A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 58

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

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Hardware Company is an establishment which is known throughout the Basin and indeed beyond its boundaries. Mr. Walker has made his way to the top of this depart- ment of the mercantile business by his own unaided genius and the business has been the gainer by his advancement.

Mr. Walker is affiliated with the Odd Fellows and with the Woodmen of the World. He has filled all the chairs in both lodges. Politically he is aligned with the Republicans but is not active in politics. His re- ligious preference is for the Episcopal church where he and Mrs. Walker are interested attendants.

On August 26, 1898, Mr. Walker was united in mar- riage to Miss Jennie M. Harwood. The wedding was celebrated in Fergus county at the home of the bride's sister, Mr. and Mrs. John Harwood, who are natives of Wandena, Minnesota, and who are both dead. Three children have been the issue of this union. Joseph Al- bert and Judith Walker are attending school, while Mar- jorie, the youngest, is not yet old enough to be a stu- dent. Mr. Walker has an unusual fondness for music in which Mrs. Walker shares. Both are great readers and interested in educational matters. Mr. Walker is a baseball enthusiast, being known as a fan and a rooter. Mr. Walker belongs to the class of citizens who make Montana the wonderful state it is and Lewistown "the biggest little town" to be found in the whole forty- five states.

THOMAS L. BATEMAN, proprietor of the Ravalli-Pol- son stage line, livery stables and Ravalli hotel, at Ravalli, Montana, is a representative business man of this city and is a man who not only has achieved his individual success but has also public-spiritedly devoted himself to the general welfare of his fellow citizens, and has been foremost in advancing enterprises and improve- ments which will prove of lasting benefit to the city, county and state. He is, furthermore, a self-made man, having been pushed out of the family nest at an early age and compelled to seek his living and advancement as best he could. From the first he was possessed of ambition and a determination to forge ahead and it may truly be said that his splendid success in life is the direct result of his own well applied endeavors.

At Salt Lake City, Utah, September 26, 1860, occurred the birth of Thomas L. Bateman, who is a son of William and Sarah Bateman, both of whom are now deceased. The father passed to the life eternal in 1864, at which time the subject of this review was a child of but four years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Bateman were pioneers in Utah, their old home having been in the county of Novane, whence they emigrated west in the year 1864. Mr. and Mrs. Bateman became the parents of twelve children, eight sons and four daughters.

To the public schools of Salt Lake City and of Idaho Thomas L. Bateman is indebted for his educational training. . He was eight years of age when the family home was established in Idaho, where he continued to reside for the next four years, at the expiration of which he accompanied a brother to Montana, coming hither with a freight team and arriving in Virginia City in 1872. Mr. Bateman has been a resident of Montana during the long intervening years to the present time, in 1912, a period of forty years. While in Virginia City he and his brother followed the freighting business for about one year and for twenty years were engaged in the same line of enterprise be- tween Corinne, Utah, and Butte, along the famous freight road, making headquarters at various points along the line. Their route was guided by the Utah Northern Railroad which was being constructed about that time. In 1893 Mr. Bateman went to Dillon and there started a blacksmith shop, which he ran for three years, at the end of which he bought teams and went into the railroad construction business, working for a time at grading on the Northern Pacific Railroad. In

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1897 he went to Missoula, in the vicinity of which place he followed farming and ranching for ten years. In 1908 he came to Ravalli and here engaged in the hotel business, later buying out the state line which he now operates in connection with the United States mail between Ravalli and Polson. At Ronan, one of the stations along his line, he runs a livery barn, which is managed by one of his sons-in-law. He also has a livery establishment at Ravalli and is one of the largest operators in Missoula county, Ravalli being the prin- cipal distributing point for Flathead reservation teams.

