Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 83

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 83

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He married at Billings in May, 1917, Miss Ida May Ehrenreich. Her parents Mr. and Mrs. John Ehrenreich are residents of Albany, Oregon, on a farm. Mrs. Ray is a graduate of the Oregon State Normal College.

L. B. BANKS has been a resident of Montana nearly twenty years, and for a large part of that time has been associated with the business interests originally established by the late Senator J. B. Annin at Columbus. He is a Columbus merchant, and is also vice president of the Stockmen's National Bank in that city.

Mr. Banks was born at New Berlin, New York, January 26, 1872. He is of English ancestry, his people having been identified with the colonial set- tlement of Connecticut. His father L. B. Banks, Sr., was born in Connecticut in 1830, and spent practic- ally all his mature years at New Berlin, New York, where he was a farmer. He died at New Berlin in 1900. He was a republican and a member of the Episcopal Church. His wife, Polly Lottridge, is still living at New Berlin, where she was born more than three quarters of a century ago, in 1842. L. B. Banks was the third of their four children. C. L. Banks is a hotel proprietor and farmer at New Berlin; Nellie died at the age of twenty-four; and Belle is the wife of L. C. Van Wagner, physician and surgeon at New Berlin.

L. B. Banks attended public school in his native town and lived on his father's farm until he was fifteen years old. He was a farmer in the New York community where he was born and reared until he came to Livingston, Montana, in 1900. During the next twenty-two months he was em- ployed in a local store and then became associated with the late J. B. Annin in a mercantile business at Cokedale. When the mines were closed at Coke- dale he removed to Columbus in 1903. Senator An- nin had established a store at Columbus in 1892, and for the past fifteen years Mr. Banks has been its manager and he and the Annin estate own the entire business. It is one of the leading department stores in the Upper Yellowstone Valley.

Mr. Banks also owns a ranch on the Stillwater

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River, having 150 acres of irrigated land. He is a republican and a member of the Stillwater Club. Mr. Banks has never married.

F. E. RUNNER, a prominent rancher and banker at Absarokee, is an old time Montanan, having come here nearly forty years ago. His chief business has been cattle and sheep, and he has been one of the leading figures in that industry in the Yellowstone Valley.

Mr. Runner was born in Hancock County, Illinois, August 7, 1858. His ancestors some generations ago came out of Germany and settled in Pennsyl- vania, where his grandfather, Alexander Runner, spent all his life. Alexander Runner, father of the Absarokee banker, was born in Ohio in 1830. He grew up and married at Mount Vernon in that state, and then removed to Hancock County, Illinois. He was a lawyer by profession, but in 1862 he removed to Keokuk, Iowa, retired from his profession and devoted the rest of his life to farming in Lee County, that state. He died at Keokuk in 1897. He was a democrat in politics and a member of the Masonic fraternity. Alexander Runner mar- ried Miss Elizabeth Alling, who was born in Ohio in 1834 and died at Keokuk in the same year as her husband, in 1897. She was the mother of three children: Emma, the oldest, died in Colorado at the age of thirty-five, the wife of Mr. Cole. The two sons are Milton H. and F. E. Runner, the former also a rancher at Absarokee.

F. E. Runner attended rural schools in Lee County, Iowa, and was four years old when his parents moved to that county. He lived on his father's farm to the age of eighteen and in 1876 began his career of western experience and adven- ture. From 1876 to 1880 he was a miner in the Black Hills of North Dakota. He came to Miles City, Montana, in 1880 to carry out a contract for building a portion of the Northern Pacific Rail- road between Miles City and Rosebud. He was en- gaged in that contract for a year and a half and after that followed different occupations. In 1901 he bought the pioneer store of Absarokee, which had been founded by Mr. Simonson. This business grew and prospered under his supervision until it became the largest store in that part of the state. Mr. Runner sold out in 1909. In the meantime he had become engaged in ranching as a sheep and cat- tle man, and he still owns 1900 acres in the vicinity of Absarokee. His home is a quarter of a mile from town.

For the past two years Mr. Runner has been president of the Stillwater National Bank of Absa- rokee. This bank was established in 1909 as a private bank by O. H. Hovda. In 1915 it was re- organized as the Stillwater Valley State Bank and in 1917 took out a national charter. Besides Mr. Run- ner as president H. N. Howland is vice president and A. W. DeGroot is cashier. The bank has earned the solid support of the community it serves and is capitalized at $25,000 and has surplus and profits of $10,000.

