Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 184

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 184

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WILLIAM FULTON. The three decades William Fulton has spent in Southeastern Montana have con- tained a busy program in ranching, and since his prosperity became established on a firm basis his effective aid and interests have done much to in- fluence the general business and civic development of the Ismay community.

Mr. Fulton was hardly twenty years of age when he came to Montana. He was born at Beith, Ayr- shire, Scotland, July 30, 1870, and represents an old Scotch ancestry in both lines. His parents were Alexander and Mary Stevenson Fulton, the Fultons having been farmers for generations, while the Stevensons were prominently identified with the woolen mill industry in Scotland, owning and op- erating a water power mill. Alexander Fulton spent his life at Beith, and of his eleven children nine grew up, William being the only one in the United States.

William Fulton spent his early life on a small farm in Scotland, attended public school to the age of thirteen, and his knowledge of men and affairs have been largely a product of experience. He and an- other young man started for the United States in search of opportunities of the western world, and landed at Philadelphia from the ship Hibernia from Glasgow. He had no relatives in this country, and his first destination was Illinois. While in St. Clair County, that state, he worked as a farm hand at twelve dollars a month near the town. of Marissa, and a year and a half more on a farm in Carroll County, Illinois. While in Illinois he made the ac- quaintance of Mr. McKay, who had Montana in- terests, and it was through Mr. Mckay that young Fulton was influenced to come to the Northwest.

Arriving in 'Montana in February, 1890, Mr. Ful- ton went out to the Mckay ranch on Milk Creek, now in Fallon County but then part of the great domain of Custer County. For a couple of years he was a wage worker with Mr. Mckay, receiving forty-five dollars a month. Montana was then the best wage state in the Union. Mr. Fulton had all the Scotch thrift, knew the value of labor and money and exercised the most rigid economy in accumulat- ing enough for his independent start in life. In order not to spend money as so many laborers did he care- fully kept away from town for almost two years. He was Mr. Mckay's shepherd and at the end of two years bought an interest in the sheep. Mr. Ful- ton has gained his principal stake in 'Montana as a sheep man. In 1893 he bought a half interest in the Mckay ranch, which then became known as the Mckay-Fulton ranch. Their sheep interests grew into the thousands, and ranged over a large section of public domain. With the curtailment of the pub- lic lands by settlement the sheep industry became less profitable, and since then cattle have been an increasing factor on the ranch. Mr. Fulton had bought a small bunch of cattle before he became a partner of Mr. McKay, and the cattle were turned in as part of the deal, and some of their offspring are still on the ranch. The first brand adopted by Mr. Fulton was D2, and he bought another brand, KO, and has used both brands. At the start he had only the common stock of this locality, experimented by crossing with the Galloway, but when this cross proved unsatisfactory he combined the Shorthorns and Herefords, and of late years the Hereford strain predominates, while a little Shorthorn blood contrib- utes a heavier and more profitable animal than the full-blood White Face.

Mr. Fulton has a good knowledge of the contrast- ing prices of the sheep industry during the past quarter of a century. He has sold wool as low as

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eleven cents a pound, his best sale being under the Government appraisement price of sixty-two cents in 1918.

The Mckay-Fulton ranch is now generally known as the KO or the Fulton ranch. It was only a "squatter's right" when Mr. Fulton joined it. It now embraces nearly thirty-four thousand acres of deeded land, divided into several large pastures, with about thirty sections under fence. Better improvements have been added by Mr. Fulton, and the manage- ment plans eventually shelter for all the stock. Two artesian wells from a depth of 800 feet supply abundance of sweet, pure water at a rate of twenty gallons a minute. For a brief time Mr. Fulton owned a Shorthorn farm in Minnesota, and lived there with his family one winter, but the climate did not prove acceptable and the following year they returned and established their home at Ismay. Mr. Fulton owns the old George Burt home. On that plot of ground he drilled the first flowing well in town, flowing at the rate of twenty-five gallons per minute, with sufficient pressure to reach all parts of his modern home.

