Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 58

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 58

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Lewistown Heights, and has erected many hand- some homes in that location, including his own residence. Mr. Neill is a democrat and is affiliated with Helena Lodge No. 3, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, and with the Royal Arch Masons.

September 1, 1880, he married Florence A. Eddy. She was born in Vermont. Mr. and Mrs. Neill had four children: Alice Nancy; Samuel, who died at the age of twenty-three; Minnesota F. and Kathryne.

EDWARD BRASSEY. A resident of Montana over fifty years, Edward Brassey has touched the life and affairs of the state at many points, and has helped to make as well live history. He is best known in the region around Lewistown, and among other things that make his name and life signifi- cant is the fact that he taught the first school in Fergus County.

Mr. Brassey is a native Englishman, born Octo- ber 22, 1844, a son of Edward and Elizabeth (Poyntz) Brassey. His father was born in Wales and spent his active career as a lumber merchant at Liverpool, England. He died in 1876. The mother was born at Bermuda and died in 1879.

Edward Brassey, the oldest of four children, re- ceived his early education at Liverpool and in early manhood came to America. He landed at Helena, Montana, in 1867. He was employed as a miner in the Last Chance Mine during that summer and in the fall of 1867 became secretary for a local company putting up mining buildings on the El- dorado Bar. For two winters he was employed teaching school in Cave Gulch, and then worked in the mines along that creek and at Diamond City. In 1881 he was elected county superintend- ent of schools for Meagher County, and he also served two terms as county commissioner of Meagher County, including what is now Fergus County. In the meantime he has acquired some interests as a rancher, and located his ranch on Beaver Creek and lived on it for about ten years. Since 1890 his home has been at Lewistown. Dur- ing this time he has filled many public offices, in- cluding two terms of eight years as register of the United States Land Office. For two terms he was public administrator, and is now a justice of the peace; having dispensed justice in that ca- pacity for many years. Mr. Brassey is an hon- ored member of the Montana Pioneer Society, and has filled all the offices in Lewistown Lodge No. 30, Knights of Pythias, and Lewistown Lodge No. 456, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Po- litically his affiliations are republican.

December 23, 1876, Mr. Brassey married Miss Recina Smith. She was born at Fort Scott, Iowa, and was brought to Montana by her parents when only three years of age, in 1863. She was there- fore a Montana pioneer and spent her girlhood days at Old Virginia City. Mrs. Brassey died in September, 1918. She was the mother of two chil- dren : William E., who married Bell Burgh and has three children: and Lillian, who is the wife of James Charters and the mother of two children.

HARRY J. RUSSELL. The lumber interests of Bill- ings and a wide territory surrounding it have an important exponent in Harry J. Russell, whose con- structive labors in this field are carried on as vice president of the Russell Lumber Company, which has long held an enviable position in the state. Harry J. Russell was born in Labette County, Kansas, Sep- tember 17, 1876, a son of J. K. Russell, and grand- son of John Russell. The latter was born in Ken- tucky in 1817, but became one of the pioneer farmers of Jackson County, Indiana, where, after he had

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developed considerable wild land and become one of the representative men of his section, he died in 1894. He was married to a Miss Prince, also a native of Kentucky. The Russell family is one of the old ones of this country, the American progenitor of it having come to the American colonies from Scotland prior to the American Revolution.

J. K. Russell was born in Jackson County, Indiana, in 1840, and there he was reared and educated, and became a school teacher. Leaving his native state in 1871, he went west to Labette County, Kansas, where he pre-empted 160 acres of land, and lived on his farm until 1887, becoming during that period one of the representative men of the county, which he served as registrar of deeds, and deputy sheriff for six years. In 1887 he became interested in the lumber interests of that part of the state, but left Kansas in 1905 and homesteaded in Carbon County, Montana, a 160-acre farm, residing on it for three years. In the meanwhile his sons had gone into the lumber business at Billings, and in 1908 he went to that city to render them such assistance as his own experience in this line enabled him to give them. Desiring to revisit his old home, he returned to Indiana in 1911, and died at Crothersville that same year. His re- mains were brought back to Billings and are here interred. While still residing in Jackson County, Indiana, he was married to Philena A. Thompson, who survives him and lives at Billings. She was born in Jackson County, Indiana, in 1848. Their children were as follows: E. S., who is a rancher of Prague, Oklahoma; J. I., who is in the lumber business at Lindsay, California; O. O., who is a lumber merchant of Denver, Colorado; L. Frank, who resides at Edgemont, South Dakota, was for- merly connected with the Russell Lumber Company of Billings from 1902 to 1908; Harry J., whose name heads this review; and C. A., who is bookkeeper of the Hecla Mining Company of Burke, Idaho. J. K. Russell served his country as a soldier during the Civil war, enlisting in Company K, Eighth Indiana Cavalry, and remaining in the service for three years, from 1862 on. His political sentiments made him a democrat. From boyhood he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he was a very active worker in it and a generous sup- porter of its good work. Fraternally he belonged to the Modern Woodmen of America and the Odd Fellows, and took an intelligent interest in these lodges. Both as a farmer and lumberman he left his mark on his times and section, and is remem- bered as a potential figure in the life of Billings.

