Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 101

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 1144

USA > Montana > Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III > Part 101

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Judd P. Hedges was born in Cayuga County, New York, on May 15, 1857, and is the son of Stephen and Ruth (Gault) Hedges. Stephen Hedges, who also was a native of New York State, spent his active life as a tailor's cutter, making clothing at Weedsport, where his death occurred. He was a Union soldier during the Civil war, first as a three-months' member of the old Nineteenth Regi- ment, New York Infantry, and then he enlisted for the duration of the war. However, he was dis- charged before the expiration of his enlistment pe- riod, owing to sickness, and died early from the effects of his service. His father was American born, but of English stock. To Stephen and Ruth Hedges were born the following children: W. Ralph, who was a commissioned officer in the Civil war and later died at New Haven, Connecticut; Montriville M., who also was a veteran of the Civil war, died at Mellstone, Montana : Agnes, who was the wife of William Wilson, died at Bridgeport, Connecticut ; Judd P., of this sketch.

Judd P. Hedges received his education in the public schools and at the age of sixteen years he went to New York City, where he entered a dental

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office, agreeing to work for a year for nothing, but after a few weeks he had acquired such a knowl- edge of the profession that his employer paid him $15 a week. His health failed and on the advice of his doctor he went West, locating at Fargo, North Dakota, where he rustled around among the old-timers, among whom he soon located H. S. Back, General Sibley's old chief of scouts and one of the noted frontiersmen, who initiated the young man into western ways. In 1879, in company with several other men, he first entered the Territory of Montana, for the purpose of hunting buffalo. The region was so undefined as to boundary mark- ings that for a time the party did not know they were in Montana, until they passed down the Lit- tle Missouri from near its head. For two or three months the party camped and killed the big game along the Wyoming-Montana line, the object be- ing both the hides and the meat. Doctor Hedges was not again in Montana until 1882, when he again accompanied a party of buffalo hunters. They hunted on the head of Big Beaver, Cedar Creek and Cabin Creek of the Yellowstone all of the winter of 1882-3, returning to Fargo in the spring. In the spring of 1884 Doctor Hedges bought up a bunch of cattle and returned to Montana, locating on Box Elder, being the first ranchman to locate on that stream. He engaged in the cattle business there for two years, and during the hard winter of 1886 he was put to the necessity of wintering his cattle on cottonwood and on the meat of his dead cattle, which he used by boiling and mixing a little hay with it. Doctor Hedges then abandoned ranch- ing and engaged in freighting, hauling pelts and wool to Miles City, Wibaux and Terry. Two years later he took the mail contract from Powderville to Ekalaka, delivering mail at the latter point twice a month, for which he was paid $125 a trip by the settlers. Eventually the Government established a mail route to this point.

About that time Doctor Hedges had acquired some dental stock and he began practicing dentistry at the cow and sheep camps, and this service ren- dered to the cowboys and sheep herders eventually led him to establish an office in Ekalaka. He re- mained actively engaged in the practice there until 1898, when he joined Troop I of the Grigsby Rough Riders of Montana for service in the Spanish-Amer- ican war. Troop I was mustered into the service at Miles City and was sent to Chickamauga Park, Georgia, and there remained inactive until the close of the war. After returning home the Doctor re- sumed the practice of his profession at Belle Fourche, remaining there about three years. Then for a short time he was engaged in the retail liquor busi- ness at Camp Crook. Returning to Ekalaka, he reopened his dental office and has continued the practice of his profession to the present time.

At Lead, South Dakota, in September, 1900, Doc- tor Hedges was married to Mrs. Nellie Frees, of Syracuse, New York, whose maiden name was La Porte. To Doctor and Mrs. Hedges have been born the following children: Oliver G. who served in France during the recent World war and was among the first troops to reach the Rhine, on December 8, 1918. He is now employed in the stock yards at Omaha, Nebraska. Harry H. was a marine during the recent war, being on the Lake Oswego, and was promoted three times in service. He is now a ranchman of Carter County. Daniel J. enlisted at the age of fifteen years in the recent war, was first on a gunboat on the Pacific Ocean, but was transferred to the Atlantic. He was on two dif- ferent submarines, in which he was in the war zone and saw fighting at close quarters. He is now in

Ekalaka, returning uninjured, as did both of his brothers. The two daughters are Ruth and Lucile.

