In 1868 two youthful Civil War veterans, William G. and Charles E. Conrad, first stepped ashore at Fort Benton, Montana Territory, headwaters of navigation on the Missouri River. Their enterprise quickly lead to employment by I. G. Baker, owner of one of two trading companies then dominating transportation and commerce in the American and Canadian northwest. Four years later the brothers became partners in I. G. Baker and Company; in 1874 they bought the company. Expanding this virtual empire of riverboat and overland trade and diversifying into banking, ranching, mining, real estate, diplomacy and environmental concerns for the next twenty-eight years, the Conrad brothers played a vital part in the development of the West and of Montana in particular.
Born on August 3, 1848 to Maria S. (Ashby) Conrad and Colonel James Warren Conrad, William was the eldest of thirteen children. Charles was born on May 20, 1850, also on “Wapping,” the family’s plantation in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The Civil War of 1861-1865 took Colonel Warren to his Virginia militia regiment, while William and Charles grew up riding for the final two years of the conflict as volunteers with the 43rd Partisan Rangers and their legendary commander John Singleton Mosby.
Their home devastated by the war, William and Charles first headed north to New York and then over 3,000 miles [66 days] up the Missouri River to find opportunity in the burgeoning U.S. and Canadian west. With I. G. Baker, they soon owned much of the riverboat and ox-drawn freight wagon transportation system then opening the regions which would become Montana and Alberta, including all logistic support for the initial Northwest Mounted Police. In 1877, the same year as the Nez Perce War and other disastrous massacres on the U. S. side of the border, Charles was a successful negotiator for the peace treaty, Treaty No. 7, which ended warfare between the British government of Canada and the five tribes of the high plains.
Out of these connections, a young mounted policeman named James T. Stanford, then serving as administrative assistant to their famous commandant at the eponymous Fort Macleod, Alberta, and on diplomatic missions to Helena, Montana, met the Conrads. At the end of his Canadian enlistment, Stanford emigrated to Ft. Benton, accepted employment with the Conrad’s bank there, brought the rest of his family west from Nova Scotia, introduced his younger sister to Charles Conrad, and in 1881 became brother-in-law to the family. James continued his life as a banker, business leader and entrepreneur. In 1898, the Governor of Montana appointed Stanford Inspector General, with the rank of Colonel, on his General Staff of the Montana National Guard.
Understanding the coming impact of transcontinental railroads, in 1888-1891 the brothers sold their I. G. Baker & Co. interests in Canada and left Ft. Benton and found numerous businesses including Conrad Brothers, Inc., the Conrad Banking Company of Great Falls, Kalispell Townsite Company, Conrad National Bank of Kalispell, Conrad Price Cattle Company, Conrad Circle Cattle Company, and Queen of the Hills Mining Company, as well as the Montana towns of Conrad and Kalispell (where Charles built the home which is now a national historical site). Charles E. played an important role in preventing a threatened extinction of the great western buffalo herds by providing sheltered ranges for a select group on his Kalispell and other Flathead Valley lands. This breeding stock would later form a basis for 20th and 21st century herds in both Canada and the United States.
The Conrad brothers were also a presence in Montana politics. After serving as the first mayor of Fort Benton, and Choteau County’s delegate to the 1878 Montana Constitutional Convention, W. G. culminated his political career with an 1899 bid for the United States Senate, though he lost the nomination to “Copper King” William Clark. C. E., having reluctantly served as County Commissioner at Fort Benton in 1883, avoided the political limelight in favor of regional, national and international business interests.
After purchasing I. G. Baker & Co., the Conrad brothers invited their parents to join them at their western home, which Colonel and Mrs. Conrad soon accepted. They lived near their boys in Fort Benton from 1874 until their 1891 relocation (along with the families of their son, W. G., and son-in-law James T. Stanford) to Great Falls. There they continued to reside until the Colonel’s passing in 1894 at the age of eighty-two years, and Maria’s death ten years later.
William G. Conrad married Fannie Bowen of Virginia in 1876. The couple had five children: William Lee (who died at one year of age in 1878), Maria Josephine, Minnie Atkinson, George Harfield, and Arthur Franklin. They maintained homes in Great Falls, Helena, and in the area of the Conrad family’s original plantation near Front Royal in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Sometime before 1876, Charles E. Conrad married Sings-in-the-Middle, daughter of a Blackfoot leader of the North Peigan. The couple established their home in Fort Benton where their son, Charles Edward Conrad, Jr. was born in 1876. In 1878 Sings-in-the-Middle returned to her father’s tribe in Canada, where she died prior to 1881. C. E. Jr. remained in the care of his father to be educated in Canadian schools and at University in Montreal, where he married and remained until 1905 when he followed his father’s death by just three years.
Catherine Elizabeth Coggan Stanford had first immigrated to the U.S. from England to live with relatives in Boston where, in 1853, she’d met a widowed Nova Scotia businessman named James T. Stanford who pursued Catherine with long, passionate letters until their marriage two years later. The couple had four children: James T. Jr., Alicia D., George, and Harry P.. In mid-1879, Catherine travelled from Nova Scotia on the Steamer ‘Dacotah’ with her children, Alicia Davenport Stanford and Harry Penn Stanford, to Ft. Benton, Montana Territory, to join her eldest son, James T. Stanford, Jr.
