Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 46

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

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Charles L. Marshall lived on the Dakota home- stead to the age of fifteen, and then in the Town of Parker. He attended country schools, the village schools of Parker and Yankton College. After graduating from high school he went to work in the office of the New Era at Parker, one of the oldest papers in South Dakota. His pay was $4.00 a week. He also taught school several terms and was deputy in county offices of Turner County and eventually became proprietor of a store at Oakes, North Dakota. When the business was destroyed by fire he spent eleven months in the State of Wash- ington, and then resumed newspaper work at Oakes. In July, 1910, he joined the Williston Herald, and for four years did reportorial and editorial work for that journal, and performed a similar service on the Williston Graphic for a year and a half. In all his newspaper work he has directed his efforts toward improved farming and farm economics, for the organization of farmers into clubs and bureaus, and has covered every phase of the modern country life uplift.

Mr. Marshall came to Wolf Point in March, 1917, and has been identified with the Wolf Point Herald since the Ist of April. With a former newspaper acquaintance, J. P. Wiest, he bought of C. M. Han- son the Herald, which was established in 1913. In

March, 1919, he bought the interests of Mr. Wiest and incorporated the Wolf Point Herald, distribut- ing some of the stock to local business men. H. A. Schoening is president of the Herald Company, while O. C. Johnson is vice president, the active management and editorial control vesting in Mr. Marshall. Mrs. Marshall is an active associate of her husband on the Herald and carries an equal share of the burden of its publication.

July 10, 1916, Mr. Marshall married Charlotte E. Barnes at Northfield, Minnesota. She was born at Lockhart, Minnesota, May 15, 1888, daughter of Jesse and Mary (Bradley) Barnes. Her grand- father Barnes was a Wisconsin soldier and died dur- ing the Civil war. Jesse Barnes was born in Wiscon- sin, and is now living at Northfield, Minnesota. Besides Mrs. Marshall the other children are: Leslie, on the old home farm at Lockhart; Leland, of Minneapolis ; and Cecil. Cecil volunteered two weeks after America declared war on Germany, was a member of the 15th Machine Gun Battalion, was in the fighting at San Mehiel, Verdun and the Ar- gonne, and was cited for bravery as a runner through the thick of the conflict, being the only one of several started with a message to reach their objective.

By a former marriage Mr. Marshall has a daughter, Marjory Wentworth, a graduate of South Dakota University and teacher of English and mathematics in the public schools of Scotland, South Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall have one daughter, Jean Carleton.

Mr. Marshall has manifested a marked degree of independence in politics, was reared a republican and supported that party until 1912, and gave his vote twice to Mr. Wilson. He makes it a point to con- duct the Wolf Point Herald as an independent news- paper in politics.

JOSEPH PELTIER is one of the honored pioneers of Lincoln County, near Eureka, and has been a rancher there for over thirty years. He has used his in- fluence as well as his labor to develop that section of country, has achieved prosperity, and also well merited esteem.

Mr. Peltier is of French ancestry, and has shown the vigorous and industrious characteristics of his race. He was born at Golette, Canada, in 1868, son of Antone and Theatiste (Poitra) Peltier, being the fourth in their family of nine sons. He acquired his education in his native country, and at the age of eighteen went to work in the lumber woods. He came to Missoula County, Montana, in 1888, and for two years was a lumber worker at Bonner. At that time Missoula County stretched north to the Cana- dian line, and after leaving Bonner he moved into the Flathead district, near the present site of Eure- ka. Afer a year he homesteaded 160 acres two miles west of where Eureka stands, and by subsequent purchases acquired holdings that now amount to 1,600 acres.

Mr. Peltier married Miss Lottie Adams, who was born in Iowa, a daughter of Joseph and Caroline (Hensley) Adams. After their marriage they united their efforts on the homestead, building up the land, improving with good buildings, setting out fruit trees and otherwise adorning their property. Ten children were born to their marriage, three of whom died in infancy. The seven still living are Alfred, Loretta, Vernie, Albina, Velma, Edna and Victor. The three older ones have been educated in the Eureka High School. Loretta spent two years in the Sisters School at Colton, Washington, and one year in the Holy Name Academy at Spokane, and is now employed as a stenographer and bookkeeper in the Farmers & Merchants State Bank of Eureka.

