First Meeting of County Commissioners in Montana.
Records of Board of County Commissioners of Beaverhead County, Idaho Territory.
April 4th. The Commissioners apointed J. M. Galloway, Justice of Peace in and for the County of Beaverhead by authority vested in said Commissioners to fill vacancy.
AMOS W. HALL, Clerk.
First meeting of County Comimssioners for Beaverhead County held at Bannack City, Monday, April 4th, 1864.
Said Committee composed of the following named: George Chrisman, A. J. Smith and Elijah Moore.
Geo. Chrisman was elected chairman of said committee of Board of County Commissioners.
Matters of renting building for the purpose of Justice and Probate Court and various County offices; and a building was rented of Andy Lutzi at a rent of $125.00 per month, payable in the orders of the County of Beaverhead.
The following list of fees was adopted by the Board.
Sheriff's Fees:
For serving any writ or notice not including of Subpoenas,
for the first person served $2.00
For each additional person 1.00
For each copy of such writ or notice when required for each
one hundred words 3.00
Each commitment to prison 2.00
Attending before a Judge or Court when required. not at a
regular term of Court of his county for each day beside 6.00
Mileage one way per mile .75
Copy of any paper required by law for each 100 words .80
Serving and returning Subpoena for each person .50
Calling a Jury in each case .50
Summoning a grand or petit jury for each panel, including
mileage to be paid out of the County Treasury 10.00
Selling land or other property on execution or order of sale,
percentage on one hundred dollars or less 5%
Over $1,000, or less than $3,000 3%
Over $3,000, and less than $10,000 2%
Over $10,000, and less than $15,000 1%
Executing a deed for land with costs of stamps and ac knowledgment 2.00
For making inventory of property attached or levied upon,
per day 10.00
For each returned not served .25
For making arrest 2.00
Recorder's Fees.
For recording pre-emption mining claims 1.00
For recording deed per folio .30
After the first folio and for the first folio 2.00
A meeting of the County Commissioners of Beaverhead County was held April 20th, 1864, George Chrisman, in the Chair. The matter of a bridge across Grasshopper Creek, near the residence of Judge Edgerton, in the town of Bannack, was considered, and action taken toward issuing sealed proposals for bids for the construction of the same. Specifications for the bridge as follows:
Four stringers that will square nine inches, with a framed and braced vent under the middle. The west end to be cribbed up, two feet above the present bank. The east end to rest upon a sill, properly and firmly embedded in the bank. The bridge to be covered with poles, hewed square four inches thick, with pole on each end of the top of bridge that will square six inches. Each pole used in covering the bridge to be firmly pinned at each end. Also, the poles on each end of the bridge to be firmly secured. Said bridge to be 12 feet wide in the clear. The timber to be used in construction of the vent under the middle of the bridge to be of a size that will square ten inches. The road to be properly leveled at the east end, and properly graded and filled up at the west end of the bridge, by the party contracting to build the same.
It is ordered by the County Commissioners of Beaverhead county, by the power vested in them, by act of the Legislature of this Territory, that the road running from the upper extremity of the Town of Bannack, to the lower or eastern portion known as Marysville, be declared a county road, and protected as such for the public benefit.
A resolution was passed by this board to purchase the jail built by the city council of Bannack City, for the sum of $500 in scrip, of the County of Beaverhead, for the use of said county, and the scrip ordered to be issued for same.
May 19th, at this date, the building rented of Andy Lutzi, was given up by the Commissioners of Beaverhead County, on the ground that the rent was too high.
April 26, Articles of Agreement entered into between C. O. Trask and the County Commissioners of Beaverhead County, as follows: Said Trask agrees to grade a road commencing at the hill near Estes Feed Stable, running up and near the creek to the top of the bank above the upper bridge; said road to be seven feet wide, solid ground, and the upper bank grade to be 40%. Also to leave road from the first bank on the south, and west side of upper bridge, with side logs, and to make a good road in the bank from the upper bridge to the dug road, the whole to be done in good order subject to inspection by the Board of County Commissioners for which we, the Commissioners, agree to give him twelve hundred dollars in county scrip; work to be completed on or before the 20th day of May, 1864.
May 15th. The above road was examined by the Board of County Commissioners, and county scrip ordered issued to C. O. Trask, for building solid road. Amount of scrip issued May 1st, 1864, ($1,200.00) Twelve Hundred Dollars.
AMOS W. HALL, Clerk.
