Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 119

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 119

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Judge Ayers acquired his early education in the schools of Lewistown and studied law at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, receiving his LL. B. degree with the class of 1903. He was admitted to the Indiana bar the same year, and on the 15th of November received the privileges of an attorney in Montana. The following year he was chosen to the office of county attorney of Fergus County, and by re-election in 1906 served two terms. After that he engaged in a general practice until called to the duties of judge of the Tenth Judicial District in 1912. He is now serving his second term, having been re-elected in 1916. Judge Ayers was admitted to the United States Circuit and District courts in 1905. Outside of his office his chief interest is in the Ayers Ranch Company at Grass Range. This com- pany operates a ranch of 5,000 acres. Judge Ayers is affiliated with Lewistown Lodge No. 456 of the Elks, and with Judith Lodge No. 30 of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. Politically he fol- lows his father in the democratic party.

June 7, 1905, he married Miss Ellen Simpson, who was born in Bozeman, Montana. Their three chil- dren are also natives of Montana, named Eleanor, Arthur and Roy Don.

GEORGE C. JACKSON has been one of the useful men in the service of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company for a number of years. He is now chief clerk of the accounting department at Anaconda. Mr. Jackson is an expert accountant and thoroughly trained business man. He also spent about a year in the service of his country in the Philippines, and during the late war gave not only of his means according to his abilities, but also a large portion of his time to various patriotic causes.

Mr. Jackson was born at El Dorado, California, January 8, 1872. His ancestors were Scotch-Irish who settled in Boston, Massachusetts, about 1751, and later became actively engaged in the Revolu- tionary war. His great-grandfather, Lyman Jack- son, entered the service as captain of minute men and advanced to the rank of brigadier general be- fore the close of the war. His grandfather, Ebenezer Jackson, was born in Boston and became an early merchant and farmer in New York State, in Chautauqua County, where he died. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. His wife was Betsey Pringle. descendant of Sir John Pringle of Edin- burglı University, who earned distinction as a physician.

Julius D. Jackson, father of George C., was born in New York State in 1821, and spent his early life there. About 1852 he went via Panama to California, and lived in that state the rest of his life. He and his brother Charles P. were engaged in the banking business in the early days. Later he was superin- tendent of an irrigating ditch company at Placer- ville, and held that post until his death in 1880. He married at El Dorado Miss Mary A. Coulter, who was born in Frederickton, New Brunswick, Canada, in 1841, and died at Anaconda, Montana, May 29, 1918. Julius Jackson was a democrat in politics, a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Episcopal Church. He and his wife had three children, Julins, the oldest, dying at the age of five years. Ogden is a real estate and insurance man at Woodland, Cali- fornia.

George C. Jackson, the youngest, was educated in the public schools of Placerville, California, and after his father's death he went to St. Paul, Minne- sota, graduating from the high school of that city in 1880. For one year he clerked in a wholesale house, and then entered the accounting department of the Northern Pacific Railway at St. Paul. In 1808 he resigned to enlist in the Thirteenth Minnesota Regi- ment of Volunteers and was sent to the Philippines, where he served during the Spanish war and later helped put down the Filipino insurrection in those islands. He was mustered out with the grade of sergeant in 1899, and on returning to St. Paul re- sumed his connections with the Northern Pacific Railway in the accounting department. After his return from the Philippines he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the National Guard by the gov- ernor of Minnesota.

Mr. Jackson came to Anaconda January 1, 1001, and since that time has been steadily in the service of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. He was in the supply department when the Washoe Reduc- tion Works were being constructed, and has been given various increased responsibilities until ap- pointed to his present office as chief clerk in the general office building of the Washoe Reduction Works, two miles east of Anaconda.

Mr. Jackson is a republican voter, and in 1919 and 1920 served as State Central Committeeman from Deer Lodge County. He is a vestryman of the Episcopal Church at Anaconda, and is affiliated with Anaconda Lodge No. 239, Benevolent and Protective

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Order of Elks, and is a member of the Anaconda Club, was treasurer in 1918-19 of the Rotary Club and is a member of the Anaconda Country Club. He is a member of the Anaconda School Board, having been appointed in 1918 and in April, 1919, elected for a three year term. Mr. Jackson owns a modern home at 422 West Third Street and also has some real estate in Missoula.

In June, 1904, at Lawrence, Kansas, he married Miss Clara R. Jaedicke, daughter of Frederick W. and Otelia Jaedicke, both now deceased. Her father for many years was a prominent hardware merchant at Lawrence. Mrs. Jackson is a graduate of the Lawrence High School and attended the University of Kansas at Lawrence. To their marriage were born two children, George Frederick, born Septem- ber 22, 1908; and Elizabeth Virginia, born July 8, 1912.

