A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 25

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

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Mr. Hainds was born in Sheridan county, Missouri, March 8, 1844, and there resided until eighteen years of age. Then, lured by the reports of the richness of the opening west, he came overland to Montana, and arrived in the state December 5, 1864. His tenure of residence within the favored boundaries of Montana dates from that time-nearly a half century. He first located in Virginia City, where he engaged in mining, and in March, 1865, went to Helena, but remained there but a short time, going on in June of that year to Blackfoot, where he continued to live for twelve years. At the termination of that period he went to Sin River Crossing and was there for about four years, engaging in the stock business. His next move was to Miles City, where he remained a year, and thence he went to Red Rock, Beaverhead county, where he was to stay for many years, his operation in ranching and stock- raising continuing until 1908, when he retired and came to Dillon. During almost his entire career he has been upon an independent footing and the only salaried po-

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sition he ever held in Montana was when he worked for Oliver & Company, opening the stage office at Blackfoot for this firm and having under his manage- ment a large number of teams and men. He has always proved a valuable factor in any enterprise, pos- sessing executive ability, tireless energy, engineering skill and genius in the broad combination and concen- tration of applicable forces. He gained his elementary education in the public schools of Missouri and then took a higher course in the college at Mounds, Mis- souri. He earned his first money as a boy of twelve years, as clerk in a store in Missouri, and at an early age were learned those lessons in industry and thrift which have since stood him in such good stead.

Mr. Hainds is actively identified with the Democratic party, in the superiority of those policies and prin- ciples he has ever believed. He has ever held himself in readiness to do anything in his power to advance the welfare of the cause and he is decidedly influen- tial in party ranks. He formerly held the office of justice of the peace and is street commissioner at the present time. His loyalty to state, county and town is unquestioned and in all that effects Dillon and its people he has keen interest and there is no local move- ment which in his judgment promises benefit to any considerable number of his fellow citizens that does not have his cordial advocacy and generous support. He is a Presbyterian in his religious conviction, while the faith of his admirable wife is that of the Baptist church. He is like the normal man, very fond of out-door life and in his younger days was noted far and wide as an expert rider, fearless of the most fiery and capri- cious mount.

Mr. Hainds was happily married at Red Rock, Mon- tana, January 1, 1883, the maiden name of his wife being Rose Best. They have two children, as follows : Henry, born October 15, 1888, an expert machinist and resi- dent in Dillon, and Jessie, born at Red Rock, Novem- ber 16, 1898, and now a high school student.

Mr. Hainds' father, Henry Hainds, was born in St. Charles county, Missouri, and lived in that state through- out his entire life, following farming and also doing considerable speculating. The mother, whose maiden name was Jane Smith, was born in Virginia and mar- ried in Missouri, where she is interred side by side with her life companion. Mr. Hainds is the eldest in a family of three children. He was but twelve years old when his father died, and virtually ever since that time he has been hustling for himself.

AMOS BUCK. The life of Amos Buck is in itself a minature history of the state of Montana. It was such sons as he who led her from a wild mining camp to a fair and prosperous state, the peer of any of her sisters. Mr. Buck has shared her fortunes from the first in placer mining, as an Indian fighter, an orchardist, a ranchman and a merchant. Her success has meant his success and his advancement hers, until now he is known as a merchant king in the oldest of her cities, Stevensville.

Mr. Buck was born back in Sandusky, Ohio, on Feb- ruary 26, 1844. His father, George Buck was a farmer who canie from Pennsylvania to Ohio, and later moved his family to Michigan, where he spent the last days of his life. The mother, Susan Snell Buck, also a native of Pennsylvania, gave birth to thirteen children and lived to the age of ninty-one, being at last laid to rest beside her husband in Monroe county, Michigan. Only three of the thirteen offspring are now living: Amos, the subject of this sketch; Susan, a widowed sister, who married H. C. Vandercock and now makes her home in Sacramento, California; and a brother, Henry, who was for a number of years associated with Amos Buck in the mercantile business. In 1911 he sold his interest in the business to his brother and has now assumed the active management of his extensive ranch and orchard lands in the Bitter Root valley. Fred Buck, who is now deceased, was the captain of Company B, Michigan

First Heavy Artillery. He served his country loyally from the beginning to the end of the Civil war.

