An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 150

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 150

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With two others, Mr. Largey purchased and established the electric-light plant of the city of Butte, and later sold it. He also has the honor of starting the Inter-Mountain newspaper, and is now president of the Inter-Mountain Publishing Company. January 29, 1891, he became the founder of the State Savings Bank of Butte, with a capital stock of $100,000. IIe is also president of the in- stitution, while (' II. Palmer is vice-president and T. M.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

Russell process. The following mines are near these mills: In Grubstake Gulch are the Grubstake, Richfield, Greaser, Boquet, No. 3, Belmont, Golconda, Surprise, Bessy, May Queen, Snapping Andy, Red Chief, 76, Homestake, Puritan, Water Fraction, Red Bluff, Red Bluff East; and in Tippecanoe Gulch are the Tippe- canoe, Tippecanoe No. 2, Ruby, Buffalo, Per- haps, Mohegan and Jumbo. In Hot Springs Gulch are the Cedar Point, Urbana, Cord wainer, Great Expectation, Jack Rabbit, Michigan, Home, Boy's, Bank, Railroad and Meadow

Hodgins cashier. They do a general banking business, and the institution stands very high in the estimation of the citizens of Butte.

In his political views Mr. Largey has always been a Republican, but has never been a politician in the sense of having sought or desired office. He is a gentleman of great executive ability, is thoroughly acquainted with mining and the many other interests of the State, is an honest and successful business manager, and withal he is benevolent and helpful to those in need, and is there- fore very much beloved and respected in Butte.

He was married on the 30th of April, 1877, to Miss Lulu Sillers, the daughter of Mr. Morris Sillers, of Chicago, and they have four children, namely: Morris S., Lulu, Creighton and Mary Montana. Mr. Largey and his fam- ily are members of the Catholic Church.

JOHN W. MCCARTY, who came to Montana in search of gold in 1864, and who now is one of the leading farm- ers of the Bitter Root valley, was born in Greene county, Missouri, May 9, 1846, a son of a native of Tennessee. The latter subsequently moved to Missouri, was there married to Miss Charlotte Guttry, and John W. was their only child. The mother died when he was young, and he afterward went with his father to Kansas, remaining there until eighteen years of age. Then, in company with Elijah Shaffer, with whom he had been partially raised, he came to Montana. During the journey they were troubled with Indians stealing their horses, and four months, from May until September, was spent on the road. Mr. McCarty came direct to the Bitter Root val- ley, where he worked for wages on farms six years. In the fall of 1870 he homesteaded 160 acres of his present farm, afterward pre-empted forty acres, and his first resi- dence had a dirt roof. Since 1883 a good farm dwelling has adorned the place. Mr. McCarty is engaged in gen- eral farming and stock-raising.

Ile was married May 22, 1870, to Miss Etta Backus, a native of Ohio. They have had eleven children, eight of whom are now living-Sarah Margaret, Frank, Oliver and Olive (twins), Florence and Lawrence (twins), Emmitt James and Lewis. One child, Francis, died at the age of

Lark. On Silver Sho ver Hill are the Morma- haul, Blue eyed Nell, Blizzard Point, Bald Eagle, Curlew, Zero, Silver King, Porphyry, Topaz, Topaz East, Lone Star, Tilden, White Rock, Jessie, Jennie Hays, Francis, Morning Star, Ramshorn, Zero No. 2. In Boaz Gulch are the Lady, Appalachian, Bell-of-the- Woods, Sooner, Bluebird, Keystone, New Year's Calls, Electric, Red Cloud, Storm, Red Rock, Red Branch, West Branch, White Eagle, Comstock, Jim Conway, Capital Prize, Snow- flake, Rising Sun and Alabama. On Cot-

twelve years. Mr. and Mrs. McCarty are members of the Christian Church, and the former affiliates with the Republican party.

HON. LAON A. HUFFMAN, of Miles City, was elected by the Republicans as a Representative in the Montana Legis- lature from Custer county in 1882. His life had been such as eminently to qualify him for that responsible po- sition, he having for many years hunted, scouted and photographed in the best scenic regions of the great West. Ile saw the great possibilities of the future growth and the greatness of Montana, especially the Yellowstone valley, if irrigated. Accordingly, when a synopsis of the Bradford irrigation hill, early in that session, was pre- sented to him, he immediately lent his valuable aid to Mr. Bradford and his associates in completing the bill prior to its introduction. The bill bearing his name, while it failed of the necessary support to become a law, contains to-day many valuable provisions, and will doubt- less form the ground-work for the much needed irriga- tion law which doubtless will be passed by the next legis- lative assembly in Mr. Huffman's State. He was simply in advance of the main column. His idea is correct and must soon find place in the statute books.

