Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 164

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

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

was one of its employes. After coming to the United States and locating in Michigan Mr. Rich- ardon was engaged in farming until his retirement, which took place after the death of his wife in 1902, after which he went to North Dakota and visited his children. A year later he returned to Michigan and was married to Mrs. Fredica Benze, and about 1905 they went to Pasadena, California, where he died. From the time he secured his naturalization papers he was a republican.

C. F. Richardon attended the rural schools of his native county and the Dexter High School, from which he was graduated in the class of 1897, and in the fall of that year he came as far west as Chaffee, North Dakota, where he spent two years teaching school. He then embarked in a general merchandise business at Chaffee, and conducted it until the fall of 1902, when he sold. In 1903 he assisted in organizing the Chaffee State Bank, and served it as cashier for four years, when he helped to organize the Farmers Security Bank of Chaffee, which absorbed the state bank, and he was its cashier until the fall of 1908. At that time he came to Roundup and organized the Citizens State Bank of this city, and was its cashier until the spring of 1915, when he resigned to take charge of the farm loans department, and become its vice president. Mr. Richardon owns a fine ranch and is quite an extensive wheat grower. He was also instrumental in the organization of the Musselshell County Ab- stract Company, of which he is president, and he is manager, secretary and treasurer of the Citizens Loan and Insurance Company. For one term he served as city treasurer of Roundup. In politics a republican, he is very active in his party, and was chairman of the County Central Committee of his party until 1918, when he was made a member of the State Central Committee. During the great war he was chairman of the Young Men's Christian Association committee and took an active part in all of the movements of that organization, as well as all of the other drives for war work purposes. At present he is chairman of the Roosevelt Memorial drive. For two years he has been on the school board of Roundup. The Methodist Episcopal Church holds his membership, and he is as energetic in it as he is in other organizations.

On December 29, 1899, Mr. Richardon was united in marriage with Alice E. Oertli, born in Wisconsin, a daughter of Conrad and Louise (Linse) Oertli, the former born in Switzerland and the latter in Saxony, Germany. Of their three children, Mrs. Richardon is the eldest. Mr. and Mrs. Oertli are now living at Yakima, Washington. Gladys Merle, the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Richardon, is one of the bright students of the Roundup public schools. The organizing ability Mr. Richardon has displayed has brought into being several first-class concerns, and he has never lost his interest in them, nor have they in him, but his advice is sought and followed upon many occasions, for his executive capabilities are fully as great. As a citizen he measures up to the highest standards of usefulness, and Roundup has benefited from his location in its midst and his efforts in its behalf.

DANIEL A. G. FLOWERREE. As a Montana pioneer the late Daniel A. G. Flowerree had some share and experience in the mining activities which was the primary attraction of the territory. His most inter- esting distinction rests upon the foresight and enter- prise that led him, probably first among the original settlers, to devote his resources to ranching and stock raising. At one time he was the largest individua! producer of livestock in the state. He was a sterling

business man, highly successful, and through his power and integrity was a stay to other business in time of storm and stress.

He was born in Ralls County, Missouri, May 19, 1835, son of Kemp and Matilda (Caldwell) Flower- ree. His grandfather, Walter Flowerree, was a Vir- ginia planter, moved from there to Kentucky, and in 1822 settled in Missouri. Walter Flowerree mar- ried a member of the distinguished Breckenridge family of Kentucky. Kemp Flowerree lived in Mis- souri from 1833 until his death in 1881, and his widow survived him until 1887.

Daniel A. G. Flowerree grew up in Missouri, but the far west, with its romance and adventure, soon took him away from home ties. In 1852, at the age of seventeen, he went to California, and in 1855 went to the southern country of Nicaragua with the Walker Expedition. From 1857 to 1864 he lived quietly in Missouri.

