An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 53

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

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Their third child, whose name heads this sketch, was educated in the public schools of his native city, and in 1861, when only seventeen years of age, he enlisted in the One Hundred and Fourth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, was commissioned Second Lieutenant and serv- ed in the army of the Potomae. While making a charge at the battle of Fair Oaks he was wounded and laid up for three months. When he so far recovered as to rejoin

I was once keeping a night-school for miners near Shasta, where one of those handsome, dashing, valiant John Oakhursts got after me. Now I was not yet fifteen. I was not able to work, having been badly hurt a few months before at Castle Rock, but some kind miners had fitted up an old log cabin where I could read to them at night and teach them to write ou Sundays. It seems incredible that lots of young men there then could not even write their names. But such was the fact, and these big fellows from the border learned fast and paid well. It would make a long story ; it would take a book to tell how hard some Shasta gamblers tried to get me to play with them. And under these circumstances! Final- ly, one of them borrowed what little money I had, and then they let me alone. Oh, they were low, all alike

with the miners' judge to preside, formed jnries who listened to the evidence, had attor- neys to prosecute and defend, and not until the testimony had excluded every doubt was a ver- diet of guilty returned; and when returned, without undne delay, uninfluenced by petty technicalities, maudlin sympathy, or unholy passion, it was, in an orderly manner, carried into execution. In the period of six or eight months, many men had been tried in these courts, found guilty of murder and executed.

There is nothing in history like these trials.

his eommand he was promoted to the position of First Lieutenant, and during the latter part of his term he was on detached service as Acting Commissary of Subsistenee, Army of the Cumberland. His regiment rendered exeel- Ient service to the country, being in nine heavy engage- ments, and meeting with heavy losses, but eovering them- selves with glory.

After the elose of the war he started out in business in Philadelphia, as a member of the firm of Breüker & Kes- sler, lithographers and printers. After prosecuting this business nine years he sold his interest to his brother, and the succeeding firm thus formed is still doing busi- ness. Mr. Kessler's health had failed, and he was advis- ed to come West.

He came to Deer Lodge county in 1874, and engaged in business with Captain James II. Mills in publishing the New Northwest; and in 1876 eame to Butte to estab- lish the Butte Miner, and take charge of the paper, while Captain Mills continued in charge of the New North- west. In 1877 Mr. Kessler severed his connection with the Miner in order to give his whole attention to mining, in which he has sinee continued.

Mr. Kessler has been a Republican ever since he be- eame a voter, and in 1883, in Silver Bow county, he was elected one of the County Commissioners, served a term of two years, and then was elected County Treasurer and filled that office eight years.

low; and in all the towns up and down the coast I have always found them alike -- pager to wear polished hoots and alike unwilling to work for them.

Frankly, the California gamblers as I knew them, -- and my trade as teacher, expressman, lawyer and judge brought me in contact with lots of them and in miany parts of the country,-were a lousy set. They drifted out of California far to the north as time rolled by, following the miners as sharks follow ships, until finally the miners turned on them, away up yonder toward Canada on the top of the Rockies. In the name of an order established here in San Francisco, the Vigilantes, they laid them to rest by the score. On the snow-sown summits of Mon- tana, their hands tied behind them and a hempen cord for a necktie, they sleep, and they sleep in their pretty polished boots forever. J. J., in Temple Bar, London.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

They were open and public; they were attended by the well disposed people and the desperadoes alike, all being armed and on the alert, some looking for the arrival of confederates and pre- paring to reseue the prisoner, and others, with their lives in their hands, ready to prevent the attempt. It required supreme courage for a lawyer to prosecute, or for a witness to testify against, a prisoner at these trials.

Here is a picture from the trial of George Ives, at Nevada City, on the 22d day of Decem- ber, 1863: " The crowd which gathered around that fire in front of the conrt is vividly before our eyes. We see the wagon containing the judge and an advocate pleading with all his earnestness and eloquence for the dauntless

At the first organization of the Grand Army of the Republic, he became a member. and was one of the charter members of Lincoln Post. He has always taken a deep interest in its affairs, and in 1891 he was elected Com- mander of the Department of the G. A. R. in Montana. When the First Regiment of National Guards in this State was organized he took an active interest in it, be- coming Captain, then Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel, and for years has been very active in promoting its wel- fare, and taken much pride in its drill, discipline and efficiency.

