Part II.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AMONG THE WHITES IN MONTANA.

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CHAPTER I.

MONTANA'S TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATE CONDITIONS, RESOURCES, EXPLORERS AND FIRST WHITE SETTLERS.

It may be well to state by way of preface that his part of our task, namely, the history of Catholicity among the white in Montana, strictly speaking, is confined within the short period of three decades. The reason is obvious; in what is today the State of Montana there were no whites, we mean white settlers, thirty years ago.

Montana lies between Dakota, Idaho, Wyoming and the British Possessions, covering 146,080 square miles, and ranks third in area among the State of the Union. It sits, as it were, astraddle the main Range of the Rockies, by which it is divided into two halves or sections east and west, that to the east being somewhat larger than the one to the west. Hence its natural importance for our subject. For though this natural division did not hinder Montana from remaining one civil commonwealth, ecclesiastically it split it in two, as will appear further on.

The part detached from Idaho in the formation of our new Territory, that is, Western Montana, lies between the main divide and the Bitter Root Mountains, the latter defining its boundaries to the west for a considerable distance. Though a mountainous region, some of the prettiest and most fertile valleys are found in this section. Of these the bitter root, the Hell's Gate, the Jocko, the Flat Head Lake, and the Big Blackfoot valleys, all in Missoula county; and the valleys of Deer Lodge, Flint Creek and Nevada Creek, in the County of Deer Lodge, are the principal ones. There is an abundance of timber and an unfailing supply of water, both clear and wholesome. The many beautiful streams that irrigate the whole section, come down from the west slope of the continental divide or some of its spurs, and from the east side of the Bitter root Mountains,

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and meeting at one point or another, mingle, to empty, finally, into the great Columbia.

Eastern Montana is enclosed between the main Rockies and the border lines of the British Possessions, Dakota, Idaho, and Wyoming, and embraces the plains and table-lands that form nearly three-fifths of the whole territory. What little timber is found in this eastern section grows on the slope and spurs of the main divide; apart from the scrubby cotton wood that fringes the banks of some of the streams, the plains and table-lands are treeless. The land, however, is generally good, particularly in the northern part, where the soil is deep and of the best. Owing to this, what is today an immense expanse of wild, rolling prairies may yet become by means of irrigation, the granary of the Northwest in the no distant future.

In Eastern Montana the Missouri has its source, that is, near Gallatin, it received both being and name, as here the Madison, the Gallatin, and the Jefferson come together and unselfishly cease to be, to give it birth. From this point the mighty river starts on its course toward the Atlantic, and every stream, large or small, becomes it tributary.

Montana's climate is dry and crisp; hence, bracing and invigorating. The average annual temperature is higher than in the same latitude further east, and ranges from 41 degrees in the north and coldest part, to 47 degrees in the lower valleys, south and west. The variations in temperature, however, are great and very rapid, the thermometer failing to 40 to 50 degrees below zero in the severest part of the winter, and rising in the warmest summer months to 92 degrees or 94 degrees. Such extremes, however, rarely extend over a week without a change. Throughout the summer, even after the warmest days, the evenings are cook and pleasant. Snow falls to a considerable depth on the mountains, in the northwestern part, especially; but it is light in the valleys, and particularly in those to the south, where cattle and horses winter without shelter; while the biting cold or greater altitudes generally much less felt, owing to the dryness of the atmosphere.

The average rainfall through the year is rather small. The valleys are fertile, but require some irrigation; while the prairies and table-lands in northeastern and southeastern Montana offer the best kind of pasturage for cattle, horses and sheep in the

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wholesome and nutritious grasses, commonly known as bunch and buffalo grass, with which they are covered. Gold-bearing gravels, gold lodes, silver and copper ores, ruby and sapphire beds, as well as coal fields, have made Montana one of the richest States in the Union in mineral wealth. Hence, Montana's principal industries, namely, gold, silver and copper mining, stock raising, farming, and wool growing. Lumbering also is carried on to no small extent in the western part of the State.

But let us now see who were the first pale faces that came into the country; that is, let us say a word about the exploration of Montana, and its first settlement by the whites.

From the beginning of the 18^th century, the French authorities were bent upon discovering an overland route from the Canadas to the Western or Pacific Ocean. Though active operations in that direction may be said to have commenced only from about 1717, the first expedition up the Missouri took place a few year earlier, that is, in 1705; while three years later, 1708, another party of Canadians ascended the river some 400 leagues without, as they said, discovering its source.

