Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 210

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 210

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

dealings but also in the building up of a profitable business.

Paul J. Davies was born in Masonville, Kentucky, on October 27, 1862, and is the son of Joseph and Mary (Brown) Davies. Joseph Davies was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, in 1828, and his death occurred at Masonville, Daviess County, that state, in 1868. He spent his entire life in the Blue Grass state and gave his entire attention to agricultural pursuits. He was a democrat in politics and a member of the Baptist Church. He married Mary Brown, who was born in 1827 in Shelby County, Kentucky, and who died at Masonville, that state, in 1882. To these parents were born four chil- dren, namely: Alice M., who is unmarried, is a teacher of elocution and lives at Dyer, Tennessee ; Walter B. is a merchant in Union County, Ken- tucky; Paul J. is the next in order of birth; Wil- liam J. is a professor in the college at Dyer, Ten- nessee.

Paul J. Davies attended the public schools of his native town and a private academy at Finch- ville, Shelby County, Kentucky. At the age of nineteen years he laid aside his text-books and spent the following year in work on the home farm. During the following two years he was employed as a clerk in a general store at Masonville, after which he again gave his attention to the cultivation of the home farm, where he remained until 1887. In that year he came to Bozeman and at once engaged in teaching school, which was his voca- tion during the following ten years. He was then appointed deputy clerk of the District Court of Gallatin County, which position he held for four and a half years. In 1902 Mr. Davies bought a third interest in the Gallatin Abstract Company, but sold his interest about eighteen months later. He then entered into a partnership with E. V. Blankenship, then county clerk and recorder, and they wrote up the set of abstract books which Mr. Davies is now using. The Blankenship & Davies Abstract Company also wrote fire insurance, sold real estate and made farm and city loans. Eventu- ally the concern was incorporated as the Gallatin Land and Investment Company, though at a later date Mr. Blankenship sold his interests in the com- pany. The present officers of the company are as follows : President, A. J. Powers; vice president, Ida M. Davies; secretary and treasurer, Paul J. Davies. The offices of the company are in the Story Block, where the company has control of an entire floor, though several rooms are sublet. This is now the leading abstract company in Gal- latin County and enjoys the confidence of the public generally.

Mr. Davies' political views are in accord with the policies and platform of the democratic party, and he has taken an active part in advancing the success of that party. He served two years as public administrator of Gallatin County and one term as coroner, and at the present time is one of the two justices of the peace of township No. I, which includes the City of Bozeman and vicinity. He is a member of Bridger Camp No. 62, Wood- men of the World, and of the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce.

In 1898, at Bozeman, Paul J. Davies was mar- ried to Ida Mack, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Feron 'Mack. The father is connected with the East Helena Smelting Company and the mother is deceased. Mrs. Davies graduated from the com- mon schools here, taught school in this county and then served one term as county superintendent of schools just prior to her marriage.

1399

HISTORY OF MONTANA

In 1916 Mr. Davies was chairman of the County in Rosebud County to Miss Sarah Roberts, a daugh- Central Committee of his party and the campaign reflected great credit on his organizing and execu- tive ability.

JAMES F. HACKLEY, a ranchman on Powder River, came into Montana in the early and formative period of 1885 and made his first stop in Missoula County. He was one of the first to locate in the Flat Head Valley, and was but a youth of sixteen when he located there. He began his Montana career as a freighter and driver for an old French Canadian, Battice Inias, and he spent a year there, teaming between Ravalli and "The Foot of the Lake." He left that region to come to the Yellowstone Valley as a drover of a herd of cattle for the Niederung- haus Brothers of St. Louis, Missouri.

At Miles City Mr. Hackley separated from this band of cattle and began range work as an em- ploye of the Northern Cattle Company on Tongue River, Jo Scott having been superintendent of the property. Mr. Hackley also worked for Bryan and Moorehead, the "Bugg" outfit on Otter Creek and for Howes, Strevell and Miles, whose ranch was also on Otter Creek. At about this time Mr. Hackley terminated his career as a cow puncher and entered a homestead in Rosebud County, near the Cheyenne Indian Reservation, and he proved up his land and remained in that locality for eight years. It was there also that he built his first Montana home, a log cabin of two rooms, in which his children were born. After leaving this claim he engaged in the retail liquor business at Sheridan, subsequently transferring his interests to Ashland, where he erected a business house, and afterward engaged in the same business at Forsyth and Miles City, closing out his interests when prohibition car- ried the state. He then turned his attention again to industrial and ranching pursuits out on Powder River, where he purchased a half section of ranch land adjacent to Mizpah, the place having been formerly improved by Max Krell, and there Mr. Hackley is engaged at the present time.

