A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 39

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

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The suddenness of Mr. Raymond's death came as a blow to the whole community, for he had been walking about the town the day before. He died during the night peacefully, his death being caused by heart trouble. On the following Thursday, September 5, 1912, the fu- neral was held, the archdeacon, S. D. Hooker, of Helena, conducting the services according to the beautiful ritual of the Episcopal church. The great number of friends who followed the body to its last resting place in Sheri- dan cemetery were mute witnesses to the love and re- gard everywhere felt for the old pioneer.

The Sheridan Forum for September the fifth, prints as their leading editorial an appreciation of Winthrop Raymond, from which the following is taken: "His life work was not attended by the trumpets' blare, but quietly and unostentatiously he went about what he had to do with a forcefulness that was successfully effective. His financial undertakings were carried on with integrity and with a keen eye to good business that won him the

Peritwy Raymond

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

respect and admiration of his contemporaries. Of his good deeds we have no chronicle except as they are lovingly written in the hearts of the many he has aided. Widely known in Montana and affectionately respected, it was considered a privilege to grasp the hand of kind and genial 'Wint' Raymond. He was a pioneer in the fullest sense of the word, for he spent his energies in the building of the new commonwealth, as well as in the building of his private fortune."

The following extract is taken from the memorial pre- pared by the Society of the Pioneers of Montana, who knew and appreciated as no one else could the true value of Mr. Raymond's life and work: "Mr. Raymond came to Montana as a boy; young he was as the country itself, and he grew to manhood's estate, and increased in civic strength and righteousness, just as the young state grew in those things which have made Montana the proud commonwealth of today. Public spirited, loyal and generous, his pride in his town, his country and his state, was only exceeded by his tender love and devo- tion to his friends and family. Respected and trusted by all, loved by those who knew him best, his is a heritage rare and precious beyond price. Winthrop Ray- mond never dissembled; he was for or against; you could always find him on one side or the other, fighting for his convictions; policy was not his course; brusque, plain spoken, honest and frank; yet, with all consider- ing other men's feelings and beliefs, he went his way and lived his life, satisfied to do justice to all mankind, and enjoying the good-will of his fellow men. His name will long be associated with the early history of this sec- tion; his memory will linger in the minds of all."

How firm was his belief and faith in Montana is shown by the following remark which he made shortly before his death: "Montana to me is one of the great promis- ing states of the future, with her mineral and agricul- tural wealth, her stock raising and other resources. She will eventually take the lead over all and will come to the front."

WILLIAM TECUMSEH SWEET. Ohio has contributed many fine men to the building of the great west, and Montana has received her share of that excellent type of American citizenship-the Buckeye. For none of them should this part of the state be more grateful than for William Tecumseh Sweet, who, a veteran of the Civil war, came to Montana in 1866, and has spent many years successfuly engaged in ranching. He now holds the office of clerk of court for the fifth judicial dis- trict and is a wonderfully popular incumbent of the same.

Mr. Sweet was born in Webster, a suburb of Ports- mouth, Ohio, August 27, 1836. There he passed his boyhood and youth, his life being happily uneventful until the outbreak of the Civil war. On June 10, 1862, he enlisted in Company B of the Eighty-seventh Ohio Infantry, and thereupon entered upon a varied and thrilling military career. In September of the same year he was taken prisoner at Harper's Ferry, but was paroled on the field. Stonewall Jackson was the Con- federate general upon that occasion. On parole Mr. Sweet came home and stayed two weeks and then went to Cincinnati, where he enlisted in the navy on the gun- boat Gazelle, commanded by Captain Thatcher. He shipped to Cairo, Illinois, from Cincinnati, and then started with the intention of joining the Gulf Squadron, but the vessel failed to pass inspection at New Orleans and so lay there all winter. In the spring Mr. Sweet joined the Red River expedition, and subsequently re- turned on the Mississippi and was stationed on that river on patrol duty until the expiration of the term of his enlistment. However, he only shipped for one year, but he served sixteen months. He was sent to Cairo, Illinois, and there paid off and then returned to the home town of Webster, where after a stay of ten days he re-enlisted, this time as a member of Com-

pany F of the One Hundred and Ninety-second Ohio Regiment, and served in this connection until the close of the war, becoming second duty sergeant. His com- mander was Colonel Butterfield. Mr. Sweet was dis- charged at Winchester, Virginia, and then came home and remained in the home circle, taking up the happy old ties, until March 4, 1866.

