The Pioneering Hynes Family

 A prominent miner, businessman and rancher of Granite county was Thomas Hynes. Born in County Galway, Ireland, Tom came to America as a small boy and the family located in Kentucky, then moved to California during the gold rush. Tom arrived in Montana during 1864 or 1865 and mined at Cedar Creek. His next move was to Cable and then Philipsburg where he built Hynes Hall in 1867. (I am not certain if the Hynes Hotel [House] ended up located in the same building. The Hynes Hotel is drawn on the Sanborn Insurance maps beginning in 1889 and located in the third building on the North side of Broadway immediately west of the James Stuart/Hope Mill site.) 

 The Hynes House was built as a boarding house in 1880 and was operated by Honora Hynes (Tom’s sister-in-law) until the silver crash in 1893. This building was bought and renamed the McGurk House sometime after 1893 and rooms were rented there until 1930. Honora died at the age of eighty July 13, 1911 and is buried at the Philipsburg cemetery. 

Mining property acquired by Tom is evidenced in the newspapers such as the sale of claims owned by Tom, John Whiting and William Burke to the Gold Coin on July 25, 1895. The actual sum of the sale was not published in the P’Burg Mail article. During the probating of Tom’s will at least three city lots were auctioned at Sheriff sales from claims by the Merchant and Miner’s bank. Numerous mining claims were taken over by his nephew Thomas F. Hynes. 

The Citizens Call newspaper stated Tom died at his ranch two miles south of town after being ill only a few hours on September 29, 1895. He was 63 according to his obituary but 64 according to his headstone. Survivors were nieces, Mrs. George H. Hancock, Mrs. Ed Moore and Miss Katie Hynes and nephews: Thomas F. Hynes and William P. Hynes. Nephew Thomas F. Hynes applied for letter of administration in the estate of Thomas Hynes according to the October 23, 1895 Philipsburg Mail. 

Thomas F. Hynes arrived in Philipsburg in 1877 from Louisville, Kentucky. Born to Peter and Honora (Fahey) Hynes, Tom was the oldest of seven children. Mother Honora and at least three siblings also moved to Montana. Tom’s bride to be Annie M. Schwartz (1859-1938) arrived from Louisville early in 1878. Their marriage took place on October 15, 1878. 

For the first six years Tom worked in the mines around Philipsburg then took up mining on his own and accumulated a number of very good claims. They also owned a ranch one and a half miles south of Philipsburg. To this marriage was born twelve children: Mary, Louise, Kate, Nora, Emma, Alice, Julia, William Bryan, Virginia (1892), Thomas (1882-1883) and Elnore (1880-1881) (research does not reveal any record of the twelfth child). There is a grave without a headstone for Henora Hynes in Block 19 Lot 40 grave 8, next to Baby Thomas, that may be the twelfth child.

This photograph of the Thomas F. Hynes family was taken in 1901. Back row from the left is: Nora, Julia, Alice and Emma. Front row: Kate, Annie Hynes holding infant William Bryan, Louise,  Thomas F. Hynes and Mary.

Thomas F. Hynes foreclosed on a $54,225.00 mortgage of the Puritan Mining Company December 21, 1894 according to the New Northwest, so obviously he was extending credit to major mining companies. He ran as an Independent for County Assessor in 1898 against J.K. Wells the Democrat and lost the race. Tom’s name was not on the ballot and instead of having the voter’s write in his name they were provided with “pasters” that had his name printed on them. The poll counters refused to count at least 125 “pasters” with the vote being 414 to 462. Tom contested the election results but did not win the office. 

In 1900 he again ran for Assessor under the Federalist Party against Democrat T. L. Penrose and received a plurality or 151 votes. His pay was $300 a month according to wages published in 1901. As Assessor, Tom raised the county taxes which included more than $700,000 increase to the BiMetallic Mining Company. The Company took their complaint about the increase to the County Commissioners and they excused the BiMetallic from paying the excess. This caused Tom to take the case to the State Board of Equalization. The Board decided they had no authority to change the figures of the County Board (August 20, 1901). 

The City named Tom as Patrolman in June of 1901 and during the next few years news reports show him continuing to do improvements on numerous mining claims. They left the ranch and moved into Philipsburg where, after several months of illness, Tom died on March 2, 1913 at the age of fifty-seven. Survivors were: Annie, son Bryan and eight daughters, three sisters and nephew W.P. Hynes of Granite. 

