Merry Christmas, 1902

Anaconda Standard, Christmas 1902. Art work by Thorndike.

Santy—"Gee Whiz! What can I give you that you haven't got?" Celebrating a bountiful year.

Chimney-sweeping time in Butte

By Richard I. Gibson

“It has been noticeable that there is a great rush to have the chimneys of the houses swept and thoroughly cleansed for the accommodation and comfort of the ever-welcome Santa.” Anaconda Standard, December 21, 1902.

One of Santa’s “best and most faithful allies” in Butte was Elias Simmington, the “colored chimney sweep who has served Santa well for many Christmases.” Simmington grew up in Kansas and arrived in Butte about 1882. For more than 20 years, he made a point of sweeping chimneys of “good little girls and boys” in the season approaching Christmas. 

In 1902, Simmington’s promotion of Santa, assuring the children of Santa’s impending safe arrival, opined that since the previous year, Santa had taken to “new fandangled ideas,” and had gotten himself a peach of an automobile. The reindeer, getting a bit old and slow, were to be given a break for Christmas 1902 as Santa tested the new contraption.

In Simmington’s view, Santa liked Butte almost well enough to live here permanently, but the smoke was what kept him from doing it. And Santa’s aversion to smoke was Simmington’s incentive to keep the chimneys clean. In the performance of his job, he was sometimes mistaken for Santa himself. A little girl was certain Santa had arrived, but her brother, who Simmington said was “pretty well posted on everything,” told her, “Naw, that ain’t Santa Claus. Santa Claus has got white whiskers, and that man ain’t.”

Elias Simmington lived at 203 South Ohio Street just south of the intersection of Ohio and Mercury, in the Cabbage Patch. His tenement was a 10-by-20-foot brick veneered room, one of a short row of such homes on the west side of Ohio Street. He died before 1910, when his widow, Babe Elizabeth, was working as a janitor at Symons Department Store on Park Street and living at 1037 Iowa Avenue. She was still in that job and home in 1918. The little one-story house on Iowa Street is gone today, but the lot is a nicely landscaped yard.

On the same 1902 newspaper page as the article about Elias Simmington, another story reported on one Charles Whalen, immigrant to Butte from Baltimore. He came to Butte on the advice of his physician, to get over consumption. He claimed that Butte’s sulphur smoke contained a germicide that killed the consumption germ. “Arsenic in the smoke builds up the system,” Whalen said, “and there you are.” He said he was thinking about building a sanitarium in Butte for the curing of consumption through the breathing of its smoky atmosphere.

Resources: Anaconda Standard, December 21, 1902; Butte Miner, Dec. 21, 1902; city directories; Sanborn maps.

Christmas in Butte and Anaconda, 1889

Anaconda Standard, Dec. 25, 1889

By Richard I. Gibson


See also these posts with ads from Christmas 1911.

The Anaconda mine in Butte had been shut down a month earlier, boding ill for the economy, but by Christmas day in Anaconda, “the smoke [was] pouring out of the big stacks across the creek in volumes that gave ample assurance of a merry Christmas in the town.”

Christmas 1889 was the first anniversary of electrical light service in Anaconda. The first public power and light utility in Butte was five years earlier, in 1884, and by February 1889 “all the levels” of the Anaconda, St. Lawrence, and Mountain Con mines were lit underground by incandescent lights. Streets in Butte were first lit by electric lights in late November, 1885, so that “pedestrianism is rendered more comfortable.” 

In Butte for Christmas 1889, “All stores, public offices, and churches will be closed for the day, but the saloons, gambling houses, the Comique, and hurdy houses, will be running at full blast as usual.” The Theatre Comique was a dance hall and entertainment venue that stood on Main Street just south of Park, about where the southern edge of the Metals Bank building is today. Goldberg’s (see ad at top) offered 25% off everything in their store at 12 Main Street. It looks like the discounts were of little avail, and David Goldberg was out of the jewelry business by 1893 and was working as a railroad ticket agent. His business was probably purchased and became Leys Jewelry which had a store (at 12 N. Main Street and other addresses, as he moved and the address scheme changed) in the block between Park and Broadway for many years. A Leys ghost sign survives.

Anaconda, Christmas 1889. Click to enlarge.

The Standard reported that “W.A. Clark and Lee Mantle have had stockings expressly made for the occasion, warranted large enough to hold an election certificate to the United States senate.” Montana had become a state seven weeks earlier, on November 8, 1889, and politicians’ goals were becoming evident. The contests would become more and more bizarre over the coming decade.

