Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 28

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 28

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

them. He owns 950 acres of irrigated land at Hysham, Montana, which is now devoted to the raising of grain and alfalfa, and it is in the North Sanders District.

In 1890 Mr. Pope was married at Cornwall, Eng- land, to Miss Susannah Coad, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Coad, both of whom are now de- ceased. Mr. Coad was a farmer and auctioneer, and very active in the political and social life of his community, serving as a member of the County Council and as chairman of the County Board of Guardians for a number of years. Mr. and Mrs. Pope have three children, namely: Lila Mae, who was born January 28, 1895, is a graduate of the State University at Missoula, Montana, and married Donovan Worden, a farmer of Missoula, Montana; Ethel Mildred, who was born November 27, 1896, at- tended the Billings High School, from which she was graduated, and the State University for one year, and is now in the office of J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company at Billings, Montana ; and Dorothy Coad, who was born in August, 1906.

There was a time when Mr. Pope was called a visionary when he promulgated his prohibition gos- pel, although his motives were never questioned, and few who listened to him then imagined that before many years had passed his fondest hopes would be realized. Had he and others who worked with him just as earnestly and faithfully per- mitted themselves to be discouraged and given up their fight against the saloon element the glorious results of the unceasing campaign would never have come about. If he had accomplished nothing more Mr. Pope can feel that he has achieved a revolution in moral conditions which. will be everlasting in its effects for good. He has fought long and hard, straining every energy, and has evinced such ability to influence his contemporaries that much of the work has been left to his acute mind and alert vigilance. Each move has been strikingly charac- teristic of the man, and any reverses have only served to augment his resources. Attacks from the saloon element have not deterred him from pur- suing what he deemed was the right course, and day by day converts have been added to his cohorts until now he has all of the better class with him to the end. It is such men as Mr. Pope who under- stand how to put to practical uses the careful train- ing they receive in preparing for their profession, and teach their fellow citizens that the minister of the gospel knows how to live Christianity as well as how to enunciate its doctrines from his church. While Mr. Pope was a forceful preacher, and a power for good in the ministry, he has those charac- teristics which make him still more useful as a worker with the masses in securing those reforms which cannot be brought about unless they are taken up by the men who have made them their life study.

ANTRIM E. BARNES. The West is more prompt to acknowledge merit, and many of the more am- bitious men of the country are locating in the flourishing towns in the more newly developed states, knowing that there they will find opportuni- ties to advance so that they may secure the posi- tions in their communities to which their abilities entitle them. Antrim E. Barnes, vice president of the First National Bank of Three Forks, and loco- motive engineer for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, is one of the men who has achieved an enviable success in a state far removed from his native one of Indiana. He was born at Fort Wayne, Indiana, August 22, 1874, a son of An-

trim E. Barnes, born in Ohio in 1841, who died at Fort Wayne in 1876.

Antrim E. Barnes, Sr., was reared in Ohio, but after his marriage located at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he spent the remainder of his life, being engaged in the lumber business. During the Civil war he gave his country his support as a soldier, and probably his early death was the result of the hardships endured during his military experience. The republican party had in him a hearty supporter. Both as a Mason and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church he lived up to the highest ideals of manhood, and, dying, left behind him an influence for good on his community. His marriage to Jus- tina Holloman occurred in Michigan, but she was born near Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1846, and she survives him and lives at Coesse, Indiana. Her an- cestors served in the American Revolution, as did those of her husband, as the Barnes family came to North Carolina from Ireland during the Colonial period in this country's history. Mr. and Mrs. An- trim E. Barnes, Sr., had but one child, who bears his father's name.

