Maps and such

Reflects 1870s (not 1880s): "Camp Lewis was a temporary camp established 10 May 1874 in present day Lewistown, Montana, by elements of the 7th U.S. Infantry from Fort Shaw. Built along the Big Spring Creek Fork of the Judith River and located two miles south of the city in 1874. Abandoned on 1 Nov 1874."

1929: Ben Kline remembers Lewistown's origins

     You’ll recall that Ben Kline’s name came up previously in connection with that of Francis Janeaux, the alleged founder of Lewistown, though, as we see here, Kline disputed that attribution, claiming, instead, that a man named Conley founded the city. (There are two Conley brothers who were involved in law enforcement in Central Montana, starting in the 1870s. Could he be one of them?) 

Fergus County Argus, October 03, 1929

A man by the name of Conley was the real founder of Lewistown, according to Mr. Kline and he began to build the town about five or six years after the first homestead was taken up. This man Conley wanted to give Ben Kline a lot, which would now be on Main street, but Mr. Kline did not think it worth having.

1921: the Argus delicately notes Fergus County's Métis origins

Fergus County Argus, December 16, 1921

French Canadian Francis A. Janeaux—and the founding of Lewistown, MT

      One name that comes up in discussions of the founding of Lewistown is Janeaux or Jeaneaux, the name of a French Canadian who was informally deputized by the local military authority, led a group of "half-breeds," and, largely in service of that Métis community, set up trading posts in the Milk River Valley (northeast of Central Montana). By 1879, he and the community moved south—following the buffalo—setting up a post in what came to be Lewistown. Thus it was that the original town was in truth a Métis community, some of whom stuck around long enough to become town founders/elders.

     Here's what I found online:

From Legends of America 

Fort Janeaux, Montana 

Fort Janeaux, Montana, also called Janeaux’s Post, Fort Turnay, and Medicine Lodge was established by Francis A. Janeaux, a licensed Metis Indian trader and later the founder of Lewistown, Montana. He and his wife, Virginia Laverdure Janeaux, established a homestead in the fall of 1879 on Big Spring Creek, and in partnership with the trading firm of Leighton Brothers, Janeaux built a substantial post. The trading post, which measured about 100 by 150 feet, was surrounded by a stockade with two bastions at diagonal corners. In the middle were several log cabins, one for him and his family, and the others were reserved for clerks and interpreters. The post traded buffalo robes, furs, meat, and pemmican with traveling bands of Missouri River Indians and with about 100 families of the Red River Metis. No sooner had Janeaux established his trading post, when he found himself in direct competition with Alfonzo S. Reed and his Reed’s Fort Settlement, which was situated just ½ mile away. However, in the end, Janeaux would win out. 

In 1882, he and his wife donated a plot of 40 acres to develop the townsite of Lewistown and the following year he sold his store. By 1884, a two-story hotel was built facing the store, and before long livery stables and saloons surrounded his old trading post. Today, his post would have sat at what is the intersection of Third Avenue North and Broadway, right in the center of present-day Lewiston, Montana. 

—By Kathy Weiser-Alexander, updated February 2020.

* * *

     I found a second account of Janeaux's life. Here we learn, among other things, that Lewistown was originally called "Lewiston"—perhaps a reference to Camp Lewis, which had briefly existed at what became the site of the town.

Montana Memory Project 

"Jew merchant"? My my.

[DIGRESSION: 

From the New Oxford American Dictionary: 

Mé·tis| māˈtēs | noun (plural same) (especially in western Canada) a person of mixed indigenous and Euro-American ancestry, in particular one of a group of such people who in the 19th century constituted the so-called Métis nation in the areas around the Red and Saskatchewan rivers.]

Métis 

Wikipedia   

Fort Stevenson, to the east

Old map
Camp Lewis was a temporary camp established 10 May 1874 in present day Lewistown, Montana, by elements of the 7th U.S. Infantry from Fort Shaw. Built along the Big Spring Creek Fork of the Judith River and located two miles south of the city in 1874. Abandoned on 1 Nov 1874.

[DIGRESSION:

Montana’s vigilante obsession obscures the truth 

Gabriel Furshong 

 

Montana Vigilantes

Wikipedia 

The history of vigilante justice and the Montana Vigilantes began in 1863 in what was at the time a remote part of eastern Idaho Territory. Vigilante activities continued, although somewhat sporadically, through the Montana Territorial period until the territory became the state of Montana on November 8, 1889. Vigilantism arose because territorial law enforcement and the courts had very little power in the remote mining camps during the territorial period….]

Part of the Métis community

✅'We Know Who We Are' - The Complex Issue of Métis Identity 

(Voice of America) 

By Cecily Hilleary (7-11-18) 

✅Read about Reed’s Fort, Montana 

✅REED'S FORT POST OFFICE 

✅From the Library Archives: Fort Sherman, Reed and Bowles Trading Post, and Reedsfort 

Reed and Bowles' Trading Post
(lower Spring Creek)

1884: VULCAN'S account of the founding of Lewistown

     The following account, from 1884, of the "founding" and early development of (what came to be known as) Lewistown largely accords with those following.

