Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 8

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 8

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John Thomas Neese grew up as a farmer lad, re-

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ceiving in the meantime a limited amount of edu- cational training, and almost the first thing which he sought in life was work. He arrived in this western region in August, 1894, and on the Ioth of that month he found employment on the sheep ranch of Libby & Merril, with whom he remained as a ranch hand for two years, receiving $35 a month during the summer seasons and $30 in the winters. He then returned to his birthplace in Kentucky, but the lure of the west remained with him and after two years of farming there he came again to Montana, this time for a permanent residence. He began work for the cow outfit of Phil Dawe on Burns Creek, but a few months later transferred his activities to the ranch of Lossie Dawe and two months later became an employe of another of the Dawe brothers, working at the latter place for a summer and then engaging in business for himself.

During this period of employment of about three years Mr. Neese saved his earnings and with the capital thus accumulated bought a few cattle and as- sociated himself in business with a partner on the head waters of Fox Creek. Soon afterward, how- ever, he sold his interests there to his partner, took cattle on the shares with Lossie Dawe and moved to the Dawe ranch on Burns Creek. This partner- ship continued over a period of eleven years, during which time they raised cattle extensively and shipped their product to the Chicago market. After disposing of his stock interests Mr. Neese located in the new town of Savage and engaged in the livery business, succeeding Tref Simard, and he is still the liveryman there.

In addition to the homestead which he entered and proved up on Burns Creek Mr. Neese has ac- cumulated other lands by purchase and has much of his estate under cultivation. His land is devoted to grain farming, and his ranch is divided into three farms, aggregating an estate of thirteen hun- dred and twenty-acres. His one farm under irriga- tion is destined for alfalfa growing, and he now has twenty acres devoted to that grass. Mr. Neese is also a stockholder and director in the First National Bank of Savage. He has built two residences in the town, which he owns in connection with his livery barn.

Mr. Neese was married in Barren County, Ken- tucky, January 25, 1897, to Maggie L. Cox, who was born in that county September 6, 1883, a daugh- ter of a Kentucky farmer, James Cox. Of her par- ents' two children she was the only one to grow to maturity. The following children have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Neese: Lucy B., Roy C., Walter, May, Dora and Margaret. Mr. Neese was given the right of franchise in 1896, and he cast his first presidential vote for Major Mckinley in 1900.

PARIS B. BARTLEY came to Montana in 1907, after a number of years' actual experience in general business and banking in Missouri, and is one of the prominent men in the financial life of Helena. He is vice president and active head of the Conrad Trust & Savings Bank, one of the strongest insti- tutions in the northwest.

The Bartley family have played a notable part in Callaway County, Missouri, since the earliest times, beginning about the period Missouri changed its territorial form of government to statehood. Orig- inally the Bartleys immigrated from the north of England to Virginia about 1690. A later genera- tion of the family furnished James Bartley as a patriot soldier in the Revolutionary war. He served with a Virginia regiment and was killed in action.

The grandfather of the Helena banker was George Bartley, who was born in Virginia in 1800.

In early youth he went to Kentucky and in 1819 went to Missouri and settled at Fulton in Callaway County. That central section of the Missouri River valley in Missouri was then receiving its first in- flux of settlers. George Bartley was a natural leader among men, and had a long record of par- ticipation in public affairs. He was deputy clerk and recorder, was clerk and recorder, served as probate judge and also as judge of the district court. He was allied with the democratic party. He died at Fulton in 1874. He married Mary Moore, who also had an ancestor in the Revolutionary war. She was born in. Kentucky and they were married at Fulton.

The second generation of the family in Callaway County, Missouri, was represented by John Bartley, who was born in Fulton in 1828 and spent all his life in that city, dying in 1884. He was a merchant. a substantial business man, and an honored and influential citizen. He was a democrat and an active member of the Christian Church. He married Eliza Baskett, who was born at Fulton in 1837 and died January 31, 1915. Their surviving children except Paris B. are still in that section of Missouri: Don P. is vice president of the Callaway Bank at Fulton; Paris B. is the second in age; Alice G. never mar- ried and died at the old home in 1913; Ruth A. is the wife of W. F. Russell, vice president of the Southern Bank of Fulton, and Edna M. is the wife of F. C. Stokes, cashier of the Aux Vasse Bank at Aux Vasse, Missouri.

