Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 123

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 123

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Mr. Carmony on coming to Montana bought an interest in the Joliet State Bank, and served as its vice president until January, 1913, since which date he has been president. The other officers are L. L. Seright, vice president, and E. L. Marvin, cashier. This was established as a state bank in 1907, and has a capital of $25,000 and surplus of $10,000. Mr. Carmony also owns 160 acres of land in Dewey County, Oklahoma, and has a modern home at Joliet.

His fellow citizens at Joliet have shown their confidence in his ability in several ways. For two years he was a member of the city council and was elected mayor in April, 1919. He is a republi- can, is affiliated with Carbon Lodge No. 65, Ancient Free and Acceped Masons, and with Joliet Lodge No. 77 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Mr. Carmony married in Carbon County, Mon- tana, in 1910 Miss Celma C. Celander, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Celander. Her parents are residents of Carbon County, where her father has been a ranch owner for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Carmony have one danghter, born June 24, IQII.

SAMUEL EDWARD HUDSON, one of the prosperous ranchmen on the upper Mizpah Creek, represents one of the more recent additions to the ranching interests of Montana, for he has only been identified with them since the early years of the present cen- tury, but during the years he has been here he has made rapid progress. He was born in Williamson County, Texas, September 23, 1890, and was reared in Oklahoma, the Panhandle of Texas and Mon- tana, his father, Christopher C. Hudson, moving about from place to place in search of a permanent location that suited him. When Samuel Edward Hudson was thirteen years old his father came to Montana and took up a ranch near that of the old pioneer, Michael Gilmore, on Mizpah Creek, em- barked in the cattle business and there he died in 1916, aged fifty-six years. He had had a varied experience as a ranchman, leaving Kentucky in boy- hood for Texas and for a time lived in William- son County near Taylor, being engaged in farm- ing upon an extensive scale, the rich, black loam being productive of large crops. From there he went into Indiana Territory, now Oklahoma, near Chickasha, where he was engaged in ranching. Once more he chose Texas, and spent ten years in Lis- comb County in the Panhandle, from whence he migrated to Montana.

Upon reaching Montana he recorded the brand "R-W" on the left ribs, and his stock continued under it and his son, Samnel E. Hudson, is using it today. The desert claim he entered on Mizpah Creek constituted his deeded land, and he operated upon a modest scale, only occasionally shipping his stock. He lived quietly and his public service was limited to his casting his vote on election day, which was with the democrats in national affairs. A man of frail constitution, his life was one of suffering and death came as a relief. He was a farmer's son and received but a limited education. His father, Columbus Hudson, was a farmer and

distiller, and he and his wife had three sons and a daughter.

The schooling of Samuel E. Hudson was also a limited one as to books, but he was well trained in the details of ranching and when he began busi- ness on his own account knew just how to con- · duct it successfully. When still a child he began riding the range, and the handling of stock is sec- ond nature to him. His first business venture was handling and speculating in horses, and he became a shipper and local salesman, and continued in that line for eight years. He then took a claim and developed a small ranch on the Mizpah, which he still regards as his home, but in March, 1916, he purchased the stock and leased the old McAlister ranch, where his chief enterprise is carried on. His brands beside that of his father are "T-3," "EK," "AV" and "FE," and "V Crossbar," which came to him with the McAlister ranch. His cattle are the White Face and Durham strains and as a beef pro- ducer his enterprise is a leading factor along Miz- pah Creek. Horse ranching is also carried on, the standard bred and thoroughbreds being chief among his stock, and his markets are found in St. Louis, Missouri and the Eastern states. The years of the recent war have given an added stimulus to his industries, and horses have been grown under fa- vorable financial conditions. His horses are run under some of the brands popular and common to his ranch. *

On May 25, 1916, Samuel E. Hudson was mar- ried to Mildred McAlister, a daughter of William and Epsie (Sanderson) McAlister. The Epsie post- office was named after Mrs. McAlister. Mr. Mc- Alister came to Montana from Oregon, where Mrs. Hudson was born on February 23, 1898, and she is the only child of her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Hud- son have a son, Samuel Thomas, who was born March 22, 1917. Mr. Hudson does not belong to any fraternities. While he is registered he has never voted, as it has happened that his business affairs have prevented his going to the polls. How- ever, he shows an intelligent interest in local mat- ters and will support measures looking to a further development of this region.

