Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 98

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 98

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He was born at Allentown, Pennsylvania, July 29, 1834. His father, Augustus Graeter, was born at Geppingen, near Stuttgart, Germany, March 16, 1803, and was highly educated, attending colleges and universities at Leipsic and Stuttgart. He came to America in 1828 and spent many years as a printer and publisher, publishing both books and newspa- pers in the German language. He was in that busi- ness at Allentown, Pennsylvania, and in 1836 moved to Warren, Ohio, where in addition to other work he was a farmer and hotel proprietor. Politically he was a whig and finally a republican. He died at

Warren March 8, 1863, at the age of sixty. He mar- ried Sarah Hoffman, who was born near Allentown, Pennsylvania, and died at Warren, Ohio, at the age of eighty-four. Of their eight children Augustus F. was the second. Adolphus, the oldest, was a finished and talented musician, for a number of years conducted a music store and died at Warren, Olio; Sarah died at Warren; Olivia lives at Butte, Montana, widow of Mr. Hopkins, a pioneer Mon- tanan, and a miner by occupation; Isabella is the wife of Frank Ritzel, publisher of the Warren Chronicle in Ohio; Walter was a Union soldier with an Ohio regiment and died while in the army; Fred- erika Bailey lives at Warren, Ohio, is a widow, her husband having been a printer; Alfred died at Dil- lon, Montana, in 1914 and was prominently known in this section of the state, having served as recorder and sheriff of his county and later was in the mining business at Argenta.

Augustus F. Graeter was an infant when luis parents moved to Ohio, and he received his early advantages in the country schools of Warren, Ohio. He lived on his father's farm and also in the town of Warren until he was fifteen years of age. He spent one year in a store at Meadville, Pennsyl- vania, again worked on the farm in Ohio one sea- son, and from there went to Wisconsin where he essayed the role of a book agent, but with only a fair degree of success, his honesty not permitting him to exaggerate the merits of his stock in trade. He returned to the more substantial if more labori- ous work of cutting cordwood and selling it to boats on the Fox River. Then for another brief period he was back on his father's Ohio farm and clerk in a dry goods store at Warren.

Mr. Graeter has been identified with a number of pioneer communities west of the Missouri Valley. In 1856 he went out to Nebraska, then a place of great historic interest on account of the Kansas- Nebraska controversy in Congress. He was asso- ciated with a relative by marriage in a general store at Florence, and when the business was removed to Omaha he clerked there for a time. In the fall of 1857 he and a friend, taking a span of oxen, started overland for Pike's Peak. A long journey brought them to the banks of Cherry Creek, where now is the City of Denver. Mr. Graeter took up a claim of 160 acres now identified in the modern city of Denver by Blake and Larimer Streets. In order to hold his claim he complied with the legal re- quirements of that time, placing four logs as a foun- dation for a cabin. The net results of his pros- pecting for gold up Cherry Creek were very meager During the winter about forty men joined him and his companions on Cherry Creek, and he, like the others, built a log cabin for shelter. Mr. Graeter's partner was A. J. Smith, and during the winter of 1857-58 they returned to Omaha for supplies. The early spring of 1858 found them at Black Hawk, near the present site of Missouri City. Mr. Graeter mined gold there for two years, and dur- ing that time put up two log cabins. He returned to Omaha in 1859-60, and the next spring went back to his mining properties. In the spring of 1862 he was camped for several days along Snake River. His partners and associates at that time were A. J. Smith and Major Brooke. They suffered all the hardships and danger of a country infested with hostile Indians, remote from central markets, where every day presented a battle with circumstances and the forces of the wilderness. Finally the party ar- rived at Fort Lemhi, Idaho, and that was as far as they got toward their destination, the great placer gold camp of Florence. Mr. Graeter and five others decided to winter at Bitter Root and crossed the

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divide into Cottonwood Grove. Here the party were surrounded by Blackfoot Indians, who mistaking the white men for Snake Indians with whom they were at war, stole their stock but on the mistake being discovered the stock was returned. Later the white men retraced their steps to Fort Lemhi, where Mr. Graeter again joined Smith and Major Brooke. They next set out for winter quarters at Fort Cald- well, but hearing of gold at Bannack diverted their course to that region. Bannack was the principal center of Mr. Graeter's operations and experiences as a Montana gold miner, and he operated there off and on for a quarter of a century. Success came to him in fair measure. Charles Dahler and Hirsh- field were his backers in his mining enterprise. At one time he borrowed $50,000 to build a ditch, com- pleted the project and received returns sufficient to repay his loan and give him something. He was also successful in a dredging proposition at Bannack. For a number of years he made a good living while engaged in ranching on Horse Prairie.

