Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 6

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 6

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He was born in Cumberland County, Kentucky, August 15, 1865, a son of W. W. and Martha (Nunn) Norris. His parents were also born in Cumberland County, and are still living, as are their three sons. Governor Norris was the second child.

He was educated in the Western Kentucky Normal School at Bowling Green and was admitted to the Montana bar October 8, 1889. For many years his home and practice as a lawyer was at Dillon. He represented Beaverhead County in the State Senate from 1896 to 1900. His service as lieutenant governor began January 2, 1905, and con- tinned until April 1, 1908, when by the resignation of Governor Toole he became governor and filled out the unexpired term until January 1, 1909. He was

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regularly elected governor in 1908, and held office until January 1, 1913. On retiring from the office of governor he located at Great Falls and has resumed his practice as a lawyer.

GEORGE E. HURD is a well known Montana lawyer and since 1913 has been associated in practice with former Governor Norris, who that year left the gov- ernor's chair, and their offices have been at Great Falls. The firm Norris & Hurd commands a well deserved prestige and a large and important prac- tice in all the local and state courts.

Mr. Hurd belongs to an old family of the state of Delaware. He was born on his father's farm in Kent County July 11, 1872, son of James H. and Martha (Godwin) Hurd. The parents were also natives of Delaware. The father was a Union sol- dier in a regiment of Delaware Infantry, was a farmer, and for many years specialized in standard bred livestock. He died in 1908, at the age of seventy-five, while his wife passed away in 1900, at the age of seventy-three.

George E. Hurd was the youngest of six children, five of whom are still living. He acquired a liberal education, attending the public schools of his native county, a preparatory school at Carlisle, Pennsyl- vania, and was graduated A. B. from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1896. He took the law course at Harvard University in 1896-97. As a youth he had mastered the art of telegraphy and when in 1897, on the advice of his brother, a rancher in Montana, he came to this state he used his knowl- edge of telegraphy as a means of earning his liv- ing while continuing the study of law. For about three years he was employed by the Great Northern Railway Company as telegrapher and station agent at Glasgow. In the meantime his earnest application gained him admission to the Montana bar in 1900, and from the first he had a lucrative practice at Glasgow. He was a popular citizen of that commun- ity, was elected mayor in 1902, served three consec- utive terms, but on account of his law practice had to resign in 1907. In 1908 and for several years he was in partnership with E. M. Lewis, under the name of Hurd & Lewis. By action of the State Legislature he was appointed special prosecutor for the state in IgII.

Mr. Hurd has been in many political campaigns as a democrat and was a political associate of Gov- ernor Norris before they became partners in the law. He is a member of the Cascade County and the State Bar associations.

On December 20, 1900, the same year that he be- gan law practice Mr. Hurd married Mary E. Har- gadine. She is also a native of Delaware and a daughter of Robert W. and Mary E. (Carter) Har- gadine. Her father died at the age of forty-nine and her mother at fifty-six. Mrs. Hurd was the second in a family of seven children, six of whom are still living. Her father was a physician. Mr. and Mrs. Hurd have two children: Robert H. and George E., Jr.

AUGUST D. F. BUCHHOLZ, a justice of the peace of Augusta, is one of the most representative men of Lewis and Clark County and one who has played an important part in the history of this region. He was born at Parchim, Province of Mecklenburg, Ger- many, a town of about ten thousand located on a tributary to the Elbe River. He came into the world on August 6, 1876, a son of Frederick and Marie (Wilcke) Buchholz, who spent the greater part of their lives at Parchim. Frederick Buchholz learned the trade of a cooper in his youth, later became a

farmer, and still later handled real estate, being thus engaged at the time of his death.

August D. F. Buchholz attended the public schools of his home town until he was fourteen years old, and completed his educational training with a year's course at Rostock, a Baltic seaport, where he se- cured a certificate entitling him to one year volun- teer service in the German army instead of the otherwise three years' compulsory service. Life in the German army even for one year did not ap- peal to him, and he decided, with the gladly given consent of his father, to join his elder brother, Her- man, in the United States.

