Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 130

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 130

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JUDGE FREDERICK C. WEBSTER, who for a dozen years was a judge of the District Court at Missoula, is one of the oldest members of the Montana bar still in active service. He handled his first cases at Butte some five years before Montana was ad- mitted to the Union.

Judge Webster is of an old New England family and was born at Litchfield, Connecticut. He is a graduate with the class of 1873 from Yale Uni- versity, and studied law under Judge Seymour of Litchfield. He was admitted to the Connecticut bar in 1874, and after a period of private practice moved to Minneapolis, where he was a partner with Judge Atwater in the firm of Atwater and Web- ster. Judge Webster lived for a time in Colorado and from there came to Montana in 1884. His first home was at Butte, but since 1887 he has lived in Missoula and practiced law. He was associated with Judge Woody for some years, was elected and served as county attorney four years, was mayor four years, and in 1900 succeeded Judge Woody on - the bench of the District Court. By re-election he remained on the bench, giving his duties the benefit of all his wide experience and learning for twelve years. After retiring he again served as county attorney for two years, and in 1917 was appointed receiver of the Bitter Root Valley Irrigation Com- pany. Judge Webster has been a life-long republi- can, and is a past grand master of the Masonic Or- der of Montana.

June 1, 1889, at Missoula, he married Miss Anna C. Bye, a native of Iowa. They have three children.

One son, Charles Norman, early in the war joined the Ninth Artillery ' Regiment and was trained at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The son Fred B. is a young lawyer and associated with his father in practice.

JUDGE THEODORE LENTZ, who in 1914 was elected judge of the District Court at Missoula, has been a Montana lawyer for fifteen years, and his work and character have gained him a broad apprecia- tion and the esteem due his learning, his industry and his unqualified integrity.

Judge Lentz was born in Williamson County, Illi- nois, October 28, 1874, son of Eli and Lydia J. (Hare) Lentz. His parents were Southerners, the father a native of North Carolina and his mother of Tennessee. They spent their active lives in Illinois. Eli Lentz for four years was a Union soldier in Company H of the One Hundred and Ninth Illinois Infantry. In all that service he never lost a day from sickness or wounds, and fought in some of the greatest battles of the war.

Judge Lentz was reared and educated in Illinois, and graduated from Valparaiso University in In- diana in 1895. In 1899 he entered the law depart- ment of the University of Michigan, and later re- sumed his studies there during 1903-04. Judge Lentz came to Montana in 1904, practiced law at Glen- dive, and served one term as county attorney. His home has been at Missoula since 1909, and a large general practice absorbed his time and talents until he was elected to succeed Judge Patterson in 1914 and re-elected to the bench in 1916.

Judge Lentz is a leading republican and a thirty- second degree Scottish Rite Mason. He married at Glendive Ruth Hunter, of Watertown, South Dakota. They have three children, one son and two daughters.

HON. JOHN W. TATTAN. Standing out distinctly as one of the central figures of the judiciary of the great Treasure State is the name of the Hon. John W. Tattan, the able and popular judge of the Twelfth Judicial District. Prominent in legal circles and equally so in public matters beyond the confines of his own jurisdiction, with a reputation in one of the most exacting of professions that has won him a name for distinguished service second to none of his contemporaries, there is today no more prom- inent or influential man in the district which he has long honored by his citizenship. Wearing the judi- cial ermine with becoming dignity and bringing to every case submitted to him a clearness of percep- tion and ready power of analysis characteristic of the learned jurist, his name and work for years has earned him recognition as one of the distin- guished citizens of his locality.

John W. Tattan was born in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland, on May 27, 1847, and was the second child in order of birth of the five children born to John and Mary (Walsh) Tattan, both of whom were natives of the Emerald Isle. They are both now deceased, the father passing away in 1889, when seventy-eight years of age, and the mother in 1888, at the age of seventy years. John Tattan, the father, was a mail contractor for over twenty years, being engaged in the transportation of Government mail, and he was also a hotel keeper for many years.

John W. Tattan received a good education in his native land, his studies including a thorough course in civil engineering. When eighteen years of age, de- siring larger opportunities for the exercise of the energies and talents which were his, the lad immi- grated to the United States, taking passage on the old steamship the City of Paris, which landed him at New York City on April 16, 1865. He at once came

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west, locating in the iron mining country in Minne- sota, where he followed his profession as a civil engineer up to 1870. On June 5th of that year Mr. Tattan went to Chicago and enlisted in the United States army. In July he was attached to the Sev- enth Regiment, United States Infantry, at Fort Shaw, Montana Territory. He came to Fort Ben- ton in January, 1872, remaining there until June 5, 1875, when he received his honorable discharge from the service, with the rank of sergeant.

