Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1940-01-05

young couple Of good English fam
lily out to see the world. II was
the good people Of the pioneer VA
lage OF B0zeman who bestowed up
on the Blackmores the titles Of
"l0rd" and "lady."
William Blackmore and his beautiful
bride arrived in Bozeman in the spring
Of 1872. They were among the first
tourists who came to Montana espe-
cially to see the wonders of Yellow
stone national park. They came with
wagon train over the Bozeman trail
still taking pot-shotS at whites who
made themselves good targets. They
made an incongruous picture as they
rode into the false fronted main street
Of Bozeman, with their piles of fancy
baggage all about them.
Were Dashing Pair
the BlackmoreS were a daShing
actually titled people they were men,
beers of English county" families, the
landed gentry. They referred casually
and honestly to the great of Europe
who were their close friends. Mary
Blackmore told Of attending Queen
Victoria's royal court. The ladies Of the
budding frontier society of Montana
took the Blackmores up" with a ven
geance. The couple made a triumph
ant visit to Helena where they were
entertained by the mining kings. While
their expedition into Yellowstone park
was being prepared, they became pop
ular with Bozeman people and hunt
ing parties in the district were organ
lied in their honor. No one knows who
first started to call them "lord" and
lady" but their names appeared with
titles in Helena papers of the period.
While the Blackmores were still in
Bozeman, Mrs. Blackmore became i'll
and the Wilson's. a pioneer family,
took her into their home. There she
1872 before the expedition to the park
got under way.
When they had started their travels
the Blackmores had made an agree
ment that if either died enroute burial
would take place where death occurred,
and the survivor would continue the
Journey. Keeping this pact, William
Blackmore buried his wife in Bozeman
shown his wife by the townspeople
during her illness, he purchased five
acres of. land containing the town
graveyard and presented 1t to the
people of Bozeman. Over Mary Black
more's grave he placed the unusual
pyramid tombstone.
William Blackmore continued his
journey into Yellowstone park and
then returned to England where he
published several articles about Mon
tana. A peak near the park Is named
in honor of the Englishman and his
wife
While he was in Montana, Black
more signed his name always as plain
William Blackmore," and in the jour-
mails of the Doane expedition to the
But in the minds OF the people of
Bozeman he was always, and probably
always will be, known as Lord Black
more. A few years after his departure
the city fathers of Bozeman, in appre-
citation of Blackmore's gift to the city,
placed the bronze plaque on the
Blackmore tombstone.
Several years ago Claire Sheridan,
the internationally famous English
purpose of doing busts of Blackfeet
Indian types and writing book about
the Blackfeet tribe Mrs. Sheridan,
herself member of a noble British
family and a first cousin of the duke
of Marlborough and of Winston
Churchill. visited Bozeman and was
interested in the story of the Black
as she knew there were no Blackmores
in the British peerage. Mrs. Sheridan,
whose Indian statues, by the way, were
very good but whose book, Red In
terlude. leaves the reader with the
impression that she barely escaped the
Blackfeet with her scalp, knew her
British peerage. She said there were
noble Blackwoods but no noble Black
mores. And. she was correct, for
"Burkes Peerage" for the year 1872
lists no Lord" or Lady" Blackmore
because there were no such people.
The Blackmores. despite the informa-
ton given on the bronze plaque in the
Bozeman cemetery. had no title.
This case of the misplaced title is
not unusual for western history records
other cases where English visitors in
the early west were given titles by the
pioneers. Owen WiSter used such a
situation as the plot of one of his
short stories. A commoner Scotchman
who hunted the Green river country
OF Wyoming in the 1905 was known as
The Duke" to Kit Carson and other
fur hunters of the period although he