Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 188

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

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fornia. Joseph Pemberton married Helen McKee, of Chicago. The daughter Gladys is the wife of D. G. Roney, of Hysham, and has a daughter, Mary Jane. Rachel Josephine is still pursuing her studies as a member of the class of 1922 in the Hysham High School.

LEONARD V. JENKINS. The commercial history of the Town of Hysham revolves around Leonard V. Jenkins as its central figure. In point of service he is the oldest merchant, is the present mayor of the municipality, and during ten years of residence has found many opportunities to exercise his influence for good and advancement.

Mr. Jenkins is of southern birth and ancestry, hav- ing been born in Henderson County, North Carolina, May 21, 1882. His grandfather, Marion Jenkins, was a blacksmith by trade and served in the Confederate army during the war between the states. He died in Swain County, North Carolina. His sons were Wil- liam J., Erastus P., Julius, Enoch and Joseph. Erastus P. Jenkins, father of the Montana mer- chant, was a native of North Carolina, but died from an accident in Southern Mississippi in 1919, at the age of sixty-three. He married Miss Lovada E. Cole, who was born in Henderson . County, North Carolina, her mother being a member of the Bradley family of that state. She is still living at the age of sixty-three. She is the mother of four children: Houston T., of Baxterville, Mississippi; Leonard V .; Lloyd, of Baxterville; and Walter E., of Bozeman, Montana.

Leonard V. Jenkins at the age of eight years ac- companied the family to Madison County, North Carolina, and he grew up in the Village of Hot Springs. His education was supplied by the public schools and by the superior advantages of Dorland Institute. However, at the age of fourteen he was doing his part toward the support of the family, and continued this contribution until he had passed his majority. During this time he bought and paid for a home for his parents. He also acquired a good business training, beginning as driver of a delivery wagon in Hot Springs, then was clerk in the store, and having in the meantime shown good capacity and diligence and willingness the company then sent him to Mississippi to take charge of a lumber commissary. He managed the commissary, also worked as log scaler, and accepted other responsibilities which tried his judgment and his nerve.

Mr. Jenkins remained in Mississippi about eighteen months and on December 21, 1906, came to Montana, first locating at Laurel. On arriving here he made a careful inventory of his assets, which aggregated $340.40. This sum, with some more he borrowed, he invested in Laurel town lots as a speculation, and in a brief time had his capital and something more be- sides. A local banker also gave him the opportunity to become interested in a lumber business, the banker furnishing the capital. He took charge of the yard, and his former experience in North Carolina and Mississippi stood him in good stead and he made the business profitable both to himself and his bariker. While at Laurel he acquired the capital of $2,800 he brought with him to Hysham.

Hysham when he arrived contained a lumber yard, blacksmith shop and small store. He bought the ex- clusive general store and opened for business March I, 1910. His first business house was a frame build- ing 24 by 50 feet. Subsequently he built a brick structure 30 by 60 feet, with full basement, and a frame warehouse 24 by 36 feet in the rear. Mr. Jenkins carries on an extensive business in general merchandising and has made it profitable through

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giving it his almost exclusive attention and good judgment.

The store he built is not his only contribution to the improvement of Hysham, since he also put up a modern five-room cottage. He is a director of the First National Bank, has for several years been an interested worker in behalf of good schools, serv- ing on the school board, and is now in his first term as mayor. To the credit of his administration are a municipal light and water plant and sewer system. Mr. Jenkins is a republican in national politics and fraternally has been affiliated with the Odd Fellows for several years and recently became a Master Mason. He was associated with other public-spirited and patriotic members of the community in prose- cuting war work, and besides owning the limit in Thrift Stamps he was a generous purchaser of other war securities. He served as a member of the Council of Defense of Treasure County. Mr. Jenk- ins was also one of the local citizens who favored and actively interested themselves in behalf of the creation of Treasure County.

At Billings, Montana, September 26, 1908, about eighteen months before he came to Hysham, Mr. Jenkins married Miss Pearl Lunsford. She was born in Illinois, June 6, 1885, and was one of the three children of her father, her only surviving sister being Mrs. J. N. Scarborough of Benton, Illinois. Her mother is now Mrs. Martha L. Kilpatrick, and the Kilpatrick family settled at Laurel, Montana, about a quarter of a century ago. Mrs. Jenkins has two half brothers and two half sisters living at Laurel. Three children were born into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins: Howard L., born in 1910; Leslie V., born in 1912; and Martha Elizabeth, born in July, 1918.

