1894 — Shadows of Panic

Idaho Recorder, January 31, 1894

SHOUP ITEMS

Not having seen any mention of this town in your valuable paper for some time, and fearing people might think it was a thing of the past, I send the following news items:

The Clipper-Bullion mill is running day and night under the personal supervision of Supt. J. M. Parfet, and turning out a nice little gold brick every week. A contract has been let for 100 cords of dry wood for the mill, which will insure its running for another month.

Mark Quinliven[1] has taken up the ranch on Spring creek formerly owned by Z.L. Merritt.

Haynes and Curtis have let a contract for 5000 logs and the town of Shoup has contracted for the same amount to be used in the construction of boats to move the town on down the river.

Laughlin and Rowe are moving their supplies down the river to their mine, where they expect to put in the season in development work. They have one of the most promising prospects in camp.

Robt. Campbell is now sojourning in Shoup. He is a very successful angler and brings in many a string of the beautiful mountain trout.

Mrs. Paulina Moll and son visited Tom Wend’s ranch today.

Parfet & Rowe reported at headquarters tonight at mail time to see what news Uncle Sam had brought them in regard to the prize fight.[2]

Fifty-two people receive their mail at this office and but three women in the lot, consequently all is quiet in the camp. [Evidently written by some “cranky” old bachelor —ED][3]

H. Myers, T Ellis and Joshua Brown were over from Pine creek today. They report everything very quiet in that camp.

W.E Taylor, who is working the Monolith on a lease, has about fifty tons of good ore on the dump ready to run through the Kentuck mill as soon as the creek is released from its icy bonds.

U-Know

January 26, 1894

Lemhi Republic, April 7, 1894

The boys at Shoup met with a keen disappointment recently. It seems that Jack Ralston who, a short time ago, disposed of his interest in the Grunter mine to Waterman Bros., ordered a keg of fine old whiskey with which to treat the boys. The liquor was to arrive by stage from Salmon, but for some unaccountable reason it failed to put in an appearance, and the feelings of the boys can be better imagined than described when they would gather around the post office waiting the arrival of the stage, which would bring no keg. Strange how thirsty a lot of men will get in anticipation.

Lemhi Republic, May 5, 1894

SHOUP SIFTINGS

Shoup, April 30, 1894

Editor Republic:

News are rather scarce in this camp, as everything is so very quiet; but I will try to give you a few items.

J. Laughlin and R. Campbell are working on a fine ledge of ore that is from 18 inches to 3 feet in width and will mill $25 per ton.

Mr. Jack Ralston is leaving for Salmon City to-day and is bidding his Shoup friends a “final good-bye.” We shall miss you, Jack. May health and happiness go with you to your Georgia home.

Mr. James Walsh arrived in camp last night from his courting trip to Salmon City.

F.W. Martin of Butte is moving his dry placer machine down the Salmon river, where he intends to work the high bars that cannot be reached with water. His machine will work 50 tons a day and if it is a success there is a great deal of ground in this vicinity that can be worked.

Mr. A. NcNamara and wife made a prospecting trip down the River to-day.

Ed Williamson and George Eckman have come down from Gibbonsville. They are going to get the balance of their ore down from the Sherman Mine and run it through the Kentuck mill.

Ed. Sailander is building a threshing machine for Thomas Wend.

J.F. Rowe was out on a prospecting trip and brought in some good looking rock to-day.

It is reported that Shoup will lose a couple of its residents in the near future, owing to rumors of a wedding to take place within a short time.

U.S. Wightman and wife expect to move to Shoup in a week or so. We understand Mrs. Wightman is to take charge of the post office.

Gus Bell started for Butte to-day, via. Gibbonsville.

Joe Sperry has gone up to the town on the Dahlonega. He does not like to work in a dry placer mine. “Not for Joe.”

Haynes and Curtis are still at work on the Kentuck.

