Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 212

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

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Railroading being a very slow and uncertain route to fortune, Mr. Mace left Kansas for the lure of the mining districts of Colorado. He did pros- pecting and mining with no important successes to his credit. Once he opened a hole, but abandoned its development. Successors came along and pushed the work a little further, and found ore that con- stituted a modest fortune. From Colorado Mr. Mace continued his prospecting efforts into Arizona, where he and his partner spent two years in the gold diggings around Prescott. Nothing important encouraged them to remain, and they turned their faces towards distant scenes. At that time the Black Hills of the Dakotas were the lodestone at- tracting adventurous mining men. On the way there they reached Cheyenne, Wyoming, at which point the Government forces refused permission to further progress on account of the hostilities of the In- dians. Thus diverted they turned their course toward the Big Horn country of Montana, and in the year 1876 the two strangers with their pack outfit rode into Miles City. There being nothing

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to encourage further activity as a mining prospector, Mr. Mace soon took a Government contract at Miles City for putting up hay and delivering wood for the troops at Fort Keogh. He also did some freight- ing from Fort Buford to Miles City. This was his chief line of employment until 1881, when he moved to the Yellowstone Valley, where for nearly forty years his main interests have been identified with ranching, farming and the sheep and cattle business.

He came into the Yellowstone Valley equipped to enter this industry, bringing about a hundred head of cattle. Mention should be made of his com- panions who were Mike Barrett, Charley French, Peter Anderson and Michael Provo. The quintet all became ranchers, but now the only survivors of these pioneers are H. P. Anderson and Mr. Mace. The latter entered desert land adjacent to the river, extending back into the hills, and eventually devel- oped a ranch of thirteen sections for the operation of his stock business. Mr. Mace became one of the well known and prominent sheep men of the locality, and for a quarter of a century tended his flocks as well as handling extensive herds of cattle. His abandonment of the woolen industry resulted from the influx of settlers who appropriated the out- side range and curtailed the pasture. As a sheep man he started with the Delaine blood, and took much care in developing a better wool growing animal than the average range stock, so that his yield of fleeces increased in proportion to the higher grade of his sheep. Mr. Mace is in a position to illustrate the fluctuations in the wool market from his own experience, since he has sold the staple at 8 cents a pound and the very top price he ever re- ceived for fleeces was 21 cents a pound, far below the average of the wool market in recent years. Prices of cattle showed equal contrast, and while the market did not offer much profit to the pro- ducer of beef, he persisted, and eventually sold steers for $14.00 a hundred.

While his efforts and experiences as a stockman have corresponded in a general way with the aver- age of other Montana stockmen, Mr. Mace should be more properly distinguished because of his pro- gressive efforts and initiative in behalf of real agri- culture in this section of the Yellowstone Valley. Some of the Mace ranch includes valley lands, and here thirty-five years ago the first experiment at growing alfalfa was made by Mr. Mace. He im- ported seed from California, and the plant readily adapted itself to soil and climate and gave in those early years as well as later splendid results. For years before alfalfa was little more than a name in the minds of most Montana farmers Mr. Mace made it a regular part of his crop rotation. Three cuttings a year are harvested, and in seasonable years the yield per acre has been five tons.

With a desert claim Mr. Mace early became in- terested in irrigation. At his own expense he built a rude system of canals from Reservation Creek, and that little plant not only proved sufficient and efficient for the flooding of his own lands, but be- came the example and forerunner of important irri- gation enterprises developed since. His lowlands are now under the Yellowstone Irrigation District, the chief plant of the kind along the river, and his lands have been vastly benefited by this larger system. He has adapted his crops to changing con- ditions, and they now include sugar beets as well as alfalfa and grains. For about five year's the Mace ranch has been producing beets of a high sugar content, with a yield averaging around eleven tons per acre.

Progressive in handling his own affairs, as this brief outline indicates, Mr. Mace has not been lack-

ing in the qualities of a public spirited citizen ever alive to the benefits and welfare of the community. Chiefly has this spirit exemplified itself in behalf of better education, and he has witnessed the mul- tiplication of school houses since he came to this part of the valley. For twenty years he served on his local school board, but otherwise has.never been attracted to political office. As a republican voter he is following an inclination which he acquired in boyhood.

