Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 209

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 209

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His first work was as a sheepherder and then he "tended camp" and finally, in the fall of 1907, the Donaldson & Brackett ranch was turned over to Mr. Brackett and he has been its manager and operator ever since. Until the closing of the range to stockmen he and his brother-in-law had merely used the land for grazing purposes, but then Mr. Brackett entered a homestead on a portion of it, and they leased two townships of railroad land, acquiring townships 16 and 40, which, with the public lands entered, comprise the present ranch.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Until he took over this ranch Mr. Brackett fol- lowed his brother-in-law's wishes and handled noth- ing but sheep, but at that time put in a small bunch of White Face cattle, and has continued his breed- ing with high grade males so that he has greatly improved the character of his stock. The ranch brands are "Lazy FR" on the left thigh, "Re- versed FT-Bar" on right thigh and "S Lazy H" on the right thigh worn by both his cattle and horses. Mr. Brackett makes his own shipments to the Chicago market, and raises for wool and beef purposes.

On November 1, 1911, Ivory Brackett was mar- ried at Miles City, Montana, to Ellie Ziegler, born at Saint Jacobs, Ontario, Canada, September 12, 1885, a daughter of Louis Ziegler. He was a miller of Elora, Ontario, Canada, who married a Miss Weisel. Mrs. Brackett came to Montana with George Donalson and worked on the ranch for Mrs. Donal- son, and is the only member of her family in the United States. Mr. and Mrs. Brackett have one son, James Frederick.

It was after he came to Montana that Mr. Brackett cast his first presidential vote and in it sounded the keynote of his politics, it being cast for the candidate of the republican party, William Mc- Kinley. From then on he has been a stanch sup- porter of the principles of this party and is able and willing to defend his stand, for he is con- vinced that his party is the one which has always given the country its most prosperous periods. His success has come through his willingness to work and learn and his ability to handle big problems before him for solution. So far he has not ren- dered any public service, but he gives to the ad- ministrations of others a hearty support which is valuable and encouraging, and is admitted to be one of the most representative men of his neigh- borhood.

EDWARD O. LENTZ. Among the merchants of Baker whose residence here began with the early his- tory of the town is Edward O. Lentz. He dates his business connection with Baker from July, 1910, when he and his brother Emil purchased the R. F. Pearce stock. The firm began business as Lentz Brothers, and for eight years the enterprise was conducted as such. With the election of Emil as treasurer of Fallon County the partnership was dissolved, and Edward O. Lentz has since owned and conducted the business.

Mr. Lentz is a native of Columbia County, Wis- consin, born at Columbus March 26, 1875, and is a son of August E. and Minnie (Richberg) Lentz. August Lentz was an old-countryman, born at Frank- enberg, Pommern, where Edward O. Lentz' uncle, Karl Lentz, has been burgomaster for more than forty years. August Lentz grew up in his native land and learned the trade of gun and lock- smith. He came to the United States prior to the Civil war and settled in Columbia County, Wisconsin, where he worked at his trade at Co- lumbus and continued to be thus occupied through- out his active life. He citizenized, became a democrat as a voter, moved to South Dakota and proved up on a homestead near Brooklyn, and lived on his farm until his death at the age of eighty-two years. His widow passed away three years later. Their children were: Charley, who died at Baker, Montana, leaving three children; Antone, of Brooklyn, South Dakota; Annie, now Mrs. George Haber, of St. Paul, Minnesota; Emil, of Plevna, Montana ; Henry, of St. Paul, Minnesota; Edward O .; and Theodore of Minneapolis, Min- ilesota.

Edward O. Lentz came to Montana from St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he was a land man during his earlier history with the place but later turned his attention to merchandising. He spent eighteen years in Minnesota, going there as a young man from Brooklyn, South Dakota, where he was reared from a child and where he secured his early edu- cation in the public schools, later spending two years in the State Agricultural College. He learned the barber trade there, and when he started his career in Minnesota worked for a time at his voca- tion in that state. He was then connected with O. W. Korr, selling Canadian lands, Mr. Lentz' duties comprising the conducting of the loads of landseekers entering into Canada as buyers. He covered Alberta in his trips for his company, center- ing at Leftbridge, the headquarters of the concern. He remained with this company about two years and then came to Montana and took up merchan- dising. The mercantile establishment of 'Mr. Lentz, while once a general merchandise stock, is now devoted to dry goods and notions and drifting more to an exclusive dry goods stock. His business site is on Main Street, occupying the old site of the pioneer drug store of Baker.