Paris B. Bartley, who was born at Fulton August 31, 1868, was carefully reared and educated, attend- ing private schools and nearly completed his senior year in Westminster College, an old and notable educational institution of Fulton. After his college career he took up the business of tie contracting for railroad companies. He followed it eleven years, keeping his home in Fulton, but operating through Southeastern Missouri, Southern Illinois, North- eastern Arkansas and Western Kentucky.

Mr. Bartley in 1896 bought the Aux Vasse Bank in his native county and filled the post of cashier in the institution until 1907. He arrived at Helena December 23, 1907, and was connected with the American National Bank as assistant cashier until September 1, 1910. At that date he joined Mr. W. G. Conrad and assisted in organizing the Conrad Trust & Savings Bank. He was its first cashier and since January, 1919, has also been the active vice presi- dent. Besides the great personal resources of the Conrad family, a number of well known and promi- nent men of Montana are associated with this bank as directors or officers. In less than ten years the bank has attained resources of more than $2,750,000, the capital being $200,000 and surplus and profits nearly $135,000. Deposits at the close of 1919 aggre- gated nearly $2,500,000.

Mr. Bartley is also president of the Pondera Val- . ley State Bank of Conrad, the largest bank in Pon- dera County. At the close of 1919 the resources of this bank aggregated nearly $750,000. Mr. Bartley is president of the Whitehall State Bank at White- hall, a bank in the Jefferson Valley, with total re- sources of over $380,000.

Mr. Bartley is a member of the State and Ameri- can Bankers associations. He was elected president of the Montana Bankers Association in August, 1920, and served as such during the years 1920-21. This was considered by him a signal honor inas- much as his residence in the state had been of so short duration. He is a democrat in politics, a member and elder in the Christian Church, and in Masonry is affiliated with Helena Lodge No. 3, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Helena Consistory No. 3 of the Scottish Rite, Algeria Temple

P. B. Bartley

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of the Mystic Shrine, and is also a member of Helena Lodge No. 103 of the Elks, Montana Lodge No. I of the Odd Fellows, Helena Lodge of Moose, and State Treasurer Camp No. 6,306 Modern Wood- men of America. He is a member of the Montana Club of Helena.

Mr. Bartley and family live in a modern home at 707 Dearborn Avenue. He married at Moscow, Idaho, October 17, 1893, about fifteen years before he established his home in Montana, Miss Anna Lenoir Harwood. She is a daughter of James and Elizabeth (Sneed) Harwood, her mother now living at Dover, Missouri, where her father, a merchant, died. Mrs. Bartley finished her education in the William-Woods College at Fulton, Missouri. To their marriage were born two children: Paris H., the son, born August 25, 1894, is a teller in the Con- rad Trust & Savings Bank; the daughter Helen is a highly educated young woman, a graduate of the Helena High School, attended the Ward-Belmont Seminary at Nashville, Tennessee, and afterward was a student in Bryn Mawr College in Philadel- phia. On June 16, 1920, she married Thomas E. O'Byrne, of Birmingham, Alabama, where they will make their future home.

SAMUEL L. HOOD, cashier of the First National Bank of Savage and in many other ways prominently identified with the civic and industrial interests of the city and county, was born in Republican City, Nebraska, September 30, 1889, a son of Samuel Hood, whose birth occurred in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in 1847. He was a son of Irish par- ents from Belfast, his father being also named Samuel. The senior Samuel Hood was a sailor and when he left the ocean he became an employe on steamers plying from Pittsburg to New Orleans. and was drowned in the Ohio River. By his wife, Sarah, he had four children, three sons and a daughter, namely: Thomas, who was seriously wounded while wearing the blue in the Civil war and died at the Soldiers' Home in Leavenworth, Kansas. Mrs. Elizabeth Evans, whose death oc- curred in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Samuel, who became the father of Samuel L., and George, who left home when a youth and was never again heard from.