Mr. Bateman has been a hard, steady worker during his entire life time and while he has met with no serious reverses, each successive venture has driven him to greater effort, and determination backed by confidence has enabled him to achieve most noteworthy success. In politics he is a stalwart Republican but he takes no active interest in public affairs, except to vote for men and measures he deems worthy of support. He is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World and has filled all the official chairs of that organization. Mr. Bateman is fond of hunting, fishing, baseball, theatricals, music and good books. A peculiar thing about Mr. Bateman's life is that, in spite of his many travels, Montana is the only state in which he has ever been. He has journeyed through Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, and Washington but only in their territorial days. Mr. Bateman says it is not hard to explain the good features of Montana. "It is a state with a large and productive body back of it-everything is real. The natural forces that are now developing Montana will make it the biggest and best state in the union. If you want to improve your condition, finan- cially, physically or any other way, come to the Treasure state and make it your home. Montana is the only state that can verify the possibilities of financial inde- pendence."

At Dillon, Montana, December 25, 1881, Mr. Bateman was united in marriage to Miss Margaret A. Fradsham, of Utah. She is a woman of most fascinating perso- nality and numbers among her friends Mrs. Gus Pelky, the first white woman that came to Montana. Mr. and Mrs. Bateman are the parents of six daughters, all of whom are married and concerning whom the fol- lowing brief data are here incorporated, Margaret is the wife of P. C. Sparks and they reside at Missoula, as does also Lydia, whose husband is Robert Ziesing; Pearl married Joseph Haskins, who is associated with Mr. Bateman in the hotel business at Ravalli; Gwendo- line is the wife of John Laullin, who conducts the livery and stage station at Ronan for Mr. Bateman; Ora married T. J. Torseth, who is an operator in the Northern Pacific Railroad station at Ravalli; and Echo is the wife of Archie Ashton and resides on a ranch. All the daughters received good educational advantages and are particularly proficient musicians, several of them having been members of a Ladies' Band at Mis- soula for a period of three years.

Mr. Bateman has lived a life of usefulness such as few men know. God-fearing, law-abiding, progressive, his life is as truly that of a Christian gentleman as any man's can well be. Unwaveringly, he has done the right as he has interpreted it. Possessed of an inflexible will, he is quietly persistent, always in command of his powers, never showing anger under any circumstances. He is a citizen whose loyalty and public spirit have ever been of the most insistent order and he is a gentle- man of whom any community may well be proud.

EMIL KLUGE, SR. One of the prominent and well- known citizens of Montana is Emil Kluge, Sr., state secretary for the Masonic bodies of Montana and also for those of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, who first came to this state in 1873, and may therefore be classed as one of its pioneers.

Mr Kluge was born in Prussia, Germany, March 28, 1845, and was educated in the public schools of the Fatherland, famed for their thoroughness. It was his lot to not only pass through the period of military discipline required of the youth of Germany but to do so in actual warfare, having served his country bravely and with distinction in two wars-the first of which was in 1866 between Prussia and Austria and resulted in the expulsion of Austria from German affairs. The second war (the Franco-German), under Prince Bis- marck, the Iron Chancellor, was an almost unbroken series of successes for the Germans. The only injury suffered by Mr. Kluge in either of these conflicts was the loss of part of one finger, which for a time incapac- itated him from further military service and was sus- tained in an engagement on August 18, 1870, at Centre Private, France. His military service was in the infantry. A year after leaving the army he came to the United States and on July 2, 1871, reached Detroit, Michigan, where he secured employment shortly after his arrival and remained two years. Deciding to seek his fortune in the west, he came to Montana, arriving at Helena, then a wild western town, on May 3, 1873. His first venture there was to engage in mining at which he was not very successful, abandoning it shortly to take up contracting, to which he gave his attention until 1876. After the massacre of General Custer and his band of brave men on the Little Big Horn river in Montana, on June 25th of that year, by the Sioux Indians, Mr. Kluge joined a group of gold seekers headed for the Black Hills. After an exciting trip across the plains, always on the alert for bands of marauding Indians, they reached their destination, and Mr. Kluge immediately engaged in prospecting, but the district had been largely overrated, and beyond a few small dis- coveries of gold, their efforts were not rewarded. Hav- ing left his family at Helena, he returned there and again took up mining and prospecting with moderate success. Later he resumed his former business of contracting, which he followed until elected to his present position, that of secretary of King Solomon's Lodge No. 9, of Masons, in 1892. This office he has now held continu- ously for twenty years. He also officiates in a similar capacity for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in Montana. This prominent relation with two of the oldest and strongest of fraternal orders has brought him into close touch with the people of all parts of Montana, to whom he is well known and with whom he stands in the highest repute as a worthy represen- tative of these great orders and as a citizen of unques- tioned integrity and honor.

