Backgound

William Harvey Black was born in----------- Pennsylvania on -------, -- 1854. In 1886 he married Selma Talbott at the home of Nate Vestal which we think was in Helena, Montana. Selma had been a school teacher in Wolf Creek and was the sister of Harriet Ellen (Hattie) Talbott, the wife of Vestal--a Montana miner/land speculator and friend and partner of Black. 

In November,1886, Black was elected sheriff of Choteau County, charged with the keeping the peace, primarily in Fort Benton, the last stop on the upper Missouri River and the conduit for relaying people and goods back and forth between the unsettled west and St. Louis.
(Betsy, you can add lots of info here.  Big gaps and errors.)
Fort Benton had been built in 1847 as a trading post for the American Fur Company.  The Blackfoot, Cree, Gros Ventres and Assiniboin provided furs and buffalo robes which were shipped downriver to eastern markets.  With the arrival of the first steamboat in 1859 and the discovery of gold in1862, Fort Benton became the world's innermost port and a building boom along the levy was underway.

By the time William Harvey Black was sheriff, Fort Benton had gone through several growth stages, and was in the throes of another--the coming of the railroad.

TO ADD A CAPTION: 

Click on  the photo and select "Add caption" on the 

menu bar that pops up.