Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 113

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

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JOHN R. COMFORT .- A son of the old Key- stone state and born in Lanesboro, Susquehanna county, on April 2, 1844, John R. Comfort has been a resident of Montana from early pioneer days. His father, James Comfort, was born in the same county, whither his parents emigrated from Orange county, N. Y., his father having served in the war of 1812. James Comfort devoted his life to farming and lum- bering, and was a devout Methodist. He married Mary A. McKune, born in the same county, and of their thirteen children John R. was the eighth. He received his education in the public schools and in his youth assisted his father in his farming and ltimbering operations. At the age of eighteen years, in the fall of 1862, he enlisted for service in the Civil war as a private in Company B. One Hun- dred Thirty-seventh New York Volunteer In- fantry, which was with the Army of the Potomac until after the battle of Gettysburg, when it went to reinforce Rosecrans at Chattanooga, and later ac- companied Gen. Sherman on his march to the sea. Mr. Comfort was with his regiment until the close of the war, and was mustered out June 18, 1865. as first sergeant.

Mr. Comfort, again a civilian, returned to Penn- sylvania, and turned his attention to farming and lumbering and also became an expert blacksmith.

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In 1879 he came to Montana and located at Twin Bridges, Madison county, where he has since made his home. At that time there was there one store, a saloon, a blacksmith shop, a hotel, and three fami- lies. Mr. Comfort has conducted blacksmithing since his arrival in Montana with most gratifying success, and, like Tubal Cain, he has dignified the trade. In politics he has been an unflagging Re- publican, and has been called upon to serve in various offices. He was elected to the legislature in the fall of 1888, the last territorial assembly of Montana, and he has served a number of terms as justice of the peace. He was chosen one of the trustees of the state orphans' home in Twin Bridges at the time of its establishment, is now serving his third term in that office, and is the secretary of the board. He and his wife are members of the Metho- (list Episcopal church.

Fraternally Mr. Comfort is identified with West- gate Lodge No. 27, A. F. & A. M., of Twin Bridges, of which he was master for twelve years, and also with the Order of the Eastern Star and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He keeps vital inter- est in his old comrades in arms, and is now com- mander of Custer Post No. 5, G. A. R. He formerly belonged to the Good Templars, and was grand chief templar of Montana in 1888. On September 25, 1866, in Pennsylvania, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Comfort and Miss Frances May Wat- rous, the daughter of John B. Watrous, a native of Connecticut. Mr. and Mrs. Comfort have had five children, of whom three are living, Lynn, now post- master of Twin Bridges; Ada Katherine, the wife of J. M. Nye, a successful stockgrower of Centen- nial Valley, Mont., and Phœbe A., wife of L. J. Williams, of Dillon.

JOHN CONLEY .- Born at Baltimore, Md., May 20, 1854, and educated in the public schools in the vicinity of that characteristic Ameri- can city, working through half a dozen different states, farming quietly in the east and middle west, rafting on the great Father of Waters, fighting desperately under Custer and Crooks and Miles against the Indians, dealing officially, as sheriff and deputy sheriff, with the lawless elements of several counties, and having many thrilling ad- ventures and hair-breadth escapes in the discharge of his duties, the life story of John Conley would furnish food for a recital as exciting and ap-

parently as overdrawn as any of Nick Carter's detective stories.

