An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 92

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

USA > Montana > An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 92

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Mrs. Custer says: "Boots and Saddles," page 143:

"It was a surprise to me that after the life of excitement my husband had led he should grow more domestic in his tastes. His daily life was very simple. He rarely left home except to hunt, and was scarcely once a year in the sut ler's store, where the officers congregated to play billiards and cards. If the days were too stormy or too cold for hunting, as they often were for a week or more at a time, he wrote and studied for hours every day.

"The hardest trial of my husband's life was parting with his mother. Such partings were the only occasions when I ever saw him lose entire control of himself, and I always looked forward to the hour of their separation with dread.

people of Marysville and vicinity. He is now the lead- ing blacksmith of the city. He has invested in property in this city, has built a shop and good residence, and is considered one of Marysville's most reliable citizens.

November 1, 1880, Mr. Kirby was united in marriage with Miss Kate Harrington, a native of Michigan, and a daughter of Jeremiah Harrington, one of the pioneer settlers of northern Michigan. Our subject and wife have had six children, all born in Marysville, namely: Veronica Maud, George Francis, William Mark, Richard, Robert and Nellie. The eldest danghter was the second girl baby born in Marysville, and the eldest son has the honor of being the first male child born in the city. The family are worthy members of the Catholic Church. In his social relations, Mr. Kirby is a charter member of the I. O. O. F., in which he holds an office. He affiliates with the Democratic party, but votes for the man rather than the party.

SPENCER JOHNSON, one of the prominent farmers of Deer Lodge valley and a Montana 'pioneer of 1864, was born near Lebanon, Boone county, Indiana, June 27, 1831.

Mr. Johnson traces his ancestry back to Ireland, his great-great-grandfather, the progenitor of the family in America, having been born on the Emerald Isle. Alex- ander Johnson, the father of our subject, was born in Kentucky and was there married to Miss Sarah Allen, a native of that State. Soon after their marriage they re- moved to Indiana and settled on a frontier farm which they cleared up and improved and where they resided for a number of years. The father moved to Iowa in 1847, where he died in the sixty-fourth year of his age. The mother lived to be eighty-nine years old. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom five are still living, Spencer being next to the youngest of the family.

"For hours before we started I have seen him follow his mother about, whispering some comforting word to her; or, opening the closed door of her own room, where, womanlike, she fought out her grief alone, sit beside her as long as he could endure it."

Here is what she says of the Sunday afternoon on which the battle was fought, while with her friends far away from the scene of conflict:

"On Sunday afternoon, the 25th of June, our little group of saddened women, borne down with one common weight of anxiety, sought solace in gathering together in our house. We tried to find some slight surcease from trouble in the old hymns: some of them dated back to our childhood's days, when our mothers rocked us to sleep to their soothing strains. I remem-

Spencer Johnson received most of his education in the State of Iowa, and there he began life on his own ac- count at the age of twenty years, taking up a farm in Benton connty. He was married in Iowa, February 7, 1856, to Miss Helen J. Blakely, a native of New York and a daughter of Carlos W. Blakely, who was of English descent.

In 1864 Mr. and Mrs. Spencer crossed the plains to Montana, traveling with mule teams and coming in com- pany with thirteen other persons, and their journey being unattended with accident, and, upon the whole, a most enjoyable one. They started out on the 28th of March, and it was not until the 21st of June that they reached Virginia City.

Upon his arrival in Montana Mr. Johnson first engaged in mining, working by the day; but, being stricken with mountain fever, he resolved to quit mining. That same year he came to his present location in Deer Lodge val- ley. Here he at once engaged in the dairy business, sell- ing his product to the miners, receiving $1.50 per pound for butter and $1 per gallon for milk. In August, 1867, they went to Phillipsburg and boarded the men who built the first mill at that place, remaining there until 1869. They spent three seasons at Gold Creek, making butter and raising stock, and each winter bringing their stock to Deer Lodge valley. In 1871, in October, Mr. Johnson purchased 160 acres of his present farm, paying a squatter $600 for his claim. Here he has since carried on stock-raising successfully, keeping horses, cattle and sheep, his horses being the Norman-Percheron breed and always selling for handsome prices. To his original tract of land he has since added until now he has 520 acres, and here in this charming valley he has a pleasant home and is surrounded with all the comforts of life.