Mr. Kessler is a Knight-Templar Mason, a member of the military order of the Loyal Legion and of the society of the Army of the Potomac.

November 8, 1876, in Pittsburg, Mr. Kessler married Miss Josephine Alden Dilworth, the daughter of William Dilworth, a prominent lumber dealer of Pittsburg. Mr. and Mrs. Kessler have two children, both born in Mon- tana, namely: Josephine D. and Harry C., Jr.

JOSEPH HOULE, one of Montana's earliest pioneers, was born in St. Gregoire, district of Three Rivers, in the prov- ince of Quebec, Canada, March 27, 1836. Ilis parents were Joseph and Angelina (Miller) Houle, his father of French and his mother of German ancestry. They had nine children, Joseph being the third born and one of the six who are still living. The father died in the sixty- fourth year of his age, and the mother passed away in her seventieth year.

The subject of our sketch resided at his native place until his sixteenth year, when he went to New Hamp- -hire and worked on a farm for wages. After two years spent in this way he went to St. Paul, where he worked Three years. lle then went to St. Louis, from there to Arkansas, where he was employed in cutting cord-wood, then returned to St. Louis, and in the spring of 1861 hired to1) American Fur Company to come to Fort Benton,

robber, on whose unmoved features no shade of despondency can be traced by the fitful glare of the blazing wood, which lights up at the same time the stern and impassive features of the guard, who, in every kind of habiliments, stand in various attitudes in a circle surrounding the scene of justice. The attentive faces and compressed lips of the jurors show their sense of the vast responsibility that rests upon them, and of their firm resolve to do their duty. Ever and anon a brighter flash than ordinary reveals the expectant crowd of miners, thoughtfully and steadily gazing on the scene, and listening intently to the trial. Beyond this close phalanx fretting and shifting around its outer edge, sways with quick and uncertain motion the Montana. On their way up the river, June 24, the boat burned, and Mr. Honle was one of the party who came to Fort Benton on foot. He remained here three years, buying furs of the Indians. During the gold excitement at Virginia City, he went there and mined for six months, got some gold, then went on the stampede to the British possessions. Not finding gold here in large quantites, however, he returned to Frenchtown and located the farm on which he has since resided. In the winter of 1865 he settled on it, took homestead and pre-emption claims, and now has a fine farm of 480 acres. He raises wheat, oats and vegetables. He also raises cattle and horses of the best grades.

Mr. Hloule was married November 27, 1865, to Miss Eliza Brown, a native of California and a daughter of Louie Brown, a Montana pioneer. They have had twelve children, eight of whom are living, as follows: Joseph, Kalix, John, Fred, Lizia, Lenora, Annie, Julian and Arthur. Their daughter, Delphine, wife of William Murry, died soon after the birth of her little son William, and this little son is being reared by his grandparents. The whole family are members of the Catholic Church, and politie- ally, Mr. Houle has been a Democrat ever since he has been a voter.

During his early experiences in Montana, Mr. Hloule had many narrow escapes and suffered many hardships and dangers. On one occasion he was captured by the Crow Indians, held over night and in the morning releas- ed. At another time, the same fall, a war party of Crows captured him at four o'clock in the afternoon, stripped him of all his clothing and turned him loose. In a nude condition and without any food, he made the journey on foot to Fort Benton, a distance of thirty miles. After he settled on his farm it was some time before his supplies could be obtained nearer than Salt Lake or Walla Walla, the trips to those places being made with pack animals

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wavering line of desperadoes and sympathizers with the criminal, their haggard, wild and alarmed countenances showing too plainly that they tremble at the issue which is, when de- eided, to drive them into exile from Montana, or to proclaim them as associate criminals, whose fate could neither be delayed or dubious. A sight like this will never again be seen in Montana. It was the erisis of the fate of the Territory. Nor was the position of prosecutor, guard, jury or judge one that any but a brave and law-abiding citizen would choose, or even accept; being marked for slaughter by desperadoes, these men staked their lives for the welfare of society.

" The hero of that hour of trial was avowedly

NICHOLAS KESSLER, a prominent citizen of Ilelena and well known as the leading brewer of Montana, was born in Befort, in the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, Germany, May 26, 1833. He was the youngest of a family of six children, and his youthful days were spent amid rural surroundings, his father, Nicholas Kessler, owning and operating a small farm.