VAP[4]

Idaho Recorder, May 9, 1894

LOCAL INTELLIGENCE

Jack Ralston, of Shoup, has been in town for the past week. We understand that he expects to head for Indian Territory in a short time.

H.F. Haynes came up from Shoup Sunday on Business for the Kentuck Mining company of which he is in charge.

It is reported that a horse with saddle and bridle and a mule with a pack on—both dead—were seen floating down the Salmon river on last Friday by some men at Boomer’s camp. It is more than probably that the owner has been drowned in the river, but so afar as we can learn no one knows anything further about it.

Three newspapers in one town tipped the cart and in May, the Hydraulic Miner went out of business. The Lemhi Republic would only last but four more years, with good reason. They republished too much drivel from the eastern papers.

Once in a while Jimmy Callahan showed up after riding the train from Anaconda down to Armstead, then took the stage over Bannock Pass into Salmon, and from there another into Gib’town to see his children. He’d visit a couple of days, just long enough for the children to know he’d been there and then he was off again.

Idaho Recorder, June 6, 1894

GIBBONSVILLE ITEMS

RECORDER: Upon receipt of the RECORDER this evening we were reminded of a duty we owe to the good people of our town.

The A.D.& M. Co., under the management of C.J. Barclay has started to work in earnest. Their mill is running full capacity night and day. They will increase and add to their milling capacity as they have recently purchased the Elrod mill, which has been under attachment for some time. The mill will be placed and running in a few days. The company has a force of about 40 men employed, which will be added to as openings are made. Put the “stuff” at at his back and Barclay will show Gibbonsville up to be a mining camp of no small proportions.

A.J. Arnold, agent for the H. & J. M. Co., is in Helena on business with his company. Rumor has it that they are about to rebuild their old stamp mill, wish was destroyed by fire about two years since. The Twin Brothers mine, one of this company’s properties, has enough ore in sight to run a ten-stamp mill at least two years.

The Anderson Creek Placer Co. is making good use of their water supply and, judging from the broad smile which Mr. Davis’ face carries, there must be lots of the big nuggets in sight.

A party consisting of the York brothers, John Dunton and George Williams, an old timer in these parts, contemplate starting in a few days for Sheep creek to look after and open up some very promising prospects belonging to the gentlemen named, and in which Fred and Willard Dunton are also deeply interested.

Mining interests in this district are looking very flattering, but men looking for work are coming in too fast for the demand there is at present for laborers. We are a little too short of supplies just now to desire any increase in the population. Mr. Willard Dunton will, however, soon have a supply sufficient for the entire district, as he has several large load of merchandise on the way in. His trade has increased to such an extent in the past few months that the stock laid in though large, did not nearly meet the demand.

The G.M.C[5] will start their team within a few days for Dillon their shipping point.

Henry Morris, who is mining near the foot of the mountain on Dahlonega creek, found a fine nugget a few days since. Henry is the father of a fine, bouncing boy.[6]

Bert Maydole is expecting a large shipment of pine liquors[7] and cigars and when they arrive he will open the doors of his snug club room to the public. Bert’s place is on the corner of Anderson Creek Avenue and Main Street, opposite Jack Morrison’s livery stable.

North Jones has opened a chop house[8] in the Dunton & Bartle block, where he is prepared to feed the hungry of all nations. He has given us the privilege of naming his ‘cafe,’ which we will call Bon Ton.[9]

Mrs. Frank Carl can be found at the old place which, from the beautiful display of flowers to be seen in the windows and upon the lawn, should be called Floral Hotel. Upon the table you will find the viands just as sweet and fragrant as the perfume from the beautiful flowers in the windows.

George Rodgers, our skillful tonsorial artist,[10] can be found at his parlors one door west of Dodge & Bennett’s saloon, where you are assured of a clean, quick, smooth shave.

“Bud” Heminger has sold his interest in the Dodge & Heminger saloon to Mr. Bennett.

Frank Smith is getting lumber on the ground to erect a fine building to be used as a saloon.

