Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 133

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 133

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Arthur W. Merkle was educated in the public schools of Virginia City, Nevada, and graduated from the Butte Business College in 1905. Not so much in schools as in business life he has acquired a thorough education. In 1905 he went to work for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company at Butte as a clerk. Besides his other work he also had charge of the athletic department of the corporation and developed a championship team in baseball for three years and also a championship bowling team. The bowling team became known all over the United States, entering some of the biggest bowling meets in the country. In 1913 Mr. Merkle was called to the management of the Butte baseball team in the Union Association, and during that year this team finished third in the first division.

Mr. Merkle left the Anaconda Copper Mining Company in the fall of 1915 to become district manager of the Prudential Insurance Company. On January 1, 1919, he and his brother H. J. Merkle formed the firm of Merkle Brothers, state managers for Montana. During 1918, realizing the importance of the business he represented, Mr. Merkle .con- ceived and carried out the plan of forming the in- surance federation of Montana, which has already justified its organization and has accomplished benefits beyond the sanguine expectations of its pro- moters. Mr. Merkle is president of the local division of the Federation. His business offices are in the Hennessy Building.

Mr. Merkle, like other insurance men, gave much

of his time and his special abilities to the success of the various Liberty Loan and other war cam- paigns and also took an active part in converting government insurance for the returned soldiers. He is an independent democrat in politics, and is a devout believer in the universal brotherhood of man- kind. He is a member of the Silver Bow Club. He resides in the Mueller Apartments on West Granite Street.

September 8, 1909, at Butte, Mr. Merkle married . Miss Grace Noyes, daughter of William F. and Sarah Noyes, residents of Butte. Her father is secretary of the Masonic fraternity at Butte. Mrs. Merkle is widely known and admired for her great personal beauty and her accomplishments as a finished musician. She is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory of Music, both in vocal and instru- mental, and for a number of years has been regarded as indispensable to the success of many musical pro- grams in churches and at other occasions in Mon- tana. Mr. and Mrs. Merkle have one daughter, Grace Evelyn, born September 17, 1910.

JAMES GIBSON, who died at his home in Choteau December 23, 1918, was appropriately described as a pioneer, frontiersman, pathfinder, scout, soldier, cattleman and loyal citizen of Montana. History regards him as the first permanent white settler in what is now Teton County. He fought for three years as a Union soldier during the Civil war, and immediately after the close of that great conflict started for Montana.

He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 9, 1846, son of John and Sarah Gibson. His father was a native of Ireland and his mother of Phila- delphia. John Gibson came to this country when a young man, and for a number of years was a Phila- delphia grocer. He died there in 1874.

The late James Gibson accepted only meager privileges in the Philadelphia public schools. At the age of ten he was making his living as a canal boat workman. He also did some farming. He was not yet fifteen when the Civil war broke out, and the following year became one of the youngest volun- teers in the One Hundred and Sixty-Second Penn- sylvania Infantry. During the next two years there was no braver soldier than young Gibson. He was under the command of General Banks, and followed Sheridan in the most brilliant operations in the Shenandoah Valley.

He was only nineteen when discharged as a vet- eran soldier. His search for adventure not yet quenched, he went to Atchison, Kansas, and there joined a party of 200 emigrants, mostly discharged soldiers, bound for the most remote sections of the far West. For six months they were on the way, almost daily confronted by hostile Indians and the dangers of the wilderness. They were the first party to make the trip over the Big Horn route, and autumn had come before they reached Vir- ginia City, Montana. James Gibson made some efforts at mining, and early in 1867 went to Helena, where he worked in the mines and also clerked in a local department store. He was a resident of Helena for six years. He then extended his travels and explorations north into the Blackfoot Indian Reservation, which then extended from the Sun River to British Columbia. James Gibson was an employe of some of the large cattle outfits then operating in that section.

In 1873 he filed a homestead along the Teton River just north of the present site of Choteau. He was the first white man to make good a claim in that country and develop it and live on it. In the early days his home was isolated, and exposed to

James Gibson.

