Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 155

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

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stenographer and in that capacity earned his first promotions. Mr. Craig in 1911, at the age of seven- teen, came to Miles City, Montana, and was ticket agent for the Milwaukee Railway there until June, 1914. At the latter date he became assistant cashier of the Melstone State Bank, being at that time under twenty. January 1, 1917, he became cashier and is now the active executive of the bank.

This institution is housed in a modern brick structure on Main Street, and was established as a private bank in 1908, being known as the Wiley, Clark and Felton Bank until it took out a state charter in May, 1914. The present officers are H. B. Wiley, president; C. W. Greening, vice presi- dent; R. A. Craig, cashier; F. H. Heimecke and M. J. Drange, assistant cashiers. This is one of the strong banks of the state, operating on a capital of $20,000, surplus and profits of $20,000 and aver- age deposits of $250,000.

Mr. Craig takes an interest and part in local affairs, being president of the Commercial Club of Mel- stone, has served as local councilman, trustee of School District No. 64 of Musselshell County, and is. a precinct committeeman of Precinct No. I. He is a republican, a trustee of the Congregational Church, is a charter member of Crescent Lodge No. 117, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Mel -- stone, is a charter member of Roundup Chapter No. 30, Royal Arch Masons, a member of Miles Commandery, Knights Templar, at Miles City, and is the first worthy patron of Garland Chapter, Order of Eastern Star, U. D., of Melstone. Besides his own home Mr. Craig owns other real estate in Melstone.

He married at Miles City February 1, 1916, Miss Myrtle Meader, who was born at Elm Springs, South Dakota. They have two children, Robert C., born January 29, 1917, and Maxine Elizabeth, born Jan- uary 15, 1919.

WILLIAM A. BROWN is a Great Falls banker and has been a resident of that city for over twenty years.

Mr. Brown was born at St. Catherine's, Ontario, Canada, September 4, 1877, a son of William A. and Elizabeth (Mills) Brown. His father spent his active career as a flour miller and meat packer. He died in 1879, at the age of fifty-seven. The mother is still living, in her eighty-sixth year. Of her thirteen children five sons and five daughters survive, William A. being the youngest.

William A. Brown acquired a substantial education in the schools of his native Province and left home at the age of twenty, arriving in Great Falls in September, 1897. His first employment was with the First National Bank. He started as messenger, was promoted to bookkeeper, then to teller, and since 1912 has been cashier of one of the largest and strongest banks in the state. He is an independent voter and is affiliated with Great Falls Lodge No. 214 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. October 10, 1907, Mr. Brown married Miss Winifred L. Downing. She was born at Fort Benton, Mon- tana, a daughter of C. G. Downing. To their mar- riage were born three sons, Frederick T .; Robert A. and William A., Jr.

ROY S. ALLEY. A lawyer by profession, Mr. Alley, who has been a resident of Butte for a quarter of a century, has found his profession somewhat obscured by the preponderance of his interests in corporation management and business affairs. Mr. Alley for a number of years has been the personal representative at Butte of President John D. Ryan of the Amalga- mated Copper Company.

Mr. Alley was born at Wilber, Nebraska, March 20, 1876. His parents, Shannon S. and Josephine (Berger) Alley, were Nebraska pioneers, and his father for many years was a prominent attorney in the state.

Roy S. Alley, who came to Butte in 1895, was liberally educated, and graduated in law from the University of Denver in 1898. During his early career as a practicing lawyer he took an active part in politics as a democrat. He served as deputy county attorney of Silver Bow County in 1899-1900, and also was a member of the Twelfth Legislative Assembly.

In 1905 he became associated with Mr. Ryan as his personal representative at Butte. He is director and president of the Blackfoot Land Development Company, a director in a number of subsidiary com- panies of the Amalgamated, and has extensive interests personally in lands, townsites and banks of Montana, Idaho and Utah.

Mr. Alley married Miss Jessie Lang. Their two children are John Campbell, born August 26, 1907; and Harry Charles, born July 4, 1913. Mr. Alley is affiliated with Mount Moriah Lodge No. 24, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Montana Commandery of the Knights Templar, Butte Consistory of the Scottish Rite, Bagdad Temple of the Mystic Shrine and Silver Bow Lodge No. 240 of the Elks. He is a member of the Silver Bow Club of Butte, the Anaconda Club of Anaconda and the Rocky Moun- tain Rifle Club of Butte.

