Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 60

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 60

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Mr. Winter is a republican, affiliated with Ashlar Lodge No. 29, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Billings Chapter No. 6, Royal Arch Masons, Quincy Consistory of the Scottish Rite, Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena, and is a member of Billings Lodge No. 394 of the Elks, the United Commercial Travelers and the Billings Midland Club.

Mr. Winter owns and occupies with his family a modern home at 242 Wyoming Avenue. He mar- ried Miss Cora Ryniker, of Livingston, Montana, in 1910. She was born at Quincy. They have one daughter, Jeannette, born March 14, 1912.

A1 G. Winter, a brother of Harold H., was born at Quincy May 17, 1875, was educated in the grammar and high schools there and the Gem City Business College, and as a boy took up newspaper work. In 1898 he enlisted in Company D of the Nebraska Infantry for the Spanish-American war. He spent the greater part of that year in camp at Lincoln, Nebraska, and at Camp Chickamauga, and was mus- tered out at Old Fort Omaha in the fall. In May, 1899, he enlisted for the Philippine war, in Company C of the Thirty-fifth United States Volunteer In- fantry. He saw much active service in the Far East, being with General Lawson and was provost sergeant at Bilibib, the United States military prison. He returned and was mustered out at the Presidio at San Francisco in November, 1901. The follow- ing year he resumed newspaper work as a reporter with the Quincy Whig, and in 1909 made his first trip to Billings and for a time was employed by the Ryniker-Winters Company. He then resumed his newspaper work at Quincy, but since 1917 has considered Billings his permanent home and is now bookkeeper and office manager for the retail hard- ware department of the Ryniker-Winters Company and the Sheet Metal Works. He is independent in politics, a member of the Episcopal Church, and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. April II, 1914, at Terre Haute, Indiana, he married Miss Christine M. McLay. She was born in Scotland and came to the United States in 1913.

ARTHUR LESLIE HEWETT is president of the Se- curity Bridge Company at Billings, one of the largest bridge and general construction organizations in the Northwest. Mr. Hewett learned the bridge building business in Minneapolis, has spent the greater part of his active life along that line, and his work called him out to Montana long before he acquired a permanent residence in this state.

Mr. Hewett represents old New England stock. He was born in the Town of Hope, Maine, March 18, 1867. The Hewetts were a colonial family from England. His grandfather, William Hewett, was born in 1800, and spent his active life as a carpenter in a mill at Hope, Maine, where he died in 1882. He married Eliza Fogler, who also died at Hope.

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M. D. Hewett, father of Arthur L., was born at Hope, Maine, October 12, 1841, grew up and mar- ried there, and served through practically all the Civil war as a member of the Sixteenth Maine In- fantry. Like his father he became a carpenter, also operated a furniture factory in Maine, moved ' to Findlay, Ohio, in 1885 and continued his busi- ness as a furniture maker there and in 1914, after his wife's death, he removed to Billings and is now living on a ranch near that city. He is a re- publican, an active supporter of the Congregational Church, a member of the Masonic fraternity, and has been affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic. He married Sarah M. Hastings, who was born in Knox County, Maine, and died at Findlay, Ohio, in 1913. They had three children: George E., employed in a sash and door factory at Findlay, Ohio; Arthur L .; and Florence, wife of P. T. Baker, a rancher at Billings.

Arthur L. Hewett acquired his education in the rural schools of the town of Hope and in Knox County, Maine, and at the age of seventeen went to work in a grocery store at Augusta, in his native state, for six years, and in 1888 moved to Minne- apolis and took up bridge building work with S. M. Hewett & Company. The head of this firm was a great-uncle. He learned his trade there and re- mained in Minneapolis until 1910. In the mean- time, beginning in 1892, he had been making trips to Montana supervising bridge construction and had an office in Billings from 1904. He has supervised the construction of sixteen bridges along the Yel- lowstone River. Moving his residence to Billings in the spring of 1910, he established the Security Bridge Company, which has been practically a con- tinuous organization since 1900, and it was incorpo- rated in 1911 with the following officers: A. L. Hewett, president; W. P. Roscoe, vice president; and P. W. Hastings, secretary and treasurer. The offices are at 502 North Thirty-second Street. The business of the firm is not only the construction of bridges but the building of waterworks, sewers, other concrete work on irrigating ditches, and heavy construction. A branch office is maintained at Lewis- ton, Idaho. The operations of this firm cover the states of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

Mr. Hewett is treasurer of the Carbon County Agricultural Company, is an independent republican in politics, is affiliated with Minneapolis Lodge No. 19, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, St. John's Chapter No. 9, Royal Arch Masons, at Minneapolis, Billings Lodge No. 394, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a member of the Billings Midland Club and the Rotary Club.

