Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 45

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 45

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Mr. and Mrs. Laux have a family that do them credit. Eleven children were born to them, and those living are four sons and six daughters. John W., the oldest, has been a teacher and is now studying for the priesthood in the Jesuit College at Spokane, Washington. Philipp is a plumber by trade. George Lee is a member of the U. S. Marines, with the rank of corporal, and is now

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acting sergeant major. The fourth child is Eliza- beth. The daughter Francisca for three or four months during 1918 worked as a cook on a ranch, that being her contribution to the patriotic move- ment to assist the nation to harvest the maximum of crops during war times. Her sister Cecelia, now in high school, was likewise a volunteer worker during the war, and rode a binder during the harvest season of 1918. She is a talented musician, a pianist, and in school has a standing of ninety-five per cent in her studies. The younger children are Catherine, a high school girl, Stella, Margaret and Joseph.

F. H. BALLOU. The men connected with the opera- tion of the Great Western Sugar Company are undoubtedly possessed of special qualifications in their several lines, for this corporation has made it a point to draw to it those calculated to give the best of their abilities, so that association there- with is proof of successful carrying out of a life work. This company recognizes the value of new blood in its force, and is given to promote men who are young enough to still feel the urge of enthusiasm and to be under the influence of recent collegiate training. The assistant chief engineer of the Montana Division of this concern is one of the alert, aggressive young men of Billings who has won his successive advancements because he has earned them and not on account of undue influence of outside parties.

F. H. Ballou belongs to an old family of this country, the original founder having journeyed from France to England, and thence to New England during the colonial days. Later member of the family went to New York State, and there the paternal grandfather was born and educated for the Presbyterian ministry, serving in it the remainder of his active life and dying at Clarence, New York. He married a Miss Bissell. The birth of F. H. Ballou occurred at Independence, Iowa, July 30, 1884, and he is a son of F. B. Ballou, who was born at Gainesville, New York, but went to Inde- pendence, Iowa, in young manhood, and was there married to Ellen Fisk Hubbard, born at Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1858. Following his marriage he was gen- eral agent for the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company at Independence until 1898, but in that year moved to Waterloo, Iowa. There he conducted a business of his own, manufacturing gasoline engines until his death in September, 1918, his wife having died at Waterloo in 1904. Their children were as follows: F. H., who was the elder; and Lois, who is unmarried and lives at Billings, Montana. F. B. Ballou always voted the republican ticket. He was a consistent member, vestryman and active worker of the Episcopal Church, and assisted in building up several parishes. Well known as a Mason, he had attained to the Thirty-Second Degree, Scottish Rite, and the Commandery, and was always interested in the growth of these orders.

F. H. Ballou was reared at Independence, Iowa, and during his boyhood attended its schools, being graduated from the Waterloo High School in 1903, following which he entered the State Normal School at Cedar Falls, Iowa, where he studied mathematics, chemistry and physics during 1903 and 1904. He then became a student of the Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken, New Jersey, from which he was graduated in 1908, with the degree of Mechan- ical Engineer. Mr. Ballou belongs to the Greek Letter college fraternity Tau Beta Pi.

Following his graduation Mr. Ballou entered the employ of the American Sugar Refining Company at Jersey City, New Jersey, as engineer, and for Vol. II-11

two months was engaged in testing boilers. He was then transferred to the Great Western sugar plant at Eaton, Colorado, and spent a year as a student in engineering, after which he was placed in the engineering department at Fort Collins, Colorado, where the chief engineering department was located. In 1910 he was promoted to the position of traveling engineer from that plant, working as such until 1913, when the company transferred the headquar- ters of the chief engineering department to Denver, Colorado, and Mr. Ballou changed his route to operate from the new location. In 1916 he was further advanced by being sent to the Billings plant to assume the duties pertaining to the position of assistant chief engineer of the Montana division, comprising the plants at Billings and Missoula, Montana, and Lovell, Wyoming. Mr. Ballou has full charge of the engineering department of the Billings plant, with eight men under his direct super- vision. The plant is located one mile south of Billings. Mr. Ballou has supervision over all of the engineering work of the three plants, and is discharging his responsibilities in a manner highly creditable to him.

