A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 66

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

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The Midland Coal & Lumber Company was organ- ized in 1899 under the direction of Mr. Lane. Its head- quarters were at Harlowtown and here for three years the concern was successfully operated. In 1902 Mr. Lane sold out his holdings in Harlowtown and moved to the adjacent city of Lewistown, which has since been his home and the headquarters of his many commer- cial enterprises. The first of these to be put into opera- tion was the Montana Lumber Company. This concern began with one yard, but in its decade of existence the one has multiplied to eighteen, situated in different towns of the state and all under the general supervision of Mr. Lane at Lewistown. It is largely due to his wise business policy that this great extension has been feasihle. Since the company began its operations it has from time to time developed other projects, the one of which is the Montana Elevator Company.

When Mr. Lane arrived in Montana his capital was nothing, and his other assets footed up to the same figure. Now, in a score of years, he is director of the Empire Bank & Trust Company, director of the Bank of Fergus County, president of the Lewistown Auto- mobile Company, and treasurer and general manager of the Lewistown Brick Company. Nor do these com- plete the list of his enterprises, for he holds stock in several large ranch properties. Comment upon the initiative and acumen which has brought about this commercial ascendancy is superfluous. Adjectives seem inadequate.

Mrs. Lane is a native of La Grande, Oregon, in which city she entered upon this changing scene as Miss Rose Hensley. Her marriage to Mr. Lane took place at

Helena in 1899 on May 17. There are two daughters in the Lane home, Edith, born in Bozeman, and Newell, born in Helena. Both are attending school in Boston. Mrs. Lane is an active member of the Presbyterian church which has in her husband one of its most gen- erous supporters.

Mr. Lane's favorite amusements are theatricals, music and reading. He believes in shutting business up in the office in the evening and enjoying life at home. The Masonic lodge is the only fraternal body of which he is a member, and in that he has taken all degrees from the blue lodge to the Shrine. In the commercial organizations he is one of the most energetic workers and is director in the Lewistown commercial club in addition to being president of the Judith club. Politics is an interest with Mr. Lane rather than an activity, though he is reckoned one of the strong men in the Democratic party. His enthusiasm for Montana is of the superlative degree, and while that is in no sense a distinguishing mark of Mr. Lane, by which he might be picked out from several thousand other successful residents of the state, it is not one who he would wish to be omitted from his biography. Indeed, he goes so far as to say that he would rather be a poor man in Montana than a millionaire any place else, from which one may deduce his sentiments on being affluent in the land of heart's desire.

LEE DENNIS. Cascade county's recorder is a typical western man, which means that either he was born in the east, and was of the energetic class which goes west, or that he is the son of one of that class. Mr. Dennis belongs to the latter company. His birthplace was Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a town which his father, True Dennis helped to plot. The father was from the farthest "down east" state of the Union, be- ing a native of Augusta, Maine. Here he was born in 1829, and when he grew to young manhood, he made the journey across the plains, and in 1861 settled in Sioux Falls. He prospered in the new home, and was accounted a wealthy man until the panic of 1893, which fell with such particular disaster upon the western por- tion of the country. In 1900, he came to Fergus county, and there engaged in the real estate .business. He passed away in April, 1911, leaving five sons and a widow to survive him. One son, Grant Logan Dennis had died as a young man; the others live either in Fergus county or in Great Falls. Arthur, Lincoln and George Dennis are engaged in ranching in Fergus, and Curtis is a deputy sheriff in Great Falls. The mother is living in Fergus county, and is sixty-five years of age. She was born in Sweden and came to this country at the age of three. Her father, John Sells, was a Bap- tist minister, who located first at Moline, Illinois. He was one of the prominent men of his denomination in his lifetime, and was a preacher of great power and eloquence. The marriage of his daughter Anna to True Dennis occurred at Sioux City, Iowa in 1869.

