Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 163

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

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United States Government is located on Milk River and Wild Horse Lake near the Canadian line, and contains Blue Joint Meadow. With the exception of about twenty-five acres in alfalfa Mr. Simpson de- votes his ranch to his stock industry and is carrying on a very large and profitable business. He is a republican, but has never cared for office and con- fines his political labors to exercising his right of suffrage. A Mason, he belongs to Havre Lodge No. 55, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Chouteau Chapter No. 19, Royal Arch Masons; DeMolan Com- mandery No. 15, Knights Templar ; Algeria Temple, Mystic Shrine of Helena, Montana; Havre Lodge No. 1201, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and Gildford Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

In September, 1910, Mr. Simpson was united in marriage with Flora McKey, born at Medicine Hat, Canada. Mr. and Mrs. Simpson have two children, Joseph B., Jr., and Flora Bell. Having played an im- portant part in the changes in Montana during the past quarter of a century Mr. Simpson is naturally attached to his section and a firm believer in its future. He measures up to the highest standards of citizenship and is one who holds the confidence and esteem of all with whom he is brought in contact, and is recognized as a representative man of Gildford and Havre as well as this part of Montana.

THOMAS P. STRODE. For nearly forty years Thomas P. Strode has followed his diverse interests as a stockman over many of the hills and through many of the valleys of Montana, and in his ex- perience he has come in contact with many of the noble characters and many of the outlaws of terri- torial days, and has earned a place among the suc- cessful and influential citizens of the state.

Mr. Strode, whose home is at Whitlash in Hill County, was born on his grandfather's farm in Mason County, Kentucky, October 26, 1862, son of William B. and Eliza Ann (Sutton) Strode. His parents were natives of Kentucky. His grandfather, Samuel Strode, spent his life as a Kentucky farmer, and that was also the occupation of William B. Strode, who in addition became a dealer in mules, and drove a number of bands to market at Atlanta, Georgia. He conducted a livery stable at Paris in Bourbon County, Kentucky. During the war he was on the Confederate side and was a follower of the famous rebel raider, John Morgan. Some years after the war he moved to Illinois and located in the center of the corn belt in McLean County, near Bloomington, where he used his experience and capital successfully in the raising of corn, cattle and hogs, and was one of the leading cattle feeders in that section of the state. He died in Illinois in 1892, in his fifty-eighth year. He was never a seeker for public honors, being a democratic voter. His wife died in Kentucky in 1874, when a comparatively young woman. Thomas P. is the oldest of her chil- dren and the youngest, Emma, died in infancy. Olney P., the second, lost his life at the age of twenty-five during a storm in April, 1892, in the Sweet Grass Hills of Montana.

Thomas P. Strode spent his boyhood days in Ken- tucky, and was fourteen years of age when he left that state with his fathher and went to Illinois. He busied himself with duties on his father's farm until the fall of 1881, when he started out to see the world dependent upon his own resources. For a month or more he was in the Red River Valley of Minnesota, shocking grain and feeding a threshing machine. Returning to Minneapolis, he was a brake- man with the 'Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway until March, 1882, and then went hunting, spending

most of the months of the year in looking for big game. In the spring of 1883 he crossed over the divide to Bozeman, Montana, traveling with mule teams. Reaching there, he bought a mule and rode it to Augusta over the Priest Pass, where he went to work on the horse ranch of China Clark. After about a year he began running a small bunch of horses of his own, but in May, 1888, traded his horses for sheep and trailed them to the Sweet Grass Hills. Mr. Strode handled the sheep business on an extensive scale until 1902, when he sold out and turned his capital and enterprise to the cattle in- dustry. In 1910 in turn he sold his cattle and then for several years was a sheep man. In the winter of 1917 he disposed of the last of his sheep, and since then his ranch has resumed its aspect as a cattle proposition. Mr. Strode owns leases and operates about 15,000 acres of land in Hill County. Ever since 1883 he has done some farming, cultivating from forty acres upward to grain, and he is able to speak with authority on every branch of agriculture in this section of the state.

Mr. Strode has also done his part as a good citizen in his various communities. He served as a school trustee many years, is affiliated with Havre Lodge No. 55, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, with Havre Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and with the Scottish Rite Consistory and Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena. Politically he is a republi- can.

