Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 133

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 133

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Mr. Deegan married in the Milk River country in January, 1882, Margaret St. Dennis, who was born in Canada, a daughter of Michael St. Den- nis. The following children have been born to this union : Margaret, the wife of Hugo A. Hansen, of Hinsdale, Montana; Emily, who married W. W. Jaycox, a ranchman near Hinsdale; Danuel D., a homesteader in Saskatchewan, Canada, married Faith Hill; John, whose home is in Frazer, Mon- tana; Thomas, also a resident of Frazer; Julia, the wife of William Hill, of Frazer; Mary, who married Albert M. Weasa, who served as color sergeant with the Ninety-first Division in France during the World war, was sent back to the United States soon after the signing of the armistice, and returned to Frazer; Georgia, the wife of J, L. Hawley, of Frazer; and May and Allen J., who are the youngest of the ten children. The son John was sent overseas in the air service during the war, going over with the Expeditionary Forces, and spent two years in the war zone. He was never injured or captured, went with the Army of Occu- pation to Germany, was stationed at Coblenz, and returned to the United States in July, 1919. He married Josie Volling. The son Thomas spent two years as a soldier in Europe, a member of the Thirty-eighth United States Infantry, Third Divi- sion, and took part in some of the famous engage- ments of the war, including the battle of the Marne. He went with the Army of Occupation and was stationed within twenty miles of his brother. He also escaped injury in the service.

PHILIP BURTON WILCOX. There is no doubt but that there are many arguments in favor, especially in this age of demand for experts, of a man de- voting himself to one line of endeavor and perfect- ing himself, and one of the men who has followed this policy to his own advantage and the expansion of the business houses with which he has been con- nected is Philip Burton Wilcox, a former manager of the Shilton Lumber Company of Gilman and now advertising manager of the Rovig Lumber Company of Seattle, Washington.

Philip Burton Wilcox was born in the Kenne Val- ley, Essex County, New York, on September 27, 1888, a son of Rev. William C. Wilcox. The Wil- cox family originated in England, the American ancestor coming thence to Massachusetts on the his- toric Mayflower. Philip Burton Wilcox can trace his ancestry back to the same family as that of Daniel Webster, and the great-grandmother on the maternal side was a great-great-granddaughter of the sister of Benjamin Franklin. The grandfather of the mother of Rev. William C. Wilcox was a soldier in the American Revolution.

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Rev. William C. Wilcox was born in Ohio in 1850, and was there reared and educated. He was graduated from Oberlin College with the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts, and then took the regular course at the Oberlin Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, and became a mis- sionary of the Congregational Church. In the mean- while, when only eighteen years old, William C. Wilcox had come West to Deer Lodge, Montana, where he joined his brother, the late Judge J. B. Wilcox, and from 1868 until 1870 was in business with him. During one summer he was employed by Conrad Kohrs, a pioneer business man of Deer Lodge, who is now living at Helena, Montana, and was occupied in punching cattle for him in the Sun Valley, being a genuine cowboy. He cast his first vote for Claggett as. representative in Congress. Having earned sufficient funds to carry on his studies William C. Wilcox returned to Oberlin and took his collegiate and seminary courses.

After leaving the seminary Reverend Wilcox was sent to South Africa as a missionary for six years, at the close of that period returned to the United States for four years, when he went back to South Africa. In 1899 he was returned to the United States for another rest, and in 1901 re- sumed his duties in South Africa. In order to com- plete his translation of the Bible into the Zulu lan- guage Reverend Wilcox once more came back to his native land, and for this remarkable work had the degree of Master of Arts conferred on him by Oberlin College. In 1911 he went back to South Africa as an independent missionary for the Tre- mont Baptist Church of Pasadena, California, and remained there until 1918, in which year he returned to the United States, spent a year at Detroit, Michi- gan, and then, in 1919, came West to Los Angeles, California where he is now residing. He married Ida Belle Clary, born at Northfield, Minnesota, in 1858. The children born to Rev. W. C. Wilcox and his wife were as follows: Anna, who married Charles M. Smith, a contractor and builder of Youngstown, Ohio; Mark F., who is professor of English in the high school of Bakersfield, California; Stella, who died in infancy; Philip Burton, who was fourth in order of birth; William, who died at the age of nine years; Gladstone, who enlisted in the English army in 1915, served overseas, was seriously wounded and gassed, and is still in England; Mur- ray, who is attending Oberlin College; and Thomas, who is a business man of Youngstown, Ohio.