Mr. Flowerree came to Montana in 1864, just about a year after the first mining prospectors had located in the gulches and valleys. He traveled by the Salt Lake City route and arrived at Virginia City in 1864. Late in 1865 he moved to Last Chance Gulch at Helena, and in that year introduced to Montana a herd of cattle brought from Missouri. Doubtless there were others among the pioneers who recog- nized the availability of Montana as a cattle growing section, but probably none of them put their faith into execution and carried out plans to larger pro- portions than did the late Mr. Flowerree. During the '7os he introduced many hundreds of cattle, brought up over the old cattle trails from Texas, and also brought in horses and cattle from Oregon. In time his herds covered a vast domain of leased and patented lands in Lewis and Clark, Teton, Cas- cade and other counties, and to the end of his life he owned immense holdings in those sections. It is said that Mr. Flowerree built the first shingled roof houses in Helena and Virginia City, the one in Virginia City being the first two-story house erected in Montana.

His business initiative never left him. Late in - life, after he had begun spending his winters in Florida, he recognized the possibilities of the grape fruit and orange industry of that state, and near Fort Meyer developed one of the most productive and valuable grapefruit plantations in Florida.

Mr. Flowerree was possessed of extensive capital resources and became a recognized power in Mon- tana finance. Business always meant to him some- thing more than an opportunity for personal ad- vantage and profit. He recognized his duty as a steward of wealth. During the panic of 1893 he bor- rowed on his personal note $400,000 from a Chicago commission house and turned it over to a Helena bank which was threatened with bankruptcy, saving it from failure and doing much to bolster up the financial credit of the entire state.

Mr. Flowerree died at Atlanta, Georgia, Novem- ber 22, 1912, at the age of seventy-seven. His funeral was held in Helena under the auspices of the Lewis and Clark Society of Montana Pioneer's. From a well deserved tribute paid him by one of the speak- ers of the occasion is appropriately selected the fol- lowing paragraph :

"Much of the best in many people whom I have known is not proclaimed upon the house tops. It is quiet, unobtrusive and silent; yet there is good there, there is kindness and health and sympathy and love. Like the coming of the day upon the grass and flowers, or the approach of the morning sun to the golden doors of the East, not a footfall is heard, not a trumpet sound, not a saluting gun is fired ; yet they come, and because they come some barren

WHO COMENER

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

place is revived, some dropping flower lifts its head, some discouraged soul looks up and takes courage. Like so many of these earlier men of Montana who saw the rougher side of life and endured the hard- ships incident to formative days of social evolution, Mr. Flowerree was big-hearted and generous; keen and prudent in business which grew in dimensions, he was open-handed and unselfish. Many an old friend and acquaintance, down on his luck, knew where he could turn for help, and indeed many could testify that they did not need to ask, as it was enough that they were in need to find his helping hand ready. As a father, husband and friend he was loved. As a citizen he was esteemed. He did what he could as he knew it, as life appeared to him, as the unselfish spirit led him in the way of sympa- thetic helpfulness to cxpress the best within him."

Mr. Flowerree married Miss Elizabeth Wethers, of Missouri. She died in 1882, the mother of four children, William K .; Annie M., who became the wife of W. L. Velie, of Moline, Illinois; Eudors, who was married to J. J. Gray, of Chicago, and Elizabeth, wife of William Wallace, Jr., of Helena. February 4. 1885, Mr. Flowerree married Miss Elizabeth F. Cornelius, and they had one son, Daniel A. G., Jr. -

WILLIAM KEMP FLOWERREE, banker, business man and rancher of Great Falls, grew up from early childhood in Montana, and for many years was actively associated with the extensive ranching and other business enterprises of his father, the late Daniel A. G. Flowerree, whose career as a Montana pioneer has been elsewhere sketched.

William Kemp Flowerree was born at Huntsville, in Randolph County, Missouri, June 30, 1861, and came to Montana with his parents in 1865. He can hardly remember a time when he could not ride a horse. At the age of eight he spent a summer rid- ing the range for his father and was given in pay two heifer calves. The commercial instinct mani- fested itself in him as a boy. At Helena, where the family lived, he would gather up bottles and sell them, whiskey bottles bringing seventy-five cents apiece, other bottles a dollar and a half a dozen, and tin cans, especially old oil cans, twenty-five cents apiece. There was a scarcity of tin in the state at that time, and the tin recovered from cans and other containers was used for roofing purposes. Another early employment was driving a mule through a long day from seven in the morning until six at night, at a salary of 50 cents per day. Mr. Flowerree was sent back to Missouri to complete his high school education, and he also attended the Kempers Mili- tary School at Booneville.

