Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 149

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 149

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In politics he gives his support to the Republican party, taking a consistent interest in all public af- fairs of a local nature. On November 6, 1900, Mr. Nedrow, was united in marriage to Miss Jennie J. Jackson, who was born in Germany, whence as a child she accompanied her parents" to Montana on their emigration to America. Her father is now engaged in cattleranching in Big Hole valley, Beaverhead county.

W TILLIAM S. NEGUS .- Summoned to his final rest at the age of fifty years, thus end- ing an active and useful career at the very height and full maturity of his powers, the subject of this memoir left a record which would be a credit to a much longer life of ardent effort. He was born in Webster county, Mich., January 31, 1837, a son of Joel and Elizabeth Negus, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of New York. The father labored in various fields and numerous capacities throughout his busy life, and the mother did her part in every way. She was a zealous member of the Methodist church. They were the parents of seven children, of whom all but our subject are still living. The father was an active Democrat in politics.

William S. Negus, the immediate subject of this review, remained at home until he was twenty years old, attending the public schools as he had op- portunity and assisting his father as he could. When he reached the age mentioned he profit- ably engaged in the butchering business for five years. At the end of that time he removed to St. Joseph, Mo., and there followed the same occupation, working for wages from 1859 to 1862, when he crossed the plains to Nevada. He soon acquired an interest in mining stock, and in the spring of 1883 also opened and conducted a board- ing house, successfully continuing it until 1866. He then came to Montana, and locating at Helena for a short time conducted a restaurant

with profitable returns. In the spring of 1887 he rigged up a stage outfit and conducted a transportation enterprise from Helena to various points, including Lost Horse, Lincoln, Fort Ben- ton and along the Jay Gould lines; at the same time he started a ranching and stockraising busi- ness, which he carried on successfully until his death. In. political affiliation Mr. Negus was an active Republican and always manifested a lively and intelligent interest in the welfare of his party. On July 4, 1857, he was united in marriage with Miss Ann McConnell, a native of New York state, and the daughter of Frank and Nancy McCon- nell, who were born and reared in Ireland, and immigrated to the United States in early days, settling first in New York and later removing to Michigan, where the father engaged in farming. In 1852 he made the overland trip to California, and, locating at Marysville, successfully followed mining for fifteen years. In 1867 he returned to Michigan and disposed of his farm, which in his absence had been managed by his wife with good results. He then lived retired from active busi- ness during the remainder of his life. They were the parents of ten children, of whom six survive.

Mr. Negus' ranch, now under the management of his son Frank, comprises 260 acres, of which 100 acres are under cultivation and yield annually good crops of grain and hay. Cattle are also extensively and successfully raised. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, of whom three, Delia, Lizzie and Frank are living, and Ella, Frank, William and Bertha are deceased. Mr. Negus was a prosperous and progressive man in business, a genial and companionable gentle- man socially, and an enterprising and serviceable force in public affairs. In life he was universally respected, and his untimely death was generally and deeply mourned.

F RANK NELSON .- Many of the sturdy sons of the fair Norseland have cast in their lot with Montana, identified themselves with its in- (lustrial life and attained marked success by rea- son of their consecutive industry and honest and upright lives. Mr. Nelson is one of the enter- prising and prosperous farmers and stockgrowers of Missoula county, and is worthy of representa- tion in this work. He was born in Denmark in 1862, the son of Christian and Christina (Peter-

773

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

sen) Nelson, both representatives of long lines of Danish ancestors. The father was a steamboat engineer, and went to South America to follow his vocation, and there his death occurred in 1863. His widow remained in her native land, where her death occurred in 1877.

