An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 66

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

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conntry was wild and unsettled. Obtaining a mining claim, he went to work and continued there successfully until the spring of 1861, when he returned to Kentucky on a visit to friends:

It was while he was visiting in Kentucky that Fort Sumter was fired upon. The whole country was in the highest degree of excitement. He returned to Illinois and enlisted in Company A, Eighth Illinois Infantry, for a term of three months, and after that term had expired he again enlisted, this time in Company B, Forty-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Of this company he was elected First Lieutenant, and was with it in all the en- gagements in which it participated. At the capture of Fort Donelson he had command of the company, and at the battle of Shiloh he received a musket ball in his shoulder. This ball he still carries. At the battle of Vicksburg he was wounded in the thigh by a shell, from the effects of which he is slightly lame, and from which lie still suffers. For gallant service at Vicksburg he was promoted to the captaincy. Ile was at the capture of Atlanta and was in command of a pioneer corps that went in advance of Sherman's forces in the memorable march to the sea. In the grand review at Washington Captain Davis and his men were assigned to lead the line in order next to the generals.

The war over, he went to Chicago, from whence, in 1866, he came with his private conveyance to Montana, and selected Virginia City as a place of location. For five years he was engaged in mining, meeting with the usual reverses and snecesses of the miner. During his best year in the mines he took out $6,000. The last claim he worked became flooded with water, and after aban- doning it he leased some stock and a ranch on the Upper Ruby. This stock ranch he ran for about five years, rais- ing a great many cattle, but finally selling them on a declining market. Then he again turned his attention to mining, and still owns mining interests. In 1880 he en-

the roots. In the dryest seasons of summer, and the coldest winters, it preserves its per- petnal greenness near the roots, and is succulent and most nonrishing. No amount of hay or grain fed to cattle in the winter will bring them out in the spring in as good order as grazing on the bunch grass, if the snows do not fall so deep as to prevent them from reaching the roots; and no other feed will make the beef so sweet, juicy and tender.

" Of the agricultural settlements of Montana, the Gallatin and Missoula valleys are the most favored in climate,-the eastern and western extremes of the Territory. I learn that the Missoula grows the earliest and finest vegetables

gaged in the hotel business at Puller Springs. In 1888 he returned to Virginia City and took charge of the Mad- ison House, which he conducted successfully five years, and since 1893 he has been proprietor of the Easton Ilouse. His generous and genial nature especially fit him for this business. He knows how to run a hotel in a way to gain the good will and patronage of the traveling public, and such has been his life in Montana that he en- joys the esteem and confidence of all who know him.

Captain Davis was married in Kentucky, in 1850, to Miss Jane Bolton, a native of his own town. She died in Illinois in 1857, in the twenty-seventh year of her age, leaving two children, Thomas W. and Viola, both now residents of Kansas, the latter being the wife of Jesse Cox. In December, 1866, he married Miss Minerva Tul- ler, a native of Indiana. They had five children, namely: Blanch, wife of James Cowan; Jessie, wife of Robert Cowan; Olive, wife of Amos Wiles; and John Arthur,- all residents of Montana. The mother of this family died in 1884. and in 1888 Captain Davis married Mrs. Amelia North, sister of his second wife, and widow of Robert North, who lost his life in the Union army.

The Captain and his wife are charter members of the Christian Church, in Virginia City, and he is one of the Elders of the church. Both have done much toward building up and sustaining it, and, in fact, all the moral and religious interests of the town have their liberal aid.

When the Republican party was organized in Illinois, he attended the first convention held in his county and there became identified with it and helped to organize it and has since been a faithful adherent to Republican principles. Ile has been honored by his party in Mad- ison county with the nomination for Treasurer of the county, and is now serving as City Justice and Police Judge of Virginia City. While in Illinois he served as Justice of the Peace for a number of years.

