Archives West Finding Aid

Charles Diggs Greenfield was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1857. After the Civil War he went to Denver where he worked as a newspaper reporter for the Denver Tribune. In 1883 Greenfield moved to Helena, Montana, and worked first as a printer and then as a reporter for The Helena Independent. He also helped write M.A. Leeson's 1885 History of Montana. Sometime thereafter Greenfield became editor of the Montana Record. In 1916 he was appointed Montana Commissioner of Agriculture and Publicity. In 1921 he worked as a development agent for the Great Northern Railway and helped build the Chinook Sugar Factory. Greenfield was a Democrat and served as a member of Montana's Fifth Legislative Assembly. In 1918 he acted as secretary of the Montana Council of Defense. Active in Helena's community life, Greenfield served on both the library and school boards. Greenfield married Marietta McBrine of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1881. They had four children: Marguerite, Charles Diggs, Jr., Marietta, and Thomas Loughran. Charles Diggs Greenfield, Sr., died in Helena on November 25, 1934.

Charles Diggs Greenfield, Jr., was born in Helena, Montana, in 1885. He graduated from Helena High School in 1903. Between 1907 and 1919 Greenfield worked as a newspaper reporter for The Helena Independent and the Montana Record Herald. In 1919 he accepted a position as Montana Director of Publicity and farmed in the Helena valley. In 1923 he joined the office of Montana Life Insurance Company (later Western Life), where he worked in various capacities until his retirement in 1960. In succeeding years Greenfield wrote numerous historical articles for such publications as True West and Frontier Times. He was elected to the Lewis and Clark County Commission (1954-1960) and was a long-time member of the Helena Kiwanis Club. He also received a U.S. Weather Bureau award for keeping precipitation records over a forty-year period. Greenfield married Anna Elizabeth Nelson, daughter of Henry H. Nelson of Vandalia, Montana, in 1913. They had three children: Henry, Ann, and William. Charles Diggs Greenfield, Jr., died in Helena on September 26, 1975.

Marguerite Greenfield was born in Helena in 1883. She graduated from Helena High School in 1900. In 1911 Marguerite started a wholesale and retail ice business, the Independent Ice Company, in Helena. She expanded in 1922 to Elk Park pond on the Continental Divide fifteen miles from Butte. Marguerite sold her business in 1934, and later ran the Ox Shoe Treasure Shop east of Helena. She wrote fiction and nonfiction and was a charter member of the Helena Landmarks Association. Marguerite Greenfield never married. She died in Helena on August 11, 1968.