Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 45

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 45

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In 1893 Mr. Chowning was married at Ennis to Miss Jennie Winifred Ennis, a daughter of Wil- liam Ennis, one of the distinctive men of this region. William Ennis was born in Ireland in 1828 and died at Ennis, Montana, in 1898. When he was fourteen years old he came to the United States and was in the railroad shops of Detroit, Michigan. Later he became roadmaster on the construction work of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, re- ceiving for his services $125 per month. In those days that was considered a very large salary, and he was envied because he could command it. His entry into Montana occurred in June, 1863, and after a brief period at Bannock he came to the present site of Ennis, and on August 13 of that year took up the Ennis homestead, a portion of which is now occupied by the flourishing town of Ennis, named in his honor. Later he bought more land, owning at one time more than 2,000 acres, but the estate is now not much over 400 acres, and is owned by his widow, whose maiden name was Katherine Shriver. She was born in Ohio during 1837. The elegant residence, the finest in the territory of Mon- tana at the time of its completion by Mr. Ennis in 1882, was destroyed by fire in September, 1917. Mr. and Mrs. Chowning have one child, Winifred, who married Fayette B. Jeffers. They reside on their ranch of 640 acres six miles east of Ennis. It is located on Jack Creek, and is a valuable, well improved property. Mrs. Jeffers was graduated from All Saints School at Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Mr. Chowning is thorough in everything he under- takes and is a tireless worker. While he has been eminently successful in greatly extending the trade of his establishment, he has been keenly watchful of the welfare of his community, and is justly held to be one of the substantial men of Montana worthy of

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being accorded a place among those who have worked to develop this section of the country.

HON. FRANK G. FISHBECK, of Plentywood, presi- dent of the Fishbeck-Jarvis Realty Company, has the honor of being the first man elected to the State Senate from Sheridan County. He has been identi- fied prominently with Montana's political and civic interests during the past twelve years, and in this time has contributed in no small degree to the sub- stantial growth and upbuilding of this region.

Senator Fishbeck arrived in Plentywood on No- vember 28, 1908, and first identified himself with the infant village as a merchant. He came to this locality with his future business partner, and they purchased the pioneer store of the town, which had been established by George E. Bolster. During almost a year the new firm continued as the only merchants of the place, and their location was in the old townsite, along the banks of Box Elder Creek, a locality at that time almost in its primitive wild- ness but now a site covered with residences and business houses of the townspeople. With the ad- vent of the Great Northern Railroad in 1910 the firm transferred its location to the new townsite, and a few years later terminated their career as Plentywood merchants, although partnership rela- tions have since been maintained in the firm of the Fishbeck-Jarvis Realty Company, formed for the purpose of dealing in real estate, farming and ranch- ing. The company's ranch lies twenty-five miles west of Scobey on the West Fork of Poplar Creek, and comprises leased and deeded lands to the amount of seven sections. A large area of this property has been improved and cultivated, some 1,500 acres being devoted to grain, and the work of cultivation has heen carried to the point where the success of the firm as agriculturists has been fully demon- strated.

Independent of partnership relations Mr. Fishbeck engaged in the electric light business in Plentywood in 1912, installing at first a light motor and a direct current plant, but in July, 1916, a 300-horsepower steam plant for the generation of an alternating current was installed at the coal mines two miles from Plentywood. Following this improvement a high tension line has been strung over the city, transformers installed, and "secondaries" give serv- ice to almost every business house and residence in the town. Fifteen motors of from one to fifteen horsepower are supplied with current for industrial purposes, and the plant itself is regarded as the best equipped and the most efficiently managed light plant in Eastern Montana, its patrons being never without current day or night. In the fall of 1919 a transmission line two miles into the country was built and serves the Peter Marron ranch with light and power. Mr. Fishbeck is also the head of the Sheridan Electric Construction Company, which erected the moving picture theatre of Plentywood and which also serves as the opera house of the town.

