Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 8

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 8

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In August, 1908 the Catholic population had grown sufficiently large to justify Bishop Lenihan in mak- ing a division and appointing a resident pastor at Roundup, with charge over all the territory on the Milwaukee line east of Meagher County and west of Rosebud and as far north as the Snowy Moun- tains. In September, 1916, another division was made with a resident priest at Moore, having charge of all the places on the Milwaukee south of Glengarry, and all the places on the main line of the Burlington in Fergus County. Before the completion of the church in Danvers, in the fall

of 1916, a third division of the parish was made, and a priest appointed to Denton with charge over all the places along the Milwaukee line between Ware and Great Falls. Other parishes which must eventually be established include Hilger, to serve a large Catholic population in the territory north and northeast of Lewistown, and another at Grass Range in the center of a good farming district. With these various divisions and extensions St. Leo's Church at Lewistown may truly be called the mother church of Fergus County, being entirely surrounded with churches which have been built during the past twelve years.

REV. VICTOR J. VAN DEN BROECK, who has zeal- ously labored in the interest of the Catholic Church in Montana for more than thirty-two years, has since 1906 been pastor of St. Leo's at Lewistown. As told in the history of that parish on other pages, his administration has been a thoroughly con- structive and progressive one, and has made St. Leo's the mother church of Fergus County.

He was born in Belgium, October 16, 1863, son of John and Adeline (Crame) van den Broeck. His father died in Belgium, April 21, 1902, at the age of seventy-two, and his mother on September 7, 1912, at the age of seventy-six. Of their eight children five are still living, four daughters and one son.

Father van den Broeck attended the common schools to the age of thirteen, then the College of Mechlin in Belgium, and was a student of philosophy under the famous Cardinal Mercier. He graduated in 1887 from the University of Louvain and was ordained a priest, June 24, 1887. On the 27th of August of that year he sailed for New York City and on the 15th of September arrived in Helena, Montana, where he remained until September, 1888, as assistant priest at the Cathedral. He was then assistant priest of St. Patrick's in Butte until Sep- tember, 1891, when he was appoined pastor at Miles City in charge of the Sacred Heart Church. In September, 1898, he was transferred to St. Rose de Lima Church at Dillon. He was engaged in the heavy labors incident to these charges for five consecutive years. In September, 1903, on account of ill health, he removed to St. Peter's Mission, and on December 31, 1905, left for Europe, visit- ing Rome. He returned to Great Falls in March, 1906, but after about one month secured a leave of absence and returned to Europe, where he re- mained until October, 1906. Soon afer his return to Montana he was appointed resident pastor of St. Leo's Church at Lewistown and began his duties there November 2, 1906. From the date of the beginning of his pastorate until 1918 the records of the parish show 1,067 persons baptized, 273 persons buried, 290 couples married, and 308 per- sons confirmed.

RALPH E. BODLEY, supervisor of the Gallatin Forest at Bozeman, has made a splendid record in the forestry service of the government. He pre- pared himself for this great work and profession while in university, and was advanced more rap- idly from the first grade of the work to the post of supervisor than any other man in the history of the service.

Mr. Bodley was born in Wahoo, Nebraska, No- vember 26, 1887. His father, Eli Bodley, is now living at Los Angeles. Eli Bodley was born in Bed- fordshire, England, in 1854, was reared and married in England, and is a graduate of Oxford University and a man of very cultured mind and came of a family of good social standing in England. He had

HISTORY OF MONTANA

some training in military duty while in his native country. In 1884 he brought his family to the United States and became a farmer and stock rancher at Wahoo, Nebraska. He acquired a large amount of land and was a successful business man in that vicinity for many years. In 1911 he left his ranch and moved to Wahoo and since 1917 has been a resident of Los Angeles. Most of his ranch holdings have been sold, but he still retains a place of 200 acres a mile north of Wahoo. Mr. Eli Bodley is independent in politics, a very active mem- ber of the Methodist Church and one of the leaders in that denomination at Wahoo. His wife was Mary Hobbs, who was born in Bedfordshire, England, in 1857, and died at Wahoo, Nebraska, in 1896. She was the mother of five children, Ralph E. being the youngest. Annie M., the oldest, is the wife of O. M. Templeton, a farmer at Malmo, Nebraska; Herbert J. is a farmer at Colon, Nebraska; while Rupert H. and George B. are both on the old home- stead at Wahoo.

