A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 104

Author: Sanders, Helen Fitzgerald, 1883-
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1002

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Mr. Drinkenberg still owns mining property in Dur- ango, Mexico, and also in Lima, Peru, where he made a second trip a few years ago. On his return trip from South America, he took steamer at Valparaiso, Chilli, for the Isthmus of Panama, and having crossed it pro- ceeded to Vera Cruz, Mexico, where four miles from the city, he was quarantined with yellow fever. He gave a sailor twenty dollars for the loan of a small boat, and set out for port. The fever took a serious turn, and he was placed in an American hospital with seventy-two other yellow fever patients, who were dying with astonishing rapidity. Mr. Drinkenberg began eating quinine, braced up, gave a Mexican revenue officer two hundred dollars to smuggle him out of the city. Placed on a revenue cutter, he was taken to Tampico, Mexico, and proceeded to the Mexican National Railroad to the City of Mexico, where he was again forced to go to the hospital. He partly lost his speech and hearing, owing to the quantities of quinine he had taken, and had to remain there three weeks. He then journeyed by the Mexican Central Railway to El Paso, Texas; thence going by rail to Los Angeles and to Salt Lake City, where he was ill for a long time, being threatened with pneumonia. Returning as soon as able to Bitter Root valley, Mr. Drinkenberg deter- mined to settle down permanently, and with the excep- tion of having recently spent five months with his family in Los Angeles, has not since left the valley.

Mr. Drinkenberg has erected and owns several fine modern business blocks in Hamilton, has a beautiful residence in the city, and valuable ranch lands in the valley. On August 1, 1909, he organized the First National Bank of Hamilton, of which he is president. He is a Republican in politics, and is a personal friend of ex-President Roosevelt, knowing all about his cattle ranching experiences and of the trouble between him and Marcus De Morris Madura, in North Dakota. Mr. Drinkenberg is not an aspirant for official honors, but he has served one term as mayor of Hamilton, hav- ing been elected to the position in 1908 and in 1910 ..

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Fraternally he is a member and past grand, Lodge No. 48, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Although surrounded by temptations of all kinds during his wild life at home and abroad, Mr. Drinken- berg has never succumbed to either drinking or gam- bling, scarcely knowing the taste of liquor. The greatest grief of his life is in remembering the sorrow he caused his parents in his boyhood days. His trials, tribulations and varied experiences have taught him many lessons of value, and his one desire now is to instill in the hearts of his children a spirit of kindness, benevolence, and generosity.

Mr. Drinkenberg married Miss Maud Overturf, of Iowa, and they are the parents of two children, namely: Ruth, born in 1905; and Doris, born in 1910.

JOHN DOWLING. There is nothing more certain than that industry, determination and perseverance are the necessary attributes for a man to possess in order to secure success, but the quality that success will be governed by the amount of ability and the condition as to whether or not it is directed along proper channels. Many of Montana's most prominent business men have earned the title of "self-made man," owing their posi- tion entirely to their own efforts, and among these John Dowling, of Stevensville, takes a foremost place. Mr. Dowling has been instrumental in founding and pro- moting some of the largest business enterprises of the city, displaying marked ability as an organizer, promoter and executive, and has fully discharged his duties of citizenship by service in public office and by supporting all measures calculated to be of benefit to the com- munity. He was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, No- vember 10, 1859, and is a son of James and Helen (Annand) Dowling, natives of Nova Scotia. His father, who for many years was engaged in agricultural pursuits in his native country, has now retired from activities and is living in California, while his mother passed away while on a visit to Mr. Dowling and his family, at Stevensville, November 10, 1910.

