Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 75

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 75

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years. He was next employed in a bank at Mexico for one year as bookkeeper, and in 1907 first came to Billings, where he entered the First National Bank in the same capacity and for the same period of time. Subsequently he went to Columbus, Mon- tana, as assistant cashier. of the Columbus State Bank, but a year later returned to Billings at the organization of the Merchants National Bank at this place. He became note and exchange teller in the credit department, acting in this capacity one year, and then resigned his position to assist in the organization of the Farmers and Traders State Bank, of which he became cashier. In the following year he was elected cashier, and held that position until the bank was consolidated with the Billings State Bank and the Bank of Billings as the American Bank and Trust Company, in 1914. He was the cashier of this institution until February, 1915, at which time he resigned, feeling the need of an extended rest due to overwork. He then engaged in the loan and livestock business on his own ac- count and in 1917 incorporated his present business, under the firm style of the Price-Moffett Company, with offices at No. 2716 First Avenue, North, in the Securities Building. The officers of this concern are: E. R. Price, president ; J. K. Moffett, vice president; P. A. Heath, secretary and treasurer. The business is really conducted as an investment banking enterprise, handling livestock, farm and ranch loans and buying and selling cattle extensively, and is one of the largest of its kind in Montana, hav- ing handled some of the largest loans in the state. Mr. Price is a republican, but not a politician, and belongs to the Billings Midland Club and the Billings Rotary Club. He is fraternally affiliated with Bill- ings Lodge No. 394, Benevolent and Protective Or- der of Elks; Ashlar Lodge No. 29, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Billings Chapter No. 6, Royal Arch Masons; and Aldemar Commandery No. 5, Knights Templar. His home is at No. 121 North Thirty-fifth Street.

In October, 1912, at Mexico, Missouri, Mr. Price was married to Miss Eliza Gibbs, daughter of C. R. and Mary B. (Buckner) Gibbs, of Mexico, Missouri, where Mr. Gibbs is connected with the Meyer Broth- ers Drug Company of St. Louis. Mr. and Mrs. Price are the parents of one child, Mary Katherine, born April 14, 1916.

ALBERT PATRICK O'LEARY, M. D. The professional services of Doctor O'Leary as physician and surgeon has been given to Big Timber since 1906. The only hospital advantages enjoyed by Sweetgrass County have been established and developed by Doctor O'Leary, and this well equipped private hospital is only one of many services by which his name is held in honor in that section of the state.

Doctor O'Leary was born at Flint, Michigan, August 26, 1870, and is a graduate of the University of Michigan, department of medicine and surgery. The previous generations of his family lived in County Cork, Ireland. His grandfather, Cornelius O'Leary, spent his life as a farmer there and died when about thirty-seven years of age. He was a man of prominence in his locality and during the Irish famines of 1845 and 1849 was appointed dis- tributing officer. He married a Miss Williams, who was of pure Welsh ancestry.

Their son John C. O'Leary has long been promi- nent as a rancher both in Montana and Oregon. He was born in County Cork, at Millstreet, in 1832, and lived in his native land until he was sixteen years of age. On coming to the United States he settled in Michigan, where he was connected with the pioneer lumber industry. At one time he was superintendent of a large lumber plant owned by

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Governor Crapo of Michigan. In 1877 he moved to The Dalles, Oregon, and engaged in the sheep business. From there in 1899 he moved his head- quarters to Idaho and continued cattle and stock ranching until 1907, when he came to Carbon County, Montana, and is now living at Edgar in that county. He has extended ranch interests in both Carbon and Sweetgrass counties, owning 640 acres in his home place and also has 1,000 acre ranch in Grass Valley, Oregon. Politically he is a republican, is a member of the Catholic Church and is a third degree Knight of Columbus, affiliated with Livingston Council. The wife of this veteran rancher bore the maiden name of Alice M. Vernon, and was born at Avon, New York, in 1845. Doctor O'Leary is the second of their seven children, and his twin brother, Alfred, died at the age of five years. Another son, Charles, died when three years old. The oldest of the family is John Vernon, engaged in the mining business at Butte. Mollie is the wife of A. F. Rice, manager and one of the owners of the Butte Business Col- lege. Frank was a government buyer of horses during the war. Edith G. is a talented teacher of expression and oratory now connected with the Junior High School at Butte.

