Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 24

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 24

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of nineteen, in 1904, he came to Helena, and after two years with the wholesale fruit and produce firm of Lindsay & Company, he took employment with T. P. Wood in the hay, grain and feed business at 6 South Park Street. He gave nine years of dili- gent service to his employer and at the same time accumulated some capital, and with his thorough experience and well established credit bought out T. P. Wood and has since been sole proprietor of the business. He moved the location in 1919 to 402 North Main Street, where he now has a well stocked plant, handling hay, grain, feed, flour and poultry supplies. He leases three warehouses along the Northern Pacific tracks, and does a business that extends all over Lewis and Clark County.

Mr. Woods is a member of the First Christian Church of Helena, is a democrat, is affiliated with Excelsior Lodge No. 5 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Royal Highlanders. His mod- ern home is at 20 South Raleigh Street. He mar- ried at Cascade, Montana, March 16, 1904, Miss Ethel M. Kinsey, daughter of W. L. and Mary (Al- bright) Kinsey, the latter now deceased. Her father is a retired rancher and hotel proprietor, now living at Simms. To Mr. and Mrs. Woods were born four children: Nellie E., born in 1906; Lucy A., in 1908; Marie Irene, in 1910, and Shirley Evans, who was born February 17, 1915, and was acci- dentally killed when hit by a heavy truck on January 31, 1920.

JOHN HASTINGS KERRIGAN has spent the greater part of his life at Helena, was formerly in the tailor- ing business, but is now one of the proprietors of the Domestic Laundry, the leading establishment of its kind in Lewis and Clark County.

Mr. Kerrigan has made a great deal of his limited opportunities and advantages in life. He was born at Scranton, Pennsylvania, January 3, 1889. His father, Brian H. Kerrigan, was born in Ireland, where he married Mary Goff, a native of the same country. In 1884 they came to the United States and he was a miner at Scranton, Pennsylvania, until his death in 1892. He was a democrat and a Catholic. He and his wife had two children: 'Anna, wife of W. J. Brennan, a coal miner at Scranton, and John H. The mother, who is still living at Scranton, is now the wife of B. F. Hester an employe of a Scran- ton bank.

John Hastings Kerrigan came to Montana in 1899, at the age of ten years. He had attended school in Scranton and finished the eighth grade when he was thirteen years of age. At that early date he began learning the tailors' trade and followed it as a journeyman worker in Montana until 1914. He then acquired the facilities and opened a shop for dry cleaning, and conducted this business independently until December 15, 1919. At the same time from 1914 he was associated with the Domestic Laundry, and on December 15, 1919, he and G. A. Bussard bought out the plant, then located at 120 Broadway. In order to get better facilities and have room for ex- pansion, they moved the plant to 115 West Lawrence Street on February 15, 1920. This laundry has all the modern facilities for doing high class work, and nearly all the machinery and equipment are new. The partners also conduct a dry cleaning depart- ment.

Mr. Kerrigan is affiliated with the Christian Science Church and is an independent in politics. His home is at 501 East Sixth Avenue. He mar- ried at Helena in 1908 Miss Virgie Bieber, daughter of J. A. and Dora (Septien) Bieber, both now de- ceased. Her father was an early settler at Helena and a miner by occupation. Mrs. Kerrigan is a

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graduate of the Helena High School. They have one son, John Hastings, Jr., born January 2, 1910.

TAYLOR BLADEN WEIR, lawyer, has been in practice at Helena since 1908. He was born at Hickory Grove, Prince William County, Virginia, March 23, 1883, his parents being Richard Mitchell Weir and Fannie Elizabeth (Wilcoxon) Weir, both of North- ern Virginia.

He graduated from the Central High School and George Washington University at Washington, D. C., and is a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, the bar of the District of .Co- lumbia and the bar of the Supreme Court of Mon- tana. Mr. Weir entered the law office of William Wallace, Jr., at Helena in April, 1908, and is still practicing in that office at 25 West Sixth Avenue. He is a member of the State Bar Association. He was married in 1910 to Miss Anna Katherine Good- man, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Goodman, of Kendall, Wisconsin.

