Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 85

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 85

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Doctor Sligh attended the public schools of Grand

SamSligh

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Rapids, Michigan, and was graduated from its high school. In August, 1861, he enlisted in the First Michigan Engineers and served all through the Civil war, rising from private to be captain, and as such was mustered out in September, 1865, having served on the staff of General' Thomas as a non- commissioned officer and later as a commissioned one. He participated in the engagements at Green River, where General Zollicoffer was killed; the 100 Days Campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta; and that at Nashville, Tennessee. .

Following his discharge Doctor Sligh entered the Detroit Medical College, from which he was grad- uated in 1880 with the degree of Doctor of Medi- cine. Subsequently Doctor Sligh has done post- graduate work, during 1893 at the New York Post Graduate School, and in 1906 at the Chicago Post Graduate School. Until 1887 Doctor Sligh was en- gaged in a general practice at Grand Rapids, but in that year went west to Seattle, Washington, where he spent a short period, and then during the re- mainder of 1887 and 1888 was at Helena, Montana as surgeon of the Montana Central Railroad. From 1889 to 1896 he was surgeon of the Granite and Bimetallic mines in Granite County. In the fall of 1896 he came to Anaconda, being one of the pioneers in his profession in this city, and has since continued in a general practice. His offices are at No. 110 West Third Street. Like his father, he is a republican and was the first man to be elected to the Upper House of the State Assembly from Granite County, his election taking place in 1890. At present he is city health officer, and has been . county health officer, his efforts in behalf of his community resulting in a noticeable improvement in sanitary conditions and requirements. The Epis- copal Church holds his membership. He belongs to Oriental Lodge No. 240, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, of Detroit, Michigan, and to the Rotary Club. Professionally he maintains member- ship in the Deerlodge County Medical Society, the Montana State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. He owns his office, as well as his residence, the latter being at the same location as the former.

In 1867 Doctor Sligh was married at Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Miss Sara Hill, a daughter of Mrs. Sara Hill of Grand Rapids, Michigan, who is now deceased. Doctor Sligh has the following children : Lilla, who was graduated from the De- troit, Michigan, High, School, married A. B. Ken- nan, a government employe for many years, lives at Newport, Rhode Island, Bessie, who was also graduated from the Detroit High School, is the widow of Judge McIntyre, judge of the District Court of Helena, Montana, died in that city in 1917, and there Mrs. McIntyre still maintains her residence; Carrie, who was graduated from the same high school as her sisters, married George Sigler, a farmer, and they live at Florence, Arizona ; and Charles, who is in California. The fourth child, a daughter, Catherine, died at the age of twenty years.

Doctor Sligh has always been a splendid ex- ample of what physician ought to be, and has al- ways inspired confidence in a marked degree. Wherever he has been located he has had an im- mense practice, and at present he is really over- worked caring for those who look to him for as- sistance. In his official capacity Doctor Sligh has been productive of more practical good than any- one who has held these positions, and Anaconda and Deerlodge County owe him a debt not easily discharged. He is a ceaseless worker and a stimu- lus to those about him, and in addition to his ever

growing practice does a large amount of work for charity's sake alone. It is not an exaggeration to say that Doctor Sligh has done as much for medi- cine as any other man of his profession in Mon- tana, and beyond all this he is a man who draws other men to him and holds them in the closest bonds of friendship.

HAZEN M. PARKER. Some of the most capable business men of any community are those who have fitted themselves for professional careers. The long and arduous training for any of the learned callings and the experiences therein so develop and equip a man that he can readily turn to whatever branch of business activity appeals to him with a greater certainty of achieving a fair measure of success. This is illustrated in the career of Hazen M. Parker, who was formerly engaged in the prac- tice of law in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but is now in the loan and insurance business in Billings. Mr. Parker was born at Peacham, Vermont, March 26, 1855, a son of Dr. Luther F. and Louisa M. Parker, and a grandson of Isaac Parker.

The several branches of the Parker family were early established in America, the progenitors of the different branches, four brothers, coming from England and locating in Massachusetts within twen- ty years after the landing of the Mayflower. They soon began to migrate to different parts of New England, and are now scattered all over this coun- try and have everywhere become interwoven with the social fabric.

Early in the development of Vermont one of these emigrants settled in Cavendish, Vermont, and it was at that place that Isaac Parker was born on September 23, 1790. He was graduated from Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont, in 1815, having entered that college immediately after the War of 1812. All of his life thereafter he lived at Coventry, Vermont, and there died July 31, 1882. He was a proficient student of the Latin and Greek languages as well as of general edu- cational subjects, and, although his vocation was that of farming, he always took an active part in educational matters and was a man of great in- fluence in affairs of the state.

