A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 53

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

USA > Montana > A history of Montana, Volume II > Part 53

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Mr. Burmeister owns considerable real estate in and about Great Falls, and at one time owned the site of the Rainbow Hotel, selling it to the company which reared that building. The political affiliations of the subject are with the Republican party, and he is a member of the Masonic fraternity, affiliating with the Knights Templar and commandery of Great Falls. He is a man well beloved of all who know him, and his reputation for straightforwardness and uprightness in all his relations with his fellow men is one which speaks most eloquently for his splendid character. In 1903 Mr. Burmeister sold his ranch and invested the proceeds in Great Falls property, which now yields him a handsome return. His winters for the most part are spent in California, Los Angeles and San Diego being his usual wintering places. He has traveled a great deal in the years that have passed since his retirement from active business made it possible, and while he has found many a pleasant spot, Montana still retains her hold upon his affections, and he will make this state his home as long as he lives.

He has never married.

SIMEON V. KEMPER. One of the strong and resource- ful characters which have been so distinctively in evi- dence in connection with the development and progress of the great state of Montana is this well known and essentially representative citizen of the metropolis of the state. Mr. Kemper has been a resident of Montana since his boyhood days and has had the prescience to determine opportunities and advantages and to make such use of the same as to give him consecutive advance- ment and to place him eventually among the substantial capitalists and influential citizens of the state, his suc- cess being the direct result of his own efforts. He has been specially prominent in connection with the develop- ment and upbuilding of the city of Butte, where his interests are large and varied and where he has fostered

Henry Burmester

1023

HISTORY OF MONTANA

progress in a significant degree through his well directed operations in the handling and development of real estate. He has not only been the architect of the splendid structure of his business and material prosperity, but has stood exponent of those sterling principles which ever beget objective confidence and esteem. His career well represents how manifold have been the opportu- nities offered in Montana to men of courage, determina- tion and industry, and as one of the honored and representative citizens of this commonwealth he is eminently entitled to specific recognition in this his- torical work.

Simeon Vandeventer Kemper was born in the city of St. Joseph, the metropolis and judicial center of Buchanan county, Missouri, and the date of his nativity was June 21, 1855. He is a scion of families whose names have been identified with the annals of American history since the colonial epoch, and the genealogical record is one in which he may well take pride, the while his course has been such as to make his a worthy contribution to the history of the family of which he is a member. Mr. Kemper traces his ancestry in the pater- nal line back to stanch German origin, and the authentic record covers a period of fully three centuries, with its initiation in the person of Johann Kemper, a resident of the village of Musen, near Siegen, province of West- phalia, Germany, and about sixty miles southeast of the historic old city of Cologne. Representatives of the Kemper family immigrated from Germany to America in the early part of the eighteenth century, and records extant show that some of them settled in Fauquier county, Virginia, about the year 1714. They became substantial planters of the Old Dominion and several representatives of the name were found enrolled as valiant soldiers in the Continental line in the war of the Revolution, after the close of which one of the number served as governor of Virginia.

William Kemper, grandfather of the subject of this review, was born in Virginia, as was also his wife, whose maiden name was Rogers and who was of Scotch descent. They removed to Kentucky in an early day and were numbered among the pioneers of that state. There William Kemper became a successful planter and an influential citizen of his community. Both he and his wife were most zealous and devout members of the Baptist church, and thier lives were spent in accordance with the faith which they thus pro- fess, so that they merited and received the high regard of their fellow men. Both attained to venerable age, Mr. Kemper being eighty-four years old at the time of his death. Of their eleven children, Thompson Kemper was one, and he was born in Kentucky in the year 1806. He was there reared and educated and in 1845 was united in marriage to Miss. Lucy Ann Smiley, who was born in Nelson county, Virginia, in 1821, she likewise having been a representative of one of the sterling old families of Virginia, where she continued to reside until her marriage. Her father was of Irish extraction and her mother was of stanch Scotch lineage. Thompson and Lucy Ann (Smiley) Kemper became the parents of three sons and one daughter, and all of the sons-James W., Edward W., and Simeon V .- are now residents of Montana. The two former maintain their homes in Dil- lon, and the latter is a resident of Butte, the youngest of the three being him to whom this review is dedicated. The sister, Virginia Ann, who died in Montana, Febru- ary 10, 1875, had married Milton Provence. Thompson Kemper passed the closing years of his long and use- ful life in the city of Butte, where he died on the 21st of March, 1891, and here his cherished and devoted wife was summoned to eternal rest in 1895, so that in death they were not long divided. Mrs. Kemper was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church from her girlhood days until her death and soon after their marriage her husband became a member of the same church, in the activities of which he continued to

