Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 156

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 156

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 August, 1877, Mr. Cowan and wife, her brother and sister, Frank and Ida Carpenter, Charles Mann, William Dingee, Albert Oldham, A. J. Arnold and Mr. Myers experienced a thrilling adventure in Yellowstone Park, in which Mr. Cowan was shot three times and narrowly escaped with his life. The party had formed a camp in the lower geyser basin on the site of the Fountain Hotel, from which they made daily excursions. Before sunrise on August 24, Arnold and Dingee, who were pre- paring breakfast, were approached by Indians, who professed friendliness, but the party lost no time in breaking camp and starting on the home- ward trail. The Indians then surrounded them with hostile demonstrations and forced them to return, but after going a short distance up Nez Perces creek it became impossible to take the wag- ons further. Frank Carpenter then hastened to

the front in the hope of finding Chief Looking- glass and securing aid from him. He did not succeed, as this chief was not then known to be with the party of hostiles. A consultation was held with the other chiefs, Mr. Cowan acting for the whites with "Poker Joe" as interpreter. This "heap big talk" resulted in the captives being deprived of their guns and ammunition and set at liberty. On the back trail they were overtaken by some seventy-five young Indians, who compelled them to countermarch, a hint from a friendly Indian enabling two of the party to escape. The rest were taken back toward Mary Lake and at two p. m. they were attacked. At the first fire Mr. Cowan was shot in the thigh and fell from his horse. His wife rushed to his side and heroically resisted the attempt to kill him. She was partially pulled aside while an Indian shot him in the head and he was left lying supposedly dead on the ground. Young Carpenter had a narrow escape, an Indian draw- ing his rifle upon him, but Carpenter made the sign of the cross and thus saved his life. The other members of the party had scattered in all ways, leaving Carpenter and his sister captives. When Mr. Cowan recovered consciousness about five o'clock in the evening, he drew himself up by the aid of a tree and was again shot, this time through his left hip, and relinquishing all hope he sank to the ground. That night he wearily began crawling back to the old camp, a distance of ten miles. He was four days reaching it and on the next day he was rescued by Gen. Howard's scouts. Mr. Car- penter and his sister were found by soldiers under Lieut. Schofield and taken to Mammoth Hot Springs. Two weeks passed before Mrs. Cowan learned that her husband was alive. Mr. Arnold, who had run into the brush before the shooting of Cowan, wandered about for four days and was then rescued near Henry lake by Howard's com- mand.

L ELAND F. PRESCOTT .- Among the enter- prising and representative young business men of Butte is numbered this gentleman, who here is conducting a successful business as a manufacturer of and dealer, in foreign and domestic granite and marble monuments for cemetery and other pur- poses. Leland Francis Prescott comes of old New England stock, having been born in Grafton coun- ty, N. H., on March 10, 1872. His father, Will- iam F. Prescott, is a native of the same county,

810

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

where he was born June 16, 1847, and where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1886, when he removed to Travers county, Minn., where he devoted his attention to the same vocation until 1899, when he removed to Nampa, Idaho, where he now is engaged in farming and stockgrowing, also having mining interests. He is a Republican in politics. His wife, whose maiden name was Susie H. Putnam, was likewise born in Grafton county, N. H., the date of her nativity being Sep- tember 23, 1850, and she being a daughter of Alonzo W. Putnam, a prominent farmer of New Hamp- shire. She is the mother of two children, Leland F., and Harry A., who is in Idaho. Leland F. Prescott received his early education in Grafton county public schools, being about fourteen years of age at his parents' removal to the west. In 1892 he matriculated in the Red River Valley University, at Wahpeton, N. D., and in 1894 he completed a course in a business college at Minneapolis. In the spring of 1895 Mr. Prescott came to Montana and became a traveling salesman for his uncle, A. K. Prescott, who conducts extensive marble works in Helena. At the expiration of one year he was ad- mitted to a partnership with his uncle and forthwith came to Butte and established his present business. His energy and progressive and straightforward methods have made the enterprise one of extensive proportions, success having attended the venture from the first. In politics his proclivities are in- dicated by the loyal support which he gives to the Republican party, and fraternally he holds mem- bership in the Woodmen of the World, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Bankers' Life As- sociation. On October 1, 1896, Mr. Prescott was united in marriage to Miss Mabel Griffin, who was born in Jackson, Mich., the daughter of U. A.Grif- fin, an extensive land-owner of North Dakota and a native of Michigan. He married Miss Eva Crafts, who was born in Grass Lake, Mich., and they were parents of two sons and one daughter : Erwin. K., Gordon C. and Mabel, who is now Mrs. Prescott. Mr. and Mrs. Prescott had one son, Leonard C., who was born October 18, 1899, and died on Feb- ruary 3, 1901.

