Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 44

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 44

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In 1909, at Billings, Doctor Stripp married Miss Montana Tschudy, daughter of O. A. and Georgi- etta (Nord) Tschudy, the latter of whom resides at Billings. Mr. Tschudy, who was manager of the Billings Club, is deceased. Doctor and Mrs. Stripp are the parents of two children: Georgia Rose, born in August, 1910, and Albert Edward, Jr., born in March, 1912.

PATRICK DALTON, superintendent of the Converter . department of the Anaconda Copper Mining Com- pany, is not only held in high esteem by his company, but also in the community in which he resides, and is numbered among the substantial citizens of Ana- conda. He was born at St. Louis, Missouri, February 28, 1863, a son of James Dalton. James Dalton was born in Ireland in 1820, and was killed in the Civil war during 1862, having come to the United States in young manhood, locating at St. Louis, Missouri,

and there worked as a foundryman and moulder. In 1861 he enlisted in a Missouri Volunteer Infantry regiment and was killed on the Mound City gun- boat. In politics he was a strong democrat. The Roman Catholic Church held his membership and he died firm in its faith. James Dalton was married to Ellen McNinery, who was born in Ireland in 1820, and died at St. Louis, Missouri. Patrick Dalton was the only child of his parents, and was born after the death of his father, his mother not long surviving.

Until he was sixteen years old, Patrick Dalton received a pension from the Government of $8 per month, and was reared by his uncle, John Dalton of St. Louis. After passing through the grammar schools of St. Louis, Patrick Dalton took the high school course, and was graduated therefrom in 1878. at which time he began working for Evans, Howard Company, dealers in brick tile, sewer pipe and sim- ilar products, remaining with this concern from the time he was seventeen until he was twenty-three years of age. Mr. Dalton then came West, arriving at Butte, Montana, in the spring of 1886, and worked for the Parret Smelting Company for a year, leav- ing Butte for Anaconda in 1887, and engaging with the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. His first work was preparing "matt" for shipment to Swansea, Wales, but he was soon promoted to be converter man, rising from that position to be foreman of his department and then superintendent, which situa- tion he still retains, discharging its many responsibil- ities with practical ability. There are 350 men under his supervision, and the output of his department is 1,000,000 pounds daily when it is running to full capacity. His offices are in the general office build- ing of the Washoe Reduction Works, two miles east of Anaconda. Like his father before him, Mr. Dalton supports the principles of the democratic party, and for the past twenty years, at different times he has been elected to the City Countil of Anaconda. He belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, and Anaconda Council No. 882, Knights of Columbus, and Anaconda Lodge No. 239, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In addition to his other interests Mr. Dalton is treasurer of the Hidden Lake Mining Company. He owns a mod- ern residence at No. 408 Pine Street, and other real estate at Anaconda.

In 1893 Mr. Dalton was married at Anaconda to Miss Catherine Reid, a daughter of Patrick and Catherine Reid, who live in County Mayo, Ireland, Mr. Reid being now a retired farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Dalton have one daughter, Mary. who was graduated from the Anaconda High School. is now teaching in the public schools of the city, and living at home. Sound, reliable and skilled, Mr. Dalton is a valuable man to his company and is held in the highest confidence by his community.

THOMAS THOMPSON TAYLOR. Before locating in Montana Thomas Thompson Taylor was for many years identified with railway mail service, and his abilities have advanced him to the position of a superintendent in that service. In Montana he has been a banker and is now vice president of the Bank of Fergus County at Lewistown.

Mr. Taylor was born at Georgetown, Brown County, Ohio, December 28, 1860, son of Gen. Thomas T. and Antoinette Taylor. His father was a distinguished officer in the Union army and Mr. Taylor's only son was an officer in the Euro- pean war. Gen. Thomas T. Taylor was born at Freehold, New Jersey, November 15, 1836, and died February 15, 1908. His wife was born at Georgetown, Ohio, November 27, 1836, and died in

