Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 92

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 1126

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1878 to 1885. In the latter year he became a resi- dent of Abilene, Kansas, where he followed farm- ing until his death. He was a man of fine personal character and enjoyed the esteem of all who knew him. He was a republican in his political faith and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a veteran of two wars, having served as a musician during the Mexican war, and as a member of Company A, Fourth Regiment of Min- nesota Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil war. In the latter great struggle he served for three. years and was with Grant in many of the notable battles of the war, including Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and the Siege of Vicksburg. He was an orderly for General Grant and later was with General Sherman on the historic march to the sea. He was twice injured during his serv- ice, receiving a bayonet wound in the right leg, and being injured in the spine while on a vessel on the Mississippi River, but recovered from both injuries. Mrs. Elizabeth (Gunderson) Working was born in 1824 in Christiania, Norway, and died at Logan, Kansas, in 1879. To this worthy couple were born the following children: J. B., who is now retired and lives at Palacios, Texas; Anna E. is the wife of F. E. Ross, a contractor and builder at Los Gatos, California; Lincoln is an attorney at Glasgow, Montana; D. W. is dean of the State Agricultural College at Tucson, Arizona; J. C. operates a ranch at Bakersfield, California ; Ida is the wife of Alexia Podchernikoff, an artist of San Francisco, California; S. S., the immediate subject of this review.

S. S. Working received his elementary education in the public schools of Logan and Abilene, Kan- sas, and also attended the Santa Rosa Business College, at Santa Rosa, California. In 1895 he came to Montana and clerked in a store at East Helena until 1901. He then became postmaster of East Helena and also engaged in the mercan- tile business there until 1911. He was successful and in 1912 he came to Wilsall and bought the leading mercantile business here. He foresaw a splendid future for this place and at once pro- ceeded to put the business on a permanent and solid basis by incorporating the Wilsall Mercan- tile Company in 1914. It is a typical department store and is accounted one of the largest and best in Southern Montana. The official personnel of the company is as follows : President, W. O. Hutch- inson; vice president, V. L. Sherwin; secretary- treasurer; S. S. Working, who is also general manager of the business. The store is located at the corner of Clark and Elliott streets and is well stocked with a well selected stock of goods in every department. Right prices, courteous treatment and quick service are elements which have attracted trade from a radius of twenty-five miles and the concern is considered one of the most important commercial enterprises in the locality.

Mr. Working is also financially interested in several other business propositions, including the Farmers State Bank of Wilsall, of which he is president, the Wilsall Townsite Company, of which he is secretary and treasurer, the Conrad Trust and Savings Bank of Helena, and owns a ranch of 320 acres about ten miles northeast of Wilsall, besides a fine modern residence in Wilsall. He is keenly alive to every movement that promises to promote the interests of the community in any way and is an ardent supporter of every worthy cause.

Politically Mr. Working is a stanch republican and has served on the school boards of East Helena and Wilsall. Fraternally he is a member of Liv- ingston Lodge No. 32, Ancient Free and Accepted

Masons; Livingston Chapter No. 7, Royal Arch Masons; St. Bernard Commandery No. 6, Knights Templar; Algeria Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; Livingston Lodge No. 246, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; and Wilsall Lodge No. 103, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is also a member of the Mon- tana State Bankers Association and the American Bankers Association.

In 1901, at East Helena, Mr. Working was mar- ried to Jean Drury, daughter of J. R. and Sarah (Cauby) Drury. The father, who during his ac- tive life was a farmer at Unionville, Missouri, is now deceased, and his widow resides at Union- ville. Mrs. Working, after completing her com- mon school training, was a student in the State Normal School at Twin Bridges, Montana. To Mr. and Mrs. Working have been born three chil- dren, namely: Paul D., born December 22, 1901; Webster B., born January 19, 1903; and Margaret, born July 22, 1908.

Mr. Working holds worthy prestige in business circles, being regarded as distinctively a man 'of affairs, and wields a potent influence among those with whom his lot has been cast, having won defi- nite success and shown what a man of right prin- ciples and determination can win by proper effort.

WILLIAM C. SPOTTSWOOD is vice president, treas- urer and manager of the Bonner Mercantile Com- pany, one of the largest and one of the oldest mer- cantile houses in Western Montana. Mr. Spotts- wood who has been actively identified with this con- cern at Deer Lodge for the past thirteen years, has a veteran's experience in business and for many years covered the northwestern territory as a travel- ing salesman for one of the largest dry goods houses in the West.

