5 minute read
Story’s Story
Local historian shares lives of Nelson Story and other local legends
By Hannah Stiff
John Russell is the kind of researcher who delights in finding overlooked or undiscovered facts hiding in the annals of history. He doesn’t mind playing the long game with his research, either. For his recent book, “Treasure State Tycoon,” Russell spent two decades researching the polarizing Nelson Story.
Russell’s {book chronicles the life of Story, a figure with fingerprints all over Bozeman. Twenty years ago, when Russell first started researching Story, on a part-time basis, he realized that no one had penned a thorough book about Story. As Russell dug into Story’s life – spanning from 1838 to 1926 – he realized a thorough accounting would take time. For Story had many jobs in life. He was a pioneer and Longhorn cattle driver. He was a landlord and an enterprising businessman. He was a family man and a ruthless enemy. He struck gold in Alder Gulch and opened a water-powered flour mill in Bozeman. Russell stiches all these stories and several unheard more together in “Treasure State Tycoon.” “You always try to find something that nobody else has touched,” Russell says. “That was the advantage of Nelson Story, there was no other biography. I feel confident that everything that needs to be said about Nelson Story has been said here.”
}Though he’s spent recent years working his way through Story’s life in the Gallatin Valley, Russell himself has been in the area nearly five decades. He was drawn to the Gallatin Valley in 1974 when he moved from Kansas City to study history at Montana State University. Russell stayed after graduation and worked his way through jobs in title insurance, mortgage banking, and media. Eventually he returned to his roots in history. For almost 16 years, until 2014, Russell served as the Executive Director of the Gallatin Historical Society and Pioneer Museum. “Ever since I came here, I heard the name ‘Story’,” Russell says. “‘Story this,’ and ‘Story that.’ And you hear people talk about Nelson. But I was surprised there was no book about him. I started to dig in various places.” Folks from the Bozeman area have likely made the connection between the Ellen Theatre and Nelson Story (Ellen was Story’s wife). Or the Story Mansion that belonged to one of Story’s sons before it was sold to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity in the 1920s. Then there’s Story Mill, which some will remember as Nelson Story’s flour mill, and the first customer of the newly installed Northern Pacific Railroad. “Nelson Story was such a go getter that he had his hand in so many things,” Russell explains. “His name is solidified in the western annals because he went to Texas right after
the Civil War and brought a herd of Longhorn cattle west. Then he got involved in government contracts to supply foodstuffs to the nearby Crow Agency.” In addition to his entrepreneurial spirit, Russell uncovered more facts about the cutthroat businessman, including his proclivity for cheating the Crow Tribe out of cattle and government supplies. Russell learned that Story had a long running feud with a man named Joe Lindley (of the landmark Lindley Park). Lindley operated a brothel in a building Story owned. When the relationship between landlord and tenant soured, Story couldn’t let it go. He was reported to have smashed Lindley’s face with the butt of his gun when the men encountered each other on the street. Story once chased Lindley through Phillip’s Bookstore on Main Street. And though, by all accounts, the relationship was an acrimonious one, Story allegedly cried upon word of Lindley’s death. For Story’s cheating ways, he was brought several times before a grand jury. With bribing and coercion, Story was always able to evade jail and continue building his empire. During cold Montana winters, Story would take his family to Los Angeles for a reprieve. Using the proceeds from selling off some of his cattle, Story invested in real estate in L.A. in the late 1880s and early 1890s. “That’s where he made his fortune,” Russell explains. “What surprised me most about Nelson Story was how diverse he was. How he was able to be involved in so many things and to accumulate a fortune like he did. To an extent, it was surprising how many things he got away with.” One particularly heinous evasion of justice occurred when the town tried to get a new jail built to accommodate more inmates. Story and others opposed the idea and surreptitiously sponsored a mob that kidnapped two prisoners and hung them. The message was clear: Story and company didn’t want a bigger jail. Instead, fewer inmates. Story’s legacy in the valley fit into a larger framework of vigilante justice and a pioneering entrepreneurism that shaped small hamlets around the state. Story’s mix of ideologies made him something of a paradox. “He was ruthless in business dealings, but a philanthropic pillar of the community,” Russell says. Now that Story’s tale has been told and Russell’s book is published, the historian is once again scouring archives and the internet for new fascinating bits of history. “I’ve got some things in the works,” Russell admits slyly. “They’re still incubating.” While he researches, Russell says he’s also available to give historical talks to local civic groups, nonprofit organizations, and patrons of the Extreme History Project. He doesn’t speak exclusively about Story, either. Russell is a compendium of stories about historical legends like the salacious John Bozeman or the intrepid Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. “Treasure State Tycoon” is available at Country Bookshelf, Gallatin History Museum, Museum of the Rockies, and online book sellers.
A Note from the Editor:
Do you know a senior who should be featured in a future edition of prime? Email your suggestions to Hannah Stiff at hstiff@dailychronicle.com.
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