Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 110

Author: Bowen, A.W., & Co., firm, publishers, Chicago
Publication date: [19-?]
Publisher: Chicago : A. W. Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 1374

USA > Montana > Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1 > Part 110

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EDWARD CARDWELL .- A Canadian by na- tivity, and showing in his career the productive and progressive traits of the thrifty people of his country, Edward Cardwell has proven to be one of the useful and enterprising citizens to whom Mon- tana owes so much of her past progress and pres- ent prosperity. He was born near Peterborough, Ontario, February 18, 1850, the son of William and Catherine (Wilson) Cardwell, natives of Ire- land, who came to Canada when young. There the father followed farming until his death, which oc- curred in 1897, at Mt. Forrest, Ontario, where the mother is still living. He attended school at the village of Drew, near Mt. Forrest, remaining at home assisting on the farm until he was twenty

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years old; and then, in 1871, crossing into the United States, locating at Lapeer, Mich., where he passed one winter working in the lumber camps, after which he came to Montana, making his way across the plains by driving the loose stock of Simon Pepin, a Montana pioneer now living at Havre. From his arrival in Montana in the spring of 1872 until 1874 he worked on the ranch of his uncle, Edward Cardwell, at the mouth of Boulder river, and from there he went to Alder gulch, and passed his summers in mining and his winters in the cattle business for six years. In the mnean- time, in 1878, he placed 300 head of his cattle at Sweet Grass, Gallatin county, near Big Timber, moved them in 1879 to White Beaver, and in 1880 to Countryman's Bottom, near Merrill, on the .Northern Pacific Railroad, forty-nine miles from Billings. Here he located a homestead, and has since purchased surrounding land until he now has a magnificent ranch of 20,000 acres devoted to raising high grade sheep and cattle, he being one of the largest stock producers in this section of the state. He also has 700 acres four miles west of Billings, on which he raises hay and grain for his stock. His residence is in Billings, where he has a pleasant home that is a center of generous hos- pitality.

In politics Mr. Cardwell is a Republican, and has done yeoman service in behalf of his party. He has not sought office, but served as county com- missioner of Yellowstone county from 1893 to 1897. He was united in marriage with Sarah Conolly, a native of Harrison, Ontario, where the marriage was solemnized in 1884. They have two children living: Edna, aged fifteen, and Zella, aged five. Another daughter, Martha, died at her birth in 1886.

where he was born April 20, 1858, a son of John C. and Elizabeth (Mathews) Carter, the former a native of Clinton, Ohio, and the latter of On- tario, Canada. His father as a young man re- moved from his native state to Keokuk, Iowa, where he was married and remained some six or seven years, going from there to Sullivan county, Mo., remaining some years, working at the trade of carriage making which he had learned in Ohio.

In 1860 he gathered his family and effects to- gether and made the long trip across the plains to Colorado, locating about thirty-five miles from Denver. For ten years he was actively and suc- cessfully engaged in farming and mining, and at the end of that time returned to his old home in Missouri. In 1876 he started overland, by means of a mule team, to Montana. The Indians were fighting ninety miles north of his route but gave him no trouble. He came direct to the Gallatin valley, and located on a farm four miles west of Bozeman, having first spent some time in saw- milling. He remained on the farm four years and then sold out, again engaging in mining and pros- pecting, first on Red Bluff and later at Butte. Here he was very successful after some eight months, striking the Ground Squirrel copper lode, in which he and a partner had a half interest which they disposed of for $75,000. He then went to Cas- per, Wy., and spent the summer searching for a mine which he had discovered some years before, but although finding, after considerable difficulty, the cabin he had previously occupied, he was un- able to find any trace of the lead. He is now engaged in expert work for prospectors and miners in the neighborhood of North Yakima, Wash., for which he receives a large salary, being recog- nized as an authority on matters of mining prop: erty.