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September, 1916. They were married at George- town. General Taylor was educated in Homedell Institute at Monmouth, New Jersey, and was ad- mitted to the Ohio bar and for about eight years was a lawyer in that state. In April, 1861, he en- listed in' the Twelfth Ohio Infantry for the three months' service. . Later he organized a company in the Forty-Seventh Ohio Infantry, was elected cap- tain, and for merit and excellence as a soldier was successively advanced to the grade of major, lieu- tenant-colonel, colonel and finally was commissioned brigadier general. During the period of his first enlistment he was in the West Virginia campaign, and afterward participated in the battles of Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, the siege and capture of Atlanta and the march to the sea. When the war was over he returned to Georgetown, Ohio, and in 1868 moved to Edina, Knox County, Missouri, where he prac- ticed law until 1874. In that year he went to Hutchinson, Kansas, and while in Kansas served in the House of Representatives and in the State Senate. In 1893 General Taylor became general counsel for the Kansas City, Watkins & Gulf Rail- way, with home and offices at Lake Charles, Lou- isiana, where he lived until his death. He was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, an Odd Fellow, a member of the Loyal Legion and an active republican.

Thomas Thompson Taylor was the second of eight children, seven sons and one daughter, all living but one. He grew to manhood in Kansas and was educated in Washburn College at Topeka and Oberlin College in Ohio. During 1886-88 he was engaged in the real estate business at Hutchinson, Kansas. In 1889 he entered the United States postal service as railway postal clerk and subsequently was advanced to chief clerk of the railway mail service at Fort Scott, Kansas, and finally as super- intendent of the mail service at Kansas City. On resigning this position, after nearly twenty years of service, in 1908 Mr. Taylor located at Lewis- town, Montana, where he became assistant cashier of the Bank of Fergus County. Since 1916 he has been vice president of that institution. He served as a trustee of the Lewistown schools nine years, is a Mason and Knight of Pythias and a republican in political affiliations.

September 25, 1891, he married Florence Warr. She was born at Hanaford, West South Wales. They have two children, Thomas Thompson, Jr., and Lillia Marie, the latter the wife of John D. Waite of Lewistown. The son, Thomas T., Jr., was educated in the Westport High School of Kansas, in the University of Kansas and the Uni- versity of New York, and for about a year was an employe of the Bank of Fergus County at Lewistown. May 12, 1917, he entered the First Officers Training Camp at the Presidio in California, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in Au- gust. He was assigned to the Ninety-First Division at Camp Lewis, and subsequently was made first lieutenant of the Three Hundred and Sixteenth Ammunition Train. He went overseas with the Ninety-First Division and had just reached the front the day the armistice was signed, November II, 1918.

GUY C. MYERS. Among the men of Billings who are distributing their energies and talents among several lines of endeavor and meeting with an equal share of prosperity in all, one who has achieved success in the loan business and as a rancher is Guy C. Myers. Coming to this city in October, IgII, as manager of the commercial department of

the Montana Power Company, he early recognized the opportunities at hand for successful participa- tion in enterprises connected directly or indirectly with the soil, and his subsequent career has been one in which his accomplishments have served to place him among the substantial men of his com- munity.

Mr. Myers was born at Green Bay, Wisconsin, June 25, 1886, a son of Charles A. and Elizabeth (McLaughlin) Myers. The Myers family originated in Holland, from which the original progenitor immigrated to America during the colonial days, and the name soon was well established in Pennsyl- vania, in which state the grandfather of Guy C. Myers was born in 1827. From Pennsylvania he journeyed as a pioneer into Indiana and subsequently became one of the earliest settlers of Danville, Illinois, where he was the proprietor of the first hostelry of that city, the Pennsylvania House, well known in its day for the distinguished character of many of its guests, among whom was Abraham Lin- coln. Mr. Myers died at Danville in 1889. Charles A. Myers was born at Danville, Illinois, in 1864, and was there reared and educated, but as a young man went to Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he had charge of the emigration department for the North- western Railway. He was married at Green Bay, where he resided for a number of years, but in 1894 went to Chicago, where he entered the service of the Chicago & Alton Railway, in the same capa- city as noted above. From 1907 to 1910 he occupied a like position with the New York Central Lines at New York City, but in the latter year retired from active pursuits and returned to the city of his birth, where he passed away in 1912. He was a republican and prominent in his party, and a devoted member of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Myers married Elizabeth Mclaughlin, who was born in 1867 at Escanaba, Michigan. She survives her hus- band and is a resident of Chicago, Illinois, and they had two children: Guy C., of this notice; and Mar- guerite, who is unmarried and resides with her mother.

