Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 222

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 222

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Al Wright attended the public schools of Raders- burg, having been brought there by his mother and step-father, who, going from Winona, Minnesota, to Kansas, came thence to Virginia City, Montana, and finally to Radersburg. Mr. Hossfeld, who was a butcher by trade, established himself in business there and was one of the town's pioneer business men. After leaving St. John's Academy, which he attended for two years, Al Wright learned to be a cow puncher and was a regular cowboy in Jefferson, now Broadwater, County, and was so employed until 1906. He then went to wrangling horses and is still so engaged, being one of the most expert in this line in all of this region. Mr. Wright has branched out and is now an extensive raiser, buyer and seller of horses, mules and jacks. He is a large property owner, having a 240-acre ranch ad- joining Townsend, another one of 320 acres twenty miles north of Townsend, and a third, which is twenty miles south of Townsend, and leases 750 acres additional for his stock operations. The comfort- able modern house he occupies at Townsend is his property, and he owns another residence at Raders- burg. In politics Mr. Wright is a democrat, but aside from exercising his right of suffrage does not participate in public life. A Mason, he maintains membership with Valley Lodge No. 21, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Townsend; Helena Con- sistory No. 3, Scottish Rite, in which he has been made a thirty-second degree Mason, and Algeria Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Helena, Montana. Mr. Wright also be- longs to Radersburg Lodge No. 61, Independent Order of Foresters, and has been a representative to the Grand Lodge of Montana. For some years he has been a stockholder of the Townsend State Bank, and is now on its board of directors, and his connection with it gives it added strength.

In 1890 Mr. Wright was married at Radersburg to Miss Susie Sitton, a daughter of James M. and Rachel (Yates) Sitton, both of whom are now de- ceased. Mr. Sitton was a farmer of the Gallatin Valley, who came into Montana in 1870. Mr. and Mrs. Wright became the parents of a daughter, Vanga Fay, who was born September 1, 1891, was graduated from the Broadwater High School and attended Notre Dame University at Notre Dame,

Indiana. She is now in the internal revenue office at Helena, Montana.

TIMOTHY E. CROWLEY is a real Montana pioneer, having lived in the territory and state for over forty years. His experiences have given him a knowledge of the development of many localities, though his principal residence has been in Fergus County.

He was born at Brasher Falls, St. Lawrence County, New York, August 17, 1857, a son of John C. and Mary (Hurley) Crowley. His parents were both natives of County Cork, Ireland. His father died in 1883, at the age of eighty, and his mother in 1898. They were married in Ireland and made the voyage to America as their wedding trip. The voy- age on an old sailing vessel required nine weeks and six days. They landed at Quebec, and in a few years settled in St. Lawrence County, New York, where John C. Crowley was a pioneer and by dint of hard work made a farm in the wilderness. Their first house was constructed of logs, and the flooring he whipsawed from native timber. Later he built a fine frame house of twelve rooms. He was a hard working man and very able in the management of his business affairs, and before his death had a large and well appointed farm of 480 acres. He never cared for public office, voting as a democrat, and was a member of the Catholic Church. He and his wife had ten children, seven sons and three daugh- ters, three of whom are still living.

Timothy E. Crowley, the sixth child, spent his boyhood days on his father's farm in Western New York. He secured his education there and at the age of twenty-one came to Montana. The year of his arrival was 1878. From Corona, Utah, he came to Helena by stage coach and his first employment was working in the saw mill of A. M. Holter. He was there about three months, and then went to the mines at Belmont. A carpenter by trade, he was employed for about a year in erecting a five- stamp mill. After that he engaged in farming and stock raising near Canton, and on April 8, 1880, located on Spring Creek in what is now Fergus County. Subsequently he was in the merchandise business with the firm of Conrad & Muth at Bel- mont for about two years. He then engaged in the mercantile business for himself at Maryville, Mon- tana, and on selling out his interests took up. the teaming business at Helena. In 1888, having sold his interests at the capital, he returned to Canton and engaged in farming and stock raising. Three years later he made another move, this time locating at Lewistown and engaging in dairying and stock growing. Selling out there, he made his last and permanent move and is now living on his old home- stead 21/2 miles north of the court house. He has 300 acres, and it is used chiefly as a hay farm. Since 1915 he has been practically retired from the heavier responsibilities of farming. Mr. Crowley is a republican, a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Foresters and is active in the Catholic Church.