Improvements are going on in every direction, thus it will be seen that the boom which we predicted some few weeks ago has struck Gibbonsville in good shape.

The Populists have a meeting called for tomorrow evening. Business of importance will be brought before the club. The Populists of Gibbonsville are in earnest; because they are right and they know it.[11]

Upon a trip down the North Fork we observed that some excellent work has been done by our road supervisor, James Woodward, in repairing bridges, removing heaving boulders, etc.

The roads of this district are difficult to keep in repair owing to the many miles of slide rock, the many bridges to be kept in repair which are often swept out by high water and the number of miles in the district. Notwithstanding all these drawbacks the roads and trails are in excellent shape considering the amount of money expended.

The G.L.S.[12] gave its last entertainment for the season last Saturday night. The program rendered was up to the mark in every detail. In the absence of the president, J.J. Gibson, the chair was filled by the Vice President, Hon. Frank Hunt. Before the close arrangements were made for Decoration Day[13] observations. Committees appointed, orator chosen, etc. Hon. F.W. Hunt was chose orator of the day.

By the adjournment of this society we feel that we have lost one of the most elevating social and literary mediums of our prosperous and happy town.

Our public school has opened again with Miss Lisenby[14] as teacher. We predict a successful of school under this lady’s management.

We have been quite religious recently, attending Sunday school regularly, and last Sunday enjoyed the exercises very much. The music both vocal and instrumental was of high order. Prof. Gilberts with the violin, Miss Lisenby at the organ and the late concourse of voices filled the old school house with music fittingly adapted to a church or tabernacle.

While remaining with the people of Gibbonsville we will endeavor to be more regular in our correspondence.

ANON[5]

The pen name ANON is a tidy little cloak—though anyone with a memory for metaphors and merchant inventories might’ve guessed the hand behind it. By then, I’d earned a few gray hairs and a little standing. No longer the schoolmarm in Butte or abandoned young mother downriver, I wrote not from the edge of a mining camp, but from the center of a town beginning to believe in itself. Maybe I wanted the words to speak for the place, not the woman writing them. Or maybe I was just tired of picking pen names. Perhaps I didn’t write it at all. You be the judge—it sure sounds like me.

When I sent in a June column to the Lemhi Republic, I thought I’d harken back to days gone by and sign it J.A.C.K. For no better reason than it fit my mood—and it tickled me to use it again. By then I’d written under so many bylines I couldn’t remember them all, but JACK felt jaunty—sharp, short and a wink to anyone paying attention.

The Republic was a young paper, trying to sink roots. So far, it had managed to sink the Hydraulic Miner, which went out of business not long after the Republic’s first issue hit the street. Gibbonsville, meanwhile, had storefronts, freighters and a rhythm all its own. So when the men at the Republic asked for a column, I gave them what I always had: a mix of merchants and mule teams, creek news and cyanide plants, and the sly troubles that only high water and slow mills can bring.

Lemhi Republic, June 16, 1894

GIBBONSVILLE

The Hull boys will put a milk wagon on the route in a few days.

J.F. Allen and sons have several men employed at their placer mine on Hughs creek.

D.C. Driggs and sons have taken the contract to cover 360 rods of ditch for the A.D.&M. Company.

Among the arrivals in town during the past week were Messrs. Langell, Welch and Campbell from Shoup.

Jack Crumley and crew were in town a few days ago getting supplies for their placer camp on Hughes creek.

James Geary, of the firm of Geary & Ballinger, butchers, will move his family here from the Big Hole basin.

M.C. Durkin is treating about twenty tons of sulpheret ore by the cyanide process at the old Meiklejohn mill for the Hudson Bros.

The A.D.& M. Company are making some very business like moves, but there are dozens of idle men in camp to every one employed.

Henry Morris and family, which now includes a junior member, have moved about four miles out of town, where Mr. M. is working his placer ground.

Messrs. Blake, Armitage & McGree have 200 tons of ore from the Irwin brothers’ mine which they will mill as soon as arrangements can be made for the same.

