Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 59

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 59

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In 1895, at Bellingham, Washington, he married Miss Izetta Trask. She was born in the State of Maine and died at Billings, Montana, in November, 1909. Her only son, Millard T., was a student in the Polytechnic Institute at Billings two years and en- listed from that school on May 6, 1917, joining the National Army and seeing much active service over- seas, and in the spring of 1919 was still in the army of occupation in Germany. In 1911, in Yellow- stone County, Mr. Simineo married Miss Bessie Rupert, a daughter of James and Lydia (Morse) Rupert, of Minnesota, in which state she was born. They have one daughter, Lois, born July 9, 1916.

WEYMOUTH D. SYMMES. Though comparatively a young man, Weymouth D. Symmes has been ac- tively identified with the affairs of Montana over thirty years, the greater part of which time has been devoted to merchandising, a business in which he has achieved signal success. He is the active head of the Power Mercantile Company, one of the largest concerns of its kind, with headquarters at Lewistown.

Mr. Symmes was born in Canada, January 30, 1870, a son of Thomas J. and Mary (Weymouth) Symmes. His father was also a native Canadian, and spent his life as a farmer in that country. He died in 1905, at the age of sixty-nine. The mother was born in Bethel, Vermont, and died in 1914, also aged sixty-nine. Weymouth D. was the third in a family of seven children, six sons and one daughter, four of whom are still living.

He acquired a public school education in Canada and also had some experience on his father's farm. He taught a term or two of school, and on Sep- tember 8, 1889, arrived in Montana, locating at Livingston, where he clerked in a mercantile house. Later he was at Missonla, and was in the engineer- ing department of the Northern Pacific Railway until March, 1892. Mr. Symmes has been a fac- tor in Lewistown since March, 1892, and all that time has been associated with the Power interests. He was with the T. C. Power Company until 1894, when as one of the stockholders he organized the Power Mercantile Company and has since been its general manager. He is also gencral manager and secretary of the Judith Basin Mercantile Com- pany at Hobson and Utica, and is president of the Lewistown Wholesale Company.

While the extent of these establishments is such as to require a great deal of time and energy, Mr. Symmes' public spirit led him to accept the post of mayor of Lewistown and he gave the city a very fine administration of its affairs from May, 1913, to May, 1917. Fraternally a prominent Ma- son, he is a member of Lewistown Lodge No. 37, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Hiram Chap- ter No. 15, Royal Arch Masons, Lewistown Com- mandery No. 14. Knights Templar, and Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena. He is also a charter member of Lewistown Lodge No. 456, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and in politics is a republican.

August 31, 1898, he married Miss Ionia Long. She was born at Santa Cruz, California. They

have four daughters and one son, Dorothy I., Eliza- beth, Mary Ruth, Grace B. and Weymouth D., Jr.

WALTER B. CHRYSLER. The entrance of Walter B. Chrysler upon his independent career was not a particularly auspicious one. He was possessed only of a common school education, commendable am- bitions and great capacity for careful application to his work, but his lack of finances or helpful influences bothered him little, because his self-re- liance was of such a sturdy character that it enabled ' him to develop to the utmost the capital with which nature had endowed him. It was not within his make-up to fail; his inherent judgment pointed out the way for him to proceed, his keen insight dis- cerned opportunities, his native powers developed new fields, and the ability which he possessed allowed him to make each new venture a successful one. Eventually, in 1914, he identified himself with the Billings Ice and Coal Company, of which large and important concern he has since been manager.

Mr. Chrysler was born at Troy, New York, No- vember 16, 1857, a son of Sylvester and Elizabeth (Stevens) Chrysler. The family originated in Hol- land, and was founded in America during the days of Hendryk Hudson, the family home being in New York. In that state, in the old Hildeburg Mountains, Schenectady, in 1819, was born Sylvester Chrysler, who was reared in that community and resided there until 1861. In his youth he served seven years as an apprentice to the trade of car- riage making and a like period in the car shops, and eventually became assistant manager of the old Troy & Albany Railway, under I. V. Baker. In 1861 he removed to Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, where he did general work at his trade, and in 1865 went to Fort Ripley, in the same state, where during that year he had charge of the wagon repair shop for the United States Government. Returning to Sauk Rapids in 1866, he was engaged in farming for two years and was then appointed one of the first railway mail clerks, a position which he held for three years, being then placed in charge of a car shop at St. Paul, Minnesota, where he remained until 1881. He then spent one year at Denver, Colo- rado, as manager of car shops, but again returned to Sauk Rapids and conducted a wagon and repair shop until 1909, when he came to Billings and made his home with his son until his death during the same year. He was a republican and a faithful member and active supporter of the Congregational Church, and was well known in fraternal circles, being a member of the Masons and a seventh-degree Odd Fellow in New York. Mr. Chrysler married Elizabeth Stevens, who was born in New York State, and died at Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, at the age of fifty-six years, and they became the parents of five children, as follows: James S., a retired ranchman of Dykeman, Minnesota; a daughter who died young; Charles B., who is connected with a transfer company at Sacramento, California; Walter B .; and William, who died young. By a prior marriage Mr. Chrysler had one son, George S., who is deceased.