Remaining in Fort Benton, Mr. Tattan was in August, 1875, elected to the office of probate judge of Chouteau County. So satisfactory was his dis- charge of the duties of that office that he was sev- eral times elected to succeed himself, holding the office continuously, with the exception of a period of two years, up to 1889. Mr. Tattan had applied himself closely to the study of law and took the examination for admission to the bar in 1877. In 1889 he was elected county attorney for Chouteau County, serving for three years. He was then em- ployed as attorney for the Northern Roundup Asso- ciation, and it is noteworthy that during his con- nection with that organization they were successful in ridding Northern Montana of practically all of its "bad men." In 1900 Mr. Tattan was appointed judge of the Tenth Judicial District, and in 1901 he was appointed judge of the Twelfth Judicial Dis- trict. He has been continuously elected to succeed himself in this office and is the present incumbent of the district bench.

Judge Tattan's qualifications for the office of judge are unquestionable. First of all, he has in- tegrity of character. He possesses the natural abil- ity and the essential requirements, the acumen of the judicial temperament. He is able to divest him- self of prejudice or favoritism and consider only the legal aspects of a question submitted. No labor is too great, however onerous; no application too exacting, however severe, if necessary to the com- plete understanding and correct determination of a question. These are, indeed, words of high praise, but the encomium is justified in every particular, for the judge has proved himself a distinct man, in all the term implies, and its implication is wide.

Politically Judge Tattan gives his support to the democratic party. In the November, 1920 primaries, although Judge Tattan failed to receive the demo- cratic nomination for the first time because of the non-partisans and radical laborites, over 400 repub- licans wrote his name on their ticket and he thus became the republican nominee after being a demo- crat over fifty years. He was re-elected, leading the nominee for governor by several hundred. Judge Tattan's term will expire in 1925. He takes a live interest in everything affecting the general interests of the community, giving his active sup- port to all worthy movements. In 1867 J. M. Ar- noux built a log house in Fort Benton and, partly from a sentimental viewpoint, Judge Tattan bought the old cabin and it has been incorporated into his present home, it being the present sitting room.

On April 11, 1876, Judge Tattan was married to Alice Seifred, a native of the State of Iowa, and to them have been born two children. John J., the eldest, married Carrie E. Arenberg, and they have four children, their home being in Glasgow, Mon- tana. Mary E. Tattan became the wife of C. W. Morrison, a merchant in Fort Benton, and they have two children.

ALBERT JOHN Foss is manager of the Beaverliead Milling and Elevator Company at Dillon, the only grain elevator in Beaverhead County, and has been in the grain business as a buyer and dealer the

greater part of his life. He was born in the Pine Tree State, in the extreme northeastern part of the United States, but has lived his life chiefly in Minnesota, the Dakotas and Montana.

He was born at Bangor, Maine, August 4, 1862. His great-grandfather Foss brought the family from England in pioneer times. Through his mother one of his great-grandfathers was also named Foss. This is a family that has long been prominent in New England, and one line includes ex-Governor and Senator Foss of Massachusetts. Samuel Foss, father of the Dillon grain merchant, was born in Maine in 1828, and spent many years there as a lumberman in Aroostock and other counties. In 1867, as a lumberman, he went to Wisconsin, and was foreman of a firm that operated four or five mills in the heaviest forests of that state. He was a prominent man in his time in Wisconsin, and had the supervision of the work by which the Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan Canal was lowered to water level. In 1874 Samuel Foss moved to Minnesota, and as a farmer, blacksmith and cooper was a lead- ing man in the citizenship and financial life of New Auburn. In 1882 he went to Frederick, South Da- kota, and was engaged in farming there the rest of his life. He died in 1899. He held some town office almost continuously, was an active republican in politics, and a member of the Masonic fraternity. Samuel Foss married Esther Johnston, who was born in Maine in 1834 and is now living with her daughter, Mrs. Carrie Armstrong in the Province of Alberta, Canada. Their children were as fol- lows: A. G., a land agent at St. Paul, Minnesota ; Emily, wife of Edward Chilton, died in 1891 ; Bertha, living at Hudson, Wisconsin, widow of H. Strickland, who died in 1919 and was a grain buyer ; Albert John; May, wife of O. H. Poppleton, a farmer and carpenter living near Baker, Montana; Edith, widow of Doctor Pettingill of Frederick, South Dakota; Charles is a farmer and contractor at Didsbury in Alberta, Canada; D. H. is a rancher near Baker, Montana; and Carrie is the wife of Alfred Armstrong, a banker in Saskatchewan, Can- ada.

