Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 141

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 141

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DAVIS E. WILDER, who is agent of the Consolidated Ticket Offices of the various railroads centering at Butte, has had a long and active experience in railroad work and has been a resident of Montana for the past ten years.

He was born at Austin, Minnesota, June 6, 1880. His Wilder ancestors were English and colonial settlers in New York. His grandfather, a native of New York State, became a pioneer farmer in Wis- consin and died at Sun Prairie, that state, in 1898. E. W: Wilder, father of Davis E., was born at Sun Prairie in 1852, was reared and married there, and in 1879 moved to Austin, Minnesota. He was one of the early settlers in that locality and spent his active life as a farmer. His affairs were pros- pered, and since 1902 he was lived retired. In October, 1919, he took up his residence at Long Beach, California. He held several offices of trust and responsibility in Austin and wielded a con- siderable influence in the civic life of that com- munity. He is a republican in politics, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. E. W. Wilder married Katherine Davis, who was born at Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, in 1854, and died at Austin, Minnesota, November 14, 1911. Ruth, the oldest of their children, resides with her father; Davis E. is the second; Nellie is the wife of John Armstead, a farmer at Sioux Rapids, Iowa; Frost is in the hardware business at Fairview, Montana ; and Katherine is the wife of Custer Armstead, a brother of John Armstead, and they live on a farm at Medelia, Minnesota.

Davis E. Wilder's early environment was a farm in Mower County, Minnesota. From the farm he

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attended the neighboring district schools and also spent four years in the University of Minnesota Agricultural Department, graduating with the class of 1904. While in University he was affiliated with the Alpha Sigma college fraternity. After leaving university and preliminary to his railroad career Mr. Wilder spent about two years learning the undertaking business at Austin, and in 1906 came to Sidney, Montana, where for two months he was in the employ of the Yellowstone Mercantile Com- pany. He entered the service of the Great Northern Railway at Williston, North Dakota, beginning as night ticket agent, was promoted to ticket agent, and in February, 1910, was transferred to Great Falls, Montana, as ticket clerk for the Great North- ern and with an increase in salary. In November, IgII, he became city passenger agent for the Great Northern at Helena, and in 1913 was appointed city passenger agent at Butte. After the govern . ment took over the administration of the railroads, and when the various ticket agencies were consoli- dated, Mr. Wilder on July 1, 1918, was appointed agent for the Consolidated Ticket Offices at Butte, his offices being at Main and East Park streets.

Mr. Wilder has acquired real estate interests at Williston, North Dakota, and at Butte, where he owns a modern home at 1120 Steel Street. He is a member of the Episcopal Church, affiliated with Austin Lodge of Odd Fellows, Helena Lodge No. 193 of the Elks, and is a former member of the Knights of Pythias at Williston and of the Silver Bow Club of Butte.

November 14, 1914, at Butte, he married Mrs. Jane (Williams) Lynch, daughter of Daniel and Ann Williams. Her mother is living at 702 Colorado Street in Butte. Her father, who died at Butte in 1912, was a miner, and began working in the min- ing district of Butte in 1883.

GEORGE E. SMILEY. It has long been a recognized fact that the great corporations of the country are on the outlook for men of ability for they realize that with such men in charge of the various affairs of the business efficiency is secured and the number of serious mistakes brought to a minimum. Because of this tendency another fact has come to light, that there are very few men connected with these organi- zations who have not already proven their fitness for the work under their supervision, and that em- ployment in these concerns is the mark of real capa- bility. One of those who is worthy of the con- sideration of his company and fellow citizens in every way is George E. Smiley of Butte, Montana, assistant division manager of the Continental Oil Company, who has risen to his present position through individual merit.

George E. Smiley was born in Clarke County, Mississippi, on December 31, 1885, a son of E. M. Smiley. The Smiley family was founded in the United States by the great-grandfather of George E. Smiley, an Englishman who came to this country at an early day. E. M. Smiley was born in 1860, in Clarke County, Mississippi, where his father had located, and there he was reared, educated and married, and there he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1905, when he moved to Heidelberg, Mississippi, and since then has been engaged in conducting a mercantile establishment. He is a democrat. The Baptist Church holds his member- ship, and he is active in its work. For years he has been a Mason, and he also belongs to the Woodmen of the World. E. M. Smiley was united in mar- riage with Maggie L. Goodwin, born at Meridian, Mississippi, in 1864, and their children were as fol- lows: George, who is the eldest; Eunice, who mar-

ried William Campbell, a carpenter and builder of Heidelberg, Mississippi; Estelle, who married Harry L. Brashier, of Meridian, Mississippi, a traveling salesman; Willie Ray, who married John Arledge, a farmer of Vossburg, Mississippi; and Bessie, who is attending the Heidelberg High School, resides with her parents.