On December 24, 1818, he was married to Ara- bella Cobb, who was born June 24, 1795, and died at Coventry, November 14, 1872. Isaac Parker and his wife reared a large family.

Dr. Luther F. Parker, their second son, was born at Coventry, September 21, 1821, and died at Peacham, September 12, 1898, having been engaged in the practice of medicine at Peacham for more than forty years. Doctor Parker was a thorough- ly-equipped and successful physician. He spent two years at the University of Vermont at Bur- lington and then became a student in the medical department of Dartmouth College, from which he graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He was always a leader in social and political ac- tivities and in church and educational matters. His sympathies were always broad and intense and he was always fearless in attacking and exposing wrong wherever it appeared. For many years he was active trustee of the Caledonia County grammar school, commonly called "Peacham Academy," and was every year on the examining board. This school was one of the three schools established by the state prior to 1800, and is still in flourish- ing condition. It is to the influence of Doctor Parker that this school owes much of its efficiency. For several sessions he took a leading part in the Legislature of the state, as representative of his

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town. He was a consistent, but intrepid, member of the Congregational Church.

On June 6, 1850, Doctor Parker was married to Louisa Martin, who was born in Peacham in 1822, and who died in 1896. Their children who reached maturity were as follows: Jennie M., who married Edward C. Hardy, of Framingham, Massachusetts, engaged in mercantile business in Boston; Hazen M., whose name heads this review; Elizabeth A .. who is unmarried and lives on the old homestead in Peacham; Ellen L., who married Walter H. Bay- ley, a farmer in Peacham; and Alma A., who mar- ried Col. George Harvey, the owner and editor of the North American Review, and lives at Deal, New Jersey.

Hazen M. Parker is connected with some of the prominent people of Vermont. The eldest sister of his grandfather, Isaac Parker, named Hannah (Parker) Redfield, was the mother of Isaac F. Redfield, for many years chief justice of the Su- preme Court of Vermont, and the author of sev- eral legal treatises, and the mother of Timothy P. Redfield, for a long time one of the associate justices of the Supreme Court of Vermont. An- other sister of Isaac Parker, Grace (Parker) Proc- tor, was the mother of Redfield Proctor, who es- tablished the Vermont Marble Company, was gov- ernor of Vermont, secretary of war under Presi- dent Benjamin Harrison, and afterward United States senator from Vermont.

After attending the common schools of Peacham, Vermont, Hazen M. Parker prepared for college in Peacham Academy and entered Middlebury College and took the regular classical course and was graduated therefrom in 1880, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was one of the Phi Beta Kappa men of his class and a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. In 1880 he began the study of law in Montpelier, Vermont, and in the succeeding year went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and finished his legal course and was admitted to the bar in that city in April, 1883. Until the spring of 1905 Mr. Parker was successfully engaged in the gen- eral practice of law at Minneapolis, when he closed out his law business and began railroad construc- tion work with Winston Brothers Company of Minneapolis, extensive railroad contractors, and continued actively in railroad construction work till the fall of 1913, when he settled in Billings, sold his construction outfit and began the busi- ness he is now in. Much of his railroad work had been in Montana, and when Mr. Parker came to Billings and became acquainted with the city and the tributary country he thought he saw a good opening and began to establish himself in a loan and insurance line with offices in the Stapleton Block, where he still is located, and has built up valuable connections. However, he has not been able to forget his old habits and still does a limited amount of law work.

Mr. Parker lives in his home at 224 Avenue D, owns a small ranch east of town a few miles, de- voted mostly to stockraising.

Mr. Parker is a zealous student of economics and of social questions and takes a lively interest in civic matters, but is not a politician and is not bound by party ties. He is a democrat in the broad, but not party sense, and votes for principles and affili- ates with such political organizations and supports such men as he thinks most nearly represent such principles.

On December 6, 1882, Mr. Parker was married to Miss Julia T. Douglas, of Middlebury, Ver- inont. Mrs. Parker is a descendant of the famous "Black" Douglas of Scotland, on her maternal side,

and belongs to one of the best strains of New England stock. She was born in February, 1855, in Western Vermont, near the shore of Lake Cham- plain, and was reared mostly in Middlebury, amid the gorgeous sunsets of the Adirondacks.