Joseph Peltier Lottis Pettier

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Alfred married Juanita McClure and is a rancher near Eureka. At the age of nineteen he left school, was mustered into government service at Spokane, and after training at Bremmerton went into the navy. He served on the boats Puget Sound, West- ern Plain and Marcia and crossed the ocean three times. He was on the first boat that went through the Dardanelles after the signing of the armistice. He was in service from May 3, 1918, until Septem- ber 15, 1918, when he was honorably discharged at Minneapolis.

Mr. and Mrs. Peltier are members of the Catho- lic Church at Eureka, Mrs. Peltier being a member of the Altar Society. He is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and both support the repub- lican party. For many years Mr. Peltier has been regarded as one of the progressive citizens of Lin- coln County. His ranch shows the results of his expert management, and he has made good use of the opportunities found in this wonderful country. The attractive home of the Peltier family is three-quarters of a mile northwest of Eureka.

HANK J. CUSKER, owner of the Roandale Ranch at Wolf Point, is a fine type of the manhood and citizenship that grow and come to flower in the free and open country of the Northwest. He was born in the Northwest, son of a pioneer Oregonian, and for over a third of a century has been doing his work as a cowboy, in the early days an expert broncho buster and roper, and for years past a successful stock rancher and breeder.

Mr. Cusker was born near the City of Walla Walla, Washington, June 10, 1865. His father was a pioneer of the Northwest whose career deserves a few words in this history. James E. Cusker was born in New York City about eighty years ago. He was a child when his father died, and he had no schooling after the age of thirteen. About that time he started alone for the great west. He left the City of Pittsburg, and by working at different things in intervals of his journeying eventually joined an emigrant train and crossed the plains to Oregon, reaching the Pacific Coast several years after he started from Pittsburg. He established his home in the famous and picturesque Willamette Valley of Oregon, became a farmer, married a native of the valley, and subsequently moved into Washington and settled at Walla Walla. For many years he was a freighter, packer and miner in that region, and eventually busied himself with the re- sponsibilities of a stock farm a few miles from the city. He was in every sense a frontiersman, and a credit to that class. James E. Cusker, who died 'in 1913, married Alta Hayworth, who died several years earlier. They had a large family of children : Clarence, of Walla Walla; Mary E., wife of Will Gross, of Walla Walla; Mrs. Geor- gianna Snyder, of Palouse, Washington; Hank J .; Frank B., a stockman and farmer at Poplar, Mon- tana; Minerva Jane, who died unmarried; George Francis, in Nevada; Orion, who died unmarried in Washington; Myra, of Wolf Point; Alta, wife of David D. McGowan, of Walla Walla; Sig, of Wolf Point; and Gertie, wife of William Pipar, of Wolf Point.

Hank J. Cusker had every incentive to a life of action when a boy. He attended the common schools in the country around Walla Walla for a number of terms, but otherwise he lived out in the open on his father's farm and learned to ride and run stock as soon as he could hold a seat on the saddle. Just before reaching his twenty-first birthday he left home and became a cowboy with the Home Land and Cattle Company. The owners of this well

known outfit were the Niedringhaus brothers, promi- nent capitalists of St. Louis. He joined the or- ganization at Walla Walla, and came into Montana with a bunch of their cattle. He already had some reputation as a rider, and during the eight years he was with the Home Land and Cattle Company he broke horses for the concern, served as wagon boss and also foreman. The company had a ranch on Prairie Elk and another near Jordan in Garfield County, and his work was on the range from the Canadian line to the Yellowstone River.

While Mr. Cusker was never with the wild west show, some of his feats as a rider were the sensa- tion of the northwestern country and equalled if not excelled anything done by the performers in that show. While with the Home cattle outfit he and a comrade from Montana took a bunch of bronchos and steers to the Minnesota State Fair and entered the exhibition riding staged as part of the program. There he gave an exhibition of breaking and riding all kinds of horses, roping and tieing stunts, which were easily the center of interest at the Fair and one of the first exhibitions of the kind in the country. Later at a stock meeting he did exhibition riding at Miles City. The feature that made him winner of a prize was picking up quirts lying on the ground while his horse was running at full speed. Another horseman behind him was whipping Cusker's mount with a buggy whip, and Cusker not only had to manage his animal but had to pick up a quirt every twenty-five yards. He was also a well known professional roper, and when the sport of roping steers became tame he used the lariat on bears and coyotes.