George E. Smiley attended the rural schools of Clarke County, Mississippi, and the Meridian High School, from which he was graduated in 1904. Im- mediately thereafter he began working for the R. G. McCants Cotton Company, cotton brokers at Meri- dian, Mississippi, and continued with that company for two years, leaving it to form connections with his present company at Denver, Colorado. He started with the Continental Oil Company as a general clerk and with the determination to master the details of the business in such a manner that when an opening occurred above him he would be ready for it, and his subsequent career proves that he has lived up to that determination in a remark- able degree. His first rise made him order clerk, his next, price clerk, and then, having by that time proved his aptness, he was transferred to Havre, Montana, to assume the responsibilities connected with the position of district superintendent, taking charge of that district in June, 1915. In 1917 he was transferred to Butte, Montana, as assistant to the division manager, and then, on January 1, 1920, was made assistant division manager under J. J. O'Neil, division manager. The offices and plant are located on Kaw Avenue.

Since coming to Butte Mr. Smiley has invested in city realty and owns his home at No. 1015 Dakota Street, a comfortable modern residence. Like his father, he is a supporter of the democratic party. For some years he has been a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church. Mr. Smiley maintains frater- nal connections with Denver Camp No. 13, Wood- men of the World, and the Railroad Council of the Royal Arcanum at Denver, Colorado. He also is a member of the Iowa State Traveling Men's Asso- ciation.

On September 10, 1910, Mr. Smiley was united in marriage with Miss Hattie D. Hardin, at Lincoln, Nebraska. She is a daughter of Charles and Mary (Beer) Hardin, the former of whom is now de- ceased, after having been a pioneer farmer of Ne- braska. The latter survives her husband and is now residing at Blue Springs, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Smiley have one son, George Wayne, who was born August 31, 1917.

The grandfather of George E. Smiley was John M. Smiley, born in 1830 in North Carolina, where his father had settled upon coming to the United States. John M. Smiley went to Clarke County, Mississippi, in young manhood, and was engaged there in farming all of his active life, but is now living in retirement in Clarke County. During the war between the states he espoused the cause of the South and was a brave and gallant soldier in defense of the "Lost Cause." The democratic party has always had his earnest support. Like his son E. M. Smiley, he has been a member of the Baptist Church all of his mature years.

John M. Smiley was united in marriage with Martha Smith, born in Clarke County, Mississippi, in 1835, and she died in the same county of her birth during 1915. They became the parents of the fol- lowing children : E. M., father of George E. Smiley, who was the eldest; John, who is a resident of Laural, Mississippi, is a member of the police force of that city; James, who is a farmer of Clarke County, Mississippi; Clarence, Guy and Andrew, all of whom are also engaged in farming in Clarke

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County, Mississippi; Cora, who married Nicholas Slayton, a farmer of Clarke County, Mississippi; and Emma, who married John Thomas, a farmer of Clarke County, Mississippi.

George E. Smiley is in the very prime of vigor- ous young manhood and. yet has reached a position of importance at a time when some men have barely made a start in life. He is of the type that will go far and attain much, for he possesses the staying quality. He is a nature which does not shrink from responsibility, but rather courts it, and having gained the added duties, skillfully proceeds to discharge them efficiently and rapidly. His knowledge of the business and of men enables him to handle many problems which a less experienced and practical man might find difficult, and it is safe to say that it would not be easy to find another man so well fitted for the position now so expertly filled by George E. Smiley.

MICHAEL J. LOUGHRAN is a mining engineer, a graduate of the Montana State School of Mines, and for a number of years was associated in a professional capacity with some of the great mining corporations of Montana. Since 1919 he has filled the responsible office of county surveyor of Silver Bow County.