Harry J. Russell was reared in Kansas, attending the public schools of Mound Valley and Oswego until he was sixteen years old, when he left to begin learning the fundamentals of commercial life in a grocery business at Chicago, Illinois, remaining in that city for four years. He then went to Southern Missouri and spent two years in its lumber regions, and a year in the sawmills of Mississippi and Louisiana, thus gaining a first-hand knowledge of the lumber business which has since been of ines- timable value to him. Desiring to study the industry from another angle, he was bookkeeper for the Forest Lumber Company at Alliance, Nebraska, for three years, and then until 1903 served as manager of the lumber company at La Harpe, Kansas. From 1903 to 1904 he was manager of the Russell Lumber Company at Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was established in 1902 at Kansas City, Missouri, by O. O. Russell, and had two yards in Kansas, one at La Harpe and the other at Mulberry, and two yards in Indian Ter- ritory, one being at Tulsa and the other at Medford, all of which were sold in 1904, in which year Harry J. Russell came to Billings. The object of his com-

ing to this city was to assist in establishing the Russell Lumber Company here, his associates in the work being O. O., L. I., H. J. and J. I. Russell. The yards of this company are located at First Avenue and Twenty-second Street, North. Its present officials are as follows: O. O. Russell, presi- dent and treasurer ; H. J. Russell, vice president ; and T. B. Lee, secretary. It is incorporated.

In 1908 Mr. Russell was married at Alliance, Ne- braska, to Miss Bergetta E. Mangan, who was born in Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Russell have one daughter, Regina, who was born June 20, 1911. The family residence at 3418 First Avenue, North, is a modern house, owned by Mr. Russell. Politically he is an independent, but has not as yet found time nor has he had the inclination to enter public life, his attention being fully occupied with the affairs of his company. However he is interested in every- thing connected with the expansion of Billings, and may be relied upon to co-operate in work calculated to advance its welfare.

MICHAEL J. GOSCH, present county treasurer of Fergus County, has been a resident of Montana a quarter of a century, and it was his capacity in business affairs as well as his wide-spread popu- larity that caused the people of Fergus County to give him such an enviable majority when they elected him county treasurer.

Mr. Gosch was born in Green Lake County, Wis- consin, on his father's farm, September 19, 1874, a son of John and Frances (Comiskey) Gosch.

His father, who was born at the City of Danzig. now the internationalized port of Poland, was brought to this country when a mere child by his parents, who landed at New York after a sailing voyage of six weeks. The family came west to the wilds of Wisconsin, locating in Greenlake County, where they were pioneers. John Gosch cleared a farm from the woods there and spent a very active life for many years. He spent his last days in retirement at Berlin, Wisconsin. He had no concern with politics as a matter of office seek- ing and was a democratic voter. He died at the age of eighty-seven. His wife was born in New York State and died when eighty-four years of age. Their five children, two sons and three daugh- ters, are still living.

Michael J. Gosch, youngest child, received his education in the common and high schools of Ber- lin, Wisconsin. He has always been willing to depend upon himself for his share of success and prosperity. As a youth he clerked in grocery stores at Berlin, and in April, 1894, arrived at Butte, Mon- tana, where for about two years he was clerk and bookkeeper with a wholesale produce establishment. From Butte he removed to Helena and attended the Engelhorn Business College. Mr. Gosch has been a resident of Fergus County since 1898. For the first year he worked on the ranch of Samnel Tyler on Flat Willow Creek. He was then in the sawmill business for three years, and engaged in that business and in ranching for himself at Maiden in Fergus County. His mills furnished the lum- ber and timbers for the Gold Leaf mines at Gilt Edge, the Kendall and Barns King mines of Ken- dall and the Spotted Horse and McGinnis and · Columbine mines at Maiden.