George W. Carter, the immediate subject of this review, was educated in the public schools of Col- orado and Missouri. In 1878 he started in busi- ness for himself, taking a contract to furnish charcoal for a smelter at Glendale in this state, but only held the job a short time owing to an accident which destroyed the sight of one of his eyes. After this he spent four years in freighting in different parts of the country with good profit ; one year in running a threshing outfit near San Diego, Cal., and one at lumbering in Humboldt county, Cal. At this time he returned to Montana, and engaged in running a threshing outfit for the

EORGE W. CARTER .- The progressive, wide-awake and enterprising citizen and ranch- man of Gallatin county whose name inaugurates this sketch is a native of Sullivan county, Mo., . next three years, then sold out and went to farm-

ing, locating first on a ranch of 480 acres on the west side of the West Gallatin, which he sold in 1896; rented for a year and, at the end of that period, leased the Dawes ranch of 320 acres near Salesville, on which he is still living, prosperous in securing the rewards of his skillful labor and in- telligent husbandry in large crops of wheat, oats, barley and hay.

In 1888 he was married to Miss Mary C. Todd,

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a native of Missouri, but descended from distin - guished old Tennessee stock. They have one son, Arnold B., born November 14, 1889. Her uncle, Jerry Mitchell, was in a party which crossed the plains in 1863 to Virginia City, of which a tragic occurrence is related. One man in the party de- clared lie would kill the first Indian squaw he saw. The others paid but little attention to the threat, but he carried it out. Then the Indians came to the train in force and demanded his surrender, and although his father and brothers were in the train they were obliged to give him up. The Indians took him a short distance from the train and skinned him alive, then brought the quivering body back to his friends. He was still alive and lived long enough to tell them that the skinning about the finger nails was the most painful part of the operation. He died a few minutes later and was buried on Rawhide creek in Wyoming.

Mr. Carter belongs to the Woodmen of the World and the American Yeomen. He has taken a lively interest in local affairs and is serving at this time as a school trustee. He is a very pro- gressive citizen, and is highly esteemed by all who know him. Recently he has purchased the Gaskell farm, three miles west of Salesville, which he is improving for the purpose of stockraising. He usually keeps 100 head, shorthorns being his favorites in cattle and Hambletonians in horses.

D ONALD CAMPBELL, M. D., of Butte, one of the most eminent and extensive practitioners in the Butte country, was born in Inverness county, Nova Scotia, on November 1, 1862, the son of Hugh E. and Catherine (McDonald) Campbell, na- tives of the shires of Inverness and Southerland, Scotland, and brought to Nova Scotia in infancy, where they were reared, educated and married. The father is a farmer, still living on the homestead. The mother died in February, 1894. The Doctor was the sixth of ten children. He grew to manhood in his native place, working on the farm in summer and attending the nearby district schools in winter. When he was twenty-one years old, he longed for something different from life on the farm and set out to find it, armed only with his limited education, stout heart and resourceful mind. He went to Massachusetts and secured employment in the hos- pitals for the insane at Worcester and Danvers. Being engaged in this work for six years and see-

ing many distressing phases of suffering humanity, he determined to devote his life to the relief of that suffering, and in 1888 entered upon the study of medicine in the University of Vermont.

He was graduated in 1891 with a better prepar- ation for his work than have most young physicians because of his extensive hospital experience. Even during his attendance at the university he passed his vacations working in the hospitals of Boston. When the doors of his alma mater closed behind him, and the wide world spread out before him with its multitude of places wherein to locate he made choice of the great new state of Montana and purchasing a second-class ticket, which almost exhausted his slender means, he arrived in Butte in the spring of 1892, with good health, good spirits and high hopes, but with no money. Passing a creditable examination before the state medical board, he entered at once upon active medical prac- tice. He was truly educated for his work. He knew how to do, what to do and when to do, and stood ready with a hearty will to do whatever came his way in the line of duty. The result was that he was soon established as one of the largely useful, not to say indispensable, factors of the community, growing into popular favor and a fair share of its rewards. He is assiduous in devotion to his pro- fessional work in his rapidly increasing practice, not only giving all the time necessary to its daily details, but expending much of the residue in study and research.

