A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 11

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

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drug store by one "Bill" Morrison, but it served nicely as a gallows on this hurried occasion. Other inci- dents of a similar nature have marked his career and he has a ripe and comprehensive knowledge of early Montana.

Mr. Brown is a Democrat, staunch and true, and has been active in the ranks of the party in his district. He is a member of the Society of Montana Pioneers. He has a wide acquaintance in the state and is the inti- mate friend of W. A. Clark of Montana mining fame.

WARREN C. GILLETTE .. Half a century has passed since Warren C. Gillette came to Montana. He was an important factor in the development of the localities in which he resided and was one of the worthy pioneers of the state, recognized as a prosperous stockgrower on Dearborn river in the vicinity of Craig. The mental, moral, social and material development and advance- ment of the state ever received his support, and he served in positions of trust and responsibility. Mr. Gil- ette was born in Orleans, Ontario county, New York, on March 10, 1832, and died September 8, 1912, at the home of his cousin, W. F. Parker, in Helena, Montana. His original American ancestors were French Hugue- nots, who located in Connecticut. There was born in 1802 Orimel Gillette, the father of our Montana pioneer, and his brother, Caleb Gillette, was likewise a native of Connecticut. In early manhood Orimel Gillette removed to New York, where he married Miss Julia E. Ferris, born in that state. They settled in Oneida county, where the father for many years practiced medicine, liv- ing to the age of four score years, his wife passing away at the age of sixty. Of their two sons and three daugh- ters, Warren C. was the eldest. He never married, nor did his sister, Eliza P., who was his housekeeper and devoted companion until her death.

Warren Caleb Gillette, after attending the public schools, pursued his studies in Oberlin College, Ohio, leaving that institution in 1850 and staying for a time in Columbus, after which he returned to New York and was engaged as a clerk in Oneida county until 1855, when he removed to Chicago and entered the em- ploy of E. R. Kellogg & Company, wholesale hatters and furriers, continuing with this firm until 1859, and in that year he engaged in the same line of business as a retailer at Galena, Illinois, conducting the enterprise for two years. In the summer of 1861 Mr. Gillette once more returned east and was occupied in the manufac- ture of furs in New York city until the spring of 1862, when the discovery of gold in Montana led him hither. His intention was to make Salmon river his destina- tion, and at St. Louis he embarked on the steamer "Shreveport" and came up the Missouri, disembarking between the mouth of the Milk river and old Fort Union, as low water prevented further progress by boat. After remaining in camp about a week the party started overland to Fort Benton. Two days later they met a large band of Assiniboine and Crow Indians, and the younger ones were inclined to stop the journey of the party up the river, while some of the older chiefs were in favor of letting the emigrants do as they pleased. The Indians determined to hold a council and decide upon the course to be pursued, and the council was held that night, but the emigrants had concluded to return to their camp on Milk river and in the morning turned their teams in that direction, whereupon the In- dians informed them that they must go up the river, as the council had decided that they might do so, and insisted that the white men ought not now to turn back. So, going toward Fort Benton, they arrived there in September, but soon went on to the old town of Montana City on Prickly Pear creek, where they went into camp. They called the place Camp Indecision, because they here learned of the discovery of gold at Bannack, and waited here until they could send a dele-

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gation and learn the true state of affairs at Bannack, and something of its attractions as a place of settlement. They, however, remained at the camp until their belated supplies reached Fort Benton and they then transported them with mule and ox teams to Deer Lodge, once known as LaBarge City. Here Mr. Gillette purchased a cabin of C. A. Broadwater, intending to occupy it as a store, but as Bannack was far more prosperous, he proceeded to that place, arriving in December, 1862. He brought his stock of goods, an assortment of miners' supplies principally, bringing the goods on pack horses in three trips from Fort Benton to Bannack. On one of these trips the Indians stole all of his horses while he was encamped on Sun river, not far distant from the site of Great Falls. He recovered nearly one half of the animals and obtained enough more from the Ameri- can Fur Company to enable him to continue his trip to Bannack. A year later he transferred his stock to Alder gulch, where gold was discovered in 1863, and was in general trade in Virginia City until 1865, being associated with James King.

