Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 126

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 126

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In 1882 Mr. Snyder was married at Midland City, Michigan, to Miss Mary O'Donnell, born in Cinco County, Ontario, Canada, a daughter of Daniel O'Donnell and sister of I. D. O'Donnell, one of the contributing editors of this work. Mrs. Snyder was educated in the public schools and a sisters' school at Saginaw, Michigan. She belongs to Zilda Lodge No. 14, Rebekahs, and to the Lady Militants, an auxiliary to the Canton of the Odd Fellows. Mr. and Mrs. Snyder have hecome the parents of the fol- lowing children: Nellie married J. C. Smith, a ranchman, whose biography appears elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Smith attended the Montana State

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Normal School at Dillon and before her marriage was engaged in teaching on the Musselshell and at Huntley, Montana. The second child is Melissa, who married William Schanck, cashier of the Bank of Warden, Montana. Mrs. Schanck attended the Montana State Normal School and was also a teacher prior to her marriage. The third child, Edna, died at Billings on November 26, 1905, when seventeen years of age. Bessie, the fourth of the family, mar- ried Leo Petrie, a dairyman of Fort Townsend, Washington. Jessie, twin sister of Bessie, is at home. The two youngest girls, like their sisters, attended the Montana State Normal School at Dillon.

RALPH E. DUTCH. The handling of merchandise so as to satisfy customers and at the same time make a reasonable profit upon the investment of money and time results in the development of character and the production of good citizenship. One of the men who is conducting a prosperous general merchandise business at Melrose is Ralph E. Dutch. He was born at Farmington, Sangamon county, Illinois, on November 11, 1855, a son of Eben Dutch. born in Augusta, Maine, who died at Richland, Sangamon county, Illinois, in 1856. He was reared at Augusta, Maine, and married at Shoreham, Vermont, Maria L. Moore, a native of Vermont, who died at Farm- ington, Illinois. After his marriage Eben Dutch moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, where he was one of the pioneer farmers, his farm being located at Richland, four miles from Farmington. He was a republican in principles, and died the year of the organization of that party. The children . born to him and his wife were as follows: Flor- ence M., who married M. F. Sheppard, for many years a telegraph operator, lives at Boone, Iowa; Fred R., who is a merchant at Crete, Nehraska ; Winthrop. who is a traveling agent, makes Spring- field, Illinois, his headquarters; and Ralph E., who was the youngest in the family.

Ralph E. Dutch attended the rural schools of his native county, and remained at home until he was eighteen years of age, and at that time went to Springfield, Illinois, and worked in the Illinois Watch Factory until 1886, when he came to Glendale, Mon- tana. There he worked in the store of his uncle, Henry S. Pond, one of the pioneers of that region, and with him learned the mercantile business. In 1897 he came to Melrose as manager for the store his uncle established there, and in 1912 formed a partnership with J. E. Reid, under the firm name of Reid & Dutch, for the purpose of handling a general line of merchandise. The store, which is one of the leading ones of Silver Bow county, is located on Main street, and its trade comes from a distance of forty-five miles. The firm owns the store building and two warehouses and carry a large stock to meet the demands of the trade they attract. Mr. Dutch also owns a nice modern residence at Melrose. He is a democrat. Since coming to Melrose he has connected himself witlı Bannock Lodge No. 3, In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is past noble grand.

Mr. Dutch was married first to Miss Effie M. Miller at Butte, Montana. She was born in Indian- apolis, Indiana, and died at Melrose in 1913, leaving no children. On January 2, 1918, Mr. Dutch was married to Mrs. Eugenia Mulleur, born in Canada. Both she and Mr. Dutch are very popular at Mel- rose, and their pleasant home is oftentimes the scene of delightful social gatherings of congenial friends. As a business man Mr. Dutch is recognized as a valuable asset to the village, while personally he stands exceedingly high in public estimation. He

is proud of being one of the "real Americans" of the country, his ancestors having come to the American colonies from Holland at a date many years prior to the Revolution and settled in Penn- sylvania, from whence removal was later made to different points until now many states have rep- resentatives of the family.

GEORGE B. CONWAY has been a prominent figure in Montana business life nearly forty years. For a quarter of a century he was connected with the Hecla Consolidated Mining Company. He is a for- mer state accountant of Montana, and now makes his home and has his business headquarters at Helena, where he is district manager of the Iowa State Livestock Insurance Company.

