A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 153

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

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Though an American by nativity, Professor Sauntry is distinctly a son of Erin, for both of his parents were born in Ireland and grew to maturity there. He was born in Cherokee, Iowa, December 6, 1888. Jere Sauntry, his father, came to the United States in 1870 and settled in Cherokee county, Iowa. His active years were given to agricultural pursuits, but he is now a retired resident of Kalispell, Montana. On November 25, 1878, at Washington, D. C., he was married to Miss Mary Campbell, and to their union were born nine children, four of whom are deceased and the eldest of whom is Professor Sauntry of this review. The others living are Mary, a teacher in the Kalispell Business College; Daniel, also a resident of Kalispell and Peter and Katherine.

In political views Professor Sauntry is a Republican, but he takes no active part in party affairs. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and with the Knights of Columbus, and in religious faith he is a worthy communicant of the Roman Catholic church. He is also a member of the Kalispell Club and of Company F, Kalispell Volunteers, of the Montana National Guard.

In the city where he now resides were pronounced on November 25, 1910, the solemn marriage rites that united Professor Sauntry and Miss Agnes Berne, a daughter of John Berne who came to Montana from his native state of Iowa. Professor and Mrs. Sauntry have a daughter, Katherine Frances, born October 16, 19II.

WILLIAM L. CAMPBELL stands forth in Mfontana as a man who has done much for the west in the way of settling the new country. He has been identified with the big ranching interests, and later with some of the most far-reaching colonization schemes that have been projected in the west, and his work in the way of town building in Montana and Idaho has been especially praiseworthy. He has been connected with the big irrigation plants, and he has been in many other ways a dominant factor in the interests which have done so much to promote the popularizing and settling of the state.

Born in New Britain, Connecticut, on March 8, 1868, Mr. Campbell is the son of William O. and Clara (Little) Campbell. The father is a native of the state of New York, and the mother of Connecticut. The family moved to Oregon in 1872, where Mr. Campbell became actively engaged as a stockraiser and a farmer, but he is now retired from business and is living a life of quietude in Boise City, Idaho, at the age of eighty-three years. The mother also still lives. They were the parents of three children, William being the eldest. He was educated in the schools of Lewiston,

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Idaho, and as a lad in his 'teens helped himself in an educational way by taking a correspondence course, He left school at the age of eighteen and then began stockraising on his own responsibility in northern Idaho, a business which he followed with all success for two years, after which he turned his attention to the machinist's business, and he learned the trade, serving a three-year apprenticeship. He followed that line of work for five years, then engaging in the im- plement business at Idaho Falls, where he remained for two years. At the end of that time he sold out his interests there, making an advantageous deal, and took the management of the Highland Ranch in Fre- mont county, Idaho, an incorporated ranching company engaged in stock raising and farming. It was at that time the largest ranch of the irrigated variety under cultivation in Idaho, or, indeed, the west, covering as it did an area of four thousand and eight hundred acres, all under irrigation. The ranch was devoted principally to the production of grains for seed purposes, and only thoroughbred stock was raised on the place. They were breeders of Clydesdale horses, Hereford cattle, and other fancy brands of hogs and sheep. Mr. Campbell had the active management of this great ranch, and in addi- tion to being its manager, he was a heavy stockholder. He continued with the ranch for seven years, and not only did he discharge his duties as manager of the ranch, but he had charge of the irrigation plant as well. Following his association with Highland Ranch, Mr. Campbell became connected with the Clinton-Hurtt Company of Boise City, Idaho. He assumed charge of the company's colonization department at Valier, Mon- tana, first locating on February 26, 1909, at Conrad, then the headquarters of the company. During the first eighteen months of his association with the company Mr. Campbell made a phenomenal record, selling over forty-two thousand acres of land and town lots ag- gregating in value over $2,000,000. On April 1, 1909, Mr. Campbell settled permanently in Valier, and at that time the nearest house to the city was located at a distance of six miles. The Clinton-Hurtt Com- pany was the original Twin Falls Company of Twin Falls, Idaho, and since its establishment its stock has advanced from the par value of $100 a share to $200. He is an acknowledged expert in colonization work and town building. He is a director in the Teton Canal & Reservoir Company, and was chairman of the board of commissioners of Fremont county, Idaho, for two years.

