Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 177

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 177

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

1877, and his boyhood days were spent on a farm in that vicinity. The Craig family was founded in this country by the grandfather of the Doctor, James Craig, who came from the lowlands of Scotland, Roxburyshire, became a Canadian farmer, and spent the remaining years of his life near London. He married Miss Jeanette Carr, and they became the parents of two sons and five daughters.

Robert Craig, one of the two sons and the father of the Doctor, was born near London, Canada, and died on his farm there when fifty-eight years of age, but he is still survived by his widow. She was in her maidenhood Rachel Carrothers, a daughter of Mark Carrothers, a member of an Irish family who settled in the region of London, Canada, in an early day. The following children were born to Robert and Rachel Craig: James W., the well known physician of Piniele in Carter County, Mon- tana ; Lewis, who is engaged in farming near London, Canada; and Wilfred, who is with the Northwest Mounted Police at Saskatchewan.

During his early life Doctor Craig received excel- lent educational advantages, having done collegiate work equivalent to two years of university training, and on leaving college he entered upon the study of medicine at Western University, London, Canada, where he was graduated in April, 1901. But prior to the completion of his medical course he had had three years of experience in a drug store in London. He came at once to the United States after leaving Western University, and for the following twelve years followed the practice of his profession at Min- den in Kearny County, Nebraska. During five years of that period he served as health officer of the county. From Nebraska Doctor Craig came into Montana in October, 1913, and established his home and practice in the locality in which he has since lived. This community was then in Custer County, subsequently was in Fallon County and is now in Carter County, Doctor Craig having thus resided in three counties during the years of his residence in Montana without changing his dwelling place. He entered a claim, the farm on which he resides near Piniele, and this he has been improving and develop- ing along with his work as a medical practitioner. For a time he was also the Piniele druggist and the owner and editor of the Piniele Leader, a weekly publication supporting republican principles.

In the spring of 1918 Doctor Craig was made a can- didate for state senator, won the nomination and was elected to the office in the following November. He made the race against two independent candi- dates and one democrat, and as a republican was chosen by a plurality of twenty-two votes. He took his seat in the Sixteenth Legislature, a republican body, and was assigned to membership on the committees of water rights and irrigation, banks and banking and federal relations, and in the special session of 1910 was placed on the judiciary commit- tee. During his congressional career he introduced a resolution memorializing Congress to build a rail- road through the Carter County region, and the bill passed both Houses. Doctor Craig was made a mem- ber of the joint committee of the House and Senate to locate sites for additional normal schools.

In London, Canada, in August, 1903, the Doctor was married to Nellie E. McGuinn, who was a trained nurse before her marriage. She received her professional training at the Victoria Hospital, Lon- don, Canada. Doctor Craig was one of the founders of the Piniele State Bank, and has served the insti- tution as a member of its directorate.

WINTHROP RAYMOND, who died suddenly at his home at Sheridan September 3, 1912, was one of the

most widely known pioneers of Montana, and was the founder of the town of Sheridan.

He was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, October 22, 1847. His father, Daniel F. Raymond, was born in Con- necticut in 1786, was a brilliant lawyer, moved in circles of prominence and culture, was well known for his literary ability, and is credited with writing the first book on political economy published in America. He is also credited with originating the idea of a national banking currency. Most of his active life was spent in Maryland, 'and he lived in Ohio only a few years. He died in 1849. His wife was Delilah Matlick, of an old Virginia family. She died in Montana in 1896, at the age of eighty-three.

Winthrop Raymond was the youngest of six chil- dren and was about two years old when his father died. He grew up in Missouri, acquired a common school education, and at the age of eighteen, with his mother and brother and sister, started for the West. He arrived in Virginia City September 7, 1865. For nearly half a century his home was in Madison County. As a boy he was employed around Virginia City. He helped to build the quartz mill at Summit in Alder Gulch. For several years he and his brother did an extensive trading business be- tween Summit, Montana, and Corinne, Utah. He be- came a wholesale merchant at Virginia City in 1870, and entered that business on a scale never before at- tempted in this section of the Northwest. For many years he and his brother conducted a wholesale grocery house which supplied practically the entire territory and much of the Northwestern country. After 1880 he was engaged in ranching and stock raising. His brother as early as 1876 had intro- duced into Montana 100 head of the finest bred horses to be found in Kentucky. These horses were the foundation of the famous Belmont Park ranch stock. That ranch at one time comprised nearly 6,000 acres, all under fence. Many famous horses were shipped to that ranch, including Belmont and Tempest. In 1889 Winthrop Raymond engaged in banking at Virginia City as a member of the firm Raymond, Harrington & Company. In 1890 he started the townsite of Sheridan, and his name will always be associated with the early history of that now thriving. city.

