Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 108

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

USA > Montana > Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II > Part 108

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In addition to his other interests Mr. Berkin owns stock in an irrigation project known as the Fergus County Land & Irrigation Company at Flat Willow, Fergus County, Montana, and also in the Little Missouri Irrigation Company in Fallon County, Montana. He is president of the Motor Car Dis- tributing Company of Butte, and in 1907 bought a ranch on the Smith River in Meagher County, and operated it until he sold it to the Story & Work Sheep Company at Bozeman. Mr. Berkin maintains his residence at the Thornton Hotel.

In conjunction with his father's experiences with the Indians it is interesting to learn of his own with the red man. He was reared in a neighbor- hood occupied by the Nez-Perce Indians and knew their chief, Joseph, so well that he lived among them and learned to speak their language, and became acquainted with other tribes. Mr. Berkin arrived at the battle ground on the Big Hole two days after the massacre of Captain Logan, who was killed outright, and General Gibbons, who was wounded and afterwards died from the effects, and the com- mand in 1877, and assisted in taking care of the wounded and getting them back to Helena, a dis- tance of nearly 200 miles. During 1880 and 1881, although yet a very young man, he was active in suppressing the depredations of horse thieves in what were then Fergus and Meagher counties, and he also participated in several skirmishes with the Indians during the earlier days.

Mr. Berkin has the following children: Nellie, who was graduated from the Boulder High School, married W. G. Whetstone, assistant manager of the Butte Motor Car Distributing Company ; Hazel, who was graduated from the Butte High School, married M. R. Hanley, a real-estate operator of Lewiston, Montana; and Isabelle, popularly known as "Mike," who was injured in an automobile accident on Sep- tember 18, 1919, while on the way from Great Falls to Lewiston, and died on September 22d. She was educated as a violinist at Butte, and was a pupil of Professor Shadduck of Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania. She began playing in public when only eight years of age, and her remarkable talent soon de- veloped to a point that marked her as a true artist. At the age of eighteen years she began her profes- sional career and was starred as "The Girl from Butte." For several years she was on the Orpheum Circuit and had thousands of admirers in Montana and throughout the United States. When she was married to H. W. Berry, she retired from the stage and she and her husband were residents of Butte, Montana. Her death was a distinct blow to many all over the country, as well as to her immediate family and wide circle of personal friends, for she had endeared herself to them all as well as awakened admiration for her talent.

Both John Berkin and his venerable father are men of a remarkable type. Rugged, fearless and upright, they have gone straight ahead doing what they felt to be their duty regardless of personal risk or adverse criticism. Coming into a wild region they had the ability and willingness to take advantage of the opportunities of a newly opened territory, but, while they achieved a material suc- cess, they never prospered at the expense of the community, but at all times placed it under obliga- tion to them for their services in behalf of law and order whenever it was necessary. Without such men as these Montana would never have become Vol. II-25

the great commonwealth it is today, and conse- quently the record of their lives is an important part of its history.

C. W. ROBISON. About a year after getting his law diploma from the Chicago Law School Mr. Robison came to Montana and located at Dillon, where for nearly twenty years' he has enjoyed a constantly increasing prestige as an able'and hard- working attorney.

He was born at Winterset, Iowa, January 22, 1875, and some of his family were among the first pioneers of that state. The Robisons were colonial settlers in Massachusetts. The grandfather, Spencer Robison, was born in Indiana in 1802 and was one of the first men to break the prairie sod and bring the land of Delaware County, Iowa, into produc- tiveness. He spent his active career as a farmer and died at Winterset, Iowa, in 1870. His wife was a native of Indiana and also died at Winterset. Four of their children are still living: James, a retired farmer at Manchester, Iowa; Joseph, a farmer in Delaware County; Jennie, wife of Ham Lee of Kalispell, Montana; and W. S. Robison.

