Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 143

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

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Mr. Arthur Thomas acquired his early education in the public schools of his native town in Idaho. He was twelve years of age when his parents located at Butte and fourteen when they settled on their ranch at Avon. He was his father's assistant on the ranch which he now owns. He has 800 acres, with water rights, and this is one of the valuable places of Powell County. The ranch is five miles north of Avon. Mr. Thomas does an extensive business raising cattle.

He was elected to his present post as a county commissioner in 1916 for a term of six years. He was elected on the republican ticket. In February, 1914, at Helena, Mr. Thomas married Miss Laura Beck, daughter of L. P. and Mary Beck. Her par- ents reside at Race Track, Montana, her father being a retired pioneer rancher of Powell County. Mrs. Thomas before her marriage was a teacher for sev- eral years. They have one son, Willard, born November 15, 1917.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

ANDREW KARL RESNER, M. D. In Iowa, where he practiced fifteen years, and at Ronan, where he has had his home since 1910, Dr. Resner has always enjoyed exceptional standing and success as a phy- sician and surgeon. Special interest is added to his professional standing by reason of his service with the rank of captain in the Medical Reserve Corps during the late war. One of his sons was also a soldier, an aviator, and saw hard and strenuous duty on the battle front in France.

Doctor Resner has been an American resident since he was fourteen years of age. He was born at Plotzka, Russia, July 22, 1865. His father, An- drew Resner, was born in the same locality in 1839. He had a small farm which he cultivated, and also served at one time as chief of police at Plotzka. After the death of his first wife he came to the United States, became a farm owner at Scotland, South Dakota, and in 1907 moved to Gascoyne, North Dakota, where he still owns a farm and at the age of over eighty retains much of his strength and takes an active interest in his work and his home community. He is a republican and a mem- ber of the Congregational Church. His first wife was Caroline Lyer, who spent all her life in Russia. She was the mother of two sons: Jacob P., mana- ger of the Masonic Temple at Yankton, South Dakota; and Dr. Andrew Karl. For his second wife Andrew Resner married Margaret Stortz. They have four children: Mary, wife of Ludwig Hoffman, a farmer at Gascoyne, North Dakota; Nathaniel, John and Emanuel, all farmers at Gascoyne.

Doctor Resner attended the public schools of his native country to the age of fourteen. As a boy on his father's homestead in South Dakota he at- tended rural schools for two years, and in 1886 graduated from the German Seminary at Crete, Nebraska. Doctor Resner first prepared himself for the ministry, and is a graduate of the Chicago Theological Seminary. He received his degree from that institution in 1889. Later he abandoned the ministerial calling, and in preparation for medi- cine attended the University of Iowa at Iowa City, where he was graduated M. D. in 1895. The same year he began practice at Manning Iowa and during the sixteen years of his busy work as a physician there he was also president of the Board of Edu- cation. Doctor Resner located at Ronan in 1910, and except while away in the army has attended with skill and proficiency to his extensive general practice. He owns a modern home and office at Ronan. For eight years he was president of the Board of Education of District No. 28 at Ronan.

On January 25 1917, Doctor Resner was com- missioned at Helena with the rank of first lienten- ant in the Medical Reserve Corps. He was called to active duty on June 1, 1918, was first at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City, spent two months with the Twenty-first Regiment at Taliaferro Camp at San Diego, California, then accompanied the Twen- ty-first of Camp Kearney, and became regimental surgeon of the Eighty-first Regiment, organizing its medical service. He continued with the Eighty- first until after the signing of the armistice. His next duty was as post surgeon of the Remount Sta- tion at Camp Kearney, and he remained there until the date of his honorable discharge on May 20, 1919. Doctor Resner is still a captain in the Medi- cal Reserve Corps, with a reserve commission valid for five years, subject to call by the Government. He is a member of the Missoula County and State Medical Societies, also the American Medical Asso- ciation, is a republican, and is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World, Modern Woodmen of

America and a former member of the Odd Fellows.

