A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 31

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

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Born at Staceyville, Iowa, on August 15, 1864, he is a son of Stephen M. Webb, a native of New York who transferred his residence to Iowa in the early '6os and took up a homestead near Staceyville. After proving up on his land Stephen M. Webb removed to Dover, Bureau county, Illinois, where he continued to reside until his death in April, 1904, at the age of seventy- four years. He was a wagon maker by trade and it was under his tuition that his son Jonathan acquired a thorough knowledge of the trade of wagon maker and wheelwright. During the great struggle of 1861- 65 he served as a private in Company H, Fourth Iowa Cavalry. The paternal grandfather of Jonathan E. Webb had followed a similar occupation, that of a woodworker and manufacturer of furniture. Margaret McFarland, the mother of our subject, was born in Ohio and accompanied her parents from that state to Mower county, Minnesota, where as a girl she met and married her husband Stephen M. Webb. Her father was a farmer and a pioneer settler in Minnesota. She survived her husband but a few years, passing away in Dover, Illinois, in October, 1911, when seventy-one years of age. Of the eleven children born to this union eight are now living (1912) and Jonathan E. is the second in order of birth. Two of his sisters are located at Chotean, Mrs. H. A. Prescott and Miss Lucina Webb, the latter of whom resides with her brother.

Mr. Webb was educated in the district schools and in the academy at Dover, Illinois, to the age of twenty- one. In the meantime he had learned the trade of wagon maker and wheelwright from his father and after his student days he also taught school for a short time in Bureau county. In 1888 he came to Montana and secured employment as clerk and timekeeper for the Sand Coulee Coal Company at Sand Coulee, re- maining with them until May 1, 1890, when he came to Choteau. There he purchased a small building from P. N. Knowles, a former blacksmith, and opened up the first wagon making business in Teton county, follow- ing it for three years. He was also the first to engage in the lumber business there, but the panic of 1893 wrought havoc with his finances and obliged him to follow clerical work for a time thereafter.

In 1902 he was elected as a Republican to represent Teton county in the state legislature and served one term. Following that he served two terms as treasurer of Teton county, beginning that official service in 1905. He had begun to establish his present interests before concluding his duties as treasurer and has since given his attention to the real estate, fire insurance and bond- ing business and has been very successful. He also . owns and is farming 320 acres of land in Teton county. Mr. Webb began to make his way in life at the age of ten and all that he has accomplished is the result of his own business discernment and determined perse- verance.

In politics he is aligned with the Republican party and has always been an active worker in its interests. He is a member and past master of Choteau Lodge No. 44, Free and Accepted Masons, and his religious

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creed is that of the Congregational church. Mr. Webb is unmarried.

JOHN W. SHIELDS. On investigating the cause of success and failure it has been found that the former is largely due to the improvement of opportunity, the latter to the neglect of it. Fortunate environments encompass nearly every man at some stage of his career and the strong man and the successful one is he who realizes that the proper moment has come, that the present and not the future holds his oppor- tunity. The man who makes use of the now and not the to be is the one who passes on the highway of life others who started out ahead of him and reaches the goal of prosperity in advance of them. It is this quality in John W. Shields that has made him a leader in the business world at Conrad, Montana, where he is engaged in the work of engineer and surveyor and where he is the owner of considerable city property. He is likewise the owner of a fine ranch of one thousand acres in Teton county.

John W. Shields was born in Scotland, April 19, 1856, and he is a son of David and Margaret (Waldie) Shields, both of whom were born in Scotland, the former in 1827 and the latter in 1828. The father came to America in 1881 and was a resident of the province of Manitoba, Canada, for a short time, but not feeling at home in this country he returned to his native heath, where he spent the remainder of his days on his old farm, his demise having occurred in 1898, at the age of sixty-nine years. His cherished and devoted wife still survives him and although she has now reached the venerable age of eighty-five years she is active and well and makes a trip to Chicago to visit her children every two years. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Shields and of the number the subject of this review was the second in order of birth.

