Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 1

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 1126

USA > Montana > Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II > Part 1

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Gc 978.6 St77m v.2 1193841

GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01066 8785

MONTANA Its Story and Biography

A HISTORY OF ABORIGINAL AND TERRITORIAL MONTANA AND THREE DECADES OF STATEHOOD

UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION

OF TOM STOUT

VOLUME II

THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1921

1193841

HISTORY OF MONTANA

GEN. CHARLES S. WARREN is one of the few sur- vivors of the group of pioneers who made the heroic and constructive period of Montana's early history. For over half a century he has lived on terms of intimacy with miner and prospector, mine operator, capitalist, statesman, has had his share in big con- structive movements, and perhaps no one in Mon- tana today is better informed and could describe from his own experience and knowledge the real forces that have shaped and formed the political and industrial fabric of the state.

Charles S. Warren was born in sight of the his- toric Starved Rock near Utica, LaSalle County, Illinois, November 20, 1846, and is of colonial American stock. His mother, Hannah Brown, was born at Germantown, near Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, and she was a member of the Keyser fam- ily of Philadelphia of nearly a hundred years ago, and at that time her ancestor, Charles Keyser, was the president of Girard College. Her ancestors came over with William Penn among the early set- tlers of Philadelphia. She was member of a prom- inent Quaker family of Pennsylvania.

General Warren's father was Sylvanus B. War- ren, who was born in Philipstown, a suburb of Peekskill, New York, November 27, 1813. The War- rens were well known throughout New England and New York before the Revolution, and took a prom- inent part in that struggle for independence. Gen- eral Warren's ancestors built the first house in the vicinity of Cold Springs, opposite West Point, New York, prior to the Revolution.

The Warrens were early settlers in central Illi- nois, in the Illinois Valley, and Charles S. Warren was reared in practically a pioneer home, but one of substantial New England and Quaker ideals. He was a farmer boy when the Civil war broke out, and served through the war for the Union and had two honorable discharges from the United States army. In 1866 he drove a bull team across the plains to Virginia City, Montana, where he grad- uated as a bull whacker on August 20, 1866. Dur- ing the winter of 1867-68 he taught school in Deer Lodge Valley at Hartley's Ranch near the mouth of Dry Cottonwood, about fifteen miles south of Deer Lodge. During the summer he followed placer min- ing, and for seven years operated in the placer diggings of Alder Gulch, Last Chance, French Gulch, German Gulch, Silver Bow, Butte and else- where in Montana. In fact for over half a century he has been more or less closely identified with the mining industry as well as with every other industry that has helped develop the resources and build up the territory and state. General Warren reached Butte November 24, 1866, and spent the following winter at Silver Bow, then the largest town in this part of Montana. In a business way his name has become associated with a number of groups compris- ing men of power and leadership in the develop- ment of the resources of the Northwest. He was one of the incorporators of the Inter Mountain

Publishing Company, of the Comanche Mining Company, the Charles S. Warren Realty and Min- ing Company and numerous other corporations.

General Warren has been a republican since he cast his first vote, and while he has never made politics a profession, few politicians have been more frequently honored with the responsibilities and duties of public office. He served as deputy sheriff, under sheriff and sheriff of Deer Lodge County from 1869 to 1875. That county then comprised everything from the Big Hole River on the south to the British possessions on the north, there being only two counties in Montana west of the Rocky Mountains, Deer Lodge and Missoula. He was the first police magistrate of Butte when the city was . organized in 1880, and twenty-six years later was again elected police judge of the city. In terri- torial days he served for five years as clerk of the United States District Court of Silver Bow County, under Hon. William J. Galbraith, presiding judge. General Warren was elected a member of the State Constitutional Convention which met at Helena July 4, 1889, and framed the constitution of the state. Upon roll call he voted aye for woman suf- frage, and has never failed to give his support and influence to the political emancipation of women. He was a member of the National Republican Com- mittee four years when Mathew S. Quay was chair- man, resulting in the election of Benjamin Harri- son to the presidency in 1888. He served as a mem- ber of most of the territorial and state conventions for forty-five years, and as presidential elector was appointed to the duty of carrying the Montana vote to Washington and casting it for William H. Taft in 1908.