Guy C. Myers was educated in the public schools of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois, following which he took a course at Culver Military Institute, Culver, Indiana. He left that academy in 1905, at the age of nineteen years, at which time he entered the service of the Danville Street Railway and Light Company as outside man, and later, through consecutive stages, was promoted to the position of manager of the commercial depart- ment. In this capacity, in October, 1911, as above noted, he came to Billings with the Montana Power Company, continning with that concern until 1916, when he resigned his position to enter the farm and city loan business, a line in which he has made rapid advancement. He maintains offices at 208 Securities Building and has developed substantial connections among the leading financial houses of Billings, and a clientele as representative as it is important. While carrying on a successful business in the city Mr. Myers has also taken advantage of the opportunities offered in the country, and at this time is the owner of an irrigated farm of 640 acres located in Mussellshell County, where he has 250 head of cattle. His residence is maintained in the Hedgemer Apartments, Seventh Avenue and Twenty-eighth Street. Politically Mr. Myers is a republican. He is a member of Billings Lodge No. 113, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Bil- lings Consistory, and is an ex-member of the local lodge of Elks, and holds membership also in the Billings Midland Club. His name will always be

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found on the list of supporters of worthy public- spirited enterprises.

Mr. Myers was married December 27, 1913, at Billings, to Miss Amy Bennighoff, daughter of the late Andrew H. Bennighoff, former manager of the Grand Hotel, Billings, who died December 1, 1912. Mr. and Mrs. Myers are the parents of one child, Marguerite, born in February, 1915.

JOHN B. TRUSCOTT has spent most of his life at Deer Lodge, is a university graduate, and for the past five years has been an active merchant, managing the largest firm of implement dealers in Powell County.

Mr. Truscott was born at Beatrice, Nebraska, Oc- tober 1, 1880. His grandfather was born in Corn- wall, England, in 1801, and on coming to this country settled in Iowa, where as a millwright he erected a number of mills throughout that state. He died at Clarinda, Iowa, in 1887. His wife was Ann Benny, a native of England, where they were married, and she also died in Clarinda.

Arthur L. Truscott, father of John B., was born in Lee County, Iowa, in 1851, was reared there, was married in Appanoose County, that state, and soon afterward moved to Beatrice, Nebraska, and in 1883 came to Deer Lodge, Montana. The same summer he went to Anaconda and resided there until 1900. He is a republican and is affiliated with Deer Lodge Camp Modern Woodmen of America. Arthur L. Truscott married Addie Williams, a native of Iowa, who died at Anaconda in February, 1886. Emma, the oldest of their children, is the wife of John Greenhalgh, a retired merchant at Lincoln, Ne- braska. John B. is the second in age, and Raymond W. the youngest is superintendent of schools at Loveland, Colorado.

John B. Truscott acquired his early education in Anaconda. After leaving college he returned to Deer Lodge, engaged in ranching for a time, and then bought out the Cockrell Commercial Company, the business now being incorporated as the Cockrell Implement Company. C. H. Williams is president and Mr. Truscott is vice president, and treasurer. The firm sells implements all over Powell County and keeps a complete stock housed in their store building and large warehouse adjoining. The business is at 409 North Main Street. Mr. Truscott is a republi- can, and resides at 119 North Main Street. On Au- gust 20, 1919, Mr. Truscott married Jessie Oliver, a daughter of Harry Oliver of Deer Lodge.

FRANK E. WILLIAMS has been continuously identified with the county clerk's office at Billings for the last twelve years, and is serving his fourth consecutive term as chief and head of that office.

Mr. Williams was born in Central Illinois, near Springfield, June 19, 1883, a son of Edward M. and Anna M. (Hampton) Williams. The Williams fam- ily is of Welsh ancestry, and members of it were colonial settlers in Maryland. Edward M. Williams was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1847 and has spent all his life in that vicinity. He is now a retired farmer living at Illiopolis, a village that has honored him with the office of mayor several times. He is a republican, a member of the Christian Church, and of the Knights of Pythias. His wife was born in Mechanicsburg, Illinois, in 1847. They had two sons, Charles O., who served in the Na- tional Army and returned from France in the spring of 1919, and Frank E.