After leaving the Home Land and Cattle Com- pany Mr. Cusker spent two seasons with the "FUF" outfit, finally driving a bunch of 500 horses for them to the Winnipeg market. He then abandoned the range as a cowboy and since then his perma- nent interests have been at Wolf Point. His home- stead was entered in McCone County, then in Dawson County, and his first home was built of Mis- souri River logs. It provided a shelter for him- self and family until about four years ago, when he erected what is probably the largest house in McCone County, a two-story, eleven room, full basement home, attractive architecturally and with every comfort inside. Mr. Cusker has developed a ranch of more than two sections, and in recent years farming has been an important feature of his industry, particularly the growing of alfalfa. His horse brand is the "lazy N" and his cattle brand is "U up and U down." His ranch is widely known and patronized by seekers for high class stock. He has been breeding the Shorthorn roan strain of cat- tle, and has a herd of fine breeding animals, though not registered. He has the thoroughbred registered running stock of horses, and gives much attention to breaking and training his racers. His draft or work horses are the roan Belgian, breeding them for the market. His sires are all imported, and his dams also represent some of the best blood of the strain. Mr. Cusker is also a stockholder in the First State Bank of Wolf Point. Politically he has been a democrat through most of the years.

At Poplar, Montana, February 4, 1904, he married Miss Grace Kimmel. She was born near Mt. Ver- non, Illinois, daughter of John and Hannah Kim- mel, who spent their lives on a farm near Mt. Vernon. Besides Mrs. Cusker the other Kimmel children are: Miz, who married Charles Ecker, Jesse, Louis, Oscar, Mrs. Jennie Bawden and Mrs. Ruth Atkin- son. Louis Kimmel is also a resident of McCone County, Montana, and Mrs. Bawden lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Mrs. Cusker came out to Montana to teach

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

school and was a teacher at Poplar when she met Mr. Cusker. The children born to their marriage are named H. Jay, Ray, Roy, Clyta, Gertrude and Erma.

GEORGE H. FLINT, vice president of the First State Bank of Wolf Point, has been identified with that town for over four years, was previously a farmer and business man in North Dakota, and is a mem- ber of a wealthy and influential Iowa family.

He was born at Spencer, Iowa, January 9, 1887. His grandfather was a native of England, brought to America when a boy, and spent most of his life as a farmer around Dodgeville, Wisconsin. He was a Union soldier during the Civil war. Of his three sons and four daughters the oldest was Thomas B. Flint, who was born in Wisconsin, and in 1881 took his wife and children to Iowa and settled near Spencer. He had very little capital, and largely through farming and stock raising advanced far be- yond the goal of the average farmer. His success marks him as one of the conspicuous men of Iowa. He early recognized the future of his state, invested in lands when they were cheap, and became owner of extensive tracts of rural real estate. He is now living retired at Spencer. Some of his capital has found investment in Montana. He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Oswego and of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Frazer, one of his sons being cashier of the latter.

Thomas B. Flint married Nellie Roberts, whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Roberts, were natives of Wales. She died at Dodgeville, Wisconsin, mother of the following children: Jennie, wife of O. M. Cummings, of Everly, Iowa; Mrs. W. G. Fox, of Everly; Mrs. Charles Larsen, of Spencer; George H .; and Clyde, who is the cashier of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Frazer. The second wife of Thomas B. Flint was Elizabeth Robbins, though there are no children of that union.

George H. Flint secured a practical education and also had much training while at home in Iowa. On leaving home he went to Belfield, North Dakota, homesteaded and proved up a claim near the town, and during the seven years he lived there was also engaged in the grain and mercantile business. In 1915 he became interested in the First State Bank of Wolf Point, and has made that town his home since March 1, 1916. His chief work and interest have been in the success of the bank, though he has a number of other interests, being vice presi- dent of the Farmers and Merchants Bank at Frazer and vice president of the Eastern Montana Security Company, an affiliated concern of the First State Bank. For two years he has served as city treas- urer of Wolf Point, and is one of the directors of the Commercial Club. As a local banker he made his influence felt in behalf of the various campaigns for raising funds for the government and the auxiliary work of the war. Mr. Flint is a charter member of Loyalty Lodge No. 121 at Wolf Point, and is a member of the Scottish Rite Con- sistory at Helena and Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine in that city. He is a member of the Lodge of Elks at Dickinson, North Dakota.