be most earnestly concerned during the residue of his life. He filled various official positions in the church, in- cluding those of class-leader and superintendent of the Sunday school, and the lives of both him and his noble wife were marked by concentration and by observance of those high ideals which make human existence justify itself. In his early life Thompson Kemper had been a successful teacher, his education having been of considerable scope and his intellectual ken one of broad horizon. The names of this honored pioneer and his wife merit enduring place on the roll of those who have aided in the development of the state of Montana, and their memories are revered by all who came within the sphere of their gracious and kindly influence.

In the early 'sos Thompson Kemper established his home at St. Joseph, Missouri, and in 1862 he removed with his family to Kansas. Later he made the over- land trip to Colorado, in which state the family home was maintained until 1865. Thereafter the migrations of the family continued from state to state in the west until 1871, when a permanent location was made in Montana, the subject of this sketch having been a lad of sixteen years at the time. The journey to Montana was made by rail to Corinne, Utah, from which point it was continued with team and wagon to Radersburg, Broadwater county, Montana. Near that place Thomp- son Kemper entered claim to a tract of government land and during the ensuing five years he put forth stren- uous efforts to develop the same into a productive farm. The family endured many trials and vicissitudes during this period, as the grasshoppers destroyed the crops for three successive years and the financial resources reached a low ebb. Under these conditions Simeon V. Kemper, the youngest of the three sons, assisted in providing for himself and his parents by working for wages. He was thus employed at carpenter work, mining, shearing sheep, etc., but found none of these occupations specially productive in a financial way. Owing to the various re- movals of the family from state to state, his early educa- tional advantages had been very limited, but his was not a mentality to make this handicap a great one. Through self-application and through the lessons gained under the direction of that wisest of all headmasters, experience, he has become a man of broad and accurate knowledge and really may be said to have a liberal education.

In 1875, when twenty years of age, Simeon V. Kemper decided to seek more attractive fields of en deavor than those in which he had previously directed his efforts. He had a seeming prescience of the splen- did growth and development in store for Butte, which was then a mere mining town, and in 1877 he here established his permanent home. He purchased forty acres of land near the town and turned his attention to market-gardening, in connection with which he gave special attention to the propagation of strawberries. Soon afterward the other members of the family joined him in the new home and they continued a successful gardening business for five years. The smoke from the many smelters in the vicinity eventually interfered with this industry, as plant life withered under the con- ditions. The rapid growth of the city thus led the Kemper family to subdivide their land and place the same in the market. The lands were platted into city lots, under the title of the Kemper addition, and from this beginning Simeon V. Kemper finally became one of the leading factors in the real estate business in the Mon- tana metropolis. He rapidly acquired other realty and soon gained prestige as one of the most enterprising and influential business men of Butte. In an individual way he continued his successful operations in the real estate, loan and insurance business until 1895, when he effected the organization of the Butte Land & Invest- ment Co., which is incorporated under the laws of the state and of which he is vice-president. His son, Wil- liam A., is president of the company, and E. Sterrett

