GEORGE MERRICK HATCH
Husband of Mary Loomis Pound
Father of Helen Hunt Hatch, Eda Merrick Hatch Lewis, Marietta Hatch Newson, and Phyllis Merrick Hatch Bonner
Copy OF OBITUARY
LETHBRIDGE HERALD January 30, 1929 Front page and page 6
George M. Hatch, Former Mayor of Lethbridge, Dead
Veteran of Plains Passes at Age of 77 - One of Framers of Montana State Constitution - Had Great Vision of Lethbridge.
Death harvested still another of the old-timers of Lethbridge and the West Tuesday afternoon, when George Merrick Hatch passed away.
Arrangements for the funeral, which will likely be held in this city, where he spent his later life; and where one daughter, Mrs. P. V. Lewis, resides, are being made. Mr.Hatch is survived by his widow, Mary L. Hatch; Mrs. K. W. Frankow and Phyllis Hatch, daughters, Vancouver; and Mrs. Lewis of Lethbridge. Another daughter, Helen, was killed in the mountains at Laggan, Alta., in 1908, during an Alpine Club climb.
A LIFE OF ACTION - The life of George Hatch was crowded with action for he was a pioneer of the early school spending many years on the frontier in Wyoming, Montana, California and Alberta. He was a man of thrift, vision and enterprise and during his years of business activity in the state of Montana George Hatch made several fortunes, subsequent reverses - a story oft-repeated in a new, raw country - cheating him of much of his hard=earned and well-deserved gains. In recent years Mr. Hatch has lived quietly in the city during the summer filling the position of tourist camp director at Henderson Park, where he did splendid service in greeting tourists and making them feel at home while in Lethbridge.
HAD VISION FOR LETHBRIDGE - The city of Lethbridge owes much to George Hatch for he is often called the father of the city's park system, especially of lovely Galt Gardens, which have brought fame and distinction to the city. Civic beautification was with him a passion and during his regime as mayor in 1912, Lethbridge took on many of its metropolitan features - parks, boulevards, paving, street railway, etc. He had a picture of a flourishing and beautiful city here, living to see much of that vision realized.
He was one of the organizers of the Board of Trade excursion to the International Dry Fanning Congress held in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1911, when a special train was, chartered. This project brought the Congress to Lethbridge the following year - the year Mr. Hatch was mayor. In 1911 while Mr. Hatch was on a trip to California he was elected president of the Board of Trade and he was known as one of the most progressive heads that body has had.
REMEMBERED LINCOLN ~ Born in Illinois in the stirring early fifties when the slave question was a burning issue, he early absorbed much of the militant spirit around him. His parents were Col. Reuben Benton Hatch and Ellen DeWitt Bush Hatch, both prominent in the life of their home state and well connected. As a boy George Hatch accompanied his father, then quartermaster captain, to General Grant's headquarters at Cairo, Illinois, becoming a drummer boy in the Union forces. He had a clear recollection of both President Lincoln and the great commander who after a series of disastrous campaigns against the Confederate forces turned seeming defeat into victory.
"Lincoln dropped into our home on a number of occasions, he told a Herald representative a few years ago. "I remember the tall, gaunt figure now. He played and chatted with us children and was always bright and cheerful. Lincoln was not the homely man that he is sometimes pictured, for there was a strange beauty about his face which clung to you."
Mr. Hatch possessed many priceless letters and documents passed on to him by illustrious parents. His father's commission, signed by Lincoln, was only a few months ago sent to the Lincoln Memorial Library at Springfield. Letters from his father about the progress of the war were in this collection, also a letter to his mother from Mrs. Lincoln penned with her Own hand - a beautifully couched message - in which touching reference to the president and the burdens of state he was then carrying is made.
Goes west- As a youth, Mr. Hatch had little liking for school but he was a lover of adventure. Leaving a boarding school in his late teens he bade goodbye to his family and left for the west.' He was then 18. From then on his life, like the lives of scores of other hardy western men, was written into the fabric of the new empire. In turn he was surveyor on the main line of the Union Pacific, stage driver for the Wells-Fargo Express Company, partner in the store business with his uncle in Reading, Calif., sheep rancher in California and Montana, stockman and legislator in the territory and state of Montana where he was one of the framers of the state constitution, and later business man and civic official in Lethbridge.
It was at Little Elk, Montana, that he married Mary L. Pound, in the year 1885. While in the cattle business in Montana Mr. Hatch formed the acquaintance of C.M. "Charlie" Russell, the artist, then an unknown cowpuncher in the Musselshell Valley. Mr. Hatch told many anecdotes about the noted western painter, among them the story of the "Last of Five Thousand" picture, drawn on a piece of wrapping paper, the sketch that later made Russell famous.
