First Families of Montana Certificate


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History of Clinton, Montana

One of the most comprehensive histories of the Clinton area that I have found online is actually from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. They have a historical narrative about the Clinton/Wallace mining district . 2023 Update: The original link was broken and I couldn't find the content on the current DEQ website, so the link now goes to an archive of the page.
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Before it was Wallace, Montana, it was called Baker's Station

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The oft-repeated history of Clinton, Montana claims it was established in 1883 as a stage stop and post office on the Mullan Road and was initially known as Betters’ Station, named after my great-great-grandfather, Austin Betters. The reality is that Col. J.C. Baker had established a stage station on the Mullan Road in the vicinity of present-day Clinton at least 13 years earlier. Not only that, but the stage stop that became known as Baker's Station was much closer to the Wallace Mining District and the eventual locations of the railway stations for the NPRR and Milwaukee Road than the Betters homestead was. Baker's Station, the Stage Station The earliest mention I have found of Baker's Station in any printed documentation was in the January 20, 1872 edition of The Pioneer , which referred to Col. Baker as "the proprietor of Baker's station on the Deer Lodge road," but it's likely he established his stage station a few years before that. In the 1870 Censu...
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1906-1907 Clinton School Souvenir Booklet

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Following the lead of some train enthusiasts in a Facebook group I belong to, I decided to poke around on eBay recently to see if I could find any old photos of things and places I've been researching that I haven't been able to find elsewhere online. Unbelievably, one of the very first items I found was a souvenir booklet for Clinton School from the 1906-1907 school year that listed my great-grandpa Phillip Betters among the pupils and his dad, Austin Betters, and brother-in-law, Daniel McQuarrie, as trustees. Unfortunately, no photos of the students are included, but it does feature a photo of the teacher on the cover. The eBay listing called this thing a "cabinet card" (a thin photograph mounted on a card that usually had an embossed design), but this was more of a booklet than a photograph. With only two pages plus a front and back cover, even calling it a "booklet" is generous. I had never seen anything like it. I didn't even know what to call it. W...
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