A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 61

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

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Mr. Bailey received his education in public and private schools of Tennessee up to the time he was twenty years of age, and the first twenty-two years of his life were spent on a farm. In 1888 he started west to seek his fortune, and spent several years in Missouri, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Dakota, and in July, 1891, permanently located in the state of Mon- tana. He came up into the Flathead valley among the first settlers in this region, and in May, 1892, took up a homestead near Big Fork. Here he engaged in farm- ing for eight years, and then became one of the first settlers in the town of Big Fork, which continued his home for seven years. He was notary public there and in October, 1904, was appointed by United States District Judge William Hunt to the office of United States commissioner. On Christmas day of 1908 he transferred his residence to Polson, with which town he has been identified as a citizen and official ever

since. In 1909 the county commissioners of Flat- head county appointed him justice of the peace, the first official of this kind for Polson. He is the owner of considerable real estate at Polson, and in this sec- tion of Montana has found a fair share of the material goods of life and has given much public-spirited service in official positions. In the intervals of a very busy career Mr. Bailey has taken up the study of law and is well read and equipped for the legal profession.

Mr. Bailey has for a number of years been influential in local Democratic circles, and in 1902 was the can- didate on that ticket for representative of his district in the state legislature. He is a member of the Chris- tian church, and is a bachelor.

MICHAEL DRISCOLL, of the firm known as the Kalis- pell Lumber Company, has been identified with the lumber business in Kalispell since 1899. The passing years have brought him a continued prosperity and this firm today is one of the principal ones in Kalispell and vicinity in the lumber manufacturing business. Mr. Driscoll is a New Yorker, born on February 27, 1862, at Lisle, that state, and is a son of Jeremiah and Ann (Ryan) Driscoll, both natives of Ireland.

Jeremiah Driscoll was born in Myrus, County Cork, in December, 1839, and was a boy of about eleven years when his mother brought him to America. His edu- cation was limited, and for some years after reaching years of independence he worked on the railroad and in the tanneries of that region. He served through the Civil war, as did six of his brothers, and then took up the occupation of a farmer, in which he still con- tinues. He has prospered and is now the owner of a nice home with pleasant surroundings in which to pass his declining years. He married Ann Ryan, who was born in Limerick, Ireland, and who came to this country when she was a child of eleven years, Both were of the Roman Catholic faith, and have reared their family in that religion. They now reside in the vicinity of Whitneys Point, New York. Jeremiah Driscoll was one of the nine sons of his parents, Cornelius and Elizabeth (Burchell) Driscoll, both natives of Myrus, County Cork, Ireland. The father came to America in 1848 and worked on the New York & Erie Railroad for some time until he had made it possible to bring his family to this country. Two years later they joined him, arriving in New York City on July 4, 1850, and the little family located at Bath, in Steuben county, New York, where the father was employed. One year later they moved to Whitneys Point, and there the father engaged in farming, in which business he was very successful. He died in January, 1890, and his wife preceded him in September, 1888, aged seventy-seven years. Their children were John, Daniel, Patrick, Jeremiah, Michael. Cornelius, Timothy, Dennis and James. The two eldest died in childhood. Patrick, Jeremiah, Cornelius, Michael and Timothy served in the Civil war, all in the construction corps with the exception of Michael, who served in the Twenty- seventh New York Volunteers. On the close of the war all turned their attention to the business of farm- ing, with the exception of Timothy who followed the trade of a bricklayer, and Dennis, who became a blacksmith. All are now deceased, with the exception of Jeremiah, who is the father of the subject, and Dennis.

