Ashley was named for Joe Ashley, one of the earliest settlers in the valley who owned property there.
In 1884 a post office was established, but after Jim Hill chose the site of Kalispell for the section point on the new railroad, the growth of Kalispell eventually engulfed Ashley.
Ten-year old R. H. (Harry) Vose, son of O. L. Vose, arrived at Ashley with his family in 1889. He described the community they found:
“Ashley was just a trading post of one general store …that stocked blankets, Indian moccasins and an assortment of clothes and a shelf of patent medicines. The owner was Jerry D. Plume, but everyone called him ‘Pills’. There was also a one-story log place called a hotel that served meals and sleeping rooms…. There were probably no more than ten or twelve houses in the whole place.”
“In Ashley one day father found a good-sized hewed log building and made a deal with the owner to rent it. Along with father’s other trades he was a good blacksmith, and there was need for someone who could shoe horses, repair wagons, and make brands for horses and cattle. His first job was for a man [named Flinchpaw] who had lost all of his fingers in an accident except his little finger and thumb and he wanted a brand made the shape of what was left of his hand…. He put the hand on a piece of paper and father traced the outline and made a brand to match it. This brand and many others were burned on the flat surface of the log wall of the shop.”
(Flathead Pioneers, Flathead County Extension Clubs, 1968)
History courtesy of Northwest Montana Historical Society in Kalispell, MT. Text is from a newly installed History of the Flathead Valley exhibition at the Museum at Central School, 124 2nd Ave E, Kalispell, MT
Connections to the past make real estate more remarkable (if not genuinely more valuable). In some cases, the history of a place remains well cared for, where it is hardly forsaken – rather, flaunted. Yet other places seem disconnected from the past and almost devoid of any historical significance whatsoever.
Perhaps there is no other place more important – and more forgotten – than the once-was town of Ashley, Montana (now part of Kalispell).
Some reckon the town of Ashley was named after “president” Ashley, as in William H. Ashley, the former president of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company.
Others believe it was the namesake of “governor” Ashley, as in James Mitchell Ashley, the governor of Montana Territory, who was hired and soon fired by President Ulysses S. Grant.
Yet the more accurate origin of the name involves a more ordinary Joe, as in Joe Ashley – a trader who arrived in the Flathead Valley in the 1840s, and for whom Ashley Creek is named.
Thus, some pinpoint Ashley at the place where Meridian Road now crosses over Ashley Creek. Others place it near the roundabout along the U.S. Highway 93 bypass at Foys Lake Road, near the Great Northern Historical Trail. However, Ashley was much bigger, in importance, size and place.
First, the early “Indian trading camps” (which preceded the town) weren’t always in the same spot along the creek. And early travelers didn’t always reckon the same exact spot at “the west of the valley above the lake.” Also, early homesteads were best measured by 160-acre allotments. And figuring there were more than a dozen families around “Ashley” at the time (each with their own 160-acre homestead), Ashley was indeed a broader sense of place.
If you’ve noticed in the mention of the previous facts, Ashley had more than a few chapters in its history book, long before the Great Northern Railway arrived. For example, a few scattered families fled the place during the era of the Blackfoot raids (1850s). It was a place marked on a map from 1870 that showed a “half-breed settlement” where an old “Indian trail” crossed Ashley Creek.
Ashley was also the place where at least one preacher (Rev. George McVey Fisher) pried open the window of schoolhouse to get inside and keep warm while making a missionary sojourn in the 1880s. Incidentally, in December 1887, Reverend Fisher moved into a 280-square-foot log cabin near Ashley, where he, his wife, and daughter lived. The Fishers were contemporaries of “Ol’ Nick Moon” – a pioneer who was known as the first person to plant and irrigate crops in the Flathead.
And during the 1890s, “chinking bees” were about as common as “hangin’ bees” (both having nothing to do with flying insects). It was a time when neighbors survived together, while outlaws, no-gooders, and other garden-variety heathens often died alone.
Yet nowadays, there’s not much spoken about Ashley, and not much left to be seen. Some 150 years ago, Ashley proved how hard it was to reach and settle in the Flathead Valley. Today, what’s left of Ashley proves the difficulty in getting excited about a traffic roundabout, asphalt and drainage culverts.
However, these modern-day markers of the bygone town of Ashley are still surrounded in history and the curiosities of the past. And prove an important lesson to learn from the past when it comes to real estate and modern living: connections to the past can be invaluable — and forsaking history can bear a hefty price.
