Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-06-05
SPRY
AT 80 YEARS
AND J.. W. CROWELL SAYS HE is
NOT OLDEST CIVIL WAR SOL
DER IN MONTANA
Served Two Enlistments In Cavalry,
Second One In Nebraska Regiment
Which Spent Most of Time Chasing
Sioux and Cheyenne Indians.

j. w. CrowelI, of the 10 surviving
members of Wadsworth post, Grand
Army of the Republic, at Helena, is
hearty at 80 years, although he uses
crutches as the result of an accident
which resulted in a broken hip in
1912. Were it not for the sticks"
he could still shake a wicked leg, he
boasts. His vitality is remarkable for
one of his age. His mind is keen,
he has a CHEEKY laugh, and he says he
enjoys life.
He can read without his glasses, but
prefers to use them, although the lenses
are not much thicker than a sheet OF
paper. When not in use, the glasses
are pushed up IN his broad forehead
which surmounts tWinkling eyes, a
close cropped white beard and a crop
Of silvered hair.
veteran in Montana" he said vigor-
ously, land l was never wounded by
the Indians, and l don't want any no.
toriety. l haven't any story. Well
what do you want to know?
Born In Ohio
Where was l born? In East Liver
pool, Ohio-that's where the first old
yellow ware was made-such as your
grandmother used to have in her cup
board. My dad took me down the river
to Cincinnati when l was a baby; we
lived there a while, then we went down
into Kentucky where he had a planta-
ton and a lot of negroes, and then my
father came west. He landed in Vir-
ginia City, l think it was in 1863. MY
fathers name was Henry Creighton
CroWell. He ran a hotel in Virginia
City, the old fremont House, made OF
hewn logs, where he fed the miners. ]
remember Of my father telling about
Colonel Sanders famous speech when
he told the miners they had to clean
up the Rocky mountain bandits. He
also told us how four bandits were hung
on McDonald's sign, in Virginia City,
after they were each given a drink OF
Whisky, n then pushed off four flour
barrels. Father said that one of them
shouted, I'll see you all in hell, boys.
Where did l enlist? Well, l Joined
the nine months cavalry first as a pri-
vate. Then l re-enlisted in the Second
Nebraska cavalry at Omaha.
Chasing Indians
w WIZ Ia Vic odOuit lIlOSJ VI lllt
time. We were keeping the Sioux IN
dams and C~heyennes down, and guard
ing wagon trains crossing the plains
We We're working between Omaha anc
Fort Kearney and Fort Laramie. in
Wyoming and Nebraska. We always
got through all right. I took a big
wagon train through once myself. We
were carrying powder and fuse from,
Columbus, Nebraska, to Fort Laramie
After the wal was over MI. CroWelI
returned to Omaha, where he learned
to lay brick. He got Sc a day then. In
July, 1870, he brought 176 government
horses from the east to Fort Ellis, trav-
cling by special train over the Unior
Pacific. He landed in Helena on July
10.
For many years he worked at his
trade as a bricklayer in Helena. With
a Denver workman he laid the brick in
the U. S. assay Office there. He helped
rebuild upper South Main street after
1t was destroyed by fire in the '70'S.
For a number of years he mined in
Red Mountain district, and other parts
of Montana.
He says he built the first bushes.
block in Bozeman in 1872.