Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 130

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

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1114

HISTORY OF MONTANA

Eddy. During the World war Mr. Cowles was one of the three members of the Legal Advisory Board of the county, and one of the "four minute" speak- ers. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cowles were active in the battle waged for state-wide prohibition, working in the cause until Montana became a white spot on the map of the United States.

P. E. L. LUDTKE. Vigilant, active and sagacious, P. E. Ludtke, of Fairview, is prominently identified with the banking interests of this part of Richland County as president of the Security State Bank, and the sound financial basis that it now rests . upon is largely due to his business tact and executive ability. A son of the late August Ludtke, he was born March 14, 1882, at Fairmont, Minnesota, and acquired his early education in the public schools of that city.

Born and reared in Germany, August Ludtke spent his earlier years in his native land. Immi- grating with his wife to the United States in 1880, he located in Minnesota, and as a cattle and sheep raiser occupied the range tributary to Fairmont. With the shortening of the range he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, and on the farm which he cleared and improved both he and his wife spent their remaining years. He married in Ger- many a Miss Stone, and they became the parents of five sons and three daughters, all of whom survive, P. E., the subject of this sketch, being the youngest child.

Obtaining a practical knowledge of agriculture on his father's farm, P. E. Ludtke, foreseeing the won- derful development of the far West, took up a homestead claim in Douglas County, Washington, erected a shack, broke the necessary land, and sell- ing his crops to good advantage there made his first $1,000, a veritable fortune to him at that time. Receiving his patent in 1904, he sold his ranch and migrated to Alberta, Canada, locating at Pincher Creek, where he opened a clothing store, purchasing his stock with the money he obtained from his Washington efforts. Although Mr. Ludtke's only mercantile experience had been as a clerk in a hardware establishment in Washington, his clothing venture was a winner, and he added a stock of general merchandise. In 1909 he chartered the Bow Island Trading Company Bank, and did his mer- cantile business under that name, as well as bank- ing. Mr. Ludtke subsequently sold his banking interests to the Bank of British North America, and later, having disposed of his store and stock, crossed the line into the United States. Locating in November, 1914, in Lambert, Montana, he organ- ized the Farmers State Bank of Lambert, which was chartered November 25, 1914, being capitalized at $20,000, and was chosen president of the institu- tion. During the brief period that he was connected with that bank the business was encouraging, its deposits during the first fifteen days of its existence having been $35,000, while a good healthy condition prevailed in all business circles.

Locating in Fairview in June, 1915, Mr. Ludtke purchased the controlling interest in the Security State Bank, a concern that had been founded May 24, 1913, by C. E. Glasspoole, with a capitalization of $20,000. When the institution was turned over to Mr. Ludtke by its founder the deposits were but $12,500, and instead of a surplus and undivided profits the capital stock itself was impaired. Nothing daunted, Mr. Ludtke paid up the bank's obligations and breathed new life into the concern. During the first year of his efficient management as president the bank instead of making an assessment of 20 per cent to pay losses earned 25 per cent profits, and

$5,000 was placed in the surplus fund, a showing that bespeaks most forcibly of Mr. Ludtke's finan- cial and executive ability. The officers of the bank are as follows: President, P. E. Ludtke; vice presi- dent, R. W. Putnam; second vice president, A. D. Morrill; cashier, H. F. Dundas; assistant cashier, Cora Simons. The directors are Messrs. P. E. Ludtke, R. W. Putnam, A. D. Morrill, H. F. Dundas and W. E. Robb, men of high standing in the busi- ness world. Mr. Ludtke is also connected with the First National Bank of Nashua, Montana, as a di- rector, and is a director and vice president of the Citizens State Bank of Arnegard, North Dakota.

Mr. Ludtke married at Pincher Creek, Alberta, March 3, 1908, Miss Mary Gabert, who was born in Walkerton, Ontario, December 31, 1888, a daughter of Charles Gabert. Mr. and Mrs. Ludtke have three children, Charles, Billie and Dorothy. While in Canada Mr. Ludtke retained his American citi- zenship, and on his return to the United States be- came identified with the republican party. He has ever been a stanch supporter of American institu- tions, and during the World war was a willing buyer of bonds. In every drive for war funds his bank took the lead, exhibiting a patriotism worthy of emulation.

