Havre of the Past: Some news in the war front

Havre had been incorporated for only five years in 1898, but it was a growing and bustling little Western town. The Milk River Eagle was Havre’s newspaper, with Dudley Axtell as editor and publisher. A one-year subscription cost $2.50, or for a six-month option for only $1.50.

The big news 125 years ago was the Spanish-American War, which had just started in the then not-too-distant past.

There were several articles about the war’s progress, including this one printed in the May 27, 1898 edition:

War News

Friday night, 12 o’clock.

The latest war news at 12 o’clock tonight contained nothing official from Sampson or Schley relative to the Spanish fleet being at Santiago de Cuba.

George H. Tilley of Montana has been appointed first lieutenant and W. E. Davies of Montana, second lieutenant in Col. Wood’s regiment of Rough Riders and ordered to report to General Shafter at Tampa.

All governors are authorized to fill their regiment to standard strength on new call.

Most local news could be found in this week’s edition of The Milk River Eagle in small paragraphs or in legal notices. To show Havre’s progression in becoming a city:

Advertisement

For Proposals-Office Of

Town Clerk

To the Public:

In accordance with the directions received from the board of aldermen, you are informed that sealed proposals, subject to the usual conditions, will be received at this office until 8 o’clock p.m. Monday, the 6th of June, 1898, for several hundred feet of sidewalk and thirteen (13) street crossings.

Specifications can be seen at the clerk’s office.

The board of aldermen reserves the right to reject any or all proposals.

Envelopes containing proposals should be marked “proposals for sidewalks and crossings,” and addressed to the undersigned.

C. W. Ling, Town Clerk.

And another one that shows Havre experiencing growing pains in its infancy:

Notice

All household and property holders inside of the incorporate limits of the town of Havre are hereby notified to clean up all yards, closets, lanes and streets of ashes, rubbish and refuse, also all inflammable materials inside of ten days, after which the town marshal will institute proceedings against those neglecting this notice.

EDWARD DOYLE, Mayor, Havre, Mont., May 20th, 1898.

There were also several homestead notices in the legal announcements, including those for timber land and desert land under the Homestead Act of 1862.

The Milk River Eagle’s social pages section was called Town and Country. The entries include the following, complete with misspelling:

B. L. Powers came down from Benton Saturday and represented the state in a preliminary hearing of C. W. Price, of Lake View, charged with having cut J. S. Gordon, of this city, with a knife. The examination was held before Judge P. J. McIntyre and the accused was bound over to the district court in the sum of $300, and readily secured bondsmen.

The force of operators in the Great Northern Telegraph office has been increased. The Havre office is the largest and most important between St. Paul and Seattle. The manager, J. H. Austin, is a capable and painstaking official and handles at this point with dispatch and satisfaction.

Genial George Frost, of Little Box Elder valley, who is rapidly becoming one of the leading cattlemen in Chouteau county, spent a couple of days in the metropolis the early portion of the week taking in the sights and experincing a “hot time in the old town” returned to his home with a large consignment of ranch supplies. The good will and patronage of such pleasant and substantial ranchers as George Frost is highly appreciated by our wide awake and enterprising business men.

R. D. Gould, superintendent of the Electric Light and Water Works plant of Kalispell, and of the firm of Gould & Gallagher, well and widely known contractors of that city, spent the larger portion of the week in this city and Fort Assinniboine, having at the latter place the contract for raising the mammoth water tank sixty feet.

Will Thackeray, who represents Simon Pepin’s large cattle interests in the Bear Paw Pool, was taken ill at the Y T ranch about two weeks ago, but is with pleasure that we are enabled to announce for the edification of his large circle of old friends in this immediate neighborhood, that he has sufficiently recovered to come to town and expects in the course of a few days again to be mounted on the hurricane deck of a cow pony securing the valleys, plains and hills in quest of the festive bovine.

Among the advertisers in this week’s paper in 1898 include Stringfellow’s Drug Store advertising wallpaper; the Bailey and Purnell Pool and Sample Rooms, “sole agents for the A. B. C. Bohemian Beer; The Merchants Hotel “Only First Class Hotel in Havre,” E. C. Shelton, Proprietor; Broadwater-Pepin Co., General Merchandise with “A Brand new Stock of Hardware and Furniture”; and one could rent horses at the Dark Horse Barn on West Main Street for only “75 cents for an evening’s ride” or for a single buggy, it would set you back $2.00; and if you were hungry you could go to C. W. “Shorty” Young’s Havre Chop and Oyster House for a “25 cent Meal best in town” that also served “Fresh fish, scrimp, crabs and all kinds of wild game in season.”