once we were over, I would be
gone from home for good.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Grandpa promised me.” Adeline recalled,
“that I never would be whipped and that no one ever would run over me in
general dealings. He always kept his promise.” As she got used to life in the
Hoffman family on the Missouri plantation, Adeline lived in a sea of Hoffman
children, thirteen of them. She became attached to the second youngest, a girl
of four named Rose Angeline or Rosie. Amazingly, for the next 83 years, Adeline
would work for Rosie, first as slave and after the Civil War as servant,
becoming in some ways a member of the Hoffman family. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then came the Civil War ripping Missouri apart.
In October 1861, Brig. Gen. M. Jeff Thompson led a 1500-man Missouri State
Guard (secessionist) force into southeastern Missouri wrecking havoc to the
Iron Mountain Bridge. Brig. Gen. U. S. Grant commanded loyal Union forces in
the District of Southeast Missouri at that time. In response to the threat of
the Missouri State Guard, Gen. Grant ordered two Union columns, one under Col.
Joseph B. Plummer with 1,500 men and another under Col. William P. Carlin with
3,000 men in pursuit. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Union force engaged Col. Thompson’s men
in <span style="color: #2e2d29; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">the Battle
of Fredericktown on October 21, 1861. Fredericktown was the county seat of
Madison County and located near the Hoffman farm. Outnumbered and
outmaneuvered, the Missouri State Guard was defeated and forced to withdraw. </span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Some Union soldiers
believed that locals assisted Thompson in the engagement and that the State
Guardsmen mistreated Unionist citizens in the area. This resentment led to
retaliation against the town with at least seven homes burned and other buildings
damaged before Union officers regained control of their men. </span><span style="color: #2e2d29; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">The victory at
Fredericktown consolidated Union control of southeastern Missouri for the
duration of the war. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adeline recalled that it was a hard struggle
to live on the farm during the war. It was near a major highway so troops were
passing constantly. Horses, fodder, food money, all were taken from the
Hoffmans during these turbulent times. She never made clear why Union troops
didn’t “free” her from slavery, although her loyalty to the family must have
played a role. Later she remembered outlaw bands raiding and the family hiding
“terror-stricken” children in the timber for days while “mounted gangsters
raided” the Hoffman home. Adeline likely was hidden together with Rosie and the
other white children.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At last the war came to an end, order was
restored, and farming resumed. Union forces had freed most of Missouri’s
115,000 slaves during the war. Yet, Adeline, although no longer a slave,
remained in the Hoffman household by her choice—at this point she was along and
simply knew no other life. She apparently was treated well by the family, and
had formed a close bond with young Rosie Hoffman. As Adeline later related, her
older sister came to take her along their road to freedom. Adeline declined,
saying, “I didn’t see how I could better myself with that foolishness, so I
just stayed on. Grandma [Mrs. Margaret Hoffman] was needin’ me, and I’d passed
my promise to my folks and I didn’t need what they called freedom.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life swept on in post-war Missouri. Rosie
Hoffman met a young man named Alfred Ferguson Skaggs, who had lied about his
age, entered the Union army at 15 years and served in the last year of the war.
Private Skaggs, born October 5, 1848, enlisted in Company F, 50<sup>th</sup>
Missouri Volunteer Infantry when that regiment was organized September 11,
1864. His wartime experiences are an important part of the story.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Private Skagg’s Company F was engaged heavily
at the Battle of Pilot Knob or Fort Davidson, Missouri September 26-27, 1864,
during Maj. Gen. Sterling Price’s invasion of Missouri. As Company F’s commander
Lieut. David Murphy related many years later at a reunion at Pilot Knob:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Maj. Gen. Sterling Price left Camden
Arkansas with 14,000 cavalry in three divisions and ten pieces of artillery
under Gen. Jo Shelby. The three divisions invaded Missouri marching by parallel
roads with orders to form a junction at Frederickstown, 22 miles east of Pilot
Knob, by the 24<sup>th</sup> of Sept. [Remember, Frederickstown was just miles
from the Hoffman and Skaggs farms in Madison County.] The junction was made as
ordered and immediately Gen. Shelby was ordered to move northwardly via
Farmington to Mineral Point and then destroy the bridges at Pilot Knob and
prevent them from reaching St. Louis, thus, as Gen. Price supposed, insuring
the capture of Fort Davidson with its armament and store.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Union
Gen. Thomas Ewing, commander of the St. Louis District, was ordered to Pilot Knob
with instructions to hold the place against any detached force, but his further
orders were, that if he was satisfied that Price was in his front with his
entire force, he (Ewing) should blow up the magazine of the fort and retire on
St. Louis. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“On arrival, Gen. Ewing ordered the stores
of the quartermaster and commissary department to be moved to St. Louis, and
this as done on Sept. 26<sup>th</sup>. ‘On the morning of the 27<sup>th</sup>
of September fighting broke out on the slopes of Shepherd Mountain and Pilot
Knob. Later in the morning our troops were driven into the fort and Marmaduke’s
artillery planted on the eastern face of Shepherd Mountain commanding the fort.’
[As the battle unfolded Private Skaggs and his Company F with 60 men of the 50<sup>th</sup>
Missouri under 1<sup>st</sup> Lieut. David Murphy were stationed in the ditch
connecting to the fort with the town of Pilot Knob along with other Missouri
volunteer units and two pieces of artillery on the flank.]<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Gen. Ewing felt we were in a very
precarious position, and said to me [Lieut. Murphy]: ‘Why don't you open fire,
don’t you see them planting their battery up there?’ I was in charge of the
artillery in the fort, and I answered: ‘Yes, I see them . . . but, you know
that we have decided to hold this fort until night, and if they want to keep
off their fire until night, let them do so; I am not going to precipitate this
battle. , , ,’ I told him then: ‘We will let them fire the first gun, and they
can’t say they are not ready; they can’t say we have taken advantage of them.
But as soon as they open on us with their gun fire, then these guns from the
western side of the fort shall reply.’ From Marmaduke’s guns came the first
fire and in less than 20 minutes that battery was driven from its chosen
position and dragged down to the shoulder of the mountain beyond there out of
the way. That was the first taste of victory, because we had disposed of the
most seriously threatening feature of the attack, the artillery fire from
Shepherd Mountain.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Then came the rebel assaulting column from
the direction of Ironton pouring up from over Pilot Knob and Shepherd Mountain
12,000 armed men, coming in one grand body. They seemed to be drunk with the
prospect of victory, as if to say: ‘We will walk right over them and sweep them
out of the way.’ Oh, but they didn’t walk over us; they didn’t sweep us out of
their way. We swept them back, and they never stopped until they were two miles
away. All their chance of victory was gone. Their loss in battle was a little
less than 1500 men killed and wounded. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“After the battle was over, and after our
men had cheered themselves hoarse and were resting after their arduous work, a
little incident occurred right over there where that tent stands: There was a
colored man lying on his back. I knew him very well; we had treated him as the
captain of the colored contingent that had helped to put this fort in condition
for the defense. He lay there and says I: ‘Captain Jim, you must get up; this
is no time to be lying down; get up, because we are getting ready to go out.’
He says: ‘I can’t get up, I am mortally wounded.’ I asked him where, and he
said he was shot through the hips. Says I: ‘I will see that you are taken care
of.’ Says he: ‘Never mind me, Major; when I look up and see the old flag
floating, and victory perching over our little band, I die content.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“That was the same sentiment, and that was
the same spirit that actuated the white defenders of Pilot Knob. I took him
over to the hospital, helped to carry him myself, and placed him under the
charge of Dr. Carpenter, who had very hard work to keep his color from being
discovered and his body taken out and mutilated by the infuriated rebels when
they entered the town; but he was not discovered, and he was buried as a
faithful, loyal citizen should be buried; he was given the burial of a good
union soldier.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Then, as we marched out, we went up through
this gorge and on to Caledonia. There we met the terrible [Gen. Jo] Shelby
coming down, all his men swearing and gritting their teeth, and imagining to
themselves the number of men they were going to kill when they got down here.
Well, our little advance dashing into their advance and we captured three or
four of them and drove the others back, and they fell back to Shelby . . .<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Shelby was not very anxious to overtake the
little command; he didn’t want to meet the men that had fought at Pilot Knob. .
. they followed us for many miles; they had two mounted divisions, 7,000
strong, and seven pieces of artillery, and when Ewing would halt and prepare
for battle, the pursuing force would halt, and so it was for 60 miles that they
followed us to Leesburg. There we threw up some slight works. . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we built them ourselves, using railroad ties
as the foundation, covering them with earth, and we stood again, just as we stood
at Pilot Knob, and said: ‘Come on.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“. . . [Yet] the great Marmaduke, and the
terrible Shelby, the Napoleon of the South, marched off and left us there alone
at Leesburg, with the loss of only a few men. Why? Why, it was because the
soldiers of Pilot Knob had taught their men that if they made an attack upon
them they would give them the worst of it. . . .<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“That is the way it was with our little band
at Leesburg; we were too much for the 7,000 men under Generals Price,
Marmaduke, Cabell and Shelby.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“That is the way the battle of Pilot Knob
was fought, and the successful retreat to Leasburg. That is the way the
glorious record was made.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Price’s invasion passed southeast Missouri
and ultimately failed. For the rest of the war and until August 1865 the 50<sup>th</sup>
Missouri Infantry remained on guard duty in southeast Missouri. For Private
Alfred Skaggs, the war was over and he returned to his home farm in Madison
County.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After his discharge, Alfred Skaggs saw young
Rosie Hoffman and, when she was 16, he married her in September 1868, and the
couple set up housekeeping on a farm near the Hoffman’s. Soon Hoffman needed
help on his farm and the Skaggs moved there.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Skaggs and Hoffmans continued to farm in
Missouri until 1886 when they heard of the fertile valley of the Gallatin River
near Bozeman, Montana Territory. Soon all of them boarded a train and headed
westward to Billings and continued on to settle in that Gallatin Valley.
Adeline live with the Skaggs family for the rest of her life as cook,
housekeeper, and nurse.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gold was discovered in central Montana and
the town of Gilt Edge in the Judith mountains near Lewistown boomed as the Gold
Reef and Whisky Gulch diggings brought rich strikes. The Hoffman and Skaggs
families moved to Gilt Edge in 1896 after a decade in the Gallatin Valley.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adeline became the community nurse, often caring
for the patients of Dr. William J. Lakey who operated the Miners’ Union
Hospital in Gilt Edge. She was known as “Doc” to the early miners. In addition
to helping with the birth of the eight Skaggs children, Adeline was present as
midwife at the birth of many of the children of the surrounding communities. By
the time the ore ran out and the mines closed down, Adeline’s capable hands had
brought scores of children into the world in central Montana in the days when
it was a week’s ride to the nearest doctor. Her “children,” literally hundreds
of them, moved to all parts of the world and had their children. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By day and night, on foot and in wagons,
Adeline answered the constant appeal of those about to be born or in need of
care. Snow filled the canyons or spring freshets rushed down the coulees but Adeline
kept on going. Among those whose children Adeline ushered into the world were
“Teddy Blue” Abbott of “We Pointed Them North” fame and Bill Burnett, who
trailed north with three Texas herds, captained the first big Montana roundup,
and led the Vigilantes who knew the outlaw Kid Curry.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adeline’s activities didn’t stop with the
children. She mothered cowpunchers and miners, gamblers and touts, and no one
was turned down. “I can’t remember Adeline ever saying “no” to anyone,” says
William Skaggs. “To all the family she was the boss and still is to most of us
now. When we were hurt we went to the Doc. When we were hungry we went to her
and, if she had nothing on hand, she cooked something for us. Not only us but
the neighbor’s kids. After payday the miners and cowhands would come to her
broke and hungry after a party and be cured of hangovers. Everyone knew her and
knew she would help.” Adeline was loved and respected by all who became
acquainted with her. Governor Roy E. Ayers knew her and State Historical
Librarian John B. Rich, once a cowpuncher, was her friend. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After Gilt Edge became a ghost town the
Skaggs family moved to a ranch near by and then, a few years later, to a ranch
location near the Judith Mountain Divide where the Skaggs brothers operated the
largest coal mine in the district.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I take my time,” Adeline often said. “Young
folks today could learn to take theirs and be happier. I’ve seen just lots of
them rush into marriage just to get married and then bust up. I’d say folks who
are going to be married ought to find out how they get along. Then there would
be fewer bust-ups. Marriage is a business, not just the result of liking
another person for a spell.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Yes sir, what folks need to know is how to
take their time.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The long life she has lived brought Adeline
her own philosophy, not so much cultured as acquired without conscious effort. Bright
of mind with a good and accurate memory and as she neared the century mark, Adeline
had a quiet laugh and an eagerness for the new and interesting. She always showed
an interest in life as she went on cooking, washing, working in the fields,
nursing and mothering not only her own family but half the countryside as well.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Late in her life, Chadbourne M. Wallin visited
Aunt Adeline. Of his memorable visit, he wrote, “I had Snooker, the 3-year-old
[son], in my arms when I walked through the yard mud and into the big,
two-story stone Skaggs ranch house in the coulee on the east slope of the
Judith mountains, near Lewistown, Mont. Aunt Adeline was in the kitchen,
washing dishes. She came out and I put Snooker on his feet. She saw him and
said, ‘Whose boy are you?’ Snooker, as usual when startled put half his right
hand in his mouth tucked in his chin and looked out from lowered brows. Then
they stood and beamed at each other, the span of a century between . . .”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adeline Hoffman lived with her Skaggs family
until her death in January 1941. Her obituary read, “Beloved Negro Slave Laid
to Rest Tuesday. Adeline Hoffman, 96, who was born in slavery on a plantation
of the Old South 17 years before the start of the Civil War and who spent most
of her life as a loyal and beloved member of the household of William Skaggs
and his forebears tracking back over three generations, was laid to rest in the
Lewistown city cemetery.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In tribute to Aunt Adeline, a Skaggs family
member <span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Millie
Hoves Salomon</span> wrote these words:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Some
people say that slavery was bad<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> I’m
sure we all agree<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">It was real nice of Lincoln <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to set
the slaves all free<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">my great grand parents got this little girl<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>when
she was only nine<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">they loved her like their very own <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>her
name was Adeline<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">When they told her years later<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the
slaves were all set free<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">she cried and said, now mam & pap<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> I’ll
never leave thee<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">and so they kept her years and years <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>till
they left this world behind<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Then my grandfather & grandmother <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>kept
sweet Adeline<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">My father told this to me <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>some
years ago you see<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">he told me how she took care of him <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>when
he was only three<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">and so you see there’s good in all <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>if we
could only see<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">I’m thankful for the story told <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that my father passed to me.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nostalgic tributes aside as well as the
rewarding life led by Adeline Hoffman, slavery was far more than a “peculiar
institution”—it was an evil one! God bless her white families who valued
Adeline as a family member . . . but many more than “some people” say adamantly
that <span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">slavery
was bad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Ken Robison is a local historian and
author of<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Confederates in Montana Territory: In the Shadow of Price’s Army </b></i>and
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Montana
Territory and the Civil War: A Frontier Forged on the Battlefield.</i></b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Photo:</span></b><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Aunt
Adeline, from slavery to freedom, serving generations of the same family. Photo
by Chad Wallin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The
Alfred Skaggs family with Adeline present as a member of the family. [Courtesy
of Kristi Lana (Reynolds) Davis, Find a Grave]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-89451399130083382612014-04-29T22:07:00.000-06:002014-04-29T22:08:15.256-06:00Jim Coombs: Civil War Slave Shines Shoes in Billings, Montana<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b>Former Negro Slave Reaches Age of
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Most folks
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spent his 75<sup>th</sup> birthday recently shining shoes at the Northern hotel
stand in Billings, where his dusky smile and agile memory have welcomed friends
and strangers for 18 years.<o:p></o:p></div>
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He could
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anniversary. “But I don’t know what to do with myself.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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His
appearance belies his age. He looks to be no more than 50, does this jovial
colored man. But he was born a slave, the property of Harrison Priest of the
“Hannibal, Mo., Priests, shu!”<o:p></o:p></div>
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The date of
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days. Off-hand, he can recollect dates that to the average mortal would be
obscured by time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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He was only
six years old when the Civil war ended, but he recalls folks on the Priest
plantation telling of how his uncle and Wash Winters ran away and got across
the Mississippi ahead of the “patrollers.” These gentry were employed to detect
and capture runaway slaves.<o:p></o:p></div>
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After the
war the uncle living in Chicago sent for his mother, his sister, who was “Uncle
Jim’s” mother, and the boy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As a boy he
used to go to church with his mother on Sunday nights and with his uncanny
memory for dates, he recalls that they were attending a service when Mrs.
O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern and started the great Chicago fire.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“We had to
cross the old Twelfth street bridge to get home,” he recollects. “Before we
could get there the fire was hot enough to almost scorch our clothes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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He has a
wealth of memories from his years as a Pullman porter. There was the time, for
instance, that he met a party of railroad officials at Chicago after the
Northern Pacific’s “golden spike” ceremony. On the next track was the special
car of President Arthur with Postmaster General James and Secretary of War
Robert Lincoln aboard.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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And the time
he came downtown to take his car out of Washington and heard newsboys shouting
the news of President Garfield’s assassination. That was July, 1881. The
reporter later verified Uncle Jims memory by referring to a history.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“I walked over to the railroad station and
there I saw the spot where Garfield was shot,” he adds. “They’s a star set in
the tile floor now, so everybody can see where the president died.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
A great lover of travel, was Uncle Jim in
his younger days. “Going to ??? wild,” he explains. He finally got tired of
being a porter and found a job in a Seattle hotel. That was 34 years and 4
months ago. He worked at the coast hostelry until he came to Billings 18 years
and 4 months ago, almost to the day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Not counting polishes he applied while
aboard Pullmans, Uncle Jim estimates he has shined119,000 pairs of shoes. He’s
practically an expert at the profession.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And he’s on the job every morning unless his
miseries get him down. Until he was 63 he didn’t miss a day’s work. Then he was
sick and lost five month’s time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“But when I’m well they don’t have to wonder
whether ol’ Jim’s on the job,” he declares. “They know I’m there. If I don’t
show up I’m generally gone a spell because I’m sick.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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He has two “kids,” both girls, 52 and 50.
