Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 88

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 88

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Mr. Acher earned his first money in Montana as a ranch hand for T. C. Burns, and after working for wages two or three years he took up a home- stead on the river near Zurich, his claim shanty having been a log building of a single room. For a time he lived a bachelor's life, and then brought a bride to the little cabin home. After breaking ground Mr. Acher raised grain as well as hay, and there also he embarked in the cattle business. Later he purchased an adjoining tract, joining the Vil- lage of Zurich, but later changed his residence to the site across from the depot at Zurich, and is farming under the Matheson Ditch Company, a private enterprise which depends upon the north fork of Milk River for its water supply and which has not proven efficient as an irrigation proposition. However, an irrigation ditch is now being projected which will include the entire valley region and utilize the water from the St. Mary's River. Mr. Acher has developed a ranch of 1,100 acres, about 400 acres of which is under cultivation and the remainder is meadow and pasture land.

The little log cabin home marking the pioneer efforts of its owner still stands, but its usefulness as a home was replaced by the present eight-room dwelling. The barn on the farm is 30 by 50 feet, with mow room for forty tons of hay. His cat- tle are of the Hereford strain, and are being pro- duced for beef purposes, and for twenty years

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shipments of his own raising have gone to market in Chicago, a five days' journey by freight from where the stock was produced.

Mr. Acher assisted in the organization of the Farmers National Bank in Chinook, and is a mem- ber of its board of directors. He was also one of the organizers and is the president and a di- rector of the First State Bank of Zurich. During former years he served his school district as a trus- tee, was elected a county commissioner in 1914 as the successor of M. E. Kennedy, and his colleagues on the board have been Tom Dowen, Charley Ross, John Skiffington, James Clarridge, Fred' Prosser and F. B. Polley. During the past five years Mr. Acher has served as chairman of the board. Among the important matters which have come before the board have been the furnishing of seed grain to farmers during two seasons, the bonding of the county for $100,000 for the Roosevelt Highway, and the erection of the Carnegie Library Building under the direction of the Carnegie corporation and set- ting aside the maintenance fund for the institution.

Mr. Acher cast his first ballot as a democrat, sup- porting Grover Cleveland in 1892, and he has ever since supported the principles of that political party, and in the days before the primary attended its county conventions. He served on committees on bond drives in his locality during the World war, and Mrs. Acher performed her part in the Red Cross work of Zurich. The Union Church of the locality was encouraged by the Acher family, who have always lent their assistance to movements for a community benefit.

John W. Acher is a son of John Acher, who was born in Germany and came during young manhood to the United States. While in Minnesota he en- listed with the Union army and served four years in the Civil war, a private in Capt. Joseph M. Barr's Company C, Second Minnesota Volunteers, and he passed through the war without wounds. Imme- diately after the close of that struggle he settled in Ripley County, Indiana, and continued as a farmer near Napoleon until his death in 1881, when fifty- seven years of age.

John Acher married Magdalena Flick, a daughter of a Swiss settler of Ripley County. Mrs. Acher still survives and has reached the age of eighty- seven years. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Acher: Mary, the wife of Rudolph Hertenstein, of Napoleon, Indiana; Louise, wife of William Hulbush, of Chinook, Montana; Annie, wife of William Wiebkin, of Ripley County, In- diana; John W., of Zurich, Montana; Charles, whose home is in Chinook; Rudolph, of Terre Haute. Indiana; Lena, the wife of James Hazelrig, of Napoleon, Indiana; and Albert, of Fort Dodge, Iowa.

John W. Acher was married at Chinook Sep- tember 2, 1901, to Miss Marie Barnes, who came into Montana in 1900 from Chicago. She was born in Pennsylvania May 4, 1866, a daughter of Merrit P. and Harriet (Long) Barnes, who moved to Scott County, Iowa, from Pennsylvania when their daugh- ter Marie was but six months old, and she grew to mature years and received her education in that state. She was the first born of her parents' four children: May, the wife of Joseph Hause, of New Foundland, Pennsylvania; Anna, who mar- ried Harry Stewart, of Princeton, Iowa; and Blanche, the wife of Robert Crawford, of LeClaire, Iowa.

One child, a son, Arthur, has been born to Mr. and Mrs. John W. Acher.

