Humanitites Montana Speakers Bureau

In March I applied to the Humanities Montana Speakers Bureau and in June I received word that I'd been accepted. But it wasn't until today, when I opened the web page and saw my program in the catalog that it all seemed so real. New programs start in November, so I still have a little time to spit and polish the program, but its a go and I'm thrilled.
Mrs. Woody's Trunk Full of Memories

KGVO 1290 Interview with Ed Nesselroad

Radio Interview
Jennie Pak, interpreter and re-enactor for Stories in Stone

Daly Days 2011

Ravalli Republic



Reliving history: Daly Days brings back memories of times long gone
PERRY BACKUS | Posted: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 8:29 pm | 

photo by Perry Backus

“Name’s Julius. I live over the laundry. Mrs. Daly allowed me to come here after my lungs started to bother me from working at the smelter in Anaconda.”

“It’s quite a place, isn’t it,” says the bib overall-clad man whose smile radiates outward from underneath a big straw hat.

Another man dressed the same grins as his head nods up and down. The well-worn hoe in his hands makes a good leaning pole.

“This place is a busy one in the summertime,” the man continues, his eyes edging toward the sprawling front porch framed by huge white columns that stretch far into the sky where a group gathers in their turn-of-the-century garb. “We try to mow the grass every three days. Mr. Daly brought in these trees from all different parts of the world. Some did well. Others didn’t do so good.”

As a strong wind starts blowing small branches off the nearby cottonwoods and big drops of rain pelt the ground, Julius and his cousin head toward the safety of the Daly Mansion’s strong roof.

Before he goes, the tall man holds out his hand.

“I’m Ward Caldwell from Stevensville,” he says. “This is Jason Bowers.”

The two are members of the nearly 30 re-enactors who will greet visitors this Saturday at Hamilton’s Daly Mansion as part of the annual Daly Days celebration.

Earlier this week, the crew met for a quick dinner and a chance to rehearse their parts. For a time, the mansion was filled with the lively banter of times long past.

Jennie Pack of Missoula is co-coordinating this annual event that has become an important part in her life.

“I did drama years and years ago, but I had to give it up for a time when family and other responsibilities came,” Pack said. “I saw a little blurb in Missoula four years ago about this event and now here I am. I’m hooked.”

Pack plays the Daly family’s nanny who doesn’t much care for children.

“It’s a fun role to play,” she said. “We don’t know all that much about the family’s nanny. What we do know is being a nanny back then wasn’t a chosen position for most. It was just something you could do to survive.”

Nannies were often isolated from their adult peers. They didn’t fit in with either the servants or the family.

“As a result, many were bitter. Some went insane,” Pack said.

Like all the re-enactors, Pack spends time to learn about her character to ensure that what she says will be historically accurate.

“Mine is more a compilation than others,” she said. “The Daly’s nanny wasn’t documented and it’s nearly impossible to find any good information about anyone specific. So I made somebody up.”

And that’s who Saturday’s visitors will find when they poke their heads around the nursery’s door jamb to see Pack busily knitting or performing some other useful chore.

“I’ll invite them in and let them know that I’m Lizzy, the nanny,” she said. “The conversations we have are just a wonderful thing.”

Meeting the re-enactors is just one of many activities people will find if they choose to take a step back in time at the Daly Mansion from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

The day-long event at the mansion includes historic demonstrations, antique cars and farm equipment displays, pony rides and entertainment by the Bitterroot Ragtime Society and Ballet Bitterroot.

In Hamilton, people can dance their worries away Friday night at a street dance and enjoy some more music at a brewfest the next night, or look for good deals at local stores and the annual Art in the Park and see a county commissioner kiss a pig Saturday on the town’s main street. (See accompanying schedule.)

“There really is going to be something for everyone at Daly Days this weekend,” said April Johnson, the mansion’s acting executive director. “Our community is really working to make this a hallmark event and a true community celebration.”

Daly Days kicks off Thursday with a Bitterroot Community Band concert on the mansion lawn beginning at 6:30 p.m. Directed by Shawn Thacker, the band is made up of talented musicians from all parts of the Bitterroot and some from Missoula.

Concert-goers are encouraged to bring a blanket and picnic to better enjoy an evening of traditional band music.

Patty Martin of the Hamilton Downtown Association said Daly Days was started decades ago by local businesses looking for a way to bring people into town during the summer months. Back then, it was called Crazy Days.

“It morphed into something different,” Martin said. “It’s really become a great community event and a chance for businesses to give back by offering some really good deals.”