Upon the discovery of gold in Last Chance gulch, they brought their stock to Helena, following the rush of miners thither. Here King & Gillette were engaged in the freighting and mercantile business from 1865 until 1869, and were in partnership in mining operations until 1877. These earlier trips were attended with great danger from both Indians and road agents, and Mr. Gil- lette had many exciting experiences and narrow escapes. He was one of the early promoters of the placer min- ing system at Diamond City, and a service of great public benefit was rendered by King & Gillette in their Herculean task of opening the toll road of ten miles down Little Prickly Pear canyon. The toll road saved the travelers on the road between Helena and Fort Benton from crossing the Lyon mountains and Medi- cine Rock, as it went down the canyon on the present route of the Montana Central Railroad. This important work was of inestimable value to the miners and other settlers. The available equipment for the construction of this road consisted of two plows, for which they paid $175 each, and picks and shovels. The road was completed in 1866 at a cost of $40,000, and this amount was obtained from tolls within two years. Later the travel declined, but the road was kept up until in 1875, when the charter expired. King & Gillette were among the largest operators in Confederate gulch, where they employed a large number of men in the construction of a bedrock flume, clearing up $10,000 in one season, but it eventually caused them a loss of $60,000. They closed their operations in 1877, and Mr. Gillette engaged in sheep raising, with which industry he continued to be occupied for more than a quarter century, having some forty thousand acres of land and raising sheep on a most extensive scale, his flocks averaging from six- teen to twenty thousand head. He gave preference to Merino sheep as best adapted to this climate. He had a fine ranch residence near Craig with modern improve- ments and facilities, and after the death of his sister he divided his time between this residence and Helena.

Mr. Gillette was a staunch Republican and took a proper interest in the public affairs of both territory and state. He was twice elected to the lower house of the territorial legislature, and was a member of the council, or higher deliberate body, for one term, and was also a member of the convention which framed the present constitution of the state. In public affairs he gave evidence of wise discrimination and mature judg- ment, and his influence in the councils of his party were. ever of a helpful order. Mr. Gillette gained and re- tained friends, and his unassuming but successful career in Montana was an honor to the state.

In his passing Montana lost one of its oldest pio- neers, and the event occasioned wide-spread sorrow, especially among the old pioneers and all who were inti-

mate with him in his later years. Mr. Gillette was past president of the Society of Montana Pioneers, and ever active in the interests of that organization.

ANDREW VAN CORRY. Departing this life on June 9, 1911, at the age of seventy-three years, eight months and sixteen days, after long periods of strennous ex- ertion and decided usefulness in several different parts of the country and under circumstances widely vary- ing in character and requirements, the late Andrew Van Corry, of Butte, in all his career showed himself to be a man of unusual gifts and qualifications for work of many kinds and ready adaptability to his sur- roundings, however new and untried, and whatever the conditions involved in them. He was left an orphan at the age of twelve years by the death of both parents. Boy as he then was, with no knowledge of the great world, with all his standards and ideals formed from his experiences in an old-fashioned rural community, with a dreamy impression that the wild west was the coming hope of his country and the embodiment of opportunity for aspiring souls like his, he journeyed some eight hundred miles in the wake of the setting sun in search of chances to mend and further make his fortunes and landed in what is now a metropolis of the middle region of our coun- try, and there found employment and remained a number of years. His subsequent achievements will be narrated in the following paragraphs, throughout all of which it will appear that from his boyhood he made his own way in the world, and that in the strug- gle for advancement his chief asset was his self-re- liance.

Mr. Corry was a native of the village of Newport, Charles county, Maryland, where his grandfather, the progenitor of the American branch of the family, lo- cated on his arrival from England in this country at an early date, and where his own life began on Sep- tember 13, 1837. In his native county he attended the public schools until he reached the age of twelve years, when, as has been noted, his parents died and left him to his own resources. His father and his grandfather were farmers, and while under their in- fluence he worked at the same line of productive use- fulness.

