A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 12

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

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Mr. French has been twice married. His first wife was Miss S. A. Willerton, a daughter of Daniel Wil- lerton, of Sank county, Wisconsin. This marriage took place in 1887, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and one son, Ralph, was born of this marriage, his birth occurring in Helena, Montana, on the 17th of January, 1890. His second marriage was on the 18th of September, 1912, in Portland, Oregon, and his wife was Miss A. C. Thompson, a daughter of a Mr. Thompson of Brad- ford, Pennsylvania. They reside at 641 Second avenue, East, and the laundry is located at 37 Main street.

H. H. GARR has been a resident of the state of Montana since 1886, and has thus seen a full quarter century of development in the great Treasurer state of the West. He has borne his full share in the labors that have fallen to the best citizens, and in one capacity and another has ever been found active and energetic in behalf of the state. First as superintendent of Indian schools under Major Marcus Baldwin, he has from that time on held important positions under the government or in local politics. When he came to Whitefish to look after his ranch interests here, he was appointed police judge and justice of the peace, and is now serving his fourth term in the latter capacity.

H. H. Garr was born in Elmira, New York, on April 9, 1840, and is the son of Jacob and Euranid (Wittam) Garr. The father was Jacob Garr, the de-, scendant of an old German family, the first of the name to locate in America being George Garr, who came in 1600 and settled in Virginia. The mother of Jacob Garr came to America from Holland in 1700 and settled in Connecticut, where many relatives of the Garr name and family are yet to be found. The grandfather of Judge Garr of this review was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Jacob Garr was a well- known farmer and builder in the middle part of the nineteenth century. He died in 1876 when he was

sixty-six years of age, his death resulting from a fall on the ice. The mother, Euranid Wittam, was born in Connecticut, where so many of the Wittam and Garr families are to be found today. She died in California at the age of seventy-five years, while her mother lived to reach the age of ninety-four years.

Judge Garr, as a boy at home, attended school in Elmyra, and also received some private schooling, after which he attended an eastern university for some time. In April, 1861, he enlisted in Company F, of the Twenty-third New York Regiment, and served two years under Captain W. F. Dughdee. He was at the battles of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and a number of other important engagements. He served throughout the term of his enlistment, without once being disabled or suffering aught but the usual dis- comforts of war attendant upon camp life. After leaving the service he came to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he remained until he removed to the West in 1886. In that year he settled in Montana on the Indian reservation as superintendent of the Indian school on the Flathead reservation. He retained that position for a year and a half under Major Baldwin, and after leaving the government service he removed to Great Falls where he assisted in the building of the smelter there. He then removed to Columbia Falls where he remained until 1906, when he came to Whitefish, and since that time he has continued to reside here. In addition to his private interests, he has been police judge and justice of the peace, and he has held various other positions of a similar nature.

In December, 1868, Judge Garr married Mrs. Helen M. Hunt of Elkhart, and to their union three children have been born. George Garr, the eldest, was born in Elkhart, Indiana, and died in early life. Ralph F. Garr, also born at Elkhart, and now a resident of Whitefish, Montana. He is the father of four chil- dren: Myron, Helen M., George and Mable. Mable Garr, the third born child of Judge and Mrs. Garr, died in early life. The wife and mother died on May 14, 1903, while en route from California to her home in Whitefish.

Judge Garr is an independent Republican, and is acknowledged to be one of the influential men of his district in affairs of a political nature. He is a Mason of the blue lodge and chapter, and is a charter member of the Great Falls lodge, also a member of Kane Lodge No. 183, of Elkhart, Indiana. He has been a Mason since March 15, 1865, and is well known in Masonic circles throughout the state.

SOLON BUCKLEY STONE, M. D., comes of a family which has contributed much to the advancement of the medical profession, and he possesses much of the skill and ability that have gone to make national rep- utations for his ancestors in the medical profession. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 26. 1859, and is the son of Orville Buckley and Malvina (Lincoln) Stone. He is the grandson of Uriah Stone, and the great-grandson of Prof. Nathan Smith, M. D., the founder of the medical department of Yale Uni- versity, and a cousin of Dr. David P. Smith, late pro- fessor of surgery of Yale.