Jamie Gibson

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Indian attack on every side. He had many adven- tures with the Indians, and one time it is said that only through the interference of a chief was his life spared. He established the nucleus of a herd of cattle, and developed and made famous the Fly- ing U brand. At one time his cattle ranged all the way from the Sun River to the Canadian border, and among the old time ranchers still living who operated in that section of Montana the name and achievements of James Gibson stand out conspic- uously. He lived in Teton County for forty-five years, and he witnessed the breaking up of the orig- inal unlimited cattle domain, the growth and settle- ment, and the creation of a number of counties from the original Chouteau County. He gave the name to many streams and coulees and buttes with- in the vast region, and some of them bear his name. Like the scouts of old he endured the privations that belonged to the frontiersman that he might help to settle a wild territory and make it safe for white men to live in peace and happiness.

In the words of the editor of the Choteau Acantha : "In the death of James Gibson, Montana loses a pioneer, an early settler who helped to blaze the way for civilization and progress. He served the county in the capacity of clerk of the district court for eight years, and during the long trial of war took keen interest in the doings of his country. When he could no longer read the paper on account of his failing eyesight his wife would read the news to him. He was a life-long member of the repub- lican party, and never missed an opportunity to cast his ballot on election day. The state, the county, the great Northwest owes a lasting debt of gratitude to this brave, stout heart, who had the distinction of having been the first white settler in the region embraced within the area that lies north of Sun River crossing, extending toward the Canadian border."

In his twenty-first year Mr. Gibson became a member of the Masonic Order, and for many years was affiliated with Royal Arch Chapter No. 2, and Sheridan Post No. 18 of the Grand Army at Great Falls. He was also a member of the Pioneer So- ciety of Montana and the Old Timers' Society of Choteau. .

On May 3, 1885, he married Miss Jennie Fleet- wood. Mrs. Gibson, who resides at Choteau, is a native of Illinois and was the only child of James Wesley and Lucy Ellen (March) Fleetwood. Her father was a native of Indiana and her mother of Iowa. Her father was a farmer and spent his last days in Oregon, whence he came in 1864. He was killed by accident.

Mrs. Fleetwood married for her second husband Alvin Stocker of Iowa, they coming to Montana and settling in Cascade, later going to Idaho, where both passed away. Eight children were born to this union, five of whom are living. Edward Wallace, Julia Margaret, who married Samuel Kelly; Ernest Joel Fanton, Joseph Henry and Lillian Eldora, who married Henry Hartley. All are living in Oregon with the exception of Mrs. Kelly.

ARCHIE McTAGGART. Possessing in a large measure those qualities that inevitably bring success in any line of endeavor, Archie McTaggart, of Butte, owes but little to what is termed good fortune, every ad- vancing step of his active career having been the result of his industry, energy and wise management. A native of New England, he was born, February 21, 1884, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, a son 01 Robert McTaggart. His grandfather McTaggart was born in Scotland in 1820, and died in Springheld, Massachusetts, in 1899.

Robert McTaggart was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1854, and during the following year was brought by his parents to the United States, and was reared and educated in Massachusetts. In 1870, during the excitement following the discovery 01 rich mines in Nevada, he followed the pioneer s trail to Virginia City, where, instead of mmning, he en- gaged in ranching on the near-by Truckey Meadows. In 1882, having previously taken unto nimseit a wile, he returned to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and there embarked in the dairy business. Going with his family to Pennsylvania in 1890, he worked six years for Stoddard & Company, wholesale grocers of Wilkes-Barre. Coming to Montana in 1897, he was a pioneer settler of Anaconda, where he ran a milk route for two years. Locating in Missoula, Montana, in 1899, he carried on an extensive and successful teaming business for eighteen years, and then, in 1917, settled in Butte, where he has since been employed as a carpenter at the Never Sweat Mine, one of the Anaconda Copper Mining Com- pany's properties, his home being at No. 616 West Broadway. Politically he is a stanch republican.

Robert McTaggart married in Virginia City, Nevada, Amelia Baker, who was born in Hunting- don, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Frank Baker. Be- ing left an orphan in childhood, she and her sister, Mrs. S. Kent, now residing in Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, came with an uncle to Montana in the fall of 1863, being, it is thought, the second and third white women to locate in the state. She died in Missoula, of spotted fever, in 1907, leaving four children, as follows: Archie, the special subject of this brief sketch; Florence, wife of C. T. Siefert, of Tacoma, Washington, a walking delegate for the Clerk's Union; Mabel, wife of H. Baker, proprietor of a barber's shop at Edmonton, Alberta, Canada ; and Olive, the oldest child, wife of J. W. Kelley, a well-known oculist of Missoula, Montana.

