3-H Ranch and others co-mingled into Bauer Ranch

Tom and Louise Barr Circa 1920

Many of the original homesteads at the base of Mt. Amerine (Emerine) are now co¬mingled into what is known as the Bauer Ranch on Ross’ Fork. Some of this property was previously known as the Barr and then the Christensen Ranch. 

Louise Hoben after having Harold and Miss Katherine married Tom Barr and he bought the ranch in 1920. The assessed taxes in 1927 for Tom and Louise Barr were $179.02 according to the taxes published in the Mail, January 20, 1928. Miss Katherine Hoben married Rexford Samson on October 11, 1927 in the Methodist Church in Philipsburg. Prior to her marriage she had taught at the Middle Fork School according to her marriage announcement. 

Tom Barr died at the ranch on April 26, 1930. His death was secondary to pneumonia suffered during the winter. Tom was born in Ireland on February 19, 1878 and came to America as a young man. He followed the trade of plasterer for a number of years in New York and Pennsylvania. Then he moved west and worked in the Black Hills. When he located in Philipsburg Tom formed a partnership with Edward Miller and they worked as general contractors. This included leasing the Granite Bi-Metallic mine where they realized success. When the lease expired the partnership was dissolved and Tom bought the ranch on Rock Creek in August of 1920. Survivors were: wife Louise, a step-daughter Mrs. H.R.(Katherine) Sampson and step-son Harold Hoben both of Chicago and a sister Mrs. Madge Carter of Levenworth, Kansas. Funeral services were held at St. Philip’s Catholic Church by Rev. Father Casey. Internment was in the Philipsburg cemetery. 

Louise then married Eli Christensen as was discussed in the Christensen family article. Local Information was that the price of the Barr/Hoben Ranch in 1948 was $14,000. This was when Harold Hoben bought the ranch from the bank after Eli and Louise went bankrupt. Harold the son of Louise Barr Christensen worked for the Mars Candy Company in Chicago. Almost twenty years later, Harold originally asked $300,000 and raised that to $500,000, when he sold to Bauer in 1967. 

Lorraine Hoben the daughter of Robert and Florence Smith of Chicago, Illinois married Harold on April 21, 1949. When Harold Hoben and his wife Lorraine (Smith) sold to Bauer they moved to Anaconda. Harold died later that year and Lorraine died at the age of ninety on February 10, 2005, in Anaconda. 

Other property, besides the Hoben Ranch (3-H) that now comprise the current Bauer Ranch are the O’Connor/Stephens Ranch and Reservoir; the Rupp/Shoblom, then Verlanic Ranch, originally owned by David and Ellen Helm and leased by my grandparents May and Billy Bentz in the late twenties through 1946; the Charles Gray place located on the south side of the Ross’ Fork Road; the Kaiser homestead (later owned by D. T. Bowen, then Kennedy) located on the Kaiser Hill on the east side of Ross’ Fork; and the Russell place which was in the meadow below the Helm ranch. 

I found where Helm’s lived in the area in 1920 when Adolph Helm was one of the students going to Missoula to attend the Montana High School annual track meet detailed in the Mail, May 13, 1920. Also, a news article revealed Ellen Helm died in Birmington, Washington on February 7, 1928. The article stated they were former ranchers on Ross Fork of Rock Creek. Ellen was born fifty years before in Sweden and was survived by husband David; daughters: Lillian, Alvira and Elsie and two sons: Theodore of San Francisco and Adolph of Philipsburg. Her son, Adolph married Emily Flickinger. Adolph died in 1983 and Emily died in 1992. They are both buried in the Philipsburg cemetery. 

The Stephens’ Place and Reservoir was named after George Stephens who was the original owner of the Stephens Hotel. Stories are that he traded Tom O’Conner the hotel for the ranch. The date O’Connor’s took over the Hotel is 1929. The date Stephens’ began ranching was about 1917 according to his obituary on August 13, 1937.

Bus Hess, recalled that a person named Vaughn leased the Stephens place before Ray Hess signed a lease in 1929. George may have operated the hotel while leasing the ranch and then moved out to the ranch after O’Connor took over the hotel. George’s wife Edna moved to California with the children in 1923 according to her obituary in March of 1939. George Stephens was the Philipsburg City Marshal and he submitted his resignation letter in the November 17, 1899 Mail. 

T. J. (Tom) O’Connor (1871-1943) left ranching and became the owner of the Stephens Hotel in 1929. Shortly after the transaction, his wife Ida B. (Kelley) died September 18, 1929. at the age of fifty. After Ida’s death Tom married Mary Ellen Naef, in 1931 and she died a year later. Tom also ranched on Trout Creek as I found where he sold his place located next to the Schuh ranch to the W. M. Montgomery and Company butchering firm of Anaconda in June of 1910. He received $40 per acre for the unstated amount of acreage.

The Bauer Ranch currently also owns sections of land on the Middle Fork, one of which was originally homesteaded by Charles Adams. Research shows where he paid $440.78 in taxes to Granite county for the 1927 tax year..