Solon Buckley Stone was educated in the common and high schools in Massachusetts, and in 1875 he com- menced the study of medicine at Washington, D. C., under the preceptorship of his uncle, Prof. Nathan Smith Lincoln, M. D., and his great-uncle, Prof. Nathan R. Smith, M. D., the inventor of Smith's an- terior splint. He attended four courses of lectures at the National Medical College, Medical Department of the Columbian University at Washington, and was grad- uated in 1879. In October of the same year Dr. Stone was commissioned acting assistant surgeon in the United States army and was stationed at Fort Bowie, Arizona, for two years, at Fort Maginnis five years, at Fort

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Missoula for one year, where he built a new military hospital, and then at Fort Shaw for a year. He then resigned from the army and has been a private prac- titioner since that time. He was at Lewistown for about fourteen years, then located at Kalispell where he re- mained for one year. From there he went to White Fish, and later to Cut Bank as division surgeon for the Great Northern Railway. He then came to Eureka, and has here continued in the active practice of his profession. In addition to other posts which Dr. Stone has held, he was surgeon to the Fergus County Hospital at Lewistown from 1892 to 1896. While he is a general practitioner, he is chiefly interested in surgery, and has performed many operations.

Dr. Stone is a fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and fraternally he is a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and of the Whitefish Order of Eagles. He is a Republican.

In 1885 Dr. Stone was united in marriage with Miss Mary P. Sword, a niece of Colonel Parnell, retired from the United States army and since deceased. Two chil- dren were born to them: Amy Winifred, now the wife of J. Rathbuns, a mining engineer of Los Angeles, California, and Katharine Malvina, born at Fort Shaw, Montana, and living in Eureka, Montana, with her parents.

JOSEPH A. EDGE has gained prominence in Kalispell and in Flathead county, not alone as a rancher of prom- inence and a man of considerable influence, but as a county official who has done as much for the development of the Flathead district as any other man who might be mentioned. In his capacity as county commissioner he was directly instrumental in the building of a road system which gives the county a high standing in the northwest, owning as it does twelve hundred miles of made road, all of a high standard, and eminently calculated to enhance the many attractive qualities which the district already offers. He entered the office with but one thought in mind- to give to the county the best service in his ability, and to do as much for the county as his ability and the resources at his command would permit. The result has manifestly justified the wisdom of the voters in securing him to the office, and has won to him the encomiums of all who have a genuine and unselfish in- terest in the development of the state.

Mr. Edge was born in Ottawa, Canada, on March II, 1874, and is the son of Peter N. and Margaret ( McAlinder) Edge. The father was a native born Canadian, who came to the States on April 11, 1886, settling on a tract of homestead land located one mile from Kalispell. He has lived there continuously since that time, improving his land and prospering in true western fashion, devoting his time in later years prin- cipally to stock raising. The mother, also a native of Canada, is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and was born in 1842 in the vicinity of Ottawa, Canada. She was there' reared and there married Peter Edge in 1867. They were the parents of three sons, Joseph A. of this review being the eldest of the three. Lenox P., the second, was horn in Ottawa in 1878. He is now a resident of Flathead county, and is engaged in contracting and construction work, where he is a man of some prom- inence and is highly esteemed by all who know him; Lester P., born in Ottawa in 1881, is a resident of Spokane, Washington, and is engaged in the practice of law. He is prominent in political circles in that state and is a member of the state legislature from Spokane county. He has also served as prosecuting attorney for the county. He is a young man of con- siderable brilliance and undoubted ability, and since he was admitted to the bar in 1902, when he was twenty- one years of age, his rise has been rapid and gratifying to all who have his interests at heart.