JOHN J. QUINN .- Labor stands in need of no eulogium. From olden times priests and poets have vied with orators and statesmen in heaping praises and flatteries on the man of honest, inde-

pendent, useful toil. Not merely have these reso- nantly proclaimed that he ought to be, but that he is, the most blessed among mortals. Indeed, an unsophisticated listener or reader might well im- bibe the notion that all these honeyed eulogists, earth's great and glorious, have been thrust out by some harsh decree of inexorable fate from the field and the workbench, sent sorrowing exiles into cloisters, or forums, or senates, and there com- pelled to witness afar off the felicities they too might have enjoyed, had they been born under kindlier stars, and be content, in their sublime self- denial, with but depicting the delights of digging and delving, which only the more fortunate mill- ions may enjoy. Yet in the midst of all this del- uge of flattery and felicitation the worker of our day, after nineteen centuries of Christian teaching, is a sad and careworn man; and every systematic attempt to ameliorate his condition, especially by organization of his forces, is confronted with the magnate's resistance, the bigot's scowl, the wit- ling's sneer. But there are sincere, courageous men who brave it all, and give their best efforts to secure, through the organization of labor, its just recompense, steady employment and sure eleva- tion.

Among this number is John J. Quinn, of Butte, a man who knows by experience what are the hard- ships and contingencies of the laborer, and whose mature life has been occupied with plans for his relief and betterment. He was born at Gold Hill, Nev., on August 10, 1870, of Irish parents in very moderate circumstances. His father was John Quinn, of County Carey, Ireland, who emigrated to America and located at Springfield, Mass., in 1866, but subsequently removed to Gold Hill, Nev., where he died of a broken back, the result of an accident in the Yellow Jacket mine. He had pre- viously been married to Mary Mccarthy, also a native of Ireland. They were Roman Catholics, as are their descendants. They had three children, of whom John J. was the second. He received what education his circumstances allowed, in the public schools of his native state, at Gold Hill and Vir- ginia City, until he was thirteen years old, when he was put to work to learn the trade of a plumber. He worked at this fifteen months at Virginia City, Nev., and then devoted six months to the cigar business. After that he followed farming in Nevada for a year and then worked in a sawmill for four years. He then selected mining as a perma- nent occupation and has been engaged in it ever

811

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

since, except the three years he worked in the smelters at Anaconda. In 1891 he went to Bisbee, Ariz., and on to Butte, remaining there about six months and, going to Park City, Utah, for a year. He again returned to Butte, whence he soon went to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and remained eight months. From there he went to Anaconda and worked the three years heretofore mentioned. In 1897 he again came to Butte and here his weary foot has rested. In all these wandering he was "wooing Dame Fortune's winning smile" as a min- er, just as he is now. In Butte he has been more successful, and has attained some consequence as a publicist and leader of thought. He is an ardent and influential member of the Labor party and as such was elected in 1900 on the Labor-Fusion ticket to the lower house of the Seventh Montana state legislature. In that body he was recog- nized as a man of force and capability. He was assigned to the committees on mines and mining, state lands and immigration, on all of which he rendered faithful and valuable service. He intro- duced and secured the passage of house bill No. 1, now known as the eight-hour law, on the provisions of which the campaign has been made. He won. the election by a majority which was the third in size in the county. In March, 1901, he was elected president of the Butte Miners' Union.

Mr. Quinn is yet a young man, with vigorous health and worthy aspirations. He has always championed the cause of organized labor, and has been consistent and intelligent in his advocacy of its claims, with no thought in that connection save what referred to its own advancement. There is every indication that he has years of usefulness and honorable public service before him. His efforts have been appreciated by their beneficiaries, among whom he is highly esteemed, as he is by all who have the pleasure of knowing him.

