Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 189

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 189

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fearless sheriff and his deputy, who, awaiting their opportunity, arrested the men when about twenty miles from Spokane, Washington. The men occu- pied a stateroom and were enjoying themselves by drinking heavily. Sheriff O'Connell knowing that the outlaws were expert gunmen took no chances, but went into the 'stateroom with a gun in each hand, his deputy similarly armed, accompanying him, and ordered the men to raise their hands. It needed but one look into the determined faces and firmly held guns of the officials to convince the robbers that resistance was not only useless but impossible.

The men had $14,395 on their persons, much of it in the original packages easily identified as part of the "loot," and so no question was raised as to their guilt. The sheriff and his deputy brought the men back to Kalispell for action by the United States authorities. They were indicted and placed in the jail at Helena, from whence they escaped six weeks afterward by cutting through three sets of bars. George Frank Hauser was recaptured about a year later at Barnesville, Minnesota, by Martin Delaney and is now serving a life sentence at Fort · Leaven- worth, but his partner in crime has never been ap- prehended and is still at large. It was while Mr. O'Connell was sheriff that the notorious Fred Lebeau was hung for murder.

In addition to being sheriff Mr. O'Connell has been deputy state game warden for years, and in both offices has displayed the courage which has made his name one to be feared by the lawless all over this section of the state. He is a strong sup- porter of President Wilson and his policies, and has always voted the democratic ticket.

Mr. and Mrs. O'Connell have four children. Leo, who is now ticket agent for the Great Northern Railroad at Kalispell, is a veteran of the great war, serving for seventeen months overseas as chief opera- tor at the First Army Headquarters, which were bombarded several times, but he remained at his post and faithfully transmitted the orders which had to pass through him, making his position a very important one. Charles J., who is also a veteran of this war, served in the navy on freighting trans- ports which carried ammunition overseas, extremely dangerous work, and he also assisted in establish- ing coaling stations in the Azores, receiving his dis- charge in January, 1919, after which he returned home to his parents' ranch ten miles outside of Kalispell, where he is now living. Kathryn is a student of the Kalispell High School and John is attending the grammar grade of the district schools.

Mr. O'Connell is exceptionally kind hearted, as the following instance will show, and it is but one of many. One day while calling at the home of a neighbor on some business he was introduced to a young girl from Sweden, crippled for years from infantile paralysis, who had come to the vicinity in hope that she might be benefited by the waters of the famous Hot Springs. The ordinary person would have been contented with a courteous wish for her recovery, but not Mr. O'Connell. With the kindly smile upon his face, he asked in his own genial manner if she had plenty of money to carry her through the course of treatment necessary if she were to hope for a return to health, and find- ing that her resources were at low ebb he told her to give the matter no more thought, that he would attend to it, which he did by taking up a subscrip- tion, heading it so generously that those who fol- lowed him were ashamed not to be liberal, and the helpless, crippled girl through his thoughtfulness was enabled to remain at the springs until restored to health.

Many men who today are useful members of 90-

ciety owe their present prosperity to his helping hand when they came to the West, penniless and friendless. Big of heart, he has always found room for one more in his regard, and is never too busy to stretch out the hand of friendship to either stranger or neighbor, as the case may be, who needs his assistance. In all of his good work and chari- ties he is backed by his wife, who is equally popu- lar. It is such people as the O'Connells who restore faith in humanity and bring about a realization that the Golden Rule is not a dead letter but a bright, burning and living thing, actuating the lives and actions of many of the people of this generation, even if the acts of a few sometimes does obscure it and cause the melancholy reflection that the good old days of interdependence of one upon another has forever passed. To such a one, contact with such people as Mr. and Mrs. O'Connell is a revela- tion and one not easily forgotten.

