Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 159

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 159

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Senator Slattery married in Glasgow, Montana, February 14, 1906, Miss Lear E. Humphrey, a daughter of John and Ellen Humphrey. Mrs. Slattery was born and reared in Linn County, Kan- sas, was liberally educated, became a teacher, and after coming to Montana in 1901 taught at Malta. She was subsequently elected the county superin- tendent of schools of Valley County, and served in that office for two terms, having been married dur- ing the incumbency of her second term. She is one of a family of seven children, and one of the three daughters who are living in Montana, Mrs. I. L. Brooks of Culbertson and Mrs. Harvey Booth of Glasgow being her sisters.

Senator Slattery served as chairman of the execu- tive committee of the Red Cross Chapter of Valley County throughout the period of the war, and "his chapter stood the highest of all the counties in the United States for per capita Red Cross production in the year 1918. He was a Four Minute Man dur- ing that time, was a member of the Board of Legal Advisors, and made the first speech to the departing soldiers, and he also had the honor of making the last speech to the boys who joined the colors just before the signing of the armistice.

HARRY COSNER. An old time citizen of Malta, who saw the town when it contained only three log buildings, and who for nearly thirty years has made his personal influence and activities count in the development and upbuilding of the region, Harry Cosner in many ways has led a life typical of the older west. He has never been afraid of hardships or dangers, has lived the life of the cowboy and rancher, and has filled many public offices, including a term as sheriff.

He was born in Bureau County, Illinois,. Janu- ary 6, 1867. His grandfather, Joseph Cosner, was a native of Pennsylvania, lived for a number of years as a farmer in Ohio, and later moved to Illi- nois and died near New Bedford in that state. His children were: Robert, who moved to Colusa, Cali- fornia, in 1852; Adam, who died at Clarks, Ne- braska; Harvey, who died near Chillicothe, Mis- souri; Samuel, who died at Rock Island, Illinois; Joseph, who died at · Clarks, Nebraska; Amanda, who became the wife of William Adams, of Clarks;

Mrs. Terwilliger, who lived at Chillicothe; and two or three other sons who gave up their lives while serving as Union soldiers in the Civil war,

Another son of Joseph Cosner was William Cos- ner, who was a native of Ohio but in early life moved out to Illinois. When the Civil war came on he enlisted in Company I of the Twelfth Illi- nois Infantry. His early service was under General Grant, for two years he was a scout, and later he was with the army of General Sherman on the march to the sea, and participated in the Grand Review at Washington in the summer of 1865. He served two enlistments and all the time was a private soldier. He was never wounded, but while on scout- ing duty was twice captured, though both times he escaped.

Soon after the war William Cosner married Ro- setta Epperson, who was born in Bureau County, Illinois, a daughter of Hezekiah and Mrs. (Hea- ton) Epperson. Her father came from Tennessee and settled in Bureau County in 1830. William Cos- ner and wife moved to Nebraska in 1882, and they continued as farmers until burdened with years, when they sold their land and retired to Clarks, Nebraska. William Cosner was a democrat and served as an official in Merrick County, Nebraska. His widow, now living at Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, is actively identified with the Congregational Church. They were the parents of four children: Harry W .; Robert L., who died at Scotts Bluff, Nebraska ; Edith, wife of Clay Patterson, of Scotts Bluff; and Hazel, wife of Harry P. Johnson, of Scotts Bluff.

Harry Cosner was fifteen years of age when his parents moved out to Central Plains country of Nebraska. He acquired a country school educa- tion, and before reaching his majority left home and became a cowboy and cattle herder in Cen- tral and Western Nebraska. He herded cattle which he had gathered along the Kansas-Nebraska line, and ran them on the Loup River on the old Pawnee Indian Reservation for a share of the profits. Al- together he was on the range for twelve years. While in the business he paid his first visit to Mon- tana in 1889 as a member of a party of six driv- ing a herd of cattle through from Cheyenne, Wyom- ing, to Birch Creek on the south side of the Bear Paw Mountain. These cattle belonged to the N. L. Livestock Company and were moved into Montana to establish a new ranch for the firm. After a brief time Mr. Cosner went down into Utah and helped bring up 3,700 head of steers for the Circle C outfit, starting them from Milford, Utah, and stopping them at Malta. These were the property of the Coburn Cattle Company, whose ranch was forty-five miles southwest of Malta.

