36 Facts About Granville Stuart

Granville Stuart was an American pioneer, gold prospector, businessman, civic leader, vigilante, author, cattleman and diplomat who played a prominent role in the early history of Montana Territory and the state of Montana.

Granville Stuart was born August 27,1834, in Harrison County, Virginia, to parents Robert and Nancy C Stuart.

Granville Stuart was their second son and brother to their first son, James Stuart.

Granville Stuart was too ill to travel so James stayed with him while the others went east.

For three years, the Granville Stuart brothers traded cattle, horses and other goods between the Big Hole valley, the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Valley and Fort Bridger in Southern Wyoming.

In 1864, James Stuart organized a townsite company and employed Colonel Walter W deLacy to survey and plat a proper town on Cottonwood Creek.

In Bannack, Granville Stuart operated a butcher shop to supply miners with meat.

Granville Stuart served five terms on the Montana Territorial Legislative Assembly.

Granville Stuart was a lieutenant colonel in the territorial militia.

Granville Stuart was the head librarian in the Butte Public Library between 1905 and 1914.

Granville Stuart was a founding member of the Society of Montana Pioneers formed in 1884 and served as its president in 1886.

Granville Stuart routinely kept copies of most all his correspondence, much of which is preserved today by the Montana Historical Society, a society he helped found in 1864.

Granville Stuart wrote several books on Montana and its pioneer history.

Granville Stuart's writings are considered to be seminal works on the history of the western United States.

Granville Stuart's published journals have been relied upon as an encyclopedic reference for information nowhere else obtainable about many facets of western American history.

Granville Stuart was an avid weather observer in the late 1800s for the Deer Lodge area and frequently submitted his observations to the Deer Lodge newspaper, "The New North-West".

In 1879, Granville Stuart was working as a bookkeeper in his old friend Samuel T Hauser's First National Bank in Helena, Montana.

Granville Stuart was aware of the burgeoning cattle business on the open range and encouraged Hauser to get involved.

Granville Stuart was a minor partner with an investment of $20,000 which he borrowed from Hauser.

In 1885, Granville Stuart was elected president of the stockgrowers association.

When it was finally sold in 1895, Granville Stuart still had debts to Sam Hauser's bank in Helena of $3500.

In 1894, at the age of 60, Granville Stuart was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Uruguay and Paraguay.

At the age of 27, Granville Stuart married a twelve-year-old Shoshone Native American girl named Awbonnie Tookanka on April 15,1862.

Awbonnie and Granville Stuart remained married until her death in 1888 from puerperal fever at age 41.

On January 8,1890, Granville Stuart married twenty-six-year-old Allis Belle Brown, his children's former school teacher at the DHS ranch.

Allis and Granville Stuart never had any offspring of their own.

Allis Belle survived Granville Stuart and died in Hamilton, Montana, on March 31,1947.

Granville Stuart left his wife and three sons in the care of Granville and Awbonnie.

Granville Stuart was ill at the time and succumbed to liver disease on September 26,1873.

Granville Stuart recovered his body at Fort Peck and returned James to Deer Lodge, where he was buried on November 5,1873.

Granville Stuart had accumulated little wealth during his 40 plus years in Montana and still had some debt problems associated with his friend Sam Hauser.

Clark insisted that Granville Stuart be selected to represent Montana at the Exposition, which he did for its first year.

In 1917, Belle and Granville Stuart moved into a rooming house in Missoula, Montana while Granville Stuart worked on his memoir and a never published pioneer history of Montana.

Granville Stuart's funeral was held in Deer Lodge, Montana, on October 6,1918.

Granville Stuart is buried in Deer Lodge, Montana next to his pioneer brother James Stuart.

Granville Stuart was a 2008 Legacy Inductee into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame in Big Timber, Montana.