COL. GEORGE SCHEETZ. Many and varied activities have made the name of Col. George Scheetz an in- fluential and honored one. He is a member of a family which traces descent to the early Quakers of America, and descend in a direct line from a member of the colony of William Penn. His paternal great- grandfather was Frederick Scheetz and his grand- father was Rev. George Scheetz, of the Episcopal denomination, whose old church was in the northern part of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This Episcopal divine removed west about the time of the rebellion between the North and the South, and died in Chicago, where he was visiting his daughters. Rev. George Scheetz married Maria May Capelle, a daughter of an army surgeon who accompanied Gen- eral Lafayette to America, and he was a Frenchman and of the Huguenot faith. The only son of this union was Frederick B., and there were four daugh- ters who reared families.

Frederick B. Scheetz was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1817, probably in the same house in which his father was also born. He graduated from Bristol College of Philadelphia, and afterward en- gaged in engineering work on the Chambersburg and Gettysburg Railroad. But about the year 1855 he entered the ministry of the Episcopal Church, giving up his transitory work for the religious field. But many years before this time, in 1839, he had estab- lished the Scheetz family in Ralls County, Missouri, making the journey with his young wife from Phila- delphia. He spent the final years of his life in that commonwealth, after having served his church faith- fully and well. He built up a parish at Monroe and continued as its loved pastor for a generation or more, and moved finally to Kirkwood, where he passed away in death in 1890. His views were south- ern on the issues of the Civil war, and he gave his youngest son to the Confederate service

The Rev. Frederick B. Scheetz married Henrietta, a daughter of Henry Cruger, a New York man whose father was from Manchester, England. Mrs. Scheetz passed away at Kirkwood, Missouri, the mother of a large family of children, numbering : Henry C., whose home is in Monroe, Missouri; George, the well known Montana resident; Mrs. Charles Purnell, who resides in Minneapolis, Minne- sota; Ellen, widow of Heber A. Hough and a resi- dent of St. Louis, Missouri; Elizabeth, wife of B. M. Tracy, of Tacoma, Washington ; and Miss Henrietta, who is still living at Kirkwood, Missouri.

Col. George Scheetz was born at the family home in Ralls County, Missouri, September 26, 1842, and his birthplace was near that of the renowned Mark Twain at Florida, Missouri. He attended school at Palmyra in Marion County, and completed his educa-

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tional training in St. Paul's College at Palmyra, an Episcopal school. There he prepared himself for the profession of surveying, and obtained his first and early day practice in the work under his father, the Rev. Frederick B. Scheetz. In the spring of 1861 he entered the Confederate service, joining Capt. Tom Dobin's company, Colonel Hawkins' regiment. This regiment was made a part of General Green's brigade of the Missouri State Guard, and began active serv- ice at Memphis, Tennessee, in the spring of 1862. Mr. Scheetz's military work took him into the battles fought in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, including the memorable engagement at Corinth, the siege around Vicksburg and Murfreesboro and also in- cluded all the famous battles of the Atlanta cam- paign. At the close of the war he was with Hood's army, and following the battle of Nashville he served under Gen. Dick Taylor and surrendered at Shreve- port, Louisiana, at the close of hostilities. During this long period of service Mr. Scheetz was twice slightly wounded and was captured at Vicksburg and paroled there, but resumed service at Demopolis, Alabama.

After his return home from the war and peace was again restored Colonel Scheetz spent a few years engaged at farm work in Missouri. He started then for Colorado, stopping en route in Texas for a brief time and also at other western points, and during the eight years he spent in Colorado engaged in Government land surveying he made his headquarters at Denver, although his work carried him all over the state. His main work, however, was performed in the eastern part of the commonwealth, and there he also did some preliminary engineering for the Rio Grande Railroad Company on extensions of their line.

From Colorado Colonel Scheetz came into Montana in 1883, and is therefore enrolled among the earliest pioneers of the commonwealth. Montana was yet a territory when he located within its boundaries as a Government surveyor, and he began his work on the Crow Indian Reservation, having charge of section- izing the reserve. This particular work required a period of eight months, and during the thirty years which followed he continued in the main his con- nection with the Government in land surveying over the entire state. Two years of this period were spent in surveying the Flat Head Indian Reservation, and while performing this and also other work he main- tained his home at Miles City, where he established his headquarters upon the completion of the work of the Crow Indian survey, and he still claims that Eastern Montana metropolis as his home.

