An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 25

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 25

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It would be difficult to speak too strongly of the use- fulness of a life like that of Samuel T. Hauser, whose every work has been followed by beneficial results for the bettering of others. To few men, indeed, in a generation are such rich natural gifts and qualifications given as those with which he has been endowed, and which he has used so wisely, so untiringly and so freely in the building up and bringing to the highest point of success attainable of every interest that has been so fortunate as to secure his assistance, co-operation and connection. Ilis appearance would carry out the estimate one would make of him in reading the story of his life-a hand- some, kindly, manly countenance, with broad, noble brow and eyes that seem to look through you in their clear and penetrating glance.

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that they always not only let me pass, but sometimes helped me with pack horses; and so lucky miners used to have me help them out of the mines with their gold dust. I conducted Bill Rhodes, the man who found Rhodes' creek, down to Walla Walla. Rhodes was a mulatto from northern California, where he was some- times called Black Bill, and had got badly in debt there. He was a big-hearted man and poured out his gold like water all along the road to poor miners whom we met on the way, saying all the time that he 'only wanted enough

THE BUTTE BUSINESS COLLEGE, Butte City, Montana, although an institution of but a few years' standing, has attained a position among the leading colleges of its kind in the West. It was established in this city in 1890 by Messrs. Rice and Kern, and opened with six pupils. For two years it met with a fair degree of success. At the end of that time Mr. Kern sold his interest to his partner, A. F. Rice, who has since been its sole proprietor and under whose efficient management it has greatly pros- pered. It has now an attendance of eighty pupils.

The elegant apartments occupied by the Butte Business College are in the Owsley block at the corner of Main and Park streets. The college is open to girls and boys, and ladies and gentlemen, and particular attention is given to those who have had little previous instructions. The value of an institution of this kind to a city or community can hardly be overestimated. Its curriculum embraces three parts: The commercial course, including book- keeping, letter-writing, commercial law, penmanship, spel- ling, commercial arithmetic, grammar; the English course, including reading, penmanship, spelling, arithmetic, gram- mar, letter-writing, history and geography; and the short- hand course, including Graham's standard phonography, spelling, grammar, punctuation and letter-writing. Some personal mention of the enterprising young man at the head of this college is appropriate here, and is as follows:

Prof. A. F. Rice was born in Missouri in 1867. His peo- ple had gone to that State from Tennessee, and his par- ents, Frank and Mary (Sanders) Rice, were industrious and highly respected farmers and were worthy members of the Baptist Church. They had a family of ten chil- dren, six of whom are living, A. F. being the seventhi born. Both parents are deceased, the father dying at the age of forty-nine and the mother at forty-five. A. F. Rice was educated in the public schools and at the Central Busi- ness College in Sedalia, Missouri. While in college he became proficient in penmanship, and afterward taught penmanship several terms. He came to Butte City in 1889 and had classes here previous to the opening of the college above referred to.

Prof. Rice was married June 4, 1890, to Miss Ida Phipps,

left to get back to Yreka and pay his debts with:' which he did. But the generous fellow, like Jim Warren, who found the Warren Dig- gings, never made another big strike.

" And now I want to say something about this man Warren, whom Mr. Bancroft calls . a shiftless individual, petty gambler, worthless prospector,' and the like bad names; " and I see, by the way, he says near about as hard things of General Grant. Was it because these men would not or could not read or subscribe to his books? Now, I have nothing against Mr. Bancroft. He

a native of his own State and a lady of rare accomplish- ments, she being a musician and stenographer. She has charge of the shorthand department of the college and also gives instructions in instrumental music, and is thus an able assistant to her husband, both alike being popular and having an enviable reputation for the excellence of their work. He and his wife are attendants at the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, and his political affiliations are with the Republican party.

MICHAEL CONNORS, of Helena, came to Montana in 1866, and has since been identified with its interests.