Mr. Strode married Ella Johnson in November, 1895. She was born at Cokato, Minnesota. Six chil- dren have come into their home: Eva, who is a nurse in the Deaconess Hospital at Great Falls; Annie, who was educated in the schools of Dillon and St. Paul and for a time was a stenographer in the Security State Bank of Havre; Thomas O .; William F., who died at the age of sixteen in 1917; Edris, who also died in 1917; and George, the youngest of the family.

FRANK J. REICHEL. Few states offer better oppor- tunities for agricultural activities than Montana, and the men of this region who have taken advantage of them have no reason to be discontented with their choice of a calling. Compared with many other sections the land is cheap, and its possibilities, especially for stock raising, unlimited, and those who are willing to work hard can be sure of ultimate success. One of the men thus awake to existing con- ditions is Frank J. Reichel, who is engaged in ranch- ing and raising and selling horses twenty miles north of Havre. He was born on his father's farm in Wright County, Minnesota, September 12, 1878, a son of Jacob and Susan (Mross) Reichel. Jacob Reichel was born near Warsaw, German Poland, July 12, 1841, and his wife was born in the same place July 26, 1841. They were married in their native land on July 7, 1862, and six of their four- teen children were born before they set out for the United States in a sailing vessel in 1874, bringing with them Jacob's parents, Joseph Reichel and his wife. They landed at Baltimore, Maryland, and from there traveled west to Wright County, Minne- sota, and bought eighty acres of land, to which more was later added, and on it they continued to live until 1894, when they retired and went to Waverly, Minnesota. After several years there they finally located at St. Paul, Minnesota, which is still their home. In 1912 they had the pleasure of celebrating their golden wedding anniversary, and on July 7, 1919, their children and grandchildren gathered about them in honor of their fifty-seventh anniversary. Eight of their children still survive, and of them Frank J. is the ninth in order of birth. They recall with pride what they accomplished during the early

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days in Minnesota when they brought a home out of the wilderness, for they were among the pioneers of that region and endured all of the hardships incident to frontier life. It has been given to them to live to see their children and grandchildren prosper and the place where they made their first home in this country develop into one of the fertile farming sections of the state. Both these excellent people are devout members of the Roman Catholic Church.

Frank J. Reichel attended the public schools of Wright County, Minnesota, until he was sixteen years old, and then came west to Havre, Montana, and was engaged in draying for about three years. For the next two years he was a hotel clerk, after which for four years he conducted a retail liquor business. Selling it, he went into a grocery business for one year, and then embarked in ranching, specializing on raising horses and developing the latter industry until he is now buying, selling and shipping very extensively, especially to the Dakotas. His ranch is located twenty miles north of Havre. While living at Havre he served as alderman from the Fourth Ward for one term, being elected on the republican ticket. The Roman Catholic Church holds his membership. He belongs to the Eagles and Knights of Columbus.

On August 15, 1910, Mr. Reichel was married to Elizabeth O'Connell, born at Houghton, Michigan, a

daughter of Thomas and Mary (Sullivan) O'Connell, both natives of Ireland, who are now deceased. They were married at Houghton, Michi- gan, and of their ten children, nine survive, Mrs. Reichel being the third in order of birth. Mr. O'Connell came to Montana in the early '80s, engag- ing in mining at Marysville and being one of the pioneers miners of that region. At one ' time he had three claims. His wife passed away in 1905, at the age of forty-four years, and he survived her only a year, being at the time of his demise fifty years old. He belonged to the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In religious faith he was a Roman Catholic, and in politics, a democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Reichel have two children, Mary Mabel and Elizabeth Bernice.

PLINEY S. RICHARDSON. It is a little more than thirty years since Pliney S. Richardson arrived in Montana, a young man, with normal strength and ambitions, no money, with some training in farm work, and a readiness and willingness to adapt him- self to the new conditions of a new country.

Mr. Richardson has done exceedingly well, though not without the average vicissitudes and set-backs as a rancher, and was one of the first settlers and is today one of the leading citizens of Powder River County.

Mr. Richardson, who enjoys an extensive acquaint- ance over Eastern Montana, and who is known by no other christian title than "Dick," was born near Carthage, Hancock County, Illinois, October 31, 1866. He is of New England ancestry, his grandfather, Jesse Richardson, being a native of Vermont. Jesse Richardson was a stone mason and worked on the Erie Canal construction and again did canal and turnpike building in Pickaway County, Ohio. In later years he moved to Illinois, and is buried in Hancock County. He married Margaret Whiteside, and their four children were George, Nelson, Mrs. Rebecca Renshaw and Andrew.

