Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 107

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 1126

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of Dr. Charles A. Hamilton, who for many years has been a prominent physician and surgeon at Waterbury, Connecticut. William M., the oldest son, is a prominent Montanan, being editor of the Great Falls Tribune. Dr. Robert S. Bole is a physician and surgeon at St. Paul, Minnesota. Andrew S. is a minister of the Congregational Church, his home being at East Hardwick, Ver- mont. Marion B. is unmarried and lives with her sister Margaret.

James P. Bole, the youngest of the family, soon after graduating from' the Burlington High School in 1887 came West and began newspaper work at St. Paul. For a time he lived in Chicago, and while there was a student in the Chicago College of Law. He was admitted to the bar in 1896, after examination before the Supreme Court of Illinois at Chicago. The following year, 1897, found him at Great Falls, Montana, where he resumed newspaper work and was connected with the Tribune and the Leader until he came to Bozeman in 1907. For the past twelve years he has been editor of the Bozeman Chronicle, as well as stockholder in the Chronicle Publishing Company.

August 30, 1890, at St. Paul Mr. Bole married Miss Mary Josephine McCormick, a daughter of W. F. and Catherine McCormick, of Little Meadows. Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Bole have two daugh- ters, Margaret and Elizabeth. Margaret is a grad- uate of the Montana State College at Bozeman with the Bachelor of Science degree, and is a member of the Chronicle force. Elizabeth is in the second year of her work at the Montana State College.

GEORGE P. WELLCOME. The great importance to a community attaching to such lines of business as real estate and insurance is not always relative to its volume, but rather to the integrity of those en- gaged in the public's behalf. With land as the real basis of wealth, its ownership should be en- couraged with titles clear of any entanglements, while insurance protection must be inviolate and above all possibility of lack of good faith. A trust- worthy business man of Anaconda, dealing in real estate, loans, insurance and also handling coal, is George P. Wellcome, who is president and manager of the Wellcome-Durston Company.

George P. Wellcome was born at Hoboken, New Jersey, August 18, 1860. His parents were Jacob and Sarah J. (Hagadorn) Wellcome, the latter of whom was born in the State of New York, in 1842, and now resides at Long Beach, California. The father of Mr. Wellcome, a descendant of an old English family of the name, was born in Maine, in 1820, and died at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1901. He grew to man's estate in Maine and after his mar- riage in New York engaged in business in New York City but maintained his home in Hoboken, New Jersey, until he removed to Newark in 1862. He continued in the cotton and wool brokerage busi- ness in New York until 1872, after which he traveled for some years, then retired and settled at Baltimore. Of his three children, George P. is the only survivor. The eldest, John B., settled at Butte, Montana, in 1889, where he was engaged in the practice of law for some time, when he retired to his valuable property known as the Creeklyn ranch, near White Hall, Montana, where his death occurred. The youngest of the family, Blanche E., died at Los Angeles, California, at the age of thirty years.

George P. Wellcome attended the public schools of Newark, New Jersey, and afterward of Newport, New Hampshire, and in 1878 was graduated from the Newport High School. His first business associa- tion was a clerical position in the great Boston

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house of Jordan, Marsh & Company, where he remained three years, gaining first hand experience in the dry goods line, which served him well after locating at Fargo, Dakota Territory. After three years of dry goods experience there he embarked in the business for himself at St. Cloud, Minnesota. In 1889 he sold his interests there and came to Butte, Montana, in July of the same year coming to Anaconda. Here for two years he was in the employ of the firm of Mahan & Lindsley in the real estate and insurance business, then was an employe of the First National Bank of Anaconda, which later became the banking house of Hoge, Daley & Company. He remained with this institution in vari- ous capacities for nine years, when he embarked in the real estate and insurance line on his own account at Anaconda. During his entire previous business career Mr. Wellcome had been associated with business houses of the highest possible standing and his standards of business integrity are firmly grounded. Upon the same sound foundation he has built up his own business, which has expanded into one of the largest enterprises of its kind in this section of the state. In 1914 he incorporated as the Wellcome-Durston Company, of which Mr. Well- come is president and manager and H. H. Durston is vice president, secretary and treasurer. The com- pany occupies a suite in the Daley Bank annex, No. 110 East Park Avenue. The company handles city real estate and farm loans in Deer Lodge and sur- rounding counties. A general insurance business is done, and this feature of the business is one of great importance. The firm at one time owned much ranch property but has disposed of it to a large extent, but has heavy investments in city realty.

