Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 75

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 75

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After achieving a liberal amount of success on the ranch near Harlem, Soren .C. Rasmussen disposed of his stock and engaged in the hotel business in Denbigh, North Dakota, which he conducted for four years with good results and then returned to Mon- tana, established his home in Harlem and continued as a retail liquor dealer until the national prohibi- tion amendment went into effect. During those years he was one of the organizers of the mill and elevator and the electric plant at Harlem, was also a mer- chant in association with his son-in-law, G. Mac Wedge, and still continues as a stockholder in the electric light plant and the mill and elevator, and his ranch has been increased to 720 acres. In 1919 he removed to Long Beach, California, where he is a property holder and engaged in the real estate business.

Soren C. Rasmussen has always affiliated with the republican party, and he is a member of the Odd Fellows fraternity. He was married to Katie Moore, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, a month after the landing of her parents from County Cork, Ireland. Her father was James Moore and her mother was an Englishwoman by birth but of Irish parentage. Mrs. Rasmussen was born in February, 1855, and was married before she was fifteen years old. They became the parents of the following chil- dren: James A., the Chinook banker; John D., a successful rancher at Harlem, Montana; Ida, the wife of G. M. Wedge, of Long Beach, California: and Oscar, who is also at Long Beach.

James A. Rasmussen attended both the public schools of Burlington, North Dakota, and in Minne- sota, was later for three years a student in the Glasgow, Montana, schools, and completed his school work with a course in telegraphy in the Great Falls Commercial College. After spending a summer at home on the ranch he began his railroad work at Kulm, North Dakota, where he finished his telegraphy training and learned station work under his uncle. He then became station agente at Ran-

som, North Dakota, worked at many points on the Soo System between Minneapolis and Portal, also during that period served the Great Northern as station agent, and in the spring of 1907 took charge of a lodging house and also served the station there as agent. He went next to the Fort Belknap Reser- vation and took charge of the Fort Belknap Trading Company's store for a year, returned then to rail- road work at Harlem, and was agent there until July 16, 19II, when he went into the First National Bank at Harlem as assistant cashier, and on the 15th of January, 1919, came to the First National Bank of Chinook as cashier.

During his residence in Harlem Mr. Rasmussen served as a member of its Board of Aldermen, and also served as trustee of his school district. He

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joined the Masonic order in November, 1909, and has taken the junior degrees of that order.

He was married at Minot, North Dakota, Sep- tember 28, 1903, to Miss Helen Warchow, of Stan- ley, North Dakota, where Mr. Rasmussen was then serving as station agent. She was born near Britt, Iowa, July II, 1882, and was given a public school education. She is one of a family of five sons and five daughters, and her mother was Mrs. Julia Warchow. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Rasmussen, Alvin, Vera, Kenneth and Viva.

JOHN F. BUTLER. On the 9th of May, 1881, there arrived in Montana a young man seeking employ- ment. He had been born and reared upon a Minne- sota farm, and although his training from early youth had been received in a rural community he had been given a somewhat liberal education, mas- tering the common branches of learning and then receiving instruction in a business college. The youth who thus made such an unostentatious advent into Glendive has since developed into one of the community's most progressive citizens, substantial business men and civic upbuilders, John F. Butler, the postmaster of Glendive.

Mr. Butler arrived in Montana without anything definite in view in the way of employment, but look- ing about he found work with a relative, N. W. Comfort, who was supplying the Northern Pacific Construction Company with beef. It was the duty of the young employe to butcher and deliver the beef, and to collect and account for the money. This work continued during the summer and fall, after which he began hauling buffalo hides from the range for any hunters who had them to sell, and while thus employed he had the good fortune to meet and become acquainted with some of the well known buffalo hunters of the early days, including Oscar Brackett, Doc Zahl, Vic Smith and Charley Rock. Mr. Butler picked up the hides where the hunters' camps were established, brought them to Glendive and delivered them to Comfort & Kinzie, who were shippers at this point.

