Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 198

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 198

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While on the farm Mr. Hepperle practiced break- ing out additional acreage each year, and thus in- creasing the size of his various crops. Wheat was the chief one, and each year showed a progressively larger yield of grain and flax. While his first harvest yielded him less than 200 bushels of wheat and a small yield of other grains and flax, the next year proved a better one, and the third year his wheat yield was 1,800 bushels, while his other grain and flax threshed out corresponding yields. This success enabled him to add by succeeding purchases, one and one-half sections, including his homestead, and marks conspicuously his achievements as a Montana farmer. He was also engaged in stockgrowing, and when he made a sale of his personal property preparatory to moving to Plevna the sale amounted to $4,500, giv- ing him additional capital with which to conduct his elevator business which he had just established. Mr. Hepperle erected an elevator at Plevna in 1915 and opened it about September Ist of that year, it hav- ing a capacity of 25,000 bushels. This elevator, with its large storage facilities, has played an important part in the handling of the grain shipped from Plevna. When he located at Plevna Mr. Hepperie moved into his own house, which with his elevator constitutes his holdings at this point.

On August 29, 1914, Mr. Hepperle took out his final naturalization papers at Ekalaka, Montana, and began voting the republican ticket, giving his first presidential vote to Charles E. Hughes, and has seen no reason to change his political faith since that time. At present he is serving Plevna as city treasurer.

On February 28, 1910, Mr. Hepperle was married at Eureka, South Dakota, to Miss Elizabeth Opp, a daughter of Daniel Opp, an early settler of North Dakota, who came there from his native country of Russia and engaged in farming. Daniel Opp married Elizabeth Schauffels, and they had three children, of whom Mrs. Hepperle is the eldest born. Mr. and Mrs. Hepperle have three children, namely: Martha, Alma and Arthur.

Mr. Hepperle is a self-made man in the best sense of the word, and his success in life may be attrib- uted to the fact that he has always known exactly what he wanted and then gone right ahead to se- cure it. No obstacle has ever been of sufficient size to deter him; he has forged ahead, overcoming the

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difficulties of lack of knowledge of the language and customs of a new country, and while he was making good he was also making friends and win- ning the confidence and respect of his neighbors. Such men as he develop into good citizens and valuable adjuncts to any community in which they may see fit to locate. He is still in the very prime of active young manhood, and will doubtless branch out into other lines of endeavor, for he is not the kind to be content with what he has already ac- complished. Mr. Hepperle does not agree with some of his fellow citizens of Fallon County who seem to think that this part of the state is not suited to grain growing. He holds that any farmer who is willing to make the effort he did while conduct- ing his farm can produce just as good results, and he is constantly urging the landowners of this re- gion to develop the natural resources of the land. The manner in which he is discharging the duties of the office of city treasurer shows that he is fitted for public honors, and doubtless others of still more moment will be offered to him in the future. There are always plenty of possibilities before a young man as energetic and industrious as Mr. Hepperle.

THOMAS F. SCHOFIELD. One of the Board of County Commissioners of Fallon County, Thomas F. Schofield is likewise interested in farming in Carter County. He became identified first with Mon- tana as a railroad man, in the capacity of civil en- gineer with the Chicago, St. Paul & Milwaukee Rail- road, and at present is one of the leading citizens of Baker.