May 7, 1882, about four years after he came to Montana, he married Ida May Sears. A large family of fourteen children were born to them, thirteen of whom are living: John E .; Daniel E., who married Nellie C. Kirbey and has three children; Annie F., who is the wife of Benjamin Muggy, is the mother of one child; Ida May, wife of Claud Pentcost, and they have three children: George, who married Ada Jossler and has three children; Clarence S., who en- listed January 9, 1918, and was a captain in the Amer- ican Expeditionary Forces in France; Mary ; Alice; Viola, attending high school at Lewistown; Dorothy,

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some practical work. The Government let him know that he was too old for service in the most recent war, but he sent his only son who was in France ten months and on the front line three months. Mr. Sanden was elected as a democrat and served as a member of the Seventh and Ninth Legislative As- sembly of Montana. He is a Jeffersonian democrat in political principles, and is also classed as a moderate single taxer. He believes in the taxation of privileges, and that for the successful conduct of the Government only three taxes are necessary, a land tax, income tax and inheritance tax.

Mr. Sanden is a member and director of the Com- mercial Club of Helena and a director of the Rotary Club. He has been a member of the Helena Public Library Board of Trustees continuously since 1911, and since 1914 has been president of the board. He is a member and former district deputy grand master of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, former treasurer of the Fraternal Order of Eagles and a member of the Woodmen of the World. He was reared a Lutheran and is now a member of the Unitarian Church or Society.

In 1893 at Helena he married Miss Jennie Peter- son. Her father, P. J. Peterson, was a pioneer miner in Colorado and later located on his farm near Law- rence, Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Sanden have two chil- dren: Eugene S., the son, born in 1895, graduated A. B. from Stanford Jr. University in California, and was in the National Army two years, ten months of that time in France. He is now a student at the University of Chicago. The daughter, Florence Sanden, born in 1900, is a student in the Montana University at Missoula.

FREDERICK A. LYON. Among those who are justly entitled to be enrolled among the makers of Fergus County is Frederick R. Lyon, whose thirty-eight years of residence in this community have covered the era that marks the entire history of settlement, civilization, progress and final attainment of aims and ambitions. Although born in Ohio, where he had a comfortable home, he early saw the great pos- sibilities which the West afforded, and as a con- sequence took up his abode in the unsettled region. He possessed no rich inheritance or influential friends to aid and assist him in establishing himself in busi- ness, but he was filled with high hopes and a land- able ambition to succeed, and a volition which shrank from no obstacles or difficulties that pre- sented themselves to bar his progress.

Mr. Lyon was born at Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, December 6, 1848, the second and only sur- viving child of the three sons and one daughter born to Israel and Theodosia (Vandine) Lyon. His father, who was born in 1808, near Rochester, Mon- roe County, New York, spent his early days in that state, and was married at Rochester to Theodosia Vandine, who was born there in 1812. In his youth Mr. Lyon had learned the carpenter trade, and upon his removal to Columbus engaged in contracting, a capacity in which he assisted in the building of the Ohio State Capitol at Columbus. Subsequently he held the position of state carpenter for several years, but in 1865 removed to Williamsburg, Iowa County, Iowa, where he followed his business as a carpenter and contractor until within a few years of his death, in 1892, his wife having passed away in the previous year. At the time of his arrival in Iowa County, Mr. Lyon, who was a pioneer of that locality, en- tered 160 acres of good land, and during the rest of his life combined farming with his other business enterprises. He was first a whig in politics and

later a republican, and he and Mrs. Lyon were faith- ful members of the Baptist Church.

Frederick A. Lyon secured his early éducation in the public schools of Columbus, Ohio, and was but sixteen years of age when he left home with an elder brother, Mortimer, in April, 1865, and made the diffi- cult journey overland to Williamsburg, Iowa, their father subsequently following them by rail, and then by stage. While living on the 160-acre farm, the youth continued his studies, although he had to walk three miles to attend school. Eventually he entered upon his career as school teacher, and during four winter terms drove five miles each way every day to instruct his classes. During this time he fur- thered his own educational knowledge by attendance at Grinnell College.

