Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 158

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

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September 9, 1909, at Salt Lake City, Utah, he married Sarah Cecilia Cantlion, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Cantlion. The latter makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. Pulsifer. Her father was a miner. Mr. and Mrs. Pulsifer have three children : Carmen, born June 15, 1910; Phyllis, born October II, III : and Verne, born July 5, 1915.

ARTHUR ERNEST ADAMI, a mining engineer, as- sistant professor of mining engineering in the Mon- tana State School of Mines at Butte, is a native Montanan, and his father was a pioneer at Helena.

Mr. Adami was born at Helena, May 2, 1886. His father, Henry Adami, was born in Germany in 1852, came to the United States at the age of fourteen, and has lived at Helena and other points in Mon- tana since 1870. He grew up with the capital city and spent his active life as a contractor in road building and other lines of construction and also in stock raising. He has served as a councilman at Helena, is a republican and a member of the Lu- theran Church. Henry Adami married Elizabeth Maas, who was born at Neiderweisel. Germany, in 1854. They have six children: Charles J., general manager of the St. Joe Lead Company at Bonnc Terre, Missouri; Henry C., an assayer and chemist at Wallace, Idaho; Louise, wife of D. J. Ragen, a

In Halker

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rancher at East Helena : Elizabeth K., wife of L. W. Williamson, a real estate and insurance man at Helena; Arthur E .; and Bertha E., wife of J. S. Higgins, cashier of an oil company at Great Falls.

Arthur Ernest Adami was educated in the public schools of Helena, graduating from high school in 1903 and received his degree Mining Engineer from the Montana State School of Mines in 1907. The four months following he spent as an assayer with the Red Metal Mining Company. The following two vears he was an instructor in the Montana State School of Mines. During 1908 he was again employed for four months as an assayer for the Boston and Montana Mining Company, after which he assumed his duties as Assistant Professor of Mining Engineering. He is also mining engineer for the Montana State Bureau of Mines and Metal- lurgy.

Mr. Adami is an independent in politics and a member of the Episcopal Church. August 9, 19II, at Butte, he married Miss Alma Erickson, a native of Butte and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alex Erick- son. Her parents were pioneers in the mining dis- trict of Butte. Mrs. Adami is a graduate of the Butte High School. They have two children, Jane, born December 6, 1912, and Arthur E., Jr., born June 6, 1915.

I. N. WALKER has been in business in Montana, North Dakota and other sections of the Northwest for a number of years, has a host of loyal friends in all these communities, and that fact alone speaks better than anything else for his sterling ability and integrity. His home for a number of years has been in Great Falls, where he is a member of the Wil- liams-Walker-Purdy Company, real estate and loans.

As the people of Montana are now aware, Mr. Walker has for several years been doing more than anyone else to make real history in this state. He supplied the faith, the hope, the energy and by his contagious influence among his friends also much of the capital for the first important oil development in the state.

The culmination of his history making enterprise as an oil developer came in July, 1919, when a well pumped to the depth of 1850 feet flowed full of oil. This event was heralded far and near as the first important oil strike in Montana. It is known as the Tri-City well and is located near Franklin west of Roundup in the Musselshell oil district. Experts and doubters of all kinds steadily discouraged the idea that Montana had oil in commercial quantities. It was the insistent enthusiasm and efforts of Mr. Walker that disproved this theory. Mr. Walker was the man who first secured the leases on which the Tri-City well was sunk.

The Great Falls Daily Tribune in commenting upon the oil strike gave some historical facts con- cerning the enterprise that may be properly quoted here :

"The company was formed in Great Falls about three years ago by S. S. Hobson, I. N. Walker, Frank Mitchell, J. B. Elliott and others. More than 60,000 of the 150,000 shares issued by the company are held by local parties. Some time after the formation of the local company Billings residents, including A. L. Babcock and J. E. Logan, joined the Great Falls men in financing the proposition. Directors of the company at the present time include S. S. Hobson and J. B. Elliott of Great Falls ; T. C. Power of Helena and L. C. Bahcock of Billings.

"Besides the property near Franklin the Tri-City Company has large holdings in the Devil's Basin country north of Roundup. By assuming leases to 12,000 acres of oil land held by the Roundup Gas and Oil Company, the Tri-City Company acquired leases

to 6,000 acres. A sub-contract to the Van Dusen Oil Company granted the Van Dusen Company 1,500 acres in return for drilling a well in the Devil's Basin Country. This company is now preparing to drill the well. In the well which produced the flow near Franklin the Tri-City Company financed the drilling to 1,500 feet and beyond that depth the Van Dusen Company agreed to meet half the expenses of the drilling, which is being carried on by the Tri- City Company.