Ralph E. Bodley attended the rural schools of Saunders County, Nebraska, and graduated from the high school at Wahoo in 1908, following which he spent four months traveling in Europe, and dur- ing this time he visited England, Scotland, Switzer- land, France and Germany. In the fall of 1908 he entered the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1912. He is a Phi Beta Kappa honor graduate of the University of Nebraska. The following year he spent in post graduate work, giving all his time to forestry, and received his Master's degree in that subject in 1913. He is also a member of the Alpha Zeta agricultural honorary fraternity.

On July 1, 1913, he reported for duty as forest assistant at Sheridan, Montana. For nine months he was on the Madison Forest in Madison County, Montana, and three months as deputy forest super- visor at Missoula. July 16, 1914, a year and two weeks after he entered the forestry service, he was made supervisor of the Gallatin Forest and began his work at Bozeman on that date, with offices in the Federal Building.

Mr. Bodley is an independent in politics and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Lin- coln, Nebraska. His home is a modern residence at 601 South Sixth Avenue. At Kearny, Nebraska, December 27, 1915, he married Miss Bernice A. Birch. Her mother, Mrs. Clara Birch, lives at Lin- coln. Mrs. Bodley is a graduate of the Lincoln High School and spent two years in the University of Nebraska. They have two sons, Russell Ralph, born November 15, 1916, and Donald Claire, born August 17, 1919.

TOM HIRST has had a veteran's experience and service with the Montana State Penitentiary at Deer Lodge. He is deputy warden, a position he has filled for the past ten years.

Mr. Hirst was born at Sheffield, Yorkshire, Eng- land, February 7, 1866, and has been a resident of Montana for over thirty years. His father, George Henry Hirst, was born in 1837 and died in 1899, spending all his life in Yorkshire, being a mechanic and machinist in some of the famous factories of Sheffield. He was liberal in politics and a member of the Established Church in England. George H. Hirst married Mary Lodge, who was born in York- shire in 1837 and died at Sheffield in 1900. Tom is the oldest of their three children. His sister Harriet is unmarried and living at Sheffield, being a seam- stress by occupation ; Mabel, the other sister, is the wife of William Hollus, proprietor of a millinery store at Sheffield.

Tom Hirst attended public school in Sheffield up to the age of thirteen. He then served a five years' apprenticeship at the machinists' trade. He left England and came to America when he was about nineteen years of age. At that time a well known firm of ranchers just east of Deer Lodge was Lodge & Beaumont, the senior partner, Joseph Lodge, be- ing an uncle of Tom Hirst. The latter came to Montana to join his uncle, reaching Deer Lodge on May 12, 1885, and was a ranch hand for the firm of Lodge & Beaumont until September, 1893. That was the date of his first service at the State Peni- tentiary. Then and for some years later Conley & McTague were the contract wardens who had charge of the penitentiary. Mr. Hirst began as a guard, and in 1909, while away from Montana visiting in New York City, he was appointed deputy warden, the office he fills today. He is a member of the In- ternational Society for Identification, and is the of- ficial in charge of the finger prints and Bertillon measurements of the State Penitentiary.

Mr. Hirst served two terms representing the First Ward in the City Council of Deer Lodge. He is a republican, has served as vestryman in the Episco- pal Church, and is very prominent in the Knights of Pythias, being past chancellor commander of Valley Lodge No. 6, for the past twenty-one years has been keeper of records and seals, and has the Veteran's Jewel for a continuous membership of twenty-five years in good standing. He is also a member of the Grand Lodge of the Knights of Pythias in Montana.

Mr. Hirst, who with his family resides at 706 Fourth Street, married at Deer Lodge in 1896 Miss Emma Larsen. They have two sons: Edward Lodge, born June 12, 1897, is in the junior class of the Montana State University at Missoula, and dur- ing the summer of 1919 was with a surveying party under the government on the Blackfeet National Forest Reserve; George Niel, the younger son, was born October 29, 1900, was in the Powell County High School into his senior year, and in 1918 joined the Students' Army Training Corps at Missoula. He is now employed by the O'Neill Garage at Deer Lodge.

Mr. Hirst's paternal grandfather was a native of Holland, moving from that country to Yorkshire, England. For a number of years he was employed in woolen mills and was also an English soldier in the Crimean war.