After the death of her husband Mrs. Antrim E. Barnes moved to Coesse, Indiana, and there Antrim E. Barnes, Jr., was reared, and was graduated from its high school in 1891. Soon thereafter he came West to McCook, Nebraska, where for 31/2 years he was an apprentice to the machinist trade, and then went to Sheridan, Wyoming, to become fireman on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, and was later promoted to be locomotive engineer, leav- ing that road in 1908 to go with the Wabash . Rail- road as engineer at Peru, Indiana, where he re- mained until 1900. Mr. Barnes then returned to the Burlington Road at Sheridan, Wyoming, for two years. Feeling the need of further instruction, in 1902 he matriculated at Perdu University at La Fayette, Indiana, and took a three years' course. In 1905 he came to Livingston, Montana, as engi- neer for the Northern Pacific Railroad, leaving it in 1907 for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. He left Lewistown for Three Forks in 19II, and since then has become vice president of the First National Bank. He owns his residence at 622 Second Avenue, East, and one ranch of 328 acres of land 31/2 miles south of Roundup, Montana, with water rights, and another one of 640 acres of irrigated land sixteen miles northwest of Three Forks. He is a republican and has served on the school board. Not only is he a conscien- tious member of the Presbyterian Church, but he serves it as an elder. Well known as a Mason, he belongs to Livingston Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Livingston Consistory, which has conferred on him the thirty-second degree; and Al- geria Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Helena, Montana. He also be- longs to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and is chief of Painted Rock Division No. 744, and was a member of its general committee for a num- ber of years.

In 1907 Mr. Barnes was married at Billings, Mon- tana, to Miss Lucy Marshall, a daughter of George W. and Sarah Marshall. Mr. Marshall died at Belgrade, Montana, in 1918, but his widow survives him and continues to reside at Belgrade. One of the pioneers of the Upper Madison River, Mr. Mar- shall gained the name of "Elk" Marshall because of the fact that he raised elk as well as stock upon an extensive scale. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes became the parents of two children, Lucy M. and Antrim E. By a former marriage with Miss Zella Mossman at Coesse, Indiana, in 1898, Mr. Barnes has a son, Charles, who is a medical student. Mrs. Barnes is

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a lady well known in the county, and she and Mr. Barnes have gathered about them a pleasant cir- cle of friends to whom they dispense the delightful western hospitality at their home upon many oc- casions.

JOHN A. McMILLAN is an old time Montanan, in early life was associated with his father in the building of mills and smelters, but for thirty years has been railroading, and is now joint agent at Butte for the Northern Pacific and the Oregon Short Line and the Great Northern Railways. Mr. McMillan was born at Lancaster, Ontario, Canada, April, 5, 1868, of pure Scotch ancestry. His grand- father, Allan McMillan, was born in Scotland in 1790, and in early life crossed the ocean to Canada and became a pioneer farmer in Glengarry County, Ontario. He lived there until his death in 1880. He married a Miss Campbell, also of Scotland. Their son Hugh A. McMillan, long prominent in the mining industry of the Northwest, was born in Glengarry County, Ontario, 1838, and died at Butte in 1910. He was reared and married in Glengarry County, and took up the business of con- tractor and builder. In 1876 he located at Mount Pleasant, Michigan, continuing the same business, and in 1882 arrived at Butte, where he had an inter- esting part in the pioneer development of that city. He was the builder of the original Anaconda smelter. He also remodeled the Alice Mine Mill, built the Bluebird Mill, and as an expert in this class of construction he was subsequently employed and as- sociated with the Fraser & Chalmers Company of Chicago and built many mills and smelters in South Africa and Old Mexico. After coming to the United States he voted as a republican, was a member of the Presbyterian Church and the Masonic fraternity, and in early life served with the Canadian Militia, and was called to active duty during the Fenian rebellion. Hugh A. McMillan married Mary Mc- Leod, who was born in Glengary County, Ontario, in 1844. and is now living at Butte with her son John. John is the oldest of five children. Maude is the widow of W. D. Shamburger and makes her home on the large Shamburger ranch at Payette, Idaho. Donald Andrew is a millwright and con- tractor living at Johannesburg in South Africa. Margaret is the wife of Robert Raff, secretary of the Big Black Foot Milling Company at Missoula. Harriet is the wife of C. F. Head, chief of police at Loveland, Colorado.

John A. McMillan received his early education in the public schools of Glengarry County. Ontario, and Mount Pleasant, Michigan. From the Michigan home he returned to Glengarry County, and was graduated from high school there in 1885. He arrived at Butte, Montana, in August, 1886, and for a short time was timekeeper at the Bluebird mill. Then for two years he was with his father in build- ing a mill for the Philadelphia and Idaho Smelting Company at Ketchum, Idaho, and left there to go to California.

