George W. Bigcraft

, ,

Age 33

Born 17 January circa 1884 in Michigan

Single

Resided at 540 N. Franklin, Butte

Buried in the plot for the Unidentified Dead at Mountain View Cemetery in Butte

George W. Bigcraft was born in Michigan on January 17, circa 1884, son of James W. Bigcraft and Alice Steel1.

By 1900, the family (James, Alice and seven children) was living in Valverde, Colorado, now a neighborhood in the City of Denver.2 Sixteen-year old George also lived in Valverde but at a different location as a boarder.3

It appears that George’s parents may have separated shortly after the 1900 census and James then headed for California or back to Michigan. George continued to live with his mother and siblings for the next few years until he was about 23 years old. In 1908, 24-year-old George and his brother Oliver moved out and were living in Denver. According to various U.S. City Directory records, George worked at various jobs during this time period, including gardener and teamster.4,5

U.S. City Directory records indicate that George had moved to Butte by at least 1914.6 By the following year, he was working as a minor in the Black Rock mine, residing at 332 S Main.7

At the time of his death in 1917, George was a single man, aged 33 years old, and lived at 540 N. Franklin.8

The Butte daily post. (Butte, Mont.), 11 June 1917

The Butte daily post. (Butte, Mont.), 11 June 1917

On June 11, 1917, George was still unaccounted for, as stated in a news article from The Butte Daily Post.9

He was finally listed as one of the “unidentified dead” in the “Official List” published in the Anaconda Standard on June 28th.10

In Memory of the Unidentified Dead of the Granite Mountain Fire | June 8, 1917

In Memory of the Unidentified Dead of the Granite Mountain Fire | June 8, 1917

George is buried in the plot for the “unidentified dead” in Mountain View Cemetery, located at 3910 Harrison Avenue in Butte, Montana.11, 12

Copyright (c) 2020, Lark M. Dalin Robart

Image/Photo credits

  1. United States flag: commons.wikimedia.org | Created by jacobolus using Adobe Illustrator. [Public domain]
  2. Mountain View Cemetery memorial: author

SOURCES

  1. State of Montana Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate 21829 (1917), George W. Bigcraft; digital image, Ancestry.com, “Montana County Births and Deaths, 1830-2011,” Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 Jan 2020), citing Montana State Historical Society, Helena, Montana. ↩
  2.  1900 U.S. census, Valverde, Arapahoe, Colorado, Enumeration District 0155, sheet 7-A, dwelling 144, James Bigcraft household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 Jan 2020), citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, 1854 rolls. ↩
  3.  1900 U.S. census, Valverde, Arapahoe, Colorado, Enumeration District 0155, sheet 2-B, dwelling 33, Paul Gies household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 January 2020), citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, 1854 rolls. ↩
  4. Thirty-Third Annual Denver City Directory for 1905 (Denver, Colo.: Ballenger & Richards), p. 183, George W. Bigcraft; digitized in “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 Jan 2020), path Colorado > Denver > 1905. ↩
  5.  Thirty-Ninth Annual Denver City Directory for 1911 (Denver, Colo.: Ballenger & Richards), p. 200, George W. Bigcraft; digitized in “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 Jan 2020), path Colorado > Denver > 1911. ↩
  6.  Butte City Directory for the Year Commencing April 1914 (Helena, Mont.: R. L. Polk & Co., of Montana), p. 62, Geo Bigcraft; digitized in “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 Jan 2020), path Montana > Butte > 1914. ↩
  7.  Butte City Directory for the Year Commencing May 1915 (Helena, Mont.: R. L. Polk & Co., of Montana), p. 116, Geo Bigcraft; digitized in “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 Jan 2020), path Montana > Butte > 1915. ↩
  8. Montana death certificate 21829, George W. Bigcraft. ↩
  9. “Official List of the Dead in the North Butte Fire Determined by Coroner,” Anaconda Standard (Anaconda, Montana), 28 June 1917, p. 11; image copy, Genealogybank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 14 June 2016), Newspaper Archives. ↩
  10. “Web: RootsWeb Cemetery Index, 1800-2010,”  database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/search/ : accessed 14 June 2016), entry for George W. Bigcraft, June 1917, Silver Bow, Montana, USA; citing Cemetery Records. RootsWeb. ↩
  11.  Montana death certificate 21829, George W. Bigcraft. ↩
  12.  Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 5 Jan 2020), memorial page 128650030, George W. Bigcraft (1884–1917), created by lrobart; citing Mountain View Cemetery, Butte, Silver Box, Montana, USA. ↩