Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 63

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

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John Grayson, of the firm of Grayson Brothers. was born near Mt. Forest, Ontario, November 26, 1871, and was about ten years of age when his par- ents moved to North Dakota. He spent his early life on the farm near Lankin, acquired a public school education, and began his own career as a farmer. He owned a farm and conducted it for about nine years. He left farming to become a merchant at Lankin, and without previous experience and with limited capital opened a stock of hardware under the firm name of Grayson & Wambden. This business was continued until Mr. Grayson sold out

James W Austin Dr MRS. JAMES W. AUSTIN

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

to his partner, and then with his brother Richard came to Montana in 1910. He first saw Antelope before the first train reached the town. The grade had been built but the steel was not yet laid, and the townsite was nothing but barren landscape. Gray- son Brothers were really the first merchants, and their original store was stocked with a general sup- ply of hardware, machinery and general merchan- dise. They did their banking for a short time in Medicine Lake, and before the establishment of the postoffice their mail was delivered from the stage as it passed through from Culbertson to Plentywood. After eight years a fire destroyed their store, and when they resumed business Grayson Brothers con- fined their stock entirely to machinery.

Since 1915 the Graysons have also been constructive factors in the farm development of this region. They bought land, broke the sod, improved and put up buildings. Their crops have comprised wheat and flax and of five years good harvest rewarded their efforts in all except 1919, which proved disastrous to Montana farmers.

Grayson Brothers were associated with R. R. Ueland and W. W. Clark in building the first ele- vator at Antelope, and were active in its manage- ment for two seasons. They are stockholders in the First National Bank of Antelope, of which John is vice president. John Grayson was honored with election as first mayor of Antelope, and for nine years has served as a member of the school board. The present splendid school building was erected while he was on the board. After reaching his ma- jority, John Grayson cast his first presidential vote for Major Mckinley, and has been steadily identified with the republican party since.

At Grafton, North Dakota, December 6, 1899, Mr. John Grayson married Miss Elizabeth Little, daugh- ter of John and Jane (Brown) Little. Her father was a native of Ireland, spent his early life in Can- ada, and was married near Quebec, and came to the United States at the same time as the William Grayson family, establishing his home in the Golden Valley of Walsh County, North Dakota. He home- steaded there, and spent the rest of his years as a practical farmer. There were five children in the Little family: Hugh, John, William, Mrs. Eliza- beth Grayson and Mrs. Ella Bergerson. Mr. and Mrs. Grayson have a lively household of children, some of whom have finished their schooling. Their names are John Elsworth, William Lawrence, Ella May, Earl, Walter James, Opal Lonella and Roger.

JAMES W. AUSTIN, SR. The ranks of the Mon- tana pioneers who were on the ground at the very institution of organized government in the Terri- tory of Montana are rapidly diminishing, and it must be a matter of interest to all the people of the state to read briefly of the career of one of the survivors, James W. Austin, Sr., whose home is at Cascade and whose life and work have been in that section for half a century.

Many regard the period of the sixties and seven- ties in Montana as an era of romance and venture, though in the opinion of Mr. Austin neither he nor his companions appreciated particularly the romantic side of their lives, since they were too close to the danger, the hard work, the constant hazard and pri- vations to which the pioneers, whether miners, pros- pectors or livestock men, were subjected. On the whole, Mr. Austin has been well satisfied with his long and active career in Montana, and on the material side his efforts have been well rewarded as a farmer and stock raiser of Cascade County. He still owns a handsome and well improved ranch lo-

cated six miles south of the Village of Cascade in Chestnut Valley.

He was born at Palmyra in Wayne County, New York, October 18, 1839, son of Thomas and Julia (Garrison) Austin, his mother also a native of the same state. His father, who was born in England, spent his active life as a butcher and operated mar- kets in various places where he lived. He finally came out to Cascade County, Montana, and died here at the venerable age of ninety-one. The mother of James W. Austin passed away in 1845. Thomas Austin was a member of the Church of England and in politics a democrat, while the mother was a Methodist.

James W. Austin acquired practically all his edu- cation in the public schools of New York. In 1852, when he was thirteen years of age, he accompanied his father to Indiana, and thereafter he had such practical duties as herding stage mules and other lines of employment, and his opportunities to attend school practically ceased.

