Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 127

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 127

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During his residence in Bonner County, Idaho, Mr. Wilcox for one year was superintendent of the County Poor Farm. He is a member of the Chris- tian Church, is affiliated with Sand Point Lodge of Knights of Pythias, Hell Gate Lodge No. 383, Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Modern Woodmen of America, all at Sand Point, Idaho. He is an active worker in the Chamber of Commerce at Missoula.

Mr. Wilcox owns a modern home at 1038 South Third Street, West. He married at Oroville, Wash- ington, February 19, 1893, Miss Clara Ward, daugh- ter of N. H. and Elizabeth (Vaughn) Ward, both now deceased. Her father was a minister of the Baptist Church. Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox have three daughters : Helen Elizabeth, born April 2, 1896, is the wife of N. H. Baldwin, a mechanic in the shops of the Northern Pacific Railway at Spokane, Wash- ington ; May Eleanor, born July 4, 1899, is the wife of Ward Munson, who is connected with the firm of Tull & Gibbs, furniture merchants at Spokane. The youngest is Juanita Ora, born February 19, 1912, now attending school at Missoula.

HUBERT H. GWINN is proprietor of Gwinn's ga- rage at Missoula. He is a progressive young business man, has wide experience in motor mechanics, and fortified himself for his work as a garage proprietor by one year in one of the leading technical schools of the country.

Mr. Gwinn was born at Stevensville, Montana, April 9, 1892. He is the son of Dr. Russell Gwinn,

Jacob Ounbrug.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

a prominent Missoula physician. Doctor Gwinn was born in Missouri in 1862, was reared and married in that state, and has lived in Montana since 1886. He practiced for a number of years at Stevensville and since 1915 has enjoyed a high standing and pro- fessional success at Missoula. He is a democrat in political affiliations. Doctor Gwinn married Miss Anna Payne, who was born in Missouri in 1867. Hubert is their only son. Their daughter, Grace, is doing advanced studies in violin at Portland, Oregon.

Hubert H. Gwinn was educated in the public schools of Missoula, graduating from the County High School in IgII. He spent two years in the University of Montana at Missoula, and for one year specialized in mechanical engineering in the Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago. He returned to Missoula to open the Motor Inn Garage, which he has since renamed Gwinn's Garage. This is a very popular and largely patronized business, located at the corner of South Third and Orange streets. The building is owned by Doctor Gwinn.

Mr. Gwinn is a republican, member of the Episco- pal Church and resides at 507 South Third Street, West. October 12, 1916, at Tulsa, Oklahoma, he married Miss Edith Merrifield, daughter of O. G. and Lillie Merrifield, residents of Tulsa. Mrs. Gwinn is a graduate of the Lake View High School at Chicago, To their marriage were born two chil- dren: James, on October 30, 1917, and Alan, on October 30, 1918.

JACOB OSENBRUG, president of the Home Baking Company of Butte, is one of the efficient business men of this region, who, having come to the United States from foreign shores, has made a success of his undertakings and at the same time established . himself in the confidence of the public. He was born in the City of Stade, near Hamburg, Germany, on January 28, 1860, a son of Clause Osenbrug, whose birth took place in the vicinity of Hamburg, Germany, in 1805, and his death at Stade, Germany, in 1877. During his younger days he was a shoe- maker, but after his marriage became a general merchant, and he spent all of his life in and about Stade. All of his mature years he was a consistent member of the Lutheran Church. Elizabeth Stock- mann, born in the vicinity of Hamburg, Germany, in 1815, became his second wife, and she, too, died at Stade, in the same year as her husband. Their children were as follows: Annie, who married Fred Klusmann, an employe of the Washoe Reduction Works of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company at Anaconda, Montana; Jacob, whose name heads this review; and John, who is a carpenter and builder, lives at Kansas City, Missouri.

Growing up in his native place, Jacob Osenbrug attended both public and private schools and re- ceived the equivalent of our high school course, al- though but fourteen years of age when he left school to begin learning the trade of a baker. He followed his trade in Germany until 1877, when he went to London, England, and spent six months in a bakery there, and then, in the spring of 1878, came to the United States. For the first few months after reaching this country Mr. Osenbrug was en- gaged in farm work in Lafayette County, Missouri, but being stricken down with malaria he went to St. Louis, Missouri, and there found work at his trade, continuing to make that city his home until June, 1879, when he came to Butte, Montana.