Mr. Lentz was married at St. Cloud, Minnesota, September 22, 1909, to Miss Sophie Wolter, whose parents were John and Elizabeth (Bearns) Wolter. Mrs. Lentz was born at Rices, Minnesota, June 15, 1885, and is the second of seven children, all of whom except Mrs. Lentz and Edward are resi- dents of Minnesota. To 'Mr. and Mrs. Lentz there have been born three children: Elizabeth, Philip and Mary Jane.

Mr. Lentz voted democratic for his first presi- dential candidate, supporting Mr. Bryan, but has since voted for republican candidates for President and is in reality a free lance in politics, preferring the man to the party. His other interests at Baker, aside from his business enterprise, comprise resi- dence properties which he built as a contribution to the growth of his town. He is a member of the Board of Aldermen of Baker and has served as such several years. Mr. Lentz volunteered for service during the Spanish-American war from St. Cloud, Minnesota, entering Company M, Thirteenth Regiment, Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, under Cap- tain McKelvie and Colonel Ames. The regiment rendezvoused at the Presidio, San Francisco, and sailed for the Philippine Islands on the transport City of Para, landing, after forty-one days, at Manila. The regiment reached there in August, and after a week entered active service, its work against the Filipinos beginning August 13. Mr. Lentz participated in the engagements of Manila, around which city the command remained for eight months after the city fell, and fought forty-one engagements on the island against Aguinaldo's troops after the Manila battle, but escaped wounds through it all. The regiment sailed from Manila for home aboard the transport Sheridan, and reached San Francisco in 1900, after two years of service. Mr. Lentz was a corporal and was honorably discharged at San Francisco in October, 1900. Taking up civil life again, he returned to St. Cloud, Minnesota, and assumed the barber business, as before men- tioned. His subsequent career has been one of con- stant advancement, characterized by the highest type of citizenship.

NEIL B. FLATT, who first took an interest in the Hysham community when he homesteaded land near there in 1907, is well known in several localities of Montana, particularly in the City of Billings, where he had an active business career for a number

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of years. He has been in Montana for over thirty- five years, has become successful here, and at the same time has contributed substantial advantages to every community where he has lived.

Mr. Flatt was born in County Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, July 12, 1856. His father, James Flatt, was born and married in England, his wife being Mary Fenn. About 1836 the family came to Amer- ica and settled in Ontario. Their home was so far from civilization that when coffee or sugar or other groceries were required James Flatt had to follow a blazed trail for twenty-five miles to the nearest market. He carried his wheat for flour sixteen miles on his back, a bushel at a time, and after having it ground returned home the same way. He made sugar from the maple trees, cut "bee trees" for his honey, and in other ways lived the real life of the pioneer. The capital city of Toronto was then called Little York and was a mere village. James Flatt died at the age of sev- enty-four as the result of being thrown from a load of hay. His widow survived him at the old Canadian home to the advanced age of ninety-one. Of their eleven children eight survive.

Neil B. Flatt lived on his father's farm to the age of sixteen. He graduated from public schools and secured a teacher's certificate, but his only service in that vocation was as a supply teacher for a brief time. At the age of sixteen he began learning the painter's trade, and altogether served an apprenticeship at four trades, painting, decorating, plastering and lathing.

As a mechanic he entered the Government serv- ice in North Dakota at Fort Stevenson on the Missouri River, where he helped remodel the old adobe fort into a schoolhouse. At Fort Yates in the same state a new frame school building was erected, and from there he and other members of the crew came to Poplar, Montana, and thence to Crow Agency, where they built a frame schoolhouse which the Indians burned in 1887. It was suc- ceeded by the brick building on the same site. He was a mechanic in the service of the Government about three years, and during that time visited as far west as Custer, Montana.

