Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 218

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 218

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Though the evidence proves that Mr. Roche has made something more than an ordinary success of life, he did so merely by converting very common- place and humble opportunities. He never attended a grade school, and all his schooling was comprised be- tween the ages of seven and fourteen. After all the work on the farm was done he went to school, but only for the winter term closing about the first of March. As he looks back on that part of his career Mr. Roche is of the opinion that the instructors and the quality of instruction were decidedly inferior. The duties of his father's farm were his compelling interest and work until 1898, when at the age of twenty-four, he started west with some idea of par- ticipating in the Klondike rush. Stopping off at Sanders, Montana, he worked on a cattle ranch thirty days, in May went to Billings, and finding nothing else available took a job at the Burlington Railway section house washing dishes and waiting on table at $15 a month and board. For a time he blacked stoves for the A. L. Babcock Hardware Company at Billings, and in 1899 removed to Laurel, Montana, where he was employed in the store of C. W. Gard- ner. Mr. Gardner being a crank on home cooking made his employe do the cooking for both, as well as the routine duties of the store.

These items are mentioned merely to show how Jack Roche employed his time during his first year or so in Montana. He might perhaps, taking his cue from these early experiences, have developed as a successful rancher, railroad man or merchant, but destiny really attended him when in the fall of 1899 he returned to Billings and went to work in the office of Colonel H. W. Rowley, then manager of the Billings Water Power Company. In the service of that corporation he remained until the spring of 1908, and in the meantime his responsibilities had increased until they were designated by the office of secretary-treasurer. At that time the company's business was sold to the Billings and the Eastern Montana Power Company, Mr. Roche succeeding to the management of the new company. Subsequently this business became part of what is now known as the Montana Power Company, and after eight years at Billings Mr. Roche was transferred as dis- trict manager of the Montana Company to Butte, in charge of all the business of the company at that point.

Apparently his chief success with these companies was in "extension work," popularizing the service the companies had to offer. Mr. Roche was the first man in the United States to introduce electric stoves as a part of domestic equipment and he carried out a number of other successful campaigns for the more general use of electrical devices. It was this feature of his record that brought him to the attention of the manufacturers of electrical equipment, resulting

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in his leaving Montana and going to Chicago as as- sistant to the president of the Edison Electric Appli- ance Company on January 22, 1920.

During his residence at Billings and Butte Mr. Roche was not altogether absorbed in business. He was chairman of the State Vocational Training School, a park commissioner five years, was presi- dent of the Chamber of Commerce of Billings from 1914 to 1916, and chairman of the Good Roads Asso- ciation and a member of the Executive Committee of the State Freight Rate Association. He is a charter member of the Billings Rotary Club, a mem- ber of the Butte Rotary Club and was president of the Butte Automobile Club in 1917-19. Mr. Roche is a democrat, is a member of the Knights of Colum- bus and the Elks, is a Catholic and belongs to the Billings Country Club, Butte Country Club, is a director of the Butte Silver Bow Club and a member of the Billings Club.

May 30, 1904, at Helena he married Bertha B. Buchanan, daughter of Hon. Frank Buchanan, state senator at Billings. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Roche are Jack Jr., Helen, Francis, Grace, Burke, Jane, Martha and Virginia, eight in all.

FRANK PORTER .. The interest attaching to this well known citizen of Flathead County is divided between his practical achievements, his varied ex- periences and his personal character. Life has been with him a great adventure, and he has never sought the path of least resistance, but has gone into those things requiring strength, courage, audacity and on the whole his success has been due to the fact that he has never been afraid of failure.

Mr. Porter was born in Wisconsin February 14, 1867, fifth among the seven children of John J. and Kate (Kelley) Porter. His father was an honored soldier of the Union army during the Civil war, being a member of the Eighth Minnesota Regiment. Frank Porter attended a log cabin school in Polk County, Wisconsin, but as he says, the best part of his education was acquired while driving a six ox team at a logging camp. When he left home, a young man, he went to St. Paul, where he learned the trade of stone cutter and bridge builder. Pos- sessing a wonderful physique, he attracted the ad- miration of his friends and associates by his ready abilities as a boxer, and for a time he underwent the training for the pugilistic ring. Gradually he became disgusted with the class of men who were the backers and followers of the sport, and he broke away from this as a vocation altogether. He then resumed work as a bridge foreman, and was em- ployed building bridges in Minnesota for different railroads and contracting firms.