Mr. Gosch has been a resident of Lewistown since 1911. He served four years as deputy coun- ty treasurer, and in November, 1916, was elected as chief of that office and re-elected in Novem- ber, 1918. He received the largest vote in the pri- mary and the general election of any man on the democratic ticket in Fergus County.

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Mr. Gosch is affiliated with Lewistown Lodge No. 37, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Hiram Chapter No. 15, Royal Arch Masons, and with Lewistown Lodge No. 456 of the Elks and with the Knights of Pythias. On November 25, 1907, lic married Miss Mary Weisbrod, a native of War- saw, Wisconsin. They have one son, Karl.

FRANK DAY is a name known and respected by everyone in Lewistown and many other sections of Montana. Mr. Day, eighty-three years of age, came to Montana fifty-five years ago and has borne a working and useful part in the development of Montana from frontier conditions.

He was born July 25, 1836, at Bishopton in County Durham, England, a son of Thomas and Charlotte Day. He came by sailing vessel to America at the age of nine years and joined a brother at Min- eral Point, Wisconsin. Wisconsin was still a ter- ritory, and he has therefore lived nearly all his life in the changing frontier conditions of the United States. He learned the blacksmith's trade at Min- eral Point, and at the age of nineteen married Eliza- beth Little, of the same town. Five children were born to their marriage.

Iu 1864 Frank Day joined a party making the trip overland by mule team to Virginia City, Mon- tana. He had the usual run of experience in the gold and silver mines there, but eventually resumed his trade and was for a time a traveling black- smith, shoeing the stage horses. Later hie set up a shop in Cave Gulch, near Canyon Ferry, and remained there a number of years. Eventually he was blacksmith for the Government at Fort Logan, and in 1881, leaving his family at that military post, removed to Fort Maginnis to assume similar du- ties. His family joined him at Fort Maginnis in 1882,

Mr. Day was one of the founders of Lewistown. He and Jacob Holzemer bought 160 acres known as the Reed place at Reed's Fort. This land is now included in the modern City of Lewistown. He succeeded Mr. Reed as the second postmas- ter of Lewistown, and the old log building which served the uses of the postoffice is still standing and has an interesting title as the first postoffice of Lewistown. Mr. Dav has recently donated this landmark to the city with the intention of hav- ing it preserved and made a public institution be- cause of its many historic associations. Mr. Day also built the Day Hotel, one of the pioneer hos- telries at which the traveling public was enter- tained for many years. The manager of the hotel was Mr. Holzemer, while Mr. Day managed the ranch. Later, when the partners dissolved and divided their business, Mr. Day retained the ranch property. In 1894 he built a blacksmith shop, and operated it for several years. Since 1898 he has been practically retired from his business and now makes his home with his son George H. Day. The winter of 1919 he spent in California.

Frank Day was one of the men who organized Lewistown Lodge No. 37, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, and served it as master. It was

a member of King Solomon Lodge No. 9, Ancient . ward which he could not earn and deserve. At the Free and Accepted Masons of Helena, Montana, before coming to Lewistown. In politics he is a republican.

GEORGE H. DAY, a prominent ranchman and busi- ness man of Lewistown, is a native son of Mon- tana, and his experience and interests he directs makes his career worthy of representation in this history of the state.

Mr. Day was born at Canyon Ferry, near Helena, Montana, May 30, 1875. He is an adopted son of Vol. II-14

Frank and Bertha (Tyson) Day. His foster father is the grand old pioneer of Lewistown, a brief account of whose life is found elsewhere.

George H. Day attended school' at Lewistown, and the' first money he earned was riding a race horse. He was then only nine years of age. Hc practically grew up in the saddle and was an ex- pert cowboy in early youth and has done every work demanded of a practical ranchman. For many years he has been a successful breeder of full blooded Percheron horses and White Faced cattle. Since 1910 he has had full charge of the extensive ranch of Frank Day, operating nearly 3,000 acres of land. He raises between 300 and 500 acres of wheat every year. The day ranch is one of the best around Lewistown and the build- ing equipment is of the highest standard. The old homestead is located at Reed's Fort, as the old townsite of Lewistown was once known.

