Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 140

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 140

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Mr. Bowman's stock in the beginning was a good grade of Hereford cattle and Percheron horses, and both of these he improved with registered sires as the years passed. His beef cattle were of a generous build, and he produced the champion beef steer sold on the Chicago market up to 1917. This was a four-

year-old Hereford-Shorthorn weighing 1,540 pounds when sold August 28, 1917, and brought Mr. Bowman $231.00, the highest priced grass steer ever sold at the Chicago market up to that time. Mr. Bowman went out of the cattle business in 1919, when he made his final shipment to market. In the height of his career as a stockman he wintered 960 head of cattle in his lots at Medicine Lake, and usually ranged from three to five hundred head, shipping from three to five carloads a year. He has sold cattle as low as seven cents a pound, and his highest price was in 1919, when he sold at sixteen cents a pound.

Mr. Bowman proved up on the land he acquired in 1905, and his additional entry, together with his homestead and his purchases, give him a ranch of 1,600 acres. He has developed a farm of 700 acres, where wheat, oats, barley and flax have been grown profusely and have yielded bountifully.

Thomas E. Bowman was born in Roane County, Tennessee June 22, 1857, a son of William and Mary E. (Evans) Bowman. William Bowman is a resi- dent of Phoenix, Arizona, at the age of eighty- seven years. He was born April 25, 1833, at King- ston in Roane County, Tennessee, a son of William Bowman, who was born in Virginia and pioneered to Tennessee in the early settlement of that state. He was a farmer and a soldier in the War of 1812. William Bowman, Sr., passed away in Montgomery County, Kansas, as did also his wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Bacon. William and Mary Bowman had three sons: Edward, who died in Mississippi; James R., who died in Louisville, Ken- tucky ; and William, of Phoenix, Arizona.

William Bowman, Jr. married Mary E. Evans, who died at Spearfish, South Dakota, in 1912. She was a daughter of Patrick and Rebecca Evans, of Irish parentage, and the Bowmans are of English descent. William and Mary (Evans) Bowman be- came the parents of the following children: Thomas E., of Medicine Lake; Elijah P., of Meeteetsee, Wyoming; Rosseau P., of Phoenix, Arizona; John C. whose home is also in Phoenix ; Derealous C., who died at Bason, Wyoming, in 1908; Demarius S., wife of Arthur P. Hewes, of Phoenix; and Cortelia M., the wife of William C. Foster, also of Phoenix.

Thomas E. Bowman married in Deadwood, South Dakota, October 16, 1894, Mrs. Della Bond who was born in Keokuk County, Iowa, August 1, 1859, a daughter of John W. and Demarius Hanson. When Mrs. Bowman was fifteen years of age the family removed from Keokuk County, Iowa, to Cali- fornia, and she grew to womanhood in Alameda County. Mr. Hanson was a farmer in Iowa but in California worked in the surveyor-general's office for three years. He subsequently returned to his Iowa farm, and died there in 1908, at the age of eighty-two. His wife died in the year 1902, when she was seventy-two years of age. Mr. Hanson was a native son of Indiana, born in Posey County. He gave his political support to the republican party, and many years ago he was his party's candidate in Iowa for Congress. In Masonry he reached the thirty-second degree, and he lived up to the teach- ings of that fraternity. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hanson: Mary E., the wife of John A. Benson, of San Francisco; Solon A., whose home is in Alamo, Washington; Alpheus P., of Long Beach, California; Della, the wife of Mr. Bowman; and Monta A., widow of Milo A. Adams and a resident of Berkeley, California. Mrs. Bow- man has one daughter by her former marriage, Elizabeth Demarius, the wife of Dr. J. G. Barnhizer, of Forrest, Illinois.

When Thomas E. Bowman reached the age of

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maturity his first presidential ballot was cast for General Grant, and he has ever since supported the principles of the republican party. Mrs. Bowman voted first for Benjamin Harrison at Sundance, Wyoming where Mr. Bowman at one time owned the townsite and was identified with its incorporation as a town.

CLINTON J. POE is the druggist of Medicine Lake and one of the founders of the town. He came into the locality in March, 1910, first identifying himself with the old town of Medicine Lake and with the Lake Drug Company, and has the distinction of be- ing the pioneer druggist of this region. The Lake Drug Company comprised Mr. Poe and A. W. Hux- sol, the latter now of Wolf Point, Montana, and when the firm moved to the new town of Medicine Lake it occupied the lot upon which Mr. Poe's busi- ness house now stands and was one of the first business firms established in the town. The first building which the firm occupied was a mere shack, 20 by 24 feet in dimensions, and it now forms a part of the present business house of the Poe Drug Store.