At Anaconda, in 1895, Mr. Wellcome was united in marriage to Miss Katherine Evans, a daughter of Morgan and Ann Evans, both of whom are de- ceased. Mr. Evans came to this neighborhood as a pioneer in 1862, driving from Logan, Utah, his team of a horse and cow hitched to a wagon. He homesteaded 160 acres in Deer Lodge Valley, which he subsequently increased to 640 acres. Both he and his wife were born in Wales. Mrs. Wellcome is a graduate of Deer Lodge College, Deer Lodge, Montana. Mr. and Mrs. Wellcome have one son, George P., who was born October 21, 1910. Mr. Wellcome owns his beautiful modern residence, No. 700 Hickory Street, Anaconda.

In addition to business interests already noted, Mr. Wellcome is president of the Anaconda Coal Company, of which H. H. Durston is vice president, and this firm does the largest coal business in Ana- conda. As a staunch republican Mr. Wellcome has been somewhat active in party councils, believing good citizenship demands expression in the assump- tion of political responsibility. He has served four terms on the City Council and has also been school trustee and on many advisory committees. During the great war he was deeply and patriotically in- terested and was appointed by Governor Stewart a member of the Council of Defense. He was unre- mitting in his efforts to make the various war meas- ures successful. and was careful and judicious as one of the trustees of the War Chest Fund. Fra- ternally he is identified with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, belonging to Anaconda Lodge No. 239, and is a member also of the Ana- conda, the Anaconda Country and the Rotary clubs.

JOHN BERKIN. The name of Berkin is connected with the pioneer history of Butte and Montana so intimately that it is but proper that an extended notice of the men bearing it appear in a work of this high class. No history of the region would

be complete without an account of the work accom- plished by John Berkin, mine superintendent and business man, and his father, William Berkin, who has attained to a venerable age and is the second oldest living pioneer of Montana.

John Berkin was born at Swannington, Leicester- shire, England, on April 11, 1860, a son of William Berkin, also born in Leicestershire, the date of his birth being June 14, 1826. He is a son of Thomas Berkin, born in Leicestershire, England, where he spent his long and useful life, and where he died at the advanced age of ninety-three years. During all of his active years he was engaged in farming, and he spent practically all of his life in Leicestershire. A conservative in politics and a Calvinist in re- ligion, he was one of the most conscientious of men, stern, but rigidly upright. He married Sarah Tugby. who was born in Leicestershire, England, and died there at the age of eighty-eight years. Their chil- dren were as follows: John, who owned and oper- ated a hotel at London, England, died in that city at the age of seventy-six years; Sarah, who died in Leicestershire, England, at the age of seventy-two years; Thomas, who was chief of police in London, England, where he died at the age of sixty-eight years; Matilda, who died in Leicestershire, Eng- land, at the age of sixty-five years ; Fannie, who died at Helena, Montana, in 1908, married John Hull, a farmer who died at Boulder, Montana, came with her husband to Montana in the late '8os; Wil- liam, who is mentioned below; and Jesse, who was a miner, died at Rossland, British Columbia, Canada.

William Berkin attended the schools of his native place, and then served an apprenticeship of seven years to the machinist trade at Glasgow, Scotland, completing it by the time he reached his maiority. He then returned to Leicestershire and took the contract for erecting the pumping works at the Calcutta coal mines, and his work was so satis- factory that the company which owned these mines sent him into Derbyshire to put up hoisting and pumping machinery at a town called Clay Cross. Returning to Glasgow, William Berkin had charge of the installation of an engine in the steamship "John Bell," and when this work was completed went on its initial trip as second engineer to Mont- real, Canada. Upon his return to England he was employed in the machine shop on the docks at Battersea, London. While there he branched out and became a deep sea diver for the London Dock Company, keeping old lock gates in repair.

