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Daniel Webster Tilton Family papers, 1851-1976

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Tilton, D. W. (Daniel Webster), 1839-1919
Title
Daniel Webster Tilton Family papers
Dates
1851-1976 (inclusive)
Quantity
5 linear feet of shelf space
Collection Number
MC 111 (collection)
Summary
D.W. Tilton (1839-1919) was a Virginia City, Montana, newspaper publisher and book store owner. Collection (1851-1976) includes correspondence, financial records, legal documents, photographs, writings, and clippings. There are subgroups for the O.B. Barber family of Virginia City and Sheridan; and the Joseph Corby family of Butte. [RESTRICTION: Family retains all literary rights.]
Repository
Montana Historical Society, Library & Archives
Montana Historical Society Research Center Archives
225 North Roberts
PO Box 201201
Helena MT
59620-1201
Telephone: 4064442681
Fax: 4064445297
mhslibrary@mt.gov
Access Restrictions

Collection open for research.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Historical Note

Daniel Webster Tilton was born in Silver Creek, New York, on July 3, 1839, the only child of John and Angeline Tilton. He studied at the Bryant and Stratton Business College in 1859, and then travelled to Missouri and Colorado. During the gold rush, he was engaged in business ventures, initially at Denver and later at Central City. In 1863, Tilton left Colorado and travelled to Virginia City, in what was then Idaho Territory, opening the town's first store, "D.W. Tilton Co. news dealers, book sellers, stationers, & job printers, Virginia City, I.T." He transported the first hand press to the territory and bought a newspaper, The Montana Post, from John Buchanan for $3,000. Tilton published the newspaper and did other printing jobs (such as an 1866 5,000 copy edition of The Vigilantes) until 1868, when he sold out to Benjamin Dittes. Tilton returned to New York in the winter of 1865, to marry his cousin, Lizzie D. May (1841-1866). The couple travelled to Virginia City the following spring, but Lizzie Tilton died of consumption on October 25, 1866, at the age of 25. Tilton remarried in May 1868, to Helen Elvira Barber (1850-1924) of Pennsylvania, a distant relative of his first wife. In the early 1870s, Tilton joined with his father-in-law, Orlando Beach Barber (1828-1913), to form Tilton and Barber, "wholesale and retail dealers in groceries, wines, and liquors, books and stationery, cigars and tobacco, powder and fuse, & c. & c.," located on Wallace Street. This partnership lasted until 1883. With the decline of Virginia City, Tilton moved his business to Butte in 1884. D.W. Tilton's Book Store, located first at 63 West Park Street and later at 138 West Park, handled job printing, blank books, school books, ink, paper, newspapers, novels, and magazines. Tilton and his wife raised a family of six children: Web, John (1871-1885), Orlando Beach (1876-1959), Charles Lester (1878-1948), Howard Lee (1890-1957), and Helen. Tilton and his sons, operating under the name of Tilton Brothers, maintained business interests in ranching and mining developments, primarily the Highland Mining Company of Butte. O.B. Barber also left Virginia City in the 1880s, becoming proprietor of Valley View Farm of Laurin, Montana. He and his wife Samantha (1830-1899) later owned a ranch near Sheridan and were joined in its operation by their son, Charles W. Barber (1856-1933), and the Tilton grandsons. The ranch remained in the family for four generations, until it was sold in 1973 by Corby H. Tilton. The Tilton family was linked through marriage to the Corby family of Butte. (Edith Lillian Corby, daughter of Joseph and Sena Corby, married Howard Lee Tilton, the youngest son of D.W. Tilton.) Joseph Corby, who was born in 1866 in Pennsylvania, came west at the age of 19, and worked as a hoisting engineer in the Butte mines. He served as an officer of the First Montana Volunteers in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. In 1906, he attended the Tenth Montana Legislative Assembly as a Republican and then was elected mayor of Butte (1907-1909). Corby died in Butte in 1917. D.W. Tilton spent the last years of his life in Grace, Montana, and on the family ranch. He died in Sheridan on October 15, 1919.

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Content Description

This collection contains the personal, business, and political materials of D.W. Tilton, Orlando Beach Barber, Joseph Corby, and various other members of the three families. Correspondence, financial records, biographical material, legal documents, ephemera, clippings, writings, speeches, diaries, and miscellany are included. Subgroups in the collection are D. W. Tilton; Tilton Family; O.B. Barber; Barber Family; Joseph Corby; Corby Family; Tilton and Barber; Tilton Brothers; Ogden, Means and Company, and Miscellany which includes unidentified materials or items that could not be related to any of the other subgroups.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of the Montana Historical Society. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collection. In some cases permission for use may require additional authorization from the copyright owners. For more information contact an archivist.

Preferred Citation

Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers. Montana Historical Society Research Center, Archives, Helena, Montana.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged by subgroup and series.

Location of Collection

5:8-1

Acquisition Information

Acquisition information available upon request

Separated Materials

Maps and printed material transferred to Library. Photographs transferred to Photo Archives. Artifacts transferred to Museum. See inventory below for more information.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Booksellers and bookselling
  • Mines and mineral resources--Montana--Silver Bow County
  • Newspaper publishing
  • Printing
  • Ranches--Montana
  • Retail trade
  • Stationery trade

Personal Names

  • Tilton, D. W. (Daniel Webster), 1839-1919 (creator)

Geographical Names

  • Butte (Mont.)--Commerce
  • Butte (Mont.)--Politics and government
  • Philippines--History--Insurrection, 1899-1901
  • Sheridan (Mont.)
  • Virginia City (Mont.)--Commerce
  • Virginia City (Mont.)--Newspapers

Finding aid prepared by MHS staff
2004

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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