Doctor O'Leary was about seven years old when his parents moved to Oregon, and he acquired his early education in public and private schools at The Dalles, and in 1892 graduated from the Wasco Independent Academy and Normal School. He fin- ished his course and received his M. D. degree from the University of Michigan in 1898. One year he spent as interne in a hospital at Portland, Oregon, and has always kept up with the advances in his profession, particularly in surgery, in which he spe- cializes. He attended the Chicago Polyclinic in 1915. He began practice at Butte in 1899 and for two years had the chief responsibilities in con- trolling the smallpox epidemic. Later he spent two years at Boulder Hot Springs and Alhambra Hot Springs, practiced at Billings six months, and in 1906 located at Big Timber, where he has been busily engaged in a general practice. He built his hospital in 1911 and is sole owner and proprietor. This hospital, the only one in Sweetgrass County, is located at McLeod Street and Fourth Avenue, and has accommodations for ten patients. Its facili- ties have frequently been taxed, and patients come from as far as sixty miles away. Doctor O'Leary is a member of the State and District Medical Societies, and is county health officer of Sweet- grass County.

He served as a member of the city council of Big Timber in 1917-18-19, is a republican, a Catholic, and a former member of the Knights of Columbus at Butte. He is associated with his father in the ownership of 1,000 acres of ranch land in the Grass Valley of Oregon, and he individually owns 280 acres in Carbon County. Doctor O'Leary is un- married.

ROSCOE G. MARTIN has recently identified himself with the business community of Red Lodge, is the undertaker for the town and most of the surround- ing community, and is also serving as county coroner of Carbon County.

He was born at Colorado Springs, Colorado, Sep- tember 14. 1894, a son of Robert M. and Hannah (Foster) Martin. His father, who was born in Kansas in 1857, was reared in that state, married at Topeka, and then removed to Colorado Springs, where he became captain of the city police force. He died at Colorado Springs in 1899. He was a republican in politics. His wife, who was born at Alberta, Kansas, in 1863, is now living at Berkeley,

California. She is the mother of two children, Mabel and Roscoe. The former resides with her mother and is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley.

Roscoe G. Martin was only five years old when his father died. He attended school principally at Long Beach, California, completing the junior year in the high school there in 1913. For 21/2 years he was employed in the Long Beach postoffice. He first came to Red Lodge in 1915, working for six months with the local elevator company. Then after a visit back to California for three months he bought R. B. Mooney's undertaking business, the only establishment of its kind in Red Lodge. He has the equipment and a highly organized service with headquarters at 22 North Broadway. Mr. Martin was elected coroner of Carbon County in 1916 and was re-elected in 1918. He is a republican, a member of Bear Tooth Lodge No. 534 of the Elks and of the Red Lodge Chamber of Commerce. He married Miss Evangeline Budas at Red Lodge in 1915. They have one child, Jovita, born October 28, 1916.

Albert Budas, father of Mrs. Martin, was a pioneer merchant at Red Lodge, and has been active in business and civic affairs there for over thirty years. He was born at Tornio, Sweden, in 1865, a son of Henry and Eva (Rukkola) Budas. His father was born in the same locality of Sweden in 1833 and spent his life in that country as a miller, dying in 1868. He had also served in the Swedish army. His wife was born in 1837 and died in 1873. Albert and Herman were their two sons, the latter dying at the age of nineteen. Albert Budas had a public school education in his native land and in 1884 came to the United States, spending a few months at New York Mills in Minnesota and in 1885 going to Butte, Montana, where he worked in the mines for three years. On coming to Red Lodge he en- gaged in the mercantile business, but since 1909 has conducted the leading fire insurance and real estate agency.

He has been prominent in local affairs, is a re- publican, has served on the City Council of Red Lodge and in November, 1918, was elected member of the Sixteenth Session of the State Legislature. In the following session he was chairman of the irrigated water rights committee and member of the committees on mining, public morals and public utilities. He is a member of the Chamber of Com- merce, Bear Tooth Lodge of Elks, and is president of the Roberts State Bank of Red Lodge.

Mr. Budas married Miss Katie O'Connor in 1895. Her father, James O'Conner, was a Pennsylvania coal miner. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Budas are Evangeline and Albert, Jr.

