Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 157

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 157

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Mr. Cooper was' selected as a delegate at large to the national democratic convention held at Chi- cago in 1892, and served on the committee on cre- dentials. Mr. Cooper was nominated as an elector on the democratic ticket in 1892. He was elected president of the State Pioneer Society in 1892, serv- ing two years, and was president of the Pioneer Society of Gallatin County in 1893. He served as a member of the Legislature of 1895, and secured the passage of an act which made possible the erection and equipment of the buildings now occupied by the Montana State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. He was appointed in 1892 as a member of the executive board of the Agricultural College, serving six years.

When, in' 1889, the City of Bozeman wanted a supply of fresh water for fire protection and domes- tic use, Mr. Cooper organized the Bozeman Water- works Company, and caused the construction of the most perfect system of waterworks in the North- west. He became vice president and one of the largest stockholders of the company. In 1884 he secured control of the coal fields on Rocky Fork, and, with his associates, brought about the building of the Rocky Fork & Cooke City Railway, and the development of this great coal field, with its limit- less supply of coal. As an enterprise bearing upon the general welfare of the state, it will doubtless rank among the most important achievements of the last three decades.

Mr. Cooper has, among other things, devoted some of his attention to mining, making extensive development in several important properties. He was also largely instrumental in organizing the Bozeman Milling Company, operating one of the largest flouring mills, in its time, in the state, and was its first president, as well as its largest stock- holder.

Mr. Cooper is identified with many other enter- prises of a public and private nature. In politics he is a democrat, and has taken a prominent part in the councils of his party since the formation of Montana as a territory. Mr. Cooper took an active part in the political affairs which agitated Montana

in 1898 and 1900. He conducted the preliminary campaign which culminated in seating the regular democratic delegates at the Kansas City convention July 4, 1900. Later he successfully conducted the preliminary contest against powerful corporate combinations, and secured for the regular democratic party control of the state convention, and was made its chairman. He was elected by the state con- vention chairman of the state central committee, and conducted the great campaign of 1900 against the united republican and independent democratic forces of Montana, resulting in a complete victory for the regular democratic national and state tickets, and the election of a large majority of the Legis- lature, insuring the election of two democratic United States senators.

In 1902 Mr. Cooper organized the Walter Cooper Company and prosecuted lumbering operations on a large scale, manufacturing and furnishing to the Burlington and other railroads some 2,500,000 rail- way ties, together with large quantities of other timber products. These extensive operations were interrupted by the great panic of 1907, which lasted several years, absolutely destroying the lumber in- dustry from coast to coast, from the results of which this great industry is now slowly recovering.

At present Mr. Cooper is looking after his mining interests, which since the close of the war are gen- erally beginning to assume satisfactory stability, carrying with it the assurance that Montana will soon assume its position as one of the greatest of our mineral producers.

EUGENE F. BUNKER. An enumeration of the en- terprising and successful men of Southern Montana who have won recognition and success for them- selves and at the same time have conferred honor upon the locality where they reside would be in- complete were there failure to make specific men- tion of Eugene F. Bunker of Bozeman, who, though yet comparatively young in years, has achieved an enviable position in his profession, being now recog- nized as one of the leading lawyers of the state.

Eugene F. Bunker was born in Woodstock, Illi- nois, on February 4, 1888, and is the son of Frank M. Bunker. The latter was born in Ridgefield, Mc- Henry County, Illinois, in 1854, and died at Wood- stock, Illinois, in 1917. He folle .ved the mercantile business, in which he was successful. He was a republican in politics and was a member of the Illinois National Guard. He married Elizabeth Johnston, who was born in 1859 in Illinois and now resides at Woodstock, that state. To these parents were born the following children: George T., a mechanical engineer, who resides at LaGrange, Illi- nois; Blanche C., an osteopathic physician at Aber- deen, South Dakota; Park J., who is cashier of the First National Bank at Forsyth, Montana; Alice, who is the wife of John B. Romans, a capitalist of Aberdeen, South Dakota; Eugene F .; and Donald, who died at the age of four years.

Eugene F. Bunker received his elementary educa- tion in the public schools of Woodstock, Illinois, in- cluding attendance in the high school. He then entered Morgan Park Preparatory School, where he graduated in 1907. He then entered the law department of the University of Wisconsin, where he graduated in 1912, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. While in that institution Mr. Bunker be- came a member of the Greek letter fraternities, Sigma Chi and the Phi Delta Phi.