1024

HISTORY OF MONTANA

Shields is secretary. This concern has wielded great influence in the development and upbuilding of Butte and in the handling of realty in other parts of the state. Mr. Kemper was associated with W. V. Lawler, in the platting of the Lawler & Kemper addition, on the west side of the city of Butte. In initiating this noteworthy enterprise they purchased, for a consideration of seven- teen thousand dollars, a tract of eleven acres, and from the sale of lots in the first year they realized sufficient money to pay for the entire tract, while they retained, in that addition, property which was valued at thirty thousand dollars. Mr. Kemper and his brother, J. W., had the good fortune to locate the famous Ground Squirrel mine, which they eventually sold for two hun- dred and thirty thousand dollars. Mr. Kemper was one of the organizers, in 1891, of the State Savings Bank of Butte, which became the strongest bank in the state prior to 1906. He is now a director in the Miners' Savings Bank & Trust Company, of which he was one of the organizers. He also assisted in the organization of the Montana Land & Security Company, of which he is president, and is vice-president of the Washington, Butte Mining Company. His mining interests are of important order and it may be noted that he is presi- dent of the Brooklyn Mining Company and vice-presi- dent of the Salmon River Mining Company.

The career of Mr. Kemper has been such as to offer both lesson and incentive. He had as his available finan- cial resources when he arrived in Butte, less than ten dollars, and he was further burdened by an indebtedness of several hundred dollars. He had determination and ambition, and with increasing success and responsibil- ities he developed admirable powers in the mastering of expedients and in the handling of affairs of broad scope and importance. In his youth he felt the lash of neces- sity, but this spurred him to further effort, and he has won large and definite success, the while it has been gained by honest and straightforward means, so that no shadow rests on any portion of his singularly active and productive career. He is one of the sterling citizens of the state in which he has found it possible to win such large and worthy success and in which his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances. For the past decade Mr. Kemper has lived virtually retired from active business, and has given over to E. S. Shields, secretary of the Butte Land and Invest- ment Co., and his son, William Arthur Kemper, much of the responsibility of his extensive interests-a trust to which they have proven fully equal.

Though, as already stated, Mr. Kemper received but limited educational advantages in his youth, he has ever been an appreciative student and reader and has become known as a man of broad views and well forti- fied convictions. His range of reading has covered the best in literature and he keeps in close touch with the vital questions and topics of the hour. He finds great pleasure in the attractions of the large and select private library of his home and has made a special study of mathematics, ethical and philosophical subjects and also theology. His life has been guided and governed by strict principles of integrity and while he is not formally identified with any religious organization he has a deep reverence for moral rectitude. In politics he maintains an independent attitude and gives his support to men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment, the while he has shown himself to be signally progressive and public-spirited as a citizen. Mrs. Kemper is an active member of the First Presbyterian church of Butte, and is a popular factor in the social life of the community.

At Butte, on the 19th of November, 1880, was sol- emnized the marriage of Mr. Kemper to Miss Sallie B. Shields, who was born at Highland, Doniphan county, Kansas, and who is a daughter of William Shields, who was a prominent resident of the state of Kansas.

In conclusion is entered brief record concerning the

children of Mr. and Mrs. Kemper : William Arthur, who is more familiarly known by his second name, was born on the 21st of August, 1881, and is one of the repre- sentative business men of the younger generation, in his native state, being closely identified with his father's extensive interests, as has previously been noted; Mary B., who was born on the Ist of July, 1883, died in July, 1899; Sallie Virginia, who was born on the 21st of Sep- tember, 1885, is the wife of Claude Wheeler, of Los Angeles, California; Helen E., was born July 15, 1892, and remains at the parental home; and Simeon V., Jr., who was born October 20, 1895, is now a resident of California. The older son, W. Arthur Kemper, married Miss Constance Richardson, of Boston, Massachusetts, and Richardson Vandeventer Kemper, was born to them May, 12, 1912. Merrie Frances Wheeler, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Claude Wheeler, was born May 1, 1912.

JOHN W. DUFFY, commissioner of Granite county and a well-known rancher of Philipsburg, has been a resident of the state of Montana since 1871. He settled first in Granite county, has remained within its borders during the years that have intervened, and in that time has been actively identified with the live stock business. He has also found time to take a lively interest in mining activities, and since 1903 has been a member of the board of county commissioners, during six years of that period having been president of the board.