Since 1899 Mr. Graeter's home has been at Dillon, where he has been actively identified with merchan- dising, banking, ranching and real estate. He bought a ranch in the Canyon. In 1899 he was one of the six men who established the State Bank at Dillon, and is still a stockholder and director in that insti- tution. His name has been prominently associated with the grocery business, and he is still a half owner and president of the Graeter Grocery Com- pany and is a director in the Western Wholesale Grocery Company. He is president of the Graeter Park and Realty Company of Dillon, president of the Dillon Realty Improvement Company, and is owner of two business buildings on Bannack Street and other local property. For a number of years he lived in a fine home in South Idaho Street, which he gave to his daughter Sarah. He gave to his present wife at the time of their marriage the fine residence in which they reside at 109 South Washington Street.

Mr. Graeter is a democrat in politics, and in early days was very much interested in politics as a means of helping his friends to office. His only public position was county commissioner and a member of the City Council. He is prominent in Masonry, being affiliated with Dillon Lodge No. 23, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Dillon Chapter No. 8, Royal Arch Masons, St. Elmo Commandery No. 7, Knights Templars, and Bagdad Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Butte.

On July 29, 1860, at Florence, Nebraska, Mr. Graeter married Miss Emily M. Drury. She died at Bannack, Montana, in 1878, the mother of two chil- dren, Luther and Blanche. Luther is a miner at Eureka. California. Blanche died in 1917, at Eureka, California, wife of Charles Falk, who is a manu- facturer of redwood lumber. In 1880, at Bannack, Montana, Mr. Graeter married Mary J. Taylor. She was his faithful wife and companion for twenty- eight years, and won many lasting friends in the pioneer communities where she and Mr. Graeter lived. She was an active member of the Baptist Church. She died October 6, 1908, in Dillon. She was born in New Brunswick September 26, 1849. By his second marriage Mr. Graeter has two chil- dren : Arthur, cashier of the State Bank of Dillon ; and Sarah, wife of E. L. Poindexter, who is pub- lisher of the Dillon Examiner and former post- master. In October, 1916, at Dillon, Mr. Graeter married Mrs. May Padley, widow of C. H. Padley, who was at one time engaged in the retail meat business at Dillon.

WALTER HENRY STEPHAN, M. D. Immediately after graduating from Rush Medical College of Chi- cago Doctor Stephan came to Montana, and as in- terne, as railway company physician and in general practice has been one of the busy professional men of the state for the past five years. Doctor Stephan is a member of the medical fraternity at Dillon.

He was born at Sutton, Nebraska, January 8, 1888, but spent most of his life before coming to Montana in Illinois. His grandfather, Frederick Stephan, was born near Bingen-on-the-Rhine in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, and as a young man came to America and settled on a farm at Sublette, near Mendota, Illinois. Late in life he removed to Nebraska and died at Sutton, that state, in 1892. John F. Stephan, father of Doctor Stephan, was born in Illinois in 1855 and after his marriage moved to Sutton, Nebraska, where he farmed for a number of years. In 1895 he re- turned to Illinois. He was a skilled mechanic and for some time as engine tester traveled all over Illinois representing the Bruner Gasoline Engine Works at Peru, Illinois. In 1903 he removed to Sterling in that state and was pattern maker for the International Harvester Company. He died at Sterling in 1918. He cast his ballot as a republican, was an active Methodist and was affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America. John F. Stephan married Margaret Nauman, who was born at Red Oak, Illinois, in 1860, and now makes her home with her son Doctor Stephan. There were three children Lillian A., the oldest, is a resident of Highland Park, Illinois, and stewardess of the Moraine Hotel near Fort Sheridan. Ethel E., the youngest is the wife of Fred Wagner, a farmer and stock man at Ash- ton, Illinois.

