Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 14

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 1126

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The children of Frank J. Wilson and wife were : Harry L .; Guy, who died in infancy; Rena May, wife of Randolph Deivel, a wealthy stockman and formerly a member of the Legislature in Custer County, living at Miles City; Lula, wife of J. E Campbell, who succeeded her father in the ice business at Miles City; Floyd B., a merchant tailor at Covina, California; and Richard W., who grad- uated in June, 1918, from the law department of the University of California, and is now practicing law at Covina.

Harry L. Wilson was born at Lanark, Carroll County, Illinois, June 19, 1879, and acquired his education in the public schools of Iowa and Kansas. He graduated from the Miles City High School

HISTORY OF MONTANA

Junc 4, 1897, and on June 1, 1899, received his law degree from the Northern Indiana Normal School and University at Valparaiso. For eighteen months he was stenographer and law student with Hon. C. R. Middleton of Leavenworth, Kansas. Mr. Mid- dleton formerly was prominent as a lawyer in Montana. On account of ill health Mr. Wilson returned to Montana, was employed in several law offices as a stenographer, an art he had learned in college, and on January 15, 1901, he came to Billings, where he went to work for Col. O. F. Goddard and later for Fred H. Hathhorn, attorneys, spending three years with those lawyers. He began private practice in 1904 and in the fall of the same year was elected county attorney of Yellowstone County, an office he filled with exceptional ability for three terms, being reelected in 1906 and 1908. In June, 1910, he formed his partnership with Judge Edmund Nichols, under the name Nichols & Wilson. This firm, with offices in the Electric Building, handles a large general practice, and is regarded as one of the best law firms in Eastern Montana.

Mr. W.lson was temporary chairman of the State Republican Convention in 1912, and without solicita- tion on his part or any expectation of the honor he was placed on the state ticket as candidate for governor, being brought in as the "dark horse" by his party. Mr. Wilson is a stockholder and director of the Rowe Furniture Company and the Highland Homes Company of Billings. He is prominent

fraternally, being affiliated with Ashlar Lodge, An- cient Free and Accepted Masons, Billings Chapter No. 6, Royal Arch Masons, Aldemar Commandery No. 5, Knights Templar, and Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena. He is past exalted ruler of Billings Lodge No. 394 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, has represented the lodge in seven national conventions, and is past district deputy for the State Lodge of Elks.

September 30, 1903, at Dexter, Illinois, Mr. Wilson married Miss Virginia Baker, daughter of A. W. and Olive M. (Rippeteau) Baker, who are still living at Dexter, her father being a retired merchant and the former postmaster. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have two daughters: Winnifred W., born October 31, 1904, and Gladys, born July 26, 1907.

EDMUND NICHOLS, senior member of the law firm of Nichols and Wilson at Billings, was born in St. Lawrence County, New York, June 4, 1860, son of Orson K. and Amanda L. (Jones) Nichols. His first American ancestor, John Nichols, came to America from England and settled in Massachusetts in the seventeenth century. Orson K. Nichols was a member of an artillery regiment during the Civil war and died while a prisoner of war in 1864.

Edmund Nichols, only child of his parents, at- tended school in New York and graduated from the law department of the University of Iowa in 1883. He practiced at Adel, Iowa, until 1888, then at Perry, Iowa, until 1902, and served a term as prosecuting attorney. He was elected judge of the Fifth Judicial District of Iowa. in 1902, and filled that office with distinguished ability for two terms.

Judge Nichols came to Billings in January, 1911, and has since been associated in practice with Harry L. Wilson. He is prominent in Masonic orders, is a republican, and is First Reader in the Christian Science Church of Billings.

June 17, 1885, Judge Nichols married Miss Doro- thy I. Stephens, a native of Illinois. They have five children : Lillian, a graduate of St. Mary's Hall at Faribault, Minnesota; Dorothy, connected with the Christian Science Publishing House at Boston

and a graduate of the Billings High School; Joseph- ine, wife of Robert Perkins, a farmer; Edmund, a student at the Montclair Academy, Montclair, New Jersey; and Elizabeth, attending the public schools.

WILLIAM CHURCHILL, though now one of the recognized leading business men and merchants of Big Timber, had a hard struggle to acquire a foothold on the ladder of success, but has always been a willing and cheerful worker and a man ready to accept opportunity and recognize it when he saw it.