When Mr. Lyon started out as a farmer, it was in Thayer County, Nebraska, where he purchased 360 acres of land, but was unfortunate enough to do so right at the time of the grasshopper invasion. This disgusted him with Nebraska as a farming community and in the spring of 1879 he came to Jefferson County, Montana, traveling by rail from Omaha to the end of the Union Pacific Railway, and on the Oregon Short Line to Idaho Falls, where he took the stage-coach to Clancy, Jefferson County. There he engaged in keeping a roadhouse and dairy, finding plenty of custom among the passengers on the stage-line, but this did not satisfy him, and in 1880 he moved on to Helena, where he remained until the fall of 1882. At that time he went to the Forest Grove, on McDonald Creek, twenty miles from the present site of Lewistown, southeast. Fort Maginnis at that time was the nearest trading point, but Mr. Lyon courageously began his career as a homesteader on what was practically desert land. That proved the nucleus for his operations which have grown and developed and prospered until today he is the owner of 2,000 acres of valuable and pro- ductive land, of which he has about 300 acres under cultivation for farming, the remainder being given over to his 250 head of cattle. Mr. Lyon, always progressive, was one of the pioneers in the business of alfalfa growing in Fergus County and has met with much success in this department of agricultural work. He is a republican in his political views, and while he has never cared for public office, was one of the pioneer members of the school board in Fer- gus County, serving with Granville Stewart and C. L. Coder. In 1918 he served as register for his district during the first draft.

Mr. Lyon was married September 24, 1874, to Mary Elizabeth Jones, who was born near Utica, New York, and to this union there have been born seven children: Walter Hayes; Frank O., who mar- ried Mary Shepart and has two children, Margaret and Gerald; Anna Theodosia, wife of Lawrence W. Watson, who has four children, Adena, Lyon, Ed- ward and Mary Ellen; Ida Virginia, the wife of Paul Lirkhand; Hattie E., the wife of C. Callahan, who has two children, Clarissa and Buster; Harry Harri- son, who died February 13, 1919, married Essie Pierce and had three children: Myrtle, Marnell and Ver- non; and Mervin L., who married Nettie Collins, has two children: Marion and Beryl.

JOHN NEVIN. The Nevin family were pioneers in .the Melville community of Sweetgrass County, where they have been conspicuous in ranching and other affairs for forty years. It was near Melville that John Nevin, a well-known resident of Big Tim- ber, was born April 12, 1881.

His father, Oswald B. Nevin, was born in New York State in 1840, a son of Benjamin Nevin and

Charles C. Richard E. Roy H. JOHNSON THE ABSTRACTMAN

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

a grandson of John Nevin. The Nevin family came from Ireland, where Benjamin Nevin was born. Benjamin acquired a large amount of land near Al- bany, New York, and spent his last years there. Oswald B. Nevin had a fondness for the romance and adventure of remote and unsettled districts, and spent much of his life out on the frontier. For several years he traveled over the northern provinces as an employe of the Hudson Bay Company. He also served in the Civil war as member of a New York regiment. He came to Montana during the '70s and as a pioneer homesteaded a tract near Mel- ville, later selling his homestead and buying another adjoining ranch, where he lived until his death in September, 1905. He was prominent in affairs in Sweetgrass County and at the time of his death was incumbent of the office of County Commissioner. He was a republican and was affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. Oswald B. Nevin married Mary Whitford, who was born at Winnipeg, Canada, where they married. She died on the home ranch near Melville. She was the mother of ten children: Sarah the oldest died in childhood, the third was also named Sarah and died at the age of seventeen, the ninth was Edward who died when twelve years old, and Richard, the youngest, died at the age of eighteen in California. Ben, second among the chil- dren, is a ranchor near Melville, and in that same community reside his brothers, Tom and William, both on ranches, while Dave has a ranch on the Sweetgrass River. The sixth in the family was John and the seventh is Jemima, wife of Harry Manning, a rancher near Lewistown.

John Nevin finished the work of the common schools in Sweetgrass County and he also spent one year in All Hallows Business College at Salt Lake City, Utah. For two years he was a student in the State Agricultural College at Bozeman, and on leav- ing that institution in 1901 took charge of his father's ranch as administrator and in 1906 sold the property for the benefit of the heirs. He then bought and was part owner with his father-in-law, John Rye, of an immense ranch of 24,000 acres. He lived on it and was active in its management until 1916, when the property was sold. He then made his home at Big Timber, on Sixth Avenue near Anderson Street.

Mr. Nevin passed away August 3, 1920, while managing his ranch on the Sweetgrass River, where he had 6,000 acres devoted to grain and stock raising. He handled blooded stock of different kinds, includ- ing sheep.