Michael Driscoll is one of the nine children of his parents. He was born on the 27th of February, 1862, and received an education considerably in advance of what his father was privileged to attain. When he was seven years old he began to attend the district school, attending steadily for three years, after which his winters only were devoted to school work. His last three winters were spent in attendance at the Whitneys Point Academy and the high school. He was an am- bitions youth, and when not occupied in study was em-

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ployed in manual labor, such as farm work, driving team, peeling bark, carpenter work, or any honest employment that came to his hand. He continued at home in that way until he was twenty-two years old, when he went to Minnesota, and in May, 1884, located in Wabasha, that state. For a year he worked at various employments and then entered the employ for the North Western Lumber Company in their retail lumber yard at Wabasha. He remained thus employed until April, 1889, and then took the management of a yard for the same company at Mazeppa, Minnesota. The Mazeppa yard was sold in August of the same year in which he went there, consequently he was re- turned to Wabasha and remained with the company at that point, and at Hudson, Wisconsin, until August, 189I. It was then that he severed his connection with the Wabasha Lumber Company, and made for the West. He reached Great Falls, Montana, on August 14, 1891, and there entered the employ of the Butte & Montana Commercial Company's Lumber depart- ment, where he was placed in charge of the shipping, retailing, and the planing mill. He remained with the firm until they closed up their business in 1898. In January, 1899, Mr. Driscoll came to Kalispell and here formed a partnership with one H. G. Miller, who had already established a lumber business at this point, known as the Kalispell Lumber Company. This part- nership existed until April 1, 1905, when the business was incorporated under the above name. Since then it has conducted a general lumber business, engaged in manufacturing and doing a wholesale and retail busi- ness. Mr. Driscoll and his partner are the principal stockholders in the corporation, and the business of overseeing the logging and manufacturing interests of the concern is left entirely to Mr. Driscoll, while his partner attends to the selling and financial end of the concern. They have worked together in accord during the years of their association, with the most pleasing results to all concerned, and are known to be capable and trustworthy business men, both of whom have an excellent standing in the community.

Mr. Driscoll is a Democrat, as is his father and all the family, and like them also is a devout Catholic, being a communicant of St. Matthew's church of Kal- ispell. He has never held office nor has he been an office seeker at any time, being well content to confine his energies to his own business affairs and leave politics to others who have an inclination for that life. During his residence in Minnesota he was for four vears a member of the Minnesota National Guard, and he is now a member of the Knights of Columbus and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

On April 21, 1892. Mr. Driscoll married Catherine McDonald, the daughter of John and Mary (Cava- naugh) McDonald. of Wabasha, Minnesota. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Driscoll have been born :- Marie, Arthur, Helen, Maurice. Marie is a graduate of the Kalispell high school and is now in Detroit attending the Thomas Normal Training School.

FRANK H. COONEY. A successful and eminently pro- gressive young man, whose career in the past few years has been intimately connected with the development of Butte, is Frank H. Cooney, president of the Cooney Brokerage Company, which was organized in 1894 as Cooney Bros. and incorporated in 1896 as Cooney Bro- kerage Company.

This company represents the leading manufacturers throughout the country and does an annual business of over $3.000,000.

Mr. Cooney was born in Norwood, Ontario, Canada, December, 31, 1872. His father, John W. Cooney, was a native of New York State. His mother, whose maiden name was Mary O'Callaghan, was born in Cork, Ireland, but is now deceased.

Frank H. Cooney received his education in the Cath olic public schools of Ontario. Leaving school at the age of fourteen he accepted a position as delivery boy in the store of E. C. Armand, of Arnprior, Ontario, Canada, and for his services he received the remarkably modest salary of $4 a month. He became, however, thoroughly acquainted with the grocery business in its several de- partments. While still a youth, Mr. Cooney for a time assisted his father in the nursery business but only to find that this was not to his liking, and looking for a new field he came to Butte in July, 1891. When he first ar- rived in Butte he found employment in the grocery store of Thomas F. Courtney and afterwards entered the wholesale department of the Davidson Grocery Com- pany.

In 1894 Mr. Cooney left the employ of the Davidson Grocery Company and with his brother, Howard C. Cooney, started the firm of Cooney Bros. It was after- wards incorporated under the name of the Cooney Bro- kerage Company as it stands today, and from the first the business has been a success.

Mr. Cooney was married December 27, 1899, to Miss Emma May Poindexter, daughter of P. H. Poindexter, of Dillon, Montana. Mr. and Mrs. Cooney now reside in Missoula, Montana, and have six children-Francis H., John Phillip, Mary Margaret, Walter Poindexter, and twins, Tyler Thompson and Virginia Elizabeth.

