Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 82

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 82

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He married at Hastings, Nebraska, in 1913, Miss Genevieve L. Simmons, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Simmons, who reside at Cherokee, Iowa. Her father is a farmer. Doctor and Mrs. Morgan have one daughter, Edna.

WALTER L. HURD. As homesteader, rancher, editor, legislator and business man Walter LeRoy Hurd has become widely known outside his home community of Columbus, and is in fact one of Montana's most progressive and liberal minded citi- zens.

He represents a long line of sturdy American ancestors. The Hurd family was introduced to the American colonies from England by three brothers who settled in Massachusetts. One of these brothers was named Timothy Hurd. A cur- rent tradition in agricultural history is that Timothy Hurd introduced the grass seed to the colonies that has always been known as "Timothy" and is one of the most popular and widely used pasture and hay grasses. The great-grandfather of Walter Le- Roy Hurd was an Episcopal minister in New York State. He was noted not only for his ministerial calling but also for his powerful physique. One of his sons, Curtis Hurd, afterward became at- torney general of the State of New York. Elisha H. Hurd, grandfather of Walter L., was born in New York State in 1814, and lived the life of a farmer, partly in New York and partly in Iowa. He died at Williams, Iowa, in 1889. As a young man he had served in the New York State Militia. He married Fannie DeKay, who was born in New Jersey in 1816 and died at Austin, Minnesota, in 1907, when past ninety years of age.

Reuben J. Hurd, father of the Columbus business man, was born near Franklinville, New York, in 1843, and grew up in Winnishiek County, Iowa. Since the age of twenty he has lived in Hamilton County Iowa, and is one of the few pioneers still left in that community. While his main business has been farming and stock raising he has acquired other interests, helped organize the First National Bank of Williams and was its president and is still a director, is an extensive land owner, and is honored throughout Hamilton County not only for his success but for the probity of his character. Always averse to politics, voting merely as a dem- ocrat, he has, nevertheless, served as a member of the town council and the school board at Wil- liams. Reuben J. Hurd married Winifred J. Crane. She was born in Fayette County, Iowa, in 1857, and they were married in Hamilton County. Their family of children are: Lulu B., wife of Robert Lynch, a farmer and stock buyer at Blairsburg, Iowa; Walter LeRoy; Ralph R., who is a surveyor and civil engineer and lives on a ranch near Wil- liams, Iowa; Gladys, wife of Ivan Smith, a farmer near Williams; Stanton F., who has a farm near Alden, Iowa; and Howard H., who trained in an army camp enlisted in February, 1918, and was sent overseas April 4, 1918, serving as a non-commis-

sioned officer with the third division of regular troops and after the signing of the armistice was sent with the Army of Occupation to Germany.

Walter L. Hurd was educated in the public schools of Williams, Iowa, graduating from high school in 1904. For one year he attended the academy at Grinnell, Iowa, and then took the regular college course of the Iowa College at Grinnell, graduating with the degree Ph. B. in 1909. The following year he spent in the real estate business at Williams and in Webster City, Iowa, and in the fall of 1910 identified himself with Columbus, Montana. He homesteaded 160 acres and still owns that, which is a part of his rather extensive landed posses- sions. He has 1,280 acres of land, one section being located nine miles north of Columbus and the other in Eastern Montana.

In December, 1914, Mr. Hurd bought the Still- water County Democrat and was its editor for 21/2 years. Early in the war he was made secretary and chief clerk of the local exemption board of Stillwater County, and at the sacrifice of many other private interests he devoted his time to the duties of office and other war work until the signing of the armistice. In April, 1919, he engaged in the insurance business at Columbus.

He had previously served as a justice of the peace, and was elected a representative to the Leg- islature from Stillwater County in the fall of 1916. He served in the regular Fifteenth Session and the extra session of February, 1918. He was chairman of the printing committee and a member of the committees on labor, townships and counties, cor- porations, mines and mining. An important bill of which he was author and which he introduced while chairman of the printing committee was the bill fixing the maximum rate for county printing, generally regarded as a wise measure of economy. He also took a great deal of interest in all agri- cultural legislation while he was in the House. Mr. Hurd is a democrat and a member of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce.

June 29, 1916, at Williams, Iowa, he married Miss Daisy Gibbon, daughter of Robert E. and Emily Gibbon. Her parents reside at Williams, where her father is a mail carrier. Mrs. Hurd is a graduate of the Williams High School and finished her education in Ellsworth College at Iowa Falls. Mr. and Mrs. Hurd are the parents of one child, Walter L., born July 18, 1919.

