Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 167

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 167

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After this brief experience as a soldier, and in the fall of 1877, Mr. Alexander located in the dis- tricts of which Forsyth is the prominent town. He remained continuously with that locality . for the re- maining forty odd years of his life. There was no town, and he practically had no neighbors, though a few other stock outfits were in that general region. Therefore his efforts as a rancher might be prop- erly called the first enterprise of white man in the present Forsyth locality. His nearest market point was Miles City, and many years passed before this portion of Custer County was laid off as Rosebud County, with Forsyth the county seat. Mr. Alex- ander continued running stock on the range until 1883-84, when he opened a general store. His first building was his log cabin home near the bank of the river, and that was succeeded by another log cabin, and in that he and his family lived until it became the custom of the settlers to erect more mod- ern residences. In 1896 he erected the generous frame house in which he enjoyed the pleasures of life until his death. His first store building was a small frame shack, situated on the corner where the Alexander Hotel now stands. For many years his business as a merchant was as a factor in the Home Trading Company.

Mr. Alexander used his capital and influence in a way to make him the most conspicuous builder in the early days of Forsyth. He put up many of the structures still standing along Main Street and in other parts of the town. He also joined other local business men in the establishment of the first bank at Forsyth, the Merchants Bank, which was a private institution, and he gave much of his time to its successful management. As a banker, mer- chant, owner and manager of lands and townsite property he had many affairs to occupy his time and attention.

With the creation of Rosebud County he was chosen one of the first county commissioners, his colleagues being Hunter Terrett and Thomas Ham- mond. The administration proved a turbulent one, as those who remember that far back can testify. He served on later county boards, notably the one which built the new court house. With the close of that term his official connection with Rosebud County ceased. As a democrat he was in the mi- nority party of the county, and that fact created a jealousy which led to much of the turmoil which characterized the administration of the county board. For many years he participated in political cam- paigns, was well able to defend his position and give reason for his convictions, though he was in no sense a speech maker, but made his influence felt quietly and through individual contact with his fel- low men. Altogether Thomas Alexander, in the opinion of his associates and friends was born under 'a lucky star and it guided him out of many em- barrassing situations.

In religious matters he made no distinction in his donation to churches and in every way he was liberal as a citizen. To aid the railroad he moved his property back and permitted the company to oc- cupy some of his land on an exchange basis he had arranged with the company. His homestead was Vol. III-38

entered between the bluff and the river, and some of it has been developed and is known as the Alex- ander Addition to the town. Fraternally he was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, Knights of Pythias and the Elks.

In 1882 Mr. Alexander married Melissa Wyant at Miles City. Her father, Benjamin Wyant, was one of the early settlers of this Montana region. She was born in Minnesota but was reared in Mon- tana, and died at Forsyth a year after her marriage. Her only child is the wife of Postmaster Hollen- beck, of Forsyth. On January 24, 1884, at Jackson- town, New Brunswick, Mr. Alexander married Miss Mary Fitzpatrick, who survived him. Her parents were Anthony and Caroline (Hanna) Fitzpatrick. Her father came to America from Ireland at the age of sixteen, and spent the years of his married life at Jacksontown, New Brunswick. He was a farmer, and a man of quiet and earnest character. He died in 1898, at the age of seventy-seven, and Mrs. Alexander's mother passed away March 15, 1916, aged ninety years. Mrs. Alexander was the third in a family of five children, the others being Charles, who died at Waterville, 'Maine; George, a resident of Aroostook County, Maine; Ella, Mrs. James Breed, and Anna, Mrs. Chicoine, both resi- dents of Lynn, Massachusetts.

Mrs. Alexander grew up a farmer's daughter, acquired a public school education and for thirty- five years was the devoted companion of her hus- band and witnessed his successes and reverses and shared in both. She became affiliated with the Re- bekahs and Eastern Star, and these with her house- hold duties and the interest she took in Mr. Alex- ander's business have made her residence at Forsyth a busy one. She and Mr. Alexander did their share in the World war, with loyal spirit and with material contribution of funds to the various causes, includ- ing the Red Cross, to which Mrs. Alexander was particularly helpful.