Amos Buck attended the graded school and high school of Monroe, Michigan, and received a brief course in the Michigan State Normal school. When eighteen years of age, his brother-in-law, Fred Bitting, offered him a position in his general store at Bellvue, Ohio. It was here that Mr. Buck received his first practical experience in mercantile life. Even during his boy- hood he had dreamed of the west, and the little Ohio town seemed lifeless and enervating in comparison with the freedom and inspiration of those dreams. For two years he clerked faithfully, in the employ of his relative, saving all that he could of his meager wage that his dream might become a reality. In the spring of 'sixty-four, he left Ohio by rail for St. Joe, Missouri. There he joined a company of twenty men, bound for the west. It fell to his lot to drive the four-yoke ox team most of the distance across the plains to Alder Gulch, now dignified by the name of Virginia City. The journey consumed oue hundred and forty-six days, but to Mr. Buck it was a pleasure, as it was the beginning of the realization of his ambitions. He can remember no hardships, enroute, equal to some with which he had to contend in later life.

On his arrival, Mr. Buck began work at placer mining, receiving six dollars per day for his services. His pay was in gold dust, the only medium of exchange known to that camp that winter. Provisions became very scarce before spring and prices accordingly advanced. At one time the men were paying one dollar and thirty- five cents a pound for flour and one dollar a pound for rice. Salt could not be had at any price. A newspaper sold for a dollar, and a messenger charged a dollar for every letter he carried in or out. When the longed- for spring finally arrived, Mr. Buck with his worldly goods strapped to his back, walked to Helena by way of the site that is now Butte. In Helena, he worked at placer mining throughout the summer and autumn. He was present when the first step toward law and order was emphatically taken. An unusually harrowing mur- der had been committed. The culprit was tried by a jury of miners appointed for the occasion. He admitted his guilt and was given one hour in which to arrange his worldly affairs before meeting death on the scaffold. In such manner were the rights of man protected in the early days of Montana.

In the autumn of the same year, Mr. Buck went to California Gulch, near the present location of Black- foot City, where lie mined until October of 1886 before going to Lincoln Gulch where he purchased his first mine. During the four years in which he worked his own mine he was able to accumulate some little means. In 1870, the property being worked out, he sold the water rights and pushed ou to Cedar Creek, Missoula county. There he was joined by three brothers, Henry, Fred and George. Together they built boats and floated down the Blackfoot river to the timber country, where they rip-sawed the trees into boards, carrying many a load back to some mining claim or camp. These boards sold for twenty-four cents per foot, board measure, the brothers often earning as much as forty dollars a day, and the work lasting for more than sixty days. The oldest brother, George, in the meantime engaged in mining. The other brothers, Amos, Henry and Fred, joined George at Camp 67, where each of them pur- chased an interest in the mine. In 1871 Amos Buck was called to Bitter Root valley on business and so pleased was he with the strip of garden land and its future prospects, that four years later, when the brothers were able to dispose of their mine to advantage, they settled in the Bitter Root, locating in Stevensville, where they established the mercantile house that today is so well known. It is now not only the oldest but the largest firm of its kind in the community.

The Buck brothers had been in Stevensville scarcely two years when the trouble with the Nez Perces Indians reached its culmination. The battle commenced on the

David Frath

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ninth day of August, 1877. The women, children and personal property were so far as possible sent from the town to Fort Owen, all of Mr. Buck's merchandise being removed by wagon. The Indian band outnumbered many times the small company of soldiers reinforced by the brave citizens of Stevensville. Among these citizens, Amos Buck was one of the leaders. During the twenty hours of hot conflict he alone fired thirty-five shots. For a time the Indians had the white men surrounded in Big Hole Gulch and the outcome looked dubious. However, the discipline of the soldiers under General Gibbons, together with the determined efforts of the long-suffering men of Stevensville, finally won the day; another instance of right against might. Sixty-nine white men, many of them settlers who had come to Montana to find homes for their families, lost their lives in this bloody battle. The Indians fled in dismay, after leaving more than two hundred of their braves on the field. The best account of this-the last stand of the Nez Perces Indians was written by Mr. Buck himself, and now remains on file in Volume VII of the Montana Historical Society. His activity in the pro- tection of Stevensville, added much to the already growing popularity of the young man, and time has proved that the confidence of his fellow citizens was not misplaced.