In 1913, while living at Fort Collins, Colorado, Mr. Ballou was united in marriage with Miss Edna Baker, a daughter of Alfred and Ada L. (Rich- ardson) Baker, the former of whom is now de- ceased, having been a farmer during all of his active years. Mrs. Baker survives her husband and lives at Fort Collins, Colorado. Mr. and Mrs. Ballou have two children, namely: Frederick, who was born December 21, 1914; and Edna, who was born September 29, 1918. Like his father, Mr. Ballou is a republican. Reared in the faith of the Episcopal Church, he is now a valued member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church of Billings. He belongs to Fort Collins Lodge, Knights of Pythias, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Cosmopolitan Club of Billings and the Billings Mid- land Club. The Ballou residence is at No. 118 Yellowstone Avenue, Billings, where a helpful home atmosphere is maintained and a gracious hospitality dispensed, both Mr. and Mrs. Ballou being ideal hosts, who enjoy gathering their friends about them.

HENRY H. NELL, assistant superintendent of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company Reduction Works, is one of the experienced officials of this great corporation, who has earned his promotion through his own efforts, and is what may be termed a self-made man in the best sense of the word. He was born in Reading Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania, November 11, 1857, a son of Abraham Nell, and grandson of Henry Nell. The Nell family originated in Germany, but was established in Penn- sylvania during the Colonial epoch of this country's history: The great-grandfather of Henry H. Nell, was also named Henry, and he established a home- stead in Reading Township, Adams County, Penn- sylvania, where he died, his property descending to his son, Henry Nell, who spent his life on this farm, and here died. Abraham Nell, father of Henry H. 'Nell was born on this same farm in 1816, and he also spent his life upon it, and here passed away in 1895. A strong republican he never failed to uphold his political principles, and he was equally fearless in supporting his religious convictions through the medium of the Lutheran Church, of which he was a conscientious member. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Catherine Hess, was born at Hanover, Pennsylvania, in 1810, and she died on the homestead in 1894. Their children were as follows: Adam, who was general agent for the Johnston Harvesting Company, died at Churchtown,

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Pennsylvania in 1911; Levi, who is living retired at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was formerly foreman of the steel plant at Steelton, Pennsylvania, and county commissioner of Dauphin County, that state; Matilda, who died at the age of twenty-seven years, in .1880, was living on the homestead, and had never mar- ried; George, who is a farmer of York County, Pennsylvania; Amanda, who is the widow of John Zinn, a liveryman, lives at East Berlin, Pennsylvania ; Henry H., whose name heads this review; Abraham, who died in 1908, at Boulder, Colorado, had mining interests there and owned a saw-mill; Emeline, who died in infancy; Catherine, who married O. W. Eppley, a farmer residing near Carlisle, Pennsyl- vania; Sarah, who married William O. Walton, re- sides in York County, Pennsylvania, where he is en- gaged in farming; William, who died in childhood ; and John, who died at the age of twenty-two years.

Henry H. Nell attended the common schools of his native township, and remained on his father's farm until he was twenty-two years of age, leaving it in 1880, to come west to Denver, Colorado, to en- gage with the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1888 lie located at Butte, Montana, as an employe of the Union Pacific Railroad, and remained with it in a clerical capacity, from February, 1888, to October, 1889, in the latter month coming to Anaconda as traffic clerk for the Anaconda Copper Mining Com- pany. It was not long before he was promoted to be supply clerk, then was made assistant superin- tendent of the reduction department of his company, which responsible position he still holds. His offices are in the general office building of the Washoe Re- duction Works, two miles east of Anaconda. Like his father, Mr. Nell is a republican. He was baptized in the Lutheran Church, and reared in its faith. Fra- ternally he belongs to Denver Lodge, Ancient Free and accepted Masons; Anaconda Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Montana Commandery, Knights Templar of Butte, Montana; and Algeria Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Helena, Montana. He is also a member of the Anaconda Gun Club, which for the past twenty years he has served as secretary and treasurer, and is a charter member of the Anaconda Club. For some time he has been secretary and treasurer of the Baltic-Combination Mining Company, and active in its conduct. Mr. Nell resides at the old Upper Works of Anaconda.