PAUL JONES. As an example of an independent, self reliant and constructive citizen who has made his own way in the world and has achieved no small degree of success as a Montana rancher and business man, the case of Paul Jones, of Forsyth, may be properly reviewed.

'Mr. Jones, who has been in Montana for fifteen years, was born at Chicago, September 24, 1879, and is the only surviving child of Hiram C. and Adelaide (Cook) Jones. His father was a native of Vermont and his mother of Wisconsin. Hiram Jones died in 1882, when his son was three years of age. The widowed mother subsequently married and went to South America, and it is believed she was finally lost in the Gulf of Mexico.

In the meantime Paul Jones lived at the home of a half-sister, Mrs. Walter S. Horton, at Peoria, Illinois, spent some time in the home of a friend of the family and a few years of his boyhood were passed in Kansas. Eventually he returned to the home of his half-sister at Peoria, and lived there until he was old enough to make his own way. He acquired most of his education at Peoria, and after completing a high school course went to Chicago and was an employe of Bartlett, Frazier and Com- pany and their successors in the grain business. For two years he was with the Corn Products Com- pany in the Chicago offices. At that time this com- pany was introducing to the market "Karo," the popular corn syrup.

Mr. Jones left Chicago and came to Montana in 1905 to launch out into something entirely different from previous experience and achieve a place as a constructive factor in a new country. He established

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himself in Rosebud County, where his first efforts were made in the cattle industry at the head of the East Fork of Armells Creek. He bought a squat- ter's improvements on unsurveyed land, and subse- quently entered his own homestead in that locality, completing his proof by residence and work. For a dozen years he remained in that region raising range cattle and running them under one of three brands, lazy A-4 on the left shoulder, the antelope head on the left side, and lazy DW on the right side. His stock when finished for the market was sent to Chicago and Omaha.

Leaving that scene of his pioneer efforts he bought the old FUF cow camp near the mouth of Armells Creek, and from this land developed a hay ranch. Here he completed fourteen years of consecutive labor as a Montana rancher, and in the fall of 1919 closed out his holdings, shipped his cattle to Da- kota for the winter feed, and in the spring of 1920 moved to Forsyth and entered the real estate business as a partner in the firm of Hill and Jones. With a thorough knowledge of Montana lands, particu- larly in Rosebud County, and with a thorough busi- ness training, Mr. Jones is well qualified for con- tinued success in a new field.

On coming to manhood he allied himself with the republican party, casting his first presidential vote for William Mckinley in 1900. The only public service he has rendered in official capacity has been as a member of school boards on Armells Creek. He has recently acquired membership in the Ma- sonic Order. During America's participation in the World war the Jones family performed its part in carrying war burdens by the puchase of bonds and contributions to other causes. Mr. Jones responded with all his power to the call for increased produc- tion of grain and beef, and kept himself in readiness for call to sterner duty whenever the draft board reached his classification.

At Clarion, Pennsylvania, Mr. Jones married Miss Mary Wilson on October 10, 1906. She was born in that section of Pennsylvania, daughter of S. Win- field Wilson. The Wilsons are an old Pennsylvania family of Clarion County, and for many years were identified with the iron furnace industry and lum- bering. Mrs. Jones had a finished education, having attended the National Park Seminary at Washing- ton and Miss Ely's exclusive school for girls in New York. She was born the same year as her husband and they have a family of sons and daugh- ters named Paul, Jr., Helen Wilson, Walter Gordon and Mary Virginia.

JOHN VAN, of Fallon, is one of the citizens of eastern Montana who have seen this region develop for three decades. His chief business has been ranching, both cattle and horses, and his conduct of business affairs and his relationship with the com- munity mark him as one of the high grade men, substantial, public spirited and generally esteemed.

Mr. Van was born at St. Jacque, not far from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1866, son of Joseph and Felice (Landre) Van. Joseph Van was a French Canadian. John Van was one of a family of nine sons and a daughter, three of the sons having come to Montana. John grew up on a farm in Quebec, attended a French school and had knowl- edge of no other language when he came to the United States.

He reached Montana in the fall of 1888. coming by way of Northern Pacific Railroad. The previous five years had been spent in Nevada, where he was employed in hauling wood for the railroad company, driving a sixteen horse team, a jerk-line outfit. He became an expert in handling his team, and while

working in Nevada he also thriftily saved some- thing from his earnings, and brought enough capital with him to Montana to buy his first bunch of cattle, about fifty head.

