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Children in Montana’s Mining Camps

Bluebird Mine, Jefferson County, c. 1900. MHS photo archives.

Ellen Baumler, Ph.D. Montana Historical Society

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Transportation to and from kindergarten, Butte, Montana. MHS photo archives.

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Children who crossed the plains were seasoned travelers. Denver Public Library.

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Steamboats at Fort Benton, 1866; sketch by Granville Stuart. MHS Museum collection.

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Children pose on an elevated sluice box, circa 1908.

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Bannack, Montana, circa 1875. MHS photo archives.

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Nevada City, Alder Gulch, on the Fourth of July 1865. MHS photo archives.

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Mary “Mollie” Sheehan and her father, James. University of Montana.

Children caught the gold fever too. Ten-year-old Mary “Mollie” Sheehan’s family arrived at Bannack as the first rumors of a new strike at Alder Gulch began to circulate. Her father freighted the first load of goods to Virginia City and returned to take his family there. The Sheehans followed the trampled ground in the wake of stampeding miners. As the mule team panted up the last hill, the Sheehans stopped to let them rest. Mollie hopped down from the wagon, grabbed a stick and wrote her name in the dirt declaring to her father’s amusement, “I stake my claim.” Once settled at Virginia City, Mollie and her friend Carrie Crane roamed the countryside gathering wildflowers and edible goosefoot to sell to the boarding houses. They learned the names of plants, and observed the wildlife. Mollie ignored the fancy ladies who lounged around smoking cigarettes. She knew they were different, but she never questioned why they were not “good women.”

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Mining with a sluice box in Alder Gulch. MH photo archives.

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Peter Ronan later married Mary “Mollie” Sheehan. MHS photo archives.

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Boys holding mules, Virginia City, Montana c. 1865. MHS photo archives.

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Montana Post, November 19, 1864

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Professor Dimsdale’s school, today at Nevada City

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Mathilda Dalton

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Boot Hill, Virginia City

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Montana Post, December 31, 1864

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St. Joseph's Orphans Home, Helena, Montana. c. 1894. MHS photo archives.

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House of the Good Shepherd, between 8^th and 9^th avenues, Helena

Others needed social services that were sorely lacking. The House of the Good Shepherd opened in 1890 in Helena to provide a safe haven for wayward women (prostitutes and drug addicts) who wanted to reform. In April 1892, Linnie Connor’s father marched her, kicking and screaming, down 8^th Avenue in Helena, to the House of the Good Shepherd and handed her over to the sisters. Neighbors, thus far tolerant of the sisters’ mission, were appalled that Linnie’s father would forcibly place an innocent child there. They were also aghast that the sisters would accept an innocent 14-year-old girl. But Linnie’s parents were at their wits’ end with the incorrigible teenager. As the hours passed and Linnie remained with the sisters, neighbors hung a makeshift likeness of Linnie’s father in the Connors’ front yard and pinned a note on it that read: “C. Connor--Made His Child Homeless.” Someone chalked the vigilante warning 3-7-77 on the Connors’ sidewalk. The next morning, Linnie’s parents removed her from the Good Shepherd and placed her with friends. Her father made plans to send her elsewhere. Linnie’s friends engaged attorney Ella Knowles, Montana’s first female licensed attorney, who represented her in court. Many neighbors and others testified on her behalf. The judge ruled that Connor was not to lay a hand on his daughter, send her away, or force her to go anywhere against her will without the consent of the court. Some months later, Linnie suddenly died. An autopsy revealed a brain tumor, likely explaining her incorrigibility.

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Florence Crittenton Home

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Montana Deaconess School

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Young boys like these at the camp at Rocker could always find work in the saloons and dance halls. World Museum of Mining, Butte.

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St. Mary’s Hospital, Virginia City (originally the Madison County Courthouse, now the Bonanza Inn)

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Children usually enjoyed the long journey crossing the plains. Denver Public Library.

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Derinda Jane Butts’ family built Helena’s Pioneer Cabin. Courtesy Robinson family.

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Charley’s Boot, MHS Museum Collection

Sometimes parents put their children at risk. Among the many diaries kept by emigrants along the Bozeman Trail, one stands out as the most poignant, a tragic reminder of the real risks early travelers faced. William Thomas left his Illinois farm in 1866 after his wife and twin daughters died of pneumonia. William took his seven-year-old son Charley and a driver, Joseph Schultz, to join William’s brother George Thomas in Montana Territory. [Homer Thomas, whose letter to grandma was quoted earlier, was Charley’s cousin.] They traveled in a prairie schooner, drawn by a pair of $500 mules. William’s diary is strangely full of forebodings and once, remarking on his emotions gazing at distant mountains, wrote, “cold chills run through my blood.” He was right to feel apprehensive. William’s party broke off from the main group to travel Sawyer’s Cutoff, right in the midst of Red Cloud’s War. On August 23, 1866, they camped near the Yellowstone at present day Greycliff. The next day, other travelers came upon their campsite, the fire still warm. William had thirteen arrows in his body; Charley had three. Schultz, whose body was found in the river, had apparently been fishing when the attack occurred. William’s diary was found in his pocket. Indians took or destroyed nearly everything except a few books, a family Bible, Charley’s hunting knife, and only one of his small worn boots, now part of the museum collections of the Montana Historical Society. The other boot was never found.

