A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 44

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

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lery, and serving until the close of the war, when he was honorably discharged. He is a member of the G. A. R. at Ft. Benton.

Mr. Dexter is a Republican in his political views, and at one time served in the office of public adminis- trator in Benton. He is a Mason of the third degree and is the oldest member in the order now living in Benton. He is also a member of the Eastern Star.

Like every pioneer who has lived through the formative period of western growth and development, Mr. Wheeler has had his full share of the thrills and chills which accompany close acquaintance with the un- civilized Indian, but his heart is bound up in the west, and Chouteau county, Montana, he regards as his rightful home, where he has witnessed the progress of almost fifty years of activity.

THOMAS LEWIS. Any record of the lives and activi- ties of the progressive men who have contributed to the development and advancement of Montana would be decidedly incomplete did it not make extended men- tion of Thomas Lewis, a well known retired citizen of Bozeman, and a resident of this state for nearly a half a century. Mr. Lewis was born in Ohio in 1842, and is a son of John and Nancy Lewis, who emigrated from Wales about 1838, settling first in Ohio and sub- sequently going to Missouri, where the mother died. Thirty-one years later Mr. Lewis lost his father, who passed away at Emporia, Kansas. After the mother's death the home was broken up, and at an early age he was thrown upon his own resources.

Until he was nine years of age Mr. Lewis attended the district schools to some extent, but his advantages were decidedly limited, and the greater part of his edu- cation was secured in the school of hard work and through observation. When he had reached the age of ten years he began to work, and when he was thirteen was a full-fledged hired man, working by the day or month at any employment that presented itself. Thus he was made self-reliant, and this faculty of always depending on his own work and judgment has proved of inestimable value to him in later years. In 1859 Mr. Lewis determined to try his fortune in the west and made his way to the Pike's Peak country, at a time when the whole nation was in a state of excitement over the mineral discoveries there. This did not prove a favorable venture, and to use Mr. Lewis' own words : "When I 'got broke' I was glad to go back to old Mis- souri." There he remained until the spring of 1863. working industriously and saving his wages, being still convinced that he could win success in the west, to which he decided to return. Securing an outfit at St. Joseph, Missouri, he set forth with four mules, and after a weary journey of ninety-three days on the plains, ar- rived in Virginia City, June 4, 1863. In 1864-65 he was engaged in mining in Alder Gulch, near Virginia City. and also about two miles below the present city of Butte, then marked by only a few log cabins. In the spring of 1866 Mr. Lewis came to Bozeman, where he was employed in a sawmill and at other work until the fall of 1868, when he rented and operated a thresh- ing machine during the season. In the following spring he traded his outfit for a farm, the first of a number of trades in which he invariably got the better of the agreement, but disposed of his property after harvest, and in 1870 resumed mining operations. In the spring following he assumed the management of a ranch in Gallatin county, and in 1872 took charge of a wagon train for the firm of Rich & Willson, with whom he remained until the spring of 1877. He then purchased the mules and wagons and continued operations in freighting during one season, but in 1878 sold his wagon train and purchased an interest in the mercantile business of General Willson, in Bozeman, this associa- tion continuing about one year. In 1880 he was asso-

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ciated with Major Pease in a trading post at the mouth of the Stillwater river, and in 1881 took over six hun- dred head of cattle to the Chicago market, his partner in this enterprise being J. H. Wells. In the spring of 1882 he associated himself with L. H. Carey and began the manufacturing of brick at Bozeman. In the fall of 1883 he purchased the interest of the senior partner of the firm of Rich & Wilson, conducting a grocery busi- ness until the succeeding fall, when the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent. In 1882 he was one of the organizers of the Bozeman National Bank, in which he held a directorship, until September 1, 1884, at which time he was elected vice-president of the in- stitution and held that office until September I, 1888, when he sold his interest, and since that time has been engaged in buying and selling real estate.

