An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 50

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

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of Wilson's Creek. Ile commanded a battalion in Gen- eral Slack's brigade, and was stationed on "Bloody Hill," where the main battle was fought and the heaviest losses sustained. Major Thornton bore himself with conspicu- ous bravery and was immediately promoted to the rank of Colonel in the Confederate army. At the close of the war he removed to Montana, where his wife, who was Miss Louisa Clementine Archer, and to whom he was married April 28, 1863, and his daughter, Elizabeth Trigge, joined him in 1866.

When Colonel Thornton first came to Montana, he en- gaged in business with his brother-in-law, R. W. Donnell,

Alder Creek and environs of mining camps have been aptly called the Pleiades by more than one writer fond of brilliant simile. To describe any one of these and the surging, roaring, swift life there after looking at Alder Creek, would be like writing of one bright member of the Pleiades and then the others. They were all alike in daring audacity of per- sistent endeavor and hard toil. Instead of the few dozen " hotels," " palace saloons," and little log cabins at Bannack and Gold Creek, where mining life went steruly on, and inen cooked

at Blackfoot. In 1867 he went to Deer Lodge and formed a law partnership with Lee J. Sharp and Thomas L. Napton, under the name of Sharp, Thornton & Napton, and afterward with Robinson & Stevens. About this time he became interested in mining and abandoned the legal profession, and was one of the principal projectors and constructors of the Rock Creek Ditch Company's mining ditches, used to convey water from Rock creek and adjacent streams to the Pioneer, Pike's Peak and Pilgrim Bar placer gold mines. He also built the Race Track ditch and afterward French Gulch ditch, all in different parts of old Deer Lodge county.

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and ate and then smoked as they sauntered down to the store and sat about on nail kegs or roosted on the counter and talked of gold, we now have thousands of cabins, tens of thou- sands of just such noblemen, tens of thousands of just such scenes, only broader, stronger, deeper. Why repeat the brave, pathetic story ? Health was singularly good. Rocky mountain water is always pure; no better water in the world. The malodorous name, Stinking Water, was given to that stream by Indians simply be- cause it was impregnate'l with sulphur. Being singularly short of descriptive words, you may

In 1875, Colonel Thornton removed with his family to Butte, where he engaged for a time in the practice of law. His numerous mining interests demanding personal supervision, he once more abandoned his profession.

Colonel Thornton was a close student and of retiring disposition, and while deeply interested in the questions of the day and frequently teudered political preferment, he always declined such honors. In 1882 he was nomi- nated for Mayor by the Democratic party of Butte, but declined to be a candidate. In 1883 he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention, but did not at- tend. Ile was frequently urged to become a candidate for Congress from the west side, but always refused to enter the contest. He was president of the Miner Pub- lishing Company of Butte.

In every relation of life he was esteemed and vener- ated. The poor loved him for his unostentatious and sympathetic charity; the rich honored him for his inde- pendence and unswerving honesty of purpose.

He died iu Butte City, Montana, after a brief illness, September 15, 1887, leaving a wife and eight children to mourn his loss.

ANTHONY H. BARRET, one of Montana's most respected pioneers, and senior member of the firm of Barret & Jacky, is a Kentuckian, born in Grayson county, January 25, 1834. His great-grandfather Barret, a Presbyterian minister, emigrated from Wales to Virginia, where he spent the remainder of his life. His son, Francis Barret, was born there and became a Baptist minister. He removed with his family to Greensburg, Kentucky. In 1832, while the Asiatic cholera was raging, he and wife busied themselves in administering to the wants of the sick and dying until they also were stricken with the horrible disease and died within an hour of each other, neither knowing that the other had been taken sick. Thus nine children were left orphans. One of them, Augustus (father of the subject of this sketch), was born in Green county, Kentucky, May 8, 1804. For his first wife he married Miss Mary M. Marshall, and they had three children, oue of whom died when a child, one lived

remember they spoke to Lewis and Clarke of the far-away Pacific as the "heap big nasty water."

As people poured in continually so the bright belt belt of Orion widened and widened. Roads were lewn here and there from camp to camp, rumbling stages with eager men pushing their heads in a mass through the windows on either side, express wagons and pony expresses, freight trains, mule trains half a mile long!