Philip Burton Wilcox attended the public schools of Stanger, Natal, South Africa, until he was through the fifth grade, and then continued his studies in the United States, being graduated from the Oberlin High School in 1906. Later he went through the junior year of Pomona College, Clare- mont, Southern California, and then began to be self-supporting as an employe of the Alta Planing Mill Company of Los Angeles, California, where he remained until 1916, leaving this concern as a salesman having charge of a very productive ter- ritory, including Pasadena and its vicinity. In 1916 Mr. Wilcox went with the Hallack and Howard Lumber Company of Denver, Colorado, as adver- tising manager. While with this company he origi- nated a monthly house organ called The Habit, which dealt with lumber and building supplies, covering these subjects from the logging camp to the finished material. This periodical is still pub- lished by the Hallack and Howard Lumber Com- pany, although Mr. Wilcox left them in June, 1918, to come to Gilman as manager of the Rogers Tem- pleton Lumber Company, which, in May, 1919, sold

to the Shilton Lumber Company, Mr. Wilcox re- maining with the new organization as manager. He left Gilman in April, 1919, to become advertis- ing manager of the Rovig Lumber Company of Se- attle, Washington, where he is located at present.

Mr. Wilcox is a democrat. He is a member of the Baptist Church but attended the Presbyterian Church at Gilman and was superintendent of its Sunday school. He is an ex-master workman of the Gilman Lodge No. 45, Ancient Order of United Workmen, and is an ex-president and ex-secretary of the Gilman Commercial Club.

In 1912 Mr. Wilcox was married at Pasadena, California, to Miss Ethel Jackson, a daughter of George F. and Florence (Dear) Jackson, residents of Altadena, a suburb of Pasadena, he being manager of the estate of Mrs. Sidney Harris, a granddaugh- ter of John Deere the famous plow manufacturer. Mrs. Wilcox attended the Jackson Park High School of Chicago, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox have one son, Jackson Burton, who was born on June 16, 1918.

S. B. Fox. There is scarcely a community in this country that is not yet honored by having in its midst one of the veterans of the great conflict be- tween the North and the South, and Kalispell is no exception to this rule, some of its most rep- resentative citizens belonging to this desirable class, and one of them, is S. B. Fox. He was born near Buffalo, New York, September 10, 1838, a son of Philander and Cynthia (Brigham) Fox, and the fifth of their ten children. In 1859 he came as far west as Iowa, and had not much more than become settled when the war cloud that had been gathering over his beloved country for many years burst in all its fury. Although he was married and had a young wife and two children he left them to enlist in his country's service at Manchester, Iowa, in Company H, Twenty-First Iowa Volunteer Infan- try, and was sent first to Saint Louis, Missouri, and later to the Ozark Mountains, and took part in the forced march to reinforce the troops near Springfield, Missouri, meeting the enemy at Harts- ville, that state. Mr. Fox fired the last shot of that engagement. From there the regiment went to Mississippi and took part in the siege of Vicks- burg, was present at the bombardment of Grand Gulf, and was made corporal. Mr. Fox took part in the battle of Fort Gibson, which began at mid- night and lasted until morning, in which time the Union troops drove the Confederate troops back for three miles. Subsequently Mr. Fox was in the engagement at Champion Hill, camping at Ed- wards Station. The next morning they marched to Black River and charged the works, but although victorious, the colonel of the brigade, Colonel Sam- uel Merrill, was wounded. A portion of the com- mand pursued the enemy up to Vicksburg. After the surrender on July 4, 1863, of Vicksburg, Mr. Fox's command had the honor of being permitted by General Grant to visit the city and see what they had assisted in accomplishing. Mr. Fox was wound- ed in the charge of May 2 by a piece of shell which struck his arm, but refused to go to the hospital and kept on fighting. He took part in every skir- mish and battle of this compaign in which his com- mand was engaged. Following the termination of the Vicksburg campaign Mr. Fox's command was sent to New Orleans, Louisiana, and transferred to the Ninteenth Corps, and from that city were sent to Vermilion Bay, which they crossed on boats to Saint Joseph's Island, and then came back by land that same day. A big fort on Mattagorda Bay was captured during the campaign of 1863-4. Those