Mr. Kluge's parents were both born in Prussia, Ger- many, and spent their entire lives in their native land. His father, Johannas Gotlieb Kluge, was born in 1797 and died in 1865. In 1813, when Prussia began with fervor the German national war of liberation, Johannas Gotlieb Kluge, then a lad of sixteen, with patriotic de- votion to the Fatherland promptly entered the army and served three years. Later in life he became a weaver and a land owner in Prussia. The mother of our sub- ject, who was Miss Christina Hertramph prior to her marriage, was born in Prussia in 1808 and died there in September, 1870.

The marriage of Emil Kluge occurred in Germany, in 1871, the year of his emigration to the United States. Mrs. Kluge accompanied her husband to this country, and died at Helena, Montana, in May, 1908. To this union were born three sons, of whom Albert and Richard both died at Helena, in 1877, and are buried there. Emil Kluge, Jr., the eldest son, born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1872, is now a successful commission mer- chant at Hamilton, Montana.

Mr. Kluge is a Progressive in politics and in 1890 served one term as street commissioner of Helena. In church faith and membership, he is a Lutheran.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

JESS C. RICKER. The pioneer miner of Montana, Joshua Ricker, was born in Vermont on May 13, 1836. His family had come from England in colonial times. They had served in the colonial wars and in the Ameri- can Revolution. Joshua lived in Vermont until the age of fourteen, when his father, with John Hatch, and their respective families, made the overland journey to Law- rence, Kansas. Here the Hatch household located on a farm and engaged in stock raising and general farm- ing, although in those days Kansas was not among the wheat producing areas of the country. In 1863 Joshua Ricker, having heard of the gold discoveries in Mon- tana, organized a party who made another overland trip to the west and arrived in Virginia City, none the worse for their hazardous journey.

In 1864 Mr. Ricker began placer mining in Last Chance Gulch, and here he met with such success that he was enabled to purchase claims of other prospectors, and to put them into operation. Among the properties which he owned and operated was the famous gold mine known as No. 2, west of the Whitlatch Lode, and situated about four miles south of Helena, at a settlement called Unionville. This mine was one of the great gold producers of the early days and it made Mr. Ricker very wealthy. Mr. Ricker was one of the first to utilize Montana as a field for cattle raising, and his operations in this industry were extensive. His cat- tle were known by his brand "73." In 1872, while driving through the mountains, he was the victim of a serious accident, which resulted in a permanent injury, and was the direct cause of his death three years later. In 1873 he sold his mining properties and retired from active participation in business. His judgment in finan- cial matters was almost infallible and thoroughness characterized his performance of all he undertook. His private life was spotless, and his habits exemplary. He was a member of the Episcopal church and a devout attendant upon its services. His disposition was retir- ing, and he never sought public office of any sort. His death occurred on June 1, 1875, while on a visit to Salt Lake City. He is buried in Helena, where his wife and four children now reside, and where he had acquired the large estate which he bequeathed to them.

Martha Hatch Ricker, his widow, was born in Ver- mont, and was the companion of his childhood and his sweetheart of early school days. Her mother was a niece of Ethan Allen, and among her relatives were many early settlers of America and soldiers in the Revolution, besides the celebrated Paul Jones. Her marriage to Mr. Ricker occurred at Lawrence, Kansas, and their eldest child, Ernie, was born in that college town. She is now the wife of Dr. C. D. Dodge, of Helena. Alice M. Ricker was born in Unionville, Montana. Her husband, George O. Freeman is receiver in the United States land office. The other daughter is Mrs. Arthur W. Ide, Mr. Ide being a real estate dealer and insurance agent.

The son, Jess C. Ricker, the youngest of the family, was born in Helena, February 20, 1873, and received his schooling in the public schools of Manchester, New Hampshire, and Helena, Montana, and private insti- tutions of Helena. After leaving school he entered the office of Schaffer & Stranahan, architects and builders, and served a three years' apprenticeship in architecture. After that he spent a year as bookkeeper for William Muth, but while there, was appointed assistant city treasurer in 1893, and served a year in that capacity. He was then appointed deputy clerk of the district court, and in 1895, upon the resignation of John Bean, was made clerk of the same court, filling the office to the completion of the term.