Immediately after the completion of his technical training Mr. Bunker came to Bozeman and entered upon the practice of his profession, in which he has since been engaged, including both civil and crim- inal practice. Years of conscientious work have

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

brought with them not only increase of practice and reputation, but also that growth in legal knowledge and that wide and accurate judgment the possession of which constitutes marked excellence in the pro- fession.

Politically Mr. Bunker is a republican and has been active in the support of his party, having served as secretary of the republican county central committee since 1914. Fraternally he is a member of Bridger Camp No. 62, Woodmen of the World. He is also a member of the County and State Bar associations. Mr. Bunker is keenly interested in- everything that promises to benefit the community in any way and has some investments in mining operations and in construction works.

On December 27, 1913, at Bozeman, Mr. Bunker was married to Mariam Cooper, the daughter of Walter and Mariam (Skeels) Cooper, who are mentioned specifically elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Bunker is well educated, being a graduate of the National Park Seminary at Washington, D. C. Mr. and Mrs. Bunker have one child, Mariam Virginia, born on August 20, 1918. Because of his fine per- sonal qualities and abilities Mr. Bunker enjoys a well deserved popularity in the city and county of his choice.

ALLEN PIERSE. Biographies should not be pub- lished unless there is something in the life and char- acter of the individual worthy of emulation or imita- tion by others under like circumstances-certainly not for self-aggrandizement. However, sufficient has been gleaned from the life history of Allen Pierse, one of the well-known and energetic business men of Great Falls, to show that there is something in the life of this man worthy of more than mere incidental mention. He began life practically at the bottom of the ladder, which he has climbed to the top with no help but industrious hands and an intelligent brain, and is a living example of what may be ac- complished in this nature-favored country of ours by thrift and perseverance.

Allen Pierse was born at St. Paul, Minnesota, on March 26, 1856, and is the son of Allen and Annie (Corbin) Pierse. These parents had four children, two sons and two daughters. The father was a lawyer by profession and while a resident of Kansas served as a member of the State Legislature. Dur- ing the Civil war he enlisted in the Union army and gave up his life on a Southern battlefield.

Allen Pierse received his educational training in the public schools of Leavenworth, Kansas, and Buffalo, New York, to which city the family had moved during his boyhood. In 1873 he went to Corinne, Utah, thence by overland stage to Deer Lodge, Montana. There he engaged in driving a stage for Gilman & Salisbury for two years, and then he established the old Buffalo Hump Station, between Butte and Deer Lodge, to the operation of which he devoted himself for the following ten years. He then located in the Judith Basin, where he engaged in the sheep business from 1885 to 1890. In the latter year he went to Neihart and engaged in mining and merchandising. In the fall of 1894 Mr. Pierse was elected county treasurer of Meagher County, Montana, and in 1896 was re-elected to that office, thus serving two terms, to the entire satisfac- tion of the voters of that county. In 1898 he was elected county clerk, and served one term. He then spent about one and a half years in California, but is now and has been for several years a resident of Great Falls, where he is conducting a successful automobile agency, under the name of the Pierse Auto Company. He owns mining interests in Nei- hart, Butte and the Little Rockies, which are prov- ing good investments. He is well informed on the

automobile business and is proving an efficient dis- tributor for the cars he handles. He is a member of the Great Falls Chamber of Commerce. Politically he is a democrat.

On June 27, 1880, Mr. Pierse was married to Carrie M. Woods, a native of Missouri, and they are the parents of one son, Edwin A., who is a graduate of the School of Mines and is an acknowledged authority on questions pertaining to ore and mining prospects. He was married to Marie Lyon. They have two children, Edwin A., Jr., and Thomas L. Though Mr. Pierse has never sought to be a leader of men, merely striving to live up to the standard of good citizenship, he has, nevertheless, taken a commendable interest in local public affairs and has been an earnest supporter of every movement for the advancement of the best interests of the com- munity, thereby winning the confidence and good will of all who know him. -

DANIEL HANLEY, formerly of Helena and Butte and now of Lewistown, has been in Montana for over thirty years. His experiences and achieve- ment, about which he is personally very modest, must be allowed to speak for themselves in a straightforward narrative.

