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FOURTH OF JULY IN BELFRY
1906 STYLE
This morning a train whistle pierced the clear blueness of the sky. People jammed the streets. The engine snorted smoke as it pulled in with five cars of passengers from Billings. The excursion train came into the town of Belfry for the first time and it is the Fourth of July, 1906.
The young town of Belfry has split its seams today with 2,000 visitors. It is a gay holiday crowd that congratulates F. A. Hall for he is seeing his dreams actually take shap. He still has more plans for this part of the young state of Montana which has only been a state for 17 years. This short railroad from Bridger is just the beginning. He plans on the railroad going on to Cooke City with a smelter at the mouth of the Clarks Fork Canyon and a branch up to Bearcreek. In his mind he visualizes a bustling industry running competition to Butte.
Mr. Hall came out here years ago and saw the possibilities so he went to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in order to get some backing for this railroad. In the east he inspired others to invest in the future of Montana. He received the financial backing he needed and returned to the west to put his hopes and ideas into actual practice. He couldn’t find room in Bridger to set up a tent for a temporary office. So they came on the Belfry and built a small shack for his office and a place for Miss Laura Salzberg to do the bookkeeping. There you see Miss Laura, the girl who does all the office work for the newly formed Yellowstone Park Railway. All who know her, love her for she is a very fine person. She has worked for Mr. hall since he started the railroad.
After the surveyors had decided where the road should go, the grade was built in 1905. A group of these rough and ready men are in Belfry to see the results of their work. A crew came through in 1899 to resurvey for homesteads after the first survey had been rejected. Other crews were in the surrounding area making surveys for other railroads. This hardy breed of men are the real trail blazers who decide where the railroads will be and thus where the towns will spring up and industry will flourish, bring more people out west.
They started laying the steel on January 1, 1906 and were hard to put to finish the job by today. At the same time the round house and water tank were constructed. (This round house was destined to burn down four years later.) Then the train crew took over. Here we see the crew with brought the train in today. George Garber, engineer, Charles Burns, and Jess Newman are very happy to have been on the first run.
Mr. Hall realized that if he built a railroad, a settlement would grow up in the same vicinity. So as early as 1895 he bought land for a town site from J. M. Woodcock. In the same year the first house in this locality was built. (That house is occupied by Mrs. Bertha Andrew today.)
A real surprise has been planed by Mr. Hall for today. People are all talking about how he has spruced up the community. The sidewalks were laid in time for this celebration. (They were laid on both sides of main street from the depot to the present school buildings.) A lot of work went into going up into the mountains to gather up some evergreen trees. These were then planted in kegs and placed along both sides of main street.
Some of the residents and visitors are curious where the name of Belfry came from for this town. It was named after a Doctor Belfry in Lancaster who believed in hall and was one of the stockholders in this venture of his. Hall also thought this name was appropriate because belfry means a tower which guards the peace.
The Yellowstone Park Railway engine picked up the five railroad cars of merrymakers from Billings in Bridger and together with their coach, flat cars, and caboose full of other holiday visitors came on to Belfry. Still others came horse and buggy or on horseback. Calamity Jane probably came by horseback today from Red Lodge along with her friend, Wild Bill Hickock. It is said she can out ride any man or out drive whim with a team while he can out shoot any man. She should be tired after the trip over the hills, but then they say she has the muscles of a blacksmith, the vocabulary of a mule skinner, and the heart of a priest. One of her other purported accomplishments is to be able to hit a cuspidor at twenty paces.
L. L. Smith (father of Mrs. Dominic Obert and Mrs. Charles Sinnock) is managing the hotel for Mrs. Powe (this hotel was located where Paul Travis has his station at the present time). This hotel is doing a booming business attempting to feed some of the people. Most of the people, however, are taking advantage of the beautiful weather and are enjoying picnic lunches along Bearcreek where Mr. Hall has started a park. There will be fruit trees and grass planted along the creek making a beauty spot for the community.
The people are beginning to gather to hear a speech by the judge. (The speaker’s platform stood where the Carl Ungefug home is now.) There in the crowd are F. A. Hall and Miss Laura. The community is all a buzz with the talk that this business relationship will soon blossom into romance and eventually marriage. They all wish this happy couple good wishes.
