Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 219

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 219

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As a cattle man Mr. Ferguson has been handling the grades which he has improved through the years by the introduction of blooded White Face males, and his own recorded brand under which he has operated is the "MHF." His market has been in Chicago, but during recent years his output has been curtailed by the closing up of the open range as the country has become more thickly settled.

He has reared a numerous family in Montana, and has therefore been a factor in the school mat- ters of district No. 17-K. He served as chairman of Liberty Loan drives during the recent World war for the Kirby district, all of which went over with the exception of the last two, and he was also chairman of the Red Cross drive and active in the support of all auxiliary war work. His political support is given to the republican party, and his first presidential vote was cast in Illinois for Benjamin Harrison. He has never affiliated with fraternal orders or become a member of a church, but Mrs. Ferguson and their son, Leicester, are Methodists.

At Centralia, Illinois, December 16, 1897, Mr. Ferguson was married to Miss Lena A. Barton, a sister of the wife of Thomas Penson, whose biog- raphy appears elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Fer- guson was born at Centralia March 2, 1873. The children born of their union are: Leicester B., who finished his high school work at Crafton, Pennsyl- vania, a suburb of Pittsburg; Harry V. and George W., twin sons, who took two years of high school work at Crafton; and Dwight S., Helen Teel, Thomas James and Ruth Maxine.

ARTHUR G. BAKER of Miles City, formerly rail- road construction engineer for the Chicago, Mil- waukee & St. Paul Railroad, retired in 1916 after forty years of continuous service which brought him into contact with some of the most important expansion of railroad activities in this and other states. He was born at Cawnpore, India, on Feb- ruary 22, 1853, a son of Col. William T. Baker, an officer in the British army, who retired from active service in 1864 and returned with his family to England. After a stay of six months he came to Canada, but after a period at Lenoxville, was soon persuaded to come to the United States and located at Decorah, Iowa. His twenty-two years of service in the army taught Colonel Baker the value of systematic application and he entered the indus- trial field as a manufacturer of woolens at Decorah, continuing in that line for ten years with gratify- ing results, and then retired and continued to live

at Decorah where he died in 1899, aged seventy- six years. He was born in Kent, England, and was a graduate of the British military academy which corresponds to West Point, and participated in the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857-9, receiving his promotion from captain to colonel on account of his services in that outbreak. On one occasion he prevented the native troops under his command from carry- ing out their plans which included mutiny, marching to Simla and murdering the white inhabitants, among whom were his wife and children, and for this he received thanks from Queen Victoria. Colonel Baker is from a family of soldiers, his father John Baker being in the East India service, akin to the military service, and after the Sepoy Re- bellion was included in the latter. John Baker went to India in 1824. His wife bore the maiden name of Lydia King and she belonged to that family of heavy landed interests of County Suffolk, England. Colonel Baker was the eldest of the nine children born to his parents and all of them became soldiers in the British army except one who ran away from home, came to the United States and served his adopted country as a soldier in the Union army during the war between the Union and the Confederacy.

Colonel Baker was married to Elizabeth Vincent, a daughter of Gen. William Vincent, also of the East India Company, and an officer in the army during the Sepoy outbreak. Mrs. Baker died at Decorah, Iowa, in 1909, having been the mother of the following children: William Vincent, who lives at Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. Charles V. Lloyd, of London, England; Arthur G., whose name heads this review; Eldred R., who also lives at Chicago; Charles K. T., who lives at Kansas City, Missouri ; and Frank W., who lives at Chicago.

