Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 121

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 121

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PAUL CRUM has been one of the busy lawyers of Northeastern Montana for seven years, and has handled a large share of the law business origin- ating in and around the Town of Scobey, where he located in 1913.

Mr. Crum, who before becoming a lawyer achieved an interesting military record, was born at Andover, New York, August 6, 1880. His father, Taylor Crum, represented an old New York State family,

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was reared and educated there, attended a normal school and also studied law. Moving to Dakota Territory, he first settled at Buffalo, later was a teacher and principal of the Fargo schools, and after admission to the bar became a pioneer lawyer of Fargo and has had an active career in that city for forty years. In early life he was a democrat, an ardent supporter of Bryan, but in later years has become converted to republican policies. Tay- lor Crum married Helen Bixby, who was born in New York State, a daughter of Simon and Phila (Lake) Bixby. She died at Santa Cruz, California, in 1884, when Paul was only four years of age. Her three sons are: Dr. Colon Crum of Fargo; Paul; and Leon of Zion City, Illinois.

Paul Crum from the age of four years lived in Santa Cruz, California, in the home of his maternal grandparents. He was there three years, later re- joining his father in North Dakota, and finished his education in the Fargo High School.

He was not eighteen years of age when the Span- ish-American war broke out in 1898. He endeav- ored to enlist but was rejected on account of his youth. He was not to be denied the privilege of serving as a soldier, and he beat his way to San Francisco, shipped as a sailor on the bark Andrew Welch, left the ship at Honolulu, where he was taken in by the Provisional Company C of the First Nebraska Infantry recruits, and was carried as a stowaway with them to Manila on the trans- port Hancock. At the outbreak of the Filipino insurrection February 4, 1899, he was permitted by Captain E. C. Geary to serve as a private in Com- pany B, First North Dakota Volunteer Infantry. He left that company March 28th and was per- mitted by Lieutenant Sherman A. White to serve as a private with Company E, First Nebraska United States Volunteers, on the north line. He returned with that company to San Francisco Au- gust 1, 1899. Mr. Crum was a participant in the engagements from Manila to Marilao, thence to Santa Tomas May 4, 1899, and was on the firing line eight times with the First Nebraska and three times with the North Dakota troops. He went through the campaign without wounds.

In consideration of his voluntary service an act of congress was passed and approved May 22, 1902, found in. the records as Private Bill No. 700 en- titled : "An Act to Place the Name of Paul Crum on the Muster Rolls of Company B, First Regi- ment, North Dakota Volunteer Infantry," under the terms of which act he is given credit for serv- ice as a private with said North Dakota Company from February 3, 1899, to March 28, 1899, as though he had been regularly enlisted and discharged. This official recognition by the Government places him among the veterans of the Filipino insurrection and entitles him to all the privileges and immunities of veterans or soldiers regularly enlisted in that war. As a result of that service he has been honored with the office of Commander of Selmer Oie Post No. 173, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.

On coming to Montana Mr. Crum performed his first legal services for the firm of Daniels & Tim- mons, at the old Town of Scobey. He opened his law office in the new Town of Scobey in 1913 and has handled a growing general practice and col- lection work. He took advantage of the opportu- nity presented for acquiring free homes, entering a claim a few miles west of Scobey. He began with the usual frame shanty, and has kept up his work there until the land is substantially improved. He occupied it for his home for a year after acquiring title. In other ways he has been identified with the movements which have had the good of Scobey

in view. He served as secretary and director of the farmers' elevator since 1914, and is chairman of the Board of Trustees of School District No. I. He cast his first presidential vote for Mr. Bryan, but in 1916 supported Mr. Hughes and has since acted with the republican party. In 1908 he was made a Mason at Minnewaukon, North Dakota, and is a member of the lodge.

December 5, 1908, at Tacoma, Washington, Mr. Crum married Miss Ingrid Kirkeberg. Her par- ents were Gunder and Gunhild (Wold) Kirkeberg, the former of Norwegian parentage and the latter a native of Norway and now living at Eugene, Oregon. Her father was a merchant at Cummings, North Dakota. Mrs. Crum, who is the second in a family of six children, attended the Fargo High School, the Mayville Normal School in North Da- kota, and was successfully identified with teaching in North Dakota and Tacoma and Olympia, Wash- ington, until her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Crum have four children: Stephen, Irma, Helen and Tay- lor, Jr.

