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THE SEELY FAMILY. Pictured above are Jasper B. (Jesse) Seely and Mrs. Leonora
Turrell Seely. Jasper B. Seely first came to the Clearwater Valley in 1881
and, with his brother, built a cabin on the shores of what was then known
as Clearwater Lake. He and his family lived here for many years. The lake
and the town were named in their honor. Jasper Seeley became the first Forest
Service ranger at Seeley Lake and went on to become a Forest Supervisor
with the agency. Members of his family still vacation in the area each summer.
Jasper B. Seely died in Helena in 1931. Mrs. Seely and daughter Doris died
in an automobile accident near Somers in 1953. At this writing a daughter,
Ruth Seely Odom, lives in California. Another daughter, Frances Seeley Johnson,
resides in Helena. Photos and stories about the Seeley family were contributed
by Mrs. Frances Seely Johnson, Mrs. Ruth Seely Odom, two grandsons, Dick
and Bill Samson, granddaughter Jane Seeley Solberg, and others of the family.
Circa 1910 photo above of the Seely house courtesy of the Mansfield Library,
University of Montana.
In the upper Blackfoot Valley, people began settling near Ovando in the
late 1870s. Those who later settled around Seeley Lake came by way of a
trail that led from Ovando to Woodworth then west and north above Salmon
Lake to Morrell Flats. The Swan Valley was settled by people who came from
the north across Swan Lake to Salmon Prairie, and also by those who traveled
from the south, via Seeley Lake.
The first people who are known to have ranched along the Clearwater River
and also near Placid Lake were Hiram and Libbie Blanchard. They took out
water rights on the Big Blackfoot, Blanchard Creek, the Clearwater River
and various springs in the late summer of 1884. Hiram was from New York,
the story goes, and he named Placid Lake after "Lake Placid" in
the East. The family, along with Acors Rathbun of Albany, New York, incorporated
the Clearwater Land and Livestock Company in 1892. Courthouse records show
that in 1896 a Mr. James B. Bryan of Clearwater sold to the Clearwater Land
and Livestock Company for $508 a dozen horses, wagon, cow, calf, farm tools,
plus half interest in water rights in the names of Bryan and Blanchard for
property in no less than five sections of land near Clearwater. Land in
the vicinity was later acquired by the Harper family: hence the name for
"Harper Lake" just north of Clearwater Junction.
In the mid-1880s Jasper B. and Elmer Seely lived in a cabin on the western
shore of the lake then known as Clearwater Lake (earlier it had been dubbed
"Moose Lake"). Not long after that first cabin was built near
what is now known as Camp Paxson, Jasper B. Seely married Leonora "Nora"
Turrel of Ovando and settled at Seeley Lake. (See story about the Seeley
family, this section.) An 1890 survey also mentions Culbertson and Tupper
as living between Placid Lake and Seeley Lake. In 1893 Charles T. Morrell
filed claim to land adjacent to Morrell Creek. At about the same time, in
the upper Swan River country, Ben Holland settled near what is now known
as Holland Lake and the Gordon Ranch.
Also during those years, Bill Boyd started ranching northwest of Ovando.
The Boyd Ranch later became one of the largest ranches in the area. It is
now known as the Blackfoot Clearwater Game Range.
These people lived in relative isolation for a few years. However, by the
turn of the century, the homestead movement up the Clearwater River increased
dramatically.
A 1901 survey includes names of five settlers west of Placid Lake: Hugh
Archibald, James Welsh, Blanchards, Charles Curry and James A. Compo. By
1904, George Vaughn went to work for "logger" Bill Boyd, whose
ranch had become well-known by then for supplying the Blackfoot Valley lumber
camps with food. That same year homesteaders built a school at Placid Lake--reportedly
the first one in the immediate area. By 1905 the Corlett family had settled
on the Morrell Ranch. They traveled to Seeley Lake by open sled from Drummond
during the winter. Their children were later moved out-of-state to attend
school In 1906 and 1907, Frank Potter of Clearwater served as a school trustee
for District 33.
The first official Forest Service timber sale at Seeley Lake brought lumberjacks
and camps to the area from 1905 through 1911. From 1912 to 1917 the following
names began to appear in courthouse records, election rolls, the military
registration records of 1917, in school census records and in the Polk Gazette
(a regional magazine and guide for businesses): Alfred D. Vessey, Jay Perro,
Ernest Perro, W. E. Thieme, Art Henry, Oscar "Pop" Miller, Leo
Ernst, Red and Blackie Davis, Hugh Archibald, Thomas Kinney, G. L. Miller,
Bert Adams, Andrew Connelly, Minnie Coyne, James W. and Bertha Divers, E.
C. Potter, Alvin F. and Dani Rovero, Hilda Rovero, John F. Johnson, William
P. and Alvina Faire, Elmer Findell. Henry Haight, Chauncy and Mary Wllen
Kibler, H. L. Kibler, Ernest and Effie Koch, Frank McCarthy, Williams Peters,
Pearl and J. H. Saunders, A. and Jennie G. Shadbolt, Ezra Shaw, C. E. Smith,
George and Jessie Smith, F. C. Thomas, T. C. and Maud E. Thomas, George
B. and Margaret Townsend, George H. and Myrtle B. Waldbillig, Joseph J.
and Ethel Waldbillig, Elmer Westling, Jacob B. and Amy Wood, D. E. Brown,
Joseph L. Jamison and the Ostermeyers, who later lived at Placid Lake. A
few other area settlers who apprently received mail at Corlett from 1915
to 1917 were Charles Anderson, Francis and Helen Anderson, George R. Diem,
William Frye, James Frye, Harry S. Beck, Tom Hagery, Lydia Haight, Frank
S. Hollopeter, Hans Monrad, Isaac Oja, C. Preston, Ole Semling and Henry
M. Thomason. Most of these people lived in the Upper Swan Valley. By 1918,
the Swan Valley was becoming settled much more rapidly than the Seeley Lake
area. The school census for that year showed 48 children between the ages
of 6 and 21 in the Swan and only 12 in the Placid and Seeley schools.
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