He came to Montana direct from Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, his native locality. He was born on the 24th of April, 1869, and in the locality of his birth he spent the first sixteen years of his life, attend- ing meanwhile the Lawrenceburg schools and be- coming familiar with the work of the home farm. His father, Darius Hackley, was a native of that same Kentucky locality, and spent his life there. He was born October 1, 1818, and died November 29, 1883. His father had migrated from Culpeper County, Virginia, to Kentucky and established the family home in Anderson County, where he spent the remainder of his active life and died. He had married a Miss Hawkins, who bore him five chil- dren, two sons, Darius and Benjamin, and three daughters, 'Mrs. McAfee, Mrs. Cheshire and Mrs. Penney.

Darius Hackley married for his first wife Frances Penney, a sister of the man who had married his sister, and by that union be became the father of two sons, Oscar and Ormsby, both of whom were Confederate soldiers, and three daughters, Mrs. Delia Boston, Mrs. Mary Penney and Mrs. Julius Burrus. For his second wife Darius Hackley mar- ried Mary Penney, a sister of his first wife, and they became the parents of four children, namely : Ada, wife of Charles Crossfield, of Mississippi; John M., a physician at Mortonsville, Kentucky ; Sallie, who became the wife of Thomas Searcy, of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky; and James F., known familiarly throughout his home community as Jimmy.

Mr. James F. Hackley was married at Birney

ter of Calvit Roberts, a ranchman of Rosebud County. Three sons were born of this union, Forest and Calvit, who served their country in the World war, and Myron, the youngest child. Mr. Hackley married for his second wife Miss Evelyn Tatro, who came to Montana from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where her birth occurred on the 26th of December, 1893. She is a daughter of Fred W. and Alice 'M. (Parsons) Tatro, the father a native of Iowa and the mother of Minnesota. Mrs. Hackley was the first born of their three children, the two younger being the 'Misses Irva and Corice Tatro, who reside in Minneapolis. Mr. and Mrs. Hackley were married in Miles City, Montana, March 12, 1918, and before her marriage Mrs. Hackley was engaged in office work. Mr. Hackley was reared in the faith of democratic principles in Kentucky and has continued to give allegiance to those principles, but his political work has always been in the ranks as a voter.

EDWARD H. LANG for a quarter of a century has been with the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, being now general traffic manager of the corpora- tion at New York. He began his career as a tele- graph operator and gained his first knowledge of Montana thirty-five years ago.

He was born in Northern Michigan at Hancock May 31, 1866. His father William Lang was born in England in 1832, was reared and married there and followed the occupation of miner. He came to the United States in 1860 and went to the min- ing district of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan at Hancock, where he is still living at the venerable age of eighty-nine. As an American he has stead- fastly supported the republican party and is an active member and deacon in the Congregational Church. William Lang married Caroline Penrose, who was born in England in 1833 and died at Hancock in 1905. Richard B., the oldest of their children, is a merchant at Houghton, Michigan; William is foundry superintendent of the Home- stake Mining Company at Lead, South Dakota. George is a machinist at Houghton, Michigan. John is a molder living at Anaconda, Montana, and the fifth of the family is Edward H. Thomas H. is assistant general manager of the Standard Oil Com- pany at Chicago. Charles is bookkeeper for a large lumber manufacturing company at Houghton. Fred is superintendent . of the Portage Lake Foundry and Machine Works at Hancock, Michigan. Sidney lives at Detroit, being an employe of the Cadillac Motor Car Company. Carrie, the tenth and young- est of the family, is the wife of Bert Crawford at Detroit.

Edward H. Lang acquired his early education in the village schools of Ripley, a suburb of Hancock, Michigan. However his best education has been acquired by active contact with the world and when twelve years of age he left school and became a messenger boy in the telegraph office at Han- cock. He made good use of his opportunities to acquire a knowledge of telegraphy, and in a few years was put on the force as a telegraph operator at L'Anse, Michigan, for the Marquette and Hough- ton & Ontonagon Railways. In 1884 Mr. Lang removed to Duluth, and for one year was em- ployed in the office of Charlemagne Tower, presi- dent of the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad. Mr. Lang still preserves a letter written by Mr. Tower at Duluth December 1, 1885, referring to Mr. Lang's service with the Duluth & Iron Range Railway as telegrapher operator and concluding as follows : "He has been industrious and of good conduct.

