Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 19

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 19

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Society and of the Montana State Medical Society, and, as already stated, is the oldest practitioner in Richland County.

Doctor Morrill married in St. Paul, August 16, 1906, Miss Dorothy Briggs, born in Spring Valley, that state, and educated in the public schools of Minneapolis. The issue of Doctor and Mrs. Mor- rill are Robert A., Ir., and Jane Ellen, aged twelve and six years. Doctor Morrill was a member of the county war board while we were helping to settle the status of democracy in Europe and removing from world-control some of the ancient royal houses of the continent, and he entered seriously into the movements fathered by our government for winning the war.

JOHN A. STEWART. The taming of nature and the beautifying of the landscape about Crane, a little hamlet along the west bank of the Yellowstone in Richland County, has been contributed to greatly by a quartet of brothers who have given unsparingly of their industry for many years. They took up the work of that material improvement which is so im- portant in planting one seed of civilization in any new country during the decade following 1882, and have continued it actively until the former semi- arid but grassy terrain is yielding abundantly of food and forage for the wants of man. These broth- ers are the Stewarts, and it is to make unbiased mention of a trio of them whose association together has been so conspicuous in the achievement of com- munity results that this brief article has to do.

Perhaps John A. Stewart, of this fraternal group, has lent a stronger hand than his brothers, because it has been longer applied to the task, and for this reason it is fitting that he be made the immediate sub- ject of this notice. Jack Stewart, as everybody knows him, identified himself with this locality in 1883 and passed the first five years of his life here in the vicinity of where his father broke ground two years before he came. His pecuniary needs required him to seek employment as a ranch hand, and his first eight years were devoted to the service of the "HD" outfit, the property of Douglass and Mayo, a pioneer concern in the stock business here.

When he had acquired some capital Jack Stewart began a more independent career. He entered a homestead near the mouth of Crane Creek and en- tered the stock business himself. He associated himself with his brothers, Neil and A. Malcolm- dubbed by his friends "Sandy"-and the firm of Stewart Brothers handled cattle and horses under the brand "Squobble O" and came to be a concern of importance on the range here as growers and dealers in horseflesh and beef. Jack, after a number of years, purchased the interest of his partners, and as the community settled up he was rather forced out of the stock business. He purchased a section of land of the Northern Pacific Company, and when the railroad built through"the locality he laid off the townsite of Crane, and his hotel was one of the first buildings to be erected on the site.

Thus it will be seen that Mr. Stewart was quite extensively interested in valley lands when the sub- ject of irrigation was mentioned in connection with the watering of this whole valley. He signed as a member of the Water Users' Association, encour- aged development by parting with parcels of his land to those who continued actual development under the new method, and four splendid farms have been carved out of his tract, 500 acres of which is responding bountifully to the hand of the husbandman. More than 200 acres of the section were prepared for the application of the new and artificial irrigation by him, and he farmed it stren-

uously until 1917, when he parted with this also and ceased his work of further development. An indication of the value to this region of the irriga- tion project may be had by referring to the rapid rise in the value of lands under the ditch. Mr. Stewart sold his final tract at $45 an acre, another tract of this section brought later $100 an acre, and more recently the owner sold another parcel of it for $135 an acre.

Jack Stewart followed his father into the United States, or came at his instance, from Ontario, Can- ada. He was born at Bowmanville, that province, March 25, 1863, was brought up on a farm and educated in the country schools. His father was David Stewart, who sought out this locality for the family in 1881, and who is mentioned further in the sketch of his son, David, in this work. With his hands and with the means at his command he has been an earnest promoter of the welfare of his locality since the acquirement of his homestead and the purchasing of the railroad section from which a quartet of good farms have been developed. He became a citizen by naturalization without delay after reaching the United States and allied himself with the republican party as a voter and is a mem- ber of the Richland County Central Committee of the party. He entered with enthusiasm into the erection of the first schoolhouse at Crane, and in earlier years he was a member of the District Board. In church matters he favored the organization of a community congregation and donated from his land a plot for the site of the first church, Congrega- tional in denomination.

