Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 42

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 42

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

HORACE A. WELD. Prominent among the rep- resentative citizens of Yellowstone County is Horace A. Weld, vice president and cashier of the First National Bank of Broadview. Possessing an un- limited amount of energy and business sagacity, he has the keen perceptive faculties and the grasp of mind that has enabled him to meet great emer- gencies in the fields of finance, as was proved by his masterly handling of the various Liberty Loan and other drives during the recent World war. Coming from thrifty New England stock, he was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 29, 1867, a son of J. O. Weld. His grandfather, Orin Weld, born in 1807, died at Coleraine, Vermont, in 1849, in that part of New England in which the immigrant ancestor of the Weld' family settled on coming from Wales to the United States in colonial days.

J. O. Weld was born in 1835, in Coleraine, Ver- mont, and among its rugged hills grew to a sturdy manhood. As a young man, anticipating the advice of Horace Greeley, he made his way to Minnesota, and while in the employ of J. Dean built the pioneer saw mill of that now flourishing city. Subsequently embarking in business for himself, he was there successfully engaged in mercantile pursuits for a quarter of a century. He is now living retired from active cares, his home being on the' shores of the beautiful Lake Minnetonka at Mound, Min- nesota. He invariably casts his ballot in favor of the republican party, and is a member and liberal supporter of the Fourth Baptist Church. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic organ- ization, being the oldest Mason in the state, and the only surviving charter member of Minneapolis Lodge No. 19, at the present time, however, belong-

ing to Plymouth Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons. For the past fourteen years Plymouth Lodge has celebrated the anniversary of his being raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason. He married, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Eliza Ann Moore, who was born in Holyoke, Mas- sachusetts, in 1840, and to them four children have been born, as follows: Jennie V., wife of Wil- liam P. Cleator, of Minneapolis, a member of the Sawyer-Cleator Lumber Company; Ellen, who mar- ried Carey Emerson, a whole sale grocery broker at Minneapolis, died in middle life; Horace A .; and Frankie O., who died in infancy.

Soon after his graduation from the Minneapolis High School in 1884, Horace A. Weld secured a position as messenger boy in the City Bank of Minneapolis, and proving himself faithful to his duties in that capacity he was promoted to teller, which position he held eleven years. For two years thereafter he was teller and detail man at the Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis. In 1888 Mr. Weld made a decided change of occupa- tion and residence, going to Alaska, where for a year he was affiliated with the Ladne Gold Mining and Developing Company, later being engaged in mercantile pursuits on his own account for seven years.

Locating at Seattle, Washington, in 1896, Mr. Weld was employed in the purchasing and forward- ing industry for eighteen months, after which he was there associated with the National Bank of Commerce for two years, having charge of the savings department. Subsequently, in partnership with Stanley Scearce, he started the First National Bank of Ronan, Montana, and served as its cashier until 1911. Mr. Weld then became affiliated with the First National Bank of Carrington, North Dakota, where he remained as assistant cashier for four years. Coming from there to Broadview, Montana, in January, 1916, he organized the First National Bank of Broadview, which has a capital stock of $25,000 and a surplus fund of $5,000, the officers of the bank being as follows: C. L. Grandin, of Minneapolis, president; and H. A. Weld, vice president and cashier.

Active in public affairs and an influental member of the republican ranks, Mr. Weld served as town treasurer at Carrington, North Dakota, and is now a member and president of the Broadview Council. During all of the Liberty Loan drives during the late war he was at the forefront, serving in each instance as chairman of the local committees, and each time going over the top. As chairman of the Council of Defense he willingly gave his time and personal attention to the duties devolving upon him in that capacity, sparing himself not at all, and it was largely due to his strenuous efforts that this district met with such a . great measure of success in its various war activities. He was chairman of both the War Savings Stamps and the War Chest drives and an active member of the Board of Control and Finance and of the War Chest Fund, his financial ability and discernment rendering him especially qualified for the position.

Mr. Weld is a member of the Fourth Baptist Church of Minneapolis, and is identified with the Masonic fraternity, being a Royal Arch Mason. While in Alaska he was Arctic Chief of the Arctic Brotherhood of Alaska, the largest fraternal organ- ization in that section of the country, and has among his choicest treasures a very handsome gold and diamond watch charm presented to him by the lodge as past Arctic Chief. During his career he has accumulated considerable property, owning a ranch of 640 acres situated seven miles west of

S.S. Dove

149

HISTORY OF MONTANA

Rapelje, Montana, and an attractive residence in Broadview.