"I. N. Walker of Great Falls, a large stockholder in the Tri-City Company, returned to this city re- cently after a visit to the strike at Franklin."

Mr. Walker was born at Lestard, Ontario, Canada, January 20, 1866, a son of James and Martha (Brad- ley) Walker. His parents were both natives of On- tario. His father was born in 1845 and died in 1897, while the mother is still living in her eighty-first year. I. N. Walker was the seventh of eleven chil- dren, seven of whom are still living. His father was a blacksmith by trade, and for several years worked as a tool dresser in the oil fields of Western Penn- sylvania. He then went back to Lestard, Ontario, and was in business until his death. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Church.

I. N. Walker attended the public schools of On- tario, and when about twenty-one years of age he was attracted to the newly developed country of the Dakotas. He took up a homestead near the present City of Devil's Lake, and used ox teams to break his land. He had poor crops, and in order to make a living he taught school at Grand Harbor, North Dakota. About 1887 he engaged in the loan business and for several years he was employed as an ex- aminer of loans, representing twenty-one banks in this capacity throughout North Dakota. When sev- eral banks in that section were thrown into receiver- ship Mr. Walker was appointed to clear up their affairs, and it is said that no one ever lost a single dollar from his management and administration. Mr. Walker had about a year of experience and residence in Old Mexico, and then going back to Devil's Lake he engaged in the real estate and loan business with Eaton & Higbee. This firm later, in 1896, sold out to the William H. Brown Land Company, now of Chicago. From 1896 to 1904 Mr. Walker had full charge of the business of this concern as its out- side manager. From 1904 to 1908 he was in the land business and also personally engaged in the coloniza- tion of the Province of Southern Alberta, Canada.

On coming into the Judith Basin of Montana in 1908 Mr. Walker resumed the management of the local affairs of the William H. Brown Land Com- pany, and in 1911 moved to Great Falls and for the greater part of the time since then has been a mem- ber of the Williams-Walker-Purdy Company, han- dling lands and city property. Mr. Walker handles all the loans made by this company, and is regarded as one of the best posted men in the state on land values in general.

He has been too busy with other affairs to take an interest in politics as a matter of personal advantage. He was made a Mason in the lodge at Devil's Lake, North Dakota, and is now affiliated with Euclid Lodge No. 58 at Great Falls. He was also a mem- ber of Devil's Lake Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and now belongs to Great Falls Chapter No. 9 and is affiliated with Black Eagle Commandery No. 8, Knights Templar, and belongs to the Odd Fellows. He is a republican in politics.

June 4, 1892, Mr. Walker married Anna L. Lyn- den. She was born in Iowa. They have three daugh- ters, Ruth, Martha and Esther.

OSWALD M. GERER is one of the prominent fruit growers in the western part of the state, having

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cultivated and developed a fruit ranch near Ham- ilton for a number of years. His prominence in fruit growing circles makes him a highly qualified member of the State Board of Horticulture. He is also one of the leading men in the Equity Co- operative movement in the Northwest, being presi- dent and manager of the association's store at Ham- ilton.

Mr. Gerer was born at Vorarlberg, Austria, Feb- ruary 4, 1875. His father, Matthews Gerer, was born in the same locality in 1844 and in 1884 came to America and located at Helena, Montana, where he lived the last ten years of his life. He died in 1894. He was a gardener by occupation. He was a Catholic in religion. He married Josephine Hell- buck, who is still living in Austria, near the Swiss border. They had three children: Hirlanda of Helena, Montana, widow of John Kauzman, who for many years was connected with the Kessler Brewing Company; Albina, wife of J. H. Bierman, operator of the stage and mail route and a resident of Helena; and Oswald M.

Oswald M. Gerer attended public school in Aus- tria, and was fourteen years of age when in 1889 he came to Helena, Montana. He worked at vari- ous occupations there for seven or eight years, and in 1897 learned and engaged in the bakery business. He operated a bakeshop at Helena until 1903, in which year he located at Hamilton and engaged in fruit farming. His fruit ranch is three miles northwest of town. He has made a special study of horticultural conditions in this section of the Northwest and has made the business profitable. His chief crops are apples and cherries. He owns a' modern residence on his home ranch.

