Conrad, Campbell, and Stanford family

In 1868 two youthful Civil War veterans, William G. and Charles E. Conrad, first stepped ashore at Fort Benton, Montana Territory, headwaters of navigation on the Missouri River. Their enterprise quickly lead to employment by I. G. Baker, owner of one of two trading companies then dominating transportation and commerce in the American and Canadian northwest. Four years later the brothers became partners in I. G. Baker and Company; in 1874 they bought the company. Expanding this virtual empire of riverboat and overland trade and diversifying into banking, ranching, mining, real estate, diplomacy and environmental concerns for the next twenty-eight years, the Conrad brothers played a vital part in the development of the West and of Montana in particular.

Born on August 3, 1848 to Maria S. (Ashby) Conrad and Colonel James Warren Conrad, William was the eldest of thirteen children. Charles was born on May 20, 1850, also on “Wapping,” the family’s plantation in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The Civil War of 1861-1865 took Colonel Warren to his Virginia militia regiment, while William and Charles grew up riding for the final two years of the conflict as volunteers with the 43rd Partisan Rangers and their legendary commander John Singleton Mosby.

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