W ILLIAM HILLHOUSE RAYMOND .- As one who has contributed his full quota to- ward the founding and building of the common- wealth and shown himself animated by high and definite purpose, William Hillhouse Raymond deserves especial mention. He was named in honor of Judge William Hillhouse, his great-grandfather, and a brother of James Hillhouse, who served sixteen years in the United States senate from Connecticut, and was for fifty years the treasurer

of Yale College, and whose life and services lent dignity and honor to the bench and bar of Con- necticut. (For detailed family history see sketch of Winthrop Raymond in this volume.) W. H. Ray- mond was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 12, 1845, and he removed from that city to Missouri in company with his mother, and, as the head of the family, he originated and formulated the plans for the removal to Montana, in 1865. Not un- mindful or unappreciative of the dangers and pri- vations to be encountered the family showed that fortitude and courage which are characteristic of the pioneer, and set forth from Missouri, on the weary journey, their outfit consisting of two yokes of oxen, a yoke of cows, a span of horses, a saddle pony and a light spring wagon, with a heavier one for the carrying of supplies and household goods. They came by North Platte river and passed down Sweetwater creek, on the old Salt Lake telegraph road, and thence came onward to Virginia City, Mont., arriving there on September 5, 1865.

Upon reaching their destination the family es- tablished their Lares and Penates in one of the primitive cabins common to the mining camps of the period, and Hillhouse and his brother Win- throp soon established a freighting business, and also opened a mercantile establishment. W. H. Raymond made his first freighting trip to Salt Lake City in 1868, with a team of six yoke of oxen and he took a load of bacon, with which Virginia was overstocked, while the Mormon capital was destitute of it. Upon the return trip he brought a load of green and dried fruits, which found a ready sale at good prices in the Montana mining camps. This trip occupied three months, and his load of fruit sold for $2,100. This venture gave Mr. Ray- mond the nucleus of his fortune and encouraged further effort. The next year the freighting outfit was increased by the brothers and they established a successful merchandising business, in which Hillhouse was interested until 1880. In 1870 he had taken up a tract of land and begun to raise cattle. This land was part of his present fine ranch property, which is now enclosed by fifteen miles of fence and located five miles from Puller Springs, which is his postoffice address.

In 1876 Mr. Raymond named his estate Bel- mont Park ranch, and imported the first standard- bred trotting horses ever brought to Montana, and his was the first stock farm for the breeding and rearing of standard-bred horses established in the state. His original importation comprised the

812

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

stallion Commodore Belmont and twenty-five mares, and of this stock are now to be found de- scendants in all sections of the Union, while, through the efforts of Mr. Raymond an impetus was given to the breeding of fine horses in Mon- tana. From his farm have gone forth very fast horses, and the enterprise established in the cen- tennial year has grown to be one of wide scope and importance. At Belmont Park are kept 400 brood mares and a number of fine stallions. Mr. Raymond began naming horses by the alphabet, and has used all of the letters. He devotes his entire time to his horses, living on his fine ranch during the summer months and passing the winters in California. He was for a time associatetd with his brother in banking in Virginia City. Belmont Park is one of the best stock farms of the kind in the Union, and Mr. Raymond takes a justifiable pride in it and in the success which has attended his efforts. In politics he gives his support to the Democratic party. He has never married. Well known throughout the state of which he is an honored pioneer, he is peculiarly deserving of recognition as one of the sterling citizens and as a representa- tive business man.

W TILLIAM Q. RANFT, who is incumbent of the important office of receiver of the United States land office in Missoula, was born in Balti- more, Md., on February 24, 1869, the son of Charles and Sophia (Schaible) Ranft, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Maryland. The father emigrated to the United States about 1848, locat- ing in Baltimore, where he was for many years a manufacturer of chemicals, and where he is now living retired. William Q. Ranft secured his pre- liminary educational discipline in the public schools, continuing his studies in the Baltimore College. He then completed a thorough course in stenography in New York city, as an expert be- coming private secretary to one of the officials of the Pennsylvania Railroad for three years. In 1890 Mr. Ranft came to Montana, locating in Mis- soula, and for one year was in the offices of the Missoula Mercantile Company. He then became for one year the representative of the Helena Journal in western Montana. After the Journal ceased publication he entered the law office of Hon. T. C. Marshall in Missoula, and by diligent techni- cal reading and study of law secured admission to