Mr. Poe was born at Cannon Falls, Minnesota, June 23, 1884, a son of Jonathan S. Poe and a grand- son of the Rev. Richard Poe. The Rev. Richard Poe, an early circuit rider of the Methodist faith, rode over Goodhue County, Minnesota, and preached to the pioneers until age retired him. He died at the age of ninety-two years and lies buried at Cannon Falls. It was in 1856 that he brought his family into Minnesota and his home was on a farm near Can- non Falls. The Rev. Poe was a veteran of both the Mexican and Civil wars, and held the rank of first lieutenant in the war with Mexico. His family com- prised twelve children, and of his numerous sons William, Baker, Alonzo and Jonathan S. were Union soldiers.

Jonathan S. Poe, a native of Danville, Kentucky, removed to Minnesota before the Civil war, in which he enlisted for service against the Confederacy as a member of Company I, Thirteenth Minnesota, In- fantry. He enlisted almost at the beginning of the struggle, and was wounded in the battle of Mill Spring Kentucky, which incapacitated him for fur- ther service, and he afterward drew a pension. His life was spent as a farmer.

Jonathan S. Poe was married in Minnesota to Emma Babcock, who was born at Port Huron, Michigan, a daughter of Dow Babcock. They be- came the parents of the following children: Mrs. Ivie D. Simpson, of Redwood Falls, Minnesota ; Mrs. E. E. Orr, of Wadena, Minnesota; Mrs. O. E. Elstad, of Dennison, Minnesota; Mrs. Lewis Bas- com who died at Cannon Falls, Minnesota ; Richard M., of Cannon Falls; and Clinton J., the youngest of the children. Jonathan S. Poe early became a republican voter, but afterward turned his political influence for temperance and was one of the first to join the prohibition party and took an active part in the work which led finally to nationwide pro- hibition.

Clinton J. Poe was horn at Cannon Falls, Min- nesota, June 23, 1884. His boyhood environment was the farm, and he continued as a farmer until the age of twenty-one, in the meantime receiving a dis- trict school education. He later attended the Cannon Falls High School and graduated therefrom. He then began learning the jewelry trade and also work- ing in the drug store of Schofield Brothers of Can- non Falls, remaining with that firm until removing to North Dakota and spending a year at Glenbury. From there he came to Culbertson, Montana where he spent three years in the jewelry business. From

Culbertson Mr. Poe came to Medicine Lake in 1910, and the Poe drug business occupies this Medicine Lake field alone. Mr. Poe became a registered phar- macist by practical experience.

As a citizen of Medicine Lake he entered whole- heartedly into the life and growth of the town, was instrumental in its incorporation and was elected the town's first mayor, holding that office for two terms. He was one of the leaders in the effort to make Medicine Lake the county seat of Sheridan County, and supported the movement which brought Sheri- dan County into existence. He became a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator at the time it was or- ganized, and also purchased a small lot of stock in the Farmers Telephone Company when it was or- ganized.

The Poe home in Medicine Lake, erected by its present owner, is a five-room cottage, modern in its appointments, commodious and comfortable. Mr. Poe was married in Bainville Montana, October 22, I910, to Miss Marie Bielen, who was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 15, 1887, a daughter of Peter and Sophie (Friedman) Bielan, the father a native of Germany and the mother of Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Bielen came from St. Paul, Min- nesota, to Montana in 1907 and opened the St. Paul Hotel in Culbertson. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Poe: Dorothy, Helen and John.

When Mr. Poe became a voter he espoused the cause of the republican party and cast his first presi- dential ballot for Mr. Taft in 1908 but since has twice supported Mr. Wilson. Fraternally he is con- nected with the Masonic Order, a member of Trowel Lodge No. 67, of Culbertson, Montana. During the World war he was actively identified with the committees carrying forward the work of raising funds to support the soldiers at the front and at home, actively helping in all the Liberty Loan drives and in the work of the local Red Cross.

GEORGE CHARLESWORTH is one of the men of cour- age, foresight and industry who have accomplished the pioneer work in Northeastern Montana and laid the substantial basis which subsequent generations will use for all the prosperity they enjoy.

