SigMT

Enclosures around plots, like the lacy wrought iron fencing surrounding the graves of two young daughters of Bue's copper king William A. Clark, were common. e Clark family seled at Deer Lodge long before Bue copper made Clark wealthy. e upright imported marble tombstone commemorates both children, an infant who died in 1874 and two-year-old Jessie, who died in 1878. e mail-ordered stone is signed, "J.W. Bray, Fecit, N.Y." Hillcrest has many tombstones bearing signatures of both imported and local companies. A. K. Presco was Montana's first prolific tombstone maker from 1884; his company signature is found throughout Montana. By 1890, he had produced some 3,000 tombstones. A child's chair, with draped clothing and lile shoes tucked in, was a specialty. Aer the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited Chinese labor, the Great Northern Railway and the Milwaukee Road appealed to Japan for workers to help lay the tracks across the northwest and refurbish rail lines. Hundreds of Japanese "bandy dancers"—section hands that maintained the tracks— worked in communities wherever there was rail service. A row of some twenty Japanese tombstones at Hillcrest recalls this ethnic enclave. A wooden sign at the corner of the Montana State Prison section reads: "Lord Remember Me." The mausoleum of wealthy John G. Morony, bank president and a founder of MT Power Company, stands alone on the crest of the hill. Tree trunks, here emblematic of the fraternal Woodmen of the World, were a common theme symbolizing life cut short. SIGNATURE MONTANA | 71

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