Mr. Runner married at Big Timber, Montana, in 1899, Miss Ida M. Kelley, a native of Minnesota. They have one son, Edward Gillette, born March 22, IQII, now attending the public schools of Absa- rokee.

M. W. PENWELL. For over a half century the name of Penwell has been well and favorahly known in Montana. It is a familiar name also in the Middle West and even in New England, for to that section came the earliest Penwells from Eng-

land. John Penwell was a handsome Welsh jeweler called to exercise his craft by an English baron. He promptly fell in love with his employer's red haired daughter and was sent out of the country by her irate father. Landing in Philadelphia about 1730, he met every boat for seven years, when his sweetheart finally, having escaped her watchful parents, arrived and they were married. To this union four sons were born, Solomon, John, David and Samuel. Solomon when grown returned to England and no more was heard of him. John died a bachelor. David had seven sons, John, David, Joseph, Samuel, Isaac, Reuben and Henry; of these John married Esther Hyde, and they had four sons, George, Reuben, John Nelson and David, the latter being, it is believed, the father of M. W. Penwell. There was also a Penwell among the passengers on the Mayflower, Grandmother Penwell being a descendant of Admiral Jonathan Carver of the Mayflower fleet. Interesting as is this fact to con- sider, it is still more interesting to follow the ca- reer of the Penwell who came pioneering to Mon- tana, an adventurous youth of twenty-three years, and to find him today numbered with the represen- tative ranchmen of this great state.

M. W. Penwell was born near Bentonville in Fayette County, Indiana, September 24, 1840. His parents were David H. and Samantha (Carver) Penwell, the former of whom was born in Indi- ana, in' 1809, and died at Shelbyville, Illinois, in 1866. The latter was born in Steuben County, New York, in 1811, and died at Eureka, Kansas in 1895. They were the parents of the following children: Louisa and Marcellus both of whom are deceased; Oscar E., who owns a ranch situated fifteen miles south of Helena, Montana, resides at Los Angeles, California; M. W., whose home address is Bel- grade, Montana; Jonathan, who is a farmer and stockman near Eureka, Kansas; George, who is also interested in farming and stockraising near Eureka; Susan, who is the widow of William Ward, for- merly a farmer near McAlester, Oklahoma; and Esther, who is the wife of Ervin Homerighouse, a jeweler, of Shelbyville, Illinois. In 1848 the father of the above family removed to Wabash County, Indiana, where he engaged in farming until 1856, when he went to Missouri, but spent only one summer there, returning then to Illinois, and his death occurred at Shelbyville. In addition to farm- ing he followed the carpenter trade. He. was never undulv active in politics but had united with the republican party on its formation.

M. W. Penwell remained at home on his father's farm until twenty-one years old, in the meanwhile securing a fair amount of educational training in the Shelbyville schools, then bought a threshing machine and operated it until 1863. It was in that year that he came to Montana, and after a visit of several days at Bannock went on to Virginia City and tried mining for a year. He found him- self then in a position to invest in land, and his first move in this direction was the pre-empting of 160 acres on the present site of Belgrade. This was the nucleus of his great fortune in land, the beginning of his acquisition of thousands of acres in the Mountain State. He still owns the valu- ahle 160 acres. situated four miles northeast of Belgrade, that he subsequently homesteaded, which is a part of his ranch of 030 acres there. Addi- tionally he owns 1.030 acres in the Horseshoe Bend in Broadwater County. 480 acres located fifteen miles from Rosebud, and additionally has 5,000 acres in the northern part of Rosebud County.

The accumulation of this great amount of land and its profitable use in diversified farming and

MI Demwill

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stockraising has necessarily engaged the close and careful attention of Mr. Penwell for many years. Great as have been his responsibilities in this di- rection, they have not precluded activity as a pub- lic-spirited citizen ever ready to be useful to his state and community. He has been a generous con- tributor to many important progressive movements here, and as a member of the State Legislature, to which he was elected in 1918, on the republican ticket, he is serving his constituents faithfully and honestly.