In February, 1882, Mr. Butler withdrew from that work, sold his teams and built an ice house at Glendive, being the pioneer in the business of stor- ing commercial ice here, but in the following April he also disposed of that industry and turned his attention to the dairy business, but after a few months he disposed of that interest to engage in ranching five miles west of Glendive. All a stock- man had to do in that early day of Montana's history to engage in the cattle business was to settle upon a tract of land which he deemed favorable for his undertaking, erect such meager improvements as were required for personal shelter and stock pro- tection, and select a mark or brand for his cattle. Mr. Butler selected as his brand "44," and he spent about fifteen years in the cattle business. His stock were the common range cattle of that period. His experience as a cattleman carried him through the disastrous winter of 1886-7, for he had some feed in reserve and came out with a trifling loss whereas other cattlemen lost almost their entire herds.

Mr. Butler gave up ranching in 1897 and moved into Glendive, where for a year or so he engaged in teaming. He then started a water wagon in the town and subsequently established a dairy, the two industries absorhing his time for several years, he having continued the water business for seven years and his dairy for nine, and he left the latter industry to become a member of the police force of Glendive, being one of a trio of peace officers of the town. This official service of perhaps seven years covered

an area of peace and order save for the minor hold- ups and other small disturbances which occurred as a result of the shifting element which flowed into this town following the building of the Sidney branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad.

Mr. Butler retired from the police department to assume his duties as the postmaster of Glendive. He has always taken an active interest in local politics, upholding democratic principles, and has per- formed service as a delegate to county conventions and as a committeeman in his county. He was selected from three competitors for the office of post- master. His commission for the office was dated February 16, 1916, and he assumed charge of the office on the 16th of March following, following his successor, J. C. Sorensen. During his tenure of office the receipts have increased 100 per cent, and notwithstanding this immense increase and the con- sequent additional work Mr. Butler and his one assistant performed most of the work attendant upon the office during the country's participation in the World war, other efficient help not being available. At the present time the office force, now comprising six clerks, is 50 per cent larger than when he as- sumed the duties of the office, representing an in- crease of one city carrier and one additional star route. It has also been made a central accounting place, sixty-five district offices reporting their ac- counts to the Glendive postoffice.

Mr. Butler has given the best years of his life to Montana and her interests, but he is a native son of Minnesota, where he was born in Rice County September 23, 1859, and his early boyhood days were spent in both Rice and Steele counties of that state. His father, James Butler, had come from the State of New York, near Ithaca, but he was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, and was a young man when he came to the United States. In this country he was married to Miss Kate McDonald, who was born in the City of New York, and while they spent the most active years of their lives in Minnesota, they came in 1883 to Montana and lived out the re- mainder of their lives in Glendive.

James Butler was always a farmer, and on ac- count of a crippled limb he was unable to serve his adopted country in the Civil war. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Butler comprised the following: Mrs. Mary McBratney, of Mandan, North Dakota; Eliza- beth, who married N. W. Comfort, and both died at White Earth, North Dakota; John F., the Glen- dive postmaster; Addie, who married John O'Brien, of Savage; Edward, of Burns, Montana; Charles, who died in Alberta, Canada; Thomas, whose ad- dress is unknown; Mrs. Clara Frizzle, of Glendive; James, a resident of Sidney, Montana; and Kate, who is the wife of John Denney, of Dawson County, Montana.

John F. Butler married in Pittsville, Wisconsin, November 30, 1884, Miss Theresa Kehoe, a daugh- ter of Gerald and Mary (Kelley) Kehoe. The father was born in Ireland and came to the United States some time during the '40s, and his vocation was that of a farmer. Late in life he moved to Mis- souri, and his death occurred in Knox County of that state, and Mrs. Kehoe died in Wisconsin. Their family of children numbered three sons and seven daughters, and the entire family have passed away, the death of Mrs. Butler occurring on the 12th of March, 1912. She had become the mother of a large family of children, as follows: Marcella, who has charge of a hospital in Portland, Oregon; Ther- esa, widow of Eb Powers and a resident of Glendive; Albert, of Bismarck, North Dakota, married Bertha Todd and has two children: William, whose home is in Glendive; and Arthur, of Tacoma, Washing-

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ton. Arthur Butler volunteered for service in the World war in 1917, was sent overseas, and per- formed military duty in England, Ireland and France, and also in Germany, where he was with the Army of Occupation. He went into the army as a pri- vate, but left the ranks at the close of the war as second lieutenant of his company, receiving his dis- charge in September, 1919.