George Benjamin Conway was born December 17, 1859, his native city of Wheeling being at that time in old Virginia, and four years later became the capital of the new state of West Virginia. In the paternal line he is of Welsh ancestry. His grandfather, Benjamin · Conway, was born in Wales. He was an English soldier during the Napoleonic wars, and was at the battle of Waterloo under the .Duke of Wellington. Later he came to this country and died in the United States. William B. Conway, father of the Helena business man, was born at Abersuchyn, Wales, in 1837, and lived there to the age of nineteen. About 1856 he came to the United States, living for a time in New York, then in Wheeling, following his trade as an iron worker in both places. In 1871 he became manager of the Capital City Iron Works at Indianapolis, and held that post of responsibility until 1880. For several years after that he was a manufacturer of iron specialties at Youngstown, Ohio, and he also lived in Montana two years, from 1886 to 1888. Here he was interested in mining at Glendale. From Mon- tana he returned east to Buffalo, New York, where he lived until his death in 1900. He was a republi- can, a very devout Baptist and a regular ·supporter of the church, and affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. William B. Conway mar- ried. Leonora Harriet Smith, who was born at Kent, England, in 1840, and died near Oil City, Pennsyl- vania, in 1870. She was the mother of three chil- dren, George B. being the oldest. William is owner of a newspaper at Wilmington, Pennsylvania, and the youngest, Emily, died in infancy.

George Benjamin Conway received most of his schooling in his native city of Wheeling. For a time he also attended high school at Indianapolis. At the age of fourteen he went to work as messenger boy in the Capitol City Iron Works. He was there two years and somewhat later was given employ- ment in the office of the E. C. Atkins Saw Works at Indianapolis, the largest business of its kind in America. He was with that firm from 1879 to 1881. and since the latter year his home and business interests have been almost continuously identified with Montana territory and state.

Mr. Conway located at Glendale April 4, 1881, and became an official of the Hecla Consolidated Mining Company. For twenty-five years he was cashier of that company, and vice president of the Hecla Mercantile and Banking Company, a sub- sidiary of the corporation. After that for a time business interests required his presence in New York City, and not long after his return to Montana he was appointed, in 1909, by Governor Edwin L. Nor- ris, as state accountant, and during the performance of the duties of that office moved his home to Helena. He was state accountant four years, after which he became secretary and general manager of

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the Montana Livestock and Casualty Insurance Company. In 1917 the business of this company was sold to the Iowa State Livestock Insurance Company, and Mr. Conway has handled its Mon- tana and other northwestern business as district manager. His offices are at 26 West Sixth Avenue. In 1917 he also became secretary of H. B. Palmer & Company, but the charter of this corporation was not renewed after it expired in November, 1919.

Mr. Conway is a republican voter, is a trustee and deacon of the First Baptist Church at Helena, and in Masonry is affiliated with King Solomon Lodge No. 9, A. F. and A. M., and has attained the thirty- second degree in Scottish Rite, being affiliated with Helena Consistory No. 3.

Mr. Conway and his interesting family reside at 315 Clark street. He married at Indianapolis in 1881, just before coming to Montana, Miss Lillie E. Hunt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry C. Hunt, the latter now deceased. Her father is a retired paper manufacturer of Indianapolis. Mrs. Conway is a graduate of the Indianapolis High School and has been prominent in social life in Montana, being a member of the Woman's Club of Helena and for several terms was regent of the Daughters of the Revolution in Oro Fino Chapter of Helena, and is also a member of the Daughters of 1812. Mr. and Mrs. Conway's children are young people of interesting attainments and achieve- ments. Helen, the oldest, is the wife of William J. Cushing, an attorney at Dillon, Montana, and has one daughter, Josephine, born in 1904, and now a student in the high school at Dillon. The second child, Julia, died at the age of six years. Florence is the wife of A. H. French, a mine operator at Argenta, Montana. Ora and Alice both graduated with the degree Bachelor of Pedagogy from the State Normal College at Dillon, and are teachers in the public schools at Helena. Ruth is the wife of Gustav Bohstedt, who holds a chair in the De- partment of Agriculture at the State University of Wisconsin in Madison. They have one son, Carl Conway Bohstedt, born in 1919. Walter Lincoln Conway graduated A. B. from the Montana State University and is now superintendent of rural and city schools in the Columbia Falls District of Mon- tana. Eunice, the youngest of the family, graduated from the Helena High School with the class of 1918 and is now employed as a stenographer in the Internal Revenue Office at Helena.