After his father’s death in 1872, James T. Stanford enlisted in the then-newly-recruited Northwest Mounted Police, where his small income could help the family survive. At the end of his enlistment in Alberta, the stalwart James, now a trusted employee of the Conrad brothers’ I.G. Baker & Co., was able to bring his family to Fort Benton. There he introduced his sister Alicia “Lettie” to his patron-employer, Charles Edward Conrad, and saw them married two years later. Stanford’s brother George became an expert gunsmith and intrepid trans-Pacific sailor who traveled throughout the American West, Australia, and Asia before settling the rocky point named after him on the shores of Flathead Lake near Kalispell. Youngest brother Harry moved to Kalispell in 1891 and was soon chosen to be the new town’s first Chief of Police. He built a frontier home and large taxidermy studio and lived the rest of his active life as a naturalist, writer and historian.
Alicia D. Stanford ran a school for children and young ladies in Fort Benton until her marriage to Charles E. Conrad in 1881. Charles E. and Alicia D. Conrad had three children, Charles Davenport “Charlie” (born in Ft. Benton in 1882), Catherine “Kate” Conrad (born in Fort Benton in 1885), and Alicia Conrad (born in Kalispell in 1892). Charles E. Conrad died in 1902.
Alicia Conrad married Walter McCutcheon, an employee of the Kalispell Mercantile Company, in 1914. They had one daughter, Alicia Ann “Timmie,” in 1921. The marriage ended in divorce in 1924. Alicia’s second marriage was to George Henry Campbell of Great Falls. George Henry Campbell was born in 1890 to Mary L. Wardwell and Charles Henry Campbell of Westminster West, Vermont. Growing up on their ranch near Malta and moving into Great Falls for high school, George graduated from Yale’s Sheffield School of Engineering in 1910 and joined with his father as C. H. Campbell and Son, a central Montana land management firm. Volunteering in 1917-1918 he flew as a pursuit (fighter) pilot in the World War I Nieuport and Spad biplanes of the U. S. Army Signal Corps, Army Air Corps and American Expeditionary Force in France, earning charter membership in the Order of Daedalians and its Montana Chapter. After the war, he returned to the partnership with his father. Alicia Conrad and George Henry Campbell had one son, Charles Conrad Campbell, born in 1928. In 1933 the family moved back to Kalispell where Alicia’s hereditary Conrad home was her primary residence until her donation of it to the city as a National Historical Site in 1974, seven years prior to her death at the age of eighty-eight in 1981. George Campbell died in 1973.
The Conrad, Campbell, and Stanford Family Papers are an extensive collection of correspondence, business records, and objects from four generations of a very prominent family in Montana. The collection encompasses a broad range of topics, from immigration to travel journals, taxidermy to buffalo herds, and from the Kalispell Red Cross to the Conrad Bank. These papers tell a story of great poverty and wealth in a century of northwestern development which continues to impact both present and future. Among the first families to open and settle Montana Territory, the Conrads, Campbells, and Stanfords played significant roles in trade, transportation, peace-keeping, commerce, ranching, real estate, land management and the founding of towns.
The collection is divided into thirty-nine series, with each series containing the papers associated with a particular family member or business. Within a series, a subseries may identify the types of records, such as correspondence, financial records, ledgers, associated organizations, or objects.
The collection is divided into thirty-nine series:
Series I: Charles E. Conrad, 1.5 linear feet, 1871-1904
Subseries 1: Correspondence. 1.0 linear foot and 4 folders, 1871-1903
Subseries 2: Financial Records, Legal Documents, and Reports, 11 folders, 1887-1904
Subseries 3: Speeches and Writings, 1 folder, 1904
Subseries 4: Clippings, 1 folder, 1891-1902
Series II: William G. Conrad, 1.5 linear feet and 3 microfilm rolls, 1864-1951
Subseries 1: W.G. Conrad, 0.5 linear feet, 1890-1921
Subseries 2: W.G. Conrad Estate, 4 folders, 1915-1924
Subseries 3: Charles E. Conrad Estate, 1 folder, 1902-1919
Subseries 4: Fannie Conrad, 2 folders, 1890
Subseries 5: Business Interests, 0.5 linear feet, 1905-1947
Subseries 6: Clippings and Scrapbooks, 0.5 linear feet, 1896-1933
Subseries 7: W.G. Conrad, 1 reel of microfilm, 1878-1947
Subseries 8: W.G. Conrad Papers/Scrapbook, 2 reels of microfilm, 1864-1951
Series III: Catherine E. Coggan Stanford, 2.0 linear feet, 1821-1914
Series IV: James T. Stanford, Sr., 0.25, 1818-1867
Series V: James T. Stanford, Jr., 0.5 linear feet, 1871-1926
Series VI: Harry P. Stanford, 4.25 linear ft, 1874-1949
Subseries 1: Diaries, 0.5 linear feet, 1876-1937
Subseries 2: Correspondence, 1.0 linear foot and 10 folders, 1879-1944
Subseries 3: Clippings, 2 folders, 1881-1941
Subseries 4: Financial/Business Records and Legal Documents, 5 folders, 1884-1945
Subseries 5: Writings, Speeches, and Notes, 6 folders, 1874-1934
