Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 104

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

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democrat, and is about the only member of his party in his home Town of Westmoreland, New York. John J. Jones married Ruth Smith, who is also still alive at the age of ninety. She is of Revolutionary stock, daughter of Benjamin and Ellen (Griffith) Smith. Her father's uncle, George Smith, was a Revolutionary soldier, enlisting at Palentine Bridge, New York, and was with General Herkimer at the historic battle of Oriskany, the battlefield being marked by a monu- ment standing near the main line of the New York Central between Rome and Utica, New York. Ruth Smith was mother to a large family of children before she had children of her own, and from girl- hood her life has been one of service. She was one of fifteen children herself, and after her uncle was killed as a Mexican war soldier her father brought twelve of his brother's children into his home, and she discharged most of the responsibilities of rear- ing them as well as looking after her younger brothers and sisters. John J. Jones and wife, who have been Methodists in religious affiliation, were the parents of the following children: Melvina, who died unmarried; Margaret, widow of Albert Carroll, of New York City; Thomas R .; Gurney, of Utica, ' New York; and Walter, of Cleveland, Ohio.

Thomas R. Jones grew up on the large farm of his parents and lived at home to the age of nine- teen. He finished his education in the Union High School at Holland Patent, New York, and when he left the scenes of his home locality he came out to Minnesota and went to work as a fireman on the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba branch of the Great Northern Railway. After three years he was promoted to engineer, and was in the service of the company in that capacity during the construc- tion of the Great Northern into Montana. He was in charge of an engine hauling material from Minot to Butte, and from 1892 until 1913 was a passenger engineer, running on the Montana division, and in his experience covered practically all the lines of the system in this state. Beginning his work for the company in 1881, he was on duty almost con- secutively for thirty-two years, the only important interruptions being his confinement in hospital with a broken leg as the result of a wreck, and about eight months on leave.

During an active service of nearly a third of a century Mr. Jones naturally had various experiences and hazards, but one of the most interesting to the people of Montana was the train robbery pulled off by "Kid" Curry July 4, 1903, just east of Wagner, Montana. Mr. Jones was engineer of the train. Some miles before reaching that point a bandit came over the tender, ordering the engineer to stop at a certain point, and on reaching there two other men came out from under a bridge, and a fusilade of shots were sent down the side of the train, wound- ing two passengers and a brakeman. The engine crew were marched back to the express car, the mes- senger was brought out, and the safe was blown open with dynamite and $80,000 taken.

Mr. Jones was appointed registrar of the Glasgow Land Office in 1913 as successor to Truman M. Pat- ten, beginning his duties on the first of August. He was reappointed for his present term August 1, 1917. He cast his first presidential ballot for Grover Cleve- land at St. Vincent, Minnesota, and has never de- viated from the party faith thus established. At Glasgow May 1, 1902, he married Miss Maude Haw- thorne, the oldest of the four children of Mr. and Mrs. William Hawthorne. Mrs. Jones was born at Berry Island, Canada, November 17, 1884, and came to Montana from Jamestown, North Dakota.

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Mr. Jones is a past master of North Star Lodge No. 46, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Glas- gow, having served two terms in that office.

TRUMAN M. PATTEN is a civil engineer whose professional experience covers more than thirty years. He was an engineer on the survey and con- struction of several of the railroads of the North- west, and for a quarter of a century has been iden- tified with Valley County, Montana, where he has practiced his profession, served six years as the first registrar of the Glasgow Land Office and is also a former county treasurer.

Mr. Patten comes of an old Maine State family and was born at Bangor May II, 1861. His grand- father, William Patten, a native of Maine, was a farmer and married Abigail Whitney. They were the parents of fourteen children, and of the eight sons several were soldiers in the Civil war. Capt. William Patten, father of the Montana engineer, was born in the vicinity of Bangor and spent his active life as a farmer in Penobscot County. He was always interested in local politics as a demo- crat and late in life became affiliated with the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows. He was born in 1831 and died at the age of eighty-six. Captain Patten married Emeline Curtis, who died at the age of fifty-one. Her parents were Ebenezer and Sarah (Dingley) Curtis. The latter was a relative of Nelson Dingley, author of the Dingley Pass Bill. Captain Patten and wife were the parents of three children : Florence, who married Edgar Shaw and died in Maine; Truman M .; and Edmund P., of Bangor.