JOHN BLATCHFORD COLLINS for over a third of a century has been a resident of Montana, has gained a prominence in business and public affairs, and as a resident of Miles City was a leader in all patriotic projects launched in that section of the state during the World war.

Mr. Collins was born at Quincy, Illinois, Sep- tember 7, 1853, though at the time his parents were living in St. Louis, Missouri. His ancestry is of old and prominent New England stock. He is descended from John Collins, a settler in Massachusetts during the seventeenth century. In a later generation the Collins family intermarried with the Morris family, and the record of hoth those families include soldiers of the American Revolution. Amos Morris Collins, grandfather of the Miles City business man, was for many years in the wholesale dry goods business at Hartford, Connecticut, served as mavor of that city, and his remains are buried there. He married a Miss Lyman, and they were the parents of six children.

The second child was Morris Collins, who was born in Massachusetts but was reared at Hartford, Connecticut. About 1849 he established his home in St. Louis and was a successful manufacturer of lead pipe and sheet lead. His last years were spent at Jacksonville, Illinois, where he died in 1873. hnt he was laid to rest in St. Louis. During the Civil war

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Morris Collins was associated with the Mississippi Valley Sanitary Commission, which in that war did the work performed in recent wars by the Red Cross and other auxiliary organizations. Morris Collins married Martha Wicks Blatchford, a daughter of Rev. Dr. John Blatchford of New York, a prom- inent Presbyterian minister who was the first or- dained minister of that church in Chicago. John Blatchford Collins was the oldest of the seven chil- dren of his parents, and the only other one now living is Miss Alice Blatchford Collins of Pasadena, California.

John Blatchford Collins acquired a thorough and liberal education. His parents were strongly Union in their sympathies and just before the Civil war the mother and the children moved out of the un- congenial southern surroundings in St. Louis to Hartford, Connecticut, where John B. Collins at- tended private boarding school. Later in St. Louis he was a student in the City University, and after the family moved to Jacksonville, Illinois, he attended the high school there. He was also a student in the Riverview Military Academy in Poughkeepsie. New York, and finished his education in Illinois College at Jacksonville.

For a year after leaving school he employed his time in building up his health, and then took his place in the wholesale dry goods house of Dodd, Brown & Company at St. Louis. He served that firm until 1873, when he engaged in independent business as a commission man handling pig iron and iron ore, as member of the firm Spooner & Col- lins. The firm failed in 1879, and Mr. Collins then sought other associations. For about two years he continued alone in the same business, and then re- moved to Chicago and conducted a commission busi- ness along the same lines.

In 1883 Mr. Collins and his brother, Amos Morris Collins, came out to Montana for the purpose of en- tering the cattle business. They failed to make the arrangements they desired, and while his brother returned home John Blatchford Collins made the choice which cast his lot permanently with the destiny of Montana. His first connection here at Miles City was as assistant postmaster under Maj. N. Burkhardt. He discharged these duties two or three years and then became manager of the mercantile house of Capt. William Harmon, with which he remained three years. Following that he was clerk to William Courtney in the real estate and insurance business, and in 1892 began his active political service as private secretary to Thomas H. Carter, commissioner of the General Land Office at Washington. With the change in national adminis- tration Mr. Carter resigned and took the chairman- ship of the National Republican Committee, Mr. Collins then returning to Miles City.

Here he formed a partnership with C. B. Towers in the livestock, real estate and insurance business. under the name Towers & Company, a firm that did an extensive business until 1808. That year Mr. Collins left to accept the office of superintendent of the Federal Forest Reserve in Montana, with headquarters at Missoula. He had the interesting and heavy responsibilities of superintending the For- est Reserve at Missoula until 1901, when he resigned and re-entered the livestock commission business at Helena. In 1903, to henefit his wife's health, he removed to Forsyth. After her death he continued the real estate and insurance business there until 1905, when he once more returned to Miles City and this has been his home for the past fifteen years. Mr. Collins does an extensive business in real estate and fire insurance, is also a notary public,

and is United States commissioner for the District of Montana.