the bar of the state in 1896. In entering upon act- ive legal practice he became a member of the firm of Marshall, Ogden & Ranft, which later became Marshall, Stiff & Ranft. He gained. prestige at the bar, and is known as one of the able members of the Missoula county bar. In 1897 Mr. Ranft re- ceived the appointment as receiver of the United State land office in Missoula, the youngest incum- bent of such an office in the state. He has dis- charged the duties of the office with marked dis- crimination and executive ability, and is highly esteemed by the people of Missoula and the gen- eral public.

Mr. Ranft has extensive and valuable interests in the several mining districts of Missoula county, In politics he has ever been an active and efficient worker in the ranks of the Republican party. He has served as chairman and as secretary of the Republican central committee of Missoula county, while he effected the organization of the first Re- publican congressional committee of the state. Fra- ternally he is identified with the Benevolent Pro- tective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Hermann Soehne Society of Missoula. The district included in the jurisdiction of the United States land office over which Mr. Ranft has charge comprises the counties of Missoula, Ravalli, Beav- erhead and Granite, and the office is the second largest in the Union. The business has shown a steady increase, having been augmented by more than seventy-five per cent. during the past year. On July 19, 1898, Mr. Ranft was united in marriage to Miss Florence M. Burke, daughter of Maj. Thomas H. Burke, of Helena, and they occupy a prominent position in the social circles of Mis- soula.

C ARL F. RAHMIG, a successful stockraiser and ranchman of Jefferson Island, Madison county, first came to Montana in October, 1869. He was born in Saxony, Germany, on August 3, 1838, his parents being John Christian and Hannah (Heloish) Rahmig, both natives of Saxony. They had six daughters and four sons. The father was a tailor, during his life conducting in Saxony a merchant tailoring establishment. He was a dig- nified gentleman of scholarly and artistic tastes. In his large portrait now hanging in the Montana home of his son he has the appearance of a mem- ber of the nobility. After attending the govern- ment schools in his childhood, Carl F. Rahmig

813

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

learned the tailor's trade, at which he worked until he came to the United States in 1858. He did not stay in New York, but continued his journey to Dubuque, Iowa, where he engaged in teaming for three years, then he conducted farming for two years, then sold out and accompanied a horse train to Nevada, locating first at Virginia City and later going to Washoe, where he was employed in a quartz mill for six months and then went to Boise City, Idaho, and followed mining for six years, from his arrival there in November, 1865. Meeting with indifferent success he went to work again in a quartz mill in Highland, Red Mountain, for seven months and then came to Montana, settling at South Boulder, where he took up a homestead of 160 acres of land and a pre-emption right of eighty acres.

Here Mr. Rahmig is residing surrounded by the comforts and many of the luxuries of life, happily and successfully engaged in farming and cattle- raising. During the winters he usually carries through 100 head of stock. He was wedded with Miss Elizabeth Sullender, of Indiana, in April, 1881. She is the daughter of Henry and Sarah (Hessler) Sullender, both natives of Indiana. They were farmers in that state from which they moved to Illinois, where they both died. Mr. and Mrs. Rahmig have five children : Minnie, Mrs. George Lovelace, of Whitehall; Edna, Lucy, Carl and Edith. At present Mr. Rahmig is a school trustee and is a typical Montanian, holding to the best in- terests of the country of his adoption, and is truly one of the successful and progressive men of Mon- tana.

W INTHROP RAYMOND .- Well may any man take pride in a worthy ancestry and in keeping inviolate the definite data pertaining there- to. In Winthrop Raymond we find a character distinct in its individuality yet showing the dig- nifying elements of gentle breeding. He is one of the honored pioneers of Montana, has been and is identified with affairs of importance, was the es- sential founder of the thriving little city of Sheri- dan, Madison county, and his career has been characterized by uprightness and integrity. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 22, 1847. His father, Daniel F. Raymond, was a native of Connecticut, and descended from a family estab- lished in New England in 1732. The name was often conspicuous in the annals of the Colonial

period and in connection with the great Revolu- tionary struggle. The family genealogy is defined and many prominent representatives of the name mentioned in Appleton's Encyclopedia of American Biography.

