An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 13

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 13

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JUDGE HENRY N. BLAKE was born in Boston, Massa- chusetts, June 5, 1838. The progenitor of the Blake family in America emigrated from England to Massachu- setts in 1680, and became one of the prominent factors in the early history of Dorchester. He served as Recorder and Clerk of "ye Writs" of Suffolk county. Several of his descendants were also prominently identified with the early history of the colonies, and one of the third generation of the family, James Blake, Jr., wrote a book entitled "Blake Annals," a history of Dorchester from 1630 to 1753. Jonathan Blake, the great-grandfather of our subject, was an Adjutant in the Revolution and served in five campaigns in that war. His family con- sisted of nine children, of whom the oldest, James Blake, was Judge Blake's grandfather. Down to the third James Blake the men of the family had all been Deacons and Elders. James Howe Blake, our subjeet's father, was born December 7, 1804. Ile was engaged in the millin

" The man with the pick threw down the sar- dine box, climbed out of the prospect hole, and pick on shoulder, plucking a single lily as he passed and breathing its languid perfume. climbed on up to where the wondering comrades were gathering around the horses preparatory to the return home. And I do not now recall that one word of explanation was given to those on the hill. They read our faces.

" One more incident in this account of a sin- gle prospecting trip. Although it is but a sin- gle adventure, it is one of a thousand, of ten thousand, and ten thousand more not at all dis- similar. As we rode silently and warily back in

business the most of his life, and his death occurred in 1864. November 26, 1829, he married Miss Mary Nichols, with whom his life was happily blended until the time of his death. She survived him until 1885. They had five children. One of their sons, William Edward, lost his life while in the Union ranks serving in defense of his country. Their daughter, now Mrs. Frank Faring- ton, resides in Boston. Having briefly sketched his an- cestry, we now turn to the life of Hon. Henry N. Blake, who was the fourth born in his father's family.

Henry N. Blake graduated in the Dorchester high school and also in the Law School at Harvard, receiving the degree of LL. B. from the latter institution in 1858. He began the practice of his profession in Boston. In April, 1861, when the first call was made for volunteers to put down the rebellion, he enlisted in Company K, Eleventh Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infan- try, and rose successively from the rank of private to that of Sergeant, First Sergeant, Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant and Captain. He continued in the service until June, 1864, when he was mustered out, having during that time participated in twenty of the battles in which the Army of the Potomae was engaged. At the first battle of Bull Run he was slightly wounded, and May 12, 1864, at the battle of Spottsylvania Court House, he was wounded severely, his serious injuries resulting in his being mustered out of the service.

In 1866 Mr. Blake removed to Montana. He came up the river to Fort Bentou, and from there went to Vir- ginia City, where he took up his abode and entered upon the practice of his profession, and where for twenty- three years he was engaged in the practice of law, ex- cept when he served as Judge, and a short period, from August, 1866, until January, 1867, when he was editor of the Montana Post. The Judge has decided literary talents. Soon after the war he wrote a book entitled "Three Years in the Army," it being a history of his regiment, and a very interesting one. April 22, 1869, he

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

single file through the long, rustling rye grass, a shower of arrows struck us. We saw noth- ing more, heard nothing more. But one of our party fell dead from his horse, an arrow buried to the feathers in his breast; in fact, the point of the arrow came entirely through and out at the back, doubtless having passed through his heart, for the man never spoke. We carried the was appointed United States Attorney for Montana Ter- ritory. This position he resigned in March, 1871, in order to accept the office of District Attorney for the First Ju- dicial District of the Territory, consisting of the counties of Madison, Beaver Head and Yellowstone, this appoint- ment being made by the Governor to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Hon. W. L. McMath. In 1871 he was elected by the people to succeed himself, and served a term of two years. Jannary 9, 1872, he was appointed by the Supreme Court as reporter of its decrees, and he prepared the first volume of Montana's Reports. He assisted in the preparation of volumes two and three. In 1874 he was elected a member of the Montana Legis- lative Assembly. Being appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Territory, August 10, 1875, he resigned his position in the Legislative Assembly in order to enter upon the duties of the latter office. He served on the bench until March 2, 1880. Then he was elected a member of the Legislature, and served during the years 1880, 1882 and 1886. He was elected District At- torney of the First Judicial District, comprising the coun- ties of Madison, Gallatin, Yellowstone, Custer and Daw- son, and in March, 1889, he received the appointment of Chief Justice of the Territory, the duties of which office he performed until November 8, 1889, at which time the Territory was admitted into the Union as a State. At the first State election, held in October, 1889, he was elected Chief Justice of the State, and served until January, 1893. Upon his retirement from the bench, he resumed the practice of law, to which he has since given his atten- tion. At the election in 1892 he was again nominated for the same position by his party, the Republicans, but as the People's party and the Democrats united on Hon. William Y. Pemberton, the result was that Judge Blake was defeated.