Of the many tributes paid him at the time of his death perhaps the most discriminating and just is the following taken from a memorial prepared by the Society of the Pioneers of Montana. "Mr. Raymond came to Montana as a boy; young he was as the country itself, and he grew to manhood's estate and increased in civic strength and righteous- ness, just as the young state grew in those things which have made 'Montana the proud commonwealth of today. Public spirited, loyal and generous, his pride in his town, in his country and his state, was only exceeded by his tender love and devotion to his friends and family. Respected and trusted by all, loved by those who knew him best, his is a heritage rare and precious beyond price. Winthrop Raymond never dissembled; he was for or against; you could always find him on one side or the other, fighting for his convictions; policy was not his course; brusque, plain spoken, honest and frank; yet, with all, considering other men's feelings and belief, he went his way and lived his life satisfied to do jus- tice to all mankind, and enjoying the good will of his fellow men. His name will long be associated with the early history of this section, his memory will linger in the minds of all."

At Omaha, Nebraska, February 28, 1876, Winthrop Raymond married Hanna E. Bateman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. P. Bateman, of Montana. Four chil- dren were born to their marriage: Carrie B .; Daniel

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W., former secretary of the State Board of Live- stock Commissioners and now associated with Sen- ator Junod in the real estate business at Sheridan ; Delilah E. and Mary E. The oldest daughter, Carrie, is the wife of Senator O. H. Junod.

ORLA HUGH JUNOD came to Montana as a teacher, but in a few years left his work in the schoolroom to engage in mining, livestock raising and ranching, and has recently given his principal time and ener- gies to the real estate business at Sheridan, where he is associated as a partner with D. W. Raymond. He is also the present state senator from his dis- trict.

Mr. Junod was born at White Pigeon, Michigan, September 24, 1875. His grandfather, Charles L. Junod, was a native of Alsace-Lorraine, as a young man served in the French army, and after his mar- riage moved to Canton Berne, Switzerland, where he was a farmer and vineyardist. He was born in 1811 and in 1856 brought his family to the United States, spending one year at Erie, Pennsylvania, and in 1857 settling in LaGrange County, Indiana, where he ac- quired a farm and where he lived until his death in 1888. His wife was Elezabeth Kiefer.

Charles A. Junod, father of Senator Junod, was born in Canton Berne, Switzerland, in 1843, and was thirteen years of age when brought to the United States. He was reared to manhood and married in LaGrange. County, Indiana, and for over forty years has lived on the land which his father bought in LaGrange County and is one of the prosperous and well-to-do farmers of that locality. He is a repub- lican and served eight years as a member of the county council. In 1874 he married Evaline E. Steininger, who was born in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in 1845, and died at Howe, Indiana, in 1891. They had four children : Orla Hugh; Charles F., who has achieved distinction in financial circles and is vice president of the Atlantic National Bank of New York City; Joseph S., who is a farmer on the home place in LaGrange County ; and Ray L., who is in the bond department of the Illinois Trust Com- pany at Chicago.

Orla Hugh Junod grew up on the home farm in LaGrange County, Indiana, and graduated from the Howe Academy in 1897. With the exception of peda- gogy he completed all the required subjects in the State Normal School at Terre Haute, Indiana. In 1899 he came to Montana, and for three years was superintendent of schools at Marysville. In 1902 he went to work for the Penobscot 'Mining Company, remaining two years with that organization, and after that was in the live stock business forty miles from Helena at Wolf Creek until 1910. He then engaged in ranching, raising cattle and hogs in Madi- son County, but on June 1, 1919, disposed of his ranch holdings. He has been a resident of Sheridan since 1916, and has given increasing time and atten- tion to his growing business in real estate.

