Historical Society Hosts First-Person Portrayal of Montana's First Surgeon Dr. Jerome Glick

The Lewis and Clark County Historical Society presented a first-person portrayal of Dr. Jerome Glick at 7 p.m. on Jan. 13 at the LCCHS History Center in the downtown Steamboat Block, 618 Helena Ave. The program, part of the society's monthly lecture series, drew residents to the historic core of Helena for an evening of local medical and mining-era history.

John Barrows of Helena performed as Dr. Glick, Montana's first surgeon, recounting medical experiences and frontier life in Bannack, Virginia City and Helena. The portrayal highlighted a defining moment in Glick's career: his operation on Henry Plummer's arm after Plummer was shot by Hank Crawford in 1863. By presenting that poignant episode in first-person form, the program put a human face on a contested chapter of Montana's Gold Rush era and provided local listeners with a concrete connection to events that shaped territorial law and order.

The event reinforced the role of local cultural programming in downtown Helena. Held inside the Steamboat Block on Helena Ave, the lecture supported foot traffic in the heart of the county seat and complemented other civic assets clustered nearby. Programming like this sustains the Historical Society's public engagement calendar and helps maintain the Steamboat Block as a destination for residents and visitors interested in Montana's territorial period.

Beyond storytelling, the program served an educational function for the community. Detailing Glick's movements among Bannack, Virginia City and Helena placed medical practice in the context of 19th-century mining booms, lawlessness and rapid population shifts. That context remains relevant for Lewis and Clark County as officials and nonprofits weigh investments in cultural heritage, tourism and downtown revitalization. Regular lecture series offerings provide a low-cost mechanism for civic organizations to generate attendance and support for preservation work without large capital outlays.

For local historians and classroom teachers, the presentation offered primary-source style immersion that can enrich curricula about Montana's territorial history. For small-business owners downtown, continuing draws to the Steamboat Block from lecture attendees can mean incremental evening sales for restaurants and retail. For the Historical Society, events like this demonstrate demand for living-history programming that ties community identity to tangible sites and stories.

The society’s monthly lecture series will continue to shape public engagement with Helena's past, reinforcing the downtown corridor's role as a cultural hub. For residents, the event underscored the value of local institutions in preserving and interpreting the county's origins while supporting the small economic benefits that come with active downtown programming.