HARRIS J. CHRISTENSON was one of the early homesteaders in northeastern Montana, and has for a number of years been well and favorably known in the real estate and farm loan business at Scobey, his business career having been associated with practically the entire life of the new town.

Mr. Christenson was born at Wistby, Wisconsin, February 4, 1872. His father, Ole Christenson, was * horn at Barum, Norway, about seven miles from Christiania, acquired a common school education, lived on a farm, and as a young man came to the United States about the beginning of the Civil war. For several years he worked as a lahorer in factories, and after his marriage in Wisconsin moved to Min- nesota and took up a homestead where he developed the farm on which he reared his children. He died at Milan, Minnesota, at the age of seventy-three. He married in Wisconsin Annie Peterson, a native of Norway and a daughter of Arna Peterson. She died in 1007, the mother of Carl and August, business men in Milan; Mrs. T. Johnson, wife of a farmer at Milan; Harris J .; Albert, of Minot, North Da- kota ; Hannah, of Montevidio, Minnesota; Mrs. Otto

Booth, of Ray, North Dakota; Louis, a farmer at Minot; and Otto, a business man at Milan.

Harris J. Christenson acquired a public school education at Milan and lived in that community from the age of seven until he came to Montana. He was a factor on the home farm until the age of twenty-eight, and then moved to Milan, where, asso- ciated with his brother August, he became a member of the hardware and implement firm of Christenson Brothers. With that business his name and energies were identified until 1909, in the fall of which year he left Chippewa County, Minnesota, and began pros- pecting for a new home in Montana.

His first act here was to acquire a homestead, and he entered his claim about two miles from the new town of Scobey, beginning his residence here in March, 1910. He built a frame house of one room as the first improvement on his land, and while it was small it made a comfortable home for his family during their residence there of four years. At that time crop failures were unknown in this section and he planted and successively harvested three crops. He left his farm not only to accept an opening for a business career, but also for the reason that has caused so many farmers to move to town, to secure better educational advantages for their families. Mr. Christenson had a growing family and accordingly he opened an office in the new town of Scobey and began dealing in real estate and farm loans. That business has been continued with an enlarging char- acter, and his probity and judgment have brought him the confidence of the community, so that he has frequently been selected to administer estates. .

Quietly and efficiently he has done his part as a citizen, has served as treasurer in Scobey two years, one year on the Board of Education, and was active in raising funds for war work, being one of the liberal bond buyers. His father became a republican as soon as he had completed his American citizen- ship, and the son Harris cast his first presidential ballot for Mckinley and has supported the nominees of that party regularly. The Christenson residence at Scobey was built by Mr. Christenson, and is a modern five-room cottage on Daniel Street.

At Milan, Minnesota, March 31, 1902, he married Miss Olive Peterson, who was born at Barum, Nor- way, in August, 1880, and came to the United States in 1883 with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Peterson. She was reared in Wisconsin, had a pub- lic school education, and when a young woman went to Minnesota, where she was soon afterward married. Her two older sisters are Matie, wife of John Peterson, of Montevidio, Minnesota, and Mary, wife of Otto Olson, of Michigan, North Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Christenson have two living children : Cuyla and Adaline, while their second child, Chester, died when about four years of age.

ARTHUR R. KELSEY. Among the representative men of Powder River County who are profitably engaged in ranching is Arthur R. Kelsey, who is located on Taylor Creek, and has been identified with this locality since 1888. He was born at Pax- ton, Illinois, March 6, 1867, during the brief period his parents lived at that place. His paternal grand- father was a large slave owner of North Carolina, where his extensive plantation was located. Realiz- ing, as a result of the agitation against slavery, that the institution was wrong, he freed his slaves, and because of this action his neighbors gave him notice to leave the state within the following thirty days, and he consequently, never regretting his act of humanity, took his family to Indiana and located near Bloomington, that state. His death occurred at the home of his son in Franklin County, Kansas

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and he is buried at Richmond, Kansas. His children were as follows: Boston, who is now a resident of Missouri; Theodore D., who is mentioned below; Fisher, who died in Kansas; Mrs. Latham, who died in Franklin county, Kansas; and John, who also died in Kansas.