In 1890, at Crete, Nebraska, Doctor Resner mar- ried Miss Lydia N. Shaerer, daughter of John and Margaret (Lamlin) Shaerer. Her mother died at Canton, Missouri, and her father at Lafayette, In- diana. Her father was a Congregational minister who served many churches in the Middle West. Mrs. Resner completed her education in Doane Col- lege at Crete, Nebraska, and met her husband while there. They have four children: Herbert A., the oldest, born June 5, 1891, attended the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and is a professional musician living at Butte; Carl B., born November 20, 1892, is a graduate of the Manning, Iowa, High School, and is now on his father's ranch Roy J., a twin brother of Carl, is also a graduate of the Manning High School and is on the home ranch. Harold R., born July 23, 1898, lives with his parents at Ronan and is employed in a drug store. He was the sol- dier son. He spent a year and a half in France, being with the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh Aerial Squadron. He was mustered out in June, 1919.

When Doctor Resner came to Ronan in 1910 he homesteaded a claim and has invested much money and time in the improvement of his place. He now has 440 acres located nine miles south of Ronan. This is a productive ranch, growing hay, grain, cattle and hogs.

A. M. STERLING is proprietor of one of the chief general mercantile establishments at Ronan. He has been in Montana more than thirty years, and is one of a numerous colony of former residents of the eastern Canadian provinces who have become substantial and highly respected residents in differ- ent sections of Montana.

Mr. Sterling was born at Frederickton, New Brunswick, February 12, 1869. His father, J. A. Sterling, was born in the same Canadian town in 1836, and for many years was a merchant at Freder- ickton. Later he lived for a time at Boston, Massa- chusetts, and Block Island, Rhode Island, and in 1907 came to Montana and was a retired resident of Missoula until his death in 1912. He married Margaret Thorne, who was born in New Brunswick in 1838 and died at Missoula in 1914. They were the parents of four children: F. T., president of the Western Montana National Bank at Missoula; Agnes, wife of W. H. Reid, a printer at Augusta, Maine; A. M. Sterling; and Margaret, who died at the age of twenty-one years.

A. M. Sterling was educated in the schools of Frederickton, and in 1883, at the age of fourteen, began working in a general store at Block Island, Rhode Island. He was there two years, and for one year was employed by the grocery house of Cobb, Bates & Yerxa at Boston. Mr. Sterling was a very young man when he came to Missoula in 1886. His previous training made him a useful employe of the Missoula Mercantile Company, an organization with which he remained until 1899. The following year he was with the Montana Hardware Company at Butte, and in 1900 joined the tide of gold seekers to Nome, Alaska. He prospected in mines in the far north for a year and a half, but in the fall of 1902 returned to Montana and from January, 1903, to January, 1905, was under sheriff of Missoula County.

Mr. Sterling has been a leading factor in the community of Ronan since May, 1905, when he bought the general store business of Jesse R. Sear. He has a large store building, several warehouses, afid keeps all the goods and commodities required by the people of his section of Missoula County.

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He also owns a modern home in Ronan, a ranch southwest of town, and another adjoining Ronan on the east.

Mr. Sterling is state highway commissioner, an office to which he was appointed in 1919. Politi- cally he is a republican, and is affiliated with the Ronan Lodge of Odd Fellows and Hell Gate Lodge No. 383 of Elks, at Missoula.

In 1905, at Missoula, he married Miss Bessie J. Farrell, daughter of T. J. and Elizabeth (Bannon) Farrell, residents of Missoula. T. J. Farrell is widely known among Montana stockmen. He and his wife came to Montana during the territorial period. At one time he owned the largest band of horses possessed by any individual in Montana. Mrs. Sterling is a graduate of the State Normal School at Dillon, and before her marriage was a successful teacher in the schools of Butte and Mis- soula. Mr. and Mrs. Sterling have three children: Margaret, born March 6, 1906, a student in the Ronan High School; George, born October 3, 1909; and Robert, born July 4, 1915.

JOSEPH A. LEMIRE. With a broad and varied ex- perience in merchandising in Montana extending over a period of a quarter of a century, Joseph A. Lemire has been especially a prominent factor in the Flathead district at Ronan, where for the past ten years he has been a leading merchant, post- master, and is a man of large affairs and influence.