JOHN D. CLARK, clerk of the District Court of Treasure County, is an old time Montana citizen, having come to the territory ten years before Mon- tana was admitted to the Union. For many years he was a mining superintendent, is still interested in mining, but for the past ten years has given his chief attention to other lines of business and public affairs.

Mr. Clark represents an old New York State fam- ily and was born in the City of Rochester, February 21, 1858. His father, John Clark, spent all his life in the Empire State, chiefly as a farmer in Genesee County. He married Margaret Doyle, who was born in Northern New York. John and Margaret Clark both died after their son John came to Montana. They had three sons and three daughters: Mary, who died in Ontario, Canada, as Mrs. John Curtain; Annie, a resident of Ontario; Maggie, who is mar- ried and living in Detroit, Michigan; John D .; Charles and Mack, in British Columbia.

John D. Clark acquired a high school education at Rochester, and also attended the Munsy Normal School in Munsy, Pennsylvania. Thus equipped, he became a teacher in Pennsylvania, and following a brief experience in that vocation he went to the oil fields in the western part of the state and was employed in drilling operations. His interests thus being established in the production of mineral re- sources, he was encouraged by the favorable reports of mineral deposits in Montana to come to the North- west. The direct encouragement was afforded by a friend, and he arrived in Montana over the route of the Northern Pacific while it was being con- structed. Its terminus was then Glendive, and from there he went overland to Helena.

This was in the year 1879. As a carpenter he worked at his trade in Helena about a year, following which he removed to Diamond City, where he had his home and work for nearly thirty years as super-

intendent and manager of the Confederate Gulch placer mines. This is one of the famous mining properties of Montana. Mr. Clark also became a stockholder in the property. His work was inter- rupted in I911 by the flooding of the gulch by a cloudburst and general flood. This deluge so dam- aged the Confederate property as to render it almost useless. Since then Mr. Clark has had the respon- sibility of looking after the property and at some time mining may be resumed there.

On leaving the Placer mines he went to Carbon County and began farming near Joliet. He was there six years and then came to Hysham in 1916, becoming associated with other men in the county seat of Treasure County. He engaged in the implement busi- ness as a member of the firm Gardner & Clark, but a year later sold out and took charge of the ranch of his son, who was helping make the world safe for democracy in France. On leaving the ranch he re- turned to Hysham, and when the new County of Treasure was created by the Legislature he was named in the bill as first clerk of court. He entered upon his official duties April 1, 1919, and has ren- dered such a service in the administration of his duties as in every way to merit the confidence of his numerous friends.

Mr. Clark cast his first presidential ballot at Rochester, New York, for General Garfield in 1876. Since then he has deviated from party regularity only twice, voting for Bryan in 1896, on the financial issue, and for Woodrow Wilson in 1916, on the war policy. Mr. Clark is a Mason, having joined Diamond City Lodge at White Sulphur Springs.

In Meagher County, Montana, October 3, 1888, Mr. Clark married Miss Viva Tinsley. She and her fam- ily were real Montana pioneers. While she was born in Chillicothe, Missouri, she was only six months old when her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Tinsley, came to Montana, settling in Gallatin Valley in 1868. Her father was interested in mining for a time, and then engaged in farming in the Willow Creek country. He was one of the sturdy men of his generation who did the work required of pioneers in Montana. He died in 1902 in Los Angeles, and his widow is now living at Spokane, Washington. Mrs. Clark, who was the oldest among four sons and three daughters, was educated in Townsend. Mr. and Mrs. Clark feel much satisfaction in the record of their children, all of whom have developed special fitness for their places in the world. The oldest, Frank A., a farmer at Joliet, Montana, married Tressa Cooper and has three children, Doris, Alta and Edwin. Walter, the second son, was the soldier representa- tive of the family, spending two years as a member of Company K in the Three Hundred and Sixty- second Infantry. He went overseas in September, 1917, and was early assigned to duty when the Amer- icans took over the Argonne sector, and in the fa- mous battle of Argonne was badly wounded September 20, 1918. Fragments of a shell struck him in the hip and the right leg, and these wounds detained him in the hospital until after the armistice. He was sent home with his command and was discharged sound and well in May, 1919. He is now in charge of the Clark Lumber Company's yard at Wheat Basin, and is also interested in the Bradbrook-Saunders Lumber Company. The oldest daughter, Fay, is her father's deputy in the clerk's office. Ralph, the third son, is associated with the Bradbrook-Saunders Company at Rapelje. The two younger daughters are Ruth and Florence, the latter still in school, while Ruth is a druggist's apprentice at Hysham.