In 1910, on coming to Billings, Mr. Hewett built a modern home at 934 North Thirtieth Street. He married Miss Myrtie M. Glasser, of Minneapolis, in August, 1894. She is a daughter of Henry J. and Susan F. (Thompson) Glasser, her mother living with Mr. and Mrs. Hewett. Her father, a traveling sales- man, died at Minneapolis in 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Hewett are the parents of five children: Florence, a graduate of the village high school, completed her education in the State Normal at Bozeman and is now the wife of W. J. Sherley and resides near Emigrant, Montana. Viva M. is a junior in the University of Minnesota. Henry attends the village high school, Sarah is in the grammar school, and the youngest, Arthur Leslie, Jr., is called Pat be- cause he was born on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1916.

FRANK A. COUSINS has spent all his life in the Northwest, has been a grain dealer for many years,

and is now member of the firm Ladd & Cousins, grain dealers, and operates two elevators in Montana.

Mr. Cousins, whose operations prior to locating at Billings were largely directed from Minneapolis, was born at Spirit Lake, Iowa, November 23, 1871. James Cousins, his father, was born at London, England, November 23, 1823, a son of John Cousins, who brought his family to Quebec, Canada, in 1828. John Cousins spent the rest of his life as a farmer in Canada. James Cousins in 1857 came to the United States and located as a pioneer at Fort Atkinson in Winneshiek County, Iowa. In 1870 he moved to Spirit Lake and again did some pioneer work, breaking the heavy sod of the virgin prairie. He spent the rest of his life at Spirit Lake and died September 15, 1899. He was a consistent members of the Episcopal Church all his life and voted as a republican. James Cousins married Sarah Fitzsimmons, who was born in England in 1832 and died at Spirit Lake in 1888. They had a large family of children, five of whom died young. Frank Arthur is the youngest of six who reached mature years. The oldest, J. A., is a carpenter at Spirit Lake; T. H. was a retired grain dealer at Carrington, North Dakota, and died May 31, 1919, leaving a wife, daughter and two sons; C. S. is coal inspector for the Union Pacific Railway Company, living at Seattle, Washington; Sarah, of Spirit Lake, is the widow of James Swailes, a traveling salesman; and W. A., who operated a dray line, died at Lake Park, Iowa, in the spring of 1893.

Frank A. Cousins was educated in the public schools of his native town, including high school, spent one year at the Spirit Lake Academy and completed the sophomore year in Iowa College at Grinnell. After a course in the Capital City Com- mercial College at Des Moines he left school in the spring of 1892, spent one year as a farmer at Spirit Lake and two years at Grinnell, and in the spring of 1897 moved to Carrington, North Dakota, and took up what has been his main business, grain buying. He was there until 1905, and then for two years devoted all his time to managing his farm. In 1907 Mr. Cousins became traveling superintendent for the Lyon Elevator Company, covering Central and Western North Dakota and Eastern Montana. He made his first business trip to Montana in 1910. The Lyon Elevator Company consolidated with the Russell Miller Milling Company in 1909, and at that time Mr. Cousins joined the Occident Elevator Company, a subsidiary of the Russell Miller Mill- ing Company, and was superintendent until 1913, with headquarters at Bismarck, North Dakota. In the fall of 1913 he was transferred to the home officers of the Occident Elevator Company at Min- neapolis as assistant general manager. In 1916 Mr. Cousins located at Billings and from August I of that year until April 1, 1917, was on the road for the Carney Coal Company.

In December, 1916, he bought an elevator at Huntley, Montana, and soon gave up his other connections in order to spend all his time looking after this elevator, also another which he owns at Worden, Montana, and his interests as a member of the firm Ladd & Cousins, which was formed in August, 1917. His partner is W. P. Ladd, whose name is noted elsewhere in this publication. The offices of the firm are in the Electric Building at Billings.

Mr. Cousins is a republican, a member of the Baptist Church, is affiliated with Lodge No. 29, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and was deputy grand master of the Masons of North Dakota when he left that state. He is a member of Carrington

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Chapter No. 15, Royal Arch Masons, and Carrington Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America. He belongs to the Midland Club.