In the spring of 1892 the lad landed in New York City, and after various delays, owing to floods and washouts, he reached Augusta, Lewis and Clark County, Montana, near which town his brother was engaged in cattle ranching. The first task set the ambitious boy was to learn to stay in the saddle, and he accomplished it by frequent "grabbing leather," and persisted until in a few days he was admitted to be expert enough to accompany another rider and a pack-horse loaded with salt for the cattle grazing on the North Fork of the Sun River in the Rockies.

Although still nothing more than a boy, he rapidly advanced, and while quiet and retiring in disposi- tion, the freedom of the new life and the democratic spirit of the people strongly appealed to him and he resolved to permanently locate among them, and at the age of twenty years he invested his in- heritance left him by his parents, who had in the meanwhile passed away, in 160 acres of land and a bunch of cattle, his ranch being near the Sun River Canyon. His sister Augusta lived with him and looked after his household affairs. Later they pooled their interests with those of their brother Herman, and the three of them lived on Willow Creek, a tributary of Sun River, until Herman was killed by the flying timbers of a shed roof which was torn off by the terrific west wind. Following this sad event the brother and sister moved to Augusta, and this town has been his place of resi- dence ever since.

Although he has owned farm land ever since he reached his majority, his most important venture was made in 1919, when he acquired 400 acres of land adjoining the Augusta townsite, for which he paid what was then an unprecedented price for that locality of $85 per acre for the greater portion of it. Mr. Buchholz, with commendable foresight and public spirit, made valuable concessions to the Augusta Commercial Club, thus insuring the growth of the town, and had it not been for the unfortunate location of a railroad terminal two miles away, Augusta would today be one of the most flourishing of the little cities in this part of the state. As it is the newly established town of Gilman, which has sprung up about the railroad station, has taken away much of the trade which formerly came to the old town.

A brief history of the location of this railroad terminal is interesting in connection with Mr. Buch- holz' biography. Augusta has never had the ad- vantage of railroad facilities, its means of communi- cation with the outside world being a daily stage to Craig on the Montana Central branch of the Great Northern Railroad. When a feeder was built up the Sun River Valley from Great Falls, construction was stopped within two miles of Angusta, for the alleged reason that the continuation to the town would be useless to the railroad, or at least an un- profitable spur, whenever the line should be extended across the mountains. A town was laid out at the

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terminal called Gilman, and the Augusta people in- vited to move at their own expense, if they wished to. be on the railroad.

The people of Augusta, in turn, requested the road to move to them, but their appeal fell upon deaf ears, so they went before the State Legislature, then sitting at Helena in 1917, and had introduced a bill authorizing the Board of Railroad Commissioners to compel the construction of spurs to the length of two miles, instead of the provision of one mile spurs. In spite of the strenuous objection of the railroad interests and various alleged attempts to pigeonhole the bill, the Legislature stood by what they deemed the people's cause, and Governor Stewart approved the law on March 1, 1917.

The Railroad Commission held a hearing at Augusta soon thereafter, and concluded that the people were entitled to the extension asked for. They made an order to that effect, hut before it could be executed the World war drew the United States into the Allied cause, and later the govern- ment took over the roads, stopping all but the most necessary construction. With the return of the roads to private ownership on March 1, 1920, has come to the people of Augusta renewed hopes of obtaining what they regard as their due. In the meanwhile there is much goodnatured rivalry be- tween Augusta and Gilman; houses have been moved backward and forward, and while Gilman still holds the strategic position of the terminal, the splendid "pull together" spirit of the Augusta people has won the admiration of the surrounding country to such an extent that the latter bids fair to hold its lead over the former, even without the road extension.

In the fall of 1904 Mr. Buchholz was elected jus- tice of the peace of Augusta township, which gives him jurisdiction over a large territory, for judicial townships embrace considerahle space, Augusta Township containing 1,000 square miles. After he had held the office for two years he was re-elected, and has continued to hold this office continuously ever since with the exception of a winter when he was abroad visiting the land of his birth. He does not claim to have any great legal knowledge, but so equitable have been his judgments that up to 1920 not one of his decisions have been reversed by a higher court. Even during the war, when many of German birth were discriminated against, the voters of Angusta Township recognized Mr. Buch- holz' one-hundred per cent Americanism by re- electing him by a handsome majority. He bears the unique distinction of having in 1916 been nominated by three political parties, the democratic, republi- can and socialistic.