Since the spring of 1889 Mr. McMillan has been a permanent resident of Butte .. He worked in the mines until November of that year and then entered the service of the Montana Union Railway as a clerk. This line of railway was absorbed by the Northern Pacific in 1896, at which date Mr. Mc- Millan was made chief clerk to the auditor and general freight and passenger agent of the larger corporation. His next promotion was to cashier of the Northern Pacific, and in January, 1901, he was made joint agent for the Northern Pacific and the Oregon Short Line roads. He has handled the duties of that position for these roads nearly twen-

ty years, and subsequently was also made agent for the Great Northern. In that capacity he has super- vision over four hundred employes of these differ- ent lines. His offices are on South Arizona street.

Mr. McMillan is an independent voter, is affiliated with Butte Camp No. 153, Woodmen of the World, and is a member of the Independent Order of For- esters at Toronto. He also belongs to the Butte Country Club and the Butte Curling Club. His home is at 1041 Colorado Street.

In 1894, at Butte, he married Miss Elizabeth M. McGregor, daughter of John and Margaret (Camp- bell) McGregor, now deceased. Her father is a farmer in Glengarry County, Ontario. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. McMillan is Gregor M., born November 9, 1896, now a student in the Montana State Agricultural College at Bozeman.

LEWIS S. BUTLER. During the last quarter of a century Lewis S. Butler has supplied a large amount of the business enterprise that has been made ef- fective in advancing the commercial, industrial and civic interests of Lewistown and Fergus County. Mr. Butler is an active figure in a number of un- dertakings, probably most conspicuously as senior partner of the firm of Butler & Woodworth, a firm owning and directing one of the largest ranch and livestock properties in this part of Montana. Something of the extent and operations of the firm is told in connection with a sketch of his partner, Mr. Woodworth.

Mr. Butler was born in Warren County, Illinois, on his father's farm, January 24, 1867, a son of Joseph R. and Rebecca Jane (Stockton) Butler. His father was a native of Ohio and his mother of Illinois. His father when a boy went with his parents to Warren County, Illinois, was edu- cated in Ohio and Illinois and in 1871 moved to DeKalb County, Missouri, where he bought land and engaged in farming and stock raising on an extensive scale. He was one of the pioneer rais- ers of Percheron horses and also of Shorthorn cattle in Northwestern Missouri. He was a demo- crat in politics. Joseph R. Butler died in 1878, at the age of forty-nine. His wife passed away in 1871, at the age of thirty-five. Lewis is the young- est and only survivor of six children.

He was eleven years of age when his father died, and a few years later started to make his own way in the world, working out at wages of fifty cents a day. He attended school more or less regu- larly until seventeen years of age, when he began farming the tract of land inherited from his father. His associations with Montana began in April, 1885, when he arrived at Bozeman and was em- ployed by William Fly, a cattle man, as a cowboy riding the range through to Judith Basin in Meagher County. Later he worked for Charles Lehman at Cottonwood in Lehman's general store and hotel for about a year. His next experience was driving a band of horses to Dakota.

February 11, 1888, at King City, Missouri, Mr. Butler married Miss Ida M. Easterly. For their wedding journey they started at once to Fergus County, Montana, and on reaching here Mr. But- ler entered a tract of Government land on Spring Creek, seven miles below Lewistown. He was on the homestead three years and then sold his prop- erty and engaged in business with J. M. Powers on a horse ranch. He was there about two years, then returned to Lewistown and was a butcher for a year and a half and in the live-y business for some length of time. The next five or six years were. spent in traveling in Northern Montana and in Canada, and about that time he became associated with Mr. Woodworth. Mr. Butler was

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ness at Lewistown until 1916. Since then his chief in the wholesale and retail liquor and cigar busi- interests have been cattle ranching with the firm of Butler and Woodworth. This firm owns about 6,000 acres of land located nine miles south of Grass Lake, and it is stocked with 600 or 700 head of cattle. They also are extensive breeders of Per- cheron horses. In January, 1919, Mr. Butler also engaged in business with Charles Woodworth and W. A. Cooper under the title of the Lewistown Automobile and Truck Company, handling the agency for the Studebaker cars and Diamond T trucks and operating a general garage and acces- sory establishment at Lewistown.

