THE FLAHERTY PLACE, Our Yesterdays, Jefferson Co., MT USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Files may be printed or copied for personal use only. "List transcribed and organized by Ellen Rae Thiel, thieljl@aol.com All rights reserved." Copyright, 1998 by Ellen Rae Thiel. This file may be freely copied for non-profit purposes. All other rights reserved. THE FLAHERTY PLACE Two young Irishmen, John and Bill Flaherty, came west with Grandmother Yates on one of her many trips from Missouri to Virginia City. Grandmother Yates stopped at Cold Springs on the North Boulder where she took up a ranch, which was later taken over by John Flaherty as a homestead and patented about 1886. Bill Flaherty also took a homestead adjoining John s. John Flaherty fell in love with Elizabeth Murry, one of Grandmother Yates' granddaughters, and they were married October 13, 1872, in the Boulder Valley. Attendants at the wedding were James Parker, Jane Parker, and Mary M. Miller. They were married by C. W. Higley, Justice of the Peace. They lived on the Flaherty ranch. Bill Flaherty, John s brother, married in 1886 when the cattle were moved to Judith Basin area because of the dry summer. There he met his wife. People began to complain about the poor mail service. It only came once a week. About 1888, a post office was established at the Flaherty Ranch. It was called Cold Springs and the mail was carried three times a week. The post office was set up in the house. John and Elizabeth Flaherty had eight children; 7 sons - John, Ed "Society Ed", George, Bill, Charley "C.D", Jim and Dick; and one daughter - Ida. At the age of 16 or 17 Ida was helping move cattle to the hills and rode side saddle. On the way back they were racing and her horse took his head and scraped her along the barbed-wire fence cutting her legs so badly that she died as a result. When the Flaherty children and the children of other settlers became of school age, a school was established. At first there was a small school house built on the Flaherty place just west of the house, but later a new one was built about a mile north of the present ranch house on the Boulder road called the Cold Springs School. To the children it was known as the "knothole school" because the walls were built of knotty lumber and some to the knots fell out leaving small holes through which the snow sometimes blew, making little drifts on the floor. Edith Brenner, present owner of the ranch, taught the last two terms before the Cold Springs School Consolidated with Cardwell in 1923. After that a schoolbus picked up the children taking them to Cardwell. The Cold Springs ranch was a stopping place for the freighters hauling on the Virginia City-Bozeman route. They could stop there to feed and rest their horses overnight. The drives had fine times playing cards. The games usually lasted all night - but after a hearty breakfast they went on. At least the horses had rested for the next day's drive. Someone usually staked Mrs. Flaherty to a dime so she could play. Since Mr. Flaherty didn't see too well he didn't play cards. Sometimes after an all-night session he would be so provoked in the morning that he would throw the cards in the stove. Must have taken lots of decks of cards. It later became an overnight resting place because of the big corrals for the people driving cattle on long trips up and down the valley. John and Elizabeth Flaherty started married life with a small two-room cabin, but as their family grew and increased in size they added more rooms until they had a seven or eight room house. There brand for cattle was "14" on the left hip and a "upside down U with a dot in the center" on the left thigh for horses. It was a great place for baseball in the summer. Ed Flaherty, one of the sons, came home ill with cancer and died in 1923. Mrs. Flaherty also died that year. Mr. Flaherty lived until 1924, when somehow the house caught on fire when he was home alone one night. He burned up in the fire. The Post Office was then closed. Later C.D. Flaherty, the only one of the boys at home, moved in some buildings and made another house from them. Jess and Bernice Chambers and family rented the place and lived there for several years. Paul Brenner bought the ranch in 1948 from the Flaherty estate and lived there with his wife and family. He died in 1970. Edith Brenner and her son, Lawrence Foran, are now operating the ranch. SUBMITTED BY MRS. EDITH BRENNER