He was born in Winneshiek county, Iowa, on the old military trail west of McGregor, in 1852, a son of P. C. and Chestina (Baird) Huffman. His father wasa pioneer farmer in that region. Laon grew up on the farm, at- tending the public schools, where he laid a foundation from which he has since builded a fund of knowledge; at the same time he acquired the photographic art. He was a great admirer of the works of nature, and when twenty years of age made his way into the great West, where he explored the Rocky mountain region, hunting and photographing and reveling in the beauties and sub- limities of nature so lavishly spread out in the mountain- ons West. While he has not made a fortune he has by untiring energy and increasing industry acquired a com- petency and a delightful home, a residence with all the modern equipments, a home of comfort where he enjoys life with his estimable wife and bright children.

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tonwood creek are the Monitor, Tiger, Kal- amazoo, Cottonwood, Silver Crown, Elk- horn, Morning Star, Alleghany, Madison River and Silver Tip. On Pole creek are the Iron Knight, Iron Age, Cynthia, Michigander, Ga- lena and several other mining claims.

On Madison, Below Cherry creek, are a group of mines, and above Cherry creek the Red Jacket, Yellow Jacket, Summit and Local Option have been located on the same vein of argentiferous galena. There is a group of twelve mineral claims on Washington Bar. On

After traveling over several of the Western States and Territories, he located in 1879 at Fort Keogh, where he engaged in hunting buffalo in the surrounding country for two winters. Such employment was then a profitable business. He was also the post photographer and did much scenic art work in the vicinity among the Indians, also in the Yellowstone National Park. An interesting chapter in the history of eastern Montana's early growth might be, and undoubtedly some time will be, written by Mr. Huffman. Standing in his quarters at Fort Keogh he witnessed the wagon train of the Northern Pacific Railroad engineers surveying for the final location of that line of road as it emerged on the fringe of timber on Tongue river. He also witnessed the building of the ice bridge and the transferring of this railway's locomotive and the material for the construction of the road across the Missouri river on the ice.

He is a profound thinker, progressive as well as con- servative, always looking at the agrarian principles in- volved in any measure, supporting very strongly in the legislature a bill the intent of which was to extend to the people the privilege of paying one-half of their taxes on the first of the year, the balance six months later, thereby avoiding the large accumulation of the people's money in the hands of county treasurers who in turn interested the banks of the several counties of the State with their money and influence in the biennial fight for the election of treasurers. Mr. Huffman believed and still believes, that no better security for public moneys can be had than the security which the several counties have upon the real and personal property of its inhabitants, and that a corrupting element in local politics would have been re- moved by the passage of such a law. This bill also failed of becoming a law by reason of the executive veto. It is certain, however, at this writing, that the financial expe- riences and the maelstrom of business failures, bank fail- ures, the trouble and inconvenience to several counties in pushing the bondsmen of unfortunate county treasurers, together with the additional fact that the press of Mon- tana, or that portion of it which opposed this law in 1892, are now advocating it.

the Madison, thirteen miles cast of Virginia City, is a group of copper mines carrying good proportions of gold and silver. About thirty- five miles above the last named mines and on the other side of the Madison, another gronp of mines have been discovered and in part de- veloped. The mines make a good showing in both of these camps on the Upper Madison.

These facts do not record half the mines and mining claims in Madison, but show that the miners of this country will have mines and prospects enough to last them the next hundred

While at Fort Keogh in the early days Mr. Huffman witnessed many sad and stirring scenes connected with the final settlement of the Indian trouble, which made travel in this locality and between Fort Keogh and the Missouri river extremely hazardous. He was present at the noted interview held between General Miles and the Spotted Eagle band of Indians, and was also present, an eye witness, at the time that noted band of savages were bundled upon steamboats with all their savage parapher- nalia and with pitiable lamentations shipped down the river to a reservation where they have since been located.