Mr. Connors was born in county Limerick, Ireland, May 11, 1840, and at the age of seven years accompanied his parents to Canada, where he spent his youth and at- tended the common schools of the Dominiou. At the age of twenty-one he went to California, engaged in the Ium- ber business at Redwood, San Mateo county, and remained there until 1864. That year he removed to Idaho City and turned his attention to mining. Early in the spring of 1866 he started for Montana, reaching his destination in March. That was during the palmy days of Bear Gulch, and he was one of the fortunate placer miners there. In the fall of that year he went to Butte and spent some time in mining on Silver Bow creek and in Missoula Gulch. At that time there were but few people in what is now the most populous city of Montana and the greatest min- ing camp in the world. In the spring of 1868 he started on another prospecting tour, and was one of the four men who discovered the Dry Gulch placers at the head of Race Track creek in the Deer Lodge valley. After work- ing there two years he disposed of his interests and in 1871 went to Peace river, Alaska, where, however, he re- mained only a short time, returning to the United States. IIe prospected in different places in this country, went thence to British America, came back to the United States and prospected and miued in Nevada and Arizona until the Black ITills excitement in 1876, when we find him in Dakota. The following year he came again to Montana, and prospected and mined in different sections.

* H. Il. Bancroft, 26th vol., p. 258.

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says not one hard word of me or my express, although he might find occasion, for it is mighty hard work to handle and conduct mil- lions of gold dust and please all. To think of it! Once we had a lucky crowd of Florence miners tie an old tent, rocker, pans, picks, blankets, every- thing on mules, and meekly and humbly lead them out in a long, mournful line, as if they were the worst used-up and discouraged miners in the world. Old rubber boots hung down on either side of the mules and stuck ont under the rag- ged and tattered old traps; but every rubber

In August, 1886, he discovered the Ontario mine, in Deer Lodge county. This proved a very rich gold and silver find. In 1891 he disposed of his half interest in the prop- erty for a large sum of money, and since that date has made his home in Helena, enjoying the competency gained by years of faithful search and untiring energy.

Mr. Connors was married in Helena, June 7, 1893, to Miss Katherine McAndrews, formerly of Pennsylvania.

ISAAC N. WOODS, a Montana pioneer of 1864, and one of her enterprising and successful mining men, was born in Princeton, Indiana, February 12, 1840.

He is a descendant of English ancestors, who were among the early settlers of the South. His grandfather, Isaac Woods, was born near Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and in 1800, removed to Indiana and became one of the pioneer farmers of that State. He married, reared nine children, and lived to be 102 years of age. His son, Isaac H., was born in Indiana, in 1808, was reared there to farm life, and became the husband of Miss Nancy Pain, a native of Kentucky. Her people were early settlers of Kentucky, and the men in both the Woods and Pain families were participants in the Black Hawk war. Isaac and Nancy Woods became the parents of ten chil- dren, of whom five are living. Both parents reached a good old age, he being eighty-three at the time of death, and she seventy-eight. They were stanch members of the Presbyterian Church.

Isaac N. Woods, the subject of this sketch, is the fifth one in the Woods family who has borne the name of Isaac. He was fifth in order of birth of the seven chil- dren above referred to. At Princeton, Indiana, he was reared and educated, and had attained his majority only a short time before the civil war burst upon the country. He at once enlisted in the Union service and became a member of the Fifty-eighth Indiana Band. Ile was under General Buell in Kentucky, Tennessee and Ala- bama, and was in the service one year, after which the bands were dispersed; he was honorably discharged and returned to his home.

Being of an adventurous nature, which had been sharp- ened and intensified by his army experience, he was not

boot was stuffed with bags of gold dust. Each man in that doleful looking crowd had at least a hundred pounds of gold dust; and this was only one of many ways in which we carried ex- press. But to return to Mr. Bancroft.

"I do not know much about General Grant, but I do know that Jim Warren was a good man. The country was full of good men, but I think that of all the twenty or thirty thousand there was not a better or warmer-hearted man than big Jim Warren. If he was so worthless, how did he come to push out across the river into an

