Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 43

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

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Almost from the beginning of his identification with Montana's life Mr. Ueland has been engaged in the grain business, as a raiser and a buyer and shipper. This resulted in association with his neighbors, in his erecting the first elevator in An- telope. After continuing the business for about six years he abandoned it for the more intensive and extensive farming which he has since carried on. He has come to be recognized as one of the lead- ing agriculturists of the county, having now about five hundred acres under cultivation and owning in all about 880 acres of land. His best success has come from the raising of wheat as a grain proposition, and in 1915 he threshed twenty-eight bushels to the acre. He has received some returns in wheat every year, but in 1919 he had his poorest yield, obtaining little more than his seed.

In addition to his farming interests Mr. Ueland has also contributed toward the upbuilding of the Town of Antelope. He was one of the original stockholders of the Citizens State Bank, and when the First National Bank of Antelope was organized he became a stockholder in that institution and still continues a member of its Board of Directors. He became interested in the movement to organize a farmers insurance company in this locality, and the organization is now known as the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company. This movement was launched by Nels Christenson of Dagmar, Montana, who is the secretary of the company, and Mr. Ue- land is one of its agents for writing insurance policies.

Mr. Ueland was one of the delegates from Sheri- dan County to participate in the division of Valley County and the creation of Sheridan County, and in the later strife over the location of the county seat he was an active partisan of Plentywood for the honor. He has served as a member of the Antelope School Board for a period of nine years, and during his incumbency the new schoolhouse was built.

On December 22, 1898, in Lyon County, Minnesota, Mr. Ueland was married to Miss Mollie Thone, a daughter of Svend and Toron Thone, both of whom were born in Norway. The father was a soldier with the Danish army in 1864, fighting the battles against German aggression. When the family came to the United States they located in Dane County, Wisconsin, where Mrs. Ueland was born in 1874. They later continued their westward journey to Minnesota, making the trip in an ox wagon, and Mrs. Ueland grew to mature years in Lyon County of that state. She was the sixth horn of her par- ents' seven children, and six of the children are still living. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Ueland are: Richard Sylvester, a high school student in Cot- tonwood, Minnesota, and Theodore Kermit, Rudolph and Mabel.

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OLE B. HOVEN, who came into the Antelope com- munity of Montana in March, 1911, has done a work that ranks him as a leader in the modern era of progress. Perhaps to him more than to any other local citizen has been due the rising popularity of the tractor as an implement to subdue the virgin soil of this immense country. He was a practical demonstrator of the efficiency of the tractor for several years, though later his interests have grown until they require a general supervision on his part.

Mr. Hoven,. who is one of the managers of the Hoven Grain and Elevator Company at Antelope, was born in Guldbrandsdalen, Norway, January 7, 1882, son of Borre and Anna (Wange) Hoven. In 1883, the year following his birth, his parents came to America and established their home in Norman County, Minnesota. They took up a homestead near Ada, that state, and are still living there. Their family is a large one, comprising seven sons and six daughters, as follows: Ole B .; Bennie, who died in Minnesota, unmarried; Mary, Mrs. Tom Thomp- son, of Northwood, North Dakota; Gilbert, of Nor- man County, Minnesota; Alfred, business associate with his brother Ole at Antelope; Gena, wife of Fred Scherf, of Downer, Minnesota; Sylvester, who paid the supreme sacrifice with his life in the great battle of the Argonne October 5, 1918; while the. younger children are named Anna, Otto, Tina, Ed- win, Ella and Olga. Borre Hoven acquired Ameri- can citizenship in Minnesota, and has been a repub- lican voter.

Ole Hoven was educated in the country schools of Norman County, Minnesota, and by the time he had attained manhood possessed a rather wide ex- perience and familiarity with agricultural conditions in the Northwest. On leaving home he spent four years at Tolna, North Dakota, as manager of the Farmers Elevator Company. He was also agent for the sale of heavy farm machinery, including trac- tors. Mr. Hoven has a natural mechanical ability, and he became one of the early friends and experts in the handling of tractors for farm work.

