Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 99

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 99

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At Missoula in 1910 he married Miss Janet Schoeller, whose parents live at Post Falls, Idaho. Her father is a rancher. Mrs. Woods is a grad- uate of the Spokane High School. They have one child, Wallis, born September 18, 1911, now a student in the Helena public schools.

CLAUDE F. MORRIS, president of the Montana State Bankers Association and a former state senator, educated himself for the law, but probably never handled a court case in Montana, all his interests and connections here having been as a banker, a position in which he has won high honors.

Mr. Morris was born on his father's farm in Audrain County, Missouri, January 10, 1869, son of Harrison F. and Nancy Catherine (Domigan) Morris. His father, who was born in Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky, September 25, 1824, was a true son of Kentucky as exemplified in his inter- ests in fine livestock, particularly saddle horses. He moved from Kentucky to Audrain County, Mis- souri, in 1867, and was a successful farmer, breeder of Durham cattle and of horses the rest of his life. He lived to the venerable age of nearly ninety years, passing away June 10, 1914. He took no in- terest in politics as the means of getting office; was a democrat, and for thirty years was an elder and earnest working member of the Presbyterian Church. His wife, Nancy Catherine Domigan, whom he married at North Middletown, Kentucky, in 1850, was born in the community of Bourbon County, December 11, 1834, and died January 8, 1907. Eight children were born to their union, and seven are still living. Claude Frank was the fifth among the

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children and the first born after the family came to Missouri.

His early life environment was his father's stock farm in Northeastern Missouri. His early educa- tion was acquired in district schools, and later he took a business and normal course at Sedalia, Mis- souri. Mr. Morris made his first acquaintance with Montana at Fort Benton, where he arrived May 10, 1892. The following four years he was em- ployed as a bookkeeper in the Stockman's National Bank of Fort Benton. There he learned the funda- mentals of good banking, but after four years he resigned to accept a clerkship in the agricultural department of Washington under Secretary James Wilson. He remained in Washington five years, and during four years of that time he devoted all his leisure time to his law studies at the Columbian, now the George Washington, University. Among the members of the faculty of that law school from which he received instruction were Justices Har- lan, Brewer and Vandeventer of the Supreme Court. Mr. Morris has always deeply appreciated the honor of being president of the class of ninety-three mem- bers.

In August, 1903, he returned to Montana with the intention of practicing law. He was prevailed 'upon, however, by S. McKennan, a prominent financier of the Northwest, to enter banking with the Mc- Kennan interests, and accordingly for three years he served as secretary of the Union Bank and Trust Company of Helena. He left Helena to become vice president of the First State Bank of Malta, settling up the affairs of that involved institution. Then in March, 1907, he came to Havre as cashier of the Security State Bank and in 19II was elected vice president of that institution. Mr. Morris has used his training as a lawyer chiefly to handle the trust and administrative work connected with his banks. He is interested in a number of other bank- ing institutions over the state.

He is also president of the Bearpaw Live Stock Company, which operates a ranch of 5,000 acres in the Bearpaw Mountains. His first important po- litical honors came in 1914 with his election to the House of Representatives, and in 1916 he was sent to the State Senate. One noteworthy distinction of his legislative career was as author of the $15,000,000 road bill passed in the session of 1918. Mr. Morris took his early Masonic degrees while at Washington, and is affiliated with Havre Lodge, Chapter and Commandery, Scottish Rite Consistory- and Algeria Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Helena, and is a member of the Havre Lodge of Elks. He is also one of the trustees of the Masonic Temple at Havre. In politics Mr. Morris is a democrat.

October 25, 1905, at Ann Arbor, Michigan, Mr. Morris married Miss Alice Cary Manwaring. She was born near Binghamton, New York, daughter of T. P. and Mary (Griswold) Manwaring. Her father was a prominent horticulturist. Mr. and Mrs. Morris have three children, Catherine, Philip M. and Richard McKennan.

NICK ARNET, who has had a rich and varied ex- perience in the western country, is one of the sub- stantial business men of Cut Bank, proprietor of a flourishing business as a harness dealer.

He was born in Alsace Lorraine, August 15, 1884, son of John and Margaret (Reich) Arnet. His father was an officer in the French army during the Franco-Prussian war when France lost Alsace- Lorraine.