At . Shelbyville, Illinois, in 1867, Mr. Penwell was united in marriage to Miss Mary Anna Biggs, a daughter of Robert and Martha Biggs, both of whom are deceased. The father of Mrs. Pen- well was born in Kentucky and moved from there to Illinois, where he was a farmer. Eight chil- dren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Penwell, as follows: Florence, who was educated at the Mon- tana State College, resides at home; Park, who is a graduate of the Montana State College, Boze- man, is a prosperous farmer near Forsythe in Rose- bud County; Guy, who lives at Moscow, Idaho, is connected with the Combined Harvester Com- pany, and is a graduate of the Montana State Col- lege and was also a student in the Montana Wesley- an University at Helena; Grace, who is a graduate of the Montana State College at Bozeman, is the wife of William Cochran, a hardware merchant at Lewistown, Montana; Della who is a graduate of the Montana State College, is the wife of Preston Gallaher, who is in business at Belgrade; Clyde, who was graduated from the department of electrical engineering at the Montana State College, is an electrician in the power plant at Great Falls, Mon- tana, having subsequently been graduated from Cornell College, Ithaca, New York; Jean, who at- tended the Montana State College, owns a home- stead in Garfield County, Montana; and Carrie, who is a graduate of the Montana State College, resides with her parents at Belgrade. A family of such educational attainment necessarily is influential in social life, and the Penwell home is one of great hospitality.

On April 25, 1917, this worthy couple celebrated their golden wedding, which was an important so- cial event of the district.

H. N. HOWLAND came to Montana seventeen years ago, and has been active in business both at Billings and Absarokee, where he became pro- prietor of the only hardware business and is also vice president of the Stillwater Valley National Bank.

Mr. Howland was born at Farwell in Isabella County, Michigan, July 25, 1882. His grandfather was Albert Howland, who was born at London, England, in 1815, and for a number of years was superintendent and owned an interest in a chalk mine in England. He also served his time in the regular British army. He brought his family to the United States in 1875, and devoted the rest of his years to farming and stock raising in Isa- bella County, Michigan. He died there in 1904. James W. Howland, father of the Absarokee busi- ness man, was born at Gravesend, a suburb of London, in 1850 and came to the United States in 1871, at the age of twenty-one. . For several years he was an employe of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway in Ohio, and in 1880 he moved to Farwell, Michigan, and developed a farm in that new locality. He continued farming until he re- tired in 1905, and has since lived at Pomona, Cali- fornia. He is a republican. As a youth he served in the British army. He married Alice Ames,

who was born in Ohio in 1854 and died at Farwell, Michigan, in 1900. H. N. Howland is the oldest of their four children. Carlessa is the wife of Art O'Donald, living on a ranch near Billings; Clifford, a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, enlisted in 1917 in the heavy artillery, was sent overseas, and was in the service until mustered out in 1919. The young- est of the family is Minnie, who lives with her father in California.

H. N. Howland attended public school near Far- well, Michigan, and also spent two years in the Normal School at Mount Pleasant in that state. . For about two years he was employed with a saw milling concern at Cadillac, Michigan, and left there in 1902 to come to Montana. The first five years in Montana Mr. Howland spent as ranch manager for I. D. O'Donnell, known as "Montana's best farmer." In 1907 he bought the Windsor livery barns at Billings, and was proprietor of that busi- ness four years, when he sold out and came to Absarokee in 1911. Here he established a hard- ware business, and it is not only the only hardware store in the town but is one of the leading supply houses for those materials in this part of the Yel- lowstone Valley. On May 19, 1919, he sold this place to M. L. Bevers. Mr. Howland owns town property, including a modern home, and, as noted above, is vice president of the Stillwater Valley National Bank. He is a republican and is affiliated with Billings Lodge No. 394 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

He married at Billings in 1906 Miss Ethel L. Lockwood, a daughter of Albert and Lavina (Lucas) Lockwood. Her father was a dairyman in Ontario, Canada, and both her parents are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Howland have two children: Arnold James, born March 29, 1909, and Robert L., born June 19, 1914.

HENRY A. TORGRIMSON has in a few brief years built up one of the largest general mercantile supply houses in Southern Montana, at Absarokee. He is a thorough business man, a citizen of sturdy mould and character, and is a fair representative of a family which has carved its name deeply in the annals of both Montana and Minnesota.

