An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 51

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

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Returning to Minneapolis, he engaged in mercantile business until 1872, when he was employed by the supply company in the construction of the Northern Pacifie Rail- road, Moorhead department, and remained with them until the road was completed to Bismarek. Ile was in the elerieal department. Later, he had full charge, and closed their business in 1874. He was thus employed during the construction of the Minnesota & Dakota divi- sion of the Northern Pacific. In 1876 he came to Mon- tana, during the construction of Fort Keogh, where he was employed in elerical work for Captain Harmon. Later the two engaged in mercantile business together in Miles City, which was continued successfully until 1883.

Ile was elected the first Treasurer of Custer county, in 1878, and, after serving two years, was re-elected and

Two took sides against one. Then one night the two formed themselves into a vigilance committee, arrested their neighbor, tried him for stealing cattle, found him guilty, ran up three fence rails into a tripod in his own door- yard and hanged him therefrom with his own lasso. Next week, when snow fell in the mountains, the missing cattle came home! I don't know that anything quite so dreadful as this ever took place in Montana; but it is al- most impossible to think of big, brave Alex. Carter, who was executed by vigilantes as a eriminal. My schoolmate and I worked for him one vacation when attending Columbia Col-

filled that responsible position four years. He was the first Postmaster of Miles City, appointed by President Hayes. Ife was elected Sheriff of the county in 1884, and served two years. He then moved to Livingston, where he engaged in the drug business and conducted the Hotel Albemarle for four years, when he returned to Miles City and took charge of the McQueen Hlouse.

IIe was married in Minnesota, in 1853, to Miss Fannie Blowers, a daughter of Iliram and Polly (Cooley) Blowers, natives of Vermont. Mr. Savage and wife have two children living: William E. Savage, present Treasurer of Custer county; and George W. Savage, residing at Deer Lodge, Montana. Our subjeet is a member of the Ma- sonic fraternity,-of the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Com- mandery of Glendive, and is a member of Algeria Temple, at HIelena,-a charter member of all the lower Masonie bodies. Has filled the positions of Junior and Senior Warden. He is also a member of the I. O. O. F. and K. of P., Miles City,-a charter member of each. Polit- ically, he is a Republican of the purest type, and in the hotel he is a genial host.

JAMES KNOX POLK MALLORY is a son of one of Mon- tana's pioneers, and was one of the first men to engage in business in Anaconda, he having established himself at this place when business was transaeted in tents. A sketch of his life is therefore of interestin this connee- tion.

Mr. Mallory's parents, Phillip and Amanda (Mahony) Mallory, were born and reared in Virginia. For some years they resided near New Market, that State, and from there removed to Indiana and settled near the town of Liberty, in Union county. Near Liberty, November 14, 1846, James Knox Polk Mallory was born, and in his na- tive county he was reared and educated. When the civil war broke out his two okler brothers immediately went to the front, and he, although yet a boy in his 'teens, was not to be left behind, so he enlisted in the Ninth In- diana Veteran Regiment, and served one year, until the

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lege, the nuclens of the Oregon University, and I recall no greater kindness than he showed us boys. Work was scarce, we were poor, we were only boys, and I know we did poor work; for we had gone all the way from Eugene to Rogue river valley to join this thresher, and so were not only weak but worn. But he gave us men's wages and paid ns promptly, so that we could get back to school. He paid us and let men wait, for money was scarce. When he came to Idaho he had a pack train of horses, from his thresher teams, of course. I loved him, and Mossman, of Mossman's express, trusted him, and once gave him gold dust in bags full when leaving Florence to take to Lewiston.

close of the war. He was discharged at Galveston, Texas, and returned with his regiment to Indianapolis, Indiana, where they disbanded. Among the engagements in which he participated were those at Franklin, Tennessee, and at Nashville, same State.

