The mystery in the Conrad library
The Judith Basin & Charlie Russell
Utica, Montana, was the home of James R. Shelton, a frontier businessman who owned the City Hotel which was really not much more than a mud-chinked one-story log structure, but it served the tiny, four-year old town as a hotel and saloon well enough. His house was a one-story, four or five room mud-chinked log affair nearby.[3] On September 9th, 1885, James Shelton and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Greenberg of Stockholm, Sweden, were presented with a baby girl, whom they named Margaret Josephine, called “Daisy” by friends and family. That same year, their older daughter, Ester, age 3, died.
As a little child, about the only toys Margaret had to play with were toy animals Charlie Russell made for her out of “black wax.” He carried a ball of beeswax around in his pocket and in time, it got rather black with dirt. It was this wax he used to create her toys. Although she never really paid much attention to Charlie—she was only a small child—she did remember him, but only in passing. Years later, in 1925, when she was visiting Kalispell, Harry Stanford insisted she visit Charlie at Bull Head Lodge, Charlie’s place on Lake McDonald inside Glacier National Park.[7] She was reluctant to go, for she felt that Mr. Russell would not want to see her, but Harry said that he would, and he was right. He introduced the now-grown up Margaret as “Jim Shelton’s girl.” Charlie looked her over and said, “Of course I know you."
In the year 1890, Margaret caught pneumonia. Afraid for the young girl’s life in the rough and isolated town of Utica, her mother wrapped her up in many blankets and took her and her older sister, Grace, to Ft. Benton, a long trip by stage coach. But she did not stop there. They then took the train to Helena, changed trains and went on to Margaret’s grandmother’s home in Salt Lake City, Utah. That is rather a long journey for a sick child to take, blankets or not.
There, at her grandmother’s house, she got over her pneumonia, but a visiting aunt, who had been exposed to scarlet fever previous to her visit, left it behind, and both Margaret and her sister, Grace, came down with the disease. Then both girls got diphtheria. Margaret recovered, but Grace did not. Jim Shelton had come down from Utica to help with the girls, and when Grace died, he purchased a lot in the largest cemetery in Salt Lake City and buried his daughter there. Margaret was now the sole remaining child of Jim & Mary Shelton.
In 1891, lured by the approach of the Great Northern Railroad to the Flathead valley, Jim Shelton sold his hotel in Utica. Leaving his wife and child in Salt Lake for the moment, he moved the family belongings to Kalispell, found a home and moved in. Wife and daughter joined him later.
The route that Margaret and her mother had to take to Kalispell was rather long and circuitous. She told her nephew that they left Salt Lake on the narrow-gauge railroad to Ogden, thence through Idaho to Butte and then to Polson. They likely took the Northern Pacific from Butte to Ravalli, then went by coach to Polson, as that was the way it was done then. That was a route that Charles Conrad traveled often and there are many references to that journey in his letters to his wife, Letty.
From Polson, Mary and Daisy took a steamer up Flathead Lake to Demersville, where Jim Shelton met them and took them up to their new home in Kalispell.
Margaret did not say when this trip occurred, but they were all together as a family by November, as they are on the census of Kalispell taken in November of 1891 for the purpose of incorporating the city. The Kalispell enumerator, J. H. Edwards, also included the person’s age. The census entries for the Sheltons are: Shelton, J. R., 38; (Shelton), Mary, 32; (Shelton), Dasie [sic], 6. Here we learn that Margaret was called “Daisy” by her family and friends.
Jim Shelton entered a new line of work in Kalispell: peace officer. He was appointed the town marshal at the city’s incorporation, in which capacity he served for approximately six years, and then he moved the family to Lewistown where he had gotten a position as Sheriff. They had not been there long before Jim caught pneumonia. He passed away on 15 December 1897. After the funeral, Daisy and her mother returned to Kalispell, as they had many friends there.
Two months later, Daisy was an orphan. On 18 February 1898, Mary Elizabeth Shelton died of acute enteritis.[8] While this was a significant change in Daisy’s life, it was not the utter tragedy it might have been. George H. Grubb, an attorney and a friend of her father’s, was appointed her legal guardian. Further, an aunt in Fayetteville, New York, came to Kalispell and took Daisy away for the summer. As her aunt was of the Fillmore family with connections to the Southern Pacific Railroad, they were able to travel about the country on rail passes visiting various relatives. They went to New York City; Scranton, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon and then to Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Francisco and finally, to Spokane, Washington, where Mr. Grubb met Daisy and took her off to boarding school.