When he came to Montana in March, 1911, it was direct from North Dakota. He shipped two carloads of machinery and horses, including a tractor. Dur- ing the past eight or nine years Mr. Hoven has used the tractor to break up on the average 800 acres annually of the virgin soil of Montana and eventu- ally he became a land owner. Today he owns 160 acres a half mile from Antelope and another quar- ter section near Coalridge. His faith in farming is undiminished as a result of nearly a decade of practical experience. The smallest crop area he has ever had since coming to Montana has been 600 acres. He has had a crop every year and every year has given him something of a harvest. His banner crop was in 1915, when his acre yield of wheat was more than twenty bushels. His big flax yield occurred in 1916, with twelve bushels to the acre. The first effort he made with corn was in 1019, when he grew a successful crop of fodder. His farming operations have placed him much be- yond the plane upon which he started, and has served to convince him that this region has a reliable agri- cultural future.

Besides his conspicuous service in breaking up the sod for others and raising crops on his own account Mr. Hoven for seven years has been actively identified with the business life of Antelope. In the fall of 1913 he and his brother Alfred bought the Antelope Grain Company, including an elevator, and this has been a prominent feature of his busi- ness since then. In the spring of 1914, as part of the Hoven Grain Company's business, an oil station

was also established. The individual contribution of Mr. Hoven to the improvement of Antelope was built in the fall of 1913, the electric light plant, which supplies the village and its inhabitants with electric current.

Mr. Hoven is now mayor of Antelope, being the second citizen honored with that office in the history of the corporation. His administration has been responsible for the building of all the sidewalks in the town. In matters of politics Mr. Hoven has regulated his ballot according to the dictates of his independent judgment. He is a member of the Odd Fellows, and is a past grand of the Lodge at Tolna, North Dakota, and has also sat in Grand Lodge.

At Lakota, North Dakota, August 12, 1908, he married Miss Ellnora Andersen, who was born at Minneapolis, but grew up in Nelson County, North Dakota, and had a common school education. She was the older of two daughters. her sister being Mrs. O. A. Steen, of Albany, Oregon. Mr. and Mrs. Hoven have two children: Vernon and Gordon.

JOSEPH C. HUNTER, M. D. While the community of Antelope has known and appreciated his services as a physician and surgeon only a short time, Doctor Hunter is in fact one of the veteran members of the profession in Montana, having first come to the Northwest in territorial times. At Helena and else- where in the state he achieved a high reputation by his ability and by the influence he exerted on com- munity affairs.

Doctor Hunter, who began the study of medicine nearly fifty years ago, was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, July 8, 1850. His grandfather, John Hunter, came out of Ireland when a young married man, and spent an active life as a farmer in Alle- gheny County, Pennsylvania. Robert Hunter, one of his several sons and father of Doctor Hunter, was born in 1819, in Pennsylvania, and also spent his active life as a farmer. In 1858 he took his family west to Iowa, and for many years was a farmer and useful citizen in his community. He died at Princeton, Iowa, at the age of eighty-seven. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and a republican in politics. Robert Hunter married Elizabeth Jane Coe, whose father was a native of Scotland and a farmer at Trentum, Pennsylvania. She survived her husband several years and also died at Princeton, Iowa. Dr. Joseph C. is the oldest of several children, the others being: Loretta, wife of Gus Culbertson, in California; Mary, wife of . Harvey Robertson, a resident of the State of Wash- ington ; Sarah, wife of James White, of Washington : John, of Mapleton, Iowa; and Robert E., Jr., of Iowa City, Iowa.

Doctor Hunter was eight years of age when his parents moved to Iowa, and while in that state he attended country schools, had the advantages of an academy at Princeton, and acquired his higher edu- cation in Monmouth College, Illinois, from which he graduated in the scientific course. Early in the year 1871 Doctor Hunter entered Rush Medical Col- lege at Chicago. He resumed his studies there in the fall and continued until the work of the college was interrupted by the great Chicago fire of October 9th. After that he went to Philadelphia, and was a student of medicine in the Uinversity of Penn- sylvania until graduating in March, 1873. With the exception of a few years Doctor Hunter has been a diligent worker in his profession ever since.