Mr. Porter came to Montana in 1897 as super- intendent of construction for the railroad bridge across the Flathead River at Coram. Later he was foreman on a number of big bridges throughout this section of the Rocky Mountains. His skill and ahility naturally commanded good salaries, but, al- ways generous, he dispensed of his means about as fast as the income arrived. He had a good eye for opportunities, and while working in the northwest the Flathead country made a special appeal to him. On leaving bridge building he engaged in the log- ging industry, beginning in the Flathead country as an employe of others, since he had no capital to engage in such a large scale operation. The first firm he logged for was the Sommers Lumber Company, and another was the Eureka Lumber Company. He was thus employed, part of the time on his own capital, from 1901 to 1918.

Nothing could have proved so complete a satis- faction to Mr. Porter's fighting spirit as an oppor- tunity to have gone into the front line during the World war. He sought every opportunity to do so, offering his services without remuneration to the State Council of Defense. That body secured for him an opportunity to serve with the aeroplane con- struction department, but his one desire was to go to France with the Engineer Corps. The offer was finally accepted but too late for him to go across.

Mr. Porter is an extensive landowner, having about 1,140 acres in the Flathead country. His own comfortable home is at Kila. He is a staunch republican, and during 1920 his favorite of the candidates for the party nomination was General Wood. He is affiliated with the Elks and Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and is a member of the Catholic Church at Kalispell. He gave liberally to this church and his name appears on the Memorial window Mr. Porter has lived in close touch with humanity, especially those who earn their living by work, and he is very popular in laboring circles. He has ordered his own life along lines of com- plete integrity, and is proud that he has never re- ceived a dunning letter for anything he owed.

At Kalispell he married Annie Belle Strong, a daughter of W. M. and Mary (Spencer) Strong, of Scotch-Canadian ancestry. Mrs. Porter's father was a Civil war soldier from Michigan, in which state she was born. At the age of thirteen her parents moved to Minnesota, where she finished her education. Mrs. Porter came to Montana in 1891. For twenty-one years she has been an active mem- ber of the Maccabees, belongs to the Presbyterian Church, and during the World war was very active in Red Cross circles. Mr. Porter is a typical west- erner, public spirited, popular, generous, and be- lieves in enjoying the best things of life. In June, 1920, he and Mrs. Porter left their home and began an automobile tour that carried them to the coast, taking in all the wonderful scenic attractions along the way.

EDWIN S. BOOTH, of Baker, Montana, is an able, trustworthy attorney, one in whom clients can place implicit confidence and whom courts from the highest to lowest will hear, and to whom they give full weight of consideration, respect and accord. From the bar, where he had distinguished himself both as a lawyer and man, he was called by a con- fiding people to the legislative body of his state, where lie exchanged the quiet of the courtroom for the fierce forum in debate among men. Since he attained to manhood's estate it may be truly said of him that he has been singularly honest, conscien- tious and upright in all his ways; clean clear through his soul; always active and performing with cour- age every duty that falls to his lot better than is expected of him, and never disappointing the best of his friends. He is strong in thought, clear in state- ment, logical in argument, is ever mindful of the feelings of others, never stooping to innuendoes or biting sarcasm to humiliate an opponent at the ex- pense of the dignity of debate. Because of these characteristics Mr. Booth has always been a wielder of a mighty influence and the builder of character so strong and towering that he commands the pro- found respect and admiration of all with whom he come's in contact.

Edwin S. Booth was born at Keokuk, Lee County, Iowa, March 24, 1865, a son of Edwin C. Booth, a native of Sheffield, England, who came in young

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manhood to the United States, and soon after his arrival located at Cincinnati, Ohio, where he be- came a contractor and builder. There he was mar- ried to Mary Sigsworth, also a native of England, and they moved from Cincinnati to Keokuk, Iowa, where they spent the remainder of their lives. Only four of their large family of children reached ma- turity, and of them Mrs. George C. Getz, of Port- land, Oregon, and Edwin S. Booth survive.

