An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 139

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 139

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The Walkers are of Scotch-Irish origin. The grand- father of our subject came to this country from Scotland, and the grandmother from Ireland. Their respective families settled in Virginia during Colonial times, and when Kentucky was opened up by Daniel Boone, grand- father Walker moved with his family to that frontier set- tlement. In Kentucky David Walker, the father of our subject, was born, reared and married. About the time of his marriage Illinois was being settled, and, true to the pioneer characteristics of his ancestors, he moved west- ward and located in Sangamon county, that State, in 1827, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1835. Again seized with the spirit of emigration, he packed up

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North Fork of Big Blackfoot is located a group of copper claims bnt little worked. They look well. On Big Blackfoot there are some mines of gold and silver which have been worked to some considerable extent, and the ores shipped with profit.

On the divide between Ophir and Carpenter are the Mountain Queen and other claims; be- tween the Mexican and Nugget gulches is the Armilda; and at the head of the Ophir are the Roaring Mountain and several other mines.

his effects and removed with his family to a place near West Point, in Lee county, Towa. That, however, was hefore there was any sign of the town. There he spent his life on a farm, and there he died at the age of seventy- four years. His wife passed away in 1845. They had twelve children, seven sons and five daughters, eight of whom reached maturity.

David Davis Walker, a member of the above family, was born in Lee county, Iowa, in 1843, and amid pioneer scenes was reared to manhood and received only a limited education. Then the prevailing characteristic of his an- cestors, namely, the desire to emigrate, caused him to seek a home in the new West. Accordingly he arranged for a journey to the mining regions of Montana. At that time there were no railroads west of Des Moines, Iowa, and an overland trip meant something very different from what it does at the present day. Ile and a party of others were five months in crossing the plains with teams. His first location in Montana was at what was called Cotton- wood, now known as the pleasant little city of Deer Lodge. There he engaged in stock-raising and did a successful business until, on account of his father's de- clining health, he returned to Iowa to remain with and care for him, and he remained in Iowa until after his father's death.

While in Iowa he was married to Mary E. Ilall, a native of Tazewell county, Illinois, and a daughter of Ira B. and Mary E. (Thurston) Hall, descendants of Eng- lish ancestors who were among the early settlers of New England. Her parents are now residents of Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Walker have an only child, Ira B. Walker, born in 1873.

After his marriage, Mr. Walker, accompanied by his wife, again came West, and for some time was success- fnlly engaged in the stock business. The town of Ana- conda was laid out in June, 1883, and business was begun there in tents. Mr. Walker was one of the first men to purchase a town lot, and in the fall of that year he, in connection with N. J. Bielenberg and J. K. P. Mallory, opened a butcher shop and meat market, their location being at what is now No. 19 Main street. They slaugh- tered as many as 1,800 cattle per year, besides a large number of hogs and sheep. Mr. Walker continued in the

The Poorman Distriet has several good mines and many bright prospects. Among them are the Rochester, North Star, Snowflake, and the mines of the Silver Bell Mining Company. Some of these mines are well developed, and show large quantities of milling gold ores. Over 3,000 acres are still held as placers in Carpenter, Ophir and Snowshoe gulches. In Washington Gulch are a good number of quartz claims and mines, and the Michigan mill was erected to work them. The Jefferson, Ameri-

business with marked success for nine years, when he sold his interest to Mr. Mallory. Mr. Bielenberg also re- tired from the firm, leaving Mr. Mallory sole proprietor.

Politically, Mr. Walker is a Democrat, and while he has never sought office, office has sought and found him. He was elected a member of the Board of County Com- missioners of Deer Lodge county in 1886, of which he was chairman, this being the last Board of Commissioners under Territorial government. ITis executive ability in that position brought him to the front in the new town of Anaconda, and in the spring of 1890 he was elected its Mayor. He served one term as Mayor with credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of his fellow-citi- zens. He and his wife are active members of the Pres- byterian Church, of which he has been a Trustee for several years.

WINGFIELD L. BROWN, Prosecuting Attorney of Granite county, Montana, and a resident of Phillipsburg, is the junior member of the prominent law firm of Durfee & Brown.