The younger one’s birthday helps his memory.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“They’s just 35 days between her birthday
and mines and its 35 days from then to my wedding anniversary. That’s be 53
years agone this May.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Shining
shoes has given him a definite philosophy and he goes about his tasks “happy
because I’ve always had plenty to ear and wear and always had a job.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
[p. 6] [Wolf
Point Herald 20 Apr 1934]<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-28885541883973362742014-02-24T10:34:00.000-07:002014-02-24T10:34:03.929-07:00Joe Wells: A Slave and His Confederate Master Go To War
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<br />
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<b>Remembering Our Civil
War Heritage and Heroes:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>1861-1865<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Joe Wells: A Slave and His Confederate
Master Go To War<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
By Ken Robison<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>The River Press<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>February 26, 2014<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><i><span>This
continues a monthly series commemorating the 150<sup>th</sup> Anniversary of
the Civil War and the veterans that came to Montana after the war</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #2c2c2c; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">. This issue
features the fascinating story of a slave who followed his master into service
of the Confederacy before coming to Montana’s gold mines to make and lose his
mining successes. <span> </span>Descendants of Montana
Civil War veterans are encouraged to send their stories and photos to </span></i></b><a href="mailto:mtcivilwar@yahoo.com"><b><i><span>mtcivilwar@yahoo.com</span></i></b></a><b><i><span style="color: #2c2c2c; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">. </span></i></b><b><i><span><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When General Robert E. Lee surrendered his
army at Appomattox in April 1865, thirty-six African-Americans were listed on
the Confederate paroles. Most served as servants, musicians, cooks, teamsters,
or blacksmiths. Throughout the Civil War thousands of blacks accompanied
Confederate Army regiments though only a handful were accepted and armed as
combat soldiers until the last months of the war. The Confederate fighting
force was white but much of its support was black.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
One young
slave, Joseph Wells, went into the Confederate Army early in the war as a “body
servant” for his master, Colonel Benjamin G. Wells. He would not have worn the
“gray,” yet on occasion he may have fought alongside his master though we
simply don’t know. We do know that Joseph remained in company with his master
throughout the war before coming to Montana Territory.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In Joseph’s
own words, Col. Wells was “a confederate soldier, and I went to war with him,
waiting on him during his service in the army. He was with General [Sterling]
Price. The first place we fought was at Blue Mill Landing. We had a little
skirmish there. We had a scrap at Lexington, Missouri, where General Price,
with 40,000 men, dislodged 3,000 Union soldiers, but not until he cut off the
water supply. We had brushes at Elk Grove and Oak Hill and a battle right at
Vicksburg. I went with the old man to Texas, from there we returned home” to
Buchanan County, Missouri. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHuEkiLFPZMR-KWfYIOY9GuvrrZL-cTy0x1LbqesxdIcYitXUxhNotdqMjSJxDX-UbaFLN6rTRjM5q5dds3WdA32BbFwHD1FCGsGxw7FKBX-la6EFPCwczmNZ9GFZyK4t6byVCi7Why_jU/s1600/Wells,+Joe.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHuEkiLFPZMR-KWfYIOY9GuvrrZL-cTy0x1LbqesxdIcYitXUxhNotdqMjSJxDX-UbaFLN6rTRjM5q5dds3WdA32BbFwHD1FCGsGxw7FKBX-la6EFPCwczmNZ9GFZyK4t6byVCi7Why_jU/s1600/Wells,+Joe.tif" height="320" width="232" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<o:p><b>Former slave Uncle Joe Wells and his dog Nailer on the streets shortly </b></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<o:p><b>before his death (Courtesy of The Missoulian)</b></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The slave
that was to become Joseph Wells was born in 1838, the “property” of prominent
John Fry of Lexington, Kentucky. His mother was sold shortly after his birth so
another slave woman raised him. When he was ten years old Mr. Fry took Joseph
with the Fry family to live near St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri. The
U.S. Census in 1850 recorded 57-year-old farmer John Fry living in Buchanan
County with his wife Mary, four sons, and one daughter. The Slave Schedule of
that census listed one 12 year-old Black Male slave (Joseph) in the household,
and some 25 other slaves spread around other parts of Missouri.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
When John
Fry died his widow married Colonel Benjamin G. Wells in 1856. The U.S. Census
of 1860 showed the family of Wells with one 22 year-old male slave living at
Rushville in Buchanan County, and one year later off to the War of Southern
Independence went Col. Wells and his young slave. While Missouri did not secede
to join the Confederacy, a large segment of the population centered in northern
Missouri and Little Dixie along the Missouri River favored secession and many
men joined the Missouri State Guard under General Sterling Price to seize
control of the state.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In September
1861, the pro-secession State Guard were ordered to recruit more troops from
northwestern Missouri and concentrate at Lexington. Col. Benjamin Wells raised
a company in Rush Township in southwestern Buchanan County and with other
recruits departed to join Gen. Price. Some 4,000 State Guard troops including
Col. Wells passed through Liberty to cross the Missouri River at Blue Mills
Landing and proceed eastward to Lexington. A Union force of 600 men under Lt.
Col. John Scott was sent to intercept the State Guard troops at Blue Mills
Landing, arriving after most of the State Guard had already crossed the
Missouri. Scott’s troops moved to engage the remaining 600 State Guard soldiers,
including Col. Wells and his servant, who were positioned in the brush on both
sides of the road leading to the landing. In mid afternoon on September 17<sup>th</sup>,
Col. Scott’s troops marched into the ambush. In the one-hour skirmish that
followed Price’s men held the advantage with 18 Union soldiers killed and 80
wounded, at the cost of just 3 State Guard soldiers killed and 18 wounded. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
With this
minor victory at Blue Mill Landing, also known as the Battle of Liberty, the northwest
Missouri troops proceeded on to join General Sterling Price at Lexington, on
the Missouri River twenty miles east of Kansas City. This First Battle of
Lexington, known as the Battle of the Hemp Bales, was an engagement from
September 13 to 20, 1861 between the Missouri State Guard and a Union garrison
of some 3,500 men under Col James A. Mulligan holding the town. Over the next
several days General Price’s Guard received ammunition wagons, other supplies
and reinforcements including those from Buchanan County. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
By the 18<sup>th</sup>,
the State Guard now numbered more than 15,000 men, and Gen. Price ordered an
assault on Lexington. The State Guard moved forward into the face of heavy
artillery fire, pushing Union troops back into their inner defenses. On the
morning of the 20<sup>th</sup>, Price’s men advanced behind mobile breastworks,
made of dampened hemp that was immune to Union shells. By early afternoon, Col.
Mulligan’s men stacked their arms and surrendered. Lexington, the Union
stronghold had fallen, bolstering southern sentiment and briefly consolidating
Confederate control of the Missouri Valley. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Further details
of the activities of Col. Wells and his servant Joseph are sketchy although for
the rest of the Civil War though they apparently remained part of the Missouri
State Guard. Gen. Price with his men formally joined the Confederate cause in
Neosho, Missouri on October 30, 1861. Despite his early victories in Missouri, Gen.
Price did not have dominant popular support to hold the state in the face of
Union determination to control this vital Border State. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
By early
1862, Union forces had pushed Price out of Missouri, and with their defeat at
the Battle of Pea Ridge in northwestern Arkansas March 6-8, Confederate hopes
of occupying Missouri ended. For most of 1862-1863, the Missouri State Guard
fought small skirmishes in Missouri and major battles in Arkansas and
Mississippi. Missouri remained threatened by guerrilla warfare from southern
bushwhacker raids throughout the war.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Although
Joseph Wells does not mention whether Col. Wells and he participated in the
Battle of Pea Ridge, he does state that they “had brushes at Elk Grove and Oak
Hill and a battle right at Vicksburg.” Wells’s mention of Oak Hill is
intriguing. The first major battle of the Trans-Mississippi was the Battle of
Wilson’s Creek fought on August 10, 1861, near Springfield, Missouri between
Union forces and the Missouri State Guard. That battle is also known as the
Battle of Oak Hills. The battle led to the death of brilliant Union commander
Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon and the retreat of Union forces resulting in
the battle also being called the “Bull Run of the West.” Col. Wells’s role, if
any, in the battle is not known.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
During the
decisive Vicksburg Campaign from May 19 to July 4, 1863, Missouri infantry and
cavalry fought in the 1<sup>st</sup> and 2<sup>nd</sup> Brigades of Major
General John S. Bowen’s Division of the Confederate Army. As Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
began to move to capture Vicksburg, Gen. Bowen was assigned a division in Gen.
Pemberton’s Army defending Vicksburg. After uniting with Pemberton’s Army, Gen.
Bowen’s Division fought at the battle of Champion Hill, where their
counterattack almost split Grant’s army in half. When the rest of Pemberton’s
army failed to support Bowen’s attack, his Division was forced to retreat.
Bowen’s Division suffered defeat at the Battle of Big Black River Bridge,
retreated to Vicksburg, and took part in the final defense of Vicksburg. The
surrender of Vicksburg July 4, 1863 was a devastating blow to the Confederacy.
Not only were 2,872 men killed and wounded and 29,495 taken prisoner, but the
Confederacy strategically lost control of the Mississippi River and was cut in
two.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Details
about the end of the war and surrender of Col. Wells and Joseph are sketchy.
Joe Wells claimed that toward the end of the war, “I went with the old man to
Texas, from there we returned home.” <span> </span>It
is likely by May 1865, Joseph Wells, now a freedman, returned briefly to St.
Joseph, Missouri. There he was warned by his former mistress to leave because
of his Confederate Army service. In turn, Col. Wells offered Joseph a span of
mules worth $500, a wagon, and provisions for a year if he would stay and haul
timber from the river bottoms. But Joseph listened to Mrs. Wells.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Like many
white Confederate soldiers, Joseph headed west in early summer 1865, stopping
along the Overland Stage Line near today’s Cheyenne, Wyoming to work as a cook
before proceeding on to California. Wells then decided to move on to Denver,
Colorado, where he worked at odd jobs. From there he move northward to Alder
Gulch, Montana Territory, to try his hand at placer gold mining, with some
success accumulating $10,000. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
By 1870 Joe
Wells lived at Fort Shaw, a servant working for Brevet Major S. A. Russell, 7<sup>th</sup>
Infantry Regiment, helping care for Russell’s four-year-old son Louis. Six
years later, Joe Wells stampeded to the Black Hills gold rush, where he claimed
that “Nigger Hill,” was named for him. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Negro
Hill district, as it is now known, is a section in the western part of the
Black Hills that derived its name from a mountain that rears its head some
6,400 feet above sea level, and whose top is high above the surrounding peaks
of the rugged neighborhood. The steep slopes of Negro Hill form the heads of
various gulches—Bear, Mallory, Negro, Sand and Beaver—from which hundreds of
thousands of dollars in placer gold were taken. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Negro Hill and
Negro Gulch were named for several African Americans, including Joseph Wells,
who owned an immensely rich placer claim from which they took a fortune during
the summer of 1876. Four of these black miners took out $1,700 in a single day,
hauling their gravel hundreds of yards to wash it. Several other black miners
built a dam to accumulate water for sluicing and washed out $1,500 in one remarkable
half day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
reputation of these black miners was so colorful that the mountain was named to
commemorate them. These were the first placer gold strikes discovered in the
Northern Black Hills in the summer of 1876, and led to a stampede to the area. Joe
Wells successfully mined Negro Gulch and accumulated $30,000. Unfortunately in
just three months he squandered his riches, drinking and gambling before moving
on to Deadwood, Dakota Territory.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the early
1880s, Joe Wells returned to Montana to lived in poverty and ill health in
Billings. Some years later he regained his strength and went back to mining
with six placer claims on Williams Creek on the Shoshone Reservation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
By the early
1900s Joseph Wells arrived in Missoula to become a favorite of <i>Missoulian</i> reporters. In August 1910 the
<i>Missoulian</i> told “Uncle Joe’s” story.
Joe claimed an age of 120 years, perhaps identifying in his mind with the age
of his older former master Col. Wells. His actual age was about 72 years. Other
details of his story ring true and are consistent with facts that can be
checked. He told about his early years in slavery, his service in the war with
his master, and his migration westward. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The <i>Missoulian</i> reporter assessed Uncle
Joe:<span> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“There is no more unique citizen in western
Montana than Joe Wells. The general impression among his acquaintances, both
white and black, is that he has slipped a cog or two on his age . . . His
warped limbs, his wrinkled face, and his white hair indicate that he is close
to the century mark. In appearance he is scrawny and sharp. . . He is as
cunning as a fox.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the
interview the reporter quizzed Wells about his Black Hills experiences:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’I went into the Black hills and crossed to
Nigger gulch, where I lifted $30,000 inside a month.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’What! You took out $30,000 worth of gold?’
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’Yes, sir, and the gulch was named after
me. I had $30,000 in clean cash at one time.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’What did you do with it?’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’Squandered it,’ said he, indifferently as
he looked down at his frayed trousers. ‘In them days I did not know the value
of money. I drank and gambled my $30,000 away in three months.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’Were you not afraid somebody would rob
you.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’Not a bit. I carried the best of arms and
could use them like a man. I went with an English bull [Dog pocket revolver], a
dangerous pistol, up my sleeve all the time.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’Where did you keep your money?’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’With me. I wore two pairs of pants, one
over the other, and had secret pockets. My outer garments were of buckskin.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’What sort of gambling did you do?’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’Faro. That was the game them days.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’How long ago was that?’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’Thirty years.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’Soon after the Nigger gulch find I went to
Billings. I was broke, and sick. For two years I lay there in the Sisters’
hospital. Every now and then I would tell the nurses that I was burning
daylight. As soon as I was able to travel I secured me a horse—a white one—and
went to Copper mountain. After three weeks of prospecting I sprung off to
Shoshone reservation and located six claims on Williams creek. I have them
yet.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’Some fellow tried to get them out of me
but I told him that I was from Missouri. He was tricky.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’What are you doing now?’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’I am on the way to Flathead to prospect.
If I get up there, and find anything I will go to work.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’How do you go about it?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’I have done my work along. I cut the
timber, and go in with my wheel-barrow. Give me a bit of giant powder and I can
do the rest. I know how to handle that, boy.’”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the opinion
of the <i>Missoulian</i> reporter, “There is
no more unique citizen in western Montana than Joe Wells. The general
impression among his acquaintances, both white and black, is that he has
slipped a cog or two on his age but all agree that he is far beyond the three
score and ten milepost. His warped limbs, his wrinkled face, and his white hair
indicate that he is close to the century mark. In appearance he is scrawny and
sharp. On his face there stands, at irregular intervals, bunches of
whiskers--sagebrush—and on his head a scanty stand of hair. On the point of his
little black chin there hangs, like a bit of Florida moss, a tuft of beard done
in a three-stand plait. The <i>Missoulian</i>
man, when trying to locate him, asked a neighbor if she had seen him. She
looked into space, in an effort to recall him, but the moment the twig of
whiskers was mentioned, she smiled, and said: ‘He’s right there—next door.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“Two friends Joe Wells keeps near him, a
pocket magnifying glass to help in his search for gold, and Nailer, a big,
shaggy dog. With these he roams in search of a fortune. The old fellow’s heart
is full of hope and so long as he is able to move he will hunt for gold. News
of strikes at Dixon has reached his ear and he is eager to get back in harness.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“’Oh, but if I could make one more lucky
strike,’ is his song.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“If Joe Wells were to step into a Kentucky
street some old-time southern man would greet him: ‘Good morning Uncle Joe, how
are you?’ and he would respond: ‘Thank you, Marse John; poly thank Gawd.’ But
out here, he is as gay and chipper as a tree frog, and knows all of the
up-to-date vernacular. He is as cunning as a fox.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Ten years
later in 1920 Joe Wells remained in Missoula renting a house with a white lodger
who worded as a barber. In December 1922 Joe Wells died at St. Patrick’s
Hospital in Missoula. His death was noted with a short obituary with more
exaggerations and a photograph published by the Montana Newspaper Association
on January 8, 1923:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“Missoula Centenarian Dies. Joseph Well,
colored, once winner of the Kentucky derby, believed to be the oldest
inhabitant in Missoula, died at St. Patrick’s hospital a few days ago.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“‘Uncle Joe’ as he was best known in the
city, claimed to have been born at Louisville, Ky., in 1807, placing his age at
115 years. His mother, a slave in the southern city, was sold shortly after his
birth and . . . [he was] reared by another colored woman. The aged negro often
narrated the vicissitudes of his fortune during early slavery times, the
stirring days of rebellion and the new era following the Civil war. He made
many trips up and down the ‘ol’ Mississippi’ with traders . . .<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span> </span>“His story of once winning the Kentucky
derby as [a Negro] jockey, strapped to the back of the winner of the blue-grass
classic, was one worthy of literary prominence. To have heard old ‘Uncle Joe’
tell it himself in his own mannerisms was still more interesting.“<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Oh, to have
been able to interview Joseph Wells, learn more details, and probe some of his
stories. From the first Kentucky Derby in 1875 until Jim Crow laws ended it
about 1900, almost all Derby jockeys were African American. Thirteen of the
fifteen riders in the first Kentucky Derby were black jockeys, and fifteen of
the first twenty-eight runnings of the Derby featured blacks. The names of
these early day black sports superstars are readily available . . . and, sadly,
Joseph Wells is not among them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Despite his
exaggerations, Joseph Wells, slave, Confederate service soldier, gold miner,
servant, rich man, poor man, drinker and carouser, and finally kindly “Uncle
Joe” the story teller, lived a more than full life before passing on in
Missoula December 16, 1922. His burial location is unknown.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Ken Robison is a local historian and
author of<i> <b>Montana Territory and the Civil War: A Frontier Forged on the
Battlefield</b>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Photo: </span><span>1. Former slave Uncle Joe Wells and his dog Nailer on the streets of
Missoula shortly before his death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-46541567334515937052013-06-09T20:51:00.000-06:002013-06-09T20:51:27.985-06:00James Wesley & Clarissa Jane Crump: Free Black & Slave Come to Montana Territory
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<i><span style="color: #2c2c2c; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This
is the seventeenth installment of a monthly series commemorating Union and
Confederate veterans of the Civil War who settled in Montana<b>. In Honor of Black History Month</b> this episode
highlights Union soldier James Wesley Crump and his wife and former slave
Clarissa Jane Powell. Descendants of Montana Civil War veterans are encouraged
to send their stories to </span></i><a href="mailto:mtcivilwar@yahoo.com"><i><span>mtcivilwar@yahoo.com</span></i></a><i><span style="color: #2c2c2c; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. To
see previous installments from this series, visit
greatfallstribune.com/civilwar.</span></i><span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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From the first
days of the Civil War, Missouri was torn between loyal Union and pro-secession
elements. Slave-owners and their slaves populated Little Dixie along the
Missouri River corridor through the center of the state. Two African Americans
from Little Dixie, James Wesley Crump and Clarissa Jane Powell, lived through
the violent days of Civil War Missouri, separately migrated to Montana
Territory, and left descendants to tell their story.<o:p></o:p></div>
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James Wesley
Crump was born a free black in 1847 in Jackson County, Missouri near today’s
Kansas City. On July 15, 1864 at Leavenworth, Kansas he enlisted as a private
in the Douglas Independent Battery, U. S. Colored Light Artillery Brigade. When
James Crump was mustered in he was described as a 17-year old laborer, 5’ 6”
height, with yellow complexion, brown eyes and black eyes. <o:p></o:p></div>
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With few
exceptions, white officers commanded black units in the Civil War.<span> </span>Private Crump’s Battery, known as the
Independent Colored Kansas Battery, was one of the few exceptions—black officers
led it. One of these black officers, Second Lieutenant William D. Matthews
enlisted Crump and his brother John into the Union Army. In October 1864, the
Kansas Battery entered combat just as Confederate Maj. Gen. Sterling Price began
to invade Kansas from his base in Arkansas. The Kansas Battery went into action
with two modern rifled Parrott 3-inch cannons manned by forty men. As part of
the Third Brigade, the Kansas Battery joined other artillery units gaining
praise from Brigade commander, Maj. Gen. Samuel Curtis, who reported: “The
enemy was soon overpowered . . . Every piece of artillery, especially the
little howitzers, was active in fire, showing artillery enough to represent an
army of 50,000.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Kansas
Battery then joined a week-long running cavalry battle driving Price’s army out
of Kansas. In January 1865, Crump was promoted to Corporal and served until
July 22, 1865 when he was mustered out at Fort Leavenworth.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Clarissa
Jane or Jennie Powell was born a slave on August 2, 1854, and as the Civil War
began she lived with two other female slaves in the household of farmer Philip
E. Evans in Pettis County, Missouri. Young Clarissa, still a slave, accompanied
the Evans family when they boarded the steamboat <i>Lillie Martin</i> at St. Louis in April 1865 bound for the upper
Missouri. These were turbulent times in Montana Territory so at Fort Union a
“Guard of Soldiers” boarded to provide protection from native Indian
harassment. The steamer struggled against low water in the river to arrive at
the mouth of the Marias River in late June, and the passengers proceeded on to
Helena by wagon.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Clarissa was
freed legally by enactment of the 13<sup>th</sup> Amendment to the Constitution
in December 1865. She was educated by the Evans family and for the rest of her
life remained in touch with the family including their son, John Morgan Evans
who served as U. S. Congressman from Montana.<o:p></o:p></div>
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James Crump
began freighting westward after the war, and by 1869 was working for the
Diamond R Overland Freighting Company in Montana Territory hauling freight to
Fort Benton and Helena from Corrine, Utah, then terminal of the Union Pacific
Railroad. In October 1869 James Crump married Clarissa Jane Powell at Corrine. After
more than a decade of freighting and mining in the Butte and Marysville areas,
the Crumps settled in Helena where in 1885 James contracted for construction of
their family home at 1003 9<sup>th</sup> Avenue. This long-time Crump home is
on the National Register of Historic Places.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Crumps
were leaders and active members of the Helena black community including the St.