SETTLES HERE IN 1904 - Hr. Hatch first came to Alberta in 1899, being associated with the Kerr Land company of Minneapolis. During the big land boom he was associated with C. R. Daniel of this city, in the real estate business, their office being on the site of the present Rex Cigar store, corner of Fifth St. and Third Ave. Later he was a member of the real estate firm of' Hatch and Coons and also farmed extensively. He first took up his residence in Alberta as U.S. treasury agent, his territory being the boundary between Montana and Idaho and Canada. His permanent residence was established in this city in 1904.
ACTIVE CITIZEN - As a citizen of this city, Mr. Hatch was elected an alderman in December 1909, and served two years. He was chairman of the parks committee and of the fire and light committee. In the latter capacity he fathered the present modernly equipped fire department. He was elected president of the Lethbridge Agricultural Society and promoted the sale of a 40-acre plot which netted the society $70,000. This led to the building of the handsome exhibition plant east of the city, one of the finest sets of buildings for fair purposes in the west. In 1911 he was elected president of the Board of Trade, and the year following was elected mayor, inaugurating a period of civil improvement and expansion. He was defeated by Mayor Hardie in 1913.
He was a past president of the Chinook club and fraternally was early connected with North Star Lodge No.4, of the Masons, and also of the Knights of Pythias. He maintained a certain independence in politics and in religion was a member of the Church of England.
The following sketch of the life of Mr. Hatch was written years ago for the Montana state records by the state librarian and was obtained by the Herald from the capitol at Helena only last year:
BORN IN ILLINOIS - George M. Hatch, of Big Timber, Montana, was born at Griggsville, Pike County, Illinois, May 8, 1852. He attended the common schools of his native village until he was nine years old, when he "went off to war," accompanying his father who was a captain in the Eighth Illinois Infantry, being afterward major of his regiment. George followed the fortunes of the division of the Mississippi, remaining with the troops until the close of hostilities in 1865. While not old enough to carry a gun, he had a most varied and interesting army experience. After the close of the war he joined the family at Quincy, Illinois, where they located, and again for two years, he attended the public schools, completing his education with one term at an Episcopal school at Racine, Wisconsin.
In 1868 he became infected with the "Western fever", and that year emigrated to Wyoming
Locating at Laramie City. There he joined the Union Pacific railroad surveyors, and carried the chain about a year. He returned to Chicago the next year, and for a time was with an engineering corps of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad. In 1870 he went to California and entered a general store at Shasta as clerk, being engaged with the same firm two years.
His next employment was as agent for Wells, Fargo & Company, at Redding, California, and later as messenger on the California & Oregon railway. He then tried ranching and stock growing on the Sacramento river, being interested with Mr. C.C. Bush in this undertaking. In 1876, Mr. Hatch left California with a band of 5,000 sheep, headed for Montana, this being one of the pioneer sheep drives to this territory. He reached Bannack, October 1st, and wintered on Horse Prairie, driving the next spring to old Camp Baker, in Meagher county, where he closed out the band to good advantage and returned to California.
RETURNS TO MONTANA - In the spring of 1870, he took the trail for Montana with another big drive, this time with the intention of remaining in Montana to engage in the sheep business. In 1879, he located at Big Elk, one of the tributaries of the Musselshell, being the first to settle on that stream, and, in fact, one of the pioneers of the Musselshell country. Here he engaged in driving from California, and trading in sheep generally. In August, 1881, he shipped 2,000 head of mutton from Glendive to
Chicago, these being the first sheep ever shipped from Montana, and the beginning of what is now a most important industry.
In 1882 Mr. Hatch became interested in a small general business in Big Timber, and laid the foundation of that prosperous town. In 1885 he sold out his ranch interests and located at Big Timber, where he still resides (1894), and where he is extensively engaged in business, real estate, stock, mining and ranching. He was one of the promoters of the telephone line from Big Timber to Lewistown and to Independence. He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Big Timber, and has been, in short, the leading spirit in the business and enterprise of that progressive young town.
ACTIVE IN POLITICS - Mr. Hatch represented Meagher County in the Lower House of the Fourteenth Legislative Assembly (Territorial) and assisted materially in the formation of Fergus County. Park County was created by the Fifteenth Territorial Legislative Assembly, and Mr. Hatch was named in the bill as one of the first county commissioners. He was elected to represent Park County in the council of the Sixteenth or last Territorial Legislature, and in 1892 was elected state senator to serve a term of four years.
Mr. Hatch was married in 1885 to Mary L. Pound, daugther of A.E. Pound, a resident of Chippewas Falls, Wisconsin, and a brother of the late governor and ex-congressman Thad. Pound of that state. They have three children.
