Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 84

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 84

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Father Lucas is a member of Great Falls Council, Knights of Columbus, and is a third degree Knight.

THOMAS P. MCGRATH. It is not given to every- one to succeed in both business and politics, but Thomas P. McGrath is an exception and not only has attained to prosperity, but is making a fine record for himself as county commissioner of Deer- lodge County, and is recognized as one of the repre- sentative men of Anaconda. He was born in Hough- ton County, Michigan, September 14, 1874, a son of Thomas McGrath. The birth of Thomas Mc- Grath took place in County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1832, and his death occurred at Hancock, Michigan, in 1886. He came to the United States when not much more than a lad and located at Syracuse, New York, from whence, after his marriage, he moved to Houghton County, Michigan, being all his life a general workman. In politics he was a demo- crat, and in religious faith a Catholic. He mar- ried Margaret Murray, born in County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1833, who died at Anaconda, Montana, in October, 1911. Their children were as follows: Michael, who died at Anaconda, April 1, 1914, was a mechanic, and is survived by his widow and five children, who live at No. 609 West Park Avenue, Anaconda; Anna, who married Morgan Conway, a watchman · for the Anaconda Copper Mining Com- pany of Anaconda; John, who was a painter and decorator, died at Anaconda in July, 1915; Martin, who was a painter and decorator, died at Anaconda in July, 1903; Bridget, who is deceased, having

passed away at Anaconda in 1907, married Michael Cronnelly, who is now a miner of Butte, Montana ; and Thomas P., who was the youngest born.

When he was thirteen years of age Thomas P. McGrath left the schools of Houghton County, which until then he had been attending, and began working in the concentrators of the mills of his native county, so continuing for ten years. In 1897 he came to Anaconda to enter the employ of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, and spent two years in its concentrating department. He then estab- lished himself in a cafe and grocery business and conducted it until January 11, 1919, when he sold and since then has been devoting himself to his duties as county commissioner. Mr. McGrath was elected to this office in the fall of 1916, for a term of six years, and assumed its duties in January, 1917. He is a democrat and active in his party. The Roman Catholic Church has his membership, and he belongs to Anaconda Council No. 822, Knights of Columbus, of which he is a third degree knight; the Mount Haggen Court No. 629, Catholic Order of Foresters; Anaconda Lodge No. 557, Loyal Order of Moose; and Anaconda Aerie No. 18, Fra- ternal Order of Eagles. Mr. McGrath owns his modern residence at No. 700 West Third Street.

In 1904 Mr. McGrath was united in marriage with Miss Katherine Weiss, a daughter of Jacob and Ann Weiss, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. Weiss was a rancher in British Columbia. Mr. and Mrs. McGrath have two children, namely: Ger- trude, who was born December 25, 1905; and Wil- liam, who was born May 25, 1907. Since coming to Deerlodge County Mr. McGrath has taken a deep interest in the development of this section and as county commissioner has been more productive of good results than many others who have held official positions in this section, and the record he is now making may well lead to higher honors in the future.

E. B. FELLOWS, serving his second term as sheriff of Stillwater County, is an old time Montana resi- dent. He came out to this territory when a boy 'about thirteen years old, and has had a varied experience as cowboy, stage driver and homesteader, and has been a resident of the community around Columbus for a number of years.

He was born at Cornwallis Valley in Kings County, Nova Scotia, June 13, 1873. His father, William H. Fellows, was born in England and was a youth when he came with his parents to Nova Scotia. Grandfather Fellows died in, Kings County, Nova Scotia. William H. Fellows spent his active business life as a hardware merchant in Nova Scotia and died in Kings County in 1913. His wife, Augusta Fellows, was born in Nova Scotia and her mother was a member of the Randolph family of Virginia. She died at Cornwallis in 1875. She was the mother of four children, E. B. Fellows being the youngest. The second and third child, Fred and Nellie, died in childhood. Blanche is the wife of Egbert Ransome, who is connected with the Richardson Scale Works at Passaic, New Jersey.

E. B. Fellows attended public schools in his native town to the age of thirteen and then for a time drove a milk wagon on the streets of the City of Boston. Late in 1886 he arrived at Helena, Montana, and soon afterward went to Great Falls, where he entered the employ of one of the numer- ons cattle outfits operating the ranges, and as a cowboy he functioned usefully for several years. At the age of sixteen he was driver of a stage from Great Falls to Geyser. He also drove a delivery-

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wagon at Marysville one year and then returning to Helena was train checker for the Helena Cab Company eight years. For one year he was agent for a transportation company in the Yellowstone National Park.

