Archives West Finding Aid

William H. Tracy was born in Ithaca, New York in 1838. He left home at age 19 and lived in Denver, Colorado where he served briefly in the Home Guard regiment of the Colorado Volunteers during the Civil War. Tracy first came to the Gallatin Valley in 1863 and helped found the city of Bozeman in 1864. In April of 1869, Tracy married Sarah Jane Bessey in Pecatonica, Illinois, together returning to Montana in May of that year. The Tracy's settled on Main Street taking land claims throughout the area. Mr. Tracy employed himself as a farmer and real estate agent, as well as the proprietor of an early brick yard, freighting business, and feed and seed store, the latter enterprise named "W.H. Tracy and Company." The Tracy's had six children, four of whom survived to adulthood: Elmer, Albert, Frank S., and Edna B., the donor of this collection. Mr. Tracy died in an accident in 1908 and Mrs. Tracy died eight years later on October 19, 1916.