Early town site history, from boom to bust

Several dozen pages of documents found by Karla Herman in the safe at Cal Crouch's jewelry store on Nucleus Avenue shed some light on the creation of Columbia Falls at the turn of the 19th century.

Crouch was also the source of about 100 pages of minutes and other documents from the Commercial Club of Columbia Falls and its successor, the Columbia Falls Chamber of Commerce, from 1920 through 1948, which the Hungry Horse News wrote about nearly a decade ago.

The popular local history is that a group of Butte businessmen purchased the land for the Columbia Falls town site from an Indian woman. That, apparently, is only part of the story.

According to a patent document found in the safe, Emma and David Laframboise received the 160 acres of land above a bend in the Flathead River from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. An act of Congress, amended May 19, 1858, provided "certificates or scrip" to half-breed or mixed-blood members of the "Dacotah or Sioux Nation of Indians" as part of a land settlement in Minnesota.

Catherine Walsh, a resident of the Columbia Falls area since 1887, stated in a June 9, 1928, affidavit that she met Emma Laframboise and her son David in fall 1890. David was not married, and the two lived in a tepee in the area for a short time - "only long enough to make government proof under script issued and possessed by them," Walsh said.

Emma Laframboise and her son signed a quit claim deed on Feb. 7, 1891, giving the 160 acres to George Bumbaugh and George Cooper for $4,800. Emma evidently couldn't sign her name and used her mark instead.

Less than a month later, on March 5, 1891, Bumbaugh, his wife Emma and Cooper, who was unmarried, sold the land to the Northern International Implement (sic) Company for $6,000. The notary public said he took Emma Bumbaugh aside and confirmed that she approved of the sale, which profited $1,200 in a month's time.

Two decades later, on Feb. 2, 1911, James Talbott, the president of the Northern International Improvement Company, clarified in an affidavit that the clerk and recorder's office in Missoula had misspelled the company's name - it's "Improvement," not "Implement." Unfortunately for Talbott, the "father" of Columbia Falls, his name continues to be misspelled on a popular city street.

Northern International's articles of incorporation were filed on Nov. 6, 1890. The company's objectives were to conduct a wide variety of commercial and industrial activities as well as "purchasing, holding, developing, leasing, selling, conveying or otherwise using or disposing of agricultural, mining and timber lands, and all other kinds of real property."

The articles of incorporation called for $5 million of capital stock divided into 50,000 shares at $100 per share. Headquartered in Butte, the company was to exist for 20 years. The seven named trustees were Talbott, Jared Gaylord, Andred Davis, Charles Nuss, Frank Langford, Lamartine Trent and William Chalmers.

The Columbia Falls town site was first platted and filed on March 5, 1891, the same day the Bumbaughs and Cooper sold the land to Northern International, indicating the company had done some advance work. The plat showed 64 blocks with seven avenues and eight streets. There were 10 lots per block on Nucleus and five lots per block on other avenues.

About 20 years later, the plat was redone by Harry Waggoner, a civil engineer hired by the Columbia Falls City Council, and filed Feb. 1, 1913. Waggoner claimed to have corrected "many errors in measurements" from the earlier plat. But by that time, Northern International was dealing with faulty ownership deeds.

On April 27, 1910, heirs to a man in South Dakota sued Northern International in Montana Ninth District Court, in Helena, claiming they owned the 160-acre town site. Frances Judge presented deeds from April 1 and June 8, 1893, indicating relations of Emma and David Laframboise had sold the same land to John Judge for $1,000.

The case was dismissed, but Northern International's troubles were not over. On Oct. 24, 1914, after recognizing their indebtedness in a resolution, the company's trustees agreed to sell whatever they still owned in the Columbia Falls town site area to First International Bank of Butte.

The company owed the bank $135,000 from a note bearing 10 percent annual interest signed Dec. 6, 1893. They also owed the bank $28,501 for an overdraft.

In the transaction, which was valued at $176,213, the bank picked up 619 unsold lots, the Columbia Falls bridge and water works, the Hotel Gaylord and its furniture, the Columbia Falls roller mills, elevator, mill site and improvements, Northern International's office building at Nucleus and Seventh St., a residence at Third Ave. and Eighth St., and a stable at First Ave. and Seventh St., complete with wagons, tools, fixtures, furniture and horses.