"Maxwell Crosbie is my name,
Scotland is my nation;
And those two lines
will tell my name,
When I am quite forgotten."
(On looking closely, we find, in pencil, almost too dim to decipher, that the book was the property of Maxwell, and Miss Vera Baker has kindly written with her typewriter that fact.)
We find another matter that is peculiar. On the 4th day of April, 1863, a deed was given by David Thompson, et al., to James D. Doty, all in Idaho Territory. On the Fifth day of April, 1863, a deed was given by John Ault, to Jack Allport, all in Dakota Territory. There must have been some misunderstanding as to what particular portion of the United States they were in.
Coal was thought to have been found near Bannack, and a company was formed, and 640 acres was taken up, on which some prospecting was done, in 1865. It is now called oil shale. There was also a coal excitement in Old Pioneer Basin, on Ruby Creek, in the Big Hole, as several claims were located July 1st, 1865, by Dr. E. D. Leavitt, et al. Coal has, so far, not been an asset in Beaverhead County.
I find that T. M. Ault sold to J. H. Morley claim No. 10, below Stapleton's discovery, Northwestern Mining District, September 18th, 1862. In connection with the above, I find the following:
Know all men by these presents, that the undersigned, having formed themselves into an association, or company, to be hereafter known and designated as the Dakota Water Ditch Company, do from the date of this instrument of writing, claim for their own and special use and benefit (for the purpose of sale to miners), all the water of a certain stream now known as Horse Prairie Creek (with all or any of the tributaries of said Horse Prairie Creek, with all natural water running from springs on the ravines that their ditch may cross, wherein water may be found from rains, melting snows, or other natural causes), that may be found above their dam or above their line of ditch from said dam, to the terminus of said ditch. The said ditch to be brought into mining camp, now known as Northwestern District, and continued on down a stream known as the Grasshopper Creek, as far as aforesaid Dakota Water Ditch Company shall deem it necessary for the use and benefit of the miners generally. The aforesaid ditch to be brought in as soon as possible.
Bannack City, 19th Dec., 1862, Da. Ter. Signed W. GRAHAM.
JAMES H.
MORLEY.
H. M. MANDEVILLE.
T. R. PETCHER.
J. F. MORLEY.
This is probably the first claim to take water from one water shed to another in Montana. Those people did not do much more than make the survey.
This man, James H. Morley, has left a most interesting diary, a copy of which, well type written, was sent to the Historical Society by his wife. He was probably the first Civil Engineer, or surveyor in Southern Montana, unless Walter W. De Lacey can claim the honor. He surveyed the ditch from Painter Creek, afterwards known as the Smith and Graeter Ditch, to Bannack.
It was Morley that went with the party in the winter of 1863, and surveyed Gallatin City, on the Gallatin River, which they dreamed was to become the head of navigation on the Missouri. Though it was a little place, at one time, few could find the site at this day.