To the public schools of Scotland, John W. Shields is indebted for his preliminary educational training, which discipline was later supplemented by a course of study in the John Newland Academy, in which in- stitution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1870, as civil engineer. After leaving school he secured a position in the mercantile concern of an uncle in Scotland and he was a clerk until 1873, when he immigrated to America. He first located on Long Island and remained in the vicinity of New York City until 1877, at which time he entered the employ of the Canadian Mounted Police, serving as police at Mc- Cloud, Saskatchewan, for the ensuing three years. During that period he arrested an Indian, known as Swift Runner, who had murdered his entire family- wife, five children and mother-in-law, all of whom he ate, being a cannibal. At the time of the execution of Swift Runner the weather was fifty degrees below zero and Mr. Shields assisted in the hanging.

After resigning from the mounted police service, Mr. Shields received patent No. I, covering a land grant of 160 acres, from the Canadian government on script at Edmonton. This was in 1886 and for the two follow- ing years he was engaged in agricultural pursuits in the far north. He then disposed of his farm and came to Montana, locating in Great Falls, where he resided for five years and where he devoted his attention to civil engineering and surveying. Subsequently he re- moved to Choteau, Teton county, Montana, and there followed the work of his profession and was county surveyor from 1896 until 1908, when he came to Con- rad, where he has since maintained his home and where he figures prominently as a citizen and business man of influence. Here he controls a large practice as civil engineer and surveyor and he is the popular and efficient incumbent of the offices of United States commissioner, justice of the peace and police magis- trate. He was a poor boy when he started out in life and he is now the owner of eight hundred acres of

valuable land in Teton county, two hundred acres of this plot being under cultivation. In politics Mr. Shields is an uncompromising supporter of the Repub- lican party and in a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World at Choteau, having passed through all the official chairs of both these organizations.

Mr. Shields has been twice married. At Edmonton, Canada, in 1884, he wed Miss Eliza Maver, a native of Canada. She died at Great Falls in 1899, and is survived by two children, Jessie F. and Davie W. In 1899, occurred the marriage of Mr. Shields to Theresa Chisholm, a native of Onalaska, Wisconsin. There have been no children born to this marriage.

ANDREW DUNSIRE. The sons of Scotia, whose sug- gestive motto, Nemo me impune lacessit, emblazons every Scottish battle-torn banner, are to be found the wide world over, occupying, many of them, exalted positions in every sphere of life, in literature, arts and sciences, no less than in the several professions, and pre-eminently in business activities. In the latter class prominent place must be given to Andrew Dunsire, president of the Imperial Dry Goods Company, of Kalispell, Montana, and a man who has been an im- portant factor in the advancement of his community's best interests. Andrew Dunsire was born in Fifeshire, . Scotland, June 24, 1865, and is a son of Thomas and Catherine (Anderson) Dunsire, natives of that country. Thomas Dunsire, deceased, followed the occupation of colporteur for many years. His wife died at Buck- haven, Scotland, in 1899, in the same house in which she was born.

The early education of Andrew Dunsire was obtained in the public school at Cross Roads, located near his birthplace, and by the time he was thirteen years of age he had graduated from the eighth grade. Even at that early age he displayed an enterprising and in- dustrious spirit, at once entering upon an apprentice- ship in the dry goods trade, and after four years spent therein became a salaried salesman in Glasgow, where he remained from 1883 to 1888. During the latter year he became convinced that there was a better future for him in the United States, and accordingly came to this country. at once making his way to Montana and settling in Flathead county on May 23rd, this section since having been his home. In the summer of 1890 he was purser on the steamer Crescent, on Flathead lake, and during the summer of 1892 occupied the same posi- tion on the steamer State of Idaho, on Kootenai river, running between Bonner's Ferry and Kaslo, British Columbia. From 1892 to 1897 he was employed as a clerk and salesman, first in the store of Mr. Gale, and later with James Conoln, of Kalispell. In the fall of 1897 he was elected assessor for Flathead county, and was re-elected in 1899 and again in 1902, serving three terms. The fall of 1909 saw the establishment of the Imperial Dry Goods Company, which has since devel- oped into the largest business enterprise of its kind in the city, and one of the most substantial in the state. It was incorporated during the same year. Mr. Dun- sire's business associates in this enterprise are C. A. Hummer, who is vice-president and E. J. VanDuzer, secretary and treasurer.

