Gordon C. Vineyard
History of Montana,by Joaquin Miller, 1894
USGENWEB Montana Archives
May be copied for non-profit purposes.

Gordon C. Vineyard, a Montana pioneer of 1864, now residing 
in Anaconda, was born in Missouri, March 13, 1836. He is of 
German descent. His grandfather, George Vinyard, was a 
Virginian and a soldier in the Revolutionary War, enduring 
all the hardships of that memorable winter at Valley Forge. 
His wife was of Scotch descent, and in their family were 
eleven children. John, their oldest and our subject's 
father, was born in Virginia, November 22, 1791. He married 
Melinda Witt, also a native of Virginia, the date of her 
birth being March 16, 1808 and in 1833 they removed to 
Missouri and located near Booneville, Cooper County, 
where they owned and operated a farm. Later they removed 
to Tipton, Moniteau County, that state, where they spent 
the residue of their lives and died, his death occurring 
in 1855 and hers in 1858. Both were members of the Methodist 
Church and by their daily lives showed they were Christians 
of the truest type. They had eight children, of whom four 
are living.Gordon C. was their sixth child. He received 
his education in Missouri, residing there to his twenty-
eighth year. He was interested in a store and was under 
sheriff of Moniteau County from 1859 to 1862. The latter 
year he entered the Confederate service, as a member of 
Captain Wallace W. Williams' company, but was soon taken 
prisoner and was paroled after which he came to Montana. 
His journey hither was made up the Missouri River on the 
steamer Welcome as far as Milk River and from there on 
the Fort Benton to Fort Benton, arriving at the latter 
place July 2, 1864. He engaged in mining at Alder gulch 
and at the Last Chance for one season.Mr. Vinyard had 
been married January 17, 1861 to Thursa A. Finley, a 
native of Missouri and a daughter of William Finley 
who was born in Tennessee; and when he decided to 
remain in Montana, she came here to join him, bringing 
her son Walter. This son is still living and is their 
only child. In June 1865 Mr. Vineyard, with two other 
men, went to Fort Benton with teams to join their 
families. About that time an Indian had been killed 
by a white man and hisbody had floated down the river
 and lodged on a bar near the fort. Mr. Vineyard 
helped to pull him out of the water.Excitement ran 
high, the Indians being greatly exasperated over 
the murder of one of their number. Their families 
not having arrived, Mr. Vineyard and his friends 
and some freighters, nineteen in all, proceeded 
down the river tothe mouth of the Marias, where they 
met with an adventure that will never be forgotten 
by any of the party. TheBurris party were down in 
that vicinity getting out logs with which to build 
a warehouse , when they were attackedby Blackfoot 
Indians and all killed--eleven in number. Mr. 
Vineyard and his company heard the firing and went 
to their relief, but arrived too late to be of any 
service. All they could do was to bury the bodies, 
which they did.That night they camped at the mouth 
of the Marias. Fearing an attack from the Indians, 
they prepared to sell theirlives as dearly as 
possible. They, however, were not molested but 
that night some Indians came to their camp, and 
although professing to be friendly, caused the 
white men great uneasiness. Soon after this Mrs. 
Vineyard and the rest of the party arrived and 
they made their journey back to Helena in safety.
For a number of years Mr. Vineyard continued 
mining, operating in: Grizzly Gulch, Tucker gulch 
and Big Indianand had a claim of his own in the 
last name camp. He was also one of the discoverers 
of Mitchell Gulch where he mined one year meeting 
with fair success; but built a ditch there in which 
he sank all he had made. After this heagain mined 
at Big Indian, with success, remaining there until 
the fall of 1870 when he again went to Helena. In 
1871 we find him in the Race Track diggings and 
later at Warm Spring and the following year he 
turned his attention to farming near where Anaconda 
is now located and had the misfortune to have his 
crop destroyed by crickets. He was not discouraged, 
however and his next venture was to purchase a 
squatter's claim of Mr. Huskill. Again he broke 
ground and planted a crop and again his crop was 
destroyed. At this juncture he was obliged to 
leave his wife and child on the land he had 
purchased and go and work in the mines for their 
support. Later, he homesteaded 160 acres of land 
east of and adjoining the town of Anaconda. Here 
he was successful raising excellent crops of 
potatoes and oats and selling his product for 
good prices, continuing here until 1874. At that 
time he and a partner built another ditch, which 
proved a failure. They then removed to Phillipsburg 
where he mined and cut wood and they remained three 
years, moving back to the ranch. 

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