Mr. Cosner, who left the range in 1893, had al- ready become identified with Malta in 1892. About the time Valley County was created he was chosen a county commissioner, serving four years, his col- leagues being Daniel Kyle and S. P. Mitchell. Mr. Cosner was elected sheriff of the county in 1902 as successor of Sheriff Griffith. During his two years in this office there occurred a noteworthy jail break in which five men escaped, one of them being the murderer Hardy, while two others were charged with grand larceny and two with jail breaking. All but one were recaptured by Sheriff Cosner and his party of deputies, though only after a pitched bat- tle in which two of the deputies were killed. This battle took place on Snow Creek. One of the out- laws was killed by the posse, while the other was killed by John Darnall at his ranch the next day.

After leaving this office Mr. Cosner was appointed a deputy game warden of the state, and performed the duties of that office eight years, at the same time carrying on a real estate business at Malta. A part

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of Malta was laid out on his homestead, and he per- sonally supervised the sale and management of the lots on that portion of the townsite. He platted Cosner's First, Second and Third Additions to Malta and improved some of the lots himself. Mr. Cosner recalls that his first glimpse of Malta thirty years ago disclosed a little log saloon, a log store run by R. M. Trafton near the railroad bridge, and a log restaurant conducted by James Hyatt and wife close to the saloon. Since then he has witnessed the development of a thriving little city, and as a good citizen has done all he could to promote development and im- provement. He served as a member of the Malta Council and as mayor of the city, and about the only public responsibility that has not been conferred upon him was as a member of the school board.

He cast his first vote for Grover Cleveland as president and his last for Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and as a democrat he frequented local and state con- ventions of his party in earlier days. Fraternally he is a past master of Malta Lodge of Masons, a mem- ber of Glasgow Chapter No. 57, Royal Arch Masons, and belongs to the Consistory and Shrine at Helena. During the war he was a member of the local Council of Defense and was one of the zealous workers in behalf of the bond and other sales cam- paigns during war times.

At Malta January 12, 1896, Mr. Cosner married Mrs. Mamie Philbrick, widow of Emery Philbrick and a daughter of William Thompson. She was born in Philadelphia March 24, 1875, and as a child came to Montana when her father brought his family to the Musselshell Country, where she grew up and was first married near Ubet. Mrs. Cosner's son Clarence enlisted and served almost two years in France as a member of the 20th Engineers.

GEORGE THOMAS MCGEE as a mining engineer has had a busy professional career for a quarter of a century and at different times has been connected with mining interests in nearly all the western states. He first came to Montana in 1897, and for a number of years has been a mine manager, with home in Helena since 1910.

Mr. McGee was born at Jackson, Michigan, March 10, 1869. Both his father and grandfather were able lawyers. His grandfather, David McGee, moved from New York State to Michigan in pioneer times and practiced for a number of years at Jackson. Melville McGee was born at Bolton, New York, in 1828, and was a boy when his parents settled in Jackson, Michigan. He was reared and educated there, and became prominent as a lawyer and public official. For several terms he was probate judge of Jackson County. He was a republican and a mem- ber of the Congregational Church, and he died at Jackson in 1908. His wife was Charlotte Anne King, who was born in Lima, New York, in 1832, and died at Jackson, Michigan, in 1906. All of their six sons proved able men in business and professions. Charles King, the oldest, for many years was identified with manufacturing at Ann Arbor, Michigan, but is now living retired in Pasadena, California; Edward, a Jackson business man, died in that city in 1891. William F. is a manufacturer of Jackson. The fourth is George Thomas. Albert M. is in the life insurance business at Jackson and is a past master of Jackson Lodge of Masons. Harry Stowe is a graduate in medicine of the University of Michigan, a member of the Psi Upsilon College Fraternity and is now practicing as a physician and surgeon at Doug- las, Arizona.

George Thomas McGee graduated from the Jack- son High School in 1888 and in 1895 received the degree Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan. While in University