In the fall of 1898,[9] Daisy was enrolled in Brunot Hall, an Episcopal boarding school for girls founded by Lemuel H. Wells, the Episcopal Bishop of Spokane,[10] and run by the Diocese of Spokane. Also attending Brunot Hall was Catherine “Kate” Conrad of Kalispell, Montana, the oldest daughter of Charles Edward Conrad, founder of that city. Daisy said that they had been friends since the age of six. The circumstances of the founding of that friendship were not revealed, but that statement would imply that they had met and become friends shortly after Daisy and her family arrived in Kalispell. All her friends continued to call her “Daisy” until she left Kalispell and set out on her own some years later.
The girls attended Brunot Hall together for several school years, and occasionally roomed together as is attested by C. E. Conrad in a letter to his wife:
Kate seemed happy after reaching school. Her room is quite an improvement over the one she and Daisy was [sic] in last year.[11]
School was not all study, however. The students put on plays for the entertainment of their classmates and one such was presented 31 January 1901.[12] The play was presented by the Brunot Hall Dramatic Club and was called “The Shades.” Among the cast, we find Margaret Shelton as Queen Elizabeth and Catherine Conrad as Martha Washington. The play was followed by a dance, but whether boys were invited or not, I cannot say, but it may be assumed.
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| Brunot Hall, Daisy's boarding school in Spokane, Washington. Image provided by CardCow.com Vintage Postcards. Used by permission. |
While attending classes at Brunot Hall, Daisy took confirmation classes and was confirmed into the Episcopal Church on Easter Day, 1901, at All Saint’s Cathedral, Spokane, by the R. Rev. Lemuel Wells, Bishop of Spokane.[13] She remained an Episcopalian for the rest of her life.
Daisy’s friendship with Kate had an unexpected benefit: she became, in a way, the Conrad’s other daughter. She told her nephew, “It’s amazing. When I was all alone, it was all due to the Conrads. I was just the same as another daughter to them. ... this was wonderful for me, remember, because I had no family, and everything was done for me by the Conrads just as if I were their own.”[14] For the next eight years, when she was not at school in Spokane—until 1907,when she moved to Salt Lake City—she spent most of her time in the Conrad’s mansion in Kalispell as an unofficial daughter[15] and Kate’s best friend.
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| Peggy Shelton at George Grubb's cabin. Series XXXVII, 231/15, Conrad, Campbell, and Stanford Family Papers, K. Ross Toole Archives, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana–Missoula. |
Life at the Conrad mansion was very pleasant for Daisy. It consisted mainly of having a good time with Kate and their friends who were of an age and of equivalent social standing. Included among those friends were Clarissa Talbott[16] of Columbia Falls, Egbert “Bert” van Duzer, Kokoa Baldwin[17], Claire Disborough, A. M. Moore[18], and of course, Charles Davenport Conrad, Kate’s brother. Egbert eventually married Kate, and Kokoa married Charles.
I here give a few excerpts from Daisy’s diary to give the flavor and tone of her life with the Conrads in 1907. Daisy was now 21 years old.
“Thursday, January 3, 1907. Kate and I busy getting ready to go to the party. Carl and Bert called. Claire stayed here all night.
Kate (Conrad) Bess Tate A. M. (Moore)
Claire (Disborough) Miss Houston Walter (Bishop)
Mrs K(lenschmidt) Miss Elliott
Miss (May Belle)Lapp Miss Pomeroy
Alene(?) Bennett Mr. Jacoby Jim Brisey(?)
These entries serve to illustrate what life in the Conrad Mansion was for Daisy Shelton. She lived the same life that her friend Kate lived, a life of privileged luxury, typical of the upper class of the time—and of today as well.
ONE OF DAISY'S FAVORITE TIMES in the Conrad home was Christmas. She had a lot to say about that time of year and the preparations that the family made.
“[The tree] was in the stairwell, and the stairs went up one side, and to trim the tree we would tip it over against the stairway and trim one side, then turn it around and trim the other side, and the top of it came to the second floor.
