The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1945-11-29
Bill Uphom Lived
In Moving Days
BY Bob Chapman

Following is the life story of Mr.
Upham as written by high school
journalist student before his passing
William (Spider) Upham was
born in the year 1863 in the little
town of Jonesville, Mich. Bill re-
ceived all of the schooling that he
had in Jonesville, stopping with the
seventh grade He failed to grad
uate from grammar school, because
he says, he got into fight with the
teacher and quit.
Bill then went to work in little
grocery store for about two months
and then one day a railroad man
came through town and asked him
if he would like to be a telegraph
operator Bill thought this would be
fun so he studied for about a month
and then quit. He then went to
work in a factory for five or six
months which he didn't like very
well because it was too hard work,
he said He then went back to work
as a telegraph operator and bid on
a job which was open about seven
miles from his home. He didn't have
any seniority rights but he got it
anyway and he worked hard to get
ahead. He taught boy and girl how
to be an operator and after awhile
good job was open in another
town in Michigan. Bill wanted to
get this job but the boy that he
taught got it instead, so he went to
Texas to work on the Santa Fe rail-
road. He worked there for about
four years but contracted malaria
and returned to Michigan to re-
cover.
After he had recovered he came
to Fort Benning Mont, to see his
uncle who ran a ranch near there.
Bill had never seen an Indian be-
fore and as he was walking to his
uncle's ranch, six or eight Indians
rode up He was almost scared TO
death but they just wanted some to-
bacco which he didn't have at the
time.
He landed there in June of 1888
and herded horses all summer
However they stocked the ranch
with sheep SO Bill retired from the
job and went to work in little
trading post during the winter.
In the spring of 1891, Mr.. Upham
went to work at Blackfoot, Mont,
where they were putting the new
railroad through. He then went to
work at Shelby as an operator for
two and half years transferring to
Kalispell as brakeman between
Kalispell and Spokane. He didn't
like braking SO he went back to
telegraph service and worked there
until 1896 when he quit and went to
Lake Mcdonald as guide. While
Bill was there a publisher wrote
book about him. Bill recalls the in
cident in the book where the author
told about him while he was fishing
on a rock and fish about 20 inches
get him in after he let out about
$50 feet of line, so the author who
was watching from rock jumped
down and helped him land it. But
Spider is a man who does not fish
very much and said that he only had
an old willow pole and about Is
feet of line, and when he landed the
fish it was only about 10 inches
long. Bill said it just goes to show
how much they exaggerate when
one writes book.
Bill worked for about two years
as a guide then came to Jennings
and cut wood for his brother for
two dollars cord. Bill didn't like
this very well because they had to
haul it from Jennings to Libby and
handle it about seven or eight times
before they got paved for it. So he
went to work again in 1903 for the
railroad and worked up until 1884
when he reached retirement age. He
was II when he quit and came to
Libby to live with his brother,
Frank. Frank died, but Bill lives in
the little house that he bought. He
goes to town every day and smokes
about a package of cigarettes every
day when he can get them.
Bill quit the railroad just one
year before the old age retirement
act went into effect. He claims that
he still has another 20 years to live.
Bill is known to most of the peo-
pie in Libby as Spider which
nickname he does not mind in the
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