he was a member of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. Before receiving his degree he had acquired con- siderable practical experience in civil engineering. From 1892 to 1895 he was employed on the survey and construction of the Illinois and Mississippi Canal, with headquarters at Milan and Sterling, Illinois. After graduation he went to Leadville, Colorado, be- ing employed in the Moffet-Smith mines and remain- ing there until the summer of 1896, when the great mining strike occurred. Following that until 1897 he was employed as a mining engineer by the Dalamar Gold Mining Company at Delamar, Nevada, and in September 1897, came to Butte, Montana. The Ana- conda Copper Mining Company employed him as a mine surveyor until the summer of 1898. Mr. McGee spent nearly two years abroad, and for a time was employed as a mining engineer at the Great Boulder Perseverance mine at Kalgoorlie, Australia. He re- turned to the United States by way of England, visited the Paris Exposition in France, and reached this country in the summer of 1900. After a brief period of employment engaged in surveying inter- urban lines between Jackson and Detroit, Michigan, he returned to Butte in the fall of 1900 and again entered the service of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company as mining engineer. He was one of the first employed by that company in its newly created geological department. After two years he was ap- pointed assistant superintendent of the Anaconda group of mines including the Anaconda, Neversweat and St. Lawrence mines. That was his work for two years, and the following two years he was super- intendent of the Gagnon mine, and after that was manager of the Butte Copper Exploration Company until June, 1907.

Since September, 1907, Mr. McGee has been man- ager for the Barnes-King Development Company. He handled its mining interests at Kendall, Mon- tana, until the mine was shut down in 1910. With the same company he was examiner of mining proper- ties with headquarters at Helena from 1910 to 1912, having established his permanent home at Helena in the former year. In 1912 the Barnes-King Company purchased the North Moccasin Mine and resumed operations, and Mr. McGee has since been manager of that property at Kendall. During the following three years the same interests acquired the Gloster mine and the Shannon mine at Marysville, and Mr. McGee has the management also of these gold prop- erties.

He resides at 2005 Jerome Place, Helena. He is widely known over Montana as a skilled authority in all branches of mining and is vice president of the Montana Society of Engineers and a member of the American Society of Mining and Metallurgical En- gineers. He is a republican and a member of the Montana Club.

In June, 1901, at Chicago, he married Miss Margaret Zimmerman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John S. Zimmerman, residents of St. Louis. Mr. Zimmerman was for many years connected with the Chicago Gas Light and Coke Company. Mrs. McGee was educated in the University of Michigan and took the library course at the Pratt Institute in New York. To their marriage have been born four chil- dren : Margaret Anne, born in September, 1903; Don- ald B., born in June, 1905; Mary P., born in May, 1907 ; and John A., born in January, 1910.

PERRY JAMES MOORE, who since the early seventies has been a prominent rancher in the vicinity of Twodot, is a real Montana pioneer, having come to the territory when its chief interests were mining, in the spring of 1866.

He was at that time an ex-Confederate veteran, and had given his service cheerfully for three years

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of the long and hard struggle between the North and the South. He was born at Shelbyville, Missouri, May 8, 1844, son of John W. and Eleanor ( Holliday) Moore. Both the Moore and Holliday families have been prominently represented in Montana since early days. Perry J. Moore grew up on his father's farm, acquired a country school education in Missouri, and in May, 1862, at the age of eighteen, enlisted in Colonel Porter's regiment. His brother John T., who also became a prominent Montanan, was a member of the same regiment. After the defeat and disbursal of the Confederate forces in northern Missouri, Perry J. Moore, his brother John and a companion started south through Kentucky and after many baffling delays and roundabout travel passed through the Federal territory and rejoined the Confederate com- mand under General Bragg, becoming members of the Ninth Kentucky Mounted Infantry under Col. W. C. P. Breckenridge. While the Federal forces were laying siege to Chattanooga Mr. Moore was ill with typhoid fever in a hospital in Georgia. He re- joined his command in time to take part in the battle of Missionary Ridge, and during the winter of 1863- 64 was shot in the leg and again spent several weeks in the hospital. In the spring of 1864 he came under the command of the forces led by General Wheeler and General Johnston and was in the hundred day fighting from Chickamauga to Atlanta, and also in the concluding campaigns in the Carolinas. He was one of the escort for President Davis and his cabinet, and for many years retained a dollar of Confederate currency given him as pay for that service.

The war over Mr. Moore returned to Missouri and in July, 1865, engaged to drive an ox team from Nebraska City to Denver. The winter was spent in Denver and in 1866 he came on to Montana. His first destination in the territory was Bannack, from there he went to Last Chance and then to Diamond City. In association with his brothers John and Sanford he engaged in contracting, employing a number of teams and men in getting out and hauling timber for the mines. After about two years Mr. Moore removed to Smith River Valley and in partnership with his brothers bought a saw mill and furnished lumber to Fort Logan. He was one of the first arrivals at White Sulphur Springs when that town was founded. He and his brother John owned and operated a ranch in the Smith River Valley, twenty-five miles from White Sulphur Springs. Mr. Moore in 1878 came to the present site of Twodot, taking up a homestead of 160 acres, and has lived in that locality for over forty years. He developed his holdings until he now owns 12,000 acres, and is one of the lead- ing land owners and for many years was one of the most prominent sheep men in that section of Montana. His ranch has been devoted to hay, grain, cattle and sheep, and his home is still on the ranch. In recent years he has practically retired, turning the management of the ranch over to his sons, and has spent much of his time in California.