January 27, 1870, Judge Blake was married, in Boston, to Miss Clara J. Clark, a native of Massachusetts and a daughter of Benjamin F. and Mary (Choate) Clark, of that State. They have two daughters, Bessie M. and Nellie A.

The Judge is a member of both the G. A. R. and the Loyal Legion. Of the former he is Past Commander. Much more might be said of the life and character of Judge Blake, but the above sketch, although brief and imperfect, will serve as an index to his career.

IION. WILLIAM G. PREUITT, one of Montana's repre- sentative citizens, dates his birth in Madison county, Illi- nois, March 31, 1843.

body back with us. And this made the first miner's grave in Yreka-the first, so far as I can find out, in all that part of northern California -the grave of the strong man who would not crush a tiger lily nor soil the singing water. " Hear some testimony other than that of rude and primitive writers for those earlier men. Is it because virtue is more picturesque in the Mr. Preuitt comes from Colonial ancestors. His grand- father, Solomon Prenitt, was born in Alabama, and in the year 1800 removed to Illinois, settling in Madison county, where he lived to the advanced age of eighty-nine years. In Madison county our subject's father, James Preuitt, was born, married and spent his life. His wife, whose maiden name was Malinda Storkey, was a native of Ten- nessee, her ancestors having long been residents of that State. Two sons were born to them: Elias K., who re- sides at the old home place in Illinois, and William Green, whose name heads this sketch. The latter was reared on his father's farm, spent his boyhood days in attendance at the common schools, and when he reached the age of twenty years he engaged in the hay and grain business in Dorsey, Illinois.

Mr. Preuitt arrived in Helena in the year 1866. He came to the Territory a poor young man, making the journey on foot, and upon his arrival here his first job of work was that of driving oxen on a ranch. Soon after- ward, however, he secured a clerkship in a wholesale liquor store in Helena, in which he continued for four years. He then returned to Illinois, and that year, 1870, was married to Miss Willie M. Hundley, daughter of Colonel William B. IIundley and A. (Lucket) Hundley, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Vir -. ginia.

Coming back to Helena with his wife soon after his marriage, Mr. Preuitt resumed his former position and subsequently purchased an interest in the establishment. In 1879, in company with his father-in-law, he purchased the business, and continued it successfully until 1887. That year he sold out. Several years previous to this he had been engaged in the stock business and had become one of the noted breeders of thoroughbred horses and graded cattle. This business he still continues, being the owner of an 880-acre stock ranch. At this writing (1894) he is also engaged in the hardware business, being a member of the firm of Sturrock & Preuitt, owners of one of the largest hardware establishments in the city.

Mr. Preuitt's elegant residence, located on the corner of Eighth avenue and Rodney street, is one of the finest homes in Helena. He and his wife have four children, all natives of this city. Their oldest son, Hundley H., has charge of his father's cattle interest. Elias K. is in his father's store. The other two are Willie M. and Pay- ton L.

Fraternally, Mr. Preuitt is a member of the A. O. C. W .; politically, he has been a life-long Democrat. In 1876

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

convict from the penal colonies, or the unlet- tered Texan, that boorishness and outlawry have so conspicuous a part in the literature touching those early times? Bear in mind that a every not- able portion of the men of those days came from Harvard and Yale and many other institutions and centres of social advancement. Read the story of those who came to the surface as judges, legislators, governors, United States senators and so on, from swinging a pick in the mines. Let it be written down and never again forgot- ten in the deluge of cheap fiction, that the early men of California were often men of culture as well as conrage.

