First In Time

Well, we live in Bozeman, Montana. So it is only natural we would be interested in and would wonder who was the first among us in our family who had set foot in Bozeman. Up to now we had been assuming that it was Lyndon King Armstrong, brother to my grandmother. Lyndon is said to have been a miner in the Montana territory, but, to this point, we have have no specifics as to how, when or where he spent his time in Montana. We now have affirmative evidence of other relations in Bozeman in the year 1910.

Bixmarck Tribune, August 26, 1910/

It was said "[a]t Bozeman Mr. and Mrs. Hoskins got off the train and threw snowballs, as there was a heavy snowfall there a few nights ago. It is said that this is the first August snow storm recorded in wetern Montana."

Mrs. R. D. Hoskins was sister to my grandmother, Laura Elizabeth Armstrong Hoskins. Mr. R. D. Hoskins was the first clerk of the North Dakota state supreme court, and founder of the Hoskins Meyer retail establishment in Bismarck, as well as one time editor of the Sentinel newspaper in Bathgate, North Dakota.

The Bozeman Northern Pacific railroad depot visited by the Hoskins in 1910 has fallen into disuse. The depot was originally built in 1892 and extensively renovated in 1923. It was last used (for now discontinued Amtrak passenger service) in 1979. Plans are being develop to preserve the depot in the hope it will be restored and reused as has been done with so many other railroad depots throughout Montana.

Snow in August? Certainly not the last. That's Montana. Good luck to all.