A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 119

Author: Sanders, Helen Fitzgerald, 1883-
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 970

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member of the Presbyterian church. In addition to his many other talents, Dr. Long is a musician of con- siderable ability. He is self trained, and plays almost any instrument, but is most devoted to the clarinet. He was director of the state band at Emporia, Kansas, while attending the normal school, and all through his college career he earned the money necessary for his expenses through his work with various musical organizations.

Dr. Long was married at Atchison, Kansas, on No- vember 25, 1905, to Miss Ethel Beck, who was a pupil of his when he was engaged in teaching in Kansas. She is a daughter of George Beck, a native of Atchison county, Kansas, and prominent in that section of the state. Two children have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Long. Callie was born at Choteau, Montana, on Sep- tember 13, 1907, and Franklin was born at Great Falls on July 28, 1910.

SAMUEL D. MCNEELY, clerk of court at Kalispell, 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 improvements which will prove of lasting benefit to the city and state. He is a self-made man. From the first he was possessed of ambition and determination and his energy, courage and honorable methods have brought him to a position of esteem and influence among the citizens of this state, where he is a man of mark in all the relations of life.

A native of the fine old Wolverine State of the Union, Samuel D. McNeely was born in Port Huron, Michigan, August 31, 1866. His father, Richard D. McNeely, was born in Canada, whence he removed to Michigan as a young man, there engaging in the lumber business. He is now living in retirement, at the age of sixty-five years, at Everett, Washington. His wife, whose maiden name was Clara Batey, was born and reared in Michi- gan and she was summoned to the life eternal at Kalis- pell in 1901, at the age of fifty-three years. Mr. and Mrs. McNeely became the parents of four children, of whom Samuel D. was the oldest in order of birth.

After completing the curriculum of the public schools of Michigan, Mr. McNeely, of this sketch, began to work along mercantile lines. In April, 1902, he came to Kalispell, where he accepted a position with the Som- mers Lumber Company. In the same year he entered the employ of J. W. Walker and was under him in the county clerk's office for the ensuing four years, at the expiration of which he engaged in the abstract busi- ness, working for Shoemaker & Roberts until 1907, when he became bookkeeper for the Missouri Mercantile Company at Kalispell. In 1908 he was honored by his fellow citizens with election to the office of clerk of court of Flathead county and he is the popular and efficient incumbent of that position at the present time.

JEAN EWEN. Among the professions the one offering the most prolific field in a growing community like Great Falls is that of architecture, and many of the most beautiful buildings in the city have been designed by the younger devotees of this calling. Youthful en- thusiasm, fertility of ideas, natural talent inherited from a long line of artisans, and unbounded technical knowl- edge have served to make the work of Jean Ewen some of the best that the city has known, and have resulted in his services being constantly in demand. Mr. Ewen was born at Meintz, Germany, January 27, 1885, and is a son of Mathias and Margaret (Groven) Ewen.

Mathias Ewen was born in Meintz, Germany, in 1855, and in his early years was prominent in German mili- tary circles, holding the rank of lieutenant. He still survives and is engaged in the manufacture of Venetian blinds at Meintz. His wife, born at that place in 1860, also resides there, and they have had four children, as

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follows: Kathryne; Jean; Mathias, who now lives at Evansville, Indiana; and William, who still resides in the Fatherland.

Jean Ewen received his education in the common schools of his native country, which he attended until he was fifteen years old, and then took a course in architecture. At this time he left Germany alone for the United States and came directly to Kalispell, Flathead county, Montana, securing a position with the architec- tural firm of Gibson & Chanley, and under the guidance of these gentlemen devoted himself to the study of his chosen vocation for two years. Subsequently he went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he became assistant to Charles S. Holloway, a prominent architect of that city, and was also with A. W. Ebey, remaining in St. Louis in all for two and one-half years. During the three years that followed he was in the employ of F. J. Schlowter, of Evansville, Indiana, and he then re- turned to Montana and located in Great Falls, opening offices in 1910. Mr. Ewen has been successful from the start, and a number of the city's most beautiful residences and stateliest business structures have been built after plans of his making. He is enterprising and energetic and is possessed of ability and capacity for work. In his leisure moments he devotes his time to hunting and fishing, being very fond of out-door life, and is a director of the Great Falls Athletic Club. In political matters he is independent, and the only interest he shows in matters of a civic nature is that taken by a good and public-spirited citizen. His religious faith is that of the Roman Catholic church.