One of his earliest business ventures in Montana was the building of a cattle ranch on what is now known as the Lame Deer Battle Ground at Lame Deer, Montana, near the head waters of the Rosebud. This is the place where that noted chief Lame Deer lost his head, is re- puted to have been killed and had it cut off by the sol- diers. He has also interests in the Cook City mines, and is the secretary and treasurer of the Cook City Mining Com- pany in the New World Mining District.

In 1883 he married Miss Lizzie Ann Skinner, a dangh- ter of Charles and Eliza (Plum) Skinner. Her father when a young man was an advance agent for Joseph Jef- ferson, the actor, and after marriage was proprietor for many years of the Mansion House on Lake street in Chi- cago. Her mother was born in Zanesville, Ohio. IIer brother Charles served in the Eighty-eighth Illinois Vol- unteer Infantry during the late war, known as the Second Chicago Board of Trade Regiment. C. P. Comstock, for many years a well known member of the Board of Trade of Chicago, was a stepbrother to Mrs. Huffman. Mr. Huffman and wife have two interesting daughters, Bes- sie and Ruth. Mr. Iluffman is a man who advocates prog- ress and the maintenance of morals; takes a deep inter- est in the public schools; is an active member of the Board of School Trustees, and has been almost ever since the organization of the school district in which he lives; is a very busy man and yet has found time to fill some posi- tions of trust acceptably, including the office of County Commissioner, etc. Withal, is a sound Republican, ad- vocating the protective system. He is the leading pho-

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years. It sometimes appears that the great number of mines is an injury to the individual owners and the community rather than a bene- fit. When a prospector has discovered three or four leads, it often takes all his time to repre- sent and partially develop them. In this way real bonanzas have been kept in the back ground, which would have been developed and made men rich had the discoverer not been burdened with representing other less valuable properties.

tographer in eastern Montana, conducting a photograph- ing and publishing business both at Miles City and Bil- lings, Montana.

J. B. COOPER, a well known and highly respected eit- izen of Billings, Montana, was born in Georgia in March, 1848, and was reared and educated in the South.

In 1862 he entered the Confederate service and re- mained on duty until the elose of the war, participating in numerous engagements. He was afterward in the regu- lar army for three years, stationed at Forts Rice and Beau- fort.

In 1868 Mr. Cooper came to Miles City, Montana. La- ter he located in Junetion, Yellowstone conuty, and from there came to his present location on the Blue Creek bot- toms, near Billings, where he is now engaged in ranching, being the owner of 1,280 acres of fine land and carrying on his operations on an extensive scale.

During his early experience iu Montana Mr. Cooper had frequent dealings with the Indians, and was on many a buffalo hunt. A record of all his pioneer life and ex- ploits would fill a volume.

Mr. Cooper was married in 1868, and he and his wife are the parents of six children, two sons and four daugh- ters, the eldest being twenty-two and the youngest nine years of age.

ROBERT L. Mc CULLOH, vice-president of the Montana National Bank, Helena, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, September 11, 1845. He is of Scotch-Irish deseent, his ancestors having come to Amer- ica previous to the Revolution, in which they were en- gaged on the side of American independence, and settled in Pennsylvania. In that State several generations of the family were born. His father, Robert McCulloh, married Elizabeth W. Gleim, also a native of Pennsylvania. Both were members of the Presbyterian Church, and they and their family were people of prominence in the commu- nity in which they lived. They had four children. Rob- ert MeCulloh died when in his forty-third year. His good wife lived to be seventy-six.

Robert L. McCulloh was educated in the public schools of St. Louis, to which place the family had moved when he was eight years old. When he was twenty-one he left St. Louis, where he had been employed since his twelfth

Late developments in the group of mines on the Big Hole show the advantages which often come with development and never without it. "The Madison County Gold Mine Limited " and the contract for a forty-stamp mill, are the fruits of a little late work on old prospects.

MEAGHER COUNTY.

