A Game Warden of Note

               

                       Al Wanamaaker and Harry Morgan on Upper Willow Creek before 1900

Harry Morgan was named frequently in the Philipsburg Mail for his Forest Service work and helping hunt down fugitives. I spoke of him  when he assisted Deputy Wyman in the case of Frank Brady.   A quote I found from Morgan in the Montana Wildlife Bulletin, August 1944 states: “In November, 1905, the officers were after Frank Brady, a notorious horse thief who took his stolen stock to Dakota. He was hiding out on Lower Rock Creek and we located him at Welcome Gulch. I was appointed to go with a marshall. I suggested that we both go inside the cabin and grab Brady but the marshall figured we would both be  killed. We stayed there all night.  At the barking of his dog Brady came out of the cabin with a gun in his arms. When the dog started barking I ran behind a tree and the marshall behind a rock. Brady pulled up to shoot but I was ready and let him have it. Brady’s shot fell 20 feet short of us. Brady tried to shoot again but I beat him to it and he died on the door steps. I looked around for the officer but he was gone. I hollered and he answered a quarter mile away.”

Born on July 6, 1863 to Captain and Mrs. John Morgan, Harry was the first white child born in Fort Benton at the old Doby Fort. His mother died in the spring of 1871 and then his father was killed by a war party of Blackfoot Indians. The story goes that after his mother died he was taken in by an Indian woman but Harry states  “Dr. J.S. Glick of Helena came to Fort Benton and took me back to Helena with him… In the fall of 1873, Henry Schniple (Schneple), a stockman from Philipsburg, made his annual trip to Helena for supplies. I went to Philipsburg to work with him on his ranch and remained there until 1876. Then I left and attended school in Philipsburg for one year.” After bouncing around working with other ranchers and trading posts Harry returned to work on ranches around Philipsburg in 1881. He also drove team for Jack Hall and then began hauling wood and railroad ties for the railroad to Philipsburg and cord wood props for the mines.  

Harry married Orphie Rider on August 27, 1885. They raised three girls and three boys. At the time of the silver crash in 1893,  Harry went to Butte and worked in the Pennslvania Mine. He then returned to Philipsburg and in 1906 was appointed Forest Guard; in 1907 was appointed Assistant Forest Ranger a post he resigned from in February, 1913. On April 1, 1913, Harry was appointed Deputy Game Warden and was assigned the northern part of Powell County and the Clearwater and Swan River drainage in Missoula County with headquarters in Ovando.

In “Cabin Fever”, by Mildred Chaffin (1988), Harry is described as “an early day game warden of note. Those who remember him well say that he tempered his method of enforcing the law with an old time consideration for those in need.” Warren Skillicorn stated: “He never snooped. He never came into anyone’s home looking into steam kettles or dipping his hands in the flour bin looking for meat like some of them did….Harry would ask peoples names and inquire about their employment situation and their families. If someone was ‘down and out’ , no job, no money and no meat, he would look the other way, saying ‘Don’t watch me, watch your neighbor. If someone reports you I have to take you in.”

Another Mildred Chaffin’s statement quotes Harriet Whitworth of Arlee: “He was my friend”. As a very small girl she accompanied her mother,  relatives and friends when the Indian Bands made their annual treks into the South Fork of the Flathead for their winter meat and buckskins to tan.” Meeting Morgan on the trail they would exchange greetings during which time Morgan would take the little girls hand, put something in it and close her fingers tightly. As soon as they were on their way she would open up her hand to find something there. ‘Maybe a dollar’, she remembered smiling.”

 Orphie died in 1943 and Harry retired in 1947. He later moved to Missoula to live with  daughter Mrs. E.G. Hough. He died in a Missoula Rest Home on August 2, 1957. The funeral was performed by Frank “Sandbar” Brown with burial in Missoula. Survivors were: daughters Mrs. E.G. Hough of Missoula and Mrs. Mary D. Johnson of Three Forks;  sons, Henry of Oregon and Ernest of Idaho; nine grandchildren, one being Herbert Abbey of Philipsburg; twenty-two great grandchildren and nine great-great grandchildren.