In politics Mr. Coonev is a Democrat, and his religion Roman Catholic. He is a member of the Silver Bow Club, Butte, the Hibernians, Butte, and the Elks, of Missoula.

GEORGE H. GRUBB. The Hon. George H. Grubb, a leading lawyer of Kalispell and a member of the firm of Grubb & MacDonald, is a worthy successor of his military forebears; for the service given to the public in peace is no less commendable than that given in war. Mr. Grubb's parents were both natives of Pennsylvania. Charles Grubb was an Illinois pioneer of the forties, who during the Civil war, enlisted with Company C, of the One Hundred and Eighteenth Illinois Volunteer. He served first as a private, later as a lieutenant. His com- pany, which was raised at Hamilton, Illinois, was, when the war closed, among the army's mounted infantry. Mrs. Charles Grubb, the mother of George Grubb, was of old Revolutionary stock, in earlier generations, be- sides which her family was represented in the War of 1812, her father having served in that conflict. She was in her girlhood Diana Davison and was still living in Pennsylvania at the time of her marriage. During the years of their life together, Charles and Diana Grubb became the parents of nine children, of whom George Grubb was the seventh; he is the youngest of the four sons. Both Mr. Grubb's parents are now deceased, his father having lived to the age of eighty-two and his mother until her sixty-first year.

It was while the Grubb family were living on their rural homestead which for so many years they occupied near Hamilton, Illinois, that the subject of this sketch was born, on October 31, 1861. His education was begun in the district schools of Hancock county, continued in the high school of Carthage, Illinois, and completed in the professional course of the law department of Iowa State University, where he was graduated with the de- gree of LL. B.

Mr. George H. Grubb began his practice as an at- torney in Indianola, Nebraska, where he resided until 1889, giving his time to general practice. In the latter year, he removed to Evanston, Wyoming, where he re- mained for one year. At the end of that time, he had decided upon locating in Montana and in that state he settled first at Demarsville. The following autumn, however, he made his final location, coming to Kalispell, where he has since remained. Here Mr. Grubb was one of the first members of his profession to engage in its

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

practice. He has ever since continued his legal work in this place, where he has been ranked as one of the leading attorneys. From the time of his settling in Kalispell, in 1891, he for ten years practiced law inde- pendently. In 1911 the present firm of Grubb & Mac- Donald was formed. Mr. Grubb is attorney for the Conrad National Bank, having held that office since the organization of the bank. He has also been special at- torney for the Kalispell Town-Site Company.

Mr. Grubb has given much of his time to public work in various offices. He was Kalispell's first city attorney, serving in that capacity for one term. Flathead county has also claimed his services for its corresponding office for one term. He was the Republican candidate for justice of the supreme court in 1896 and 1898, receiving the nomination although absent from the meeting held for the purpose of nominating; the election, however, was carried by the combined Populists and Democrats. That Mr. Grubb is decidedly persona grata to his com- munity is evinced by the facts that he is at present both a member of the city council and of the state legislature of Montana.

During the second year of his professional life Mr.' Grubb was first married. The date of this union was June 15, 1890, and the place where it was solemnized was Vicksburg, Michigan, the girlhood home of Annie E. Fisher, daughter of R. E. Fisher. Her life as Mrs. George Grubb was but of three years' duration, her death occurring in Kalispell on January 24, 1894, when she was twenty-eight years of age. Thirteen years later Mr. Grubb was a second time married. The pres- ent Mrs. Grubb was formerly Miss Josephine Brink, of Wisconsin.

Numerous organizations, professional and social, claim Mr. Grubb's membership. He is a member of the Flathead County Bar Association, of which he was the first president. The Modern Woodmen of America, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the blue lodge of the Masonic order are all honored by his con- nection with them. It is needless to say that he has ever been a loyal Republican and actively connected with all sub-organizations of the party which his judgment can endorse.

ALEXANDER D. MACDONALD, M. D. The personnel of the medical profession in Montana is a particularly strong one in the points of character and professional ability. In this group of men is Dr. Alexander D. Mac- donald, of Kalispell, the oldest practitioner in that city in the point of service and one of the most prominent as well, who has twice ably represented his constitu- ency in the Montana state legislature and who is also very prominently identified with the Masonic order in this state.

