The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1924-03-20

- ern Montana, died at his home
in Miles City a few days ago at the
age of 81.
Colonel Gordon was born of Irish
~parentage in the city of New York
in 1843 and received his education
in the public schools of that city.
His early affiliations were all in the
line that had in later years engross-
ed his time and services, having spent
his boyhood days in carrying w
papers. In those days before the era
of the perfecting press, the biggest
of the New York dailies had no bet
ter equipment than is now found in
the country offices and the uptown"
editions were put on the press about
8 o'clock in the morning so that the
papers might be delivered to the car
riers and the long four or five miles
to the points of distribution covered
by the slow horsecar transportation,
in time for the patrons to get the
paper at breakfast, and to do this
the carrier boys had to report about
8 o'clock, and if the paper was late
they were permitted to curl up and
go to sleep in any nook or corner of
the grimy old offices, until such time
as the papers were ready to be count
ed out to them, warm and wet from
the press, to be folded. These were
the days of expert human folders,
who by d~eXterouS manipulation of
the limp sheet, made it respond like
athing of life to every motion. Every
office had it's champion and balloons
full of vaporous "'guff'' were expend-
ed daily in their service, but there
no Contests" as is the fashion
now. No one thought of making up
a "match" of make-believe paper
1t was the real thing that
counted and when that was on there
was no time for play.
In 1858 the scene was shifted to !
he then incipient metropolis of st. ;
Paul. Sammy" as his mother call
I'd him, was through with school and
presumed to be ready for life's bat
lie. He had a brother who had To-
in st. Paul and it was quite nat /
lral that the transplanting of the
Younger shoot of the family tree I
be where the elder brother !
,ould look after it, so st. Paul it was. l
Something of a trip, too, in those I
for a boy whose travelling ex- 4
,eriences up to that time were cir \
umscribed by the ferries and street 4
ar lines of the big city. At st. |
PAUL he found employment in a dry {
.oods store as errand boy. I
This employment lasted until the d
var broke out in 1861 when young I
returned to his native city 4
nd soon found pn1ouponp in fha 7
ffice of the Independent, which /
ewspaper under the joint editorship 4
f Henry Ward Beecher and Theo- l
ore Tilton, was then beginning to /
national Importance. In this 4
he remained for three years, 4
uring which time he enjoyed the 4
ersonal acquaintance not only of the 1
NO great men whose names have 4
cen mentioned, but of others equal 1
prominent, who were contributors +
the paper, among whom were Hor-
Greeley, William Lloyd Garrison, 4
lendell Phillips and other leaders in
le great abolition army of the day. a
In 1864 Colonel Gordon obtained q
le position of quartermaster's clerk \
!. Fort A~bercrombie, on the Red /
liver of the North, at that time the b
1treme outpost of the western from Y
er, in North Dakota. Here for a q
ar and then a transfer to the office U
the chief quartermaster at st. d
aul, which employment lasted until
lie fall of 1865.
In April, 1885, he entered the en- &
oy of Amherst H. Wilder of st. h
aul as confidential clerk-which po-
ton he retained for IA years, with
instantly increasing responsibilities II
Mr.. Wilder's business expanded, l.
sulting finally in the transplanting
Mr.. Gordon to Montana soil. In T.
he came to Miles City on a bust E
'ss mission for Mr.. Wilder, who
had large interests there, and
ter concluding his mission, which
cupied about six months, he de-
to link his fate with the new g.
y on the Yellowstone. From Sep
nber, 1881, until the summer of
he was a member of the firm
Broadwater, Hubbel & Co. The
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