HENRY I. GRANT came to Montana thirty-five years ago, and at one time owned some of the large herds of sheep grazing in the Yellowstone Valley. He is still a prominent rancher, but his interests for many years have been centered at Columbus, where he is a merchant and is also presi- dent of the Stockmen's National Bank.

Mr. Grant has lived in America since he was ten years of age. He was born near Christiana, Norway, August 7, 1865. His father, Iver Grant, who was born near the capital city of Norway in 1824, is still living at the advanced age of ninety- five, at Sioux City, Iowa. He was a Norwegian farmer and also served his time in the Norwegian army. In 1869 he brought his family to America and settled at LeMars, Iowa, where he followed the carpenter's trade. About 1885 he moved to Sioux City and continued his business as a car- penter and contractor until he retired through the infirmities of years. He is a republican and for many years has been an active supporter of the Lutheran Church. His wife was Bertha Berg, who was born near Christiana in 1832 and died at Sioux City, Iowa, in 1914, at the age of eighty-two. They

Ha& Grant

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have seven children: Paul, an architect at Sioux City; Ella, wife of H. Vigen, owner of a dray and transfer line at Sioux City; Ole, a clothing merchant at St. Louis, Missouri; Mary, wife of H. H. Stone, a property owner at Sioux City; Henry I .; Christine, wife of O. Berg, a clothier at Sioux City; and Bertha, who is department manager for a large dry goods store in Sioux City.

Henry I. Grant attended public school at LeMars, lowa, and left high school in 1883. The following two years he was bookkeeper in F. B. Durstin's store, and in the spring of 1885 came to Melville, Montana. One year he spent as clerk in the store of H. O. Hickox, then spent a short time at Big Timber, and from that embarked in the sheep buși- ness in the Lake Basin country. Later he moved his headquarters to the head of Grove Creek in what was then Yellowstone County, now Stillwater County, becoming a resident of this county in 1891. He ran as high as 10,000 head of sheep on the range and leased lands, but sold his sheep in i894 and then bought an interest in the Columbus Mer- cantile Company. He was with that well known concern until 1913, when the partners divided their interest, Mr. Grant taking over the grocery, hard- ware and implement departments. That was the beginning of his present independent mercantile activities, and he is today proprietor of the leading store of the kind in Columbus. He also owns the building in which his business is conducted on Pike Avenue, has a modern home and another dwelling in Columbus and his ranching interests comprise two large tracts of land on the Stillwater River. One ranch consists of 810 acres northeast of Columbus.

Mr. Grant helped organize the Stockmen's Na- tional Bank of Columbus in 1918, and has since been its president. He served on the City Council five years, was postmaster under President Mc- Kinley and has been a member of the school board. He is also president of the Miller-Grant Mercan- tile Company of Springtime, Montana. Mr. Grant is a member of the Commercial Club and a repub- lican in politics.

In 1897, at Columbus, he married Cecilia Lavelle, daughter of Patrick and Margaret (O'Brien) Lavelle. Her father was one of the earliest settlers of Co- lumbus and the family is one of the best known in that section of the Yellowstone Valley. Mrs. Grant is a graduate of the Columbus High School. To their marriage were born six children: Helen, who died at the age of nine years; Paul, who was born in 1900 and is now attending the School of Mines at Golden, Colorado; Mildred, born in 1905; Cecilia, born in 1907; and Nellie, born in 1909, all students in the Columbus schools, while the young- est is Henry I., Jr., born in 1915.

GEORGE R. GREEN, of Columbus, is one of the men fully competent by experience to tell the story of the development of the great Northwest during the past forty years. In fact his range of experi- ence covers many states and territories. As a youth he was a trail driver in the southwestern country, and in Oregon, Idaho and Montana has packed goods over the trails, has worked at me- chanical trades, has been a homesteader and rancher, and in the latter capacity has been identified with the country around Columbus for over twenty years. Mr. Green was born at Mason, Michigan, April 20, 1854. Some of his qualities are probably due to his inheritance of Scotch, French, Welsh and Yankee blood. His grandfather, Adolphus Green, might be described as having been a full-blooded Yankee. He was born in Maine in 1809, was a