EDWARD A. CORNWELL is a native son of Montana, his father having been a regular soldier at one of

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the forts in the territory, and afterward connected with the Government service. His own life has been a busy one, engaged in merchandising and for a number of years past as a banker at Forsyth, where he is vice president of the Bank of Commerce.

Mr. Cornwell was born at old Fort Custer, May 25, 1879. His father, John H. Cornwell, was of English ancestry, a native of New York State, where he grew up in Steuben County. He had a limited education and in early life joined the regular army. He saw some active duty in the Southwest and far west dur- ing some of the last Indian campaigns, and came up from a post in Texas with the Eleventh Infantry to Montana, where he also saw Indian service. He en- tered the army as a private, and was discharged as a noncommissioned officer. For several years after leaving the army he was a post trader at old Fort Custer, where he was married. In 1901, leaving Montana, he moved to Yakima, Washington, and spent his last years as a farmer. He died there in 1910, at the age of fifty-eight. His widow, who is still living at Yakima, bore the maiden name of Anna Schoberg. She was born in Minnesota, a daughter of John Schoberg, of Swedish ancestry.

The oldest of eight children, Edward A. Cornwell acquired his early education at Fort Custer in Junc- tion City and Livingston, Montana, graduating from the Livingston High School at the age of sixteen. Soon afterward he was employed in the general store of his uncle, E. A. Richardson, at the Crow Agency, and remained with the firm until 1904, when he was sent to Forsyth as manager of the Richard- son Mercantile Company. Leaving there in 1908, he took the management of the W. B. Jordan & Sons Company at Miles City, but in 1911 returned to For- syth and for the past nine years has been busied with his duties and responsibilities as a banker. He was cashier of the Bank of Commerce and since 1917 has been its vice president.

This bank was established in 1905 as a private in- stitution and has been under a state charter since IQII. Those connected with the private bank were J. E. Edwards, C. M. Bair and E. A. Richardson. Mr. Edwards is president of the Bank of Commerce today, Mr. Cornwell and Mr. Richardson being vice presidents, and R. J. Cole, cashier. The capital has been increased from the original $50,000 to $75,000, and the bank now has a surplus of $40,000.

Mr. Cornwell is also a partner in the firm of Corn- well Brothers, hardware and furniture dealers, and is president of the Rosebud Abstract Company. Dur- ing the World war he was county chairman of the Liberty Loan organization, member of the County Council of Defense, a member of the executive com- mittee of the Red Cross, and had the satisfaction of seeing Rosebud County surpass every quota for funds.

His only public service of a strictly official char- acter has been as mayor of Forsyth. He was elected to that office in the spring of 1919 as a nonpartisan candidate, succeeding Mayor J. Z. Northway. He has given a competent administration of the munici- pal affairs, and the chief feature of his term has been the completion of the dyke shutting out the flood waters of the Yellowstone from the town. Mr. Cornwell is a republican, having cast his first presi- dential vote for William Mckinley. He is a member of the various Masonic bodies, including the lodge, chapter and commandery at Forsyth, the council at Miles City, the Scottish Rite Consistory at Livingston and Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena, and he is also a member of the Lodge of Elks at Miles City.

He has contributed something to the substantial upbuilding of his home town in the attractive resi-

dence where he and Mrs. Cornwell live, and also in the business structure occupied by the firm of Corn- well Brothers. On September 12, 1901, while con- nected with the mercantile firm at Crow Agency, Mr. Cornwell married Miss Edith M. Lewis. She was born at Flint, Michigan, October 24, 1877, daughter of John and Adelaide (Hart) Lewis, who some years later came West, lived at Montrose, Colorado, and in 1895 settled in Montana, at Crow Agency, where her father was superintendent of irrigation. He is now living at Hardin. Mrs. Cornwell is a high school graduate, is a member of the Eastern Star, and was very active in the Red Cross during the World war.