Mr. and Mrs. Parker, have only one child, a son, Fletcher Douglas Parker, who was born in Minne- apolis, Minnesota, in July, 1888. He was educated in the graded and high schools of Minneapolis and of Proctor, Vermont, and in Williams Col- lege, from which he was graduated in I911 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He entered col- lege a stranger from the West, but was graduated as president of his class, a Gargoyle man and a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Having determined to enter the Christian ministry, he took his theological course at Hartford Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1915. Two months before his graduation he was called to the pastorate of the Trinitarian Congregational Church of New Bedford, Massachusetts, at a larger salary than any new graduate from that institution had received for forty years. The following Sep- tember he began his work with that church and continued as its pastor for 31/2 years. He soon became recognized as a leader in ministerial and civic affairs. During the European war he devoted much time to work for soldiers in camp and in the field. In the Autumn of 1918 he was called to become secretary and superintendent of Boston City Missions. By reason of this call he resigned his pastorate of New Bedford and on February 1, 1919, began his new work. In 1916 he was mar- ried to Katharine Ordway, of Winchester, Massa- chusetts, and has resided at Winchester since he left New Bedford.

It is an .interesting coincidence that in the year 1640 the immigrant Parker ancestor first appeared in American records in Woburn, Massachusetts, which included Winchester, and that in the same year the immigrant Douglas ancestor first appeared in American records in Boston, Massachusetts. Their descendant, Fletcher Douglas Parker, now lives where his Parker ancestor lived and his work is where his Douglas ancestor lived.

From this sketch it is seen that Mr. Hazen M. Parker is in a line of men who for several gen- erations have done and are doing real work in the world. They have done it unselfishly with no aim to amass wealth. His grandfather and his father met the questions and faced the issues of their day with intelligence and courage and with a view to social good. He believes that greater questions of social welfare and more momentous social issues are at stake now than they ever dreamed of and he is trying to meet these ques- tions and these issues with the same vigor and the same fidelity and with the same view to social justice that characterized them and has tried to pass on to his son the same determination.

An omission has been made in this sketch and the above only half tells the story. In the back- ground loom up the peers of all of these men, their wives and mothers. These women all came from the best type of New England families and exerted their full share of influence. If Doctor Parker inherited from his father, Isaac Parker, an ability and a fondness for study, he also in- herited from his mother, Arabella (Cobb) Parker, the physical vigor and many of the sturdy quali- ties which characterized him. If Hazen M. Parker inherited good qualities from the Parker side, he had equally good inheritances from the Martin side. His life was molded by one of the most competent and lovable mothers that ever breathed

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the Green Mountain air. If Fletcher Douglas Par- ker has in his makeup a composite of the qualities derived from his Parker, Martin and Cobb ances- try, he also has the resolute vigor and devotion of his Douglas and Potter maternal ancestry.

HARRY C. CARPENTER, of Billings, is manager of the Carpenter Paper Company of Montana, and son of one of the founders of that well known paper house, which was established at Omaha, February Ist, 1887, and is the medium through which much of the paper for printing and other purposes is distributed throughout the West.

Mr. Carpenter was born at Omaha, April 9, 1889. The Carpenters are of Scotch and French stock, have been in America since colonial times. His grandfather, Chester L. Carpenter, was born in Delaware County, New York, in 1816, was an early settler and farmer at Marengo, Illinois, and late in life retired and moved to Omaha, where he died in 1905. One of his sons, John C., now de- ceased, was a veteran of the Civil war.

J. Frank Carpenter, father of Harry C., was born at Marengo, Illinois, in 1860, grew up on a farm there, and on leaving the farm went to Chi- cago. He began his career in that city as a paper peddler and later became city salesman for one of the leading paper houses in Chicago. With a com- petent knowledge and experience of the paper business he went to Omaha in 1887 and with his brother, I. W. Carpenter, established the Carpenter Paper Company. During the past thirty-five years this has grown to be a great business, and branch houses have been established all over the Middle West from the Mexican to the Canadian borders and from Salt Lake City to Des Moines, Iowa. J. Frank Carpenter was secretary of the company and died at Omaha, Nebraska, in 1907. He was a republican, a member of the Baptist Church, and was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World. J. Frank Carpenter married Marion Avery, who was born in Marengo, Illinois, in 1862, and is still living at Omaha. She is the mother of four children: Gil- bert, treasurer and salesman at Omaha for the Carpenter Paper Company; Harry C., of Billings ; and Marion and Eleanor, both unmarried and liv- ing at home.

