Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 74

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

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

new diggings, William Skillen being among the number.

Everywhere the news of the find spread people left their work and made a rush for the spot, and by the following fall about 2,000 people were scratch- ing and panning for gold over the mountains. The heaviest gold find was at the mouth of Alder Gulch, on the high rim, by Nigger Shelby, and quite a quantity of ore was taken out. The richest gold find in the region was made by William Skillen in Rock Creek, running $17 an ounce and $83 plus for the largest nugget found. The rich nugget which he panned was sold for $199. Pike Lan- dusky discovered quartz gold in Montana Gulch, and Bob Orman discovered gold in the August Mine.

Mr. Skillen remained in the locality until the easy diggings had been worked, and then turned in the direction of something less exciting and more reliable as a reward for his labor, thus coming over to Milk River and joining Tom O'Hanlon. The Thomas O'Hanlon Company store was situated just across the river from the home of Mr. Skillen, and the ruins of this pioneer store are yet standing. Mr. Skillen subsequently removed with the store to Chinook, and continued with the firm there until 1893, when he built a livery barn and embarked in that business. He was the second liveryman in the town, getting into the field when that business was good and continuing it until 1899, when he left Chinook and its affairs and in 1900 moved to his ranch 11/2 miles southwest of the city, where he has since devoted himself to stock raising and hay and grain farming. This tract of land is the homestead which he entered the year he came out of Chinook, and he has developed a ranch of a half section.

Mr. Skillen was born in " Belfast, Ireland, July 9, 1859, and in the following year was brought to the United States by his parents, who established their home in the City of New York. In that me- tropolis the lad grew to mature years, but the edu- cation he acquired came through his own efforts later on and not as .a student in school. His early years were given to labor before he entered the army, and its rewards went into the family treas- ury. The old home which he left when he enrolled as a soldier for the West has never been visited, and he has never been out of Montana save on a short journey since he came into the state.

His father was Andrew Skillen and his mother Maria McGimpsey, and he was the older of their two children and the only one to grow to years of maturity. Andrew Skillen showed his intense patriotism for the United States soon after he reached its shores by joining the army and helping to fight the battles for the preservation of the Union. He served in the army three years, was badly wounded, and suffered ever afterward from the effects of his wounds and his service. His wife died while he was in the army, and he survived until 1908, when he passed away at the age of seventy-two years.

As above noted, William Skillen came to Mon- tana with the army. He was a member of Troop H, Second United States Cavalry, and was sent here from the City of New York as a recruit. He joined the command at Fort Keogh in the spring of 1879, this date marking his entry into the then Territory of Montana. He came up the Missouri River from Bismarck, North Dakota, then the ter- minus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and thence up the Yellowstone to Miles City, then in its in- fancy, when the business centered about the Hub- bell Place, who, with the old Jew Kahn, were the pioneer traders of the locality.

Taking up his duties as a private, Mr. Skillen served at that fort, also at Fort Custer, Fort Ellis and Fort Assinaboine, thence back to Fort Custer, and was discharged there in 1884. He saw field service every year of his connection with the army against the Sioux and other tribes troubling the settlements, but no pitched battles were fought dur- ing the time.

On leaving the army Mr. Skillen went to work with the government Indian allotters who allotted homesteads to the Crow Indians on their reserva- tion, and helped in that work during the summer of 1884. In the following fall he went into the Moccasin Mountains and engaged in logging for the North Moccasin saw mill people, and while there stampeded with others to the Little Rockies and became one of the early miners of that region. .

Mr. Skillen began his political career as a voter in Montana, his first presidential ballot having been cast in 1892, and it went to the republican candi- date Benjamin Harrison. He has served as deputy sheriff at times, under Sheriff O'Neal, Sheriff Tom Clarey and Sheriff Mclaughlin, and at that time Chouteau County extended over this entire region. Mr. Skillen's only fraternal connection is with the Modern Woodmen.

At Chinook, Montana, in the spring of 1896, he was married to Miss Mary E. Kellerman, who was born in Missouri and came to Montana in 1893. She died in October, 1911, the mother of four chil- dren : Mima, who is in training in Butte as a Red Cross nurse, Andrew, Minnie and William, Jr.