Frank Nelson secured a common school cdu- cation and resided in his native land until the death of his mother, and in 1878 he emigrated to America, and to Iowa, where he was employed in a railroad roundhouse at Council Bluffs for a year and a half, when he again turned his face westward, coming to Idaho, where he worked in. the mining districts for three years, being for some time in the Coeur d' Alene country and thence coming to Drummond, Mont., where he was em- ployed in the mines for three years. His next move, in 1885, was one which he has never had cause to regret, for he came to Missoula county and entered claim to his present ranch on Camas prairie, where he has since maintained his home. Here he owns a tract of 780 acres, upon which he has made the best of improvements, and he de- votes his attention to general farming and stock- growing, raising large crops of hay and grain and having a high grade of live stock. The ranch is eligibly located three miles west of Potomac, which is Mr. Nelson's postoffice address. In 1887 Mr. Nelson was married to Miss Rachel Lish, who was born in California, and they have three children, Frank A., Jennie E. and Bert M. The children are attending school, and all are making fine progress, showing deep interest in their studies. In politics Mr. Nelson gives his support to the Democratic party, and he lends his aid to all undertakings that make for the advance- inent and well-being of his county and state.

G EORGE W. NEWKIRK .- A native of Kings- ton, Ulster county, N. Y., where he was born March 1, 1840, the son of James C. and Eveline Newkirk, natives of Elmira, N. Y., George W. Newkirk accompanied his parents in 1851, then about eleven years of age, to Wisconsin, and from his early youth has been dependent on his own exertions, but made a successful career out of hard conditions and unfavorable circumstances. The route taken by his parents in coming west was from Kingston to Albany, and from there to Schenectady on a railroad made of wooden rails

covered with strap iron. From Schenectady they proceeded to Buffalo by canal packet, and from there by boat over the lakes to Milwaukee, going thence into the interior of the state.

Mr. Newkirk left home when he was but thir- teen years old and went to work on a farm. After being thus engaged for two years he leased a farm in partnership with his brother-in-law, and they conducted it successfully for three years, at the end of which time he removed to Princeton, Ill., and there served an apprenticeship at house painting and kindred lines of work. On April 24, 1861, he enlisted in the Union army for three months' service, and upon being discharged in August following, resumed work at his trade. In May, 1863, in company with Joshua Murray, a druggist, and George W. Sparling, a lawyer, with four horses to a wagon and a riding horse, he crossed the plains to Denver, Colo., occupy- ing three months in the trip. After his arrival at Denver he worked for two months at his trade, and on September 12 he engaged himself to drive three yoke of oxen from Denver to Idaho (now Montana), reaching Alder gulch after a three- months trip, and there passed the winter of 1863-4. In the spring of 1864, with twenty-five others, he came to what is now Butte, and in the spring of 1865 went to German gulch where he bought an interest in a mining claim and also located a ranch property in Deer Lodge valley. He returned to Butte in the autumn of 1866, and helped to build the first smelter (the Crude) and to sink the first shaft (the Parrott lode) which are now very valuable properties. He had numerous locations in quartz, but sold them all for little or nothing. He mined with varying success at different places, among them at Pioneer gulch, near the town of Silver Bow, where he had placer ground of value, and passed three years. Since then he has lived continuously at Butte, except during two winters which he passed in the east, at Chicago, New York and Boston.

Mr. Newkirk was married in 1878 to Miss Lou- ella Beal, a daughter of the late Dr. George Beal, whose useful life and tragic death are more ex- tensively mentioned on other pages of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Newkirk have one child, Guy B. Newkirk, who was born in 1879. In the year of his marriage Mr. Newkirk opened a place of re- sort which was popular with the best classes of people for ten years, when it was destroyed by fire, April 23, 1888. The next year he received

774

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

a wound in the foot which laid him up for one year. He was one of the old timers at Butte, the first winter he passed there being one of a population of twenty-six persons. He has seen the city grow to its present development and has contributed substantially thereto.

W C. NEWTON .- In the ancestry of the pros- perous and progressive farmer, careful and judicious financier and able, conscientious legis- lator, who is the subject of this brief review, the blood of two races specially distinguished for pa- tient and tenacious perseverance is commingled. His father, Mark Newton, a native of Pennsyl- vania, is descended from an old English family, and his mother, Margaret Keever, a native of Vir- ginia, from an old German family. W. C. Newton was born at Coal Run, Washington county, Ohio, January 5, 1853. His grandfather Newton, who took a prominent part in the war of 1812, removed from Pennsylvania to New York, thence to Ohio, and finally to Wheeling, W. Va., where he died. The father, however, remained in Ohio and still resides there at the advanced age of eighty years, having retired from active work, living on the fruits of his labor as a farmer and blacksmith.