Arthur G. Baker attended the public schools of Canada and Decorah, Iowa, before he became a student of Professor Breckenridge's private school at Decorah. Subsequently he took a course at the Rensselaer Polytechnic School of Troy, New York, the oldest engineering school in the United States, and was graduated therefrom in 1876. For the next two years Mr. Baker looked for a job and finally found it as axman on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad at Algona, Iowa, under William H. Sheldon, locating engineer, one of the big men of his day in the field of location engineering. Dur- ing the summer of 1878, Mr. Baker worked for Mr. Sheldon, rising from axman to chainman and then to rodman on construction work. In the fall he was promoted to transitman under F. W. Kim- ball, who was in charge of locating parties. Mr. Baker ran transit from Sheldon, Iowa, to the Mis- souri River through the then entirely unsettled part of Dakota Territory, now South Dakota, to Cham- berlain on the Missouri. He was also transitman for a year in Minnesota and Wisconsin and on pre- liminary surveys from Ortonville to Aberdeen, and the same year took charge as resident engineer of construction for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. In 1883 he was placed in charge of his first locating party of that road as chief of that party, locating lines from Aberdeen south and west to the Missouri River at Evarts. Following this service Mr. Baker was invited to Milwaukee, Wis- consin, and attached to the chief engincer's office under D. J. Whittamore, where he remained until 1886 when he went to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in charge of the relocation and reconstruction of the McGregor and Prairie du Chien Railroad and pontoon bridge then owned by Gen. John D. Lawler.

For the subsequent ten years Mr. Baker was en-

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gaged in location, construction and maintenance work in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and had charge of the party locating the line of road from Muscatine to Ottumwa, Iowa, and this was fol- lowed immediately by the construction of the line. From 1902 to 1904 he was engaged in explorations for a transcontinental line from the Missouri River to the coast, the trip of some 3,000 miles being covered by him and two men, on horseback. On this exploring tour he passed through Miles City, Montana, outfitted here, and accompanied by an- other engineer and driver, drove to Butte along the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul line now in opera- tion. He went through the Bitter Root Mountains and then jumped to Missoula and explored over these mountains as well as the Cascades to Seattle, Washington. In 1906 he bought a home at Miles City, and has continued to make it his headquarters and home ever since.

The next activity of Mr. Baker was the construc- tion of a line of road for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Company from Marmath to Melston, and upon the completion of it was ordered to South Dakota for the construction of about 300 miles of branch lines. Following that he constructed about 300 miles of road in Fergus County, connecting Lewistown and Great Falls, and other branches from Lewistown, and completed his work with his com- pany by taking the physical valuation on their prop- erty in connection with the Federal Government. As a final touch to his forty years of service the company asked Mr. Baker to write a history of the construction of the Puget Sound Line knowing that no one else could do it so thoroughly and satisfac- torily.

In addition to his home Mr. Baker is a stock- holder and director of the State National Bank of Miles City, and has for some time been actively en- gaged in developing one of the large additions to Miles City, which appropriately bears his name.

On October 9, 1889, Mr. Baker was married at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, to Miss Mary C. Sav- age, a daughter of Thomas A. and Elvira (Smith) Savage. Mr. Savage was a Virginian, but his wife was a native of Vermont, and they came to Prairie du Chien in 1836, where Mr. Savage established himself as a merchant, and there he died at the extremely advanced age of ninety-six years, having been the father of five daughters and two sons. Mr. and Mrs. Baker have a son, Arthur Abbott, and a daughter, Dorothy, whose education was com- pleted at Madison, Wisconsin. Both young people are living at home. Mr. Baker is known all over Montana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and the Da- kotas, and the work he accomplished in the opening up of new sections by his construction work will never be forgotten nor can too high a value be set upon it. Since coming to Miles City he has been equally progressive, and never fails to give due at- tention to civic affairs. His property interests are large in this locality, for ever since he made his first visit to the place, he has had faith in it and proven this by investing in its realty and other en- terprises. The example of so important a man and so shrewd an investor has had a salutory influence upon others and much of the influx of capital and people may be directly traced to Mr. Baker.

ROBERT L. WESTOVER. As a comparatively new in- dustry, the automobile business has attracted into its ranks many of the younger men of the western communities, this applying particularly to the thriv- ing cities which are located on the well traveled

trails used by tourists who make their pleasure trips in the popular vehicle which has revolutionized traf- fic. In this industry, these young and progressive business men have found prosperity and an oppor- tunity of placing themselves in positions of busi- ness stability. Robert L. Westover belongs to this class which has recognized opportunity and grasped it, and the Westover Yellowstone Trail Garage, at Billings, Montana, of which he is proprietor, is one of the most popular and largely patronized in this locality. Mr. Westover was born at Lincoln, Neb- raska, August 30, 1886, and is a son of J. A. and Minna C. (Fushia) Westover.