JOHN R. PROSSER, To John R. Prosser belongs the distinction of being one of the early pioneers of Montana, a liveryman of Chinook in the early days, and one who has been identified with what is now Blaine County since 1893. The Chinook region at that time was only a cow pasture and occupied by several large ranchers. The region had just been thrown open to settlement, and it had previously formed a part of the Grosventre and Assiniboine reservations. This was also about the beginning of the sheep industry in this locality, but Mr. Prosser chose the vocation of horse raising.

He was born near Penyan, New York, August 26, 1846, and his childhood was spent on a farm there and he was instructed in the country schools. He was a son of David and Margaret (Youngs) Prosser, the mother a daughter of Benjamin and Sallie (Hedges) Youngs. The first American ances- tor of the Prosser family came to the United States from Wales, and was the grandfather of John R. Prosser, the Montana pioneer and business man. He settled at Dresden, New York, and died there in early life. His sons were David, Andrew and Albert, twins, and Lewis. The last tamed was killed in the battle of Chickamauga as a Union soldier during the Civil war. There were no daughters in this family.

David Prosser spent his life chiefly as a farmer. His part in community affairs was a modest one, he affiliated with the democratic party, and was a Master Mason. He died in the year 1904 in Helena, Montana, whither he had come in 1880, and his life's span covered a period of eighty-three years. His widow passed away in Chinook in 1917, when she had attained the age of eighty-nine years. Their children were as follows: Celia, who married Henry Gelder and resides in Chinook; John R., of this re- view; Horace, whose home is in St. Louis, Missouri; Fred A., a farmer near Chinook; and Mart, the youngest of the children, resides in Helena.

John R. Prosser arrived in what was then the Territory of Montana in December, 1878, when he

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came by one of the old stage routes through Utah, having left the Union Pacific Railroad at Ogden, and traveling by stage the few hundred miles be- tween that point and Helena, his destination, when he completed a journey of more than 2,000 miles from Gates County, New York, near Penyan. His stage trip was his first experience with the wild and romantic West, and in the stage with him was I. S. G. Van Wart, with whom he became acquainted, and who was afterward a man of some note about Helena and now a wealthy citizen in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Mr. Prosser came into Montana to settle and to fashion a career which would be a credit to him as a citizen and contribute to his financial standing. His first employment was as a wood chopper at the Penobscot Mine, and at this labor he believes he earned his first dollar in this state. Soon afterward he bought a ranch in the Prickly Pear Valley, and continued as a farmer there for some fifteen years, his hay ranch and his cattle proving quite remunera- tive. On leaving there he came to the Milk River country in old Choteau County and purchased a re- linquishment near Chinook, which he proved up, im- proved and utilized as a hay farm until March, 1920, when he disposed of the property. He contributed very substantial buildings to the land and made the place 'one of the productive farms of the com- munity.

In 1914 Mr. Prosser engaged in the livery and feed business in Chinook, in which he is still en- gaged. He is a member of the City Council, having held that office for four years, and his political affilia- tions are with the democratic party.

In Chinook, Montana, in 1904, Mr. Prosser was married to Miss Lottie White, who was born at Black Rock, near Niagara, New York, but came to Montana from Michigan, where she had grown to years of maturity at Bass River and where she had taught school. She was teaching in Montana at the time of her marriage. Mr. Prosser is a mem- ber of the Blue Lodge and Chapter in Masonry, and also affiliates with the Odd Fellows fraternity.

FRED A. PROSSER is numbered among the early developers and pioneers of the Milk River Valley, and since 1889 his home has been in the vicinity of Chinook. He is a brother of John R. Prosser, who is mentioned on other pages of this history, and both were born in Yates County, New York, Fred A. on the 29th of June, 1853. Both were reared amid farm environments, were educated in the neighborhood rural schools, and Fred A. Pros- ser remained at the parental home until past his majority, beginning then a career as a tenant farmer and continuing as a renter while he remained in the State of New York.

The presence of two brothers in Montana was the prime cause of his becoming interested in the Northwest, and severing the ties of his boyhood, he made the long and tiresome journey into what was then the Territory of Montana and which re- mained a territory during the first nine years of his residence here. Journeying by rail to Ogden, Utah, he went from there to Beaver Canon over the narrow gauge road through Pocatello, Idaho, and from Beaver Canon the little party went by stage coach, walking or riding as the situation demanded, until reaching their destination at Helena, where they arrived on the 29th day of March, 1889.