John Dowling received a common school education, and after completing his studies continued to work on the home farm until 1880. At that time, deciding to enter the field of business on his own account, he bor- rowed one hundred dollars from friends and journeyed to California. On his arrival at Red Bluffs, he secured employment in the lumber and planing mills of the Sierra Nevada Lumber Company, but in April, 1882, came to Butte, Montana, to enter the lumber business with William Parsons, a partnership which continued until 1886. In August of that year he sold his hold- ings to Mr. Parsons, and came to the Bitter Root valley, locating five miles north of Stevensville on a large ranch. He immediately set out four thousand apple trees, having the grafts expressed from Monroe county, Michigan, and not only worked his ranch and orchard successfully, but in addition acted as manager for the logging crew of William McKeen. Later, on receiving the election to the office of county treasurer of Ravalli county, he sold his ranch to good advantage, and on the expiration of his term of office purchased an interest in the Amos Buck Mercantile Company, at Stevensville, which he sold two years later. He then organized the Stevensville Mercantile Company, of which he acted as general manager for ten years, and in April, 1910, disposed of his interests and purchased property on Main street, where he erected a fine modern business block, a credit to the city and to his enterprise. In addition to a general mercantile business, Mr. Dowling is engaged in undertaking, being thoroughly trained in embalming, and having an establishment that furnishes every convenience for his patrons. He has business abil- ity of a high order, and is recognized by his associates as a man of the strictest integrity and honest business principles. In political matters a Republican, in addi- tion to serving as county treasurer, he has been

twelve years a member of the school board. He has shown his supreme faith in the future greatness of Stevensville by investing heavily in real estate, and owns a comfortable residence in the city. Fraternally, he is connected with the local lodge of the Masonic order.

On October 10, 1883, Mr. Dowling was united in mar- riage with Miss Mary A. McHeffey, a native of Nova Scotia, and they have had eight children, as follows : George R., deceased; Minnie E., who keeps the books for her father; Helen, who married Harry Whitesette, of Stevensville; Louis 'E., clerk and manager for his father; Grace and John W., who are attending high school; and Eva and Fred, students in the graded schools.

GEORGE T. LAMPORT. No biographical history of the state of Montana would be complete without special mention were made of George T. Lamport, his ability, his loyalty to duty and his fidelity having earned him a place among this section's representative men, while the part he has played in developing the natural re- sources of the state gives him high rank among those whose activities have been so directed as to advance their communities. Mr. Lamport is a native of Mil- waukee, Wisconsin, and was born September 28, 1844, a son of Joseph and Marietta (DeMuth) Lamport.

Joseph Lamport was born in England, and as a small boy was brought to America by his parents, first settling in Canada. Later he removed to Michigan, where he was married, and in the early 'forties re- moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was en- gaged in carpentering and contracting for bridges. He erected the bridges for the Lake Shore Railroad be- tween Milwaukee and Chicago, this now being a part of the Chicago & Northwestern system, and he also contracted in building docks and warehouses in Mil- waukee and packing houses for the pioneer packer, Plankinton, of Milwaukee. In 1854 Mr. Lamport re- moved to Sauk county, Wisconsin, took up government land, and hewed himself a home out of the wilderness. After the death of his wife he removed to the home of his son, near Heckly, South Dakota, but after a short time returned to Wisconsin and settled in the town of North Freedom, where he spent his last days at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Samuel Maxham, and there died at the age of seventy years. He and his wife, who was sixty-eight years old at the time of her death, were members of the Church of England. Originally a Whig, in 1854 Mr. Lamport became a Re- publican, and that party received his support ever afterward. They had a large family of children, George T. being the third in order of birth, and six of the children are still living.

The early education of George T. Lamport was se- cured in the public schools of Milwaukee, but when he was ten years of age he accompanied the family to the Sauk county farm, and there he worked during the summer months and attended a log schoolhouse during winter terms. The breaking out of the Civil war found him a patriotic youth of seventeen years, and it was not until 1863 that he was able to enlist. At that time he became a member of Company L, Third Wisconsin Cavalry, which was mustered into the service at Madison, Wisconsin, and was mustered out of the service at Fort Leavenworth, in 1865. The greater part of the first year the regiment was engaged in fighting the bushwhackers in Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas, and it was later sent out on the Santa Fe trail. Under General Blunt the detachment went up the Arkansas river to the present site of Dodge City, where the scouts brought news that some 3,000 or 4,000 Indians were camped about sixty miles north. Preceded by the fifteen Delaware scouts, the men marched until noon, when they came across the first Indian, but could not force him to give any informa-

George. T. LamporT.