George Richardson, father of the Montana rancher, was born in Ohio and was an early settler in Han- cock County, Illinois, with his father Jesse. He acquired but an ordinary education, and carly in the Civil war enlisted in the One Hundred and Eighteenth Illinois Cavalry. He was under the com-

mand of Sheridan and took part .in the Vicksburg campaign and toward the end of his service was sent by water to Texas. He escaped wounds and capture, and for many years was a pensioner. In the early eighties he moved to Northeastern Missouri and lived on a farm there. He died at Newark, Missouri, in January, 1909. His wife was Elizabeth Jennings, a daughter of James Jennings, a native of Indiana. Mrs. George Richardson died in November, 1903. Her children were: Lawrence, of Los Angeles County, California; Pliney S .; George, of Newark, Missouri; William, a rancher near Powderville, Mon- tana; Laura, wife of Frank Hunter, of Carthage, Oklahoma.

"Dick" Richardson was sixteen years of age when . his parents moved to Knox County, Missouri. He acquired his education chiefly in the country schools of Illinois, and he lived with his parents in Missouri until he was about twenty-three years of age. It was on the 28th of June that he arrived at Miles City, 'Montana in the year 1889. His parents were unable to give him any capital when he left home, and he reached Miles City with a dollar and forty cents, therefore being obliged to make his labor immediately available. His first employment was at corral building on the sheep ranch of H. H. Sykes. He had no previous experience to qualify him for this work, but used his American initiative and soon became a useful hand. In winter he became a shepherd, working for thirty dollars a month and board. He left the ranch to become a stage driver from Powderville to Willow Creek. He drove the stage at night three times a week, resting during the day. It was a sixty mile drive, and while there were certain hazards and difficulties due to uncertain- ties of road, there was no danger from road agents. He was thus employed from July until the following April.

On changing employment Mr. Richardson went with the Seven-O-L-Ranch on Powder River as a wage earner, and eventually served that organization two and a half years as ranch manager. After that he was a ranch hand on the Cross ranch, and then made his first independent start as a rancher, squat- ting on a claim on Crow Creek. The land had been unsurveyed, and he lived on his claim during the winter and worked for wages during the summer. His first home was a log cabin with a single room. When he married he took his bride to the claim and built a two-room cabin. After several months they abandoned the claim, sold the improvements, and Mr. Richardson took a band of sheep to run on the shares, acquiring by purchase the improvements on the old Seven-O-L-Ranch. He used the surround- ing land for grazing his sheep. It was in the fall of 1898 that he established himself in that locality, and it has been his home continuously for over twenty years. He and his wife exercised their rights under the various land laws of the United States, and have acquired title to a section of land. Their entire ranch now embraces 4,270 acres, and is used for the raising of cattle.

Mr. Richardson for many years regarded sheep as the most profitable form of livestock farming in Montana. However, there were occasional reverses that all but swept away the accumulation of years. Then the influx of settlers caused a fencing off of water rights and brought about other changes that made it advisable to sell his sheep and take up cattle instead. Mr. Richardson breeds the White Face cattle and sells his surplus from the range at the age of three and four years. For a quarter of a century he also raised horses on a modest scale, though some of his stock went to eastern markets.

Though Mr. Richardson came to Montana the

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same year that it was admitted to the Union, his home in the eastern section of the state was sparsely settled and it was almost a quarter of a century be- fore a school district was laid off and a school estab- lished in his community. He was made a member of the first school board. In his early years in that country there was not a public highway or bridge, no machinery for road working, and the Custer County he first knew embraced the present counties of Rose- bud, Prairie, Fallon, Powder River, Carter and Wi- baux, a territory equal almost to the eastern end of Montana.

In the fall of 1916 Mr. Richardson was elected to the Custer County Board of Commissioners for a term of six years, succeeding Charles Daly. The chief service of the board has been road building and adjusting business between the new county of Powder River and Custer. Politically Mr. Richardson was reared a republican, casting his first vote for Benja- min Harrison in 1888 at Newark, Missouri. He is affiliated with the Masons, Odd Fellows and Elks. Mrs. Richardson was clerk of District No. 2 while her husband was trustee of that school district. She took a very earnest and hard working part in the local Red Cross Chapter during the World war.

