A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 47

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

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DAVID HILGER. In almost every new community there is one man or a group of men who organize and develop and encourage the founding of new enterprises, who with unsurpassed energy and unsparing selfishness work unceasingly to forward the growth of the community and improve its social and economic conditions. Such a man as this is David Hilger of Lewistown, Montana. He has been the heart and soul of every big project launched in Lewistown and in the Judith Basin since he came here to live. Realizing that no town, no matter how great her resources or natural advantages, could grow without railroads he put forth every effort to connect Lewistown with the world by this means. Such a story is not unusual in the rapidly growing com- munities of the West, and in the case of Mr. Hilger, while prosperity must necessarily be his, he has never in all his dealings deviated i'm the path of honor, and those who know him declare that when David Hilger gives his word it is final. This, perhaps, this high moral ideal to which he holds so closely, this strength of character, and nobility of purpose, is what has' made him not only the best known in this section of Mon- tana, but also has made him one of the best-loved.

In the year 1867, there arrived in Montana, under the leadership of Captain Davies, a company of sixty families and three hundred single men; prospective citizens of the territory. They were men and women not unacquainted with the aspects of life in new settle- ments, for they had come from Minnesota, which had been a state for less than ten years. They had known what it meant to carve a civilization out of the wilder- ness, and to live unafraid in the constant menace of death at the hands of the merciless savage. When it is remembered that the census of Montana for 1860 showcd a population of two hundred and eighty-eight white men, it will be understood that an influx of such proportions was a matter of import. The company came by the northern route, and enjoyed a peaceful journey during the entire quarter of a year which the trip con- sumed. At 'Fort Union, four companies of federal troops escorted the emigrants through what they feared might be a dangerous stage of their journey.

Among the families of this party was that of Nicholas Hilger, who was formerly a resident of Sibley county, Minnesota. Probably no one in the whole company enjoyed the trip as did the nine year old David, his son, for fearless of the dangers and. unconscious of the real perils, he abandoned himself to the novelty and strangeness of it all with the carefree joy of a

child. He had celebrated his ninth birthday on New Year's day of the year 1867, and that twelve month was a veritable wonder year for him. The Hilger family settled in Helena and their name has ever since been associated with the growth of the city. There are few of the older residents who do not remember Judge Hilger, so long a prominent figure in the life of the capital.

David Hilger grew up in the city, and upon finishing school began his economic career in the cattle business. He located at the famed "Gate of the Mountains," situated in the county of Lewis and Clark and so named by the great explorers themselves. From cattle raising Mr. Hilger turned his attention to sheep, and it was this interest which brought him to Fergus county, a more suitable territory for such an enterprise. In 1881 Mr. Hilger located on Dog creek, in the northern part of the county. He had bought a small band of sheep and an outfit consisting of one wagon and two horses, and with this equipment he began what was something in the nature of an experiment. Sheep-raising was a new industry in that region, but it proved a profitable one, and for twelve years Mr. Hilger continued to carry on his operations in this phase of the business of ranching on a constantly increasing scale.

In the meantime the county had been settling up rapidly, and Lewistown had become important as the commercial center of a large and thriving territory. Mr. Hilger had from the first taken a leading part in public affairs, and in the spring of 1894, he was ap- pointed register of the United States land office. He took up his residence in Lewistown when he entered upon his duties of this office and he has made the city his home ever since. When the four years of his serv- ice in the register's office expired, Mr. Hilger and George W. Cook, formed a partnership in the real estate busi- ness, with a land office in connection with it. This partnership was very successful and was continued for some time before it was dissolved. Following this the Hilger Loan and Realty Company, one of the largest concerns of the kind in Montana, was organized by him, and he has been the president from the first.

From a grazing country, the Judith district has be- come one of the rich agricultural sections of the state and accordingly, the county has become a place of smaller ranches, instead of vast ranges. Mr. Hilger has sold his extensive ranch properties, but retains his interest in the business project which he has put into successful operation.