W. S. Robison, father of the Dillon lawyer, was born in Delaware county, Iowa, in 1853, and lived there to the age of nineteen, when he removed to Winterset. He lived at Des Moines until 1917, since which year his home has been in Omaha, Nebraska. He is "a republican and a member of the Masonic fraternity. He married at Winterset Sarah Guye, - who was born in Madison County, Iowa, in 1854. Her father, George Guye, was born in Virginia in 1824 and is still living at Winterset, Iowa, at the venerable age of ninety-five. He and his father and his brother James were the first white men to take up land and settle in Madison County, Iowa. George Guye married a Miss Button, a native of Ohio, who died in Madison County, Iowa. The Guyes are of English ancestry and were early set- tlers in Virginia. C. W. Robison is the oldest of his father's four children. His brother Charles died in Madison County, Iowa, at the age of three, and his sister Grace died at Dexter, Iowa, aged twenty-six. His only living sister is Frances, who makes her home with her parents at Omaha.

C. W. Robison attended public school at Winter- set, graduated in 1891 from the Dexter Normal Col- lege at Dexter, Iowa, and took his regular college course in Drake University at Des Moines. He received the degree Bachelor of Oratory from that institution' in 1897. Mr. Robison spent one year in the office of Senator A. B. Cummins at Des Moines, and thus came in touch with one of the ablest lawyers and one of the now senior statesmen of the country. Mr. Robison received his LL. B. degree from the Chicago Law School in 1899 and the following year came to Dillon and began his professional career. He served as county attorney during 1903-04, but for the most part has given all his time to his growing private practice. His offices are in the Telephone Building. Mr. Robison is a very prominent member of the Improved Order of Red Men. He belongs to Bannack Tribe, is Great Sachem of the State of Montana, is present Great Keeper of Wampum and for twelve years repre- sented the order in the National Convention.

I. D. O'DONNELL. In August, 1919, the Country Gentleman of Philadelphia, published under the title "The Best Farmer in Montana," a long article con- cerning I. D. O'Donnell of Billings. Editorially the paper said: "Thoughtful readers have doubtless learned the Country Gentleman's idea of a 'best farmer' from the series of articles under that title.

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A 'best farmer' is not only a 'best' business man, but a 'best' husband, 'best' father, 'best' neighbor and citizen."

Aside from the conspicuous honor thus conferred by a nationally well known farm paper, I. D. O'Don- nell is a Montanan concerning whom it will be ex- pected something should be said by way of bio- graphical mention. The article in the Country Gentleman gives a good picture of Mr. O'Donnell not only on his farm but as a business man and citizen. Many of the entertaining paragraphs must be omitted in the present sketch, but the essential facts needed to tell the story of this prominent Montanan are chiefly in the words found in the magazine.

He was born in a log cabin in 1860, and lived there until he was twenty-one years old. The cabin was located back in the woods, a few miles ont of Saginaw, Michigan. There were ten brothers and sisters in the family and they lived the simple life of the backwoods people of the time. "We boys," said Mr. O'Donnell, "attended school in the winter- time, when there was any to attend, which was not often; so our winters were chiefly spent getting out black-ash hoop stock."

At the age of twenty-one Mr. O'Donnell had the equivalent of a seventh grade public school educa- tion, a strong, well trained body and unlimited am- bition. These constituted his entire working capital and it sufficed to carry him a long way toward suc- cess. The great unknown West was the lure for all the young and adventurous spirits in those days, so young O'Donnell made his way to Montana. That was in 1882, thirty-seven years ago. He now ranks as one of the old settlers.

The first work O'Donnell found to do in Montana was on a horse ranch owned by the Billings estate. Frederick Billings was at that time president of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and on the ranch were his nephew, E. G. Bailey, and son Parmly Billings, both of whom took a fancy to O'Donnell. After a year and a half of horse wrangling they induced him to move to the Village of Billings. He might easily have become a railroad man, and if he had would undoubtedly have risen to prominence in the transportation world; but he preferred life in the open, so shortly afterward they put him in charge of the Billings ranch, a tract of several thousand acres, which he proceeded to farm on an extensive scale. The next year, in addition to his farming operations, he undertook the management of the large irrigation system controlled by the 'Billingses and placed it on a substantial basis. Much of the early construction work had been poorly done and he was compelled to do a great amount of rebuild- ing.

Eight years later, in 1892, he carried on all the negotiations which led up to the purchase of this system by a company of farmers, and after they were concluded he was elected president of the irrigation company, which position he has retained up to the present time. This irrigation system. which serves an area of 100,000 acres, is recognized even today as one of the very best in the entire West.