Mr. Duffy was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on October 9, 1858, and is the son of Michael and Mary (Cleary) Duffy. The father was born in Ireland, com- ing to the United States when a mere boy. He saw considerable of the United States before he finally settled in Montana in 1865. In Granite county he fol- lowed mining for some years and later became inter- ested in ranching. He was a man of considerable prom- inence in Granite county and held a prominent posi- tion in the political life of the community. He died in April, 1887, aged fifty-six. His wife, whom he met and married in Minnesota, survived him until 1909, aged seventy-eight years, and both are buried in Philips- burg. They were the parents of but one child, John W. of this review.

Until he was thirteen years of age John Duffy at- tended the public schools of Minneapolis. In that year (1871), his mother moved to Montana, locating in Philipsburg, and there he continued his studies in the public schools for a year or two. When he was about fourteen he earned his first money working for his father on the ranch, and it was under the care and guidance of his father that John Duffy learned the ranching business, in which he eventually engaged on his own responsibility. For some time he followed min- ing and at one time he carried the mail between Philips- burg and Cable City under contract. It was after these experiences that he became identified with the ranching industry, and he has in recent years reached a place of prominence and importance in that business.

Mr. Duffy is a Democrat in strength and assurance and is active in the political affairs of the county. As previously noted, he has been a member of the board of county commissioners since 1903, and was chairman of the board for six years. He is a member of the Yeo- men and of the Catholic church.

In June, 1881, at Deer Lodge, Montana, was solem- nized the marriage of Mr. Duffy with Miss Winnifred Murphy, the daughter of Thomas and Bridget Mur- phy, of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Twelve sons and daughters have been born to them, named as follows: Mary Estella, deceased; Benjamin Harrison, died in in- fancy; Thomas F., resident of Philipsburg; John P., married and living at Philipsburg also; Edward M., .Nellie; Michael; Annie; Nora; Joseph; William; and Margaret. All the unmarried members of the family are living at home, and such of the number as are of

: Ert

Jw. Blair

1025

HISTORY OF MONTANA

school age in attendance at the Philipsburg public schools.

HON. JOHN W. BLAIR. Distinguished among Mon- tana's pioneers is the Honorable John W. Blair of Helmville, Powell county,-a man who has, without self-seeking, attained political prominence; without blemish of integrity has achieved material success ; and, without egotism, has won a high reputation through- out the region where he is best known.

A native of the middle west, Mr. Blair is of Scotch- Irish ancestry in his father's line and of Virginia an- cestry through the Saylor lineage of his mother's side of the family. The latter branch were closely related to the Ball family, of which Martha Washington was a representative, and with that family shared in the famous Ball estate, including much valuable property in Washington and other great eastern cities. Of this relationship was Samuel Saylor of Virginia, the father of Mary Saylor, who was born in Ohio. In that state she married Thomas Blair, also a native of the Buckeye state. They resided near Berwick, in Seneca township, Seneca county, Ohio, for many years, and there to them was born in October, 1841, the son whom they named John W.

As a youth, John W. Blair was given the opportu- nities of the public schools, which he attended until he had acquired a general education, sufficient for all practical purposes. He was a young man of energy and initiative, and had a lively interest in the unde- veloped west. When he had reached his majority he entered upon an adventure which defined the entire course of his subsequent life.

This project with which he identified himself was a migration to Alder Gulch, Montana, in which he made one of three hundred men who traveled over- land with mule teams. The journey was a memorable one, with many privations and risks, but they finally reached their objective point, arriving at Virginia City, Montana, on July 12, 1864. Mr. Blair spent several months among the novel scenes and exciting activities of a mining camp in which gold was found in abundance. The winter of that year he spent in Utah and in the spring he made his way to Last Chance gulch. He remained there for six years, at the end of which time he came to Helmville, reaching there in the autumn of 1871, and that place has ever since represented his home.

