A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 60

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

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Judge Smith finds his greatest pleasure in the charm of his own fireside, and the interest nearest his heart is the education of his sons and the molding of their characters into those of noble men.

JOSEPH B. GIBSON has been identified with engineer- ing and architectural projects all his life, and since 1891 his activities in this line have been confined to the state of Montana. He has done some of the more im- portant survey and construction work carried out in the state in recent years, and has been county surveyor of Flathead county during six years of his residence in Kalispell, as well as being county assessor for a like period.

Born in Caledonia county, Vermont, on January 7, 1864, Mr. Gibson is the son of William B. and Eliza- beth (McGill) Gibson. The parents were both natives of Scotland. The father came to America with his parents as a child of three, and passed his life as a farmer in Vermont. He died in 1900 at the advanced age of eighty-three. The mother came to America when she was seventeen years of age. She passed away at the family home in Vermont in 1871, when she was but thirty-seven years of age. They were the parents of seven children, Joseph B. being the first born. He was educated in the public schools of Vermont as a boy and later attended the Boston Polytechnic Institute, now known as the Massachusetts School of Technology. He studied architecture and engineering and after com- pleting his education in 1878 settled at Caledonia, North Dakota, a point then known as Goose river, and secured employment with the Hudson Bay Company as a clerk.

In the spring of 1879, he came to the western part of North Dakota and there secured employment in the engineering department of the Northern Pacific Rail- road, where he continued until 1883. He then resigned from service with the Northern Pacific and from that time until 1891 was engaged in civil engineering and architectural work at various points in Minnesota and North Dakota. It was in 1891 that he first came to Montana and located in Kalispell. When he arrived, two log cabins represented the extent of the develop- ment there, and he was the first engineer and architect to become identified with the place. Here he assisted in much of the development work in the city, laid out the town, and since that time has served Flathead county as engineer for six years and as county assessor for a similar period. Mr. Gibson drew the plans for the Masonic Temple, the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation building, the Buffalo block, and many others of the larger and more important buildings in the city.

On June 12, 1907, Mr. Gibson was united in marriage at Portland, Oregon, with Miss Grace Johnston, the daughter of Zadok Johnston, a native of Maine. They have no children.

The family home is maintained at Fourth avenue and California street, and is a beautiful and commodious place.

ABRAHAM L. JAQUETH, city engineer and street com- missioner at Kalispell, Montana, has gained a high place in the hearts of his fellow men by reason of his

ardent devotion to duty and splendid achievements in making Kalispell a thoroughly modern and strictly up- to-date city. The greater part of his energy for a number of years past has been given to beautifying Kalispell and as the result of his vigilance this city boasts miles of macadam and asphalt paving, a good sewer system and many fine boulevards.

In the state of Ohio, on the Ioth of October, 1865, occurred the birth of Abraham L. Jaqueth, who is a son of Benjamin I. and Mary (Hazlett) Jaqueth, the former of whom was born in New York and the latter in Ohio. The father was a pioneer settler in Ohio, where he was engaged in farming operations during the greater part of his active career and where he was called to eternal rest in 1895, at the venerable age of seventy- seven years. At the time of the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted as a soldier and went to the front but sickness compelled him to resign and return home. Mrs. Jaqueth passed to the great beyond in 1893, aged seventy- five years.

The eighth in order of birth in a family of ten chil- dren, Abraham L. Jaqueth was reared to adult age in the old Buckeye state of the Union, where his pre- liminary educational training consisted of a course of study in the district and high schools of Deunquat. In 1884 he was matriculated as a student in Heidelburg College, at Tiffin, Ohio, and subsequently he attended Northwestern University at Ada, Ohio, in which latter institution he was graduated as a civil engineer in the class of 1886. For one year after leaving college, Mr. Jaqueth was engaged in teaching school in Wyandotte and Crawford counties, Ohio, and in 1887 he went to Fort Worth, Texas, where he was for a short time employed in the city engineer's office. Later he entered the service of the Choctaw Railway as assistant civil engineer, his territory being between Savannah, Okla- homa, and Fort Smith, Arkansas. In the latter part of 1888 he went to eastern Tennessee, where he assisted in laying out the town of Harriman and in installing the municipal water works of that place. Thence he went to Dayton, Tennessee, there working as city en- gineer for the ensuing two years, and in 1891 he came to Montana, locating at Helena for two months, at the expiration of which he came to Kalispell, where he has since maintained his home. His first work in this place was as United States deputy surveyor and 'he has been engaged in government work continuously since his arrival here. In 1893 Mr. Jaqueth was appointed city engineer and street commissioner of Kalispell and he has been the popular and efficient incumbent of that position during the long intervening years to the present time, with the exception of the year 1910. He has accomplished wonders in the beautifying of the city's streets and has directed the laying of ten miles of macadam and gravel paving. He now has a mile and a half of the finest street-paving in the entire west. During his regime as city engineer he has also laid fourteen miles of sewers, seventeen miles of concrete walks, eight miles of parking and twelve miles of street paving.