Mr. Torgrimson was born at Grand Meadow, Mower County, Minnesota, March 19, 1877. His father, E. Torgrimson, was born at Valders, Nor- way, February 23, 1841, and was reared and married there. He was liberally educated, and was a teacher in a Norwegian religious school for eighteen years. On April 9, 1869, he and his wife embarked for the United States, and he sought a home on the northwestern frontier at Fountain in Fillmore County, Minnesota. He taught school there. In 1881 he went to Spring Valley, Minnesota, and en- gaged in the general merchandise business, while in 1887 he moved to Grand Meadow and was a general merchant there until 1899. On selling out his store to his two sons, Torval and Gabriel, he returned to visit the scenes of his birthplace in Norway, and though nominally retired since then has been associated with various members of his family in important business affairs. In 1901 he went to Deering, McHenry County, North Dakota, and with his sons Casper and Emil and his daughter Emily homesteaded, each taking up 160 acres. Emil sold his homestead later to his father, who now owns 1,280 acres in that locality. He resides at Grand Meadow. He is a vigorous republican in political doctrine and a member of the Norwegian Lutheran Church and is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America. On March 24, 1869, E. Torgrimson married Olada Torkelson. The oc-

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casion of their golden wedding on March 24, 1919, was made a happy event when numerous children, grandchildren and friends gathered to congratulate this fine old couple, among the most esteemed resi- dents of Grand Meadow, Minnesota. The oldest child is Elisa, wife of Jacob Fjelde, a professor in Madison College at Madison, Minnesota. Mrs. Fjelde has for a number of years been noted for her literary skill, especially as a poet, and has written both in the Norwegian and English lan- guages. On the occasion of her parents' golden wed- ding she wrote a poem in their honor, and it was subsequently translated into English. It contains six stanzas, and while the translation does not re- veal all the rich flavor of the original, one of the stanzas should be quoted :

"Half a century you traveled together ; Not a rose-covered pathway you trod; What with sunshine and all kinds of weather Worry, work, cares, were blessings from God ! So from out of this blossom profusion Choose the sweetest, most beautiful one Symbolizing the happy conclusion

Of the fifty short years that are gone !"

The second of the family was Torval, who owned the general store established by his father and died at Grand Meadow, Minnesota, in 1907. Casper, also mentioned above, is in the real estate and loan business at Minot, North Dakota. Gabriel is now proprietor of the store at Grand Meadow. The next in age is Henry A. Emil is a farmer in Alberta, Canada, while Emily is still at home with her parents.

Henry A. Torgrimson attended public school at Grand Meadow but from the age of fourteen was acquiring business experience by work in store in the intervals of his schooling. He came to Ab- sarokee, Montana, in 1900, buying a squatter's right to 160 acres on the West Rosebud. He proved up and lived on the claim seven years and which he still owns. In Absarokee for four years, until 1911, he was employed by the Absarokee Trading Com- pany, and then rented a general store and under. his energetic direction this has become one of the leading mercantile enterprises of that community. Mr. Torgrimson bought the building on Main Street in May, 1919. It is a stone structure and in the rear is a large warehouse 30 by 60 feet, and he also has another warehouse in Columbus of similar construction and size. As a merchant Mr. Tor- grimson handles groceries, dry goods, shoes, cloth- ing, machinery of all kinds, hardware, farm imple- ments, glass ware, automobiles and accessories, coal, furniture, beds, springs and mattresses, threshing machines, and not only the quality and quantity of his merchandise appeal to an increasing patronage, but also the service that accompanies them. Mr. Torgrimson owns a half interest in another general store partnership, known as Torgrimson & Rash, at Reed Point.

His prosperity since coming to Montana is rep- resented by other interests, including 320 acres at Millstone in Musselshell County, 520 acres twelve miles south of Absarokee on the West Rosebud, and he is a director in the Stockmens National Bank at Columbus.

Probably the most complete and attractive modern home at Absarokee is the place Mr. Torgrimson has provided for his family. It has all the modern improvements, including running water, furnace heat, electric light, and the home is in the midst of eight acres of ground in the heart of town. Mr. Tor- grimson is a republican in politics and a member of the Lutheran Church.

On August 28, 1898, at Grand Meadow, Minnesota,

he married Miss Margaret Hovda, daughter of Herman O, and Betsey (Simonson) Hovda. While her father lives at Grand Meadow, he is also well known in Southern Montana, having supplied some of the financial power to Absarokee. Mrs. Tor- grimson's mother is deceased. They have two chil- dren: Elmen, born September 6, 1899, a graduate of a business college at Helena and actively as- sociated with his father in the business; and Byron, born March 8, 1904, a sophomore in the Absarokee High School.

L. H. VAUGHN is a pushing and successful young merchant at Columbus, is proprietor of a thoroughly equipped and stocked department store and is still under thirty years of age. However, he has been in the mercantile business practically since early boyhood.

