Cut Bank pioneer press. [volume] (Cut Bank, Mont.) 1909-current, 1916-12-29
PAID $4,000 @
BARREL WHISKEY
OLD TIMERS RECALL STORY
INVOLVING WILLIAM REA
AND ANDREW j. DAVIS
Rea Bought Whiskey From Davis,
Paying Him With Note Secured by
Gallatin County Warrants OF
$4,000 Face Value; Davis Finally
Collected Warrants.

William Rea of Billings spent some
time in Helena last week, and told OF
his purchase of a barrel of whiskey
by his father, William Rea, ST., from
Judge A. j. Davis of Helena, in the
early days for $4,000, the record
price for whiskey in this state.
When William Rea kept the only
stopping lace, or wayside hotel, in
the vicinity of Gallatin City in 1866,
he deemed it necessary to keep a lit
tie liquid refreshment on hand for
his numerous travelling guests.
Old Time Interest.
He accordingly purchased a barrel
of whiskey, containing 40 gallons, at
$3.50 per gallon, from Judge A. ].
Davis, paying therefor with a note
bearing interest at 5 Der cent per
month, interest to be compounded
at the end of each and every month.
The note was secured by Mr.. Rea
with So, 0O0-face value-of Gallatin
county warrants. The note was al
lowed to run some three years when
Mr.. Rea, ascertaining that the
rants had not been paid off and that
there was no immediate prospect that
they WOuiu UCS anu lih-lu6 IudI bAO
note was fast absorbing them, con-
cluded to accept the inevitable, then
and there.
He accordingly went to Judge Da-
Wis and said: Give me my note, take
the warrants and go to thunder"
(Revised Edition.) This proposition
Judge Davis readily accepted, surren-
dering the note and taking the $4,000
worth of county warrants for the bar
rel of whiskey.
Davis Gets Busy.
No one at all acquainted with A. J.
Davis will suppose for a minute that
he wore out those valuable evidences
of indebtedness in his p%antaloons poe
ket, or that he allowed the treasurer
of Gallatin county to recline on
"flowery beds of ease" while the said
warrants rename I unpaid. He ] st
quietly looked up the law, then over
hauled the t~reasurer's accounts and
transactions, then he deliberately
stirred up a little hornets nest about
the ars of the official. He took the
matter into the district court and
there demonstrated that the county
treasurer had not only been
paying Warrants bearing uaJe anO
register subsequent to those held by
Davis, but had also, contrary to Law,
issued and paid balance certificates
and that he was apparently short in
his accounts to the extent of severa.
thousand dollars.
:, More Complications.
! Be that as it may, Davis secured
) judgment against the county treaslr
er, and compelled payment of tn,
warrants within a year from the tim,
he commenced action. This turn o
the wheel rendered it necessary foi
the treasurer to raise money to , a,
!, the warrants and the costs of tn,
suit. This he did by borrowing tn,
/ needed amount from l.. M. Black
Y the repayment of which he secure,
by mortgaging the Northern Pacifi
+ hotel. Judge Davis thereby realize,
$4,000 for his barrel of whiskey, an,
\ in a short time l.. M. Black owne,
the hotel, which had also been alb
sorbed by the single barrel of liquor
originally purchased by Mr.. Rea TO
s $465.50, but which eventually cos
him $4,000.