Even in 1889, the Standard said, “Butte is one of the most cosmopolitan cities on earth, and each of the various nationalities represented will eat the dinner most to its liking. The native Americans recognize the turkey as the national bird. The Germans and Swedes of Butte consider the goose much preferable to the turkey. The latter they consider too dry. The citizens of Butte from the British Isles find a roast pig exceedingly palatable, while those from the southern states also choose the pig in the absence of the unequalled ’possum. The French think chicken makes the best dinner. Duck finds favor with a good many of every nationality and is especially liked by the Jews. The Italians don’t go much on eating, while the Chinese think rat giblet santi with cream sauce the best dish on earth.” That last line certainly was a reflection of prejudices of the time.

Quotes: Butte Daily Miner, Nov. 27, 1885; Feb. 15, 1889. Main article and Goldberg ad from Anaconda Standard, Dec. 25, 1889, via Library of Congress Chronicling America digital newspapers.

Merry Christmas from Butte, 1911

Butte Miner, December 1911

Christmas in Butte, 1911 – #7

by Richard I. Gibson

Newspaper delivery people have long been independent entrepreneurs, and Butte’s newsies were no exception. For Dec. 24, 1911, the Butte Miner gave its Christmas Eve edition to the “little fellows” at no charge as a Christmas bonus. Each delivery boy probably made 5¢ on each paper sold that day, instead of his usual 2½¢. That was a fairly big deal in an era when 50¢ bought a nice meal at a boarding house.

Skates and other sporting equipment were hot items for Christmas 1911. The Montana Hardware Company’s sporting goods department offered men’s skates at prices from 75¢ a pair to $5.00 for “American club hockey, hardened full nickel” skates. You could get a baseball for 5¢. Montana Hardware, initially run by W.A. Clark’s brother J. Ross, was at 30-40 West Park in 1911, the 3-story Pennsylvania Building that stood just west of where the F&W Grand Building is today (the Military Recruiting Building, which dates to the 1930s).

Christmas in Butte, 1911 – #6

Orton Brothers Music Store and Heilbronner's, circa 1959.

by Richard I. Gibson

North Main Street has harbored music stores for more than a century. Today’s Len Waters building (119 N. Main) has been there since before 1884. In 1928 Leonard Waters was a Department Manager for the prestigious Orton Brothers Music Co., a block north and across the street, at 216-218 N. Main (next door to Heilbronner’s). In 1911 Orton Brothers stocked the largest number of pianos in the state, including a Chickering parlor grand in mahogany for $550. Second-hand pianos could be had for as little as $100, but at prices like that, pianos were obviously for the upper crust. The miner’s wage was still $3.50 a day, as it had been since 1878.

Butte Miner, December 1911

General furniture was much cheaper, and at Hennessey’s you could buy on time—creating some of the first credit purchases in America. Lauder Furniture and Carpet offered a leather couch, in solid oak with gold finish for $12.95. Some chairs cost as little as a couple dollars.

Musical entertainment centered on the theaters, where live bands supplied the accompaniment to silent movies as well as to near-continuous vaudeville performances. “Dante’s Inferno” was touted under the banner “Know Ye That the Greatest Moving Picture Production Ever Gotten Out Begins Today at The New Orpheum Theater.” Because there was only one set of reels anywhere in the United States for this “film of the century,” the Orpheum raised its admission to 25¢ for adults and 15¢ for children under 14—who were apparently admitted despite the film's reputation as the first in history to feature male frontal nudity.

Ad from Butte Miner, December 1911. Photo from Butte-Silver Bow tax assessment cards at Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives, digitized by Don Plessas.  

Christmas in Butte, 1911 – #5

by Richard I. Gibson

Everyone exploited the Christmas spirit—and associated spending—and saloons and cigar stores were no exception. The Atlantic Bar, “Longest Bar in the World,” at 56 West Park (near today’s bus stop), said they were the only house in Butte that handled the imported Muenchner Hofbrau and Pilsner Buergerbrau. Locally brewed Eureka Beer, from the Butte Brewery, was “golden in its color, golden in its worth. Golden are the hours if you drink the best on earth.”

Joseph Oppenheimer (see this previous post) offered Flor de Baltimore cigars from Havana, “the one gift that strikes the innermost chord of every man’s desire.” (See also Elisa Renouard’s ghost sign photo.)  The Butte Commercial Company wanted you to “Go Honest Old Quaker” with Old Quaker Whiskey.

If all this did bad things to your teeth, Dr. F.A. Ironsides at 20 N. Main, "The Dentist," suggested "What to buy for Christmas:" a gold and porcelain crown, regular $10.00, Christmas special, $5.00. His pink enamel sets of dentures were "as light as a feather." 