He was born at Elkton, Missouri, August 18, 1891. The Vaughns are of Scotch-Irish stock and were early settlers in Kentucky, where his grand- father, John Vaughn, was born. John Vaughn when a boy went to Southern Missouri, but was of a family inclined to allegiance with the Union and enlisted in the Civil war in the Union army. He contracted pneumonia and died in Hickory County, Missouri, while the war was in progress.

W. H. Vaughn, father of the Columbus merchant, was born in Missouri in 1862 and spent all his life as a farmer in Hickory County. He now lives at Flemington, Missouri. He is a republican and an active member of the Christian Church. W. H. Vaughn married Kitty Williams, who was born in Hickory County in 1866. Altha, the oldest of their children, is the wife of James Robbins, a farmer in Polk County, Missouri; Fred is in the produce business at Buffalo, Missouri; L. H. Vaughn is the third of five children; Carlos is connected with the June McCracken department store at Living- ston, Montana; while Tine is a farmer in Hickory County.

L. H. Vaughn attended rural schools in Hickory County, also Weaubleau College one term, and the Southwestern Baptist College at Bolivar, Missouri, one year. During 1909-10 he was a student in the Central Business College at Sedalia. Meanwhile he had acquired considerable experience in the mer- cantile business as a clerk. His first employment was in a store at Ellston, two miles from his home, and he walked back and forth every day to his work. His wages were $12.50 a month. Mr. Vaughn came West in the spring of 1910, first visiting in Colorado Springs, then spending six months with the Blackwell-Weiland Company, book and stationery merchants at Oklahoma City, and following that for a year and a half was employed by J. H. Mc- Caslin, a merchant at Flemington, Missouri. He bought a store at Rogersville, Missouri, but sold out after six months and then came to Livingston, Montana, and on September 1, 1914, began work for June McCracken in his department store. At the end of nine months he had achieved a partner- ship and still associated with Mr. McCracken opened a department store at Columbus. He has since been its manager and in March, 1919, bought the McCracken interest.

Mr. Vaughn is a republican, a member of the Christian Church, .and is affiliated with the Still- water Club. He married at Springfield, Missouri, in 1916 Miss Blair Cox, who was born at Hermi- tage, Missouri, and was educated in the high school at Bois D'Arc. They have one daughter, Kathryn Blair, born January 8, 1919.

REV. FREDERICK DUNSTAN LUCAS took up his work as a Catholic missionary in Montana in 1912, and

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since 1917 has been pastor of St. Mary's Church at Columbus and has supervision of several out- lying missions in the Yellowstone Valley.

Father F. Lucas is an Englishman by birth. He was born at Birmingham January 10, 1872. His father, John Lucas, was born at Brighton, England, in 1845, and spent his active life at Birmingham and Coventry, dying in the latter place in 1897. For many years he was engaged in bicycle manu- facture. He was liberal in politics. His wife was Miss Eliza Harris, who was born in South Wales in 1847 and died at Coventry in 1897. Their family consisted of six children: Arthur, a retired mer- chant at Coventry, England; Walter, who lives in London; Frederick Dunstan; Samuel, a physician and surgeon at Coventry; Alice, wife of Mr. Petch, who is in the bicycle business at Coventry; and William John, a veterinary surgeon at Coventry.

Frederick Dunstan Lucas had a splendid prepara- tion for his career in some of the best schools in England and on the continent. He received his primary education in private schools at Birmingham and for two years was a student in the Brothers School at Malines, Belgium. He had a three years preparatory course in St. Edmund's College at Hitchin, England, and in 1902 came to the United States and entered the Fathers of St. Edmund's Seminary at Swanton, Vermont. He was diligently engaged in his philosophical and theological studies for seven years and was ordained a priest in 1909. The following two years he taught history and religion in St. Michael's College at Winooski, Ver- mont. Father Lucas came to Montana in 1912 and for fifteen months was chaplain of Ursuline Acad- emy at Great Falls. He was chaplain of the Cheyenne Mission St. Labres, and on returning to' Great Falls was made assistant at St. Anne's Cath- edral. He remained there three years and in 1917 came to his present work as pastor of St. Mary's Church at Columbus. His mission charges are at Big Timber, Absarokee, Reed Point, Melville and Greycliff. The church edifice at Columbus was built about 1912, and the parsonage was erected in 1917, the same year that he became pastor.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 83

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