Madison County Pioneers

By editor

Virginia City, Madison County, Montana

If you ever find yourself wondering how a man with nothing but the boots on his feet and a sack on his back might turn a wild slice of Montana into a place where thirteen children grow up, go no further than the story of Nick Carey and his kin. It begins in 1863, when the news of gold at Alder Creek sent a shiver through the veins of every fortune-seeker from Denver to the Pacific Coast. Among those drawn to the promise of the Madison Valley was Carey, an Irishman who, unlike some who arrived in fancy wagons or on the backs of horses, walked the entire distance from Denver to Virginia City laden with his possessions strapped to his back.

That walk alone could fill a book with tales of hardship and grit, but Carey’s story is not simply about the journey. It is about the decision to stay put, to build, and to endure beyond the feverish rush of the gold strike. Upon reaching Virginia City, which, by 1863, was a ragged collection of tents and hastily constructed wooden buildings, Carey established a mercantile business to supply the miners who were mostly too busy digging to bother about buying their own provisions. More importantly, he set up the first local post office at nearby Adobetown and served as postmaster from 1863 until 1905--a forty-two year stretch that might suggest he was the only reliable soul in the region, or at least the most patient.

In 1873, Carey married Mary Emerson, a young lady of sixteen years. Here we encounter a detail that would make a modern social worker uneasy but was common enough in those days. The couple went on to raise thirteen children, all of whom reached adulthood, a fact that would seem remarkable given the conditions of the time. Their survival was less a miracle and more a product of a hard-nosed practicality that kept them fed, clothed, and schooled in a place where the odds often ran against such outcomes.

The Carey family was not alone in these parts. The families of Josiah and Susan Switzer Jeffers were among the earliest settlers as well, their homestead preserved today in what is called Nevada City. The Jeffers and Careys intermarried when Matt Carey, the eldest son of Nick and Mary, wed Helen Jeffers in 1907. This union symbolized the intertwining of two pioneer lineages that had weathered the initial chaos of the gold rush and settled into a quieter, if no less demanding, existence.

Mary Helen, the youngest daughter of Matt and Helen Carey, would later marry Lester Stiles, a rodeo cowboy from Salmon, Idaho, in 1930. Lester was known locally for his ability to talk people out of nearly anything, a skill that earned him the humorous compliment that he could “talk the gold fillings out of your teeth and you’d be glad to have a toothache.” This particular talent came in handy when he and Mary Helen became involved in the historic preservation efforts in Virginia City and Nevada City.

The 1940s brought Charles and Sue Bovey to Virginia City with ambitions to preserve the crumbling remains of these mining camps. Lester and Mary Helen Stiles took the Boveys under their wing, and a friendship blossomed between Lester and Charles Bovey. The Stileses held title to most of the property in Nevada City, which Lester used primarily as pasture for his horses. However, the vacant buildings posed a danger to the animals, and Lester, in his practical wisdom, began burning some of the dilapidated structures to protect his stock.

When Charles Bovey heard of this, he intervened, arguing that the buildings were worth preserving. This intervention led to the Boveys acquiring the Nevada City property through the Stileses, marking the beginning of a serious restoration project. Mary Helen managed the operations for Bovey Restorations, while Lester drove the stagecoach for tourists and visitors. Their partnership helped transform a decaying ghost town into a living museum of Montana’s mining past.

Mary Helen’s influence extended beyond preservation. In 1967, she was appointed Deputy Clerk of the District Court, following in the footsteps of her grandfather Nick Carey who had held several public roles in the community. She later was elected Clerk of the District Court and served until her retirement in 1986. Her career in public service was notable for its longevity and the continuity it represented--linking the wild days of the gold rush to the more orderly governance of the late 20th century.

On her 90th birthday in November 2000, friends and family gathered in Virginia City to honor Mary Helen Stiles. She was a woman who wore her pioneer heritage not as a badge of sentimentality but as a practical inheritance--an enthusiasm for the homes, the land, and the people who carved out a life from raw wilderness. She once said in an interview, “We didn’t come here to make a story for books or tourists. We came to live, to work, and to raise our kids. Preservation isn’t about nostalgia; it’s about respect for what people actually did.”

That respect, passed down through generations, is etched into the fabric of Madison County. The gold rush brought people in, but it was the ones who stayed--like the Careys, the Jeffers, the Stileses--who built the foundations for a community that endured long after the last nugget was pulled from the stream. Their story includes the hard realities of frontier life: the economic uncertainty, the makeshift justice, the constant threat of fire or flood, and the ceaseless labor required to turn wilderness into home.

The railroad, which arrived in Montana years after the initial rush, had a complicated relationship with towns like Virginia City. While it promised easier access to markets and goods, it also shifted economic power to newer towns and mining camps with better rail connections. Virginia City and Nevada City, both once booming centers of gold mining, found themselves bypassed, which arguably saved them from overdevelopment and allowed their preservation decades later.

Banking and land speculation played their part as well. Many early settlers found themselves at the mercy of speculators who bought up land with dreams of railroad expansion or renewed mineral discoveries. The Careys, however, remained farmers and merchants, tethered to the soil and the community rather than the volatile swings of mining stocks or bank ledgers.

In all these details lies a portrait of a Montana pioneer family not as romantic adventurers but as pragmatic survivors and builders. Nick Carey may have arrived with nothing but a sack on his back, but he left behind a legacy of steady work, public service, and a willingness to fight for the place his family called home.

See also

• Madison County Pioneers at Virginia City, Madison County
• Saving Montana's History at Virginia City, Madison County
• Discovery / Ellingsen Park at Virginia City, Madison County