Granville Stuart – Montana Pioneer Hero Granville Stuart (1834-1918)

Officers President Janet Sticht Seeley Lake 1st Vice President Duane Thexton Bozeman MT The Pick and Shovel 2nd Vice President Official Newsletter of the Sons and Daughters of Montana Pioneers Mike Collins Helena, MT Fall 2020 Secretary/Treasurer “Chartered by the State Their Parents Founded” VACANT Historian HAMILTON 2021 Charlotte Orr Missoula, MT Looks like Hamilton is going to be a go this year. I will include all the information you need to know and we pray and hope all goes well so we can have Registrar our conference this year, there in Hamilton. Keith Ball Lolo MT 59847 Past President Tim Sowa E. Helena Directors Expiring 2021 James Kovatch Bozeman, MT Larry Rowland Billings, MT Directors Expiring 2021 Jim Quigley Avon, MT Steven Hardt Billings, MT BITTERROOT RIVER INN AND CONFERENCE CENTER Directors Expiring 2022 Located on the banks of the Bitterroot River off Hwy 93. Ted Richardson Somers, MT 139 Bitterroot Plaza Drive, Hamilton, MT 59840 Mary Don Glidewell For reservations call 406 363-3484 Helmville, MT Editor Mention Sons and Daughters of Montana Pioneers Conference Michael Russell August 13-14, 2021 Helena, MT cow- First conference meeting starts at 9:00 am on the 13th [email protected] Check inn for conference opens at 8:00 am POINTS OF INTEREST HAMILTON The Ravalli County Museum in Hamilton, Montana, is operated by the Bitter Root Valley Historical Society in order to acquire, preserve, and interpret the historical and cultural heritage of the Bitter Root Valley and the inhabitants of Ravalli County, Montana. United States. The Museum is open year-round and features three main focal points: local history, natural history and art. STOCK FARM GOLF COURSE The town of Hamilton is the central trade area for hun- dreds of small farms, ranches and orchards that fill the valley. Hamilton is home to the Daly Mansion built in the late 1800s for Marcus Daly, one of Montana's col- orful "Copper Kings." Ravalli County Museum is located in the original Ravalli County Courthouse built in 1900. Saved from the wrecker's ball in 1979, it is now listed in the National Register of Historic Buildings and considered one of the finest museums for a town of this size. Big Sky Candy is another place I am sure you might want to visit Lick Observatory, Mt Hamilton Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory center at the top of Mount Hamilton (altitude- 1,283 m (4,209 ft)) in California. The observatory center is maintained and owned by the University of California. The second biggest refractory telescope (which is built in1880), the 36' refractor telescope and the newly added Automated Planet Finder (APF) are the main attractions of the observatory. The visitors are warmly welcomed by the management and are even provided with informative lectures which are beneficial to pacify the curiosity of the visitors. Take a tour to Lick Observatory but, before that, book an appointment for telescopic view and experience the astonishing view of the star licked Granville Stuart – Montana Pioneer Hero Granville Stuart (1834-1918) Frontiersman, miner, Montana Land Baron, leader of the vigilante group called Stuart’s Stran- glers, author and more, Granville Stuart is recognized as a Montana pioneer and hero. Born near what is now Clarksburg, West Virginia on August 27, 1834, to Robert and Nancy Cur- rence Stuart, Granville moved with his family to Muscatine County, Iowa in 1838. As a child, he played with Indians and attended school in a one-room schoolhouse. Granville Stuart (Cont’d) In 1849, his father flocked to the California Goldrush along with thousands of others seeking their fortunes. Two years later, Granville and his brothers, James and Robert followed, where they prospected for several years. In June 1857, Granville and James wanted to return to Iowa for a visit; however, when they found the trail blocked by the Mormon War in Utah, they went north instead, landing in Mon- tana. Prospecting for gold in Deer Lodge Valley, they were credited with making the first major strike in Gold Creek in 1858. However, having no supplies and concerned about Indian attacks, they soon left the area. Four years later, they returned and a small mining camp developed at the mouth of the creek that is today called Gold Creek. For the next several years, the brothers continued their prospecting efforts along Gold Creek and also worked as merchants. In the meantime, they had written a letter to their third brother, Robert, who was by then prospecting in Colorado. Within no time, word of the find got out and scores of prospectors from Colorado and other surrounding territories made their way to Montana. In the spring of 1862, Granville married a Snake Indian woman named Aubony, later called El- len. They