Soon after the advent of the Milwaukee Rail- road Mr. Fulton lent his aid to the organization of the First National Bank of Ismay, is still a stock- holder and director, was one of the organizers and is a stockholder and member of the official board of the Baker State Bank, was a subscriber to the first grain elevator built at Ismay and also to the creamery. He was one of the contributors to the pioneer telephone line from Miles City to Ekalaka, known as the Miles City-Ekalaka Telephone Line, and subscribed to the first wool house built in Miles City. These new enterprises were among the first to be undertaken by popular subscription. Mr. Ful- ton also bought some of the bonds of the Elks home in Miles City.

It will therefore be seen that while he has never sought political honors he has used his opportunities and his means in many ways to promote the best interests of his section of the state. His only official service was as director of the Ismay public schools. After coming to Montana he took out citi- zenship papers in Miles City, becoming eligible to vote in 1896, in which year he supported William McKinley for president, and the republican party has been his choice for the most part since then.

At Minier, Illinois, June 25, 1903, Mr. Fulton married Miss Bertha Fluss. Her brother is Lon Fluss, a well-known rancher on Powder River in Prairie County, and one of the first county com- missioners of that county. Mrs. Fulton was born in Tazewell County, Illinois, September 7, 1877, and received a public school education. To Mr. and Mrs. Fulton were born eight children : Daniel Alex- ander, Helen Marie, Vivian Leota, Mary Melissa, William Frederick, Louise, Robert Bruce and Frank.

DAVID HARRISON RUSSELL. There are. few char- acters among all the settlers of the western region who measure up to the type of real pioneers as Mr. Russell does. In the first place, his life in the West began almost as early as the introduction of civilized life here, and when he was barely of school age. His last guardian angel, his grandmother, died when he was but eight years old, and he was thrown among strangers at a time when children of his tender years are usually nestling close to their mothers' side and having the benefits of the maternal love, advice and understanding sympathy. Just how he passed through the varying vicissitudes without yielding to the call of evil and maintained himself inviolate is an untold and unrelated story. The back of a pony provided him early with a livelihood

from childhood, and his venturesome spirit led him into frays with the wild men of the region while civilization was disputing sway with them for estab- lishment. Our Government had just established its fort at Vancouver, and General Scott was in com- mand when the wagon train bearing the remnant of the Russell family reached that place. Immediately all the children perished from attack of measles except David H., and but for his grandmother he would have been a castaway in reality.

His wits sharpened through his contact with in- cidents and events, 'Mr. Russell assumed a man's place in the defense of his region against the assaults of the red man. He was but a child when the Cayouse Indian outbreak came, in 1855-56-57, and he did valiant and valuable service in it and carries upon his body wounds as evidence of that period of experience. He was later permanently marked by a poisoned bullet fired by an Indian, and other encounters with the belligerent element of the West left their impression in scars on his person. He left few parts of the Northwest uncovered and unvisited when he came to Montana to make his home, and his first trip into this region for that purpose was his entry into Alder Gulch just after the discovery of gold. He came across with pack ponies with a few others from Boise, Idaho, where he was the first man to place a load of lumber on the townsite, and at the Last Chance mine unloaded his pack and be- came one of the motley crowd seeking the yellow metal and profiting from the varied activities which its presence inspired. From this time forward other pages of these notes reveal a few of the things he did and indicate in a mild way something of his interesting life.

The veteran of the West is the modest reference made to introduce this old figure of this vast region and one who came to it in childhood and has lived in it for three score and ten years. He is David Harrison Russell, of Ekalaka (Indian spelling Ijka- laka) and a ranchman and old buffalo hunter of Eastern Montana. It would be difficult to include all the interesting points in his career, and nothing but an extended article could do him justice. He is of Scotch blood, but born in Henderson County, Illinois, at Oquawka, December 3, 1843. His father, Levi Russell, who settled in that state about 1838, and who was a native of Scotland, was, with four brothers, sent out of Scotland by Lord Russell, his elder brother and heir to the family estates, and all came to the United States. Of these, William settled in Virginia, George settled in Ohio, Nathan crossed the plains and settled in Oregon, while Levi made his home in Illinois. Levi Russell married Mary Findley, a daughter of John Findley, who served as a soldier in the War of 1812, but whose father was a Revolutionary soldier from Pennsyl- vania. Mrs. Levi Russell died at St. Joseph, Mis- souri, while the family was en route by wagon train to the Pacific Coast, and was one of a large num- ber of the party who died there of the cholera. She and her husband were the parents of : Harvey, William and Elizabeth, all of whom died of the measles at Vancouver, Washington, just after the remnant of the family reached there; and David, the youngest child. Levi Russell returned to Illi- nois after the death of his wife, and stayed there until 1852, when he also crossed the plains and es- tablished his home at Corvallis, Oregon, where he was engaged in milling.