He was born at Lowell, Massachusetts, December 3, 1857, son of Jeremiah and Hannah (Leahy) Hanlev. His parents were born in County Cork, Ireland, coming to the United States at an early age. They were married at Lowell in 1856. Jere- miah Hanley was a practical miner, had worked in the mines in Berehaven, County Cork, and in 1859, removing from Lowell to Hancock, Michigan, was employed for several years in the copper mines there. He enlisted as a Union soldier in 1864, serv- ing until mustered out in 1865. From Upper Mich- igan in 1870 he went West and was in the silver mines of Nevada, California, Arizona and New Mexico, and died at Sante Fe at the age of seventy- five, his wife passing away aged eighty-six.

Daniel Hanley was the oldest of four sons. Alto- gether he probably never attended school more than six months. His schooling was acquired at Copper Harbor, Michigan, during the year 1868. At that time educational facilities were practically unavail- able in the copper mining districts. At the age of twelve he began work in the mines, at first in Mich- igan and later in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He worked as a waterboy on the Marquette, Hongh- ton & Ontonagon Railway in the summer of 1870. After running a hoisting engine and performing other practical duties in the mines, including clerk- ing in a company store, in the fall of 1877 he started for the Black Hills country. The first railway engine he ever saw was on the Mineral Range Rail- way, a narrow gauge line between Hancock and Calumet, Michigan. On going West a stage took him from Houghton to L'Anse, Michigan, thence by the Chicago and Northwestern Railway to Chicago and to Omaha, by the Union Pacific to Sidney, Nebraska, and thence overland by stage coach 300 miles to Deadwood. After three years as a mining prospector around Deadwood he started for Lead- ville, Colorado, in 1880, and had some varied ex- periences in the mining regions of Colorado, both at Leadville and in the Gunnison Valley.

Mr. Hanley removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1880, for several years was employed in a whole- sale fruit and produce house and in 1887 engaged in the wholesale fruit and produce business at Helena, Montana. He was in business at Helena under the name Daniel Hanley & Company until 1896, and for fourteen succeeding years was in a similar business at Butte. In 1910 he moved to Lewistown and during the past ten years has looked

allen Pierse

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after his mining interests and has been in the real estate and insurance business as president of the Montana Land Company, his two sons Marcus and Roy being his business associates.

Mr. Hanley has always been a democrat in poli- tics. He served as citv alderman of Helena four years, from 1888 to 1892, and was chairman of the democratic county central committee of Lewis and Clark County in 1892. He served two years as city treasurer of Lewistown, beginning in 1915. July 26, 1910, he was appointed United States com- missioner, and has held that office three consecutive terms. Fraternally he has been an Elk since 1896 and is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus since 1917. He is a member of the Catholic Church.

At St. Thomas, Minnesota, August 2, 1881, he married Margaret Harrington, who was born in · Northern Michigan, daughter of Jeremiah Harring- ton. To Mr. and Mrs. Hanley were born ten chil- dren : Marcus R., who married Hazel Berkin; Daniel John, who married Olive Threlkeld; May Ethel, who became the wife of John R. Bartlett, a mining engineer of Butte; Edward Jeremiah, who died in 1914, aged twenty-six; Earl Richard, who died in 1916, at the age of twenty-four; Paul Wil- liam, unmarried and living in New York City; Helena Catherine, at home; Roy W., who married Ruth Howser; Clement, who died in 1910, aged eight years; and . Marv, who died in 1886, aged six- teen months.

The son Paul registered at Lewistown, June 5, 1917, in September enlisted in the air service in New York, reached France in November, 1917, and spent considerable time in the American Army Headquarters at Chaumont. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant, and after eighteen months abroad returned to America in April, 1919. The son Roy joined the Student Army Training Corps at Missoula, September 27. 1918, and was discharged December 18, 1918.

MARCUS R. HANLEY, secretary of the Montana Land Company at Lewistown, is a son of that vet- eran Montanan, Daniel Hanley, a record of whose career is found on other pages. Marcus R. Han- lev has been an active business man in this state ior fifteen years or more.

He was born at St. Paul, Minnesota, July 25. 1882, the oldest child of Daniel and Margaret (Har- rington) Hanley. He acquired his education in the public schools of Helena and Butte, and his first business experience was in the wholesale and re- tail coal business at Butte. He remained in that city until 1916, when he came to Lewistown and as- sumed his present duties as secretary of the Mon- tana Land Company. Mr. Hanley is a democrat and is affiliated with Butte Council No. 664, Knights of Columbus, and is a member of the Catholic Church. He belongs to the Judith Club and the Chamber of Commerce in Lewistown.