Subseries 6: Business Records, 0.5 linear feet and 3 folders, 1880-1939
Subseries 7: Scrapbooks, 2 items, 1874-1949
Series VII: Alicia D. Stanford Conrad, 17.75 linear feet, 1873-1965
Subseries 1: Correspondence, 5 linear feet plus 2 folders, 1873-1927
Subseries 2: Personal and House Account Financial Records, 2.5 linear feet, 1885-1925
Subseries 3: Legal Documents, 8 folders, 1890-1923
Subseries 4: Speeches and Writings, 2 folders, 1923
Subseries 5: Address and Guest Books, 2 folders, 1896, 1914
Subseries 6: Guardian, 0.5 linear feet and 5 folders, 1903-1917
Subseries 7: Conrad Memorial Cemetery, 0.5 linear feet, 1903-1965
Subseries 8: Ranch, 0.5 linear feet, 1905-1916
Subseries 9: Red Cross, 5 folders, 1917-1919
Subseries 10: Trustee, 1.5 linear feet and 3 folders, 1889-1939
Subseries 11: Women's Auxiliary and Women's Guild, 1 folder, 1893-1908
Series VIII: Alicia Conrad Campbell, 3.5 linear feet, 1893-1965
Subseries 1: Correspondence, 2.5 linear feet, 1898-1961
Subseries 2: Financial Records and Legal Documents, 1.0 linear foot, 1913-1965
Subseries 3: Reports and Writings, 2 folders, 1904-1906, 1923
Subseries 4: School Records, 1 folder, 1902-1912
Subseries 5: Baptismal and Wedding Records, 1 folder, 1893, 1914
Subseries 6: Address and Autograph Books, 1 folder, undated
Series IX: Charles D. Conrad, 3.25 linear feet, 1901-1936
Subseries 1: Correspondence, 2.0 linear feet, 1903-1936
Subseries 2: Financial Records and Legal Documents, 1.0 linear foot, 1901-1934
Subseries 3: Charles D. Conrad/Logging, 0.5 linear feet, 1929-1932
Series X: Catherine Conrad Van Duzer, 0.25 linear feet, 1897-1934
Subseries 1: Correspondence, 2 folders, 1897-1929
Subseries 2: Financial Records and Legal Documents, 4 folders, 1904-1934
Subseries 3: Writings, 1 folder, 1899
Subseries 4: School Records, 2 folders, 1901-1911
Series XI: Walter M. McCutcheon, 0.5 linear feet, 1914-1922
Subseries 1: Correspondence, 5 folders, 1914-1922
Subseries 2: Financial Records and Legal Documents, 3 folders, 1916-1922
Series XII: Conrad Mansion, 1 linear foot, 1895-1920
Series XIII: Buffalo Block, 0.75 linear feet, 1907-1922
Subseries 1: Correspondence, 2 folders, 1910-1922
Subseries 2: Financial Records and Legal Documents, 4 folders, 1907-1922
Series XIV: A. D. Conrad Building, 0.5 linear feet, 1909-1922
Series XV: Campbell-Beebe Company and Montana Corporation, 0.5 linear feet, 1913-1963
Subseries 1: Campbell-Beebe Company Records, 1913-1963
Subseries 2: Montana Corporation, 1916-1949
Series XVI: Conrad Brothers Corporation, 3.25 linear feet, 1891-1925
Series XVII: Conrad Corporation, 0.75 linear feet, 1919-1940
Series XVIII: Conrad Holding Company, 1.0 linear foot, 1921-1968
Series XIX: Conrad Investment Company, 0.5 linear feet, 1896-1929
Series XX: Conrad National Bank, 0.5 linear feet, 1892-1934
Series XXI: Conrad Price Cattle Company, 1.0 linear foot, 1890-1923
Series XXII: Conrad Townsite Company, 1.0 linear foot, 1908-1936
Series XXIII: Conrad City Water Company, 0.25 linear feet, 1900-1937
Series XXIV: Kalispell Townsite Company, 1.0 linear foot, 1891-1937
Series XXV: Kalispell Corporation, 1.5 linear feet, 1911-1941
Series XXVI: Montana and Idaho Investment Company, 4.25 linear feet, 1910-1947
Series XXVII: Financial Records of Conrad Brothers Corporation and Kalispell Corporation, 2.0 linear feet 1893-1938
Series XXVIII: Queen Mining Company, 6.0 linear feet, 1882-1963
Series XXIX: Valier Land and Water Company, 0.75 linear feet, 1910-1958
Series XXX: Conrad Circle Cattle Company, 1.5 linear feet, 1897-1936
Series XXXI: Conrad Buffalo Herd, 2.0 linear feet, 1900-1928
Series XXXII: Alicia D. Conrad Estate, 0.5 linear feet, 1903-1928
Series XXXIII: Charles E. Conrad Estate, 19.0 linear feet, 1887-1966
Subseries 1: Letter books, 1902-1918
Subseries 2: Business correspondence, 1902-1944
Subseries 3: Financial records, 1887-1966
Subseries 4: Legal records, 1900-1934
Subseries 5: C.E. Conrad business records, 1905-1954
Subseries 6: Lieu Scrip, 1897-1932
Subseries 7: Tax records, 1923-1949
Subseries 8: Personal material, 1881-1931
Series XXXIV: Family Businesses and Personal Papers, 0.5 linear feet, 1890-1953
Series XXXV: Northwestern National Bank, 0.5 linear feet, 1886-1954
Series XXXVI: George H. Campbell, 48.0 linear feet, 1849-1966
Subseries 1: Financial Records and Legal Documents, 1900-1966
Subseries 2: George Campbell, Personal Records, 1863-1966
Subseries 3: Abstracts and Agreements, 1887-1962
Subseries 4: Charles C. Campbell/Phoebe Huggins, 1951-1956
Subseries 5: Charles C. Conrad Correspondence, 1906-1966
Subseries 6: Charles Conrad Campbell: Legal Documents and Financial Records, 1895-1966
Subseries 7: Legal and Financial Documents, 1851-1966
Subseries 8: Scrapbooks and Memorabilia, 1849-1940
Subseries 9: Oversize Items, 2 oversize boxes, 1856-1944
Series XXXVII: Photographs, 13.5 linear feet, 1852-1968
Series XXXVIII: Artifacts [deaccessioned]
Series XXXIX: Unprocessed Maps, 4.0 linear feet, circa 1930s
Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of the K. Ross Toole Archives, the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, and The University of Montana--Missoula.