EDWARD HICKEY. The active career of Edward Hickey was closely associated with those events and developments that made Butte "the greatest mining camp in the world." Mr. Hickey came to Montana during the sixties, has lived in the territory and state for over half a century, and in the various developments of the Butte district there has been little of importance with which he has not been actively identified.

Mr. Hickey was born in St. Lawrence County, New York, October 12, 1841, a son of Thomas and Kathryn (Curran) Hickey. After acquiring a com- mon school education and graduating in 1855 he went to work, and just eleven years later arrived in Montana and began prospecting in the Butte district. He was one of the first to pin their faith to the future of Butte, and that faith was realized after years of vicissitudes in prospecting and mining. It was Edward Hickey who located the St. Lawrence, Rock Island and Diamond lode claims in the Butte district, and he also assisted in locating the Anaconda claim on New Year's eve, 1875.

Like other prospectors his attention was mainly fixed upon gold and silver, and he had been in Montana some fifteen years before the third epoch of Butte's mining history was introduced, ushering in the production of copper. Mr. Hickey placed his stakes on the claims which in later years became the wonder mines of the world.

Mr. Hickey spent several fortunes in developing the best promising sections of Montana's mineral resources. As a capitalist he has always befriended Butte, and for years has been recognized as one of the city's most generous and public spirited citizens.

In recent years his name has been closely asso- ciated with a number of mining and banking com- panies. He is president of the State Savings Bank of Butte, has served as an official of the American Savings Bank of Seattle and the Butte Crude Petroleum Company, the Tuolumne Copper Mining Company, the Pilot Butte and Butte Main Range Copper Company, and the Stewart Lead and Silver

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Mining Company. A number of years ago Mr. Hickey set aside a considerable fund, the proceeds of which were to be used in assisting deserving and industrious newsboys toward a real start in life. Mr. Hickey is one of the honored members of the Silver Bow Club, but has never participated in politics.

He married Miss Margaret Murphy. To their marriage were born Edward Hickey, Ella Hickey, Roscoe and William Hickey. Edward, Jr., is secre- tary of the Pilot Butte Company.

ROBERT J. HAMILTON, Indian attorney at Browning for the Blackfoot Indian Reservation, has done more than any other man to protect the interests of the wards of the government in this region, and is not only held in reverent respect by them, but has the full confidence of all with whom he is brought into contact no matter what their station in life may be. He was born at Fort Benton, Montana, July 4, 1870, a son of A. B. Hamilton, and grandson of Joseph Benton Hamilton, nephew of United States Senator Benton. The mother of Robert J. Hamilton was a full blood Indian, who died when he was born, and he was reared and educated at Choteau, named for Pierre Choteau, a noted French- man who assisted General Washington in his Indian warfare. Later Mr. Hamilton went to the Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Indian School, and after being gradu- ated therefrom he returned to Montana and studied law with Major Baldwin, an attorney of Kalispell, who was interested in the bright young man. For three years, under the Cleveland administration, Major Baldwin was Indian agent and had thus be- come acquainted with Robert J. Hamilton and en- couraged him to improve himself, and Mr. Hamilton has never forgotten what he owes to this kindly dis- posed gentleman, his gratitude extending to all of the Baldwin family.

Mr. Hamilton began to practice law at Kalispell, and very soon his ability was recognized by his appointment as United States District Court com- missioner, his duty being to hear all criminal cases or those pertaining to any offenses against the United States laws. He has heard some noted cases, including the enforcing of the Chinese exclusion laws, and the operations against counterfitters and violators of the custom house and revenue laws. For the last six years he has been president of the busi- ness convention of the Blackfoot tribes of Indiana, which organization is recognized by Congress in its dealings with the different tribes. He has been elected five different times as a delegate to go to Washington, District of Columbia, and present the grievances of the Indians before the Congressional committee and different departments which have charge of Indian affairs.