The Stewarts felt the cause of the United States during the World war as a personal interest and lent unstintedly their financial aid. Sandy Stewart, when he left Montana, went into Canada and there enlisted under the British flag to help fight the battle of the world for liberty and democracy, and he lies today in France, a sacrifice to the world cause. Every bond sale and every other drive for funds for the prosecution of the war was liberally sup- ported by the brothers, who thereby rendered it much easier for Crane to "go over the top." Jack, Charles and Sandy Stewart never married, but Neil, who is one of the trio which lives in Crane, and who is older than Jack, married Arletta Gardner and is the father of three children. So it will be seen that the House of Stewart has not lagged in its duty to its community and its country. The im- portance of service in some useful capacity has not been overlooked, and, although few of them are family men, they have felt the thrill inspired by the presence of the newer generations and have been glad to help hang opportunities for them upon the pegs which mark their milestones from childhood to citizenship.

DAVID STEWART. The Scotch name which intro- duces this article represents one of the numerous and worthy families of Richland County, and it has ever stamped its owners as among the sincere, in- dustrious and honorable folk of their bailiwick. David Stewart, of whom it is the province of this review to make more than brief mention, has con- tributed much toward the popularity of the family about Crane and has passed almost a score of years in this locality.

He is a native of Bowmanville, Ontario, born fifty miles east of Toronto, Canada, July 18, 1856, and his coming to manhood was on his father's farm there. His is one of the ancient families of that British province and was founded by his grand- father, David Stewart, who immigrated from the Town of Refluch, Argyllshire, Scotland, when a

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young man and settled in the timber country of On- tario and turned his energies into the clearing of the land and the development of a home. He left noth- ing undone in the matter of posterity, for he gave six sons and two daughters to become citizens and virile beings about his declining years and to main- tain the honor and integrity of the name. His sons were David, Neil, Duncan, Archibald, John and Peter, while his daughters were Jane and Jeanette, the former becoming the wife of John Lovkin and the latter dying without marriage.

David Stewart, the senior of this long list of sons of old David, was a child of three years when his parents immigrated from Scotland about 1834, and he drank draughts of frontier air deeply while lend- ing a childhood and youthful hand to his father in the making of a wilderness home. He became a farmer himself when he assumed the dignity of a citizen, proved himself fairly successful as an ac- cumulator of property, manifested an interest in the public affairs of his country in the consideration of public questions and lived in unofficial status through life. In the early '8os he prospected for a location along the boundary line of Canada, but within the United States, and chose it on the Yel- lowstone River in Montana. His destination by rail was Glendive, then the end of the Northern Pacific as it pointed westward, and he occupied the land in the Yellowstone Valley improved and developed by Jacob Wald and held a "squatter's" right there three years. He lived there from 1881 to 1884, and his was about the first attempt in all that locality made at farming. He was a compeer of Frank Lovering and John O'Brien, others who figured prominently among the early settlers of the region, and when he abandoned the place he returned to Canada and spent another seven or eight years, during which he made sure that his heart was with the pure air and the wild romance of the valley of the Yellowstone, and he returned here, but he was not permitted to take part long in the active affairs of the locality among his old neighbors, for death claimed him in March, 1898, when sixty-seven years old.

Continuing the reference to David Stewart, he married Barbara McMillin, who was born in Scot- land, near the birthplace of her husband. She was only a child when she was taken to Canada, where she married, bore a numerous family and died when sixty-three years of age. Her children were: David, of this review; Neil, one of the trio of brothers now living in Crane; Jeanette, who mar- ried Robert Kelley; John Archibald, who is known universally as "Jack"; Barbara, who married How- ard Bickford and died in Ontario; Alexander Mal- colm, who was killed in battle in France while a Canadian soldier; Charles, a ranchman at Crane, Montana, and Maria, who died at Fairview, Mon- tana, as Mrs. John McMillin.