satisfied to remain at home but decided to seek the gold fields of Montana, of which he had heard wonderful stories. Accordingly, with an ox-team outfit and in com- pany with a large train, composed of forty-eight wagons, he started across the plains. Their journey was long and tedious, covering a period of nine months, but was at- tended with no misfortune, and late in August, 1864, they landed at Virginia City. From there Mr. Woods pro- ceeded to Alder Gulch, where he secured a claim and mined for about a year. That was at the time when the road agents infested the country and when the lives and property of the good citizens were in danger. He joined the vigilants and did his part toward putting a stop to the depredations that were being committed on all sides. His mining operations at Alder Gulch were very success- ful, but in 1865, the people at this place nearly all began to move on to Last Chauce Gulch, and he went too, arriv- ing there soon after the first log house was built in what is now the rich and beautiful city of IIelena. At Helena he secured several mining claims, and here, too, his min- ing operations were successful; but, like the other miners, he was not satisfied to remain in one camp, and ere long we find him in Bear Gulch, Deer Lodge county, and then at Deep Gulch. At the last named place in one summer he took out $20,000 in gold. His next move was to High- land, then in Deer Lodge county, but now in Silver Bow county, and from there he returned to Virginia City and began quartz mining, in which he has since coutinued, now having a number of gold claims there. At this writ- ing he is operating claims in the Tidal Wave district, all of which he discovered himself and upon which he has made extensive improvements. He is now building a twenty-stamp mill. The ore is free gold and yields $25 to the ton. In this enterprise Mr. Woods has associated with him Mr. J. S. Smith and E. H. Cooper.

During the three decades Mr. Woods has been a resi- dent of Montana, he has been an eye witness to the mar- velous developments which have been made, and he has not only been a witness to these changes but he has also done his part toward bringing them about by helping to develop the great mineral resources of the State. He

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utterly unexplored country and right into the heart of the hostile Indian territory? How did he do all this? He had a big pack team, and was a big man all around. His partner was Jeff Standifer, a hero in the early days of I-dah-ho and the manliest-looking man I ever set eyes on.

" And now for a few other mistakes of Mr. Bancroft's:

"Dr. Ferber and his daughter Florence, after whom the town of Florence was named, did not come to the new mines in the spring of 1862. He got in there in the fall of 1861, and had a

takes a just pride in Montana and especially in Butte City, where he makes his home.

Politically, he has always affiliated with the Democratic party.

HENRY M. PATTERSON, Butte City's most prominent and reliable architect, is a native of Ohio, born in Savan- nah, Ashland county, May 5, 1856.

His father, John Patterson, was born in Scotland in 1810, and was reared and educated in his native land, and there learned the carpenter trade. In 1835 he emigrated to this country, landing in New York city, and subse- quently removing to Ohio, where he purchased land and settled down to farming. He was married in Ohio, January 5, 1843, to Miss Christiana Lawson, who was born in Aber- deen, Scotland, in 1820. They became the parents of ten children, of whom eight are living. After a long and useful life he passed away in 1892, at the age of eighty- two years. He was a generous, whole-souled man, a hater of oppression and wrong in any form, and his house was one of the "under ground railroad" stations, where many a poor frightened slave found shelter and food. In his religious views he was a Baptist. Ilis good wife sur- vives him and still resides at the old home in Ohio, to which he had retired some time before his death.

Henry M. Patterson was educated in the public schools of Savannah and in the academy at that place. After leaving school he served an apprenticeship to the car- penter's trade and then worked a year at his trade in Savannah. In 1881 he came to Montana and located in Butte City. His brother, Alexander, is also a resident of this place. lIere the subject of our sketch worked as a journeyman one year, and after that launched out as a contractor and bnilder. During all the time he was en- gaged in contracting and building he was constantly studying architecture and gradually worked into it, finally devoting his time and attention exclusively to architecture. As samples of his work he points with pride to the Murray Ilospital, the Intermountain Build- ing, and the Public Library, three of the most substantial structures in Butte City.

Mr. Patterson was married in 1883, to Miss Thressa

drug store and his family on a mule train, and wanted to stop and put up a tent at Millersburg, where we had opened our express office. But he was asked such a ronsing price for lots that he did not unpack, but went on across the creek and up Baboon Gulch to a big, high, open, flat, where he unpacked and put up his big, ronnd tent, and named the place Florence. It soon be- came the center, and we moved our express office into that big tent and staid till a log house was bnilt.

"One thing more: Florence was not thirty

Anna Scott. After a brief and happy married life, she died, leaving twins, Bessie D. and Charles T. December 29, 1891, he married Miss Jeannette Andrews, of Chilli- cothe, Ohio. They reside in one of the pleasant homes of Butte City.

