An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 112

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 112

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tant when it will be more profitable to make our own iron. Then all ores suitable for that purpose will be more valuable and find a ready sale. The cost of transportation from the East will be a sufficient protection for manufact- uring some varieties of iron for home consump- tion.

CHAPTER XXX.

RAPID PROGRESS OF MONTANA-COMPLETION OF THE GREAT NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD-CHANGE OF GOVERNORS-THE AUSTRALIAN BALLOT-INFLUX OF POPULATION-THE CONSTITUTION -- THE VOTE FOR THE CONSTITUTION --- FIRST ELECTION IN THE STATE OF MONTANA-SILVER STATUE AT THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

丁 IIE next great vital event in Montana, after the completion and entry of the Union Pacific into the capital in 1831, was the fulfillment of Jefferson's aspira- tion, the story of which tilled the first pages of this work. A spike of gold was driven with great ceremony at Independence creek, Deer Lodge river, a day's gallop west of IIelena, on the 8th of September., 1883, and the great Northwest Passage to India was open !

first of any importance within the State. Mr. Bielenberg was the first shipper to discover the valne of screenings in the feeding of sheep in transit, and his first discovery has since grown to be quite a valuable industry in the handling of mutton for Eastern markets.

Mr. Bielenberg is still engaged in the cattle and stock business within the State of Montana. They are still running a bunch of from ten to twelve thousand head of sheep, and have stock interests in various parts of the State.

In addition to these pursuits, Mr. Bielenberg has been actively interested in mining and other business ventures, and is a prominent and active citizen of Deer Lodge county.

He is an active Republican and served as a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Minneapolis in 1892.

His family consists of five children, two boys and three girls, all living.

S. T. Ilanser, the first Montana governor of Montana, resigned from office in 1886, II. P. Leslie, of Kentucky, succeeding. But it is idle to dwell on a list of officers when peace and prosperity attended the growing commonwealthi. A table of the officers of Montana is furnished in its place. It would be wrong, however, even by inference, to say that these imported men at the head of affairs, as a rule, failed in duty when on the ground. They may be likened to

JOHN DUFFY, a prominent farmer of the Little Prickly Pear valley, in Lewis & Clarke county, was born in county Mayo, Ireland, December 12, 1829, a son of Patrick and Catherine (McCormick) Duffy, natives of that country The parents had a family of five children, three sons and two daughters. The father died in 1843, and the mother and family afterward came to New York, where she died, in Onondaga county in 1893, at the age of ninety-four years. John Duffy, the subject of this sketch, came to America in 1854. Ile spent the first year and a hall here in New York, was then engaged in steamboating on the Missis- sippi river until the opening of the Civil war, remained in Chicago one year, from that time until 1866 resided in In- diana, and in the latter year came to Montana. Mr. Duffy took passage on the Minnehaha, on the Missouri river, to Fort Benton, and from there came to Helena, arriving at the latter place June 20, 1866. His first work in this State was to mine in Last Chance Gulch for wages, and in 1869 obtained diggings of his own, in which he made from $8 to $10 a day. In 1871 he located on 160 acres of land in

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officers of the army, ready, only wanting oppor- tunity. The next Montana governor was B. F. White, of Dillon, appointed by Harrison.

Meantime, population, of a solid, cultured class, from the maple woods of the Miami Re- serve, largely, Yankees who had lodged a gen- eration so in Ohio and Indiana on their way West, came ponring in by way of the Northern Pacific. The Indian troubles had entirely passed into history, so far as the daily massacre went at least, and so the remote little nooks and crooks along the mountain creeks soon began to blossom with happy homes as never before. There was talk of a State. A convention was held, a constitution was framed, a vote taken; the constitution adopted and a State formed, and without the least friction, in brief space.

This constitution is replete with cold cantion

the Prickly Pear valley, within one mile of his present home, and engaged in farming and stock-raising. Mr. Duffy has added to his original purchase from time to time until he is now the owner of 740 acres. During one year he paid $7,000 for land purchased from the railroad company. He now has a beautiful and comfortable home, surrounded by a fine grove, and overlooks the entire val- ley and surrounding mountains. Ile follows general farming, but has obtained his greatest success in stock- raising. Ile raises a good grade of Durham cattle and Norman-Percheron horses. Of the latter he keeps a fine imported stallion, and is a thorough judge of horses. In addition to his other interests, Mr. Duffy has also retained his interest in mining to some extent. In company with Thomas Cruse, he owned at one time an extension of the Drum Lummon, but afterward sold his interest to Mr. Cruse for $10,000. He is now a stockholder in the Granite Butte, which is being developed, and gives promise of a rich property.