Mr. Campbell has large private interests in the real estate of Valier and other sections of the state and in Idaho, and is one of the foremost men in this section of the state. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and has passed through all chairs in the blue lodge, and is a member of the Shriners, El Kora Temple of Boise City, Idaho, and of the Royal Arch chapter and the Eastern Star of Valier. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Valier lodge.

On May 27, 1891, Mr. Campbell was married to Miss Viola Page, the daughter of Horace G. Page, a native of Vermilion, South Dakota. Mrs. Campbell was raised in Idaho, where her parents have lived for some years. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Camp- bell-Grace L., born June 21, 1892, and Viola A., born at Highland Ranch, on January 3, 1904.

LOUIS W. PIERSON. Montana has never been lacking in journalistic enterprise, and its editors and publish- ers have maintained unusually high standards in their profession. One of the newspapers with intrinsic merit and broad influence is the Havre Promoter, the proprie- tor of which is among Montana's youngest newspaper men.

Louis W. Pierson, publisher of the Havre Promoter, was born at Dover, New Jersey, April 22, 1879. Dur- ing his boyhood his family moved west to Larimore, North Dakota, where he was educated in the public

schools, graduating from high school in 1897. After leaving school he was appointed assistant postmaster at Larimore, a position which he held for two years under Grover Cleveland's administration. However, during his school days Mr. Pierson had manifested an inclination for newspaper work, and at the age of nineteen he embarked upon his career in that line by the Review at Edinburg, North Dakota. A year later a fire destroyed the plant of the Review, but its pub- lisher continued in the work and later established papers in several other North Dakota towns. At one time he was the owner of five prosperous and influen- tial weeklies and gained a very distinctive position as an editor in North Dakota.

In the year 1909 Mr. Pierson disposed of his news- paper and other interests, excepting his real estate, in North Dakota, and moved to Havre, Montana, where he founded the Havre Promoter. This he has always maintained as an independent newspaper, endeavoring to elect the best men to office regardless of politics. With a large circulation in Havre and vicinity, and carrying much of the representative advertising, the Promoter has become a fine news medium and a paper of substantial influence and character. In addition to publishing the Havre Promoter, Mr. Pierson has be- come financially interested in the Chester Independent, a weekly paper published at Chester in Hill county, and also the Chinook Democrat and the Montana Idea which he now publishes as one paper at Chinook in Blaine county.

In addition to being a newspaper man, Mr. Pierson also holds the position of receiver of the United States Land Office at Havre. He was appointed to this posi- tion on September 8, 1911, during a recess of congress and on January 24, - 1912, received a permanent appoint- ment for four years. He is also a member of the Ma- sonic lodge at Granville, North Dakota, and is Exalted Ruler of the Havre Lodge of Elks, his term expiring April 1, 1913.

The parents of Mr. Pierson were S. W. and Mary E. (Johnson) Pierson, both of whom were born in New Jersey, were married in that state and came west to the Dakotas among the early settlers there. The father died in Canada in 1910 at the age of fifty-three and the mother is now living at Metolius, Oregon, at the age of fifty-two. The father was a well-known con- tractor and builder. Louis W. is the second of three children, all of whom are now living, the other two being Edward T., a well-known newspaper man in Oregon, and Mrs. O. A. Neshime, of Granville, North Dakota.

ROLLA CLYDE PURDY, M. D. is one of the younger set of physicians in this section of the state who has enjoyed a generous practice in the brief time he has been engaged in private practice. Following his grad- uation from the Chicago College of Medicine and Sur- gery in 1908, he has been for the most part engaged in government work, and in other capacities, but from the time he opened offices in Whitefish in IgII for maintaining a private practice, he has been immensely popular with the public, and has a following in and about the city worthy of a much longer residence than he may yet claim.

Rolla Clyde Purdy was born in Black River Falls, Wisconsin,-that prosperous little city which was vir- tually wiped off the map in the Black River inundation in the spring of 1911. His birth took place on March 24, 1886, and he is the second of the three children born to his parents, Franklin and Katherine (Potter) Purdy. The father was born in New York state, and he came west as a child. He eventually located in Wisconsin, settling at Black River Falls, and he is still living there, at the age of fifty years. He has been for years, and still is, employed as a railroad conductor. The mother is a native of the state of Wisconsin, and was born in

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1865, being now in her forty-seventh year. Besides Dr. Purdy, they have another son, Otis, and a daughter who is now Mrs. Inez Reisner, and a resident of the home state.

