USA > Montana > Yellowstone County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 75
USA > Montana > Park County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 75
USA > Montana > Dawson County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 75
USA > Montana > Rosebud County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 75
USA > Montana > Custer County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 75
USA > Montana > Sweet Grass County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 75
USA > Montana > Carbon County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 75
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The marriage of W. C. Adamson and Miss Frances A. Necum was celebrated in Kentucky on October 9, 1868. Mrs. Adamson was born in the same county as her husband, her parents being Wesley and Margaret ( Hoyt ) Necum, natives, respectively, of Kentucky and New York State.
To our subject and his wife the following named children have been born, Nancy L., Florence E., Myrtle B., Estella G., and Mary A.
BENJAMIN S. HOLLOPETER resides three miles southwest of Bigtimber, on one of the largest rural places in Sweet Grass county He is one of the very successful men of the county and has gained his entire property holding by reason of his careful efforts, wisely bestowed, since coming to the state of Mon- tana. His birth occurred at Covington, Ohio on November 7, 1863. Samuel Hollopeter, his father, was brought from the Keystone State overland by his parents, John Hollopeter and wife, when a small child. They were pioneers to Ohio and opened up a farm in the wilds of that country. Samuel was born in 1833 in Pennsylvania and spent the larger portion of his life on and near the old home place in Ohio and died there in 1895. He married Katherine Shellabarger, whose father, Jacob Shellabarger, also brought his family from Pennsylvania to Ohio in those primitive days. Katherine Hollopeter was born in Pennsyl- vania in 1829 and died in Ohio 1875. Our subject is the third of seven children, the old- est of whom died when three years of age. He has one sister, Mrs. David McAllister, now
living in Oregon. His brother, Jacob, lives in Alabama and the rest of the family in Ohio. Our subject served his time faithfully in the common schools of Ohio and as early as 1875 went to Darke county, Ohio, and took up life's battles for himself. For six successive years he labored there for wages and then returned to Miami county and followed agricultural pursuits for nine years. It was about 1889 when he determined to see the west and shortly after that we find him in Illinois, whence after a brief stay, he came on to Montana, arriving in 1890. A few months were spent in the employment of W. P. Franklin near Mel- ville and then for a year he was to be found with Charles Severance in Judith Basin. Sub- sequent to that- time, he moved to Bigtimber and took up carpenter work in which he had perfected himself years before and Mr. Hollo- peter well remembers the celebration of July 4th, 1891, which was properly carried out by laying the floor of the Grand Hotel. About that time he purchased a team and took a con- tract to furnish the stone for the Montana Trading Company's store and the Kellogg and Walbridge buildings and while engaged in this business, he located a ranch five miles from Bigtimber, the property he still owns. Thus Mr. Hollopeter launched out in farming and stock raising for himself. Beginning in a very small way, he soon found himself con- fronted with the panic times of 1893 and sub- sequent and it required every vestige of de- termination and power on his part to maintain himself without going to the wall. However, he succeeded in pulling through those days with- out loss of his stock or ranch and began his ca- reer of success which was very fittingly pre- faced by those years of hardship, which instead of lessening his courage only increased his spirit and hardened him for the battle to come. With a renewed vigor obtained by thus overcoming, Mr.Hollopeter began operations in such a man- ner that success could but abide with him and all the years along from that time until the
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present, have seen him steadily increasing in wealth and favor the becoming results of his worth and operation. He has doubled his land holdings, has made himself a reputation as a stock breeder that is excellent throughout the state, having both short horn cattle, Shrop- shire sheep and other animals. At the present time, however, Mr. Hollopeter is disposing of his cattle interests and giving his entire at- tention in the stock line to breeding horses. He has a nine-fifteenths interest in the Belgian Horse Company which owns a thoroughbred Stallion, known as Colas II, one of the finest horses in this part of the state. In addition to these labors of stock breeding, Mr. Hollopeter has been doing general farming and the man- ner in which he has improved his home place bespeaks the taste, thrift and ability of which he is possessed. Excellent orchards of cherry, apple and plum trees are in evidence and he has recently added to these a thousand more fruit trees. His dwelling is a comfortable and fine structure and stands on a sloping flat overlooking Boulder Creek and surrounded by natural cottonwood trees. On one side of the dwelling stretch out his well kept orchards and pleasant alfalfa fields to the hills a quarter of a mile away. Up the creek the scenery is grand and diversified ending in the snow- capped mountains of a distant range. Alto- gether it is one of the most pleasant and beauti- ful places to be found in the county .