While he stopped for a time at Terry, he soon established himself as a rancher at Fallon. His present home contains the site where he settled as a squatter. Beginning with range cattle he bred up a high grade of White Faced stock through the years and was an individual shipper of beef cattle to the Chicago market. He has also bred Shire horses, finding his market for horses in Montana. Besides his own enterprise as a stockman Mr. Van gave much of his time in the early years to work as a cowboy on the range. Some of the large concerns that employed him in that capacity were the XIT, the 101 outfit, for which he ran the wagons, and the LH outfit owned by Jim Drummond.

Mr. Van took up his homestead in 1896. The quarter section lies against the Fallon townsite. His pioneer home is his present one, comprising five rooms, a house he built of logs, and since then sided and made very comfortable, and is in fact one of the better farm houses of the locality. Mr. Van owns besides this claim two sections of land east of Mildred, which he uses for grazing land. He retired from the cattle business several years ago, and his only stock at present is a small bunch of horses. He adopted the brand LC on the left shoulder for the horses and for the cattle ZD on the right ribs.

Mr. Van was a settler in Custer County when he came to Montana, and in recent years his home has been included in the territory of Prairie County. He took out his naturalization papers in Miles City, and since becoming a voter has been identified with the republican party, though not in practical politics. He was an ardent admirer of the late Theodore Roosevelt. He also took stock in the Montana State Bank of Fallon, and for two years served on its Board of Directors.

At Miles City, Montana, December 5, 1892, Mr. Van married Mrs. Amelia Lanseign. She was born in Lorignal, Canada, May 16, 1866, daughter of Issac and Marian (Vincent) Balanger. Her father was a native of Canada and a farmer. Mrs. Van is one of four children, and is the only one of the family in Montana. Mr. and Mrs. Van have one child, Myrtle Virginia. Mrs. Van by her first husband has three children. John W., of Glendive, volunteered for the World war, was in a Machine Gun Company in the 14th Infantry, but failed to get across because of the early armistice. Sophie Lanseign became the wife of Henry Nelson, of Glendive, and they have two children, Ella and Henry. Nettie, who is the wife of Frank Van, a brother of John, lives in St. Jacque, Canada, and has two children, named Gilbert and Willie.

HARTWIG LUND. While he is the leading mer- chant of the town of Fallon, Hartwig Lund has been selling goods only a few years, and has been longest known in that section of Montana as a farmer and rancher. He is a pioneer of Eastern Montana, having come to the territory nearly thirty- five years ago.

Mr. Lund was born in the country just east of . Christiana, Norway, October 9, 1865, son of Ole and Mary (Osnes) Lund. His father was a farmer in the same locality as had been his ancestors for gen- erations. Hartwig was the third son in a family of four boys and two girls, and is the only one in the United States.

In Norway he acquired the equivalent of a common school education, and grew up with the knowledge of a farmer boy. With that equipment, and with

J. b. Bugue

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

barely enough funds to get him across the ocean and nearly across the continent he arrived at Miles City, Montana, February 22, 1886. His first employ- ment was at Fort Keough as a man of all work for Mr. McQueen, the merchant, at wages of $15 a month. Two months later, at the opening of spring, he found a job in a brickyard at $40 a month. When the plant shut down two months later he went to a ranch on Pumpkin Creek, and remained there during shearing time and hay making. Fol- lowing that he helped build an irrigation ditch on Tongue River until late in the fall, when he was laid off and was idle until January 24, 1887. Like many of the early settlers Mr. Lund had a versatile gift sufficient to enable himself to engage in various em- ployments, and his next work was as a bridge car- penter with the Northern Pacific Railway. This work was between Glendive and Billings, and for five and a half years he was with a crew working regularly and ready to respond to a summons at any hour of the night. He was paid $2.75 a day while with the bridge gang, and left that to take a position as sectionman on the road, he remained at Fallon as section foreman seven years, at wages of $50 a month.