James African Methodist Episcopal Church, Pleasant Hour Ladies Club, Manhattan
Club, black Masonic and Odd Fellows Lodges, and the integrated Grand Army of
the Republic (G.A.R.). They raised two daughters, Emma and Clarinda, and
descendants remain in Montana including Raymond Crump Howard and his wife Nava,
who have shared their family history making this account possible. <o:p></o:p></div>
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James Wesley
Crump, a strong and successful Montana pioneer, died April 18, 1919. Clarissa
Jane Powell Crump, described as “a woman of charm and character” and “the last
black pioneer of the state,” passed on March 10, 1941. Both pioneers rest today
in Forestvale Cemetery, Helena.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span>Sources: [Biographic
sketches of James Wesley and Clarissa Jane Crump; History of the Crump/Howard
Home; U.S. Army Register of Enlistments; Fold3.com Service Records James and
John Crump; <i>GF Tribune</i> Montana Parade
Sept. 10, 1978; <i>Helena</i> <i>Independent Record</i> Jan. 18, 2009.]<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">Photos: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span>1<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>1. "When the new Montana State Capitol was
dedicated on July 4, 1902 with surviving G.A.R. members present, Corporal James
Wesley Crump received the honor of holding the American flag.” [<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">Courtesy of Raymond Crump Howard]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>2</span></span>2. "Former Slave Clarissa Jane Crump in Helena,
Montana.” [<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">Courtesy of Raymond Crump Howard]</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-53915786281916850282013-06-09T20:01:00.000-06:002013-06-09T20:01:15.378-06:002013 Montana Historic Preservation Poster<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Montana Historical Society State Historic Preservation Office has issued this great poster for 2013 Historic Preservation "Building Community": "The Montana Federation of Colored Women's Clubs gathered at Great Falls' Union Bethel AME Church for their annual meeting during the late 1950s. The Church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in September 2003." Barbara Behan and Ken Robison co-authored the nomination.</b></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b><i>Note: Alma Jacobs stands on the far right above her mother Emma Smith.</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0FxIdCY69ZtLpjXIaDMjFKz0wuDtwAxdYrXa_QBDAMl0H1Jla-shyphenhyphentjV_KLH9osL69eJCJU3F6z3ZGyvFc-gWncgKJWuDwSM2im55UUS11qhGqrugfg1yzq3Piz8SZMJ3oA3CQiu7s4Fz/s1600/2013PreservationPosterBuildingCommunity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0FxIdCY69ZtLpjXIaDMjFKz0wuDtwAxdYrXa_QBDAMl0H1Jla-shyphenhyphentjV_KLH9osL69eJCJU3F6z3ZGyvFc-gWncgKJWuDwSM2im55UUS11qhGqrugfg1yzq3Piz8SZMJ3oA3CQiu7s4Fz/s320/2013PreservationPosterBuildingCommunity.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
<br />Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-63410649082692584962012-12-26T20:50:00.001-07:002012-12-26T20:50:54.197-07:00Private Alexander Branson, First Black Warrior in the North—Part I
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<br />
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<b>Remembering Our Civil War Heritage and
Heroes:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>1861-1865<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>Private Alexander
Branson, <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>First Black Warrior
in the North—Part I<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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By
Ken Robison<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>For The River Press<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>April 25, 2012 <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span>This
continues a monthly series commemorating the 150<sup>th</sup> Anniversary of
the Civil War and the veterans that settled in Central Montana.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>Alexander Branson
claimed to be the first African American to enlist in the North during the
Civil War, and he might well have been. He was the first to enlist in the famed
54<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, lived though the desperate
assault at Fort Wagner, fought through other battles and skirmishes until the
end of the war, and came to the Montana frontier to settle in Lewistown in the
1880s. Alex Branson lived over 40 years in the Judith Basin, earning the
respect of his fellow veterans and the affection of his community where he was
known as “Uncle Alex.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span>Born in 1840 in the
slave-owning society of Charleston, Virginia (today’s West Virginia), Alex
Branson likely was born into slavery. He was free before the beginning of the
Civil War, although how he attained his freedom is not known. In the early
1860s he made his way to Philadelphia, Pa., where in February 1863 he was working
as a barber. From Civil War records we know that he was 5’ 3” in height with a
light complexion, black eyes and hair.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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In early
1863 just after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, Governor John A.
Andrew, war governor of Massachusetts and a passionate opponent of slavery,
succeeded in obtaining the permission of President Lincoln to recruit a
regiment of “colored” men in his state. Only three colored regiments had been
recruited prior to that time: Brigadier General Rufus Saxton formed the First South
Carolina Volunteers (Union) from contrabands (escaped slaves freed in the South
by Union forces) in August 1862; Major General Benjamin F. Butler began
organizing the 1<sup>st</sup> Regiment, Louisiana Native Guards from free
blacks in September 1862; and Colonel James M. Williams mustered in the First
Kansas Colored Infantry in January 1863. <span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span>The 54<sup>th</sup> Regiment Massachusetts
Volunteer Infantry was the first military unit composed of men of African
descent to be raised in the North. Twenty-seven men, the nucleus of
the organization, assembled at Camp Meigs, Readville, Mass. on Feb. 21, 1863.
The companies were mustered in on various dates between March 30 and May
13, the recruits coming from all parts of Massachusetts and many from
outside the state. Since more enlistments were secured than were needed,
the surplus<br />
became the nucleus of a second regiment, the 55<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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When Governor
Andrew received his order from Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, he
immediately set about organizing the regiment and at once appointed Captain Robert
Gould Shaw of his state as Colonel, and Captain Norwood P. Hallowell to the
post of Lieutenant Colonel. Both men accepted but were on duty in the South at
the time. Captain Hallowell was the first to start north to help organize the
new regiment. He stopped en route to Boston to visit relatives at Philadelphia
for a few days and while there he recruited a number of colored men for the new
Massachusetts regiment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Alexander
Branson was one of eight men signed up by Captain Hallowell on Feb. 18<sup>th</sup>,
his first day of recruiting, and Branson claimed to be the first in line to
sign on for a three year term as Private. Since no recruiting had yet been
started in Boston, these eight men were in fact, the first recruits of the 54<sup>th</sup>
Massachusetts. Samuel Branson, a Philadelphia shoemaker, was also among the
first eight recruits, and he may have been Alexander’s brother. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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So great was
the sentiment in the North against allowing black men to take up arms that
Captain Hallowell was compelled to slip his recruits out of Philadelphia by
stealth, singly or in small squads, and the Bransons were in the first squad to
be sent to Boston. Upon reaching there, the early recruits were mustered at Camp
Meigs, at Readville (now part of Boston), and on March 30, Alexander and Samuel
Branson were assigned to Company B, 54<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts under company
commander Captain Robert R. Newell.<span> All the
commissioned officers of the regiment were white men as the regiment began
training. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span>Leaving camp May 28, 1863 the 54<sup>th</sup>
Massachusetts, led by Colonel Shaw and with Private Alexander Branson proudly holding
his new Enfield rifle, passed in review by Governor Andrew on Boston Common
before the largest crowd in Boston history. The regiment embarked the same day
on the transport ship <i>DeMolay</i> bound for
combat action along the coast of South Carolina. Touching at Hilton Head,
June 3, the transport proceeded the same day to Beaufort. During the month
of June the 54<sup>th</sup> visited New Frederica, St. Simon's Island, and
St. Helena Island. Embarking July 8, the regiment proceeded to Stono
Inlet, where it became a part of General Alfred Terry's expedition to
James Island near Charleston, S. C. Near Secessionville on July 16, the Union
forces were attacked by a Confederate Brigade under Brigadier General Alfred
H. Colquitt, and in the battle that followed the 54<sup>th</sup> lost 14
killed, 18 wounded, and three missing. The 54<sup>th</sup> had seen its
first combat, and soon more would come.<br />
<br />
Ordered to report to Brigadier General George C. Strong on Morris Island, S.
C., July 18, t</span><span>he 54<sup>th</sup>
Massachusetts was chosen to lead an assault on Fort Wagner, a strategic bastion
protecting the approach to Charleston. Colonel Shaw deployed his 624 men in two
wings, five companies on the left and five on the right with Company B on the
right flank of the right wing. At 7: 45 p.m. Shaw raised his sword and
addressed his men, “Move in quick time until within a hundred yards of the
fort; then double quick and charge! . . . Forward!” The 54<sup>th</sup>
Massachusetts advanced to the storming before charged down the beach and into
history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span>The
assault of the 54<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts Infantry on Fort Wagner became
legend, most recently honored in the movie <b><i>Glory.</i></b> Their Brigade commander </span><span>Gen. Strong
reported, "Under cover of darkness [the 54<sup>th</sup>] stormed the fort,
faced a stream of fire, faltered not till the ranks were broken by shot and
shell; and in all these severe tests, which would have tried even veteran
troops, they fully met my expectations, for many were killed, wounded, or
captured on the walls of the fort." </span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">The 54<sup>th</sup> suffered 272 casualties in
their tactical defeat, yet their bravery under withering fire was acclaimed
throughout the North. Among the casualties were Col. Robert Gould Shaw, two
Captains, and about 133 men killed or missing and Lt. Col. Edward N. Hallowell
(who earlier had replaced his brother), ten commissioned officers, and 125 men
wounded. Despite the staggering losses, Private Alex Branson and the 54<sup>th</sup>
proved to the North that black troops would fight, and not only would they
fight, but they could be effective soldiers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-themecolor: text1;">All through the
month of August the regiment was occupied constructing entrenchments and
parallels gradually pushing up to within a short distance of Fort Wagner eventually
forcing evacuation by Confederates forces on Sept. 7. The 54th Massachusetts
was given the honor of being the first regiment to enter the earth works and
occupy Fort Wagner.<br />
<br />
The autumn of 1863 was occupied in the reconstruction of Forts Wagner and
Gregg so that they would face toward Fort Sumter and Charleston, and in
erecting other fortifications. By Oct. 17 Lieut. Col. E. N. Hallowell had
overcome his wounds and now promoted to colonel, returned and assumed
command of the 54<sup>th</sup>. In late January 1864, the 54<sup>th</sup>
was assigned to an expedition on the Florida coast commanded by Major
General Truman Seymour. It broke camp on Morris Island, Jan. 29, reported
next day at Hilton Head, and sailed Feb. 5, for Jacksonville. Arriving
Feb. 7, about a week later it accompanied an expedition into the interior.
On Feb. 20, it was engaged with the enemy near Olustee, Fla., while
covering the retirement of Gen. Seymour's force from that place, losing
13 killed, 66 wounded, and eight missing. Olustee was the largest battle fought
in Florida during the Civil War.<br />
<br />
The regiment remained at Jacksonville until April 17, when it returned to
Morris Island in front of Charleston, S. C. Now commanded by Lieut. Col.
Henry N. Hooper, it spent the summer and fall of 1864 in the
fortifications on James and Morris Islands.<br />
<br />
On Nov. 27, eight companies, under command of Lieut. Col. Hooper, were
transported to Hilton Head, and attached to Hartwell's (3d) Brigade,
Hatch's Coast Division. Six of these companies were engaged at Honey Hill,
Nov. 30, losing three<br />
killed, 38 wounded, and four missing. On Dec. 6 they were engaged at
Deveau's Neck without loss. From Dec. 19, 1864 to Feb. 12, 1865 the 54<sup>th</sup>,
as a part of Hatch's Division, was on guard duty near Pocotaligo, S. C.,
Sherman's base of supplies, and making frequent demonstrations along
the Cambahee River. About Feb. 13 it was reported that the Confederates
had retired to the Ashepoo River in the direction of Charleston. Hatch's
Division soon followed, crossing the Combahee, Feb. 16, the Ashepoo on the
20th, and reached a position on the Ashley opposite Charleston Feb. 23.
Here they found that the city was already in the possession of the Union forces,
mostly from Morris Island, and among them Private Alexander Branson and Company B
as well as Company F of the 54<sup>th</sup> which had been detached from the
rest of the regiment since the preceding November. The Confederates had
evacuated the place the night of Feb. 17, first setting fire to the bridge
across the Ashley River and to all buildings in the city that were used as
storehouses for cotton, and the following morning the place was occupied by
the Federal forces. The main body of the 54<sup>th</sup> was ferried over
the Ashley and entered Charleston Feb. 27, and now the separated companies
of the regiment were reunited.<br />
<br />
The 54<sup>th</sup> remained in Charleston until March 12th when it was
sent by transport to Savannah, Ga. From there, on the 27th, it was sent to
Georgetown, S. C., arriving on the 31st. Here it was attached to Hallowell's
Brigade of Potter's Division, and on April 5 set out on a raid into the
interior. At Boykin's Mills, April 18, the 54th was engaged with the
enemy, losing three killed and 24 wounded. On April 25 the regiment returned to
Georgetown, the close of hostilities having been announced four days previously.<br />
<br />
Returning to Charleston, May 6, a large part of the regiment was
distributed at various points in South Carolina. District Headquarters detailed
Private Branson on May 12 as an orderly in the Mayor’s office. Branson and the
regiment assembled at Mount Pleasant on Aug. 17, to be mustered out on
Aug. 20. Embarking the following day on the transports <i>C. F. Thomas</i> and <i>Ashland</i>, it reached Galloup's Island, Boston Harbor, Aug. 27
and 28. The men were paid off Sept. 1, and on the following day, after
being reviewed by the governor, and having paraded in the vicinity of
Boston Common and Beacon Hill, the regiment was disbanded. Private Alex Branson
received $38.89 pay and a bounty of $100. <br />
<br />
An important chapter in the history of the 54<sup>th</sup> was its fight
for the regular soldier's pay of $13 per month. At the outset Governor
Andrew assured the men that they would receive the same pay and emoluments
as all other volunteer soldiers. But in July 1863 an order came from Washington
fixing the compensation of colored soldiers at $10 per month, and several
times an offer was made to the men of the 54th of this amount, but each
time this was declined. Refusing their reduced pay became a point of honor for
the men of the 54<sup>th</sup>.<br />
<br />
In Nov. 1863, the legislature of Massachusetts passed an act providing
that the difference of $3 per month should be made up by the State, but
the men of the regiment refused to accept this money. They demanded
that they receive their full soldier pay from the national government. For eighteen
months after the first companies entered the service the men received nothing
for their services and sufferings. Finally, in Sept. 1864 the federal government
met their demand and all members of the regiment received full pay from
the time of their enlistment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br />
<b>Battles Fought by the 54<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts Infantry Regiment:</b><br />
<br />
Fought on 16 Jul 1863 at James Island, SC.<br />
</span><a href="http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?&ti=0%C2%AD&db=hdsbattle&f0=5284"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Fought on 18 Jul 1863 at Fort Wagner, SC.</span></a><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br />
Fought on 17 Aug 1863 at Morris Island, SC.<br />
Fought on 4 Sep 1863 at Fort Wagner, SC.<br />
Fought on 5 Sep 1863 at Morris Island, SC.<br />
Fought on 28 Sep 1863 at Morris Island, SC.<br />
Fought on 28 Sep 1863 at Fort Chatfiled, Morris Island, SC.<br />
Fought on 9 Oct 1863 at Fort Wagner, SC.<br />
Fought on 30 Nov 1863 at Honey Hill, SC.<br />
Fought on 7 Feb 1864 at Jacksonville, FL.<br />
Fought on 8 Feb 1864 at Jacksonville, FL.<br />
</span><a href="http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?&ti=0%C2%AD&db=hdsbattle&f0=3627"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Fought on 20 Feb 1864 at Olustee, FL.</span></a><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br />
Fought on 1 Apr 1864 at Jacksonville, FL.<br />
Fought on 2 Jul 1864 at James Island, SC.<br />
Fought on 15 Jul 1864 at In A Camp At Morris Island, SC.<br />
Fought on 16 Jul 1864 at Morris Island, SC.<br />
</span><a href="http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?&ti=0%C2%AD&db=hdsbattle&f0=2637"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Fought on 30 Nov 1864 at Honey Hill, SC.</span></a><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br />
Fought on 10 Dec 1864 at Honey Hill, SC.<br />
Fought on 10 Feb 1865 at Secessionville, SC.<br />
Fought on 10 Feb 1865 at Morris Island, SC.<br />
Fought on 12 Feb 1865 at Salkehatchie, SC.<br />
Fought on 7 Apr 1865 at Eppes' Bridge, SC.<br />
Fought on 10 Apr 1865 at Sumter, SC.<br />
Fought on 16 Apr 1865 at Near Camden, SC.<br />
Fought on 18 Apr 1865 at Near Camden, SC.<br />
</span><a href="http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?&ti=0%C2%AD&db=hdsbattle&f0=5369"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Fought on 18 Apr 1865 at Boykin's Mills, SC.</span></a><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br />
Fought on 30 Apr 1865 at Georgetown, SC.<br />
Fought on 9 Jul 1865 at Charleston, SC.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">The 54th Massachusetts Regiment was
widely acclaimed for its valor during the battle of Fort Wagner. Their actions
proved that black men would fight and die in defense of their country. Their
valor helped encourage the further enlistment and mobilization of some 300,000 African-American
troops, a key development that President</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln" title="Abraham Lincoln"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Abraham Lincoln</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">once noted as helping to
secure the final victory. </span></span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">The legacy
of the 54<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts since the Civil War has been remarkable. In
1867 the new fort in the Sun River Valley in Montana Territory was named Fort
Shaw as a tribute to Col. Robert Gould Shaw. </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">A monument,
constructed 1884–1898 by<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_Saint-Gaudens" title="Augustus Saint-Gaudens"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Augustus
Saint-Gaudens</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">on<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Common_(park)" title="Boston Common (park)"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Boston
Common</span></a><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">, is part of the Boston<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Heritage_Trail" title="Black Heritage Trail"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Black
Heritage Trail</span></a><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">. A famous composition by Charles Ives, "Col.
Shaw and his Colored Regiment," the opening movement of <i>Three Places in New England (Orchestral Set
No. 1),<span> </span></i>is based both on
the monument and the regiment. Colonel Shaw and his men also feature
prominently in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lowell" title="Robert Lowell"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Robert Lowell</span></a><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">'s Civil War Centennial poem "For the Union Dead" (1964). Most
recently, the film <i>Glory</i> won the 1989
Academy Award and re-established the now-popular image of the role African
Americans played in the Civil war. Private Alexander Branson had served bravely
throughout the Civil War with the most famous black regiment.</span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span>To be continued next week.</span></i><span><span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span><span><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>Remembering Our Civil War Heritage and
Heroes:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>1861-1865<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Private Alexander
Branson, <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>First Black Warrior
in the North—Part II<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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By
Ken Robison<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>For The River Press<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>May 2, 2012 <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b><i><span>This
continues with the second part of the story of Civil War veteran Alexander
Branson. Part I covered Branson’s early years and his service with the 54<sup>th</sup>
Massachusetts Infantry Regiment during the Civil War.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span>Private Alexander
Branson survived the carnage of the battle of Fort Wagner, South Carolina, that
had decimated his 54<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts Regiment, but proven the valor
of this African American Regiment. Branson survived the other skirmishes and
battles through the end of the Civil War. After his discharge Aug. 20, 1865 he returned
to Philadelphia, Pa. and worked there during the 1870s as a barber. Little is
known of his life during this period, but he probably joined with his fellow
veterans, black and white, in the Union veterans’ organization, the Grand Army
of the Republic (G. A. R.). By 1880 the U.S. Census recorded that Alex had
moved west to Sioux City, Iowa on the Missouri River where he worked as a
barber.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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It is not
clear when Alex Branson came to Montana Territory. A biographic sketch written
in 1924, states that he came to Montana in 1872 and lived for some time in
Helena. <span> </span>It is more likely that he came
up the Missouri River to Fort Benton by steamboat in 1881 and settled in the
Judith Basin, before there was a town of Lewistown. During this period the
bison herds had been reduced and cattle ranching was taking over the Judith. For
some time, Branson engaged in stock raising. When the town began to grow after
1883 he moved into Lewistown and started a barbershop.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In July
1887, Alex Branson filed claim for a 160 acre homestead on the west fork of
Beaver Creek southwest of Lewistown. The 1890 US Census Veterans Schedule
recorded 26 Union veterans living in Lewistown, with Private “Elick” Branson,
Company B of the 54<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts Regiment listed first. In February
1891, Branson’s barbershop burned to the ground in a building he owned in a
late night fire that also destroyed four other buildings. Insurance covered
most of his loss, and he quickly began work on a frame building to house his
shop. The building was completed in early July, and Alex moved into his new
barbershop with the help of at least one other barber. Ads ran in the <i>Fergus County Argus</i> for the new shop,
“Gem Shaving Parlors Alexander Branson, Proprietor Main Street, Lewistown,
Montana Best appointed shop in eastern Montana.” On New Year’s Eve 1891, when the
James A. Shields Post No. 19 of the G. A. R. met to select new officers. Alex
Branson was named Surgeon, one of fifteen named to office. Throughout his years
in Lewistown, Branson remained active in the G. A. R. during many public events
including annual Memorial Day observances.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In February
1892 the Republican Party of Lewistown organized a Lincoln Club with Alex
Branson listed among the members. In May the <i>Fergus County Argus</i> observed that Lewistown “promises to become a
town of wind mills. George M. Stafford, James H. Moe, D. J. Kane, Alex Branson
and R. von Tobel are to have mills erected soon. How the sight of them would
vex Don Quixote were he to pass through astride Rocinante.”<span> </span>On July 11,1892 Branson completed proving up
his homestead and received patent to 160 acres. He had other land in the same
area and operated a ranch at the head of Little Rock Creek.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Active in
ranching, business, and politics, African American Alexander Branson had gained
the respect of the Lewistown community. In May 1894 he was named with three
other G. A. R. members to arrange Memorial Day activities. Sunday, May 26<sup>th</sup>,
the Shields Post No. 19 of the G. A. R. and its camp attended church in a body
with the Memorial Sermon preached by Rev. U. F. Hawk at the Methodist Episcopal
Church. The Lewistown band played that day and on May 30<sup>th</sup>, meeting
with the post and camp at the band room on Sunday at 10 o’clock a. m. and
marching from there to the church. On the 30<sup>th</sup> the band, post and
camp met at Jackson’s hall at 1 o’clock p. m. and marched from there to the
court house, where the exercises were held on that day. At the court house the
following program was carried out:<o:p></o:p></div>
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Selection by
the Band.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Prayer.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Song by
Musical Assembly.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Address of
Welcome, B. C. White.<o:p></o:p></div>
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G. A. R.
