Thursday, August 17, 2017

Cousin Jonathan Edward Tibbetts Spent Some Time in a Montana prison for Forgery

Jonathan E Tibbetts shares his paternal grandparents with me (my 5th great grandparents Benjamin Tibbetts and Hannah Snow) through Jonathan Snow Tibbetts (brother of my 4th great grandfather George Tibbetts, not shown).

My 1st cousin 5xs removed Jonathan Tibbetts (1856-1930) was quite difficult to track after he was last found as a clerk in Portand, Oregon in 1887.



Montana State Historical Society (Helena, MT), Prisoner Descriptions: Edward Tibbetts, 30 Apr 1910; digital image, Montana, Prison Records, 1861-1968 (http://www.ancestry.com : 17 Aug 2017).

Apparently he was quite busy (on the description above he was both a Civil Engineer and a Barber), and he also eventually ended up convicted for forgery in Great Falls, Cascade, Montana, and sentenced on April 28, 1910:
"...Held on a charge of forgery, Edward Tibbetts was arraigned before Judge Leslie yesterday afternoon, and entered a plea of not guilty.  He will be tried at the next term of the district court.  Tibbetts is alleged to have passed a bogus check for $40 on George Cor, a local saloon keeper on March 18, 1910.  The check was drawn on the First National bank and was signed "J. E. Hammond, secretary." When the check was presented for payment the bank turned it down and the matter was reported to the police.  Tibbetts was arrested on March 23, on Central avenue, by Chief of Police Pontet.
Pending his trial, Tibbetts is langusihing in the Cascade county jail."***
Definitely him--he has two sisters, Mrs. A. J. Knot and Elizabeth Hamblin (his older sisters Mary Eliza Tibbetts and Elizabeth Jane Tibbetts) in East Portland, which is where they lived.  I prefer more formal portraits, but any time I can catch a glimpse of an ancestor or kin I'll take it.  Montana State Historical Society (Helena, MT), Prisoner Descriptions: Edward Tibbetts, 30 Apr 1910; digital image, Montana, Prison Records, 1861-1968 (http://www.ancestry.com : 17 Aug 2017).

I find it interesting that he was using a name, "J. E. Hammond" which I will use to look up more records for him. After 1910 he was mentioned in a sister's will in 1915 as living in Los Angeles, and he died in Riverside County, California, in 1930, and I can't find any other records of him during that time [not him, see comment].


The Montana State Prison was designed by the architectural firm Link and Haire in the Romanesque style, and was built in Deer  Lodge, Montana in 1871.  From "A view of Tower 7 with Cellblock in the background of the Old Montana Prison," by Wikipedia user Tanankyo.

***"Alleged Burglar and Check Forger Are Arraigned Before Judge Leslie," Great Falls Tribune (Great Falls, MT), Saturday, 16 Apr 1910, p. 5, col 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : 17 Aug 2017).



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

2 comments:

  1. This was helpful input into my One Name Study. Thank You. (Jonathan) Edward is last seen in census data in 1880, so not found (so far) after that date. Obviously this evidence confirms his approximate whereabouts in 1910. However he is not the person who died in Riverside Co in 1930. I have been to that gravesite and the person buried there is Jonathan Franklin TIBBETT who, other info tells me, was born 05jan1856 in CA. More via the TEBBETT One Name Study email account. . . . .

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  2. Thank you so much for the correction! I'll update my tree with that info.

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