In 1916 Mr. Flint built a modern seven-room bungalow home with all facilities for comfortable living. He married at Dickinson, North Dakota, October 25, 1908, Miss Coila Scharf. She was born at Spencer, Iowa, February 16, 1889, daughter of Charles W. and Anna (Jepson) Scharf. She and Mrs. Fred E. Rathert of Wolf Point are the only children of their parents. Mr. and Mrs. Flint have two children, Cleo and Joyce.

ARTHUR J. BROADWATER, of Havre, is one of Mon- tana's substantial business men. He came to the Northwest when Montana was a territory. He was the type of man who delighted in achieving success by overcoming obstacles and solving the problems presented by a new and undeveloped country. The sublime faith that Mr. Broadwater has in Montana's resources was therefore born of an experience that comprehends practically every vicissitude that could befall a resident for over thirty years.

Mr. Broadwater is a brother of the pioneer mer- chant and banker of Havre, Edward T. Broadwater, and was born three years later than his brother, at Memphis in Scotland County, Missouri, November 7, 1864, a son of Thomas and Martha (Smoot) Broadwater. His mother is still living in Missouri, having spent all her life in Scotland County. His father was a Virginian by birth, but lived from early boyhood in Missouri, was a California forty- niner, and for many years a successful architect and builder.

Arthur J. Broadwater enjoyed the advantages of the public schools of his native town, and, like his brother, had that independent spirit that led him away from the comforts of a good home to carve his own destiny. At the age of sixteen he began learning telegraphy in a railway office, and followed that profession several years. In December, 1886, he arrived at Helena, Montana, where chance brought him in touch with a cousin, Charles Broad- water, whom he had not seen for a number of years. Mr. Broadwater came to Montana to enter the service of the Rocky Mountain Telegraph Company. He left Helena in a stage bound for Fort Benton, where his duties assigned him. When the stage reached Great Falls the party spent the night in a little shack known as the Park Hotel, and the fol- lowing morning Arthur Broadwater sought out Mr. Gibson. The latter took him to what is now First Avenue, and the corner of First Avenue and Second Street Mr. Gibson offered to Mr. Broadwater for $500. This ground was covered with several feet of snow and the vista was not inviting to even one of a more speculative turn of mind than the young man who had just arrived in the northwestern country. His reply to Mr. Gibson's offer was that he would not give five dollars for all the snow covered land in sight. Mr. Broadwater tells this incident not to prove his lack of judgment but merely to show how rapidly things moved in Mon- tana at that time. Eight months later, in August, 1887, the same corner that was offered to him in the depth of winter was sold for $27,500.

In the meantime Mr. Broadwater continued his journey to Fort Benton and began a six months' service for the Rocky Mountain Telegraph Com- pany. After the big boom has been launched at Great Falls he returned to the city and bought from Mr. Gibson Lot 8 in Block 257, at the corner of Eighth Street and Second Avenue North, paying $2,250 for the ground. This property he still owns. After leaving the Telegraph Company he became quartermaster's clerk at Fort Assiniboine, remain- ing there about five years. The land in that region not yet having been surveyed, he became a squatter on the public domain, and since then has been more or less actively interested in farming in Montana. He served as deputy assessor of Choteau County under Albert Hamilton, later was deputy clerk and recorder of the same county.

Mr. Broadwater came to Havre in the very early days of the city, in 1892, and entered the general merchandise business. Later he was in the drug business until 1914, when his store, with many others