Mr. Mace had barely begun the development of his ranch in Rosebud County when he established a home and family. He married in Custer County December 25, 1883, Miss Anna A. Anderson. She was a sister of Peter Anderson, one of the com- panions of Mr. Mace and the other pioneers to this section of the Yellowstone. Mrs. Mace was born in Minnesota and was with a party of pioneers who came up the Yellowstone by steamboat, leav- ing the boat at old Custer station, Terry's Landing, above the mouth of the Big Horn. Her brother, Peter, had come into this country from the Black Hills district, and is a bachelor homesteader of Rosebud County. Mrs. Mace, who with her brother represents the Anderson family in Montana, is a daughter of Elias and Beata (Hansen) Anderson, natives of Norway. To Mr. and Mrs. Mace were born three children: Anna A., who is the wife of Burrel Kimball, a rancher near Hysham, and they have two children; Bertha L., wife of Herbert Wakefield and the mother of two children; and Alfred C., the only son and youngest child. Alfred C. Mace, now assisting his father on the home ranch, was a soldier during the World war, in train- ing at Camp Lewis and in the Presidio at San Fran- cisco, and received an honorable discharge after the armistice.

GEORGE HORKAN. Few ranchmen are better or more widely known in Southeastern Montana than George Horkan, who is located on the headwaters of Pumpkin Creek, near Stacey, which meanders lazily through his ranch. He dates his advent into Montana in the year 1882, when it was still a ter- ritory, and pioneer conditions prevailed. He was born in County Mayo, Ireland, September 8, 1851, one of the dozen children of George and Marta (Hebron) Horkan, both natives of County Mayo, coming of excellent north country stock which migrated to County Mayo at an early day. The .elder George Horkan was an extensive farmer and stockman in County Mayo.

Growing up on his father's farm, George Horkan, the younger, acquired there a first-hand and prac- tical knowledge of agricultural matters, and the high school in the vicinity furnished him with the fundamentals of educational training. He is the only one of his parents' children to come to the United States, and he sailed from Cork, Ireland, aboard the "Arizona" for New York City. The crossing, which consumed fourteen days, was a rough one, but he reached his destination without serious accident in 1880. Six years later he re- turned to his native land for a month, this being his only trip to Ireland.

After reaching New York City on his first ar- rival Mr. Horkan came as far west as Wisconsin, and there, hearing of the possibilities of Montana, came here, spending his first year in the territory at a point south of Miles City, in the Pine Hill country. Having brought with him sufficient cap- ital to make an investment in sheep, he was one of the first to begin raising them in the state, and is one of the few men here who have held to sheep continuously during their ranching experiences, his

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

extending over a period of thirty-seven years. In 1883 he squatted upon the then unsurveyed lands on Pumpkin Creek, and at that time was one of the very few settlers in a radius of many miles. The nearest post office, Miles City, was sixty miles away, and oftentimes weeks passed without his seeing a human being. He passed both good and bad times, has lost because of low prices, and profited on ac- count of good ones, experiencing all of the chang- ing conditions of the region. When the Govern- ment surveys were made he homesteaded the land upon which his ranch home is located, and for many years was content with it, not then thinking of adding to his acreage. Later, however, he was spurred on to acquire title to other lands as an investment, realizing that the open country and un- occupied lands would in time be taken up, and time has proven that he was right. During his opera- tions here he has gathered together 18,000 acres, and in addition he is interested in the Moorhead ranch, comprising some 5,000 or 6,000 acres devoted to alfalfa and stock raising. This latter ranch is an irrigated proposition and the hay cut from it is fed to the stock the ranch handles. The climatic conditions of this region have at times been most severe. Numerous winters have brought heavy snowfalls and low temperature and fortunes of stockmen have been dissipated in one season be- cause of these adverse conditions. Mr. Horkan has suffered heavy losses, several times losing from seventy to eighty per cent, but he possesses the "backbone" of the typical pioneer, so remained in spite of adversity, and recovered from these losses steadily and surely.

