Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 24

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 24

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William Castles acquired his early education in the public schools of Liverpool and at Lurgan, Ireland, finishing his work in school at the age of sixteen. He learned the butcher business under his father. Mr. Castles is a veteran English soldier, having spent eighteen months in the Boer war dur- ing 1901-02. He was a sergeant of the Sixtieth Company of Imperial Yeomanry. From South Africa he returned to Lurgan, Ireland, and engaged in the butcher business for himself for several years.

Mr. Castles came to the United States in 1906, and going to Missoula, Montana, was employed by the John R. Daily Company and Koopman & Wiss- brod, owners of two extensive wholesale and retail meat businesses in that city. In November, 1915, Mr. Castles came to Superior, and in partnership with Koopman & Wissbrod bought the butcher shop of Tom Merkle, who was a pioneer miner and butcher at Superior. Mr. Castles dissolved his partnership with Koopman & Wissbrod in 1916, and acquired the entire business. Soon afterward he formed his present partnership with Paul Westfall, each partner sharing equally. Mr. Castles is a practical meat market man, and Castles and West- fall own and operate a large ranch at Ashmore. On this ranch are raised the cattle, sheep and hogs which constitute practically the entire source of supply for the meat sold at the market in Superior. They specialize in fresh and choice beef, mutton and pork, and as the animals are killed and dressed at the ranch and sold at the market the middle- man's profits are eliminated and the business is conducted on the lowest possible scale of prices consistent with high quality and good service.

In November, 1917, Castles & Westfall also bought the general merchandise store of Jesse Daly at Superior. Mr. Castles also is manager of this busi- ness, located on Main Street. It carries one of the best selected stocks of general merchandise in West- ern Montana, and the firm enjoys a trade derived from all over Mineral County and the western portion of Missoula County.

Mr. Castles is an independent voter, is a member and trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church and superintendent of its Sunday school, and is a member of Montana lodge of Superior, Ancient

HISTORY OF MONTANA

Free and Accepted Masons, having been transferred from Acacia Lodge No. 24, Lurgan, Ireland.

In 1912, at Missoula, he married Miss Catherine Louisa Irwin, daughter of William and Elizabeth (Brown) Irwin. Her father is a retired butcher at Lurgan, Ireland, and her mother died there. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Castles are five in number : Mary, born March 22, 1913; William Irwin, born June 12, 1914; James Bland, born Sep- tember 22, 1915; John Ross, born January 17, 1917, and Wesley, born September 26, 1918.

CHARLES C. WALLIN, M. D., vice president of the Montana Medical Society, has been a resident of this state since 1905 and has achieved special promi- nence as a physician and surgeon. His home is at Lewistown and he is a former president of the Fergus County Medical Society.

Doctor Wallin was born at Saugatuck, Michigan, January 3, 1876, a son of Franklin B. and Hannah (Chadbourne) Wallin. His parents were both na- tives of New York State. His grandfather Wal- lin was a tanner and was in that business nearly seventy years. He built up a large industry in Michigan, conducted for many years as C. C. Wal- lin & Sons. Franklin B. Wallin learned the trade from his father and after 1874 continued the busi- ness as the Wallin Leather Company, with offices both at Chicago and Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was president of this company until his death, which occurred in August, 1908. He was then sev- enty-seven years of age and had lived in Michigan from early childhood. He was a member of the Michigan Legislature during the Civil war and gave ardent support to all war measures. He was active in the Congregational Church and was widely known at Grand Rapids and vicinity not only be- cause of his business prominence but for his many philanthropies. His wife, Hannah Chadbourne, was born in Otsego County, New York, and died at Grand Rapids in 1910. She was descended from a Revolutionary soldier and through her Doctor Wallin has membership in the Sons of the Ameri- can Revolution.

Doctor Wallin is the oldest of a family of three children. He grew up from the age of five in Grand Rapids, attended the public schools there and finished his literary education at the Univer- sity of Michigan, graduating in 1898. In the spring of that year he enlisted in the Thirty-Second Michi- gan Volunteers for service in the Spanish-American war, and was afterward transferred to the hos- pital corps of the Third Division of the Fourth Army Corps. While at Tampa, Florida, he was stricken with typhoid and. was invalided home.

