Doane, Mary Hunter, 1859-1952

Mary Lee Hunter Doane was born in Missouri in 1859, the oldest of six children born to Dr. Andrew Jackson Hunter and his second wife, Susan. In 1864, Hunter brought his family to Montana Territory where they lived briefly in Virginia City, Helena, and Bozeman. In 1870, Hunter staked a claim to land encompassing a hot spring near the Yellowstone River in present day Park County and there developed a health spa. Mary grew up in Bozeman and at Hunter's Hot Springs before she attended St. Vincent's Academy in Helena in 1876. On December 16, 1878, she married Lieutenant Gustavus Cheyney Doane and traveled with him to a wide variety of military posts in Montana, California, and Arizona prior to his death in 1894. Mary remained a widow for the rest of her life, living in Bozeman and becoming active in a number of historical organizations such as the Society of Montana Pioneers and the Daughters of the American Revolution. She gained a reputation as an "encyclopedia of Montana history" in her later years, and began a friendship with Professor Merrill G. Burlingame that lasted until her death in 1953. Gustavus Cheyney Doane was born in Galesburg, Illinois, on May 20, 1840, and grew up in California. He graduated from the University of the Pacific at Santa Clara in 1861, and afterwards enlisted in the "California Hundred," a federal volunteer unit absorbed by the Second Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry. Doane attained the rank of sergeant by 1864 when he resigned to accept a commission as lieutenant with the first regiment, Mississippi Marine Brigade. After the war Doane lived for a time in Yazoo City, Mississippi where he was appointed mayor by the Reconstruction authorities in 1867. In 1868 he applied for a commission with the army and was appointed second lieutenant in the Second U.S. Cavalry. He served with the regiment for the next 24 years, attaining the rank of captain in 1884. During his postwar career Doane was stationed at a variety of frontier posts in Montana, California, and Arizona, including Fort Ellis, Fort Custer, Fort Assiniboine, Fort Keogh, Fort Maginnis, the Presidio, and Fort Bowie. He participated in the Sioux war of 1876, the Nez Perce War of 1877, and the Apache campaign of 1886. Doane gained a great deal of fame as an explorer, having led the first systematic exploration of present day Yellowstone National Park in 1870, a survey of the Judith Basin area in 1874, a trip down the Snake River in 1876-77, and the Howgate polar expedition in Greenland in 1880. Towards the end of his life, Doane attempted unsuccessfully to gain the superintendency of Yellowstone National Park and to influence widespread army acceptance for his invention, the Doane Centennial Tent. He married twice, to Amelia Link in 1866 and to Mary Lee Hunter in 1878. Gustavus Doane died on May 5, 1892.

From the guide to the Mary Hunter Doane Papers, 1860-1952, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)

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