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Charles Edward Conrad was an influential and prominent businessman who helped found Kalispell Montana in 1891. Conrad was born in 1850 in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia near [|Front Royal]. He was one of 13 children; he was the third oldest child, the second oldest son. Conrad fought on the side of the Confederacy,and after the war, Conrad and his older brother William left Virginia and went to work for their uncle's arms factory in New York city, They left New York and arrived at Fort Benton, Montana Territory in 1868. Working for I.G. Baker & Co., the brothers had become partners by 1873, they made their fortune in shipping and freighting enterprises. They continued to manage the firm until 1891. With the advent of the transcontinental railroads, the brothers sold their business interests and left Fort Benton. They went on to found numerous businesses including Conrad Brothers, Inc., Fort Conrad, the Conrad Banking Company of Great Falls, Kalispell Townsite Company, First National Bank at Fort Benton, Conrad National Bank of Kalispell, Conrad Price Cattle Company, Conrad Circle Cattle Company, and Queen of the Hills Mining Company.

Conrad worked with railroad magnate James J. Hill to locate a division point of the Great Northern Railway in the Flathead Valley. Putting up their own money, Conrad and Hill formed the Kalispell Townsite Company with two others, paid $60,000 for 1000 acres. Conrad oversaw the surveying and platted and arranges for the sale of the lots. Lots went on sale in April 1891 the company had sold over $400,000 in just a few days. When the Great Northern railroad line came to Kalispell on December 31, 1891, by summer of 1893 the line was completed to Seattle linking Kalispell both to the west coast and east.

When Kalispell was platted, the county seat was located in Missoula. Distance was a problem. Conrad along with other leading citizens vigorously lobbied the state legislature to establish the formation of a new county seat out of the Flathead area, carving it out of the existing Missoula County. In 1893, the new County of Flathead was formed and in 1894, the citizens picked Kalispell as the county seat.

Conrad played an important role in preventing a threatened extinction of the great western buffalo herds. He bought 50 head and started his own herd. They grazed on the hills north of Kalispell which is now aptly called Buffalo Hills Golf Course. His herd also supplied the nucleus of the National Bison Range herd in Moise Montana and the Canadian herd in Banff.

Conrad and his wife Alicia had three children. Conrad died in 1902. His family home, located 330 Woodland Avenue in Kalispell, was designed by noted architect Kirkland Cutter. The home and its contents were donated to the city of Kalispell in 1974 by Conrad's youngest daughter. In 1976, the Conrad Mansion National Historic Site Museum opened for public guided tours.