A special meeting of the Board of County Commissioners according to notice, was held at this date. George Chrisman in the chair.
The usual bond was presented to the Board of County Commissioners, from J. M. Galloway, acting Justice of the Peace, and approved.
Action was taken by the Board with reference to the amount of bonds received of Henry Zoller, Treasurer of Beaverhead County, and said amount was fixed at the sum of Four Thousand Dollars.
These were the first meetings of County Commissioners in Montana. They simply are recorded to give the curious facts, from a historic standpoint. If they are of interest to one person, I will feel satisfied.
One fact in history is worth much more than pages of stuff that is a matter of hearsay.
Governor Edgerton.
First Governor of montana.
Born in Cazenovia, N. Y., August, 1818.
He was a frail child and for some time his life was despaired
of and his grave clothes were made ready. His father died when
Le was six years old, leaving his mother with six children to care
for.
In those days there were few occupations open to women. She worked night and day over her loom and with her needle to keep her flock together. At last she came to the end of human endurance and her boys, one by one, were forced to leave home. At length it was Sidney's turn, and. the eight-year-old boy set forth to match his strength against the world. He started out manfully enough, but his heart failed him before he had gone far and he turned to look back to his home. There in the doorway stood. his mother watching him, with a brave smile on her lips. With an answering smile the little fellow faced about and went on his way reassured.
There followed years of hardship. He attended district school, where he worked tor board and tuition. Later, at the academy at Lima, N. Y., where his cousin, Prof. Seager, was instructor. Books were not plenty. He read the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress end Pope 's Iliad.
In 1844 he went to Alkron, Ohio, where he entered the law office of Rufus P. Spalding, as a law student, although all the money he had was three dollars.
That winter he taught the academy at Tallmadge, Ohio, following spring he went to Cincinnati, where he studied at the law school for a year. He began the practice of law at Akron, in 1846. He married Mary Wright in l849. May 31st, 1864.
He was elected Prosecuting Attorney on the Free Soil ticket in 1852, and in 1856 was one of the members of the convention which formed the Republican party. The same year he was nominated for Probate Judge but declined the nomination. He was elected as representative to Congress in 1858.
He tried to get to Harper's Ferry to see John Brown at the request of Brown'a brother and son, in order to arrange some business matters, but was stopped by the soldiers.
In 1863 was appointed Chief Justice of Idaho, and was expected to go to Lewiston, the capital.
Left Akron on June 1st, 1863, accompanied by his family, his nephew, Ex-Senator Wilbur Y. Sanders, and family, and two or three gentlemen who wished to seek their fortunes in the West.
Outfitted at Omaha. Unyoked their oxen on September 17, 1863, on Yankee Flat, Bannack.
An Incident.
Shortly after arriving in Bannack the Judge strolled down Main street to see the town. Coming to a building where Miners' court was in progress he went in.
The Judge, seeing Edgerton was a stranger, invited him to sit by him. The trial of the case proceeded, but not for long, when it was interrupted by the suggestion of someone present that it was time liquid refreshments should be served. The Judge and everyone present approving of the suggestion, an old darkey was dispatched to a neighboring saloon for whiskey. On his return the court took a recess and a drink, several of them in fact.
At a meeting of the citizens of Virginia and Bannack, some months later, Judge Edgerton was selected to go to Washington to secure a division of the Territory. He took a lot of gold with him as an exhibit.
Was appointed Governor of the new territory in 1864.
Went East in 1865 in the interests of Montana. heft Bannack in September and made the trip back to the States with a mule team.
Took up his residence again at Akron where he died on the 19th day of July, 1900.
Judge W. Y. Pemberton says that Sidney Edgerton was a very bitter partisan, and scored his opponent while on the stump, but that he was an exceedingly honorable gentleman and one who would fight for the right, as he saw it, and was generous enough to give due credit to those who did not believe as he did.
First Idaho Legislature.
First Idaho Legislature convened December 7th, 1863.
Council from what is now Montana -- A. J. Edwards, Wm. Rheem, Horace Joseph Tuffs and H. C. Miller. Rode Horseback; came back via San Francisco.
Election October 31st, 1863; $4.00 per diem during attendance at sessions thereof. Greenbacks were 50 cents on the $1.00. Meals $1.00 to $1.25 in gold. Many brought their blankets and slept where they could.
First Legislature.
The first Legislative Assembly of Montana convened at noon, Monday, December 12th, 1864.
Council called to order by Judge L. P. Williston.