In the meantime young Mallory's father had come out to Montana and engaged in mining, he being one of the first discoverers of the rich gold deposit at Alder Gulch, and, in company with Joseph Ramsdell, owner of the noted Parrot copper lead. Ile was also among the first to locate mines at Butte, where at one time he had twenty- five claims. He discovered the Twin Brothers mine, which was afterward relocated by a son of Mr. Ramsdell. and called the Rainbow, was purchased by Marcus Daly, and is now known as the Alice. The senior Mr. Mallory was killed while trying to make peace between two dis- putants, which calamity caused J. K. P. Mallory to im- mediately come to Montana. Soon afterward he sent for his mother, who has lived with him ever since, she being now seventy-three years of age. The father's untimely death occurred at Diamond City, Montana, in 1866.

When the subject of our sketch came to Montana he located at Deer Lodge, where he engaged in the lumber business, in company with a Mr. Stuart, and where he re- mained for two years. In December, 1873, he took a claim to 160 acres of land where the town of Anaconda is now located. The following spring he put 100 acres of this tract in oats, using water through ditches to irrigate the crop. It promised an abundant yield, but just before it was ready to harvest, an army of grasshoppers invaded his ranch and nearly devoured his crop, leaving him only about 600 bushels. This misfortune caused him to quit farming. HIe then followed stage driving for a few months, and after that was employed one year as pen- itentiary guard at Deer Lodge. It was about this time that the'mining excitement at Butte caused many to center there, he among the number, not to engage in

I do not say he was not guilty. I only say it is next to impossible for me to think of him as a bad man and I set down the reasons. I lay this leaflet above his dishonored dust and go on about my work. But I insist on saying right here that I am not ambitious for Montana to be known to the world merely for the hanging; and I will have no hand in the reciting or the glori- fication of these unhappy scenes. If it be his- tory, in the name of pity let the history be brief. I have already shown how the hanging of some of these mnen was transferred, by an alleged historian, from Lewiston to Walla Walla; and another murder and hanging from Canyon City, Oregon, to Idaho. It is safe to say that inves-

mining, however. He became associated with Robert Porter and together they entered into the sheep industry. They purchased a ranch on Lost creek, on which they placed their flocks, and it was not long before Mr. Mal- lory purchased his partner's interest in both the ranch and the sheep. This involved him in debt to the amount of $6,000, but within three years he paid the whole sum and sold out, having made $4,000 during the time. He then engaged in buying and selling stock. It was not long after this when he met D. D. Walker, with whom he became interested in a project to purchase brood mares in Oregon and sell them in Montana. Mr. Mallory made one trip and invested in a number of animals which he disposed of at a good profit. In the meantime they in- vested in a logging business, which Mr. Walker superin- tended, while Mr. Mallory looked after the stock and ranch. In the fall of 1883 they opened the butcher shop in Anaconda, in which enterprise Mr. N. J. Bielenberg was interested with them, and which the three conducted successfully until June 1, 1893, when Mr. Mallory pur- chased the interest of both his partners. He has since conducted it alone.

Mr. Mallory was married December 22, 1892, to Miss Fannie A. Gibbs, a native of Pennsylvania.

Fraternally, he is a member of Acasia Lodge, No. 33, F. & A. M., Anaconda and Colfax Lodge, No. 20, I. O.O.F. He is a practical business man and has spent his energies and means in developing the resources of his adopted State and in building up the town of Anaconda.

JOHN T. PARKISON, now of Boulder City, Jefferson county, and State of Montana, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, October, 22, 1821. His grand- father, Joseph Parkison, was one of the early settlers of western Pennsylvania, was a soldier in the Revolu- tionary war, and was a Commissary at Valley Forge. After the war he settled on the Monongahela river at a place afterward called Parkison's Ferry; he laid off a

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tigation would show equally false accounts of at least some of these things in Montana, For thirty years about the first thing and the last that the average newspaper writer has done on setting foot in Montana is to celebrate these deplorable deeds of outlawry, as if the great, strong, clear-headed and cultured men who fashioned Montana from the first could not pro- teet themselves or still cared to hear of things that should be forgotten. Mark me, I am not finding fault with those who took part in the hurried tribunals. I only find fanlt with those who continually flaunt these stories before the world and make them the burthen of their so- called histories of Montana.