While his salary was never large as a railroader Mr. Lund saved some capital, and used it to buy out a ranchman and cattle in Yellowstone Breaks, near Fallon. He began ranching in earnest in 1900 with a hundred and one head of Minnesota cattle (dogees), and continued the industry actively for nineteen years. Eventually he established himself on Cabin Creek, where his present ranch is and where he made his best success. This ranch em- braces 600 acres, is watered by an artesian well, has a two-story frame house of eight rooms, with shed for stock and other equipment. He has combined grain farming, and in favorable seasons has made a great deal of profit from wheat and oats.

While in the Cabin Creek locality Mr. Lund helped start the educational work, his children at- tending school in district No. 47. He was a member of the School Board and has always favored good schools and a long term. Leaving the ranch in August, 1917, Mr. Lund engaged in merchandising at Fallon, buying a stock of goods from Charles Hansen, a general merchant. He now has the lead- ing store over a large district of territory, housed in a two-story brick building 30x76 feet, with full basement, and equipped with steam heating and ele- tric light plants. Mr. Lund has been a stockholder in the Montana State Bank of Fallon since it was organized, and was one of six men to furnish the capital for drilling the artesian well in Fallon, a well that flows with a capacity of seventy gallons a minute.

Mr. Lund had been in America only a short time when he took out his citizenship papers at Miles City in the fall of 1886, and secured his final papers in 1892, casting his first presidential vote that year for Benjamin Harrison. He has been acting with the republican party ever since. Mr. Lund now en- joys a favorable situation as to his financial affairs and also has a splendid family of young people quite ready and well qualified to relieve him of his heavier responsibilities. He married at Miles City December 25, 1893, Miss Sophie Leskela. She was born north of Helsingors, Finland, June 25, 1875, came to the United States alone, reaching Mon- tana in 1892, and while employed at Fallon met her future husband. Mrs. Lund died October 26, 1918. The oldest child is George Albert Lund, a garage man at Fallon. Olga Marie was liberally educated, has taught school, but is now her father's house- keeper. Elmer Edwin and Leo are both on their

father's Cabin Creek ranch. John William is as- sociated with his father in the store. The youngest, Lawrence Silas, is in the eighth grade of the public schools at Fallon.

JOHN C. BOGUE, president and manager of the Newton Hardware & Implement Company, which he helped to organize at Roundup, is a man who has always had a firm and abiding faith in the ulti- mate reward of homely honesty, direct diligence and unselfish loyalty to the task at hand, and his success in life proves that he was right. He was born at Pittsford, Vermont, May 14, 1862, a son of Marcus C. and Sarah (Giddings) Bogue. Marcus C. Bogue was born at Canton, New York, on July 8, 1827, and his wife, who was Sarah Giddings, was born in West Rutland, Vermont, on August 27, 1878. John C. Bogue was the youngest of the five children born to his parents, three of whom survive. While still a young man Marcus C. Bogue went to Pitts- ford, Vermont, and there engaged in a general mer- chandise business, which he continued until 1870, at which time he came west to Sioux City, Iowa, and until 1890 carried on a boot and shoe business. Sell- ing that, he began handling real estate and making loans, and was so engaged until his death, which occurred December II, 1907. His wife died Febru- ary 4, 1908, both at Sioux City, Iowa. The Congre- gational Church had in him a faithful member, and he was equally zealous in living up to the teachings of the Masonic fraternity. In politics he was a republican, but his private affairs were too engross- ing to permit of his en.ering public life, although he always exerted his right of suffrage.

After attending the public schools of Sioux City, Iowa, in which he secured an excellent knowledge of the fundamentals, John C. Bogue began to be self-supporting as a clerk in the employ of a rail- road construction company, with which he remained until 1909, at which time he came to Montana and spent a year as Ismay, Custer County, leaving it for Roundup. Here he took steps to found his present company and it was organized in July, 1910. Since January, 1914, he has been its president and general manager, his associates in it being C. C. Hopkins, vice president, and C. J. Jeffries, secretary and treas- urer. This company is one of the solid concerns of Musselshell County and a large trade is controlled by it. Like his father, Mr. Bogue has not cared for political preferment, and he follows in his father's footsteps in supporting the republican party. For a year Mr. Bogue was president of the Pioneer Club of Roundup.

