73
w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m
and Clark, and Van Wart & Co., had huge product varieties and
seven-digit annual revenues. Slick, urban stores like these dis-
placed 1860s-style trading posts like Bruffey's.
Struggles to compete in business and 1888, a devastating crop
year, forced Bruffey to move his wife and 11 children. Judging by
his writing, he stayed calm through misfortune. Inconvenienc-
es and calamities were rules, not exceptions in Bruffey's life. He
had been forced to reinvent himself over and over for more than
40 years.
The Bruffeys became prominent in Mission Creek near Living-
ston, where George never retired from ranching. His grand-
daughter, Elinor, relayed a typical day at Mission Creek: He rose
at 4:00 or 5:00 to shovel manure from barnyard stalls and feed
horses, pigs, and cows. Then he filled a bucket with milk. From
its cream, Matilda made butter, a currency in town. After break-
fast, Bruffey plowed, harrowed, tackled, or performed other la-
borious tasks with only horses and hand tools until dark. Elinor
wrote, "He doesn't complain
for this is his life." A perfect
utterance.
Bruffey led an extraordinary
life, but for his time and place,
a typical one. Survival defined
his story, like his peers. And
survival in historic Montana
led to remarkable activities
indeed. This would-be folk
hero and his autobiography
are mostly forgotten, but
Bruffey, assuredly, made his
mark on Montana.
SURVIVAL
IN HISTORIC
MONTANA
LED TO
REMARKABLE
ACTIVITIES
INDEED.
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