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[[The following census information was compiled and contributed by Joyce S.
1870 census Montana, Gallatin Co
Horr, Henry, age 28 Male White Store Clerk real value 1500 born NY
Living in a household of men, including;
Buck Daniel, 28 M W Bar Keeper 1000 NY
Hubble Loman, 28 M W Post Suiter 500 500 NY
DeVault George, 26 M W Teamster . . MO
1880 Census Place: Carbon, Moore, Little Blackfoot And Snowshoe, Deer Lodge Co, Montana
Household: Page Number 194D
Name Relation Marital Status Gender Race Age Birthplace Occupation Father's Birthplace Mother's Birthplace
Transcribed as HARR.
Deforest HOBART Self S Male W 60 NY Miner MA VT
William BARTON Other S Male W 34 NY Miner NY ENG
*Harry R. HARR Other S Male W 36 NY Miner NY PA
James GENNETTE Other S Male W 50 NY NY NY
Living with brother Christopher and his wife Teckla/Thekla.
1910 Census: 10-Ward Seattle, King Co, Washington
Transcribed as HARR.
Henry R. Horr, brother, age 67, divorced, bp NY, f's bp NY, m's bp OH, Retired
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Thursday, February 29, 1912
HORR - Henry R. Horr, member of Stevens Post, G. A. R., brother of Christopher W. Horr, of this city, and Mrs. Adam S. Little, Red Cliff, Colo., Maj. Joseph L. Horr, Chicago. Funeral services held at G. A. R. cemetery at Capitol hill, today (Thursday), February 29, at 10 a.m. Services conducted by Stevens Post, G. A. R. Body can be seen at University Undertaking Parlors, 4214 Fourteenth avenue northeast. -- No flowers. Chicago, Montana and Dubuque papers please copy
Civil War Service Record
Name: Henry R Horr ,
Residence: Dubuque, Iowa
Enlistment Date: 17 August 1861
Distinguished Service: DISTINGUISHED SERVICE
Side Served: Union
State Served: Iowa
Unit Numbers: 233 233
Service Record: Enlisted as a Sergeant 5th Class on 17 August 1861 at the age of 19Promoted to Full Sergeant 4th Class on 24 February 1862Enlisted in 1st Light Artillery Regiment Iowa on 17 August 1864.Mustered out 1st Light Artillery Regiment Iowa on 17 August 1864 in Davenport, IA
Yellowstone Science volume 12 number 3 summer 2004
Harry R. Horr and the Promotion of the National Park
R. Brad Coon
F.J. Haynes stereograph of "Horr and McCartney's Hotel," 1885.
HISTORIAN first "interpreter" Lee Whittlesey has identified G.L. Henderson as Yellowstone's but, with a slight change of perspective, it is possible that honor might be given to H. R. Horr, another early personality in the park's story.(1) After all, Horr's residence within Yellowstone's boundaries predated its establishment as a national park and, as this essay will demonstrate, he apparently had no hesitation in describing Yellowstone's features to anyone willing to listen (particularly if they were willing to pay to hear him).
One of the complications that prevents Horr from being more generally recognized as an interpreter is the scant documentation regarding his involvement with Yellowstone and his residence in Montana. So few documents bearing his name have survived that considerable confusion exists even over his given name. Known variously as "Henry" or "Harry," H.R. Horr left a confusing trail for researchers in the public record and, until now, not a single piece of original personal correspondence has been discovered.(2) However, due to a fortuitous accident, one of Horr's correspondents preserved a personal letter that has recently come to light in the Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections of Montana State University. While examining other materials, a previously unnoted letter authored by Horr was found. This remarkable document, while disappointingly brief, gives new insight into Horr's character and his involvement with the early history of Yellowstone National Park.
Henry Riddle Horr was born in Youngstown, New York, on September 20, 1842.(3) Some time after his birth, he moved with his family to Dubuque, Iowa. He apparently received a good education there, if his subsequent careers and eloquence are any evidence. During the Civil War, Horr received a war-rant as sergeant with the First Independent Battery of the Iowa Light Artillery, but his mili-tary career ended when he received a painful groin wound at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, on March 7, 1862.(4)
Judging from his first appearance in the public record in Montana, Horr may have returned to Dubuque and studied law for a time after leaving the army. He arrived in the Montana Territory in 1867, along with his brother, Captain Joseph Latshaw Horr, Company F, 13th U.S. Infantry.(5) The 1868 Helena City Directory listed Henry R. Horr of Iowa as a lawyer on Main Street, and also included a short historical sketch of the town written by him.(6) By 1870, Horr had moved to the Gallatin Valley. The 1870 census recorded him as "Henry R. Horr," a New York-born white male, 28 years of age, owning property worth $1,600, and employed as a clerk in a store, most likely the post sutlery (trading post) at Fort Ellis, where his brother had been stationed.7 Although years later he would claim to be among the party that rescued Truman Everts, Horr was more likely at Fort Ellis when the other members of the Langford-Doane-Washburn expedition returned from the Upper Yellowstone without Everts in October 1870, and probably heard about the fabulous geologic wonders they had seen.8 Horr arrived at the Mammoth Hot Springs in early 1871 and, along with James C. McCartney, claimed the terraces for their own.9 They established what was variously known as "Horr and McCartney's Hotel," "Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel," and "National Park Hotel."10 Unfortunately for Horr and McCartney, Congress set aside the entire Yellowstone region as a national park in 1872, effectively putting an end to the entrepreneurs' hopes of becoming rich from the tourists and invalids who would pay to use the "curative waters."