William Berkin made another change, removing to Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, and spent some time there as a diver on the construction work of a breakwater. His services were next secured by the French government and he was employed as a diver in putting in an addition to a battery at Cher- bourg, France. Once more he returned to England and made two trips out of Southampton, England, to Alexandria, Egypt. Subsequent to that William Berkin was employed in the shops of the Semudas Ship Building Yards at London, England, and while he was there the "Great Eastern" was built in an adjoining ship yard. He helped to put in the engines in the pleasure yacht of Prince Constantine of Russia, and delivered this boat at Odessa, Russia.

Going back to Scotland, William Berkin went from there to Canada in 1859 and began working for the Grand Trunk Railroad as a locomotive en- gineer. Later he visited Niagara Falls, New York, and Portland, Maine, and still later went to Saint John's and Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Canada, to inspect some mines. It was during 1860 that he made a short stay at Chicago, Illinois, and from there went on south to St. Louis, Missouri, where he secured employment as a locomotive engineer

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for the Belleville Railroad, and later was promoted to be master mechanic at the Illinois Town round- house.

The year 1863 marked the arrival of William Berkin into Montana, and for some years his ex- periences read as an early-day romance. The story of his expedition along the Musselshell River to try and find a better road from Virginia City to the head of navigation of the Missouri River is one of the romances of the early days of Montana. Mr. Berkin is admitted to have endured more hardships, braved more dangers and had more exciting ex- periences than any of the other pioneers.

William Berkin came out to Fort Benton, Mon- tana, in 1863 for the American Fur Company, a subsidiary of the Hudson Bay Company, and was commissioned to sell a stock of mining tools and supplies which was then in storage at Fort Benson. He hired a negro and a French guide and started his pack train for Virginia City in 1864.

When he arrived there he successfully disposed of the stock, pick handles bringing $3 each; axe handles, $3; gold pans, $5; long-handled shovels, $5; tobacco, $8.50 per pound; white flour at $1 per pound, and other merchandise sold at proportion- ately high prices. His was the first pack train to make the trip from Fort Benton to Virginia City.

The second trip was made with a bull train of twenty-one teams yoked ten and twenty animals to the wagon. The merchandise which was carried by this train had been brought to Fort Benton by the American Fur Company by boat from St. Louis, Missouri.

About this time Mr. Berkin conceived the idea of finding a better road from Virginia City to Fort Benton by following the Musselshell River. He determined to build a new road, if it could be done cheaply enough, and organized an outfit to blaze the trail. The story of that expedition, as related by Mr. Berkin, is as follows:

"I left Boulder, Jefferson county, February 20, 1865, taking eight hired men and three volunteers. We were equipped with saddle horses, one wagon, five yoke of oxen and supplies for the trip, including rifles and ammunition, one twelve-pound howitzer cannon, two cases of howitzer ammunition and two cases of grapeshot.

"The route was from Boulder by way of Crow Creek, crossing the Missouri River at about where Toston is now. From there we went up Gracing Creek to the summit, where we found heavy snow- drifts. We had to go over steep mountains and often were compelled to let the wagon and cannon down the hillsides with heavy ropes.

"We went on to White Sulphur Springs and over the trail to where Martinsdale is now located. There were no white men in this country. From there we went to a creek about six miles from Martinsdale. It is now called Daisy Dean Creek. Next we reached Haymaker Creek, where we had our first scrap with the Indians.

"We made our camp on March I. One of the men reported to me that one of the cattle was missing. As it had spowed a little during the night we were enabled to follow the tracks of the In- dians who had driven the steer away from the herd. I picked out six of the men and followed the tracks, coming upon the war party in a deep coulee.

"They had not seen us yet, but in the excitement one of my men accidentally discharged his rifle just at the moment I was in the act of firing a shot with my arm through my bridle rein. The bullet from his gun shot my horse through the jaw and the animal pulled me down when he fell. Shooting commenced immediately. I noticed one of the men

standing beside me flinch and I asked, 'Are you hit?' He replied that he was and I told him to keep on shooting as long as he could.

"When the scrap was over we looked him over and found that the bullet had gone through his buckskin shirt and burned a red mark on his ribs, it having been a glancing shot. There were nine Indians in the party and we got four of them down in the coulee. They made hurried exits for the 'Happy hunting grounds.' The others fled up the hill on the other side.