There was one piece of land on the project that appealed to Mr. O'Donnell especially, but it was owned by the Rev. B. F. Shuart, a Congregational missionary who had taken up the land under the homestead, pre-emption and desert claim acts be- fore the irrigation system was constructed. Mr. Shuart came to Montana from North Dakota in 1882, and was the first minister of the gospel in that part of the state. In addition to preaching and looking after the spiritual welfare of his flock he

was a very good farmer and established what for those days was a big dairy herd. He started in first to raise corn, but abandoned that for alfalfa, of which he had at one time a considerable acreage.

Hesper Farm, as the place was christened, was recognized as a leading farm in the valley from the very first, but its fame in early days did not rest either on alfalfa or on dairying. It rested on the fact that more weddings were solemnized there than at any other place in the state. When the young fellows began to succeed and send back home for their best girls, the wedding parties met the trains and drove out immediately to Hesper Farm.

An opportunity came in 1888 to purchase the farm, and O'Donnell took possession and began farming for himself. The Billingses who had recognized his abilities on many occasions, backed him with their credit. Thus his power to make friends and impress other people with his personality was a valuable asset when' he wanted to start in business for himself. It has been an asset to him ever since and has enabled him to organize many new indns- tries for the City of Billings, which he found neces- sary in order to make his farm operations more productive.

For example, he was the first to investigate sugar beet possibilities in Montana, discovering that sugar beets would not only grow well but they contained a higher percentage of sugar than beets grown in most other places. He foresaw possibilities in sugar beet culture, both for the farmers of his vicinity and for the City of Billings, was one of the leaders in organizing a company to erect a sugar-beet factory.

It is rather unusual for a farmer to go into an undertaking of this nature, involving the expendi- ture of $1,000,000, but O'Donnell thinks in big fig- ures and the people had confidence that whatever he recommended would prove 'feasible. Contracts covering more than 8,000 acres were made with farmers for raising sugar beets and negotiations were entered into for the sale of the bonds. About this time the Great Western Sugar Company of Denver began extending its operations and it made the new company an offer for its plant, which was accepted.

The formation of a sugar beet company and the erection of a plant not only brought a valuable in- dustry to the City of Billings but it has been of immense value to the farmers of the immediate vicinity. In an indirect way it proved to be one of the most lucrative ventures that O'Donnell ever undertook, for it resulted in the building up of a new system of agriculture on his farm that has in- creased its value and brought in a splendid income every year.

The sugar beet factory is only one of a number of industries in Billings that Mr. O'Donnell has assisted. He is one of the city's principal boosters and has had more to do with organizing and getting new businesses started than almost any other man there. He built the first creamery, which has since become a large plant, and is still president of it. He founded the Billings Foundry and Machine Company, and is a director in the Merchants Na- tional Bank. In fact, he is interested in so many business enterprises in the city that one begins to doubt the validity of his reputation as a farmer. This doubt is dispelled, however, when one meets the man and visits the ranch. The farm consists of a square section of 640 acres. It lies on the first bench above the Yellowstone River, and water is delivered to the entire project of 100,000 acres of which it is a part, by gravity. The soil is sedimen- tary and naturally fine, dark and rich. The whole section lies almost level except that it has a slight

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dip toward the south and east, just enough to pro- vide fall for the irrigation water. There was almost no leveling to do in the beginning, and the cost of the ditches was not so high as on many projects. It all lies ideally for irrigation. There is a railroad station within one mile of the farm, where the produce, including sugar beets, is loaded for mar- ket, and the roads are very good.

The problem of making money on large farms is one of business management, of handling men and of preventing waste. On many large ranches and everywhere the same problem stands out. A farm of 640 acres is not a big ranch where dry-land farming is practiced, nor a very large ranch in the humid regions ; but under intensive methods of irri- gation it ranks as a very large farm, requiring the most careful kind of management of crops, water, soil, the various methods employed and of marketing.

The Hesper Farm is incorporated. Mr. O'Donnell is president of the corporation, Mrs. O'Donnell is vice president, and the six children are shareholders.

Mr. O'Donnell was one of the very first in the state to experiment with the raising of alfalfa, and was raising alfalfa in quantity and making money long before most of the other farmers even knew what it looked like. As early as 1895 he began to serve as a farm institute lecturer, and every win- ter for years he worked with the institute staff spreading the gospel of alfalfa.