He had a thirst for adventure common to most youth, and in 1901, at the age of seventeen, entered the Government lighthouse service on Lake Michi-

gan, being employed in taking supplies and build- ing material to the different lighthouse stations. During the fall of 1902 he assisted in building light- house towers on the Government piers at Milwau- kee and Sheboygan.

At Cut Bank in 1914 Mr. Arnet married Mrs. Martha Pearce, and since then he has given all his time to his growing and prosperous harness business at Cut Bank. He is a republican in pol- itics, is a past master of the Masonic Lodge, and was a member of the City Council when Cut Bank was first incorporated in 19II. He also served as the first city marshal, and for two years had expe- riences in keeping law and order in that then typical wild west cattle town, requiring all his resources, courage and tact.

FRED D. MORCK. . While his home and office are in Antelope, the business service performed by Mr. Morck covers a wide scope of country around the town. He has the leading farm loan agency in this community, and has been actively identified with Antelope since 1911, coming here soon after the building of the railroad and when the chief institu- tions of the town were the store of Grayson Broth- ers and the Citizens State Bank.

Mr. Morck has had an unusually wide and profit- able experience, and by travel and residence is well informed on conditions both in the Northwestern United States and abroad. He was born at Ossa, near Aalburg, Denmark, December 8, 1885, and his early training was chiefly in scientific agriculture. His father, William Morck, and his mother, Emma Jacobson, were both born in that part of Denmark. His father entered the merchandise business in 1863, and the following year left his store to join the Danish army in the war against Germany, at which time the rich and populous Province of Schleswig- Holstein was taken from Denmark and annexed to the German Empire. In later years the youth of Denmark were always given frequent reminders of that loss of territory and assured that some day the province would be returned. That prophecy is now being realized and fulfilled as a result of the new map of Europe following the World war. William Morck after this war continued a success- ful merchant in Denmark and died in 1910, at the age of seventy-five. In politics he always supported "the party of the left" in the Danish parliament. He and his wife were both Lutherans. His wife's father was Peter Jacobson, one of the wealthy mill men of Denmark, and at one time a winner of a capital prize of $50,000 in a Government lottery. Mrs. Emma Morck is still living in Denmark. She was the mother of thirteen children and Fred D. is the only one in America. The others are: Julius, a minister; Emil, of Aasa; Carl, a traveling sales- man; Valdemar, of Odense; Gorm, a farmer near Odense; William, a customs officer at Copenhagen; Charles, a hardware dealer at Kolving; Matilda, housekeeper for her brother Julius; Carrie, wife of S. Husum of Aalburg; Thyra, wife of Alfred Jen- sen, of Odense; Mrs. Dagmar Heilskov, whose hus- band is a large farmer and dairyman near Gudum- holm; and Mrs. Lillie Jensen, whose husband con- ducts a straw goods factory at Copenhagen.

Fred D. Morck as a boy acquired a general edu- cation and later was in a technical school for the study of scientific farming. For one year he studied dentistry, but decided that profession was not con- genial to him. About that time he left Denmark and came to the United States for the purpose of spending a year and gaining knowledge and expe- rience that would be useful to him in the old coun- try. He sailed from Copenhagen aboard the steamer

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United States for New York, and ended his journey at Bemidji, Minnesota, where a cousin lived. He shortly afterward went into the lumber woods, and was soon overcome by the life and opportunities of the northwestern country. After a year or so he became a contractor getting out timber. When he abandoned that business he made his first trip to Montana. After that he returned to his native country for a visit in 1907, and after an absence of eight months returned to the United States for the purpose of making a permanent home here. The following three years he spent on the Pacific Coast at Seattle, connected with Lehlan Brothers, wholesale dealers in grain and flour.

In was from Seattle that Mr. Morck came to Antelope in I911. Here he opened a business of collection, real estate, insurance and farm loans. He began the farm loan business in earnest in 1912 as local representative of E. J. Lander and Com- pany, and through the Morck agency of this corpo- ration a large amount of capital has been dis- tributed over the region around Antelope and has become directly productive in stocking and equip- ping the farms. The company has always shown a liberal policy and in spite of adverse conditions has exhibited an undeviating faith in the stable pros- pects of this part of Montana.