Charles . Namen

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ber the grief with which one fair young wife threw herself on the carpet and pillowed her head in the lap of a tender friend. Another sat dejected at the piano, and struck soft chords that melted into the notes of the voices. All were absorbed in the same thoughts, and their eyes were filled with far-away visions and long- ings. Indescribable yearning for the absent and untold terror for their safety engrossed each heart. The words of the hymn,

' E'en though a cross it be, Nearer my God, to Thee,'

came forth with almost a sob from every throat. " At that very hour the fears that our tortured minds had portrayed in imagination were reali- ties, and the souls of those we thought upon were ascending to meet their Maker.

The good wife who crossed the plains with him in 1864 has shared his joys and sorrows all these years and is still by his side, enjoying with him their present prosperity. Their children, three in number, all died in infancy, and they are now rearing a motherless little boy.

Mr. Johnson's political views are in harmony with the principles advocated by the Republican party. He, how- ever, gives little attention to politics, his own private af- fairs claiming all his time.

CHARLES S. WARREN, one of the most enterprising citizens of Butte City, has resided in Montana since 1866, and been identified with the growth and development of this commonwealth from the first.

He was born in Utica, La Salle county, Illinois, No- vember 20, 1847, of ancestry traceable back to England, whose arrival in America was on the second voyage of the Mayflower.

He received his education in the country schools. When he was fourteen years of age the great Civil war came on, and, filled with the patriotism and military ardor of his ancestry, enlisted as a private in the Forty- seventh Illinois Infantry, and served in the Army of the Cumberland, and was with Wilson at the last battle of the war and then the capture of Jefferson Davis. January 24, 1866, he was discharged at Savannah, Georgia, as First Sergeant, after the surrender. He with his company had been on garrison duty there and in South Carolina and Florida.

Returning home, February 15, 1866, he rested until April 10, when he started West, coming to St. Joseph, Missouri, and for $25 a month and board he drove a bull team across the plains, arriving in Virginia City August 20, 1866. Ile was then paid in greenbacks, which, how- ever, at that time were worth only half their face value.

"On the 5th of July-for it took that time for the news to come the sun rose on a beanti- ful world, but with its earliest beams came the first knell of disaster. A steamer came down the river bearing the wounded from the battle of the Little Big Horn, of Sunday, June 25th. This battle wrecked the lives of twenty-six women at Fort Lincoln, and orphaned children of officers and soldiers joined their cry to that of their bereaved mothers.

"From that time the life went out of the hearts of the ' women who weep,' and God asked them to walk on alone and in the shadow."

And here is General Custer's last letter:

"June 22,-11 A. M.

"I have but a few moments to write, as we move at twelve, and I have my hands full of

He then packed his blankets all over the Territory, and August 24, 1866, he camped under a wagon where the Herald office in Helena now stands. Next he packed his blankets by way of Deer Lodge valley to French Gulch, where he engaged in placer mining. It had become a question of work or starve. He followed mining for about four years with the usual miners' luck, sometimes "in it" and sometimes not.

In 1873 Mr. Warren was elected the Sheriff of Deer Lodge county, as a Republican, and when his term of office expired he was "broke" and borrowed the $15 with which he came to Butte.

He located various mines, among them the Lexington, which he sold to Judge Davis for $50, and the Judge sold it for $1,500,000! He was one of the owners of the Gagnon, fought it through the courts and finally lost it, and since then it has yielded over $2,000,000 in dividends. There have been other and similar instances in his history.

Ile was in the Nez Perces war in 1877, being Adjutant of the Montana Battalion. He was the first Police Mag- istrate of the city of Butte, having also a considerable amount of work to do in the political line. Being once a candidate for the office of Mayor, he was defeated by a combination of boodle, poor whisky and (he thinks) poor judgment. He was elected a member of the Constitu- tional Convention which formed the present constitution of the State of Montana, and was one of the committee appointed by the convention to issue an address to the people of the State relative to the constitution. IIe was a member of the National Republican committee, which resulted in the election of Benjamin Harrison as Presi- dent of the United States.

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preparations for the scout. . . . Do not be anx- ious about me. You will be surprised to know how closely I obey your instructions about keeping with the column. I hope to have a good report to send you by the next mail.

A snecess will start us all towards Lincoln. .

"I send you an extract from General Terry's official order, knowing how keenly you appreci- ate words of commendation and confidence, such as the following: ' It is of course impossible to give you any definite instructions in regard to this movement; and were it not impossible to do so, the Department Commander places too much confidence in your zeal, energy and abil- ity to wish to impose upon you precise orders, which might hamper your action when nearly in contact with the enemy.'"