This year’s event will feature 28 vendors offering all sorts of food and other merchandise in the downtown area. There will be games for children and a cool car show for the adults.

“We’re hoping to bring a lot of people to town,” Martin said. “Maybe along the way, they’ll discover a new store or two. We have five new businesses that have opened their doors recently.”

Back at the mansion, Johnson said Daly Days is an opportunity for those who care about this historic place to say thank you to the community.

“Our community is really important to us,” she said. “The mansion is run by a nonprofit. A lot of people assume that we receive state funds to help us operate, but we don’t.

“We count on the continuing support from our community,” Johnson said. “We appreciate everything they do.”

For some, Daly Days is simply a chance to relive history for a moment or two.

“The first year that I was here, I had one of those moments,” Pack remembered. “I could hear voices in the living room and the sound of small children’s feet running by in the hall. I could smell bread baking in the kitchen.”

“For just a moment, this place really came alive,” she said. “It was like I had stepped back in time. It’s pretty special here. The setting is just amazing.”

Copyright 2011 RavalliRepublic.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Posted in Local on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 8:29 pm | Tags: Daly Mansion, Bitterroot Ragtime Society, Hamilton Downtown Association

Read more: http://ravallirepublic.com/news/local/article_5041a5d2-b342-11e0-90dd-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1SkKK9DIl

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Fort Missoula Stories in Stones 2010

A Celebration of Montana Rail

A day long event to draw public attention to return rail travel to Missoula.

Not very well organized or attended, but a fun opportunity for all of us to

dress up and prance around downtown. 

 Sarah Woody and Mary Gleim as they would never have been seen in public.

 Mr. Higgins regales the crowd about the virtues of
the railroad coming to Missoula.

 Waiting for speeches to begin.

Madame Mary Gleim sends a wire

Mr. C.P. Higgins

Daly Days 2009

The year is 1910 and the mansion is open to guests in celebration of

Daly Days. The usual staff of helpers is in attendance and some new 

faces grace the hallways and lawn of the mansion. 

The Law was in the area looking for horse thieves.

Rue Moore and his sidekick were back on the grounds looking for

trouble. Mr. Moore had been let go, but thought Mrs. Daly still

owed him some money.

There was a lovely lawn party in progress and many of the

visiting dignitaries were enjoying the grounds

The household staff found a moment or two to relax and enjoy

each other's company before they hustled off to see to their tasks.

Mrs. Daly and her guests enjoyed many happy hours relaxing on the porch

and visiting about all manner of things.

Mrs Daly caught wind of Mr. Moore's shinanagins

and put him straight to work picking up meadow muffins.

The young men were dapper and dashing as usual.

 We can see that Mr. Moore didn't strain himself with the work that MrsDaly requested.

The Nanny was hard at work in the nursery, as usual.

The Missoula Mafia was well represented in Hamilton.

A fun group of people, if ever there was on.

Fort Missoula Post Cemetery Stories in Stones

FORT MISSOULA STORIES AND STONES
FORT ELLIS RE-BURIALS

I’d like to share an interesting mystery with you today. It’s the story of between 37-39 bodies that were disinterred from the Fort Ellis Cemetery and brought to the Fort Missoula Post Cemetery for reburial. The mysterious part is, not all the bodies are accounted for in Post records and we don’t know exactly when they arrived.

Please notice the first row of headstones. Some stones are marked “2nd U.S. Cavalry”. Fort Missoula was never garrisoned by United States Cavalry Units. These are some of the bodies that were moved here from Fort Ellis, near Bozeman. And that is were our story begins.

Fort Ellis was established three miles east of Bozeman in August 1867, by members of the 13th U.S. Infantry. It was to serve as the northern anchor of a chain of forts on the Bozeman Trail. In 1869 the Infantry garrison was joined by four companies of the Second U.S. Cavalry. This battalion of cavalry would remain until 1884. The Infantry would leave in 1886 when Fort Ellis was abandoned.

The stones in question mark part of the 37 or 39, re-interments from Fort Ellis. We’ll get to the discrepancy in the number of bodies in a minute. In January of 1887, bids went out to move 39 bodies to the Fort Missoula Cemetery. The bids were to cover the costs for “furnishing all labor, transportation and materials required in disinterring, preparing for shipment and removing the remains now in the Cemetery at the late Post of Fort Ellis, MT, delivering to the Officers of the Quartermasters Department designated to receive them at Fort Missoula, MT. and re-interring the same in the cemetery at the last named post”.