Prior to Mr. Hamilton's entry into the affairs of the reservation the Indians were terribly imposed upon by dishonest government officials, Having been born a member of the tribe, Mr. Hamilton understood his people and their rights, and de- termined to see that they were protected. He went to Washington, carrying with him fully 200 affi- davits relative to instances of dishonest dealing on the part of the superintendent and his associates. Gaining the attention of Senator Lane of Oregon, Mr. Hamilton presented the case to him and so interested that statesman that a full investigation was ordered and made and these affidavits were published in the Congressional Record. As a result the dishonest Government employes were discharged, and the rights of the Indians properly safeguarded. According to the present regulations each new born child receives an allotment of 320 acres of land, the remainder to be held in reserve for pro-rata allot-

ment. According to the law of 1907 an allotment was to be made and then the remainder of the reser- vation thrown open for settlement. This Mr. Hamilton attacked and finally had it repealed and the present law passed and enforced, which secures all of the reservation to the Indians.

Mr. Hamilton was married to Rosa Henault, pro- nounced "Eno," who was born at Choteau, Mon- tana, a daughter of Stephen and Maggie (Guardipu) Henault. Mrs. Hamilton is a quarter breed In- dian. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton, six in number, are as follows: Theo, who married Hugh Jackson, a veteran of the great war, who, re- turning from his service in France, brought with him in his body bullets of the enemy not yet ex- tracted; and Rosalie, Robert, Clara, Joseph and Hildegarde, all of whom are at home. In national matters Mr. Hamilton is a democrat, but locally usually casts his vote for the man rather than for the party. In religious belief he is a Catholic.

Too much credit cannot be given Mr. Hamilton, not only for his fearless stand with references to the ahuses endured by his mother's people, but also for the pluck, endurance and ambition of the lad, who, struggling against obstacles, managed to fight his way upward and develop into the highly educated, cultivated man who today stands without a peer in his special line. He is a fighter and an enemy to be reckoned with, as many a dishonest man has discovered to his sorrow. The evil-doer meets a foe who is relentless when he comes in contact with Mr. Hamilton, but the friendless one, impoverished through the dishonesty of others, appeals to him and another side of his nature is displayed. Tenderly and efficiently he renders an unselfish service, rights the wrong and follows the future of the one he befriends with solicitude. His principal interest now is centered upon the Blackfoot Indians, but no one in need ever comes to him without receiving assist- ance. Mr. Hamilton has been friendless, poor and alone, and knows just what is necessary to bring happiness back into a desolated life, and goes about doing it without any unnecessary delay. There are few men in the state who stand any higher in public esteem than he, and in his tribe he is recognized as the friend of his people and their defender against all aggressors.

W. H. C. GREENE, who has become well known in Montana, particularly in the Flathead district, as a newspaper man and more recently as private secre- tary to Col. A. A. White, is not only a typical westerner, but a cosmopolitan in spirit and ex- perience. He has probably seen as much of the world and the affairs of men as any other resident of Montana.

He was born in the famous Illinois corn belt at Champaign, a son of William D. and Margaret (Harris) Greene. He is a descendant of the Greene family which produced Gen. Nathaniel Greene, one of the noted leaders of the American forces of the Revolutionary war. For several generations the Greenes have been of Quaker stock.

When W. H. C. Greene was eight months old his parents moved to Kansas, and he grew up on the "Flying X Ranch" of 40,000 acres, a vast ranch property owned by the Greene family. He was educated in the public schools of Kansas, also at- tended Northwestern University at Chicago, and studied journalism. He also took an agricultural and engineering course in Manitoba University at Winnipeg, and was a student of poultry husbandry at Alberta University in Edmonton, Canada. For a time he was employed as an assistant in the advertising department of L. S. Ayres & Company, owners of the largest store in Indiana. There he

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laid the foundation of his life's work as a publicity man. His first regular newspaper assignment was with the old Rock Island Argus in Illinois. He was also advertising manager for the Rock Island Plow Company. Later he was given an assignment for special Sunday feature writing by the Associated Press. During this engagement he went around the world, traveling over Central and South America, the Hawaiian Islands, Philippines, Japan, Australia and in western Europe. While stricken with the yellow fever he was detained in the pesthouse at Panama.

After returning to the United States he served as a deputy sheriff in New Mexico one year. He and a fellow deputy raided a saloon and engaged in battle with its Mexican occupants. Five Mexi- cans were killed and sixteen taken prisoner, and Mr. Greene carries as a personal reminder of the battle a bullet in his body.