Truman M. Patten grew up on his father's farm, was well educated in local schools, and as a train- ing for his life work studied engineering in the University of Maine, graduating in June, 1883, at the age of twenty-two.

At that time the best opportunities for a civil en- gineer were in the West, where many new lines of railway were being projected. His first service was as a transit man with the Soo Line in the prelimi- nary survey between Minneapolis and Fargo and from Escanaba to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. He also did some of the preliminary work on the Mid- land Pacific Railway, though that road was never built, and was resident engineer on the construc- tion of the Yankton and Norfolk Railway. Begin- ning in 1890 Mr. Patten's headquarters were at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and from that city he came to Montana in 1896 and established his, office at Glasgow. For about a decade following he gave his professional service to land surveying, irrigation and reservoir work, surveying for private irrigation systems for ranchers and farmers along the Milk River and over Valley County, which then included all the territory from six miles west of Malta to the North Dakota line.

The Glasgow Land Office was opened in 1897, and as a man of admirable qualifications Mr. Patten was selected for the office of register, beginning his duties in June, 1907. He served as first term and half of the second four-year term and was suc- ceeded by the democratic incumbent. Upon him devolved the responsibility of opening the system of records and acting as custodian of all transac- tions affecting public lands in the region. The dis- trict at that time embraced all the territory ' east of the Dakota line, south to the Missouri River and as far west as Havre.

Leaving the office in 1913, Mr. Patten resumed his profession, and in 1914 was elected county treas- urer of Valley County, as successor of John C. Dun- can. He served two terms, four years, and since leaving the office of treasurer in March, 1919, has Vol. 111-24

devoted his time to his profession and also per- forms the duty of commissioner of streets in the City of Glasgow.

Mr. Patten also has a legislative record, having been elected in 1904 and again in 1906 as a member of the House in the Ninth and Tenth General As- semblies of Montana. He served under Speakers Willis Hedges and Ernest King, and his service was aimed for the general good of the state. He helped elect both Senators Carter and Dixon, and became well acquainted with the party leaders of the state. He has also served as a delegate in several repub- lican state conventions, and began his active repub- lican affiliation when he voted for James G. Blaine in 1884. He is a charter member of the Glasgow Commercial Club, is a Knight Templar Mason and affiliated with Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena.

At Newport, Maine, March 22, 1893, Mr. Patten married Miss Mary E. Whitney, of an old and prominent Maine family, and daughter of John F. and Victoria (Piper) Whitney. Mrs. Patten grad- uated from a high school in Exeter, New Hampshire, and for several years was a teacher in the schools of her native state. She was the oldest child of her parents, and her brother George C. Whitney is a resident of Malta, Montana, and her sister Miss Anna V. lives in Seattle, Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Patten have a son, Wendell W.

CHARLES F. TURNER. A better known citizen in Valley County it would be difficult to find than Charles F. Turner, the present county treasurer. For a number of years he was a traveling salesman all over this northwestern country, He also did his share of local development as a homesteader, and built the first frame shack in township 26, range 40 of Valley County.

Mr. Turner, who has found the Northwest an interesting theater of his activities and experiences for over twenty years, was born at Hartsgrove, Ash- tabula County, Ohio, November 17, 1862. His family went to the old Ohio Western Reserve from the vicinity of Windsor, Connecticut. His father, John Turner, died during the Civil war, in 1863, while foreman in the Government shops at Chattanooga, Tennessee. The mother of the Valley County treas- urer was Elizabeth Hurlbert Grant. She was born at Ashtabula. Her father had brought his family and possessions from Buffalo, New York, on a row boat which he paddled along the shores of Lake Erie. He located on the site of the famous Ash- tabula bridge disaster of 1876, when P. P. Bliss and hundreds of others lost their lives in a train wreck. Elizabeth Grant was liberally educated and was a teacher when a young woman. She was a Methodist and very outspoken in her abolition sen- timents. She expressed her feelings on slavery in open church, and was practically turned out of the congregation and in the very county where Benjamin Wade and Joshua Giddings, the great anti-slavery advocates, lived. She outlived the humiliation and disgrace of this act, as, in the words of her son Charles, "some folks now living will outlive the dis- grace of being a pioneer in the political reform work of the modern generation." John Turner and wife had twelve children, Charles F. being the youngest. His mother was forty-six years of age when he was born. Eight of these children reached mature years, and the five now living are: Orrin, of Hartsgrove, Ohio; Eugene, who was a pioneer settler at Fargo, North Dakota, saw the town grow up, burn down and grow up again, and is now living with his sister, Mrs. Belle Mclain, at Geneva, Ohio; Florence, widow of N. C. Morgan, who was prominent for many years in the official life of Fargo during terri-

