D.S. Billilngton- part 3--Settling Down

Deadwood Stage in the 1880's--internet photo..not Dee at shotgun

Stage Coach Driver  Billington..as told by Estelle Fontana

   “One December day, probably 1883, when the choir sang for the territorial jail, the jailer, Dee Billington, took notice of a young lady, Miss Estella Boyden. He later commented that he knew then she was the one for him ... although he had always said he wanted to remain single and never settle down.

   Dee showed a lot of interest in her, but Elijah, her father, did not approve because of the differences in ages. When Elijah, a professional photographer, went on a picture-taking spree, Estella begged to go with him. He refused, and she insisted that if he would not take her with him, she would be married by the time he came back. Sure enough while Elijah was gone, Estella and Dee were married in nearby Lead City, Lawrence County, Dakota Territory by a Justice of the Peace. The date was March 19, 1884.

    By this time Dee was riding shot gun on the stage coach line from Spearfish to Deadwood. Estella’s father did not approve, because Dee was the adventuresome type and he was twice as old as Estella. Elijah bought them a farm in nearby St. Onge because he felt the stage coach job in Deadwood was too dangerous. Elijah hoped he could encourage the new family to become farmers. Dee said, "I don't know why anybody would think I was a farmer, but people used to think, if you couldn't do anything else, you could farm."  

The people of St. Onge were French. They came as fur traders. They traded with the Indians for furs then decided to stay and settle down. They were marvelous farmers. They had things growing when nobody else could. It was hardly a town. It was just a bunch of farms.

      They had a drought that year. Everyone suffered from it. There was no water. But Dee, our entrepreneur, bought a machine to do other farmer's work. He said, "As it turned out, I had a good onion crop, when everybody else failed. The weeds were so tall & so thick, they shaded the onions." That is the only reason he had a crop. He was so busy working other's people's farms, he didn't have time to tend his own.

     One day he turned to Estella and said, "I think I am through farming, if you are."

     She said, "I am too!" and they just packed up and left. Dee sold the farm and they moved back to Deadwood for a short time.   Their two boys and the two who died in infancy were born in Deadwood. Dee remembers the day he talked Estella into going for a little ride. They didn't go very far and left the two boys with someone else. But when they came back, and those two little boys were crying for her, Dee could never get her to go out again.

    Deadwood had a reputation as a wild town, not a great place to raise children, so Dee bought a livery stable in Spearfish and Elijah bought a house there and invited his daughter and family to live with him.

    That house was actually in the city limits, but half the city didn't know they were there, it was right on the very edge of the city and right up against the hill side. There was no back yard, only side yard and front yard. It was all woodsy between the house and the creek. At one time the creek went through the corner of the yard but it would flood every year and then it would cut a new bed.

     One more boy and four girls were all born in Spearfish. Spearfish is on the northern edge of the Black Hills. There are pretty mountains east, south and west of Spearfish. On one side is LookOut Mountain or Eociha. That was the Sioux look out over the Spearfish Valley. The other side of the valley is Crow Peak, the Crow Look Out. Spearfish valley was the last battleground between the Sioux and the Crow. It was full of arrowheads. The kids used to dig them up and play with them and throw them away.”

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Meet Estella Loring Boyden----by Lana Rankin

Estella Loring Boyden was born June 6, 1869. Her death certificate said she was born in Newfoundland. Family records say she was born on board a ship off the coast of Cape Breton near Nova Scotia and also state that her mother's last name was McDonald, supposedly related to Sir John McDonald, first Prime Minister of Canada. However, no record of this claim has been found.  Instead her family’s official records are found in Sydney Mines, Canada. Estella’s grandparents were Mary Campbell and Charles McDonald.  Family records state that Estella's mother, Ann, died in Eastport, Maine, a year after Estella was born. However, no death records have yet been found at this time. Family records also state that Estella was raised in a French Convent in Michigan. where, she learned to do French needlework and other handiwork. Again, no official records place Estella anywhere in Michigan. Later in life she had placed first in needlework, at the St. Louis World's Fair, for a lace table cloth in very fine lace called "rose point." Now this fact might be true as I have piece of the needlework she has done.  So, we don’t know for sure who raised her from infancy to 10 years old.

When her father, Elijah Loring Boyden, a traveling photographer, finally settled in Deadwood, South Dakota, and opened a photography shop there, he sent for Estella. She appears on the Census records for Deadwood 1880 as a 10 year old girl. The census record also states that she was born in Michigan. She became active in a local church there and even sang in the church choir.

Deadwood 1880's on left and 1980's on right from the same location

Estella's father, Elijah, loved taking pictures of his daughter in his studio. He was always taking pictures of her, but she would always tear them up! One day she put on his hat thinking he wouldn’t take a picture of her in his hat..it just wouldn’t be right..but he did anyway and we are lucky to have that photo.