In November, 1887, Mr. Nell was married at Den- ver, Colorado, to Miss May F. Hostord, a daughter of Robert and Mabel (Allen) Hosford. Mr. Hos- ford was a harnessmaker, and died at Monroeville, Ohio. Mrs. Hosford survives and makes her home at Denver, Colorado. Mr. and Mrs. Nell have one daughter, Mabel Ione, who married Milton A. Reid, chief chemist of the Washoe Sampler of the Ana- conda Copper Mining Company at Butte, Montana. A thoroughgoing man, Mr. Nell commands the con- fidence of his associates, and is recognized as a sub- stantial resident of Anaconda, in whose prosperity he takes a deep interest. His support can be counted upon of all measures looking toward constructive civic improvements.

FRANK A. LENZ, born in Danzig, Germany, Feb- ruary 13, 1862, came to the United States February 22, 1881, applied for first citizenship papers in New York within ten days from his arrival on this side of the ocean, and was admitted to citizenship in Louisville, Kentucky, October 3, 1887. He worked as a laborer and helper at various trades for some months until his better education apparent through his language drew the attention of his employers, from which time on he held positions of clerk,

bookkeeper, draughtsman, reporter, assistant editor, editor, teacher, and writer. In 1886 he engaged in newspaper work in Louisville, Kentucky, through which he became acquainted with the officials and members of the bar of that city and of Jefferson County, through which acquaintance he found an opening to enter upon a study of law at the office of Mr. Newton G. Rogers, a prominent attorney of Kentucky.

On the 17th day of October, 1888, he married Miss Louise Kamuf of Owensboro, Kentucky, and of the ten children born to them, they raised eight, five boys and three girls to manhood and woman- hood. The two oldest boys, Paul G. and Frank J. were eleven months in France with the American Expeditionary Forces in the late war. The older one, Paul, was severely wounded in the Battle of St. Mihiel, November 1, 1918.

Mr. Lenz did not finish his law studies until March, 1897, when he was admitted to practice in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Kentucky. A little more than two years later he was admitted to practice before the Court of Appeals of Ken- tucky and soon thereafter in the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, District o Columbia.

He came to Montana in 1896, and was admitted to the practice of law in this state in 1897. Where- ever he was located he soon became prominent by his interest in municipal, state and national affairs, having formed a strong attachment for the demo- cratic party.

He was often sent out on the stump, especially in German communities of opposite leaning and has shown some power of persuasion in some of these.

Mr. Lenz was one of the four-minute speakers and a diligent member of the Advisory Board to the local draft boards of Butte and Silver Bow County.

PETER ALEXANDER PENDER came to Montana twenty years ago as a railway telegraph operator, was in the employ of Montana railroads in different capacities for a number of years, and subsequently joined the Montana Oil Company and is now man- ager of the business of that corporation at Billings.

Mr. Pender was born at Chatham, Ontario, Canada, August 22, 1881. His father, James Pender, born in Scotland in 1855, came to this country when a young man and located at Chatham, Ontario, where he married and where for many years he was pro- prietor of the Magnolia Hotel. He has lived retired from business since 1901. He is a Presbyterian .. James Pender married Jessie Reid, who was born in Scotland in 1856 and came to this country with her parents at the age of six years. The Reid family also located at Chatham, where Mrs. James Pender died in 1904. Her children were: Mary, wife of Matt Lydon, a farmer at Thamesville, On- tario; Ann, unmarried and her father's housekeeper ; Peter A .; Bessie, at home with her father; Mar- garet, who died in 1913, at the age of twenty-four; and Ursula and Agnes, both at home.

Peter A. Pender acquired his education in the public schools of his native city, graduating from high school in 1898. After a course of study that made him a practical telegrapher he worked in telegraph offices in Chicago and in Winnipeg, Canada, and in July, 1899, came to Billings, spending six weeks in the telegraph office as an operator. He was located at Livingston five months, at Co- lumbus, Montana, two years, and for two years was general clerk in the Division Freight and Passenger Offices of the Northern Pacific Railway at Butte. Mr. Pender for twelve years was traveling freight

J.a. Jeunder

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and passenger agent for the Burlington System, covering the entire State of Montana. He left the railroad in 1917 to join the Montana Oil Company as salesman, and after six months was made man- ager of the Billings branch.