In the year 1887 Mr. Jaqueth was united in marriage to Miss Nonnie Brown, of Wyandotte county, Ohio. They became the parents of nine children, as follows, Glen (deceased), Edna, Erford, Herbert, Fred, Florence, Gertrude, Irene (deceased), March.

Mr. Jaqueth was one of the organizers of the Kalis- pell Interurban Railway now under construction and he is the engineer. This road will cover the surround- ing country in every direction from Kalispell. In a fraternal way Mr. Jaqueth is affiliated with the Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and other representative organizations of a local nature. In politics he is a Republican and in his religious faith he is a devout Presbyterian. He is fond of all out-of-door sports and devotes considerable time to hunting and

Listealay

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

hshing. He has a large circle of friends throughout this section of the state and is recognized as one of Kalispell's most valued citizens. 1

WILLIAM JENNISON. An essentially prominent citi- zen in Libby, Montana, and one who gives freely of his aid and influence in support of all measures and enter- prises projected for the good of the general welfare is William Jennison, whose birth occurred in Bay City, Michigan, October 9, 1856. He is a son of Henry W. and Josephine Watson, both of whom are deceased, the former having died in 1863, aged thirty-seven years, and the latter in 1862, aged thirty-five years. Henry W. Jennison was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and there resided until 1852, when he emigrated as a pioneer to Michigan. In the Wolverine state he was engaged in the general merchandise business for a number of years and there he was likewise owner of numerous saw mills, lake boats and freight barges. He was a man of unusual executive ability and he figured very prominently in the commercial life of Bay county, Michigan, until his death, in 1863. Had he lived longer he would probably have ranked as one of the big finan- ciers of Michigan. His wife, whose maiden name was Josephine Watson, was born and reared in Cincinnati, Ohio, and their marriage was solemnized in Bay City, Michigan, in 1854. They became the parents of five children, of whom three are living, in 1912.

Having been bereft of both parents at the early age of seven years, William Jennison was sent to boarding school in Michigan. He likewise attended Adams Academy, in Quincy, Massachusetts, and at the age of eighteen years left school and started out on his own account. The first business he engaged in was the manufacture of staves, his plant being located in the city of Detroit, Michigan. He followed that line of enterprise for a period of seven years, at the expiration of which, in 1891, he came to Montana and located in DeMarsville, where he resided for five years. In 1896 he established his home in Kalispell, where, for the en- suing seven years, he was connected with the Missoula Mercantile Company. The year 1902 marks his advent in Libby, where his business interests are extensive and numerous. Most of his attention is given to his work as secretary of the Libby Realty Company but in addition to that office he is a director and officer in fourteen other prominent mining and industrial con- cerns. He is an uncompromising Republican in politics and in religious matters is a devout member of the Pres- byterian church.

Mr. Jennison married, in Bay City, Michigan, Janu- ary 16, 1884, Miss Fannie M. Dolsen, a daughter of John F. Dolsen and a native of Chatham, province of Ontario, Canada. Mrs. Jennison was summoned to eternal rest in 1889, aged twenty-eight years. She was a woman of most lovable qualities and her entire life was characterized by good deeds and kind thoughtful- ness for others. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Jennison but all are deceased. Mr. Jennison has lived a life of usefulness such as few men know. Self- made, he has great sympathy for all young men, who are trying to make their way in the world and is ever ready and willing to lend them a helping hand. His life has been exemplary in all respects and he is honored and esteemed by all with whom he has had dealings.

