Thomas J. Dimsdale| Montana's First Newspaper Editor
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University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1965 Thomas J. Dimsdale| Montana's first newspaper editor Robert John Goligoski The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Goligoski, Robert John, "Thomas J. Dimsdale| Montana's first newspaper editor" (1965). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 3890. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/3890 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THOMAS J. DIMSDAUE: MDNTAHA*S FIEST NEWSPAPER EDITOR ROBERT J. GOLIGOSKI B.A. Montana State University, 1^64 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts MDNTANA STATE UNIVERSITY 1965 Approved by: Chairman, Board of Examiners Deanj/Cfraduate School may 17 1965 Date UMI Number: EP36148 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT 0*t«rt«flon Publl«Nng UMI EP36148 Published by ProQuest LLC (2012). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.Q. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 -1346 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my appreciation to my adviser, Warren J. Brier, for his advice, guidance and encouragement. The members of my thesis committee. Dean Nathan B. Blumherg and Professor Edwin Bingham, gave constructive criticism and pointed out needed improvements. Special thanks are due author Larry Bareness for his counsel and encouragement. I am also deeply indebted to the librarians at the State Historical Society in Helena for their assistance and guidance. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THOMAS DIMSDALE AM) THE MDNTANA POST............. 1 II. ALDER GULCH, MINING MECCA OF THE WE S T ........... 2k III. DIMSDALE: CIVIC CRUSADER, POOR PERSUADER......... 39 IV. SOCIAL CITY OF THE NORTHWEST.................... 5^ V. PROFESSOR DIMSDALE.............................. 65 VI. FROM "SANCTUM" TO PULPIT........................ T2 VII. YANKEE DOODLE, DIXIE AND THE BALLOT B O X ......... 80 VIII. A BLOODTHIRSTILY LITTLE MDNTANA BOOK............. 98 IX. VIGILANTE EDITOR................................. 112 X. LOOKING BACK..................................... 124 APPENDIX..............................................134 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................... l44 111 PHOTOGRAPHS* PAGE 1. Thomas Josiah Dimsdale, I83I-I866.................. 2 2. Montana Post office in the l860s. (Virginia City). 9 3. Reconstructed Montana Post building in the 1960s (Virginia City)................................... 10 4. Editorial office of the Montana Post. (Virginia City). 11 5. Original printing equipment of the Montana Post. .... 12 6. Abraham Lincoln elected President, Montana Post, November I9, 1864..................................83 7» Montana executive office I866. (Virginia City).......94 8. The Vigilantes of Montana presented to the public, Montana Post, August 26, I865................ , . 99 9. Thomas J. Dimsdale's grave. Hillside Cemetery (Virginia City) ................................... 125 * Photographs one through eight from the Montana State Historical Society collection, Helena, Montana. Photograph nine courtesy of Dick Pace, Helena. IV CHAPTER I THOMAS DIMSDALE AND THE MCHTAHA POST The frail, 'bewhiskered Englishman lay dying in Virginia City, Montana. His best friend. Colonel Wilbur P. Sanders, stood next to his bed and started to move the sick man to a more comfortable position. When he clasped the man in his arms, Thomas Josiah Dimsdale took one last breath and died.^ It was Sept. 22, I866 and Montana had lost its 2 first newspaper editor. Three years earlier he had entered Virginia City, Montana, and decided to call it home. During those three years, he became a central figure in one of the richest gold mining areas in the world— a 12-mile stretch of mineral wealth called Alder Gulch. It was no place for the timid. In l864 Virginia City, Montana, was the nation's richest boom town with more than $30 million in gold lifted from its soil in that year. It was a boister#ous place with nearly every third cabin in the town of 10,000 a saloon. Gamblers fleeced miners and what the pick and shovel men had left the dancing girls took. Bartenders served vile whiskey for fifty cents in gold ^Thomas Baker, "Pencil Pictures of Pioneer Pencillers," Rocky Mountain Magazine, II (March, I901), p. 5^5* p When Dimsdale became editor of the Montana Post Sept. IT, l864, he succeeded John Buchanan. Buchanan was not an editor in the "permanent" sense because he held the position for only two or three issues. Dimsdale was Post editor for two years. / à PHDTOGRAPH 1 Thomas Josiah Dimsdale, I83I-I866 3 dust and a night didn*t pass without its share of fights, quarrels, wounds or murders. Men cussed and swaggered from saloon to saloon and random shots shattered store windows and could he heard ahove the merry notes of the violin.