The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-04-20
(By GLADYS
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Gambling with $50 gold pieces for
poker chips, driving stages through
hostile Indian country, skinning mules
with Clusters disastrous expedition
into the Sioux country, freighting
supplies to new railroad towns and
new mining camps and always push
ing westward far in advance Of the
great tide of settlers. Such has been
Charles Sturman's life.
Sturman is known better among those
who have outlived pioneer days as big
Foot" Sturman. Stories he can relate
of how a hundred towns in North Da-
kota and Montana had their begin
nings, how the Great Northern and the
Northern Pacific railroads drove their
way through Montana and how ROSTER
ing settlements moved overnight as
contracting outfits progressed.
Sturman lives and has lived for many
years at Zortman, where in the days
of mining operations there he freighted
bullion from the mills to Malta and
Dodson, and hauled whisky, beer. food
and mining equipment back to the
Little Rocky camps.
Back in 1872 Sturman drifted into
Brainerd, Mimi, from his home up
state, which he had left at The age of
IL. Brainerd was then the far-west end
of the railroad and a roaring construc-
ton camp full of laborers, gamblers,
teamsters, Indians and the hundred
and one hangers-on of such a place.
Here the boy watched men gambling
with gold pieces for poker chips, saw
road agents hanged in the streets and
listened to stories of gold in the Black
Hills and Indian maSsacres of settlers
and prospectors.
Sturman was in Bismarck, N. D., in
1873 when overnight it became a tent
town swarming with railroad workers
employed on the Northern Pacific.
Deadwood then was the mecca for
thousands of gold hunters.
In 1874, Sturman joined General
G. A. Clusters expedition into the Black
Ellis to investigate reports of fabul-
ously rich gold findings. The Custer ex-
petition, in hostile Indian country for
three months, brought back word that
gold had been found. As a result of this
confirmation of the earlier reports the
Black Hills were thrown open to the
whitemen and treaties unsatisfactory
to the Indians were forced through.
That same year after the trip with
Custer, Sturman worked with a stage
company on a run between Brecken-
ridge and Winnipeg. Grand Forks at
that time was a Hudson Bay trading
post. That year the boundary line be-
tween the United States and Canada
had been run. It vas rs miles south
Of its present location and the follow
ing year was corrected. It vas discov-
cred that the post was in the United
States rather than Canada and aband-
oned. Sturman, arriving at the post,
found it to consist of a saloon in a dug
out, and the deserted uds onBay build
ings and a ferry that had been operated
Indians. A saw mill was soon erected
and a store built. Immediately settlers
by the hundreds rushed into the new
country. Land was taken up in 1000
acre lots. The Hudson Bay buildings
were bought by the new arrivals and
within a short time Grand Forks had
become an established town.
The army post Of Abercrombie, 80
miles from Grand Forks, was garrison
ed at that time. Sturman continued
to drive the stage until 1876.
The Custer expedition against the
Sioux, freighting supplies 400 miles
over unmapped and unfriendly country,
the tragic last stand at the Little Big
Horn, were Sturman's experiences that
year. He had joined Custer again at
Fort Lincoln and was but a few miles
behind the soldiers when they met the
Indians. Following the massacre,
Sturman quit his job with the army
and returned to the Red River country.
In 1877, he married Eleanor Rivet at
Pembina, North Dakota, and the fol-