A stanch and active Democrat, Mr. Lewis has held various positions of public trust, and is looked upon as one of the reliable wheel-horses of the party here. He cast his first vote in favor of Grover Cleveland for the presidency in 1892. In 1889 he was chairman of the board of county commissioners of Gallatin county, was a member of city school board for four years, in 1896 became a member of the city council as alderman from the Third ward and at present is on Gallatin county high school board. In 1866 he became a member of Gallatin Lodge No. 6, A. F. & A. M., of which he served as master in 1880, 1888 and 1892. He and his family attend the Protestant Episcopal church and are well and favorably known in church circles. Probably Mr. Lewis is known best for his work in later years in the Pioneers of Gallatin county. He served as vice-president of this society in 1893, being elected pres- ident in 1907. He also holds membership in the Mon- tana State Pioneer Society, of which he was vice- president in 1894. With a reputation for the highest integrity, and holding the unquestioned confidence of his fellow citizens, Mr. Lewis takes high rank among the men who have made the city of Bozeman what it is, and is deserving of being placed among the city's representative citizens.

On July 13, 1882, Mr. Lewis was united in marriage with Miss Kate N. Martin, daughter of Judge Josephus P. Martin. Mrs. Lewis is a graduate of the California State Normal School at San Jose, in the public schools of which city she taught for five years, and also was a teacher in the Bozeman schools for two years prior to her marriage. Miss Edna Lewis, the only child of this union, graduated from the Bozeman high school when but fifteen years of age. She then attended the Montana State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, from which she was graduated, and subsequently graduated from the University of California with high honors and received the degree of Master of Mathe- matics. She has since been teaching in the Bozeman high school. In 1908 she was elected secretary of the Pioneer Society of Gallatin County Sons and Daugh- ters, was re-elected in 1909, and in 1910, 1911 and 1912 was elected president. A young lady of culture and re- finement, she is a general favorite in social circles of Bozeman, where her friends are legion.

JOSEPH GANS. Both the pioneer and the modern period of Montana history is represented by the well known citizen of Helena, Mr. Joseph Gans, president of the Gans & Klein Company of this city. Mr. Gans is one of the few pioneers who are still active and vigorous in business affairs, although to a considerable degree he has turned over the management of his business to his son, M. L. Gans. Mr. Gans has been a resident of Montana since 1866, and has had a life of all the varied experience which is typical of Mon- tana history during the last half century. He has been a freighter, a rancher and stockman, a merchant, and through it all, a most public spirited citizen.

Joseph Gans was born in Newstadt, in German

Bohemia, Austria. His father was M. L. Gans, who had served in the Austrian army. The family came to America in 1834 at which time, two brothers, F. R. and Herman Gans settled at Mobile, Alabama, while another brother, S. M. Gans, located at New York City. In the family of M. L. Gans the father, there were nine boys and six girls, and as Joseph, the Montana pioneer was the youngest of this large household cir- cle; he has little remembrance of the older members of the family, some of whom he has never seen.

Mr. Joseph Gans came to America in January, 186r. He had obtained a fairly substantial education in his native country, and since learning the English lan- guage, has become proficient in its use, and is a man of broad information and large knowledge of men and affairs. In New York City, after his arrival in this country, he remained one year and then crossed the Isthmus of Panama to California. He remained in the western states six months, after which he went to Oregon, where he was employed in a butcher shop for more than a year. Boise, Idaho, was his next destination, and from that point he was engaged in operating a pack-train for two seasons. During the summer of 1866 he went to Kootenai in British Co- lumbia, but during the same year returned to the states, and in December, 1866, arrived in Helena. Thus he became one of the early traders and merchants of that time, and had a store at the Jefferson Bridge, for three years. From merchandising he turned his atten- tion to ranching and cattle-raising, and was engaged in that industry for some years. In 1876 he became associated with Gans & Klein at Helena, also in the sheep business in Wyoming, where he remained as one of the leading sheep men of that place, until 1904. In the latter year he bought the business known as Gans & Klein Company, and has since been presi- dent of this well known concern.

Mr. Gans is a Republican in politics, and though never an aspirant for office, has always fulfilled his duties of citizenship with credit. He is a member of the Jewish church. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic lodge of Helena, and has for thirty-five consecutive terms held the office of treasurer. At Helena on November 26, 1878, Mr. Gans married Miss Rachel Kaufman. Their children are named as fol- lows: Sara L. Flatow, Hattie B., David S. and M. C. Gans.

