Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 160

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

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Herbert A. Maillet was born in Burnt Fork, Mon- tana, on April 8, 1877, a son of Louis R. Maillet. Doctor Maillet's great-grandparents emigrated from Lyons, France, to Quebec, Canada, in the early years of the last century. Louis R. Maillet was born at Saint Dennis, not far from Montreal, Canada, in 1834, and he died at Montreal, Canada, in 1906. Leaving home when he was fourteen years old, he came to the United States and in 1849 went to Saint Louis and Saint Joseph, Missouri, and from that state in 1851 went on into the Northwest, be- coming a trader for the Hudson Bay Company at old Fort Hall, and also at The Dalles in the Bitter Root country, Montana, as well as other then famous trading posts. Finally he went to live at The Hump, which was located between German Gulch and Silver Bow in Deer Lodge County, where he held many important public positions. Subsequently he moved to Burnt Fork, Montana, and from thence to Butte, but at last returned to Canada. He was one of the pioneers of Montana and the whole Northwest, and participated in many of the early undertakings, among other things driving cattle from Salt Lake City, Utah, to the Coast, and operating extensively during the early days in the mining fields of Alder Gulch, Virginia City and Bannock. Louis R. Maillet had the following children: Henry, who is a mining assayer of Butte; Doctor Maillet, who was the second in order of birth; Claude, who died at Montreal, Canada, when twenty-one years old; and Stella, who married Lawrence Bourgois, of Saint Hyacinthe, Canada, a merchant, died in 1919 of the influenza.

Doctor Maillet attended the public schools of Butte, a commercial college in Canada, and then entered Saint Mary's College of Montreal, Canada, from which he was graduated in 1899 with the de- gree of Bachelor of Arts. Following that he ma- triculated in the University of Laval, Montreal, Can- ada, from which he was graduated in 1902 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1903 Doctor Maillet went to France and took a post graduate medical course at the "Faculty of Paris" Univer- sity, and was connected with various hospitals, in- cluding the Saint Joseph's, the Hotel Dieu and the Hotel Saint Antoine. Doctor Maillet while in Paris was the first assistant of Doctor Chatellier in Saint Joseph's Hospital, who at that time was professor of diseases of the ear, nose and throat and known all over Europe and the United States for his knowledge of his profession and his writings on

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these special subjects. Doctor Maillet is an all round athlete and while at Montreal held the rec- ord for the 100-yard dash as a member of the National Club of that city. He played in champion- ship games of la crosse with the Nationals against the old Shamrocks and won the championship with his team in 1901 and 1903. His record as a hockey player has gained him considerable reputation, and he organized teams for playing this game at Butte, and brought them into first class place.

After Doctor Maillet completed his studies at Paris he took an extended tour all over Europe and visited all of the leading hospitals. Returning to the United States in 1906, he established himself in practice at Butte, and has developed into the lead- ing specialist in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat in Montana. His offices are at Nos. 316 to 322 Phoenix Building, and his residence is at No. 907 West Porphyry Street, he owning the latter. In addition to his practice Doctor Maillet is interested in mining.

A democrat of some prominence, Doctor Maillet has served as health official of Silver Bow County. He belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, his family supporting its creed as far back as there is any record of them. Butte Council No. 668, Knights of Columbus, has him as a member, and he has been made by it a Fourth Degree Knight. He also belongs to the Sons and Daughters of Mon- tana Pioneers and was one of its first presidents, the Silver Bow Club, the Silver Bow Country Club, the Butte Gun Club, Butte Lodge No. 240, Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Butte Hunting Club.

In 1907 Doctor Maillet was married at Saint Hya- cinthe, Canada, to Miss Elvina Richer, born at Sherbrook, Province of Quebec, Canada, and grad- uated from the college of that city. Doctor and Mrs. Maillet have the following children : Lawrence, who was born in 1910; Lucille, who was born in 1912; Madaline, who was born in 1916; Andre, who was born in 1917; and Jean, who was born on November 4, 1918.

