Frank G . Higgins Francis Grant " Frank " Higgins ( December 28 , 1864 – October 15 , 1905 ) was an American football player , lawyer and politician . He played college football at the University of Michigan . He was the first native - born person from Montana to become a member of the state ' s bar and of the state ' s legislature . He served in the Montana House of Representatives and was elected as the mayor of Missoula , Montana in 1892 . He was the fourth Lieutenant Governor of Montana from 1901 to 1905 . Early years . Higgins was born in 1864 at Hell Gate , Montana , near the site of what would become Missoula , Montana . He was the son of Julia Grant and Christopher Powers Higgins ( 1830 – 1889 ) , an early Montana pioneer and the founder of the city of Missoula . He attended the public schools of Missoula and graduated in 1881 from the military school in Faribault , Minnesota . He was sent east to attend the Phillips Exeter Academy at Exeter , New Hampshire . Higgins subsequently enrolled at the University of Michigan where he studied law and played college football as a forward for the undefeated 1885 Michigan Wolverines football team . Legal and political career . After graduating from Michigan in 1886 , Higgins returned to Missoula where he practiced law . He was the first person born in Montana to be admitted to the Montana state bar . In the late 1880s , he gave up the practice of law to become president of the Higgins Bank in Missoula . He subsequently began a political career and became the first native - born person from Montana to be elected to the Montana state legislature and as a mayor . He served in the Montana House of Representatives upon Montana ' s admission to the United States starting in 1889 . He served in both the first and second sessions of the Montana legislature . Higgins is credited with the decision to locate the University of Montana at Missoula , having introduced the bill into the state legislature providing for the establishment of a state university in Missoula . He was elected as the mayor of Missoula in May 1892 and served a one - year term in that office . He was also a delegate from Montana to 1892 Democratic National Convention . During the Spanish – American War , Higgins served two years as a captain in Company F of the United States volunteers . He was a member of the Grisby Rough Riders during the Battle at Chicamauga . He was elected as the Lieutenant Governor of Montana in 1900 and served in that office from 1901 to 1905 . After being elected to the office in 1900 , Higgins spoke of his campaign and said " he had tackled the sheep herders , cowboys , miners and lumber jacks , and , of course , liked the miners best of all . " Family and death . Higgins married Barbara Hayes from Ontario , Canada in September 1892 . They had one son , Grant Higgins . Higgins died in October 1905 at St . Vincent ' s hospital in Portland , Oregon . He died from complications of diseases contracted while serving in the Spanish – American War . After suffering a relapse , he was taken to Portland in the hope that " the climatic conditions would help to remove the severe strain to his nervous system . " At the time of his death , the " Anaconda Standard " , a major newspaper of the time in Montana , gave over a full page to tributes to the late lieutenant governor . One colleague noted : " Frank G . Higglns was a scholar , one who read a great deal and always of the best . The classics and works of political economy were his favorite books . He cared not for fiction , but dwelt on facts . He cared but little for poetry , save the poetry of the rushing mountain stream and the music of the wind through the trees of his native heath . "