Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 202

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 202

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The Kempton Home Ranch was developed by its founder until it contained 2,000 acres. Mr. Kempton was an advocate of dry land farming and his experi- ments in that direction were widely beneficial to many farmers. By following his theories he raised some record crops. He introduced a ninety-day corn that proved especially valuable in the semi-arid country. His crops of Irish potatoes also were note- worthy and with an irrigation system drawn from the springs on his land he always had a flourishing garden.

Mr. Kempton was a factor in the establishment of Terry's first bank known as the State Bank of Terry, and was one of its first directors and held the office of vice president when he died. With others he was associated as a stockholder in the Ranchman's Supply Company store at Terry, an institution that did an immense business for many years. He was a known friend of the common schools and in the early days before the organization of a local district provided a private teacher for his own children. He encouraged school building and progress at Terry and though not a resident of the town was instrumental in taking the lead and securing the establishment of a splendid high school building. That building was erected so as to permit of subsequent additions, but Mr. Kemp- ton died before the structure was completed. He was also a promoter of the Union Church at Terry. Politically he was a republican.

At Greeley, Colorado, James B. Kempton married

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Miss Maria Gerry. She was a daughter of Elbridge Gerry, who was a grandson of the historic character Elbridge Gerry of New York. Mrs. Kempton was born at Laramie, Wyoming, and her mother was a full-blood Sioux Indian. James B. Kempton died August 19, 1910, and his wife on the 12th of Novem- ber of the same year. .

Their children were: Berney F., of Terry ; Henry N., of Terry; Mrs. Sarah Harrison, of Terry; San- ford S. and Asa S., stockmen at Morristown, South Dakota; James G., of Terry ; Mary, wife of Ed Phil- lips living at Cody, Wyoming; and Joseph, of Terry.

Successor to his father in many of the ranching ac- tivities, and a man of world-wide experience and travel, Berney F. Kempton was born on the family ranch near Greeley, Colorado, July 8, 1870. He lived there until he was about fourteen years of age and acquired his education in Colorado. It may be said that he grew up with a rope in his hand and lived the life of a cowboy and developed his latent talents by experience until he was one of the most famous of the many famous rough riders and broncho busters. His expertness attracted the attention of Doctor Carver, the famous rifle shot, and as a result of an invitation Mr. Kempton joined the Carver Wild America show in the spring of 1890 at Vienna, Austria. He went direct from the western range to Europe. He gave exhibitions of riding at Budapest, Warsaw, Moscow, Petrograd where a private per- formance was given for the dowager empress of Russia. While in Russia a Cossack horse that had thrown off a whole regiment was brought to the show and the Americans did the trick "double" in ten minutes. From Petrograd they went to Helsing- fors, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg and Berlin. At Berlin a private performance was given for the benefit of the now ex-crown prince. At Berlin the horses were sold by raffle and the troupe then left Europe and by way of the Suez Canal traveled to Melbourne, Australia, where they showed five months in Sidney and another month was spent in various Australian cities. At Melbourne Mr. Kempton roped the first kangaroo ever caught in that manner, and says that it was an easier trick than roping wolves or antelopes on the Montana range.

The company came back by way of New Zealand, the Samoan Islands, Hawaii to San Francisco, where Mr. Kempton after eighteen months of foreign travel, separated from his companions and returned to his work on the range at Terry. Since then he has given all his time to the cattle and horse business, and has continued much of the enterprise originated and established by his father. He breeds good draft horses and during the war found a splendid market for them, contributing much of the best stuff sold at the Miles City horse sales.

In 1913 Mr. Kempton began the erection of the Kempton Hotel, now completed as a house of forty rooms. It was opened in 1915 and Mr. Kempton is its proprietor. He is also a stockholder in the Terry State Bank and in every way has shown himself one of the vigorous and public-spirited men of the com- munity. He was a member of the Council of De- fense of Prairie County during the war. In politics he is a republican, casting his first vote for Benjamin Harrison, and has never missed a presidential elec- tion. He is a member of the Royal Arch Masons, and he and his wife are members of the Eastern Star.

