Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 131

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 131

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At Chicago in 1894 he married Carolina S. Paxton, also a native of Iowa. They have three sons and one daughter. The son John left the University of Montana during his senior year to enlist in the National army, and became a member of the .. Twentieth Regiment of Engineers and saw active service for thirteen months in France.

FRED W. HANDEL is senior member of Handel Brothers, the oldest and largest business firm of

Fred Wir Candel

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Musselshell. The brothers have been in business there for over thirty years, and their interests touch every phase of local life and affairs. They are gen- eral merchants, grain dealers, and have thousands of acres devoted to live stock and farming.

Fred W. Handel was born at Meriden, Connecti- cut, September 26, 1862. His grandfather, Philip Handel, was born in Wuertemberg, Germany, and about 1860 brought his family to the United States and settled on a farm at Hartford, Connecticut. Jacob Handel, father of the Handel brothers, was born in Wuertemberg in 1840 and was about 20 years of age when he accompanied other members of the family to the United States. At Glastonbury, Connecticut, he was employed in a factory a short time and then removed to Meriden, where he was connected with the Charles Parker Company, hard- ware manufacturers. He was killed accidentally while visiting his father at East Hartford in the fall of 1875. Jacob Handel was a democratic voter a member of the Lutheran Church. He mar- ried Catherine Wuterich, who was born in Wuer- temberg in 1842 and is now living at Webster City, Iowa. Fred W. is the oldest of her children. Philip J. was a manufacturer and died at Meriden, Con- necticut, in 1914. George W., junior member of Handel Brothers, lives at Musselshell and was born in Connecticut in 1868. Emma H., the youngest of the family, is the wife of Dr. Franklin J. Drake, a physician and surgeon at Webster City, Iowa.

Fred W. Handel acquired a public school educa- tion at Meriden, but at the early age of fourteen ac- cepted an opportunity for regular employment as clerk in a grocery store at Meriden. He remained for six years in one store and acquired a thorough busi- ness training while there. Then, associated with George W. Ives, he established a grocery store at Meriden, and they conducted it until February 15, 1885. . Selling out, the partners came to Montana, acquired some land and in April, 1885, went into business at Musselshell Crossing under the name Ives & Handel. Mr. Ives was active in the firm until he met with an accident in the fall of 1886 and was taken back to Meriden, Connecticut, where he died three years later. The Ives interests were then acquired by George W. Handel, who came to Montana at the time, and this gave origin to the firm of Handel Brothers in 1889.

The history of this business is therefore coincident with the history of the State of Montana. Thirty years ago they had a small store, while now they conduct the largest mercantile business in Mussel- shell County. The small store has grown to a large department store, with distinct departments for shoes, dry goods, groceries, hardware and drugs, also furniture and undertaking, and they do a large business in lumber and grain. They have a branch store at Carpenter Creek. The mercantile stores are on Main Street, the lumber yard is at First Street east of Main, and the elevator is along the tracks of the Milwaukee Railway. They also own an elevator at Delphia, Montana.

Besides these extensive commercial holdings at Musselshell the brothers own more than 10.000 acres of ranch land in Musselshell County. Their ranches are the home of some particularly fine stock, blooded cattle, pure bred sheep and horses, and they are among the leading producers of good livestock in this section of the state.

Fred W. Handel is also president of the Bankers Loan and Mortgage Company at Billings. He served fourteen years as postmaster of Musselshell, and in 1902 became United States commissioner for his section of the state. A man of undoubted probity and of the best business judgment, he has frequently been called upon to adjust and admin-

ister private estates. Mr. Handel is a republican, an active member of the Congregational Church, is secretary of Victory Lodge No. 124, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Musselshell, is affiliated with Livingston Consistory No. I of the Scottish Rite and Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine, also with Peace Chapter of the Eastern Star at Mussel- shell, Musselshell Camp, Modern Woodmen of America, and Musselshell Commercial Club.

The Handel brothers married sisters, the wife of Fred being Miss Mae Stockwell, who was born in Illinois and is a graduate of the Davenport Business College. They were married at Davenport March 14, 1893. Mr. and Mrs. Handel have one son, Fred W., Jr., born October 26, 1906, and now attending high school at Musselshell.

George W. Handel married Miss Daisy I. Stock- well, and they have two children, George W., Jr., who served in the late war and reached France just before the signing of the armistice, and Philip, now attending high school.

