Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 150

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 150

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At Butte, Montana, in 1901, he married Miss Wini- fred Braine, daughter of Robert T. and Bessie (Buckley) Braine. Mrs. Reynolds also holds the degrees, M. D., C. M. from the same university as her husband. Doctor and Mrs. Reynolds have three chil- dren : Francis Gordon, born September 15, 1902; Helen Marjorie, born October 7, 1905; and Catherine Elizabeth, born May 5, 1909.

LEROY SOUTHMAYD, M. D. By many years of service recognized as one of the most conspicuous men in the medical and surgical profession in Mon- tana, Doctor Southmayd of Great Falls has the dis- tinction of being the first native son of Montana to complete the regular course of training and enter the ranks of physicians and surgeons.

He is a son of the late LeRoy Southmayd, Sr., and his wife, Sarah (Bartlit) Sonthmayd. His mother was descended from Joshua Bartlit, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The Southmayd family has been in America 'nearly three centuries. William Southmayd, who came over to the colonies in 1640, was the youngest son of Sir William Sonthmayd of Devonshire and Kent, Eng- land.

LeRoy Southmayd, Sr., who died in 1883, was a prominent Montana pioneer, one of the first miners in Alder Gulch, and is frequently mentioned in the annals of the Vigilantes. He, as well as his wife, was born in Essex County, New York. His birth occurred in 1833, while his wife was born in 1844. She died in January, 1918, after about half a century of residence in Montana. Doctor Southmayd was the first of their four children, three of whom are still living. LeRoy Southmayd, Sr., was educated in his native state and in 1849 located at Appleton, Wis- consin, and subsequently engaged in the steamboat and transportation business on the Missouri River between St. Louis and the present site of Kansas City. In that enterprise he had his brother as a part- ner. In 1859 he went overland to Denver, Colorado, and was a miner in Georgia Gulch. He arrived at Alder Gulch, Montana, in the spring of 1863, having made the trip across the country by ox team. He

LRa Southmand, und, 7 G. C . 1 .

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

and A. C. Hall were partners and were connected with the exploitation of some of the first mining claims in and around Alder Gulch. In 1864 Mr. Southmayd returned to St. Louis. There he con- tracted for the construction of a stamp mill, which was shipped in parts overland to Alder Gulch, and on being set up was the first institution of its kind in the Montana mining district. It was operated very successfully for several years. In 1866 Mr. Southmayd again returned East, this time to Essex County, New York, where he married and spent about a year. He and his wife then left the old home on their wedding tour, traveled by railroad to St. Louis, and thence by steamboat up the Missouri River. On account of Indian hostilities the steamer was compelled to tie up to the shore every night, and consequently they were three months in making the journey. LeRoy Southmayd as one of the promi- nent men among the miners of Alder Gulch and Virginia City had an active part in the Vigilantes organization. He and Mr. Hall continued their partnership until the early '70s, and afterwards he was identified with the gold mining industry until his death. He was affiliated with Summit Lodge No. I of the Masons at Alder Gulch, was a Methodist and a democrat.

Dr. LeRoy Southmayd was born at Alder Gulch July 19, 1869. He received his early advantages in Montana, but was sent East for his literary and med- ical education. He attended the University of Mich- igan and graduated M. D. with the class of 1892. He first engaged in practice at White Sulphur Springs, but shortly afterward moved to Virginia City. In May, 1898, Doctor Southmayd was appointed assistant surgeon of the First Montana Infantry when that regiment was enrolled among the United States Volunteers for service in the Philippines. He spent eighteen months with the regiment, and was on active duty during the greater part of the insurrec- tion of the Philippines. In March, 1900, after his return from the Orient, Doctor Southmayd located at Great Falls, and for twenty years has been one of the leading physicians of that city. He was as- sociated with the late Dr. R. P. Gordon, and since

his death has been in practice alone. During the war with Germany he served nine months as a major in the Medical Reserve Corps. He had charge of the Three Hundred and Sixteenth Sanitary Train at Camp Lewis, Washington, with 930 enlisted men and 52 medical officers under his medical supervision.

By his attainments Doctor Southmayd is a member of the American College of Surgeons. He has served on the State Board of Health, is a past presi- dent of the County Medical Society, and also belongs to the State and American Medical Associations. He is a member of the State Board of Medical Examin- ers. Fraternally he is affiliated with Montana Lodge No. 2, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Vir- ginia City, with the Scottish Rite Consistory, at Helena and Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine. In politics he is a democrat.