On October 22, 1894, Mr. Bogue was united in marriage with Jennie Bridenbecker, born at Phelps, New York. They were married at Sioux City, Iowa, and they have two children, namely: George Henry and Doris M. Mr. Bogue is one of the superior type of self-reliant, clear-brained business men of this region, and under his capable management his company has grown until it occupies a commanding position among similar concerns in this part of Mon- tana.

LEON B. CLARK Merchandising always plays an important part in the commercial life of any com- munity, and the man who distributes the greatest amount of the necessities of life among the popu- lation tributary to a given point is in every sense an important citizen. In the town of Mildred, Prairie County, Leon B. Clark is the chief exemplar of this business and is a pioneer of the locality.

Mr. Clark came to Montana from a little town in Southern Michigan where the Clarks have been

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prominent in business affairs for a great many years. He was born at Bronson, Branch County, March 21, 1878. His grandfather, Milo Clark, Sr., established a hardware business in Bronson in pioneer times, and later the Clark family erected the principal hotel of the village. Milo Clark was a native of New York, grew up near the ocean and in early life was a cod fisherman. For that work he ac- quired the money necessary to give himself a medical education, and he located in Southern Michigan when much of the country was new and swampy and traveled long distances by horseback to attend his patients. Later he engaged in merchandising at Bronson, conducting both a drug and hardware store. Gradually the main interest was shifted to hard- ware, and his son Milo M. came into the management of the store and thenceforth conducted it entirely for hardware and implements. Milo 'M. Clark, Jr. was born at Antwerp. Ohio, August 22, 1854, and was long associated with the business at Bronson Mich- igan. In 1910 he came out to Montana and is now one of the few retired citizens of Mildred. He is a member of the Congregational Church and a democrat in politics. He married Ida M. Bennett, daughter of Christopher Columbus Bennett, who was born in Pennsylvania and was an early settler in Michigan and a farmer and stock buyer and shipper. For fifty-six years he shipped stock to Buffalo, New York. Mrs. Milo M. Clark was born in Madison, Michigan, April 3, 1856. She is the mother of the following children : Leon Bennett, of Mildred; Harold, just ten years younger than Leon and now commercial artist for the Motor Age of Chicago; Arline, wife of Harold Souther, sales manager for the Libby, McNeil & Libby Company and a home- steader at Mildred.

Leon B. Clark was educated in the schools of Bronson and in the Michigan Agricultural College at Lansing, leaving school and marrying in his sophomore year. He had been brought up in the store at Bronson, and in 1908 he came out to Mon- tana primarily to stake a claim. He reached the Mildred community in April, 1908, and within a month had homesteaded. His third effort towards getting a claim succeeded, and he entered a quarter section a half mile from Mildred. His was the second emigrant car unloaded at Mildred, and he established the first business place in town, a hotel, and in the following July branched out in merchan- dising. Along with his household goods he brought the furnishings for his hotel, the hotel having been built by the syndicate which handled the railroad lines. Mr. Clark managed this for about a year, and while feeding the public he was also doing the work necessary to acquire title to his land. The first build- ing besides the hotel on the townsite was his store, 16x34, and his original stock was worth about $1,500. After abandoning the management of the hotel Mr. Clark devoted his time to farming and merchandis- ing, and both phases of work have occupied him ever since.

On his claim he built a 12X14 box house, which sheltered himself, his wife and two sons for less than a year. He then began the erection of a permanent farm home of six rooms, which is still in use. His farming efforts have been directed toward corn and alfalfa, and his corn crops at times have produced the best of any in this country. His test of seed corn led him to select the Wisconsin 8 as the best adapted to this climate, and in 1915 this seed corn made a yield of forty bushels to the acre. In that year his exhibit of ten years of corn took cash prizes amounting to $141 and the Milwaukee cup, besides some minor premiums. The Grimm alfalfa has done well when properly cared for, and

there is always a demand for all that can be grown. Mr. Clark's stock consists of both horses and cattle, and these have more than met his expectations on the range.

Mr. Clark helped organize the local school here in 1909 and has been on the board almost contin- uously. The original schoolhouse was built by priv- ate subscription, and much of the mechanical work was done by the people of the neighborhood. Later the district was bonded and a permanent house was erected.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 167

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