He has always been an earnest believer in fre- quent communication among the members of any craft, comparison of views, relation of experiences and interchange of thought. And therefore he has welcomed everything in the way of a service- able organization of the medical fraternity, both local and general. He is a prominent member of the American and Rocky Mountain Interstate Med- ical Associations, having been recording secretary for the year 1900 in the latter, and delegate repre- senting the state in the former for the last four years. He is also a charter member of the Silver Bow County Medical Association, of which he is the vice-president. During the last four years he has been the local surgeon for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and is a member of the Medico- Legal Society of New York and of the Brotherhood of International Railway Surgeons. He is also medical examiner for the Equitable and the Mutual Life Companies of New York, and for the Massa- chusetts Mutual. He is a member of the Masonic

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fraternity in blue lodge, chapter and commandery, and is a noble of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs also to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Elks. He affiliates politically with the Republican party. Dr. Camp- bell was married March 15, 1893, at Bozeman, Mont., to Miss Jessie F. Jeffrey, a native of Nova Scotia, reared and educated at Hartford, Conn. They have an adopted son, Edward (Lyman) Campbell.

JOHN A. CANNON .- The annalist with a spark of imagination in his soul never tires of re- counting the story of the redemption of America's primeval wilderness and its reduction to fruitful- ness under the vigorous hand of the hardy pio- neer. Westward, always westward, moved the army of axemen, and still before them bowed the cen- tury-crowned monarchs of the forest and still re- ceded the unreturning tide of Red Men. At first the untrodden fields of Ohio were the far frontier ; then the Mississippi stopped the onward course for a day. But now all lands between the mighty oceans have been laid under tribute to man's ne- cessity, and all are yielding generously at his com- mand. James and Mary (Trimble) Cannon, the parents of John Alexander Cannon, were children of two of the early settlers in Harrison county, Ohio, and were born and reared on adjoining farms. The Cannons were emigrants from Mary- land, and the Trimbles from Pennsylvania, being of Scotch descent. The farms on which they set- tled were held sacredly in the families for genera- tions, there being only one transfer of the Can- non farm prior to its coming into that name and none for a long time afterward. James Cannon was a farmer all of his mature life. He was a mem- her of the state militia at the beginning of the Civil war, he went with his company into active service in defense of the Union ; but serious illness brought his early discharge. Three of his brothers served with credit throughout the war. He died on the old homestead on February 13, 1899, where his widow is still living.

On this old homestead J. A. Cannon was born and reared. He first saw the light of day there on September 2, 1853. The public schools furnished his preliminary education, which was supplemented by a course at Franklin College, an institution of great local celebrity, located at New Athens in his native county of Harrison. In April, 1877, he

started for Yreka, Cal., going by rail as far as Omaha, and there taking an emigrant train, reach- ing his destination after ten days of monotonous journeying. After remaining there only a month, he started overland with cattle, sheep and horses for Montana, having a small interest in the herd. He arrived at Bannock on his birthday, Septem- ber 2, and remained there about a year, caring for the stock. When the Utah Northern, the first railroad in Montana, was under construction, he moved a building from Watson, at the mouth of the canyon, to the present site of Dillon. This was in August, 1880, and his was the first house on the town site, and was put there before the railroad reached the place. He stayed there about a year, very profitably furnishing meat for the men em- ployed on the railroad. In July, 1881, he removed to Butte and began contracting and building, fre- quently employing as many as thirty-five men. In this business he was very successful, and ac- cumulated a snug sum of money. But in the winter of 1883-4 he joined the disastrous stam- pede to Couer d'Alene. He got back to Butte on Easter Sunday, in April, 1884, having lost all his money but counting himself fortunate in having saved his life. And, as if fate were trying him by a series of misfortunes, on the 4th of July follow- ing, at the grand stand on the race track, he fell and broke one of his legs, incapacitating him for any great activity or manual labor.

The next year he started a real estate business which he has since followed with close attention and devotion, and has been rewarded therefor with large returns. Property has come to him apparently as a matter of course, but in reality as the result of careful business methods and judi- cious investments. He has always had an abound- ing faith in the future greatness of Butte and in its steady progress toward that end, and has recom- mended it as a good place to others. He made his faith good by putting his money into its develop- ment, and has helped more people to homes by selling out additions to the city than any other man. Silver Bow Park, Mayflower, South Park and South Park No. 2, are among the additions he has made to the area of the city. He still has interests in all of them, and in the last he owns the greater part. It is within two miles of the center of the city, has street car facilities and other improvements in progress. He owns an interest in 2,200 lots there, but does not expect to hold them long, as the loca- tion is in the vicinity of new mines which are rapid-

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ly developing. His business covers a very large number of transfers, but there has never yet been found a flaw in any deed, it being his unvarying rule to so conduct his transactions as to leave no room for complaint or criticism. He is also largely inter- ested in mining operations, having more than 100 acres of quartz lands patented to him in different localities.