Doctor Maillet was a volunteer during the late war for the medical corps, and devoted the ma- jority of his time to examinations of the first, sec- ond, third and fourth contingents leaving Montana. Doctor Maillet and Dr. P. H. McCarthy were the only two physicians at the time of the great fire in the Speculator Mine who volunteered to go down into the mine and render assistance to the miners. For this instance of distinguished courage these two gentlemen were recommended by the mayor of Butte for the Carnegie medal. Neither one of these two physicians have been able to realize the extent of their bravery, both merely regarding it as part of the work demanded of them by their oath and. in this modesty displaying to a somewhat unusual de- gree the attitude of the conscientious physician, who looks upon his calling as an obligation to render aid to the suffering no matter what it may cost him to do so, and without thought of material recom- pense. This brave act endeared these two physi- cians to the people of Montana as nothing else could have done. Whenever there is any kind of a dis- aster in the mines the community realizes its help- lessness, and when the horrors of fire are added the distress is appalling. In this great catastrophe in 1917 at the Speculator, everyone realized that many of the miners would die of their injuries before it would be possible to raise them to the surface, but no one thought of asking a physician to risk his life to go down. It was not necessary for a re- quest to be made. There were present in the crowd of citizens anxious to help if possible two men who

did not hesitate, although death went with them on the descent, and did not leave them until they once more saw daylight, but insisted on being lowered to give of their skill, their experience, their hu- manity to their injured brethren. That they lived to continue their work of healing in no way min- imizes the supreme bravery of their action, and it is doubtful if the Carnegie medal was ever bestowed upon men more deserving of the testimonial to their courage than these two physicians of Butte.

ANTON I. ANDERSON. The merchant who brings about his success through honest, careful business methods not only benefits himself but his community, mutual trust, good will and progress being the natural results. A leading merchant and thoroughly dependable business man of Roundup, Montana, is found in Anton I. Anderson, who is president of the Roundup Elevator Company.

Anton I. Anderson was born at Lanesboro in Fill- more County, Minnesota, January 9, 1875, the fourth in a family of nine children born to Mons and Inge- borg Anderson. Both parents were born in Norway, the father in 1845 and the mother in 1843. The latter died in 1903, seven of her children surviving her. The father of Mr. Anderson came to the United States on a sailing vessel when a youth of fourteen years. He landed in the harbor of New York and from there made his way to Wisconsin, from there going to Minnesota, in which state he married and settled in Fillmore County as a farmer and stock- raiser. He became a man of importance in his township, has served three terms as township assessor and in other capacities, is a member of the Lutheran Church and is a republican in his political affiliation.

Anton I. Anderson remained at home and gave his father assistance on the farm, in the meanwhile at- tending the public schools of Fillmore County. When twenty years old he took a complete course in Breck- enridge Business College at Decorah, Iowa, his natural inclination leading him to prepare for a business rather than an agricultural life. After some prepara- tory mercantile experience he embarked in general merchandising at Thief River Falls, Minnesota, where he conducted a store for two years. Later he accepted the position of manager of a sawmill at Ohop, Washington, where he remained several years and then came to Roundup, Montana. On July 12, 1911, he engaged in the grain business as president of the Roundup Elevator Company, handlers of grain, feed and seeds by the sack or by the car load. This is one of the town's well managed and flourishing enterprises.

On March 6, 1907, Mr. Anderson was united in marriage to Miss Edith Prichard, who was born at Inwood in Lyon County, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Ander- son are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and take part also in many ways in the town's quiet social life. Mr. Anderson is well known in Masonic circles in this part of Montana, belonging to Unity Lodge No. 71, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Roundup Chapter No. 30, Royal Arch Masons. Like many other thoughtful, observing men of the times, with no desire for public office, he has not allied himself with any particular political party, feeling better satisfied to cast an independent vote.

LEVI S. WILD. More than fifty years ago Levi S. Wild was manager of one of the pioneer offices of the Western Union Telegraph Company in Montana Territory. A few years ago he was retired on a pension after nearly half a century of faithful service to that corporation. Mr. Wild would indeed be an interesting figure in any convention of old time telegraphers, but more than that he is one of the few men now living who constitute a link of memory be-

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tween the present and that throbbing and romantic period while the great west was being contended for by the pioneers against Indian foes and the obstacles placed by nature.