As an associate with his father in the cattle and horse business he served as vice president of the F. D. Company. In 1880 he was one of a party of ten men who took 1200 head of cattle across the country to Cheyenne, Wyoming. On the way they were halted by Sitting Bull and his 600 Indians, and remained a day and a half in parley before the white men and their cattle were allowed to proceed. Cheyenne was then the nearest shipping point, and from there the cattle were sent to the Chicago markets. Mr. Flowerree was vice president of the Flowerree Stock Company until his father's death, and then succeeded as president of the com- pany, one of the largest concerns of the kind in Montana.

Mr. Flowerree became associated in the organiza- tion of the American Bank & Trust Company at Great Falls in 1915 and is vice president of that in- stitution. He served two terms as a member of the State Senate, representing Teton County, and is affiliated with Helena Lodge No. 193 of the Elks.

March 2, 1889, he married Norma Kinna, who was born at Helena, daughter of John and Jennett Kinna. Her father was a Montana pioneer, and Mrs. Flower- ree was the second among six children, three of whom are still living. Mr. and Mrs. Flowerree have two children, William Kemp, Jr., and Norma.

The son earned distinction as a soldier in the World war. He was educated in the Kents Hill College in Maine, in the University of California at Berkeley, and also attended a school of com- merce and banking at New York City. April 23, 1917, he enrolled in the First Officers Training School at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, received a first lieutenant's commission in cavalry, and was sent to Camp Grant at Rockford, Illinois, and became a member of Company B of the Three Hundred and Thirty-third Machine Gun Battalion. He went over- seas in October, 1918, and was in active service in France up to January 3, 1919, when he received his honorable discharge at Camp Grant, Illinois.

FRANK P. BAIRD. The educator of today has to meet and overcome many obstacles of which those of an older day knew nothing. The enlarging of the curriculum of the public schools, with the de- mand for the practice of pedagogy, necessitates a long and careful training and constant subsequent study and reading on the part of those to whom is entrusted the training of the plastic mind of youth. Popular demand has resulted in the development of a class of men who have no equal in the history of the world as educators. Their knowledge of their work and public affairs is extensive and profound. while at the same time their judgment is sound and they have a keen insight into human nature so that it is possible for them to give to each pupil the individual attention now regarded as so necessary for the proper rounding out of character. Among those who have thus distinguished themselves along these lines in a broad and comprehensive manner is Frank P. Baird, superintendent of the schools of Roundup.

Frank P. Baird was born on the farm in Venango County, Pennsylvania, purchased by his great-grand- father in 1706, and owned in turn by his grand- father and his father, the latter, John M. Baird, having been born on it October 29, 1848, and he is still living in Grove City, Pennsylvania, conducting an oil business, handling the oil from several pro- ducing wells on this property. John M. Baird is a democrat, and as such has been elected assessor and collector of his township. For years he has been an elder of the Presbyterian Church, of which he is a steadfast member. In July, 1871, he was married to Mary Grace Hovis, born in the same township in Venango County as her husband, and they became the parents of the following children : Susan M., who is the wife of J. C. Chambers, of West Newton, Pennsylvania; Doctor Baird, who is in a general practice at Roundup, Montana ; James C., who married Jessie Fulton, served during the late war in the Aviation Corps as a sergeant ; Frank P., whose name heads this review; Almeda F., who died in 1915, was the wife of Rev. Edwin Howe, a missionary at that time stationed at Canton, China; and Jesse H., who is the pastor of the First Presby- terian Church of Boise, Idaho, married Sue Bragstad, of Roundup, Montana.

Frank P. Baird attended the public schools of his native county, the Slippery Rock Normal School of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1902, and Grove City College of Grove City, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1905, and since then has done post graduate work at the Grove City College and the University of Montana. In order to earn the money necessary for his college expenses

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Mr. Baird taught school, his first charge being a rural one in Venango County, and his salary twenty- eight dollars per month. This school was three miles from his home, and he walked the distance back and forth each day. Later he was principal of the grade schools at Southwest, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. His next charge was as principal of the West Sunbury Academy, a prepara- tory school for college, and there he remained until 1906, when he came to Montana, arriving at Wibaux in August to take charge of its public schools. He graduated the first high school class of Wibaux, and continued there as principal for five years. During the period he was there the high school was made a credited one with a four years' course. While living there he homesteaded a ranch five miles east of Wibaux, and there established his home, for on August 25, 1908, he was married to Bessie M. Barnes, one of the teachers under his charge. She was born in Ohio, a daughter of Sylvestor and Delilah (Christopher) Barnes, who had six children, four of whom are now living, Mrs. Baird being the second in order of birth. Mr. Barnes, a carpenter by trade, was a soldier in the war between the states.

