Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 21

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 1144

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BURTON S. ADAMS. On the scroll of honor which recites the deeds and achievements of serious and purposeful men in Montana appears the name of Burton S. Adams, who is serving his second term as postmaster of Sidney. While he has rendered his

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town and his Government efficient service in the pos- tal department, it is not this service which gives brilliance to his record of achievements within the state, but in a different field and where scientific training and experience had to do with the founda- tion work of development which has since taken place. He brought to the state a personal equipment for engineering work and for several years he was a modest factor in the scheme of land surveying, in the designation of mineral lands by survey as a deputy United States surveyor and on the work preliminary to the construction of irrigations proj- ects which have come to be a large factor in achiev- ing agricultural fame for the treasure state.

In preparation for his profession of civil engineer Mr. Adams laid the ground work for his education in the schools of Faribault, Minnesota, near which city he grew up, took a preparatory course in Carle- ton College at Northfield and finished his profes- sional course in the Valparaiso University in In- diana, where he graduated with the degree of C. E. in 1889. He did much work in the field while taking his course, and thus acquired the practical as well as the theoretical knowledge of his profession, and his first position upon entering upon his career in the field was as assistant to the engineer in the con- struction of the waterworks system of Middlesboro, Kentucky, and he continued with the company for some time, not only as a builder but in charge of the steam plant of the city. When that connection was severed he came to Montana and found work with the Great Northern Railway Company as a transitman and later as the head of an engineering party in the field. He was appointed chief, in charge of the construction of the east end of the Cascade tunnel, by C. P. Smith, but it happened that he was then engaged in a mineral survey in the state, far distant from a telegraph office, and he failed to receive word of his appointment in time to accept.

He was appointed deputy United States mineral and land surveyor in 1894, and in succeeding years made public land surveys in Flathead, Lincoln, San- ders, Missoula, Blaine, Phillips, Valley, Roosevelt, Powder River, Custer, Fallon, Dawson, McCone and Richland counties. He made mineral surveys in West Fisher, Libby, Troy and Sylvanite districts of Montana, of Sumpter and Meadows districts of Ore- gon and of Granite Creek and Barkerville, British Columbia. He made surveys for the British Colum- hia Lumber Company on the Upper Frazer and Smoky rivers to the Peace River Divide. He was county surveyor of Flathead and Dawson counties. Montana, while active in engineering work, and was vice president of the O'Niel Lumber Company at Kalispell. Made surveys and plans for Big Fork Power Development, Ashley Lake Reservoir and Ir- rigation project.

He first visited the Yellowstone Valley, where his interests and his home now are, in 1899 and he made preliminary surveys of it in 1902. The con- struction of the project was recommended the next year and he has been an officer of the Water Users' Association, organized to co-operate with the Govern- ment in the construction of the project. He is chair- man of the board of commissioners of Irrigation District No. I, which is the successor of the Water Users' Association. He represented them in Wash- ington, D. C., three times in the fight for rental orders and charges and terms of contract, and suc- ceeded in getting a ten-year rental. He made the first survey of a part of the townsite of Sidney for Mr. Kennoyer, the present mayor, in 1904, upon which site J. A. Ferris established the first general store and Ira M. Alling built the first residence and located the first lumber yard. He was one of the

officers and organizers of the Bank of The Valley and of the Valley Mercantile Company, and when he identified himself with the valley he acquired some irrigable lands, his home ranch, and a bunch of cattle four miles from the site of the new town. He- has been secretary and president of the Commercial Club, and a member of the school board three terms.

Besides his work done in Kentucky as an engi- neer Mr. Adams was employed by Norfolk, Vir- ginia, to do some municipal surveying, and he went from there to Chicago and worked on the survey for the water system for the World's Fair Park. With the termination of his work there he came out to Montana.

He volunteered for service in the Spanish-Ameri- can war, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the First Montana Cavalry.

He platted the towns of Whitefish, Eureka, West Libby, Rexford, Lindsay, Big Fork, Somers, Galata, Sylvanite and Sidney, Montana.

In 1895, Mr. Adams went to South America as an engineer for the Orinoco Company, which held a ninety-nine-year lease from the Venezuela govern- ment, and he was one of a party of fourteen which made a survey preparatory to the development of the delta of the Orinoco River. He helped make the first survey of that river for navigation, and was placed in charge of the first party of white men to reach the summit of the Imataca Mountains. After spending a year south of the equator he re- turned to Montana and resumed his connection with engineering as a land surveyor north of Malta- Harlem and Chinook.

