PORTER - DALEY 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.

                           PORTER - DALEY PLACE

Jacqueline Higgerson was born December 28, 1851, in
Chancellorsville, Virginia. The civil war was very real and very
near for her when she was at a tender age just approaching
womanhood. The muffled road of the battle line and, at night, the
glow on the horizon from the war front were very frightening
indeed to young "Lena" Higgerson. Lean and her mother were sent
to stay with Lena's grandmother for a time for safe keeping. One
of Lena's grandsons once asked her if she ever met General Lee.

"I'm not sure about General Lee," she said, stopping to think,
"but I knew a Robert E. Lee."

Lean was pretty and petite, pixie type girl and was probably a
bit of a flirt. Many a lonesome soldier boy passing by would have
like to have Lena for his own. One day a Confederate officer came
by and he, like the other soldiers, was stricken by Lena
Higgerson. Lena looked at William Wallace Porter in his trim gray
uniform with his sword swinging at his side and knew he was the
one she'd been waiting for.

When not quite eighteen, Lena Higgerson married William Porter. 
Porter worked for a time in the woods of West Virginia. He
fashioned a river boat out of hard wood and stocked it like a
general country store and floated it down the White River, Ohio
River, and down the Mississippi toward New Orleans. By now they
had three children, Alice, William, Jr., and Dora, who was born
on the river boat. After this venture, he grounded the boat and
set about making it into a prairie schooner. When finished,
William and Lena Porter and children started overland for the
much talked of Northwest. Sometimes party of Indians would stop
them, but always they were able to satisfy the redskins with
various gifts from the Porter wagon.

There were hard times on the trail. Severe dust, rain, and hail
storms with high winds overtook them, and as it got later and
later in the season, a bad blizzard swept over them in Wyoming. 
At last, they reached Bannock, capital of the Montana Territory. 
Porter soon got into the business of freighting between Bannock
and Virginia City. It was so good to be settled at last where
there were other white people. They now had another child, a
little boy named John.

The Porters then moved to Elkhorn and from there to the North
Boulder Valley where, in 1882, William Porter took up a
homestead. These two people had always been strong willed
individuals with hot tempers that flared into quarrels and
unhappiness so they decided it would be better all around if they
separated. Lena went to cook at a nearby mining camp, the Ida
Mine. William stayed on in the Valley for a time, and then went
east taking the youngest son, John, with him. This was bitter
time for all and Lena grieved because her youngest child was
taken from her.

While working at the Ida Mine, Lena met Thomas Daley. Tom had
worked for a time for Pat Wickham at a mine in Colorado. It could
be he came to the valley because of his contacts with Wickham. 
He was born in Ireland, a small, neat, rather timid man, and Lena
Porter's trim neatness and capability appealed to this shy man. 
Perhaps the reticence and clean cut appearance of Tom is what
Lena wanted after all the turbulence she'd been through. (It was
said by some, in later years, that Tom never got to say much
because Lena did all the talking.) They were married in 1885. And
their only child, Annie, was born in 1886.

Daley farmed on shares with A. C. Quaintance for a season of two. 
In 1888, he put in a bid to the County to take care of the poor
at the County poor farm for $3.50 per person per week. G. L.
Powers bid $4.50 and W.T. Sweet $3.00. W. T. Sweet got the
contract.

So, after losing the bid for the poor farm, Tom took up a
homestead and he and Lena settled down to make their home. They
had a few milk cows, put up some hay, raised a good garden, and
had chickens and turkeys. There was market in both Elkhorn and
Boulder for their produce. Lena also made butter to sell, so once
a week or so they would hook up the team to the wagon and make
deliveries. It was hard work, but as Lena always said, "Work
never hurt anyone."

Lena was an important person in the valley because she was the
local midwife. Sometimes she would hardly have time to get home
and her things put away before there would be the sound of a
horse coming on a dead lope carrying a worried man to get her. 
She used to say that the Quinns, Murphys, Con Smith, and the
Dawsons were running a race to see who would have the next baby. 
More than once she told Mike Quinn she saw him before his mother
did.

One night at close to three in the morning, Lena and Tom woke to
hear a loud pounding on the door and a man shouting for Lena. 
She jumped out of bed in her long flannel nightgown and ran to
open the door.

"My God, Lena, hurry and come! My wife is in hard labor and the
babe is almost to be born!"

Lena hurriedly dressed and grabbed her bag while the desperate
father hooked up the buckboard. They took off at high speed. 
When they got to home and rushed in, the baby was already born
and squalling lustily. Lena sterilized her scissors over the
flame of the kerosene lamp and tied and cut the cord. She wrapped
the baby in a blanket, tended the mother, and then washed and
swaddled the little one. Without Lena's knowledge and fast
efficiency the baby and mother may not have survived. Most births
were matter-of-fact, and there would be a sweet new baby to
brighten a home. But as in all things, there was sometimes a
touch of sorrow. One afternoon, Lena was hoeing beans in her
garden when she looked up to see a horseman in the distance
loping toward her.

"Lena, will you come and see what you can do for my Mrs.? It's
long before her time but the labor pains are coming regular. 
Maybe you'll be able to stop 'em,' the rider said.

Lena collected her things, hooked up the buckboard, and followed
the worried father. When they arrived at the ranch house, she
hurried in to find the young wife in bed, pale, and frightened. 
Whenever a pain struck the sweat would gather on her brow. Lena
took a look at her and gathered pillows to elevate her feet and
told her to lie still and try to relax. After several hours, the
pains were almost continuous and very hard. Lena now knew she
could not stop this premature birth. Soon a tiny, tiny baby was
born and was much too small and weak to breathe. The young man
and his wife wept together as Lena quietly wrapped the babe in
swaddling clothes and lined a small box with cotton and blankets. 
The baby was buried not too far from the house.

When Lena came to deliver a child she always stayed a few days
afterward to tend the mother and new baby, and also take care of
the older children if there were any. In fact, she cooked and
cleaned for the whole family until they could fend for
themselves--a far cry from the modern obstetrician.

Many of her various grandchildren stayed with her at different
times. She was always good to them, but they had to do their
share of the chores.  As Lena had always said, "Work never hurt
anyone."

So the Daleys were very busy people during their time in the
valley. They finally sold their place and moved to Whitehall
where they bought a house with land enough for a large garden and
apple trees and some chickens.

In 1919, Thomas Daley died at the age of 90.

Lena stayed on in Whitehall and continued to raise fruit and
vegetables and chickens. Sometimes one of her various
grandchildren would live with her through the winter and go to
high school. She was strict with them, and if they stepped out of
line as teenagers they would really catch it. Until the last few
years of her life she was always busy doing something. She never
walked slow--she would jump up and fairly run from place to
place. She never lost her strong will and hot temper. When she
was mad at someone the very worst thing she could think to call
them was "a damn fool Yankee!"  She never quite forgave the
Yankees for the Civil war. All her adult life she smoked a corn
cob pipe with an occasional cigarette with no ill effects.

Jacqueline "Lena" Daley died in 1952 at the age of 101 busy
eventful years. Her place in the history of the North Boulder
Valley will long be remembered.

SUBMITTED BY MR. AND MRS. GEORGE DAWSON