A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 122

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

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It was intended that Pierre should follow in the footsteps of his forefathers and carry on the business with which they had been identified, and after he had been given excellent educational advantages of a lit- erary nature, he was the recipient of a technical train- ing calculated to fit him for a useful and successful career in the field of manufacture. As is the custom with young men in France. he spent one year in the army of his country, thus gaining an appreciation of the value of discipline, and he was then sent to England on a tour of inspection, with the idea that he should thus gain a knowledge of the methods and machinery used in the business with which it was supposed he would be identified in after life. While there, how- ever, he learned of the great opportunities awaiting men of ability and courage in the range stock business of the great northwest of the United States, and after exhausting almost every argument that he might ad- vance, finally gained his father's consent to make the venture. The early part of the year 1883 saw his advent into the "bad lands" of Montana, and after he had completed the formalities necessary to secure him the right to become a settler, started for Iowa and Minnesota to buy his cattle. A biographer, in speaking of Mr. Wibaux's early experiences in the new country. wrote as follows: "The highest product of the old world civilization having turned his back upon the pleasures of a gay and promising life in the capitals of Europe, surrounded with all that wealth could supply or artistic skill could fashion for his comfort, deliberately chose to live on the wild llanos of Amer- ica: to burrow in a 'dug-out,' to rear and traffic in cattle, to consort with range riders and cow boys. What recks he! The great soul does not sell its great- ness-does not ask to dine nicely or sleep warm. He exults in his choice for the freedom it gives, the inde- pendence it assures, the spice of adventure it supplies and the hope of fortune it holds out. As a pre- liminary to success in buying, Mr. Wibaux spent the few weeks at his disposal in the muck and filth of the Chicago Stock Yards, watching and studying the daily transactions of the great market; learning what he could of estimating class or quality, weight and age- everything, in fact, that helps to make 'a good judge of cattle.' Then he gathered his first herd and got them to his ranch around his dug-out on Beaver creek, in Dawson county, and, with characteristic enterprise and self-denial, concluded to be his own foreman until he could learn, in the hard school of experience, all the details of his business. During the next five years he faithfully adhered to this resolution and rode the range with the hardiest, winter and summer, doing more of the work than any man he hired to help him. The rest of the story is a mere matter of detail, except where the golden thread of sentiment gleams in its woof."

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His first thousand dollars of profit came slowly, but surely ; the next more easily and readily by help of the former; the next of course, more readily still; until now he adds thousands to his store with little appar- ent effort or care. In 1884 Mr. Wibaux returned to Europe, married, and procured the necessary capital for the further enlargement of his business. It had been his intention to prepare a more suitable residence for his bride than that which he had been occupying, but the plan which he had cherished had to give way to the sterner demands of business, and so the young bride exchanged a palatial home in England for a "shack" in Montana. But she accepted her portion in their common lot courageously, even cheerfully, and set about to make a home of the humble dwelling.

Early in his business career Mr. Wibaux recognized that one of the most crying needs of the country was its lack of easy connection with good railroad facili- ties, and after much persuasion he succeeded in getting the Northern Pacific to erect stock yards and install shipping conveniences at his most convenient station. then a straggling collection of ramshackle buildings known as Mingusville. His enterprise, energy and pub- lic spirit awakened interest, served as an example to other men of ability and in time the little hamlet was transformed into a thriving and prosperous center of industry, the name being changed to Wibaux, in honor of its founder.

Mr. Wibaux was the first big cattle man in eastern Montana. He was in the business as a neighbor of Theodore Roosevelt when they shipped large herds to eastern markets, coming to the country within six months of each other. He has owned as high as 200,- 000 acres of land in Texas, in addition to his other vast land holdings in Montana, and has run as high as 65,000 head of cattle in Montana at one time. He has also had interests in North Dakota. He is the owner of immense tracts of land adjacent to the town of Wibaux, and also holds a large amount of the town property, as well.

