W.H. Byrd Recommends Friends Move From Western North Carolina to Montana, 1910

Do you have a relative who moved from North Carolina to Montana in 1910 or 1911? Perhaps this letter to the editor by W.H. Byrd was behind the move. “Letter from Roundup, Montana,” was printed in the Watauga Democrat , Thursday, June 30, 1910.

 Mr. Editor: I take this method to give you and other friends in Watauga a peep at old Montana, the land of cattle and sheep, wolves, prairie dogs and mosquitoes. The sheep herder and cow girl; the land of vim and git, and where a shilling is called a “bit.”

I am located at Roundup, the infant town that has just cut its two-year-old teeth. It is located on the Musselshell river in Furgus county on the Milwaukee railroad. There are four coal mines in full blast, each mine working three shifts of hands, each shift working eight hours. They get $3.60 each, while many make from $8 to $10 by contract. The coal is of a high grade and there seems to be no end to it. The town has about 35,000 population, six hotels, eight lodging or boarding houses, 15 restaurants, 18 saloons that are kept open day and night, two drug stores, two bakeries, two blacksmith shops, six livery stables, two auto garages, two laundries, three ice cream parlors, two newspapers, one theatre in which there is a performance each night, a city judge, major and four policemen.

The language here is as badly confused as was that of the builders of the Towel of Babel. However, the people are generous, with open hearts, open hands and open pocket-books, and do not mind to give six bits or a buck to a Poll in hard luck.

“But oh!” I heard some one say, “those horrible saloons.” Yes, they are here, with three cold storage houses for beer, representing three of the largest breweries in the west, each running one or two wagons daily delivering beer. Everybody drinks beer out hear the same as the people of the South drink water or milk. “But,” says one, “oh, the drunkenness.” No, the town has but little trouble with drunkards. I have seen more sand raised, hollowing and cursing from one quart in North Carolina than I’ve seen here with 18 saloons.

You young men who have got to get your start by your labor, come out to Montana. It is evidently the best state in the Union for wages and opportunities. Common laborers get $3.50 for 8 hours; carpenters $5; brick masons $6; while a blacksmith gets $2.50 for shoeing a horse. This is destined to be a great farming country. Steam and gasoline plows are running day and night. The land is being taken up as fast as it is opened, and the people are flocking here from all parts of the world.

                --W.H. Byrd, Roundup, Mont.