A new impulse to the enterprise was given in 1737-38 by the appointment of Pierre Gautier de Varennes de La Verendrye, who then organized several expeditions to attain the object in view. Jesuit missionaries were usually called upon by the leaders of such expeditions to accompany the explorers. Hence we find Charles Mesaiger, Nicholas de Gonner, Michael Guigans, Pierre de Jaunay, Jean Pierre Aulmeau, and Claude Godefroy Coquart associated now with one, now with another of these parties.

An expeditions set out from Montreal in 1741, led by de La Verendrye himself. Two of his sons accompanied him, and Father Claude Godefroy Coquart, a personal friend of de La Verendrye, was also in the party.

Je suis parti de Montreal avee le reverend Pere Coquart qu' on m'avait donne pour missionaire.

Dans la sejour que fus oblige de faire a Missilimakinac, la

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Jalousie a attacha conre le Pere Coquart, et l empecha de nous suivre au grand regret de tout mon monde et de moi en particulier. Cependent, par le invitations de Monsieur de General mous le possedons aujourd hui au grand contentement de tout le monde.

Passing across Lake Superior and proceeding ina westerly direction, the party moved along Lake Winnipeg, and then ascended the Assiniboine River as far as Fort Le Reine, which had been erected on a former expedition some three years before. They reached the fort October 13, 1741. Here they passed the winter. The following spring the party resumed their journey, led by the elder son, his father, the elder de La Verendrye, remaining at Fort Le Reine. They set out April 29, 1742, directing their course toward the Rocky Mountains and after fourteen months spent in their tour, July 2, 1743, they returned to the fort whence they had started.

That these explorers penetrated into what is now the State of Montana, the report of the expedition leaves no room for doubt, tough at this date and with the scant resources of information within our reach, it is no easy matter to follow them in their course and determine exactly what spots with in Montana's boundaries they may have reached. From the evidence before us we are led to surmise, that after leaving Fort La Reine, they proceeded in a southwesterly direction and came to the country of the Mandans on the Missouri. They now crossed over to the lower Yellowstone Valley, and then by some of the tributaries of the Yellowstone River, traveled toward what are known today as the Rose Bud Mountains, whose base they seem to have reached. They went no further; but turning back, March 19, they retraced their steps to the Upper Missouri. Here to somewhere in that vicinity they erected on an eminence a monument, or something like it, of loose stones, on which they placed a leaden plate bearing the Royal arms of the King of France, and named the spot Beauharnois. Descending the Missouri, most likely to the point where they had struck it on their outward journey, they returned to Fort la Reine, whither, as already stated, they returned to Fort Le Reine, wither, as already stated, they arrive July 2, 1743. It is therefore very probable that the explorers saw at least a part of what is today southeastern Montana.

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Granville Stuart, is of opinion that the explorers crossed over the Missouri a little below Fort Berthold of our day and ascended the river as far as the Gate of the Mountains, a few miles from Helena, and passing over the Yellowstone by Deep or Smith's River and the Head of the Musselshell, traveled up Pryor's Creek and through Pryor's Gap to Stinking River, and went as far as the Wind River Country, whence they retraced their steps toward the upper Missouri. But it is immaterial which course the explorers may have pursued and what point they may have reached, when the fact of their having penetrated into the country, now apart of our State, appears to be established beyond any reasonable doubt.

Father Claude Godfrey Coquart is said to have been one of the leading spirits of the expedition and, as in all probability, he was the first priest who ever visited this part of the northwest, it is worth noting that the next priest who came to our mountains, one hundred years later was Father P. J. De Smet, a confrere of Father Coquart. That thus two Jesuits, a century apart from each other, should have been the first two Catholic missionaries who came into what is now Montana, is interesting.

Two other French expeditions followed in 1752 and 1753. They were sent out by Governor Jonquierre, one in the direction of the Saskatchewan, the other toward the regions drained by the Missouri. But there is no record that either penetrated into the country now within the limits of our State. Some of the men who had gone out on the two last expeditions remained behind, and here and there one or two seem to have found their way into the Indian tribes of the Upper Missouri and along the Yellowstone. Small groups of traders, hunters, trappers, mostly French people, followed the exploring parties and, urged onward by greed or love of adventure, or perhaps both, penetrated still further into the interior.