MME. CLARA L. (KIMBALL) McCARROLL. One of the most energetic and enterprising women of Montana, Mme. McCarroll is widely known, her Beauty Parlors, at 113 West Park street, Butte, being liberally patron- ized, not only by the elite of the city, but by all desir- ing special treatment of scalp, hair or skin. She was born February 25, 1867, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her father, Hiram Kimball, a native of Nauvoo, Illinois, where his birth occurred in 1841, became a pioneer settler of Salt Lake City, Utah, and in 1903 he became a resident of Butte, Montana. He married Clara White- head, who was born in England, in 1843, and as a child of eight years came with her parents to the United States, with them journeying to their new home in Salt Lake City. She died in Butte, Montana, in 1907. Clara L. Kimball was reared and educated in Salt Lake City and there she was united in marriage with Robert McCarroll, a prominent contractor of that place. Three children were born of their union, namely : Austin, whose birth occurred in Salt Lake City; Etoile, deceased, born in the same city; and Lydia, born in Butte, Montana.

In 1891 Mme McCarroll came to Butte with her husband. Born with a love for beauty, she had always longed to study the art of beautifying the hair, face and figure. In 1901 she took up the study and in 1902 went to New York City and graduated with high honors from the New York School of Chiropody and Der- matology. Returning to Butte, she opened parlors in the Pennsylvania block, but finding it too small, moved to a larger place on Broadway. In 1907 she moved to her present location, which is finely equipped, being considered by those in authority as the finest and best in every respect of any similar establishment west of Chicago. Mme. McCarroll is a specialist in regard to facial massage, shampooing, scalp treatment, manicuring, chiropody and dermatology, and also employs several expert assistants, and she likewise gives special atten- tion to hair dressing, bleaching, dyeing and the manu- facturing hair goods, and gives electric treatment of all kinds. She has also made a great success of the removal of birth-marks and blemishes. She has her own laboratory where all her toilet preparations are made and in addition to all this store, maintains a regular doll's hospital. Successful from the start,

Mme. McCarroll has built up a large and highly re- munerative patronage among the social set of Butte and the surrounding cities, her fame as a professional expert along the lines above mentioned having extended throughout the western states.

ROBERT H. CLAFLIN is another of the honorable com- pany who may justly lay claim to the term self-made. He owes his prosperity not to any lucky speculation, but to the development of a useful field of occupation. Men who organize and maintain such enterprises con- fer a double service upon society, in that they both per- form a needed service and afford the opportunity of making a livelihood to others.

New York was the state of Mr. Claflin's birth, but he did not grow up in it, for when he was five his par- ents moved to Kansas. The occasion of this change was the impaired health of the father, Lafayette Claflin. At the opening of the Civil war he had entered the com- pany which went from Niagara county, New York, and served for four years in the Union army. This had been too great a strain upon his constitution, and so in 1878 he went overland with his family to Ellsworth county, Kansas. There he settled on a farm and devoted himself to live stock and general farming. The climate of the Sunflower state agreed with him and he resided there, managing his farm, until his death, in April, 1912. His wife, Kate Delaney Claflin, was born in Ireland in 1844. When she was a child some of her relatives came to America and she accompanied them. She settled first in Niagara county, New York, and it was there that she was married in 1870. She died in Kansas in 1908.

Robert Claflin was born on December 21, 1873, in Niagara county, of which his father was also a native. His sixth birthday found him in Kansas, and in her dis- trict schools he received his formal educational train- ing. Until he was twenty-seven he worked on his father's farm, but in 1903 came to Helena, attracted by the high wages paid in that city. Mr. Claflin arrived at Helena in October and for several months thereafter worked in the mines. Next he went into the depart- ment store of Joseph Wienstein, but his stay there was limited to half a year, as he became ill and had to give up his position. When he recovered, he went to work for Milo Brooks in the moving business, and remained in his employ for nearly two years.