Albert John Foss was five years of age when his father moved to Wisconsin. He attended schools in that state, also at New Auburn, Minnesota, and Brownton, Minnesota, graduating from the high school of the latter place. At the age of seventeen he became a telegraph operator with the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, and after working for some time in Minnesota he became a grain buyer at Barnesville in that state. Beginning in 1884, he was at Barnesville three years, then spent three years as a grain buyer at Winthrop, Minnesota, and in 1890 returned to Brownton and continued in the grain buying business until 1901. Following that he spent about a year at Bath, South Dakota, three years at Litchfield, Minnesota, one year at Pipestone, and after that gave up the grain busi- ness to become manager of the Foss-Armstrong Hardware Company in their branch store at Hud- son, Wisconsin. He remained there four years, moved his home to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and was traveling representative for the Foss-Armstrong Hardware Company. For three years his travels covered the greater part of the state. He then resumed the management of the branch store at Hudson.

On August 14, 1912, Mr: Foss came to Montana and located at Wibaux, where he resumed his for- mer business as a grain buyer. On January 1, 1919, he took the management of the Beaverhead Mill and Elevator Company at Dillon. Through this

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elevator is marketed practically all the grain raised in Beaverhead County. The mill and elevator are located along the tracks of the Oregon Short Line Railroad. The mills have a capacity of 100 bar- rels of flour per day, while the elevator's capacity is 40,000 bushels. Mr. Foss is a stockholder in this important local business of Dillon.

He owns a residence at Wibaux and makes his home in Dillon, at 335 South Idaho Street. During his residence, at Brownton, Minnesota, he served as an alderman. He is a republican, is affiliated with Wibaux Lodge No. 81, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, being master of the Lodge for 1919, is affiliated with Glendive Chapter No. 5, Royal Arch Masons, and is a Scottish Rite Mason and Odd Fellow.

In 1886, at Crookston, Minnesota, Mr. Foss mar- ried Miss Nina E. Smith, a daughter of Parker and Marie (Howland) Smith, the latter a resident of Los Angeles. Her father, who died in Minne- apolis, was a grain merchant. Mrs. Foss is a grad- uate of the high school of Green Bay, Wisconsin. To their marriage have been born three children. Floyd S. P. is a graduate of the Law School of the University of Southern California with the LL. B. degree and is now practicing at Glendive, Montana. Fern, at home, is a graduate of the high school at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the Valley City Normal College in North Dakota, the Superior Nor- mal in Wisconsin, and for four years was a suc- cessful teacher in Wibaux, Montana. Nina Alberta is now a student in the Beaverhead County High School at Dillon.

GEORGE MELVILLE CRABB, M. D. District surgeon for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway at Deer Lodge, Doctor Crabb has earned a place of genuine distinction in the medical profession at Montana.

His Scotch ancestors settled in Pennsylvania in colonial times. His grandfather was a native of that state, was a minister of the Presbyterian Church, and died at Bryan, Ohio, at the age of fifty-five. John M. Crabb, father of Doctor Crabb, was born at Bryan, Ohio, in 1842, and from that community as a youth of nineteen he enlisted in the Thirty-third Ohio Regiment, and for four years was a soldier of the Union. He rose to the rank of first lieutenant. He was with Sherman on the march to the sea, and at one time during the war was stationed at Galveston, Texas. He married in Ohio, lived on a farm near Bryan for several years, and then moved to Greenfield, Iowa, where he was a farmer until he retired in 1904. His last years were spent at Parsons, Kansas, where he died in 1910. Though a Union soldier, he was a democrat in politics. He was an elder of the Presbyterian Church, belonged to the Grand Army of the Republic and affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. John M. Crabb married Rachel Craver, born near Bryan, Ohio, in 1842, and died at Parsons, Kansas, in 1910, the same year as her husband. Of their five children Dr. George M. is the youngest. C. E. Crabb, the oldest, is manager of the Willard- Crabb Farms Company at Deer Lodge. James M. was a graduate of Rush Medical College at Chicago, and practiced medicine in that city until his death in 1905. David E. is a teacher in a boys' school in China, being maintained there by the Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board. Bertha E., the only daugh -.. ter, is the wife of Arthur Newbro, a foreman in the shops of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company at Parsons, Kansas.