Daniel F. Raymond was a man of high intel- lectuality, a lawyer by profession and a man of scholastic attainments. About 1825 he removed to Baltimore, Md., where he gained marked pro- fessional prestige and was identified with import- ant business interests. He was author of the first standard textbook on political economy published in the United States. It was adopted in Johns Hopkins University and many other institutions of note, has since been thoroughly revised and is now held in high repute. To Mr. Raymond was due the opening of the first iron mines and fur- naces in West Virginia, and thus he inaugurated a great industry, but through it he met severe financial reverses, and led him to seek a new field of endeavor. Accordingly he removed to Cincin- nati, Ohio, where he engaged in legal practice and journalistic work. He was one of the earliest abolitionists and wielded marked influence in their ranks. His life was one of exalted honor and usefulness, and his death occurred in Cincinnati in 1850. He was twice married, his second wife having been Miss Delilah Matlock, who was born in Virginia, of prominent Revolutionary stock. In the family were six children, of whom Winthrop Raymond was the youngest. Mrs. Raymond re- moved with her family to Missouri in 1851, Win- throp being then four years old. Here the family remained and he attended subscription schools until 1865, when the mother with her two sons and daughter started on the long and perilous trip across the plains to Montana. This change of residence was made by the advice of Hillhouse Raymond, a brother of Winthrop, a sketch of whose life is on another page of this work. The family arrived in safety at Virginia City on Sep- tember 7. 1865, and thus became participants in pioneer life on the frontier.

Winthrop Raymond, eighteen years old at the time of his arrival in Montana, and his first oc- cupation was hauling wood and rock in and about Virginia City, and he transported stone for many buildings now standing in old Virginia City, then a vigorous mining camp. He later had the con- tract for furnishing material for the erection of the quartz mill at Summit, in Alder gulch, and thereafter carried on freighting between Sum-

814

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

mit and Corinne, Utah. He began operations in 1868, and in 1871 we find him established in suc- cessful wholesale merchandising in Virginia City. In 1880 Mr. Raymond disposed of this business and turned his attention to ranching. In the meantime he engaged in banking in Virginia City, as one of the firm of Raymond, Harrington & Co., selling this interest in 1888 to Amos C. Hall, the new firm being Hall & Bennett. Mr. Ray- mond, however, continued money loaning and pro- moting until 1889, and purchased the Bateman ranch, platting the town site of Sheridan in 1890, when he placed the lots on the market, thus be- coming the founder of this attractive little city. Mr. Raymond owns valuable property in Sheridan, and also has 1,600 acres of fine ranch property where he raises high-grade shorthorn cattle and standard bred horses. He has a broad capac- ity for the handling of details and also high execu- tive ability, but his interests in the town site and ranching industry place full demands upon his time and attention. His life in Montana shows no thrilling incidents, but a constant appreciation of high ideals and his career has been characterized by inflexible integrity of purpose.

Mr. Raymond supports the Democratic party and its principles, but has never had time nor in- clination to become an active partisan worker. He is a member of the Sons of the Revolution and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. On Febru- ary 28, 1876, Mr. Raymond was united in marriage to Miss Hannah E. Bateman, born in Michigan, and of this union four children have been born, Carrie Belle, a graduate of St. Mary's Academy, at Faribault, Minn .; Walcott, who completed his education in Stanford University, Cal .; Delilah, a student in Rowland Hall, at Salt Lake City, and Mary Elizabeth, who is attending school in Sheri- dan.

E DWARD REIMEL, the son of a hard working farmer of Pennsylvania, near Mt. Bethel, where he was born June 7, 1837, and compelled from his early youth to work for everything he got in this world, our subject made his way by hard labor and close attention to business, without hav- ing the advantages of much schooling, and is es- sentially a self-made man, having won his way to competence and a good standing in the estima- tion of his fellows by his own natural ability and persevering industry. His parents were Jacob and Mary (Ackerman) Reimel, natives of the old Key-

stone state, where they lived and worked on the farm, and after a long life of usefulness passed away secure in the respect and good will of their neighbors.

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 156

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