May 18, 1906, he married Miss Hazel Berkin. She was born at Boulder, Montana, daughter of John and Hallie (Wolgamoth) Berkin, the former a native of England and the latter of Illinois. Mrs. Hanley was the second of their four children. John Berkin was a Montana pioneer, having come to Boulder Valley with his parents and having received his early education in this state. He is a veteran mining man and is still active at Butte as one of the superintendents of the Anaconda Copper Company. He has also been a leading figure in the democratic party and twice represented his district in the State Legislature. Mr. and Mrs. Hanley have three chil- dren : John Berkin, Mary Isabel and Edward Daniel.

Vol. II-36

LEE W. CRUTCHER, of Butte, sales manager of the Simmons Company, spent his early life on an Illi- nois farm. About the time when most young men make a choice of some definite vocation he was stricken with typhoid fever and spent a number of weeks in bed, with plenty of time to think over and canvass thoroughly his individual talents, his in- clinations and tastes. The fever left him incapaci- tated for hard physical labor, and thus the door was shut to any idea of becoming a farmer. He decided that he could sell goods, and that youthful decision has heen justified by a career that proves Mr. Crutcher of the supreme class of salesmanship.

He was born at Chicago, Illinois, August 28, 1881. His grandfather, James Crutcher, was born in Kentucky in 1801, of Scotch and English ancestry. James Crutcher moved from Kentucky to the vicin- ity of Leavenworth, Kansas, in pioneer times, had a farm in Eastern Kansas and died at Leavenworth in 1888. Everard H. Crutcher, father of the Butte business man, was born in Kentucky in 1858, and was a small boy when his parents moved to Kansas. He was reared and educated in the vicinity of Leavenworth, was married there and then removed to Chicago, where for a time he was in railroad work. In 1882 he established his home at Plainfield, Illinois, and from that time until his death in 1897, was busy with the cares and responsibilities of farming. His farm was a half mile west of Plain- field, and he enjoyed the reputation in that com- munity of being a thorough farmer and expert judge of livestock. He was a democrat in politics and was affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Home Forum. Ever- ard H. Crutcher married Lyda A. Thomas, who was born at Plainfield, Illinois, in 1861, and is now living at Lincoln, Nebraska. Her children are four in number: Lee W .; Allan T., who lives at San Fran- cisco and is general sales manager on the coast for the Simmons Company: Rebecca, wife of Cyril M. McKee, a farmer living at Lincoln, Nebraska; and Elizabeth, wife of C. E. Ayer, a promoter, whose home is at Lincoln.

Lee W. Crutcher . attended the public schools of Plainfield, Illinois, and was sixteen years of age when his father died. He continued to live on the home farm for about a year after that, when he was stricken with typhoid. After recovering some- what his health and strength he made his first essay at salesmanship, in a house to house canvass at Plainfield selling household novelties. He went through that difficult test of salesmanship success- fully for two years. Leaving Illinois he went to Lincoln, Nebraska, worked six months in a grocery store as a salesman, and then in the carnet and drapery department of the Herpolsheimer Company until the spring of 1903. The following three years he was on the road representing the Lincoln Up- holstering .Company, covering the territory of Southern Nebraska and Kansas. He also became a stockholder in that company and at the present time is assistant secretary of the business.

While on the road for the Lincoln Upholstering Company Mr. Crutcher took as a side line the famous Hoosier Kitchen Cabinet, manufactured at Newcastle, Indiana He sold those cabinets on a commission basis until 1906. The Hoosier Com- pany then attracted him into their exclusive service on a straight salary proposition, and for over ten years, until January I. 1017, his salesmanship was relied upon as the chief instrument in building up the tremendous business of this company in many of the western states. For several years he covered the territory of Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Okla- homa, Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. In 1912 he

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was assigned the task of opening new territory into which the Hoosier cabinets had not yet been car- ried on an organized scale. This territory included part of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Mon- tana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington and Oregon. During 1915-16 Mr. Crutcher made his home and headquarters at Portland, Oregon. His success in opening and establishing business in the new terri- tory was such that he was appointed district man- ager in charge of the sales organization over part of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon, Mr. Crutcher paid his first visit to Montana in the fall of 1912.