For some years General Warren has been in Company with Ilon. Lee Mantle in dealing in real estate and mining property. They are largely interested in the new gold camp at Basin, and they have interests in every county in the State.

General Warren is a thirty-second degree Mason, Past Chancelor Commander of the K. of P., Past Noble Grand of the. I. O. O. F., and Past Post Commander of Lincoln Post, No. 2, G. A. R., Past Department Commander of the G. A. R., Department of Montana; also a member of the B. P. O. E., and Past Worshipful Master of Butte Lodge No. 22, F. & A. M.

General Warren was married in 1872 to Miss Mittie Avery, a native of the State of Maine, and they have had five children, of whom only two are living. One of these, Wesley, is a civil engineer, a graduate of the Peekskill Military Academy and a sophomore at Cornell University, New York. The daughter, Mary Alice, is at school at St. Mary's Episcopal Convent in New York city.

GEORGE W. MORSE, a Montana pioneer of 1862, now a prominent mining man and farmer, was born in the State of Maine, December 2, 1838.

" Colonel" Morse, as he is familiarly called, is descended from Scotch ancestors. His father was born in England, the son of Scotch parents, and upon coming to America he settled in Maine. During the greater part of his life he was a sea captain, his family residing in the town of Whitefield. The maiden name of our subject's mother was Mary A. Norris. She was a descendant of the Hil- tons, early settlers in the colonies and participants in the great struggle for independence. They had six children, of whom five are living, George W. being their third born. Captain Morse died in 1865, at the age of sixty-

Custer and I were much together his last winter in New York and I there learned to love him as a man. Incidental to this last winter in the national metropolis, the following, from Whitaker's Life of Custer, is apropos:

"A distinguished gentleman whose Friday evenings at his home on Fifth avenue were re- garded as happy privileges for the best minds of the metropolis, extended to the General hos- pitality and advantages which were eagerly accepted and as earnestly enjoyed. Here, where the flame of thought was of the loftiest charac- ter, Custer would sit, an attentive and admiring listener, drinking from the rich fountain of instruction."

Says the late Lawrence Barrett:

"IFis career may be thus briefly given: He

eight years, and his wife survived him some years, she being eighty-two at the time of death. He was a mem- ber of the Baptist Church, while she was a Methodist. Both were devoted Christians and were held in high es- teem for their many sterling qualities of mind and heart.

Colonel Morse spent the first nineteen years of his life in his native State. Then, in 1855, he went to the Ter- ritory of Minnesota, where he was engaged in lumber- ing for three years. From there he went south to New Orleans, and the following year was employed in build- ing bridges on the Vicksburg & Texas railroad. In 1859 he joined a company bound for Pike's Peak, and while en route they had several skirmishes with the Indians, but succeeded in making the journey in safety. He mined there for a time, then went to Salmon river at the time of the excitement at that place, and from Salmon river came to Montana, landing here on the 4th of July, 1862. He prospected during the summer, and in the fall went to Boise Basin, where he mined and had a pack train of mules an l horses, meeting with success, and re- mained there until 1865. The Indians, however, were very troublesome, and in the winter of 1863 they stole his pack animals. In 1865 he returned to Bear Gulch, Montana, and engaged in prospecting again, and soon afterward was the discoverer of the Bilk Gulch, giving it this name in order to keep prospectors away so that he and his friends could form such a mining camp as they liked. The discovery proved a rich one and they took ont a great deal of gold. Provisions were high, how- ever, and a great amount of money was required to operate the mine. The price of a pick at that time was $15, and a shovel cost $12. The Colonel still continues his placer mining, and he now has valuable mines at Deep Gulch and Elk creek. He has handled a grea

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was born in obscurity; he rose to eminence; denied social advantages in his youth, his un- tiring industry supplied them; the obstacles to his advancement became the stepping-stones to his fortunes; free to choose for good or evil, he chose rightly; truth was his striking character- istic; he was fitted to command, for he had learned to obey; his acts found their severest critic in his own breast; he was a good son, a good brother, a good and affectionate husband, a Christian soldier, a steadfast friend. Entering the army a cadet in early youth, he became a General while still on the threshold of man- hood; with ability undenied, with valor proved on many a hard-fought field, he acquired the affection of the nation; and he died in action at the age of thirty-seven; died as he would

deal of gold during the past three decades, and all the time the expense of carrying on operations has been heavy. In the early mining days he paid from $6 to $7 per day for men, and the present price is $3.50.

