The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1924-02-22
new SIDE-LICHTS
ON OLD MONTANA
THE "REMINISCENCES OF ALEX
TOPONCE, sFREIGHTER OF THE
OGDEN TRAIL, REVIEWED

f
: Romantic Ride of Colonel Broad
water, From $50 Miles East of
Fort Benton to Helena, With Au-
thor, to See Fiancee.
lTT is a remarkable fact that no
two men in a crowd witnessing
an exciting event will tell the
story afterwards in the same way.
Newspaper reporters and lawyers who
have listened to the testimony of
the witnesses in many murder trials
are familiar with these strange lido
syncrasies of human interest and OBJ
servation / have already referred
briefly to "The "reminiscences of Alex
! Toponce,' recently from the press.
know of no writer of early day Mon
tana who saw things with the eyes
of this old freighter who died in Og-
den last May, writes r. r. Kilroy in
the Anaconda Standard. His book,
published few months after his
death, will never bring him fame as
an author, but as a chronicler of the
simple fact he has contributed an in
valuable fund of incident and per-
sonal experience to the history of the
Northwest.
I was attracted by a paragraph in
the preface which relates that Top
once was "the associate and fellow
pioneer of James Bridger, Father De
Smet, Kit Carson, Joe Rubideaux,
Father Ravalli, John G. Fremont, DR..
John Mclaughlin, Brigham Young,
Jean Richeaux, Ben Halliday, Father
Palladino, Gen. Albert Sidney John
ston, Ben McCulloch, o. ]. Salisbury,
Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher, Gen.
Philip H. Sheridan, Gen. George Gus
ter, Fred j. Kiesel Gen. p. e. Conner,
Gen. Nathan Kimball, Buffalo Bill,
Bishop futile, Bishop Lawrence Scan
Ian, John Guthrie of Corinne, Marcus
DAILY, w. A. Clark, John w. MacKey,
Jim Fair, Judge G. G. Goodwin of
Nevada, John F. Bishop, Charles Ma
guire, Granville Stuart, Aaron Ross,
F. x Biedler, Neil HOWE, w. N.
Shilling, Stanton G. Fisher, B. F.
Lorin Farr, Dan Ensign,
Charles Nelson, and scores of others
who in the by-gone years made his
.ory for Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Wyom-
HSy w OOlOIdQO anu
ana, who mostly now, like him, sleep
n the dreamless sleep"
The theater of his experiences ex-
ended east as far as Fort Union at
he junction of the Milk and Missouri
ivers, west to MissouIa and south to
,alt Lake City and there is hardly
MIR xxyhn NJ fiO1Irpc In the
arly life of what is now the state of
Iontana whom old Alex does not in
Jude in his story.
One of the most thrilling chapters
ellis of a ride Colonel Broadwater
nd Toponce made from a point about
so miles east of Fort Benton to Hell
ma. They were coming through with
big train" of freight from Fort
Tnion when Broadwater, who wish
d to see a very charming young Hell
ma lady named Chumaseero, whom
e afterward married." proposed that
ley take a couple of thoroughbred
addle horses they had brought from
t. Louis and ride ahead. The train"
as making only Is miles a day and
roadwater couldn't wait to see his
ancee. The country was full of
ostile Indians. They rode at night
nd "hid up" during the day. They
I'D reached point near what is now
liz Sandy on the third day and had
ade so miles when Broadwater sug-
ssted they camp at Sand creek, 10
lies farther.
They rode fast and their horses
ere almost played out when I'VE
opped at the edge of a coulee and
oked down. There, lined up close
lder the bank, was a row of 80
ackfeet braves, each one armed and
anding beside his horse, all grim
ng." Their parley with the Indians,
no took their thoroughbred mounts
way and gave them "a couple of the
)rst looking old skates 1 had ever
en-, one a little scrawny NUT and
e other a fat lazy old mare that
d rheumatism and had been used
the squaws as travois animal to
u1 wood; their tortoise-gait jour
miles an hour''-to Fort
nton, their ultimate arrival at Hell
a, where they found Miss Chum-
zero radiant, happy and glad to see
= is all well told.
There are two amazing chapters on
rginia City, where Alder gulch gold
nth $3.50 an ounce, was being
zen out in millions. The other gold
st from the Silver Bow, Frying
n, Iowa Bar, Last Chance and Con-
erate Gulch brought only $14 and
old voyageur tells several rafting
ID tales of his experiences with the
wing exchange rates of the period.
roponce was a speculator on
ge scale. He bought and sold OK
ms, dealt in supplies which he
lied from the rail-end at Corinne
the steamboats, at Fort Union
Fort Benton.
There is Butte touch in one of
cIocino, chanfarc xuhan fha narro