David Stewart, the senior of this numerous family, was educated in the country school near Leskard Vil- lage as he passed through his childhood and youth, and he was a factor on his father's farm till long past his majority. When he sought the United States and established himself in Montana he was following the example of his brothers and sisters who pre- ceded him, and his first year was spent on a sheep ranch, that of G. D. Hollecker, west of Glendive. Subsequently for a time he and his brother engaged at the mason's trade and contracted some important work in Glendive, that of laying the foundation of the Jordan Hotel, and at Sidney that of the con- struction of the stone church, the first place of wor- ship provided in all this region. When he aban- doned the trowel he turned his attention again to

the farm and located near Crane, where he soon filed on his homestead, the spot he still occupies.

The survey for the irrigation project has been made prior to his filing on his claim, and Mr. Stew- art sensed the importance of the enterprise and the advantage one would have, eventually, who owned some of the lands under the system of irrigation. He was one of the first users of water from the Yellowstone when it was turned into the ditch and alfalfa and corn, besides the grains, have constituted the products which his farm has added to the agri- cultural output of the valley and which have car- ried its owner forward toward the position of inde- pendence which is headed his way.

The first home of Mr. Stewart still stands and still shelters his family. It is the proverbial log cabin which seemed mansionlike to the pioneer and which was ever comfortable and hospitable. The landscape about the cluster of buildings which mark the family home, once nude of forest trees, is now being shaded by the ash and the cottonwood, which lines the ditch sides or which have prospered through the nurturing care of the family when threatened with destruction by drouth until they cast their shadows far out and welcome the traveler to their cooling shades.

David Stewart returned to Canada when he de- cided to marry. He left a young woman behind him when he sought the United States to prepare himself for taking a wife, and went back for her when his plans appeared certain of achievement. On June 11, 1901, he married Sarah Gibson, a daughter of William Gibson and Eliza Ferguson, both of Irish blood. The Gibsons were farmers near Leskard, and Mrs. Stewart was born in Cartwright Township of her native county. The seven children of the Gibson household were: John W., of Elmvale, On- tario; Sarah, born April 14, 1858; Mrs. Margaret McFarlane, of Saskatchewan, Canada; Susan, Mrs. Albert Blow, of Francis, Saskatchewan; Samuel, of Collingwood, Ontario, where his younger brother, Albert, resides; and Joseph, who is located at Innes, Saskatchewan.

The issue of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are David Ferguson and Albert Malcolm.

The political status of Mr. Stewart is republican in national elections. His first presidential vote was cast for Colonel Roosevelt, and in the months we were doing our bit to win the war he was a member of the local defense committee and the family bought liberally of bonds and gave freely to the cause of the Red Cross. He has been actively connected with the educational phase of his district, and he and Mrs. Stewart aided in the establishment of the community church and have followed the progress of this Congregational body from its incep- tion to its last item of expansion.

ALVIN HODSON. The worthy old pioneer whose name appears herein was at the time of his death one of the few links in the chain that connected the present age to a period buried in the mists of the past. He enjoyed the distinction of being one of the oldest living settlers of what is now Cascade County, and was a witness of its development to its present prosperous condition as one of Montana's most advanced and enlightened counties. Homes and towns sprung up on every hand from the time he first saw the county in its primitive wildness and beauty. Fertile, well-tilled farms, with all the ad- juncts of civilization, have taken the place of the former lonesome reaches which sheltered beasts of prey and, at no very remote period, the painted savage. The music of traffic, industry and husbandry

Alim Hadson

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make melody where once only disturbed by the symphony of the breeze, the dirge of the winter storm, or the first blasts of the tornado.

Alvin Hodson was a native son of the old Empire State, having been born in Onondaga County, New York, on May 20, 1837. He was the son of Charles and Euphemia (Norington) Hodson, farming folk. The father, who was the son of English parents, was born in 1802 on the Atlantic ocean while his parents were crossing to America. He died in 1890. His wife, who was born in New York State in 1807, died in 1865. Of the nine children born to this worthy couple, one only is living, the subject of this review being the fifth in order of birth.