Mining seemed to be the basis for the early income of the Hynes family in Granite County, but it is difficult to determine exactly which member of the family owned the individual claims. Newspaper articles detail where Thomas F. Hynes did his share of improvements and advertised this to co-owners of The HIRD Lode and the Sam Quartz Lode (1888), and his co-owner of the claim in Stony on the Katie Lode did the same back to Thomas (1896). The San Francisco Company was working two claims that had been bonded to them by Eli Holland, James Patten and Thomas Hynes in October 1886. Also Thomas Hynes was co-owner with John Ulery and Caplice of the Sam Quartz Lode in January 1889. Thomas was improving the Skykill Lode in January 1889. Thomas made application for patent on the Sultana Lode with Eli Holland and Herman Kaiser and they sold the claim to Granite Mountain Mining Company for $3,000 on February 1, 1889. Thomas F. and Honorian (sic) Hynes made patent application for the Piano Lode on September 27, 1888 and sold that claim to GMMC for $5,000 on February 7, 1889. 

A lengthy account was published in The Helena Weekly Herald on July 28, 1887 titled “The Philipsburg affair” that detailed a story by F. L. Currie. Mr. Currie had until a few days prior been the superintendent of the North Granite Mining Company. Mr. Currie had chose to leave town after a mob requested he do so. The article alluded that even a strangulation had occurred but Mr. Currie said he had not witnessed that. The discontent arose over accounts of various claim jumping projects in which the community considered Mr. Currie involved. Mr. Currie wished to make his side of the story known. "In 1883 Thomas F. Hynes located the Katy Lode. A bond was given on it to Lewis Demars but expired in 1894 without being taken up. In April 1885, Hynes and his wife deeded the Katy Lode to the former’s mother, Mrs. Honora Hynes for $1,000 and the title thereby passed to her. In October 1886, Thomas Hynes and his wife gave Phil M. Saunders a bond on the property for $50,000 under which a company was formed and $8,000 worth of development work was put upon the property. I was superintendent of the NGMC and found out the above conditions of affairs viz: that Hynes and his wife had given Saunders a bond for property not owned by them, and that the claim was open to jumping. I explained the situation to Joe Sorenson and he relocated the claim under the name of The Parrot Lode, agreeing to transfer it to the company for a small consideration…There had been various rumors previous to this about my being interested with Lewis Demars and Samuel Tolman in the jumping of the Granite Belle, The Young American and the Nelson Properties. These claims were without foundation. I was allowed to suffer a never-to-be-forgotten indignity at the hands of men who personally were my enemies, regardless of jumping causes.”

In 1890 there were two lawsuits set for trial: One Maroney vs Hynes and the other Charles Clark vs Hynes. Research did not reveal the outcome of either trial. Then the October 6, 1894 Mail posted notice of an auction of “The Old Hynes Hall” and that a daughter was born to Thomas Hynes. The newspapers carry few articles about the Hynes family after Thomas was appointed City patrolman, other than marriage notices of the daughters and Bryan. 

Then Bryan’s wife Hazel died in December 1928 and four days after her funeral Beth Smith died of meningitis at grandmother Annie Hynes house. Bryan was working as an electrician in 1923 when he married Hazel Stella Cutler. They had a daughter, Mary Catherine (1928-1980). Five months after the birth, Hazel died of Flu-pneumonia at the age of twenty-eight. Hazel was survived by Bryan, Mary Catherine and her parents. Her father was engineer for the Drummond Branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad. 

Bryan was engineer for the Algonquin mine when the May 28, 1937 Mail stated “Emma V. McCarthy of Fargo, North Dakota announces her daughter Mary Ellen married (William) Bryan Hynes on August 27, 1934.” The late announcement was because Mary’s teaching job had not allowed teacher’s to be married. 

Mary and Bryan had a son Thomas D. (1939-1995) and a son William (1940- 1941). Bryan was elected Granite County Sheriff in 1942 and served the citizen until 1952 with Nick Munis as Under-sheriff.

                                          Campaign card courtesy of grandson John Hynes

 Bryan died in the Granite County Nursing Home on November 22, 1980. Mary (my seventh grade teacher) died in 1989. This concludes another important Granite County family history.