Senator Fishbeck although so intimately con- nected with the life and interests of Montana is a native son of Wisconsin and traces descent to a remote Fishbeck ancestor who came from Holland to the United States and landed on the shores of New York. The grandfather of the Montana sen- ator was Ephraim Fishbeck, a descendant of Anika Jans-Weber, whose estate has been the bone of contention of her posterity for more than a century and comprises among other rich properties in New York City the Trinity Church property at the head of Wall Street. Ephraim Fishbeck married a Miss Hurd and had the following children: Frank, who

served in the Union army during the Civil war; Levi, who also gave patriotic service to the North during that struggle; Charles, another Civil war soldier; Freeman, who became the father of the Hon. Frank G. Fishbeck, and who was rejected from military service on account of defective eyesight ; Thomas, who served in a Wisconsin regiment; Ira, also a member of a Wisconsin regiment, and all these five brothers fought valiantly throughout the war and returned home after its close. A daughter, Mary, married Frank Adams, and the youngest child of the family was Edward. Thomas is now the only survivor of this large family of patriots, and he resides at Eureka, Wisconsin.

Freeman Fishbeck was a stave manufacturer, and he passed away December 9, 1919, at Pittsville, Wis- consin, where he had spent thirty-eight years of his life. He was born at Ogdensburg, New York, but was taken by his parents to Wisconsin when a boy, and he grew to manhood's estate in Eureka. He was married there to Almyra Rollins, a daughter of Charles Rollins, who migrated from Essex County, New York, to Wisconsin, and was a farmer there. Mrs. Fishbeck was a school teacher before her mar- riage. She survives her husband and resides at Pittsville, Wisconsin, the mother of two sons, Frank G. and Ashley, the younger also residing at Pitts- ville.

Frank G. Fishbeck was born at Eureka, Winne- bago County, Wisconsin, December 31, 1867, and he spent the days of his boyhood in the timber country of that state, completing the work of the grades and one year of high school work before he called his educational training finished. He began his indus- trial career as a merchant's clerk, and a few years later entered the retail lumber business. He was but a young man when he left his home in Pittsville, Wisconsin, for Chicago, where he spent twelve years of his early life, engaged for a time in the retail lumber business and the remainder of his stay in that city was spent in the hotel and restau- rant business. From Chicago young Fishbeck re- turned to Wisconsin, and at Berlin in the latter state he spent four years as a leather manufacturer.

It was at the expiration of this latter period that Frank G. Fishbeck entered upon his life in the Far West. The first few months of his Montana career were spent at Culbertson in the meat business, and from there he came to Plentywood and entered upon his active identification with the growth and upbuilding of this region.

He had been reared in the atmosphere of an in- tensely partisan republican home, no Fishbeck ever having been known to identify himself with other than the republican party so it was but the natural course of events that the young westerner should give his allegiance to those principles when he reached the voting age. His first presidential ballot was cast for Benjamin Harrison in 1892, and from that day to the present he has never missed voting at the polls and has always supported the republican candidates. He was initiated into political work in Chicago when he was made tax collector for the Township of Bloom in Cook County, serving in that position from 1898 to 1900. His next active political work began in the fall of 1914, when he was elected to the State Senate from Sheridan County, serving in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth General assemblies. securing the office over two opponents, a Bull Moose candidate and a democratic candidate. the district comprising the field of old Sheridan County.

Mr. Fishbeck, as noted at the beginning of this article, entered the Senate as the first man to be seated in that body from Sheridan County, and he served under Lieutenant-Governor McDowell. He

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was made chairman of the Committee on Elections and Privileges, and was also a member of the Com- mittee on Public Buildings, Insurance and Banks and Banking. He was the author of the Herd Law measure which passed that session, introduced first in the House, and was also the author of the Seed and Threshermen's Lien measures, and he was in- strumental in their passage through the Senate. His Herd Law measure was the first of its kind pro- vided for by the legislative enactment of the state. His term as a state senator expired with the close of 1918, and he was not again a candidate for that office.

Senator Fishbeck was married in Maryland, Wis- consin, October 5, 1889, to Miss Nellie Jarvis, a daughter of Willett R. and Anna Hiles Jarvis. The father was a native of Norwalk, Connecticut. For many years he was a teacher, and was head of the school at Watertown, New York, when Roswell P. Flower, later governor of New York, was a student there, Mr. Jarvis having also secured for the future governor his first position in the postoffice. Mr. Jarvis moved out to Wisconsin in 1859, when about forty-six years of age, and he spent many of his later years as a merchant. He was also connected with the lumber business, and for many years was a hotel proprietor at Dexterville, Wisconsin. He died at Milwaukee in 1896, and his widow survived him until 1914, passing away at Culbertson, Mon- tana, but she lies buried by the side of her husband in Milwaukee. The Jarvis children comprised the following: Mrs. Fishbeck; Charley, of Culbertson, Montana; Frank, who is engaged in ranching in Valley County ; Catherine, the wife of F. L. Durfey, of Hermuston, Oregon ; Harriet, wife of F. Newman, also of Hermuston; and Willett R., Jr., whose home is at Glentana, Montana.

Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Fish- beck: Charles R., who died of influenza in Plenty- wood, married Mabel Christopherson, but died with- out issue. Frank J., the only surviving son is asso- ciated with his father in business. He trained for service in the aviation department during the recent war, and was later transferred to the infantry at Camp Lewis, Washington.

Mr. Fishbeck is a member of the Masonic Order, receiving his first Masonic degree in Berlin, Wiscon- sin. He now belongs to the Plentywood Blue Lodge and Chapter and to the Commandery in Berlin. At Helena, Montana, he is a member of the Consistory and of the Shrine.

GUY EDWARD CAMPBELL, M. D. Montana has known and claimed Dr. Guy Campbell among her citizens since April, 1915, when he arrived in Plenty- wood and entered upon the practice of medicine. He was the third physician to locate in this northern town, and as the years have passed and he has dem- onstrated his worth and ability he has made for himself a name and place in Montana's professional life and citizenship.

Dr. Campbell came to this northwestern state from his native commonwealth of Minnesota, where he was born at Melrose, March 15, 1886, and where his father, Dr. Joseph E. Campbell, is still actively engaged in the practice of medicine. Dr. Campbell, the elder, located in Melrose in 1875, when it was . the terminus of the railroad and when he was a young man just entering upon his professional career. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, June 16, 1852, a son of Scotch parents, his birth occurring shortly after the landing of his father and mother on American shores. This native Scotchman he- came a Union soldier during the war between the states, and he also gave three of his sons to Illinois

regiments to fight with the northern armies, one son rising to the high rank of colonel, another to a captaincy, and a third became a lieutenant. This patriot ancestor passed away at Aurora, Illinois, after having spent his industrial life as a cabinet- maker.

Dr. Joseph E. Campbell received his medical training at Ann Arbor, Michigan, being a graduate of the medical department of the University of Michigan, but it was at Melrose, Minnesota, that he entered upon his active professional career, and to that locality he has given the best of his life's work. His influence has always been exerted along political and fraternal lines, and he is an active Mason, a past master of his lodge, and in the higher degrees of the order he belongs to Osman Temple in St. Paul.

The senior Dr. Campbell married Alice Stuart, a daughter of George Stuart, who migrated from his native state of Vermont to Wisconsin, and finally located in Minnesota, where he devoted his energies to farming. Mrs. Campbell was born in Wisconsin and died in Melrose, Minnesota, in 1906, leaving the following children: Maude M., the wife of William A. Angus, of Hannaford, North Dakota; Lois I., who married William Kay, of Melrose; Belva L., wife of Charles J. Powell, of Chicago; Dr. Claude M., who died of disease while serving as a physician in the late war; Edith B., the wife of Ernest Hen- derson, of Fargo, North Dakota; Guy E., of Plenty- wood, Montana; Lucile, who died at Melrose in young womanhood; and Keen S., whose home is in Oregon.

Dr. Guy E. Campbell was reared in Melrose and is a graduate of its high school. Choosing as his life work the profession in which his father had gained success and prestige, the lad began his preparation in the Northwestern University of Chicago, where he spent four years, and then en- tered Tulane University at New Orleans and gradu- ated from its medical department in 1914. Seeking a location for the protection of his health, the young medical student came to Plentywood, Montana, and at once opened an office for practice. His labors in the interim have covered a wide range of territory, and the name of Doctor Campbell is now a familiar one in the professional circles of his town and county. He was made the examining physician for the Selective Service Board of Sheridan County, and is the physician for the county poor.