Mr. Cousins and family reside in a modern home at 316 Lewis Avenne. He married Miss Viola May Dickerson at Grinnell, Iowa, October 27, 1892. She was born at Bunker Hill, Illinois, June 10, 1869, a daughter of S. W. and A. Melvina (Hoyt) Dick- erson both now deceased. Her father for many years followed his trade as a wood worker at Grinnell. Mr. and Mrs. Cousins have one daughter, Alberta Winifred. She is a graduate of the Bis- marck High School and of the Handicraft Guild at Minneapolis, and is now keeping books for the firm of Ladd & Cousins.

HARRY C. STRINGHAM'S chief experience has been in financial affairs, and he plays an important and vital part in Billings' commercial life as secretary of the Billings Credit Men's Association.

Mr. Stringham was born at Denver, Colorado, November 24, 1885. His paternal ancestors came from England and were early settlers in New York. One member of the Stringham family served as a general in the Mexican war. Mr. Stringham's grandfather was a Civil war veteran and died in the Old Soldiers Home at Little Rock, Arkansas. Fred Stringham, father of Harry C., presents a remarkable instance of physical integrity and service that may be expected from a man of absolute temperance and industry. He was born at North Branch, Michigan, in 1860, lost his mother when he was twelve years old, and then went to Gales- burg, Illinois, with his father. At the age of eighteen he went west to Denver, and for the past forty-one years has been a locomotive engineer with the Denver and Rio Grande Railway. He will be re- tired on a pension in 1920. He has been a rail- roader, has worked steadily and has a splendid record, and is a notable exception to the old time railroad man in the fact that he has never used intoxicants or tobacco. The rewards of his tem- perate and industrial life appear in a material way, since he has amassed a fortune estimated at $75,000. Many years ago, while living at Manitou, Colorado, he served in the office of alderman. He is inde- pendent in politics, is a Mason and a member of the Presbyterian Church. Fred Stringham married Minnie Pultz, who was born at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1865. They had five children: Jesse and Grace, twins, the former in the mining business at Bates, Arkansas, while Grace died of the influ- enza at Bates in 1918; Harry C .; Will, general manager of the Sootless and Smokeless Coal Com- pany at Bates, Arkansas; and Fred, Jr., a farmer at Rocky Ford, Colorado.

Harry C. Stringham was educated in the public schools of Manitou, Colorado, graduating from high school in 1906, and finished his education with eighteen months in a business college at Colorado Springs. He left school with a financial career in view, and went to work at the very bottom in the Oberlin National Bank at Oberlin, Kansas. After six months he went to Pittsburg, Kansas, as an employe of the First National Bank, and when he left there he was draft teller. He was next with the Bradstreet Company in their offices at Portland, Oregon, and in 1913 came to Billings, continuing here for three years as a Bradstreet reporter.

In 1916 Mr. Stringham organized the Billings Credit Men's Association, of which he is secretary, and performs the important task of managing finan- cial adjustments for the various members of that association. His offices are in the Hart-Albin Build- ing. His home is at 2807 Seventh Avenue, North.

He is a republican, a member of the Episcopal Church, the Billings Golf and Country Club and the Elks.

In 1910, at Pittsburg, Kansas, he married Miss Lois Fuller. She is a daughter of Judge Arthur and Hannah (Richardson) Fuller, of Pittsburg. Her father is a prominent attorney and served three terms as judge of the District Court of Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Stringham have one son, Arthur Ben- jamin, born June 21, 1918.

REV. CYRIL PAUWELYN. St. Patrick's Church of Billings is under the charge of Rev. Father Cyril Pauwelyn, one of the scholarly and efficient men of his church, and since he has been located here the affairs of the parish have been admirably admin- istered. He was born at Poelcapelle, West Flanders, Belgium, and there educated for the priesthood, but was not ordained there, as he lacked twenty-two months of the canonical age for the sacerdotal honors when on June 28, 1885, Bishop Juenger or- dained the members of his class in the chapel of the American College at Louvain. He left Antwerp August 22, 1885, as a deacon, at the same time as the Rt. Rev. Bishop Aegidius Juenger and the Rev. Fathers Verbeke and Hillebrand. Arriving at Helena, Montana, he became an assistant of the late Rt. Rev. J. B. Brondel until he was ordained to the priesthood on November 29, and placed in charge of a circuit including the following churches: Mis- souri Valley, Boulder Valley, Three Forks, Jefferson Valley, Miles City and Bozeman, and later added to this number a church at Marysville and one at Glendive. At Marysville he had a building con- structed under his personal supervision. while at Glendive one was acquired by the purchase of the meeting house of the Congregationalists. This cir- cuit extended from Helena to the Dakota line, along the Northern Pacific Railroad, a distance of 500 miles, and sometimes, owing to the poor transporta- tion facilities, he was forced to travel with the crew of a gang working on railroad construction, on a hand car, in order to visit his parishes. He was the first priest ordained in Montana for the diocese of Helena.