In Glendive, Montana, in July, 1916, John F. But- ler married Mrs. Elizabeth Ford, who came from her native State of Minnesota to Montana in 1912. Mr. Butler also performed his full share of war work during the recent conflict, not only personally but he also added his office force to the war drives for Red Cross, Young Men's Christian Association and other auxiliary work, and entered actively into the field work outside of Glendive. He was a mem- ber of the Council of National Defense, and helped create the marked enthusiasm for war benefits in this locality. He has also performed his full share in the work incident to the growth and upbuilding of Glendive, and has added two residences to its num- ber of dwelling places.

FRANK G. ARNETTE will soon be able to measure his residence in Montana by four decades. He came into the old territory as a range and ranch worker. As an employe and partner he was associated with some of the prominent livestock outfits of the state. He is a pioneer of the Culbertson locality, has operated in that section of Eastern Montana for twenty years or more, and has performed a notable part in developing the agricultural resources and showing the possibilities of crop growing in this region.

Mr. Arnette, who is also president of the Citi- zens State Bank of Culbertson, was born in Henry County, Illinois, August 8, 1865. His people in the earlier generations came from Alsace, France. His grandfather Arnette was a typical Frenchman, small of stature, wiry, and was a pioneer farmer of central Illinois. George Arnette, father of the Cul- bertson banker, was born in Warren County, Penn- sylvania, on June 6, 1833. He came to manhood in Illinois, had only the advantages of a pioneer school, and as a young man he helped haul his father's wheat over 169 miles of rough road from the farm to Chicago. He spent his active life as a farmer and died February 22, 1913. He married Margaret Sieben, a native of Loraine, France, who survived him four years. Their children were: Harriet, who married William Hudnal and died at Helena, Mon- tana; Julia, who died at Laverne, Minnesota, wife of W. A. Rowe; Frank G .; Mrs. P. W. Kempster, of Prophetstown, Illinois; Perry, of Luverne, Minne- sota ; and Dr. F. H. Arnette, of Whittier, California.

Frank G. Arnette spent his early life in a country district of Illinois, acquired his education in a dis- trict school around Sharon and was only a boy when he came to the Northwest and took a man's part in the cattle country.

He was not yet sixteen when he arrived at Fort Benton, May 18, 1881. He had come out to the country alone and joined his uncle, Henry Sieben, one of the prominent Montana ranchers. He went to work on the Sieben ranch at Ulydia, now Cas- cade, and the following year accompanied some of the Sieben cattle to the Flat Willow country. That fall he returned home to Illinois, attended school dur- ing the next winter, and then in the spring was back in Montana and resumed his employment with his uncle at Flat Willow. He had charge of the Sieben outfit there until the fall of 1888.

At that time Mr. Arnette decided to make some independent ventures. He did some speculation in

livestock, shipping in horses and selling them. He had some other enterprises, including mining, but that proved disastrous to his financial resources. After six years, having lost his capital, in the spring of 1894 he went to Malta and entered the employ of Conrad Kohrs and associates, who were then removing their cattle to the Sweet Grass hills. He had charge of their outfit until the spring of 1897, when he was made the Oregon and Idaho buyer for the company. That year and the following he bought and shipped cattle into Montana.

In the meantime he had bought some cattle of his own and sent them into the Culbertson locality to run with the stock of Henry Sieben and P. O. Brewster. That was his first business connection with Eastern Montana. Leaving the Kohrs outfit in 1898, Mr. Arnette came to Culbertson to take charge of the Sieben and Brewster outfit, and continued with them as foreman until Mr. Brewster retired from business in Montana. A copartnership was then formed of Beach, Sieben and Arnette, and they were the founders of the noted Diamond Ranch. The firm owned some 1,600 acres of deeded land along the north bank of the Missouri and also had ten sections of state land under lease. The Diamond Ranch was a cattle proposition, its chief brand be- ing the "bar diamond" on the left ribs. The Dia- mond Ranch was one of the larger enterprises in the cattle country until the settlers began crowding the stockmen from the range. For a number of years cattle from the Diamond Ranch were shipped to the Chicago market, and Mr. Arnette has some interesting memories of prices. At one time he says the firm shipped 750 head of four-year-old black Poll Angus steers, averaging 1,399 pounds, without a blemish or mark, and the best price at the top of the market was only $3.75 a hundred. Considering the war prices for beef, such a sale seems almost beyond belief.