Through his business and also personally Mr. Morck has been actively associated with farming and rural improvement around Antelope. The spring- time seeding of grain and flax has been a part of his annual program and he is recognized as one of the stanch and loyal friends of the entire region. He was one of the organizers of the Antelope Tel- ephone Company and became its vice president, and is also one of the founders and a director and vice president of the Antelope Publishing Company. Mr. Morck took out his citizenship papers at Plentywood in 1914 and as a voter has acted with the democratic party. He is the present town treasurer of Ante- lope.

At Plentywood January 28, 1915, Mr. Morck mar- ried Miss Hildred Benson, who was born at Crystal, North Dakota, where her parents, James and Isabel Cunningham Benson, were homesteaders after remov- ing from Walkerville, Ontario. Her parents are now farmers at Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Mrs. Morck, one of a family of five sisters and three brothers, was liberally educated, taking a commer- cial course and for a few years prior to her mar- riage did office work at Swift Current. Mr. and Mrs. Morck have one son, Gerald, born October 17, 1917.

WILLIAM PRESTON MCMANNAMY. The respect which should always be accorded the brave sons of the North who left homes and the peaceful pur- suit of civil life to give their services, and their lives if need be, to preserve the integrity of the American Union is certainly due the gentleman to a brief review of whose life the following lines are devoted. He proved his love and loyalty to the Government on the long and tiresome marches in all kinds of situations, exposed to summer's withering heat and winter's freezing cold; on the lonely picket line a target for the missile of the unseen foe; on the tented field and amid the flame and smoke of battle, where the rattle of the musketry, mingled with the terrible concussion of the bursting shell and the deep diapason of the cannon's roar, made up the sublime but awful chorus of death. All honor to the heroes of 1861-5. To them the country is under a debt of gratitude which it cannot pay, and in centuries yet to be posterity will commemorate their chivalry in fitting eulogy and tell their knightly

deeds in story and in song. To the once large but now rapidly diminishing army that followed "Old Glory" on many bloody battlefields in the sunny South, crushed the armed hosts of treason and re- established upon a firm and enduring foundation the beloved Government of our fathers, the subject of this sketch belongs.

William Preston McMannamy, retired .lumber and mill man and now living in honorable retirement at Kalispell, was born at Port Jefferson, Shelby County, Ohio, on January 31, 1842, and he is the son of Samuel S. and Orinda (Kelley) McMan- namy. He was reared at home and in his youth attended the schools of his neighborhood. At the outbreak of the Civil war young McMannamy promptly offered his services to the Government and enlisted in Seneca County as a member of the Fifteenth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for three months' service. At the expiration of his first enlistment period he re-enlisted at Columbus, Ohio, in the infantry and was assigned to the Benton Cadets, named in honor of Senator Benton of Mis- souri, the father-in-law of Gen. John C. Fremont, and they were designated as the body-guard of the last named officer. He served with his regiment in Missouri, being in close relationship with General Fremont, until the latter was superseded in com- mand. Young McMannamy was then appointed one of the detail to convey the general's baggage to St. Louis. On leaving St. Louis the soldiers were conveyed across the Mississippi River in a big but old ferry boat. McMannamy with several com- rades were in a large omnibus which was driven onto the ferry boat, and the boys, without any par- ticular reason for their act, decided to get out of the omnibus and walk about the boat. They had hardly done so when by some accident the omni- bus, horses, driver and all, fell off into the river and were lost. On returning to his command Mr. McMannamy was mustered out and returned home. There he promptly enlisted again, this time for three years or until the close of the war. He was assigned to the Twentieth Regiment of Ohio In- fantry and veteranized at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Twentieth Ohio Regiment was one of the heroic regiments of the Civil war and took part .in many of the most important engagements of the war. After participating in the historic battle of Shiloh they went to Boliver, Tennessee, where Mr. McMannamy was taken prisoner. After being held .for thirty days he was exchanged at Vicksburg and rejoined his regiment at Boliver. Thereafter he took part in many important events, including the successful siege of Vicksburg and Sherman's cele- brated march from Atlanta to the sea. On the battle roll of this regiment are Shiloh, Boliver, Grand Junction, LaGrange, Jackson and Raymond, the latter being, according to Mr. McMannamy, the hardest fought of all. His company went into the battle with thirty-five members, ten of whom were wounded. After three years' service, his coun- try still needing him, Mr. McMannamy enlisted for the fourth time and, after ten days' furlough, re- joined his regiment at Kenesaw Mountain, in which bloody engagement he participated. He was at Atlanta in 1864 and assisted in repelling Hood's terrific attacks and took part in the evacuation of that city. He continued in active service from Sa- vannah to Buford Island, South Carolina, thence on to Pocotelago, with Richmond as their objective point. After the surrender of Lee at Appomattox they took part in the Grand Review at Washington, and then returned to Columbus, Ohio, where they were mustered out.

