Volume XIX, Number 50

Wednesday, July 8, 2004

Valley News at a Glance

Jeannie Brushia, Spirit of Stevensville

New book offers adventure tale of Montana pioneer

Local book signings scheduled

Jeannie Brushia, Spirit of Stevensville

by Pat Rhodes

Jeannie Brushia, the Spirit of Stevensville honoree for July, has a lot in common with other winners over the past 18 months. She doesn't think she does much of anything out of the ordinary. She says helping others in need is just what you do.

Along with her husband Mark and their store Stevi Hardware and Rental, she has been involved in the school, sports, fundraising, donations to non-profit projects and spaghetti feeds for sports teams and any number of other helpful projects. She is particularly known for her spaghetti feeds. She said her husband's heritage is Italian and she learned to make her famous spaghetti sauce from Mark's family.

"We just try to help out," Jeannie said. Sometimes it is not people we know. Our help for one family that is especially stressed is ongoing. Their daughter is blind and the whole family has needs. Anyone who would like to help may call me at 777-2051."

Others who have benefited from Jeannie's generosity are church and youth groups, Special Olympics, scouts, and a number of other organizations. She has helped Stevensville Civic Club in the past with Creamery Picnic and she and Mark have sponsored the Creamery Picnic Teen Dance at their store property. That is out for them this year, however, because a daughter is being married that day. But, if someone else is willing to take responsibility for the dance, it still may be held at Stevi Hardware, she said.

Jeannie and Mark are the parents of six children. All are gone from home but one but Jeannie is still driving kids to baseball games and will be attending her young son's All-Star game in Butte on Friday. Family, community, school and business fill her life.

The Brushias have lived in the Stevensville community for 13 years. "I love Montana. Stevensville has been good to our family. We have been thrilled with our life here," she said.

Jeannie will be honored at 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 8 at the Bitterroot Star. The Spirit of Stevensville Award is sponsored jointly by Stevensville Main Street Association and Stevensville Civic Club. The public is invited to the short award program Thursday.

Author Rod Johnson of Great Falls has once again tapped into the rich historic roots of his own family to tell a dramatic and fast-paced story about the early life of his Irish great-grandfather, Bruce Jones, a pioneer in the Bitterroot Valley. Early-day gold miners faced a bleak prospect of reaping the rewards of their labors as highwaymen "mined the miners,² robbing them as they attempted to get their gold from the gold fields.

A moderately successful method to cope with that problem was to hire an "express rider" to carry the gold to the safety of the banks. The express rider would chart out a path from well traveled roads and then carry the gold on a schedule of his own devising to attempt to take would-be robbers by surprise. He success depended on his skill in riding and shooting, his wits, and a fast mount.

Bruce Jones' adventures as an express rider and later as a lawman put him in direct conflict with infamous outlaw Henry Plummer and his gang. Plummer and his gang of thieves and murderers plied their trade throughout the Old West from California to Nevada, Idaho Territory and ultimately Montana Territory, the same areas Jones' careers took him. Plummer ultimately met his demise in the Montana gold camp of Bannack.

The Bruce Jones story told in "Express Rider," while based on fact, is presented in the form of a novel - the same technique Johnson used in his earlier book "Another Man's Gold" that told the story of his Scottish great-grandfather, James B. Stuart, who became a Vigilante. Jones and Stuart homesteaded together in the Bitterroot Valley, where they developed a cattle herd on small but adjoining ranches just south of the town of Stevensville in the 1860s.

Johnson believes his new book is the perfect vehicle in which to tell the story of the little known express riders, whose exploits have largely slipped unnoticed into the dim pages of history simply because they were men whose work was, of necessity, secretive.

"While much has been written about the dramatic story of the Pony Express riders and most of us identify with their role in the saga of the American West, very little has been written or dramatized about the 'express' riders," publisher Dale Burk of Stoneydale Press said upon announcing the release of Johnson's new book. "These 'express riders' risked their lives every time they hauled the precious metal from the gold fields of Montana, Idaho, and Nevada or elsewhere to such places as Sacramento or San Francisco in California. They had to outwit, out-ride or out-shoot organized thieves - men who would bushwhack them for the gold they carried, men who because of the lawlessness of the western territories, moved freely and openly in the mining camps."

Johnson, who grew up in Stevensville, now lives in Great Falls with his wife, Shirley, having retired from the Great Falls School District, where he served as Transportation Director as well as Juvenile Officer, following a career in law enforcement, first as a deputy sheriff in Missoula County and then as a Montana Highway Patrolman. His life experiences provide realistic insight for his writing, as does his constant research into the history of Montana and the West.

His new book, "Express Rider," was issued in 6 by 9-inch, 160-page softcover format with illustrations for each chapter drawn by his nephew, Lance Johnson, a professional artist, who also created a watercolor painting for the book's cover depicting an express rider moving furtively through an aspen grove. The book retails for $14.95 and is available in many bookstores, gift shops or other outlets or direct from Stoneydale Press at 523 Main St., Stevensville, 777-2729.

Author Rod Johnson of Great Falls, whose new novel "Express Rider" has been released by Stoneydale Press of Stevensville, has scheduled the following local book signings:
Aug. 6 - Missoula, Waldenbooks in the Southgate Mall, noon to 3 p.m.
Aug. 6 - Hamilton, Chapter One Bookstore, 4-6 p.m.
Aug. 7 - Stevensville, Creamery Picnic, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Stoneydale Press booth.