About 1863 occurred the memorable stampede to the Bannack Mines of the Northwest. Mr. Austin came to Montana in company with peculiarly dis- tinguished men, including Sidney Edgerton and Colonel W. F. Sanders. Sidney Edgerton, as those familiar with the history of Montana Territory know, was the first territorial governor of Montana, . appointed by President Lincoln. One of his asso- ciates was Colonel Sanders, who easily became dis- tinguished as one of the most notable men in the history of both territory and state. During the year 1864 Mr. Austin was at Last Chance Gulch, and while there had his chief experience as a miner. He took up a placer claim of 200 feet in length, and with varied success continued his operations as a miner and prospector until 1870.

In that year he came to the locality of his pres- ent ranch, acquiring a preemption and homestead, each of 160 acres in the Chestnut Valley of Cascade County. In this one locality he has lived for half a century. His own affairs have been prosecuted with success, and in the meantime he has witnessed a wonderful program of change and development go on around him, in all of which he has been more than a passive spectator.

In 1870 Mr. Austin married Miss Emma Jacobs, a native of Utah. She died April 3, 1884, the mother of six children. Of these, Thomas, Ernest and William are now deceased, and the living children are George M., James W., Jr., and Julia. October 19, 1884, Mr. Austin married Miss Buena Vista Warden, a native of Missouri. Her death occurred in February, 1889, and of her children two are living, Joel C. and Grover Cleveland. Mr. Austin married on . August 8, 1890, Miss Margaret Washington, a native of Virginia. To their union have been born four children, Sarah L., Alfred W., Thomas G. and Nettie C. Mr. and Mrs. Austin are active members of the Christian Church at Cascade. In politics Mr. Austin is a democrat, and while his life has been mainly devoted to ranching and his own affairs he has been in a position to know many of the state's leading men and is thoroughly familiar with its political history.

JOHN Q. COATES is one of the substantial men of Meagher County, who, thoroughly understanding the demands of his locality, is profitahly engaged in conducting a mercantile establishment at Mar- tinsdale, drawing his trade from a wide area in the surrounding country. He is a practical business man, knows how and when to buy, and so keeps his .stock fresh and up-to-date and is enabled to sell

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

at prices as low as are consistent with conditions and the market quotations.

The birth of John Q. Coates occurred at Moberly, Randolph County, Missouri, on April 16, 1862, and he is a son of John T. Coates, whose birth occurred in Kentucky in 1830, and his death at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in September, 1919. The father of John Q. Coates' grandmother moved his family to Moberly, Randolph County, Missouri, in 1833, and John T. Coates, only a little child at that time, was reared at the last named place. He was a farmer, and raised, fed and shipped stock on an ex- tensive scale to the Saint Louis, Missouri, market, doing an excellent business until his retirement in IgI0, when he moved to Oklahoma City, and there lived until his death. He was a democrat in politics and in religious faith a follower of the creed of the Christian church.

John T. Coates was married at Moberly, Missouri, to Amanda Smith, who was born in Randolph Coun- ty, Missouri, and died at Moberly in 1868. She and her husband had the following children: T. D., who spent nine years in Montana, returned to Moberly, Missouri, and is now very successfully engaged in farming at the edge of the town; W. W., who is mentioned below; Minnie, who married J. F. Rucker, who has been connected with the Saint Louis internal revenue office of the Govern- ment service for the past twenty-seven years, and they live at Moberly, Missouri; Elizabeth, who mar- ried William Tolle, a real estate operator in Texas until his death in 1910, is a resident of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; H. W., who is in partnership with his brother J. Q .; and John Q., whose name heads this review.

W. W. Coates, brother of John Q. Coates was born at Moberly, Missouri, in 1857, and was there reared until he was eighteen years old, at which time he came to Montana with his elder brother, T. D. Coates, they arriving in the state in 1875 For a time W. W. Coates was at Helena, and did his part in forwarding the pioneer activities. In 1889 he came to Martinsdale and held the contract for carrying the mail and had a livery stable, which, progressing with the times, he later turned into a garage, and conducted it until the summer of 1919, when he disposed of his interests and is now living retired. In 1890 he married Margaret De Con, a native of Iowa, and they have one daughter, Marian, who was born June 22, 1901 .. She was graduated from the Lewistown High School in the fall of 1919.

