Page 32 - Cornelius Hedges Story

19 The Cornelius Hedges Story

In January, 1865, Cornelius Hedges moved on over to Last
Chance Gulch and the infant settlement called Helena City, arriving
in town on January 16.56 Thus he took up residency in a town he
was to call home for more than 42 years. The town grew to be the
capital city and it also grew to appreciate Cornelius Hedges and his
unselfish contributions to its development. Soon after arrival, he
“stuck out his shingle,” and opened a law practice with a library
containing only one book, Everybody’s Lawyer, so he was to later
tell his former townsmen at Independence, Iowa.57

He was admitted to the Montana Bar by the Montana Territorial
Supreme Court in 1865,58 and in the same year began serving his
first term as U.S. Attorney.59

In 1875, Cornelius commented on an account of his first case
in Helena:

“The first law suit in Helena, before Squire Miles was an
action of forcible entry and detainer over a jumped town lot, in
which’ Cornelius Hedges as a regular editorial writer on July 4,
1872, and as the Justice reserved his decision, not being very
clear either as to the law or the facts, the lot in the meantime,
by a sort of a compromise, was sold for the benefit of the
attorneys.”60
Hedges also worked a mining claim in the summer of l865 to
supplement his law income. It was located in the Mount Hope Lode
on the east side of Grizzly Gulch.61
During l865, Hedges also became chiefly responsible for
organizing a Masonic Lodge under dispensation, with the able
assistance of Mark A. Moore. It was only the third Masonic Lodge
organized in Montana, and it was chartered by the Grand Lodge of
Colorado as Helena City Lodge No. 10 in the same year.
“The inestimable Cornelius Hedges,” as William C. Campbell
referred to him, was chosen Worshipful Master upon organization
and again at the election in December, l865, he was elected to serve
another year as Master of his Lodge.62
During April of 1865, near its close, news was received in
town of Lee’s Surrender, and the Union folks, then in a minority,
determined to celebrate the event, but not flag was to be found in
the country. There was no little trouble in finding enough Union