Growing up in his native city, Edwin S. Booth at- tended its schools and the college of law located there, in which he completed the regular course and took the degree of Bachelor of Law. He tried his first lawsuit in Scotland County, Missouri, it being an ordinary civil case in a justice court, and won .it. While he has been engaged in both civil and crim- inal practice in Montana, his connection with prose- cutions has given him a state-wide reputation as a prosecutor and a successful and fearless one.

Mr. Booth has been associated with the history of Montana since May, 1887. When he come here he had been but recently admitted to the bar and sought an opening for the practice of his chosen profession. He had made a brief stop in Dakota, but conditions there were then so adverse that he decided to look for better opportunities, and finally selected Butte, where he located permanently in December, 1887. His financial condition was at a low ebb, he being actually "broke," as he himself often declares, for he has no false pride, and he also states that his first job in his new community was that of carrying dishes in a restaurant.

At the close of his nearly two years in the employ of the city Mr Booth was made deputy county at- torney, and held that position for four years, during that period securing convictions in a number of criminal cases, some of which were appealed to the Supreme Court. In every case these convictions were sustained by the higher court, these cases now being precedents for the present courts. Some years after he retired from the county attorney's office he was elected city attorney of Butte, and served as such for about two and one-half years.

Entering politics, Mr. Booth allied himself with the republican party, and was elected to the State Assembly from Silver Bow County. He entered the Fourth Session, and was made chairman of the Code Committee, which reported the first code adopted by the state. It was this session which placed the educational institutions of the state on a firm footing. Although he served in the Lower House but one term, Mr. Booth has never missed a session of the Legislature since the admission of Montana to statehood, being present either as a member of one or other of its Houses or as a private individual interested in the passage of constructive legislation.

In 1909 he left Butte and spent three years on his ranch in Yellowstone County, being for that time out of the practice of his profession. Mr. Booth has put in a good deal of time and effort on the develop- ment of this ranch, which is still owned by him. Having accomplished what he set out to do when he located on this ranch, he left it and, coming to Baker, re-entered the professional arena, although when he came here that had not been his intention. However, upon his arrival he found his interests enlisted in the county seat fight as an advisor, and before he had completed it he had assembled an ex- cellent clientele. The creating of Fallon County ab- sorbed him, and after he had succeeded in having it established, with Baker as the county seat, he kept on threshing out the various questions of law involved in the county division. The decision of the

higher courts cleared these questions so that no further contention can be made relative to them.

In 1918 Mr. Booth was named by his party for the State Senate, and was elected in November of that year. He made the race against the serious opposition of the democratic party, as well as of the Non-Partisan League, and won the election by a majority of about 200 votes. Senator Booth entered the Senate of the Sixteenth Assembly, a republican body, and was made chairman of the railroads and transportation committee, and a member of the judi- ciary committee, and was one of the most active figures of that session. It is no exaggeration to state that a large percentage of the bills presented to the Senate were of his drawing, and many of those introduced in the House were reviewed by him so as to make them read properly and legally as measures for legislative consideration.

Senator Booth has been a member of the Repub- lican Committee of Montana frequently and has figured in the management of party affairs for years. He has attended national conventions and was a delegate to the convention of 1916 held at Chicago, and supported Charles E. Hughes as the party nom- inee in the ensuing campaign. The effectiveness of his work as a campaigner is known and recognized all over the state, and his services are in great demand for public occasions and in political move- ments. As a lawyer Senator Booth has organized many of the corporations of Baker, and has been identified with them at times in a financial way. At present he is the attorney of the Chicago, Mil- waukee & St. Paul Railroad.