Even before he abandoned his prominent connec- tions with the livestock industry Mr. Arnette had made some serious efforts toward farming. While the cattle were still grazing on the ranch he broke up some of the sod, sowing grain for hay as winter feed. His first experiences proved a grateful sur- prise. His oats crop could not be harvested green enough for hay because of wet weather, and the grain had matured before it was cut. As there was too much waste in feeding from the stack, it was decided to thresh the grain, and the yield was approximately seventy-five bushels to the acre. With that evidence before their eyes the owners concluded that the country was much better adapted for farm- ing than they had supposed, and this remarkable oat yield was one of the reasons that turned Mr. Arnette to agriculture.

Since becoming a farmer Mr. Arnette has had seven crop years, and has had some harvest every season, though hail has been very destructive. No complete failure has been experienced, and even in 1919 his poorest wheat yielded five bushels and his best seven and a half. In 1919 this region proved fine for corn, and the Arnette crop, though small in area, matured and yielded almost as in a genuine corn country. The Arnette farming operations com- prise about 1,000 acres. Mr. Arnette was the pioneer in this end of the state in sowing alfalfa, and in spite of the phenomenal drought in 1919 he secured three cuttings from his crop.

Mr. Arnette saw the Village of Culbertson when all its houses except one store were of logs, and has had some influential part in the developments that have occurred since. He was one of the or- ganizers of the Brooks Mercantile Company. When he sold out his interests there he joined other men

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of Culbertson and bought the Citizens State Bank, of which he has since been president. He also established a 1,200-acre ranch in Richland County tributary to Culbertson, and is using that as a mixed stock ranch and farm. On this he has con- structed a system of irrigation which waters about 500 acres.

Mr. Arnette cast his first vote in Montana as a republican. He was elected from Valley County and served as a member of the Eleventh General Assembly in the democratic house under Speaker McDowell. He was a member of the livestock, state lands and agricultural committees, and tried to get through some legislation providing for seed liens and threshermen liens. Since then he has had the satisfaction of seeing such bills become laws.

During the war he served as a member of the Sheridan County Council of Defense, was county committeeman on several of the bond drives, was chairman of Sheridan County in the Salvation Army fund drive. It should also be noted that the Citi- zens State Bank took more Government securities during the war than any other bank in that section of Montana.

Mr. Arnette is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, being affiliated with Helena Consistory No. 3 and Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of Trowel Lodge No. 67 at Culbertson.

The Arnette home is one of the fine bungalows of Culbertson and was built by Mr. Arnette in 1908. He married in the State of Washington, June 6, 1900, Miss Elma J. Brockman. Mrs. Arnette was born in Kansas and her father was a native of Missouri. Her mother's maiden name was Mary Ruhl and she was a native of Ohio. Mrs. Arnette was reared in Washington, is a graduate of the Western Dental College of Kansas City, Missouri, in the class of 1899, carrying off the honors for operative dentistry. She practiced her profession in Spokane and met her husband while on a profes- sional trip as 'the pioneer dentist at Culbertson. Doctor Arnette was the first resident dentist in east- ern Valley County, and one of the class that at- tended the first meeting of the Montana State Den- tal Examiners. She has been prominent in social life in Culbertson and is a past matron of Wild Rose Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. During the war she served as recruiting agent for army nurses, was a member of the committees on the Red Cross, Bond, and Salvation Army drives, and later served as county chairman of the Home Nursing Activities of the American Red Cross.

Mr. and Mrs. Arnette believe in the slogan "See America First," having traveled extensively in thirty- three states and in Canada and Mexico. They have two daughters, Rowene and Wilma, born August 8, 1907, and April 13, 1910, respectively.

GEORGE K. DICK, who came to Montana in 1889, just before the territory merged into the state, has had a business experience of wide variety, in earlier years was a cowboy, is a former railroad man, and also served some of the large mining corporations around Anaconda. In later years his chief business has been banking, and he is now cashier of the State Bank of Culbertson.

