Jul 12, 2021
The Entrepreneur Who Built a Town
Among today's entrepreneur gurus and self-help authors, one cannot find an entrepreneur who literally built a town. But for a small corner of Northwest Montana, that’s just what happened. In the time of the immigrant influx (the 1870s-1880s), hundreds of European farmers were flocking to the lands of the west that were either free or inexpensive. One such place was a valley known as the Flathead Valley.
There are only four towns that dominate the valley and those are Kalispell, Columbia Falls, Whitefish, and Polson. There is also the town of Bigfork that offers its own charm, but for the most part, those four are the main lures for tourism. In the early stages of settlement in the Flathead Country, there were several towns or villages, but there was one man who left a mark on the map…for a time.
The only hint to what was once a thriving community in the upper Flathead Valley is a road branching off of Lower Valley Road, and a cemetery off of Cemetery Road, which is close to one another. The frontier was a place where towns grew and died a gradual death, in most cases, but what makes Demersville such an interesting case, is its brief lifespan and sudden death and disappearance.
The Man Behind the Name
Demersville was where Kalispell was born, one could say, and the area itself is what drew its founder to begin planting the seed of a town. To understand why Telesphere J. “Jack” Demers did what he did, it should be noted that he was no ordinary man. It would seem Demers was an entrepreneur and began projects early on in his life. He was born in Montreal in 1835 but found himself in Montana after departing Colville, Washington, in 1862 with his wife and children.
It was in 1862 that the Mullan Road was completed, creating a single highway from Fort Benton to Fort Walla Walla. At the same time, the American Civil War was heading into its second year of blood and glory, the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota had just occurred, and notable issues with the Native Americans and white bandits around Fort Colville made any respectable citizen wary.
At the time of the Road’s completion, Montana was a part of the Idaho Territory and one of the most lawless areas with its rugged interior and vagrants running wild. It was in the midst of this that Demers set down roots. In Colville, Demers had busied himself in the merchandising and freighting business, which he would then bring to Frenchtown, a French-Canadian settlement, that was about 15 miles northwest of Missoula.
It would be of no surprise to anyone to hear of “a man of energy, imagination and commercial daring who enjoyed…action of business development and had a natural talent for leadership and organization” to own much of, perhaps half of, Frenchtown. Indeed, many citizens were in his employment. As a man of such accomplishments, there would have no doubt been competition and it was this obstacle that kept Mister Demers on his toes. To combat that, Demers was a patron of the newspapers and advertised regularly in them.
Demers, in 1872, purchased a herd of 900 cattle and had them driven up from Texas. In the summer of the same year, Demers brought cattle into the upper Flathead Valley. While it was not an easy task getting the cattle in and out, the frontier entrepreneur saw potential in the area. Many times thereafter he would go through the valley.
The second herd of 300 head would follow them several years later, part of which were wintered on the Jocko River and another part on the south fork of the Sun River. It would only be one year after he bought the first herd that he broadened his ventures into the fur trade. In 1873, Demers shipped out four wagonloads of buffalo robes, marten, beaver, otter, mink, bear, and wolf skins, destined for the East or West coast markets.
While the Demers family is lacking in information about them, we do know they had some importance due to the reporting of Martina Demers, the eldest daughter, dying suddenly while attending St. Vincent’s Academy with a young sister. It would not be the only tragedy to strike the family.
On April 5, 1879, Jack Demers lost his wife supposedly due to a head injury from a horse. The memory was only a lingering one to the family members it would seem. Demers’ wife also seemed to have health issues, per an 1876 excerpt from The Missoulian report of a local doctor leaving Missoula for Frenchtown to attend her neuralgia.
Two years later in November, she was reported to be in the “incipient stages of consumption…” What’s more interesting to note, is that while Jack Demers and eleven others reside in an “unpretentious, native-rock mausoleum,” his first wife is not among them. In fact, it remains a mystery as to where she is buried.
He would remarry on February 6, 1880, to Leonie Garnot who was a teacher’s assistant and music instructor, and newly arrived in Missoula in 1878 at the age of seventeen. It appears that they met while Demers brought supplies to aid townsfolk. Garnot was the same age as Demers’ eldest daughter. It was fortunate the daughter was no longer at the home.
Rise and Decline
The Missoulian had this to say about Demers in its July 27, 1883 issue:
“T.J. Demers, Frenchtown, largest wholesale and retail liquor dealer in the county; proprietor of the Standard Flouring Mills; proprietor of the saw mill; also buys and sell horses and cattle, hides and furs.”
Demers used his knowledge of freighting and merchandising to capitalize on the success of placer mines in the southeast of Kootenai, British Columbia, in the 1870s and 80s, by running a pack train to the mines with supplies. The route would go up the west shore of Flathead Lake, over Angel Hill, around the Point of Rocks (which is now Somers), along the West Valley foothills, and continue up the Stillwater River and lakes to the Tobacco Plains. The trail would end in British Columbia at the Wild Horse Creek placer mines near Fort Steele.
It was here in the upper Flathead Valley that he thought would be a good place to start a new store. In 1883, the Northern Pacific Railroad bypassed Frenchtown by several miles to go through Missoula, so it would be logical to assume a branch of the railroad might pass through this region, as well. Demers was proved correct in his prediction of the valley’s success when the area was attracting a growing number of settlers in 1886. He would accept a block of 300 square feet from the homestead of W.H. “Uncle Billy” Gregg in 1887 only after merchants in Ashley Creek didn’t want to compete with him, and opened up the store in a large tent after shipping up a large stock of goods. One year later, Demers completed a log store 60 feet by 30 feet. The log trading post was reportedly “large and attractive”.
The man who oversaw the building of the log store was John E. Clifford who would have a hotel named after him, and also become an in-law to Demers. It would be one of the man’s greatest mistakes, although he would not live long enough to see it. Telesphore Demers would pass on May 18, 1889, due to Bright’s Disease (a heart problem), and other complications, after six months of failing health. He had been on his way to Salt Lake City for medical care when he was forced to stop in a Butte hospital. Leonie was at his side.
Demersville had 1500 residents by 1891 when it was incorporated with John E. Clifford as the first (and last) mayor. It was thanks to his son-in-law’s extravagance that crashed his finances. Leonie would always hold that if her husband had lived another five years he would have had the affairs in order and the town could have been more successful.
Jim Hill and his Great Northern Railway spelled death for Demersville, ironically the same year the town was incorporated. Thanks to Charles E. Conrad’s influence and his own business knowledge. It would have been an amazing spectacle to see Demers and Conrad face each other in a business showdown that would rival that of Hell on Wheels or the true story of the Copper Kings.
It wouldn’t turn into a ghost town or a blip on the map. Before development on Lower Valley, what was left of Demersville were only holes where buildings once stood before they were moved to the promising town of Kalispell. In a matter of a year or two, the homes would be jacked up and moved to the Kalispell Townsite.
How different might the area be if Demers hadn’t died, as Leonie Demers speculated, and gone on to manage his business against the mighty Conrad from Fort Benton? As with many unfortunate incidents in history…we will never know.