What Mr. Hilger has done for Lewistown is a story in itself. The development of new communities is a work which might be said to be an inherited taste with him, for he is the son of a pioneer, and might easily have accepted the achievements of his father as a starting point for his own career. But he preferred to follow the paternal example and to leave a new field for one still newer, and so the work which his father accomplished in Helena, the son did in Lewistown.

In 1890 the Judith Hardware Company was organized through the efforts of Mr. Hilger and some of the other good business men of Lewistown. Mr. Hilger is now president of this company which is the largest estab- lishment of this sort in the county. He is also presi- dent of the First National Bank, and in this position fills an important place in the financial world of this wealthy county. These are only a few of his many in- terests, for he is one of the first of the commercial representatives of Lewistown to come forward to the support of any enterprise for the benefit of the city, and his prudence and foresight combined with his initiative in business undertakings have been of incalculable value 10 the community.

Leadership in political affairs was almost inevitable for Mr. Hilger, when he had once allied himself with the Democratic faction of Fergus county .. He was se- lected to preside over the first county convention held

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in the county by the party, and when the first county central committee was appointed, he was chairman of that. At the organization of the party in Lewistown, the chairmanship of the first Democratic municipal convention was unanimously assigned to him.

The marriage of David Hilger and Christina H. Fergus took place on October 20, 1884. Mrs. Hilger is the daughter of William Fergus, a brother of James Fergus of this county, which bears his name, and the family is known to every old timer in this part of the state. Two sons, Edward and David J., and three daughters, Mand H., Agnes and Christine L., have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hilger. Edward and Agnes died in childhood, while the eldest daughter, Maud H., was married in October, 1912, to Mr. George H. Osborne of Chicago, the son has entered upon a business career, and the other daughter, Christine L., is attending school. The only fraternal order to which Mr. Hilger belongs is that of the Elks, being a charter member of the Lewistown Lodge No. 456, and he was district deputy of this order for Montana in 1906.

The belief which Mr. Hilger has in the future of Montana is founded not alone upon his knowledge of her great resources, but also upon his acquaintance with the citizenship of the state and its high average of industrial efficiency, of which he is himself an ex- cellent example.

No sketch of Mr. Hilger's career would be complete without some reference to his public services, given not only without remuneration but at an actual loss of time and money to him. He served as a representative from Fergus county in the eighth legislative assembly in 1903-4 and aside from the regular session, took part in two extra sessions, one to appropriate money for a Montana exhibit at the St. Louis International Expo- sition, and the other to consider the fair trial bill, which was enacted into law.

Mr. Hilger's legislative services were given during a most important and interesting period of the state's history, and the record made by him is one in which his friends take just pride.

He was one of a group of men who succeeded in getting the proposition for the creation of a county high school before the people and did his full share to accomplish that object. He then served as chairman of the board of trustees while the high school building was under construction, and devoted much of his time and energy in getting the school fairly established.

He also served as a member of the board of trustees of the Carnegie library and had active charge during the period that the library building was under con- struction. At this writing Mr. Hilger is still a member of the board, having tendered his resignation several times only to have it refused.

As a member of the commission appointed by Gov. E. T. Norris on the conservation of our natural re- sources, and drafting the present laws governing the state land of Montana, Mr. Hilger again rendered the state valuable service. The task was a particularly difficult one, and in the solution of the many problems presented, Mr. Hilger's intimate knowledge of the land laws and of the needs of the people proved invaluable.

DUNCAN DINGWALL is the owner of one of the finest general merchandise establishments in Drum- mond, where he has maintained his home since 1907. He came to Montana in 1868 and has been a promi- nent and influential citizen of this state during the long intervening years to the present time, in 1912. The best evidence Mr. Dingwall can give of his faith in Montana is that he has invested considerable money in ranching property, his holdings, mostly in Granite county, amounting to four thousand acres. His land is in a fertile section of the country and has proved wonderfully productive for the raising of grain and for grazing purposes.