From land surveying Colonel Scheetz finally turned his attention to other engineering work, including the Lower Yellowstone reclamation project, survey- ing it for the State of Montana. He was also the engineer of the Tongue River irrigation project, which brought many thousands of acres of valley land under productive cultivation. He was employed by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Com- pany for two years in preliminary and construction work, and also worked on the main line of the road through Montana and on branch lines in North and South Dakota.

During more recent years Colonel Scheetz has been identified with Fallon County, and was in that part of it which is now Carter County when it was divided and Carter County organized. In the bill which created the new division he was named as the county surveyor, and has been continuously elected to that office ever since. But prior to this time, and perhaps for a period of twenty years, he was the official surveyor for Custer County, and it would thus appear that the career of Colonel Scheetz as a sur-

veyor and engineer covers more of the work and history of land surveying in Montana than any other engineer in the state. In addition to his surveying and engineering work for Carter County, he is also quite extensively engaged in ranching near Ekalaka.

While yet at Monroe, Missouri, January 4, 1869, Colonel Scheetz was married to Miss Kate B. Matthews, a daughter of Dr. John B. Matthews. Mrs. Scheetz was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and was educated in Miss Sneed's Academy at Kirkwood. Of · the three children born to Colonel and Mrs. Scheetz only one lived to mature years, Mary, who became the wife of A. W. Clinebell and died in 1918 at Broken Bow, Nebraska, leaving three sons and a daughter. Mrs. Scheetz also died at Broken Bow, on the Ist of December, 1918.

As a citizen Colonel Scheetz has ever demonstrated his faith in the future of Montana, and his political activities for the commonwealth's advancement have been done quietly and as a supporter of democratic principles. In years past he was a member of the Patriotic Sons of America and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He was alive to the work of the Red Cross and other auxiliary organizations during the period of the World war, and has always performed his full share of the work of a patriotic American citizen.

WILLIAM J. SCOTT. With the exception of the first few years of his life William J. Scott of Hardin has been a resident of the United States, and he has been one of the determining factors of Hardin since March, 1907. He was born in County Down, Ireland, on July 21, 1847, a son of John and Mary J. (Rogers) Scott, natives of Ireland, who came to the United States in 1859, locating at Lacrosse, Wisconsin, where he died in 1892, when he was over eighty-six years old. His widow survived him for two years and then died at Lacrosse, both of them having been quiet people engaged in farming all of their active years. Their children were four sons and four daughters, of whom William J. is the only survivor.

William J. Scott attended the public schools of Lacrosse, Wisconsin, and learned the printer's trade in the office of the historic "Brick Pomeroy, owner of the Lacrosse Democrat," at Madison, Wisconsin. Later he was with the "Republican Leader," complet- ing his connection with the printing business at La- crosse in 1880. While still engaged in newspaper work he went South and for a time conducted a paper at Jacksonport, Arkansas. At that time his health was very poor and he was forced to move about looking for a climate' better suited to him, and during the early '7os he was in New Mexico, still continuing in the printing business. Subsequently he returned to Lacrosse and in 1880 was appointed un- der sheriff of Lacrosse County, later being elected sheriff of that same county, and being connected with that office for seventeen years. While serving as a deputy under his brother in 1884 a lynching occurred as the result of a shooting of a leader of a political procession marching through the streets of Lacrosse, and the assassin was lynched before he could be ap- prehended and spirited away by the officers of the law. In 1896 Mr. Scott was appointed superintendent of public property for the State of Wisconsin by Governor Schofield, and served for four years. When he retired from office he engaged in general contracting, and continued in that line until he left the state in the spring of 1907.

The first year he was in Montana, Mr. Scott was engaged in looking about him for a suitable location, and finally decided upon Hardin, which at that time had a population of about twenty-five. He embarked in the lumber business, and his was the second yard

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to be established in the town, and he continued to conduct it until he sold it on June 23, 1917, when he retired permanently.