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winter months were wet and cold. The command re- crossed the bay to the main land and remained there until January 1, 1864, when it went up the bay to Powder Horn, and in an engagement there re- pulsed the enemy. In the spring the greater number of the troops of this command went with General Bank up the Red River, but two regiments were left to guard the place already captured, one of them being the one in which Mr. Fox belonged. Later the captured fort was blown up, and the troops re- turned to New Orleans, For a time this command was then quartered on the Mississippi River, and later was sent up the White River to Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas, but the troops had scarcely completed the erection of permanent cabins when they were or- dered back down the river. Mr. Fox was then given an opportunity to vote, and gladly cast his ballot for Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. The command then went up to Memphis, Tennessee, and on toward La Grange. On January 1, 1865, the troops boarded boats for New Orleans and went to Mobile Bay, landing on Dolphin Island. The subsequent engagement at Spanish Fort was led by the Ninety-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Gen- eral Slack commanding, and Mr. Fox's regiment was on the extreme right and continued in action until two o'clock in the morning, when it was re- lieved by the Forty-seventh Indiana Volunteer In- fantry. Mr. Fox was ordered to Blakeley and was serving on fatigue duty for a period of twenty-four hours when Spanish Fort surrendered April 9, 1865. The war now having been terminated by the sur- render of General Lee, Mr. Fox's command was marched back to Mobile, and on May 26, took boat up the Red River to receive the surrender of Gen- erals Richard Taylor and Kirby Smith. Mr. Fox was on duty as sergeant of the commissary stores, and had charge of $1,300,000 in Confederate cur- rency, then worth practically nothing. From there the command went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the troops were mustered out July 15, 1865, follow- ing which, on July 16, they took boat at Cairo, Illinois, to Clinton, Illinois, where the soldiers were entertained by the ladies with an outdoor banquet. There they were discharged July 28, 1865, and Mr. Fox returned home.

Following his re-entry into peaceful occupations he was engaged at farming in the vicinity of Algona, Iowa, and lived there until in the fall of 1906, when he came to Montana and located permanently at Kalispell. He is a member of J. B. McPherson Post, G. A. R., and is enthusiastic about its re- unions and those of national importance. In 1918 he attended the encampment at Portland, Oregon. Mrs. Fox, who passed away December 1I, 1919, was an active member of the Woman's Relief Corps of Kalispell. Mr. Fox had two brothers and three brothers-in-law in the war. Since coming to Mon- tana he has seen many improvements, and feels that his good judgment in selecting this state as a place of residence has been fully proven.

The first wife of Mr. Fox was Matilda Barnum, and she bore him two children, Horace Eugene and Francis. In the fall of 1870 he was married to Mrs. Jennie Ware, and they had six children, name -. ly : Clarence S., Lewis W., Harry, Leonard, Fred and Artie Bell.

Clarence S. Fox, who died April 3, 1919, was an engineer and carpenter of Kalispell. He married Ella O'Connell, who died when their daughter, Jen- nie Marie, was born, and he lost this daughter six- teen months later.

Lewis W. Fox married Mattie Bonney, of South Dakota, and their children are as follows: George, who is a veteran of the World war, having served

in the Twentieth Engineers, Art, Milo, Sylvanus, William, Cary and Harry.

Harry Fox was married to Alice C. Hall, a daugh- ter of Samuel W. and Mary Elizabeth (Curtiss) Hall. Mr. Hall was a veteran of the war between the North and the South, serving in the First Wis- consin Cavalry, and had the misfortune to be taken prisoner and confined for sixteen months in Ander- sonville prison and for eight months in Libby prison. Harry Fox and his wife have one son, Charles. Both as a general merchant and postmaster of Meek, Nebraska, Harry Fox is a representative citizen.

Leonard Fox married Esther Harson, and their children are as follows: Josephine, who is married, LeRoy and Elma. LeRoy enlisted at Sioux City, Iowa, and is a veteran of the Rainbow Division. He saw severe service overseas, participating in the Argonne campaign and the final engagements which preceded the signing of the Armistice. Josephine Fox married Ralph W. Sellew, who served overseas in the Seventeenth Artillery, to which he was transferred from the Second Montana National Guards, and was in the Army of Occupation in Germany. His period of service extended over eighteen months and he participated in the decisive battles of the great war.

Artie Bell Fox married James Eastwood and has four children, Pearl, Earl, Jennie and LeRoy.

