A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 68

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

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town. The business has grown with the expansion of the city, and today the drug store which he operates is the leading establishment of its kind in Harlem. His experience there has been of a most pleasing nature, and his success is wholly consistent with the excellent business methods which he has ever pursued, and which reflect the high character and admirable integ- rity of the man as well as the business proprietor. Mr. McGinness has acquired a considerable valuable prop- erty in Blaine county during the years of his associa- tion with this section of the country, among which is a fine farm and a handsome home in Harlem.

In 1891 Mr. McGinness was married to Miss Pearl Anderson of Alliance, Ohio, and of their union three sons have been born. They are Jay A., Robert H., Jr., and Verner M. Mr. McGinness is essentially a home man and a devoted husband and father. He enjoys the quiet comforts of his home, and is something of a student, his inclinations taking a decided literary turn. He and his family are members of the Presbyterian church of Harlem, and he is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, being secretary of the local lodge of the latter fraternity.

JOSEPH HERRING. Among the men who know Mon- tana intimately, who have been with her through the years while she changed from the country of the Indian and bison, to one of the great commonwealths of the United States, is Joseph Herring, one of the leading business men of Great Falls, Montana. No man knows the west better than he does for he has lived in this section for thirty-five years, and has been everything from a stage driver to a vice-president of a large corporation. For more than twenty-five years he has resided within the confines of the state of Mon- tana, though when he first came to Great Falls, Mon- tana had not attained the dignity of statehood. His love for the country and the people is therefore not to be wondered at, and the active part which he takes in political, civic and commercial affairs is not surpris- ing. He is particularly interested in advancing the public welfare of the city of Great Falls, and as com- missioner of streets has done much toward making the city more attractive. His life has been one of many ups and downs, but now he has reached the point where he could sit back and take his ease were it his nature. He is like an old war horse, though, and has no desire to escape from the dust of the battle, and is therefore one of the leading men in the industrial world of Great Falls.

Joseph Herring, was born on the 9th of October, 1853, in the state of Pennsylvania. His father was Francis Carter Herring, who was a native of the same state. He was a Methodist preacher, and died in 1892, at the age of sixty, in Great Falls, Montana. His wife, Katherine Herring was a native of Ohio, and she died in. 1872. Joseph Herring was the next to the eldest in a family of seven children. His par- ents moved to Iowa when he was a child, and his education was therefore obtained from the schools of that state.

At the age of fifteen Joseph decided that he had had enough of school books, so he left school and went to work. For a few years he did the usual sort of work that is given to a boy still in his teens. As he grew older he was given more responsible posi- tions, but like most spirited young men he was filled with a wild desire to go west. At last, 1877, his chance came, and he made his way to the Black Hills. Here for a time he followed placer mining, and when this did not prove to be very lucrative, he turned to stage driving, in which, if the pecuniary advantages were no greater the excitement more than made up for it in the mind of the young Mr. Herring. His route was from Central City, South Dakota, to Deadwood

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in the same state, and it was rare that he made a trip in which nothing out of the normal occurred. Road agents and highwaymen infested the country, and Mr. Herring had a number of narrow escapes, on one occa- sion being seriously wounded, for, since he did not respond to the highwayman's demands with sufficient alacrity, the desperado chose to hasten his compliance with a shot-gun. For a number of years he followed this dangerous vocation, and his next choice of a busi- ness, was quite as dangerous and even more exciting.

This was buffalo hunting. He became one of the most noted bison hunters in the early days, when they killed the great beasts for their hides alone. The mar- ket was readily found, no matter how great the num- ber of skins, and it was more like slaughter than hunt- ing, so great were the number of beasts that were slain. It was a risky thing, wherein much depended upon the quickness of the horse, and the coolheaded- ness and skill of the rider. On one occasion, Mr. Herring killed that rarest of all varieties, a pure black bison. He underwent considerable risk to obtain the hide. and intended to preserve it forever as a trophy of the hunt. It was not to be, for several days later the party of hunstmen met a band of marauding Indians and in the battle that followed the Indians made off with the entire hoard of the hunters. Among these was the black hide. and Mr. Herring has never ceased to regret its loss for that animal was the only black buffalo he has ever seen either before or since that time. These hunts were held in the vicinity of what is now Miles City, extending as far south as Bear- tooth National Forest.

