An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 30

Author: Miller, Joaquin, 1837-1913. cn
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1216

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A Democrat all his life, Mr. Lissner has been the choice of his party to fill important positions, the duties of all of which he has ever discharged with the strictest fidelity. In 1882 he was nominated and elected Alderman of the city of Helena, and such has been the character of his service in that capacity that he has six times been elected for a term of two years each; and while he has labored for an economical administration of the affairs of the city, still he has voted for every franchise and measure that would promote the improvement and wellbeing of the place.

In 1875 Mr. Lissner was married to Miss Jennie Saboly- ky, a native of Prussia, and they have eight children, all natives of Montana, namely: Jacob, Jette, Lillie, Dore, Annie, Alice, Harry and Bernice.

Mr. Lissner is a good example of the numerous hardy pioneers who came to Montana at an early day to better their financial condition, and while they have been factors in the improvement of the country they have also by their own industrious efforts secured a competency for them- selves and families.

JEawards

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on the Willamette river opened placer mines in what is now the pan-handle of Idaho and ex- tended operations in a small way into the ad- jacent mountains of Montana. An intense ex- citement soon followed, drawing thousands of Oregonians to the scene. A stcamer was built and operated for a time on Pend d'Oreille lake and other crafts on Cœur d'Alene and tributary waters; but the adventurous miner flocked back the same season entirely disheartened. The steamboats were left to wreck and rot and the mines were, for a time, practically abandoned. So, while it is literally true, as is stoutly claimed by Oregon, that she was the first in the field of Montana discoveries, no great stress can be laid on the distinction, since the enterprise was not in the line of subsequent great developments which turned the eyes of the world upon the northern extreme of

HON. JOHN E. RICKARDS, Governor of Montana, was born in 1848 in the State of Delaware, where his ancestors had resided for several generations. His great-grand- father was wounded in the Revolutionary war, and in that struggle other members of the family also took part. David T. Rickards, the Governor's father, was born in Delaware in 1812, and married Miss Mary Burris, a native of that State and a decendant of one of the earliest fami- lies that settled there. The father attained the age of seventy-six years. He was a merchant and farmer, and also a "local preacher" in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The subject of this sketch was only six years old when his mother died, and was reared on a farm by an uncle un- til his fifteenth year. He received an academie education, and upon leaving school accepted a position as clerk in a house-furnishing establishment at Wilmington, Delaware. In his twentieth year he went to Philadelphia, where he clerked in a wholesale grocery until 1870. He had then become impressed with the idea that there were greater opportunites for a young man to better his condition in the West, and, acting upon this, he directed his course toward Colorado, where he engaged in clerking, book- keeping and general merchandising.

From 1879 to 1882 he was engaged in business in San Francisco, California, and during the latter year came to Butte, Montana, where he first engaged in merchandis- ing, but later became interested in real estate and various business enterprises, and soon became one of the leading business men in the city.

the American Rocky mountains. These mines were known at the time as the Kootenai Dig- gings, so called from the river there of that name.

The first steamer launched on these inland waters was under the direction of Wes. Briggs, backed by the Oregon Navigation Company.

Let me not be understood as willing to rob Oregon of any glory in this, or in anything else; for whether in war or in peace, she was always the peer of her more pretentious and as- suming neighbor State to the south of her. There was never anything so splendid in all the history of California as the gathering of these Oregonians together under their tall, blaek fir trees, as before observed, far back in the '40s, and resolving that they were not subjects of England but citizens of the United States, and, if necessary, they were ready to submit the

Here was the commencement of his public career, the public spirit he evinced leading to his election as one of the Aldermen of the city; and his record in that position led to his election as Representative from Silver Bow county in the upper house of the Territorial Legislature. In 1889 he was elected a member of the constitutional convention which framed the State constitution. The prominent and active part he took in that body gave him a State-wide reputation, and, upon the admission of Mon- tana as a State, he was elected Lieutenant Governor by the largest majority received by any candidate on his ticket. In this position he rendered signal service to the State and the Republican party. During the great strng- gle that followed the first State election, resulting in dis- membering the Legislature and the selection of two sets of United States Senators, Mr. Rickards proved himself equal to the responsibilities of his position as President of the State Senate. The organization of that body was finally effected by his ruling that members present and not voting could not be regarded as absentees. This ruling made possible a joint session and the election of two Re- publican United States Senators. A few days later Speaker Reed made a similar ruling in the national Congress, thus proving the correctness of Lieutenant Governor Rickards' ruling.