At the age of twenty, young Nicholas emigrated to America, landing at New York, January 10, 1854. From there he went to Sandusky, Ohio, and thence to Detroit, Michigan, at the latter place being for a short time em- ployed in a grocery store. We next find him in the lum- bering districts of Northern Michigan, where, however, he remained only a short time, going from there to Chi- cago, Illinois, and embarking in the commission and feed business, in partnership with James McPherson. IIe spent three years in Chicago, being there during the panic of 1857-8 and at that time losing all he had saved. IIe remained, however, until after he had adjusted his accounts, and when the Pike's Peak gold excitement broke out he was among the throng that started across the plains for that point.

Arrived in Colorado, Mr. Kessler found what was con- sidered a good prospect at the head of White Gulch, where he invested his hard-earned savings only to find his prospect but a pocket, and he eventually came out of it penniless. From there he drifted into another camp known as Buckskin Joe, and from there to Montgomery. At the latter place a new mining district had been organ- ized, and there he again engaged in mining and obtained possession of several claims, but none of them proved to be good, and his mining ventures there resulted in fail- ure and he came out in debt. Next he went to Brecken- ridge and from there to French Gulch, provisions all the time being high and our subject in hard luck : so, finally, in August, 1863, in company with a few others, he started

Col. W. F. Sanders. Not a desperado there but would have felt honored by becoming his murderer, and yet, fearless as a lion, he stood there confronting and defying the malice of his armed adversaries."

After a verdiet of guilty of murder had been rendered against the prisoner, his lawyers, H. P. A. Smith, John D. Richie, James M. Thurman, Samnel Word and Alexander Davis, made a strennous effort on behalf of the prisoner to have further proceedings postponed until the next day; but Colonel Sanders, who prose- cuted for the people, with unsurpassed courage, and looking into the muzzles of a thousand guns, mounted the wagon and in the presence of the multitude recited that Ives had been de- for Bannack, Montana. After a rough and adventurous trip they arrived in Virginia City, September 22, 1863 This camp was then in the height of its prosperity, and- here Mr. Kessler started a bakery, restaurant and liquor business, making money rapidly and remaining until the following year. In 1864, having accumulated a consider able sum, he returned to Germany on a visit. While in Germany he received a letter from a friend in Diamond City, then known as Confederate Gulch, in which he was informed that his friend had staked a good mining claim for him, and that if he would come back it would be held till his arrival. He started at once, but reached Diamond City too late: his claim had been jumped and his friend was unable to hold it.

About this time Blackfoot City had a boom. Mr. Kess ler started for that point with the intention of building a brewery for Charles Beehrer of Nevada, with whom he had become associated, and upon his arrival there at once went to work on the building. Before it was completed, however, it was found that the mines were limited in their wealth and would not warrant the completion of this undertaking. Mr. Kessler then came to Helena and took charge of a brewery owned by Mr. Bechrer. On May 9, 1865, Charles Bechrer sold the brewery to Mr. Kessler, and from that day the Kessler Brewery has been under the management of Mr. Kessler. This brewery has grown by degrees from a small institution to its prosent size and capacity, being now the largest and most per- fectly equipped brewing establishment in the Northwest. It has been rebuilt and remodeled three times. The present structure was erected in 1886. Its capacity is ample for supplying the needs of the surrounding towns for years to come.

Some time in 1866, brick being very scarce and a de mand having been created by the building of the oldl smelter, Mr. James Mason started a brickyard on the

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clared a murderer and robber by the people there assembled, and moved " that George Ives be forthwith hung by the neck until dead," which motion prevailed, and the sentence was at once carried into execution.

The lawyers who practiced in the miners' courts before the organization of the Territory, and who were active in laying the foundations of the mining law, and in the preservation of order, were W. F. Sanders, E. W. Toole, W. Y. Pemberton, Samuel Word, Robert Lawrence, James M. Thurman, A. E. Mayhew, H. P. A.

premises close to the brewery. Mr. Kessler became in- terested in the industry, and subsequently, when Helena began to grow into a city, he continued the manufactory, making the greater part of the brick of which Helena is built, and supplying the surrounding towns. The quality of the brick being very superior, a demand soon arose for them, and a large trade iu this product was built up in a short time.

