Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 96

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

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bought out his former employer and founded the Martinsdale Mercantile Company in conjunction with V. B. d'Autremont, and they maintain this associa- tion today. The store is located on Main Street and is one of the leading mercantile establishments in the eastern part of Meagher County, the trade coming from Meagher and Wheatland counties. Later the company was incorporated, and its present officials are as follows: V. B. d'Autremont, presi- dent; Mrs. D. A. Petrie, wife of Donald A. Petrie, vice president; Donald A. Petrie, secretary and treasurer. This store is conducted according to mod- ern ideas, the stock is well assorted, fresh and timely, and exceptional values are given for the money.

Mr. Petrie resides on Main Street. He affiliates with the Presbyterian Church. A Mason, Mr. Petrie belongs to Musselshell Lodge No. 69, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Harlowtown, Montana; Harlowtown Chapter No. 22, Royal Arch Masons ; Harlowtown Commandery, Knights Templar; and Algeria Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Helena, Montana. He also belongs to Buffalo Lodge No. 14, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Buffalo, Wyoming; and Twodot Lodge, Knights of Pythias, of Twodot, Montana.

In 1902 Mr. Petrie was married at Bloomington, Nebraska, to Miss Anna Robertson, born at Stirl- ing, Scotland, and they have two children, namely : Lillian, who was born on January 4, 1904; and Wini- fred Grace, who was born on January 1, 1913.

EDWARD PATRICK GRUBER. It is truly said that "no man lives to himself alone," and in nothing is this more clearly shown than in business circles, where each industry is interdependent upon the other, and every new one opens up new avenues along which men may pursue honorable callings. With the inven- tion, manufacture and marketing of the automobile, and its consequent almost universal adoption as the medium of transportation, came an entirely novel opening for the active man with mechanical tastes, that of providing means for the care and repair of these machines, and of the handling of new cars and supplies. Almost over night these garages sprung up, in the beginning of the business many of them being very crude, but they have been improved to meet the requirements of the trade until now they are thoroughly equipped establishments, and are to be found all over the country, even at the cross- roads of any great highway over which there is much automobile traffic. Owing to the fine roads in many parts of the state Montana has thousands of automobiles and attracts to it countless tourists, so that there is an immense demand for first-class garages, and among those who are engaged in operat- ing them the Townsend Garage and Implement Com- pany ranks high, and of this concern Edward Pat- rick Gruber, of this review, is president, secretary and manager.

Edward Patrick Gruber was born in Broadwater County, Montana, on April 8, 1890, a son of John Gruber. John Gruber was born in Germany in 1852, and was there reared, educated and married, but left his native land in 1880 and came to the United States. After his arrival in this country he located at Buffalo, New York, where he worked for several years in a lumber yard. Then, in 1885, he came to Montana, and for three years was in the employ of Senator W. A. Clarke, after which he took up a homestead in Broadwater County, six miles south- west of Toston, and is still living on this ranch, which he has expanded from its original proportions to its present ones of 640 acres, so that he is one of the pioneers of the state who is now living and

prosperous. Since coming to this country and secur- ing his papers of citizenship he has been a strong republican. Prior to coming here, like others of his country, he had the obligatory military training in the German army. The Lutheran Church holds his membership, and he is a very strong churchman.

John Gruber was married to Julia Whitteck, born in 1857, in Germany, and they became the parents of the following children: Mary, who resides in Los Angeles, California; Augusta, who married D. C. Tullmer, an oil salesman of Los Angeles, Cali- fornia; John, who is on the home ranch near Tos- ton; Joseph, who is a rancher of Broadwater Coun- ty; Edward Patrick, who was fifth in order of birth; and Robert, who is also on the home ranch.

Edward Patrick Gruber attended the rural schools of Broadwater County and the Butte High School through the sophomore year, and until he was six- teen years old remained on his father's ranch. For the subsequent six years he worked in the mines at Butte, and for two years was in the employ of the American Smelting and Refining Company's works at East Helena. His next occupation was that of chauffeur, and he was connected with the Butte Garage of Butte, Montana, where he learned the business very thoroughly. Mr. Gruber then . spent some months on his father's ranch, but in the fall of 1914 came to Townsend and was selling agent for automobiles for a year. He then organized the Townsend Garage & Automobile Company, of which he is president, secretary and manager, A. M. Kemp- ton is vice president, and J. E. Ward is treasurer. The garage and implement plant is located on Broad- way, where there is a floor space for garage pur- poses 50 by 146 feet. This is, without exception, the leading garage of Broadwater County, and a general garage and implement business is carried on and Mr. Gruber is agent for Broadwater County of the Buick, Dodge and Reo cars. He carries all kinds of farm implements and specializes on Ford tractors.