Joseph A. Edge received his primary educational

training in the schools of his native county. When the family removed to Flathead county, in 1886, Joseph Edge was but twelve years of age. He thereafter at- tended the common schools of Ashley up to the age of fifteen, and it is worthy of mention that he attended in these years the second school to be built in the Flathead district-a fact most eloquent of the phenom- enal growth of the district, in view of its splendid educational advantages of today. Up to the age of eighteen the boy remained on his father's farm, but after that age he engaged in freighting between De- Marsville and Libby, the time being particularly ap- propriate for such work, as the Great Northern Rail- wav was then in course of construction. After the com- pletion of the new road he changed his route and freighted from Kalispell to Fort Steele, and carried on the work for a period of five years. He then took up agricultural business, seeing the enormous possibilities in the work, and located in the lower valley, where he is now farming more than a thousand acres of fertile land, and is known throughout the district for raising some of the most abundant crops in the Flathead re- gion. He has extended his interests to include various other enterprises, and is identified prominently with many of the more important commercial enterprises in the county. He has gone into politics in the county solely that he might be in a position to do for the county in an official capacity that which as a mere voter he would not be priviledged to perform, and his work as a member of the board of county commissioners and as highway commissioner of Flathead county stands forth pre-eminently in the records of the county, and is constantly witnessed by the miles upon miles of per- fect roads which he has made possible to the district, as mentioned in a previous paragraph. He is a citizen of the most worthy instincts and of a caliber that has placed him high among the men who have accomplished something for the good of the communal life.

Mr. Edge is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of Kalispell, the Knights of Columbus and the Kalispell Club. He is a member of the Roman Catholic church, likewise his family. On February 16, 1898. Mr. Edge was united in marriage with Miss Mary E. O'Toole, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs: Michael O'Toole, a native of England, of Irish parentage. He came to America in 1878, locating in Butte in 1885 and in the Flathead district in the following year. In former years he followed mining in Leadville, Colorado, and in Butte, but in the late years of his life was de- voted to agriculture in the Flathead district. He died in Kalispell in 1910 at the age of seventy years. The mother of Mrs. Edge is now living on her farm near Somers.

Mr. and Mrs. Edge are the parents of two children: Leonard J., born in the Flathead valley on August 5, 1900, and Alice Edge, born on May 13, 1902.

The family residence is now maintained in Kalispell, where they have a beautiful residence at 405 Third avenue, East, erected there in 1911. Mrs. Edge is popular and prominent in the social life of Kalispell and their home is the center of true western hospitality and good cheer.

PATRICK BERNARD McKOWEN. The ancestry of Mr. McKowen on both sides is Irish. His father, John Mc- Kowen, came to this country at the age of ten with his parents, who were among the earliest settlers of Wis- consin. He grew up on their farm there and attended such schools as the newly settled district afforded. When he grew to manhood, he married Mary Joyce, born in Ireland in 1831, five years after his own en- trance upon this mortal scene. There son Patrick was horn at Dodge, Wisconsin, in 1863 on October 7th. Three vears later, the family moved to Minnesota and settled in Hastings county. . Here the father continued to farm in different parts of the state, until he retired and went

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to live in Minneapolis. His death occurred in that city in 1909. His wife had died at Brook, Minnesota, in 1892.

Patrick McKowen attended school in Hastings county and also in Waseken county. For a few years after this he worked on the farm, but left it to engage in railroad work. This brought him, in 1886, to Helena, where for a few years he worked for wages. His first independent venture was a dairy business and after conducting it for a time, he sold out and went into the contracting business, doing contract work in the team- ing line. During this time Mr. McKowen was street commissioner, being elected to that office in 1895. From this he went into the coal industry, and is now one of the large coal merchants of the city.

On October 12, 1892, Mr. McKowen was married to Miss Mary E. Davies of Helena. Her father, the late H. R. Davies, was one of the early settlers of Helena, coming here from New York state. He died in 1907. Of their children Michael is now living in North Da- kota; John resides in Minneapolis; Mary in St. Paul and Anne in Idaho. Both the daughters are married; Mary to Mr. Maher and Anne to Mr. Koherer. All of the family are members of the Catholic church.

Mr. McKowen is a member of the Woodmen of the World. In politics he follows the general bias of his compatriots, or rather those of his ancestry, since he is very much of an American, and is affiliated with the Democratic party. As a business man he is known as one of the live and energetic members of the commercial circles of Helena, and socially he is a man of a large acquaintance and a wide popularity. His favorite way of spending his leisure time is to pass it in the quiet of his home, either with his family and friends, or with a favorite book, for reading is perhaps his dearest indulgence.