Theodore D. Kelsey, father of Arthur R. Kelsey, was born in North Carolina, and was only a child when his parents moved to Indiana, so was reared in the vicinity of Bloomington, Indiana. With his father and three brothers he went to Kansas during the territorial period, and passed through the excit- ing times incident to the discussion relative to the admission of Kansas as a "free or slave," when the state was a battlefield for the opposing parties. Here he resided until after the close of the war between the states. The Kelseys secured Government land in Franklin County, and there carried on stock and sheep raising upon an extensive scale. In 1874 Theodore D. Kelsey sold his possessions and, going to Iowa, became a farmer of Wayne County, remain- ing there until 1888. In that year he brought his family to Montana, driving a bunch of cattle, and at once embarked in the cattle business at the head of Taylor Creek, one of the tributaries of Pumpkin Creek, and there he took up a homestead. His pio- neer improvements are still standing as a mark of his handiwork, and when he left the ranch he em- barked in a mercantile business at Moorehead, and there he passed away in 1912, at the age of seventy- seven years. While living in Kansas he gave his services as a soldier in the Twelfth Kansas Vol- unteer Infantry for the Union cause, and remained in the army until the end of the war. His brothers Boston and Fisher served in the same regiment, and his younger brother, John, belonged in the Kansas Home Guards. Theodore D. Kelsey belonged to the Grand Army of the Republic at the time of his death. In his political affiliations he was a Repub- lican. In church activities he was a United Pres- byterian.

While still living in Indiana Theodore D. Kelsey was united in marriage with Rhoda M. Gray, a daughter of a Kentuckian who moved to Indiana when she was a child. Mrs. Kelsey survives her husband and is now a resident of Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, being at present over eighty-three years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Theodore D. Kelsey became the parents of the following children: William H., who is a resident of Grand Forks, North Dakota; David D., whose present location is not known; Arthur R., whose name heads this review; Samuel W., who is a resident of Red Lodge, Montana; Mary E., who is the wife of Arthur N. Hotchkiss, of Los Angeles, California; and Frank T., who is a mer- chant of Moorehead, Montana.

From 1869 until 1874, Arthur R. Kelsey lived in Franklin County, Kansas, going then with his par- ents to Wayne County, and there he completed his minority and education as well, securing the latter in the public schools. When he began his career in Montana as a wage worker on a sheep ranch it was in the employ of R. R. Selway, with whom he re- mained for two years. Then he and a brother took a hand of sheep from the flock of Mr. Selway and located on Beaver Creek, about eight miles above its mouth, and there Arthur R. Kelsey entered his homestead, but his career was materially disturbed by the panic of 1802-3, and the brothers gave up their "share herd" and formed a partnership with two other men, turning their flock over to them and going themselves to work for wages. They were expert sheep shearers and horse breakers and when there was no work in these lines they filled in with ranch work. At the end of the first year they were

able to buy out one of their partners, and at the close of the second, that of the other, and then the brother took charge of the flock of sheep, and Arthur R. Kelsey returned to the parental ranch and gave his aid to his father. For twenty years the brothers remained in partnership, and when they severed their connection the brother took the prop- erty at Beaver and Arthur R. the parental ranch. In doing so, the latter closed his connection with the wool industry and embarked in cattle raising exclu- sively. His ranch property comprises 5,800 acres of land lying along the Beaver and Taylor creeks, and in addition to it he owns and maintains a resi- dence at Miles City. The ranch is stocked with range cattle under the brand "2-hanging K" on the left ribs.

Mr. Kelsey was a member of the local Council of Defense during the great war, and as such was active in raising the quotas allotted to his locality. He cast his first presidential vote for Benjamin Harrison in 1892, and has never missed voting at each recurring presidential election, at which times he has always supported the candidates of his party.