Mr. Newton began his education in the public schools, rounding it out at Beverly College in his native county ; but on leaving college engaged in teaching school there for a number of years. In 1876 he removed to West Virginia, where he taught one year ; going thence to Trenton, Ill., for the sun- mer, and to Missouri in the fall, where he followed teaching as an occupation for three years more. In 1879, in company with two companions, he made the trip overland by wagon to Montana. It was just at the close of the Ute outbreak, and although quiet was not fully restored his party had no trouble, and reached Bozeman without mishap of any kind. During the next three winters he taught school, working on farms through the summer months, thus getting together the means to make a pur- chase for himself. In 1882 he bought eighty acres of good land located five miles west of Bozeman, has added eighty more by purchase and forty taken up under the desert act. These several parcels he has brought to well advanced fertility, being under irrigation with annual production of excellent crops of barley, hay and garden truck.

Mr. Newton was united in marriage April 14,

1892, with Miss Hattie M. Sprague, daughter of Edwin W. Sprague, a leading farmer of Washing- ton county, Ohio, where the marriage was solem- nized, he making the trip from Montana to his old home for the purpose. They have four children, Mary, Margaret, Mildred and Wesley, Jr. He is so constituted by nature that public affairs, in which the general welfare of his section is concerned, have for him an abiding and commanding interest, and his well established capacity for safely and suc- cessfully administering them has made him the choice of his people for offices of great trust and responsibility. He was treasurer of his county from 1895 to 1899, and was elected to the state legis- lature in 1900. He has also been school trustee in his district for many years, and was recently ap- pointed trustee of the county high school. When it was determined by the farmers along the line to build the Farmers' Irrigating Canal he was se- lected as one of the trustees to have the con- struction in charge, and it is universally conceded that the work was so well done as to reflect the highest credit on all who were actively concerned in it.

In politics Mr. Newton has always been a Re- publican, but he has the unqualified esteem of all his fellow citizens, without regard to party pred- ilections, having always faithfully administered any trust with which he was charged for the general good. In the legislature lie introduced and pressed for passage a bill transferring to the school fund the unclaimed $30,000 which figured in recent legisla- tive history.

HENRY NICKEL .- For more than twenty years prominently identified with the business and industrial activities of the metropolis of Mon- tana, the record of the earnest and industrious life of Henry Nickel is one upon which rests no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil, his name be- ing honored by all who knew the man and had cog- nizance of his sterling character and inflexible in- tegrity of purpose.

' In the old fortified town of Heilbronn, Wurtem- berg, Germany, Henry Nickel was born on Novem- ber 1, 1852, the son of Henry Nickel, who there passed his entire life, his active years being devoted to the meat business. Henry, his son, completed what is equivalent to an American high school course ; at the age of seventeen years he set forth to seek his fortunes in America, being reinforced for

775

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

the battle of life by sturdy integrity, a determination to attain success by earnest and honest effort, and by a self-reliant spirit and vigorous health. To such a young man the road to success always lies open, and Mr. Nickel was not denied that reward which was his just due. Upon landing in New York he sought and obtained employment in a butcher shop, and he was thus engaged for some time in the national metropolis, and through this line of in- dustry he was enabled to attain, in a great measure, the success which crowned his life. As to the de- tails of his early life in the United States the record is all too meagre, now that he has passed away, but from data available it is learned that he was identified with the meat business in various sections of the Union before taking up his per- manent abode in Montana. He was at St. Louis, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and perhaps other points, and finally established himself individually in Virginia City, Nev., from which locality he came to Montana and to Butte in 1878, where he entered the employ of Mr. Ornstein in a meat market. Later he was in business for himself in a finely equipped market and catering to a large and representative patronage until his life's labors were ended on July 22, 1900. As prosperity attended him Mr. Nickel made investments in mining pros- pects and properties and also in real estate, and in the former line his interests were important and profitable. He was a stockholder in the Leo Mining Company and owned interests in the Toledo and the Homestake mines and many others. He was also a stockholder in the Butte Butchering Company. In politics he gave his sup- port to the Republican party, and his religious faith was that of the Lutheran church. Signally true and upright in all the relations of life, he com- manded the respect and esteem of all who knew him.