Upon his arrival at Butte Mr. Osenbrug found it necessary at first to do whatever came to hand, including work in the woods, operating a threshing machine in the Deerlodge Valley and other pioneer

jobs, but in 1880 was able to carry out his plans and establish a bakery which lasted through the winter, and in the spring he resumed his varied occupations. During the winter of 1881, however, he was able to establish himself permanently in a bakery business in a small way, building his own oven and making his own tools. From these primi- tive beginnings Mr. Osenbrug has had the satis- faction of developing his present fine establishment, which is the largest in Montana, he now operating under the caption of the Home Baking Company. His bakery, offices and warehouse are at No. 1904 Olympia Street. The selling territory comprises Butte and the outlying districts for a radius of 100 miles, and heavy shipments are made into Idaho. In 1904 the company was incorporated, with Mr. Osenbrug as president; Rudolph Osenbrug as vice president and secretary; and Edwin Thomas as treasurer. The plant today is one of the best equipped in the country, and is supplied with every modern appliance and all kinds of machinery to fa- cilitate the production of bakery goods in the most sanitary manner. The equipment includes four con- tinuous patented baking ovens and modern electric motors for operating the machinery. The doughs and flour are never touched by hand, and every process is conducted with the greatest care for cleanliness. Visitors from all over the country are impressed with this bakery and the people of Butte are naturally proud of it and the enterprise which has brought it into existence and maintained it. The company operates five large auto trucks for delivery purposes, all of the business being strictly wholesale, this being the only concern in the state which does no retail business. The leading brands of bread produced by this company are known all over Western Montana and into Idaho, they being the "Holsum" and "Betsey Ross."

Mr. Osenbrug is a republican. He affiliated with the Christian Science Church. A Mason, he belongs to Butte Lodge No. 22, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Deerlodge Chapter No. 3, Royal Arch Masons. He is also a member of Butte Lodge, Knights of the Maccabees. The Butte Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club also benefit by his aggressive membership, and he can be depended upon to give his hearty co-operation to all measures looking toward a further development of the city. Mr. Osenbrug owns his modern residence at No. 825 West Broadway and a business block at Nos. 15-17 East Granite Street. The company owns the bakery, offices and warehouse.

The first marriage of Mr. Osenbrug took place at Butte, Montana, in 1883, when he was united with Miss Mary M. Hembockel, who died in Oc- tober, 1900, having borne him the following chil- dren: Henry J., who died in 1913 at Butte, was re- ceiving teller of the First National Bank at Butte; Elizabeth, who married Ira Peters, a mining en- gineer, is a resident of Butte; Rudolph, who is vice president of the Home Baking Company, is a resident of Butte; Edward P., who is a wanderer ; Albert, who died in infancy; and Albert M., who lives at Washington, District of Columbia, was graduated from the Montana State Agricultural Col- lege of Bozeman, and is now in the Government service. In 1901 Mr. Osenbrug was married second at New York City, New York, to Mrs. Annie (Heinbockel) Kroeger, his sister-in-law, and she died in 1913 at Los Angeles, California. By her first marriage she had a son, William P. Kroeger, who was graduated from the Penn College of Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and he is now a physician and surgeon. Mr. Osenbrug was married in 1914 to Mrs. Katrina

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Miller, a native of Ohio, no issue. Mrs. Osenbrug had two children by her first marriage, namely : Charles Miller, who is an employe of the Montana Power Company, is a resident of Butte; and Harry, who is in the automobile business, lives in the State of Washington.

The sons of Mr. Osenbrug who served in the World war are Edward P., Albert M., William P. and Charles P. Edward P. enlisted but a short time prior to the signing of the armistice so had no opportunity of seeing active service.

Albert M. Osenbrug enlisted in 1918 and served for eighteen months at Camp Omaha in the balloon battalion, and owing to his knowledge of this branch of the service was kept on this side as an instructor to drill new recruits.

William P. Kroeger, a stepson, enlisted in 1917 in the hospital as a medical student.

Charles P. Miller, another stepson, enlisted in 1918 and was overseas in France for eighteen months, participating in the first battle of Soissons, in which he received seven machine gun bullets in the groin which incapacitated him for further serv- ice. He was in a machine gun battalion.

GLEN ALBERT SMITH received his early business training in the employ of some of Montana's lumber firms, and the knowledge he acquired of lumbering, supplemented by an ardent interest in the timber re- sources of the country, led him into the service of the Government in the forestry department, with which he has been identified for the past twelve or fifteen years.

