Page 77 - Cornelius Hedges Story

For This And Succeeding Generations Gardiner 64

Even the once hostile Helena Independent wrote of him:
“…from the time when he first came to the state he was honored
with positions of trust by the people. Never did he violate those
trusts, but did the duty that devolved upon him with fearlessness
and rare ability.”231
In 1887, an Attorney named George Foote called on Hedges and
questioned his handling of public moneys as Probate Judge, and
attempted to accuse him of betraying a public trust. The charge was
made seven years after Hedges had last served as Probate Judge, but
it concerned him to the point that he laid awake most of that night
and was not satisfied until the next afternoon when he had located
all the old vouchers to account for every cent of money handled in
his five years in office.232 George B. Foote, was born in St. Lawrence
Co. NY on July 8, 1838. He received his education in that State and
studied Law. During the War he served as Inspector of Arms for
the U.S. Government¸ and in 1864 went to Helena, MT, erected the
seventh cabin in the camp, and engaged mining until 1867¸at which
time he became U.S. Deputy Surveyor a position he held for thirteen
years. He also held the office of county surveyor for several years. In
1881 he resumed the practice of law mostly as a land attorney.
The second cardinal virtue of Hedges’ life was brotherly love,
and along with it an undying faith in the essential goodness and
worth of mankind. Speaking of the qualities exhibited in Hedges’
writing.
Edward C. Day commented:
“And through it all runs as a clear, limpid stream that grand
characteristic of his life Brotherly Love, that love which is broad
enough and wide enough to embrace suffering humanity everywhere
and to seek for its amelioration.”233
A complement to brotherly love was Hedges’ third and perhaps
most important cardinal virtue-charity. Judge Hedges held a more
inclusive concept of the meaning of charity and what constituted
charity than is held by most of us. To most of us charity involves
some form of the distribution of material wealth to the indigent
or unfortunate, but to Hedges it meant much more. His ideas on
charity are brilliantly expressed in his Masonic writings, but more
important to him those ideas were translated into beneficent actions
in his daily life.