Doctor Wallin graduated from the medical school of the University of Michigan in 1902, and began practice at Grand Rapids, where he was associated with an eminent Michigan surgeon, Dr. S. C. Graves. While at Grand Rapids, Doctor Wallin was on the staff of three of the city hospitals. He came to Montana in 1905, first locating at White Sulphur Springs and in 1908 moving to Lewistown. His work as a surgeon has been especially noteworthy, and he ranks among the state's best qualified men in that field. He has held a captain's commission in the medical department of the National Guard of Montana. He is a member of the American Medical Association, and is affiliated with all branches of Masonry, including DeWitt Clinton Consistory of the Scottish Rite at Grand Rapids and Saladin Temple of the Mystic Shrine in the same city. Doctor Wallin has served as health officer of Lewistown for half a dozen years. He has done post-graduate work in Chicago and in

IQ11 went abroad and spent much time in the Vienna Hospital. He is a member of the Judith Club, is a Delta Upsilon college fraternity man and in politics a republican.

September 10, 1902, Doctor Wallin married Miss Florence A. Munro, daughter of Malcolm Munro. Mrs. Wallin was born at Wardville, Ontario, Can- ada. She and her husband are members of the Episcopal Church. Doctor and Mrs. Wallin have two children, Chadbourne and Frances Marcella.

ISAAC MORRIS HOBENSACK was among the founders and for many years president of one of the greatest hardware businesses in Montana, the Judith Hard- ware Company of Lewistown. In recent years he has become noted as a Bonanza wheat grower in the Northwest, and his acreage produced a tremendous volume of cereal during the war years. He is still prominent in that industry.

Mr. Hobensack was born on his father's farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, February 7, 1858, and has been a resident of Montana for over thirty years. His parents, Isaac Cornell and Mrs. (Hog- land) Hobensack, were both natives of Pennsyl- vania, where they spent their lives, his father as a Pennsylvania farmer. The father died in 1904, at the age of seventy-six and the mother at the same age in 1908. Isaac C. Hobensack was a whig and republican in politics. He and his wife had nine children, five of whom are still living, Isaac Morris being the second in age.

The latter lived in Pennsylvania until he was twenty-seven years old. In that time he received his education in the common schools and worked at home on the farm. His health became increas- ingly impaired, and he finally sought recuperation and improvement in the northwest country. He ar- rived at Lewiston, Montana, August 4, 1885, having made the journey by railway and stage. Mr. Hoben- sack since boyhood has been possessed of much me- chanical talent, and while he came to Montana with little or no capital, he found a ready outlet for his energies and one that has brought him rapid advancement along the road of prosperity. His first work in this state was sawing wood. Later he bought a wood sawing outfit. In July, 1889, he had the distinction of opening the first hardware store at Lewistown, his partner being Oliver Jutras. The business was conducted as Jutras & Hobensack until 1892, at which date Mr. Theodore Sloan purchased Mr. Jutras' interests. The firm continued as Hoben- sack & Sloan until the spring of 1898 when Mr. Arthur Stoddard purchased Mr. Sloan's interest. Mr. Hobensack organized the Judith Hardware Com- pany in 1900, and was its president and manager until 1904. After that he was satisfied with the duties of president, which gave him more time to look after his other interests. He remained presi- dent of this prominent hardware house until 1917.

In 1915 Mr. Hobensack first appeared upon the list of prominent Montana wheat growers. In that year from 500 acres of land he harvested 25,000 bushels of wheat. Partly through his interest in the busi- ness and under the stimulation of patriotism he ac- complished almost a miracle in Montana in 1918, when he harvested twenty-four bushels of spring wheat to the acre on 500 acres. While that much grain has been frequently raised by individuals in Montana in other years, it will be remembered that the year 1918 was marked by an almost total failure of wheat in Montana. Mr. Hobensack has used a unique implement for the northwestern wheat fields, known as the Holt Self Propelled Combination Harvester, a machine which accomplishes a remark- able saving in extensive wheat fields.

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Imstornack

HISTORY OF MONTANA

Mr. Hobensack was one of the organizers of the Winnett Irrigation Company, owning many thousands of acres of land. Mr. Hobensack has turned his interests amounting to a ninth of all the land over to his wife and five children. The company is rapidly developing this tract as one great wheatfield. Mr. Hobensack is interested in local affairs, particularly in educational matters, and served as a member of the Lewistown School Board many years. He is a republican in politics.