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tion. The next morning brought about a skirmish with the Indians, in which a number of the hostiles were killed, while the loss to the whites was four killed. The troops then camped on the ground where the Indians had formerly had their camp, and on the next morning followed them for some distance. Gen- eral Blunt then returned to Fort Riley, where Mr. Lamport's company, L, was left at Walnut Creek to establish a fort, Zarah. There they remained until February, 1865, when the company was ordered back to Fort Riley, and was then sent to Lawrence, Kansas. About forty men of the company, including Mr. Lam- port, were detailed to assist the provost-marshal, and the duties of this position kept him occupied until he was honorably discharged from the service. He was ever found to be a faithful, brave and cheerful soldier, and when he returned to his home in Sauk county, Wisconsin, 'he took up the duties of peace and dis- charged them with the same conscientious care that " had characterized his army service. For a time he was engaged in driving the stage between Baraboo and Kilbourn City, but later went to Chippewa Falls, where he was employed in the mill of Stanley Broth- ers, running a mill in the summer months and scaling timber in the winters at the camp on the Chippewa river. Subsequently he purchased a farm in Chippewa county, Wisconsin, near Bloomer, and after spending three years in clearing and developing work sold out and purchased some cows. These he broke to draw a wagon, and with a team of oxen and two wagons started for the Black Hills. Chet White, a young mar- ried man wishing to go to the Black Hills, drove Mr. Lamport's cow team, four yoke, through with him to the Hills. Mr. Lamport was also married and had two children, and in June of 1878 the little party crossed the Mississippi river at St. Paul and followed the railroad line to Worthington, Minnesota, heading for Fort Pierre. At that time the Indians were very bad throughout that part of the country, and the emi- grants decided that it would be wise to attach them- selves to an outfit, for mutual protection. Finally they arrived at Sturgis City, in the Black Hills, in the month of July, and here Mr. Lamport built a cabin and settled on a tract of land. He engaged in the dairy business and gave a great deal of attention to butter- making, but in the spring of 1882 sold out and came overland, via Mills City, to Billings, then only a strag- gling tent town. He made his first camp on the banks of the Yellowstone, at Mr. Orson Newman's ranch, and soon thereafter engaged in the dairy business, sell- ing milk in Billings. After continuing in the same line for several years, he was elected the first county sur- veyor of Yellowstone county, a position which he held a number of years, and then became government sur- veyor. He was especially examined for the latter posi- tion under General G. O. Eaton. In the spring of 1887 Mr. Lamport discovered the Bear Creek coal fields in Carbon county, and in company with Robert Leavens, his son-in-law, he organized and platted the village of Bear Creek in Carbon county and became actively en- gaged in merchandise, banking and real estate in- terests. The bank was organized in 1908, and when the title was perfected a company was formed, he being a stockholder and a director for a number of years. Since 1909 Mr. Lamport has not been engaged actively in business. Many and great are the changes that have come over this section since 1881, when he was engaged in hunting buffalo for their hides on the Little Powder and at the head of the Little Misouri river, and he has done his full share in bringing these marvelous changes about. In what- ever locality he has made his home he has always been in the foremost rank of movements which have made for progress. He served as county commissioner of Park county at the time when Carbon county was a part of Park, and also acted as city engineer of Bil-

lings for several years. He was the second man made a Mason in Ashlar Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and he also belongs to Billings Chapter, R. A. M .; Aldemar Commandery, No. 5, K. T .; and Algeria Temple, Helena. In his political belief he is a Republican.

In May, 1873, Mr. Lamport was married to Miss Emma Eddy, who was born in Wisconsin, and she died in 1874. He was again married, in 1876, to Mrs. Lodenia (McCoy) Dake, who was born in New York state, and four children were born to this union, of whom three survive: Ella, who is the wife of Robert Leavens, of Billings; Ida, the wife of Charles E. Wright, of Red Lodge, Montana; and Walter, inter- ested in mining and in the ice and coal business at Bear Creek, married a Miss Maxwell. Clara, the youngest child, died at the age of twenty-two, in March, 1910. Mr. Lamport and his family occupy prominent places in the social life of Billings, and their spacious and attractive home, at 323 South Twenty-ninth street, is a center of gracious and unreserved hospitality.