Husband of Mary Loomis Pound
Father of Helen Hunt Hatch, Eda Merrick Hatch Lewis, Marietta Hatch Newson, and Phyllis Merrick Hatch Bonner
Copy OF OBITUARY
LETHBRIDGE HERALD January 30, 1929 Front page and page 6
George M. Hatch, Former Mayor of Lethbridge, Dead
Veteran of Plains Passes at Age of 77 - One of Framers of Montana State Constitution - Had Great Vision of Lethbridge.
Death harvested still another of the old-timers of Lethbridge and the West Tuesday afternoon, when George Merrick Hatch passed away.
Arrangements for the funeral, which will likely be held in this city, where he spent his later life; and where one daughter, Mrs. P. V. Lewis, resides, are being made. Mr.Hatch is survived by his widow, Mary L. Hatch; Mrs. K. W. Frankow and Phyllis Hatch, daughters, Vancouver; and Mrs. Lewis of Lethbridge. Another daughter, Helen, was killed in the mountains at Laggan, Alta., in 1908, during an Alpine Club climb.
A LIFE OF ACTION - The life of George Hatch was crowded with action for he was a pioneer of the early school spending many years on the frontier in Wyoming, Montana, California and Alberta. He was a man of thrift, vision and enterprise and during his years of business activity in the state of Montana George Hatch made several fortunes, subsequent reverses - a story oft-repeated in a new, raw country - cheating him of much of his hard=earned and well-deserved gains. In recent years Mr. Hatch has lived quietly in the city during the summer filling the position of tourist camp director at Henderson Park, where he did splendid service in greeting tourists and making them feel at home while in Lethbridge.
HAD VISION FOR LETHBRIDGE - The city of Lethbridge owes much to George Hatch for he is often called the father of the city's park system, especially of lovely Galt Gardens, which have brought fame and distinction to the city. Civic beautification was with him a passion and during his regime as mayor in 1912, Lethbridge took on many of its metropolitan features - parks, boulevards, paving, street railway, etc. He had a picture of a flourishing and beautiful city here, living to see much of that vision realized.
He was one of the organizers of the Board of Trade excursion to the International Dry Fanning Congress held in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1911, when a special train was, chartered. This project brought the Congress to Lethbridge the following year - the year Mr. Hatch was mayor. In 1911 while Mr. Hatch was on a trip to California he was elected president of the Board of Trade and he was known as one of the most progressive heads that body has had.
REMEMBERED LINCOLN ~ Born in Illinois in the stirring early fifties when the slave question was a burning issue, he early absorbed much of the militant spirit around him. His parents were Col. Reuben Benton Hatch and Ellen DeWitt Bush Hatch, both prominent in the life of their home state and well connected. As a boy George Hatch accompanied his father, then quartermaster captain, to General Grant's headquarters at Cairo, Illinois, becoming a drummer boy in the Union forces. He had a clear recollection of both President Lincoln and the great commander who after a series of disastrous campaigns against the Confederate forces turned seeming defeat into victory.
"Lincoln dropped into our home on a number of occasions, he told a Herald representative a few years ago. "I remember the tall, gaunt figure now. He played and chatted with us children and was always bright and cheerful. Lincoln was not the homely man that he is sometimes pictured, for there was a strange beauty about his face which clung to you."
Mr. Hatch possessed many priceless letters and documents passed on to him by illustrious parents. His father's commission, signed by Lincoln, was only a few months ago sent to the Lincoln Memorial Library at Springfield. Letters from his father about the progress of the war were in this collection, also a letter to his mother from Mrs. Lincoln penned with her Own hand - a beautifully couched message - in which touching reference to the president and the burdens of state he was then carrying is made.
Goes west- As a youth, Mr. Hatch had little liking for school but he was a lover of adventure. Leaving a boarding school in his late teens he bade goodbye to his family and left for the west.' He was then 18. From then on his life, like the lives of scores of other hardy western men, was written into the fabric of the new empire. In turn he was surveyor on the main line of the Union Pacific, stage driver for the Wells-Fargo Express Company, partner in the store business with his uncle in Reading, Calif., sheep rancher in California and Montana, stockman and legislator in the territory and state of Montana where he was one of the framers of the state constitution, and later business man and civic official in Lethbridge.
It was at Little Elk, Montana, that he married Mary L. Pound, in the year 1885. While in the cattle business in Montana Mr. Hatch formed the acquaintance of C.M. "Charlie" Russell, the artist, then an unknown cowpuncher in the Musselshell Valley. Mr. Hatch told many anecdotes about the noted western painter, among them the story of the "Last of Five Thousand" picture, drawn on a piece of wrapping paper, the sketch that later made Russell famous.