George Melville Crabb was born at Greenfield, Vol. 11-30

Iowa, October 16, 1882, spent his early life on his father's farm, attended the rural schools of Adair County, an academy at West Plains, Iowa, and is a graduate of Grinnell College, Iowa, receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in 1906. He then entered Rush Medical College, the affiliated medical school of the University of Chicago, and received his M. D. degree in 1910. Doctor Crabb is a member of the medical fraternity Phi Beta Pi. His record in col- lege earned him the privileges of an interneship in the Cook County Hospital at Chicago, receiving his appointment after a competitive examination. He served with that institution a year and a half, and thus equipped and trained he came to Montana and settled at Deer Lodge in 1912. He became associated with Dr. H. G. Willard, then district surgeon of the Milwaukee Railway, and in 1915 succeeded Doctor Willard in that office. In addition he also looks after a large general medical and surgical practice. His offices are in the new Masonic Building on Main Street. Doctor Crabb served as county physician in 1919, and was the state delegate from Montana to the National Convention of the American Medical Association at Atlantic City in 1919. He is a Fellow of the American Medical Association and is a member of the Silver Bow County Medical Society, the State Medical Associa- tion, and is chairman of the Board of Councillors of the latter. Doctor Crabb casts an independent ballot in politics. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with Lodge No. 14, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Deer Lodge, Valley Chapter No. 4, Royal Arch Masons, Ivanhoe Com- mandery No. 16, Knights Templar, and Bagdad Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Butte. He is also a member of the Deer Lodge Chamber of Commerce. Doctor Crabb is a half owner in the Willard-Crabb Farms Company. This corporation owns 1,600 acres five miles southeast of Deer Lodge. Their land has complete water rights, and the ranch is noted for its wheat crops and for its fine herd of Shorthorn cattle.

Doctor Crabb and family reside at 812 Missouri Avenue. He married at Marshalltown, Iowa, in 1911, Miss Pauline Andrews, daughter of George L. and Clara (Arnold) Andrews, residents of Mar- shalltown. Her father has been a grocery merchant there for thirty-five years. Mrs. Crabb is also a graduate of Grinnell College, Iowa, receiving the A. B. degree. She is also a Phi Beta Kappa, the honorary scholarship fraternity. Doctor and Mrs. Crabb have three children: Ruth, born September 3, 1912; Doris, born April 3, 1914; and John, born December 8, 1917.

GILBERT ARNOLD KETCHAM. Western Montana numbers among its citizens many skillful physicians, lawyers of state repute, well-known manufacturers and business men of more than local reputation and, while proud of them, she is not lacking in others who have achieved distinction in callings requiring intellectual abilities of a high order. Among the latter, Mr. Gilbert A. Ketcham, the popular and efficient principal of the Missonla County High School, occupies a deservedly conspicuous place. No one is more entitled to the thoughtful considera- tion of a free and enlightened people than he who shapes and directs the minds of the young, adds to the value of their intellectual treasures and moulds their characters. This is pre-eminently the mission of the faithful and conscientious educator, and to such noble work is the life of the subject of this sketch devoted.

Gilbert Arnold Ketcham is descended from ster-

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ling old Scotch-Irish ancestry, his emigrant an- cestors having come to this country from the north of Ireland about the middle of the eighteenth cen- tury and settled on Long Island. The subject's father, R. G. Ketcham, was born in 1829 at Pat- chog, Long Island, and died at Geneva, Ohio, in 1902. He was reared and educated in his native town. In 1843 he accompanied his parents on their removal to Minnesota, locating on farming land near where Chatfield now stands. On attaining mature years he engaged in the hardware business at Chatfield, but in 1879 he went to Ohio, making his home at Geneva, from which place he went out as a traveling salesman over Ohio. He died at Geneva in 1902. Originally a republican in his po- litical views, he later became a supporter of the prohibition party and was active in its behalf. He was a very active and devoted member of the Con- gregational Church. In 1874, at Rome, Ohio, Mr. Ketcham was married to Laura Arnold, who was born there in 1847 and whose death occurred there in 1879. Gilbert A. is the only child born to this union.