Mr. Ricker left Helena in 1897 and removed to Havre, Montana. Here he became bookkeeper for the Broadwater-Pepin Company, and at the same time filled the office of postmaster. He remained in Havre for six years, and in 1904 returned to Helena, first adding

to his public services in the city of his sojourn by being city treasurer. In 1905 Mr. Ricker and Mr. Muth, his former employer, formed a partnership and established the Montana Audit Company. The business is that of accounting, examining of title and kindred matters. The partnership continued until 1910, when Mr. Muth withdrew, and since then Mr. Ricker has been the sole owner of the company. In addition to this he has in- vestments in several mining properties and in a number of commercial enterprises.

Politically Mr. Ricker is aligned with the Republicans, although he does not participate in the game of politics. In fact, his home and his business claim all his interest. Though a member of the Masonic order, affiliating with Morning Star lodge and having taken the thirty-second degree, he is not at all given to clubs or pleasures out- side his home. His principal diversion is an annual trip to the Pacific coast with his family. This consists of his wife, Lalla McComas Ricker, and their two sons, Jack W. Ricker, born in Helena December 13, 1901, and Robert Bruce Ricker, born April 7, 1906. Though averse to clubs, Mr. Ricker maintains his member- ship in the Sons and Daughters of Montana Pioneers, as one of his ancestry could not but be in favor of any measure which should keep alive the memory of those who carved our nation from the raw wilderness. In this enthusiasm Mrs. Ricker shares, for her father, like his own, was one of the early settlers of Montana, who bore an honorable part in its history as a frontier com- monwealth.

EDWARD HORSKY, former mayor of Helena, is a native of Helena and the son of one of its most prominent and active men, who a few years ago was one of Montana's leading Republicans, as the subject is today one of the most influential in the state. Mr. Horsky is a lawyer by profession and he is generally recognized as one of the best equipped attorneys in a city whose legal profes- sion is a matter of pride.

The date upon which Mayor Horsky's life record be- gan was June 12, 1873. His father John Horsky, was a native of Austria, born May 15, 1838. The elder gentleman came to America in 1855, and spent nine years in Iowa and Nebraska. In 1864 he came from Omaha, via the Big Horn river, locating in Virginia City, where he lived one year and then removed to Helena, where he was to make his permanent home and become a force in its development. He was one of Virginia City's first settlers and engaged in prospecting and mining. In 1865 he founded the Helena Brewery and conducted that industry until 1891, since which time he has lived virtually retired from business. He was prominent in public life; was elected one of the first aldermen after the incorporation of the city, serving two terms, and was sent as representative to the First, Second and Fourth legislatures of the new state of Montana. He served two terms as county commissioner and at one time was receiver of the United States land office. He has always been a leader in civic and other affairs; is a staunch Republican, as mentioned, and has belonged to the Masonic bodies since the early '70s. He has witnessed the marvellous development of Helena since his arrival and has had the pleasure of contributing to it in several ways. In 1884 he crected the Horsky building, one of the first office buildings in the city, the same being located at the northeast corner of Main and Sixth streets. He has been very active in the field of mining, but has never been very successful. The elder Mr. Horsky was married on December 1, 1869, Louise Seykora, also of Austria, becoming his wife, and their union was celebrated in Brooklyn, Iowa. The three children born to this happy union are: Rudolph, a physician of this city; Edward, the immediate subject of the review; and John, Jr., who is engaged in the drug business in Helena.

Edward Horsky was educated in the public schools of

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Helena, including two years in the Helena high school, and in the Central high school of Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, from which he was graduated in June, 1890. Up- on leaving school he concluded to adopt the medical profession as his own, and spent one year in study in a physician's office in this city, which he followed with one year's practical work in Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City. Upon his return home in the spring of 1892 he was appointed to a government position in the office of the calculation clerk, and after filling this for more than a year, resigned to take up the study of law, which he found on maturer reflection he preferred to medicine. He secured his professional training in the law department of the University of Michigan, was graduated on June 1, 1895, and admitted at once to practice before the state supreme court of Michigan. He immediately returned to Helena, and in October, 1895, was admitted to practice in this state, and entered upon his career in May, 1896. He prac- ticed alone until 1897, and in August, 1897, became as- sociated with Judge J. B. Clayberg, which partnership continued successfully until 1901, since which time Mr. Horsky has been alone.

