In 1903 the Joliet Trading Company purchased nine lots from the Joliet Townsite and Improvement Company to build one of early Joliet’s formative businesses. Founded by Jerry Farrell, the Joliet Trading Company included a storefront, warehouse, lumber yard, and this front-gabled vernacular-style house where Farrell, wife Mary, and their seven children likely lived. The Joliet Trading Company sold the building materials and dry goods that sustained the town after the coal mine in nearby Carbonado closed in 1901. The business also served the wave of homesteaders that flocked to the Rock Creek valley in the early twentieth century. An early Joliet mayor, Farrell secured forty acres for Joliet’s cemetery and brought Montana Governor Edwin Norris to speak at the town’s Fourth of July celebration. In 1911, tragedy struck Farrell and his business partners when fire destroyed the storefront and warehouses. Joliet Trading Company was underinsured, and the business went into receivership. This Park Street home is all that remains.
]]>With its gambrel roof, multiple dormers, shingle siding, and semicircular arches in the gable ends, this prominent Shingle style residence stands out among Joliet’s more modest homes. When Guy and Cora Lovering purchased the house in 1907, it was one story without a front porch. They lived here with Cora’s parents and brother in 1910, and before their only child Gladys was born in 1911, they decided to expand. They hired an efficient contractor, whose crew “tore the old roof completely away, put down an upstairs floor, raised the roof joist, sheeted and covered the new roof all the same day.” The remodel included the addition of a wraparound front porch now enclosed with an oblique corner entrance. Guy Lovering and his uncle built Joliet’s first brick business block in 1902, from which they operated a general store. During the agricultural depression of the 1920s, Lovering became known for his generosity in extending credit. Guy died in 1937 and Cora in 1953, but daughter Gladys and her husband Virgil Dowell resided here into the 1980s. Behind the home stands a barn, a reminder of earlier days.
]]>The Bank of Joliet opened in 1904 and began planning construction of this stately one-story building soon after. By the time the $8,000 building was completed in 1907, the bank had new owners and a new name. Built on Joliet’s most visible corner, the bank’s canted entrance welcomed passersby from both directions. Its design, according to the 1907 Joliet Journal, represented “both beauty and strength, thus adding materially to the appearance of … our rapidly-growing little city.” The symmetrical façade and use of stone and brick exemplified small-town bank design, which endeavored to relieve depositors’ fears of losing their savings to theft, fire, or bank failure by conveying the impression of permanence and stability. When drought and low commodity prices shattered the homestead economy in the 1920s, however, over half of Montana’s banks closed, including Rock Creek State Bank in 1923. Three years later, Lodge #77 of the International Order of Odd Fellows purchased the bank for $2,750 and six months’ back taxes. A fraternal organization, the Odd Fellows advocated love, friendship, and truth while offering fellowship and a social safety net for its members. Lodges paid members sick benefits and funeral expenses, contributed to a statewide retirement home, and supported local and national charities. The Odd Fellows and their sister organization, La Cuesta Rebekah Lodge #56, shared the building until 1979, when the Odd Fellows Lodge disbanded and sold the building to the Rebekahs for $10. The Rebekahs still meet here—continuing the longstanding tradition of Odd Fellowship in Joliet.
]]>"Chief shepherd" Walter Jordan and "singing evangelist" Lucile Park preached to a packed house at an October 1908 revival meeting, held above the meat market on Joliet's Main Street. Forty-five charter members joined together to found the Joliet Christian Church that night, including high school principal and ordained Christian minister Oliver Shanklin, who served as the congregation's first pastor. Shanklin led services at the Opera House while women members of the Christian Workers took the lead in raising money for a permanent sanctuary. Proceeds from events like their Election Day luncheon, soon a Joliet tradition, combined with contributions from more established Christian Churches to provide the needed funds. Local carpenter Charles Hemery and his son Raymond designed the vernacular building and, assisted by many community volunteers, completed the wood-frame church in time for a June 2, 1909, dedication service. Precise attention to detail reflects the care paid during construction. The gable-roofed church, ornamented by Palladian windows, features a flared-roof belfry. A growing congregation supported remodeling of the basement in 1956, but the church's exterior still looks much as it did in 1909.
]]>The area surrounding Joliet remained Crow country until 1892, when the Carbon Reserve Agreement cut the size of the reservation almost in half. By that time, railroads already ran through the reservation, including the Rocky Fork and Cook City Railroad, a spur line connecting the Red Lodge coal mining district to the main Northern Pacific line. Harry Duffield and John McMonigle were among the early homesteaders to file claims along the tracks. By 1896, a small town had grown up on McMonigle's claim, with a post office, four stores, three saloons, two hotels, and several residences. According to local legend, McMonigle would pretend to discourage squatters (he was still proving up and wanted to avoid legal complications) while Duffield would tell newcomers to ignore McMonigle. The charade apparently continued until McMonigle received his homestead patent in 1899. That year, "a number of energetic citizens" incorporated a town site company, which bought thirty-two acres from McMonigle for $1,600. One hundred residents called Joliet home by 1900. The population grew quickly in 1901 when the coal mine in nearby Carbonado closed, prompting several businesses and home-owners to move their buildings to Joliet. Joliet incorporated in 1906 in order to initiate electrification and construction of a waterworks, "two essentials necessary to the progress of any live, up-to-date town." By 1907, this "city of pleasant homes" boasted forty-seven residences. Many of these houses still stand today. They serve as a continuing testament to the era when Joliet was the trading center for a substantial farming district.
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