He practiced in and around Dubuque, Iowa, for ahout ten years. and in 1884 came to Montana, be- ginning his professional career at Boulder as physi- cian at the Boulder Hot Springs. He was at that

H. H. Saffington

Ruphema J. Sappington

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

point when the Great Northern built through the region, and had the contract for the medical work of a section of the railroad until the contract ex- pired in 1887. In that year he removed to Helena, and continued his professional work until 1889. He was also interested in the drug business as a mem- ber of the Triangle drug store in the Depot Addi- tion to the capital city. In 1889 Doctor Hunter re- moved to Neihart, having charge of the Miners' Union Hospital until 1893. On his return to Helena he resumed practice as a specialist in chronic, nervous and other diseases. During the fall of that year he took a special course in the Chicago Post- Graduate School of Medicine, and on his return remained in Helena until 1895. In that year he moved to Butte and was in practice in that city dur- ing the epidemic of lagrippe. He contracted that disease himself, was bedridden for several months and lost his health completely. A change of climate being advisable, entailing temporary abandonment of his profession, Doctor Hunter spent three years in Oklahoma and for a time was at his old homestead of Iowa. On returning to Montana he resumed practice at Fairfield, where he remained until Amer- ica entered the war. He went out to Outlook and took charge of the practice left by Doctor Mangan, who had entered the army. Doctor Hunter covered the field around Redstone until the fall of 1919, when he located at Antelope, his present home.

During his early years at Boulder, Montana, Doctor Hunter held the office of county coroner and also did the work of county physician. He is a republican in national elections, a member of the Montana State Medical Association and the Ameri- can Medical Association, and has filled all the chairs in Dubuque Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has taken the uniformed rank de- grees of that order.

While in Iowa he married as his first wife Mary Garber. She was the mother of two children, Robert R., of Spokane, Washington, and Pearl, who is married and also lives at Washington. At Out- look, Montana, Doctor Hunter married for his pres- ent wife Miss Grace B. Coburn, of St. Paul, daugh- ter of John Coburn. She was born in Wisconsin, is a graduate of the Durand High School, and was a successful teacher in Minnesota and Montana.

MRS. RUPHEMA J. (VAN CAMP) SAPPINGTON. Closely associated with the development of this part of Montana, Mrs. Ruphema J. (Van Camp) Sap- pington is the widow of one and daughter of another of the early settlers of this state, and enjoys the distinction of being a well known resident of Sap- pington. She was born in Calhoun, Harrison Coun- ty, Iowa, September 9, 1859, a daughter of Isaac Van Camp. He was born in New Jersey in 1822, and died at Dillon, Montana, in August, 1900. Al- though reared in his native state, Isaac Van Camp went to Ohio in young manhood and was engaged in farming, but later went to Indiana, and still later to Harrison County, Iowa. In 1864 he came to Montana and was a pioneer of Bannock City. Two years later he bought a ranch on the Beaverhead, near the present site of Dillon, and resided upon it until within a few years of his death, when he sold this property and retired to Dillon. All of his mature years he was connected with agricultural matters, and after coming to Montana specialized in stock raising, being noted for the fine horses he produced. From the time the republican party was organized he gave it an intelligent support. The Methodist Episcopal Church was the medium through which he gave expression to his religious views, and he was active in its work. The maiden name of his

wife was Martha Stocden, and she was born and married in Ohio and died at Dillon, Montana, in 1892. The children of Isaac Van Camp and his wife were as follows: Charles, who was a farmer, was born December 16, 1856, and went to Idaho two years ago; and Mrs. Sappington.

Ruphema J. Van Camp attended the rural schools of Beaverhead County, Montana, being a pupil in the first school established in the territory of Mon- tana. It was located at Bannock City and was a typical pioneer educational establishment, both teacher and pupils contending with lack of what are now regarded as essentials, but nevertheless suc- ceeding in the imparting and acquiring of consider- able knowledge of the fundamentals.

