Inspired by a visit to Montana and seeing Granny Fritz’s personal photo album I have been researching her life and in particular her parents, John Patrick “Jack” Lee and Mary Geary.
Jack Lee was born in Spidal, County Galway, Ireland on March 3, 1852 to Patrick Lee and Kate Malloy. According to several census documents he arrived in the U.S. in 1870, although when he arrived in Montana is unclear so far. Once settled in Fort Benton, Montana Territory he became a well-known stage driver between Fort Benton and Fort Macleod in Alberta, Canada. This trail was known as the Whoop-Up trail, primarily because it was a thoroughfare for liquor delivered by steamboat to Fort Benton, which was the furthest point of navigation on the Missouri River. The major trade in liquor to the First Nations in Alberta was over by 1874 although general trade continued on the trail until 1890 when competition from the railroads overwhelmed it.
Jack Lee was featured in several mentions in the River Press of Fort Benton regarding his comings and goings on the trail. Once on Christmas Eve, 1884 he set out for Fort Macleod when the temperature the night before had fallen to 30 below zero. According to family lore he also worked on keelboats on the river.
He filed a land claim for 172 acres on the Marias River northeast of Fort Benton. The date he filed is uncertain. His avowed purpose was stock raising and the claim was perfected in 1904 and again in 1925 for some reason.
Mary Geary was born on June 12, 1864 in Ontario, Canada to Thomas Geary and Mary O’Hara. According to the 1900 census she arrived in the US in 1886. In a college paper Lucy Fritz related some memories of her father, William Lee Bill Fritz.
According to him, William and Charles Conrad came to work for I.G. Baker and the three of them formed I. G. Baker, Bro. and Co. William Conrad went looking for a governess for his children and came back from Ontario with Mary Geary, then 22.
“This courageous young woman,” Lucy continued, “cared for and instructed the Conrad children. She also passed on her knowledge to the other children in town as one of the first school teachers.”
Jack and Mary were married on April 23, 1889 and the newspaper announcement said that they had already moved into “a cozy little home.” When the Conrads moved on to Kalispell her job as governess ended. But in 1891 they had two little girls (not twins!), Mary Helen in January and Catherine Anne (my grandmother) in November.
According to Lucy’s memories, Mary Geary Lee was a member of the board of the first Choteau County Library when it opened in 1916. Her picture resides in the Agricultural Museum of the Northern Great Plains.
Sometime in the 1920’s the Lees moved to Los Angeles, CA. The second record of their land claim in 1925 may have had something to do with this move. If anyone in the family knows the story of this move send it to me and I’ll make it the subject of a future post.
This is the homestead that the Lees lived on the Marias River outside Fort Benton.