Charles Hodson led a very active and useful career. For many years he was identified with the lumber industry and "ran" logs on the Seneca River. Later he engaged in farming and dairying in Onon- daga County, being a pioneer of that county. He was held in high. regard in his community and was appointed guardian for many orphan children. Po- litically he was an old-line whig and on the disin- tegration of that party he aligned himself with its successor, the republican party. His religious mem- bership was with the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Alvin Hodson spent his boyhood days on the home farm and secured such educational training as was afforded by the schools of that period during the winter months. His first employment was in picking up potatoes, for which he had to take his pay in potatoes. In 1852 he accompanied his parents to Green Lake County, Wisconsin, the trip being made by boat from Buffalo, New York, to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, thence overland to Oshkosh, and then up the Fox River by boat to Berlin, where they located on Government land. In 1862 Mr. Hodson left Wis- consin and started overland with horses for Ban- nock, Idaho, where he arrived on September Ist. For a time he was engaged in prospecting and min- ing, but later was occupied in freighting between Helena and Fort Benton. In 1870 he returned to Wisconsin to visit his family, and spent about a year there. In 1871 he returned to Chestnut Valley, Mon- tana, and engaged in the cattle and horse business, in which he was one of the pioneers in this section of the country. During the years following he was very active in that line of effort and met with splen- did success. In 1909 he retired from active labor and afterward gave but little attention to active busi- ness affairs beyond the necessary oversight of his private affairs. He was the owner of 3,500 acres of land.

Politically Mr. Hodson always gave his support to the republican party and took an intelligent in- terest in public affairs, though he never had any ambition for public office for himself.

On January 4, 1880, Alvin Hodson was married to Julia Austin, who was born in Valparaiso, Indiana, the daughter of Thomas and Cornelia (Garrison) Austin. Her father was a native of Kent, England, born in 1809, and died in 1902. The mother was born in Wayne County, New York, in 1828, and died in 1887. They were the parents of four children, of whom two are living. Mr. Austin came to the United States by sailing ship when he was twenty-one years old, first locating in Wayne County, New York, where he followed his trade as a butcher. Later he located in Valparaiso, Indiana, and engaged in the meat business, but in 1879 he came to Chestnut Val- ley, Montana, and engaged in farming during the remainder of his active years. Religiously he was a Presbyterian, while in politics he was a democrat. . In 1879 the subject's wife, then Julia Austin, came up the Missouri River from Bismarck to Fort Ben- ton on the steamer "Key West," accompanying her

father. Then her father and Mr. Hodson came by wagon to Chestnut Valley and in the spring of 1880 the mother and another daughter, Elizabeth, made the same trip to Fort Benton, thence overland to Chestnut Valley.

To Mr. and Mrs. Hodson were born seven chil- dren, namely: Luella, who was the first white child born in Chestnut Valley, is the wife of E. J. Couch, a ranchman in Cascade County, and they have a daughter, Luella; Mary is the wife of J. W. Dockery, a ranchman in Chestnut Valley, and they have two children, Herschel and Eveline; John was married to Isabel Travis and they have three children, Charles, Philip and Mabel; Bessie is the wife of J. H. Hughes, a merchant in Cascade, and they have two children, Wesley and Hortense; Charles is superin- tendent of the home ranch; Hattie died in 1909, at the age of fifteen years; and Mabel died in the same year, at the age of twelve years.

Mr. Hodson's career presents a notable example of those qualities of mind and character which over- come obstacles and win success. He was not only eminently successful in business, but he was univer- sally respected in social life and as a neighbor he discharged his duties in a manner becoming a liberal- minded, intelligent citizen of the state where the essential qualities of mankind have ever been duly recognized and prized at their true value.

JAMES D. O'BRIEN. One of the well known young farmers of the Yellowstone Valley, where Fox Creek joins the murky waters of the big river, is James D. O'Brien, whose life from birth has been passed upon the spot still sacred as his home. The flight of time has hurried him from the cradle through the period of youth and half way across the span of "three score and ten" and he passes the "half-way" with no exhibition of terror at the prospect of the finish, for he comes from the loins of one of Montana's brave old pioneers. He is carrying the burden of a modest valley farmer, pro- ducing the staple articles of food and watching them go into the great agricultural stream which flows on toward the feeding-grounds of the world. He is one of the heaving tide of worthy citizenship which maintains the world in equilibrium and shares in the prosperity or the adversity as it is measured out to the human race.