Fergus County Argus, December 16, 1921

"Lewiston" formally became "Lewistown" in 1884

The 1880s: neighbors on Beaver Creek - Englishman & schoolteacher Edward Brassey and his wife

     I happened upon this old map (1891) of Fergus County:

"Ide's New Map Of Montana Published By A.W. Ide, Helena, Mont. 1891

     I'm especially interested in the part of the map showing the area of the Jenni Ranch on Beaver Creek. Here's a detail:

Lewiston? (Yep, name changed in 1884: see)

     I noticed the town (post office) of "Brassey," along Beaver Creek, not far, I'm sure, from the Jenni ranch. Hadn't seen that before. So I did a search of "Brassey" and discovered that a Mr. Edward Brassey had held various official positions in and around Lewistown over the years, including Register [of the US Land Office in Lewistown] (during the 1900s) and Justice of the Peace of Big Springs (ca 1920). He was also active as an attorney.

     But there was more. I came across this article about the death of Brassey's wife in 1918, where we learn a few things more about the Brasseys' life in Fergus Co.:

Grass Range Review, September 19, 1918

     Brassey and his wife arrived in Fergus County in 1882 (or perhaps 1881; see below), about when the original Jenni brothers arrived. They lived on Beaver Creek for 8 years and then moved into town (Lewistown)—perhaps permanently (Brassey died in 1926).

     It turns out that, back in the 1880s, Brassey was Lewistown's first schoolteacher. (Is it odd that a man who starts out as a schoolteacher ends up as an attorney and official?)

     I found this article about Judge Brassey that was printed just before his death (1926) in the Grass Range Review (Grass Range is a small town about 30 miles to the east of Lewistown; see map above).

Grass Range Review, April 02, 1925

     Interesting.

     Then, about a year later, we see this:

Grass Range Review, July 08, 1926

     St. James Episcopal church is located in Lewistown.

P.S.: 

     I found a document called “A Short History of Lewistown Montana” [sic] that states the following: 

Reedsfort was Lewistown's first post office. This log structure is still standing. It served a huge area that was surrounded by Philbrook, Judith Gap, and Fort Maginnis. During the winter of 1881-1882 mail was delivered just three times. At this same time, there was a lot of activity occurring within the Janeaux stockade [also called Janeaux’s Post, Fort Turnay, and Medicine Lodge]. Janeaux had an interest in the welfare of the area's youth and brought Edward Brassey in to teach school children. Longtime public school teacher Mercy Jackson says that the school first opened in 1881. There were 4 white students and 35 mixed raced children. The log school was located across from the current day post office. Edward Brassey lived in the stockade with Janeaux. 

P.S.:

     In the archives of Montana State University (Collection 776 - Brassey Family Papers, 1877-1929), I found the following, which indicates, among other things, that Edward Brassey was an Englishman—indeed, a Liverpudlian!

Historical Note: Edward Brassey (1844-1926) was born in England and raised in Liverpool. He came to Helena, Montana in 1867 and worked as a miner and secretary for a local company putting up buildings on the Eldorado Bar. He also taught school at Cave Gulch and worked as a miner in Diamond City. Brassey served as a county official for Meagher County for several terms during the 1880s and moved to Lewistown in 1890 where he worked as a register for the United States Land Office and as a justice of the peace. In 1876 he married Recina Smith (1860-1918) and the couple had two children: William Edward Brassey (1879-?) and Lillian Elizabeth Brassey (1877-1933). William Edward became a real estate dealer and banker in Lewistown and, from about 1915 to 1918, in Roy, Montana. In 1895 Lillian Elizabeth married James H. Charters, a rancher and Montana state legislator, and the couple lived in Ubet and Grass Range, Montana before moving back to Lewistown around 1924. 

As a banker and real estate dealer, William Edward Brassey became involved with a number of farm mortgage companies, including the American Loan and Investment Company (ALIC) of Lewistown, Montana, and in his office files were many documents from that company. The ALIC was established in Lewistown in 1911. It stopped making loans in 1922, but kept an office there until 1929. After that date it became the Tolen Land Company of Lewistown. During the years of its operation, the ALIC had two subsidiary corporations, the American Land Company and the First State Bank of Kolin. All of these operations specialized in loans to area farmers and ranchers, and the sale of the resulting mortgages to investors. Brassey had possession of the files at the end of his life and they were subsequently inherited by his son, Robert D. Brassey.

[NOTE: the Jenni name—Jenni, John S. and Albertina—comes up in this document. See.] 

1917: Jenni-Gordon wedding

Randomly chosen couple, ca 1917

Fergus County Democrat, June 07, 1917

Wedding at John Jenni's on Beaver Creek:

Siegfried Jenni, eldest son of John Jenni of Beaver Creek.

