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Butte MT |
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Part 1 |
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Part 2 |
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Part 5 |
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Part 6 |
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Part 7 |
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During my days at the Archives I pored over the City Directories for Butte. These decrepit and disintegrating hardbound directories dating back to the mid-1880s contained a wealth of information. While the directories did contain listings for government and business, the residential directory at this time was predominantly male. I would discover that women, if they were listed, rated mention as �the widow of�,� or they had no entry to speak of. The first directory with a Lavelle or Lavell is 1889. Because Lavelle was frequently interchanged with Lavell in old records, city directories and newspapers, I had to consider both variations during my research. The 1889 listing is for a pair of brothers Geoffrey and Thomas Lavell; whom I do not believe are related. They operated a livery stable and transport company. Geoffrey eventually went off to be a cattleman while his brother stayed in Butte and, eventually, graduated from 'one horsepower' transportation to taxi cabs. There is also an entry for John J Lavell, bartender and future Chief of Police! In the 1890 directory I found Michael Patrick Lavelle and his father, James. The latter is listed as a blacksmith in the 1896 edition. |
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Land of the
O'Caithniadh |
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To America |
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Scranton PA |
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The War |
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20th Century |
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Bibliography |
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Contact Information |
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Links |
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My Amazon Book Store |
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Butte Archives--Then and Now |
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Genealogy is full of little tweaks; and now and then, human error abounds. The cemetery record for Catherine Sweeney Lavelle gives her birth date as 1813, a full thirteen years prior to her husband�s. The informant at Catherine�s time of death gave this year to the authorities; as a result, her cemetery monument in St. Patrick�s Cemetery, Butte, Montana was so engraved. However, US Census records, themselves notorious for error, tend to indicate her age otherwise. For example, when the 1870 Census was taken in Scranton, Catherine�s age is stated as 41 to James� 43 years. Errors in death records are not uncommon. Oftentimes, the �informant� is a generation or so removed from the deceased, and frequently a non-relative. Called upon at a most stressful time, the informant is required to provide information. And, although it is no doubt given with the noblest of intentions, the information is often inaccurate.
Another grossly inaccurate bit of record keeping pertains to James Lavelle, a brother of Michael Patrick. The original handwritten mortuary record reports James� death on February 21, 1916 from Bronchitis with chronic alcoholism being secondary. The line directly above records the death of Sydney LaFontise a onetime prize fighter ,and local punk. who died several days earlier. Collapsing following a brawl, Mr. LaFontise died in the County Jail. Cause of death was listed as �Alcoholism�. Both times a death certificate has been ordered for James Lavelle, county clerks have referred to a transcribed death register which has transposed the information in the original mortuary record taking the line above Lavelle and duplicating the LaFontise information. This publication is the source of the original error. What you receive each time you order a certificate for James Lavelle, is one that reads James Lavelle but, thereafter, contains all the information from that aforementioned line above, pertaining to LaFontise. Even his informant is listed as a Mose LaFontise. The parent names are for LaFontise, as well. The only recourse to correcting a dreadful mistake like this is to file a correcting affidavit with the State of Montana and have the death certificate reissued. Both tombstones, and vital records, are notorious for having erroneous information. It is always wise to have a confirming source, including a newspaper obituary, before accepting what in one instance, was even chiseled in stone!
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Butte would become the great western industrial city. Prosperous beyond imagination, by 1899 Butte miner�s could claim better wages than any mining camp in the entire western region. By 1891 the average wage for the 4,800 men working its mines was $100 per month. Despite the �appalling surface barrenness of the place,� �the sulphur and arsenic fumes of ore roasted in the open or belching from the smelters.� Butte boasted the second largest red light district in the US, behind only New Orleans�s Storeyville, thanks to the efforts of the Nadeau brothers who owned the Dumas Hotel, and Anton Holter of Helena who built the Blue Range Hotel. Ore production values had jumped from $1,200,000 in 1881 to more than $27,000,000 in 1890. By 1895 Butte produced more than one-quarter of the world�s copper; its 6,400 miners took home $640,000 every month. When Thomas Edison lit up the streets of New York City in 1882, he also created Butte. Copper was the ideal medium for conducting electricity and Butte was full of it. By 1887 two of Butte�s mines placed first and third in the world in the production of copper (Emmons 22-23). |
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Dumas Brothel, 45 E. Mercury St, Butte -- the longest running house of prostitution in the United States, 1890-1982. |
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