Upon returning to civil life Mr. McMannamy went

Crear

Brackett

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to Chillicothe, Missouri, where for a number of years he was engaged in the operation of a planing mill. In 1891 he came to Kalispell, Montana, or, rather, to the locality where Kalispell later stood. He was literally among the pioneers of this sec- tion and he has been a witness of the splendid growth and wonderful development of this section of the great Treasure State. Eventually he en- gaged in the manufacture and sale of building ma- terial, operating the most complete lumber yard and mill in this locality, his material entering into the construction of a majority of the early buildings of Kalispell. Of late years, however, he has retired from active business and is enjoying that rest to which his years of toil so richly entitle him.

On December 20, 1868, Mr. McMannamy was united in marriage with Olive Mead, the daughter of Hiram and Sarah (Fosdick) Mead, of Chilli- cothe, Illinois. To this union were born two chil- dren, Anna and Hugh P. The former is now Mrs. Piper, of Portland, Oregon. Hugh is continuing the business formerly operated by his father, having a planing mill at Kalispell and a saw-mill ten miles northwest of Kalispell. He was married to Mabel Bolton, who was born in Wisconsin, and they have two sons.

Politically Mr. McMannamy has been a life-long supporter of the republican party, while fraternally he is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic Post at Kalispell. Though almost four score years old he still takes a keen interest in everything per- taining to the best interests of the community. Dur- ing their active years he and his wife were always counted on as active supporters of every movement for public improvement. Mrs. McMannamy, who passed away on February 16, 1915, left behind her silent evidences of her public spirit in the magnifi- cent shade trees which now adorn many of Kalis- pell's best streets, and which were planted under the auspices of the Woman's Improvement Club, of which Mrs. McMannamy was secretary and one of the leading spirits. She was a good wife, a loving mother and faithful friend, who enjoyed to a remarkable degree the love and affection of all who knew her. She was an active member of the Order of the Eastern Star. . Mr. McMannamy has lived a life true to his highest ideals and he enjoys the universal confidence and esteem of the entire community in which he has been a leading figure for so many years.

OSCAR BRACKETT, the proprietor of the Brackett Hotel at Ismay, has the distinction of being one of Montana's earliest pioneers. He arrived in the state in 1876 from Bismarck, where he had preempted a tract of land near where the bridge over the Mis- souri River has since been built, and he made his home there and did the work of proving up. In December, 1875, he was a member of a party of thirty-five which started for the Black Hills coun- try. This was then a prohibited region to the set- tlers, but despite that fact the little party evaded the . watchful eye of Uncle Sam's guardians and made its way across the hills without detection, camping at Bear Butte. General Custer had taken his army into the region the summer previous, and Mr. Brack- ett's little party found his trail and while pursuing it saw their first Indians. Soon a small band of the red men were seen at closer range, and imme- diately two warriors came toward them, and the party began firing over their heads. The Indians retreated, but soon returned with reinforcements, and the battle began. After many shots had been exchanged the reds set the prairie on fire, and to off- set this the exploring party backfired and kept in the Vol. III-23

wake of the flames during the remainder of the day, and went into camp at night prepared for a strong defense in case they had been followed. There were no casualties on either side, and as the Indians did not pursue it was felt they were satis- fied to call it a draw.

The party drove over to Rapid Creek, where General Custer had made the first gold discovery, and secured claims about fifteen miles above where Rapid City is now located, and although they picked up a little gold during that winter it was not in sufficient quantities to warrant a digging, and Mr. Brackett accordingly left the party and went on to Deadwood, where the rich mine of the Hills had just been opened. However, he did not find the outlook encouraging there, and he started with a wagon train for Bismarck.