His adventurous disposition next led him to western Canada, and for a number of months he was engaged on a Government survey, outlining the . courses of Alberta's waterways. Here he endured all kinds of hardships. One day he discovered a human skeleton with a rifle by its side and skeletons of five wolves nearby, mute reminders of a desperate wilderness encounter. While in Alberta he also engaged a half-breed guide and went on a prospect- ing tour up the Athabaca River. He discovered a promising gold lead, but one morning while return- ing he awakened to find his guide departed with his entire outfit, including $3,000 worth of gold dust. It was seventy-two miles back to the nearest outpost of civilization, and he walked the entire distance without lying down once.

From Canada Mr. Greene came to the Flathead Country of Montana and engaged in the newspaper . business at Polson. He was an associate of the old Polson Chief, and also published the Weekly In- terpreter. Mr. Greene is an independent in politics, believing in supporting the man rather than the party.

This is only a brief summary of his varied and adventurous career. As a young man in Kansas he served as captain of a cavalry company in the State Militia. His old friends and acquaintances know him popularly as "Wild Bill," a name bestowed upon him for his fearless and skillful riding, and as a horseman and cow puncher he has outdone some of the best exploits on record. He won the world championship as a rough rider and roper at Holly, Colorado, Fort Worth, Texas, Galveston, Oklahoma City, Alvarado, Texas, and Naxcero, Mexico. He has also written a scenario entitled "The Heart of a Cowboy," a five reel picture depicting life in Mon- tana.

ARMON C. SPOONER, M. D. Ten years a resident of Montana, Doctor. Spooner has had a busy pro- fessional career at Bainville, and has performed a notable work not only in his private practice but as . Fuller Collier, whose name heads this review, is one a leader in the local public health movement, and is also the present mayor of the town.

Doctor Spooner was born at Kingston, Ontario, September 16, 1875, son of Niram and Elizabeth (Walters) Spooner. The Spooner family is English and Irish in ancestry and was probably established in Ontario by an emigrant from New England, who remained stanch to the Crown in colonial politics. Doctor Spooner's parents grew up and spent their lives as farmers in Ontario. The parents of Eliza- beth Walters came from England. Doctor Spooner is the oldest of three children, Lottie, his sister, being the wife of Harry Darling, living near Kingston, while Myrtle, the other sister, is the wife of Walter Clogg, a farmer in the same community.

Doctor Spooner attended the public schools of Ontario, the Kingston Collegiate Institute, and graduated A. B. from Queens University at Kings- ton. The following four years he was a teacher in the high school at Sydenham, and then returned to the University as a student of medicine, graduat- ing in 1905.

His professional career has been spent altogether in the United States. He practiced at Elma, Iowa, four years, and on leaving there and just before coming to Montana he took a course in the Chicago Post-Graduate School of Medicine. For a few months he practiced at Fairview, Montana, and then located at Bainville. Doctor Spooner carried many of the heavy professional burdens of his community during the influenza epidemic of 1918 and 1919. During the first scourge perhaps 500 people were afflicted in and around Bainville, though only two deaths resulted. The 1919 epidemic was much milder in form, with not more than a tenth of the number of cases in the previous year. Besides these unusual duties of his professional work Doctor Spooner was also a member of the Volunteer Medi- cal Service Corps during the war.

Soon after coming to Bainville he established the first drug store, and continued as its proprietor until January, 1920. He served one term as an alderman and was the first county health officer of Roosevelt County. He is now giving much of his time to his duties as mayor of Bainville. Doctor Spooner is a naturalized American citizen, and cast his first presidential vote in November, 1920. He became a Master Mason at Elma, Iowa.

June 2, 1914, at Monticello, Iowa, he married Miss Elizabeth McCarthy, of Elma, where they first met. Mrs. Spooner was born in Iowa, daughter of Eugene and Mary (Tobin) McCarthy. Her father was a railroad man at New Hampton, Iowa, when he died. Mrs. Spooner was educated in the Elma High School, in the Iowa State Teachers College and the Valley City Normal School of North Dakota, and had a successful experience as a primary teacher at Elma and Monticello for several years. She has done much valuable work outside her home since coming to Bainville, and is one of the Board of Directors of the Bainville schools and president of the Ladies Aid of the Congregational Church. Doctor and Mrs. Spooner have one daughter, Jean Elizabeth, born January 6, 1918, at Minneapolis, Minnesota.