WILLIAM GLENDENNING, of Sidney, is one of the early developers of the county seat of Richland County, and has been a witness and a participant in its every day affairs. He was born in Gentry County, Missouri, April 24, 1856, a son of Henry Glendenning, who was born and reared in Missouri, devoted his time to farming until he entered the Union army, and died of disease at St. Louis. He was of Scotch descent, and his grandfather, the original Scotch ancestor in this country, located in Missouri as a pioneer. His posterity moved into Gentry County when all was new and unsettled, and they have since been represented there as farm- ers, sheep raisers and merchants.

During the war between the states Henry Glen- denning served in the Thirty-third Missouri Infantry, and during his four years as a soldier took part in twenty-two battles, but was never wounded, despite the fact that numerous bullets pierced his clothing. His widow subsequently married Charles Thacker and is a resident of Sheridan County, Nebraska. The children born to Mr and Mrs. Glendenning are : William, of Sidney, Montana; Martha, who married Perry Warren, of Wellington, Colorado; Milton, of Chautauqua County, Nebraska; Jennie, who became the wife of Harvey Forney and died in Lyon County, Kansas; Fannie, who married Adolphus Tryon and resides in Pueblo, Colorado; Henry, of Greeley, Colorado. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Thacker: Elizabeth, who married Albert Morrison, and died in Pottawatomie County, Kansas; Lettie, who married Millard Vian, of Vian, Nebraska; Laura, the wife of Arthur Cut- ler and a resident of Sheridan County, Nebraska ; Charley, who is with his mother, and Rosella, who married Ed Quincey and died in Nebraska.

William Glendenning grew to mature years in his native County of Gentry, Missouri, and at the age of twenty made his first trip to Kansas, where he remained for perhaps a year, engaged as a thresher- man in the counties of Rice, Reno and Ellsworth. He then returned to his native State of Missouri, locating in Andrew County, where he was subse- quently married. Going again to Kansas in. 1884, he spent two years in Reno County, and from there went to Nebraska. He spent some eighteen years in the latter state, engaged in farming in Dawson and Cherry counties. It was from Loop County, Ne- braska, that he made the journey by wagon into Montana and established himself on the north fork of Hay Creek, where in the spring of 1904 he became a tenant farmer. He remained with the

locality until 1913 and then came to Sidney to re- side permanently.

While in the Hay Creek region Mr. Glendenning entered a homestead and improved it with such buildings as were required to shelter his family against the rigors of this northern climate. He pre- pared for cultivating 100 acres of the land, fenced the tract, and became a grain raiser and stock man in a small way. His residence was a combination log and frame one and was one of the better homes of the locality when it was built, affording a degree of comfort to the family. While there he took part in the establishment of the first school district and helped build the pioneer school house. This became known as the Glendenning School House, and he was made a member of the first school board. This region was at that time still a part of Dawson County, and all judicial matters pertaining to it were transacted at Glendive. When the movement was inaugurated for the organization of a new county Mr. Glendenning favored it and assisted actively in the movement.

With the birth of Sidney he became interested in its future and contributed in a small way to its first building era. With his sons he erected the pioneer livery barn and named it the Sidney Barn. They conducted both a livery and feed business for a time and also a draying line, but after some months Mr. Glendenning decided that he could not carry on his farming operations successfully when absent and accordingly sold his business interests and re- sumed his place on the Hay Creek ranch. But finally disposing of his ranch, he returned to Sidney and again took up draying, which he followed for three years, and then transferred his interests to the garage business, opening the Sidney Garage. It was also a shop where machinery of all kinds was re- paired. But after two years the property was de- stroyed by fire and Mr. Glendenning then entered the employ of the Sidney School District in the capacity of fireman in the high school, his present employment.

On the first of May, 1881, in Andrew County, Missouri, he was married to Miss Mary Adams, who was born near Terre Haute, Indiana, Febru- ary 26, 1857, a daughter of William and Mary (Har- rison) Adams. Her grandfather on the paternal side, William Adams, was born in Ireland, but came to the United States and died in Mason County, Illinois. His son, William, was the youngest in his family of fifteen children. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Glendenning, Robert Harrison, came from the New England states, and President Benjamin Harrison was his nephew.