" It may not generally be known that those men built cities miles and miles in length in those days. Yet it is strictly true. It is to be admitted that those cities had but one street, that there were no street improvements, no sewers, no gas, no gas bills. But still the long, winding lanes of honses that wound np and down and beside the banks of the stream where lay the miners' . claims' have quite as much

he was elected one of the County Commissioners of Lewis and Clarke county, in which capacity he rendered efficient service, and he also had the honor of serving three years as Treasurer of the Territory of Montana, having received his appointment from Governor S. T. Hanser. His interest in the stock business has already been referred to. He is the Secretary and Treasurer of the Stock Growers' Association. The Board of Stock Commissioners of Montana has elected him its Secretary, and in addition to his other business he also has the duties of this office devolving upon him. Like most of the prominent men in the North and West he has also been interested to some extent in mining. Viewing his business career as a whole, it is one of marked success and entitles him to a place among the leading men of his State.

WILLARD H. WINTERS, County Auditor of Silver Bow county, Montana, is a native of Minnesota, born in Sauk Center, July 6, 1868, of German ancestry, but the last three generations were native Pennsylvanians. His grand- father, Oscar H. Winters, was born in the Keystone State in 1798, learned the jeweler's trade and has conducted it throughout a long life: he is now (1894) in New York city, ninety-six years of age. His son, Oscar Winters, father of Willard HT., was born in Pennsylvania in 1833, 5

right to be called cities as have so many new stations and groups of houses to-day.

" Last summer the writer returned to one of those wood-built cities, where he worked as a miner more than thirty years before. Pine trees had grown up in the lower end of the one long street,and an Indian woman with a miserable little babe asleep on her baek was burning pine cones and hulling out the nuts with her black fingers for the San Francisco market. A little further along two Chinamen were tearing ont the stones that had formed the hearth of what had once been the most imposing house in this whilom populous ' city.' The briars were thick and rank over the heap of stones that once had been the 'honest miner's' chimney. But the gnome-like little brown men crept close down to the earth and scraped up all the dust and ashes and debris to be washed in their ' rocker' which sat on the edge of the once turbid but now peaceful stream close by. They were searching for the few imperishable little crumbs married Miss Ann Roberts, a lady of English descent, whose people came to America previous to her birth: she was born in 1835. They had six children, all of whom are living. Mr. Oscar Winters is a farmer and land-owner at Sauk Center.

Willard H., the fifth child, was educated in his native city, in the public schools and in the academy there. In 1885 he came to Montana, and for three years was book keeper for his brother, who was a railroad contractor. In 1889 he was engaged at Thompson Falls taking out lumber for the railroad; and in 1890 he came to Butte and opened a grocery business, in company with S. S. Fletcher, but in two years he sold out and engaged in the real-estate business, in partnership with E. W. Wynne, buying and selling city property, and were very success- ful. In addition to their real-estate purchases they have built upon and otherwise improved various lots, and have thus aided in the improvement of their chosen city.

In 1892 Mr. Winters was elected, on the Republican ticket, Auditor of the county, and he is now filling that position; but he also continues his real-estate business. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. and of the P. O., S. of A. Mr. Winters is a talented and thoroughly reliable business man, deserving the high estimate in which he is held by his fellow-citizens in Silver Bow county.

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

of gold which had fallen from the rich miner's hand into his fire-place

In the days of old, In the days of gold.

. Creeping up the bank amid briars and weeds and crooning to himself, came an old man with a beard like snow, as I neared the extreme end of this once famous mining town. He had a

HON. JOHN S. TOOKER, of Helena, Montana, is a native of the State of New York, born in Seneca county, Janu- ary 7, 1835.

Mr. Tooker descended from the English and Dutch, his ancestors being among the earliest settlers of America. His father, Rev. Eliflit Tooker, a Baptist minister, was born in Rhode Island; his mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Smith, was a native of Seneca county, New York, a descendant of one of the early Dutch families that settled in that State. They had a family of ten chil- dren, of whom only four are now living. The mother passed away in 1840, and the father survived her nntil 1853.

John S. Tooker, being left an orphan at an early age, was reared from his fifth year by his brothers. They removed to Lansing, Michigan, when the capital was located there, and at that place the subject of our sketch received his early training and served an apprenticeship in a foundry and machine shop. He grew up with the city and became one of her most successful manufact- urers.