In the fall of 1887 Father Pauwelyn was relieved of some of his arduous duties by Fathers Follet and V. Van den Broeck, and he moved his headquarters from Helena to Miles City, whose first resident priest he became, although he also had under his charge Dawson, Custer and Yellowstone counties, which in- cluded what are now known as Carbon and Sweet Grass counties, 56,365 square miles in all. There was a church at Miles City, dedicated to the Sacred Heart, and one at Glendive, Dawson County, dedi- cated to St. Juliana. In the rear of the Miles City Chapel were two rooms, which Father Pauwelyn called his home when not "on the road." At that time Miles City had a boarding school kept by three Ursuline Nuns, who had under their charge ten boarders and twenty-five day pupils.

Between 1887 and 1891 Father Pauwelyn improved the churches at Miles City and Glendive and Billings, secured the site and raised funds for the first church at Red Lodge, for which place he was the first visit- ing priest, saying the first Mass there in a log cabin July 30, 1889, and from that day on holding services every fifth Sunday. Before the church at Red Lodge was built Father Pauwelyn took a six month trip to Europe, and upon his return was transferred to the Butte and Dillon missions, first making his head- quarters with Father Van de Ven at St. Patrick's Butte. While Father Pauwelyn was attached to St. Patrick's Church in Butte, in the course of his minis- trations he became acquainted with James Tuohy, a

Lys. Janwelyn.

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successful prospector and miner, discoverer of some of the famous copper mines on Anaconda Hill. Father Pauwelyn attended Mr. Tuohy in his last illness in 1893, and at his request drew up his will, in which there were three bequests to the Catholic Church in mining properties. One, the Black Hawk, he bequeathed to St. Joseph's Orphanage of Helena, a second, the Pilot, to the benefit of sick and dis- abled priests of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ore- gon, and the third, the Burke and Balaklava, went to Bishop Brondel, of Helena, and was sold in 1907 by Bishop Carroll for $400,000. The greatest part of this amount was used in 1909 in the build- ing of Mount St. Charles College in Helena.

In 1893 Father Pauwelyn transferred his residence to Dillon, where a church had been erected by his predecessor, Father Dols, but was not completed and the parish was heavily in debt. Father Pauwelyn not only completed the church, but cleared off the ' debt and improved the original building. He se- cured ground for church purposes at Sheridan, a station attended from Dillon, but before he could commence building he was re-appointed to the Miles City Missions, October 19, 1898, remaining there for three years, when he again became the successor of Father Dols, this time at Great Falls, where there were 2,500 in the parish, and he proved himself equally efficient as an able and successful city pastor. just as he had when visiting widely separated missions.

On May 18, 1904, the diocese of Helena was divided and Great Falls was made the seat of the new episcopal jurisdiction, and it fell to his lot to prepare and direct the installation ceremonies of the appointed bishop, and he acquitted himself in so masterly a manner as to reflect dignity upon the church and credit to his ability. He was then trans- spiritual welfare of the parishes in Dawson County. In 1908 Father Panwelyn returned to West Flanders because of the illness of his mother, and in 1909 he was stationed at Billings. At that time the beau- tiful church edifice was burdened with a heavy debt of $25,000, the priest's house was unfinished, and a parochial school was only something that lived in the hearts of the more hopeful.

Father Pauwelyn felt he had a work worthy of the best efforts of any priest, and began it with characteristic promptitude, his first work at Billings being the renovation at his own expense of the rec- tory. At a cost of over $4,000 he made it habitable for himself and his assistant priest. As was usual with him, he indulged his native love of flowers and shrubbery, and not only laid out a beautiful lawn at the rectory, but the church as well, and encouraged the people of his parish to improve their own lawns in like manner.

