An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 111

Author: Miller, Joaquin, 1837-1913. cn
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1216

USA > Montana > An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 111

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

engineers have done their best to fill their places with the artificial ponds their skill has in- vented.

The whole world outside America has learned the sad lesson that forests destroyed means dis- astrous floods, distressing droughts, failing fountains, dry streams and barren soils, as shown by the late floods from the Pyrenees in France, which swept away an ancient city, and the floods of China, which have devastated whole provinces, drowned hundreds of thousands and left ten million people without homes or food or the means of support. The nations built reser- voirs as early as Solomon's time, which gave temporary relief; but their fountains have failed, and even Solomon's reservoirs are dry, and his fruitful fields and glorious gardens are now bar- ren wastes.

But modern Europe has learned better. The woodman's ax is followed by the forester's spade.

familiar with the English language before coming to the United States. In 1868 Mr. Hoe arrived in Sioux City, Iowa, spent the following five years in the Government Land Office, and then engaged in contracting and build- ing brick and stone structures. In 1884 he purchased and located on a half section of land in Hyde county, South Dakota, but that venture proved unsuccessful, and eight years afterward he sold one-half of the tract. Since 1892 Mr. Hoe has resided in Billings, Montana, where he has erected a good residence, has a large and lucrative business, and still owns a quarter section of land in Hyde county.

October 16, 1875, in Sioux City, Iowa, our subject was united in marriage with Mary Olesen, a daughter of Ole and Gertie (Erickson) Olesen, natives of Norway. The father was a mechanic and farmer by occupation. Mr. and Mrs. Hoe have had four sons and four daughters, -- Martha J., Sophia J., James, Anna L., Oscar, Charlie, Mabel E. and Christopher. The family are Lutherans in their religious belief, but attend the Congregational Church. Mr. Hoe affiliates with the Republican party.

HON. E. A. KENNEY, for many years a respected citizen of Missoula, and ex-State Auditor of Montana, is a native of Vermont, his birth having occurred at Guilford, May 26, 1843. Of his life and ancestry we make record as follows:

Mr. Kenney's grandfather, Alvin Kenney, was born in Ireland, was married there, and with his young wife emigrated to America in 1814. They settled on a farm

For every tree cut down three new ones are planted. Government help in building reser- voirs will be a temporary aid to our miners and farmers; but while the government undertakes to hold and manage our forests, something should be done to supply the destruction made by the wood-choppers, the lumbermen, the coal- burner and the forest fires. As the forests dis- appear our mining will languish.

Nowhere can forests be renewed and increased more easily than here. Young pines and firs by the million spring up in the wake of every fire and wood-chopper. A part of these young trees could be easily transplanted to unoccupied places in the mountains and foot-hills. Such a work would make the future of our mountain country more hopeful, and secure the working of our inines for the next thousand years.

But you say trees transplanted will die with- out water. So will the plants, which cover our

near where Vernon, Vermont, now stands, and there they reared their family of four sons and three daughters. IIe died in the seventy-second year of his age and his wife passed away the following year. Their son Alvin was our subject's father. Ile was the second in the family and was born at Vernon in 1815. He married Levina Pierce, a descendant of one of the earliest families that settled in America, their marriage occurring in 1837, he being twenty-two and she twenty. The first five years of their married life were spent at Guilford, whence they removed to Claremont, New Hampshire, where they resided until our subject was sixteen years of age. At that time they removed to Meriden, Connecticut, and a little later to Hartford. There August 2, 1862, both father and son tendered their services to their country, enlisting in Company F, Fifteenth Volunteer Infantry. The elder Mr. Kenney entered the army as First Sergeant, later was Quartermaster's Sergeant, and continued in active duty until October, 1864, when he died of yellow fever at New Berne, North Carolina. And we may here state that his wife died the following year.

E. A. Kenney's service was in the Army of the Potomac, with which he continued until the war closed. His first engagement was the second battle of Bull Run. He was at Antietam, the second battle of Fredericksburg, and in many other minor engagements. When General Lee sur- rendered, young Kenney was at Morehead City, aiding in forwarding supplies to Sherman's army. Twice during his service he was slightly wounded, a ball striking his

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foot-hills every springtime with their carpet of flowers, die without water. But these plants utilize the waters as they drop from the melt- ing snow. They spring up and bloom just be- low the snow line, and sometimes even through the snow. They follow the snow line as it melts and retreats up the mountain sides every spring, utilizing the water to feed their blooms and ripen their seeds. The tree-planter might know as much as the violets and the anemone and fol- low up the snow line and plant his trees where the ground is wet, under every log and beside every rock where the moisture lingers latest.