In 1862 Mr. Duffy was united in marriage with Miss Ellen Grully, a native of Ireland. They have two chil- dren,-John and Edward. The wife and mother died in 1865, and three years later the father married Miss Mary MeCarty, a native of county Limerick, Ireland. She de- parted this life in 1880, and in the following year our sub- ject married Miss Mary Longly. They have three chil- dren,-James, Catherine Ellen and W. W. Dixon. In polit- ical matters, Mr. Duffy has been a life-long Democrat, but has never sought public preferment. IIe has always given his entire attention to his business, and by this course has become one of the most prominent and suc- cessful farmers in Lewis and Clarke county.

and jealons guard over the liberties of Mon- tana, and is severely economical for a State that has mountains of gold for its corner-stones and silver walls and gateways. As this instrument is wisely, though not entirely favorably com- mented upon by Judge Wade in his fourth chapter on The Bench and Bar, I pass on, not- ing only that the exemption clause, both from taxation and process of law, is perhaps the most liberal of all the States, old or young, in the Union.

This first State election, or, speaking more exactly, this election for the first State officers and the adoption of the economical and cautious constitution,-on the 1st of October, 1889, -- showed that Montana had changed her politics, the long dominant and all-powerful Democratic party electing bnt one officer, the governor, in

ILARRY SOMMERS, superintendent of the Rocky Monn- tain Bell Telephone Company, Helena, Montana, is one of the enterprising young men of the city.

Mr. Sommers was born in Davenport, Iowa, September 19, 1862, and in 1866 his parents removed with their family to Jefferson City, Missouri. 1n Jefferson City he was partly educated, residing there until 1876, when he removed to Denver and continued his studies there until 1889. That year he began learning telegraphy in one of the offices of the Western Union Telegraph Company. He remained with that company at Denver and Salt Lake City until 1883, when he went to Portland, Oregon, as operator for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company; was subse- quently stationed on their road at HIeron as wire chief, continuing as such until December 31, 1887. At that date he was appointed manager of the Rocky Mountain Telegraph Company, with headquarters at Helena. This place he occupied until September 1, 1888, when he ac- cepted the position of superintendent of the Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Company, in which capacity he still continues. When he took charge of the service there were exchanges at Helena, Butte, Deer Lodge, Anaconda and Phillipsburg. Since that date exchanges have been put iu at Bozeman, Missoula, Great Falls and Dillon. Toll lines now connect all the principal cities. Under his superintendence the number of instruments in use has increased from 600 to 1,200, and 400 miles of metallic circuit copper wire now connect the subscribers in the different cities. Mr. Sommers is also interested in the district messenger service in IIelena, Butte, and Great Falls, and has made some investments in real estate and mines.

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the entire list of contemplated State officers, as finally decided by the courts.

This inflowing tide, these maple-woods immi- grants, had brought their polities along with them in their pockets, as it were. They had not been long enough in Montana to wear out the tickets they brought with them before the election took place. This is of course only a figure of speech. I mean to say they brought with them the political atmosphere of Ohio and the Wa- bash valleys and had not yet been absorbed into the mountain atmosphere of Montana. An- other generation, mark me, will find them less devoted to national than State politics, whether that State or local politics bears the name of any great existing party or something yet un- born and without a name.

Out of this first State election grew one of the most remarkable " muddles" ever recorded

He is a member of the order of Elks, Knights of Pythias, Order of Railway Telegraphers and Sons of Veterans.

August 9, 1892, Mr. Sommers married Miss Annie Houser, who was born at Virginia City, Montana, and who was a resident of Butte at the time of her marriage.

DR. FRANK S. HEDGES is the representative of the Homeopathic School of Medicine, at Missonla, Montana. Biographical mention of him is appropriate here.

Dr. IIedges was born in Jerseyville, Illinois, October 6, 1860, and is of Scotch and English descent, some of his ancestors having settled in the State of New York at an early day. His father, Dionysius E. Hedges, was born in New York in 1831; removed from there to Jerseyville, Illinois, where he was married to Miss Martha Mossy, a native of Watertown, New York. He was engaged in the manufacture of carriages at Jerseyville until 1866, after- ward conducted business eleven years at Oskaloosa, Iowa, and from there removed to Walla Walla, Washington, where he and his wife now reside. They reared a fam- ily of eight children, of whom the subject of our sketch was the fourth-born.