The railroad from Great Falls to the mines has greatly stimulated the mining operations at all the mining camps in the Little Belt moun- tains. Its influence is specially felt at Neihart

year, and found employment in a country store in the central part of the State. In 1870 he came to Montana and settled in Helena, where he was employed by the Diamond R Freight Line, E. G. Maclay & Company, pro- prietors. Colonel Broadwater was a member of the firm and largely interested in the business, and he and Mr. MeCulloh became warm friends. In 1879 Mr. McCulloh went to Fort Assiniboine, where Colonel Broadwater was post trader, and became identified with the business. In 1882 the Colonel retired from his position at Fort Assini- boine, and Mr. McCulloh was appointed post trader; and remained there as a member of the firm of Broadwater, McCulloh & Company until 1891, doing a large and lu- crative business. He then returned to Helena, and was soon after elected cashier of the Montana National Bank, which position he filled until January, 1893, when he was elected to his present office, that of vice-president of the bank. In his will Colonel Broadwater named Mr. McCul- loh as executor of his estate, in connection with Mr. Mur- phy, who declined to serve, and Mr. McCulloh has per- formed the duties of that important trust. He is also one of the trustees of the Montana Savings Bank.

In 1873 he was married to Elizabeth H. Blanchard, a native of Utah, and a daughter of John R. Blanchard. Their only surviving son, Carroll B., is now attending school at Faribault, Minnesota.

JOHN W. COTTER, City Attorney of Butte City, was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on the 14th of May, 1861, of Irish parentage. His father, Michael Cotter, was born in the city of Cork, Ireland, in 1830, lost his parents when he was nine years of age, and at sixteen he came to America to make his own way in the world. After his arrival he was employed in New York and Pennsylvania in any work that came to hand. In 1854 he came west- ward to Des Moines, and in 1859 married Miss Ellen Snl- livan, a native of Augusta, Maine, and of Irish ancestry who had long been residents of Virginia.

In 1862 he made a trip to California in search of gold, mining and doing other work for five years there, and re- turning with some of the metal to his wife and two chil- dren in Des Moines. For some years following he was in the employ of Polk & Hubbel in the construction of the Des Moines water-works and in the laying and repairing,

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and Barker. At Barker a new furnace has been erected, a large amount of development work has been done and the ores in large quantities have been shipped and proved rich from many of the mines; and a large number of new discoveries have been made and recorded.

Neihart has passed through years of great activity in mining circles. New mines have been located, old claims opened up and a vast amount of work done in sinking shafts, running tunnels and levels and shipping ores. Quite a number of the mines have changed hands and

etc., of their pipe lines. In 1879 he met with an accident in a coal mine, which resulted in his death. His good wife still survives him, residing at the old home in Des Moines, now in her fifty-seventh year. They were mem- bers of the Catholic Church. They had seven children, -five sons and two daughters.

John W., their eldest, received his education in the parochial schools in Des Moines. and began for himself the battle of life at the early age of eleven years, enter- ing a cigar factory, where he at first received as wages $2.50 a week while he boarded himself at home. At the age of fourteen he received journeyman's wages, which amounted to $12 to $14 per week. After continuing in this business steadily until he was twenty-four years of age, he entered the office of Hon. C. C. Cole, afterward Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Iowa, and read law there three years, and in 1887 was admitted to the bar. He continued with the Judge nearly a year longer, and in 1888 went to Seattle and to Baker City, Oregon, and finally, in 1889, came to Butte, where he at once opened his law practice, where he still remains, at No. 14 West Park street. The following January he received the appointment of Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Silver Bow county, and filled that office until May, 1891, at which time he took the office of City Attorney, being elected to this position for a term of two years. At the expiration of this term he was re-elected, and is there- fore now serving his second term. In his views of national questions he is a Republican. In 1892 he was a public speaker for his party in the campaign, and the following year was the only one on his ticket elected, having run far ahead of the other candidates.

Ile is a member of the Silver Bow Club and of the American-Irish Club. Hle gives his law practice his whole attention, and has earned and secured the confi- dence of the people.

ISAIE POITRAS, the village blacksmith of Laurin, Men- tana, dates his arrival in this State in 1866. As one of its pioneers and worthy citizens he is entitled to some per- sonal mention in this work. Briefly, a sketch of his life is as follows:

capital and enterprises have gravitated toward the many rich mines of Neihart. This activity has been stimulated at least by the railroad from Great Falls.

