James McClellan Hamilton was born October 1, 1861 in Crawford County, Ill., and came to Montana in 1889. In 1893, when the University System was created and the State Board of Education was established, he was named a member. In 1901 he became professor of history and economics, then vice-president of Montana State University shortly thereafter. Three years later he was made president of the Agricultural College (Montana State College). Hamilton resigned from the presidency in 1919 to become professor of economics and to also become the first dean of men, serving in those roles until his death. In 1918 Hamilton married Florence Ballinger, a member of the home economics staff. He completed a manuscript history of Yellowstone Park, which was posthumously published in 1947. He planned on completing a second volume on the history of Montana but in the spring of 1940 Hamilton suffered a slight stroke and failed in health rapidly until his death on September 23, 1940. Some fifteen years after Hamilton's death Merrill G. Burlingame, then a history professor at Montana State College, edited the manuscript at the request of Hamilton's widow. It was published in 1957 and in 1970 a new edition was issued with some revisions and a chapter written by Burlingame at the publisher's request.
From the guide to the J.M. Hamilton Photographs, circa 1918, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)