Researchers are responsible for using in accordance with 17 U.S.C. and any other applicable statutes. Copyright not transferred to The University of Montana.
[Name of document or photograph number], Conrad, Campbell, and Stanford Family Papers, K. Ross Toole Archives, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana--Missoula.
Several members of the Conrad, Campbell, and Stanford families contributed materials to this collection from their personal holdings. In addition, a few family members helped locate and secure materials from the families' business associates and friends.
Gifts of Conrad family, 1973; Robert Sullivan, 1982; and Janyce Taylor, 1989
The actions of the original processors are unknown. In 2000, the collection was reprocessed. Formerly divided into four segments (LC 113, LC 185, sc 16, and sc 353), the collection was physically rearranged and fully re-described.
In December 2024, Series XXXVIII: Artifacts was deaccessioned and transferred to the Conrad Mansion Museum in Kalispell, Montana. A list of deaccessioned artifacts is available upon request.
During original processing numerous published materials were transferred to the Mansfield Library general collections. These materials range over an array of topics and include 34 books; 16 short magazine collections; 8 maps; 28 pamphlets; and assorted Montana-focused articles, flyers, and memorabilia.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
Consists of Charles E. Conrad’s letterpress books as well as individual pieces of incoming and outgoing business-oriented and personal letters
Financial Records, Legal Documents, and Reports includes financial records such as receipts and legal documents including leases, deeds, items pertinent to C. E. Charles' estate, as well as a report on the Britannia Copper Syndicate.
The W.G. Conrad Subseries includes his biographical information, his general correspondence, financial records, and legal documents. The documents in Subseries 1 predominantly relate to family businesses: including Queen of the Hills Mining Company, Conrad Bank, mineral claims, taxes, and leases. The architectural plans for his home in Great Falls are also included.
This subseries includes W. G. Conrad's will, deeds, and other legal documents pertaining to the division of his estate.
This subseries contains the will, deeds and other legal documents dealing with the division of assets between the families of C. E. and W. G. Conrad after C. E. Conrad's death.
This subseries contains the last will and testament of W.G. Conrad's wife, Fannie, dated 1890.
This subseries contains financial records and legal documents pertaining to W.G. Conrad's interest in the Conrad Brothers, Conrad City Water Company, Conrad Corporation, Conrad Investment Company, Conrad National Bank, Conrad-Price Cattle Company, Conrad-Stanford Company, Conrad Townsite Company, Conrad Trust and Savings Bank, Ponderosa Valley Bank, and the Valier Land and Water Company.
Including lists of Conrad Land in Flathead and Lincoln Counties.
Includes statewide newspaper coverage of 1899 Senate campaign and personal scrapbooks.
W.G. Conrad microfilm contains three rolls of microfilm, which duplicate most of the material contained in the six Subseries. Reel #2 has two identical copies.
Materials are arranged chronologically.
This subseries contains two rolls of microfilm copies of papers and scrapbooks-some frames on these reels duplicate materials in other portions of the collection.
Series III contains the personal letters, diaries, financial records, legal documents, and newspaper clippings of Catherine Elizabeth Coggan Stanford, mother of Alicia D. Conrad. Catherine lived with C. E. and Alicia until her death in 1904. Catherine's papers include correspondence with her family in England, poems, her short stories and efforts to have them published, as well as travelogues of her many river trips, including her move from Rochester, NY, to Fort Benton, Montana in 1879. The papers are arranged chronologically. Objects such as hair and a fabric bag have been separated from the folders and placed in Series XXXIII: Artifacts.
This series contains the papers of James T. Stanford Sr., husband of Catherine E. Stanford and father to Alicia D. Conrad. Two folders of correspondence along with business cards, certificates, and clippings regarding J. T. Stanford Sr.'s business interests are contained within the series. This series also includes personal letters to his family and four pages from an 1818 arithmetic text.
These papers are arranged chronologically.
James T. Stanford, Jr., oldest brother of Alicia D. Stanford, became a trusted business associate of Charles E. Conrad. Series V includes personal correspondence, diaries from James T. Stanford's enlistment with the Northwest Mounted Police, day / cash and invoice books, assets and advertising for the Northwestern Bank of Great Falls, personal assets, programs, drawings, and writings. Objects originally in this series such as leather wallets were separated and placed in Series XXXVIII: Artifacts.
The materials are arranged chronologically.
Harry Penn Stanford, born in 1868 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, came with his family to Fort Benton in 1872. Harry resided in Kalispell where he worked as a taxidermist and wrote prolifically. His papers consist of business and personal correspondence, news clippings, financial records, scrapbooks, and taxidermist's drawings and instructions. An expert on birds and Western wildlife, his scrapbooks and drawings include detailed information on different species of the area.
The series contains seven Subseries.