TIMOTHY E. HEALEY. The passing of Timothy E. Healey, mayor of Belt, in Great Falls, Montana, on the morning of September 24, 1910, robbed Belt and Cas- cade county of one of her ablest officials and a man who held the highest place in popular confidence and esteem. His career, in both private and public life, had been a most admirable and valuable one, and he had maintained his residence in Belt since 1895, when he established the Neihart Lumber Company, and from then until the time of his death was the proprietor of that successful

concern. He was well known in lumbering circles throughout the state, and was one of the prominent busi- ness men of the state, or indeed of the northwest.

Born in Pottsdam, New York, on September 15, 1856, Timothy E. Healey was the son of James and Honorah Healey, natives of Ireland. While yet a small boy his parents moved to Canada and his boyhood days were passed in that country, and there he received his early education. He early began to do for himself, his first work being in the teaching of a country school when he was fifteen years old. Later he went into the lumber camps of his home region and soon advanced to the position of foreman in the camps. He thus acquired a splendid working knowledge of thebusiness, which was the foundation for the generous success he achieved .in that business in later years. In 1881 he left his Canadian home and went to Grafton, North Dakota, there remain- ing until January, 1891. He was for a time occupied in the hotel business in that place, but later formed a part- nership, and what proved to be a life-long friendship, with one William Tierney, now a prominent railroad contractor of Vancouver, B. C. Their partnership was of several years' duration and they handled some of the big contracts for the Great Northern road, their line then being in course of construction. Early in 1891 Mr. Healey came to Montana, settling at Neihart, and there, with his old-time partner, Mr. Tierney, he formed the Neihart Lumber Company and the Neihart Realty Com- pany. In 1895 Mr. Healey came to Belt, soon after which he became the sole owner of the business and in which he achieved a more than ordinary success, his business activities extending throughout the northwest and bringing him into prominence in lumbering circles through Montana and surrounding states.

Mr. Healey was a Democrat and he always took an active and whole-souled part in the political affairs of his city and county. He declined to accept any office, however, with the exception of those which were unre- munerative. He served as alderman of the town on numerous occasions and was a school trustee of the Belt district for several years. He was mayor of Belt at the time of his death, having been elected to that office in the previous April without opposition.

In all these offices Mr. Healey served with a single- ness of purpose and a straightforwardness that won him the admiration of all, and his civic loyalty was of an order that inspired similar sentiments on the part of his fellow citizens. His business interests were of a wide and varied nature, and besides being president and manager of his own company, he was manager of the Neihart Realty Company, vice-president of the State Bank of Belt, a director of the Ideal Lumber & Manu- facturing Company, a director of the Lumbermen's Mu- tual Insurance Company, vice-president of the Montana Retail Lumbermen's Association, and a member of the executive committee for Montana for the National Irri- gation Congress.

Mr. Healey's fraternal relations were numerous and he held membership in the Knights of Columbus, the Woodmen of the World, the Elks and the Concatenated Order of Hoo Hoos, the latter a lumberman's organ- ization.

While a resident of Grafton, North Dakota, Mr. Healey was married in 1886 to Miss Julia Murphy, and to them were born two sons, Earl and John P. Earl Healey is now secretary of the Ideal Lumber & Manu- facturing Company of Spokane, of which his father was a principal stockholder, and John P. lives in Belt, hav- ing been for some time the associate of his father in the lumber business there.

The death of Mr. Healey called forth many expres- sions of heartfelt sympathy, and in the Belt Valley Times of . September 29, 1910, an editorial appearing therein appropriately sums up the sentiment of the city at large with regard to the place Mr. Healey held among them and his character as a man and a citizen. The