In the fall of 1910 Mother M. Olive, General Superior of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, visited St. Vincent's Hospital at Billings, and after making due investigations she promised to send two sisters in the fall of the next year to take charge of the school. In order to have suitable building ready Father Pauwelyn had the old church re- modeled and divided into three class rooms. On August 28, 1911, St. Patrick's Parochial School was formally opened with Sisters M. Louise and Barbara as teachers, with forty-eight pupils as the first day's enrollment. Within a year this school had increased until there were eighty pupils. In 1912 another teacher was added and the sixth and seventh grades taught in the third classroom. In 1916 a fourth room was provided by making use of the north side sacristy, so that the school now has the full eight grades and 175 pupils are in attendance, but much

more appropriate housing has been provided by Mrs. Kate Fratt. When Father Pauwelyn was first made resident priest of the church at Miles City he united in marriage Miss Katherine Sheehan of Lamberts- ville, Illinois, and David Fratt, a wealthy stockman of Yellowstone County, Montana. When Mr. Fratt died March 19, 1912, he left his widow his sole heir, and she, looking for some appropriate memorial to his memory, consulted with her old friend and spiritual advisor, Father Pauwelyn, and by his advice purchased the lots and presented them to St. Patrick's Church on Christmas Day, 1916. After her death, which occurred the following New Year's day, it was found that Mrs. Fratt had set aside $100,000 to be used in the erection and maintenance of a paro- chial school, of which $50,000 was to be used for the erection of the building and $50,000 for the support of the school. This building was erected, and is one of the most modern and beautifully equipped of its kind in the state. Over the entrance is a tablet bcaring the inscription, "Kate Fratt Memorial Parochial School."

Father Pauwelyn has lent his support to the erec- tion of a hospital for St. Vincent's at a cost of $450,000, assisting in selecting the new site. This hospital profits from the generosity of Mrs. Fratt, who left to it a bequest of $25,000.

The Knights of Columbus, established at Billings in 1907, is growing in strength and numbers, the membership being now considerably over 200. It was proposed by this order at the state convention held in Anaconda May 20, 1918, to erect a monument on Jefferson Island, near Whitehall, in commemora- tion of the first Mass offered there in 1841 by Father De Smet, S. J. This was the first Mass said in the State of Montana.

Each year has seen a healthy and remarkable ferred to Glendive once more, and attended to the . growth in the parish, both spiritually and materially. The indebtedness of $25,000 assisted by the bequest of $5,000 from Mrs. Fratt, has been cut down to $8,000. The confirmation class sometimes numbers as many as 100 members and St. Patrick's has from twenty to thirty converts annually.

The present church edifice was completed in the spring of 1906 at a cost of $64,300, and the decora- tions are particularly artistic. The Catholic ceme- tery, known as "Calvary," is two miles west of Billings on high ground, with proper drainage. The first to be buried in it was Patrick Kelly, born in Ireland, who died at Billings when sixty-five years of age, November 15, 1906.

St. Patrick's Church has several ont missions, in 1907 the Laurel parish being created, with Rev. Father Charles Truemper as first resident priest. and all of the territory west of Billings west of Canyon Creek was attached to the new center. The Crow Reservation south of the Yellowstone was opened to settlement, and the Huntley U. S. Reclama- tion project was created by the Federal Government, so that new territory covering about 37,000 acres of irrigated land brought in settlers and many small towns came into existence, such as Huntley, Ballan- tine, Worden and Custer. These missions are now attended monthly from Billings, and will be until they in turn so develop as to warrant the estab- lishment of a new center of activity.

CHANDLER C. COHAGEN is a prominent young architect of Billings, a son of a well known con- tractor of the same city and has had abundant op- portunity from early youth to acquire a thorough knowledge and experience in all the technique of building construction, working for his father be- fore he entered the school of architecture in the University of Michigan.

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Mr. Cohagen was born at Pierson, Iowa, April 24, 1889. He comes of a family of mechanics. His great-grandfather was a native of Ireland and an early settler in Ohio. The grandfather spent his life in Ohio, dying at Columbus many years ago, and was a carpenter and builder by trade.

John R. Cohagen, father of Chandler, was born at Columbus, Ohio, in 1857, grew up there, was married in Missouri, and during his residence at Pierson, Iowa, was a farmer. In 1907 he moved to Billings, and has since been a successful con- tractor and builder. He is a member of the Billings City Council, is a republican, an active worker in the Christian Church and affiliated with Billings Star Lodge of Odd Fellows and the Encampment of the same order. John R. Cohagen married Mary Turner, who was born at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1859. They have two children, Chandler C. and Ora, the latter an unmarried daughter at home.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 60

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