Lee Dennis was born on November 2, 1874, the sec- ond of the six sons. From the public schools of Sioux Falls he entered business college in the same city. and for a time after completing his studies worked in his native town. In 1892, he came to Great Falls, but did not remain there, as he was drawn to the set- tlement at Sand Coulee, then the center of great min- ing activity. Mr. Dennis went into this pursuit and in the three years of his stay in Sand Coulee, there was no branch of it at which he did not work. In 1895. he went to Belt but subsequently returned to Sand Coulee, and resumed his former occupation. A year or so later, the Knights of Pythias elected him grand chancellor, and in this capacity he traveled over the entire state. In 1906, Mr. Dennis came to Great Falls, and worked as deputy county assessor, holding this position until the completion of the term. He was

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next employed as special deputy treasurer of the county, and then served two and a half years as deputy county auditor. In 1908, he was elected to the office of auditor, and two years later, he was selected to fill the position of clerk and recorder. He entered upon his service on January I, IgII, and is now on the second year of his term. There are five deputies under him, and the post is a most important one, and most ably filled by the present incumbent, who was elevated to the position by the Republican party.

In the lodge of the Odd Fellows, Mr. Dennis has taken all degrees, and was within two chairs of the grand master of the state. In the Knights of Pythias, he is a past grand chancellor, having held that position in 1905. For five years he has been the grand keeper of seals. He is also a member of the Elks lodge of Great Falls, and is affiliated with the D. O. K. K. and with the Pythian Sisters.

Mrs. Dennis was before her marriage, Miss Nellie Syme. Her parents, David and Ellen Syme, live in Sand Coulee, where they have long been well known. The marriage of Miss Syme and Mr. Dennis was solemnized at Great Falls, on November 28, 1896. A daughter and two sons have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Dennis. Helen A. Dennis is now a pupil in the eighth grade, and is studying music. Both boys, Lee and Grant are also in school. The former was ten years old on November 10, 1910, and the latter is something over two years younger. All the children were born at Sand Coulee. They were christened in the Presbyterian church, of which their parents are members.

Although no longer actually engaged in mining, Mr. Dennis is still interested in it, both financially and in- tellectually. He is a director of the Great Falls and Judith Mining Company, and has other interests in less known properties. His acquaintance is large, not only throughout the county, but throughout the state. His repeated election to office testifies to his popularity in his county, and his constituents are persuaded that he is only at the beginning of his political career.

FREDERICK SUNDERMEIER. Among those citizens of German nationality who have found business oppor- tunity in Montana and have improved it, is Frederick Sundermeier, owner and proprietor of the Troy laun- dry in Belt, who also has accumulated other valuable property holdings in that city. He began life in a business way as a retail grocer in Waverly, Bremer county, Iowa, where he continued very successfully ten years. Ambitious to avail himself of the greater opportunities for which the far West was famed, in 1892 came to Montana, locating at Great Falls in May of that year. He immediately entered the whole- sale produce and commission business there but con- tinued in it only one year and then removed to Sand Coulee to establish a laundry, the first in the town. Two years later he removed to Belt where he opened the Troy laundry, there being two other laundries there at that time. After a time, however, his com- petitors gave up the struggle and left Mr. Sundermeier as the only representative of that business in Belt. He has now been in the business eighteen years, is well established and has been successful. It is a hand laundry and is conducted in a building at the north- east corner of Main street which was erected by Mr. Sundermeier expressly for that purpose. Steady, per- sistent effort counts, whatever the line of endeavor. By his enterprise and stability of purpose, Mr. Sunder- meier has not only developed a profitable business but has also become the owner of considerable real estate in Belt and is recognized as a business man of worth and ability.

Mr. Sundermeier was born in Germany, February 19, 1855, and immigrated to America in 1865 with his parents, Henry and Wilhelmina (Clausing) Sunder-

meier, who settled in Bremer county, Iowa. There the father spent the remainder of his days as a farmer, passing to life eternal in 1890 when seventy-one years of age. The mother also was a native of the Father- land and died in 1898 at the age of sixty-eight. Fred- erick was the first born of their three children who grew to maturity. His education begun in Germany was continued in the public schools of Bremer county, Iowa for two years. His life was spent on the farm until twenty-six years of age, when he began his busi- ness career at Waverly as previously mentioned.