On July 20, 1899, Arthur R. Kelsey was married in Custer County, Montana, to Bertha E. Miller, born at Shenandoah, Iowa, May 20, 1878, her father having spent his life in the vicinity. Mrs. Kelsey was graduated from the Shenandoah High School, following which she was a teacher for two years at the Lewiston, Montana, School, from which she went to the one at Sadte, Custer County, Montana. Mr. and Mrs. Kelsey have the following children : Gladys Irene, who is a student of the Chicago Uni- versity at Chicago, Illinois; Genevieve Ione, who is a student of the Miles City High School; and Mary Alice, who is the youngest. Mr. Kelsey is a typical ranchman and product of the state in which he has spent so many useful years. Broad-minded, alert and public-spirited, he is not afraid to grapple with civic problems, while his experience, sound judgment and common sense enable him to solve them in a manner that will bring about the best results for the majority. He and his wife are the center of a delightful social circle at Miles City, and their hospitable home welcomes many guests, some of state-wide distinction.

WILLIAM C. McVEY, a merchant and'ranchman on the "YT" ranch near the head of Mizpah Creek, Powder River County, came into Montana in 1900 and made his first stop at Miles City. His situation was that of a workingman, dependent upon his labor for his living, and his first work at Miles City was as a clerk in the Shore-Newcome store. For two years he sold goods for this concern and then went to Lame Deer, on the Northern Cheyenne Agency. and took charge of the trading store of George Walters, where during the two years that followed he, sold goods to the Cheyennes, learned their lan- guage, and engaged in raising horses on his own account on a small scale. Returning to the Shore- Newcome establishment, he continued as hookkeeper for that establishment at Miles City for a few months, and then accepted a position in the office of D. A. McIntosh, who had the contract for the build- ing of the Chicago. Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. When the office at Miles City was closed Mr. McVey sought other employment, and for a time was en- gaged in the real estate business with J. E. Prindle at Ismay, Montana. He spent a year there without the success his time and efforts warranted, and then returned to Miles City, where he worked for a time as clerk for W. B. Jordon & Sons Company, after leaving whom he established himself in business as a merchant at Beebe. This marked the starting-

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point of the career which has been so successful and which has steadily advanced him to a leading posi- tion among the citizens of his community.

As a settler of Montana Mr. McVey immigrated hither from near Ottawa, Canada, having been born within twenty miles of that city May 1I, 1877. His boyhood life was spent on the home farm and his education completed in the high school at Kemp- ville, and as a young man he learned something. of merchandising as a clerk in a store at Avonmore, this being the. extent of his equipment when he came away from there and sought his fortune and future in the United States without capital. His father was William McVey, born in the township of Goulborn, Ontario, who was a shoemaker by trade, and who as a young man crossed over into the United States and went with a brother to Nevada, where he engaged in mining near Carson City. He dug out ore enough to pay for a farm "back home," improved it and spent the rest of his life there. He was a soldier during the Fenian uprising, and took part in the battle of the Windmill, Prescott, Ontario. He was a conservative in politics, and belonged to no church, but was the husband of a Presbyterian wife. William McVey married Grace Brunton, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Dal- gleish) Brunton. The Dalgleishes were Scotch, like the McVeys, and the grandfathers of both of these families came out of Scotland. William McVey died in 1906, at the age of sixty-two years, while his widow survives in Canada, aged seventy years. Their children were: James F., a farmer of Chest- erville, Ontario; Agnes E., the wife of Gordon Plant, of Manitoba; Annie, who is married and a resident of Ontario; Sarah, the wife of John A. Carkner, of Williamsburg, Ontario; William C., of the "YT" ranch; Martha, the wife of William Sterns, of Metcalf, Ontario; and John B., who occupies the old McVey home.

When he started in business at Beebe Mr. McVey's capital was small, being represented by what he had gotten together by saving his wages, but while there he found prosperity, for which he worked hard, and made and saved some money. Thus encouraged, after two years he bought the old "YT" ranch of George Horkan, and took possession in 1912. This ranch is one of the oldest in the region, as well as one of the best known, and its history shows it to have been started by a syndicate, its well-known manager being Collin Hunter. Mr. McVey acquired the ranch entire, principally the water and build- ings and the old cow trails, plus the script lands which Horkan had acquired. With the additions made by Mr. McVey the ranch embraces about 5,000 acres, fenced and devoted to cattle and horses. His is the "YT" brand and the ranch runs more than 2,000 head of cattle of the Hereford and Short- horn strains. His market is in Chicago and Omaha, and he has been a shipper ever since he took hold of this ranch. Mr. McVey built a store and engaged in the mercantile business on the ranch in the fall of 1912.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 126

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