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About The Ekalaka Eagle (Ekalaka, Mont.) 1909-1920 | View This Issue
The Ekalaka Eagle (Ekalaka, Mont.), 20 July 1917, located at <http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/sn85053090/1917-07-20/ed-1/seq-3/>, image provided by MONTANA NEWSPAPERS, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
• • / THE EKALASA EAGLE. • 7' ''• I t JOHN URGENT ONLY SURVIIVOR OF ME %%00 SAILED DOWN MOSSOURII RfiVER TOGETHER FOFITIONE YEARS AGO THIS MONTH AUTO SiEEDWAY ON BOULDER 1111,1L MOST DANGEROUS RACE COURSE IN THE UNITICD STATES ON ACCOUNT OF GRADE. Jimmie Reynolds and J. Stanley Smith Race Up Hill and Down Dale; Smith's Car Goes in the Ditch; Race Will Be Run Over in the Near Future. Jimmie Reynolds of Boulder Hot Springs hae an idea that ordinary straight-away auto racing is alto- gether too tame a sport for red- blooded men. So he has introduced an innovation that would give even Barney Oldfield a thrill. He has made a speedway of Boulder hill, and is challenging all comers to race up hill and down dale over the most dangerous course in the United States. It is only occasionally that he meets an autoist with nerve enough to accept his defy. Janies M. Reynolds. Ile found one the other day in J. Stanley Smith, the Martinsdale flock - master. Sniith owns a big sheep ranch in the Martinsdale country. It is too rough out Niartinsdale way to permit of the herding of sheep\ by automobile, so Smith 118013 an air- plane. 110 is the only flockmaster in the world. who flies about over his broad acres inspecting his flbcks from the clouds. Ile calls this new sport \sheepplaning.\ Bluebird vs. Super Six. Smith happened to be at Boulder the other day and Reynolds chal- lenged him to an auto race ten miles over Boulder hill. Smith accepted. A wager of $1,000 was posted be- tween the two on the outcome of the race. Numerous other bets were laid on the contest. Smith drove a Bluebird and Reynolds was at the wheel of his Super Six. The start was made from the cen- ter bf Boulder town at the crack of a pistol. Reynolds' self-starter worked most effectively, and he shot ahead at the commencement of the race. Smith streaked after him. On the level stretch leading away from the town the machines tore away at the limit of their speed. Reynolds maintained his lead over the winding road until Smith's engine got to working nicely. Then, on a narrow grade he attempted to pass Reynolds. Intl the Ditch. He got by Reynolds all right and was moving forward nicely when something went wrong with the steering gear. The machine jumped the grade and Smith end his inachifie went into the ditch. The automobile was badly emashed, but Sinftli wits unhurt. Reynolds went on and fin- ished the course in,18 minutes. , All bets were declared off on account of the accident, and the race is to run agairi in the ruin,. future. Moral: Shut the Gate! Peter Arrigoni is being sued by Angelo Piazzola, a Silver Bow county rancher, for $1,000 damages. Maz- zola allegee that Arrigoni left a gate leading to his ranch open, and cattle entered and destroyed his crop. Farm Volunteers. Many youthe of Butte, under the age of conscription, have volunteeret to help the farmers of the Big Hole and Dillon country. Mercy. She . went to church with Billy Burr. and stood before the altar; And when he got too fresh with her, She handed him the Psalter. When BM had inarried her, my land! And for a while had kep\er He found that she could also hand Ilim quite a bit of pepper. WH1EAT $2.50 PER BUSHEL it I. being proposed that the floyerti- ment fix the price for wheat tbla fall $2.ro) per bnahel. At this price. there will be a aplenfild profit to the farmer. TIIP domande of this country for grain and foodstuffs of all kinda 14 going to be unprecedented—we not only have to feed our own people but the allied Eu- ropean countrlem nit well. It la a pa- triotie duty and hot II single acre should he allowed to remain Idle. THE BANKING CORPORATION OF MONTANA. Helena. Montana, with Its large reitourcea Moulds ready to amidst farmera who may need financial help. Write them for information. Fifty-one years ago this month a party of five men built a mackinaw boat at Fort Benton and started down the Missouri to St. Louis. They had a most eventful and interesting trip through the 'wilderness, end fin- ally arrived at their destination safe- ly. The five were Joe Kipp. John Largent, Bob Mills, Henry Kennedy and Mose Solomon. John Largent the only one of the party•alive today. Vie is 77 years dlid, and is growing feeble, but in most respects his memory is good, and he likes to talk about that trip end his comrades on it, all of whom have passed away. \I remember that we had a great time when we reacher Sioux City, Ia., which, in those days, was a live river town,\ said Mr. Largent. \We had our photograph taken, and I have a copy of the original picture still. The great change -that time has wrought can be seen plainly enough in that photograph. The boots, - hats and coats we wore then - look strange to- day. How little we thought, as we drifted down the river through a country filled with__ savage Indians that this whole western prairie land would ever be civilized and settled like it is today within any of our lives.