Roosevelt's legacy: The rest of the story
Last month I wrote a story about Teddy Roosevelt’s many connections to the Flathead Valley and the remnants of those relationships here that still exist, from his cattle brand to a well-worn pair of leather chaps.
After the piece was published in the Daily Inter Lake, I got a few calls about other artifacts the 26th president left behind in the Flathead, so I thought I’d share what I learned.
Frank Noble of Kalispell pointed out the pump organ in the lodge room of the Kalispell Masonic Lodge was given to the lodge by Roosevelt in 1904, the year the Masonic Temple was built.
Roosevelt likely attended lodge meetings with his good friend Bill Merrifield, who had ranched with Teddy in North Dakota and relocated to Somers. As the story goes, Teddy was so impressed with the lodge he had the organ sent to the Kalispell Masons.
Then there’s Teddy’s saddle on display at the Miracle of America Museum in Polson. It was donated to the museum by Mrs. Jack Winkley about 15 years ago, according to museum founder Gil Mangels.
The saddle dates back to the early 1900s, when the Ant Flat Ranger Station south of Fortine became one of the region’s first year-round ranger stations in 1904. Roosevelt appointed his good friend Fred Herrig, a decorated Rough Rider, as the station’s first ranger.
Teddy apparently gave Herrig one of his saddles, and after Herrig retired Jack Winkley bought the famous saddle.
I mentioned in my original story that Alicia Conrad, the wife of Kalispell founder Charles Conrad, was said to have told her circle of friends that Roosevelt had lunch at their Kalispell mansion.
Bob Brown of Whitefish, a former Montana Secretary of State and state Senate president, tracked down some additional information on the Conrad connection in James E. Murphy’s book, “Half Interest in a Silver Dollar: The Saga of Charles E. Conrad.”
Brown has studied Roosevelt extensively and is the one who connected many of the dots between Teddy and the Flathead.
Murphy notes that when Roosevelt came to visit Merrifield he also visited at the Conrads. The Conrads’ youngest daughter, also named Alicia, “remembered him as very talkative and very vivacious,” Murphy wrote. He included an insightful passage from daughter Alicia:
“My father was very fond of him (Roosevelt) and a great admirer of his. He would be a guest in our home, depending on which way he was traveling. He would hold the floor with his delightful way of speaking, because, of course, he was an accomplished speaker and had a lot to talk about. So I could remember him best at dinner at the dinner table, and this is my early memory because this must have been important ... I felt a very great warmth of friendship for Roosevelt, but I expect he brought that out in everybody.”
As further evidence of Roosevelt’s importance to the Flathead, Brown noted that the American Legion post in Whitefish bears his namesake — Teddy Roosevelt American Legion Post 108 — and is, as far as Brown can ascertain, the only such post in the country named after the president.
One other possible connection that I haven’t been able to verify is that a rug from the Oval Office at the White House, dating to Teddy’s years as president, ended up at the O’Brien home in Somers where timber tycoon John O’Brien lived. It’s quite possible, since by 1910, the year after Roosevelt’s presidency ended, the Somers Lumber Co. sawmill was the largest in the region.
It’s fun to imagine how Roosevelt’s path crossed in so many places and ways in the Flathead Valley. There are probably other connections he had here so long ago, but these added tidbits help us know the rest of the story.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.