On March 1, 1911, Mr. Baird came to Roundup as superintendent of its public schools, and graduated the first high school class in 1914 on a full credited basis. When he took charge of the schools he had seven teachers, and now he has thirty-seven, and the number of pupils in attendance has increased from 275 to 900. He has been a member of the county board of examiners representing the countics of Dawson and Musselshell ever since the passage of the law creating this board, and was appointed a member of the state tax book commission in Novem- ber, 1917, by Governor S. V. Stuart. During the summer of 1917 he was one of the instructors at the summer school conducted by the State University at Missoula.

Like his brother Doctor Baird, Professor Baird has had considerable military experience. During his course in Grove City College he received military training in the Cadet corps, which was in the charge of a captain of the regular army. He was com- missioned first lieutenant and adjutant in the Col- lege Cadets and served in this capacity when the Cadet Corps participated in the inauguration of President Theodore Roosevelt at Washington, D. C. Before graduation from college he joined Company M of the Pennsylvania National Guard and served as private, company clerk and sergeant for a period of three years. While at Wibaux, Montana, he was appointed sergeant of Company I of the Montana National Guard and drilled a number of young men for the company, the headquarters being at Glen- dive. As first sergeant of this company he camped with the Second Montana at American Lake and Helena, Montana.

Professor Baird organized and was commissioned captain of Company B, Second Montana National Guard, in February, 1914, by Governor Stewart. While captain of the company the Second Montana camped for ten days with the regulars at Fort Wright in the summer of 1914. On account of the labor troubles and riots in Butte, an order was issued by the governor on August 30th for the Second Montana to assemble in Helena, preparatory to declaring military law in the City of Butte. He led Company B to Helena and joined the regiment, which entered Butte September 1, 1914. He re- mained with the company for a month, and on account of educational duties demanding his attention in Roundup, was released from active charge of the company and placed on the reserve list of officers in Montana.

He is a consistent member of the Congregational

Church. Like his father and brother, Doctor Baird, Professor Baird has always upheld the principles of the democratic party. Professor and Mrs. Baird have three children, namely: John Sylvestor, Lawrence Edwin' and Frances May.

When it is realized that 24 per cent of the population of the United States, a trifle less than one-fourth of the American people, are in school, either as pupils or educators, some relative idea may be gathered of the great importance of the schools. From these figures it would seem that schooling is our greatest national industry, and the proportion of brains, hearts and souls that this industry absorbs is even greater. It is estimated that over 23,500,000 persons are enrolled in the various educational in- stitutions in the country. Small wonder that so much importance is placed upon the selection of the men and women who are to guide these pupils who in turn will have to create and guard the future of America. Measured by all the standards used in such tests Professor Baird comes forth as a talented, carefully trained and enthusiastic teacher, high- spirited man and loyal citizen. His love for his work and his understanding of the problems of young people during their formative period peculiarly fit him for his high calling, and the people of Round- up are very fortunate in having him in charge of their greatest industry, the production of alert brains and healthy, normal characters from the plastic young pupils sent to the schools under his able supervision.

MICHAEL D. STAUNTON is now engaged in operat- ing. a large wholesale grocery business at Roundup, and has reached his present commercial importance through a series of experiences each one of which has had its part in the development of his character and determining his worth to his community. He was born in England on October 3, 1874, a son of Thomas and Margaret (Quigley) Staunton, both natives of Ireland. In 1879 Thomas Staunton brought his wife and eight children to the United States and settled in Meeker County, Minnesota, where four more children were born. Nine of these twelve children survive, Michael D. Staunton being the fourth in order of birth. Although a merchant in England, after coming to this country Thomas Staunton engaged in farming. He served as county commissioner of Meeker County for two terms. being elected on the democratic ticket. His death occurred when he was fifty-five years old, his widow surviving him and passing away when sixty years of age.