On December 23, 1895, Mr. Hollopeter married Anna Mary Wetzel of Carlisle, Penn- sylvania and since that happy day she has been a faithful helpmeet, assisting in the good work of providing their present competence and building their pleasant home. They have one child, Bertha A., born January 17, 1905. Mrs. Hollopeter is the daughter of Moses and Susan (Waggoner) Wetzel. the father a na- tive of Carlisle and the mother of Perry county, Pennsylvania. The family moved to Coving- ton, Ohio in 1876 and twelve years later, went thence to Oxford, Indiana where they now re-
side. It was 1895 when this daughter came to Montana. She is a descendant of Lewis Wetzel, whose father and brother were killed by the Indians on the Ohio river. Owing to this dastardly massacre Lewis became enraged and vowed to reap vengeance on the Red Skins, which for many years he did with such awful effect that he was a terror to the Red Skins and his name is placed among the celebrated Indian fighters.
Everything pertaining to the Hollopeter estate shows forth those marks of thrift, pains- taking taste and progressiveness bestowed by the proprietors even from the smallest detail to the largest operations and improvements. The place is very valuable, being well irrigated and provided with all kinds of substantial im- provements and certainly Mr. and Mrs. Hollo- peter are to be congratulated upon the excel- lent success that they have wrought out by their own labors and the pleasant home which they now have the privilege of enjoying in these days of their lives while yet they have not reached the zenith of their powers, though fit for keener enjoyment than in the days when age shall have circumscribed them.
HENRY CLAY HOWARD has done work in Custer county that entitles him to be mentioned among the very leading settlers and capable men of this section of Montana and it is a matter of instruction to all to recount his labors and achievements in this country. At the present time he resides in the Tongue valley, three miles above Etna, and has one of the choice ranches of the entire valley. It consists of two thousand acres, much of which is under irrigation, all well improved, and all the result of his own careful and persistent labors and keen foresight. His stock consists of cattle, horses and sheep.
Turning more particularly to the details oi Mr. Howard's career, we will see the spirit that
HENRY C. HOWARD
JOHN LEWIS GUILER
GEORGE HIRSCH
JAMES H. CALHOUN
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
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has won this success, and will admire it more as we become acquainted with the great odds against him.
Henry C. Howard was born in Tamworth, New Hampshire, in 1828. His father, Alger- non S. Howard, a native of Bridgewater, Mas- sachusetts, descended from one of the leading colonial families, immigrants from the Brit- ish Isles, who participated in all the early colonial wars, as well as the struggle for free- dom, Mr. A. S. Howard, himself, being also a soldier in many of these. He grew up in Massachusetts, removed to New Hampshire, later to Maine, Bangor, thence to the rural dis- tricts and there spent his remaining days. He came from stanch, old Puritan stock and was a man who commanded respect and esteem from all classes. His family was long lived and pos- sessed all those virtues so characteristic of those grand old colonists who braved every danger for the privilege of freedom of consci- ence and the establishment of those institu- tions which were and are productive of such abundant good to their descendants and through this nation to the whole world. A. S. Howard married Miss Almira Chapman, a native of New Hampshire and a descendant from Dutch ancestors, who were, also, early settlers among the colonists.