Article Written by Jaix Chaix, use Courtesy of Flathead Beacon
In 1884 a post office was established, but after Jim Hill chose the site of Kalispell for the section point on the new railroad, the growth of Kalispell eventually engulfed Ashley.
Ten-year old R. H. (Harry) Vose, son of O. L. Vose, arrived at Ashley with his family in 1889. He described the community they found:
“Ashley was just a trading post of one general store …that stocked blankets, Indian moccasins and an assortment of clothes and a shelf of patent medicines. The owner was Jerry D. Plume, but everyone called him ‘Pills’. There was also a one-story log place called a hotel that served meals and sleeping rooms…. There were probably no more than ten or twelve houses in the whole place.”
“In Ashley one day father found a good-sized hewed log building and made a deal with the owner to rent it. Along with father’s other trades he was a good blacksmith, and there was need for someone who could shoe horses, repair wagons, and make brands for horses and cattle. His first job was for a man [named Flinchpaw] who had lost all of his fingers in an accident except his little finger and thumb and he wanted a brand made the shape of what was left of his hand…. He put the hand on a piece of paper and father traced the outline and made a brand to match it. This brand and many others were burned on the flat surface of the log wall of the shop.”
(Flathead Pioneers, Flathead County Extension Clubs, 1968)
History courtesy of Northwest Montana Historical Society in Kalispell, MT. Text is from a newly installed History of the Flathead Valley exhibition at the Museum at Central School, 124 2nd Ave E, Kalispell, MT
Connections to the past make real estate more remarkable (if not genuinely more valuable). In some cases, the history of a place remains well cared for, where it is hardly forsaken – rather, flaunted. Yet other places seem disconnected from the past and almost devoid of any historical significance whatsoever.
Perhaps there is no other place more important – and more forgotten – than the once-was town of Ashley, Montana (now part of Kalispell).
Some reckon the town of Ashley was named after “president” Ashley, as in William H. Ashley, the former president of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company.
Others believe it was the namesake of “governor” Ashley, as in James Mitchell Ashley, the governor of Montana Territory, who was hired and soon fired by President Ulysses S. Grant.
Yet the more accurate origin of the name involves a more ordinary Joe, as in Joe Ashley – a trader who arrived in the Flathead Valley in the 1840s, and for whom Ashley Creek is named.
Thus, some pinpoint Ashley at the place where Meridian Road now crosses over Ashley Creek. Others place it near the roundabout along the U.S. Highway 93 bypass at Foys Lake Road, near the Great Northern Historical Trail. However, Ashley was much bigger, in importance, size and place.
First, the early “Indian trading camps” (which preceded the town) weren’t always in the same spot along the creek. And early travelers didn’t always reckon the same exact spot at “the west of the valley above the lake.” Also, early homesteads were best measured by 160-acre allotments. And figuring there were more than a dozen families around “Ashley” at the time (each with their own 160-acre homestead), Ashley was indeed a broader sense of place.
If you’ve noticed in the mention of the previous facts, Ashley had more than a few chapters in its history book, long before the Great Northern Railway arrived. For example, a few scattered families fled the place during the era of the Blackfoot raids (1850s). It was a place marked on a map from 1870 that showed a “half-breed settlement” where an old “Indian trail” crossed Ashley Creek.
Ashley was also the place where at least one preacher (Rev. George McVey Fisher) pried open the window of schoolhouse to get inside and keep warm while making a missionary sojourn in the 1880s. Incidentally, in December 1887, Reverend Fisher moved into a 280-square-foot log cabin near Ashley, where he, his wife, and daughter lived. The Fishers were contemporaries of “Ol’ Nick Moon” – a pioneer who was known as the first person to plant and irrigate crops in the Flathead.
And during the 1890s, “chinking bees” were about as common as “hangin’ bees” (both having nothing to do with flying insects). It was a time when neighbors survived together, while outlaws, no-gooders, and other garden-variety heathens often died alone.
Yet nowadays, there’s not much spoken about Ashley, and not much left to be seen. Some 150 years ago, Ashley proved how hard it was to reach and settle in the Flathead Valley. Today, what’s left of Ashley proves the difficulty in getting excited about a traffic roundabout, asphalt and drainage culverts.
However, these modern-day markers of the bygone town of Ashley are still surrounded in history and the curiosities of the past. And prove an important lesson to learn from the past when it comes to real estate and modern living: connections to the past can be invaluable — and forsaking history can bear a hefty price.
Article Written by Jaix Chaix, use Courtesy of Flathead Beacon