For nearly thirty years he has been one of the leading men of influence in the republican party in Montana. He served as secretary of the Republi- can State Central Committee by selection of the party convention in 1901 for about three years, has been chairman of the Custer County Republican Committee two or more terms, and a frequent dele- gate to state conventions. In 1914 he was elected to represent Custer County in the Lower House, serving in the fourteenth session, and in 1918 was elected to the Sixteenth Legislature. During the fourteenth session he was on the committees of education, insurance, new counties and divisions, state institutions, public buildings and grounds. That was a democratic Legislature, and his influence therefore was in the minority. During the six- teenth session he was assigned by the republican speaker to the chairmanship of the committee on insurance and as a member of the state institu- tions, engrossing and Theodore Roosevelt Memorial committees. As chairman of the insurance commit- tee he performed a valuable service to the state in securing the passage of measures beneficial to the public and clarifying the laws upon insurance. He also introduced in conjunction with Representative Fuller a bill providing for the establishment of a State Normal School at Miles City, but this bill failed to secure consideration. Mr. Collins was a member of the reception committee to welcome for- mer President Taft when the latter passed through Helena while touring the country in the interest of the Liberty Loan and the League of Nations. Mr. Collins inherited his politics, being born in the re- publican State of Illinois and reared in a republican home. However, his party affiliations are matters of strong conviction as well.

During the World war Mr. Collins was chairman of the Custer County Council of Defense, and took a prominent part in the various drives for funds. He was commissioned as one of the four-minute men and at the time of the Victory Loan was chairman of the Speakers Bureau of his county. Mr. Collins is well read, possesses a keen analytical mind, and has been a student of social and polit- ical conditions for many years. He enjoys the resources of his private library. filled with works of history, biography and travel. For many years he has been a member of the American Historical Association. He is prominent in the Presbyterian Church, serving as elder and secretary and treas- urer for more than twenty years. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Sons of the American Revolu- tion and is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Pioneers of Eastern Montana.

At St. Louis, December 14. 1874. he married Miss Nellie Davis, daughter of Christopher and Jane (Spottswood) Davis. By this marriage Mr. Col- lins had two sons: Morris, who died in young manhood; and Charles Blatchford, a resident of St. Louis, who married Helen Klein and has a son, Charles K. The second wife of Mr. Collins was Miss Nellie Thompson, daughter of T. J. and Sarah Thompson, an Ohio family. She died at Forsyth, Montana, June 18, 1903, and had lived in Montana since 1882, when her parents established their home here.

CHARLES AXEL LINDEBERG. As clerk of the Dis- trict Court at Miles City, Charles Axel Lindeberg is in an office for which long experience has emi- nently qualified him. For a number of years he was a law clerk and court reporter and has a knowl-

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edge of court procedure that would do credit to a lawyer.

Mr. Lindeberg was born August 22, 1881, and was an infant when his parents settled in Custer County, Montana. His father, Nils Lindeberg, was born in Malmo, Sweden, was educated in common schools, and was a farmer's son. At the age of fifteen he entered a training school for cabinet makers . and had an apprenticeship of four years. He mar- ried Miss Hannah Nelson, and two children were born to them before they started for the United States. They sailed from the vicinity of Malmo, landed at New York, passed through old Castle Garden, and the mother and her children made their first stop at Chicago. Mr. Lindeberg had in the meantime come out to Montana and was in the employ of the Northern Pacific Railway Company. For a time he had worked as a cabinet maker in the Pullman Car Shops at Chicago, and followed his trade with the Northern Pacific while it was in course of construction through Montana. After the road was completed by the joining of the two ends he left the service and took up a homestead near Horton. During the fourteen years he re- mained there he developed a farm, acquired title to his land, and in 1894 sold his cattle and land and bought another ranch a few miles below Miles City. For about fifteen years he handled sheep on an extensive scale, and was one of the men who helped give Montana its wonderful record in wool production. He still owns one of the splendid stock ranches of the valley, comprising more than 2,600 acres, well improved, with an independent irriga- tion plant, the cultivated area now being devoted to grain and alfalfa. While the greater part of his life has been devoted to ranching in the Yellow- stone Valley, he has recently become associated with his sons in the garage business at Miles City.