E. L. KELLEY. To write the personal record of men who have raised themselves from humble cir- cumstances to a position of respectability and af- fluence in a community is no ordinary pleasure. Self-made men, men who have achieved success by reason of their personal qualities and left the impress of their individuality upon the business and growth of their place of residence and affect for good such institutions as are embraced within the sphere of their usefulness, unwittingly perhaps, build monuments more enduring than marble, obelisk or granite shaft. Of such we have the unquestioned . right to say belongs the gentleman whose name ap- pears above, for among the farmers or ranchmen of the Flathead country none has excelled Mr. Kelley in progressive spirit or in a disposition to follow the most advanced methods in his operations. Consequently he is generally recognized as one of the foremost agriculturists of Western Montana and enjoys the respect and esteem of all who know him.

E. L. Kelley was born in Wyoming County, Penn- sylvania, and is a son of Levi and Rhoda J. (Vose) Kelley. He was reared and educated in his native county and lived there until coming to Montana in 1885, locating in Butte, and in 1887 he came to the Flathead Valley and engaged in farming. That he has been successful through the subsequent years is but to reiterate a fact generally recognized by all who know him, and the "Hill View Stock Ranch," as his farm home is known, is today one of the show places of the Flathead country. The ranch comprises 160 acres of as fine land as can be found in the valley and is devoted principally to the breed- ing and raising of thoroughbred Jersey cattle, of which he has at the present time about fifty head. In order to properly care for his stock Mr. Kelley has erected what is undoubtedly the finest and best equipped barn in the Flathead country. It is a round barn, sixty-two feet in diameter, containing plenty of space for forty cows. It has concrete floors and mangers, with steel stanchions. The silo, which is fourteen feet in diameter, is fifty-two feet high to the center of the dome. There is also an annex, 36 by 40 feet in size, which will accommo- date ten head of horses and twenty head of young stock. The water supply for the stock is drawn from a deep bed-rock well near the barn, which is piped to a cistern or tank, thirty feet above the barn, giving a splendid fall and good force for cleaning purposes. The sewer from the milk room extends clear through the barn, so that every foot of the barn floor can be flushed out when desired. The King ventilating system is used, which insures a plentiful supply of fresh, pure air at all times. Practically everything that can possibly be done with electricity is so handled, even to the milking of the cows and the separating of the milk. Every- thing is absolutely sanitary in and about the barn, and in the milk room there is an abundance of hot water, also heated by electricity. In the hay loft of the round barn there is storage room for 160 tons of hay, and a circular track is attached to the roof, which enables the workmen to deliver the hay to any part of the loft with a minimum of effort and time.

Mr. Kelley has also erected a fine modern resi- dence, in which also electricity plays a prominent part in reducing the household work to the min- imum. The entire house is electrically lighted, has hot and cold water, bath rooms, electric washer and ironer, and in other ways everything is pro- vided to make the home as comfortable and con- venient as it is possible to make it.

E. L. Kelley and Family

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Politically Mr. Kelley assumes a broad-minded attitude and reserves the right to vote for the men and measures which meet with his approval, re- gardless of party lines. Fraternally he is a mem- ber of the Knights of Pythias. Mrs. Kelley and her daughter are active members of the Presby- terian Church. Mrs. Kelley is also a member of the Daughters of the Revolution, to which she is eligible through the fact that her great-great-great- grandfather, Mathias Koenig, was an officer in the patriot army during the War of the Revolution.

Mr. Kelley was married to Mary King, who was born in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, the daugh- ter of Luther and Mollie (Irwin) King. Mr. and Mrs. Kelley have one daughter, Doris, who is a student of the Kalispell High School. Mrs. Kelley has been an able helpmate to her husband and she has contributed in a very material way to the splen- did success which has crowned his efforts. Mr. Kelley has ever been loyal to his convictions of right and has discharged his duties as a neighbor and a citizen with the object in view of making his friends happier and the community better. Blessed with a sufficiency of material goods, all of which has been acquired by his own efforts, he has not been selfish; on the contrary, his benefactions have been many, for it is not his custom to withhold his support from worthy movements or causes, con- sequently he is eminently deserving of the esteem in which he is held.