Services.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Selection by
the Band.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Oration by
Wm. E. Cort.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Song by
Musical Assembly.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Recitation
by Miss Blodgett.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Address by
Prof. J. M. Parrent. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Selection by
Prof. T. J. Load.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Selection by
the Band.<o:p></o:p></div>
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March to
Cemetery and Decoration of Graves.<o:p></o:p></div>
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All business
houses were closed during the services.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Although his
Civil War service record reported no battle wounds, Branson suffered early from
rheumatism, and in July 1896 was granted a Civil War invalid pension, which was
renewed in 1903. Perhaps because of his ailments, in December 1896, Alex
Branson opened a hospital in the DeFrate building on Main Street. The <i>Argus</i> reported Branson’s hospital was “prepared
to take care of anyone who desires to come to Lewistown for treatment. The
rates, including room, board, nursing etc., will be $15 per week, a saving of
nearly fifty per cent from that incurred at the hotels. Patients may have any
physician they choose, the local doctors all having offered to aid Mr. Branson
in caring for patients. A hospital has long been needed in Lewistown, but it is
very doubtful if the number requiring such a retreat will be sufficient to make
it pay. While no one wishes that men may become afflicted or accidents occur in
order that a hospital may be supported, if those desiring the advantages will
avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by this venture, it will be a
favor to many who really need the attention only to be afforded by a
hospital.”<span> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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By 1898
Branson was a partner of Mr. Danioth operating the Occidental Restaurant
serving “fresh oysters, fresh fish and all delicacies of the season.” The
following year, when Lewistown held a grand reception to welcome home their
veterans of the Spanish-American War, Alex Branson was the Veterans
Color-Bearer in the line of march into the city. In 1900 Alex served as a trial
juror in the District Court, making him one of the early blacks to serve on
jury duty in Montana. Ever active and in the news, when Charles Williams of
Lewistown received a shipment of six raccoons from friends in Indiana, the <i>Argus</i> observed, “Alec Branson is already
negotiating for one, probably with an eye to a Christmas dinner.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span> </span>Alexander Branson left Lewistown in late Sept.
1902 en route to Washington, D. C., to be present at the encampment of the G.
A. R., held there from October 6<sup>th</sup> to 11<sup>th</sup>. The <i>Argus</i> reported, “Alex. Branson is a well
known citizen of Lewistown and is one of the G. A. R. veterans left in this
section of the state. He served during the war with the 54<sup>th</sup> Mass.
Regiment in the capacity of color bearer. The regiment did excellent service
and was the first colored regiment recruited in the north. It was under the
command of Col. Shaw, after whom old Fort Shaw was named.” The G. A. R.
Thirty-sixth National Encampment was held at Camp Roosevelt in the shadow of
the Washington Monument Oct. 9-10, 1902.<o:p></o:p></div>
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By 1903,
Branson was operating a saloon at the end of Main Street. On New Year’s Eve
1904, Alex left his First and Last Chance Saloon before 1 a.m. to go up town
for supper. In his absence his saloon was robbed of $50 cash.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Over the
next two decades, Alex Branson remained active although he was slowed by age
and ailments and eventually forced to retired when he was about 80 years old.
He lived comfortably with the property he had accumulated and his invalid
pension from the government. His great desire was to attend the National
Encampment of the G. A. R. in Boston in 1924 to see one last time Boston
Commons where he had paraded with his regiment on their way to war and mustered
out nearly 60 years before. Unfortunately during the winter of 1923-24 his
rheumatism reached a stage where he was unable to care for himself. <o:p></o:p></div>
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“Uncle Alex”
Branson left Lewistown in the fall of 1924 to spend his remaining days in peace
and happiness with a niece, Mrs. Roy Hamit, in Pittsburgh, Pa. Lewistown lost a
respected resident who had earned the good will of the entire community.
Montana lost an honored Civil War veteran when Alexander Branson passed away in
Philadelphia at age 94 on Dec. 26 1934. Today, Private Alexander Branson rests
in Philadelphia National Cemetery.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Note: If you have Civil War veterans in your family who settled in
this area, we would be pleased to hear from you with copies of stories and
photographs that we can share with our readers. Send your Civil War stories to </span></i><a href="mailto:mtcivilwar@yahoo.com"><i><span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">mtcivilwar@yahoo.com</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
or to the Overholser Historical Research Center, Box 262, Fort Benton, MT
59442.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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[Sources: <i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-themecolor: text1;">Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors & Marines in
the Civil War</span></i>; <span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Luis F. Emilio, <i>A Brave Black regiment: the history of the
Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865</i>;</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span>American
Civil War Regiments; Civil War Trust Maps; Montana Newspaper Association 13 Oct
1924 Judith Basin County Press; US Census 1880-1930; Philadelphia City Directory
1872-77; GLO Patent Alexander Branson; Fergus Co Argus 21 May 1891; <i>Fergus County Argus</i> 5 Feb 1891, 23 Apr
1891, 20 May 1891, 31 Dec 1891, 4 Feb 1892, 23 Nov 1893, 17 May 1894, 15 Dec
1897, 26 Oct 1898, 1 Nov 1899, 18 Sep 1901, 1 Oct 1902, 6 Jan 1904]<o:p></o:p></div>
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Photos for
Part I: <o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens on Boston
Commons Honoring the 54<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts Regiment<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Battle Map of Fort Wagner Assault<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
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Republic Uniform<o:p></o:p></div>
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Photos for
Part II:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
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children.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-29759949107859575032012-12-26T20:49:00.001-07:002012-12-26T20:49:17.775-07:00Private Joseph W. Meek of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment
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<b><span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Private Joseph W. Meek<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Civil War, paraded through Boston Common on their way to war, Private Joseph
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Joseph
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plantation in Tennessee. Late in the1850s, Joseph and his younger brother
Charles either escaped or were freed and made their way north. In 1858, Joseph
Meek and wife Laura were living in Illinois, and son Henry was born that year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863,
Joseph Meek, age 20, worked as a shoemaker in Springfield, Ohio. Like other
young blacks, Meek anxiously waited the opportunity to join the Union Army. On
May 12, 1863, he enlisted for three years at Readville, Massachusetts in
Company E, 54<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts Regiment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Two
weeks later, on May 28, Colonel Shaw led the 54<sup>th</sup> Regiment past the
largest crowd in Boston history, through the streets and into glory. Private
Joe Meek marched in rank holding his new Enfield rifle, before boarding the
transport ship <i>DeMolay</i> bound for
combat in South Carolina.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The regiment saw duty in small
skirmishes until moving to Morris Island in Charleston harbor. The 54<sup>th</sup>
Massachusetts was chosen to lead an assault on Fort Wagner protecting
Charleston. Colonel Shaw deployed his 624 men in two columns, five companies in
the first line and five in the second with Company E on the right flank of the
second line. At 7: 45 p.m. Shaw raised his sword, and the 54<sup>th</sup>
Massachusetts started down the beach.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The assault of the 54<sup>th</sup>
on Fort Wagner became legend, most recently honored in the movie <b><i>Glory.</i></b>
Brigade commander </span><span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝";">General
Strong reported "Under cover of darkness [the 54<sup>th</sup>] stormed the
fort, faced a stream of fire, faltered not till the ranks were broken by shot
and shell; and in all these severe tests, which would have tried even veteran
troops, they fully met my expectations, for many were killed, wounded, or
captured on the walls of the fort." </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While the 54<sup>th</sup> suffered 272 casualties
in their tactical defeat, their bravery under fire was acclaimed throughout the
North. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Private
Joseph Meek</span><span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and the other survivors went on to
further action in South Carolina and Florida. They took part in battles at
Olustee, Honey Hill, and Boykin Hill. </span><span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Private Joseph Meek mustered every month throughout
the war until his discharge on August 20, 1865. </span><span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">After
the war, Joseph and Laura Meek and son Henry moved to Kansas City, Missouri. In
the late 1870s, Joe Meek left his family with his parents in Kansas and went up
the Missouri River to Fort Benton. Settling in the Little Belt Mountains in
1880, Meek worked as shoemaker. That fall, with friend Samuel Spaulding, Meek
began prospecting at the Barker mines, where the <i>Benton Record</i> reported “two lucky prospectors” returned to Fort
Benton with samples of ore taken from a new lode, named “Laura” for Joseph’s
wife. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">One
year later, while hunting on Old Baldy Mountain, Joe Meek discovered a ledge of
silver ore up in a region of perpetual snow. With help from friends, Meek drove
off claim jumpers and opened the “Meek lode,” packing ore down the mountain two
miles on a mule for the smelter at Barker. With his mining success, Meek
brought his wife and son to Barker.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">After
years of successful small-scale mining, Joe Meek and his family moved to White
Sulphur Springs. He continued prospecting and mining while his wife served as
nurse and midwife assisting Drs. Kumpe and MacKay. The Meek home was located
along a hill just northeast of the famed Castle at White Sulphur Spring. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Joseph
W. Meek was a respected member of the White Sulphur Springs community. He died
August 27, 1912 and is interred in Lot 28 at Mayn Cemetery, his grave marker
proudly bearing the inscription marking his Civil War service, “Jos. W. Meek
Co. E. 54 Mass. Inf.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Note: This continues a
monthly series commemorating Union and Confederate veterans of the Civil War
who settled in central Montana. Descendants of Montana Civil War veterans are
encouraged to send their stories to mtcivilwar@yahoo.com.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #002939; font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Photos: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #002939; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Marching off to war
at Boston Common May 28, 1863. Monument by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #002939; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Home of Joe Meek at
White Sulphur Springs, MT in 1904.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #002939; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Civil War Gravestone
Marker Private Joseph W. Meek, Mayn Cemetery, White Sulphur Springs.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #002939; font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Sources:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #002939; font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">[1] “Joseph W. Meeks” </span><span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">by Verle
Rademacher. <i>Mountains of Gold, Hills of
Grass A History of Meagher County.</i> Written and Complied by Lee Rostad.
Edited by Joan Rostad. Martinsdale, MT: Bozeman Fork Publishing, 1994.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[2] Internet: <a href="http://54th-mass.org/about/roster/">http://54th-mass.org/about/roster/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[3] National Archives Civil War Records<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[4] <i>History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer
Infantry, 1863-65.</i> By Luis F. Emilio. Boston: The Boston Book Company,
1891.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[5] Great Falls Tribune 1 Aug 1914,
p. 8.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[6] <i>So Be It A History of The Barker Mining District Hughesville and Barker</i>.
By Donna Wahlberg. 1989.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-21438788177384298162012-12-26T20:47:00.000-07:002012-12-26T20:47:00.617-07:00Landsman William M. Morgan, Union Sailor and Great Falls Constable
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<b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">Civil War Heritage 150 Years<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">Remembering Our Civil War
Heritage and Heroes:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">Landsman William M. Morgan, Union Sailor and Great Falls
Constable<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">By Ken Robison<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">[For <b>The Great
Falls Tribune<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">September 30, 2012 Sunday My
Montana]<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #2c2c2c; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This
is the thirteenth installment of a monthly series commemorating Union and
Confederate veterans of the Civil War who settled in central Montana. This
month a Union Navy veteran is featured. Descendants of Montana Civil War
veterans are encouraged to send their stories to </span></i><a href="mailto:mtcivilwar@yahoo.com"><i><span>mtcivilwar@yahoo.com</span></i></a><i><span style="color: #2c2c2c; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. To see previous installments from this series,
visit greatfallstribune.com/civilwar.</span></i><span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>In the election
of November 1894, Great Falls elected a Black American to public office—a first
for the state of Montana. Civil War Union Navy veteran William M. Morgan was
elected Great Falls Townsite Constable in that election.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<span>Born in
Harrodsburg, Mercer County, Kentucky on July 3, 1843, William Morgan was likely
one of the 256 free blacks and mixed race in that county. At the beginning of
the Civil War, William Morgan joined the Union Navy and served as a Landsman on
the <i>USS Sabine </i>during the war. As a
Landsman, the rank given to new recruits in the Navy, Morgan performed menial,
unskilled work on the <i>Sabine.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>The history of
the Civil War has been written largely about the armies and land battles on both
sides. Yet, the great historian James M. McPherson believes “the Union navy
deserves more credit for Northern victory than it has traditionally received.”
In August 1863, President Lincoln paid tribute to the Union Navy in opening of
the Mississippi River and other Union Successes, saying “The Father of Waters
again goes unvexed to the sea.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>William Morgan
was one of over 20,000 Black Americans who served in the Union Navy during the
Civil War. This constituted an estimated 16 percent of the Navy’s enlisted
force. The Navy used integrated crews with blacks working side by side with
whites on the same ships.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 4.8pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The <i>USS Sabine </i>was
among the first ships to see action in the Civil War. A Brandywine-class
frigate the <i>USS Sabine</i> was a 202-foot
sailing ship carrying about 50 guns and a complement of 400 officers and men.
During the war,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Sabine</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>was actively employed along the East
coast searching for Confederate commerce raiders. She participated in the
relief and reinforcement of Fort Pickens, Florida, in April 1861; the rescue of
300 marines and the crew of chartered troop transport <i>Governor</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> with the loss of
just seven </span>during a violent storm off South Carolina<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>on 2-3 November 1861; the search for <i>USS Vermont</i> in March 1862, after that
ship-of-the-line<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>had been badly
damaged by a storm while sailing to Port Royal, South Carolina; and the hunt
for the successful commerce raiders <i>CSS
Alabama<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i>in October 1862 and <i>CSS Tacony</i> in June 1863.</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sabine</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">returned to New York for blockade duty with the
North Atlantic Blockading Squadron<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>until
ordered in August 1864 to Norfolk, Virginia as a training ship for Navy
apprentices and landsmen.</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>In 1882 William
Morgan came up the Missouri River by the steamboat <i>Butte</i>, arriving Fort Benton on May 7th. After a short time working in
that river port, Owen H. Churchill hired Morgan to work on the large Churchill ranch
in Sun River Valley. Morgan began homesteaded in 1886 five miles south of Great
Falls along the Missouri River, and he received patent to 158 acres five years
later. As Great Falls began to grow, Morgan built a house on the lower
Southside and became active in the black community, serving as a founding
trustee in building an African Methodist Church in 1891. He helped form Sunset
Lodge #14, a black Masonic Lodge, and a black Odd Fellows Lodge. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>Active in
Republican Party politics, William Morgan was appointed to a “plumb” political
job as janitor of the Cascade County Courthouse. In the election of 1894, he
was nominated at the Republican convention with white candidate, Joseph E.
Huston, for two open Great Falls Townsite Constable positions. </span><span style="color: black;">On the night of November 6, 1894, Morgan went to bed in the
evening after working that day as janitor at the Courthouse. He woke the next
morning to learn that he’d received 503 votes to defeat the leading Democratic
Party candidate by 24 votes and win election as Constable.<span> </span>This marked the first election of a Black
American to public office in Montana. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">After serving well in office from 1895-97, Constable Morgan
returned to his ranch that had expanded by then to 600 acres.</span><span> He ranched and
drove the Great Falls to Millegan stagecoach. In 1898 he helped Cascade County
Sheriff Proctor capture horse thief Ed Short near the Morgan Ranch. One year
later on March 24, 1899, Civil War Union Navy veteran and Constable William M.
Morgan died at his home in Great Falls. The Tribune marked his passing as
“Death of a Good Citizen” and reported, “Exposure in this line of duty [driving
the stage] aggravated an old injury and caused his death. He was an honest and
industrious man, who commanded the respect and confidence of all who knew him.”
Landsman William Morgan rests in Old Highland Cemetery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>Sources: [Wikipedia
<i>USS Sabine</i>; <i>War on the Waters The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865</i> by
James M. McPherson; GFLD 30 Oct 1890; GFLD 21 Jan 1892; GFLD 19 Sep 1892; GFLW
7 Jun 1894; GFTD 11 Oct 1894; GFLD 24 Oct 1894; GFTD 14 Nov 1894; GFLD 6 Sep
1898; GFLD 2 Mar 1897; GFTD 28 Mar 1899; GFLD 27 Mar 1899]<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span>1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-77782658578988708872012-12-26T20:44:00.001-07:002012-12-26T20:44:42.661-07:00Trailblazer Charles M. Meek
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<b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">Civil War Heritage 150 Years<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">Remembering Our Civil War
Heritage and Heroes:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">In Honor of Black History Month:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">Trailblazer Charles M. Meek<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">By Ken Robison<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">For <b>The Great
Falls Tribune<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">February 26, 2012 Sunday Life<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
<span>Born a slave on a Tennessee plantation in January 1849,
Charles M. Meek attained a remarkable record of achievement and adventure. He
spent his early boyhood days as servant in his master’s house. When the Civil
War began he either escaped or was freed from bondage and fell in with Union
troops, becoming a personal servant to General Ulysses Grant. Young Charles Meek
was illiterate, but an officer on Grant’s staff became interested in the boy
and taught him to read and write. Meek learned so rapidly that before leaving
Grant’s service the general offered to send him to college. Meek declined, and when
Grant went east to become Commanding General in March 1864, he remained in
Kentucky. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
<span>In September 1864, fifteen-year-old Charles Meek, reported
his age as “eighteen” to join Company D, 5<sup>th</sup> Cavalry Regiment, U. S.