On March 27, 1887, Mr. Nickel was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Noack, who was born in Baltimore, Md., the daughter of Oswald Noack, who was born in Germany in 1822 and who died in Baltimore in 1886. He came to America when a young man, and was for some time a resident of New York city, where he had a coal and wood yard. Later he owned and operated a shoe factory, and was one of the influential business men of Baltimore. His wife, whose maiden name was Louise Omeis, was likewise born in Germany, and she died in 1870, at the age of thirty-two years, her daughter Elizabeth (Mrs. Nickel) being but

two years of age at the time. Mr. Nickel is ·sur- vived by his widow and their four children, all of whom remain at the old home in Butte, their names being : Henry Oswald, Mary Louise, Pauline Elizabeth and Edwin John.

W ILLIAM D. NICHOLAS .- There is nothing more sturdy in human history than the yeo- manry of old England. Plant them where you will, they will thrive and prosper and make their mark on the community around them. This is aptly illustrated in the career of the late William D. Nicholas, the subject of this memoir, who departed this life January 23, 1892, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, but with accomplished results in life to his credit which might easily suggest a much longer term of active effort, and so firmly established in the regard and esteem of his fel- lowmen that no further activity on his part could have given him a higher place. Mr. Nicholas was born in Lancashire, England, April II, 1825, where his parents were engaged in farming, and were zealous members of the English church. They have long since passed away, and all of their five children have followed them to the spirit world. Our subject attended the public schools in his neighborhood during his early youth, and while quite young began to make his own living, his first employment being in the mines of southern Wales, until 1847, when he came to America. In this country his first location was in Armstrong county, Pa., where he continued the business of mining. From there he removed to Johnstown and engaged in keeping a hotel until 1864. In that year he came with ox teams to Montana, and lo- cating at Alder gulch again engaged in mining. A little later he removed to Helena, and there kept on mining until 1872, when he turned his attention to ranching and stockraising, his ranch being on the Dearborn. In all his undertakings he was successful, but the success was the result of his own enterprise, thrift and business capacity.

On November 6, 1844, Mr. Nicholas was mar- ried to Miss Margaret Davies, a native of South Wales and daughter of David and Sarah Davies, of the same nativity. Her father was a prosperous and enterprising butcher in that country; both of her parents were members of the Congrega- tional church. The family consisted of seven- teen children, three of whom are still living: Mary

776

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

D., Ann J. and Margaret. The last named is the widow of our subject, and is herself a valued mem- ber of the Congregational church. The ranch on which Mr. Nicholas was conducting a successful and profitable business at the time of his death comprises about 2,000 acres, and is located about twenty-five miles due south of Wolf creek. It is a very valuable property ; well improved with good buildings and other necessary equipments for its purposes, and the portions under cultivation have been brought to a high state of productiveness. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Nicholas has removed to Helena, and has an attractive home on the west side of the city which is a center of refined and graceful hospitality. She has been warmly welcomed in social circles and among the benevolent and charitable organizations of the capital, contributing the wealth of her social at- tractions to the one and the benefit of her active and sympathetic aid to the other.

M AJ. N. J. ISDELL, whose untimely and tragical death at Minneapolis on February 26, 1902, shocked the whole state of Montana and other places where he was well known, was a native of Onondaga county, N. Y., where he was born on December 5, 1840, and where his family had lived for many years. He was reared in Mary- land and the city of Washington, thus enjoying the advantages of the advanced civilization of the older states. He afterward came west through all the hardships of overland freighting in the pio- neer days, and found life no holiday recreation, but a stern reality calling for resolute endurance, fertility of resources, clearness of vision and promptness in action, all of which qualities he ex- hibited in a marked degree in his long, varied career. His parents were Nelson and Perlina (Spaulding) Isdell, both natives of Onondaga county, N. Y., where their parents had settled in the early history of the country, the father of Nel- son Isdell coming from Scotland in 1805. Nelson J. Isdell accompanied his parents to Maryland in 1853. They settled in Prince George's county, adjacent to the District of Columbia, and four years later removed to the city of Washington. There the father first engaged in manufacturing pumps and installing them in wells which he sunk by contract, and passed the last twenty years of his life dealing in wood and coal, dying in 1872 at the age of sixty.