Mrs. Hirst is a daughter of Niel Larsen, a native of Denmark, one of the earliest settlers in Montana. coming to the territory in the early sixties. He was a pioneer.at Deer Lodge, buying a farm a mile and a half east of that town. He died soon after set- tling there. The old homestead is now owned by his heirs, and his daughter Miss Mary lives on the farm and manages it. Mrs. Hirst is a member of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneers of Montana. Her two sisters, Mary and Annie, both came to Montana prior to 1866 and are therefore members of the Pioneers of Montana Society. Mrs. Hirst was born at Council Bluffs, Iowa, while her parents were visiting in the east, and only for that incident does not possess the same qualifications as a pioneer as her sisters. Her sister Annie lives at Deer Lodge, widow of M. J. Padden, who was a conductor for the Milwaukee Railroad.

JAMES CRAIG, M. D. Doctor Craig had practiced medicine and surgery nearly forty years before he re- tired from active service in 1911. He was the third physician to locate at Columbus, came to Montana nearly thirty years ago, and has been one of the

HISTORY OF MONTANA

men who has conferred dignity upon the medical profession in Montana.

He comes of an old family of the State of Maine and was born at Dixmont in Penobscot County April 28, 1850. His great-grandfather emigrated from Scot- land and was a colonial settler on the Kennebec River in Maine. His father, James S. Craig, was born in Maine in 1806, spent his life there as a farmer, and died at Dixmont in 1854. His wife was Margaret L. Tasker, who was born in Maine in I&II and died at Dixmont in the spring of 1861. Doctor Craig was therefore a small boy when his parents died. He was the youngest of their chil- Albert, who served the last year of the Civil war and then reenlisted in the regular army and died in 1867 at Brownsville, Texas; Margaret, who died at dren, those older than himself being: Sanford, a farmer, who died at Dixmont; Mary, who died at Dixmont; Benjamin, who spent his life as a farmer at Dixmont; Wilford, who was also a lifelong Dixmont in 1916, the wife of Nathan White, a farmer still living at Dixmont.

Doctor Craig attended public school at Dixmont, also the Dummer Preparatory School in the parish of Byfield, Massachusetts, and in 1872 entered the Maine Medical School at Brunswick, the medical de- partment of Bowdoin College. He received his de- gree Doctor of Medicine in 1876, and during the next fifteen years was busily engaged in a general prac- tice at Unity in Waldo County in his native state.

Doctor Craig came to Montana in April, 1891. The following eight years he lived at White Sul- phur Springs, and in December, 1898, located at Columbus as the third physician in the town. He has served as health officer of Stillwater County and the City of Columbus, and while at White Sulphur Springs was county physician of Meagher County. He has been mayor of Columbus one term, during 1910-19II, and though retired from his profession he employed his professional services as a patriotic duty during the World war, serving as examining physician of the local exemption board.

Doctor Craig owns a modern home in Columbus, a ranch of 280 acres, operated by a tenant, located a mile north of Columbus, and is secretary of the Columbus Irrigation District. He is an independent republican in politics. He is past master of Still- water Lodge No. 62, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, a member of Billings Chapter No. 6, Royal Arch Masons, of Aldemar Commandery No. 5, Knight Templars, at Billings, and of Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena. He is also past grand of Castle Mountain Lodge No. 16, of the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, at White Sulphur Springs and a present member of Yellowstone Lodge No. 85, at Columbus, and a former member of the encampment.

To the enviable position he enjoys Mrs. Craig has contributed through her various activities and benev- olent character. Doctor Craig married at China, Maine, in 1885, Lizzie S. Gould. Her father was related to the same Gould family that produced the great financier Jay Gould. She is also directly descended from one of three Chase brothers who came from England and were colonial settlers in the State of Maine. Her father, John Gould, was born at Sandwich, New Hampshire, in 1815 and spent many years of his active career as a farmer at China, Maine, where he died in 1889. He was a republican and was a very influential member of the Friends Church. He married Mary T. Jones, who was born at Unity, Maine, in 1829, and spent her last years in Montana, passing away at Columbus in 1912. Mrs. Craig was the third of three children. Her brother, Charles E., died at China, Maine, at

the age of twenty-two months, and her sister, Ella M., died at China at the age of twenty-one. Mrs. Craig was educated in the public schools of China, Maine, attended an academy there, and a boarding school at Vassalboro, Maine, also the Preparatory School of Colby College at Waterville, Maine. Be- fore her marriage she taught eleven years in her home state, and four years after her marriage was identified with the schools of White Sulphur Springs, Montana. She is an active member of the Friends Church. She is also past matron of Martha Chapter No. 11 of the Eastern Star at White Sulphur Springs, and a member of Treasure State Lodge No. 85 of the Rebekahs.