Mr. Smith who is now assistant district forester at Missoula, was born in Bates County, Missouri, September 15, 1879, son of Albert M. and Lucinda (Pepper) Smith. Albert M. Smith was born at Frederick in Schuyler County, Illinois, in 1842, and died at Columbia Falls, Montana, April 20, 1918. As a young man he served in Company K of the Thirty- Seventh Illinois Infantry from the beginning of the Civil war. In 1876 he moved from Illinois to Bates County, Missouri, and was a farmer there until 1903, when he came to Montana and located at Kalis- pell. He was a republican and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. His wife, Lucinda Pepper, was born in Ohio in 1842 and died at Rich Hill, Missouri, May 20, 1898. They have the fol- lowing children : H. K., who was a store keeper for the Pacific Bell Telephone Company, and died at Portland, Oregan, in November, 1917; Lou, wife of E. G. Swarans, a farmer at Rich Hill, Missouri; Helen, wife of R. N. Erwin, of Yakima, Washington, Mr. Erwin being a lumberman; Glen A .; and Garfield who is in the postal service at Seattle.

Glen Albert Smith acquired a public school educa- tion in Missouri, and after completing a course in the Kalispell Business College went to work for the O'Neil Lumber Company, acquiring a thorough knowledge of the Company's business both in the office and in the yards. For a time he was also superintendent of the outside interests and sales manager for the Northwestern Lumber Company of Kalispell.

January 1, 1907, Mr. Smith entered the Forestry Bureau at Libby, Montana, and in November, 1908, was transferred to the Custer National Forest at Ashland as forest superivisor. In December, 1910, he was sent to Billings as forest supervisor of the Bear Tooth Forest. In 1914 he became supervisor of the Kootenai Forest, with headquarters at Libby, remaining at that post of duty until July, 1918, when he came to Missoula as assistant district forester in charge of the branch of operation. Mr. Smith is regarded as one of the most resourceful men in the

employ of the Government Forestry Bureau. His re- sponsibility were especially exacting during the well remembered summer of 1919, which surpassed all other seasons for drought in Montana. He was in charge of the biggest campaign ever waged against forest fires in the history of the service. When the situation was at the crisis some 6,000 men were em- ployed as fire fighters in the district supervised by Mr. Smith. At one time there were 1,700 fires in progress in the forest.

Mr. Smith is affiliated with Libby Lodge No. 85, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. November 16, 1904, at Fort Benton, he married Miss Cressie R. Rowe, daughter of James and Catherine (Ivey) Rowe. Her mother is still living at Libby. Her father, who died at Fort Benton in 1899, was an early settlers in Montana, locating near Fort Benton in 1877. He was a successful rancher and stock raiser and at one time was assessor of Choteau County, when that county contained the area now divided among half a dozen counties. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have three children: Ivey L., born December 28, 1907; Glenna, born March 20, 1912; and Charlotte, born July 18, 1913.

FREDERICK R. BARTLES is a graduate civil engineer from an eastern university, began his career as a rod man with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and has spent the last thirteen years with the Western Pa- cific Railway Company, and is now superintendent of the Rocky Mountain Division, with headquarters at Missoula.

Mr. Bartles was born at Williamsport, Pennsyl- vania, February 28, 1875. Mr. Bartles' ancestors were Colonial settlers from Germany, locating at Flemington, New Jersey. The grandfather of the · Montana railroad man was Charles Bartles, who was born at Flemington, New Jersey, in 1801 spent all his life there as a banker, attorney and a prominent factor in civic affairs. He died at Flemington in 1883.

Charles Bartles, father of Frederick R. Bartles, was born at Flemington, New Jersey, in 1843. He is a graduate from the law school of Harvard Univer- sity, and has spent his active life as a lawyer at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and is still looking after a large practice though past seventy-five years of age. He is a republican, a member of the Epis- copal Church and a Mason. At Williamsport he married Mary E. Bell, who was born at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1846. Charles, the oldest of their children, is a railroad man in the State of Wash- ington; Lottie is the wife of H. Crocker, manager of the telephone company at Williamsport, Pennsyl- vania ; Frederick R. is third; and Marie, the young- est, is the wife of R. E. Smead, a varnish broker at Cleveland, Ohio.