In 1856 he reached his majority, and, being a lover of liberty and a hater of oppression, and believing that human slavery was a great stain on the Republic, he esponsed the cause of the Free-soil party, and cast his first presidential vote for General John C. Fremont. Although he was sneered at for supporting Fremont, young Tooker had the courage to stand by his convic- tions. When the Republican party was founded, he became prominent in that movement and aided in its or- ganization. When Fort Sumter was fired upon his patri- otism was roused to a high pitch, but his business relations prevented, as he thought, his participation in the war. The following year, however, the country's need became so great that he entered into an engagement with his partners, promising to pay them $5 a day while he was absent, and in October, 1862, we find his name enrolled among the list of volunteers. He went out as a member of Company G, Sixth Michigan Cavalry, having entered the service as a private. Ile was soon afterward made Orderly Sergeant. With his regiment he followed the fortunes of the war for a year and nine months, fighting with all his might in the same line he had voted. His horse falling when he was on it, resulted in a severe sprain which disabled him from active duty, and his brave career was ended by his honorable discharge in

pan under his arm, and with that old politeness and confidence of the genuine gold miner who made the days that are behind California splen- did with glory, he set it down on a rock before me, shook his palsied old white head feebly at sight of the few grains of gold there, and mutt- tering something about ' striking it rich by and by,' took up his pan and tottered on up to his

March, 1864. He returned to Lansing, Michigan, and as soon as he had sufficiently recovered he resumed busi- ness. His business grew to large proportions and ere long he became one of the most prominent men in the city. Three times he was elected Mayor of Lansing. He was also chosen to represent in the State Senate the counties of Clinton and Ingham. While serving his con- stituents in this latter capacity he was made chairman of the Committee on Railroads, and was the introducer of the bill for the new State Asylum, besides making him- self efficient and active in all the measures intended to benefit his State. In 1883 he was appointed by Presi- dent Arthur to the position of Secretary of the Territory of Montana, and accordingly came direct to Helena to enter upon the duties of his office. During his term he was also for a part of the time acting Governor. When Mr. Cleveland was elected, Mr. Tooker resigned his office to give place to the party in power.

Upon first coming to Montana, Mr. Tooker interested himself considerably in mines and mining, with varied success, and has still valuable mining property. He is now Clerk and Recorder of Lewis and Clarke county, to which position he has been elected three times in snc- cession. All the business of the county goes through his office and has his best attention.

October 5, 1858, Mr. Tooker married Miss Emma L. Hayes, a native of Farmington, Michigan, a daughter of Dr. W. H. Hayes. Her father is one of the prominent men of Michigan, being now a resident of Lansing. He is a Methodist minister, an ex-Mayor of Lansing, and has served as a member of the State Legislature. Mrs. Tooker died in 1869, leaving an only son, Clyde J., now a business man of Montana. In 1873 Mr. Tooker mar- ried, at Lansing, Miss Agnes Edwards, a native of Fort Plain, New York, and a daughter of C. T. Edwards, a well-known citizen of Lansing.

Mr. Tooker has long been a member of the Masonic fraternity, and since 1862 has been a Knight Templar. lle is also a member of the G. A. R. Mr. Tooker is eminently a self-made man. His early educational ad- vantages were limited, but such were his natural endow- ments that he became thoroughly informed on all general topics and has filled positions of great responsibility in a manner alike creditable to himself and to his constituents. And he has always been actuated by a high moral stand- ard and a deep sense of what is just. Those who know him best appreciate him most highly.

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

old cabin, which, like himself, seemed sinking down very close to the bosom of our common mother.

" The transition from placer or surface min- ing in California to tunnel underground mining was a slow but very serious matter. No more warm, sweet sunlight for the strong brave man toiling his solid sixteen hours daily for his loved

ALBERT S. IlOVEY, United States Deputy Mineral Sur- veyor for the States of Montana and Idaho, was born in Perry, Ohio, September 8, 1850, and resided there during the earlier years of his life. Ile received his education in the common schools of Ohio and Michigan, graduat- ing at Willoughby College, where he took the classical course, and afterward attending the University of Michi- gan, taking a special course in civil engineering. Ile began work as deputy county surveyor at Cleveland, Ohio, under C. H. Burgess, and then became Assistant United States Surveyor and Inspector, under Major John M. Wilson, on harbor work and inspector of harbor im- provements. He afterward made a complete survey of all that part of the Ohio canal bed which is within the Cleve- land city limits for the Valley Railroad.

