Willson Company Collection, 1912-1951

The Willson and Rich firm of Bozeman, Montana Territory, was a merchandising operation founded in 1866 by Loren W. Tuller and Charles V. Rich, both of New York. Encouraged by their friend, Lester S. Willson, Tuller and Rich pooled their resources to organize an expedition to Montana and establish a store. In company with Lester's brother, Davis, the partners left Canton, New York in May of 1866. After a stop in Omaha, Nebraska to purchase stock, the party crossed the plains and reached the new town of Bozeman on September 2, 1866. At first they sold goods out of a tent but by November of that year they rented space in a two-story log cabin owned by the local Masonic order. They continued in business at that location until Lester Willson arrived in the spring of 1867. He became the senior partner in the firm and, on the departure of Loren Tuller in the fall of 1867, the senior partner, changing the name to "Willson and Rich." The firm built a new store in 1868 and yet another in 1883. The firm underwent a variety of name changes throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century, including the "L.S. Willson Company" and, after Lester Willson incorporated the business in 1893, the "Willson Company." Willson sold the business in 1914, and it was eventually absorbed by the Croff's company of Sheridan, Wyoming, in June 1949.