His surname indicates his Scotch lineage. Born October 17, 1861, at Wickham, New Brunswick, Dr. Macdonald is the youngest of seven children that came to the union of Thomas E. and Susan Macdonald, both of whom were natives of New Brunswick. The father became a prominent man in his community and was the eldest of six brothers, all of whom located per- manently near Wickham, New Brunswick, and on ad- joining farms. He served as a justice of the peace at Wickham for many years and died there in 1892 at the age of seventy-eight years. David Macdonald, the grandfather of Alexander D., emigrated from Scot- land and settled at St. Johns, New Brunswick, in May of that year, there becoming a member of the United Empire Loyalists. Susan Macdonald was born in Cam- bridge, New Brunswick. Her grandfather was a na- tive of Scotland and was an officer in a Scotch regiment stationed at St. Johns, New Brunswick, about the close of the eighteenth century.

After completing his preparatory education, which in- cluded the high school course at Wickham, Dr. Mac-

donald spent three years at Tabucintac, New Brunswick, learning the drug business and at the close of that period he matriculated at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, from which institution he was graduated in 1887 as a Doctor of Medicine. Upon receiving his degree, he began to practice his profession at St. Johns, New Brunswick, but failing health demanded a change to a milder climate and after one year there he removed to California. Two years later he returned to Mont- real, Canada, where he gained twelve months of valu- able experience in the Montreal General Hospital. Im- mediately following this, or in 1891, he came to Mon- tana and located at Kalispell, the only other member of his profession there at that time being Dr. J. A. Ghent, now of Seattle, Washington. Until 1910, or for nearly twenty years, Dr. Macdonald attended to a large and ever increasing general practice, but since that date he has given the major portion of his time to gynaecology and to surgery. By experience he has gained a large knowledge of his profession, and what he has accomplished in life is wholly the outcome of his own efforts. The severest and most exacting critic of his progress has been himself and to satisfy his own desire for larger ability and greater proficiency he has taken post graduate work in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minne- sota. As rightly may be inferred, Dr. Macdonald stands well to the fore among the best medical ability of Mon- tana.

While deeply devoted to his profession, he has, never- theless, found time to take a large interest in the pub- lic life of his adopted state and to contribute to its welfare. He served as a member of the Montana state legislature during two terms, the ninth and twelfth sessions, his election in each instance having been as a Democrat and without his having sought the nomina- tion and without political activity on his part during the campaign. During the ninth session he introduced a bill providing for a pure food law and labored in- defatigably for its passage, but without avail. In the twelfth session his efforts were better rewarded. This bill was passed as was another bill introduced by Dr. Macdonald regulating the sale of narcotic drugs. Both measures are of far reaching importance and have placed the name of Dr. Macdonald among the state's large benefactors. At home he has been no less active in promoting the general good. He has served as a member of the Kalispell board of education a number of years, a portion of that time as chairman of the board, and since January, 1912, he has been health officer of Flathead county, which office, together with that of city health officer, he has filled a number of times previous to this.

His greatest pleasure outside of his own home circle is found in his fraternal associations, especially in those of the Masonic order, which are of a promi- nent nature. He is a member of the blue lodge, chap- ter, council and commandery, and he also affiliates with the auxiliary branch, the Order of the Eastern Star. He has served as grand master of the Masonic grand lodge of Montana; as grand high priest of the grand chapter; as grand commander of the grand command- ery; and at present is associate grand patron of the Order of the Eastern Star of Montana. He is a Knight of the Red Cross of Constantine and is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Kalispell. Since the organization of the Kalispell Club he has served as its president and as a member of its board of directors, and in the interests of his profession he sustains mem- bership in the Flathead County Medical Society, the Montana State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He served as the first president of the first named medical organization. In 1910 Dr. Macdonald was solicited to become a member of the

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reserve corps of army surgeons, but he was com- pelled to decline on account of being beyond the age limit of forty-five years. He is a communicant of the Episcopal church.