1400

HISTORY OF MONTANA

He leaves the company's service now in consequence of a reduction of force." The writer of that letter has since become a power in the financial world, and is well known for his former services as United States Minister to Russia and Germany and in other diplomatic capacities.

On leaving Duluth Mr. Lang came to Montana, and was telegraph operator at Huntley near Bill- ings for the Northern Pacific Railway a few months. Then until 1887 he was agent for the Northern Pacific at Ashland, Wisconsin, and from there went to Chicago and was in the general freight office of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway in different capacities until 1890. The next five years he was employe of an English syndicate exploiting the mining industry of Old Mexico.

Mr. Lang returned to Montana in 1895 as clerk with the Anaconda Copper Mining Company at Great Falls. He was subsequently promoted to chief clerk of the plant at Great Falls and remained there until 1912. Since then his home has been at Butte where he was assistant traffic manager until July, 1919, and was then promoted to western traffic manager, having charge of all the traffic of the corporation in the western territory. His offices are in the Hennessy Building, Butte, with New York offices at 42 Broadway.

Mr. Lang is one of the few surviving members of the Old Time Telegraphers and Historical As- sociation. The organizers of this association were Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Theodore N. Vail, A. J. Earling, former president of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, and others. One of the surviving members was private telegraph operator for Abraham Lincoln during the Civil war. Mr. Lang is a director of the Rotary Club, the Butte Chamber of Commerce, is affiliated with Butte Lodge No. 240 of the Elks and is a member of Silver Bow Lodge No. 48, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Deer Lodge Chapter No. 3, Royal Arch Masons, Montana Commandery No. 3, Knights Templar, and Bagdad Temple of the Mystic Shrine. Politically he is a republican.

Mr. Lang owns a modern home at 1218 West Platinum Street. In Chicago in 1890 he married Miss May O'Fallon, a native of that city. She died in 1894. Mr. Lang's only child is Vera, wife of Den Hargrove, a merchant at Great Falls, Mon- tana. Mr. and Mrs. Hargrove have one son, Edward Lang Hargrove, born August 10, 1914. In 1900 at Butte Mr. Lang married Mrs. Alice (Cochran) Praul. Her father Capt. C. C. Cochran who died at Great Falls, served with the rank of cap- tain in the Union army during the Civil war.

J. ARTHUR BARCLAY is sheriff of Wibaux County and has been one of the citizens most closely iden- tified in business and public spirit with that new civil unit in Eastern Montana.

Mr. Barclay was born in the locality of Appleton, Wisconsin, June 1, 1873. His father, Lawrence Barclay, was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, and was brought to the United States at the age of four years, his parents settling on a farm at Janes- ville, Wisconsin, and a few years later located on another farm in Outagamie County, Wisconsin. Lawrence Barclay is buried in that county, and his widow is a resident of Appleton. Their children are: Mrs. Annie McNutt, of Hortonville, Wiscon- sin; Miss Jennie, a trained nurse at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago; J. Arthur; Emma, of Apple- ton; and Warren E., of Seymour, Wisconsin.

J. Arthur Barclay acquired a country school edu- cation, and after completing the work of the eighth

grade took an agricultural course at Madison. As a young man he was employed for several years in the lumber woods as a loader, river driver and camp man. He accumulated a modest capital in that way, also ran an outfit at well drilling, and in 1894 invested in three eighties of stump and stone land, and after pulling the stumps and removing the stone fenced and cross-fenced the property and used a carload of cement in building the silos, dairy barn and other equipment. He was success- fully identified with the Wisconsin dairy industry from 1895 until 1909. In the latter year he sold his farm for $100 an acre and came to Montana.

He reached Montana April 12th and located at Yates. Unlike most settlers, he did not homestead, but purchased outright two sections of land at $30.00 an acre. The region was new and he took his land at the grassroots. His first act was to fence the property, and he plowed and sowed 100 acres to oats and 300 acres to flax. His first crop of oats was 5,400 bushels, weighing forty-eight pounds to the bushel, and his flax yielded 6,700 bushels of No. I flax. This was a very gratifying experience, and he continued farming for six years, after which he leased his property. His farm improvements are a residence, barn, and machine sheds on both sections, his own home 'being a story and a half, 24 by 24 feet, while the barn is 28 by 36 feet. His granary has a capacity of 17,000 bushels. His machine shed is 44 feet square, and houses all the machinery used on the farm.

