An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 27

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 27

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

SAN FRANCISCO, December 6, 1893.

I hereby certify that this is a true copy of a paper which was enclosed in a sealed envelope, directed to Mr. Hubert II. Bancroft.

JOHN F. PINKHAM, Marshal, Society of California Pioneers.

In accordance with this notification, your committee met on the 12th day of December, 1893, for the purpose therein stated. Mr. Ban-

croft not appearing before them, either in person or by representative, your committee requested Mr. Holladay to ascertain Mr. Bancroft's post- office address and to forward to him by regis- tered letter another copy of the charges, together with a further notification, fixing the 26th day of December upon which the committee would again meet, and give him another opportunity to be heard, if he desired to do so. Your com- mittee met again, on the date and at the hour mentioned in said last named notification, but Mr. Bancroft not appearing, and no response having been received from him, adjourned until the 9th day of Jannary, 1894. Mr. Bancroft not then appearing and no response having been received from him, your committee ad- journed until the 16th of January, 1894, at which time Mr. Bancroft still having failed to appear, and making no response, your com- mittee deemed it unnecessary to delay the in- investigation further and, therefore, proceeded to hear and consider the charges, which had been formulated by Mr. Farwell and so served upon Mr. Bancroft.

This indictment -- if we may so term it-is divided into seven counts, each one of which is made up of a group of specific charges, each of which charges your committee proceeded to carefully and patiently investigate by reference

in Helena the principal auctioneer of the city. During all these years Mr. Booker has had various partners, his present partner being James B. Loomis, their store being located at the corner of Park avenue and Edwards street.

Mr. Booker built his pleasant residence on one of the heights in the city of Helena, No. 305 Pine street, the view from which of the city and surrounding country is magnificent. Here he and his family are surrounded with all the comforts of life. He was married in 1872, to Miss Mattie E. Walton, a native of Missouri and a daugh- ter of Moses E. Walton, Esq., her father being now a resident of Silver City, Montana, where he is engaged in mining and farming. Mr. and Mrs. Booker have three children: Ethel Latieie, ('linton Talbert and Lester Harry, all natives of Helena.

Politically, Mr. Booker is a Democrat, and for many years he has been a member of the Fire Department of Helena. In 1868 he was made a Master Mason, and ever since that time has been devoted to the order. He has taken all the degrees in the blue lodge, chapter, conneil and commandry, has received the thirty-second degree in the Scottish rite, and has the honor of having filled nearly all the chairs iu all the branches of Masonry. He has been Secretary of Helena Lodge, No. 3, for twenty- two years; Helena Chapter, No. 2, five years; Helena Couneil, No. 9, sixteen years: Helena Commandry, No. 2,

eighteen years; Chapter Rose Croix, two years; and Al- gera Temple, A. O. O. N. M. S., four years, aud is at the present time (1893) Secretary of all the branches men- tioned. For two years he was Treasurer of the Grand Commandry of the State. Few have done more in Mon- tana to advance the interests of the order than has he, and from his brother Masons he has received the name of the "Eneyelopedia of the Order." At an early day during the Indian wars Mr. Booker served as transportation master, and rendered much valuable service in forwarding sup- plies to the soldiers.

THOMAS E. BRADY a resident of Great Falls and a prom- inent member of the bar of Cascade county, Montana, dates his birth in the parish of St. Antoine Abbey, Hunt- ingdon county, Province of Quebec, July 31, 1857. His father, Phillip Brady, was born in Ireland in 1819, and when sixteen years of age came to Canada and settled in Huntingdon county, where he was subsequently married to Miss Mary Murphy, a native of Canada, and of Irish parentage. They purchased a farm, settled on it and there reared their family of eleven childreu, Thomas E. being their seventh born: all are living except two. The par- ents celebrated their golden wedding April 11, 1892. and are still living. They are devout members of the Catholic Church and their lives have been characterized by honest industry.

138

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

to, and comparison with, the several volumes of "Bancroft's Histories," at the several pages therein specifically referred to. * *

Fifth-The apparently malignant, and cer- tainly cruel and unjust, attack upon the name and memory of General Grant, who, while liv- ing, was an honored, as well as an honorary member of this society, as set forth in the fifth count of this indictment, your committee find fully sustained, and cannot refrain from ex- pressing the opinion, that to retain the name of General Grant in its list of honorary mem- bers, together with that of his maligner, Hubert Howe Bancroft, would be an act of in- consistency unworthy of the name and fame of the Society of California Pioneers.