The first wife of Senator Booth bore the maiden name of Etta Pinkham, and they were married at Butte, Montana. By this marriage he had the fol- lowing children: Iowa F., who is the widow of T. J. Mckellips, of Yellowstone County, and has two children, Eudora and Alena; and Edwin W. Senator Booth was married secondly to Mrs. Esther B. (Gar- rett) Hughes, born at Chester, Flintshire, England, a daughter of Joseph and Anna Garrett, of Man- chester, England. By her first marriage Mrs. Booth has a son, Harold Hughes Garrett, who is now a student of the Montana State University.

In his fraternal affiliations Senator, Booth is a member of the various branches of Oddfellowship, is a Knight of Pythias and an Elk. He is past grand of the Odd Fellows, past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias and past chief patriarch of the Encamp- ment. The family residence of the Booths is at No. III Fifth Street East, Baker.

The excellent judgment and power of clear an- alysis that has always been such a strong asset of Senator Booth, and which he put to such good pur- pose while acting as city and county attorney, soon caused him to be recognized as one of his party's leaders in the state, while his disposition to recog- nize and endeavor to reconcile the conflicting opin- ions of his associates in the Senate have given him an independence of thought and action that make him a tower of strength to any cause which he may espouse.

A. M. DAVIDSON. The president of the Flathead County State Bank at Polson, A. M. Davidson has for a number of years been a prominent factor in the business and banking life of Montana.

He is one of many eastern Canadians who have found homes and dignified achievement in Mon- tana. He was born in King's County, Nova Scotia, a son of G. N. and Mary (McColy) Davidson, be- ing the eighth in their family of eleven children. He acquired a public school education in his native

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country, and as a young man spent two years in the vicinity of Boston. In February, 1887, he ar- rived at Bozeman, Montana. He later also engaged in farming and stock raising in Madison County, Montana. In 1913 Mr. Davidson moved to Mis- soula and in July, 1914, took up his residence at Polson, where he had previously bought a control- ling interest in the Flathead County State Bank. Besides handling the affairs of this financial in- stitution he has done an extensive real estate busi- ness, buying and selling lands and city property.

Mr. Davidson married Miss Emily Boardman, a native of Illinois, and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Boardman. Her parents were early settlers in Montana, locating at Helena in 1885. Mrs. David- son acquired her education in the public schools of Helena and at Deer Lodge. Six children were born to their union: Roscoe, Edgar, Erma, Esther, Clin- ton and Douglas. All except the two eldest attended the Bozeman High School and Roscoe was a student in the Missoula Business College and the Agricul- tural College at Bozeman, and Edgar was a student of the Huntington Architectural School of Boston, Massachusetts. Erma is a graduate of the Boze- man High School and now is attending the State University. Esther Davidson was a graduate of 1920 class at Polson, Montana. The son, Edgar, enlisted and went with the colors, going into train- ing at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, in November, 1917. He was with the Twenty-ninth Engineers, and in February, 1918, went overseas, and saw much active duty until the signing of the armistice and subsequently accompanied the army of occupa- tion to Coblenz, Germany. The son Roscoe is a young man who has taken a great interest in his father's bank and is cashier. Mr. and Mrs. David- son have been at great pains to educate their chil- dren and fit them thoroughly for life's duties. Mrs. Davidson is a member of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Davidson is a Mason and is a republican voter. He has shown an ever ready interest to support movements for the welfare and improvement of the Flathead country and his civic loyalty is given in full measure to the entire State of Montana, his home for over thirty years, and the arena in which his efforts have been most productive and success- ful.

WILLIAM J. FERGUSON is one of the earliest ranch- men on the Rosebud, and he has the unique dis- tinction of having lived in Custer, Rosebud and Big Horn counties without changing the place of his residence, the boundaries of the counties instead having changed. He came into Montana in Feb- ruary, 1890, landing at Hutton on the 16th of that month, and he was then a young man, had been reared on a farm and had done little else but farm labor save for a short time spent as an employe of the Illinois Central Railroad Company. His birth occurred in Washington County, Illinois, near Centralia, March 23, 1868, and his life was passed there until he left the Prairie state to come into the West. His meager educational training had been received in the common schools.