pioneer in the State of Michigan, and from his early home in the woods of that state he had to pack his supplies through the timber for 120 miles. He was a farmer and died near Howell, Michigan, in 1894. Milo Green, father of George R., was born in Michigan in 1830, when Michigan was still a territory, and was also a farmer. During the Civil war he became a soldier in Company K of the Tenth Michigan Cavalry, and died of typhoid pneumonia while still in the service, in 1863. He was a republican in politics. Milo Green married Lucretia Woods, who was born in the territory of Michigan in 1830 and is still living at the advanced age of eighty-nine at Greenville, Michigan. George R. was the oldest of her children by her first hus- band. Charles is a builder and carpenter at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mrs. Emma Payne died at Green- ville, where her husband is still living, and is fore- man in a factory. Elmer was a mill worker and mechanic and died at Grand Rapids in middle age. Mrs. Milo Green married for her second husband Henry Jennings, who had also a record as a Civil war soldier and by occupation was a farmer. For a number of years they lived in Hamilton County, Nebraska. Their children were: Mrs. Nettie Peck, wife of the foreman of a casket factory at Indian- apolis, Indiana; Mrs. Eva Crosby, whose husband is a machine foreman at Greenville, Michigan; and Mrs. Cora Jebb, wife of a prominent manufacturer of Columbus, Ohio.

George R. Green attended public school at Dexter, Michigan, and was nine years old when his father died. After that he began working on farms and was paid the nominal wage of from $5.00 to $10.00 a month for his labor. In 1871, at the age of seventeen, he went with his stepfather and mother to Nebraska and spent two years on their farm in that state. That was the beginning of his work and experience. In 1873 he was at San Antonio and Austin, Texas, and for three seasons helped drive cattle over the great southwestern trails to Wichita, Kansas. In 1876 he returned to Nebraska, married at Central City and was a farmer in that locality until 1879.

Just forty years ago Mr. Green came out to the northwestern country, spending a short time in Eugene City, Oregon, and then going to McCam- mon, Idaho, and for three years worked on rail- roads in Idaho and Utah. He went back to Oregon with teams over the trails and from 1891 to 1896 was engaged in contract mason work. Mr. Green came to Columbus, Montana, in 1896, and for sev- eral years operated a saw mill in conjunction with farming. Gradually he has concentrated his entire interests upon farming, and his farm is located four miles north of Merrill. He resides at Co- lumbus, where he owns a home. Mr. Green is a republican in politics.

In 1876, at Central City, Nebraska, he married Miss Rachel Scott, a daughter of J. M. and Ar- villa (Jennings) Scott, the latter now deceased. Her father is a retired resident of Columbus, Mon- tana. Mr. and Mrs. Green have five children : Elvaretta, wife of C. W. Doyle, a machinist at Columbus; Charles E., in the public garage busi- ness at Columbus; John E., a farmer and stock raiser near Fishtail; Lloyd S., who owns 680 acres of ranch land on Berry Creek, four miles north of Merrill; and Roy, who lives at home and as- sists his father.

WILLIAM B. RICHARDSON. A ranchman on Pow- der River adjacent to Powderville for more than two decades, William B. Richardson came into Montana as a youth of nineteen years, July 15,

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1898, bringing with him unbounded spirit and de- termination and the experience of a Missouri farmer. Under the guidance of his brother "Dick" Richard- son, one of the first settlers of this region, who induced him to stop in this locality, he bridged safely the first few years, and has since developed into one of the prominent and prosperous men of his section.

Mr. Richardson was born in Hancock County, Illinois, August 6, 1878, a son of George Richard- son, and was five years of age when he removed with his parents to Knox County, Missouri, where he received his education in the country schools. There he remained, assisting his father, until his nineteenth year, when his brother "Dick" forwarded him transportation and he came to Montana, as noted, and became a hand on his brother's ranch. He was soon attracted to sheep shearing and be- came an adept with the clippers which removed the fleece, and followed the business in season until the spring of 1905. The price of shearing was 7 cents a head and board, and by an expert 100 head could be turned off daily./ In 1899, in company with Loren Gillman and Kenneth Mckenzie, he took a bunch of horses into Dakota and sold them out for the Mckenzies, and the boyish trio disposed of them in three months and returned with a new experi- ence and with some credit as horse salesmen. To keep the horse band together it was necessary for the boys to stand night guard over the 165 head, and three "broke" saddle horses were all that were in the bunch. These and other experiences came to Mr. Richardson while he remained a wage worker by the month.