By this following of the flowers, the tree- planter's season will last from March on the foot-hills to July in the high mountains. The anemone blooms all the way from March to July, -- March on the foot-hills and July on the alpine summits. Let us be wise according to

leg one time, and at the other time being hit in the shoulder by a piece of shell. He entered the service at the age of nineteen, as a private, and from time to time was promoted until he hecame Captain of his company. After the grand review at Washington, in which he took part, he returned to his home in Connecticut. For some- time after the war he was connected with a military school in Cheshire, Connecticut, as military instructor. In March, 1868, he enlisted in Company F, Second United States Cavalry, and was on duty five years at Fort Ellis,. near Bozeman, Montana. Then he formed a partnership with Hugh Hoope and started a trading post at the pres- ent site of Livingston, this partnership being dissolved at the end of six months and Mr. Kenney coming from there to Missoula. The first three years of his residence in Missoula he was principal of the schools here, then he was placed on the Republican ticket for Treasurer of the county, and, what was very complimentary to him, he was the only man on that tieket who was elected. After serving his term as Treasurer he was elected Sheriff. There were then many criminals in the country and the sheriff's office was one that was attended with great risk to life. His courage and nerve here stood him in good stead and he filled the position in a most capable and efficient manner. When Missoula was incorporated as a city he was elected its first Marshal, in which office he served three terms, being twice re-elected. At the first Republican State Convention at Anaconda he was nom- inated for State Auditor, was subsequently elected, and in that capacity served from November 8, 1890, until Jan- uary, 1, 1893.

our best lights. Let those who believe in God follow his plans for supplying the springs and rivers by forests; and those of us who believe in evolution follow the plan evolved by the laws of nature to supply the waters needed in our homes, onr factories, our mines and our farms.

And besides, this natural mode of keeping up the supply of water will also keep up the snp- ply of timber so useful in mining. With the present system of destroying our forests, in fifty years our mountains will have but little timber; but trees planted now would be large enough in fifty years for mining.

A very large number of the mines in Mon- tana had iron ores covering the characteristic ores of the vein to a greater or less depth. These iron ores are known to old English miners as " gossan," and though these caps are not rich in gold and silver and copper, they have been, in

Since his retirement from office he has been rusticating at his home in Missoula, in a romantic spot on the east side of the Rattlesnake river and at the foot of Old Jumbo mountain. Near his home he has a small fruit ranch, and in the life of a horticulturist he finds both pleasure and profit.

Mr. Kenney was married Jannary 1, 1876, to Miss Ophelia Pelkey, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, born September 4, 1860. She is a daughter of Angustus and Elvira Pelkey, who came to Montana in 1862. Soon after their arrival here, Mrs. Pelkey, on the 4th of An- gust, gave birth to a daughter, the first white girl baby born in Montana. Mr. and Mrs. Kenney have seven children, all natives of Missoula except the youngest, who was born in Helena. Their names are as follows: Lydia A., George A., Delia L., Edwin, William G., Flor- ence L. and Albert.

Mr. Kenney has been a life-long Republican and is a member of the G. A. R., being Past Vice Commander of Robert Winthrop Post at Missoula. His long residence and official career have gained for him a wide acquaint- anee throughout Montana, and he is as popular as he is well known.

ANDREW CAMPBELL, a prominent attorney, United States Commissioner and Justice of the Peace of Billings, was born in Manchester, England, in 1828, a son of Dun- ean and Mary (McKeever) Campbell. The father was a cousin of the Duke of Argyle, and a relative of the famous family of Howards. When seven years of age he began work in cotton-mills, bis father having been a weaver

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all ages and in all great mining countries, es- teemed a good indication of rich mines. This opinion was so strong and prevalent among the miners of Europe at a very early day in the his- tory of mining, that it found expression in sev- eral languages, as shown by the "gossan hood " of Cornwall, " chapeau de fer " of France, and the " eisernen hut " of Germany. It even be- came a proverb in the very early ages of mining, as is shown by the following, well known to German miners :

" Er ist nie nicht gang so gut Der tragt nicht eine eisernen hut." No mine is deemed so good, As one that has an iron hood.