Doctor Southmayd married Charlotte Pixley. Four of their five children are living, William P., Char- lotte, LeRoy, Jr., and John.

GEORGE R. FISK, the present postmaster of Hamil- ton, has been citizen and business factor in that com- munity for over twenty years, and his high standing as a citizen and his business training furnish him every qualification for the official responsibilities he now enjoys.

Mr. Fisk was born at Sparta Center in Kent County, Michigan, August I, 1872. His English an- cestors were colonial settlers in Canada. His father, William H. Fisk, was born in the Province of On- tario in 1844, and is now living with his son George

at Hamilton. He was reared and married at On- tario, where he followed farming, and learned the blacksmiths' trade. At the age of seventeen he left his father's farm, and about 1863 located in Kent County, Michigan. He conducted a blacksmith shop for a number of years at Sparta Center, but in 1882 moved to Osceola County in that state, and his energies were absorbed in farming until he retired and removed to Hamilton in 1909. He served as supervisor of Marion Township in Osceola County, Michigan, and held other local offices. He is a democrat and a member of the Masonic fraternity. William H. Fisk married Margaret Ross, who was born in Ontario in 1844 and died at Hamilton, Montana, in 1915. They had four children, George being the youngest. Arthur E., the oldest, was a farmer and died in Osceola County, Michigan, at the age of fifty-two. W. O. Fisk was manager of the Valley Mercantile Company at Hamilton for many years, and during the World war served as a member of the State Efficiency Board. His heavy responsi- bilities in that connection only terminated in the summer of 1919. Hugh Wesley, the third of the family, is janitor of the high school at Hamilton.

George R. Fisk received his early education in the rural schools of Osceola County, Michigan, and lived on his father's farm until he was seventeen. Having an inclination for industrial life, he went to Detroit and spent three years as an employe of the Detroit Twist Drill Works. On coming to Montana in 1896 he worked for one year on the Marcus Daly ranch near Hamilton. For two and a half years he shipped lumber for C. S. Kendall at Florence, and another year was spent with the Big Blackfoot Milling Com- pany at Butte. In 1900 he returned to Hamilton and for two and a half years clerked in the Page Hotel. Then followed his longest period of connection with one establishment, ten years with the Anaconda Cop- per Mining Company in the lumber department as timekeeper and lumber checker. Mr. Fisk was ap- pointed postmaster by President Wilson in 1914. He is also a director of the Vermillion Silver, Gold and Lead Mining Company. In politics he is a democrat and is affiliated with Ionic Lodge No. 38, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Hamilton Chap- ter No. 18, Royal Arch Masons.

Mr. Fisk owns a modern home at 520 South Sec- ond Street. He married at Hamilton in 1906 Miss Mamie Whitney, daughter of M. C. and Emma (Moran) Whitney, residents of Montana, her father being a rancher near Hamilton. Mr. and Mrs. Fisk have three children: Doris, born August 8, 1907; Marjorie, born March 30, 1909; and Ruth Esther, born October 14, 1915.

LAURENCE A. HOLT is one of the young bankers of Montana, being cashier of the First State Bank of Stevensville. He received his first training in banking in his native state of Ohio, and for a num- ber of years was an official with a large bank at Spokane.

He was born at East Randolph, New York, Febrit- ary 5, 1885, and is of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His people settled in New York in colonial times. His father, A. H. Holt, was born at East Randolph, New York, in 1856, and was a merchant there for several years. Later he went on the road as a traveling salesman and for past twenty years has been representative in the state of Ohio for the Clawson- Wilson Company. He now lives at Columbus, Ohio. He is a republican in politics. A. H. Holt married Ella Stevens, who was born at Charlotte Center, Chautauqua County, New York, in 1858. They have three children : Mabel, wife of James M. Linton, an attorney at Columbus, Ohio ; Laurence A .; and Har- old A., who is a partner in an automobile business

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

at Stevensville, holding the agency for the Ford cars and accessories.

Laurence A. Holt attended public schools at Sin- clairville, New York, until he was twelve years of age, and in 1902 graduated from the high school of Columbus, Ohio. Soon afterward he was on the pay roll of the Ohio State Savings Bank at Columbus as a messenger boy, and by diligence and ability earned promotion until he was a teller. He left Columbus in 1906 and for ten years served as trust officer of the Northwest Loan and Trust Company at Spokane, Washington.

Mr. Holt accepted his present duties as cashier of the First State Bank of Stevensville in October, 1916. This bank was established in 1909 under a state charter, and is a prosperous institution with forty thousand dollars capital, twelve thousand dollars surplus and profits and deposits aggregating three hundred seventy-five thousand dollars. The bank is located at the corner of Main and Third streets. The president is James M. Higgins and the vice president, George T. Baggs.