The grandfather of these brothers was Thomas Coates, and he was born in Kentucky and died in Randolph County, Missouri, în 1867, where he had been a pioneer farmer. His wife bore the maiden name of Durrett, and it was her father, Tarlton Durrett, who induced the Coates family to accom- pany him in his migration into Randolph County, as mentioned above, this event taking place in 1833. At the time the Coates and Durrett families came as far west as Missouri the utmost pioneer condi- tions prevailed, and they passed through all of the hardships incident to life on the frontier, but did so successfully, and representatives of both names are not only to be found in different portions of Mis- souri but in other states much further toward the setting sun, and almost without exception they are numbered among the worth-while citizens of any community in which they have seen fit to locate.

John Q. Coates, of Martinsdale, attended the schools of his native county, the State Normal School at Winchester, Tennessee, which he left in 1881, and William Jewell College at Liberty, Mis- souri, spending a year in the latter institution. In

1882 he secured a position with a dry goods and clothing store at Moberly, and while he remained with it, learned the mercantile business in every branch and became a practical merchant. Desiring to broaden his experiences, he came west to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1891, and was in one of its stores for a few months, and then in June, 1891, went to Helena, and for the subsequent two years worked in one of its mercantile concerns. From 1893 until 1898. he followed the same line at Great Falls, Montana, when he was offered and accepted the position of department manager of the men's clothing department of the Symms Dry Goods Com- pany at Butte, Montana, and discharged its man- ifold duties very acceptably until the spring of 1910, when he was able to realize his ambition to become the owner of his own store. At that time he came to Martinsdale, built his present modern store on Main Street, stocked it, and since then he and his brother H. W. Coates have operated it un- der the firm name of Coates Brothers. This store carries a general line of goods, and the business has been a success from the beginning and is now the leading one of its kind from White Sulphur Springs to Harlowtown, customers coming to them from both Meagher and Wheatland counties. The brothers are recognized as men of strict integrity and no one ever questions their reliability either as merchants or citizens. John Q. Coates owns a comfortable modern residence on Grand Avenue. In politics he is a democrat.

In 1901 he was married to Miss Josephine Wei- shar, a daughter of Louis and Catherine (Miller) Weishar, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. Weishar was a builder and contractor at Edina, Knox County, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Coates have no children.

The career of Mr. Coates and his brother proves that it is not only possible, but not so difficult, for newcomers in a community to get a hold on its busi- ness and develop with it, provided they understand in a practical way what they are undertaking to do, are willing to work hard and give the public a fair deal. These requirements have been met by the Coates brothers from the start, and at the same time they have contributed generously to civic movements, have interested themselves in county matters, al- though in no sense of the word politicians, and have in every way made their influence felt in behalf of law and order, progress and sensible uplift, so that it would be difficult to find in Meagher or sur- rounding counties men who are more firmly estab- lished in public confidence and esteem than these two dependable merchants of Martinsdale.

SAMUEL VERNON STEWART, who has been gov- ernor of Montana since January, 1913, one-fourth of the entire period of Montana's statehood, was born in Monroe County, Ohio, August 2, 1872, son of John W. and Marie A. (Carle) Stewart. He is the second of their four living children. His older brother, W. R. C. Stewart, is a prominent lawyer and former judge of the District Court, living at Bozeman. His younger brother, Captain H. M. Stewart, also a Bozeman attorney, held the rank of captain during the World war and was military aide in the administration of the selective draft in Mon- tana. The only daughter, Miss Sallie M. Stewart, is a graduate of the State Normal School of Emporia, Kansas, and a teacher in the Butte High School.

Governor Stewart at the age of eleven removed with his parents to Coffey County, Kansas, near the town of Waverly. In that district, close to the line of the Indian Territory and Oklahoma, he lived the

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life of the average farm lad, and made all possible use of his opportunities to attend school. Seeking more than the rural schools could give him, he en- tered the Kansas Normal College at Fort Scott, where he spent one year, and for two years was a student in the State Normal School at Emporia. In 1898 he graduated in the law course of Kansas University at Lawrence.

