Monthly Archives: June 2023

St Gabriel’s and Kuper Cemeteries: Sacred Grounds in Chinook, Montana

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North of Chinook are two adjacent late 19th centuries. The earliest is the Kuper Memorial Cemetery, originally known as the Chinook Cemetery. From newspaper accounts, burials there date to at least 1894 when former Canadian lumberman Gilbert McIntosh was laid to rest. Chinook newspapers also note that St. Gabriel’s Catholic Cemetery, immediately south of the city cemetery, dates to 1898 when prominent Catholic civic leader Thomas O’Hanlon was the first person to be buried in the new Catholic cemetery. The Chinook Opinion of February 17, 1898, called O’Hanlon “practically the founder of this little city and its interests have been his own for eight years passed [or 1890].”

St Gabriel’s Cemetery entrance
Isome Harve Harris, 1895, is another early burial in the Kuper Cemetery

For its first generation the two cemeteries lacked water and regular upkeep. Chinook women tackled the problem first. In 1910 a Ladies Cemetery Committee formed to raise “money for the Cemetery fund which is to be used in beautifying the Chinook cemetery grounds.” [Chinook Opinion 11/3/1910] The women served meals on Election Day, charging 50 cents a meal. “The bill of fare will consist of chicken pie, mashed potatoes, salads, pickles, cake, bread and butter, pie and coffee.”

The grave markers below reflect the different types found in the cemetery by 1910.

The following year Chinook women hosted a recital by Mrs. Riggs to raise funds for the city cemetery. By the fall of 1911 the Chinook Cemetery Association had formed, informally. The group discovered that the “plat of the Chinook Cemetery has never been filed for record.” [Chinook Opinion 1/23/1913]. By the summer of 1913 the Chinook Cemetery Association had filed its articles of incorporation with the Blaine County Clerk. The Chinook Opinion of 8/14/1913 explained: “The association was incorporated in order to provide a legal body that could take over the management of the local cemetery and make the needed improvements as fast as money can be raised for them. The town does not care to do anything with the management of the cemetery but there has been no legal body to whom the council could turn the care of the funds and the grounds over.”

But the beautiful appearance of both cemeteries didn’t come about until the 1920s. The construction of a new irrigation canal through the unfenced St. Gabriel’s cemetery brought Catholic Bishop M. Lenihan to Chinook in 1923 to discuss the matter. The Belknap irrigation district got its way: a canal defines the southern boundary of the Cemeteries.

Then in 1927 the Chinook Lions Club pledged support and funds to install a permanent water supply and irrigation system to the city cemetery, with the water coming from the Belknap canal.

Once the water supply was secured, the Lions Club planted 180 trees throughout the grounds.

By May 1927 Catholic leaders had decided to join the effort to irrigate both cemeteries and Lions Club together with American Legion members began to make preparations to plant trees. Over the years a large memorial section for local veterans was developed at the northeast corner of the property.

The Chinook Opinion of May 5, 1927 asserted: “The improvement of the barren and desolate looking grounds is an improvement of considerable merit and the two boards and committees in charge are being generally commended for the success they have had in working out the plans.”

A couple of years later a new undertaker in Chinook, Herman H. Kuper, began a fundraising campaign to have a caretaker for both cemeteries. He argued that the cemeteries could be planted with trees, flowers, and other ornamental plantings, then mowed regularly. For almost 100 years ever since the Chinook Cemeteries have been well maintained.

Thus it comes as no surprise that in c. 1978-79 the city cemetery changed its name to the Kuper Memorial Cemetery. Kuper (died 1978) not only was a successful businessman, he served the city as an alderman and as Chinook mayor.

