Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1941-01-10
Caleb f. Irvine Barely Missed Being Buried Alive While in
france and Conscious Lived SO Years After Event

At various times western Mon
ana has been a portion Of four
,parate, independent common
realths, these being Oregon, Wash
nyton, Idaho and Montana. A
Ieers Of what is today Montana
lived within the boundaries of this
commonwealth during the periods
shen the country was under juris-
kjction Of all four territories, and
ster lived to be citizens of Mon
ana as j state.
The last living white man who had
al experience was Judge Caleb E.
zine, soldier, pioneer and jurist,
an whom few more interesting char
ters ever lived in Montana, and
lose death at Anaconda in 1891 re-
Oyed a frontiersman of the fur trap
hg days who had a wealth of his
riCal and traditional lore Of those
mantle days stored in his mind.
Judge Irvine was born in Robinson
klnty. Tennessee. Sept. 4, 1925. His
her died six months before he was
BIN. and his early years were spent
B q farm in the Tennessee backwoods,
here the opportunities for obtaining
b education were extremely limited
fact he secured his learning largely
rom the great schools of observation
nd experience. although all his life
was q great reader, and he was a
thoroughly we'll informed man on all
bIbjects.
ryinc Became . Soldier
While still in his teens, Irvine
orked as q clerk on a number OF
Mississippi river steamboats,. and at
he age of 81 he enlisted in a regi-
hent of mounted infantry. which is
oday the Third United States cavalry,
md served throughout the Mexican
eAr on SCOTS line, from Vera Cruz
o Mexico City. He joined the army in
S46, and when the Mexican war came
an end in l848 he returned to JEFF
erson City. Mo. when he was COM
nissioned lieutenant.
In l849 Irvine'S regiment was or
Tered into the trackleSS wilderness Of
Bhe west beyond the Mississippi, and
With 1t he headed for Oregon, follow
)ng for part of the way the historic
Oregon trail. The next spring he was
ordered to The Dalles on the Columbia
river. where, as assistant Quartermas-
Der. he had charge of the building of
khe fort at which Gen. Phil A. Sheri-
ban won his spurs first in Indian war
fare as lieutenant.
On Bitter Root In 1851
In 1851 Irvine resigned his commits
sion in the army and, in company
with Mai John Owen, came to the
Bitter Root valley, where he lived
most of the time until 1868, when the
gold excitement started on Alder and
Grasshopper creeks.
From 1851 to 1856, Irvine each sum-
mer made trips to the old emigrant
road at Thomas Fork Of Bear river,
80 miles easterly from Soda Springs,
Idaho. where he traded Indian horses
and dressed skins to the passing gold
seekers for broken down horses and
cattle, which he would then drive back
to the Bitter Root valley There, feed
ing on the rich pasturage. they became
fat and serviceable, and in this man
ner Irvine introduced much well-brcd
eastern stock into Montana.
These trips from the Bitter Root To
the Bear river in Idaho involved tray
cling several hundred miles each sum-
mer. and many were the thrills and
.t1h that Irvine had with hos
tile Indians. He had a wide acquaint-
ance with early day trappers and
Traders. and frequently met such
heroes OF the old west as Kit Carson.
Jim Bridger, Dick Wooton and a dozen
others who fingered after the sun of
the free trapper's glory had set.
IN 1899, irvine grew crop of wheat.
pats and potatoes on a 2O-acre tract of
and near the present town of Cor
Iallls. in Ravalli county, and during
he winter of l859-6O he was employed
~ Captain Mullan in the building of
Muilan's road from Fort Benton to
"al!a Walla. Washington. In the
spring of 1861 he went to Portland
With Major Owen.
Irvine in the Gold Camps
In the fall of 1868 the new Montana
'old camps lured Irvine and he Joined
II the stampede to Alder gulch, spend
hS the summer prospecting on Mill
Teek, above Sheridan. A portion of
oo4-5 he spent at Barnack
After the first capital of Montana
vas established at Bannack, Irvine
vas elected engrossing clerk of the
ifSt legislative council of Montana
ND served as such throughout the ses-
hon. In February, 1865, he was APP
'ointed by Governor Edgerton probate
udge OF Deer Lodge county and opened
lis office at Silver Bow, near Butte,
men the county seat. From that time
!ntil his death he lived at Deer Lodge,
suite and Anaconda.
Yearly Buried Alive
While cavalryman during the Mex