Mr. Spottswood was born at Lake City, Minnesota, May 31, 1859, and comes of a family identified with Minnesota in territorial times. The Spottswoods are a noted American Colonial family of Scotch de- scent. One of the first governors of the Virginia Colony was Governor Spottswood, a native of Scot- land, who was sent over by the Crown to govern in Virginia. One of his three sons moved north to Pennsylvania, and from the Pennsylvania branch is descended William C. Spottswood of Deer Lodge.

The latter's father was Charles C. Spottswood who was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1831. He grew up at Harrisburg and when he was a boy of about fourteen the science of telegraphy was first put into practical use. He learned the art and was the first telegraph operator for the Pennsylvania lines when that road was built west from Harris- burg. For some time he was an operator at Car- lisle, Pennsylvania. In 1856 he left the East and gave up railroading to identify himself with the Northwest frontier at Lake City, Minnesota. He served as steamboat agent there for the Diamond Joe Line and also practiced law, having been admit- ted to the bar at Lewistown, Pennsylvania. He served as county attorney for Wabasha County, Minnesota, and was honored with other local offices. In later years he moved to North Dakota and died at Minot, that state, in 1914. He was a democrat, and a very active member of the Episcopal Church. Charles C. Spottswood married Nancy P. Lilly, who was born at Lewistown, Pennsylvania, in 1834 and died at Minneapolis in 1888. Lizzie, the oldest of their children is a resident of Minneapolis, widow of Rev. James R. Rogers, who was a Presbyterian clergyman. Anna M. of Minot, North Dakota, is the widow of George R. Ransom, who was an attor- ney practicing for a number of years at Willmar,

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Minnesota. Dr. E. W. Spottswood is a graduate from the medical department of the University of Minnesota, and is practicing medicine and surgery at Missoula, Montana.

William C. Spottswood, the third in the family, was educated in the public schools of Lake City, graduated from high school in 1878, and then took the commercial course at the State University at Minneapolis, graduating in 1880. From that time forward, a period of forty years, his life has been one of extensive effort in commercial lines. He was in the retail hardware business until he sold his store at Willmar, Minnesota, in 1883. For ten years he was traveling representative for the wholesale hard- ware house of Janney, Brooks & Eastman, and then had charge of the sales department thirteen years.

Mr. Spottswood came to Deer Lodge in January, 1906,'and has since been the active manager of the Bonner Mercantile Company, succeeding in that position C. J. Joslyn who had been manager for twenty-one years. The Bonner Mercantile Company was established in 1865 in early territorial times as the E. L. Bonner Company. It was incorporated as the Bonner Mercantile Company in 1906. This is one of the leading general department stores of Western Montana, and maintains a splendid estab- lishment at Main Street corner of Missouri Avenue in Deer Lodge. Carrie S. Bonner of Missoula is president of the company, with Mr. Spottswood vice president, treasurer and manager, and Mrs. L. B. Spottswood of Missoula, secretary.

Mr. Spottswood is also vice president of the Deer Lodge Electric Light Company. He is a democratic voter, a vestryman in the Deer Lodge Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Lodge No. 14 of the Masons, Valley Chapter No. 4 Royal Arch Masons, Ivanhoe Commandery No. 16, Knights Templar, Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena and Valley Lodge No. 6 Knights of Pythias at Deer Lodge.

Mr. Spottswood resides at 410 Missouri Avenue. In 1896 at Minneapolis he married Grace M. Perkins, daughter of George D. and Mary I. (Moody) Perk- ins, both now deceased. Her father for many years was in the real estate and insurance business. He spent most of his life in the Northwest and as a young man was a neighbor and acquaintance of the late James J. Hill. Mrs. Spottswood is a graduate of the Ladies Seminary at Minneapolis. She is a niece of Senator Paris Gibson of Great Falls. Montana. Mr. and Mrs. Spottswood have two children : Donald P., born February 8, 1898, is a student of electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota of Minneapolis. Dorothy, born May 24. 1003, is a graduate of the Deer Lodge public schools, and is attending St. Mary's Academy at Faribault, Minnesota.