"One of my men, Elmer Mclaughlin by name, and myself, crossed the coulee and found on the prairie an Indian lying face down in the snow. Mc- Laughlin was going to shoot him to make sure that he wouldn't recover, but I told him to save his ammunition as we were going after the others who were wounded and were escaping.

"We left our horses and took after them on foot. We soon overtook and disposed of them. When we returned to where we left the horses the Indian who had been lying in the snow sup- posedly dead had gotten up and escaped with Mc- Laughlin's horse.

"I took my horse and followed him about three miles. I could see blood in the snow occasionally and after awhile I came across his old flint-lock gun which he had discarded. I knew then that he was about gone and just before I caught up with him he fell from the horse. He put up his hands, say- ing, 'kaka nopin,' which means 'hold on, white man.'

"We left camp next morning and went along the Musselshell valley toward the east end of the Snowy Mountains. We came to a creek which flowed from the Snowies and there made camp. There were some buffalo there and one of the men asked me to let him have a horse that he might try to kill one of them for meat. He did not return in the evening, and I sent two men out to look for him. They found his horse with the saddle still on, and a short distance away the man was found lying in the snow, dead.

"We buried him on this creek and called it 'Care- less Creek,' because we surmised that this man's horse had fallen with him and that his gun had discharged itself with the fall, killing him. When the government surveys were made this creek was called 'Careless Creek' in their report.

"We moved from here around the east end of the Snowy Mountains and crossed a creek now known as Flat Willow, and went down another called 'Crooked Creek.' On account of the men being snow-blind, I had to leave all but two, eight miles from Crooked Creek. These two men and myself made it to the mouth of the Musselshell, where it empties into the Missouri River. The river was breaking up and there was a series of immense ice gorges which made it a grand sight.

"We went back to get the rest of the men and prepared to start on our return trip. We made camp on the banks of a small creek which is a tributary to Flat Willow Creek. Here in the night we were again attacked by the Indians, a large hand of what we supposed were Blackfeet Indians. We had to crawl down the creek, fighting as best we could until daylight.

"Here we lost another man. After the Indians had been driven off we went back to camp and found that they had killed all of our cattle. They had also taken all of our horses but three, which they had somehow overlooked. They had rendered the wagon useless by knocking out the spokes in the wheels and had sawed the axle of the gun carriage and spiked the gun.

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"All of our cooking utensils had been destroyed and our provisions stolen. We made our way with difficulty back to Boulder and a short time later I took one man, saddle horse and pack horses, and brought back the cannon, which was made of brass and weighed about 180 pounds. This was returned to the company and was taken down the river by steamboat to St. Louis.

"The rest of the articles, two cases of grape shot, two cases of shells, a grindstone, log chains and much other stuff we cached under the bank of a tributary of Flat Willow. This cache was dis- covered a short time ago by my son, T. A. Berkin, and other people living near the place on Flat Willow."

The contents of this cache was later presented to the State Historical Society and placed on display at Helena as one of the mementoes of the pioneer days of Montana.

William Berkin was the man who shipped the first copper ore from Butte, some years after the above related experience, having located the Moun- tain Chief Mine, from which he took out several tons of ore and shipped it from Butte to Boulder, building a road for this purpose. From Boulder this ore was hauled to Corrinne by bull teams which Mr. Berkin was then operating for the American Fur Company. Shipment was made by railroad from Corrinne to the Atlantic Coast, and by steam- ship to a point in Wales, where the nearest smelter was located. Mr. Berkin has still in his possession a copy of the bill of lading which he received from the railroad company, and other papers in the deal. This ore was smelted in Wales and Mr. Berkin netted a nice profit from the transaction notwith- standing the heavy transportation charges.

Mr. Berkin built the road from Fort Benton to Virginia City for John J. Roe & Company of St. Louis, Missouri, and continued to freight for this company from 1864 until 1867, between the two points named. From 1867 until 1871 he was en- gaged in placer mining in Jefferson County, and then began quartz mining in the same county and located some of the first claims in Butte, and operated in and out of what is now Butte from 1866.