Diaries contains Harry Stanford's notes regarding his travels, including his trip from Rochester, New York, to Washington and Jefferson City en route to Fort Benton in 1879. The diaries also include notes on his hunting and camping trips, as well as copied poems and stories. This Subseries also contains a diary by Thomas T. A. Boys from Fort McLeod, dated 1876.
Correspondence predominately contains incoming correspondence regarding both business and personal issues. Some correspondence deals with efforts to stop a bill that would allow summer homesteads on national forest lands. Letters include correspondence with Charles M. Russell, George Bird Grinnell, Angus MacDonald, and other well-known naturalists and Montanans. An envelope of hair was removed and placed in Series XXXVIII: Artifacts.
Clippings includes two folders of news clippings on various subjects.
Financial/Business Records and Legal Documents includes receipts, thrift stamps, stock certificates, hunting and fishing licenses, taxidermist licenses, citizenship papers, deeds, affidavits, and petitions.
Writings, Speeches, and Notes, consists of reports on fish and wild game, written by Stanford and William Flynn. Stanford's writings also include narratives on taxidermy and stories about "old-timer" Montanans. The subseries also contains various poems and stories copied from other sources.
This subseries includes notes, drawings, catalogs, and business cards, and account books. A card box indexes the information on each taxidermy project Harry Stanford completed. The cards, arranged in two sets in reverse chronological order, have flags on top to indicate the first letter of the owner's last name. Information contained on each card includes: species, condition, description of work, tag number, freight paid, date delivered, date returned, credit on account, out date, paid in full date, finished date, and owner name. Subseries 6 also contains volumes of taxidermy order books. Two taxidermy tools, a hole punch and small knife, were separated and placed in Series XXXIII: Artifacts.
These scrapbooks contain collections of articles, printed drawings dealing with taxidermy, and western animal species. They also include newspaper clippings about members of the Conrad family, Charles M. Russell, and other prominent Montanans and themes in the state's history. Loose material such as pamphlets and unsecured clippings necessitated separation into acid-free folders.
A native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Alicia ("Lettie") Davenport Stanford was born in 1860 and immigrated to Fort Benton with her family in 1879. After her husband, C. E. Conrad, died in 1902, Alicia D. Conrad served as executrix of his estate. An astute businesswoman, she remained involved in the Conrad family businesses until her death June 24, 1923.
The series contains eleven Subseries. Each Subseries is arranged chronologically.
General Correspondence includes business and personal correspondence. A majority of the letters and telegrams are incoming, though some carbon copies of outgoing correspondence are included. The Subseries also contains indexed letterpress books of Alicia D. Conrad's outgoing mail dated 1902-1918.
Financial Records contains check registers, detailed expense books, insurance records books, and personal financial journals. The records deal with Alicia D. Conrad's personal and household expenses. The insurance information also includes detailed accounts of her rental properties.
Legal Documents include deeds, bill of sales, contracts, agreements, and household documents.
Speeches and Writings contains various undated notes and the eulogies to Alicia D. Conrad.
Address and Guest Books consists of a guest book, a guest book/gift register, hotel register from The West Hotel, and an address book.
This subseries contains financial records regarding expenses for her children after her husband's death.
Includes documents pertaining to the establishment and upkeep of the Conrad Memorial Cemetery in Kalispell, Montana.
This subseries consists of financial records regarding the Conrad's ranch near Kalispell, Montana.
This subseries pertains to Alicia D. Conrad's participation in the Kalispell Chapter of the American Red Cross. Mrs. Conrad acted as chairman from 1917-1919. The items include incoming and outgoing correspondence, financial records, membership reports, and instructions.
This subseries contains financial records of the properties administered by Alicia D. Conrad as trustee for her children. It also contains one financial journal detailing account and inventory records.
Also includes French lessons in beginning of book
Includes financial records of the Women's Auxiliary and Women's Guild in Kalispell, Montana.
Alicia Conrad McCutcheon Campbell was born June 21, 1892 to Charles E. and Alicia D. Conrad. The series contains correspondence, financial records, legal documents, reports, and speeches and writings, and school records.
The series contains six Subseries, arranged chronologically.
Correspondence includes both incoming and outgoing personal and business correspondence.
Financial and Legal Records contain check registers, financial statements, including mortgage and loan records, and legal documents for Alicia Conrad Campbell.
Reports and Writings consists of a stockholders report and several poems written by Alicia Conrad Campbell.
School Records consists of report cards, a penmanship workbook, and a dance card from a Junior prom, dated May 24, 1912.
Baptismal and Wedding Records includes Alicia Conrad Campbell's baptismal certificate, Marriage certificate (to Walter McCutcheon), and a list of wedding gifts received.
This subseries contains one undated address book and an autograph book with a few pages of names, good wishes, and addresses on them. It also contains an undated scrapbook with various memorabilia.
Charles Davenport "Charlie" Conrad, the son of Charles E. and Alicia D. Conrad was born September 29, 1882 at Fort Benton, Montana. He attended grade school in Kalispell and then left to attend the St. John's Military Academy in Manlius, NY. He spent his high school years at the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy in Andover, MA. Upon graduation from Exeter he returned to Kalispell. On March 12, 1907 he married Kokoa Baldwin, the daughter of a prominent Kalispell businessman; they had two children, William (Billy) and Kokoa. The couple divorced in 1915, and Kokoa and the children moved to Los Angeles, California. Charles took over several of his father's business interests, including the presidency of the C. E. Conrad's estate. He remarried on July 14, 1919 to Agnes Hannaman and the couple resided in Montana. Charles D. Conrad died on February 9, 1941.
