Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 171

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 171

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

opened a new ranch and stocked it with cattle, but soon discovered that he was in a wrong location for extensive stock raising and accordingly changed his tactics and began farming. His efforts in this direction were the pioneer ones there and were so successful that other settlers took the cue, and the valley soon became an agricultural region. In 1889 Mr. Mckenzie disposed of his property and came to Custer County, entering a homestead and desert claims on Powder River, and this locality has since been the scene of his operations and of his rise to prosperity and prominence.

George F. Mckenzie was born in the province of New Brunswick, Canada, near St. John, March 3, 1855. His father, David Mckenzie, was also born there and spent his life as a stockman and farmer. He was of Scotch blood and son of a Scotchman, was one of seven children, and was edu- cated in the public schools. He was an ambitious man, accumulated property beyond the average of his neighbors, and was held in high esteem, but his only office was as magistrate of his parish, a posi- tion which he acquired by election on the liberal ticket. David Mckenzie married Mercy Connor, born on the St. Johns River, New Brunswick, a daughter of a pioneer of that locality, and passed away in 1917, when nearly ninety years of age, her husband having died at the age of eighty-seven. Their issue comprised the following children : Mal- colm, of Welsford, New Brunswick; Dr. Zebulon, who died at Galveston, Texas; David W., a stock- man and farmer of New Brunswick; John, who died at Temple, Texas, while working as an engi- neer; Moses O., who occupies the family home- stead in New Brunswick; George F., of this review ; Eliza, who died at Independence, Iowa, as Mrs. William M. Hays; 'Mercy, who married Captain George Morrissey, of Birmingham, England; Kate C., who died unmarried; and Alice, who also passed away before marriage.

On Powder River George F. Mckenzie began as a sheep raiser and wool man and followed this line for twenty years. His were the sheep com- mon to the country here, drifting toward the "fine medium," and his success was marked. Owing to the disastrous winter of 1886, which lost him much of his cattle in Gallatin County, and the misfor- tunes of sickness in his family, he had come to the. Powder River country practically "broke." He arranged with a party to furnish him sheep and started in with 1,000 head. This locality was at that time particularly hostile to sheep, but the fact that his "outfit" was small and his treatment of the opposition was considerate as to its rights the hos- tility was allayed and other sheep men sprung up here and there and the region became as much a sheep country as a cow country. During the score of years he was in the wool business he prospered, and in 1909 closed out with some 20,000 head. He marketed his wool at Miles City, or consigned it . there, and his sheep were marketed at Chicago, he accompanying them by trainload to that market. Disposing of his sheep because of the curtailment of the range, he entered the cattle and horse busi- ness, and is yet listed as a cattle man, carrying what stock he can with safety and curtailing to meet changing and more crowded range conditions. His brand is the "Crescent enclosing MK," and his ranch is recorded as "Crescent Ranch," his horse brand being the "Crescent" alone. He sold wool as cheap as 8 cents a pound at one time and as high as 23 cents ; sold cattle as low as 4 cents a pound, while his best price was 15 cents a pound; and his horses have found a market as low as $15 a head for

threes, and have brought him as much as $200 per head.

When he came to Powderville, Mr. Mckenzie built himself a pole cabin with dirt roof. A better log cabin succeeded this and he finally built a frame house, which has been developed into a ten-room residence, convenient, and modern as to light and other modern equipment. His barns are in keep- ing with his residence in proportions. The family home was made at Powderville until 1910, when in order to secure better educational facilities for the children, removal was made to Miles City. Mr. Mckenzie has gathered together lands here to the extent of about 3,000 acres as a ranch, Powder River forming its west boundary.

George F. Mckenzie was married first at Wood- stock, New Brunswick, Canada, June 16, 1880, to Miss Phoebe Hoyt, daughter of William and Mary (DeWitt) Hoyt, and she died in March, 1887, the mother of these children: Kenneth, a stock man near Boyes, who has two children by his first mar- riage, Gladys and Maud, and married secondly Miss McCory; Harry, the second child of George F. Mckenzie, is a ranchman on Crow Creek, mar- ried Louie Bonner and has three sons, Donald, Kenneth and Duncan. George F. Mckenzie mar- ried for his present wife Miss Ida Hart, daugh- ter of Isaac and Jane (Miller) Hart. Mr. Hart came from Minnesota, where Mrs. Mckenzie was born, and while he pioneered in Montana, he spent much of his time around Mandan, Dakota. Mrs. Mckenzie came into Montana on a visit, met Mr. Mckenzie, and they were married in June, 1893. Their children are: Ella, Agnes, Leila and Alice. Ella is a volunteer nurse in the Red Cross and still in service at Great Falls; and Agnes has been a teacher, and all save the youngest are graduates of the high school at Miles City.