He is a native son of Big Timber, born in that pioneer town as it was thirty-five years ago, Jan- uary 31, 1884. His paternal ancestors came original- ly from England. His father, O. F. Churchill, was born in Oregon in 1858, was married in Oregon and settled on a homestead of a 160 acres near Big Timber in 1882. He was a republican and a Methodist. William Churchill's mother was Alma Sherrill, who was born in Iowa in 1863, and is now living with her son William at Big Timber. William Churchill has one sister, Reno, and she also lives with her mother. Her mother married for her second husband Dana W. Cross in 1889. He was born in Vermont in 1855, came to Montana about 1883, was a homesteader on Sweetgrass Creek near Melville, later proved up a farm and home- stead on Otto Creek, and lived there until 1895. He died at Lewistown in 1917. To that union were born four children. Harry, the oldest, is a tailor at Big Timber. Sarah died at Big Timber in 1912, the wife of John Watt, a merchant at Columbus, Montana, and her only child, Alice Watt, is now be- ing cared for by her grandmother. Carl F. Cross en- listed from Butte, Montana, in September, 1917, and went overseas in 1918, with the Three Hundred and Sixty-Second Ambulance Company, and was a par- ticipant in the St. Mihiel drive and in the battle of the Argonne Forest from September 26th to October 4th, and from October 30th to November 11th was in . the Lys-Scheldt offensive. He was mustered out May 8. 1919, and has since returned to Big Timber. Fred Cross was accidentally shot and killed at the age of eleven years.

William Churchill acquired his education in the public schols of Big Timber. At the age of fourteen he began working in a printing office, and for two and a half years he also helped his mother run a rooming house. He then resumed work as a printer with the Big Timber Express for three years, worked on the Yellowstone Leader for W. J. Hannah two years, and until the fall of 1906 was with the Big Timber Pioneer. In 1906, as a member of the National Guard, he went to the coast and later attended the State Rifle Tournament of New Jersey. In the fall of 1906 he was back in Montana at Moore in Fergus County, where he was with the Inland Empire for two and a half years. In the meantime he had homesteaded a 160 acres and proved up his claim, which he sold in 1917. He also bought another place of 160 acres near Stamford, and sold this property in 1918. In 1909, after leaving the Inland Empire, Mr. Churchill be- came a journeyman printer at Miles City on the Yellowstone Journal, a daily paper. In 1910 he returned to Big Timber to look after his cattle, and after rounding them up he sold out and from 1912 to the spring of 1915 he was a printer with the Pioneer at Big Timber. He then abandoned the printing trade and in association with William K. Amery bought a stock of general merchandise, and their partnership has successfully prosecuted the enterprise until it is one of the leading stores

HISTORY OF MONTANA

in the vicinity. They have discontinued all other lines of merchandise but groceries. Mr. Churchill is the senior partner.

He owns a home in Big Timber. He is unmarried. he is an alderman of Big Timber, elected in April, 1919. He is a past chancellor commander of Big Timber Lodge No. 25, Knights of Pythias, a mem- ber of Sweetgrass Camp No. 10610, Modern Wood- men of America, is a republican, belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, the Sweetgrass County Good Roads Association, the Big Timber Build- ing and Loan Association, and as a matter of fact is identified with every progressive and public spirited movement in his community.

ERNEST L. MARVIN is cashier of the Joliet State Bank, and since identifying himself with that town has been a leader in its community activities and has always shown a willingness to do his part as a public spirited citizen.

Mr. Marvin was born at Bradford, Illinois, Sep- tember 12, 1888, and apparently has the years of his greatest usefulness and service still ahead of him. His father, E. L. Marvin, was of English ancestry originally settled in Connecticut and was born in 1851, near Ogdensburg, New York, on the Canadian side of the river. He grew up in New York State, and then removed to Illinois and spent his active career at Bradford, where he died in 1904. He was railroad station agent at Bradford for a number of years, and the last two years of his life were spent as a real estate and insurance broker. He is a republican, was closely identified with the Methodist Church of his home town, and was a prominent Odd Fellow. He married in Illinois Cora A. Thomson, who was born in that state in 1860 and is still living at Lafayette, Illinois. She was the mother of four children: Guy E., who is court reporter at Boze- man, Montana; Ernest L., Pauline, wife of G. E. Snyder, a farmer at Lafayette, Illinois, and R. W., cashier of the Nichols Shepard Company at Billings, Montana.