Colored Troops at Lebanon, Kentucky. Under regimental commander Colonel James
Brisbin, a well-known abolitionist, the 5<sup>th</sup> United States Colored
Cavalry (USCC), former slaves with white officers, participated in Burbridge’s
Raid from Kentucky into Southwestern Virginia during September-October 1864, when
they saw fierce action at Saltville, Virginia. In the later Stoneman’s Raid during
10-29 December, the 5<sup>th</sup> USCC participated in the capture of
Saltville and destruction of an important Confederate salt works.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
<span>Despite his youth, Meek proved a natural leader and was
promote Corporal May 1, 1865 and Sergeant just two months later. The 5<sup>th</sup>
USCC was stationed in Arkansas after the war hunting down rebel renegades,
supervising free elections, and trying to protect office holders and freemen
from counter-reconstruction violence. Sergeant Meek left the Army in January
1866, married, and settled at Prairie, near Kansas City, Kansas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
<span>Late in 1880, Charles Meek came
up the Missouri River to Fort Benton to join his older brother Joseph, and seek
his fortune in the Barker mines in the Little Belt Mountains. (See Joe Meek’s
story in <i>The Tribune</i> October 30,
2011.) Charles developed mining claims in Barker and Yogo, but lacked capital
to work them. Charles came to Great Falls in 1887, and in November 1888 was
selected to serve as juror at the District Court, the first known black juror
in Montana. Charles Meek became active in the African Methodist Episcopal
Church, the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R), Republican Party politics and
organized a Colored Lincoln Republican Club. From 1889-1894, Meek was elected
delegate to Cascade County Republican conventions. In the 1894 convention, he
gave an eloquent speech that triggered the nomination of William Morgan for
Great Falls Townsite Constable, the first black man to be nominated and elected
to public office in Montana. In March 1891, Meek served a second time as juror
in Cascade County and in 1895 served as juror in the Crowe murder trial.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
<span>In the fall of 1895, Meek
returned to Kansas, and <i>The Tribune</i>
observed, “</span><span>Mr. Meek has . . . won for himself the respect of the community
. . . <span> </span>the colored people of Great Falls
will lose one of their brightest representatives and a natural leader, and
Great Falls will lose a patriotic and worthy citizen.” Ever the adventurer,
eighteen months later he returned to Great Falls, but the lure of gold soon attracted
him to the Klondike stampede with <i>The
Tribune</i> reporting, “Charlie Meek has been in the van of the pioneers all
his life and he is confident that he will win fortune in Alaska.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
<span>Meek wrote insightful letters to <i>The Tribune</i> about the many failures and few successes in the “Land
of ice and gold.” His letters advised that he “found the yellow metal
everywhere, [but] failed to find it in paying quantities” with “only one or two
in a hundred” finding paying claims. He observed “corruption reigns supreme in
Dawson and the Klondike,” yet he spoke “in terms of admiration of the grit and
endurance displayed by the gold seekers.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
<span>After eighteen months, Meek
returned from Alaska, but soon moved on to mine in Idaho and Washington. In April
1901, he returned to Great Falls after being badly injured in a mining
accident. The adventurous black pioneer died at the Deaconess Hospital April 6,
1910. Attended by brother Joseph and other G.A.R members, Sergeant Charles M.
Meek was buried in Soldiers’ Plot, Highland Cemetery.</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
<span style="color: black;">In a tribute to the black
soldiers that served in the Civil war, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar penned:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span>
</span>“The Colored Soldiers”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><b><i><span>And their deeds shall find a
record,</span></i></b></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span> <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><b><i><span>In the registry of fame;<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<span class="apple-style-span"><i><span>For their blood has cleansed completely</span></i></span><span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><i>Every blot of slavery's shame.</i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><i>So all honor and all glory</i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><i>To these noble Sons of Ham--</i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><i>To the gallant colored soldiers,</i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><i>Who fought for Uncle Sam!</i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
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<i>Note: This continues a
monthly series commemorating Union and Confederate veterans of the Civil War
who settled in central Montana. Descendants of Montana Civil War veterans are
encouraged to send their stories to mtcivilwar@yahoo.com.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">Photos: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-themecolor: text1;"><b><span>Civil
War Muster and Descriptive Roll for Private Charles Meek<o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-themecolor: text1;"><b><span>Private
Charles M. Meek, 5<sup>th</sup> Kentucky Cavalry gravestone at Soldiers’
Plot, Highland Cemetery. No photo has been found of Charles Meek.<o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
</ol>
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<!--EndFragment-->Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-34575564576082567212011-04-25T14:43:00.002-06:002011-04-25T14:48:32.205-06:00What a Story--Louis Armstrong in Great Falls, Montana<span style="font-weight:bold;">Once in a while I receive an email that is an absolute gem! This is one of them, from Tom Simmons of California, who grew up in Great Falls:<br /><br />MR. ROBINSON. I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIND THE DATE THAT LOUIS ARMSTRONG AND HIS ORCHESTRA PLAYED A ONE NIGHT STAND AT THE CIVIC CENTER BALL ROOM IN GREAT FALLS BACK IN THE MID 1940S. I KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN DOING WORK ON BLACK HISTORY IN NORTHERN MONTANA AND ON THE OZARK CLUB IN GREAT FALLS.<br /> <br />ON THE EVENING LOUIS ARMSTRONG WAS TO PLAY, MY FRIEND, TED CORONTZOS AND I WENT DOWN TO THE CIVIC CENTER WITH THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF TRYING TO SNEAK IN. WE WERE 14 OR 15 AT THE TIME AND BOTH LOVED MUSIC AND PLAYED INSTRUMENTS. TED PLAYED TRUMPET AND I PLAYED TENOR SAX. AS WE WERE TRYING THE DOORS ON THE SOUTHSIDE OF THE CIVIC CENTER, A LINE OF BLACK MEN CAME ACROSS THE LAWN FROM THE RAILROAD DEPOT. MY GOD, IT WAS LOUIS ARMSTRONG. HE CAME UP TO US AND ASKED IF WE KNEW WHERE THEY COULD GET SOME SANDWICHED. WE SAID SURE, HE THEN ASKED IF WE WOULD GET THEM FOR THE GROUP. WE WERE THRILLED TO DO IT. HE GAVE US MONEY AND WE RAN DOWN TO THE LITTLE HAMBURGER STAND ON THE NEXT CORNER, GOT THEIR FOOD AND WAS BACK IN 15 MIN. HE ASKED US TO SIT WITH THEM WHILE THEY ATE AND OFFERED TO SHARE THEIR FOOD. WE WERE IN THE LITTLE PARK AREA IN FRONT OF THE DEPOT. HE ASKED WHAT WE WERE DOING DOWN THERE. WE TOLD HIM THAT WE WANTED TO HEAR THEM PLAY, THAT WE DID NOT HAVE THE MONEY AND WE WERE TRYING TO SNEAK IN. MR. ARMSTRONG PUT HIS ARM AROUND ME AND SAID, YOU BOYS DON'T HAVE TO SNEAK IN, YOU ARE MY GUESTS. LONG STORY SHORT, WE SAT UP THERE ON THE BANDSTAND, TWO LITTLE WHITE KIDS. UNTTIL THE DANCE AND CONCERT WAS OVER. ONE OF THE GREAT MOMENTS OF MY LIFE.<br /> <br />I AM TRYING TO FIND THE DATE SO THE TRIBUNE CAN CHECK THEIR FILES FOR PICTURES ETC. BY THE WAY, I KNEW THE LAMARS, BEA BETTER THEN LEO. I SOLD THE LEADER (NEWSPAPER FROM THE TIME I WAS 11 (in 1941) UNTIL I WAS ALMOST 16. MY CORNER WAS THE OLD FALLS HOTEL ON FIRST AVE SOUTH AND 4TH ST. BEA LET ME CLIMB UP THE STEPS OF THE LAMAR HOTEL AND SELL PAPERS TO ANY OF HER CUSTOMERS WHO WANTED ONE.<br /> <br />HOPE YOU CAN HELP ME. THANK YOU. TOM SIMMONS<br /><br />My answer back:<br /><br />Hi Tom,<br /><br />So good to hear from you, and what a fun, great story! Thanks for sharing it. Louis Armstrong brought his band to Great Falls July 10, 1943. An ad in the Tribune read:<br /> 5 Jul Ad for Louis Armstrong the Trumpet King of Swing and His Famous Orchestra Civic Center Arena 10 Jul featuring Sonny Woods, Velma Middleton, Joe Garland, Louis Russell Come Early and hear the Real and Original King of Swing Dancing Starts at 9 P. M. Admission $1.10 No Charge of Dancing. [GFTD 5 Jul 1943, page 8]<br /><br />If you don't mind, I'll add your story to my black history file. And, if you remember more about your night with Louis or about the Lamars or Ozark or other blacks in Great Falls I'd enjoy any stories you have. Do you ever get back to Great Falls?<br /><br />Ken</span>Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-45940380898986759342011-01-26T20:52:00.002-07:002011-01-26T20:58:15.796-07:00150th Anniversary of the Civil War<span style="font-weight:bold;">2011 is the 150th Anniversary of the start of the Civil War, the defining experience in our national history.</span><br /> <br />The Association for the Study of African American Life and History is CO-HOSTING A CONGRESSIONAL & PRESS BRIEFING ON THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CIVIL WAR AND 112TH CONGRESS<br /><br /><br />Thursday, February 3, 2011<br /> <br /><br />RSVP for the briefing by emailing: SterlingHenry2@netzero.com<br /> Location: U.S. Capitol Visitor Center - Congressional South Conference Room<br /> Date: February 3, 2011<br /> Time: 2-3:30PM<br />Coffee and light refreshments will be serviced.<br /><br /> <br />On February 3, 2011, The African American Civil War Memorial Museum (AACWMM), Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), and the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), representing the Coalition for the Civil War Sesquicentennial (a group of fourteen national organizations) and the Veterans Brain Trust will be hosting a briefing for Members of Congress and/or their Staff and members of working press on the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War and the 112th Congress.<br /><br />The American Civil War is the defining experience in our national history. The years between 2011 and 2015 provide a unique opportunity for Americans to explore the legacies of the Civil War which reaffirms American shared values of "One Nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." We call upon the Congress of the US to enact the necessary legislation to establish a commission to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War.<br /><br />The Congressional and Press Briefing will consist of presentation and material by the groups listed on:<br /><br /> * Why the Nation needs to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War;<br /> * Why a Commission on the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War, and what should the Commission do;<br /> * What can Congress do to Honor the many Civil War Veterans;<br /> * Congressional Legislation and Executive Branch Activities that will support Local and State celebration of the150th Anniversary of the American Civil War<br /><br />Any questions on the briefing please call or email:<br /><br /> <br />Sterling Henry, Jr.<br />Capitol Hill Representative <br />African American Civil War Memorial Museum <br />Washington DC <br />Direct Phone: 202-460-2439Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-50619285765647974352010-05-15T21:16:00.003-06:002010-05-15T21:56:40.816-06:00The Bigbee Family of MontanaAfter hearing from Jimmy McKisic, a Tennessee member of the Bigbee family, I spent this afternoon (15 May) walking through Old Highland Cemetery in Great Falls looking, for among others, for the Bigbee family. The following are listed in the cemetery records:<br /><br />Charles E. Bigbee died 13 April 1957<br />Porter Bigbee died 31 May 1897<br />John H. Bigbee died 7 January 1915<br />Elizabeth Bigbee died 28 January 1917<br /><br />I found only Thomas P. Bigbee--Porter Bigbee:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrV8InPYrsuZDMz3psc07N4brxNS3pXdjQUbN0u-mT52aQU9yJQrIM0n5BvJ31LMQI5I94Awy7ssXgWnvrmmEFmTaMPk7KKQg0MXvc4oqIx0naPvN8DE6nQrz-ZXbbgeqwo_0HzvovEXKd/s1600/DSC05402.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrV8InPYrsuZDMz3psc07N4brxNS3pXdjQUbN0u-mT52aQU9yJQrIM0n5BvJ31LMQI5I94Awy7ssXgWnvrmmEFmTaMPk7KKQg0MXvc4oqIx0naPvN8DE6nQrz-ZXbbgeqwo_0HzvovEXKd/s400/DSC05402.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471711197938305938" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ-nLpvc3ZoyxPmU33t6l7M12ZngZ4ZRSYNmWM3v_J8zSfKv2ahJswWMIvs-MPgl7v2s39qVcy6g3e_PmMe92pquizPWi8zyyVUSbd0SosVCYjwVc8-Ym79_zXeb2elDz6wULuzCSOY6fj/s1600/DSC05401.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ-nLpvc3ZoyxPmU33t6l7M12ZngZ4ZRSYNmWM3v_J8zSfKv2ahJswWMIvs-MPgl7v2s39qVcy6g3e_PmMe92pquizPWi8zyyVUSbd0SosVCYjwVc8-Ym79_zXeb2elDz6wULuzCSOY6fj/s400/DSC05401.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471711192795547202" /></a><br /><br /><br />Bigbee, Charles Edward and Virgil Mary Brooks. Charles Edward (C. E.) Bigbee was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Porter Bigbee. He was born 11 Nov 1871 in Springfield, KY, and came to Great Falls at age 15. In 1893 he worked in Great Falls as a porter at the West Corner Saloon at 213 Seventh Avenue South. In 1901, Bigbee worked as a porter and resided at 713 Seventh Avenue South. In May 1904, C. E. Bigbee was a member of the Masonic order and attended the Colored Masons Hard Time Ball in Great Falls. On 31 Dec 1907, Charles Bigbee married Virgil Mary Brooks of Helena at the A. M. E. Church in Great Falls with the wedding conducted by Rev. E. D. Abbott and witnesses George N. Hagin and F. Monroe. She was born in 1877 in TX, daughter of Pebedee Mitchell and Elizabeth Allen. Virgil Mary had been previously married to ____ Brooks. In the 1910 census, her son Jesse Lee Brooks was in the household of Edward and Virgie Bigbee at 614 Seventh Avenue South. From 1900 to about 1910, Charles worked as a farm laborer on his brother John’s farm near Comer. He then ranched for a number of years on Box Elder Creek and later sold his interests and became a porter on the Great Northern Railroad, retiring in 1946. Before 1915 Charles and Virgil Mary were divorced. On 14 Apr 1915, Charles E. Bigbee married Miss Corra Lee Allen of Nashville, TN, with Rev. W. H. Prince of the A. M. E. church officiating. Corra Lee was born in 1887 in TN, the daughter of Lytle and Martha Allen. C. E. Bigbee, of 713 Seventh Avenue South, died 13 Apr 1957 at a local hospital at age 85. Funerals services were held at Croxford’s Mortuary and conducted by the Rev. Ellis Casson, followed by burial at Highland Cemetery. [See also entries for Porter and Elizabeth Bigbee] [GFLD 8 May 1901, p. 4; GFLD 10 May 1904, p. 2; GFLD 15 Apr 1957, p. 3; GFLD 17 Apr 1957, p. 2; 1880 Census Tennessee; 1900, 1910 Census MT Cascade Co.; 1893, 1899, 1919, 1923 GFCD; CC Cemetery; CC Marriage Licenses Book 6, No. 3733; CC Marriage Licenses Book 10, No. 7689]<br /><br />Bigbee, Mrs. Elizabeth Clara Thompson. Mrs. Elizabeth Clara Thompson Bigbee was a mixed race black woman born in Jul 1840 in AL or about 1838 in TN and christened in TN. Elizabeth was the daughter of Thomas P. and Roda Grays Childress. She came to Great Falls about 1896 with her husband, Porter Bigbee, to be with her children, who had come to MT: Tennessee Finn Hagan about 1856; Susan Payne 1866; John H. born 1860 [see separate entry]; Charlotte Glovina born 1863; Charles Edward born 1871 [see separate entry]; Margaret (Maggie) born Jun 1883; and Emma born Jan 1886. In addition Mr. and Mrs. Porter Bigbee had several other children: James W. born 1856; Benjamin born 1857. According to the Montana Plain Dealer in Dec 1909, “Mrs. Bigbee of Great Falls visited her sister Mrs. Ed. Johnson [in Helena] last week." Mrs. Elizabeth Bigbee lived with her family at 713 Seventh Avenue South. She died 28 Jan 1917 following a long illness at her home, aged about 79 years. Three daughters survived her: Tennie Hagan, Susie Payne and Glovina Smith of Great Falls; and one son, Charles E. Bigbee of Anaconda. Three grandsons, Omar Connell of Anaconda, and John and Henry Connell of Great Falls, also survived. Her funeral was held in O'Connor's undertaking chapel with services conducted by Rev. G. Edward Horsey, pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal church. Mrs. Bigbee was buried in Old Highland cemetery. [1870, 1880 Census Tennessee; 1900 Cascade Co. Census; 1913, 1914 GFCD; CC Cemeteries, I; MTPD 1 Dec 1909, p. 4; GFLD 29 Jan 1917, p. 3; GFLD 30 Jan 1917, p. 6]<br /><br />Bigbee, Glovinna. See Glovinna Bigbee Connell Smith.<br /><br />Bigbee, John H. John H. Bigbee, a mixed race black man born in TN in 1860 by the 1880 census [KY by Cemetery Records, or MO in Dec 1867 by his obituary], the son of Thomas P. and Elizabeth Childress Bigbee. John settled in Great Falls about 1890. In 1893 John lived at 213 Seventh Avenue South, and by 1896 he was living at 713 Seventh Avenue South. By the late 1890s John was farming and ranching but still living in Great Falls. In 1910 John was farming outside Great Falls at Comer, and his brother Charles worked for him. John was unmarried born about 1863 in KY in the 1910 census. On 7 Jan 1915, he died at the family home, 713 Seventh Avenue South after a long illness. Mr. Bigbee was survived by his mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Bigbee of Great Falls; three sisters, Mrs. Susan Payne, Mrs. Charlotte Glovina Smith and Mrs. M. T. Hagin, all of Great Falls, also one brother, Charles E. Bigbee of Anaconda, MT. His funeral was held in the family home and at the Union Bethel A. M. E. Church with services conducted by Rev. Prince, pastor. Mr. Bigbee is buried at Highland Cemetery. [GFTD 8 Jan 1915; GFTD 9 Jan 1915; 1910 Census MT Cascade Co.; 1913 GFCD]<br /><br />Bigbee, Porter T or G. Porter G. Bigbee [probably Porter Thomas Bigbee, a mixed race black man who was born in TN about 1824 and came to Great Falls with his wife Clara Elizabeth about June 1896 from TN to join his children here. He died a year later, 31 May 1897 at age 74 years at the home of his daughter, Mrs. W. W. Inglemon, at 713 Seventh Avenue South. The funeral was held at his daughter’s home 1 Jun 1897, and he was buried at Highland Cemetery. He left five children, all adults, four of whom resided in Great Falls. [GFTD 1 Jun 1897, p. 3, CC Cemetery, I; 1870, 1880 Census Tennessee]Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-53663350013765011082010-04-18T18:26:00.001-06:002010-04-18T18:27:58.579-06:00Millie Ringgold of Old Yogo Mining Camp<span style="font-weight:bold;">P. W. Korell, Stanford Pioneer, Tells Yogo Gulch History in Address Before Women’s Club. <br />Special to the Tribune. Stanford, No. 6.—Judge J. H. Huntoon, Lewistown, and P. W. Korell, Stanford, spoke at a meeting of the Stanford woman’s club on local history.<br /><br /> Mr. Korell, who landed at Fort Benton in 1876, came into the Judith basin with the Yogo stampeders in 1880 and to Stanford in 1923. Referring to early days in the basin he says:<br /><br /> "Jack Wirth and I left Fort Benton Aug. 2, 1880, with two four-horse teams and wagons loaded with tobacco, four barrels of whisky, a crate of picks and shovels, flour, sugar and bacon. We were headed for Fort Maginnis and Yogo.<br /><br /> "Arriving at the Judith river Aug. 7, 1880, we camped on the flat now owned by C. M. Belden, formerly the Murphy ranch, half way between Utica and the Belden residence. We made camp in brush along the old channel of the Judith as a precaution against Indians, who were traveling across the country frequently.<br /><br /> "Whisky is Stolen. When I went to my wagon in the morning the wagon sheet was untied. Investigating, I found the load was short two 55-gallon barrels of whisky. Jack Murphy, Wirth and myself noticed grass had been tramped and w could see where the barrels had been rolled away.<br /><br /> "We followed the trail back and forth across the bottom until it was lost. The following January, in 1881, a man known as Cherokee Jim, coming from Yogo, stopped to kill a deer and found one of the barrels containing 20 gallons of whisky.<br /><br /> "Jim came down to the Murphy cabin, where the postoffice had been established after being moved from Yogo. It consisted of one empty beer case and a rubber stamp. Jim was feeling pretty good but refused to tell where he got his ‘jag,’ so he was followed when he returned to the cache and the barrel was found. Two years later the other barrel, empty, was found in a patch of brush on the Korrel ranch.<br /><br /> "At the time the liquor was taken, two white men were camped where the Utica schoolhouse now stands. One was known as Mike Henderson and the other, Aleck Jesup. The latter, years afterward served a term at Deer Lodge for burglary at Butte, dying shortly after he was released. Whereabouts of Henderson is unknown.<br /><br /> "Yogo did not produce the gold that was expected, the bedrock being too deep. Small bars paid only small returns. However, quite a number of miners remained, expecting to strike it some day.<br /><br /> "Among those who stayed was a colored woman by the name of Millie Ringold. Her faith was so strong in her mine, the Garfield, that she worked it for more than 30 years, doing anything she could to earn a few dollars, washing nursing white women and doing manual labor generally performed by men, returning at intervals to the hills to work her mine.