Pearl Gordon, from Indiana

1917

1907: John Jenni's lost horse

Fergus County Argus, April 12, 1907

Fergus County Argus, April 19, 1907

     Louse Creek?

1928: a debate in Moore

     A minor matter.

     Found this:

The Moore Independent, March 08, 1928

Aunt Frieda—as a teenager (c. 1893)

Aunt Frieda—as a teenager

     The Flueckingers arrived in the U.S. in 1883, sailing up the Mississippi and then up the Missouri to just north of St. Joseph, Missouri (Amazonia). In 1891, young Emma, then about 18, traveled to the Lewistown area and soon married Fred Jenni. Two years later, Emma's aunt traveled to the area and married a German. In 1898, Frieda arrived in Lewistown and married Charles White.
     I call it the "Flueckinger marriage plan."

4-H

According to Wikipedia,

4-H is a global network of youth organizations whose mission is "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development". Its name is a reference to the occurrence of the initial letter H four times in the organization's original motto ‘head, heart, hands, and health,’ which was later incorporated into the fuller pledge officially adopted in 1927. In the United States, the organization is administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 4-H Canada is an independent non-profit organization overseeing the operation of branches throughout Canada. Throughout the world, 4-H organizations exist in over 50 countries; the organization and administration varies from country to country. Each of these programs operates independently but cooperatively through international exchanges, global education programs, and communications. 

. . . 

The foundations of 4-H began in 1902 with the work of several people in different parts of the United States. The focal point of 4-H has been the idea of practical and hands-on learning, which came from the desire to make public school education more connected to rural life. Early programs incorporated both public and private resources. 4-H was founded with the purpose of instructing rural youth in improved farming and farm-homemaking practices. 

By the 1970s, it was broadening its goals to cover a full range of youth, including minorities, and a wide range of life experiences. During this time researchers at experiment stations of the land-grant universities and USDA saw that adults in the farming community did not readily accept new agricultural discoveries, but educators found that youth would experiment with these new ideas and then share their experiences and successes with the adults. So rural youth programs became a way to introduce new agriculture technology to the adults. 

Club work began wherever a public-spirited person did something to give rural children respect for themselves and their ways of life and it is very difficult to credit one sole individual. Instances of work with rural boys and girls can be found all throughout the 19th century. In the spring of 1882, Delaware College announced a statewide corn contest for boys, in which each boy was to plant a quarter of an acre, according to instructions sent out from the college, and cash prizes, certificates, and subscriptions to the American Agriculturalist were rewarded. In 1892, in an effort to improve the Kewaunee County Fair, Ransom Asa Moore, President of the Kewaunee Fair, the Agricultural Society, and Superintendent of the Kewaunee County Schools in Wisconsin, organized a “youth movement”, which he called “Young People’s Contest Clubs”, in which he solicited the support of 6,000 young farm folks to produce and exhibit fruits, vegetables, and livestock. The fairs were very successful. In 1904, while working for the University of Wisconsin-Madison and trying to repeat what he had successfully accomplished in Kewaunee County over a decade before but with different intentions, "Daddy" R.A. Moore convinced R.H. Burns, then Superintendent of Schools of Richland County, Wisconsin, to have the Richland County Boys and Girls organize and assist in a corn-project activity to help market and distribute improved seeds to the farmers in the state of Wisconsin (and beyond). 

A. B. Graham started one of the youth programs in Clark County, Ohio, in 1902, which is also considered one of the births of the 4-H program in the United States. The first club was called "The Tomato Club" or the "Corn Growing Club". T.A. "Dad" Erickson of Douglas County, Minnesota, started local agricultural after-school clubs and fairs also in 1902. 

Jessie Field Shambaugh developed the clover pin with an H on each leaf in 1910, and, by 1912, they were called 4-H clubs. Early 4-H programs in Colorado began with youth instruction offered by college agricultural agents as early as 1910, as part of the outreach mission of the Colorado land grant institutions. 

The national 4-H organization was formed in 1914, when the United States Congress created the Cooperative Extension Service of the USDA by passage of the Smith-Lever Act of 1914[;] it included within the CES charter the work of various boys' and girls' clubs involved with agriculture, home economics and related subjects. The Smith-Lever Act formalized the 4-H programs and clubs that began in the midwestern region of the United States. Although different activities were emphasized for boys and girls, 4-H was one of the first youth organizations to give equal attention to both genders (cf., erstwhile Boys Clubs of America). By 1924, these clubs became organized as 4-H clubs, and the clover emblem was adopted.

6-18-42 Great Falls Trib

9-13-42 Great Falls Trib

11-8-42 Great Falls Trib

12-23-42 Great Falls Trib

11-3-43 Great Falls Trib

11-3-43 Indep Record

11-8-43 Montana Standard

11-25-43 Independent Record

11-25-43 The Montana Standard

6-2-46 Montana Standard

9-19-46 Great Falls Trib

8-17-47 Billings Gazette

1-6-58 Billings Gazette

4-11-71 Billings Gazette