The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1937-06-11

Here are parts of two old-time
tales that link Butte with the be-
ginning of Time SO far as Montana
IS concerned, from the pen of DR..
O.. B. Whitford who was in Mon
tana before the territory was born
and in Butte before this camp had
"begun to scratch gravel" DR..
Whitford was the first doctor in
Butte and probably the first in
Alder Gulch. He was the first hos
pital doctor in MOntana-Virginia
City, Butte and Deer Lodge. He wa
one Of Butte's early-day mayors
and a good one, according to the
records.
Two addresses by this distinguished
session of Mrs. Agnes Griffiths, mother
of Stanley Griffiths, assistant principal
of Butte high school. These addresses
which are written in long hsand-frm,
clear, legible Writing-were delivered at
meetings of the Society of Montana
Lodge in 1912 Then DR.. Whitford, who
died in 1927 at the age of SO, was re-
spectively II and IS years old
Born in Ohio
DR.. Whitford was born in Ohio. He
came west to Denver in 1859 n to
Idaho territory in 1864, in which year
he tried his hand at mining in Alder
EulCll. Lie UOCGOI WAS d SIdOudIC VI
an Ohio medical college n in his
Butte practice was regarded as eXcep-
tionally Skillful along several lines, but
he preferred mining to medicine, as
a rule). He came to Butte in the same
year but returned to Alder Gulch. He
established a hospital in Virginia City.
AS the population began to Wane he
again visited the placer camp of Butte
and established Butte's first hospital
the Miners hoSpital-in 1868. Butte
began to wane. too, as a placer camp,
and Dr.. Whitford went to Deer Lodge, !
where he took his second wife, Mrs.
Susan Lavina Holoway-he had pre-
He returned to Butte In 1876 when
the camp began to attract attention as
a silver mining district and resided
there for many years. In the sunset OF
his life he went to Oregon but after an
absence of four years returned to die
at Butte.
elected mayor. In his hospital days in
the Butte camp he covered the whole
district, from that place to Highland
City. His son, DR.. c. S. Whitford, used
to tell of the sleigh trips he made, as a
boy, with his father to the Highlands
person, of the struggles they had in
getting into the famous old gold camp
and the difficulties they sometimes had
in bringing out a patient.
His First Visit
DR.. Whitford's addresses before the
pioneers we're chiefly devoted to NOR
alizing on the experiences OF pioneers
nostic and wrote pamphlets criticizing
the Bible-and On their ultimate dis
appearance from the scene OF Montana
activities.
In his Butte address he spoke on his
first visit to hat district. In his sec
ond speech. at Deer Lodge, he touched
briefly on the Whitford family history.
The Butte address reads, in part, as
follows:
During the month of October, A. D.,
1864, DR.. Arson Ford (by the way,
Butte's first grand old postmaster, who
served the government at $12 per year
from 1870 to 1880 and who predicted
become the greatest mining camp on
earth and whose prediction as VIZ all
know, is o verified). Arson Ford
and I pitched our tent, as near as I
can remember, where the .Gagnon
hoist now stands and where the grass
was knee-high, covering these hills n
valleys as far as the eye could reach,
waving like the waters of the Pacific
ocean under the influence of a gentle
breeze; decked here and there with
herds of antelope, deer and elk fat
tening or the nutritious grasses.
Antelope Herd
The second morning in camp, at
carly dawn, I heard a trampling. noise
Ground DUR tent. I raised n side OF
The canvas and saw a herd of IL ante
lope apparently inspecting our prem
Uses. My old friend, the doctor, was I'M
fortunately afflicted with curvature OF
the spine which made him about as tall
lying down as when he was standing,
hence I induced him to turn over on
his face so I could rest my gun across
his hump back. Thus the antelope was
shot dead in its tracks, which furnished
us with fresh meat.
THE doctor and I were on a pros
pecting tour. We prospected these hills
far and neal for gold mines, knowing
ore. We located claims for about two
weeks and then moved up to Elk Park
and camped near the northern foot
hills by a spring, in a quaker ash grove.
1.-The first morning in camp, just at
break of day an elk came sauntering
down out Of the mountains to our
spring for a drink, which I shot by
again resting my gun on the doctors
back. Then We had plenty OF meat.
Snow Falls
1.-The following morning the park was
covered with snow and fearing we would
be showed in we loaded our camp fix
lures and as much of our meat as we
could conveniently carry and returned
to Alder Gulch for the winter, believing
that we had our fortunes staked out
in gold mines which afterward proved
to be copper locations and of no value
to a poor man, but of great value to
capitalists, who are To- realizing for
tunes out of the same ground that we
located.
such has been the luck of a ma
jority of pioneers, and although disap-
pointments with us have succeeded each
other down to the brink we will ur-
render it as valiently as we protected
and steered it when in athletic man.
hood we scaled these rugged noun
tains in search Of gold.
"Infirmities have changed the an
ticipations of the pioneer. His hopes of
q reward for the good he has done for
Montana no longer occupies a place in