Mr. Junod was elected as a republican to the State Senate in 1914, and in 1918 was re-elected for a second four years term. He is chairman of the roads and highways committee, one of the most important Senate committees, and is a member of the stock- growing and grazing, towns and counties, insurance, and education committees. Senator Junod is a prom- inent Mason, being affiliated with Sheridan Lodge No. 20, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Virginia City Chapter No. 1, Royal Arch Masons, Helena Consistory No. 3 of the Scottish Rite, Algeria Tem- ple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena. He is also a member of Ruby Valley Aerie No. 1780, Fraternal Order of Eagles, at Sheridan.

In 1910 Senator Junod completed a modern home

at the corner of Poppleton and Main streets. He married in 1901, at Marysville, Montana, Miss Mabel E. Matthews, a daughter of Thomas J. and Emily Matthews, the latter a resident of Helena and the former, who was a miner, deceased. Mrs. Junod died in April, 1915 at Helena. She was the mother of three children: Evaline E., born March 3, 1903, and died October 13, 1910; Mabel, born December 30, 1906; and Amoretta, born November 15, 1914.

On May 14, 1919, at Sheridan, Senator Junod married Miss Carrie B. Raymond, daughter of Winthrop Raymond.

STANLEY E. FELT is one of the judges of the Six- teenth Judicial District of Montana. As a member of the Montana bar since Ig10, he has had unusual ex- periences and responsibilities. He is a former county attorney of old Dawson County, and since 1919 has been a resident of Terry in Prairie County.

Mr. Felt was born near Wiota, Cass County, Iowa, June 26, 1881. He represents a family that has been in America for nearly three centuries, and his pa- triotic record is something for all to be proud of. Stanley Felt and two of his brothers were com- missioned officers in the World war, and the fighting record goes back to early colonial days.

The American branch of the family was founded at Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1628, by George Felt, who probably came from Wales. George Felt subsequently moved to Casco Bay, Maine, where he died. Two generations of his descendants lived in Maine before some of them returned to Massa- chusetts. Several of the generations in later colonial and the early federal period lived in New Hamp- shire, where for the most part they were of the agricultural class.

The grandfather of the Montana lawyer was Jeremiah A. Felt, who was born in New Hampshire and was a youth when his father moved West to Adams County, Illinois, and settled at Quincy, where he helped build one of the first frame houses in the city. The two grandfathers of Jeremiah A. Felt were with New Hampshire companies in the War of the American Revolution. Jeremiah Felt grew up in the vicinity of Quincy, became a farmer, and married Anna Leech. Of the ten children one son was killed in the Battle of Chickamauga .. George W. Felt, father of Stanley E., was born in Adams County, Illinois, and was only a boy when the Civil war was being fought. He acquired his education . in the country and became noted as. a champion speller, winning honors in many contests. of that nature. From Illinois he moved to Cass County, Iowa, and is now living at Scottsville, Michigan. In Iowa he married Clara Smith, whose father, Joshua L. Smith, represented a Kentucky family and spent his life as a farmer. The Smiths were strong Union people in Kentucky when the state was torn over the secession movement. Mrs. George Felt's grandfather Reynolds was the only man in Barren County, Kentucky, to cast a ballot for Abraham Lincoln in 1864. The children of George W. Felt and wife are: Dr. Garnett Felt, of New Prov- idence, Iowa; Stanley E., George V., of McCone County, Montana; Mrs. Anna Carter and Mrs. Pauline Clampitt, of New Providence. As noted above, all three sons were commissioned officers in the World war. Doctor Garnett was with the Ninety- first Division in its last drive against the Germans in Belgium.

Stanley E. Felt lived on an Iowa farm until he was eleven years of age, when his parents moved to Des Moines, where he grew up. He graduated from a suburban high school of Des Moines, and then entered the University of Iowa, taking both the liberal arts and law courses at the same time.

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He graduated in 1908 with the degrees A. B. and LL. B. While he was well educated for the law Mr. Felt the first two years after leaving university engaged in educational work. For one year he was principal of the schools at Doon in Northwestern Iowa, and another year was principal of the Suther- land schools. On leaving Iowa he came to Glen- dive, Montana, in 1910, and tried his first lawsuit there. In 1914 he was elected on the republican ticket as county attorney of Dawson County, serving one term. As prosecutor he handled the celebrated case against James Harry, Lester Black and Lillian Stollard for the murder of Frank Garinger on Woody Creek. This crime in some respects has surpassed anything in Montana criminal annals, since the murderers buried their victim and forged a bill of sale to the dead man's property, present- ing it as proof of their ownership. The principal guilt was fixed upon James Harry, who was given a life sentence, while Lester was sentenced to twenty years, and Lillian Stollard, their accomplice, was given a five year term, though the sentence was suspended.