JUSTICE LINCOLN WILSON. The lives of those about us prove the truth of the old assertion that "the race is not always to the swift," and that there is really no honorable "short cuts" to fortune. The wealthy ranchmen of Montana know this to be true, and many of them who several decades ago were only cowboys at $40 a month have, through the hardest labor and the exercise of sound com- mon sense, acquired their present possessions. One of them, Justice Lincoln Wilson, proprietor of the "W Bar" ranch in Powder River County, five miles up the river from Broadus, the county seat of the newly created county, now owns the lands once the property of a cattle company for which he punched cattle in the pioneer days, and he is prob- ably the last man they would have picked from their employes to achieve the success which has come to him. He has not leaped into prominence, but worked hard for all he possesses, and knows how to increase his production and to turn his atten- tion to the lines for which his ranch and locality are best suited.

Justice Lincoln Wilson was born at Fort Wayne, Indiana, November 22, 1860, a son of John Tolburt and Hannah D. (Jones) Wilson, natives of In- diana, the former coming of Welsh stock and the latter of English. In 1863 the family migrated to Marshall County, Iowa, and became farmers and sheep growers. The father died and is buried at Le Grande, Iowa. The widowed mother took her children to Nebraska in the early '70s, and there they became cattle raisers and farmers. While John T. Wilson was not himself in the service of his country during the war between sections. he had three sons who wore the "blue," and all of them lived to return home, marry and rear fami- lies. His children were as follows: Lydia, who married John Yarger, died on Powder River; Charles G., who died at Grand Island, Nebraska; John, who died at Elk City, Oklahoma; Jacob C .. who lives in Alberta, Colorado; William, who is a ranchman on Powder River; Harlow, who lives at Hastings, Iowa; Edmund, who died at Hastings, Nebraska; Harriet, who lives at Alberta, Colorado, is the wife of Washington McDonald; Justice Lin- coln, whose name heads this review; and Nellie, who married James Duncan, of Thorpe, Washington.

Justice Lincoln Wilson when he reached his ma- jority found himself possessed of but a very lim- ited education, "hard knocks" having been his chief school of experience, but he is one of those men who possessess native ability and is a good judge

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

of men, so that this lack has not bothered him to any great extent. When he was married he had practically nothing, and he reached Montana the owner of a mule team and a span of colts. He and his wife drove through the Black Hills country, and on July 16, 1882, crossed Powder River. They were accompanied by the old buffalo hunter Bill Knowles, who subsequently became the proprietor of the Chico Hot Springs, and this crossing of the river was made at what later became the site of the Knowles cabin.

After a few days of rest, for the trip had been a long and tiresome one from Hastings, Nebraska to Montana, Mr. Wilson went to work for Frewin Brothers, who were establishing a ranch at the mouth of Bitter Creek on Powder River and open- ing up in the horse and mule business. This whole region up and down the river was as wild as na- ture could make it. Buffalo and other big wild game were plentiful, and for some time after the arrival of the Wilsons these animals roamed at will over the prairies and grazed on the hills and in the valleys. In the fall of 1882 Mr. Wilson moved to Miles City for the winter, and assisted in the con- struction work on the courthouse and poorhouse, hauling with his own team. The following summer he returned to Powder River, and went to work for "Zeke" Newman, owner of the "N Bar" ranch. He took a hay contract on both Powder River and Mizpah Creek, cutting and putting up hay, follow- ing this work by employment by the month. That same fall he invested his savings in a few head of cattle, for which he paid less than $20 each.

After another year with the "N Bar" ranch he took his stock to the big spring at the head of the Big Pumpkin Creek, and after squatting there for about twelve years, after the Government survey was made, he found that this was a pre-emption claim. He entered it, proved it up and patented it, and lived upon it until 1893, when he entered his home- stead on Powder River and moved to his present ranch. His pioneer Montana home was at the Big Spring, the old home of C. O. Mason, who had come into Montana with him. This was a three- room log house and is still standing. When removal was made to the new home, a one-room cotton- wood log cabin was erected, and it has been incor- porated in the present commodious ranch house, built later on.