SETTLES HERE IN 1904 - Hr. Hatch first came to Alberta in 1899, being associated with the Kerr Land company of Minneapolis. During the big land boom he was associated with C. R. Daniel of this city, in the real estate business, their office being on the site of the present Rex Cigar store, corner of Fifth St. and Third Ave. Later he was a member of the real estate firm of' Hatch and Coons and also farmed extensively. He first took up his residence in Alberta as U.S. treasury agent, his territory being the boundary between Montana and Idaho and Canada. His permanent residence was established in this city in 1904.
ACTIVE CITIZEN - As a citizen of this city, Mr. Hatch was elected an alderman in December 1909, and served two years. He was chairman of the parks committee and of the fire and light committee. In the latter capacity he fathered the present modernly equipped fire department. He was elected president of the Lethbridge Agricultural Society and promoted the sale of a 40-acre plot which netted the society $70,000. This led to the building of the handsome exhibition plant east of the city, one of the finest sets of buildings for fair purposes in the west. In 1911 he was elected president of the Board of Trade, and the year following was elected mayor, inaugurating a period of civil improvement and expansion. He was defeated by Mayor Hardie in 1913.
He was a past president of the Chinook club and fraternally was early connected with North Star Lodge No.4, of the Masons, and also of the Knights of Pythias. He maintained a certain independence in politics and in religion was a member of the Church of England.
The following sketch of the life of Mr. Hatch was written years ago for the Montana state records by the state librarian and was obtained by the Herald from the capitol at Helena only last year:
BORN IN ILLINOIS - George M. Hatch, of Big Timber, Montana, was born at Griggsville, Pike County, Illinois, May 8, 1852. He attended the common schools of his native village until he was nine years old, when he "went off to war," accompanying his father who was a captain in the Eighth Illinois Infantry, being afterward major of his regiment. George followed the fortunes of the division of the Mississippi, remaining with the troops until the close of hostilities in 1865. While not old enough to carry a gun, he had a most varied and interesting army experience. After the close of the war he joined the family at Quincy, Illinois, where they located, and again for two years, he attended the public schools, completing his education with one term at an Episcopal school at Racine, Wisconsin.
In 1868 he became infected with the "Western fever", and that year emigrated to Wyoming
Locating at Laramie City. There he joined the Union Pacific railroad surveyors, and carried the chain about a year. He returned to Chicago the next year, and for a time was with an engineering corps of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad. In 1870 he went to California and entered a general store at Shasta as clerk, being engaged with the same firm two years.
His next employment was as agent for Wells, Fargo & Company, at Redding, California, and later as messenger on the California & Oregon railway. He then tried ranching and stock growing on the Sacramento river, being interested with Mr. C.C. Bush in this undertaking. In 1876, Mr. Hatch left California with a band of 5,000 sheep, headed for Montana, this being one of the pioneer sheep drives to this territory. He reached Bannack, October 1st, and wintered on Horse Prairie, driving the next spring to old Camp Baker, in Meagher county, where he closed out the band to good advantage and returned to California.
RETURNS TO MONTANA - In the spring of 1870, he took the trail for Montana with another big drive, this time with the intention of remaining in Montana to engage in the sheep business. In 1879, he located at Big Elk, one of the tributaries of the Musselshell, being the first to settle on that stream, and, in fact, one of the pioneers of the Musselshell country. Here he engaged in driving from California, and trading in sheep generally. In August, 1881, he shipped 2,000 head of mutton from Glendive to
Chicago, these being the first sheep ever shipped from Montana, and the beginning of what is now a most important industry.
In 1882 Mr. Hatch became interested in a small general business in Big Timber, and laid the foundation of that prosperous town. In 1885 he sold out his ranch interests and located at Big Timber, where he still resides (1894), and where he is extensively engaged in business, real estate, stock, mining and ranching. He was one of the promoters of the telephone line from Big Timber to Lewistown and to Independence. He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Big Timber, and has been, in short, the leading spirit in the business and enterprise of that progressive young town.
ACTIVE IN POLITICS - Mr. Hatch represented Meagher County in the Lower House of the Fourteenth Legislative Assembly (Territorial) and assisted materially in the formation of Fergus County. Park County was created by the Fifteenth Territorial Legislative Assembly, and Mr. Hatch was named in the bill as one of the first county commissioners. He was elected to represent Park County in the council of the Sixteenth or last Territorial Legislature, and in 1892 was elected state senator to serve a term of four years.
Mr. Hatch was married in 1885 to Mary L. Pound, daugther of A.E. Pound, a resident of Chippewas Falls, Wisconsin, and a brother of the late governor and ex-congressman Thad. Pound of that state. They have three children.