Briefly and finally, then, let it be here re-

town and called it Monongahela City, where he died, at the age of 108 years; his wife departed this life at the age of ninety-seven years. They had four children. William Parkison, the father of our subject, was born at Parkison's Ferry about 1780, married Susan Wells, a native of Virginia, and they continued to reside at Park- ison's Ferry for some years, carrying on glass-works and merchandising. Mr. Wm. Parkison was a sutler or com- missary under Gen. William Ilenry Harrison; also his brother-in-law, Major Warne, was a Major in the same campaign, which was an Indian war that Gen. Harrison was engaged in at that time.

After the death of Mr. Parkison, his widow returned to Virginia, with her three youngest children. Their family consisted of eight children, but at that time the older ones were grown.

John T. Parkison, the subject of this sketch, remained in Virginia until fifteen years of age, then went to Tennes- see, and later to Texas, in the year 1842, while General Sam Houston, was president of that country, left Texas in 1843, spent a short time in Louisiana, and from that State went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he and his brother, William II. Parkison, engaged in steamboating, and together were interested in some seven or eight steamboats, his brother serving as captain, himself as pilot. In 1852 he went to California, during the gold excitement; went overland and was about six months making the trip; returned in 1854 and went to steamboat- ing: remained on the river until July, 1858, then went to what is now known as Denver city. His brother, himself and others, laid off what is now known as Denver city, called after General James W. Denver, who was at that time Governor of Kansas. His brother and himself located

corded that at intervals, before the organization of Montana Territory, May 26, 1864, some very good men and possibly some very bad men, or- ganized vigilance committees in some of the mining towns and hung several very bad men, and possibly some very good ones also.

No complications or trouble of any sort ever came of these swift executions; nor has any blame, but on the contrary great praise has often been bestowed on those who organized and maintained these tribunals until the civil law could be asserted. But these deplorable events were never quite so many as have from time to time been laid at the door of Montana, and at best they are of but dim and doubtful Instre, and shall find no place in pages of mine.

two ranches adjoining the city of Denver and farmed them, raising the first crop in Colorado, also built one of the first brick business houses in Denver, which was built for a post office.

Mr. Parkison had made the trip to Montana and returned in 1863, and in the following year he located at Alder Gulch, this State, where he and his brother opened a store, they having brought three large trains of mer- chandise from Denver. One year later, when gold was discovered in Last Chance Gulch, the brothers moved their store to Helena. While there they became the owners of large numbers of cattle, horses and mules, which they kept in Boulder valley. After selling their stock, they purchased teamsand engaged in freighting between Milk river and Fort Benton. They disposed of their store in llelena in the fall of 1865, and engaged in mining in Con- federate Gulch, White's Gulch and Grizzly Gulch, but during their operations at different places lost consid- erable money. They next embarked in placer and quartz mining in Boulder valley, which they continued for many years, and still own interests in various valuable mines. Mr. Parkison owned a store at Comet until 1893, but the mines having then shut down he closed his store and retired from active business.

Mr. Parkison has crossed the plains fourteen times to California, Colorado and Montana, forth and back, and and since that time the great Western world has sprung into being, with its teeming multitudes of intelligent citizens and its great wealth. Had he still held his prop- erty in Denver he might now be many times a millionare. Ile is an intelligent and well informed citizen, has a wide acquaintance with the early settlers of Montana, and is highly esteemed by all who know him.

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CHAPTER XVII.

THE BENCH AND BAR OF MONTANA, THE FIRST CHAPTER BY EX-CHIEF-JUSTICE DECIUS S. WADE *_ THE PLANTING AND THE GROWTH OF LAW-PIONEERS AND EQUITY- VIGILANTES AND THE RIGHT OF SELF-DEFENSE-A COMPANY'S PROSECUTION IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE-LAWYERS WHO PRACTICED LAW IN MONTANA BEFORE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF OTHER THAN MINERS' LAW. 1862 To 1864.

S YSTEMS of law are things of growth. They do not appear full-fledged and fin- ished, but come creeping through the ages bearing with them the fruits of human ex- perience and the products of human progress. Roman jurisprudence impregnates that of the common law, and Rome borrowed of Greece and from all that had gone before it.