This popular idea, which has come down to us through the ages, is verified in a great many of the mines of Montana. This opinion has been so universal as to give it all the force of the old legend, Vox populi, vox dei.

and cotton-spinner, was a soldier in the British army dur- ing the war of 1812, and came to America with his fam- ily in 1837.

Andrew Campbell, our subject, received but limited school advantages. Ile owned and resided on a farm sey- eral years in Bureau county, Illinois, and while there also served as Road Commissioner. In 1865 he removed to Utah, served two years as Recorder for mining dis- tricts, was engaged in contracting on the Union Pacific Railroad, next began farming on land he owned in Ne- braska, went from there to the Black Hills, and after- ward to Fort Custer, where he was engaged in furnishing fuel for the Government two years. After the contract for the Union Pacific Railroad was extended 100 miles west of Bismarck, Mr. Campbell was employed as a con- tractor on that division until the road was completed. He built two miles of the road, commencing six miles west of Billings. While engaged in that occupation he read law in his tent, was admitted to the bar at Helena, under Chief Justice Blake, and since 1886 has served as Justice of the Peace of Billings. Mr. Campbell has also filled the offices of City Justice aud City Attorney.

He was married in Bureau county, Illinois, November 14, 1854, to Amanda M. Harrington, a daughter of James J. and Eliza J. Sherman, of Rhode Island. The father was a lineal descendant of Roger Sherman. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell have four children-James A .; Maria A., wife of Thomas P. McDonald, of Park county, Montana; Fan- nie R., wife of James Echels, of Livingston, this State; and

Though the iron and manganese ores which form these caps are not as a rule very rich in the precious metals, they carry enough to make them very valuable fluxes to use with more re- fractory and richer ores.

There is a vast amount of the brown hydrous oxide and sulphuret of iron forming the caps and constituting the gangues of thousands of our mines. Originally this iron was all sul- phuret, but the combined action of air and wa- ter has changed this sulphuret from pyrites to limonite down as far as the air has been per- mitted to penetrate. Below permanent water the iron still remains a sulphuret. Such iron caps are found in the mines of nearly every mining district in the State. While this iron is deemed a good indication of valuable mines, and while it always has some gold and is a good flux, for smelting richer refractory ores, it has but little value for manufacturing iron.

Percy A., of Butte. Mr. Campbell is a member of Ashlar Lodge, No. 29, A. F. & A. M., and Chapter, No. 6. In polit- ical matters, he affiliates with the Democratic party. Mrs. Campbell is a member of the Congregational Church, in which she was formerly a member of the choir.

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AUGUSTUS WILLIAM ALLIE, a retired citizen of Avon, Deer Lodge county, Montana, was born in Prussia, De- cember 25, 1849. Although a native of Prussia, his earli- est recollections are of Cincinnati, Ohio, to which city he was taken when he was six months old and where the first nine years of his life were spent. When he was nine years old he left home and went to Decatur and other places in Illinois, and in 1859, when only ten years old, he started for Pike's Peak, Colorado, where, soon after his arrival, he obtained employment in the Pollock House, the first hotel built there. Subsequently he went to the San Juan country and Mexico, but returned to Pike's Peak and remained there until 1863, when he di- reeted his course toward Boise City, Idaho. In the fall of that year he went to Oregon; returned to Boise City the next year, and the following fall went back to Colo- rado. In the spring of 1865 we again find him en route for Idaho, but, meeting with misfortune at Salt Lake and losing all his possessions, he was compelled to walk from there to Boise City. In 1866 he spent a short time in Montana, went from here to California and Oregon, and that same year came back to Montana, and in this State he has since made bis home.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

There are extensive beds of limonite in various valleys and ravines in our mining dis- tricts, which appear to have been deposited in the water, as bog ores are. These beds were once covered with water, and the waters coming down from the mountain sides over and through the iron gangues and caps of the mines, became charged with that metal, which was deposited in the waters below as bog ore. These iron ores usually contain small quantities of gold, which make them so much more valuable for fluxes. Some of this is pure enough to be worked as other bog ores are, in manufacturing iron. There are beds of these ores of great extent in the ravines in the Judith and Little Belt moun- tains and other districts of the State. Prospect- ors so often find the caps of mines of gold, sil- ver, copper and lead made up of similar iron ore, that they have sometimes mistaken this