Mr. Gerer became president and manager of the Equity Co-operative Association of Hamilton in 1917. He is also a director in the Equity Co-opera- tive Association of Montana. There are many branches of the Equity Association of Montana and the history of the enterprise as a whole is a sub- stantial demonstration of the power and vitality of the cooperative principle. The business at Hamil- ton sells and handles for the growers produce and fruit and also contributes groceries and other sup- plies to its members.

Mr. Gerer is an independent in politics. He is affiliated with Ionic Lodge No. 38, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Hamilton Chapter No. 18, Royal Arch Masons. He married at Helmville, Montana, Miss Elsie Peterson, who was born at Breslau, Germany. They have three children : Rudolph, born May 13, 1902, a sophomore in the Hamilton High School; Mildred, born February II, 1904, also in her second year of high school; and Dorothy, born June 5, 1910, in the fifth grade of the grammar school.

JOHN F. MAIR is an expert millwright and lumber- man, a profession he learned in the lumber districts of Eastern Canada, and has followed it since early manhood. He has been identified with the construc- tion of mills and their operation in nearly every state and province of Western Canada and the northwest- ern states. Mr. Mair is now general superintendent of the lumber department of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, with headquarters at Bonner. He was born at Campbellton, New Brunswick, January 15, 1874. He is of Scotch ancestry. His grand- father, John Mair, was born near Aberdeen, Scotland, and was one of the first three emigrants from Scot- land who settled the village of Campbellton, New Brunswick. He spent the rest of his life in that province as a farmer and ship carpenter. His wife was Margaret Adams, a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia. They were married at Campbellton, and both

of them died there. John Mair, father of John F. Mair, was born at Campbellton in 1834, and spent all his life there. He was a lumberman, farmer and also had interests in the salmon fisheries. He died at Campbellton in 1916. He was a sturdy type of citi- zen, in whom his fellows reposed the utmost con- fidence, and he exercised much influence in local affairs. For more than forty years he was a trustee of the public schools of Campbellton. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church forty-five years and in politics was a liberal. He married Katherine Firth, who was born in the Province of Quebec at Escum- inac in 1847 and died at Campbellton, New Bruns- wick, in 1903. John F. Mair is second in a family of seven children. Elsie, the oldest, is the wife of Alexander Miller, a farmer at Campbellton; Edgar W. is a druggist at Woodstock, New Brunswick; Mary died at Campbellton in 1914; Katherine, who died at Ham Heung, Korea, April 4, 1919, was a missionary, and was married in Korea to L. L. Young, also a missionary there but at present in Nova Scotia; Marjorie, wife of Donald McLean, a prominent land and property owner at Campbellton; and Douglas J., a banker at Vancouver, British Co- lumbia.

John F. Mair received his education at Campbell- ton, and though he left school at the age of fourteen he had completed the work of the twelfth grade and was well advanced in his school studies. The next four years he worked on a farm and at the age of eighteen he began a practical apprenticeship in the lumbering business in his father's sawmill at Camp- bellton. He continued to help operate that plant until the mill was sold. Then, at the age of twenty- six, with an expert knowledge of lumber manufac- ture, he started out as a journeyman, and his experi- ence in the building and operation of mills has taken him all over the West, through Ontario, Canada, and other provinces and states. For many years he was a foreman for W. A. Wilkinson in building saw- mills in Ontario as far west as Nelson, British Co- lumbia, at Boise and Potlatch, Idaho, at LaGrange, Oregon, then again for a time in British Columbia, following which, he was at Sand Point and Spirit Lake, Idaho, Park Falls, Wisconsin, and at Bonner's Ferry, Idaho. In the fall of 1909, Mr. Mair left the service of Mr. Wilkinson, and as foreman for H. W. Huffman built a sawmill at Winchester, Idaho. Dur- ing the spring of I911 he was employed in repairing the A. C. M. Company's mill at St. Regis, Montana, and continued the same line of work during the winter of 1911-12 at Somers, Montana. Following that he entered the employ of the A. C. M. Company and was again at St. Regis until August; 1914, when he came to Bonner as superintendent of construction at the Bonner plant of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Later he was promoted to general super- intendent in the lumber department of this corpora- tion and has under his direction 300 employes.

