The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1942-11-26
MOONEY,
RESIDENT "a
YEARS,PASSES
Career as Trader, Trapper and
Buffalo Hunter Comes to
End in City.
Funeral Services for Pioneer to
Be Held Here Friday
Afternoon.

hospital.
Mr.. Mooney first set foot in what
is now Valley county when he
touched shore from a Missouri
Isternwheeler at old Fort Peck in
1868, a few miles above where the
huge dam now blocks the river.
Mr.. MONEYS son, Robley E,
Mooney of Palouse, Wash, and Mrs
Mooney arrived here this morning
Two stepsons, Wallace Kellison OF
klamath Falls, Ore, and Bale KEEL
lison of Sparks, Nevada, survive
Another son, George, was killed
in World War l. Mrs. Mooney
died 81 years ago at the Mooney
ranch on Cherry creek.
Funeral services for MI. Mooney
will be held at 2 Friday afternoon
in the Methodist church, with the
Rev. w. L. Bennett officiating. Bur-
ial will be in the Glasgow cemetery.
The Peterson chapel is in charge
Although he was partially crippled
from an cid injury and his eye
sight was impaired, Mr.. Mooney
had been en- Glasgow streets until
a few weeks ago. He kept his re-
markable memory CT frontier hap
penings until his death.
Born in New York
He was born in New York state,
Feb. "a, 1852. Old friends helped
him celebrate his ninetieth birthday
at a party here last winter. At that
time he related interesting recCl-
lections CT his early life.
His boyhocd had been filled with
hardships when he reached st.
Louis early in 1868. There he got
work en- the Missouri boat, Ida
Stockdale. 1t stopped briefly at Fort
Peck on its way upstream, then an
outpost of the American Fur comp
any. The boat continued to Fort
Benton, head CT navigation.
There Mr.. Mooney got his first
job in Montana territory piling buff
falo hides, being brought in by the
hundreds by white hunters and Ind
ianS. His pay was 81 a day and he
regarded it as a small fortune. Old
Benton was then nothing, he recalled,
but a row of log cabins with a mud
roof.
Except for a short trip to Utah,
when the fever Of a gold strike hit
him, n visit east in 1874 and
excursions into the Black Hills and
Canada, he had lived all his life
in Montana.
Wandered Over Montana
When his hide job ended, Mr..
Mooney became a trapper himself,
wandering from the eastern to the
western Montana line. He had
many and usually friendly contacts
with the Indians and often traded
with them. Fair dealing, he found,
paid.
He and a companion were near
the mouth of the Musselshell when
a friendly Indian brought word
that Nez Perez Chief Joseph and
his party were crossing the Mis-
souri, attempting to flee to Canada
in a retreat that strategists have
called one Of the great military
movement CT history. The men left
the vicinity.
But Mooney was steadfast in his
support of the Indians and said
a few years before his death: my
experience has been that if the Ind
an had been treated fair instead
of being cheated and robbed, there
would have been no m~assacres. no
wagon train attacks Or similar dis
orders"
The trappers spent considerable
time in what is now Glacier ma
tional park ard then moved south
to the site of the big gold strike
at Last Chance gulch, now the loca-
ticn of Helena.
Becomes Buffalo Hunter
After that, MI. Mooney became a
buffalo hunter until an injury so
years ago cut short his activity in
the wilds. He moved to Glasgow
and established a ranch on Cherry
creek. In recent years he had lived
in the city.
He voted fer the first time fer
a president of the United States
in 1892.
He had long been an active mem
Der of the Society of Montana Pi-
oneers and usually attended its an
nual meetings. He was also an Odd
In The Courier Golden Anniver-
Sary edition, Mr.. Mooney ted of
many early-day experiences, one of {
them when he was teamed with an
experienced trapper, Fitzpatrick.
Braves Wanted ScaIps
On a trip down the Yellowstone,
they ran into a war party of Crow
indians. Some CT the younger
braves favored scalping the two
but Fitzpatrick's familiarity
the Indians and his persuas-
i've ability with the sign language
kept their heads whole and they
were allowed to go unmolested.
Mooney later did considerable
Surreptitious trading with the md
IanS, because he could not secure
4 federal license. But he never sold
them whiskey. He saw Sitting Bull
many times after the Custer mass
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