A native of Canada, Duncan Dingwall was born in the province of Ontario, March 31, 1847, and he is a son of John and Catherine (McGruer) Dingwall, the former of whom was a native of Scotland and the latter of whom was born and reared in Canada. John Dingwall came to America as a young man and settled in the province of Ontario, Canada, there engaging in farming and stock-raising, which lines of enterprise he followed until his demise, in 1867, at the age of seventy-four years. His cherished and devoted wife passed away in 1885, aged seventy-eight years. They are buried side by side in Canada. The Dingwall family consisted of eleven children, of whom Duncan was the tenth in order of birth. Mr. Dingwall has one brother in Montana, William, who is married and re- sides in Granite county, where he is a rancher of prom- inence.

Mr. Dingwall, of this notice, received his educational training in the public and high schools of his native place and at the age of seventeen years began to teachi school, following that occupation for two years in Canada. For a short time he also worked in a hard- ware store and when he had reached his legal major- ity he came to Montana. His route was by train to Sioux City, Iowa, thence up the Missouri river to Fort Benton, and from the latter place overland to Helena. He remained in and around Helena for six months, working in a saw mill, and he then went to Henderson Gulch, where he was engaged in mining operations for a period of three years, at the end of which he turned his attention to ranching and stock-raising in Granite county, where he is the owner of four thousand acres of land, which is now under the management of his brother, William Dingwall. In March, 1873, Mr. Ding- wall accepted a position at Henderson Gulch as man- ager of a general mercantile establishment there and he continued to conduct that concern until the business was sold out, six years later. This experience was what interested Mr. Dingwall in the mercantile business, and he went from Henderson Gulch to New Chicago, and there started a business of his own. In 1907 he came to Drummond and opened a general store, which with the passage of time has grown to be one of the most important business enterprises in this city. Mr. Dingwall is the first president of the Drummond Com- mercial Club, organized in 1912, and is also a member of the Society of Montana Pioneers.

In politics Mr. Dingwall is an uncompromising Re- publican, and while he manifests a deep and sincere interest in public affairs he does not have any desire for the honors or emoluments of public office of any description. In religious matters he and his wife are devout members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in the various departments of whose work they are ac- tive factors. Camping-out has its attractions for Mr. Dingwall and he is very fond of horses and stock of all kinds. He shows by his actions that he has abso- lute confidence in the Treasure state. He says: "If you have ambition in your system and the courage to back it up and will work-if you believe in honor and honesty and real success-move to Montana and your dreams will come true."

In the city of Helena, Montana, in April, 1890, Mr. Dingwall was united in marriage to Miss Lodema Bing- ham, who was born in Canada in 1857 and reared in Minnesota and who came to Montana in 1880. They are the parents of one child, Earl D .. who was grad- tiated from Wesleyan University, Helena, in 1911, and who is now associated with his father in business at Drummond.

WILLIAM DINGWALL. Prominent in the public affairs of Granite county as chairman of the board of county commissioners. William Dingwall is one of the state's pioneers and for more than forty-four years has been identified with business and the development of the great

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material resources of the Treasure state. He came here a young man, with the strength and enthusiasm required for the best pioneer achievements, and the sum of his accomplishments and his standing and influence in his county are worthy subjects for pride.

Born in Ontario, Canada, on the 14th of October, 1844, he is a son of John and Catherine (McGrner) Ding- wall, and a brother of Duncan Dingwall of Drummond. William Dingwall spent the first seventeen years of his life in his native locality, where he attended the public schools through the grades and two years in high school. His practical career began at Buffalo, New York, where for six years he was a clerk in a lumber company's office. By the end of that time he was prepared for larger adventures, and he possessed the spirit of cour- age and resourcefulness which is in its proper element when in contact with the fresh and undeveloped great- ness of the west.

After a short visit to his parents he, with his brother Duncan, set out for Montana. Through Chicago and to Sioux City their journey was by rail, thence over- land to the Missouri river, where they took a boat to Fort Benton. At this old frontier post the brothers joined a party of eighteen in engaging a freighting out- fit to take them on to Helena, where they arrived in the year 1868. For three years Mr. Dingwall was employed in the lumber business at Helena, his previous experi- ence proving valuable in this connection. He and his brother then bought a herd of cattle and came into the Flint creek valley, which for more than forty years has been the scene of his varied endeavors. He has been a continuous witness of the development which has brought this part of the state out of wilderness con- ditions into one broad area of fertile productiveness, and few men have done more in a practical way to bring about this modern prosperity. He has followed mer- chandising and ranching and stock raising, and has much to show for his labor and business management. His home ranch at New Chicago, four miles from Drum- mond, consists of over three thousand acres, while he and his brother have a separate holding of five thousand acres.