Mr. Kessler has, during his life in Montana, acquired a considerable amount of real-estate in Helena and else- where throughout the State. He has erected a number of brick buildings. He is also interested in mines, farms and stock-raising.

Mr. Kessler was married, in 1873, to Miss Louisa Ebert, of New York city. In 1880 Mrs. Kessler died, leaving three children, two sons and a daughter. Both of the sons are now associated with their father in the care and management of his extensive establishment and business interests throughout the State. Mr. Kessler has not since married.

He is now sixty-one years of age. For thirty years he has averaged eighteen hours per day of hard work, and is still an active, healthy and vigorous business man. He is a zealous advocate of the virtues of the proper use of malt drinks, and points with pride to his healthy family and successful career as proof of his doctrine.

BENJAMIN STRICKLAND, one of the early pioneers of Montana, came to Emigrant Gulch and engaged in min- ing in 1864. He also mined for a time at Carpenter's Bar.

In 1868 he was married to Nancy J. Dailey, daughter of Ebenezer and Catherine (Miller) Dailey. Her father was a native of Virginia, and her mother of Ohio. Mr. Dailey was one of the early settlers in Montana; an active, enterprising business man, well and favorably known throughout the Territory. He reared a family of sons and daughters, all of whom are energetic, well-to-do citizens. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Strickland removed to Oregon and settled on a ranch, where he car- ried on farming operations and stock-raising until 1872. In the fall of that year they returned to Montana, and in 1875 permanently located on the ranch they now own, it

Smith, G. W. Stapleton, Louis McMurtry, J. A. Johnston, John Richie, J. H. Brown, W. J. McCormick, L. J. Campbell, and Alex. Davis.

Among the judges of the miners' courts of that period were B. B. Burchett and Gaylord S. Bissell of Bannack; John S. Lott, Don L. Byam and Walter B. Dance, of Nevada City; Wilson of Adobetown, and Fuller of the Sum- mit Mining District.

With the miners' courts and the citizens' criminal courts began the judicial history of Montana .*

being located in Paradise valley, on the Yellowstone, ten miles south of Livingston. To the original 160 acres, which Mr. Strickland homesteaded, he has still added by purchase, until he is now the owner of a whole section of land opposite Point of Rocks, on the east side of the Yellowstone river, thirty miles from Livingston. On this ranch is kept a herd of several hundred caltle.

Mr. and Mrs. Strickland have five children living, namely : Catherine E., David F., Millie L., Ebenezer and Samuel. They lost two children, Mary Isabel and John Russell, who died at the ages of two and nineteen years, respectively. Catherine E. is now the wife of Lou Car- penter. Mrs. Strickland is a woman of more than ordi- nary intelligence and business ability. To her industry, careful economy and good judgment, Mr. Strickland at- tributes much of the success that has come to them.

Mr. Strickland is a member of the Masonic fraternity, having attained the twenty-second degree. During the war, in 1862, he enlisted in a Minnesota regiment of cavalry, and, under General Sibley, spent two years on the frontier, fighting the Indians. Politically, he and his wife are Democrats. Mrs. Strickland is a member of the Board of School Trustees, and is an active worker in the field of education. The Strickland family are among the highly respected people of the community in which they live.

*The first case tried in or near the hounds of what is now Montana, was that of an insubordinate soldier, so far as we have any authentic record. In the expedition sent out to the Oregon by Jefferson, a sort of court martial, at which Captains Lewis and Clarke presided, found the ac- cused guilty and had him whipped. This sort of court prevailed with more or less rigor, especially when Stev- ens and Mullen were pushing their explorations and military-road enterprise-supplemented by the guard- house when such a thing was at hand; and these trials, convictions and floggings were not confined to soldiers by any means, but also extended to thieving Indians and worse than thieving whites,-jackals that always hover about the coming lairs-till the civil law made advent in Missoula, the first county in Montana, July, 1862.

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CHAPTER XVIII.

THE RICHEST CITY IN THE WORLD- HELENA-A GEORGIA GOLD MINE -- THE RISING AND RECEDING TIDES OF MINING CAMPS-TENDER. FEET-FIRST MAGISTRATE-FIRST MARRIAGE IN HELENA- DEVELOPMENT OF SILVER BOW AND BUTTE-RIVERS OF SILVER FLOWING FROM BLACKENED ROCKS.