Brought up in a republican household, Mr. Scott cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln while in the army and stationed at Memphis, Ten- nessee. He enlisted in the Union army in May, 1864, as a member of Company G, Fortieth Wisconsin Vol- unteer Infantry, commanded by Captain Phelps and Colonel Fallows, later Bishop Fallows of Chicago. The company mobilized at Camp Randall, Madison, Wisconsin, and was ordered to Memphis, Tennessee, to relieve some of the old troops from duty. Mr. Scott was made a guard of the trains there carrying supplies to the troops in the field, and he was in that city when it was raided by the Confederate general, N. B. Forrest, and there was danger of its being cap- tured. At the close of the war Mr. Scott was ordered home and was mustered out at Madison, Wisconsin, in 1865, when he returned to civil life.

As a resident of Hardin he took part in the organ- ization of Big Horn County, and was chairman on the committee on organization. He also took a very active part in the incorporation of Hardin as a town, and was elected its second mayor. During his ad- ministration the waterworks were established, and many other improvements made. Following the com- pletion of his term of two years as mayor Mr. Scott was elected a member of the city council, and served as such for two years. In 1914 he was a candidate for the State Assembly, but lost on the recount, but was elected to that office two years later, and was re- elected in 1918, in the latter session being chairman of the horticultural committee and a member of the agricultural committee, and assisted in electing Speaker O. W. Belden. During his career in the Assembly he has been more interested in securing appropriate and wise legislation than thrusting him- self into public notice as the father of bills. Mr. Scott has contributed of his time and money in advancing the business affairs of Hardin, and is still a stockholder and director of the First National Bank of that city.

In February, 1884, Mr. Scott was united in mar- riage with Miss Jeanette M. Lang, born in Canada, opposite to Ogdensburg, New York, a daughter of John Lang, who had three sons and three daughters. One of her brothers, Gideon G. Lang, lives at Bill- ings, Montana. Mr. and Mrs. Scott became the par- ents of the following children : John L., Ralph V. and Willard J.

John L. Scott is engaged in the lumber business at Belgrade, Montana. He married Maud Cooksey. Ralph V. Scott, who is now a student in the Univer- sity of Wisconsin, is a veteran of the great war, serv- ing in the One Hundred and Twenty-first Machine Gun Battalion, in which he enlisted on December 10, 1917, and was assigned to Company C of that organ- ization. He sailed with his command for France on February 10, 1918, and participated in the drives of Alsace sector on May 5 to July 15, 1918; the Marne, July 26th to August 4th; Juvigny and Terny Sorney, August 26th to September Ist, and he was wounded in the foot at the engagement at Chateau Thierry, and was gassed on August 31, 1918. He returned to the United States in February, 1919. At present he is a member of the university football team. Willard J. Scott is engaged in the automobile business at Hardin. He, too, entered the World war, in October, 1918, and was in training at Camp McArthur at the time of the signing of the armistice, and was dis- charged on November 27, 1918. While these young sons were proving their patriotism in the same man- ner as did their father and his three brothers during the great conflict between the North and the South,

Mr. Scott and the other members of his family were doing all in their power to assist the Government to win the war, for this is one of the 100 per cent Amer- ican households of the country, whose roots are deep- ly embedded in the history of this land. It would be impossible for a Scott to be anything but a patriot in the best and highest sense of the word.

ALFRED H. BOWMAN. One of the men who has won his place among the real factors in the develop- ment of this region is Alfred H. Bowman, of Hardin. He began his residence in this locality in 1912, and did so as a farmer. His location was adjacent to the new Town of Hardin, and he was a developer and improver of the open domain about the place, and continued to be actively engaged in farming until recently. The domain he developed into a range comprised 800 acres of land. He was one of a half a dozen men with farm land to build a system of irriga- tion under the name of the Farmer's Ditch Company. This was one of the first efforts made in this region at irrigation, and its purpose was to supply water for 4,000 acres of lands devoted to the demonstration of the adaptability of this neighborhood for the growing of alfalfa, and Mr. Bowman was the first farmer to call attention to this grass on and about his own farm. He was also the first one to experi- ment with timothy and red clover, both of which he found to develop splendidly, the latter plant growing to a height of five feet and cutting a mammoth crop of hay. As to corn, samples of his crop were ex- hibited at the Billings Seed Show, as good corn as he ever grew in Missouri or Nebraska, and his exhibit took first prize.

