Sound familiar?

Excerpts from this article published on 11 October 1918 in The Producers News, Plentywood, Montana, sure sound familiar . . .

Emergency regulations providing for . . . the closing of schools, theaters and places of public amusement and prohibiting public gatherings upon the outbreak of influenza in any Montana community, were promulgated Monday afternoon by Secretary W. F. Cogswell of the state board of health. Governor Stewart and Attorney General Ford approved of the regulations and when a quorum of the state board of health is available, the board will approve the new rules, which are as follows:

Spanish Influenza is hereby declared to be infectious, contagious and communicable and dangerous to public health.

Patients suffering from Spanish influenza shall be isolated as completely as possible until after recovery. They shall [be] prohibited from any public gathering and from traveling on any common carrier.

When treated in hospital wards patients recovering from Spanish influenza should be screened from other patients.

All discharge from nose and mouth of patients should be disinfected at once.

The article continues . . .

Influenza is spread from person to person, the germs being expelled by coughing or sneezing, forceful talking and the like . . . A person having a mild attack himself by give a very severe attack to others.

The surgeon general offered the following advice . . .

Persons afflicted should go home at once and go to bed . . . This will help keep dangerous complications away and prevent the disease from being scattered. No one should be allowed in the same room with the patient.

With regard to medicine and general care of the afflicted individual, the surgeon general advised . . .

Only such medicine should be given as is prescribed by the doctor. It is foolish to ask the druggist to prescribe and may be dangerous to take the so-called ‘safe, sure and harmless’ remedies advertised by patent medicine manufacturers.

If the patient is so situated that he can be attended only by someone who must also look after others in the family, it is advisable that such attendant wear a wrapper, apron, or gown over the ordinary house clothes while in the sick room, and slip this off when leaving to look after others.

Nurses and attendants will do well to guard against breathing in dangerous disease germs by wearing a simple fold of gauze while near the patient.

Source: The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.), 11 Oct. 1918. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85053305/1918-10-11/ed-1/seq-6/>

A sign from Lelia Nina?

As I read Melody Lasalle’s blog post Do Our Ancestors Send Us Signs?, I was reminded how often I hear these types of stories from other family historians. In fact, I have a story of my own. And this story took place quite a long time ago. Almost 40 years!

It’s time to finally get this story down in writing.

August 1980 Trip to Montana

My Mom and I were visiting her childhood home of Helena, Montana. It’s a trek we’ve made many times over the year. Most often in August. Her favorite time to visit. Which has turned out to be my favorite time to visit, too. The weather is usually at its best there in August.

One morning we decided to visit Benton Avenue Cemetery with my Mom’s sister. For some reason, we hadn’t visited that cemetery in a few years. And my Mom and Aunt were having a difficult time finding the graves of their grandfather David Lyman Blacker and his daughter Lelia Nina.

My Mom at Benton Avenue Cemetery | July 2014
photo by Author

Mr. Blacker and his daughter

Lelia Nina died in 1880, during the time the family lived in nearby Radersburg. She was originally buried in the cemetery there but when the family moved to Helena in about 1883, she was reinterred in the new cemetery on Benton Avenue. Later, when her father died in 1911, he was buried right next to her.

As far as we know, David Lyman Blacker never had a gravemarker but Lelia Nina had one, so we were hopeful we could find the graves that day. We knew generally where they were located but the tall grass that summer made it impossible to locate them.

A little research

We finally gave up the search and decided to move on to our next stop, the research library at the Montana Historical Society. As I recall, we had no specific goal in mind. We were just hoping to find anything on the Blacker family.

Helena - Montana Historical Society.jpg
Montana Historical Society | Helena, Montana
Roger Wollstadt from Sarasota, Florida [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

Our first discovery was quite a good one. It was a map of Benton Avenue Cemetery, created in the 1960s, that showed the locations of all the graves, along with a list of the names of the people interred there . . . including my great grandfather and his daughter. Before running out the door to head back to the cemetery, we decided to spend a few more minutes to see what else we might find.

Flipping through the card catalog, we came across a reference to an old newspaper clipping regarding the death of the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Blacker of Radersburg. I jotted down the date of the article on a small slip of paper and handed it to the clerk behind the counter. She headed off to pull the file and returned a few minutes later looking a bit confused.

“The date you gave me is today’s date,” she said. “Oh, I’m sorry,” I replied. “I’ll go back and get the correct date.”

I headed back to the card catalog, pulled the information, and that’s when I realized that the date of the article was August 11, 1880. And the date we were at the library was August 11, 1980, exactly 100 years to the day from when the article was originally published.

Death announcement of Lelia Nina Blacker
Helena Daily Herald | 11 August 1880

As you might imagine, the three of us were a bit bemused . . . and a little bit shocked. I remember my Aunt, standing just behind me, quickly looked for a chair so she could sit and soak it in.