That date marks the first identification of the subject of this review with Montana. On June 12 he located at Helena and engaged in the business of manufacturing charcoal, which he followed for four months, accumu- lating a tidy sum of money. Believing that he would enjoy the free life of the plains, he then went to Jeffer- son county and entered into ranching and stock- raising, about eight miles out from Boulder. He con- tinued this for a year and then entered mercantile business at Boulder, which he followed for eight years, subsequently selling out and again going into the ranch- ·ing business, which he has followed more or less ever since.

Mr. Sweet is assuredly of the right material for public office, being steadfast in duty, faithful and in- telligent, and the people feel safe in intrusting him with any public duty. He was justice of the peace for twenty years, and is now clerk of court of the fifth judicial district, serving his first term in that capacity. It is an open secret that Mr. Sweet can hold this office as long as he wishes.

In glancing at Mr. Sweet's early life, the fact becomes apparent that his educational opportunities were lim- ited, for circumstances were such that he was able to attend only two or three years in the district schools of Scioto county, Ohio. However, he has since re- paired this deficiency in very definite fashion by read- ing good books and assimilating the culture of the people with whom he associated. No one could be more truly a self-made and self-educated man. His first adventure in a wage-earning capacity was as a helper to John Richard, of Bloom township, Scioto county, for whom he worked for five years at six dollars and a quarter a month. And, mirabile dictu in this day of extravagance and high living, he saved a bank account out of this lordly stipend.

Mr. Sweet was married in Boulder, March 9, 1869, to Emma Iola Cook, daughter of Captain Hiram and Mary E. Cook, and who was born in Kalamazoo, Mich- igan. The death of this admirable woman occurred in Boulder on March 4, 1897, at the age of forty-seven years. Her father was a veteran of the Civil war, serving in a Michigan regiment, enlisting as a private and coming out a captain. His business was that of a carpenter and contractor. The maiden name of the mother was Mary E. Vinig, and she was a school teacher previous to her marriage to the captain. Both of these good people are deceased long since, their re- mains being interred in the cemetery at Boulder.

The union of Mr. and Mrs. Sweet was blessed by the birth of eight sons and daughters, the number be- ing equally divided as to sex and the good and useful citizenship to which they have attained must be indeed gratifying to the subject. The names of the children are as follows : Nellie Bly, Chester Weed, Ralph Waldo, Blanche Emma, May Elizabeth, William Tecumseh, Shelby Cook and Kittie Louise. Two of the daughters are deceased, namely : Nellie Bly and Blanche Emma, and all that is mortal of them rests beside their beloved mother.' All the others are excellently fixed in life. Ralph Waldo is the owner of valuable mining interests in Mexico; May Elizabeth Sweet is her father's chief deputy and she has his unqualified recommendation that she is the best in the business; Chester Weed is manager of the Bozeman Mining Company, of Boze- man, Montana; William Tecumseh has held the office of manager of the Ryan-Virden Produce Company at Butte for the past eight years; Shelby Cook is engineer for the Royal Milling Company at Kalispell, Montana.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Joseph N. Sweet, father of our subject, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and died at Webster, Ohio, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. For fifty years he was in the ministry of the Baptist church, a position involving much opportunity to do good and little to acquire riches. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Popejoy, was born at Sinking Springs, Ohio, and lived to the age of seventy-nine years, her demise oc- curring at Webster. The father was a soldier in the War of 1812.

Mr. Sweet is a communicant of the Episcopal church, taking an active part in its good works. He is very prominent in Masonic circles, and has the distinction of being the first man to be made a Mason in Jefferson county, his initiation being at Radersburg, the county seat at that time. He has since filled nearly every office in the lodge. He is very fond of hunting and fishing and engages in these sports whenever opportunity pre- sents. He is a stanch Democrat, and is of influence in the councils of the local Democratic party. He was the youngest of four boys in his father's family, all Democrats in political faith, but Mr. Sweet nevertheless cast his first presidential vote for Lincoln and he re- gards this as the pleasantest political incident of his life. Mr. Sweet belongs to the best type of American citizen- ship and than this no higher praise can be given.