But when he walked out into the great world from the darkened home in which he had been sheltered and cared for from infancy and took up the battle of life for himself, he did not adhere to the pur- suit they had followed. He made his way to St. Louis, and there found employment with the Simmons Hard- ware Company, with which he remained several years. At the age of twenty-one, with his faculties prema- turely developed and stimulated to great activity by the sense of personal responsibility he had been guided by for years, he took another flight westward and located at Georgetown, Colorado, where he engaged in prospecting and the development of quartz prop- erties, and in a short time acquired the ownership of extensive mining interests in that then fruitful and productive locality, in which he passed five years of useful labor with good results.

In 1863 he followed the trend of the argonauts of the period and came to Montana, locating at Ban- nack. Later he was actively engaged in placer min- ing in Alder Gulch for a number of years, and during the last years of his residence in that region was county recorder of Madison county. Before and dur- ing his occupancy of this office he had many claims in Alder Gulch, but he was only partially successful in developing them in comparison with other miners there then and before and since that time.

In 1879, at the end of his term as recorder of Madi- son county, he moved to Butte, and here he main- tained his residence until his death, on June 9, 19II. His principal occupation in Butte was as manager of

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circulation for the Butte Inter-Mountain and Anaconda Standard, but while engaged in that he also kept up his interest in the mining industry, and pushed the development of his claims with as much energy as he could command, and with all the resources avail- able to him under the circumstances.

Mr. Corry was married at Florisant, Missouri, on June 22, 1872, to Miss Anna Martha Mattingly, a daughter of James and Mary Mattingly, old and es- teemed residents of St. Louis county in that state. To this union four children were born: Arthur Vin- cent, whose life began in Virginia City, Montana, on May 10, 1874; Clarence A., who was born at the same place on June 13, 1876, and is now a resident of Butte; Agnes P., who came into being on July 17, 1878, also in Virginia City, and is now the wife of George B. McDonald, a prominent mining man of Butte; and John, who was born in Butte on March 22, 1882, and died in that city on January 2, 1907.

Andrew V. Corry was renowned locally in Masonic circles, and at the time of his death was one of the oldest Freemasons in the state of Montana. He was a member of all the branches of the fraternity in the York Rite up to and including the Knights Tem- plar degree, and all in the Scottish Rite up to and including the thirty-second degree. He was also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. But, while he was de- voted to the fraternity and took an earnest interest in its beneficent work, he was essentially a man of domestic tastes, warmly devoted to his home and its duties, and took but little interest otherwise in fraternity or club life. In politics he was a firm and faithful Democrat, and for many years very active in the service of his party, but in the declining period of his life he left political contentions and the work involved in them to younger men.

Arthur Vincent Corry attended the schools of Butte until within a year of his graduation from the high school. Then, on account of a serious illness, he was obliged to leave without finishing his course. But when he was able he again took up his studies, at- tending the University at Notre Dame, Indiana, from 1890 to 1893, and from 1894 to 1898 the Colorado School of Mines, being graduated from the latter in the year last mentioned with the degree of Engineer of Min- ing. After leaving the University he practiced his profession in different western states until 1902, then returned to Butte, where he has been actively en- gaged in professional work ever since. He has done a great deal of work for large corporations, and has also conducted extensive mining operations on his own account in Silver Bow, Jefferson and Granite counties of this state, and had connection with other enterprises of the same kind in other parts of this state and others wherein mining industries abound. Mr. Corry is a member of the firm of Harper, Mac- donald & Company, Civil and Mining Engineers, with offices at 203-4-9 Lewiston Building, Butte.

Mr. Arthur V. Corry is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers and the Montana So- ciety of Engineers. Socially he is prominent in the Silver Bow Club of Butte, and in fraternal relations belongs to the Order of Knights of Columbus. His religious affiliation is with the Catholic church, in whose behalf he is energetic and zealous, as he is in connection with his lodge and every enterprise for the improvement and progress of his community and the benefit of its residents.