Walter B. Chrysler was educated in the public schools of Sauk Rapids, following which he at- tended the normal school at St. Cloud, Minnesota, for a short period. He was but fifteen years of age when he laid aside his school books and started into work for the old St. Paul & Pacific Railway at St. Paul, with which line he was connected until 1881. In the spring of that year he accompanied his parents to Denver, Colorado, and formed con- nections with the Denver & Rio Grande Railway. in the same department as his father. In the fall of that year, however, he transferred his services

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to the Northern l'acific, and was stationed at Brain- erd, Minnesota, where he remained until 1885. It was in that year that he was sent by his company to Billings, to take charge of the car works at this point, and remained as the directing head thereof until 1894, when he entered the employ of Yegen Brothers, having charge of the hardware and im- plement departments. In 1914 he took charge of the coal department of the Billings Ice and Coal Company, and at the present time is manager of the entire business, the offices and yards of which are situated at Thirty-first Street, South, and First Avenue, while the main offices are in the Yegen Block on Minnesota Avenue. Mr. Chrysler is well known in business circles as a man of the strictest integrity and highest principles, a good executive, and one of strong force of character. He is the owner of his own home at No. 109 North Thirty-first Street, a modern residence, and has various other interests and holdings. In politics a republican, he has served capably as justice of the peace, and has always carefully and conscientiously performed the duties of citizenship. He is an ex-member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and belongs to Billings Camp, Woodmen of the World, and to the Highlanders.

In 1886, at Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, Mr. Chrysler was united in marriage with Miss Esther M. Thomas, of that city, where the Thomas family is well known and highly esteemed. To this union there have been born four children: Walter S., an electrician, who resides at Murray, Utah; Eugene Franklin, who died at the age of eighteen months; a son who died in infancy; and Kenneth Lynn, an engineer in the valuation department of the New York Central Lines, with headquarters at Cleveland, Ohio.

GLENN CHARLES MCALISTER. It is seldom that an individual attains to more than ordinary success in any one line. Life is too short to admit of proper preparation for the duties of widely divergent professions or vocations, yet here and there there appears an individual so gifted that he apparently could have succeeded in any field which he had chosen for his own. In this class is named Glenn Charles McAlister, who is not only one of the lead- ing architects of Billings, but who has also achieved a notable success as the proprietor and operator of an extensive ranch.

Mr. McAlister was born at Monticello, Missouri, November 2, 1873, a son of James T. and Ruth F. (Lovitt) McAlister. The McAlister family is of Scotch-Irish origin, and its progenitors immi- grated to America during Colonial days. James T. McAlister, the grandfather of Glenn C., was a pioneer of Missouri, where he passed his life as a farmer, and prior to the Civil war worked his land with slave labor, being a planter of the old regime. His death occurred at Monticello, Missouri, in 1874. The younger James T. McAlister, father of Glenn C., was horn in 1842, in Kentucky, and was there reared and educated, but in young manhood went to Illinois, where he was married to Ruth E. Lovitt, who was born in 1847 in Ohio, and still makes her home at Ab- ingdon, Illinois. From Illinois Mr. McAlister moved to Monticello, Missouri, where for twelve years he followed contracting and building, then went fo LaHarpe, Illinois, where he was engaged in the same line of endeavor for fourteen years, and finally located at Abingdon, where he conducted a like business until his retirement from active life. His death' occurred at that city January 10, 1914, when his community lost one of its reliable, suh- stantial and highly respected business citizens. Mr. McAlister was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and a democrat in his political affiliation, while his

religious faith was that of the Christian Church and he was a consistent church member. He and his wife were the parents of six children, as follows : Allie, who married J. M. Staley, a business mati of Clear Lake, South Dakota; Buelah, the wife of William A. Harvey, a farmer of the vicinity of Abingdon, Illinois; Glenn Charles; June, the wife of Charles Melvin, a business man of Peoria, Illinois ; Roy, engaged in agricultural pursuits at Parkman, Wyoming; and Guy, in the United States Army Hospital Corps at San Francisco, California.