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torial days, and she is now matron of the Fargo City Hospital; and Charles F.

Charles F. Turner grew up in Ashtabula county, attended the public schools and also the noted center of education known as the Grand River Institute at Austinburg. At the age of fourteen he was working as a clerk in a store at Austinburg. Having acquired a thorough business training, at the age of twenty- three he became a traveling salesman for the L. D. Mix Company, a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company. He sold oil in Buffalo, then over the western part of New York State, and on leaving that concern became traveling representative selling the goods of a pant and overall house at Erie, Pennsyl- vania, through Ohio and southern Michigan. That was his business for two years.

At the ontbreak of the Spanish-American war in 1898 Mr. Turner enlisted at Geneva, Ohio, in Com- pany E of the 5th Ohio Volunteers. This regiment rendezvoused at Columbus, went to Tampa, Flor- ida, and was scheduled as the second regiment to cross into Cuba. The colonel commanding the reg- iment was responsible for its failure to go over, and as a result of his mismanagement the troops re- mained at Tampa until the close of the war. Mr. Turner was mustered out as a private in the ranks at Cleveland.

It was after this military experience that Mr. Turner sought a new field in the west and coming out to North Dakota established a home at Fargo. There he was in the land business with Colonel Morton for a time and later with W. A. Scott. He then resumed work as a traveling salesman, sell- ing hardware for the Hall-Robertson Hardware Company of Fargo. He was with that company five years and for a similar time was with the Sim- mons Hardware Company at St. Louis. For the Hall-Robertson people he established and built up a large business over the territory around Minot, where he had his home and headquarters for three years. He continued selling ' hardware after he came to Montana until he left the road in response to a demand to become a candidate for county treasurer.

Mr. Turner came to Montana July 4, 1909, and at once undertook the improvement of his claim. He acquired title, and has made his half section into a valuable farm, now operated by tenants. Two hun- dred acres are under the plow and other improve- ments include a four-room cottage, shelters for stock, and the entire farm is fenced.

Mr. Turner was elected county treasurer of Val- ley County in 1918, succeeding Truman M. Patten. He was elected on the democratic ticket. In politics he has been a man of progressive views and has worked with the party which he felt most nearly expressed his individual sentiments. His first vote was cast for Mckinley as governor of Ohio. He declined to support Mckinley for president because of the results of the St. Louis convention and the class that ruled the republican party at that time.

At Geneva, Ohio, Mr. Turner married for his first wife Miss Letitia Knapp. She was the mother of the following children: Winona, wife of Charles Bristol, of Fargo, North Dakota; Ella May, wife of Ralph V. Russell, a farmer near the Turner farm in Valley County; Ethel Virginia, wife of James Palmer, of Fargo; and Laura, wife of Dr. Paul Taylor, of Butler, Pennsylvania. Mr. Turner mar- ried for his present wife Sarah Henrietta Propp, a native of Minnesota and a daughter of Lewis Propp, now of Seattle, Washington.

ALBERT M. STEVENSON. As there are few white men still living whose residence began on the Crow Reservation at an earlier date than Albert M. Steven-

son, so likewise there are perhaps none whose mem- ory of important affairs and developments on the res- ervation surpasses his. He was a witness and actor in the last outbreak of the Crow Indians, was an early range rider, for many years associated with the mercantile business both under the government and through his own initiative, and still takes an active and interested part in the affairs of Lodge- grass, his home town.