Mr. Kempton has been twice married. By his first marriage he has two children, Clifford S. and Bernice. The latter is the wife of Lynn Ingersoll, a rancher in Prairie County. Clifford S. served twenty months as a volunteer in the World war. For a time he was assigned to duty in Hawaii, and from

there was transferred to the great artillery school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. After his discharge he began ranching with his father.

At Morehead, Minnesota, July 20, 1909, Mr. Kemp- ton married Miss Martha Magnuson. She was born in Wermland, Sweden, one of the six children of Magnus Elofson and Kajsa Anderson. Her father visited the United States many years ago, but spent his life as a farmer in Sweden. Mrs. Kempton came to the United States in 1905, and finished her educa- tion in the Custer County High School in 1909 and was married the same year. Her brother August is a merchant at Terry, her sister Ann is the wife of Wilbur Turner of Miles City. Mr. and Mrs. Kemp- ton have an interesting family of five children named James B., Gerald, Edmond, John and Berney E., Jr.

J. HIRAM BICKLE. The name of Bickle is a pioneer one in Montana, and although J. Hiram Bickle, of Knowlton, is not as old as others in the matter of settlement, he belongs to that family and has him- self been a Montana man since November, 1896. Like others of his name who have identified them- selves with this commonwealth, he is a cattle man and has been ranching ever since he came here.

Mr. Bickle was born in Wisconsin, July 2, 1863, and was a lad of seven or eight years when his par- ents moved to Kansas. His father was William Bickle, who settled in Wisconsin some years before the Civil war, in which he himself was a soldier. He was born in England and came to the United States as a steerage passenger, when a boy, leaving his native land because of his antipathy for the government. He settled in Wisconsin at once, and gathered cranberries, sold evergreen trees and farmed for wages, and earned the money to pay the passage to this country for his parents and the other children. The family finally all settled in that state and there the parents are buried. The father also was named William and the son was one of a family of twelve children born to his parents. William Bickle acquired a fair education in England in spite of the independent character of his youth. He en- listed as a private in a Wisconsin infantry regiment during the Civil war, fought with General Sherman's army, saw a service of three years, and was never captured or wounded by the enemy. In politics he was a republican and took what interest a good citizen should in political affairs. He served as as- sessor of his township in Kansas, but declined re- election to the office, preferring not to serve that way. His religious faith was that of the Adventist Church. As a settler, Mr. Bickle was early in the Solomon Valley. He was ambitious to make himself a good home, and to surround himself with cattle, sheep and hogs and with the comforts their profits brought him. He died in September, 1905, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. William Bickle married Mariette Albert, a daughter of David B. Albert, an Irishman by birth and a Wisconsin farm-

er. Mrs. Bickle died in July, 1917, the mother of the following children: Eva, the wife of Frank Leake, of Kearney, Nebraska; David, of Ismay, Montana; George, of Havre, Montana, where he has served many years as county sheriff ; Ellen, who married John Robinson, of Beloit, Kansas; Eli, of Salina, Kansas ; J. Hiram; Lena, the wife of Thomas Lester, of Portland, Oregon; Sinne, who died un- married; Benjamin, of Sheridan, Wyoming; Ira, of Colby, Kansas; and Charles, of Seattle, Washing- ton, who was the second in order of birth.

J. Hiram Bickle came into Montana from Kansas, in Mitchell County of which state he had grown up. His father went to Kansas in the spring of 1870 and entered a claim in the Solomon Valley, the old

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homestead being near the City of Beloit. He grew

a native of Kentucky who came to Missouri at an up as a farmer boy and the district school there gave . early day, and there married a Miss Allcock, and him his educational opportunities, but he did not take among their numerous children were four sons and two daughters who spent their lives in Missouri. During the war between the states, William West served in the Confederate army as a member of General Price's army. advantage of them fully. Leaving home at the age of sixteen years, he began life for himself at farm- ing and stockraising about the old Bickle home, hav- ing bought his time from his father, to whom he paid $25 per month until he came of age. When the Fort Scott, Wichita & Western Railroad was built, or under course of construction, he had teams and some time to spare and secured contracts at grading on the road between Eldorado and Newton, putting in a year at railroad work. Leaving this road, he went on the construction of the Rock Island, which was building through Northern Kansas, and did grading on the line from Formosa to Jewell City, a work in which he spent six months. He had re- sumed farming once since taking up the railroad work, and now again engaged in that vocation.