CLARENCE J. BROCKWAY, United States commis- sioner and a real estate dealer at Malta, has been a resident of Montana for twenty years. In that time he has experienced many of the phases of pioneering, including the entry and development of a homestead, and his energies have brought him a deserved prosperity and a position of much in- fluence in his section.

Mr. Brockway was born at Sullivan, Illinois, No- vember 25, 1874. His grandfather, Daniel Brock- way, was a native of New York State and an early settler in Southern Michigan, in Branch County, between Coldwater and Quincy. He spent the rest of his life in that region as a farmer. One of his eleven children was Benjamin W. Brockway, who was born in Coldwater, Michigan, in 1849. He ac- quired a fair education, was a teacher for several terms in young manhood, and was the only son of his parents. From Michigan he moved to Illinois, later to Iowa, and in 1899 came out to Montana and for three years was manager of the business of R. M. Trafton. He then entered the real estate business and in 1903 was appointed United States commis- sioner. He performed the duties of that office and was associated with his son in cattle and horse ranching and also acquired and developed some of the public domain, including 160 acres at Dodson and another 160 acres at Bowdoin. He also bought farm lands near Malta, and a part of his land is now in the townsite of Malta. He was a man of great energy and public enterprise, filled out the unexpired term of Mayor Casselberg of Malta, and was also prominent in the encouragement of the Milk River irrigation project and for a number of years served as secretary of the Lower Milk River Water Users Association. A stanch democrat, he was a personal friend and earnest supporter of Tom Stout in the latter's aspirations. B. W. Brockway died in the spring of 1916. He married Lellian Nichols, who is still living at Malta. Her mother was Esther Jane Conklin. B. W. Brockway and wife had three children: Maud, wife of Hugo Stolley, of Mil- waukee, Wisconsin; Clarence J .; and Ethel, who married Elijah Smith and died at Malta.

Clarence J. Brockway was seven years of age when his parents moved from Illinois to Winterset, Iowa, where he grew up and acquired a public school education through the eighth grade. For a time he worked as a farm hand, spent one year with the commission firm of Groves and Company in the Chi- cago stockyards, and for one year also .lived in In- dian Territory, for a time having a contract for loading lumber at Butler and later working in a planing mill at Stanley in the Choctaw Nation. Re- turning to Iowa, he resumed farming with his father, and that was his business until he came out to Montana in 1900, the year following his father's advent to the state. In what is now Phillips County, but then Chouteau County he had his first experience as a Montanan, and worked at monthly wages around Dodson until the fall of that year, when he entered his claim nearby. He had only what capital he could earn and depended upon his exertions on the out- side to support him while securing title. His chief improvement on the claim was a frame house 14 by 22 feet, and he called this home for thirteen years, living in it alone for several years and taking his bride there. As a homesteader his chief occupation was running cattle and raising hay. On leaving the farm Mr. Brockway moved to Malta and en- gaged in the land business with his father. Upon the death of his father he succeeded him as United States commissioner, and has always continued the real estate and insurance business on an increased scale.

The only office which he has held is the present one of United States commissioner. He cast his first vote for Mr. Bryan in 1896, and supported the Nebraskan in all his presidential aspirations, and has been identified with the democratic party through all these years.

At Chinook, Montana, September 12, 1906, Mr. Brockway married Miss Dora Stith, who was born in Minnesota June 13, 1888, second of the nine chil- dren of John and Cynthia Stith. She came to Mon- tana with her parents in 1905, when the family set- tled at Dodson, but her father and mother are now living at Spirit Lake, Idaho. Mr. and Mrs. Brock- way have two children, Edna May and Benjamin W.

J. ANDREW TWEEDIE. While he is postmaster of Malta, the community in which he has spent nearly all his life, J. Andrew Tweedie comes of a dis- tinguished family of Scotch horse breeders, and the breeding of fine livestock is a family tradition from which he has not altogether departed.