The plant and offices over which he has super- vision are located on First Avenue, East, and Twentieth Street, North. On September 1, 1919, the Montana Oil Company was taken over by the Mutual Oil Company, with headquarters at Kansas City, Missouri. About twenty-five stations in Mon- tana are supervised by Mr. Pender and are located in Montana from Livingston east and in the extreme Northeastern portion of Wyoming.

Mr. Pender is a very popular business man and member of a number of social and civic organiza- tions, including the Midland Empire Club of Billings, the United Commercial Travelers, the Rotary Club, Butte Lodge of Masons, Bagdad Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Butte, and Butte Lodge No. 153, Woodmen of the World. He is independent in politics and is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church.

His home is at 217 Lewis Avenue. Mr. Pender married in 1902, at Columbus, Montana, Maude Penman, daughter of David and Margaret (Ayres) Penman, both now deceased. Her father, a native of Scotland, came to the United States, landing at Baltimore, worked in the Pennsylvania coal fields for a number of years, and was a pioneer miner in Montana. He came to this state in 1892 and opened the Cokedale Coal Mines. The last seven years of his life he spent as a hotel proprietor at Columbus, where he died.

ARTHUR L. D'AUTREMONT. The true western spirit of progress and enterprise is exemplified in the career of Arthur L. d'Autremont, whose energe- tic nature and laudable ambition has enabled him to advance steadily to a leading position in com- mercial circles at Lewistown, where he is now the president of the Fad Shoe and Clothing Com- pany. He has made his home and centered his activities here since 1900, and during the time that has intervened has had his genuine worth recognized in the high regard of his fellow citizens.

Arthur L. d'Autremont was born on his father's farm in Calhoun County, Iowa, April 14, 1872, a son of Louis A. and Laura E. (Race) d'Autremont. His father, a native of Pennsylvania, was a young man when he migrated to Calhoun County and took up his residence in a more or less unsettled region. There he developed a good farm on the prairie and continued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death in 1907, at the age of sixty- seven years. He was a man of industry and integ- rity. and had the full esteem and respect of those with whom he came into contact. In political matters he was a democrat. His widow, who sur- vives him at an advanced age and resides in Iowa, is a native of Switzerland.

The third in a family of nine children, Arthur L. d'Autremont was reared on his father's farm and secured his education in the district schools of Calhoun County. While all the surroundings of his boyhood and youth were of an agricultural character, they bore no influence upon him in his choice of vocations, for when he reached his major- ity he began his connection with commercial affairs, securing a position as clerk in a general store at Lohrville, Iowa, in his home community, and sub- sequently acted in a like capacity in establishments at other places. In the meantime he was carefully conserving his earnings and assimilating all the knowledge possible as to business methods, customs and values, and by 1904 felt ready to embark in

business on his own account. Looking over the field, he decided upon the thriving and fast-growing community of Lewistown as the scene for his initial venture, and he has never had reason to regret his choice. His first establishment was a modest one, devoted entirely to the sale of footwear, but the energy and enterprise of the proprietor, com- bined with his initiative and modern ideas, attracted the trade of the public in such a way that he was encouraged to add a stock of clothing and furnish- ings. Thus came into being the Fad Shoe and Clothing Company, with Mr. d'Autremont's brother Bert as a partner. The store at Nos. 413 and 415 West Main Street is now classed as one of the best in the state. Mr. d'Autremont is accorded a place among the energetic business men of Lewis- town, where he has a number of business and civic connections. He is a republican in his political inclinations, and his fraternal affiliations are with Lewistown Lodge No. 456, Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks, and Lewistown Council No. 1508, Knights of Columbus.

Mr. d'Autremont was married October 3, 1905, to Miss Mary Eppers, and they have had five children, of whom four are living: Lucille, Irene, Marie and Albert L., Jr.

LEON SHAW began his career as a railroad and commercial telegrapher, acquired a knowledge of the newspaper business while taking dispatches for the Associated Press, and for upwards of a quarter of a century has been identified with Mon- tana journalism. He is managing editor and man- ager of the Billings Gazette, one of the most widely circulated and influential papers in the state.