Doctor Stephan was seven years of age when his father returned to Illinois and acquired his educa- tion in the public schools of Peru and graduated from the Sterling High School in 1907. Following this he spent two years in the Northwestern College at Naperville, Illinois, and then entered the Univer- sity of Chicago, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1912 and did his preparatory work in medicine. In 1914 he graduated M. D. from Rush Medical College, the affiliated medical institution of the University of Chicago. He is a member of the Phi Beta Pi medical fraternity. During 1914-15 Doctor Stephan was an interne in Murray Hospital at Butte, Montana, did a general practice at Pony for two years, and was then surgeon of the Mil- waukee Railway Hospital at Three Forks until Jan- uary, 1919, when he removed to Dillon and engaged in general practice. His offices are at 21 South Idaho Street. Doctor Stephan served as health offi- cer for Madison County and is one of the two health officers of Beaverhead County. He is also surgeon for the Oregon Short Line Railway and surgeon for the county poor. He is a stockholder in the Dillon Oil Company. Doctor Stephan is a republican and a member of the Episcopal Church, belongs to the County, State and American Medi- cal associations and is affiliated with Beaverhead Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and also with Virginia City Lodge, Benevolent Protec- tive Order of Elks.

In 1913, at Butte, he married Miss Blythe Martin, daughter of Martin and Nellie (Cooper) Martin, residents of Anaconda. Her father is an official in the Anaconda Smelter and is ex-secretary of the State Fair Association of Montana. Doctor and Mrs. Stephan have two sons: Walter, born June 10, 1916; and Robert, born September 1, 1917.

PARKER W. HASTINGS since coming to Montana in 1909 has given all his time and business talents

22 Sterling

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

to the Security Bridge Company, a corporation has has done an extensive business all over the state. Mr. Hastings is secretary and treasurer.

Parker Wallace Hastings was born at Hope, Maine, August 2, 1887. His ancestors were colonial settlers in Massachusetts, coming from England, and later moved to Maine, where several genera- tions of the family have spent their lives. His grandfather was Samuel Hastings, a native of Maine, a farmer who died at Union in that state about 1867. Herbert L. Hastings, father of the Billings business man, was born at Union, Maine, in 1845, and has spent all his life in that locality. He is a cabinetmaker by trade, but is now retired. He is a republican and Universalist. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. Herbert L. Hastings married Abigail Hewit, who was born at Hope, Maine, in 1849, and died there in 1903. She was the mother of four children, Parker W. being the youngest. Ralph L., the oldest, is a clerk at Granville, Vermont. Alice M., living at Port- land, Maine, has been twice married, her first hus- band being Elias Thompson, a farmer, and her second husband, Chester Quimby. Phyllis is a stenographer, her permanent position being with the Security Bridge Company, but during the war she was employed in the American headquarters of the Red Cross at Washington.

Parker W. Hastings was educated in the pub- lic schools at Waltham, Massachusetts, graduating from the high school there in 1906. Two years later, in 1908, having come West, he found a posi- tion on the payroll of the Security Bridge Company as timekeeper. In 1909 he was sent to the Billings branch, taking charge of the books, and in 1913 became treasurer, and today is secretary and treas- urer of the company. The plant and offices of this well known corporation are at 502 North Twenty- second Street.

Mr. Hastings is secretary of the Carbon County Agricultural Company, and is deeply interested in all matters concerning the welfare and advance- ment of Montana. He is a republican. His home is at 1010 North Thirty-second Street. Mr. Hast- ings married Miss Naomi Irons at Toms River, New Jersey, in 1910. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Irons, live at Toms River, her father being a wheelwright by trade. Mr. and Mrs. Hast- ings have one daughter, Ruth Esther, born October 27, 191I.

FREDERICK THORNE STERLING came to Montana in 1883 and entered the employ of the Eddy-Hammond Company' at Missoula. This company was, in 1884, incorporated under the firm name of The Missoula Mercantile Company. He remained with them for a period of over thirty-five years, or until December, 1918, at which time, in connection with some friends, he purchased the controlling interest in the Western Montana National Bank, becoming president of that institution December 24, 1918.

The Western Montana National Bank was or- ganized in 1888, the principal stockholders being G. A. Wolf, J. H. T. Ryman and Ferdinand Kennett, and was the second bank organized in western Montana.

Frederick Thorne Sterling was born in Frederic- ton, New Brunswick, Canada, January 19, 1863, his ancestors coming from England and Scotland, the Sterlings settling at Martha's Vineyard before the Revolutionary war. When the colonies began their struggle for independence they organized a company and fought with the British army, afterward remov- ing to Canada.

John Allan Sterling, father of Frederick Thorne

Sterling, was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, in 1838, and for a number of years engaged in the lumber business in New Brunswick, later mov- ing to Boston, Massachusetts. In 1906 he came to Missoula, where he died in 1914. John Allan Sterling married Margaret Thorne who was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick,' Canada, in 1843 and died at Missoula, Montana, in 1915. Her father and mother came to Canada from Scotland. Fred- erick was the oldest of their four children, the others being Agnes, wife of William H. Reid, of Angusta, Maine; Addison M., president of the A. M. Sterling Company of Ronan, Montana, and Mar- garet, who died at the age of twenty-one.