As told elsewhere in this work, the O'Briens are all but native to the soil of Montana from its dis- covery date. James D. himself was born upon the face of this commonwealth and his natal day was June 10, 1885. He was coached to manhood by a , father who knew how to train sons for useful and honorable lives, and it is with pardonable pride that he refers to John W. O'Brien, his lamented sire. Young James grew up in the store and about the road ranch his parents kept on the highway lead- ing from Glendive to the Missouri River, and his education was presided over chiefly by the lady teachers of the county, chief among whom was Miss Tina Hackney, who left an indelible impres- sion upon her pupils and who was honored with the office of county superintendent of Dawson County.

As he approached man's estate James D. famili- arized himself with the affairs of the store and the developing ranch of his parents and was a close associate of his father when the store was burned and the business snuffed out almost as completely as if it had never been. He was filling a man's place on the ranch long before this untoward inci- dent, and to this work since has he devoted his talent and his time. For some years he was a stock raiser and a small feeder and shipper, but the invasion of the region by the emigrants bent on farming curtailed

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

the range and even changed him from a stock man to a farmer. Every year he has harvested grain from the seed of the springtime, and in the great drouth of 1919 he threshed 900 bushels of wheat, which proved to be the best grain marketed at the Sidney Mills that year.

Mr. O'Brien's home is the old domicile which stood before his parents came to the spot as the successor of "French Jo." Its logs are hoary with age and its low ceilings and squatty appearance pronounce it at once the home of some old pioneer. The clus- ter of cabin. structures which mark the O'Brien domi- cile and suggest to the traveler the doings of years long dead stand just out of reach of the ever en- croaching waters of the Yellowstone and commune, as it were, with the spirit of the decaying ruins out upon the highway where the voice and bustle and business has long been still.

James D. O'Brien is, as his rank as a citizen, a counterpart of his father. Justice is still enthroned in the old seat where the elder placed it, democracy shines where it ever shown when the senior of the name worshiped it and the political activities of the son are fashioned in keeping with the ancients of the democratic faith. He lives alone where his childish voice resounded among the cottonwoods and echoed upon the night air, and the service to his locality which he has rendered has been done as a good citizen setting a virtuous example and in aid of the war drives in behalf of the winning of the World war.

REV. CHARLES DAVID CROUCH. Pastoral and many executive and penetrative duties have made Rev. Mr. Crouch a prominent figure in Montana Meth- odism.

He was born at Plumstead, England, December 3, 1863, a son of William and Caroline (Baker) Crouch. He was ten years of age when the family came to America in 1873, and he grew to manhood and finished his education in the public schools of Salt Lake City, Utah. As a youth he mastered the book binder's trade, and from that trade he earned his living for twenty-one years in the states of Utah and Montana. In 1898 he entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 1903 he graduated in the theological course from the Mon- tana Wesleyan University at Helena. In 1913 he was awarded the degree Doctor of Divinity by the Uni- versity of Pugent Sound at Tacoma, Washington. Doctor Crouch was pastor of the important churches in the state, at Butte. Great Falls, Missoula and Helena, and from 1908 to 1912, four years, was district superintendent of the Yellowstone District of the Montana Conference. Doctor Crouch is a trustee of the Great Falls Deaconess Hospital, of the Bozeman Deaconess Hospital and the Montana Deaconess School at Helena, and is a trustee and chairman of the board of directors of the Montana Wesleyan College at Helena. In politics he is a republican, and is a member of the Woodmen of the World and recently became affiliated with the Masonic Order.

November 29, 1882, at Salt Lake City, Doctor . Crouch married Beulah A. Adams, a daughter of Barnabas and Julia (Banker) Adams. Mr. and Mrs. Crouch have two children, Leslie B. and Clara Dean, the latter the wife of Ross G. Gallup.

ISOM PREUITT is a Montana pioneer and for many years has been identified with the community of Townsend, where he lives retired.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 19

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