His father, Patrick Conley, and his mother, Mary (McGann) Conley, were natives of Ireland, who, like so many of the natives of that unfortun- ate land, came to America to enjoy greater free- dom and opportunity. The father was a farmer in the old country, but after his arrival in the United States became a cattle merchant, buying the cattle and selling them to butchers in and around Baltimore, where he was located, and about twenty-five miles from which he died in 1869. John was the third of seven children, of whom five are still living. He quit school in 1871, and worked on a farm near his home for one year. The next year he tried his hand at farming in Wisconsin, and the next at rafting on the Mississippi river. In 1873 he went back east as far as Pennsylvania, and remained a year, returning west the next and locating in Iowa, where he worked as fireman on a locomotive for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad Company for a year and a half. In January, 1876, he removed to Cheyenne, and there went to work for the United States government, working in pack train with Gen. Crook's com- mand, with which he reached the Custer battle field. He was soon after transferred to Gen. Miles' command and placed in charge of pack train No. 78, which he continued to run until 1882. He saw very active service in the Lame Deer fight with the Nez Perces in 1877-again against the Bannacks in 1878-and still another time in the running fight against Sitting Bull, in 1879. In the summer of 1880 he was with the Northern Pacific surveyors with soldiers in charge of a pack train in the Bad Lands. New Year's morning he was with Maj. Elges when he captured the Sioux tribe of Indians. The thermometer that morning was 60 degrees below zero, and the suffering from cold was intense. This expedition started De- cember 4, 1880, and did not return until the follow- ing March. In 1882 he was serving the public as deputy sheriff in Miles City. The next .year he worked at Livingston in the same capacity, and the next in Dawson county. In the spring of 1885 he was employed at the smelting works in Ana- conda, and continued there until 1892, when he was appointed one of the guards at the state penitentiary at Deer Lodge. In 1893 and 1894 he was deputy sheriff of Deer Lodge county, and again in 1895 and 1896: The next two years he was elected constable in that county, and in the

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fall of 1898 was elected sheriff of the county, an office to which he was re-elected in 1900, this time on the Independent Democratic ticket, the only sheriff in the state elected on that ticket. In politics he has always been a Democrat, and has never been defeated for an office which he sought.

Mr. Conley is much esteemed for his social qualities as well as for his sterling manhood and faithful discharge of every duty. He is a mem- ber of the Order of Elks in which he takes great interest. He has been married twice. His first wife was a Miss Hardman, who died in 1891, leaving two children surviving her. His second marriage was to Miss Isabel McDonald, of Min- neapolis, and was solemnized at Deer Lodge May 20, 1893.

LION. J. M. CONROW, who represents Park county in the senate chamber of the Montana legislature, is one of the prominent business men and leading stockraisers of the state. He was born in Burlington, N. J., on October 21, 1845, the son of Mark and Kizzia (Hilliard) Conrow, also na- tives of Burlington. The maternal grandfather, Samuel Hilliard, was a captain of militia and took active part in the war of 1812. For several genera- tions the Hilliard family were residents of New Jer- sey, the emigrant ancestors coming from Wales. The paternal grandfather, John Conrow, was born in New Jersey, and his ancestors came from the north of Ireland. Mark Conrow was a carpenter and builder during all the years of his life's activity and continued this labor in New Jersey until his death.

J. M. Conrow received his primary education in the schools of Burlington county. He was a patri- otic youth, and school could not keep him from serv- ing his country. At the early age of seventeen he en- listed in Company I, Twenty-third New Jersey In- fantry, and he was mustered into the service at Mount Holly. The company was sent to Virginia and incorporated with the First Brigade of the his- toric Sixth Army Corps, Gen. Sedgwick command- ing. With his regiment he took part in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and then the regiment was mustered out. In 1864 Mr. Conrow again enlisted, this time in Company C, New Jersey Cavalry, under Col. Janeway. He participated in all the heavy engagements of the Army of the Potomac from Petersburg to Appomattox, and he was on the

line of battle when Gen. Lee surrendered to Gen. Grant. After this the regiment went to Washington, where Mr. Conrow was honorably discharged on June 7, 1865. He had done gallant service for his country and been spared for future usefulness. He passed the next winter at his home in New Jersey, and in April, 1866, started for Montana, going by ox team from St. Joseph, Mo. The journey was not perilous, although there was ever an anxiety concerning the possible aggressions of the Indians, who were by no means friendly.

On August 10, 1866, Mr. Conrow arrived at Vir- ginia City, Mont., and two months later he jour- neyed to Salt Lake City and the San Pique valley, Utah, where he remained until the spring of 1867, then driving a herd of cattle to Virginia City. En- gaging in placer mining until the spring of 1868, he removed to Radersburg, then in Jefferson county. Here he passed two summers, wintering at Last Chance gulch. In the spring of 1870 Mr. Conrow removed to North Boulder, where for eighteen months he was ranching for other parties, and there he engaged in the business for himself, and quite profitably too, until the fall of 1874. Thereafter he went to the Gallatin valley and directed his attention to general farming, selling out in 1877 and remov- ing to the Yellowstone valley, his present home. He at first took up a homestead, and he has added to this until his ranch now contains 1,200 acres of fine pasturage. He has also extensively engaged in dairying, and owns a large number of Holstein cows. In the stock industry he is largely inter- ested, usually wintering 500 head of cattle. Mr. Conrow's ranch is supplied with commodious build- ings, and is well-equipped in every respect. On March 29, 1874, Mr. Conrow was married to Miss Frances Gasskill, a native of Burlington, N. J., born on August 18, 1856. She is a daughter of Frank- lyn Gasskill, a native of that state. Their eleven children are: Mark, Samuel B., in charge of the ranch ; Charles Price Blakely, Phineas, Roscoe, John J. R., Joseph, David B., Frank, Helena and Frances.