Mr. Sterling was married at Missoula in 1889 to Miss Lucina Laura Worden, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Lyman Worden. Mrs. Sterling was born in Missoula September 27, 1867, and is a member of both the Pioneers and the Sons and Daughters of Montana Pioneers. Her father, with Captain C. P. Higgins, located and founded the town of Missoula. They built the first store in Montana, at Hellgate, four miles west of Missoula, later removing this store to the present site of Mis- soula and building the first flour mill in Montana, with the exception of a small one built by the Jesuit Fathers at Stevensville.

Mr. and Mrs. Sterling have four children, Dorothy, John Worden, Frederick Thorne, Jr., and Barbara. Mr. Sterling and family reside at 1310 Gerald Ave- nue, Missoula, Montana.

MRS. UNA B. HERRICK. The history of a county or state, as well as that of a nation, is chiefly the chronicle of the lives and deeds of those who have conferred honor and dignity upon society. The world judges the characer of a community by those of its representative citizens and yields its tributes of admiration and respect to those whose works and actions constitute the record of a state's pros- perity and pride. So do we judge an institution by those who represent it, and by this token Mon- tana State College, at Bozeman, is fortunate, for among those who represent this institution none occupies a more enviable place in the esteem of the community than Mrs. Una B. Herrick, dean of women.

Mrs. Una (Brasfield) Herrick was born in Madi- son County, Kentucky. In New York City Una Brasfield became the wife of Dr. Clinton G. Her- rick, a successful and well known physician and surgeon, a native of Burlington, Vermont.

Mrs. Herrick's father, James M. Brasfield, was born in 1800 in Madison County, Kentucky, and his death occurred there in 1894, at the advanced age of ninety-four years. He spent his life in Madison County, where he owned slaves and oper- ated a plantation. He made a specialty of breeding saddle horses and as such acquired a wide reputa- tion throughout Kentucky. He was a democrat in politics and was a leader of his party in his community. He was an active member of the Presbyterian Church, in which he was an elder for the long period of seventy-five years. He was also a member of the Masonic fraternity.

James M. Brasfield married Narcissa C. Haynes, a cousin of Bob and Alfred Taylor, brothers, who were at the same time candidates for election as governor of Tennessee, one as a republican and the other a democrat. She was born in 1822 in Mur- freesboro, Tennessee, and died in April, 1916. .

Mrs. Herrick's paternal grandfather, James Lewis Brasfield, was born, reared and died in Madison County, Kentucky. He was a prominent man, being the owner of a plantation and slaves. He

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married Mary Mobereley, also a native of Madison schools at Sumner, Illinois, and in 1889 came to County, where her death occurred. The paternal line of the Brasfield family is traced back to Eng- land, whence the family came to America during the days of the colonies and settled in Kentucky. Members of the family took an active part in the struggle of the colonists to gain their independence, and thus Mrs. Herrick is qualified for member- ship in the society of Daughters of the American Revolution, as she is also through her maternal ancestors.

JAMES MCLELLAN HAMILTON, president of the Montana State College of Agriculture and Me- chanic Arts at Bozeman, is a veteran teacher and educator, and has recently rounded out thirty years of participation in the school affairs of Montana. For fifteen years he has been directing head of an institution, through which hundreds of young men and women are prepared for lives of usefulness in industry and business.

Mr. Hamilton was born on a farm in Craw- ford County, Illinois, near Annapolis, October 1, 1861, a son of James and Mary (Burner) Hamil- ton. His grandfather, Thomas Hamilton was born near Belfast, Ireland, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and was a Presbyterian in faith. He came to America and was a coal miner in Western Pennsylvania, and died at Beaver Falls in Beaver County, that state. He married a Miss Williams, a native of Belfast. James Hamilton, father of James M. Hamilton, was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 25, 1808. He was reared in Pittsburgh, mar- ried in Ohio, where he lived on a farm in Lick- ing County near Newark, and in 1851 went to Crawford County, Illinois, and took up a tract of Government land. He became one of the well to dio farmers of that locality and lived on his farm until his death, November 4, 1875. He was a Doug- las democrat until 1864 and after that a republi- can. Though reared a Presbyterian, he was for many years active in the Methodist Church. His wife, Mary Burner, was born near Newark, Ohio, September 29, 1821, and died on the home farm at Annapolis, Illinois, in 1889. They had a large family of children, briefly noted as follows: Mary, who died in Oklahoma in 1916, was the wife of the late Samuel Ransbarger, a farmer; David, a farmer who died near Annapolis, Illinois, in 1918; Sarah, who died in 1917 in Oklahoma, wife of Robert Fowler, an Oklahoma farmer; Clara, wife of Ches- ter Ransbarger, who is superintendent of construc- tion for the Illinois Central Railway and lives at Watson, Illinois; Cornelia, wife of Henry W. Beacham, a bank president at Farnhamville, Iowa: Almira, who died in Oklahoma in 1907, wife of Nathan Beacham, a farmer in that state; Jane, who died in 1894, near Watson, Illinois, wife of John Mikeworth, a farmer in that locality; Ellis, who lives on the home farm near Annapolis; James Mclellan, who is the ninth and next to the young- est of the children; and William who died in 1901 on his farm near Annapolis.