Samuel Hood, the second of the name, entered the army during the Civil war by strategy, adding a number of years to his age, and in reality he was admitted when but fourteen to the Pennsylvania Cavalry. He was made a member of General Sheri- dan's Army and took part in the famous engage- ment at Winchester. He continued a faithful soldier until the close of hostilities and was discharged in 1865. Mr. Hood was still a youth when he left the army and shortly afterward he went to Republican City, Nebraska, where for a time he was engaged in the lumber business, subsequently homesteading near that city and becoming a farmer. He was enrolled among the early and influential citizens of Republican City and vicinity, and his death occurred there in 1900. In his political affiliations he was a democratic adherent prior to the second adminis- tration of President Cleveland, and afterward was a republican voter. He was an active Mason and was brought up as a Presbyterian.

In Republican City, Nebraska, Samuel Hood mar- ried for his second wife Margaret Hawley, who was born in Indiana in 1863, a daughter of Elisha Haw- ley. The Hawley family journeyed from their In- diana home to Nebraska in an ox wagon and settled near Republican City. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hood, Samuel L. and Claire C. Sam- uel Hood at his death also left two daughters by a

former marriage, one, Mrs. H. K. Caswell, resid- ing at McDonald, Kansas, and the other, Mrs. B. W. Packer, being a resident of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Samuel L. Hood attended the public schools in Republican City and supplemented this training by a course in the University of Nebraska. In 1904, in company with his mother and brother, he made the westward journey to Montana, landing at old Fort Buford on the IIth of March. On their ar- rival here their cash capital consisted of $5, this meagre sum being all that stood between them and actual want. The mother, who alone used her right as a homesteader, in order to attain ready money, secured work as a cook at the old road house at Newlon for Johnny O'Brien, while her sons remained at the claim, Samuel being assisted in its work by his younger brother. During more than a year the mother continued to bring in the money for their support by her labors as a cook, and she then be- came a factor on her claim and relieved the sons from a youthful bachelor's life. She proved up her claim and farmed it, and is still supervising its work.

The Hood family became grain farmers and horse raisers. From the beginning they secured good returns in crops, oats and potatoes both yield- ing well and were grown on the sod. During their first year in Montana seventy tons of hay were harvested on their half section, and the sale from this crop greatly added to their income.

The first team the family had in this state they brought with them from their Nebraska home, and with it Samuel L. Hood broke the first twenty-five acres of ground on the claim, which they planted to oats and potatoes. They secured their first cow by an "on time" purchase, and slowly they gathered together a bunch of horses as the nucleus of their stock raising industry.

Samuel L. Hood continued farming at the fam- ily homestead five miles from where the town of Fairview is now located until 1910, although during the winter months of 1907 and 1910 he attended the University of Nebraska, making his way through the agricultural department of that state institution, and on completing the course in 1910 he secured a position in the Mondak State Bank and remained in its employ for four years. During two years he was a collector on the road for the International Harvester Company and at the close of that period he came to Savage. It was in the year 1915 that he identified his interests with those of Savage, and as the cashier of the First National Bank he has come to be known among the influential and sub- stantial men of affairs in this community.

Although active in all movements for the upbuild- ing and improvement of Savage and Richland County, Mr. Hood has taken no other interest in political matters than as a voter. He exercised his right of franchise with the progressive republicans in 1912, supporting Colonel Roosevelt for the presi- dency during that year. He received his Blue Lodge degree in Masonry at Mondak, Montana, and still has membership in the lodge there, but is also a member of the Consistory at Helena and of Algeria Temple.

At Billings, Montana, November 17, 1917, Samuel L. Hood was married to Miss Anna R. Mickelsen. She came with her oldest brother to Montana from Brush, Colorado, where she was born March IO, 1893, the youngest in a family of twelve children. She received her advanced educational training at Bozeman, Montana, and was a teacher in Richland county for five years before her marriage, the last three years of that time being spent as a teacher

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in the Savage High School. A daughter, Norma, has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hood.

GLENWOOD H. CORRINGTON. While his connection with Montana has been a matter of only a few years, Mr. Corrington's name is intimately associated with a number of important commercial, ranching and civic interests in Musselshell County, particularly at Ryegate.

Mr. Corrington was born at Moweaqua, Shelby County, Illinois, April 21, 1888. His great-grand- father was an Englishman who settled in Kentucky at an early date. His paternal grand-parents were Isaac Newton and Mary Corrington. The former was born in Kentucky in 1833, and prior to the Civil war located at Jacksonville, Illinois. He was a saw mill operater, also a contractor and brick man- ufacturer, and during the war served on the Union side until severely wounded at the battle of Shiloh, He died at Jacksonville in 1913.