Mr. Weld married, in 1907, at Minneapolis, Min- nesota, Lettie A. Wertman, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Wertman.

SAMUEL E. DOVE came to Montana in 1904 as principal of the Billings High School. After a year or two he found an opening in business, gave up educational work, and is now one of the promi- nent residents of Huntley, being cashier of the Huntley State Bank.

Mr. Dove was born in Shelby County, Illinois, January 17, 1876. He is of Virginia colonial an- cestry, his paternal ancestors having come out from England. His great-grandfather, Henry Dove, was born in Virginia and in pioneer times with his small stock of money and goods crossed the mountains and homesteaded at Carroll in Fairfield County, Ohio. He died at Carroll in 1876. Elijah Dove, grandfather of the Huntley banker, was born at Carroll. Ohio, in 1811 and spent all his life on the farm originally taken up and cleared bv his father. Three years before his death he moved to Shelby- ville, Illinois, and died there in 1806. His wife was Mary Small. She was also born in Carroll, Ohio, and died there in 1876.

W. L. Dove, father of Samuel E., was born in Ohio in 1843 and when a young man went to Shelby County, Illinois. He married in that county and spent the rest of his life as a farmer. He died in 1886. Politically he was an independent and was a member of the United Brethren Church and one of the local preachers of that denomination. W. L. Dove married Eliza A. Warner, who was born in Shelby County, Illinois, in 1853 and died there in 1886, the same year as her husband. Samuel E. Dove is the oldest of four children: Mrs. Julia Maddox is the wife of a farmer at Rapidan, Vir- ginia; James U. is general sales manager for the Swayne Robinson Machine Company at Richmond, Indiana; and the youngest is Delia, wife of Charles Christ, a farmer at Canal Winchester, Ohio.

Samuel E. Dove spent his early life on a farm, but acquired a liberal education, beginning at the rural schools in Shelby County, Illinois, continuing in the Preparatory School at Greencastle, Indiana, and followed that with a course of college work in DePauw University at Greencastle. He was graduated with the degree Ph. B. in 1901. He achieved the scholarship honor of membership in the Phi Beta Kappa and is a member of the social fraternity Phi Delta Theta. During 1901 Mr. Dove was a night school teacher, spent two years with the schools of Kendallville, Indiana, one year in the Rock Island, Illinois, High School, and in 1904 took up his work as principal of the High School at Billings. He remained there two years and then engaged in the mercantile business at Billings and on the Billings Bench. He has been a resident of Huntley since 1907 and was a merchant in that little city until 1913. He has since been cashier of the Huntley State Bank, which was established August 27, 1907, with a state charter. This bank has a capital of $20,000 and surplus and profits of $14,000. The officers of the bank are T. A. Snidow, of Bil- lings, president ; Albert E. Platz, of Billings, vice president ; and Mr. Dove, cashier.

Mr. Dove is a member of the State and American Bankers Association, and owns an irrigated ranch of 180 acres on the Billings Bench. He is a director of the Bankers Loan and Mortgage Company of Billings. He helped establish the Methodist Epis- copal Church at Huntley in 1909, has since been its treasurer and is a member of the Board of Trus-

tees. He is a republican and affiliated with Billings Midland Club.

In June, 1903, Mr. Dove married Miss Nellie Landes at Greencastle, Indiana. She died in March, 1904. In 1906, at Des Moines, Iowa, he married Miss Josephine Bly, daughter of J. W. and Mary (Miller) Bly, both now deceased. Her father was a merchant and farmer at Des Moines. Mrs. Dove is a graduate of Drake University with the degree Ph. B. They haye two daughters, Virginia, born June 23, 1908, and Marjorie, born March 6, 1910.

RIBOT J. VALITON is one of the progressive young merchants of Montana, is manager of the Golden Rule department store at Philipsburg, is a university graduate, and in his active career has shown much of the commercial genius inherited from his ancestors.