\ The men who took the trip, shown in the accompanying photograph, had interesting histories. John Largent was an American Fur company man when he first came to Montana, a passenger on the old steamer Spread Eagle. He left St. Louisen the boat July 3, 1861. Works as Hunter. \I hired out as a hunter, being a crack shot in those days, and that was my job for the first 14 months I spent in Montana. My salary was at first only $19 per month, but after a while it was increased to $40 per month,\ said Mr. Largent. In March, 1863, Mr. Largent and two other men started north to Fort Edmonton on a fur hunting trip. They had not gone far when the Blackfeet Indians stole their horses and set them afoot. They were forc- ed to walk 200 miles to their destin- ation. They afterward had a suc- cessful hunt and finally returned to Fort Benton. Mr. Largent then spent several months at Bannack, Virginia City and other gold camps. and then hired out to Carl & Steele as wagon boss of a train of bull teams In 1866 he decided to take a trip east to see his mother, so he returned to Fort Benton and began making preparations. He at first arranged to go down the river with a party of eleven people who had jinn complet- ed a boat, but as the last moment something came up to prevent his starting. It was fortunate for him to change his plans, for two or three weeks later when he started with Kipp and the others. they found at the mouth of the Musselshell the bodies of the eleven, all of whom had been killed by the Indians. Sitanding, from left to right: Mose S olomon, Bob Mills, John Seated, Joe Kipp, Henry Kennerly. La rgent ; The Indians in question, a party of Blackfeet, were enraged because of some treacherous work done shortly before by a . party of whites who ambushed and killed a number of Indians. In reprisal, therefore, they had tortured several of the par- ty whose remains were found by Lar- gent and his companions. One man had been staked down on the edge of the river, with his feet in the wa- ter, and left to die slowly from star- vation. Under the hot midsummer sun, with insects continually stinging his face and no water to drink, his sufferings must have been terrible. Mr. Largent knew one man in tne party intimately, as they both came from Peoria, Ill. Upon his return to Peoria, Mr. Largent met this man'e father. who asked for Aidings of his son. \I didn't have the heart to tell him the truth,\ said Largent \I just said when I had last heard of him he was in the mountains.\ Mose Solomon. Another interesting character waa Mose Solomon, known to thousands of the old timers from the time he ran a trading post at the mouth of the Mertes river. Solomon was one of the few Jews who were real fron- tiersmen. He was an Indian trader. hunter, trapper and sdout, and he proved his mettle in many a fight with the reds. It was a saying of Mose Solomon that started an amusing story that has been told thousands of times with all sorts of variations to suit the lo- cal conditions. One time Mose, like a good many other frontiersmen, was guilty of some minor infraction of the law and the town marshal at Fort Benton put him in the lockup. A friend came to see him and asked concerning his trouble. \WO they can't . lock you up for that, Mose,\ said his friend on hear- ing the details. \Oh! No, sure they can't lock me up,\ said Mose with some irony in his voice. \I suppose these bars are mb.de of cheese!\ Kennedy and Mills. I3ob Mills was well known in pio- neer days at Fort Benton. He ran a restaurant there for some years. Lat- er lie lived in various other Montana towns. Henry Kennerly war another American Fur company man, having been employed from the early 60's as a clerk and bookkeeper. During the last years of his life he was entirely blind and he died at Cutbank a few years ago. The most interesting character of the group was Joe Kipp. who was born at Fort Union in 1847, the son of Jamee Kipp, the famous American Fur company factor, wlio was in what is now Montana as early as 1822. Most of Joe Kipp's youth was passed at the trading poet at Fort Union and at Fort Benton. and he thus became acquainted with the