Mr. Flatt first came to the territory of Montana as early as 1883. When he left the Government employ he engaged in painting and decorating at Glendive, and continued his work' in and around that place for several months. He then came further west, and for three years was engaged in farming in Lewis and Clark counties. That was his first experience in the West at farming, and it was not sufficiently encouraging to hold him. Selling his farm improvements, he then located at Billings and engaged in house painting and decorating, opening a paint and wall paper store, and did contracting in those lines. He shipped the first car of wall paper into the city, and as a contractor carried from ten to twenty men on his pay roll. He was one of the substantial business men of Billings for about eleven years, after which he moved to Hysham, his present place of residence.

During his residence of about thirteen years in and around Hysham Mr. Flatt has contributed to the development of the town, including his own modest residence and a business house on Main Street. He crossed the line from Canada into the United States in 'March, 1879, arriving at Fargo, North Dakota, on Tuesday morning. Three days later he took out his first citizen papers. His final papers were issued at Helena. Politically he has always been a republican, and has served as a member of the Republican Central Committee. He has been a member of the school board in

Rosebud County and at present is chairman of the Board of County Commissioners.

THOMAS JOHNSTON, JR., a ranchman on Box Elder Creek in Carter County, belongs to the pioneer period in Montana's history. He was born in Boone County, Iowa, September 6, 1877, and came into this Northwest region as a child with his father, Thomas Johnston, Sr. The son's earliest recollec- tions of things and events are centered in Mon- tana, for practically his entire life has been spent within the borders of this commonwealth and he knows no other home.

He grew to mature years on the ranch of his parents along the Little Missouri River, and he obtained his early education in the country schools near the home. In the main, however, his boy- hood and youth were spent in ranching and wran- gling the home herd of cattle. He remained with his parents until past his majority, and when he took up the burden of life for himself it was on the Box Elder, in a log cabin on the site of his present home. His ranch is located about seven miles south of the post office of Ridgeway, and he obtained a squatter's right to the land along the creek before the domain was surveyed. After the survey he entered a homestead and subsequently entered an additional tract, and both have since been patented. His brother William came into this community at the same time, and their homes are situated within a few hundred yards of each other, both having substantially improved their ranches with residences and fences.

Thomas Johnston, Jr., was associated with his father in the cattle business early in his career as a stockman, and he adopted his initial cow brand about that time. His stock is known by the "R-Y" on the left side. The brothers inaugurated their cattle industry with the White Face stock, and Thomas Johnston has continued this strain through his twenty years of active identification with the business, and is operating as extensively at the present time as he has ever done on his ranch, which embraces a section and a half of deeded land. He has been identified with the cattle shipments of the Johnston raising for more than twenty years, Bellefourche having been the point of shipment to the Omaha and Chicago markets.

Mr. Johnston came to the Box Elder before the community was organized and when but few settlers could be found in the region. He was at that time unmarried, and he and his brother lived as bachelors and carried on their ranching affairs. Thomas Johnston married in Bellefourche, South Dakota, December 23, 1903, Miss Rosa May Wise, who was born in Labette County, Kansas, January 28, 1884, one of the three living daughters of Rank and Mary (Smith) Wise. The father, who was a farmer, died at Alzada, Montana, and the mother is still living in that town. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Johnston, Sylvia, Myrtle, Vera and Cecil.

Mr. Johnston proved an efficient aid in the or- ganization of school district No. 8, and was a con- tributor to the funds which erected the Johnston School House in the district. He is still serving as a member of the school board. In political matters he gives his allegiance to the republican party, always casting his vote at elections, and he is proving himself a man of experience and effi- ciency in every department of the life and interests of the community of Ridgeway.

CHARLES J. WAGENBRETH. In Miles City, where he established his home in 1906, Charles J. Wagen-

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breth has reached the highest point of his business success. Known throughout his community as an efficient butcher and meat market man, he has ex- panded his efforts to include banking, real estate dealing, ranching and stock raising. His ranch is located north of Miles City on Custer Creek, also owning other. lands in that vicinity, and he is a director of the Miles City National Bank. Since coming to Montana in 1889 he has been prominently identified with matters that tend to instill life into this region, and at the fairs and annual roundups he has shown an especial interest and was president of the roundup for 1919.

