Page 192 - Cornelius Hedges Story

179 The Cornelius Hedges Story

lived nearby, in what was then the best residence portion of the
city and attended that church. And when the new Methodist church
was erected on Broadway, I gave the address at the laying of the
cornerstone and contributed to its erection, teaching in its Sunday
school and acting as one of the trustees. Rev. A. M. Hough was
then and for some time thereafter the pastor of the church. Another
minister, Rev. Pritchard of the M. E. Church, South, was here in
the summer of 1865, a very eloquent pulpit speaker and excellent
man, who held services and drew large audiences to Crescent Hall
on what was then Lower Main street. Bishop Daniel S. Tuttle of the
Episcopal Church early began making visits in Helena and found
hosts of friends and admirers among people of all denominations.

There is no conflict of authorities as to tile fact that to Rev.
Sheldon Jacobson of the Presbytery of Iowa belongs the credit of
making the first attempt to establish a Presbyterian church in Helena,
and that as early as the summer of 1869. There exists a somewhat
apocryphal reminiscence of that event and a list of the names of
the few so called members, including one male member, James
Witherspoon, familiarly known as 'Limber Jim," being very tall and
with a slouchy gait, who soon after returned to Yankton, Dakota.

For some reasons not fully understood that first attempt to
establish a church of our denomination failed. Probably the
prevailing reason was the uncertainty that Helena would ever be
anything more than a transient mining town. There were no titles
to any real estate here at that time, except possessory right, and the
mining right to dig anywhere for gold was held superior to any
other possessory right. During the mining era our population was
extremely fluctuating. Government title to our townsite was not
acquired till late in 1869, and then only subject to existing mining
rights. For the first ten years, roughly estimated, Helena was chiefly
a mining camp, resembling the New Jerusalem only in one respect,
that its streets were paved with gold, a misfortune in our case, for
this paving was torn up and run through sluice boxes. By the end of
the first decade, Helena had become the de jure as well as de facto
capital and other interests in the city had become permanent and
paramount and population was settled.

The purpose of establishing a Presbyterian Church in Helena,
though it had slumbered for three years, had never been abandoned.
Rev. Sheldon Jackson returned in the summer of 1872, better
equipped than on his former visit.