HARRY CORNWELL, member of the firm of Cornwell Brothers, merchants at Forsyth, is one of the young and vigorous business men of the state, has spent nearly all his life in Montana, and has shown a de- gree of initiative and progressiveness that has made him successful in his own affairs and a valuable factor in his community.

He was born at old Fort Custer, March 7, 1889, youngest son of John H. Cornwell, who came to Montana as a sergeant in the regular army, later was connected with the Indian trading establishment, and finally moved out to Washington and became a farm- er. Harry Cornwell has two brothers in Montana, Edward A. and Jack Cornwell, whose careers are referred to herein.

Harry Cornwell lived to the age of eleven at Liv- ingston, Montana, and then accompanied his parents to North Yakima, Washington, where he grew up on his father's farm and finished his education in the public schools. The presence of his brothers and perhaps other motives caused him to return to Mon- tana after finishing his school days, and he acquired his business training as clerk for the Richardson Mercantile Company in Forsyth. He remained with that firm until he joined his brother Edward A. in the partnership of Cornwell Brothers, and they have since conducted a flourishing hardware business. To his business as a merchant Mr. Cornwell has given his best energies, though not at the sacrifice of a public-spirited attitude toward the community. He was an active member of the local committee for the promotion of Liberty Loan sales during the war. He has acquired and built a home at Forsyth, and his home and family are a primary interest with him always. . He is a republican voter and cast his first presidential vote at Forsyth for William H. Taft. He is affiliated with the Elks Lodge at Miles City.

At Minneapolis, January 10, 1916, Mr. Cornwell married Miss Frances Philbrick. Her father is Freeman Philbrick, a pioneer of Rosebud County, and one of the prominent sheep men of the state. Mrs. Cornwell finished her education at Bruno Hall, a girls' school at Spokane, Washington, and was mar- ried soon after she left there. She and Mr. Corn- well have one son, Howard Freeman, born December 27, 1917.

HARRY M. THOMPSON. Through a number of years Harry M. Thompson has sustained the character and role of an efficient business man and citizen of For- syth. He is a merchant of that city, also a member of the municipal council, is a native son of Montana, and represents a family that were pioneers in the old territory.

His grandfather was Mitchell Thompson, who was born in Belmont County, Ohio, and spent a long and active life as a farmer. In 1887 he removed to Liv- ingston County, Illinois, and died near the town of Dwight at the age of seventy-eight. He was a Jef- fersonian democrat, and that political faith has

Margaret-t. Gbonnell.

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characterized practically all of his descendants. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church. Mitchell Thompson married Jane Elwood, also a native of Ohio. Both the Elwoods and Thompsons are of old American stock. The Elwoods of Pennsylvania, a prominent family, banquetted members of the Thompson family in September, 1920, and at that time a large number of representatives of both names were present. The children of Mitchell Thompson and wife were: Robert, who died in Salem, Oregon, where he left a family; John, who was a California forty-niner and lived in that state until his death, unmarried; Hugh, who was one of three sons to wear the uniform of a Union soldier during the Civil war, was wounded in the battle of Peach Mountain, and is now living at Dwight, Illinois; Mary, a twin sister of Hugh, became the wife of Arthur Marshall and died in Illinois; William, who went through the war without injury, was discharged at Washington from Sherman's army, and is also living at Dwight, Illinois ; and Thomas J., the youngest of the family.