His father was the late Peter Valiton, a Mon- tana pioneer, whose life was one of the many ad- ventures, vicissitudes, and in the end a great volume of success. Peter Valiton, who died at Deer Lodge in August, 1914, was born in Southern France, De- cember 13, 1832, a son of Peter Valiton. His peo- ple were French Huguenots. Peter Valiton, Sr., was a French farmer and in 1850 came to the United States and located near Dubuque, Iowa, where he died in 1858. His widow spent her last years with her son Peter and was killed by a train at Deer Lodge June 6, 1889. Peter Valiton, Jr., grew up on his father's farm in France and had a limited education. He was not yet nineteen years of age when he came to the United States in 1850 and he knew not a single word of English. He lived near Dubuque, Iowa, for about two years, and in 1855 went to Northern Kansas, where he acted as man- ager for a government contractor and owner of a trading post and freighting outfit. Kansas at that time was in the midst of the border warfare and a part of the great west. In 1859 Peter Valiton had charge of two wagon trains going overland to Colorado. In 1860 he opened a store in Colorado and the following year conducted a restaurant in the mining town of Denver. In the summer of 1862 accompanied by his widowed mother he started for the "Salmon river country" but was deterred from coming to Montana at that time by reports of In- dian hostilities. He went on to Virginia City, Ne- vada, conducted a restaurant for a year or so, and lost practically all his money by mining speculation. He made several ventures in mining both in Ne- vada and after coming to Montana, but they were almost entirely unprofitable. Early in 1865 he again started from Denver as wagon master of a freight- ing train for Virginia City, Montana. He soon opened a store in Confederate Gulch at Diamond City, and his success as a merchant soon brought him a substantial capital. Peter Valiton was one of the pioneers of Deer Lodge, where he located in the fall of 1867. His best success was made as a rancher and stockman. At one time he used about 10,000 acres in connection with stock raising. He was also member of a large wholesale and re- tail grocery house at Butte and in a commercial way his name was widely known over the state. He was never in politics, voted as a democrat, and was a member of the Masonic order and was a French Protestant. In 1875 he married Catherine Epler, a native of Michigan. She died in November. 1877. In 1885 Peter Valiton married Miss Anna N. King. who was born at Morristown, New Jersey, in 1852, and is now living at Los Angeles, California. She was the mother of four children : Francis, deceased ; Peter, a resident at Polson, Montana ; Carnot, a mer- chant at Los Angeles ; and Ribot J.

150

HISTORY OF MONTANA

Ribot J. Valiton was born at Deer Lodge, Mon- tana, November 2, 1891, and attended the public schools there. He went east for his advanced edu- cation, graduating from the high school at Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1910 and then taking the regu- lar classical course in the University of Michigan, where he received his A. B. degree in 1914. Re- turning to Montana he engaged in the mercantile business at Philipsburg and has advanced to the management of the Golden Rule department store. He is also a director of the Philipsburg State Bank and owns a modern home in that city.

Politically he votes as an independent. He is a member of the Episcopal Church and is affiliated with Flint Creek Lodge No. II, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Hope Chapter No. 10, Royal Arch Masons at Philipsburg, Pearl Chapter No. 14, Order of Eastern Star.

In 1915 at Annapolis, Maryland, Mr. Valiton mar- ried Miss Rosamond Hopkins, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hopkins. Her father is a banker at Annapolis and is assistant state comptroller of Maryland. Mr. and Mrs. Valiton have one son, Ri- bot J., Jr., born October 27, 1918.

HON. WILLIAM WALLACE MCDOWELL, who for the past eight years has presided over the Montana Senate as lieutenant governor, and for four years previous was twice Speaker of the House, has made politics incidental to a very active business carcer at Butte, where he has his home. Mr. McDowell comes of a distinguished Southern family, his great- grandfather having been one of the generals in the Revolutionary war who signed the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. The McDowell an- cestors came to this country on the ship "Mary and Ann" in 1729, first settling in Pennsylvania and later moving to Virginia, North Carolina and Ten- nessee.

William Wallace McDowell was born at Trenton, Tennessee, Jannary 22, 1867, son of John H. and Emma McDowell. He is well educated, attending and graduating from Union City College, Tennessee, in 1887. Mr. McDowell came to Butte in 1896 and for over twenty years has been prominently identi- fied with the mining and farming interests of the state. He is a director of the Miners' Savings Bank & Trust Company at Butte, and also president of the Reynolds & McDowell Company of that city. A democrat by principle, as well as by inheritance and family tradition, Mr. McDowell soon after com- ing to Montana interested himself in the affairs of his party. He worked for the benefit of political conditions for many years' and never sought any office for himself until he was unanimously chosen as a legislative candidate in 1908. In the following session he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, and was again selected as Speaker two years later. In 1912 he was unanimously nomi- nated for lieutenant governor at the Democratic State Convention, and was elected that fall. Four years later he was again nominated for lieutenant governor, this time in the primaries, and was again elected.