The Westover family is of English origin, but has been located in the United States for a num- ber of generations, and Amasa Westover, the grand- father of Robert L., was born in Michigan in 1815. As a young man he became a pioneer into the newly- opened territory of Nebraska, where he experienced the hardships of frontier life, but eventually over- came all obstacles and became a prosperous agri- culturist. In his declining years he moved to the City of Lincoln, where his death occurred in 1895, at the age of eighty years. J. A. Westover was born in Nebraska, March 17, 1859, and was reared at Lin- coln, where he secured a public school education. For some years he was the owner and cultivator of a fruit farm in Nebraska, and being a man of busi- ness sagacity and great industry was successful in his operations, and invested his capital in realty at Lincoln, which he still owns. In 1917 he practically retired from active pursuits and came to Billings, where he now make's his home. He was married at Lincoln to Minna C. Fushia, who was born in 1861, and they became the parents of the following chil- dren : George A., an attorney residing at Columbus, Montana; Edward J., in business with his brother, Robert L., at Billings; Robert L .; L. D., with his brothers in the same business; J. F., identified with the Curtiss Aeroplane Company, at Hempstead, New York; and Florence, twin of J. F., the wife of Merle E. Smith, identified with the Metropolitan Insurance Company at Billings.

Robert L. Westover was educated in the public schools of Lincoln, where he was graduated from the high school with the class of 1905. During the season of 1905-1906 he was a student at the Lincoln Business College, and following this pursued a course of one and one-half years in mechanical engineering at the University of Nebraska at Lin- coln. Leaving that institution in 1908, for a time he worked as a mechanic at Lincoln, gaining ex- perience, and eventually became the proprietor of a shop of his own which he conducted successfully for three years. In 1913 Mr. Westover came to Billings and established the Westover Yellowstone Trail Garage, situated at No. 2312 First Avenue, North, which has become one of the leading garages of Southeastern Montana. The establishment has a floor space of 75 by 100 feet on the ground floor, and 75 by 50 feet basement, and in addition to stor- ing and repairing automobiles, Mr. Westover sells parts and accessories and used automobiles. He and his brother Edward J. (Ed.) are the owners of the business, and through their good management, industry, mechanical skill and unfailing courtesy, built up a business second to none in this part of the state.

Mr. Westover was married in 1908 at Lincoln. Nebraska, to Miss Helen Hansen, and they are the parents of three children: Robert W., born in 1910; Lucille, born in 1912; and Annabelle, born in 1913. The pleasant family home is situated at No. 51

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North Broadway, and in addition to this Mr. West- over owns other realty and has a number of lucra- tive business connections. He is an independent voter upon political issues, and as a fraternalist belongs to Billings Council No. 1259, Knights of Columbus, in addition to which he holds member- ship in the Billings Midland Club. He and his family belong to the Roman Catholic Church.

CHESTER WEED SWEET, manager of the Bozeman division of the Montana Flour Mills Company, is member of a notable pioneer family of Montana and besides his successful record as a business man is former mayor of the City of Bozeman.

He is a son of William Thompson and Emma Iola Sweet. His father a native of Scioto County, Ohio, was a Union soldier in the Civil war and soon afterward started for the Northwest, traveling by steamer up the Missouri River and reaching Fort Benton in 1866. He had the distinction of estab- lishing the first stock of general merchandise in Jefferson County at the old Town of Boulder. The interesting experience of his career as a Montana pioneer are recited more at length on other pages of this publication. His wife was born in Kala- mazoo, Michigan, and came to Montana by steam- boat from St. Louis in 1866, also landing at Fort Benton.

Chester Weed Sweet was reared and educated at Boulder, attending high school there, and from school went to work in the general store of Bach, Corey & Company at Boulder. Subsequently he was city salesman for Lindsay & Company at Helena but for a number of years his chief interest has been in the sales departments of some of Montana's leading flour mills. He was sales manager for the Royal Milling Company of St. Paul, subsequently sales manager and secretary of the Bozeman Mill- ing Company, and now has the general manage- ment of the Bozeman division of the Montana Flour Mills Company, an organization represented by four mills in the state, with a daily capacity of 4,000 barrels of flour. Mr. Sweet is financially inter- ested in the Montana Flour Mills Company and also in the Waite McClave Company.