Laurence A. Holt is an independent voter in political affairs and is a member of the Episcopal Church. He is treasurer of Stevensville Lodge No. 28, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is affiliated with Garden Valley Lodge of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. During the war he was generous of his time in behalf of patriotic movements, taking an active part in all the cam- paigns for funds and was treasurer of the War Service League. Mr. Holt owns a modern home on Third Street. He was married at Spokane in 1909 to Miss Mary Ethel James, a native of Missouri. They have one child, Kendall, born December 5, 1910.

JAMES EDWIN TOTMAN has been manager of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company at Hamilton for over twenty years. He is a veteran lumberman, and he grew up in the big woods of Wisconsin and be- gan his practical apprenticeship in the woods and around saw mills more than fifty years ago.

Mr. Totman, who is also the honored mayor of Hamilton, was born at Plattsburg, New York, June 9, 1849. He is of Scotch ancestry. His grandfather, Asaph Billings Totman, was born in Scotland in 1793 and came to this country with eleven brothers. He established his home on a farm two miles from Peru, New York, where he became a large and prosperous farmer. He died at Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1874. His wife was Anna Lindsley, of Scotch ancestry.

Henry Totman, their son, was born in New York State in 1827, grew up and married at Peru, and in early life took up the lumber industry. He operated saw mills in northern New York, and when that district lost its importance in the lumber field fol- lowed the tide in his business to Wisconsin. He went to that state in 1856, and was one of the pioneer sawmill men there. He was a graduate of the Malone College at Malone, Vermont. Henry Tot- man died at Oconto, Wisconsin, in 1867. Politically he was a republican. His wife was Elizabeth Jack- son, who was born in 1828 and died at Oconto, Wis- consin, in 1884.

James Edwin Totman was the only child of his parents. He was seven years of age when his par- ents moved to Wisconsin and acquired his early education in the public schools of Oconto. Later he entered Beloit College, Wisconsin, but his father's death in 1867 called him home. He next began working in the woods and around sawmills. During the winter of 1876 he was engaged in scaling lumber in the woods around Nealsville, Wisconsin. During the next five years he . was in the employ of C. L.

Coleman, owner of one of the large saw mills at La- Crosse, Wisconsin. He spent eleven years as saw- mill superintendent for the lumber firm of Sawyer & Austin at LaCrosse, and for five years was saw- mill superintendent for Laird & Norton at Winona, Minnesota.

Mr. Totman arrived at Hamilton, Montana, on December 24, 1898, and since then has been con- tinuously on duty as manager for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company there. He is also president of the Hamilton Hospital and president of the Farmers' and Business Men's Association of Ravalli County. He was elected mayor of Hamilton in May, 1919, for a term of two years. He votes as a repub- lican and is affiliated with Ionic Lodge No. 38, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Hamilton Chap- ter No. 18, Royal Arch Masons, Crusade Com- mandery No. 17, Knights Templar, Winona Con- sistory of the Scottish Rite and Osman Temple of the Mystic Shrine at St. Paul.

Mr. Totman resides in the Colter Block on South Second Street. September 2, 1872, at Oconto, Wis- consin, he married Miss Anna B. Dukelow. She was born at Mount Morris, New York, in 1850 and died at Missoula, Montana, in 1891. She is survived by two daughters, Eva and Bessie. Eva is the wife of George Beckwith, and they live at St. Ignatins, Montana. Bessie lives in Missoula, widow of D. W. Hughes, whom she married at Hamilton. Mr. Hughes was in a retail lumber yard at Butte, where he died. In 1904, at Hamilton, Mr. Totman married his present wife, Mrs. Mary L. Moore, a native of New York State.

JOHN FRANK BOROUGH has been a merchant at Stevensville beginning as far back as thirty years ago. He is still active, and is proprietor of the largest and most completely stocked hardware store in Ravalli County.

Mr. Borough was born in Seneca County, Ohio, May 20, 1854. His Holland Dutch ancestors settled in Pennsylvania in colonial times. His grandfather, Frederick Borough, was a very remarkable man in many particulars. Born in Dauphin County, Penn- sylvania, in 1771, he had some memories and recol- lections of the War of the Revolution. Had he lived nearly a year longer he might have witnessed the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He died in Monroe County, Michigan, in 1875, at the age of one hundred four years, four months and fourteen days. As a young man he knew George Washington. His hundredth birthday anniversary was celebrated by dinner with Vice President Schuyler Colfax at the latter's home in South Bend, Michigan. Most of his active life Frederick Borough spent as a farmer in Seneca County, Ohio.