In the autumn of 1905, Mr. Buck was chosen by the Republicans of his district to represent Stevensville and vicinity in the state legislature. While in the assembly he fathered the bill naming Ravalli county and intro- duced the one creating Sanders county and naming it for the worthy general whose courage had done much for Montana.

In fraternal circles, Mr. Buck is again a leader, having filled all of the chairs in the Masonic blue lodge and in the Odd Fellows of Stevensville. It was largely due to his efforts that the fund was raised for establishment of the prosperous manual-training high school which is so important to the youth of the city.

Amos Buck, during his young manhood succeeded in winning for his wife, Miss Rosa V. Knapp, of Albion, Michigan. Even in matrimony the fates seemed to favor him. Mrs. Buck is the daughter of Jared Knapp, of New York state, who in his younger days settled in . Michigan and became one of her wealthy agriculturists. Personally, she is a woman of culture and education, a graduate of Albion College, class of 1878. Their only child, Charles Buck, has now completed the course offered by the Montana State University and is now department manager in his father's establishment at Stevensville.

While Amos Buck is a very successful merchant his interests are much too large to be confined within the four walls of any mercantile establishment. He owns large tracts of mineral and ranch lands not to mention his city realty. The orchard industry of his state has not escaped him. In person, he planted the first Mc- Intosh apple trees in Montana. These are now more than thirty-five years of age and are one of the attrac- tions of Stevensville, as they did so much toward proving to the doubting, another great possibility of the Montana soil. One of Mr. Buck's favorite titles is that of "father of the red McIntosh," bestowed upon him by the nurserymen of the state.

Now that their days of strenuous labor are over and the reward has come, Mr. and Mrs. Buck spend much time in travel. Their favorite mode of pastime, how- ever, is journeying overland, not with a four-yoke ox team but in their powerful automobile.

DAVID FRATT. One of the largest individual cattle owners in the state of Montana, and a man who had been closely identified with the financial interests of this section of the country for a number of years, was David Fratt, of Billings, an excellent example of the class of men who came to Yellowstone Valley as pio- Vol. II-6

neers and achieved success solely through their own efforts. Mr. Fratt was born in Albany county, New York, December 27, 1840, and was a son of Jonathan and Mary (Turner) Fratt, farming people of the Em- pire state, and on his father's side of the family of German descent, while his mother's people were na- tives of England. Mr. Fratt was the youngest of his parents' five children, and all are now deceased.