Ernest L. Marvin attended public school at Brad- ford and Lafayette in his native state graduating from high school in the latter town in 1906. Then after employment in a local store for a few months he came to Montana in 1906, and the next seven years was an employe of W. R. Westbrook, a banker at Laurel. He came to Joliet in 1913, and for the past six years has been cashier of the Joliet State Bank.

Mr. Marvin is active both in politics and fraternal affairs. He is town clerk of Joliet, clerk of the school board and republican precinct committeeman. He is secretary of Carbon Lodge No. 65, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; is past grand and present secretary of Joliet Lodge No. 77 of the Odd Fellows, and for two years was patron of Aloha Chapter No. 41 of the Eastern Star. He is a member of the Methodist Church. Mr. Marvin owns his own home in Joliet and some real estate at Laurel, Montana, his former town.

He married at Belfry, Montana, June 19, 1912, Miss Janet McLauchlin, a daughter of Donald and Emma (Harris) McLauchlin. Her parents are farm- ers at Belfry. They have two children: Alice May, born April 28, 1913, and Janet, born April 20, 1915.

FRANK F. TUCKER. There is a real message of economy in every show window of Tucker Brothers' clothing establishment, and the brand of service rendered by this reliable firm is one which is uni- versally appreciated. Frank F. Tucker, the senior member of the firm, is one of the big factors in the business life of the city and he is a man who knows how to get for his customers what they want, and

how to meet their requirements in every particular. He was born at Napanee, Ontario, Canada, June 19, 1879, a son of John R. Tucker. The father was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and died at Anaconda, Montana, in 1917. He was reared at Napanee, Ontario, Canada, and there learned the brickmaking trade. In 1883 he came to Anaconda and was for some years engaged in building operations, being one of the pioneer contractors and builders of the city. Politically he was a republican. He married Miss Emma Conger, born in Ontario, Canada, who died at Anaconda. Their children were as follows: Annie, who died at Anaconda, was married; Frank F., who was the second in order of birth; Earl, who is a member of the firm of Tucker Brothers, lives at Anaconda; Elmo, who lives at Anaconda, enlisted for service during the great war in 1917, was sent overseas and was mustered out of the service in May, 1919.

Frank F. Tucker attended the public schools of Anaconda until he was twelve years of age, and then became a clerk in a clothing store of Anaconda and continued to learn this line of business as a member of the selling force of several establish- ments until he founded one of his own in 1918. Although as yet a new undertaking, this clothing store of Tucker Brothers is one of the leading ones of its kind in this section of Montana, and is con- veniently located at No. 207 Main Street. The members of the firm are Frank F. and his brother Earl J. Tucker. They handle a high class of cloth- ing of the latest design and of infinite variety, and careful dressers have learned that not only can they secure fashionable and good-fitting garments of excellent quality here, but also that the prices are extremely reasonable considering the value of the goods.

Frank F. Tucker is a republican, but has not sought to come before the public for office. He belongs to Anaconda Lodge No. 239, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and to the Anaconda Club and the Anaconda Country Club. His resi- dence is in the Alpine Apartments. In 1911 Frank F. Tucker was united in marriage with Miss Gladys Martin, a daughter of Martin Martin, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Tucker have no children.

Earl J. Tucker, junior member of the firm of Tucker Brothers, was born at Napanee, Ontario, Canada, November 14, 1889. The Tucker family migrated from England to America during the colonial epoch. The maternal grandfather of the Tucker Brothers was Belayat Conger, and he was born in Ontario, Canada, and there died in 1888, having spent his entire life in that province. By trade he was a plasterer and stone mason, and later became a contractor. Earl J. Tucker was reared at Anaconda, and was graduated from its high school in 1907, following which he went to Butte, Montana, as timekeeper for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, remaining in the employ of this company for three years. Upon leaving it he was engaged in an insurance business for seven years, being state agent for the Massachusetts Bonding and In- surance Company, and retained his office at Butte until September, 1919, when he closed it. In 1918 he assisted his brother to establish the clothing house of Tucker Brothers, which has turned out to be such a successful enterprise. Like his brother he is a republican, and he also belongs to the Anaconda Lodge No. 239, Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks, and to the Anaconda Club. He lives at 1002 West Fourth Street.

In 1908 Earl J. Tucker was united in marriage

HISTORY OF MONTANA

with Miss Florence Jennings, a daughter of W. H. and Minnie (Coddington) Jennings, residents of Anaconda. Mr. Jennings is superintendent of the iron warehouse of the foundry department of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Mr. and Mrs. Earl J. Tucker have two children, namely: Jack, who was born January 1, 1909; and Earl J., Jr., who was born June 13, 1913.