Politically a Democrat, Mr. Dunsire is one of the wheel-horses of his party in his section, and exerts a potent and far-reaching influence. While he has not been an office seeker, while he was an incumbent of public positions he displayed marked executive ability. His fraternal connection is with the Masons, the Elks, the Modern Woodmen and the Royal Highlanders. His public spirit has been displaved most conspicuously as a member and secretary of the Kalispell Volunteer Fire Department. Mr. Dunsire was married at Mis- soula, Montana, May 27, 1892, to Miss Isabella A. Ritchie, also a native of Scotland, born in Elgin, Sep-

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tember 21, 1863. Both are widely known and have numerous warm friends in Kalispell's social circles.

GEORGE R. OECHSLI. The interesting subject of this brief review is a self made man in the best sense of the phrase, and whatever is creditable in his career is due to his own native ability, industry, frugality and wise management. His success in business, his accumulations in the way of worldly wealth, his steady progress from nothing in the line of financial capital to his present extensive and valuable possessions, and his rise from obscurity to an enviable position in the regard and esteem of the whole people of his com- munity have been all wrought out by his own efforts, and his success in winning his triumphs is the result, not so much of his quickness in seeing and, seizing opportunities for advancement as of his power and readiness in making them for himself, and then using them for all they are worth.

Mr. Oechsli is a native of Sedalia, Pettis county, Missouri, where he was born on February 3, 1866. His parents, Rudolph and Mary (Mitchell) Oechsli, were born in Switzerland, and died at Windsor, Henry county, Missouri, the former in 1903 at the age of sixty-eight years, and the latter six months later at the age of sixty-six. The father was a farmer at the time of his death, but for a number of years he was engaged in the manufacture of carriages at Sedalia and Clinton, Missouri. He came to the United States with his father and the rest of the family at the age of sixteen. The family located in Ohio, and he re- mained there until his marriage, then moved to Mis- souri. At the beginning of the Civil war he enlisted in the Union army, and during the continuance of the struggle was an officer in charge of the government shops at Sedalia, serving to the closing of the war. The mother was brought to this country by her parents when she was but four years old. Her family also located in Ohio, and there she lived with her parents until her marriage to Mr. Oechsli, which took place in 1858. They had five sons and two daughters. The daughters died in infancy, one of them at the age of three years, and the other at a younger age. The sons are all living and are: John H., who is a resident of Butte and his occupation is mining; Frank, whose home is at Windsor, Missouri, a grocer; George R., who is the immediate subject of this writing; Harry E., who resides at Spokane, Washington, where he is a leading business man and very wealthy. He is presi- dent of the Spokane Mercantile & Poultry Company and manager of the Western Lead & Paint Com- pany; and Charles, who is a ranchman of Jefferson county in this state, and one of the leading citizens of his locality.

George R. Oechsli obtained his education in the schools of Sedalia, Clinton, and Windsor, Missouri, which he attended until he reached the age of seventeen. After leaving school he was apprenticed to his uncle, John Oechsli, to learn the business of manufacturing carriages, at which he worked five years. In Febru- ary, 1888, he came to Montana and took up his resi- dence in Butte. During the first seven years of his life here he was shipping clerk for the Montana Iron Works.

At the end of the period mentioned he resigned his position as shipping clerk for that establishment and opened a furniture store on a very small scale. He had very little capital, but he had enterprise, business ability and determination. He persevered in his under- taking through difficulties and trials, and now the George Oechsli Furniture Store, as his establishment is called, is the biggest of its kind west of Chicago. It is located at 42 West Broadway, carries an enormous stock. employs ten men and handles all kinds of new and second hand furniture. The store does an annual business amounting to many thousand dollars, and has

a trade as active and exacting as any mercantile empo- rium in this part of the country. The trade is a very profitable one, but it is not Mr. Oechsli's only source of gain. He owns in addition mining properties and considerable city real estate, all marketable and yield- ing good returns for the money invested in them, and also steadily increasing in worth. He also owns con- siderable stock in the Western Lead Paint Company, Spokane.