Gradually the "tenderfoot" melted into the lives and ways of the old miners, as the new re- ernits melt into the lives and ways of the

to womanhood, and one still survives. For his second wife Mr. Barret married Miss Mary J. Cunningham, a native of Grayson county, Kentucky, a daughter of Will- iam Cunningham, of that State, and they also had three children,-two sons and one daughter. The last men- tioned died when a year old, soon after Mrs. Barret died; one of the sons, William L., was killed in the battle of Mansfield, or, as some call it, Pine Ridge, while he was a Lieutenant in the Confederate army; and the remaining son is the subject of this sketch. Their father was County Clerk and Clerk of the Circuit Court of Edmon- son county for thirty years. By trade he was a merchant and tanner. In 1852 he moved to Missouri, where he had a farm and where his death occurred in 1857. He had married his third wife in 1839, wedding Miss Berroyal II. Rountree, a native of Edmonson county, Kentucky. She, too, had three children, a son and two daughters, and died in 1885. There is now only one surviving child by each of the marriages. The parents were Baptists.

Mr. Anthony H. Barret learned in his youth the trade of harness-maker at Bowling Green, Kentucky. In 1832 he moved to Texas, where for a portion of the time he was traveling salesman for a drug house, and during the interval he was salesman in a general merchandise store. Moving to Shreveport. Louisiana, he had charge of a cotton warehouse there. His father then dying, he returned to his old home to assist in the settlement of the estate.

In 1861, as the war came on, he went to St. Louis and opened a gents' furnishing goods store, but as the busi- ness proved unsatisfactory he sold it and was salesman in a clothing store for a number of years. llis health failing, he crossed the plains, arriving at Alder Gulch in the spring of 1865. By the following winter he had see- ured a mining claim, which, however, he was unable to work satisfactorily for want of water. Selling out his interest here, he was appointed by Governor Meagher his private secretary, and besides serving in that capacity he was also Clerk of Indian Affairs and Assistant Auditor of the Territory. In March, 1867, he was appointed Special

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veterans, and soon they could hardly be dis- tinguished, the one from the other, save by the fact that youth was largely with the man from the sunrise, while age was the mark of a veteran from under the path of the sun.

But amusing things continued to happen be- tween the two for quite a time. Pleas. Johnson, an old schoolinate of mine, and his partner, sat disheartened at the stage office door one day resolved on a new experiment. Years before they had tried something like it in California. So when the stage came in they picked out the greenest young man in the crowd of comers

Indian Agent for the Jocko Indian Reservation, near Missoula, in which capacity he served to fill a vacancy, In 1866 he was elected Chief Clerk of the Territorial House of Representatives and served for twelve sessions- In the winter of 1869-70 he represented Jefferson county in the lower house. During a part of the above period he was in the grocery business at Radersburg, but, owing to circumstances over which he had no control, the busi- ness failed, and for two winters he was forced to chop wood in the mountains to maintain himself. Such were the reverses to which Moutana's stout-hearted settlers were often subjected, but when broken at one thing they always immediately tried another.

In 1875 Mr. Barret started a harness shop at Adobe- town, in Alder Gulch. After a time he moved to Pony with his business, and on the 8th of April, 1878, he opened his shop on Granite street in Butte City. The following year he admitted his present partner, Mr. Jacky. In 1880 they built their brick block on West Park street, where they have since done a large and prosperous busi- ness; and now for many years they have been the lead- ing manufacturers of harness and saddles, and dealers in buggies, etc., in Butte C'ity. They also have branch stores at Anaconda and Phillipsburg. They have erected a large brick block on Galena street, where they store their buggies and carriages. They are also interested in placer mines in Deer Lodge county.

In his political principles Mr. Barret has always been a Democrat. From May, 1890, to May, 1892, he was Alderman.

November 9, 1880, he married Miss Lizzie Brooke, a native of Virginia (now West Virginia) a daughter of Dr. Brooke, of that State and of an old Virginia family. Mr. and Mrs. Barret are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. They are bringing up an adopted daugh- ter, Marie Barret, a native of Kentucky. Mr. Barret has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for thirty-one year's: has been Master of the blue lodge, High Priest of the chapter, Grand High Priest, Commander of Montana Commandery, No. 3, and Grand Commander of the State,

and proposed to take him in as a partner, fur- nish everything, ask no questions, and go pros- pecting that very day, share and share alike. The young fellow's eyes stuck out with delight; it was just what he wanted. They were off at once; but alack and alas! four days of tramping without finding the color, and the " tenderfoot" was indeed tenderfooted. But they had gone the length of their tether, had no more " grub" and must go back.