LEWIS L. MAXSON. Endowed with much busi- ness intelligence and ability, Lewis L. Maxson has acquired a leading position among the successful merchants of Fairview, and as a member of the City Council advocates and works for those propo- sitions that will be of lasting good to the commu- nity. A son of Joseph Edward Maxson, he was born August 19, 1885, in Eldora, Hardin County, Iowa, coming, it is believed, of English ancestry.

His paternal grandfather, Joseph Maxson, was born, reared and educated in Pennsylvania, and dur- ing the Civil war served as a soldier in the Union army. A farmer by occupation, he left his native state in early manhood, and after living for a time in Wisconsin moved with his family to Iowa, where he continued his agricultural labors. Subsequently settling in Kansas, he spent the later years of his life in Phillipsburg, where at his death his body was laid to rest. To him and his wife three children were born, as follows: Joseph Edward; Mary, who died unmarried in Kansas; and Dwian S., of Grand Junction, Colorado.

A native of Wisconsin, Joseph Edward Maxson acquired a practical common school education, and was there initiated into the mysteries of farming. He was born in 1851, and not many years after attaining his majority migrated to Hardin County, Iowa, where he bought land and improved a farm. Preferring a business career, he moved with his family to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he was actively and successfully engaged in mercantile pur- suits until his death in 1910. He was a faithful republican in politics, but was never a "joiner," having united with neither church or fraternity. He married in Iowa Miss Mattie West, who was born in that state, a daughter of Walter West, a farmer, and to them two children were born: War- ren I., of Glendive, Montana, and Lewis L., the subject of this sketch.

Brought up and educated in Minneapolis, Minne- sotą, Lewis L. Maxson gained his first knowledge of mercantile transactions in his father's grocery, with which he was identified a number of years. Coming to Montana in search of a favorable loca- tion, he settled in Fairview in 1908, and for nearly four years thereafter was employed as a clerk in the Yellowstone Mercantile Company. Establishing himself in business on his own account, Mr. Maxson

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

succeeded to the ownership of the Lougheed Mercan- tile Company, changing the name of the firm to the Lewis L. Maxson Mercantile Company. Subse- quently admitting his brother to partnership, the business was carried on under the name of the Maxson Mercantile Company, which, though the brother has retired from the firm, it still retains. The leading mercantile house of Fairview, the store carries a fine line of general merchandise and is one of the best patronized in this section of Rich- land County. An excellent manager, upright and honorable in all of his dealings, Mr. Maxson has seen his original business develop into one of compara- tively great magnitude, its demands for more com- modious quarters having forced him to make three changes of location. The store was situated on State Street, facing the Montana-Dakota line, and the changes have placed it in its present home in the Glasspoole Block.

Exercising his right of homestead, Mr. Maxson proved up a claim in the country just west of Fair- view, patented it, and put such improvements upon it as to make it valuable for farming purposes. Rep- resenting the Third Ward of Fairview in the City Council, he is now serving his first term in that body, in which the matter of chief importance at this time, outside of the usual routine work, has been the building of much needed sidewalks.

During the epidemic of the Spanish influenza in the fall and winter of 1918-1919 Mrs. Maxson had charge of the emergency hospital established at that time, and by her careful management saved the lives of many of Fairview's citizens who were in the institution as patients. The religious beliefs of Mr. and Mrs. Maxson coincide with those of the Baptist faith. Mrs. Maxson is a member of the Knights and Ladies of the Maccabees, and takes great in- terest in the order. The Maxson home, a six-room bungalow located on Montana Avenue, was built after plans originated by its owners, and is very conveniently arranged.

JOHN MOHRHERR is enrolled among the early set- tlers of Fairview who became identified with the community as homesteaders. He came to the lo- cality July 10, 1905, at which time he brought in his family by wagon and arranged to locate them on the relinquishment he purchased of a soldier's widow, Mrs. Wamsley. The family moved into the cabin on the claim, a one-room log house, and this primitive dwelling still stands and marks Mr. Mohrherr's first permanent home in Montana.

