Lee Mantle
MONTANA GENWEB ARCHIVES 
May be copied for non-profit purposes. 
History of Montana,by Joaquin Miller, 1894  

Hon. Lee Mantle, of Butte City, is a native of Birmingham, 
England, born on the 13th day of December, 1853,springing 
from one of the old English Families. His parents were 
Joseph and Mary Susan (Patrick) Mantle. The youngest of 
their seven children was the subject of this sketch, born 
after the father's death, which left the family in limited 
circumstances. The great burden of caring for a family of 
young children the widow bore courageously and successfully. 
They all came to America when Lee was in histenth year, 
settling at Salt Lake City. He was "placed out" to work for 
his board and clothes and for four years hewas employed in 
herding cows and on the farm. At the age of sixteen he was 
still working on the farm and received $50 for that year's 
service, including his board. The Union Pacific was then 
completed to Utah and he proceeded to the point where the 
men were at work on the road and obtained a job of driving 
team, hauling ties, and he was thus employed when the Union 
and Central Pacific railroads met,at Promontory, in Utah and 
were completed in 1869. The following year he packed his 
blankets and walked to Malad City,a distance of one hundred 
and twenty-five miles, where he met B.F. White, since the 
Governor of the Territory of Montana, who gave him a job in 
driving oxen, hauling salt from his salt works in the 
mountains of Eastern Idaho to Virginia City, Montana and 
to Boise city, Idaho. After following this occupation for 
two years, he chanced to meet on one of the trips W.N. 
Shilling, now a banker in Ogden, who at that time was 
telegraph operator at Malad, Idaho and young Mantle made 
an agreement with him to learn telegraphy, on condition 
that he (Mantle) should keep the line in repair through 
the winter. He learned rapidly and acquired considerable 
reputation on the line for his capability, energy and 
promptness and finally was given the position of general 
repairer on the main line between Ogden and Green river on 
the Union Pacific Railroad for the Western Union Telegraph 
Company. After serving in that capacity fourmonths, the 
company gave him an office on the overland stage line 
between Corinne, Utah and Helena, Montana. His station 
was the old Williams Junction, just across the Idaho 
line, where he was also the local agent for the 
Gilmore and Salisbury Stage Company. During the following 
summer he returned across the line to the old Pleasant 
Valley Home station on the apex of the Rocky mountain 
range, where he purchased the station and was telegraph 
operator.Postmaster and stage agent, and also acquired 
an interest in the old Beaver Canon toll road. In 1877 
he sold out his interests there and came to Butte City 
and opened the Wells-Fargo express office. Two years 
later he was given charge of the first telgraph office 
opened at Butte and also became the first insurance 
agent there. Hard work in all these responsible positions 
caused his health to fail, and being advised to enter 
some outdoor employement, he became a partner of William 
Owsley (afterwards Mayor of Butte) in the livery 
business. In 1880 he became an active participant 
in the affairs of Butte City and one of the champions 
who fought through all the opposition and secured the 
incorporation of the city. Accordingly he was made one 
of the first Alderman.He organized the Inter-Mountain 
Publishing Company and began the publication of the 
daily Inter-Mountain. Therehad been no Republican daily 
paper on the west side of the mountains in western 
Montana, and he became the business manager of the 
institution, which he has since filled in a manner 
that has secured the complete success of the undertaking 
and which has had much to do in shaping the politics 
and advancing the public interests of the western portion 
of his state. Mr. Mantle has all along been the principal 
owner of the paper and is still at the head of its 
management, occasionally doing editorial duty. In 1882 
he was elected a member of the Lower House of the 
Territorial Legislature. In 1884 there was a great 
struggle in this territory for the choice of delegates 
to the Republican national convention at Chicago. 
Governor SchuylerCrosby and Colonel Wilbur F. Sanders 
were on one side and Mr. Mantle and Major G.O. Eaton 
on the other. The contestwas very severe and resulted 
in the selection of Mr. Mantle as an Edmunds man and 
Colonel Sanders as a Blaine man.In the autumn of 1884 
he was nominated for the Lower House of the Territorial 
Legislature and was defeated by acombination of the 
gambling element which demanded a pledge that Mr. 
Mantle would not interfere with their calling--which 
pledge he declined to give. The majority against him, 
however, was very small. In 1885 when Governor Crosby 
was made First Assistant Postmaster General under 
President Arthur, his office as Governor of Montana 
was left vacant, and Mr. Mantle's name as presented 
for the place but the contest between the eastern and 
western portions of the Territory occasioned his 
defeat. In 1886 he as again candidate for the Legislature, 
was elected and took an active part in behalf of a 
registration law to secure honest elections. In 1887 
the Northern Pacific Railroad Company sought to 
secure from the Government patents to large grants 
of the valuable mineral lands in this Territory. 
