Dooley, MT is an old ghost town in Sheridan County. The only building that is still standing is the Rocky Valley Lutheran Church. Dooley was one of the first four depots along the Soo Line Railroad in 1913 [1]. The town began in 1913, when the railroad was coming through and landed on the corner of W.D Dooley’s property. Around 40 buildings went up at once, to become the business area [2]. It was one of the only towns not to move sense the beginging of the railroad (Budke et al 2). George Epler was the town cashier and the organizer of the Citizen State Bank. Guy Clerke and the Epler Brothers had 2 general stores in town. George Wright owned the hardware store, where they would hold different gatherings upstairs, until the theater was built. The Confectionery and the post office was owned by Peter Hegseth. He had to rebuild them after they caught in a fire. There were two saloons in town one owned by Hans Nelson and the other Jim Kings [3].
Ted Nelson was a popular man in town and owned a lot of the businesses. He bought the Herman Bretzke building and started the first restaurant in Dooley. Mrs. Nelson managed the restaurant. The Racket (Variety) Store was owned by Ted. Ted also then bought and started a meat market, and had Christ Grythnes as the meat cutter. His meat market was one of the two in town. The other was caught in all 3 of Dooley’s fires [4].
The first edition of the newspaper, “The Dooley Sun” was dated November 7, 1913. The paper was owned and edited by W.R. Vezina. The electric plant was run by Loyal Goss. He had also bought the Feed Mill from M.E. Lerbeck and Iver Johnson. The power was turned on every evening till midnight, also on Tuesdays durning the day for a few hours for the women to the washing and ironing [5]. The power would blink ten minutes before midnight to let everyone know that it would be turned off shortly [6]. The Blacksmith shop was owned by Ed Campell and Newt Shaw. They did very well in their business, sharpening plowshares and keeping machinery in shape. The Blacksmith shop had a few owners after the original ones moved away. There were other business around the town, some of them were short lived, while others got sold to new owners. There were two different doctors in town, Dr. Sells and Dr. Cooper. There were a lot of different business in the early days of Dooley. As time went on they slowly died out [7]. The town had a Commercial Club, Fire Department, a Band and a baseball team. There were two different barbers in town. Also at one time there were four different lumber yards [8].
There were 3 elevators built, because of the large amount of grain that crossed the Canadian border. Nels Markuson managed the elevators. Otto and Arthur Stadig built a big barn to bored horses. They were able to care for over 100 horses. The mail was delivered from Plentywood in 1913-1914. The first postmaster of Dooley was Peter Hegseth that ran the office out of his house. There were two other postmasters, Willard Markuson and Ambrose Schumacher. The post office was close in June 1957, and a route was established out of Westby. Church was held in George Wrights Hall, and led by Rev. F.E. Henry. Then it was held by Fr. Hennssey. The Rocky Valley Lutheran Church was built in 1915. The Ladies Aid furnished it. The first minister was Rev. S.J. Fretheim, and his first serviced was held in P.T. Hegseth farm house. After 1945 the church had closed due to so many people leaving the area, and was sold to a local farmer. In the fall of 1913 the school district was formed along with the school board that consisted of, Jim King, George Epler, and W.D. Dooley. For 3 years an old homestead shack was used as there classroom, where Miss Alice Murphy taught. In 1915 a school was built and the classes become more regular. Until 1931 the grade school children were taught in the large room, and then it was decided that a high school should be built. The new high school had its first graduating class in 1932, with 6 students. The high school also had their own newspaper, “The Dooley Dew,” then later changed to fit the mascot to “The Eagle Eye.” The high school tried to create a radio station, but due to the lack of power they never bought a license for it. Over time the families around moved away and the local children were bused to Plentywood for school [9].
Dooley suffered many different kinds of disasters. In May of 1916 the west side of Main Street was caught on fire, and wrecked many of the businesses. Then later in four years the east side suffered a fire destroying many of the local businesses. Also a year before, in 1919 a smaller fire took place and wrecked a garage and two smaller businesses. In 1934 a tornado came through town, wiping out the Stadig Livery Barn (Budke et al 3). The town also suffered different infestations with, armyworms, grasshoppers and Mormon crickets, which wrecked the agriculture [10]. Some of the winters that the town faced were very sever and kept the train from passing through. The trains feared that they would freeze up or run out of fuel [11].
Over the years people moved to the surrounding areas due to the fires, and infestations. The town slowly grew smaller and the buildings were sold or tore down. The elvators were sold to Jim Syme for himself to use [12].
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Work Cited
Aarstad, Rich , Ellie Arguimbau, Ellen Baumler and Charlene Porsild, Brian Shovers. Montana Place Names From Alzada To Zortman. Helena, MT, Usa: Montana Historical Society Press, 2009. Print.
Budke (Hilyard), May and Pamla Hendrickson (Fouhy). Sheridan's Daybreak 111. Sherdain County Daybreakers Genealogy Society. Plentywood, MT, Usa: Sherdain County Daybreakers Genealogy Society, 2005. Google. Web. 11 Oct. 2012.