Glenn Charles McAlister was educated in the pub- lic schools of LaHarpe and Abingdon, Illinois, and attended the high school at the latter place, where he also took a two-year course in the normal school. He left school at the age of twenty-one years, and two years later came to Montana and settled at Butte, where he became engaged in architectural work, mastered the profession, and followed that line of endeavor for two years. For two years thereafter he was identified as engineer with the Boston Montana Mining Company, and then, during the year 1900, applied. himself to a study of heating and ventilating. In 1901 he first came to Billings and engaged in architectural work, remaining until 1903, when he went to Sheridan, Wyoming, and remained there until 1905. Returning to Billings in the latter year, he again resumed his professional activities, with offices in the Hart-Albin Building, and since that time has risen. to high rank in his calling. Among the principal buildings which he has designed may be mentioned the Elks Club, Bill- ings; Senator Kendrick's home, Sheridan, Wyoming ; the court house there; two of the large new school- houses at Billings; the South Side Fire Station; and a number of the most modern residences at Billings, including the heautiful home of T. A. Snidow. In addition to his activities in his pro- fession Mr. McAlister has been successful in his ventures as a ranchman, and at this time is the owner of a splendid homestead of 640 acres located in Custer County, Montana. He is also the owner of his own home, an attractive residence at No. 1052 North Thirty-second Street, and has various other holdings and interests. He is independent in his political views, and casts his vote for man rather than party. His religious faith is that of the Con- gregational Church, and he holds membership in the Billings Club.

In 1905, at Slack, Wyoming, Mr. McAlister was married to Miss Beatrix May Powers, daughter of T. A. and Millie (Brittain) Powers, natives of that community, where Mr. Powers is a rancher. Mrs. McAlister is a graduate of the Sheridan High School. Two children have come to Mr. and Mrs. McAlister : Beatrix Virginia, born May 23, 1909; and Raymond Powers, born February 5, 1911.

CARL R. MEYER, examiner for the Associated Mort- gage Investors at Billings, has been identified with enterprises pertaining to lands and land invest- ments practically from the start of his career. In his present capacity he represents a concern of more than fifty years' standing which is extensively en- gaged in the farm mortgage business, a field in which Mr. Meyer's undoubted abilities, backed by his years of specialized training, find an excellent medium for demonstration and expression.

Mr. Meyer was born in Sarpy County, Nebraska. December 21, 1886, a son of U. C. and Carrie Belle (Foote) Meyer. His father, now a resident of Pern, Nebraska, was born in 1856, at St. Mary's, Iowa, where the family home was located until that little community was practically washed away by an overflow of the Missouri River, at which time the paternal grandmother of Carl R. Meyer took

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her children to Sarpy County, Nebraska, and located on a homestead, U. C. Meyer being at that time about seven years of age. Three years later she died, and the lad grew up with his elder brothers and sisters, took up farming on his own account, and eventually purchased the homestead, upon which four of his own children were born. He continued to successfully cultivate this homestead until 1894, in which year he moved to a stock ranch in Buffalo County, Nebraska, and after two years took up his residence at Peru, in order that his children might secure better facilities for their educational training. He sold the homestead at the time of his retirement, but is still the owner of two farms near Peru and is accounted one of his community's substantial citi- zens. He was road overseer and a member of the school board in Sarpy County for many years, and at present holds a position on the Peru school board. He is a republican voter and a member of the Baptist Church, in the work of which he takes an active and helpful part. Mr. Meyer married Carrie Belle Foote, who was born near Saginaw, Michigan, in 1862, and they became the parents of nine chil- dren, as follows: Ethel, who is the wife of W. S. Bostder, a real estate broker of Chadron, Nebraska ; Pearl, unmarried, who holds an important position with a shipping company at Newport News, Virginia ; Carl R .; Earl, a practicing attorney of Alliance, Nebraska; Hazel, unmarried, who is taking a nurse's training course at Kirksville, Missouri; Belle, un- married, who is engaged in teaching school at Chester, Nebraska; Opal, who died at the age of nine years; Crystal, who is attending normal school at Peru; and Arthadel, who is attending high school there.