Mr. Herring next removed from this section to the Little Rockies where he took up prospecting and min- ing. This time he was very successful. He lived the life of a miner for several years and then he concluded to settle down to the quieter life of a merchant, so with that purpose in view, he located in Maiden, Montana. He remained there until 1886, engaged in the mer- chandise business. He then removed to Great Falls, where he engaged in the ice business. He cut his ice by hand, storing it away until summer, and then selling it to the citizens of Great Falls, who were highly appreciative of the luxury, for until this time ice had been a missing commodity. Since he was the first to conceive and carry out this plan, it is no more than just that he should be today, vice-president of the business which has resulted from this small and primitive beginning. This corporation is the Great Falls Ice and Fuel Company, of which L. W. Luke is president and A. D. Robinson is treasurer. Mr. Her- ring is a stockholder and director in the company, as well as an officer, and from his long experience in the business the corporation could scarcely get along with- out him.

Mr. Herring is a Republican in politics. A man of of his breadth and experience is of inestimable benefit to his party. and they are well aware of his value. Mayor J. M. Speer has recently appointed him as street commissioner for the city, his term being a two year one, but he will probably be re-appointed for his work along these lines has been highly satisfactory to every one concerned. In the fraternal world, Mr. Her- ring is a member of the Oddfellows and of the Eagles.

On the roth of January, 1875. Mr. Herring was mar- ried to Marie Crumb, at Elk Point, South Dakota. Two children were born of this union, but his wife only lived until 1893. The children, both of whom are now living in Great Falls, are Jessie and Harry Herring. On the 6th of September, 1896, Mr. Herring was married for the second time. The ceremony was performed at Great Falls and the bride was Mrs. Josie Wheatley.

Mr. Herring owns his own residence property, at 321 Fifth avenue, South, and he also owns and operates a live-stock ranch in Cascade county, Montana. This

ranch consists of three hundred and twenty acres and he raises a large number of horses and cattle, paying especial attention to the breeding of fine animals.

EDGAR S. PAXSON. In a historical work of the state of Montana and its foremost men, to omit extended mention of the life and work of Edgar S. Paxson would be a flagrant inconsistency with the general fitness of things, and in writing of him it is not the intention to eulogize the man or unduly praise his work ;- for indeed no words are adequate to express the high character portrayed by his life,-but rather to make a plain, straightforward statement of the facts of his life, knowing full well that such a recital will be more eloquent of his many excellent qualities and his rare ability as an artist than the most high- sounding verbiage, however fitting, might picture him.

Edward S. Paxson was born in Orchard Park, near Buffalo, New York, on the 25th of April, 1852. He is the son of William Hambleton and Christina (Hambleton) Paxson, natives of New York state. As a boy and youth he attended the public schools of his community, finishing his schooling with a year in a New York college known as the Freidns' Insti- tute. When he was twenty years old he went to Saginaw, Michigan, returning after a few months to New York state, where he went into the carriage painting business. He remained thus occupied for perhaps two years, and then, with one of his broth- ers, began to travel in various parts of the United States. They covered several of the southern and west- ern states, working at intervals at their trade, and tiring somewhat of their nomadic life, again returned to their eastern home. A year later Edward Paxson set out for the West, this time with the definite intention of reaching that portion of the country, and he worked his way across and through the Dakotas into Mon- tana, reaching the then territory in 1877. His first stop of any permanency was at Ryan's Canyon, where he hired out to some cattlemen to do some hunting and scouting for them. Let it be said here that the wild life of the West was eminently suited to the tem- perament of Mr. Paxson, coming as he did from a family of Quakers who had been famous hunters since the days of William Penn. The love of the wilds was in his blood, and the feel of a gun was as natural to him as breathing, so that the opportunity to test his mettle on the plains was a welcome one indeed, especially as it came at a time when the famous Nez Perce Indian war was being waged. His next employment was as a messenger from Ryan's Canyon to Iron Rod, and it is obvious that in those strenuous times he would have many a thrilling expe- rience in the discharge of his duties. At one time he was surrounded by a party of thirty Indians who had escaped from the United States soldiers, and held by them for forty-eight hours. What his fate might have been he can only conjecture, for he escaped from the camp by the exercise of a piece of cunning equal to that of his captors and on reaching Deer Lodge gave the alarm. In those early days he resorted to any work that promised excitement, experience and an honest living, and the days here spent in cow-punching Indian trailing and hunting big game gave him an in- sight into western life that he has depicted with marvelous accuracy in his canvasses of later life, for in those early days his talent was then undiscovered. even by himself. Following a few years of life on the plains, he located in Deer Lodge where he remained four years, and it was while here that he began to display an interest in art. From the first his work was especially meritorious, and was productive of con- siderable local fame, although the work which brought him world wide notice was not completed until 1898. In 1880 Mr. Paxson was called to Butte to paint a