Frederick R. Bartles attended public school at Wil- liamsport, and is a graduate of Lehigh University of Pennsylvania, taking his degree Civil Engineer in 1896. He is a member of the Chi Psi college fra- ternity. On graduating he found work as a rodman with the engineering department of the Pennsyl- vania Railway. He was promoted to transit man and from 1899 to 1905 was superivisor of tracks for the New York Central Railway. Mr. Bartles had an interesting experience in the service of the govern- ment between 1905 and August, 1907, as assistant engineer for the Isthmian Canal Commission at Panama. Since his work in the Canal Zone he has been continuously with the Northern Pacific Rail- way Company.

For three months he was inspector at Brainerd, Minnesota, was supervisor of bridges and building, and superintendent of construction until I911; was

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

trainmaster at Pasco, Washington, until 1914; super- intendent of the Fargo Division until 1915; was superintendent of the Minnesota Division, with head- quarters at Staples, Minnesota, until November, 1917; and at the latter date was appointed superintendent of the Rocky Mountain Division with headquarters at Missoula. His division jurisdiction takes in all the Northern Pacific from Helena and Butte west to Paradise, Montana, and includes the Coeur d'Alene branch to Wallace, Idaho, the Bitter Root branch, the Flathead Valley line, the Philipsburg branch, and the lines running to Marysville and Re- mini. Thirty-six hundred employes look to him as their superintendent. His offices are in the Passenger Station Building at Missoula.

For nearly a year Mr. Bartles was away from duty as a contribution of American railroads to the win- ning of the great war in France. He was a major in the Thirty-Ninth Railroad Engineers, one of the finest body of men and one of the units doing most effective service in maintaining transportation serv- ice in France. He went overseas in August, 1918, and did not return until June, 1919.

Major Bartles is a republican, a member of the Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Lodge No. 44 of the Masonic order at Buffalo, North Dakota. In Missoula he has bought a modern residence at 606 Woodford Avenue. Major Bartles married at Clearfield, Pennsylvania, in 1902, Miss Alice Mc- Quown, daughter of Senator M. L. and Virginia (Flegal) McQuown, of Clearfield. Her father is editor of the Raftsman Journal, the second oldest newspaper in Pennsylvania. Mrs. Bartles is a grad- uate of Wilson College at Wilson, Pennsylvania. They have two daughters : Mary Virginia, born July 15, 1904; and Alice, born July 30, 1912.

RALPH L. ARNOLD graduated with his law diploma from the University of Nebraska in 1910, and in the same year came to Missoula to begin his career as a lawyer. His work has been attended with growing success and prestige, and his services have been req- uisitioned for the handling of many important cases and interests.

Mr. Arnold grew up in Nebraska but was born at Mount Pulaski, Illinois, December 4, 1886. His grandfather, John Arnold, was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1823, came to America when a young man and served as a Union soldier during the Civil war. He spent his active life as a farmer at Mount Pulaski, Illinois, where he married and where he died in 1888. His son F. C. Arnold was born at Mount Pulaski in 1859, grew up and lived there until his marriage, and in 1890 moved to the vicinity of Lincoln, Nebraska, where he continued farming until he retired. Since 1917 his home has been in the City of Lincoln. He is a republican, an active member of the Methodist Church, and by his mar- riage to Mary E. Birtell, who was born at Milton, Pennsylvania, in 1863, had a family of eight chil- dren, noted briefly as follows: Laura Pearl, wife of H. F. Capwell, a farmer at Elmwood, Nebraska; Ralph L .; Clarence F., a farmer at Hawley, Minne- sota ; John, also a farmer at Hawley; Harry, a farm- er at Elmwood, Nebraska; Harriet, a graduate nurse living with her parents; Marie, wife of Wayne Drys- dale, a farmer at Roswell, New Mexico; and Rich- ard, a junior in the Lincoln High School.

Ralph L. Arnold was educated in the public schools of Tobias, Nebraska, graduating from high school in 1905. For two years he carried mail on a rural route in Saline County, Nebraska, then spent one year in the Nebraska Wesleyan University at University Place, following which he was a student of law at the University of Nebraska at' Lincoln for three

years. He received his LL. B. degree in 1910, and was admitted to the bar of his home state before coming to Missoula. His work as a lawyer has been diversified between civil and criminal practice. He served as public administrator at Missoula in 1917- 18. Mr. Arnold's offices are in the Higgins Block at Missoula.