During the war Mr. Jackson had an active part in his home community in promoting subscriptions to the Liberty Loans, the War Chest fund, was chair- man of the Executive Committee of the Red Cross, was county director for Deer Lodge County in the sales of the War Savings Stamps, and was also a four-minute speaker and a member of the Board of Instruction of the Selective draft. His district stood among the very first in Montana in respect to the sales of War Savings Stamps.

ROBERT D. ALTON, M. D. One of the best equipped medical college graduates of his day, Doctor Alton chose as the scene of his professional career a com- paratively new community in Montana. He arrived at Livingston in 1883, and in that one town has practiced for over thirty-five years. In point of years of continuous service he is now the oldest physician and surgeon in Livingston, and is one of the best known medical men in the state.

Doctor Alton was born at Carbondale, Pennsyl- vania, February 9, 1860. His paternal ancestors came out of England and settled in Massachusetts in colonial times. The ancestor who came from Eng- land afterward served with the Continental army in the struggle for independence. Doctor Alton's grandfather, Davis Alton, was a native of Massa- chusetts and when a young man traveled from his native state with wagon and ox teams to LeRoy, New York, and became a farmer there. He died before the birth of his grandson Doctor Alton. The father of the latter was Davis Alton, born at LeRoy, New York, in 1828. He was reared in his native town, was a graduate of Williams College at Wil- liamstown, Massachusetts, and spent his active career as an attorney at law at Pittston, Pennsylvania, where he married. At the beginning of the Civil war in 1861 he enlisted with a Pennsylvania Regi- ment of Infantry, and it was the hardships and ex- posures of a soldier's life which shortened his career. He died at Sandusky, Ohio, in 1867, before he was forty years of age. He was a member of the Episco- pal Church. Major Davis Alton married Helen Caroline Williams, who was born in Massachusetts in 1830. She had two sons, Jesse Williams and Robert D. With these sons soon after her husband's death she removed to Cleveland, Ohio, in order to give them better educational advantages. The older son, Jesse, died at Cleveland, where he was a manu- facturer. The mother finally came to Livingston, Montana, and died in this city in 1887.

Doctor Alton graduated from the Cleveland High School in 1878, and completed his undergraduate studies in medicine at the Western Reserve Univer- sity. He graduated in 1881, and spent the following year as an interne in St. Vincent's Hospital at Cleve-

land. Since then he has taken a number of post- graduate courses, attending the Chicago Polyclinic several times, and in 1899 took special work in dis- eases of the eye at London, England.

He came to Livingston in 1883. For a number of years he was local surgeon for the Northern Pacific Railway, finally resigning that position in order to devote all his time to his private practice. His offices are in the Miles-Krohni Building, and he also owns a modern home at 119 South Yellowstone Street. Doctor Alton is a Fellow of the American Medical Association, and is also identified with the County and State Medical Society. He served on the Livingston School Board three terms, is a repub- lican, a member of the Episcopal Church, and affi- liated with Livingston Lodge No. 32 of the Masonic Order. Doctor Alton owns 160 acres of farm land east of Livingston. He is a stockholder in the U. S. National Bank at Portland, Oregon.

In 1888, at Hutchinson, Kansas, he married Miss Anna Mintie, a daughter of F. L. and Eleanor (Russell) Mintie. Her parents are deceased. Her father came to Livingston in 1883 and was a pioneer lumber dealer in the city, but in 1886 removed to Hutchinson, Kansas, and was in the grain business there. Mrs. Alton is a graduate of St. Mary's Semi- nary at Fairibault, Minnesota. Doctor and Mrs. Alton have one son, Robert M., who is a graduate lawyer from the University of Michigan, and has his law practice at Portland, Oregon. He enlisted in May, 1917, and went overseas in October, 1918. Dur- ing a considerable part of the war he was personnel adjutant with the Eighth Division and held the rank of major.

CHARLES S. TRUAX. To the ordinary man per- haps a very small portion of the adventures and ac- tivities that have been developing elements in the life of Charles S. Truax, now mayor of the City of Lima, Montana, would seem sufficient as experience. Thrown on his own resources when twelve years old, the seventh member in a large family where worldly goods were not abundant, he had no in- fluential friends to advance him. He had, however, endowments of courage, persistence and faith in himself from his sturdy old Holland ancestry. These have carried him through to financial independence. personal esteem and political honors.