M.P. Sherman

Nova KShuman

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

of the business district, was destroyed by fire. In 1907 he bought from the receiver the H. W. Gross hardware business, and has since made this the lead- ing furniture and hardware house of Havre. He has been a business man of the city for nearly thirty years, and for the past fifteen years has been an in- telligent manager of some farming and livestock interests, and is therefore in a position to know con- ditions affecting both commerce and agriculture in his part of the state. This faith, based on long experience, was interestingly expressed in the sum- mer of 1919, when Montana was suffering the greatest drought in its history, in a letter which Mr. Broadwater wrote in reply to a wholesale hard- ware house of Duluth, respectfully declining their offer of extension of credit and asserting the inten- tion of the A. J. Broadwater Company to do busi- ness as usual on a discount for cash basis. Con- tinuing, Mr. Broadwater said: "To reassure you in your confidence in Montana eventually making good, I have been right here on the job for thirty- six years and know that Montana will make good as soon as we get a class of farmers who will cultivate the soil as it should be and not expect to raise a crop from discing and seeding without plowing, which method has been used on three-fourths of our land in the past three years. Any farmer who sum- mer-fallows in Montana will raise a crop and get a larger return for the same efforts than any land outdoors, taken as an average. This is the first year in my experience for summer fallowing land to have failed, and it has not made an entire failure this year. Most farmers who did, will get something." In May, 1890, Mr. Broadwater married Josephine Skelly, who was born at Keensville, Canada. They have two daughters, Charlotte and Josephine.

Mr. Broadwater served one term as alderman of Havre from the First Ward, and when Edward F. Burke resigned as mayor he was appointed for the unexpired term. Politically he is a democrat.

BENJAMIN FRANK CHESTNUT. The people who constitute the bone and sinew of this country are not those who are unstable and unsettled; who fly from this occupation to that; who do not know how to vote until they are told, and who take no active and intelligent interest in public affairs. The backbone of this country is made up of the families who have made their homes; who are alive to the best inter- ests of the community in which they reside, who are so honest that it is no trouble for their neighbors to know it; who attend to their own business and are too busy to attend to that of others; who work on steadily from day to day, taking the sunshine with the storm and rear a fine family to a comfort- able home and honest lives. Such people are wealth producers and are welcome in any community.

Benjamin Frank Chestnut, one of the leading real estate men of Havre, was born in Oakland County, Michigan, on the 4th of February, 1865. He is the son of Benjamin and Mary Ann (Martin) Chestnut. The father was born about two miles south of the famous Giant's Causeway, in the north of Ireland, and died in 1892, at the age of sixty-four years. His wife, who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, died in 1904, when sixty-three years of age. Ben- jamin F. is the sixth in order of birth of the ten children born to his parents, and of which number nine are still living. Benjamin Chestnut remained in the Emerald Isle until fourteen years of age, receiving his education in the schools of his home community. At the age named he accompanied his widowed mother to the United States, the slow- going sailing vessel requiring six weeks to make the trip. They landed at Philadelphia, where the

lad secured employment in a carpet factory. He married in Philadelphia when twenty-one years of age, and then moved to Oakland County, Michigan, of which he was one of the pioneers, and there he literally hewed a home out of the wilderness of great forest trees which covered practically all of that region. He remained there until March, 1871, when he moved to Jackson County, Kansas, where he engaged in farming during the remainder of his active years. He was versatile in his abilities, being also an expert in stone work and plastering. Politi- cally he was a republican.

Benjamin F. Chestnut received his education in the public schools of Kansas, and his first active employment was in carrying water to harvest hands. On May 30, 1886, soon after attaining his majority, Mr. Chestnut went to Butte, Montana, where he first tended stage stock on the Red Rock. Later he went to Dawson County, where he went to work for John O'Brien at a stage station. In the spring of 1887 he assisted in the gathering of poor cows, but later on went to Williston, North Dakota, where he was employed at various forms of labor until March, 1888. From that time until April, 1891, he was en- gaged in the saloon business at Williston, moving on the date mentioned to Cut Bank, where he ran a saloon for a brief period, and soon afterward was engaged in the same business at Havre, Mon- tana. He was so occupied up to May, 1908, since which date he has given his attention principally to the real estate business, with which he has been identified ever since locating in Havre. In this business Mr. Chestnut has been very successful, being a good judge of property values and an en- thusiastic booster for Havre. He is the owner of several valuable pieces of property in Havre, in- cluding the Farmers State Bank Building. It is related of Mr. Chestnut by those familiar with his business record that his saloons were always run on a far higher plane than the average bar, everything approaching roughness or vulgarity being rigidly excluded, no gambling of any sort being permitted, and a general tone being cultivated that attracted only people of the better sort. It was not an un- common thing for him to keep his place open on cold nights solely for the accommodation of people waiting for the late trains and who otherwise would have had no comfortable place in which to wait.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 46

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