Mr. Fellows came to Columbus in 1908 and took up a homestead of 320 acres above Absarokee on the Stillwater River. He proved up his land and subsequently sold it. For eight months he was also proprietor of the Corner Store at Absarokee, selling out at a good profit. Mr. Fellows has an irrigated ranch fourteen miles south of Columbus and is able to look back over his career in Mon- tana with the satisfaction of a man who has ma- terially prospered and who has gained the confi- dence and friendship of most of the best citizens.

He was elected sheriff of Stillwater County in 1916. In 1918 he made no contest for re-election but was chosen by the largest majority of any candidate on either ticket. He has had his home in Columbus since 1917. Mr. Fellows is a republican and a member of the Stillwater Club of Columbus. He is also affiliated with Yellowstone Lodge No. 85 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

He married Miss Helen Fairburn at Helena in 1908. She is a daughter of John and Hannah Fairburn, the latter now deceased. Her father is a farmer and bee man living at Whittemore, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Fellows have one son, Charles E., born March 6, 1914.

HON. JOSEPH BURT ANNIN. A career of general distinction, broad and beneficent service, leaving a lasting impress on the material and civic progress of Columbus and Stillwater County, was closed in the death of the late Joseph Burt Annin at his home in Columbus June 22, 1918.

The brief record of his life reveals an early struggle with poverty, a self reliant independence in achieving success in spite of difficulties, and a steady courage and public spirit in all the rapidly increasing variety and importance of later relation- ships.

He was born October 26, 1865, at Leroy, New York, and when he was five years old his parents' moved to New Jersey and settled on a fruit farm. His father died there in 1876, and Joseph and his mother then returned to New York State. He was paying his way and getting experience as clerk in a grocery store at the age of fourteen. In 1886 he came West, and lived at Evanston, Wyoming, until 1889, being manager of a mercantile store there for two years. He then became manager of the Thompson Brothers grocery store at Liv- ingston, Montana, and was a resident of this state nearly thirty years. Later he engaged in general merchandising at Cokedale, eight miles west of Livingston, and in 1892 came to Columbus, then known as Stillwater, where he established the firm of Annin & DeHart. This was later merged into the Columbus Mercantile Company, and he was manager of the company until it dissolved in 1915. From that time until the close of his life he was engaged in the dry goods business under the name Annin & Banks. He also acquired large land in- terests to the extent of about 800 acres, and he always kept in close touch with agricultural progress.

A good business man, he never had an ambition to become wealthy but to make his abilities serve the broader welfare of his people and state. Many services and achievements are properly credited to him, not least of which is the establishment and development of a first class public school system at Columbus. As an instance of his public spirit he mortgaged his stock of goods in order that the

first bridge might be built across the Yellowstone River. He was a real leader in public affairs, was elected county commissioner of Yellowstone County in 1896, his election as a republican being a striking evidence of his popularity in a campaign when republicans were in decided disfavor in Montana. He served as commissioner six years, was senator from Yellowstone County during the Tenth and Eleventh Sessions, beginning in 1906, and in 1912 was again chosen to the Legislature, this time in the House of Representatives. In 1914, after the creation of the new County of Stillwater, he was elected senator from Stillwater and, was active during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Sessions. He was a man of real power in the Legislature, and that power was due not only to his ability as a parliamentarian but to, the confidence felt in his judgment and his undoubted strength of character. He was also a candidate for lieutenant governor in the campaign of 1916.

By many years of consecutive effort he had ac- quired a modest competence, had served dutifully and well, and might properly have laid aside re- sponsibilities and enjoyed a leisure but for the destiny which made circumstances peculiarly trying for him as for the world. For several years he had endured the anxiety caused by the illness of his wife, and when America entered the war with Germany his two oldest sons entered the service and he felt it necessary to assume additional burdens during their absence. He was a leader in Red Cross and Liberty Loan campaigns and work and neglected no patriotic duty. It is a matter of gen- eral regret among his family and friends that he did not live a few months longer to see the triumph of the allied cause.