Carl R. Meyer was educated primarily in the rural schools of Sarpy County, Nebraska, follow- ing which he attended the normal school at Peru for four years. Graduating therefrom in 1904, he began his career as a school teacher in the rural districts of Douglas County, Nebraska, but after two years of experience of this nature decided that the educator's profession was not his forte, and accordingly secured his introduction to his present line of work by engaging in the real estate, abstract and title business at Auburn, Nebraska. After two years of such operations he went to Omaha, Ne- braska, as secretary of the Midland Guaranty and Trust Company, a position which he held until Jan- uary, 1912, and then removed to Winterset, Iowa, where he organized the Security Loan and Title Company, of which he was secretary, treasurer and general manager until October 1, 1917. He then came to Billings with the North Real Estate and Investment Company, and after nine months severed his connection with that concern to enter upon his present duties as examiner for the Associated Mort- gage Investors. This institution, which has its headquarters at Rochester, New York, is an old established company which has been in existence for about a half a century. The Billings offices are located at No. 206 Hart-Albin Building. Mr. Meyer is accounted one of the best informed men in his line in this part of the state, and bears a high reputation in business circles, where he is known for his integrity and his fidelity to engagements. He is a republican as to political sentiment, belongs to the Presbyterian Church, and fraternizes with Winterset (Iowa) Lodge, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, and Winterset Chapter, Royal Arch Masons.

In 1908, at Omaha, Nebraska, Mr. Meyer was united in marriage with Miss Florence S. Johnson, daughter of Charles J. and Augusta ( Molander) Johnson, residents of Omaha, Nebraska, where Mr.

Johnson has been in the auditor's office of the Union Pacific Railway for the past thirty-five years. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Meyer : K. Wilton, born April 15, 1909, and Florence Mar- guerite, born April 21, 1917.

O. FLETCHER GODDARD. If it takes a generation for a family to become established in a community, that period has been more than fulfilled in the case of both Mr. Goddard and the City of Billings. From territorial times to the present Mr. Goddard has been really and vitally conspicuous in the affairs in his home city and state. One of the oldest mem- bers of the Billings bar, he has been successful in his profession, business affairs and in politics.

He was born in Davis County, Iowa, in 1853, of old Virginia Colonial ancestors, a son of Richard Tilton and Elizabeth (Tannehill) Goddard. His parents were natives of Ohio and moved to Iowa in 1842, when Iowa was still a territory. His father was a farmer in that state and died in 1892, after a residence of a half a century.

O. Fletcher Goddard was one of a family of four sons and three daughters. He grew up on a farm, had a common school and academic education and taught school in various towns in Iowa while study- ing law. He studied law under his uncle, Judge Tannehill, at Centerville, Iowa, and was admitted to the bar in 1880. Following this for three years he practiced at Corydon.

Mr. Goddard identified himself with the young Town of Billings in March, 1883. One of the hardest working members of his profession, he has long since attained an enviable place in the bar of Montana and his name might be fitly mentioned with any group, however small and exclusively represent- ing the best abilities and character of the legal pro- fession. Much of his work has been in corporation law, and the firm of Goddard and Clark of which he is senior partner, are district attorneys for the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad.

In later years many extensive and valuable busi- ness interests have demanded a large part of his time and attention. He is a director of the Montana Coal and Iron Company owning and operating a large coal mine at Bear Creek, Montana, is secretary of the Yellowstone Packing Company, and is owner of several irrigated ranches in Yellowstone County, and much improved real estate in Billings, including his own modern home at 304 North Thirty-first Street.

Through all the varied history of the republican party in Montana from territorial days to the present Mr. Goddard has been a consistent and unwavering advocate of the principles of true republicanism. He served as prosecuting attorney and district attorney in territorial times, was a member of the constitu- tional convention of 1889, served in the State Senate of 1891 and 1893, and in 1893 his individual influence prevented the election of a democratic senator from Montana. He was the gold standard candidate of the republican party for Congress in 1896, and at his own expense made a campaign over the state as a forlorn hope of his party when all the West and Northwest was completely committed to the free silver issues. Mr. Goddard stood solidly for the old line republican party in the campaign of 1912, when again the bulk of his former party associates gave their support either to Roosevelt or Wilson.