Mr. Prosser's first work in Montana was with pick and shovel in the construction of the old Ming Opera House, and subsequently he went into the pine woods of Marysville and engaged in cutting cord wood for the mines, while still later he worked

for a couple of months in a placer mine in Lewis and Clark County. Returning then to Helena, he entered the employ of a blacksmith and remained there until the following spring, next worked on his brother's ranch by the month, later was employed as a ranch foreman by the year, and continued as a ranch foreman for two years, at a wage of $599 a year. He and his mother then purchased the same ranch of Black Brothers, known as the old Van Wart Ranch, and he continued in that region until coming to the Milk River country at Chinook.

Establishing himself near Chinook, Mr. Prosser filed on a quarter section of the old Fort Belknap Reservation, the quarter on which he still resides and which he has most substantially improved and successfully cultivated, developing it into one of the best hay and grain farms of the region. His pio- neer cabin was constructed of logs, a single room, and there he and his wife and their three children lived until better quarters could be provided. He brought his cattle and horses with him from the West, and continued in the stock business for sev- eral years.

During its infancy Mr. Prosser joined the move- ment for the irrigation of the valley and became in- terested in the Belknap Ditch Company, which constructed ditches and laterals and did the pioneer work of irrigation here, and he has been a member of the board of directors of the company for many years. The company, however, has since been ab- sorbed by the Milk River Project of the Govern- ment and is being operated under Reclamation Service.

During the years of his residence here Mr. Pros- ser has given of his time to public service. For two and a half years he held the office of county com- missioner, having been first appointed to that posi- tion by Judge Tatten and then elected, and his colleagues on the board were John Acher and James Clarridge. The attention of this board was given chiefly to road work. During a period of more than twenty years Mr. Prosser served as one of the trustees of the Chinook School. In his political affiliations he is a democrat, the principles which his father also upheld, and fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Mr. Prosser was married at Helena, Montana, September 20, 1884, to Miss Josephine Healy, who was born in Rockford, Illinois, and whose parents lived in the country surrounding Elgin and Car- pentersville in that state. Mrs. Prosser came to Montana with the C. J. Broadwater family and set- tled first at Assiniboine and later at Helena with tbem, and it was at the latter place she met Mr. Prosser. Her death occurred on the 16th of June, 1910, at the age of fifty-six years. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Prosser: Carrie M., who died as Mrs. Daniel Wolf in Los Angeles, California, leaving four children, Donald, Margaret, Norman and Mildred; and Albert Ray and Agnes May, twins, are the other children of Mr. and Mrs. Prosser. Albert Ray is farming at the old home. He married Florence Benson, and they have four children, Albert, Lester, Mabel, and an infant daugh- ter. Agnes May married Clyde Warrington and died in 1910, without issue.

ANDREW CHRISTENSEN is the present county assessor of Blaine County and a citizen who has been identified with the Chinook locality since 1904. He came to the state in April of that year from Craw- ford County, Iowa, wither he had gone with his parents when a youth of seventeen years from his native Schleswig.

Mr. Christensen was born near Husum in the old

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Danish province of the German Empire, June 2, 1883, and his surroundings during his boyhood was a village community. His father, Jacob Christen- sen, a farm laborer, was born near Tondern, Prov- ince of Schleswig, and was also the son of a labor- ing man. Jacob Christensen married a Schleswig lady, Catherine Hansen, whose people were of the farmer class and laborers for generations back. Jacob and Catherine Christensen left their native land in 1900, sailing from Hamburg on the steamer Patricia and landed at Hoboken, New Jersey. Con- tinuing their journey to Manning, Iowa, Mr. Christensen was a resident of the Town of Aspin- wall until his death. His widow is now a resident of Blaine County, Montana, she having come to this state in 1915.

To Jacob and Catherine Christensen were born the following children: Henry, whose home is in Dexter, Iowa; Carl, who has never left his native Schleswig, Germany; Peteris, a farmer near Zurich, Montana; Andrew, the subject of this review; Guste, who is now Mrs. Strong and a resident of Denver, Colorado; and Amelia, who married Henry Benson, of Clinton, Iowa.

