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Rosebud County - County Hot Seat

Background Info/ Historical Story:

“Miles City, the County Seat of Custer County of which we were still a part, was so great a distance away, and with the modes of travel difficult and time consuming the necessity of having a more central location in which to transact county business became increasingly apparent. Plans were made to divide the county so we could be a separate county and this was finally accomplished in 1901. Thus an urgent need for a place to keep the county records became evident and since the Old Library Building was vacated by the school, this site was the logical one to be designated as the Court House for the newly formed county. The records were transferred to Forsyth and, as land was being surveyed and homesteaders moving into the county at a rapid rate much was added to those records already made available by Custer County, making the wisdom of the division of the counties very real. Appointments were made and elections held and all other county business was recorded in this building. The court house was situated on this site until it, too, became too small to house all the records. A bond issue was voted for a new county building which was occupied in about 1914.

When the court house was moved to its present location this Old Library Building, which had not yet become a library, was again vacant as to permanent tenants. But this did not mean that it was an abandoned building-not by any chance! Its convenient location made it a good place to hold meetings and it was used for this purpose by church groups, civic organizations and for social functions. In July 1918 the F.M. booth Mortuary was housed here also.

Now comes the real reason this building is known as the Old Library Building-although I have referred to it in this manner above for easy identification. Rosebud County had assumed the responsibility for the upkeep of the library, as it had grown from its humble beginning through the efforts of the Women's Club, to a large number of volumes kept in various places each of which it finally outgrew. Rent was paid by warrants drawn on a Library Fund established by the county commissioners for library needs. It soon became apparent that the library should be situated in a permanent location, so it was decided to move it to this old building which had been the court house. Extensive repairs were made to this old structure with money from the Library Fund, and soon the south wing was established as the County Library. Furniture was purchased from the Booth Furniture Store in January 1927 and since no rent warrants were drawn after February it is assumed that the move was made early in 1927.”- They Came and Stayed, Rosebud County Book

“The original boundary of Rosebud County, created March 4, 1901, included all of Treasure County, that part of Big Horn lying east of the Little Big Horn river, and on to the Wyoming line. The creation of Big Horn County, in 1913 took all of the Crow reservation and part of the Cheyenne. It also annexed a strip on the south where our County joined the Wyoming border, leaving the Birney country south of the Cheyenne reservation. Rosebud County assumed its current scale when Treasure County was formed in 1918. Rosebud County's first Commissioners were Freeman Philbrick, W.W. McDonald, and A.H. Terrett. They served only briefly, and the next ones instigated the building of the first Yellowstone bridge at Forsyth. A bridge at Myers and one at Rosebud followed. The first telephone for Forsyth and Rosebud was constructed by FVH Collins, and incorporated in 1904. The first fair was in 1906, and in 1911 we voted bonds for the Rosebud County courthouse, completed Jan. 5, 1914.”- They Came and Stayed, Rosebud County Book

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