I. D. O'DONNELL. Irrigation is probably the earliest application of science to agriculture and has wholly changed the appearance of the western one-third of the United States. The recent world-wide extension of irrigation in lands hitherto uninhabited and unproductive has added many millions of acres to the world's pro- ductive area, and is causing the commercial and social importance of this art or science to be appreciated as never before. That it has been one of the great indus- trial factors of the Twentieth Century cannot be denied, and both its methods and institutions are being studied by men of scientific training. It has been only within practically recent years, however, that irrigation has been developed to its greatest measure of usefulness, and until a short time ago there was no legislation for the adequate public control of streams and the systematic divisions of their waters among users. The state of Montana owes much to irrigation, but it is also deeply indebted to those men who have devoted their energies to perfecting the system and to securing the enactment of laws providing for government control. Preeminent among this class stands I. D. O'Donnell, adherent and promoter of irrigation, financier, leading alfalfa farmer and a man than whom there is none better known in the Yellowstone valley.

Mr. O'Donnell was born in county Norfolk, Ontario, Canada, September 19, 1860, and is a son of Daniel and Margaret (McIntosh) O'Donnell. Daniel O'Donnell was a native of County Mayo, Ireland, and in 1831, when seven years of age was brought to the Dominion of Canada by his parents. There he grew to manhood and received his education, and for a number of years was engaged in mercantile pursuits, but on coming to the United States, in 1864, he settled at Saginaw, Michigan, and interested himself in the timber business. After some years spent in that line of endeavor, Mr. O'Don- nell settled on a farm in Midland county, Michigan, but he has now retired and is living quietly at Midland City. Originally a Democrat, he became a great admirer of James G. Blaine and cast his support with the Repub- lican party. He is highly esteemed in his community, where he has served in various local offices, including that of township treasurer. He was married in Canada to Margaret McIntosh, who was born there, and she still survives, having been the mother of ten children, of whom I. D. was the second born, and all of whom are living.

I. D. O'Donnell received his education in the public schools of Saginaw, Michigan, where his early business training was secured in the timber industry of his father. He did his share of clearing the wilderness of that section, and when twenty-one years of age removed to Chicago, from whence, in April, 1882, he made his way to Montana. He first located at Miles City, but subsequently went overland to Coulson, Billings at that

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time being a city of tents and only partially platted. After a few day he joined the stampede for the Maden mining camp, and on his return connected himself with the I. J. Horse Ranch, owned by J. K. Doze, which was later taken over and enlarged by Seligman, Bailey & Kennett. He continued with this firm for about one and one-half years, when he came to the Yellowstone valley with Mr. E. G. Bailey and took charge of the Frederick Billings Ranch, near Billings. Mr. O'Donnell was superintendent of this property at the time Mr. Billings was having his land cultivated to prove that this was a productive farming locality, and subsequently remained as a representative of the Billings interests, being at present the executor of the estate in this section. In 1887 Mr. O'Donnell took charge of the Minnesota and Montana Land and Improvement Com- pany's irrigation canal, now known as the Big Ditch, the first large canal in eastern Montana, and since that time has interested himself in vast irrigation projects. He has made an exhaustive study of methods used in other countries, in France, Spain and Italy, where irri- gation has been used for centuries, and no man in the Yellowstone valley is better informed on this subject than he. An enthusiast in this work, he has been the leading factor in the building of the Highland, Subur- ban, Cove and B. L. and I. Ditches. In 1887 Mr. O'Don- nell formed a partnership with E. G. Bailey, under the firm name of Bailey & O'Donnell, and began farm- ing and stock raising. In 1892 this firm purchased the Hesper Farm. and the partnership continued until 1900. when Mr. O'Donnell bought his partner's interest, and has since continued to conduct the property alone. This is one of the best known tracts in the valley, and its 640 acres are all under a high state of cultivation, its present productiveness having been brought about through irrigation. Several world's records for alfalfa, sugar beets, wheat and oats have been broken on this farm, and in 1906 it held the world's championship for wheat. In addition this property can boast of one of the finest apple orchards in the eastern part of the state. He has taken an active part in the work of the Irriga- tion Congress, and was one of five that framed the or- ganization. The facts and figures gathered by Mr. O'Donnell in the Yellowstone valley were probably the strongest arguments presented to congress that se- cured the passage of the Reclamation Act. In addition, Mr. O'Donnell was the first president of the Yellow- stone Fair Association, and at present is a director in the State Fair Association. He has been on the board of sheep commissioners, was the first president of the board of horticulture, and at present is a life member of the State Horticultural Society. He has always taken an active part in the work of the Farmers' Institute, and works all over the state in behalf of modern methods of alfalfa raising and stock breeding. Mr. O'Donnell has probably done more for the alfalfa industry than any other one man in the state. He is a director in the Merchants National Bank and secretary of the Suburban Homes Company ; built and was president of the first creamery here, known as the Billings Creamery; is president of the Billings Foundry and Manufacturing Company and of the Big Ditch Company; and is past president of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Parmley Billings Library, of which he is at present one of the trustees. He has served as a member of the school board of Billings, and is a member of the execu- tive committee and director of the Young Men's Chris- tian Association. Politically Mr. O'Donnell does not recognize party ties, but reserves the right to cast his influence and support with the candidate whom his judgment convinces him is best fitted for the position at stake.

