Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-07-31

Deer Lodge valley, they found at the
mouth of Flint creek a mar named
John M. Jacobs engaged in raising
cattle on shares with John f. Grant,
whom they had met in the Beaver
head country and Adams, who had
come from the Bitter Root where
Woody met him two years before.
From all of which it becomes appar-
ent that neighbors, while not plenti-
full, were not so scarce, either, In west
ern Montana ~ years ago.
The trend towards permanent Set
Elements in Montana, aside from the
establishments maintained in various
parts of the state for the purpose of
trading with the Indians, dates from
the great overland emigration to Cali
fornia and Oregon following the dis
covery of gold on the Pacific coast.
This was at its height in 1849 and
1850. BY this time, too, the fur trade
had passed its zenith. AS a result,
numbers of men who had followed
trapping and trading with the Indi-
ans in the northwest, abandoned that
calling as their primary occupation
and engaged in trading with the travel
ers over what vas known as the Emf
grant road" Their stock in trade was
mostly dressed skins, buckSkin clothing,
horses and cattle and there were the
things which the emigrants most
needed.
Most of the trains upon reaching
that portion of the route lying through
what is now Wyoming and Utah found
their livestock greatly exhausted and
their clothing in rags. These noun
taineer traders offered them fresh
horses and cattle for their worn, out
animals, and skins from which gar
ments could be fashioned, or hunting
shirts and leggings already made by
the Indian women Of Montana and
Idaho, obtained by the mountain men
in winter trade and carried to the
emigrant road in the spring.
Wintered In Valley
With the WORKOUT horses and cattle
obtained from the emigrants the noun
tain men would then retire to Sc
questered valleys of the Rockies of
which they had learned during their
years Of trapping and Indian trading
and there spend the winter. Their
livestock recuperated without cost and
they themselves replenished their
stocks Of dressed skins and skin cloth
ing by trading with the Indians, using
either surplus horses or cattle or sup
plies of Indian trade goods obtained
from the emigrants or from some OF
the frontier trading posts,
A few of these men who traded with
the travellers over the emigrant road
and wintered in the Beaverhead and
the Bitter Root valleys of Montana,
remained permanently in the country
to become prominent in the develop
ment Of the state. Among these were
Thomas w. Harris and G. E. Irvine
who came into the Bitter Root valley
about 1851 or 1852. They were not
the first white men there by any
means, for Major Owen was at that
time conducting the establishment
which bore his name, there was a
Hudson's Bay company post On Grow
creek in the Flathead country in charge
of Angus Mcdonald, whose son, Dun
can Mcdonald, still resides in that
region and who Is now considerably
past 80 years Of age, and Jesuit mis-
sionarieS had been there since 1841.
Harris and Irvine, however, stand out
among the arrivals Of that period be-
cause they came with an eye to some
thing else than trade with the Indi-
ans. They were two among the emf
grant road traders who definitely
abandoned that occupation in the fall
of 1856 and went to the Bitter Root
valley with the intention Of remaining
there. Robert Hereford was another.
Others we're Fred Burr, George Hat