va- rious tribes of the country, including the Blackfeet, Crows. Gros Ventres, _so dark that the boy had trouble in finding the horse he sought, but fin- ally he recognized the black ste d. He cut its tie rope, and using the short end for a bridle, mounted and Long -Forgotten Graves of Montana Pioneers Should Be Marked by Their Living Comrades Frank I). Blown, Historian of the Societ) of Montana Pioneera, Sends Plea for Preservation of Memory of Those Trail -Blazers Whose Burial Places in 'Many a Deserted Gulch Have Been Nte• glected Through the l'assing Years. \One of the obligations owed the living pioneere of Montana to the forgotten dead of their band is the proper marking of the last rest- ing places of those men who fell in the battle to reclaim the wilderness, and who helped blaze the trails ahead,\ said Frank D. Brown, his- torian of the society of Montana pi- oneers, in a recent interview. Mr. Brown, to whom Montana owes a debt of gratitude for the work he has done in assembling and recording invaluable historical Arita bearing on the early dam has been an infatiguable worker to secure proper monuments and identifying marks at historic points linthe state. In particular, he has endeavored to have the graveyards ()Nile old, aban- loned mining camps given suitable monuments. The first monument to be erected through the efforts of Mr. Brown by the Society of Montana Pioneers was; over the (lead in the old and almoet obliterated cemetery of Henderson ' Gulch, a one-time great and pros- perous camp of Granite county, but of which nothing remains now but the wreck of a single log cabin and the decaying remnants of long un- used Edifice boxes. This testimonial to the memory of the dead of nearly half a century ago was given by James A. Murray of Butte, who once lived in Henderson Gulch. The 14 foot Omit has engraved upon its face the names of the men sleeping there. Killed by Nez Perces. In the beautiful temetery at Phil- ipsburg, in Granite county, a large and costly stone has been erected, the gift of. the late John G. Morony, to mark the graves of Joy, Ilayes and Elliott, killed by a war party of Nez Perces July 12, 1878. These men were prospectors and' the sole inhabi- tants of McKay Gulch, on the east- ern slope of a spur of the Bitter Root mountains. For nearly forty years these men slept in unmarked graves, 1 Monument Over Forgotten Dead in . lienderson Gulch. forgotten and neglected. Elliott was a friend of Mr. Morony when tlu• ter was a boy. The remains of George Monteur. scout, interpreter and friend of the first settlers of Nevada valley, in Powell county, have been removed from the encroaching waters of the North Fork of the Blackfoot river, and re -interred on a bar nearby., Over them handsome stontes have been set, which bear his name ati . d date of his death. Said Historian Brown in his last report to the eociety: \Montour was a ma•n of heroic mold. tearless and brave. a trapper and frontiersman, he WWI a principal in many a deadly fight with 'the hostiles. His frien- ship and honesty was unquestioned wherever white men were.to be served, and it was those who buried him more than forty years ago in tile exact place where he Wat3 shot. The expense of preserving the memory of this man to posterity was borne by John W. Blair of Powell county, who knew Monteur.. Dead of Historic Gulches \Think of the historic gulches that were once filled with the virile life of the frontier. How seldom do their names fall on the ()are of listening men? Yet in close vicinity to more than one of them lie the homes of (lead men,'' said Mr. Brown in his 1916 report. \And if you seek them out they will be found In naked. unkept places. There will be no enclosing fence. No headboard will tell a atory to cause you to pause and read it. You will APO the outlines of -sunken graves. Here lie the good and the had. In their burial no social dis- tinctions were made. They were all oh a. common level, and dead. were accredited by their eurviving com- rades with every . virtue poor bu- I manity is presumed to possess. To this (lay these men of troublotia times lig grouped together in peace and contentment. The drifting snows of winter clothes, the nakedness of their earthly home with garments of pure white, while summer days bring on those of green. trimmed with beau- tiful flowers and the stately fronde of the waving bunch grass. A great many of these dead lived square and honorable lives, while many others lost theirs through the unwritten law of the survival of the fittest. But the fact to be called to your atten- tion is that they Ile there today, un- wept, unhonored and unsung. \Would it not be a worthy thing to mark theae neglected places. and