Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 130

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 130

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PATRICK J. HAMILTON .- Born in the Emerald Isle on August 9, 1831, a native of "glorious old Dublin-town,"' Patrick J. Hamil- ton, of Butte, has seen many ups and downs of life. He descends from old Irish families, his father, Edward Hamilton, being born in County Wicklow, and his mother, Mary Ann (Lynan) Hamilton, in Dublin. The father was an exporter of cattle to England. Patrick, the fourth of their five children, was educated in Dublin, but, having a turn for business, in his fifteenth year he joined an uncle in the exporting line, and, two years later, on the death of his father, he took charge of the family interests with such vigor and shrewd- ness that in two years he doubled the capital. Re- verses came, through no fault of his, and before he was twenty he had lost all the accumulations and emigrated to America with no capital but his capabilities, his willingness for duty and his indomitable resolution.

Arriving at New Orleans without money, he began his new life by ditching in the swamps, where he contracted fever, and but for kind Sis- ters of Charity he would have died. After he had fully recovered, he went to St. Louis, Mo., and then entered the employ of the North Missouri Rail- road. He soon determined to go to the headwaters of the Missouri, and was at Lecompton and Law- rence, Kan., and at Omaha, where he met Judge Clancy and worked in his brickyard at

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$30 per month. He received his pay for the first month, but the Judge said he had no money for the second, but would give a corner lot or two inside ones for a month's work, predicting that in five years they would be worth $5,000 a lot. He also told Mr. Hamilton to take up 360 acres of land near by, saying that the state capital would be located there, and that a transcontinental rail- road would pass that point and the land would soon be worth $10,000. Mr. Hamilton, by not following his advice, lost one of the finest chances of his life. After this he worked on the Blackbird Omaha Indian reservation and within eighteen months returned to Omaha and saw the truth of the prophecy of the Judge. He worked the next eight months across the river from the site of Sioux City, and then took up 320 acres of land near the new town of Decatur. Before the land was surveyed he sold his right to 160 acres for $1,500, but through treachery he lost the land. He then worked in Iowa at ditching, making $10 a day. As the scrip with which he was paid was worth only half its face value, he took 160 acres of swamp land for it, and also bought two lots in Onawa and nine lots in Decatur, Neb. In 1861 while crossing the plains to Denver, he met his old friend Judge Clancy, who said: "I have an- other fortune for you. I will give you a block in Aurora and you can get work here. You had better not go to the mines." Aurora was across the river from Denver and the Judge said it would become "as large as Omaha in ten years." But Mr. Hamilton again refused his advice and lost another fortune. Denver and Aurora consolidated and became all the Judge had claimed.

Mr. Hamilton then was employed by Lyons C. Pullman in the mines of California gulch, now Leadville, and in July, 1862, he left Denver with eight wagons and twenty-three men tor Florence, Idaho. The commandant stopped them at Fort Halleck, saying that they could not proceed as the Indians were very hostile. When asked to show his authority for stopping them he answered that he had none, but if they went on they would certainly be massacred. They hired a half-breed as a guide and went on, often traveling in the night and lying concealed through the day. At Salt Lake City they had heated arguments with the Mormons who "allowed" that the south would win. They told Gov. Harding of this, and he put his finger to his mouth and said: "Hush! you will be fortunate if you get away with your lives !"

They also met Brigham Young, who asked then where they were going, and when they replied "North, in search of gold," he treated them very courteously. At Ogden they found forty large wagons preparing to go to the new northern dig- gings. They were owned by a Mormon firm, and here Gen. Connor's command passed them en route from California to Salt Lake City. Joining the train, which now had forty-eight wagons, they started north. Of the company were Col. Mc- Clain, afterward Montana's first delegate in con- gress, Judge Bissell, Dr. Six, Dr. Woodruff and L. M. Lott. Every day something got wrong with the wagons. After traveling a week, twenty- three men and eight wagons went ahead and made a track for the others. Sometimes they trav- eled by day, sometimes by night, frequently they did not make a fire. There were no bridges, and they crossed the rivers as best they could. When this advance was camping within twenty miles of Bannack the sentinel gave an alarm of "In- dians!" They could not make a good corral witlı eight wagons, so they put out their fires and, when James Kennedy went out after the Indians, the rest followed to save him. They captured four Indians and their horses and held them as hos- tages to be shot if attacked. No attack was made and in the morning twelve votes were for freeing them and eleven for shooting them. The majority ruled, and they gave the savages a break- fast and released them. At their camp within four miles of Bannack they concluded to have a jollification, and tapped one of the barrels of whiskey they had as freight. They drew this into a pail and dipped it out with tin cups. At Ban- nack they found the people in great fear of the Indians, expecting their camp to be wiped out at any moment.