The series contains three Subseries, each arranged chronologically.
Correspondence includes both incoming and outgoing correspondence, primarily of a business orientation.
Financial Records and Legal Documents consists of check registers, bankbooks, abstracts of title, deeds, certificates, affidavits and decrees. Much of the material deals with Charles D. and Kokoa Conrad's divorce and custody issues.
Contains correspondence, financial records, and legal documents pertaining to Charles D. Conrad's logging interests.
Born in 1885 in Fort Benton, Montana Territory, Catherine ("Kate" or "Bertie") Conrad Van Duzer was the second child of Charles E. Conrad and Alicia D. Conrad. She attended grade school in Kalispell and then enrolled at the Hills Academy in Spokane, Washington. She finished her schooling at the Delafield-Colvin Finishing School in Boston. In 1908, she married Egbert "Bertie" Van Duzer, an employee of the Missoula Mercantile Company. Catherine resided in Kalispell with her husband until her death in 1935.
The series is divided into four subseries.
Correspondence includes incoming and outgoing business correspondence.
Financial Records and Legal Records includes check registers, and various legal documents.
Writings contains the personal writings of Catherine and a travel journal from Alicia D. Conrad.
This subseries contains various composition books and school related material concerning Catherine.
In 1914, Walter Montgomery “Wally” McCutcheon married Alicia Conrad [later Alicia Conrad Campbell from 1928 to 1981]; and in 1921 became the father of their only child, Alicia Ann “Timmie” [later Alicia Ann Campbell, then Alicia Byers, and then Alicia Campbell Vick.] The McCutcheon couple divorced in 1923.
The series contains two Subseries.
Correspondence consists mainly of incoming business letters regarding McCutcheon's ranching business. A few outgoing letters and incoming personal letters are also present.
Financial Records and Legal Documents contains receipts, lists of assets and indebtedness, bankbooks, and check registers. The Subseries also includes hunting licenses, certificates, insurance policies, court documents, and affidavits.
C.E. Conrad hired the noted architect, Kirtland "Kirt" Cutter to design his home in Kalispell. Construction on the mansion began in 1892 and was completed in 1895. The home rests on seventy-two acres and consists of three stories with twenty-six rooms, including a library and a music room. Cutter also designed the landscaping around the mansion. The Conrad family lived in the home until 1928 when Alicia Conrad McCutcheon married George Campbell and moved to Great Falls, leaving the home unoccupied. It remained vacant from 1928 until 1933, when Alicia and her husband George returned to Kalispell and resumed residence there. In 1975 Alicia Conrad Campbell donated the mansion to the city of Kalispell and assisted in restoration work to restore it to its original grandeur. In 1976 the Conrad Mansion National Historic Site Museum officially opened to the public.
The series consists of receipts pertaining to the construction, upkeep, and furnishing of the Conrad mansion along with a book listing the furnishings of the house and a shelf list for the library. It includes the daily time reports for employees; the daily chores, who completed them, and how long each task took. It also includes an undated architectural rendering by E. L. Fiske.
The "Buffalo Block" was a grand, two-story brick store and office building situated at the northwest corner of the intersection of Main and Third streets in downtown Kalispell, Montana. Alicia commissioned the building through the C. E. Conrad Estate in 1910 and hired architect A. J. Gibson to design it. Funds generated by the sale of buffalo on the Conrad's ranch provided the majority of the money for the construction. To honor the buildings beneficiaries Alicia decided on the name Buffalo Block. In 1922, the C. E. Conrad Estate sold the building to Mr. W. G. Elliot. Elliot owned the building until a fire destroyed it in 1976.
The series is divided into two Subseries.
Correspondence contains incoming and outgoing letters regarding the construction, upkeep, rent, and sale of the Buffalo Building.
This subseries contains check registers for the C.E. Conrad Estate's "Buffalo Block" account, bankbooks, and detailed expense reports. The Subseries also includes bids and contracts to construct and remodel the building.
Acting as executrix of her late husband C.E. Conrad’s Estate, Mrs. Alicia Davenport Conrad commissioned construction of the A.D. Conrad Building in 1910, and hired A.J Gibson as its architect. Situated at block 209 on Kalispell’s Main Street adjoining the “Buffalo Block,” the foundations for both buildings were contracted together. This series contains that contract as well as an outgoing business correspondence book, time books, earnings statements, and a small quantity of legal documentation.
This series contains outgoing business correspondence along with time books and earning statements. The series also contains a small amount of legal documentation.
This subseries contains income tax documents for the company.
This subseries contains general tax records for the business.
W. G. and C. E. Conrad created the Conrad Brothers Corporation to manage their business interests. The brothers jointly ran the corporation until C. E.'s death in 1902, after which William assumed full control. William managed the company until his death in 1914, whereupon Alicia's brother James T. Stanford and George H. Stanton, a businessman from Great Falls assisted Alicia until the company's liquidation in 1920.
The bulk of this series consists of business documentation. Incoming and outgoing business correspondence, along with financial documents such as ledgers, check registers, tax documents, and various other financial papers are included. The series also houses legal records such as, agreements, indentures, and contracts relative to the Conrad Brothers business holdings. A very small portion of this series contains various records relating to the Conrad Brothers cattle brands.
This series consists of incoming and outgoing business correspondence; the majority directed to J.H. Edwards and G. Harfield Conrad (one of William G. Conrad’s two sons.)