That same year, a group of citizens from the Bozeman area nominated Horr for the position of superintendent
Yellowstone National Park, and in the bombastic manner which was so often associated with Horr, proclaimed him "an old mountaineer-one who is thoroughly acquainted with this marvelous region-the first white man who penetrated this region with a view to permanent settlement."11 The Interior Department instead awarded the position to Nathaniel P. Langford, and although one source suggests Langford appointed Horr and McCartney as the park's custodians in 1874, it cannot be corroborated.12 Horr eventually left it to McCartney to care for the "hotel" and returned to Bozeman, where he acquired a reputation as a humorist and lecturer.13 It was during this period that Horr began calling himself in print "Harry R. Horr" or more briefly, "H.R. Horr."
Horr continued his efforts to profit from Yellowstone and its wonders in 1874, when newspaper articles mentioned his intention to set up a "museum" with live animal displays on the park's periphery. Shortly afterward, he announced his plans to tour New York as a lecturer with a panorama of the park.14 Panoramas were popular in the nineteenth century and generally consisted of a large scroll covered with painted scenes. As a narrator described the various scenes, the scroll was unrolled, often accompanied by various props and sound effects. An 1875 newspaper announcement of one of his humorous lectures saw yet another variation in his personal nomenclature when the former army sergeant referred to himself as "Major" Harry R. Horr.15 The "promotion" appears to have been temporary, as no subsequent citation used that rank.
After another stint in Helena, Horr was back in Bozeman in 1880, where he married Aurilla J. Davis on July 21.(16) The following year, he circulated his own petition in Bozeman to support another attempt to obtain the position of superintendent of Yellowstone National Park.17 The petition described Horr as "a gentleman of education, a writer, and lecturer?Republican in politics and was wounded in Federal service." Further, it claimed that he had done "more than any one person to bring that [Yellowstone] region into notice." Curiously, Horr felt the need to write a letter to send to the Interior Department vociferously denying allegations of drunkenness.18
Although Horr felt confident of receiving the position, he again failed and moved with his brother to the upper Yellow-stone, where they founded the town of Horr in 1887.(19) The town processed coal from nearby mines-apparently with some success, as during an 1884 visit to Bozeman, the Boze-man Avant Courier noted he was "the present Coal King of Montana."20 The same article indicates he was then resident in
Cinnabar and had recently become a father. A second son was born on May 23, 1886, in "Upper Yellowstone, Montana."21
Some mystery still surrounds his final years. He would eventually leave Montana and move to Seattle.22 He died there and was buried in the Grand Army of the Republic cemetery. Unfortunately the grave marker lacks the date of his death. Considering Horr's status as one of the first "permanent" settlers in Yellowstone National Park, along with his repeated efforts to link his fortunes with the park's development, any original document he created is important in understanding the region's history. This newly discovered letter, dated March 13, 1876, was addressed to William W. Alderson in Bozeman. Alderson had been one of the earliest settlers in Bozeman, was instrumental in the choice of the town's name, and became the editor of the Avant Courier on February 8, 1877. In the letter, Horr sought Alderson's endorsement in support of "setting up a Panorama of the Park" for an unnamed easterner.
The single note, a mere scrap in the compiled documenta-tion on Yellowstone's early history, is all the more delightful for the way it amply demonstrates Aubrey Haines's assessment of Horr as "quite a wag" by neatly displaying brevity as the soul of wit.24
Transcript of the letter:
(Sub Rosa)
Helena M.T.
March 13th 1876.
Dear Sir.
A certain party residing in one of the Eastern States has written me in reference to the getting up of a Panorama of the Park, and the inquisitive cuss wishes to know if I am one of the Dan Boone kind-if I really lived in the Park and if I have
any ability as a lecturer. I answered his communication in a modest manner and enclosed a list of names of residents of Montana to whom he could write to ascertain these things.