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article follows: "In the house of death is always the wish to say the things that will lighten the burden of sorrow, but to few is given the talent to speak the consoling word. To most of us, at best, comes to mind a few phrases of stilted English, utterly inadequate to convey the sympathy we would fain express toward a grief-stricken family, or to define our own poignant sorrow. In the death of Mayor Healey Belt has lost a friend. To each individual, not only of the city but to a wide scope of the country, limited only to the area of his acquaintance, the loss is a personal one. To analyze his character is but to express a definition of the ideal American citizen. Energetic, capable, strong and forceful, but withal a heart as tender as a child's and a charity that made allowances for the weaknesses of others. Eager and forceful in argument, yet always ready to acknowledge a mistake. A duty once under- taken carried through faithfully to the end. In short, a man in the very highest sense of the word. He had enemies, perhaps, but he lacked the respect of none. The most prominent trait of his character was an ex- quisite sense of justice. It characterized every action of his life, and it is not saying too much to assert that this trait alone has earned the respect and love of hun- dreds who perhaps at times might have disagreed with him. He will long be remembered as a kindly, com- passionate and sympathetic Christian gentleman."

MARK S. DARLING. A great man has somewhere been described as one who is so short-sighted that he cannot see the obstacles that lie between him and his goal. Whether this be true of Mark S. Darling or not, certain it is that he has conquered all obstacles that have impeded his progress on the road to success, and now ranks as one of the leading business men in Conrad, or in Teton county, Montana. He is the president of a number of important business concerns in this section of the state and has met with such mar- velous good fortune in his various undertakings that it would verily seem as though he possesses an "open sesame" to unlock the doors of success.

A native of Amesbury, Massachusetts, Mark S. Dar- ling was born January 29, 1869, and he is a son of William E. and Cynthia Marie (Steere) Darling, both of whom were born and reared in Connecticut. Dur- ing his active career the father was for many years manager of the Hamilton Woolen Company at Ames- bury, Massachusetts. He passed away in 1891, at the age of sixty-seven years, and his faithful wife survived him until 1906, her death occurring at the age of eighty-three years.

The youngest in order of birth in a family of seven children, Mark S. Darling was reared to maturity in his native town of Amesbury, Massachusetts, and there was graduated from the high school in 1885. As the result of private instruction under George T. Baker, he was enabled to complete the civil engineering course in Cornell University in three years, when he was but nineteen years of age. Mr. Darling initiated the active practice of his profession in Illinois in the em- ploy of the Santa Fe Railroad, and he was associated with that company for two years as civil engineer, his work covering the division between Chicago and Fort Madison. Subsequently he made surveys through the American desert and Utah for the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1891 he came to Montana, locating in the city of Helena, where he entered the offices of the United States surveying bureau, remaining in that de- partment for a year, when he was appointed county surveyor for Chouteau county, with offices at Fort Benton. In due course of time he came to Conrad and accepted a position as chief engineer for the Con- rad Investment Company. In that year he was like- wise appointed United States Commissioner, an office of which he is still the incumbent, in 1912.

Mr. Darling is manager of the Conrad Electric Light

Company and is proprietor of the Conrad City Water Works. He is president of the Conrad Townsite Com- pany and president of the Dutton Townsite Company, and holds a similar office with the Fowler Townsite Company of which H. W. Conrad is treasurer and J. E. Ritchey secretary. He is president of the Pondera Reservoir Company, and with his associates in that concern owns and controls thousands of acres of land in Montana. These people have fifty-five thousand acres of land under irrigation, their enterprise being known to be the largest private irrigation project ever undertaken in the United States. This area was orig- inally devoted to grazing lands for sheep and cattle, but in recent years it has been cut up into one hundred and sixty acre farms. At the present time (1912) a tract of one hundred thousand acres of land is being opened for irrigation and the land with water is sell- ing for forty and a half dollars per acre.

From 1898 to 1908 Mr. Darling was identified with W. G. Conrad of Great Falls in the building and con- struction of what is now known as the Teton County Canal and Reservoir Company, one of the largest irri- gation projects in Montana, and they located the towns of Conrad, Valier, Williams and Fowler, all thriving towns holding splendid promise for the future.

No further comment is necessary to portray the prodigious undertakings of Mark S. Darling. In view of the fact that he started life with no assets beyond brains and energy, his success in life is most gratify- ing to contemplate. He is a member of the Masonic order at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America at Great Falls. In politics he is a Democrat, but does not participate actively in public affairs.