For a number of years Mr. Atlie has been engaged in mining operations, and his earnest efforts in this direc- tion have been crowned with signal success. He was en- gaged in placer-mining in Deer Lodge county and worked a claim in Ophir Gulch, near Blackfoot City, for fourteen years. In 1880 he retired from active work, and has since been enjoying the competency which is the reward of years of persistent labor.

Mr. Allie is a member of Helena Lodge, No. 3, F. & A. M., and of Helena Chapter and Commandery.

HON. SILVEN HUGHES, a Montana pioneer of 1864, and now one of the progressive business meu of Butte City, is a native of New York, born November 25, 1854, of Irish ancestry. His father, Richard, and his mother, Mary (Shilley) Hughes, emigrated in 1848 from county Kilkenny, Ireland, and settled in Orleans county, New York; In 1856 they removed to Jackson county, Iowa, and followed farming there for eight years; and then, in 1864, they crossed the plains with a wagon and two yoke of oxen aud a yoke of cows. The family at that time comprised the wife, two daughters and the subject of this sketch. Leaving Omaha on the 4th of April, they arrived at Alder Gulch, July 12. On reaching Powder river they were attacked by a large band of Cheyenne Indians, just as they were starting out upon a day's jour- ney. The Indians appeared coming over the hills in large numbers. The emigrants coraled their wagons, of which they had 150, and the men with them numbered 450. The savages made charge after charge, continuing their attacks all day, but were each time repulsed. Five of the emigrants were killed, and it is believed that at

bog ore for vein caps, and have worked through it to be disappointed by finding beneath barren rocks instead of metalliferons veins. A little example of the position, shape and surroundings of these beds of bog ore will enable the pros- pector to distinguish them from the caps . of veins.

Several deposits of magnetic iron (loadstone) have been discovered in the Judith mountains, in large croppings from the head of Wolf creek to the Barker district, and on Henderson mountain. Specular iron has also been dis- covered in various parts of the State. There is an extended bed in the Judith mountains, a strong vein in the Red mountains, near High- land, and extensive croppings of a vein of this ore in Fairview district in Jefferson county. Spathic iron has been noticed in many localities in the State in workable quantities. It often

least thirty-six Indians were killed, besides many wounded. At night they withdrew, and the emigrants pursued their journey, which, aside from this disaster, was a safe and enjoyable one.

Mr. Hughes' father mined at Alder Gulch with only middling success. He remained there till 1878, when he came to Butte, where he passed the remainder of his days, dying March 25, 1894. Ilis good wife had died in Alder Gulch in 1873. They were good citizens and de- voted members of the Catholic Church. Only two of their children now survive.

The gentleman whose name introduces this brief rec- ord, their eldest ehild, was ten years of age when the family made their journey across the plains to Montana, and he contains a vivid recollection of the scenes of that tedious but at times thrilling period. He attended school at Virginia City untii sixteen years of age, when he was appointed a cadet in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, where he spent two years in study. Returning to his home in Montana, he was em- ployed in the grocery store of Cory O'Brien for two years, and next had a position in the county elerk's office, which he filled until he came to Butte.

On his arrival here he was for the first four years book- keeper for Lee W. Foster & Company; then he became a member of the firm of Estes, Connell, Mitchell & Com- pany at Anaconda, in which relation he continued until 1892, when the firm dissolved. Mr. Ilughes then came to Butte and established his present grocery business at the corner of Montana and Park streets, where he keeps a well selected stock of fresh goods and provisions, en-

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occurs in regular strata in the rocks with our coal-beds and sometimes in concretions in shales and clays of the same age.

On Belt creek a regular stratum of this ore crops out in the bluffs seventy-five feet below the great coal-beds. This bed of spathic ore is twenty inches thick and has a uniform structure and thickness. Three similar beds of spathic iron crop out for a long distance on the hills both north and south of Elk creek, a tributary of South Sun river. And still another bed, south of Hogan, may be traced through Mam- elles-de-fer and for some distance on the ridges to the sonth. These beds of spathic iron appear

joying a good patronage. To the present he still retains mining interests. In the latter, however, he has not met with large success, but they will yield remunerative re- turns when times change for the better in the price of silver.