David Harrison Russell grew up among strangers in the far Northwest. His grandmother Findley looked after him while she lived, but when she died in 1851 he was left alone and from that time for- ward his way was hewn with his own axe. As a

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boy he went on the ców trail early and became a broncho rider, and until he was past forty years of age was identified with the trail in one or another capacity in the West. He has covered all the west coast from the north line of the United States to the line of Central America, and has trailed cattle, driven teams of mules and cattle through all the states of the Northwest, and has hunted buffalo in Colorado and Montana. In later years, and when he came into the region of Eastern Montana, he did so as a buffalo hunter, and in company with Isaac Downing killed 2,650 buffalo during the winter of 1881-2 for the hides, besides the deer, antelope and grey wolves. In the spring of 1883 he shipped 19,000 hides and skins out of this region, and when he abandoned that enterprise located in Custer (now Carter) County and has been ranching here ever since. He entered land in 1893, as soon as the Government surveyed it, and established his first permanent home on the tract which ever afterward remained as his abiding-place. In his first years as a ranchman he owned as finely blooded cattle as Montana afforded, but the winter of 1886 denuded him and swallowed up all he had made and in addi- tion left him with a heavy debt hanging over him. He has tried different breeds of cattle, including Shorthorn, Hereford, Polled Durham and Devon. and the last-named is his favorite. He ranched them in Wyoming during the late '70s and raised two- year-old heifers that dressed up to 1,000 pounds. His brand here is "RUS" but the "NY" and the "AW" were recorded in his name in earlier times.

Mr. Russell, as above noted, was always without a home as a boy. He spent no two Christmases or Fourths of July in the same place until he settled down for life in Montana. As a lad not yet thir- teen years of age he enlisted for service in the Cayouse Indian war in Oregon, enrolled at Albany, that state, served in Lieutenant Jeffreys' company, and during the seven months spent in the field there was real Indian fighting almost daily, the men sleep- ing in their saddle blankets, being exposed to all kinds of weather and to hunger (eating horse meat at times), and in every way having a strenuous time. He was shot through both hips and rode seventy- five miles to Fort Henrietta while carrying des- patches and reached his destination and delivered his message, in answer to which an army relief ex- pedition was sent out to the fighting men. As late as 1917 Mr. Russell pulled a piece of bone from his hip that had been shattered in that Indian war. He has been identified with the democratic party always, but voting has constituted his service, save that of helping to hold elections.

Mr. Russell was married at Fort Laramie in 1873 to Ijkalaka, a Sioux Indian girl, daughter of Eagle Man. She was brought up by white people in Wyoming, and died in Carter County, leaving the following children who grew up: Rosa, who mar- ried Reuben Lambert and died at Cold Springs, Montana; Ben, who died as a young man; James, a ranchman at Ekalaka; John, of Interior, South Dakota; William, a ranchman of Carter County; Kate, the wife of Frank Chrestnot, of Ekalaka; George, a member of the United States navy who saw service during the World war; Clara, the wife of Henry Trink, of North McGregor, Iowa; Florence, who married Charles Whitney, of Ekalaka; Oliver, who served with the United States Engineers dur- ing the World war, was gassed and wounded, and returned after his honorable discharge, and com- pleted his college education; and Romaine, a stu- dent at the Pierre Industrial School.

'Mr. Russell married for his second wife Mrs. Elizabeth Josephine Boyle, a daughter of John and

Mary Curtis Brown. She was born at old Williams- burg, Greater New York, and her father was an ocean captain and a trans-Atlantic sailor who had gone on the water as a young man, and who finally lost his life in the Bay of Biscay. Mrs. Russell, the only child of her parents, was brought up in the home of her uncle, W. S. Brown, who owned lob- ster and fish canning factories and also had much to do with the Atlantic trade. Her uncle's home was at Red Bank, on the Miramichi River in Canada, and Mrs. Russell made frequent trips across the water with her first husband, Charles Johnson, a foreman for her uncle. By him she has a son, Stanley Johnson, now in the United States Navy, who served through the World war. Mrs. Russell's second husband was James Edward Boyle, by whom she has a son, Leo James, who enlisted for the World war and was with the electrical engineers and on the Western front when last heard from, in August, 1918. Mr. and Mrs. Russell were married May 24, 1902.