ALBERT FULLER COLLIER. The Collier family is a well known one in Hill County, three brothers of that name having homesteaded in this region on the Little Boxelder Creek and developed valuable prop- erties. Two still survive, Joe and Albert Fuller, but the third, Gallitan, lost his life in an accident, having been thrown from his horse with such force as to preclude any hope of recovery. Joe Collier's biography appears elsewhere in this work. Albert

of the men who has attained to an enviable place among the farmers and stockmen of this region, and now owns 300 acres of land. He was horn at Fulton, Kentucky, just opposite the state line of Tennessee, on June 21, 1858, a son of James H. and Fountnella (Hughes) Collier.

James H. Collier was born in North Carolina and died in Tennessee when seventy-four years of age, and his wife' passed away when sixty years old. They became the parents of nine sons and three daughters, of whom Albert Fuller Collier was the eldest born. Seven sons and two daughters survive of this large family. James H. Collier engaged in farming and dealt in tobacco. A man of good judg- ment, his fellow citizens were glad to have him act

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for them as a justice of the peace, and he held that office for over thirty-five years. Aside from that office he did not care to enter public life, but he always voted the straight democratic ticket. Both as a Mason and Methodist he espoused and supported the highest ideals of upright living.

Albert Fuller Collier passed his boyhood as the average lad of his time and neighborhood, assisting his father and attending school, and he remained at home until he was twenty-five years old, at that time coming west to Idaho, and his first employment after his arrival in the state was putting in posts at Silver City. Leaving Idaho for Oregon, he rode the range on a sheep ranch for three years, work- ing up to be foreman. In the fall of 1888 he went to Soda Springs, Idaho, and taking charge of a band of sheep drove it back overland to Helena, Mon- tana, and during the subsequent winter worked by the day in that city. In March, 1889, he went to Sun River, Montana, and during that summer was on a sheep ranch, and also was engaged in making hay in old Chouteau County, now Teton County. That winter he was at Fort Benton, leaving it the fol- lowing spring to work on a ranch, but returning to it in a short time. In the spring of 1890 he located on Little Boxelder Creek in old Chouteau County, now Hill County, and secured 300 acres of land. His first house was a log one, but he replaced it in 1902 with a substantial frame structure. His barn is of good grade, and his other buildings are suit- able for the purposes to which they are put. Mr. Collier has had as many as 3,500 cattle, but now carries about 150 head of Hereford cattle and a num- ber of Merino sheep. He belongs to the Wood- men of the World. A democrat, he supports his party ticket, but has not cared to enter public life.

On June 12, 1902, Mr. Collier was married to Catherine Schnendaman, born at Saint Joseph, Missouri, a daughter of Benedict and Anna (Edal- bock) Schnendaman, the former of whom, born in Illinois, died in 1879, and the latter, born in Ger- many, survives and makes her home in Missouri, being now sixty-seven years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Schnendaman had seven children, all of whom are now deceased except Mrs. Collier, who was the third in order of birth. Mr. and Mrs. Collier have four children, namely: Cornelia, Joseph, Anna and Margaret.

ALBERT C. GIFFORD, whose home is at Fallon, is an old time Montanan. His advent to the territory nearly corresponded with the disappearance of the great buffalo herds from the prairies and valleys of the northwest, and he is one of the best living authorities on the last phases of an industry built up on the hunting of buffalo for meat and hides. Mr. Gifford adapted himself to changing circum- stances, and for many years was a prominent horse and cattle rancher, but is now almost entirely con- cerned with agriculture.

Mr. Gifford was born nine miles east of the . university town of Delaware, Delaware County, Ohio, October 17, 1852, son of James Clinton and Susan (Bockoven) Gifford. His maternal grand- father was Jacob Bockoven. James C. Gifford was born in Oswego County, New York, while his wife was a native of Delaware County, Ohio. In 1856, when Alfred C. was four years of age, the family moved to Iowa and settled in Marshall County, where the father established a blacksmith shop and bought farm land at $2.60 an acre. He and his wife spent their remaining years in that locality, where he died in 1906, at the age of seventy-five, and his wife in 1894, at the age of sixty-seven. They had two sons, Albert C. and Jacob K. The

latter, who died at Miles City January 4, 1919, married Effie (Bassett) Eckman, and was survived by two children.

Albert C. Gifford grew up on his father's Iowa farm and early in his career started for the West. After a brief stay in the Black Hills country he journeyed on horseback and arrived at Miles City, Montana, October 1, 1881. At that time he was handling buffalo hides and buffalo meat, and his first headquarters were at O'Fallon.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 155

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