Mr. Loughran is a native of the great mining district of the far west, born in Virginia City, Ne- vada, September 9, 1887. His father, M. J. Lough- ran, was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1852, and was a boy when he came to this country in 1867 and for several years lived at Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania, where he worked in the steel mills. About 1882 M. J. Loughran removed to Virginia City, Nevada, and became interested in mining. In 1892 he was sent to Chicago in charge of Nevada's mineral exhibits for the World's Columbian Ex- position, and after the close of that Fair remained in Chicago for a time as a merchant. In 1894 he located at Butte, where he resumed his occupation as a miner and continued so until his death in 1917. He was a democrat and a member of the Catholic Church. M. J. Loughran married Elizabeth Skin- ner, a resident of Butte, who was born in Lisbon, Illinois, in 1861. She is the mother of seven chil- dren : Ann, wife of O. F. Brinton, manager of the Jib Mining Company at Basin, Montana; Michael J .; Florence, a graduate nurse from St. James Hos- pital of Butte, now the wife of Lewis Downing, a druggist at Hamilton, Montana; Katherine, also a gradnate nurse of St. James Hospital, is employed in her professional capacity at the Gold Hill Min- ing Company at Gold Hill, Utah. David, a graduate mining engineer from the Montana State School of Mines, now foreman at the Goldsmith Mine and a resident of Butte; Genevieve, wife of Chester Coombs, a butcher at Butte; and Consulo, who is finishing her education in the Butte Business College.

Michael J. Loughran has lived in Butte since he was seven years of age. He acquired his education in the public schools, and was in high school until his senior year. He graduated with the degree E. M. from the Montana State School of Mines in 1909, and his first technical service in his profession was one year in the testing department at Washoe Smelter. After that his services were employed as a surveyor chiefly at the Diamond Mine of the Ana- conda Copper Mining Company and at other proper- ties of that corporation until January, 1919. In No- vember, 1918, he was elected county surveyor for Silver Bow County, and to the duties of that office now gives all his time.

Mr. Loughran is a member of the American Association of Engineers, a democrat, a Catholic, a

third degree Knight of Columbus, being affiliated with Butte Council No. 668, and is also a member of Butte Lodge No. 240 of the Elks.

Mr. Loughran and family have a modern home at 828 West Quartz Street. He married at Butte in 1912 Miss Minnie Nickel, daughter of Gus and Mary (Reihl) Nickel, whose home is at 217 North Alabama Street in Butte. Her father is a retired business man. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Loughran are James, born December 26, 1914, and Celia, born July 15, 1918.

GEORGE N. SHORT. The business service rendered by Mr. Short since coming to Montana has been in selling and helping distribute the products of two local cement plants. He has his home and offices at Butte, and is sales manager for the Montana territory of the Three Forks Portland Cement Company.

Mr. Short was born at Bellefontaine, Ohio, Angust 30, 1883. His grandfather, Hamilton Short, was a native of Wilmington, Delaware, and was an early day railway contractor. He went to Belle- fontaine, Ohio, to superintend the construction of a railroad that is now part of the Big Four system. He died at Bellefontaine in 1859. He married Eliza- beth Shively, a native of Philadelphia. E. J. Short, father of the Butte business man, was born at Belle- fontaine in April, 1850, and spent practically all his life there. He was a successful general merchant and died at Bellefontaine in April, 1909. For several years before his death he had lived at Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was a republican, served as a member of the City Council at Bellefontaine a number of years, and was secretary of the Municipal Water Company there. He was an active supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was a Royal Arch and Knight Templar Mason. E. J. Short married Mary R. Magruder, who was born at Marion, Ohio, November 18, 1855, and is now living at Butte. There were only two children, Grace and George N. The former was born in 1881, and died at Bellefontaine in 1902.