For several years past he and his family have spent the winters in California. May 10, 1878, he married Miss Sarah Saurman, a native of Mont- gomery County, Pennsylvania. Anna, the oldest of their five children, is the wife of Paul Taber and has a son and daughter ; Elsie is the wife of Harry Eldridge and the mother of two children; the son Horace enlisted June 14, 1918, in the Machine Truck Corps at Camp Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky, and re- ceived his honorable. discharge in December of the same year. Ella is the wife of Frank J. Hagan and has a son. Bernice, the youngest child, is still at home with her parents.

PHILIP WESCH, a resident of Billings since 1899, a mason contractor, has done a notable service in the upbuilding of the city, and there are many mon- uments in the shape of important public and busi- ness structures that testify to his personal abilities and the efficiency of the organization of which he is the head.

Mr. Wesch was born at Mannheim, Baden, Ger- many, June 21, 1859. His father, John Valentine Wesch, was born in 1814 and died in 1862. He spent all his life in Germany, and was also a con- tractor. In religion he was a Lutheran. His wife was Atelheit Diemer, who was born in 1819 and died in 1870. Of their children Philip alone came to the United States. Henry, Hiop and Julius all died in the old country. Tobias is still living in Baden, a policeman. Rosina is the wife of Henry Steck, a shoemaker. Atelheit is deceased. Valen- tine is a cabinet maker and city clerk.

Philip, the youngest of eight children, attended the common schools to the age of fourteen and then served a thorough apprenticeship at the mason's trade. He came to the United States in 1883, spend- ing one year in Wisconsin, followed his trade at Mitchell, South Dakota, until 1889, was in the Black Hills region at Hot Springs for ten years, and in 1899 moved to Billings, where he has since been at the head of an organization for mason contracting. Mr. Wesch did the mason work on the City Hall, the Northern Hotel, the Public Library, the Northern Pacific Freight Depot and many other important buildings. Out of his business effort he has achieved property, having a modern home at 522 North Thir- tieth Street, an apartment house at 2905 North Twenty-ninth Street and a ranch of 320 acres a mile west of Acton. Until he sold his interest in 1918 he was president of the Billings Artificial Stone Company.

Mr. Wesch votes as a republican, is affiliated with the Congregational Church, and is a member of Bill- ings Star Lodge of Odd Fellows, Hot Springs Lodge, Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Mystic Toilers, Billings Lodge, Brotherhood of American Yeomen, and the Billings Club.

In 1885, at Mitchell, South Dakota, Mr. Wesch married Miss Bertha George, daughter of Julius and Amelia (Witsel) George. Mrs. George lives at the home of Mr. Wesch. Julius George was a sailor by life occupation, and his family lived at Hamburg, Germany, while he sailed to all parts of the world. After retiring from the sea he came to the United

States. Mrs. Wesch died at Hot Springs, South Dakota, in 1890, the mother of one daughter, Rosa Anna, wife of John W. Barnes, a dentist at Billings. In 1891, at Hot Springs, Mr. Wesch married Her- mina George, a sister of his first wife. They have four children: Walter Philip, who lives at Billings and was recently mustered out of the United States service as a lieutenant of the ordnance department ; Leo, who is a sergeant with the Army of Occupa- tion in Germany; Florence, a student in Bozeman College at Bozeman, and Elizabeth, in the Billings public schools.

NELSON STORY, JR., started life with the tre- mendous responsibility of being worthy of the name he bears, one of the oldest and most honored in Montana's commercial history. In the course of twenty years he has fully justified his possession of the name of his honored father. He is a thorough business man, a capable executive, and by his judg- ment in picking new tenants has been able to carry on and direct many of the large and important en- terprises of his section of the state.

While the Story family has been prominent in Montana for over half a century, from this state its wealth and enterprise have radiated into other sections, particularly to Southern California, and much of the individual wealth and enterprise of Los . Angeles is associated with the family.