A. LARSEN. Among the prosperous business men of Chouteau county, Montana, A. Larsen of Galata, ranks prominently. His earliest associations with the West date back to 1876, when he came to Leadville, Colorado, as a young man barely twenty-one years old, and there engaged in mining. Since that time he has been iden- tified with various business ventures, all of which have proved successful enough to justify his connection with them, and he has today reached a place of prominence and prosperity altogether in keeping with his sturdy, honest and untiring efforts.

Mr. Larsen is a native son of Norway, born in that far away land on January 15, 1855, and he is the son of Lars and Martha (Larsen) Toreson, both natives of Norway. In 1867 Lars Toreson came to America with his family, and settled in Iowa where he became a successful and prosperous farmer. He died in Nor- man county, Minnesota, in 1908, at the advanced age of seventy-nine years. The mother died in the same county in 1903, aged eighty-two years.

Up until the removal of his family from the Father- land Mr. Larsen attended school in his native town in Norway, and when the family located in McKee county, Iowa, when he was in his twelfth year, he continued his studies in the public schools of that district. He left school in his later 'teens and went to work on a farm, continuing in that service until he was twenty- one years old. In that year he went to Leadville, Col- orado, as noted in a previous paragraph, and engaged in mining. After some time thus occupied he went into business on his own responsibility, but subsequently went to Minnesota, locating in Gary, Norman county, and there also engaging in business. This business venture held his continued attention for a period of eight years, after which he disposed of his interests and returned to the West, locating in Galata, Montana. He was quick to avail himself of the homesteader's opportunity, and soon was the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of Montana land, which he still owns

and operates, and is the proprietor of a thriving gen- eral store in Galata. He also is engaged in various mining ventures in the state, and has realized a most generous measure of financial success in every enterprise with which he has been identified.

In November, 1887, Mr. Larsen was united in mar- riage with Miss Annie Munsen, at Aspen, Colorado, and they have one child, Alice, born November 15, 1902, in Norman county, Minnesota. At the present time, she is attending the public schools of Galata. The family are members of the Lutheran church, and Mr. Larsen is a progressive Republican, a characteristic which has not alone been operative in his political opinions, but in his every relation of life. He is a leader in thought and action, and is of the timber which is required to make the best citizens.

WILLIAM P. SHERMAN. An unusually energetic and progressive citizen at Kalispell, Montana, is William P. Sherman, who is here most successfully engaged in the undertaking business, his establishment being one of the most fully equipped and best conducted concerns of its kind in the entire state. Mr. Sherman likewise handles the agency in Kalispell for the Star pianos.

In Dubuque county, Iowa, October 8, 1860, occurred the birth of William P. Sherman, whose father, P. H. Sherman, a native of Iowa, was a well known railroad and bridge builder during his lifetime. P. H. Sherman built a portion of the Illinois Central Railroad to Ga- lena, Illinois. He likewise conducted a beautiful farm in Dubuque county, Iowa, where his demise occurred in 1875, at the age of sixty-seven years. He married Miss Sarah Elizabeth McAtee, a native of Kentucky, where her marriage to Mr. Sherman was solemnized. She is still living, at the age of eighty-four years, and is now a resident of Dillon, Montana. Mr. and Mrs. Sherman became the parents of five children, of whom the subject of this review was the third in line.

William P. Sherman attended school in his native county and from that time until he reached his legal majority he was engaged in various occupations, prin- cipally railroad work and farming. In 1886 he came to Montana and settled in Butte, where his first employ- ment was in a large furniture concern. Subsequently he began to work for his brother, a well known under- taker in Butte, and after thoroughly familiarizing him- self with that line of enterprise he became a partner in his brother's business. He disposed of his interests in Butte and went to Spokane, Washington, where he conducted an undertaking establishment for the follow- ing two years and whence he removed to Seattle, there engaging in the same business. On coming to Kalis- pell, he opened an undertaking establishment here. His business in the surrounding country has grown to such large proportions that he now has branch offices at Eureka and LIbby. In connection with his undertak- ing business he is, as before stated, agent at Kalis- pell for Star pianos. He is a man of fair and straight- forward business methods and as such commands the unalloyed confidence and esteem of all with whom he comes in contact. In 1906 he was elected county cor- oner and later was again elected to fill that office, of which he is incumbent at the present time, in 1912.

