Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

70 YEARS AGO • JANUARY 18, 1950

SERVICES AT HOPE FOR PIONEER SHERIFF

Graveside funeral services for Joseph L. Hartman, 85, Sanders County pioneer and sheriff for 10 years, who died here last Tuesday night were conducted at Hope, Idaho.

Born February 11, 1864, at Akron, Ohio, he moved with his parents to Chanute, Kansas, and came to Belknap near here in 1886. He arrived when the thriving town of Belknap was part of Missoula County. He was a timberman in his youth, cutting ties when the Northern Pacific railway was built through here.

He later homesteaded on Little Beaver Creek, 15 miles west of Thompson Falls. From 1910 through 1916 he had the contract to haul mail between Perma and Hot Springs. The stage, one of the first automobiles in this part of Montana, was driven by Ed Love. Mr. Hartman was elected sheriff in 1914 and served for four terms, January 1915 to December 1922.

His first wife died in 1939, he later married Anna West here in 1941.

The Sanders County Ledger, Jan. 28, 1905 noted that Joe figured on 3 tons of hay (per acre) from his Beaver Creek Ranch.

Ledger, July 7, 1905 – Mr. Hartman is getting ready to harvest the largest crop of hay ever raised on any ranch west of Thompson. It will keep him and a crew of men busy for three weeks to put in the clear between 250 to 400 tons of hay. Only a few years ago he and his estimable wife started with barely nothing to clear a ranch on Little Beaver and now his hay crop each year is worth several thousand dollars.

Joe was a section foreman at Belknap for the Northern Pacific Railway by 1905.

In December of 1905 or 1906 he ran an ad stating that he has opened a meat market at Trout Creek and expects to carry a fine class of meat, using mostly meat from his own ranch on Beaver Creek.

Ledger, Nov. 26, 1909 – J.L. Hartman, the successful Belknap ranchman brought in a wagon load of turkey, 31 to be exact last Saturday. He found ready sale for the Thanksgiving birds.

Ledger, Dec. 1, 1911 – Mr. and Mrs. Joe Hartman, who recently sold their big ranch near Belknap, were visiting and paying taxes here Monday.

Ledger, Feb. 16, 1912 - Joseph Hartman who has lived for a quarter of a century in the vicinity of Whitepine, has sold out and has moved to Plains to live. He has purchased an interest in the Camas and Plains stage line.

Sanders County Signal (Camas), March 8, 1912 – Joe Hartman is driving his $600 span of horses on the Plains stage. They are a little heavy for the job, but at times they need a heavy team. Sanders County Signal, Sept. 6, 1912 – Joe Hartman sold his interest in the Plains and Camas Stage Line but still owns the auto stage running between Camas and Dayton.

In the fall of 1914 Joe ran for county commissioner on the Republican ticket, the first public office he’d ever tried for. Apparently, he didn’t get it as he then ran for Sheriff of Sanders County, which he won and began his term on January 1915 remaining in office until December 1922.

Ledger, Feb. 26, 1915 – When it comes to a complete up-to-date city patrol system, Thompson Falls has them all cheated. If we only had the means and equipment at hand, this issue would show a cartoon of Officers Hart and Pyle loading a drunken “bo” into a wheelbarrow and by this system of navigation landing him at the county jail. An attempt to get him to walk was not a success; to carry him was too heavy a load, including the load he already carried; so Officer Hart blew the whistle for patrol, resulting in Officer Pyle borrowing a wheelbarrow and between the two of them the operation was carried to success. No city in Montana has anything on us when it comes to the patrol system.

Ledger, August 9, 1917 – The Board of County Commissioners authorized Joe Hartman to purchase an automobile for the use of his office. It is believed that the ownership of a car by the county will effect a considerable saving as the Sheriff and his men assistants have to spend many dollars in livery hire.

Ledger, October 30, 1919 – Our sheriff force was the one who put out of business a desperate bootlegging gang. Several of whose members were convicted in the Missoula County Court last week and their machines, two Hudson seized, fitted for being used in illegally transporting whiskey. These parties were captured by our Sheriff and force after a sensational night chase of 50 miles and delivered to Missoula County.