". But, boys, we'll strike it yet, we'll strike it on our way home. I'll bet a four dollar yaller dog we'll strike it before we get back to Alder."

and he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scot- tish rite. He is thoroughly informed upon all the early experiences of Montana's pioneers, is acquainted with all the survivors of the early days, and is a good represent- ative of the brave meu who were early settlers of this State.

JUDGE HENRY RIPLEY MELTON, ex-Probate Judge of Beaver Head county, Montana, and now a prominent law- yer residing at Dillon, dates his birth in Ballard county, Kentucky, February 17, 1852.

The Judge is a descendant of Scotch and English an- cestors. His father, Henry P. Melton, was born in the State of Alabama in 1823. He belonged to one of the old families of that State. Removing to Kentucky, he was there married, in 1841, to Miss Mary Ann Sams, a native of that State. He is still a resident of Blandville, Ken- tucky, where he has spent the most of his life, engaged iu milling and merchandising and farming. He has been married four times and is the father of twelve children, our subject's mother being the first wife. She died in 1856.

Judge Melton received his early education in private schools at Blandville. In 1870 his father, and other prom- inent citizens of the town, attempted to start a college there, and in it Judge Melton taught two years. He read law in the office of G. W. Reves, and also at Paducah, un- der the instruction of Judge C. S. Marshall. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1874, after which he practiced with Judge Marshall for a number of years.

Hon. R. B. Smith, an old friend of Mr. Melton, had come from Blandville to Dillon, Montana, and at his sug- gestion, in 1884, soon after the town of Dillon was started, Mr. Melton came out here, and together they engaged in a law practice, which partnership existed two years. Then Mr. Smith was appointed United States Attorney and Mr. Melton was elected Probate Judge. This was in 1886. Mr. Melton served his term of two years in an efficient and acceptable manner, and at the expiration of this term returned to his law practice, which he has since continued. In 1888 his party nominated him for County Attorney. Iu 1892 he was its nominee for Lieutenant

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This assurance did not assure, but nettled the spirited young stranger, and he said sharply :

" Now, by the twins of Rome (you, gentle- men, call them jemeny out here) how do you know?"

" Well, Bub, I'll tell you. Pard and I went to a negro barber in California onee and took him in as a full partner, just as we have you, only we let him keep right along with his striped- pole work, and, by George, we struck it in less than a week !

" Nigger luck. See?"

"But, heavens! gentlemen; I am no negro!"

Governor of Montana, and stumped the State in the inter- est of the Democracy. Since coming to Beaver Head county he has taken a lively interest in the affairs of the county and in the town of Dillon. He drew up the first charter of the city and had the honor of being elected her first City Attorney.

In 1886 Judge Melton returned to Paducah, Kentucky, and was married on the 28th of July of that year to Miss Dora K. Love, a native of Lonisville and a daughter of William Love of that State. They returned to Dillon and Judge Melton built the comfortable residence in which they now reside. They have three children: Ilenry L., born in 1887; George M., 1889; and William R., 1891. Mrs. Melton is a Presbyterian, while the Judge is a Baptist, Both have aided in advancing the religious interests of the city of their adoption, and by all who know them are held in the highest esteem.

OTHO KLEMM, cashier of the First National Bank of Dillon, Montana, was born in Stuttgart, Wurtemberg, Germany, July 26, 1836, of German-Lutheran parentage. His father, Edward Klemm, was a civil engineer and came from Germany to California in 1850, where he was engaged in mining up to the time of his death, which event occurred in 1870. There were three children in the family, and of that number the subject of this sketch is now the only survivor.

Otho Klemm came to America with his father in 1850, at that time a lad of fourteen years. Previous to his com- ing to this country he had received a fair education in his native land. When he arrived in New York his uncles, Otho and Adolph Klemm, were engaged in bank- ing there, and for four years he remained with them, having a clerkship in the bank. He then went to Cleve- land, Ohio, where for two years he occupied a position in the Canal Bank. In 1856 he went to Chicago and ac- cepted a position in the banking house of R. K. Swift, Brother & Johnson. In the financial crisis of 1857 they failed, and Mr. Klemm next went to Toledo, where he was employed as bookkeeper for W. J. Finley's wholesale fruit and oyster house, and where he remained until 1859.