As was natural, many heartfelt tributes were paid his memory, and from the funeral address delivered by Reverend Mr. Pope of Billings it is appropriate to quote a few passages that will serve the better to describe his character and the quality of his citizenship.

"Mentally and physically Mr. Annin was a very active man. He read widely upon political and public questions. He was mentally alert. He could analyze a question quickly. His judgment was seldom far afield. He was courageous. He was no moral coward. And when once his mind was fully made up as to his duty he would not permit considerations of friendship to interfere with or to thwart his duty as a citizen. This was exemplified in his attitude upon the prohibition issue. He be- lieved the liquor traffic to be a menace to public welfare. With him it was not a matter of political advantage or of political loss. He had many per- sonal and political friends-and few men more highly valued friends than he-who were financially interested in the liquor business. The natural bent of his heart would make difficult indeed any public action of his that would injure the feelings or the business of his friends. But he had a duty to his own household, he felt a duty to this community, he was under obligations to the state. He could not and he would not permit the claims of personal, but selfish, friends to supercede the claims of society. No personal consideration, political or financial, could stand between him and the per- formance of his duty. His championship of the cause of prohibition is perhaps his greatest con- tribution to society. It was he who introduced the amendment to the constitution in the State Senate which resulted in a substitute measure being submitted to the people, and he fathered the com- prehensive measure providing for law enforcement, to go into effect January 1, 1919.

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"In business he displayed the same qualities of mind. and heart as in his private and public life. He was kind and generous and trusting. In the early days of the settlement of this country he trusted many settlers far beyond the point to which they were entitled, measured by the rules of good business practice. He did business enough to get rich. He did not get rich. He could not and would not oppress the poor. In many instances he doubt- less was imposed upon by unscrupulous persons. He apparently preferred to be embarrassed himself rather than embarrass the poor in their struggle for a foothold and a living. He did not die a rich man. But he took with him to the world beyond the only riches that will count in the kindom of our Lord-a clean heart and a wholesome life.

"He was a patriot. He was devoted to his coun- try and its flag, and to this he was willing to give to the last measure of devotion. His two oldest sons were in uniform and fought overseas in the service of humanity. He gave the last great measure of a father's heart to his country."

Mr. Annin married Janet H. Haldane at Helena. She and three sons survive. The oldest son, James T. Annin, was a lieutenant in the "American army ; Hawthorn Bert was a lieutenant; and Douglas was .sixteen years of age when his father died.

JAMES T. ANNIN, oldest son of the late Joseph B. Annin, whose career has been described above, was born at Livingston, Montana, April 10, 1890. He graduated from the Columbus High School in 1906 and received his Bachelor of Science degree from the Montana State College at Boze- man in 1911. The following two years he farmed near Columbus, and in 1912 bought the Columbus News and has since been busily engaged as a news- paper man. In September, 1917, the Columbus News was consolidated with the Columbus Demo- crat. The company is incorporated with H. H. Harrison, president, E. D. Shaffer, vice president, and James Annin, secretary and manager. The Columbus News was established in 1901 and the Columbus Democrat in 1913. The Columbus News is independent in politics, and is the leading paper in Stillwater County, being the official paper of the county and the city of Columbus. The com- pany has complete modern facilities and one of the best equipped plants in the Northwest.

James T. Annin is a republican in politics. He enlisted September 19, 1917, in a machine gun unit, was trained at Camp Lewis, Washington, and in June, 1918, was sent overseas, being first sergeant of Company D of the Three Hundred Forty-eighth Machine Gun Battalion. November 1, 1918, he was commissioned second lieutenant. He served in sev- eral phases of the great battle of Meuse-Argonne, and was honorably discharged April 1, 1919.

Hawthorn Burt Annin, brother of James T. Annin, was born at Cokedale, Montana, March 28, 1892. He graduated from the Columbus High School in 1907, and for 21/2 years was a student in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. After re- turning to Columbus he worked in his father's store for two years and in 1914 bought a garage, of which he is still proprietor and which is the leading establishment of its kind in Stillwater County. He has a large space devoted to the garage, and also a well equipped shop and handles all automobile accessories. He is agent for Ford cars and also for the Fordson tractors.

At Denver, Colorado, June 27, 1917, he married Miss Caryl Hodgson, a daughter of W. and Mina D. Hodgson, residents of Denver, where her father is a fireman in the Union Pacific shops. Mrs.