Sixth-The group of charges comprised in the sixth count of this indictment, wherein con- tradictory statements, in regard to early pioneers, apperr in the different editions of the same vol- umes, and the pusillanimous treatment of the late Judge Terry's conflict with the " Vigilance Committee " of 1856, as related and exposed, we find fully sustained.

Seventh-The closing, or seventh count of this already more than severe indictment, where-

Thomas E. Brady was reared on his father's farm and was educated in the common schools and the St. Theresa College, being a graduate of the latter institution with the class of 1880. In 1880 he had commenced the study of law in Plattsburg, New York, under the instructions of the firm of Palmer, Weed and Smith, and in due time com- pleted his course, was admitted to the bar and began the practice of his profession. He remained in Plattsburg until November, 1886, when he came to Montana.

Mr. Brady's first location in Montana was at Helena, where he remained six months. From there he came to Great Falls, arriving here May 16, 1887. He at once be- gan the practice of his profession here and has met with very satisfactory snecess, numbering among his clientage the largest business firms in this part of the State. His various investments have also proved fortunate. In company with others, he is largely interested in mining and sheep-raising, having as many as 12,000 sheep. IIe owns a large tract of ranch lands. Having been reared on a farm he acquired a love for fine horses, and he is now indulging himself in this fancy by raising trotting horses of the Belmont stock, some of his horses being specimens of which he may be justly proud. He is also largely interested in the fine and extensive system of water works in the city of Neihart, Montana, his brother William and he having received the franchise and con- structed them to completion.

When he first located here he invested in city real es-

in it is shown that Mr. Bancroft's methods of writing history are, to assert certain conclusions of his own, in regard to the men and events of the period of which he has written and to de- nonnce all who differ with him as "liars," no matter what part they may have played in these events, how much better may have been their opportunities of knowing the true facts of history, how upright may have been their lives, or how unsullied their reputations while living, we find fully sustained.

Finally, the case, as presented against Mr. Bancroft, as a whole, constitutes, in the opinion of your special committee, valid reasons why the name of Hubert Howe Bancroft should no longer be permitted to remain upon the roll of this society as an honorary member.

" Of conrse, I don't say that Mr. Bancroft has lied about us old fellows, but the old Californi- ans say he has lied and I say the old Californi- ans tell the truth and were right in expelling him for publishing so many errors concerning the moral character of the early prospectors of Montana. *

* And so I leave him for aye and for aye."

tate, all of which has greatly advanced in value. He built a fine residence in the town, which he and his family oc- cupy and where they are surrounded with the comforts of life. He also built a commodious barn in which he keeps his choice stock.

September 3, 1889, Mr. Brady was married in Platts- burgh, New York, to Miss M. E. Chauvin, daughter of E. Chauvin of that city. They have two children, Lillian M., and William T. C., both born in Great Falls.

Mr. and Mrs. Brady are active members of the Catholic Church. They helped to organize the church at Great Falls, have contributed largely toward its support and are ranked with its leading members. Politically, Mr. Brady is a Democrat, and for one year he has served as chairman of the Democratic city committee. He has, however, de- clined at all times all political nominations tendered him. and his sole aspiration is to rank well at the bar of justice,

WALTER MATHESON, who has been engaged in the real-estate business in Helena, Montana, since 1877, is one of the representative men of the city.

He was born in Simcoe, Canada, February 7, 1848, and resided there until he was seventeen years of age, when he removed to Toronto, where he graduated at the mili- tary college of that place. Previous to his going to Toronto he had attended the schools of his native town, and upon his removal to that place he began the study of law, and in due time graduated and was admitted to the bar. Then he returned to Simcoe, entered upon the

139

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

CHAPTER XI.

WHERE DOES GOLD COME FROM? - SPECULATION-GEOLOGICAL-GEOLOGY WITHOUT BOOKS.