In politics Mr. Mckenzie holds allegiance to the republican party, but is inclined locally to vote some- what independently. His only fraternal connection is as a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Public-spirited and patriotic, he backed strongly all war moves for funds to promote and carry on to successful conclusion this country's part in the World war.

JOHN S. HOWE. For all the remarkable develop- ment in Montana in recent years in the extension of crop growing and pure agriculture, sheep and wool still constitute a large and important share of the state's business resources. John S. Howe of Miles City is one of the big producers of wool, and has been in the industry since 1900. While not one of the oldest sheep men in the state, his activities have brought him well deserved prominence.

Mr. Howe is a native of Illinois, born in Doug- las County, February 6, 1857. His father, William Howe, came to Illinois from Kentucky, having been born in Bourbon County in 1829. He was a farm- er's son, acquired a common school education, and spent his life as a farmer. After the Civil war he became a republican in politics and held sev- eral local offices. He died at the age of sixty-four. His wife was Harriet A. Lester, a daughter of Sigler Lester, also of Kentucky and more remotely of Virginia ancestry. Mrs. William Howe died re- cently when past eighty years of age. She was the mother of eight children: James, of Barnston, Nebraska ; John S .; Perry N., of Tuscola, Illinois ; Etta, wife of James W. Drennen, of Osceola, Iowa; Charles, of Champaign, Illinois; Effie, wife of James Reed, of Whitewater, Wisconsin; Leona, wife of William Joseph of Tuscola, Illinois; and Nora, wife of Charles Robinson, of Ohio.

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John S. Howe grew up on his father's Illinois farm, had a high school education, and also attended the Northern Indiana Normal School. He left school to go farming in his native county, and in 1880 went to what was then the western frontier at Dodge City, Kansas. After some experience as a cowboy and range rider he took up a ranch and started a herd of cattle and for five years operated in Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado. He then went down into Indian Territory, and in the vi- cinity of Guthrie took some part in real estate speculation and was also a buyer of wheat for the mills at Winfield, Kansas. His business duties re- quired the regular interchange of business between Oklahoma and Kansas for several years. He par- ticipated in the pioneer phases of western or south- western life for thirteen years and then went back to Illinois and was a factor in the agricultural and business life of that state until he determined to enter the sheep industry in Montana.

Mr. Howe came to Montana in 1899, and the following year started sheep ranching north of the Yellowstone River. For a number of years he util- ized the public domain and so far as numbers and extent of operations was concerned he reached the zenith of his sheep raising career in the country north of the Yellowstone. Later he moved his headquarters to the mouth of the Mizpah Creek. He started his operations twenty years ago with · 4,000 half-blooded sheep and eventually developed a flock of 25,000. He has handled sheep every year since 1900; and has been through all the ups and downs of the industry. Several times wool prices were below the cost of production. He failed to be discouraged by these backsets, and his reward came during the World war when wool went to about 65 cents a pound. With the reduction of the public range he necessarily decreased his flock, and has made more of the feature of intensive sheep ranching and farming. Ever since he came to Mon- tana he has been a member of the Wool Growers' Association, and has been a thorough student of sheep and wool in every phase and a wide reader of all recognized periodicals on that subject.

In the fall of 1907 Mr. Howe established his headquarters at the mouth of Mizpah Creek. He then bought the Aaron Laney sheep ranch of 7,500 acres of deeded land and has since added about 5,000 acres, lying on the west side of Powder River and astride Mizpah Creek. His ranch is now under development as an irrigation project, the purpose being to provide his stock with winter feed. Re- cently he has also introduced to his ranch a line of good native cattle bred up to registered Short- horns and Herefords. The finished product he mar- kets in Chicago. Mr. Howe is also a stockholder in the Commercial State Bank of Miles City.

He has been interested in politics chiefly as a voter. His political convictions led him into the republican party at an early date. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.