Mr. Butler is a democrat, but has never cared for official position. However, through the personal influence of Tom Stout he consented to serve as sergeant-at-arms in the State Legislature in 1917.

Mrs. Butler was born in Tennessee, a daughter of Philip L. and Alpha (Pinington) Easterly, her parents being also natives of Tennessee. Mrs. But- ler is the first in a family of three daughters and three sons. Her father died in 1899 and her mother is still living. Her father was a successful farmer and stockman of Gentry County, Missouri, and in politics a democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Butler have six children, and are also very proud of their nine grandchildren. Alpha E., their oldest child, is the wife of John McQuirk and the mother of three sons; Elsa I. married Charles Thrasher and has two sons and one daughter; Octa is the wife of Joseph Franchoise and has two daughters; Ida married William A. Cooper and has one son. The two youngest children, both at home and in school, are Dorothy and Lewis Stockton.

CHARLES F. RIDLEY. An active participation in business matters and civic affairs during a period covering fourteen years has made Charles F. Rid- ley well and favorably known to the citizens of Billings, where he is cashier of the Great Western Sugar Company. Mr. Ridley entered the employ of this concern in 1906 and has worked his way steadily upward to his present position through hard and conscientious application to his duties, and though his private interests have been exacting and heavy, he has still found time to devote to the wel- ware of the institutions of his adopted community.

Mr. Ridley was born at London, Ontario, Canada, April 23, 1876, a son of William and Mary Ann (Heath) Ridley. His father was born in 1842, in the City of Birmingham, England, where he was reared, educated and married, and in that city learned the trade of machinist, particularly as ap- plied to the building of locomotives. In this con- nection he also mastered the principles of the dis- tribution of gas and the manufacture thereof, as well as commercial steam heating and its relation to distribution. Mr. Ridley came to the United States in 1873, and after a short stay at Portland, Maine, went to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where for two years he was connected with the Great Western Railway Company. Subsequently he went to London, Ontario, where he had charge of the gas works until 1880, and later went to Denver, Colorado, where he built the Denver City Steam Heating Works and remained until 1913. In that year he retired from active affairs and removed to San Diego, California, where his death occurred in 1915. In Denver Mr. Ridley had the distinc- tion of having charge of the first electric railway ever built anywhere, this being constructed after the patents of Professor Short of Chicago, as an underground electric, i. e., the current being underground. One of the leading and foremost

members of his profession, he was a life member of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, from which he drew a pension. In politics Mr. Ridley was a republican. He was an Episcopalian and a strong churchman, and was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Albion and Cambrian Societies of England. Mr. Ridley married Mary Anne Heath, who was born in Bir- mingham, England, in 1844, and who survives him as a resident of Denver, Colorado. Six children were born to them, as follows: Arnold William, manager of the steam heating department of the Denver Gas and Electric Company of Denver, Colo- rado; Frances W., the wife of Victor Ryfa, for- merly a bank clerk and now in the service of the United States Government at New York City, where his banking experience in handling French ex- change has made him valuable as a French inter- preter; Charles Frederick, of this notice; Edwin, an engineering valuator of municipal plants for the State of Washington, residing at Seattle, that state; Reuben Thomas, an optician of Denver; and Mary Ann, the wife of Charles H. Hines, an auto- mobile mechanic of Denver.

Charles F. Ridley was educated in the public schools of Denver, Colorado, and at the age of fourteen years gave up his studies to accept a posi- tion in the office of the auditor of a railroad com- pany at Denver. In 1906 he became general book- keeper for the Great Western Sugar Company, with which concern his advancement has been steady and consistent, until today he occupies the re- sponsible post of cashier of the Billings' branch of this important concern. The offices are located one mile south of the city. Mr. Ridley since his ar- rival at Billings has become widely and favorably known among the business men of this community, and is accounted a shrewd and astute man of affairs, competent, reliable and substantial. He lives in a pleasant home at No. 314 South Thirty-fifth Street, and has established himself permanently as a citi- zen of Billings, performed the duties of citizenship well and being at present a member of the board of school trustees. He is a republican in his po- litical adherence, and is a member of the Billings Midland Club and a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to Ashlar Lodge No. 29 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and to Billings Consistory. In 1904 Mr. Ridley was married at Toronto, Can- ada, to Miss Maude V. Westlake, who died in Denver in 1909, leaving two children: Lola Jean, born October 12, 1905, and Mildred Westlake, born December 31, 1907. The present Mrs. Ridley prior to her marriage, January 29, 1913, at Denver, was Miss Edith Parker, who was born at Lowestoft, England.