He resigned from the Hoosier Company and on January I, 1917, became sales manager of the Butte branch of the Simmons Company. For many years the Simmons Company at Kenosha, Wisconsin, has been one of the largest plants in the world manu- facturing "Simmons" beds, springs and similar equipment. The quality and design of the Simmons beds are unsurpassed, and in recent years as a re- sult of a nation-wide publicity campaign these beds have enjoyed a tremendous sale and are handled by some of the most exclusive department stores in the country. The Simmons Company also manu- factures a large line of supplies for camp equip- ment, including double deck bunks, folding chairs, etc. The company has branch houses in every prominent city in the United States and Canada, the plant and offices at Butte being at 843 East South Montana Street. From the returns now available it is estimated that the business of the Simmons Company for 1920 will average more than a million dollars a week.

Mr. Crutcher very appropriately has enjoyed a modest share of the prosperity which he has helped create for this great business institution. Among other interests he owns a modern home at 2719 Edward Street in Butte, also a large residence at Kansas City, Missouri, and a farm in Texas. He is an independent voter, is affiliated with the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, and is a member of the Rotary Club, Silver Bow Club, Chamber of Com- merce, South Side Club of Butte, and is affiliated with Lincoln Lodge, Ancient Order of United Workmen. In 1905, at Chicago, he married Miss Laura M. Kidd, daughter of W. A. and Emma Kidd, residents of Portland, Oregon. Her father is now retired on a pension after a long service for the Northwestern Railroad. Mr. and Mrs. Crutcher have three children: Lee W., Jr., Genevieve E. and Mercelia.

H. B. PULSIFER as research professor of the Montana State School of Mines and metallurgist to the State Bureau of Mines and Metallurgy, oc- cupies a peculiarly responsible position with refer- ence to the great mineral resources of Montana. His experience has been a broadly practical one and his technical training has also been derived from association with some of the leading scientific institutions of America and abroad.

Mr. Pulsifer was born at Lebanon, New Hamp- shire, December 23, 1879, and represents a family of sterling New England farmers. He is in the ninth generation of the Pulsifer family in America. His first American ancestor was Joseph Pulsifer, whose father was probably an English sea captain, and who lived at Ipswich, Massachusetts, from 1705 to 1749. The grandfather of H. B. Pulsifer was George Baxter Pulsifer, who was born at Danbury, New Hampshire, April 7, 1824, and spent all his life as a New Hampshire farmer. He died at Lebanon, May 26, 1904. His wife was Elizabeth Jane Taylor, a native of Danbury, who died November 26, 1903.

Two of their children are still living: C. E. Pulsi- fer and George, the latter a business man at Leb- anon.

C. E. Pulsifer was born at Danbury, New Hamp- shire, in 1846, and has spent all his life in his na- tive state. As a young man he learned the carpenter and cabinet maker's trade, but for the past twenty- five years has been a merchant and a leading and substantial citizen of Lebanon. He is a republican, a member of the Baptist Church, and an Odd Fel- low. In 1872 he married Clara A. Clay, a native of New Hampshire, who died in 1873. C. E. Pulsi- fer married for his second wife Ellen D. Bridgman in 1877. She was born at Hanover, New Hamp- shire, in 1850, and died at Lebanon in 1904. Her two sons were H. B. and F. Ernest. The latter is in business with his father at Lebanon.

H. B. Pulsifer attended public school at Lebanon, graduating from high school in 1898, spent one year in the Colby. Academy at New London, New Hamp- shire, and in 1903 graduated from the Massachu- setts Institute of Technology with the Bachelor of Science degree. The following year he spent as instructor of chemistry in the New Hampshire State College, and in 1904 became chemist in Henry Souther's engineering laboratory at Hartford, Con- necticut. During 1905, and until the fall of 1906. he was assayer and employed in metallurgical work in Old Mexico. The next year he added to his qualifications by a course of study in the University of Munich in Germany, specializing in physics, chemistry and other sciences. From 1907 to 1909 he was engaged in various technical capacities in the mining districts of Missouri, Oregon and Old Mexico, and from 1909 for two years was con- nected with lead smelters in Utah. Since 1911 Mr. Pulsifer has given most of his time and talents to technical education. In 1911 he became instructor of metallurgy at the Armour Institute of Tech- nology in Chicago, and later was appointed assistant professor, remaining with that institution until 1917. In the latter year he came with the Montana State School of Mines at Butte as professor of metal- lurgy, and in 1919 was made research professor and when the State Bureau of Mines and Metal- lurgy was established in that year was appointed metallurgist. His offices are in the Administration Building in the School of Mines. Mr. Pulsifer affiliates as a republican in politics.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 157

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