Back to the cemetery

After a few minutes, we headed out the door and back over to the cemetery where we easily located both graves.

The pictures below were taken several years later, after my Mom and Aunt purchased a grave marker for their grandfather.

Well . . .

I don’t know if our ancestors send us signs. But on that summer day . . . August 11, 1980 . . . we certainly felt that Lelia Nina was trying to get our attention!

Mr. and Mrs. David Blacker visit Chicago in March 1885

I came across an interesting newspaper article at genealogybank.com dated 19 March 1885, which includes a reference to a visit to Chicago by my great grandparents, Ada and David Blacker.

–D. W. Fisk and wife, and Mrs. O. J. Salisbury, were registered at the Grand Pacific, Chicago, on the 13th. Among other Montanians booked at the same hotel were A. J. Davidson, Mrs. and Mrs. T. C. Power, Jno. W. Power, and Mrs. and Mrs. David Blacker.

Helena Weekly Herald
Thursday, Mar 19, 1885 
Helena, MT
Page: 7
By Unknown – Host, William R. and Brooke Ahne Portmann, “Early Chicago Hotels,” Arcadia Publishing, 2006, p. 46., ISBN 0-7385-4041-2., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10552426

The Grand Pacific Hotel was one of the first prominent hotels built in Chicago after the Great Chicago Fire in October 1871. The Hotel was known for its “Great Game Dinners” featuring exotic menus, a Chicago social institution for more than 50 years.

Notable celebrities who stayed at the Hotel included James A. Garfield in 1880 and Oscar Wilde in 1882. And one more interesting bit of information is that Standard Time was adopted at this Hotel on October 11, 1883.

As always, I became curious about the other “Montanians” referenced in the news article. Here’s what I learned.

On p. 1210 of the book entitled “History of Montana, 1739-1885: A History of Its Discovery and Settlement . . .”, Daniel W. Fisk (aka “D. W. Fisk”) is stated to be one of the owners of the Helena Herald, along with two of his brothers. He was “one of the early settlers, having come to the [Montana] territory in 1867.” He married Julia F. Walker, daughter of Major Robert C. Walker, at Helena in 1878.

I wasn’t able to learn much about “Mrs. O. J. Salisbury” but according to Geyser Bob’s Yellowstone Park History Service, Mr. Salisbury, his brother Monroe, and a gentleman named J. T. Gilmer purchased the assets of the Utah, Idaho and Montana branches of Wells Fargo & Co. in the early 1870s. By 1879, they were running stagecoaches into Yellowstone Park, and eventually became one of the most powerful corporations in the Northwest.

According to an article I located at grandlodgemontana.org, A. J. Davidson arrived in Alder Gulch in 1863 and moved to Helena in 1865 where he opened a wagon and saddlery business in 1876. His interests eventually included stock raising, real estate, and banking. And among his many other accomplishments, he was the first president of the Montana Club.

T. C. Power is listed on p. 502 of the book “History of Montana, 1739-1885: A History of Its Discovery and Settlement . . .” (see link above) as follows: “T.C. Power & Bro., freighters, contractors, agricultural implements, and proprietors of the Benton Line of steamers.”

My great-grandfather is mentioned twice in “History of Montana, 1739-1885: A History of Its Discovery and Settlement . . .” (see link above). The first time on p. 595 as follows:

The Muscleshell Range is one of the great stock raising districts of the Northwest. The principal stock men 1882-3 were: — The Montana Cattle Co., Northwestern Cattle Co., A. Lincoln, James Schmall, McGaric & Johnston, D. Blacker, W. Corkill, Andrew Cooper, R. C. Quaintance, R. W. Quaile, M. J. Settle, Hill & Hightower, Balch & Bacon, William Gordon, Collins & Klein.

History of Montana, 1739-1885: A History of Its Discovery and Settlement . . .
Michael A. Leeson
Warner, Beers & Company, 1885
p. 595

And on p. 650, as part of a discussion on the mining town of Radersburg . . .

Radersburg, forty-eight miles southeast of Helena, where the old Bozeman stage-road crosses Crow Creek, may be classed among the early settlements of the county in 1866 . . . The quartz lodes known as the Congress, Ohio, Keating, Leviathan, and Iron Clad, were yielding freely in 1879. The Blacker Mill of 15 stamps, and the Ten-stamp Keating mill, were most important conributors to the welfare of the district . . .

History of Montana, 1739-1885: A History of Its Discovery and Settlement . . .
Michael A. Leeson
Warner, Beers & Company, 1885
p. 650

——————————–

Source for information on The Grand Pacific Hotel can be found here.