Having obtained a practical education in the public schools of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Archie Mc- Taggart began his career as a wage earner at the age of thirteen years, working as a silk weaver several months in Wilkes-Barre. Entering then the employ of the Northern Pacific Railway Company as surveyor, he came to Montana in 1897, and con- tinued thus employed until 1900, having his head- quarters in Missoula. The following two years Mr. McTaggart was employed as a teamster in the logging camps of Missoula County. Changing his occupation, he became a grocery clerk in Missoula, working first for Walker & Alby, and then for that firm's successors, Hathaway & Buford, who pro- moted him to salesman.

In 1905 Mr. McTaggart was elected deputy clerk and recorder of Missoula County, and at the same time served as secretary of the Democratic Central Committee of that county, filling those positions two years. Locating in Butte in 1907, he was with the Hennessy Mercantile Company one year, and the ensuing two years had charge of the shipping and wholesale department of the Brophy Grocery Com- pany. He was subsequently for two years city em- ployment agent of Butte, serving in that capacity under Mayor Charles P. Nevin, and was afterward with Swift & Company as salesman for two years. In 1914 Mr. McTaggart organized and established the McTaggart & White Company, which carried on a wholesale business as dealers in meats, flour and produce until October 15, 1919, when the firm dis- banded. Since that date Mr. McTaggart has been the active manager for the State of Montana of the Ogden Packing and Provision Company, whose offices and branch house are located at 700 Utah

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Avenue, and he is filling the responsible position ably and to the eminent satisfaction of all concerned.

Mr. McTaggart married, in 1917, in Missoula, Grace Perkins, a daughter of one of the early settlers of Dillon. Montana, and later pioneers of Rochester, Montana, where her father opened the first mercantile establishment. In his political affiliations Mr. McTaggart is a steadfast democrat. Fraternally he is a member of Butte Lodge No. 240, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, his mem- bership therein being for life. Successful in business affairs, he has acquired valuable real estate in Butte. and has a pleasant home at 402 South Da- kota Street, where he and Mrs. McTaggart gladly welcome their many friends.

WILLIAM CHARLES AUSTIN has had his home for the past twenty years in Montana and has been chiefly interested in mining and business. For seventeen years he has been secretary of what is now the Butte Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Austin was born in the Province of Quebec, Canada, June 13, 1862, son of Thomas and Emily (Rogers) Austin. His father was born and reared in England and for twenty-one years was in the British army and for twenty-three years was con- nected with the British War Office. As an English officer he was ordered to Canada in 1861 and spent eight years in the Dominion. In his sixtieth year he retired from active service, and died in London four years later, in 1904. His wife was born at Dover, England, in 1834. and died at Charlton, Kent, England, in 1917. There were five children : Walter, a state agent living at Hale Hall in Liver- pool, England; William Charles; Arthur, who for the past thirty years has been connected with the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company of London, and is bookkeeper for that noted firm; Clare, wife of R. H. Holder, a resident of Charlton, Kent, Eng- land; and Frank, who died in London in 1918.

When William Charles Austin was seven years of age he returned to England, and received a liberal education chiefly in military schools. He is a musician, both vocal and instrumental, and as a boy was a member of the famous Winchester Cathedral Choir. He studied law in the offices of Taylor & Gale at Winchester, and for seven years was in the offices of the old law firm of Meynell & Pemberton in London. In 1888 he returned to Canada and for twelve years was associated with a prominent law firm at Montreal. He came to the United States in 1900 and for several years was manager of the Red Bluff Gold Mining Company, a large Canadian cor- poration. He remained at Norris until 1904, when he became assistant secretary of the Merchants' Asso- ciation of Butte, which in 1913 became the Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Austin is a republican in politics and is an active member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He is intensely interested in out-of-door sports and has kept up that interest since coming to Montana. In Masonry Mr. Austin is member of Mount Moriah Lodge No. 24, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, being past master; is scribe of Deer Lodge Chapter No. 3, Royal Arch Masons; is senior warden of Montana Commandery No. 3, Knights Templar; is past illustrious master of Za- bud Council No. 2, Royal and Select Masters, and is past grand master of the State of Montana. He is a charter member of Bagdad Temple and has been musical director of the Temple. He is a member of the Scottish Rite bodies of Masonry, including the fourteenth degree at Butte. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum, of the Silver Bow Club, and is secretary of the Rotary Club since November 12, 1914, the Club having been organized on the 7th