One of the best pieces of public work Mr. O'Donnell ever performed and the one he looks back upon with the greatest pride was in connection with the United States Reclamation Service. Five years ago Secretary Lane announced that he in- tended to discontinue all reclamation work in the State of Montana. This aroused the people of the entire West and especially of Montana, so they ar- ranged for a hearing; and when Secretary Lane visited them O'Donnell explained what was wrong and suggested the proper remedy. The result of the conference was the formation of a Reclamation Commission, composed of five members. The com- mission was given complete charge of all reclamation work of all the various government irrigation proj- ects scattered over seventeen western states, and O'Donnell was made head of the operations and maintenance, with the title of supervisor of irriga- tion.

It was a red letter day for the settlers on govern- ment irrigation projects when O'Donnell took hold of their problems. He straightened out all their difficulties and made it possible for them to succeed. He not only relieved their difficulties with regard to water and payments, but he worked with them and showed them just how to arrange their fields, how to handle the water, what crops to plant and how to market them. In short, he became a sort of national farm adviser, a task he was eminently qualified to perform, since he had had years of practical experience and was himself a successful irrigation farmer.

The humanizing of the Reclamation Service has been Mr. O'Donnell's greatest public service. He has never held political office and does not expect to, but he has always been interested in boosting his business, in boosting his city, and in boosting his state. He resigned his position with the Reclama- tion Service last year, but has not resigned from doing what he can for the general public welfare.

This is evident from the fact that he has been for years a member of the board of trustees of the Pub- lic Library of Billings. The library was founded and endowed by his old friend Frederick Billings, and has been a special hobby with Mr. O'Donnell. In connection with his library work he has made it

a part of his business to gather together all the data available concerning early Montana history. He is also president of the Midland Empire Fair, one of the trustees of the Billings Chamber of Com- merce, president of the irrigation company, an officer of the Montana Farm Bureau, a member of the first State Board of Horticulture, and a member of the State Council of Defense. He is president of the Billings Polytechnic Institute, one of Mon- tana's leading educational institutions, has served on the Montana State Fair board, also on the Stock Commission for the state and for a number of years on the school board of his district.

Yet, in spite of his various business and public activities, he is, first of all, a farmer. He started as a farmer, made money as a farmer, and has had a greater influence on farming in his adopted state than any other man in the state. The various out- side activities above mentioned are merely incidental to farming, which is his chief interest and his prin- cipal source of revenue.

HARRY J. KELLY, who is registrar of the United States Land Office at Lewistown, is a veteran news- paper man, and has worked with leading journals all over the West from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast. He has been a resident of Montana upwards of thirty years.

Mr. Kelly was born at Prairie du Chien, Wiscon- sin, October 6, 1869, a son of Hugh H. and Ellen (Leonard) Kelly. His parents were natives of Ireland. Hugh Kelly came to this country with his parents and grew up at Rochester, New York, where he finished his education. He became a con- tractor and builder, and in 1860 located at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and in 1878 transferred his home and business to Omaha, Nebraska, where he continued contracting and building until his death at the age of sixty-five. His wife died at the age of forty-eight. They had eight children, six of whom are still living. Harry J. is the fourth child. His father was a Catholic and a democrat in politics.

Mr. Kelly acquired a public school education at Omaha and also attended the Creighton University there. He acquired his early experience in the newspaper business in the offices of the Bee and the Republican-Herald at Omaha. From there in 1888 he removed to Leadville, Colorado, subsequently to Southern California, thence to Seattle, Washington, and in all these places was connected in some ca- pacity with newspapers. He came to Montana and located at Missoula in 1889, and for a time was con- nected with the Missoulian. He worked on the Butte Miner in 1899, and subsequently helped bring out the first issue of the Anaconda Standard. He returned to Missoula in 1902, and later for about two years was connected with the Spokane Review. In 1905 he moved to Hamilton and bought the Bit- teroot Times, a paper which he owned and published for about three years. Mr. Kelly was at Helena serving as sergeant at arms during the sixth session of the State Legislature. Returning to Butte, he was with the Butte Miner, and later came to Lew- istown and with Tom Stout organized the Democrat News. He later sold his interest in that paper to Mr. Stout at the time he was appointed, on July 1, 1913, registrar of the United States Land Office. He was re-appointed to the office in 1917. Mr. Kelly had also been elected alderman from the First Ward of Lewiston in 1913, but resigned his place in the municipal government when he accepted his Federal appointment. Mr. Kelly belongs to the Elks and is a democrat in politics.