William Adams, the father of Mrs. Glendenning, was born and reared near Bloomfield, Illinois, and spent his active life as a farmer. He eventually moved his family to Nebraska and died in Dawson County of that state in 1897, but his widow survives and resides near Williston, North Dakota. In their family were the following children: Mrs. Glen- denning; Joseph, who died at Williston, North Da- kota; Susan, who married Thomas Torbett, of Cal- gary, Canada; Jacob, who died at Williston, North Dakota; Amos, a resident of that state, and Laura, who married Edgar Webb, and died near Williston.

The union of Mr. and Mrs. Glendening has been blessed by the birth of five children, namely: Mar- shall, who was accidentally killed April 17, 1912, while farming on Hay Creek, leaving a wife, form- erly May Herbett, and a child, Hazel; Chloc mar- ried Byrd Pickett, of Sidney, and has three children, Willie, Clayton and Edith; Perry, who is the depot automobile service man of Sidney married Grace

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Baskin and has three children, Carman, Perry and Gail; Inez is the wife of Ray Clough, of Seattle, Washington, and their children are Leta and Cecil, and Lola, the youngest child, died at the age of seventeen years.

Mr. Glendenning's part in political matters has been purely local and merely as a voter. He gave his first presidential vote to James A. Garfield in 1880, and has ever since voted the national repub- lican ticket.

JAMES W. PERRINE. Among the highly valued citi- zens of Cascade are some men, now retired from active life, who during their younger years not only made good records for themselves as business or professional men or agriculturists, but who, when their country needed them, responded to its call, and since then have been entitled to call themselves vet- erans of the great struggle between the North and South. One of these substantial men and veterans is James W. Perrine, for many years a successful farmer and stockraiser of Cascade County.

James W. Perrine was born in Wayne County, Ohio, September 15, 1839, a son of James and Eliza- beth (Arnold) Perrine. James Perrine was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, in 1800, and died in 1886, aged eighty-six years. His wife was born near Steubenville, Ohio, in 1824, and she died in 1886, aged sixty-two years. Of their seven children four now survive, James W. Perrine being the second in order of birth. James Perrine moved from Pennsyl- vania to Ohio in 1839, and was there engaged in farming until 1884, when he went to Washington County, Iowa, and there died. First a whig, he later became a republican. Although he was not connected with any religious organization, he helped in sup- porting the Dunkard Society, of which his wife was a member.

Growing up in Ohio, James W. Perrine attended school held in a log schoolhouse, walking several miles each way. When he was twenty-two years old he began working for himself. The next year, in spite of the loss to his personal interests, he enlisted in the Twentieth Ohio Independent Light Artillery and served from the fall of 1863 until the close of the war, participating in all the battles and skirmishes of his command, including those of Chattanooga, Resaca, Franklin and Nashville, and received his honor- able discharge July 15, 1865, and in September of that year returned to Ohio, after which he went to Iowa and for the next seven years was engaged in farming and stockraising in Washington County of that state. He then homesteaded near Bolckow, Mis- souri, and was there engaged in farming for some twenty-seven years. The next move made by him was when he came to Cascade County, Montana, lo- cating his first Government land near the Cascades, and here he carried on general farming, raising cat- tle, horses, wheat and hogs, and owning 520 acres of land. In 1917 he made a trip to California to visit his brother, Peter Perrine, and since his return has lived retired at Cascade. For fifteen years he has served on the school board, and he has also been road overseer for many years, being elected on the republican ticket. Mr. Perrine joined the Grand Army of the Republic at Great Falls, Montana. He holds membership in Whitehall Lodge No. 380, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Ohio; Chou- teau Valley Chapter No. 413, Royal Arch Masons, and is a charter member of Meridian Lodge No. 105. Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Cascade, Montana. He also belongs to the Pioneer Society.

On November 14, 1863, Mr. Perrine was married to Eliza Jane Berger, who died in 1896, leaving six children, three of whom are now living, namely :

Edgar W., who lives at Kansas City, Missouri; Alma, who is the wife of Quincy M. Tucker, has four chil- dren; and Gertrude, who is the wife of John Herk- rider, has one son. On April 10, 1905, Mr. Perrine was married to Mrs. Lillian M. Stone, and they have two children, Arnold and James M. Mr. Perrine has seven grandchildren and one great-grand child. of whom he is very proud. A man who has earned all he possesses through his own efforts, Mr. Per- rine can look back with pleasure over his past career, and realize that where others might have failed he, through his industry, thrift and shrewd common sense, prospered, brought up his children, and is now enjoying the fruit of his years of labor.