Havre’s Mount Hope Cemetery, Part II

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July 1, 1905, the Havre Plaindealer reported that K. K. Devlin had donated three acres south of the new city reservoir for a Catholic cemetery, eventually named Calvary Cemetery. The newspaper said that engineers platted the ground on June 28, and that the first internment, the child of Joseph Gussenhoven, had been buried in the afternoon. The paper proclaimed that “The site selected is an ideal spot for a cemetery. The land slopes gently from the city reservoir to the south and east and can all be irrigated nicely from the reservoir. . . The lots will all be larger than the lots in the old cemetery [Mount Hope] thus affording ample room for trees and shrubs.”

Calvary Cemetery, May 2023

One of the engineers had already recommended to the Mount Hope Cemetery Association to secure a “cemetery site for the city adjoining the present site selected by the Catholic people. The surroundings are naturelly [sic] most beautiful. It is close to the city and at the same time in a quiet and secluded spot and when the grounds are sown to grass, and trees and shrubs adorn the driveways and walks, it will be the most beautiful burial place in the state.” Plus the city engineer added, the grounds “can be irrigated and beautified as a nominal cost.”

The newspaper closed with what could be considered the epitaph for the old city cemetery: “The expense incurred and improving the old cemetery was necessary but to beautify the place requires water and the expense of obtaining it would be beyond the reach of the city for some years to come.”

The news upset many citizens since the city had just made the effort to upgrade Mount Hope. Two weeks after the first burial at Calvary, the Havre cemetery committee reinspected Mount Hope and “returned more fully convinced than ever that the present site could be sufficiently watered and beautified at slight expense by the driving of a new points similar to those that have been so successful in the dry well system of the waterworks and the pumping of water by use of a windmill.” The committee counted 150 graves at Mount Hope and reported that the relatives of the dead did not want the bodies moved. “Efforts to raise water will at least be made before there will be any further consideration of removal,” according to the Havre Herald of July 14, 1905.

The tone was different by the fall. The Havre Herald of November 3, 1905, recorded that “the board of trustees of Mount Hope cemetery” authorized that the cemetery be put “in good shape,” with repaired fences, walks, and drives. But the newspaper also reported that “Negotiations are under way for the purchase of land for a new cemetery adjoining the Catholic grounds.” That cemetery is the present Highland Cemetery.

From 1905-1906 numerous burials continued at Mount Hope despite the controversy over its future. The 3 year old Margie Kaepernick was buried on July 4, 1905.

Kaepernick marker, 1905

Marian Munger and Mary Lawler were interred, respectively, in September and October. Popular card dealer P. J. “Jack Flynn” was buried about a week before Christmas in 1905. His death even brought about an ode from a friend published in the Havre Herald on February 2, 1906.

The city continued to hold its Memorial Day commemoration at Mount Hope in 1906. A detail from Ft. Assinniboine led the parade, which began at the corner of Second Street and Third Avenue, winding its way through Havre before reaching the Mount Hope Cemetery. Following the U.S. Army soldiers were: the Citizens band of Havre, Civil War veterans, Spanish-American veterans, Relief corps, Clergymen, City officials, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Eagles, Great Northern band, Shop men, and Labor unions.

Yet as Highland Cemetery opened in 1906, joining its neighbor the Catholic Calvary Cemetery, the number of burials at Mount Hope Cemetery declined, judging from accounts published in the local newspapers. George Barrington, the son of a veteran Great Northern Railroad engineer, died in a scuffle over a pistol outside of the Gold Bug saloon. He was buried in August 1908.

Members of the Masonic lodges in Havre and Glasgow turned out in numbers for the burial of Graham Williamson in March 1909. In May 1909, the Havre Monument Works installed a “handsome iron fence” made in Cincinnati OH, to mark the family plot of C. B. Van Alstine.

Van Alstine plot.

But then in May 1909 burials took place at Mount Hope Cemetery that may be considered the event that began the cemetery’s third historic period as the public burial ground for the unfortunate and marginalized in the city. Joseph Kirschweng escaped from the state asylum at Warm Springs returned to Hill Countyand killed his wife and children before committing suicide. All four were buried at Mount Hope.