In the spring of 1905 Will Richardson had ac- cumulated a bunch of horses and joined Peter C. Jensen in a sheep enterprise, taking a bunch on the shares of Hunter & Anderson. They located them on Timber and Crow Creeks and divided up after three years, Mr. Richardson coming to Powder River with 2,200 head. He held them here and was in the sheep business until the fall of 1916, and his profits from them laid the foundation for his future and larger enterprise. Before quitting sheep, some- thing he did because of poor and cramped range facilities, he engaged in the cattle business. He started this in 1901 with a bunch of natives, or mixed bloods, branded with the "Lazy H. E." After a time he sold this brand along with his ranch, but when he bought the ranch back a few years later he adopted the brand "A Lazy R," and this he is running still. He became a shipper when in the wool business, and makes annual trips to either the Omaha or Chicago markets with his cattle.

Mr. Richardson was in this country before the Government surveyed the lands, and located his homestead in 1900. He took a squatter's right, and this subsequently became his homestead, and Mrs. Richardson entered a desert claim nearby. Both subsequently purchased adjacent tracts and now have title from the Government to more than 700 acres, to which may be added three sections of railroad lands purchased, this forming Mr. Richardson's ranch, save for a school section under lease. His ranch is all fenced and he is farming enough land to grow feed and alfalfa for his stock. Mr. Rich- ardson's first home of his own was a log house of several rooms, still being used as a residence, and he bached it in one room until he married and took Mr. Richardson there. His modern residence suc- ceeded the log cabin in 1915, this being an eight- room bungalow overlooking the river valley to the north.

Mr. Richardson was married at Miles City, Mon- tana, October 13, 1908, to Miss Clara E. Walters,

who was born in Custer County, Montana, February 7, 1886, a daughter of Nicholas Walters, and grew up in the home of a sister. Her parents returned to their native Switzerland in her childhood and when grown she visited them, and the parents sub- sequently returned to Montana, where Mr. Walters died, although his widow still survives. Their Swiss home was at Mooreland, where Mr. Walters was a small farmer. Their children were: Reno; Leopold, a ranchman of Custer County; Sarah, the widow of Rudolph Sumers, a rancher of Tongue River; Fred, of Custer County; Mrs. Richardson; and Edith, the wife of Vernon Zinner, a Custer County ranchman. Mr. and Mrs. Richardson are the parents of two sons : George Walter and Claude Brainard.

In his political adherence Mr. Richardson is a republican in national affairs, and his first presiden- tial vote was cast in favor of the candidacy of Major Mckinley in 1900. In county elections he does not recognize party factions or lines, but votes for the man he deems best qualified for the office at stake.

WILLIAM L. KYLE, chairman of the Board of County Commissioners of Stillwater County, is emi- nently well qualified for the responsibilities indicated by his office. He knows Stillwater County from the standpoint of a homesteader and rancher, a merchant at Columbus, and the community of Co- lumbus has long recognized him as one of the most stalwart and effective workers for everything connected with the advancement and progress of that locality.

Mr. Kyle was born at Austin, Minnesota, Febru- ary 12, 1872, son of Joseph Kyle. His father was born in Ireland in 1817. On coming to the United States he located at Council Hill, Illinois, and when this country became involved in civil war he enlisted in an Illinois regiment of infantry and served 27/2 years as a Union soldier. He after- ward became a pioneer at Austin, Minnesota, where he conducted a meat market. He died there in 1876. In politics he was a republican and was a member of the Episcopal Church. Joseph Kyle married Mary Ann Alderson, who was born in 1844, of English descent, and died at Austin, Min- nesota, February 20, 1873. Their children were: Ida M., living in Seattle, Washington, widow of James R. Harvey, who was a railroad man; Fred- erick B., a farmer at Austin, Minnesota; Ella, wife of Osborne Nutt, employed in the offices of the Coleman Docks; Joseph, a railroad employe who died at Spokane, Washington; Hester A., wife of William Fitzpatrick, a plumber at Memphis, Ten- nessee; and William L., who was left an orphan when he was four years of age.

He spent his early boyhood at Austin, attended public schools there, but at the age of thirteen went to work as a farm hand in Mower County, Minnesota. He lived in Mower County until he came to Montana in 1892. At that early day in the Yellowstone Valley Mr. Kyle took up a home- stead near Columbus, on the Yellowstone River. He lived on his quarter section seven years, and still owns it as a highly developed farm. This homestead is two miles from Columbus on the Flaherty Flats. On leaving the ranch Mr. Kyle spent six years with the Columbus Mercantile Com- pany, and then engaged in the grocery business. His partner the first year was J. L. Montgomery, at the end of which time Mr. Mandeville bought Mr. Montgomery's interest and the business is now the partnership of Kyle & Mandeville. They handle both groceries and hardware and have one of the leading stores of its kind in Stillwater County.