Mark Conrow received his early education at Livingston, and continued this with a thorough course at that excellent institution, the University of Minnesota, at Minneapolis, and he was graduated from the law department in 1900, synchronously being admitted to the bar of Minnesota. On his re- turn to Montana he was admitted to practice and has established himself in a representative legal practice at Kalispell. He is highly respected and gives promise of becoming one of the legal lights of

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the commonwealth. In 1892 J. M. Conrow was elected sheriff of Park county, as a Democrat, and in 1898 an appreciative constituency sent him to the state legislature, where he was one of the most dis- tinguished members. The fact that he was in 1900 elected as state senator from a county strongly opposed to him politically, strengthens the statement just made. Fraternally he is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Freemasons and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He has ever taken an active part in educational matters, and for many years has been a school trustee. The story of Mr. Conrow's life is the history of one of the most progressive and intelligent men in the state.

H UBERT COTY .- The scion of an old and well established family of Canada, with an estate of considerable value, entailed for the benefit of those who remained on it and thus be handed down from generation to generation, as it has been, with a widely known and honorable name attached to it, Hubert Coty, the subject of this narrative, cheer- fully surrendered his right to all interest in the pat- rimony for the freedom and independence of mak- ing his own way in the world; and although practi- cally penniless at the time, left home at the age of fifteen and sought employment on a farm for the purpose of supporting himself until he could do bet- ter. He was born on the homestead near Mon- treal, June 14, 1842, one of the seven children of Gabriel Coty, and, having lost his mother when he was six years old, did not get much of the attention boys of his age required, and received no schooling worthy the name, except what he got from the severe school of experience. In 1877 he left his na- tive land and went to Fall River, Mass., and tried working in a cotton factory there for two years, but finding the work ruinous to his health, he was obliged to give up the job and seek more favorable if not more remunerative employment elsewhere. In the meantime he had married and had a family of children growing up around him. The hour was dark and unpromising, but he was a man of forti- tude and his family shared his spirit. Amid the gloom which surrounded him, he heard the voice of the great northwest calling for volunteers in her army of industrial progress, and with a faith in himself which seemed almost audacity, he deter- mined to answer the call, although he had scarcely the means necessary to pay the expenses of the trip

to the new field of labor, to say nothing of provision for the family he was obliged to leave behind him. In 1879 he started for Montana, traveling by rail to Omaha, Neb., and thence by an emigrant wagon train to Helena, arriving in May, after being four- teen days on the plains. He soon found work in the Prickly Pear valley, farming and burning coal, and after two years of industry and thrift he was able to send for his family. They joined him in the fall of 1881. He then rented a ranch, opened a boarding house, and worked to such good purpose with the assistance of his wife and the older chil- dren that in two years he was able to locate on a part of his present home, the only habitation being a small cabin, in which they huddled as best they could, with no great comfort, but with light hearts and high hopes. The mountain air and outdoor life had brought back strength and suppleness to his muscles and a good fresh color to his cheeks; so that surrounded by his family, who were ready to aid in any work there might be to do, with health in his body and courage in his heart, he felt able to challenge Fate herself into the lists and meet her on almost equal terms. He now owns more than 1,000 acres of excellent land, as good as any in the state ; has it well improved with a comfortable and commodious residence and all necessary outbuild- ings, and brought to a high state of cultivation by assiduous attention to its needs and skillful farm- ing. Along with his general agricultural products, he raises numbers of fine cattle and horses which have a high reputation in the market and are much sought after. He is a self-made man essentially, and one of the most substantial and prosperous in the county. He is a model of thrift and wisdom in agriculture, and his farm is a silent but most effect- ive preacher of the benefit of forecast, calculation, thorough knowledge and faithful application.