Politically Doctor Hedges is a republican. He was always a great admirer of Colonel Roosevelt, by whom he was invited to join his troop for the Spanish-American war, and the Doctor has re- gretted that he did not accept the invitation. He has taken an active interest in everything pertain- ing to the welfare of the community in which he lives. He was the first mayor of Ekalaka and has served on its board of education. During his years of residence in Ekalaka the Doctor has not only gained an enviable notoriety in his chosen profes- sion, but has also established a sound reputation for unrightness and noble character in all the relations of life. Because of his success and his splendid personal qualities he enjoys the confidence and good will of all who know him.

JULIUS WABER represents the business life of Hinsdale as the proprietor of its pioneer drug store. He became identified with the locality in 1905 and began as a ranchman in Rock Creek Canon. He settled on the public domain there and became ex- tensively interested in the stock business, handling at one time about 1,000 head, branded "Hg" on the left hip. He continued actively in the business for five years, and is still a stockman, although he has changed his location.

Mr. Waber took his homestead five miles north of Hinsdale, the improvements thereon enabling him to live comfortably during the process of proving up, and he occupied it at times for five years, when he acquired his patent. He has since purchased land nearer Hinsdale, under the Milk River Irrigation Project, and is improving his property with perma- nent buildings and bringing the land under culti- vation. He employed a unique method in clearing the sage brush from the land, pulling a road grader over it with a traction engine and clipping off the brush like corn stalks. He was then able to rake them into winrows and burn them. He first tried the mattock, but found this too slow and laborious a process, and the idea of clearing with a road grader came to him after some experimenting.

On leaving the ranch Mr. Waber established him- self permanently in Hinsdale, where for five years he served as the postmaster of the town, having been appointed to the office in 1909, and serving therein until April, 1913, when he turned it over to his successor, Mr. Rutter. Mr. Waber opened his drug store, the first in the town, in June, 1910, and prior to this he was a clerk for Mr. Nelson, and also had charge of the machinery and imple- ment department for a year of the Hinsdale Mer- cantile Company.

Mr. Waber came to Montana from Elysian, Minne- sota, where he was born and reared. He was born June 6, 1881, a son of Frank Waber, who came from his native Vienna, Austria, to the United States when a young man, thus avoiding army service and joining friends in Minnesota. He established a blacksmith shop at Elysian, that state, and spent the remainder of his life at the anvil and forge. From the pros- perity which he derived from this vocation he in- vested in farm lands, and continued interested in the agricultural life of that region. He early be- came an American citizen, and his interest in pub- lic affairs was never permitted to lag, always sup- porting the principles of the democratic party.

Frank Waber was first married to Theresa Sum- mer, who was born near her husband's birthplace and died in 1891, the mother of four children: Ru- dolph, a farmer in LeSueur County, Minnesota; Julius, of this review; Emil, a rancher in the Milk

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River Valley of Montana; and Oswald, a farmer in that valley. Frank Waber married for his second wife a Miss Schram, who bore him three daughters, Christina, the wife of P. L. Gainsforth, of Dodson, Montana; Anna, who is the indispensable aid in her brother's drug store; and Josephine, a trained nurse in Minneapolis.

Julius Waber supplemented his common school training with one year in the high school at Elysian, Minnesota. Until twenty years of age he continued farming in his native state, spent the following year in Oklahoma engaged on the construction of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad south from Oklahoma City, returned at the close of that period to Minnesota, and soon afterward came to Mon- tana, coming to the West to join intimate friends and primarily to engage in the cattle business. After locating in Hinsdale he served for nine years as a member of the School Board, during two years was one of the county commissioners of Valley County, serving on the board with Messieurs West and An- derson, and was placed in charge of this improve- ment district by the board and has remained in charge ever since. He is also a director of the First National Bank of Hinsdale and one of its original organizers.

Mr. Waber's political activities began as a repub- lican, his first presidential vote going to Colonel Roosevelt in 1904, and he has supported the nom- inees of his party in every presidential campaign since.

THOMAS DIGNAN. The name of Thomas Dignan has been influentially associated with the Town of Glasgow since 1902. He is one of the leading at- torneys of the community and one who has borne a conspicuous part in the affairs of his city and county.

