A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 48

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

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Mr. Donoghue is a member of the Plumbers' Union in Butte, one of the most advanced and active unions in the labor movement in this section of the state. Fraternally he is a member of the Loyal Order of Moose. He is a Catholic in his religious faith, and in politics he holds himself beyond partisan control, his vote always being cast with reference to the most worthy candidate, in so far as he feels himself able to judge.

NELSON MCGARVIN, M. D. A venerable and highly esteemcd physician of Butte, Nelson McGarvin, M.

D., is a practitioner of much experience and skill, and during his residence in this city has had a fair share of professional practice, and to a marked degree has won the regard of the people, his genial manner and pleasant words making him a welcome visitor to the well and strong as well as to the sufferer to whom he ministers. He was born January 30, 1830, in Canada.

The doctor's father, James McGarvin, was born in Canada, and died in Ohio. He was a painter and con- tractor by trade, and an excellent worker. He married Mary Kelley, also a native of Canada, and they became the parents of two children, as follows: Elmira, wife of John Raymond, of Michigan; and Nelson.

Receiving his rudimentary education in the graded schools of his Canadian home town, Nelson McGarvin entered the medical department of the University of Toronto, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1856. Immediately beginning the practice of his chosen profession, Dr. McGarvin continued it successfully in Canada for thirty-four years. Coming from there to Montana in 1890, the Doctor located in Butte, where he has since built up a good general practice, his knowledge and skill winning for him the confidence of the people, and assuring him a fine patronage. The doctor has kept abreast with the times in regard to the advancements made in the medical science, not only by a close study of the medical journals, but through his visits to the leading hospitals not only of our own country, but to those of Paris and London.

Dr. McGarvin is a member of the Ontario, Canada, College of Physicians. He is a Republican in politics, but takes no active part in public affairs. Fraternally he belongs to Masonic and Odd Fellows No. 219, of On- tario; and is one of the oldest members of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows in America, having joined the Order in 1849. Religiously he is a member of the Episcopal Church.

In Ontario, Canada, December 27, 1860, Dr. Mc- Garvin was united in marriage with Catherine Sarah Hiltz, who was born, February 13, 1835, in Canada, a daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Johnson) Hiltz. Five children have been born to Dr. and Mrs. McGar- vin, namely: James Edgar, now living in Mexico; Emma J., wife of Charles Hill, of Monroe, Michigan; Mary Frances, wife of Harry White, of Des Moines, Iowa; Alberta, wife of M. M. Bricker, of Berlin, Can- ada; and George Nelson, of Vancouver, British Col- umbia. Dr. McGarvin is of Irish ancestry, his ancestors on both sides of the house having emigrated from Ireland to Canada many years ago. Mrs. McGarvin, however is of German descent on the paternal side of the house, her grandfather Hiltz having immigrated to Canada from Germany in early manhood, and having there mar- ried.

JOHN DRYBURGH is a Scotchman by birth, born in the city of Glasgow, where his father, also christened John Dryburgh, was foreman of the factory owned by Tennants. John, Junior, was born in 1864, on November 29, the sixth of seven children. When John was eight years of age his father died, and two years later his mother went to her brother in Amer- ica in the state of New Jersey. John had begun to go to school in Scotland, and he continued to attend in America for two years and then the family removed to Iowa, where the uncle had purchased a farm in the southeastern part of the state. This was Mr. Dry- burgh's home for fourteen years, during which time lie worked on the farm and also learned the car- penter's trade. At the age of twenty-six he went to Bismarck, North Dakota, which then offered a prom- ising field for builders, and when the demand became somewhat less for carpenters in Dakota he went to Spokane, where he followed the same trade for a time. In 1890 Mr. Dryburgh came to Helena and for

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a year was at work on the interior of the state cap- itol. In 1901 he decided to go into business for himself and he at once secured some valuable contracts for the erection of a number of handsome residences in the city. For the first four years his business was chiefly the erection of private residences, but later he did considerable work on public buildings. One of his earliest contracts in this line was for the Denver Block, on which he secured a sub-contract. At present he is one of the most successful men in the contracting business in the city.