James Everett Corrington, father of the Montana merchant, was born at Carlinville, Illinois, January 21, 1869, and grew up in his native town and near Moweaqua. He married at Moweaqua and his home was in that city until 1906. As a contractor and builder he put up most of the buildings of Moweaqua, later he conducted the leading general store of the town, but since 1906 has lived at Decatur, Illinois, where he is in the wholesale grocery and produce brokerage business. He served as village clerk and two terms as mayor of Moweaqua. He is a stanch republican and is affiliated with the inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and Modern Wood- men of America. James E. Corrington married Lorinda Smith, who was born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1872.

Glenwood H. Corrington is the oldest of three children. His sister Eula, a graduate of the Decatur High School, of Brown's Business College and the Millikin Conservatory of Music of that city, is now private secretary to the manager of the Huff Lumber Company at Decatur. Theodore, the youngest, is a senior in the Decatur High School.

Glenwood H. Corrington gained a thorough prep- aration for a business career. He graduated from the Moweaqua High School in 1905, spent one year in the University of Illinois at Urbana and took the complete commercial course, including stenog- raphy, at Brown's Business College at Decatur, graduating in 1907. The following years he spent as private secretary at Needles, California. to H. S. Wall, superintendent of motive power of the Santa Fe Railway Company. Then after a visit to Illinois he came to Montana in April, 1909. His first act on reaching the state was to take a homestead of 160 acres in the Big Coulee Valley. He proved up his claim, lived on it eighteen months, and later sold.

Mr. Corrington has heen identified with Ryegate since the winter of 1910. He was in the employ of J. B. Gregg, a general merchant, until March, 1911, when, associated with Harry Henton and Mrs. Catherine V. Henton, he incorporated the Ryegate Mercantile Company. In 1914 he acquired the Hen- ton interests and is now sole proprietor, though the business is incorporated with Mr. Corrington as president, G. H. Narverud as vice president and Mrs. Corrington as secretary and treasurer. This is now one of the two leading stores of Musselshell County outside of the county seat. The store is on First Street, carries a complete line of general mer- chandise, and enjoys a spirited trade drawn from a country twenty-five miles in a radius around the town. The company is incorporated with a capital of $50,000, all paid up except about $5,000.

Besides his store building Mr. Corrington owns

a ranch of 416 acres in Stillwater County. He is one of three men extensively engaged in cattle ranch- ing. The firm owns four sections of land in Sweet- grass County, leases two sections where Mussel- shell, Sweetgrass and Stillwater counties join, and still another two sections in Mussellshell County.

Every subject that concerns the welfare of Rye- gate is a matter of personal concern to Mr. Corring- ton. He served as the first alderman from the First Ward when the town was incorporated, and held that office two and a half years. He has also been precinct committeeman for the republican party. Fraternally Mr. Corrington is worshipful master of Temple Lodge No. 101, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is affiliated with Harlowton Chapter No. 22, Royal Arch Masons, Palestine Commandery No. 18, Knights Templar, at Harlowton, Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena, Ryegate Lodge No. 186, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and also the Encampment.

At Billings, Montana, July 3, 1915, he married Miss Vera May Edson, who, as noted above, is his business associate, being secretary and treasurer of the Ryegate Mercantile Company. Mrs. Corrington is a daughter of W. J. and May (Courtright) Edson, residents of Ryegate, where her father is a well known cattleman. She is a graduate of the Fred- erick High School of South Dakota and also of the State Normal School at Ellensburg, that state. Mr. and Mrs. Corrington have one son, James Winfield, born July 2, 1918.

WILLIAM M. ULM, auditor of the Musselshell Mer- cantile Company, is a Montana pioneer, and he and other members of the family have lived in Montana upwards of forty years. Mr. Ulm is a thorough business man, and has had a wide successful experi- ence in ranching, merchandising and handling im- portant affairs.