HON. WILLIAM G. CONRAD. From the time of the Louisiana purchase of the great northwestern empire and its exploration by those intrepid men, Captains Lewis and Clark, a halo of romance has hovered over that land, particularly that portion embraced within the confines of the state of Montana. For more than a hundred years it has been the land of gold,-the land of promise to ventursome and energetic spirits who desired to get out of the beaten track and hew a fortune for themselves from the primeval wilderness. Among those who were inspired by the glitter of prom -. ise in the Rocky Mountains was Hon. William G. Conrad, and that his dreams of future empire and wealth have come true. is fully shown by the pros- perity of the great state of Montana at this time, and in a personal way by his success as an Indian trader, freighter, stock grower, financier, banker and miner. His coadjutor and partner from the beginning in the greater part of his business transactions has been his brother, Charles E. Conrad. The ramifications of his business are state wide and his interests not only multifarious in number, but colossal in magnitude in a country where business has been and is yet carried on upon a gigantic scale.

Hon. W. G. Conrad, the descendant of old colonial families, was born in Warren county, Virginia, Au- gust 3. 1848. His father was Colonel James W. Con- rad, whose immediate ancestor, Joseph Conrad, im-

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migrated from Germany to the New World and set- tled in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley during the early settlement of the Old Dominion. Colonel Con- rad married Miss Maria Ashby, also a descendant of the colonists who were identified with its history from the earliest period. Her ancestor on the paternal side, John Ashby, a loyal subject of King Charles I of Eng- land, was among the first who landed on Virginia soil. Mrs. Conrad's great-grandfather, also named John Ashby, was with General Washington under Brad- dock at Fort Duquesne, and her grandfather, Benjamin Ashby, was one of that great commander's confidential officers throughout the Revolutionary war. Colonel James W. and Maria (Ashby) Conrad were the par- ents of thirteen children. They owned a large Vir- ginia plantation, and the father was long a prominent judge in his district, as well as colonel of the state militia. In 1874 they removed to Montana in order to be near their children, who had preceded them to this state, and after many years of happy and con- tented life they passed peacefully beyond the purple of the mountains to the shining shore that awaits the generations of men.

Hon. William G. Conrad, their eldest son, was reared on the plantation in Virginia, and after attending the district school perfected himself in his studies at the famous Washington Academy. At the early age of nineteen he determined to strike out for himself and together with his brother Charles started for the head waters of the Missouri river, by rail to Cincinnati, thence down the river to Cairo, up the Mississippi to St. Louis and on to Fort Benton, which they reached in safety after a three months' journey, although pass- ing through many perils on the upper Missouri, where hostile Indians were the only inhabitants. On arriv- ing at Fort Benton, Mr. Conrad at once plunged into business, and his career has been remarkable in its upward and onward march. He began as a clerk in the mercantile establishment of I. G. Baker & Com- pany, and at the expiration of a period of four years became a member of the firm. Within eight years he and his brother secured the possession of the im- mense resources and prestige of the firm by purchase. The business of this firm was one of the most exten- sive and far-reaching of any conducted by private capital in the northwest and Canada, comprising as it did large freighting operations and numerous mercan- tile establishments in both the United States and the Dominion of Canada. Enormous quantities of sup- plies were transported from Fort Benton for both their own use and that of the Canadian government, which service required the use of hundreds of men and thousands of oxen, horses and mules. After the pur- chase of the Baker interests the Conrad Brothers di- vided the control of the business. W. G. Conrad took charge of the Montana branch, while his brother Charles had control of the Canadian department. The latter included large stores at Lethbridge, Fort Mc- Leod, Calgary and Fort Walsh, and a bonded freight- ing line extended from eastern Canada to the North- west Territory. The firm handled all kinds of military and Indian supplies and furnishes the money to the Canadian government with which to pay the mounted police and Indian annuities. In Montana their freight lines extended almost the entire extent of the territory, supplying Helena, Bozeman, Missoula and many other places with their merchandise, and the government with supplies for soldiers and Indians. In addition to this vast business they also operated a number of steamboats on the Missouri river and several Canadian streams. It was a common thing for the firm to handle more than twenty million pounds of freight in a year, but their executive ability and systematic manner of conducting the business was such that the immense mass was carried on apparently without effort and entirely devoid of friction. The business was discontinued in Vol 11-10

1888, when the Canadian department was disposed of to the Hudson Bay Company, the safe being concluded in London. Before the end of that year they had also disposed of the freighting line.