Mr. Wagenbreth was born in St. Louis, Missouri, December 27, 1868, and as a boy he worked at the butcher's trade. Charles E. Wagenbreth, his father, was a butcher, and six of his sons learned the same trade. The senior Mr. Wagenbreth was born in Leipsic, Germany, and was married in St. Louis, 'Missouri, to Annie Schmidt, but both are now deceased. Of the nine children born to them are still living and include: William, who is en- gaged in farming in Chesterfield, Missouri; Annie, wife of H. Fehl, of St. Louis; Charles J., of Miles City; Rose, whose home is in St. Louis; Henry, engaged in the meat business in St. Louis; Edward, assistant manager of the Independent Packing Com- pany of St. Louis; Bertha, wife of Ed Keary, also of St. Louis; Ernest, a butcher in St. Louis; and Albert, another of the brothers following the butchering trade in St. Louis.

From his native City of St. Louis Mr. Wagen- breth went to Colorado, where he spent two years in Denver and Blackhawk County, then another year in Salt Lake City, Utah, and was returning West from a visit home when he stopped in Mon- tana in 1889 and secured work from the Butte Butcher- ing Company. He was an expert butcher at this period. After some time he went to White Hall, Montana, and engaged in the butchering business for himself, spending two years there, and during the time was married. For six months he was the butcher for the Anaconda Mining Company at Belt, this state, and then resumed the butchering business for himself in Helena, conducting the Rialto Market on State Street for nine months. He then purchased a shop in East Helena and continued in business there until 1906, when he sold his interests and came to Miles City, open- ing the 'Montana Meat Market on Main Street. Mr. Wagenbreth holds the championship of the Northwest as a beef and sheep dresser. During the years in which he has been engaged in the business he has developed wonderful rapidity and expertness as a butcher, and in his first contest in this state he dressed a beef which weighed more than seven hundred pounds in a few seconds over seven minutes. He makes but four strokes of the knife to the side, and removes the hide from an animal in less than half a minute. In the contest at Butte in 1895 he dressed a beef weighing (dressed) 595 pounds in four minutes and fifty seconds and two sheep in four minutes and thirty- five seconds.

In his political affiliations Mr. Wagenbreth be- gan voting as a democrat, casting his first presi- dential ballot in 1888 for Mr. Cleveland, and he has ever since satisfied his political activities merely as a voter. In his fraternal relations he is an Elk and a Knight of Pythias and a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. During his residence here he has contributed to Miles City a business block on Main Street, and he also owns his own business house and the Irish Theatre. He also built one of the splendid homes of the town, located

at III7 Pleasant Street, and has built other resi- dence propertv.

Mr. Wagenbreth was married at Butte, although a resident of White Hall at the time, February II, 1895, to Miss Christina Gelhaus. She was born in Iowa City, Iowa, June 1, 1866, and her father, who was by trade a tailor, died in early life. She came to Montana in 1892 and located at Glendale, and it was there she met Mr. Wagenbreth. Her brother, Herman Gelhaus, resides in Dillon, 'Mon- tana. Two daughters, Florence and Genevieve, have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Wagenbreth. The elder, Florence, is now the wife of Schuyler E. Brock- way, of Miles City, a bookkeeper for the Miles City National Bank.

MRS. MAUDE BANKER WILLS. While one of the most alive and youthful spirits of the community of Wibaux, Mrs. Wills has a veteran's record as an educator, and her own experience serves almost as a history of the public schools system in the town and in the County of Wibaux.

Mrs. Wills, who has been the first and only county superintendent of schools of Wibaux County, was born at Atlantic, Iowa, and as a child went with her parents to Russell County, Kansas. Her father, Albert Banker, was of old Knickerbocker Dutch stock, was born at Tweed, Canada, in 1834, was liberally educated, and married in Canada Miss Florilla Comer, daughter of John Comer. In Can- ada Albert Banker followed farming, and after his removal to Kansas engaged in merchandising with his son Louis, and took an active part in the building up of a splendid business. He died 'March 27, 1917, having survived his wife many years. His children were: John, of Russell, Kan- sas; Louis, successor of his father as a merchant at Russell; Willard, a resident of San Francisco; James D., of Russell; Edwin A., a member of the United States Marine Band at Washington, D. C .; Charles A., of the Exchange State Bank of Glen- dive, Montana; and Mrs. Wills.