GEORGE W. WAKEFIELD. While transmitting to poster- ity the memory of such men as the subject of this sketch, it will instill in the minds of our children the important lesson that honor and station are the sure reward of continual exertion, that success is seldom denied those whose lives have been filled with honest industry, and that those who labor energetically in their younger years may spend the evening of life in comfortable retirement.

Mr. Wakefield was born in the city of Bangor, Penob- scot county, Maine, October 15, 1833, and is a son of Benjamin and Betsy Wakefield, natives of Maine. His father, a contractor and builder by occupation, was a prominent Whig politician of his day, and served in the state legislature. His death occurred in his eighty- sixth year. Of his four children, George W. is the only survivor.

George W. Wakefield attended the public schools of his native place, and when but twelve years of age se- cured his first employment in the old Stetson Hotel in Bangor. After working therein for about six months, he went to Lincoln, Maine, in charge of horses, and later at Bangor, learned the trade of blacksmith in the shop of John Wingate. He also for some time was engaged in painting, and for one winter was engaged with his brothers in freighting between Bangor and Aroostock, Maine, but in the fall of 1853 he married at Bangor and left home for St. Anthony (now East Minneapolis), Minnesota, becoming superintendent of the teaming busi- ness of D. Morrison. In the fall of 1858 he went across the country from St. Paul, to Fort Geary, Red River of the North, remaining there but a short time. He left Fort Geary in January, 1859, making the return trip of five hundred miles alone with a team of three dogs.

During the excitement over the discovery of gold in 1860 at Pike's Peak, Mr. Wakefield went overland with a mule team, and continued on to California Gulch and into New Mexico, spending the greater part of his time in prospecting and mining, but eventually returned to Colorado. In the spring of 1861 he made the journey overland to San Francisco, California, with a four mule team, there taking the steamer Sierra Nevada for the Frazier river country, and during the winter of 1861 he worked at blacksmithing in Oregon. In the spring of 1862 he went up the Columbia river to the Florence mine, returning by way of Lewiston, Idaho, on the Sal- mon river and Clearwater.

About this time with six other men with their camp- ing outfit and at what is now known as Spokane all their stock was stolen by Indians and they were left afoot.

They were on their way to Alder Gulch, now Virginia City. After looking in vain for their stock they con- cluded to go to war with the Indians, but about this time an old Indian came into their camp for something to eat, the white men showed him some silver money and told him he should have it if he got their horses for them and in a short time he returned with the horses, and thereby was the means of avoiding considerable trouble.

From here he went to the old mining camp at Orifino, Idaho, returning to Lewiston, Idaho, he spent about one-half of the winter there, and then statted out with a pack outfit and horses over the mountains, arriving in Alder Gulch, Idaho, now Montana, in the spring of 1863. He was engaged in prospecting and mining until the fall of 1864, when he returned to St. Anthony, Min- nesota, and in the spring of 1865 left again for Montana with his wife, in a two-horse spring wagon. The several wagons in the outfit crossed the North Platte river at the regular crossing near Sage creek, after which Mr. Wakefield, being impatient to complete the journey, drove ahead of the other wagons until he came up with an outfit that had been robbed of its horses and two of its men killed by the Indians, this inducing him to return to the other wagons for greater safety.

They continued their journey through Bridger Pass and then on the Soda Butte Station where Mr. Wake- field again left the other wagons behind and hastened on to Rock Station. At this point he again learned of the outrages of the hostile Indians, who had taken the war-path, and was compelled to wait over a day until the rest of the outfit had caught up with him, and they journeyed on to the Laramie river and into Alder Gulch, where they arrived July 4, 1865.

Subsequently they went to Blackfoot, but in the fall of 1865 Mr. Wakefield returned to within twelve miles of Alder Gulch and the following spring engaged in the dairy business, also establishing a stage station about ten miles from Virginia City during the following winter. In the summer of 1867 he located on a ranch near the Dempsey ranch, but in 1870 he became the owner of the Point of Rocks Station, and also carried on farming during that and the following year.

In 1872 he removed to Bozeman, Montana, and pur- chased property, engaging in the livery and hotel busi- ness and conducting a stage line between Bozeman and Virginia City.