WILLIAM L. MURPHY has been prominent among the lawyers of Missoula for twenty years, and with the exception of a term as assistant attorney gen- eral has devoted himself with singular energies and unequivocal success to general practice.

Mr. Murphy was born at Phillipsburg, Montana, January 4, 1877, a son of Cornelius and Mary (Quaile) Murphy. His father was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, and his mother in St. Louis, Missouri. Cornelius Murphy was prominent in the early annals of Montana. He became identified with the Alder Gulch community near Virginia City, in 1863, and was at different times in nearly all the placer diggings, including Cedar Creek. He finally located at Butte, and died October 14, 1887, his wife having passed away in 1883.

William L. Murphy was reared in Missoula, at- tended the public schools, graduated from the Uni- versity of Montana in 1897, and then entered the law department of Columbia University of New York, graduating in 1900. He has been admitted to the bars of New York and Montana, and began his professional career at Missoula as a member of the firm Dixon and Murphy. He is now a member of the firm Murphy and Whitlock. Early in his practice he was appointed city attorney and clerk, and for three years served as assistant attorney general under Albert Galen. Mr. Murphy is a re- publican, carrying a large weight of influence in his party. He is affiliated with the Elks and in re- ligious faith is a Catholic. In 1909 he married Edith Bickford, daughter of the distinguished Judge Bickford, formerly of Missoula and later of Butte.

GEORGE C. RICE. Perhaps no one agency in all the world has done so much for public progress as the press, and an enterprising, well-edited journal is a most important factor in promoting the welfare and prosperity of any community. It adds to the intelligence of the people through its transmission of foreign and domestic news and through its dis- cussion of the leading questions and issues of the day. More than that, it makes the town or city which it represents known outside of the immediate locality, as it is sent into other districts, carrying with it an account of the advancement and progress there being made and the advantages which it offers to its residents along moral, educational, commer- cial and social lines. Western Montana is certainly indebted to its wide-awake journals in no small de- gree, and one of the men who are doing a com- mendable work in the local newspaper field is George C. Rice, president of the Missoualian Publishing

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Company, at Missoula. He has long been connected with journalistic work, and his power as a writer and editor, as well as a business man, is widely acknowledged among contemporary newspaper men and the public in general.

George C. Rice is descended from sterling old Welsh stock, his paternal grandfather, Roderick Rice, having been a native of that rock-ribbed lit- tle country. He came to the United States in 1846, and settled in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, of which locality he was a pioneer settler, and there he applied himself to farming during the remainder of his life, his death occurring there in 1882. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and was held in high esteem in the community. He was married to Mary Griffiths, who also was a native of Wales and whose death occurred in Wau- kesha County in 1892. Among their children was T. J. Rice, father of the subject of this review. He was born in Wales in 1833 and was brought by his parents to the United States in 1846. He was reared amid the pioneer conditions which sur- rounded their early home in Wisconsin, but was given every educational advantage possible. After attending the district schools he attended and gradu- ated from Carroll College at Waukesha, and then became a minister of the Welsh Presbyterian Church, in which capacity he preached at many points, mainly in Wisconsin. He was a republican in politics. He married Anna Owen, who was born in Wales in 1832, and who died in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, in 1914. They became the par- ents of four children, namely: E. O., who is a rancher at Prosser, Washington; G. R., who is sec- retary and manager of the Milwaukee Milk and Cream Shippers Association at Milwaukee, Wiscon- sin ; J. H., who is in the work of the Young Men's Christian Association and resides in Chicago; George C., the immediate subject of this sketch. The father of these children died in Portage, Wis- consin, in 1901

George C. Rice was born in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, on November 23, 1870. He was reared at home and was given excellent educational op- portunities. After completing the studies in the public schools of Portage, Columbia County, Wis- consin, including the high school, he attended the academy of Carroll College for one year, and then spent two years in Lake Forest Academy at Lake Forest, Illinois, followed by a similar period in Lake Forest College. Mr. Rice had a natural pre- dilection for journalistic work, which found its expression during his college life as a correspond- ent for Chicago newspapers. Upon leaving college he followed the path thus opened up before him and threw himself with enthusiasm into newspaper work. And it was of a most strenuous type, for as a metropolitan reporter he found experience of the most varied sort and, at the same time, the most exacting. He first joined the staff of the Chicago News, with which he was connected for ten years, at the end of that period going to the Chicago Journal, where he remained eight years. He had devoted himself indefatigably to his work, which was of such character as to win him promo- tions, so that at the time he resigned from the Journal he was at the head of one of the editorial departments.

