J. L. "Pete" Howard - Justice of the Peace
P.O. Box 337
Choteau, Montana 59422
Work: 406-466-5611
TTD or TTY: 406-466-3976
Fax: 406-466-2138
E-mail: tetonjp@3rivers.net

The Teton County Justice Court has jurisdiction to:
1. Handle traffic offenses
2. Small Claims
3. Civil Suits
4. Criminal Cases up to a Class A misdemeanor
5. Hold preliminary hearings
6. Issue warrants
7. Conduct felony arraignments
8. Does not handle felony cases, nor do we deal with libel, slander or property title disputes
9. Civil cases heard involving disputes between parties - limited up to the sums of $7000.
10. Marriages by appointment

Choteau's Hanging Tree - a story of quick frontier justice...
as remembered by Annie Keogh Ford
On June 29, 1881 Mrs. John Mary Armstrong was brutally murdered on her ranch by transient Brackett E. Stewart at her home just below the present town of Collins where the Muddy empties into the Teton River. At the ranch were Mrs. Armstrong, Joe Morgan - sometimes listed as a hired man, other times as a partner - and two little girls, Maggie and Annie.

One morning the children heard someone coming on the road. Annie yelled out "Mama, a man coming horseback." And she said "well, don't act so scared, he is not going to kill us". If she only knew then what he had in mind. "So he came to the door and asked her if she needed any more cattle riders, but her cowboys had left the day before on the summer round-up to gather and brand calves. Mrs. Armstrong told him he could stay in her old cabin which he did for two weeks." The night before the murder took place Maggie and I picked strawberries till it got so dark we could not see to pick any more. When we got back to the house, Mrs. Armstrong was getting ready for bed. She told us to put the berries on the shelf, that she would have them for breakfast.

Early the next morning, while Annie slept, Mrs. Armstrong called out to Maggie saying "someone is shooting outside". Maggie went to the door and the man Stewart was coming to the house, and told Maggie "I heard the coyotes after the chickens". So Maggie got back in bed. Then all of a sudden ... Stewart came to the house, stuck his gun through the cracks of the cabin (the logs had not been chinked up yet) and Maggie said Mrs. Armstrong laughed. She said "what are you trying to do"? She thought he was playing a joke. Then he fired at her, struck her arm. She jumped out of the bed, reached at the foot of the bed for the gun, but it was gone. The man had stole her gun. Just as she jumped, the man shot her again, struck her in the chest. She dropped dead. Stewart had also cut Joe's throat from ear to ear with a razor. Click here to go to next page