Harry C. Carpenter graduated from the Omaha High School in 1909, following which he com- pleted a liberal education with one year in the University of Wisconsin and two years in Cornell University at Ithaca, New York. On leaving col- lege he went to work for the Carpenter Paper Company at Omaha as sales clerk. He was rapidly promoted, first to stock clerk, then as assistant salesman, and in April, 1917, came to Billings as assistant manager. In November, 1918, he was made manager of the Billings branch. In this ·state the business is incorporated as the Carpenter Paper Company of Montana. The offices are in the Oliver Building at Billings, and from that office the business is directed over Northern Wyoming and those portions of Montana east of Bozeman, Helena and Great Falls. The company handles a complete line of print paper, also wrapping paper, and represents the manufacturers of wrapping sun- dries, such as wooden butter dishes, twine, toilet paper, congoleum, etc.

Mr. Carpenter is a republican, is subscription secretary of the Baptist Church at Billings, a mem- ber of the United Commercial Travelers, the Bill- ings Club, the Rotary Club and the Midland Club. He owns a modern home at 320 Clark Avenue.

He married Miss Elva Hammer at Harlan, Iowa, Vol. II-20

in 1915. Her parents are Mr. and Mrs. P. A. Ham- mer of Billings, her father being a real estate sales- man. Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter have two children: Naomi, born September 15, 1916, and Harry C., Jr., born October 25, 1918.

STEWART McCONOCHIE, who began the practice of law at Lewistown in 1912, is serving his second term as county attorney of Fergus County. He has made a splendid record both in office and as a private lawyer, and is looked upon as one of the younger men of exceptional attainments in the state.

He was born at Cambria in Columbia County, Wisconsin, February 29, 1880, a son of Robert N. and Annie J. (Rowe) McConochie. His father was a native of Wisconsin and his mother of Bowman- ville, Ontario, Canada. Robert N. McConochie was a Wisconsin farmer, and afterward became promi- nent in business affairs in Columbia County. serv- ing as president of the Portage Loan and Trust Company from its organization until his death. He also served one term in the Wisconsin Legis- lature and was chairman of the Board of County Supervisors. He was a republican, a Presbyterian and an Elk. He and his wife had two children, Stewart and Margaret.

Stewart McConochie had a liberal education. He prepared for college in Wayland Academy at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin with the class of 1906. While in University he was prominent in various student activities, being editor-in-chief of the Daily Cardinal, associate editor of the Badger, and was manager of the university basketball team and for his work in that department of athletics received the university letter. He was also a member of the Iron Cross, an honorary society, and the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

Mr. McConochie was admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1908, and for several years was engaged in practice at Madison, Wisconsin. He located at Lewistown, Montana, in 1910 and was in the real estate business until admitted to the bar in 1912, and has been engaged in the practice of law since May of that year. He was assistant county at- torney from 1912 to January 1, 1915. In 1916 he was elected to the full responsibilities of the office of county attorney. He took office January 1, 1917, and was re-elected for his second term in Novem- ber, 1918. Mr. McConochie is a democrat, and is affiliated with Lewistown Lodge No. 456, Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks, and with Lodge No. 1239 of the Loyal Order of Moose.

June 25, 1913, he married Hazel M. Kaull, who was born in Redfield, South Dakota. They have one daughter, Jean Marie.

CHARLES SPEAR. The acknowledged and recog- nized prestige attained by the leading men of large communities is chiefly due to that spirit of advance- ment which urges them onward and upward. The possession of this ambition to gain imposing pre- eminence is shared by all who attain to successful position, and even the humblest may develop into a man of high standing provided he possesses the ability to forge ahead. Many a life has been re- constructed from small beginnings, and few of the really able men of the country have been born with the proverbial "silver spoon" in their mouths. Of the leading citizens of Billings, one who has exem- plified in his career the rewards to be gained through properly directed ambition, and who has himself risen from obscurity, is Charles Spear, president of the American Bank and Trust Company, a lead-

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ing ranchman and a citizen who has been honored by election to positions of marked trust and re- sponsibility.

Mr. Spear was born on a farm in Atchison Coun- ty, Missouri, May 15, 1860, a son of Willis and Jane (Ferguson) Spear. His great-grandfather, David Spear, a soldier of the Continental line from Massachusetts during the Revolutionary war, spent the greater part of his life in that state, being engaged in farming, but later removed to Con- necticut, where he passed the remainder of his days in the pursuits of the soil. He married Mary Clark also born in Massachusetts, who was a de- scendant of Richard Clark, one of the passengers of the Mayflower. Of the children of David and Mary Spear, John Spear, the grandfather of Charles, was born in February, 1788, in Massachu- setts, and died in Nodaway County, Missouri, in October, 1886. He lived successively in Connecti- cut, New York, Ohio and Indiana, and removed finally to Missouri, in which state, as also in In- diana and Ohio, he was a pioneer farmer. He mar- ried Polly Osborne, who was born in Connecticut, daughter of Moses Osborne, a farmer who died in that state.