would ultimately have nine children before her death in 1887. In the meantime, the small settlement of Gold Creek was growing and Granville was elected County Commissioner and James was elected Sheriff. Though credited with the first major gold find, the Stuart brothers never profited much and by 1863, Granville had made his way to Virginia City, where he entered the mercantile business. James Stuart, in the meantime, was leading expeditions into Yellowstone, looking for gold. In 1865, Granville sold his business and returned to Deer Lodge, where he again established a mercantile, and later, a lumberyard. James was also in Deer Lodge until 1870 when he was appointed to the post of physician at the Fort Peck agency. James remained there until his death from cancer on September 30, 1873. That same year, Granville sold his merchant interests and returned to mining. However, once again, this career path didn’t “payout” for Granville, and by 1876, he was working as a bookkeeper for Samuel T. Hauser’s First National Bank in Helena. Three years later, in 1879, Stuart, along with Hauser and mining millionaires, Andrew J. and Erwin Davis, formed the Hauser, Davis, Stuart Cattle Company and the DHS Ranch. Stuart became the general manager of the company, a position he would hold until the spring of 1887. While managing the cattle company, Stuart was instrumental in organizing the Montana Stock Growers Association in 1884 and became its first president. During this time, cattle rustling was rampant in the territory and Granville reportedly orga- nized a group of vigilantes in 1884 that became known as Stuart’s Stranglers to help curb some of this lawlessness. Within no time dozens of Montana outlaws had either been strung up in trees or riddled with bullets. The Montana Vigilantes got their start around this time as well, but it is unclear as to whether Stuart had and anything to do with the original vigilante group, although they probably influenced his formation of Stuart’s Stranglers. Still at the helm of the extremely profitable DHS Cattle Company, the organization was worth more than a million dollars by 1885. However, two years later, Granville got out of the cattle business, though he remained the president of the Board of Stock Commissioners until 1891. With his eye on politics, Granville became a state land agent in charge of 600,000 acres given to Montana by the federal government for school purposes in 1891. That same year, he remar- ried a woman named Isabel Allis Brown. In 1894, he was appointed as a U.S. ambassador to Uruguay and Paraguay, a position he held until 1898. In his final years, he served as librarian of the Butte Public Library. Over the years, Stuart had been involved in the preservation of Montana History, serving as the first secretary of the Montana Historical Society Granville Stuart (Cont’d) 2 and as its president from 1890 to 1895. He was also the president of the Society of Mon- tana Pioneers in 1886-87. In his last years, he worked diligently to document the history of Montana Territory (1864 – 1889), but he died before it was completed. Stuart Granville died on October 2, 1918, in Missoula, Montana. The vast majority of his work, however, was published under the title Forty Years on the Frontier in 1925. As a tribute to his life, Granville Stuart is often called “Mr. Montana,” as his life story is much the same as that of the fledgling territory of Montana. Henry Plummer (1832–1864) was a prospector, lawman, and outlaw in the American West in the 1850s and 1860s, who was known to have killed several men, some in what was considered self-defense.[citation needed] He was elected sheriff of Bannack, Montana from 1863 to 1864, during which period he was accused of being the leader of a "road agent" gang of outlaws known as the "Innocents," which preyed on shipments from Virginia City to other areas. In response some leaders in Virginia City formed the Vigilance Committee of Alder Gulch, and began to take action against Plummer's gang, gaining confessions from a couple of men they arrested in early January 1864. On January 10, 1864 Plummer and two associates were arrested in Bannack by a company of the Vigilantes and summarily hanged. Plummer was given a posthumous trial in 1993 which led to a mistrial. The jury was split 6–6. Information from Legends of the West— Wikipedia Sons and Daughters of Montana Pioneers PO Box 1051 Helena MT 59624 Return Service Requested Sons and Daughters of Montana Pioneers “Chartered by the state their parents founded” <sonsanddaughtersmontanapioneers.com> SDMP Items for Sale Below are items we have for Sale from the SDMP. Be proud to tell everyone that you belong to this great organization, The Sons and Daughters of Montana Pioneers.

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