Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 70

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 70

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His birth occurred far from the scene of his suc- cessful endeavors, for he first saw the light of day at Williamsfield, Ohio, October 22, 1882, and he is a son of Richard M. Nevins and a grandson of Jo- seph Nevins. But it was his great-grandfather who founded the family in the United States, coming here from the north of Ireland. The family is orig- inally of Scotch-Irish stock, the remote Scotch fore- fathers having settled in Ireland sometime follow- ing the reign of Cromwell.

Richard M. Nevins, the father, was born in Craw- ford County, Pennsylvania, May 18, 1853, and his industrial efforts were given first to shoemaking and afterward to farming. In 1909 he moved his family to Montana, and exercising his right of home- steading and proving up his claim he is still identi- fied with this community as an agriculturist. He married Inez M. Heath, a daughter of William L. and Philetta Heath, who were cousins. The father, who was born in Williamsfield, Ohio, in 1819, spent his entire life there as a farmer. His people came from Massachusetts in an ox cart in 1816, and a chair they brought with them on that journey is now a treasured heirloom in the home of Mrs. Nev- ins. There is also Revolutionary history connected with the Heath family, an ancestor having fought as a Continental soldier from Connecticut in the war for national independence. The union of Rich- ard and Inez Nevins was blessed by the birth of the following children: William L., whose home is in Sidney; Joseph Homer, the Sidney superin- tendent of schools; Gilbert H., a farmer at Dare, North Dakota; Frank R., engaged in the same occu- pation at Three Butes, Montana; and Iva M., who

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is a member of the family with which she has lived since infancy and now a junior in the Sidney High School.

Joseph H. Nevins attended the district schools of his native City of Williamsfield, Ohio, supplement- ing this training in the high school at Andover, and he then taught two years in his home district. . In 1904 he entered Hiram College, from which he grad- uated four years later, and since then has been identified with educational work, coming from An- dover to Montana.

On the 24th of July, 1912, Mr. Nevins was mar- ried to Ella C. Dates. They were married at Mer- rillan, Wisconsin, the native place of the bride, who is a daughter of Charles and Mary (Cure) Dates, both of whom came from New York to Wisconsin. The father was engaged in the hotel and livery business at Merrillan. Mrs. Nevins was born March 8, 1883, and was educated in the high school of her native town. She lost her mother in early life, and being the oldest of her parents' six chil- dren she afterward proved a real mother to her younger brothers and sisters. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Nevins, a daughter, Mildred Inez, who was born on the 12th of December, 1913.

During the World war and when sentiment for the cause of liberty was being stimulated by speeches and arguments everywhere Mr. Nevins was selected as one of the "Four Minute" speakers of the com- munity, and in this and many other ways. he dem- onstrated his active interest in the cause.

ALBERT S. HIER. As a result of the enterprise of Albert S. Hier the Bainville community of Roose- velt County has enjoyed the services of a first class newspaper for twelve years, the Valley Tribune. The Tribune is a real institution, ranking along- side the banks and industries, and again and again has helped to bring the people together and co- operate in movements for the local welfare and advancement.

Mr. Hier learned the printing trade when a boy, and has made journalism his life work. He was born in Brown County, Minnesota, March 26, 1884. His father, William F. Hier, was a native of Water- town, Wisconsin. At Cairo, Illinois, he enlisted in the Union army and saw some active service during the last year of the Civil war. Following that he took up railroading, and a few years later moved into Southern Minnesota as an employe of one of the first railroads penetrating that country. He filed on public lands, became a farmer, and sub- sequently moved to Kandyohi County, where he engaged in the real estate business at Raymond. He died August 30, 1914, at the age of sixty-eight. His wife was Caroline Larsen, who was born at Copenhagen, Denmark, and was brought to the United States when a child. She is still living at Raymond. Her children were: Albert S. and Frank, Arthur, Mrs. Lillian Feig and Anson, who live at Raymond.

Albert S. Hier spent his early boyhood on a farm, but from the age of twelve lived at Raymond, where he attended the local schools. At the age of fifteen he took his first lessons in the office of the Raymond News, where he practically learned the printer's trade. As a journeyman he worked on different papers over the country for about two years before coming West. Most of the time he did job work, and the little capital he invested in his first enter- prise was what he had saved from his earnings. His first office contained a Washington press and a hatful of type.