GEORGE MERRICK HATCH
Husband of Mary Loomis Pound
Father of Helen Hunt Hatch, Eda Merrick Hatch Lewis, Marietta Hatch Newson, and Phyllis Merrick Hatch Bonner
Copy OF OBITUARY
LETHBRIDGE HERALD January 30, 1929 Front page and page 6
George M. Hatch, Former Mayor of Lethbridge, Dead
Veteran of Plains Passes at Age of 77 - One of Framers of Montana State Constitution - Had Great Vision of Lethbridge.
Death harvested still another of the old-timers of Lethbridge and the West Tuesday afternoon, when George Merrick Hatch passed away.
Arrangements for the funeral, which will likely be held in this city, where he spent his later life; and where one daughter, Mrs. P. V. Lewis, resides, are being made. Mr.Hatch is survived by his widow, Mary L. Hatch; Mrs. K. W. Frankow and Phyllis Hatch, daughters, Vancouver; and Mrs. Lewis of Lethbridge. Another daughter, Helen, was killed in the mountains at Laggan, Alta., in 1908, during an Alpine Club climb.
A LIFE OF ACTION - The life of George Hatch was crowded with action for he was a pioneer of the early school spending many years on the frontier in Wyoming, Montana, California and Alberta. He was a man of thrift, vision and enterprise and during his years of business activity in the state of Montana George Hatch made several fortunes, subsequent reverses - a story oft-repeated in a new, raw country - cheating him of much of his hard=earned and well-deserved gains. In recent years Mr. Hatch has lived quietly in the city during the summer filling the position of tourist camp director at Henderson Park, where he did splendid service in greeting tourists and making them feel at home while in Lethbridge.
HAD VISION FOR LETHBRIDGE - The city of Lethbridge owes much to George Hatch for he is often called the father of the city's park system, especially of lovely Galt Gardens, which have brought fame and distinction to the city. Civic beautification was with him a passion and during his regime as mayor in 1912, Lethbridge took on many of its metropolitan features - parks, boulevards, paving, street railway, etc. He had a picture of a flourishing and beautiful city here, living to see much of that vision realized.
He was one of the organizers of the Board of Trade excursion to the International Dry Fanning Congress held in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1911, when a special train was, chartered. This project brought the Congress to Lethbridge the following year - the year Mr. Hatch was mayor. In 1911 while Mr. Hatch was on a trip to California he was elected president of the Board of Trade and he was known as one of the most progressive heads that body has had.
REMEMBERED LINCOLN ~ Born in Illinois in the stirring early fifties when the slave question was a burning issue, he early absorbed much of the militant spirit around him. His parents were Col. Reuben Benton Hatch and Ellen DeWitt Bush Hatch, both prominent in the life of their home state and well connected. As a boy George Hatch accompanied his father, then quartermaster captain, to General Grant's headquarters at Cairo, Illinois, becoming a drummer boy in the Union forces. He had a clear recollection of both President Lincoln and the great commander who after a series of disastrous campaigns against the Confederate forces turned seeming defeat into victory.
"Lincoln dropped into our home on a number of occasions, he told a Herald representative a few years ago. "I remember the tall, gaunt figure now. He played and chatted with us children and was always bright and cheerful. Lincoln was not the homely man that he is sometimes pictured, for there was a strange beauty about his face which clung to you."
Mr. Hatch possessed many priceless letters and documents passed on to him by illustrious parents. His father's commission, signed by Lincoln, was only a few months ago sent to the Lincoln Memorial Library at Springfield. Letters from his father about the progress of the war were in this collection, also a letter to his mother from Mrs. Lincoln penned with her Own hand - a beautifully couched message - in which touching reference to the president and the burdens of state he was then carrying is made.
Goes west- As a youth, Mr. Hatch had little liking for school but he was a lover of adventure. Leaving a boarding school in his late teens he bade goodbye to his family and left for the west.' He was then 18. From then on his life, like the lives of scores of other hardy western men, was written into the fabric of the new empire. In turn he was surveyor on the main line of the Union Pacific, stage driver for the Wells-Fargo Express Company, partner in the store business with his uncle in Reading, Calif., sheep rancher in California and Montana, stockman and legislator in the territory and state of Montana where he was one of the framers of the state constitution, and later business man and civic official in Lethbridge.
It was at Little Elk, Montana, that he married Mary L. Pound, in the year 1885. While in the cattle business in Montana Mr. Hatch formed the acquaintance of C.M. "Charlie" Russell, the artist, then an unknown cowpuncher in the Musselshell Valley. Mr. Hatch told many anecdotes about the noted western painter, among them the story of the "Last of Five Thousand" picture, drawn on a piece of wrapping paper, the sketch that later made Russell famous.