Before the end of the second year, Mr. Claflin had saved over a hundred dollars, and this he decided to invest in a business of his own. Purchasing a team, he started into the moving business for himself. The day on which he began was June 21, 1905. Since that time his equipment has increased from one team to five double teams and one single one. In 1907 he added to his transfer business a storage department locating at No. 845 Rodney street. In April, 1910, Mr. Claflin established a business of dealing in second hand house- hold furniture, the outgrowth of which is the present furniture establishment at No. 335 North Main street where he deals both in new and second hand furniture. The capital of $150 with which he began has increased more than a hundred-fold, for now he values his plant and outfit at $25,000.

Before coming to Montana, Mr. Claflin was united in marriage to Miss Harriet B. Hughes, of Ellsworth county, Kansas, the daughter of Joseph and Hannah Hughes. Their marriage took place in 1900. Their only child, Bernice Estelle Claflin, was born in Helena on December 2, 1903, and is now attending school in the city. Mr. Claflin's religious preference is for the Baptist church, of which both he and Mrs. Claflin are attend- ants and members. He is a Democrat in political mat- ters and, fraternally, a member of the Highlanders.

FRANK BECHTOLD. It is distinctively within the pro- vince of this historical compilation to enter record con- cerning those staunch and important industrial con-

MR. AND MRS. FRANK BECHTOLD AND FAMILY.

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cerns which have conserved the commercial progress of Dillon and Beaverhead county, and prominent on the list is the Beaverhead Brewing Company, of which the gentleman whose name inaugurates this paragraph is the proprietor. It is one of the most modern and best equipped brewing plants in the west and Mr. Bechtold has achieved fame as the producer of his product, which in wholesome and exquisite quality is the equal of the celebrated German beers. He has been identified with Dillon since 1908 and although German by nativity, has developed into one of the most enthusiastic of Americans.

The birth of Mr. Bechtold occurred in the Father- land April 29, 1864. When about twenty-four years of age he crossed the Atlantic in quest of the greater opportunity promised by the New World. He located first in Evansville, Indiana, where he remained two years and then went to Louisville, Kentucky, his resi- dence there being of nine years' duration. From that point he went to Milwaukee, where he took a course in the Brewers' School and was graduated as a first class brew and malt master. He had been a competent brewer before coming to America and his object in studying in Milwaukee was to acquaint himself with American methods. After completing his course in Milwaukee he went to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where he assumed the position of superintendent in the city brewery and remained in such capacity for five years. Through the solicitations of the late Mr. Henry Muel- ler, head of the Anaconda Brewing Company, Mr. Bechtold was induced to come to Anaconda, where for five years he held the position of inside superin- tendent of the Anaconda Brewing Company. On Feb- ruary 1, 1908, he came to Dillon, and here purchased the plant of the Dillon Brewing Company. He has resided here since that time and has enjoyed the great- est success, the company having grown steadily under his management. He has installed the most up-to-date machinery, run by electricity, and the plant is out- fitted with carbonators and ice-making plant. The United States health office in Washington, D. C., passed upon the product as sanitary and of highest nutriment and free from all drugs and bacteria. In fact, it was one of the first mentioned in point of ex- cellence. This progressive company has installed a cold storage depot in Lemhi county for malt liquors and soft drinks and have recently introduced a new brand brewed exactly in the style of the Export Pilsner and the great Bohemian beer. His son Frank is a great addition to the concern, having a diploma as super- intendent, or foreman of a modern bottling plant, the. same being acquired through his training as a prac- titioner in the Blatz and Fred Miller Brewing Company of Milwaukee. He has complete charge of the bottling department and is a graduate of the Milwaukee In- dustrial Brewer Academy. The senior Mr. Bechtold is a man of splendid executive capacity and any concern with which he has been connected has been pretty sure of success. The work he has accomplished here has been wonderful.

