The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1922-02-09

: with the latter the chief was killed
but he left word as he was dying thai
the Grows should ever after keep
/ peace with the whites. AS a nation,
the Crows were never again in arms
t against the whites.
There were many thrilling expert
ences at the fort in succeeding years;
also many unusual incidents. On
July 4th, 1885, the men wanted to
fire a national salute from the can
non. Gabrielle Benoist, a Canadian
Frenchmen, was ramming a charge
down when a premature explosion
took place, the rammer tearing off
his right hand and hitting the wall
with such force that it was sp1intered.
His face, breast and arms were horri-
bly, mangled and his right eye put
out. He lived, however, till 1870.
when he passed away on the Fort
Belknap reservation.
There were constant fights near
the fort between the Crows and eros
Ventres and the Grows and Blackfeet.
My father was called upon at all
times to exercise the greatest tact
and restraint in order to keep his
trade going on successfully. In 1887
smallpox was brought up the river
by one of the boats and the scourge
hit the Indian tribes along the Mis-
souri, with terrible fury. Thousands
died. Finally it attacked the garri-
son at the fort. Scarcely one of it's
hundred occupants escaped. My faith
er, himself, vas sick with it, but in
sisted on making a vaccination, how
ever. Deaths took place daily. At first
the victims were buried but soon the
number of the healthy was so small
that they could not dig graves, and
the bodies were thrown into the
river.
Notwithstanding the terrible re-
suits of the disease my father took in
10, 900 buffalo robes the next winter,
and in the succeeding years the num-
Der of robes kept increasing until the
annual receipts were from 10000 to
5000.
In the spring of 1888 my father
had a narrow escape from death, be-
ing attacked while lying on his bed
by a Blood Indian of q%uarrelsome
disposition. Two men of the garri-
son rescued him and killed the
Indian.
In 1889 my father took the furs
anu lOOCo " u OIilOHy anu LhOh
took charge of eight mackinaw boats,
each frelghted with 800 packs of
furs, and descended with them to
st. Louis, the trip taking just one
month. This was the last fleet of
mackinaw boats the company ever
dispatched to st. Louis, their furs
afterward being carried down the
river in river steamboats,. While at
O. 7 O,,;-- 49, Go+Io, hNnorao = no,+
ner of the American Fur Company.
That year virtually ended my faith
er's residence at Fort Mckenzie, and
in 1871 the American Fur Company
made the greatest mistake of its
career by transferring him to Fort
Laramie, at the junction of the La
ramie and Platter rivers, where trad
ing conditions had been bad for some
time. He told the officials that he
felt it was extremely unwise to leave
affairs at Fort Mckenzie in the
hands of untried men, as the situa-
tion with the Blackfeet was a very
delicate one. However, they insisted,
and as my father had predicted,
trouble soon followed. One Chardon,
in charge of the fort, massacred an
innocent and unsuspecting party Of
Blackfeet with the forts cannon to
avenge the killing of a pig belonging
to the post by another band. This
made necessary the abandonment of
the fort and the building of another,
Fort f. A. G. at the mouth of the
Judith on the north bank of the Mis-
souri,. The big and profitable Black
feet trade that my father had built up
was thus dissipated. Then the officers
Of the American Fur Company begged.
my father to return to the Missouri
set things right. He at first re-
fused, but at last consented.
Returning to Fort Union, he
up the Missouri, and in 1843
a spot at the head of the
rapids above where Fort Ben
ton stands today, and built on the
south bank of the river a fort that
was completed in January, 1914. It
vas a log fort, the stockade being
$50 feet square, with two bastions.
There was one gate facing the river.
rhe garrison comprised 70 men.
My father SOC made peace with
Blackfeet and resumed trade
With them, taking in 100 packs of
buffalo robes in the first four
months, besides beaver, wolf and fox
AS a result of this fine work,
ny father was made agent for the
ompany of the whole Upper Missouri
ountry at a salary of $4,000. The
-ighest salary paid to any of his pre-
ecessors was $4,000 a year.
The location of Fort Lewis was un-
avorable, because the Blackfeet had
cross the river to trade, so in the
pring of 1916 my father decided to
to a new site and chose the one
here Fort Benton stands today. He
down the stockade and build
lgs of the fort and RATED them down
lie river, rebuilding the new fort
ON the materials of the old. Within
lie next few years the fort was re-
lilt of adobe.
There followed from this time the
years of fur trading at Fort
enton that lasted into the CO.'S,
hen the American Fur Company
to exist.
1t was some of the events in NV