At the age of twenty-one he homesteaded at Tagus in Western North Dakota, proved up a claim, and

was there about five years. He also owned and conducted the Tagus Mirror. Leaving that locality, he worked on a paper at Williston for a short time and then at the Zahl ranch in the wilderness north of Williston. He began the publication of the Mixer, the first and only attempt to start a newspaper there. The plant is now being used for publishing the Cot- tonwood Lake Mixer. Mr. Hier did little more than establish the Mixer, and then returned to Wil- liston and after a short time came to Montana and located at Bainville.

Here he bought the Valley Tribune, which had been established in 1808 by L. W. Wells, the first issue coming off the press in May of that year. It has always been republican in politics. The Tribune is the pioneer paper and has been alone in the field ever since. It is a six-column quarto issued on Thursday of each week and is devoted to current news of the locality, to the interests of agriculture, to the development of the community and is a house- hold paper. Some of the best job work in Montana has come from the Tribune office, showing the skill and artistic quality of Mr. Hier's work as a printer.

Mr. Hier grew up in a republican home, and cast his first presidential vote for Mr. Taft in 1908 and has exhibited a genuine loyalty to that party ever since. He took his first degrees in Masonry at Mon- dak, and is a past grand of Bainville Lodge of Odd Fellows. During the World war he took special responsibility at Bainville for the success of the Thrift Stamp campaign, and saw to it that the com- munity raised its quota in that direction.

The movement to divide old Valley County and create Sheridan County originated in Bainville, and Mr. Hier not only went about over the country lin- ing up friends for the new county, but ably argued the case in the columns of the Tribune. He also supported the movement for Roosevelt County. Mr. Hier is unmarried.

ANDREW UELAND, who with his family has en- joyed the comforts of a modern town home at Out- look since 1916, is of the class of pioneer home- steaders, homemakers, ranch and farm developers in Northeast Montana. He came here sixteen years ago, and occupied a "squatter's right" until the Gov- ernment completed the survey of lands in this part of the state.

Mr. Ueland is of rugged Norwegian stock and was born in Webster County, Iowa, September 17, 1876. His grandfather Andrew Larson was a native of Norway, an early settler in Vernon County, Wis- consin, and is buried at Viroqua in that state. L. A. Ueland, father of Andrew, was born in Ver- non County, Wisconsin, spent many years as a farmer in North Dakota but since 1911 has lived retired at Roseburg, Oregon. L. A. Ueland mar- ried Anna Hetland, who was born in Norway. Their family consisted of the following children : Andrew; Justice, a pioneer Montana rancher who died in 1918; Annie, wife of Oden Lutness, of Sheri- dan County, Montana; Laura, wife of Ed A. Berst- ler of Streeter, North Dakota; Alice, who lives in Chicago and was a first aid nurse for wounded sol- diers at Camp Sheridan during and after the war; Arthur who has extensive farming interests near Outlook; Emma, teacher of Domestic Science at Roseburg, Oregon; Cora, who is engaged in prophy- lactic work at Bangor, Maine; Grace, who has com- pleted a three-year training course as a nurse and is living at Roseburg, Oregon; Edith, who is a grad- uate and is now taking a post-graduate course in the University of California.

Andrew Ueland was twelve years of age when his parents moved to North Dakota and he grew

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up in Lamore County, that state. He finished his education with a term in the Minnesota State Agri- cultural College and from his early career to the present his chief interest has been in farming.

He had married before leaving Lamore County and he came into Montana from Minot, North Da- kota, his wife driving the prairie schooner, while he trailed his cattle behind. Passing by all the land- marks of civilization he finally rested on the site that he desired to enter. This location was seventy- five miles from Culbertson, the nearest trading point, and twenty-five miles from the postoffice at Plenty- wood. He was there some five or six years before the Government ran the section lines and two years more elapsed before the country was opened to settle- ment. In the meantime he ran his cattle on the open range. The first home of his family was a small frame house of two rooms, and after three years he began adding to it room by room to pro- vide for his growing household. His stock sheds were constructed of posts and forks gathered from the coulees of elm, ash and other native trees. Prai- rie hay was used for roofing of the sheds, and his first home was shingled with sod, later being prop- erly sheeted and shingled with the sod roof left intact.