1864 TO 1866.

HE discovery and founding of the capital of Montana, which is now the wealthiest city in the world, was not at all in- tentional. An old gold-hunter from Georgia, despairing of getting any foothold in any of the famous placer mines already found in Montana, set out with a small party and pushed down the river into unexplored regions. His name was John Cowan, but was known as " Uncle Johnny," being a very aged man. On

Here in this county, the first marriage in Montana, in which both parties to the sacred contract were white Americans, took place, and here also the first civil trial. We quote from Woody's Centennial History of Missoula County :

" The first lawsuit ever commenced in Missoula county, or in fact in Montana, was commenced and tried at Hell's Gate, in the month of March, 1862, before Henry Brooks, justice of the peace. The proceedings were under the laws of Washington Territory. A Frenchman called 'Tin Cup Joe' -- other name forgotten-accused Baron O'Keeffe with beating one of his horses with a fork-handle and then pushing him into a hole, thereby causing his death, and claimed damages in the sum of $40, and sued O'Keefe to recover that amount. The place of trial was in Bolte's saloon, A jury of six was empaneled and sworn to try the cause. W. B. S. Higgins and A. S. Blake, now of Missoula county, and Bart Henderson, of the Yellow- stone, were of the jury. As the trial progressed the pro- ceedings became less harmonious until it ultimately cul- minated in a bit of unpleasantness between the defendant and the writer, who was acting as attorney for the plain- tiff. During the unpleasantness the friends of the re- spective parties lent a hand, and it was far from being a select or private affair. While the unpleasantness was in progress the court and a portion of the jury had fled for dear life, and when harmony was restored they were no. where to be found. After considerable search the court

the 21st of June, 1864, his party did some desultory mining where Helena now stands, but had little faith in the future of their discovery, although they formed a district and gave the place a name.

I have before spoken of the simple, terse and laconic laws set up by miners for their own government and by which millions and hundreds of millions were held in perfect confidence and absolute security. I here insert a copy of the

and jury were captured and the trial proceeded. The case was finally given to the jury, and after a brief ab. sence they came into court and rendered a verdict for plaintiff for $40 damages. The costs swelled the judg- ment to about $90. This was probably the most hotly contested case ever tried in the Territory. The defendant endeavored to take an appeal to the district court, but as that court was held in Colville, 300 miles distant, he con- cluded to settle the judgment, which he did. Poor Bishop Brooks was in 1865 killed in Uncle Ben's Gulch, near Blackfoot City,-shot through a glass door,-by whom or for what cause was never known. This Brooks was given the sobriquet of Bishop Brooks owing to his performing the first ceremony of uniting the first white Americans married in the eastern county of Washington Territory."

In this patriarchal county, Missoula, also occurred the first legal execution in all Montana, that of a Chinaman for striking to death a fellow Chinaman while trying to rob him. This tirst execution in Montana took place in 1883, more than twenty years after the advent of civil law and nearly twenty years after the law had full dominion over all the land. I call especial attention to these dates, for I know not what better evidence can be put in the witness hox than this to prove beyond dispute, as I have repeatedly asserted, that Montana was from the first, as she is still, one of the most secure, peaceful and law-abid- ing districts to be found, or was ever known, under the flag.

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" Mining Laws" that first governed that por- tion of Montana where the capital now stands. The miners' meeting at which these laws were called into existence was held on Last Chance creek or gulch, as you please to call it, as with Alder creek or gulch, on the 20th of July, 1864. The laws read as follows:

"That the gulch be named Last Chance Gulch, and the district in which the discovery is made be named Rattle Snake District, to extend down three miles, and up to the month of the canon, and across from summit to sun- mit. That mining claims in this district ex- tend for 200 feet up and down the gulch, and

WILLIAM V. MYERS, County Commissioner of Jeffer- son county, was born in Fayette county, Ohio, March 24, 1839, and is of German and Scotch descent. His great- grandmother lived to the age of 103 years, and his grand- father reached the age of eighty years. The latter moved to northwestern Ohio in 1809, where he raised his family. Isaac Myers, the fourth child in order of birth, was born in Ohio in 1810. He married Miss Elizabeth Vance, a native also of Ohio, and they had ten children, six sons and four daughters, six of whom still survive. The father lived to the age of sixty years, and the mother now resides at Greenfield, Adair county, Iowa, at the age of eighty-four years.

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An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 53

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