Doctor Campbell is purely a medical man, and his right to a homestead has yet to be exercised, while his connection with political matters here has been merely as a layman and a voter. He was reared under republican influence and has always given allegiance to that party, casting his first presidential vote for Mr. Taft. Doctor Campbell was made a Mason in Plentywood, and has taken the three de- grees of the Blue Lodge. He also has membership in the Elks fraternity in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

At Barnesville, Minnesota, the Doctor was mar- ried on the 10th of November, 1915, to Miss Helen M. Collins. She was born in the City of Barnes- ville, where her father, Thomas F. Collins, was a prominent business man, and she is a graduate of the high school there. She subsequently hegan training for a nurse at St. Marys in Fargo, North Dakota, and followed her profession for three years. Two children have been born to Doctor and Mrs. Campbell, Guy Edward, Jr., who is now three years of age, and Claude Thomas, the younger, one year old.

ALFRED T. VOLLUM maintains one of the largest law clienteles in Sheridan County, and in his prac-

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tice he has two offices, one at Plentywood, his main office, and one at Medicine Lake. In his practice at Medicine Lake he is associated with Arthur C. Erickson, who was also for a time formerly his law partner at Plentywood.

Mr. Vollum was born at Albert Lee, Minnesota, May 22, 1887, and his childhood and youth were spent on his father's farm there. His father, Thore G. Vollum, located in that region before the era of a railroad through that section of the country, im- mediately following the period of the Civil war, and he married into a family who were the real pioneers of that part of Minnesota. Thore G. Vollum was a native son of Norway, born at Throndhjem. He began his industrial life with but a common school training gained in his native Norway, and he reached the lumber woods of Wisconsin direct from Trondh- jem, where he arrived with but twenty dollars in money, but at once secured work in the lumber camps. From there he made his way to Southern Minnesota, walking from Rochester, the terminus of the railroad, to the locality of Albert Lee, al- though the birth of that town did not occur until many years later. His first work in this location was as a farm laborer, and among his employers was Nels Simonson, who later became his father- in-law and from whom he later bought eighty acres of land, paying $7.00 an acre, and from that small tract as a foundation he in time built his modest fortune. Mr. Vollum followed mixed farming, stock and grain constituting his principal activities, and he was responsible for the many and substantial improvements which were placed on his land. He became numbered among the most successful agri- culturists of his community, and by his own unaided efforts rose from a state of comparative poverty to a place of independence. The land which he pur- chased so many years ago continued his home for thirty-five years, and he was sixty-one years of age when death claimed him in 1910.

Thore G. Vollum was an earnest, progressive and honored citizen, was a staunch supporter of repub- lican principles, never failing to attend elections, and frequently serving as a member of the election board, and he was a zealous supporter of the Luth- eran Church. Both he and his wife proved their true worth in the support of the church of their locality. Mr. Vollum married a native daughter of Norway, Uni Simonson, her birthplace being Sogen, and she is a daughter of Nels and Mary Simonson, who came to the United States in 1864, arriving here in time for the husband and father to take part in the Civil war as a Union soldier. Mrs. Simonson's brother had been taken prisoner by the Confederates and had also been wounded, and Mr. Simonson came to avenge this deed, en- listing in a Wisconsin regiment, but he never reached the front, and after the close of the war he wandered about from place to place for about a year. Finally settling in Freeborn County, Minnesota, he spent the remaining years of his life on the claim which he secured there and passed away at the age of seventy-four. He is survived by his widow, who has reached the age of ninety-four. They were the par- ents of two daughters, the older being Mrs. Vollum, who also survives her husband and is living at Al- hert Lee, Minnesota, at the age of sixty-two. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Vol- lum: Minnie, the wife of Edward Frethein, of Albert Lee; Dr. Edward O. Vollum, who is en- gaged in practice at Albert Lee; Nels, a traveling salesman and farmer at Albert Lee; Martin, who is a farmer on the old homestead there; Alfred T., of Plentywood, Montana; Ida, who has not married

and lives with her mother; and Gilbert, also with his mother at Albert Lee. This youngest son has just recently completed his services in the World war. He was a machinist in charge of aviation in a southern field.

Alfred T. Vollum after graduating from high school entered the University of Minnesota and grad- uated in the academic course in IgII, with the de- gree A. B. By attending summer schools he short- ened his university course two years, doing the reg- ular seven years work in five, and then entering the St. Paul College of Law he completed the law course there and graduated in 1913. But before completing the course Mr. Vollum was admitted to the bar on examination. He had performed practical work in the law office of David F. Peebles of St. Paul and in the office of the county attorney, Alfred P. Stolberg, at Center City, Minnesota, and tried the examination largely as an experiment.