ARTHUR J. DAVENPORT. While for a number of years he has enjoyed a national reputation as a musician, a leader of bands and orchestra, Mr. Dav- enport is a stanch lover of the advantages of Mon- tana and spent several years on a homestead in this state. He has developed a widely known conserva- tory and school of music at Hamilton, where he resides. This conservatory is attended as a musical finishing school by pupils from all over the western part of the state.

Mr. Davenport was born in Pawnee City, Ne- braska, January 4, 1874. His Davenport ancestor came from England, his grandfather being the first of the name in this country. His father, J. S. Davenport, was born in New York State in 1834, was reared there, and was married in Nebraska. He lived for a number of years at Pawnee City, where he conducted an apiary, being in the bee and honey business on a commercial scale. In 1878 he moved to Red Bluff, California, where he engaged in mer- chandising and where he died in 1910. He was a veteran of the Civil war, having served all through the struggle. He was taken prisoner and spent nine months in Andersonville prison. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Masonic fraternity and a republican in politics. J. S. Dav- enport married Minnie Taylor, who was born in 1843 and is still living at Spokane, Washington. Her children were three in number: Louis M., man- ager of the Davenport Hotel at Spokane; Arthur J .; and Jessie, wife of Doctor Robbins, a physician and surgeon at Los Angeles, California.

Arthur J. Davenport received his early education in the public schools of Red Bluff, California, where he lived from the age of four years. He graduated in 1893 from the Gans Crofford College at Red Bluff, and spent two years in the further study of music at San Francisco. He enlisted as a musician in the regular army, and served five years. After that for several years, with headquarters at Chicago, he traveled all over the country as a band and orchestra leader, covering all the larger cities in the United States and Canada. For two years he also taught brass instruments in the Illinois School of Music and in the Chicago Seminary, alternating be- tween those institutions. He spent one year in Chautauqua Lyceum work.

Coming to Montana, Mr. Davenport farmed on the Flathead reservation five years. He then re- moved to the Bitter Root Valley and has since been teaching, with scholars from Darby, Hamilton and Corvallis, and has made his home at Hamilton since 1917. The Davenport Conservatory of Music is a well appointed and equipped institution, furnish- ing the best of instruction in all branches of music. Mr. Davenport personally has charge of the in- struction in brass and string instruments, while his wife, who is a graduate of the Columbia School at Chicago, is teacher of piano and vocal. Their peri- odical pupil recitals are great events in local mu- sical circles. The Conservatory is at 214 Main Street.

Mr. Davenport is a republican, is affiliated with Ravalli Lodge No. 36, Knights of Pythias; Ionia Lodge No. 38, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ;

Hamilton Chaper No. 18, Royal Arch Masons; and Corvallis Lodge of Odd Fellows. He married at Chicago in 1910 Miss Lula Runkel, a native of Oconto, Wisconsin.

W. B. NUTTING, who came to Montana in 1881, is an old time cowboy and rancher, has been a resident of Red Lodge since 1895, and was a charter member of the Red Lodge State Bank, one of the most flourishing and prosperous financial institu- tions in the state.

This bank was organized in 1902, opening for business on April 2d. Mr. Nutting was its first president, and held that position until 1910. Mr. D. G. O'Shea was president of the bank from 1910 to 1917, when Mr. Nutting resumed the executive direction. E. M. Clark is vice president and A. E. Logan is cashier. The Red Lodge State Bank has a capital of $85,000 and surplus of $21,000, and its deposits in 1919 aggregated more than $1,000,000. During the past fifteen years the bank has been managed by the same board of directors, and none of its stock has changed hands except a small amount distributed to the employes.

Mr. Nutting was born at Highland in Northeast- ern Kansas September 3, 1861, son of Lucius Nutting and descended from John Nutting, whose name ap- pears as a member of the Massachusetts colony under date of August 28, 1650, when he married Sarah, a daughter of Stephen Eggleson (Eggleston). John Nutting and wife lived at Woburn, Chelms- ford, now Westford, Massachusetts, and in 1661 removed to Groton, where two years later he was chosen selectman, and in 1668 constable. He owned a large amount of land and was prominent in civic and religious affairs and was killed during an Indian attack in 1676.