As county attorney Mr. Felt was also adviser to the Board of County Commissioners. He was in the office when general charges of malfeasance was made against some of the board, and also when the board ordered the prosecution of the clerk and recorder for collecting moneys not properly ac- counted for. This case was still pending when Mr. Felt retired from office.

Early in 1917 Mr. Felt entered the First Officers Training Camp at The Presidio in San Francisco, and after three months was commissioned a captain of infantry. He was assigned to duty at Camp Lewis, Washington, and remained there all the time he was in the army, receiving his honorable dis- charge February 21, 1919. Captain Felt took an active part in the organization of the Prairie Post of the American Legion at Terry, and was the Post's delegate to the state meeting of the Legion at Malta June 30 and July 1 of 1919.

Mr. Felt is an active republican, having cast his first presidential vote for 'Mr. Taft in 1908. He was a delegate to the Montana State Convention at Great Falls in 1912. On November 2, 1920, he was elected as one of the judges of the Sixteenth Judicial District of Montana. Fraternally he is a past master of Glendive Lodge No. 31, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, is a member of Glen- dive Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, is an Elk, and lie and his wife are members of the Eastern Star. Mr. Felt is identified with the Community Church in Terry, while Mrs. Felt holds allegiance to her childhood church, the Catholic.

At Glendive, May 25, 1913, Mr. Felt married Miss Harriet Kelly, a native of Minnesota, who grew up and received her education at Sleepy Eye. She taught school there, and for two terms was county superintendent of schools of Dawson County, Mon- tana. She was still in office when she was married. Her parents, James J. and Amanda J. (Murphy) Kelly, are of Irish ancestry and were born in Wis- consin. Mrs. Felt is one of four surviving children : Mrs. Andrew Larson, of Glendive; Mrs. E. F. O'Neil, of Glendive; Mrs. Felt, and Dennis J., of Glendive. Two sons have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Felt: Robert S., born August 14, 1915, and James R., born Novemher 9, 1920.

MRS. KATHERINE (SHRIVER) ENNIS, one of the most highly respected ladies of Southern Montana, and one who is associated with its pioneer educational history, lives at Ennis, named in honor of her late husband, William Ennis. Mrs. Ennis was born

between Salem and New Lisbon in Columbiana County, Ohio, a daughter of John Shriver, and granddaughter of John Shriver. The elder John Shriver was born near Baltimore, Maryland, and died in Stark County, Ohio, prior to the birth of Mrs. Ennis. By trade he was a wheelwright but after coming to Ohio, where he was a pioneer, he was occupied with extensive farming activities, al- though he continued to make various articles for his family and neighbors. Mrs. Ennis owns some of his articles, and claims that he could make any- thing from a clock to a threshing machine. He mar- ried Katherine Sherfy, born in Franklin County, near Baltimore, Maryland, and died at Pekin, Ohio. The Shriver family originated in England, repre- sentatives of it coming to the American colonies and settling at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the lifetime of William Penn.

John Shriver, the younger, father of Mrs. Ennis, was born near Baltimore, Maryland, in July, 1807, and he died at South Whitley, Indiana, in 1889. Until 1819 he remained in Maryland, but during that year accompanied his parents to Columbiana County, Ohio. Until 1837 he lived on a farm in that county his wife inherited, but in that year removal was made to the vicinity of Oneida, Carroll County, Ohio. There the mother died the year of removal, but he continued to make it his place of residence until 1866, when he retired and went to Indiana. Pol- itically he was a democrat. A very religious man, he was a devout member of the Baptist Church and very active in its work. In young manhood he was a member of the State Guards from Carroll County. John Shriver was married to Rachel Summer, and their children were as follows: Rebecca, who died in 1850; Mrs. Katherine Ennis, who was the second in order of birth; Maria, who died in the Madison Valley, near Jeffers, Montana, during 1894. As his second wife John Shriver was married to Mary J. Totten, native of Ohio, who died in Indiana at the age of eighty years. Their children now living are as follows: Ferman, who lives on a farm near Whitley, Indiana; Annie, who is married and lives at Manchester, Indiana, where her husband is a painter and decorator; and Frank, who is employed in the postoffice at Bozeman, Montana.