Mr. Mair takes an active part in local affairs, is scout master of the Boy Scouts of Bonner, is super- intendent of the Sunday school of the American Sunday School Union at Bonner and is a member of Campbellton Lodge of Masons in his native province. Politically he is independent. Mr. Mair married at Sand Point, Idaho, in 1907, Miss Nellie Mahoney, daughter of Charles and Margaret Mahoney, both deceased. Her father was a Wisconsin farmer. Mrs. Mair died March 5, 1917.

CHARLES M. JOHNSON. It is the good old adage which tells us that "opportunity knocks once at each man's door," that at least one time in a man's life he is given the chance to grasp advantitious circum- stance and through it places himself in a position to rise to recognition in the field opened up before him.

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This is undoubtedly true, as can be proved by thou- sands of successful careers, but the man who waits for the knock of opportunity will be found far in the rear of the individual who has the ability to make opportunity while his less ambitious fellows have allowed it to slip through their grasp. The modern man of business has little use for the man who waits for something to "turn up." He realizes that it takes but mediocre ability to take something that has al- ready been developed; and it is, therefore, that the man who makes a place for himself, not the man who takes a place vacated by others, is the one who creates the greatest demand for his services. Some men there are who can follow but one line; their abilities seem to have been developed in but one direc- tion, and oftentimes they never discover their proper field of activity until it is too late, until the best of their power has been contributed to a vocation upon which their inclination and inherited abilities have been wasted. It is the man who realizes his proper field, who is possessed of the courage to grasp the opportunity presented in that direction, who rises above his fellows and eventually attains distinction, just for the reason that he has these qualities.

The above statements review in brief the reasons for the successful career of Charles M. Johnson, one of the leading builders and contractors of Anaconda, who has to his credit practically one-third of the residences and other buildings of the city, as well as other work in the surrounding district. Mr. John- son was born at Wexio, Sweden, July 26, 1836, a son of Magnus Johanson, also born at Wexio, Sweden, in 1820. There he spent his useful life, occupying himself with farming, and died in 1872. He married Joanna Magnuson, who was born at Wexio in 1834, and died there in 1902. Their children were as fol- lows: Mary, who is deceased, married a Mr. Till- strom, a soldier in the regular Swedish army, and died near Wexio, Sweden; Sophia, who married a Mr. Skon, a carpenter and builder, lives at St. Paul, Minnesota ; Sara, Annie and Emma, all of whom still live in Sweden; and Charles M., who was the third in order of birth.

Growing up in his native place, Charles M. John- son attended its schools until he was eleven years old, at which time he had to begin working, and alternated in assisting his father on the farm with an apprenticeship to the carnenter trade. Coming to the United States in 1879 he found work in a lumber yard at Minneapolis, Minnesota, for a season, and then for four months was employed by a contractor in installing water pumps. For the next two and one-half years Mr. Johnson was engaged in operating an old wood sawing machine on the Saint Paul & Sioux City Railroad. For the next three years he worked completing his apprenticeship at the car- penter trade at Duluth, Minnesota, and upon finish- ing it he engaged in contracting in that city for four years. It was his ambition to go further west, and in 1889 he came to Montana, and for a time was at Butte, where he built two large residences, a big business block and some smaller buildings. He then came to Anaconda, where he has since remained, and when he located in the city he was the pioneer in his line. He is now assisted by Mr. W. A. Law, whom he has taken into partnership. Mr. Johnson has erected the courthouse, the Elks Hall, the Alpine Apartments, the Durston Block, the high school and many residences and business buildings, all of which stand as monuments to his skill and faithful attention to detail.

In politics Mr. Johnson is a democrat. The Pres- byterian Church holds his membership and through it he finds expression for his religious faith. Frater- nally he maintains connections with Anaconda Lodge No. 239, Benevolent and Protective Order

of Elks, while in the Anaconda Club and the Anaconda Country Club he finds social relaxa- tion. In addition to his other interests Mr. John- son is a director of the Hidden Lake Mining Company. He is not married, and resides at 212 East Fourth Street. During the long years of his residence here Mr. Johnson has championed every movement designed to promote the general welfare, has supported every enterprise for the public good, and has materially aided in the advancement of all social, educational and moral interests, and there are few men who stand higher in the opinion of their fellow citizens than he.