Mr. Wild was born at Albion, Michigan, March 10, 1846. His maternal ancestors came originally from Wales and were colonial settlers at the City of Salem, Massachusetts. His father, John E. Wild, was born at Salem in 1810, but spent his early life near Rochester, New York. He had some military train- ing in the old New York State Guards. After his marriage he journeyed by wagon and team to Michi- gan Territory in 1834 and settled in the woods of what was then called Sheridan Township, later Albion, Michigan. He built the first frame house in the woods on the outskirts of that village. When the town was incorporated he became the first president of the board. He was a charter member of the first Masonic Lodge there, and served it as master many years. His old farm is now the site of the Malleable Iron Works at Albion. In 1865 John E. Wild moved to St. Joseph, Missouri. There he became associated with his son-in-law, B. F. Lathrop, in selling wagons as part of the equipment for the caravans outfitting at that point for crossing the plains. He remained in business at St. Joseph until 1869, when he moved to Quincy, Illinois, and died there in June, 1870. He was a Douglas democrat, and in Calhoun County, Michigan, filled several local offices. He was pay- master for the first organization of Nationl Guards in Michigan, formed in 1836. John E. Wild married Mary Rice, who was born at Elmira, New York, in 1814. She died at Chicago in 1894. Anna, the oldest of their children, died at Lansing, Michigan, wife of B. F. Lathrop, who died at Chicago, and during the last thirty years of his life suffered blindness. Frances is the wife of Gen. R. C. Bradshaw and they live at Kansas City, Missouri. General Bradshaw dis- tinguished. himself as a Union officer during the Civil war, and was severely wounded while leading a charge in the battle of Franklin, Tennessee. Florence, a twin sister of Frances, is the wife of W. I. Midler, and they reside at Los Angeles. Mr. Midler was for forty years connected with the Pullman Car Com- pany, and for twenty-five years of that time was gen- eral ticket agent of the company at Chicago, being re- tired on a full pension in 1910. Mary, living in Chicago, was first married to H. W. Darling, a lumberman who died at Kalamazoo, Michigan, and her second husband, H. W. Adams, also deceased, was a prominent Chicago architect.

Levi S. Wild was the fifth and youngest of the family. He acquired his early education at Albion, Michigan, attending Albion College there. In the local offices of the Michigan Central Railroad at Albion he learned telegraphy, and at the outbreak of the war became a regular operator. In 1863 he was sent to Chicago as an operator in the Western Union Telegraph office, then at the corner of Lake and Clark streets. In 1865 he followed his parents to St. Joseph, Missouri, where he took charge of the American Telegraph Company's office. This com- pany in 1866 was merged with the Western Union Company, and he remained at St. Joseph until 1867.

In the spring of 1867 Mr. Wild started on an in- teresting journey across the plains on horse-back from St. Joseph to California with a party of young men friends. At Fort Sedgwick, Nebraska, the party was joined, and organized by the government, by a large "Bull freight" train headed for Montana for protection against hostile Indians. There were almost daily encounters with the Indians, but the party succeeded in repulsing their attacks and early in September reached Salt Lake City. There Mr. Wild left his young adventurers and continued his journey by the Wells Fargo stage as far as Cisco,

California, then the terminus of the Central Pacific Railroad. On the cars of this road he proceeded to Sacramento and thence by boat to San Francisco, where for three months he was again in the service of the Western Union as a telegraph operator. From there he returned to Salt Lake City, and in Novem- ber, 1867, arrived at Virginia City, Montana, where he was appointed manager of the Western Union office. He remained in Virginia City until 1869, and in those two years saw a great variety of the incidents and personalities that comprise the pioneer history of the territory. From Virginia City he returned to Salt Lake City by stage, in 1870 was again in San Francisco, and in 1872 became paymaster for Ben Holladay, doing railroad construction work in Oregon and Washington. At the beginning of the financial panic which shut down all railroad construction work in 1873 he returned to San Francisco, and then to Virginia City, Nevada, and for several years follow- ing had some varied experiences in the southern states and for a time was in the employ of the Pull- man Car Company at Chicago. In 1880 he returned to the mountains, this time at Denver, later at Ogden, and on November 10, 1886, Mr. Wild arrived at Butte, the city which has remained his home and the center of his affections for over thirty years. For over a quarter of a century Mr. Wild continued as manager of the Western Union Telegraph office at Butte. Fol- lowing this for two years he was commercial manager for the state of Montana, and in 1916 retired with a well deserved pension.