The children of Nils Lindeberg and wife are: Oscar, associated with his father in the garage, married Ruth Anderson and has two children, Don- ald and Jack; Charles A .; Dr. Sadie B., of Miles City; Mrs. Bessie L. Pruett, of Miles City, mother of one son, John; William A., who is a graduate of the Chicago Dental College and practicing his profession at Miles City ; Louise A., who served as an army nurse in Paris; Nils, Jr., a rancher at the old homestead; Carl A., also on the ranch; Joseph C., in the train service of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company, and who was, like his brother, the dentist, a soldier during the last months of the war.

Charles A. Lindeberg spent his childhood and youth on the farm and ranch along the Yellow- stone. . As one of a large family and one of the older children he made a personal sacrifice for the benefit of the younger members of the family, and after finishing the common school course and en- tering the high school at Miles City he interrupted his work and became a sheep herder for his father. He worked at this two years and then resumed his studies at Miles City and graduated the following year. The earnings he made on the range also enabled him to finish his education in the Northern Soon after graduating in law Judge O'Hern came to Montana and located at Missoula, where he prac- ticed his profession alone. He was soon drawn into politics. He has always been a democrat, though reared in a republican state, and cast his first presi- dential vote in 1904. In 1910 he was elected a mem- Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso, where he was graduated in the commercial and normal courses. He specialized in stenography, and this was his technical qualification for court reporting. His first work as a reporter was done for Sidney Sanders, an associate justice of Montana, and after that he . her of the Lower House of the Legislature, serving was employed in the courthouse at Miles City as deputy clerk and recorder for eight years. Mr. Lindeberg was candidate for the nomination for district clerk against many competitors, and his name

was placed on the republican party ticket and he was elected by nearly 900 votes. He succeeded Clerk James G. Ramsay and took office the first Monday of January, 1917. His long previous ex- perience in the courthouse enabled him to take up his duties without special coaching, and he has been most capable and efficient in handling all the work of his office.

Mr. Lindeberg is a popular member of the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and served for over nine years as keeper of records and seal in the Knights of Pythias. He was reared' in a home of religious atmosphere, and he and his wife are Presbyterians, Mrs. Lindeberg being closely identified with the auxiliary work of the church.

November 11, 1911, Mr. Lindeberg married at Miles City Miss Dixie H. Haynes, daughter of E. C. and Edith (Campbell) Haynes. Her parents came from Iowa and were early settlers in Custer County and for many years the father has been a prosper- ous farmer there. The Haynes children are Otis C., Robert H. and Mrs. Lindeberg. Mr. and Mrs. Lindeberg were schoolmates in Miles City, and prac- tically grew up as children together. They have two children : Richard H. and Charles Douglass.

JUDGE DANIEL L. O'HERN was judge of the Dis- trict Court of the Sixteenth Judicial District, and has been a resident of Miles City since he went on the bench in 1915. A thoroughly educated lawyer, a student of public questions, a worker in com- munity affairs, Judge O'Hern well deserves the confidence of his fellow citizens in Montana, where he has been practicing law since September, 1908.

He was born on a farm near Fort Dodge, Web- ster County, Iowa, in January, 1883. His father, John O'Hern, was a native of County Tipperary, Ireland, and spent his active life as a farmer in Iowa. He married in that state Miss Mary Shehan, a native of County Galway, Ireland. The parents died on their farm near Fort Dodge, and of their children Daniel L. was the only one to take up a profession, all the others still living in that section of Iowa.

Daniel L. O'Hern spent his early life on a farm. His parents went to Iowa as early as 1873. He acquired a literary education in the common schools, attended Tobin College at Fort Dodge, and then entered the Iowa State University, where he took both the literary and law courses and graduated in 1908. He made for himself a reputation as a speaker while in university, and has spoken 'ably before many audiences in Montana, and has both the poise and ready wit of the natural orator. While in the university he was active in all the debating societies and was a member of the team represent- ing his school in the inter-collegiate debate with the University of Kansas. His team won the first de- cision for his school in eight years. The subject of the debate was "That private ownership offers the best solution for the traction problem," and the Judge and his colleagues took the affirmative side.

in the Twelfth Session. This was a democratic Legislature, the house being presided over by Speaker McDowell, who gave Judge O'Hern the chairmanship on the committee on development and

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publicity and made him a member of the judiciary, banks and banking, horticulture and state boards and officers committee. Of chief importance was the amendment to the State Constitution providing for woman suffrage, emanating from the committee on development and publicity. Another measure originating in the same committee and heartily sup- ported by Judge O'Hern was the Donlan White Slave Law, passed the same session. Judge O'Hern also supported the aspirations of Henry L. Meyers for United States senator. Mr. Meyers was chosen after a sixty-day deadlock, and was the last senator chosen by the Legislature. This term completed Judge O'Hern's legislative experience.