Lucius Nutting, father of W. B. Nutting, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1820, a son of Bryant Nutting. As a young man he went west to Illinois, and became a physician and surgeon. He was attracted to California and went over the plains in 1849, but soon returned to Illinois and resumed practice. Later he built and conducted a saw mill at Crescent City, Iowa, and in 1857 located in Doniphan County, Kansas, where he pursued farming and saw milling until 1878. The following year he removed to Arizona, but afterward returned to Doniphan County and in 1880 came to Montana and in the following year homesteaded at Laurel. He removed to Bozeman in 1895, and lived there until his death in 1903. He was active as a republi- can and served as a commissioner of Yellowstone County six years, and held all the lay offices in the Presbyterian Church. He married Elizabeth Allison, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1819 and died at Bozeman in 1901. Their children were: Julia, wife of Bryant Cowan, one of the leading authorities in the Shorthorn cattle industry in America ; Wilder, a Methodist minister at Three Forks, Montana; Lucius A., a Shorthorn breeder at Laurel, Montana ; William B .; Lillie E., unmarried; and Roy H., of Eureka, California.

William B. Nutting attended the public schools of Kansas until he was sixteen years of age and since then has depended upon his own exertions for his advancement and success. For a number of years he was a cowboy both in the Middle West and in Montana, and he also worked in the mines of Colorado for a time. He went out to Colorado in 1877. The first of his cowboy experiences was acquired on the Arkansas River near Fort Las Animas. That was when the Santa Fe Railroad was building its through line to the coast. From there

HISTORY OF MONTANA

he removed to Georgetown, Colorado, and subse- quently was among the first to join in the rush to the Leadville mining district.

On coming to Montana in 1881 he engaged in ranching at Laurel. He rode the ranger over the greater part of Southern Montana and made his home near Laurel until 1890, when he moved across the line into Fremont County, Wyoming, and con- tinued business there as a rancher and stockman. In 1895 he transferred his home to Red Lodge. He owns one of the best homes in that city.

Mr. Nutting served as chairman of the County Commissioners of Carbon County as a republican, and is affiliated with Red Lodge Camp, Modern Woodmen of America, and Bear Tooth Lodge No. 534, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Also Mr. and Mrs. Nutting are pioneers of Eastern Montana.

April 18, 1887, near Park City, Montana, he mar- ried Miss Eva Cellers, daughter of Samuel Cellers. Her father was a pioneer Montanan, coming in 1881, and was a farmer and stockman until his death. Mr. and Mrs. Nutting have one son, Roy A., who is assistant cashier of the Red Lodge State Bank. He married Miss May B. Grills, of Flint, Michigan, and they have a daughter, Elizabeth G., only grand- child of Mr. and Mrs. Nutting.

CHARLES THOMAS BUSHA has rounded out his full forty years of residence in Montana, and most of those years have been spent at Big Timber, where he was a pioneer business man and still main- tains a vigorous hold of business as a commission merchant, rancher and dairyman. Three of Mr. Busha's sons were with the colors in the World war.

He was born at Detroit, Michigan, December 3, 1858, and is of French and English ancestry. His father, Charles Thomas Busha, Sr., was born in France in 1836, left that country when a young man and went to Canada, was married at Detroit, Mich- igan, and spent all his life as a trader. During the '6os he returned to Canada and died in the Province of Ontario in 1879. He was a Catholic. Before he. left France he served the regular time in the army. He married Helen Clark, who was born at Detroit in 1839. They had two children, Hattie and Charles Thomas. The former died in Detroit as the wife of Lewis Barrett. The mother married for her second husband Joseph Lemere, a native of Canada, who died at Westboro, Wis- consin. Mrs. Lemere died at Detroit, Michigan, in 1912. By her second marriage she had four chil- dren. The two sons are Alexander, a county official at Detroit, Michigan, and George, in the garage business at Chicago.

Charles Thomas Busha acquired his education in the public schools of Detroit, including high school, but left his books and studies at the age of sixteen and began doing for himself. For several years he was a hotel clerk, and was on duty at hotels in Stevens Point, Milwaukee and Arcadia, Wiscon- sin, and at Winona, Minnesota.

On coming to Montana in 1879 Mr. Busha spent a brief time at Martinsdale on the Musselshell, from there went to Helena and was employed in the lumber yard of Sanford & Evans for one year, after which he went back to the Musselshell River and engaged in the stock business until 1885. That was the year of his location at Big Timber, where he became one of the early merchants, and continued active in mercantile circles until 1913. Since then he has specialized in the commission business, buying wool and other farm products. His irrigated ranch of 500 acres half a mile east of Big Timber on the

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 14

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