"Ah, but there is another good old adage: " A fool for luek.'"

Strange as it may read, as they sat down in sight of Virginia City on their return, ahnost dying of fatigue and disgust. Pleas. picked up a ragged piece of roek to toss at a little sand lizard that kept bobbing its tiny head up and down on a stone below him, as if mocking at his miserable plight, and lo! he saw that it was nearly half gold. They sold the discovery next day for a fair sum, which of course was shared equally, and the young man took the next stage

After that we find him occupying a position in the United States and American Express office at La Fayette, Indiana, from which place he was soon afterward transferred to the express office in Chicago, where he remained until July, 1861. The Civil war coming on, he then en- listed in Company B, First Illinois Light Artillery. Ile served in the Western army under Generals Grant and Sherman, and participated in seventeen battles; served three years and was mustered out at Springfield, Illinois. Again we find him in Toledo, Ohio, this time embarking in the dry goods business, in which occupation, however, he did not remain long. Soon after disposing of his stock of dry goods he was elected Auditor of the city of Toledo, in which position he served most creditably for a period of seven years.

Mr. Klemm's next move was to the West. Locating in Idaho, he ran the banking house of F. J. Kiesel & Company until January 1, 1879, at which time they sold out to Se- bree, Ferris & Holt. Mr. Klemm retained his position, remaining with the firm as cashier, bookkeeper and ac- countant, and following the railroad from Oneida, Idaho, to Dillon, Montana, doing business in most of the termi- nal towns. It was in September, 1880, that he arrived in Dillon. Mr. Ilolt at that time sold his interest in the es- tablishment and Mr. B. F. White became a member of the firm, the name being changed to Sebree, Ferris & White. All these years Mr. Klemm has continued his connection with the bank. In 1884, when the National Bank was organized, he was made assistant cashier and three years later was promoted to cashier, in which ca- pacity he is now rendering efficient service. ITe is alsoa stockholder in the bank. Ilis strict attention to business and his extensive experience in the same have gained for him the reputation of being an able financier, as well as a man of the highest integrity.

Mr. Klemm became a member of the A. O. U W. in Ohio, has since been identified with the order and is now one of its oldest members. He is a Past Master and at this writing is Receiver of the lodge at Dillon.

In 1873 he was married to Miss Bertha Schansenbach, a

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home without even stopping to buy a new pair of shoes, very tender-footed but very lighthearted.

Dunraven, who seems to have scen much of the old ways and days here, told me, when we met one winter in Egypt, that two old colonial English friends of his once employed a " tender- foot" to teach them history and geography of evenings after their hard day's management of their very rich claim. They did this for diver- sion and also to give the helpless young fellow work. Soon he began to cook and clean up things and make himself so useful that they let him in "on the bedrock" and he made a fortune.

native of Germany. After eighteen years of happy married life, her death occurred at Ogden. Since then he has re- mained single.

Politically, he has affiliated with the Republican party ever since the firing on Fort Sumter.

HENRY MONROE, one of Montana's respected pioneers of 1864, and one of the successful farmers of Prickly Pear valley, is a native of Michigan, born in Oakland county, August 4, 1837. He is of Scottish ancestry. His father, Alfred Monroe, born in Scotland, came to Mas- sachusetts when a young man, removed to Michigan when that State was a Territory, and become one of the pioneer settlers of Oakland county. He was married there in the year 1836 to Miss Susan Crawford, a native of the State of New York. In 1854 he removed to a farm, seven miles from Grand Rapids, where he spent the residue of his life. During his residence in Michigan he cleared and developed two farms. In his religions views he was a Baptist, and as a worthy pioneer citizen . he stood high in the community in which he lived. He died in 1887. His wife had passed away in 1850. They reared a family of four sons and two daughters, Henry being the eldest child.

