Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 36

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

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Government employes, the store of the Indian trader, all built of Missouri logs except the residence of the agent and the Government offices. The military post comprised a full quota of log buildings, and when the post was abandoned the site was occupied by the Indian schools, which still stand there.

Mr. Cosier went to work in the Indian trading store of G. H. Fairchild & Company, and continued with them and their successors and eventually be- came Indian trader, and thus from one thing to another his interests and residence have become per- manent. He continued business under his individual name until in April, 1914, when he consolidated his store with that of Mr. Patch, making the present Cosier-Patch Company one of the largest general mercantile organizations in this section of Montana. Mr. Cosier is president of the company.

There have been few business or civic enterprises put on foot at Poplar with which his name has not been associated in some way. With his associates he established the Traders State Bank at Poplar in 1909, and has been its president from the beginning. The bank was chartered with a capital of $25,000, and while the capital has remained the same a sur- plus of $10,000 hàs accrued. After the first two years the bank began paying dividends, and missed only the year 1918. Its deposits have reached $227,- 000, notwithstanding several adverse years. The first officers were: Mr. Cosier; R. E. Patch, vice presi- dent, and J. C. Gregory, cashier, and the only change in the personnel of management is in the office of cashier.

Mr. Cosier is secretary and a director of the Pop- lar Lumber & Implement Company, is secretary of the Pioneer Auto Company, and a director in the Walker Opera House Company and the Gateway Hotel Company. He has been Poplar's only mayor, serving since the town was incorporated in 1916. During his administration a water and sewer system has been installed, sidewalks ordered, and other municipal matters carefully handled. Mr. Cosier served as postmaster of Poplar for almost twenty- six years, beginning in December, 1889. His en- couragement has also been given to the Commer- cial Club of Poplar. As a young man he was a democrat, and continued with that party until the Cleveland administration made the wool industry in Montana unpopular. As he was then interested in the sheep business he turned to the party of pro- tection and has since been a republican. He has frequently served as a delegate to conventions, in- cluding two state conventions. Mr. Cosier is a charter member of the Modern Woodmen of Amer- ica at Poplar, also a charter member of Northern Light Lodge No. 75, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and served as its second master. He is also a Royal Arch Mason, a member of Livingston Consistory of the Scottish Rite and of Algeria Tem- ple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena. During the World war he was chairman of the four-minute men of the locality, also a committee man on the bond drives. His family are believers in church work, and Mrs. Cosier and the daughters are Pres- byterians.

Howard M. Cosier and Miss Gertrude Cobb were married at Cedarville, New Jersey, December 27, 1893. They had grown up as children in that com- munity. Mrs. Cosier was born at Camden, New Jer- sey, March 1, 1863, daughter of Josiah M. and Har- riet S. (Corson) Cobb, also natives of New Jersey. Her father, Captain Cobb, went to sea early and sailed the first three-masted schooner across the Atlantic. He followed the sea for about a quarter of a century and was a typical "old salt." When he left the water he became a farmer at Cedarville.

and died there in 1893, when about eighty years of age, being survived several years by his widow. The Cobb children to grow to mature years were: Laura, wife of Larrison Sutts, of Bradley Beach, New Jer- sey; Mary, who became the wife of Thomas Miller and died at Cedarville ;. Harry, a member of the Senate police force in the Capitol at Washington; Mrs. Cosier ; Frank, of Cedarville; and Sarah, wife of William D. Moore, of Washington, D. C. Mr. and Mrs. Cosier have two daughters: Phehe, named for her grandmother, is the wife of Wade J. Hubbell, postmaster of Poplar; and Dorothy is a member of the class of 1921 in the Ward-Belmont Seminary at Nashville, Tennessee.

RALPH E. PATCH is one of the very early settlers of Poplar, having come here in 1889, before the townsite was set off from the Fort Peck Indian Reser- vation. He was in the Government service, later in- vested the capital he had earned by his work in mer- chandising, and is one of the oldest of local business men and an active factor in the well known general mercantile house of Cosier-Patch Company.