He had learned the trade of blacksmith previ- ously, and he brought with him his herd of cattle accumulated during his few years' residence on the Indian Reservation at Poplar. His plans were to prepare for farming and to engage in the stock business here, and his time was given to this work for a year and a half before he again established himself in his trade in the village of Fairview.

· Mr. Mohrherr is a native son of Germany, born in the Province of Bavaria, near the Town of Fiissen, the historic treaty-making city closing the Seven Years war. His natal day was the 25th of April, 1867, and he grew up in his native city and served his time in the German army in the artillery. His father was Sebastian Mohrherr, a farmer and a cheese maker, and also a native of Bavaria. It is an original German family, and the ancestry runs back into the early history of that German state. Sebastian Mohrherr married Barbara Holzmatin, a daughter of Augustine Holzmann. This family was also of German stock and indigenous to the lo- cality where John Mohrherr was born. The children of Sebastian and Barbara Mohrherr were five sous

and two daughters, and those of them to leave the Fatherland and make their home in the United States were August, who settled in the Thousand Islands, New York, and died there, and John, who became a resident of Fairview, Montana.

John Mohrherr had decided to leave the country of his birth before he entered upon his army service to Bavaria, and he began this duty two years before reaching legal age in order that he could reach America without loss of time. He served his three years in the barracks in Munich, but had no actual war experience with the exception of what he re- ceived in the maneuvers, although in 1886 the army was prepared for invasion into Russia to satisfy some political grievance. He was discharged at Munich in the fall of 1888, and he embarked at Ham- burg for the United States before the following new year. His voyage to America was made on the ship Amalfy, and twenty-six days were required to reach port at New York. He passed through old Castle Garden and went on to his destination at Germania, Pennsylvania, where a brother lived. He began work there the day after his arrival,. first helping to make ice, and during the three months he remained there was occupied at various things, blacksmithing forming a part of his work. He had learned the trade at his native home by serving an apprenticeship from the age of thirteen. From Ger- mania he went to Harrison Valley, Pennsylvania, where he worked a short time in a tan yard, and then went to New York and worked in the Fuller House at Corning, hoping to learn the English lan- guage there, for he could not speak or understand a word of the English language when he reached American shores.

While at Corning Mr. Mohrherr had a short ex- perience in a bottling works and then returned to his brother at Germania, Pennsylvania, where he worked as a blacksmith for almost a year, then secured a place as blacksmith in the Atlas Car Shops at Buffalo, New York, and after visiting Niagara Falls started West. Stopping first in Michigan, he hired out as a smith in the swamps in the woods some distance from Saginaw, but disliking this work walked to Sibbewing, wear- ing out the soles of his shoes on the tramp, spent a couple of weeks working for a farmer, and after- ward was employed for two months as a black- smith in the town. Going on to Chicago, he found work at his trade on South Indiana Avenue, but after a few months went on to Wisconsin and worked at his trade at Sherry one year, next jour- neyed to Park Falls, and from there went to Cas- cade Falls, Washington, and spent the winter shov- eling snow for the Great Northern Company, which was then building its road west, but for some reason never received his pay for this work. Continuing his wanderings to Seattle, Mr. Mohrherr there met his first misfortune, becoming ill and being without funds, and but for the paying of some outstanding debts in Wisconsin he would have suffered disaster.

After recovering from this misfortune he assisted in building a logging road on the Nocquamme River, and with the completion of that work retraced his steps eastward and for a second time worked at Sherry, Wisconsin, while later he was employed at Butternut, Chippewa Falls and St. Paul, enlisting from the latter place in the regular army. Mr. Mohrherr became a member of Company D, Sixth Cavalry, under Captain Scott, and was sent to Yel- lowstone Park. He was a blacksmith in addition to his military duties, and served in the Park during his term of enlistment of three years, then took a three months' furlough and received his discharge in Wisconsin.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Having at the close of this period completed nine years' residence in the United States, Mr. Mohrherr returned to Germany for a visit to his former home, but after two months he was back in Wisconsin, where he worked for a time at Ashland and then again took up the westward journey, this time mak- ing his first stop at Oneida, South Dakota, where he applied for and received his final citizenship papers. About this time also Mr. Mohrherr felt able to provide for a wife, and having found the lady of his choice in Wisconsin returned there and claimed her. They were married at Chili on No- vember 7, 1898, and he then entered the Indian Service as a general mechanic at the Shoshone Agency, Nevada, began work at the Pyramid Agency of that state, remaining as general mechanic there for 21/2 years, and was then transferred to the Poplar Indian Agency of Montana, and spent four years there. On leaving there he located at Fair- view and identified himself with the work of civic improvement in this agricultural region.