THOMAS E. ASLAKSON. The experiences of Thomas E. Aslakson as a farmer and early settler of the Redstone community of Sheridan County serve a good purpose, even though briefly described, to indicate the historical development of that section during the past decade.

Mr. Aslakson, who in addition to his farming in- terests is also manager for the Imperial Elevator at Redstone, was born in Chicago, Illinois, Decem- ber 23, 1870. His father, Ole Aslakson, a native of Norway in the vicinity of Christiania, came to the United States in early manhood, locating at Chicago, where he married Sophie Anderson. After varied experiences in the West they spent their last years in Chicago, where Ole died in the fall of 1909 and where his widow is still living. A brief record of their children is as follows: Andrew, of Minneap- olis; Marie, wife of Clarence Ball, of Chicago; Minnie, wife of Mike Donnelley, of Chicago; Thomas E .; Tillie and Jule, both of Minneapolis ; Oscar, of Flaxville, Montana; Milo, a farmer near Redstone, Montana; and Al, of Canby, Minnesota.

The Aslakson home in Chicago was not within the area of devastation caused by the great Chicago fire of October, 1871, though the family had all their goods in readiness to move should the flames reach them. In 1877 the family went to Iowa and spent two years at Forrest City, returning to Chicago for another two years. Ole Aslakson then took his fam- ily to Canby, 'Minnesota. It was at Canby that Thomas E. Aslakson spent most of his boyhood and grew up on a farm. He was educated in country schools, and lived with his parents to the age of eighteen. He then entered a flouring mill at Canby, and in four years acquired a thorough and practical knowledge of the milling business. From there he went to the Marshall Milling Company as a miller, a business he served for ten years. In the fall of 1908, locating at Crosby, North Dakota, he bought grain for the Osborn-McMillan firm two years, at the end of which time he loaded his household goods into a wagon and started for Montana.

Mr. Aslakson reached the Redstone community in March, 1910. He came unusually well prepared for any adversities that might overtake his efforts as a home maker, and was able to establish his family with an unusual degree of comfort beyond that of many early settlers. His first act was to enter a claim, his homestead being the north half of section 18, township 35 north and range 52 east. He was the first entryman on the "bench" near Redstone, and his location was marked by a primitive 10 by 12 frame shack, which sheltered him and his wife and child

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until the next fall, when a story and a half frame, 14 by 24 feet, succeeded it. In 1916 the family took possession of their third home, built in the semi- bungalow style, with full basement, and furnace and other modern equipments. It is an eight-room dwell- ing, and is the comfortable abode of the Aslakson family of wife and two children.

Mr. Aslakson on coming to Montana became a grain farmer at the beginning. Hail destroyed his first crop, but his second effort gave him a large yield and his third crop was also one of fair returns. Wheat and flax were his main dependence. His banner crop in 1915 gave him twenty-six bushels of wheat to the acre and seventy-five bushels of oats, his total grain yield that year being 5,600 bushels. In ten years he has seen both the fat and the lean of farm enterprise, and the afflictions of drought have intervened so that farming has not been one roseate round of pleasure and profit. Mr. Aslakson estimates that about 60 per cent of his efforts have been re- warded by substantial crops. His home farm has grown by successive developments to 400 acres, and he also owns 280 acres elsewhere. On his homestead he has broken 225 acres, and altogether has put 290 acres under the plow. He has not depended entirely on grain, and has diversified his efforts by the intro- duction of a few stock, and sells some each year at a profit.

Mr. Aslakson became manager of the grain busi- ness for the Imperial Elevator Company in 1914, and has officiated in that way at Redstone ever since. In 1913 the local elevator handled 125,000 bushels of grain. Since then the business has been light, and a large part of it has consisted of in-shipments.

For the past six years Mr. Aslakson has been one of the trustees of the Redstone schools. When he came to this region the only schoolhouse in the entire district was about five miles away from his place of settlement. A new school district was organized in the summer of 1910, and he has been on the board of directors since the spring of 1914. He has always had convictions on public matters and has voted regularly as a democrat since supporting Mr. Cleve- land in 1892, while a resident of Minnesota. He was made a member of the Masonic Lodge at Redstone, and is junior warden of Eagle Lodge No. 103. Both he and his wife participated actively in the commun- ity efforts to sustain the war, including the Red Cross, and the women of the household were busily engaged in knitting socks and sweaters for the boys at the front.