Mr. Patch was born in Grant County, Wisconsin, October 8, 1869. The Patch family were colonial settlers in New York State, and some of the family were soldiers in the Revolutionary war. Elijah Patch, grandfather of the Poplar business man, was a native of New York and a very early pioneer in the Territory of Wisconsin. He located in Grant County when Cassville was the territorial capital. His children were: Louisa, who became the wife of Judge Murdock and lives at Watertown, South Da- kota; Edward, father of Ralph E .; Walter, who spent his last years in Galveston, Texas; Lewis, who died in Colorado; Gibson, of Los Angeles; Marian, who became the wife of R. P. Russell and died in Minneapolis.

Edward Patch, father of Ralph E., was horn near Niagara Falls, New York, in 1826, and was a boy when he went with the family to Wisconsin. Later the Patch family moved to Minneapolis when the locality of that city was known only as St. An- thony's Falls. Not a house had yet been built in Minneapolis. Miss Marian Patch, sister of Edward, was the first white woman married in Minneapolis, and her child was the second white child born in the city. After the Civil war Edward Patch re- turned to Grant County, Wisconsin, and married there Miss Harriet Patch, daughter of Henry Patch, but not related unless remotely. Patch's Grove in Wis- consin was named in honor of Henry Patch. Ed- ward Patch again moved to Minneapolis in 1875 and spent another term of years there, but passed his last days in Vancouver, Washington, where he died in June, 1914. His wife had died in 1871.

Edward Patch was in Minnesota during the Civil war period. He entered the volunteer forces under General Sibley, participated in the war against the Sioux Indians, and was captain of a company under Sibley in the expedition into the Dakota country. Ed- ward Patch followed a mechanical trade for a num- ber of years, until appointed postmaster at Patch Grove. He had had a postoffice experience before that as the second postmaster of Minneapolis. He was a democrat, and was appointed postmaster of Patch Grove when Mr. Cleveland was first elected president. He and his wife had the following chil- dren: Harry, of Grant County, Wisconsin; Emily, wife of William Morse, of Vancouver, Washington; Ion, of Minneapolis; Marion, of Patch' Grove; Ros- well, of Vancouver; Frances, wife of Oscar Ludlum. of Vancouver; Minnesota, who became the wife of John Sinclair and died at Los Angeles; James, who died off the Cape of Good Hope while sailing from England to San Francisco; Jessie, a teacher in the

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public schools of Red Wing, Minnesota; Walter, who died at Culbertson, Montana; and Ralph Ernest. For his second wife Edward Patch married Mrs. Louise (Dunbar) Patch, widow of his first father- in-law.

Ralph E. Patch was about six years of age when his parents moved from Patch Grove to Minnea- polis and he finished his education in the city schools there. With his brother he learned the carpen- ter's trade, and on coming west found his first work at Fort Keogh, Miles City, in 1886. Later he helped his brother finish the contract on the Laurel and Red Lodge branch of railroad, constructing water tanks, depots and stations.

Then, in 1889, in the month of November, he identified himself with the Poplar locality, being then a young man of twenty. He became a carpenter on the reservation and served about eight years, helping. put up the reservation buildings. Leaving the bench and discarding the saw and hammer, with what he had been able to save from his trade he established himself in general merchandising as an Indian trader and successor of James McDonald. Mr. Patch sold goods at Poplar as an individual for seventeen years, and supplied not only the local demands of the reser- vation but many of the ranch outfits then located in that section of eastern Montana. In 1915 he consoli- dated his business with that of Howard M. Cosier, organizing the Cosier-Patch Company, which is one of the chief firms of general merchants in eastern Montana, dealing in general merchandise, furniture, an undertaking department and a stock of hardware. Mr. Cosier is president of the company, Mr. Patch vice president, and Mr. Walker is secretary.

Mr. Patch is also a partner in the Poplar Lumber and Implement Company and is vice president of the Traders State Bank of Poplar, is president of the Pioneer Auto Company of Poplar, and vice president of the Gateway Hotel Company.

Mr. Patch has exercised a dependable independence in politics. His first presidential vote went to Grover Cleveland. He never supported Mr. Bryan in any of his campaigns, nor did he ever give a vote to Colonel Roosevelt. Both he and his wife supported Mr. Wilson. His first official service was as an alderman of Poplar. He was named one of the first Board of County Commissioners in the bill which created Roosevelt County, and is filling that office with Com- missioners Frank Weinrich and J. H. Anderson. The board has handled the routine matters involved in instituting the Government of the new county and also called an election for a two hundred thousand dollar bond issue for the purpose of building mod- ern highways. Mr. Patch is an Odd Fellow, joined the Masons at Glasgow, and is affiliated with Liv- inston Consistory and Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena, while Mrs. Patch is a member of Aurora Chapter of the Eastern Star. Mrs. Patch was chairman of the local branch of the Red Cross, chairman of the ladies committees in all the loan drives, and Mr. Patch was chairman of the Thrift Stamp campaign. Even Mr. Patch helped with some of the knitting carried on in the Patch home during the war.

At Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, March 4, 1899, Mr. Patch married Miss Edna E. Hicklin. She was born at Patch Grove January 8, 1874. Her father, James Hicklin, was born at Cassville, the old Wisconsin capital, of Kentucky parentage, and spent his life as a farmer and died at Prairie du Chien in 1916, at the age of eighty-seven. He was a democrat. Mrs. Patch's mother was Abigail Beers, who was born near Mount Hope, Wisconsin, and was drowned at Lake Travis in that state in September, 1885. Mrs. Patch is the second of three children, the oldest, Ethaline, dying unmarried and her brother, Moses,

is a resident of Prairie du Chien. Mrs. Patch fin- ished her education in Patch Grove and when she married she came to Poplar to preside over the mod- est establishment of her husband. Mr. and Mrs. Patch have a son and daughter. The son is James Edward, connected with the Cosier-Patch Company. The daughter, "Pete," has just entered the high school at Poplar.

CHRIS JENSEN. The entire career of Chris Jensen at Poplar has been in the nature of a personal serv- ice rendered to the entire community. He is known to everyone personally or through his work and product, and any community might congratulate it- self on the presence of such a citizen as he.

He was born at Winona, Minnesota, October 4, 1882. His father, Thorn Jensen, was a native of Den- mark, came to the United States as a young man and spent his brief life as a farmer in Minnesota and lowa. He died at Humboldt in the latter state before he was forty years of age. His wife was Annie Nelson, a native of Denmark, who is now Mrs. Suffler of Sanish, North Dakota. Thorn Jensen and wife had four children: Carrie, wife of Fred Turner, of Poplar, Montana; Peter, who died unmar- ried at Humboldt, Iowa; Chris; and Eddie, who died in young manhood at St. Paul.

Chris Jensen grew up at St. Paul, Minnesota, acquired his education in the graded schools there, and as a boy went to work in a local hotel. That gave him a valuable training in a business that he has largely followed ever since. He was employed by J. B. Herman, proprietor of the Minnesota Home, until he left St. Paul at the age of twenty-three .. Just before leaving the city he had himself acquired the proprietorship of the Minnesota Home, but after a single day accepted an opportunity to sell out his equity for $2,300, and at once took the money and gave possession. With the capital he thus acquired he engaged in business for himself as a retail liquor man at White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and remained there until he came to Poplar in February, 1910.

On coming to Montana Mr. Jensen combined a restaurant and bakery business, a line with which he was. thoroughly familiar from his business experi- ence. His bakery was the first established on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. The superintendent of the reservation came to him and said that "he had a lot of nerve to come here and engage in a business after having spent years in the liquor busi- ness." But he persevered in spite of efforts to dis- courage him and has never been disappointed as to the popularity of his establishment. He founded and opened the Poplar Restaurant and Bakery, and for ten years has made that one of the best appreciated of local establishments. At the present time his bakery supplies most of the local population with the staff of life, and turns out a varied product of bread, cakes, pies, doughnuts and other baked goods. For a time his products were shipped to outlying points, but in recent years the home demand con- sumes the entire output.

The phrase "cleanliness is next to godliness" is peculiarly applicable to Chris Jensen. He is a man of system and order as well as the personification of neatness. His business house reflects the man himself in these attributes, and this quality alone is a sound reason for the steady patronage that has rewarded Mr. Jensen's efforts in every line. It has advertised his business and has also served as an invaluable asset of the town.

Other business matters have commanded his time and attention. He recognized an opening for a movie theater, and built at Poplar a house with a seating capacity of 315, dedicating it as the Glacier Theater, which he opened in 1914. The public

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showed its appreciation of the enterprise, and the venture has well rewarded it and the investment of the owner. The house is on the "high circuit" and gets all the popular reels, with a show every night. Mr. Jensen is always present to welcome the patrons of the show. He also bought and remodeled a build- ing and operated another picture show at Wolf Point, along the same lines as his house at Poplar. That was the first moving picture show or theater in that town. After three years he sold the Wolf Point Theater.

