Through the years January has been quite an eventful month for Montana. Looking through history Montana has been noted for its feistiness and rowdiness, but seldom quiet or tranquil.
However, the Helena Daily Independent did report on a very quiet new year. “Not a whistle tooted; not a sound was heard, as the old year expired and 1919 was born.” Montana made it through its first day of Prohibition.
In 1865 January 2 was the day “the Little American Tiger” fought Hugh O’Neil for a thousand dollars. Prize fighting was quite popular in the early days of the Territory. The fight was promoted as “a grudge fight between the forces of teetotaling Con, versus evil, whiskey-drinking Hugh.” Promotional sparring matches were staged to make the fight more magnetic and enticing.
Con Orem was the smaller of the principals, son of an Ohio blacksmith, veteran professional fighter at 29, keeper of the Champion saloon in Virginia City, himself a teetotaler. His opponent was Hugh O’Neil, 34, native of County Antrim, Ireland, a muscular, whisky-drinking barroom brawler and sometime miner.
Bar owner Con Orem fought O’Neil behind one of the saloons on Wallace Street in Virginia City. An 80 ft X 28 ft building was built called J. A. Nelson’s Leviathan Hall. It contained the boxing ring, its own bar plus a ‘Women’s gallery”. Reserved seats cost 10 dollars in gold, but you could sit in the ‘pit’ for 5.
Nelson himself was referee. The crowd gathered early. Shortly after 1:30 p.m. Nelson called the contestants together and went over the London Prize Ring rules. These rules provided for a finish fight and allowed a combination of boxing and wrestling. Fighters were permitted to seize their opponents and throw them down. A knockdown ended the round. The person floored had 30 seconds to “come to the scratch,” that is, to toe a mark in the center of the ring and renew the contest.
O’Neil wore Irish green and Con wore black with one red star. The fight lasted over 3 hours and 185 rounds. Each round was one minute – or until one of the boxers fell. Con fell to his knees 36 times. O’ Neil was 6 inches taller and 50 pounds heavier and was frustrated. Con knocked O’Neil down 18 times and worked on O’Neil’s eyes in the later rounds.
The referee finally ended up stopping the fight to avoid a fatality. He felt both men were “frightfully punished about the head and body.” He zealously stated that “it was the best and gamest fight I ever witnessed.” All bets were off when the fight was stopped and not finished as anticipated. Each man ended up receiving $425, an equal share of gross receipts after expenses, plus half of all the gold-dust ‘pokes’ tossed into the rings.
The Montana Post’s reporter concluded his story with these remarks: “A gamer, harder fight was never contested in the prize ring. As for Con Orem, nothing but temperance, skill, activity and unflinching heroism enabled him to hold out against 52 pounds extra weight, backing a man who was as brave as a lion…. We are sure that no man of Orem’s size or anything like it can be found in America who can whip him in a 24-foot ring…. No harder or more trying contest can ever, we venture to say, be seen here or elsewhere. We sincerely hope that such men may never meet again.”
January 3, 1876 became a historical day for the state. It was the first meeting of Montana’s territorial Legislature in its new and permanent location in Helena. Virginia City had declined in importance by 1876; where Helena was the up-and-comer center of Montana.
It did take 3 elections to designate Helena as the state capital. In the first election in 1867, Virginia City won as the sentimental favorite. The second referendum in 1869 ended with widespread accusations of fraud. Oddly enough, somehow, the ballots taken to the territorial secretary’s office in Virginia City were “accidentally’ destroyed in a fire for this election.
Finally in August of 1874 a new 3rd election was ordered. (This may seem familiar.) With Helena puffing out its chest as the state’s prosperous population center, the election results became a bit contentious. Gallatin County’s ballots were disqualified and Meagher County’s ballots were certified as fraudulent. And then it got messy and rowdy. The lawyers took over.
Eventually the Montana Supreme Court came into the picture (of course). The Court came down on Helena’s side. We’re not done yet. The U.S. Supreme Court became involved and after consideration, let the ruling stand when it refused to hear the case on appeal.
In October of 1935 Helena was hit with 2 devastating earthquakes. The brand new $500,000 high school was partially leveled and left the auditorium a mass of twisted rubble. Damage was estimated at 75 percent. Other Helena schools sustained unoccupiable damage to slight to moderate damage. All schools were shut down for the time.
However, the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern Railroads stepped up to the plate. They offered railroad coaches for high school classrooms. 18 “schools on wheels’ were established and on January 6, 1936 6 day-a-week classes began in these mobile classrooms for the Helena students.
We recently complained, but on January 8, 1887 the blizzard of historical proportions appeared. It snowed for sixteen hours straight at the rate of an inch an hour. Then it stayed 24 below for ten days and then a second blizzard, worse than the first, hit. Temperatures dropped to almost sixty-below.
Charlie Russell replied to 2 wealthy cattlemen living in Helena as to the fate of the herds. “Waiting for a Chinook” became famous. The losses were staggering 362 thousand cattle died that winter. 50 to 75 percent of the cattle on the range died.
January 31, 1964 saw the termination of passenger service to Montana by the Milwaukee Road Railroad. Services between Aberdeen, South Dakota and Deer Lodge were discontinued and 15 RR workers were laid off.
The Milwaukee (Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific RR officially) was the last of 3 major railroads through Montana brought into the state. It promoted homesteading through central Montana. It created railroad towns like Harlowton and helped shape mining communities like White Sulphur Springs and bolstered farming communities.
It was never a money-maker like James Hill’s Great Northern, but struggled along. It underwent 3 bankruptcies until it finally discontinued services in 1980. It was an elegant turn-of-the-century marvel with well-engineered tracks, trestles, tunnels, and Milwaukee Road stations that added a touch of class to the skylines.
Many claim Montana is still untamed, wild and natural. January seems to represent the spirit of Montana.