Mr. Gruber is a man of other interests, and owns a ranch of 640 acres 27/2 miles northwest of Toston, and his modern residence on Cedar Street, Town- send. His company owns the garage and implement building on Broadway. In his religions belief he is a Roman Catholic. He belongs to the Townsend Commercial Club and is an active factor in it.

In June, 1915, Mr. Gruber was united in marriage with Miss Dora A. Dawson, of Butte, Montana, a daughter of John and Alice (Porter) Dawson. Mrs. Dawson is deceased, but Mr. Dawson survives and resides two miles north of Cold Spring, Montana. It was during the early sixties that he came to Mon- tana, and he became one of the prominent men of his region, now owning a large amount of ranch property. Mr. and Mrs. Gruber have the following children : Jack, who was born April 18, 1917; Don- ald, who was born November 1, 1918; and Dawson, who was born January 25, 1920. Mr. Gruher is a man of strong personality and has won the con- fidence of the men with whom his business brings him into contact. He possesses that courage and bigger vision which enable him to push ahead and handle large affairs, and do so in such a manner as to result profitably to him and to reflect credit on his community. While his business cares have been very absorbing, he has never neglected what he be- lieved to be his duty in civic matters, and is one of the dependable men of Broadwater County.

MICHAEL, HENRY CROWLEY. The M. H. & W. E. Crowley Company is known far and wide as one connected with the vital industry of agriculture, and its members, Michael Henry and William E. Crow- ley, have contributed much to this region in their

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work of developing large ranching properties and raising sheep, in their enterprises setting a high stand- ard and in their results proving the wisdom and profit connected with the entry into and continuance at the work for which their talents and training spe- cially fitted them.

Michael Henry Crowley, the senior member of this firm of brothers, was born at Grafton, Ohio, on February 2, 1872, a son of James Crowley, a native of County Clare, Ireland, where he was born on February 2, 1818. He died at Logan, Montana, in June, 1919. Until he was seventeen years old James Crowley lived in his native county, but left it to enlist in the British Army and fought in British India all through the Sepoy rebellion, during which campaign he was wounded three times and received a medal for carrying off two wounded officers from the battlefield under heavy fire. This medal has three clasps, and is among the cherished possessions of his family. He was at the siege of Lucknow and at Koilkonda, India, and in all spent twenty years in that country and then returned to Ireland, was married in County Clare, after which he and his wife came to the United States, arriving here in 1859, and for five years thereafter he was en- gaged in working in the rolling mill at Portland, Maine. During the period of the war between the states he served his adopted country by drilling raw recruits at nights and on Sundays, being admirably fitted for that work on account of his long service in the British Army. He moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and continued working in rolling mills until 1869, when he bought a farm at Grafton, Ohio. Oil was later discovered on his land, an option was taken on his property and he sold it, realizing a comfortable fortune. In 1876 he went to Knox County, Missouri, and bought a farm, on which he lived for five years, then sold it at a profit, and in 1882 came to Montana and was a rancher in the Logan district until his death. He was a democrat and a Roman Catholic, and stanch in his support of his political and re- ligions principles. His wife bore the maiden name of Maria Bennett, and she was born in Ireland, in the same county as he, and she died at Logan, Mon- tana. Their children were as follows: John J., who is a rancher of Saint Peter's Mission, Cascade County, Montana, was born in Ireland; Patrick, who was born in Scotland, where his parents spent a year, is a business man of Seattle, Washington; Mary, who was born at Portland, Maine, married C. M. Wilson, a rancher of Logan, Montana; Ellen, who was born at Portland, Maine, lives at Helena, Mon- tana; James, who was born at Portland, Maine, is a carpenter and builder of Butte, Montana; Margaret, who was born at Cleveland, Ohio, married John B. Sloan, was a pioneer of Montana, and now is an extensive rancher and stock raiser on the home ranch near Logan, Montana; Catherine, who was born at Grafton, Ohio, married Joseph M. Malin, an extensive rancher and large land owner of the Lo- gan district; Michael H., whose name heads this review; and William E., who is mentioned at length below.