When the First National Bank was organized at Poplar Mr. Jensen took some of the stock and is a director. He is president of the Roosevelt County Fair Association, the fair grounds being located at Poplar where the Sheridan County fairs were held before the creation of Roosevelt County. These annual fairs are largely of an agricultural char- acter and have done much to inspire and stimulate better agriculture. Mr. Jensen is also a member of the Poplar City Council, and has represented the First Ward since the time it was incorporated. He is a member of the Commercial Club.

Chris Jensen and Elda Quitmeyer were married at St. Paul, April 9, 1904. She was born in Min- nesota. Her father, Otto Quitmeyer, is a native of Germany and is now a farmer at Parker's Prai- rie, Minnesota. Mrs. Jensen is one of a family of five sons and three daughters, and received a sub- stantial education in public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Jensen lost their only child, Otto, at the age of three weeks.

CAPT. JAMES J. GRANT, who died December 2, 1919, was one of the venerable pioneers who could tell the story of the wolf and other wild animals and the Indians and the far-flung wildernesses of Mon- tana. Captain Grant was a man whom to know was to honor and accord the highest esteem, for his life was exemplary and resulted in good to those with whom he had been associated. The history of Mon- . tana and that of his own career are pretty much one and the same, being intertwined indissolubly, for he came here many years ago and during the subsequent period of development he played an im- portant part. When he cast his lot here he found a wide-stretching wilderness, still the domain of sav- age and blood-thirsty Indians. But, being a man of courage and resource, he never swerved aside from tasks, no matter how arduous or dangerous, if he believed it in the line of duty.

James J. Grant was born in Ireland, from which country has come so much of the bone and sinew of this republic, and was educated in the schools of his home neighborhood. At the age of sixteen years he came to the United States, his ambition out-reach- ing the limited opportunities 'of his home country. From the time he set foot on American soil he was heart and soul an American. During the dark and troublous days of the Civil war he stood courageously in defense of the Union and offered his life, if need be, that the country's integrity might be preserved. Captain Grant was interested in military matters and a prized possession was his commission as captain of Company C, First Regiment of Montana National Guard, the commission being dated August 18, 1886, and signed by Governor Samuel T. Hauser. From the time Captain Grant came to Montana until the weight of years compelled his retirement from the more active duties of life, he was known as one of the most public-spirited and active men in the state. In his younger days, before the state was organized and the Territorial Government was not as stern in its control of internal affairs as it might have been, it was such men as Captain Grant who bravely took a stand for law and order and enforced it too. Vol. III-9

In the days when the white settlements were widely scattered, and Indian scares were frequent, it re- quired courage of a high order for the few men who were here to set out in pursuit of the red men and chastise them for their misdeeds. The first In- dian raid after Captain Grant came to Montana was one in which Lalla Sac and Perry Paul, two noted Indian desperadoes who had killed and robbed three prospectors, were caught and brought to justice, their execution by hanging occurring at Missoula, which at that time was the county seat of Missoula County, which reached to the Canadian line. But it was just such men as these who eventually made Montana a safe place for a man to settle in. Captain Grant occupied many important official positions dur- ing those early days, including game warden, deputy sheriff and deputy United States marshal, as well as captain of police court in Butte, these official positions covering a number of the most active years of his life-years filled with more "thrills" than one finds in the up-to-date western drama or movie today. He was an inveterate hater of a bad Indian and when reports came in of an Indian raid he was gener- ally the first to organize a party for pursuit. At one time after one of these incursions, a public meet- ing was held at Egan, at which the speaker said, "every man having a good horse and gun should go; those who have not remain and care for the women and children." Mrs. Grant turned to her husband and said, "you can't go, for you have neither good horse nor gun." He replied, "never mind; you go home with Preston and get a good night's rest." She did so, and next morning was startled to see a neighbor come in leading her white pony. Mrs. Grant asked about her husband, when the neighbor replied, "O, he borrowed my horse and stole a better gun than his from a friend and has gone after In- dians." She afterwards said to him, "I believe you would go after Indians if you had only a cow to ride," to which he replied, "Sure, I would go just the same."