From time to time he has made investments in land, and at this writing he is the owner of 2,300 acres in Flint Creek valley, well improved with good buildings, etc. He gives special attention to stock raising, keeping Dur- ham and Hereford cattle and Morgan horses. While he spends much of his time on his ranch, his home is in Deer Lodge, having built a residence here and moved his family to it in order to secure the educational advantages of the city.

Colonel Morse was married February 26, 1877, to Miss Nettie J. Milliken, a native of Ellsworth, Maine, and daughter of Edwin E. Milliken, of that State. They have two sons, George Allen and Avrell Phillip.

Since 1868 the Colonel has been a Mason. He belongs to the blue lodge, royal arch, commandery and Shrine. Politically, his views are in harmony with the principles of the Republican party, and he has rendered efficient service in various public capacities. For eight years he served as County Commissioner. In 1892 he was one of the State Electors. An active, enterprising citizen, pros- perous in his various undertakings, and well known and highly esteemed he is justly ranked with the leading men of his county.

W. C. BRADSHAW, one of the representative business men of Phillipsburg, Montana, has been identified with the interests of the town for the past seventeen years.

Mr. Bradshaw is a native of the State of Indiana, born October 27, 1849, descended from English ancestors who were early settlers of the South and prominently con- nected with its early history. His father, Thomas Brad-

have wished to die, no lingering disease prey- ing upon that iron frame. At the head of his command the messenger of death awaited him; from the field of battle where he had so often ' directed the storm,' his gallant spirit took its flight. Cut off from aid, abandoned in the midst of incredible odds, waving aloft the sabre which had won him victory so often; the pride and glory of his comrades, the noble Custer fell, bequeathing to the nation his sword, to his comrades an example, to his friends a memory, and to his belovel one a hero's name."

He was truly a gentle man, the Chevalier Bayard of America. May Montana cherish his memory to the end, and may her youth emulate the lone boy-hero's example in peace and in war.

shaw, was born in Mercer county, Kentucky, and his mother, whose maiden name was Nancy Daly, was a na- tive of Tennessee. They had three sons and two daugh- ters, W. C. being the third born in the family.

W. C. Bradshaw was reared on a farm in Indiana, re ceived a district-school education, and when he was nine- teen year of age began the battle of life on his own ac- count. His first occupation was that of stock dealer. He bought and sold stock in Illinois during the war, selling large numbers of horses and mules to the Government and carrying on his operations successfully. He contin- ued in the stock business until 1870, at which time he came to Montana, making the journey by rail to Sioux City and thence up the Missouri river to Fort Benton. Upon his arrival in Montana, he first located at Pioneer, where he mined and did fairly well. He purchased the Square Gulch claim, used the hydraulic process, and in two seasons took out about $7,500 above expenses, after which he sold his claim for $5,500. In 1874 he went to Alaska in search of gold, but was unsuccessful and from there directed his course to California, where he spent the win- ter, in the spring returning to Montana. Ile again mined at Pioneer for about a year. Then in the fall of 1877 he came to Phillipsburg. Here he formed a partnership with Mr. Angus McDonel, in a meat market and butcher business, and they conducted the same up to 1880, doing a successful business. They then dissolved and Colonel George W. Morse became associated with Mr. Bradshaw, the two continuing in business successfully for ten years longer, after which they sold out. Mr. Bradshaw has since speculated in real estate and mines, and at this writ- ing owns some valuable property in Phillipsburg.

Hle was married in January, 1878, to Miss Margaret Sulivan, a native of Ireland, and they have two children,

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CHAPTER XXVIII.

MONTANA INDIANS-THE INDIAN AS A WHITE MAN-SITTING BULL DRIVEN OUT OF MONTANA- CHIEF JOSEPH'S FLIGHT ACROSS MONTANA-DEATH OF SITTING BULL.

FROM THE DEATH OF CUSTER TO THE DEATH OF SITTING BULL.

T is proper here to turn back a decade and take up the history of the Indian. The people of Montana are pleased to date "the end of all our Indian troubles" from the fall of Custer in 1876. The death of Custer meant the destruction of Sitting Bull, sooner or later, along with all those who followed this wild and danntless leader. A direct and resolute policy was demanded by the whole people of the re- public, and sentiment had to give place to sense at last, elsewhere, as it had from the first in Montana. And from that date the Indians of the State can begin to reckon their prosperity and advancement. Lewis and Clarke found the Indians west of the Rocky mountains naked, hungry and miserable in the extreme; and they

were not nearly so numerous as now. They ate so much dirt and sand with their roots and fish that they became almost entirely toothless, even before middle age. They were so filthy and so weak physically that many lost their eye-sight at an early age, and all were more or less afflicted with sore eyes. Next to something to eat the greatest boon they craved of these first reliable American explorers was a little eye- water. Of course those who ate ineat and in- habited the eastern slope of the Shining mount- tains were not so utterly depraved; but the root and fish eaters, from summit to sea, were a dreadful lot, seen in any light in which you may choose to look at them.