The panic of 1893 made him a republican, and since then he has affiliated with that party, although at times having his name printed in the democratic column of the election ballot, when a nomination hy two parties gave him his choice. About 1900 Mr. Buchholz joined the Modern Woodmen of America, and some years later, the Odd Fellows and Wood- men of the World. In 1920 he was clerk or secre- tary for all three of these fraternities in the local lodges at Augusta.

While a member of the Augusta Methodist Epis- copal Church and one of its energetic workers, he was never accused of being orthodox, and when a friend once asked him for his creed, he is reported to have answered: "Little I know of God, devil, spirit, heaven or hell, and less about my soul, but I know we are here and have to make the best of it. Ignorance is my worst enemy, intelligence my dearest friend, and to live forever is my greatest hope."

On May 29, 1905, Mr. Buchholz was married at Helena, Montana, to Emma Wilcke, of Parchim, Germany, a daughter of the German army com- missary official, Frederick Wilcke. She is an ac- complished musician, and takes an interest in all matters related to an improvement of the social life of the community. Mrs. Buchholz is a great lover of nature and of all things beautiful.

HUGH S. McGINLEY. Only those who come into personal contact with Hugh S. McGinley, a represen- tative citizen of Fort Benton and one of the popular and successful attorneys of that section of the Treasure State, can understand how thoroughly nature and training, habits of thought and action have enabled him to accomplish his life work and made him a fit representative of the enterprising class of professional people to which he belongs. He is a fine type of the sturdy, conscientious, progressive American of today-a man who unites a high order of ability with courage, patriotism, clean morality and sound common sense, doing thoroughly and well the work that he finds to do and asking praise of no man for the performance of what he conceives to be his simple duty.

Hugh Samuel McGinley was born in Davenport, Iowa, on August 4, 1881, and is the son of Hugh and Susie P. (Duffin) McGinley. The father was born in Ironton, Ohio, in September, 1857, and the mother in Davenport, Iowa, on May 11, 1864, and they were united in marriage in the latter city on May 11, 1880. They became the parents of two children, the subject of this sketch and a daughter. Susie T., who is the wife of Guy E. Thomas, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Hugh McGinley was brought to Davenport, Iowa, by his parents when a mere child, and received his education in the public schools of that city. His first active work was in the hardware business in Davenport, with which he was connected up to 1878, when he engaged as a traveling salesman for a wholesale hardware house, having his headquarters in Chicago, and covering practically the entire Northwest through to the coast, including St. Paul, Minneapolis, Billings, Butte and Helena, Montana, from which latter point he trav- eled by stage routes through Montana to Fort Ben- ton, thence through Washington, Idaho and Oregon. In 1887 he located in Spokane, Washington, where, two years later, he became manager for the Spo- kane Hardware Company. He retained that position up to August 4, 1891, when the plant was destroyed by fire. Mr. McGinley then engaged in the imple- ment business under the firm name of C. E. Wood- ruff Company, of which he was the "company." At the same time he also conducted a general mercan- tile store at Ellensburg, Washington, up to 1894. when he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and engaged as a traveling salesman in the hardware business, in which he is still engaged. He is an expert salesman and has been very successful in that vocation. Politically he is a stanch supporter of the democratic party.

Hugh S. McGinley secured his elementary educa- . tion in the public schools of Minneapolis, Minnesota, after which he was student in St. Thomas College at St. Paul, Minnesota, and the University of Notre Dame at Notre Dame, Indiana. Then, having de- cided to devote his life to the practice of law, he entered the law department of Minnesota Univer- sity, where he was graduated with the class of 1903. In 1904 he was admitted to the bar of Minnesota and was engaged in the practice of his profession until 1906, when he became identified with the legal de- partment of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad for about a year. In 1907 Mr. McGinley applied him-

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self to the study of railroad construction with the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad for a few months. In November, 1907, he again took up the practice of law, opening an office in Minneapolis, but in 1910 he came to Montana, locat- ing in Great Falls, where he remained until July 1, 19II, when he located in Fort Benton, where he has since remained. He has been actively and success- fully engaged in the practice of law here, and has richly earned a high reputation as an able and success- ful attorney. In 1911, at the Cascade County Con- vention, he and Howard Green were placed in nomi- nation for County Attorney, and he was defeated by only seven votes. The result was not entirely dis- pleasing to him, however, as prior to the convention he had expressed himself as not desiring the nomi- nation. In 1912 Mr. McGinley was elected county attorney of Chouteau County, holding the office dur- ing 1913-14.