Burton S. Adams was born in Rice County, Min- nesota, April 11, 1870, and he grew up on the farm of Thomas C. Adams, his father. The senior Adams held to democratic principles in later life, and his son Burton S. cast his maiden ballot in support of the candidate of that party. He has served as United States commissioner and was appointed postmaster of Sidney in December, 1915, as the successor of Raymond A. Northey, and four years later he was reappointed by President Wilson. While we were winning the war and saving the world from German domination he was a member of the County Council of Defense, was chairman of the first Red Cross drive made here and chairman, also, of the Home Section of the Red Cross.

The Adams home in Sidney was deeply interested in the war because the oldest son of the family, Curtis, was a volunteer in it. He entered the service at the age of sixteen, one of the youngest of the fighting forces of America, and served where danger was present and real work was to be done until the Central Powers were exhausted and gave up the struggle. Returning home Curtis Adams became re- instated as his father's assistant in the Sidney office.

Burton S. Adams married in Flathead County, Montana, in 1898, Miss Emma Eckelberry, a daugh- ter of a Union soldier of West Virginia, who came from Minnesota to Montana about 1889 and settled in Flathead County. The children of the Adams household are Wm. Curtis, Lorena J., Walter B., Earl J., Louise E. and Ralph V.

It will be seen in the foregoing brief review of Burton S. Adams that his thirty years since he en- tered upon his professional career have been filled with activities which count. A varied field has called him into service and his mark has been made upon hoth continents of the Western Hemisphere. He has familiarized himself with his own country by exploring it where duty called, and he has mixed with men of his profession who stand as monuments to engineering achievement in the development of the Northwest. He is yet young. There are other fields

R.P. Thorough man

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

waiting for his invasion on some important mission, and there is vigor of body and mind unimpaired to cope with whatever professional or other problems of business to which he may be assigned. He yields to no man in interest in the solution of the future problems of the Yellowstone Valley, and while time treads lightly upon him it will be his pleasure and purpose to serve.

HARRY G. KETCHAM is the editor and proprietor of the oldest newspaper in Richland County, the Sidney Herald, which was founded in the year 1908 as a weekly journal and a supporter of republican principles. The paper was first established by Lewis N. Barton and Frank J. Matoushek, but a short time later this firm was succeeded by Mr. Barton, who continued as its owner and publisher until September, 1909, when William H. Ketcham, an old-time news- paper publisher, purchased it and conducted it under the same political principles as when it was founded. In 1910 Mr. Ketcham sold the paper to his son Harry G., who continued the issue of a weekly paper but modified its political leanings and made it an inde- pendent journal.

Harry G. Ketcham is a native of Stuart, Ne- braska, where he was born November 3, 1884, but during his boyhood was taken by his parents to Crawford, Nebraska, where he graduated from high school in 1903. He had grown up, as it were, in his father's printing shop, and he entered the newspaper field as soon as he finished his education. He worked on the Crawford Tribune, his father's paper, and then going to Alliance, Nebraska, worked on the Alliance Times. From that field he came to Mon- tana and secured a position with Publisher Burke in Red Lodge. On severing his connection with that journal Mr. Ketcham left the newspaper field for a time and became connected with railroad work in the office of the Northern Pacific Company at Red Lodge, serving first as a warehouse man and later as cashier of the office, and remained with the com- pany for two years. At the end of that period he returned to Nebraska and resumed work with his father at Crawford, and when the father sold his paper and came to Sidney the son remained with the Crawford Courier, but finally joined his father at Sidney and succeeded to the ownership of the Herald.

William H. Ketcham, the father of Harry G., is now a resident of Seattle, Washington. He com- pleted his career as a newspaper man on the Sidney Herald after sixty-three years spent as a journalist, having begun the work as a child of thirteen in Philadelphia. He was born in the Keystone State and was reared in Philadelphia. He subsequently worked in Washington and Baltimore, and he is credited with having laid the first type set on the Chicago Inter Ocean. He established his first news- paper in Michigan, and subsequently followed his newspaper career in Kansas, Nebraska, Michigan and Montana, always conducting his journals under the republican banner. His school training had been very limited, but the newspaper office gave him a splendid conception of English, and he gained a broad and comprehensive knowledge. He also possessed a facile pen, and in the mid-day of his journalistic career he carried strong editorials as a feature of his issues. He was always an active political . worker, was a great admirer of Colonel Roosevelt and one of his strong supporters, and in his younger days he served as a congressman's clerk in Washington and spent a number of years in that capacity. During the period of the Civil war he was engaged to some extent in secret service work.