While living in the country Mr. Barclay, then a resident of Dawson County, joined actively in the movement to organize school district No. 58, and was president of the board until appointed to a county office. The district was bonded at once and a good schoolhouse built at Yates and still another schoolhouse in the Jordan locality of the district.

After leasing his land Mr. Barclay moved to Wibaux, placing his children in school, and has since given most of his time to the affairs of the new county. He was one of the men most deeply interested in creating a new county out of old Dawson, and when the Legislature responded to the popular will he was appointed one of the first board of commissioners. As chairman of the board he was associated with P. S. Hede and C. O. Oliver. These commissioners had the responsibility of organizing the business of a new municipal ju- risdiction, and for a courthouse purchased an old school building and remodeled it. They also bought a complete line of road machinery, engines and graders, and road building from the first was one of the important features of the county work. One very popular move made by the new board was issuing bonds to the amount of $22,000 to pay for seed for the farmers one year.

After the expiration of his term as county com- missioner Mr. Barclay entered the race for sheriff as a republican, won the nomination in the primary and at the general election defeated the independent republican candidate and the non-partisan league candidate by a small plurality. He succeeded John Jones as sheriff, taking office January 1, 1919. Dur- ing his administration law and order have been maintained, except for the occasional "bringing in of beef in the night," and this crime has been checked by means at his command backed by the District Court.

Mr. Barclay was one of the original stockholders in the State Bank of Yates, served it as vice presi- dent, and was instrumental in securing the removal of the bank to the county seat, where its name was

1401

HISTORY OF MONTANA

changed to the Wibaux County Bank. Here he has continued as vice president and director, and has helped give it one of the modern bank homes in the county. For several years past 'Mr. Barclay has been a dealer in lands, and still owns con- siderable real estate in eastern Montana, including much property in Wibaux. He owns the Bell home in that city.

At Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, September 25, 1901, Mr. Barclay married Miss Emma Mulroy, daughter of Patrick and Mary (Dacy) Mulroy, the former a native of Ireland. The Mulroy children were Charles, Mrs. Barclay, Katie, 'Maggie, Agnes, Walter, Arthur, Maude and May, twins, Loretta and Petro- nilla. Mr. and Mrs. Barclay have an interesting family of four children, Marie; Louis Clark, now fourteen years of age and a high school student at Wibaux; Mylon Arthur, who was born in 1911; and Margaret, born in 1913. The older daughter, Marie, is a student in the Ursuline Convent at Great Falls, Montana.

DELOS DUNCAN SELWAY. The agricultural inter- ests of Montana are of such magnitude that it is difficult for those who have been accustomed to the relatively small farms of the middle states to appreciate the work of the farmers of this region or understand their problems. Much of the land of Montana is naturally dry and was originally re- garded as only fit for grazing purposes. As long as the cattlemen were allowed to run their herds on the open range there was profit in handling thousands of head of cattle, but with the opening of the public domain to settlers it was found neces- sary to change the method of operating this in- dustry, and intelligent men experimented in irri- gating until now they have brought about a trans- formation in the state. When properly watered the old time open ranges will produce banner crops, and Montana is rapidly taking its place among the great agricultural states of the Union. Too much credit cannot be given to the men who have been able to adapt themselves to the changing con- ditions and come out winners, as so many have done. One of these is Delos Duncan Selway, of Powder River County, who with his two brothers owns twenty sections of land, known as the Selway Ranch.

Delos Duncan Selway is a native son of Mon- tana, having been born at Dillon, this state, on September 29, 1872. His father, John R. Selway, came to Montana in 1867 and was one of the pioneers of Dillon. A complete sketch of this estimable man will be found elsewhere in this work.