On March 8, 1886, while he was a figure in the livestock industry of Kansas and Oklahoma, Mr. Howe married Estella Longshore, who was born in Iowa in 1868. Her mother is still living, a resi- dent of Burlington, Kansas. Her father was a cap- tain in the Union army during the Civil war, was a harness maker and merchant and died in Iowa. Mrs. Howe is the youngest of three daughters. One married sister lives at Atlantic, Iowa, and the oldest is Mrs. Woodruff, of Coffey County, Kansas.

Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Howe, Earl, the oldest, was educated in the University of Illi- nois, is a successful rancher on Powder River, and by his marriage to Hattie Logan has a daughter,

Bettie. Laura Howe, the second child, is the wife of Elmer Holt, vice president of the Commercial State Bank of Miles City and is the mother of Laura, Bertie and Benjamin. Flora is a graduate of the Northwestern University of Chicago and was a Young Woman's Christian Association worker in the army and was still in France in the sum- mer of 1919. Clifford, the youngest child, is a member of the class of 1920 at the University of Illinois, and was accepted for training in the Camp Taylor Artillery School but did not enter because of the signing of the armistice.

HERMAN STOEBE. To Herman Stoebe is given the distinction of being one of the oldest settlers on Moon Creek in Custer County and the pioneer sheep raiser in this locality. It was in 1883 that he first arrived in Montana, and in that early day he em- barked in the sheep industry. He was then one of the few extensive sheep raisers here, and the well known George Horkan was his herder in that early day. Mr. Stoebe continued journeying back and forth between Montana and New York City until 1892, when he came out to the great North- west to reside permanently and take complete charge of his sheep industry, which he had main- tained through all these intervening years. He finally became associated in the business with his son, Sam, and they carried on the enterprise to- gether for ten years, when they separated, the father continuing the business until 1918, when he dis- posed of his flocks and retired from the industry.

'Mr. Stoebe started his herd with 800 sheep which he brought from Iowa, and in the zenith of the industry he and his son wintered more than 10,500 head. The cheapest price for which he sold his wool was 12 cents a pound, and the highest price paid him was 221/2 cents. At the low price there was little or no profit in the business, but as the work was done largely by the family he was able to continue until prices assumed a profitable basis. During three years he herded his own sheep, this having been in the years of the early 'gos, and the sheep industry continued to be his chief enterprise until he abandoned it altogether.

When Mr. Stoebe came into this Moon Creek region he was the first man to settle here, and noth- ing interfered with his supremacy of this vast dis- trict save a few cattle herds, and he rapidly ex- panded his interests, but as time wore on the set- tlers and cattle men multiplied, the range grew narrower and finally it was threatened with extinc- tion save what was owned and fenced by the sheep owner. The Stoebe ranch embraces some 2,000 acres on Moon Creek, now devoted to cattle and farm- ing, and the familiar brands are the quarter circle F triangle, the WXS and the triangle HL. The ranch is stocked with the White Face cattle, and produces about three cars of meat annually.

Mr. Stoebe is a Montana settler from New York City, where he spent thirty-five years of his early life, arriving in that metropolis April 19, 1857, when twenty-one years of age. He had studied music under private teachers and had become a proficient clarinet and violin player. He was born in Saxony, Germany, near Leipsic, February 2, 1836, the son of a farmer, and one of seven sons of Samuel and Rosina (Schlippe) Stoebe. He was one of twins, the youngest children in the family, and he was the only one of this numerous family to come to the United States. An incident occurred just before he reached American shores which enabled him to acquire the capital with which he began his ca- reer in New York. Having played aboard the ship enroute to the United States he was asked by the

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

officer in charge of Castle Garden to play in the orchestra being improvised for the occasion, and at the completion of the concert a collection was taken from among the many thousands of people present, and all kinds of coins, foreign and domestic, were dropped into the box to be divided among the play- ers. The coins were converted into United States money and proved a rich reward for each player.

After taking up his abode in New York City Mr. Stoebe entered the musical circles of the city, then embracing comparatively few professionals, and he came to know them all by name. But now there are more than 6,000 members of the Musical Protective Union, an organization proposed by Mr. Stoebe, and he is the sole survivor of the five who organized the union. He was treasurer of the Cin- derrella-Aschenbrodel,. a social organization which established a club house, and in his office of treas- urer of this society Mr. Stoebe handled many thou- sands of dollars of its funds without bond.