Mr. Ketcham, Sr., married in Jackson, Michigan,

May 9, 1872, Miss Nevada Bannock, who is believed to have been the first white girl born in Sonora, California, Sierra Nevada Valley. She died in 1917, at Sidney, the mother of the following children : Leroy, who died in Bruning, Nebraska, unmarried; Mrs. Ellis Weatherford, of Seattle, Washington; William E., whose home is in Sacramento, Cali- fornia; and Harry G.

Harry G. Ketcham has not espoused the political faith of his father, and although his sympathies are with the republican party he holds aloof from party affiliations and in local matters supports the man rather than the candidate. His paper has been the official journal of the county for some years, and also does the official printing for Sidney. It took a very prominent part in the county division move- ment, and as a public organ was an undoubted force in creating sentiment and crystallizing it for the creation of the new County of Richland.

Mr. Ketcham has contributed one of the splendid business houses to the development of Sidney. In 1916 he erected the Herald Block, a solid concrete building 461/2 by 100 feet, with full basement, one- half of which is used as the Herald's plant. His equipment for his publication comprises an inter- type setting machine, power press, two job presses and other equipment necessary for the conduct of a complete power newspaper plant.

Mr. Ketcham married at Minot, North Dakota. June 1, 1912, Miss Josephine O. Fladager, who was born at Inwood, Iowa, a daughter of Mrs. Eline Fladager and she was the eighth born in a family of nine children. Mrs. Ketcham received her ad- vanced educational training in St. Augustine College, South Dakota, and was a teacher when she became acquainted with Mr. Ketcham. Mr. and Mrs. Ket- cham are the parents of a son and daughter, Harriet Josephine and William Harry.

ROBERT PERRY THOROUGHMAN. It is not so many years since Montana was practically undeveloped, although from its present condition it is difficult for the newcomer to believe this for the state has made such rapid strides forward as to make up for a late start. However there are a number of men, still vigorous and hearty, who can relate personal experi- ences with the Indians that for thrilling excitement outclass any moving picture thrown upon the screen. and which are absolutely true in every particular. Robert Perry Thoroughman, of Cascade, is a man who has passed through the different phases of life in this region, and has fought and conquered the red man in more than one encounter. He has pros- pected and mined gold, hunted wild game, been a cowboy, cattle raiser, and is now a retired resident of the valley where he made the greater part of his money, and at all times he has been a regular, red- blooded man, typical of the great West and its mag- nificent development.

Robert Perry Thoroughman was born at Saint Joseph, Missouri, December 18, 1847, a son of Oliver Perry and Mary (Magill) Thoroughman. Oliver Perry Thoroughman was born in Kentucky, and died in Montana in 1887, when sixty-six years old. His wife was born in South Carolina and died in Mon- tana in 1884, when sixty-three years old. They had eight children, three of whom survive, Robert Perry Thoroughman being the second in order of birth. Oliver Perry Thoroughman was a miner at Saint Joseph, Missouri, which he left for Denver, Colo- rado, in 1862, traveling overland from there to Vir- ginia City, Montana, and became one of the pioneer prospectors and miners of the territory, continuing in this line of activity until his death. For eight years he served Lewis and Clark County as a com-

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missioner. He was an Odd Fellow and a democrat. Robert Perry Thoroughman attended the schools of Saint Joseph, Missouri, and Denver, Colorado. In 1862 he helped to drive a herd of cattle to Denver, accompanying his father to that city, and in 1863 rode the range. For the subsequent six months he was with Doctor Hamilton in the United States service as teamster. During 1865 he drove overland to Helena, Montana, with a team of mules, and was there engaged in mining on the site of the present Central Railroad depot. In 1874 he went to Flat Creek, Lewis and Clark County where he kept a road house. Having acquired a little capital, he invested it in cattle and ran them on the range in Prickley Pear Valley until July, 1880, when he drove his herd, in search of better pasturage, to Chestnut Valley, where he has since remained. Mr. Thoroughman made a success of the cattle business and is the owner of 1,120 acres of fine ranch land, but in 1917 sold his cattle and retired. He is 'a mem- ber of the Montana Pioneer Society, and the Odd Fellows, of which he a past noble grand. A very strong democrat, he was elected on his party ticket to the Seventh State Assembly and served for one term, and he has been deputy assessor for eleven years.