He is a democrat, a member of the Methodist Church and affiliated with Missoula Lodge No. 13, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. His modern home is at 517 Cleveland Street. On October 14. 1914, at Missoula, he married Miss Marjorie Mason, a native of Belle Plaine, lowa, and a graduate with the A. B. degree from the State University of Mon- tana at Missonla. Her mother is Mrs. M. Mason, of Missoula. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold have one daugh- 'ter, Marjorie Ruth, born January 12, 1919.

H. T. FORBIS. The subject of this sketch has spent the major portion of his life within the borders of Missoula County, where he still resides in the city of that name, and his persistent and commend- able efforts have benefitted alike himself and the community, for he has always had deeply at heart the well being and improvement of the county, using his influence whenever possible for the promotion of enterprises calculated to be of lasting benefit to his fellow men, besides taking a leading part in all movements for the advancement of the community along social, intellectual and moral lines. He is the scion of an excellent old Montana family and pos- sesses a justifiable pride in the old Treasure state, with which his life history is identified.

H. T. Forbis was born at Butte, Montana, on January 19, 1886, and is the son of William P. and Lenora B. (Jenks) Forbis. William P. Forbis was born in the State of Missouri in 1852, and his death occurred in 1898 at Missoula, Montana. He was numbered among the real pioneers of the Treasure State, having come here in the early '60s, during the progress of the great war between the states. He first located in Virginia City, where he gave his attention to prospecting and mining, later following the same pursuits at Helena and Butte, reaching the latter place in 1868. He worked entirely on his own account and was successful in his efforts. He made his permanent home in Butte, where he at- tained to considerable local prominence, standing high in the esteem of the people of the community. He was a democrat in politics, and served one term as collector of internal revenue. He was a faithful member of the Presbyterian Church. He was mar- ried to Leonora B. Jeuks, who was born in 1860 in Iowa, but who now resides in Missouri. To this worthy couple were born the following children : H. T., the immediate subject of this sketch; C. J., the well-known architect of Missoula, who is specific- ally mentioned elsewhere in this work; Leona Belle is the wife of A. E. Drew, of Missoula, secretary of the Forbis-Toole Company and in charge of the corporation insurance.

H. T. Forbis secured his elementary education in the public schools of Butte and Missoula, graduat- ing from the high school in the latter city in 1905. He then attended the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, for one year, after which he was a student in the State University of Montana, at Missoula, where he was graduated in 1911. He then entered the Western Montana Bank at Missoula, starting in a minor capacity, but was soon promoted to the position of bookeeper. He remained with this bank for four years, at the end of which time he organized the Forbis-Toole Company, a partnership between H. T. Forbis, J. H. Toole and A. E. Drew. The business was prosperous from the beginning and in

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1919 was incorporated, its present title being the Forbis-Toole Company, Incorporated. The official personnel of the company is as follows: President, H. T. Forbis; vice president, J. H. Toole; secre- tary and treasurer, A. E. Drew. The Forbis-Toole Company is the largest company of its kind in Mis- soula County, and is mainly an investment company, handling farm loan, mortgages, district irrigation bonds, city bonds, improvement district bonds, in con- nection with which they also have a department for the handling of loans, real estate and insurance. During the period of four years since this company was organized it has handled a large amount of this investment paper and has also handled some of the largest real estate transfers in this county. They have earned a wide reputation because of their re- liability, promptness and care in every transaction directed by them, and the company is rated high among similar concerns in Montana. A large part of the success of the Forbis-Toole Company is directly attributable to Mr. Forbis, whose personality has been in evidence in the entire history of the com- pany.

In addition to his other interests, Mr. Forbis is secretary and treasurer of the Forbis Brothers Poultry Ranch Company, the plant of which is lo- cated four miles southwest of Missoula. They are extensive breeders of white leghorn chickens, having at the present time about 2,000 laying hens, and the firm has gained more than a state-wide reputation because of the high grade of the stock which they have put on the market.

In matters political Mr. Forbis is not bound by party lines, preferring to give his support to those men and measures which most nearly meet his ap- proval. He has no aspiration for public office, pre- ferring as a private citizen to do his humble share in directing public affairs from the ballot box. Relig- iously he is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Fraternally he is a member of Harmony Lodge No. 49, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He is also a member of the Rotary Club and of the Cham- ber of Commerce, and president and a director of the Missoula Amusement Company.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 127

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