Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 109

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 109

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In 1898, at New Metamoras, Ohio, Mr. Johns was married to Stella Adamson, the daughter of Bar- nett and Priscilla (Devaul) Adamson. The father, who was a merchant at Rinards Mill, Ohio, is now deceased, and his widow resides at Marietta. To Mr. and Mrs. Johns have been born the following children: Ernest, born July 8, 1900, is a freshman in the State Agricultural College at Bozeman; Georgia, born in May, 1902, is a junior in the Wil- sall High School; Lynn S., born April 14, 1904, a sophomore in the Wilsall High School; Eleanor, born on July 14, 1906, is a public school student ; Lloyd George, born May 15, 1918. Mr. Johns' life has been one of unceasing industry and persever- ance, and the systematic and honorable methods. which he has followed have won him the unbounded confidence of his fellow citizens.

CHARLES P. NEVIN. The concerns doing the largest amount of business in Montana are, gen- erally speaking, in the hands of men who are still in the very prime of vigorous young manhood and who are able to bring to their work the enthusiasm of youth combined with broad and varied experi- ence, because the majority of them have been other- wise engaged before permanently establishing them- selves in the lines in which they are finding their life occupation. One of these alert young men is Charles P. Nevin, president of the Magill-Nevin Company of Butte, the largest concern of its kind in the state, wholesalers and retailers of plumbing and heating appliances and materials, and con- tractors for plumbing.

Charles P. Nevin was born at Virginia City, Ne- vada, on February 7, 1881, a son of Dennis Nevin. born in County Galway, Ireland, in 1843. He and six brothers came to the United States, and three of them located in Massachusetts, but Dennis Nevin and the three others came west to Nevada. They were married to four sisters, daughters of James Donohue, and were married according to their ages, the eldest Miss Donohue being married to the eldest Nevin brother, and so on to the youngest members of the two families. These very unusual marriages were regarded with romantic interest by the young people over a wide territory, and are still spoken of by the "oldtimers" in and about Virginia City.

Only sixteen years old at the time of his entry into the United States, Dennis Nevin spent a short time at Boston, Massachusetts, before he and his three brothers crossed the plains to the West. The present generation has no conception of what such a trip meant in those early days. Not only were there no proper railroad connections, but there were no roads a good part of the way, and the' traveler was in constant danger while passing through the western country from the hostile Indians. The majority of the travelers made their way on horseback, if fortunate enough to own a horse. and, if not, traveled on foot. Parties were

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made up of a sufficient number to put up a de- fense against attacks from the Indians, and the women and children were carried in canvas-covered wagons drawn by horses or oxen. In spite of tlie hardships and dangers of these trips thousands flocked across plains and mountains, for gold had been discovered and the lure of the gold fields drew them not only from the eastern states but from foreign countries as well. The Nevin brothers be- longed to the latter class and journeyed westward with hopes of making their fortunes by digging the gold from the soil of first California and later Nevada.

While possessed of the spirit of adventure, Dennis Nevin was an extremely shrewd business man, and he realized that while some might make a lucky strike, there was more real profit in an intelligently conducted business concern that would supply the needs of the miners than in taking a chance at prospecting for gold. Consequently he established and conducted one of the pioneer mercantile houses of Virginia City, Nevada, and so prospered that he was requested by Marcus Daly to come to Butte, Montana, and assume the management of his large properties as superintendent of one of his mines. Complying, Mr. Nevin was made superintendent of the Wakeup Jim Mine, where he lost his life, being accidentally killed in that mine on September 15, 1885. He was a man of very forceful character and reliability and served for two terms as treasurer of Storey County, Nevada, being elected to that office on the democratic ticket. All of his life he was a devout member of the Roman Catholic Church. Mr. Nevin was a famous rifle shot, and be- longed to the Emmett Guards, serving it as captain of a company.