In every age and in every country the law has been and is an index to the moral and intel- lectual development of the people. An unerring

and extensive history of the English-speaking race might be written from their law reports and judicial proceedings. Such a history would show step by step the advancement from barbar- ism to civilization, from the weakness and ignorance of infancy to the strength and knowl- edge of age, and the slow but steady establish- ment and application to the ever expanding wants and needs of progressive humanity, those principles of justice and equity which we fondly proclaim as the perfection of human reason.

* The ex-Chief Justice naively observes that every body is presumed to know the law,-everybody except lawyers and judges who have devoted their lives to the study of the law; presumption prevails most largely with those who know nothing of the law. The truth is, the ablest lawyers and the profoundest jurists, burn midnight oil as they may, grow gray with but little more than the alphabet of the law on their lips. Marvel not then that I hesitated to go forward with the history of Montana's bench and bar, for having been schooled in the law and having sat for years on the bench with such able advo- cates as ex-Attorney General Williams and W. Lair Hill, to argue mining and water-right cases before me, I knew enough to know that I could not do this part of the work assigned me, and so ex Chief Justice Wade was appealed to. I cannot find words to say how profoundly grateful I am for his response. None but those deeply versed in the law, especially the laws of Montana, can reckon how much labor these chapters have cost and how indispeus- able they are to those contemplating practice in Montana. For the fact is, the bench and the bar of Montana have had to make the laws here, especially those pertaining to mines and water rights, de novo. They are as new, if we

except some precedents and practices from California and Nevada where similar conditions have obtained, as newly minted coin. And so it follows that the lawyer from other lands, be he never so learned, without some knowl- edge of these chapters or the material from which they were s) laboriously wrought, would be as helpless in Montana courts as if he went from the one State, where are still present the Latin or Code Napoleonic laws of practice and equity, to practice law in some city in the northern part of this Republic.

In fairness to Judge Wade, I must mention that his several chapters on the bench and bar of Montana were sent me in continuous and compact form, but it has been thought best to launch them on the current of Montana's history as it sweeps forward cotemporaneous with the law cases and events of which they treat; and this is all the change, if change it is, that I have made. Not one word or letter have I added or taken away ; but I shall go for- ward less doubtful now, accompanied by this precise and profound man, feeling certain that whatever may be the temporary triumph or defeat, the book will be o: lasting value because of the chapters on the bench and har of Montana by ex Chief Justice Wade.

Заши Фergus

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In one way and another, in the course of time, the court-rooms picture and portray the whole of human life.

Emerson said humanity is a progress and not a station; and so it is with the law. It is a perpetual growth; it expands as human life takes on a wider range and a broader experience; it goes with every discovery and every advance, as irresistible progress moves the world along; it applies itself to new conditions and circum- stances as they arise, and molds and gathers maxims from what is discovered or found to be always trne.

History tells the story of race movements and

JAMES FERGUS .- This pioneer of pioneers has figured so prominently in Montana's history that the influence of his life will he felt long after he and his pioneer com- rades shall have passed away.

James Fergus was born in the parish of Glassford, Lanarkshire, Scotland, October 8, 1813. His parents were well-to-do farmers, owning some real estate,-his father a rigid Presbyterian, and his mother more liberal in her spiritual views. Under this kind of home influence and with the advantage of the common schools, the first nineteen years of his life were spent. During this period he showed a disposition to do everything well that he undertook, and he early developed a fondness for good books. These characteristics remained with him and became intensified as he grew older.

When he was nineteen, seeing in his native land little chance for a young man to rise in the world, and longing for less restraint and more liberty and equality, young Fergns sailed for the United States by way of Canada, stopping three years in the latter country in a Quaker settlement, and spending the time to advantage in learn- ing the trade of millwright. Getting involved in some political trouble, immediately before the Canadian rebel- lion, he took his departure for the United States, which was his intended destination when he sailed from home. The first summer he was employed as a millwright on a public work at Green Bay, Wisconsin. Then he spent a few weeks at Milwaukee, passed on to Chicago and from there went to Buffalo Grove, near Dixon's Ferry, where he spent the winter of 1836-7. While in Chicago he was offered 160 acres of land in what is now the heart of the city, at $8 an acre, partly on time. From Buffalo Grove Mr. Fergus went to eastern Iowa, then known as the Black Hawk Purchase, and made his home at what is now Sabula. Afterward he built and superintended powder mills at Savanna, Illinois, and engaged in the foundry and machine business at Moline, in the same State. In the latter business he was first associated with