At Marshall, Minnesota, June 27, 1900, Mr. Aslak- son married 'Miss Elizabeth Lee. She was born near Kankakee, Illinois, in June, 1882, daughter of Rich- ard and Sarah (Wampler) Lee. Her father was a native of Kentucky and served as a Union soldier with an Illinois regiment during the Civil war, and spent his active life as a farmer in Illinois and Min- nesota. The Lee children were : Richard, of Sheridan County, Montana; Mrs. Maggie Culshaw, of Marshall, Minnesota; George and Edward, resi- dents of Minneapolis; Susie, wife of William Mul- laney, of Marshall, 'Minnesota ; Mrs. Aslakson; John, whose home is in Canada; and Blanche, wife of William Wilbarger, of Vesta, Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Aslakson's two children are Kenneth and Myron.

JOHN C. CRONK, a stockraiser and ranchman of Blaine County who is widely known all over this section as a breeder of Percheron horses, identified himself with this community in 1899, coming to Co- burg from Chinook. He was born at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, March 14, 1874, a son of James Cronk, who passed his life in Linn County, Iowa, as a farmer,

and died there in 1908, when sixty-eight years old. He was born at Demorestville, Canada, but early came to the United States and settled in Linn County, Iowa, where he was later married to Miss Amy Cramer. Their children were as follows: George E., who is a resident of Los Angeles, California; Alice, who is married, lives in Arizona; Lottie, who married James Hoover, of Robbins, Iowa; Howe, who is a resident of Foley, Minnesota; May, who married Gene Allen, of Robbins, Iowa; and John C., whose name heads this review.

John C. Cronk attended the schools of Cedar Rapids and Coe College, and then began to be self- supporting. For the first year he worked for wages, and then took the contract for doing the grading work between Marion and Dubuque, Iowa, for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, and car- ried it out so as to make some money. Mr. Cronk then was engaged in farming in Linn County for several years, but left Iowa for the West.

Upon coming to Montana he was engaged in pros- pecting in the vicinity of Whitehall for a time, but becoming convinced that about only I in 400 miners made a success of this line of endeavor he would only be wasting his time, and so entered the employ of Courtney Sheriff at Canon Ferry, ferryman, hotel proprietor and owner of the state line at that point. It was the duty of Mr. Cronk to take care of the stage horses, and for his arduous duties received his board and $30 a month, and when he left after nearly a year of the hardest kind of work he was practically without funds. Twenty years elapsed between that date and the one of his next meeting with his old employer, the second one being the occasion of Mr. Cronk's exhibit at Helena of a bunch of his Perch- eron prize horses, bred on his extensive and valuable ranch in the Milk River Valley. Mr. Sheriff was as- tounded to learn that this wealthy and celebrated fine stockbreeder was the same "kid" who had curried and cared for his stage horses a score of years before.

Leaving 'Mr. Sheriff, Mr. Cronk went to Chinook, and about all he owned was his bedding. He secured employment in the hotel at Chinook and spent his spare moments looking for a suitable location for his claim, and after nearly a year at Chinook decided upon homesteading at Coburg. He was one of the first white settlers to select this locality. His first home on his claim was a "dugout," which cost him $1.75 for hinges and a window light. He had ac- cumulated a few hundred dollars, and this enabled him to engage in dealing in stock. He paid $4 for his first horse at a Chinook auction sale, which price contrasts very favorably with the $3,000 he has re- ceived for some of his fine Percherons.

From the time he bought that first horse, and per- haps even before that event, Mr. Cronk's ambition was to get into the horse as well as the cattle indus- try, and gradually work up to breeding blooded horses, and he worked steadily with that end in view. By 1900 he was able to begin shipping in that class of stock, and held auction sales along the Great North- ern Railroad from Williston to Kalispell. The suc- cess of this venture proved that his judgment was excellent, and he increased his capital with each succeeding sale. Later he began shipping horses to Canada of the Percheron and Belgian strains, and this, too, proved a very profitable venture.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 184

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