When his parents moved to Iowa Dr. Hedges was a mere lad, and in that State his education was received. After completing his literary studies he entered Hahne- mann College, in Philadelphia, where he took a medical course and where he graduated in 1883. Immediately after his graduation he came to Missonla, Montana, to enter upon his professional career, and here he has since practiced, meeting with most flattering success. In 1886 he built his residence on Main street and has since had

in political warfare. But over all the trouble and tribulation Montana towered supreme in good nature and continual forbearance and good sense. The tension was very great and lasted long. You read of Yale loeks on various places designated as the State capital, of members of this first State legislature being kidnapped and carried by force into the capital, a remarkable expression of modesty, certainly. I know that members of a legislative body were, as a rule, quite ready not only to be seen, but heard, on the floor of the legislative hall, when I was in politics.

In truth. you read of many very remarkable and contradictory transactions during the next two or three years of young Montana's politi- cal history. It is reported of one member of this first legislature that he fled out of the baek door of his hotel and escaped from the capital

his office at his home. His practice extends not only over the city but also for miles in the surrounding country, the Doctor's reputation both as a skilled physician and a thorough gentleman being well known far and near.

Dr. Hedges is somewhat interested in the improvement of cattle and horses. IIe has some fine specimens of horse flesh and takes great delight in owning a team that can take him to a patient as quick as the fastest. His horses are of the IIambletonian Nutwood stock.

May 11, 1884, Dr. IIedges was married to Miss Anna Shothorn, a native of Ohio and a daughter of John Shot- horn, a merchant of that State. They have two sons, Clifford C. and Frank S., born in Missoula.

Dr. Hedges has been Coroner of Missoula county two terms and has also served several years as County Phy- sician.

DANIEL IIANLEY, secretary of the firm of Herbert Nicholson & Company, Helena, Montana, dates his birth in Lowell, Massachusetts, December 3, 1857, his parents, natives of the Emerald Isle, having emigrated to this conntry in 1848 and settled in the Bay State. When he was eighteen months old he was taken by his parents to the northern peninsula of Michigan, they settling at Copper Harbor on Lake Superior, where he received his early education. At the age of thirteen he began to work in the mines, and remained in the lake region until 1877, when he went to the Black Hills, Dakota, and until 1880 prospected and mined there. Then he went to Colorado and continued prospecting for a time. In September of that year he located in St. Paul, Minnesota, and entered the employ of a wholesale commission bouse, with which

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city of Montana to a neighboring State on the cow-catcher of an engine appropriated for that purpose. Indeed, whole books of wild rumor might be written on the singularly comical sit- nations developed here. But the many volumes and the thousand and one columns written on this exciting theme have all taken the matter quite seriously, although, as we go forward and the events round down, the serious aspect will disappear and only the quiet fun of it all will remain to history.

But turn to the next chapter for the serious side of all this, for my publishers, not having faith in my disposition to go seriously into these political details, have called in the bril- liant secretary of the present popular Governor to set down this episode in the history of Mon- tana from his own critical point of view; and this must necessarily be wide apart from my

he was connected four years. The two succeeding years be was with Yans & llowes, wholesale grocers. He then embarked in the commission business for himself in St. Paul, and continued there until 1887, when he came to Montana.

After coming to Montana Mr. Hanley continued in the commission business for two years longer. Then he fol- lowed the business of a general merchandise broker until May 1, 1893, when he became secretary of the Herbert Nicholson Company, limited, with which he is still con- nected. Mr. Hanley is now serving his second term as Alderman from the sixth ward in lIelena, and is Chair- man of the Auditing and Fire Department committees, the two most important of the municipal committees. He is Chairman of the Democratic County and City Cen- tral committees, and is an active and indefatigable worker for the party, whose success is largely due to his personal efforts. He is a member of the A. O. U. W. and of the Catholic Church.

Mr. llanley was married August 2, 1881, to Miss Mar- garet Harrington, of Belle Plaine, Minnesota. They have six children, four sons and two daughters.

ANDREW B. HAMMOND, of Missoula, president of the First National Bank and of the Missoula Mercantile Company, was born at Leonards, New Brunswick, July 22, 1848.