In October, Rev. William Jackson, an African American minister who once served at Fort Assiniboine before becoming the pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Havre was buried at Mount Hope. Two years later, Martha Allen, a member of the AME church, was buried at Mount Hope with “one of the largest funeral corteges ever seen in the city.” (Havre Plaindealder, May 6, 1911). Two years later in August 1913 an abandoned baby found dead at city hall was buried at Mount Hope while in September William P. Farrow, “the stranger who was run over by a switch engine,” was buried at the cemetery (Havre Promoter, September 12, 1913). Victor Urkins, a Great Northern shop employee who allegedly committed suicide, was buried at Mount Hope in October 1913. Then in November came the funeral of Lucy Barnes, the wife of W. H. Barnes, a longtime resident and former domestic employee of Robert L. McCulloch at Fort Assiniboine, who also was African American and member of the AME Church. Most of the Japanese burials here took place from 1909 to 1920.

Burial accounts in the local newspapers about Mount Hope Cemetery become few and far between by the time of World War I. Three of the last stories were about Chinese residents: Wong Hoy Lang in 1921; N. Len, who was a gardener in 1922; and Lo Bow in 1924. Lo Bow “had lived in Havre for the past 30 years and was interested in the restaurant business at the time of his death.” (Havre Promoter, September 23, 1924). 1924 was the last year Mount Hope Cemetery would be mentioned in local newspapers for decades to come.

The Forgotten Stories of Havre’s Mount Hope Cemetery, Part One

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The sign facing Cemetery Road in Havre tells you here is a historic place but the story of this large plot, surrounded on three sides by county road and maintenance shops, is much deeper than the sign might indicate.

The cemetery likely dates to the very beginning of Havre’s history. I did not have early city or county records to consult but the first newspaper mention of the Havre cemetery dates to 1894. Moses Hall, a carpenter, was found dead, lying upon the Great Northern railroad tracks by the telegraph office. The Havre Advertiser of October 4, 1894, reported that “just how the fatal accident occurred will probably never be known, but the supposition is that he [known to be a strong drinker thus allegedly drunk] laid down upon the track not thinking of the approaching danger.”

Rebecca Burlington was buried c. 1896

With so many missing markers, it is difficult to judge how many were buried here in the first ten years. But several markers document Japanese burials between 1900 and the 1920s, particularly in the 1910s. Many of the men worked for the Great Northern Railroad. In 1898 the Oriental Trading Company had reached an agreement with the Great Northern to provide workers, especially at division points like Havre. Other Japanese residents and some Chinese immigrants operated shops and cafes in the town.

A number of Japanese workers, wives and children are from 1908 to 1919 are buried in this section near the eastern edge of the cemetery.

Move forward to 1903. Havre is in the midst of a boom and urban institutions were being developed. In July the city council instructed the city clerk to file a plat for the cemetery. The next spring in 1904 the mayor made improvements at the “city cemetery” a major agenda item. He reported that the cemetery “was selected by the town nearly twelve years ago [c. 1891], and about five years ago was platted into lots, walks and driveways, but owing to the lack of proper interest and supervision on the part of past city administrations the stakes have been broken down and lost, and burials are being made without due regard to location, and the place presents a heathenish and neglected appearance.”

The mayor asked council to appoint a cemetery committee to perfect the city’s title to the land and to beautify it. The council did so and renamed the place the Mount Hope Cemetery. The first documented burial in Mount Hope came in September 1904. Within a year the Havre Herald (May 4, 1905) reported that “the improvement of the cemetery has been carried out to the letter“ with a new fence, arch gate, and staked lots and plats. Later in the month, for Memorial Day, the city held a ceremony to honor early pioneers and veterans at the cemetery. Newspapers documented six residents as being buried in New Hope in 1905. But more change was in the offing. That’s covered in part two.