Christmas in Butte, 1911 – #4

by Richard I. Gibson

High-end everything was available in Butte, from the latest 1911 Everitt Automobile to train excursions around the country.

The Everitt, made only from 1909-1912, was named for Ontario-born Byron F. "Barney" Everitt. Everitt started his own auto body company in 1899, supplying Ransom Olds and Henry Ford with frames via the E-M-F Company (for founders Everitt, William Metgzer, and Walter Flanders). In 1909, E-M-F ranked number four in U.S. auto production, with 7,960 vehicles, but notorious poor quality issues—detractors said EMF meant “Every Morning Fix-it”—put them out of business in 1910 with a takeover by Studebaker, although the Everitt brand continued until 1913. Tom Angell sold Everitts at 10 North Wyoming, the same address as the Hat Box in yesterday’s post. I believe Tom was brother to Truman Angell, manager of the Hat Box.

Travel by train was the state-of-the-art in 1911. You could ride the rails to sunny California from Butte, taking “only” 42 hours, at a Christmas discounted fare of around $54. Local excursions were more economical: round trip fare to Salt Lake City was $17.35, or Dillon at $2.80 round trip.

December 1911, Butte Miner

Christmas in Butte, 1911 – #3

by Richard I. Gibson

It’s no stretch to say that what was available in New York and Chicago was available in Butte’s stores and shops. From silk stockings (6 pairs, $6.00 at Hennessey’s) to cashmere mufflers (50¢ to $1.00 at Wein’s Clothing Store, 33-35-37 East Park, the Owsley Block-Medical Arts building that burned in 1973), to state-of-the-art electrical appliances, Butte had it all. The Butte Business College, in the Owsley Block, even promoted their courses as an appropriate Christmas gift.

“Old Santa carries nothing but Butte made hats,” the Hat Box boasted. In 1911 they were at 10-12 North Wyoming, but in 1917 they moved to the alley behind the Clinton Drug Store at 106 North Main, and eventually in the 1950s the Hat Box occupied the Drug Store’s space briefly before going out of business in 1957.

For seamstresses doing their own work, 36-inch-wide all-silk black taffeta ran 98¢ a yard from Hennessey’s. Gamer’s Shoe Store, at 113 N. Main, offered “footwear for men, women, boys, girls, misses, the children, and the baby—we never forget the baby.” Gamer’s in 1911 employed 15-year-old Richard Liljemark as a messenger; he became a clerk there within a few years. Richard died in 1917 at age 21 after a two-week bout with pneumonia, and you can hear more of his story and see his name, inscribed in the basement of Gamer’s Shoe Store in 1911, on the Dellinger Block tour with Old Butte Historical Adventures.

Butte Miner, December 1911

Christmas in Butte, 1911 – #2

by Richard I. Gibson

In cosmopolitan Butte in December 1911 shoppers could find groceries from local suppliers as well as goods imported from all over the country. The Montana Cash “Pure Food” Grocery, at 108 West Park Street, carried Florida grapefruit (20¢ each), brie cheese (50¢ a pound) and Brussels sprouts at 20¢ a pound.

Washington Meat Market, just down the street from Montana Cash at 118 West Park, offered eastern dressed turkeys at 19½¢ a pound (Montana dressed ran 22½¢ a pound). I believe “eastern dressed” were frozen and shipped, while “Montana dressed” were fresh poultry. Pot roast of beef ran 7½¢/lb, and prime rib roast of beef was 10¢/lb.

Scandinavian specialties could be obtained at Tripp & Dragstedt Co. at 543-547 South Main Street. Among many other things, they offered Norway herring, lutfish, Swedish yellow peas, gaffelbitar (herring bits in sherry), and gammalost, a pungent traditional Norwegian cheese. And “skis, sleigh bells, etc.” 

Butte Miner, December 1911

Christmas in Butte, 1911 – #1

by Richard I. Gibson

Hennessey’s, Symons, and Connell’s, Butte’s largest department stores, typically all ran full-page ads in the run-up to Christmas a hundred years ago. Each also appears to have generated new original artwork every day of the season, at least in December.

While Hennessey’s offered real moving picture machines that “show pictures the same as in theaters … complete with films, for either oil or electricity, at $2.00 and up,” across the corner at Connell’s you could buy a four-volume leather-bound copy of Don Quixote at $5.85 for the set, or a pair of boys’ school shoes for $1.48.

Symons, the “economists for the people” and the “toy headquarters for all Butte” carried “splendid sleds, good and strong, nicely painted” for 45¢ (marked down from $1.00), while a discriminating lady could get a nice $50.00 velvet coat on sale for $29.50.

The ads below are from the Butte Miner, December 1911. Click to enlarge.