Having disposed of his irrigated ranch, Mr. Bow- man turned his attention to fruit raising, and is pre- paring to plant 100,000 strawberry plants, as he has already made a successful demonstration of this line of business, which satisfies him completely.

While he has of course been deeply immersed with his farming experiments, and in them rendering an invaluable assistance to his fellow citizens, he has otherwise aided in developing other enterprises than his individual ones. The County of Big Horn was organized after he came to it, and he took an active part in forwarding the movement for its creation, was elected a member of the first Board of County Commissioners, and has been its chairman ever since. All of the work done by the county has the imprint of his personality and is the result of his handiwork, and his record as chairman for eight years is an un- usual one and one worthy of commendation. The building of roads and bridges has called for execu- tive ability of no usual order, ten miles of gravel being part of the permanent road work completed. Two bridges have been built over the Big Horn, and five over the Little Horn, while two span Tongue River, a somewhat remarkable record for a new county during eight years. The courthouse grounds have been provided by the board, and a permanent jail has been erected at an outlay of $10,000. A bonded indebtedness of $236,000 has been incurred for the road and bridge building campaign, and the board has also furnished seed to all applicants of the county who through the drought have been unable to buy what they needed to put in their crops. This latter outlay has been kept within $10,000, an incon- siderable amount as compared with the cost of sim- ilar accommodation in other counties of the state.

Mr. Bowman assisted in organizing the Hardin State Bank, and was elected its first president. Later he disposed of his stock in that bank and became one of the organizers of the Stockman's National Bank, and is still president of it, and also of the Wyola State Bank, the First National Bank of Lodgegrass,

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of the Saint Xavier State Bank, and is a director of the State Bank at the Crow Agency. He has been president of the Montana State Commissioners' Association for three years, and is still the incumbent of that office.

In his political sentiments Mr. Bowman is a demo- crat, and his first presidential vote was cast for James B. Weaver of Iowa. He was a delegate from Nebraska to the Chicago Democratic National Con- vention which nominated William Jennings Bryan, and he had the privilege of hearing the Platte orator make his famous "Crown of Thorns and Cross of Gold" speech. Mr. Bowman has made it a point to support the candidates of his party in national affairs, but locally is more independent.

He is a native of Marshall County, Illinois, and was born April 16, 1857. He was brought up on a farm in Clinton County, Missouri, and spent nine- teen years of his life there, receiving his education in both country and town schools, as he attended school in both Hamilton and Lathrop. It was in this region that he began his independent career as a farmer, re- maining there until 1884, when he moved to Ne- braska and established his home near Lawrence. He hauled the first load of lumber into Lawrence to be used for building purposes. After being engaged for a brief period in farming in that neighborhood he embarked in a lumber business at Lawrence, later expanding his operations so as to include McClure, and he also became a merchant of the latter place, where he continued to operate until he left Nebraska for Montana. While living in Nebraska he began to be active in banking and was president of the First National Bank at Nelson. He was also a mem- ber of the Kemper-Bowman-Hillix Company of St. Joseph, Missouri, a live stock commission firm. Com- bined with his other interests Mr. Bowman was also interested in farming and stock raising during the twenty-four years he lived in Nebraska, and owned one of the finest Poland-China hog ranches ever de- veloped in that state. He closed out his varied interests when he transferred his residence to Mon- tana, and since then has concentrated his holdings in and about Hardin.

Mr. Bowman rightly is numbered among the pio- neers of this region, for he saw the site of the coun- ty seat of Hardin County before there was a building in it, or a switch laid on the railroad to this point. He witnessed and participated in the first efforts made toward the establishment of a town, although he has only entered actively in the work within re- cent years. Farming has been his first love, and a longing for the soil will remain with him as long as he lives, for it is inbred. This inherited tendency has urged him on to further achievements in agricultural lines, and he proposes to combine his new venture with an industrial one and is building and installing a fine, modern canning plant and will put up his own fruit.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 189

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