When the family went to Maine in 1836. our subject was a young lad, but remembers the journey and in the new location he was educated and reared. He studied in the com- mon schools, worked on the farm in sunt- mers, did lumbering in the winters, and by 1851, having been of an economical turn, had sufficient capital to try the far west and set sail in October of that year from Boston, via Cape Horn to San Francisco, arriving in the latter port in March, 1852. He was ready for the gold excitement that was filling the air and at once went to the front with bright hopes. For two years he mined, prospected and wrought in the new Mecca of the west,
and then turned his face toward his home in Maine, this time trying the journey via the isthmus. He arrived safely, married, and soon had selected a farm for his future labors. Lumbering with farming occupied him there for twenty years, and his success was most ex- cellent for he gathered a fortune in his labors. This was in the vicinity of Fort Fairfield, Maine. Then, he began to long for the west again. In 1882, his desires took definite form and he came via the Northern Pacific to Miles City, with the intention of seeking out a good stock ranch and embarking in that business. He scoured the southeast portion of the state well and finally located where we find him at the present time, taking a homestead. Remem- ber that the country was new then, and opera- tions were attended with all that that means, which is always patent to the pathfinder, but never can be fully described to one who has never passed through those environments. Mr. Howard at once set to work improving his land and getting a start in the stock business, in- vesting heavily in animals for a start. In those days wild grass was so abundant that no one thought of providing forage for the winter and adopting the rule of the country, Mr. Howard increased his herds rapidly without any thought for winter hay. All went well till the memorable winter of 1886-7, which is so deeply marked in the annals of Montana, that hundreds of thousands in money could not cover the losses in stock alone to these sections. Mr. Howard was no exception to the rule, and in that dread winter he was forced to see the accumulations of years taken from him, and that, too, right before his eyes. Ninety-five per cent of his entire holdings succumbed to the inevitable. By dispensing what little meal he could secure at the railroad and by cutting down the cottonwood trees for the poor ani- mals to browse on, Mr. Howard succeeded in saving a few cows, but in the spring he found he was out of business. His accumulations for
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years were represented by bleaching bones on the plains, and he had the problem of support- ing a family without means in a new and strange country. He had nothing to return to Maine with and if he had had, we doubt not he would have spent it in some enterprise here, for he is not the man to put his hand to the plow and look back. He went to gardening, mak- ing butter and so he gained food and clothes for his household. Indians brought in wild game which he could purchase cheaply and this aided much. Everyone had lost faith in cat- tle. so Mr. Howard, believing as the others did, began raising horses, but by the time he had a good band, horses were not worth the price of shipping out of the country and there was no sale here for them. Thwarted again, Mr. Howard, determined never to give up, began the problem of irrigation, working on it in his own thoughts. He had no capital to lift the water from Tongue river, no other water could be reached, what should he do? A dry creek had its course over his land, and he conceived the idea of making dikes across this at different places to hold the water of the spring freshets and showers, so that he could at intervals let this water go down into the levels below the dike. He believed the little lake bottom thus soaked would raise a crop, and he put his belief into practice by making some of these dikes. His neighbors laughed at him. So people did and have done at all ad- vanced ideas. But Mr. Howard was right and he soon had crops growing. Then he con- tracted for more land and extended his sys- tem of irrigation, and it has been in successful operation to his great financial advantage ever since. During these years, the few head of stock Mr. Howard had saved from the snow had increased and after disposing of his horses, he turned the cattle oven to his son on shares and took up sheep raising himself. He began this by taking a band of seven hundred on shares. He had a struggle in this line for in Cleveland's administration he sold wool for
five and six cents per pound, but he continued and soon success came to him, the success that rewards genuine intelligent effort. He has continued in this line of business since and has regained what he lost in the ravages of winter and the low prices of horses. His herds number ten thousand all the time, besides horses and cattle, of which he has a few hundred.
It is interesting to note some of the exper- iences Mr. Howard relates. He needed a wagon, but had none nor had he the money to buy one with. So he conceived the idea of making one and his ingenuity soon had the vehicle ready for use, having utilized some old rake wheels and supplied other indispensable parts of his own handiwork. In fact it is said of Mr. Howard, owing to his skill and prac- tical ideas, that if he needs anything he can take his pocket knife and whittle it out. Such are the men who have opened the west and made it what it is today. Mr. Howard is one of twelve children who are scattered all over the world and all the winners of abundant success.
Mr. Howard has the following named children : Nellie, the wife of Edward Phil- brick; Annie, the wife of C. W. VanHorn; Grace, the wife of Charles Harris; Bessie, sin- gle ; and H. M. Howard.
Nearly one-fourth of a century has rolled by since Mr. Howard drove his stakes in Cus- ter county and during that time almost every conceivable obstacle has confronted him in his path, but despite it all he has overcome by sheer determination and resourcefulness, and has so managed all that today he is counted one of the wealthy men of the county and is known as one of its builders. Al- though nearly four-score years have passed by since his birth, he is still hale and hearty and looks with bright hopes and expec- tations on the path of life, while the golden years of his days are being spent amid the plenty his labors have provided.