Of his brothers and sisters, but one is living, Wil- liam Dryburgh, born in Scotland and now a resident of Helena and a painter by trade. Mr. Dryburgh is unmarried. Until recently his mother, Margaret Crawford Dryburgh, resided with him, but she died in this city in 1909.

Fraternally Mr. Dryburgh is prominently connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a past grand master of the Odd Fellows of the state. He has held all chairs in his order and in 1910 served as representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge at Atlanta, Georgia. He is a member also of the Helena Lodge of Elks, and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. He takes an active part in the political life of the city and is one of the powers of the Progressive Republican party. For six years he was alderman and in 1910 ran for mayor of Helena. In that cam- paign he was defeated by Mayor Edwards, who won by a majority of thirty votes, there being a split in the party.

In addition to his contracting business, Mr. Dry- burgh is a stockholder in the Montana Mining Com- pany, and also in the Montana Sheep Ranch. He is one of Helena's successful and prosperous bachelors, and one of her popular citizens as well. He declares that his favorite amusement is base ball, which he thinks a game worthy of the attention of all true Americans, of whatever nationality, and comparable with that other good American diversion, politics.

JOHN B. COPPO. The city of Butte, Montana, boasts as many modern and up-to-date improvements as can be found in any community of equal size in the United States. Factories, business establishments and homes have every new equipment and the latest discovered con- veniences to make work easy and life comfortable. In respect to the installation of modern conveniences in buildings of all classes there is no feature of the work that is greater in importance or requires more skilful ability and exact knowledge than that of plumbing and the placing of plumbing fixtures. The city is therefore fortunate in numbering among its leading business institutions, the Butte Plumbing Company, in which John B. Coppo is an active partner.

Mr. Coppo was a lad of eleven years when his par- ents come to Butte in 1890, coming from Houghton county, Michigan, where the son was born September 23, 1879. His father and mother both were born in Italy, the former, John Anthony Coppo, immigrated to America in 1874, and the latter, who was before her marriage Madeline Ragano, arriving here three years later in 1877. They settled in Michigan where for several years Mr. Coppo, senior, worked as a miner, although he was by trade a tinner. Both parents are still living and are numbered among the most respected residents of Butte.

Mr. Coppo received his first schooling in the county schools of his native home, and continued his studies in Butte after the removal of the family to this city, becoming a graduate of Butte High School with the class of 1895. After securing his diploma he entered the Butte Business College and completed a commer- cial course in that institution of learning. His educa- tion completed, he secured employment as a messen-

ger with the World Company, worked eight months in that capacity then accepted a position in the office of J. R. Reed of the firm of Sherman & Reed, and six months later became an apprentice with the Eschle Plumbing & Heating Company, 57 East Broadway. This proved to be the work which he most enjoyed and for which his natural talents seemed to best fit him and so well did he perform his work at all times that he remained with the company for nine succes- sive years. Severing that connection at the end of the period named Mr. Coppo next became the assist- ant of Edwin Wright, plumber, working with him for two years.

Shortly after resigning his position with Mr. Wriglit he decided to make a change of location and went to Caldwell, Idaho, in which city he established a plumb- ing business of his own and after a time took a part- ner in the person of Christopher Fahey. The business was then conducted under the firm name of the Cald- well Plumbing & Heating Company. A very success- ful business was done for some time by this concern, then on account of the ill health of his wife Mr. Coppo found it necessary to return to Butte. This he did and for three years was employed in various shops of this city, the last two with the Butte Plumbing Com- pany. Finding his services invaluable to his business, Mr. William Dewerkin who was then proprietor of the Butte Plumbing Company, invited Mr. Coppo into the firm, and in May, 1911, the present partnership be- tween these two expert plumbers was formed. It would be strange indeed if the business did not prosper under the personal management of two such able and experienced men and it is a safe prediction to make that so long as the enterprise continues in the hands of its present proprietors it will continue to hold its place of leadership among the plumbing establishments of this progressive city. The firm also install all modern system of heating apparatus.

Mr. Coppo was married at Pocatello, Idaho, June 17, 1905, when he took as his wife Miss Elizabeth Ray, daughter of Patrick and Helen Ray, and a native of Utah. Her family were among the oldest settlers in Butte. Mr. and Mrs. Coppo have a pleasant and hospitable home at 401 South Excelsior street.