James Ferguson, his father, was born in Dum- frees, Scotland, in 1828. He came to the United States at the age of seventeen and stopped for a time in the State of New York, finally going on to Illinois and locating first near Dundee. He moved from there to Centralia with his family with ox teams, and he became a farmer in that vicinity, de- veloped a home and spent his life as a farmer. His life was lived privately and quietly, and no man knew him other than as a friend. In his religious

affiliations he was a Presbyterian, and he gave his political support to the republican party. His life's span covered a period of forty-nine years, years that were devoted to home, friends and the good of his community. He married Margaret Barnett, who was born in Ireland. She has a twin brother, Robert, living in Illinois, and a sister, Mrs. Thomas Bentley, in Toledo, Ohio. Mrs. Ferguson lived to the age of fifty-two, dying in the year of 1887. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson were the following children: Jennie, of Sheridan, Wyoming, who has spent her life as a teacher; Mary, the wife of Tuman Fraser, also of Sheridan; Robert, who was the pioneer of the family in the West; Sadie, who died in Illinois as a teacher; Nettie, whose home is in Sheridan, Wyoming; and William J., of Kirby, Montana. The son, Robert, who preceded his brother to Montana about five years, was en- gaged in ranching here when his life was sacri- ficed by the cowardly and murderous assault of a marauding band of Cheyennes. While riding over the Crow Reservation in search of some horses it is believed he came upon a bunch of Cheyennes butchering Reservation cattle against the law, and to hide the evidence against them they trailed and waylaid him. He was missing for several days before any trace of him could be found, and then some searchers discovered his wounded horse. En- couraged by this evidence of foul play a continued search revealed the end of a lariat sticking up out of a loose sand bed in the bottom of a washout, and a little digging with the hands uncovered his body and then his saddle. Detectives were put into the Cheyenne Reservation who ran down the mur- derers. They were arrested and jailed, but before the day of trial arrived the commandant of Fort Keogh had seen to it that no evidence against the three "braves" under arrest would be presented by "fixing" the witnesses, the prosecution failed to con- vict and the murderers of Robert Ferguson went unpunished.

William J. Ferguson came to Montana to join his brother Robert, who had arrived here in 1885, and leaving the train on the Northern Pacific Rail- road at Rosebud he went from there by stage to Hutton and soon found work on Corral Creek as a cowboy for Hubbard & Thompson, continuing in their service for three summers, his winters in the interim having been devoted principally to pleasure. On leaving that outfit he embarked in the stock business for himself, succeeding to the small bunch of stock cattle his brother had under the brand "R-7," and for a time held them at the mouth of Corral Creek. Later on, when the Crow Reserva- tion was surveyed, it was found that this location was inside the boundaries of that reservation and Mr. Ferguson then moved his cattle up on the Rose- bud and made his home with Mrs. Tuman Fraser. He continued to look after his stock on the open range until he established himself at his present location, March 4, 1895. His postoffice is Kirby, and in this location he has spent a quarter of a century as a builder and developer of his community. He purchased the improvements of the man who had entered the homestead and succeeded W. P. Dale as the owner of the land. This man was known to the settlers of the region as "Bloody Knife," a name he had gained through an encounter with a neighbor over a trivial matter.

Mr. Ferguson began his career on his homestead with ahout sixty head of cattle, a team and a few saddle horses. A garden spot was all of the place at that time under cultivation, and the log building which he now uses as a granary was the pioneer

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dwelling place. Into that rude shelter Mr. Fer- guson established his home, and he occupied it for some time after his marriage. His cattle occupied him to the exclusion of all other work save the seeding of the ranch to alfalfa hay and a little grain, which has constituted his chief farming ven- ture here. In time his pioneer log cabin gave place to a more comfortable frame residence, and this in turn was succeeded by the present home of the family, a splendid modern home built in 1915. It contains nine spacious rooms, is equipped with the J. M. Swanstrom fresh water system, a Warner special lighting plant and furnace heat and a base- ment laundry. This home has the distinction of being the first one in Big Horn County with an electric lighting system. Mr. Ferguson erected his barn, a modern structure 40 by 60 feet, in 1915. It has a mow capacity for forty tons of hay and granaries for the housing of about 900 bushels of grain, also stable room for eleven horses and for six milch cows.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 218

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