of May. Mr. Austin has offices in the Butte Water Company Building and resides in the Napton Apart- ments. On August 28, 1886, he married at London, England, Miss Edith Hammond, daughter of Hamil- ton and Elizabeth (Ross) Hammond. Their only son, Claud Charles Austin, was born in London July 4. 1887, was liberally educated, spending two years in the State College at Bozeman, and later graduating in the International Correspondence School at Scranton. He received his mechanical training in the offices of the British Westinghouse Company and with the Ford Motor Company at Manchester, England. He is now a machinist at Butte. He married Miss Annie Burns of Man- chester, England, and they have one child, Edith, born September 1I, 1916. 1

WILLIAM NORRIS TURNBULL is general manager of the Montana Mattress & Furniture Company at Butte. This is the only manufacturing concern of its kind in the State of Montana, and its output of bedding and other household supplies goes all over Montana and adjoining states. Mr. Turnbull has had a long and thorough experience in this line of business, and has had an active commercial career since he was a boy.

He was born at Prairie City, Iowa, July 8, 1875. His father is Andrew J. Turnbull, now living at Nashua, Iowa. Born in Scotland in 1845, he came to the United States with his parents in 1852, and was reared and married at Galesburg, Illinois. Dur- ing the Civil war he enlisted and served in the Union army, and for several years was a farmer. Later he studied law, was admitted to the Iowa bar, and for many years practiced law at Newton, Iowa. He was at one time closely affiliated with the greenback party, which had much of its strength in the State of Iowa. He is now a republican, and during the World war he was on duty with the Government for three years as a postal inspector, his duties requiring his presence in New York City during that time. Andrew J. Turn- bull married Abbie M. Dodd, who was born in Illinois in 1847. Her father, Norris Dodd, was a native of Vermont and lost his life while a Union soldier in the Civil war. Norris Dodd married Nancy Darling, also of Vermont, and of early colonial ancestry. The oldest child of Andrew J. Turnbull is Melvin M., telegraph editor for the Min- neapolis Tribune at Minneapolis. William N. is the second in age. Fred is a farmer at Charles City, Iowa. Lonise is the wife of George Schlutz, a chemist and inventor living at Salt Lake City, Utah. Jennie is the wife of Harry W. Farr, a merchant at Waterloo, Iowa.

William N. Turnbull attended the public schools of Nashua, Iowa, for a few terms. He was only ten years of age when he earned his first wages as a farm hand. When he was sixteen he became clerk and general helper in a furniture store at Nashua, and from that time to the present there has been no interruption to his work and progress in com- mercial lines. In 1895 he removed to Superior, Wisconsin, clerked in a furniture store there, and in 1903 bought an interest in the business and con- tinued to be identified with that enterprise until 1912. In that year he removed to Minneapolis, where for five years he was manager of the New England Furniture & Carpet Company, and on March 31, 1917, came to Butte as manager of the Montana Mattress & Furniture Company. The plant and offices of this business are at Harrison avenue and Front street. It is a strictly wholesale concern, and in its own plant manufactures the greater part of the mattresses, bedding and other furniture supplies

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

which is shipped to retail merchants as far south as Casper, Wyoming, and throughout the states of Montana and Idaho. The officers of the company are: H. W. Turner, president; G. B. Perier, vice president ; O. H. Shoch, secretary and treasurer ; and William N. Turnbull, manager.

While he had little opportunity as a boy to get much schooling, Mr. Turnbull has always been a reader of good books and other literature and has picked up a substantial education in the course of his active career. He is much interested in educa- tional matters, and while living in Superior served five years as a member of the Board of Education and the last year was president of the board, resign- ing that office when he went to Minneapolis. He was also an alderman by appointment and member of the Police and Fire Commission at Superior. Mr. Turnbull is a republican and is affiliated with Superior Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Superior Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Superior Commandery, Knights Templar, Milwaukee Con- sistory of the Scottish Rite, Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Milwaukee, and is also past ex- alted ruler of the Superior Lodge of Elks. He is a member of the Butte Rotary Club and of the Silver Bow Club.