Thomas J. Thompson is a venerable veteran of the Civil war, a pioneer Montanan, and now living re- tired at Forsyth. He was born at Barnesville, Bel- mont County, Ohio, August 31, 1840, and grew to manhood in that county, acquiring a country school education. During the second year of the Civil war he joined a company of Minute Men, and was on guard duty in Virginia, Tennessee and at Erie, Penn- sylvania, and remained in the service until the fall of 1865, when, some months after the close of hostili- ties, he was discharged at Dwight, Illinois. Follow- ing the war he became an Illinois farmer, but in 1880 came to Montana. Traveling from Dwight, he left the train at Bismarck, North Dakota, and the stage carried him to Miles City, where he arrived on the 16th of April. After some prospecting he sent for his family, who arrived in June of the same year. They were on the way three weeks, and traveled on the steamboat Terry from Bismarck to Miles City. The first work Thomas J. Thompson did in Miles City was in Broadwater and Hubbell's sawmill on the bank of Tongue River. During the summer of 1880 he took up a ranch on Bull Creek, occupying it with his family until the spring of 1883, when he moved to the mouth of Short Creek near Forsyth. Here he entered the cattle business on a modest scale, but soon became active in politics and in the fall of 1886 was nominated on the democratic ticket for county assessor of old Custer County. He was elected by a majority of 275 votes over the most prominent re- publican in the county at that time. Subsequently he was twice re-elected, and filled the office until statehood. His jurisdiction as county assessor cov- ered an immense territory, Custer County then ex- tending to Wibaux on the east, to the Missouri River on the north, and to the Little Missouri on the south. At least three times he rode over the entire district, visiting the settled portions, traveling in a buckboard. After retiring from office he moved to Miles City, where for two or three years he was in the dray business. Upon the organization of Rose- bud County from old Custer he moved to Forsyth, for a short time conducted a confectionery store, and was then appointed a deputy warden . under State Game Warden Scott, and performed the duties of that office continuously for fourteen years, until October, 1910,' since which date he has enjoyed a well earned retirement at Forsyth.

Thomas J. Thompson cast his first presidential vote at Barnesville, Ohio, for Stephen A. Douglas in 1860, and wherever possible has never neglected to support the party candidates during the past sixty years. In the spring of 1919 he and his good wife celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, just

fifty years after he had married in Belmont County, Ohio, Miss Sarah E. Conden. She was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, in 1843, daughter of John Conden, and she died at Forsyth in January, 1920. She was the mother of three children: Mrs. Ida Northway, of Forsyth; Nellie, who died at Forsyth, the wife of John B. Collins; and Harry M.

Harry M. Thompson was born in that portion of old Custer County now Rosebud County, on Decem- ber 9, 1883. He finished schooling in Miles City and at the age of fourteen began acquiring a business training there as an employe of the firm of Lakin and Westfall. Three years later he went on the range for the E2 outfit of the Concord Cattle Com- pany, spending about three summers with them, and for a short time with the LO outfit. On leaving the range he came to Forsyth and for several years was clerk in local stores, and then became a partner in the Home Trading Company. With the closing out . of that business in February, 1920, he resumed his connection with the commercial life of the commun- ity on the 30th of May as head of Thompson-Gowen Company, grocers, conducting one of the leading firms of its kind in Rosebud County.

Mr. Thompson as the son of a rock-ribbed demo- crat has retained the political allegiance of the fam- ily, casting his first presidential vote for Mr. Bryan. He was chosen a member of the board of aldermen of Forsyth in April, 1919, and has been one of the factors in the present administration of Mayor Corn- well. Mr. Thompson is affiliated with the various Masonic bodies, including the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery of Forsyth, and Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena. He was married on July 26, 1920, at Terry, Montana, to Edith May Caulk.

W. H. O'CONNELL. One of the big-hearted and typical westerners who has endeared himself to everyone that knows him is William H. O'Connell of Kalispell, whose activities in ranching have placed him among the prosperous men of his section, just as his many acts of kindness entitle him to place among the desirable citizens of Montana. He was born at Dubuque, Iowa, a son of John and Catherine O'Connell, who located there prior to 1834, but during the Indian troubles which ter- minated in the Black Hawk war were driven from their home. After peace was declared they returned to Dubuque. John O'Connell was a brave man, and his experiences with the Indians are worthy a place in this volume did space permit their insertion.

Growing up in his native city, W. H. O'Connell attended its schools, and then in the fall of 1895 came west to Butte, Montana, and in 1900 located in Flathead County. He was. married in South Dakota to Margaret O'Connor, a daughter of Pat- rick and Margaret O'Connor. For several years after coming to Flathead County Mr. O'Connell was engaged in buying wheat for the Kalispell flour mills, and did an extensive business. He became so well known to the people of the county that he was elected on the democratic ticket as sheriff of Flathead County, and was re-elected to that office. During his administration some very interesting and exciting events took place, among which perhaps the most important was the robbing of the Great Northern Railroad, known as the Rondo Holdup, when $40,000 were stolen from the safe of the ex- press messenger by two robbers who escaped. They were George Frank Hauser and Charles McDonald. Sheriff O'Connell and his deputy, William Parent, followed these men, tracing them by their lavish expenditure of money, to Bonner's Ferry. There the outlaws boarded a train, and were followed by the

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 188

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