Mr. Stevenson was born in the university city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, October 4, 1866. His father, Dr. Samuel Stevenson, was a native of Canada, was educated in medicine at Ann Arbor, and afterwards removed to the southern line of Michigan and prac- ticed at Morenci from 1862 until his death in 1912 when about eighty-three years of age. Doctor Ste- venson married Sarah Babcock, a native of Ann Arbor. Her father Marvin Babcock in his time was well known for his scholarship, was a noted skeptic, and a lecturer on the subject of infidelity. The Ste- vensons and Babcocks were English, and the Bab- cocks were for many generations residents of New York State. A brother of Mrs. Dr. Stevenson was C. T. Babcock, prominent in the history of the Crow Indian Reservation of Montana, where he was the original post trader. Doctor and Mrs. Stephenson had three children: George B., who came out to Montana about three years before his brother Albert, was a clerk in the Babcock Indian store, but a few years later became a rancher near Red Lodge and subsequently removed to Canada and died in the Province of Alberta. The two younger children were Albert M. and Alberta M., the latter the wife of Edward Clark of Morenci, Michigan.

Albert M. Stevenson grew up at Morenci, attended public schools and the St. John High School. Before he had reached his majority he had become restless and discontented with the life of the placid country community in Michigan, and when he left home it was without the consent of his parents. The influ- ence that drew him to Montana was the presence here of his uncle Mr. Babcock and his brother George Stevenson. He did not inform his parents of his address until he was located on the Crow Reservation.

Mr. Stevenson reached the Crow Agency April 1, 1887, and has lived here for a third of a century. He was given employment by C. T. Babcock, and a few months later he was in the midst of the climax of the difficulties when the last outbreak of the Crow Indians occurred. The Indians, says Mr. Stevenson, had been annoyed by the loss of stock at the hands of the Pegan Indians. They threatened to retaliate by leaving the reservation and stealing some horses from their enemies and otherwise pun- ishing them. Mr. Williams, the southern agent of the Crows, forbade their leaving the reservation, some of the warriors disobeyed, stole some of the stock and killed two of the squaws of the Pegans. It was the threatened arrest of the warriors by the agent that brought affairs to a climax. Members of the tribe began preparations for a battle that would wipe out the agent, whites and all other in- truders. Suspicion was aroused because of the sudden demand for cartridges at the post store. Albert Stevenson was waiting on the line of braves in the store, accepting the silver money of the Indians for cartridges. His brother was standing behind the counter loading his own rifle, and quickly realizing the meaning of the purchases he swept all the car- tridges on the counter off behind it and ordered the Indians to file outside. When they were out the store doors were barricaded with barrels of sugar, and all was put in readiness for the siege. The Crows at once began the attack on the store firing

a.m.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

several shots, though no one was hit. Albert Steven- son suddenly realized that ten thousand cartridges were stored in the barn within plain view of the red men. He volunteered to leave the store and go to the barn. The Indians grabbed him as soon as he dropped from a window to the ground, but he explained that he was going out to feed the horses. The Indians were distracted by something going on at the agent's office and all ran in that direction. Reaching the barn Mr. Stevenson poured several sacks of oats over the cartridges hiding them com- pletely, and they laid there for several weeks un- molested. Later in the week a party of soldiers arrived, and a brief battle was fought just behind where the Indian schools stand. A few were killed by the gatling gun, and the rest gave up the fight. Some of the leaders of the insurrection were rounded up and sent to Leavenworth as punishment, and a few became so obstreperous that they were sent on south to Florida where they served their time. Finally all were released and returned home and it is believed that all have now disappeared except "Knows his Coos."

After a few years Mr. Stevenson left the store and engaged in range riding on the reservation. Among the several cattle outfits then doing business there were the Ox Yoke, the Quarter Circle Oz, P. B. Wear of Chicago, the 7 bar 7 of Paul Mc- Cormick of Billings, the I D, the Crow Indian brand, and during the few years he was on the range Mr. Stevenson was employed by several of these concerns.

His next venture was to purchase the stock of W. H. Simonds and engage in merchandising at Lodgegrass. Later he bought the business of George H. Pease, combining the stocks, and thus continued on a large and profitable scale of business since 1902. He has outlived any other white man in business in this place, and only three or four men on the reservation have had a longer residence, those around Lodgegrass who have been here longer be- ing Major Pease, Barney Prevo and George P. Deputee.