In reviewing the life history of a man like Mr. Fox the biographer is struck by the close resem- blance between him and his grandsons. Like him, the younger men did not hesitate when their coun- try had need of their service, but patriotically re- sponded and wrote another page of the Fox his- tory and wrote it in letters of fire, the fire of un- sullied bravery and fearless gallantry, for the breed of true Americans does not change with the passing of the years, but shows up true blue in each gen- eration. Mr. Fox set the example, his grandsons followed it, and in the years to come if there is like need for such service their offspring will not be found lacking or their places vacant in the ranks of their country's defenders.

JAMES W. BUTLER, of Sidney, has spent his active life as a ranchman, and he has been identified with Montana and its interests since a lad of eight years, when he accompanied his parents to this state and located three miles west of Glendive.

He was born on a farm near Faribault, Minne- sota, April 10, 1874, a son of James Butler, and a brother of the Glendive postmaster, John F. But- ler, who is mentioned on other pages of this pub- lication. After completing his educational train- ing in the public schools of Glendive James W. be- came a cow puncher for wages, and since that early age of thirteen he has been self-supporting and also contributed some of his earnings to his parents and the family support. Thirteen years were spent on the range in the employ of ranchmen among his employers being the famous "XIT" Cattle Company, the "SD," "Hatchet" and the "N bar N" Companies. During those thirteen yeats on the plains he saved his wages and invested in stock, in time becoming a ranchman himself. In 1900 he located on Red Water, and there established his first enterprise. He was a squatter on the public domain, and his first independent home was the customary "shack" of that time and place. But after three years there he moved to Burns Creek, where his active work has since been performed and where his interests are still maintained.

Mr. Butler entered his homestead twelve miles south of Lambert, there developing a large cow ranch and farm, and his stock, the best type of

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range cattle, ran under the brand "AJ." During all these years his enterprise had been conducted in partnership with his brother Ed, and when the in- terests of the Butler Brothers were at their height their cattle numbered a thousand head, they hav- ing shipped their beef to the Chicago market and always followed the cattle business for the purpose of producing food. The brothers were gradually pushed out of the business by the encroachment of the settlers, and in 1915 they retired from the cat- tle business altogether. An important adjunct to their cattle industry was the running of horses, and they still breed the grade Percherons, and their market for these animals is found at home. Their horses also ran under the grand "AJ" and came to be classed as heavy draft animals. Butler Brothers have added to their landed possessions until a do- main of 2,000 acres are now in their name, all of which is under fence and cross-fenced. They have also developed a farm of 1,500 acres, which has been devoted to small grain, with also paying yields of flax, wheat and oats. The best flax yield was twenty-two bushels, the best wheat yield thirty-five bushels, while the best oats yield has been forty bushels to the acre. As they were growing these crops by the hundreds of acress they could not devote as much care to each crop as can the smaller farmer, and hence the yields were not so heavy.

Mr. Butler organized or was the community spirit in the organization of School District No. 22, and served it as a director. After his children reached high school age he established a home in Sidney, where he spends each school year. He began vot- ing as a republican, casting his first presidential vote in 1896 for Major Mckinley, but his partner- brother took the opposite political road and gave his allegiance to the democratic party.

At Glendive, Montana, on the 18th of February, 1899, James W. Butler was united in marriage to Miss Eliza Banber, who was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, January 18, 1874, and she was only six years of age when her father estab- lished his home in Montana. She is a daughter of one of the early mine operators and settlers of Glendive, John Banber, who also served his coun- try faithfully and well as a soldier in the Civil war as a Pennsylvania volunteer. He was born in Eng- land in 1841. By his marriage to Mary Jane Ralph he became the father of six children, of whom Mrs. Butler is the third child in age. Two children have been born to bless the union of Mr. and Mrs. Butler, James Howard, a member of the class of 1920 in the Sidney High School, and Mary, an eighth grade pupil at the present time.

GEORGE HANDLEY BELL, clerk of the Fourteenth Judicial District Court, with home and office at White Sulphur Springs, is an engineer by profes- sion, and came to Montana as a member of the engineering force of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway system.