Rev. J. Borough, father of the Stevensville mer- chant, was born in the Shenandoah Valley of Vir- ginia in 1817 and as a young man accompanied his parents to Seneca County, Ohio. He was married in that county, afterward moved to Hancock County in the same state, and as a minister of the Evangel- ical Association and as a circuit rider his labors were widely extended. For many years he was one of the best known ministers of that denomination in Michi- gan and Indiana. He reared his children in Ohio and Michigan. He was a republican in politics. Rev. Mr. Borough died at Traverse City, Michi- gan, in 1912. His wife was Susannah Hetler, who was born in Ohio in 1835 and died at Traverse City in 1902. They had a large family of eleven chil- dren : William, a retired farmer, now eighty years of age and living at North Baltimore, Ohio; David, a farmer, aged seventy-eight, a resident of Leelanau

P. S. Fiona

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

County, Michigan; Isaac, a farmer who died in Ohio in 1887; Sarah, wife of William Brightville, a farmer of Calhoun County, Michigan; George, a farmer in Monroe County, Michigan; John F .; J. Milton, a traveling salesman whose home is at Marshall, Michigan ; Samuel, a farmer who died at Traverse City in 1881; Letta, of Maple City, Michi- gan, widow of John Dull, a farmer who died in 1899; Charles Theodore, who for many years has conducted a grocery business at Traverse City; Emma, wife of William Bright, a farmer at Lee- lanau County, Michigan; and Catherine, who is the wife of a farmer in Leelanau County.

John Frank Borough acquired his early education in the district schools of Monroe County, Michigan, spent one term in the State Normal School at Ypsil- anti, Michigan, and finished his education in the high school at Wauseon, Ohio. He attended his last school when he was about twenty-two years of age, and then went to work at the trade of harness maker, an occupation he followed both in Michigan and Ohio. In 1881 Mr. Borough became a merchant, and that occupation he has followed with few inter- ruptions for nearly forty years. He established a hardware business at Ovid, Michigan, and con- ducted it until 1889.

He arrived at Stevensville, Montana, March 24, 1889. For twenty-three years Mr. Borough was president of the Amos Buck Mercantile Company, a large and thriving concern at Stevensville. He sold his interests in 1912, and during the next two years did not consider himself on the active list of local business men. He then bought the corner lot on Main and Third streets and re-entered business . as a hardware merchant in partnership with C. C. Fulton. The firm of Borough & Fulton without exception does the largest business in hardware in Ravalli County. On coming to Stevensville thirty years ago Mr. Borough erected a substantial resi -. dence on Buck Avenue, and he still lives there. This is one of the good homes of the town. He also owns a ranch of two hundred acres five miles northwest of Stevensville. His land is irrigated and his chief crop is hay.

Back in his home state of Michigan Mr. Borough served as mayor of Ovid and as township treasurer several years. He was one of the first councilmen in Stevensville. Politically he could be described as a dyed-in-the-wool republican. He is past master of Stevensville Lodge No. 28, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and was also master of his lodge at Ovid, Michigan. He is nast king and past scribe of Hamilton Chapter No. 16, Royal Arch Masons, member of Hamilton Commandery, Knights Templar, and Bagdad Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Butte.

September 27, 1877, Mr. Borough married in Monroe County, Michigan, Ada Bitting, daughter of Frederick and Elizabeth (Buck) Bitting. Her father was a saw mill operator. Both her father and mother lost their lives when the propeller Ironside, on which they were passengers, was sunk in Lake Michigan en route from Grand Haven to Milwaukee. Mrs. Borough is a graduate of a young ladies' seminary at Monroe, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Borough had two children. The only son, C. W. Borough, died in 1907, at the age of twenty-nine. Death interrupted for him an exceedingly promising and able business career. He was an associate with his father, and his business ability was known and admired over this part of the state. The daughter, Edna May, born May 2, 1884, is the wife of Herbert Metcalf, and they reside on their irrigated ranch of three hundred ten acres two and a half miles south

of Stevensville. Mrs. Metcalf is a graduate of the Stevensville High School.