Mr. McGinley possessed a broad and compre- hensive knowledge of the law and has been notably successful in his practice. He enjoys a large and representative clientele, having been connected in a professional way with much of the most important litigation in the local courts, as well as in several of the adjoining counties.

Politically, Mr. McGinley is an ardent supporter of the democratic party and was chairman of the County Central Committee of that party during the years 1914 to 1918. He was also chairman of the local Draft Board from December, 1917, until the close of the war. Fraternally he is a member of Great Falls Lodge, No. 214, Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks.

On June 15, 1908, Mr. McGinley was married to Ida L. Koch, who was born in Keokuk, Iowa. Mr. McGinley is recognized as a man of strong and alert mentality, deeply interested in everything pertaining to the welfare of the community along material, civic or moral lines, and he is recognized as one of the progressive and representative men of his section of the state. His success in life has been the legitimate fruitage of consecutive effort, directed and controlled by good judgment and correct prin- ciples.

FOREST M. MACK. To get ahead to a point where his income exceeds his demand, where his ability exceeds his tasks, where he can do the work he likes best, is possible to anyone, provided he learns to bend his energies in the right direction. When he determines to know, instead of assuming to know, he advances steadily, for no matter how powerful, energy and effort can never take the place of intelli- gent direction. Forest M. Mack is one of the suc- cessful merchants of Gilman, and he is a man who has learned how to intelligently direct the energies and efforts of others, not only in his business but in community work as well, and has earned for him- self a reputation for sagacity and public spirit.

Forest M. Mack was born at Cedar Rapids, Ne- braska, on September I, 1886, a son of Roderick j. Mack of Marcellus, Michigan. Roderick J, Mack was born in 1855, and shortly after his marriage, which took place at Rome City, Indiana, he moved to Cedar Rapids, Nebraska. All of his active years he was engaged in farming, but retired in 1898 and returned to Rome City, Indiana, where he lived until 1905, at which time he located at Marcellus, Michigan. Well known as a Mason, he served the Rome City Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, as worshipful master for some years. In politics he is a republican and has always been strong in his support of his party's candidates and principles. Roderick J. Mack was married to La-

nore Bidlack, who was born in Rome City, Indiana, in 1860, and died at Marcellus, Michigan, in 1917. Their children were as follows: Lulu, who mar- ried a Mr. Howe, a farmer, and they live at Rome City, Indiana; Forest M., who was second in order of birth; Florence, who married a Mr. Rowe, an electrical engineer who was killed by wire contact at Marcellus, Michigan, where his widow is still residing ; Chandler, who is with a paper manufactur- ing plant of Three Rivers, Michigan; and Ulin, who is living with his father.

Forest M. Mack attended the public schools of Rome City, Indiana, and was graduated from its high school in 1903. For the subsequent year he was employed in a dry-goods store at Wolcottville, Indiana, which he left to go into a similar estab- lishment at Fayette, Ohio. After a year at the latter place Mr. Mack decided to homestead, and went to Canada, passing through the Dominion to Edmunton, but found no location to suit him, and in 1905 came to Montana and worked on a cattle ranch owned by Sam Aiken at Gold Butte for a year. The next year he was on the cattle ranch of George Murray, on both of these ranches being a real cow- boy, a somewhat different article from the one usu- ally shown in the movies.

In 1907 Mr. Mack entered the general merchan- dise store of A. H. Fay at Gold Butte, Montana, and during 1908 and 1909 was manager of it. He then organized the firm of Ellis & Mack and on March 1, 1910, bought the store owned by A. C. Strode at Whitlash, in the Sweet Grass Hills, forty miles from the railroad, and for the three years they conducted it the partners freighted all of their merchandise from Chester, Montana. In the fall of 1912 they closed up their store, and during the ensuing winter erected a store, one of the first two to be built at Gilman, opening up with a full line of merchandise on March 1, 1913. On April 1, 1920, he bought the interest of his partner and is conduct- ing this store, which has become the largest one in the northern part of Lewis and Clark County. The store is located on Main Street, and the stock car- ried is fresh and timely and offered at prices as low as is consistent with the quality and market quotations.