Mr. Schofield was born in Greene County, Ohio, November II, 1857, a son of William H. Schofield, who came West in 1860 and became an implement dealer at Wyandotte, Kansas. After two years he moved to Baldwin, Kansas, where he became financial agent for Baker University, and after serving eight years in this capacity went to Williamsburg, Kansas, a community which was named in his honor. There he engaged in farming and also dealt in Kansas Pacific Railroad lands, developed the Williamsburg coal fields and also promoted the branch of the Santa Fé Railroad running from Ottawa to Bur- lington, Kansas. He was the road's first president and sold it to the Santa Fé. Among his promotions while at Williamsburg was the Silkville factory and farm where silk worm culture was promoted and where buildings were erected for the manufacture of the product. In this he enlisted the interest of the Frenchman, Ernest Valentine deBoissier. He was engaged in numerous railroad enterprises in different parts of the United States and was a factor at Williamsburg until 1877, when he estab- lished an office at New York and dealt in railroad enterprises during the remainder of his life, his death occurring at Brooklyn in August, 1889, at the age of sixty-six years. Mr. Schofield was born at Yorkshire, England, and had limited educational advantages, but early developed a strong bent for business and pursued a successful career through- out life in the larger enterprises of transportation. He married in his native county Mercy Hall, who died at Baldwin, Kansas, at about the close of the Civil war. Their children were: Mrs. Henry T. Wright, of Pueblo, Colorado; William H., Jr., of Brooklyn, New York; Thomas F., of this review; and Miss Mary L., of Baker, Montana. Mrs. Henry T. Wright, of these children, is an artist, her chief work being in ceramic art. In her early life she did splendid work in oils and crayon and widely attracted the attention of art critics, but of recent years her attention has been centered upon ceramic

art and among her masterpieces is her painting on white tiling for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Com- pany at Pueblo, a series of portraits which now adorn eight panel niches in front of the company's model hospital. The portraits are of heroic size and are done in monochrome and faithfully depict the features of world-famous physicians and nurses. Miss Mary Schofield has given her life to activity in the field of music, being an accomplished pianist herself and a teacher of the piano, mandolin and guitar. While on her homestead in Carter County she gave some instructions, and her home was a center of musical endeavor for the community. Her musical education was obtained at Chicago, Brook- lyn, New York and at Leeds, England, where she spent three years abroad. William H. Schofield was a republican in his political beliefs but never took much interest in practical politics. He was a loyal American from head to foot, had no patience with "isms," which suggested doubtful patriotism, and was sent to the Legislature from Williamsburg.

Thomas F. Schofield received his education at Baker University and at Williamsburg, Kansas, and began his engineering career as a youth of eighteen years on the Kansas City, Lawrence & Southern Railroad. He began as a rodman and later worked successively for the Denver & Rio Grande, the Natchez, Red River & Texas, the Soo Line, the Min- neapolis & St. Louis and the Northern Pacific, all before he entered the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul service. This road he joined in Iowa on the C. & C. B. division, revising alignment and reducing grades, and was then locating engineer on the Ottumwa cut-off. Soon after this company placed him on valuation work in Wisconsin, and from this position went to the Soo Line as locating engineer on the Thief River Falls & Western Line. Returning to the Milwaukee road, he was locating engineer on the Puget Sound extension of the sys- tem, and set the first stakes west of the Missouri River, at Mobridge, South Dakota. After the road's location was finished he was division engineer on construction of the first seventy-five miles of the line. His next work was on grade reduction be- tween Mobridge and Aberdeen, following which he had charge of the location and construction of the Mott Line from Mclaughlin to New England, 135 miles in the Dakotas. On the completion of that work he left the service of that company and took up land in what is now Carter County, Montana.

Becoming a permanent settler of Montana, Mr. Schofield located his homestead ten miles west of Ekalaka, erected his pioneer buildings and complied with the requirements of the Government with resi- dence, working at his profession during absent pe- riods from his claim, doing his work for the Milwaukee Company at different points. He made his residence upon his farm from 1910 to 1917 and while there was a grain and hog raiser. His best wheat crop yield was forty bushels to the acre and he had a harvest every year that he sowed grain. His corn crop was sufficient to fatten for market the hogs he raised and the small field of alfalfa gave a favorable account of itself.

For his pioneer home Mr. Schofield erected a "shack," 14x24 feet, a single room, and his shed and stable for his stock was of frame. His sister, Miss Mary L. Schofield, also homesteaded near her brother, and her improvements were of a more sub- stantial and serviceable character than her brother's and her home became his own eventually. Mr. Schofield has passed his life unmarried, and he and his sister have made their home in common since the two became permanent settlers of Montana. He has passed through the various degrees, both ways,

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to high rank in Masonry, and is a member of Kaaba Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mys- tic Shrine, at Davenport, Iowa. Both he and his sister are republicans in politics. While a resident of Carter County, Mr. Schofield was elected county commissioner for Fallon County before Carter County was cut off and served on the board with James Pepper and George Farwell. He was elected in 1916 and has served ever since. He was offered a commissionership for Carter County, the bill cre- ating it having his name as one of the first board, but he declined this honor and retained his home in Fallon County, moving to Baker soon afterward. The Board of Commissioners now consists of Mr. Schofield, president, James Pepper and Ray Sutton.