Mrs. Ennis attended the public schools of Oneida, Ohio, and being a very ambitious girl, and one of courage as well, she left home and came to Mon- tana, arriving in the state August 16, 1865, and for two terms was engaged in teaching school. She is one of the leading factors in the Episcopal Church at Jeffers, of which she has been a member since the organization of the parish, and the Guild has always received from her a liberal support.

In 1862 she was married at Oneida, Ohio, to William Ennis, born in County Down, Ireland, in 1828. When but a lad of fourteen years he came to the United States, and coming West to Detroit, Michigan, he obtained employment in the railroad shops at that point, and assisted in the construction work of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Rail- road, becoming road master. The salary he received for this work was $125 a month, an extremely large one for those days, and he was regarded as one of the highly paid men of the organization.

In June, 1863, he came to Montana, and after a short stay at Bannock, came to the present site of Ennis, and on August 13, 1863, took up the present Ennis homestead, a portion of which is now occupied by the town of Ennis. Later he bought more prop- erty, at one time owning 2,000 acres, but a good deal of this land has been sold, Mrs. Ennis still retaining between 400 and 500 acres adjoining the townsite of Ennis. In 1881 Mr. Ennis built an elegant resi-

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

dence, then the finest one erected in the territory of Montana, but it was destroyed by fire in 1917. Mrs. Ennis owns the house in which she is now living, and it is on Main Street. Mr. Ennis was prominent as a democrat. Like Mrs. Ennis he was a strong churchworker, and helped to organize the Episcopal Church at Jeffers. Having founded Ennis, he naturally took a deep and never-ending interest in it, and to the day of his death, which occurred at Ennis at 1898, he exerted himself to advance its interests in every possible way. No movement was ever started to thus improve the town that did not receive his support, provided he was sure that it was a meritorious one, and his demise was a heavy loss to the place. Mr. and Mrs. Ennis had one daughter, Jennie Winifred, who is Mrs. Charles W. Chowning of Ennis. A sketch of Mr. Chowning appears elsewhere in this work, for he, too, is one of the worth-while men of this region and deserv- ing a place in its history. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Ennis, named William for his father, was a cattle- man, rancher and breeder of horses. He died at Ennis, in 1908, aged forty-one years. He had been married in 1892 to Fannie L. Davis, of Virginia City, and of this union there were three children, as follows: Kathryn, now Mrs. J. D. Ledwick, of Wapato, Washington; Louise, now 'Mrs. C. S. Mc- Leod, of Butte, Montana; and William, a graduate of the Butte High School. Mrs. Ennis is grand- mother to these three children and one daughter of Mrs. Jennie Chowning, who is Mrs. Fay Jeffers, living near Jeffers, Montana.

THOMAS JOHNSTONE. To Thomas Johnstone be- longs the distinction of being the first permanent settler of the region of Alzada in Carter County, but when he established his home there that com- munity formed a part of Custer County. It was on the 23d of March, 1881, that Thomas Johnstone landed at old Stoneville, and he drove his family hither behind an ox team from Central City, South Dakota. From that early day until the present the name of Thomas Johnstone has been an honored one in his community, and now after a lapse of almost forty years this old Montana pioneer and his life's companion are retiring from the scenes which have known them intimately for this long period and Belle Fourche, South Dakota, will claim them as its own.

Mr. Johnstone was born in Dumfermline, Scot- land, May 5, 1851, and he grew to years of maturity in the home of a coal miner. His father was also Thomas Johnstone, who was born and spent his early life in Dumfermline. He was the youngest son of his parents, and his father is believed to have been a mute and was engaged in coal mining. He married Katie Wallace, and they had five sons and a daughter.

Thomas Johnstone, the youngest of these five sons, came to the United States when fifty years of age, in 1869, and became a resident of Barclay, Penn- sylvania, later removing to Bernice in that state, and he died there at the age of eighty-one. In his early life he had married Caroline Henerette Smith, a daughter of a sea captain who was on a cruise with his wife in the North Sea aboard the Henerette when this daughter was born, and she was named in honor of the ship. Her death oc- curred in Scotland in 1864, after becoming the mother of thirteen children, only nine of whom lived to years of maturity, and the three still sur- viving are: Charles S., a banker at Ashley, North Dakota; Thomas, the Montana pioneer; and Alex- ander, of Reynoldsville, Pennsylvania, where he has spent his life about the mines.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 177

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