"S URELY there is a vein for the silver and a place for gold where they fine it. "

This saying, from Job, as true to-day as in the time of the world's sublimnest poet, was very familiar in the months of the California miners of old. Their rendering of it, however, was less poetical by far, though the meaning was not so widely different. "Silver has veins, but gold is wherever you can find it." This was the gold miner's rendering of the inspired verse. For truly gold in the old days of placer-mining, be- fore men had traced gold from the gulch to its habitat and birth-place in the rocks, was wherever you could find it. "

In contemplating the wondrous story of Mon- tana we fall to marveling all the time why the

millions of gold were not discovered in the gulches here in some way long before they were.

"Tons of glittering gold lying all up and down the land in the very grass roots. " Trap- pers, traders, troops of soldiers for at least a full century, tramping this gold dust in the dirt; and even a decade or more after gold had been found in California,-even after placer fields had been emptied of their treasures to a great degree, and old miners were seeking new fields, still Montana slept on in her infant cradle, tin- disturbed for years by the clang and clatter of pick-ax and shovel in the gulches! Graduates of West Point, officers who were surely learned in all the mystery of precious minerals, spent season after season in Montana, notably Capt. John Mullen, in cutting out the Mullen mili-

CAPTAIN JAMES H. MILLS, one of Montana's repre- sentative citizens, who has been identified with this part of the country from its earliest settlement, is a native of New Lisbon, Ohio, born December 21, 1837.

Captain Mills descended from English and lolland ancestors, seven generations of the family having been born on American soil,-in Virginia, Maryland, Penn- sylvania and Ohio. Both his maternal and paternal an- cestors participated in the Revolutionary war. As far back as can be traced the Mills family have been mem- bers of the Presbyterian Church, and they were for the most part artisans. Captain Mills' father, George S. Mills, was born in Pennsylvania in 1815. His mother, Susan Davis, also a native of Pennsylvania, was a daughter of John Davis, of that State, who removed to Ohio about 1814. The father died in his sixty-fourth year, the mother's untimely death occurring when she was twenty-eight, their only child being James II.

After the death of his mother, the subject of our sketch went to live with a relative, by whom he was reared and educated, his schooling being received in Eastern Ohio and at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. In early lite he was inured to farm work, later engaged in mer-

practice of his profession, and continued his residence there until the spring of 1872, when he removed to Mon- tana and settled in the Yellowstone valley. He was one of the pioneers of that place and helped to found the town of Billings, the county seat of Yellowstone county, of which he was the first Mayor, serving in that capacity two years. He also served as Coroner of Yellowstone county. He was engaged in both the real-estate and newspaper business, being at one time interested in the Billings Post and afterward in the Herald. He was also president of the Yellowstone Building Society, resigning that position in 1877, when he removed to Helena. Since coming to Helena he has given his attention to the real- estate business and has also been interested in mining, among other ventures being the development of an ex- tensive placer mine at Emigrant Gulch, on the upper Yellowstone river.

Fraternally, Mr. Matheson is identified with the A. O. U. W. and the F. & A. M. He is also a member of the Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Matheson was married in April, 1874, to Miss Mary Gillen, of Brantford, Canada. They have four daughters, Winifred, Ruth, Catharine and Eleanor.

140

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

tary road, which was to tie the head-waters of the two great rivers together and make our pos- session of Montana and her sisters more secure, let the mountain brooks still run sweet and clear as they had done for thousands of years; the alder leaves lisped and glistened in the sun, and the trout darted, undisturbed from sedgy bank to mossy boulder's shadow, above a bed of gold!

And it is quite as much a matter of wonder that Fremont did not discover gold in Califor- nia during his years of exploration there. IIe named the sea door of San Francisco Bay the "Golden Gate, " and reported his reasons for so doing to Congress years before gold was found at Capt. Sutter's mill. His tent was pitched at the very time he named the " Golden Gate " on the mountain side above the city of Oakland, which is even to this day, perforated with pits and tunnels by miners in fruitless search of gold. And Fremont must have been familiar with the