Michael H. Crowley attended the public schools of Edina, Knox County, Missouri, for two years, and was brought to Logan, Montana, by his parents, and there completed the eighth grade work in the rural schools of Gallatin County. He then took a course in the Bozeman Academy and later one along commercial lines in the Montana Agricultural Col- lege at Bozeman, leaving it in 1891. Returning to his father's ranch he was employed on it until 1900. In that year he and his brother William E. bought a ranch of 600 acres at Logan, which they still own, and were managers of the Three Forks Land

Company until 1910. From 1910 to 1915 they did a very large real estate business at Logan, but in May of that year removed to Townsend, since which time they have bought several ranches in the Mis- souri Valley and now own several sections of land which they are farming, as well as their magnificent 12,000-acre sheep ranch near Ringling, Montana, where they are doing a vast business as sheep raisers. On May 15, 1915, they opened up a real estate, loan and insurance business, with offices in the Townsend Hotel Building, and developed very valuable connections and did an immense amount of business in all lines, but closed it ont so as to de- vote all of their attention to the sheep industry. Mr. M. H. Crowley owns a modern residence on Broadway. He, like his father, is a democrat and a Catholic. Bozeman Council, Knights of Columbus, holds his membership and has made him a Third Degree Knight, and he also belongs to the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks and formerly belonged to the Woodmen of the World.

In 1900 Mr. Crowley was married to Hannah Malin, a daughter of Walter A. and Farnetta (Mc- Adow) Malin, and she died at Logan in 1908, having borne her husband one daughter, Farnetta, who was born on March 26, 1903. On February 8, 1910, Mr. Crowley was married to Miss Stella Coleman, a daughter of Michael and Margaret (Corcoran) Cole- man. Mr. Coleman was born in County Clare, Ire- land, in 1850, and died at Miles City, Montana, in 1913, having come to Montana in 1879. He first lived at Miles City, and was in the employ of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. Mr. Coleman's wife was born in Kentucky in 1851, and died at Livingston, .Montana, in 1901. Mrs. Crowley attended Butte Business College, where she secured a practical training. Her brother-in-law, J. W. Goodall, was foreman of the stock at the Roosevelt Ranch at Medora, North Dakota, during the time the late Colonel Roosevelt was engaged in ranching. Mr. and Mrs. M. H. Crowley have the following chil- dren: Margaret, who was born October 17, 1912; and Robert, who was born on July 12, 1916.

William E. Crowley, the junior member of the firm of M. H. & W. E. Crowley, was born at Grafton, Ohio, on March 17, 1875. He attended the rural schools of Gallatin County, Montana, and took a business course at the State Agricultural College at Bozeman, Montana. Subsequently he studied law in Notre Dame University at Notre Dame, Indiana. Since returning to. Montana he has been in partner- ship with his brother Michael Henry Crowley in the enterprises mentioned above, their interests being identical. He, too, has a modern residence on Broad- way. His political and religions connections are the same as those of his brother. He belongs to Boze- man Council, Knights of Columbus, in which he has been made a Fourth Degree Knight, and he also belongs to the Elks.

William E. Crowley was married to Mary Donaghy, born at Ogden, Utah, and their children are as follows: William, who was born in May, 1912; Mary Virginia, who was born in December, 1913; June, who was born in June, 1916; and Ray- mond, who was born on June 21, 1918.

During the World war both brothers took a very active part in all local war activities. William E. Crowley was one of the four-minute speakers and had charge of the minute men of Broadwater County and had them thoroughly organized. Through their efforts much effective work was accomplished in assisting the administration in carrying out its projects.

The association of these brothers has been main- tained through their maturity, and having always

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worked in conjunction they have accomplished more than if each had remained alone. Being mere chil- dren when brought to the state, they are essentially Montana products, and it would be difficult to find men more thoroughly imbued with the great tolerant spirit of the West than they, or who are more keenly alive to the possibilities of this region, so many of which have been developed through their industry and dependable enthusiasm. They are men who are sure that they live in the finest county, state and country in the world, and are exerting themselves to still further improve conditions so that no one can have any doubt as to the truth of their con- tentions.