Mr. Horkan was one of the active men in organ- izing the Wool Growers Association of Custer County, and holds a membership in the state and national wool growers' organizations, attending the annual meetings and taking part in the discussions on the programs. As all the above indicates, he is one of the early settlers of the southern part of Custer County. Recently his ranch was divided by the boundary line of Powder River and Custer counties, so that he has the distinction of having lived in two counties without changing his place of residence. 'Of recent years he has lived in Miles City so as to give his son the better educational advantages afforded by that community. Mr. Hor- kan is a stockholder of the Billings Packing House, is a director in Lakin Brothers mercantile estab- lishment, which he serves as president, and is a director of the Commercial State Bank of Miles City. In politics he is a stanch republican, and he believes that the record of this great party justifies his adherence to it. He cast his first presidential vote for Benjamin Harrison in 1892, and for many years has been a delegate to county and state con- ventions and otherwise worked for his party, but has never been willing to permit the use of his name on the party ticket.

On February 9, 1888, Mr. Horkan was united in marriage at Miles City to Miss Margaret Jordan, a daughter of M. J. Jordan, of Waseca County, Minnesota. Mrs. Horkan was born in Illinois, but her father later went to Minnesota and there engaged in farming. There were several children in her father's family. Mr. and Mrs. Horkan have one son, George Edward, who is associated with his father, the firm being known as George Horkan & Son. The firm handle both sheep and cattle, although in former times many more sheep bore the brand of George Horkan, when the country was open and grazing privileges were unlimited. At one time he had over 120,000, and a clip of 80,000 pounds was taken annually. The firm have 1,000 Vol. III-48

head of cattle on the two ranches in which father and son are interested. George Edward Horkan was graduated from the Miles City High School, and then took a mechanical course at St. Paul, Minnesota. Having learned ranching from child- hood, when the time came for him to make a choice of a calling he decided to join forces with his father and is now one of the leading young ranchmen of this region. He was married to Bella Bradbury, a daughter of J. M. Bradbury of Bil- lings, Montana. The Horkan family are connected with the Roman Catholic Church of Miles City, of which Mr. Horkan is one of the old members and a strong supporter of his parish.

The days of the open country and unrestricted grazing have passed, but the more far-sighted of the ranchmen have not suffered materially, for they provided for the change they saw was impending, and merely altered their mode of operating. They look back with regret to the old days, but enjoy life in the present, and are building up communi- ties for the future which will insure continued prosperity to their region, and protection to the industries which are associated with the entire history of the State of Montana.

OLIVER LEE REED. In the years to come when the history of the cattle industry of Montana is written at length, proper appreciation will be paid to the men who not only were able to develop magnificent cattle interests, but who were also able to so arrange their operations that when the great change came to the state which curtailed the range privileges they could become equally important as ranchmen. Just as in former years Montana was noted for its "cattle on a thousand hills," so is it just as well known for its ranches of thousands of acres, operated upon scientific principles, Land which years ago was rejected on account of lack of moisture is now covered with waving grain because of the marvelous irrigation systems. Americans are nothing if not adaptive, and in Montana the citi- zens have proven themselves 100 per cent Amer- ican in this, as other respects. One of these men worthy of such special mention because of their connection with the cattle industry is Oliver Lee Reed of Miles City, who has been in this region for nearly thirty years.

Oliver Lee Reed was born in Cooper County, Missouri, December 9, 1867, and was only six years old when he was taken by his parents to Colfax County, New Mexico, in 1873, the trip being made with ox. teams. There were several families in the party, as was usual in those days, as it was dan- gerous for too small a number to try and travel over a region infested with hostile Indians. The Reed party was fortunate in not having any un- pleasant incidents, and were interested in seeing herds of buffalo, and enjoyed the flesh of several killed for them by the hunters in the party. The father of Oliver Lee Reed, Mortimer C. Reed, was born in Missouri and lived to be seventy-five years old, passing away March 17, 1914. His father, a native of Virginia, was married to a lady whose first name was Matilda, and they had the following children : Gus, who died in Missouri; Duffield, who died in Colorado; Lycurgus, who died in Cooper County, Missouri; Mortimer C., who became the father of Oliver L. Reed; and "Mit," who was killed by lightning in Missouri.