On May 19, 1887 at Waverly, Iowa, he was united in marriage to Amelia Koehler, a daughter of Fred- erick Koehler, a native of Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Sundermeier have one son, Edward H., born in Wav- erly on March 20, 1890. In politics Mr. Sundermeier is an Independent, supporting the men and measures most nearly meeting his approval. In fraternal mem- bership he affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, and in church faith and membership he is a Lutheran.

EDWIN COLLINS is a member of the Collins Plumb- ing and Heating Company, the best known establish- ment of its kind in Great Falls, Montana. Mr. Col- lins is the junior partner having come to Montana from Canada in 1892. He was born in Ontario, Canada, on the ninth day of March, 1871. His father, William Col- lins is still a resident of Kincardine, Ontario, being a retired farmer of some property. The mother, Mary Ann Jewis Collins, is a Canadian by birth. Although the mother of eleven children she is spending her de- clining years in much comfort on the home place ttear Kincardine, Ontario. Edward, the fourth of these eleven children attended the excellent rural schools of Ontario until his thirteenth year when it was his turn to become a real worker on the farm of his father that the younger brothers and sisters might continue in school. Until his majority was reached, in 1892, he worked without wages, as was the English custom, on the home farm. In his twenty-first year he left Canada to join his older brother, John, in Great Falls, Montana. John Collins had established a plumbing establishment in this city and here Edwin learned his trade, serving four years as apprentice and two years as journeyman before his brother considered him competent to become a member of the firm of the Collins Plumbing and Heating Company.

Young Mr. Collins has been very successful finan- cially. Aside from the stock in the plumbing corpora- tion he owns ranch lands in Cascade County. Four years after coming to Great Falls he found "the one woman" in the person of Miss Anna Coats whose fa- ther, Mr. William Coats is one of the pioneer settlers of whom Montana is justly so proud. Mr. Coats is a Canadian by birth but the daughter is proud of being a Montanian born and bred. Mr. and Mrs. Collins were married on the twenty-second day of April, 1896. Their residence is located at 615 Sixth street, in one of the most pleasant residence districts of the city.

Mr. Collins is an active worker in the ranks of the Republican party. Although he has no desire to be- come an office holder himself he enjoys the sport of the game and is interested to see triumph the principles that have carried the country through many a crisis.

In lodge circles, he is well known, being a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows. In this latter organization, he has held all of the chairs. It is to it that he has devoted most of his time and energy.

The Collins Plumbing and Heating Company is located in a large building in the business portion of Great Falls, the number being 306 First avenue, South.

Edwin Collins, although a comparative newcomer in the city of his choice and still little more than a youth in years. is among the best known of the younger busi- ness men of Great Falls.

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HIRAM H. BLACK was born in Green county, north- ern Pennsylvania, on the tenth of October, 1860. He is the son of Henry Black and Sarah McCollough Black, both natives of Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Black came west in 1865 and settled in Mt. Pleasant, Henry county, Iowa. At this time their son Hiram was a child of five. He grew to manhood in Iowa remem- bering little of the eastern home. His boyhood school days were spent in the district schools of southeastern Iowa where he lived until the death of his mother in 1881, farming in the summer and working on the rail- road in the winter. There were eight children in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Black of whom Hiram was next to the youngest. After reaching his ma- jority he left Iowa for Missouri remaining but a few years. In 1892, he pushed on to Montana, settling in Montana Falls where for seven years he filled various positions on the railroads and in the smelters meeting with no particular success. In the autumn of 1899 he established the firm of H. H. Black & Son, Whole- sale Feed and Fuel Business. He started in a small way as his limited means at the time necessitated but now conducts a large and flourishing business. The best test of its growth and prosperity is shown by the books of the firm which credited in 1912 an increase of three hundred per cent profit over the income from the first year's business.

