Robert Stavely Hamilton History of Montana,by Joaquin Miller, 1894 May be copied for non-profit purposes. USGENWEB Montana Archives Robert Stavely Hamilton, a respected Montana pioneer of 1864 was born in County Antrim, Ireland in 1839 a descendant of Scotch ancestry. Mr. Hamilton came to America in 1852 to make his own way in the world, at that time being a boy of thirteen years. He first located in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he served an apprenticeship to the hardware business and where he resided until 1856. In the spring of that year he came west as far as Minnesota, first stopping at Minneapolis and soon afterward going to Little Falls. At the latter place he engaged in the hardware business on his own account. He was also Postmaster there during President Lincoln's administration. He had made some investments in real estate, but as property declined in value and the town seemed dead, he closed out his business. From Little Falls, he went to Henry County Illinois and March 23, 1864 was married to Miss Mary Anges Fergus, daughter of James Fergus. Her father had come to Montana in 1862 with the Fisk expedition and settled at Bannack. The rest of the family, mother, three daughters and a son and Mr. Hamilton followed him soon afterward. Mr. Hamilton brought with him a set of tinner's tools and a small stock of hardware. He had two wagons and eight yoke of oxen and his mother-in-law also had a great number of ox teams and wagons. That year of overland emigration was large. Mr. Hamilton and his party chose the route up the Platte by Bridger's cut-off to Virginia City. After leaving the Platte they lost a number of their oxen, their cattle dying from the effects of poison weed they had eaten along the way. As the emigrants were in such large number the Indians made no attempt to molest them. After his arrival in Virginia City, Mr. Hamilton at once opened up his stock of goods and engaged in business. Prices were high and he made money on his hardware. From the first he became identified with the early history of the country, taking a hand with the law and order of the state and doing his part to rid the country of the road agents and murderers who infested it at that time. He remained at Virginia City until 1870 when he sold out and came to Helena. Here for a time he was engaged in loaning money. In 1875 he returned to Little Falls being accompanied on this trip by his family and while there traded his Little Falls property for 225 head of cattle that were on the Madison. This was the commencement of his large cattle business in which he has since continued. Although his operations have at times been attended with losses, his business has proved a success and has resulted in an ample fortune to him. Today he is ranked with the wealthy men of Montana. His sons are with him in business and so large are the herds that roam over their broad acres that they scarcely know how many cattle they have. Mr. Hamilton has also bred a large number of horses and is now giving special attention to the breeding of Norman-Percheron stock. For fifteen years Mr. Hamilton has been on of the directors of the First National Bank of Helena. While he has a nice home in the city of Helena, his lands and stock are in Fergus county, where he also has another fine home. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton have the following children, all born in Montana: Mary A., now the wife of Frank E. Hawksworth and resides in Helena; Robert Emmet, Thomas Moore and Robert S. Jr. USGenWeb Project NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format forprofit, nor for commercial presentation by any other organization. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than as stated above, must obtain express writtenpermission from the author, or the submitter and from the listed USGenWeb Project archivist.