A Sketch of Lewistown, Montana History

(Indian Days – 1884)

Part III

BY

Anna R. Zellick & John R. Foster

By 1884, it must be noted, not only had the white settler arrived, he had already become dominant. The same year that the Metis arrived in 1879, for instance, came Dan and John Crowley, brothers; Paul and Mary Wydert; and Henry P. Brooks. The last mentioned established a well-known Horseshoe Bar Ranch with the financial backing of T. C. Power, "The Merchant Prince of the Plains."

In 1880, Granville Stuart founded the DHS outfit and James Fergus settled in the Armells area. Angus McMillan, Zacharias Tresch, J. D. Waite, George W. Ayers, Frank Anton Yaeger, and Robert Sullenger and his family, to name some, also came that same year. John T. Clegg, F. T. Colver, Pete Anderson, Samuel Phillips, Dave Hilger, Mr. And Mrs. Josef "Chris" King and sons arrived the following year. Shortly thereafter, there were others: John Glancy, M. L. Woodman, John L. Raw, J. P. Barnes, Frank and A. W. Stoddard, Willialm Fergus, Clark Shipman and family, Ed McDonnell, J. C. Walker, Abraham Hogeland, Ben Hill, E. P. Chandler, Frank Moshner (?), and Frank E. Wright (?) and more.

Many of these people were interested in cattle and sheep, which developed into major industries as there was a plentiful supply of land to accommodate both. Trailer in from the west, east, and the south, the cattle grazed on the vast open ranges all around Lewistown. The know-how needed to operate the new and different open range business was provided by the Texas trail rider who acquired his skill as he trailed the cattle north through the rough open range country. Whether he had trailed the longhorns or not, the cowboy was in his prime. It was his day. But not for long, because he, too, would eventually lose out to the homesteaders who would swarm in by the thousands, 1904-1916.

Because of limited space one can only mention Bill Burnett. Formerly a Texas trail rider, he was truly an outstanding cowboy highly respected by all. His word was his bond. Hired by Stuart, Burnett was the roundup captainof the Maginnis Association. Only in his twenties, he was responsible for about a hundred cowboys and thousands of heada of cattle during the spring and fall roundups. For this, he was paid $2.50 per day. In the opinion of Stuart, "Burnett knew the cattle business from A to Z.⁷ He also knew Lewistown where he was a frequent visitor.

Local roundups were handled by four large cattle associations. Reputed to be the best managed because it did try to improve the quality of its herds under open range conditions was the Judith Association. Operating west of town, it had as one of its nighthawks and night herders, the fame Charles Russell. By working at night, this budding artist could draw and sketch during the daytime. It was in the small village of Lewistown, in saloons, where he met the cowboys from the other ranges. Visiting with W. H. Culver, the local photographer, Russell once said that he would come more frequently to the Culver Studio, but it didn’t serve any liquor.⁸

The cowboys of the Maginnis and Moccasin Associatiosn also made their contribution to the national folklore. In 1884, on order of Stuart with the backing of James Fergus and others, they hung and shot 15 to 18 cattle and horse thieves. (It’s interesting that it took the late Oscar O. Mueller, a lawyer-historian, twenty years to obtain the details from his friend, Bill Burnett. In charge of one of the three raids, and under secret oath, Burnett refused to "open up" until all the other participants had passed on. Also, Mueller assured him that no historical account would be written until after Burnett’s death).⁹

The Fourth association was the Flatwillow that worked very closely with the Maginnis. A ranch in this district that is still operating under the same brand, issued, it is believed, in 1879-1880, is the N-Bar Ranch.

Cattlemen either supplied their own horses or they brought them from horse ranches such as James Fergus & Son, C. Barr Smith, and D. M. Crowley. Bailey, Seligman, and Kennett, a very large outfit, supplied all the horses to Fort Maginnis built in 1880 to protect the cattlemen and their stock.

By 1884, the sheepmen were also estaablished and were well on the way to becoming the leading producers in the state (1887-1897). In 1884, they organized their own association with G. W. Cook as president; David Hilger, secretary; and E. P. Chandler, treasurer.¹⁰

While the sheepherder was never immortalized, as was the cowboy, nonetheless, he too, was important. To the young able ambitious man, herding sheep provided the unique opportunity he needed to do bigger and better things. By the very nature of the business, a capable herder could, in a relatively short time, acquire enough sheep to have a band of his own. Some of the town’s later prominent civic leaders who took this route were G. J. Wiedeman and G. W. Cook.

Footnotes

⁷ Granville Stuart, Forty Years on the Frontier, edited by Paul C. Phillips. (Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1925) II, 161, 181.

⁸ Statement made by Lute M. Musson.

⁹ Oscar. O. Mueller, "The Central Montana Vigilante Raids of 1884, " Montana: The Magazine of Western History, I, No. 1, 23-25 and information provided by George D. Mueller.

¹⁰ P. M. Silloway, Silloway’s History of Central Montana. A Review of the Development of Montana’s Inland Empire, (Lewistown: Fergus County Democrat, Inc., n.d.).