His ancestors were German colonists who settled in Pennsylvania prior to the Revolutionary war, subsequent members of the family becoming early residents of Ohio. His great-grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary war under General Washington. Mr. Ulm was born at Rossville, In- diana, February 8, 1862. His father, Wilson H. Ulm, also became well known in Montana. Born at Rossville in 1841, he was reared and married there, had a store in Indiana, and in the fall of 1878 came to Montana and homesteaded eleven miles from Great Falls. He invested his means liberally and acquired 1,000 acres, the station of Ulm being named in his honor. He subsequently added another quar- ter section, and did a large business as a stock raiser for several years. He finally sold his lands in 1896. In the meantime, in 1882, he had engaged in the general merchandise business at Helena, but sold out his enterprise there in 1885 and then returned to his ranch. In 1896 he removed to Long Beach, Cal- ifornia, living five years retired and then returned to Indiana and died at Frankfort in that state in 1914. He was a democrat in politics, was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and was a member of the Christian Science Church. He married Martha J. Williams, who was born in Vir- ginia and is now living at Frankfort, Indiana.

William M. Ulm was the only child of his parents. He received his early education in the public schools of Frankfort, Indiana, and came to Montana one year after his father, in 1879. He completed his high school course at Helena, and after leaving school in 1883 studied accounting under competent private tutors. He assisted his father in business until 1885, and then established a store of his own at Elkhorn, conducting it three years. Following that

gam - Donough

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

he was in partnership with Dr. Charles K. Cole as a stock rancher at Ennis until 1893. He then re- sumed the mercantile business at Toston, and de- veloped the largest store in that town or section of the state. He sold it in 1906, and in that year re- moved to Ely, Nevada, and became purchasing agent for the Ely Townsite Company, being associated in that enterprise with George Gunn, who later died at Salt Lake City, and W. B. Thompson, now a prominent capitalist of New York City.

From Nevada Mr. Ulm removed to Long Beach, California, in 19II and spent nine months recuperat- ing his health. He was then called to New York to assist his brother-in-law, Dr. Charles K. Cole, in practical supervision of the fine country estate Doctor Cole was establishing on the banks of the Hudson River. He remained there looking after the building and adornment of the property until it be- came a handsome home, but after two years, the climate not being fitted to him, he returned to Lewistown, Montana, and has since given his services to several commercial organizations. For a short time he was receiver for the Family Grocery Com- pany. For four years he was accountant and man- ager for the Grass Range Mercantile Company, and in September, 1918, came to Musselshell as auditor of the Musselshell Mercantile Company, the leading store in the town. Mr. Ulm is also treasurer of the Musselshell Commercial .Club. Politically he votes independently.

At Helena February II, 1884, he married Miss Lula E. Cole, a native of Illinois, and a sister of Dr. Charles K. Cole, mentioned above. Mrs. Ulm, who is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution in the chapter at Booneville, New York, is a graduate of the Helena High School. Mr. and Mrs. Ulm have two daughters; Lola, a graduate of the Montana State University at Missoula, is the wife 'of J. M. Falk, a certified public accountant, their home being at Hastings-on-the-Hudson. The second daughter, Ada, who completed her junior year in Montana University, is the wife of B. K. Beatham, manager of the grocery department of the Power Mercantile Company at Lewistown, Montana.

JOSEPH A. MCDONOUGH is one of the fortunate men of Montana, fortunate in the choice of a pro- fession where his abilities and talents have had their freest scope, fortunate in the choice of a location at Great Falls, one of the best cities of the North- west, and fortunate in the friends and clientele that have rewarded his stanch character and loyalty as a citizen and his industry as a lawyer.

Mr. McDonough was born at Hinsdale, Massa- chusetts, June 27, 1878. a son of Patrick J. and Mary C. (McCormick) McDonough. His parents were both natives of Ireland, were married very early in life, and coming to the United States lived for a time in Rhode Island and afterward in Massachu- setts. Patrick J. McDonough for many years was a Massachusetts manufacturer. and died in 1915 at the age of seventy. His wife is still living, and of their five children four survive. One of Mr. Mc- Donough's sisters was well known in Great Falls, Anna M., the wife of Wheeler Coy. She died here September 7, 1917.

Joseph A. McDonough was liberally educated, at- tending public school, and graduated from the law department of Boston University in 1890. He re- ceived the first prize for excellence in scholarship through the entire course. Admitted to the bar of Massachusetts the same year, he practiced at Boston, and in 1001 located at Great Falls and opened his office. His abilities soon attracted attention and a' liberal clientage. From 1903 to 1911 he was a part-

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 8

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