CHRISTIAN AND PETER YEGEN. To the City of Billings during the past thirty years a tremendous amount of personal ability, initiative and commer- cial resource has been supplied by Yegen Brothers. While they have sold ont or retired from manv of their former interests, these interests are still factors in the city's commercial life, and the pres- ent owners feel a sense of gratitude and debt to the enterprise of these pioneer business men.

Both brothers were born in Switzerland, sons of Conrad and Emerita (Prader) Yegen. Christian was born November 19, 1857. and Peter Angust 7, 1860. Christian Yegen was educated for a career as teacher, his father's profession, but determined to become a business man instead. In 1879 he located at Bismarck. North Dakota, joining his brother John and sister Dorothea. He learned the baking trade

under his brother, and the following year took a small farm. In 1881 he sent for his brother Peter, who had been farming in Switzerland. With the aid of their sister they continued on the farm an- other year and then invested their capital in a restaurant at Glendive and subsequently moved to Terry Station, where they conducted the section house, and with a fare consisting chiefly of buffalo meat, sauer kraut, cranberries and bread, supplied a very popular and profitable service. By 1882 they had accumulated a capital of $3,000, and this they then invested in a small bakery at Billings. The bakery prospered until the railroad moved on, and with other reverses the partners found themselves without capital or business and $400 in debt. They started all over again, baking bread in the morning and peddling the product in the afternoon. Inside of a year they bought a build- ing, and soon expanded their enterprise with a stock of groceries. Later they moved to a larger building on the site of the still later splendid estab- lishment of Yegen Brothers. In 1893 they installed a stock of hardware, and successive additions were made to their building equipment and their stock, including a dry goods department. In 1900 they erected a cold storage plant. In that year they also engaged in the banking business, opening the first savings bank at Billings, and afterward open- ing savings banks at Anaconda and Gardiner. About 1904 they bonght the wholesale grocery business of Millis & Company. The firm of Yegen Brothers was incorporated in 1902. The brothers had bought their sister's interest in 1895. Yegen Brothers also platted two additions to the City of Billings. While their mercantile interests are now in other hands they remain honored and influential factors in the business, civic and social community of a city which they have largely helped to make.

Christian Yegen was elected an alderman in 1892, later was a member of the Legislature, was chosen mayor of Billings in 1896, and in 1904 was sent to the State Senate. Peter Yegen has for a number of years served on the Billings Library Board.

August 27. 1893, Christian Yegen married Miss Laura B. Clark. They had five children, Laura, Dora, Mildred, Virginia and Christian. Peter Yegen married Miss Marguerite Trepp, a native of Switzer- land, in 1800. They have three children, David, Peter and Elizabeth.

JOHN H. HARVAT. In any group of Montanans where eligibility rests upon masterful ability to overcome circumstances and difficulties, great power in handling men and affairs, and the achievement of big things from small beginnings, the name of John H. Harvat has a generally acknowledged place.

His career has been frequently a theme for news- paper correspondence both in Montana and else- where. While he probably did not recognize it at the time, his early life was a part and parcel of that richly colored experience which modern readers are prone to regard as the romance of the great West.

Mr. Harvat was born at Iowa City, October 9, 1860. His father, Joseph Harvat, was born in Ans- tria in 1820, was reared and married in that coun- try, his wife being Mary Cerny. On coming to the United States he settled at Iowa City on a farm and spent the rest of his life there. He died in 1899. and his wife also passed away in Iowa City. Of their children Jacob J. was a meat man and died at Denver, Colorado, at the age of forty- one: Mary lives at Iowa City, widow of Rudolph

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Grissel, who was a merchant; Daniel died in Ger- many; Jennie lives at San Francisco, widow of John Vevovda, and is in the harness business; Joseph J. was in the meat business at Denver, where he died at the age of thirty-seven; John H. is the next in age; Annie is the wife of George Hol- bert, an attorney at New York City; Emma is unmarried and lives at Iowa City; Clara died in Oklahoma; and George is a traveling salesman with home in Texas.