Mr. Hovey came to Montana July 3, 1882, where he be- came chief mineral clerk in the Surveyor General's office in Helena, under General Harris and afterward under General Green, and afterward formed a partnership with A. E. Cumming and opened an office as general eivil and mining engineers. In 1891 he engaged in partnership with Paul S. A. Biekel, in the same line of business. The firm have their principal office in Helena, their field of operations extending throughout Montana and Idaho. Mr. Hovey being Deputy United States Mineral Surveyor for both States, He is an active member of the Montana Society of Civil Engineers and is treasurer of the organ- ization.

GEORGE E. HOWE, the Silver Bow County Surveyor, was born in Dover, Massachusetts, May 9, 1845, of Eng- lish ancestry who for many generations have resided in America. Ifis grandfather, Eli Howe, was a farmer in the State of Maine, reared annmerous family, was a Uni- versalist in his religion and lived to the age of eighty-nine years. His father, Alonzo ITowe, was born in Maine, in 1805, married Miss Nancy Andrews, a native of his own State and the daughter of William Andrews. He also was a farmer, and he and his family were Universalists, After their marriage they continued to reside in Massa- chusetts and later in Maine. Mr. Ilowe was a carpenter and cabinet-maker. IIe and his wife lived to an advanced age, rearing nine children, of whom six are living.

George E., the eldest of the children, was educated at the Hebron Academy in Maine, and was seventeen years of age when the great civil war began. At the first he was restrained from enlisting, but in September, 1862, he enrolled himself as a soldier in the service of his coun-

ones far away in the east. No more fervid skie; for him forever, no more green trees moving in the wind on the steep hills above. No more birds, butterflies, lilies, butterenps; no more life, no more light, nothing-nothing at all now but the damp, dark, dismal, dripping mine with its creaking engines, crumbling walls, crashing timbers, disasters, death! And even hydraulic

try, namely, in Company B, Twenty-third Maine Volun- teer Infantry. For the first nine months he served in the Army of the Potomac in the defense about Washington. As his term expired he re-enlisted, this time in the Seventh Maine Battery, and served in the Ninth Army Corps, in the Army of the Potomac, and participated in engagements from the battle of the Wilderness to those around Petersburg. Being then taken siek, he was sent to the hospital, and when convalescing he was placed on detached duty at Alexandria, and finally witnessed the grand review of the grand, victorious army of the repub- lic at Washington. Honorably discharged, he returned to his home at Bethel, Maine, where he attended school two years.

Going to Illinois, he was chief engineer of the Indian- apolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad for seven years. Next he went to Kansas as chief engineer of the Fort Scott & Wichita Railroad. After this he went to Mis- souri, where for four years he was in charge of railroad work on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy lines, and two years on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. Going to New York he surveyed a line from Fort Ches- ter to New York city,-a line, however, that was never built. Next he had charge of the construction of the iron bridge across the Monongahela river at Pittsburg.

In February, 1891, he came to Butte City and was en- gaged in surveying railroad lands and also in general surveying. In the campaign of 1892 he was elected, on the Populist ticket, County Surveyor for Silver Bow county, in which position he is now serving. Mr. Howe has been a Republican up to 1891, when, seeing the radi- cal changes needed in the affairs of the country which he had no hopes of seeing made by that party, he had the manhood to go with the party that most nearly accorded with his political ideas.

Mr. Howe is a member of the Masonic fraternity, has taken all the York rite degrees and fourteen of the Scot- tish rite. IIe is now secretary of the Populist State C'en- tral Committee. Both himself and wife are active mem- bers of the Christian Church, where he is Superintendent of the Sunday-school and a Deacon of the church. Mr. Howe, being a man of superior intelligence and a spirit of independence, thinks for himself and has therefore a principle for all his conduct, which is honorable and chal- lenges the respect of all parties excepting the most vicious,

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An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 13

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