Mr. Brown is a native of Virginia and a descendant of prominent and influential families of the Old Dominion who had their origin in Scotland and England. The Browns emigrated to America during Cromwell's time and settled at Jamestown, Virginia, where they took a leading part in public affairs and became prominently identified with its history. Colonel John Brown, great- grandfather of our subject, was Clerk of the General As- sembly of Virginia, and his son James was the second Auditor of the State of Virginia and served in that capac- ity for thirty years. Ludwell Harrison Brown, the son of James and father of Wingfield L., was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1818. He married Margaret Washington Mcclellan, danghter of Thomas Stanhope MeClellan, and Margaret (Cavel) Mcclellan, his wife, the former a native of Montezuma, Virginia, and the latter of Union IIill, that State. General Winfield Scott, General MeClellan and General Harrison were all connected with some branch of their family. General Scott's name was at first Wingfield, popular usage changing it to Winfield Mr. Brown's father followed the profession of civil engineer. He died in 1859, at the age of forty-one years, and his wife was fifty-seven at the time of her death. Both were members

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can, Chimney, Buffalo, California, Deer Creek and McClellan gulches are rich in quartz elaims and mines. On the mountains back of the Ne- vada creek placers are numerous and small veins of quartz rich in free gold.

California Gulch has the Jim Crow, Etta and other claims. Lincoln Gnleh has numerous quartz claims and mines, and the Leiser mill. Deer Creek has the North Star and other good quartz lodes. Jefferson Guleh has many quartz mines, and MeCloud's mill to work them.

of the Episcopal Church. They had a family of four sons and four daughters, Wingfield L. being the youngest.

Wingfield L. Brown was educated in his native State and pursued his law course at the university in Charlottes- ville, where he graduated in 1886. From the time of his graduation until 1890 he practiced his professiou in Vir- ginia, and in 1890 he came West and located at Phillips- burg, where he has since resided. When the county of Granite was formed he was appointed by the Legislature as Attorney for the new couuty. In April, 1893, he and Judge Durfee became associated together in their law practice, under the firm name of Durfee & Brown, and they have since done a successful business.

Mr. Brown sprang from a family of illustrious Demo- crats and was himself a Democrat until recently. Being displeased with some measures advocated by that party, he left its ranks and since 1892 has been a Populist. He is an active campaign worker and is frequently in demand as a stump speaker. When his term of County Attorney expired he was elected to succeed himself and is now serving his second term.

Mr Brown is a man of family. He was married in Feb- ruary, 1888, to Miss Sally P. Lewis, a native of Vrrginia, and they have two sons: Wingfield L., Jr., and Robert Lewis, both born at Phillipsburg.

RUFUS B. THOMPSON, one of the most successful stock men of Montana, was born near Burlington, Vermont, in 1857, a son of Samuel and Marion (Buell) Thompson, of Scotch ancestry. The father was a prominent farmer in Vermont. The grandfather, Josiah Thompson, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and had Rufus been of sufficient age would have been numbered among those who fought for the Union in 1861-5. He was reared to farm life, and attended the high school of Burlington, where he prepared himself for a course in the University Business College. But the Western fever changed his bent of mind, and in the spring of 1880 he arrived in St. Paul, intending to seeure a position as bookkeeper. As no vacancy could be found in that line, Mr. Thompson answered an advertisement for help wanted on a dairy ranch. As he approached the place many were ahead of him, but he was accepted, his employer being Colonel (. A. Broadwater, later a millionaire of Montana. He

On the Big Blackfoot are the Trappa and a number of other excellent mines. On the mountains east of the Nevada creek placer mines, some thirty claims have been located on the small rich viens of free gold in those mnoun- tains. Some of them have been worked for many years. These mountain veins furnish the rich deposits now worked in the Nevada creek mines. Bear Gulch has a good show of rich quartz claims, and mines well proved up. It has the Homestake, Climantha, Sierra, Forest,

asked our subject if it was true that sheep had to be rough shod in Vermont to enable them to stand on stones and pick grass between crevices in the rocks. This came near causing young Thompson to leave in disgust, but the Colonel soon informed him it was only a joke. Rufus was placed in charge of a large dairy at Fort Assiniboine, Montana, where he remained three years, and during that time made a record for competency and trustworthiness which afterward enabled him to engage in business that has proven both famous and profitable. In 1883 Mr. Thompson was induced to engage in the sheep industry, and he located 1,300 acres of land on Willow creek, in what is now Fergus county, fifty miles from Lewiston and sixty miles from Billings, which he stocked with 1,500 sheep. He purchased the best grade for breeding pur- poses, and his sheep now yield each season an average of ten pounds of excellent wool each. He now owns 10,000 sheep, and also harvested 200 tons of hay on his ranch this season.