· The Tweedies were a prominent family of Tweed- mont-Dunbar, Scotland. In that locality James Tweedie was proprietor of a farm that became fa- mous as one of the chief centers for breeding and raising the noted Clydesdale stock in Scotland. Among his numerous children was James Tweedie, Jr., who was born at Tweedmont-Dunbar in 1850. He was given a liberal education, learned the horse business under his father, and when he came to the United States brought with him his share of the family estate in a string of Clydesdale horses. Seeking a location for the establishment of a horse ranch, he was first located in Butler County, Kan- sas, and in a few years the Clydesdales from the Tweedie farm became widely sought and were an important element in the raising of standards of good horses in Kansas. He continued the business actively until the adverse years following the panic of 1893, and then abandoned Kansas and after pros- pecting over Montana chose the state as his per- manent home. He moved his family to Montana in 1896, and engaged in the sheep business at Malta for a number of years. He was also proprietor

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

of the Cowan Hotel, and his last work was in the public office of assessor of Valley County. He then retired, and his death occurred suddenly while visit- ing in Saco, Montana, May 18, 1908. James Tweedie married Elizabeth Davidson, a native of Scotland. She died in Malta in 1906, at the age of fifty-six. They were . the parents of three children: Annie, wife of C. B. Conant, of Montana; Ellen, Mrs. B. E. Schuster, of Malta; and J. Andrew.

J. Andrew Tweedie was born near Douglas, Kan- sas, January 8, 1893, and was three years of age when brought to Montana. He attended the Malta schools, finished his high school work at Helena, and spent two years in the Montana Wesleyan Uni- versity at the capital city. Aside from the work he did at home his first important experience was with an engineering party in the reclamation serv- ice, and he began as chain man and later was pro- moted to transit man. He then engaged in ranch- ing near Malta, and combined farming with the han- dling and breeding of Percheron-Shire horses. Mr. Tweedie left his ranch to enter the army, enlisting September 16, 1918. For one month he was in the Mechanical Training School at Boulder, Colorado, and then entered the officers training school at Camp McArthur, Waco, Texas. He was discharged there and his training terminated on account of the signing of the armistice. On leaving the army he sought a new location, spent the winter in Helena while the Legislature was in service, and while there was appointed acting postmaster of Malta and be- gan his duties April 29, 1919, as the successor of Natallie Patton. Since that he has been commis- sioned permanent postmaster.

While his daily routine is in the post office at Malta, Mr. Tweedie is still interested as a prac- tical farmer, and has entered a rather new field in this section of Montana, raising and breeding mules instead of horses. He is unmarried, is a member of Post No. 57 of the American Legion, and is affiliated both with the Odd Fellows and the Re- hekahs.

GEORGE W. CLAY, M. D. All the honors due a veteran physician and a pioneer member of the medical profession in Phillips County belong to Dr. George W. Clay of Malta. He has been there twenty-one years, and while it was not easy for a young man just out of college from the East to adjust himself to the rough environment of a ranch- ing district, he entered heartily into the affairs of the community, made himself useful not only as a professional man but as a citizen, and no small degree of the esteem in which he is held is due to this readiness and active participation in every phase of community life.

Doctor Clay was born at Wallacetown, Ontario, Canada, February 18, 1872. His grandfather, Henry Clay, was a United Empire Loyalist and was a pio- neer at Wallacetown, where he spent his active life as a farmer. He had four sons and two daughters : Elijah, Henry, David, John, Mrs. Jane Wallace and Mary Ann Clay. Of these John Clay, a native of On- tario, spent all his life as a farmer in his native province and died in July, 1912, at the age of sixty- eight. He married Martha Henderson, a native of Wallacetown, who is still living in that community. They had three children: Bert, owner of a fleet of fishing boats in Canada; Dr. George W., of Malta; and Nellie, wife of Russell Thompson, of Wallacetown.

George W. Clay grew up in the town of his birth, finished high school there, graduated from St. Thomas Collegiate Institute, and, without resources to continue his higher education, he turned to teach-

ing and, for six years was connected with the coun- try school system of his native locality. Largely with the means thus earned he entered Western University, London, Ontario, and completed his medical studies in 1899.

Looking for a field in which to apply the knowl- edge represented in his diploma of graduation, he turned to the United States, and among his early acquaintances came to know Dan Mckenzie, one of the early commercial men traveling out of St. Paul over Montana for the firm of Foot, Schultze and Company. Through Mr. Mckenzie he entered correspondence with R. W. Garland of Malta, who encouraged him to come "at once, for we need a doctor here the worst way." At Glasgow, Montana, he received a letter of introduction from Doctor Hoyt to Harry Cosner of Malta, and after talking with the latter gentleman he decided to locate, and spent the night at the Malta Hotel, owned and run by Dan Kenyon, now mayor of Chinook.