Mr. Coppo is a man of independent thought and action, is liberal and progressive in his ideas and methods, and is a public citizen of the highest type, while his many admirable personal qualities give him an enviable popularity wherever he is known.

MATHIAS KRANZ. Among the floral and business houses known to Great Falls is the one conducted by Mathias Kranz, and he has been gradually building up such an establishment in this city since 1891. At the present time his operations have reached an im- portant place, and constitute one of the leading enter- prises of the city. Mr. Kranz is a man eminently fitted to carry on this work, in view of his early train- ing in Germany, where in his youth he was employed in the landscape department of the royal domain of Kaiser William. All his life has heen devoted to sim- ilar pursuits, and his success of later years is but the outcome of his natural love for the work, and his continuous study of the most approved methods of conducting the business.

Mr. Kranz was born in Prussia, on November 18, 1864. He is the son of Mathias Kranz, Sr., and his wife, Lucille. Both were natives of Germany. The father, who was a military man, died in 1869 at the age of seventy-one and the mother died two years later, when she had attained the age of sixty-four years. Eight children were born to them, Mathias, Jr., being the youngest. He was a student in the public schools of Germany until he reached the age of four- teen, when he entered the landscape department of the kaiser, and he was thus employed until he was eighteen

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

years old, when he immigrated to America, making of her death in February, 1907. Of their seven chil- his way first to Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was dren, the two oldest died in infancy, while Lewis W. was the sixth in order of birth. in the horticultural business there for a year, when he and his brother, Peter, who had also immigrated to the United States, entered the gardening business. After two years of industrious and profitable work Mathias Kranz sold out his interest to his brother and came to Great Falls, reaching there on April 7, 1890. He remained there but a few days, then going to Helena and securing employment with the L. B. Wells Conservatory, with which firm he remained until December, 1890. He next returned to Great Falls, with the intention of starting in business. He bought a number of lots in a suitable locality, which he pre- pared in a suitable manner as to soil, after which he built his hot beds. He began by putting in lettuce plants, and in June of 1891 he started the first hot house known to Great Falls. He has continued to increase his quarters from time to time and add new departments until now he conducts a flourishing florist business in addition to liot house market gardening. The present plant is covered with forty thousand feet of glass and is equipped with a modern steam heating plant, and the entire concern is managed and fitted out in the most up-to-date and approved manner known to the business. He has developed a heavy outside trade, as well as local, and his plant runs at its capacity in all seasons in order to meet the demands upon it. Altogether, he has made a most splendid success of the venture which he launched in a small way, and the results of his labors are justified by the unfailing energy and careful precision with which he has con- ducted the business from the beginning.

Mr. Kranz is well known, and is both prominent and popular. He has a large number of influential and admiring friends in and about Great Falls who have been interested in his progress these many years, and who take much pleasure in the distinctive success which he has achieved. He is prominent in fraternal circles, and in that relation is a member of the Benev- olent Protective Order of Elks, the Modern Wood- men of America, the Woodmen of the World, of which he is a trustee, and the Catholic Order of Foresters. He is a Democrat in his political allegiance, and is a member of the Roman Catholic church, in which he was reared in the Fatherland.

On February II, 1896, Mr. Kranz was united in marriage with Miss Annie Stergart of Great Falls, Montana. She was a daughter of Charles and Lizzie Stergart of Great Falls, the mother being now de- ccased. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Kranz,-Charles M., born in Great Falls on June 9, 1898 and Dorothy, born November 15, 1899. Both children are attending school in Great Falls, where the family home is maintained.

LEWIS W. SUHR. The combination of business inter- ests with which he is connected has made the name of Lewis W. Suhr too well known in business circles of Great Falls to make necessary an introduction, but a brief record of the career of this prosperous figure in the commercial life of the city may prove of inter- est to the younger generation, as well as to their elders, in that it shows the' successive steps by which the boy in humble circumstances gained the position of head of the largest business of its kind in his adopted city and won the esteem and confidence of his confreres to such an extent that he has been chosen to direct the management of some of this sec- tion's leading enterprises. Born in Oldendorf, Ger- many, August 5, 1868, Mr. Suhr was still an infant when brought to the United States in 1869 by his parents, Henry and Wilhelmina (Lenn) Suhr, natives of the Fatherland. His father, who followed farming throughout his life, passed away in Buchanan county, Iowa, at the age of seventy-eight years, while his mother was seventy-seven years of age at the time