Mr. Lemire was born in the Province of Quebec, Canada, February 19, 1874. His father, Dr. Adolph Lemire, was born at Three Rivers, Quebec, in 1847, and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the McGill University at Montreal. He spent his active life as a prominent physician and surgeon in Essex County, Canada, but died near Windsor, at Tecumseh, Ontario, in 1911. He was a liberal in politics, a member of the Catholic Church and of the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association. Doctor Lemire married Azilda Lupien. She was born in Arthabaska County in the western part of the Province of Quebec in 1849 and died at Tecumseh, Ontario, in 1917. Doctor Lemire and wife had a family of nine children: Adolph, a candy manu- facturer at Lynn, Massachusetts; Joseph A .; Ar- thur, a painter, paper hanger and decorator at Wind- sor, Canada; Ross E., a partner of Joseph A .; Fred, a carpenter and builder at Tecumseh; Henry, who is employed in the Dodge Company's automobile works in Detroit, and has also attained considerable fame on the stage as a prestidigitator; Anna, wife of Israel Parent, a merchant at Tecumseh ; Azilda, wife of Constant Carrierre, an employe of the Ford automobile works at Ford City, Walkerville, On- tario; and one child that died in infancy.

At the age of eighteen Joseph A. Lemire had completed his education in the public schools of Ontario, and had begun work in a general store near Windsor. He gained much knowledge of mer- chandising during the next four years, and in 1895, when he came to Anaconda, he had the experience that made him an acceptable and useful employe with the McCallum & Clotier Mercantile Company. He was with that organization many years, begin- ning as clerk, and for twelve years was office manager.

At the time of the opening of the Flathead Res- ervation in the fall of 1909 Mr. Lemire established a general store at Ronan. His store building and stock of goods were destroyed by fire in 1912, fol- lowing which he built his present store block, in- cluding the postoffice building adjoining. This is one of the best equipped general mercantile estab- lishments in Missoula County. Mr. Lemire was

appointed and has served as postmaster of Ronan since 1915. He was the second citizen of Ronan honored with the post of mayor, and he also served one term as president of the local Commercial Club. Another result of his enterprise and influence was the Mission Valley Fair, which he helped establish and which has held three succesful fairs at Ronan. He is a director in the Ronan Flour Mill Company and owns a modern home and other real estate.

Mr. Lemire is a democrat, a member of the Cath- olic Church, of St. John's Society, and is a third degree Knight of Columbus, being affiliated with Anaconda Council No. 882, a member of the Cath- olic Order of Foresters at Anaconda and Anaconda Lodge No. 239 of the Elks.

In 1905, at Grand Forks, North Dakota, Mr. Le- mire married Miss May McLean, daughter of Hugh and Hattie (Tolan) McLean. Her mother lives at Winnipeg, Canada. Her father, deceased, was a railway station agent. Mrs. Lemire is a graduate of the North Dakota Normal School at Mayville, and was a teacher in that state before her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Lemire became the parents of five children : Gertrude, born March 10, 1906, a junior in the Ronan High School; Hugh, born January 4, 1908, and Paul, born February 17, 1910, both grammar school pupils; Marjorie, born January I, 1914, and Lois, born February 1, 1917.

JAMES NEWTON ALEXANDER, M. D. The physician of today not only is a trained man whose every faculty has been brought to the highest perfection, but he is also one whose vast experience with people and affairs enables him to act with the efficiency of a really first-rate man, and to energize all those with whom he comes in contact. He does not work for spectacular results, but sane, sound progress, not only in his profession, but in other directions. To him and his associates belongs the credit for prac- tically all the advance made in civic sanitation and the obliteration of many dread diseases formerly deemed incurable. Such results have come from aggressive and self-sacrificing labor not only on the part of the few who come into public notice. but the profession as a whole, for no other band of men so truly work together as do those who are devot- ing themselves to medical science. One of the men who stands high among the physicians and surgeons of this class is Dr. James Newton Alexander of Roundup.

Doctor Alexander was born at Fannettsburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, April 8, 1873, a son of Randall McGinley and Mary Janet (McGanghey) Alexander, and great-grandson of Col. W. Alexan- der, who served during the War of 1812, defending Baltimore, Maryland, against the attacks of Lord Ross. Randall M. Alexander was born at Shirleys- burg, Pennsylvania, and died at the age of sixty- eight years in 1913. His wife was born at Fair- field, Pennsylvania, and died at the age of thirty- eight years, in 1895. They had three children, of whom Doctor Alexander is the eldest. Growing up in his native town, Randall M. Alexander attended its schools and Jefferson Medical College, and after completing his studies located, at Fannettsburg Pennsylvania, where he spent the remainder of his life. He belonged to the Franklin County Medical Association, the Pennsylvania State Medical So- ciety and served on the school board for many years. He was a democrat in his political convictions.