As a citizen and developer of this locality Mr. Mohrherr built a substantial eight-room residence to succeed his original log cabin, and also erected his barns and made the other necessary improve- ments to place him on the list of real developers of the county. In the meantime his blacksmith shop has also been a busy place, and he has not failed to respond to the night demands made upon him in the busy seasons. He has sown his land heavily to alfalfa, and his crops are those of the grains raised successfully in this region.

Mr. Mohrherr was one of the first school trus- tees of Fairview, and was instrumental in the build- ing of the first school and was president of the board for a time. He was also made a member of the first City Council of Fairview, and served with Mayor Newlon in the work of launching the munici- pal and urban business of the village. The other members of the board during his administration were Mr. Richardson, Len Varco, Robert Donaldson and Jack Nelson. Mr. Mohrherr cast his first vote in 1892, in 1900 he voted for Mr. Bryan, and in 1912 supported Mr. Wilson for presidential election. For many years he has been an active and influen- tial worker in local politics and has served his party as a committeeman.

Mr. Mohrherr married Miss Hilda E. Russell, who was born in Waupun, Wisconsin, February 22, 1870, a daughter of John H. and Mary A. (Reinfsnider) Russell. The father was born in Canada but was reared in the State of New York, and the mother was a native daughter of the Empire State. During his early life Mr. Russell was a railroad engineer, and as a young man was sent to Wisconsin, where he was married. After giving up railroad work he became a stationary engineer in Milwaukee, later moved to the vicinity of Marshfield and engaged in farming, and finally came out to Montana, where his daughter was located, secured a claim and proved it up. There in March, 1915, his wife died, and in the following November he was also called to his final reward.

Eight children have been born to the union of Mr. and Mrs. Mohrherr, namely: Nevada Maebelle, who won a prize as an essayist in the state contest in Montana in 1918, being one of the eight best in the state; Esther, who is an efficient high school student of Fairview; and Lillian, Lowell, Rosemary, Marguerite, Roderick and Joy.

JAMES R. PERKINS, M. D., began his Montana career at Fairview in April, 1913. He came to this locality with a knowledge of his profession gained in college, in hospital work and three years of actual

practice in North Dakota, and was therefore amply qualified to assume his professional duties in this then new and undeveloped region. Fairview was at that time a village of but a few buildings and the Great Northern Railroad had just been built to this point and he was made its first local surgeon here.

Doctor Perkins is a member of an old New York family. There his grandfather, James H. Perkins, was born, and there he spent his life and passed to his final reward. In his family were two sons, Fred L. and Robert A. Robert A. Perkins served his country as a Union soldier during the war be- tween the North and South, a member of the Third Minnesota Infantry, and was attached to Grant's army. He was several times wounded, and as a re- sult of these injuries he passed away during the residence of the family in Alabama.

Fred L. Perkins was born in the State of New York, devoted his life to agricultural pursuits, and died at Long Prairie, Minnesota, in 1906, at the age of fifty-six. He married at Farmington, Minne- sota, Mattie L. Harrison, and she passed away Feb- ruary 12, 1889, leaving two children, a son and daughter, but the latter, Lila A., died in 1899, when but twenty years of age.

The only surviving member of this family, James R. Perkins, was born in Decatur, Alabama, August 24, 1884, but his childhood's earliest recollections are of Minnesota. He was but six years of age when his parents moved North and established their home at Glencoe in that state, where the mother died, and the remainder of the family later moved to Farmington, Minnesota, and ultimately settled at Long Prairie. It was at the last named place that the son grew from boyhood into man's estate. He acquired his higher educational training in Ham- line University, where he completed two years of literary work, and then took up the study of medi- cine in Marquette University at Milwaukee, com- pleting his course in the spring of 1910. But be- fore entering college for professional work he had studied with Doctor Christie of Long Prairie, and he worked his way through medical school. For two years during vacation periods he had charge of the Soldiers' Home Hospital at Minneapolis, and while in college served as an interne at Trinity Hospital, so that when he took up the regular prac- tice of his profession he had established a solid foundation for a future successful career.