Mr. Thompson is a thirty-second degree Mason, also a member of Algeria Temple at Helena, has been con- nected with the order of Good Templars, and is a mem- ber of the Patriotic Sons of America. In religion he is a member of the Methodist Church, and politically is a Re- publiean. Mr. Thompson is a social favorite wherever he is known, and is one of the most popular stock-raisers in the State.

HON. ABRAHAM S. BLAKE, one of the earliest living Montana pioneers, and a prominent farmer and stock- raiser near the village of Victor, of which he was one of the founders, was born in Vermont, November 29, 1837, of Puritan ancestry. They located in New England in the early history of the colonies, and Levi Blake, the grandfather of our subject, was a Captain in the Conti- mental army during the Revolutionary struggle. IIis sou, Abijah Blake, was born in New Hampshire in 1801. He married Miss Maria Belding, who was born in that State in 1803, and soon afterward they moved to Vermont, where Mr. Blake was employed as agent for the Howe Scale Company for twenty years. In his youth he had learned the trade of tanner from his father. His death occurred in Vermont at the age of eighty-six years, and his wife departed this life in 1840, at the age of thirty-

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and an arastra and a stamp mill. On Williams Gulch, a tributary of Bear, is found a group of excellent mines. Among them are the MeDer. mott, Minnie Palmer and a number of others. On Elk creek are the Aparandy and a ten-stamp gold mill.

Many of the mines and mills in Deer Lodge county are now (1894) idle.

FERGUS COUNTY.

Almost every mining camp in Montana has its leading mine, which attracts the attention of the outside world. Marysville has its Drum Lummon, Castle its Cumberland, Pardee its Iron

seven pears. She left a family of seven children, five of whom are still living.

Abraham S., the sixth child in order of birth, attended the public schools of his native State. In 1855, at the age of seventeen years, he went by the Nicaragua route to California, making the journey from New York to San Francisco in twenty-four days. He spent the first six months in his brother's store, in the latter city, and was next engaged in mining at Forbestown, Butte county, and near New York Flat, in Yuba county, where he met with good success, often making as high as $100 a day. In 1861 Mr. Blake and his brother, the latter having re- turned from the Fraser river, went to the Oro Fino mines, afterward came on a prospecting tour up the Co- lumbia river to Lewistown, Montana, and from there went to the Bitter Root valley, and continued prospecting in this State from 1861 to 1867. Mr. Blake is credited with having found the first gold in paying quantities in the Territory of Montana. While mining at Deer Lodge he took out $65 in one day. In 1867 he located 320 acres of his present farm in Missoula county, to which he has since added until he now owns 400 acres. He first en- gaged in raising hogs and cattle, having found a ready sale for all his products to the miners, and for his first bacon received fifty-five cents a pound. Mr. Blake is one of the discoverers of the Curlow mine, is still one of its owners, and they have taken out $500,000. The cor- poration is known as the Helena & Victor Mining Com- pany, the principal owners being S. T. Hauser, A. M. Holter, Mr. llackett and Mr. Blake. The last named has property adjoining the mine, which, when developed, may prove equally valuable.

Mr. Blake was married, in 1872, to a native daughter of Montana, and they have five children,-Julia, John A., Annie L., Eddie and Bertha. Mr. Blake was made a Master Mason in 1858, and has been a Republican since the formation of that perty. In 1889 he was elected member of the first State Legislature of Montana, and lias always taken a deep interest in the welfare of the State, of which he has the honor of being one of the founders.

Mountain, Granite its Granite Mountain, and Maiden has its Spotted Horse. In years past the Maginnis was the leading mine of Maiden; but the Spotted Horse, after its ups and downs, incident to the effects of rich and poor streaks found in all mines, had been for many months supplying a twenty-stamp mill with ores rich enough to enable them to turn out such results in bullion as to give this mine a place in the first rank of the world's bonanzas. But the Spotted Horse must look well to its laurels; for there are other mines at Maiden which will tread close upon its heels when capital works them,

- W. P. BEACHLY, County Auditor of Cascade county, Montana, and a resident of Great Falls, is a native of Som- erset county, Pennsylvania, born March 18, 1849.