He was soon recognized as of the right material for public office and was appointed city attorney in May, 1898. He served until 1904 and upon resigning. was again appointed to the office, the latter appointment being in May, 1908. He then served until August, 19II, when he was elected by the council to succeed Mayor F. J. Edwards, who had resigned. He served the nine months remaining of that term and declined to become a candidate for re-election. He was, for eleven years, chairman of the Republican city central committee, and served a number of years on the county central com- mittee.

Mr. Horsky has a number of pleasant fraternal re- lations. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine, and is also affiliated with the Woodmen of the World and the Sons of Hermann. He is a prominent club and society man, belonging to the Montana Club, the Silver Bow Club, the Lambs' Club, and to the Greek letter fraternity, Delta Chi. He also is connected with the Sons and Daughters of the Montana Pioneers, having served as president of the same and was active in its organization. He is also a member of those organizations whose object is the advancement and unification of the profession-the Montana State Bar Association and the Lewis and Clark Bar Association. His offices are in the Horsky block.

Mr. Horsky has not yet become a recruit to the Benedicts and resides at home with his parents.

DR. WILLIAM C. ORR. A native son whom Beaver- head county is indeed proud to claim is Dr. William C. Orr, veterinary surgeon and deputy state veterinary for the state of Montana. He is not only one of the leading members of his profession in the west, but has many other interests of broad scope and importance and is distinguished as one of the most loyal and en- thusiastic of Montanians.

Dr. Orr was born in Beaverhead county, Montana, July 7, 1873, and with the exception of three years dur- ing which he was veterinary in charge of the Marcus Daly ranch near Hamilton, Montana, and the period of his education, he has spent his entire life in Dillon. He received his elementary education in the public schools of this place, which he followed with one year of the classical course of the University of Nevada. He then completed a course in veterinary training in the veteri- nary college at Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and received his degree from that institution. He then came back to Dillon to practice and his success has been continual.

In connection with his practice he conducts the Cen- tral Livery and Feed business. He is also extensively interested in the famous Poindexter and Orr ranch,

which is one of the largest and best equipped ranches in all Montana, comprising 18,000 acres of deeded land and 13,000 leased acres. He figures further in the af- fairs of this giant concern as one of the executive heads and director of the Poindexter and Orr Live Stock Company.

Dr. Orr is a staunch and stalwart Democrat and has always taken an active interest in politics and when called upon to assume public responsibility has always accomplished his duties with great credit. He at pres- ent holds the office of county commissioner and upon previous occasions has been a member of the school board and city councilman. With him patriotism is not a mere rhetorical expression, and he stands for the ideal type of the plucky, level-headed, prosperous and all-round useful citizen of the west. Upon his father's ranch, with its manifold channels for usefulness, he learned his first lessons in usefulness and thrift and there experienced the "fine, dizzy, muddle-headed joy" of earning his first money.

Dr. Orr and his wife and elder daughter are com- municants of the Episcopal church and the latter are very active in assisting in its campaign for good. The doctor is a member of the various Masonic bodies from the blue lodge to the Shrine. He is extremely fond of hunting and fishing and has a number of trophies secured while on hunting excursions which attest elo- quently to his prowess as a Nimrod. He also finds great recreation in driving and automobiling and has his own private car. He keeps in touch with the best literature of the day.

At Salt Lake City, Utah, on April 7, 1894, Dr. Orr was united in the bonds of matrimony to Aura Cum- mings, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alva Cummings of that city. Two children, both daughters, have been born into their attractive and hospitable household. Ruth, born February 17, 1895, finished the common school of Dillon, then studied two years at Brumot Hall, Spokane, and is now attending the Dillon high school. Margaret Gordon was born December 10, 1906, and is the baby.

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A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 58

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