His ancestors were English and were among the first settlers of Long Island. At an early date they removed to Nova Scotia, where Simon Hammond, Mr. Ham- moud's grandfather, was born. Ile removed to New Brunswick and settled at Kings, near Fredericton,

own, though each one of us may be never so honest. You see I had had a little newspaper suppressed for alleged treason, although, truly, my treason consisted only in putting up the name of Joseph Lane for President after the defeat of the Breckinridge ticket; then I was elected on that ticket to a little office in Oregon to succeed Judge Hill, anthor of the annotated Law Reports of Oregon and also of Washing- ton; and then, years later, President Cleveland had offered me a small place in the Indian Bu- rean when he first kept house in Washington. With this explanation I turn the next chapter over entirely to the really able and incisive sec- retary of Montana's present governor, regret- ting that it only now came to hand and must be cut in two or kept ont entirely; for I have intruded my own politics, good or bad, up to this point, and the matter is already in print.

where Mr. Hammond's father, Andrew B. Hammond, was born in 1807. Andrew B. Hammond, Sr., married Miss Gloryanna II. Coombes, and they had seven chil- dren, of whom six are now living. He had previously been married to a sister of his wife. He was an exlen- sive lumberman, and in religion was a Baptist, while his wife was an Episcopalian and brought her children up in that faith. He died in 1854, in his forty-eighth year, and his wife died in her seventy-fourth year. They were people of the highest integrity of character and had the respect and esteem of all who knew them.

The subject of our sketch was the fourth child in this family, and received his early education in the public schools. When he was thirteen he left school to work on his mother's farm and continued thus occupied for three years. Then he went to a logging camp near his home. where he spent one year, and afterward spent one year in the same business in Maine, and another year in the Alleghany mountains in Pennsylvania. In 1867 he came to Montana. At that time he was nineteen years of age. Coming up the Missouri river to Fort Peck, he spent the winter there in the employ of Daply & Peck, Indian fur traders, and the following year came to Missoula. Soon afterward, however, his love for adventure led him still further west, and ere long we find him on the Puget Sound engaged in the lumbering business. In 1870 he returned to Missoula county, Montana, and the next two years was at Hell Gate, employed as clerk in the store of George White. Mr. White died, and it devolved upon Mr. Hammond to wind up the business. In 1872 he came to Missoula and entered the employ of Bonner & Eddy.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

Leaving you to turn to the next chapter, I may mention that the political agitation did not in the least stagger the stalwart young State, opinions to the contrary notwithstanding: but population increased at a marvelons rate. When talk of the World's Fair at Chicago began to be heard, Montana was one of the first at the front, despite Yale locks and shy legislators. To antici- pate a little and conclude the most brilliant bit of all her history, I set it down as an unani- . mously coneeded faet that more people, fromn over sea or at home, looked upon the shining silver figure of Justice from the Shining Moun- tains, ten to one, than on any other one thing at the Columbian Exposition; and most important of all there was surely not one word of question as to either the splendid audaeity of the idea or the perfection of the idea. I here copy a de- seription of this work as given by the Associated Press:

In 1876 this firm sold out and Mr. Hammond then formed the firm of Eddy, Hammond & Company, which continued until 1885, at which time the Missoula Mercantile Com- pany was established, and he was made its president. During the building of the Northern Pacific Railroad Messrs. Bonner, Eddy and Hammond were engaged in furnishing the company with the lumber used in its con- struction, and upon the completion of the road found themselves the owners of a number of sawmills. The growing wants of the country for lumber induced them to organize the Big Blackfoot Lumber Company. They built the plant at Bonner, and Mr. Hammond became the largest stockholder in it, the other stockholder's being Messrs. Bonner, Eddy and W. H. Hind. The mill is managed by Mr. Hammond's brother, W. H. Hammond. It has a capacity of 250,000 feet every Twenty-four hours, and is considered by far the largest and finest sawmill in the world. In connection with it they have a sash and door factory and supply all of Montana with their prod- ucts. They also have a large flouring mill. The capital stock of the Big Blackfoot Company is $700,000. By his management of these great business enterprises, Mr. Hammond has justly acquired the reputation of being one of the most successful and capable business men of Mon- tana, or of the Northwest.