ARTHUR HALLECK BROWN. Among all the pro- fessions the law perhaps requires the greatest amount `of study along lines generally accepted as uninter- esting, for the physician in the greater majority of cases becomes absorbed in scientific investigation at the beginning of his reading, the educator's interest is quickened by the possibilities which lie before him in the field of instructing the minds of youth, and the minister enters upon his labors with mind il- lumined and heart attune. The hard facts of law that have to be learned by themselves, and so learned that the understanding is quickened into the com- prehension that may later be drawn upon before . judge and jury, have very often discouraged a stu- dent at the outset and have resulted in his turning to a much easier vocation. Not so, however, with Arthur Halleck Brown, one of the leading members of the Billings legal fraternity, and senior member of the firm of Brown & Tilford. Mr. Brown did not commence his career as a lawyer, but once he had entered upon his profession he became an interested devotee of his difficult vocation, and since his ad- mission to the bar has maintained and even further developed this interest with the passing of each year.

Mr. Brown was born November 12, 1880, at Win- amac, the county seat of Pulaski County, Indiana, a son of E. R. and Emma (March) Brown. The Brown family originated in England, from whence the original immigrant came to America during the colonial days and settled in New Jersey, and the great-great-grandfather of Arthur H. Brown en- listed from that colony for service as a soldier of the Continental Line during the Revolutionary war. Ira Brown, the grandfather of Arthur H., was born in Salem County, New Jersey, and was a pioneer into Pulaski County, Indiana, where he followed agricultural pursuits throughout a long and honor- able career, and died at the age of fifty-eight years. prior to the birth of his grandson. He married Sophia Blew, a native of Indiana, born near Brook- ville, Pulaski County, who died at the age of eighty- four years.

E. R. Brown was born in 1846, in Pulaski County, Indiana, and during the past twenty-five years he has been a resident of Monticello, that state, where he is a prominent merchant and banker, a leading and public spirited citizen, an elder for many years in the Presbyterian Church, and a republican and member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. During the Civil war he served as a soldier of the Union for four years, during which time he partici- pated in twenty-seven of the leading battles. He was a member of the Twenty-seventh Regiment, In- diana Volunteer Infantry, and among his engage- ments were Chancellorsville, Antietam and Gettys- burg, following which his regiment was transferred from the Army of the Potomac to the Army of the Cumberland, and with the latter took part in Gen- eral Sherman's famous March to the Sea. The Twenty-seventh Regiment was one of the hardest- fighting units of the Union Army and had the third

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highest percentage of casualties sustained by any regiment during the war. Mr. Brown was a brave and valiant soldier and always at his post of duty, and during the fierce fight at Antietam received a severe wound, and still carries this honorable scar. For many years he has been prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic, and in 1906 was department commander for the State of Indiana. Mr. Brown married Emma March, who was born in 1859, in Pulaski County, Indiana, and they became the parents of two children: Arthur Halleck; and Genevieve, who is unmarried and makes her home with her parents.

Arthur H. Brown attended the public schools of Monticello, Indiana, where he finished his junior year in high school. He left school to engage in the furniture business in partnership with his father, but after a short experience enlisted in the volunteer army for service during the Spanish-American war, in the spring of 1898, as a member of the One Hun- dred and Sixty-first Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. With his command he was sent to Jack- sonville, Florida, and then to Cuba, where he took part in a number of engagements, and in May, 1899, received his honorable discharge and was mustered out of the service, with an excellent record. Re- turning to Monticello, he again took up his studies as a student at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, In- diana, which he attended from the fall of 1900 to the fall of 1902. Next Mr. Brown took a course at In- diana College, Bloomington, Indiana, being grad- uated with the class of 1903, and the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and during his college career joined the Phi Gamma Delta Greek letter social fra- ternity. When he returned to Monticello he was associated with his father for three and one half years in the furniture business, and then re-entered Indiana University as a law student. He was duly graduated in June, 1909, with his cherished degree of Bachelor of Laws, and as a member of the legal fraternity of Phi Delta Phi. In the same year he began practice at Monticello, but in September came to Billings and formed the law firm of Hathhorn and Brown. In 1912 he was made receiver for the First Trust and Savings Bank of Billings, a work which required his undivided attention until the spring of 1919, when his task was completed. In the meantime his partner, Mr. Hathhorn, had died, and in 1913 there was formed the present firm of Brown & Tilford, considered one of the strong and skilled legal combinations of the city. The firm maintains office at 319 to 322 Securities Building, and has a long list of prominent concerns upon its books, its connections as counsel and adviser being a prominent, formidable and representative one. In many cases of vast importance the members of this combine have demonstrated their ability, and both members are prominent in legal circles.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 158

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