Selling out in the spring of 1881 he contracted to fur- nish the Northern Pacific Railroad with one hundred thousand railroad ties on Mill creek, and on the com- pletion of this venture he went to Mammoth Hot Springs. In 1883 he organized the first transportation line for conveying tourists through the Yellowstone Na- tional Park and conducted it with success until 1893. During the year 1892-1893 he opened and managed the new Hotel Bozeman at Bozeman, Montana.

The latter part of this year he disposed of his inter- ests in Bozeman and the park and engaged in the livery business in Livingston, the following two years 'he again spent in taking passengers through the National Park. The next four years he was proprietor of the Albemarle Hotel in Livingston.

His next enterprise was conducting a farm at Cinna- bar, Montana, and taking passengers through. the National Park, but after two years he sold his coaches and horses and returned to Livingston. Although nearly eighty years of age, Mr. Wakefield retains the vitalities of middle life to a remarkable degree, and his mind is even more vigorous than his body, being the marvel of the modern short-lived business men.

His life has been crowded full of work, and he has always enjoyed the life and opportunities given him. Wealth and friends have been his, and he enjoys all these with no trace of that offensive ostentation that has so often shaded the lives of other men. It is a pleasure to bear testimony to the real worth, and this last testi- mony voices the sentiments of the entire community.

G. W. Weckefrete

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Until 1893 Mr. Wakefield was a Republican, but since that year has given his support to the candidates of the Democratic party.

In 1853 Mr. Wakefield was married to Miss Margaret Brittain, who was born at Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada, and she passed away in 1903, having been the mother of one child, Libbie, the wife of Dr. Samuel F. Way, of Livingston.

WILLIAM WESLEY MCCALL. The life of Mr. McCall has been one of varied experience and enterprises, and he has been through almost all the phases of life in a new country. He was born in Millersburg, Ohio, on No- vember 14, 1845. His father, Thomas McCall, was fifty-three years old at the time of his son's birth, as he was born in Chesapeake, Maryland, in the third year of Washington's first administration. The elder Mr. McCall was one who felt the lure of new countries, and when his son was one year old he moved from what was then the middle west section of the land to the far country of Iowa, and in Van Buren county he followed stock raising and farming until the time of his death, which occurred at the age of seventy-two. He now lies at rest in a rural cemetery near the town of Birm- ingham. His wife, Mary Otis McCall, was born in Ireland, in 1816. She has been a resident of America since she was one year old, and is now living at Smith Centre, Kansas.

William Wesley McCall received the sturdy training of the farmer's son, first on his father's farm and later on those of the neighbors. He attended school in Birmingham when it was in session, and the rest of the time he farmed. One summer he worked for an Iowan whose name was Timothy Day. His stipend was twenty-five dollars a month, and "harvest wages," He received one dollar per acre for cutting grain, and through the harvest time he was able to cut four acres a day. That was remarkable for a boy, but Mr. Mc- Call has made a record more than once on "piece work." At the age of twenty he left home and came to Montana, entering Virginia City on August 9, 1866. Here he took up the work with which he was most familiar and for two years worked on a ranch at the mouth of Alder Gulch. At the end of that period he bought a place of his own near Silver Star, and for seven years continued in the stock business. In the year 1875 the grasshoppers stripped the fields and left nothing in the whole country, so Mr. McCall left his ranch and went to Butte, where he engaged in team- ing for various mining companies, including that of W. A. Clark.

Mr. McCall was married in 1873 to Miss Celeste Grace Jordan, daughter of Harrison and Catherine Jordan, of Fish Creek. Mr. Jordan had come to Iowa from Springfield, Illinois, in 1854. He farmed in or near Pleasantville, Iowa, eight or nine years, re- moving to Alder Gulch, Montana, where he was en- gaged in the mercantile business, and in 1866 sold out and then was extensively engaged in stock raising, dairying and ranching near Fish Creek. Mr. McCall of this sketch, in 1876 rented his own ranch and moved to Butte and was there for about two years and a half, and in 1878 rented his father-in-law's ranch on Fish Creek, remaining there until 1880. In the summer of 1876 Mrs. McCall conducted the Centennial boarding house at Centennial mill, and it was from here that Mr. McCall hauled cord wood to the mill, a distance of nine miles. He cut, hauled, delivered and put up the wood alone and at that he was able to handle two cords a dav with his one span of horses, thus earning eleven dollars a day. A local paper commenting upon it at the time challenged the countryside to "Beat it if vou can."