No man can follow the history of the Indi-

both born in Phillipsburg,-Joseph C. and Arthur L. Mr. Bradshaw was made a Master Mason in Flint Creek Lodge, No. 11, at Phillipsburg, and he is also a member of the A. O. U. W. Politically, he is identified with the Republican party.

JOHN R. LATIMER, one of the most successful farmers of Grass valley, Missoula county, came to Montana in 1865.

He is a native of Summit county, Ohio, born August 25, 1843. His father was a Vermont Yankee, and his mother's maiden name was Radabaugh, and her grandparents came from Switzerland and settled in Pennsylvania, the Latimers having come here from England at an early day. When the subject of this sketch was two years old his father died, and at that early age he was placed in the care of David Boughman, a Pennsylvania Dutchman, by whom he was reared. His youth was spent in farm work with a few months' attendance each year at the district school. When fourteen years of age he began life for himself, working on the farm in Ohio, at $6 per month, and doing a man's work. After two years spent there he

came west to Lee county, Iowa, a year later removed to Bloomfield, Davis county, same State, and continued at farm work for eighteen months.

Still imbued with the spirit of emigration, we find him in 1863 en route to the far West. He drove a horse team for his passage across the plains to Walla Walla, and landed at his destination after being on the road five months and meeting with many hardships and narrow escapes. Upon his arrival in Walla Walla he experienced what it was to be short of " grub," but he got a rancher to try him as a work hand, and so well suited was the ranchman that he hired Mr. Latimer at $75 per month. From there he went to the Blue mountains, where for two months he was engaged in splitting rails. He rented a farm on shares during 1864. In 1865 we find him in the mining districts of British Columbia, where he mined and prospected until he was again "broke." From there he came back to the Blackfoot country, near IIelena, pros- pected for a short time, and in the fall of that year came to his present location. His first work here was in the sawmill of Worden & Company. This was an upright

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ans of Montana from this early date and the time of Ross Cox on the upper Columbia up to the present, withont the conviction that the In- dian ought to be profoundly thankful for the coming of the white man and for his own con- quest, whether on the one side of the mount- ains or the other.

Granville Stuart, the most reliable historian of this region, says the comparatively happy condition of the Montana Indian entirely up- roots a " time-honored lie."

To return to Sitting Bull: immediately after the death of Custer, Sheridan, at the head of the War Department, sapped the force of every fort in the Union and fought the wily warrior the season through; a sort of running fight, in

saw, was run day and night, and its output was about 600 feet of lumber every twenty-four hours. Here Mr. Lati- mer continued until the freeze, when he secured a job of splitting 5,000 rails. Having completed his contract and received his payment therefor, he traded a saddle horse for a claim to a ranch. This was in the spring of 1866. He worked for another man at $40 per month, and spent all his leisure time in work on his own claim, getting an aere of it plowed and planted to vegetables. But his veg- etables were all destroyed by the crickets. This misfor- the somewhat discouraged him. He continued working for wages until the fall of that year, at which time he took elaim to another traet of land, three miles above his present location. He and a Mr. Clemmens were partners in their ranching operations for three years, at the end of which time Mr. Latimer found himself $300 poorer than when he began. In the summer of 1869 he started a butcher shop at Moose Creek, Idaho, where he was very successful, elearing $2,000 in a year. With this amount he returned to his former location aud here purchased 160 acres of land, the property upon which he now re- sides. From that time up to the present his career has been a successful one. To his original 160 acres he has added from time to time, until he is now the owner of 2,200 acres. Ile has given considerable attention to the raising of fine stock, Shorthorn cattle and Percheron horses, having imported from the East to Missoula county the first full-blood Percheron horses and Short- horn cattle. He raises immense erops of timothy and elover hay, about 800 tons annually, and receives an av- erage price of $10 per ton at his ranch. In addition to his farming operations he is also interested in mines. Ile followed grain-threshing for twelve seasons, being a pio- neer in that business. IIe also owned and operated the first portable sawmill in Missoula valley.

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An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 92

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