ERNEST T. EATON. One of the most cultured and accomplished educators of the Northwest, endowed with rare ability and a strong personality, Ernest T. Eaton, of Billings, financial director of the Bill- ings Polytechnic Institute, is thoroughly public spirited and progressive, and ever found among the leaders of any movement with which he becomes associated. A native of New England. he was born at Atkinson, Maine, September II, 1877, a son of Capt. Thomas O. Eaton, and a descendant of John Eaton, who immigrated from England to Haver- hill, Massachusetts, in 1638, and whose grandson, Johnathan Eaton, settled in Maine, becoming the progenitor of the Eatons of that state.

Thomas O. Eaton, now a respected resident of Polytechnic, Montana, was born in 1841, in Sehec, Maine, and was reared and educated in his native state. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil war

Hurplay

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he enlisted in the First Maine Artillery, which guarded Washington, District of Columbia, during the next two years. Subsequently accompanying his regiment to the scene of action, he took an active part in the battles of Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, North Anna and Petersburg, in the latter engagement being severely wounded. For a num -. ber of years after the close of the war he was employed in tilling the soil in the vicinity of Charles- ton and Foxcroft, Maine, served as captain of the State Militia, and occupied many other positions of trust in the life of his community. In 1886 he moved to Iowa, where he was engaged in the live stock and meat business at Earlville and Man- chester, Iowa, until 1904. He moved to Deer Lodge, Montana, in 1904, when his sons re-established the College of Montana. He remained there four years. He located at Billings in 1908 and bought a ranch joining what was later to be the Polytechnic farm and campus. Here he still lives, watching and aiding in the development of the great institution his sons are building. He is a faithful member of the Congregational Church, liberally contribut- ing towards its support; a staunch old line repub- lican in politics, and a Mason.

His wife, whose maiden name was Delia Bolster, was born in Foxcroft, 'Maine, in 1843. She was educated in Foxcroft Academy and taught school for a number of terms, marrying Captain Eaton in 1865. She died at her home in Polytechnic, Montana, in October, 1917, their married life having covered a period of fifty-two years. Their children were Lewis T., educational director of the Billings Poly- technic Institute; Ernest T., the subject of this sketch; a daughter, Alice D., who died at Deer Lodge, Montana, in 1904; and a son, Volney, who died in 1887.

As a boy and youth Ernest T. Eaton attended the public schools of Maine and Iowa, and in 1897 was graduated from Lenox College at Hopkinton, Iowa, with the degree of Bachelor of Science, and three years later, in 1900, was there honored with the degree of Master of Science. He attended the University of Iowa, 1898 and 1899, graduating with the class of '99, with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. In the fall of 1899 Mr. Eaton was engaged in newspaper work, and in the spring of 1900 became a teacher in Oak Park High School, Des Moines, Iowa. Later in the year he was elected principal of the school, and in 1901 became super- intendent of schools in the Oak Park District. While teaching he studied law and completed two years of a law course. In 1902 he was elected superintendent of the schools at Deer Lodge, Mon- tana, and during the three years that he was thus employed established at Deer Lodge the Powell County High School, of which he was the first principal. He served as principal of this high school for four years, resigning Jannary I, to become financial director of the College of Montana, of which his brother, Lewis T. Eaton, was then presi- dent. The two brothers reorganized, rebuilt and, endowed that pioneer Montana institution.

They went to Billings in the summer of 1908 and organized the Billings Polytechnic Institute, Ernest T. becoming financial director, an office for which he is admirably qualified, and Mr. Lewis T. Eaton becoming educational director. Under the manage- ment of these gifted brothers the institution has grown with surprising rapidity, having already given diplomas to 150 Montana and Wyoming boys and girls, while 126 of its boys took part in the recent war, eight of them sacrificing their lives for their country.

The school is finely located three miles north of Billings, and with its faculty of eighteen members

is doing notable work, admitting students without examination, giving them educational advantages from the lower grades to the junior year in col- lege, its standards being accepted by state schools and eastern institutions of learning. Mr. Eaton has been very active and successful as financial director of the institute, having been largely in- strumental in securing from friends in the East funds amounting to $300,000, and as business man- ager has wisely expended this sum in the con- struction of the many beautiful buildings connected with the institute, including Science Hall, Kimball Hall, Prescott Commons, the Losekamp Memorial Building, a fine gymnasium and the shop building. A Young Men's Christian Association building will soon be completed, and work commenced on Har- wood Girls Dormitory, the funds for which are already available.