As a financier, Mr. Wibaux is known favorably not only in Montana but also in France. He is the owner of the Clover Leaf gold mine in the Black Hills. The town near the mine, which is its outgrowth, is named Roubaix, after his native city. Mr. Wibaux is a stock holder and principal owner of the State National Bank of Miles City, and has been its president for the past seventeen years. He is the heaviest stockholder in the American Bankers' Life Insurance Company, of Chi- cago, Illinois, and is a director in the company and a member of the advisory board for the state of Mon- tana. In addition to all these wide spread interests in the western states of the Union, Mr. Wibaux with his brothers own the immense textile manufacturing busi- ness established in Roubaix, France, by their grand- father in 1910. He is also connected with important charitable work. He is the promoter of the free dis- tribution of pure milk through model farms, the free inspection of children. Through his initiative the good work has spread all over his native land, saving thou- sands of babies.

Ten years ago the French government in apprecia- tion of his good work at home and of his influence abroad made Mr. Wibaux a member of its Legion of Honor.

While his success has been a matter of steady and rapid growth, Mr. Wibaux's career has not been with- out its trials and vicissitudes. Like all really successful men, he has met with hardships and disappointments, but each set-back has only had the effect of making him fight back the more determinedly; each discouragement has but made him persevere the more doggedly, and the overcoming of obstacles has served to give him a broader, clearer view of life, and to appreciate the more what his industry has attained. Although he depends entirely upon his own judgment, he is at all

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times ready to recognize another's right to an opin- ion. He has been identified with Montana's growth and development, not alone as the promoter and de- veloper of large industries, but as a public-spirited cit- izen with civic pride as one of mis chief characteristics. His past record, on which there is no stain nor blemish, speaks for itself. .

Mr. Wibaux spends his winters in Paris. where his wife and their son, Cyril, born in 1885, make their home in a handsome residence in the fashionable quarter of that city.

HON. CHARLES R. LEONARD. With prominence at the bar in two of the great states of the American Union, prominence in the councils of his political party, local, state and national, and high social and intellectual rank wherever he is known, Hon. Charles R. Leonard of Butte is a fine representative of the best and most useful American manhood and citizenship. Moreover, he is a product of the great West, proud of the fact and devoted to the interests of that section of our country which lies in the embraces of the Ohio and the Missouri, the section that does much to feed the world, and if necessary could conquer it, too, in arms as it has in industries and commerce.

Mr. Leonard was born in Iowa City, Johnson county, Iowa, on December 3, 1860. His parents, Nathan R. and Elizabeth (Heizer) Leonard, are living in Butte, where the father was president of the School of Mines for a number of years, and where both are held in high esteem for their genuine worth and the upright- ness of their lives, their interest in the welfare of the community and their willingness at all times to do whatever they can to promote the progress and develop- ment of their city and county.

Their son Charles R., after due preparation in the lower schools, entered the Iowa State University to complete his academic and professional education. He was graduated from the literary department of that institution in 1881 with the degree of A. B., and has since received the honorary degree of A. M. from it. Two years later he was graduated from the law depart- ment with the degree of LL. B., and was at once ad- mitted to the bar. He began his professional career at Creston, Iowa, where he won substantial recognition of his ability in a lucrative practice and of his personal worth and companionable nature in high and wide- spread popularity.

He came here in the fall of that year and has ever since made his home here. Fortune has smiled upon his professional and other labors in his new home, and she could scarcely help doing so. He has wooed her with such industry and persuasiveness, and shown himself so entirely deserving of her favors, that it would have been difficult for her to remain obdurate to his pleadings.

He has won a large practice in Butte and other parts of Montana, and has a high reputation for his legal ability and skill in all of the adjoining states. He has also risen to distinction and influence in con- nection with public affairs, for which he has shown un- usual aptitude. And, while his legal business is stead- ily increasing, other interests of a material character have been yielding him augmenting revenues.

Mr. Leonard is heartily desirous of the elevation and advancement of his profession and enthusiastically en- ergetic, in all ways open to him, in his efforts for its improvement. One of the means to the end he seeks in this regard is the Montana Bar Association, of which he is a prominent member and was president for two years. During his membership in the association he has served on many of its most important committees, and in many other ways has been of great service in giv- ing it high tone and usefulness.

