From the book "Ghost Towns of Montana" - information supplied by Mrs. William Schniedskamp Guntermann:
One of Radersburgs's characters boasted he had not had a bath since his mother last gave him one. Tales persist that when he picked up his mail-order bride in Butte, she wasn't too impressed, but married him anyway, since she was lacking in funds to return East. But she wouldn't live with him. The story goes that when he called on his wife, she would set a chair by the door, place newspapers on the chair and floor, and chat with him -- at a distance.
The Methodist circuit rider, Brother Van (W.W. Van Orsdel), frequently held services in Radersburg. One local businessman had no love for the popular preacher. One hot summer day when Brother Van was preaching, he left his horse tied up for several hours. The merchant had Brother Van arrested on a charge of cruelty to animals. Brother Van acted in his own defense and won the ensuing trial. The presiding judge requested that the preacher suggest an appropriate sentence. Although the prosecutor isn't usually "sentenced" when the defendant is acquitted, so went Montana justice. The penalty was leveled: attend church once a month for the rest of your life. And so it was, even after Brother Van's death, the merchant dutifully donned his "Sunday-go-to-meeting" clothes whenever services were held, which was about once a month.
It was Brother Van, indirectly, who was responsible for Radersburg's 'near-miracle'. A few years after Van Orsdel's death, the district superintendent of the Methodist church came to Radersburg to hold services and talk about Brother Van. An eyewitness says, "Hardly any men ever attended church there under most circumstances, but on the occasion, the pool hall (saloon) closed for the first time it its existence".
Note: Brother Van Orsdel was a legendary traveling preacher in frontier Montana. For more information on Brother Van Orsdel click on Brother Van Orsdel