The ability, sterling integrity and undaunted courage shown by Mr. Rickards, and his stalwart Republicanism, tempered by a just conception of the equities of public life, gave him great popularity in the State; and in 1892, in a tide of popular approval, he was elected Governor of

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question to the decision of the sword; and, when the Indian's signal fires for war burned in such an array on their mountain tops that they were literally encompassed and cut off from all help, they met again under their great, somber capitol dome and declared war on their own account. It is not fancy, but a fact that they dug gold with their own hands from their own grounds as best they conld while the war went on all around them, and with their own hands coined it to pay their little army when they had conquered peace. This coin was made of pure, virgin gold, as it came from the ground. One side bore the fig- ure of a beaver at his work, as representing the patient industry of her people; the reverse a

Montana, in which position he is now serving, his admin- istration giving evidence of his fitness for the high office he holds. He has been a business man all his life, and is thoroughly practical, possessing sound business judg- ment, which dominates his official actions: and his ad- ministration as the chief executive of Montana is one de- voted to the highest good of the citizens of the whole State. Many problems have arisen in the life of the new State requiring prompt and careful analysis, and Gover- nor Rickards has proven himself equal to them all. He has devoted himself to the interests of the educational and eleemosynary institutions of the State and accom plished mnch in their behalf, while his efforts have secured to the commonwealth public lands of inestimable value to the Montana of the future. Ever since he became a voter in 1869 he has been a firm believer in the principles of Republicanism and labored assiduously for their promotion.

In 1876 he married Miss Lizzie M. Wilson, a native of Newark, Delaware, and three sons,- Homer C., Earl M. and Seward A., were born to them. Mrs. Rickards died in San Francisco, and her remains lie buried in that city. In 1883 Governor Rickards married Mrs. Eliza A. Bouch- er, a daughter of Thomas B. Ellis, of Pembroke, Ontario. She had a daughter by her former husband. By this last marriage there have been five children, two of whom died in infancy. The living are Howard B., Carlisle and Rachel. Mrs. Rickards is an accomplished and refined lady. Upon her devolved the honor of unveiling Mon- . tana's silver statue of Justice at the World's Fair at Chi- cago. This agreeable duty she discharged most credita- bly, and delivered an address on the occasion which elic- ited many favorable comments.

As a worthy member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Governor Rickards has been twice elected to rep-

sheaf of wheat, indicating the prolific fertility of her soil.

But, for all that, it was the experienced gold hunter of California, rather than the brave, pa- triotic and pastoral husbandman of Oregon, who led the golden way to the heart of the world's heart-Montana. Nor is there anything in the idea that either the missionaries or men of war first fonnd gold in Montana. As said before, these are only traditions. Both the War De- partment and the Department of the Interior have furnished maps, data, and made all reason- able research for me in their endeavor to facili- tate this work and if possible throw some light on the subject in question; but not a line has been found in the reports of army officers or In-

resent the lay members in Montana at the General Con- ference. This he prizes as one of the greatest honors ever conferred upon him. He is past Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, and has served as Supreme Representative of the order. He is also a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, aud is well known in fraternal circles.

JACOB SWITZER was born in Alsace, Germany, formerly a province of France, October 17, 1839, of French an- cestry.