Lewis W. Suhr secured his education in the district schools of Buchanan county, lowa, during the months when he could be spared from work on the home farm, as was the custom of the agriculturists' sons of his day and vicinity. When he was sixteen years of age he had completed his studies, and from that time until he attained his majority he was engaged in work on the Iowa homestead. He had passed his twenty-first birthday when, with his little capital, he started out to make his own way in the world, going direct to St. Paul Park, Minnesota, where he secured employ- ment as a clerk in a retail grocery store. Later he was initiated into the mercantile business in the same city, working two years for twenty-five dollars per month and his board, but resigned his position to become associated with the firm of Hoxsie & Jagger, wholesale fruit dealers of St. Paul, with whom he remained for two years. In 1890 he came to Montana and for a short period engaged in ranch work, but eventually went to Great Falls and took a position with the Great Falls Meat Company, a concern with which he was connected two years. His next employers were Bach, Cory & Company, wholesale and retail grocers with whom he was connected in a clerical capacity, and eventually he became identified with Churchill & Webster. It was while he was employed by this firm that Mr. Suhr conceived the idea of establishing the Great Falls Ice and Fuel Company, which was incor- porated in 1898, at which time he became president, a position he has since held. This is the largest com- pany of its kind in the city, and the first to be incor- porated here. In 1904 the company purchased the business of the Great Falls Transfer Company, which was made a part of the original corporation, and a large ice plant is now located on the river above the water works. Mr. Suhr is also proprietor of the Mer- chants Fruit Exchange, which was established in Feb- ruary, 1907, exclusively a wholesale fruit and farm produce company, doing an annual business of $60,000. This firm is situated on First avenue, South, and Park Drive, and in addition has a cold storage plant on the railroad, with all modern facilities for the accom- modation of shippers and one of the finest plants of its kind in the state. Mr. Suhr has displayed great organizing and executive ability, and justly merits the confidence in which he is universally held by busi- ness men of the city. Although his rise has been rapid, only legitimate business operations have received his attention, and his reputation is that of a man of the strictest integrity. He belongs to the Merchants Association, and to the Builders exchange and Board of Commerce, and to the local tent of the Knights of the Maccabees, is a Republican in political matters, although he takes no active part in public life, and in his religious views is a Presbyterian and holds the office of elder in his church.

On May 16, 1894, Mr. Suhr was married at Great Falls to Miss Lenora R. Robinson, of Indiana, and four children have been born to this union: Donald L., born October 27. 1895, and in his third year at the Great Falls high school; Carl Henry, born August 1, 1897; Charles Edgar, born September 14. 1899; and Esther Margaret, born May 14, 1903. The pleasant family residence is located at No. 727 First avenue, South, where the many friends of Mr. and Mrs. Suhr are welcomed with true western hospitality.

JOHN DOHERTY. Eminently worthy of the respect and confidence so universally accorded him by his fel- low associates, John Doherty, of Townsend. is render- ing satisfactory service as county clerk of Broadwater county, performing the duties devolving upon him ably and intelligently. A native of Ireland, he was born in County Antrim, February 14, 1865.

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His father, Michael Doherty, has spent his entire life in County Antrim, Ireland. During his active career he was one of the foremost educators of his county, as a teacher being highly esteemed, and very popular. He is now retired from active pursuits, and is living at ease in his old home town, an honored and respected citizen. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah O'Raw, died in County Antrim, her native place, in 1908, leaving six children, as follows: John, the special subject of this brief personal record; Mary D .; Patrick C., engaged in farming in County Antrim; James, who is farming in County Antrim; Michael J., who, following in his father's footsteps, is a school teacher in County Antrim; and Sarah C., who is living with her father in the old home.