Mr. Coty was married January 6, 1868, to Mrs. Huphrosine Arnold, nee Sanciar, also a native of Canada, where she was born September 22, 1829, a daughter of George Sanciar. They have five chil- dren : Alice, now the wife of Albert McGowan ; Hector, Henry, Lewis and Albertus, who married " Ethel Scott. Mrs. Coty was the widow of Joseph Arnold, a native of Canada and a farmer by occupa- tion. By that marriage she became the mother of three children : Valieria, deceased, became the wife of Dennis Lendri; Victoria married Frank Mareeus, and Ellen is the wife of Felix Herbert. Mr. Coty and his family are devoted members of the Catholic church. The sons are all grown, but, contrary to

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the usual rule, are still at home, contributing their best efforts to the welfare of the entire family, the improvements of the property and the comfort of their parents and one another. All of them are superior marksmen, one in particular being a great hunter. In politics both father and sons are inde- pendent, but lean to the Democratic faith. No family in their vicinity stands higher or enjoys a more general respect and esteem among the people where they are known.

REV. A. R. COOPMAN .- "Religious enthusi- asm," says Bancroft, "colonized New Eng- land, and religious enthusiasm founded Montreal, made a conquest of the wilderness on the upper lakes, and explored the Mississippi. Puritanism gave New England its worship and its schools ; the Roman church created for Canada its altars, its hospitals and its seminaries."

The story of that "conquest of the wilderness on the upper lakes and exploration of the Missis- sippi" is an oft-told tale. It sparkles in Bancroft's brilliant pages, is the very theme of Parkman's luminous narratives, and runs like a thread of gold through the works of other chroniclers. And yet it grows not stale or threadbare. It strikes the fancy of each new writer with as much force and kindles his imagination with as much fervor, as if he were the first to touch it with his pen. And in truth it is a wonderful story. From the eventful morning when, in the persons of Joliet and the meek Marquett, France and Christianity first stood in the valley of the Mississippi, to this dawn of the twentieth century, when what was to them a boundless wilderness given up to the buffalo and the savage, is the home of a civi- lized, prosperous and happy people, and alive with the hum of their mighty industries, every period is replete with thrilling and dramatic interest. And the achievement is in its inception wholly, and in its accomplishment largely, the work of the Roman Catholic church. Nor is it too much to say that the new regions which the faith and zeal of her missionaries, triumphing over the most appalling obstacles that man and nature could pre- sent, combined with science and the spirit of ad- venture, laid open in the heart of this vast con- tinent, are still a part of her vast dominion ; and that she is caring for them with the same assidu- ous fidelity that she exhibited in wresting them

from savage wildness. She is supplying her altars with priests as devout, as zealous, as reso- lute, as were her missionaries in the early day, although their functions are not so arduous and do not require so much sacrifice of personal com- fort. On the long list of her faithful servants of this era, few are worthy of higher or more general commendation than the Rev. A. R. Coopman, pastor of St. Peter's Roman Catholic church at Anaconda, who at the age of twenty-two deter- mined to devote his life to this work, and made especial preparation for its requirements. He was born in Belgium April 21. 1863, the third of the five sons and one daughter of Joseph and Theresa (Delbar) Coopman, natives of Flanders. The father was a well educated man, in good circum- stances for his location, owning his own home and filling it with an atmosphere of culture and refinement. He finished his earthly labors some years ago and was laid to rest. The mother still lives in Belgium.

Father Coopman had superior educational ad- vantages. After careful preparation in excellent private schools, he pursued a full academic course of instruction at St. Louis College, in Menin, near the French border, following this with a course at Roulers Seminary as a preparation for the university. He was graduated from Roulers with high honors in 1885, and at once entered the American College at Louvain with the intention of fitting himself specially for the work of the priesthood in the remote western American states, and bent all his efforts to this end during the three years of his stay at this college. In August, 1888. after being ordained, he bade adieu to the land of his birth and started for faraway Montana, where he arrived September 13, following. He spent the first year at Helena, living in the episcopal residence and giving his attention to the outside parishes of the diocese, preaching regu- larly at Bozeman, Livingston, Great Falls, and other places. It was a busy year and brought him business cares as well as religious duties. The diocese was greatly in need of church buildings, parochial residences, cemeteries and other proper- ties, and without sufficient means to secure them. His most important tangible achievement during the year was laying the foundation for the present fine church at Great Falls. In 1889 he was trans- ferred to Bozeman, where he remained a year and a half, finishing a house for the priest which had been begun there, and securing a cemetery for