Here Mr. Blair developed a fine ranch two miles from the town and gradually expanded his possession of land until he has become the proprietor of a ranch of 28,000 acres, one of the most extensive in the state of Montana. His great specialty was the raising of sheep, for which he is quite famous throughout the state. and his large herds of Shorthorn cattle, kept for breeding purposes, was one of his chief interests. Ac- cessory to these interests Mr. Blair also pursued the various lines of general ranching. His building erected for that purpose and the residences he occupies are spacious and well planned, giving a most inviting as- pect to the place.

In 1910 Mr. Blair sold out his large holdings of ranch propertv, which the purchasers, The Day & Han- son Security Company, of Spokane, Washington, plan to dispose of in small tracts.

Aside from his landed interests and those which accompanied them, Mr. Blair has successfully parti- cipated in other enterprises of commercial advantage. In 1910 he established the banking business of Blair & Company, of Helmville, and from that time he has been president of the company. He is also joint owner with John A. Featherman of Drummond, of the Palace Hotel, which is spoken of as the finest structure of its kind in any town of the size of Drum- mond in the northwest. This hotel was erected in

IgII, and Mr. Blair is vice-president and a director of the company, as well as being one of the organizers of the Drummond State Bank at Drummond, Mon- tana. Altogether, Mr. Blair is rated as a man of ex- ceptional wealth, and his holdings of deeded land probably were larger than those of any other individual in the state. He is respected, moreover, in a degree not possible to the man whose riches are the result of chance or of unfair measures.

Mr. Blair's political attitude is most clearly defined by the theories and aims of the Republican party, of which he is an advisor and counsellor in this section of the state. Until 1889 he had never taken any active part in politics, but at that time, through a train of cir- cumstances somewhat unusual, he was called upon to serve his state in one of his highest bodies. Mr. Blair in one of the few who have actually had such honor thrust upon them, and among those is unique as one to whom such honor came as a complete surprise. When the nominations were made for Montana's first legis- lature, Mr. Blair was not notified of the fact that he was one of those chosen as a candidate for the office. When, therefore, he examined the tickets and saw a name that corresponded to his, he supposed that it represented an acquaintance bearing that same pat- ronymic, but living in another part of the county. It is said that he all but entered the polls without knowing of his candidacy. He was among those elected and participated in the rather dramatic events of that as- sembly, his service including activity on the Labor committee and others.

In the campaign of 1912, Mr. Blair was elected a member of the state legislature on the Republican ticket.

Mr. Blair is a veteran of the Civil war, having en- listed for a three year term on October 3, 1863, as a member of the Forty-ninth Ohio Regiment of Minute Men, from which service he was honorably discharged on May 1, 1866. He is an honored member of the Society of Montana Pioneers, and none among them, or among the more recent citizens of the state, has more worthily advanced from the status of empty pockets to that of well filled coffers; none has more intelligently, sanely and unpretentiously made for him- self a place among the state's representatives of capital and industry ; none has, through years of purposive acquisition, more frankly won and kept, not only his own self-respect, but the sincerely high regard of the citizens of Powell county and of the surrounding region. Mr. Blair's success has not been the result of luck or chance. He has always been a man of great energy, and it has been said of him "there is not a lazy bone in his body." A hard worker, he was al- ways content if his help performed the same amount of work as he himself. The care and handling of his extensive ranch interests, to which he always gave his personal attention, became too arduous, and when he had an opportunity to dispose of them advantageously. he parted entirely with his ranch interests, as stated previously, giving his time to other interests.

Notwithstanding his more than three score and ten years, Mr. Blair is a well preserved man. His natur- ally strong constitution has stood by him well through the years, and though he is small of stature, he has ever been strong and wiry. He is a man well informed upon current topics, and is an acknowledged author- ity upon lines of business with which he has been identified, so that his advice and judgment upon busi- ness matters are frequently called into play by his fel- low citizens. He is highly esteemed, and a man of the strictest character and integrity, and Montana has had no better citizen than he.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 53

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