Jonathan Fratt followed the occupation of farming in New York state until 1846, and in that year moved to the territory of Wisconsin as a pioneer, settling in the vicinity of Burlington, Racine county, where he spent the remainder of his life in agricultural pursuits, and where his death occurred in his sixty-eighth year, his wife passing away when sixty-two. David was but six years of age when he accompanied his parents to the new territory, and his education was secured in the primitive district school, the greater part of his time, however, being spent in assisting his father to clear and cultivate a farm from the wilderness of the new country. He remained at home until May, 1864, when he decided to go to the territory of Idaho, and accord- ingly took a train to Dunleith, Illinois, and crossed the Mississippi to Dubuque, Iowa, on a ferry. From there he went by rail on the Dubuque, Fort Dodge & Western Railroad, now a part of the Illinois Central system, to Waterloo, Iowa, the western terminus of the line, and from that point continued his journey with an ox-team in company with a large party of emigrants. From Omaha the party proceeded along the north side of the Platte river, and opposite Scott's Bluffs they were attacked by Indians, who killed one member of the company and wounded another, be- sides stealing a portion of the stock. When they reached Red Bluff the party left the Platte, having changed their minds and decided to come to Montana instead of Idaho, proceeded to the Sweet Water river via the old California trail of 1849, and went thence up the river to South Pass and by Lander's cutoff to Eagle Rock on Snake river, in Idaho. From that point they followed the old Salt Lake trail to Virginia City, where they arrived in September 1864, the com- pany there disbanding. When this party left Waterloo, Iowa, there were seventy-five men, women and chil- dren in the company, and now the only ones known to be living are Mrs. J. E. Morse, of Dillon, Montana, and Mrs. William Carter, of Dillon, who was Annie Selway and was a child accompanying her parents. Soon after the disbandment of the company Mr. Fratt removed to Confederate Gulch, where during the sum- mer of 1865 he was engaged in mining, and subse- quently was the first man to operate a threshing ma- chine in that part of Montana. In 1871 he turned his attention to stockgrowing, and he continued to follow this line in that vicinity until 1878, when he moved over the range to Shields river, and in 1882 moved to the Musselshell river valley, where he maintained large ranches and conducted a business that was excelled by few in the state. His faith in the future of Mon- tana had been demonstrated by investing in large ranch properties all over the state, and the general supervi- sion of these tracts occupied the greater part of his at- tention. He made his home, however, in Billings, and had a handsome residence at No. 205 North Twenty- ninth street. He was stock commissioner for Yellow- stone county for twelve or fourteen years, but in 1911 resigned from this office. He was one of the organ- izers and principal stockholders of the Yellowstone National Bank, of which he was vice-president for a number of years, and in 1908 was one of the or- ganizers of the Merchants National Bank of Billings, and was a director in this institution at the time of his death. His political belief was that of the Republican party, but he never sought public preferment. The success which attended his efforts was the result of perseverance, energy and ability, directed along the

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proper channels, combined with absolute integrity in the enterprises to which he gave his attention. He was highly esteemed as one of the pioneers of this section. and honored and respected throughout the county and state.

Mr. Fratt was united in marriage in 1888 to Mrs. Kate Armour, who was born in the state of New Jersey.

His death occurred on the 19th of March, 1912, at his residence in Billings. Thus another one of the grand old pioneers of Montana has gone to his reward, but his memory will be long cherished by a host of friends and admirers.

GEORGE F. WHITE, prominent in Twin Bridges since 1889, was born in Spanish Fork, Utah, on November 29, 1858. He is the son of Peter and Susan M. (Terry) White. The father was a native of the Keystone state, born and reared there, coming to the west in 1849. He spent some years in Utah, but Montana represented his home during the later years of his life. He followed blacksmithing and mining while in the west, and lived through the most vivid pioneer stage known to western life, and was well and favor- ably known in this section of the country, his life being marked by his many deeds of charity, a trait which was one of his strongest characteristics. He died in August, 1886, when he was sixty-three years of age, and is buried at Rochester, Montana. The wife and mother, who was a native of Canada, met and married Mr. White in Utah, the ceremony being per- formed at Salt Lake City. She still survives, and is at present living in California. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. White, of which number George F. was the second born. Three of the sons besides George F. are residents of Montana, as follows: Henry is a resident of Rochester, Parshall E. is married and lives five miles from Anaconda, where he is engaged in the hotel business; he was born in Alder Gulch in 1865. Ira J., who is also married, lives at McArty, Madison county, Montana.