SETTLES HERE IN 1904 - Hr. Hatch first came to Alberta in 1899, being associated with the Kerr Land company of Minneapolis. During the big land boom he was associated with C. R. Daniel of this city, in the real estate business, their office being on the site of the present Rex Cigar store, corner of Fifth St. and Third Ave. Later he was a member of the real estate firm of' Hatch and Coons and also farmed extensively. He first took up his residence in Alberta as U.S. treasury agent, his territory being the boundary between Montana and Idaho and Canada. His permanent residence was established in this city in 1904.
ACTIVE CITIZEN - As a citizen of this city, Mr. Hatch was elected an alderman in December 1909, and served two years. He was chairman of the parks committee and of the fire and light committee. In the latter capacity he fathered the present modernly equipped fire department. He was elected president of the Lethbridge Agricultural Society and promoted the sale of a 40-acre plot which netted the society $70,000. This led to the building of the handsome exhibition plant east of the city, one of the finest sets of buildings for fair purposes in the west. In 1911 he was elected president of the Board of Trade, and the year following was elected mayor, inaugurating a period of civil improvement and expansion. He was defeated by Mayor Hardie in 1913.
He was a past president of the Chinook club and fraternally was early connected with North Star Lodge No.4, of the Masons, and also of the Knights of Pythias. He maintained a certain independence in politics and in religion was a member of the Church of England.
The following sketch of the life of Mr. Hatch was written years ago for the Montana state records by the state librarian and was obtained by the Herald from the capitol at Helena only last year:
BORN IN ILLINOIS - George M. Hatch, of Big Timber, Montana, was born at Griggsville, Pike County, Illinois, May 8, 1852. He attended the common schools of his native village until he was nine years old, when he "went off to war," accompanying his father who was a captain in the Eighth Illinois Infantry, being afterward major of his regiment. George followed the fortunes of the division of the Mississippi, remaining with the troops until the close of hostilities in 1865. While not old enough to carry a gun, he had a most varied and interesting army experience. After the close of the war he joined the family at Quincy, Illinois, where they located, and again for two years, he attended the public schools, completing his education with one term at an Episcopal school at Racine, Wisconsin.
In 1868 he became infected with the "Western fever", and that year emigrated to Wyoming
Locating at Laramie City. There he joined the Union Pacific railroad surveyors, and carried the chain about a year. He returned to Chicago the next year, and for a time was with an engineering corps of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad. In 1870 he went to California and entered a general store at Shasta as clerk, being engaged with the same firm two years.
His next employment was as agent for Wells, Fargo & Company, at Redding, California, and later as messenger on the California & Oregon railway. He then tried ranching and stock growing on the Sacramento river, being interested with Mr. C.C. Bush in this undertaking. In 1876, Mr. Hatch left California with a band of 5,000 sheep, headed for Montana, this being one of the pioneer sheep drives to this territory. He reached Bannack, October 1st, and wintered on Horse Prairie, driving the next spring to old Camp Baker, in Meagher county, where he closed out the band to good advantage and returned to California.
RETURNS TO MONTANA - In the spring of 1870, he took the trail for Montana with another big drive, this time with the intention of remaining in Montana to engage in the sheep business. In 1879, he located at Big Elk, one of the tributaries of the Musselshell, being the first to settle on that stream, and, in fact, one of the pioneers of the Musselshell country. Here he engaged in driving from California, and trading in sheep generally. In August, 1881, he shipped 2,000 head of mutton from Glendive to
Chicago, these being the first sheep ever shipped from Montana, and the beginning of what is now a most important industry.
In 1882 Mr. Hatch became interested in a small general business in Big Timber, and laid the foundation of that prosperous town. In 1885 he sold out his ranch interests and located at Big Timber, where he still resides (1894), and where he is extensively engaged in business, real estate, stock, mining and ranching. He was one of the promoters of the telephone line from Big Timber to Lewistown and to Independence. He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Big Timber, and has been, in short, the leading spirit in the business and enterprise of that progressive young town.
ACTIVE IN POLITICS - Mr. Hatch represented Meagher County in the Lower House of the Fourteenth Legislative Assembly (Territorial) and assisted materially in the formation of Fergus County. Park County was created by the Fifteenth Territorial Legislative Assembly, and Mr. Hatch was named in the bill as one of the first county commissioners. He was elected to represent Park County in the council of the Sixteenth or last Territorial Legislature, and in 1892 was elected state senator to serve a term of four years.
Mr. Hatch was married in 1885 to Mary L. Pound, daugther of A.E. Pound, a resident of Chippewas Falls, Wisconsin, and a brother of the late governor and ex-congressman Thad. Pound of that state. They have three children.
