Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1937-10-23

Billy rustled some slabs and set III
a small corral and feed barn when the
BenSon's Landing crowd moved up to
the site of Livingston. He began 10
prosper.
But Billy was a spender. He made
big money, but he spent bigger money.
He couldn't make any of 1t stick TO
him. So he sent to Missouri for Tommy
to join him again. Billy had the edge
on Tommy as a money maker, but
Tommy knew how to keep it. An ideal
! combination.
Their livery and feed barn at once
became the outstanding spot for farm
erS and freighters in the upper Yellow
stone country to gather in Livingston.
They provided q local market for grain
/ and hay from the ranches. They were
/ eminently fair in all their dealings.
| They became about the best known,
| best liked, and best fixed men in their
community.
BY 1893, when the big panic struck,
they we're more able than anyone else
to carry on. Many are the stories told
by pioneer farmers of the kindness Of
Billy and Tommy Miles In helping
them along when there was neither
cash nor credit to be had in the coun-
"That fall I couldn't get money to
pay my taxes" says Al Wilkins of Liv- |
ingston. Il had lots of grain and hay /
and stock on the ranch, but there was /
no market and but little money. /
brought load Of oats to town and
persuaded Tommy Miles to let me
have enough money to pay my taxes.
When I went back to the barn for my
team in late afternoon and told him
/ was leaving he asked if wasn't
going to stay until after supper. told
him there would be no supper for me
7
ley, because didn't have the price.
Here's five dollars, said Tommy
Put your team back in the barn. Feed
them, and get supper before you go
home. Pay me back when you can.
You can bet when I got five dollars
ahead I paid that debt" concluded
wilkins. just one of many such stories.
Car Replaced Horse
The Miles brothers gave up their
livery and feed barn during the World
war, when it became plain that the
would be its doom. They
had accumulated large real estate hold !
ings and were rated as wealthy. I
Tommy Miles died in 1921. Many said :
he languished because of his nOStal-
gia for the old surroundings and the +
sounds and aromas of the barns which 7
mad been his business for so many
years.
A stranger, hearing Billy Miles talk
n his later years, would have consid-
cred him "hard-boiled." But Living
iton merchants, if they would, could
ell stories of the many families TO
whom they delivered large quantities
If groceries or clothing on Billy's or
iers; there were individuals who lived Z
~ grace of Billy's sentiment for the
pioneer days they had shared together.
Billy once refused, rather gruffly,
o contribute sum Of money to buy
revolving door for a church build A
ng Within an hour he asked Sal
alton Army officer how much he was
lated for on the Armys Christmas
und.
THAT Is for you to say" replied the
,fficer. Billy wrote a sizeable check,
With the admonition to come back if
more should be needed.
1t was a favortte sport with Billy,
when the Salvation Army's Christmas
Sot was boiling, to emerge from the
,ank with Is silver dollars, stand back
! few PAGES, and throw them, one at
! time, into the mouth OF the pot. He
lever missed his target.
In his earlier years In Montana
3illy'S career came near being cut
hort-a near-betrayal by the tradi- n
ional thirty pieces of silver. OF
Billy was up near Great Falls one
1inter on business. For some reason o,
e started to cross the Missouri river If
foot on the ice He wore a pair of a
Iaist overalls, supported only by the "
Taist button in front. In the overalls h,
ocketS were exactly 80 silver dollars. IL
he ice broke, dropping HIM into the "
'ater, which was several feet deep. r
he current pulled his legs downstream o,
S he chung to the crumbling edge of crr
ne ice. The pull of the water and the al
eight of the silver broke loose the n
Iaist button of his overalls, letting al
lem fold around his feet to prevent ~
ny effort to control his position in 70 70
ne water. Billy had decided he was -
"goner" when a man came along, :,
here one might not have appeared ~
n days. A pole was showed out across ~
le weak ice and Billy was rescued. pS
Montana'S destiny needed Billy "
Tiles. He was saved to spend nearly "a
alf a century more in his adopted IN
ate. to become an important factor L.
the development and progress OF Js
Is own little corner of the west. He "
ed in 1929. al
AS other Montanans, in larger and NJ
ore public spheres, still live in the ~,
vid history of the Treasure state, VI
lily and Tommy Miles will march M,
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