Page 58 - Cornelius Hedges Story

45 The Cornelius Hedges Story

On September 8, they began their return trip by rail to
Chicago, and then to Independence, Iowa, for a brief visit. They
left Independence on September 17, and reached Omaha the next
day. There they boarded the Union Pacific R. R, for Ogden, Utah
Territory, and at Cheyenne, they received the expected but sad news
of President James A. Garfield’s death. From Ogden they rode a
narrow-gauge railway to Dillon, and finally returned to Helena in
the evening of September 22.

In November, 1881, after 50 years of extensive reading and
writing as a lawyer, judge, newspaperman, and lover of books
and knowledge, his vision was weakening and he remarked in his
journal: “My eyesight is failing perceptibly, I can hardly read or
write… now without glasses.” 174

The year 1882 was the low point of morale in the remarkable
career of Judge Hedges. The cause of it was chiefly financial
difficulties, which were not infrequent during that year. His journal
entries for June 26 through July 5, tell of some of his financial
problems, but also of some relief brought about by an increase in
business and consequently a boost in morale. He closed his journal
for that year with “Good Bye to 1882. It has been the most miserable
year of my life. May God grant that I never see another like this.”175

The big excitement for Montana Territory in the summer of 1883
was the completion of the Northern Pacific as a transcontinental
railroad, and Hedges again was integrally involved. He was a member
of the committee which arranged the welcoming celebration on July
4 for the first railroad train to arrive in Helena.176 And on August
22, he was one of the few of the privileged local citizens who were
extended an invitation to attend the “Golden Spike” ceremony at
Gold Creek. Among the other Montana celebrities who journeyed
to Gold Creek on the special train consisting of the “St. Paul”,
Chief Engineer Anderson’s private car, and two cabooses were
Acting Governor and Territorial Secretary Isaac McCutcheon,
Chief Justice Decius Wade, Helena’s Mayor T. H. Kleinschmidt,
Colonel and Mrs. Wilbur F. Sanders, Samuel T. Hauser, Russell
B. Harrison, Nick Kessler , R. E. Fisk, and Samuel Langhorne of
Bozeman.177 McCutcheon, Kleinschmidt, Sanders, Hauser, Kessler
and Langhoren were Masons.