Charles S. Truax was born at Baraboo, Wiscon- sin, February 2, 1857. His parents were W. D. and Sarah (Gibbons) Truax, the former of whom was" born in 1830, in Vermont, and died at Marblerock, Floyd County, Iowa, in 1897, and the latter, born in England, in 1837, died at Breckenridge, Minnesota, in 1912. The father of Mr. Truax came to Wiscon- sin when a young man, and at Waterford in that state was married to Sarah Gibbons, who had ac- companied her parents from England in 1840. She was reared and educated well in Michigan. To this marriage the following children were born: Cynthia, . who resides at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, married first Luke Knapp, and second a Mr. Miller, who is also deceased; John H., who lives in Iowa, is a black- smith by trade; Sarah, who died young: W. E., who was a physician and surgeon, died at San Diego, California : May, who died in Iowa in 1804, was the wife of Reverend Baldwin, a Methodist minister. also deceased; Laura, who is the wife of Mr. Van Anthrop, a cabinetmaker at Williston, North Da- kota; Charles S., who is the only member of the family in Montana; Emma, who is the wife of Wilson Pearsall, a rancher near Spokane, Washing- ton ; Clara, who is deceased; W. A., who is a ranch- man in California; Bert, who died when young;

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Nellie, who is the wife of Casper Thein, auditor of the Northern Pacific Railway, lives at St. Paul, Minnesota; and Maggie, who is deceased.

After marriage the parents of Mayor .Truax set- tled at Baraboo, Wisconsin, where the father was the pioneer blacksmith. He had gone over the plains with ox teams in search of gold in California, but was taken sick and after a year of mining returned to Wisconsin by way of the Panama route, not hav- ing met with much success as a prospector. In 1864 he moved to Marblerock, Iowa, and there worked at his trade during the rest of his life. He was a demo- crat in politics and a member of the Masonic fratern- ity. He was always very proud of the fact that his was an old American family of Holland descent, his ancestors coming to New York with Peter Stuvesant.

Charles S. Truax's school days ended when he was twelve years old. He then left home and went to Sioux City, Iowa, where he hired out as a cabin boy on a steamboat called The Miner, which oper- ated between Sioux City and Fort Benton. He worked through the season and then went into the Wisconsin woods and worked in lumber camps for three seasons. After coming West he drove a freight team at Omaha, Nebraska, for a season, then went back home for a visit. Finding no favorable business opening in the home village, he once more turned his face westward. He reached Kansas in the year following the grasshopper invasion and as the next season proved one of great drouth he decided after a trial of eighteen months at farming that he would turn his attention to something else.

In 1878 he drove a team from Beloit, Kansas, to Denver, Colorado, in which city he sold his team and went to Gunnison, during the gold excitement, did some prospecting there and found work in a saw- mill making railroad ties. In the fall of 1879 he returned to Denver, went from there to Golden, Colorado, and at that place worked for eighteen months in the smelter, following which for a year he operated a dairy. Then began his connection with railroading, and he was a fireman on the Union Pacific until the fall of 1884, when he was trans- ferred from Denver to Eagle Rock on the Utah Northern in Idaho, arriving there December 26, 1884. On January 1, 1885, he came into Montana, stopping at the division point called Spring Hill, now the City of Lima, of which he is the mayor and a prominent citizen. He continued to work for the railroad as a locomotive engineer until 1909. He then bought the Peat Hotel at Lima, which is the leading hotel in this section of Beaverhead County, and has con- tinuously conducted it ever since with the exception of five years when he lived at Portland, Oregon, where he owns a fine modern residence. He also has a dwelling house at Lima and a valuable ranch located one and a half miles from the city.

On April 14. 1878, Mayor Truax was united in marriage to Miss Francelia Russell, at Marblerock, Iowa. Mrs. Truax died June 14, 1914, at Portland, Oregon. She was a daughter of William and Maria (Smith) Russell, the former of whom was an ex- tensive farmer in Iowa and in Kansas and died near Beloit in Mitchell County, Kansas. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Truax, as follows: L. H., who is a graduate of the Montana Normal Col- lege at Dillon, Montana, is a resident of Lima and is proprietor of the leading garage in southern Beaver- head County; Daniel, who died at the age of eighteen months; Grace C., who is a graduate of the Montana Normal College, has been a stenographer in the assessor's office at Dillon since her return from Washington City, where she spent seven months working for the government during the World war: and Cora, who was educated in the Montana Normal

College, died at Portland, Oregon, when aged but twenty-one years.