October 30, 1896, Dick Richardson married Miss Nettie Hart, daughter of Isaac and Jane (Miller) Hart. Her father moved from Minnesota, in which state Mrs. Richardson was born August 8, 1879, to North Dakota, and then on to the Snake River coun- try in Washington, and died at Asotin in that state. There were four daughters and two sons in the Hart family, and those still living are Mrs. 'Mary Gillis, of Canada, Mrs. Ida Mckenzie, at Miles City, Mrs. Hattie Jordan, in Dawson County, Montana, and Mrs. Richardson.

Mr. and Mrs. Richardson have five children: Clarence, Roy, Lois, William and Harold. Clarence was in the One Hundred and Seventy-Second Aero Squadron, received intensive training in England, and at the signing of the armistice was at Bordeaux, France. He and his brother Roy are now associated in the ranching business with their father.

RANDOLPH DEIBEL. With the year 1920 Mr. Deibel is able to claim thirty years of participation in the ranching activities of Custer County. His name has become prominently associated with livestock, busi- ness and civic affairs in Eastern Montana. Since 1885 he has' lived at Miles City, moving his home from his ranch in order to give his children better educational advantages.

The Deibel ranch now comprises 10,000 acres, much of its grazing land in the Pine Hills back from the Yellowstone.

Mr. Deibel was born at St. Louis, Missouri. He represented Custer County in the Fifteenth Legis- lature, serving one term as a democrat. He was a plain citizen in the Legislature, and opposed every effort at political manipulation. He is an Elk and has served as an officer in the Elks Lodge and is also affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and the Woodmen of the World. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church.

He was married at Santa Ana, California, Decem- ber 22, 1909 to Miss Rena M. Wilson, his wife be- ing also a former resident of Miles City. To Mr. and 'Mrs. Deibel have been born five children : Ran- dolph, Jr., Dorothy, Hazel Ardus, Richard Wayne and Florence Elizabeth.

CALVIN TODD. A modest ranchman on Mizpah Creek, fifteen miles above Mizpah, Custer County, Calvin Todd settled in Montana in 1902, coming as a cattleman from Texas, in which state he had been reared. He is a native of Madison County, Ken-

tucky, born not far from Richmond, May 2, 1875, and was an infant when taken by his father to Grayson County, Texas, where the elder man, John Todd, was a stock farmer for some years, then moving on west to Montague County and still later to Swisher County, in the plains country. There John Todd was a cowman and passed his remaining years, eventually becoming the owner of the best herd of cattle in that locality. He was a democrat in politics and was fraternally affiliated with the Masons. He married Martha Denham, a daughter of Jesse Denham, who died in Grayson County, Texas, June 5, 1877, and belonged to the old Kentucky people of that region. Mrs. Todd died in Kentucky, leaving issue : Nancy, who married J. P. Moody and resides in Swisher County, Texas; John, a farmer in Potter County, Texas; Will M., a ranchman of Swisher County; Jessie, the widow of James. Turman, of Tulia, Texas; Mary, who married George Watts, of Tulia; and Calvin. John Todd, Sr., married for his second wife Minerva Moody, but no children were born to their union.

John Todd was born at Richmond, Kentucky, March 16, 1834, and passed away near Tulia, Texas, June 5, 1905. His first wife was born in Madison County, Kentucky, October 5, 1835, and died there November 6, 1875. The mother of John Todd was Nancy Stenson and his father was John Todd, Sr., and both died in Madison County, Kentucky.