In 1917 Mr. Rice came to Missoula, Montana, and purchased the printing and newspaper plant owned by the Missoulian Publishing Company and which had formerly been the property of Senator Dixon. Mr. Rice is now president of the company, which was incorporated in 1917. The plant is a long es-

tablished one, its publication having been one of the oldest republican newspapers in Montana. The newspapers published by this company are The Daily Missoulian, a morning paper, and The Sentinel, published every evening except Sunday. These pa- pers are ably edited and are of unusual mechanical excellence, enjoying a wide circulation throughout Western Montana. The printing plant is thoroughly up-to-date in every respect and does commercial printing of a high order. Mr. Rice is throwing into this enterprise the fruits of his years of experience and his efforts are appreciated, as is evident by the large and constantly increasing circulation of the papers issued under his management and direc- tion.

Politically Mr. Rice is a 'stanch supporter of the republican party, in the success of which he has shown an active interest, and he has efficiently held several local offices. Religiously he is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Fraternally he be- longs to Edgewater Lodge, Free and Accepted Ma- sons, of Chicago; Western Sun Chapter No. 11, Royal Arch Masons, at Missoula; St. Omer Com- mandery, Knights Templar, Missoula, and Lake Forest Lodge, Knights of Pythias, at Lake Forest, Illinois. He is president of the Missoula Chamher of Commerce.

In 1904, at Platteville, Wisconsin, Mr. Rice was married to Sarah Williams, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D. H. Williams of Argyle, New York, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. Williams was a mining operator in Illinois. Mrs. Rice is a graduate of Lake Forest College and of the State Normal School at Albany, New York, and prior to her mar- riage had taught school at Polo, Illinois. Mr. Rice's life has become an essential part of the current history of this section and he has exerted a bene- ficial influnce in the city honored by his residence. His chief characteristics seem to be fidelity of pur- pose, keenness of perception, unswerving integrity and sound common sense, which have earned for him the confidence and esteem of the entire community.

H. W. RUTHERFORD is connected with the con- struction department of the Anaconda Copper Min- ing Company.

He is a native of the United States, having been born in Minneapolis of parents who were also born in the United States.

He is a citizen of good standing who places the Constitution of the United States above all creeds and societies.

ELMER E. HERSHEY came to Montana in 1886, and was admitted to the bar in 1891, though he had prac- ticed in justice courts prior to that date.

He was born on his father's farm at Fremont, Ohio, in 1862. The Hersheys have been in America over two centuries, and his grandfather was a sol- dier in the War of 1812:

Elmer E. Hershey attended the public schools at Ada, Ohio, also the Ohio Normal School in that city, graduating in 1884. For two years he taught in his home state, and after coming to Montana taught in the Bitter Root Valley at Stevensville and Skalkaho. He had entered the office of Judge Bick- ford at Missoula in 1889, and remained with him until 1898. He served a term in the Montana Legis- lature in 1895-96, was a member of several important committees and helped formulate the codes of the state. In 1898 President Mckinley appointed him register of the Land Office, and he served four years. Since then he has given his undivided time and attention to his law practice.

Minutt Flanagan

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Mr. Hershey is a Mason, a republican, and with his family is active in the Christian Church, which he served a long period as an elder.

Mr. Hershey is a son-in-law of the late Maj. J. B. Catlin. He married in 1895 Belle C. Catlin, who was born in the Bitter Root Valley of Montana. Their two daughters are Elizabeth, born in the spring of 1896, and Alice born November 22, 1901.

MAJ. JOHN B. CATLIN, who died July 30, 1917, at the age of eighty years, was distinguished among the pioneers of Montana, coming here shortly after three years of service as a private soldier and of- ficer of the Union army during the Civil war. He was a gallant Indian fighter, a miner, rancher, pub- lic official, and few men came in closer touch with the realities of Montana history than the late Major Catlin.