Mr. Oechsli takes no part in political contentions, but usually votes for the candidates of the Republican party. Fraternally he is a member of the Order of Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Order of Moose, and the Eagles and Puritans, in the Order of Moose being one of the trustees of the lodge to which he belongs. He is also a member of the Merchants' . Association of Butte, in the proceedings of which he takes an earnest interest and an active part, and is a man of prominence and influence.

On January 21, 1893, Mr. Oechsli was married in Kansas City, Missouri, to Miss Josie Seaker, a daughter of Ernest and Louise Seaker, both natives of Michi- gan. Seven children have been born of their union : Clarence, Howard, Florence, George, Maude, Angela and Josephine, all natives of Butte, except Angela, who came into being in Los Angeles, California. The family residence is at 637 Dakota street, and is noted for its genuine hospitality and social enjoyment. The members of the family are all deeply interested in the welfare of their community and zealous in helping to promote it by every means at their command. They are all highly esteemed for their progressiveness, real worth and useful citizenship, and number their friends in Butte and elsewhere by the host. They are worthy in full measure of the regard and good will bestowed upon them.

LEW SWITZER. A citizen of unusual prominence and influence at Kalispell, Montana, Lew Switzer is here engaged in the furniture business, his concern being known as the Lew Switzer Furniture Store, one of the largest establishments of its kind in this section of the state. Mr. Switzer is a self-made man. Diligent and ever alert for his chance of advancement, he has pro- gressed steadily until he is recognized today as one of the foremost business men of this city. Here he is held in high esteem by his fellow men, who honor him for his native ability and for his fair and straight- forward career.

Lew Switzer was born in Grant county, Indiana, in December, 1862, and he is a son of David and Esther (Perrill) Switzer, the former of whom died in 1877, at the age of forty-nine years, and the latter of whom is living at Jonesboro, Indiana. The father was born in Virginia, where he was reared to young manhood and whence he immigrated to Indiana as a young man, settling in Grant county, where he was engaged in agricultural operations for the greater part of his active career.

The only child of his parents, Mr. Switzer, of this notice, passed his boyhood and youth on the old home- stead farm, in the work and management of which he early began to assist his father. He attended the neigh- boring district school until he had reached his thir- teenth year, when he entered upon an apprenticeship to learn the trade of printer. He was printer's "devil" for six months and at the end of that time returned to school. In 1878 he entered a country store to learn the hardware business and three years later he went to Logansport, Indiana, there working in a hardware store for the ensuing four years. In August, 1888, Capt. T. P. Fuller, at that time mayor of Helena, Montana, sent for him to work in his hardware store in the capital city of this state. He remained in the employ of Captain Fuller for eighteen months and in December, 1889, he accepted a position with the Mis-

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soula Mercantile Company at Missoula, remaining in that place until March, 1891, when he was transferred to DeMersville to take charge of the hardware depart- ment in this branch store of the above concern. In the fall of 1892 he was ordered to remove the goods at DeMersville to Missoula but prevailed upon the com- pany to establish a store at Kalispell. This was the beginning of the Missoula Mercantile Company's store at Kalispell, and for which Mr. Switzer acted as buyer for the hardware department until 1907. In the latter year he decided to launch out into the business world on his own account and then established the Lew Switzer Furniture Store, which was originally a small concern but which has now developed into one of the largest business houses in Kalispell. A tremendous business is controlled and Mr. Switzer has a force of six men in his employ. Mr. Switzer attributes much of his success as a business man to the admirable training he received under Captain Fuller, of Helena, and his experience as buyer for the Missoula Mercantile Company of Kalispell, whose splendid business initia- tive was infused into their employes.

Mrs. Switzer conducts what is known as the Priscilla Gift Shop-a department in the furniture store, where are found all kinds of fancy work.

Although not an active participant in public affairs, Mr. Switzer is unusually loyal and public-spirited in connection with all matters affecting the good of the general welfare and in a political way he is an uncom- promising supporter of the principles and policies pro- mulgated by the Republican party. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Yeomen and the Royal Neighbors.

In February, 1897, occurred the marriage of Mr. Switzer to Mrs. Blanch Boos, at Spokane, Washington. While not formally connected with any religious or- ganization Mr. Switzer gives his support to and attends the Episcopal church, of which his wife is a devout communicant. Mr. and Mrs. Switzer have no children.