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JOHN LEWIS GUILER, a prosperous farmer and earnest and conscientious minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, residing two and one-half miles east of Laurel, Mon- tana, was born in Noble county, Ohio, August 27, 1850. His father, Alexander Guiler, was born near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1818. He was a farmer and at the age of 16 he went to Noble county, Ohio, where he made his home in the woods, and where he remained until his death in 1884. He accompanied his uncle, Alexander Franklin, and the family came in 1836. He was a leader in church work in the Methodist Episcopal Church. His father came from the north of Ireland, and was of Scotch-Irish stock, and member of the Presby- terian Church. He came to the United States during the French and Indian war. Not be- lieving in the policy of that war he came to America, so that he would not have to fight for a cause he did not believe in. Having started for America, he discovered he had for- gotten something, and returned. He then sailed on another ship, and in this manner be- came separated from his wife, and did not again find her for two years, when she was discovered in New York City. Following the death of his first wife he married Miss Mary Franklin, a relative of Benjamin Franklin.
The mother of our subject, Sarah E. ( Wharton ) Guiler, was born near Barnesville, Ohio, in 1822. She was of English origin, and her people were pioneers of Ohio.
Our subject received an excellent education in Delaware, Ohio, at the Ohio Wesleyan Uni- versity. He then entered the ministry and for two years preached in eastern Ohio. Was ordained deacon in 1884. and elder in 1888, the latter in Montana. During the first two years he had three hundred converts in Monroe and Washington counties, Ohio. In 1885 he came to Billings, where he became pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, remaining two years, he built the church and thence he went to Boulder, Montana, and there for four
years was a popular minister. Thence he went to Butte for two years, and became one in a corporation of three that purposed to build up a temperance town in the Yellowstone Valley. This company erected the first flouring mill in eastern Montana, at a cost of $15,000. It was in 1892 that Reverend Guiler came to his pres- ent location. Since that period he has con- fined his attention chiefly to farming, although still supplying the church circuits. He has developed the bee culture and thoroughly dem- onstrated that bees can be successfully reared with profit in Montana. He has 160 hives, his being the largest apiary in the state. This, alone, has added thousands of dollars to the industries of Montana.
During the panic of 1893 he lost all of his property. At present he has 213 acres of land, all paid for and under good system of irriga- tion. On April 11, 1880, he was united in marriage to Lottie V. Summers, born in Free- dom, Noble county, Ohio, where she was reared. Her father, John Summers, was a pioneer of Montana, coming to Billings in 1880; her mother was Harriet ( Milner) Sum- mers. They have seven children : Jennie N., wife of Henry S. Nutt, living on adjoining farm; Hattie E., wife of Francis H. Porter, a farmer, living nearby; Aroma, a teacher in Rosebud county; Mabel P., William L., Homer L., John A.
GEORGE HIRSCH is one of the well-to- do residents of the Tongue valley and has the distinction of being a pioneer of Custer county for he came into these regions in 1882, nearly a quarter of a century ago. From the sub- stantial country of Germany hails the subject of this sketch, and Bavaria is his native state. His birth occurred on November 23. 1840. His father, Lenhardt Hirsch, was born in the same place, as was also, Margaret Haat. the lady he married. The parents were farmers and re-
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mained in Germany until their death. George was reared on the home farm and was edu- cated in the public schools and when of mature age was employed in Bavaria until he was twenty-nine years of age. Then he decided to bid adieu to the Fatherland and try his for- tune in the United States. Accordingly he sailed to New York and thence came on to Indiana. Later he went to Colorado, and from there to the Black Hills in Dakota. During these years, Mr. Hirsch was on the frontier all the time and was well experienced in fron- tier life and pioneering. As stated before, he came on to Custer county in 1882, he was occu- pied in freighting for a time, then was engaged with the Diamond R outfit. As early as 1883. Mr. Hirsch filed on the place he now lives on and since then he has been engaged in farming and raising stock. He has had good success and is one of the prosperous men of the valley and controls considerable property. All his holdings are the result of his labors since com- ing here and he has reason to take pride in what he has accomplished in this line.