Mr. Nevin was a republican in politics and a member of the Catholic Church. He had been a stockholder in the Citizens State Bank of Big Tim- ber. In 1905 at Butte he married Miss Bertha S. Rye, daughter of John and Lena (Olesen) Rye. Mrs. Nevin attended a settlement school at Melville. They were the parents of three children: John Brodie, born October 8, 1905; Richard Woodbury, born December 3, 1910; and Sayre Rye, born Decem- ber 23, 1913.

John Rye, father of Mrs. Nevin, is one of the oldest settlers of Sweetgrass County, and as a retired resident of Big Timber is enjoying the comforts brought by many years of exceptional business activity. He was born near Trondjem, Norway, March 20, 1852. His father Erasmus Rye was born in Norway in 1798 and spent his life in that country, at first as a tailor and later as a farmer and died in 1858. He had been a member of the Regular Norwegian Army and was affiliated with the Lu- theran Church. His wife was Bertha Peterson, who was born in Norway in 1818 and after the death of her husband came to America and died at Melville,

Montana, in 1904. She had four children, John Rye being the youngest. Peter, the oldest, came to Mon- tana in 1883 and is a retired farmer at Kalispel, Montana. Malina died in Norway, wife of Louis Matthewson, who is a farmer in that country. Olena living at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, is the widow of Sever Stein, who was in the lumber business in Wisconsin.

John Rye attended common schools near Trond- jem and to the age of twelve lived on his father's farm and then became a herder of sheep and cattle and worked on the farm until he came to the United States in 1872. His first home was at Menominee, Wisconsin, where he worked in saw mills as a lumberjack, and also had some employment in a store. On coming to Montana in 1883 he located in the Melville community and homesteaded 160 acres. From that quarter section his possessions grew until he had 640 acres. He finally sold his homestead in 1909. In the meantime he had acquired in associa- tion with John Nevin the great ranch of 24,000 acres on Fish Creek, and was active in its management for four years. Since 1911 he has lived in Big Timber, but he still own 640 acres at Gibson and runs it as a wheat ranch. His modern home is on Sixth Avenue in Big Timber and he also has three dwelling houses in Billings and 160 acres cast of Melville. Mr. Rye is widely known over his home county, having served six years in the office of county com- missioner. He is a republican, a member of the

Lutheran Church, and is affiliated with Big Timber Lodge, Knights of Pythias. He married at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in 1874, Miss Lena Johnson, who was born and educated in Norway. She is a mem- ber of the Lutheran Church. Mr. and Mrs. Rye have three children: Richard who attended Carlton College at Northfield, Minnesota, and lives on his father's ranch; Olga, wife of William Murer, a merchant at Springdale, Montana; and Bertha, Mrs. John Nevin.

CHARLES C. JOHNSTON of Mondak is active head of the Roosevelt County Abstract Company, and is also president of the larger organization operating under the familiar title in a number of Montana localities as "Johnson, the Abstract Man." Mr. Johnston personally is one of the leading authorities on land titles in the Northwest and has been a dili- gent student of land titles nearly all his active life and in many states.

Mr. Johnston was born at Springfield, Ohio, April 8, 1881. The family originally came from England, being among the early colonial settlers of Mary- land. Some of the name were American soldiers in the Revolution. His grandfather, Benjamin John- ston, married Marie Hughes, of Kentucky and their three sons were: Henry, foreman of the old Cham- pion Binder Works at Springfield, Ohio; William A .; and Irvin Johnston, a farmer in Ohio.

William A. Johnston, father of Charles C. John- ston, was born in Clark County, Ohio, in 1852, and was well educated. For many years he was a part- ner in the Kenton Boiler Works at Kenton, Ohio, was a merchant there and elsewhere in Ohio, and subsequently moved to Michigan, where he acquired farming interests in the vicinity of Onawa, where he now makes his home. He married Annabell Bar- ringer. Her father, Jacklin A. Barringer, a re- tired contractor, was a native of Virginia but was reared in Ohio near Dayton, and married Miss Harriet Styles, of Boston, Massachusetts. Anna- bell was their youngest child and died at Kenton, Ohio, in 1886. Her children were: William H. and LeRoy Albert, both of Minneapolis, and Charles C.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Charles C. Johnston attended the public schools of Kenton, Ohio, the East Liberty College, and took a commercial course in Lentz College at Dayton. He finished his education when about nineteen years of age, and had already acquired some practical experience as a bookkeeper with the National Cash Register Company. On leaving Dayton he went to Lakota, North Dakota, and was employed as a typist and abstractor with an abstract company, eventually becoming a half owner in the business. Selling out, he returned to Dayton, and there con- tinued his study and interest in abstract work, but became more active in the affairs of the National Cash Register Company. He was secretary of its foreign department, later was promoted to secre- tary of the inventions department, and then be- came one of the executive secretaries of the cor- poration. He was with that well known organization for about five years.