Both he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church, and he is an Elder in the church. His political affiliations are with the Republican party. He is a man of broad information and the highest integrity, is public- spirited and enterprising, and is justly deserving of the proud position he holds among the leading business men of this prosperous Western city.

DAVID H. COHEN, of Butte City, came to Montana in 1865 and has had many and varied experiences, iu busi- ness and otherwise, during both the early and later set- tlement of this part of the world.

He was born March 12, 1833, in Germany, of German parentage and ancestry, was educated in his native land" and learned the tailor's trade there. In 1852, in his nine- teenth year, he emigrated to America, landing at New York a poor young man and ignorant of the English language. For six weeks he worked at his trade as journeyman in New York and then sailed for San Fran- cisco, crossing the isthmus. On the Pacific side the vessel had on board 600 passengers, among whom the Asiatic cholera broke out, carrying away fifty-three of them. He escaped the (horrible disease and arrived safely at his destination June 16.

Going by way of Sacramento to Calaveras county, he engaged in placer mining at Jackson, and some days made as high as $80 to $100. He had water only when it rained, but he adhered to the business for three years. With some money he went to Sierra county, looking for better diggings and where there was more water. He mined at Rabbit Creek, now La Porte, with success. Next, he purchased a billiard hall and continued in business there about four years. The Fraser river excitement then waving over the land, he sold ont and took the ship Victoria, at San Francisco, for the headquarters of the excitement, and remained in that country about six months. Not meeting, however, with the success he had

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miles from Millersburg but, as you see, must have been a mighty short mile.

" Another thing: Ponies and pack trains did not come in across the mountains to Florence from Elk City, but from the exactly opposite direction. You might as well try to send a pack train across Puget Sound. We did not even send a snow-shoe express to our office in Elk City by that way. Then, too, there was not a boat on the Columbia, or anywhere else up there, called Idaho before the Florence mines were found, and the Indian name of Mount I-dah-ho became fa- mons, though Mr. Bancroft says there was one for eighteen months there before Col. Craig, the old companion of Gen. I. I. Stevens, popularized this old Indian name of Mount I-dah-ho, and so named the present State of Idaho. If there ever

expected, he returned to La Porte, and followed mining there until 1862.

Then he started on foot, with provisions and blankets, for Nevada, camping out at night, and he arrived safely after making that wild aud tedious trip. Reaching Vir- ginia City September 22, 1862, he found all the mines had been "gobbled up," and after remaining there a time he started with a company for Cliffton, now Austin, where he was engaged in the liquor business until 1864. Selling out at length, he prospected some in quartz mining. In the spring of 1865 he bought a team and drove to Salt Lake City, arriving in April. He there learned that Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated. Next he went to Alder Gulch, arriving May 16, 1865, where he found flour at $70 to $80 per sack; it had been $100 a sack shortly before that. He engaged in placer mining, but did not succeed with it, and he packed his blankets to the Black- foot country and arrived at Ophir City. There he found there had been a stampede, and he followed it and was the thirteenth man to arrive at MeClellan Gulch; his claim was therefore No. 13.

It was September, 1865, when he took out on an average $50 a day, for six weeks. Winter then came on and he was obliged either to build a cabin and store up provis- ions for the long, cold season or sell out. He did the latter, coming to Helena. There he remained until 1867, engaged to a limited extent in speculating, and then went to Austin, Nevada, to see his brother and with the intention of going to Europe; but the White Pine coun- try had just been discovered and he decided to go there, and there he arrived on the 22d day of July, 1868, but found that he was too early for business, so returned to Austin, took the overland route East and returned to Ger-

was such a boat at such a time the records would show it.

" Finally, one little thing more: I had served in the Indian war with Judge Hayes, of Olym- pia, and he and Garfield and Lander were my old friends when they came to Walla Walla on their way to speak in Oro Fino in the summer of 1861. It was arranged before they came that I should escort them, and I did so. It was a new world to them but old to mne, and they nat- urally asked many questions in that two-hun- dred-mile ride up winding, Indian trails. But they could not have heard from mine or from any man's lips, as Mr. Bancroft says, the word Idaho, for no man had yet uttered it. The pretty name sounded quite differently, and to me was even sweeter than the present way of

many. There he married, December 12, 1868, Miss Re- gina Dawson, a native of that country.