In 1875 Ruphema J. Van Camp was united in mar- riage at Dillon, Montana, to Henry H. Sappington, who passed away at Butte, Montana, in 1914. Mr. and Mrs. Sappington became the parents of the fol- lowing children : Tyrie I., who resides at Great Falls, Montana, is a member of the police force of that city; Charles H., who is a farmer and stockraiser, lives at Sappington; Mattie E., who married Fred Dawson, a farmer, resides at Stevensville, Montana ; Fannie P., who married Emerson Ruegamer, died at Three Forks, Montana, in 1917, but he survives and lives on the Madison Bench, near Three Forks, where he is engaged in farming; Ruphema, who mar- ried Floyd McCall, car inspector for the Northern Pacific Railroad at Butte, Montana ; Henrietta Helen, who died at the age of eleven years; Harold H., who is on the home ranch of his father; and Harvy A., who is also on the home ranch. Harvy A. Sap- pington enlisted for service in the great war in August, 1917, and was sent overseas in July, 1918. He was in the Saint Mihiel, the Argonne Forest and Lys Scheldt drives. Although gassed he was only incapacitated for a short period. He was in the medical detachment, Three Hundred and Six- teenth Field Signal Battalion, Ninety-first Division, and was returned to this country on April 16, 1919, and mustered out on May 1, 1919. On account of his bravery this gallant young soldier was cited twice, once for his action in the Argonne Forest, and again for similar conduct in the Lys Scheldt drive in Belgium.

Mrs. Sappington traces her family ancestry back through several generations in this country to a Holland forebear who came to America in colonial days.

Henry H. Sappington, husband of Mrs. Sapping- ton, was born at St. Louis, Missouri, January 21, 1846, and remained there until. in spite of his youth, he enlisted in the Second Missouri State Militia, under Colonel Stafford, and served in the state dur- ing the fall of 1864, at the time the North and the South were at war. After the close of hostilities he returned to his family homestead, and remained until 1869, then coming to Montana. After spend- ing a short period at Dillon, Mr. Sappington went to Idaho, and after a somewhat unsuccessful experi- ment in mining returned to Montana and secured work on the ranch owned by Poindexter & Orr, where he remained until 1871. Going then to Ore- gon, he bought a small band of stock, brought it to Montana and took up a location on the Butte belt, nineteen miles from Logan, where he secured a ranch of 4,000 acres, of which a couple of hun- dred acres had been irrigated. This ranch was well protected and supplied with water, and on it lie soon had a fine herd of Shorthorn and Hereford cattle. During the summer of 1874 Mr. Sappington drove 500 head of cattle to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and this small herd was the first bunch of cattle sent to Chicago from Montana by way of Cheyenne.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

In addition to his success as a stockraiser, which was pronounced, Mr. Sappington soon became a forceful factor in public affairs, and was elected in 1893 to the State Assembly on the democratic ticket and took part in some very important legislation while a member of that body. He erected an elegant residence in a beautiful valley, surrounded by un- dulating mountains, and traversed by the Jefferson River, which enters the valley through one canyon and leaves it through another one 31/2 miles beyond.

The history of the Sappington family is an in- teresting one and is traced back to the great-great- grandfather of Mr. Sappington, John Sappington, who, although a man of considerable importance in England, chose to leave his native land and come to the American colonies, accompanied by his brother James. This was at the same time that Lord Balti- more came to the colonies. They settled in Mary- land, where John Sappington's son, John Sapping- ton, Jr., was born. The latter was a soldier of the American Revolution, in which he served under Gen- eral Greene, and he gained distinction on account of his conspicuous bravery at the battle of the Brandy- wine. The third Sappington to bear the name of John was born in Madison County, Kentucky, May 28, 1790, the family having been transferred to that state, but after he reached maturity he, too, felt the urge of the migrating impulse and moved on west- ward into Missouri, becoming one of the leading men of his time, and serving as a presidential elec- tor. In addition to acquiring 2,000 acres of land, he was very successful in several other lines of en- deavor, and in 1815 branched out into tanning, which he carried on until 1845. During all of this period he superintended the operation of his large rural property, and in 1857 received from the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Association a premium for having a model farm. During the War of 1812 he volunteered. for service and was commanded by Col. Nathan Boone, a son of Daniel Boone, who, like his illustrious father, was noted for his valor and gallantry. For three terms John Sappington was a member of the Missouri State Assembly, and never lost his interest in the advancement of the state. He was the father of seventeen children, and all of them located in Missouri.

Tyrie Sappington, a son of John Sappington III, was the father of Henry H. Sappington, and he was married to Miss Frances Sale, of Caroline County, Virginia. He and his wife settled on a farm adjoining the old homestead, and there they rounded out their useful lives, he passing away in 1883. Like his father, Tyrie Sappington was a public-spirited man, and never let pass an opportunity to advance the interests of his community. His seven children were worthy of him.

