Nov. 5, 1850Father Joseph Joset turns over the deed for St. Mary's Mission to Maj. Jon Owen. It reads, in part: "This is to certify that I have bargained and sold all property at St. Mary's Mission unto John Owen for the sum of 250 dollars."
It's the first real estate transaction in what would become Montana.
Nov. 2, 1866
The first telegraph dispatch to Montana Territory came from Edward Creighton in Salt Lake City.
"Citizens of Montana - Allow me to greet you; it gives me pleasure to connect your city by lightning. Men of so much enterprise should not be forgotten."
The reply, from Gov. Green Clay Smith in Virginia City: "Montana sends greetings. We are this day brought in hourly communication with the United States and the world. God save the Union."
Brothers Edward and John Creighton, who established a university by the same name in Omaha, Neb., built the line for the Western Union Telegraph Company.
Nov. 6, 1894
Helena wins a bitter capital fight with Anaconda in a statewide election.
The final margin will be just more than 1,900 votes, but returns are still incomplete when Helena's champion, William Clark, arrives by train from Butte. He's greeted by cheering citizens who pull his carriage through the streets. After a victory speech, Clark buys drinks for celebrants in saloons around town.
Clark and nemesis Marcus Daly, who was backing his town of Anaconda, poured some
$2.9 million into the capital fight. It was just one salvo in their "War of the Copper Kings."
Nov. 7, 1916
An unidentified woman phones the Missoulian on election night and asks how Jeannette Rankin is faring in her race for the U.S. House of Representatives.
"Oh, she lost," comes the reply from the newsman, and Rankin goes to bed thinking her bid has failed to become the first woman elected to Congress. Not until late the next day, after more results have trickled in, will her brother, Wellington, inform her she was winning.
Rankin will serve one term in Washington, then another more than 20 years later. An advocate for women's rights and peace, Rankin will famously cast votes against U.S. entry into both world wars.
Nov. 8, 1889
A proclamation signed at 10:45 a.m. in Washington by President Benjamin Harrison, after a series of "whereas" clauses, concludes: "Now therefore do I ... declare and proclaim the fact that the conditions imposed by Congress on the state of Montana, to entitle that state to admission to the Union, have been ratified and accepted, and that the admission of the said state into the union is now complete."
Three hours later, Joseph K. Toole is sworn in as Montana's first governor in Helena.
Montanans had previously ratified a state constitution, and it was approved by Congress in October. The promptness of Harrison's action took many in the state by surprise.
Kim Briggeman can be reached at 523-5266 or at kbriggeman@missoulian.com.
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