On the 5th of July, 1898, Governor Stewart ar- rived in Montana and began his law practice at Vir- ginia City, and gave his time to his profession until he removed to Helena to take up his duties as gov- ernor.

For twenty years he has been a recognized leader in the democratic party of Montana. In 1904 he was elected county attorney of Madison County, holding that office two terms. He was chosen chair- man of the State Central Committee in 1910, and continued until he entered the campaign that resulted in his election as chief executive. In January, 1913, he was inaugurated governor for a four-year term. At the primaries August 29, 1916, he was nominated for a second term, and on the 7th of November was re-elected by a majority of 9,136.

Governor Stewart has served as a director of several different banking institutions in Montana. He is affiliated with a number of fraternal organ- izations, including all of the Masonic bodies, has filled the state presidency of the Eagles, and is a member of the Elks and Modern Woodmen of America. He is a member of the Montana Club of Helena.

April 27, 1905, he married Miss Stella Dyer Baker, of Booneville, Missouri. They have three daughters, Emily, Marjorie and Leah.

ROBERT MARTINDALE RATHBONE. Some of the most reliable citizens of Havre are those who for years have. been discharging the onerous and re- sponsible duties connected with the position of pas- senger conductor for the Great Northern Railroad. In order to reach such a position a man has to have a practical railroad experience and a certain amount of actual service back of him, and possess qualifica- tions which warrant his being entrusted with re- sponsibilities of grave import, so that naturally he is one to whom good citizenship is a matter of course. Recognizing the value of organized effort, he seeks to bring about concerted action in the conduct of civic affairs, and is a decided addition to any com- munity in which he locates. One of these men who belongs to the class above referred to is Robert Martindale Rathbone, passenger conductor for the Great Northern Railroad and one of its valued em- ployes.

Robert Martindale Rathbone was born at Sparta. Wisconsin, November 13, 1874, a son of Robert B. and Augusta D. (Martindale) Rathbone, the former of whom was born at Rhinebeck, New York, in June, 1825, and died at Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1904; while the latter, born at Ithaca, New York, in 1837. died at Minot, North Dakota, in 1918. They were married at Delavan, Wisconsin, in 1857, and had six children, of whom four sons and one daughter sur- vive, Robert M. Rathbone being the sixth in order of birth.

Robert B. Rathbone was a brick and stone mason, who came west to Sparta, Wisconsin, in 1857, and was just becoming well established when he felt called upon to offer his services to the Government hecause of the outbreak of hostilities between the North and the South, which he did by enlisting in Company I, Twenty-fifth Wisconsin Volunteer In- fantry, in 1861, and serving until the close of the war, participating in all of the skirmishes and battles of

his command, including the memorable "March to the Sea" with General Sherman, and being mustered out as a corporal. Returning to Sparta, he resumed work at his trade and developed into a contractor and builder and remained at Sparta until 1883, when he went to Aberdeen, South Dakota, filing on government land his soldier's claim. There he was engaged in farming until 1891, when he moved to Redwood Falls, Minnesota, and was there engaged in farming and raising Aberdeen and Holstein cattle of full blood strain, his produce becoming well known over a wide territory. In 1896 Mr. Rathbone retired and located at Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he spent his last years. He was a man who devoted himself to his own affairs and did not care for public honors. In 1857 he was made a member of Sparta Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and later became a member of Sparta Chapter, Royal Arch Masons. Subsequently he demitted to Minnehaha Lodge at Minneapolis. In politics he was a democrat.