MORTIMER O. TRACY. In placing the name of Mortimer O. Tracy before the reader as one stand- ing in the front ranks of the enterprising men of affairs and a leader of the bar of Carter County, whose influence has tended to the uphuilding of the community and the advancement of the affairs of the county, simple justice is done a biographical fact, recognized throughout the community by those at all familiar with his history and cognizant of the important part he has acted in the circles with which he has been identified. His career presents a notable example of those qualities of mind and character which are bound to win success, and because of his accomplishments and his high personal character and ability he enjoys to a notable degree the confidence and esteem of all who know him.

Mortimer O. Tracy is a Yankee by nativity, hav- ing been born in Addison County, Vermont, Octo- ber 5, 1844, and is the son of John and Almeda (Lyon) Tracy. The father was also a native of Vermont and devoted his entire life to agricultural pursuits. Of his three children the subject of this review is the only one who grew to maturity. John Tracy was descended from the old Tracy family of Connecticut where settled the emigrant ancestor of the family from England. Many of his pos- terity have become prominent in public affairs during the subsequent years, among these being Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy, of President Ben- jamin Harrison's cabinet, and who was chief counsel in the celebrated trial of Henry Ward Beecher.

Mortimer O. Tracy was reared on the paternal farmstead, but when nine years of age was bereft ' of his parents by death. He was given the advan- tage of splendid educational facilities, for after completing the public school course he was a student in Burlington College and, later, of the Vermont State University. The expenses of these years in college were defrayed by Mr. Tracy, who engaged in teaching school between college terms. Having determined to make the practice of law his life work, he gave serious study to law and was ad- mitted to the bar at Burlington, Vermont, when just twenty-one years old, so that he entered upon his life work well equipped mentally. His first loca- tion after leaving home was in Boston, where he remained several years, and during his residence there he became identified with the publishing busi- ness in connection with the National Art Associa- tion. Leaving Boston, he located in Washington County, New York, where he continued the practice of law. Subsequently he went to Cheyenne, Wyo- ming, where he remained until 1877, when he went into the Black Hills country, entering upon the prac- tice of law at Deadwood. His abilities were soon recognized and he served two years as state's at- torney for Butte County. At the time of his election he was established at Minnesela, the old county

seat, and later he was at Deadwood during the most historic period of the history of that place, when Hugh J. Campbell, known as the old "war horse" of Dakota Territory, was United States district at- torney, and at which time more than fifty lawyers practiced at the bar there. Among these was Judge Corson, who became Chief Justice of South Dakota, and his partner, Thomas, who became United States District Judge of North Dakota; Congressman Mar- tin was then a law clerk in VanCise & Wilson's office, and others of the members of that bar be- came men of some renown. Mr. Tracy was as- sistant to Judge Rice when the latter was first elected state's attorney at Deadwood, and among their successful work was the fighting of the bond cases, which they won for the county. Following his retirement from the office of state's attorney at Deadwood Mr. Tracy took up the work of in- vestigating the coal fields of Montana for the North- western Railroad Company. He was a civil engineer as well as lawyer, and from the time he came here, in March, 1893, he did a large amount of surveying throughout this section of the state. He prospected all through the hill country and found some ex- cellent lignite coal. The railroad company expected to build into this locality that year, and had it not been for the financial panic of that year they would have done so and made use of the data furnished by Mr. Tracy. After completing the railroad work Mr. Tracy was employed on Government work, establishing corners and running lines. While he followed surveying for many years, he was ap- pointed United States commissioner, serving in that . capacity until 1910, which means that a large num- ber of filings and proofs of residence passed through his court, title being obtained thereby. For many years Mr. Tracy has been engaged in the practice of law at Ekalaka, and has enjoyed a large and important practice.