Mr. Wild enjoys the comforts of a modern home at 725 West Granite Street. Politically he has always been identified with the republican party. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum and the National Union, and is affiliated with the Silver Bow Club and the Butte Young Men's Christian Association.

December 26, 1886, at Butte, Mr. Wild married Miss Pauline Bryan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Milton E. Bryan. Her parents are now deceased. Her father was a pioneer of St. Joseph, Missouri and Wathena, Kansas, across the Missouri River from St. Joseph. Mrs. Wild graduated from a college at Columbia, Missouri. She is a sister of Mrs. Bryan Irvine, who became a resident of Butte during the late seventies.

John Edgerton Wild, only son and child of Mr. and Mrs. Levi S. Wild, was born October 8, 1888, at Butte and graduated from the Butte High School in 1908. He then pursued the full course at the Uni- versity of Wisconsin, graduating A. B. in 1912. He was a member of the Beta Theta Pi college frater- nity there. In 1912, on leaving the university, he re- turned to Montana and began mining. He leased mines for four years at Southern Cross, and was a successful operator in the gold fields there. In 1918 he established the Peoples Fuel Company of Butte, whose plant and offices are at 1152 West Park Street. John E. Wild resides at 218 South Excelsior Street. He is an independent voter, a member of the Rotary Club, and one of the popular and enterprising young business men of the city. In 1914, at Butte, he married Miss Carrie Wharton, daughter of J. R. and Elizabeth (Noyes) Wharton, residents of Butte. Her father is manager of the Butte Electric Rail- way Company. Mrs. Wild is a graduate of the Mon- tana State University at Missoula. They have three children : Elizabeth, born October 10, 1915; Jesse, Wharton, born April 17, 1918; and Pauline Bryan, born January 17, 1920.

HARRY B. HILL. The honor of being one of the real pioneers of Montana belongs to Harry B. Hill, the present assessor of Sheridan County. He has witnessed and participated in its growth and develop- ment from the days of military rule to the present,

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and there are few men now within the borders of the commonwealth who antedate the arrival of Mr. Hill.

He came here from the east to take a position with the well known firm of T. C. Power & Brother, and entered upon his duties with this firm on May 15, 1876, at Fort Benton, at that time the general supply point for a wide scope of country in the United States and Canada. During the navigation season goods came into the locality by boat and in the winter months were hauled from Corinne, Utah, the nearest point to the Union Pacific Railroad. Indians came to the Fort from as far distant as Edmonton, Can- ada, and Fort Benton in those early days distributed supplies over a radius of five hundred miles. Mr. Hill was a resident of the locality long before a rail -. road was built into Montana, and after the coming of the Oregon Short Line, originally the Utah Northern, it became the distributing factor for the locality and boating began to decline. A small garri- son of soldiers were maintained at Fort Benton to protect the Government freight that came up the river, and troops were also garrisoned at Fort Assini- boine and Fort Shaw about that time. In fact the entire region of Montana in that day was under mili- tary control, and on his way into this country Mr. Hill saw the Seventh Cavalry at Bismarck coming out to Montana to take part in quelling the Indian uprisings, and he was at Fort Benton when he re- ceived the news, a few months later, of the massacre of the command on the Little Big Horn River, which occurred on June 25, 1876.

Mr. Hill remained at Fort Benton until 1890, but he served the Powers firm only a brief period and then engaged in the hotel business as one of the proprietors of the Chouteau House. But after two years in the hotel business he became the bookkeeper for the First National Bank there, and when the bank received authority from Congress to change its charter it moved to Great Falls in 1890 and became the Northwestern National Bank, and Mr. Hill be- came the assistant cashier. He continued to reside in Great Falls until 1899, but in January, 1893, left the bank and followed numerous occupations during the following few years, mining being one of his chief interests. He put in two years at mining at Neihart, where he served as superintendent of the mining interests of the owners of the Queen of the Hills Mine, while at the same time he was engaged in mining on his own account at Winston, to which place he transferred his residence in 1899 and opened a general store there. Mr. Hill continued his identi- fication with the mercantile interests of Winston until March, 1903, also following mining during all that period, and at the latter date he went to the Barnes- King mine at Kendall, Montana, and spent fifteen months there in an official capacity, returning then to Winston and opening the old mine he had formerly worked, but it proved unprofitable and he closed it down.

