Park County News
May 12, 1922
pg. 3
BRUFFEY PRESENT AT IVES
HANGING
Pioneer of Alder Gulch of '62 Has Been Rancher for Half a Century. Saw
beginnings of BUTTE in 1866 and Has spent 60 Years in Montana; Now Lives at
Livingston, With Land in Park and Sweetgrass Counties; 80 Years Old.
Active in his movements, sight and hearing still acute, and with his ideas fully
up to the times is George A. Bruffey of Livingston, who is now in his 80th year,
and one of the few remaining pioneers of Montana.
Mr. Bruffey is ranching now, his land being in both Sweetgrass and Park
Counties. When Butte was a placer canp he mined in Butte... in fact he hunted
for the gold in the dirt in front of the Leggat Hotel, in the early days of the
camp. "It didn't pay very well.. Just about grub." he remarked as he
sat in a chair in the Leggat Hotel and looked out on the hard surfaced street
that covered the earth where more than half a century ago he, as well as others,
hoped to dig their way to fortune.
"It was through a hunting and prospecting party that Butte was
discovered" he said. "There were three parties all from Alder Creek,
one led by J.B. Smith and the credit belongs to Smith for the discovery, as he
was the nerve of the whole party. He married an Indian woman, a daughter of
Winnemucca. Peter Slater was the first man to locate a claim here. It was just
below town, or where the town is now. Bob McMinn had one near Rocker. Charles
Carver also had a claim. These people came up from Alder in 1863. I came here in
1866, the year the townsite was laid out."
After his not very successful mining experience in the Butte camp, Mr. Bruffey
moved to different places in the then territory, but came back to Butte a number
of times. He was here in 1870. The snow storm that made Butte look wintery last
week reminded him of one there later than this sprung of 1870. "It started
raining on May 28, and kept up for three days," he said. "Then it
began to snow and it snowed for three days. Fully four feet of snow fell in that
time."
Bruffey has certainly seen western 7 life in all its phases. He was born in
Virginia in October of 1842, and was brought West by his parents when a child.
They settled in that section which is now Iowa and Missouri, near the line
between the present states, a section inhabited mainly by Indians at that time.
When still a youth he began to move around and 1862 he was in Alder Gulch,
coming from Denver.
"I was present when Colonel Sanders made his motion to hang George
Ives," said Bruffey. "Ives had been found guilty, and sentenced to
hang. Some were for giving him a month to prepare for death. "Ask him how
much time he gave the Dutchman, cried an Irishman in the crowd. That settled it,
and when Colonel Sanders moved that Ives be hanged within the hour it
carried."
From Butte, Mr. Bruffey went to Eastern Montana, and forsaking mining became a
rancher. He raised a family of ten Children. Mrs. Bruffey died some years ago.
Despite his years, Bruffey takes the same interest in public affairs that he did
as a young man. Commenting on the conditions of the day, he thinks a cure for
most of the ills would be the issuing of lots of paper money. "ALthough I
am a Democrat," he said, "I believe in the money that Lincoln issued.
When the green backs got out in our country everybody had money, and the prices
went up." Mr. Bruffey favors an unlimited issue of money to take up all the
outstanding bonds of the government. "Give the bond holders this money and
instead of waiting for interest on bonds they will have to start something with
it and get things to moving." he thinks.
To view the Bruffey - Gravley Photo Album click here