cantile and mechanical pursuits, and finally engaged in the timber business, and was thus employed in Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, when the Civil war broke out. April 27, 1861, in response to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers, he enlisted in Company G, Eleventh Pennsylvania Reserves, Fortieth Infantry. He entered the service as a private, participated in twenty-seven general engagements, his regiment being a part of the Army of the Potomac. He was successively promoted as Corporal, First Sergeant, First Lieutenant and Cap- tain, and for "gallant conduct" in the battles of the Wil- derness and Bethesda Church (the latter occurring the last day of his term of service) was commissioned Brevet Major and Brevet Lieutenant Colonel. The regiment remained on duty nearly two months after his three years' term of service had expired, and he was mustered out with it at Pittsburg, June 13, 1864. During the en- tire service he passed through unscathed, notwithstand- ing many "close calls," seeming almost to possess a charmed life. This is the more remarkable, consider- ing that of the more than two thousand regiments in the Union armies during the war the Eleventh Pennsylvania Reserves sustained the eighth heaviest loss.

After the war Captain Mills engaged in the wholesale leather business at Pittsburg, where he remained until the spring of 1866. At that time he came to Montana and first turned his attention to mining, operating on the Yellowstone river. In company with several others he was interested in the opening of a hydraulic claim at

brief statement of Drake, made generations be- fore, to the effect that gold was to be found in the interior of Alta California. Truly, "silver hath a vein," but the only certain place in which we may hope to find gold is where they refine or mint it.

How many an old gold miner will close this page here and smile half sadly as he recalls the heaps of gold-dnst he has dragged his weary legs over in his weary endeavor to reach some mining camp a little further on. Ever and for- ever, it was only " a little further on."

In 1860 the writer, after having spent years in the California gold mines, was sent with a party to subdivide and sectionize a few town- ships for settlement on the south bank of the Columbia river. We pitched camp on a bar, re- mained there for months, completed the survey and went home, not dreaming that we had slept every night on beds of gold-dnst. On passing

Emigrant Gulch. Provisions were high and very difficult to obtain at any price. He and his party gave their money to a packer to buy provisions at Bozeman and bring them to the mines, and after some weeks of anxious waiting for his return they learned that he had gambled away the money and left for parts unknown." They were thus obliged to abandon their claim. Captain Mills had sunk his money in the venture, and when he arrived in Virginia City, in November, 1866, had just ten cents in postal currency. He at once, however, secured employment there as bookkeeper for a party who had freight trains, a "corral " and a little hotel. An article which he had written for an Eastern journal soon afterward accidentally came to the notice of Mr. D. W. Tilton, and through it Captain Mills was offered the editorship of the Montana Post, which he accepted, and thus became the editor of the first paper published in the Territory of Montana, succeeding Prof. Dinsdale and Judge Blake. He entered on these duties in December, 1866. The Post was removed to Helena in 1868, and Captain Mills continued with it until 1869. In July of that year he founded the New Northwest in Deer Lodge, of which he was editor and publisher until November 1891, a period of twenty-two years, during which time he was a prominent factor in all that pertained to the wel- fare of Montana, and has been as thoroughly acquainted with her history, development and progress as perhaps any of her cilizens.

Captain Mills has been a life-long Republican, and as

141

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

that way after more than thirty years it was found that the whole bar had been turned upside down, and gold enough to load a boat taken out.

And now will you permit a bit of speculation, theory, as to the original growth or deposit of gold in the rocks? Of course all know that gold dust is simply debris or washings from some ledge of gold-bearing quartz in the mountains above; but we did not know that at first in Cal- ifornia, nor for a long time after, eager as all were to get at the true theory of gold-dust deposits. All thinking men had their own ideas on the subject. I surely had mine, and still have them, modified from time to time, of course, by experience and careful observation; and whether or not these observations and eoncln- sions on the formation or growth of gold and the formation and growth of the roek in which gold grows or forms will instruct or even interest, they shall be here briefly set down; for it is not

such has served the party and the State in various posi- tions. He was a member of the First Constitutional Convention of Montana. Upon the election of General Hayes to the Presidency, he appointed Captain Mills Secretary of the Territory, in which capacity he served five years, at the end of which time he declined a re- appointment. In 1889 he was again nominated for a member of the convention to formulate the State Con- stitution. This nomination he resigned to accept ap- pointment as Collector of Internal Revenue for the dis- triet including Montana, Idaho and Utah, in which posi- tion he served until February 28, 1893, when he resigned and accepted the appointment of State Commissioner of the Bureau of Agriculture, Labor and Industry. This bureau had just been established by an act of the Legis- lature. His appointment is for a period of four years, and such have been his opportunities for information on these subjects that he is eminently fitted for the posi- tion to which he is now devoting his whole time.