Frank E. Williams acquired a public school educa- tion at Illiopolis, including the high school course, and received his business training in the Gem City Business College at Quincy, Illinois. Immediately on leaving school in 1905 Mr. Williams came to

Billings, and for two years was an accountant with Yegen Brothers. In 1907 he was appointed deputy clerk, and filled that position until elected county clerk and recorder in the fall of 1912. He was reelected in 1914, 1916 and in 1918 for a term of two years each.

During the war Mr. Williams served as chairman of the local draft board and thus carried the double burden of official responsibility. He is a republican and a member of the Presbyterian Church, belongs to the Midland Club, and in Masonry is affiliated with Ashlar Lodge No. 29, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, Billings Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, is also a member of Billings Star Lodge No. 41, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Billings Lodge No. 394 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

In 1912, at Billings, Mr. Williams married Miss Margaret E. Robertson, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Robertson of Kiester, Minnesota. Her father was a farmer, and both he and his wife are now deceased. The three children of Mr. and Mrs. Williams are Franklyn Elizabeth, born June 24, 1915; Marion, born November 5, 1916; and Margaret, born November 5, 1916.

JUDGE J. K. MILLER was an early traveler, a par- ticipant in pioneer activities and a pioneer lawyer in Minnesota, California and Montana. For nearly thirty years his home has been in the Flathead Valley, and in recent years he has lived quietly at his home in Columbia Falls.

He was born near the historic Town of Vincennes on the Illinois side of the Wabash River, March 14, 1850, a son of John and Mary (Kennedy) Miller. His parents were of pioneer stock from early co- lonial times. His early opportunities in school were limited, and the sound scholarship of his mature career has been due to a lifelong habit of study, reasoning and observation. When he was four years of age he lost his mother and the panic of 1857 having bankrupted his father and scattered the fam- ily, he was reared by an older sister to the age of thirteen. He then left home and wandered far be- fore he came to the beautiful Flathead country. He worked on farms in Illinois, Michigan, in the Michi- gan and Minnesota lumber woods, rafted timber down the Mississippi, and was a teamster on the Yellowstone expedition under General Stanley three years before the Custer massacre. In 1874 he was admitted to the bar at Glencoe, Minnesota, prac- ticed law six years in that state, for two years was a lawyer in California, making a specialty of mining law, and next came to Montana and for seven years engaged in mining and law practice at Helena.

Judge Miller came to the Flathead country in 1891 and continued his professional work and other interests until about ten years ago, when he estab- lished his family home in beautiful Glacier Park, filing on a homestead and proving up. He and his wife spend the summer months in that beautiful location.

He married Miss Emma C. Wood at Montevidio, Minnesota, January 1, 1878. She was born at St. Charles, in Winona County, Minnesota, January 7, 1859, a daughter of J. G. and Millie (Brainard) Wood. She was educated in the public schools of Minnesota and in the high school at Rockford, Illi- nois. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Miller was Mary Amelia, who was liberally educated in school and at home, was a teacher for two years at Kalis- pell, and when life was most promising for her soon after her marriage she died.

Judge Miller was once a candidate on the popu- list ticket for judge in Flathead County. Beyond

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that he has not considered practical politics as a vocation, for which he was fitted by nature. He has been a favorite speaker on many occasions, and has also reduced many of his thoughtful studies to writing. A synopsis and abstract of some of his writings have been published in a small booklet entitled "After the War," and some of his discus- sions betray a very keen analysis of fundamentals that vitally affect the structure of civilization in America as elsewhere. The wedded life of Judge Miller has been ideal, and to an unusual degree they have been bound together by common sympathies and aims.

JUDGE HENRY J. GRIMES, judge of the City Police Court of Butte, has been a resident of that city twenty years, and until recently did an extensive business as a contractor and builder.

Judge Grimes, whose experience in the West and . Northwest covers a long period of years, was born in the Town of Stafford, Staffordshire, England, February 17, 1859. His father George Grimes was born in 1830 and died in October, 1869, spending all his life at Stafford. He was a shoemaker by trade, a liberal in politics, a member of the Church of England, had military training with the English Volunteers, and was a member of the Manchester Unity Association and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. George Grimes married Susannah Atkin, who was born at Cambridge, England, and died in Stafford in 1889. Of their three children Judge Grimes is the second. Julia who died at the age of twenty-eight at Walsall, England, was the wife of Alfred Silcock, a painter and decorator. The other daughter Mrs. Edith Seabold, whose husband was a hotel proprietor, died at Bakersfield, Cali- fornia, in 1911.