<br /><br /> "Old Millie, as she was called, came to Fort Benton in 1878 as a maid for Colonel Switzer’s wife, and when rumors of the Yogo gold stampede came to Fort Benton, Millie was one of the first to hit the trail. She opened a hotel and restaurant and everyone could eat whether they had money or not, all promising to pay when the cleaned up bedrock.<br /><br /> "Millie had a coal oil can for a musical instrument, with which she entertained her guests. She would drum on it and sing southern songs as long as she had an audience.<br /><br /> "In after years, when dollars were scarce, many of her meals were provided for her by the cat, George Washington. It would catch a rabbit and bring it to the cabin, where it was enjoyed by himself and his mistress. Sometimes Bedrock Jim, another Yogo character, would share in the feast by providing potatoes and an onion or a carrot to make a mulligan. Millie died at her old cabin in Yogo and was buried in the cemetery at Utica by a few old timers.<br /><br /> "Bercham a Character. Jim Bercham, better known as ‘Bedrock’ Jim was another of the old guard who would not leave Yogo. He had his boxes going all the time, shoveling every day, and making regular trips to Utica for me to send his dust to Helena to the assay office. His cleanup averaged an ounce and a half of gold dust, which, at $16 an ounce, kept him in provisions.<br /><br /> "A few years later Mr. Weatherwax built a machine at the mouth of Skunk gulch to work some of his ore. The machine was all homemade and power was furnished by water from Yogo creek. <br /><br /> "One windy day he climbed on the wheel to lubricate it and, losing his balance, fell and was killed.<br /><br /> "Placer mining and prospecting since 1879 has been entirely abandoned on Yogo Creek. My predictions are that some day a corporation with money for development work will show the world that there is gold in Yogo and lots of it."<br /> Source: Great Falls Tribune Daily 7 Nov 1931, p. 13]<br /></span>Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-79031563052739345442010-03-08T12:48:00.003-07:002010-03-08T12:58:17.971-07:00Idaho Black History Museum<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuHSp56EnF7QceOdVodGFiuOWVS0E_taDhHnbpatyWHmgx0taD3WzYUQF8ZaJDnrWSruQLRlV83g4ohv25pyZXahj4bKvQjVrSUmVET4qFSXNtOcVEwYaGKiO2OIaxC8f1SLyM_W6gMLrk/s1600-h/DSC03670.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuHSp56EnF7QceOdVodGFiuOWVS0E_taDhHnbpatyWHmgx0taD3WzYUQF8ZaJDnrWSruQLRlV83g4ohv25pyZXahj4bKvQjVrSUmVET4qFSXNtOcVEwYaGKiO2OIaxC8f1SLyM_W6gMLrk/s400/DSC03670.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446354131418835698" /></a><br /><br />Two years ago, my wife, Michele, and I visited Boise, Idaho. While there I visited the Idaho Black History Museum. Located in downtown Boise near the Public Library, the Museum is housed in an historic black church. From their website at: http://www.ibhm.org/about.php<br /><br />The Museum<br /><br />Founded in 1995, the Idaho Black History Museum is a 501 (c)3 organization established to educate individuals about the history and culture of African Americans, with special emphasis on African Americans in Idaho. Housed in the historic St. Paul Baptist Church building and located in Boise's Julia Davis Park, the museum presents exhibits and provides educational and community outreach programs including lectures, films, workshops, literacy programs, and musical performances.<br /><br />History<br /><br />The Idaho Black History Museum is housed in the former St. Paul Baptist Church Building. St. Paul is one of two African American churches that were founded by Boiseans in 1908. St. Paul was built in 1921, and is one of the oldest buildings constructed by Idaho African Americans. When the St. Paul congregation moved to a new church in 1993, the historic church was donated to a preservation committee, which formed to save and restore the 72-year-old building.<br /><br />The Idaho Black History Museum is well worth the visit, and a model that we could follow in Montana.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuiSyuAOzoiflbJ05lMTDvycy7mode9GPvDmMKP9J44NbfpgDISj8tUZuHGONd_Z_Jswf9KbSS0hOwBmze_mWYZpJNqtAoPGhly3n8ka8FC0rsnsURIPiRGu0yA_v03TGQLift5PwFXLcy/s1600-h/DSC03669.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuiSyuAOzoiflbJ05lMTDvycy7mode9GPvDmMKP9J44NbfpgDISj8tUZuHGONd_Z_Jswf9KbSS0hOwBmze_mWYZpJNqtAoPGhly3n8ka8FC0rsnsURIPiRGu0yA_v03TGQLift5PwFXLcy/s400/DSC03669.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446354114817589842" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidkzkqiTSLddvS19bBXyqdX8O-rXT3a4No18-cs6HaN2TmqqdGN-S0bWdn_6x6BDjRL0OtGk1J4voDLVuNEzHqt15LUd2pK2_h0Wf1SIZm7F22kp4Lz1C3COUKCn3_av2A4AmSLGYG6asc/s1600-h/DSC03668.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidkzkqiTSLddvS19bBXyqdX8O-rXT3a4No18-cs6HaN2TmqqdGN-S0bWdn_6x6BDjRL0OtGk1J4voDLVuNEzHqt15LUd2pK2_h0Wf1SIZm7F22kp4Lz1C3COUKCn3_av2A4AmSLGYG6asc/s400/DSC03668.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446354097619693874" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrCYl7exKAvhBrk-3x9WlDzSOoRCKoH0aCYXD7EoGHx5V9Q2Fz2Pif0RJflKI7q_MyjR16Ea9fouKylfim-NcUpdMWyDQ9ddpe3ZluHZvVK9gWzpAh7JDxhySjnW77KjwNSef9DgyDFQVo/s1600-h/DSC03667.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrCYl7exKAvhBrk-3x9WlDzSOoRCKoH0aCYXD7EoGHx5V9Q2Fz2Pif0RJflKI7q_MyjR16Ea9fouKylfim-NcUpdMWyDQ9ddpe3ZluHZvVK9gWzpAh7JDxhySjnW77KjwNSef9DgyDFQVo/s400/DSC03667.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446354091401233602" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih-4PFmbbrvomzSYahWY3nKZCuXRO3VGYSp7sgy-v39gSa2_bDKBYGplKsKB0T2Xh41b4H_Cowsy708fTwxU8QIxt7LJeClFGHaV-127r6P-ysWJyX65sfjJ0njFoQU2cAVM_E-hUg82lM/s1600-h/DSC03666.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih-4PFmbbrvomzSYahWY3nKZCuXRO3VGYSp7sgy-v39gSa2_bDKBYGplKsKB0T2Xh41b4H_Cowsy708fTwxU8QIxt7LJeClFGHaV-127r6P-ysWJyX65sfjJ0njFoQU2cAVM_E-hUg82lM/s400/DSC03666.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446354045871237714" /></a>Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-17230165508498977502010-02-16T15:27:00.003-07:002012-03-21T19:00:30.466-06:00"Uncle Alex" of Lewistown MT, First to Enlist in Civil War in Famed 54th Massachusetts Regiment<span style="font-weight:bold;">Was the First to Enlist in the 54th Mass. Volunteers. Served Through Entire Period of the Civil War From 1863 to 1865. [Photo: Alexander “Uncle Alex” Branson, Lewistown Pioneer, Was First Colored Soldier to Enlist in the North in 1863]<br /><br /> A Resident of Montana For 43 Years “Uncle Alex” One of Lewistown’s Best Known Characters, Leaves to Spend Last Days in the East.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvWN-9Qvnf-mnafoM74nD8Vah-H_o6wwVGEen2fG39FKDS8UPWdDWYHnKgreq4GnFiiiw_HXsFU6zBC4rdcvHEpaJmNfVldZCQ6ds1HehAG8yBZVrKqeXyhnDMdsDXP_OYdyWIKDFgmlBi/s1600-h/Branson.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 197px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvWN-9Qvnf-mnafoM74nD8Vah-H_o6wwVGEen2fG39FKDS8UPWdDWYHnKgreq4GnFiiiw_HXsFU6zBC4rdcvHEpaJmNfVldZCQ6ds1HehAG8yBZVrKqeXyhnDMdsDXP_OYdyWIKDFgmlBi/s400/Branson.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440011607502703298" /></a><br /><br />“Uncle Alex,” as he is familiarly known in Lewistown, where he had made his home for the past 43 years, claims that he was the first colored man living in the north, east of the Mississippi river, to enlist in the Civil war, and the records of his company and regiment bear him out in the claim. He was a member of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, and the history of that regiment was written by Luis F. Emilio, and comprises a volume of about 450 pages.<br /><br />It was early in 1863 that Governor John A. Andrew, war governor of Massachusetts succeeded in obtaining the permission of President Lincoln to recruit a regiment of colored men in that state. Only three colored regiments had been recruited prior to that time; General Butler began organizing the Louisiana Native Guards from free negroes in the fall of 1862; General Saxon formed the First North Carolina from contrabands in October of the same year and Colonel James Williams had organized the First Kansas Colored about the middle of the summer of ‘62.<br /><br />When Governor Andrew was given his order by Secretary Stanton he immediately set about toward organization and at once appointed Captain Shaw of his state as Colonel and the post of Lieutenant-Colonel was given to Captain Hallowell, also of Massachusetts. Both men accepted.<br /><br />They were on duty in the south at the time and Captain Hallowell was the first to start north to help organize the new regiment. He stopped en route to Boston to visit relatives at Philadelphia for a few days and while there he recruited a number of colored men for the new Massachusetts regiment.<br /><br />Alexander Branson was the first man to sign up with Hallowell, and as no recruiting had yet been started in Boston, he was in fact, the first recruit of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts. So great was the sentiment against allowing olored men to take up arms that Captain Hallowell was compelled to slip his colored recruits out of Philadelphia by stealth, in small squads, and Branson was in the first squad to be sent to Boston. He served until April 1865.<br /><br />Out of a former good-sized post of the G. A. R. in Lewistown only six living members remain and “Uncle Alex” is one of them.<br /><br />Alex. Branson came to Montana in 1872 and lived for some time in Helena. In 1881 he moved into the Judith Basin, before there was such a town as Lewistown, and engaged in stock raising. When the town began to grow he moved into Lewistown and started a barber shop and later was engaged in the saloon business, when that business was legal.<br /><br />He retired several years ago by reason of the infirmities of old age, being nearly 85, and with what property he had accumulated and his pension from the government he has lived comfortably until the last winter when he was striken with rheumatism and has since been unable to help himself.<br /><br />At this writing he is preparing to go back to the home of his niece, in Pittsburg, Pa., where he hopes to spend his remaining days in peace and happiness, which he richly deserves.<br /><br />“Uncle Alex” has long been a noted character around Lewistown and all during the eyars of his residence there has enjoyed the respect and good will of the “white folks” as well as his colored friends.<br /><br />It was his greatest desire to attend the National Encampment of the G. A. R. in Boston this year, and see the Boston Commons where he was mustered out nearly 60 years ago, but ill-health prevented.<br /><br />“Uncle Alex” is true to the type of fast disappearing contingent of our citizenry whom all delight to honor in their declining days. [Montana Newspaper Assocation 13 Oct 1924 Judith Basin County Press]<br /></span>Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-41840226341329193022010-02-12T15:10:00.000-07:002010-02-12T15:13:48.134-07:00Black Americans in Great Falls in 1920Colored Survey is Interesting Census of Colored Population of City Shows Some Interesting Facts--Every Colored Family Visited.<br /><br /> A survey made under the direction of Dr. D. A. Graham, commissioner of survey of the African Methodist Episcopal church, as recently been completed for this city. The result shows the colored people of Great Falls engaged in the following kinds of work, the total number of colored people accounted for in this part of the survey being 85:<br /><br /> Laborers, 34; porters, 10; janitors, 8; ranchers, 5; chefs, 4; barbers, 2; mechanics, 2; chauffeurs, 2; trucking and teaming, 2; waiters, 2; R. R. clerks, 2; maids, 2; clerk, 1; physician, 1; lawyer, 1; R. R. fireman, 1; tailor, 1<br />.<br /> There are two colored churches in the city and the survey shows these churches divided as to membership as follows:<br /> Methodist members, 37; Methodist leaning, 34; Baptist members, 13; Baptist leaning, 7; Roman Catholic, 6; Episcopal, 2; Christian Scientist, 1; without church preference, 83.<br /><br /> Other facts of interest itemized in the survey are that there are five college graduates among the colored people here and two graduates of musical conservatories. Colored people in Great Falls and immediate vicinity own $91,900 in taxable property and $12,900 in church property. The survey was made under the direction of Dr. Graham assisted by Rev. A. w. Johnson, pastor of the local church. Every colored family in Great Falls was visited. [p. 2] [Great Falls Leader Daily 24 Sep 1920]Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-17004796121082153482009-12-31T10:37:00.003-07:002009-12-31T11:09:00.547-07:00Millie Ringgold's Fascinating Story<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwZdNJYB1djYkHEtflXIJfQpReTzaBqiUUMKI6bN_cpciYGhSbHHqkFjEMK6PSbNCbUmEvDp9uxKVohM7BCVvzzxaKOF2zL0qOzrIz9uTeyDWrMxb3HEW44ib0ZFHKWHpdEB3HHszelzvg/s1600-h/RinggoldGrave.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwZdNJYB1djYkHEtflXIJfQpReTzaBqiUUMKI6bN_cpciYGhSbHHqkFjEMK6PSbNCbUmEvDp9uxKVohM7BCVvzzxaKOF2zL0qOzrIz9uTeyDWrMxb3HEW44ib0ZFHKWHpdEB3HHszelzvg/s400/RinggoldGrave.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421463535614558466" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Millie Ringgold's Grave in the Utica, Montana Cemetery<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />From an undated article in the Great Falls Tribune: Millie’s Story Recalled by Finch David. Martinsdale--"Rose Gordon of White Sulphur Springs, a sister of the singer and author, Taylor Gordon, remembers seeing Yogo sapphires sold on the streets of Lewistown in 1910," said Finch David, oldtimer who spent many years in central Montana when he read a report by S. E. Clabaugh, survey field geologist for the U. S. geological survey, which stated the Yogo sapphire deposit was one of the most productive gem deposits in the United States in the past.<br /><br />“Rose owns several of the deep cornflower blue sapphires for which Yogo was famous, bought for a song years ago and now greatly appreciated in value," Finch added.<br /><br />“When Rose was a child, Millie Ringold [sic Ringgold] of the Yogo country spent a week in White Sulphur Springs at the Gordon home. Rose says of her:<br /> ‘Millie was an interesting person, very musical. She played such odd instruments as hand saws, mouth harps and dishpans. We couldn’t get home from school fast enough to visit Millie.’<br /><br />“Rose had a photograph of Millie given to her brother, the late George Gordon, for years steward of the Bozeman Elks club . It was given to George by T. B. Story of Bozeman and bears Story’s autograph. The photograph shows a comely young face with earnest, beautiful eyes, a far different woman from the one I remember who knew poverty, excessive outdoor work and exposure."<br /><br />Finch recalls that he landed in Utica on May 19, 1882, and met Millie Ringold a few days later. She cooked for the family in such busy times as lambing, shearing and haying and Finch knew her until her death.<br /><br />“Millie was born a slave in Maryland," he said, "and when freed went to Washington, D. C. to work as nurse and servant. She came up the river in Fort Benton with the Gen. Switzer family and on to the Fort Shaw on Sun river.<br /><br />“When the general was transferred east Millie stayed in Montana. She bought a pair of condemned army mules and wagon and went to Fort Benton, where she loaded up with grub and a barrel of whiskey and headed for Yogo, then a boom town. She had $1,600.<br /><br />“She established a hotel, restaurant and saloon and located several mining claims, one the James A. Garfield and one the Martha Washington. She worked the claims and hired a Negro man to work for her until she was broke and reduced to living on frozen rutabagas.<br /><br />“Someone wrote the county commissioners of Meagher county and sent Sheriff Rader after her. She fought so against going to the poor house that Rader got her jobs working for families. She could make better music in an empty five-gallon can than most people can on a piano and her favorite tunes were ‘Coming Through the Rye’ and 'Coal Oil Johnnie on a Bum-Bum Solree.’<br /><br />“She could get up the best meal with the least grub of anyone I ever saw. She expected to make quite a stake raising horses out of those old condemned mules. Two ranchers put in a bill for about $25 for care of the mules, but they took their pay home in whisky so there was not much harm done.<br /><br />“Millie never owned any part of the sapphire mines, nor did she discover any sapphires. The first sapphires discovered in that part of the country were found by Sandy Nobel and Al Littrel on the Peck ranch, now owned by William Korell. They were placer mining for gold and found the gems in the sluice boxes. Jack 'Jake' Hoover, who later located the Yogo mines, found lots of sapphires in sluice boxes in Yogo creek on the trail to middle Fork.<br /><br />“No one realized the value of these stones at first," Finch recalls, which reminded him that he is one of the last persons in Montana alive who knew these oldtimers. [Great Falls Tribune Daily unknown date.]<br /><br />Upon her death in December 2, 1906, the Great Falls Tribune reported: "The Passing of One of the Oldtimers of Yogo. Word was received in the city yesterday morning of the death at Yogo of Millie Ringold [Ringgold], an old colored woman, who has been a county charge for several years. The cause of death was dropsy. The county auditor was notified a few days ago that the old woman was sick and he instructed persons at Utica to have a doctor sent up to Yogo from that place at the expense of the county. Sunday morning a physician from Utica drove up to the old gold camp, but found the sick woman beyond medical aid. She died that evening in the old cabin in which she had made her home for 28 years. The remains were taken to Utica Monday, and were buried in the cemetery at that place. Her relatives, some of whom reside in Baltimore, Maryland, will be notified of her demise. Millie Ringold was a well known character in the Judith country. When gold was struck on Yogo creek in 1879, she among the earlies to reach the camp. She had come up the Missouri from the south where she was born a slave and had cooked at Fort Benton and also for an army officer's family at Fort Shaw, and was considered one of the best cooks in this section in the early days. At Yogo she had cabins built and conducted a hotel in a small way, making a comfortable living for herself for several years. Finally the camp was abandoned by all but a handful of prospectors, but the old colored woman believed that there was gold there, and she refused to leave. She staked a number of claims named 'The Garfield,' 'The Lincoln,' and other names of presidents, which she claimed as her property until the time of her death. On these it was her habit to keep a pick, shovel and goldpan, to show other prospectors that the ground was taken up. During the past 10 years, she has made a precarious living by washing for prospectors, raising a few chickens and turkeys, and occasionally cooking or nursing for ranchers. Last winter she spent in the poor farm in this city, insisting on returning to her home in the mountains as soon as the weather permitted. Here she was always happy and contented, believing that in time the camp would boom and her mining claims would make her wealthy. At the time of her death she was 64 years of age." [p. 10] [Great Falls Tribune Daily 5 December 1906]<br /></span>Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-19815239221197794892009-12-29T15:04:00.002-07:002009-12-30T15:36:41.515-07:00On Being a Black American in Territorial Fort Benton—Part 3<span style="font-weight:bold;">In Honor of Black History Month<br />On Being a Black American in Territorial Fort Benton—Part 3<br /><br />By Ken Robison<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">This continues the series of frontier sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton.</span><br /><br />One of the hidden treasures in the history of Fort Benton is the surprising role played by the substantial and vibrant black American community in the decade of boom from 1875 to 1885. This was a time when the resident population of Fort Benton was a racial mixture of white Americans, native Indians, black Americans, Chinese, and mixed race. Parts 1 and 2 of this story highlighted the role of blacks and attempted to answer the question, "What can we learn from an understanding of black history in early Fort Benton?" We can all learn by taking a closer look at their lives and events. We must also recognize that mixed with these stories were the ever present challenges of discrimination, failed lives, and soiled doves.<br /><br />James Beery killed at the Ophir Massacre in 1865. Little is known of James Beery, also known as James Price, a black laborer, who was one of the ten men killed at the Ophir massacre at the mouth of the Marias River on May 25th 1865. Native Blackfoot Bloods later reported him the toughest fighter among the group.<br /><br />Edmund Bradley killed at the Cow Creek Canyon fight in 1877. Edmund Bradley, also known as Edmund Richardson, was a young black man killed at the battle of Cow Creek Canyon by the Nez Perces on September 24th 1877. Bradley had come to Fort Benton in the early 1870s, built a modest house, and married a Gros Ventre woman. They had at least two children, a son and a daughter.