Mr. White, as a boy in his parents' home, lived at Spanish Fork until he was about six years of age, at which time the family removed to Montana. They made the trip in the primitive mode of travelling in those early days, and arriving at Fort Bridger, Wyom- ing, wintered there, in the spring moving on to Mon- tana, reaching Virginia City in the early summer. Mr. White has since that time been a resident of the state, and has with the passing years done his full share to the making of the state. Public school advantages in Montana in his boyhood days were noticeable prin- cipally by their non-existence, and as a consequence such education as Mr. White received was the result of his own ambition and initiative. He was fortun- ately of a persevering and inquiring nature, and those characteristics have enabled him to acquire a fair education-even surpassing that which other youths attained with decidedly better advantages. Mr. White has always been a devotee of good literature, and reading is one of his principal pleasures-a fact which has been of immense advantage to him in the pursuit of knowledge. The first position he filled as a boy in any earning capacity was at work in a placer mine, and he followed the work for about five years. He then engaged in burning charcoal by contract, also did some contract building for the Hecla Company. He was thus occupied for a period of two years, after which he again turned his attention to mining, in which he continued for seven years. In 1889, following his second mining experience, Mr. White engaged in the mercantile business in Twin Bridges, and he has been here since that time, barring a seven year period in which he withdrew from his mercantile interests partly and engaged in ranching and stock raising in Madison county. He eventually returned to Twin Bridges and

resumed his old business, and he is now conducting an immensely popular general merchandise business.

Mr. White is one of the prosperous and popular men of this section of the country, and is as highly esteemed for his qualities of good citizenship as for his general amiability. He is a Democrat, and at one time was especially active in the interests of the party, but of later years his ever growing business interests have detracted in a measure from his activities along those lines. He was a member of the state legislature in 1901 and 1902, and while a member of that body was the instigator of a number of reforms now in effect in Montana. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, but other than that has no fraternal affilia- tions, and is not a member of any church, although he regards them all with manifest respect and courtesy. Mr. White is an ardent sportsman, and is especially fond of horses. He is also devoted to automobiling, and in 1910 he made an overland trip in his car from Twin Bridges to San Diego, California. He was accompanied on the trip by his wife and three sons, and they visited every town between the two points which their route touched. The trip was unattended by any misfortunes or untoward adventures, and will long be remembered by them as one of their most pleasing experiences. Mr. White is enthusiastic in his views of the future of Montana, and says her prospects are brighter than those of any other state in the union, barring none. He has made numerous trips through the west in search of a business location, but he avers that the more he saw, the greater became his conviction that Montana could not be improved upon in the way of opportunities. Thus he has continued here, content to be a part of the busy life of the northwest, and secure in his belief in the continued prosperity of the country.

On March 31, 1891, Mr. White was united in mar- riage at Butte City, Montana, with Annie Miles, the daughter of George W. and Adelaide J. Miles, for- merly of Kansas City, Missouri. They have three sons: George M., who is associated in the business with his father, passed through the public schools and is a graduate of the San Diego Normal College, and the two younger, Irving J. and Lockett C., are both attending school.

JOSEPH CARL KEPPLER. One of the most interesting business careers of Montana has been that of the oldest and the first jeweler of the state. The profession of gold and silversmith is one of the oldest in the world, rank- ing with the artificer in bronze and iron of early Bibli- cal times. But so intimately is the coining of money associated with the production of the precious metals of gold and silver that the mint seems to have a more appropriate and natural place at the mines than the establishment of a manufacturing jeweler. But some of the first inhabitants of Montana the men who made the first lucky strikes in the mines, brought part of their findings to this pioneer jeweler and had it wrought into shapes of service and adornment.

Few men would have more interesting reminiscences of that early period in the history of this state than Joseph Carl Keppler, of Anaconda, the first regular jeweler who followed the inrush of population to this region. He has had an active business career here for upwards of half a century, and has long held the most prominent place in that line, and is also honored as one of the sterling citizens who have contributed to the making of the Treasure state.

A native of Germany, Joseph Carl Keppler was born on the 10th of March, 1844, and attended the schools of his fatherland until he was fourteen years old. At that time he accompanied his parents on their immi- gration to America and settlement in the old town of Galena, Illinois. There he began learning the trade of jeweler and watchmaker. His employer was J. W.

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Safely, who was also identified with Ulysses S. Grant in different enterprises at Galena, and the young ap- prentice came to know quite well that unpretentious and not very successful business man who in a few years was the commander in chief of the greatest army of the world and later became president of the country which he did so much to preserve.

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A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 25

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