At Fort Benton, Montana, on December 3, 1898, Mr. Darling married Miss Mary Conrad, a daughter of William Conrad, of Virginia. One child was born to this union, Gladys, whose birth occurred at Fort Benton in 1899.

CHARLES I. O'NEIL. A native of the great old Key- stone commonweath, Charles I. O'Neil was born in Wyoming county, Pennsylvania, the date of his birth being the 18th day of February, 1869. His father, D. W. C. O'Ncil, was born in the state of New York and came west as a young man and located in Kansas, later removing to Missouri. In 1899, he came to Montana and is now engaged in agricultural operations in the vicinity of Kalispell. His wife, whose maiden name was Belle Frear, was born in Pennsylvania and there she resided at the time of her marriage to Mr. O'Neil in 1866. She is still living and resides in Kalispell. She and her hushand are the parents of six children, of whom the subject of this review was the second in order of birth.

At the age of four years Charles I. O'Neil accom- . panied his parents to Kansas and his early educational discipline was obtained in the public schools of Osborne county, that state, and in those of Rich Hill, Missouri. At the age of fifteen years he left school and turned his attention to learning the lumber business. In 1891 he came to Montana and located at Monarch as man- ager of a retail lumber yard, for the Dubach Lumber Company, continuing the same occupation for this company at Barker, Neihart and Belt successively, until the sale of the business to other parties in January, 1896, when he came to Kalispell and took charge of the retail department of the Butte & Montana Com- mercial Company. Soon after he was permitted to pur- chase from his employers the lumber yard of which he had been in charge and thus commenced business for himself in a small way; the total consideration being less than twenty-five hundred dollars. This business developed with the growth of the town and was later incorporated as the O'Neil Lumber Company, which is one of the largest concerns of its kind in the state.

M. Driscoll,

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The company has yards at Dayton, Elmo and Kalispell, the headquarters being in the last mentioned city. Mr. O'Neil is president of the company and Clinton D. O'Neil, secretary.

In addition to the O'Neil Lumber Company, Mr. O'Neil has been identified with the history of the lum- ber business in Montana in various ways, principally as one of the incorporators and officers of the Northwest- ern Lumber Company of Kalispell and the Dawson Lumber Company of Libby, both manufacturers, also one of the founders and continuing a partner in the Bryne & O'Neil Lumber Company of Great Falls. At this writing, Mr. O'Neil is not connected with the lum- ber manufacturing except in a small way. Being an ardent conservationist, and having also great faith in the future value of timber, he disposed of his saw mill interests and placed the proceeds in standing timber and now has large holdings of that rapidly diminishing commodity.

At Kalispell, Montana, January 21, 1904, was cele- brated the marriage of Mr. O'Neil to Miss Kathryn Fingado, who was born and reared in Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. O'Neil have three children, as follows: Sylva was born in 1905; Lawrence in 1907; and Charles, Jr., in 1909. In their religious faith Mr. O'Neil is a Meth- odist, while his wife is a Presbyterian, and they are well known as prominent church and anti-saloon work- ers. Mr. O'Neil was chairman of the Y. M. C. A. during the preliminary organization and canvass for funds to erect a building, and president of the board of trustees during the erection, by this organization, of the fine build- ing which adorns the Main street of Kalispell. He was lay delegate to the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal church at Minneapolis in 1912. In politics he is a supporter of the principles and policies for which the Progressive party stands sponsor and in a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

FRANK C. BAILEY. One of the oldest settlers in the Flathead valley is Frank C. Bailey, one of the pioneer homesteaders at Big Fork and now United States com- missioner and a well-known citizen at Polson. All his active career has been spent in the western country, and beginning a poor boy he has steadily advanced to prosperity and influence.

He was born in Trigg county, Kentucky, January 31, 1866. His parents were William and Sarah (Wil- kinson) Bailey, both of whom were natives of Tennes- see. The father, a substantial farmer, died in 1887 at the age of forty-nine, and the mother passed away in 1890. There were seven children, Frank being the third. The paternal ancestors came from Scotland, the present being the fifth generation in this country. The maternal side of the family emigrated from North Carolina into Tennessee during the early days, and the maternal grandfather of Mr. Bailey was a minister in the Christian church.

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A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 60

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