The marriage of Dr. Macdonald took place in Kalispell, Montana, on April 13, 1892, and united him to Miss Jessee Swanly, a native of Pennsylvania and the daughter of Fullarton Swanly. Dr. and Mrs. Mac- donald have four children: Donald Earle, born April 14, 1893; Jessee Louise, born February 4, 1897; Alex- ander D., born December 27, 1899; and Hugh Allen, born September 13, 1904.

HARRY W. TURNER, who has long been prominent in the field of electricity in different parts of Montana and who is now president of the Montana Electric Company at Butte and of the Washington Electric Supply Company at Spokane, is a business man of unusual ability and initiative. His early educational training was of the most meager order, but through persistency and a set determination to forge ahead he has gained a competency and won for himself an enviable position in the business world.

At Madison, Wisconsin, September 27, 1863, oc- curred the birth of the subject of this sketch, who is a son of Dr. Henry W. and Sarah (Noland) Turner, both of whom are now deceased. Dr. Henry W. Turner was born in New York, in 1836, and was .a prominent physician and surgeon in Iowa prior to his demise, in 1876. At the time of the inception of the Civil war he became hospital steward in the Union ranks and for efficient service was subsequently pro- moted to the office of regimental surgeon. At the close of the hostilities he was mustered out of ser- vice with the brevet rank of major of the Sixteenth Wisconsin Infantry. The mother of the subject of this review was the adopted daughter of Simeon D. North, president of Hamilton College, of Clinton, New York, her parents having died in her infancy. She received an excellent literary education in her youth and was a lady of unusual refinement and ac- complishments. She married Dr. Turner while at college in Wisconsin and they became the parents of two children, of whom the subject of this review was the first in order of birth. Mrs. Sarah Turner long survived her honored husband and she passed to the life eternal at Butte in 1900.

Mr. Turner, of this notice, received his early edu- cational training in northern Iowa, whither he ac- companied his parents in 1865. He was a child of but twelve years of age at the time of his father's death and at that tender age was obliged to leave school in order to help support his widowed mother. As a youth he drove a stage coach through the wild and rugged country of the west, later taught school and for a period read law, and at one time was store- keeper. In 1887, when twenty-four years of age, he decided to follow a profession and at that time went to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he secured employ- ment with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, Incorporated. He remained with the above concern until 1889, when he was sent west by that house to take charge of its business in Portland, Oregon. After putting that business on a firm business basis he took charge of the company's sales agency at Helena, Mon- tana, remaining in that city for the ensuing two years. In 1892 he came to Butte, where he took charge of the predecessor's interest of what is now the Butte Elec- tric and Power Company. At that time the busi- ness of this concern was of very modest proportions compared with its present magnitude and importance. Under Mr. Turner's management, however progress became marked and from a comparatively small con- cern it branched out, embracing a large part of the state. This expansion involved the investment of many

millions of dollars, and with the passage of time the business continued to spread and prosper. Mr. Turner resigned from the general management in 1910, retaining his stock interests and representation on the board of directors. In 1895 he established the Mon- tana Electric Company, which has since developed into a large wholesale business at Butte, and later es- tablished a similar business at Spokane, Washington, the latter being known as the Washington Electric Supply Company. He is president of the two above companies and gives them both his personal attenton, in addition to which he is interested in a number of other business projects at Butte and elsewhere.

At St. Paul, Minnesota, September 7, 1891, Mr. Turner was united in marriage to Miss Mary N. Le- Beau, a daughter of Josephine LeBeau. Mr. and Mrs. Turner have one daughter, Frances Marie, who was born at Helena in 1892. Miss Turner attended Mrs. Dows' School at Brian Cliff, New York, for two terms and later finished her education at the Marlborough School at Los Angeles, California, in 1912.

Mr. Turner is independent in his political convic- tions, giving his support to men and measures meet- ing with the approval of his judgment rather than to vote along strictly partisan lines. He has never had time for participation in public affairs but gives freely of his aid and influence in support of all projects forwarded for progress and improvement. Frater- nally he is connected with the time-honored Masonic order, being a Knight Templar and Shriner. He is also affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Silver Bow Club, the Butte Country Club, the Montana Society of Engineers and the Rocky Mountain Club of New York City. He holds prestige as one of the representative business men of Butte and it may be said concerning him that the list of his personal friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances.

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A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 61

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