<br /><br />Major Guido Ilges, commander of the military post at Fort Benton, recruited Edmund Bradley to join a force of 50 civilian volunteers sent to reinforce a small detachment of the 7th Infantry Regiment under Sergeant Moelchert assigned to protect a large cache of steamboat freight at Cow Island on the Missouri River. After Bradley was killed in action, Major Ilges ordered his body removed from the Cow Island trail and returned to Fort Benton. The River Press covered the impressive funeral:<br /> "The funeral of the lamented volunteer, killed in the Cow Creek fight on the 24th of September last, took place on Saturday, the 8th inst. The remains were followed to the grave by nearly all the residents of the town, including the Home Guards, commanded by Captain John Evans, the volunteers who participated in the gallant fight at Cow Creek, and the soldiers from the military post. A number of ladies were also present at the grave. The coffin was covered with black velvet and tastefully trimmed with black fringe and silver mountings. The procession, commanded by Major Guido Ilges, 7th Infantry, fell into line at fifteen minutes past 1 o'clock, p. m. There was no confusion, loud talking or other disturbance, but all present seemed deeply impressed with the solemnity of the occasion. When the command, 'Forward, march,' was given, the line moved off in the following order, to the sound of a muffled drum: Fife and drum. Firing party, consisting of eight soldiers from the military post. Hearse bearing coffin covered with United States flag. Party of fifty citizens, on foot. Volunteers and home Guards, mounted, about forty in number. Six wagons, containing county officials and other invited guests. On arriving at the cemetery, the coffin was first placed beside and afterwards lowered into the grave. The funeral service was read in a very impressive manner by Mr. J. A. Kanouse, while all present stood with uncovered heads. After the service the firing party discharged three volleys over the grave, which completed the funeral ceremony and the honors to the dead.”<br /><br />The following year, in 1878, Major Ilges sent the remains of Edmund Bradley by the steamboat Colonel Macleod to the mother of the deceased who resided in New Haven, Connecticut. The Major also sent Bradley’s little girl to Bismarck, where the grandmother had come to meet her. Many years later, it was learned that Bradley’s wife and his young son, Steve, had returned to the Gros Ventre people at the insistence of her grandmother.<br /><br />Mattie Bell Castner, “mother” of Belt. Mattie Bell Bost was born a slave in North Carolina in 1855. Freed under the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, she moved to St. Louis after the Civil War and worked as a hotel maid. In the spring of 1876, Mattie was hired by a Mrs. Sire to bring two Sire children to Fort Benton by steamboat to join their mother. On arrival at Fort Benton in June, Mattie was hired by John Hunsberger at a salary of $100 a month to run the laundry at the Overland Hotel. Within a year she owned her own laundry and was on her way to a life that leave an indelible mark on territorial Montana. Free, black, and a successful businesswoman, Matte met a remarkable white Fort Benton entrepreneur, John K. Castner, and the two were married in Helena in 1879.<br /><br />John Castner discovered coal at New Pittsburg (present day Belt), and freighted it to Fort Benton. John and Mattie built a log cabin near the coal site, and soon expanded it into a hotel, featuring Mattie’s exceptional cooking and hospitality. Mattie raised a large vegetable garden, using some at the hotel and hauling other produce by night to Fort Benton to market. Through the enterprise of the Castners and others, the town of grew as an important element in the industrialization of Great Falls. The Castner coal mines were bought by the Anaconda Company, and the town of Belt boomed. John and Mattie Castner became revered as the “father” and “mother” of Belt. <br /><br />At the time of John’s death in 1915, his funeral was held in the Belt High School auditorium with the funeral service conducted by the renown Methodist minister, Brother Van (William W. Van Orsdel). Five years later, beloved Mattie Castner passed away, and the former slave was honored with two funeral services. At the first, Reverend Almon Taylor, the white Methodist minister of Belt, officiated at a service held at the Belt High School auditorium. “Mother Castner’s body then was taken to the W H. George Chapel in Great Falls for a service jointly conducted by the Great Falls African Methodist Episcopal Union Bethel Church pastor, Reverend A. W. Johnson, and by Reverend Taylor. Mattie’s exceptional will distributed more than $30,000 of the substantial estate to friends and charitable causes, including $5,000 to the poor in Belt and Great Falls to be administered by the two churches.<br /><br />Alexander A. Martin, chef de cuisine at the Grand Union. Young black Alex Martin was acclaimed as the finest chef and restaurateur in territorial Fort Benton. When the Grand Union hotel opened November 2nd 1882, an opening ball was held in celebration. In the words of the Benton Record:<br /> “The grandest affair of its kind ever witnessed in Benton, and most probably in the Territory, was the opening ball of the largest hotel in Montana, the Grand Union of Benton, by Messrs. Stephen Spitzley & Co., last evening. For some past the proprietors have been busily engaged in preparing for the coming ball which took place last night, and the number of lives of chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese which Mr. A. A. Martin, chief cook, and his able corps of culinary assistants, will have to answer for is perfectly overwhelming.”<br /><br />Notably, the entire staff of Benton new luxury hotel, the Grand Union, was black with the exception only of clerk William H. Todd and lead housekeeper Mrs. A. L. Marsten. The nine black employees were: Edward S. Smith, barkeeper; Lafayette Hall, poster; Alex Martin, chief chef; Jerry Flowers, second cook; Samuel Jones, third cook; Henry Courtney, head waiter; Frank Martin, waiter; Charles Carroll, waiter; and Mrs. Henrietta Johnson, chambermaid.<br /><br />By February 1883, Alex Martin had joined with black George Washington Bullett to open Bullett & Martin’s Grand Central bar and restaurant opposite the Court House on Main Street. Ads for the Grand Central emphasized, “Its Tasteful Elegance, superior Appointments, and a Cuisine unsurpassed by any in the city.” Later in the same year, Alex Martin moved on to become the head chef at the Choteau House, and he was “acknowledged to be the only first-class cook in town.”<br /><br />Lydia Johnson, the “bell of Benton in the colored circle.” Lafayette Hall appears in the 1880 census as a servant in the household of an elderly white woman at Fort Assinniboine. By November 1882, “Fayette” as he was known was on the staff of the Grand Union. One year later, the River Press described his marriage to Miss Lydia Johnson:<br /> “We are pleased to announce the wedding of two of our most estimable young colored people last evening. Miss Lydia Johnson and Mr. Lafayette Hall were united in the indissoluble bonds of matrimony at the residence of the bride’s mother, Mrs. Henrietta A. Johnson, the Rev. Fackenthal [a visiting white Episcopal priest from Iowa] [performing the impressive ceremony. . . Among the many [racially mixed] guests who graced the occasion with their presence were John W. Power, Dr. Frank Atkisson, Col. J. J. Donnelly, John Schroeder, John C. Tutt, John K. Castner and lady, Alex Martin and lady, Gibson Finn and lady. The only original ‘Duke’ [very likely Duke Dutriueille] acted as master of ceremonies, assisted by his faithful aide-de-camp, Col. B. Franklin Stone. The pleasures of the occasion were not decreased in the least by the splendid supper or the genuine Philadelphia fish-house punch that was provided in abundance for them all. The groom is well known as a young man who is remarkable for his suavity and politeness to all. Every one who is acquainted with the bride has only good words to say for her and she has long been acknowledged to be the bell of Benton in the colored circle. The River Press wishes the couple a long and happy wedded life.”<br /><br />For several years, Fayette Hall made a modest living, serving as janitor at the city hall. By 1887, he had a small ranch on the Teton River near Government coulee, and by 1890 he had moved his family to Great Falls.<br /><br />“Preacher” Johnson holds Sunday services. Little is known of early religious activities of the black community in Fort Benton. Among the few, but intriguing hints, is brief mention in the Benton Record of services held by black minister, “Preacher” Johnson, at the schoolhouse on one Sunday evening in May 1878. Flowers were presented to the “eloquent clergyman,” and the congregation had remarkable singing voices. No other mention of Preacher Johnson has been found.<br /><br />Although there is no proof that a congregation of the African Methodist Episcopal (A. M. E.) Church was formed in Fort Benton, several in the community, notably Ed Simms, the Courtneys, and Mrs. Tennie Finn, later were leaders in forming the A. M. E. congregation in early Great Falls. Other blacks in Fort Benton attended the mainline Methodist Episcopal Church, and in the case of Gibson Finn there is record of his acceptance as a full member of the Methodist Church.<br /><br />The Adams sisters, Maria and Mary, impact the Custer controversy. Mary and Maria Adams, born in Kentucky in 1849 and 1852, respectfully, were mixed race free blacks. By 1875 both women worked for General and Mrs. George Custer at Fort Abraham Lincoln. In June 1876 Mary Adams accompanied Custer as his cook on the Sioux expedition. She was present on June 22 when General Alfred Terry and Custer met for the last time. Mary later swore an affidavit for the Army in 1878 regarding what she had heard during that fateful final meeting, quoting General Terry as saying to Custer, “Use you own judgment and do what you think best.” This has become crucial testimony in confirming that Custer in fact had a free hand going into his disastrous last campaign. Historians discounted Mary’s testimony for many years because they knew an “M. Adams” had remained at Fort Lincoln with Mrs. Elizabeth Custer. They considered that as proof that no Adams cook was in company with General Custer. Finally in the 1970s, Editor Joel F. Overholser, of the Fort Benton River Press, discovered proof that there were in fact two “M. Adams,” Maria and Mary. Historians finally accepted Mary’s testimony and based on that concluded that Custer had not gone against orders given by General Terry, but rather had used his own judgment.<br /><br />So what was the Adams sisters connection with Fort Benton? With the death of the General, Elizabeth Custer had to vacate her military quarters and so she released Mary and Maria Adams. The sisters worked for the Army at Fort Keogh, Miles City, before moving on to Bismarck. In 1878 they heard of the boom days and good wages at Fort Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri River, so the adventurous young women took passage on the steamboat Nellie Peck. On arrival at Fort Benton, Mary began working for Mr. Hill, a clerk at the I. G. Baker & Company store, and later went to Fort Shaw to work for Army Dr. Greenleaf. Mary became seriously ill so returned to Fort Benton to live in a house she and Maria owned. Mary Adams passed away at age 30 and was buried in Fort Benton.<br /><br />John Lambert “Duke” Dutriueille, barber to the Presidents. Maria Adams met and married a lively young black man, John “Duke” Dutriueille in Helena in 1880. The newlyweds resided in Marysville for one year, and moved on to Fort Benton. Duke operated a barbershop, known as “Duke’s Place,” in each town. In Fort Benton Duke operated his “elegant” shop in the Grand Union Hotel and was active in Republican Party politics. During the mid 1880s, the Dutriueille’s moved to Butte, Helena, and later to Belt. Duke Dutriueille’s life story reads like fiction. Born in 1837 on board a ship in Philadelphia harbor, 16-year-old Duke enlisted as a cabin boy on a man-of-war. He returned to Philadelphia to become a barber and served in the Civil war as an aide to General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker. Duke Dutriueille had the distinction of having shaved three presidents, Buchanan, Lincoln, and Grant. After the war, Duke came up the Missouri River to Fort Benton in 1870. His obituary in the Belt Valley Times praised his “keen intelligence and grasp of public affairs,” adding that “he was always an interesting talker and had a fund of anecdotes gleaned from a more than usually adventurous career.” Duke died in Belt in January 1911. His widow, Maria Adams Dutriueille moved with her children Francis A. and Marie to Great Falls, where she lived and worked actively in the Union Bethel A. M. E. Church until her death in 1939.<br /><br />Leah Ward, Fort Benton’s “angel of mercy.” Leah Ward came up the Missouri River in the 1870s and operated her own Benton Laundry, which she closed in 1879, perhaps when she married teamster, John C. “Dixie” Ward. Leah had substantial assets in the Choteau County tax list of 1879, owning two town lots and $1255 assessed property. When Dixie Ward died in 1882 at the age of 42 years, Leah earned a living by taking in the poor and caring for the sick for the county. When her own health began to fail in 1887, the River Press announced, “We regret to learn that ‘Aunt Leah,’ who is well known to every old resident of Fort Benton, has been and is still very sick. The poor old woman has the very kindest of kind hearts, and for years she has responded, as long as she was able, to the calls back to health and strength, without hope or expectation of reward, as long as she was able, for she well knew they had nothing to give. Now that she is sick and feeble, and in need of sympathy and a few kind comforting words, or some little delicacy, we feel sure that she will receive them from our people, who have not forgotten her good deeds. It is only necessary for them to know that she is sick.”<br /><br />One year later in 1888, the River Press reported, “We saw ‘Old Aunt Leah’ out on the streets yesterday, and was glad to see the old woman looking so well. In the early days, before Fort Benton had a hospital, or other means of caring for the sick, Aunt Leah was always ready and willing to tenderly nurse back to health the unfortunate ones, who, far from friends and home, were stricken down with disease. To many a poor frontiersman Aunt Leah was an angel of mercy in those earlier times; and there be some who owe her a debt of gratitude they can never repay. Money can never pay for such acts of kindness as she rendered at a time when all the wealth of the Indies could not buy nurses or pay for the many little delicacies the old lady prepared for those who were helpless. Sometime ago when she was sick and bedridden, the River Press spoke of it, and we believe many of our good people, remembering her kind offices in the past, rendered her substantial aid. She has done enough good in her time to entitle her to a comfortable old age without work, and we would be glad to see her bountifully provided for.” Leah Ward passed away in St. Claire Hospital in 1891 and is buried in an unmarked grave at Riverside cemetery.<br /><br />John C. “Dixie” Ward, early pioneer and freighter. Leah’s husband, Dixie Ward, came to Montana Territory from Missouri in 1864 during the Civil War gold rush excitement. He worked as a freighter for many years for the Diamond R Overland Freighting Company. Prior to 1880, Dixie settled in Fort Benton and married Leah. In 1881 he opened Dixie’s Saloon, which proved a popular “watering hole” in a town famous for its saloons. By mid 1881, the River Press reported, “J. C. Ward, or ‘Dixie’ as he is known through all Choteau county, is just ‘tearing the bone out’ with his excellent supply of wines, liquors and cigars. His business is so good that he is enlarging his saloon to meet his increasing customers. Well! Dixie deserves it. He is polite and is always ready to do the square thing—and that is more than can be said of some of the other saloons on that side of Main Street. For our part we repeat our advice to our patrons, to go there or to Johnny Lilly’s across the street—but nowhere else. Now put this in your pipe and smoke it, and take a lemonade at Dixie’s.” Dixie’s success is reflected in the 1881 tax list, when he property was valued at almost $4,000. Unfortunately later that same year, his health began to fail, and during the winter he went to his old home in Missouri hoping to recover. He did not, and Dixie Ward died of consumption at Warrenton, Missouri in March 1992.<br /><br />Edward “Ed” D. Simms, from steamboat steward to pillar in the community. Ed Simms came to Montana first in 1873 at the age of 19, serving as assistant steward on a steamboat that came up the Missouri River to Fort Benton. Simms later said, “The people and the country looked good to me from the first, and I determined to live here. After a time I got employment on another boat, the Red Cloud, on which I worked from 1878 to 1880. It was owned by Howard Conrad and later by the firm of Conrad & I. G. Baker. I quit the boat on August 15, 1880, and went to work for Joseph A. Baker and after that I worked for Charles Price, both of them living in Fort Benton. I served them as cook and general handy man about the home . . . Then I worked in the dining room of the Choteau house at Fort Benton for Jerry Sullivan and then I went to Fort Shaw to work for Mr. McKnight. That was 1882, and I stayed there till 1886, when I came to Great Falls.” Ed Simms was the first black American to live in the new town of Great Falls, and he became a pillar in the black community and the A. M. E. Church. For the rest of his life, Ed Simms served as spokesman for the black community, owned his own small businesses, and was widely respected throughout the city. <br /><br />Millie Ringgold, gold rush stampeder. Millie Ringgold was born a slave in Maryland and emancipated during the Civil War. She traveled up the Missouri River as the nurse and servant for a U. S. Army officer. When the officer was transferred back to the “States,” Millie remained at Fort Benton and opened a boarding house. In January 1879, Millie moved her boarding house to Front Street, next door to the Montana House. Her success is indicated by the tax list that year which recorded her personal property at about $1,400. Later in 1879, Millie with many others from Fort Benton stampeded to the Yogo gold strike. She bought a wagon and two condemned army mules, loaded them up with provisions and a barrel of whiskey, and headed for the Little Belt Mountains. There, Millie established a restaurant, saloon, and a small hotel. During the brief boom, Millie prospered, and as the bloom faded on Yogo, she bought claims from departing miners. Over the next 25 years, Millie refused to leave her camp except for brief absences to recover her health at county poor houses in White Sulphur Springs and Great Falls. Millie Ringgold died at Yogo alone and in poverty in January 1906. In a touching tribute to this Yogo legend, the supervisor of the English-owned Yogo sapphire mine personally drove the mine wagon team to take Millie’s body to Utica Cemetery for burial.<br /><br />Many other stories could be told about the black Americans on the Upper Missouri and in Fort Benton during the fur trade and steamboating eras. The town’s black children were the focus of dueling editorials between the Benton Record, supporting segregated schools in Fort Benton, and the River Press, eloquently arguing for integrated schools. The school board ruled for integrated schools, and once admitted several of the black children led their classes in monthly grading performances. Jerry Flowers, former second cook at the Grand Union, became a boxer who gained statewide success. Irascible barber and saloon keeper, William Foster, owner of Foster’s Tonsorial Palace on Front Street and later the Eagle Bird Saloon, saw a fire start in his saloon in January 1883 and spread to the old Court House burning it, and its priceless county records, to the ground. Billy Foster then skipped town owing hundreds of dollars, only to be murdered a year later at End of Track on the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Henry Courtney, head waiter at the Grand Union, stampeded to the Little Rockies in 1884, only to return to Fort Benton with “two dollars and a half and a dog, the result of one year’s mining. Courtney and his wife moved on to become early residents of Great Falls and helped found the A. M. E. Church. Lee Isabell owned the Break of Day House and the Star Bakery on Main Street in partnership with white businessman, John H. Gamble. John Francis Gordon met and married Ann Goodlow in Fort Benton, then moved on to the Barker mines and other camps before settling in White Sulphur Springs and parenting nationally famous singer Taylor Gordon. James Ogleby, alias Beauregard, had a short and unsuccessful career as a horse thief. “Old Rachel” Gibbs, often in trouble with the law, died alone in Fort Benton of alcoholism. It is fitting to end with brothers Joseph and Charles Meeks, both Civil War veterans, Joseph having served with the first black combat regiment, the famed 54th Massachusetts Regiment, commanded by Colonel Robert Shaw, namesake for Fort Shaw. <br /><br />The multiracial society in Fort Benton began to change with the end of the steamboat era in 1890. The town lost its glamour and base of service industry jobs, and many black Americans moved on to greater opportunities in the growing towns like Great Falls. We can all learn from their stories and the legacy they left behind. <br /></span>Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-73972440654538908152009-12-29T14:55:00.000-07:002009-12-29T14:58:05.242-07:00Black American Steamboatmen on the Upper MissouriBlack American Steamboatmen on the Upper Missouri <br /><br />In Honor of Black History Month<br />Black American Steamboatmen on the Upper Missouri<br />By Ken Robison<br /><br />Published in the Fort Benton River Press 15 Feb 2006<br /><br />This continues the series of frontier sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center at the Schwinden Library & Archives in Fort Benton.