Mr. Vollum was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Minnesota, March 28, 1913, and in the spring of the same year was admitted to the Federal District Court. He spent the following fall and winter in the office of Harris Richardson in St. Paul, and in June sought a location further west, first exploring the northern part of his native state, stopping at various towns in North Dakota, and finally arriving in Plentywood, the then terminus of the Great Northern Railroad.

It was in September, 1913, that Mr. Vollum ar- rived in this locality, and a few months later, in December, 1913, he filed on a homestead a mile southwest of Plentywood, built a shack on his land, and began the work of improving and cultivating the claim. His subsequent improvements have all been of a permanent character, and on this property he began his married life.

Mr. Vollum found but two lawyers in Plenty- wood when he first arrived in the town and selected it as his location for his future professional career. His first case was the defense of a man charged with assaulting with a knife the son of a leading citizen of the town, and in this, his first case in Montana, Mr. Vollum was successful, for he secured a very light sentence for his client. His work as a lawyer has been a general practice in the Federal and District courts and in the land office in the Probate courts and in the Montana Supreme Court.

On reaching the age of maturity Mr. Vollum be- came a republican voter, and in 1912 united his efforts with the progressive wing of that party and has taken some part in campaign work. He is a Master Mason, affiliating with Plentywood Lodge No. 91, and he is also a member of the Elks Lodge at Williston, North Dakota. With his family he is affiliated with the work of the Lutheran Church, which he is serving as a trustee of the congregation at Plentywood and as president of the "Call Com- mittee."

On the 25th of May, 1914, Mr. Vollum was mar- ried to Miss Alma Robinson, of Minneapolis, Min- nesota, a daughter of Edward and Mary Robinson, both of whom were born in Norway. Since coming to the United States Mr. Robinson has been engaged in the lumber business. Mrs. Vollum completed her high school training in Minneapolis, and then entered upon a business career as a stenographer. Two children have been born to bless this union, both daughters, Virginia, three years of age, and Marion Hope, who is but two years old.

CHARLES LINCOLN MARSHALL, secretary-treasurer, manager and editor of the Wolf Point Herald, is a newspaper man of wide experience, and has used

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his editorial pen with great force and clarity in behalf of agricultural progress and development in the Northwest.

He was born at Plattville, Wisconsin, October 21, 1870, but has spent practically all his life on the prairies of the Northwest. His ancestors were Vir- ginia planters and slave holders. His father, George W. Marshall, was born near Winchester, Virginia, but after his marriage moved west and followed his trade as a miller at Hannibal, Missouri, and several years later at Plattville, Wisconsin, where he did lead mining, ran stage lines, and during the Civil war served as provost marshal. Soon after the birth of his son Charles L., he took his family by prairie schooner from Wisconsin, crossed Iowa, and went to Dakota Territory and entered a home- stead thirty miles from Yankton, the old territorial capital in Yankton County. Some ten or twelve years later he moved to Parker, the county seat of Turner County, and spent the rest of his days there. He was born October 30, 1825, and died April 10, 1916. He became a republican upon the birth of the party, was a warm supporter of Mr. Lincoln, and in Dakota was frequently asked to become a candidate for office, but refused any other service than as a delegate to conventions. He married Sarah Hefflebower, who was one of the seven daughters and four sons of Daniel Hefflebower, a Hollander by ancestry and a Virginia planter in the Shenandoah Valley. He freed all his slaves at the outbreak of the war and became a Union sympathizer. Mrs. George W. Marshall died February 15, 1897, in her sixty-seventh year. Their oldest son is Thomas F. Marshall, a prominent and wealthy citizen of Oakes, North Dakota. He began his career at Yankton, handling a shovel on a section gang, carried a sur- veyor's chain, learned surveying, and for many years was a contractor. Later he engaged in the grocery business at Yankton, became interested in banking at Columbia, and was active in that business at Oakes until he retired. He was a member of both Houses of the North Dakota Legislature and for eight years was a republican member of Congress. The second of the children is Virginia V., a gradu- ate of the Yankton High School and a teacher living at Parker, South Dakota. Jessie is the wife of Sewell F. Wentworth, of Sioux City, Iowa, while the youngest is Charles L.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 45

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