The town of Watoma, Wisconsin, gave to Rolla Purdy his early schooling, after which he entered the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery, from which he was graduated in 1908 with the degree of M. D. Following his graduation he began his practice in the Massachu- setts General Hospital of Boston as assistant, where he remained for one year, after which he came to Montana as line surgeon for the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound Railroad. After one year in that capacity he entered the government service at Polson, Montana, and was army surgeon at that post for a year. In August, I911, he gave up that work and coming to Whitefish, opened offices here, where he has built up a thriving practice in and about the city. He is prominent and popular in his profession, and unusually successful, with every indication of a brilliant career before him. He is a member of various fraternal societies, among them being the Woodmen of the World, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Loyal Order of Moose and the Knights of Columbus. He is medical examiner of the two so- cieties first named. He is a Roman Catholic, as is in- dicated by his membership in the Knights of Columbus, and in his political connections he takes an independent stand. Dr. Purdy is devoted to out-door exercise and enjoys every phase of Montana life.

In November, 1911, Dr. Purdy was united in marriage with Miss Florence Cavenaugh, at Whitefish, where their pleasant home is maintained, and where both are leaders in the social life of the community.

JAMES MURPHY, M. D. Although he has been a resident of Fort Benton for only a comparatively short period, Dr. James Murphy has rapidly forged to the front in his profession, in which he has built up a large and representative practice, and is becoming rec- ognized as one of the leading physicians of Chonteau county, where he has been honored by election to the position of secretary of the board of health. A man of great energy and progressive ideas, he has not lim- ited his activities to the mere performance of profes- sional duties, but has interested himself in all that has tended to advance the interests of his adopted city, co-opcrating with his fellow citizens in various move- ments for the public welfare. Dr. Murphy was born at Anoka, Minnesota, November 16, 1875, and is a son of James F. and Susan (McGuigan) Murphy.

James F. Murphy was born at St. Johns, Nova Scotia, and came to this country with his parents when fourteen years of age, settling at Anoka, Minnesota, in 1850, as a pioneer. Mercantile operations claimed his attention until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he enlisted as a private in Company A, Eighth Regiment, Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, with which organization he served until the close of hostilities, participating in numerous engagements, accompanying Sherman's great army on its famous march to the sea, and subsequently taking an active part in the Indian warfare in Minne- sota. On receiving his honorable discharge, he re- turned to Minnesota to resume his activities in the mer- cantile line, but the hardships and privations of army service had undermined his health to such an extent that he was forced to move to California, and there his death occurred in 1879, when he was only forty-two years old. His wife, a native of Ireland, came to the United States as a girl of eighteen years, settling at Anoka, Minnesota, where she met and married Mr. Murphy, and at this time she is the oldest living resi- dent of that city, having passed her eightieth year. They had a family of six children, of whom four sur- vive, namely: Mrs. Mary Faherty, of Anoka, Minne- sota ; Aloysius, also of Anoka; Dr. Eugene, a physician of St. Paul; and Dr. James.

Dr. Murphy's early education was secured in the public schools of Anoka and the high school, and he subsequently attended St. Thomas College, St. Paul, and the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from which latter institution he was graduated in 1909. In that year he came to Montana and engaged in a general practice at Harlem, but in 19II changed his field to Fort Benton, where his abili- ties gained instant recognition. Dr. Murphy is prac- tically a newcomer, but since coming to Fort Benton has had unusual success in performing several opera- tions of a complicated nature. He is a close and care- ful student, keeping fully abreast of the various dis- coveries and advances in his profession, subscribing to the leading medical periodicals and taking a great deal of interest in the work of the F. X. Durkin Society of Philadelphia, the James C. Wilson Medical Society, of that city, the Northwestern Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He belongs to the Greek the Woodmen of the World, a director of St. Clair letter society of his alma mater, is camp physician of Hospital, and secretary of the Chouteau county board of health. His politics are those of the Republican party and his religious connection with the Roman Catholic church.

Dr. Murphy was married at Anoka, Minnesota, June 7, 1910, to Miss Wilhelmina Viedt, daughter of Henry G. Viedt, of Anoka. Dr. and Mrs. Murphy have many friends in Fort Benton, and their comfortable home is a center of social refinement.