In 1893 Mr. Wilson changed from cattle to sheep, but has of recent years resumed his connection with the cattle industry, and now practically confines himself to the latter. Owing to the closing of the open range and the introduction of barbed wire it was not possible to handle sheep as he had done. During 1882 and 1883 the "N Bar" Company stocked its ranch with some of the best blooded range cat- tle ever brought to the state, driven in here from Oregon and Washington. This company lost con- siderably during the severe winter of 1886, and their ranch and all the land to which they held title sub- sequently fell into the hands of "Link" Wilson. Mr. Wilson began "scripping" land soon after 1900, and has acquired other possessions from time to time until his is one of the large stock concerns along Powder River, and he owns other ranch prop- erties in Powder River County. The "W Bar" brand is his chief one and the one which is pe- culiarly his. He began shipping to Omaha and Chicago markets at an early day, and the Burling- ton, Northern Pacific and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul roads know him well as one of the heavy stock shippers. His ranch is about ninety miles from any of these roads.

The stock business, however, has not always

shown Mr. Wilson its velvet side, for in the fall of 1886, owing to the long protracted drought, he had to move his cattle to Sheridan, Wyoming, in order to save them from perishing and to pass them through the uncertain weather of the coming win- ter. Feed was plentiful in that part of Wyoming, while in the Powder River country everything was parched and dried. Although he lost heavily, he saved much by that move. The pioneer cattle man had to contend with the extremely low prices which proved a veritable scourge, he in 1893 selling his entire bunch for $16.50 a head. In 1918 he received 161/4 cents a pound for his cattle. The lowest price he received for his wool was 672 cents per pound, and his highest price for the clip was received in 1917, it then being 54 cents per pound. His ranch is now running more cattle than ever before.

Coming to Montana when it was full of game, Mr. Wilson is proud of the fact that he was never guilty of slaughtering the wild animals for the sport of it. He used to protest to the game warden against the practice of hunters from distant cities coming into the region and killing off the game, but did not appear to be able to stop the practice. As a result of this wholesale killing practically all of the animals are now extinct in Montana, although a very few deer and antelope remain. Until April, 1919, Mr. Wilson's interests were centered in Cus- ter County, but with the setting aside of a portion of that region for the formation of a new county his ranch comes into the new one, and he is now a resident of Powder River County.

On January 28, 1882, Justice Lincoln Wilson was united in marriage near Hastings, Nebraska, to Margaret Duncan, a daughter of Patrick Duncan. Born in Ireland of Scotch parents, Patrick Duncan came to the United States and lived in Illinois at the time of his marriage, and spent some time near Carroll and at Chicago, that state. In the early 'jos he migrated to Nebraska, and was one of the first settlers of Adams County, Nebraska, where he died when about ninety years old. His chil- dren were as follows: John, who lives at Roseland, Nebraska; Julia, who married John Woods and died on Powder River; William, who lives at Rose- land, Nebraska; Mary, who never married, and died at Roseland, Nebraska; Catherine, who married Edward Wilson, a brother of Justice Lincoln Wil- son; Ellen, who married James Bovard, and lives at Ayr, Nebraska; Mrs. Wilson, who was born October 26, 1863; Anna, who married Lee Arnold of Roseland, Nebraska; and Eugene, who died at Roseland, Nebraska.

Mr. and Mrs. Wilson became the parents of the following children: Ernest Lee, who was the first white child to be born in this region, is inter- ested with his father in business; Ray, who is also engaged in ranching, married Bernice Ludolph, a daughter of George Ludolph, and has a son, Philip Raymond; Alta, who was married to Herman Mc- Cutchen, of Greeley, Colorado, has two daughters, Margaret and Louise; and Helen, who married Mel- ville Mccutchen, a soldier of the National Army during the great war. It is interesting to note that Mrs. Wilson was for some time the only white woman in the Powder River country, and her ex- periences during those early days were varied. It took a woman of unusual character and patience to brave the hardships and discomforts of pioneer life, but she feels repaid for all she underwent when she realizes the success which has come to them and the future this great state provides for her children. Mr. Wilson has been so occupied with his private affairs that he has taken but little part in politics, although always a republican, but

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his interest has been so aroused by the importance of recent measures and the trend of events that he will enter more actively into public affairs, and probably will develop into as potent a factor in them as he has become in the stock business of this part of the state.