A stalwart republican in politics, Mr. Eaton takes an active and intelligent interest in public affairs, and is rendering his fellow citizens valuable service in the State Legislature, to which he was elected in 1916 and re-elected in 1918, representing Yellow- stone County. Prominent in the work devolving upon him in that capacity Mr. Eaton is chairman of the committee on education, and is a member of various other important committees, including that of affairs of cities, state institutions and public buildings, fairs and expositions, public morals, char- ities and reform. True to the religious faith in which he was reared, he is an active member of the Congregational Church. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Pythias.

At Deer Lodge, Montana, in the autumn of 1911, Mr. Eaton married Miss Augusta Valiton, a daugh- ter of Judge Henry G. and Mary Rae Valiton, pioneer residents of Montana. Judge Valiton was mayor of Butte, Montana, two terms during his residence in that city, and is now serving as justice of the peace at Deer Lodge. Mr. and Mrs. Eaton have no children.

They have a beantiful suburban home planned especially for the pleasure and entertainment of the Polytechnic faculty and students. It is situated just west of the Polytechnic. Mr. Eaton, in addi- tion to his duties as financial director and business manager of the Polytechnic, has taken much interest in the production of pure seed and in the raising of fruit. He has served for five years on the State Fair Advisory Board as the member from Yel- lowstone County and has had much to do with the Agricultural and Horticultural Exhibits at both the State and Midland Empire fairs. His selec- tion of vegetables, corn, grain and apples have carried off many premiums at these and other fairs.

CHARLES FRANCIS MURPHY. The men having charge of the conduct of the large interests of the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railroad are withont exception especially fitted for the positions they oc- cupy, and through their knowledge of men and rail- road work, all parties concerned benefit. One of these alert, responsible and effective executives of this road is Charles Francis Murphy, superintendent of the company, and one of its most valued men. He was born at Caledonia, Minnesota, May 4, 1861, a son of John Murphy. John Murphy was born in County Cork, Ireland, March 4, 1813, and died at Elkton, South Dakota, February 1, 1892. Reared in Ireland, he left that country in 1837 and came to the United States, first selecting Boston, Massa- chusetts, as his place of residence, where he was employed in a tan yard. In 1857 he came as far west as Caledonia, Minnesota, and until 1878 was there engaged in farming, but then left it for Elkton, South Dakota, where he lived in retirement until

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death claimed him. A democrat and Roman Cath- olic, he lived up to his beliefs. On February I, 1840, he was married at Boston, Massachusetts, to Johanna Ford, born in County Cork, Ireland, on February 22, 1819. She died at Elkton, South Da- kota on September 1, 1896. Their children were as follows: Johanna, who was born on July 4, 1841, died at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857; Wil- liam H., who was born December 21, 1842, is city assessor of Brookings, South Dakota; Margaret, who was born March 22, 1846, died at Elkton, South Dakota, in 1880, as the wife of Nicholas Murphy, a veteran of the war between the states, and a retired railroad man still residing at Elkton; John, who was born, July 10, 1848, was a railroad man, and died at Great Falls, Montana, in 1907; Mary Ann, who was born, January 6, 1851, is the widow of John A. Flynn, formerly a jeweler of Wells, Min- nesota, where Mrs. Flynn is still residing; Edward, who was born, August 9, 1853, is a retired farmer of Elkton, South Dakota; Ellen, who was born, September 10, 1855, died at Great Falls, Montana, November 6, 1916, as the wife of John Fogerty, formerly a railroad man, but now also deceased; Matthew, who was born February 4, 1858, lives at Bowman, North Dakota, where he is engaged in grain and stock raising; and Charles Francis, who was the youngest of this large family.

