Fascinating Ledger Mormon Utah From 1869 of Shipments into Montana, Includes Jewish Merchants, Ex Confederates and Lots More. 169 Handwritten Pages!

[MONTANA TERRITORY.] Ledger of Passengers and Shipments from Virginia City, Montana Territory, to Corinne, Utah Territory, and Helena, Montana Territory, 1869-1870; Shipments to Bozeman and Galen, Montana Territory, 1876-1883. 206 pp., 169 with text; 8" x 13.25". All pages clean; pages 99-110 missing; some damage to spine; cover scuffed and worn on edges.

The first 142 pages of this ledger record the shipment of freight and passengers between Helena, Montana, and Corinne, Utah, from August 22 to December 22, 1869, with one additional page for May 23-25, 1870. Most folios record travel to Helena on the left page and to Corinne on the right page. Several pages mention the transportation of a Wells, Fargo Treasury Box to Corinne, likely filled with gold and silver from the mines, or to Helena.

For nearly ten years from its founding in March 1869, Corinne (55 miles north of Salt Lake City) was the prosperous "Gentile Capital" of Utah. As the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads neared their junction at Promontory Summit early in 1869, a group of former Union Army officers and non-Mormon merchants from Salt Lake City decided to form the town on the Union Pacific railroad line.

Among the passengers traveling to Corinne on September 7, 1869, were Bishop Daniel S. Tuttle (1837-1923), his wife, and his mother. They traveled at the reduced rate of $25 per person, while others on the trip paid $50. Born in New York, Tuttle was consecrated as a bishop of the Episcopal Church in 1866, and his first assignment was as Bishop of Montana, which also included Utah and Idaho. Montana was removed from his jurisdiction in 1880, leaving him with Utah and Idaho. In 1886, he was appointed as Bishop of Missouri.

On September 24, Governor James Mitchell Ashley (1824-1896) traveled the same route with a pass. From 1859 to 1869, Ashley represented Ohio in Congress, where he managed the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment through the U.S. House of Representatives. He later initiated the first impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson. Ashley served as territorial governor of Montana from April 1869 to July 1870. There, his support for public education, including of Chinese immigrants, made him unpopular with the electorate, and President Ulysses S. Grant removed Ashley from office.

Passengers on December 5 included Colonel Albert Thomas Thoroughman (1832-1896) and his wife. A Confederate officer from Missouri during the Civil War, Thoroughman was captured in May 1862 and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Quincy, Illinois. Through President Abraham Lincoln's intervention, he was paroled and banished to the western territories. He moved to the mining boom town of Virginia City, Montana Territory, where he resumed the practice of law. He divorced his first wife in 1866 and married Mattie L. Boyce (1844-1908) in 1867. He returned to Missouri in 1869 and settled in St. Louis, where he practiced law until his death. This record marked the beginning of his journey back to Missouri, and he paid $15 for an extra bag, in addition to the $60 fare for each of them to Corinne.

The next forty pages detail boxes, packages, trunks, and other items sent, the name of the recipient, the cost, and whether paid. The first pages cover shipments to Bozeman, Montana, from 1876 to 1878, and then to Galen, Montana (20 miles northwest of Butte), from 1879 to 1883. The first entry is for a chair to Dr. James Shaw, a Philadelphia-trained army surgeon stationed at Fort Ellis, near Bozeman. German-born Jewish merchant Julius Basinski (1844-1926) was the recipient of several packages in Bozeman and later in Galen.

Historical Background
The Territory of Montana was created in 1864 from a portion of the Territory of Idaho, which itself had been created in 1863. In the early 1870s, the Territory of Montana had no railroads. Helena, the largest town, had 3,713 residents in 1871. It was more than 400 miles from the nearest railroad point, in Corinne, Utah. In 1870, some 18,000,000 pounds of freight traveled from Corinne into Montana by stage for 15 cents per pound. The fare for passengers was $66. Wells, Fargo & Co. ran daily stagecoaches, making the trip in four days.

The discovery of gold in what became Montana in 1862 brought thousands of people to that portion of the Rocky Mountains. With the completion of the transcontinental railroad, those eager to pursue their fortune could travel to Corinne, Utah, then take a stagecoach north into the mining areas. In 1874, a silver boom began in Montana as well. The result was a series of boom-and-bust towns that sprung up around hundreds of creeks and gulches, where a few lucky miners found gold, and disappeared just as quickly when the precious metals were found somewhere else.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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