GEORGE D. PATTERSON. The subject of this sketch early in life realized that success never comes to the idler or dreamer, and he has accordingly de- voted himself to ardent toil along lines that cannot but insure success. In such a man as Mr. Patter- son there is especial satisfaction in offering in their life records justification for issuing such a com- pendium as the one in hand-not necessarily that the careers of such men as his type have been such as to gain them wide reputations or the admiring plaudits of men, but that they have been true to the trusts reposed in them, have shown such attributes of character as entitle them to the regard of all and have been useful in their several spheres of ac- tion, at the same time winning and retaining the confidence and good will of all with whom they had come into contact.

George D. Patterson was born on the 27th day of November, 1852, at Georgetown, D. C., and was the first born of the eight children who blessed the union of James O. and Jane Dela (Roche) Patter- son. These parents were born, respectively, in Horford County, Maryland, and Georgetown, D. C., and both are deceased, the father dying at the age of sixty-nine years, and the mother when sixty-seven years old. James O. Patterson was a farmer by vocation and spent practically his entire mature life on his farm, which was known as Sweet Air Home- stead. Politically he supported the democratic party and was elected by his fellow citizens to several public offices. His religious affiliation was with the Protestant Episcopal Church, to which he was a liberal contributor.

George D. Patterson was reared on the paternal farmstead and attended the public schools of his home neighborhood, completing his studies in the West Nottingham Academy in Cecil County, Mary- land. The school was founded by the father of H. S. Magraw, who is now state bank examiner in Montana and who was a classmate of the subject in that school. The subject earned his first money by catching and selling rabbits, for which he received from fifteen to thirty cents each. He remained at home, assisting his father in the farm work, until 1877, in the spring of which year he went to Wyom- ing. That was during the historic Nez Perces war. and Mr. Patterson engaged in the dangerous work of driving a stage from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Deadwood, South Dakota, a job for which only men of dauntless courage and splendid physique were fitted. In the spring of 1878 Mr. Patterson drove overland to Helena, Montana, and here was engaged for a few months as driver of the stage between Corer and Helena. In 1878 he came to the Smith River Valley and went to work on the sheep ranch of Cook Brothers, where he remained but a short time, returning to Helena. Thence, on the 12th of the following July, he came to Fort Benton and located a ranch on Shonkin Creek, where he was successfully engaged in the sheep and cattle

JAMES W. PERRINE, LILLIAN M. PERRINE, ARNOLD M. PERRINE

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

business until 1894. He had been prosperous in his efforts during these years, and as the fruit of years of hard, unremitting toil, and in the latter year he moved to Fort Benton, where he has since resided. During his active years on the ranch Mr. Patterson gained an enviable reputation among his fellow ranchmen as a business man of excellent judgment and a tireless worker, who accomplished well what- ever he undertook.

In politics he has been a lifelong supporter of the republican party and in 1889 he was elected a member of the Board of County Commissioners of Chouteau County, he being one of the first set of county officers chosen after the organization of the county. He rendered efficient service to the new county, assisting materially in getting the machinery of county government running smoothly during his four years of service. In 1912 Mr. Patterson was elected clerk of the County Courts, taking posses- sion of the office on the Ist of January, 1913. So satisfactory was his discharge of the duties of this responsible office that he was elected to succeed him- self and is thus the present incumbent of the of- fice. Accommodating to those who have business to transact in his office, for he faithfully believes in the political maxim that "public office is a public trust," he has earned the honest esteem of all. Mr. Patterson has been an active worker in the ranks of the party to which he belongs, and stands high in its councils, having served for several terms as chairman of the County Central Committee. Fra- ternally he is a member of Benton Lodge No. 25, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and of Bethany Chapter No. 35, Order of the Eastern Star, of which he was the first worthy patron.

