Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1939-11-25

tana's buffalo hunters. He pointed
to a spot In front Of the Colorado
street school.
Not many men can remember ex-
actly where they were so years ago
but the happening was so unusual that
it impressed itself on my mind so
deeply that it cannot be forgotten, .
he said.
In those days the whistle on the
Gagnon mine-it was owned by Colonel
Thornton-was the official fire whistle
of Butte. F. L. Grandy and I owned
a steam saw. We pulled in here point
ing TO the curb in front of the SCHOOL,
and went TO work on a big wood pile.
Quite a change from hunting buffalo
to saving wood but the buffalo supply.
tremendous as 1t was, could not last
forever.
1T was bit after II o'clock on the
morning of Nov 8, 1889 that the Gag
non whistle gave forth a tremendous
roar as if all the steam on the hill
was coming out of that boiler. We
/ pricked up our ears. Fire somewhere
another mine whistle broke in-and
! then the engines in the switch yards
I No fire there another exclaimed So
] we dropped our work for a minute
and learned that the whistling was
! for Montana's admission to statehood.
/ We didn't hear the Al anvil shots.
/ Shooting was so common in that day
that If we did hear it we paid no
attention
Kelly is well known to the older
people of Butte. His experiences and
his peerless cleverneSs with a rifle or
/ revolver have been discussed many
times. When he was so, he used to
amuse himself and his friends on
lower Main street, where he ran
nfd l1xr cHA
OF gun cartridges with a % rifle at
distance of 80 feet In the early days
of the present century he was known
to shoot the head off a grouse at q
distance of rs feet over in the Big
Hole country 1t was about this time
that he lost sight in one eye-but he
continued his fishing and hunting and
IS still regarded as one of the best shots
IN the state, despite his IS years and
loss Of sight in his left eye.
Is Real American"
D. T. Kelly is what may be called
a real American" His maternal
grandfather, John McCoble, fought I'M
der General Braddock with whom
George Washington served as a lieu
McCoble became a traitor to the
crown" by following Washington into /
the Continental army camp at Valley /
Forge. His grandfather served with
Hickory" Jackson at New Orleans and !
RECALLED his young grandson with tales /
Of that wonderful sight.
Packenham had seasoned veter- /
ans grandpa said. He had nothing /
but contempt for our volunteers. He /
sent q letter to General jackson. 1t |
read: Jan. z, 1915. / have landed this |
day In Louisiana. shall eat supper
IN New Orleans on Jan. g." General I
jackson sent the letter back with the
notation: IF you try that you will
sleep IN H" Old Pack tried it. The
result is history"
Kelly was born in Maryland In 1854.
From the time he was strong enough
to pull a trigger he had q gun, musket,
rifle, pistol or shotgun While he was
learning to shoot, and also during his
later experiences as a buffalo hunter.
ammunition evolved from a charge of
powder a handful Of paper, a bullet,
then more paper, and finally a cap
on the gun nipple, to the more up-to-
date ammunition used IN the pump
-throwerS," as the large bore
SharpS rifles were called
With shotgunS I preferred to use
hornets nest with which to ram home
the last charge" he said, because it
caused the shot to spread much better
than money. Sometimes we ran short.
I tried the head of a sulphur match
instead of cap. 1t worked, but wood
went into the nipple and had to be
dug out. So I got myself a drill and
increased the size Of the nipple and
then the match worked all right"
Kelly hunted buffalo through north
ern Texas and Kansas. He sold buffalo
hides for SIPS each-and also sold
the tongue and hind quarters of the
animal IN such places as were settled
in that day-1870
Buffalo Experiences
THE people Of the present day don't
know anything about the buffalo,"
Kelly said. "Old-t timers told me that
buffalo herds so miles long and 20
miles wide used to sweep through the
plains of Nebraska and Kansas, AS for
myself, I never saw a herd that was
longer than 90 miles nor wider than
Is miles. When a herd stampeded it
was enough TO freeze the blood. There
was long roar like thunder in the
distance, increasing in volume and ac-
companied by trembling Of the earth
like q tremendous earthquake was
shaking the earth to pieces.
Risk IN buffalo hunting? Several
kinds. Risk of being run down by a
herd; risk OF Indians who
felt the white man was trying to kill
off the buffalo and starVe them to
death and who tried to kin the white
man. There was also the danger of
freezing to death. / have slept in a
buffalo robe with a revolver in nv
hand, not knowing II ever would
awaken. The Indians were right about
he white mans intent We would get
ammunition at the forts. The officers
n charge would say, You take care OF
he buffalo and then we win be able
o take care OF the Indians
II came To Butte In 1878. It's hard
o give up q line you have followed
II your life. There were buffalo and
lot much else except forts and In
fans in eastern Montana So I and nu
partner got q wagon and drove over