Dennis Nevin and Winifred Donohue were mar- ried as above stated, being one of the four couples composed of, four brothers and four sisters. She was born in County Galway, Ireland, in 1848, and died at Butte, Montana, on December 23, 1900. She and her husband had the following children: Mary Jane, married P. S. Sullivan, who lives at Butte, was assessor of Silver Bow County for three terms, and is now in the employment department of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company; Martha Rose, who died at the age of thirty-six years, mar- ried Thomas Sheehan, also deceased, who was a merchant of Butte, and a son of one of the pioneers of this city; George F., who is a master mechanic for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, lives at Butte; Margaret, who married Oscar Comstock, lives at Butte; William H., who is superintendent of the Anaconda Mine, is spoken of at length else- where in this work; Winifred, who married John Donnelly, a traveling salesman, lives at Butte; and Charles P., who was the sixth.

Charles P. Nevin attended the parochial and public schools of Butte, and was graduated from the Cath- olic school in the class of 1897. He then entered All Hallows College, Salt Lake City, Utah, and was graduated therefrom in 1900 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. Following the completion of his collegiate course, Mr. Nevin entered the employ of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company in No- vember, 1900, and remained with this corporation until 1909. He resigned to go into the hotel busi- ness with his brother-in-law, P. S. Sullivan, and for a year was joint proprietor of the Southern Hotel of Butte. Mr. Nevin then entered the commission and brokerage business under the firm name of Rabbitt & Nevin, and later combined it and the O'Meara Fruit & Produce Company in 1910 under the name of the Montana Provision Company, of which Mr. Nevin was president. In 1912 Mr. Nevin

sold his interest in this concern and invested in the purchase of the Krueger Plumbing & Heating Com- pany, and with it as a nucleus organized the Magil !- Nevin Company, which is incorporated, and has plant and offices at No. 114 North Main Street, Butte. This is the largest firm of its kind in Mon- tana, and carries on a wholesale and retail business in handling plumbing and heating appliances and materials, and doing a general contracting and job- bing business, with a market that extends all over Western Montana. The officers of the company are as follows: Charles P. Nevin, president; W. J. Magill, vice president and manager; Ira G. Bacon, secretary, and Charles R. Leonard, treasurer.

Mr. Nevin has always been a strong democrat, and in 1902 was candidate for the office of clerk of the District Court and polled the highest vote, but was counted out by two votes. In 1906 he was chair- man of the Democratic County Central Committee and conducted the campaign for T. J. Walsh for the office of congressman from the State of Montana. Mr. Nevin was candidate in 1908 for the office of state railroad commissioner and was defeated. The people of Butte elected him mayor in 1909 by the largest majority ever given a candidate for this office, he being the first one to carry every ward in the city. After serving during 1910 and 1911, lie retired from active participation in politics on ac- count of the growth of his business, which was rapidly assuming enormous proportions and required his whole attention. Mr. Nevin is president of the Nevin Trunk Company, a director of the Ellis Paint Company, the Centennial Brewing Company, the Cooney Brokerage Company and the Alpine Mining Company, which operates at Banks, Idaho, and takes a constructive part in all of these con- cerns. His company owns twenty acres of land within the city limits and other real estate, and a large warehouse at the Great Northern Railroad tracks which it uses for the storage of its stock. Mr. Nevin owns a comfortable modern residence at No. 945 West Woolman Street, Butte.

Both by inheritance and conviction Mr. Nevin is a Roman Catholic. He belongs to Butte Council No. 668, Knights of Columbus, in which he has been made a fourth degree Knight, and he is enrolled as one of its charter members. He also belongs to Butte Lodge No. 240, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, to the United Commercial Travelers, to Butte Camp No. 153, Woodmen of the World, to the Rotary Club, to the Silver Bow Club, of which he is also a director, and to the Butte Country Club.

In 1902 Mr. Nevin was united in marriage at Butte to Miss Matilda O'Malley, a daughter of Wil- liam P. and Bridget (Lavelle) O'Malley. Mr. O'Malley was a pioneer miner of Butte who came into this region in the early 'zos, and died here. His widow survives him and resides at Spokane, Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Nevin have one child, Jack, who was born on April 23, 1911.