Crown Hill Cemetery in Cut Bank

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Standard histories tell you that Cut Bank, the seat of Glacier County, dates to 1891. But significant numbers of permanent settlers did not arrive until the first years of the 20th century, following a major investment by the Great Northern Railroad to build a huge steel bridge and railroad offices, shops, and a roundhouse. The Fort Benton River Press on February 12, 1901, reported that “Cut Bank is rapidly assuming a metropolitan appearance.”

The initial railroad boom soon slowed until the homesteader movement brought new growth. In 1911 town officials agreed to discuss the creation of a permanent town cemetery with state officials. Between 1911 and 1914 citizens formed the Crown Hill Cemetery Association and the first documented burials in the local newspaper took place in 1914.

Entrance to Crown Hill Cemetery

Located north of town the cemetery is on a slight rise and has an impressive view of Cut Bank to the South. A small lake is the focus of the cemetery plan.

See the grain elevators to the south.

Otherwise the cemetery contains long rows in a rectangular manner and there are few huge grave markers, instead many dignified and subtly designed markers cover the grounds.

There are several interesting markers and many note a fraternal lodge association.

The Thomas marker is one of the oldest.
1936 marker with Art Deco styling

The Halvorson marker dates to be death of Mrs. Harry Halvorson who died in 1924. At that time her funeral was the largest ever held in Cut Bank. The Midland Empire of April 22, 1924 reported that 650 attended the funeral and that 77 cars went from the town Masonic Hall to the cemetery. A member of the Rebekah lodges in both Cut Bank and Shelby, Halvorson’s funeral attracted other lodge members from Shelby, Conrad, Valier and Browning. Her husband was the senior member of the Halvorson mercantile company, which started in 1901.

Another important marker is the veterans memorial from World War II. Cut Bank played a significant role as a satellite air field for the Great Falls Army Air Base. In 1942-43 pilots trained here in flying the B-17 Flying Fortresses. In 1948 the army conveyed the base to the town for civilian use.

Perhaps an unattended consequence of the military air base is that winter temperatures at Cut Bank was regularly available to national media, which played up the mage of Cut Bank as the coldest place in the lower 48 states. Cut Bank embraced the image, as this bit of roadside sculpture below attests. It stands at the eastern entrance into town on US Highway 2.

Crown Hill Cemetery is one of the oldest properties in Cut Bank open to the public. The cemetery is well maintained, well manicured and a testament to the respect and dignity local residents give to their past.

Crown Hill Cemetery in Cut Bank

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Standard histories tell you that Cut Bank, the seat of Glacier County, dates to 1891. But significant numbers of permanent settlers did not arrive until the first years of the 20th century, following a major investment by the Great Northern Railroad to build a huge steel bridge and railroad offices, shops, and a roundhouse. The Fort Benton River Press on February 12, 1901, reported that “Cut Bank is rapidly assuming a metropolitan appearance.”

The initial railroad boom soon slowed until the homesteader movement brought new growth. In 1911 town officials agreed to discuss the creation of a permanent town cemetery with state officials. Between 1911 and 1914 citizens formed the Crown Hill Cemetery Association and the first documented burials in the local newspaper took place in 1914.

Entrance to Crown Hill Cemetery

Located north of town the cemetery is on a slight rise and has an impressive view of Cut Bank to the South. A small lake is the focus of the cemetery plan.

See the grain elevators to the south.

Otherwise the cemetery contains long rows in a rectangular manner and there are few huge grave markers, instead many dignified and subtly designed markers cover the grounds.

There are several interesting markers and many note a fraternal lodge association.

The Thomas marker is one of the oldest.
1936 marker with Art Deco styling

The Halvorson marker dates to be death of Mrs. Harry Halvorson who died in 1924. At that time her funeral was the largest ever held in Cut Bank. The Midland Empire of April 22, 1924 reported that 650 attended the funeral and that 77 cars went from the town Masonic Hall to the cemetery. A member of the Rebekah lodges in both Cut Bank and Shelby, Halvorson’s funeral attracted other lodge members from Shelby, Conrad, Valier and Browning. Her husband was the senior member of the Halvorson mercantile company, which started in 1901.