Mr. Dingwall was married in Deer Lodge, Montana, December 20, 1877, to Miss Katie Price. Mrs. Ding- wall's parents were James and Amanda Price, whose home was formerly in the state of Nebraska. To their marriage four children, three sons and a daughter, have been born, namely: John, who is associated with his father in the stock business; Leona, at home, is a splen- didly educated young woman, being a graduate of the local public schools and the Presbyterian College at Deer Lodge, and also took a course in the State Nor- mal at Dillon; William D., who is also associated with his father's business; and James A., who after gradu- ating from the public schools attended the State Uni- versity at Missoula six years and is now a senior of the Washington State University at Seattle.

In religion the preference of Mr. Dingwall and wife is for the Presbyterian faith. He takes an active in- terest in Republican politics, and his sterling citizen- ship has brought him important official honors and re- sponsibilities. He has been a county commissioner since 1908 and is now chairman of the board, and has been a member of the local school board for the past sixteen years. He is a director and one of the organizers of the new First State Bank of Philipsburg, and is a member of the Society of Montana Pioneers. Though most of his life has been occupied with the serious practical affairs, he has many diversions. The national game of baseball, hunting, horses and music and drama all appeal to him, and in his own home he passes many profitable and pleasurable hours with his books. Mon- tana during more than forty years of residence has given him the satisfaction and contentment which are among the greatest prizes of human life, and no more

loyal citizen of the state could be found than William Dingwall of Drummond.

JOHN P. REINS, one of the old time pioneers of Montana who crossed the plains with a mule team before the days of railroads, and who has lived to see the Treasure state take a foremost place among the commonwealths of the great west, has been a resident of Butte for well on to forty years, and has seen that city grow from a typical mining camp to one of the most progressive and up to date cities of the north- west. Mr. Reins has attained the Psalmist's alloted three score and ten years of life, and is yet possessed of alert mentality, and a physical vigor well becoming one many years his junior.

He comes from a fine old Virginia family that has long been identified with the growth and development of that state, where he was born September 10, 1842, a son of William H. and Susan (Ashworth) Reins. The father, also a Virginian, was born on March 6, 1810, and by occupation was a farmer. He lived to the age of more than eighty-six. He married Miss Susan Ashworth, whose father, Louis Ashworth, was a min- ister of the gospel.

John P. Reins was the younger of the two children of his parents, and like most of the sons of well to do parents in that section of the country, had the advan- tage of a good education. He passed through the pub- lic schools and graduated from Hillsville Academy. At the breaking out of the Civil war he was not yet nineteen, but at the beginning of that great struggle in 1861 he joined Company H, Twenty-fourth Vir- ginia Infantry, made up from students of his alma mater. He participated in the first and second battles of Manassas, the siege of Knoxville, the battles of Saltville, Crow's Nest, Charleston, West Virginia, Salt pond Mountain, Cloyd's Farm and Gawley River. Sub- sequently he joined the Eighth Cavalry, under General Eckels, commander of the Department of Southwest- ern Virginia. During this service he was wounded by a saber cut in the knee at Clinch river.

In 1865 he began the study of medicine, which he pursued for one year, when he was obliged to give up further work along that line, owing to the loss of his right eye. In 1867 he removed west and located in Kansas, where, for a year he engaged in farming. In 1868 Mr. Reins came to Deer Lodge, Montana, by mule team across the plains, via Poll Creek, and shortly afterward located in what is now Powell county, where he was employed in the stock business for about twelve months. During the next two years he was prospecting and mining, after which he went to Butte and subsequently to Philipsburg and Deer Lodge county, still engaged in mining, and in 1875 he returned to Butte, where he has ever since resided.