James Newton Alexander attended Mercersburg College, from which he was graduated in 1891, and Jefferson Medical College, from which he was grad- uated in 1895, following which for eighteen months he was house surgeon of the Pennsylvania Railroad

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Hospital at Altoona, Pennsylvania. In August, 1896, Doctor Alexander was appointed chief surgeon of Saint James Hospital at Butte, Montana, and held that position for ten years, and then returned to his old home and for a time was associated with his father in the latter's practice. Still later he spent six months at Washington, District of Columbia, in surgical work, and then came back to Montana, lo- cating permanently at Roundup, as physician and surgeon for the Republic Coal Company, and was so serving when he enlisted in May, 1917, for the great war, receiving his commission as captain on October 1, 1917, and on April 1, 1918, was called into the service, being sent first to Fort Riley in the Officers' Training Camp, from which he was transferred to the Casualty Officers' Depot in France on July 1, 1918. On July 8th of that year he received orders to report to Base Hospital No. 7, La Rochelle, France, and was assigned as chief as- sistant to the base surgeon there, but was later made chief operating surgeon at Base Hospital No. 39, and given the major operations of the American Red Cross Hospital at La Rochelle. In August, 1918, he was recommended for a commission as major, which he received on February 17, 1910. The base hospital was abandoned in May, 1919, at which time he was the commanding officer and operating surgeon at Sussex Hospital, Base Section No. 7, La Rochelle. On July 1, 1919, he received orders to report at Brest, France, and returned to Hoboken, New Jersey, and later to Camp Dix, Wrightown, New Jersey, and was given a week's leave to report to Camp D. A. Russell, Wyoming, where he re- ceived his honorable discharge on July 15, 1919, and returned at once to Roundup, where he resumed his practice, and his former affiliation with the Repub- lic Coal Company. He belongs to the county and state medical societies, and to the Sons of the Amer- ican Revolution. Like his father, Doctor Alexan- der is a democrat.

Doctor Alexander was married to Germaine Kiere, who was born in Belgium, educated in Eng- land and was at the head of the welfare work of the American Red Cross at La Rochelle, France, which had charge of taking care of the Belgian refugees. Doctor Alexander and his wife met while engaged in their work for humanity, and were mar- ried on February 8, 1919, at La Rochelle. Their experiences during the great war have broadened them in every respect, and made their outlook on life somewhat different from those who have only viewed the conflict through the reports of others. Having for so long had the responsibility of the welfare of many upon their hands, they developed a capability which will never leave them, and al- though that was the last consideration they had in mind when they enlisted to help others, their future will be the brighter and happier for what they learned in that connection. Doctor Alexander is at present a major in the Medical Reserve Corps, U. S. Army.

JAMES R. FAULDS came to Montana more than thirty-five years ago and soon turned from teach- ing to the newspaper business, a vocation and pro- fession in which his singular gifts and abilities have had their best scope.

Mr. Faulds, who was editor of the Northwest Tribune of Stevensville, was born at Yellow Springs, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, April 19, 1853. His grandfather, James Faulds, had come from Scot- land and settled in Pennsylvania in the early forties. He and several of his sons were mine workers in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. James Faulds, Jr., also acquired much knowledge of sur-

veying and was employed to operate stationary en- gines for coal companies. Both James Faulds, Sr. and Jr., afterward moved to Glencoe, Wisconsin, where they spent the rest of their lives. James Faulds, Jr., married a lady of Scotch family, her father having been one of the California forty- niners.

James Russell Faulds was a small child when his parents moved to Wisconsin, and he received his education in the common graded and normal schools of that state. He began writing for newspapers when only fourteen years old, and at the age of sixteen began teaching school. He combined teach- ing with work on a farm, and at the age of twenty- seven he bought the plant of the Independent News at' Independence, Wisconsin. He managed and pub- lished the paper for four years, and also was prin- cipal of the graded schools there.

In 1886 Mr. Faulds came to Montana, primarily to accept a place as teacher at Thompson Falls. He found that a second contract had been made with a woman from New York, and he gallantly resigned the honor to her and began transporting goods from Thompson to the mines at Murray, Idaho. In 1887 he was employed to teach the Stevensville school, and he made his influence much wider than his im- mediate contract with his scholars. He organized debating clubs and did much to improve the intel- lectual life of the community. In the summer of 1888 he took up a preemption on the west side of the river, proved up on it, and on February 22, 1889, entered upon his long continued duties with the Northwest Tribune, beginning as secretary, editor and manager. Soon afterward he bought the paper from the stockholders and for practically thirty years guided its destinies as one of the best news organs in that section of Montana.