On October 31, 1887, Mr. O'Donnell was united in marriage with Miss Louise Roeser, who was born in Saginaw county, Michigan, daughter of Gustave Roeser, and six children have been born to this union : Helene

R., Louise M., Carol, Ignatius D., Gustave R. and Kathleen.

Ever since coming to this community in 1882 Mr. O'Donnell has been one of those who have believed in the future of the place they had chosen for their home, and by his active and progressive spirit has done much to promote its growth. He has never been actuated by narrow, selfish motives, but prospering him- self he has rejoiced in the prosperity of others, knowing that the welfare of one individual alone never furthers but only retards the growth of a community. He has been honorable and upright in all his business dealings with his fellow men and has won and merited the esteem of all who knew him, and is the possessor of numerous warm friends among the citizens of the Yellowstone valley in whose interest he has worked for so many years.

JOHN BURKMAN. On June 25, 1876, on the Little Big Horn, occurred one of the events that made Mon- tana history, for it was on that date that General George Armstrong Custer and his 1,100 United States soldiers were annihilated by a band of 9,000 Sioux Indian war- riors. Few indeed there are to-day who can lay claim to having belonged to the regiment that set out to do battle that summer morning, but such is the distinction that attaches to John Burkman, formerly a soldier of Custer's command, and now a highly esteemed resident of Billings, who is living retired after many years spent in the United States service, Mr. Burkman was born in the state of Pennsylvania, January 10, 1839, the only son of John and Eva Burkman, whose other five chil- dren were girls.

Always of an adventurous spirit, when he was twenty years of age Mr. Burkman left his eastern home for the new west, and for a number of years was engaged in freighting in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Utah. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in the one hundred-day service as a private of Company K, Fifth Regiment, Missouri Volunteer Infantry, and when his time had expired became a teamster in the government service, seeing duty in Missouri, Arkansas and Ten- nessee. On the cessation of hostilities he engaged in railroad work, and was so employed until September 16, 1870, when he enlisted in the Seventh Cavalry, U. S. A., a regiment that had been organized in 1866 with Samuel Sturgis as colonel and George Armstrong Cus- ter, who had won his spurs in the Civil war, as lieu- tenant-colonel. Mr. Burkman was Custer's orderly from 1870 to 1876, and on the morning of the fateful day saddled the general's horse. The regiment was in three divisions, Captain Benteen being in charge of Companies H, D and K, Major Reno having Companies A, M and G, and General Custer, Companies I, L, C, Fand E, while Captain McDougal, with Company B, es- corted the pack train. Leaving the Yellowstone river, the troop marched up the Rosebud river seventy-two miles, making their last camp on the present site of the Indian school, and there Mr. Burkman was left with the pack train. It was thus he escaped being killed in the engagement that followed, when the non-arrival of expected reinforcements resulted in the massacre of the entire body of U. S. troops. The story of that battle has been told in song and story, has been perpetuated in words more enduring than monuments of stone or tab- lets of brass, and is too well known to be recounted here, but those who escaped the awful death of their companions should be honored and revered as links connecting the present with the days when western history was in the making.

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A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 104

Author: Sanders, Helen Fitzgerald, 1883- Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1002

Author: Sanders, Helen Fitzgerald, 1883-
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1002