HISTORY OF MONTANA.

raised in the mountains, although it is the least accessible of all the agricultural districts as yet. It is the northwestern county of the Territory, and is flanked by the Bitter Root range. So favorable has the climate been since the settlers have been there that the more hardy fruits are planted, with entire confidence that they can be grown successfully. The whole Territory is made up of alternate mountains and valleys,- the one studded with the precious metals, and the other teeming with the most bountiful crops I have ever seen. In four years, with trackless mountains and hostile savages to confront the pioneer, this Territory has been settled for nearly two hundred miles in every direction from Helena, the central city, and, with not over

WILLIAM B. RALEIGH, one of IIelena's most prominent and successful dry-goods merchants, is a member of the well-known firm of Raleigh & Clarke. A resume of his life is herewith presented.

William B. Raleigh was born near Dover, Tennessee, October 27, 1846. Some of his ancestors emigrated from England to this country at an early day and settled in Maryland, where James Raleigh, the father of William B., was born. James Raleigh married Miss Margaret W. Bailey, a native of Tennessee. He was engaged in steam- boating, and made his home in Tennessee up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1848. Besides a widow, he left three daughters and one son. This son, William B., was then two years old. His mother reared her fam- ily and lived to a good old age, her death occurring in 1888.

In 1866 Mr. Raleigh began his mercantile career as a clerk in a store, at St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1869 he became a member of the firm of Bailey, Kay & Company (after- ward Bailey, Townsend & Company), wholesale dry-goods dealers, with which he was connected for nine years, and during that time became thoroughly acquainted with the quality and cost of goods and all the details of the dry- goods business. Disposing of his interest in that estab- lishment, he and a partner opened five retail stores in different localities, every one of which proved a success. In 1878 he sold out and came to Helena, and it was soon after his arrival here that the firm of Raleigh & Clarke opened up the largest dry-goods establishment in the city of Ilelena. During all these years, from 1878 up to the present time, it has held its leading position as the best house of the kind in the State of Montana. Their large store is well filled with choice goods, and an air of neatness prevades the whole establishment. They do both a wholesale and retail business, and an important

forty thousand people, it is second only to Cali- fornia in the production of gold and silver, and rivals that State in the growth of wheat to the acre. It has been cursed with adventurers in both business and polities, as has been the ex- perience of all new Territories; but its future will make romance pale before the swift march of progress."

Montana, as we have seen far back, before gold was discovered here, was entirely agri- cultural, horticultural and pastoral. From time immemorial till Lewis and Clarke came to " spy ont the land," the Indian woman had attended her fields of corn, beans, squashes and pump- kins along the alluvial banks of the Missonri and Yellowstone; and when the good fathers

feature of their store is their mail order department, goods being sent to parties in distant towns.

Mr. Raleigh's mercantile enterprises are not confined to IIelena alone. IIe is president of the Gallatin Valley Mercantile Company, which has a fine store and stock at Bozeman, Montana. Ile is also prominently connected with the leading dry-goods house at Great Falls, the firm name being W. B. Raleigh & Company. And, like many other successful business men in Montana, he has wisely invested in mines and mining. He is the principal owner of the large amount of property held by the Nevada Creek Placer Mining Company, of which he is president. They have a hydraulic mine which they have operated for eight years. Their land on Nevada creek comprises 1,200 acres, and is supplied with an abundance of water. Besides this mine, they also have claims covering 300 aeres in Buffalo and California gulches, and a valuable water-right there also. All these mines are operated by the latest and most improved methods and return a steady and profitable income.

Mr. Raleigh was married in St. Louis, Missouri, No vember 1; 1871, to Miss Medora T. Clarke, daughter of Albert G. Clarke, one of Helena's most respected pioneer merchants, and the senior member of the firm of Clarke & Curtin. Mr. and Mrs. Raleigh have four children. Susie B., Albert C., Margaret E. and Walter W. Mr. Raleigh has just completed a handsome brick residence, on South Rodney street, where he resides with his family.

He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Elks, and his political affiliations have all along been with the Democratic party. He is well known through- out Montana, and wherever he is known has the reputa- tation of being a man of the highest integrity, as well as one of the best informed dry goods merchants in business n the State.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

came they were far from discouraging this gentle mode of life. From far back toward the beginning the Indian warrior had watched his black herds feed brisket deep on plain and val- ley, and the passing trader did not discourage his rude form of half pastoral pursuit, for he wanted the robes.

