The author stood at the scanty remains of one of the Jimtown houses. There was a hole in the ground from a cellar, a few weathered logs, a couple of weathered boards with square nails in them, some nearly rusted away tin cans, and the sole of a child's shoe, still attached to the insole.
With a slightly eerie feeling, a scene from a hundred years ago was imagined. The list of names, on paper, were transformed into real, living people with wives, husbands, children, meals to cook, clothes to wash, and other routine daily chores.
How many other families lived in Jimtown at that time is unknown, but it is known that those three families were there.
Three brothers, Jess (59), Albert (49), and Sol (45), probably left each day to dig gold from the surrounding area. There is evidence of many mine shafts nearby.
The three sisters-in-law, Emma (41), Louisa (40), and Addie (31), probably didn't have much time for visiting but must have been friends and surely there were times when they all got together.
Looking down the hill from the edge of the timber, where the houses were built, it was easy to imagine it was Sunday and a dozen or so children were playing; someone was chopping wood, smoke was coming out of chimneys, chickens scratched in the yards, possibly a cow or two grazed nearby, and surely there were several dogs.
Specific stories of those times were never handed down to succeeding generations. The hardships they endured were accepted as a way of life. A hint of the day to day living is included in Leon's poem, "Ma", which is recorded elsewhere in this history.
A few stories have been told. Remembered is the fact that they lived pretty much off of the land on game that they killed. Deer and grouse were shot with 22 caliber rifles. Rabbits were chopped out of hollow logs as 22 bullets were too dear to be used on them.
At any rate, and in spite of all adversities and hardships (or maybe because of them), all but one of the eighteen children were raised to adulthood (Percival died at age 13). Most of those children married and had children of their own. Those children and their progeny, a hundred years later, had a DeBorde family reunion in 1985.
Albert Franklin DeBorde (born January 22, 1848 and died May 30, 1918, buried at York) was a miner and, at one time, worked for Tom Spratt. (It is interesting to note that the Spratt home was at 1207 Ninth Avenue in Helena. In later years, Harold and Lorene Hogan lived in the house when their children were small. Also Jesse M. DeBorde's home was across the street at 1224 Ninth when he died. Tom Spratt also built the "big white house" in York, pictured at the end of the history.) They mined York Gulch (known locally as the "cut") by means of hydraulic mining. A flume was built from the area of Vigilante Campground on Trout Creek and followed the contour of the mountains at water grade until it ended at the top of the hill above the mouth of York Gulch. As the water flowed through a pipe from the top of the hill to the mouth of York Gulch, a considerable "head" of water was obtained. This water pressure was
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