In 1857, when in his eighteenth year, he came to America to try his fortune iu the land of the free, and first settled in Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was employed as a common day laborer. By industry and frugality he soon succeeded in accumulating some money, and while in that city was engaged in various enterprises. He re- mained there for twenty years, being in Kansas during all the noted Kansas troubles at the time the State was formed. In the spring of 1877 he came direct to Helena and engaged in the liquor business. In the fall of that year he purchased an interest in a wholesale liquor establishment, of which he afterward became sole owner, and of which he is still proprietor. As time passed by he, like most other residents of Montana, became interested in mines and mining. He has also been deeply interested in the improvement of Helena, doing much to advance her development in various ways.

Seeing the need of manufactories, he turned his atten- tion, among other things, to the manufacture of brick. At Blossburg he purchased lands containing an inexhausta- ble quantity of clay suitable for the manufacture of fire brick, terra cotta, and everything in that line, and there he built a plant, the capacity of which is 150,000 bricks in ten hours. To this business he is giving a large amount

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dian agents of an earlier date than the discover- ies of the Kootenai, Oro Fino, I-dah-ho and other placer gold mines on the way to or within Montana. And yet, nearly a decade before gold was made a feature in what is now Mon- tana, General Stevens, who fell in the civil war, and who, after leaving West Point, may be almost said to have begun life in Montana, told me that he firmly believed that there was more gold to be found along the line of the Mullen road than in all California. Of course you must allow for his zealous efforts to get this road, at that time the great enterprise of his life, completed as a sort of line of defense against English encroachments. On the other "hand, possibly, he may have found gold in plenty, but kept the fact to himself, the better to keep his men at their work. It may be mentioned that his friend and companion,

of his attention. He manufactures pressed brick of the best quality and of all the shapes needed in ornamental work, also vitrified brick, terra cotta articles and a large quantity of tiling. The vitrified brick is pronounced the best material yet discovered for street pavements. Mr. Switzer's plant is equipped with the latest and most im- proved machinery, and employs a force of between fifty and sixty men to operate it. His entire product is of the very best quality and his chief market is in Helena. He built a mile and a half of railroad from his manufactory to the depot, thereby securing the convenience of loading cars on his premises and facilitating shipment. He now has the ability to fill any kind of an order, no matter how extensive. Besides his interests already referred to, he has invested largely in city property and in farming lands.

Mr. Switzer was married in 1881 to Miss Louise A. Sar- stedt, a native of Philadelphia. They reside in one of the comfortable and attractive homes of Helena, planned and built by them.

Politically, Mr. Switzer is a Republican, He has given little time, however, to politics, as his extensive business operations have received his undivided attention.

WILLIAM ROBERTS, a prominent contractor and builder of Great Falls, Montana, and one of her pioneer settlers, was born in New York city, January 25, 1854.

He is of Welsh extraction. His father, August Roberts, was born in Canada in 1822, some years later removed to New York, where, in 1849, he married Miss Sophia De Foie. William was their first born. When he was three

Colonel Craig, of the Lapwai Indian agency, better known now as the Cut Nose or Nez Perce Indian agency, was in the habit of using a red-clay pipe, made by Blackfeet Indians, which was studded with bits of virgin gold.

But I might fill a book with these stories and still be believed, for they are true in the main; and it is likely enough that Stevens, Craig, Mnl- len, and many more in the service saw gold first of all men in Montana. Some say that Father De Smet and other good missionaries knew all about gold here, even before it was found in Cal- ifornia, but kept the secret, as they would keep the evils of Pandora to save the red children from destruction by the white man.

Bear in mind that Montana was in her last days of savage and unbridled simplicity, almost entirely surrounded by armies of adventurous gold hunters. Some of these men had grown

years old and his sister Caroline was a year and a half old their mother died. In 1863 he went with his father to Cal- ifornia and settled at Marysville, where he received his early education in the public schools and where his father was engaged in contracting and building. His father now resides at San Francisco, retired from active business.

