The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1936-06-12
DIR. FORD, BUTTE'S
FIRST POSTMASTER
GRUFF BUT LOvABLE; LET PA
IRONS HELP THEMSELVES
TO THEIR MAIL
Was in Montana Before Big Camp Had
Its Start; Located Claims That Would
Have Made Him Rich Had He Held
On to Them; Faith in Butte's Future.

In Mount Moriah cemetery, where
Butte'S dead sleep, q slab of native
granite, taken from the surface Of
one Of the Butte hills which he
loved SO well, marks the final rest
ing place of DR.. Arson Ford, INT Of
the best loved of the early pioneers
OF Butte, and n who held q high
and secure place in the affections Of
all who knew him.
Dr.. Ford came to Montana before
Butte was established and came to the
camp among the first, drifting in with
man of excellent education, but none of
the pioneers o living know whether
or not he was a bona fide'' doctor. He
never practiced seriously, but treated
any patients who came to him with Or
binary ailments.
He labored under a great physical
handicap, a. he was a hunchback, and
although he became possessed from
time to time of valuable mining claims,
they slipped away from him without en-
riching their erstwhile owner to any
great extent. His active, optimistic, hon.
est career was not crowned with fl
nancial success.
DR.. Ford wa appointed the first post
master of Butte and he was easily the
most popular man in the camp. Women
and children loved him like a father
and the men of the camp held his
friendship and respect as among their
most valuable assets.
Those who knew him best maintained
that it was a real pleasure to DR.. Ford
when he was able to hand out a letter
from home to some lonely, discouraged
proSpector, but it never was evident
from his conversation at such a time.
The dialogue would run something like
this:
rs there any mail for me, doctor?"
GsVVhn in ho11 uOlI1d uyrifo RI y10J19D
Its none of your business who would
write to me All I want to know is
whether I have any mail or not"
"Humph! The hell you do! Go and
see then, if you want to know, I am too
busy to be bothered"
his friends realized, and no man would
sacrifice nor for a friend than he. His
office was a sort of a symposium or
public reading room and his more fav-
ored friends enjoyed packing boxes to
sit on, spending many hours in the
doctors company, listening to him
swear, tell stories and talk politics with
more than a democratic tinge.
SwOre Like a Trooper
His was a nature full of contradic-
lions. He Swore like a trooper, but was
religiouSly honest. He often treated his
friends with a gruffness which, coming
from another, would have been a signal
of an immediate opening Of hostilities,
yet he was gentle as a child and chill
dren flocked to him as they would to
an older brother. He was charitable and
liberal in everything except politics, for
he believed that there was no rightful
place in this mundane scheme of things
for a republican.
Through Butte's darkest days his new
er wavering optimism and faith in the
camp are pleasant memories to those
who have lived to see his predictions
come true, for he always held that Butte
would some day be the greatest min
ing camp in the world. When asked for
a reason for this prophecy he would ex-