Mr. Reins has had varied interests since his coming to Montana, his first business venture in the territory being in the butcher business, which he followed for about one year. Subsequent years found him in other lines, being heavily interested in real estate, mercan- tile, mining and for a while in the wholesale liquor business. But during his entire business career in Montana he has always been, more or less, interested in mining. He was one of the organizers of the Reins Copper Company, of which he is the vice-president.

In 1884 he was united in marriage to Mrs. Mary E. Rumans, of Missouri, who died in 1894. They were the parents of a daughter, Mary E., who died May 18, 1894. Mr. Reins is a member of Butte Lodge, No. 22, A. F. & A. M. His political associations have always been with the Democratic party, and he has served three terms with credit to himself and satisfaction to his constituents as alderman from the second and eighth wards of Butte.

Doctor Reins, as he is known and addressed by a wide acquaintance, is one of the substantial citizens of

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Butte, whose sterling character and superior business ability have gained for him a foremost position among the most highly respected residents of his city.

REINHOLD HENRY KLEINSCHMIDT. Among the pro- gressive men of Montana, big both mentally and physi- cally, who have played a prominent part in the affairs of the territory and state is Reinhold H. Kleinschmidt, from 1866 to 1900 a successful and dominating figure in the commercial life of the capital city of Helena, and whose business extended throughout the length and breadth of Montana.

From the time he first entered the confines of the state in 1867 he has been a force to reckon with in commercial affairs and a most dependable and able man to respond to the needs of the commonwealth. As a business man he stands without a superior in the north- west and has been able to maintain his position by square dealing and an unfailing observance of all the amenities due between men of honor. His business ex- perience in the state extends over nearly half a century and covered all of the settled portions. His executive ability has been proven beyond the capacity of ordinary men and stamps him as of extraordinary mold. His entire interests extended over several states and terri- tories and embraced everything from large commercial enterprises to mining, freighting, stock raising, irrigat- ing and so on. In all of these he was successful, at the same time having leisure to assist in promoting the wel- fare of his state and city, in both of which he takes a just and honorable pride as having been instrumental in their establishment upon sound principles of business and morality.

Reinhold H. Kleinschmidt is of sterling German stock and comes of that virile race which has done so much to infuse the spirit of independence and character into the life and institutions of his adopted country. He was born near Madgeburg, Prussia, November 4, 1847, and is a son of Carl and Elizabeth (Kuphal) Klein- schmidt, the former from the Hartz Mountains and of Hanoverian birth, and the latter a native of Prussia. The father dying and leaving the widow with orphaned children to make their own way in the world, she soon determined that she and her children would have a better chance to succeed in a new country, so she deter- mined to immigrate to the United States and she pos- sessed the true Spartan spirit and daring and was soon aboard a sailing ship bound for the new world, accom- panied by her children. They landed in the city of Baltimore in 1856 and soon after began farming in Allegany county, Maryland. Not long afterward they determined to move west and established a home in Bloomington, Illinois. In that town the subject of our sketch obtained employment in a nursery. Conditions proving unsatisfactory in Bloomington, the family re- moved to Hermann, Missouri, and resumed farming, Reinhold Kleinschmidt again securing employment in a nursery. In 1860 the family, which still kept together, located in Boonville in the same state. Here Mr. Klein- schmidt attended school for about six months. This schooling, which supplemented the groundwork of an education received at excellent schools in the old coun- try, together with a wide and varied business experi- ence, made of him a very well informed man, indeed. Lexington, Missouri, was the next home of the family, and in that place Mr. Kleinschmidt found employment in a printing office, where he remained until the be- ginning of the War of the Rebellion. Then the family moved to Liberty. Missouri, and later on Mr. Klein- schmidt went to Liberty and secured a clerkship in a store, which was his first experience in a business that he was later to make illustrious in the Rocky Mountains. He went to Leavenworth for a short time and on re- turning to his home in Liberty volunteered for enlistment as a soldier in the Union army. He was little more than a boy, but his spirit of patriotism and love of

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A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 47

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