Mr. Charlesworth, who has been identified with what is now Sheridan County since 1905, was born in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania, in Lackawanna County, April 7, 1877. His father, John Charlesworth, a native of England, spent his active life as a stone mason at Scranton. He married Lucy Brunt, who also died in early life. Their children were: Arthur, who preceded his brother George to Montana and is a rancher near Medicine Lake in Sheridan County; Kenneth, who spent his life as a coal miner at Scranton and died by accident in 1919; George; Amanda, wife of Lewis Hunter, of Union, New York; and Elizabeth wife of Walter Ver- treese, of Harmony, Maine.

George Charlesworth like most coal miners' sons had little opportunity to attend public schools. At the age of eleven he was helping support himself as a gate tender at the mines, and did a boy's part in that industry to the age of fifteen. He then worked in the Bristol House at Scranton, had other employ- ment, and finally went into a Scranton foundry and served a year at the molder's trade.

Mr. Charlesworth made his first venture in Mon- tana when about nineteen years of age. At Shawmut he found employment on a sheep and cattle ranch, and for several years continued as a wage worker in the Musselshell locality.

He then returned East to Kansas City, Missouri, and for about two years was an employe of the Swift Packing Company at the metropolis of Western

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Missouri. His early experiences in Montana had made a strong impression upon him, and he again sought his opportunities in the Treasure state and in 1905 settled in the Medicine Lake locality of what is now Sheridan County.

As a ranch hand he was employed by some of the pioneers of the region including Tom Bowman and Frank Arnett. After a period as a wage worker he entered land and began the improvement and de- velopment of a farm of his own. His claim lies near the townsite. He took up both a homestead and desert claim, giving him a half section, one be- ing in section 12 and the other in section 24, town- ship 32, range 56. His first shelter was a box struc- ture and weatherboard windbreak, 14 by 16, and there he kept a bachelor's home for a time. He hired his first breaking done, and a year later ac- quired a team of his own. As rapidly as his capital would warrant he began stocking his claim with cattle, and combined stock and crops with fair re- sults. While on the claim he married, and remained until his farm was substantially improved. He de- veloped a modest permanent home of three rooms by joining his original shack to another building, and making the rooms comfortable inside. While he could not enter the cattle business extensively be- cause of the rapid settlement by homesteaders, he always kept a small herd, and still uses the brand "DbarW." From the original home the Charles- worths moved to a property owned by Mrs. Charles- worth adjoining the townsite. By long continued industry Mr. Charlesworth has made his efforts count through grain raising and small ranching.

At Culbertson, Montana, April 7, 1908, he mar- ried Mrs. Emily . M. Royels. She was born in Missouri, October 4, 1877, youngest of the children of Dennis and Maria (Jacquef) Adams. Her father, who was born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, June I, 1830, spent his early life in his native state, learned the shoemaker's trade, then went West, spending a year in Illinois, and from there going to Missouri and locating in Sullivan County. He had acquired a liberal education and for a number of years was a successful schoolmaster. He abandoned the school- room to become a farmer, and spent the rest of his life in that substantial industry. While in Missouri he enlisted in the Union army, was commissioned a lieutenant, promoted to captain, and served through- out the entire war. His only injury resulted from a shell glancing from a tree and hitting him, and ever afterward he was slightly crippled. He drew a pension for many years. Captain Adams took the usual old soldier's interest in politics, was a repub- lican, served frequently as judge of elections, and was reared a Presbyterian. He married his wife in Missouri, having met her in Illinois. She was born October 28, 1839, and died February 20, 1899, in her sixtieth year. Their older children were: Charles W., of Eldridge Missouri; Mary Helen, wife of John M. Taylor, of Wyola, Montana; Nathan Els- worth, of Clear Springs, Missouri; Dennis Ezra, of Ross, Montana; Annie Staple, now Mrs. William Somerville, of Barber, Wyoming; John Quincy of Brush, Colorado; Moses Noice, named for his father's mother, of Harris, Missouri; and Miles Thomas, of Harris, Missouri.