The Tribune in Mr. Faulds' hands has been an instrument directed toward the public's greatest good. Politically it was independent, with clearly and strongly expressed standards of law and order in affairs both national and local. The value of his ideals to the community has been recognized in the numerous offices he has been asked to fill. For several terms he held the office of alderman, and for three terms the highest municipal office, that of mayor. During his municipal career the city waterworks were installed-owned by the munici- pality-the electric lighting system put into opera- tion, and the wide cement sidewalks built. The elimination of grafting and law breaking received his most earnest attention, and it is a matter elicit- ing much gratification that Stevensville is now con- sidered one of the cleanest towns in the state. So courageous had Mr. Faulds been in defense of the right and so determined in the exposition of what he believed, or knew, to be wrong, that his career of newspaper activity has at times been fraught with difficulty. The five suits brought against him cost him a four years' struggle, but he was successful in his opposition of the "court house ring," in which conflict he was ably sup- ported by Colonel Sanders. In July, 1919, Mr. Faulds disposed of his interest in the paper and has since been engaged in closing the accounts of the business.

Mr. Faulds is a democrat, was an active sup- porter of Woodrow Wilson in both campaigns and is a Royal Arch Mason, and for thirty years has been actively and officially affiliated with the Order of Good Templars. In 1893 he represented the Grand Lodge of this order at Des Moines, in 1906 at Seattle, and in 1908 at Washington and attended the one hundredth anniversary of Templars at Sara- toga, New York, in 1908.

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Just before coming to Montana Mr. Faulds mar- ried Miss Rosetta Mosimann on April 22, 1886. She was a daughter of Christopher and Marie (Bracher) Mosimann, of Swiss descent. Mr. and Mrs. Faulds had one son and five daughters: James Welcome, who was born at Thompson Falls, Mon- tana, in 1887; and Martha, Ruth, Russell, Kathryn and Elizabeth, all natives of Stevensville.

JOHN EGAN came to Montana in 1891, and has been continuously since that time a resident of Bonner. Connected with the Bonner plant of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, his faithful and diligent service has earned him steady promotion until he is now mill superintendent of this plant and one of the men high in the esteem of the corporation.

Mr. Egan was born at Frederickton, New Bruns- wick, Canada, January 3, 1868, son of John R. and Mary (Nicholson) Egan. His father was born in County Clare, Ireland, of Protestant ancestry, and was a lifelong member of the Church of England. He was reared in Ireland and was married in New Brunswick. All his active life was spent as a school teacher. He died in New Brunswick in 1891. In politics he was a conservative. His wife, Mary Nicholson, was born in Scotland in 1825 and died at Bonner, Montana, in 1913. They had a large family of children: Robert, who died at the age of four years; Elizabeth, who died in New Bruns- wick; Augusta, who has never married and is de- partment superintendent in a cotton factory at Port- land, Maine; Theodore Edward, an electrical engi- neer for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway at Ravalli, Montana; John; Martha, wife of Charles Hodgson, employed in the saw mill of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company at Bonner; Harry W., a tanner living at Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Agnes, wife of C. W. Hensel, a ship carpenter and ship- yard worker living at Eureka, California.

John Egan received his education in the public schools of his native city; and lived there until he was twenty-two years of age. On leaving Canada he worked in the lumber woods of West Virginia for a year and then came to Montana. As mill . superintendent at Bonner he has under his super- vision a hundred and fifty employes of the plant. He is a democrat in politics and is affiliated with Covenant Lodge No. 6, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Hell Gate Lodge No. 383 of the Elks, and Missoula Camp No. 5329, Modern Woodmen of America, all at Missoula.

In 1903, at Spokane, Washington, he married Miss Clara Lebert, daughter of Frank and Ellen (Cox) Lebert, her mother being a resident of Bonner. Her father, deceased, was a farmer. Mr. and Mrs .. Egan have three children: Kathleen Mildred, born April 9, 1905; Winifred, who died at the age of two years; and Marion, born January 2, 1913.

WILLIAM EDWARD CARROLL has been a lawyer of Butte for thirty years. The law was his first choice of profession and he has remained loyal to its ideals from the beginning. His practice has brought him that satisfaction due to hard and successful work, and a proper degree of remuneration for his labors. Like many really successful lawyers Mr. Carroll has only a brief record of participation in public affairs.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 143

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