Mr. Mack is a republican both by inheritance and conviction. He belongs to Great Falls Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Great Falls Lodge No. 112, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. One of the founders of the Gilman Commer- cal Club, he is now its president, and he is one of the three trustees of the Gilman Park Association, his associates on the board being S. S. Franks and Oliver Bernier. Mr. Mack is also a director, sec- retary and treasurer of the Lewis and Clark County Fair Association, and was chairman of the first school board of Gilman, which built the first school and conducted it for two years by private sub- scription. He was on the building committee of the Presbyterian Church at the time the present edifice was put up, and is still a trustee of the church. Mr. Mack has other interests, being a stockholder in the Wymont Gas and Oil Company; owns his store building, which has a floor space 36 by 70 feet, and a storehouse in the rear of the store, his resi- dence at Gilman, a lot on Main Street, two resi- dence lots on Central Avenue, on which he proposes to erect a modern residence, four lots in the Park Addition to Gilman, and two ranches, one at Rie- beling, Montana, and one at one and one-half miles north of Gilman.

Mr. Mack was married on August 10, 19II, at Long Beach, California, to Miss Edna E. Calvin. born at Des Moines, Iowa, a high school graduate.

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Mr. and Mrs. Mack have no children. During the World war Mr. Mack was one of the active workers in behalf of the Liberty Loans, War Savings and Red Cross and similar drives, holding an official position. He contributed generously of his time and means to aid the administration in carrying out its policies. Since the Armistice was signed he, with other constructive men of his county, has endeavored to get things back to normal, and can be counted upon to do in the future, as he has in the past, a man's work in behalf of his community, his state and his country.

OLIVER B. PATTERSON. From the time of the or- ganization of the Village of Savage until the pres- ent time Oliver B. Patterson has been identified with its improvement and development, and as both a merchant and farmer his name is a familiar one throughout the county.

Mr. Patterson was born in Lyon County, Minne- sota, October 20, 1875, a son of Frank B. Patter- son, who had his nativity in the State of New York, but gave his industrial life to Minnesota, and is now a resident of Omaha, Nebraska. He fol- lowed farming as a vocation, and lived the life of a private and industrious citizen. He married Mary A. Knox,« a daughter of Charles Knox, also from the State of New York. She died in 1912, leaving the following children: Mrs. Bertha Knox, of Stan- ton, North Dakota; Oliver B., whose home is in Savage; Alice, the wife of Charles Hudson, of Omaha; Mrs. Parthenia Earnest Churchill, of Pipe- stone, Minnesota; Agnes, wife of Richard Worley, of New Salem, North Dakota; and Maude, the wife of Alfred Simard, of Sidney.

Oliver B. Patterson spent the early years of his life in the Town of Marshall, Minnesota, and when old and large enough to work he went into a grocery store and began his training as a merchant. He also attended the Marshall High School and gradu- ated at the age of seventeen, after which he began to work steadily. Going some years later to Wash- ington, D. C., he became associated with a brother- in-law there in the grocery business, and in the spring of 1907 he left the national capital and started out to win his fortune in the new North- west, arriving a short time later in Montana. Through the influence of the St. Paul mercantile house of Griggs, Cooper & Company Mr. Patterson secured a position in the store of G. D. Holleck at Glendive. When the little Town of Savage was or- ganized he cast his fortunes with it in the spring of 1910, and his name has since been prominent in its mercantile circles as a member of the firm of Brooks & Patterson. Mr. Patterson has been mak- ing his own way in the world since the early age of twelve years, and the success he has achieved in the passing time has been the ultimate reward of per- severing industry and constant application.

Agricultural development has for many years played an important part in Mr. Patterson's life. The Patterson home is on his ranch two miles south of Savage, where many permanent improvements have been installed, and save for running water the home is a modern five-room dwelling. A double wall silo of 100 ton capacity has also been built, which Mr. Patterson fills with Russian sunflowers for silage, and he finds this crop to yield double the amount of an equal acreage of corn, while it pro- duces ensilage of equal value. A flowing well at a depth of 190 feet, with a capacity of a gallon a minute of soft water containing soda as a promi- nent ingredient, is one of the important adjuncts of the farm. Mr. Patterson raises principally alfalfa and stock. His stock, which run under the brand

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 6

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