He was born in the State of New York, at Rich- field Springs, February 22, 1871, and his father, David Dignan, was from Ireland, born in County Roscommon, December 18, 1847. David Dignan was liberally educated in his native land, and he was a son of David Dignan, a civil engineer and a man of education. He was born in 1802, and came to the United States before the Civil war, locating in Otsego County, New York, where he was en- gaged on Government work as an engineer, one of his numerous connections being in the Navy Yard in Brooklyn. But he finally abandoned his profes- sion to engage in farming in Otsego County, and he died as a farmer in 1894. The senior David Dig- nan married Mary E. Degnan, and their children comprised eight sons and two daughters.

David Dignan, Jr., the oldest of the ten children, spent his life as a farmer in Otsego County, New York, and died there in October, 1884. He married Margaret Brady, a daughter of Thomas Brady of County Mayo, Ireland. Mrs. Dignan still resides at Richfield Springs, New York, and has attained the age of seventy years. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Dignan : Thomas, the Glasgow lawyer and business man; George C., whose home is in Front Royal, Virginia; Ellen, of Richfield Springs, New York; and Anna, the wife of Edward C. Har- gadine, of Glasgow, Montana.

As a child the home life of Thomas Dignan was the farm, but when he reached the age of twenty-one he left the country, and three years before this he had also engaged in teaching school, finished his high school and normal school courses, and graduated in law from the University of Minnesota in 1902. His teaching was done in the public schools of Otsego County.

His graduation from the law department of the

University of Minnesota admitted him to practice law in that state, and he was also admitted to prac- tice on motion in Montana in February, 1903, be- fore the Supreme Court. He had already selected Glasgow as his location, and he tried his first law- suit in the state at this point. Early in his career here he formed a partnership with George Hurd, and the firm of Hurd & Dignan was associated in law practice for five years, and after its dissolution Mr. Dignan practiced alone for eleven years, when the firm of Dignan & Barton was formed, about 1912, and continued in existence until Mr. Barton was elected the county attorney. Since 1919 Mr. Dignan has been associated in practice with Mr. Shea, as the firm of Dignan & Shea.

Mr. Dignan has followed a general practice, both civil and criminal, and has also carried along at times an official service. He was first elected to the office of city attorney, and in 1908 was made the county attorney. During his tenure of those offices the enforcement of saloon regulations and the anti- gambling laws were given their proper attention, the first municipal electric light plant of the state was constructed at Glasgow and the water works and sewer systems were installed, all municipal plants. He was next elected a member of the Board of Aldermen of Glasgow, during the admin- istration of Mayor Dawson, and this council com- pleted the municipal improvements above mentioned. Mr. Dignan became a stockholder in the Milk River Valley Bank at Glasgow some time after its organ- ization, and is now the vice president of that insti- tution. He is also the vice president and was inter- ested in the organization of the First National Bank of Hinsdale. During his residence in Montana he has become a large land holder and farmer, and much of his valley land is under the Government Irrigation Project and is being gradually developed as an alfalfa ranch.

Mr. Dignan was married at Owatonna, Minnesota, June 30, 1908, to Miss Mary E. Cashman, who was born in that Minnesota community in October, 1876, a daughter of Edwin and Mary A. (Welch) Cash- man, the father born in Ireland and the mother in Massachusetts. After graduating from the Univer- sity of Minnesota Mrs. Dignan engaged in teaching, and was elected the county superintendent of schools of Steele County, Minnesota. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Dignan: Margaret M., Thomas C., George and Ellen M.

Mr. Dignan grew up in a home where demo- cratic principles were taught, and when he cast his first presidential vote in 1892 it supported Grover Cleveland, and he has supported the national party ticket at each succeeding election. He has the unique distinction of having voted for W. J. Bryan in the three states of New York, Minnesota and Montana. While the country was engaged in the World war Mr. Dignan was county chairman of the Four Minute Men, a member of the Legal Advisory Board of the County of Valley, a member of the executive committee of the Red Cross, and assisted actively in putting over each of its loan drives. Mrs. Dignan was assistant secretary of the local chapter of the Red Cross and a member of the executive committee, and was active in organizing branches of the Red Cross throughout the county. Mr. Dignan is fraternally associated with the Knights of Colum- bus, the Foresters and the Modern Woodmen of America. The Dignan home is one of the good residences of Glasgow.

. MARK D. HOYT, M. D. For nearly thirty years Doctor Hoyt has been not only a leading physician and surgeon of Valley County but a man whose

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influence and leadership have counted in behalf of every forward movement made in that vicinity. Doctor Hoyt was a surgeon in some of the field hospitals just back of the fighting lines in France in the summer and early fall of 1918, and came out of the war with the rank of major in the Med- ical Reserve Corps.

