Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
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May 1899 in the Jefferson Valley. The fledgling community of Whitehall is growing up. Beyond the peace of our local area, there was turmoil, destructive weather, and good news, too. The eastern side of Kirksville, Missouri, was struck by a massive tornado that left 200 families homeless and more than 50 deceased. Martial law was declared in Shoshone, Idaho, after union strikers blew up two mills at the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines. Montana boys were still dying in battles in the Philippines....
Members of the Whitehall Rotary Club and three other volunteers completed filling 49 large bags with sorted aluminum cans earlier in April for delivery to the recycling center in Butte during Earth Day week. They received a higher price during that time for the aluminum, which totaled 2919 pounds. Money earned from this effort helps fund the club's many local projects. Non-member volunteers included Tom and Sarah Ahlin and Thane Burtch. Thane hauled the bags in multiple trips to Butte, for...
1 YEARS AGO - APRIL 1925: It is April 1925. Many changes were taking place globally, in the U.S., and even here in Whitehall. In Western Australia, voters turned down a proposal to ban the sale of beer and liquor by a large margin, 65% no and 35% in favor. An F3 tornado did extensive damage in Dade County, Florida. Imperial Airways added an "in-flight movie" on its flight from London to Paris. The British Colonial Office announced a joint plan with the Australian government to encourage at...
1 YEARS AGO - APRIL 1899, PART I: April of any year brings the promise of warmer weather, green fields and hills, and only a couple more months before the warm freedom of summer. Back in April of 1899, there were plenty of headlines with topics not far from what we see today. The following articles are taken as written, with edits for length, from the April editions of the Jefferson Valley Zephyr. The photo is an ad that appeared in several of those 1899 weekly papers. MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS...
The annual meeting of the Jefferson Valley Museum will be held on Thursday, April 3rd at the Star Theater. Admission is free and open to the public. The program will begin at 7 PM following the 6:45 PM annual membership update. This year's featured speaker will be Montana anthropologist and storyteller Sally Thompson from Missoula. She draws on her extensive experience and will delve into the fabric of Montana's past with excerpts from her latest book, "Disturbing the Sleeping Buffalo: 23...
Fashions have changed, towns have become cities, and cities are metropolitan areas, but some things are not much different now than they were 100 years ago. The following news items are taken as written in March 1925 editions of the Jefferson Valley News. Outside of Montana, headlines include the Federal Probation Act, which became law and allowed probation as an option for a federal prison sentence. Calvin Coolidge was inaugurated for a second time, with the event broadcast on the radio for the...
In March 1899, there was plenty of news to report from around the world and here in the valley. Fighting was ongoing in the Philippines, and a front-page story made it clear that the government there was not fond of the U. S. forces. Our troops in Havana, Cuba, were fighting a typhoid fever outbreak that was not helped by the primitive sewage systems. A young man with the Northern Pacific in Helena chose suicide as the way to get out of his marriage. Montana Governor Smith vetoed a bill that wou...
The Jefferson Valley Museum is offering a free program on Wednesday evening, February 19th, at 7 PM at the museum barn. Take a "walk" through the Whitehall cemetery while comfortably seated in a warm room. The program will cover history given at the October cemetery walk with some additional information included. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about more than 30 past residents of the town and valley, some well-known and others few have heard about; all played a part in our...
1 YEARS AGO - FEBRUARY 1925, Part II: February 1925 was busy around the world. Headlines in the Jefferson Valley News that month included Income Tax Returns Must Be Filed By March 15; President Pays Sincere Tribute To Newspapers; Walsh To Pay Supreme Penalty This Saturday (he was sentenced to death in the murder of Al Johnson in Renova); and 3 Killed in Auto Plunge at Jefferson Island; and, for the first time in U. S. history, the Presidential Inaugural Ceremonies To Be Broadcasted. Other...
The Jefferson Valley Museum is offering a free program on Wednesday evening, February 19th, at 7 PM at the museum barn. Take a "walk" through the Whitehall cemetery while comfortably seated in a warm room. The program will cover the history given at the October cemetery walk with some additional information included. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about more than 30 past residents of the town and valley, some well-known and others few have heard about; all played a part in our...
Our Town 100+ Years Ago - February, Part I: This week the focus will be just on news from the February editions of the Jefferson Valley Zephyr. All are taken as written with some edited for length only. The photo is an ad that appeared in several February editions. News from around the state varied from murder to severe weather and a multitude of topics in between. Some of the headlines were: A HAMMER DID IT, Murder of Henry Dahlman at Boulder by a Man Known as Frank or "Cap" Carson; SEVENTEEN B...
For many years the Whitehall Rotary Club has been collecting aluminum cans at the local dump site and at Jefferson Fresh Foods, with the money received from recycling funding local service projects. Club members have decided to drop this program and develop a new fundraising/service project option, which will be announced soon. The Rotary Club greatly appreciates the several tons of aluminum cans collected and donated by Whitehall residents and businesses over the years. If any other...
Our Town 100+ Years Ago - January, Part II: Where to start with the headlines from the second half of January 1899? There was a lot going on. Daily voting was taking place to determine our next U. S. Senator and each day, Mr. Clark would gain a few more votes until he finally had enough to claim the seat. Gold and copper were the talk of Highland mining news. Shelby, Montana, made headlines for the murders of multiple sheepmen. From the 1889 flu epidemic in London came a report that effective...