With rank from major to brigadier general, he served on the staffs of J. Schuyler Crosby, Samuel T. Hauser, Preston H. Leslie and B. F. White as territorial governors. He was adjutant of the Mon- tana Battalion during the Nez Perce Indian war of 1877, and raised a company and tendered its services to Governor Potts early in July, 1876, upon receiv- ing news of the Custer massacre, this service be- ing declined by the governor. He was also instru- mental in organizing the militia of the Territory of Montana.

General Warren helped organize and is past com- mander of Lincoln Post No. 2, Grand Army of the Republic. The first department commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in Montana was Capt. Thomas P. Fuller, who was succeeded in that office in 1886 by General Warren. The death of Captain Fuller leaves General Warren as the rank- ing department commander of the Grand Army of the Republic of Montana. He is also a member of the board of managers of the State Soldiers Home at Columbia Falls.

General Warren served as president of the Society of Montana Pioneers in 1907-08. He helped or- ganize the Silver Bow Club as a charter member and was president of the club in 1888, being suc-

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

ceeded in that office by F. E. Sargent. Some years ago General Warren was made a life member of the club.

He is a past master of Butte Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, a Knight Templar Mason, belongs to the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and Bagdad Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is a charter member of Butte Lodge of Masons, and served as its secretary for the first six years. He was a charter member and first secretary of Fidelity Lodge No. 8, Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, a charter member of Damon Lodge No. 2, Knights of Pythias, a charter member of Silverbow Lodge No. 240, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, but has since severed his active connection with the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Elks. November 15, 1871, General Warren married Mittie Avery. They were married at what was then known as Silver Valley Station, now known as the "Hump," about six miles below Silver Bow and on the road betwen Butte and Gregson Springs. Mrs. Warren was born at Saco, Maine, September 1, 1854. Their two living children are: Wesley W. Warren, a resident of Sacramento, California; and Mary Warren Murphey, wife of John Milton Mur- phey, living at 221 North Excelsior Avenue, in Butte.

JOSEPH MOORE DIXON. The present Governor of Montana was elected at the 1920 election to serve for the term beginning January 3, 1921, and ending January I, 1925.

While his home and interests as a lawyer have been at Missoula for more than a quarter of a century, Joseph Moore Dixon is a really national figure not only on account of his service in the United States House of Representatives and Senate, but more particularly because he was called, on ac- count of his demonstrated qualifications, by Theo- dore Roosevelt to lead the progressive party in the national campaign of 1912.

Governor Dixon was born at Snow Camp, Ala- mance County, North Carolina, July 31, 1867, a son of Hugh W. and Flora (Murchison) Dixon. His people were Friends or Quakers. After attending common schools he was sent to the leading Quaker institution of higher learning in the Middle West, Earlham College at Richmond, Indiana. Later he was schooled in Guilford College, North Carolina, where he graduated in 1889, with his A. B. degree.

Mr. Dixon came to Missoula in 1891. During the . following year he studied in the law office of Woody & Webster, and was admitted to the bar in 1892. He practiced in partnership with I. G. Denny until 1894, when he was elected county attorney, having pre- viously served as assistant prosecuting attorney. He filled that office from 1895 to 1897. In 1900 he was elected to represent Missoula County in the Legisla- ture and his abilities as a lawyer and legislator and his influence with a great mass of the republican voters soon brought him to leadership in cementing the factions of the republican party in Montana. In 1902 he received a substantial majority in the elec- tion for congressman-at-large to the Fifty-eighth Congress, taking his seat in 1903. In 1904 he was re- elected by a still larger majority. His leadership at home and his work in the Congress those four years made him the logical candidate to succeed W. A. Clark in the United States Senate. Mr. Dixon's term as United States senator was from 1907 to 1913. In 1912 the late Colonel Roosevelt selected him as chairman of the Progressive National Committee, and he was largely instrumental in organizing and rolling up the immense popular vote credited to the progressive candidates of that year.

In 1900 Mr. Dixon acquired and reorganized the

Daily Missoulian, one of the oldest and influential republican daily newspapers of the state. On his retirement from the Senate, in 1913, he assumed editorial control of the newspaper in person and continued as such until he disposed of the same in 1917.

Governor Dixon has always been a stalwart re- publican with progressive tendencies. He was dele- gate-at-large to the national conventions of 1904 and 1916.

March 12, 1896, Mr. Dixon married Carrie M. Worden of Missoula, daughter of Frank L. Worden, one of the founders of Missoula. They have an interesting family of six .daughters.

