Document text
C. ,?lson.
n -ler, :'o-tana
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Interview with Yr. Lizzie (Sarah E.) Mos, '31inerior, Montana
TOPIC: Superior's Wild and Woolly Days
I cane to 3nnerior fror Kansas in 1891. r- husband, Ade
(.drian) Ines, had gone on ahead a month earlier. That was
the year Supirior was noved t its nresent site. 'here were
just three or four homes, but seven saloons. A. P. Johnston's
store was in the old Shamrock building, where the Corner
Service Station no stands. Across the street was a drug store
built and run by Ernest TTeg,geran. He sold out to A. P.
Johnston. It was run as a general merchandise store in turn
Jo'rnston, Charles Stillino.er, i1liam -cBride (Heggerman's
brother-in-law) and, at the nresent time. by 7,_]. B. 7ord.
Before 1091, Superior was situated at the mouth of
Johnston Creek, across the river and a little west of what is
now the Leib ranch. Richard T'arsh ran a dairy on that ranch.
A ferry was run fror Superior across the ri-soula River, for
the traffic from Cedar Creek. Johnston ran a combination of
store saloon, and dance hall in a stone building where the
garaqa of the Johnston. ranch now stands. it catered to the
miners -oing through on the road, which then ran just north
of the Johnston ranch, following the river bank.
In the early days, Indians passing through used to camp
in the hollow where the Johnston ranch lies. They would get
drunk, whoop and yell, scarin-. peonle nearly to death.
The first d y we came here, Old Lan (Alfred )Lozeau got
Tiles end --me to work for him at his ranch (now known as the
T:abel C. Olson
Superior, Tontana
the nilwaukee Ranch, about seven miles east of Sunerior.)
He was a Frenchman, but his wife was a quarter -breed Indian,
:though she looked black enough for a full -blood. She was fat
and jolly, and I liked to hear her talk and watch her shake
when she laughed. She used to smoke a corncob pipe, the kind
they made ther-Iselves. I'd often hear her call, "Lozeau.
Ue'd answer, "Huh?" "Come build fire, Lozeau; that all you
good for."
She liked her drink nretty well, and used to make
rasnberry wine. Se'd say, "7M, good. ;Tust pour down
throat from bottle."
They had a whole brood of young, ones; Louis, Joe,
'Dolnhe, Puss, Phonzine, and Mary. rary married 'Marley
Pres. one of the ouartette that used to sing at the Thomas
(now Ordean) Hotel. 'Dolnhe used to fiddle for the dances.
He'd get liquored un, and nlaY with his eyes shut, all night
the same tune. l'ost of the miners at the dance drank up
nretty freely, and before the night was over, they'd all
be sin-inc: and having a gar time. "There'll Be a Hot Time
in the 'Old Town To -Night," was the most nonular tune, and
usually it was a hot time.
The stub of the Kortherr Pacific was just completed in
1891. There were no passenger ca -s, just a common box -car,
with homemade seats of the sort they used in the old school
house. It was rough, like riding on a lumber wagon.
I came through on the road, from Kansas. about the next
week after the stub was laid. The rissoula agent didn't want
Ylabel C. Olson
Su -senior, 1:_ontana
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to sell me a ticket at first; he didn't know if the road was
nut through here yet. He finally said, "I can sell you a
ticket, and you can PO as far as the train will take you;
and if you can't -et where you want to go, 7011 can get your
money back." I said, "7othing You don't catch me
walking to Iron ouetain." :hen he found out that was where
I was headed for, he said he was sure the trac'- had been laid
that far.
.r1(3, I was the first woman to walk across the first
bridge across the I.issoula River at .(3uneriorc the one the
Iron "curtain Tunnel and hissoula County built. There was
est the thickness of two boards to walk on, with a nace
between -planks, and I was afraid to look down, for it seemed
that any minute I must go throu*, into the river. jimmy 7ar-
mon went ahead of mu, naching m.r irl Laura, who was a baby
then.
Before the bridge was built, there -as the ferry boat,
owned by Johnston and, rowed by Joe Charette. Charley Harmon
used to have a boat. I've crossed the river with him when
there were sheets of ice floating down, hinderina the boat
and makina a chilly business of it.
The 7Prmon's were some of the early settlers of Superior,
coning in the I. -ate 1F90's. There were five brothers of them,
Charley, Jimmy, Ernest, Bill, and Pete. 4hen I cane here the
flat on the 3 uth side of the river (now "armon's, Eiden's,
and Kelly's additions) was heavily timbered. They cleared
off the Harmon' s ranch and built the ranch -house, which was
Superior, :ontana
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meant for me to live in. It's one of the old landmarks of
Sunerior, what's left of it. Then Jimmy Harmon built a log
house, across the river, north of it.
I remember when they charivaried Olprley Harmon, after
he married Veronica Krupn. EverYone turned out for a chari-
vari, with bells, whistles, and even saws. On this Particular
night, they had a big circle -saw, hauled in on their shoulders.
Bill Bonnett w -s one of those
who
carried it.
TTr3
rounded it
with a -ire with a knot on one end of it, and made so much
racket we couldn't hear ourselves think.
It was on an Easter Sunday. Chnrley Harmon was too
close even in those days to dig up a treat, but Jimmy Harmon
had some apples and I had a cake.
rs. Harmon Was wearing a long, trailing dress. She had
just come out here, was very religious, and not used to such
carryings -on. So she was nearly fainting.
Bonnett was the sort to carry off things with a high
hand. 119 went ur to her. and said, "Usually we got to kiss
the bride."
la's. Harmon stood with hands crossed, and turned white
and red by turns. Chancy snoke up timidly: "No, I don't
think you'd better :',Ass my bride." Bonnett r',idn't, but he
was the kind who would, if he had felt like it.