Mr. McDowell is affiliated with the Masonic fra- ternity, the Elks, Woodmen of the World, and is a member of the Silver Bow Club and the Butte Country Club. Mr. McDowell married in 1912 Mrs. Mary Lee Sturges of Chicago. They reside in Butte.

CHARLES HANCOCK. In every progressive com- munity in the country are found men who have worked their way from modest beginnings to lead- ership in the professions, in business life and in

public affairs, and in the controlling of the veins and arteries of the traffic and exchanges of the country. Montana, as a young and growing state, has its full share of self-made men, and at Lewis- town one who has advanced himself to a recognized position of preference in the drug and jewelry trade is Charles Hancock, owner of the establish- ment known as Hancock's Drug and Jewelry Store.

Mr. Hancock was born at Lansing, Allamakee County, Iowa, June 6, 1886, a son of Fremont Walter and Tillie (Hufschmidt) Hancock, both natives of the same locality and both still living, the former at the age of sixty-three and the latter aged sixty-five years. Fremont W. Hancock was engaged in the jewelry business at Lansing, Iowa, until 1893, in which year he removed to Bozeman, Montana, where he has since been employed by H. A. Pease & Company as a watchmaker. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and a democrat in his political adherence. Charles Hancock, the second of three children, was educated in the public graded and high schools of Bozeman, Mon- tana, and at the age of eighteen years started to learn the jewelry business with H. A. Pease & Company. After spending about ten years with that concern he came to Lewistown, Montana, where he engaged in the drug and jewelry business in partnership with J. A. Kelley, under the firm style of Kelley & Hancock. This association continued until 1916, in which year Mr. Hancock purchased his partner's interest, and since that time the busi- ness has been conducted under his sole proprietor- ship, as Hancock's Drug and Jewelry Store. The establishment, located at No. 318 West Main Street, is largely patronized, and under Mr. Hancock's capable management has become one of Lewistown's prosperous business places. Its proprietor bears the best of reputations in business circles as a man of sound and unswerving integrity, and his genial and courteous personality has succeeded in winning for him many friendships among his customers,

Mr. Hancock was married January 26, 1910, to Miss Alice Piedalue, who was born at Frenchtown, Missoula County, Montana, a daughter of Dr. Jo- seph Piedalue, a well-known practicing physician and surgeon of Bozeman. Mrs. Hancock was the eldest of five children. Mr. Hancock is fraternally affiliated with Lewistown Lodge No. 456, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and also holds mem- bership in the Judith Club. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and like other progressive and constructive business men shares in worthy movements for the general welfare. He is a re- publican, but has not taken an active part in political affairs.

WILLIAM W. McNAUGHTON is an expert machinist, has covered his trade in many different capacities, and is one of the exceptional men using their skill and experience in managing a complete service for automobile owners. He has a well equipped service station and garage at Billings, and is one of the leading automobile men of the state.

Mr. McNaughton was born at Arundel, Quebec, Canada, April 22, 1883. His father, Naughton McNaughton, of Scotch ancestors, was born in Canada in 1858, has followed the trade of carpenter during his active life and is now a resident of Cal- gary, Alberta. He married Mary Green, who was born in Canada in 1860 and died at Arundel in 1887. There were children as follows: Naughton, a farmer of Fallon ; William W .; and David, who was recently mustered out of the army after one year of service in this country and France. Naughton

JOHN H. NEWELL

151

HISTORY OF MONTANA

McNaughton married for a second wife Beatrice Coughlin, also a native of Canada. She is living at Fallon, Montana, and was one of the first women to take up a homestead there. She is the mother of one daughter, Inez Evelyn, who is living at Fallon, and is the widow of William Binnie, who was a first lieutenant in the army, and was on his way to France with the ill-fated transport Tuscania when that boat was torpedoed.

