Celebrating History: Temperance, city business and foreclosure's and sheriff's sales

by Emily Mayer

With the end of an incredibly busy summer and life getting back to more-normal patterns, it is with great happiness I resume this column focusing on Havre and Hill County’s history. Studying, researching and writing this column is something I really enjoy doing, both for my own knowledge and education and to share with interested readers. This is something I look forward to doing every week, and I truly missed this precious and meaningful activity.

The Hill County Democrat’s Oct. 6, 1921, edition carried and lengthy article reporting that the Havre Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) had visited the county attorney’s and sheriff’s offices regarding activities they didn’t think should be going on in Hill County. They were protesting an apparent road house west of Havre, but with no evidence of “nefarious activities,” the sheriff and the county attorney told the women there wasn’t anything they could do, and for them to come up with hard evidence before they could do anything about this mysterious road house. While they were keen to go to the county offices, they were less than enthusiastic to speak with the press about their conversations, to which the Democrat proclaimed they are “ready and willing at all times to co-operate with any forces that are honestly working towards a better and cleaner Havre, and our columns will be open for that purpose whenever the occasion demands.”

The women also visited Mayor Ritt to make the same type of complaints. The Havre City Council was not without its problems, with a lack of quorum being present at an important business meeting. Mayor Ritt was not present, which meant the president of the city council, Alderman Doles, presided over the meeting, which left the council one vote short of a quorum. I’m not sure who was sent out to find missing council members, but Alderman McCormick was finally “rounded up” after several hours of delay. After, problems regarding city warrants for payments of bills were discussed, and the council then passed several resolutions creating boulevard, lighting, sprinkling, and garbage collection districts.

One of the distressing signs of the times 100 years ago is the number of sheriff’s sales, bankruptcies and lawsuits for non-payment of debts, where just a few short years before, the Legal Publications section was page after page of homesteaders filing on their claims. Economic hard times started in 1917 with crop failures due to lack of rain and depressed prices. During the Great War, what crops could be harvested had good prices but after the war ended, there was a glut in the grain market and prices plummeted. Livestock prices fared little better. The only people who were making out like bandits were bootleggers and moonshiners making booze via home stills. Even though these foreclosures and sheriff’s sales happened 100 years ago, it is still disappointing to see so many peoples’ dreams fail.