Oral History Interview with Angus Monroe and Lilly Monroe, Circa
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Archives and Special Collections Mansfield Library, University of Montana Missoula MT 59812-9936 Email: [email protected] Telephone: (406) 243-2053 This transcript represents the nearly verbatim record of an unrehearsed interview. Please bear in mind that you are reading the spoken word rather than the written word. Oral History Number: 138-001 Interviewees: Angus Monroe, Lilly Monroe Interviewers: Bob Emery, Dorothy Floerchinger Date of Interview: circa 1970s Bob Emery: Today we're in the Farmers State Bank building in Conrad, Montana. It's a pleasure today to talk with Mr. Angus Monroe of the Pondera County area and also in the room with us today is Mrs. Angus Monroe and also Bob Emery and Dorothy Floerchinger both of the Pondera County Historical Association. We're happy to have an opportunity to talk to these people, particularly Mr. and Mrs. Monroe because Mr. Monroe's grandfather is Hugh Monroe. For those of us like myself who don't know all that much about the area history, we're going to try to find out about Hugh Monroe who was the first white man in this area. Mr. Monroe, what memories, if any, do you have of your grandfather? Angus Monroe: Well, as far as I know and can remember, I met my grandfather on the head of Milk River. I can't remember what year it was. I don't remember. But I was only a boy about five or six years old when I first saw him. Then years after—two or three years after—saw him again. That is the last time I seen him, and next I heard of the old man was I remember when my dad did left head of W illow Creek to go and see his dad when he was at the head of Milk River. That he was dying, and my dad was notified that afternoon about his dad and he left our place—head of Willow Creek—to go to Milk River on snowshoes since snow was deep. BE: You say this was when you were about, what, five or six? Would this be about 75 or 80 years ago? AM: W ell— BE: How old are you? AM: I'll be 83 May the 27th coming. BE: So we're talking about very quickly maybe 75 or 78 years ago, we're talking about 1892, '93 right roughly in there. Lilly Monroe: Yes. AM: That hits and just about...My grandfather gave the Mrs. Monroe here her Indian name. LM: That was in 1892. AM:1892. 1 Angus Monroe and Lilly Monroe Interview, OH 138-001, Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula. BE: Angus, about your grandfather, about when did he come to this area and what was he doing? AM: Approximately 1812 has just been told to me. BE: And what was he coming to the area for? AM: Well, he was sent here by the Hudson Bay Company as a as a trapper, and then sent here to learn the Indian language to go with the Indians. Blackfeet Indians—he lived with them to learn the language so that they could trade with the Hudson Bay. You see, that was his main purpose of being here. BE: Well, this was long before there were any settlements in this area. Just as a wild guess, anybody at the table might know what would be the closest white man to Hugh about this time. Canada, would it be o r— AM: He came from Canada originally, you know. BE: This is a pretty tough question. I don't know that anybody knows it, but he would be, seems to me, the only white man for hundreds and hundreds of miles around so this would be quite an undertaking for somebody to come out in unknown territory. Did he know any of the language before he came, do to you know that? Am: No, no. BE: He was going to try to learn the Blackfeet language just by living with the Blackfeet? AM: That's right. Yes, which he did. He spoke the Indian language frequently and lived with them and lived with the Indians. Then he lived with the chief in the tipi, see, as they traveled throughout the country. Then the chief gave Hugh Monroe his daughter to marry, which is right. That's very true. That's my dad's mother, see. BE: How did this all work out for the Hudson Bay Company, or do you know? AM: I don't know. I couldn't tell you that. BE: Did Hugh move on to anything else, or did he stay with the company? AM: Stayed with the— BE: Let's put it this way, how long did he stay with the company? Did he go to ranching or farming or try something else? 2 Angus Monroe and Lilly Monroe Interview, OH 138-001, Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula. AM: Oh, well later after everything was over, like when they started to settle here, he settled on the M ilk River, the head of Milk River, with one of the daughters. She married a man by the name of Jackson—first marriage. I don't know what happened to Jackson, but second marriage was a man by the name of Fox. LM: That's the daughter that Grandpa Hugh lived with. BE: Now did they keep that farm and ranch for very long, or did they move to someplace else? AM: He went on until he got so old that he quit ranching and just lived with his daughter. LM: He passed away on that ranch that you're asking about. He passed away there. He was out of ranching at that time he was living with his daughter, and he passed away on Milk River. I think it's the year 1892. BE: Mrs. Monroe has some memories of the appearance of Hugh Monroe who some say lived to be 109. Apparently, there's some question just about that, but Mrs. Monroe what do you remember about— LM: This is what my mother has told us. Our home was on Willow Creek too, and so was Angus' folks home up there. At this time Angus' grandfather was living with his father John Monroe on Willow Creek. He used to ride down and visit my father. He was very old then, and the skin on his forehead was so loose that he had to have it tied up like for him to see. M other has tied it up several times. I was born there on Willow Creek. That's at the Deguire (?) place now just west of Browning. That's where Grandpa Hugh gave me my Indian name, which is "long time living woman" in Indian. BE: Angus, let me ask you this, if he was the first white man in this area, did anybody seemed to make a special fuss over him—the fact that he was so old and that he was the first white man in the area? AM: No, not that I know of. I don't think it was anything like that. BE: He was just a pioneer but nobody— LM: He was recognized because there is a mountain in Glacier Park that's names for him. BE: Very good. DF: [unintelligible] 3 Angus Monroe and Lilly Monroe Interview, OH 138-001, Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula. LM: Oh was it? The mountain was named before then, yes. The Rising W olf was his Indian name, which when Angus ran for council for the Blackfeet tribe they gave him his grandfather's name, Rising Wolf, so that's Angus's Indian named now among the Indians. BE: Angus, we've determined that Hugh Monroe came to the area about 1812 or 1815—the year it is a little hard to determine—died somewhere around 1892. That's 80 years in Northern Montana. Now, how many of those years did he live with the Indians? AM: All his time from the time he hit this country until he died here in 18...what "92? LM: Some 80 years, Am: Eighty...Some 80 years. BE: Then was he just a white man living with the Indians, or did he live as an Indian himself? AM: He lived as an Indian himself. He lived with the Indians, see, and learned the language and stayed with them. BE: Then can we assume that any Indian battles or buffalo hunts or anything the Indians did, he went right along with them? AM: I couldn't tell you about anything about that. LM: I'm sure he did. BE: Apparently, Hugh Monroe can be an elusive figure in history. A man who lived with the Indians as an Indian for 80 years did not leave very many things in the way of written records. Let's talk for a few minutes now about to some interesting people we do have here, and that is Mr. and Mrs. Angus Monroe. Angus as we mentioned is Hugh Monroe' grandson. Hugh Monroe, the first white man in this area. Angus, you say you're 83 years old and you have been in the ranching business all of your life. When did you really get started in ranching? AM: Well, I lived with my dad till he passed away in 1908, and he was a stock raiser, had cattle, horses—many horses. After he passed on in 1908, well, I took over as a young boy, but I didn't make a success of it.