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Dusting Off the Old Ones

Custer County Organized

The publication of the first minutes of the meeting of the Board of County Commissioners of Custer County is of real historic value and will also answer two questions that have been asked recently--when was the county organized--and who was the first sheriff of Custer County. The minutes of the organization meeting of the Board give the following salient facts:

The Board of County Commissioners of Custer County, Territory of Montana met in their first regular session in the town of Miles City at 9:30 o'clock A. M. on the 14th day of June, 1877. There were present--Newman Borchardt--D. W. Ringer. Absent--Harris. Borchardt and Ringer presented their certificates of appointment as County Commissioners from the Honorable B. F. Potts, Governor of the Territory of Montana. The Board then proceeded to the consideration of county business. Borchardt was made chairman. The Board then proceeded to select persons to fill the different offices in the county:

Alexander Carmichael was appointed Judge of Probate.
John McCormick was appointed County Clerk and Recorder.
Matthew Carrol was appointed County Treasurer and Collector.
Hugh J. Hoppy was appointed County Sheriff.
Charles A. Johnson was appointed County Assessor.
Russell Briggs was appointed Justice of the Peace.
M. T. Hall was appointed Constable.
The town of Miles City was selected as the county seat.

There you have the proceedings of the Board of County Commissioners of this county when the first officers were appointed and Miles City was selected as the county seat. It must be remembered that at that time Custer County was a whale of a county in size, extending from a line west of Billings clear to the Dakota line, with its south boundary the Wyoming line.