Doctor Hoyt was born at St. Paul, Minnesota, September 19, 1868. His grandfather, Benjamin F. Hoyt, was a native of Ohio, in which state he fol- lowed farming. He became an early pioneer at St. Paul, Minnesota, where for many years he was extensively engaged in the real estate business. He was the chief factor in building the First Methodist Church in St. Paul. He married Miss Haney, of Ohio, and their sons were Lorenzo, Freeman, Henry, Mark and John F., while their daughters were Mary, who became the wife of Dr. John H. Murphy, of St. Paul, Cynthia, who was the wife of Dr. Lafay- ette Morrow, of Indiana, and Hannah, who was Mrs. George H. Hazard, of St. Paul.

John F. Hoyt, father of Doctor Hoyt, was a law- yer hy profession and had some pioneer experience in Montana. He was only a child when his father moved to Minnesota. John F. Hoyt came out to Montana in 1862 and spent about two years in the territory, sharing in some of the very notable ex- periences of the pioneers. He was appointed the first vigilante judge at the Moore-Reeves trial at Bannock City. Though there was no doubt of the guilt of the murderers, both men were acquitted because only one man on the jury, N. P. Langford, had the courage to vote for a conviction. But after the trial and the same night a party of the Vigi- lantes took the murderers and hanged them. John F. Hoyt had some varied experiences as a prospector in Montana and on returning East studied law, be- ing a law student in the office of the distinguished Senator Cushman K. Davis at St. Paul. He prac- ticed in St. Paul, served as judge of the Probate Court of Ramsey County, was for years president of the Board of Water Commissioners, chairman of the Board of Public Works, and long a leader in the democratic party of Minnesota. He was a Mason, but had no church affiliation, though his father was prominent in the Methodist Church. John F. Hoyt, who died in 1910, at the age of seventy-five, married Mary E. Hobart, a native of Illinois, whose people were early settlers of Minne- sota. She died three years later than her husband, at the age of seventy-four. They reared three children : Dr. Mark D. Hoyt; Frances, wife of A. W. Mahon, and she died at Glasgow, Montana, in 1907; and Florence, wife of W. E. Lindeke, of St. Paul.

Mark D. Hoyt, who was born at St. Paul Sep- tember 19, 1868, grew up in his native city, grad- uated from the St. Paul High School at the age of eighteen, and prepared for his professional career in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1891. Almost immediately after securing his diploma he came to Montana and located at Glas- gow, where his time and energies have been ab- sorbed in a large general practice. In earlier years, when his professional responsibilities were not so arduous, he served as county superintendent of schools. He was the originator of the movement for the Deaconess Hospital at Glasgow, and since coming here has been a local surgeon for the Great Northern Railway Company. Many times he has served as health officer and county physician. He is a leading member of the Montana State Med- ical Society. For a number of years he was a mem- ber of the old drug firm of Mahon & Hoyt.

With America's entrance into the World war Mr. Hoyt served as secretary of District Exemption Board No. 2 until February, 1918, when he resigned to enter the army himself. He had enlisted at Kalis- pell August 8, 1917, receiving his commission as a first lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps. He was commissioned captain May 15, 1918, and saw his principal service with the Jefferson Hospital Unit No. 38 of Philadelphia. He went overseas June 30, 1918, and was on duty with a surgical and operating team all the time detached from the Hospital Unit. He was with the French for nine weeks and then went to the Argonne, and was on duty throughout the Argonne drive. On the day the armistice was signed he was in Mobile Hospital No. I about forty kilometers northwest of Verdun and across the Hindenburg line. He and the party . experienced shell fire, also enemy bombing from the sky, but escaped without wounds or capture. On the signing of the armistice Doctor Hoyt also re- ceived his major's commission. He left France April 6, 1919, sailing from Brest for Boston, where he arrived the 16th of the same month, was discharged at Camp Dix, New Jersey, April 23rd, and arrived home at Glasgow May 2, 1919.

For many years Doctor Hoyt has been prominent in Masonry, being affiliated with North Star Lodge No. 46, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Royal Arch Chapter No. 17, Great Falls Council, Royal and Select Masters, is past eminent commander of · Glasgow Commandery No. 13, Knights Templar, and is a member of the Helena Consistory of the Scot- tish Rite and Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine. At Glasgow, February 8, 1897, Doctor Hoyt mar- ried Miss Mary T. McKinnon. She was born at Cornwall, Ontario, February 14, 1872, and came to Montana in 1890.