Mr. Moore was elected on the democratic ticket to the Territorial Legislature in 1885, representing Meagher County. He also served as school trustee at Twodot for many years. He is a past master of Diamond City Lodge of Masons at White Sulphur Springs, a member of Harlowton Chapter No. 22, Royal Arch Masons, and belongs to Loyal Lodge No. 27, Knights of Pythias, at Twodot. He is also a stockholder in the State Bank of Twodot.

August 17, 1881, Mr. Moore married Miss Nellie Robertson, who was horn in 1859 at Prescott, On- tario. Her father, George F. Robertson, came to Canada from Scotland. Perry J. Moore and wife had four children. Nellie, the oldest, now assistant cashier in the State Bank of Twodot, is the widow of Dr. H. B. Tice, who was a physician and surgeon

in that town. The two sons are Perry James, Jr., and George Fulton. The other daughter, Margaret, still lives with her parents.

George Fulton Moore, the youngest of the family, was born at White Sulphur Springs May 15, 1894, and was educated in the public schools of Twodot, attended the Shattuck Military Academy at Faribault, Minnesota, one year, and completed his education in the College of Montana at Deer Lodge. Leaving school in 1914, he began assisting his father on the home ranch and in 1916 he and his brother Perry leased the ranch, and during the past four years have maintained it at the same high state of efficiency that characterized their father's administration. They are extensively engaged in sheep and cattle raising. George F. Moore is a democrat in politics and fraternally is affiliated with Musselshell Lodge No. 69, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Har- lowton, Harlowton Chapter No. 22, Royal Arch Masons, Lewiston Lodge No. 456 of the Elks, and Loyal Lodge No. 27, Knights of Pythias. February 4, 1920, at Billings, he married Miss Charlotte Cole- man. Her parents, Charles H. and Josie May (Brown) Coleman, are residents of Judith Gap, Mon- tana. Her father is in the real estate business and is also town marshal. Mrs. Moore finished her edu- cation in the Billings Polytechnic Institute.

WILLIAM M. RHODES. While his ranch and farm adjoining Sheridan is by no means one of the largest in the state, its pure bred sheep and cattle have given William M. Rhodes a reputation that is completely state wide. He is one of an increasing number of men in. Montana who have found the pure bred livestock business profitable, satisfactory and more reliable than the large scale production practiced on the old range, which is now rapidly disappearing.

Mr. Rhodes was born at Marshalltown in Marshall County, Iowa, August 16, 1871. His paternal an- cestors came from Engand and were early settlers in New York State. His father, I. N. Rhodes, was born in New York State in 1835, was reared there, was married at Grinell, Iowa, and for many years was a successful merchant at Marshalltown. Since 1876 he has lived at Azusa, California, was a mer- chant and orange grower, but sold his grove in 1918 and is now retired. He is a republican and a mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church. I. N. Rhodes married Miss Jennie Fisk, who was born at Three Rivers, Michigan, in 1846. She died at Sheridan, Montana, in 1909. She was the mother of two chil- dren, Mabel and William M. The former is the wife of Zebulon J. Cheney, a farmer at Twin Bridges, Montana.

William M. Rhodes acquired his early education in the public schools of Marshalltown, Iowa. When his mother brought him to Sheridan, Montana, he entered the public schools there and also attended a normal school for two years at Twin Bridges. In 1889, his education completed, he became a ranch hand, and in 1892 engaged in the livery business at Twin Bridges. He first became interested in a practical way in the sheep business in 1899. After following it for three years he sold his flocks and then spent two years in the grocery trade at Butte. Returning to Twin Bridges, he resumed the sheep industry, caring for his flocks on the ranges. Gradu- ally as the range has been diminished he has con- centrated his business by eliminating his common stock and specializing in pure bred Hampshire sheep and Scotch Shorthorn cattle. His entire industry is now confined to his home farm and ranch, consisting of 330 acres. This ranch comes up to the city limits of Sheridan on the west, his home and ranch head- quarters being half a mile west of town. Much of his land is irrigated. His Shorthorn cattle and

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Hampshire sheep serve to advertise this ranch all over the state, and much of his stock is sold for breeding purposes to ranchers.