The Mountain Chief Mine above referred to as located by him was the second patented claim in the Butte District, and in it he had as a partner Nicholas Wall, of St. Louis, the date of the regis- tration of their patent being June 16, 1868, and they also secured a millsite for the mine, which they owned until 1870. From then on William Berkin has followed placer and quartz mining, and in spite of his advanced age is still engaged in this line of business. As his family record shows, he comes of a long-lived race, and he has not learned that there is such a word as "retire" in the dic- tionary. He has always been an active supporter of the democratic party. During 1865 and 1866 he rendered an effective public service as deputy United States marshal; he was commissioner of Meagher - County from 1886 until 1892; and commissioner at Lewiston when Fergus County was organized, and held that office for two terms of four years each. Mr. Berkin was a member of the first Territorial Legislature of Montana, being elected at Bannock in 1864. For many years a Mason, he belongs to Helena Lodge No. 3, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

In 1850 William Berkin was married in Leicester- shire, England, to Miss Jane Hall, born at Swaning- ton, Leicestershire, England, in 1835. She died at Anaconda, Montana, in 1809, having borne her hus- band the following children: Fannie, who married

Kenneth McKinzie, foreman of the foundry of the Washoe Reduction Works at Anaconda, Montana ; a daughter who died when four years old; John, whose name heads this review; William, who was a rancher, died at Livingston, Park County, Mon- tana, aged twenty-eight years; Thomas A. is game warden for the district of Flat Willow, Fergus County, Montana, and deputy game warden for the State of Montana; Sarah, who married John Allen, watchman of the Orphan Girl Mine at Butte; Eliza, who died at Boston, Massachusetts, married W. R. Allen, ex-lieutenant governor of Montana, but now a resident of Boston, although he has large mining interests in the Elkhorn mining district of Montana and is building a railroad up the Big Hole River, having promoted these large interests, and a sketch of him appears elsewhere in this work; and Hattie, who married Daniel Kirkpatrick, manager of a chain of stores for the Huerfane Trading Company, re -. sides at Alamosa, Colorado.

John Berkin was brought to Fort Benton when only six years old by his mother and oldest sis- ter, who traveled first to St. Louis, Missouri, and thence to Montana, where they joined his father. After a short stay at Fort Benton the family moved to Alder Gulch, and still later to Boulder, Montana. All of his educational training was received at Jef- ferson City, Montana, and he left school when he was sixteen years old, and for six years was en- gaged in placer mining in Jefferson County. He then went in for quartz mining in Jefferson, Madi- son and other counties of Montana until 1878. He carried the mail from Butte to Boulder, making the trips on horseback, and continued at this for over a year, when in 1880 he was appointed deputy sheriff of Fergus County and discharged the duties of that dangerous position until 1882, when he re- turned to Boulder, and that same year came back to Butte, where ever since he has been connected with mining interests.

Beginning as an underground miner, Mr. Berkin has gained a thorough and intimate knowledge of mining in all its phases and has been an extensive lessor for himself at Butte and in Madison County for several years. In 1915 he became connected with the Anaconda Copper Mining Company as foreman of the Nettie Mine, and in 1916 was made superintendent of the Bonanza and Orphan Girl mines, both properties of that company. The Orphan Girl Mine is located one-half mile west of the Butte School of Mines, and produces silver and zinc.

Like his father a strong believer in the prin- ciples enunciated by the democratic party, Mr. Ber- kin represented Jefferson County in the Seventh Session of the State Assembly as the successful candidate of his party, and was sent to the Eleventh Session of the same body from Silver Bow County on the same ticket. During the labor trouble in 1914 he was appointed sheriff of Silver Bow County at the time when the candidate elected to that office was recalled from office by the people. It was dur- ing this period that the Industrial Workers of the World blew up the Miners Union Hall and other buildings and openly defied law and order. It took courage of no ordinary character and a strong per- sonality to bring order out of the chaos then reign- ing, but Mr. Berkin succeeded in restoring every- thing to normal conditions, thereby winning his own place in the history of his own times and the gratitude and respect of his fellow citizens.

During the World war Mr. Berkin was very active in assisting in all of the war work and support- ing the policies of the administration, and was ex- ceedingly generous in his own contributions to the Liberty Loans and other drives. He also was ex-

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tremely helpful in assisting in suppressing all dis- loyalty and punishing sedition against the Govern- ment. He is a Mason, and also belongs to Butte Lodge No. 240, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Silver Bow Club, and is active in all.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 107

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society Number of Pages: 1126

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 1126