After a few months spent there he returned with his bride to Austin, Nevada. This good wife is still spared to him, having all along been of great help to him. They have three sons: Adolph, Morris and Heury,-all now men. The eldest is in the fruit business with his father, and the others are in the employ of the Great Northern Express Company.

They resided in Austin until 1870, then went to Schell- bourne and lived there three years, and in 1876 came to Butte. Here he formed a partnership with Henry Jonas in the tailoring business at Deer Lodge, and later they transferred their business to Butte. Two years afterward Mr. Cohen engaged in general merchandising, which he continued for four years, and then embarked in the wholesale and retail liquor trade. Prospering, he became at length the owner of the winter garden and built a nice house, for which he has been offered $10,000; but in 1883 he became interested in building up the mining town of Eagle, in the Coeur d'Alene country. After spending a great deal of money in the enterprise the camp went down, he dropped his footing there and returned to Butte: but the rents being high he has embarked only in the fruit and cigar trade in a small way.

Here he pre-empted and owned the cemetery ground, and, being liberal, donated freely from the same to the various religious denominations for cemetery purposes, and it is now a valuable property.

Mr. Cohen is a member of the 1. O. O. F., the Hebrew Benevolent Society and the 1. O. B. B. In his political prin- ciples he is a Democrat, is a peaceable, quiet, intelligent gentleman, an enterprising business man, and he aud his family enjoy the respect of the entire community.

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saying it; for the accent was all on the second syllable, like the names of the Indian streams along there, such as Pe-tah-ha, Al-pow -a, Sho- sho-nee.

"One thing more: Flour did not sell for twenty-four dollars per pound in Walla Walla, or even as high as one-hundredth part, that winter or ever at any other time. I had my fam- ily with me there, and was attending to that end of my express line while Joaquin Miller attend- ed to the end in the mines. We had to feed inany men and also much stock for the road, and I had to keep well-posted in prices.

HON. BENJAMIN F. WHITE, ex-Governor of Montana, and one of the most influential and successful citizens, is a native of the State of Massachusetts, born in New Bed- ford, December 3, 1838.

He is of old English ancestry, some of his ancestors having sailed on the first voyage of the Mayflower and landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. Indeed, he is a direct descendant of P. Smith, the first child born after the landing of the Pilgrims. They have been a temperate, industrious and God-fearing family, noted for their inte- grity of character and also for their longevity. In Mas- sachusetts and Rhode Island for many years they were prominent and successful manufacturers of cotton goods, and for generations they took a prominent part in all that pertained to the well-being of church and state, being mostly Baptists in their religious faith. Both grandfather William White and Governor White's father, Benjamin White, were born in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The latter married Miss Caroline Stockbridge, a native of Hanover, Massachusetts. She was also a descendant of one of the old New England families. He was all his life a prominent manufacturer of cotton sheeting and candle wick, did a successful business, and died in the ninetieth year of his age. His widow now survives and is in her eighty-sixth year. They had two sons, George M. and Benjamin Franklin, the latter being the subject of this sketch.

Benjamin F. White was educated at Pearce Academy, Middleburg, Massachusetts. Being of an adventurous spirit, he took a fancy to the life of a seafaring man, and made his first voyage on the clipper ship Katha, as a sailor before the mast, from New York to Sidney, Aus- tralia. That was in 1854. His second voyage was to San Francisco, in 1856, and while there he abandoned the sea. In 1857, in Napa county, California, he took charge of an estate which was largely a fruit farm, and continued there until 1866, at which time he removed to Idaho. While in California he had read law during his leisure hours, and in Idaho, in 1868, he was admitted to the bar

" Again: English and Scott and People's did not rob Mr. Berry of one-hundred ounces of gold dust. Nor were they hung by a mob at Walla Walla, but at Lewiston, three or four days' travel distant, as men traveled then. There never was a mob, vigilantes, or anything of that sort in this fair city. The presence of a large garrison would have made that impossible even had the people been disposed to it. But they never were. Such West Point men as Grant and Stevens and Mullen made their homes here front time to time. A large number of army officers always had their wives and children here

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An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 25

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