Pardon me for the liberty I took in placing your name among them. If he writes to you, I will not ask that you answer by saying that I can see Boone Carson and that ilk, and go them several hundred slain red skins better.-that I have resided in the Park since the first trip of Lewis & Clark and that as a lecturer old Demosthenes and Susan B. Anthony compared to me are sad failures for I know you won't oblige me by doing it. But give me as good a word as you can & believe me
Major W W Alderson Yours Truly
Bozeman M.T. H.R. Horr (25)
Endnotes
1 Lee H. Whittlesey, "The First National Park Interpreter: G.L. Henderson, 1882-1902," Montana the Magazine of Western History 46, no. 1 (1996): 26-41.
2 Anecdotal evidence suggests that there has occasionally been speculation that Henry R. Horr and Harry R. Horr were two dif-ferent individuals, Lee H. Whittlesey (p.c.) has discovered communications in the public record confirming they are one and the same, U.S. House, letter dated May 15, 1896, 54th Cong., 1st sess., H. Rept. 1846, (Wash-ington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1896), 11-12.
3 Sandra Hoard, "Hoard Family: Desc of Robertus Hore - Gen 19," September 16, 2002 http://sjhoard.tripod.com/hoardfamily/id8.html, entry number 750, accessed on September 27, 2002.
4 United States War Department, War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, ser. I, vol. 8 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880-1907), 265.
5 Records of the Office of the Secretary of Interior relating to the Yellowstone National Park 1872-1886. Reel 4. Appointments Divi-sion, letters received concerning superinten-dents, 1872-86, File No. 234. Joseph L. Horr was the Captain of F Company, 13th United States Infantry. "Returns from U.S. Military
Posts, 1800-1916, Fort Ellis 572-574." Adju-tant General's Office, Washington, D.C.
6 Historical Sketch and Essay on the Resources of Montana Including a Business Directory of the Metropolis. (Helena: Herald Book and Job Printing Office, 1868), 147.
7 Montana Census, 1870, 110; Haines (p. 133) indicates Horr was an employee of the post sutlery at the time of the Everts rescue. Aubrey L. Haines, The Yellowstone Story, vol. 2, (Yellowstone National Park, Wyo: Yellow-stone Library and Museum Association in cooperation with the Colorado Associated University Press, 1977).
8 Lee Whittlesey (p.c.) confirms that Harry Horr was not the discoverer of Mam-moth Hot Springs, which had earlier been described by Everts and Peale.
9 John Vesuvius. "Harry Horr's Hot Springs Claim," Avant Courier, January 11, 1883, p. 1, col. 2-3.
10 Haines, 196.
11 Records of the Office of the Secretary of Interior relating to the Yellowstone National Park 1872-1886. Reel 4. Appoint-ments Division, letters received concerning superintendents, 1872-86, letter dated May 2, 1872.
12 Doris Whithorn, "James C. McCartney: Mayor of Gardiner, Montana," Twice Told on the Upper Yellowstone, vol. I. (Livingston, Montana, 1994), 67. Horr wrote a 10-part humorous column, usually but not always called "Around the Campfire" for the Avant Courier from September 9-December 15, 1881.
13 "Married," Avant Courier, April 2, 1875, p. 3, col. 3.
14 "National Park in the Centennial," Avant Cou-rier, July 31, 1874, p. 3, col. 1; "The National Park Panorama," Avant Courier, August 7, 1874, p. 3, col. 3.
15 "Married," Avant Courier, April 2, 1875, p. 3, col. 3.
16 Avant Courier, July 28, 1880, p. 3, col. 5.
17 Avant Courier, February 10, 1881, p. 3, col. 3; Records of the Office of the Secretary of Interior relating to the Yellowstone National Park 1872-1886. Reel 4. Appoint-ments Division, letters received concerning superintendents, 1872-86, File No. 234. The letters and petitions written in support of this nomination are interesting because this is one of the few instances where Harry R. Horr is referred to as Henry R. Horr as well as the more common "H.R. Horr."
18 Ibid.
19 Avant Courier, March 24, 1881, p. 3, col. 2. Horr indicated he would probably place his headquarters at Fire Hole Basin in the park, but this never happened.
20 Avant Courier, October 23, 1884, p. 3, col. 3.
21 "Born," Avant Courier, May 27, 1886, p. 3, col. 7.
22 Whithorn (p. 48) indicates without any citation that Horr penned a dime novel about Calamity Jane and applied for a post office at Horr in 1887. Doris Whithorn, "Christmas Horror at Horr," In Celebration of Our Past (Bozeman, Mont.: Gallatin County Histori-cal Society, 1994).
23 Row D28, Plot 148. Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. "Governor Isaac I. Stevens Camp #1, Washington State Camp-at-Large, Alphabetical List of Internees G.A.R. Cem-etery-Seattle, Washington. "December 3, 2000 http://home.attbi.com/~suvcw/seacem1.html, accessed September 20, 2002.
24 Haines, 133.
25 Merrill G. Burlingame Papers, 1880-1890, 2245, Box 7, Folder 7, Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections, Montana State Univer-sity Libraries, Bozeman.
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The H600 Project Genealogy DB
1842 - 1912 (69 years)