He was married, February 22, 1879, to Miss Florence Abbott, a native of Oregon and a daughter of Mr. Lorenzo Abbott of that State. She came to Montana when len

" Justice stands with one foot on a globe, and the entire outline of the splendid and massive figure gives the idea of a forward movement. The goddess wears a tunie which drapes the figure from the swelling breast to a point just below the knee, but so perfeet is the artist's work that every line of the nether limbs is vis- ible, and the statue seems alive from the unshod feet to the bare arms and the graceful Grecian knot of hair upon which rests the starry erown of this modern Astraea. Immense strength and exquisite grace, together with a superabundance of life and movement, are the points which en- chain the observer of the model at once. The left arm, beautifully modeled, holds aloft the historic scales, and the right grasps firmly the familiar two-edged sword, which points down- ward at an angle of forty-five degrees. The ex- pression of the face is grave but gracious, and

years of age. They have six children, as follows: Ed- winna C., Florence, Richard E., Leonard C., Grace and Daisy.

Mr. Hammond has been in politics a strong Republican, and has rendered his party most efficient aid. IIe be- longs to the Masonic fraternity,-blue lodge, chapter and commandery, and is also a member of the Shrine.

JOSEPH GOUTHIER, one of the representative farmers of Grass valley, was born in Canada, December 26, 1830, a son of Charles and Rosalin (Shappe) Gouthier, of French descent. The mother died when our subject was only eighteen months old, and his father survived until eighty- four years of age. Joseph, the youngest of nine chil- dren, remained on a farm in Canada until reaching his majority, then worked in the mines of Pittsfield, Massa- chusetts, until 1854, and in that year, via the isthmus, went to California, arriving in San Francisco in March. He then went to the mines of Calaveras county, where he met with good snecess. During the summer he traveled over the West to British Columbia, aud then mined one season at French Gulch, Montana, where he made $4,000, having taken out as high as $500 iu a day.

In 1866 Mr. Gouthier located on 160 acres of his preseut farm in Missoula county, to which he has since added until he uow owns 380 acres, and has made many im- provements on his place. In political matters he was formerly a Democrat, but is now a free-silver-coinage man, and casts his vote with the Populists. He is a mem- ber of the Catholic Church, and aided liberally in erect- ing the fine church edifice at Frenchtown.

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the full-orbed windows of the soul seem to pierce the future. The tunic, or rather the drapery, with its metal girdle, is Grecian even to the smallest detail, and the robe is broidered most beautifully.

" The figure rests upon the back of a Mon- tana eagle, also of solid silver. From the eagle

to the top of Rehan's head the statue measures nine fect and rests upon a plinth of solid gold, the base being formed of mineral-bearing rock. The whole has a height of fifteen feet. The sil- ver was furnished by the First National bank of IIelena, through ex-Governor S. T. Hauser and Hon. W. A. Clark, of Butte."

CHAPTER XXXI.

HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

BY ADELPHIUS B. KEITHI.

THE VOTE OF SILVER BOW COUNTY-PRECINCT 34-CONTEST FOR SHERIFF-FINDINGS OF SUPREME COURT-THE DEAD-LOCK AND YALE LOCKS GOVERNOR TOOLE-LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR RICK- ARDS-FIRST STATE SENATE-ALLEGED LETTERS-DIDN'T WANT TO GO TO THE LEGISLATURE- TAKEN BY FORCE TO THE LEGISLATIVE HALLS OF MONTANA-FIRST UNITED STATES SENATORS OF MONTANA-THE SECOND LEGISLATURE-ELECTION OF 1892-THIRD STATE LEGISLATURE-SEN- TINEL VALLEY.

As to the faithfulness of the account of the Republican party in Montana, given in this chapter, Governor Rick- ards gives the following indorsement:

HELENA, October 18, 1894. THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY,

113 Adams Street, Chicago, Illinois:

Gentlemen: My attention having been called to the History of the Republican party in Montana, written by my private secretary, Mr. A. B. Keith, I desire to say that I have read the article carefully and can assure you that it is a faithful presentation of the facts worthy a prominent place in your forthcoming History of Montana. Mr. Keith spared neither time nor effort to familiarize himself with the necessary data, and his production will meet the hearty approval of every Republican in the State who is conversant with the history of the party from the early days down to the present time. As a concise recital of the leading events in the history of the party I think it could not well be improved upon, and I take pleasure in giving it my endorsement.

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An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 112

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