Fraternally Mr. Sherman is affiliated with blue lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Although while he has neither time nor ambition for the honors or emoluments of public office he is deeply and sincerely interested in all matters affecting the good of the general welfare and is an ardent worker for progress and improvement.

In the city of Butte, Montana, April 20, 1892, Mr. Sherman was united in marriage to Miss Nora K. Daugherty. Mr. and Mrs. Sherman have seven chil- dren, as follows : William E. resides in Butte; Nora K. and Clara L. are attending high school in Butte; Harry

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

is a pupil in the graded schools at Spokane, Wash- ington; Gracie K. is attending school in Seattle, Wash- ington ; Edward is a pupil in the Kalispell schools; and Roger Arthur, born in March, 1910, is the baby of the family. In religious matters Mr. and Mrs. Sherman are devout communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church, to whose charities they are most liberal con- tributors.

NICHOLAS HOWARD GRAMLING. A self-made man in every sense implied by the term, Nicholas Howard Gramling began life for himself way down in the valley of limited circumstances, but through untiring industry, wise management and well directed efforts he has at- tained noteworthy success in his undertakings and won a record of high'accomplishment, being now one of the most active and prosperous real estate men of Butte, and widely known as president and general manager of the Montana Orchard Land Company. Of German par- entage, he was born March 11, 1862, in Waukesha county, Wisconsin, where his childhood days were spent.

John Gramling, his father, was born and reared in Bavaria, Germany. A little while after his marriage with Josephine Scholl, he started with his young wife for America, and while they were en route the birth of their first child, Peter Gramling, occurred. With his family he settled in Wisconsin, becoming a pioneer of Waukesha county. In common with his few neighbors he suffered all the privations and hardships of frontier life, and during the Indian wars of that early period fought the savages in many a battle. He cleared and improved a homestead from its virgin wildness and on his farm resided until his death, at the venerable age of eighty-seven years. His wife, too, has passed to the life beyond, her death having occurred in 1903, on the home farm.

Having completed his studies in the district schools, Nicholas H. Gramling, tired of farm life at the age of fourteen years, ran away from home, determined to seek more congenial employment. Going to Milwaukee, he was fortunate enough to find a place wherein he could make use of his native mechanical ability and tastes, for five years serving as an apprentice at the trades of a blacksmith and machinist. He subsequently followed his trade in many of the large cities of the middle west, and being a man of unquestioned mechani- cal and executive ability, was invariably made foreman of the shop in which he was employed. On January 21, 1887, Mr. Gramling located permanently in Butte, Mon- tana, a city with whose growth and material prosperity he was evidently destined to become associated. and until 1900 followed his trade, the first three years of his residence in this vicinity having his shop in South Butte.

In 1901 Mr. Gramling, with the Hoffman Brothers. embarked in the real estate business, and in this line of business has met with marked prestige, being one of the most extensive dealers in realty in the state. He is an extensive land holder, some of his most valuable lands being in the fertile fruit district of Carbon county, Montana, where he has large interests, being president of the Montana Orchard Land Company of that county. The lure of the great northwest is now the apple rather than gold, and no finer specimens of this fruit are any- where grown than in southern Montana, the McIntosh Red, grown in Carbon county, having met the unquali- fied approval of all concerned at the International Apple Show held in Spokane, Washington, while at the Mon- tana State Fair, at Helena, in September and October, 1909, the Carbon county apples secured nineteen first prizes, thereby winning the trophy for the finest and best apples raised in the state, a handsome silver cup. The Montana Land Company is becoming widely and favorably known through Mr. Gramling's efforts, and land is sold in five-acre tracts, under most favorable terms to the buyer. Mr. Gramling with Mr. R. C. Ross

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A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 12

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