Shortly after the death of his mother in Chariton, Iowa, Mr. Black was united in marriage to Miss Luella Scott, the daughter of Simon Scott a prosperous Iowa farmer. They were married on the fourteenth day of August, 1881, Miss Scott having celebrated her eight- eenth birthday the month previous. Although young in years she was hardy of spirit and more than willing to go forth at her husband's side in search of their joint fortune. The two older of their three children, however, were born in their mother's home village of Russell, Lucas county, Iowa. Their first born son, Lyle P. Black, is now a resident of Great Falls and an em- ployee of the street railway company of that city. He seems to have inherited his father's fondness for and understanding of complicated machinery. Leo Black, the younger brother born in Iowa on the first day of June, 1886, is associated with his father in the feed and fuel business as the firm name indicates. He was married in Forest City, Missouri, on the twenty-sixth day of November, 1908, to Lulu Wilson, a native daugh- ter of the state. Mrs. Lyle Black was Barbara Cameron of Great Falls who belongs to one of the oldest families of the state, her father being a pioneer miner. Miss Agnes Black, the only daughter of the household, was born in Great Falls on June 8, 1889. She is now one of the attractive young women of Montana of whom so much is said. The family reside at 1315 Sixth avenue, north.

Mr. Black has never taken any active interest in politics nor in any way sought office. He votes the Progressive Republican ticket. In lodge circles he belongs only to the Knights of Pythias.

Perhaps the perseverance and keen business judg- ment that has made it possible for him to attain suc- cess without means or so-called learning, comes from his Scotch-Irish ancestry. His father's people were canny Scots with their share of the Celtic caution, while the ancestors on the maternal side came to America from Ireland, in an early day bringing with them their optimism and fearless initiative.

Be that as it may, Mr. 'Black has become one of the well-known merchants of Great Falls and is deserving of the repute in which he is held by his fellow-men of the Treasure state.

WILLIAM MOSER. In the list of men to whom the state of Montana has looked for the preservation of law and order ever since the wild, free days of frontier life,

are to be found representatives of nearly every other state in the Union, courageous spirits who have shoul- dered the responsibilities inseparable from their dan- gerous offices and fearlessly discharged their arduous duties. The day of the professional "bad man" has passed, and it is no longer necessary that such organiza- tions as the famous Vigilantes should exist, but in every rapidly growing community, where large fortunes are being accumulated, more or less of the lawless spirit · will still be found, and Montana has been singularly fortunate in that it possesses so many men of daunt- less courage to keep this element under control. In this connection no history of Montana would be complete without a record of the career of William Moser, the efficient and popular sheriff of Sanders county, and a man whose present position has been gained through the exercise of his own grit and persistence. Mr. Moser is a native of Wisconsin, having been born at Alma, July 29, 1873, a son of John and Pauline (Moeckle) Moser. The former, a native of Switzerland, came to the United States as a boy, settling in Wisconsin, where he was engaged in the implement business during the remainder of his life, with the exception of five years spent in Minnesota. His death occurred in 1897, when he was about fifty-one years of age, while his widow survives and makes her home in Wisconsin. Five chil- dren were born to them, William being the second child and oldest son, and the only member of the family in Montana.

The early education of William Moser was secured in the public schools of Crookston, Minnesota, and he sub- sequently attended Ashland (Wis.) high school. When he was twelve years of age he earned his first money as a newsboy in Ashland, and since that time has been self supporting. His first salaried position was in the office of the Ashland Daily News, where he learned the printer's trade, but was compelled to go to Colorado on account of the failure of his health and for two years was engaged in printing and ranching. In 1892 he came to Montana, settling first in Plains, where for four years he was an employe of the McGowan Commercial Com- pany, and then resigned his position to establish a news- paper at that point. After one year he gave up the newspaper business and re-entered the mercantile line, with which he was connected until being appointed con- stable. He subsequently became stock inspector, city marshal, and deputy sheriff under-sheriff, and while holding the latter position the sheriff died and he was appointed to the office, which he has since filled to the entire satisfaction of the community being re-elected in November, 1912. During his term of office he has had many trying and thrilling experiences, and won a wide reputation for his excellent work in connection with trouble with the Flathead Indians. In his political views Mr. Moser is a stanch Democrat, and is known as one of his party's strong and influential workers in this part of the state. He fraternizes with the Elks, is fond of hunting, fishing and good horses, and as a for- ' mer ball player is an enthusiast in regard to the national game. Western Montana finds in him a loyal supporter, and he misses no opportunity to praise its soil, climate and resources, it being his declaration and belief that the full development of the state will make it the rich- est and best in the Union.