Nelson Story, Sr., still credits Bozeman as his home town. He is past eighty years of age and was born at Bungtown in Meigs County, Ohio, April I, 1838. His paternal ancestry goes back in New Eng- land history to about 1640. He lived on his father's farm in Ohio until fourteen years of age. The death of his father threw him upon his own resources, and from that time forward he had to carve his own destiny. He had a partial college education. He was a participant in the early freighting between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, and as a miner, freighter, cattle and horse dealer and man of varied interests his career belongs to the history of California, Montana and a number of ter- ritories. Going to Kansas in territorial times he worked at splitting rails, breaking the tough prairie sod, and at other forms of arduous labor. He first came to Montana in 1863, starting from Fort Leaven- worth and crossing to Denver. From Denver he started for Bannock, Montana, with an outfit of two wagons, two yoke of cattle and sixteen packs of jacks. He made his first stop at Alder Gulch and then established a store with the goods he had brought overland at Summit City. Much of the merchandise he sold was brought in by pack train from Nevada. He also bought a mining claim and took out $40,000 worth of gold. Nelson Story, Sr., arrived at the little community of Bozeman in 1865, and no one figure has been longer and more com- pletely identified with that Montana City than Nel- son Story. During the Civil war period he drove a wagon team for the government in the vicinity of Fort Laramie. In 1866 he went to Texas, bought a large number of cattle and drove them over the northern trails to Montana. He was very successful in the stock business and for many years continued merchandising. At one time he was one of the leading cattle men and horse men of Montana, and ran his cattle on the Crow Indian Reservation. He disposed of his horses in 1888 and gradually sold out his cattle between 1890 and 1893. He was also in the milling and banking business, establishing the Gallatin Valley National Bank, of which he was president. He is still a large stockholder in the Commercial National Bank. Most of the money derived from his cattle interests he invested in Los

HISTORY OF MONTANA

Angeles city property. He established the Nelson Story & Company flour mill, afterwards the Boze- man Milling Company, which was owned by his son Nelson and Thomas B. Story. In 1919 they transferred their holdings in this company to the Montana Flour Mills Company for stock in that corporation. Though retired from the heavy re- sponsibilities of business, Nelson Story, Sr., is still a very active man for his years. He is a republican in politics.

Nelson Story, Sr., married Ellen Trent, who was born in Neosho County, Kansas, in 1845. The two oldest of their children died in infancy. Rose is the wife of Dr. G. L. Hogan, a physician and sur- geon at Los Angeles. The next in age is Nelson, Jr. Thomas Byron is president of the Bozeman Milling Company, an extensive sheep rancher, stock- holder in the Commercial National Bank and owner of a large amount of city property in Bozeman. The sixth child, Alice, died in infancy. Walter P. Story is a prominent figure in the City of Los Angeles, and is distinguished as the builder of the first skyscraper office structure in that city, the Story Building, which was completed in 1910.

Nelson Story, Jr., was born at Bozeman May 12, 1874, and had every opportunity for a thorough business training and liberal education. He attended public school at Bozeman, including high school, spent three years in the Shattuck Military Academy. at Faribault, Minnesota, two years in the Ogden Military Academy at Ogden, Utah, where he gradu- ated in 1893, and during 1893-94 was a student in the Bryant & Stratton Business College. On returning to Bozeman he went to work in his father's flour mill and managed it for several years. He then established a machine shop and foundry, building it up to a successful local enterprise and then sell- ing. Since then his interests have been of a broad and varied nature. He still owns a large amount of real estate, several business buildings and residences ; is vice president of the Bozeman Milling Company; owner of the Story Supply Company, automobile accessories, on West Main Street and Grand Street, of which James R. Cochran is manager; and owner of the Story Rock Company, operating a rock crush- ing plant at Logan, Montana, with a capacity of 500 tons of rock a day during the summer season. This business is managed by O. A. Harris. Mr. Story does a great amount of contracting. At present he has a force of men and equipment, with Ben Hager as foreman, digging ten miles of dyke and drainage for the Madison Dyke & Drain Company. This is a project to keep the ice in the Madison River from overflowing the farms in Gallatin County. For the prosecution of his many varied business affairs Mr. Story maintains a suite of offices in the Story Building on the corner of West Main Street and Black Avenue. This office building, one of the best in Bozeman, is owned by his sister Mrs. G. L. Hogan.

Mr. Story has been sensitive to his obligations to the public welfare. He was elected in 1902 and again in 1910 a member of the Legislature, serving in the eighth and tenth sessions. For one term he was mayor of Bozeman, for four years a member of the City Council, and for two years a county commissioner of Gallatin County. He is a republi- can in politics, is past master of Bozeman Lodge No. 18, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, a mem- ber of Zona Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, is past commander of the Knights Templar, and is affiliated with Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena. He also belongs to Bozeman Lodge No. 463, Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Story and family live in a modern home .at

722 South Central Avenue. He married at St. Louis, Missouri, June 10, 1895, Miss Etha L. Mayo, daughter of William Henry and Ella (Curley) Mayo. Her father, now deceased, was a thirty-third degree Mason, at one time recorder of the Masonic bodies of the Missouri jurisdiction, filling that office for thirty years before his death. Mrs. Mayo lives with Mr. and Mrs. Story. The latter have two children. Nelson Story IHI, born January 13, 1900, was educated in the local public schools and in Cul- ver Military Academy in Indiana two years and graduated in 1919 from the Gallatin County High School. Mayo, a daughter, was born October 13, 1902, and is attending one of the best finishing schools for girls in the Middle West, Monticello Seminary at Godfrey, Illinois.