Andrew Christensen continued in school from the age of five to sixteen years, and his work as a child was herding cows and doing something 'at farm labor. After reaching the United States he became a farmer near Manning, Iowa, and at times was in school learning the English language, doing his last school work at Aspinwall when he had reached the age of twenty years. In the spring of 1904 he came to Montana, and here among strangers he be- gan his career as a ranch hand on the Miller Brothers ranch in the Bear Paw Mountains. His wages were much better than those prevailing in Iowa, an increase for him from $21 to $40 a month, while in the following year he was advanced to $50 a month. On leaving the Miller ranch he began work on the Great Northern Railroad as a train brakeman, but after a year he gave up that work and came to Chinook in 1908. Here he engaged in the real es- tate business, associating himself subsequently in this work with W. I. Hoover.

Mr. Christensen was first elected to the office of county assessor in November, 1913, and remained therein for six years, now serving his third term. He succeeded Arthur Lewis in the office. While handling real estate Mr. Christensen made it a part of his work to advertise this region of the North- west, and made trips East with grain samples and with literature setting forth the value of this region to prospective settlers, thus causing many to locate in this country. He also got into communication with the land man of the railroad company, and through him won some favors which also aided him in bringing settlers this way. While still interested in the development of local resources he encouraged the forming of a home company to lease lands and prospect for oil, and is a stockholder in the Blaine County Oil and Development Company. Mr. Chris- tensen has made six assessments of Blaine County, and has witnessed the gradual advancement of prop- erty values until instead of a five million dollar valuation the valuation is now double that, as per the old method of listing property. Under this new method the total valuation in 1920 is $28,000,000.

In his political affiliations Mr. Christensen is a democrat, having cast his first presidential vote in Montana, when he supported Judge Parker, this hav- ing been before he was legally a citizen of the United States, although he believed in his right to vote owing to the efforts of his father in Iowa to become a naturalized citizen. Andrew Christensen's final papers were given him by Judge Tatten in

1912. In the very next year he was elected to office in Blaine County, a record unusual and difficult to parallel.

Mr. Christensen was married at Great Falls, Mon- tana, May 15, 1913, to Miss Tillie Holm, a daugh- ter of Christ Holm. Mrs. Christensen was born at Pearley, Minnesota, January 31, 1894, and was educated in the public schools of North Dakota. She was the third born in a family of four sons and two daughters. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Christensen, Andrew Curtis, Wood- row Lloyd and Virginia Adaline.

JOHN DAUT. The record of John Daut of Little Powder River reads like fiction and contains ac- counts of struggles against adversity and cupidity, the gaining of several fortunes, and the losing of them through no fault of his own, and the final development of a permanent home amid peaceful surroundings. Mr. Daut was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at No. 528 East Girard Avenue, on June 26, 1865, a son of Henry and Julia (Weaver) Daut, both natives of Bavaria, Germany. Upon lo- cating in the City of Brotherly Love, Henry Daut established himself in a confectionery business, but after moving to New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania, he engaged in farming, and there his son John was reared, and there both he and his wife passed away. Their children were as follows: Frank, who died near New Bloomfield; Henry F., who is in the . American Railway Supply Company at No. 24 Park Place, New York City; Leonard, who is a saddler and farmer of Harrison, Nebraska, owns a ranch along Jim Creek; John, who was the next in order of birth; Anna B., who is the wife of Robert R. Thebes, of New Bloomfield; and Lucy, who married Eugene Powell, lives near the homestead of her parents.

John Daut amassed his first fortune handling sheep and with it began merchandising and conducting a livery stable at Crawford, Nebraska, but owing to reverses he lost his capital and went further west to get a new start. He found employment with Charles Barney at Clearmont, Wyoming, becoming foreman of one of his sheep camps, and when he had once more acquired some money he came to Mon- tana, arriving at Miles City December 28, 1896, and was made foreman and general manager of the ranch owned by R. R. Selway on the Upper Big Pumpkin, holding this responsible position for three years. He then took 5,500 ewes on shares to Bear Creek, Montana, a cattle region, and his advent was attended by exciting events. The cattlemen ob- jected to the entrance of sheep and did so in such a forceable manner that after 2,013 of the sheep had been killed Mr. Daut relinquished his deter- mination to remain, and signed an agreement not to bring sheep into that country during the ensuing fifty years. With the remnant of his flock he came to his present location at the mouth of the Little Powder River, and he has since remained. He ran sheep until October 1, 1910, when an epidemic at- tacked them and Mr. Daut lost thousands of dollars and was forced to close his transactions in that industry. Once more he had to turn his energies into a new channel, and took up farming, acquiring a title to 1,380 acres of land. This he has improved into a valuable property, erecting suitable buildings and developing artesian wells, and now has nearly 200 acres in alfalfa, which crops seem suited to his land and requirements.