Mr. Hill next took up park improvement work with T. C. Power of Helena and Paul McCormick of Billings, and they constructed roads through the Yellowstone National Park until July 1, 1905, when Mr. Hill came to Mondak and accepted a clerkship in a store, and on January 1, 1906, was appointed by his old boyhood friend, Judge Hunt, as a United States commissioner. He opened his office at Mon- dak, and was also appointed a justice of the peace for the purpose of restoring law and order in that town, and he accomplished the work to which he was assigned to the entire satisfaction of the general public. Mr. Hill continued to serve as a commissioner until 1913, and terminating his connection with Mon- dak about that time he came to Plentywood.

With the organization of the County of Sheridan

on March 11, 1913, he was made the county's assessor and opened his office in Plentywood. His first assess- ment of the county showed a valuation of a little more than $6,000,000, while in 1918 the property values had increased to $17,500,000. But before the next annual assessment the tax law was changed by the Legislature and the gross valuation of the county showed $30,000,000. This same legislative body cut off Roosevelt County, which took away about forty per cent of the taxable property, leaving a net valua- tion of about $9,250,000.

Mr. Hill's active participation with the political affairs of Montana began with his settlement in the state. He brought with him a conviction that the republican party should control the commonwealth, but he found Montana in the control of the demo- crats, of which there were two kinds, the Irish democrats and Missouri democrats. At Fort Benton Mr. Hill met Judge Hunt, whose father was secretary of the navy under Garfield's administration, and the two young westerners became the first republican delegates from Chouteau County to the territorial convention at Helena. Mr. Hill was made secretary of that convention and Col. Wilber F. Sanders was its chairman. In the session of 1899 Mr. Hill was appointed journal clerk of the Senate of Montana, and while serving with that body he participated in the liveliest session Montana has ever had, this hav- ing occurred during the Clark senatorial contest. Mr. Hill's next official service began when he entered the office of assessor of Sheridan Countv.

This Montana pioneer, business man and public official, Harry B. Hill, is a native son of the East, born at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, January 13, 1853, but in 1857 his parents moved to Chicago, where they located when the city contained a population of perhaps 75,000 people, His father, Henry L. Hill, was also born in Massachusetts, a descendant of pioneers of that state of English extraction. Henry L. Hill married Sophia, a daughter of Alvin Blakes- ley, and Harry B. Hill was the only child of their union. After about a year in Chicago he was taken by his mother to Central Mississippi, where they were located when the rebellion broke out, and while in the South Mr. Hill saw some of the inner move- ments of the Confederacy, and he was with his mother in Richmond, Virginia, when the first Con- federate Congress convened. They ran the blockade down the Potomac River, and securing passage on a steamer at Baltimore reached home while the war was still in progress. Two half brothers of Mr. Hill were serving as Union soldiers with Illinois troops. The young lad completed his educational training in Chicago, and left the city to come into the far west and enter upon his career in Montana. The boat on which he secured passage at Bismarck left that city on the ist day of May, 1876, and arrived at Fort Benton on the following 15th of May, the steamer's passenger list comprising chiefly army officers com- ing out to assume their commands.

At Spokane, Washington, February 4, 1902, Mr. Hill was married to Miss Cora Silvey, who was born near Plymouth, Indiana, June 24, 1873, a daughter of Oliver P. and Martha (Bourden) Silvey. The father was born in Richmond, Virginia, a son of Piner Silvey, an early Indiana settler. Oliver P. Silvey came to Montana and began ranching in the Bitter Root Valley, but subsequently moved to Snoho- mish, Washington, where he spent the remainder of his life. His widow now resides in Plymouth, In- diana. In their family were three children, Mrs. Hill, Laury A., of Bourbon, Indiana, and Mrs. Oliver Kirkwold, of Butte, Montana.

Mr. and Mrs. Hill contributed liberally to the war auxiliaries of Sheridan County, and Mrs. Hill had charge of the night class of the local Red Cross.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

They are in belief and practice Episcopalians, but in the absence of an organization of that denomina- tion in Plentywood Mrs. Hill takes an active part in the Sabbath school work of the Congregational Church, serving it as superintendent. Mr. Hill is a Master Mason at Plentywood.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 160

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