Mr. Roberts took a course in the Pacific Business Col- lege and graduated in that institution in 1869. After com- pleting his education he took up the business of contractor and builder, with which he was familiar, having worked at it with his father. He was thus occupied in San Fran- cisco and in Virginia City, Nevada, for some years. IIe was married in Vallejo, California, to Miss Julia Stotter, a native of New Orleans and a daughter of Clans Stotter, a German by birth. They have one child, a son, born in the Golden State.

In 1881 Mr. Roberts came to Montana, and spent about two years in Butte City and Fort Benton. During that time he formed a most favorable opinion of Montana, and in 1886 he came back, this time taking up his abode at Great Falls, with which he has since been identified. Soon after his arrival here he formed a partnership with Mr. W. J. Winters. Their firm has been a prominent factor in building up and improving the city. They erect- ed the large school building and many of the best busi- ness blocks here, and they have also erected a number of buildings on their own account, both business houses and residences, which they still own and rent. Among the buildings owned by them is the Milwaukee ITouse, which

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gray in California gold fields. They had dug gold with a little iron bar and rocked it out with a wooden Mexican bowl. They had worked with the " ground sluice," the " rocker," the "long tom" and "box sluice;" they had graduated as gold hunters; they were still hunt- ing; so the finding of gold in Montana was no accident as in Carolina and California, but the result of persistent quest by men who were armed and equipped for their work like veterans.

And so it resnited that the gold-built battle- ments of Montana were carried by storm, by steel armed men who ponred down from the rich mines of British Possessions, up from Idaho, over from Utah and across from Nevada,

to say nothing of the audacious Greeks already there in the belly of the wooden horse.

It is hard to pass over the dramatic splendor of this impetuous charge. In the name of peace; in the name of progress and commerce, pastoral life and prosperity to all who came, the final charge was made on the last remaining stronghold of heathendom. It was all done in a single night, as it seems now, and when the sun rose he looked down on an inundation of stalwart heroes charging the rock ribbed passes with double-pointed steel, the startled savage, gun in hand, looking warily from his ambush, But we must not linger longer. These are for the painters and poets nuborn as yet.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE FIRST GOLD FOUND IN MONTANA BY CALIFORNIANS-THE FIRST MINING -SOME INTELLIGENT CALIFORNIA MINERS.

M ONTANA was most fortunate in her first historian, Granville Stnart,* a Vir- ginian by birth, later from the mines of northern California. Like Lewis and Clarke he kept a journal, and seems to have set down, day by day, so far as he could, during his haz- ardous and hard ventures, all of import that he saw, felt or hoped for. This work is invaluable

to the historian. He was not making a book to sell, so it is simple in language, brief and to the purpose, His direct narrative untangles the skein where the threads so often cross and become entwined one with another; and where you would, but for this little book, find only confusion and tumultuons elashing of accounts, all is made plain as a newly blazed trail. You

they built in 1887. Mr. Roberts also owns considerable valuable mining stock, and is interested in other enter- prises. Ile was one of the organizers of the Sun Brick Company, which company has the largest plant of its kind in Great Falls and manufactures no less than 5,000,000 of bricks per annum. He and his family occupy an el- egant brick residence.

Mr. Roberts is an active member of the Democratic

* Now United States Minister to one of the South American Republics.

party and takes a lively interest in public affairs. He is now serving as one of the Aldermen of Great Falls, to which office he was elected in 1893.

JOSEPH H. JOHNSON, one of Great Falls' successful real-estate dealers, is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Allegheny county, August 3, 1855, of German ancestors. Herman H. Johnson, his father, was born in Pennsylvania and was there married to Miss Margaret D. Raway, a native of Germany. IIe died in the prime of life, leaving his widow with five small children, Joseph H. being then ouly two years old.