J. C. CONKEY for the past fifteen years has been editor of the Ravalli Republican at Hamilton. That accounts for only about half of his experience as a printer and newspaper man. For a number of years before coming to Montana he was a director of one of the leading papers of California.

Mr. Conkey was born at West Union, Iowa, November 7, 1870. He is of Scotch ancestry. In Scotland the name was spelled McConkey. Three of the McConkey brothers came to New York in colonial times. The family to which J. C. Conkey belongs subsequently dropped the "Mc." His grand- father, Jacob Conkey, was born in New York State in 1800, and was an early settler in Iowa. He ac- quired a large amount of farm land, in the vicinity of West Union, and left a large farm to each of

his three sons and much valuable city property to his daughter. He died in 1864. A. B. Conkey, father of the Hamilton editor, was born at Defiance, Ohio, in 1845, and during his youth removed to West Union, Iowa, where he married and where he was successfully engaged in farming until 1881. He then followed the business of contracting and build- ing in West Union, but in 1899 retired from busi- ness and has since been a resident of Fresno, Cal- ifornia. He is an independent republican in politics. A. B. Conkey married Edith Daniells, who was born in New York State in 1843. J. C. Conkey is the eldest of their children. Maud is married and lives at Fresno, while Laura is the wife of Clyde Wolf, an orchard owner at Lindsay, California.

J. C. Conkey attended the public schools of West Union, Iowa. Already he had acquired some prac- tical knowledge of printing and newspaper work, having begun an apprenticeship with the West Union Gazette in 1886. In 1887 on leaving high school, he went to Alameda, California, and there for thirteen years was connected with the semi-weekly Argus. He was one of the incorporators of the publishing company which issued that paper as a daily, and remained a director in the establishment until 1900. By too close application to his work he found that he needed a change and vacation, and during that interval he visited a friend in Anaconda. While in Anaconda he worked with the Standard and then with the Jefferson County Zephyr at Whitehall. That was a busy time for newspaper men and editors. W. A. Clark was making a cam- paign for the United States Senate, and journalism was a much cultivated profession.

While visiting the Bitter Root Valley in 1904 Mr. Conkey leased the Ravalli Republican for one year with the privilege of purchasing the plant. About 1909 he bought the paper, having in the mean- time edited it. The Ravalli Republican was estab- lished in 1887 and is the leading paper in Ravalli County and enjoys a large circulation and influence throughout Western Montana. The plant and offices

HISTORY OF MONTANA

at 301 Main Street have the best of equipment in the way of a printing plant. The paper is republican in politics.

Mr. Conkey is a republican voter. He is affiliated with Ionic Lodge No. 38, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Hamilton Chapter No. 18, Royal Arch Masons, Crusade Commandery No. 17, Knights Templar, Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena, and is a member of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce. In 1915, at Watsonville, California, he married Miss Isabel Gilray, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Gilray. Her parents reside at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, where her father is a Gov- ernment employe. Mrs. Conkey finished her edu- cation in a college in Michigan. They have one daughter. Catherine, born October 21, 1917.

GEORGE D. AUNE. In the present day when com- petition is keen in all lines of endeavor, the ac- complishment of success demands a definite and decided superiority. This is true at the village four-corners, but it is applicable in a much greater degree in those lines of high specialized work where the best brains are devoted to intricate detail, striv- ing to produce absolute efficiency and to secure the advantage from each new trend of circum- stance. Whether in the professions, in productive lines, in work of a promotive character, or in the markets of the world, a man finds equally keen strife ahead of him; and when the fight is made with discernment, vigor and aggressiveness, and success is acquired, half the compensation, other than financial independence, is derived from the satisfaction of having come a conqueror over those worthy of his steel. One of the highly-specialized industries of today is that which deals with the sale of insurance. In this field George D. Aune of the firm of Osborne & Aune, at Lewistown is practically a newcomer, but what he has accom- plished thus far in his career would make it indi- cate that he will be able to hold his own in the face of stern competition.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 24

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