This series houses documents relating to the Conrad Holding Company. Incoming and outgoing business correspondence comprise the bulk of the material but financial records including stock ledgers, annual reports, and tax records are included. A small portion also contains various legal records.
In 1886 the Conrad brothers purchased eleven blocks of land in present-day Ponderea County. This initial investment developed into the backbone of the Conrad Investment Company, focused on land development. In 1909 the company directed an ambitious irrigation project, which developed into the largest such undertaking of its time.
The mass of this series pertains to financial matter, including journals, incoming and outgoing correspondence, assessments, and articles of incorporation. The series also contains a small amount of documentation relating to land holdings by the company.
In 1880 the Conrad brothers founded their first bank at Fort Benton, Montana Territory: the Conrad National Bank. As they anticipated there was a need for financial institutions in the newly developing west. The bank prospered and the brothers opened branches in Great Falls, Helena, and Kalispell. In 1940 the C. E. Conrad Estate sold the bank to a group of Kalispell businessmen headed by J. G. Edmiston.
The series primarily contains financial records and transactions of the bank and its branches. It also has a substantial amount of both incoming and outgoing correspondence and assets statements. Land documentation concerning mortgages, indentures, and deeds, along with legal records of the bank are also present. A few items of memorabilia, such as advertisement cards and a change wallet are also included.
The Conrad brothers co-owned this company with their brother-in-law, their sister Molly's husband, Charles Price. The items in this series primarily consist of financial material. They include incoming and outgoing business correspondence, stock ledgers, cash statements, and tax related documents. The series also holds minutes from company meetings, and clippings relative to the cattle company.
The Conrad Townsite Company dealt with the sale and leasing of real estate. Business correspondence comprises the largest portion of this series. It also contains annual statements; check registers, ledgers and journals, along with a small amount of documentation relating to legal matters.
This series primarily contains incoming and outgoing business correspondence. It also has a variety of financial records, legal documents, and various internal records.
In 1890 C. E. Conrad and a group of investors including A. A. White, J. B. Conner, S. G. Comstock, and W. R. Clough launched this company to found the city of Kalispell. The company chose the site for Kalispell based on the expected route of the Great Northern Railway, which arrived in Kalispell in 1891.
The series contains financial documents. It also has a small amount of incoming, outgoing, and internal business correspondence along with the company's tax records.
The bulk of this series is incoming and outgoing business correspondence. The series contains finance statements, tax records, check registers, along with legal documents, and internal documentation, such as minutes and organizational. A small number of legal papers concerning land holdings in the Spokane, Washington, area are present as well.
Created by Alicia D. Conrad, this company bought bad loans accumulated by the Conrad National Bank under the direction of her son Charles D. Conrad; thus sparing the bank from the financial losses caused by Charles.
The majority of the papers relate to financial concerns of the bank, including tax records, payroll documents and financial ledgers. The series also contains incoming and outgoing business correspondence concerning the company as well as, a small amount of documents dealing with legal matters.
This series contains oversize records concerning the Conrad Brothers Corporation, the Kalispell Corporation, and the Montana Corporation. These records include income tax records dating from 1917 through 1938 for all three corporations as well as income tax and license tax documents for the Montana Corporation and trial balance records dating from 1893-1913 for the Kalispell Corporation.
The Queen Mining and Milling Company represents one of the many prosperous Conrad brothers mining interests. The papers for the company include incoming and outgoing business correspondence along with numerous financial documents. Some of the most prominent of these include insurance records, trial balance documents, tax records, and check registers. This series also contains papers regarding legal matters, indentures, and agreements concerning the company's business operations.
The company founded many irrigation projects in western Montana. The company diverted water from a site near Valier Reservoir to fuel the projects.
The holdings within this series consist of business correspondence: inter-office, incoming and outgoing letters. It also contains legal documents pertaining to mortgages, insurance records, company reports, and various newspaper clippings.
Growing into one of the largest livestock operations in the area - extending from just south of Great Falls into Canada - this prosperous company began in 1882 Fort Benton under the name Saint Louis Cattle Company, was later re-named by the Conrad brothers, and continued until 1911.
This series contains both incoming and outgoing correspondence with regard to business concerns of the company. The bulk of the series deals with the financial concerns of the company, including check registers, income tax documents, and trial balance records. A small portion deals with interoffice concerns, such as reports on company progress and growth.
Seeing the great herds’ near-extermination by professional hunters, Charles E. Conrad became seriously concerned for the preservation of the North American buffalo. In 1900 he purchased twenty-seven of these handsome animals from Louise and Andrew Stinger, and transferred them to his private ranch near Kalispell. Conrad’s success as a buffalo breeder soon attracted national attention, and by the time of his death in 1902 the herd had almost doubled in size. After his death his wife Alicia was able to turn the ranch into a profitable commercial based operation.
Correspondence comprises the bulk of this series. Most of the letters are addressed to Mr. Howard Eton and Mr. Fred Harvey, business advisors to the Conrad family. A small amount of financial and legal records concerning the operation of the ranch are present, along with clippings and articles relating to buffalo.
This series contains information concerning the creation of the C. E. Conrad Estate, a trust created by Alicia D. Conrad in an attempt to preserve the waning family fortune. The papers span form 1903 to 1928. The series primarily contains business correspondence and documents of a financial and legal nature, as well as a small amount of personal correspondence from Conrad family members.
