Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
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March Part 2 The March weather "lion" was roaring in 1897 very much like now. The U. S. House of Representatives had just elected a new Speaker of the House, Republican Tom Reed; the U. S. supreme court ruled that states have the power to tax franchises of corporations, such as express, telegraph, and railroad companies; and the Mississippi river was flooding the lowlands of Arkansas. The following articles are taken as written from the March 12 and 19, 1897 editions of the Jefferson Valley...
The Jefferson Valley Museum will offer a second opportunity to hear the oral history program of Carrie "Bunny" Leyson Wall on Tuesday, March 21st at 6:30 PM. The program will be held at the museum barn. The program was originally presented on February 22nd but extreme cold and snow kept many people from attending. The program features the recording made in 1989 by Roy Millegan, Sr. when he interviewed Carrie. Historic photos help to highlight many of the people and places mentioned during the...
MARCH, Part I Like March 2023, in March 1897 the U. S. Congress was in session and discussing controversial issues. Two hot issues were the boundaries of the Alaska territory with Canada and a bill to prohibit the transmission of detailed accounts of prize fights by mail or telegraph. Federal officials were being accused of practicing deceit when it comes to a bill for opening the south half of the Colville Indian reservation to mineral resource development. In Montana, the Gallatin valley...
The second half of February 1897 had plenty of news events. National headlines in Whitehall's Jefferson Valley Zephyr included turmoil in the senate and a bill in the house to appropriate money for the armor plating of war vessels; a lavish inauguration was being planned for McKinley; a bank failure in Idaho hit close to home; and proclamations made by President Cleveland set aside seven areas of land referred to as forest reservations including areas in the Flathead, Lewis and Clark forest,...
The Jefferson Valley Museum will hold its third and final winter oral history program for this season on Wednesday, February 22nd at 6:30 PM in the museum at 303 South Division. The featured history is the interview done in 1989 by Roy Millegan, Sr. with Carrie “Bunny” Leyson Wall. Carrie lived in Silver Star, Neihart, and Whitehall, graduating from Whitehall High School in 1929. Historic photos will be shown to help enhance the listening experience. Previous programs highlighted the lives of Bernard May and Lena Brown Slauson. The annual mee...
FEBRUARY, PART I 1897 was starting out with turmoil and political division. There were calls in Washington D. C. for major bank reforms to help curb the financial problems in the country; a bill proposed to give money for the Nicaragua canal project was strongly objected to since it would give millions to a company worth only about one-half of a million; the war in Cuba was still raging; the Montana legislature put thumbs down on 53 bills and passed 16 which included the creation of Broadwater...
JANUARY PART II As January moved toward February, politics, and science were clashing. In Boston, a woman was removed from the courtroom because the defense council said she might hypnotize the witnesses. The eminent Dr. Berman was summoned from Germany to St. Petersburg to help the Czar recover from severe vertigo. In Montana, the legislature was gearing up for a new session with Democrats in the majority, and overtures to bring members of the populist party to their side were not going well....
The Jefferson Valley Museum will be hosting its second oral history program at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, January 18th at the museum barn. It will feature an interview recorded in 1989 by Roy Millegan with Lena Brown Slausen along with photos from the area. She and her siblings lived most of their childhood at Homestake. Three of her brothers attended school in Whitehall in 1929 and 1930 where all were outstanding athletes. Lena's grandparents, Charles and Elizabeth Flagg were among the first...
JANUARY, Part I, 125 YEARS AGO: As 1897 dawned, it was a new year with new tragedies and many of the same old problems. Sabotage to a railroad bridge in Tennessee caused the deaths of dozens of people. Aqueduct, New York experienced a serious riot over low wages and high food prices for those working on the Erie canal. Minnesota, South Dakota, and Nebraska were stalled under heavy snow and blizzard conditions while flooding was rampant in Illinois, Arkansas, and northern Michigan. The Spanish...
December, Part 2 Those living in December 1896 would be amazed at how things seem to be repeating in 2022. Wheat crops were failing in the "old world" causing famine; four banks in the eastern U. S. failed; there is public unrest in China against the ruling class, and crimes in other parts of the country make the front page of the Zephyr. The following news items are taken as written from the December 18 and 25, 1896 editions of the Jefferson Valley Zephyr. Mining News: Messrs. Cutler and...
In December 1896, the entire United States was in the grip of a strong winter. The Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads were struggling to keep their lines open due to heavy snowfall and a deadly rail accident occurred at the Mullen tunnel east of Missoula. William Steinway of piano manufacturing fame died of typhoid fever. Congress was making "Laws Without End" with 1456 measures on their calendar. The Treasury Department reported that the government spent more than it took in. Here...
NOVEMBER, PART II In November 1896, the elections were over, and people were able to focus on other concerns. In the West, flooding in the Coeur d'Alene area was of great concern with 100 cords of wood floating in the lake and train travel interrupted. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, Poison, Murder, and Arson Case was a headline. A well-known saloon keeper, John Mollberg, was charged with murder after putting arsenic in Moses Reeder's beer. Reeder knew who had burned down a competitor's saloon the day...
