Date: 2022
Railroad contractor Michael Tobin purchased this modified Craftsman style house from Valley Mercantile in 1910. The bungalow has undergone substantial changes including the addition of front and back shed-roof dormers. In 1911, Forbes and Anna Buchannan purchased the home for $3,000 (approximately $211,000 in 2022 dollars). Forbes—an experienced blacksmith—moved to the Bitter Root Valley in 1904 with first wife Mary to run mining claims for the Montana-Coeur d’Alene Company. Mary soon died, and Forbes married Anna Strong, a woman twenty years his junior. Before long, Forbes operated “the largest and best equipped machine, blacksmith, and wagon making shops in the Bitter Root valley.” By 1915, Forbes had lost the election for sheriff, fallen delinquent on property taxes, and Anna had died from sepsis following an illegal abortion. Forbes went to mine in Kellogg, Idaho, leaving his two young children in Hamilton for five years. In 1915, the MacRae Brothers Corporation, local stock growers, bought the home. The brothers leased the property until 1936, then sold to Edward Erikson, a plant breeder for Associated Seed Growers, and wife Jessie.
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Date: 2022