These documents pertain to Charles E. Conrad’s personal business interests along with his shares in corporations he jointly owned with his brother, William G. Conrad. This trust was founded by C. E.’s widow, Alicia D. Conrad. Upon Alicia’s death in 1923, their three children, Charles D. Conrad, Catherine Conrad Van Duzer, and Alicia Conrad McCutcheon transferred their remaining inheritance into this corporation, and by 1925 it included all the remaining family assets. The Conrad children functioned as directors of the corporation, with Charles as president and chief executive officer. By 1940 the company dissolved due to substantial financial losses.
This series is one of the largest within the collection. The documents pertain to C.E. Conrad's personal business interests along with his shares in jointly owned corporations with his brother. A majority of the papers relate to real-estate holdings. The series contains a substantial amount of business correspondence along with financial documents. A small amount of documents dealing with Lieu Script lands dating from 1897-1930 are also present. This series includes three oversize boxes containing various items ranging from bulletins, blueprints, legal certificates, and newspaper clippings.
The series contains eight Subseries.
Charles E. and William G. Conrad extended their business opportunities to many of their family members and this series reflects those business ventures, containing various papers for companies and land jointly owned by their Conrad and Campbell family relatives: Alice Adams (youngest sister to the Conrad brothers, Alice married F. J. Adams, a doctor in the Great Falls area), Charles Conrad Campbell (son of Alicia Conrad and George H. Campbell), Arthur F. Conrad (son of W. G. Conrad), Caroline E. Conrad, Charles E. Conrad, Jr. (son of C. E. Conrad and Sings-in-the-Middle), James W. Conrad, Josephine Conrad, Margaret Conrad, Maria D. Conrad, and Maria S. Conrad (mother of W. G. and C. E. Conrad.) Also included is a small quantity of correspondence relating to Joseph Culbertson (son of Alexander Culbertson, founder of Fort Benton) and papers concerning the Kalispell Lumber and Water Power Company, Northwestern National Bank of Great Falls, Conrad Banking Company, Benton Steamboat (which operated on the Missouri River out of Fort Benton) and documents concerning the early years St. Louis Cattle Company. (The documents dealing with the later years of this business are located in Series XXX: Conrad Circle Cattle Company.) These papers range from financial documents to organization papers, and business and personal correspondence.
The series contains documents relating to a series of individuals and businesses with financial connections to this Montana bank which later assumed the name Conrad National Bank of Great Falls; including incoming and outgoing correspondence from E. Van Duzer (husband of Catherine Conrad), Alicia A. Campbell Vick (daughter of Alicia C. Campbell and Walter M. McCutcheon), Furman R. Whitwell (brother of Alicia Vick’s friend Patricia Whitwell), Charles J. Kester, and a small number of documents by unidentified authors. Financial records for the Whitefish Townsite Company are contained within this series, as well as various government and land documents. A 1917 hunting permit for A. J. Forest is also included.
George Campbell came to Montana Territory with his parents in 1892, where his father formed an ambitious land management company based in Great Falls and including the massive, innovative, but ill-fated “Sun River Ranches” project for irrigated farming in western Montana. Young George grew up on his father’s ranch near Malta, a last center of the fast-fading “old west,” graduated from Great Falls Highschool in 1907 and the Sheffield Engineering School at Yale University in 1910; to then join his father in C.H .Campbell & Son land management. Volunteering in World War I, he served as a pursuit pilot in France, 1917-1918, earning charter membership in the Order of Daedalians, before returning to his family partnership in Great Falls. In 1928 George married Alicia Conrad McCutcheon of Kalispell. They relocated to her Conrad family home in 1933 with their son, Charles Conrad Campbell and his half-sister, Alicia Ann.
The series contains financial, legal, and personal materals, including those from an intra-family court case. There are also records relating to Campbell's business interests, scrapbooks, and memorabilia.
This Subseries includes financial and legal records relating to property owned by the C.H. Campbell and Son Company.
These personal documents pertain to George Campbell's family genealogy as well as papers compiled during his years in high school, personal correspondence, and financial accounts.
Abstracts and Agreements holds legal documents for C.H. Campbell and Son's land concerns.
Charles C. Campbell/ Phoebe H. Huggins encompasses legal documents and correspondence concerning to a paternity suit brought against Charles C. Campbell by Phoebe H. Huggins.
This Subseries contains both incoming and outgoing correspondences with his father George Campbell and his grandfather, C.H. Campbell.
Charles Conrad Campbell, legal and financial records contains documentation, correspondence and account books regarding C.H. Campbell & Son Co. It also contains legal records from the court case George Campbell vs. Charles H. Campbell.
Legal and Financial Documents, 1851-1966 holds land documentation, including deeds, mortgages, and various other financial information relating to land concerns and businesses owned by C.H. Campbell and Son Co.
The contents of this Subseries are scrapbooks from Mrs. C.E. Stanford and C.H. Campbell along with various memorabilia from travels and items relating to personal interests.
Oversize Items contains a poster featuring President Taft and various maps of the Conrad Cemetery in Kalispell and of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
The majority of the photos in this series are personal photos of family members, friends, and family vacations. Photos pertaining to western Montana also have a substantial presence. The series also includes photographs of real estate and various other business operations owned by the families.
Original description says: Kokoa Conrad (daughter of C.D. and Kokoa Conrad)
photo identification provided by Richard Hardesty, September 2010
photo identification provided by Richard Hardesty, September 2010
This series consists of two boxes of unprocessed maps.