George N. Short graduated from the Bellefon- taine High School in 1901, and soon afterward entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio. He completed the regular course and gradu- ated with the B. L. degree in 1905. He is a mem- ber of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon college fraternity. Mr. Short has made every year of the fifteen since he left college count definitely in his business ad- vancement. From September, 1905, until April of the following year he worked for the Bellefontaine Foundry and Machinery Company, a firm manufac- turing steam dredges. For more than a year he was connected with the welfare and advertising depart- ments of the National Cash Register Company at Dayton, Ohio, and in December, 1907, went to Colo- rado Springs to visit his parents. In February, 1908, he entered the cement business as traveling repre- sentative of the Colorado Portland Cement Com- pany of Denver. His territory was Colorado, Wyoming, the Black Hills of South Dakota, Ne- braska and parts of Kansas. He kept the plant busy with the orders turned in from that territory, and continued in the service of the Colorado Com- pany for seven or eight years. In June, 1915, he came to Butte as sales manager of the Three Forks Portland Cement Company. On the first of July of that year the offices of the company were moved from Trident to Butte. Mr. Short has charge of the sales for the plants at Trident and Hanover, his sales offices being in the Lewisohn Building. He has two salesmen who cover Montana and the western part of North Dakota and northwestern Wyoming.

InLuce

Sarah . a. Face

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Mr. Short is a republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is affiliated with Belle- fontaine Lodge of Masons, Lafayette Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, at Bellefontaine, Colorado Com- mandery No. I, Knights Templar at Denver, El Jebel of the Mystic Shrine at Denver, and Butte Consistory of the Scottish Rite. He is a member of the Rotary Club, Silver Bow Club and the Country Club. Mr. Short is unmarried and resides at the Leonard Hotel.

THOMPSON W. LUCE. It will always be a badge of honor in this country to have it known that a person's father, or even his uncle, enlisted in the service of the country when the great rebellion broke out, to assist in saving the Union and to erad- icate slavery from our soil. Just as to this day we boast that our grandfather or other ancestor fought in the Revolutionary war to gain independence, or in the War of 1812 to protect our rights on the ocean, so the descendants of the gallant soldiers who in the early '60s defended the Stars and Stripes through the coming years will refer with pride to the bravery and self-sacrifice of their fathers and other relatives. Peculiar interest attaches to the record of the Luce family, as outlined in the follow- ing paragraphs from the fact that specific mention is made of the splendid military record of the sub- ject of this sketch.

Thompson W. Luce, of Pondera County, is a native son of the old Buckeye State, having been born on his father's farm in Warren County, Ohio, on January 18, 1847. He is the son of William and Mary (Cline) Luce, the latter of whom was born in New Jersey and who died in 1863, in the forty- sixth year of her age. William Luce, who was a native of Pennsylvania, died in his eightieth year. He was married three times and was the father of twenty-three children. To his first marriage were born six children, three sons and three daughters. Mary (Cline) Luce, his second wife and the mother of the subject of this review, bore him fourteen children, of whom the subject was the fourth in order of birth, and of which number three sons and two daughters are still living. For his third wife William Luce married Mrs. Martha Seaman, and to that union were born three daughters.

William Luce accompanied his parents on their removal to Ohio in 1799, they being among the very earliest settlers in Warren County. The elder Luce took an active part in the development and activi- ties of the new country and was one of the first to conduct a freight line between Sun Fish Hills and Cincinnati. He also did a large mercantile business with the settlers along the route, gathering up the produce grown by the latter which he carried into Cincinnati and there exchanging it for merchandise, which he took out with him and sold to the settlers. He also was successful as a farmer and created a comfortable home in this new western country. He was a democrat in politics and held several county and local offices, including that of justice of the peace.

Thompson W. Luce remained at home, assisting with the farm work and attending the local schools, until sixteen years of age. Then, in the spring of 1864, 'he enlisted in Company K, One Hundred and Forty-Sixth Regiment, Ohio National Guards, for the 100 days' service. At the expiration of this period he re-enlisted, this time for one year, or dur- ing the war, and was assigned to Company G, One Hundred and Eighty-Third Regiment, Ohio Volun- teer Infantry. They became a part of the Twenty- Third Corps of the Army of Ohio, and were, at different times under the command of Generals

Thomas and J. M. Schofield. He received his dis- charge in October, 1865, having taken part in many battles and skirmishes, among the more important of which were Spring Hill, Franklin, Nashville, Wilmington, Fayetteville and Kingston.

For about two years after his return from the army Thompson W. Luce worked on his father's farm, and then for about seven years he was en- gaged as a carpenter and bridge builder, followed by farming operations on his own account for a couple of years. He then returned to his former vocation as carpenter and bridge builder, being em- ployed by several railroad companies up to 1891. In that year he came to Montana, locating at Old Pondera in Teton County, and entered the employ of the Letheridge & Gault Railway, a narrow gauge road, on construction work, subsequently becoming a section foreman. He then engaged in the sheep business, being a large land owner, but in 1916 dis- posed of his sheep and in the following year he built the Luce Hotel, a brick building of thirty rooms and comprising the best hotel in Teton County.