In politics Mr. Leonard is a Republican, and his devo- tion to the principles of his party is intense and con-

stant: In 1892 he was defeated as a candidate for the lower house of the state legislature, but two years later was triumphantly elected to the state senate for a term of four years. In 1896 he was Montana's mem- ber of the national Republican committee, and in the memorable compaign of that year his services to his party were signal, extensive and highly appreciated.

Mr. Leonard has been married twice and has three children, Frank, Margaret and Alice, all of whom are still members of the paternal family circle. The present Mrs. Leonard, whose maiden name was Fannie Sutphen, is a native of Lancaster, Ohio, and the daughter of Capt. J. M. Sutphen of that city. She is a lady of fine intellectual and social culture, and a decided force for good in the community in all the graceful refine- ments of life and widely and deservedly popular.

In the fraternal life of the city and state of his adoption Mr. Leonard is a member of the Masonic order, and the Woodmen of the World. In each of these fraternities he is prominent and serviceable, and his membership is highly valued in all by the other members. His reputation as a lawyer and a man of affairs is not confined to Montana, but extends over all the adjoining states, and in political matters he is well and favorably known all over the country. The citizens of Butte esteem him as one of their most sub- stantial, sterling, far-seeing and enterprising men, one of their inost agreeable social factors, and one of the best representatives of all that is brightest and most worthy of admiration among them. But he bears his honors and his high place in public estimation modestly, without self-assertion or display, except where duty requires self-assertion, in the manner, in fact, charac- teristic of genuine merit.

DAVID J. CHARLES. In naming the representative citizens of any community the biographer invariably finds among the most prominent, men who have started out in life with but few advantages, and whose present prestige has been gained through the medium of their own efforts. Montana has its full quota of self-made men, and it has been a source of pride to the citizens of this comparatively young state that many of its largest industries are in charge of men who have been the architects of their own fortunes, and in Butte, one who belongs to this class, and who has shown his versatility in the world of business by engaging in varied lines of endeavor, is David J. Charles, president of the Miners Savings Bank & Trust Company and of the Imperial Paste Manufacturing Company. Mr. Charles was born in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, April 28, 1861, and is a son of David J. and Mary (Jenkins) Charles, natives of Wales.

The father of Mr. Charles, born in the mining district of his native country, was connected with min- ing from his youth. When a young man he came to the United States and settled first in Baltimore, where he was married, and in 1868 removed to California, his family following him the next year. After spending some time in that state he went to Utah, where he fol- lowed mining and smelting until 1883, which year saw his advent into Montana. He became connected with the Anaconda Copper Smelting & Mining Company during the regime of Marcus Daly, but after a few years came to Butte, and here was connected with the Butte & Boston Mining Company until his death in 1898, at the age of sixty-one years. He came of a long-lived family, and his deatlı at such a comparatively early age was caused by an attack of pneumonia, con- tracted while in the discharge of his duties. He was a pioneer smelter, always held responsible positions, and was respected alike by his employers and fellow work- ers. His wife died in Utah in 1884, at the age of forty- six years, and they reared to maturity a family of nine children, of whom four sons and two daughters are now living, and of these David J. is the oldest.

H. C. Province

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David J. Charles was given only limited educational advantages, and at the age of fourteen years left school to work in a grocery store. He came to Butte prior to attaining his majority, and for a time followed smelt- ing at the old Parrott Copper Smelting & Mining Company, but his bent seemed to be toward mercantile pursuits, and in his twenty-first year he established himself as a merchant. This initial venture proved a success from the start, and he still carries on busi- ness at the original stand, where he has an extensive patronage. Mr. Charles is possessed of all the qualities which go to make up the successful man of business. Pre-eminently an organizer, in 1890 he was the leading spirit in the organization of the Imperial Paste Manu- facturing Company, manufacturing all kinds of paste which can be made from flour, in addition to other products, such as macaroni, spaghetti, etc. This busi- ness, the only one of its kind in the state, has grown from a moderate beginning to become one of Butte's leading enterprises. Mr. Charles has demonstrated his faith and confidence in the future of his section of the country by large investments in real estate, and he also has identified himself with various ventures of a busi- ness and financial nature. In 1907 he was one of the organizers of the Miners Savings Bank & Trust Com- pany, and was elected president at that time, a position which he still holds. The rapid growth of this well- known bank has not only given it a prominent posi- tion among the leading financial institutions of Butte, but reflects an able management of its affairs. Mr. Charles was made first president of the Butte Chamber of Commerce at its organization in March, 1912. In politics he has always been a stalwart Repub- lican, and has at various times been honored by his party. He has served one term as county commissioner, ran for sheriff in 1903, and was the Republican candidate for the office of state senator in 1910. Although his various large business interests have demanded a great deal of his attention, he has not allowed his time to be too occupied to bar him from enjoying the compan- ionship of his fellow men, and he is a popular mem- ber of the Silver Bow and Country clubs, the Knights of Pythias, the Elks, the Odd Fellows, in which he is past grand master of the state, and the Masons, in which he is a Shriner and has attained the thirty-second degree.