place on ricord the names of the dead lying there? Task for Living Pioneers. \And it was easy for a man to lie down and die in those rude and bois- terous days. Whisky claimed its toll of very few of them. Working all day In wet clothes, insufficiently fed. careless knd indifferent of their per- sonal welfare, the' placer miner's in- vited pulmonary diseases, qnd physi- cal breakdown from loqg wanderings and toilsome yeare of prospecting. \Then go you into the long aban-. doned mining camps of Emigrant Gulch, Cave, Cedar Creek, Silver Creek, Blackfoot, Bear—but why name thein? This was a country of great placer mines. Out of their au- riferous gravel flowed millions of 'dollars In gold dust. Their now torn Frank D. Brown.. -- and ragged lengths are sorrowfdl recollections of a long ago day; the rude log cabins of those who once lived there have crumbled away and lie hidden beneath the waving grass- es of the mountain sides. And some- where in the elevated ground around the silent places will be found the ne- glected spot where the dead . of a once as I do, that B prosperous cani: 4 4y. You must feel, measures should be taken to prevent such sacred placea from passing out of e mem- ory of men into utter obits , ' n. \Out of these once populous gulch- es came some surviving wealthy min- er, rancher, merchant and banker of the state. Have they fprgotten their comrades of days that tried men's souls? How little would it cost them to re -visit the scenes of their early manhood and do merited honor to those who never came down the trail again% _ _ Think over the suggestion that you should do this—you men who are now gray and worn, but whe en- joy all .of the comfort and happiness which they were denied. Keep it in memory. The shadows are falling about yow. Into the untimbered tahaft where they lie sleeping you 4nuet shortly descend, and no ray of sunlight will ever fall below its col- lar after its somber gloofn has once been entered. See that the thinge you should do in memory of the old- en time are _well done now, and do not trust to those who may come after you to see. that they are done.\ Sioux, Mandans and Aricarees, and learned to speak the language of each tribe. In 1865 - ; when George Steel and Mat Carroll bought out the American Fur Company at Fort Benton, Young Kipp entered their employ, and thereafter his life was one of adven- ture. . Blackfeet Steal Fine Horse. George Steel, who was a well know trader in early days and later 1\ had a store at Sun River crossing, had at that time in Fort Benton a black litirse, the swifteet and best trained buffalo runner in the coun- ty. One of young Kipp's duties was td care for the animal, which was kept in the stables at the rear of the fort. One morning Joe found the stable door broken open and the horse gone. The Piegans, or Black - feet tribe had taken it, having long coveted the animal and offered a fab- ulous price for it. ' Joe Kipp knew that the horse was in the big camp over the hill on the Teton, and from there it did not seem possible to recover the horse. Sever- al of the Blackfeet had been killed recently by miners in Last Chance gulch, and the tribe had swoilf - Vba- geance against the whites. Even the traders and their employers were for- bidden to enter the camp. Young Kipp felt so badly over the loss of the horse that he could not rest, but begged to be allowed to try to recover it, but was refused permis- sion, Steel telling him that his life was worth more than that of the ,horse. What irritated him most was the actions of Four Bears, Blackfeet camp crier, who came into the fort and bragged long and loudly about what was being accomplished with the buffalo horse. \White Antelope has the best buffalo horse that ever was in this country,\ he would say. \It is a big, powerful black horse. Yesterday he chased a herd of buffa- lo with it and killed nine cows.\ Boasted of Theft. And so the old camp crier contin- ued to boast about the horse and White Antelope's successful runs with it, until one dark night, regard- less of consequences, Joe stole out of the fort and \went over the hill to the Piegan camp. With a blanket wrapped about him, Indian fasuion, and with a pistol in his hand, he wandered about among the lodges, until he found White Antelope's ot- ter medicine painted lodge, the black *ADO° PRAISES MONTANA'S WORK SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY WRITTES TO CHARLES J. KELLY OF BUTTE. Thanks Montanans for Loyal and . Pa- triotie Work, and Says They Have Contributed Immeasurably to the First Signil Victory Amerka Has Won in This War. Recognition of the part which Montana took in the purchase of the Liberty loan bonds has come - person- ally in a letter from Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo to Charles J. Kel- ly, chairman of the committee. Mr. McAdoo says: \Dear Mr. Kelly: Permit me to ex- tend to you and through - you to each of your Liberty loan coramittee, my warm thanks and deep appreciation of the patriotic service you rendered your country in connection with the Liberty loan of' 1917. The result could not have been accomplished without the effectivve aid of such patriotic citizens as yourself and the members of your committee. \Loyal and unselfishly you gave the government your efforts, and you con enjoy the satisfaction of know- ing that you have contributed im- measurably to the first signal victory America has won in this righteous war. \I also take this opportunity to ex- press the hope that you will preserve your admirable organization and that I may have your assistance again when the government has to place additional issues of bonds.\ It IS said that the record of Mon- tana in the purchase pf Liberty loan bonds is proportionately ahead of any state in the union, Montana's subscription being mpre than 100 per cent above the allotment. thundered through the big camp for the river and the fort. At the first jump of the horse White Antelope and his guests rush- ed from the lodge and started yelling and shooting. In a minute a dozen painted animals showing up plainlY\ - men were in pursnit on horses, but on the fire -illumined lodge skin. the boy easily kept the black in the Within the warrior was giving a lead and triumphantly entered the feast; as young Kipp drew near he fort. could hear the Indian telling his Kipp Boasts Now. guests how he had entered the fort . It was now -young Kipp's turn to corral and taken the wonderful black boast. Whenever old Four Bears runner. came in to trade, the boy would cry There were several animals pick - out in, imitation of a warrior count- eted close to the lodge, and it was ing his cons, \In the Piegan camp on the Teton. That was the place. There, an a dark night, I entered. I wandered among the lodges and found that which I sought, a swift, black horse; the best, the fastest buf- falo horse in all the land. I took the horse and fled. Men fired at me; men mounted and followed me. I rode safely away from teem. I have the horse.\ White Antelope swore that he would kill Kipp the first time he met him, but he did not harm him, and in time they became fast friends. As a reward .for this exploit, Steel gave young Kipp a year's schooling at St. Joe, Missouri, and he was on his way to school when the picture accompanying this article was taken at Sioux City. In 1869 Kipp became an army, scout and was stationed at Fort Shaw when Colonel Baker was ordered to find and wipe out Black Weasel and the warriors of his band for the mur- der of Malcolm Clark. The command etruck the trail of Heavy Ruaner's band instead. Kipp in vain protested that it was the wrong one. All In- dians were alike to Baker, and he ordered Kipp to lead on, detailing two soldiers to keep at his side and ehoot him if he made a false move. So it was at the break of day on January 1, 1870, the soldiers looked down at the lodges of the friendly camp from the edge of a cut bank on the Merles river, and again Kipp pleaded with Baker not to molest them. His pleadings were without avail. Baker ordered his men to shoot and to spare none. A dreadful carnage ensued. Men, women and children were killed indiscriminately, only three or four men of the big camp escaping. Kipp afterward had a hard time persuading the Blackfeet that he had tried his best to save their kindred. but they finally be- lieved him. Kipp left OA army and became an Indian trader. \ Life of Adventure. For the next ten years he led a life of adventure as an Indian trader. Ile invaded the Hudson Bay coin: - pany's territory in Canada and es- tablished Fort Standoff, and later re- turned to this side of the line. In 1879, when the Blackfoot were &tid- ing with him in the Judith Basin and were ordered back to their reserva- tion by the contingent of soldiers in violation of their treaty rights, it was only Joe Kipp who prevented the Blackfeet going on the war path with the Sioux and Nez Perces, and to- gether massacring every white on the plains that they could find. Kipp succeeded in persuading the Blackfeet that they would lose .all they had in the end if they went on the war path, 'but it is doubtful if anyone else could hair.) made them see it. After the last of the buffalo' had been slaughtered and Indian trading off the reservation was a thing of the past, Kipp, who was' the son of an In- dian mother, went to the Blackfeet reservation and acquired soine prop- erty., He died there in December, • IV •