Mrs. Wills was reared at Russell, Kansas, gradu- ated from the grammar and high school there, spent two years in the teachers' training course at the Kansas Normal at Salina, and for two years was a student of languages and music at Kansas Uni- versity. As a girl of sixteen she taught her first term of school at Telluride, Colorado. She was there in the seventh and eighth grades for two years, and then came to Wibaux, Montana, for the purpose of visiting her brother. While here she was offered a school, accepted it, and there has scarcely been an interruption to her continued work as an educator for twenty years. When she first came here Wibaux was a part of Dawson County, the northern boundary of which was Canada, and Dawson and Custer made up all of Eastern Montana. The Wibaux schoolhouse in which she first taught has been remodeled and is now the court house of Wibaux County. At that time it was a new building with accommodations for three teachers. Mrs. Wills taught in Wibaux about five years before her marriage, and she has always entered heartily into every movement and organized work affecting the educational interests. She par- ticipated in institutes and summer schools as an instructor in old Dawson County, and has con- ducted the Teachers 'Montana Summer School, com- prising almost a dozen counties in the eastern end of the state, the school being held at the most accessible points of the district. For a number of years she has been a member of the Montana Teachers Association, an institution that has ac- quired importance only in recent years, and is an

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active member of the National Education Associa- tion and secretary of State Administrative and Executive Women.

Mrs. Wills was elected county superintendent upon the organization of Wibaux County in August, 1914. At that time she defeated two opponents, though the election was not conducted on partisan lines. At the next general election she was her own successor without opposition, and her work has commanded uniform approval by the voters ever since. In 1918 her candidacy was endorsed by the opposing party and again in 1920, As county superintendent she began without equipment or of- fice, first occupying a room in the assessor's office. She made the first county map she owned. At that time one of her districts extended from Miles City of Edgehill, Wibaux County, old No. I, and the east end of it became district No. I of Wibaux County. The old Redtop Butte School was one of the first schoolhouses built in that whole region, and it fell to Wibaux County. No county super- intendent had ever visited the school during the nine years of its existence until Mrs. Wills became superintendent. All the organization work fell upon her. The new county had eighteen districts, while there is a total of thirty-two in the county. Sixty- seven teachers do the work in all the schools, and except in the town schools all are separate schools. The buildings of the county are all modern except about eight, and while education is comparatively a modern thing there is a bright and favorable side to what has been done and the future is ex- tremely auspicious. Common school examinations have been held annually, and many of the gradu- ates continue their work in the county high school.

Mr. Sam J. Wills was born in Salt Lake, Ken- tucky, and was brought to Montana as an infant by his father, Simpson M. Wills, the venerable pioneer rancher now retired at Wibaux. Sam J. Wills finished his education at Dickinson, North Dakota, and as a young man began station work for the Northern Pacific Railway. Later he entered the train service as a fireman with a run out of Glendive, and on leaving the service as a result of an injury resumed ranching, an occupation to which he had been trained as a youth. After several years he became a carpenter, and now follows that trade at Wibaux. Mr. and Mrs. Wills were both reared in republican families of the stanch and regular variety, and Mrs. Wills cast her first presi- dential vote in 1916. Mr. and Mrs. Wills have a son, Banker S., born June 7, 1906, now a fresh- man in the Wibaux County High School.

Mrs. Wills was a very active patriot in the World war, served as chairman of the Junior Red Cross, and never neglected an opportunity to use her offi- cial position as a means of promoting the spirit of patriotism in the younger generation. Her musi- cal talent has always been available to the com- munity, and her piano has brought cheer to many a depressed spirit and added zest to many a gay and festive as well as patriotic occasion.

PAUL J. DAVIES. The record of the gentleman whose name introduces this sketch contains no ex- citing chapter of tragic events, but is replete with well defined purposes which, carried to successful issues, have won for him an influential place in business circles and high personal standing among his fellow citizens. His life work has been one of unceasing industry and perseverance and the systematic and honorable methods which he has ever followed have resulted not only in gaining the confidence of those with whom he has had

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 209

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