Mr. Goddard is a charter member of the (old) Billings Club and also a charter member of the Billings-Midland Club. He is affiliated with lodge No. 394 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner. January 20, 1881, at Centerville, Iowa, he married

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Miss Alwilda Stephenson, a native of Ohio. Of their three children the oldest is Lora, a graduate of Drake University at Des Moines, Iowa, who finished her education in the University of Michigan and later took special work in voice culture in North- western University in Chicago. She is the wife of William P. Rixon, a prominent business man of Billings. Mr. and Mrs. Rixon have a daughter, Helen Rebecca, born in 1912. Helen, the second daughter, graduated with the class of 1908 at Mon- tana University, and is now the wife of E. W. Adam, a farmer and stock raiser at Mosely, Montana. Mr. and Mrs. Adam have two children, Emil, born in 1916, and Richard Fletcher, born in 1918. The only son of Mr. and Mrs. Goddard was Wilbur F. God- dard, who died in 1913 at the age of eighteen.

HAROLD H. WINTER. The Ryniker-Winter Hard- ware Company of Billings is one of the largest and most complete establishments of its kind, both whole- sale and retail, in Southeastern Montana. Its story is a remarkable piece of business history illustrating the possibilities of growth and expansion under the direction of men of such phenomenal energy and progressiveness as Harold H. Winter, the president, and Mr. Ryniker, the vice president.

Both these men, associated in a business and also through family ties, were formerly residents of Quincy, Illinois. Harold H. Winter was born in that city July 18, 1885, and is still young, as that date indicates. His father, John E. Winter, was born in Germany in 1854, and when an infant came to the United States with an uncle. His father had been compelled to leave Germany because of participation in a rebellion in that country. John E. Winter grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, where he married, and had a long and interesting experi- ence as a Mississippi River boatman. He was a captain and pilot on the Mississippi before the war, in 1861 enlisted in a Light Artillery Regiment, was wounded at the battle of Wilson's Creek in Southern Missouri, and afterward was appointed and served as captain of a gunboat on the Mississippi. After the war he lived in St. Louis until 1870, when he moved to Quincy, and in 1874 retired from the river and was a traveling salesman. He died at Quincy in 1900. Politically he was a stanch repub- lican. John E. Winter married Elizabeth Thomas, who was born in Quincy in 1859 and died there in 1895. They were the parents of five children: W. T., formerly a sheep herder in Wyoming, now living retired at Quincy; Al G., a resident of Billings and referred to more particularly in later paragraphs; Jeannette and Edith, both unmarried and living at Quincy ; and Harold H., the youngest of the family.

The latter attended public school in his native city, also the National Business College there, and as a youth learned the pattern making trade in one of Quincy's factories. He followed this busi- ness in Chicago for several years, and while there took a mechanical engineering course. In 1907 he returned to Quincy and in 1908 came out to Billings. In association with W. C. Ryniker, under the firm name of Ryniker & Winters, he began business by the purchase of the Cedargreen Brothers tin shop. Out of that modest establishment has grown the Ryniker & Winter Sheet Metal Works and other affiliated enterprises. Ryniker & Winter took charge of the tin shop May 15, 1908. November 15, 1910, the business was incorporated under the name Ryniker-Winters Company. Mr. Winters is presi- dent and W. E. Ryniker vice president, while C. M. Winter is secretary and treasurer. December 31, 1915, a change of name and organization was made, when the Ryniker-Winter Hardware Company was

incorporated, and at the same time the sheet metal works was made a separate corporation, known as the Ryniker-Winter Sheet Metal Works, with Mr. Winter as president, Mr. Ryniker vice president and manager. The Sheet Metal Works are between First and Second avenues on Twenty-fifth Street, North. The wholesale hardware plant and offices are at Seventeenth Street and Montana Avenue, while the retail stores, handling a general stock of hardware goods and equipment, are at Twenty-fifth Street, North, and Second Avenue. There are few firms in the state that have more extended business con- nections than this. Twelve persons are employed in the hardware business and twenty-five in the sheet metal works, while the wholesale business covers a territory 200 miles in a radius around Billings.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 59

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