[Montana]. [Law]

[Correspondence and Papers of a Montana Lawyer, Theo Shed, with His Friend and Client, D.W. Bateman]

Helena: 1890-1894. Forty-three letters, totaling [93]pp. Previously folded. A couple of small losses, not affecting text, otherwise only minor wear and toning. Very good plus. Item #2667

A substantial group of nearly forty-five letters by Helena lawyer Theodore Shed to his client and business partner, D.W. Bateman, in Great Falls, Montana, during the early 1890s. Shed was something of a frontier character, who began his business career in the 1870s as the proprietor of the Kiyus Saloon on Main Street in Helena. By 1882, he had become the bookkeeper of Greenhood, Bohn & Co., general store for the town and region, and in the intervening years had developed a bitter feud with John Hugle, a traveling salesman for the company, which began over the improper borrowing of a Buffalo coat. When Hugle attacked Shed in front of the Cosmopolitan Hotel on the evening of June 23, 1882, Shed shot him in the face with a .38-caliber revolver. He was eventually acquitted of a murder charge in 1883, and became a lawyer, first in Marysville, Montana, before returning to Helena in 1890, when our correspondence begins.

The addressee in the present letters is David Wellington Bateman, who came to Montana from Texas during the early 1880s. In 1890, he founded a wholesale liquor and beverage business in Great Falls with his principal business partner, Jacob Switzer, in order to take advantage of the emerging mining bonanza there. By the early-20th century, they had been successful enough to become major investors in land irrigation projects, cattle ranches, hotels, and mining claims, amongst other interests.

This correspondence shows that Bateman had interests in land and mines during his early period as a businessman, as well. Shed, in his capacity as an attorney, acted as Bateman's agent and advisor, and wrote to him often concerning financial details of mortgages, bills, mining claims, land sales, and other contracts. It is apparent at several points in the letters that Shed was also an investor in some of the projects and deals undertaken by Bateman. There is also much information concerning the legal wrangling that sometimes accompanied the transactions in which Bateman and Switzer were involved, which could involve quite large sums, as a receipt present here for $54,000 minus expenses collected by Shed for Bateman from a favorable court judgment demonstrates. In all, this group of material provides a fascinating look into the multi-faceted interests and operations of a successful Montana businessman from the perspective of his rather infamous attorney.

Price: $1,750.00