At that date Harry Cosner's house and another log shack were the only buildings marking the town- site of Malta south of the railway. The hotel in which he spent the first night was a frame build- ing, whose other guests were sheep herders and "rough-necks," and the young doctor from the East was by no means comfortable and at social ease in such a company then. He opened his office in the first drug store of the new town, becoming a partner in that enterprise with R. W. Garland and half owner of the stock. He had been in the town hardly more than an hour when his first patient came to him, and his practice for several years originated among the ranchmen, and some of them lived as for as 130 miles away. At that time this entire region was in Valley County, and for many years he was the only doctor at Malta. In 1915 his first colleague came to town, Doctor Blanken- hom, and Doctor Clay took him into partnership. Doctor Blankenhom entered the World war, was gassed, and being unable to contend with the rigor- ous climate of Northern Montana moved to Butte. Since then Dr. J. H. Seiffert has been associated in practice with Doctor Clay.

He has had a varied routine of professional duty, the climax of all being the influenza epidemic of 1918. More than 60 per cent of the population of the county was attacked by that dread malady, and it resulted in the largest death rate ever known in this part of the country.

Doctor Clay has deservedly prospered, has be- come an extensive land owner, and has also inter- ested himself in business affairs at Malta, chiefly banking. He is vice president of the First State Bank of Malta, is vice president of the Bowdoin State Bank and of the Dodson State Bank. Dur- ing the World war he was a member of the local exemption board, and holds a medal for work with the Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps of the Gov- ernment. He offered his personal services to the army, but they were declined and he performed his war work at home. He is examiner for Phil- lips County for the United States Public Health Service, and has examined ex-service men for the regulation of the payments or compensation due them.

As soon as possible Doctor Clay acquired Ameri- can citizenship, and cast his first presidential vote for Colonel Roosevelt. The first official responsi- bility he held was as treasurer of Malta, and for a number of years he was health officer and county physician. In 1912 he was elected to represent Val- ley County in the Legislature, serving in the House of the Thirteenth General Assembly under Speaker McDonald, a House which contained only eighteen

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republicans. In 1914 he was nominated for the Sen- ate and elected. He had been in the Senate two years when Phillips County was created, and in 1916 he was elected as the first senator from the new county. Previously, while a member of the House, he voted for T. J. Walsh for United States senator, Mr. Walsh having carried the popular vote of the state and being therefore entitled to the support of the Legislature by agreement of the parties before the primaries. He therefore par- ticipated officially in the last election of a United States senator in Montana by the old legislative method. As a member of the republican Senate of 1917 Mr. Clay was chairman of the committee of elections and privileges, chairman of the com- mittee on public health, and member of the insur- ance, education and ways and méans committees. Among the bills in which he was interested and which became laws by his introduction and support was the Child Welfare Bill, providing for the ap- pointment of public health nurses and the inspec- tion of school children. As a result of this ad- vanced piece of legislation a nurse is now appointed in every county in the state. Doctor Clay was a member of the joint investigating committee for the investigation of the conduct of the Industrial School at Niles City, which reported the charges against the superintendent as unfounded and un- warranted and exonerating the head of the school. He was also a member of the two special sessions of the Legislature, one to meet emergencies created by the war and the other providing relief for farm- ers and taking action looking to the reduction of the high cost of living and against profiteering.

Doctor Clay has long been active in Masonry, hav- ing taken his first degrees at Malta. He is a past master of Malta Lodge No. 57, Ancient Free and . Accepted Masons, a member of Valley Chapter No. 13, Royal Arch Masons, at Glasgow, Glasgow Com- mandery of the Knights Templar and is a member of the Scottish Rite Consistory and the Shrine at Helena. He is also a member of the Eastern Star, is a past noble grand of Malta Lodge No. 72 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a mem- ber of the Woodmen of the World and the Royal Neighbors.

At Fulda, Minnesota, January 22, 1902, Doctor Clay married Miss Mae Price, who was born in Fulda May 5, 1882, daughter of John R. Price. She completed her education at Mankato, Minnesota, and as a teacher came to Malta in August, 1899, and carried some of the chief burdens of educat- ing the children of the community until her mar- riage. Mrs. Clay died in 1908, leaving no children.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 88

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