EDGAR W. METTLER. In a conspicuous place on the roll of Fergus County's successful members of the legal profession is found the name of Edgar W. Mettler, an excellent type of the alert, pro- gressive and public-spirited citizen whose record is an indication that success is ambition's answer. During the period of his prominent connection with cases of important legal jurisprudence he has be- come more or less a familiar figure in the courts of the county, and especially in his home commu- nity of Lewistown, and no lawyer of the city has a better record for high and straightforward pro- fessional conduct or for success earned with honor and without animosity.

Mr. Mettler was born on his father's farm in Ogle County, Illinois, April 15, 1876, a son of Wil- liam J. and Selina H. (Roberts) Mettler. His father, born in New York State, died when seventy- nine years of age; and his mother, a native of Con- necticut, reached the age of seventy-seven years. They were the parents of two children: Minnie B., the wife of O. N. Phelps, and Edgar W. The Mettler family were pioneers of Illinois, and Wil- liam J. Mettler was a mere child when he accom- panied his parents from New York State to Winne- bago County, in that community the family settling on United States Government land near what is now the thriving City of Rockford. There William J. Mettler grew to manhood, working on the home- stead and securing his education in the public schools and subsequently moved to Ogle County, Illinois, where he passed the remainder of his life as a farmer and stockraiser. He took a prominent part in democratic politics during his day, and for several terms was a member of the board of com- missioners of Ogle County.

Edgar W. Mettler attended the public schools of Ogle County and in his youth assisted his father in the work of the home farm. It was not his in- tention, however, to lead an agricultural life, for he had become imbued with a desire for a career in the law, and, as he had not the means where- with to pursue his studies, at the age of eighteen years he left the parental roof and secured em- ployment in the Chicago general offices of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway. Later he was employed by the First National Bank of Engle- wood at Chicago, and with the money earned in these positions paid his way through a course in Power & Orr's Business College and the Valparaiso (Indiana) University. Continuing to work at what- ever employment of an honorable character pre- sented itself, he managed to put himself through the law department of the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated with his cherished degree in 1903. At this time Mr. Mettler's funds . were exhausted completely. Nearly every young lawyer must go through a probationary period while he is awaiting the business that will give his start in professional life, but Mr. Mettler was com-

HISTORY OF MONTANA

pelled to do something to pay for his living. Mak- ing his way to Chicago, after much anxious search- ing he came to an agreement with a firm to look after some of its legal business at Houston, Texas, to which city the young lawyer accordingly made his way. He had been admitted to the Michigan bar in March, 1903 and in the same year received permission to practice in Texas, where he remained for about two years. His business there satis- factorily concluded, January 3, 1905, he came to Helena, Montana, where he passed the examina- tion for entrance to practice and was accepted. Subsequently he came to Lewistown, where he soon became associated in practice with H. Leonard DeKalb, under the firm name of DeKalb & Mettler, an association which continued until August, 1911. Mr. Mettler then practiced alone until 1915, when he formed a partnership with Jack Briscoe, as Mettler & Briscoe, but this was terminated in No- vember, 1918, and Mr. Mettler has since practiced alone. He maintains offices in the Empire Bank Building, and his practice is large and important and constantly growing. He is a member of the county and state associations of his profession, in the ranks of which he is regarded as a skilled and thoroughly informed lawyer, and one who respects the ethics of the calling. He has served as police judge of Lewistown for a number of years, an office in which he has ever administered justice in an impartial manner according to the legal status of each case. Fraternally he is affiliated with Lewis- . town Lodge No. 456, Benevolent and Protective Or- der of Elks, and Lewistown Lodge No. 3, Knights of Pythias. He exercises his right of franchise as a democrat.