“At Christmas – it was always a Christmas such as no one ever had, I’m sure – it was so wonderful. When we came home from boarding school, there were things left for us to do for Christmas. The plum pudding, for instance, was not made until we got home and all of us could stir it. And then they would bring in the Yule log from the woods down below – an enormous log that went into the big fireplace. It burned all the holidays and it smelt kind of smoky and good. I can smell it yet. And we’d have our stocking presents and all that.
“...and every Christmas all the young people would gather and we’d have a snapdragon. A snapdragon was a great big bronze urn, fill it with raisins with a little brandy, which was lighted. We would march around it singing Christmas carols as we tried to snatch the raisins.
MARGARET LEFT MONTANA primarily because things were changing. She had reached her majority, her friends were getting married one by one, and life in the Conrad home was not the same. She had, over the years, learned something of several relatives whom she had never met. A paternal uncle and an aunt lived in Wells, Nevada, and she determined to go there and make their acquaintance. She also had a maternal aunt in San Francisco, whom she also wished to meet. Consequently, she left the Conrad home and Kalispell in March, 1907. Her diary entry for that departure is brief:
March 3. Left home. After dinner, friends came in to say goodbye, and brought train letters.[23] Went to Columbia Falls on the 9:30 train. Kate, Alicia, Charlie, Bert, Kokoa and Helene[24] went to the train with me.
March 4. At Shellrock, Columbia Falls visiting Mrs. Talbott[25] & Mrs. Neidenhofen. After lunch, took a long walk through the woods.
She went first to Wells, Nevada, but did not stay long. After a few days, she went to meet her maternal Aunt Hilda who was living in Reno, Nevada, at that time. There, she met her cousin Alice, Hilda’s daughter, who invited Daisy to spend some time in San Francisco with her.
Daisy spent three months in San Francisco before returning to Nevada. The city was still recovering from the great earthquake and fire of 1906 and was still in some chaos, or Daisy might well have spent more time with her cousin.
Daisy returned to Wells, Nevada, this time to stay with her paternal aunt Jane for a week. She arrived in the tiny town from San Francisco with, as she put it in her interview, her nose in the air. The night of her arrival, a dance was scheduled to be held in the town hall, and her aunt insisted she go and promised to go with her and introduce her to others. She went, but was not impressed. I shall let her describe the impromptu dance hall:
Well, the town hall consisted of a building that had no plaster on the walls, just the framework and siding on it, but all the activities were held there – shows and operas – and they’d get along in this dinky little hall. And the only light it had was from two big kerosene lamps hung from the ceiling and both lamps leaked, so everyone had to dance so as to avoid the spots where the oil dripped on the floor.
They had an old square piano that probably had come over across the plains with the Mormon pushcarts from the Missouri River. It had several broken keys that wouldn’t play at all, and there was an old fellow who played it, and another old man with a fiddle. They played two tunes, “The Bear Went Over the Mountain,” and “Marching Through Georgia.” They would play one tune as a waltz and the other as a two-step, and the next time they’d reverse it and the first tune would be a two-step and the second would be a waltz! And this is what we were dancing to.[26]
She was introduced to a tall fellow who went by the name of Ted. The ice-breaker proved to be a fraternity pin he wore. She said, “Oh, I see you are a Psi U.”[27] He was startled that someone in the “wilds of Nevada” would know of his fraternity. She informed him that she had worn such a pin for a while, but had given it back.[28] In the conversation that followed, she told him all about her life prior to their meeting, especially her time with the Conrads, and she learned all about him.
He was Edward Cahill Peattie,[29] then 22 years of age, a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, and was employed as a civil engineer by the Western Pacific Railroad. He was engaged in surveying a route along the Feather River near Wells and often went by the nickname of Ted.[30]
She had intended to stay in Wells for a week, but she ended up staying a year, and all because of Ted. They had a grand time there, but as his work there was about done, Daisy went back to Kalispell in June, 1908, and Ted was to join her there in the fall at which time they were to be married there.
However, he was not able to get away, as his work was taking longer to wrap up than expected. Consequently, he made arrangements with the Episcopal minister in Ogden, Utah, for them to be married there on 24 November 1908.