Mr. Day is affiliated with Lewistown Lodge No. 37, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and served two years as secretary of the lodge. He and his wife are members of Marie Chapter No. 36, of the Eastern Star, and in politics he is a republi- can.

July 15, 1899, he married Lillian E. Demuth. She was born in Wisconsin, a daughter of Peter and Mary A. (Dorn) Demuth. Mr. and Mrs. Day have six children : Bertha H. and Frank R., both high school students of Lewistown; Donald M., Earl William, Marion L. and Elizabeth.

PETER J. OSWEILER, whose record has been one of steady promotion to increased responsibilities in the banking affairs of Lewistown, is cashier of the Bank of Fergus County, and without help from anyone since arriving here practically a stranger has achieved a definite success and standing in the community.

Mr. Osweiler was born in Brighton in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, March 21, 1880, son of Paul and Susannah (Sellen) Osweiler. His father was a native of Europe and came to this country with his parents, Peter and Kate Osweiler. They made the ocean voyage by sailing ship, and from New York City journeyed up the Hudson to Albany, thence by canal boat to Buffalo, and by sailing ship around the lakes to Milwaukee. They located in Kenosha County when all that country was covered with heavy timber and the grandparents hewed a farm out of the wilderness. Paul Osweiler grew up there in pioneer days and was a Wiscon- sin farmer the rest of his life. He was a member of the Catholic Church and died in 1888, at the age of thirty-five. His wife was born at Milwau- kee and is now living at Ashton, Iowa. There were two sons and two daughters, three of whom are still living.

Peter J. Osweiler, the oldest child, when eleven years of age removed with his widowed mother to Ashton, Iowa. There he continued the educa- tion which had been begun in the schools of Brighton in Kenosha County. He also worked out as a farm hand and has never asked for any re-

age of eighteen he became clerk in a general store, and four years of that experience gave him a considerable knowledge of business. With that equipment he came to Montana, making the jour- ney by rail and stage to Lewistown, where he arrived in January, 1902. For about two years he was bookkeeper for Charles Lehman, and then spent a year and a half as deputy county assessor. Since August I, 1905, he has been connected with the Bank of Fergus County, first as bookkeeper, then as teller, then assistant cashier, and since

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March 1, 1917, as cashier. He is also president of the State Bank of Leigh, Montana.

Mr. Osweiler is a democrat, a member of the Catholic Church, and is affiliated with the, Knights of Columbus. On June 12, 1906, he married Helena M. Boor, a native of Ashton, Iowa. They have three children, Paul Leonard, Helen and Mark Anthony.

JOHN C. HUNTOON. A resident of Montana for a quarter of a century, John C. Huntoon has de- voted himself to many and important interests, but for the greater part of the time to his profes- sion as a lawyer. The firm of Blackford & Hun- toon, of which he is a member, have a prestige hardly excelled by that of any other law firm in the state.

Mr. Huntoon, whose home for the past fifteen years has been at Lewistown, was born at Peter- boro, Ontario, Canada, May 13, 1865, a son of Josiah S. and Betsey Josephine (Kathan) Hun- toon. His parents were both natives of New York State. His father, who was born in 1830 and died in 1916, at the age of eighty-six, spent all his ac- tive life as a lumberman in Canada, and in his later years acquired extensive ranching interests in Montana. He learned the lumber business in New York State and at the age of twenty-one re- moved to Canada. He was a pioneer, a woodsman fortified with every experience from the lumber camp to the wholesale end of the industry. For many years he was at the head of the Muskoka Lumber Company on Georgian Bay, an industry that manufactures between 18,000,000 and 20,000,000 feet of lumber every year. For nearly forty years he enjoyed a distinctive rank among Canadian lumbermen. In 1887 he made his first investments in Montana, locating at Utica in Fergus County, where, associated with W. A. Waite, he embarked a large amount of capital in sheep ranching. This firm for many years had from 16,000 to 20,000 head of sheep on their lands. Josiah Huntoon retired from active business in 1900 and spent the last ten years of his life at Ontario, California. When he was eighty years of age he learned to drive his automobile. He was a thirty-second degree Ma- son, and in the United States was a republican in politics. His wife was born in 1833 and died in 1899, at the age of sixty-six. John C. Huntoon was the fourth in a family of two sons and three daughters.