While in the sheep business Mr. Daut was a con- spicuous figure in building up the stock interests of the Little Powder River region, not only looking after his own flocks, but assisted as far as lay in his

John Sant?

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

power others interested in developing the industry. He concerned himself with the public affairs of his locality, and has always been a firm friend of the public schools, contributing toward their advance- ment from his purse and his time. He began voting the republican ticket, casting his first presidential vote for Benjamin Harrison after he located in Nebraska, but now is inclined to support the candi- date he deems best suited for the office under con- sideration. While living at Harrison, Sioux County, Nebraska, Mr. Daut was elected assessor of the county, but that is the only public service he has rendered, although as a private individual he was very active at Harrison, and not only erected the livery stable which he used for his business but also a substantial butcher shop.

On November 26, 1891, Mr. Daut was married to Miss Lillian E. Maine, a daughter of Edward P. Maine and his wife, Henrietta B. (Ayres) Maine. Mr. Maine was a farmer in Valley County, Nebraska, where Mrs. Daut was born on October 6, 1871, the elder of the two children of her parents, her brother, LeRoy R. Maine, now being engaged in hopgrowing in Oregon. Mr. and Mrs. Daut have no children.

The patience and perseverance with which he has kept steadily at work in spite of misfortune has won him the confidence of his community, and there are few men in all this region who are held in higher esteem than he.

JAMES A. RASMUSSEN. One of the well known and substantial banking houses of this section of Montana is the First National Bank of Chinook, of which James A. Rasmussen is the cashier. He has been prominently identified with the business life of this community since January, 1919, but his connection with what is now Blaine County began much earlier, for he was but a school boy when in the spring of 1893 his parents established their home in Harlem. His father, Soren C. Rasmussen, brought his family to Montana from Minnesota in 1890.

James A. Rasmussen was born in Ottertail County, Minnesota, April 7, 1881, and the first three years of his life were spent on a farm near Luce in that county. His father settled there as a homesteader about 1879, proved up his claim and developed a farm, and when he disposed of it he came to North Dakota and near Minot secured a preemption and proved up a second farm. Soren C. Rasmussen spent about four years in that region, and while there was elected a member of the Board of County Commissioners for Ward County and was made chairman of the board. Disposing of his interests in that locality, he returned to Minnesota and spent another two years farming, and then made his sec- ond trip into the West, this time crossing the State of North Dakota and landing almost in the middle of Montana, where the active years of his life were afterward spent.

Soren C. Rasmussen is a native of Denmark, spent the early years of his life in that country, and left it for the United States while still young and single, and landed in the City of New York. He came to this country without capital and without a knowl- edge of any trade,, and went to work in the woods of Ottertail County, Minnesota, cutting cord wood. From a common laborer he went to a homestead there, but continued his practice of working out, and occupied himself as a wage earner when he had little to occupy him at home. The sale of his farm brought him a little capital, but it was necessary for him to still economize when he established him- self in North Dakota. However, the dry years which followed in that locality forced him to leave there, and he returned to Minnesota, not much im-

proved in finances. He spent the last two years of his residence in Minnesota as a renter, and he ar- rived in Montana without capital. During the first five years here Mr. Rasmussen was section foreman for the Great Northern Railroad Company, and the section boarding house was one of the chief sources of the family income during that time, and from the two sources he accumulated sufficient capital to buy two carloads of Minnesota cattle, which he brought to Montana and ranged over the hills and valleys around Harlem. He and his wife each took a desert claim, which served as the' beginning of a ranch, and they are still in the family. Mr. Ras- mussen became a rancher and farmer. six miles west of Harlem, and the entire tract is under a system of private irrigation from a coulee, which has proven advantageous over the dry-land method of farming.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 74

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