| Butte MT |
| Part 1 |
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| Where Copper Was King! |
| A
s alluded to previously, it was my father�s recollection that his grandfather, Michael Patrick Lavelle, had been the sole family member to venture west to Montana. This same belief was held by his brother, Chuck Lavelle, whom I visited at his home in Spokane, Washington several months before his death in June 1997. That summer, my research at the Butte Archives, would dispell this particular family myth. My first trip to St. Patrick�s Cemetery in Butte was rewarding--I found the gravesite of Michael Patrick Lavelle and his wife, Petronella (Ellen) O'Grady Lavelle. But still operating under the mistaken belief that they alone had settled in Butte, I all but ignored a Lavelle memorial which stood several plots over. On my first visit to the Butte Archives, I would find that beginning with 1886, Butte Polk Directories showed Michael Patrick�s extended family residing in Butte, Montana. Mortuary records would also verify that his sister, Bridget, had lived and died in Butte; and was buried in St. Patrick�s Cemetery. Further research at the cemetery steered me towards the Lavelle monument I'd previously ignored. Records revealed that Bridget Lavelle O'Malley was buried nearby with her husband, William O�Malley, and sons William and Walter. Their daughter Mary, along with her husband, William Magill, were buried in the same plot. So, after stumbling around in the cemetery and discovering this particular plot, I was even more determined to find the remaining siblings of Michael Patrick and Bridget. All were eventually present and accounted for in Butte, Montana. I will never forget his amazement, when I told my Uncle Chuck that, indeed, his great-grandparents and his grandfather�s three siblings had all made it to Butte! |
| But why Montana? In 1863 the U.S. Congress created the territory of Idaho, which included all of present-day Idaho and Montana. Miners were already exploring the rich silver veins of Idaho before the Montana Territory took mining pre-eminence. In fact, the territory would be the successor of the played out Comstock in California and Nevada; and Leadville, Colorado (Malone 6). When the gold boom collapsed elsewhere, Butte was �waiting in the wings� with a lode of its� own. Butte in the late 1800s saw both boom and bust. In its� heyday Butte miners would extract nearly two-and-a-half million tons of zinc, twenty-four thousand tons of silver, one hundred tons of gold and over ten million tons of copper. The price for this productivity was high. Hundreds of miners died both above and below ground (Murphy 2). If a miner wasn�t injured or crippled in an accident, miner�s consumption or silicosis would most likely do him in. If not, he was left vulnerable to TB and pneumonia. But early on, Butte and Walkerville mines produced a bountiful supply of silver. The Butte City Directory for 1885-6 gives us an intriguing look at life in the pre-Statehood days. The publisher�s of these Polk Directories offer this comment on Butte and the vicinity: �The magnitude of the mining industry�overwhelming evidences, on all sides of the extent, richness and prominence of the comparatively few mines already developed is truly paralyzing�� They mention that the first quartz mine dates to 1864; although the first mine with great promise was worked beginning in 1875. There were four classes of ores in the vicinity. �The first producing only silver; the second only copper; the third, gold and silver; the fourth, silver and copper.� In 1885 the capacity of the silver stamp mills was 270 tons of ore per day-24 hours. An increase of $46 million in gross receipts was recorded from 1884 to 1885. Some of the producing mines were: |
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