He also served as assistant county attorney and in 1913 moved his residence to Glendive, Dawson County, and was assistant county attorney there for two years. Upon the creation of the Sixteenth Judi- cial District he was appointed judge and then moved his residence to Miles City. His appointment was made March 12, 1915, and he opened his first term of court at Miles City the following day. He was elected for the regular term in November, 1916, by a vote of 1,500 majority. At that time the district contained four counties and is now made up of Custer, Jordan, Powder River, Prairie, Fallon and Carter counties, and there are two judges to handle the work.

Judge O'Hern is an active member of the Elks and Knights of Columbus, having served the latter order as district deputy. He is unmarried.

GEORGE W. CLARK, of Richland County, has a rec- ord as a soldier that entitles him to the lasting regard of his nation and particularly of the North- west, where he was an Indian fighter in the decade of the seventies and helped make it possible for the white men to settle and carry on the work of progress in this state. There are few men still living in Montana who have served their country in the uniform of a soldier for a longer period and none more faithfully than George W. Clark.

The war over, Mr. Clark became a carpenter, and this trade and building contracting have been his chief vocations through his long civilian career.

About ten years after he left the Union Army he again became a soldier, enlisting at Boston, Massa- chusetts, in April, 1876, in the regular army. As a recruit he was sent West, traveling by railway as far as Ogden, Utah, and thence going over the trail to Fort Ellis, Montana, where he was assigned to Company L of the Second United States Cavalry, under Captain Randolph Norwood and Colonel Da- vidson. This battalion was attached to General Gib- bons' command, which was under instruction to join the forces of Generals Terry and Custer, and to- gether they proceeded against the Indians then in a hostile mood. The history of Montana gives a prominent part to the following events, during which General Custer, impatient at delay and with an am- bition to win all the glory of the Indian campaign, with his fellow officers and their re-enforcements entered the fight with the Sioux on the Little Big Horn, culminating in the historic massacre on the 26th of June, 1876. In the spring of 1877 Mr. Clark's battalion left Fort Ellis for Tongue River to join General Miles' Fifth Infantry. He was in the battle of Muddy Creek May 7, 1877, against the Minne- konge Indians. While at Tongue River General Sherman and party came through on a tour of in- spection of the military forts of this region. Mr. Clark's company was detailed to escort the distin- guished party to Fort Ellis, Sergeant Clark being detailed as orderly to General Sherman. When they reached Fort Ellis they learned of the outbreak of the Nez Perce under Chief Joseph, who had met General Gibbons' command at Big Hole Basin and defeated the troops. General Sherman immediately ordered Company L to re-enforce Gibbons, for the purpose of bringing in wounded soldiers, and Gen- eral Gibbons had the company report to General Howard. On the night of its arrival at Howard's headquarters the Nez Perce stampeded General Howard's pack train. Company L was ordered by General Howard to pursue the Indians, and they came upon their camp at ten o'clock the next morn- ing at Camas Creek, attacking with only 60 men strong against 250 Indians. The soldiers were driven back into the bluffs, defending themselves as best they could while awaiting re-enforcements. Of the sixty men thirty were killed or wounded. A relief party failing to appear, the captain asked for volun- teers to go to General Howard's headquarters. Sergeant Clark heing one of the men who responded to the call and was chosen. After being pursued five miles he succeeded in escaping from the Nez Perces and reached headquarters, when relief was immediately dispatched and released the imperiled troops. General Howard detailed Sergeant Clark to carry dispatches to General Sherman, then in the Yellowstone Park, advising the commander of immi- nent danger from Chief Joseph's fugitive band. Gen- eral Sherman gave Sergeant Clark a fresh horse. with dispatches to General Sturges of the Seventh Cavalry. While on this mission he came suddenly upon the Nez Perces at four o'clock in the morn- ing and was captured. He was taken before the Big Chief. who put him in the custody of the squaws until the Indians reached the Big Horn, where they were attacked by Sturges' command. but drove off the troops. Joseph then released Mr. Clark and

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 123

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