Mr. Beachly is descended from the Germans on his father's side, while his mother's people were English. The Beachlys settled in Pennsylvania about the year 1694. They acquired lands in Somerset county, and in that county several generations of the family were born and died, their lives being passed as industrious and honest farmers. Our subject's grandfather, Jacob K. Beachly, was born in 1795, and his father, Peter Beachly, was born March 3, 1824. The latter was married in 1848 to Miss Phebe Cover, daughter of J. P. Cover, her birth having occurred in the same county in 1828. Her mother was a Putnam, a descendant of the famons General Put- nam. After their marriage, Peter Beachly and his wife settled down at the old Beachly homestead, where they still reside, he being now seventy and she sixty-six years of age. They are strict adherents to the Baptist faith. They had eight children, William Peter being the oldest of the family and one of the five survivors.

W. P. Beachly was reared on his father's farm, receiv- ing his early education in the public schools. When he was eighteen he began teaching in the winter and at- tending normal school in the summer, and was thus oc- cupied until the spring of 1870. IIe then removed to Iowa. There he improved a farm and spent two winters in teaching school. Returning East, he next turned his attention to the lumber business, being a partner with others, and in 1873, owing to the failure of other parties, he met with business reverses. Then he began farming again, later was employed as clerk in a store for two years, and about 1880 removed to Johnstown, where for some time he was connected with the steel works of that place, first as a common laborer and later as foreman in charge of a crew of men. In the spring of 1882 we find him in Pueblo, Colorado, where he was also employed as foreman in steel works.

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and when the whistle of the "iron horse" shall wake them from their long sleep.

But in some respects Maiden is one of the most remarkable mining camps in the world. Mai- den is in the midst of, and claims for its mineral kingdom all the peaks and ridges and foothills of the Judith mountains; for nearly all of them are literally covered with vast quantities of good float and must be intersected with numerous veins of rich ores. Hundreds and hundreds of mining claims have already been opened in these mountains, and new discoveries are the order of

In July, 1884, Mr. Beachly came to Great Falls and joined his brother Silas in opening a stationery store .- Paris Gibson was at that time postmaster,-the first post- master of the town, and he employed Mr. Beachly as his depusy. He and his brother continued in partnership for three years, at the end of which time the latter retired. Our subject conducted the business alone for two years longer, and then took in as a partner Mr. C. F. Fullerton, to whom in 1890 he sold out his interest. In 1890 Mr. Beachly accepted the position of Under Sheriff of the county. He served in that office two years and then for a short time was Deputy Assessor. In 1892 he was elect- ed County Auditor, and is now serving most acceptably in this important position.

Mr. Beachly has been twice married. His first wife, whom he wedded in 1874, and whose maiden name was Kate Gumbert, was a native of his own county. Her un- timely death occurred after two years and a half of happy married life, and she left a little son, Orren. In 1880 he married Miss Kate C. Salter, also a native of Somerset county, Pennsylvania.

In fraternal circles Mr. Beachly is prominent and act- ive, being a member of the 1. O. O. F. and having taken all the degrees in Masonry. He is one of the organizers of the blue lodge at Great Falls, was elected its first Treasurer, and was for five years its efficient Secretary. He has also held a number of offices in the Chapter and Commandery and is now Prelate of the latter. Both he and his wife are members of the Eastern Star. Politic- ally, he is a Republican. Besides the offices already named that he has held, we mention that of City Council- man, he having served as a member of the first Council of Great Falls.

SAMUEL J. REYNOLDS, Sheriff of Silver Bow county, is a native of England, born on the 1st of January, 1850, of old English ancestry. His parents, William and Mary (Tippett) Reynolds, remained in that country until the mother's death, and in 1856 the father emigrated to America, bringing two of the children, and settling at the Bruce mines in Canada. In 1859 he crossed the plains to California, where he remained several years, during

the day. Many of these discoveries have been so developed as to show they contain vast quan- tities of good ores.