Daisy came down from Kalispell accompanied by Mrs. Josephine Grubb and got everything arranged for the wedding. Things did not go smoothly, as Ted’s train was late due to a ferocious blizzard, and so the wedding was postponed a bit, from 11 AM until mid-afternoon. There were other complications.
“Jo Grubb was to be a witness, and the minister’s wife was to be the second witness, but she had a card party date and she had to go as we were late. Well, we didn’t know a soul in Ogden, but there was a woman who had come up from Wells on the train with Ted.[31] She had come to Ogden to have a baby, and she had just about been admitted to the hospital when we sent the hack for her. But she was a good sport and she came to the church, and so then we had the pregnant woman and Jo Grubb for witnesses! Oh, dear! What a time we had!”
Over the course of four years (1972-1976), Margaret’s nephew, Ralph C. Erskine, recorded several interviews with her and later, in 1990, transcribed portions of them into the manuscript that served as the major source for this work.
After a long and happy life, Margaret Josephine “Daisy” Shelton Peattie died 22 August 1977, just short of 92 years of age and is buried beside her husband in Fairfield Memorial Park, Stamford, Connecticut.
I wish to thank Jodie Foley, former State Archivist, and the staff of the Montana Historical Society Research Center for their kind assistance while we were perusing the Erskine papers and for providing us with the photo of Charlie Russell et al. We also owe a debt of gratitude to Donna McCrea, Archivist & Manuscripts Librarian at the K. Ross Toole Archive, University of Montana and to Mark Fritch of that institution for their assistance over the many times we have visited the archives. Mr. Eric Larson of CardCow.com kindly provided a hi-res scan of the period postcard of Brunot Hall and allowed us to publish it here.
NOTES
1. Boston: D. C. Heath, 1897, ed. Charles E. Whiting. Conrad Mansion Museum collection, not yet catalogued.
2. Erskine Family Papers, 1901-1992, SC-2256, Montana Historical Society, Helena, hereinafter Erskine Papers. The collection consists of several letters from Margaret to her nephew, Robert C. Erskine, some ephemera, Margaret’s diary from 1907, a few photos and an unpublished typescript of a biographical sketch of his aunt that Mr. Erskine wrote. A copy of the typescript and photocopies of photographs taken by Margaret in 1925 were sent to the Conrad Mansion at the same time the collection was donated to MHS (2000). Unfortunately, they were filed and forgotten, as there was no archivist on staff at that time, and were unearthed in late 2011 by a volunteer who was aiding the author in inventorying the archival contents of the vault.
3. R. C. Erskine MS. Henceforth, unless otherwise noted, all facts and events mentioned are from this manuscript.
4. Dippie, Brian. Remington and Russell: The Sid Richardson Collection. Rev. ed. [Austin]: University of Texas Press, [1994], p. 68. This painting is also known as ‘The Shelton Saloon Painting.’
5. op. cit.
6. On 12 January 1887 (p. 5, “Local Notes”), the Fort Benton River Press carried a notice about Russell and went on to report that Russell “is now engaged in painting a picture for James R. Shelton, in which are embraced the buildings which comprise Utica, with a lively cow camp in the foreground.”
7. Currently owned by the Lundgren family of West Glacier.
8. From death certificate. There were actually two death certificates filed. The most accurate of the two (No. 38) was filed by the attending physician, Dr. F. J. Ewing and was filed 25 February 1898. The second (No. 41) was filed much later, 15 March, by the undertaker, George R. McMahon, and is both inaccurate and incomplete. She was buried 20 February in Demersville Cemetery, which was the only cemetery available for Kalispell residents until 1905, when the Conrad Memorial Cemetery was opened. In 1908, Margaret had her mother re-interred in Conrad Memorial. (Flathead County, Birth/Death Certificates)
9. The Erskine MS has “In the fall of 1899...”, but this conflicts with the inscription inside Margaret’s music book (see p. 2) which is dated April 1899. Assuming she first enrolled in the fall, as stated in the MS, then it would have been the fall of 1898.
10. Built in 1895, the school’s original name was St. Mary’s Hall. Although the name was changed to Brunot Hall by 1898, it was still called St. Mary’s as late as 1900, as that is how it was listed in the census of that year, which explains why Margaret’s previously mentioned schoolbook is inscribed “St. Mary’s Hall.” By the 1970's, it had become an apartment building and it burned down in 1973.