On September 20, 1903, he was united in marriage in Butte with Miss Mary Armstrong, a daughter of James J. and Anna (Leonard) Armstrong, natives of Vancouver, British Columbia. Of this union one child has been born, Andrew Vincent Corry, whose life began in Missoula, on September 22, 1904, and who is the light and life of the household, which is a radiating point of social enjoyment in the com-

munity and a center of genuine hospitality to which the hosts of friends of the family frequently resort. The family home is located at 825 West Galena street, Butte.

The father of the late Andrew Van Corry was a soldier in the Civil war and lost his life on one of its sanguinary battlefields. His son, the subject of this review, was a man of great natural aptitude for mathematical computations, and, although he had not an extensive education, was capable of solving any kind of an engineering problem. He was of a modest and retiring disposition, never boastful of his attain- ments or capacity, and seemingly unconscious of them. He was also a man of generous and genuine practical benevolence, but never made his works of charity known to the public. He did his duty well, faithfully and wisely in all the relations of life, without the hope of reward except in the approval of his own conscience, and his worthi was all the more estimable on that account. He was in many respects a remark- able man, and was esteemed in life and is revered after death as one of the best men this county has ever numbered among its leading and most useful citizens.

HON. G. W. STAPLETON. One of Montana's most eminent legal counselors, and one of the sturdy char- acters of the old days who had no small part in shaping the destiny of the territory and state, belonged to a most able and brilliant coterie of lawyers, which flour- ished exceedingly in territorial times and in the early days of statehood, and included such men as Col. W. F. Sanders, Mr. Warren Toole, Hon. Sam Word, Judge Kirkpatrick, Hon. W. W. Dixon and others among its numbers. Judge Stapleton was one of the forceful men of Montana, and no history of that commonwealth could afford him any other than a foremost position among his contemporaries, and at a time when not even the oldest commonwealth had more able and brilliant bars than Montana possessed in territorial times.

Judge Stapleton came from a prominent old south- ern family whose members had migrated from South Carolina to Kentucky, at a time when the latter state was on the western frontier, and where Judge Staple- ton's parents were born. A laudable migratory spirit kept impelling them to follow the march of civilization westward, next to Indiana, where he himself first saw the light of day, later to Illinois, to Iowa, and so on until in Montana, where Judge Stapleton's life was indeed one of the most influential in the first half cen- tury of that state's history. He was born in Rush county, Indiana, November 28, 1834.

As has been noted, his parents, Cyrus S. and Margaret (Scott) Stapleton, were natives of Kentucky. They moved from that state into Indiana soon after their marriage, then after.some years to Illinois, and subse- quently to Iowa. The father was a physician, renowned, in every locality where he practiced, for his extensive professional learning and skill and his charming be- nignity of disposition and manner.

The scholastic training of Judge Stapleton was re- ceived, first in the public schools of Iowa and later at an excellent academy in Fort Madison, that state. In 1852, when but a boy of eighteen, he began the study of law in the office of Hon. Joseph M. Casey, at Lan- caster, Iowa, pursuing it with such diligence and suc- cess that he was admitted to practice in November, 1855, when he was barely of age.

He practiced in the courts of Iowa for four years, then crossed the plains to Colorado, opening an office there, and attended to legal business entrusted to his care until 1862.

In that year he removed to Montana, and finding the demand for legal attainments, quite limited, turned his attention to mining which proved profitable as he was among the first to discover gold, in paying quantities, in the territory. This discovery was made at Grass-

Con Stapleton

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hopper creek, where he founded a town, and whichi, but for his modesty and, it must be added, superior judgment, would now bear his name. It was the desire of the miners along the creek to name the new town after him, but, as it was in the country of the Bannack Indians, Judge Stapleton saw greater propriety in nam- ing it after them; and hence it became Bannack instead of Stapleton.

Here he followed placer mining diligently, and at different periods with great success, at times taking out as much as $20 a pan from selected dirt. About a mile below the camp he purchased a claim, where with a crude, hand-made wooden rocker, he took out gold at the rate of from $200 to $500 per day. Notwithstand- ing this large yield, he was considered only moderately successful as provisions and living expenses were so enormously high.