EUGENE MCCARTHY was born in South Amboy, New Jersey, September 12, 1868, a son of Engene E. and Ellen (Geoghegan) McCarthy. He was sec- ond in a family of six, five sons and one daughter.

When he was six months old his parents moved to St. Lawrence County, New York, in which state both of his grandparents lived and died. Four years later his parents moved to Erie County, Ohio, where they took up their residence and remained for six years, or until the spring of 1879, when they again moved westward, this time to Bismarck, in what was then known as the Territory of Dakota, arriving there before the Northern Pacific had crossed the Missouri River. His father being a contractor on the construction work of the Northern Pacific Rail- road, the family spent the hard winter of 1879-1880 in the Bad Lands of Dakota in dug-outs, and the problem of food and fuel during this most severe winter was always a serious one.

The spirit of the West still calling, the McCarthy family again moved onward in the spring of 1880 and camped on the Yellowstone River near the present site of the City of Glendive. Here the elder Eugene McCarthy hunted buffalo for their hides. The younger Eugene accompanied his father on his hunts and tended camp while his father shot and skinned the bison.

After a season of buffalo hunting his father re- turned to construction work on the railroad, and Eugene went to work as a water-boy until he was strong enough to drive a span of mules on a slush scraper during the summer and hauling freight dur- ing the winter.

In the winter of 1882-1883 his father took a con- tract for two miles of construction work on the Northern Pacific in the Jocko Canyon, about two miles east of the present station of Ravalli. When this work was completed the family moved into the Flathead Valley, arriving there in May, 1883.

In speaking of his early boyhood the Judge said it was not a bed of roses that he was raised on, and his recollection is of hard knocks and priva- tions. Many a night in zero weather he has cooked his meager supper of bacon and flap-jacks after shoveling a hole in the snow drift to build his camp fire, and then roll up in his blankets in the freight wagon to sleep from sheer exhaustion, only to roll ont the next morning before daylight, get his break- fast, feed his stock, and be ready to start on the road again with the first trace of dawn. Such were the hardships the early pioneer freighter had to contend with, and though the roads be bad and the weather severe he could not delay or dally, for in those days the food and ofttimes the life of the community depended upon the prompt arrival of the freighter.

He states, however, that his early life of hard knocks, the living in the open and subsisting on the simplest and coarsest kind of food have given him a physical constitution that has never deserted him

in time of need. He is fifty-two years of age and has never been sick in bed a day in his life, or re- quired a doctor's attention except when injured.

In the winter of 1885-86 the first public school in Flathead Valley was started near the present site of Ball's Crossing, just south of the City of Kalispell, and Eugene was enrolled as one of the first stu- dents. A trapper, Henry Robinson, was employed as a teacher, and he seemed to take a special in- terest in Eugene and endeavored to instill in him a desire to obtain an education.

In the spring of 1887 he left the Flathead Valley and went to work for the Northern Pacific Rail- road as timekeeper for an extra gang, returning home again that fall to resume his study at school. The following spring he again went to work, this time for Sheets & Harrison, a firm of civil engineers who had the contract to survey the northern boun- dary line of the Flathead Indian Reservation. It was this survey which definitely established the northern boundary of the reservation, it having been in dispute for some years, the Indians claiming that the line should be some twenty miles to the north and including nearly all of the Flathead Lake within the reservation. Young Eugene noticed that the line, as established, left the greater part of the best farming land in the Dayton Creek Valley outside of the reservation, and he decided then and there that when he became of age he would file on a homestead in this fertile valley. This decision was later fulfilled.

In the following year he packed the United States mail from Thompson Falls to Murry, Idaho, in the heart of the Couer d'Alene mining district. Later, in the winter of 1888-1889, he accepted a contract to get out ties and poles for the railroad, the opera- tions being carried on at Trout Creek, Montana.