Ilenry Monroe spent the first seventeen years of his life in his native State. In 1854 he came as far West as Minnesota, which was then a Territory and inhabi- tated chiefly by Indians. There he began to make his own way in the world. For eight years he remained there, engaged in the lumber business the most of the time. In 1864 his spirit of adventure led him still further West. In company with 250 emigrants and in an ox train, with O. W. Rockwell as captain, he crossed the plains, their destination being the gold fields of Montana. Both before them and following after them were nn- morous other trains, all on the same mission bent. The Indians were somewhat hostile that year, but as this emigrant party was large it was able to protect itself, and in due time Alder Gulch was reached in safety.

" The fun it was," laughed the Earl, " these boys were both Oxford men; but that Wiscon- sin schoolmaster taught them things in geog- raphy and history that they never heard before, and never will hear again."

But anecdote is not history, save in the hands of some great man, like Esop or Lincoln, and we must leave such things behind us now en- tirely. The young Hercules has left his cradle. Club in hand he goes forth to his seven labors.

Politicians, Territorial organization: law, lawyers, vigilantes! Strange, is it not, that crime came creeping in about the time that law, lawyers and women came? General Sher-

Instead of entering the mines as most of the new-comers did, Mr. Monroe engaged in lumbering, purchased an interest in a sawmill, and in that business continued four years.

It was in 1868 that our subject came to his present farm in the beautiful valley just three miles north of the city of Helena. Here he purchased 320 acres of land at a cost of $10 per aere. He had been married February 22, 1863, to Miss Elvira Fadden, a native of Canada, and after purchasing his farm he sent for her. She crossed the plains, bringing with her their little son Henry, then a child two years old. They came in Captain Fisk's party. They had started the previous year, but had been driven back by the Indians. At last the party got through in safety and Mr. Monroe and his wife were reunited after two years' separation, filled with danger and great anxiety to both of them. They resided happily on the - farm, and here two other sons, Mark and Bert, were born to them. In 1875 Mrs. Monroe died. She had been a most excellent wife and mother and her loss was deeply felt by her husband and little family.

The year following his wife's death Mr. Monroe leased his farm and went to the mining district in the Black Hills, where he engaged in hauling quartz and lumber with a twelve-mule team, and where he was quite suc- cessful. During this time he invested in property at Gay City and Central City, and also conducted a livery bnsi- ness. Ile returned to his farm in 1878. In 1883, after remaining single eight years, he married Mrs. Mary Pepworth, and since that date they have continued to reside in their valley home. In 1890 Mr. Monroe sold all his land except six acres, realizing $300 per acre for it, and since then has lived on the interest of his money. Soon after selling off his land he erected the handsome stone residence in which he resides. While he was engaged in farming Mr. Monroe's chief products were stock, hay and grain, and to him belongs the eredit of being the first man in the valley to raise alfalfa. He also gave considerable attention to the raising of fine horses.

Henry Monroy

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man, in command of the State troops when the words, Vigilance Committee, or the name Vig- ilante, were born in San Francisco, despised this form of government from the first; and many another good man has, more quietly, perhaps, done the same. For my own part I watched this thing from the conception. I saw it spread like a prairie fire, smouldering for a time, breaking ont afresh and in some remote place, and dying at last in the distance for want of something to feed upon, in a piteous way con- suming many good fields.

I remember three farmers of Oregon, the ouly men in a remote valley, had a quarrel.

CHARLES W. SAVAGE, proprietor of the McQueen House, the only first-class hotel in Miles City, is a native of the State of New York, and was born near Syracuse, in 1833, a son of Aaron and Caroline (Whitford) Savage. Ilis mother was born in Rutland, Vermont, and his father in Royalton, New York; ancestry English. His Father, a shoemaker by trade, served as a soldier in the Mexican war.

Charles received a common-school education. The family moved in 1839 to Michigan, where Charles grew to manhood as a farmer. In 1855 he went to Minuesota, located land and engaged in farming in Hennepin county, twelve miles from Minneapolis, where he was engaged in 1861, when President Lincoln called for troops to de- fend the Union. In April, of that year, he enlisted in the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, in the same com- pany with Captain William Harmon. Serving in the Army of the Potomae, he was engaged in twenty-eight battles. At the battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, just before which he had been promoted Corporal, a shell struck his right foot and carried away the first and second toes, which wound rendered him unfit for further active duty, and he was discharged.

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An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 50

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