In 1880 Mr. McCall bought the Half-Way House on the Little Pipestone, so called because it stood just half way between Butte and Silver Star. He ran this hotel

for four and a half years and then sold out to Fred Ehrig. He was also postmaster at Grace, named in honor of Mrs. McCall. In part payment for his hotel he took a quarter section of hay meadow and some other ranch property near Silver Star, and for a time he worked this place. He gave it up to enter the meat business at Silver Star and after a year he branched out in this undertaking and bought the market at Twin Bridges and a little later the Sheridan market, and for two years conducted the three places.

It was in 1890 that Mr. McCall came to Whitehall and opened a hotel in the only building in town. The other two structures were tents, one being used by Dad Winkler for a saloon and the other by F. A. Stuart for a residence. The railroad was just build- ing through the town then, and it was not a densely populated settlement. Mr. McCall conducted his hotel for two years and then sold out to go into the general merchandise business. In 1892 he sold out his interest in this also and went into the livery business. While keeping hotel Mr. McCall acted as postmaster, the hotel serving as post office until a building was put up for that purpose. In 1897 he again resumed hotel keeping. and for a time ran the Jefferson House, now known as the Costin. When he disposed of this place Mr. Mc- Call bought an interest in the placer mining industry on the Little Pipestone and he is still connected with that concern. He went into the butcher business again and remained in that for two years, until he was ap- pointed postmaster, which office he still holds. This is the third time Mr. McCall has received the appoint- ment of postmaster, and this is a tribute to his effi- ciency as a public official as well as to his power in the Republican party.

Mr. McCall has had his share of the experiences of the pioneer. When his party reached this part of Montana, the Big Horn river was so high that they were obliged to build rafts on which to carry over their effects. When they reached the other side they found themselves in the midst of a war between the Indian tribes, and Mr. McCall beheld for the first time the interesting but rather grewsome object, a scalp. He was relieved to know that it had been on an In- dian's head, and not on a white man's. The Redskins did not molest the emigrants, although three of their cattle were stolen, but even these were subsequently returned, and the company moved on in safety. Mr. and Mrs. McCall can recount many an interesting ad- venture of the early days, and they especially enjoy such a conversation with Mr. and Mrs. S. F. Tuttle, of Boulder City, whose wedding was celebrated with their own, thus making that day of March 16, 1873, a doubly joyful one.

Only one of the seven children of Mr. and Mrs. McCall is now at home as the others are all married. Ernest Ralph, the eldest, is now about forty and he and his family of four children, Melba, Edith, Ralph and Clyde, and his wife reside on a ranch in Jefferson county, about five miles from Whitehall on Whitetail creek. Ida Maud is now Mrs. Frank E. Houghton. her husband being associated with Ernest N. McCall in ranching. Fav Eugene McCall and his family reside in Whitehall, where he is in the cigar manufacturing business and also conducts a barber shop. His daugh- ters are Iona and Evelyn. Chester Giles is married and works in the Badger mine in Butte. Floyd Harold and his wife also reside in Butte, where he is a car in- spector for the Northern Pacific and have one child, Helen. Pearl Blanche McCall Gannon lives in Pied- mont, where her husband, Thomas H. Gannon, is operator for the Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railway. They have one child, a baby, Erma. The daughter at home is Miss Ethel Lucile McCall.

In his active and diversified business career Mr. Mc- Call has found time to devote to other things than the pursuit of gain. He is an active member of the Chris-

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tian church, and a worker in the Sunday-school, of which he has been superintendent for two years. In the Masonic lodge he has filled all the offices, and he is also a member of the Eastern Star. He has always been active in municipal affairs, and was at one time councilman of Whitehall. Both he and Mrs. McCall are enthusiastic Montanians and it is here that their interests lie. Mrs. McCall's parents both ended their days here. Her mother, Catherine Tuttle Jordan, died in 1904, at the age of sixty-five. Her husband survived her five years, although he was fifteen years her senior. Harrison Jordan died at the ripe age of eighty-five years, seven months and eleven days. Both are buried in Fish Creek cemetery, one monument marking both graves.

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A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 39

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