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panoramic view for a patron there, and though he completed the work in a matter entirely satisfactory to the patron, he never received his fee of something like $800, the would-be purchaser defaulting at the crucial moment. He remained in Butte thereafter for twenty-four years where he followed sign and scene painting for the greater part of the time, the while he studied constantly and worked to increase his won- derful talent for the depicting of western scenes and life. In 1895 he began work on his famous Custer picture, but the breaking out of the Spanish-American war found hini eager as a boy to enlist in the volunteer service, and he went as first lieutenant of his company in a Montana volunteer regiment, his son Harry going as a member of the same company. Ill health compelled his return from the Philippines in January, 1898, and after that time he gave himself up entirely to his art. It was not until then that he finished his Custer picture which has brought him so much re- nown, and which has called forth letters of congrat- ulation from artists, statesmen and army officials in every corner of the globe. At the present time Mr. Paxson is engaged in work on six mural decorations for the state capital at Helena, which give brilliant promise and will later place eight panels in the new county court house. One is particularly pleasing, being a representation of Saca-je-wea, the little Indian girl leading Lewis and Clarke through the mountains and trails. All are wonderful in their interpretation of western life and atmosphere, and are worthy of their creator. True to life and history in every detail as his pictures are, the wonder of it all is how the men, untutored in his art in a practical sense, has solved the mysteries of color and technique; but the fact remains that his work is as near perfection as human skill may touch. It might well be said of him in explanation of his wonderful success in his interpretations of life and action that he "mixes his paint with brains," as a famous artist is reputed to have said to a curious inquirer as to the secret of his success. Whatever the hidden secret of the phe- nomenal success of Mr. Paxson, the fact remains that what he knows of art he learned in the sage- brush, the Indian camp, the cattle ranch and the mountains. The ability which enables him to portray what he learned thus is a natural talent, requiring no cultivation, so strong, so vital and so true is the in- stinct of the artistic sense in the man. In addition to his more important works, Mr. Paxson has done a considerable illustrating for books, the illustrations in Connor's "Man From Glengarry" being the prod- uct of his brush.

Several years ago the parents of Mr. Paxson came to Montana and settled in Butte where they might be near their son and others of the family who had come to the western state. They passed their de- clining years in Butte and there are buried. A brother, Robert H., was for some years a prominent druggist in Butte. but he is now a resident of the state of Oregon, while his sister, Mrs. W. J. Crittenden, lives in Butte. Mr. Paxson is a Republican, but takes no active part in politics. He is a member of the Odd- fellows, the Spanish War Veterans, and of the National Geographical Society at Washington, D. C. In 1904 Mr. Paxson was elected an honorary member of the Marine Club of Chicago, a peculiar and unusual distinc- tion, that being a ladies club. and Mr. Paxson is the only male member. He is also an honorary member of the Marion A. White Arts and Crafts Club of Butte. He is an active member of the Pioneer Society and of the original Gun Club of Montana. He is an expert shot and an enthusiast, and has shot with this club from coast to coast. He attends the Congregational church in Mis- soula but is a member of no church.