Mr. Ueland and his few neighbors laid out the first trails. One of them extended southeast twenty- five miles to his nearest neighbor, another leading off from his ranch southwest until it joined the stage road to Culbertson and still another was made west into the breaks where he gathered timber for the con- struction of his sheds. These trails subsequently be- came main highways and were used for a number of years. All this region fifteen or sixteen years ago contained a bountiful supply of game animals and fowls, antelope, ducks and geese, and the frontiers- men obtained much of their food from this source.

Mr. Ueland's homestead was in sections 23 and 26, township 37, range 57. He remained in the locality for some years after acquiring his patents, and de- veloped a section as a ranch and farm. As other settlers came in and peopled the country the range industry was curtailed, and it was necessary to depend more and more upon cultivation to produce stock feed. Ambrose sprang up on the Soo line and be- came the trading point for the Ueland community, though thirty-five miles away.

The story of the Ueland family also throws light ôn early educational advantages. Mr. Ueland's old- est child was eleven years old before she was en- rolled in a school. In the meantime Mrs. Ueland had performed the functions of a teacher, and kept the children up in their studies so that they were qualified to make the grades appropriate to their age. The Ueland school was built about two miles from the home ranch, and Mr. Ueland was a member of the first school board.

Mr. Ueland took an active part in promoting the interests of the proposed Sheridan County. There was no serious objection to dividing the old Valley County for this purpose, though the selection of the county seat aroused the usual community jealousies and controversies. Plentywood was finally awarded the honor of the seat of government of Sheridan, and that brought the county offices within twenty- five miles of the Ueland ranch.

The most rapid development of the country fol- lowed the construction of the Soo Line Railway, new towns springing up all along the line. Mr. Ueland as an old settler gave his means and his personal influence to various enterprises in the towns of Westby, Dooley and Outlook. He was a director and vice president of the Farmers State Bank at Westby, was a stockholder and director of the Citizens State Bank at Dooley, and became identified with the or-

ganization of the State Bank of Outlook and is still president of that institution.

Mr. Ueland was a young married man when he came to Montana. September 29, 1900, Miss Delia Croswell became his wife. Her parents were Leon- ard G. and Delia (Rosencrans) Croswell, both na- tives of New York State. Her father was born May 20, 1836, was married near Rochester, and the Croswells were early settlers in Wisconsin, liv- ing on a farm in Columbia County that state until 1886, when they removed to North Dakota. Leonard Croswell spent his last years as a farmer in Lamore County and died in 1914. His wife passed away in 1890. The Croswell children were: Irene, who was married to David McLeod and died at Belfield, North Dakota; Emily, wife of Clay Kuntz of Lamore County; Mrs. Ueland, who was born in Columbia County, Wisconsin, July 10, 1874; Lois, wife of H. C. Croswell of Stratton, Ontario; and Sibyl, wife of Albert Oyhus of Medora, North Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Ueland have three children, all attending pub- lic school at Outlook, named Elsie, Florence and Ralph.

The Ueland family removed from their ranch to Outlook in 1916, where Mr. Ueland built a modern home with ten rooms and full basement and has all the modern facilities including steam heat. During the war the Ueland home was busily engaged in vari- ous war activities, the women knitting socks and sweaters for the soldiers, and financially they par- ticipated in the purchase of bonds and contributed to Red Cross and other funds.

Mr. Ueland's father was a republican until recent years but Andrew Ueland cast his first presidential vote for Mr. Bryan and has continued to be identi- fied with the democratic party.

As one of the older settlers Mr. Ueland's efforts and experiments serve as an indication of the pos- sibilities of both agriculture and fruit growing in this part of Montana. One of his early efforts was to adorn his ranch home with trees. His first efforts were in gathering native cottonwoods from a nearby lake front and transplanting them close to his resi- dence; they grew and became a veritable forest of shade trees. He also set out fruit trees, his best suc- cess being with plums. The shrub fruits such as gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries, june berries and currants all proved well adapted to the soil and climate, and there were few years when Mrs. Ueland did not fill the cellar with an ample supply of canned fruit for the winter needs.

Mr. Ueland was accompanied to Montana by his brother, Justice Ueland, and they were associated together in the stock business for a number of years. Justice took up land near Andrew and they were neighbors and successful farmers until the death of the brother in 1918. He developed a splendid farm and home, and after his death this estate was sold to the Decker brothers of Dooley who have main- tained it as a profitable grain ranch and farm.

