Worden, Francis Lyman, 1830-1887

Francis Lyman Worden was born in Vermont in 1830 and attended school in Troy, New York. He began clerking in a store when he was fourteen. In 1852, he went to San Francisco, California, and clerked in a store there. He then went to Oregon, mined for a year, and settled in The Dalles near the east end of the Columbia River Gorge, where he fought in the Indian wars of 1855. He worked as clerk in the Indian Department under Isaac J. Stephens. He moved to Walla Walla, Washington Territory, and opened a store. He was also postmaster of Walla Walla for two years.

In 1860 he formed a partnership with Christopher P. Higgins and they located in Hell Gate, Washington Territory, a site that would become part of Missoula, Montana. Soon afterward, they moved their business to Missoula, Washington Territory, and started the first store in that town, Worden and Company.

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