Mr. Kyle is also owner of a good home in Co-

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lumbus. Anything that concerns the welfare of that city is a matter of concern to him personally. He has been a leader in all civic and material im- provements and takes much pride in the progress of the last twenty years. He is president of the Shane Ditch Company and has occupied that position for several years. He was elected a commissioner in the fall of 1918 for a six year term and was elected chairman of the board. He also served four years on the City Council. Mr. Kyle is an ardent republican, and has always been identified with the policies and standards of the Grand Old Party. He is a past grand of Yellowstone Lodge No. 85 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a member of Columbus Camp No. 6408 of the Modern Wood- men of America, and belongs to the Stillwater Club. In 1894, at Austin, Minnesota, he married Miss M. Minerva Eddy, daughter of W. H. and Abigail Eddy. Her father was an early settler and farmer of Mower County, Minnesota, and is now retired, making his home with Mr. and Mrs. Kyle. Mr. and Mrs. Kyle have one daughter, Mary Abigail, born April 5, 1898. She is a graduate of the Columbus High School, spent one year in Bozeman College, and in 1918 attended Billings Business College.

JULIAN D. RAY, who came to Montana in the capacity of an educator and was formerly head of the public school system of Columbus, is by choice and diligent study a practical and scientific agricul- turist, and has developed one of the fine ranches of Stillwater County. He is also engaged in the real estate and insurance business at Columbus.

Mr. Ray was born at Hagarstown, Fayette County, Illinois, May 22, 1886. He is related to several prominent and old time Illinois families. The Rays originally came from Scotland and were colonial settlers in Pennsylvania. His grandfather, James Ray, was born in Pennsylvania in 1820, and was a pioneer Illinois farmer. When past forty years of age he volunteered with an Illinois regiment and served four years in the Union army. He died at Vera, Illinois, in 1865, just seven days after his re- turn from the war. J. D. Ray, father of Julian D. Ray, was born near Vandalia in Fayette County, Illinois, in 1859, and was a small boy when his sol- died father died. He is a miller by trade but since 1890 has been a farmer near Hagarstown. He has held local offices, being elected as a republican, is a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America. J. D. Ray married Josephine E. Hen- ninger, who was born in Fayette County, Illinois, in May, 1858. Julian is their only child. Josephine E. Henninger is a daughter of William Henninger, who was born in Virginia in 1817 and in 1835, at the age of eighteen, came to Fayette County, Illinois, where he was one of the early settlers. He acquired land, developed important interests as a stockman, and was a well known drover of cattle, horses and hogs at the St. Louis market. He died at Hagars- town, Illinois, in 1880. His wife was Mary I. Og- lesby. who was born in Kentucky in 1819 and died at Hagarstown in 1008. The Oglesbys are a dis- tinguished family of Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois and are also related to the Marmadukes. Both the Marmadukes and Oglesbys came from England in colonial times. Through this relationship Julian D. Ray is eligible to membership in the Sons of the American Revolution.

Julian D. Ray attended rural schools in his native Illinois County, and spent one year in the prepara- tory department and four years in regular college work at McKendree College at Lebanon, Illinois. He graduated A. B. in 1911. He was a member of the Platonian Literary Society, and the many promi-

nent graduates of old McKendree who were mem- bers of the same society have made it almost a na- tional institution. On leaving college Mr. Ray was for two years principal of the high school at Alta- mont, Illinois, and in 1913 came to Montana and took up his duties as superintendent of city schools at Columbus. He rendered a valuable service to the educational affairs of the town until 1917. He then spent a year proving up his homestead four miles northeast of Columbus, and has since operated a fine farm, at present owning 320 acres. For three sum- mers and one full year he has been a student in the agricultural school of the University of Illinois, and both in school and on his Montana ranch has been a close student of agricultural science.

. In February, 1918, Mr. Ray engaged in the real estate business at Columbus, where he resides in a modern home at the corner of B and Third streets. He also has the local agency for the Central Life Insurance Company at DesMoines. He is in part- nership with R. B. Kelley in the Columbus Land and Livestock Company, and the firm does a large busi- ness in city properties and ranches. Mr. Ray is a republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Stillwater Lodge No. 62, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Yellowstone Lodge No. 85, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Hagarstown, Illinois, Camp of the Modern Wood- men of America, and Billings Lodge No. 394 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is also secretary of the Columbus Commercial Club.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 82

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