On March 23, 1870, Mr. Thoroughman was mar- ried to Anna E. Bickett, of Helena, Montana, a na- tive of Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Thoroughman have two children, namely: Joseph, who married Effie Johnson, has one son, Robert Perry; and Anna, who is the deceased wife of Edwin Newlan. Both as a private citizen and public official Mr. Thoroughman has done his duty and lived up to his obligations in every particular and few men stand any higher in the confidence and esteem of his associates than he.

LOSSIE DAWE. One of the earliest of the Mon- tana pioneers is Lossie Dawe, who established his home within its borders before it was admitted to the Union of states, and his name is enrolled among the founders and promoters of the commonwealth.

Settling in the Valley of the Yellowstone, where he began making a permanent home, Mr. Dawe first found work on the ranch of Sears and Davidson, sheep men on Sears Creek, and he remained with those ranchmen for two years. He was without per- sonal capital save his ability and willingness to work, and his first monthly wage of $30 soon became the nucleus of an asset. Following this first employment Mr. Dawe continued as a wage earner in the employ of Charley Smith, who was also well known among the early sheep men and ranchers, but six months later he became the employe of a cattleman, one of the best known settlers of this region and now known as Senator George McCone of Glendive. A year and a half were spent on the McCone Ranch, at the same monthly wage he received formerly. Mr. Dawe had then been in the country four years, and in partnership with C. G. Larson had accumulated a bunch of 125 head of cattle, worth at that time about $22 a head, and the two began ranching for themselves.

The partners located on the North Fork of Burns Creek, above the N. P. Ranch, and were merely users of the domain, all that they could utilize. They erected the necessary sheds and corrals and built a cabin for themselves, hauling the logs from the river and erecting a dwelling 14 by 16 feet, and while its room space seems small at the present time it on one occasion accommodated over night seven- teen men, Mr. Dawe slipping in last and out the first in the morning to make room for the others to move. The partners remained there until 1895.

when Mr. Dawe married, and during that period one of them looked after their cattle interests while the other, chiefly Mr. Dawe, went on the roundups of the country and thus added greatly to the treasury of the firm. When the partnership was dissolved in 1897 they sold 175 head of cattle, and with his share of this sum, perhaps $1,500, Mr. Dawe started the cattle business in partnership with his wife.

They began their career together as stockraisers with a cow and a calf and a bull, and remained 'at the old ranch. They lived on there for several years, and rather than enter the land when the Gov- ernment survey was made they purchased a tract adjacent to the hamlet of Sidney for their future home. The Dawe ranch, as it came to be known, was subsequently sold to J. Thomas Neese, who was for a time the second partner of Mr. Dawe in both his cattle and ranching enterprise. The old ranch has finally disappeared, absorbed as claims of set- tlers, but the old house and barn are still in use.

Purchasing the southeast quarter of section 28, township 23, range 59, at Sidney, Mr. Dawe com- menced the work of permanent development there in 1904, occupying the stone residence of six rooms and moving his family from the dirt-roofed cabin on the ranch to a comfortable home and in which his younger children have grown to mature years. Other improvements have been erected with the pass- ing years, including the building of a tenant house in 1918 and additions to both his residence and barns. His stone barn was the first of the large and com- plete barns to be built in this community, and was erected by C. L. Stockwell. Mr. Dawe began his stock raising industry at this place with a bunch of registered Herefords, intended for breeding and sale, but this idea was soon abandoned and he eventually disposed of those animals and substituted Holsteins for dairy purposes, for several years following the business of selling milk and cream. Sheep finally followed the Holsteins on the Dawe ranch, and this proved a profitable venture, owing to the high prices received for both wool and sheep during the past few years. The homestead farm has been enlarged by the purchase of other lands, a part of which have been improved for cultivation and some of it irri- gated.

