Mr. Graeter has resided longer in Beaverhead County than any other person.
It is not easy to get a connected story from a person after he has become eighty years of age. In my note book, I find the following: Augustus Graeter told me a few things the morning of the 28th of May, 1914. "I remember seeing W. A. Clark, with a pack on his back, when he was starting for Horse Prairie. He had. on a soldier's overcoat and one tail of it had been burned off, by getting too near a camp fire."
"When I got to Bannack I had just two $1.00 gold pieces, and it did not take long to spend them. Mail came in via Walla Walla, and cost $1.00 for a letter, and that is where my money went."
Question: "How did. you get your money to start your first store?"
"Well, I guess I must have made it in the mines, as the ground was mighty rich, and the bedrock not deep. We would pack the dirt down on our backs to the creek and wash it out. We did not take any dirt that we could not see gold in. At last we whip sawed some lumber, and made some sluice boxes which we put up in the creek, placed our dirt in them and stood in the creek and dipped up the water, and washed the stuff in that way."
He laid the first foundation on the claim on which Denver was built.
Quite a number of us were sitting in Paul's Furniture Store in Dillon one day, Robt. Wing, W. B. Carter, Mart Barrett and the writer, when Gus became reminiscent. "I remember," he said, "that two of us cut wood in Wisconsin one winter, and sold it for 37 1/2 cents per cord."
Bob Wing said: "What did you eat?" "Oh, we never suffered for that matter; never did go hungry in my life," was the reply. "yes, I did get out of grub once. We went to Fort Lemhi, on our way to Florence, cached our stuff and intended to go to Bitter Root for the winter; got a Blackfoot guide, who took us through the Big Hole, and over into Deer Lodge Valley, on Warm Springs Creek, near enough to see the mound at the springs. He took us up the creek, into the timber, right in the wrong direction. I guess he knew the way, but was probably afraid of' the Flatheads. We turned about and went to Lemhi, but before we got there we were out of provisions and we were compelled to fill up on sarvice berries. We went south, bought some more grub, and did think of going to Fort Colville, in Washington. We started for that place, and one night we camped in a small grove up the Grasshopper, and when we woke up in the morning we found ourselves surrounded by Flathead Indians, who had stolen our horses, and had driven them over to the Butte, near Painter Creek. when they found out that we were white men, they said. 'Good morning,' and told us they thought we were Bannack Indians, or they would not have taken the horses. Some of the boys went with them to their camp and they gave us some nice meat.
"Well, when we got to Birch Creek, some fellows came along and told us that gold had been found on Grasshopper. We went back, and I have been in Montana ever since.
"Say, you talk about cutting hay with a scythe. The softest snap I ever had was cutting hay in Wisconsin, and selling it for roughness to the farmers who needed it for their stock. I do not remember how much we did get for it. I really do not believe that I have ever been any happier than the winter I cut wood in Wisconsin."
Gus Graeter was always an industrious man, and did much toward the upbuilding of Southern Montana. He mined, built ditches, was a merchant, county officer, a successful stockman, built an electric lighting plant for Dillon, and is a banker -- always an early riser. He tells of being ten miles on his road to the timber, when the sun comes up.
Chris Snyder says that when Gus was on the ranch, he would get up before daylight, go into the hen house and cuss the roosters because they did not crow early enough to wake the hired men. A Horse Prairie ranchman said: "I remember that a neighbor saw a fellow going along the road with his blankets on his back. On inquiry as to where he was going, he said: "To work for Gus Graeter." "H--l, throw your blankets away, or trade them for a lantern; they never sleep on that place."
Mr. Graeter is now over 82 years of age, and busy.