JOHN C. ANDERSON, a ranchman on Otter Creek in the Ashland community, has been identified with the locality for a quarter of a century, but knew Montana many years before by association with it from an adjoining state. He came into the West in 1881 as a youth of sixteen years and began his connection with the cattle business on "the Loup" in Nebraska, where he spent two years with Harris Brothers, well known to that region as ranchmen, his duties including round-up work and riding the range. When he left that locality Mr. Anderson removed to Cheyenne, Wyoming, by train and hired out to the Tillotsons of the "Fiddle Back" outfit on the Cheyenne River. This was sixty miles north of Fort Fetterman, the postoffice of the ranch and Mr. Anderson here did the same work that had engaged his activities therefore and continued to be so employed until 1892.

In 1892 Mr. Anderson came into Montana and went to work for W. W. Terrett on Beaver Creek, Custer County, spending a year with that old-time ranchman. He then went into the service of Cap- tain Howes on the "Circle Bar" ranch on Otter Creek, and was a hand about the place for two summers, spending his winters doing the initial work of proving up his own homestead. His wife began working with him as a housekeeper on the Terrett ranch, and occupied the same position with Captain Howes during the time her husband was working there. For several years after he entered his land Mr. Anderson continued range work for others while his wife took charge of their own new home and looked after their little bunch of cattle. "Kid" Anderson contributed toward the social side of life in the early years along Otter Creek. He handled a banjo well and played "second" to Charley Thex, the violinist, at dances for thirty miles around his home, and the money this little orchestra thus earned added much to the comforts of two Otter Creek ranchmen who have since achieved financial independence.

Mr. Anderson entered a quarter section of land on Otter Creek, and the first home erected for his reception was built on the banks of the creek. It comprised two rooms, now a part of the family residence, and his children were all born under that roof. Mr. Anderson began his career as a stock grower and breeder as a Hereford man, and has been breeding them for twenty-five years. While he has handled this brand for so many years, it has been but recently that he has brought in the first Polled male Hereford with the intention of breeding the Polled Hereford stock. His expe- rience leads him to the conviction that this breed of cattle is better for range purposes than any other with which he has had an experience, and he feels that they develop with less trouble and on less feed than the Durham especially, which is a popu- lar beef animal in the West. His recorded brand is the "Diamond Bar" on the left hip.

Mr. Anderson has been an active factor on the ranch here since he entered his claim except for six years when he was inspector for the Montana Stock Growers' Association. He did inspection work for five years at Sioux City, lowa, and one season at the Chicago Union Stock Yards and spent a year also on the range as an inspector for the Custer County Protective Association. While he was absent from

his ranch Mrs. Anderson took charge of its affairs and looked after all the details as successfully as he would have done himself. From his homestead Mr. Anderson has developed a ranch of 1,320 acres, little of which is farmed save for the purpose of hay and feed. As a county man in old Custer County he was deputy sheriff two terms under Sheriff Le Valley. He is a republican in politics and his first presidential vote was cast in Montana fol- lowing the admission of the state to the Union.

John C. Anderson is' a native of Washington County, Kentucky, born near Springfield, June 2, 1865, and his boyhood environment. was the farm. His school days were short and his education came as a result of his experience on the Wyoming range. He studied during the winters while with the "Fid- dle Back" outfit, and made up somewhat for the educational loss he had sustained as a boy. He left home as a child, being only fourteen years of age when he went to St. Louis, and became a boot- black on the streets. When he left that he went to Macon County, Illinois, and spent two seasons as a farm hand. While there he decided to come into the West, and enroute he met one of the Harris brothers, before mentioned, and hired to him, thus beginning his western career.

Mr. Anderson's father was Thaddeus Anderson, a native of Washington County, Kentucky, who was a distiller in early life and a farmer later, and a man who lived a private life. He died at about fifty years of age and left a widow, formerly Miss Lucy Badgett, who still survives at Springfield, Kentucky. There were three children in the fam- ily: Hardin, who died at Louisville, Kentucky ; John C., who because of his stature and youth be- came known as "Kid;" and Logan, of Springfield, Kentucky.