Another important marker is the veterans memorial from World War II. Cut Bank played a significant role as a satellite air field for the Great Falls Army Air Base. In 1942-43 pilots trained here in flying the B-17 Flying Fortresses. In 1948 the army conveyed the base to the town for civilian use.

Perhaps an unattended consequence of the military air base is that winter temperatures at Cut Bank was regularly available to national media, which played up the mage of Cut Bank as the coldest place in the lower 48 states. Cut Bank embraced the image, as this bit of roadside sculpture below attests. It stands at the eastern entrance into town on US Highway 2.

Crown Hill Cemetery is one of the oldest properties in Cut Bank open to the public. The cemetery is well maintained, well manicured and a testament to the respect and dignity local residents give to their past.

Zurich Park: New Deal Landmark in Blaine County

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Zurich Park, 2023

North of the railroad town of Zurich along US Highway 2 in Blaine County is Zurich Park, a New Deal era landmark from 1936-1937.

Originally called the Zurich Recreation Park, it developed as one three recreation areas in the planned South Wagner Resettlement Project. And the park in turn centered on the Community hall built at the park’s entrance.

The Chinook Opinion on July 16, 1936 reported the initial plans for the park. The facility was centered on 30 Mile Creek, not far from the river and you crossed one of the canals of the Milk River Project as you approached the park from Zurich.

Milk River Project

The community hall was 30 by 60 feet. 25 men, supervised by Floyd White of the county, constructed the building and other park features. The newspaper reported that the community hall “will be of native stone, logs and rough timber in rustic effect, plans having been drawn by Fred Mallon, project engineer” for the Resettlement Administration. The newspaper added that “This type of building will have the advantage of being more permanent, more attractive and will provide more labor and cost less for materials.”

The park initially included a swimming area, picnic facilities and playgrounds.

In the winter of 1937 the Great Falls Tribune published a photograph of the almost completed community hall, with snow piled about the building. By the time summer rolled around the park was ready for use.

It served not just Zurich but hosted groups from Chinook and Harlem for decades. It quickly became a recreation and community center for all sorts of activities and meetings. The newspaper ad below was in the Harlem News of October 27, 1939.

For instance, regular district meetings of the Soil Conservation Service, the Beet Growers Association, 4-H clubs and home demonstration clubs met at the community hall. In 1939 the city of Chinook, who appreciated that local children had refrained from heavy use of fireworks, hosted a party at the park and bussed some 200 kids from Chinook for the afternoon event with hot dogs and ice cream. Even 40 years later the community hall was constantly in use by all sorts of groups.

In 1966 Chinook Lions club members gave the park and hall a facelift, installing five new picnic tables. The Harlem club joined in the effort and added six new picnic tables. Both groups made improvements to the playgrounds. The Chinook Opinion of June 9, 1966 reported: “These tables were built by the Chinook and Harlem high school shop department[s]. It is understood that a new resurfacing of the highway to the park [today’s Park Road] will be done this summer, and the park will be put in first class shape.” Zurich Park remains well maintained today as these images prove. Rural life and community events have changed in the 21st century but Zurich Park remains as an important legacy of the Great Depression decade.

Choteau Cemetery, Teton County

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Choteau Cemetery is one of the oldest public spaces in Teton County as it dates to the platting of the town itself in 1883.

The beautiful, well manicured grounds of today did not always exist. For the first four decades the county “kept” the cemetery but merely as a burial ground for residents and the poor (the county bought 10 plots for indigent burials in 1895).

In 1927, during a decade of beautification efforts happening in towns, schools, and ranches across the country, city officials decided to introduce a levy to pay for the irrigation of the cemetery and the planting of a beautiful grove of trees to further dignify this community place.