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the parish. He also built a church edifice at White Sulphur Springs. The next year he spent six months at Miles City, with Park, Yellowstone, Custer and Dawson counties in his parish. From there he was sent to Livingston, where a portion of the foundation for a church had been built. He completed the church at a cost of $10,000, all of which he collected and paid out, and also built a priest's house. During the same time he built a church at Red Lodge in Carbon county, and paid off a large debt on one at Billings. In January, 1899, he was put in charge of St. Peter's church at Anaconda, which at that time was unfinished and had a debt of over $4,000. He has paid the debt, finished the church and procured for it the finest bell in the state.' The congregation of St. Peter's is increasing rapidly in numbers, maintain- ing constantly a high degree of enthusiasm, pro- viding liberally for needed charities, reaching out eagerly for additional improvements-in short, giving every evidence of a vigorous, vigilant, healthy and loyal vitality. The indomitable spirit of the pastor has been communicated to the church. In August, 1901, he was transferred to St. Paul's church in Anaconda.

This sketch is occupied mainly with the busi- ness side of Father Coopman's work. It should record also that his spiritual ministrations have been active, helpful and fruitful, just as his build- ing and financial achievements have been numer- ous and substantial; and that while his construc- tive genius is remarkable, his scholastic and ec- clesiastical attainments are no less so. He is obliged to use four languages in his church work at Anaconda, and he speaks them all fluently.

In 1897-8 he made an extended tour of Europe, in the course of which he visited Rome and had while there the great favor of a special audience with the Holy Father.

Father Coopman's labors are highly appreciated by their beneficiaries and by the authorities of the church. He is greatly beloved by his own flock, and by his liberality of opinion, courtesy of manner and genial disposition has endeared himself to all classes in Anaconda without regard to sect or creed.

W ILLIAM E. CLOWES .- Among the pro- gressive business men.of Montana who have been essentially the architects of their own for- tunes, this well known citizen of Butte may be

given a postition of prominence and it is but fit- ting that he be given representation in this work, whose province is defined most clearly in its title, "Progressive Men of Montana." William Edward Clowes is a native of the province of New Bruns- wick, Canada, where he was born on March 27, 1852, the only child of Edward and Caroline (Hum- phreys) Clowes, natives of Canada, where the father died in the year 1871. He was a man of fine intellectuality and devoted his life to the legal profession, in which he attained high prestige and a position of prominence. His widow now makes her home with her son, the subject of this review. The paternal grandfather was Theodore Van Wyck Clowes, who was born in the state of New York, of sturdy and distinguished Holland ancestry. In his youth he removed to Canada, where he turned his attention to agricultural pur- suits and where he passed the residue of his life.

The early educational privileges afforded Will- liam E. Clowes were somewhat limited, but in the private schools of his native province he laid the foundations for that broad and exact fund of knowledge which has since come to him through wide reading, personal application and active as- sociation with men and affairs. At the age of sixteen years he entered upon an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade, devoting three years to this work and becoming a skillful artisan. He then removed to Boston, Mass., where he was en- gaged in the work of his trade for several years, and then made his way westward by degrees, work- ing as a journeyman in various localities. He was for some time in North Dakota, and thence he came to Montana in 1884, locating in Butte, where he found his services as a carpenter in ready de- mand, finally engaging in contracting and build- ing on his own account and constantly expanding the scope of his operations, which have been at- tended with most gratifying success and through which he has gained a competence. He has in- vested in real estate and made improvements upon the same, building houses and placing the prop- erty on the market. At the present time he is the owner of twenty houses, while he is ever alert to take advantage of opportunities afforded for the acquirement of eligible properties and add- ing to their value by improvements of the char- acter noted. He is regarded as one of the en- terprising and substantial citizens of Montana's metropolis and as a business man of distinct sagacity and executive ability, having materi-

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 113

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