Wight: Valley Pioneer Family

 One of the earliest articles found in the news about the Wight family was in the New Northwest and copied from The Standard April 2, 1897 stating: “Alex Wight of the lower Flint Creek valley is losing about 1,000 sheep a day due to lice. He needs to find new grass to move them to. He has 10,000 sheep and is the largest sheep ranch in this country.” 

The Mail on September 29, 1916 announced that Alex Wight had motored to Missoula in his new Saxon, demonstrating the family was involved with the rest of the population in the automobile craze of the time. 

Alex was born in Beverly, Ohio on October 14, 1842. At the age of 21 he came to Montana as an employee of Andrew Davis, who settled in Butte. They drove a herd of loose oxen and cattle as far as Atchison, Kansas then continued on with a wagon train loaded with merchandise to Virginia City. The wagon trip took four months and seven days and ended in Virginia City on August 7, 1864. During the next year Alex worked odd jobs and then took up a claim at Ophir Gulch. After working the claim for two months he sold it for $150 and worked for the owners of the gulch for a few months. Alex then bought an ox team and began teaming, first at Henderson Gulch and then Philipsburg. He had a contract with the Hope Mining Company to haul 600 cord of wood at $3.00 per cord. Alex increased his outfit to seven yoke of oxen and three wagons and made good profits. In 1869 he took his stock to the lower valley for the winter and ended up deciding to stay in the valley and begin raising stock. He lived in the valley continuously for the next 59 years and increased his land holdings until he was the largest land owner in Granite county with a total of 10,000 acres. 

The obituary stated : 

“Wight was a small man about 5 feet 3 inches with broad shoulders and deep blue eyes. He was one of six children. It is said he was a very stylish man in his youth and had many a spinster’s eye on him. When he was 48, he returned to Iowa to visit his parents and met Catherine who was 20 years old. He courted her and wrote to her after returning to Montana. In 1891 Alex returned to Iowa to marry Catherine. Catherine (Haeger) was born in Germany February 6, 1866. Her father was preparing to bring his family to America when he died of smallpox. Her mother left homeless with six children decided to make the journey anyway. Catherine and one of her sister’s grew up on her uncle’s farm, near Wight’s parents. Catherine lived an active life and died at the age of 80.”

 Alex Wight died at his home near Stone May 14, 1928 at the age of 85. At that time, Alex was the president of the Granite Bank of Philipsburg. Survivors were: widow Catherine; sons Francis and Ernest; daughters Mrs. Ruth Hockett and Mrs. Mary Jensen. His funeral was held at the family home near Stone and then at the Methodist Church in Hall with internment at the Valley cemetery.. 

“The funeral procession was one of the largest ever seen in this county and it was estimated that nearly 200 automobiles were in the procession when it reached Hall.”

Alex and Catherine had six children. Ruth Wight Hockett, Eliza [who died at the age of eight from appendicitis in 1901], Francis William, George, Mary Ella Wight Jensen, Ernest and Catherine [who died as an infant September 1907.] Catherine is buried in the Valley cemetery, but there is no record of George’s burial so I assume he was buried in Catherine’s family plot in Iowa. George died of scarlet fever or asthma while they were on a trip to Iowa in 1904. The family returned to their home from Iowa on January 25, 1905 according to the Philipsburg Mail, January 27, 1905. 

Ruth Wight circa 1916

Ruth Wight married S.W. Hockett June 2, 1917 according to the June 8 Philipsburg Mail. Hockett had been the principal of Granite County High School for the past year. Research revealed where they moved with six children from Oskaloosa, Iowa in October, 1934 back to the “old Allan McDonald ranch” near Hall. 

The 1940 Federal Census shows Ruth as head of the household with daughter Carol 17, son Stanley 16 and daughter Walchine ? 13. Research fails to reveal an obituary or death of her husband S.W. 

Ruth, born October 23, 1891 died June 6, 1993 at 101 years in Great Falls and is buried in the Valley Cemetery.

 Keeping with this longevity Ruth's sister, Mary Ella Wight Jensen a life long resident of the lower valley died at the Granite County Nursing Home on May 26, 2011 at the age of 109. Mary provided me with a lot of history from the lower valley when I was writing the" Mettle of Granite County" Books. 

Born on January 14, 1902, at the family ranch near Hall, Mary was their sixth child. She attended a one room school house in Stone for her primary education and boarded with a Philipsburg family to complete Granite County High School. The only time she was ever seriously ill was during a Scarlet Fever epidemic while boarding in Philipsburg and was quarantined “until she was either consumed by the disease or well enough to go home to the ranch to recover.” 

Mary graduated from Granite County High School in 1921 with the class of Dora V. Huffman (Pennington), Humphrey Courtney, Elsie Hauck, Helen M. Kennedy and Matilda Saurer. After high school Mary attended Normal School where she obtained her teaching certificate. She first taught in Nimrod, Montana where there were 5 children in a one room school. Later she taught at Stone and New Chicago with 21 children in a one room school consisting of all eight primary grades. 

Emery and Mary Wight Jensen circa 1926

In 1926, Mary married Emery D. Jensen. They first lived in Philipsburg where Emery worked in Philipsburg and Granite mines. Then they took over one of the three ranches that had been homesteaded by her dad, Alex Wight. After 35 years Mary and Emery turned the main ranch over to her daughter Lois and husband Stewart Hauptman. Mary, Emery and son Wight continued to keep a small herd of cattle and American Standard and Tennessee Walking horses. She had 41 years of married life with Emery before his death in 1967. 

 Emery Jensen was born on September 29, 1897 to Mr. and Mrs. Hans Jensen at Hall. He was educated in Hall. The couple operated the family ranch until he retired and moved into Hall. Emery was a member of the Ruby Lodge in Drummond and a past patron of the Margaret Cumming Chapter of OES 57; a member of the Drummond Kiwanis and the Deer Lodge Shriners. He died at the age of 69 at Hall on September 9, 1967, just short of his 70th birthday and was buried in the Valley cemetery. 

 Mary was an eighty plus year member of the Margaret Cumming Chapter of Eastern Star in Drummond. She rode horse, a four wheeler and snow mobiles until late in her 90’s. She was preceded in death by Emery and her daughter Lois. Survivors were her son Wight; 4 grandchildren: David Hauptman of Drummond, Dwight Hauptman of Alaska, Dan Hauptman of Hall and Ruth Hauptman Linfield of Helena; and 11 great grandchildren: Blake, Ben and Ross Hauptman of Drummond; Mary, Joseph, Gregory and Ben Hauptman of Alaska; Alec, Holly and Logan Hauptman of Hall; and Kelly Wilson of Helena. Funeral services were held at the Hall Methodist Church with burial in the Valley cemetery on May 30th. 

Another siblings of Ruth and Mary was Ernest Wight. He was born April 13, 1903 and married Phyllis Stuart (1910-2000). Their son Mark Wight, born August 4, 1963, died in a motor cycle accident at the age of 19 on July 23, 1983. Ernest died February 6, 1993 just short of his 90th birthday from complications of a gastrointestinal bleed at St. Patrick’s Hospital in Missoula. He was survived by wife Phyllis and daughter Kathryn. Their oldest son William Stuart Wight, married to Carma, had died of cancer in 1984. All of the above are buried in the Valley cemetery. 

The Wight descendants continue to contribute to the history of the lower valley.