John H. Harvat attended public schools at Iowa City, including high school, and in 1878 completed a course in the Iowa City Business College. Up to that time he had never been out of his home county. Going to Omaha, he found it a difficult matter to secure employment even at such wages as fifty cents a day. He worked in a grocery store for several months, and was then attracted to Colorado, partly being influenced by stories of the great wealth acquired in the mineral districts of that state. He worked in hotels, afterward for a few months had some experience working in the mines of Silver Cliff, and finally joined a brother at Georgetown, Colorado. The experiences in this stage of his life, while they must be briefly noted here, forms an important chapter in his life career. He was frequently discouraged, and prob- ably at that time Mr. Harvat became convinced that there was no such thing as "luck" in life for him and that success depended entirely upon a steady, consistent effort in a line of practical serv- ice to humanity. For two years he remained at Georgetown learning the meat market business. Then again he tried mining at Leadville, and while in that district made his first independent effort as a merchant in meats and groceries. He failed and was once more adrift without money, but still with some faith in himself.

It was at this time that he sought opportunity in Montana. He arrived at Bozeman over the stage route from Virginia City. He came to Mon- tana penniless, and for about two months worked on a ranch for his board, and then secured em- ployment with a meat market at Bozeman. Mr. Harvat in August, 1880, left Bozeman and went to Park City, now Livingston. At that time there were only three buildings in the town and he is now the oldest remaining male resident of Liv- ingston or the original Park City. For a time he was employed by a firm of contractors furnish- ing meat to the railway construction crews, and in 1882_engaged in the meat business with Tom McDonald as a partner. Then for the first time in all his previous consecutive experience success began to reward his efforts, he developed a great and thriving enterprise and continued it until 1900, when he sold out to other parties.

Mr. Harvat was a member of the Vigilante Committee in the early days and he knows a great deal of pioneer affairs of . Montana, and has vivid memories of many of the old timers now gone to their reward.

Since 1900 Mr. Harvat has been a sheep rancher, and his operations through twenty years have made him one of the leading figures in the sheep indus- try of the Northwest. His first venture in that business, however, largely partook of failure. He kept on, acquired rights to range and bought land of his own, and at this time has ranch properties near Livingston aggregrating 16,000 acres, and he keeps flocks of sheep aggregating 12,000 through the year. He has been one of the biggest ship- pers of wool to Boston and has also sent hundreds of carloads of mutton sheep to the Chicago mar- ket. It is estimated that Mr. Harvat as owner has

individually been interested in as high as 100,000 sheep in a single year. Besides his own ranch lands he has frequently leased as much more. On one of his ranches, a mile east of Livingston, he has built a modern home, and he has his property equipped with the most modern facilities for sheep shearing and for handling the sheep business in every detail. As his sons grew to manhood he made them responsible co-workers and eventually organized the Harvat Sheep Company, capitalized at $500,000.

Through all the ups and downs of his career since coming to Montana he has been deeply inter- ested in the welfare of Livingston, has owned property in that city more than thirty years, and has done much to improve and expand its advan- tages. He still owns the business block on Main Street at the corner of Second Street. He has served as a member of the Livingston School Board, is active in the Commercial Club, is a member of Livingston Lodge No. 246 of Elks, is a Catholic and a republican.

While he has acknowledged many vicissitudes in his business career, his domestic life since his mar- riage has been one of unalloyed happiness. On April 30, 1889, at Iowa City, he married Miss Eliza- beth Haberstroh, daughter of Julius and Barbara Haberstroh, still living in Iowa City. Her father is a retired carpenter and contractor. The four children of Mr. and Mrs. Harvat are Marie, Paul J., Edwin J. and J. H., Jr. All the children received part of their finishing education in Notre Dame University, Indiana, the daughter being a gradu- ate of St. Mary's College there. Marie is the wife of William Ahearn, a timekeeper for the North- ern Pacific Railway, living at Livingston. Paul J. and J. H., Jr., are both associated with their father. Edwin J. enlisted in the army in 1918 and in July went overseas with the rank of captain in the expe- ditionary troops to France.

GAYLE M. FLETCHER. A gentleman of pleasing address and upright character, possessing a natural aptitude for business pursuits, Gayle M. Fletcher, agent for various manufacturing concerns, has made rapid progress along the road to success and attained a position of note among the leading men of Billings, his home city. A son of Joseph C. Fletcher, he was born in Beatrice, Nebraska, August 18, 1878, of Irish and English ancestry. His grand- father Fletcher was born in Ireland in 1800, and as a young man immigrated to America, locating first in Ontario, Canada. When about thirty-five years old he followed the tide of emigration to Iowa, and until his death in 1890, resided in Keokuk, where for many years he had followed the trade of a stone mason.