It would be difficult to find a man more repre- sentative of the best type of American citizenship than Mr. Nevin. Not only is he that, but he is a splendid type of the western business man whose in- terests are all centered in this region and whose training has all been of the vigorous young west. His father and uncles bore a very important part in the development of this part of the country, and when he came to manliood's estate he was eager and ready to continue the good work. As a poli- tician he left his mark on contemporary history, and while he was not elected to all of the offices for which he was his party's candidate. he polled enough votes in a strictly republican district to stand

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

as a very gratifying monument to his personal pop- ularity and prestige. Increasing business cares necessitated his withdrawal from politics, but his influence remains and his advice is sought and taken upon many questions pertaining to civic matters, and the results of his energetic occupancy of the mayor's chair are shown in a better government and improvements and an awakened interest on the part of the ordinary voter in the public weal. Genial by nature, Mr. Nevin is deservedly popular in the different fraternities and social organizations with which he maintains membership as he is with people generally, while his business associates and competitors accord him a respect his acumen exacts.

JOHN W. JACKSON. One of the important in- dustries of a community which may well be re- garded as a contributory factor in raising its standards and increasing its love of the beautiful is that which has to do with the cultivation of flowers. It has been often claimed that no man can become successful in this line unless he has deep in his heart a love of the work and a genuine apprecia- tion of its possibilities. Certain it is that the ma- jority of florists possess these characteristics, and when they are supplemented by a technical training and sound business capabilities the outcome is sure to be gratifying. John W. Jackson, one of the suc- cessful florists of Anaconda, belongs to the class indicated above, and he is also recognized as one of the representative business men of the city. Mr. Jackson was born at Bradford, England, April 29, 1881, a son of William Jackson, and grandson of Charles Jackson, a native of the same city as his grandson, and there he rounded out his useful life, passing away in 1882. All of his active years he was engaged in mining.

William Jackson, born at Bradford, England, in 1856, died at Rimini, Montana, in 1904. Like his father, he was a miner in England, and when he came to the United States in 1881 he sought em- ployment in the mines in Illinois, where he remained until 1883, and in that year came to Livingston, Montana, where he continued to engage in coal mining. He was engaged in mining at other points in the state. First the Church of England and later the Episcopal Church held his membership. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Frances A. Harrison, was born at Bradford, England, in 1853, and she survives him, making her home at Helena, Montana. Their children were as follows: Edith, who married W. J. Tracy, lives at Helena, Montana, Mr. Tracy, who was formerly a mining engineer being deceased; John W., whose name heads this review ; Emily, who is a trained nurse in the employ of the government at Fort Sheridan, Illinois; Mary M., who married Lea Marston, a ranchman of Smoky Butte, Montana; Annie, who lives with her mother; and Rhoda, who also lives with her mother.

John W. Jackson completed the courses of the graded schools and took a two-year course in the Helena High School, and then, in 1900, began learn- ing the florist business at the state nursery at Helena, Montana, rising to be one of the stock- holders. In 1917 he sold his interests, and coming to Anaconda bought the greenhouse located at No. 713 Locust Street. He now has 15,000 square feet of glass, and his is the leading one of its kind in Deerlodge County. His offices and store are at No. 203 Main Street, and here he carries on a retail business supplying the people of Anaconda and Deerlodge County. Mr. Jackson is independent in his political views. He belongs to the Episcopal Church of Anaconda. A Mason, he is a member of

King Solomon Lodge No. 9, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, of Helena, Montana; Helena Con- sistory No. 3, in which he has attained to the thirty-second degree; Algeria Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Helena, and he is also a member of Broadwater Camp No. 29, Woodmen of the World, and the Rotary Club of Anaconda. The family residence is at No. 721 Locust Street.

Mr. Jackson was married at Butte, Montana, in 1916 to Miss Byrd Monahan. who was born in Charlotte, Iowa. She is a graduate of the Academy of Clinton, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have one child, Loretta Caroline, born November 6, 1919.

HAVELOCK G. CoY, who is a leading hardware and implement merchant of Anaconda, is one of the representative men of this region, and his business operations form an important factor in the com- mercial interests of the city. He was born April 30, 1866, a son of Samuel Coy, and great-grandson of Edward Coy. Edward Coy was a pioneer farmer of New Brunswick, Canada, to which he went in 1763 from Pomfret, Connecticut. In 1752 he mar- ried Amy Titus, and both died in New Brunswick. The Coys originated in England, but came to the American colonies at an early day, and it is claimed that a member of the family married a lineal descendant of one of the passengers of the May- flower. Benjamin Coy, son of Edward Coy and grandfather of Havelock G. Coy, was born in New Brunswick, Canada, and there he died before his grandson was born, being then eighty years of age. He was a clergyman of the Baptist Church of New Brunswick.