Always a democrat in politics, Mr. Truax has served his party faithfully. In April, 1918, he was elected mayor of Lima. He is very active in the order of Knights of Pythias, is past chancellor com- mander of Delta Lodge and is a member of the Grand Lodge of the order in Montana.

PATRICK J. BROPHY. An imposing list of achieve- ments representing real success in business and cit- izenship might be compiled as an incident to Patrick J. Brophy's forty years of residence in Montana.

Mr. Brophy, who came to Montana territory in 1881, was born in County Carlow, Ireland, August 5, 1855, son of Thomas and Johanna (Walsh) Brophy. His father spent his long life as an Irish farmer. He was born in 1808 and died in 1879. His mother died in 1903, at the age of eighty-six.

One of nine children Patrick J. Brophy acquired a high school education and served a mercantile apprenticeship before leaving Ireland. At the age of twenty-one in 1876 he came to this country, and after a year in Chicago came to the Northwest and for three years worked in a store at Evanston, Wyoming. He arrived at Butte in February, 1881, and soon afterward formed a partnership with George H. Casey under the name Casey & Brophy. After Mr. Casey withdrew in 1888 the business was conducted as P. J. Brophy & Company until 1906, in which year incorporation papers were taken out, the capital stock being fixed at $50,000. Mr. Brophy remained as president of the corporation, but re- tired from the active management. During the long period of years when he was sole owner of the business the firm became well known all over Montana and adjacent states for its extensive busi- ness as wholesale and importing grocers. In Mon- tana business history there is no name more closely associated with integrity, credit, substantial achieve- ment and success than that of Brophy.

In later years Mr. Brophy has given much of his time and attention to placer mining in Lincoln County, Montana, where he has been one of the active executive officials of the Libby Placer Mining Company. During the past thirty odd years Mr. Brophy has frequently wielded an important in- fluence in the affairs of the democratic party of his home state. He served as president of the Butte Business Men's Association in 1910-11, for eight years was a member of the Butte School Board, and is a member of the Silver Bow Club, Butte Country Club, Ancient Order of Hibernians and Knights of Columbus. He is a stanch Catholic and his family are of the same faith.

At Joliet, Illinois, in January, 1893, Mr. Brophy married Miss Margaret D'Arcy. She died at Butte in 1902, survived by three sons. Mr. Brophy mar- ried for his second wife Miss Mary E. Ryan, a native of Canada.

As a business man and citizen Mr. Brophy can rest content with his individual experiences and achievements, and he also has that added sense of satisfaction that comes from the knowledge that every one of his three sons did their part as pa- triots when the country was engaged in war. His oldest son, Thomas D'Arcy Brophy, who was born at Butte in October, 1893, finished the course at Gonzaga College in Spokane, Washington, and later took the architectural course at the Massachu- setts Institute of Technology, commonly known as the Boston "Tech," graduating therefrom with spe . cial honors in 1917. He is now Maj. Thomas D'Arcy Brophy of the Coast Artillery Reserve. John A. Brophy, the second son, was born at Butte

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June 13, 1895, graduated with the A. B. degree in 1914 from Gonzaga College, entered the second offi- cers' training camp in August, 1917, at the Presidio, California, was commissioned second lieutenant, and served with the Twenty-First Infantry at Camp Taliaferro and Kearney. He was promoted to first lieutenant in July, 1918, and after a service of two years resigned in August, 1919, and is now taking a course in agriculture at the University of Wiscon- sin. The third and youngest son, Patrick J., Jr., born in April, 1899, was only eighteen when the war with Germany broke out, and he was also with the colors. He is now a student in the Tome School at Port Deposit, Maryland.

FREDERICK WILLIAM CARRICK WHYTE, general manager of the coal department of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, is a man of wide business experience and knowledge of his special line of en- deavor. He was born at Biggar, Scotland, July 27, 1863, a son of Robert Whyte, who was born at Kin- nesswood, Scotland, in 1829, and died at Buenos Ayres, South America, when his son Frederick W. C. Whyte was a baby. Growing up in Scotland, Robert Whyte became a wool merchant, and it was on a business trip to South America in 1863 that his death occurred. Like the majority of his countrymen, he was a rigid Presbyterian. The maiden name of his wife was Catharine Carrick, and she was born at Glasgow, Scotland, in 1831, and died at Petrograd, Russia, in 1909. Their children were as follows: Marion Dunn, who was born in Scotland, died there in 1898, never having been married; John Livingston, who was born in 1859, died at Great Falls, Montana, in 1908, is buried there, and during his life held clerical positions; Jane Elizabeth, who married Alex- ander Sokoloff, lives at Petrograd, Russia, although the family have lost track of her during the revolu- tion in that country, in which conflict her husband, a Russian officer, was killed; and Frederick W. C. Whyte, whose name heads this review.