Mortimer C. Reed was a soldier during the war between the states, esponsing the southern side. He enlisted in the Confederate army from Missouri under General Price, and served during the dura- tion of the war. Although he saw some very hard

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service, including the siege of Vicksburg, he es- caped with a flesh wound, and was honorably dis- charged as a private in the ranks. He took but little part in politics aside from voting the demo- cratic ticket and ardently supporting the principles of his party. Both he and his wife were con- sistent members of the Christian Church. He was married to Julia Brannan. Mrs. Reed died at Trinidad, Colorado, in August, 1915, aged seventy- one years. Their children were as follows: Oliver Lee, whose name heads this review; and Lucy, who is the wife of W. L. Wills, of Trinidad, Colorado.

Oliver Lee Reed received his educational priv- ileges in New Mexico, and they did not go beyond the common school courses. When he began to be self-supporting he turned toward the work of a cowboy, or cow puncher, first with his father and later with the Peel Cattle Company. He was only twenty-five years old when a misfortune came upon his family, which resulted in their having to abandon their home, located on the Maxwell Land Grant, because they lost their suit for title. This brought Mr. Reed into Montana, and he reached Miles City January 8, 1892, by train. Having had several years of experience as a cowboy, he was not a "tenderfoot," and easily found employment with the Cross 5 Cattle Company as a cowboy. The wages paid the best of these cowboys were $40,00 per month, with board and lodging, and that is the largest wage 'Mr. Reed ever received. After one year with this outfit, under the supervision of the well known L. W. Stacey, Mr. Reed went to work for the Mankato Cattle Company, and was with it for a year as a cowboy. The Hereford Stock and Cattle Company next employed him, and after six months with this last named company he stopped working for others and established a little ranch of his own.

Mr. Reed's beginning as an independent cattle man was at the head of the East Fork of Otter Creek, he "squatting" upon unsurveyed land, and there he built improvements as he needed them. His shelter for himself and such stock as he had was primitive but sufficient. He was twenty miles or more from Stacey, and he occupied his original three-room log house as long as he remained on this property. Starting with range cattle of the Hereford strain . bought with his savings from scanty wages, he adapted the brand "P bar under," which he bought from James Coleman, who also sold him his first cow. Of course his operations were upon a small scale, but he prospered in them, and when he moved from this locality he had 500 head in his herd, to which he added a consider- able number he had brought from Texas and was on the Missouri River for three years. Mr. Reed then located twenty miles south of Miles City, where he continued ranching until 1917, when he sold his ranch. His experience in cattle raising covers a span of twenty-five years, and during that time he saw many changes. Uniting his interests with . other cattle men, he helped to organize and belonged to the Montana Stock Growers Associa- tion, and he is now actively engaged in buying and selling on the range board.

Mr. Reed was married at Sheridan, Wyoming, December 24, 1895, to Miss May Shy, a daughter of Walter C. Shy, and a sister of Mrs. Charles M. Simpson of Custer County, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Reed have a daughter, Marie, who was born May 27, 1898, and she was married to Charles L. Bachel- ler, of Wichita Falls, Texas.

The only fraternal affiliations of Mr. Reed are those which make him a member of the order of

Elks. Both he and Mrs. Reed were in full sym- pathy with the war auxiliary movements and plans and bought lavishly of bonds and contributed with open hands to the other drives. They are people of unusual pleasing personality, and their 'long resi- dence in and about Miles City make them acquainted with the majority of the older settlers, with whom they maintain delightful social connections, and their home is the gathering place of these "pioneers" upon numerous occasions. Upright in his dealings, Mr. Reed has gained his present prom- inence and prosperity through his own efforts. Willing to work and save, he used his small capital for investment purposes, and so managed that all the time his money was working for him, and he was thus enabled to add to his holdings. His ex- ample is one the rising generation would do well to follow.

JOHN DONLY VIALL. Compared with some of those whose biographies appear in this publication, John Donly Viall, a ranchman on Big Pumpkin Creek, tributary to the post office of Beebe, is one of the later comers to Montana, as dates indicate late coming, his arrival having been in 1901. How- ever, during the years of his residence here he has been actively identified with various activities which have marked the development of the state, and to- day he is one of the substantial ranchmen of his locality and a citizen of influence and substantial usefulness.

