Harmon’s Histories: One newspaper page, a lively look back at 1896 Missoula
By Jim Harmon
It’s amazing how much you can discover about a community from a single page of a local newspaper.
For example, I offer up the “local” page of the July 3rd Missoulian from 1896.
There you will find an indication of why Missoula is called the Garden City: “One of the most beautiful lawns in the city is that of H.C. Myers on East Front Street. He has a number of rose bushes in bloom making a beautiful picture.”
Also reflective of the moniker is a story about the Bitter Root strawberry harvest: “They are of superior quality and as of yore are taken in preference of berries from any other section of the country.”
All the water needed for agriculture created a few problems, though. At one spot in the Hell Gate Canyon, “the mud (from water finding its way out of irrigation ditches) is several inches deep and is getting deeper every day.”
Speaking of water – there was apparently plenty of it in the Frenchtown region.
“A well-known citizen of Missoula who has just returned from a trip to Frenchtown, says the mosquitoes in and around Frenchtown are so large that they not only bite but bark. He says that nearly every child in Frenchtown looks as though it has the smallpox from the number of bites on its face and hands.”
“There is no avenue of escape unless one is housed up with the windows and doors heavily screened and even then they make their way in. They are the hungriest insects he ever saw and come after a man with a song that is really a bark.”
“He says that a person who claims that a man can get used to anything ought to go to Frenchtown and be convinced that it is impossible.”
In another article, the local press association thanked those who made their recent meeting in the Garden City a success. Those names remain familiar even today.
Herr Daniel E. Bandmann (world famous Shakespearean actor, who made Missoula his home, and whose name is still well known: “Bandmann Flats”) was among those listed.
The press association also thanked men whose names adorn buildings, streets or landmarks today – names like A. B. Hammond and Thomas L. Greenough.
Then there were names of well-known journalists of the 1800s, including A.L. Stone (University of Montana Journalism school founder) along with George Boos and Lambert Molinelli (Missoulian newspaper editors of the era).
Oscar J. Craig’s name still resonates today – he was president of the University in 1896.
On the same page was an advertisement for the Rankin House restaurant which featured “chicken, turkey, ice cream and Bitter Root berries in profusion” on its menu for July 3, 1896.
The Rankin House, of course, was named after John Rankin, the father of Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to hold federal office in the United States and the sole member of Congress to vote against declaring war in 1941. (She was among 50 House members who voted against the declaration of war on Germany in 1917.)
The hotel, “a three story brick structure” was built in 1890 with “the architectural design and exterior finish done in the latest modern style.” One local review called the place “not a high-priced house, but a first-class moderate-priced house.”
The Press Association’s organizing committee thanked “all the people of Missoula in general who aided so ably in the entertainment of the visitors while they were guests in the city of Missoula.”
A final item is the paper summed up the modernity of the era - “Misses Anna and Ida Hogan, the two popular operators in the Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone office departed yesterday for Grantsdale where they will spend time with friends.”
“During their absence, the “Hello” office will be attended by Otis Worden as day operator and Miss Mamie Dickson night operator with John Defferbaugh manager over all.”
Worden, Rankin, Craig, Bandmann, Hammond, Greenough, Stone – all well-known names in the Garden City to this day, even to newcomers, who now know the connection between those names and Missoula’s past.