Although the name of Lossie Dawe has been so long identified with the interests of Montana, he is a native son of the East, born at Norristown, Mont- gomery County, Pennsylvania, August 14, 1868, a son of William T. and Rebecca (Dill) Dawe. The father was born in Cornwall, England, and was twelve years of age when brought by his parents to America, the family settling in Canada, but after the father's death they came into the United States and located in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. William T. was the youngest of the family of three sons and a daughter, the others being John, Jona- than and Sarah. William T. Dawe spent three years of active service as a Pennsylvania soldier during the Civil war, participating in many of the historic battles of that struggle, and on one occasion a rebel bullet clipped off the lobe of his right ear.

From his Pennsylvania home William T. Dawe subsequently removed to Macomb County, Michi- gan, and some years later migrated with his family to Texas, where he spent three years, living in Lamar and Hamilton counties and also spending some time in the Choctaw Nation. Tiring of the South, he returned to Michigan and remained there until the latter part of his life, when he followed his son Lossie to Montana and engaged in rauching. He passed away at Livingston, this state, in May, 1919, at the age of eighty-one years, and his wife died at Glendive in November, 1908. In their family

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were the following children : Jesse F., clerk and re- corder of McCone County, Montana; Lossie, of Sid- ney; Phillemon R., who died one month after the death of his mother, leaving a wife and four children near Gettysburg, Montana; Mary E., the wife of E. J. Kiehl, of Livingston; and Benjamin, also of Gettysburg, Montana.

Lossie Dawe was reared and educated in Kent County, Michigan. He came to Montana by train on the Northern Pacific, and reached Glendive as a passenger from Columbia, North Dakota. He be- came identified with the community of Sidney when it contained only one log store, the postoffice, which was a part of the house he occupied, and a Methodist Church and a parsonage. He built the third business house of the town, which is now used to house the goods of the Johnson-Mercer Hardware Company, in 1906, and in 1910 associated himself as a partner with E. A. Kenoyer and engaged in the loan and real estate business under the firm name of the Mon- tana Eastern Land & Investment Company, making loans, selling lands and writing insurance. The part- ners also dealt in real estate individually, and the building now occupied by the Sidney National Bank was their office. In 1915 the firm dissolved partner- ship, Mr. Dawe then resuming his occupation as a farmer. He was a member of the company which built the telephone system of Sidney and extended the line to Fairview, Savage and Crane, installing exchanges at all the places. Mr. Dawe served as the president and one of the directors of the company for a year. The Mountain States Telephone Com- pany finally absorbed the system by purchase. When the First National Bank of Sidney was chartered Mr. Dawe secured some of its stock, and was a mem- ber of its board of directors until he disposed of his interest in the bank.

When Richland County was created from the boundaries of old Dawson he gave an active support to the movement, and thus took part in one of the most spirited county-division battles ever waged in the state. He also cast a ballot for the location of the state's capital at Helena. Mr. Dawe has been one of the most active workers Montana has ever had for a prohibition country. He was one of the original members of the prohibition party in this locality, voting that ticket when it was a known lost cause, and he has lived to witness the accomplish- ment not only of state prohibition but of a national one, and now that the question of prohibition is set- tled and a part of the country's organic law he gives his political affiliation to the republican party.

Mr. Dawe was married in Dawson County, in the community of Sidney, May 15, 1895, to Miss Lavenia G. Blakeslee, a daughter of Nelson and Mary E. (Gall) Blakeslee, who migrated from New York to the West and first settled in Brown County, Kansas, where Mrs. Dawe was born June 29, 1866, but she spent her girlhood days in Savannah, Mis- souri, and was educated there and in the Kansas State Normal. She came to Montana to continue her work as a teacher in Dawson County, and was teach- ing at Tokna when she became acquainted with Mr. Dawe. Mr. and Mrs. Blakeslee were the par- ents of the following children : Edwin, of Savannah, Missouri; Julia, the wife of J. R. McMillan, of San Jose, California; Mrs. Nellie Powell, who died at Netawaka, Kansas; Lavenia, the wife of Mr. Dawe; and Mamie, who married Frank Schilling, of Fair- view, Kansas. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Dawe, namely: Enid M., who graduated from the Sidney High School, spent one year as a domestic science student in the Agricultural College at Bozeman, and is now deputy county treasurer of Richland County; Glen B., a high school student of

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 21

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