As a side issue to their great affairs, they had be- come interested in the cattle business in Montana as well as in Canada, and were the possessors of im- mense herds in both places. The business and assets of the firm became so extensive that Mr. Conrad de- termined to establish a bank in 1880, and accordingly he started a banking house in Fort Benton, called the First National Bank of Fort Benton, of which he was president during its life there, and together with his brother was the sole owner of the bank when it re- moved to Great Falls and renamed the Northwestern National Bank. In 1894 they sold one fifth of the stock in the Northwestern to the Boston & Montana Copper Company, and B. D. Hatcher was put in charge of the bank. At the end of two years Mr. Hatcher purchased the interest of the Conrads in the bank for the Boston & Montana Copper Company, and two months later the bank closed its doors. Then it was that the true spirit and sterling character of W. G. Conrad was shown in a conspicuous unmistakable manner. He was in White Post, Virginia, at the time, but when the news was flashed by telegraph that the bank had failed, Mr. Conrad at once dispatched a message, saying: "I want every depositor paid in full !" In this message he also asked James T. Stanford to act as receiver. Through Mr. Conrad's influence in Washington, Mr. Stanford was appointed receiver and the indebtedness of the bank to its depositors paid in full, a fact which is known not only to the people of Montana, but to the bankers of the United States. Legally Mr. Conrad was not liable for the indebted- ness of the bank, but he waived all other considera- tions for the benefit of his friends and neighbors who had deposited their money with him in the full con- fidence that it was safe because they knew him so well and believed so fully in his honesty and uprightness as a man, and his conduct at the crucial moment amply justified their confidence.

In recent years Mr. Conrad's activities have taken an even wider range. He has recently established a big hanking institution in the city of Helena called the Conrad Trust and Savings Bank, and is a heavy stock- holder and president of the Montana Life Insurance Company. He is president of the Conrad Townsite Company, which owns large tracts of land, water com- panies and power plants. He is also a large owner in and treasurer of the Conrad-Price Cattle Company, which ranked among the leading cattle growers of Mon- tana and Canada. He is the principal stockholder of the Spring Hill Mine near Helena, a gold proposition that has an estimated value of one million dollars; and, as though all these interests were not sufficient to oc- cupy the time and exhaust the faculties of this inde- fatigable man. he controis the stock and is president of the Conrad National of Kalispell, the Pondera Valley State Bank of Conrad, and the First State Bank of Livingston. He is president of the Conrad-Stanford Company at Helena. which firm was established in this city in 1902, when it purchased the assets of the First National Bank and the Merchants National Bank, and is the owner of mines and real estate in various parts of the state.

Only a man of Mr. Conrad's iron constitution could withstand the strain imposed by his various responsi- ble and exacting duties. His operations in the sphere of finance are of colossal magnitude and far-reaching in variety, yet they are all so systematized that they seem as easy of accomplishment by him as though they con- sisted of an ordinary business of no greater magnitude than the conducting of a cross roads store. He holds high rank among the financiers of the country and pur- sues a simple, unostentations life. The Conrad Bank-

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ing Company of Great Falls is another of his institu- tions and he owns in addition large business blocks in that city. In fact, he is one of the greatest factors in the business of the northwest; and so honorable and fair have been his dealings throughout that -no one be- grudges him the high station in wealth and influence that he has attained.

Politically Mr. Conrad is a Democrat and has been an advocate of the principles of that party since he has been of legal age, and the party has honored him with various offices, which he filled with signal ability. He was county commissioner of Chouteau county when barely of age, and held the office while he was a resi- dent of the county. He was also a member of the state senate in 1879, filled a number of offices in Fort Benton and was its first mayor. He has also been a candidate for the United States senate, and in 1889 lacked but four votes of being elected. His friends have repeatedly urged his candidacy for the office, know- ing his great ability and fitness for the position, and he has been favorably mentioned as a candidate for the vice-presidency of the United States.