Mrs. Charlesworth was educated in the district schools of Missouri and come out to Montana in June, 1896, visiting a brother and sister at Hutton. While there she met her first husband, Edward Royels, and after their marriage they moved to Eastern Montana and established their home near the present town of Medicine Lake, at that time thirty miles from the nearest postoffice and trading point at Culbertson. They did horse ranching when

the range was unobstructed, and when Mrs. Royels was left a widow and the country opened for settle- ment she entered a half section. Eventually she left the horse business and took up cattle and is one of Montana's successful women in the livestock and agricultural industry. The Charlesworth home was erected in 1915, just a dozen feet from the Medicine Lake townsite and is a commodious structure of ten rooms.

Mrs. Charlesworth had two children by her first marriage : Clarence Thomas Royels, born April 26, 1900, a' stenographer and student in the military school at Reme Field near San Diego, California; and Mabel Emily, who graduated from the Medicine Lake High School in 1920. Mr. and Mrs. Charles- worth have a daughter, Lucy Maria, named for both her grandmothers, born November 22, 1909, and now in the fourth grade of the public schools.

Mr. Charlesworth cast his first ballot for president for Major Mckinley, and has been a regular repub- lican voter. Mrs. Charlesworth also grew up in a republican home and holds to the same politics. Both contributed their modest share to the success of the Red Cross and other war auxiliary movements. Mrs. Charlesworth, though she had never knit a pair of socks in her life, took up home knitting, and in addition to her heavy housework completed eleven pairs of men socks from Christmas to the first of April.

EDWARD CHARLES ELLIOTT. In 1893 Montana, con- forming to those standards which have long been recognized as essential for the sound civic develop- ment of an American commonwealth, provided for the establishment of four institutions of higher edu- cation-the State University at Missoula, the State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Boze- man, the State Normal College at Dillon and the State School of Mines at Butte. Two decades later (1913) the Legislature sought to coordinate the work of these institutions and to secure their more effective and economic operation. This was accomplished by constituting the several institutions as integral parts of the University of Montana. The State Board of Education was authorized to appoint a Chancellor as the chief executive officer of the new University organization ; which represents a pioneer experiment in American higher education.

To this post of Chancellor of the University of Montana which he assumed February 1, 1916, Dr. Elliott brought a wealth of educational experience, scholarship and administrative ability that have proved a profound influence not only upon the affairs of the University but the educational outlook and standards of the entire state.

Of English parentage, Edward Charles Elliott was born at Chicago, Illinois, December 21, 1874, son of Frederick and Susan (Petts) Elliott. He acquired his early education in the public schools of North Platte, Nebraska, to which place the family removed in 1881. He then pursued the scientific course at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, graduating Bachelor of Science in 1895. He received his Mas- ter of Arts degree in Chemistry in 1897. The fol- lowing six years were spent in Leadville, Colorado where he was first a teacher in the high school, and from 1898 to 1903 superintendent of city schools. In 1903 he entered the Teachers College of Columbia University at New York, specializing in educational administration. He received his Doctor of Philos- ophy degree in 1905, and spent the summer of 1904 as a special student in the University of Jena, Ger- many. At the Columbia Teachers College he was assistant in 1903-04 and teaching fellow in 1904-05.

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Doctor Elliott is a member of the Phi Kappa Psi college fraternity.

Prior to coming to Montana Doctor Elliott was for ten years connected with the University of Wis- consin as associate professor of education from 1905 to 1907, and as professor of education from 1907 to 1916. From 1909 to 1916 he was also director of the course for the training of teachers.

In addition to his other work Doctor Elliott was employed in special investigations under the United States Bureau of Education from 1906 to 1910, and did similar work with the New York School Inquiry, in 1911-12 the Vermont Educational Inquiry in 1913, and has been an adviser to various state and municipal educational commissions. He was a lec- turer in the summer session of Columbia University in 1907 and at the University of Chicago in 1911. In 1917 he was president of the Department of Higher Education in the National Education Association. He is the author of "Fiscal Aspects of Public Edu- cation in American Cities," published in 1905, of three bulletins on State School Systems, published in 1906, 1908 and 1910 by the United States Bureau of Education, of City School Supervision, published in 1913, and collaborated with Professor E. P. Cub- berley of Stanford University on State and County School Administration, a two volume work pub- lished in 1915-16.

J. C. WOOD. There could be no more comprehen- sive history written of a community, or even of a state and its people, than that which deals with the life work of those who by their own endeavor and indomitable energy have placed themselves where they well deserve the title of "progressive," and in this sketch will be found the record of one who has outstripped the less active plodders on the highway of life, one who has not been subdued by the many obstacles and failures that come to everyone, but who has made them stepping stones to higher things, so that at the same time that Mr. Wood was winning his way to the front in agricultural and horticultural affairs he was gaining a reputation for uprightness and honor.