Samuel Coy, a son of Benjamin Coy and father of Havelock G. Coy, was born in New Brunswick, Canada, in October, 1803, and died there in 1882, having spent his entire life in that province as a farmer. He was a liberal in politics and served in the local militia. Samuel Coy was married to Amelia Esty, born in New Brunswick, in 1825, and died there in 1881. Their children were as follows: Minnie B., who married David S. Coy, a grocer of Toronto, Canada; and Havelock G., whose name heads this review.

Havelock G. Coy received a preparatory normal school education in the public schools of New Brunswick, which he left when sixteen years old to engage in farming, continuing this calling in his native province until 1887. In May of that year he came to Anaconda, Montana, as a pioneer and fol- lowed many callings, including laboring, contracting and building and teaming, and then in 1898 he estab- lished his present business in a small way and enlarging it as his trade increased until he now has one of the leading establishments of its kind in this entire section. In 1916 he incorporated his business as the Coy Hardware and Implement Company, of which he is president, his associates being A. M. Strom, vice president, and Mrs. Emma Dyas, secre- tary and treasurer. The store and offices are located at Nos. 409 and 411 East Park Avenue, Anaconda.

Mr. Coy is a republican and was appointed by Judge Winston Commissioner of Deer Lodge Coun- ty. He is a member of the Baptist Church, and is serving as chairman of its board of trustees. A member of the Rotary Club he is now its president, and he is also president of the Commercial Men's Club. The family residence on Main Street, at No. 600, is owned by him and is modern in every respect.

In 1893 Mr. Coy was married at Boston, Massa- chusetts, to Miss Annie Edmunds, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Edmunds, both of whom are

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deceased. Mr. Edmunds was a pattern maker of Canada and Boston, Massachusetts. Mrs. Coy at- tended the provincial normal school of New Bruns- wick and was an educator prior to her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Coy have the following children: Annie May, who is attending the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, taught school for a year at Rockford, Minnesota; and Edmund, who is at- tending the Anaconda High School.

Having resided at Anaconda for so many years, Mr. Coy has passed through its formative period and has taken part in much of its development. His business is the outgrowth of his intelligent methods and comprehensive appreciation of the needs of his customers, and he richly deserves the prosperity which has attended him, as well as the high position he occupies in public esteem.

SAMUEL WESLEY COLLETT came to Montana with his father and other members of the family over thirty years ago. His home is still on a farm, and farming has constituted one of his chief activities all the years he has been in the state. However, he is widely known as a Bozeman business man, and his office has been the medium for a tremendous amount of real estate buying and selling. Mr. Col- lett is one of the best posted men on realty values in Bozeman and over that section of the state.

He is of Scotch-Irish ancestry. The first of the Colletts in America were pioneers in Indiana. Samuel Wesley Collett was born at Belle Plaine, Iowa, August 9, 1869. His father, Samuel Collett, a well known Montana pioneer, was born in Indiana in 1847, and as a boy went to Iowa and served three and a half years with an Iowa regiment of infantry in the Civil war. After the war he lived on the farm in the northern part of that state and subsequently moved to a farm near Belle Plaine. Leaving Iowa in the spring of 1887, he came to Bozeman, and homesteaded 160 acres eighteen miles west of that city. He lived on his Montana ranch for eighteen years and after that had his home in Bozeman, where he acquired extensive real estate properties. He was one of the successful old timers of Montana and his death at Bozeman in 1917 was greatly re- gretted by his former associates. He was a very active member of the Methodist Church and was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, while in politics he always voted the republi- can ticket. Samuel Collett married Martha Winslow, who was born in Iowa in 1846 and died at Bozeman in 1915. A brief record of their children is: John, a former county commissioner and farmer who died at Bozeman in 1918; Samuel Wesley; Melvina, wife of Cal Merritt, a pioneer farmer, rancher and cat- tleman at Whitehall, Montana; Harry, owner of a grain ranch at Logan, Montana; and Charles, who has a farm south of Bozeman.