House called to order by the Governor, who informed the members that it was necessary that they take the oath of allegiance to the United States. The iron-clad oath went down with the council, with but little delay or grumbling. In the House, however, the case was different. Mayhew, McCormack and Bell, each had his say. An estray from the council, slightly spiritously obstructed, got into the wrong pew; had suggestions to make, was called to order by McCormack; retorted by accusing McCormack of being ambitious of the Speaker's chair and finally subsided.
The Governor was not only imperturbable, he hinted to the gentlemen in a mild way the anarchy that would follow if the Assembly should fail to take the necessary preliminary step to organization. This did not move them. Then there was the most distant insinuation that the law allowed no one to be paid who did not swear allegiance to the government that paid them. This touched the Madison County delegation in a tender place, and with such wry faces as a patient makes who takes distasteful purgatives, and such contortions as one would make after over-eating turkey-buzzards, they swallowed the "iron-clad" without mental reservation or evasion.
This done, temporary organization followed without difficulty, Judge Anson S. Potter, being elected temporary president of the Council, and Mr. Geo. Detwiler temporary speaker of the House.
Rogers of the House dictated an oath which he said he could take and not turn his stomach, even if it did trouble his digestion. This "iron-clad oath" was not only in the way of Rogers, but Pemberton did not think it would agree with his stomach, and, like the sensible man he usually is, refused to compromise his friends by accepting one of the chief clerkships. Rogers resigned.
President of the Council was R. Lawrence. Speaker, George Detwiler.
Governor White.
It is said that he was the direct descendant of P. White, the first child born in Massachusetts after the landing of the Pilgrims.
He was born in New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts, December 3rd, 1838.
Attended Pearce Academy of Middleburg.
As a boy he was independent.
I have been told that he made up his mind to leave home at the age of sixteen without the consent of his parents. That he could see, some place in the future, the rosy side of a cloud, then, of his mind, dark; that he could make, without assistance from his father, a success, must have been the idea that led him to take advantage of the first ship that could lead him into new pastures and into strange lands.
So the old ship Kathay took on board the boy who was ambitious for adventures. He went to Sidney, Australia, for his first experience, and the second trip took him to San Francisco in 1856.
Too much excitement in that place for a boy like White, so he quit salt water and went to fruit farming. He studied law while caring for the fruit.
He left California in 1866, and went to Malad, Idaho, where he was admitted to the bar in 1868.
Was elected on the Anti-Mormon ticket, clerk and recorder of Oneida county. One of his first ventures was the manufacture of salt secured from Salt Springs located in the mountains 100 miles north. The salt found sale in the mines in Montana at a good price for years, or until the railroad was constructed. The Governor followed the railroad to Montana, and was one of the incorporators of Dillon townsite.
He became the first mayor. In the early days of Dillon, Sebree, Ferris and White were factors. They started the bank since known as the First National. The charge of the institution was placed with White, and he has no doubt conducted it in a peculiar manner. He studied men and conditions and loaned men money according to his own idea as to their ability to pay. No mortgage was taken, and no man was on your note. The old gentleman was very inquisitive as to your intentions and found out from every source possible the manner in which you conducted your business. If you played a little poker, drank a little too much whiskey at times, he knew it, but if you were playing fair with him he said nothing about it to you, though he might say something about it to your neighbor, from whom, probably, he had become acquainted with those very shortcomings.
I do not consider that the Governor was a public spirited man. He was too careful for that. He acted as a safety valve to keep darned fools from blowing up the boiler.
He could accumulate money which he loaned to men who would build up. Few men of Beaverhead county who have amounted to anything can say that thhey were not helped in some way by B. F. White. He was level-headed, careful, not too courageous when it came to loaning money. Many, many men owe this man much for the help he has extended them. Big Hole Basin was assisted materially by him.
Sentiment is foreign to his nature. To mix sentiment with business is the folly of the fool, because money is needed to conduct the affairs of men, not to close the wounds of broken hearts, dry the tears of widows, or feed the hungry orphan. Not too good nor too bad -- just a man.
The time came when B. F. White was appointed to fill the position of Territorial Governor by President Harrison. This was just before statehood. As he was the last Governor of the territory, he may be considered the first Governor of the state, because he was such half a day before Governor Toole took his seat. This may be technical, but I guess it is the truth.
Married, February 14, 1879, to Elizabeth Davis, who was born in England, to whom four children were born: Carrie, Emrys, Ralph and Greta.