Mr. Bickle's first work in the State of Montana was as a sheep ranchman in the employ of his brother, David J. Bickle, and ranged on the head of Pine Creek. He was a wage-worker for eleven years, in the service of his brother, his monthly wage being at first $35, which was gradually in- creased to $60. He invested his surplus wages in cattle and when he started his own ranching with 126 head it was of the common cattle of the region, which he ran under the brand "3LF." This brand he abandoned and the "Tub L" has since been his chief mark. The common grades of old have disap- peared and the grades of Shorthorn and White Faces have taken its place.

Beginning ranching alone, Mr. Bickle started on the head of Pine Creek, but two years later estab- lished his ranch at Knowlton, on a tributary of Locate Creek, a region in which he entered his homestead and has acquired by purchase railroad lands, having developed a ranch of 1,924 acres. All of this is under fence and stocked with both cattle and horses, which have been bred well toward the pure Percheron, a class of stock which has not been a disappointment on the Bickle ranch.

J. Hiram Bickle was married in Atchison County, Missouri, in June, 1881, to Mary E. Miers, who was born in Auglaize County, Ohio, and reared from the age of twelve years in Mitchell County, Kansas, where the family had settled on a farm. To Mr. and Mrs. Bickle there have been born: Alice, the wife of D. B. Van Cort, of Fallon County, Montana, with a daughter, Leona; George B., of Knowlton, Mon- tana; who married Myrtle Hatton and has three chil- dren, William, Idella and Joseph; William W., on the Bickle home ranch, who married Jessie Fleet and has a daughter. Marjorie; and Gladys, who married Ed Roby, of Fallon County and has two children, William and Frances. William W. joined the heavy artillery branch of the United States Army for serv- ice in the World war and arrived overseas about the time of the signing of the armistice.

When he reached his majority Mr. Bickle shaped his politics after the republican plan and cast his first presidential vote for James G. Blaine. He has followed this preference to the present time, save in the contest of 1896, when he gave his ballot to Wil- liam Jennings Bryan.

STERLING C. WEST. Coming to 'Montana before he reached his majority, Sterling C. West has developed with the great state, and at Jordan he found a congenial field for the expression of his business abilities, he now being proprietor of the West Mer- cantile Company. He was born in Texas County, Missouri, April 24, 1879, a son of Wesley and Julia (Mitchell) West, and a grandson of William West,

Wesley West was born in Southwestern Missouri in 1849, and there he grew to manhood, developing into an extensive produce buyer and a man of promi- nence in his community. The first Mrs. West died at Licking, Missouri, when but twenty-seven years old, having borne her husband three children, name- ly: James, who died in young manhood; Sterling C.,, whose name heads this review; and Ethel, who married Russell Mann of Plentywood, Montana. Mrs. West was the daughter of Spencer Mitchell, a pioneer of Missouri, who married a Miss Thornton, and they had a large family. He enlisted in the Union army from Missouri during the war between the states and was killed on the battle field. In private life he was a farmer. After the death of his first wife Wesley West was married to Martha Willliams, but they had no children.

Sterling C. West was reared amid truly rural surroundings and was early taught the dignity of honest labor by his parents. After attending the local country schools he entered the Licking High School, from which he was later graduated. For a time after his graduation Mr. West was engaged in teaching in the country regions surrounding his native place, but the ambitious young man could , not rest content with what he considered inactive employment and so came to Montana where he felt he could take part in the changes constantly taking place. His first employment after coming to the state was secured as a member of the sales force of Hedrick Brothers of Culbertson, and remained with this firm for fifteen years during that period learn- ing merchandising in a most thorough manner. He then formed a partnership with C. A. Wittmeier under the caption of the Wittmeier-West Company, which developed into one of the sound mercantile . concerns of Culbertson. In addition to his con- nection with this firm, Mr. West became a director of the Citizens State Bank and was a member of the city council of Culbertson during the period that the city installed a $40,000 waterworks plant, providing for the payment of it through bonds. In 1914 Mr. West and his partner sold their mercan- tile establishment, and much to the disappointment of their fellow citizens, left Culbertson, where they had been very dominant factors, 'Mr. West coming direct to Jordan, buying out the store then owned by H. L. Baldwin, but established by William C. Henderson, the pioneer merchant of Jordan. Since becoming the proprietor of this establishment, Mr. West has made it the leading commercial enter- prise of the county seat, and carries a general line of carefully selected and timely stock, which his excellent connections enable him to offer at specially reasonable figures. Mr. West has been instrumental in securing the erection of the Jordan Flour Mill, and is president of the company operating this plant.