Doctor Perkins married at Long Prairie, Minne- sota, in October, 1912, Miss Blanche Barber, who was born in that city July 4, 1891, a daughter of William M. and Margaret (Cooper) Barber, who also claimed Minnesota as the state of their na- tivity. The father is engaged in the abstract busi- ness in Long Prairie. A son has been born to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, Robert Dean, who was born July 14, 1913. The Perkins home is of their planning and construction and is a bunga- low of six rooms. Mrs. Perkins was interested in woman's war work movements and in club work, and has served as a delegate to the state meeting of the Women's Federation.

In the line of his profession Doctor Perkins is a member of the Northwestern Medical Associa- tion of North Dakota, of the Montana State Medi- cal Association and of the American Medical As- sociation. He has served two terms as the physician of Richland County and for a similar period as county health officer, being the incumbent of the latter office at the present time. He was the selec- tive service auxiliary examiner for Richland County during the period of the World war, has served three years as a member of the School Board of

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Fairview, and is now serving his first term as mayor of the town. During his tenure in office sidewalk building has been the matter of chief concern be- fore the Council. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party, and his first presidential vote was cast for Bryan in 1908. He has been a member of the State Central Committee for Rich- land County since its organization. In his fraternal relations Doctor Perkins is a Master Mason, is a past master of the Ancient Order of United Work- men and is a member of the Elk's Lodge at Wil- liston.

During the recent epidemic of the influenza Doc- tor Perkins presided over the destinies of the people tributary to Fairview, managed the campaign and ministered to the many hundreds who succumbed to its visitation and lay prostate victims of its at- tack until his medical skill intervened. The initial cases of the epidemic appeared at Fairview in Oc- tober, and seem to have emanated from Scobey. The rapidity with which the disease spread early indi- cated to Doctor Perkins that every home tributary to Fairview might be visited, and in that case the old method of making a personal call to patients as often as medical attention would be needed would be impossible. Accordingly he organized a staff of assistants and nurses, took over a large part of the Albert Hotel, the largest and most available building in the town, and converted it into a hos- pital for the treatment of all the afflicted within reach. Ambulances were improvised by sand-bag- ging automobile trucks, and with the report of a case in or out of town the afflicted ones were brought in upon these improvised ambulances and deposited in a good bed in a sanitary room and given "first aid" treatment until Doctor Perkins could minister to them. Mrs. Maxson was placed in charge of the hospital, and her experience and former training rendered her even superior to the demands upon her, and a large part of the success attained in the management and conduct of the temporary infirmary is due to her.

When patients were discharged and cured they were directed to the office of the hospital, where they settled the charges for their treatment with cash or by note, and when the epidemic had passed, the hospital closed and the business finally wound up, the unpaid notes were taken over by the county commissioners as county obligations in case default in payment of any of the notes is made. This method of handling the situation throughout the epidemic saved the lives of hundreds of Richland County peo- ple and provided against a heavy expense account against the county. Much credit is given Doctor Perkins for the wonderful work he performed dur- ing this period. .

WILLARD A. LEO is serving Fairview as its post- master, and he has been identified with the life and interests of Montana since 1905. He traces descent to Germany, where his father, Adolphus Leo, was born in the Province of Wurtemberg, and was a youth of seventeen when he severed allegiance with the Fatherland to become a resident of the United States. His first home in this country was in Craw- ford County, Pennsylvania, which subsequently be- came the birthplace of his son Willard, and he spent his life as a quiet and industrious farmer, loyally espoused the interests of the country he had adopted as his home, and passed to his final reward on the 27th of April, 1917, at the ripe old age of eighty- one. He gave his political support to democratic principles and was a Baptist in religious affiliations. In Crawford County he was united in. marriage with Hester A. Maloney, whose parents had come from

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 130

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