Our Town 100+ Years Ago - January, Part I: The final year to start with 18 began in January 1899. Headlines from outside of Montana mentioned postage for a letter to Canada was two cents per ounce; former Idaho U. S. Senator Dubois married Edna Maxfield Whited from South Dakota; Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated as governor of New York; and the sovereignty of Cuba was passed from Spain to the United States. Front page news in Montana included the sixth biennial session of the Montana...
1+ Years Ago - December, Part II: In December 1898, winter was officially starting; Whitehall was growing, and Marie and Pierre Curie were discovering radium. The front page of the Zephyr was filled with the delinquent tax list, including names and property, which included multiple mining companies. The state reform school was housing 62 boys and 12 girls, with a cost estimated at $20,000 for the year. The Montana Board of Equalization gave the governor a report outlining a radical change to...
1+ Years Ago - December, Part I: While the children were counting down the days to Christmas back in December 1898, adults were busy with world affairs. The peace treaty of Paris was being finalized with the key details of Spain withdrawing from Cuba and the Philippines and giving up its sovereignty over Puerto Rico. The U.S. postal service was suffering growing pains with 73,000 post offices and 200,000 employees and a projected debt for the year 1900 of over $4,000,000. The 55th Congress was...
1+ Years Ago - November, Part II: The front-page news in the Jefferson Valley Zephyr on November 18, 1898, was one sad story followed by another. Multiple deaths in the Butte and Anaconda area mines, suicides by morphine in Butte, a rancher's wife near Red Lodge burned and later died trying to clean up spilled kerosene by lighting it on fire, deadly clashes between whites and blacks in North Carolina, and a listing of the death toll from the Civil War: those who died of disease and other cause...
1+ YEARS AGO - November, Part I: Even 126 Years ago, people grew tired of constant political messages before election day and the social unrest on the East Coast. U.S. Government handouts in Cuba were making it difficult to get people back to work. A mine that employed 500 people before the war struggled to keep 150 people on the payroll because miners did not need to earn money for food. U.S. soldiers who returned from the fighting in Cuba were dying by the dozens of typhoid fever. The...
The second half of October 1898 was a mixed bag of events and weather. Springfield, Missouri, experienced the earliest snowfall on record (for the relatively short time European immigrants had lived there). The cold front plunged into the deep south and, on its way, left Kansas City with over three inches of snow. On October 18th, the first American flag was raised in Puerto Rico. Future Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, William O. Douglas, was born on October 16th. Otherwise, late...
Members of the Whitehall Rotary Club delivered much appreciated cases of canned food to the Whitehall Food Pantry last week. All of the canned goods were purchased by the club at Jefferson Fresh Foods. The Rotary club has been helping the Food Pantry for many years in various ways including monetary donations, case goods donations, and helping deliver food baskets at Christmas time for some of the people who do not have a means of picking up a basket on their own. The club holds regular...
Our Town 100+ Years Ago, October Part I: By the fall of 1898, the Jefferson Valley Zephyr highlighted news of the upcoming election and the increase in property values in the 24 Montana counties. Silver Bow was on top with $11,401,665, and Jefferson was well down the list with $1,330,921 for all land, real estate, improvements, town sites, mining claims, telegraph and telephone lines, and railroad property. Still making front page news was the horrible death toll of American soldiers from Typhoi...
The Jefferson Valley Museum is sponsoring a tour of the Whitehall Cemetery on Saturday, October 5th, and Tuesday, October 12th, at 3:30 PM or 6:15 PM. Each tour will last 60 to 75 minutes. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about some of the dearly departed who have played a role in developing our community and valley. Those taking a 6:15 PM tour are encouraged to bring a flashlight since the final portion will have limited natural light. The tour will involve walking through the cemetery and over uneven ground. The ticket cost is...
The Jefferson Valley Museum is sponsoring a tour of the Whitehall Cemetery on Saturday, October 5th, and Tuesday, October 12th, at 3:30 PM or 6:15 PM. Each tour will last 60 to 75 minutes. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about some of the dearly departed who have played a role in developing our community and valley. Those taking a 6:15 PM tour are encouraged to bring a flashlight since the final portion of the tour will have limited natural light. The tour will involve walking through the cemetery and over uneven ground. The...
8+ Years Ago - September, Part II: Headlines in the second half of September 1898 continued the news from early September. Our soldiers returning from the war in Cuba were being misplaced and lost in a broken government system. More than 20,000 children in New York City were turned away from schools because there was not enough room in the now overcrowded buildings. Murders in Red Lodge, Silver Bow, and Meaderville were also front-page news, as was the collapse of a three-story building in...
Early September 1898 in the Jefferson Valley. Children are back in school, and crops are being harvested. Life here seemed pretty good considering news being printed in the Zephyr. A severe wind and hailstorm north of Webster City, Iowa, left $50,000 worth of damage in an area three miles by 12 miles. Soldiers at Montauk Point were battling severe sickness and less than efficient care. About 40% of the 832 deaths of soldiers at Chickamauga were from typhoid fever, including a young man from Butt...