Bannack was the "toughest" mining camp ever known. A Californian named Cleveland came there in 1863 and the next day Henry Plummer killed him, and nothing was done or said about it. The Bannack Indians camped about five miles be- low, and one day Old Snag, the chief, who had saved many a white man's life, came with two other Indians. to the camp. The gamblers and toughs began to fire at them and in the affray one white man was shot. The lawless element ruled the town until the miners rose and said: "We will run the camp." Then Plummer, Ike Moore and others left hastily. But the miners organized a company. captured the desperadoes,

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among whom were Plummer and Moore, gave them a trial and banished them. Mr. Hamilton followed mining at Bannack and obtained con- siderable gold. Alder gulch was discovered on May 23, 1863, by Barney Hughes (Irish), and Henry Rodgers, William Sweeney (Irish Can- adians), Tom Coover (Pennsylvania Dutch) and Henry Edgar and William Fairweather (Scotch Canadians). Four days later Mr. Hamilton se- cured claims in nearly all the districts, but was taken ill and when he recovered all had been "jumped." He took a contract for stripping ground, and made $120 a week during the sum- mer of 1864, employing twelve to fifteen men part of the time. In December he went to Last Chance gulch and there again met his old friend Judge Clancy, who gave him a certificate of a claim. During the summer of 1865 Mr. Hamilton was prospecting in all directions. In the fall he went to work for Speigel & Hawes at Confederate gulch on a big ditch to bring water to the Montana bar, and he and his part- ners made $14 a day each. They then made a rich discovery in Greenhorn gulch, his partner sold his interest, reserving the right for Mr. Ham- ilton to choose claim No. I above or claim No. I below the discovery. He took the first, which proved of no account, while the other was one of the richest in the camp, over $150,000 being taken out. Mr. Hamilton traded his interests for a claim on the second rim of Montana bar, where he and his partners averaged $500 a day for six weeks. Then they purchased adjoining claims, but did not find thirty cents of gold. Jack Thomp- son had a claim in Montana gulch and hauled the dirt with oxen to the water and took out from $1,200 to $1,500 a day in 1865 and 1866, but he afterwards died a pauper at Philipsburg. Then Mr. Hamilton prospected in all parts of the ter- ritory, then bought an interest in a claim 2,000 feet long and 1,000 feet wide on Silver creek, which he worked seven years, averaging in gold $10 a day to the man. In 1872 he sold out and en- gaged in farming on his own land on the creek.

In 1873 he went to Ireland, engaged in shipping beef cattle to England and "went broke." In 1875 he returned to Montana, and, on his way to Helena, met his old friend Joe Supranaunt (with whom he had crossed the plains in 1862) at Mc- Kenzie's ranch. Negros had "struck it rich" in a gulch on Moose creek and, at Joe's request, Mr. Hamilton and others located claims and water

rights there. After working all the season, run- ning up a drain ditch, and working across the gulch from rim to rim, it proved worthless for mining and they abandoned it, but later the water right sold for $25,000. Mr. Hamilton came to Butte in October, 1875, when there were only three men working in the mines for wages, aside from William Park's copper mine, the Parrot. He built the first log house on Broadway west of Main street, and was an active builder of the town. The times were fearfully hard and it was almost impossible to obtain work. He followed mining in Park canyon, Horse canyon and west of the town, he dug wells and cellars, and turned his hand to anything he could get to do. He later built a fine house on Broadway and had five houses where his magnificent building, the Ham- ilton, stands. This valuable three-story edifice he built in 1892. He has much other property and has been liberal in giving grounds for streets, alleys and other public purposes. Mr. Hamilton is independent in politics, following the lead of no man; in religion he is a Catholic, active in the service of the church. He and Father Poland did the first work on the Catholic church in Butte, the first church edifice of the city, and Father Poland was the first man to serve mass in Mon- tana, outside of the missions.