Annin is a graduate of the State Normal School in Colorado. They have one son, Joseph Burt, born July 3, 1918.

FRANK E. WRIGHT. A Montana pioneer, Frank E. Wright, who died May 25, 1917, was the type of citizen who both in early and later times had the character and ability to impress himself upon the life and affairs of his community and state. He was one of the foremost business men and citi- zens of Lewistown, where he had lived for many years.

He was born at Independence, Iowa, December 23, 1857, and a year or so later his parents returned to their old home at Penn Yan, New York. Frank Wright grew up in New York, had a substantial education, and was about twenty-three years of age when he came to Montana in the spring of 1880. He lived at Helena and Phillipsburg until early in 1882, when he engaged in the general mer- chandise business at Utica. In 1887 he assisted in organizing the Bank of Fergus County, of which he became assistant cashier, and on the death of J. H. Moe in 1894 became cashier. That office he held, and through it he rendered a signal serv- ice to the business community of Lewistown until 1906, when he retired from the active responsi- bilities of the bank, but remained as its vice presi- dent until 1916.

It was consistent with his ability as a leader of men that he should take an active part in Fergus County from the time of its organization. He was the first man honored with the office of county treasurer, and held that post for eight years. He was long a prominent republican. He was one of the organizers of the Judith Club at Lewistown, and for many years its secretary. One of his chief interests was Masonry. He took his first degrees in Lewistown Lodge No. 37, served it later as worshipful master, was a member and past high priest of Hiram Chapter No. 14, Royal Arch Ma- sons, a member and past eminent commander of Lewistown Commandery No. 14, Knights Templar, and belonged to Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine. The Knights Templar formed his escort of honor at his funeral.

In 1891 Mr. Wright married Miss Minnie Sloan, of Penn Yan, New York. He was survived by Mrs. Wright and also by two sisters and four brothers. Two of these brothers are Montana citi- zens, Edmund, of Lewistown, and Arthur, of Butte.

Many tributes were paid Frank E. Wright when he passed away. His old friend and pastor deliv- ered a touching address, in which he spoke as follows : "Mr. Wright came to Montana in the morning of his life, in the hours when youth and ambition urged on to accomplishment. He was here at the beginning of things and helped to lay the foundations of the county and city. He was for many, many years a prominent figure in the business life, and yet there were many men in the city and county who excelled him in business, but Frank Wright had one gift that none excelled him in. This was the gift of making friends. He journeyed through life binding men to him with bands of steel. In times of business distress he had met all who sought his counsel with a smile and had given to them of his strength, so that they went away refreshed and with new courage. And always he had that same smile while back of the smile was a warm, generous, cheerful and cour- ageous heart. What was the secret he had of mak- ing all men his friends? It was his deep interest in men, in their welfare, in their happiness. This interest was not assumed, but deep, genuine and

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sincere. The response to it was natural and irre- sistible.

"So he passed this morning in the noon of life and entered into the afternoon. So, when at last the eveningtime came, there was light. From all parts of the city and from the places outside the city people turned to the church where this service was being held until it was too small to accom- modate all of those who loved and mourned him. That was the light at eveningtime. To everyone who knew Frank Wright his passing meant that for such an individual life had lost something he held sweet, dear. This was love's tribute to the man who had passed on. It was the light that came at eveningtime."

CHARLES D. ALLEN, who has spent most of his life in the Northwest, has been a lumberman, has helped build railroads and operate them, has been a prospector and miner and in recent years has followed the settled occupation of farming and stock raising, and is especially prominent in pub- lic affairs as chairman of the Board of County Commissioners of Fergus County.

Mr. Allen was born in Jackson County, Michi- gan, September 28, 1867, a son of Elijah T. and Stella (Doolittle) Allen. His father settled in Michigan in the early '6os, and soon after going to that state enlisted in Company E of the Eighth Regiment, Michigan Infantry, serving three years. He shared in the brilliant record of that regi- ment, participating in thirty-nine battles and skirmishes. He was in one specially brilliant ex- ploit of the war. After the destruction of a por- tion of a Confederate fort volunteers were called for to storm and take possession of the enemy position. Four hundred and eighty men volunteered for the dangerous task, Elijah Allen among them, and out of this storming party only 220 came back alive, most of them badly wounded. Elijah Allen lost his left eye in that encounter. . After the war he engaged in farming in Jackson County, Michi- gan until 1881, when he moved to Aberdeen, South Dakota, and followed the business of carpenter, contractor and painter. He entered a tract of Government land and improved the homestead and remained there until his death in 1898, at the age of sixty-three. His wife was born in Michigan and died in 1893, at the age of forty-three years. Elijah Allen was a republican in politics, a mem- ber of the Grand Army of the Republic and affili- ated with the Masons and Odd Fellows.