Charles Francis Murphy was reared on his father's farm at Caledonia, Minnesota, and attended the public schools of the neighborhood until he was eighteen years old, at which time he left home and entered the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad as a section hand and remained in the track department for two years. Coming west to South Dakota, he spent three years as deputy sheriff and deputy United States marshal, with headquarters at Huron, but at the end of that time returned to the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, this time as a brakeman and held that position with the road for two years, and then in October, 1889, he came to Glendive and until 1894 was with the Northern Pacific Railroad as brakeman, switchman and con- ductor. Mr. Murphy then made another change and was made yard master of the Great Northern Railroad at Butte, Montana, holding that position until 1896. In the latter year he entered the em- ploy of the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railroad Company as yard master, and served as such at Anaconda for two and one-half years. Mr. Murphy then returned to the Great Northern road for four and one-half years, during that period being yard master at Great Falls, Montana, when he was made trainmaster, and after two years, assistant superin- tendent. In 1909 he was elected mayor of Great Falls, and served as such for two years, and at the same time operated a real estate business. In the fall of 1911 he reassumed the duties of yard master for the Great Northern road at Grand Forks, North Dakota, but a month later was offered the position of superintendent of the transportation department of the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railroad, which he accepted and held for two years, when his serv- ices received further recognition by his promotion to the superintendency of the road on December I, 1913, which position he still holds, his offices being in the general office building of his road on West Commercial Avenne, Anaconda. A democrat, in ad- dition to being mayor of Great Falls he was also a member of the City Council of that city for three consecutive terms, or six years. Bred in the faith of the Roman Catholic Church, he has embraced it as his own. He belongs to the Rotary and Com- mercial clubs, and to Anaconda Lodge No. 239, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the

Order of Railroad Conductors. Mr. Murphy owns his residence at No. 708 Hickory Street, Anaconda, and a 160 acre ranch on Pondera River, in the county of that name, Montana.

In 1896 Mr. Murphy was married at Huron, South Dakota, to Miss Mary Coddington, a daughter of Maurice and Annie (Reynolds) Coddington. Mr. Coddington died at Great Falls, Montana, after hav- ing had various experiences as a pioneer. In 1849 he was one of the gold seekers who crossed the plains to California, later going to South Dakota and becoming one of the pioneer butchers of Huron, and finally locating at Great Falls, Montana. Mrs. Coddington lives with Mr. and Mrs. Murphy. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy became the parents of five chil- dren, namely: Raymond, who was born August 20, 1897, was graduated from the Anaconda High School, and then became a student of the University of Minnesota, but on May 3, 1917, he enlisted in the United States Navy for service during the great war, and is now a first class pharmacist mate in the medical department of the transport service and is on his twelfth trip; Clyde Francis, who was born on October 3, 1899, left the Anaconda High School during his senior year to enlist as pharmacist mate in the United States Navy, and is now on the de- stroyer Breeze, at Newport News, Virginia, having made nine round trips to Europe; Eugene, who was born on February 4, 1902, is attending the Anaconda High School; Marie, who was born on September 7, 1904, is also attending the Anaconda High School; and Irene, who was born on February 7, 1907.

A clean-minded, considerate, dependable man, Mr. Murphy is a decided addition .to any community in which he takes up his place of residence. Hav- ing spent practically all of his mature years in the railroad business, and worked up through the dif- ferent positions, he understands conditions as only a practical man can, and is thus enabled to deal with the problems of his department wisely, fairly and expeditiously, and while he gives to his duties the full attention their importance demand, his men know that in him they have a friend and fellow worker

CHARLES W. CAMPBELL. Since coming to Mon- tana eight years ago Charles W. Campbell has found his talents and services as a lawyer appreciated and in great demand in connection with a large general practice. Mr. Campbell is a member of the Big Timber bar, and as one of the younger men of the community his interests in business and civic affairs are steadily growing.

Mr. Campbell was born at Hamburg, Iowa, Oc- tober 6, 1885, but spent most of his early life in Nebraska. The Campbells were a Scotch family. His father, James W. Campbell, was born in Ohio in 1856, was reared in the State of Missouri, was married and followed farming near Hamburg, Iowa, and in 1890 moved to Fullerton, Nebraska. He still lives there and has been greatly prospered as a farmer, owning 320 acres in Nebraska, and has a property of 320 acres in Montana four miles southeast of Willow Creek. He is an independent democrat in politics, a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Modern Woodmen of America.

James W. Campbell married Anna Wages, who was born in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1869. Charles W. Campbell is the older of two children, his sister, Thelma, being still a school girl.

He was educated in the public schools of Nance County, Nebraska, graduating from the high school at Fullerton in 1903, at the age of eighteen. He is also an alumnus of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where he finished his classical course

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 75

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