Samuel W. Collett acquired his early education in the public schools of Spirit Lake, Iowa. He was eighteen years old when he came to Bozeman in 1887, and after that for twenty years was actively engaged in farming and stock raising. Since 1909 he has been developing a large real estate business, and is regarded as one of the most competent men in that line in Gallatin County. An indication of his prestige as a real estate man and also of the general volume of real estate business during the period is furnished by the record of business done in his office from January I until June 1, 1919, the transactions of this period making an impressive aggregate of approximately $442,000. Mr. Collett is a successful farmer on his own account, and owns 600 acres, though a large part of his former holdings

he has sold. He still lives on his farm seven miles west of Bozeman.

Mr. Collett is a member of the Chamber of Com- merce, is a republican, a trustee of the Methodist Church, and is affiliated with Salesville Lodge, In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, and Bozeman Lodge No. 463, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

In 1899, at Anaconda, he married Miss Artie Wall, a native of Indiana. She died on the home farm west of Bozeman in 1907. She was the mother of three children: Gladys, a graduate of the Bozeman High School and of the Columbia Insti- tute at Milton, Oregon, is the wife of Everett Cutting, teacher of wireless telegraphy in the State University at Missoula; Gerald, who was educated in the grammar and high schools at Bozeman, is in business with his father and lives on the farm; Leonard, also on the farm, is a graduate of the Gallatin County High School. In 1911, at Bozeman, Mr. Collett married Mrs. Zada (Fausett) Thomp- son, a native of Salt Lake City.

HARRY S. MASTERS is in point of years of service one of the oldest telegraphers and dispatchers in the employ of the Northern Pacific Railway. He learned telegraphy during his youth in Canada. He is a native of England but was reared in Canada. Several of his brothers have been railroad men or engaged in some public utility service, and one of his brothers was a Canadian soldier during the World war.

Mr. Masters, who is dispatcher for the Northern Pacific at Livingston, a position he has held for a number of years, was born near the City of Salis- bury, England, March 23, 1872. His father, Eli Masters, was born at the same English city in 1839, was a farmer there in early life, and in 1875 brought his family to Canada and settled far out on the Western frontier, near the old military post of Fort Gary, now Winnipeg. He developed a farm on the Western prairies and lived there until his death in 1918. He was a liberal in politics, was a Methodist in religion, and belonged to the Masonic fraternity. In England he had a military training with the English Yeomen. Eli Masters married Harriet Benjafield, who was born near Salisbury in 1838 and is still living, at the age of eighty-one at Winnipeg. Nathaniel, the oldest of their children, is connected with the Municipal Electric Light plant at Winnipeg. Hedley is supervisor of the Winnipeg waterworks, Tom is a telegraph operator with the Canadian Pacific at Vancouver, British Columbia. while Sidney, a farmer in Winnipeg, enlisted in the Canadian army at the outbreak of the war, was sent overseas and was employed in construction work until mustered out after the signing of the armistice. Harry S. is the fifth in the family. Eva is the wife of J. S. Kerr, a conductor with the Canadian Pacific Railway, living at Winnipeg, and Annie is the wife of Walter McPherson, an employe of the Canadian postal service at Winnipeg.

Harry S. Masters was three years old when taken to the Canadian frontier, received his education in the public schools of Winnipeg, and left that city in 1892. At St. Paul, Minnesota, he was a telegraph operator with the Western Union Company for a vear and a half, and on March I, 1894, arrived at Livingston, Montana. For eight years he was man- ager of the Livingston office of the Western Union, and since then has been in the service of the North- ern Pacific Railway Company. As dispatcher his business headquarters are in the general office build- ing on Park Street.

Mr. Masters is also owner of a ranch of 160

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acres in the Potter Basin of Park County and has a modern home at 107 North Third Street. He is now serving his third term as alderman of the Second Ward, and is a republican in politics. He is a vestryman in the Episcopal Church, and a mem- ber of Livingston Lodge No. 32, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

In April, 1898, he married Miss Grace Potter. daughter of William and Martha (Fraser) Potter. The Potters live in the Potter Basin of Park County. Her father was one of the pioneer home- steaders there and today owns 6,000 acres and is extensively engaged in the sheep industry. Mr. and Mrs. Masters have four children: Harry S., Jr., Gladys, wife of Dan Gallagher, a rancher at Clyde Park, Montana, Mary and Grace, the former in the eighth grade and the latter in the first grade of the public schools at Livingston.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 109

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