For nine years Mr. Stevenson was Indian trader under permit from the Government. At the end of that time he bought forty acres, established his. busi- ness on the land, erecting a store, and has since sold goods without a Government license. His brick store was built in 1911. The tract he purchased has been platted, and from its lots he has donated for church and school sites. He has been a member of the school district board. He established the first electric light plant in the town, and continued the service until his dynamo became too small for the purpose. He has also been interested in the live- stock industry, with ranch holdings adjacent to Lodgegrass. His cattle and horses are run under the brand "Quarter Circle VT" and "A bar Y." He has sent shipments of stock to market both at Omaha and Chicago.

Mr. Stevenson is a director of the First National Bank of Lodgegrass, being one of the charter mem- bers of the bank. He is a stockholder in the Hardin State Bank and the Yellowstone Packing Company of Billings. During the World war he was post- master of Lodgegrass and assumed many respon- sibilities for keeping up the patriotic record of his home community, helping sell bonds and other gov- ernment securities.

At Billings, Montana, November 7, 1898, Mr. Stevenson married Miss Hester Mckinley. She was born near Red Cloud, Nebraska, October 21, 1878, daughter of Oliver P. and Nancy Jane (Bennett) Mckinley. She was educated at Pana, Illinois, and came to Montana in 1896. Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson

have two children, Samuel M. and Marjorie. Samuel, who spent a year in the Bozeman Agricultural Col- lege, is a farmer near Lodgegrass, married Miss Rena Benbrook. Marjorie completed her high school education at Sheridan and also attended a business college at Fremont, Nebraska.

JUDGE HENRY CLEVELAND HALL, judge of the Seventeenth Judicial District of Montana, is a na- tive son of Montana, having been born at Butte October 13, 1892, a son of John Henry Hall. His paternal grandparents, natives of the North of Ire- land, came to America at an early day, locating at Toronto, Canada. They had three sons and two daughters.

John Henry Hall was born at Toronto, Canada, and when he was fifteen years old began to be self- supporting, at that early age entering the employ of the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company. While still little more than a youth he came to the United States, and entering the service of the Great North- ern Railroad Company, he was one of its first pas- senger conductors, and remained with this road as long as he was a railroad man. In the early nineties he left the railroad service, located at. Great Falls, Montana, and embarked in the real estate business, which he conducted very profitably. In 1909 Gov- ernor Edwin L. Norris appointed Mr. Hall deputy state game warden, and he held that office until he was appointed state commissioner of agriculture and labor, and in that connection made such an enviable record that he was elected a member of the State Board of Railroad Commissioners, taking charge of his duties in January, 1913, and retiring in January, 1919. During a portion of the time he was on the Board of Commissioners and he was its chairman. In politics he was a democrat and always took a very active part in local and state affairs. Well known in Masonry, he was past eminent commander of the Montana State Grand Commandery, and past potentate of Algeria Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

Mr. Hall was married to Marie Antoinette Cleve- land, a daughter of John Cleveland, of Wisconsin. Mrs. Hall was born at Columbus, Wisconsin, and survives her husband, being now a resident of Mon- tana. Mr. and Mrs. Hall had two children: Judge Hall, and a daughter, Doris Antoinette. John Henry Hall died in Portland, Oregon, August 12, 1919, when fifty-six years old, and during his brief span of life accomplished much and at his death was probably one of the best known men in Montana.

Judge Hall was reared at Great Falls, Montana, and attended its schools and the Helena High School, and after being graduated from the latter he matriculated in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, from which he was graduated in 1914 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Immediately thereafter he formed a partnership with Messrs. Norris and Hurd at Havre, Montana, under the caption of Norris, Hurd & Hall, and was in charge of the Havre office. On September 6, 1919, he was appointed to the bench of the Seventeenth Judicial District by Governor Stewart, succeeding Judge Hurley, and is the youngest jurist of Mon- tana. On September 13, 1919, following his appoint- ment, Judge Hall established his home at Glasgow, and heard his first case in this city.

Judge Hall is a veteran of the great war, having entered the army August 14, 1918, and was trained at Fort Missoula, Fort Worden, Washington, and at Pennfield, Texas. He was in the Coast Artillery, and reached France the day the armistice was signed, November 11, 1918. Judge Hall was dis- charged from the service at Fort Logan, near Den-

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 104

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