The marriage of Mr. West took place when he was united with Miss Clara Erickson at Vermillion, South Dakota. She was born August 9, 1883, in the vicinity of Vermillion, a daughter of Martin Erick- son, a native of Norway, who came to the United States in boyhood, and passed the greater part of his subsequent life at or near Vermillion as a farmer. The eldest of the children born to her parents, Mrs. West was graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1907, with the degree of Master of Arts,

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and was engaged in teaching in the high school course when she met Mr. West, although she had taught at Emmettsburg and Eagle, Iowa, before coming to Montana. Mr. and Mrs. West have two children, namely : Sterling C., Jr., and Shirley Eleanor.

Mr. West cast his first presidential ballot for William Jennings Bryan in 1900, and has continued to vote the democratic ticket ever since when national issues are in question. The fraternal affiliations of Mr. West are with the Masonic order and he is a member of Culbertson Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is past worthy patron of Culbertson Chapter, Order of Eastern Star, to which his wife also belongs. Both he and Mrs. West are active members of the Presbyterian Church, the faith of which best expresses their religious be- lief, and while at Culbertson he was superintendent of the Sunday school, and he is giving the Jordan Sunday school the same attention. An elder of the church, Mr. West attended the general assembly held at Columbus, Ohio, in 1907, and has been a delegate to a number of the synods of Montana, through this service gaining a pleasant acquaintance with the various pastors of his denomination in the state. During the late war 'Mr. West rendered very effective and valuable service in the various loan and other war campaigns, and not only was very generous in his own subscriptions but was able to induce a number of others to subscribe, who, but for his efforts might have remained slackers. In every respect he measures up to the best require- ments of American manhood and citizenship, and Jordan is fortunate in acquiring him.

CHARLES DALY. The experiences of Charles Daly, ranchman of the Stacey locality of Powder River County, are many and varied, and during all of them he has never lost his great faith in this region, which has been justified by his success along all lines he has entered. He was born near Hamilton, Hancock County, Illinois, May 9, 1858, a son of Charles Daly, born at Listowel, County Kerry, Ire- land, who came to the United States in young manhood. A stone mason by trade, he found ample opportunities for work in New York City, but drifted westward, finally reaching Butler County, Nebraska, where he homesteaded and there spent a number of years. He was married in New York City to a young lady who had crossed the Atlantic on the same ship as he, but as she died when her son, Charles Daly, was an infant, her name is not known to him. In addition to Charles, she had a daughter, Margaret, who is married and living in Kansas, and a son, J. H. Daly, who is living in Miles City. After her death, the father was mar- ried to Julia Hamilton, and they had three chil- dren, namely : Peter F., who lives at Miles City; Annie, who became the wife of Lewis M. Griffin, and died near Stacey, Montana; and Stephen C., who lives at Moorcroft, Wyoming.

Charles Daly, the younger, whose name heads this review, attended the country schools of Hancock County, Illinois, and Butler County, Nebraska, and when he was seventeen years old ran away from home and for eighteen months did not let his father know anything of, his whereabouts. He boarded a train at Columbus, Nebraska, and "beat his way" from there to Corinne, Utah, and lie owes the Union Pacific Railroad for that ride to this day. Corinne was then the freight forward- ing point for Montana, as at that time not a rail of railroad had been laid on Montana soil. Mr. Daly's advent into Montana was in October, 1875,

when he came to the territory with a freight wagon bringing an outfit of mules.