The Judith monntains must have been, are now and must continue to be, the paradise of prospectors. In many places I saw large bodies of iron ores so charged with gold as to make them most desirable finxing ores. And above all, the valleys and gulches and mountain slopes were strewn with fragments, great and small, rich in gold and silver. So abundant is the float from the veins of these mountains that it

which time the great Cariboo gold excitement occurred. He secured a considerable amount of the shining metal, and finally died at San Francisco, May 22, 1880, in con- sequence of a surgicai operation. His son, Samuel J., then in Nevada, hastened to San Francisco and performed the sad duty of burying his father. He was the second- born of the children, and he and one other are all that now survive.

Mr. Reynolds of this sketch began to work in the mines when only nine years of age, carrying tools for the men and doing such things as he could. For his first month's work he was paid fifteen shillings. He continued in the mines until he was sixteen years of age, picking up his education as well as he could at night schools. In 1866 he went to Pennsylvania, where he was employed in the mines for four months, then went to the Lake Superior country, in Michigan, and next to Virginia City, Nevada, where he worked eleven years, a part of the time engaged in putting in the larger pumps which are now in those mines. In March, 1881, he came to Butte and began work in the Lexington shift, after becoming a lessor of mines, and among the rest he worked the Burlington, out of which he made considerable money.

When John Lloyd was elected Sheriff, he made Mr. Reynolds Under-Sheriff, and he served in that capacity three years, when he received the appointment of War- den of the Penitentiary, in which position he served a year, and then returned to mining. In the fall of 1892 he was elected Sheriff of Silver Bow county, and in this office he is now serving.

Mr. Reynolds takes pride in the fact that he has al- wars been an ardent and active Republican, and that he cast his first Presidental vote for James A. Garfield. At the time of his election as Sheriff he had two opponents, a Democrat and a Populist, and he received 107 votes more than the former and 114 more than the latter. Dur- ing the twelve years he was in Nevada he was connected with the Washington Guards, holding the commission of First Lieutenant during nearly all that time, his term in that office being a longer one than that of any other officer of his rank. When he came to Montana he be-

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will be gathered up with great profit at no dis- tant day. So nummerous and varied were the float ores as to bewilder the prospector in trac- ing them up to the leads from which they came. But hundreds of those leads have been discov- ered and opened and represented from year to year to hold them till such time as a railroad will give cheap transportation and make their ores valuable. This mining region is very large, covering the entire group known as the Judith mountains for miles in every direction from Maiden to the Occident, six miles west, to

came the organizer of the first military company in the State, namely: Company A, Union Guards, was elected its Captain, and later the first Colonel of the regiment, receiving two votes more than Hon. W. A. Clark. He also has the highest record in the State as a sharpshooter. In a match at off-hand shooting 200 yards he made ninety- two points out of a possible 100. He has participated in a great many shooting matches, and was never beaten but once, and then through neglecting to train for the match.

Mr. Reynolds has connected himself with numerous fraternal societies, some of which are the Miners' Union, the Sons of St. George, the Knights of Pythias, Freema- sons (among whom he has taken all the degrees of the York rite and eighteen degrees of the Scottish), the Odd Fellows for the last twenty-three years, the United Work- men, etc. In addition to his insurance in the last-men- tioned, he has $10,000 in the Sioux City Insurance Com- pany, of Iowa. In his business relations he has been . remarkably successful: is now the possessor of varions . houses and lots at Deer Lodge and also in Butte City.

April 27, 1880, he married Miss Mary Hannah Gary, a native of Australia, who was brought up in Montana from her fourth year. Their children are Lillie R. and Archie B. They have a nice residence in Butte City.

Mr. Reynolds is a pleasant, capable gentleman, enjoy- ing a wide acquaintance in Montana and a circle of many friends.

JOHN II. GREEN, a prominent stockman of northern Montana, is a pioneer of this Territory in 1864.

He was born at Norwalk, Huron county, Ohio, January 18, 1836. Ilis parents, Philip and Clarissa (Wood) Green, were natives of the State of New York. IIis father, born in 1850, served his conntry as a soldier, was with Kit Car- son in New Mexico, and died in 1880, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. His wife died in 1893, at the same age as her husband at his death. They had eight children, of whom only two now survive.

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An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 139

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