Archives West Finding Aid

Francis Lyman Worden was born in Vermont in 1830 and attended school in Troy, New York. He began clerking in a store when he was fourteen. In 1852, he went to San Francisco, California, and clerked in a store there. He then went to Oregon, mined for a year, and settled in The Dalles near the east end of the Columbia River Gorge, where he fought in the Indian wars of 1855. He worked as clerk in the Indian Department under Isaac J. Stephens. He moved to Walla Walla, Washington Territory, and opened a store. He was also postmaster of Walla Walla for two years.

In 1860 he formed a partnership with Christopher P. Higgins and they located in Hell Gate, Washington Territory, a site that would become part of Missoula, Montana. Soon afterward, they moved their business to Missoula, Washington Territory, and started the first store in that town, Worden and Company.

In 1862, prospectors discovered gold on Gold Creek east of Missoula, and Worden and Higgins went to that area to supply the mining camps until 1863. They then moved to Deer Lodge and opened the first store in that town. In 1864, they built a sawmill and gristmill, and in 1866 completed a milling operation. In 1868, they sold their interests in Deer Lodge and, with Washington J. McCormick, laid out 100 acres of the townsite of Missoula, Montana Territory.

Worden and Company prospered and by 1865 the company’s holdings also included a saw and gristmill on the present site of Missoula. Worden and Higgins laid out the townsite, built bridges, established a water works and bank, and generally fostered the town’s growth. Both men were active in territorial politics and had diverse side interests. Worden and Company were a dominant mercantile establishment in Western Montana until the late 1870s when Eddy, Hammond and Company entered the competition. In July, 1886, in attempt to gain more capital, Worden and Company merged with Murphy, Hart and Company, a general merchandise company, to form Murphy-Worden and Company. In 1902, the Murphy-Worden Company was replaced by Murphy-Greenough and Company, which continued exclusively as a grocery store in the same location.

Worden married Lucretia Miller at Frenchtown, Montana Territory, in 1866. They had seven children: Lucina L., Henry O., Carolyn (Carrie) M., Louise M., Frank L., Horace B., and Ruth M. Mr. Worden died on 5 February 1887. Lucretia Miller Worden died in 1913 at the age of 61.