Sheriff Moser is a married man and his three bright and interesting children, whom he has named after his favorite jewels, Ruby, Pearl and Opal, are attending school.

PROF. E. C. REITZ. "He is a fighter and does things !" These words have almost passed into a proverb in their frequent application to Prof. E. C. Reitz of Mis- soula, the interesting subject of this brief review. And they have sprung, in their reference to him, out of his well-known habit of acting on conviction in

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

every case, and putting all his forces at work to accomplish the end he aims at. He is not whimsical or fanatical, but a man with a high and stern sense of duty, guided by integrity and the most earnest desire to do all he can for the benefit of his fellow men of every class and condition; and as his ideals are lofty, and his springs of action intense, he leaves no stone unturned in his efforts to carry out his views. Men have reviled him and called him unsavory names, but no opposition, and especially no abuse, has ever deterred him from his purposes, and that is one thing even his bitterest opponents always give him credit for. They know he is honest and consistent in his efforts to make the community around him as clean and pure as pos- sible, and they esteem him for the inflexible determi- nation with which he continues his work in this be- half, even though he sometimes runs against a pet desire of their own.

Professor Reitz was born in Dixon, Lee county, Illinois, on August 3, 1864, and is a son of Conrad and Elizabeth (Keller) Reitz, natives of Pennsylvania, early emigrants to Illinois and pioneers in Iowa. They are now living at Maxwell, Story county, in that state, retired from active pursuits, the former aged seventy- one and the latter seventy-two years of age. On November 29, 1911, they celebrated the fiftieth anniver- sary of their wedding, and the celebration was a "golden wedding" in fact for their hosts of friends who had the pleasure of attending it.

Conrad Reitz, the professor's father, the place of whose nativity is Somerset county, Pennsylvania, has been, in many respects, a remarkable man. He has tried his hand in various lines of productive enter- prise and succeeded well in them all. For many years he was a mechanic and wrought laboriously and faith- - fully at his trade. Then he turned his attention to farming, and in this he was a leader in his locality and one of the most prosperous men engaged in the industry there. After that he became a merchant, and his triumphs in merchandising were no less signal and substantial than those he won in other departments of work. He moved to Illinois when he was a young man, and in 1870, when the pioneer days were still lingering in some parts of Iowa, he located in Boone county in that state, where frontier conditions still largely obtained. His high character, great energy and foresight and other masterful natural attributes made him successful in all his undertakings in spite of the fact that he had but a limited education from the schools.

Professor Reitz . was educated in the public schools of Iowa and at Keokuk College in that state. He after- ward pursued a course of special training for business and in penmanship at the Gem City Commercial Col- lege in Quincy, Illinois, from which he was graduated in 1890. While attending this school he was also actively engaged in managing his father's farm. It is easy to conclude that his duties in his dual engage- ments at this time were burdensome, but that was a matter of no special consequence to him, as, even at his age at that time, he was a person of prodigious energy, with capacity for carrying on several lines of work at once.

In 1891 the professor formed a partnership with one of his schoolmates, and together they taught penman- ship in Illinois and Iowa for several months. In ' September of the same year he entered Zanerian Art College in Columbus, Ohio, the only pen-art school in the world, and at the same time began special studies in English in the Thompson English Training School in Columbus. The next year be became a teacher in that school and also gave instructions in the army bar- racks in the city. This year, 1892, he completed his course in the Zanerian Art College and received his diploma from it as a graduate in all its departments.

Professor Reitz then came to Montana and located in Anaconda. He conducted a private school there for a few months, during which he visited Missoula to look over the field with a view to finding a suitable place for a permanent residence and the establishment of his business. In 1893 he returned to Boone, Iowa, and was married to Miss Laura B. Thompson, who was a school teacher in that city, having gone there from her native state, Indiana. He brought his bride to Anaconda, and continued teaching his private school there until June, the end of the term, when he moved to Missoula.

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A history of Montana, Volume III, Part 66

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