Husband of Mary Loomis Pound
Father of Helen Hunt Hatch, Eda Merrick Hatch Lewis, Marietta Hatch Newson, and Phyllis Merrick Hatch Bonner
Copy OF OBITUARY
LETHBRIDGE HERALD January 30, 1929 Front page and page 6
George M. Hatch, Former Mayor of Lethbridge, Dead
Veteran of Plains Passes at Age of 77 - One of Framers of Montana State Constitution - Had Great Vision of Lethbridge.
Death harvested still another of the old-timers of Lethbridge and the West Tuesday afternoon, when George Merrick Hatch passed away.
Arrangements for the funeral, which will likely be held in this city, where he spent his later life; and where one daughter, Mrs. P. V. Lewis, resides, are being made. Mr.Hatch is survived by his widow, Mary L. Hatch; Mrs. K. W. Frankow and Phyllis Hatch, daughters, Vancouver; and Mrs. Lewis of Lethbridge. Another daughter, Helen, was killed in the mountains at Laggan, Alta., in 1908, during an Alpine Club climb.
A LIFE OF ACTION - The life of George Hatch was crowded with action for he was a pioneer of the early school spending many years on the frontier in Wyoming, Montana, California and Alberta. He was a man of thrift, vision and enterprise and during his years of business activity in the state of Montana George Hatch made several fortunes, subsequent reverses - a story oft-repeated in a new, raw country - cheating him of much of his hard=earned and well-deserved gains. In recent years Mr. Hatch has lived quietly in the city during the summer filling the position of tourist camp director at Henderson Park, where he did splendid service in greeting tourists and making them feel at home while in Lethbridge.
HAD VISION FOR LETHBRIDGE - The city of Lethbridge owes much to George Hatch for he is often called the father of the city's park system, especially of lovely Galt Gardens, which have brought fame and distinction to the city. Civic beautification was with him a passion and during his regime as mayor in 1912, Lethbridge took on many of its metropolitan features - parks, boulevards, paving, street railway, etc. He had a picture of a flourishing and beautiful city here, living to see much of that vision realized.
He was one of the organizers of the Board of Trade excursion to the International Dry Fanning Congress held in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1911, when a special train was, chartered. This project brought the Congress to Lethbridge the following year - the year Mr. Hatch was mayor. In 1911 while Mr. Hatch was on a trip to California he was elected president of the Board of Trade and he was known as one of the most progressive heads that body has had.
REMEMBERED LINCOLN ~ Born in Illinois in the stirring early fifties when the slave question was a burning issue, he early absorbed much of the militant spirit around him. His parents were Col. Reuben Benton Hatch and Ellen DeWitt Bush Hatch, both prominent in the life of their home state and well connected. As a boy George Hatch accompanied his father, then quartermaster captain, to General Grant's headquarters at Cairo, Illinois, becoming a drummer boy in the Union forces. He had a clear recollection of both President Lincoln and the great commander who after a series of disastrous campaigns against the Confederate forces turned seeming defeat into victory.
"Lincoln dropped into our home on a number of occasions, he told a Herald representative a few years ago. "I remember the tall, gaunt figure now. He played and chatted with us children and was always bright and cheerful. Lincoln was not the homely man that he is sometimes pictured, for there was a strange beauty about his face which clung to you."
Mr. Hatch possessed many priceless letters and documents passed on to him by illustrious parents. His father's commission, signed by Lincoln, was only a few months ago sent to the Lincoln Memorial Library at Springfield. Letters from his father about the progress of the war were in this collection, also a letter to his mother from Mrs. Lincoln penned with her Own hand - a beautifully couched message - in which touching reference to the president and the burdens of state he was then carrying is made.
Goes west- As a youth, Mr. Hatch had little liking for school but he was a lover of adventure. Leaving a boarding school in his late teens he bade goodbye to his family and left for the west.' He was then 18. From then on his life, like the lives of scores of other hardy western men, was written into the fabric of the new empire. In turn he was surveyor on the main line of the Union Pacific, stage driver for the Wells-Fargo Express Company, partner in the store business with his uncle in Reading, Calif., sheep rancher in California and Montana, stockman and legislator in the territory and state of Montana where he was one of the framers of the state constitution, and later business man and civic official in Lethbridge.
It was at Little Elk, Montana, that he married Mary L. Pound, in the year 1885. While in the cattle business in Montana Mr. Hatch formed the acquaintance of C.M. "Charlie" Russell, the artist, then an unknown cowpuncher in the Musselshell Valley. Mr. Hatch told many anecdotes about the noted western painter, among them the story of the "Last of Five Thousand" picture, drawn on a piece of wrapping paper, the sketch that later made Russell famous.