Mr. Patterson has been twice married. His first union was on April 18, 1883, with Louisa E. Pratt, who was a native of Illinois, and whose death oc- curred on July 23, 1907. To this union were born six children, Louisa, John, Lenora B., George D., Jr., James O. and Margaret. On September 16, 1907. Mr. Patterson was married to Grace Gover, a native of Maryland. Mr. Patterson has been a public spirited man in all that the term implies, being inter- ested in every enterprise tending to promote the gen- eral welfare and withholding his support from no movement for the good of the locality so long hon- ored by his residence. His personal relations with his fellow men have ever been mutually pleasant and agreeable, and he is highly regarded by all, being easily approached, obliging and straightforward in all the relations of life.

WILLIAM D. KELCH. Few of the old settlers of the Yellowstone Valley antedate the coming of Wil- liam D. Kelch, who for almost forty consecutive years has been a resident of what is now Richland County. Mr. Kelch is an honored retired resident of Sidney and many years ago developed a home- stead adjoining what is now the townsite of that name.

The trail of his life has been blazed through many interesting chapters and experiences, begin- ning in early boyhood. He was born in Oneida County, New York, September 8, 1839, and at the age of twelve years accompanied his family to Genesee County, Michigan. His education was neg- lected because he ran away from home at the age of thirteen. Joining a bull train with California as its destination, he crossed the plains and reached San Francisco after six months on the road. When the caravan came to the North Platte River, the first four yoke of oxen that entered the stream went down out of sight and the animals and the wagon were not seen again. The party then de-

sisted, and while the boy, Kelch, took charge and herded the cattle, the other men got out timber and built a rude bridge over the North Platte. This caused a delay of four weeks, and after that the party proceeded without further interruption on their journey. While in San Francisco young Kelch took up with some men who were mining around Eureka and went with them a time. Homesickness evidently overcame him, and as soon as he could acquire sufficient money he returned home by wagon train, crossing the North Platte River on the old bridge and reaching his Michigan home after an absence of more than two years. His whereabouts and his wanderings had been unknown to his parents until he arrived in person to explain.

. After that for several years he served an ap- prenticeship as a blacksmith, and, having qualified for the trade, at the end of two years he became a journeyman, and practiced his calling in many re- mote localities, touring the United States from the East to Texas, thence to the British line, and walk- ing all the way except when he crossed streams and ferried en route.

Mr. Kelch was again in Michigan when the Civil was broke out, and he enlisted in Company K of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, under Col. R. H. Minty. Joining his regiment at Lapeer, he went to the front at Lonisville, and participated in the battles of Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, the At- lanta campaign, and helped capture the famous prison pen of Andersonville, Georgia. That cam- paign ended the big work of his company, and he was discharged at Louisville in the summer of 1865. He was unable to claim a single wound and never spent a moment in hospital or guard house.

Having discharged full well his patriotic duties he remained a steady workman at his trade in Michi- gan from 1865 to 1880, and in the latter year. "took a leap in the dark" and came to Montana. In the meantime he had married Helen Stoddard, who died in Michigan. His only child is by that marriage, Delaskie, a farmer near Sidney, Montana. Delaskie Kelch married Alice Ogee and has three children, Billie, Rosabelle and Evert. For his second wife Mr. Kelch married Lizzie Taylor, who was his faithful and loyal companion for nearly forty years.

It was with his wife as his only companion that Mr. Kelch came to Montana, reaching the territory by train at Glendive, then the frontier railroad point for the Lower Yellowstone region. John O'Brien. the merchant and pioneer whose store and homestead was at the month of Fox Creek, having learned that some emigrants had just arrived at Glendive and wished to come down the river, hunted them up and brought Mr. Kelch and wife on his freight wagon to what is now Richland County, where they ar- rived April 12, 1880. Mrs. Kelch remained at the O'Brien home and store at Newlon, while Mr. Kelch, who had no capital, walked to old Fort Bu- ford and went to work as a blacksmith in the gov- ernment shops. His wife joined him there and they set up housekeeping and remained in Buford a year. Leaving the government service Mr. Kelch went to the Little Missouri River in North Dakota and put utp 300 tons of hay preparatory to entering the sheep industry. That fall the vigilantes went through the locality, set the prairie afire and burned his hay. Remaining there until spring, his shack home was then burned with all its contents save a single chair. The $600 in cash that he had lahorionsly accumulated was destroyed by the same fire. The only clothing left to Mrs. Kelch was a calico dress, a squaw bon- net and a pair of moccasins, while Mr. Kelch had no clothing except trousers, shoes and hat. Then

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 24

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