TYSON D. DUNCAN. The latter decades of the nineteenth century were characterized by the emi- gration of the pioneer element, which made the great State of Montana very largely what it is today. These emigrants were sturdy, heroic, sin- cere and, in the main, upright people, such as con- stitute the strength of the commonwealth. It scarcely appears probable that in the future another such period can occur, or, indeed, any period when such a solid phalanx of strong-minded, brawney-armed men and noble, self-sacrificing women will take pos- session of a new country. The period to which ref- erence is made, therefore, cannot be too much or too well written up, and the only way to do justice to such a subject is to record the lives of those who led the van of civilization and founded the institu- tions which are today the pride and boast of a great state and a strong and virile people. Among those who braved the obstacles and discomforts of those early days should be mentioned Tyson D. Duncan. one of the best known ranchmen, now retired, in the Flathead Valley.

Mr. Duncan might be called twice a pioneer of Montana. He first came in the thrilling and roman- tic days of the sixties, as one of the younger mem- bers of the Duncan family. Later, after an absence of a number of years, he returned again, and in the early eighties he and his wife were among the first to settle in the wonderful Flathead country, at what is now Kalispell. Fortunately for the value of his- tory it is possible to reproduce Mr. Duncan's im- pressions and experiences largely in his own lan- guage.

He is of pioneer American stock. About 1795 his grandfather migrated from Maryland to Kentucky, which had just been admitted to the Union but was still a part of the Western wilderness. The family

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lived there until 1817, and then with wife and five children, two sons and three daughters, the grand- father migrated to Howard County, Missouri, which marked another Western frontier. They made their home five miles east of Fayette, the county seat, and started the clearing of the land and the building of a home. About two years later, while out hunting, the grandfather Duncan was mistaken for a bear by a neighbor, and his death was one of the trag- edies of the frontier community. It was a heavy blow to the little family, but the grandmother showed the courage of many pioneer women and with the aid of her boys eventually saw her ambition ful- filled for a comfortable home. The children grew up and married and settled down in homes of their own.

When the family moved from Kentucky to Mis- souri, Ashley Duncan, the youngest son, was about nine years of age. Ashley Duncan remained in How- ard County until 1848, when he bought a tract of land in the abandoned Mormon settlement in Northwest Missouri, at Far West, in Caldwell County, about seven miles from the county seat of Kingston. On this land was a large log house that had been used for a store building. He and his family moved into that house in the spring of 1849 and lived there two or three years, until he could erect a more suitable dwelling.

At that time Tyson D. Duncan was about a year and a half old. He was born at the old home near Fayette, September 28, 1847, son of Ashley and Eliza (Sproul) Duncan. He was the twelfth of their thirteen children. Mr. Duncan's early memo- ries and associations are all centered at the old neighborhood at Far West. He was early put to work, and at the age of fourteen was considered a good hand on the farm. Fortunately for him, his older brothers assumed most of the responsibilities of running the farm, and he was allowed to attend school regularly. Mr. Duncan feels that the schools of his day would compare favorably with those of the present time, and of one thing he is sure, that the teachers were exceedingly strict. In time all the Duncan boys went West except one who went South and entered the army, but returned after the war.

Two of his brothers and two half-brothers and Mr. Duncan's only sister came to Montana in 1864. The party traveled overland with ox teams. Then, in the spring of 1865, his father, having sold the farm, went to St. Joseph, and April 25th he and his wife and younger children, including Tyson, took passage on the steamer Cora bound for Fort Benton, Montana. At sunrise May Ist, when the boat was about thirty miles above Omaha, it struck a snag and sank in the shallow water close to shore. The pas- sengers remained on board three days, until they were transferred to the Twilight, owned by the same company, and proceeded on the journey. There was low water that season, the boat was heavily loaded, and progress was exceedingly slow. After passing all the settlements along the banks there was much to interest young people, including Tyson. However, his most vivid memory of the journey is associated with the mouth of Yellowstone River, at which point the boat was nearly held up by a migration of buffalo herds going north, numbering in Mr. Dun- can's estimate literally millions. The river was no barrier to the animals, who would jump into the water, hardly regarding the boat, and hundreds were mired down and lost their lives in the quicksands. The passengers killed many of the animals and there was abundance of buffalo steak the rest of the voyage.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 101

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society Number of Pages: 1144

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 1144