Celebrating history: Where to put the courthouse?

Emily Mayer

For the 10th installment of this series, Year of the Buildings, the debate goes on as to where the courthouse would be built. People were taking sides, and this included newspaper owners. The Hill County Democrat was clearly in favor of the location near where the current City Hall is located. The Plaindealer was not. In the March 6, 1915 issue of the Democrat, several local business owners and citizens signed a petition in favor of the old ballpark location:

Petition upholding

commissioners

To the Honorable Board of Commissioners of Hill County, Montana.

We, the Taxpayers and Residents of Hill County, Montana, do most heartily and respectfully commend your act in purchasing the New Court House Site on Fourth Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

We believe that a better selection could not have been made for a Business House for the County of Hill, in the State of Montana.

We know that with a very small cost the New Location can be made a most beautiful spot. It is well located from a business stand-point for the City of Havre, Montana.

Among the signers of the petition were G. A. Hulfish Co., L. Grenier & Co., J. K. Bramble (attorney and owner of the Democrat), James J. Holland, George Bickle, Victor R. Griggs, J. A. Wright, F. F. Bossout, N. E. Gourley, R. H. Fuller, Savings Grocery Company, F. O. Black, and H. Earl Clack. Not one woman’s name appears on the petition, however.

Joseph Gussenhoven had a different idea. He sued for arbitration as a solution to the issue. He was offering “to withdraw my suit against the Board of County Commissioners restraining them from purchasing the present proposed site upon their agreement to submit a question of the selection of a court house site to arbitration, and selecting the site agreed upon … All I ask is fair play to the taxpayers of Hill County.”

News of Fort Assinniboine also made the Plaindealer’s March 6, 1915 issue:

Money provided for Assinniboine school

Legislature Appropriates

Sum of 10,000 Dollars.

Ten thousand dollars was appropriated by the Montana legislature, in the closing hours of the session which ended Thursday, to be used toward the establishing and maintaining of an agricultural and industrial school at old Fort Assinniboine. Word of this action came through E. C. Carruth on Thursday. Mr. Carruth has been at Helena for several days working for the passage of the measure, which was in doubt because of the retrenchment policy adopted in Helena.

There is already in the hands of the Havre land office the sum of five thousand dollars to pay for the land at Assinniboine, and it would seem now but a question of a short time until the Northern Montana Agricultural and Industrial college is an established fact.

News from Bearpaw was also found in the Plaindealer:

A new enterprise is under construction near Bearpaw. A water power plant on little Box Elder creek at the old Stockade place, which will run a dynamo that will probably furnish electricity for the nearby towns, as well as furnishing power to run a sawmill and for other manufacturing purposes.

The Bearpaw postoffice is most likely to have a mail carrier soon. Congressman Tom Stout has taken the matter up with the department and there’s no doubt that there will be something done. The patrons of the office have been carrying the mail free of charge for about six months and we think it is about time for Uncle Sam to help out a little.