James McLellan Hamilton spent his boyhood in the rural atmosphere of Illinois, attended rural schools, also the schools of Robinson, Illinois, and took his college work in Union Christian College, a noted institution on the banks of the Wabash River in Western Indiana at the Town of Merom. He received his Bachelor of Science degree there in 1887 and his Master of Science degree in 1890. Mr. Hamilton was a student in Harvard Univer- sity in 1898. Since he left the Union Christian College his absorbing work in life has been teach- ing. For two years he was superintendent of

Montana and from 1889 to 1901 was superintendent of the city schools of Missoula. He was Profes- sor of History and Economics in the University of Montana from 1901 to 1904 and in the latter year took up his present duties as president of the Montana State College of Agriculture and Me- chanic Arts at Bozeman. He was a member of the Montana State Board of Education from 1893 to 1901. He is a member of the National Educa- tion Association, the American Association of Agri- cultural Colleges, the American Academy of Political and Social Science. During 1912 Mr. Hamilton made a tour of Europe and gave special attention to agricultural conditions.

He is an independent republican in politics, a member of the Unitarian Church, past master of Bozeman Lodge No. 18, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, a member of Zona Chapter No. 12, Royal Arch Masons, Bozeman Commandery of Knights Templar, is past grand of Covenant Lodge No. 6, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Mis- soula, and a member of Bozeman Lodge No. 163 of the Elks. He also belongs to the Sigma Chi college fraternity.

Mr. Hamilton resides at 712 South Central Avenue. On June 6, 1888, he married Miss Emma Shideler, of Merom, Indiana, daughter of Henry and Mary (Stanley) Shideler. Her parents are both deceased, her father having been a merchant at Merom. Mrs. Hamilton died August 12, 1909, at Portland, Oregon. Her only child, Mary, died in infancy. On August 21, 1918, at Bozeman, Mr. Hamilton married Miss Florence Ballinger, dangh- ter of Merrill and Jane (Hardcastle) Ballinger. Her father, now deceased, was a farmer in Yellow- stone Valley between Livingston and Gardiner, and was a Montana pioneer, having come overland in a prairie schooner from Illinois and Missouri to Montana. Mrs. Ballinger lives with Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton. Mrs. Hamilton has also been a promi- nent figure in educational affairs. She finished her education in the Montana State College at Boze- man, and was a member of the department of home economics there for several years.

S. R. KROM is cashier of the Northwestern Na- tional Bank of Livingston, and has been identified with that institution since it was organized in 1917.

Mr. Krom, who has had an extensive commer- cial and banking experience, was born at Accord, New . York, July 3, 1887, and has lived in Mon- tana more than twenty years of his life. His ancestors came from Holland and settled in New York State. Solomon Krom, father of the Liv- ingston banker, was born in New York in 1846, and spent all his life there as a farmer. He died at Accord in Ulster County in January, 1888, when his youngest son and child, S. R. Krom, was about six months old. He was a republican, and a mem- ber of the Dutch Reformed Church. He was also a veteran of the Civil war, having been with the One Hundred and Second New York Infantry for three years. Solomon Krom married Mary E. Hast- ings. She was born in New York State in 1846 and in 1898 brought her family to Montana and settled on a ranch at Billings, where she still re- sides. She is a member of an old New York and New England family, the Hastings being of Eng- lish origin. She is a first consin of the great Ameri- can statesman and lawyer Elihu Root of New York. Her father, S. P. M. Hastings, was a na- tive of New York State and died at Ellenville in New York in 1888 and was a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, preaching for many years in

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume II, Part 98

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