SETTLES HERE IN 1904 - Hr. Hatch first came to Alberta in 1899, being associated with the Kerr Land company of Minneapolis. During the big land boom he was associated with C. R. Daniel of this city, in the real estate business, their office being on the site of the present Rex Cigar store, corner of Fifth St. and Third Ave. Later he was a member of the real estate firm of' Hatch and Coons and also farmed extensively. He first took up his residence in Alberta as U.S. treasury agent, his territory being the boundary between Montana and Idaho and Canada. His permanent residence was established in this city in 1904.
ACTIVE CITIZEN - As a citizen of this city, Mr. Hatch was elected an alderman in December 1909, and served two years. He was chairman of the parks committee and of the fire and light committee. In the latter capacity he fathered the present modernly equipped fire department. He was elected president of the Lethbridge Agricultural Society and promoted the sale of a 40-acre plot which netted the society $70,000. This led to the building of the handsome exhibition plant east of the city, one of the finest sets of buildings for fair purposes in the west. In 1911 he was elected president of the Board of Trade, and the year following was elected mayor, inaugurating a period of civil improvement and expansion. He was defeated by Mayor Hardie in 1913.
He was a past president of the Chinook club and fraternally was early connected with North Star Lodge No.4, of the Masons, and also of the Knights of Pythias. He maintained a certain independence in politics and in religion was a member of the Church of England.
The following sketch of the life of Mr. Hatch was written years ago for the Montana state records by the state librarian and was obtained by the Herald from the capitol at Helena only last year:
BORN IN ILLINOIS - George M. Hatch, of Big Timber, Montana, was born at Griggsville, Pike County, Illinois, May 8, 1852. He attended the common schools of his native village until he was nine years old, when he "went off to war," accompanying his father who was a captain in the Eighth Illinois Infantry, being afterward major of his regiment. George followed the fortunes of the division of the Mississippi, remaining with the troops until the close of hostilities in 1865. While not old enough to carry a gun, he had a most varied and interesting army experience. After the close of the war he joined the family at Quincy, Illinois, where they located, and again for two years, he attended the public schools, completing his education with one term at an Episcopal school at Racine, Wisconsin.
In 1868 he became infected with the "Western fever", and that year emigrated to Wyoming
Locating at Laramie City. There he joined the Union Pacific railroad surveyors, and carried the chain about a year. He returned to Chicago the next year, and for a time was with an engineering corps of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad. In 1870 he went to California and entered a general store at Shasta as clerk, being engaged with the same firm two years.
His next employment was as agent for Wells, Fargo & Company, at Redding, California, and later as messenger on the California & Oregon railway. He then tried ranching and stock growing on the Sacramento river, being interested with Mr. C.C. Bush in this undertaking. In 1876, Mr. Hatch left California with a band of 5,000 sheep, headed for Montana, this being one of the pioneer sheep drives to this territory. He reached Bannack, October 1st, and wintered on Horse Prairie, driving the next spring to old Camp Baker, in Meagher county, where he closed out the band to good advantage and returned to California.
RETURNS TO MONTANA - In the spring of 1870, he took the trail for Montana with another big drive, this time with the intention of remaining in Montana to engage in the sheep business. In 1879, he located at Big Elk, one of the tributaries of the Musselshell, being the first to settle on that stream, and, in fact, one of the pioneers of the Musselshell country. Here he engaged in driving from California, and trading in sheep generally. In August, 1881, he shipped 2,000 head of mutton from Glendive to
Chicago, these being the first sheep ever shipped from Montana, and the beginning of what is now a most important industry.
In 1882 Mr. Hatch became interested in a small general business in Big Timber, and laid the foundation of that prosperous town. In 1885 he sold out his ranch interests and located at Big Timber, where he still resides (1894), and where he is extensively engaged in business, real estate, stock, mining and ranching. He was one of the promoters of the telephone line from Big Timber to Lewistown and to Independence. He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Big Timber, and has been, in short, the leading spirit in the business and enterprise of that progressive young town.
ACTIVE IN POLITICS - Mr. Hatch represented Meagher County in the Lower House of the Fourteenth Legislative Assembly (Territorial) and assisted materially in the formation of Fergus County. Park County was created by the Fifteenth Territorial Legislative Assembly, and Mr. Hatch was named in the bill as one of the first county commissioners. He was elected to represent Park County in the council of the Sixteenth or last Territorial Legislature, and in 1892 was elected state senator to serve a term of four years.
Mr. Hatch was married in 1885 to Mary L. Pound, daugther of A.E. Pound, a resident of Chippewas Falls, Wisconsin, and a brother of the late governor and ex-congressman Thad. Pound of that state. They have three children.
Gravesite Details
The three red flags placed by the cemetery mark the graves of Phillip Vernon Lewis, his wife - Eda M Hatch Lewis, and her father, George Merrick Hatch, whose grave is unmarked.
Family Members
Siblings
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