In 1863, Alder gulch thrilled the western world with its wonderful gold production, and, like many others, Judge Stapleton "stampeded" for that favored spot. But with a prudence and forethought unusual in times of great excitement, he halted the expedition at Beaver- head river on the way, long enough for him to write a code of laws for the government of the new camp- probably the first codification of any kind made in the territory. He accompanied the expedition on to the gulch, arriving in the first party, carrying his laws with him. He and Colonel McLean together secured a number of valuable claims from which considerable quantities of gold were extracted. In 1865, he removed to Last Chance gulch, now Helena, and again took up the practice of law, finding great demand for his pro- fessional services. Five or six months later he located at Ophir gulch, and again engaged in mining. Subse- quently he went to Argenta, Beaverhead county, and re- mained there until 1879, engaged in quartz mining and practicing law.

It was in the latter year that he permanently located in Butte, and where he continued to reside until his death. After going to that city, he turned resolutely away from almost every other attraction, and for a number of years gave his time and attention, almost exclusively, to that jealous mistress, the law, who re- warded his devotion with the guerdon of her brightest smiles.

He first associated himself in practice in Butte with Judge Spratt, a partnership that continued until the death of the latter, in 1881.

The firm of Robinson and Stapleton was then formed, and continued until 1898, when death again robbed him of his partner.

Judge Stapleton then formed a partnership with his son, Guy W., in the firm of Stapleton & Stapleton, which continued as long as the father remained in active practice, in fact was not broken until the latter's death, April 25, 1910.

Judge Stapleton was really one of the first attorneys of the state to devote his attention to mining law, which was destined to become such an important feature of the practice in Montana. The experience he gained in mining and from close touch with all the varied phases of early Montana life, proved of very great assistance to him in his professional career, and was also of in- valuable assistance to the territory and state, through the practical knowledge he was able to bring to bear in the framing of mining and other laws of the new country. Few, if any, of Montana's pioneers were any more serviceable and valuable, and it is doubtful if any man played a more influential part in shaping the laws and early history of the territory. He was elected to the territorial legislature four times-as often as he would serve-and during his tenure was first speaker of the house and then president of the senate. He was also a member of the judiciary committee of each house. When it was found necessary to codify the laws of the territory, all eyes turned to him as a capable man to head the commission for the purpose, owing to his wide

practical knowledge and great ability. As such he was the leading force in giving clearness and consistency to the body of the statutes and proper trend to the course of subsequent legislation.

He also served conspicuously in the convention of 1889, that formulated the constitution on which Mon- tana was admitted into the Union as a state. He was always identified with the Democratic party, and had practically the refusal of every office within the gift of the people, governor, attorney-general, supreme court justice, member of congress, and all the rest, abso- lutely declining them all.

Notwithstanding the exactions of his profession, he found time to develop extensive mining interests, and to contribute his share of inspiration, counsel and sub- stantial aid to every public improvement and social enterprise of merit. He was an interested and zealous member of the Masonic fraternity, and was one of the organizers of Virginia City Lodge No. I, the first lodge chartered within the present limits of the state.

Having accumulated a comfortable fortune, he re- tired from active business several years before his death, appearing only occasionally in court, either in his own behalf or for some old time friend.

Judge Stapleton was regarded as, not only one of the ablest but as well one of the most successful of the pioneer lawyers, and always commanded the re- spect of his brothers in the legal profession.

As a citizen, he was not only one of Montana's oldest, at the time of his death, but one of her worthiest and most valued ones. Throughout his life, he was thor- oughly independent in thought and action; he hated sham and had a very great aversion for pretense and hypocrisy, as well as being a bitter foe of fraud, a firm advocate of political honor and an earnest and in- defatigable striver after official honesty and square dealing. One of his strongest characteristics was his rugged honesty. His reading was wide in its scope, he was broad-minded in his views, independent in thought and fearless in execution.

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A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 11

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