The Castle mines have more than sustained the predictions made years since of their vast deposits of rich ores. The Cumberland, Yel- lowstone, Great Eastern, California, Legal Ten- der, Judge and others have been developed into great mines. The hopes of railroads from Hel- ena and Livingston and Great Falls have filled this ever active camp with new life. Discov-

Isaie Poitras was born in Canada, August 25, 1840, the son of French-Canadian parents. His great-grandfather, Benjamin Poitras, emigrated to America from France aud settled on Paro Island in the St. Lawrence river. His son Benjamin was born there and lived to be 101 years old. F X. Poitras, the son of Benjamin Poitras, Jr., was the father of our subject. He married Mary Celes, a native of Canada and a descendant of emigrants from France, and this worthy couple became the parents of five sons. The father was an architect and contractor, his work be- ing chiefly on large buildings, such as churches, mills, etc. He died in Canada, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. His wife died in 1846, in her twenty-fifth year.

The subject of this sketch was the eldest child in his father's family. He was educated in Canada and there learned the trade of blacksmith. May 15, 1865, he bade adieu to home and native land and directed his course toward St. Joseph, Missouri, where he worked at his trade for a time; thence to Fort Kearney, where he ran a shop from March until May; and thence to Virginia City, Montana. Upon his arrival here he was employed by Mr. Ambrose Patenande for $125 and board per month. Later he and Mr. Joseph Piget purchased the business and ran it for two years, making a deal of money. Mr. Poitras was in Virginia City during the ex- citing times in the early history of Montana and saw many road agents hung. While working there he made as high as $100 in a single day. The price for shoeing a horse was $7, and the price for making a miner's pick was $15. But while money was easily made it was also easily lost, and in an unfortunate investment Mr. Poitras sunk his accumulations. In 1869 we find him at Ban- nack, where for a time he worked for Mayor Watson. Next he ran a shop on the shares and did well, in this way continuing for six months. In the spring he formed a partnership with James P. Murry, which relation lasted uutil Mr. Murry was elected Sheriff, and after that Mr. Poitras continued the business alone a year longer. IIe then removed to Glendale and built a shop, in which he did business a year and a half and was prosperous. This shop he sold for $1,000, and after selling it he re urned

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eries have been developed into bright prospects, bright prospects into paying mines, and paying mines into bonanzas; but the owners, after working and waiting for the iron horse, some- times become discouraged and quit work; and the camp becomes less hopeful and active. The fires in the furnace have smouldered for months. A railroad would make Castle a great camp.

The Alabama is the pioneer discovery in a new camp some three miles from White Sul- phur Springs. A little development work has

to Canada. That was in 1880. After a visit of four months he came back to Montana, and again worked at Glendale, this time for the Hecla Company. A few months later he went to Butte City and accepted a position with the Silver Bow Mining Company. Subsequently he was em- ployed by the Lexington Company and the Bluebird Company, altogether working on miners' tools, for a pe- riod of eleven years. His next move was to Laurin. Here he opened a shop, and has since been known as the village blacksmith. All honor to the men who with with brawny arms and sturdy blows maintain themselves in this vocation.

Fraternally, Mr. Poitras is a blue lodge Mason; polit- ically, a stanch Republican.

GEORGE M. BROWN, of Dillon, Montana, was born in the county of Fife, Scotland, in the month of August, 1836. His early education was acquired at St. Andrews. His mother was a Miss Mitchell, of St. Andrews Parish. Young Brown attended at that place the Madras College, founded by Dr. Bell, continuing in school at irregular intervals until he was thirteen years of age, when he be- came an apprentice to a carpenter and joiner. At the age of twenty-two he emigrated to America, arriving in New York in 1858. From that place he went to Kansas, where he engaged in carpentering for one year. During the Pike's Peak excitement he went to Colorado, where he was employed as a carpenter, also mining to some ex- tent in Russell's Gulch until 1862. In that year he started for the Idaho mines, his destination being Florence. He only reached Lemhi, and from there turned off to Deer Lodge, Montana, finally reaching Bannack City. His party was the first to discover gold at that point, one of his party, John White, being the first one to find gold in that camp. There he mined, with varying degrees of success, until 1870, when he embarked in the stock- raising business, which pursuit he has continued ever since. In 1891 he removed to Dillon, and, purchasing a home, has since been a resident of this city.

Mr. Brown has been an active Republican throughout his life, and has served as a member of the Board of County Commissioners for Beaver Ilead county at various times since 1866. In 1892 he was elected to the State Senate from Beaver Head county, and in the discharge of his official duties has ever been found true and faithful.

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An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 150

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