Willis Spear was born in 1824, in Western New York, and was a small boy when his parents re- moved to Ohio, the family settling near Ashtabula. He resided there until 1845, when he went to Iowa, then a territory, in 1846 moved on to New Orleans, Louisiana, and in 1847 joined the United States troops, with which he went to Mexico, subsequently serving throughout the Mexican war. He went to the City of Mexico with the victorious army, where he received his honorable discharge, having served as a scout from the time the troops left Vera Cruz. After the declaration of peace he re- mained in Mexico for one year, and in the spring of 1849 went to Texas, where he was residing when he learned of the discovery of gold in California. With about ninety other hardy and adventurous souls he went through Northern Mexico into Cali- fornia, where he was engaged in mining and other vocations until 1853, and then returned to near South Bend, Indiana. The call of the West sounded clear to him, however, and he soon again turned his face toward the setting sun, locating at Des Moines, Iowa, at that time only a small settlement surrounding the fort. After two years of farm- ing he went to the northwestern part of Missouri and engaged in farming until 1874, when he went to Wyoming and resided one year. In 1875 he came to Montana and lived at Phillipsburg and Drummond until 1883, when he went to near Sheri- dan, Wyoming. When he retired from active pur- suits he settled at Billings, in 1895, but soon re- turned to Sheridan, Wyoming, where his death oc- curred in 1912. He was a republican in his po- litical views. Mr. Spear was truly a product of his times, with the spirit of adventure and unrest which at all times led him into adventure and to the new places. His associates always found him a man of honor, who was self-reliant and forceful, will- ing to stand upon his own feet, and courageous in any undertaking in which he enlisted. He married Jane Ferguson, who was born in 1826 in Ohio, and died at Billings in 1905, and they became the par- ents of six children: Oceana, who died at Roches- ter, Minnesota, as the wife of M. L. Hoyt, formerly a resident of Billings but now of Big Horn, Wyo- ming, who is office manager for W. M. Spear and his associates in the cattle business; Mary, the wife of Paul McCormick, a retired pioneer, now a resi- dent of Billings, formerly a prominent cattle raiser, merchant and all-round business man: Charles ;

W. M., of Sheridan, Wyoming, who has large cat- tle interests; Emily, the wife of J. S. DeWitt, for- merly a blacksmith and jeweler and now a resi- dent of Long Beach, California; and William H., a leading stockman of Sheridan, Wyoming.

Charles Spear was educated in the public schools of Missouri and Montana and resided with his par- ents until he reached the age of twenty-one years. At that time he secured a position with the Paul McCormick Company at Junction, Montana, re- maining in the employ of that concern for 71/2 years, from October, 1882, until 1890. In the latter year he engaged in the grocery and hardware business at Billings, as Donavan & Spear, there being .but one other firm of the kind in the city at that time, that of Yegen Brothers. In 1900 he disposed of his interests in this business, and two years later became one of the organizers of the Billings State Bank, of which he was first cashier and later pres- ident. At the time of the consolidation of the three leading banks at Billings into the American Bank and Trust Company Mr. Spear became vice president of the new institution, and March 1, 1919, was elected president, a position which he still retains, and in which he is directing the policies of the bank in a capable, confident and conservative manner. Mr. Spear has various other interests and is president of the Billings Building and Loan Association. Since 1917 he has devoted a large share of his time to his 4,000-acre cattle ranch at Kane, Wyoming, where he runs 1,400 head of cat- tle, and in addition is the owner of another ranch of 160 acres in the Yellowstone Valley. In addi- tion to his own residence, at No. 1015 North Thir- tieth street, Mr. Spear owns considerable realty at Billings, including several valuable and desirable dwellings. His political belief makes him a repub- lican. He has always been a good and public- spirited citizen and has found time from his various business activities to serve his city as alderman for two terms and his county as a member of the board of commissioners . one term, and his public record is an excellent one. Fraternally Mr. Spear is affiliated with Ashlar Lodge No. 29, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Billings Chapter No. 6, Royal Arch Masons; Aldemar Commandery No. 9, Knights Templar; Algeria Temple, Ancient Ar- abic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of Helena, and Edna Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star. He also holds membership in the Billings Club and the Billings Midland Empire 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 85

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