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In 1803, by the Louisiana Purchase, the whole Northwest passed from the dominion of France to that of the Untied States, and the year following Lewis and Clark were sent out by the Government to explore the newly-acquired continent, for such it really proved to be. They passed through what is now Montana both on their outward and return journeys, and the report of their explorations from St. Louis to the Pacify Coast came to both America and Europe as a revelation. The vastness of the country west of the Mississippi to the Pacific, its natural attraction of river and mountain scenery, its forests, its abundance of game, its untold resources and incalculable possibilities, soon aroused the interest and ambition of many, and the tide of emigration set in toward the great West.

Though most of the travel overland had, at first, for its objective point the coast and the country lying on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, detached band and small groups of adventurers, traders, hunters and gold seekers would occasionally take a more northerly direction and pass through the mountain defiles and valley so the our State, where they would tarry, looking for gold, hunting, trading, or simply to spend the winter.

In 1859 the Government undertook to build a military road from Walla Walla to Fort Benton. It became known as the Mullan road, taking the name of Lieutenant John Mullan, U. S. A., who was given charge of the work. This highway opened up the part of western Montana through which lay its course, and a number of white people came into this section. They took up land along the road, settling in the valley watered by what is known today as the Missouri River, some forty miles southwest of the Indian Mission of St. Ignatius, where two white settlements sprang up, one at each end of the valley. These were the first settlements of white in Montana, and we shall speak of each of them further on.

Some of the whites referred to in the preceding paragraph, three years later, this is, in 1862, discovered gold in two places, namely, at Gold Creek, Deer Lodge County, and on Grasshopper Creek, Beavcerhead County, and emigration into Montana may be said to have commenced with these discoveries. The find soon became known, and with news spreading far and wide all over the land, gold seekers began to pour in from every

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direction. New discoveries now followed one another in quick succession, rich deposits of the precious metal being found in the gravels of many creeks, bars, gulches, both east and west of the main range. Famous Alder Gulch, afterward Virginia City, was struck in February, 1863. Pioneers, Pike's Peak, Washington, Blackfoot, Bear Gulch, Silver City, Trinity, Montana Bar, Last Chance, now Helena, St. Louis, French Bar, Diamond, Crow Creek, with many other placer diggings east and east of the continental Divide, are all familiar names in the mining history of Montana, and were all discovered with less than a decade of years.

While the great majority of whites at this point of our narrative were engaged in placer mining, or "prospecting" for new diggings, gold-bearing quartz and silver and copper leads, others took up lands here and there in the more favorable localities, and went to farming or stock-raising, to supply the demand of the mining part of the community. Thus, with the mining camps, sprang up also farming and stock-raising settlements in the valleys of Deer Lodge, Flint Creek, and the Bitter Root, on the west side of the range; and east of it, in the valleys of the Beaverhead, the Gallatin, the Madison, the Jefferson, the Boulder and the Missouri.

In the first periods of their formation, there being as yet no established authority in these settlements, and mining camps, the people were a law unto themselves. Following some sort of form they appointed some of their number to the positions of judge, sheriff, recorder of deeds, etc., and a tribunal, consisting of one or more persons, elected for the purpose, passed judgment on all controversies, with the right of appeal on the following Sunday to a congregation of miners, whose decisions was final. These miners' courts, under the circumstances, were as legal in fact as they were necessary for the preservation of order, and dealt out justice fairly, expeditiously and at a very little cost to the community.

But along with the sturdy, upright and law-abiding miner, the anri sacra fames, that most powerful incentive of crime on the part of man against his fellow-beings, was bringing into the country a large number of ruffians, and deep-eyed criminals, who, loathing occupation of an honest nature, sought to enrich them-

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selves with the earnings of others by robbery and murder. The "road agent," as he was called by euphemism, made his appearance, and not merely as an individual, but in organized bands, and became for a time the terror of the new community. For these assassins would lie in wait for the unsuspecting victims and spring upon them pretty much as the tiger upon his prey.

The situation became still more aggravated by the fact that some of them men appointed by the mines to keep order were not only in sympathy, but made common cause with the evil-doers and were actually at their head and their leaders. No one's life was safe from the attacks of these malefactors. In this emergency, a number of upright and law-abiding citizens, called the party of order, banding together, formed themselves into a Vigilance Committee, whose object as to bring to speedy and summary justice to all evil-doers.

We pass on to what seems next in order, namely, the organization of Montana, both civil and ecclesiastical, to which we shall devote the following chapter.