George Francis Stannard
Flathead County
History of Montana, Sanders, 1913

George Francis Stannard was born in a spot dedicated in 
the minds of must of us to romance, this being the Island 
of Guernsey, one of the Channel islands.  The date of his 
birth was the eleventh of November 1860 and his father was 
James P. Stannard, a native of County Wexford, Ireland.  
He was born in this country in 1814 and died there in 
1900 at the age of eighty-six.  The Stannard family had 
lived on their great estates in this part of Ireland 
since the time of Charles the Second, by whom the estates 
were granted to them.  James Stannard spent all of his 
life as an Irish landlord, having the care of a thousand 
acres of land, with the many tenants, the hundreds of 
petty worries, that daily perplex the mind of a large 
landholder.  His wife was Elizabeth Power, also a native 
of Ireland, having been born in Mallow, County Cork, 
Ireland in 1826.  She died in 1890 at the age of sixty-four.  
George Francis  Stannard was the thirteenth child in a 
family of fourteen, seven of whom were girls and seven 
boys.  As the seventh and youngest son, there was not 
much for him to look forward to in the way of inheritance 
so from his childhood he was prepared for a life different 
than his father's.

The early education of the young Irish boy was received 
in the Kingston school in County Dublin and upon 
completion of his preparatory work he was sent to 
Dublin University where he received his B.A. degree 
with the class of 1881 and continued his studies in 
the university in civil engineering.  With the intention 
of entering the Indian Engineering Service, he determined 
to take a course in Cooper's Hill College in Staines, 
England, but since the age limit has been lowered from 
twenty one to nineteen he only had one trial for 
entrance which was given by competitive examinations.  
Being unsuccessful he now turned to the military 
service and entered the Kilkenny Fusileers, receiving 
a commission as sub-lieutenant, or as we would say, 
second lieutenant.  He remained in the service for 
three years being attached to the sixth-fourth Regiment 
of the British Army.  Then feeling that the pay was 
not sufficient to justify his remaining in the service 
any longer he resigned from the army.  Soon afterwards 
he received an appointment as civil engineer at the 
Banff coal mines in Alberta, Canada.

As a consequence the month of June 1886 found him embarking 
on a steamer at Liverpool bound for Canada.  He arrived in 
Maple Creek ,Alberta, Canada on the 1st of July 1886 
feeling as though he were in a different world for not 
only the vastness and immensity of the country was a 
contrast to the bits of islands where his days had for 
the most part been spent but the crudity and roughness 
of the life was, in comparison with the culture and 
refinement of the civilization whence he came.  To his 
great disappointment he learned that the position which 
he had come to fill would not be open until January of 
the following year, and consequently there were six 
months that must be disposed of somehow.  He first 
visited Colonel McIllree, assistant commissioner, of 
the North Western Mounted Police.  While staying here 
he met Joe Conrad, a brother of W.J. Conrad and J. 
Howard Conrad.  These brothers owned ten thousand head 
of Texas cattle on the range near Cypress Hills in 
Alberta and they invited Mr. Stannard to go on the 
round-up with them.  Eagerly accepting this invitation 
to see one of the characteristic sights of the country, 
Mr. Stannard became so filled wit the spirit of cowboy 
life, that he offered his services as cow puncher and 
was accepted.  He received to his great delight, a 
salary of forty dollars a month and remained a cowboy 
for two years.  After loading steers on the Missouri 
River at Fort Poplar, which were destined for the 
markets at Chicago, he gave up the range and came 
over into the states expecting to get a position with 
T.D. Baker and Company at Fort Benton.

It was winter, however and there was no work to be hand, 
so he went on to Helena, with letters of introduction 
from Colonel Broadwater, Judge Hunt, C.S. Ashley, Judge 
Carpenter and others.  He remained in Helena during 
1887-88 and during this time he met T.J. Demars, of 
Frenchtown, near Missoula.  Mr. Demars took a fancy 
to the young Irishman on account of the fact that he 
spoke French fluently, having resided in Brittany 
form 1861 to 1870.  He insisted that Mr. Stannard 
come to Flathead and take the position as bookkeeper 
in the general merchandise store, which was located 
at the head of navigation on the Flathead River and 
was the first large store in the Flathead Valley.  In 
this position Mr. Stannard remained until the death 
of Mr. Demars, which occurred in 1889.  At this time 
the Missoula Mercantile Company purchased the store 
and Mr. Stannard turned to another line of business, 
this being real estate.

The first platting in Flathead Valley had been done by 
Mr. Stannard and he had acquired an interest in a vast 
are through Flathead Valley all of which he had platted 
himself.  He named the town site, Demarsville, and in a 
short time quite a small town had grown up.  In 1891 the 
engineers of the Great Northern Railroad surveyed lines 
for the transcontinental road, which was then being 
built, through the valley and laid out the town site 
of Kalispell, three miles to the north of the site of 
Demarsville.  Since Kalispell was thus made the 
railroad town it was natural that the population 
of Demarsville should transfer itself to the former 
town and hither also came Mr. Stannard.  He has 
since remained in Kalispell and the town has no more 
loyal citizen.  He continued the real estate business 
which he had begun as a resident of the Flathead 
Valley and added the insurance business.  In 1893 
he became associated with W.H. Griffin in the real 
estate business, the firm name being Griffin and 
Stannard and is now known as Griffin, Stannard and 
Johnson.

Mr. Stannard was married in Kalispell on the 20th of July 
1910 to Miss Jeanette Swaney, a daughter of Hugh Swaney, 
the public administrator of Flathead County, although he 
is an old resident of Missoula County and has spent the 
greater share of his life there.  Mrs. Stannard is a 
native of Pennsylvania.