Robert M. Rathbone was educated in the public schools of Sparta, Wisconsin, and Brown County, South Dakota, and the high school of Aberdeen, South Dakota. In 1893 he left home and engaged with a mercantile company for about a year, leav- ing it to go with the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railroad as a worker in the Minneapolis freight house. He remained there until the spring of 1897, when he went to New Orleans, Louisiana, to en- gage with the Mcclellan Dry Dock Company as timekeeper with the idea of making that city his place of residence, but was driven away in the fall of that same year on account of an epidemic of yel- low fever, and he returned to Minneapolis and his old road, where he was made a locomotive fireman, and held that position until May, 1901, when he came west to Havre. In June of that year he be- came a brakeman for the Great Northern Railroad, and has served it as switchman conductor, train- master and passenger conductor, still continuing to hold the latter position. Mr. Rathbone belongs to the Order of Railroad Conductors ; Havre Lodge No. 55, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Chouteau Chapter No. 19, Royal Arch Masons, of which he is past high priest; DeMolay Commandery No. 15, Knights Templar; and Algeria Temple, Mystic Shrine, of Helena, Montana. He is also a member of Havre Chapter No. 30, Order Eastern Star.

On July 30, 1900, Mr. Rathbone was married to Bessie M. Davis, born in Redwood County, Minne- sota, a daughter of George I. and Ellen Davis, the father born in Michigan and the mother in Maine.

JAMES GRIFFIN. One of the old settlers of Blaine County is James Griffin, who has been a resident of the locality in and about Chinook since 1888, when. in May of that year, he came here, a youth who had not yet attained to his majority. Since that time as he has increased in prosperity he has participated in the development of this region and cannot help hut have a proprietary interest in it. His services to his district as well as his immediate home commu- nity has received recognition and he has repre- sented it. in the State Assembly, and he has held other offices of a public character.

James Griffin was born in Renfrewshire, Scotland, on the River Clyde, November 9, 1868, a son of James Griffin, also a native of Renfrewshire, the home of the historic William Wallace. The mother of the James Griffin of this review was prior to her marriage Elizabeth Christie, a daughter of An- drew Christie, a merchant tailor of Port Glasgow, Scotland, and she bore her husband the following .

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children: James, who was the eldest; John, who is of the Orpheum Theatre of Chinook, Montana; Elizabeth, who is the wife of Frank Thibedeau, of Chinook; and Andrew, who is a resident of Liver- pool, England.

James Griffin, of whom we write, was reared and educated in his native place, and was brought up without any knowledge of physical labor, for he was educated for a profession, but did not follow it, and he has never regretted his action. What he lacked in a practical training he received on the plains of Montana, and the result of his efforts show that he has rendered a pretty good account of himself.

Deciding to leave the old world for the new, Mr. Griffin sailed from the port of Greenock, Scot- land, aboard the "Anchoria" of the Anchor Line, landed at Castle Garden, New York City, with- out incident, and passed through it and went on to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. There he entered the employ of Henry & Company, which firm owned a racing stable at the old Crystal Palace, and he re- mained with it for a year and then returned to the United States in 1887, stopping first at Helena, Mon- tana. For a year he worked in a racing stable in that city, and then came overland with a four-horse wagon loaded with a few farming implements, house- hold effects and a chicken coop, which with a very few dollars comprised his assets. When he reached Yantic, his destination, although his purse was al- most empty, he possessed an extra supply of cour- age, and his first act was the construction of a "dugout" on the homestead on which he "squatted" until he was able to enter it when the land was opened up, and this he proved up. His "dugout" was little better than a hole in the ground and was anything but comfortable, and his nearest neighbor was on the Fort Belknap Reservation three miles away. As a means of obtaining a little ready money he went to work for Main & Moran, merchants at Yantic, and was their clerk for two years, and dur- ing that time did the work required by the govern- ment for proving up his homestead. He plowed the ground and put in his first crop, and threshed his first harvest of oats with a cradle and flail, making the latter from wood secured from a willow tree During his youth he had seen the farmers in Scotland use this primitive method of separating the grain, and as far as he could remember, carried out the same process in his first efforts at farming.

About 1890 the community became interested in irrigation, and T. C. Burns, who had in the mean- while become one of its homesteaders, took the lead in providing a way to get the water on the land through artificial means. After exhausting his own capital he organized the Belknap Ditch Company, the stockholders of which were, many of them, land- owners adjacent to the ditch, and they "worked out" their stock in completing this ditch, Mr. Grif- fin being one of them. For some time he used water from this ditch, and then took an active interest in a pumping proposition, privately owned. He now owns the steam plant which furnishes the water for his farm, and has been operating under it ever since it was installed.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 63

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