Mr. Bechtold was married in Germany, October 27, 1887, Mary Bitzenhofer, of Freiberg, Baden, becom- ing his wife. Their union has been blessed with eight children, equally divided as to sons and daughters. The eldest, Josiphine, was born in Evansville, Indi- ana. John 'was born in Dillon, being associated with his father in business. Josephine M., born in Louis- ville, Kentucky, August 14, 1890, is a graduate of the high school and resides in -Dillon with her parents. Frank X., born in Louisville, Kentucky, August 1I, 1892, went through the public schools and was gradu- ated from the Milwaukee Brewers' Academy as fore- man of the Bottling Plant and is now filling that posi- tion with his father. Joseph M., born in Louisville, December 19, 1895, is in school in Dillon, as are the three youngest children : Fred K., born in New Al- bany, Indiana, November 17, 1898; Mary K., born in

Johnstown, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1901 ; and Matilda S., born in Anaconda, Montana, July 17, 1904.

The Bechtold family are communicants of the Cath- olic faith. The head of the house belongs to the Eagles and is Republican in his politcal conviction, but takes no active part in politics, having in the di- rection of public affairs only the interest of the intel- ligent voter. He finds great recreation in the king of American sports-baseball; is fond of reading and, like all good Germans, delights in the better kind of music, particularly vocal.

Mr. Bechtold is a son of John B. and Mary Kather- ina (Linsemeyer) Bechtold. The former, who passed away in 1873, at the age of fifty-three years, engaged in mercantile business in Freiberg, where he lived all his life. The mother still resides in that beautiful and historic city. There were nine children in the elder Bechtold family, the subject being the sixth in order of birth. He has one brother in America, Dr. Gregory Bechtold, who is director in the theological seminary at Saint Meinrad, Indiana.

Mr. Bechtold has the prosperity of Dillon close at heart and is a typically alert and energetic citizen of the great west.

SAMUEL HAYES CLINTON was a gift from St. Valen- tine himself-and not a comic valentine, either, since he was the ninth of twelve children born to parents with a limited amount of this world's goods. At the time of his birth, February the fourteenth, 1876, the family was living in Crawford county, Missouri, not far distant from St. Louis. His father, Jenkins Clinton, spent his entire life at or near his own birthplace, Steel- ville, Missouri. He began life as a miller, tried his hand at ranching and finally became a merchant in Steelville where he died in 1906, at the age of eighty- eight. His wife whose maiden name was Ava Char- lotta Williams, was like himself a Missourian by birth and training. She passed away at the age of sixty-six, leaving seven sons and five daughters. Naturally, these twelve children could expect little or no financial aid from their parents.

Samuel H. Clinton earned his first money as a news- boy in St. Louis. When seventeen years of age, he had the timerity to start a small mercantile establishment on his own responsibility. For two years he managed his little store in Wilsonmail, Missouri, not without some degree of success. When the opportunity to dis- pose of it came to him, however, he sold out and re- turned to St. Louis to accept a position with the Sim- mons Hardware Company. From order filler he became bill distributor and finally was made department man- ager of their large retail house on Broadway. This position did not altogether satisfy him, as he felt the only road to success lay in managing a business of his own. He therefore left St. Louis for Owensville, Mis- souri, and there, with the aid of borrowed capital, started a business in his own name. The business was well underway and the outlook good when a fire burned the building to the ground, destroying the entire stock.

This left Mr. Clinton not only penniless but with a large debt hanging over him. He asked for no bank- ruptcy proceedings. On the other hand, when his cred- itors offered to settle for fifty cents on the dollar he refused to make terms and ultimately paid every debt in full. Discouraged and sick at heart but determined to make good, despite the difficulties, he left Missouri for Texas. For four years he worked on a salary in Texas, going from one town to another whenever he saw an opportunity to better himself. During most of his time, he was with the Southern Contracting Company, first as paymaster and later as chief clerk. It was during these years in Texas, that he was able to greatly diminish the financial load which he was carrying. When twenty-seven years of age, he set out for Montana, stopping first at Helena. After a few months in this city he purchased a hotel in Harlowton.

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This time his patron saint seemed to be with him for scarcely had he sold the Harlow House until it, too, burned to the ground. With the money from this sale in his pocket he went to Whitehall and for the third time, ventured into the mercantile world. As the chil- dren say "The third time is the charm," at least, so it seemed to prove for Mr. Clinton. He has built up one of the large and well known business houses of Madison county.

