Historical Post - Week of December 4th

Big Timber Pioneer, December 7, 1939

Sole Survivor

If the Pioneer is correct, and it is as a rule, John P. (Jack) Allen, well known to Park tourists of this city as proprietor of the hotel at Cooke City, is the sole survivor of many mining men who were in that camp in 1882, Peter H. Branser having passed in Livingston Wednesday of last week. Branser was born in Norway in 1849, came to Montana in 1881 and later located in Cooke. He and Hamilton Kearns owned the Daisy mine and sold it at a good figure. Of late years he has resided in Livingston. Speaking of Kearns and Branser, 50 years ago and later, they were two of those who spent their winters in Livingston. Others were Dan Ross, James and Henry Howell, Steve B. Howell, Sam and Frank Mather. Jack Allen usually hiked for California.