Liking the locality, Mr. Daly decided to remain in Montana and first stopped near the present site of Dillon, finding employment as a sheep-herder for Poindexter & Orr and for R. A. Reynolds. After a year he went to the Great Falls locality, engaging there with the firm of Potts, Weston and Gillette, stockmen. The senior member of this firm was a distinguished man of Montana, serving it for twelve years as territorial governor. After three years with this firm, Mr. Daly went to Beaver- head County, securing work on the ranch owned by R. A. Reynolds. There he remained until the fall of 1880, at which time he trailed cattle and sheep for Poindexter and Orr to Miles City. They wintered their stock on the Liscom ranch, but Mr. Daly returned to Beaverhead County, and remained until the spring of 1881. At that time he came to Custer County, bringing with him 600 head of sheep, and this marked the beginning of his career in his present region. His first winter was spent on Powder River, but in the spring of 1882 he located near the head of Little Pumpkin, and has remained here ever since.

As the nucleus of his ranch, Mr. Daly home- steaded, and upon it he built his first real home in Montana, a log cabin, 18 by 18 feet, without a floor, and covered with poles and dirt. A single door afforded light, ventilation and entrance or egress. Here Mr. Daly lived alone until the fall of 1883 when he was joined by his father and brothers who came from the old Nebraska farm. During the earlier period Mr. Daly marketed his mutton and wool at Miles City, sixty-one miles away, where was then located the only postoffice in the region. The prices were so low as to make it almost im- possible for him to carry on, sometimes being as low as 8 cents per pound, a contrast to the 55 cents per pound Mr. Daly received for his clip during the late war. He also lost heavily on account of the severity of the winters, but he persisted in his endeavors, and at one time had as many as 8,000 head of sheep. Now he runs only about 1,500 head. As time went on, he began to experiment with cattle in a small way, and he now has a large herd, favoring Herefords. He has shipped prac- tically every hoof he has produced to the Chicago market. When he began to realize the changes which were pending owing to the closing of the open range, Mr. Daly began to curtail his stock production and turn his attention to grain growing, and has been just as successful in it, as he has been in his stock business. His ranch now com- prises more than ten sections of land along the Little and Big Pumpkin creeks. In wheat his best acre yield has been thirty-five bushels, while in corn it has been as high as thirty bushels, and he has never failed to harvest a paying crop of both. His oats have done well, yielding as high as fifty bushels per acre.

Coming here before Montana was surveyed, and before there was a municipal boundary line of any kind, Mr. Daly has developed with the state, and has naturally been called upon to assume some of the responsibility of public office. Always affiliat- ing with the republican party, he has oftentimes represented his district as a delegate to the county conventions, or served on the county committee of his party. For two years he was under sheriff for Sheriff Gibb, and in 1910 was elected county com- missioner to succeed Charles Huckins. His associ- ates during his first term were R. T. Furnish and W. A. Cameron, and later they were Robert Yokley

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and J. R. Mckay. For six years he continued to look after the business of the county, and during his incumbency of this office considerable road work and bridge building was done, and the County of Powder River was organized from Custer County. He had under consideration the issuance of bonds for refunding, and in other ways improved the financial condition of the county through his able handling of public matters.

On July 26, 1887, Mr. Daly was united in mar- riage with Abigail E. Payett, a daughter of Lewis Payett, who came to Montana in 1876, four years in advance of his family, and located at Miles City, which he served as postmaster, and he was also associated with the Diamond Mercantile Company of that place. Still later he was engaged in a restaurant and confectionery business, and subse- quently was in the retail liquor trade. His birth occurred at Worcester, Massachusetts, but he later went to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was mar- ried to Grace Haggarty, and still later was located at Bismarck, Dakota. It was from the latter point

that Mrs. Payett brought their children to Montana, coming up the Yellowstone River, the trip taking nine days, she arriving at her destination, Miles City, in 1880. Considering the difficulties of naviga- tion, it appears like a dream that a steamboat was able to get through. Mr. and 'Mrs. Payett had the following children: Doctor Charles, who lives at Duluth, Minnesota; Annie, who married Fred Mer- rill, lives at Helena, Montana; Mrs. Daly, who was born April 7, 1868, at St. Paul, Minnesota ; Mrs. Arthur Pellittier, Montana; Lewis and Mollie, who are twins, the former of whom is living on the Daly ranch, and the latter of whom is deceased, never having been married. Mr. Payett survives and although seventy-seven years of age, is in pos- session of his faculties and makes his home with Mr. and Mrs. Daly. All his life he has voted the democratic ticket.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 202

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