In 1875 Captain Mills married Miss Ella M. Hammond, a native of Wisconsin and a daughter of Martin Ham- mond, of that State. She came to Montana in 1865. They have three children-Mary E., Nellie G. and James H. Jr.,-all natives of Montana.

Captain Mills is a Companion of the Loyal Legion, Past Senior Vice Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, Past Grand Master Workman of the A. O. U. W., and in 1894 is Senior Grand Warden of the A. F. & A. M., of Montana. In his religious views he partakes

easy to spend long years in looking into these things without forming some practical opinions. Some few miners have time and seien- tific reading enough to study books on geology to the bottom of the profound subject; but to many good men of busy lives these books mean only a confusion of strange, big words; big words and small ideas; for such, like myself, is this chapter humbly introduced.

Men of tenacious, theological trend of mind who dug gold from the placer gulches of Califor- nia, formerly held that this gold had been placed there by the finger of God, on the day of creation; and even when it was found a few years later that gold dust was simply washiings from veins or de- posits of gold in mountains above, many still hold that these deposits were made when the world was made. Other men hell that gold grows, as potatoes grow, and by camp and cabin fire these diverse points were argued hotly by the persist-

largely of that liberality which characterizes the people of the West. Mrs. Mills became a member of the Pres- byterian Church in 1876. Both are favorably known throughout the State where they have so long resided.

JOHN RANDOLPH WATSON, who is engaged in the gro- cery business in Helena, Montana, is one of the enter- prising business men of the city. Following is a brief sketch of his life:

John Randolph Watson was born in Portland, Maine, May 29, 1837, of American ancestry, and resided there until fifteen years of age, when he accompanied his par- ents to Pekin, Illinois, where he lived about four years, removing thence to Warren county, Iowa. He learned photography. and while engaged in this business in Iowa was the victim of an explosion which came near causing his death, he -being badly burned about the head and face, his injuries incapacitating him for work for nearly two years. Recovering, he removed to St. Louis and engaged in his profession until the breaking ont of the war, when he enlisted in Merrill's Horse Cavalry, Second Missouri Regiment.

In 1864 he bought a cattle train at St. Joseph, Missouri, and, loading the wagons with corn, started for the West. At Denver he disposed of his train and stock of goods, and became one of the owners of a grocery train bound for Montana. Virginia City was his first stopping place in this State, and in December of that same year he re- moved to HIelena, where he established the first grocery store. At that time there were only a few log houses

142

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

ent gold hunters for years, even from the desert sands of Arizona to the snow-capped summits of Montana's gold fields. Time has brought forward little or no testimony for the first sim- ple belief; nor can it as yet be boldly asserted with any great array of evidence that " gold grows as potatoes grow;" but one or two facts may be briefly set down to indicate that gold, although it does not perish and corrode, as silver, and lead and iron and other baser minerals, does really grow or form.

In 1855 some miners near Shasta, California, while taking out gold from rotten quartz in a " pocket" or " chimney " near the surface to which they had been led by rich deposits in the gulch below, found a petrified bone. The mar- row of this bone had turned to quartz, and in this quartz was gold.

Doctor Ream, one of the most learned and reliable men in California, has in his collection

scattered along the gulch. He located on a tract of land and at once built a cabin, in which he opened up his stock of goods. The site of the cabin is still owned by Mr. Watson, but a handsome brick block has succeeded the primitive structure of the early days. Groceries and provisions brought almost fabulous prices then. In the spring of 1865 there occurred the flour failure, and bread stuff sold at prices almost beyond realization. Vegeta- bles were also a luxury. Mr. Watson became the pur- chaser of two wagon-loads of potatoes that were brought from the Gallatin valley and that he sold at from one to two dollars a pound. He has resided in Helena con- tinuously since 1864, engaged in the grocery business. Aside from this he is interested in rauching and stock- raising, having ranches in the Prickley Pear and Galla- tin valleys.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 27

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