C APT. WILLIAM HALL .- Born on February 22, 1837, in County Waterford, Ireland, ap- parently to a destiny of obscurity and toil, his father being a hard working miner with little op- portunity to advance or to do more for his family than provide the daily necessaries of life, Capt. William Hall, by his own industry, capacity and mental force, achieved success and won distinction. His father was William Hall, a native of England, and his mother, Margaret Bateman, of Irish birth, who emigrated to America as a Mormon after the death of her husband. When he was six years of age Capt. Hall's parents removed to Kirkchud- bright, Scotland, where he secured the precious boon of eighteen months schooling, which he after- wards supplemented by a few brief sessions of night school. He was obliged even in childhood to help support the family, and at eight years of age was put to work in the leadmines of Black-Craig and Cairns- more, and passed the next five years of his young life underground. He went ther with his father

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to Wales, and worked six years in the iron mines, and emigrated to the United States in 1859, settling first in Dover, N. J., where he was employed in iron mines for a year. He next went to Lake Superior, and soon became foreman of the Kewe- naw mine. A year later he went to the Ducktown copper mines in Tennessee, and then to the Can- ton copper mines in Georgia. When the Civil war broke out he returned to Michigan and remained there until 1873, then removed to Salt Lake City and was superintendent of mines and mining in- terests for the Walker Brothers. In 1880 they sent him to Walkersville, near Butte, as general man- ager of the Alice Gold and Silver Mining Company. In 1894 he resigned this position and took charge of the Washoe mines for the Anaconda Mining Company. Two years later he removed to Spokane, Wash., where he was offered and accepted the superintendency of the Le Roi mines at Rossland, B. C. Here on January 5, 1898, he fell down a 600-foot shaft and was instantly killed, ending a life of great usefulness and leaving to mourn a very large circle of friends and acquaintances.

Capt. Hall was always active in politics and deeply interested in public affairs. He was the first mayor of Walkerville, and while residing there was elected county commissioner for a term of six years. He was also on the Republican ticket as a candidate for presidential elector in 1892. While in charge of the Alice mine he gave much time to the development and proper use of the Alice library and reading room, and did all in his power to improve the condition of the men under him. He was much interested in all matters connected with mines and mining, and frequently wrote ar- ticles for the newspapers and magazines on the subject. Masonry also had a winning voice for him, and he embraced every department of the or- der up to and including the thirty-second degree. His wife was Miss Sarah N. Grose, a native of Wales, brought to America in infancy by her par- ents, who first settled in Canada, and afterwards in Michigan. They have five children living, Samson W., now engaged in mining, William, in business at Spokane, Pearl, wife of F. G. Mattheson, of Spo- kane,and Rose, wife of J.A. Heilbronner, of Butte.

EDGAR MOORE HALL is the descendant of a patriotic Revolutionary family, both his great- grandfather and his great-great-grandfather on his father's side having served seven years in Washing- 43

ton's army and suffered all the horrors of Valley Forge, and his great-grandfathers on both father's and mother's side also fought for their country in the war of 1812. He was born January 5, 1871, the son of Joseph E. Hall, formerly of Holmes county, Ohio, and Nannie Moore, of Missouri. In 1860 his father, impelled by the love of adventure and sturdy bravery which characterized the early settlers of the west, made a tour of observation through Colorado and New Mexico, spending his time in prospecting. In 1864 he organized a party of eight, seven besides himself, and removed by ox teams to Montana, locating first at Virginia City. On the way the party was held up by Spotted Horse and his band of hostile Indians, and com- pelled to purchase freedom by giving the chief one of the oxen. After remaining a short time at Virginia City Mr. Hall removed to Last Chance and a little later to Diamond City, where the subject of this sketch was born. The name of the place was derived from the fact that its first four cabins were so located that in walking from one to the others a path was made in the form of a diamond. In 1874 Mr. Joseph Hall met with a serious ac- cident in a cave-in which broke one of his hips. As soon as he was able to get around the family took a trip to Carroll, on the Missouri river, meet- ing only two white men on the way between that point and Sulphur Springs. They then went on to Ohio. Mr. Hall and a partner named Hawkins located the mines at Copperopolis and took out some copper ore, which was sent on pack mules to the Missouri river and shipped to Swansea, Wales, for treatment. This was in 1866. Mr. Hall retained an interest in the property until 1900, when he sold it for $1,800. He remained in Ohio until his health was restored and he had recovered the full use of his limb, and then with his family re- moved to Colorado and later to Texas; finally re- turning to Montana in 1878, and lived on the north fork of the Musselshell until 1886, engaged in ranching. He then took up his residence at White Sulphur Springs, where he lived ten years, conduct- ing a half way house between White Sulphur Springs and Ubet, and then removed to Big Timber. where he still lives.