The Major received his education in the schools of Maryland and Washington, and when he had finished the courses of instruction available to him, he engaged in teaching, in the state first, and later in the city. In 1865 he started west, first to the oil regions of western Pennsylvania, where he made some investments, but not very · profitable ones. In his search for good opportunities he stopped a short time in Chicago, then proceeded to Leavenworth, Kan., where he did not linger long, but came on to Montana, driving a freight team and getting fifty dollars pay for the trip. He arrived at Virginia City June 20, 1866, and for a few months taught a private school, after which he removed to Sterling and went to work for the Midas Mining Company, but soon left this service and began handling cord wood. He next engage:1 in placer mining in Washington gulch, having bought out Emil Bogk. He got some valuable property, but there was not enough brought out of it to pay the large working expense, yet at the. end of two years he had accumulated something more than the cost. He then went to work for the Midas company again, and while in its service was offered a position in Hall & Spaulding's store at Sterling, which he accepted, and after a short time bought out Mr. Spaulding's interest, and, in 1871, purchased Mr. Hall's interest. He conducted this enterprise at Sterling until 1872, when he removed it to Harrison on Willow creek, and also inaugu- rated a small venture in stockraising, buying 150 cattle in Salt Lake as a "starter." Harrison was a better business center than Sterling and it was also near his ranch of 320 acres. So he remained there until 1876, when he went east to visit the Centennial Exposition. Upon his return he found the town of Pony started, and he immediately re- moved his business thither. In 1892 he incorpor- ated the Isdell Mercantile Company, and was its president and general manager for a time in order to get everything into shape for his retirement from active business and the assumption of the management by his son-in-law, E. S. Adkins.

Maj. Isdell had a fine ranch of 700 acres six miles from Pony and another of 160 acres nearer town, on which he raised numbers of superior Hereford cattle and other stock, and abundant crops of cereals and hay. His properties are well improved with good residences and the necessary appurtenances for their proper working, and are steadily growing in value. He was married on November 20, 1877, to Miss Mary E. Beardsley,

777

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

nee Snyder, a native of Pennsylvania, who was brought by her parents, John M. P. and Sarah J. (Davis) Snyder, to Montana in 1867, her father thien being in the tannery business at Sheridan. He is now living at Walla Walla, Wash. Maj. Isdell was postmaster at Sterling, Harrison and Pony, his tenure of the positions extending over most of the time from 1869 to 1892. He was also a school director for a long time, was road trustee under the new road law, and was a member of the state legislature in 1895. He was a member of the Masonic order in lodge and chapter, and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. His late residence is a model of convenience and elegance. The buildings of the Isdell Mercantile Company are spacious, substantial and completely equipped, with warm and cold storage apartments attached, dug into the side of the mountain, and it has a large and profitable branch store at Norris. Ail these are practically the creations of Maj. Isdell's enterprise, thrift and taste. He occupies an en- viable place in the confidence, esteem and affection- ate regard of the community, but one not higher than he deserves.

REV. J. E. NOFTSINGER .- Born and reared on a farm near Salem in old Virginia, where he first saw the light on March 29, 1867, when the state was just beginning to arouse and re-gather for a new career the spirit of her people and her material resources, so cruelly worn and wasted by the Civil war, the son of William J. and Sallie (Enbank) Noftsinger, both natives of the Old Do- minion, who bore their full share of the trials and hardships incident to that sanguinary contest, and wore the marks of its burdens, Rev. John Eubank Noftsinger, the eloquent and accomplished Bap- tist clergyman of Butte, has sought in a new land. far from the homes and the graves of his ancestors, a proper opportunity to do his life's work and the will of his Master who has called him to this serv- ice. He received his early education in Fincas- tle high school and at Richmond (Va.) College, being graduated from the former in 1887 and from the latter in 1890 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. The next year he entered the theological ‹department of the University of Chicago, and was graduated from that institution in 1894, but while pursuing the course assisted Dr. Hobbs in church work at Delavan, Wis., there having charge of the

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 149

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