S. LAWRENCE KLEVE is a busy banker of Wolf Point, and that is the line of work in which he has been engaged ever since coming to Montana four years ago. He is a banker of wide training and experience, and is also known as an exceedingly public-spirited resident of his home town.

Mr. Kleve was born in Kandyohi County, Minne- sota, March 25, 1885. His father, Lars Kleve, was born in the District of Hardanger, Norway, July 2, 1848, was a country boy and grew up and acquired his education in Norway. When about twenty-seven years of age he came to the United States, and worked as a track layer on the Great Northern while it was being built, also got out logs in the pineries of the North, and did something at his trade as a

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carpenter. Buying a farm near Willmar, Minnesota, he finally settled down to its cultivation and im- provement, and for many years was actively identi- fied with grain and stock raising. He retired in 1914, and spent his last days at Willmar, where he died in July, 1919. He was a plain citizen of the people, voted as a republican after becoming an American citizen, and was a Lutheran. He married Gertrude Fixen, from the same district in Norway as he, and she is now living at Willmar, Minnesota. Her children are: Thea, wife of P. G. Thorpe, of Spy Hill, Saskatchewan; Edward T., of Willmar ; S. Lawrence; Elick O., of McClusky, North Dakota ; Julia, wife of Rex Oliver, of McClusky; Nellie and Leonard, of Willmar.

S. Lawrence Kleve spent his boyhood days on a farm and lived in the country to the age of seven- teen. In the meantime he had attended rural schools and a high school, and for a year was a student in Willmar College, Minnesota, and Humboldt Col- lege, Iowa. At the age of eighteen he went to work with the First National Bank at Twin Valley, Minnesota, a year later went with the Hope State Bank of Hope, North Dakota, and for three years was teller of the Second National Bank of Minot. He was next chosen assistant cashier of the German- American State Bank at Balfour, North Dakota, and on April 1, 1910, left that institution to become cashier of the Flasher State Bank at Flasher. For a year and a half before coming to Montana he was connected with banking interests at Kenmare, North Dakota.

Arriving in Wolf Point October 6, 1916, Mr. Kleve entered the service of the Farmers Bank as cashier. This bank surrendered its state charter and became the First National Bank in 1917, with Mr. Kleve as its first cashier. In September of the same year he became active vice president. The present First National Bank is a result of a subse- quent consolidation with the Citizens National, and Mr. Kleve remains as vice president of the larger institution.

The activities of the Wolf Point district in financ- ing the Government during the war were a part of the daily program of Mr. Kleve, and he responded to the demands of the occasion from whatever source. His service to Wolf Point both privately and officially has commended him, and won the con- fidence of the community. He is now serving his first term as a member of the Wolf Point Council. He has been a republican since casting his first presidential vote for Mr. Taft in 1908. Mr. Kleve is a Master Mason, and is affiliated with the Royal Arch Chapter at Bowbells, North Dakota. He and his wife are Presbyterians. They have given Wolf Point one of its modern homes, a seven-room bungalow.

At Balfour, North Dakota, July 19, 1909, Mr. Kleve married Miss Elizabeth Parmenter. She was born in that state January 14, 1885, and after grad- uating from high school and the Cedar Falls Nor- mal School of Iowa became a teacher, being con- nected with the schools of Panoma, Iowa, and at Balfour, North Dakota. She was the youngest of three daughters and two sons born to Almon W. and Elizabeth (Sea) Parmenter. Mr. and Mrs. Kleve have two sons, Almon Lawrence and Horace Edward.

SHERMAN T. COGSWELL has been identified with the Wolf Point locality of Montana for over a third of a century. He was a teacher and merchant through the period when the community had its chief distinction as an Indian agency, and for the past seven years no one has devoted himself more

liberally both with time and means to the modern growth and prosperity of Wolf Point than he.