GEORGE H. WALLER, M. D. An honored resident and retired physician of Eureka, Dr. Waller and family are closely identified with northwest Montana. Dr. George H. Waller is a native of Rockford, Illinois, where he was born on the 21st of February, 1845. His father, James E. Waller, a'native of Kentucky, settled at Rock- ford, Illinois, in 1844, before the building of railroads through that section. Three years later he moved to Avon, Wisconsin, where he was for many years a sub- stantial farmer, and where he died in 1872 at the age of sixty-one. James E. Waller married a cousin, Elea- nor E. Waller, who was born five miles north of Mil- ledgeville, Georgia, was married at Carrollton, Ken- tucky, March 9, 1830, and died in Charles City, Iowa, August 9, 1900, at the extreme age of ninety-four years three months and twenty-five days. She was the mother of eight children, four of whom attained maturity, and three are still living.

Mr. Waller, the youngest of the family, was educated in the public schools and a seminary at Durand, Illinois. His ambition was for a medical career and he entered the oldest medical school in the west, Rush Medical College of Chicago, where he was graduated M. D. in February, 1869. He was engaged in the active practice of medicine for about forty years, a period in which he did a great amount of disinterested and kindly service, and various communities where he lived still appreciate his work and citizenship. During the first year out of medical school he practiced at Calamine, Wisconsin, and then was a resident of Plymouth, Iowa, until 1885. For two years he was at Marble Rock, Iowa, and then prac- ticed at Rockford in the same state until 1909. In May of the latter year, having retired from active work in his profession, he came to Montana and has since made his home in Eureka. He has interested himself in the movements for a better town, and though never an office seeker, was in January, 1911, honored with the of- fice of justice of the peace, a place of trust which his public spirit would not allow him to decline. He has always voted the Democratic ticket, but has never been a party worker.

Dr. Waller affiliates with the Cornerstone Lodge of Masons at Marble Rock, Iowa, and went through all the chairs of the Modern Woodmen camp at Rockford, Iowa. He was married in Monroe, Wisconsin, March 23, 1872,

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to Miss Adelaide A. Buffington, daughter o. Andrew Calvin Buffington. Mrs. Waller, who died at Rockford, January 3, 1905, aged fifty-eight years ten months and one day, was the mother of five children. Lillian B. is the wife of Willard C. Albee, a merchant of Eureka, and they have one son; Raymond L. is the partner of Mr. Albee in the Waller-Albee Mercantile Company, one of the largest in Eureka. Arthur M. is superintendent of public instruction at Minot, North Dakota. Miss Edith is bookkeeper for the Waller-Albee Company. Claude J. is a mounted customs officer with residence at Glasgow, Montana. January 10, 1907, Mr. Waller mar- ried Marie E. Lincs, a native of Marble Rock, Iowa, and daughter of John Lines. Mrs. Waller lived only thirty- four days after her marriage, and is buried beside the doctor's first wife in Iowa.

GEORGE RICHARD DAVIES. A man of superior mental attainments, capable and progressive, George Richard Davies, assistant secretary at the Cary Land Act office, holds an assured position among the esteemed residents of Helena. A native of England, he was born Septem- ber 26, 1867, in the parish of Wales, County of York, and was there educated. His parents spent their entire lives in Wales, England.

Brought up in his native city, George Richard Davies obtained high rank for scholarship while attending col- lege, and after his arrival in this country, while living in Scranton, Pennsylvania, received two diplomas from his alma mater, one on theoretical mechanics, and the other on mathematics. He remained in Scranton six months, while there advancing his education at a busi- ness college. Going then to Ottumwa, Iowa, he was there employed as a stationary engineer for a year, dur- ing which time he attended a night school, his purpose being to familiarize himself with American business methods. Leaving that city, Mr. Davies was weigh master at a smelter in Anaconda, Montana, for a while, subsequently being a resident of Butte, Montana, for twenty consecutive years. During his first three years in Butte, Mr. Davies was deputy clerk in Judge Lynch's court, and was afterwards department clerk for Judge Lynch for many terms. Being appointed assistant sec- retary of the Cary Land Act office in 1909, he, of neces- sity, transferred his residence to Helena, the capital city of the state of Montana. Owing to a subsequent change in the personnel of the land office, Mr. Davies in addi- tion to his original duties is also serving as assistant secretary to the official board, thus giving the engineer more leisure to attend to his particular work.