He was educated at Collingwood, Ontario, and Toronto, and eventually entered the University of Michigan Law School, from which he was gradu- ated in 1891 with the degree LL. B. He was ad- mitted to the Michigan bar the same year, and for two years practiced at Detroit, where he was associated with a prominent Michigan lawyer, Col. John Atkinson. In October, 1893, he came to Montana and located at Great Falls, where he prac- ticed with J. A. Largent, under the firm name of Largent & Huntoon, for about four years and then with William Cockrill, under the firm name of Huntoon & Cockrill, until 1900. Then for three years Mr. Huntoon gave up his profession to as- sume the management of the extensive sheep ranch of his father. He disposed of the greater part of the ranches in 1917. Locating at Lewistown, he began practice as senior partner of the firm Huntoon, Worde & Smith. After three years Mr. Huntoon engaged in practice alone, and since 1914 has been a member of the firm Blackford & Hun- toon, handling a general law practice. Mr. Hun- toon has been prominent as a republican, serving as chairman of the County Central Committee of Fergus County and in 1908 was elected county

attorney, an office he filled two years. He is affili- ated with Cascade Lodge No. 34, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Great Falls, with Lewistown Lodge No. 456, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and Judith Lodge No. 30, Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the county and state bar associations and is the present secretary of the Fergus County Bar Association.

April 20, 1887, Mr. Huntoon married Miss Julia Maud Towler. She was born at Collingwood, On- tario. They have one son, Clarence S., who for a number of years has been in the automobile business. He was manager of the Standard Great Falls Garage, later agent for the Willard Storage Battery Company at Seattle, Washington, and in 1917, at the entering of the United States into the great war, enlisted. He was in camp at Berkeley, California, and later at Fort Worth, Texas, and received his commission as a lieutenant in the aviation corps a short time before the armistice was signed. Clarence Huntoon married Margaret Stapleton at Seattle, Washington in 1918.

JOSEPH S. SIMINEO. The solid business interests of Billings and the public affairs of the city as well have furnished the medium in which Mr. Simineo's abilities and enterprise have worked effectively for over twenty years. Mr. Simineo is the present county treasurer of Yellowstone County and bears a name known and respected all over that section of the state.

He was born at Chicago, August 26, 1869, and is of French Canadian ancestry. His great-grandfather came from France and settled in Canada. His grandfather, Simon Simineo, was born in the Province of Ontario in 1793, and moved from Canada to Grand Haven, Michigan, and later to the State of Colorado. He died at Gunnison, Colorado, in 1881, being accidentally killed while unhitching his team. Joseph Simineo, father of the Billings public official, was born at Grand Haven, Michigan, in 1847, was reared there and for two years conducted a meat market business at Watseka, Illinois. Then for a brief time he lived in Chicago, where his son was born, and in 1872 took his family to Colorado and became a farmer and stock raiser. In 1889 he ac- complished another stage of westward migration, moving to Washington and engaging in the meat business at Almira and Bellingham. Later he went to Vancouver, British Columbia, retiring from busi- ness in 1901, and died in 1902. He was a democrat and a member of the Ancient .Order of United Work- men. At Watseka, Illinois, he married Zoa Soucie, who was born at Watseka in 1852 and is now living at Walla Walla, Washington.

Joseph S. Simineo, only child of his parents, ac- quired his early education in the public schools of Douglas County, Colorado, also at Waterville, Wash- ington, and attended a business college at Portland, Oregon. At the age of twenty-one he began his business career as an associate with his father in the meat business. After five years he. came to Montana, reaching Billings on October 9, 1896. For 71/2 years he was in the employ of Yegen Brothers, then for 11/2 years was in the meat business for himself and for fourteen months was associated in the same line with Julius Zyert. For three years Mr. Simineo had charge of the business office of the Gazette Printing Company at Billings, and then took up the school supply business and for three years handled a large volume of business over all of Eastern Montana.

For a number of years he has been a public official in Billings, serving as a member of the City Council from 1911 to 1917. In 1913 he was appointed

Il Simmer

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deputy county treasurer, an office he held six years. In the fall of 1918 he was elected county treasurer of Yellowstone County and began his duties March 3, 1919, for a term of two years. From 1915 to 1917 Mr. Simineo was president of the City Council. He is an active member and treasurer of the Baptist Church and is affiliated with Billings Star Lodge No. 41, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Billings Lodge, Woodmen of the World, the Royal High- landers of Billings, and is a member of the Midland Club.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 58

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