Mr. Dick was born in Cambria County, Pennsyl- vania, February 5, 1872. His grandfather was a native of Ireland and came to the United States in 1797, establishing himself in Pennsylvania, where he built up a splendid industry as a tanner, the business being started by his father. He was also a farmer. His last years were spent in Indiana County, Penn- sylvania. He married Miss Brandon. Two of their sons served in the Union army, Stewart Dick, who

died in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and Thomas W. Dick.

Thomas W. Dick, father of the Montana banker, was born in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and en- listed in 1862 as a private in Company H of the Twelfth Pennsylvania Reserves. He was promoted to a sergeancy before the end of the war. In the Army of the Potomac he was a participant in nu- merous engagements, including the battles of An- tietam, Fredericksburg and the Wilderness, and dur- ing all his service was only once wounded, a slight injury to the shoulder. He has always cherished in his memory the fact that he was present on the Gettysburg battlefield when President Lincoln made his famous speech.

Thomas W. Dick prepared himself for the law, and has spent a long and honorable career in the profession. He is now past eighty-six years of age, but still attends his office regularly and takes a great deal of pride in being on duty. He has always given his political influence to the republican party and had personal friendships among many of the noted leaders in the Keystone State, including Mat- thew S. Quay. For many years he served as an elder in the Presbyterian Church.

Thomas W. Dick married Lucy E. Kern, a daugh- ter of George W. Kern. Her maternal grandfather was a soldier under General Washington and was one of those who suffered the horrors of winter in Valley Forge. Thomas W. Dick and wife had the following children: John B., who died as a result of an accident in 1908 in Cambria County ; George Kern, of Culbertson; Madge, wife of John I. Bowman, of Indiana County, Pennsylvania ; James S., of Ebensburg, Pennsylvania; Carl W., who died at Ebensburg in 1918; and Bessie, who died at Ebensburg in 1901.

George Kern Dick spent the first fourteen years of his life in Cambria County, and while there attended grammar and high schools. He then tried the fortunes of the world on his own account, and journeying out to Nebraska alone, he spent about a year and a half as a cowboy on the range in the summer and hotel boy in winter at Kearney and Ogalalla. He then returned home and spent a win- ter before coming to Montana in 1889, at which time he was seventeen years of age.

Arriving here he found himself among strangers. though he had a recommendation to a party at Glendive. Through this party he located his first work in the state. He was at that time without much business experience and found employment as clerk in the Northern Pacific freight office at Glendive. That was only temporary, and his next employment was on the cattle ranch of the H. S. Cattle Company of Red Water. Following that he alternated, riding the range and punching cows in summer and fall, and working for the Northern Pacific at Glendive. He so continued until January. 1891, when he became a clerk in the railway mail service from Miles City to Helena. In December, 1893, he went further west to Anaconda, became a concentrator man with the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, and then was employed in the office of the corporation. After two years he went into the freight office of the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Rail- way Company at Anaconda, and for five years he was in the service of that company, being chief clerk of the freight office when he retired. Rejoining the Northern Pacific, he became rate clerk in the freight office at Missoula, and several months later returned to the Anaconda Copper Mining Company in the purchasing department, and after three years was transferred to its lumber department, witlı headquarters at Hamilton.

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That post he left in September, 1906, and since then his business has chiefly been in banking lines. He became assistant cashier of the Ravalli County Bank, and for nine years was with that institution, leaving it as cashier. In November, 1915, Mr. Dick came into Eastern Montana and accepted the post of cashier of the State Bank of Culbertson.

The State Bank of Culbertson was founded in IgII as a private bank by the Slette interests, later was the First National Bank, and finally rechartered as the State Bank. It has $25,000 capital, surplus and undivided profits of about $9,000 at the close of 1919, and average deposits of $200,000. Mr. Dick served as local chairman for the Fourth and Fifth Liberty Loan drives at Culbertson, and for the work he did at that time was presented with a medal by the Government. He was one of the men most actively concerned in the promotion of the new Evans Hotel, the leading hotel of Culbertson and the pride of the town and region. He is vice president and a director of the hotel company.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 75

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