ERNEST W. KING. It is a subject of interesting com- ment, when considering the forceful and successful men of Montana, that a large number of them have come to the state from Wisconsin, often being of New England ancestry but born and reared near the Great Lakes. Ernest W. King, civil engineer, mine promoter and owner, financier and statesman, whose home has been at Bozeman, Montana, since 1903, was born at Neillsville, Clark county, Wisconsin, and is a son of John F. and Rosella (Wight) King.

John F. King was born at Taunton, Massachusetts. In 1859 he moved to Clark county, Wisconsin, an early settler in that locality, and spent the remainder of his life in that state. Mainly a farmer he also was in the contracting and logging business and became a man of local importance, serving for several years as a justice of the peace, member of the school board and in other township offices. He identified himself with the Republican party and was a stanch upholder of its principles and a loyal supporter of the administration during the Civil war. He was one of the early mem- bers of the Odd Fellows in Clark county. His mar- riage was with Rosella Wight, who was born in New York and still survives, being in her seventy-fourth year. Of their family of six children, two sons and four daughters, Ernest W. was the first born.

Ernest W. King attended school at Neillsville, Wis- consin more or less regularly until he was sixteen years of age, when he took charge of the operation of a stationary engine in a flour mill, saw mill and stave mill in Clark county, his aptness in the line of ma- chinery displaying itself thus carly. Farming did not appeal to him and after his mill experience he became a fireman on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and then entered the Union Iron Works at Minneapo-

lis, Minnesota, where he learned the machinist trade and also was a student in the civil engineering depart- ment of the Minnesota State University.

Mr. King then embarked in business at Anoka, Min- nesota, where he opened a machine shop and remained until 1888, when he went to Great Falls, Montana, where he assisted in installing the machinery for the American Smelting and Refining Company and in the spring of 1890 designed and put in the city water works of Great Falls, and in the following year was elected city engineer. He re-surveyed the city and designed the sewer system. At a later time he was appointed a park commissioner, with Senator Gibson and served for some eight or nine years, designing the first of the city parks. Through his enterprise, knowledge and public spirit, Great Falls was set on the road to pros- perity.

In 1890 Mr. King grub-staked some parties who suc- ceeded in locating valuable silver and lead properties and in 1897 The Gilt Edge Mining Company was organ- ized with Mr. King as its president. In 1898 he de- signed and built a two hundred-ton mill cyanide plant on these properties and in 1899 organized the Barnes & King Mining Company and becoming president also of this organization. His business interests continued to expand. He became interested in the Kendall Min- ing Company, in Fergus county, Montana, and in 1901 acquired an active interest in the Alder Gulch Mining Company, in Chouteau county, Montana, designing and building a sixty thousand dollar mill and operating it until 1903, when he came to Bozeman.

Mr. King now entered the financial field as a banker, on October 4, 1904, assisting in the organization of the National Bank of Gallatin Valley and becoming its vice-president ; also assisted in the founding of the Butte Commercial Bank which later became the Silver Bow National Bank, and continues a stockholder in both these banks. He is a stockholder also in the First National Bank of Lewistown, Montana; in the Man- hattan State Bank at Manhattan, Montana. and in the Hilger State Bank. He is president of the Montana Town Site Company, in this connection having inter- ests in many counties in Montana. In the fall of 1907 he became engaged in gold and silver mining at Raw- hide, Nevada, and is otherwise concerned there, own- ing an interest in the Rawhide Coalition Mining Com- pany and being president of the Rawhide Queen Mining Company. Both of the above companies have been merged into the Nevada New Mines Company, of which Mr. King is president.

In no state more certainly than in Montana is public recognition given to men who, in the management of their own affairs have demonstrated their business acumen, and in 1906, on the Republican ticket. Mr. King was elected a member of the Montana house of representatives, his fellow citizens rightly judging that the upbuilding of Fergus county might be en- trusted to one whose years of experience and many notable accomplishments fitted him well for public service. He served honorably and in 1908 was returned to the legislature, from Gallatin county, and at that session was made speaker of the house, and during this time much important legislation was considered and settled.

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A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 31

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