The marriage of Mr. Conrad occurred in 1876, when he espoused the daughter of Hon. Paul L. and Almira (Hopper) Bowen, of Virginia,-Miss Fannie E. Bowen. Five children have been born to them. They are Maria Josephine, the wife of A. Gilbank Twigg, living in Fa- quier county, Virginia; Minnie Atkisson; George Har- field, married to Kate Kennedy and resides in Helena, and they have one child, Kathryn; Arthur Franklin married Lanita Randell, and is living in Great Falls, Montana, and they have one son, William H .; and Wil- liam Lee, who died in 1878, at the age of one year. The wife and mother, who was born October 5, 1853, passed away in Helena on February 20, 1911. Her loss was deeply deplored wherever she was known, and the fol- lowing comment which appeared in a Helena paper at the time of her death is a fitting commentary on the life of one who was well beloved by all who were privi- leged to share in her acquaintance: "Mrs. Conrad was the embodiment of southern hospitality, and whether it was at Fort Benton in the early days, in Great Falls in later years, or more recently in Helena, her friends always knew they were more than welcome in her home. In recent years Mrs. Conrad had not been physi- cally able to take the leading part she did in earlier days in the social life and the philanthropies of the commonwealth in which she lived, but those who had the pleasure of her acquaintance and friendship in the early days recall the delightful way in which she did what she could to make others happy. But she never lost her interest in the welfare of those less fortunate than herself, and there were many, not only among her close associates, but among those who looked to her as a friend in time of need, who will sincerely mourn her." The legislature of Montana, in session at the time of the death of Mrs. Conrad, adjourned as a special mark of respect to her memory.

In addition to his beautiful residence in Helena, Mr. Conrad owns a fine estate in Virginia, his native state, as well as that of his wife, and there he and his fam- ily have been wont to repair for a season of rest and recreation during the winter months. Mr. Conrad is a member of the Episcopal church, as was also his wife, and he is personally identified with the Masonic order.

In all his relations to his fellow men, Mr. Conrad has been just and upright and unsparingly fair, and as a matter of course, he stands high in the estimation of all business, financial and social circles, and is fully en- titled to the distinction accorded to him.

HENRY S. NEAL. As assessor of Deer Lodge county, Montana, the subject of this sketch is held in the highest regard by the people of the entire county and especially of the city of Anaconda. He has held other public

offices, in each of which he acquitted himself with dis- tinction and evidently with satisfaction to the people, for it is by the people's voice that he holds his present honorable position.

Henry S. Neal is a native of Maryland, born in Balti- more, January 15, 1844. His parents moved to West- minster, that state, while he was an infant, and there made their home. He was educated in the public schools and entered college, but at the outbreak of hostilities between the states in 1861, he left college when but seventeen years old and joined the Con- federate army under General Robert E. Lee. He became a member of Breathitt battery, of the Flying Artillery service, and served in that branch of the army through the entire period of the war up to the surrender of General Lee. Very shortly after the close of hostilities he decided to locate in the west. He traveled from Virginia to St. Louis, Missouri by rail; thence to Kansas City by boat; to Atchinson, Kansas, by rail, where he joined Shrewsbury's train consisting of twenty- four mule and ox-teams and thirty-two men. With this outfit he traveled to Julesburg, thence up Pole creek to Fort Buford, and then by Green river to Salt lake. where he arrived in September, 1866. He found em- ployment in the planing mills of Decker & Evans in Salt Lake City, and worked there until the following spring, when he went to Virginia City, Montana, and after a very brief stop went on to Helena. At this place he began placer mining, and followed it with varied success for some time. He enlisted in the Montana Militia, serving as lientenant under Neil Howe. With his company he made a trip to Yellowstone park, where trouble arose in the ranks, and the entire company, with the exception of the officers, left the service. With his fellow officers, Lieutenant Neal returned to Helena. where he again took up placer mining at Last Chance Gulch.

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A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 44

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