August 2, 1899, he married Miss Mary See, a native of Montana. They have four children : Helen.

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employed in the office of the Democrat-News; Mar- garet, a student in high school; William G. and Harry J., Jr.

ALBERT M. JOHNS. The record of Albert M. Johns, the efficient and popular postmaster at Wil- sall, is that of an enterprising gentleman whose life has been intimately associated with the material prosperity and moral advancement of this locality during the most progressive period of its history, and he has always been found on the right side of questions looking to the development of his county in any way.

Albert M. Johns is descended from Welsh ances- try and inherited the sterling qualities which char- acterize that people. His paternal grandfather, Jackson Johns, who died at Belmont, Ohio, before the birth of the subject, was one of the pioneers of Belmont County, having moved there from Johns- town, Pennsylvania. He was a blacksmith by voca- tion and a representative of that sturdy class of men who were willing to brave the dangers and endure the hardships of a frontier life in order that their descendants might enjoy the fruitage of their labors. His son, George Johns, was born in 1853 in Belmont County, Ohio, and was there reared and educated. He followed the life of a farmer all of his active days, but is now retired and is living at Metamora. Shortly after his mar- riage he had moved to Batesville, but in 1883 set- tled at Metamora. He is a democrat in politics and is a member of the Christian Church and of the Masonic fraternity. He married Jennie Bishop, who was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, in 1855, and to them were born the following children: Al- bert M., whose name forms the caption to this re- view; Nellie, who is the wife of Marion Cline, a farmer at New Metamoras, Ohio; Homer, a farmer at Greenbrier, Ohio; Archibald, who is mayor of Friendly, West Virginia; Maude, who is the wife of Herold Cline, an oil operator at Oil Fields, Cali- fornia; Dot, who is the wife of Forest Morgan, a merchant at Amsterdam, Ohio; Wick, a student at Amsterdam, Ohio, as is also his twin brother, Wade.

Albert M. Johns was born at Batesville, Noble County, Ohio, on July 14, 1877, but was educated in the public schools of New Metamoras, Ohio, graduating from the high school there in 1896. He attended the State Normal School at Athens, Ohio, for two years, and then engaged in teaching in Monroe County, Ohio, which vocation he followed for three years. During the following four years he was engaged in the mercantile business at Green- brier, Ohio, but sold out and engaged in the same line of business at Fleming, Ohio, in which he con- tinued until 1913. In the latter year Mr. Johns came to Wilsall, Montana, and engaged in the general mercantile business, being a pioneer in that line here. He sold out on April 1, 1919, in order to give his entire atention to his duties as postmaster, but it is his intention to resume the business again when he relinquishes his official position. On December 20, 1916, Mr. Johns was appointed postmaster of Wilsall and has discharged the duties of that posi- tion to the entire satisfaction of the department and the patrons of the office. Courteous and oblig- ing, Mr. Johns has endeavored to make the office serve the people, and he has won the hearty appro- bation of all with whom he has had dealings.

Politically Mr. Johns is an earnest supporter of the democratic party. Fraternally he is a member of American Union Lodge No. 1, Free and Accepted Masons, at Marietta, Ohio; American Union Chap- ter No. I, Royal Arch Masons, of Marietta; Mari-

etta Council No. 78, Royal and Select Masters ; Marietta Commandery No. 50, Knights Templar ; Wilsall Lodge No. 103, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Of American Union Lodge, referred to above, it is worthy of note that the lodge was first constituted at Waterman's Tavern on February 20, 1776, nearly five months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It worked in the patriot army until 1783, during which period it was visited by General Washington and others of the patriot leaders. The lodge was re-opened in Campus Martius, Marietta, Ohio, on June 28, 1790, by Jona- than Heart, worshipful master, and was the first lodge of Freemasons opened in the Northwest Ter- ritory.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 108

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