MCCORMICK OF MONTANA. This is a variation from the ordinary title at the head of individual articles in this publication, and of itself it is signifi- cant, and its significance is one readily recognized all over the state. Business men, farmers and grain growers in particular, know McCormick of Montana as a business man whose success has been a valuable asset to the state, and as proprietor of McCormick of Montana Seed House, the largest concern of the kind in the state. There are many McCormicks in and around Billings, but the postoffice department and citizens generally do not need the initial letters W. H. to identify McCormick of Montana.

Personally he has been identified with business . affairs in Montana for over a quarter of a century. He is a nephew of "the grand old man of Montana" Paul McCormick, distinguished as a Montana settler of 1866, a pioneer farmer, freighter, Indian fighter, rancher and one of the notable business builders of Billings.

McCormick of Montana was born at Hancock. Wisconsin, August 2, 1871. The McCormicks have been noted for a high degree of commercial enter- prise and likewise for prominence in all walks of life. His grandfather, James McCormick, was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1791, and on coming to America settled in Steuben County, New York. Though a farmer he became very influential in civic affairs and acquired a large amount of property. He died at Rexville in Steuben County in 1886.

Hugh McCormick, father of McCormick of Mon- tana, was born at Greenwood in Steuben County, New York, in 1826. In 1858 he moved to Wisconsin, developed a large farm in that state, and lived there until his death at Hancock on June 16, 1871. He had the reputation of being progressive and ener- getic, and was one of the wealthiest men of his locality. He was successful in business and equally useful in the promotion of many worthy enterprises in his community. He was a republican in politics and a member of the Catholic Church. Hugh Mc- Cormick married Mary Ray, who was born in New York in 1834 and died at Hancock, Wisconsin, in 1889. W. H. McCormick was the sixth and youngest child of his parents and was born after his father's death. The other members of the family were: Charles, who died at Rexville in Steuben County, New York, at the age of twelve years; Fred, who has for many years been a resident of Montana, was formerly a miner, and is now a farmer and stock man at Finch in Rosebud County ; Louise, unmarried, is a property owner at Tacoma. Washington; Theresa, wife of John Milne, a farmer and stock- man at Rothamay in Fergus County, Montana; Cora, unmarried, owner of considerable property at Bil- lings and principal of the Mckinley School in that city.

As a boy McCormick of Montana was sent to New York State, and was educated in the Canisteo Acad- emy at Canisteo, and the Christian Brothers' St. Joseph College at Buffalo. Leaving school at the

" ME CORMICK OF MONTANA"

HISTORY OF MONTANA

age of sixteen, he taught one year at Jasper in Steuben County, and in 1890 came to Billings, Mon- tana. For twelve years he was manager of the gro- cery and hardware firm of Donovan and Spear. In 1902 he organized the McCormick Mercantile Com- pany at Billings, his principal associate being his uncle, Paul McCormick. This partnership was con- tinued for three years and was then superseded by the Donovan-McCormick Company, operating a de- partment store.

The McCormick of Montana Seed House was established in 1907. This business might well be entitled to a lengthy description. The headquarters are at 2500 Minnesota Avenue. It is a business that has been developed to most extensive proportions by Mr. McCormick, and has undisputed claim to the position of being the largest seed house in Montana. The firm handles hay, grain and seeds in carload lots, also poultry supplies, and specializes as bean dealers, jobbers and shippers. In the handling, pick- ing and grading of beans, a separate department by itself, seventy-five people are employed. Fifteen per- sons work in the seed house and office, and twenty- five make up the staff of the hay baling department. The handling of hay is a big business in itself. Im- mense quantities are pressed and shipped by this firm to eastern markets. This is the house that has given Montana grown alfalfa seed a justified fame throughout the United States.

As something of an auxiliary to the seed house is operated a 3,000 acre stock farm in Rosebud County. Part of this farm is devoted to the culture of pure seeds as well as pure bred livestock. The trial grounds for the seed house are on this ranch, and all the seeds marketed are submitted to tests to prove their high germination qualities as well as their adaptability to varying conditions of soil and climate.

McCormick of Montana also built and owns the McCormick Hotel at 2500 Montana Avenue, and his own home is the noted old McCormick Log Cabin property, the early residence of his uncle, Paul Mc- Cormick, and one of the interesting landmarks of Billings.

His initiative and enterprise are sufficiently dis- played in the above brief record. His friends and associates appreciate even more his integrity, and the great persistence that marked his early struggles with fortune. Some of his intimate friends know that when he finished school and took up life as a business man he was $700 in debt. Out of his early earnings he paid off every dollar of his obligations and then undoubtedly thereby established a credit which has remained steadily with him to the present time.