ROBERT S. FORD. Only those familiar by study, reading or experience with the great and varied life of the west and northwest during the past half century can appreciate the many incidents in the life of such a man as the late Robert S. Ford of Great Falls. When he began his career at the time of the Civil war, one of the greatest industries in the middle west was overland freighting and transpor- tation before the era of transcontinental railways. He helped carry goods back and forth over the plains and brought his first cargo of merchandise into Montana in 1864. The extent of his subsequent enterprise as a stockman might justify the title "cattle baron," though the modesty and simplicity of the man would make such a phrase inappropriate except to describe the importance of his business relations.

For over twenty years he lived in Great Falls, where he died October 1, 1914. An imposing monu- ment to his life is the Ford Building at Great Falls, which was in process of construction at the time of his death and is regarded as one of the finest public buildings in the state. The Ford Building now fur- nishes facilities for many offices and is also the home of the Great Falls National Bank.

Robert S. Ford was born in Simpson County, Ken- tucky, January 14, 1842, a son of John C. and Hen- rietta (Simpson) Ford. In 1847 his father died. In 1855 the family moved to Westport, Missouri, then a town of great importance, since practically merged into the larger Kansas City. Robert S. Ford had a common school education in Missouri. At the age of nineteen he began working for a freighting outfit which used ox teams and wagons in carrying goods between Nebraska City and Fort Laramie. The following year he was advanced to assistant wagon master, and in 1863 had charge of a wagon train. When he came to Montana in 1864 he had charge of an ox train of sixteen wagons of mer- chandise. Following that for several years he freighted from Benton, Cow Island and the Milk River country to the mining camps of Helena, Vir- ginia City, Bannock and Deer Lodge. In 1868 he returned to Kentucky to visit his mother, who had returned to her home state during the war.

The beginning of his enterprise as a cattle man was made in 1869, when he bought 300 head of Texas cattle in Colorado and drove them into Beaver Head Valley. The venture was profitable, and he next bought seven hundred head of stock in Colo- rado and wintered them during 1871 at the mouth of the Sun River. His winter cabin was about two miles from Great Falls. In the fall of 1872 he brought still another large herd of cattle from Colo- rado. From the spring of 1873 his headquarters were near Sun River Crossing, in which locality he developed one of the most extensive ranching projects in the valley. Taking his livestock in the aggregate during the next twenty years Mr. Ford was one of the prominent livestock men in the terri- tory.

He removed to Great Falls in 1891, and soon estab- lished the Great Falls National Bank, which he served as president until January 14, 1913. His estate also comprised a large amount of city property and other valuable interests.

Of a southern family, Mr. Ford was always a democrat. In 1876 he represented Choteau County in the State Legislature, and in 1877 Choteau and Meagher counties in the Territorial Council or .Sen- ate. In 1880 he was again chosen to represent his district in the Fourteenth Assembly.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Mr. Ford also went back to Kentucky to claim his bride. In that state in 1878 he married Miss Sue McClanahan, member of one of the oldest fami- lies of Kentucky. She was born in Simpson County July 1, 1859, daughter of James Wesley and Lydia A. McClanahan. A few weeks after their wedding they came to Montana and Mrs. Ford for seventeen years lived near Sun River Crossing on the ranch. She died October 25, 1906, at Great Falls. Of the five children born to their marriage three died in infancy. The two sons are Lee M. and Shirley S., whose careers are noted briefly on other pages.

LEE M. FORD, son of the Montana pioneer, the late Robert S. Ford, was born on his father's ranch on Sun River near Fort Shaw in what is now Cas- cade County April 1, 1883.

When he was about twelve years of age his parents moved to Great Falls, where he attended the gram- mar and high schools. He also was a student in St. Paul's School at Concord, New Hampshire. In 1904, having attained his majority, he went to work for the Great Falls National Bank, of which his father was president, in the capacity of messenger, and by his own diligence and merit was promoted from time to time until he was chosen president of the institution in January, 1913.

Mr. Ford is a democrat and takes an active inter- est in many of the broader concerns of his home state. He is vice president of the Montana State Historical Society. November 14, 1906, lie married Rachel Mary Couch, daughter of Capt. Thomas and Rachel (Webber) Couch. They have one daughter, Rachel Sue.

GEORGE L. GAGNON. The wonderful growth in realty values in Butte have brought to the fore- front a class of men who for general ability, as- tuteness and driving force are unsurpassed in the annals of trade in this state. It is well to say that conditions develop men, but it is better to say that men bring about conditions. The realty market of Butte owes what it is to the men who have had the courage to persevere, to act wisely and to keep their operations clean in one of the most difficult fields of endeavor. One of the men who" through his energetic endeavors has made himself a most honored citizen of Butte is George L. Gagnon.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 150

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