The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-09-23

Qua chance hs found himself At Last Chance
culch she day after che Bpellman's had
reached that historic field Of gold.
Thus We see = coincidsncs which, kit had
mover ooinoidsd, would not have Loft Inc
frequent and often amusing scenes Of lat
tor Day life in the city court.
From all that can be gathered We n
that Colonel Spsllman, the first, and the
original "Majah" Moran met on the Held
of "honah' sometime in the spring Of 1902.
Tho Morans toll us that the trouble arose
over tho majors refusal to give the colonel
the privilege to pick his own chew OF to-
baooo, while. on the other hand, wo are in
formed by the present head OF the house OF
S~pellman's that the difficulty arose over the
ownership of a certain pick. The origin of
the difficulty, Ia however, obscure and I'M
satisfactory. We only know from the re-
searches Of Colonel Wheeler, librarian OF
the Historical Society OF Montana, that
the meeting occurred at early dawn; that it
was a lovely morning, that even the twitter-
ring birds sang poems of sympathy from
the new foliage Of spring, and That Moran
fell dead at the first Are. What followed
is unknown, though the reader 10 referred
to the histories of the two families. Owing
to dislike of the rslicts for newspaper pro-
minenoe the ~Shadowgraphor In unable to
secure facts as he would like. In q modest
way he wishes to state that he carrys his
life in his hands at this writing.
The next battle occurred the next year
when young Moran avenged his fathers
death by killing off the Spellman's
chickens. Then followed a long lull. It
-.- A--11 L.V:o--l AhnA Arni%p hn6 honvN
declared when another row occurred over .
CITY election. This resulted in the elder
Spellman being stoned to death by the
Moran children, who had now grown to
considerable size, but had not forgotten
their father's tragic death.
Another term Of peace lasted until war
time. Just how the next play came up we
are unable to state with desired accuracy. |
We note, however, in the records Of the
morgue a verdict of a c%oroner's jury which
reads that John Henry Moran, Jr., came to
his death from the effects of a brickbat
thrown by a Spellman boy whose first name
is unknown to the jury.
We now come down to June, 1868, when
we turn to the files Of the Rocky Mountain
Gazette, of which Hugh McQuaid was then
the local editor. In a column headed:
'City News we lind the following items:
CoLp WEArHER-Old Prob dropped in
town last night and sent the thermometer
down to 60 degrees below. -Four Cinnamon
were found frozen up this morning just be-
low the diggings. We disrsmember any
such weather in the gulch.
ANOTHER HOLD UP-X. Beidler, who came
in from Benton yesterday. tells US that the
VHy~yI. r.--- ->- h1ll -~ C--l~-
night at Sun River crossing. We learn that
the parties nave not yet been apprehended.
II apprehended they will retire from their
road agency very suddenly.
A BIG BEAR-Pete Ronan killed q grizzly
on the Big Blackfoot yesterday, after a
three days hard fight. Pete's friends are
now eating bear steak. They understand
that he will soon appear on the stage
again.
The %SpELLMANs AND MoRANs-These fam
lilies opened up again yesterday afternoon
and entertained the ~citizens of our pleasant
little camp with a half hours battle. From
all information at the time of going to
press we understand that Moran's old
black cat, which is a familiar figure to our
citizens, sneaked over in SpellmRn's back
yard, and was promptly killed. Then
young Johnny Moran laid for Spellman's
big dog WATCH and fetched him. The
next minute the Spellmans assaulted the
Moran castle with a fusilade of rocks, and
a general fight followed. We learn from a
constable that the Morans swiped three
and the Spellmsns two. Funeral notices
will be found in another column.
On the following day the same paper
contained this item:
PERsoNA1-Johnnie Dougherty. the
genial undertaken from Deer Lodge, was
around town yesterday shaking hands with
the boys. He is over to help out our local
undertaken in disposing of the results of
the Spellman-Moran affair.
Another long interval of peace seems to
have followed though in looking over the
files of the paper from that time we find
sundry headlines reading thus: "The Spell
mans and Morans at it again." mysterious
death of Moran's Chinaman;'' "Shots ex-.|
changed in the First ward, no damage;"
"The feud ~re-opened, no DAMAGE young
Peter Moran uses a %slung-shot IN a SPELL
man boy" In THE INDEPENDENT of Dec. 2,
1878, we find the following editorial suR-
g%estion: isn't it about time the authori-
elC8 ,OIOukAV -
to a finish? How often will our
citizens be compelled to witness
another row like that yesterday after
noon on Bridge street. If the
authorities are too cowardly to handle this
matter, how would it do to start the COM
mittee at work again?" We read that six
weeks later DR.. Steele was caused to the
Moran residence to set a broken neck, and
that another of the Spellmans had been
bound over to await the action of the grand
jury.
The next general engagement occurred
in the spring of 1890, and was faithfully
chronicled in HE INDEPENDENT by Mr..
John McMurray, then a valued member Of
the local staff. The Morans had purchased
a new brood of chickens and had taught
them to fight. The spellmans, to stand
off these new reinforcements, likewise pur-
chased a dozen or moro game chickens.