A bit of military history also belongs in the record of McCormick of Montana. He was a member of Troop A of Billings of the Montana National Guard, which volunteered during the Spanish-American war as Troop M of the Third United States Volunteer Cavalry of Rough Riders. This troop was in service seven months and was mustered out in September, 1898, at the close of the war.

Mr. McCormick is a member of the Billings Mid- land Club, is a republican, is affiliated with the Catholic Church, is a third degree Knight of Colum- bus, having membership in Billings Council, and is a member of the Billings Lodge of Elks. He also belongs to the Country Club, is treasurer and a di- rector of the Midland Empire Fair Association, and a director and former president of the Rosebud Lake Association.

In 1905, at Missoula, he married Miss Frances J. Murphy. She died at Billings in 1915, the mother of one daughter, Eloise, born March 9, 1913.

WILFORD J. JOHNSON. It is not usual to call a man a veteran while still in his early forties, but if any banker in Montana has claim to a veteran experience it is Wilford J. Johnson of Lewistown, president of the First National Bank. This is due to the fact that he began banking experience when most boys are in school, and has pursued the busi- ness uninterruptedly and with steadily advancing influence and responsibility for nearly thirty years.

He was born at Sutton, Nebraska, November 10, 1876, a son of Joseph W. and Mary A. (Bagley) Johnson. His parents are both natives of Iowa and are still living. Joseph W. Johnson, who has lived retired since 1909, was for many years in the newspaper business in Nebraska, and also be- came prominent in politics and for eight or ten years held the position of state railway commis- sioner. He is a republican and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Wilford J. Johnson was the oldest of five sons. He attended public schools only to the age of four- . teen, and since then has acquired a broad educa- tion without resort to the formal training of the schoolroom. In 1890, at the age of fourteen, he went to work for the State Bank of Curtis, Ne- braska, as a clerk. Such were his abilities and value that he was promoted to the post of cashier when only seventeen years of age. Doubtless he was the youngest cashier in the country at that time. Mr. Johnson came to Montana in 1897, when only twenty-one years of age, and was associated with the First National Bank of . Butte as teller until 1907. In that year he removed to Lewistown,' and served the First National Bank as cashier and since 1916 as president. He is vice president of the Montana State Bankers Association. Mr. Johnson is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. September 21, 1905, he married Elizabeth G. Gaylord. She is a native of Connecticut.

CHARLES O'DONNELL. During an active and en- ergetic career extending over a period of a quar- ter of a century Charles O'Donnell, of Billings, has forged steadily to the forefront among successful stockmen and ranchers, among whom he now holds pre-eminent position. His career has been one ex- emplifying self-made manhood, for he started his independent life with a self-gained education and without financial assistant or influential friends, and each step upward has been achieved only after the exercise of his own energy and resource. In addi- tion to being president of the Montana Live Stock and Loan Company, and connected with various other prominent enterprises he is a large landholder.

Mr. O'Donnell was born at Saginaw, Michigan, April 6, 1874, a son of Daniel O'Donnell, who died at Midland, Michigan. His opportunities for at- tending school were not numerous in his youth, but he made the most of his opportunities, and through self-teaching, keen observation and much reading has become a well-educated man. He be- gan to be self-supporting when he was eighteen years of age. He came to Billings in 1890, and was employed by the Montana-Minnesota Land and Improvement Company for one year in building the irrigation ditch for that concern. Following this he rented a ranch, which started him upon his successful career, for he soon became a ranch owner and stockman and yearly has increased his holdings and extended the scope of his operations. His home ranch is situated fourteen miles east of Billings, and is a tract of 1,250 acres of irri- gated land. In addition to this he owns 10,000 acres in Yellowstone County and a half interest in a ranch of 1,700 acres in Custer County. As one of Montana's leading stockmen, in August, 1915, he

HISTORY OF MONTANA

became the leading factor in the organization of the Montana Live Stock and Loan Company, a concern which buys and sells livestock and loans money thereon in addition to shipping all over the United States. The offices of this company are situ- is also president of the Cold Springs Livestock ated at 2719 First Avenue, and the officials are : Charles O'Donnell, president ; Wallace Huidokoper, vice president ; Frank O'Donnell, secretary and treasurer ; and F. B. Bair, manager. Mr. O'Donnell Corporation at Forsyth, Rosebud County, Montana, a ranch and livestock corporation capitalized at $150,000, in which Mr. O'Donnell owns one-quarter of the stock. This corporation feeds 8,000 sheep every winter, as well as horses and cattle, and has a 3,180-acre ranch, of which 2,000 acres are irrigated.

