Archives West Finding Aid

Christian Barthelmess was born in Klinfenberg, Bavaria, April 11, 1854. In his youth he studied music and German literature at Leipzig. Immigrating to the United States in the late 1870s, Christian joined the post-Civil War Regular Army. He subsequently served in the Sixth Cavalry, and Thirteenth, Twenty-second, and Second Infantry Regiments, from 1876 until his retirement in 1903. Christian Barthelmess was stationed in Missouri, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, and the Philippines. In Montana he served as chief musician for the Second Infantry, stationed at Fort Keogh. Throughout his military career Christian Barthelmess created an extensive photographic collection capturing the landscape of the American West, the lives of his fellow soldiers, and the experiences of the civilian populations he encountered, both Native American and Caucasian. In addition to his photographic talents, Christian also authored two articles based on his observations of Navaho Indian ceremonies for "Der Westen," a German language newspaper published in Chicago. Christian Barthelmess married Catherine Dorothea Hansen in 1886 in Silver City, New Mexico. They had seven children: Leo, Florence, Sophia, Fred, Adelaide, Marie, and Casey. Christian Barthelmess died, as the result of injuries sustained when a trench collapsed on him at Fort Keogh, April 10, 1906. Casey Barthelmess was born July 18, 1890, at Fort Keogh, namesake to his father's closest friend, Lieutenant Edward W. Casey. The Barthelmess family was stationed at Fort Keogh through Casey's childhood. As a youngster he was surrounded by the soldiers, scouts, buffalo hunters, mule skinners, Indians, and cowboys that populated the American West. At the age of fifteen Casey and two of his siblings quit school in order to help support the family following the death of their father. Casey took work with the LO Ranch on Mizpah Creek outside of present-day Miles City. He worked horses for the ranch until 1909 when he went to Chicago to study art. In 1914 he returned to Montana and went back to work for the LO, and attended business college in Miles City. Over the years Casey participated in the Montana rodeo circuit, served in the military at Fort Keogh and overseas during World War I, and built a successful ranch on Mizpah Creek. He was active in the state's various livestock organizations and was honored as Montana's Rancher of the Year in 1954. He retired in the late 1950s and moved to Miles City were he began work on a biography of his father. Casey Barthelmess and Maurice Frink co-authored Photographer on an Army Mule, published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1965. In 1921 Casey Barthelmess married Ann Oby, a local school teacher. They had six children: Richard, Robert, Casey Jr., Rosemary, Leo, and Randall. Casey Barthelmess, Sr., died in Miles City in 1972. Ann Oby Barthelmess died in 1993.