Mr. Clinton received his early education at Clinton school, Crawford county, Missouri, the school having been named for the senior Mr. Clinton. When the dis- trict school could offer him no more, he took a brief course in the business department of the Normal School at Steelville, Missouri. The balance of his education and all his advancement of whatever nature he has acquired by his own efforts. The road has been neither smooth nor level, and only his unfailing cour- age and his faith in the future have led him to where he is today.

Samuel Clinton is a prominent member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and was head guide in the Maccabees when that lodge was first organized in Whitehall. Politically, his sympathies are with the Republican party.

While in Dallas, Texas, in 1902, he was married to Miss Nellie Jane Green. Miss Green was the attrac- tive daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. P. Green of Hutchin- son, Kansas. At the time of her marriage she was twenty years of age. She is now the mother of a son of eight years, Lawrence Thomas Clinton, and a daugh- ter, Catherine Blanch, aged three.

Thomas P. Green, Mrs. Clinton's father, was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, but moved to Kansas while still a young man. While there he was roadmaster for the Union Pacific Railroad. coming to Montana to accept a similar position with the new road that ran into Livingston. His wife was Ellen Holland, daughter of Cornelius and Ellen Holland of Boston, Massachusetts. Both Mr. and Mrs. Green are now residents of White- hall, where Mr. Green has become associated in the business of his son-in-law. Mr. Clinton is known and honored as one of the most capable and trustworthy merchants of the city, whose success, because hard won, is conceded to be most justly deserved.

S. J. Clinton and his family are active members of the Roman Catholic church, in which both husband and wife were reared.

JOHN J. O'NEILL, manager for the Montana and northern Idaho business of the Continental Oil Com- pany, with headquarters at Butte, is not only one of the representative business men of the Treasure state, but one of Butte's valued citizens as well. For more than a quarter of a century Mr. O'Neill has been connected with the Continental Oil Company and has become one of the best known men identified with the oil trade in the west.

Born on August 11. 1860, at Clifton Springs, On- tario county, New York, he is a son of James and Sarah (O'Brien) O'Neill, both natives of Ireland. They were the parents of fourteen children. The mother is now deceased, while the father is living re- tired and makes his home with his son Felix O'Neill, chief of police of Denver, Colorado.

John J. O'Neill passed the first twenty years of his life in his native town, Clifton Springs, New York. As one of a large family of children whose parents were in only moderate circumstances, his public school training was interrupted at frequent intervals when a hoy, so that he early began life's battle for himself none too well equipped in the matter of education. He was not yet in his 'teens when he first secured employment at the Clifton Springs Sanitarium, and his first work as an errand boy was followed by more important duties, and it mattered not what they were; he under- took their discharge with considerably more zeal and

interest than the average boy of his years may be in- duced to exercise. Naturally polite, courteous and willing, he made himself valuable, and rapidly grew in favor with both the management and guests, so that for about ten years he was in the employ of this in- stitution, leaving it only when a better opportunity for advancement was offered. While there he had formed the acquaintance of Mr. C. S Mooney; of Denver, who offered him a position with the C. S. Mooney Mer- cantile Company in that city, and in 1881 Mr. O'Neill went west to accept it. Beginning as general utility man, he rapidly familiarized himself with the business, being advanced from one post to another until he be- came foreman. He remained about six years with this house, and when he left it, it was to go in business for himself. He formed a partnership with W. P. Horan, under the firm name of Horan & O'Neill, and engaged in the retail oil business in Denver. This venture was a success and after about two years he disposed of his interests to his partner. It was in the latter part of 1887 when he first became connected with the Continental Oil Company, first as city salesman in Denver, and after a few months he was made manager of the Company's business at Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he con- tinued for about six years, and was then transferred to Leadville, Colorado, remaining there for nine years in a like capacity. In 1903 he came to Butte and has ever since been in charge of the company's business at this place, which is one of its most important distributing stations in the northwest.

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A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 119

Author: Sanders, Helen Fitzgerald, 1883- Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 970

Author: Sanders, Helen Fitzgerald, 1883-
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 970