But after thirty-five years spent in the world of music he tired of the city, and he also saw that his day as a leader in the profession was drawing to a close, that other men were coming in to take his place, and thus, after having played with all the celebrated conductors in New York save only one and after having won for himself a name and place in the front ranks of the profession, Mr. Stoębe abandoned music for sheep and came to the North- west to become a ranchman. To the few new friends he made in Montana, he, however, continued his music, declining invitations to play before audi- ences over the state, preferring to tend his sheep rather than charm the ear and inspire the soul with the art divine.

While in New York City Mr. Stoebe enlisted in the Seventh Regiment National Guard, and marched down Fifth Avenue with his regiment April 19, 1861, as part of the great northern army. He was a member of the regimental band from 1861 to 1862, and was sent with his command to Baltimore, where he later met the lady who afterward became his wife. Although entitled to a pension along with other soldiers who fought for freedom and their country, and despite the fact that the papers were all made out awaiting his signature, Mr. Stoebe declined to sign them, saying "He was ashamed to take the pension." He began taking part in elec- tions following the close of the war, casting his first presidential vote for Horatio Seymour against General Grant, but in 1872 he voted for Grant as against Horace Greeley. While engaged in the wool industry he supported the principles of the republican party on account of its protective tariff, but through- out his life his political work has been merely as a voter.

Herman Stoebe married in Baltimore, Maryland, February 12, 1867, Miss Margaret Vollandt, who was born and reared in that city. Her father, Christian Vollandt, came to the United States at the age of seven years with his father, John Vollandt, who had fought under Napoleon in the last French war with Russia, and he brought his family to the United States to evade military service for his sons. Christian Vollandt was a musician, a band leader, and he took part in the military service of the Confederacy under General Magruder at Yorktown, Virginia. His death occurred in 1864, when he was but thirty-seven years of age. He had married Emily Hill, a daughter of .Alexander Hill. He was a member of an old Maryland family, fought under Washington, and was one of the party which crossed the Delaware and captured the Hessians. The mother of 'Mrs. Stoebe died in 1866, and she was the only child of their marriage. Five children Vol. III-39

have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Stoebe, as follows: Emily, the wife of David Jacobus, of Mont Clair, New Jersey, and their two children are Irving and Margaret; Anna, the wife of William Foster Rowe, of Mount Vernon, New York; William, who is identified with the home ranch, married Edith Tre- melling, who died May 27, 1918, leaving a daughter, Ethel; Samuel, a ranchman on Moon Creek, married Florence Woolsey, and they have two children, Robert and Elizabeth Mary; and Mabel, the wife of Ernest H. Cooke, of Mount Clair, New Jersey.

After fifty years of married life, years lovingly devoted to family and friends, Mr. and Mrs. Stoebe celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1917, and the occasion was a prominent event in the com- munity. The celebration was a surprise to them by their neighbors, who gathered with boxes filled for the feast and with presents for the "bride and groom." A wedding cake was sent from New York by Mrs. Jacobus, and the event was one of the brightest spots in the married life of this venerable couple. Mrs. Stoebe served on the battlefields of the south as 'a nurse while the war between the states was being waged. When a young girl she volun- teered for the service from Baltimore in response to a call for nurses, and she lent humanity her aid in gathering up the wounded of both armies and ministering to them as their needs demanded. On more than one occasion she was instrumental in saving the life of a soldier who had already been cast into the trench for dead, a mere waving of the hand indicating to her that life was still there, or on other occasions she gave special attention to some conspicuous sufferer who lived to bless the hand that saved him.

FREEMAN PHILBRICK. This name introduces one of the chief stockmen of the Rosebud community in Rosebud County and one whose settlement here dates from the month of April, 1884. He was then a young man of twenty-two years, fresh from New England and in search of a location and eventually a home. He first disembarked from the train at Miles City but subsequently continued his journey to Rosebud and joined an old acquaintance, A. D. Howard, with whom he secured his first employment. It was ranch work that fell to his lot, running horses and sheep, and his chief interest in the time spent there was the remuneration of from $35 to $40 per month which came to him.