J. C. Wood, successful farmer and orchardist at Wood's Bay, Flathead Valley, was born at Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania, and is the son of Samuel and Matilda (Marr) Wood. He was reared at home and secured his education in the schools of Allegheny City (now the North Side, Pittsburgh), after which he attended and graduated from the Iron City Commercial College of Pittsburgh. In young manhood he was engaged in teaching school in Iowa, and in 1878 he went to Colorado, attracted there by the stories of fortunes made in the mines. From that time until 1891 Mr. Wood mined and prospected in almost every important mining camp in the country, including Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, British Colum- bia. During this time he filled every position in mining from prospecting to superintendent of gold mines and mills. However, in 1891 Mr. Wood showed sound judgment when he homesteaded 160 acres of land on the eastern shore of Flat- head Lake, the land being located on the bay which bears his name, Wood's Bay. An interesting fact in connection with this incident is that Mr. and Mrs. Wood came to the Flathead Val- ley home on their wedding trip, in typical western style, by "prairie schooner," having made the trip from Del Norte, Colorado, to Butte, Montana, in 1895 thence to the Flathead Valley. In 1891 Mr. Wood gave his first efforts to the building of a home, with pleasant surroundings, and the improvement and cultivation of his farm, in all of which he was

highly successful. But the great success which has attended his efforts, and which overshadows every- thing else that he has attempted, is as an orchardist, for as the years have passed he has not only added to and developed his orchards, but he has so im- proved the grade of his fruit that today he stands pre-eminently the leading horticulturist of Montana, a position which he has reached only by indefati- gable and persistent efforts along definite lines. Mr. Wood is an idealist when it comes to fruit growing, and he always works toward his ideals. This has been the secret of his success. He has exhibited the products of his orchards at the World's Exposition at San Francisco, where he won two gold and two silver prizes, and has won numerous silver cups as prizes at other fairs, such as Salem, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, Helena, Montana, etc. In fitting recog- nition of his standing in his chosen field of endeavor, Mr. Wood has served as the president of the State Board of Horticulture, president of the Montana State Horticultural Society, president of the Flat- head County Farm Bureau and is now (1920) hold- ing the office of state horticulturist. It is said of Mr. Wood that not only has he been notably success- ful in fruit raising on his own account, but that he has done more probably than any other one man to stimulate and encourage the planting of orchards and the proper care of fruit in this state.

In Del Norte, Colorado, in 1885, Mr. Wood was married to Mary Grant, and to them have been born six children, namely : Samuel Oliver; Marian Ada, who became the wife of H. S. McElroy, of the east shore of Flathead Lake, and they have three children, Edith, Clarissa and Hugh; Elwyn Grant who finished the public school course, attended and gradu- ated from the Pullman College, Washington, and then took post-graduate work at Amherst College, Massachusetts. He is a veteran of the World War, having served in France eleven months as a mem- ber of the Twentieth Regiment of Engineers, and at present is district horticulturist at Walla Walla, Washington. Christina Matilda, who is a graduate of Pullman College, became a teacher in Flathead County. She is a very intelligent and efficient young woman and during the recent war she served as county demonstrator. It was in marked evidence of her ability and popularity when, at the close of the war and the abolition of many of the special war measures, she was continued in her position by petition of the taxpayers, in which movement the women of the county were especially prominent. She is a typical Montana girl, independent and ener- getic, and drives her own car to various points in the county where she holds bureau meetings. John, who graduated from the Kalispell High School, took two years work in the Montana State University at Missoula, and is now employed in the shoe de- partment of the Missoula Mercantile Company. He married Irene Roole, and they have one child, John Thomas. Helen Ruth is a student in the Missoula High School.

Politically Mr. Wood is an earnest supporter of the democratic party, and takes a deep interest in public affairs, especially pertaining to his own local- ity. He is deeply interested in educational matters and served six years as a member of the Kalispell High School Board and twenty-three years as a member of the school board of his district. He and his wife are active members of the Presbyterian Church, to which they give generous support. Mr. Wood's indomitable courage, persistent and aggres- sive efforts and his excellent management have brought to him the prosperity which is today his. He has ever stood ready to do what he could in pushing forward the wheels of progress and ad-

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 140

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