Mr. Sweet gave Bozeman a thoroughly effective and business like administration of its municipal affairs during his two year term as mayor, from which office he retired in May, 1921. He is a re- publican in politics, is affiliated with Bozeman Lodge No. 18, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Boze- man Lodge No. 46, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, is a member of the Rotary and Commercial clubs and of the Episcopal Church.

At Chicago September 19, 1907, Mr. Sweet mar- ried Miss Mary Eleanor Sullivan. Her father M. J. Sullivan was superintendent of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway during the construction of that road from Chicago to St. Paul, and continued to be officially identified with the company until his death. Mr. and Mrs. Sweet have one daughter, Mary Eleanor Sweet, born in 1915.

ALFRED O. ENGLET. A tragedy that took away two young and prominent Montana business men and citizens occurred March 25, 1921, when an automobile overturned and instantly killed its two occupants, Alfred O. Englet of Lavina and Fred Sibley a rancher in the Emory country. In the death of Mr. Englet the Lavina community ex- perienced a sense of irretrievable loss, since he had become widely and favorably known all over that . section as a banker, and was really the active head

of the Lavina State Bank. Mr. Englet had also shared in pioneer work in that section of Montana, having homesteaded, proved up and at the time of his death still owned his claim in Musselshell County.

To a large extent the following facts regarding his family and life were obtained from Mr. Englet more than a year before his death and are there- fore a reliable account of his interesting experiences. He was born near St. Ansgar, Iowa, June 3, 1878. His father Gregory Englet was born in Germany in 1826, was reared in his native country, served six years in the regular army, and came to the United States soon after his discharge. After some experiences elsewhere he located at Freeport, Illi- nois, was married in that state, and in 1862 enlisted in the Union army in Company K of the Seventy- first Illinois Regiment. He was on active duty until injured in the battle of Murfreesboro and for the greater part of his remaining service was confined to a hospital. He was a pensioner after the war and soon removed to Worth County in Northern Iowa, where he farmed and in 1880 moved to another farm in Hancock County, Iowa, where he spent the rest of his life. He died near Cor- with in 1891. He was a republican, and an active member of the German-Evangelical Church and was also affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic. Gregory Englet married Elizabeth Kehn, who was born in Germany in 1838 and died at Belmond, Iowa, in June, 1908. They were the parents of eleven children : Anna, a resident of Biggs, Oregon; George, a farmer living at Winlock, Washington; John, of Minneapolis; William, a baker who died at Fort Dodge, Iowa, at the age of twenty-six; Fred G., a passenger conductor with the Illinois Central Railway living at Chicago; Jacob, a farmer at Lavina, Montana; Joseph, a contractor and builder at Kanawha, Iowa; Edward, a farmer who died at Minot, North Dakota, at the age of thirty-four; Lou, a rancher at Lavina, Montana; Tillie, who died at the age of three years.

The youngest of his parents' family was the late Alfred O. Englet, who was not yet forty-three years of age when his energies were stilled by death. He was educated at Belmond, Iowa, graduating from the high school there in 1896. Following that he had a serious business training as clerk in stores at Belmond until 1903. In that year he went to Sawyer, North Dakota, and was manager of the local plant of the Rogers Lumber Company until January 7, 1907. For a few months following he was bill clerk for the Soo Railway at Glenwood, Minnesota, but during the panic in the fall of 1907 returned to Belmond, Iowa, to look after his mother who had been in ill health, and after her death he remained there until the spring of 1909.

Mr. Englet came to Lavina, Montana, May 26, 1909, and immediately filed on a homestead of 160 acres. His residence was on his claim until May, IgII, and he commuted it and made of it a valu- able farm. While on the homestead in December, I910, he entered the Lavina State Bank as assistant cashier. He was in its service continuously until April, 1916, when he removed from Lavina and be- came cashier of the Belmond State Bank. Then in June, 1919, he returned to the Lavina Bank as cashier and active head. This bank was established in April, 1909, as a private institution by D. W. Slayton, L. C. Lehfeldt, A. C. Bayers, H. J. Ries and L. Sandsmark. It was incorporated under a state charter in IgII, and has a working capital of $20,000, surplus and profits of $11,000, and de- posits of $150,000. The bank home is at Main

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Street and First Avenue, and there was seldom a day when Mr. Englet was absent from his post of duty there.