In 1885 Mr. Charles was married in Butte to Miss Lallie E. Bowen, a native of California of Welsh de- scent, and to this union there has been born two chil- dren, a son, Egbert, who died in infancy, and one daughter, Erma, born May 8, 1886, who died March 27, 19II. Mr. Charles' life has been a busy and useful one, and his activities have served to greatly benefit his adopted city. In business, financial and social circles he has won and maintained an enviable position, and his high personal character has been evidenced by the un- qualified esteem in which he is universally held. Pro- gressive in his business methods, his example has served to stimulate others to progressive effort, thus materially advancing the best interests of Butte, while his high regard for honorable dealing has caused public confidence to be placed in those enterprises with which his name is connected.

HENRY CLAY PROVINSE, whose long and honorable career we are about to sketch briefly, has for years been conspicuous among the leading men of Carbon county, and few citizens have been more prominently connected with its agricultural and business interests; or with its fraternal, educational and political welfare. Mr. Provinse was born at Port Clinton, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, December 2, 1854, and is a son of Will- iam and Jane (Bond) Provinse.

William Provinse was born in County Tyrone, Ire- land, and at the age of eighteen years came to the United States, landing in New York City after a trip across the ocean in a sailing vessel. Drifting into

Pennsylvania, he entered the service of the old Cata- wissa Railroad, now a part of the Philadelphia & Read- ing Railroad System, and continued to be engaged in work of this nature up to the time of his death, in his fifty-fifth year. He adhered to the principles of the old Whig party. His wife, a native of Warwickshire, England, passed away in 1891, having been the mother of six children, of whom three are living: Mary, the wife of O. C. Hatch, living on the old homestead in Port Clinton, Pennsylvania; Annie, the wife of Jacob L. Crater, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania; and Henry Clay.

The youngest of his parents' children, Henry C. Provinse received his education in the public schools of Port Clinton and the Moravian school at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and this was supplemented after his marriage by attendance at the Cox School of Tech- nology, at Drifton, Pennsylvania. When twelve years of age he earned his first money driving mules on the Schuylkill Canal, between Port Clinton and Philadel- phia, but after one year gave up this position to become an employe of the Colraine Iron Company, with which he was connected until 1875. At that time he removed to Bethlehem, where for two years he held the position of iron moulder with the Bethlehem Iron Company, and then went to Mauch Chunk, where he purchased an interest in a grain commission house. During the spring of 1877 he located in Freeland, where he be- came a foreman for the firm of Cox Brothers, of Drif- ton, and continued to be connected with coal mining until the spring of 1883, that year seeing his advent in Montana, as a Butte miner. In 1885 he went to George- town, Deer Lodge county, where he continued until 1889, then coming to Red Lodge, Park county, at this time in Carbon county. He was engaged in raising cattle, sheep and horses until 1906, and then located in Red Lodge and became identified with a general mer- chandise business. At this time he has one of the lead- ing furniture establishments of this section and is known as a shrewd business man of the highest integ- rity. He is secretary of the Carbon County Fair As- sociation, a member of the advisory board for Carbon county of the Montana State Farmers Association, and in 1909 was one of the executive committee on dry land farming, held in Billings.

