Hugh O'Neil 1857 Arrival

 A pioneer of Montana and Deer Lodge/Granite County was my children’s Great-great-great grandfather, Hugh O’Neil. Born in Loughgee County of Antrim in Northern Ireland in 1831, he was proud of his family lineage and claimed descent from Red Hugh O’Neill. Hugh told his grandchildren of the banner of the O’Neil’s emblazoned with a bloody hand, and their battle cry “Red Hand to Victory”. Documenting that the descendents were in peril is recounted in a researched term paper for History 323, Hugh O’Neil, Montana Pioneer, written by Winifred M. Griffith, July 7, 1972. Ms. Griffith was the daughter of Bertha Hickey Fredrickson and a great- granddaughter of Hugh O’Neil. “He came to the United States as a young boy. According to the story he told his grandchildren, he got out of Ireland just one jump ahead of the British soldiers, who killed everyone in the immediate family they could catch. He came to America as a stowaway on a ship which landed in New York, where he almost starved to death before joining the Army. Although he was called Captain by the Irish miners, he probably was not an officer. It is probable that, like many another pioneer, he came out west with the army and took French leave of the military when gold was discovered in the area."

In preserved Montana history, the first mention of his name is in The Historical Sketch of Louis Maillet, which stated: “Maillet spent the summer of 1857 in the Bitter Root, part of the time working on the new Fort Owens. In November, Hugh O’Neil and a man named Ramsey came from Walla Walla, on their way to Fort Bridger. They wished to reach Colonel Johnson’s (Johnston’s) command, but were ignorant of the way, and moreover were afraid of the Mormons, who looked upon all gentiles as their enemies and feared the mountain men would induce the Indians to kill them and burn their property. O’Neil and his party therefore engaged Maillet to guide them to Fort Bridger. Traveling up the Bitter Root to Ross’s Hole, they crossed the main range and proceeded up the west side of the Big Hole Valley twenty miles. Crossing once more the main range to Salmon River, they came out near where Salmon city now stands. A few miles further up the river, O’Neil and Ramsey concluded to remain in camp among the willows and thick brushes, while Maillet went ahead to Lemhi to reconnoitre and find out if the Mormons were hostile….The Mormon’s tried to induce Maillet to remain with them (to no avail)…after leaving Lemhi the party traveled up the Valley twenty miles, crossing what was afterwards known as Grasshopper Creek (Bannack City). Proceeding to little Beaverhead, at the mouth of Blacktail Deer Creek, they met John Jacobs, an old mountaineer, who had a letter for Maillet which had been thirteen months on its way from his people in Canada….Jacobs gave such a terrible account of the Mormon scouting parties that O’Neil and his companions became discouraged and decided not to go on…O’Neil and Ramsey concluded to remain with Jacobs."

This account is continued in "A Sketch by Frank Woody", stating: “..in the fall of this year, Hugh O’Neil and a man named Ramsey, came to Hells Gate from the Colville mines on the Columbia River, and were employed by Mr. Brooks to put up two buildings with the timber cut the previous winter. These were the first houses put up in the Hell’s Gate Ronde” (now Missoula). Further research finds that one home was for Henry Brooks and the other one was for Neil McArthur. They also helped McArthur and his partner move their cattle to the newly erected buildings. But according to “Missoula, The way it was”, by Koebel (1972), the structures were never used as ‘a trading post, only as a stockyard for their livestock enterprise.” 

Hugh made it to Fort Bridger; became a teamster under the command of Colonel Johnstone, giving him the title Major and his story will be continued next week.