Politically Mr. Davies is identified with the Republi- cans, and once, while in Butte, ran for auditor, but was beaten, the whole Republican ticket suffering defeat at that election. Fraternally he is a member, and past chancellor of Mount Maria Lodge, No. 24, Knights of Pythias. He is a prominent member of Saint Paul's Methodist church, being secretary of its official board, and belonging to its choir. He has been successful in his business career, and is financially interested in the mineral lands of Lewis and Clark county.

Mr. Davies married, January 10, 1893, at Butte, Mon- tana, Agnes Jones, a native of Pennsylvania.

JOHN A. COLEMAN, now one of the best-known and most successful lawyers in the city of Lewistown, Mon- tana, where he has been established since 1909, has seen a varied existence since he first began to fend for him- self at the tender age of ten years. Ambition and per- severance have constituted the keynote of his life, and he has never been a stranger to hard work. He saw to the acquiring of an education without assistance from family or friends, and the position which he occupies today in Lewistown is the direct result of his own con- certed effort.

Mr. Coleman was born in Alamakee county, Iowa, on the 27th of June, 1877, and is the seventh child of the

fourteen born to his parents, Michael and Margaret (Corcoran) Coleman. Michael Coleman was born in County Galway, Ireland, while the mother was a native of Covington, Kentucky.

When Michael Coleman was two years of age he came with his parents to America. He was a youth of fifteen years when the Civil war broke out, and straightway his combative and heroic spirit manifested itself in a compelling desire to enlist. His youth caused his parents to resist his impulse and determination, but nothing daunted, the young patriot did not hesitate to take "French leave" of his home and family. He was so unfortunate as to be apprehended before he was able to enlist, and was taken home, much to his disgust. His ardor was not dampened by this slight check, how- ever, and it is of record that the boy ran away a second and a third time before he finally accomplished his purpose and succeeded in joining the Union forces, in which he served honorably until the close of the war. For a full quarter century Michael Coleman lived in Montana and followed the business of railroading, but at present he is living on his ranch in North Dakota. His wife died at Livingston, Montana, in 1901, in the fifty-seventh year of her life. Two of their daughters make their homes in this state. Elizabeth, the wife of John J. O'Connor, lives in Butte, and Stella, who married Michael Crowley, lives in Logan, Montana.

In 1881, four years after the birth of John Coleman in Alamakee county, Iowa, he was brought to North Dakota by his parents, but the stay of the family there was a short one, as it was their desire to locate in the extreme west, or at least, to a more distant part of the west than is represented by the Dakotas. Their next move took them to Eastern Montana, which was their home until 1891, and from there they moved to Livingston. The family continued to reside there until the death of the mother in 1901. John Coleman early began to care for himself, and at the age of ten he found his first employment in the selling of fancy autograph cards, which will be remembered as being immensely popular in those days. He soon gave up that work to take a regular job as herder for the Hatchet Company, at a salary of forty-five dollars a month. This money he gave to his mother to assist in the support of the large family of which he was one. When they moved to Livingston, he was fourteen years old, and there he secured work with the Northern Pacific Railroad as clerk in their store room depart- ment. During these years the boy attended school whenever he found it in any way possible, as he had a determination to secure something of an education, at whatever cost. He succeeded in completing the high school course in Livingston when he was nineteen and he straightway left that city and went to Minne- apolis, where he entered the University of Minnesota after completing his entrance requirements at St. Thomas College, in St. Paul. His passage through the University was made possible through his own efforts, as he worked his own way, and in 1900 he was grad- uated from the University. He then returned to Mon- tana and entered the law office of A. J. Campbell of Butte, with whom he was associated for about two years. He was then appointed deputy county attorney for Silver Bow county, spending two years in that office, after which he engaged in private practice in Butte. He was one of the attorneys for the Heinze Company, of western fame, and also for the Fusion party. In 1904 Mr. Coleman was sent to the legislature from Silver Bow county, and served for one term, and he has since then taken a particularly active part in the field of politics, the ranks of the Democratic party find- ing in him a fighter of strength and courage, and one of the best of organizers. Although he is a Democrat in his politics, Mr. Coleman is a warm personal friend of Colonel Roosevelt, with whom he became acquainted on a cattle ranch in North Dakota.

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A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 153

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