During the first night out on his return trip the train was attacked by a band of Sioux, but after the firing of a few volleys and the wounding of a member of the wagon train the red men gave up the attack, although a few followed along and two attacked again during the day, but failed of their purpose. The two red men were finally disposed of by Mr. Brackett and a companion, who lay in wait far to the rear, and when the two Indians passed they shot one of the horses, dismounted his rider, and Mr. Brackett and his companion then joined the train. No further trouble from the Indians was experienced.

On arriving at Bismarck, Mr. Brackett found the Messrs. McClain & McNiter to have contracted with the Government to establish a hay and wood camp on Tongue River and were in need of help, Mr. Brackett accordingly joining them. The party went up the Missouri River to old Fort Union over- land, escorted by Government troops to the ob- jective point, and they established camp on the island near the mouth of Tongue River. They suc- ceeded in putting in the wood for the camp, but there was no hay to cut during that season. Mr. Brackett remained with the party until the work was finished, and then joined a small party and be- gan his career as a buffalo hunter.

The hunting party selected as its location the region near the mouth of the Little Porcupine, pitched camp, and remained there during the winter of 1876-7, but in the meantime changed their voca- tion from buffalo hunters to trappers of wolves and beaver, as there was no sale for buffalo hides. In the following spring Mr. Brackett and Pete Jack- son, still living at the mouth of the Little Porcupine, made themselves boats and trapped down the Yellow- stone River to Fort Buford, where they found the steamboat Far West, which had brought up the Seventh United States Cavalry, and they went on board with their pelts and went down to old Miles- town and sold their winter's catch. Afterward Mr. Brackett established yards there for supplying wood to steamboats, also put up hay during the summer, and in the fall he and his companion, Mr. Jack- son, returned to the Little Porcupine and engaged in killing buffalo and rafting meat down to Miles- town. They spent the winter there smoking buffalo hams, and early the next summer Mr. Brackett bought one of the big "flatbottoms" which had brought vegetables down from Bozeman, loaded it with his meat and floated down the Yellowstone to the Indian Reservation at Berthol, where he sold his meat and then journeyed on to Bismarck.

Mr. Brackett at this time had been absent from his native home in Maine since 1872, and he de- cided to return there for a visit. He had one buf- falo ham left, and this he took with him as a treat for his friends, and it was probably the only buffalo

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meat which ever found its way into that eastern country. After spending a month at home Mr. Brackett returned to Bismarck and hired to a com- pany having a Government mail contract, was sta- tioned twenty miles out on the route as station man, and was thus employed for eighteen months. In the winter of 1879 he again made his way into Montana and hunted buffalo on Fallon Creek, cover- ing the region about Ismay as well as the country around Brackett's Butte, southeast of Baker, and succeeded in obtaining 700 hides during the winter. In the following winter he hunted at Teepe Buttes on Grand River, duplicating his catch of the pre- ceding season, and he sold his hides at Selley Springs. In the following spring he went into the region north of where Terry is now located and started a sheep ranch on Brackett's Creek, and re- mained in that locality until the winter of 1886-7. He started in the winter with 7,000 head and came out in the spring with 2,400. Eighty per cent of the stock of the country died during that disastrous winter, the most severe in the history of the state.

Leaving Brackett's Creek, Mr. Brackett crossed over to the Yellowstone, established his headquar- ters on Ash Creek, and was engaged in the cattle business there for two years, when he sold his cattle and engaged in the raising of horses, continu- ing that occupation for a similar period. It was at the close of this venture in 1907 that he abandoned the stock business, built a hotel at Ismay, and with the exception of two years has since given his time and attention to the conduct of this hotel. He has been successful in this new venture, and has made his hostelry one of the best known places of its kind in the community.

Although Mr. Brackett has spent the greater part of his life in the West, he was born in Maine, at East Cornish, February 6, 1850, and his boyhood days were spent on a farm. The educational train- ing which he received in his youth was obtained in the common schools, and his parents' home was his own until he had passed the age of maturity. His father, James Brackett, was a native of Aroostook County, Maine, became one of the selectmen of his town, and was widely known for his interest and participation in public affairs. He lived the life of a farmer, was fairly successful in his endeavors, gave his political support to the republican party, and was a Baptist in his religious affiliations.

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 99

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