Mr. Viall was born January 20, 1865, at Lyons, Ohio, and as a youth went with his parents to Missouri, where his schooling was liberal, as it was also at Sheridan, Wyoming, to which latter place he went with the family in 1883, overland. Their journey west from Chillicothe, Missouri, was made through St. Joseph, across Northern Kansas and up the North Platte River and across the plains of Wyoming to Sheridan. In the train were numer- ous wagons, confined to emigrants, and the Viall family was headed by the venerable Ezra B. Viall, an active ranchman of the Sheridan locality of Wyoming. He settled on Soldier Creek and has developed a cattle and sheep ranch of 1,900 acres. His is a splendid irrigation proposition and is a grain and alfalfa farm as well as a stock ranch. Ezra B. Viall was born in Lake County, Ohio, March 15, 1833, his home being not far from Men- . tor, where the Garfields lived, and his wife taught school in that classic old town when a young woman. 'Mr. Viall acquired a good education, also, at Willoughby College. He had three brothers in the Union army, and all were sons of John Viall, who came to Ohio from Cuyahoga County, New York, and settled in Lake County long before the building of the Lake Shore Railroad, and when Indians and buffalo were still there. He spent his life as a farmer and is buried at Willoughby. John Viall, Sr., married Mary Hoag, and their issue comprised : Donly, Ezra B., George, Jacob, Charles, and Mary and Helen, who both died single.

Ezra B. Viall married Elizabeth Elsworth, a daughter of Chester Elsworth, a boy twelve years of age when the battle of Lake Erie was fought and who heard the roar of the cannon while Com- modore Perry was annihilating the British fleet. The Elsworths came from Cuyahoga County, New York, also, and were farmers. Mrs. Viall died' January 24, 1916, aged eighty-three years. She was one of a family of eight children, and she and Mr. Viall had the following children: Helen, who died in childhood; Sarah, who died at Weatherford, Texas, as Mrs. Arden Welch; Edna, the widow of Frank Kilbourne, of the Viall ranch in Wyoming;

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John Donly, of this review; and Elizabeth, who married August Steil, of Sheridan, Wyoming.

John D. Viall was identified with the movements toward the development of his father's Wyoming ranch for eighteen years, and for nine years of that time "whacked bulls and skinned mules" from Custer Station to Fort Custer, the Crow Agency, Dayton, Wyoming, and Fort Mckinney. He passed over the Custer battleground but seven years after the massacre occurred and when there were, still

scraps of blue uniforms lying about. While there he became acquainted with many of the old war- riors who took part in the annihilation of General Custer's band. The Crow scout, "Curley," the only man who escaped of the Custer command, became known to Mr. Viall and the two traded horses and Mr. Viall freighted past his home at Reno Crossing of the little Big Horn River. When he first came to Montana in 1901 Mr. Viall's first location was on Rosebud Creek, on the Cheyenne Reservation, handling there a bunch of 12,000 head of sheep. The following year he moved his flock to the Big Dry, thirty miles below Jordan, now in Dawson County, and there acquired and owned a ranch at the mouth of Frazer Creek. He was in the region purely as a sheep man until 1912, but in the mean- time had acquired his present ranch and begun his connection with it. He has occupied his present ranch, the old "S. L.," since 1908, and is now run- ning sheep, cattle and horses. His cattle interests comprise some 700 head, branded with the "Lazy P-D," and his sheep interests comprise 2,300 head of ewes, while his 250 head of horses are of the Perchon blood and bear the same brand as his cattle. His output is disposed of at the Chicago market, 'he having become a large shipper before coming to Montana.

The Viall ranch comprises a large part of the old "S. L." ranch, and contains 10,090 acres. It is almost exclusively devoted to stock, and the little farming done is hay raising, with a semblance of crops each year. Of the thirty-five miles of fence on the ranch Mr. Viall is responsible for thirteen miles, and other improvements which he has made include a deep water well and a stock shed. He is a valued member of the Montana Stock Growers' Association. In his experience Mr. Viall has tasted both the sweet and the bitter of the stock business. In 1906-7 he lost 5,000 head of sheep by the severe winter. The low price of 91/8 cents a pound for wool represents the lowest price he received, but he has continued holding sheep since 1888. His best price for wool was in 1918, when the Government took his crop at 637/8 cents a pound. In 1919 the price was 55 cents a pound.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 212

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