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- Montana, Its Story and Biography, Vol. 3
Hypolite Bessette, Written by Eglantine Bessette Roper
Hypolite Bessette. Old-time residents of Northern Montana came to know a great deal of the personalities and the activities of the noted Bessette Brothers, who at one time conducted the largest and most extensive freighting business through the northern counties.
An active member of this firm and later a prominent rancher and stockman was the late Hypolite Bessette, who was born at Louvre, France, in 1851. In 1878 he crossed the ocean to Eastern Canada, and during the same years with his six brothers set out for Montana, traveling by stage. The trip from Montreal to Helena took eighteen days. They then traveled on to Fort Benton, where they purchased ox teams and entered the freighting and transportation business. Their wagons ran to all parts of the Northwest and carried goods used in many important enterprises. It is a matter of history that practically all of the material used for the original Fort Assinibine was hauled by the Bessette Brothers.
During the winter months when transportation was at a standstill the brothers lived in a log cabin on the banks of the Maris River. This cabin and its surrounding lands afterward became the ranch of Hypolite Bessette. These headquarters, though in an exposed outpost, were seldom molested by the Indians. The Bessette brothers continued in the freighting business for five or six years. Hypolite Bessette then withdrew from the firm and returned to his native land, where he married and where he lived until drawn again by the spell of Montana to this country.
In 1897 he brought his family to Montana and from that time forward lived on the ranch which had been his winter quarters during his freighting experience. He became extensively engaged in the stock business, and lived there until his death on December 23, 1901.
Hypolite Bessette married Miss Marie Lea Carreau. They were the parents of Adelia, Corona, Eglantine, Valmord and Ademord. The daughter, Adelia, married a Mr. Green and died December 3, 1910, leaving one daughter, Corinne. The daughter Corona, died as Mrs. Sprinkle on May 1, 1917, leaving three sons, Roger, David and Robert Sprinkle. The other three children and their widowed mother are still living. Eglantine Bessette, now Mrs. Eglantine L. Roper, is one of the best educated women in Montana, and is a practicing member of the bar. She was educated in the Sacred Heart Academy at Missoula and in the University of California, and was admitted to the Montana bar in 1919. She is now engaged in practice as a land attorney at Havre. Her husband, C.C. Roper, is a farmer. They have two children, Idale and Ronald. On July 19, 1919, Mrs. Roper bought the Northern Auto Company, general garage agents for the Studebaker cars, to which she gives her personal attention.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1888 - 1974 (86 years)
, d. 23 Dec 1901, Fort Benton, Chouteau County, Montana