Some of the horse races seem to be over for awhile. (They were held where the highway goes toward Bridger.) You can tell form the looks on their faces who won and who lost. Among them is Bill Nelson who is marshal for the day. He is usually busy as a carpenter. He built the hardware for Jack Holland last year and the blacksmith shop this year for Frank Davis. The blacksmith shop was one of the first business buildings in Belfry and the hardware building will be the scene of the big dance to be held later on in the day. (The blacksmith shop stood across the street from the present fire station and the hardware store on the site of Aldrich Lumber Company.) Claude Youst, manager of the dance, has worked all night with a crew getting the floor ready for the dance.
You will see a lot of Bill today. He has quite a job on his hands keeping order. All the cowboys in the country seem to be here. A rodeo is being held (south of the highway which cuts through the town) along with some target shooting. These ranch hands are out to win and the crowd is enjoying the fun.
Charles Burt, owner, of the livery stable, is here. (The livery was located where Hall’s Garage is now.) He takes the children to school in his surrey. The first school was built of drift logs in 1897 on the Claude Youst place then owned by Chick Bomie. Jennie Blanchard taught there. Some of the former teachers are here today. They were Miss Rook, Mary Bailey, Belle Griffith, Jennie Emboden, Curtis R. Beeler, and Mrs. John Holland who taught when she was the Miss Zela Clark. There’s Mrs. Charles Burnes who will teach this fall. The school has been located out of town, but there is talk of building a frame schoolhouse in town.
The crowd is getting larger now. That looks like Mr. and Mrs. N. D. Hall, (Parents of the present Roy Hall). She was named Belfry’s first postmistress last year. They own a general store (located in the building housing Johnny Ungefug’s store). Whether you need a sack of flour or a letter mailed – these are the people to see. That looks like little Roy Hall who has been down at the depot to see the train come in. Jack Matson over there had the first grocery store (located between the bar and old telephone office) and with him are the owners of the first saloon, John Printz and Rocky Hatfield. Saloon stood where the bean elevator is now.)
Gilford E. (Dick) Youst was the first man to settle on the bottom land near Belfry. (He was the father of Claude Youst). He was with some of the survey crews in Wyoming and Montana. The Youst family and the Nathan Chance family had been in New Mexico and Wyoming together and joined up to come to this valley in a wagon train. (The Chance family chose the land where his son, Quince, lives today. This was in 1893 and there was no Belfry as such. Youst homesteaded the present Allen Snyder place. Mrs. Youst and her daughter spent the summer of 1893 on their homestead and did not see another woman all that time.)
The William Rae family are here today, also. They came in the fall of ’93 after the Youst family came in August. Youst and Rae put in the Youst Ditch which brought the first irrigation water to the valley.
I also see Mr. and Mrs. John Holland with their baby, William, in the crowd. They did not want to miss seeing the train arrive either. John and his family came originally overland from Pennsylvania to Wyoming and to Red Lodge in 1889. His brother, Fred, came to Belfry in 1893 and the rest of the family followed a year later. Mrs. Holland taught school last year and now she is a wife and mother.
Hazel, Myra, and Bill Rich are probably among the children playing around the speakers stand. Their father was the advance man who brought up the right-of-way for the Yellowstone Park Railway. (The Rich family lived in the present John Webb home. Myra is no Mrs. Paul Pierce of Bridger. After the railroad began making regular runs to Bridger Miss Laura and these children would ride in a log railroad car to Bridger to church and Sunday School. These were the first children that played on the streets of Belfry.)
Owen Hancock and his brother-in-law, Ed Darnell and John Ashben, and Black Ogden and his son, George, started out from Lexington, Illinois and ended in Belfry in 1896.
Charles Carlson homesteaded a place by the river (now the Mrs. Goldie Youst farm) in 1894. C. B. Clark had the place north of town (now the Paul G. Lose ranch).
There were other pioneers who came to this country, but were unable to work their land or went to the gold rush and then others took over their places in the valley.
Warren Sirrine operated a ferry (near the present Chance Bridge). He charged 25 cents for a team or two horses and 50 cents for four horses.
It looks like they are getting an early start on the dancing while they are waiting for the speeches. The music for the dance will be provided by an Italian Band from Red Lodge. The names of all the members of this group are not available, but they say that Ralph Lumley will be on the drums. The charge for the dance will be ten cents a dance. So the men better have a good supply of dimes if they want to dance with all the pretty girls.
It looks like Mr. Hall is getting ready to introduce the speaker for the day.
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