12 bids were submitted. One notice indicated the bidder will “remove the remains and headboards or stones”. Another says “All headstones and headboards found in good condition I will save and deliver with remains”. The high bid for re-interment was $2,730 or $70.25 per person. The low bid, submitted by H.B. Palmer came in at $360 or $9.23 per person. This bid was received on March 17, 1887 and was, of course, awarded. This begs the question, was Palmer willing to do the job correctly for very little, or was he willing to cut corners wherever possible?

Fort Missoula Cemetery Burial Records show that 37 graves, moved here from Fort Ellis, have assigned Section and grave numbers. However, a list from the Dept. of the Army, Office of the Quartermaster, Washington D.C. dated 17 Aug. 1948, shows that there were 39 re-interments from Fort Ellis to Fort Missoula. There are two names on the 1948 list that are not on the Fort Missoula Cemetery burial record. They are “Infant Child Bean” date of death Oct 2, 1881 and “Citizen Adams” no death date shown. The 1948 list is the only list known to our researchers where these names appear. Interestingly, a 1940 map of the cemetery notes: “Grave 6A Section B shows imprint of a child’s grave and Grave 39 Section A shows imprint of an adult grave. No record of burial in either case.”

The imprints for the notations on the 1940 map are no longer visible. However, Grave 39 Section A shows that Pvt William Brummagien Co. D, 25th US Inf. was buried there on May 1, 1920. We do not know when his headstone was placed. There is no record on any of the burial lists we have that show that anyone was ever buried in Grave 6A, Section B.


We do show Fort Missoula received 22 soldiers, including two Medal of Honor recipients (Michael Himmelsbach and Harry Garland) whose stories are told elsewhere today. The rest of the transferred graves were for civilians and children.

The ranks among the soldiers include 5 sergeants, 1 corporal, 1 hospital steward and 15 privates. The civilians include 3 adult males, 2 adult females and 2 remains whose gender is not known. The children include 2 boys and 3 girls. The rest are not identified by gender.

Besides the 2 Medal of Honor recipients we have 2 other re-interments of interest.

The 1st individual is Sergeant William Baker. He was born in County Donegal, Ireland in 1832. We know nothing of his early life except that he had been an itinerant peddler prior to his enlisting on November 6, 1854 into Company F, Second Dragoons. In 1861 his unit became Company F, Second Cavalry. He earned his sergeant’s stripes in rough campaigning during the Civil War. He was a well seasoned Non-Commissioned Officer, experienced in dealing with all manner of men and experienced, as well, in conducting both traditional and Indian warfare. It is said the he was quiet, efficient and well-liked, and would have retired from his beloved company F as a senior NCO at the conclusion of a long and faithful service, had he not been shot dead by Private James Murphy on March 31, 1874 in the course of Murphy’s attack on a comrade in the barracks at Fort Ellis. Baker’s most notable duty in and around Montana, besides his work in the Indian Wars, was when he was the sergeant under Lieutenant Doane and in charge of the military escort that helped conduct the Yellowstone Exploration of 1870. This expedition, composed mostly of Montana men, was the first to leave an accurate record of the wonders of the future Yellowstone National Park.

The 2nd person of interest is buried under a headstone marked only as “U.S. Soldier”. This man’s name is not known. His unit is recorded as Company D of the 16th U.S. Infantry. His rank is shown as “Private”. His date of death is a vague “April 1860”.
This lack of specific information poses quite a mystery for many reasons. If he did, in fact, die in 1860, how did he come to be buried in the Fort Ellis Post Cemetery since Fort Ellis was not established until 1867? Also, the 16th Infantry never served in Montana until a detachment was sent to Fort Assiniboine from 1899 to 1902. As a matter of fact, when he died in 1860, there was no 16th regiment in existence. The last time, prior to the Civil War, that a regiment bore that number was during the War with Mexico, 1846-1848. If he was indeed a veteran of the Mexican War, he is certainly the earliest war veteran to be buried in this cemetery.

To our knowledge the oldest grave in the Ft Missoula Post Cemetery is that of Private William Gerick- (several spellings for this name- ) Company H 3rd US Inf. Sept.-26-1878

Our researchers have made inquiries to many military history sources and have not been able to determine the exact date or dates when the Fort Ellis remains were brought to the Fort Missoula Post Cemetery. One might have thought that their arrival would have been mentioned in the local newspapers; however no records have been found to tell us when the bodies were received by the Fort Missoula Post Quartermaster. One could imagine that the arrival of the two Medal of Honor recipients would have triggered some type of noteworthy ceremony here at the Fort which could have been mentioned somewhere in public notices. A search of Fort Ellis and Gallatin County histories has revealed no information on the date of disinterment for these people. Our researchers are still working to solve this puzzle.