His next field of work was in Texas, where he gained new abstract experience by a year's study in Spanish Grant titles. From there he came to Montana in June, 1910.

At Glasgow Mr. Johnston became associated with R. E. Johnson in abstract work and investment bank- ing. About a year later Mr. R. H. Johnson be- came associated with them and as they had acquired abstract offices in other cities in the state they be- came known as "Johnson, THE Abstract Man," as mentioned in the first of this article. R. E. John- son was then president of the concern, and at his death Charles C. Johnston became executive head. When Roosevelt County was created Mr. Johnston with his partner J. H. Johnson organized the Roosevelt County Abstract Company and Mr. Johnston moved his home to Mondak in March, I919.

The Johnson organization has compiled numer- ous sets of county records, including those at Great Falls, Cascade County, Malta in Phillips County, Glasgow in Valley County, Plentywood in Sheri- dan County, Mondak in Roosevelt County and at Scobey in Daniels County. At the beginning of the World war many of the office force left to enroll with the colors and for this reason the firm sold its records at Great Falls, Malta and Glasgow, but still retains and operates the others. The firm are members of the Montana Abstractors Association and Mr. Johnston is one of the vice presidents of that organization.

He is also president of the Johnson Farm Loan Company of Glasgow, and is interested in the man- agement of the Stevens-Johnston Investment Com- pany of Minneapolis. The Johnson Farm Loan Company made the first farm loan in Valley County, and aside from those made by one local bank did the first farm loan business in Eastern Montana.

Mr. Johnston was reared in a republican home, and cast his first presidential ballot for Colonel Roosevelt in 1904. He has been an active leader in his party in Montana, and for a time served as secretary of the Valley County Republican Central Committee, and for several years was a member of the Glasgow School Board. He became a Mason at Glagow, where he affiliated with the lodge, chap- ter and commandery, is a member of the Shrine at Helena, and is active in the Knights of Pythias Order, his local membership being at Glasgow and he is deputy grand chancellor of the Northeastern Montana District.

ROY H. JOHNSON, who has been prominently iden- tified with the business life of Plentywood since its formative period, is the manager of the Sheridan County Abstract Company and a member of the

Roosevelt County Abstract Company. The for- mer corporation has transcribed the records of the county, and has its books to date for the mak- ing of a complete showing as to titles to all lands within the county. It is a bonded company for the sum of $5,000, a safe and reliable institution for the transaction and sale of Montana's lands.

Mr. Johnson was born in Dexter, Iowa, January 30, 1892, but when he was a lad of seven years he was taken by his parents to Minnesota, where he grew to mature years on farms near Hancock and Alexandria, gaining his education in the meantime in the public schools and a business college at Alexandria. He was a youth of nineteen when he embarked upon his business career, and at the same time became identified with the life and interests of Montana.

Charles F. Johnson, his father, was a native of Sweden, but left his native land for the United States when nineteen years of age. For a time after his arrival he was employed as a wage earner in the Rock · Island Arsenal and at Galesburg, Illinois, later was a railroad brakeman, and finally learned the mason's trade and followed that occupation until fail- ing health caused him to give up the work and retire to the farm, depending upon his sons to carry on its work. He became a naturalized citizen of his adopted land, voted with the republican party, and always proved himself a thorough American, in sympathy with its institutions and government. His death occurred at Alexandria, Minnesota, in Jan- uary, 1916, when he had reached the age of sixty- nine. He had married in Dexter, Iowa, Miss Clara A. Samuelson, who was also a native of Sweden, and they met for the first time at Galesburg, Illinois. She survives her husband, and is the mother of the following children : Albert, who is engaged in farm- ing near Clontarf, Minnesota; Gus F. and Walter R., both residents of Northwood, Iowa; Roy H., of Plentywood, Montana; and Marie C., the deceased wife of R. E. Johnson, the originator of the Johnson interests in the Valley County Abstract Company of Glasgow.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 222

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