The Whitehall Fishpond is celebrating its 100-year anniversary in 2022. This artifact symbolizes the patriotic community it was built for, Whitehall, which has always been a patriotic township. During World War I an enormous flagpole, similar to the flag pole at Whitehall Truck & Towing on Highway 55, was erected in honor of local troops deploying. A farewell dinner was held at the theatre with 282 in attendance. Town women knitted socks and sweaters for local boys enlisted. Patriotism was in fu...
The Whitehall Rotary Club and the local VFW and American Legion will hold a joint celebration of the 100th anniversary of the historic fishpond on November 11th starting at 12:30 PM at the fishpond. The program of approximately 30 minutes will include a history of the pond and several songs performed by the Whitehall High School band. A reception will be held at the Community Center following the program. The pond was constructed in 1922 in honor of World War I veterans. In the early years it was maintained by the veteran groups, then the...
NOVEMBER PART I November 1896 was significant with the presidential election being fought between McKinley and Bryan. McKinley was declared the winner. The battleship Texas sunk in the Brooklyn Navy yard, sitting about five feet below the water line. The court case in the news was the United States versus American Bell Telephone Company. A decision in favor of the government would open the telephone to public use. Here in the Jefferson Valley, the Zephyr's November issue was the last by popular...
The Whitehall Rotary Club and the local VFW and American Legion will hold a joint celebration of the 100th anniversary of the historic fishpond on November 11th starting at 12:30 PM at the fishpond. The program of approximately 30 minutes will include a history of the pond and several songs performed by the Whitehall High School band. A reception will be held at the Community Center following the program. The pond was constructed in 1922 in honor of World War I veterans. In the early years it was maintained by the veteran groups, then the...
In late October 1896, the focus was on the upcoming November election. But there was plenty of other news on the front page. A hurricane caused severe damage to resorts at Coney Island, a Brit beat American Johnny Murphy for the bantamweight boxing world title, and notorious highwayman Albert Hence Downen is arrested in Denver and confesses to at least 50 hold-ups around Denver. The focus in Whitehall was also leaning toward the election but regular life continued on as well. The following are...
The Whitehall Rotary Club completed their annual distribution in October of dictionary/reference books to local third graders. Third grade students in Harrison, Cardwell and Whitehall receive the books each school year. The books are purchased from The Dictionary Project, a national non-profit that promotes literacy. The books contain a basic dictionary along with sections on the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. states, world countries, the planets, world maps, weights and measures, sign language...
Editor's Note: The Whitehall Ledger received notice that former Whitehall resident Roy Millegan had passed last week. His obituary is forthcoming; Jefferson Valley Museum curator Arlene Weber was asked to comment on Roy's passing. Roy was a man known by many and his efforts affect all in Whitehall even if he was not known to them. Everyone who has lived in our community has left their mark, some much more than others. Roy Millegan is one who left a very positive mark that will hopefully remain...
24 was winding down but not without turmoil in October of that year. A miners' strike was continuing in Colorado, a child is killed by rats in a Baltimore home, the upcoming presidential election was causing a division in the democratic party, and troops were sent to Tuskahoma in the Choctawcountry to guard against possible trouble from the selection of a new tribal chief. People of Montana were insulted by John Sherman, Senator from Ohio, when he called us an "undesirable state" and we were...
The first Oral History program was held at the Jefferson Valley Museum on Wednesday, September 21st. At least 15 attendees listened to the recorded interview between Roy Milligan, Sr. and Bernard May and were able to see photos of many of the places and people talked about. With a favorable response from this group, a second program will be planned for sometime this winter....
During the second half of September in 1896, there was a dynamite plot against Queen Victoria, and a war was raging in Europe with reports of an organized massacre of civilians. Here in Montana rainfall in the state was the greatest known in the summer months, Tom McFadden, a Powder River ranchman and old Indian scout, was killed by being thrown from a vicious horse, and The Old Faithful mine near Bannock may have the richest body of ore discovered in the world-17 ounces of rock yield a quarter...
Was it a change in the weather or something else? By September 1896, law and order in the valley seemed to have withered in the summer heat. The rest of the state was not much better. Constable Thomas Coombs of Butte was attacked by five "roughs" and nearly beaten to death when he tried to serve an arrest warrant on one of the men; Mrs. Rose Heimbach of South Butte was thrown in jail for attacking Mrs. Susie Snelling with vitriol after Rose said, "You can have my husband, but first take this,...
Mining was the newsmaker in the Jefferson Valley in late August 1896. Outside of our valley, there was a national debate on backing the dollar with silver; a yacht race on Lake Erie was canceled due to a lack of wind while in the Ohio Valley, the Green oil field sustained over $100,000 in damage from severe wind that knocked over oil derricks and lightning killed livestock and destroyed several barns. The following is taken as written from the August 21 and 28 editions of the Jefferson Valley...
In August 1896, a heatwave was making the nation swelter; Texas was scorching hot with temperatures of 107 to 112 reported. Hundreds of deaths were reported in New York City; Chicago reported 577 deaths in one week and deaths of animals in the city were much higher than humans. Deaths were also reported in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Peoria. In Canada, American money was not welcome. Canadian banks were warning merchants, farmers, and the general public to not accept American money....