Mr. Bell was born at the town of Carroll in Carroll County, Indiana, August 24, 1880, son of Joseph and Mary E. (Wyatt) Bell. His father was born in Ohio in 1851, was educated in that state, learned the trade of blacksmith, and as a young man moved to Indiana, where he married. Their home for several years was at Carroll, but in 1885. they moved to Kansas and homesteaded near Pratt. In 1890 they returned to Indiana, and Joseph Bell resumed his work as a blacksmith at Flora, but since 1914 has been retired. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, a republican and a Methodist. His wife was born in Indiana in 1856.

Of their five living children George H. is the sec- ond.

George H. Bell was educated in public schools, attended high school at Flora, Indiana, the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute, and grad- uated as a mechanical engineer from Purdue Uni- versity with the class of 1906. For a time his technical services were engaged with the Kokomo, Marion and Western Traction Company, later he was superintendent of the manual training depart- ment in the Dunn County School of Agriculture at Menomonie, Wisconsin, for a year, and then went with E. P. Burch, consulting electrical engineer at Minneapolis, doing hydro-electric construction work. In 1907 he joined the mechanical depart- ment of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St., Paul Rail- way Company, and was in its service at different points in Montana until 1917. In that year he was elected clerk of the Fourteenth Judicial District for Meagher County, and has since given all his time to his office duties.

Mr. Bell is affiliated with Diamond City Lodge No. 7,. Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, Har- lowton Chapter No. 22, Royal Arch Masons, Pales- tine Commandery No. 18, Knights Templar, Bag- dad Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Butte, and is also a member of the Knights of Pythias. In poli- tics he is a republican. June 27, 1911, Mr. Bell married Miss Nellie Irene Harden, daughter of T. J. and Elizabeth Harden, of Montezuma, Iowa, where they still reside. Mr. and Mrs. Bell have one daughter, Mary Elizabeth.

HERBERT A. HOVER, The name of Herbert A. Hover is known throughout Montana as a land developer and farm producer, for the Hover ef- fort at farm culture leads all others in the Sidney locality, and may well prove an object lesson for the seeker after first-hand knowledge on irriga- tion farming in this section of the country.

Mr. Hover came from Spokane, Washington, to the commonwealth of Montana in January, 1912, and at once became interested in farming and ranch development. In 1913 he formed the Montana Ranches Company, of which he was made the presi- dent, the purpose of the corporation being the buy- ing, selling and development of lands with the ulti- mate object to the promotion of immigration. Mr. Hover's first work was done from Helena, at and around which point a tract of 16,000 acres were pur- chased, which he divided and disposed of in ranches from a quarter to a section in a tract, and he is still heavily interested in that project. He has since spread his investments for the company over the state, buying about seven million dollars worth of property in Lewis and Clark, Broad Water, Jef- ferson, Powell, Granite, Hill and Chouteau coun- ties, and in 1917 he purchased for himself 2,300 acres three miles south of Sidney from John P. Meadors. He has since increased this domain to 7,000 acres in a solid farm and ranch.

Mr. Hover began the development of his Sidney ranch in April of 1919, and to use the county agent's language : "He has done in one summer what, un- der ordinary circumstances, takes ten years to ac- complish." In 1919 he raised a bumper crop of corn under irrigation, his own private system, and accomplishing this result in spite of the fact that Montana is not yet regarded seriously as a corn state, while at the same time his other efforts have demonstrated the wisdom of his investment and ef- fort at farm making. His corn took first prize at the State Fair at Helena in 1919 and in the Eastern Montana Corn Show at Miles City, and his corn exhibit also won for him a prize at the Interna-

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tional Live Stock Show at Chicago in the same year. He sold this farm after the crop was har- vested for $240,000 cash and has made heavy in- vestments in the new Montana oil industry and is preparing to drill immediately several wells in Fer- gus County, Montana.

Mr. Hover was born in Madison County, Ohio, at Madisonville, a suburb of Cincinnati, March 9, 1868, a son of Aaron S. and Amanda (Hollenbeck) Hover, the father born at Germantown, New York, and the mother at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They were married in Madisonville, Ohio, and became the par- ents of five children, four of whom are still living, namely : Herbert, the well known Montana farmer, real estate and oil man; Aaron H., whose home is in Prosser, Washington; Alvin W., of Los An- geles, California; and Howard Raymond, of Port- land, Oregon. Aaron S. Hover, the father, finally left his Ohio home for Lawrence, Kansas, where he lived till 1887. He then went to San Diego, Cali- fornia, where he lived until his death in 1918.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 133

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