He was born at Cleveland, Ohio, June 21, 1837, son of Sprague and Mary (Babcock) Catlin, his father a native of New York and his mother of Vermont. Sprague Catlin moved to Ohio in 1834, and five years later settled at Laporte, Indiana, and died in Southern Michigan in 1870. He was sur- vived by his widow many years.

John B. Catlin grew up on an Indiana farm, had a district school education, and left the farm to en- list on August 4, 1862, as a private in Company H of the Eighty-seventh Indiana Infantry. He re- mained on active duty as a soldier until July, 1865. He was in the Army of the Cumberland, partici- pated in one of the early Kentucky campaigns, was in the battles of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, many of the battles of the Atlanta campaign, the march to the sea, and the movements of Sherman's army through the Carolinas. In the fall of 1862 he was made fourth sergeant, and after the battle of Missionary Ridge was made commissary ser- geant, and at Atlanta was promoted to captain of his original company, the official post he retained during the remainder of his service.

Captain Catlin remained at home in Indiana but a short time, and in the spring of 1866 started for the Northwest, crossing the plains to Nebraska and making the trip by the Platte River and the Boze- man route. At Fort Reno after an encounter with the Sioux Indians his party joined John Nelson Story of Bozeman, and from the time they left Fort Kearney until they reached Virginia City, Montana, in December, 1866, almost every day was marked by some encounter with hostile foes. Major Catlin with several companions built his first cabin at the mouth of Divide Creek in Deer Lodge County and was successfully engaged in mining in Silver Bow County and elsewhere, and in June, 1868, located in Missoula County. After his early ven- tures in mining he gave most of his time to farm- ing and stock growing in the Bitter Root Valley and for eight or nine years conducted a hotel and livery business at Stevensville, Ravalli County. In 1889 he was appointed Indian agent at the Black- foot reservation, but resigned after eighteen months. In 1891 he became receiver of the Land Office at Missoula, which he held four years. In 1897 he was appointed United States land commissioner, and served two years. For many years Major Cat- lin was successively engaged in the real estate busi- ness at Missoula.

Major Catlin had a prominent part as leader of a volunteer company assisting the regulars under General Gibbons in the Nez Perce Indian uprising of 1877. This campaign culminated in the battle of Big Hole, the last important Indian fight on Montana soil, and Major Catlin's account of that hattle has always been considered one of the most

trustworthy and authoritative and has been fre- quently published.

Major Catlin was a republican, was affiliated with the Grand Army Post at Missoula, and was a mem- ber of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. At Waterloo, Iowa, December 6, 1871, he married Miss Elizabeth Taylor, a native of Indiana, and a daughter of William B. Taylor. Their only daughter is the wife of Elmer E. Hershey of Mis- soula. The late Major Catlin was a member of the Christian Church and the Western Montana Pioneer Society.

MERRITT FLANAGAN. There could be no more comprehensive history written of a city, or even of a state and its people, than that which deals with the life work of those who, by their own endeavor and indomitable energy, have placed themselves where they well deserve the title of "prominent and progressive," and in this sketch will be found the record of one who has by his personal force of char- acter and his faithfulness in every position in which he has been placed earned the sincere regard and esteem of the people.

Merritt Flanagan was born on his father's farm in Carroll County, Missouri, on January 5, 1862, and is the son of Bryant and Phoeby (Ruth) Flana- gan. Bryant Flanagan, who was a native of Ken- tucky, died in 1862, at the comparatively early age of thirty-three years. The subject's mother, who was born in Illinois, is still living at the age of seventy- nine years. In 1879 she became the wife of H. S. Jewell, and they now live in Missouri. The subject of this sketch was the youngest of the four children, all sons, born to his parents. Bryant Flanagan was taken from Kentucky to Mis- souri by his parents when he was a small child, and his education was secured in the schools of the latter state. Upon attaining mature years he engaged in farming on his own account in Carroll County, Missouri. At the breaking out of the Civil war he enlisted in the Union army, was severely wounded in battle and was taken to a hos- pital, where he died. Politically he gave his sup- port to the republican party. He was a man of fine impulses and took a deep interest in religions mat- ters, being a member of church, in which he did much preaching of the gospel:

Merritt Flanagan was but two years of age when brought by his mother to Montana, and in the schools of this state he secured his education. Their first location in this state was in Deer Lodge Val- ley, where besides their own immediate family Wil- liam Flanagan, an uncle, was with them, it being the latter who brought them, by ox team, to this sec- tion of the country. In 1879 they came to Chestnut Valley, the mother returning to Missouri, where she again married, and is now residing in Unionville. At the age of fourteen years the subject became as- sociated with his uncle in the cattle and horse busi- ness in Chestnut Valley, continuing the business there until 1889, when they removed to the Judith Basin in Meagher County, now Fergus County. In 1889 Mr. Flanagan removed to Chouteau County, locating in what is now Blaine County, where he continued in the cattle and horse business until 1908, when he moved to Fort Benton. In the meantime he had disposed of his interest in the cattle business, though he still continued the horse business. In 1802 Mr. Flanagan was appointed stock inspector by the Montana Stock Association, serving until 1896, when he was appointed a United States mounted inspector of customs, filling the position up to 1902. From 1904 to 1908 Mr. Flanagan served as under sheriff and from 1914 to 1918 was city marshal of Fort Benton.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

In November, 1918, he was elected sheriff of Chou- teau County, and is the present incumbent of that office. Mr. Flanagan has thus been placed in many important and responsible positions, and it is the consensus of opinion that in every position he has performed his duty faithfully and well, thus earn- ing the confidence of the people, which he now enjoys.

On May 20, 1897, occurred the marriage of Mr. Flanagan to Ida M. Murray, who was a native of Michigan, and whose death occurred in 1908. They became the parents of two children, Katherine, who is the wife of Louis Miller, and Violet. Politi- cally Mr. Flanagan is a stanch supporter of the re- publican party and has been an effective worker in the party ranks. Fraternally he is a member of the Loyal Order of Moose. Genial and generous in his personal makeup, Mr. Flanagan has long enjoyed a large acquaintance throughout this section of the state, and those who know him best are his warmest friends and admirers.

JOHN R. DAILY, who has been a resident of Mon- tana over thirty years, at the inception of his career as a Missoula business man bought a retail meat market. With that as a beginning he has developed a large and perfect organization for the killing, re- frigeration, packing and distribution of meats and meat products throughout the trade district of Mis- soula.

Mr. Daily was born at Madison, Indiana, in 1867, son of Martin H. and Julia A. (Nichols) Daily. His parents were early settlers in Indiana and spent the rest of their lives there. His father served as a first lieutenant in an Indiana regiment in the Civil war. John R. Daily grew to manhood in his native state, and left there with a fair education and with a determination to win his way in the Far West.

On coming to Montana in 1889 he worked as a ranch hand, but in the fall of 1890 bought an in- terest in the old Union Market in Missoula. Thirty years have brought a remarkable development to that modest business. He now operates four mar- kets in Missoula, and a few years ago established the finest market in the entire West, conducted as a model in system, equipment, and sanitary con- venience. In addition he operates a large cold stor- age plant, and does a wholesale business with small stores and outlying mines and mining camps. The business was incorporated in 1910, with Mr. Daily as president. In late years the average kill has been between 1,500 and 2,000 cattle, 3,000 hogs and about 1,500 sheep.

Mr. Daily is also a director of the Missoula Trust and Savings Bank. He is widely known over the West as a fancier and breeder of fine horses for the track, principally pacers and trotters. For several years he has had charge of the racing pro- gram of the Missoula County Fair, of which he is one of the officers and directors. He is an Elk and Knight of Pythias.

In 1892 Mr. Daily married Caroline Jameson, a daughter of J. C. Jameson, of Missoula. Mrs Daily died in 1911, and in 1912 Mr. Daily married Alice Brewer, a daughter of W. L. Brewer, of Missoula.

EDWARD C. MULRONEY took his place among the practicing lawyers of Missoula twenty years ago, and is now senior partner of the law firm of Mul- roney and Mulroney, and with a reputation as a lawyer that has extended to most of the counties of the state.

Mr. Mulroney was born in Webster County, Iowa,

July 18, 1877, son of an Iowa merchant. He was reared in Iowa, where he attended high school, . spent some time in Wabash College in Indiana, and in 1896 entered the University of Michigan. He took both the literary and law courses at Michigan University, graduating in 1900 and was admitted to the Michigan bar and to that of Montana the same year. He began practice at Missoula with Mr. Joyce, and in 1905 was elected a member of the Lower House of the Legislature. In 1909 he was elected county attorney, and filled that office four years.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 131

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