“There are many kinds of valentines,
Some made of lace and glue,
‘Comics’ and the stand-up kind,
And then there’s post cards, too;
But when I choose My Valentine,
I’m going to choose just YOU.”

~ Message on a vintage valentine from the collection of Myrtle Hollier Cheever, Gallatin History Museum

A collection of 110 antique valentines at the Gallatin History Museum symbolizes the love of one local family—for each other and for their community. Myrtle Hollier Cheever collected valentines throughout her life in Bozeman, which spanned almost the entire twentieth century. Myrtle was born July 11, 1899, the fifth of six children born to Lewis Samuel and Trena Baker Hollier. Myrtle joined a loving family in a loving home, comfortably and conveniently situated near the northeast corner of South Rouse Avenue and East Babcock Street.

A native of Illinois, Myrtle’s father, Lewis, arrived in Bozeman in 1881 and established a transfer company and fuel sale business. He later spent twenty years as an agent with the Continental Oil Company in Bozeman. Lewis came west with his first wife, Marob Toothaker Hollier. The couple welcomed their daughter, Beatrix, in 1882. Happiness was not destined for Lewis’s young family, and he endured devastating tragedy. Marob passed away in 1888, followed by their nine-year-old daughter Beatrix in 1891.

Myrtle’s mother, Trena Baker, was born in Iowa in 1862, to George and Belinda Handley Baker. Trena came to Montana as a single woman at an exciting time in Bozeman’s history. Her 1949 Bozeman Courier obituary stated that “In 1883, she and her brother George came to Bozeman on the first Northern Pacific train to enter the city.” While it is difficult to verify this claim, it is true that the arrival of the first Northern Pacific Railroad passenger train in Bozeman was welcomed with much fanfare on March 21, 1883. As the Avant Courier described “...buildings the entire length of Main Street were handsomely decorated and festooned with flags and evergreens. The show windows of business houses were beautifully draped with the National colors. At an early hour, visitors from the valley began to arrive, and by noon the streets were filled with people.” If Trena did arrive in Bozeman on that day, she would have experienced a warm welcome.

Lewis Samuel Hollier and Trena Baker were married June 2, 1890, in Bozeman, and settled down in a modest one-story home on the north side of East Babcock Street between Rouse and Church Avenues. In the 1890s, Lewis Hollier’s business success allowed the couple to construct an impressive brick residence just to the west of their small home on East Babcock. Lewis and Trena’s six children—Georgia, Dorothy Alice, Samuel, Trena, Myrtle, and Stella—grew up in this new home on the northeast corner of East Babcock and South Rouse; it quickly became the center of the neighborhood.

The Hollier property occupied a quarter of the entire block (Rouse to Church and Main to Babcock) and was surrounded by an expansive yard with gardens and sweet pea flowers. It was bordered on the north by the alley and by Lewis Hollier’s coal storage and distribution office, complete with a large set of scales out front. The family home, by most accounts, was a beloved gathering place for neighbors, friends, and local club members. The Chronicle published a tribute to the landmark structure not long before its demolition in the mid-1950s. “The Holliers built it with polished wainscoting, hardwood floors, roomy closets and a large pantry... the full basement with its wood floors was one of the city’s original ‘rumpus rooms,’ and it was there that the Hollier children often entertained their friends. In the summer there was the shady yard with swings and hammocks and large flower beds. On rainy days there was the immense attic to go to.”

The Hollier family’s large home allowed them to take in roomers, which brought in some extra income. No doubt boarders living with the Hollier family found the experience stimulating. In turn, a variety of renters added to the Hollier House’s welcoming and vibrant atmosphere. On the 1900 U.S. Census, one of the three single men rooming with the Hollier family was William Cobleigh, chemical engineering professor at the new Montana Agricultural College, today known as MSU. Cobleigh went on to serve a year as the college’s acting president from 1942 to 1943, and his name was given to Cobleigh Hall on campus when the building was completed in 1970.

After graduating from Gallatin County High School, Myrtle continued to live at home, and worked as a music teacher. She attended Montana State College, where her future husband, Hurlbert Craig Cheever, was just beginning his teaching career. Born in Iowa, Hurlbert “Bert” Cheever relocated to Bozeman in the early 1920s and began a long and prominent tenure in the architecture department at Montana State College. In the 1922 Montanan college annual, Myrtle’s senior year, Cheever was listed as an instructor of architectural engineering.

Myrtle received a degree in home economics from MSC, but it is obvious that music was a large part of her life. Her marriage announcement published in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle in 1924 asserted; “She is a musician of ability and prominent in musical circles of Bozeman and the county.” In 1939, she was given the title “Grand Organist” for lending her talents to Bozeman’s Lily of the Valley Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, a branch of the Masonic organization.

Myrtle Hollier and Bert Cheever married on June 8, 1924. According to newspaper reports, the couple spent the rest of the summer traveling and visiting Bert’s family in Iowa. After their return to Bozeman, they settled into their home on South Tracy Avenue. Bert Cheever became a giant in Montana State’s School of Architecture, serving as dean of the College of Arts and Architecture from 1945 until 1961. Under his leadership the school became an American Institute of Architects accredited program, and Cheever Hall on MSU’s campus is named in his honor. Myrtle became one of Bozeman’s beloved piano teachers and was a longtime member of the Bozeman Piano Teachers Association.

The Cheevers had two sons, Raymond and Donald. Raymond was born in Bozeman on Christmas Day, 1926, and graduated from Northwestern University, then served with the U.S. Navy in Chicago during World War II. After contracting polio in 1952, he founded the Accent on Living magazine and advocated for those living with disabilities. Donald, born in 1929, became a physician. Dr. Donald Cheever practiced for many years at Montana State University’s student health service, and served in multiple capacities overseas, working to provide medical care for those in need across the globe.

Like most people, Myrtle Hollier Cheever experienced her share of loss. Tragically, Myrtle’s older sister Dorothy Alice died from heart failure in 1908 at the tender age of fifteen. On October 10, 1927, her father, Lewis Samuel Hollier passed away at the family home at age 74. Myrtle’s mother Trena also passed away at the Hollier home twenty years later, on February 10, 1949.

Myrtle and Bert Cheever continued to live in their own house on South Tracy Avenue through their retirement years, where Myrtle gave piano lessons and displayed her collection of valentines each February. Hurlbert passed away in 1980 and Myrtle in 1992. Today, the Hurlbert C. and Myrtle H. Cheever Scholarship awarded through the MSU School of Architecture continues to honor their legacy. Though Myrtle’s childhood home and gardens are now gone, the family’s memory lives on in her fabulous collection of valentines and their messages of love.   

“Pray think of me when flowers you view.
Their beauties all expressed in you
Pray think of me when you are sad:
With you I could not but be glad.”

~ Message on a vintage valentine from the collection of Myrtle Hollier Cheever, Gallatin History Museum