In July, 1873, Mr. Tracy was married in Boston, Massachusetts, to Eliza Smith, who was a native of Vermont, and to them have been born two chil- dren, namely: Emma, wife of W. S. Rice, a mer- chant in Boston; and Grace, the wife of Mr. Barron, whose father is called "King of the White Moun- tains," being at the head of the hotel business of the mountain region of Vermont. Mr. and Mrs. Barron have two children, Virginia and Grace.

Politically Mr. Tracy has been a life-long sup- porter of the republican party, his first vote having been cast in Vermont for U. S. Grant for president. He has frequently been a delegate to district and state conventions, and during his active years he was actively identified with every campaign. He helped to incorporate the town of Ekalaka and has served as an alderman ever since, also being the legal adviser of the board. For more than fifty years Mr. Tracy has been a member of the Masonic Order and he helped to organize the lodge at Ekal- aka, of which he is the present secretary. He has been a builder of homes, and in many other tan- gible ways has contributed to the growth, upbuilding and development of his section of Carter County, so that he is eminently deserving of the high stand- ing which he enjoys throughout this section of the state.

WILLIAM DOMINY. One of the landmarks of Custer County probably known to every resident of that county is the "Dominy Ranch," situated in the Pine Hills locality. The proprietor of this ranch is even better known than the ranch itself. He is a veteran cattle and horse man, went into the region west of the Missouri River soon after the close of

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the Civil war and was a freighter at a time when the railroad mileage in the country west of the Missouri hardly aggregated more than that credited to Montana alone today. For nearly a decade Mr. Dominy was in Colorado, and he first came to Montana in 1882.

The first event in his long and interesting career was his birth in Illinois May 9, 1859. His father, Nathaniel William Dominy, was a native of France, came to America when a boy, and in McHenry County, Illinois, married Hannah Wood, daughter of James Wood, a pioneer Illinois man who came from New York state. Nathaniel Dominy was a farmer and developed land taken up from the Gov- ernment fifty miles west of Chicago in McHenry County. He died during the infancy of his only son. There were also five daughters in the family. These children in order of birth are named Helen, who married Frank Guernsey and they went to Nebraska as pioneers and settled near Fairbury; Kate, who married H. I. Udell and died in 1917 in Pasadena, California; Mary, who died in Illinois unmarried ; William; Jennie and Jeanette, twins, the former unmarried and living at San Diego, Cali- fornia, while Jeanette is the wife of Ed Baldwin and lives in Colorado. The mother of these chil- dren spent most of her life in widowhood and died at the age of eighty-five at the old McHenry County home.

William Dominy had the spirit of adventure and a restless energy, and to that as well as the cir- cumstances of the family he owes the fact that he received a scant education. At the age of fourteen he left his Illinois home in company with a Mr. Barnes, an old neighbor, and crossed the plains that year. They went across Missouri, Kansas and into Colorado and consumed six weeks on the way. They were part of a large train of emigrants. In- dians were numerous, many of the tribes hostile, and the party every day saw some Red Men and came across several camps where wagon trains had been attacked, the individuals captured or murdered and the stock run away. Mr. Dominy's train had the good fortune of never being attacked, but there were many interesting incidents. As a boy he was a keen observer of all phases of western life, and vividly recalls even today the manner in which Indians hunted buffalo, surrounding a herd and get- ting them into confusion and shooting down the . a republican. He is also affiliated with the Elks and animals until all were slain.

The destination of the party in which Mr. Dominy traveled was Greeley, Colorado. He remained a year with Mr. Barnes and then hired out on a ranch as a hand. Next he became a teamster taking freight to and from Boulder and Denver. When the Leadville mines were opened he freighted into that district from Denver for a year. He left freighting to go into the stock business as a cow- boy, and that was his regular occupation until 1882. For several years he was on the Baldwin ranch, just north of Denver and later was made overseer of the Baldwin ranch at Longmont, Colorado, where he stayed until he came to Montana.

Mr. Dominy owed his early interest in the Mon- tana country to literature which was being distrib- uted and some of which fell into his hands. In- spired by the prospects for trade he gathered up his horses, a hundred head, and alone drove them from Longmont, Colorado, into Custer County in the spring of 1882. He came through Cheyenne to Buffalo, Wyoming, and down Tongue River to Miles City. Miles City, then as now the metropolis of eastern Montana, contained a number of log shacks and perhaps 500 people. It was a "free for all"

town without any organized government, every man being a law unto himself.