Mr. Rhodes is a republican in politics. In 1903 he married Miss Mabel Tout, a daughter of Sylvanus and Sarah Tout, her mother being now deceased. Her father is a resident of Butte and an employe of the Short Line Railway. Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes have three children : Vere, born April 11, 1904; Meredith, born May 21, 1906; and Mabel, born December 9, 1913.

SCOTT K. CASSILL is cashier of the First State Bank of Ovando, a bank in which his father, C. H. Cassill, bought the controlling interest in 1916 and is president.

C. H: Cassill, widely known as a prominent figure in banking and politics in several of the northwestern states, is now a resident of Spokane, Washington. He was born at Humboldt, Iowa, in 1868, a son of Alexander B. Cassill, a native of Ireland. Alexander Cassill came to America when a young man, was a pioneer farmer in Iowa, and during the Civil war served with an Iowa regiment of cavalry all through the period of hostilities. He died at Garner, Iowa, in 1898.

C. H. Cassill was reared at Garner and as a young man went to Hudson in Lincoln County, South Da- kota, where he was married and where he was cashier of the Hudson State Bank. Later he was cashier of the Farmers State Bank at Canton in Lincoln County, and lived there until he removed to Spokane in 1909. At Sioux Falls, South Dakota, he was vice president of the Sioux Falls Savings Bank, and in Spokane is extensively engaged in the real estate business. While in South Dakota he represented Lincoln County in the Senate, was state treasurer of South Dakota under the administration of Governor Coe. I. Crawford, and has many times thrown his influence in behalf of progressive movements in northwestern politics. He is a progressive republican, is an active member of the Congregational Church, and is affiliated with Hudson Lodge of Masons, is a Royal Arch and Knight Templar Mason, a member of the Scottish Rite Consistory at Yankton, South Dakota, and the Sioux Falls Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is a past grand chancellor commander for the State of South Dakota in the Knights of Pythias and also a member of the Woodmen of the World.

C. H. Cassill bought a controlling interest in the Bank at Ovando in 1916, and has since been its president. This bank was established under a state charter in 1919. Anton Jacobsen is the vice president, while S. K. Cassill is cashier and C. H. Cassill, Jr., assistant cashier. The bank has a capital of $20,000, surplus and profits of $5,000 and its deposits aggre- gate $110,000. C. H. Cassill, Sr., also served as a member of the State Guards in South Dakota for a number of years. He married Louella Brown, who was born in Iowa in 1869. Scott K. is the oldest of their three sons. C. H. Cassill, Jr., born June 14, 1900, was educated in the public schools of Canton, South Dakota, graduated from the Lewis & Clark High School of Spokane in 1918, and had charge of the Bank at Ovando while his older brother was in the army during the World war. He is now in his freshman year in the University of Washington at Seattle. Lorain, the youngest of the family, was born October 21, 1902, and is in the junior class of the Lewis & Clark High School at Spokane.

Scott K. Cassill was born at Hudson, South Dakota, September 12, 1896, and was educated in the public schools of South Dakota and at Spokane, graduat- ing from the Lewis & Clark High School in 1914. For one year he was a student in Cornell University

in New York, and while there was a member of the Phi Delta Theta college fraternity. He began his banking career in 1915 as collector in the Exchange National Bank of Spokane, was promoted to assistant paying teller, and in 1916 became cashier of the First State Bank of Ovando. He is a republican, a mem- ber of the Congregational Church and is affiliated with Missoula Lodge No. 13 of the Masonic order, with the Helena Scottish Rite Bodies and the Helena Temple of the Mystic Shrine. Mr. Cassill, who is unmarried, enlisted in the World war in July, 1918, was in training in Seattle, Washington, and later assigned to the radio department. He made one trip overseas before the signing of the armistice, and was mustered out early in 1919.

HERBERT A. MAILLET, M. D., is one of the dis- tinguished men of his calling whose success as a specialist in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat has not only gained him fame but brought relief to many who otherwise might not have been helped. Both as a specialist and also as a physician and sur- geon Doctor Maillet is numbered among the most representative professional men of Butte, where he maintains his headquarters.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 159

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