born in Birmingham, England on December 13, 1851, a son of Joseph Mantle and Mary Susan (Patrick) Mantle. His father died before he was born, and support of the family fell to Mantle's mother. A convert to Mormonism, in 1864 she brought her family of four boys and three girls to the United States, and they settled in Salt Lake City. After deciding that the Mormon missionaries who had recruited her had not been truthful with respect to the church's practice of polygamy, the Mantles renounced their affiliation. Lee Mantle attended local schools and was "placed out" to work for his room and board beginning at age 10. He worked for several years as a cattle herder and farm laborer, earning $50 (about $1,025 in 2020) a year for his family in addition to his food and shelter. At age 16 he obtained a job with the Union Pacific Railroad, which employed him as a teamster to haul ties and other supplies and equipment. After the Union Pacific and Central Pacific completed the first First transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah in 1869, Mantle walked to Malad City, Idaho (about 125 miles). In Malad City, Mantle was hired by Benjamin F. White to drive an ox team and wagon at White's saltworks. After two years at the saltworks, in 1872 Mantle arranged to learn telegraphy from an experienced operator, who agreed to train him on the condition that Mantle maintain the Western Union line along the Central Pacific tracks between Green River, Utah and Ogden, Utah during the winter months. In 1873, Mantle was assigned as a telegrapher at the Western Union office on the stagecoach line between Corinne, Utah and Helena, Montana. A year later, he purchased the station near Haskell Pass in Flathead County, Montana. Mantle was the Western Union telegraph operator and postmaster, and also purchased an interest in a toll road through Monida Pass. In 1877, Mantle sold his Haskell Pass businesses and moved to Butte, Montana, where he was employed as telegrapher by Wells Fargo & Company and also started the city's first insurance brokerage. Entering politics as a Republican, Mantle was one of the leaders of the effort to incorporate Butte as a city. The effort was successful, and in 1880, Mantle was elected to Butte's first board of aldermen. Continued career In 1881, Mantle started the Daily Inter Mountain, the first Republican newspaper