The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1924-05-15
RECORDS OLD DAYS
AT FORT SARPY
CHRONICLE OF LIFE IN MON
TANA BEFORE DISCOVERY
OF PLACER DIGGINGS
James H.. Chambers Day-by-Day Mar
rative of Happenings at Ancient
Yellowstone Fur Trading Post
~Sixty-nine Years Ago.


ate radishes and lettuce for dinner.
This fact, which in modern times
Montanans would not regard as
either startling or deserving of any
event in the life of this hardy from
tiersman, who was wrestling a live
Hhood from the territory's primi-
tive confines, on June is, 1855.
Friday, June 15-This day dinet
s~umptuously on lettuce and radishes
the first l have eat for six years.
Chambers wrote in his diary to rec
ord his pleasure and good fortune.
The diary further discloses thai
Chambers "shirted and shaved" him
self in honor, or, perhaps, to cele.
brate his visit to the home of his ole
friend, F. G. Ritter, at whose home
for the first time in six years he was
to indulge his appetite with delica.
cies capable of evoking the e~cstacies
of a hard-headed old Indian trader.
If Chambers were alive today, the
depression that came to parts of Mon
tana with the after-the-war read
justment, probably would not i'm
press him as being something very
hard to bear. His everyday priva-
tions were of the kind that required
real fortitude and courage to sur
vive. His breakfasts consisted some
times of cherries and coffee" or wild
meat unembellished. When reduced
to an exclusive meat diet, however.
it seems that the frontiersman was
discriminating in the choice of cuts
for on Sept. 1 of 1855 he tells of
killing two COWS and a bull buffalo
to secure meat enough for "a couple
of meals"
Only one of the five volumes which
comprised Chambers diary has been
preserved so far as is known. Vol
ume five, for the years 1855 and
1856, was obtained by the late Gran
vile Stuart and was by him turned
over to the state historical library.
Part of it is dim and some of it I'M
readable even when a powerful mag
nifying glass is used, but enough of
it has been copied by Dave Hilger,
state librarian, to constitute one of
the most authentic and interesting
histories of Montana as it was in the
days prior to the civil war.
The author of the log was frank,
candid and honest. Unquestionably
he had man virtues and some vices,
but hypocrisy was o numbered in
the latter. Consequently there are
portions of the diary which are not
likely rel to be published. In the
conscientious, careful writing there
is reflected a personality of a big
hearted, o~pen-handed, unpublished.
yet not uneducated man. He quotes
Shakespeare freely-writes for the
most part graphically and accurately,
and while he frequently lapseS into
the ungrammatical language that
might be expected at a fort situated
in the wilderness, yet there are pages
and pages where not a glaring error
of grammar or syntax appears. He
had a typical sense of humor, and if
in a rough sort of way, he enjoyed
other peoples misfortunes, he also
was possessed of the faculty to laugh
at his own misfortunes, and there is
little grumbling in the record, ex-
cept occasionally at the Grow tribe,
which he conceived to be comprised
for the most part of worthless, lazy,
thieving, beggarly loafers." He also
considered the Crows towards in bat
tie, and frequently rejoiced when the
Sioux worsted them in encounters.
When a negro employee of the fort
had the affections of his wife alien
ated by husky, young buck Indians,
reviewed the proceedings
airy, yet a chapter or two later shows
him to be a man of keen sympathy
and big-heartedness.
His entries referred to are:
"Jan. 8 (1856) - Thermometer
thick close to the fort.
"Jan. 8-C1ear and cold. Our peo-
pie came in at dusk. They we're
in yesterdays storm. Seven
horses and two oxen froze to death,
and the party came near sharing the
fate of the animals. A little child,
the daughter of the late Col. A. B.
was brought in by them.
It's mother had thrown it away, poor
thing. 1t was neal gone
chilled through. l took
of it and intend to keep it,"
There is NJ further mention of the
title one in Vol. 5, the last book of
The series. Neither was there any
mention of any relationship existing
between the man mentioned as the
,ather of the waif or the writer of
he diary, although their surnames
we're similar.
Fort Sarpy, State Librarian Hilger
declares, was situated a short dis
below the mouth of the Big
Iorn river on the Yellowstone river.
rhe trading posts located there en-
Dyed a brisk and usually profitable
business buying buffalo robes and
,ther furs from the Red men. A
~eason's trade would net a company
Is many as $4,000 buffalo hides,
which we're usually transported to
It. Louis on large barges constructed
# logs. other game was plentiful
nd hunters who we're employed at
he fort frequently brought in deer,
Tx, antelope, bear, and wild sheep
nd goats.
At the time numerous Indian wars
we're in progress, but the reds seldom
nolested the whites except occasion