02 03 Adventure with the RMKK People: Charles and Alicia Conrad: A Valentine's Day Story 04 05 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33

Charles and Alicia Conrad: A Valentine's Day Story

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It’s another beautiful day in Old Kalispell. A bit of graupel fell overnight and a blue sky is peeking through the clouds to the west. Darker clouds hang over the mountains to the east and we are expecting snow. Icy sidewalks have been thawing out leaving slush and puddles in its place. It feels like spring and it’s cold.



February 18, 1883
My Dear Charlie,
…Valentine’s Day has just passed and Oh! The fun!!
I saw Mrs. Merry at the store buying such a love of a valentine - all posies and skewered hearts, and I just withered her with one eye of my spec’ and she dropped it and bought a prayer book instead… 
~An early letter to Charles from Alicia




Charles and Alicia Conrad's mansion in Kalispell, decorated for February's "Love the Mansion " month.


Due to a charming Valentine’s Day article by Lynnette Hintze, my fascination with Charles and Alicia Conrad continues. The story begins with Charles and Alicia as newlyweds on Valentine’s Day in 1881. They had married earlier that year in Fort Benton, Montana on January 4, 1881. It was a Tuesday morning and the temperature was a bitterly cold 31 below. Despite the weather they began their lavish honeymoon by sleigh ride to Helena. From there they took a stagecoach to Odgen in the Utah Territory, where they caught a train for the east coast. They visited a number of major cities before they traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia to meet Alicia’s seven step sisters. Before returning to Fort Benton, they visited Charles’ boyhood home in Virginia. The honeymoon trip - in the fashion of Rhett and Scarlett - lasted into October. I ponder whether the couple had any notion they would become Kalispell's and the Flathead Valley’s most prominent couple.

In 1879, Alicia Davenport Stanford was only18 years old when she arrived in Fort Benton, Montana with her widowed mother. She had come from a family of affluence in Halifax, but the death and bankruptcy of her father had prompted them to move westward. By November of that same year, Lettie as family members called her, had opened a Select School for Young Ladies and Children. She intended to bring culture and instruction to the raucous Fort Benton.

Charles on the other hand had been raised a Southern gentleman. Although he continued to educate himself, his education was hampered by the Civil War. At the tender age of 13 he joined the Mosby Rangers as the youngest member of the 43rd Battalion, 1st Virginia Calvary. Later in Montana, he met Alicia through her brother, James. Charles began courting her in the formal manner of which a lady deserved. He loved Alicia and was concerned about his character and of his marriage to a Blackfeet princess. He evidently told her all about his deceased wife and his escapades prior to his proposal of marriage. Alicia accepted the proposal.

Alicia and Charles had 3 children and lived happily ever after.

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Alicia loved to throw parties, and you don't want to miss:


Half Interest in a Silver Dollar: The Saga of Charles E. Conrad


For the full story of the Conrad's remarkable life, buy: Half Interest in a Silver Dollar: The Saga of Charles E. Conrad





The source for this article is the story Terms of Endearment, published in the Daily Interlake.  


Till next time,

Marlene

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