Growing up under his mother's care, Frederick W. C. Whyte attended the public schools of Bridge of Allan and at Stirling, Scotland, and was graduated from the high school of the latter city. At the age of fifteen years he was apprenticed to Johnstones & Rankine, civil and mining engineers in Glasgow, where he remained from 1878 until 1883, and then from 1883 to 1885 was assistant engineer to his former preceptors. For the subsequent year he was an engineer in the office of public works of Glasgow, Scotland, and then between 1886 and 1887 he was assistant engineer in the office of Johnstones & Ran- kine. In February, 1887, he severed his connections with his native land and set sail for the United States, and spent the time between March, when he landed, until June, 1887, in New Mexico, but in the latter month came to Montana, and, locating at Helena, engaged with the Great Northern Railroad Company as assistant engineer on the construction work then in progress, being thus occupied until July, 1892, except a short time with the Woolston Com- pany, which had the contract for the construction of the Helena Water Works. In the meanwhile Mr. Whyte spent some months now and then in prospect- ing, learning much about the deposits of the state. From July, 1892, to June, 1894, he was chief engineer of the construction work of the Butte-Anaconda & Pacific Railroad, and then in order to gain a knowl- edge of the resources of Montana from a new angle he was on a sheep ranch from June, 1894, until July, 1895, in the Sweet Grass hills of Montana, of which he was part owner. Once more he returned to his profession, and from July, 1895, until 1896, was en- gineer in charge of the construction at the Belt Coal

Mine of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, and displayed such an intimate and practical knowledge of this line of work that in 1896 he was placed in charge of the coal department of the company, and has held that position ever since, having now six mines under his supervision, or all operated by the corporation, and 1,000 men. His offices are in the general office building of the Anaconda Copper Min- ing Company's reduction plant two miles east of Anaconda. He is an independent democrat, and is a member of the State Board of Examiners for state coal mine inspectors and has held this office for six years. He affiliates with the Episcopal Church of Anaconda, but was reared a Presbyterian. For the past twenty years he has been a member of the Mod- ern Woodmen of America, and he belongs to the American Institute of Mining & Metallurgical En- gineers, the Montana Society of Engineers, and the Montana Coal Operators Association, of which he has been president for the past ten years. The pleasant, modern residence at No. 207 West Seventh Street, Anaconda, occupied by the Whyte family, is their property.

In March, 1892, Mr. Whyte was married to Miss Sarah Adeliza Crichton, a daughter of William and Adeliza (Hopkinson) Crichton, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. Crichton was in the live stock business at Haddington, Scotland. Mr. and Mrs. Whyte have one son, Keith Carrick, who was born October 21, 1897. He is taking a course in electrical engineering at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Mr. Whyte is one of the solid men of Ana- conda, where he has resided for so many years that he has been one of those responsible for its development. Sound in his judgments, his advice is sought and taken by his associates, and he is recog- nized as one of the most capable men of his great corporation.

JOHN W. SCHOFIELD was formerly connected with the United States Bureau of Fisheries at Bozeman, and resigned his position there to become local agent at Bozeman for the Henningsen Produce Company.

Mr. Schofield was born at Alexandria, Virginia, June 25, 1892, and passed his years until he came to Montana practically in sight of the national capital. His grandfather was born in Scotland in 1835, came to America when a young man, was manager of a large cotton mill near Baltimore, Maryland, and afterward had charge of a similar mill at Alexandria, Virginia, where he died in 1907. D. W. Schofield, father of the young Bozeman business man, was born in Maryland in 1858, grew up there, but since early manhood has lived at Alexandria, Virginia, where he is a wholesale grocer. He is a democrat and is senior deacon of the First Baptist Church of Alexandria and one of its chief members. He is a past grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows. D. W. Schofield married Evelyn Franks, who was born at Alexandria in 1860. Of their four chil- dren John W. is the youngest. Mary Mercer, the oldest, is the wife of B. C. Watkins, proprietor of a large nursery business at Midlothian, Virginia. C. M. Schofield enlisted in June, 1917, was sent overseas with the Ambulance Corps in Section No. 584, and saw active duty at the front until as a result of shell shock he was sent home and placed in the hospital at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. Lucy Virginia, the third of the family, is living with her parents at Alexandria.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 119

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