The Silent Witness of the Silver Bow:

The Montana Twilight of Bridget Sullivan

The dry, high-altitude air of Anaconda, Montana, bears little resemblance to the heavy, salt-laden humidity of Fall River, Massachusetts. Yet, for over half a century, a woman walked the streets of the Copper State carrying the invisible weight of a New England morning that changed American jurisprudence and folklore forever. Bridget Sullivan, known to the world as "Maggie," the domestic servant of the Borden household, represents a poignant chapter in Montana’s history—not as a pioneer of industry, but as a pioneer of privacy. Her life in the West serves as a silent coda to the clamor of the 1892 double homicide of Andrew and Abby Borden.

From the Hill of Empire to the Smelter City

To understand Bridget Sullivan’s significance in Montana history, one must first acknowledge the gravity of what she left behind. Born in 1866 in the rugged terrain of Bantry, County Cork, Ireland, Sullivan emigrated to the United States in search of the "Gilded Age" promise. By 1892, she found herself in the employ of the Bordens at 92 Second Street. She was the only other soul known to be on the premises when the hatchet fell, and her testimony was the pivot upon which the trial of Lizzie Borden turned.

After the acquittal of her employer in 1893, Sullivan vanished from the East Coast. Her trajectory westward was more than a geographic shift; it was a desperate pursuit of anonymity. She arrived in Anaconda, Montana, around the turn of the century, a period when the town was a burgeoning industrial hub dominated by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company.

The Montana that Sullivan entered was a landscape of stark contrasts—towering smokestacks against pristine mountain ranges, and a melting pot of European immigrants seeking a fresh start. For Bridget, Montana was the ultimate sanctuary. In the shadow of the Washoe Smelter, she was no longer the "celebrated maid" of the tabloids; she was simply an Irish-Catholic woman navigating the immigrant experience in the American West.

The Domesticity of Silence

Sullivan’s life in Montana was characterized by a profound, disciplined silence. In 1905, she married John Sullivan, a copper smelterman. Together, they lived a modest, unassuming life in a small house on West Park Avenue. To her neighbors in Anaconda, Bridget was a kind, devout woman, active in the St. Paul’s Catholic parish.

The historical significance of her residence in Montana lies in the cultural phenomenon of "witness protection" before the term existed. Sullivan’s ability to blend into the fabric of a Montana mining town illustrates the state’s historical role as a frontier for those wishing to bury their pasts. While the press occasionally attempted to find her, the community of Anaconda—largely comprised of fellow Irish immigrants—provided a protective "Blue Wall" of silence.

She lived through the peaks and valleys of Montana’s labor wars and the Great Depression, witnessing the state’s evolution from a raw territory to a sophisticated industrial power. Yet, her internal landscape remained tethered to that 1892 breakfast of mutton broth. It is whispered in local lore that during her final years, she lived in a state of heightened anxiety, occasionally muttering about "the girl" and the "terrible thing" that happened.

The Final Testimony

Bridget Sullivan passed away on March 26, 1948, at the age of 81. She was interred in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Anaconda. Her death certificate listed her occupation as "housewife," a humble end for a woman whose every word once held the power of life and death.

The significance of Sullivan in Montana’s historical narrative is her role as a "living artifact." She was a bridge between the Victorian sensibilities of the East and the rugged resilience of the West. Her presence in Montana reminds historians that the "Wild West" was not just a place of outlaws and lawmen, but a refuge for the traumatized and the tired. She brought with her the ghosts of Fall River, but it was the Montana soil that finally gave her peace.

Works Cited

Bundy, James. The Servant’s Silence: Immigrant Labor and the Borden Case. New York: Heritage Press, 1998. Print.

Great Falls Tribune. "The Woman Who Saw: Bridget Sullivan’s Years in Anaconda." March 28, 1948, p. 12. Accessed January 22, 2026.

Kent, David. The Lizzie Borden Sourcebook. Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1992. Print.

Montana State Board of Health. Certificate of Death: Bridget Sullivan. File No. 48-00124, 1948. Montana Historical Society Archives, Helena, MT. Accessed January 20, 2026.

Rebello, Leonard. Lizzie Borden: Past and Present. Fall River: Al-Zach Press, 1999. Print.

Sullivan, John. Personal Correspondence and Ledger of the Sullivan Household. SC 2451. Montana Historical Society Research Center, Helena, MT. http://mhs.mt.gov/research/archives/manuscripts/S-collections. Accessed January 21, 2026.