Mr. Luce is a republican in his political views, though he has never been an aspirant for public office. On September 18, 1872, Mr. Luce married Sarah A. Seaman, a native of Ohio, and to them have been born three children, namely: Raymond, who married Ida Carson, and they are the parents of six children; Blanche is the wife of E. D. Jones and the mother of two children; and Harry J.

The Luce family has long occupied a high place in the esteem of the people of Teton County, be- cause of their progressive spirit and their interest in all movements for the advancement and upbuild- ing of the community.

WILLIAM BROWNFIELD. Among Montana mer- chants few have had a longer and more successful experience in the territory and state than William Brownfield, of the Brownfield-Canty Carpet Com- pany of Butte. Mr. Brownfield was connected with some of the large mercantile concerns of the terri- tory during the eighties, and for over a quarter of a century has been one of the active men in his present business at Butte.

He is a Kentuckian by birth and member of one of the oldest families in that state. The Brown- fields were English and were colonial settlers in America. His grandfather, Calvin Brownfield, was born in LaRue County, Kentucky, in 1810, spent his life as a farmer in Hardin County, and died there in 1886. George Brownfield, father of the Montana merchant, was born in Hardin County in 1833, and expended the efforts of a long lifetime in farming and stock raising. He died in Hardin County in 1901. Politically he was a democrat. His wife was Elizabeth Perry, who was born in Hardin County in 1835 and died there in 1866. Of her children Wil- liam was the oldest. Mattie, now the widow of a farmer in LaRue County, Kentucky, married for her first husband Thomas Creal, a merchant of Buffalo, LaRue County. Nannie is the wife of Dr. J. C. Jones, a physician at Buffalo, Kentucky. Richard is agent and train dispatcher for the Santa Fe Railway at San Marcial, New Mexico. For his second wife George Brownfield married Martha Durrett, of a prominent family of Taylor County, Kentucky. She died in Hardin County, and her four children are still living: Sallie and May both mar- ried and residents of LaRue County; Wade, a rail- road man at Atlanta, Georgia, and Joseph, a broker at El Paso, Texas.

Mr. William Brownfield spent the first eighteen years of his life on his father's Kentucky farm.

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He attended the rural schools of Hardin County, graduated from the high school at Elizabethtown, the county seat, and also attended Hamilton College at Elizabethtown. On leaving the farm he served an apprenticeship as clerk in a general dry goods store at Elizabethtown for seven years. That was his training and his chief equipment when he came to Butte in 1883. Mr. Brownfield for one year was connected with the Bonner Mercantile Company, after which for eight years he had charge of the carpet department of Sands & Boyce, later J. R. Boyce & Company. He then spent a year in Helena in charge of the carpet department of A. P. Curtin, and in 1892 returned to Butte and was one of the principals in the establishment and incorporation of the Brownfield-Canty Carpet Company, which began business September 5, 1892. From the beginning to the present time Mr. Brownfield has been active in its management with the office of secretary and treasurer. The other officers are James A. Canty, president, and J. W. Kemper, vice president. There is no other business of the kind in the state of Mon- tana which carries a larger stock and sells its goods over a wider area. The trade is by no means con- fined to Butte and Silver Bow counties. The large modern store at 48-54 West Park Street is stocked with furniture, carpets, stoves, ranges and general household furnishings.

In politics Mr. Brownfield is an independent and is a member of the Baptist Church and the Rotary Club. He owns a modern home at 1035 West Platinum Street. In 1883, at Elizabethtown, Ken- tucky, he married Miss Virginia C. McMurtry. Mrs. Brownfield is a native of California, where her father was at one time a judge of the District Court. Mr. Brownfield's only child, William Clement, died at the age of four years.

JOHN SCOVIL, president and manager of the C. O. D. Laundry of Butte, is one of the enter- prising men of the city, who has known how to advance his own interests and at the same time build up the prestige of his community. He was born at Provo City, Utah, on January 30, 1863, a son of L. N. Scovil, who was born at Middletown. Connecticut, in 1809, and died at Springville, Utah. in 1890.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 141

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