The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-02-17

! pany with my husband AMI Two children.
! arriving at Virg ma City, Montana. on the
q n day of September. 1864. We came
/ all the way in wagon drawn by oxen. re-
! uuiring four months and II days TO make
the journey. | lived in Virginia City until
| November, 1855, when l moved TO Deer
| Lodge valley. light miles south of Deer
! Lodge city. from which place i moved to
| Deer Lodge city IN November. 1863, where
| l renamed until November, 1885, when l
| moved 20 Butte city, where l now reside.
To undertake to give the innumerahle
and thrilling events incident to a journey
| of neary 1000 miles through a country in-
! habited only by wild beasts and Indians,
! would require more space in your pages
I than your committee could spare. Suffice
it to say that each day brought its new
and trying experience. and each night had
its anxious watch to protect us from the
arrow and the scalping knife OF the treach-
erous savage.
In common with most early pioneers,
and especially pioneer mothers, our first
years in Montana were years of hard
ships. cares and privations, which can
never be appreciated except by those who
have experienced them, and Montana of
Lay. with her unbounded resources, her
advanced development and her many
charms and attractions, magnified by the
touch of civil. ttion, gives TO the immi-
grants of to-day slight suggestion OF
| Montana in the early sixties.
MRS. WILEY MoUNTJoY.
was born in Platte county, state OF
| Missouri. on Jan. &c. 1868, and | was edu-
Gated at Deer Lodge, Mont, in the public
schools and the Montana Collegiate insii-
tute. Ny maiden name was Mary Ella
Irvine. and was married to Rev. Wi ey
Mountjoy on July q, 1892. at Deer Lodge,
| Mont. We have had five children, all OF
whom are now living.
In 1864 | came across the plains in an
OK team in company with INV parents and
my brother, and arrived in Virginia City.
| Mont, afterwards moving to Deer Lodge
City, where lived until my marriage.
when / again returned to Missouri. l
lived there SIX years and then returned to
| Montana, and have since resided in the
city of Butte.
was too young to remember OF my
! Journey to Montana and my life since has
contained nothing of public interest.
MRS. WILLIAM PORTER.
Mrs. William Porter was born in San
dusky, OHIO, in the year 1887. At the age
OF years she moved TO Illinois, where she
remained until 1859 and IN the following
year she was married to William Porter,
and they together crossed the plains to
| Denver, Col
II seemed to be her lot to follow the life
of a pioneer, for in 1864 she moved TO
Stuart, Deer Lodge county, Mont, where
she remained Tor one year and then moved
| to Helena. Mont.
In 1876 she came to Butte, Mont, where
she resides at the present time.
MRS. MARY RIEs.
L
ince of Luxenburg in 1926. and received
her education IN the town where she was
born. Her maiden name was Mary
Lucas. She was married July %, 1852, in
the city of CHI cago to Stephen Res. ~he
had four children, all of whom were born
in Chicago.
She left Chicago with her family to
come to Montana on the 18th oil April,
1864, and arrived in Virginia Ci y, Mont,
on the 4h day of October the same year.
They came across the plains in an OK
train and had quite a sum of money when
they left for the West but the most of this
was spent for tolls at ferries. Wherever
there was a small stream, there sat a man
to collect toll TO the amount of several dol
lars for each team and even pedestrians
were compelled to pay. On the journey
they could see where trains containing
/
standing still, the cattle having been
stolen and the members of the party conn
PEELED to remain in that place until other
cattle could be procured; many lone
graves, where some unfortunate travellers
had been buried. Some days they were in
danger from Indians and some days they
were in danger of perishing for want of
water.
When they left Chicago. they had bought
seven pairs of shoes for each member of
the family and when they reached Vr-
gina City, Mont, there was but one pair
of shoes left in the whole family, and that
pair was in a very badly ill lpidated con-
dition. Tho last bit OF flour was ma lie
into bread on the day they arrived in Vir-
ginia City, and they had only SPA left,
which all went to buy another sack of that
staple article.
Mr.. Ries followed mining and succeeded
. fairly we'll in accumulatIng property. The
mines in and around Virginia City at last
played out and Butte city came into prom
inence as a mining center. In 1879 Mr..
Ries moved with his family to Butte
where he died three years later. Not be
ing used TO attending to finances, Mrs
, Ries lost her property and she was com
PEELED to make her living sometimes at
dressmaking and sometimes at nursing.
Wealth has only in exceptional in
stances remained with those of the early
settlers who made money in Montana
, Their open handed generosity, their viii
, invness to believe that all their new neigh
bors were as honest as themselves, their
friendly spirits. all these made them the
victims of uuprlncipled men, who taking
, advantage of their confidence in human
nature, often robbed them of their hard
earnings those who had braved the
dangers of the early days and endured
: the severe hardships of pioneer times
Mrs Il es was one of these, but her kind
, ness of heart ST II remains, and she live
surrounded b. many whom she has helped
i'm times of need and comforted IN hour
. of afTl elton. These delight to assist he