<br /><br />We don’t know the first black American to come up the Missouri River to Fort Benton by steamboat, though he no doubt came not as a passenger but rather as a crewman. We do now that many blacks worked as steamboatmen on the Upper Missouri, while some came as passengers, and some remained to become Montana pioneers. Little has been written about their experiences.<br /><br />Black Americans, both slave and free, had long served on riverboats in the ante-bellum years. Steamboat owners employed their slaves as roustabouts, or “roosters,” as well as immigrant Irish and Germans, other foreign-born, and young Americans. Free blacks often served as stewards, cooks, cabin boys and chambermaids.<br /><br />With black emancipation and the end of the Civil War, the composition of steamboat crews changed. For freed blacks, working on the river offered jobs and some opportunity for advancement and relocation. Mixed race crews became common on the western rivers including the Missouri.<br /><br />Some insight into the crew situation on the Upper Missouri is provided by the 1880 census. Taken in Fort Benton in early June, this census shows two steamboats were located at the levee with their crews recorded in the census records. The steamboat Key West under Captain Frank Maratta brought about 270 passengers to Fort Benton from Bismarck including 200 North West Mounted Police. Among the crew of 41 were seventeen Scandinavians and three blacks. The black Americans were young Kate Murphy, age 20 from Kentucky, working as laundress; Frank Thomas, age 24 from Virginia, a rooster; and David Homes, age 33 from New York, a rooster.<br /><br />The second steamboat in the census, the Nellie Peck, under Captain Martin Coulson, was manned by a crew of 39 with eleven foreign born and four blacks. The black Americans were Lucy Chapman, age 30 from Missouri, a servant; Bush Glenn, age 18 from Kentucky, a waiter; Henry Randoff, age 20 from Tennessee, a cook; and George Stockwell, age 25 from Virginia, a waiter.<br /><br />A reminder of the dangers of travel on the Upper Missouri comes from the experience of Wesley McClellan, a young black deckhand age about 20 from Nashville who fell overboard off the Helena enroute Fort Benton in June 1882 and was presumed drowned.<br /><br />The best knowledge we have of a black crewman who remained on the Upper Missouri comes from remarkable young Edward D. Simms. Ed Simms was just nineteen years old when he made his first trip by steamboat to Fort Benton in 1873. Simms, had been born into the slave society of Arkansas in 1853, and after emancipation worked for a time in Texas. On the steamer he worked as assistant steward on that first trip, and in his words, “The people and the country looked good to me from the first, and I determined to live here.”<br /><br />Photos: <br /><br />(1) Steamboat crewman Ed Simms [Photo from Great Falls Tribune 1911]<br /><br />(2) Ed Simms worked on Steamboat Red Cloud 1878-1880 [From Overholser Historical Research Center]<br /><br />Simms continued his account, “After a time I got employment on another boat, the Red Cloud, on which I worked from 1878 to 1880. It was owned by Howard Conrad and later by the firm of Conrad & Baker. I quit the boat on August 15, 1880, and went to work for Joseph A. Baker and after that I worked for Charles Price, both of them living in Fort Benton. I served them as cook and general handy man about the home. One of the colored people in Fort Benton then was Henrietta Johnson, now living in this city.” [Mrs. Henrietta Johnson was one of 76 blacks living in Fort Benton in 1880, and she worked as chambermaid at the Grand Union on its opening November 2, 1882.]<br /><br />Ed Simms went on, “Then I worked in the dining room of the Choteau house at Fort Benton for Jerry Sullivan and then I went to Fort Shaw to work for Mr. McKnight [the post trader at Fort Shaw]. That was 1882, and I stayed there till 1886, when I came to Great Falls.” Ed Simms became the first black resident of Great Falls, and in the summer of 1886, he returned to St. Louis to marry Elizabeth Miller. Their daughter Gertrude, born in Great Falls in 1887, was the first black child born in the growing town. Simms worked as chef at the Cascade Hotel and later as steward for the exclusive Rainbow Club. Ed and Elizabeth Simms became social, religious, and civic leaders in the black community of Great Falls.<br /><br />Few black passengers are known to have come by steamboat up the Missouri River since the trip was relatively expensive and an adventure into the unknown. The first recorded in our Upper Missouri River Passenger file came to Fort Benton on the steamboat Emilie in June 1862, either as the slave or servant of William Hurlbert. In June 1876, adventurous Mattie Bell Bost, who was born a slave in North Carolina and freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, brought two white children to Fort Benton to join their mother Mrs. Sire. Within a year of arriving in Fort Benton, Mattie owned her own laundry. In 1879 she married John K. Castner, and this dynamic couple together founded the town of Belt.<br /><br />By 1878 the boom building period of Fort Benton had begun, and the word had spread downriver that there were jobs and good times at the head of navigation. In that year, Henry and Henrietta Johnson came up the Missouri by steamboat. The Adams sisters, Mary and Maria, were mixed race young ladies who had worked at Fort Abraham Lincoln for General and Mrs. Custer, until the general’s death. Mary and Maria heard about the good times in Fort Benton and took passage on the steamboat Nellie Peck. Mary died at Fort Shaw within a year of arrival in Montana territory. Maria prospered as a businesswoman and in 1880 married Duke Dutriueille. Until her death in 1939, Maria was a leader in the black social and religious community in Fort Benton, Helena, Marysville, Belt, and Great Falls.<br /><br />We can all learn from the steamboat adventures of black Americans on the Upper Missouri. Blacks shared with native and foreign-born adventurers of all races that frontier Montana offered challenges and opportunities for all.Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-67033150641835582962009-12-29T14:54:00.000-07:002009-12-29T14:55:30.969-07:00On Being a Black American in Territorial Fort Benton—Part 2On Being a Black American in Territorial Fort Benton—Part 2 <br /><br />By Ken Robison<br /><br />Black pioneers came West for many of the same reasons as whites, seeking, adventure and social and economic opportunities. By 1860, at least four black men worked for the American Fur Company at its Upper Missouri Outfit post at Fort Benton. As the town of Fort Benton began to develop at the head of navigation on the Missouri river and the hub for overland freighting into Montana and southern Canada, blacks came on steamboats often as crewmen, sometimes as passengers. By 1870 Fort Benton’s black community had at least 25 residents, and the growth of both the town and its black community were accelerating. By the next census in 1880, some 76 blacks resided in Fort Benton, and both Choteau County and Fort Benton showed the highest percentage of blacks of any county or city in Montana.<br /><br />While Montana’s black population was never large, a close look at Fort Benton during the decade of its earliest period of “civilization” from 1875 to 1885, reveals a robust black community with surprises and fascinating stories. The story is much more than a statistical game. During the early 1880s, Fort Benton showed positive signs of opportunity and acceptance for its black residents despite an ever-present element of intolerance and racism. At least six blacks owned their own businesses, and in two cases blacks and whites co-owned businesses. Among the black businesses, some were located in prime real estate on Front Street. Black residences were spread around the town, not confined to one area, and some blacks built their own homes. Black families were being formed, and after a sharp struggle in 1882, black students were admitted to Fort Benton schools. Blacks were acquiring property with several black male and female entrepreneurs on the county property tax lists with substantial accumulations of property.<br /><br />So why were black Americans “accepted” in early Fort Benton? There are no doubt many reasons, but perhaps two are primary. Fort Benton in the late 1870s and early 1880s was booming. New businesses were essential to serve the steamboating and overland freighting industries. New hotels, restaurants, barbershops, and other services were in demand. Blacks were moving up the Missouri River, ready to take the service industry jobs. In Fort Benton, they had opportunity. Perhaps equally important, the fur trade post of Fort Benton had a long tradition of mixed race and nationality work forces including acceptance of fur trader intermarriage with Native American women. Early Fort Benton featured a racial mixture, and, perhaps without oversimplification, early Fort Benton society seemed to have a hierarchy with whites at the top followed roughly in order of acceptance by mixed race white-blacks, black Americans, white-Indian children, Chinese, and at the bottom native Indians. Many families in Fort Benton in the 1870s and 1880s involved interracial marriages of native Indians and whites and at least four black and white marriages.<br /><br />So, what do we have to learn from black history in early Fort Benton, Montana? Black Americans shared with whites the challenges of living in a frontier environment. Young James Berry was killed in the Ophir massacre of 1865. Edmund Bradley fought and died in action at Cow Island in 1877 during the Nez Perce War. He was given a hero’s funeral and burial at Fort Benton. Other blacks shared the opportunities. Through hard work, Mattie Bell Bost acquired her own laundry, married adventurous John K. Castner, and the two “founded” the coal town of Belt. Young Alex Martin parleyed his culinary talent into a position as head chef on the opening of the Grand Union. Martin along with eight other blacks held nine of the eleven jobs on the staff of the Grand Union. At least two black women, sisters Maria and Mary Adams, had a surprising impact on our understanding of General Custer’s actions during the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Several blacks gained special respect among all races in their community. “Old Aunt Leah” was eulogized as Fort Benton’s “angel of mercy” on her death. Many of Fort Benton’s blacks moved on to other communities in Montana, and some became pillars in their new communities, including Edward Simms in Great Falls and Duke Dutriueille in Helena. The story of black Americans in early Fort Benton is the story of many lives and events.Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-21847206615405108242009-07-18T10:20:00.006-06:002009-07-18T10:38:58.743-06:00The Magnificent Ghees<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij9YuVUnuZOn_Ze_CHVMqxOaaO0Cyf7k1cqNBXhj-NtKEfFudf0YBj-B_gFRBtPwfgL0KS3EmO68FMXfhA9nLxAvWpv67wCwIknSsI8PwEbPqP7y-60NsczET0T6uXmG_QEvFxGEI7liEK/s1600-h/Ghee50th.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 278px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij9YuVUnuZOn_Ze_CHVMqxOaaO0Cyf7k1cqNBXhj-NtKEfFudf0YBj-B_gFRBtPwfgL0KS3EmO68FMXfhA9nLxAvWpv67wCwIknSsI8PwEbPqP7y-60NsczET0T6uXmG_QEvFxGEI7liEK/s400/Ghee50th.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359837864441040498" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />The evening of 17 July 2009 a celebration was held at Cindy's Banquet Hall in Great Falls to honor the 50th Wedding Anniversary of a remarkable couple, Frank and Mary Ghee. For the past 34 years, Frank and Mary have blessed Great Falls, Malmstrom AFB, and Union Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (A. M. E.) Church with their good works, words, and deeds. The celebration was arranged by the four Ghee daughters, Candy, Melony, Cricket, and Frankie, who also performed musical numbers and skits. A highlight of the evening was a gospel songfest by Frank and Grant Stebbins. Friends and family came from across the country to honor the Ghees. The event celebrated the many achievements of Frank and Mary ranging from raising four accomplished daughters to "saving" their A. M. E. Church. May Frank and Mary celebrate many more years of marriage and achievements!<br /><br /></span>Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-23625633105371915702009-06-21T11:22:00.003-06:002009-06-22T18:09:25.297-06:00Great Falls Tribune Reporting on Library Plaza Dedication<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5jCiWQsETCBPX3-qdfEKqAC9dxv7-2s9Wu0vB_TwiBkAR121U5w8iqpMogkcPalUCnKSnq8aMSEo8vqeFX4yfXQWMZRFGnmeUWPnIa9w2Mpvzq3PJL8m3Zxi5KFpHfSL6EWbNFSiACnwZ/s1600-h/Libaryplaza.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 318px; height: 238px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5jCiWQsETCBPX3-qdfEKqAC9dxv7-2s9Wu0vB_TwiBkAR121U5w8iqpMogkcPalUCnKSnq8aMSEo8vqeFX4yfXQWMZRFGnmeUWPnIa9w2Mpvzq3PJL8m3Zxi5KFpHfSL6EWbNFSiACnwZ/s400/Libaryplaza.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350308404861997698" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSTY1Uk1KezonhRwjlQHO__yweS55SFPCY3RaB_SynXgkYd_RjcKcE39nhvuQBu7ncVcKj_e26icXtZe_9N4S2JF1-b-KVGUlz2Ujxq4F76vC13U640W2N-QkTk8QocpU3nTEqcRIFuvS8/s1600-h/AlmaLibrary.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 318px; height: 314px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSTY1Uk1KezonhRwjlQHO__yweS55SFPCY3RaB_SynXgkYd_RjcKcE39nhvuQBu7ncVcKj_e26icXtZe_9N4S2JF1-b-KVGUlz2Ujxq4F76vC13U640W2N-QkTk8QocpU3nTEqcRIFuvS8/s400/AlmaLibrary.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350308399473653106" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">GREAT FALLS TRIBUNE<br />greatfallstribune.com<br /><br />June 21, 2009<br /><br />Great Falls Library dedicates arch to pioneering black librarian, leader<br /><br />By TRAVIS COLEMAN<br />Tribune Staff Writer<br /><br />The life and accomplishments of civil rights pioneer and library advocate Alma Jacobs were celebrated outside of the Great Falls Public Library on Saturday during a dedication of a new plaza fountain in her memory.<br /><br />The location was appropriate, given how much of Jacobs' life was dedicated to the library. Jacobs was the first black librarian in Montana and later served as head librarian in Great Falls for nearly two decades.<br /><br />Jacobs also was the driving force behind the construction of the current library building in the late 1960s. This was in addition to her efforts to document black history in Montana and her fight for the equal treatment of all people.<br /><br />"Alma lived a life of accomplishment in Great Falls," said Jim Heckel, director of the library. Jacobs died in December 1997.<br />Dozens attended the dedication ceremony in which Mayor Dona Stebbins proclaimed June 16-22 as Alma Jacobs Week in Great Falls.<br /><br />"A lot of friends of Alma's are here. They still remember her vividly," said local historian Ken Robison.<br /><br />Born in Lewistown, Jacobs and her family moved to Great Falls when she was 6. She graduated from Great Falls High School and was awarded a scholarship to Talladega (Ala.) College.<br /><br />After graduating in 1938, she was a bookmobile librarian in the South until winning a scholarship to Columbia University, where she earned a master's degree in library science in 1942.<br /><br />Jacobs became catalog librarian in Great Falls in 1946 and ascended to head librarian in 1954, a position she held for nearly two decades.<br /><br />"She was visionary enough to see (the library) could be a big part of the community," Robison said.<br /><br />One of Montana's most prominent black leaders, she later served as the state librarian for eight years. There she supervised the centralization of the state library's collections from locations scattered around the city.<br /><br />Also, Jacobs' work to catalogue and compile black history resources inspired future research into black history in Montana.<br />Jacobs and her sister, Lucille Smith Thompson, created a 23-page bibliography of newspaper articles called "The Negro in Montana: 1800-1945." Jacobs also took part in various community organizations and stood up for civil rights issues.<br />"She left an impact in her time and for years ahead," Heckel said.<br /><br />On a personal level, Jacobs also had an impact on several generations of Montanans. She helped raise Ruth Parker McLendon in Great Falls. Growing up, McLendon said there were places in Great Falls in which a black person couldn't enter or work at. But Jacobs looked past prejudice and kept fighting for equality.<br />"She kept on going and wouldn't give up," McLendon said.<br /><br />Jacobs' impact on the community and the library made it a no-brainer to dedicate the new plaza in her honor. The project was created to deal with the sunken plaza outside of the library.<br /><br />The $320,000 project was funded by the Community Transportation Enhancement Program, Heckel said.<br /><br />"I'm so proud, straight proud," said Alan Thompson, Jacobs' nephew. "I'd like for people to remember my aunt in the times they need to stand up and do the right thing. She had the courage to do things in a time in which it wasn't safe to do that."<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"></span></span>Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-22213115822339094022009-06-21T11:09:00.003-06:002009-06-23T11:50:40.117-06:00Remarks at Library Plaza Dedication<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsDRV8proNEf1JhxZSuHlxvctdBDapvky9QFaFjYQmkYEpyB3dBwjkE8XDHukTh14222WOnJmBkIv-yNuFvuEEWaDT3KJw_zRlMx6qWcj5T2H1kk309o0ZzTcENPLM7ZHzriKBPc2nrmOE/s1600-h/GFPL.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsDRV8proNEf1JhxZSuHlxvctdBDapvky9QFaFjYQmkYEpyB3dBwjkE8XDHukTh14222WOnJmBkIv-yNuFvuEEWaDT3KJw_zRlMx6qWcj5T2H1kk309o0ZzTcENPLM7ZHzriKBPc2nrmOE/s400/GFPL.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349832032275489394" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBO3jDUNL_nYyhw_vLcaQIAAJm7lXP4pYE1fkLBTDe7Jcfu8EYVBY0W35SXQ6zjy5yBBLO893THQAN9trx-eDYF6Ogl38zVEBFWSQ2uSksH_9M1JMtrnOxr6Ckw8MMUlnI7UdnBKyyBGs0/s1600-h/AlmaJacobsPlaza.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBO3jDUNL_nYyhw_vLcaQIAAJm7lXP4pYE1fkLBTDe7Jcfu8EYVBY0W35SXQ6zjy5yBBLO893THQAN9trx-eDYF6Ogl38zVEBFWSQ2uSksH_9M1JMtrnOxr6Ckw8MMUlnI7UdnBKyyBGs0/s400/AlmaJacobsPlaza.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349832029991076626" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The new plaza at the Great Falls Public Library was dedicated on Saturday June 20 as The Alma Jacobs Memorial Plaza." <br /><br />Dedication of the Alma Smith Jacobs Plaza Remarks by Ken Robison<br /><br />Thank you all for honoring an amazing woman, Alma Smith Jacobs.<br />Our new not-profit, the Alma Smith Jacobs Foundation is being formed to honor Alma. Under the leadership of Reverend Mercedes Tudi-Hamilton, Frank and Mary Ghee, and our Board of Directors, the Foundation will address social and economic issues in Great Falls.<br /><br />Alma lived a life of accomplishment and service to the Great Falls community. Mayor Stebbins will pay tribute to this.<br /><br />We stand today in the new Plaza of the House that Alma built, the Great Falls Public Library. Alma’s quiet leadership and persistence led the Community to support construction of this Library over forty years ago.<br /><br />Our Library is my favorite place in Great Falls. On the third floor, the Montana Room houses a fine collection of Montana history and a display of photos and memorabilia honoring the founding of Great Falls 125 years ago.<br /><br />On the shelves of the Montana Room is a tiny pamphlet compiled by Alma and her sister Lucille.<br /><br />This pamphlet is a bibliography documenting African Americans in Montana.<br /><br />Alma’s pamphlet served as inspiration when Bob Harris and I challenged the Montana Historical Society to study Black History Resources in Montana. With good work by Patty Dean and Alma's nephew Alan Thompson, who are with us today, and others, Montana’s Black History is becoming available to researchers and to the classroom.<br /><br />The memory of Alma Jacobs lives on.<br /><br />Thank you . . . Now, Mayor Stebbins<br /><br /><br /></span>Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2255936996492119704.post-13588198177761309452009-06-21T11:00:00.003-06:002009-06-21T11:08:18.886-06:00Alma Jacobs Week Proclamation<span style="font-weight:bold;">On June 16, the Great Falls City Commission declared the week of June 16-22 "Alma Jacobs Week in Great Falls, Montana."</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVovUqxpx-yHOQVW_tfcspwcf8z6QJTGom7X8eLwle2XwfDv65V1u9DeA-tTHF5-_eLNug9RzBYazFO-HtjYbkmpgIgbeCHzzGa1OUy7W1lUui0MqvkRrVRDWiXkK2pIOmSu7tUMlmxd0d/s1600-h/almaweek.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 309px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVovUqxpx-yHOQVW_tfcspwcf8z6QJTGom7X8eLwle2XwfDv65V1u9DeA-tTHF5-_eLNug9RzBYazFO-HtjYbkmpgIgbeCHzzGa1OUy7W1lUui0MqvkRrVRDWiXkK2pIOmSu7tUMlmxd0d/s400/almaweek.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349828712974109410" /></a>Fort Benton Historianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12287219949649537358noreply@blogger.com0