11. C. E. Conrad to Alicia “Letty” Conrad, 4 Jan 1901, from Spokane, Washington. Conrad Mansion Archives, Kalispell, Montana, 2009-AR-0113.
12. The program for the play gives the date as “Thursday, January Thirty-First.’ That date fell on a Thursday in several years about that time period, but 1901 is the only viable candidate, as the others are either too early (1895) or too late (1907). Conrad, Campbell, and Stanford Family Papers, Collection #185, K. Ross Toole Archives, Mike and Maureen Mansfield Library, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana.
13. Confirmation certificate, Erskine papers.
14. Margaret had a legal guardian, the attorney, George H. Grubb, and she did have a room at his house, but she actually spent most of her time in the Conrad home where she apparently also had a room.
15. In later years, after Margaret was married, her mother-in-law, Elia W. Peattie, poet, author and literary critic with the Chicago Tribune, wrote of Mrs. C. E. Conrad in her memoirs and referred to her as “the foster mother, so to speak, of our Margaret....” Quoted in the R. C. Erskine MS.
16. Clarissa was the youngest daughter of James A. Talbott, founder of Columbia Falls.
17. Kokoa Baldwin was the daughter of “Major” Marcus Dana Baldwin, an attorney in Kalispell with a rather colorful past. He was appointed the agent (superintendent) of the Piegan reservation in 1885. Kokoa was born in 1888 at the agency at Blackfoot. Mr. Baldwin moved to Demersville in 1889 after his appointment was terminated for cause, thence to Kalispell where he became a prominent resident until his death in 1923.
18. Abraham M. Moore was a son of John W. R. & Henrietta Moore, friends of the Conrads from Virginia. A. M. was often a guest in the Conrad home, and the youngsters spent a lot of time in the Moore’s home as well. At the time of the diary entry, A. M. Moore was 27-28 yrs old and often acted as a chaperone.
19. Mrs. Neidenhofen was Mr. Talbott’s widowed oldest daughter, May. Shellrock Manor was the name of the main house on the 200 acre Talbott estate along the Flathead River on the south side of Columbia Falls.
20. Some of the names were filled in by Margaret during one of the interviews conducted by her nephew, Mr. Erskine, whose notes are in the Erskine Collection. Miss Lapp and Walter Bishop eventually married.
21. Most probably this was Harry P. Stanford, Alicia Ann Conrad’s maternal uncle, as he lived in Kalispell and visited often.
22. Erskine MS, p. 15-16 with additions from a letter from Margaret (Daisy) to her nephew dated 1 Jan 1961.
23. This was a custom whereby friends would give you letters for you to read later on the train at your leisure. You could say much more in a letter than in person, and there was no rush to get it said.
24. Kate Conrad, Alicia Conrad, Charles D. Conrad, Egbert (Bert or Bertie) van Duzer, Kokoa Baldwin. Helene is as yet unidentified.
25. Jocella (Josie) Lovina Ramsdell was sixteen years old when she married the 37 year old James A. Talbott on 26 July 1875. They eventually had six children; all but one were girls.
26. Erskine MS, p. 19
27. Psi Upsilon (Psi U) is the fifth oldest college fraternity in the U. S. It was founded at Union College, New York, in 1833.
28. This refers to a custom, rarely observed today, which saw a member of a fraternity give his frat pin to a girl. Her acceptance indicated her commitment to their relationship, and was often considered a pre-engagement ritual. By returning the pin, Daisy broke off the relationship. We do not know at this time who the young man was.
29. Edward C. Peattie was born 6 Feb 1885 in Chicago, Ill. (Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.).
30. A younger brother was Donald Culross Peattie (21 June 1898 - 16 November 1964), a well-known writer and naturalist. His mother, Elia Wilkinson Peattie, was also a writer as well as the literary editor for the Chicago Tribune.
31. Mrs. William Drake. (from the marriage certificate, Erskine papers).
32. 1909-1912 city directories for Moline, Ill., pub. by R. L. Polk & Co. (Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 (Beta) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.)
33. City directories for Stamford, Connecticut, 1916 et seq.. Published by R. L. Polk & Co (Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 (Beta) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.).
34. Connecticut Department of Health. Connecticut Death Index, 1949-2001 [data-base on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2003.
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