New settlers began to farm in the Bridger area as early as 1892. Soon after, Henry Gebo, Thomas P. McDonald and George Town discovered coal along the west rims of present-day Bridger and started the Bridger Coal Company. Butte copper magnate William A. Clark purchased the company and built a Northern Pacific branch line to the mine in 1898. “Stringtowns” developed in the easements along the railroad and coal mine road. Clark platted the Bridger townsite in 1902 and business owners replaced earlier temporary tents and wood-frame buildings with permanent stone and brick commercial buildings. In 1906, James W. Johnston, Harvey Wolfe, William H. Spiers, E. Thomas Prewett, and William Bostic incorporated the Farmers Trading Company. They hired Swedish immigrant Eric Forsman to build this Western Commercial style building from stone quarried in the west Bridger rims. The building featured large plate glass windows, oak trim, a decorative tin ceiling, a loft office, and boasted a refrigerated section in the grocery portion. The full basement held a freight elevator, seed potato storage, a gun firing range, and a coal entrance. The store sold general merchandise, including dry goods, shoes, hats, and caps. In 1926, Morris Levander and Ole Overby (sons-in-laws of Eric Forsman) purchased the Farmers Trading Company and continued to operate it as a general store. The Billings-based Vaughn-Ragsdale department store purchased the building in 1937 and operated a clothing store here until the early 1960s.
]]>Swedish stonemason Erick Forsman, his Norwegian wife Marie, and two grown daughters emigrated from Norway to Bridger in 1906. Erick’s brother John had arrived in the U.S. in 1891, and in 1899 he opened Bridger’s first general store. In 1907, Erick built this vernacular (builder designed) Dutch-gambrel roof house. The home’s distinctive local sandstone walls display Erick’s stonemasonry skills and remain the only example of residential sandstone construction in Bridger. Erick also built the Bridger Coal and Improvement Co. warehouse, sidewalks downtown, and the foundation of the Methodist Church parsonage. While Erick pursued his craft, Marie managed the home and took in boarders. Daughters Olga and Bertina operated the Forsman Sisters Millinery shop from 1908 until about 1923. One of the Forsmans’ first boarders was Swedish carpenter and mercantile owner Mauritz G. Levander. He and Bertina were married in the home in 1911. Sixty guests attended the Swedish-language wedding ceremony, led by Rev. Hedberg of Billings. In 1918, Olga married photographer Ole P. Overby, who was Mauritz’s partner in the mercantile business. After Olga and Ole married, Erick and Marie moved to Billings where Erick helped build Billings Polytechnic Institute (later Rocky Mountain College). Ole and Olga remained in residence on the second floor and rented the first floor to tenants until 1923 when Erick and Marie returned home. Erick died in 1929 and Marie in 1933. When Ole and Olga left Bridger for Seattle in 1938 their cousin Bertha and family bought the home. Forsman family members remained in residence until the early 2000s.
]]>Organization of the Bridger Methodist Episcopal Church and the Ladies Aid took place in 1899, pre-dating by one year the founding of the town itself. As in other small Montana communities, itinerant ministers like the Reverend John G. Clark served the early congregation. Services were conducted in the dining room of the Barlow Hotel or in the hall above Hiram Haskin’s hardware store. Land for the church was donated when the townsite of Bridger was platted in 1900, but ground-breaking did not take place until March of 1905. The Ladies Aid raised funds for the building by giving dinners and selling handmade quilts, clothing, and other items. Under the direction of Reverend Clark, stonemason Eric Forsman prepared the foundation, and construction began with donated materials and labor. By December the steeple was ready to receive its 700-pound bell. The community-built Methodist Episcopal Church was dedicated on May 27, 1906, the first in the Clarks Fork Valley. The Bridger landmark is a fine example of Methodist Church design, typified by the L-shaped plan, corner bell tower, and simplified Gothic windows. Fretwork in the open bell tower, decorative shingles, and stained glass enrich the basic plan. The adjacent gable-roofed parsonage, now detached from this property, was finished in 1914. Three congregations merged in 1939 to form the Methodist Church, and in 1949 an addition was completed to accommodate growing membership. Renamed the United Methodist Church in 1968, the church today represents the valley’s early religious development, and its continued use is a fitting tribute to the pioneer congregation responsible for its construction.
]]>Raymond Hough, one of six entrepreneurial brothers who settled in this area, came to “String Town” in 1900. Mining, ranching, banking, and business ventures accorded the Houghs prominence in the community. Raymond served as bookkeeper and later as both manager and secretary of the Bridger Coal Mine under brother George, president of the mine. Raymond resigned in 1909 to pursue other business interests and opened a grocery store in 1912. Raymond and his wife, the former Bertha Barlow, built this residence in 1910. The Bridger Times predicted that the home would be a “handsome building,” and indeed it was the most refined residence in the community. Two polygonal bays and a spacious clipped-corner porch with Doric columns highlight the combination Queen Anne/Colonial Revival style home. Untouched by alterations or additions, this beautiful residence retains its original irregular shape. Between 1914 and 1916, the Hough brothers suffered financial misfortune. George, Clint, and Guy filed bankruptcy, Bodley joined the army, and banker William, accused of forgery and grand larceny, allegedly escaped to Mexico with $34,000. Though Raymond fared better than some of his brothers, foreclosure of his grocery business in 1915 prompted a move to Cody. This fine home remains today, illustrating the Houghs’ former importance in the founding of this small community.
]]>The coal found near here so impressed Butte’s William A. Clark that he formed a company to mine it two miles west of the center of present-day Bridger. The company town he began in 1898 included boarding houses and family housing, a school, and a general store. But miners and their paychecks soon attracted other entrepreneurs, even though the only land available was the county road right-of-way. Undaunted, they built saloons and shops end to end on the narrow strip, forming “Stringtown,” where a person could walk out one building’s back door and into the next one’s front. Charles A. and Grace Heatherington built this boarding house in Stringtown in 1899, providing the only housing besides a hotel for new arrivals not employed by the mine. Charles, known as “Curley,” also operated a livery and ran the stage line that brought Bridger’s mail from Red Lodge—and, in summer, he sold ice cut from the Clark’s Fork. When Bridger townsite was surveyed in 1900, Heatherington was among many Stringtowners who moved their buildings here, and he continued to operate the boarding house. Today, this is one of very few buildings surviving from the original settlement.
]]>In 1906, speculative investor Leonard A. Corey and wife Mary set up housekeeping in a tent along the Clark’s Fork River, awaiting completion of their new home. Several years before, Corey, brother-in-law Samuel H. Glidden, and others had formed the Bridger Canyon Oil Company. Company stock rapidly increased until the firm was capitalized at $1,500,000. In July of 1907, Corey filed thirty oil placer locations, and within two weeks twenty-two tons of drilling equipment was enroute to Bridger. The Coreys moved into their fine new residence at the height of this financial prosperity. Completed in May of 1907, the home reveals the architectural transition from Queen Anne to Arts and Crafts styles. An irregular floor plan, two-story polygonal bay, and gabled roof reflect the older Queen Anne charm, while the broad porch, wood shingles, sandstone, and masonry work display fashionable Arts and Crafts characteristics. Beautiful beveled, leaded, and stained glass windows further reveal quality craftsmanship. Though Corey never struck oil and suffered financially, he remained undaunted. A mining venture took him to Alaska in 1913, and Corey was never heard from in Bridger again. Today, the stylistically sophisticated Corey House and the Glidden House next door recall the short-lived wealth of these early speculators.
]]>