An apt scholar from boyhood, John Doherty com- pleted his early education at Belvidere College, in Dub- lin, Ireland. Returning after his graduation to County Antrim, he engaged in professional work, for four years being principal of the Lough Giel National School. Immigrating to the United States in 1890, Mr. Doherty traveled extensively for six months, visit- ing many of the larger and more important cities, including New York, Chicago, and Denver, and in the autumn of that year located at Great Falls, Montana, where he remained until August, 1891, being employed as clerk in the Woolridge Hotel. During the ensuing nine years he was prosperously engaged in mining and prospecting in different parts of the state. Coming to Townsend in 1900, Mr. Doherty secured a position as clerk and bookkeeper in the hardware establish- ment of the Berg Hardware Company, with whom he remained until January, 1907. He has since served as county clerk of Broadwater county, having been elected to the office in the latter part of 1906, and re- elected each term since. Mr. Doherty is a loyal Dem- ocrat in politics, in his quiet way working hard in the interest of his party. Fraternally he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and consul of the local camp; and a member, and the secretary of the Brotherhood of American Yeomen.

Mr. Doherty married, November 22, 1899, Ada E. Van Voast, who was born in Townsend, Montana, of pioneer ancestry, and to them three children have been born, namely: Mary Doris, aged ten years; Florence Sarah, aged five years; and John Emmet. aged three years. Mr. and Mrs. Doherty are members of the Roman Catholic church, and are rearing their children in the same faith.

John G. Van Voast, Mrs. Doherty's father, was born in Iowa, where he was reared and educated. In 1870 he came to Montana, and having bought land in Broadwater county was here engaged in ranching until his death, in 1907. He married Florence Mc- Fadden, who is still living on the home farm. She is a daughter of the late George McFadden, an early pioneer of Montana, who made two trips across the plains with ox teams. Mr. McFadden, Mrs. Doherty's maternal grandfather, came from Missouri with his wife and family to Montana in 1862, and spent a year at Alder Gulch. The journey westward was fraught with perils, he and his family having narrowly escaped being massacred by the Indians. The accidental poi- soning of Mr. McFadden's stock at Poison Springs. compelled him to return with his family to the nearest trading post, a day's journey to the eastward from the springs, to buy more stock, the other members of the train with which he was traveling having refused to sell him any. Buying more stock, he again turned his face westward, and on the second day's journey came upon the remains of the companions with whom he left Missouri, all of whom had met death at the hands of the treacherous savages, who had massacred the entire party, and stolen their stock and wagons. Mr. McFadden's wife refused to remain at Alder Gulch after the first year. and they returned east by the same route which they had followed in coming to Montana,

going to Kentucky. In 1866 Mr. McFadden again crossed the plains to Montana, settling in Broadwater county, where he subsequently carried on a flourishing business for many years, being a miner, a rancher, and a trader, bringing in supplies in large quantities by wagons.

JOSEPH E. REHAL, known as the founder of Joplin, Montana, came to this place in 1910. He has valuable real estate holdings here, is financially interested in a number of important local enterprises and is a man of mark in all the relations of life.

A native of Syria, Joseph E. Rehal was born July 14, 1872, and he is a son of Elias and Bekash (Tahla) Rehal, both of whom were born and reared in Syria and the former of whom passed to the life eternal in 1892, at the age of sixty-five years. The mother is still liv- ing, her home being in Syria. Elias Rehal was engaged in the wholesale liquor business during the greater portion of his active career and was a merchant of note in his native place. He figured prominently in the Syrian revolution in the early '6os and his father was one of the leaders in that disturbance. Mr. and Mrs. Rehal became the parents of twelve children, four of whom are living at the present time, in 1912.

The ninth in order of birth in a family of twelve children, Joseph E. Rehal was reared to maturity in the place of his birth and there attended school until he had reached his sixteenth year, when he entered , the employ of his father and worked in the liquor business until 1888. In that year he immigrated, with four brothers, to America, coming to Montana in 1890. In 1891 he located in the city of Great Falls, where he engaged in the retail dry-goods business and where he continued to reside until 1900. He then filed a home- stead in Chouteau county and subsequently founded the village of Joplin in 1910, which now has a popula- tion of three hundred and which holds rank as one of the most enterprising little towns of this section of the state. Joplin has a postoffice, fifteen mercantile houses, two good hotels, concrete walks, and is equipped with excellent telegraph and telephone serv- ice. The town is beautifully laid out, its streets being fully seventy-five feet wide. The people come about forty miles to Joplin to do their trading, coming from the Canadian line on the north, which is about forty miles distant.

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A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 48

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