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Steamboats along the Missouri brought many families west.

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First photograph of Helena, 1865. MHS photo archives.

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The Butts family Built Helena’s Pioneer Cabin in 1864-1865. �Photo courtesy Robinson family

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Mary “Mollie” Sheehan Ronan, circa 1873. MHS photo archives.

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First sketch of Helena, 1865. MHS Research Center.

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The Helena Hangman’s Tree, A. E. Mathews sketch, 1868.

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Hanging of Compton and Wilson, 1870. MHS photo archives.

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Children everywhere experimented with smoking.

California State Library, Sacramento. Painting by Charles Witkowski, 1893.

Smoking had a wide appeal to children, and most boys, and girls, experimented at one time or another. Mining camp children—boys and girls—were no different. Six-year-old Eileen Yeager and her sister Mary made up a creative game called “Bill and Bob.” They collected chewed up cigar stubs from behind the livery. Each had a cigar box which they filled with the old stogies. They had made a sidewalk of scrap wood in the backyard and beginning at opposite ends, they sauntered toward each other, dressed in their dad’s old hats. They met in the middle, and took turns. Eileen would say, “Hello Bill.” Mary answered, “Hello, Bob.” They had a set dialogue, and after a bit, Eileen would say, “Would you like a cigar?” and she opened her cigar box and each took a stogie, lit it up, and sauntered down the sidewalk puffing away. Then they would switch roles and do it again. One day, Mary forgot and inhaled. She keeled over, and Eileen ran into the house announcing dramatically, “Mama, Mary is dead!” Their mother rushed out to find Mary violently ill. She called the doctor who immediately asked Eileen, “What have you been smoking?” Eileen produced the box of damp, chewed cigar butts. This time her mother keeled over. Eileen didn’t understand why her mother fainted, but the spanking made a lasting impression. Neither girl ever took up smoking again.

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Dorothea Gans portrait, Helena c. 1900. MHS photo archives.

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Sons of wealthy Helenans play a game of chess in 1868. MHS photo archives.

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Costume ball at Mrs. Sulgrove’s Dancing Academy, Helena 1900. MHS photo archives.

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Garnet, Montana, 1899. MHS photo archives.

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Elizabeth Farmer (nearest camera) at Mussigbrod's Mill near Garnet, 1920s.

MHS photo archives.

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Elizabeth Farmer outside her family’s 1922 Buick with her mother at the wheel, 1923.

MHS photo archives.

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Anaconda Standard, 1920s.

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Mr. Davey’s store at Garnet Ghost Town, 1973. MHS photo archives.

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Epidemics affected all walks of life and claimed many children. MHS photo archives.

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Dr. William Dudley’s office at Elkhorn, c. 1888. MHS photo archives.

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Elkhorn ‘s cemetery holds many victims of the 1889 diphtheria epidemic.

Larry Goldsmith photo.

Epitaph reads “Here Rests the Sweetest Buds of Hope”

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Harry Walton and Albin Nelson share a common grave at Elkhorn. Findagrave.com

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Dredging operations in southwestern Montana, 1890s. MHS photo archives

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Dillon Examiner, August 9, 1916.

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Children’s Day at Columbia Gardens, Butte. MHS photo archives.

Butte, the mining camp that became an industrial hub, was as unique for its children as it was an anomaly. Copper king W.A. Clark’s Columbia Gardens, which boasted one of the nation’s first Ferris wheels and a spectacular roller coaster, was his gift to the community, and children especially loved it. Mining camp ruffians and children of prominent mine officials rubbed elbows on the streetcar that took them all to the gardens each week for Children’s Day. Children by the hundreds enjoyed the entertainment, and at the end of the day picked huge bouquets of pansies to take home to their mothers. Butte boys who reached puberty and could chew a plug of Peerless tobacco without throwing up were considered man enough to work in the mines. In the 1930s, a sign on the fence around the red light district read “Men under 21 keep out,” acknowledgment that young boys in Butte became men long before they reached legal age.

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Pollution in Butte, 1889. MHS photo archives.

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Center Street, Butte, 1908 report to the Board of Health. MHS photo archives.

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Modern poster warning of the danger of blasting caps.

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A far-away land serves as the backdrop for the portrait of these Butte siblings.

MHS photo archives.

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William Merk, son of F. R. Merk, Virginia City 1868. MHS photo archives.

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School at Garnet, Montana. MHS photo archives.

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Mining Camp Children define Montana

MHS photo archives.

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Montana Historical Society

Revised 2/27/2026