Mr. O'Donnell's pleasant modern residence is sit- uated at 24 Yellowstone Avenue, Billings. In his political views he is a democrat, with independent inclinations. With his family he belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, and is a third degree knight and member of Billings Council No. 1259, Knights of Columbus. He is a life member of Billings Lodge No. 394, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and holds membership also in the Billings Club and the Billings Golf and Country Club.

In November, 1897, Mr. O'Donnell was married at Billings to Miss Katherine Riordon, who was born at Boston, Massachusetts, and was brought as a babe to Billings, where she received a high school education. Mr. and Mrs. O'Donnell are the parents of two children: Charles Everett, born August 10, 1903, who is a senior in the Billings High School; and Lawrence Donald, born Decem- ber 10, 1909, attending the parochial school.

LEO G. ZEIDLER. The career of Leo G. Zeidler in Plentywood began with the start of the permanent builders and has continued prominent in its business life throughout its annals.

Mr. Zeidler arrived in the community of Plenty- wood in 1909, and in August of that year became a clerk for the Johnson-Riba Hardware Company, but a few months later embarked in business for him- self as a hardware merchant and erected the first business house of the new town. The Zeidler store was for a short time a lonesome one, being the only one along the main business street, but in a short time it was joined by all of the old town, the parties moving over in the spring of 1910, including the Johnson-Riba Hardware Company, the Riba Bank, the Riba Lumber Yard, Ring & Sommers Restaurant, the J. A. Ford mercantile business, Fishbeck & Jar- vis, the State Bank of Plentywood, the Chad. Robin- son Livery, the Peter Diedrick feed mill, the Anson Kranzer blacksmith, the C. S. Nelson Herald office, Albert Chapman, land commissioner, Severt Olson Hotel and George E. Bolster, postmaster and hotel proprietor. And by this time several other business enterprises had sprung up, including the Rogers Lumber Company, St. Anthony Lumber Company, Kullass Lumber Company, the Tanna & Best Mer- cantile Company, and with the coming of the railroad the Farmers Elevator and the Montana-Dakota Ele- vators were built.

Mr. Zeidler in all these years has continued his hardware business, it having first opened its doors to the public in February, 1910, and he has come to be known as one of the old and reliable business men of the town. He has also taken an active inter- est in the agricultural. development of the locality. In 1907 he filed on a homestead in McClain County, North Dakota, proved it up with the usual tempo- rary improvements and farmed the land while he was acquiring title. In 1913 he became identified with the farming interests of Sheridan County, lo-

cating his claim near the county seat, and has become well known as a grain raiser. During the seven years he has planted crops here he has harvested something each year, although in 1919, his poorest year, his yield after cutting and threshing did not quite equal the seed wheat he sowed. He has now under cultivation and improvement 500 acres of the almost 1,000-acre tract which he owns, and the im- provements which he has placed on the land include fencing and the granaries.

Mr. Zeidler was born in Jefferson County, Wis- - consin, November 3, 1882, and he spent his early life there. His father, John Zeidler, of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, is a shoemaker still at his bench at the advanced age of seventy-two years. He was also born in Jefferson County, and has spent his life there. His father, also named John, a German, was sent into Wisconsin as a pioneer and helped build the first wagon road from the Hill Church to Rock River. He was actively engaged in clearing away the timber and in time developed a farm in the woods, and he now lies buried in the soil of that locality. Four of his children reached years of maturity, namely: John; Charles, who died in 1919, at Mallard, Iowa; Christian, of Rockwell, Iowa; and Mary, who became the wife of George Troeger and died at Jefferson in 1919. John Zeidler, the son, married Christina Troeger, whose father came from his native land of Germany to the United States and was first a farmer and afterward a tan- ner at Jefferson, Wisconsin. Mrs. Zeidler was born in the City of Jefferson in 1851, and was married February 24, 1870, the following children being born of the union: Edward, who is a resident of Rock- ford, Illinois; Erney and George, both living at Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin; Leo G., the Plentywood mer- chant; and Elsa, the wife of Jesse Calvert, of Mil- waukee, Wisconsin.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 1

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society Number of Pages: 1126

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 1126