So we see by these natural gardens and nat- ural corn-fields and natural pasture lands, which were found here more than half a cen- tury before we discovered gold, Montana was, from the first and by nature, a land of homes. Exactly when she began to turn seriously to these great resources it is hard to say. I found gardens in Deer Lodge managed mainly by

HON. ROBERT B. SMITH, senior member of the firm of Smith & Word, a prominent law firm of Helena, is a native of Kentucky, born in Hickman county, December 29, 1814. Ilis grandfather, Eli Smith, a native of New York, removed early in life to western Kentucky and engaged in farming, in which he continued during the rest of his life. His son, De Witt Clinton Smith, was born in Kentucky in 1832, and now resides in Graves county, that State. De Witt C. Smith married Miss Eliza Hughs, also a native of Kentucky, and a daughter of Lewis Hughs, her father being one of the five men who first settled in Ohio in 1789, from whence he subsequently removed to Kentucky. Robert B. Smith is the oldest in the family of nine children of this worthy couple, all of whom, parents and children, are still living.

The subject of our sketch received his education in the public schools and the academy at Milburn, Kentucky, and studied law at Mayfield, in the office of Colonel Ed- ward Crossland. At Mayfield, in October, 1877, he was admitted to the bar and was there engaged in the prac- tice of his profession for three years and a half. It was in 1882 that he came to Montana. For seven years he practiced law at Dillon, and in 1889 came to Helena to form a law partnership with Hon. Samuel Word, the latter's son, Robert Lee Word, afterward becoming a member of the firm. Upon the retirement of the senior Mr. Word in 1892 the firm name became Smith & Word. They have a large and successful practice, and a wide reputation as one of the most prominent law firms in the State.

Mr. Smith is strongly Democratic in his political views, and during the national campaigns is one of his party's most effective stump speakers. In 1884 he was a mem- ber of the Constitutional Convention, and in 1885 received the appointment of United States District Attorney for Montana, being appointed as such by President Cleve- land. In this capacity he rendered good service until

Canadian half-breeds, the road builders and military camps their market, and I saw hay- stacks in the upper Yellowstone conntry the same year. The discovery of gold on the west side did not discourage these first adventurers in these unsettled regions. They knew that people would come now, if only to feed their horses and themselves on their way to the new mines in the farther West, and no doubt eaclı new year bronght higher haystacks and broader gardens till the time when products of the farm could be brought to the gold fields by farmers from regions with a more favorable climate down the natural slopes on either side. Yet those huge, round-shouldered and seemingly

March 4, 1889, at which time he telegraphed his resigna- tion, not wishing to hold office under an administration which he did not help to elect. But he is not in accord with the views of the present administration or the re- sults of the legislation of the present Congress. He openly expressed this dissatisfaction, and on June 25, 1894, he was nominated by the People's party in Montana for Representative in Congress from Montana. In 1890 he was appointed City Attorney, and served one year.

Hle is a member of the I. O. O. F. and of the Bar Asso- ciation of Montana.

Mr. Smith was married in 1878, to Miss Catherine Cross- land, a native of Kentucky and a daughter of Colonel Edward Crossland, under whom he had studied law. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have two children, Mary H. and Ed- ward C.

IION. JOSEPH R. MCKAY, Representative to the Legis- lature from Custer county, was elected on the Republican ticket in the autumn of 1892.

He was born near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, in the town of Morewood, in 1850, a son of Alexander and Elizabeth (Robinson) MeKay, his father an extensive lumberman. In the family were five children, four sons and one dangh- ter. James, one of the sons, is a prominent physician in the State of New York; another son holds a prominent Government position in the Indian Department.

Joseph, of this sketch, grew to manhood in business with his father, attending an educational institution at Ottawa, and graduated at a business college in that city. When of age he engaged in the lumber trade and in mercantile business, at River Desert, in the province of Quebec, having previously started in business in his native town. Later he engaged with the largest and best known lumber firm in the dominion,-the Hamilton Brothers, whose mills were at Hawkesbury, and yards at Quebec, and was with them ten years. Then he made a tour through Canada northwestward, and through the

Potr & Swith

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

endless brown hills of Montana do not avera ge nearly so high as those of Wyoming, Idaho and Colorado, being about two hundred feet lower.