migrations and the planting of laws and insti- tutions in new countries, but there is nothing in the history of the law, or in that of the mi- gration of races, more interesting or remarkable than the story of the march and journey of masses of men, women and families from the States over plains and mountains to the gold fields of the Pacific slope, -- a march more per- ilons than that of Xenophon and the ten thou- sand, and the establishment of law and order in a vast and desolate region, and such law as would secure individual rights and promote and protect the mighty industries and enterprises to arise therein.

D. B. Sears, the founder of Moline, and afterward at the same place and at Rock Island with General N. B. Bu- ford, being the managing partner. He was required by ill health to retire from this business and for some time thereafter was a member of the firm of Wheelock & Fer- gus, paper manufacturers at Moline.

In 1854 Mr. Fergus moved to Minnesota, where he was an active and enterprising citizen. In company with William Sturgis and Calvin A. Tuttle, he laid out the town of Little Falls on the Mississippi river, 100 miles above St. Anthony Falls. He owned five-twelfths of the town, and in conjunction with his partners built a dam and bridge across the Mississippi at that place. He afterward became identified with Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and owned half of the townsite. Failing in business, he again set his face toward the West, stopping in Colorado.

When the report of gold discoveries in Montana, or, rather in Idaho, reached Mr. Fergus in the winter of 1861-2, he was not long in making up his mind to go to the new diggings. To that end he joined Captain Fisk's expedition in 1862, driving his own ox team from Little Falls, Minnesota, to Bannack, the first mining camp of this State, Mr. Fergus entered actively into mining op- erations, and almost from the day of his arrival attained a prominence in affairs and was looked up to as a leader and safe counselor. We find that he was the first Re- corder of Alder Gulch at Virginia City, and the first County Commissioner appointed in the Territory, for Madison county, of which Virginia City is the seat of government. lle afterward moved to Lewis and Clarke county, near Helena, where he enjoyed the same dis- tinction and respect of his fellowmen. lle was elected and served two terms as Commissioner of this county and represented the same constituency in the Legisla- ture one term.

Mr. Fergus had early engaged in the stock business, and, realizing the necessity of controlling wider range, he located some fifteen years ago in what was then

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Judge Pomeroy says: " Vast numbers of immigrants poured over the mineral regions, settled down in every direction, appropriated parcels of the Territory to their own use, and were prospecting and mining in every mode rendered possible by their own resources, under no municipal law, and with no restraint except that of superior physical force. The world has probably never seen a similar spectacle-that of extensive gold fields suddenly peopled by masses of men from all States and countries, restrained by no law, and not agreed as to whence the laws ought to emanate or by which they would con- sent to be bound."

Meagher county, now Fergus county, near Fort Magin- nis. He represented Meagher county in the first Con- stitutional Convention and afterward in the upper branch of the Legislature. During this latter service he was in- strumental in getting a new county set off from Meagher, which bears his name and of which he is an honored resident. In the original bill (introduced by Mr. Fergus) the county was called Judith, but before the final pas- sage in the Council, on motion of Judge Buck, seconded by Judge De Wolf, both Democrats, the name was changed to Fergus, the amendment receiving every vote in both branches, save that of the anthor of the bill. It was an honor worthily bestowed.

Mr. Fergus is a Republican in politics and is liberal in religious belief. ITis main characteristics are a natural aptitude for mechanical enterprises, a sturdy independ- ence of thought, a strict integrity of purpose and a love for study and good books. He has beyond question the best and most select library of any ranch or stockman in Montana. He takes and reads, ou an average, twenty-five of the best publications of this country, and some from Europe, reading, by his own estimate, not less than three hours a day, on an average, for the past sixty years. It may well be inferred that he keeps fully abreast of the times. Although eighty years of age, and an invalid for some time, Mr. Fergus is still active and energetic, giving a portion of his time to the manage- ment of his affairs.

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An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 51

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