After attending the common and high schools of Dillon Mr. Selway was given the advantage of a period of schooling at Albion, 'Michigan, and when he returned he connected himself with the sales force of a general store at Dillon, and remained with that concern for a time, but he had been brought up on a ranch and the confinement of a store was irksome, so he returned to his father's ranch until he was able to begin operations on his own account. His family had been interested in handling sheep, his father being among the pioneers in this industry in the state, and his first operations were along this line. He occupied the old Selway ranch, established by J. Lloyd Selway, who is now in the Mizpah locality, and continued to operate on an extensive scale as a wool producer. The closing of the open range led him to curtail his business and branch out in another direction, and for some years he has been a cattle producer, running under the brands "FHL" on either or both hips, and

"F P Bar" on the right shoulder. His stock han- dling has always been for the production of meat, and he markets at Chicago in the main. The mag- nificent Selway Ranch comprising twenty sections of land is the property of the three brothers, Delos D., Richard A. and R. R. Selway. It was taken in the virgin state and developed by these practical ranchmen into one of the most valuable properties in this neighborhood. The ranch lies along Pump- kin Creek for four and one-half miles and includes townships 3 and 4 south, ranges 47 and 48 east. On this ranch is impounded twenty acres of water space, the dam constructed of dirt across the main Pumpkin Creek, which reservoir has served the ranch as an irrigation project as well as water supply.

On July 6, 1908, Mr. Selway was married in old Custer County to Anna C. Sigmund, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who was born in that city, one of a numerous family. Her father, now deceased, was for many years a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Selway have no children. While he was reared a republican, admiration of William Jennings Bryan and his principles led Mr. Selway to cast his first presidential vote for that statesman in 1896. Since then he has voted the straight republican ticket at each election. Aside from belonging to the Miles City Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Eagles, Mr. Selway has no fraternal or social affiliations, his work of developing and maintaining his large property absorbing much of his time. Busy as he always has been, when his country had need of his services, however, he was not found in the ranks of the slackers. He served as chairman of the various Liberty Loan commit- tees of his district and saw to it that the quota was fully subscribed, and in other ways forwarded the war work. Mrs. Selway was equally active as a member of the local Red Cross Chapter.

'Mr. Selway is accustomed to do everything upon a large scale, and it is impossible for him to be small in any way. His friendships are formed for life and he puts into them a hearty sincerity which naturally brings forth a corresponding warmth. While he is utterly adverse to any publicity, he can be depended upon to support any measure look- ing for the development of his locality, state or country, and is justly entitled to a foremost place among the very representative men of Montana.

WILLIAM M. BROADDUS belongs to a well known and most highly respected family of Powder River County, and he is living up to the high standards of his people and locality. His settlement in Mon- tana dates back to 1901 when he, a young man of twenty-six years, came to this region to join his brother, Oscar Broaddus, who had located along this same river and was enthusiastic relative to the possibilities here offered. He had remained with his parents, but after the death of his father felt free to branch out for himself, and soon after his arrival he sent for his widowed mother to join him and his brother, between whom she now di- vides her time. Immediately after his arrival Mr. Broaddus secured employment on the ranch of John Barringer, but later worked for Frank Leitner on Bay Horse, adjacent to Powder River, remaining there for five years. At the expiration of that

period he was married and then began his career as a ranchman. Out of his wages of $35.00 per month during the six years he was engaged in ranch riding he was able to save enough to buy seventy-five head of cattle and with them he estab- lished himself on his present location. He bought

1402

HISTORY OF MONTANA

a quarter section of land from Ernest Broaddus. Later his wife homesteaded a quarter section and took an additional homestead later on, and to- gether they have extended the boundaries of their ranch until they now have 800 acres. All of the improving of this ranch has been done by Mr. Broaddus with the exception of a little two-room log shack which was on the original quarter sec- tion. This was soon displaced by a four-room house of logs, which is still used as the family residence. When 'Mr. Broaddus began ranching he turned his cattle on the open range under the brand "DZ" on the left hip, and he still uses it. From the beginning he has gradually expanded, and dur- ing 1919 ran more cattle than in any previous year. In addition to his other interests he is a stockholder in the Broaddus State Bank, the Miles City Mill- ing Company and the Petroleum Company of Baker, Montana. Always a friend of the public schools, he has been closely connected with their develop- ment in his neighborhood and donated an acre of land on his ranch for a school site for District No. I. He was reared under democratic teachings and influence, and when he cast his first presidential vote in Montana it was for Mr. Bryan, but in 1904 he voted for Theodore Roosevelt for President. In 1908 he voted for Mr. Bryan, as he is a warm admirer of that statesman, and in 1912 and 1916 Woodrow Wilson received his vote. Fraternally he belongs to Miles City Lodge, Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Eagles.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 210

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