The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-01-03
LAST Of TIKI 1RAPPERs.
A Class Of Frontisrsmsn Now Al
most Extinct, Once Numerous
In Montana
Death Recently Of Hugh Monroe.
Who Had Passed the Com
tury Mark
n Tar Montana : Link Was Broken That
nouad Together the Past and ths
Present.

Last week We received from 0oneoAA .
telegram which announced The death Of
Hugh Monroe, one Of the very last Of the
old-tims race Of trappsfs. Hs was about
100 years Of age, and Of these more than
seventy mine had bsen spent ON the plains
and IN the mountains.
Hugh Monroe was . remarkable man.
His life was full Of startling changes and
sharp contrasts. Of keen delights. and Of
deadly periis. IT. STORY, II written. would
BE- The history q Z great region, utterly
wild and savaGs whom he hrst knew u. but
gradually settled and civilized. until now
10 has cities and towns. and hamlsts and
farms, and railroads, and ID no longer wild.
uncultivated OF distant. To write his life.
too, would be TO give At the same time the
story Of . people who were onos - fEes and
savage and untamed a. the wild beasts On
which thsy fed, . scourRs 70 their enemies
and . terror 10 the white Invaders Of their
land; but who are now quiet, industrious.
occupied in peaceful pursuits, tilling the
soil. tending their herds.
Monroe was almost the last survivor of .
type wholly unknown to the generation Of
today, but who nifty years g were the
masters Of the mountains and the plains.
II was Of sush men that Irving wrots-and
. little later Parkman-when they told, The
one Of the prairies AND Astoria and Of
Bonneville, and the other Of California
and the Oregon trail. OF these men scarce
y one survives today. Such names % tie
Hublstbes, Bent, st. Vrain, Jack Robinson,
Bridgsr, Peter Ogden, Meek, Carson and
others coms to mind. Most Of them died
long ago, but some We have known and
known we'll. They we're men; they wore
the real pionseta. Beside them. how ab-
surd today sounds the title Of explorer"
applied Sb the man who rides in . railway
car to within . hundred miles Of the coun-
try he wishes TO penetrate.
Il Eighty years ago Monroe took ser vice
with the Hudson's Bay company, and set
out for the distant west. On foot. by
packet. by brigade and by canoe he jour-
bussline Montreal nd lonely Fort Edlnon-
ton, then the, westernmost OF the posts of
the great company. Soon after reaching
there he was sens out hlone to live with the
Blaokfsst, for another interpreter was
needed and he must learn the language. II
~tention, he maEvslously impressed the sim
Pile Indians BY lighting medicine pipe
with his burning glass, 30 they believed
that he brought down the sun-Whi0h they
worshippsd-and they called him its child.
From that time on he was a person OF Inn
p~ortance In the tribe, q welcome guest in
avery lodge. Soon he married a woman of
the Piegans and reared a family Of child
rem, some of whom, and their children and
grandchildren. were about him to the last.
At first q Hudsen's Bay man, Monroe was
by turns . free trapper. American Fur COM
pany eynploye and scout for the United
States government. During the e~xplora-
tions for q Pacific railway route he served
a. guide n interpreter with Gov. Stevens
and Mr.. Doty, and on one occasion by his
influence with the Indians saved the whole
party OF whites from being killed by the
enraged Blackfset and Gros Vsntres Of the
prairie. Long before this, while ON q war
expedition with the Blaokfeet and Gros
Ventres. he had saved from death q party
of liz white men and Indians, under Peter
Of the Sublettes.
Hugh Monroe was = man Of most simple,
gentle and kindly disposition, yet he was .
brave man and the sire OF brave children.
lilo has told us many q tale OF daring Ad-
venture. relating them as simply a. . child,
giving only the bare faots and leaving his
hearers to draw their own conclusion. His
sons John and FRANCOIS have good war
records and the former, in one fight, alone
against a. purity OF Aasinaboines, had thir-
teen balls put through his robe. three in his
gun stock and two through the handker.
OAA0A OON00 0UOub lib 0oHO, NIu uu0llV
drove of tho enemy. His Rrandsons, Rob-
srt and William Jackson, were good scouts
and COED fighters under Gems. Custer and
Miles, and one Of them killed Lame Deer
when, during q talk, he shot at Gen. Miles,
who was sitting on his horse close TO him.
The general. We believe. still preserves tho
war bonnet worn by the chief. which shows
In it, forehead piece the round hole where
Jaokson's fatal bullet cut it.
Unwept save in his own immediate circle.
unhonored save in these b. ief lines, Hugh
Monroe has gone down to a lonely grave in
the land he loved. Yet how great 4 service
have he and his performed for this sountry
and for all of ID. Worthily he lived his
simple NE, never realizing, perhaps, any
great part OF all that no was accomp lish-
ing. with NO purpose save to perform, az
nearly ~ he knew il, his duty toward his
fellow men, red or white. But il Vac
through his life, and through the lives Of
such rs he. that the broad empire, which
was a. frst an unknown wilderness, then
the far west, and IL now flourishing states.
was subdued and made h%abitabls. Such
mon. the pioneers. namelsss and unknown
though shsy. were. made this nation possi-
BILE. Their hardshlps, their tolls, their suf-
fefinQs. their dangers and their deaths
were endured for all of "a.
Away out In far Montana Q link whieh
bound together the past aad the present.
was broken when, on tho border Of tho vast
plains he had roamed over for eighty years,
under the shadow Of the ohanQelsss noun
tains whose dehles no had 10 often threaded,
Hugh Monroe raid tho last great debt to
Bird Grinnsll, in Forest and |
ssreom, New York. Dec. IL, 1892.
Railway ~Conuadrums.
What 10 the railway mileage of the United
States2 170.601 miles.