The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1917-12-14
ROBERT VICKERS
OLDEST MERCHANT
HAS TRANSACTED BUSINESS IN
VIRGINIA CITY FOR NEARLY
HALF A CENTURY.
Has Seen the Style of u Hundred
Seasons Come and Go; Time Was
When His Store Was Loafing
Place of Thomas Francis Meagher;
States Oldest Mason.

Robert Vickers of Virginia City, is
the oldest merchant, in point of age
and actual time devoted to business,
In the state. He is SS years of age
and for As years he has conducted a
mercantile establishment in Virginia
City He has seen the styles in mems
apparel come and go for nearly 100
seasons, when it is considered that
there are two seasons, with changing
modes, every year. He has sold
stocks and bell-bottomed pants"
skin-tight pantaloons when they were
the vogue, passed through the flabby
loose pantaloon PERIOD, and watched
the trouser crease come and stay
through the changing seasons. He
can recall when the gray plaid trou-
ser was the acme of cowboy style,
and has been authority of things sar-
torial for the past half century.
Store Meaghcr's Loafing Place.
His establishment in Virginia City
is known as Content Corner" 1t was
one of the first two-story stone build
ings to be erected in Virginia City,
and time was when he would salute
the governor of the territory of Mon
tana, on his way to the executive Of
fices upstairs over the Vickers place
OF business with morning greetings.
He recalls several of the old-time ter
ritorial governors, and can tell of
the time when General Thomas Fran
els Meagher, fresh from his soldier
laurels won in the civil war, made
his store the gubernatorial loafing
place.
Masonry has been his recreation.
He was raised as a member of the
"blue lodge" nearly half a century
ago, and has passed through the va
rious degrees up to the commandery.
He has attended lodge at least 100
times every year, or a totol of 5000
lodge sessions in the past fifty years.
His trips out of Virginia City have
been confined to attending the ses-
sions of the grand Masonic bodies.
Notwithstanding his advanced age
he continues to manage his establish
ment, doing all the buying, much of
the selling, and supervising things
generally. Every morning in all these
years he is at his place of business
at O'Clock, and he is just as keen
at driving a good honest bargain as
he was fifty years ago, when gold
dust was legal tender, and fashion
did not rule quite so strongly as
these days of fashion plate styles.
He belongs to Virginia City lodge
No. 1, oldest lodge in the jurisdiction
of Montana Masonry. This lodge
was organized in the old days when
Virginia was the financial hub of
the state, and to it belonged many
of the states most prominent men, of
the Colonel Wilbut f. Sanders type.
He knew many of the Vigilante chief
tains by their first names, and could
tell some of the secrets of the great
organization which took the lives of
Its members in it's hands when it
started out to clean up the territory
of brigandage. He could tell, of
course, but he never has. One of the
unWritten laws of Virginia City is
not to talk too much about the inner
workings of the Vigilantes. 1t was
not considered good form in the old
days, and this custom of golden sill
ence has continued all these years
and still obtains.