John C. Anderson was married in Vigo County, Indiana, February 22, 1889, to Miss Martha E. Rice. Mrs. Anderson was born in Washington County, Kentucky, in September, 1872, a daugh- ter of Luther and Martha (Brady) Rice. The Rice's moved into Macon County, Illinois, in the early 'zos, and Mrs. Anderson grew up near De- catur, that state, where she secured a liberal educa- tion and spent her girlhood largely on the farm. She and Mr. Anderson had the following issue : Claude, who is ranching near his father, spent a year with the colors in France as a member of the Seventy-first Coast Artillery, took part in the Argonne Forest campaign and was honorably dis- charged from the service in March, 1919; Estella, the wife of Loren Daily, a farmer on the east fork of Otter Creek; Jesse, who is a factor on the ranch of his father; and Lucy, the youngest child, who is still attending school.

CHARLES HOUSTON THEX, a well known and pros- perous ranchman on Upper Otter Creek, has been a resident of this state since 1888. Prior to this, however, he had visited Montana, as in 1877 he had come to the then territory as a cowboy with a herd of cattle from Parker County, Texas, with Rapid City, South Dakota, as his destination, and when his work in this connection was ended he prospected Montana along the Little Missouri and the Little Powder rivers almost to the Big Powder for a lo- cation. He had been many years on the Texas range and was seeking range work in this northern region, but was too early for the cattle business here. The country was full of game and hunting was good, but he was not looking for that kind of sport, and, seeing the situation, returned to Texas as he had come up, on horseback, finding employment for a few years with the Matador Land and Cattle Com-

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pany and then going to the Indian Territory look- ing for like work. He found it with Drum & Sny- der on the Cimarron and the Medicine rivers, but in 1888 decided to return to Montana to settle and took the train instead of a broncho, coming from Kiowa, Kansas, to Miles City and arriving in May of the year noted.

Mr. Thex was still seeking ranch work and be- came employed by a Mr. Wallop on a horse ranch- on the head of Otter Creek. The next year he changed to the "Circle Bar," also on Otter Creek, and spent seven summers with this outfit, gathering up a bunch of cattle for himself during this time. When he started his own ranch on Otter Creek he took his homestead here, a quarter section of land where his improvements are located, and later desert land was taken, which increased his holdings to 540 acres. For his improvements Mr. Thex started his own home in his three-room frame house, one of the very few of this character of homes in this country, and this has been added to and de- veloped into his present seven-room home. He was then a married man and his wife has been as impor- tant a factor in the development of the Thex ranch as has her husband.

Mr. Thex started in with a bunch of maverick cattle, thirty in number, which Levi and Gus Howe sold him at $11 a head. Such cattle now, in 1919, bring a price of $55 a head. His brand is "ThEX" and he is handling beef cattle and marketing them as a shipper to Omaha. Mr. Thex came into this region and found it without schools. He furnished the money which built the first schoolhouse in District No. 32 and has been one of its trustees. He has never "fooled with politics a little bit," but votes when elections are held and has served on the elec- tion board, and when national issues are at stake votes the republican ticket.

Charles Houston Thex was born near Jefferson in Marion County, Texas, September 30, 1860. He grew up there until fourteen years of age, and got his "seven days" school there under the instruction of a one-armed ex-Confederate soldier who was more cruel than considerate with the boys under his charge. Mr. Thex had been fighting on the wharf with other boys as a pastime before entering school, and belonged to the Kelleyite faction in opposition to the "Wharf Rats," and a kid war was carried on between the two factions. When in school and dangling his bare feet with a boy companion from one of the old-fashioned benches the boys were suddenly surprised by the whack of the teacher's hickory across their bare legs. Young Thex imme- diately bolted and the teacher after him, but he was never overtaken and this incident graduated him from that school. Subsequently, and while a cow- boy in the Panhandle region of Texas, he bought books and studied during the winters for several years and acquired thus a good common school education.

Mr. Thex's father was Frank Thex, who went into Texas with his father, Sampson Thex, and settled just north of Jefferson, where they were farmers and stockmen. Sampson Thex lived to be 117 years old and died at Linville in the Lone Star State. He was a soldier of the War of 1812 and in the Mexican war, and also fought against the Seminole Indians. He married a Miss Cutbirth, and their two children were William and Frank. Frank Thex was born in either Kentucky or Ten- nessee and married Mary Cutbirth, a daughter of Daniel Cutbirth, who married a sister of Daniel Boone. Mr. Thex spent his life in Texas after having settled there, sided with the Union during the Civil war, and refugeed up the Mississippi River,

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 121

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