^ It was a fertile field for a frontier newspaper editor who usually drank nothing stronger than tea or punch, frowned on cussing and gambling and looked with displeasure on noisy dance halls and painted women. Dimsdale, Montana's first permanent newspaper editor, didn't change conditions much but his crusading pen could be felt from one end of Alder Gulch to the other. He filled the editor's ’feanctum" of the Virginia City Montana Post, Montana's first newspaper,^ from Sept. IJ, l864 until the end of August, 1866. He was only 35 when he died of tuberculosis. Details of the 32 years of his life before he came to Montana in July, 1863 are sketchy. Dorn in I831 near Thirlsby in northern England, he was a member of a middle-class family wealthy enough to send its children to schools attended by the sons of nobility. Dimsdale received his early education at Rugby and latter attended Oxford.5 ^N. P. Langford, Vigilante Days and Ways (Missoula; Montana State University Press, 1 9 5 7 p. 173• ^Dorothy M. Johnson, "Montana's First Newspaper," Journalism Review, I (Spring, 1958), pp. 9-12. Miss Johnson concludes earlier news publications in Montana mining camps do not qualify as actual newspapers. ^Martha Edgerton Plassman, "Thos. Dimsdale, Montana's First Historian," Rocky Mountain Husbandman, Aug. 3> 1927, insert. Oxford Universily Registry, in answer to my letters, writes it has no record of Dimsdale ever having attended Oxford University itself but indicates he could have attended one of the numerous Oxford colleges. 4 His family, which apparently was large, had been engaged in engineering and construction work and had a reputation for being among the leading iron masters in northern England. It decided that because of Dimsdale's frail physique and delicate constitution, he would not be strong enough for a life in the business world. Instead, he was sent to Oxford to be educated for the church, an aristocratic calling in those days. A young man didn't need a vocation to become a clergyman in the Church of England. That came later, "preferably in the form of a rich benefice, with its attendant temporal, if not spiritual advantage."^ There is no indication Dimsdale had previous experience as a journalist or ever had studied to be one. He was forced to leave Oxford in his sophomore year when financial disaster struck his family, which had gambled in a scheme to utilize London sewage to fertilize unproductive land in the suburbs. The plan failed and marked the end of Dimsdale^ s formal education.^ For the first time he was forced to earn a living. He had no definite idea what he would do, but he had heard Canada was a land of opportunity. He left his native land and settled in Millbrook, Ontario, where he worked for about 10 years as a teacher. Soon after his arrival in Millbrook, he was appointed head master of a school o in Durham County. &Ibid. "^Baker, op. cit., p. 5^3» O °ELassman, loc. cit. 5 One of his former students in Canada was impressed with Dimsdale's ability as a teacher: Tbe striking personality of the man recalls him still to memory. A large man, full blooded, florid, large mentally and physically; certainly an ideal instructor. He must have had considerable magnetic influence or a large fund of benevolence, for always at intermission a crowd of youngsters were at his heels following him everywhere, receiving instruction while being amused with some scientific plaything. I well remember one was a sun dial, with hours cut on the level of a post. Another was a practical demonstration of a ship canal, made in a little passing rivulet, with locks and floodgates all complete, and chips for ships. The earliest entertainment I can remember was a magic lantern exhibition given by the genial professor.^ Dimsdale picked up the title of professor at Millbrook and it followed him to Virginia City where he taught a subscription school. It is interesting to note that the former student's physical description of Dimsdale is exactly opposite of how he was described in England and later in Montana. Pioneers who knew him in Virginia City most often described him as did Granville Stuart when he wrote that Dimsdale "was a man of extremely delicate constitution. Dimsdale himself said he was "the runt of the family" when he alluded to his physical infirmities.^^ Either for his health or because he was attracted to the Montana gold fields, he traveled to the high mountain country of ^Anaconda Standard, July 9, I893, p.