The people being aroused on the subject, held a mass 
convention at Helena to devise means for the 
prevention of such gigantic fraud. The Mineral 
Land Association was formed and Mr. Mantle was 
made its permanent president and such a vigorous 
fight was made that the issuance of patentsto the 
railroad company was stopped and has never since 
been revived. Subsequently, the supreme court of 
the United States sustained the people against the 
railroads in this manner. In 1888 Mr. Mantle was 
again elected to the Lower House and had the honor 
of being elected its Speaker. This wasthe Sixteenth 
and last Territorial Assembly. During this session 
as he was very active in passing a registration law 
and the Australian ballot law. In the succeeding 
autumn, Mr. Mantle had the honor of nominating 
Thomas H. Carter for Congress who was elected by a 
large majority. In 1889 Montana was admitted into 
the Union. In 1890 Mr. Mantle was a candidate before 
the first State Legislature for the United States 
Senate and was defeated in the caucus by only two 
votes, Senator Thomas C. Power being his successful 
competitor. In 1890 he as made chairmanof the 
Republican State convention held at Butte. In the 
spring of 1892 he was candidate for Mayor of the 
city of Butte and was elected by a very large 
majority.While in this office the enterprise of the 
city public library was pushed forward, the plans 
for the buildings devised and the contracts let. 
In May 1892 he was made temporary chairman of the 
State convention, held at Missoula to send 
delegates to the National Republican convention 
at Minneapolis. In the fall of 1892 Mr. Mantle was 
made permanent chairman of the Republican State 
convention held at Great Falls to nominate State 
officers. At the same time he was made chairman of 
the Republican State Central Committee; and this 
committee secured the election of Governor Rickards 
and Republican supremacy in the State. In 1893 the 
Republicans in the StateLegislature were in a 
minority and at the first caucus of the party 
Senator Sanders and Mr. Mantle were candidates
for the caucus nomination for the United States 
Senate, the former receiving the nomination by 
one vote. He wasvoted upon for three weeks in the 
Legislature without being elected and finally Mr. 
Mantle was made the caucus nominee and received 
the vote of his party until the Legislature 
adjourned iwthout an election. When Senator 
Sanders' term expired, Governor Rickards promptly 
appointed Mr. Mantle to fill the vacancy; but 
the United States Senate refused Mr. Mantle his seat, 
nominally on constitutional grounds, yet it was 
generally believed that two other reasons largely 
actuated the Senate; the one being t hat Mr. 
Mantle was a strong free-silver man and the other, 
that if he were not seated an extra session of 
the Legislature would be called and a Democrat 
elected.Seeing through the design, the Governor 
declined to call an extra session and the office 
was vacant for nearly two years. Since coming to 
Montana, Mr. Mantle has been very successful in 
all his business ventures. For nine years he and
Charles S. Warren were partners in real estate 
and mining and had a large business and possessed 
many vast interests in nearly every part of the 
state. Mr. Mantle's newspaper, mining, real esate 
and insurance business, connected with his 
exceedingly active political career, has kept 
him very busy, his success in all demonstrating 
him to be a superior man. He biult the magnificent 
Inner Mountain Block and various other valuable 
blocks, andhas never lost an opportunity to advance 
the interests of Butte City of the state of his 
adoption. He is the owner of the Birchdale stock 
farm, consisting of 2,500 acres, where he has 
many thorughbred and trotting horses and has taken 
a great deal of interest in the improvement of 
live stock throughout the state. Mr. Mantle is a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
Elks and the Knights of Pythias. Of the last he
was the first Grand Chancellor for Montana, and 
since its organization he has done all within his 
power to promote its prosperity. Thus we have 
endeavored briefly to outline the progress of 
the poor, uneducated, fatherless boy, from his 
small and humble beginnings to his present high 
position of honor and comparative affluence 
believing that it maybe an incentive to other 
poor lads to emulate his efforts to "get there". 
Early in his boyhood he became the support of 
his mother, and for her he has constantly cared; 
and now the venerable lady, in the eighty-
third year of her age, resides with her beloved 
son in the beautiful home which he has built for 
her in Butte City. He is still a single man and 
compartively young; and the writer of this sketch 
believes that there ewill be other and brighter chapters 
in his career for future historians, as he is evidently 
in every way worthy of such promotion--worthy of the 
highest honors that can be bestowed upon him by his 
fellow citizens.

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