Practically his entire life has been spent in two states, Michigan and Montana. He was born near Adrian, Michigan, January 24, 1865. His father, Richmond S. Cogswell, a native of New York State, moved out to Lenawee County, Michigan, about 1851, and lived on a farm in that county until 1875. He then moved to Tennessee, establishing a home at Danville. His first wife was Lydia Stretch, who was born in Genesee County, New York, a daugh- ter of John Stretch. The Cogswells were also from Genesee County, New York. Lydia Stretch Cogs- well died about 1882, at the age of forty-eight, while visiting in Michigan from her home in Tennessee. She was the mother of four children. Ida, the old- est, became the wife of Dr. Dayton Parker, and for several years when a boy, her brother Sherman lived in her home and attended school. She died in Petosky and is buried beside her mother in Bliss- field, Michigan. The second of the children is Mrs. Hugh Campbell, of Adrian, Michigan; Miss Alma Cogswell has for many years made her home with her brother at Wolf Point; Sherman T. is the young- est. Richmond S. Cogswell after the death of his first wife, married in Tennessee, Minerva Thurston. In 1893 they moved out to Kansas and settled at Wallula, between Leavenworth and Kansas City, where Mr. Cogswell died at the age of eighty-three. His widow survived him only a few years, and both are buried near that little Kansas village.

Sherman T. Cogswell lived on the farm near Adrian to the age of ten years, and when his parents went South he made his home with his sister at Blissfield. The education he received there was all the formal schooling he ever got. He was about twenty years of age when he accepted an invitation from Maj. Burton Parker, then Indian agent at Pop- lar, Montana, to come West and take charge of a little school among the Indians at Wolf Point. It was in October, 1885, that he completed his journey and began what has proved a permanent residence at this place. T. C. Powers and W. B. Shaw, the old Indian traders, both had stores at Wolf Point. Mr. Cogswell witnessed the last stages of the tribal relations of the Assinniboines, and has been a wit- ness and factor in all the developments of this region for thirty-five years.

He reached Wolf Point by way of Poplar after 21/2 days of travel from Glendive to Poplar by Gov- ernment team and wagon. His little party stopped the first night at the Lovejoy ranch and the second night at Ed Moran's ranch on Red Water, and at Day's ranch they parted with Milt Henderson, Day's foreman, and the first cowboy young Cogswell had ever seen. Henderson was a character and a like- able fellow and subsequently engaged in the saloon business at Great Falls when that was a mere vil- lage. Aside from Lovejoy, Moran and Day there was not another evidence of white settlement be- tween Glendive and Poplar, except perhaps the Lind- say sheep outfit at Glendive. This journey, being Mr. Cogswell's introduction to Eastern Montana, was accomplished without special incident, though it gave him his first glimpses of the wild life of the Northwest. The party saw numerous deer, ante- lope and coyotes.

Mr. Cogswell succeeded Mr. Massey in charge of the Indian day school at Wolf Point. The school was then held in the end of one of the log stables belonging to the agency. About a year previously the schools had been taken over by the Government from the Presbyterian Missionary Board. Attend- ance at school was purely a voluntary matter on the part of the children. However, about thirty-five

Sherman J. Cogswell

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of them presented themselves every morning to the new teacher, though their chief incentive was the free dinner served by the Government from the commissary. This dinner was prepared by a detail of the larger girls from the school. It was a period of hard times for the tribe, and they took advan- tage of every opportunity to keep soul and body together. Mr. Cogswell remained at his post as a teacher less than a year, and on leaving the "stable" school went to the store of T. C. Power as a clerk.

He therefore began his experience as a merchant at Wolf Point in 1886. Mr. Power soon sold his business to Mr. Shaw, and Mr. Cogswell remained with the latter, under the name of H. M. Cozier & Company, and was with the Poplar branch of the concern during the winter of 1886-87. In the latter year he returned to Wolf Point, and in February, 1891, bought out the business, and his title and re- sponsibilities as agency merchant has been with him ever since. In 1886 Mr. Cogswell was appointed postmaster of Wolf Point by Postmaster General Vilas, and he served continuously in that office un- til he retired in 1915.

Mr. Cogswell was in this region early enough to know some of the historic chiefs of the Sioux and Assinniboines. He has some interesting reminis- cences of old Redstone, whose favorite wife, Redfish, still survives here. Redstone was a strong man, the big man of his tribe, was rather a serious minded chieftain, and though totally unlettered and without the use of a word of English he fell in with the plans of the Government to educate his people, en- couraged agricultural industry, and while he was always garbed in the native costume, he seemed pleased with the tribal change to civilized clothing for both men and women. It is believed that he was born on White River in Minnesota, and he was selected chief of his tribe because of his bravery. He was a popular leader, and at his death in 1897 he left numerous posterity by his several wives. He was afflicted with total blindness the last six years of his life, and died at the age of about eighty.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 70

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