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follow this trail confidently, for it is as true on its face as the mint mark on the gold of Mon- tana, which he was, along with those who were with him, really the first to discover. In my earnest quest to find the very first mine or mines in Montana I have been furnished with enough information to make a fair-sized volume; and in this the usual silent and mysterious man with a long beard and a long bag of gold dust comes more than once to the front. But there are so many ways for a man to get a bag of dust with- out digging it out of the ground that the story of the bearded man with the big bag has ceased to be very substantial as that of a discovery. I have also two stories, much alike, about a " Lost Dutchman," with a big nugget: also a long account about the "lost cabin," --- this latter elearly of California origin. So it is decided to put them all aside, giving the distinction of discovery to the Stuarts. But the following, on the site of Butte City, from a voluminous, and, as I believe, a reliable book, is at least of re- markable interest on this subject:

When he was eight years of age, young Johnson began helping his mother to earn a living, and consequently had a very limited education, so far as hook knowledge goes; but the hard experiences of life were his school- masters, and he was an apt scholar, and as the years passed by he grew up to be a capable business man. As a little boy he was employed in herding stock for the neighbors, and, in fact, he did odd jobs of any kind that he could get. When he grew up he worked in the coal mines of his native State and later mined in Iowa. In 1869 he went to California, was engaged in the butcher- ing business in Oakland one year, and from there went to Portland, Oregon, where he continued butchering until 1872. That year he took up Government lands near Dayton, Walla Walla county. Washington Territory, where he also dealt in stock and continued the butcher- ing business. In the meantime he became interested in property in Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane and other places in the Territory, and soon found himself dealing quite extensively in real estate. His stock business brought him into contact with some of the dealers in northern Montana. From them he learned of Great Falls, its wonderful water power, the building of the railroad, and the mineral wealth of the country, and he decided to

" At the time Humphreys and Allison came into the Silver Bow valley no stakes were stuck, nor were there any signs of any work having been done, except upon what is known as the Original Lode, on which was found a hole four or five feet deep. Near the hole were elk horns, which had been used as gads. From all indi- cations this hole had been dug years before, but by whom there is no way of telling, and it will probably never be known .- Leeson's History of Mont., p. 917.

And right here you who know the story of Montana entirely will close this page impatiently and insist that it was "Benetsee," a half- breed Indian from the Red river country, who first found gold on a stream that bears his name; and that after him eame the Government ex- plorers who found it on the same stream, and not knowing of the half-breed's discovery, re- christened it Gold Creek. Granted. But neither Benetsee nor the head of the Govern- ment expedition found enough to concern them; and, but for Stuart and his party, who

make it the field of his future operations; so he came hither in 1888, and at once invested in property and began his real-estate operations. Realty advanced rapidly in value and he soon rinked with the most successful deal- ers in real estate in the town. He also erected several valuable business blocks and residences, and was one of the builders of the Montana Brewery, which cost over $!00,000. During all this time he was careful in his investments, always exercising the best of judgment in his purchases, and when the financial depression came on his business affairs were in such excellent condition that he has been enabled to continue operations while many others have suspended. While his sales are being made at a very low rate, he is still realizing a profit, and his faith in the future prosperity of Great Falls is as strong to-day as ever.

Mr. Johnson is also interested in mining and banking. He is president and secretary of various mining corpora- tions, and some of the mines in which he is interested are producing large quantities of rich ore. One of these mines, the Moulton, is located at Barker, and another, the Great Western, is at Nihart. He was one of the organiz- ers of the Security Bank of Great Falls, in which he is still a stockholder and director.

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threw off their coats and first swung pick-axes in Montana, we might never have heard any more of Benetsee, or Francois Finlay, nor of the Government explorers in this connection for all time. These first found the color. Stuart and his friends made long sluice boxes and opened placer gold mines on this same streamn, having dug a ditch for mining purposes the year before. This was in the spring of 1862, several years after the Oregonians had prosecuted gold mining along the northwestern borders of what is now Montana, in what was known as the Kootenai country. Here, on Gold creek, with Granville and James Stuart at the head, civiliza- tion first set up her tabernacle of rest in this State.

Because this first and most reliable of the several histories of Montana is out of print, and also because it is better than anything I could now give, since Stuart wrote with eye and ear to the keyhole while events went on, I venture to copy copiously from bis hook as I go forward

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An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 30

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