W. E. HARMON. One of the men who has stamped the impress of his strong individuality upon the minds of the people of Montana in a manner as to render him one of the conspicuous characters of the state is W. E. Harmon, who had a successful career as an educator for a number of years, but who is now equally successful as a farmer and ranchman. Faithfulness to duty and a strict adherence to a fixed purpose, which always do more to advance a man's interests than wealth or advantageous circumstances, have been domi- nating factors in his life, which has been replete with honor and success worthily attained.

W. E. Harmon was born in Fulton County, Ohio, on February 7. 1856, and is a son of Arva and Harriet (Benedict) Harmon. The father was born in New York State in 1832, and was there reared and married. In 1854 he removed to Fulton Coun-

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ty, Ohio, where he became a pioneer farmer, and lived there until 1876, when he moved to Michi- gan. Ten years later, in 1886, he came to Liv- ingston, Montana, of which locality he was a pio- neer, and there he engaged in contracting for a few years. In 1890 he came to Bozeman and lived with his son, W. E. Harmon, until 1905, when he retired from active life and went to Puyallup, Washington, where his death occurred on June II, 1918. He was a democrat in his political views and a strong and earnest member of the Baptist Church. He married Harriet Benedict, who was born in 1836 in Connecticut, and who now lives at Puyallup, Washington. To this worthy couple were born the following children: W. E., the subject of this review ; Carrie E. is the wife of Wilbur Dodge, a shipyard carpenter at Puyallup, Washington ; Her- bert is a farmer at Sycamore, Illinois; and Mary is unmarried and resides at Zion, Illinois.

W. E. Harmon received his elementary educa- tion in the public schools of Fulton County, Ohio, and Morenci, Michigan. He then took a five year course in Valparaiso University, at Valparaiso, In- diana, where he was graduated in 1884 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. The following year he was principal of the Clayton, Michigan, schools, and in 1885 he became principal of the schools of Livingston, Montana, being retained here two years. Then for 171/2 years he was superintendent of the schools of Bozeman, and it is stated that to him is largely due the perfection of the educational sys- tem of the schools of that city. Mr. Harmon's abilities and success as an educator had attracted favorable notice and he was elected state superin- tendent of public instruction, entering upon the duties of that office in 1905. He was elected to succeed himself in that position, thus serving eight years. The splendid service rendered by him to the state is a matter of record, but it is specially noteworthy that his incumbency was marked by a tremendous forward stride in the educational methods and standards of this state. Mr. Harmon standardized the teaching certificates of the state; he served on the State Text-book Commission, wrote three courses of study for the state, and succeeded in putting the state course in all schools. In addi- tion to his long and creditable career in one of the most useful and exacting of professions he also proved an honorable member of the body politic, rising in the confidence and esteem of the public, and in every relation of life he has never fallen below the dignity of true manhood nor in any way resorted to unworthy methods.

Upon leaving the office of state superintendent of public instruction Mr. Harmon relinquished his pedagogical career and took over the management of his fine farm of 240 acres of irrigated land lo- cated about a mile west of Bozeman. The place is well improved and completely equipped in every way and is considered one of the finest ranches in the Gallatin Valley. Mr. Harmon also owns a modern residence on North Seventh Avenue, Boze- man, and a residence and six lots on Eighth Avenue. Since retiring from the office of state superintend- ent he has served three times as state representative.

Politically Mr. Harmon gives his support to the republican party, and his religious connection is with the Presbyterian Church, of whch he is an elder. Fraternally he is a member of Eureka Home- stead No. 415, Brotherhood of American Yeomen; Bridger Camp No. 62, Woodmen of the World. He takes a deep interest in every movement or en- terprise looking to the advancement of the best interests of the community. He is a director of the National Bank of Gallatin County.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 28

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