A miner is generally loath to leave off the fascinating and exciting employment of gold and silver seeking; but from the first old Cali- fornians saw that the placer mines muss, in the course of time, lose their importance, as had sneh mines in other places; and much sooner, too, since improved methods and experience had made it possible to handle more pay dirt now in a single day than in a week's hard toil in the former times. And so, at a compara- tively early stage in the gradual falling off of

west and northwest Territories of the United States, seek- ing a favorable locality for settlement, and decided finally that the Yellowstone valley offered the greatest induce- ments.

Selecting a fine tract of land on Tongue river, twenty miles from Miles City, he engaged in raising live-stock, in 1885, the stock consisting of cattle and horses, and among the latter a number of fine Shetland ponies from England, besides saddle and trotting horses.

Having had experience in many features of trade, he decided that the protective system offered the best oppor- tunity for labor to receive nearest a just reward. Ac- cordingly he allied himself with the Republican party.

Mr. McKay was elected a member of the Board of County Commissioners of Custer connty, in 1889, and was chairman of the Board one year, during which time that body made a fine record. He is a member of Yellow- stone Lodge, No. 26, A. F. & A. M., at Miles City, also of the Miles City Social Club. He is a gentleman well qualified to fill any position, and is courteous and enter- taining in conversation.

In 1893 he married Miss Mary Southmayd, daughter of O. A. Southmayd, of Helena, Montana, who is exten- sively engaged in mining interests. Mr. MeKay and wife, in society, are prominent in Miles City and Custer county.

HIARVEY BLISS. This enterprising young business man came to Montana during the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, as bridge foreman for Winston Brothers, bridge contractors and builders of Minneapolis, Minnesota. With that firm he remained five years. In 1884 he began business for himself at Big Timber, and from that time up to the present has been successful and has steadily accumulated property. He constructed a wagon bridge across the Yellowstone river, near Big Timber. In March, 1892, he purchased the large lumber interests of the Gordon Brothers' Lumber Company, at

the placer product, he began to shift hi- - claim" upon another's shoulders and look out for a " ranch." We cannot fix the date of this any more than we can fix the date of the falling of the first eucalyptus leaf which finally carries with it all the leaves of the year, one at a time and all unseen; but we know that in 1867 im- ported Durham, Holstein, and some hornless little black cattle from Scotland, bought by Mr. Blackmoor, of Saulsbury, England, were feeding where only buffalo and grizzly bears roamed and fed but a few days before. In the thicket where Captain Clarke killed his hugest bear, a corral for nightly protection of fine stock had been built of the timber found there

Big Timber, and has since been handling all kinds of building material in connection with his contracting and building. Many of the best buildings of the town have been erected by him. He owns three completed build ings, and has a residence now on the way that when fin ished will be the best in the town. He also deals in hay, grain and agricultural implements. As agent for the Hecht Brothers Wool Company, he shipped for them dur- ing the season of 1893 five hundred thousand pounds of wool.

Harvey Bliss was born at Stevens' Point, Wisconsin, December 31, 1856, son of Nathaniel F. Bliss, a land speculator. While he has received only a common school education, he has an unusual amount of natural ability, tact and enterprise, and these have enable.l him to make the wonderful success he has attained since coming to Montana. Politically, he is a Democrat, and is an active worker in the ranks of his party, always attending county and State conventions. He is a member of the Knight- of Pythias.

LUCIEN ALBERT KING, is one of the tirst men who engaged in business in Anaconda, he having established himself here soon after the town site was located. The following sketch of his life is therefore appropriate in this work.

Mr. King was born in Omaha, Nebraska, December 7, 1857, oldest of the seven children five sons and two daughters of JJacob and Christine Caroline (Christian- sen) King. His ancestors were among the early settlers in the American colonies, the Kings coming from Ger- many and the Christiansens from Denmark. Grand- father King served in the Cononial army in the war for American independence. All of Mr. King's brothers and sisters are living except one brother.

Mr. King grew up in Omaha, which at that time was a small place, and there received a high-school education, and served an apprenticeship of six years to the drug

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

by the importers of fine cattle; and bnt for the ever-restless Indians, this same sort of thing might have been found almost anywhere from the top of the Rockies down to the joining of the two great rivers flowing toward the east. And now the tops of the Rocky mountains were found to be not only favorable to stock-raising, but as fertile even as the alluvial valleys.