Although he was born, in 1844, in the Province of Ontario, Canada, Joseph C. Fletcher was brought up and educated in Keokuk, Iowa. In 1863, fired with true patriotic ardor, he enlisted in the Third Iowa Cavalry for service in the Civil war. Sub- sequently while in battle at Guntown, Mississippi, he was captured and confined as a prisoner of war for a year in Andersonville Prison. While thus confined he suffered untold hardships, losing over eighty pounds of good, honest flesh, his weight having been 173 pounds at the time of his enlist- ment, and but 92 pounds when he was exchanged. Returning to Iowa he married, and shortly after that happy event established himself in the furni- ture business at Beatrice, Nebraska, where he still resides, for the past thirty years having been suc- cessfully engaged in the real estate business. A steadfast republican, he has been prominent in civic

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and political affairs, and has served town and county in various official capacities. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic.

Joseph C. Fletcher married Samantha E. Monce, in Nebraska City, Nebraska. She was born in Ohio in 1848, and to them five children have been born, as follows: Fred, a manufacturer in Forest- ville, Connecticut; Harry, of Minneapolis, Minne- sota, is a traveling salesman; Arthur, formerly a successful merchant of Beatrice, Nebraska, died in that ctiy at the early age of forty years; Gayle M., the special subject of this sketch; and Thomas, a well-known manufacturer of Los Angeles, Cali- fornia.

After his graduation in 1897 from the Beatrice, Nebraska, High School, Gayle M. Fletcher was employed as a bookkeeper for a year. The ensu- ing six years he worked in Cambria, Wyoming, for Kilpatrick Brothers & Collins, who were rail- road contractors, and had valuable mining inter- ests in that locality. Going from there to Sheri- dan, Wyoming, he was there engaged in the real estate and insurance business for a year Com- ing to Montana in 1905, Mr. Fletcher was similarly employed at Billings for a year. Accepting then his present position as manufacturers' agent, he has since made a specialty of outfitting banks, stores, offices, courthouses and other public build- ings with up-to-date furniture, fixtures and equip- ments of all kinds. His business increases from year to year, his territory now including all of Montana and Wyoming. His sales are extesive, and are not only gratifying to him, but are highly satisfactory to the firms which he represents and pleasing to his many customers. His offices are in the Stapleton Block in Billings.

Mr. Fletcher is a republican in politics, and an attendant of the Congregational Church, toward the support of which he contributes generously. Fraternally he is a member of Billings Lodge No. 113, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; of Algeria Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mys- tic Shrine, at Helena; of Cambria Lodge, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, at Cambria, Wyo- ming; of Billings Lodge No. 394, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; of the Royal Highland- ers; of the Montana branch of the United Com- mercial Travelers of America ; of the Billings Club; of the Billings Midland Empire Club; and of the Billings Golf and Country Club. He is also a stockholder in the American Bank and Trust Com- pany and in the Security Trust and Savings Bank, financial institutions of high standing.

Mr. Fletcher married in 1902, at Helena, Montana, Miss Estella Walker, who was born in Illinois, and was there educated, having been graduated from the Jacksonville Female Academy at Jack- sonville, Illinois. Helen, the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher, was born March 30, 1904, and is now, in 1919, attending the Billings High School.

RALPH A. SHARP. It is claimed that what has developed the United States from a few colonies along the Atlantic coast into the greatest nation in the world has been its pioneer spirit, which has urged its people onward and enabled them to go into a wilderness and make of it a place of de- sirability. Certain it is that many of the truly American families show in their records that in almost every generation there have been migrations of some of their representatives ever westward, and that following upon them have come civili- zation and constructive development. The Sharp family is one of these and dates back in America to colonial days. At a time when Tennessee was

a battlefield for the struggles between the In- dians and the whites members of this family came into the region, and after making the usual sacri- fices of comfort and, in some instances, life, be- came substantial settlers of the great common- wealth. Still pushing onward, the family was brought into Montana, and one of the represen- tatives of it in this state is Ralph A. Sharp, cashier of the Custer State Bank of Custer.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 92

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