Mr. Edgar Moore Hall received his academic education in the public schools in Musselshell and at the high school at White Sulphur Springs. In 1890-92 he attended the law school of the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated June 29, 1893, with the degree of B. L. He at once

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entered upon the practice of his profession at Lewiston, Fergus county, having office room with Mr. O. Morrison, a prominent attorney of that town. He subsequently practiced at White Sul- phur Springs and at Neihart, where he was de- feated for county attorney in 1894 011 the Republi- can ticket. In the spring of 1895 he removed to Big Timber and continued in the practice of his profession. The next year he was the choice of his party for the office of county attorney. During 1897 and 1898 he filled the office of deputy county clerk, and in the fall of 1898 was elected county attorney on the Republican ticket, a position to which he was re-elected in 1900.

Both in public and in private life Mr. Hall has made a record which is very creditable to him. He is highly respected by his fellow citizens, among whom he is very popular, having the regard of all classes without limitation on account of political affiliations. In his profession he is at the same time progressive and conservative-a close student of the law and a conscientious and brilliant practi- tioner. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, in which he has served as junior warden of his lodge and is now serving as master, and also be- longs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Socially he is a genial and cultivated gentleman whose company is much sought and much enjoyed by his friends.

JOSEPH GUSSENHOVEN. - The son of Walter and Mary (Doormolen) Gussenhoven, natives of Arnheim, on the Rhine, a Holland city rich in picturesque surroundings, commercial and manufacturing industries, educational and intel- lectual development, and suggestive historical in- terest, where they were born about 1831, Joseph Gussenhoven had his early imagination kindled and his childish fancies fed with stories of the old world's beauties and wonders, and hints of what was to be seen in our own land outside the narrow limits of his interior home at Stevens Point, Wis., where his life began May 10, 1869. His parents emigrated from Holland in 1855 and settled at Stevens Point, Wis., where his father followed the vocation of a school teacher for some years and then became a civil engineer on the Union Pacific Railroad, continuing at that occupation until 1872. From that time to 1879 he was engaged in ranching and stockraising near Laramie, Wyo. In 1879 he returned to his native city of Arnheim, ac-

companied by his family. He and his wife are still residing there, he being employed as the agent of a number of steamship companies.

His son, Joseph, attended the public schools at Laramie until he was ten years old. In 1881 he went to Holland where he continued his education, spending three years and a half at the superior schools of Almalloo. Prior to this he was en- gaged in the sheep business in Wyoming, and then coming to New York city and engaged for a year in the express and commission business, but not being satisfied with his educational training he returned to Holland and spent three years more at high institutions of learning in Arnheim. In 1889 he returned to America, located in the north- west and accepted a position as bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Minot, N. D., which he continued to fill until 1891. In the spring of that year he removed to Havre, Mont., and worked a year there in the general merchandise establish- ment of the Hollinger-Skylstadt Company, he being the junior member. In June, 1892, he began operations in the general merchandizing business on his own account, having two stores, one on each side of the main street of the city. These he continued to conduct until 1895, when he erected a large brick business block and concentrated his business in a department store, adding a steam laundry to its equipment as one of its commercial features. In 1900 the whole business was merged into the Montana Supply Company, organized by him and incorporated with himself and Adolph Pepin as proprietors. In addition to his interest in the store, Mr. Gussenhoven operates a brick and lumber yard, a ranch of 120 acres, and an ex- tensive real estate business in the growing town of Havre. He also owns and operates a coal mine two miles north of Havre. He is properly con- sidered one of the most energetic and enterprising business men of that section of the state, and one of the most substantial contributors to its growth and advancement.