On the 18th of September, 1893, Mr. Hughes was married to Miss Margaret Casey.

All his life Mr. Ilughes has been a Democrat, tried and true. He had the houor to be elected to represent Deer Lodge county in the first State Legislature of Montana, in which position he served creditably for a term of two years. In his religions connections he is a Catholic. 1Ie is esteemed by the community as one of the best busi- ness men of Butte, a gentleman of honor and integrity.

HIERBERT NICHOLSON, president of the firm of Herbert Nicholson & Company, commission merchants of IIelena, Montana, was born in Middlesex, England, August 12, 1863. During the earlier years of his life he attended the schools and colleges of England and Germany, his education being received in Felstead, England, and at the University of Niesky, Germany. On leaving the lat- ter institution, he engaged in business in London until 1884, when he came to Montana aud turned his attention to stock-raising on the Yellowstone, in which business he still retains an interest. He next removed to Helena aud established himself in business, and is now the head of the firm and the president of the house of Herbert Nicholson & Company, limited general commission mer- chants and brokers, with offices, warehouses and sales- rooms at the railroad yards in the southern part of the city, where their large establishment gives employment to a great many persons who are under the direct per- sonal supervision of Mr. Nicholson.

Mr. Nicholson was married in February, 1890, to Miss Stella Knight, danghter of Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Knight, of Helena, and resides in Lenox, a residence portion of Hel- ena, beautifully situated on a plateau directly east of the city proper.

to be parallel to and form a regular stratum in the coal-bearing rocks.

Black-band iron ore appears in the croppings of a very large fissure vein cutting the Bear creek coal-field in a direction from northwest to sontheast through sections 1, 6, 7 and 8. The vein varies in width from five to twenty fent and appears to be filled with black-band ore similar to that so much used in Wales. This ore can be smelted by the raw coals so abundant in this locality by using a hot-blast furnace of proper construction. Whether this ore is rich enough to be worked with profit, by the cheap process above named, and whether it

N. J. BIELENBERG, Deer Lodge, Montana .- Prominent among Montana pioneers we find Mr. N. J. Bielenberg of Deer Lodge, who was one of the earliest comers into the Northwest.

Mr. Bielenberg was born in Holstein, Germany, June 8, 1847. At the age of four years he was brought to Amer- iea by his parents, who located at Davenport, Iowa. Here he grew up, attending the public school until 1863. In that year he went to Chicago, where he served an ap- prenticeship in the butchering business, remaining there until the spring of 1865; that year he came to Montana, locating at Blackfoot City, where he embarked in the butchering business, remaining there in that pursuit until 1870. In that year he engaged in the same business at Helena, remaining there until 1872, in which year he married Miss Anna Bosk, of Deer Lodge, and removed to that town. Here he engaged in the stock-raising husi- ness, buying and selling and driving cattle from Montana to Cheyenne, from whence he shipped them to Chicago. This he continued until 1877, going into business theu at Butte, where he operated a large butchering business, erecting a cold-storage warehouse and handling beef in wholesale quantities. This business has subsequently grown into the Butte Butchering Company, under which name it now exists.

About 1884 Mr. Bielenberg became associated with his half-brother, Conrad Kohrs, running large herds in connection with him and his brother John. In 1884 he went into the sheep business, at first alone, then in part- nership with Joseph Toomey. This business grew to enormous proportions, handling in one year over 130,000 head of sheep. Their flocks were to be found in all parts of the State, and in addition to their own they bought and shipped a great many herds throughout the Northwest, operating from Washington Territory to North Dakota. It can be safely said that Mr. Bielen- berg and associates were the fathers of the sheep indus- try in northern Montana, and their operations were the

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M.J. Bielenberg

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is pure enough to make good iron, can be de- termined by analyses.

Up to the present time in the history of Montana mining there has been but little de- mand for iron ores, save such as are now used in smelting, for the gold they contain and their fluxing properties. But the day is not far dis-

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An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 111

Author: Miller, Joaquin, 1837-1913. cn Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis pub. co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Miller, Joaquin, 1837-1913. cn
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1216