Michael D. Staunton remained in Meeker County until he was eighteen years old, and attended its schools. He then was employed by the wholesale grocery house of Anthony Kelley & Company at Minneapolis, Minnesota, continuing with the new firm of W. B. and W. G. Jordan, who took over the business, for nineteen years, rising through the different departments and finally becoming one of the best traveling salesmen. During all of this period he gained a thorough and practical knowledge of the grocery business and formed a valuable acquaintance with the trade, which he is now putting to practical use. In 1913 Mr. Staunton located permanently at Roundup and for five years conducted a general merchandise business, but branched out then into the wholesaling end of it, and operates under the name of Staunton's Wholesale Grocery. Like his father, he is a strong democrat, but has not cared to enter public life.

On April 5, 1901, Mr. Staunton was united in marriage with Miss Mary Ellen Noonan, born at Anoka, Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Staunton nave two sons, Richard and Frederick. Possessing the

Лашин

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

business instinct in marked degree, coupled with his intimate knowledge of the wholesale grocery busi- ness, Mr. Staunton has been able to advance further than one whose equipment was only theoretical. While he has been building up his own business con- nections, he has not failed to take a warm interest in civic affairs, and has given his support to those movements which have been projected with the idea of improving and advancing Roundup and Mussel- shell County.

DR. CRESWELL T. PIGOT, one of the reliable medical men of Musselshell County, is engaged in a general practice at Roundup, which was interrupted during the great war by his service in the army. He was born at London, Ontario, Canada, November 25, 1878, a son of Joseph and Martha (Blair) Pigot. Joseph Pigot was born in Shropshire, England, in 1841, and died in 1898. His wife was born in London, Ontario, Canada, in 1847, and is still living. They had four children, three of whom survive, Doctor Pigot being the youngest of the family. Joseph Pigot came to Canada in young manhood, having acquired an education in his native land, and locating at London, Ontario, embarked in a wholesale crock- ery business, which he conducted the remainder of his life, becoming one of the most prominent men of his community. He was very active in Masonry, and was a past master of his lodge. From boyhood he belonged to the Church of England.

Doctor Pigot attended the public schools of Lon- don, Ontario, and then entered the medical depart- ment of the Western University of London, Ontario, from which he was graduated in 1900 following which he became an interne of Saint Josephs Hospital of that same city, and he was also at the Williams- burg Hospital of Brooklyn, New York. In the fall of 1902 Doctor Pigot came west to Butte, Montana, and was there engaged in the practice of his pro- fession until 1910, when he moved to Roundup, and has been here ever since, becoming physician and surgeon for the Round Coal Company, the Davis Coal Company, and the Chicago, Milwaukee & Saint Paul Railroad Company. He belongs to the Mon- tana State Medical Association, the American Medi- cal Association, and is a Fellow of the American Medical College of Surgeons. Doctor Pigot was made a Mason by Silver Bow Lodge No. 48, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Butte, Montana, but demitted to Unity . Lodge No. 71, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Roundup. He was a member of Billings Chapter No. 6, Royal Arch Masons, but demitted to Roundup Chapter No. 30 Royal Arch Masons, and he also belongs to Aldemar Comman- dery No. 5, Knights Templar of Billings, Montana, and Algeria Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Helena, Montana.

On February 10, 1915, Doctor Pigot was united in marriage with Alice Lowry, a daughter of Thomas M. and Molly (Pierce) Lowry, prominent people of Montana. Mr. and Mrs. Lowry had eight children, five of whom are still living, and Mrs. Pigot is the eldest living daughter. Doctor and Mrs. Pigot have one son, Creswell T., Jr., and one daughter.

Doctor Pigot was commissioned a first lieutenant of the Medical Reserve Corps on August 4, 1917, and called into the service in July, 1918, being sent to Fort Riley and later to Camp Dodge, 'Des Moines. Iowa. He was discharged in February, 1919, and returned at once to Roundup to resume his former peacetime duties. He is a man of unusual talent and has won due appreciation from his patients and others who are associated with him. A man of high ideals, he has always tried to live up to them, and the respect he commands he has won by the most honorable of methods.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 164

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