Most of Captain Grant's active business life in Montana was spent as a hotel keeper, in which capacity he was at different times a resident of Butte, Anaconda and other places, and wherever he was located he was liberally patronized, for the true western spirit of hospitality always character- ized his hotels. His persistent industry, good man- agement and courteous treatment was the secret of the success which attended his efforts.

Capt. James J. Grant was married to Mary Sullivan, who also was a native of Ireland, the daughter of Michael and Nellie Sullivan. She was brought to the United States by an aunt when only six years of age, she having been orphaned by the death of her mother when she was four years old. She met Mr. Grant at Pioche, Nevada, where he was employed as superintendent of a mine, and there they were married, afterwards moving to Butte, Montana. To their union were born five children, namely: James, who completed his educa- tion in All Hollows College at Salt Lake, and who is now an electrician in Butte, married Julia O'Neil and they have a son, Raymond. William, who is a graduate of a college in Dubuque, Iowa, and oper- ates a ranch in Flathead County, married .Ethel Spillman, and they have two children, Harold and Mary Margaret. Charles, who is a graduate of the University of Montana, at Missoula, is engaged in the real estate business at Whitefish and is also serving as judge of the police court there; married Geraldine O'Hara, a native of Hamilton, Montana, and a graduate of the University of Montana. Fred, who is an electrician at Butte, volunteered in the service of his country at the age of eighteen years, going into the navy. He was assigned to the

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United States steamship Huntington on which he crossed the Atlantic twenty-four times in convoy service. May, who is a student in the Montana State University, at Missoula, is at the present time teaching in a Sisters' school at Kalispell.

Politically Captain Grant gave his active support to the democratic party. The captain and his wife were devout members of the Roman Catholic Church, to which they gave generously of their means. The captain enjoyed a large and varied acquaintance during his years of residence in the West, and one friend of whom he was particularly fond and whom he remembers with the kindest of feelings was General Custer, with whom he made several personal scouts after the troublesome red men.

In early days Captain Grant pre-empted a tract of land in Flathead Valley, and it is now one of the choice farms of that section. Mrs. Grant is living in Kalispell, where Captain Grant quietly enjoyed the rest which his years of activity and toil richly entitled him to.

CHARLES R. TRINDER came into Eastern Montana twenty years ago with a horse outfit, had an active part as a range man and independent rancher for a number of years, but is now engaged in business as the C. R. Trinder Company, real estate, loans and mortgages at Poplar.

Mr. Trinder was born at LeBeau, South Dakota, May 18, 1884, son of Thomas and Hattie (Locke) Trinder, both natives of Onondaga County, New York. His father was born in 1860, was married there, and was an early settler around LeBeau, South Dakota, where he homesteaded, took a tree claim and preemption, and developed a large ranch by the purchase of other lands. While he went back to New York, he was more or less actively identified with that region for nearly twenty years. He is now living retired at Steele, North Dakota. His wife died near Syracuse, New York, in 1890. There were two children, Charles R. and Ida, wife of Isaac Crouse of Jamestown, North Dakota.

Charles R. Trinder finished his schooling in a high school at Syracuse, New York, having grown up in that city from the age of five years. At thirteen he returned to South Dakota, lived at LeBeau, and at the age of sixteen went to work as a cowboy with the "Flying V" outfit near Sturgis, South Dakota. After two years he went to Fort Yates and formed a connection with Al Honstain, who in 1900 commis- sioned him to drive a bunch of horses from Fort Yates, South Dakota, to the mouth of the Yellow- stone River. The following winter he held the band on the range at Dorr. After leaving the Honstain outfit he worked as a range hand for eight years with the Diamond outfit of Culbertson, the Charley Creek Pool and the "CK" outfit of Oswego. This was the wage earning period of his life, and he then engaged in ranching for himself south of Poplar, where he homesteaded, making his homestead the nucleus of a ranch. He established a Road Ranch, founded the hamlet of Arthur, laying off a townsite, and was both a dealer and grazer of cattle and horses on the range. His brand was "TY" on the jaw. He acquired title to a section of land which has now been developed as a farming proposition. Mr. Trinder has had some successful experience in the growing of alfalfa in the bottom lands of his lo- cality.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 36

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