A sign reminds everyone not to drive over the pipes, which can be clearly seen throughout the cemetery (see below).

In 1928 the city purchased lawn seed and acquired the first set of saplings to plant. Thoughtfully maintained ever since, even when with some controversy cemetery leaders removed 70 diseased trees in 2015, the Choteau Cemetery is an impressive sight, and worth a thorough investigation as it approaches its 100th year as an irrigated public property.

There is a range of fraternal markers from the early 20th century.

Woodmen of the World marker for Harry Haynes
Women of Woodcraft marker for Amelia Armstrong
Masonic marker for former sheriff Kenneth McKenzie

There are delicately carved stones in Victorian themes reflective of the Civil War era.

And as you expect there are veterans of the US Army from the Civil War and all subsequent wars buried here.

Then there are those markers that hint at a bigger story and you miss you knew more, such as this blending of the pillow and heart motifs for Mary McDonough and erected by Minnie Reese.

The cemetery is large but not overwhelming. Its straight forward linear design and rectangular shape are common. But the evident care and commitment of today’s residents to the past is commendable and worthy of note.

A new visit to Augusta

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I had not been in Augusta since 2016–two years before the foods of June 2018 rattled this northern Lewis and Clark County town.

Old haunts like the Western Bar and the Lazy B Cafe were still operating, looking good.

Recent historic preservation efforts had given a new life and a restored appearance to such as National Register-listed landmarks as the Mack general store and Quinn’s garage.

Mack’s general store, 2016
Mack general store, 2023
Quinn’s Garage, closed in 2016
Quinn’s Garage, 2023. Now listed in the National Register, the garage is restored and open for commercial use.

The Augusta Branch, first established almost 50 years ago, of the Lewis and Clark County Library also had recent renovations and a new ramp. A great place for more information about this very historic rural Montana town.

And I still love the historic school, both the classical building from the first decades of the 20th century and the more modern styled building from the mid-20th century.

Augusta is a place, as I discussed in this blog in 2016, that is long in history and short in pretense. You need more evidence—just trim around from the school and consider its neighbor, a Masonic Lodge with a concrete block facade fitting a Quonset hut-like structure behind. What a great place.

Kenilworth Hall in Choteau County

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Kenilworth Hall 1984

I first visited Kenilworth Hall, on Montana 432 west of Big Sandy, early in my 1984 fieldwork for the Montana state historic preservation plan. At the time I really hadn’t seen enough, or heard enough, to understand the overwhelming significance of these rural places. What caught my eye was the building itself—like the top half of a barn plopped down at an empty crossroads in the middle of nowhere. Its very presence told me it had to be important.

And as I held public meetings and stopped in at local museums that winter into the spring, I learned that community halls were very important gathering places for ranch families. At Kenilworth, there were parties for all the seasons. Various clubs met regularly. It was a social and educational hub.

So last month I purposely took the drive to see if Kenilworth Hall was still there. I half expected it would be gone. But it was there, barely as the images below attest.

The hall needs some TLC, and a paint job. And it should be recognized as an important place. I hope it has a second wind—or third and forth, and remains a west Chouteau County landmark for decades to come.

Bowman’s Corner: Disappearing Rural Crossroads Stores

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Forty years ago you expected to find crossroads places—typically a bar/cafe, often with a store and gas pumps—whenever you passed through major highway junctions. At the intersection of Montana Highway 200, which is still a major east-west route, and US Highway 287 stood Bowman’s Corner in northern Lewis and Clark County.

Bowman’s Corner 2023
Cafe, bar and store

Today the place is there—the building remains while the sign has almost all blown away. Old cars are parked around. A fence tells you not to enter.

Old corral site

Particularly sad to see is where the rodeo corral once stood. I can recall taking a break once and watching some guys practice roping.

Here was a laid back roadside oasis. Not totally gone in 2023–but you wonder if Bowman’s Crossroads is not another crossroads place to be forgotten as the 21st century moves onward.