The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1937-05-21

five books-books of kind that today
rest On the shelves of both public and
private libraries for months at time
without having the dust brushed off
them, but which were literally de-
voured by the stuarts- always great
readers-read and reread by them.
There was volume of Shakespeare,
one of Ryrons poems, both fine illus
trated editions: copy of Headley's
Napoleon and His MarshalS," a Bible
printed in French. and Adam Smiths
Wealth of Nations"
Arrived here in 1857
The Stuarts had come to Montana
in 1857 from California. They had start.
ed for the states, but Granville fell i'll
on the trail and by the time they
reached Utah, there was trouble among
troops and MormonS. which made trav-
Ell hazardous and which resulted in
their decision to come north to Mon
tana for the winter.
They spent the winter in the Beaver.
head country and in 1858 went to Gold
creek. where Granville discovered plac-
Gold creek working the placer claim
they had staked two years previous.
They had acquired is or 20 horses
and about the same number Of cattle,
had house and corral and their place,
being on the main trail from the Bitter
Root country and Hell Gate to Cot
tonwood NOV Deer Lodge and Fort
Benton was a favorite stopping place
of neighbors ANYONE who lived within
$50 niles travelling either east or
west.
lated at that time but the few settlers
were friendly and neighborly. The
Stuarts frequently had visitors from
Fort Owen in the Bitter Root and
from He'll Gate, three miles below the
present site of Missoula, who were
bound either for Johnny Grants place
at the mouth of the Little Blackfoot
river, or to the settlement at Cotton
wood.
The greatest drawback to their loca-
ton was the fact that they were also
en- the trail which was used by the
Indians who used to go from Idaho and
western Montana to the Missouri river
and Yellowstone valleys each fall to
spend the winter hunting buffalo.
The Stuart's handled the Indians with
rare diplomacy, however. They traded
with them and would invite the head
men to dine with them, but kept the
suit was that the Indians were for the
most part friendly to them.
And it was from one of these friendly
Indians that they obtained the lnfor-
nation that a white man had recently
arrived in the Bitter Root valley with
q trunk full of books.
The news that books-a trunk full of
books-were within riding distance was
an inspiration to the StuartS after
long. cold winter with no other way to
pass the time than sleep and hunt. The
Indian told them where the white man
was camped. The Blackfoot, the He'll
Gate and the Bitter Root rivers were
bank full with the spring run-off. They
swan their horses through them with
no more thought than if they had
been duck ponds. Books lay beyond
a trunk full of books. AS they rode that
they talked about those books, won
dered what kind of books they were.
Hoped they would be this and that and
the other. books which they had read
and books which they had heard about
and wanted to read. But whatever they
were, if they contained printed pages
The Stuart boys were determined they
we're going to have some OF them.
Arriving in the Bitter Root, and at
the place where the Indian had told
them the white man was camped, they
tound he was no longer there. Other
Indians told them that the man who
brought the books had gone back to
The lower country" but that he had
IelL the precious volumes WIFI aIOCIler
White man.
l2ley searched for the latter, and
finally located him living in a tepee
at the mouth of Sweathouse creek, near
where the town of Victor now stands
1t proved to be Henry Brooks, another
early-day pioneer who came into the
Bitter Root valley in 1855 and who
later was the first justice of the peace
in Missoula county.
Books Located
Brooks had the books, but told them
that the owner, Neil Macarthur, had
left them in his care without authority
to sell any of them Macarthur at one
time Hudson's Bay Co. trader, and the
man who in 1886 began the construc-
ton for the company of a trading post
on Grow creek. which Angus MacDon-
aid later completed and called Fort
Connah, had quit the Hudsons Bay
Co. in 1856 and embarked in trading for
himself in the Bitter Root country. He
later established a trading post at He'll
Gate.
The Stuarts, not to be deferred by the
mere fact that Macdonald had given
Brooks no authority to sell any books,
loosed all their persuasive powers upon
him. They pointed out that Macdonald
had probably presumed there was no
one in the country who wanted books;
that he was trader, and undoubtedly
had come into possession of the books
through some trade with the Hudson's
Bay Co., and that the fact that he
had gone away without giving Brooks
authority to dispose of them was GER