.rs. Harmon afterwards said, "dull, some may like this
sort 5f think, but not e."
There used to he two stapes between the Iron Yountain
Tunnel and Surerior, -un by Vern (DeVern "T.) Wilkinson and
.bel. C. -Olsen
Sullarior, 7-ontana
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Joe Charet
:17).
They carried the nail, and often passengers
-3in- to dance e held in the boarding-house, which was run by
Brabazon.
when the 19rabazon's sold out, the furniture was bought
bY Johnston, end most of it in now in the Johnston farmhouse,
about a mile east of Sererior.
For a lon- time, a saloon wasn't allowed at the munnel.
But the-, finallY got one. 21nd after celebrating there on
pay days, the miners Nould Pet together a sleigh -load, and
PO ri-Ting, tearing about the country, having a high old
time.
Charley Jamieson built the Thomas Hotel. He sold it
to Johnston, who rented it to Thee (Theordore H.) Thomas.
Thomas ran it in high style.
remember a Christmas tree we had there once on the
third floor. Johnston had fixed up as Santa Claus, ripped
out with a black suit and cotton beard. H came in by a
ladder, through a front window on the third floor. In those
airs Wd didn't have electric lights, only coal oil lamps and
the colored candles on the tree. Johnston got too close to
the candles, and his whiskers caught fire. grandma (rrs.
aria) Riefflin grabbed her nlaid shawl, one she had brought
from Berlin, anY, and with it -mothered the blaze. By
that time, there was a regular stamner'e, everybody hitting
for the stairs. i bunch of bi men held them back, or some
would have been tralanled to death.
Those were nretty rough times. mhe worst deed I ever
knew of in Superior happened in the old Shamrock, in the
Yabel C. Olson
Superior, 1:7ontana
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saloon in the front part. A blank stranger came up to
Curly, the bar -tender ("Curly" Coleman), and stabbed him
through the heart. Tom Meininger, the crippled constable
with one wooden leg, held him for a few days, then let him
go. There was no sheriff here, and l'issoula officials
weren't bothered much about Superior la -breaking.
Alec Berg was running a pack train an Cedar Creek in
the early da-crs. He was hurt a bit once when he sat out for
the hills during a drunk. He had the pack train tailed '11),
so when the lead cause got his rope caught to a tree, the
animals stood there, packs and all, till Alec sobered up in
the 7_orning.
-r
saw Bill Beach soon after we cam.° here. He wanted to
hire Miles to work in the mine, and me to do the cooking,
but he'd only pay next to nothing, so I wouldn't hear it.
He was a big -bodied man with short legs. He wore his
straight, black hair short around the neck and long every
place else, with big whiskers tucked into his bib overall.
I told him: "I'd like to take you by the whiskers and lead
you around the country." Fe laughed, and answered, "You're
the first woman I ever heard complain about a man's whiskers."
Trout Creek those days was worked by a big, tall Nor-
wegian named Tom Silverson, and "Russian Bill" (Michael
Forrest). I never heard Bill called anything else; he was
a '/ussian, sure enough. He used to get drunk, and 1-ohnston
would herd him, acting as his guardian. They had no scissors
nor razors in the hills, and they'd come to town looking like
:Thbel C. Clson
3u7erior, rontana
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9 bunch of billy goats.
rurray, "the Roller", was more like a shaggy dog than
man, what with his whiskers and long hair hanging down
his shoulders. He asked if he could camp on our place,
when we were in the Jimmy Harmon cabin west of town; he
didn't do us any harm, so we let him. He rolled two big logs
under a big tree, and slept between them. He was followed
around by a ring-necked dog he called Bob. When he couldn't
bum a quarter off anybody, he'd live on lambsquarter greens,
eating them like spare grass.
He never bothered us at the ranch, and used to buy a
quart of milk, whenever he could steal a dime to pay for
it. rrs. John Connally, who ran the Northern Pacific lunch-
room, kept cows; Hurray used to sneak up to them and milk
into an old pail he kept. When he'd drunk his fill of the
warm, unstrained milk, he'd call Bob to finish the pail.
He carried a cane, with a spike at the tip, that he made
pretty useful. Folks used to say, "There goes old Murray,
"the Roller," sniping cigar stubs."
We called him "the Roller," because he'd watch for the
miners to come from the hills, then roll" them. They
finally got tired of him, and ran him out of town. I
heard he got caught by a train on a railway bridge some-
where near Butte, and was killed.
(Names and dates I verified through the following
records in the County Clerk and Recorder's office in
7-bel C. Olson
3uperior, Montana
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T:ineral County court house: "Grantor" and "Grantee" books;
"Mining Locations" index. Where I could find no record of
the name,
0-ohn McMillan supplied the information I needed.
Ho has been county clerk and recorder over a long period of
time, and is also an old settler.
I could not take notes fast enought to reproduce Mrs.
riles' pungent speech. She uses a fund of sayings that
are not, I think, local. I have copied a few, in case they
may be of interest).
TOPIC:"r-4. Lizzie riles' 3ayings
Imageous of
5
unconcarned
A
5
make a concarned fool
A
robusteous
the commonalty of people
larruping good
He baked himself a cooky; let him eat it.
tripping the cockawhoop
gable end out (seat worn out of pants)
rumbustious
high kafluters (proud people)
a whole passel
whomperjawed (awry)
cantywaripus (catacorner)
fum-diddles (fripperies)
het up
Clson
nerior, 7:cntana
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scrc® as teeth
butters no narsnips
lallraiig
mojering along
mooching along
,-7J7o at a snail's gallop
slonchwise
I ain't lost nothing thar that I need to look for. (Used as
a refusal to an invitation.)
branch() slinpers, branch° broans (horse shoes)