Legacy INDUCTEE
EDMUND CUMMINGS “EDDY” HULBERT (1898 – 1960)
DISTRICT 7 - YEAR 2025 - No photo available.
Edmund “Eddy” Cummings Hulbert was born to William M. and Ann M. (Cummings) Hulbert on March 8, 1898, in Maywood, Illinois. Eddy’s mother passed away when he was two years old. His grandfather, William A. Hulbert, a wealthy executive who had founded the National League of Baseball in 1876, died in 1882. Eddy’s dad, William M., was 18. He had no interest in managing the league and gambled the family’s inheritance away in a card game, then passing away when Eddy was 13. As a distraction, family friends suggested Eddy travel to Montana to spend the summer at a guest ranch.
It is believed that Caroline Hulbert, an aunt, in 1911, paid his train fare to Kane, Wyoming, where a doctor, Grosvenor W. “Doc” Barry, his wife, Edith, and her son, Claude St. John, brought him to their Cedarvale Guest Ranch in Hillsboro, Montana. The trip was made by taking a two-hour boat ride through Big Horn Canyon to Barry’s Landing and then navigating by horseback or wagon overland. The ranch was sixty miles south of Billings and advertised as a beneficial setting for “unescorted children.” The self-sufficient business required much labor for the garden and livestock. The countryside gave Eddy a place to wander when not busy with chores. When he needed a change of scenery, Eddy would visit a great uncle in Denver, Colorado. There he was exposed to the bit and spur making products of a Canyon City prisoner craftsman, Mr. Cox, whose style fascinated him.
Eddy grew close to the Barrys, who had taken a liking to him immediately. They put him to work as a blacksmith. Having enjoyed his first summer at the dude ranch, Eddy decided to stay on, specializing in wagon repair and shoeing horses, developing proficient skills and becoming self-supportive.
He taught himself how to forge metal by heating and hammering it to repair Doc’s boats, and became inventive as he turned to blacksmithing for horse-drawn farm equipment, wagons and shoeing horses. Continually working with his hands to build and repair things, he became an excellent craftsman. Eddy was quite capable and could size a horse with shoes just by eyesight. Many Hillsboro residents sought Eddy’s services. The town established a post office, making an out source for the sale of his goods and arrival of needed supplies. With this opportunity, Eddy pursued more technical forging such as hand-forging for spurs and bits, mastering and developing his own shaft, belt and pulley system for finishing and polishing silver. He engraved his products freehand rather than stamping patterns into the silver and gold inlays. When custom-made saddles and silver-mounted spurs became trendy for Hollywood and others, Eddy’s commodities became more popular, and he advertised in mail-order catalogs.
Easy-going Eddy was referred to as “the Ape”, by one neighbor. At six feet, 200 or so pounds, his curved stature from working over a bench surface made his arms appear longer than normal. He was seen as unkept and rarely with a smile. Nevertheless, he was well-liked, hard-working, and kept to himself. Eddy had a big heart and was generous to his customers and friends. On several occasions, wives who ordered buckles for their husbands would get a surprise when their package arrived, finding a buckle for themselves.
One summer, a lady from Chicago stayed at the guest ranch and developed a romance with Eddy. He soon began building a homestead for them near Hillsboro. Apparently, by the end of the summer, this gal decided not to stay or continue her courtship with Eddy and returned to Chicago and married. That winter, Eddy moved to Cody, Wyoming, where his drinking prevented him from selling enough pieces to get by. Sadly, when Eddy could not pay his bar tab in cash, he’d pay in merchandise. In the spring, he moved back to Hillsboro and then briefly to Alaska and Canada, before returning to work in his shop at the ranch.
Although Eddy helped with ranch chores, most remember him from hearing the pinging and panging he created while working at his shop. He used antiquated, simple tools and machinery in making his quality silversmithing projects. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, his bits, one-piece spurs, silver buckles, silver hat bands, earrings and other western jewelry were sold at Connelly Saddlery in Billings. With the popularity of rodeos, a new market opened, and sponsors were requesting fancy bits, saddles & accessories, headstalls, and trophy buckles. Eddy advertised his silver work in a variety of new catalogs and sold it in western stores and at guest ranches. His understanding of silversmithing and its use was remarkable. For example, he would make cowgirl spurs lighter weight and with shorter heelbands.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he worked as a Tool Dresser for Bob Cole’s oil drilling business in northern and central Wyoming.
Eddy met Mabel Bischoff, a hairdresser from Lovell, Wyoming, and they immediately became smitten with each other. On August 5, 1958, the two married in Red Lodge, Montana. Having been quite nervous leading up to the wedding, Eddy drank too much and had to be held up by two men during the ceremony. Marriage changed Eddy into a clean shaven and smiling gent.
It was said that Eddy’s hands were always black from his steadfast work of which he was inseparable. On July 12, 1960, he was found at his shop, slumped over his work surface, clutching his chest. Eddy died of a massive heart attack and was buried in the Lovell Cemetery. A year later, Mabel was laid to rest beside him.
Eddy’s highly regarded work is now sought by collectors. His passion for silversmithing and his bit and spur craftsmanship earned Eddy Hulbert a place in Montana history.
References:
Eddy Hulbert Montana Silversmith, by Shell Reid, January 1, 1998
Ancestry.com, Find A Grave Memorial
Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, April 11, 1882, Page 6
National Park Service: www.nps.gov (history-culture)
Eddy Hulbert Silversmith, by Helene Sage