With such an ancestral record behind him, there is little wonder that Henry H. Sappington played so important a part in the expansion of the new state into which his good judgment led him. Although his earthly career has terminated, he has passed the torch of life to the next generation, and is well and honorably represented in the fine family of children he and his wife have given to their country.

JUDSON D. MATKIN, a member of the Board of County Commissioners of Sheridan County, became a resident of Montana when a boy of eight years, coming with his parents and locating at Stanford in the Judith Basin country. He was born at Bis- marck, Missouri, May 4, 1875, a son of Houston Dallas Matkin, who for many years farmed the old homestead in St. Francis County, Missouri, where his father had settled as a pioneer. Houston D. Matkin was born, rcared and married in that com-

munity, lived a quiet and uneventful life, gave his political allegiance to the democratic party and affiliated with the Baptist Church. From his native state of Missouri he started West with his family, spending two years at Ogden, Utah, and Malad City, Idaho, at which place he died in 1883. He had married Mary Ellen Dent, whose people were also pioneers in St. Francis County, Missouri, and were farmers there. Her death occurred at Plentywood, Montana, January 6, 1918. Their children num- bered the following: Mrs. Henry Keeton, of Great Falls, Montana; Judson D., of Plentywood; and Mrs. Forest Goodman, also of Plentywood. The mother married for her second husband Samuel W. Barnes, and their children were Asa F., of Red- stone, Montana, and Coleman W., of Great Falls, this state.

Judson D. Matkin was reared in a community where educational advantages were limited, he hav- ing often ridden eight or nine miles to attend school. He remained with his mother until reaching his majority, his last years at home being passed in the Judith Basin country, and at the age of twenty-five he came into Eastern Montana and settled on the unsurveyed public domain of Sheridan County, in- tending to enter a tract when it opened for settle- ment. He at first sheared sheep for a living and also put up hay, and he subsequently located his claim near Redstone, filing and proving up in 1909. The logs for his pioneer home there he hauled from the Missouri River, seventy-five miles distant, and it contained one room, dirt-roofed, but floored and had `two windows and a door. The little pioneer home, the first he ever owned, still stands as a landmark and is now doing service as a chicken house. In time this cabin was replaced by a story and a half, nine-room frame dwelling, and a good barn was also built to accommodate his thirty head of horses.

Mr. Matkin began his enterprise here as a stock- man, but gradually drifted into grain growing, and while drouth has been a great obstacle to success in this line, good crops have been harvested on his place, equalling any yield ever grown by him in other locations. His best flax yield per acre was seventeen bushels, his best wheat yield twenty-eight bushels of spring wheat and enormous crops of oats have been grown. With the passing years Mr. Matkin has added to his land until he has acquired five quarter sections, all fenced, and 500 acres of the tract are under the plow. He also leases land, of which a part is devoted to agricultural purposes.

Mr. Matkin located in Sheridan County before municipal and civil enterprises had been established. His school district at first was No. 5 and the school house was at Culbertson, seventy-five miles from his ranch. The region was at that time all included in Valley County, and when the Culbertson people separated from the district all of what is now Sheri- dan County became one school district and Mr. Matkin was made a member of the district board. He went to Froid, fifty miles distant, to attend school meetings, but finally the old Redstone School was built, three miles from the Matkin Ranch, and this placed the family what was considered at that time close to educational facilities.

Mr. Matkin shaped his politics according to the Missouri plan and cast his first presidential vote for W. J. Bryan in 1896. He afterward supported Mr. Bryan in all his aspirations for the presidency. voted for Judge Parker in 1904, and supported Mr. Wilson in both his elections. He was a candidate for the Lower House of the Montana Assembly in 1912, but was unsuccessful, and in 1916 was elected a member of the Board of County Commissioners for a six year term, succeeding Commissioner P. J.

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Erie. Mr. Matkin's colleagues on the board were Frank Weinrich and J. C. Timmons, John Anderson later becoming a member, and still later, when Roosevelt County was separated, R. G. Tyler was appointed to membership on the board. These com- missioners have encouraged road work and have per- formed a considerable amount of this public im- provement, but the chief matter to come before the board has been the drouth relief measure. In 1917 a bond election was called and carried for $245,000 for the purchase of seed for the farmers, but the continued drouth prevented the growing of a crop and necessitated the calling of another election for a like purpose, which was held January 2, 1920, but the measure was defeated.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 43

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