In 1902, at Superior, Mr. Turnbull married Miss Alta M. Johnson, daughter of George H. and Car- rie M. Johnson, now residents of Duluth. Her father is a stationary engineer. Mr. and Mrs. Turn- bull have one child, William N., Jr., born October 2, 1913, at Minneapolis. The family reside in a modern home at 1747 Whitman Avenue.

JAMES S. KEMP, JR., is the chief official in the traffic department of the Northern Pacific Railway at Butte, being city freight and passenger agent. Mr. Kemp is one of the oldest men in the service of the Northern Pacific Railway in Montana, hav- ing begun work for that corporation as an office boy thirty-five years ago. He has made himself useful in various capacities, and his hard work, fidelity and efficiency have earned him much esteem from higher officials.

Mr. Kemp was born at Port Dalhousie, Ontario, Canada, January 5, 1867, but has lived in Montana since early youth. His grandfather, Robert H. Kemp, was born in England in 1820, and in 1855 took his family to Ontario. He was a miller by trade, and worked in that line in Ontario until his death at Beamsville in 1878. He married an Eng- lish woman named Hart. Four of their children are still living: Edward A., owner of a plumbing and heating business at Edmonton, Alberta, Can- ada; Robert H., formerly a carriage builder but now a retired fruit farmer at Grimsby, Ontario; C. C. Kemp, an Episcopal clergyman at Bad Axe, Mich- igan; and Eliza, wife of Jonathan Book, owner of a large fruit ranch of 150 acres and much farming land besides, a resident of Grimsby, Ontario.

James S. Kemp, Sr., was born at West Thur- rock, Suffolk County, England, in 1841, and was fourteen years of age when his parents settled at Beamsville, Ontario. He was reared there, was married at Lewiston, New York, and spent many years at or near Port Dalhousie, working at his trade as a miller. On account of ill health he came west and was a pioneer settler at Missoula in 1885. He homesteaded a ranch four miles from Mis- soula, and in later years became prominent in city politics, serving as city treasurer a number of years and at the time of his death, which occurred in November. 1909, was city clerk of Missoula. He was a republican, a member of the Episcopal Church, and was a past noble grand of Missoula Lodge of

Odd Fellows, also past grand of the Montana State Lodge, and a member of the Rebekahs. As a young man in Canada he was a Canadian volunteer in the Fenian rebellion. James S. Kemp, Sr., married Anna Florence Barrett, who was born at St. Cath- erines, Ontario, January 1, 1845, and died at Mis- soula September 28, 1919. They had a family of six children: Robert, who was grand secretary of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for the State of Montana; James S., Jr .; Armenia Wini- fred, wife of George F. Likes, living on the old Kemp ranch four miles from Missoula; May Flor- ence, unmarried and a resident of Missoula; Thomas E., an employe in the shipyards at Seattle, Wash- ington; and F. C., owner of a farm near Challis, Idaho, and also connected with a mining company.

James S. Kemp, Jr., acquired his early education in the public schools of Ontario, receiving the equivalent of a high school training. He was eighteen years old when his parents settled at Mis- soula, and on December 9, 1885, he went to work in the offices of the Northern Pacific Railway as an office boy. Since that date his service with that company has been continuous. He was promoted through various grades of responsibility, eventually becoming agent at Missoula. In 1903 he was trans- ferred to Helena as chief clerk to the general agent, and in 1905 came to Butte as chief clerk to the division freight and passenger agent. He is now city freight and passenger agent, and as such is the official highest in rank in the traffic department of the road at Butte. His offices are in the Mantle Block.

Mr. Kemp, who has never married, is a resident in the Kenwood Block. He is a republican, a mem- ber of the Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Missoula Lodge No. 13, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, is past high priest of Western Sun Chapter No. II, Royal Arch Masons, and is also a member of the Royal Arcanum.

WILLIAM H. WEBB, present county auditor of Teton County, first came to this section of Mon- tana thirty years ago. He has been honored with several official posts, was in business for a number of years as a building contractor, and his business experience ranges from his native State of Illinois to the Pacific Coast.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 133

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