Mr. Paxson was married in Orchard Park, New York, on June 4, 1874, to Laura M. Johnson of that

place to whom he owes much of his success in life. They have reared a family of four children,-three sons and one daughter, of whom mention is made as follows: Loran Custer Paxson, married and is a resi- dent of Butte. Harry McDonald Paxson, deceased. Robert Cyrenas Paxson, unmarried and a member of the Paxson household. Leila, now attending school.

Of the life of Harry McDonald Paxson brief mention may be made here. He was born and reared in Montana and there carefully educated. A boy of seventeen years when the Spanish-American war was declared, he enlisted for service in the same company in which his father was first lieutenant,-Company G. of the First Montana Volunteers. . He served as a bugler in his company, and was detached to Major Crooks' Battalion, and so distinguished himself in action that upon his return home at the close of the war he was awarded a special medal by congress "for conspicuous bravery in action." When the war was over and he had resumed civilian life, he left his home in Butte to become assistant electrical engineer in charge of the dredges at Ruby, and while at work in the electrical department of the Conroy Placer Mining Company the unfortunate accident occurred which resulted in the instantaneous death of the young man. No finer specimen of young and brilliant man- hood might be found in the state than Harry Mc- Donald Paxson, and his loss was felt in a wide circle of admiring and devoted friends. He possessed a fine and distinctive character, displaying many of the splendid attributes which have made his father the man he is known to be. He was devoted to his home and parents, and his death, coming at a time when he had but just begun his life work and in which he had made such excellent progress, was a blow from which they will never recover. He left a wife and two little boys, Harry McDonald and William Edgar Pax- son.

In further comment upon the life of Edgar Paxson, is quoted, with some slight omissions, an article taken from the pages of the Overland Monthly of September, 1906, entitled Edgar Samuel Paxson, Pioneer, Scout and Artist, which can not fail to throw some interest- ing side lights upon the life of this man among men. The article follows: "The history-making epoch of a country is rarely ever an epoch of an artistic or lit- erary achievement, for the obvious reason that men are spending their energy upon the stern problems of life itself, and not in the passive reflection thereof. This is conspicuously true of the northwest, where climate, Indians and a curious hostility among the earlier argonauts themselves, left little time or force for the preservation in color or language of the pic- turesque beginnings of its civilization. However, there are a few exceptions, and one of the most striking of these is the artist, Edgar S. Paxson, who, coming from his native village near Buffalo, New York, in the seventies, reached the western country in time to wit- ness and participate in the bitter Indian fights and imbibe the rough majesty of the mountains which were still undesecrated by the petty projects of man.

"It was the influence of the new life of adventure; the stealthy trips out into the solitudes in search of lurking foes and elusive game, where the mountains seemed to be dipped in the color of the sky, and the sun shone pure gold through the clear air, that caused Paxson to begin to paint what he saw. His home was in Deer Lodge, Montana, a pretty little town hemmed in by the eternal hills. He had not been given an art education, but he possessed the artistic insight to a wonderful degree, and with no impetus save the love of the doing, he worked in obscurity for many years. But all the while he was observing keenly the minutiae of the pioneer life that was passing like the mists from the mountains. As a scout and a captive he studied the tyrannical Indian making his last des-

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perate stand against the inevitable encroachment of civilization; as a minister of mercy in the hospitals after the Custer massacre and Nez Perce's in Big Hole, he learned from the wounded soldiers their stories of blood and glory, and now in his studio there are valu- able relics of those tempestuous times. As a trapper and hunter he stalked the elk, the deer, the Rock Mountain sheep, through pristine forests and over precipitous steeps, learning all the while the subtilty of it all; the secret of the changing scene spread ma- jestically upon the infinite canvas of nature. And once possessed of this knowledge, he set about inter- preting in color scenes, customs and people now in- timately familiar to him. The Indian was to be his master theme, and secondarily, as a setting, the snow clad peaks, the sage-brush and the plain. The iron- jawed cayuse, the buffalo and all the creatures of the wilderness were to find a place in the pictures wronght hy this man.

