We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
B.F. (Benjamin Franklin) O'Neal and Lena Marsh (pictured here) married in 1902. Both were natives of Michigan and migrated to Montana in the early 1880's where they met. B.F. and Lena's father, M.F. Marsh, bought and operated the Montana Hotel in Chinook for nearly 25 years.
The Fred Robinson Bridge was completed in 1959 at a cost of $718,000. The dedication drew an estimated crowd of 10,000-15,000 spectators. State Senator Fred Robinson, from Malta, spearheaded the four-decade push that eventually got the bridge built. The bridge opened up new north-south connections for residents along this part of the Hi-Line.
This view looking southwest over downtown Chinook shows the location of the former Montana Hotel (arrow points to hotel). Located at the corner of Indiana and 2nd Street, the hotel sat where the Alliance Church's offices and annex currently stand. Per the vehicles in the picture, the photo was taken sometime around the 1920's.
Columnist's note: Alert readers may recall the June, 2016 "Journal" story about the Fred Robinson Bridge and its dedication in 1959. The giant celebration drew an estimated 10,00-15,000 celebrants.
At the end of 2016 story I wrote, "Here's one interesting but somewhat mysterious connection between the bridge and Blaine County. Both the "Harlem News" and the "Chinook Opinion" reported, "The first person to walk across the bridge after the log was cut (like a ribbon cutting) and the bridge officially opened, was Mrs. Lena O'Neal, long-time resident of Chinook."
No one was able to explain (in 2016) who Mrs. O'Neal was and why she was the first pedestrian to cross the bridge. Any readers with more information about this person and her story are encouraged to leave a message for the reporter at the "Blaine County Journal." I never got further information about Lena O'Neal until recently.
Mid-August Michael Williams left a message for me at the "Blaine County Journal" that read "please call Michael about the Fred Robinson Bridge story." I wondered, "Could this possibly be about the mystery of Lena O'Neal?" By phone Michael said he and Norma Williams, his 88-year old mother and the granddaughter of Lena O'Neal, were trying to find the name of the bridge where the grandmother made her historical walk. Searching they came across the June, 2016 "Journal" story and decided to tell me what they knew about Lena O'Neal.
Here's some of what I learned of the history of Lena O'Neal.
Michigan adventurers reached
Fort Benton via river boat
Benjamin Franklin (B.F.) O'Neal, a native of Michigan, reached Fort Benton by river boat in 1882. He settled 20+ miles west of Conrad to farm and ranch. In 1888 O'Neal was elected sheriff of Chouteau County, a sprawling frontier county with just 3,000 residents. By his third elected term, in 1892, the county had swelled to nearly 11,000. At the end of his last term as sheriff he and a partner, John Greene, began operating the Grand Union Hotel in Fort Benton. Later, after a stint in the fuel business in Great Falls, B.F. moved to Chinook.
Franklin (M.F.) and Helen Marsh, also from Michigan, arrived via river boat in 1883 and settled in Ft. Carroll, south of modern day Zortman. Their daughter, Lena Olive Marsh, attended boarding schools in Helena and Deer Lodge. Lena Marsh and B.F. would soon meet and marry in Chinook.
Marsh and O'Neal
families in Chinook.
B.F. O'Neal came to the Chinook country in 1901 to take up a ranch on Clear Creek. In 1902 he ran for state senator and was defeated. That same year he married Lena Marsh. O'Neal soon partnered with his new father-in-law, M.F. Marsh, to operate the Montana Hotel in Chinook (the hotel was located where the Alliance Church currently has its offices and annex on Indiana Street).
Marsh and O'Neal's hotel was highly regarded. Thomas O'Hanlon was a pioneer entrepreneur and supporter of the town of Chinook. A newspaper story describing O'Hanlon's wedding in 1902 noted the wedding party "...repaired to the dining room of the Montana Hotel where Marsh and O'Neil had prepared one of the swellest of wedding breakfasts." O'Neal was elected mayor of Chinook in 1912, serving one term.
The partnership at the hotel lasted for about 25 years until Marsh's death in 1924. B.F. O'Neal's obituary described the Montana Hotel as "one of the best known stopping places in the state." The hotel was sold to a new owner in 1926 and O'Neal moved to his, then lived the last couple of years of his life in town. He died in 1929, thirty years before his wife, Lena.
After 20+ years in Chinook...
Lena's granddaughter thinks her grandmother moved to East Glacier "about 1940." Lena's mother died in 1942. Lena took care of her youngest sibling, Sandra, after their mother died. In 1951, per Lena's obituary, she moved to West Glacier.
See Page A2: Fred Robinson Bridge
That's likely where she was living when she attended the 1959 dedication of the bridge (she would have been 85 years old when she walked across the bridge). Lena died in the Whitefish hospital in 1962.
The last few months of her life Lena lived with her granddaughter Mrs. Ronald Loveall of Coram. (Mrs. Loveall was Sandra, the sibling Lena raised after their mother died). Granddaughter Norma Williams thinks Lena operated a café in either West or East Glacier for a time but has no knowledge of where or when it functioned.
Why Lena O'Neal was selected as the first pedestrian
to cross the Fred Robinson Bridge.
Rather than a 'ribbon cutting,' Governor Aronson and Senator Robinson used a two-man saw to cut a cottonwood log in half-a symbolic grand opening gesture. Then, mounted on horses the Governor and Harry Burns, a Chinook resident and chairman of the state highway commission, led a parade across the new bridge. Maybe Harry Burns knew Lena from her time in Chinook and invited her to walk first.
Governor Aronson was in the oil business, out of Sunburst, and may have traveled to Chinook on business and stayed at the Montana Hotel. Maybe the Governor stopped at the café Lena supposedly ran over by Glacier Park and knew here from there.
Or, maybe it was just pure coincidence Lena was standing there and someone involved with the ceremony simply said, "You walk first." Fact is, we know who Lena O'Neal was but we'll never really know why she was the first pedestrian to walk across the Fred Robinson Bridge.
