"Sarah Bickford Gammon" (1855-1931)

Sarah Blair  was born on into slavery on Christmas Day,in 1855 on the Blair Plantation near

Greensboro,North Carolina.After the Civil War Sarah lived with an aunt in Knoxville,Tennessee and changed her name to Gammon,the aunt's name.In1870,Knoxville Judge John L.Murphy was appointed to a judicial post in Virginia City, Montana.Sarah about 15 was offered free transportation to Montana in exchange for caring for the Murphy children.She accepted and the family arrived in Virginia City,Montana in January 1871.She entered Virginia City during its gold rush and quickly found work as a chambermaid at Virginia City's Madison House Motel.In 1872 she married William Leonard Brown,a successful gold miner.They had two sons and a daughter.Within a few years,both her sons and her husband died of diphtheria.Sarah and surviving child,Eva relocated to Laurin,Montana.Where they lived with a merchant family.Eva died of pneumonia in 1881 at the age of nine.Two years later Sarah married Stephen Bickford,a white native of Maine,in 1883.Four children were born to that marriage,Elmer in 1884,Harriett in 1877,Helena in 1890 and Mabel in 1892.In 1888,Stephen and Sarah Bickford acquired a portion of the water system that supplied Virginia City with drinking water on November 13,1890 they also purchased "Fisher's Garden,"a farm east of Virginia City which produced vegetables and fruits for the local population including of Chinese.Stephen death assumed control of the water Company,managing the books,billing customers and directing other company matters.She also continued to manage the farm east of the city.In 1902 she purchased the Hangman's Building,one of the oldest and largest structures in the town.From here on she ran the Water Company.Now assisted by her son,Elmer,who became a master plumber,Sarah continued to expand the business,acquiring natural springs and building a reservoir to supply the growing population of the region.Although her oldest daughter,Virginia,helped with the books,Sarah enrolled in a business management course through a Scranton,Pennsylvania correspondence school to become more proficient in company management.In 1917,Sarah purchased the other third of the Water Company from longtime partner Philip Harry Gohn,the second investor when Stephen originally purchased the business.At this point she became the only African-American woman in Montana to own a utility.Sarah continued to manage the Virginia City Water Company until she died of a heart attack in her home.