Calvin Todd had poor school advantages, the Hopewell School of Montague County, Texas, giv- ing him his first lessons. He finished his school days in Rannells County while living with his sister, Mrs. Turman, and when sixteen years of age began farming with his brother-in-law on shares, continu- ing to be thus engaged as long as he was there. When he went to the plains country with his parents he began running cattle, in the employ of Johnson Grake, who had the "Three Circle" outfit, and when he left them after four years spent two terms in school at Canon City, and paid his expenses from his savings. Leaving school for good, he went back to the bunch of cattle he had accumulated and be- gan ranching on his section ranch, which he sold in 1902 on coming to Montana. Mr. Todd arrived in this state without knowledge of the country except that acquired through reading of its advantages as a stock country, and his first four years were spent in working for ranchmen. He worked for two years for the Concord Cattle Company on the Yellowstone River, and another two years for Harrison & Kimes on the Tongue, and then, convinced that this was the country in which he should locate, purchased the ranch and cattle of Thomas T. Hill and began with title to a quarter section of land and 132 head of cattle. His plan of operation of the ranch is to carry 100 cows and to market their increase an- nually, and his ranch has expanded by homestead entries to 840 acres. He and Mrs. Todd have each entered lands from the public domain, and these are being used as a part of the ranch. Mr. Todd has been in the past a shipper limitedly from . this locality, his stock going from Miles City to the Chicago market. He has always manifested a warm friendship for public education, being embarrassed himself somewhat by lack of early school advantages, and organized the first school in his district, build- ing a log cabin to accommodate his own children and conducting a private school for three years, or until a public school was established in the neighborhood and a new schoolhouse erected by the district.

Mr. Todd was married in Hale County, Texas, January 13, 1907, to Miss Nona Knight, a daughter of Charley and Amanda (Powers) Knight. Mr. Knight came to Texas as a child with his father

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and settled at Midlothian, in which community Mrs. Todd grew to womanhood. Charley Knight moved out to Hale County when that region was being settled, and at present is a stock farmer of Running Water, Texas. His family is comprised of the fol- lowing children: Nona, who is now Mrs. Calvin Todd, Minnie Lee, Gertrude, Dona, Chloe, Gladys, Lewis and Loss. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Todd: Dorothy, Lewis Calvin, Gladys, Winnie and Maxine. Mrs. Todd is identified with church work. in her community, and is a Baptist in faith, having been reared in that church as a child and continuing to be true to her faith as a woman.

FRANK D. O'NEILL is a prominent and well known ranchman on Powder River, with headquarters on Trail Creek, and since becoming a resident of Mon- tana in 1885 he has also been conspicuously identi- fied with the political life of the commonwealth.

Mr. O'Neill was born in Guelph County, Ontario, Canada, December 18, 1864, but was reared near Lawrence, Kansas, where his father, James O'Neill, owned a large Galloway stock farm. The senior Mr. O'Neill was born in Valcartter, Province of Quebec, and was of Irish parentage. He established his home in Kansas in 1867, going there from the Province of Ontario. He married in early life Mar- garet Ryan, who was born in Tipperary, Ireland. From Kansas Mr. and Mrs. O'Neill went to Saline County, Missouri, where the former spent the re- mainder of his life and died, and his widow subse- quently passed away in Miles City. Their children were: John, who died without issue; James E., a wholesale merchant at Butte, Montana; Thomas, who died before marriage; William, of Miles City, Mon- tana; Mary E., a resident of Butte, Montana, and a suffrage leader of the state; and Frank D.

Frank D. O'Neill remained at the parental home until about eighteen years of age, when he made his way to Nebraska, thence on to Oregon and Wash- ington, down into California and finally to Montana. He had spent about one year as a laborer on ranches in the vicinity of Stockton, California. It was in April, 1885, when a lad of twenty-one, that he came into what was then the territory of Montana from the Golden State, traveling over the Northern Pacific Railroad. He had little knowledge of the country he was entering and was seeking work. His first opening was as a sheep herder for Oscar Gruell, whose ranch was located on Froze-to-Death Creek, north of the Yellowstone, and for this work he re- ceived $40 a month. During a period of three years he worked at herding and shearing sheep, and then entered the sheep business for himself, starting the industry as a half owner with Arnon Laney in 1,000 head near the mouth of the Mizpah on Pow- der River, and he remained identified with the range of that region until he established his headquarters on Trail Creek in 1888. He continued associated with Mr. Laney for two years, then entering the business alone, and has so continued ever since. Mr. O'Neill started his sheep industry with and held to the Marino blood, as he was advised and found that sheep herds closer to the flock, shears a higher priced fleece and finally produces as much mutton as other breeds, and they also do well on a close and rough range. While at the height of his business as a sheep man 'Mr. O'Neill handled 12,000 head, which sheared him 95,000 pounds of wool. He sold much of his output at 914 cents a pound, with little or no profit to himself, but he had confidence enough in the future of the sheep industry to believe that the price would return to a profitable basis, and his intui- tion proved true, for he eventually sold wool at the

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 163

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