In politics Mr. Cannon is an ardent and active Republican. He is always connected with the man- agement of his party and always giving its affairs earnest and intelligent attention. In the hot fight for the location of the state capital he was chairman of the committee at Butte which had charge of the Helena interests, and the good work he accomplished in that contest can be inferred from the result. He also consented in 1887 and 1888 to forego the ur- gent demands of his business in a measure and serve his people as treasurer of the city. He ad- ministered the affairs of the office in a way which met the approval of citizens without regard to po- litical or other affiliations. He is a member of the Order of Elks, and a thirty-second-degree Mason, being also a noble of the Mystic Shrine of Algeria temple at Helena. All the social, charitable, educa- tional and mercantile interests of Butte have Mr. Cannon's zealous and helpful support. His citizen- ship is of the kind which carries a dual blessing. It builds and it adorns, it is productive and elevat- ing.

JOHN V. CARROLL, M. D., of Fort Benton, holds prestige not only as one of the leading physicians and representative citizens of Choteau county, but is also so prominently identified with the material and industrial interests of this section of the state. Dr. Carroll is a native son of the national metropolis, having been born in New York city, on February 14, 1854, the son of James and Mary B. (Welch) Carroll, natives of the Emer- ald Isle, whence they emigrated in 1846, and located in New York city, where they passed the residue of their lives.

John V. Carroll received his early education in the public and parochial schools of his native city after which he continued his studies for one year in St. Francis Xavier's College, and later matric- ulated in Washington and Lee University, at Lex- ington, Va., where he continued his literary edu- cational work for one year. Having determined to make the practice of medicine his vocation

in life he entered the medical department of the University of the City of New York, where he graduated as a member of the class of 1886; in the meanwhile attending the clinical lectures at Belle- vue Hospital for four years. Thus thoroughly pre- pared for the practical work of his profession, Dr. Carroll entered upon his professional career under conditions not usually attending the young prac- titioner. From 1879 until 1888 he was in the em- ploy of the government as physician and surgeon at Fort Assinniboine ; but later, on July 18, 1888, he assumed a position in the Indian service at Fort Belknap Indian reservation, where he en- gaged in the work of his profession until Septem- ber, 1894, when he resigned and returned to New York. There he completed a post-graduate course in New York University and University of Mich- igan. In 1895 he returned to Montana and located at Fort Benton and again entered upon the active practice of his profession, in which he is still en- gaged, being recognized as one of the most thor- ough and skillful physicians and surgeons in the state and retaining a fine and lucrative practice. The year in which he located at Fort Benton the Doctor was elected vice-president of the Stockman's Na- tional Bank, of which he is one of the principal stockholders and at the present time is president of the Fort Benton Sheep Company, which is engaged in growing sheep upon a most extensive scale. The Doctor is also individually engaged in the raising of cattle, while his real estate interests in the county are of wide scope. He owns much valuable realty in the village of Chinook, being one of the purchasers of property in that town at the time of its foundation.

The Doctor served three years as county physi- cian ; in 1899 he was the Democratic candidate for the office of county clerk and in 1900 was promi- nently mentioned as a candidate for state treasurer. He gives an unswerving allegiance to the Demo- cratic party, and has contributed materially to the promotion of its cause in a local way; he being prominent in its councils, not only in Choteau county but also in the state. In religion Dr. Car- roll holds to the faith of the Catholic church, in which he was reared and of which he is a com- municant, and is actively engaged in the work of St. Clare's Hospital, at Fort Benton, conducted under the auspices and direction of the Providence Sisters. The Doctor is a man of fine intellectual and executive powers, is a thorough devotee of his profession, which he has honored by his able

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and worthy services, and as a business man his alert and progressive ideas have conserved the success of every enterprise with which he has identified himself. On September 25, 1882, Dr. Carroll was united in marriage to Miss Matilda Simpson, daughter of Simon and Mary I. Simpson, of St. Paul, Minn., and they are the parents of four children : John V., Jr., Charles S., James M. and Grace M.