For a brief time Mr. Dominy ran his horses on the range on Pumpkin Creek. He then sold out but subsequently acquired another horse outfit. Con- tinuously for over thirty-five years he has been in the stock business He moved to his present loca- tion in the fall of 1900 buying two sections of the railroad company. and on this, the nucleus of his ranch, built his first home in Montana. It is a house which still serves his purposes as a resi- dence and as a road ranch, and is situated on the banks of the Cottonwood, a tributary of the Yel- lowstone. The Dominy ranch now comprises six sections of land. He still handles horses and cattle, his cattle brand being "B-2" on the left side, while the horse brand is "faucett" on the left hip. He has usually shipped his cattle to the Chicago mar- kets, while his horse market has been at Miles City or to buyers in the immediate locality.

Mr. Dominy had not long been in Custer County before he became recognized for the typical virtues of the old time stock man, courageous, independent and resourceful. Along in the early 'gos he was selected by the county treasurer to collect delinquent taxes on personal property of stock men who had neglected or refused for some years to fulfill their obligations to the local government. Much of this stock could not be located in the county, some of it as far away as the Crow Indian Reservation. The owners believed they could not be taxed by the county authorities. Mr. Dominy when the duty was delegated to him prepared himself as for a round-up, and with his bunch of cowboys invaded the region, selected the stock indicated by the brands as belonging to the delinquents, and drove them into the jurisdiction of the court and advertised them for sale. This brought on a suit which tested the validity of the county's authority. The county was victorious, and after that for several months each year Mr. Dominy had a similar duty entrusted him by the officers and in that way turned into the treasury many thousands of dollars in taxes. He has done other official service in the county, having been a deputy under Sheriff Jack Hawkins and Sheriff John Gibb, and was chief of police of Miles City when he determined to go out to his present home, at which time he resigned. Politically he is Masonic Order.

At Miles City, October 17, 1889, he married Miss Lula Armbruster, a step-daughter of Charles Young. She was born at Omaha, Nebraska, April 22, 1873.

JOHN T. LOGAN, who is extensively engaged in ranching on Tongue River, has been a resident of the Birney locality since 1896. He is a native son of Illinois, and was reared from infancy in the vicinity of Atchison, Kansas, enjoying the advan- tages only of the rural public schools. His father, James Logan, brought the family from Illinois to Kansas in 1869 and settled upon the public domain in Atchison County, there spending the remaining years of his life. He was born in Indiana in 1835, and went to Illinois when a youth. During the Civil war he served with the rank of captain of an Illinois regiment in General Grant's army, and among other engagements in which he took part was the siege of Vicksburg. Although he served through- out the entire conflict of the war he escaped wounds or capture, and after the close of the struggle he took an active part in the Grand Army of the Re- public. In his political affiliations he was a repub-

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lican, and in Atchison County he served his home township as assessor.

Captain Logan was married in Illinois to Delilah Sawyer, a daughter of John Sawyer, and she passed away at the home of her son, John, in 1918, after a long and useful life of eighty-four years, having long survived her husband, who died in 1896, Their children numbered the following: Anna, who mar- ried Charles Plummer and resides in Los Angeles, California; Emeline, wife of Edward Zimmerman, of Hiawatha, Kansas; Frank, whose home is in Atchison, Kansas; John T., the Montana ranchman ; Edwin, of Twin Falls, Idaho; and Mattie, who married Judson VanCleve is now a widow and re- sides in Los Angeles, California.

John T. Logan was born in Hancock County, Illinois, January 20, 1866, and was only a child of three years when the family home was established in the Sunflower state. From Atchison County he came to Montana in 1886, and his first settlement in this state was in Custer County and his first employment was as a cowboy with the Three Circle ranch on Tongue River. During a period of ten years he continued as a wage earner for that' cor- poration. He was a young man just of age when he arrived in Montana, and having previously known the owners of the Three Circle ranch he went out to them and started on his career in the northwest.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 198

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