In politics he is an active Democrat, and has served his community as a member of its board of aldermen. He was married at Quincy, Ill., in the spring of 1893, to Miss Susan Monger, who was born at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1869. Their pleasant home is cheered and brightened by their five interesting children, namely: Joseph, Lloyd, John, Charles and Susan Pauline. Mr. and Mrs. Gussenhoven are esteemed as among the best and most worthy citizens of their town.

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A LBERT HALL .- Among those who have taken advantage of the excellent opportunities afforded for farming and stockgrowing on the beautiful Camas prairie in Missoula county is Mr. Hall, who has been successful in his operations here and gained a position as one of the represent- ative men of the locality. He is a native of County Carleton, New Brunswick, Canada, born in 1853, the son of Samuel P. and Mary (Hillman) Hall, the former of whom was born in Maine, whence, as a young man, he removed to New Brunswick, where he has ever since maintained his home as a successful farmer and a blacksmith. He is of English lineage, while his wife, who was a native of Carleton county, New Brunswick, died there in 1895, her ancestry being English and Scotch. Al- bert Hall, their son, learned the trade of moulder after attendance in the public schools of his native province, and when twenty-five years old he lo- cated at Auburn, Me., where he was employed at his trade, and later he was engaged in a similar industry in the city of Philadelphia.

He thereafter made a visit to his home, and then came to the territory of Montana in 1886. He first located at Butte, and was employed at his trade and at teaming for five years, during the most interesting and exciting epoch in the history of that famous mining city. Mr. Hall then came to Missoula county and located on his present ranch, which he purchased and improved, making it a valuable property. The ranch is located only a half-mile east of Potomac, on the fertile Camas prairie, and comprises 280 acres. Here Mr. Hall devotes his attention to general farming and to stockgrowing, and so directs his business as to insure excellent success. In politics he supports the Republican party, his first presidential vote having been cast for Gen. Garfield, and he has served as judge of elections in his precinct. In 1890 Mr. Hall was united in marriage with Miss Ida M. McDonald, who was born in Illinois, and to this union two sons have been born, Bert and Russell Earl.

CHARLES GREINER, one of the proprietors and foundry foreman of the Western Iron Works, Butte, Silver Bow county, has practically devoted his life to this business and is thoroughly in touch with all its details. To this comprehen- sive knowledge is due in great measure the un- doubted success of the enterprise, and merited

credit is duly and justly accorded Mr. Greiner. He is a native of Indiana, born on June 15, 1863, the son of Louis and Felicia (Mitchler) Greiner, natives of France. The father was born in 1827, coming to Indiana in 1855, where he was success- fully engaged in the furniture business and still re- sides. Charles Greiner was the fourth of eight children, and until he was fourteen attended the public schools, and for one year worked with his father in the furniture store. He then learned the moulder's trade in the iron foundry of Candleton, Ind., continuing there three years and subsequent- ly going into the Indiana foundry at Indianapolis, where he was six years a moulder. The next three years he passed in this work at Kansas City, Mo., and then he made quite an extensive trip through the southern states. Having later passed three years in Chicago as a moulder, he came to Anaconda, Mont., and was employed three years in that city in the local foundry. He then made a second visit to Chicago but soon returned to Butte, where, in 1898, he engaged with the West- ern Iron Works, in which he acquired a financial interest, and is at present the acting foreman of the foundry. The fraternal relations of Mr. Greiner are principally with the Masonic order as a member of Silver Bow Lodge No. 48, A. F. & A. M., King Solomon's Lodge of Perfection, Rose Croix, Kadosh Consistory, and Algeria Tem- ple, Mystic Shrine, of Helena. Politically his affili- ations are with the Democratic party.

PHILIP GREENAN .- Of the kaleidoscopic changes possible in a man's career in our free republic and these stirring times, the record of Capt. Phil Greenan's life affords a fine example. The son of parents who were born, flourished, grew old and died in Ireland, we find him as an orphan boy looking with tearful eyes his last adien to his native land, and seeking across a thou- sand leagues or raging brine a new home wherein his hopes might expand and flourish. We see him next in the very flower of American civilization and culture, where he lingers a few months, and then turns up in the wilds of the great west, at one of its most rugged forms of human life, a min- ing camp. Anon he is a soldier, enlisted in the service of his adopted country, to aid in throwing down the last battlement of a haughty despotism on this continent, and to make the flag of our Union better known and more respected among

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 130

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