In his political views, Mr. Provinse has been a stanch and unwavering Republican, and has held numer- ous offices of public trust within the gift of his party and the people. At this time he is chairman of the Republican County Central Committee. He was one of the leaders in the movement for the organization of Carbon county, was first assessor of the county, acted as deputy assessor for one term, and in 1906 was alder- man from the second ward of Red Lodge, serving one term. He was sergeant at arms during the twelve ses- sions of the senate in IgII. Mr. Provinse maintains business offices at No. 7, North Billings avenue. Fra- ternal matters have engrossed a large part of his atten- tion. In 1887 he was made a Mason in Acadia Lodge No. 32, Anaconda, Montana, from which he demitted to become a member of Star of the West Lodge No. 4, A. F. & A. M., of Red Lodge, being at this time master of this lodge. He was made a Royal Arch Mason in Billings Chapter No. 5, from which he demitted and became a charter member of Carbon Chapter No. 20, R. A. M., at Red Lodge, of which he is high priest, and he also belongs to Aldemar Commandery No. 6, at Billings, and Algeria Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., at Helena. He and his wife and daughter are all valued and popular members of the order of the Eastern Star.

On May 20, 1874, Mr. Provinse was married to Miss Martha Dodson, who was born at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, daughter of Abel and Marguerite (Wil- son) Dodson, the former of whom was a native of Huntington county. Pennsylvania, the latter of the Highlands of Scotland. Mr. Dodson died July 13, 1886, at the age of seventy-two years, and his wife

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September 24, 1876, when fifty-nine years of age. Of their six children, three are living: William, of Eliza- bethport, New Jersey; Margaret, who is married and resides in New York City; and Mrs. Provinse. Abel Dodson was a foreman of the old Switch-back Railroad at Mauch Chunk for many years, this being one of the pioneer railroad companies of the United States, but spent his last years in retirement with his children, and died at Freeland, Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Provinse have had eight children: William, who died at the age of twenty-nine years, was married to Bertha Maynard and had two children; Edgar, who married Daisy Moore, is living in Bridger, Montana; Eugene, who married Lillian Anderson, is living in Red Lodge; and Stella, Clarence, Arthur, John and Shirley, living at home. The residence of the Provinse family is situated at No.' 117 West Seventh street, a center of gracious refinement, where the many friends of the family meet with true western hospitality.

FRANK K. WILSON. the proprietor of the Butte Hotel, was born at Palmyra, Portage county, Ohio, June 15. 1862. His father, John Wilson, was born in 1827 and when a young man came to Ohio and set- tled on a farm there. He made a specialty of live stock raising, and until his death in 1891 was actively engaged in that work. His wife, Sarah E. Wilson, still resides in Ohio, the state of her birth. She is now seventy-eight years of age.

Both Frank Wilson and his brother Hugh attended school at Valparaiso, Indiana, and the former gradu- ated in 1883. He came directly to Butte with his brother and they started a men's furnishings and gro- cery business at the place where the Hennessy's store now stands in Centerville. In 1895 Wilson brothers sold out to Patrick Mullens and that same year they bought the ground on East Broadway and began the erection of the up-to-date hotel, which they named the Butte. From that time. this has been one of the lead- ing hostelries of the state, and it has been the head- quarters of many notable gatherings.

Mr. Wilson is a Democrat and has been prominent in the activities of his party. During the years of 1892 and '93, he was a member of the legislature, and mat- ters of civic interest and import never fail to secure his hearty cooperation.

Messrs. Wilson are extensively interested in mining operations in Arizona and California, but they are primarily hotel men, and as such are counted the best in the state. To furnish satisfactory accommodations for transients is important in any locality, but in the West it is of immeasurably more importance than in cities of similar size further east. The constant open- ing up of new fields of investment here and the con- sequent rapid development of the country, attract all sorts and conditions of visitors and investors. Noth- ing is so attractive to the latter as an up-to-date place at which to stop, and those who furnish that are doing a generous share toward adding to the prosperity and to the addition of the desirable new residents of the city. Besides being such excellent business men, Mr. Wilson and his brother are men possessed of the qualities which secure and preserve popularity. and their sociability is one of their notable characteristics.

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A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 122

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