The Billings Gazette was established as a weekly in 1884, and has been published as a daily since 1901. It is republican' in politics and is the official paper of Yellowstone County. There are five daily editions, the midnight, morning, noon, afternoon and evening editions. Every mail train leaving Billings takes the latest edition with the latest tele- graph news, and the Gazette is read and is a molder of opinion all over Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota. The daily circulation aggregates nearly 14,000 copies. The Gazette carries both the Asso- ciated Press and the United Press dispatches. The officers of the Gazette Printing Company are: J. E. Edwards, president; S. M. Wood, secretary and treasurer; and Leon Shaw, editor. .

Mr. Shaw was born at Olathe, Kansas, June 28, 1871. His grandfather, Samuel Shaw, was born in Scotland in 1803, and when a young man came to America and was one of the first settlers in the Sangamon River Valley of Illinois. He was a suc- cessful pioneer farmer in that locality and became a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln. All five of his sons served as Union soldiers. The names of these sons were Samuel, Timothy, William, James and Archibald. Timothy was the first Illi- nois soldier killed in the war. Samuel Shaw finally retired to Dixon, Illinois, where he died in 1893.

Archibald Shaw, father of the Billings editor. was born in Illinois in 1838 and was reared and married in his native state. He served as a Union soldier during the last two years of the war in an Illinois regiment, and was mustered out with the rank of lieutenant. Following the war he moved to Olathe, Kansas, where he engaged in the live stock business until his death in 1888. He repre- sented Johnson County in the State Legislature. was a republican and an Odd Fellow. Archibald Shaw married Kate Holbrook, who was born at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1851 and is now living at Long Branch, California. They had three sons :

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Leon; Roy, who died at the age of five years; and Henry, a resident of Kansas City and pub- licity agent for the Kansas City Grand Opera Com- pany.

Leon Shaw was graduated from the Olathe High School in 1888, one of his classmates being former Governor H. S. Hadley of Missouri. He was tele- graph operator at Birmingham, Alabama, in the early days of that city for the Kansas City, Bir- mingham & Memphis Railway. Later he was with the Western Union Telegraph Company at Fort Scott, Kansas, and his experience as a telegraph operator took him to Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Chicago, St. Paul and to Helena, Montana, in 1892. As a Western Union man he was assigned the duty of taking the Associated Press dispatches, and later he became associated with practical news- paper work on the Helena Record and Helena Record-Herald. He was also with the Butte Miner, and returning to Helena was telegraph and asso- ciate editor on the Record-Herald for eight years.

Mr. Shaw also knows something of practical farming and ranching in Montana. While a news- paperman he bought a farm in the Sweet Grass country, lived on it and developed it for five years and still owns 150 acres of irrigated land in that locality.

Mr. Shaw came to Billings to join the staff of the Billings Gazette in 1916. In November of that year he was made editor of the daily morn- ing paper. He has been active in republican poli- tics and was elected to represent the Helena dis- trict in the State Legislature during the tenth session, 1906-07. While in the Legislature he intro- duced and secured the passage of the bill creat- ing the Montana Railroad Commission. Mr. Shaw served four years as president of the Montana Telegraphers' Union. He is affiliated with the Congregational Church and is a member of Helena Lodge No. 3, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Helena, Billings Consistory of the Scottish Rite, Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena, and is a former member of the Elks.

In 1892, at Anamosa, Iowa, he married Miss Carrie Gill, daughter of E. J. and Leah Gill, the latter now living at Lucine, Nevada. Her father, who is deceased, was also a Civil war veteran.

H. L. CUMMINGS has been identified in different lines with the business enterprise of Livingston for the past fifteen years, and is now proprietor of one of the most complete garage establishments in south- ern Montana.

He was born in Pern, Clinton County, New York, August 21, 1857. His grandfather, Henry Cummings, was born in the Province of Ontario, Canada, and spent his life there, dying in 1858. George Cum- mings, father of H. L., was born in Ontario in 1834. but was reared and married in Peru, New York, afterward moved to Lake Placid in Essex County, that state, and died there in 1901. He followed dif- ferent lines of employment. He was a republican and a very zealous member of the Methodist Church. He married Elizabeth Kent, who was born in Platts- burg, New York, in 1837 and died at Lake Placid in 1900. The oldest of their children is C. H. Cum- mings, also a resident of Livingston, referred to more particularly in the following paragraphs. The second is H. L. Cummings. George is a farm hand in Alberta, Canada, and Elizabeth is the wife of Hiram McKee, a farmer at Morrisville, Vermont.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 45

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