Henry J. Grimes was educated in the public schools of his native town and spent six years as an apprentice to a carpenter and joiner and worked at that trade in England. October 24, 1886, he reached Utica, New York, where he worked at his trade. and from January, 1887, until 1891 was a resident of the capital city of Albany. After that until 1897 he was in the contracting and building busi- ness at Salt Lake City, Utah, and for a year or so was similarly engaged at Salmon City, Idaho. Judge Grimes located at Butte in March, 1899. For the first ten years he was employed as a journeyman carpenter and then entered contracting and con- tinued that business until elected city police judge in April, 1919. Two years of this time, however, he spent on his ranch six miles from Butte. He sold his ranch property in 1917.

Judge Grimes is a republican in politics, a member of the Christian Science Church and is consul com- mander of Butte Camp No. 153, Woodmen of the World.

He owns a modern home and employed his own skill in remodeling it at 740 Maryland Avenue. Judge Grimes married at Shrewsbury, England, in 1880, Miss Charlotte Faulkner, daughter of Jolin and Sarah (Mickelwright) Faulkner. Her parents both died in England and her father was in the cutlery business.

One of the soldiers whose record Montana loves to honor is that of Harry J. Grimes, son of Judge Grimes. He was born April 27, 1895, is a graduate of the Butte public schools and au automobile ma- chinist. May 28, 1917, soon after the outbreak of the war he volunteered and was in training at Fort George Wright, Spokane, Fort Vancouver, Wash- ington, from June until December, was then sent to Camp Greene, North Carolina, and after one

week in Camp Merritt in May, 1918, was sent over- seas. He was in Company A of the Fourth Engi- neers in the Third Army Corps and saw active service in six of the great drives in which the American Expeditionary Forces participated, in- cluding Chateau Thierry, St. Mihiel, Second Battle of the Marne, the drive at the Vesle River, and the Argonne Forest fight. After the armistice he was sent to Coblenz, Germany, and remained on duty there from December, 1918, until July, 1919. He returned and was discharged as a first class private August 8, 1918. He was promoted to first class private soon after enlistment.

PHILIPP LAUX, whose experience as a Montana business man covers a period of thirty years or more, has had his home at Lewistown during the greater part of this period, and has erected some of the prominent structures in the business district and owns one of the finest homes in the city.

He was born April 1, 1861, in the southern part of Germany, a son of John W. and Catherine (Jung) Laux. His father was a miner in his younger days, later a farmer, and spent all his life in' Germany. Both parents are now deceased. Philipp was the oldest of six children, one daughter and five sons, five of whom are living.

He acquired his education in Germany, learning the blacksmith's trade. He came to America and to Montana in the spring of 1885. He was first located at Helena, where his first employment was in a stone quarry. During the winter he cut cord- wood and in the spring of 1886 went to Cotton- wood and was employed as a blacksmith with Charles Leahman & Company. He worked for this firm until November, 1889. While in Montana he had made the acquaintance of Miss Katie Abell, who was also a native of Southern Germany. In November, 1889, she went back to Europe with some of her relatives and friends, and Mr. Laux followed her and on February 9, 1890, they were married in the old country and on the 12th of February boarded a steamship for the United States. On their return to Montana they located at Lewis- town, where Mr. Laux took employment with his brother John, a contractor and builder. John Laux constructed the stone work of the Fergus County Courthouse in 1890. He was associated with his brother in a number of enterprises. In 1888 they had bought 125 head of cattle at $20 a head. In 1891, being without range for this stock, Philipp Laux engaged in the butcher business at Lewistown in order to dispose of the cattle. He continued this for about two and a half years, until the stock had been sold. He then engaged in the blacksmith business and with other parties bought a brewery. Selling this he entered the general merchandise business, and after disposing of his interests in that line took up real estate and building. In 1892 he put up the Laux Building, and has erected a number of other substantial structures in Lewis- town. In 1913 he built the Fergus Hotel, a modern hotel that is a credit to the city. His fine home, constructed in 1917, cost $13,000, and is one of the best residences of the city. Mr. Laux is a repub- lican, a member of the Catholic Church and the Knights of Columbus.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 44

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