Early History of Treasure County Prepared by Miss Elizabeth Grierson and Read at Hysham Woman’s Club

(Published in the Hysham Echo Dec. 10, 1925 & Oct. 4, 2013)

(Cont. from last week)

One mother told me that her daughter was crying and when asked her what was the matter she said, “It is raining in my soup.” It really was leaking right into the soup. Another mother told me that one day, the only way she kept the baby dry was for some one to sit and hold the baby and an umbrella. The baby’s clothes were in a box under the chair. That happened in 1885 so you can see it was some time before every one had a shingled roof.

The first school in the country was District No. 2. It was organized in either 1879 or 1880 through the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. W. B. S. Higgins. This was the second school in Custer county, when Custer county extended from Dakota line to Rocky mountains and from Wyoming to the Dawson county line. The settlers all gave one day’s work or more and built a neat log building with a dirt roof and no floor. Miss Alice Higgins (Mrs. Robert Guy) was the first teacher. She was only fourteen or fifteen years old. In those days a community had to build a school house and pay for three months school, before they could draw county money. There had been two terms of school before I attended school here, but I remember the dirt floor and that we sat on boards laid on the ends of logs that had been sawn off the building. We got mud from the creek and some girls made wonderful things that we put in the cracks between the logs to dry. At a dance given at Mr. Isaac’s when they built their new home, money was raised to put in a floor, and later desks were made by Mr. Joosten and Mr. Vander Pawert. The log building was sold to Mr. Crimmins, and is now a part of the Mr. J. Mouatt home. The frame school house was built in 1889 by Mr. Joosten and Mr. Grierson, and in 1910 the present building was built by Mr. Christianson.

The second school District was No. 6 organized in 1884 at the upper end of the valley. It included all the territory west of the divide between Alkali and Muggins creeks to the Yellowstone county line. Mrs. Dyer (daughter of J. C. Guy) was the first teacher.

The methods of transportation were by horse, mule or ox teams, and in the summer by steam boat. In June 1885 the steamer Josephine went as far as Huntley. that seems to have been first steam boat in the county. Then 1876 saw the Far West (Capt. Marsh) going to Big Horn with supplies for the troops fighting the Indians. Each year saw boars on the Yellowstone, and during high water they were able to make one or two trips to Fort Custer in the Big Horn. During the summer of 1882 the Josephine and N. P. No. 2. were used to carry supplies for the railroad from Myers and further down the river to Coulson. The winter of 1882-83 thy tied up at what is now the M. I. Draper ranch, leaving in May never to return. Among the settlers coming from east on the steamboats were W. B. S. Higgins and family in 1878 or ‘79, Robert Grierson and family in 1880, and in 1881 Mr. Henry Vander Pawert and J. R. Grierson with their families.

The first store was opened the fall of 1878 or the following spring by J. C. Guy. Then Garrett Anderson opened a store at Kurtzville the winter of 1881 and 1882 but it only lasted a short time. Mr. Guy’s store continued until the middle 80’s and after that we had to go to Junction where a store had been opened about the same time J. C. Guy opened his.

“Under authority of an act of the first legislature approved January, 1865, a number of men were created, a body politic, to hold for the purpose of a town, the premises situated and described as follows: Commencing at a dead cottonwood tree, or stump, 3100 feet below the junction of the Yellowstone and Big Horn rivers, thence at right angles to the Yellowstone river, 2640 feet thence parallel with said river 3100 feet to a cottonwood three, thence south 10 degrees, west 3300 feet to northeast banks of Big Horn river, thence down Big Horn river to its junction with the Yellowstone river to place of beginning.” That seems to have been all that was ever done to the town of Big Horn.

The next town was Kirtzville built the fall of 1881 on the north bank of the Yellowstone opposite the bluffs west of Myers. It was a railroad town and only lasted while the ice was on the river that winter and the men were busy cutting down the bluffs. There the railroad company had a big store and Garrett Anderson a grocery store, these with a few eating houses and saloons completed the town. One person told me 13 saloons, another 23 so take your choice. I know there were plenty of them. The reason for so many saloon on the north side of the river was because the south side was Indian reservation. It was always illegal to sell whiskey on an Indian reservation. The trains reached Myers early in 1882
the next town was Hysham and it still exists.

Before the railroads came, troops were always going back and forth from one fort to the other. Often a company would be sent to camp near a settlement for some time. The winter of ‘77 and ‘78 some troops were camped near Guy’s. Of course there were the usual gambling games of that day. One of the soldiers, soon to be discharged, was in a game one night and lost from three to four thousand dollars. All he had saved. The next morning he host himself. That was the first death. The next occurred when a soldier chilled or froze to death in a storm in April that same spring. Too much whisky. One of the soldiers is buried near the big rock behind the McConnache house and th other in the cemetery at the upper end of the valley. When Fort Pease started to go into the river Mr. J. C. Guy had the bodies of five of the soldiers, that had been buried there, removed to that cemetery.

The first grave in the lower end cemetery was the oldest son of Mr. Joseph Isaac. He was not quite three years old and died in February, 1881. The cemetery in the middle of the valley was started in 1912.

The first white child born in the valley was Frank Isaac in 1880. He was killed by lightening in 1897.
The first religious service was held in the Isaac home in either 1880 or ‘81 by Father Veneman when he was out collecting money to build the church in MIles City. The post chaplains some time gave us a service, and there has always been a Sunday school since I can remember, with some times long vacations. In the early 90’s the Methodist ministers came from Forsyth and held services about once a month. In 1904 the Presbyterians came into the field and the first church was organized in 1907 at Myers. The first church building was the Community church in Hysham.

A community picnic has been held on the Fourth of July almost every year since the first settlers came.
The first community Christmas tree was held in 1885 and it became an annual affair until 1913 or ‘14 when it became too big to handle in the old way.

The first dance was the summer of 1878 at the J. C. Guy home. The house had only the two end rooms finished. It had a dirt floor which the boys smoothed as best they could. There was a boat at the landing so they borrowed a large tarpaulin from the captain (Brockey Tim) and folded it to fit the room. There were holes in it the next morning. The music was Mr. George King with a fiddle and some one else with a flute. There were only five or six ladies but they danced from sundown until ten o’clock the next day. The boys wanted to pay the fiddler, but he said he had not thot of charging them anything. In those days there was a great deal of treating; but as Mr. King did not drink at that time, they decided to give him tobacco, (he chewed.) After each dance the boys gave him a plug or part of one. He had about half a bushel when he quit and the supply lasted him all summer. Wylie said the fiddler did not have many tunes but the “Irish Washer Woman” was a favorite.

The next dance was the one when the money was raised for the school house floor.
I have only touched the post office, saloon, railroad, etc. and have not even mentioned the doctor question, or told of the many, many, times Mrs. Higgins went to the aid of the sick or sorrowing. Print this post