Walter Decker brought in two loads of freight for Willar Dunton’s store about ten days ago, since then three other freight teams have gone out from Gibbonsville Mercantile Co., but they may be indefinitely delayed owing to the high water on the Big Hole river.

A potato famine has been averted by the arrival of two pack trains from Tom Wend’s ranch at Shoup. If other Lemhi ranchers would come to the front with bacon, butter and oats, we could appreciate their populism from a more practicable point.

It is reported that the new mill will shortly resume operations. If it is completed as Mr. Benham has proposed, it will be the most efficiently equipped milling plant in this section, and under the management of men of ability its success is assured. Thus far they have surmounted all obstacles to which their tenderfoot predecessors succumbed, and this alone speaks volumes in their favor.

The Butler & York mining property, which has been the victim of so many bogus sales, has been purchased by the A.D. & M. Co., also the Beck sawmill and the Elrod quartz mill which was abandoned last year.

J.A.C.K.

The Lemhi Republic, September 15, 1894

George and Dave Sandilands have gone to Shoup to work on the Monolith mines for Alex Toponce.

The Kentuck mill is to be started up in a short time—as soon as some necessary machinery which has been ordered arrives. It will be run on ore from the Monolith mine, which is being worked by Mr. Alex Toponce. He says he is ready to go to work as soon as the mill is repaired. The boys at Shoup have had a rather quiet time of it lately, but when the stamps begin to drop again the camp will liven up.

Idaho Recorder, September 19, 1894

SHOUP SIFTINGS

During the past week I have seen Ernest Moll grinding rock with a hand mortar and making two dollars a day.

Mrs. Morrill and children rustling Winter’s wood.

Charlie and Salsbury Gilmer repairing the Kentuck wagon road intending to haul quartz over the same when completed.

James Chisholm came down from Gibbonsville after his horses and found them at Poverty Flat, one of them being badly crippled by running a snag in his shoulder.

W. E. Taylor, foreman at the Monolith mine was in town after supplies. H F Haynes coming after his mail tonight.

Salsbury Gilmer came to town after a hard day’s work. It is not worth while to buzz him on election, for he is not old enough to vote.

Thomas Wend coming to town for the first time in six months. He is now kept very busy watching his bees storing up honey enough to winter themselves. But I am afraid Tom will never live on milk and honey.

Ernest Moll losing his gun off his pack horse while out hunting.

Mr Curtis wanting to get home to see his girl.

Joe Laughlin hunting new prospects. C. H. Spayds working on a patent rocker and someone else do the rocking.

John Henry catching grass hoppers for Bird to fish with. W H Smith driving sore back mule between here and North Fork.

Man About Shoup

Shoup. Idaho. Sept 9.

Idaho Recorder, December 19, 1894

Delinquent Tax List, (an excerpt)

Taylor W.E., Gibbonsville, house 100, personal 50 total value 150. Tax 5.13, poll 3.50, hospital 2, penalty 51 cts, total 11.19.

By the close of ’94, even Gibbonsville could no longer pretend the Panic was just a rumor from back East. The stamp mills slowed, freight teams lightened, and the talk in the stores turned from profits to provisions. Men who once held steady claims now held their hats in hand and the boarding houses whispered with worry. Shoup felt it too—ore wagons thinning, merchants waiting on credit that might never come.

Across the West men joined the growing ranks of the unemployed and families followed the rail lines looking for work, for land, for anything that might hold. More than a few drifted into Lemhi County with nothing more than a bedroll and a story. And while the East sank into breadlines and banker’s talk, we in the high country gritted our teeth, filled our root cellars and made do.

We’d weathered snows and floods, rockslides and rustlers. A depression was just another season to survive. And survive we would. Because gold still slept in the hills and spring had a habit of coming back.

NOTES

[1] Mark Quinliven returned to Shoup, whereas James A. Callahan never did.

