Mary Louise, a speaker at the meeting, said she was “the first female child born to white parents in what would become this great state.” The speaker read a first-person account stating a birthdate of Aug. 7, 1862, in Gold Creek and describing her family’s arrival in Hellgate (near present-day Missoula) in September 1861.

The reading noted the claim has been debated: “Several others have claimed to be the first white child born in Montana,” the transcript records, and it cites births in Bannock City and nearby locations in 1862–63. The account also names Jefferson Henry Pelkey, born Jan. 21, 1862, and says he is buried in Block 27 alongside family members.

The speaker placed the family’s westward journey in context, saying Augustus G. Pelkey and Alvenia Teresa Cortois Pelkey left Saint Ferdinand, Missouri, in April 1861 and arrived in Hellgate that September. “My older sister was just 6 months when they began their journey,” the reading states.

The memoir excerpt acknowledged Indigenous peoples on the land: “It was home to indigenous peoples, the Salish, Kootenai, Pondere, and many others who lived here for generations,” the speaker read, adding their presence and knowledge are “woven into the very soil beneath our feet.”

The account described community life and small awards at the Western Montana Agricultural, Mineral, and Mechanical Society fair: the speaker said she won $5 for a bouquet in 1877 and later prizes for ginger snaps and chain stitching. It also described her marriages and children and gave dates for later civic roles: the reading says she was the first postmaster in Cyr when the post office opened on Jan. 8 (year not specified), was reappointed in March 1914, and operated the office until it closed Dec. 31, 1914.

The reading concluded with a date of death: “My journey ended 11/11/1922 at the age of 60,” the speaker said, and closed with an appeal to remember the lives marked by cemetery stones: “Every stone marks a life that mattered.”