Mr. Hirsch is residing at his home place on the Tongue river enjoying the golden years of a well spent life. Years ago, in far away Germany he was united in marriage with Caro- line G. Volkemer and to them was born a son, George M., now minister of the Reform church in Portland, Oregon.
JAMES H. CALHOUN, a well known business man living one-half mile west of Bil- lings, is a native of Ohio, having been born in Jefferson county November 28, 1846. His parents were Thomas and Harriet (Maple) Calhoun, the former a native of Pennsylvania ; the latter of Ohio. When but a small lad Thomas Calhoun removed with his parents to Ohio and the family settled on a farm near East Springfield. On attaining his majority
his father presented him with a farm, and upon this property he continued to reside until his death at the advanced age of eighty-eight years. His father (Adley Calhoun), the paternal grandfather of our subject, was a native of Ire- land, but of Scotch-Irish ancestry. He was a prominent pioneer of Ohio and became quite wealthy. The mother of our subject remained in Ohio during the full term of her life.
James H. Calhoun was educated in the pub- lic schools of Ohio, and on attaining manhood began working for wages, at first in the state of Pennsylvania. It was in 1870 that he re- moved to Clinton county, Missouri, where he continued employment as a laborer for wages. But on returning to Ohio he was engaged in the mercantile business for a number of years. To Billings, Montana, he came in 1886, and here he took a homestead about nine miles west of the city, remaining on the same until two years ago, when he rented this property and purchased several ten-acre lots near Billings. Upon one of them he erected a fine house and other convenient and necessary buildings.
In 1890 Mr. Calhoun married Martha Rogers, a native of Milan, Ohio. Mr. Calhoun is a Democrat and a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal church.
WILLIAM LAVELLE is one of the sub- stantial business men of Billings, being owner and operator of the Billings brick yard, which is one of the manufacturing plants of the city. The yard was established in May, 1905, and it has furnished practically all the brick used in building in Billings since that time. The first product from Mr. Lavelle's yard to be used in Billings was the brick for the Stapleton block and since that time he has kept the plant. which has a capacity of thirty thousand bricks daily, in operation at all times possible to do so in order to supply the demand for bricks.
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He has the contract for the new fifty thousand dollar Catholic church now being completed in Billings and as the building of the city is on the incerase, Mr. Lavelle has determined to increase the capacity of his yard in the very near future. He turns out a superior quality of brick and is a thorough master of the business of manufacturing and burning brick, which is a very favorable thing for the progressive city of Billings as it is of the ut- most importance that its beautiful buildings in course of erection and contemplation should be composed of the best to be had.
Referring to the life of Mr. Lavelle in detail, we note that he hails from the good old Emerald Isle, whence come many of our most exemplary citizens, his birth occurring on No- vember 12, 1862, in Mayo county. His father, William Lavelle, was a farmer in Ireland and remained there till his death. He married Miss Nora Barrett, who is still living in the native land. Eleven children were born to our sub- ject's parents who now live, seven of whom are in Montana. When seventeen William came to the United States alone and visited relatives in Scranton, Pennsylvania. That was in 1879, and soon after that he came on to Livingston, Montana, where he soon engaged in learning the brick business, both the manu- facture and the burning. In 1881, he went thence to Butte and worked at the same busi- ness until 1890, when he established a yard for himself. He conducted that successfully in Butte until his removal to Billings, as stated above, since which time he has given his at- tention to the conduct of his plant here.
Mr. Lavelle has never seen fit to embark on the matrimonial sea, but still enjoys single blessedness. He is a life long member of the Catholic church and a stanch supporter of his faith.
Mr. Lavelle has a capital of twenty thous- and dollars in his brick plant and it will be much larger and better when he finishes the contemplated improvements and enlargement.
MONFORT BRAY resides in the Rose- bud Valley, eighteen miles from Forsyth and is one of the pioneers of this portion of Mon- tana. He is a prominent farmer and stock raiser and has done very much to bring up the grade of stock, horses and cattle, in this por- tion of the state. Mr. Bray takes keen interest in stock raising. In the spring of 1906 he became owner of a Percheron stallion which is one of the finest animals in this part of the state. He has some thoroughbred Short Horns and his herds compare favorably with those of Montana. At the home place, Mr. Bray owns five hundred acres of deeded land and leases very much more. His is a very good place and he is improving it.
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