It was with a view of continuing in this line of work that he and his partner, Bill Hardy, outfitted themselves and crossed the Rocky Mountains over the Marias Pass before the survey for the Great Northern Railroad was completed across that pass. Here, on September 29, 1890, he squatted on the land upon which the Town of McCarthyville was platted, the town being so named in his honor. This town became famous in the annals of the upbuild- ing of the West, and is so well known to old-timers in Montana and to readers of the Saturday Evening Post that it is needless to repeat its history. A few tumbled-down log cabins are all that remain of this famous construction camp of which young McCarthy was once the mayor.

In the spring of 1891, in company with William and Dave Mumbrue, he put in the first saw mill on Flathead Lake. This mill was located on what is known as Goose Bay, on the west shore of the lake. In the fall of the same year he moved to his ranch in Dayton Valley, where he remained for seventeen years.

In October, 1895, he was married to Clara Des- champs. Three of the four daughters with which they were blessed are now married, and a son, Dun- can A., who is now seventeen years old, is a student in the high school. Nellie B. is now Mrs. Gurden H. Foy and has a son, Perry. Katie B. is now Mrs. Ire R. Cope. Stella M. is now Mrs. John P. Barry and has a son, Rodney. The third daughter, Clara M., died at the age of eleven years.

Mr. McCarthy was employed for eight seasons in the service of the United States Geological Survey, and while so engaged helped to establish the interna- tional boundary between the United States and Can- ada and also to map the Glacier National Park.

In the summer of 1906, being a widower, he sold his Dayton Valley ranch, and in November of the

Laugene 11 Carthy

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same year he was married to Mrs. Malinea Lalond Benson, who had two children, a daughter Violet, who is now Mrs. Roy Gill Sparke, and a son Andrew Lee Lalond, of Seattle, Washington.

From 1908 to 1916 Mr. McCarthy was engaged as sales manager for a real estate firm selling large tracts of land located in various parts of the United States and Canada, and this afforded him an oppor- tunity for quite extensive traveling throughout the country. Among other successful transactions was the sale of a fifty-acre addition to Palm Beach, Flor- ida. It is known as the Palm Beach Heights Addi- tion and is now the most valuable residential property in the city. This transaction netted him a very handsome profit.

He was elected a justice of the peace of Kalispell Township in 1916 and in 1917 he received the ap- pointment as police judge, and is at present holding both these offices, having been re-elected in our last general election.

Big of heart, genial in manner and thorough in whatever he undertakes, Mr. McCarthy is typical of his times and the great West which he has so notably helped to develop. In the prime of life, he has already experienced more than a half dozen ordinary men do in a lifetime, but these experiences have only served to widen his horizon and expand his nature, and makes him realize that there is a bit of good in the worst of men and a touch of bad in the best, and he renders his decisions with this in view .- Written by J. H. Christensen.

WILLIAM RALPH GORDON. Agriculture today con- tinues as essential in peace as it was in war, and consequently now more than ever must the farmer take advantage of every opportunity offered him for making his work more effective. The state and national governments have recognized this and are aiding those engaged in this most important indus- try to learn necessary facts relative to the struc- ture, composition and physiology of farm crops and their environment, such as climate, fertilizers and soil. As the vital interest in any community, the success of agriculture as the great basic industry is of paramount importance, and one of the enthusi- astic young men of Montana who recognizes this and is devoting his talents and knowledge to the promulgation of agricultural information and the securing of co-operation among the farmers is Wil- liam Ralph Gordon, county agricultural agent for the Broadwater region with headquarters at Town- send.

William Ralph Gordon was born at Wheeling, West Virginia, on April 21, 1892, a son of William C. Gordon. The latter was born at Powhattan, Ohio, in 1866, and is now a resident of Wheeling, West Virginia. He was reared in his native place, which he left for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he completed his collegiate training, following which he became a druggist of Sisterville, Ohio. Later he was in the drug business at Bellaire, Ohio, and then in 1888 went to Wheeling, West Virginia, to be mar- ried, and in 1891 located there permanently. When he first went to Wheeling he bought an interest in a drug store, later becoming its sole owner, and he is now engaged in conducting it. In politics he is a republican. William C. Gordon was married in 1888 to Laura Cecelia Thompson, born at Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1868. They became the parents of the following children: Gertrude, who married H. E. Gimpel, a capitalist of Brooklyn, New York; and William Ralph, whose name heads this review. William Ralph Gordon attended the public schools of Wheeling, West Virginia, and was graduated from its high school course in 1912, following which

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 96

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