A Sketch of Lewistown, Montana History
(Indian Days – 1884)
Part V
BY
Anna R. Zellick & John R. Foster
The miner, sheep and cattlemen were welcomed by Janeaux and Reed who became intense rivals for their business. All during the early 1880’s there were two settlements: Reedsfort and Janeaux’s Post, a half mile apart, with a total population of less than a hundred. (It’s interesting to note that as competition between them continued, nearby Cottonwood was a thriving village which eventually lost out to Lewistown when it was bypassed by the railroad, 1903.)
Determined to outdo Reed, Dr. L. A. Lapalme circulated a petition for a post office. Interviewed about this on July 6, 1917, David Hilger recalled that Dr. Lapalme charged Major Reed "with gross neglect of his duties and some irregularities."12 It was customary, it seems for Postmaster Bowles to put all the mail in a box that was placed on the floor in the corner of a room. Everyone had to sort through all the letters to find his. Although the system worked, according to Hilger, Lapalme made a big issue of it. "My," recalled Hilger, "Reed was one angry postmaster when he read those charges!" Hilger, since he had signed the petition, and was called "on the carpet" by Major Reed, "immediately envisioned a new mound in Major Reed’s private cemetery." Convinced that Hilger was telling the truth when he said that he had not read the petition he had signed, Reed let Hilger go unharmed.
Major Reed then sold his holdings to Frank Day and J. Holzmer who built the Day House Hotel and a blacksmith shop on the present residential property of C. W. Cooley.13 Day became the postmaster in 1882.
In the summer of 1883 Janeaux’s store was purchased by T. C. Power with N. M Erickson as manager. "The following spring William Hortop built a two story hotel facing the store; livery stables and saloons were soon added to the grouping and the name "Lewistown" was much in use, the hotel having that name."14
The post office having been secured in 1883 was named Lewistown, and N. M. Erickson became the first postmaster in March 1884. Janeaux’s generosity was again shown when he and his wife that same year donated a plot of 40 acres between Broadway and Pine Streets to the town’s residents for their use and benefit.15
By this time it is interesting to note that the Catholics who had been attending services in Janeaux’s home and in his post were now looking to him for new quarters. Methodists were listening to the inspiring dynamic "Brother Van" (W. W. Van Orsdel). And Bishop L. R. Brewer, having held services at Maiden, Fort Maginnis, and at the home of Edward Brassey on Beaver Creek was well known among the local Episcopalians.16
While the residents were most content with their new location and settlement in Lewistown, they soon found themselves in action as though they were in a filming of a wild west movie. It was for real and not pretense according to Mueller:
On July 4, (1884) ….. occurred the killing of two desperadoes, not by Vigilantes, but by local citizens. This event illustrates the desperate characters that infested Central Montana at that time. The two desperadoes, "Rattlesnake Jake" Fallon and Charles "Longhair" Owens, appeared at the celebration dressed in buckskin suits and armed to the teeth. Without provocation, except a quarrel over a horse race, they attempted to fight it out with the citizens. A gun battle ensued in the streets of the little town, in which the two desperadoes, fighting gamley to the finish, were finally riddled with bullets and killed. One citizen was killed.17
These early local settlers helped to shape the Western tradition. They had to shoot in self-defense. The nearest court was at White Sulphur Springs, the county seat, over 100 miles away – too distant to be effective. Desiring law and order, they wanted a county of their own. Accordingly, they prevailed on the state legislature. Fergus County was created in 1885, to take effect on December 1, 1886. And the City of Lewistown, the county seat, was incorporated in 1899. |