Montana is and must remain till her glori- ons grass-set mountains melt into chaos, the tawny lion of the North. Looking out and up toward Canada as you climb and climb for the summit, you see such a riot of color, such a continuity of mountain set on mountain! All

business. The drug business, however, was too confining for him, and he accordingly sought other occupation. Entering the employ of the Union Pacific Railroad Com- pany in the capacity of civil engineer, he was thus engaged during the construction of the Oregon short line as well as many other branches of that great railroad system. He remained with that company until 1885. That year he helped to run the lines for tracks connect- ing the Upper and Lower Smelting Works at Anaconda. These smelting works are said to the be the largest of the kind in the world. It was also during that same year that he, in connection with John J. Crockett, pur- chased the drug, stationery and other business connected therewith, from a party who had begun business in a tent near the creek. He and Mr. Crockett located in the large, brick building on Main street, December 10, 1886, where the business is still conducted. In 1890 Mr. Crock- ett sold his interest in the establishment to Mr. Frank Kennedy, a Louisiana gentleman, since which time the firm name has been King & Kennedy. They now deal in books, stationery, tobacco and cigars and all kinds of notions, and also handle daily papers from all the impor- tant cities in the United States.

Mr. King is a Republican in politics but has never been an office seeker, and the only publie position he ever held was that of Clerk of the Board of Education, in which he officiated for several years. He is a member of Acacia Lodge, No. 33, F. & A. M., at Anaconda, of which he was Worshipful Master during the year of 1893, and is also indentified with the order of Elks, being Esteemed Lec- turing Knight of the last named organization.

January 28, 1887, he married Miss Maude Mary IIob- son, daughter of Col. William Hobson, of Boston, Massa- chusetts. Mr. and Mrs. King have two daughters, Ruth and Olive Hobson. He and his wife are both active members of the Episcopal Church. He is now one of the County Commissioners of Deer Lodge county, and is also the member of the State Republican central committee from Deer Lodge county.

grass- set, mind you, and pine-set,-simply a park, pushed up into the heavens, banked up against the borders of Canada. And all cast on such a colossal scale!

There are cattle among the pines along the little brooks that come traveling down from out the clouds toward Canada; there are sheep all along as far as you can see; always a shepherd, with dogs. For here the big buffalo wolf as well as the coyote abound. Some herders have as many as five thousand sheep; but a cattle king at iny side tells me that half that number is all that any one man can safely keep from the wolves that constantly lie in wait. There is constant

GORDON C. VINEYARD, a Montana pioneer of 1864, now residing in Anaconda, was born in Missouri, March 13, 1836.

Mr. Vineyard is of German descent. His grandfather, George Vineyard, was a Virginian and a soldier iu the Revolutionary war, enduring all the hardships of that memorable winter at Valley Forge. His wife was of Scotch descent, and in their family were eleven children. John, their oldest son and our subject's father, was born in Virginia, November 22, 1791. He married Miss Me- linda Witt, also a native of Virginia, the date of her birth being March 16, 1808, aud in 1833 they removed to Mis- souri and located near Booneville, Cooper county, where they owned and operated a farm. Later they removed to Tipton, Moniteau county, that State, where they spent the residue of their lives and died, his death occurring in 1855 and hers in 1858. Both were members of the Meth- odist Church, and by their daily lives showed they were Christians of the truest type. They had eight children, of whom four are living.

Gordon C. was their sixth child. He received his edu- cation in Missouri, residing there to his twenty-eighth year. He was interested in a store and was under sheriff of Moniteau county from 1859 until 1862. The latter year he entered the Confederate service, as a member of Cap- tain Wallace W. Williams' company, but was soon taken prisoner and was paroled, after which he came to Mon- tana. His journey hither was made up the Missouri river ou the steamer Welcome as far as Milk river, and from there on the Fort Benton to Fort Benton, arriving at the latter place July 2, 1864. He engaged in mining at Alder Gulch and at Last Chance for one season.

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An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 66

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