H ON. TIMOTHY W. BROSNAN was for many years one of the prominent residents and business men of Great Falls. He was the son of John and Kate (Neehily) Brosnan, and was born at Athens, Ohio, on December 13, 1854, na- tives of Ireland. John Brosnan was born in the picturesque and classic Killarney, and in 1852 came to the United States, and was em- ployed on the Hocking Valley Railroad during its construction, and for many years thereafter he was a pioneer contractor in the railroad operations of the middle west and in Minnesota. His death oc- curred March 31, 1899.

Timothy W. Brosnan was an only child and his mother died when he was four years old. He at- tained manhood in its different stages in Tennessee, Massachusetts and southern and eastern states. In 1881 he came to Leadville, Colo., but shortly after- wards came to Helena, and was at first employed on a ranch in Prickly Pear valley. In 1882 he went to Chicago and remained three years, en- gaged in the shoe trade. In 1885 he removed to Minneapolis, where he was in the same business until 1889, and then came to Great Falls, which was just emerging from the rural conditions of an embryotic western town. Here he opened a retail clothing house, popularly known as the "Hub," under the firm name of Thisted & Brosnan, and successfully conducted this profitable enterprise until his death on August 13, 1897. He was also interested in mining properties in the vicinity of Barker, and he also owned a valuable ranch on the Missouri, seven miles from Great Falls.

Mr. Brosnan was a Populist, and on that ticket he was elected to the Fourth Montana legislature as senator from Cascade county in 1894, and he was re-elected in 1896. Although one of the "merchant class," Mr. Brosnan was always an active leader in labor circles, was a prominent mem- ber of the Knights of Labor, and for three years he was master workman for Minnesota. He was

a member of the Woodmen of the World and also a devout Catholic. On November 3, 1897, Mr. Brosnan was united in marriage to Miss Mina Beushleim, of Minnesota. Her parents were Andrew and Margaret (Trump) Beushleim, both natives of Germany, who came to the United States in 1852. They at first settled in Iowa but in 1855 removed to Minneapolis, where they both died. Mr. and Mrs. T. M. Brosnan had three children, Florence E., Katherine and Gerald. The most in- portant and successful portion of the career of Mr. Brosnan occurred in Montana. He came to the state with a total wealth of $500, and by industry, his business ability, economy, and the action of those sterling qualities of manhood which he pos- sessed in the highest to a measure, he accumulated a handsome fortune. In his home city of Great Falls Mr. Brosnan possessed the esteem and con- fidence of the community, and in the municipal welfare of that city he ever took the liveliest interest.

COL. OLIVER P. CHISHOLM, an honored citizen of Bozeman, Gallatin county, Mont., is a native of Wisconsin, having been born in Hazel Green, Grant county, on September 18, 1843. His father, Robert B. Chisholm, was born in Delaware county, N. Y., and during his entire business life was prominently identified with mining operations, having been one of the first to engage in the mining of lead in Wisconsin, where he had re- moved in 1838. In 1852 he drove a wagon from Wisconsin to Minnesota, locating on a tract of government land in the vicinity of the present town of Oronoco, Olmstead county, and within one and a half miles from his place he discovered the first gold ever brought to light in Minnesota. In 1863 he purchased a farm in the vicinity of Elgin, Ill., removing thereto, but eventually selling the land as the site for the state insane asylum. Prior to this, in 1850, Robert B. Chisholm crossed the plains from Benton, Wis., to California, and at Salt Lake City he met Brigham Young, and remained in the city of Latter-day Saints until early in 1851, when he continued his journey to the Golden state, returning to his home the same fall. Again, in 1860 or in 1861, did he make the trip to California, returning home in 1863, and then removing with his family to Winona, Minn., where our subject and his brother, William W., learned the printer's trade, the former in the office of the old Winona

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 110

Author: Bowen, A.W., & Co., firm, publishers, Chicago Publication date: [19-?] Publisher: Chicago : A. W. Bowen & Co. Number of Pages: 1374

Author: Bowen, A.W., & Co., firm, publishers, Chicago
Publication date: [19-?]
Publisher: Chicago : A. W. Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 1374