Your nugget of Missoula history
It's funny -- I posted with greater frequency and mirth when I didn't have a computer and I was working all the time. Now, I don't work quite as much and I'm having more good times, yet I don't post; when I do, it's not so entertaining. Weird, huh? Where goeth my mojo?
Anywho, in the course of all the reading I've been doing for My Very Important and Riveting Job, I came across this fun paragraph (surprising because the book begins on a rough note: "Glaciers, moving ponderously over millions of years..."). This is from A Guide to Historic Missoula by Allan Mathews (who came to my welcoming reception! What a guy).
"Arriving in Missoula in 1888, Mary Gleim and her husband found a ready market for prostitution among the population's high percentage of single young men, many of whom worked for the railroad. Gleim cut an intimidating presence as she set up bordello after bordello along West Front Street and ruled them with an iron hand. Well educated but often violent, "Mother Gleim" quickly became one of Missoula's most recognizable characters. Her many arrests kept her in the limelight. Her notoriety spread after she allegedly attempted to kill her main rival, Bobby Burns, by arranging to have his house blown up. Convicted of that crime in May 1894, she left Missoula to begin serving a 14-year sentence at the state prison in Deer Lodge. She served little more than a year before the court overturned her conviction."
Ah, "well educated but often violent" -- much like myself. Fun fact: the Gleim Building -- the headquarters for her brothels -- still stands and in the 1970s was an adult theater. Now, those are good times.
Anywho, in the course of all the reading I've been doing for My Very Important and Riveting Job, I came across this fun paragraph (surprising because the book begins on a rough note: "Glaciers, moving ponderously over millions of years..."). This is from A Guide to Historic Missoula by Allan Mathews (who came to my welcoming reception! What a guy).
"Arriving in Missoula in 1888, Mary Gleim and her husband found a ready market for prostitution among the population's high percentage of single young men, many of whom worked for the railroad. Gleim cut an intimidating presence as she set up bordello after bordello along West Front Street and ruled them with an iron hand. Well educated but often violent, "Mother Gleim" quickly became one of Missoula's most recognizable characters. Her many arrests kept her in the limelight. Her notoriety spread after she allegedly attempted to kill her main rival, Bobby Burns, by arranging to have his house blown up. Convicted of that crime in May 1894, she left Missoula to begin serving a 14-year sentence at the state prison in Deer Lodge. She served little more than a year before the court overturned her conviction."
Ah, "well educated but often violent" -- much like myself. Fun fact: the Gleim Building -- the headquarters for her brothels -- still stands and in the 1970s was an adult theater. Now, those are good times.
posted by BPDubs at 4:54 PM
2 Comments:
You somehow have a really weird but direct connection to Mother Gleim.
I'm glad you still post here...
I've been feeling the same way about writing; lots of potential, but nothing is coming out funny or even very interesting.
Mary Gleim sounds like a fun woman. Have you settled on a place to live yet?
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