Glacier County chief., 1939-09-01

From a rough, tough frontier
country to the empire that is
Montana, from an era marked by
the creaking wheels of covered
wagons to the modern marvel of
giant skyliners-those are the
boundaries of the lifetime Mrs.
Julia W. Til1man of Hamilton and
Missoula has spent in the Treasure
state. Credited with being Mon
tana's oldest living pioneer woman
in point of residence, Mrs. Tillman
attended the 55th annual meeting Of
recently in Butte.
Her claim of being the oldest woman
pioneer in the state IS based on her
arrival in Montana May IS, 1863,
which was 26 years before Montana
became a state and one year before
it was the Montana territory.
She was then year old and travelled
by covered wagon from her birthplace
at Central City, Colo. with her par
ents, the late Peter P. and Hannah
Whaley.
Accompanying the Whaley wagon
ney from the Pixies peak gold country
to Bannack were Horace and Robert
Chalmers, brothers from Boone county,
Missouri. who with Lloyd Magruder
were murdered the following October
by road agents as they were returning
! chandising trip to Alder gulch with
70 pack mules and $4,000 In gold
Lived in Alder Gulch
The Whaleys resided in Bannack for
short time and then moved to Alder
gulch near Virginia City where the
| young girl was witness to the exciting
times of that camp
There she saw her father. and his
brother, by the use of crude wheel
barrows and other placer equipment
fashioned entirely from native soft
woods, remove from the ground in less
than four months some $4,000 in gold
in addition to that which was paid
out in wages at the rate of an ounce
of gold dust per man each day.
Later the family moved to Diamond
! City when it was prosperous mining
camp. Her father operated a general
store there.
Even before their early arrival in
gone with the gold rush to California
by way of the Isthmus of Panama in
the winter of 1849-185O and had fol-
lowed mining at Shasta French creek
Sonora and Weaverville.
Mrs. Tillman recalls that the family
lHOEtu lTOlll DldlllOllu Slly 10 LIE NILS
souri, river valley near Helena and
later to the Flathead where her faith
er took charge OF the Indian agency
! in 1874 for the United States govern
ment.
Appointed by U. S. Grant
This appointment was received from
Pres. U. S. Grant through the recon-
mendation of Gen. Philip H. Sheridan
personal friend of the family who
had worked as a boy in Mrs. Tillman'S
grandfather's store in Samoset, o.
While still in her teens, Mrs. Till.
man witnessed the invasion by the Me-
Perez Indian warriors of Chief JOSEPH
in 1877 as they passed through TIL
Bitter Root valley prior to the Biz
Hole battle. Mrs. Tillman was a refu'
gee in old Fort Owen near Stevensvillt
during the invasion.
AS Miss Julia Whaley she taught TIT
first school in the upper Three Mil,
district near Stevensville and gave i
the name of Lone Rock which it still
retains.
She was married to Newton J. Till
man, an early settler of the Bite
Root valley, on Nov. 4, 1883, in ST
Mary's mission at Stevensville. She i
the mother of nine children, five son
and four daughters, all living.
Three of them attended the session
of the Sons and Daughters of Mon
tana Pioneers which met in Butte a
the same time as the pioneers. The.
are Earl Tillman of Missoula, Ro,
Other children are Mrs. Floyd Ear
heart of Missoula, Mrs. Charles Eng