Charles D. Allen is the first in a family of four children, two of whom are still living. He was about thirteen years old when his parents moved to South Dakota. In the meantime he had ac- quired his education in the public schools of Jack- son and Ingham counties, Michigan. When ten years of age he earned his first money by pulling weeds out of a cornfield at twenty-five cents a day. At the age of sixteen he left home and went to work for a railway contractor who was construct- ing a railway out of Aberdeen. Later he worked in the lumber woods of Minnesota on the head- waters of the Mississippi River, and in 1895 arrived in Helena, Montana. Here his services as a lum- berman were employed in cutting timber for the mines of the Lump Gulch Mine. In September, 1896, he went by train to Fort Benton and into the North Moccasin Mountains, where he pros- pected and mined for about two years. He lo- cated what was later known as the Kendall Mine, and sold his interest in that noted property to Henry Kendall for $500. He remained as man- ager of the mine for about 11/2 years, and when it

was sold to Finch & Campbell continued as super- intendent and manager until January 15, 1906. . This gave him an extensive experience in the mining industry. From Montana he went to Nevada soon after the great gold discoveries there, and with headquarters at Goldfield became a buyer and seller of mine leases. He was in that business for about two years, and then after six or seven months of travel in the Southwest and California returned to Lewistown and in October, 1909, engaged in farming. He owns 320 acres, and besides han- dling that property is interested in a number of business ventures at Lewistown and elsewhere.

Mr. Allen was elected a member of the County Board of Commissioners of Fergus County, in 1912, and has served as chairman of the board for six years. He is affiliated with Lewistown Lodge No. 37, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Hiram Chapter No. 14, Royal Arch Masons, Lewistown Commandery No. 15, Knights Templar and Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena He is also a member of Lewistown Lodge No. 456 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In poli- tics Mr. Allen is a democrat.

January 22, IgTo, he married Anna E. Robinson, a native of California. They have one daughter, Lavie Gertrude.

JAMES M. SLIGH, M. D. The modern physician and surgeon of necessity has to be a man of won- derful energy, broad views and fine initiative, com- bined with inexhaustible energy and capacity for work. His long training fits him to cope with many problems outside of his profession so that he is usually one of the leading factors in municipal de- velopment. Dr. 'James M. Sligh, of Anaconda, be- longs to this type of the profession; he is endowed with natural gifts which he has utilized to the best advantage in his calling. He was born at Rochester, New York, May 19, 1845, a son of James W. Sligh, and grandson of Robert Sligh. Robert Sligh was born in Ayton, River Tweed, Scotland, in 1785, and died at Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1857. About 1854 he came to the United States, and locating at Grand Rapids, Michigan, lived in retirement, al- though he had been a shipwright in his native land.

James W. Sligh was born on the River Tweed, Scotland, in 1820, and when only thirteen years of age came to the United States and settled at Roches- ter, New York, where in time he became a dealer in furnishing goods for men. In 1861 he enlisted for the Civil war in Company E, First Michigan Engineers, and was killed while in the service in 1863, near Tullahoma, Tennessee. He was an ad- vocate of the principles of the then newly organized republican party, and had long belonged to the Masonic fraternity. The maiden name of his wife was Elizabeth Wilson, and she was born in 1821 in County Armagh, Ireland. Her death occurred at Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1889. Her parents brought her to the United States when she was a child, settling at Rochester, New York. She and her husband had the following children: Doctor Sligh, who was the eldest; Elizabeth, who mar- ried M. L. Hawkins, a wholesale grocer of Grand Rapids, Michigan, who survives her, she having died in that city in 1896; Charles, who is a suc- cessful business man of Grand Rapids, owns and operates the largest bedroom furniture factory in the world; Julia, who resides at Grand Rapids, is the widow of Judge Follett, who died in Texas, and was probate judge and a man of ample means; and Robert, who was a deputy sheriff, died in Colo- rado in 1884.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 84

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