Judge Mettler was married December 31, 1905, to Miss Faith Oldes, the sixth child in a family of six daughters and two sons born to B. C. and Editha (Hoagland) Oldes, the latter of whom died when she was forty years of age. B. C. Oldes, who was a native of Iowa, and died in September, 1917, at the age of seventy-four years, fought as a sol- dier during the Civil war. He was a member of the Sixteenth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and was under the command of General Sherman when captured by the enemy and confined in the notori -. ous Andersonville Prison, where he was held for nine months. Later, his military career finished, he took up farming in Missouri and then returned to Iowa, but finally settled in Montana as a pioneer farmer of Meagher (now Fergus) County, where he spent the final days of his life. Mr. and Mrs. Mettler are the parents of two children, namely : Frank and Ruth R., both attending school.

- EMIL HEIKKILA has had a varied experience along the northern boundary line of the United States since leaving school at Duluth, has been identified with several mercantile corporations in Montana and is now general manager of the Roberts Ele- vator Company at Roberts.

His people were pioneers in the great mining dis- trict of Northern Michigan and Northern Minne- sota, and he was born at Calumet in the former state November 16, 1881. His father, Andrew Heik- kila, was born in Finland in 1834. He became a miner at Calumet, Michigan, and was later one of the pioneers who opened the great iron range in Northern Minnesota. While opening up that range he had his home chiefly at Tower, Minnesota. In 1899 he moved to Cromwell, Minnesota, where for the past twenty years he has been identified with farming and is now retired with a comfort- able competence. He is a republican, a member of the Lutheran Church and a stanch American

citizen. He married Lizzie Mattonan, who was born in Finland in 1836, in which country they were married. Their children are four in num- ber, Emil being the youngest. The oldest, Matt, is a farmer at Cromwell, Minnesota; Hannah, living at Spokane, Washington, is the widow of Gust Sundman, who was a diamond driller in the mines; Andrew, whose present residence is in Alaska.

Emil Heikkila attended public school at Tower and Duluth, Minnesota, graduating from the school in the latter city in 1896. The following two years he spent as an employe of the Northern Pacific and the Duluth & Iron Range Railways. The next ten years he engaged in merchandising in Black Hills, South Dakota. Mr. Heikkila located at Red Lodge, Montana, in 1912, and the following six years he was manager of the Kaleva Cooperative Mercantile Association. In January, 1918, he bought an interest in the Roberts Elevator Company at Roberts, and has since been its general manager and a director of the company. In the meantime he has also acquired some' extensive and valuable ranching interests, owning a property of 160 acres in Butte County, South Dakota, and a ranch of 420 acres in Carleton County, Minnesota. His home in Roberts is a modern and complete residence.

Mr. Heikkila is a republican, is affiliated with Star in the West Lodge No. 40, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Carbon Chapter No. 20, Royal Arch Masons, Bear Tooth Lodge No. 534 of the Elks, all at Red Lodge, and Gold Run Camp No. 1217 of the Modern Woodmen of America at Lead, South Dakota.

He married at Lead, South Dakota, in 1905, Miss Ellen Silfven, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Sep- panen) Silfven. Her parents live at Sturgis, South Dakota, her father being a retired farmer and was one of the pioneers of that state. Mr. and Mrs. Heikkila have two children, Alfred, born February 27, 1906, and Ercel Dean, born January 7, 19II.

LAVERNE K. PENCE when a young man familiarized himself with all details of the automobile, both from the business and the technical and mechanical standpoint. Some years ago he located at Bozeman, and in a comparatively short time has built up the leading garage and one of the chief automobile sales agencies in Southern Montana. The business is known as L. K. Pence & Co.

Mr. Pence was born at Fairfield, Washington, . September 14, 1892. His father, Charles F. Pence, was born in Illinois in 1869, was reared in his native state, and when a young man joined an emigrant train going overland to California. From California he moved to Washington, where he married, and he spent some time as a prospector in the Coenr D'Alene country. He also lived at Fairfield, and is now a resident of Spokane, where for several years he was an attorney and a real estate broker, but is now retired. He is a democrat in politics. Charles F. Pence married Mary Beatrice Koontz, who was born in Missouri in 1872. Laverne K. is the oldest of their children. Grace is the wife . of Leslie Francis, a wholesale produce merchant at Spokane: Irlene Winifred is a student in the University of Washington at Seattle. Roy is in the Spokane High School and Carl is a pupil in the grade schools of Spokane.

Laverne K. Pence received his early education at Spokane, attended high school there, and at the age of eighteen left his studies to become a mechanic for F. A. Williams, the Ford agent at Spokane. For several years he had no other enthusiasm than the automobile, and he was soon pronounced an expert ,in the business. In August, 1916, he was

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 8

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