[2] Parfet & Rowe were likely awaiting word on the heavyweight championship bout between James J. Corbett and Charlie Mitchell, held on January 25, 1894, in Jacksonville, Florida. The fight was widely anticipated and followed across the country, even in remote mining camps like Gibbonsville. “Uncle Sam” refers tongue-in-cheek to the postal service, and “headquarters” was probably the local post office—where miners and merchants alike gathered at mail time for news, gossip and the occasional betting result. Whether Parfet and Rowe had money on the fight or were just hungry for a winner, the line captures the way national headlines reached even the far edge of Idaho, one envelope at a time.

[3] Ada Merritt added that note.

[4] VAP s an unknown author—could have been Robert Bell.

[5] The General Mercantile Company of Gibbonsville likely operated as both a retail supplier and a freight-forwarding hub, connecting the mining town to the nearest railroad terminus in Montana via pack trains and freight wagons. Such companies were common in remote mining districts and typically provided everything from food staples and household goods to mining equipment and mail services. They often played a central role in sustaining frontier communities by facilitating trade, transport and communication with the outside world.

[6] This is a tongue-in-cheek remark—the “fine, bouncing boy” is the gold nugget, not an actual child. Annie (or the columnist) is having a bit of fun with mining camp humor.

[7] “Pine liquors” likely refers to strong, inexpensive spirits common in frontier towns—sometimes flavored with pine or juniper, or simply named for their rough quality and resinous kick.

[8] A “chop house” was a type of restaurant or cookshop common in the 19th century, known for serving hearty meat dishes—particularly pork chops, steaks, and roasts. Often informal and male-centered, chop houses were places where a man could fill his plate without frills, drink strong coffee or beer and catch the news of the day. In frontier towns like Gibbonsville a good chop house was as important as a stamp mill—just a little warmer.

[9] Bon Ton was a fancy French phrase for high society and good taste—which made it the perfect name for a frontier chop house serving beans, beef, and bottomless coffee. Annie was likely having a laugh, dressing up meat and potatoes in a velvet bow.

[10] A “tonsorial artist” is a highfalutin term for a barber. In Annie’s day, it often meant a man who cut hair, shaved chins and occasionally offered sage advice—whether you asked for it or not.

[11] The Populists, or People’s Party, were a political movement that gained traction in the 1890s, especially in the West and rural America. Formed in response to economic hardship, monopolies and railroad corruption, the Populists championed causes like free silver, direct election of senators and protections for farmers and laborers. In mining towns like Gibbonsville, their platform struck a chord with working men who felt squeezed by big money and distant lawmakers. Annie’s wry note—“they are right and they know it”—captures both the fervor and self-assurance that often accompanied Populist politics.

[12] The G.L.S. is not identified by full name in the Salmon newspaper but may have stood for “Gibbonsville Literary Society.” The organization hosted social entertainments and organized Decoration Day observances. Its officers—President J.J. Gibson and Vice President Hon. Frank Hunt—suggest an all-male membership, though the name itself could have been crafted with a wink. It’s possible this was a self-serious local club borrowing the tone of larger fraternal lodges, or perhaps Annie (or the author “ANON”) couldn’t resist dressing it in initials to give it more weight than it required—a familiar literary move in her Gibbonsville columns.

[13] Decoration Day was the 19th-century precursor to Memorial Day, originally established to honor Union soldiers who died in the Civil War.

[14] Charlotte “Lottie” Elizabeth Lisonbee, born 1870 Monroe, Utah.

[15] This Gibbonsville column, published in the Idaho Recorder on June 6, 1894, is signed “ANON”—a rare pseudonym in the local press of the time. Based on tone, structure and intimate local detail, it is could be the work of Annie. The column balances mining news, merchant activity, social events and domestic detail—hallmarks of Annie’s writing. Phrases like “the Populists of Gibbonsville are in earnest; because they are right and they know it” carries her trademark wry humor beneath a polished exterior, but it can’t be certain who wrote under the pen name of ANON, suffice to say when Annie later leaves Gibbonville, so the does the writer known as ANON.