"As the discovery of the new mines changed the relative importance of the different camps, Butte be- came the center of activity, and Paxson moved there from his earlier home in Deer Lodge. During the years he had conceived the idea of painting a picture of Custer's last fight, which should, so far as was possible, depict with absolute faithfulness of detail that disastrous battle. With survivors of the fight, scouts and Indians, he went over the ground and through such information as they could give, and by means of the monuments placed by the government in the exact spot where each soldier fell, gained a knowledge of environment and detail. Then he began the picture which made him famous. It is a large canvas, showing the heat of the fray, with soldier, Indian and horses in the tangle of a sanguine melee. It was exhibited at the World's Fair in Chicago, where it attracted general notice, and it is still kept and shown in that city. It was for six years in many of the prominent cities of the East. Since then he has been represented at all the national expositions, his display at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition having elicited a vote of thanks from the Montana Legislature. Among his best canvases there were '1804,' 'Jumping the Wagon Train,' and 'Injuns, b'gosh.' Mr. Pax- son's pictures are also owned by many private collec- tors in Paris, London and all over the United States. "In addition to his painting, Mr. Paxson has done much illustrating, having furnished the pictures for Ralph Connor's 'Glengarry School Days,' Alfred Henry's 'By Order of the Prophet,' and many other popular books of the day. He is at present engaged upon illustrations for the 'Life of the Reverend L. B. Stateler,' or 'Sixty-five years on the Frontier,' by Reverend Edwin J. Stanley, author of 'Rambles in Wonderland.'

"In 1898, when the call came for volunteers in our war with Spain, Paxson responded, and enlisted in the First Montana Infantry, U. S. V., and was commis- sioned a first lieutenant. The old spirit of the seven- ties was alive again, and he, among many another vet- cran of the Indian campaigns, abandoned the pursuits of peace for the adventure and vicissitude of war. This period among the tropical islands of the Phil- ippines has left no appreciable trace upon his art, and when Mr. Paxson laid down his sword for the brush, it was to resume the theme he had chosen in youth as his life work.

"In the little studio, perched up high on the famous Anaconda Hill, within hearing of the booming and throbbing of the engines of the mines, amid huge smoke stacks, hoists and shafthouses, and in full view of the great unshorn bulk of the Continental Divide, Mr. Paxson can be found almost any afternoon. He is a quiet, serious looking man, little inclined to ‘blow his own horn,' as he himself has said. But he does like to show his visitors the wealth of curiosities Vol. II-15

gathered during his long life as an artist and a col- lector. There are bows and arrows, buckskin coats, beaded in curiously wrought patterns, one of which was made by Sitting Bull's daughter and worn by an American officer in the Custer fight. There are moc- casins, belts, necklaces of eagle talons, and strange head dresses of feathers; baskets, ancient rifles, each with its story, and more besides than the casual ob- server can hope to grasp at a single viewing. One would travel far to find a choicer collection of rare relics. The bead work alone is fit for a museum.

"Here in this atmosphere of the Indian, his craft and his tradition, Mr. Paxson sits and works upon the canvases, disposed upon easels about the studio. There are brave scenes of the chase and among the best of them are the buffalo hunts. Overhead, the ceiling is decorated with a frieze of Indian masks, pipes of peace and arrows, done in warm sepia by the artist. Beneath one's feet are deer skins which tell the tale of those early expeditions into the heart of the hills, and not a few antlers and bleached skulls peer down from the walls, or lie among the heaps of books and portfolios upon the floor.

"Many a pilgrim from the East and West climbs the steep hill and knocks at the artist's door. In the book or register which he keeps one sees distinguished sig- natures and reads sentiments of kindly interest and good wishes from soldiers, artists, writers, and some of the Indian chiefs, themselves, who, grave, blanketed and serene, have set their cross mark next to the names of the bravest of their whilom foes.

"Thus he of the opposing whites who fought cour- ageously in the winning of the wilderness, has become, in a sense, the disciple of the passing race, and when the fleeting figure of the Red man has gone forever from the shifting scene of life, it will still live upon the canvas of its faithful interpreter, and the name of the Indian and the Master will forever be linked to- gether in the history of the Mighty West."

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A history of Montana, Volume II, Part 68

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