Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1937-11-20

brought cargoes to be again transported
to far and isolated points by wagon
trains: Virginia City, Deer Lodge,
Helena. and few other places, where
the freight wagon served from both
ends. At these places people gathered
from long distances as they now gather
more frequently on the sidewalks Of
Home Town"
So granddad and grandmother knew
them all, by reputation If not person.
ally-the first pioneers and their own
generation who, following the paths
of their predecessors upon the scene,
became the shock troops of progress.
They knew Granville Stuart, who
with his brother, James, and Resin
Anderson, discovered gold in 1858; they
knew of Fairweather and his partners
who discovered gold in Alder gllch
and started the stampede which was
to write an amazing and dramatic
chapter in Montana'S primary history;
/ they recall Judge (Dr.) Don l.. Byam
I and Col. Wilbur F. Sanders, outstand-
J ing in public service in the trial and
4 execution of George Ives. facing the
/ danger Of death from desperadoes.
4 They knew, perhaps intimately and un
knowingly, the members Of the famous
Vigilance committee which ended the
reign of terror of Plummer and his
road agents; they knew well the men
who brought law and order to pioneer
land when, isolated from the civilized
world by great distances and weeks of /
time, honest men became q law unto
themselves to preserve their homes and
persons to lay the foundation for /
new empire of the Rockies.
They knew the great legion OF mer-
chants and financiers and transporta-
ton men, who, handicapped by the
snailS pace Of bull team and miry
trail, founded Montana institutions
and wrote the great and variegated
romance which is Montana's past.
They knew the hardships Of pioneer
life, the isolation, lack of communica-
ton, and the slow motion OF life in a
new land; they knew of the dangers
encountered by the first pioneers. In
their own early experiences there were
wars and runors of wars with belliger-
ent Indian tribes. Cattle rustling and
various forms of outlawry, laughed at
a still loosely knit government organ
ization.
All that was pioneer Montana has
been written into the life experience
Of Grandfather and Grandmother
"Old- Timer
with all that they endured of hard
ship and anxiety and labor, along with
the much of lifes bounty that they
enjoyed, grandmother and granddad
today represent the passing rear guard
of perhaps the most fortunate aggre-
cation of Americans in the nations
generation Of pioneers
who transformed a wilderness and
built a new empire in the most dra- ,
matte era Of the human race. !
When Montana first entered the
American scene with q Semblance Of :
community life in the early mining
camps, the rest of the nation already
had railroads, telegraph and variety
of refinements for the scheme Of liv
xr11 frh kznof4 flrrNTTcyf1
thousands of years.
But in Montana I
The beginning was launched with l
0nly human courage, the dexterity of c
hands, few very simple tools and q
few animals of burden. Men had to z
live almost completely off the country
ltself-a task only for hardy, coura- +
yeous souls. Even the wheel, oldest Of
human inventions, was not to appear
upon the scene until men began to
gather in numbers and TO demand
goods and services from beyond the
frontier.
Grandmother and granddad came
1pon the Montana scene while 1t was
'eaching the tempo Of new cOmmun-
ty, anticipating better things.
AS they worked and built for their
uture, and in anticipation of the future
'ailroadS come, slowly to spread their
network over the state, replacing ex-
,ept in isolated cases the picturesque
reight outfits of the overland roads on
he long haul. Tallow candles gave way
o kerosene. Electricity followed to
brighten the night and to gradually
pread its tentacles to provide not only
Illumination but power for even homely
asks. The telephone brought hundreds
( miles into space Of minutes.
The airplane and radio qllickened
fe's pulse far beyond the dreams of
he pioneers All the luxuries and
adgets and foibles Of life today are,
Measured in the speed of past CEN
1ries, q million years from the day
OF quite 30 years ago when the Stuarts
nd Anderson broke primitive soil at
iold creek to find the first bit Of
old that turned the eyes of the world
1ward Montana in less than decade,
Grandmother and granddad, in
ngle lifetime, have seen a primitive
Ind catch up with civilization and
'avel with it through short era that
as brought more human progress than
ne ages which had gone before.
From somewhere out Of this sketchy
anorama granddad has drawn his
DRY for the little fireside circle. He
as added another bit of color to the
-eat mural which is the romance and
re history of Montana.
The children are off to bed. With =