William W. 'McNaughton was educated in the public schools of Minneapolis, leaving school at the age of sixteen and spending one year with the steel and rolling mills at Columbia Heights, Min- nesota. He learned the bicycle business in Minnea- polis, followed it a year and a half and for the next four years served a thorough apprenticeship at the machinist's trade at Minneapolis. In 1905 he turned his skill to automobiles, and has been a skilled and practical expert in all things pertain- ing to the making, repairing and operating of automobiles for over ten years. After leaving Minneapolis Mr. McNaughton went to Beloit, Wis- consin, then to · Marquette, Michigan, returned to Minneapolis in 1907, and first came to Montana as a machinist with the Northern Pacific Railway at Livingston, Montana. From there he removed to Butte, spending eight months with the Butte Novelty Works, six months with the Silver Bow Automobile . Company, drove a car for Henry Albertson one year, and in 1910 located at Wibaux, Montana, where for three years he was an automobile machinist, and then after another interval at Minneapolis_of eight months came to Billings March 14, 1914. For two years he traveled out of Billings representing the Oakland Motor Company. He was a partner of E. W. Keene in the Montana Automobile Com- pany of Billings until July, 1917, then until the fol- lowing year was with the Haskell Automobile Com- pany, and in 1918 opened the Buick service station, leasing the old Haskell shop. This establishment is located at 2004 First Avenue, North.

Mr. McNaughton is a democrat. April 21, 1909, at Butte, he married Miss Ellen McDaniel, a daugh- ter of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. McDaniel, who live at 442 Lincoln Street, Minneapolis. Her father is a carpenter. Mr. and Mrs. McNaughton have two children, Kenneth, born May 10, I9II, and Jean, born November 18, 1913.

LOUIS ERNEST GORDON has been a resident of Montana for a quarter of a century. He is an expert machinist, stationary engineer and electrical worker and is now at the head of the leading plumbing, heating and electrical business in Powell County at Deer Lodge.

Mr. Gordon was born at Somerset in St. Croix County, Wisconsin, May 11, 1872. His grandfather James Gordon was a native of Scotland, and settled in Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1804. He died at Roden, Nova Scotia. He was a man of strong religious tendencies, and also possessed many good traits in a literary way. In his later years he was blind, and found employment for his leisure in writing poetry.

Alexander Gordon, father of the Deer Lodge business man, was born at Roden, Nova Scotia, in 1825, lived there through his boyhood years, was married at Halifax, and soon afterwards removed to Boston, Massachusetts, where he became a ship builder. He was one of the pioneer settlers at old St. Anthony Falls, now the City of Minneapolis. As a contractor he did some of the pioneer building work there. In 1860 he removed to Somerset, St. Croix County, Wisconsin, where he continued his business as a contractor and builder. During the Civil war he enlisted in the Union army, but was rejected

on account of a physical defect. Besides his regu- lar business he invested his surplus funds in farm lands, and acquired some valuable farming prop- erty. He sold out his interests in Wisconsin in 1903 and then removed to Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada, where he lived retired until his death in 1913. As an American citizen he was a democrat and was honored with several township offices and always took a keen interest in local affairs. He was reared a member of the Methodist Church. Alexander Gordon mar- ried Harriet K. Evans, who was born at Windsor, Nova Scotia, in 1830, and died at Fort Frances in 1914. A brief record of their children is as follows : James A., collector on the toll bridge across the Rainy River at International Falls, Ontario; F. A., a game warden at Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where he died in 1907; W. S. Gordon, whose where- abouts have not been known to his family for the past thirty years; M. M. Gordon, living at the old home at Fort Frances; H. K., a farmer at Grand Prairie in Saskatchewan, Canada; Louis E. and O. H., clerk in a hotel at International Falls.

Louis Ernest Gordon acquired his education in the public schools of Somerset, Wisconsin. At the age of sixteen he became a wage earner, packing shingles in a saw mill. When eighteen he went to St. Paul and learned his trade as a steam and electrical en- gineer and was a resident of that city until May, 1893. Then for a few months he was employed by the Citizens Electric Light Company of Leadville, Colorado, and in 1894 came to Deer Lodge, Montana, to take the operating charge of the Deer Lodge Electric Light Company. He was at that post two years, then traveled all over Montana running hoist- ing engines, saw mill engines and stamp mill engines until 1901. In that year he returned to Deer Lodge and opened a plumbing, heating and electrical shop, continuing the business alone for seven years. For the next eight years he was a partner of the heat- ing and plumbing department of the O'Neill Hard- ware & Plumbing Company, and in 1917 resumed business on his own account, with a complete shop and equipment for plumbing, heating and electrical installation. His offices are on Missouri Avenue, and his business is now the chief of its kind in Powell County.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 42

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