However, he had other business interests, being vice president of the Lavina Consolidated Oil Com- pany. He was president of the Lavina Commercial Club, served as school trustee of Lavina from 1912 to 1916 when he resigned to remove to Belmond. In politics he was a republican, and was Worshipful Master in 1918 of Lavina Lodge No. 107, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and was also affiliated with Billings Chapter No. 6, Royal Arch Masons, and Miles City Council Royal and Select Masters, and was Worthy Patron of the Eastern Star, while Mrs. Englet was Worthy Matron. He was a dele- gate to the Grand Lodge of Masonry.

Mr. Englet and family lived in a modern home on First Avenue in Lavina. He married at Bel- mond, Iowa, October 25, 1899, Miss Sadie E. Cup- pett. They were classmates and both graduated from the Belmond High School in 1896. Her par- ents were David L. and Lucretia (Hubbard) Cup- pett, the latter now deceased. Her father is a re- tired business man and early settler of Belmond, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Englet became the parents of four children: Edward, born April 30, 1905; Harold, who died at the age of six months; Ruth E., born March 18, 1912; and Eileen, born April 17, 1915.

From an account of his tragic death which ap- peared in The Lavina Independent may appropriately be quoted a few sentences that voiced the general esteem felt for Mr. Englet: "The sudden death of Mr. Englet was a severe shock to the whole community as well as to his family. His work in the above named banks and in other offices he has held brought him in close touch with many individ- uals, most of whom were won to his friendship through his open heartedness and genial disposition. He had an enviable faculty of getting acquainted with people and making friends. He did not wait for those in need of a friend to seek him, but he sought them instead, and his friendship can be interpreted through his actions and work. The sentiment of 'let me live in the house by the side of the road, and be a friend to man,' found lodg- ment in his heart. He put it into practice and those many friends that he met beside the road will deeply mourn the death of Alfred Englet. He was a public-spirited citizen and an untiring booster in all things pertaining to the welfare and upbuild- ing of the community. He was president and took an active part in the Lavina Commercial Club. He was a liberal supporter of the church and all forms of charity."

DANIEL JEFFREY DONOHUE has had a business experience as a merchant in Montana during thirty years. He learned merchandising with one of the largest wholesale and retail houses in Chicago and for a number of years was a department manager with one of the leading merchandise concerns of Butte. About twenty years ago Mr. Donohue es- tablished himself in business at Missoula where he has developed one of the most complete department stores in Western Montana.

The first eleven years of his life he lived in County Kerry, Ireland, where he was born No- vember 3, 1869. His father Jeffrey Donohue, born in the same county in 1826, and a relative of the Irish patriot Daniel O'Connell, was an Irish farmer and in 1880 came to the United States with his family and lived in Chicago until his death in 1900. In Chicago he was employed by the Chicago

and Northwestern Railway. After coming to this country he voted as a democrat. He was a member of the Catholic Church. Jeffrey Donohue married Ellen Nolan who was born in County Kerry in 1834 and died there in 1873. They had a family of four children: L. E., who is in the postal service at Chicago; Daniel Jeffrey; Michael, a merchant in Chicago; and Ellen, wife of Richard Shay, a public official and political leader in Chi- cago.

Daniel Jeffrey Donohue secured his early educa- tion in the National schools of Ireland and in Chi- cago for several years he attended night school. At the age of sixteen he began earning his living and for six years was an employe of Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company, wholesale and retail merchants. Beginning as a clerk before he left that firm he was an assistant department manager. Mr. Dono- hue came to Butte in 1890, and the following seven years he was a department manager for M. J. Connell Company, general merchants. Marcus Daly then chose him to take charge of the Daly mer- cantile interests at Hamilton, Montana, where he remained until the death of Mr. Daly in 1900. In that year Mr. Donohue moved to Missoula and established his present business. In starting his store he was fortified with the knowledge brought by experience both in Chicago and Butte and he invested his capital wisely and has used progressive methods at every point. He now does an immense volume of business annually, and has one of the handsomest and best stocked stores in the state at the corner of West Main Street and North Higgins Avenue.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 219

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