Leaving Mr. Howard, Mr. Philbrick bought a relinquishment on the Rosebud in July 1886, for which he paid $350. The pioneer improvements con- sisted of a log cabin of one room and a pole stable, and six acres of land were under the plow. Although he moved in his few effects and maintained his home there, he himself hired as a sheep herder to Peter Wylie for eight months on what is now the Chey- enne Reservation on Tongue River. The wage was the same there and he saved it all. In February, 1887, Mr. Philbrick was married, and in March of the same year established his permanent home on his claim. Beginning in earnest at his home, he gave his attention first to the construction of an irrigation ditch, plowing and scraping it out with his team, and this eventually acquired the proportions of a local system of irrigation when it was com- pleted in 1888. It did him good service until the water failed because of a drouth during almost all of those years, but has been drawn upon annually since and has helped materially in growing and nurturing his crops, his ranches producing annually approximately 1,000 tons of alfalfa hay.

In 1888 Mr. Philbrick entered the stock business and started with 363 head of sheep, after which he

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worked as a herder himself for several years. In less than twenty years this bunch increased to 20,000 head of sheep, and in the early days they ranged all over Rosebud County. With the influx of settlers the range began to be curtailed and his sheep indus- try decreased to 10,000 sheep and lambs. As an antidote for the encroachment of settlers and the elimination of his range Mr. Philbrick began buying land, and 13,000 acres were added to his domains at 75 cents an acre. He has continued in the market for range lands and at prices up to $5 an acre. His properties are the Red Hills ranch on Armel Creek, the Butte ranch, the Diamond ranch and the R. O. Bean ranch, lying along the Rosebud, his ranch lands totaling an acreage of about 30,000. His headquarters ranch contains his buildings, but much of his property is enclosed with woven wire fences, a fact which does away with much help in herding and saves the straying of his sheep, as well as forming protection from coyote losses. Mr. Philbrick has sold wool as low as 121/2 cents a pound and his best price was that affected by the war, 63 cents a pound. He runs various strains of Me- rino, a longer life sheep than others, which require less room on the range, herd in larger bands, and after they are a year old are the hardier sheep.

Mr. Philbrick engaged in the cattle business some dozen years ago as a beef producer of range cattle under the brand "EV Quarter Circle,"-"EV." He has raised many horses as a feature of his enter- prise but with no profit as a commercial undertaking. Mr. Philbrick was appointed one of the first Board of County Commissioners when Rosebud County was organized, and served with W. W. McDonald and Hunt Terrett. This board made the settlement be- tween Rosebud and Custer counties, but Mr. Phil- brick served only a part of the term and then re- signed. He is a republican, voting first in Maine, and cast his first presidential vote in 1892 in Montana.

Mr. Philbrick was born January 10, 1862, at St. Albans, Maine. He secured little schooling and grew up in the northern part of his native state in the woods from a child of twelve years. He did lumber- ing and some farming as he approached manhood and brought only that experience with him to Mon- tana. His father was Freeman Philbrick, a con- tractor and builder in early life but a farmer later, and died in Aroostook County, Maine, at the age of sixty-five years. He was a Union soldier during the Civil war, serving in the Twentieth Maine In- fantry as a private, and was honorably discharged because of disability, having participated in a num- ber of hard-fought engagements, notably that of Antietam. Freeman Philbrick, the elder, married Mary F. Merrill, a daughter of James Merrill and a member of an old family of Maine of English and Welsh stock. Mrs. Philbrick died at the age of eighty years, the mother of nine children, those sur- viving being: Mrs. Annie Blaisdell, of Aroostook County, Maine; Fred, also a resident of that county ; Freeman, of this notice; Newell, a ranchman on the Rosebud; Elias, of Maine; and Edna, the wife of R. W. Blakesley, of Rosebud County.

James Philbrick, the grandfather of Freeman Phil- brick, was born in New Hampshire, where he was married to his wife, Mary, and subsequently moved into Somerset County, Maine. He was first a farmer and then a physician and practiced all over that region of the state, and it is believed that he took part in the Aroostook war in Maine. He was a whig first and then a republican. His children were: Newell, who died in Maine, at the age of sixty-five years; Freeman; James, who was a soldier and died in Maine; Mrs. Sarah Morrill, of Pitts- field, Maine; Mrs. Mary Larabee and Mrs. Susan

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 171

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