Gilbert A. Ketcham was born at Chatfield, Min- nesota, on September 27, 1875, but was reared and attended the public schools at Geneva, Ohio, whither his father had removed when he was about eight years of age. He graduated from the Geneva High School in 1894, and during the following year he taught school at Rome, Ohio. He then entered Oberlin College, at Oberlin, Ohio, where he was graduated in 1899, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was then engaged as principal of the high school at Geneseo, Illinois, where he remained for two years, and the following year he served as principal of the high school at St. Cloud, Minnesota. Mr. Ketcham came to Montana in 1902, and from that year until i911 he rendered efficient service as principal of the Flathead County High School at Kalispell, resigning that position to accept that of deputy superintendent of public instruction of the State of Montana, in which position he served one year. In the fall of 1912 he came to Missoula as principal of the Missoula County High School, of which position he is still the incumbent. Under his supervision there are twenty-eight teachers and 650 pupils. The building is a splendid type of the most approved style of modern school buildings, having every facility required to promote the effi- ciency of the work done there. Under his direc- tion the school has made remarkable progress and stands today among the leaders of the high schools of the state. Mr. Ketcham is a man of scholarly tastes and studious habits, keeps abreast of the times in advanced educational methods, and his gen- eral knowledge is broad and comprehensive. Years of conscientious work have brought with them not only an increase in reputation, but also that growth in educational ability the possession of which con- stitutes marked excellence in the profession.

On December 26, 1901, at Geneseo, Illinois, Mr. Ketcham was married to Priscilla Schnabele, the daughter of P. S. and Amalia Schnabele, of Gen- eseo, where the former is a successful banker.

Politically Mr. Ketcham gives his support to the republican party, while his religions affiliation is with the Presbyterian Church, in which he is an elder. He is a member of the Rotary Club and of the Chamber of Commerce, both at Missoula. He is deservedly popular in the community, and his friends are in number as his acquaintances. His life affords a splendid example of what an Ameri- can youth, plentifully endowed with good common sense, energy and determination, may accomplish

when directed and controlled by earnest moral prin- ciples.

HERBERT T. WILKINSON has been a resident of Missoula, Montana, since 1889, the year of state- hood, and has long been prominent in the affairs of his home city, serving as mayor and in other of- ficial capacities.

He was born in London, England, May 15, 1864, son of Charles R. and Jane E. Wilkinson. His father died in England and his mother is living at the advanced age of eighty-eight in Missoula. Mr. Wilkinson was reared in England, had a common school education, and after coming to the United States spent several years in Wyoming before locat- ing at Missoula in August, 1889.

For the first three years, from August, 1889, to December, 1892, he was chief clerk to the superin- tendent of the Northern Pacific Railway Company. From January, 1893, to December, 1898, he was deputy county clerk and treasurer and from Jan- nary, 1899, to December, 1902, county clerk and recorder. After leaving office he took up the real estate and mining business and was successfully engaged therein from January, 1903, to April, 1916.

Mr. Wilkinson is the present mayor of Missoula, having been elected in May, 1916, under the com- mission form of government, and devotes practi- cally all his time to the administration of municipal affairs. He is a director of the Missoula Building and Loan Association, vice president of the Rotary Club, has served on the executive committee of the Red Cross, and is a member of the Elks and Wood- men of the World. Politically he is a democrat and is a member of the Episcopal Church.

Mr. Wilkinson has three daughters and one son: Ethel, born in 1899, now Mrs. A. E. Leech, of Va- lier, Montana; Holroyd, born in 1893; Dorothy, born in 1897; and Marjorie, born in 1903.

JUDGE JOHN E. PATTERSON, former judge of the District Court at Missoula, has been an able mem- ber of his profession a quarter of a century, and came to Missoula from Chicago, where he had prac- ticed law several years.

Judge Patterson was born in Floyd County, Iowa, at Charles City, in 1866, son of John G. and Hester (Quiggle) Patterson. His parents were natives of Pennsylvania and went to lowa from Ohio. Judge Patterson grew up in Iowa, had a public school education there, and graduated from the lowa State University with the class of 1889. In 1891 he entered the Chicago College of Law, where he spent two years. He was admitted to the Illi- nois bar, and practiced in Chicago until 1900, when he came to Missoula and became associated with Charles Hall. Judge Patterson was called from his large general practice to the office of district judge in 1912, and since leaving the bench has again taken his place among the lawyers of Missoula. In 1916 Judge Patterson was nominated by the democratic party for chief justice of the Supreme Court of Montana, but failed of election by a small majority. Mr. Patterson is a democrat in politics.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 130

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