Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 176

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 176

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PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

office from 1896 to 1898 with decided advantage to the city and credit to himself. He was born at Kirkwood, a suburb of St. Louis, Mo., August 14, 1865, the son of Henry W. and Gertrude S. (Relf) Hough, the former a native of St. Louis and the latter of Kentucky. His grandfather, Daniel Hough, was a native of New Hampshire and a graduate of Dartmouth College, who went to Ken- tucky in 1820. The Houghs came from England, on the Welch border, in early Colonial times, and were prominent and helpful in the Revolutionary war on the side of the colonies. In 1822 Mr. Hough's grandfather took up his residence in St. Louis, Mo., and made that city his home until his death in 1869, at the age of eighty-two. For many years before his death he was president of the Marine Insurance Company, of that city. His son, father of George G. Hough, has always re- sided in that beautiful suburban portion of St. Louis, known as Kirkwood. He succeeded his father in the presidency of the Marine Insurance Company, and was also president of the Life Association of America. He has been postmaster at Kirkwood, and deeply interested in the ad- vancement and development of the place. He has been married twice, having a family of seven chil- dren by the first marriage and eight by the second. His present wife was Miss Ella C. Bodley, a native of Kentucky, and a descendant of Judge Jesse Bledsoe. George G. Hough received his prelim- inary education at St. Louis, attending the Wash- ington University in that city after completing the course in the public schools. Laying aside his text-books he engaged in the insurance business for a few years and then became connected with the Northern Pacific Railroad survey between Fort Benton and Billings, from which he was transferred to the engineer's department at Helena, where he remained three years. He was then em- ployed by the Rocky Fork Coal Company and re- moved to Red Lodge, where he remained five years, after which he entered the employ of the Bridger Coal Company, with which he is still con- nected, being its cashier.

He was married September 26, 1900, to Miss Anna D. G. Miller, a native of Missouri. They have one child, Cecil Elizabeth. While not an active partisan or seeker of political honors, he was elected mayor of Red Lodge in 1896 for a term of two years. He was also one of the organ- izers and the secretary of the Business Men's Club, of Red Lodge; also a member of the Order of

Elks. His grandmother, Emeline R. Robert, was a native of Kentucky and a descendant of Pierre Baptiste Robert, of Amiens, France, who was one of the early settlers in America and acquired large tracts of land in Tennessee.

A DONIS D. HOWARD .- Prominent and emi- nently successful as an extensive ranchman and stockraiser in Rosebud county, Mont., and well- known as a large property owner and financier in two states, Adonis D. Howard, is an impressive example of what pluck, industry and broad busi- ness capacity can accomplish in this, our land of boundless possibilities and fruitful opportunities.

He is a native of Sangerville, Me., where he was born September 28, 1842. His parents were Al- gernon and Almira (Chapman) Howard, the former born at Bridgewater, Mass., of English ancestry, who were among the earliest settlers in the Old Bay state, the latter a native of Dover, N. H. The father of our subject was a farmer and surveyor by occupation, and was one of the sur- veyors employed by the government to run the lines for the state of Pennsylvania. He died at Sangerville, Me., in 1858, and his widow followed him into eternal life forty years later at the age of ninety-six.

Mr. Howard, the immediate subject of these lines, attended the district schools of his native place until he was fourteen years old, and was then driven by the exigencies of his condition to go out into the world and seek his own advancement in life. During the next six years he was employed in the pine woods of northern Maine, and in 1862 came west and spent twenty years in farming, merchandising and mining in Idaho and Oregon, with headquarters at Boise, Idaho, and Hepner, Ore., doing an extensive business over this vast new country. Among his enterprises of mag- nitude he whip-sawed lumber wherewith to build a store at Independence, Ore., in 1862, an under- taking of considerable proportions at any time and under any circumstances, but attended with un- ustal difficulties when and where he did it. He built the store, however. after prodigious efforts, and conducted a profitable business in it for a year and a half. For a number of years thereafter he ran cattle on the ranges in eastern Oregon. In 1883 he drove a flock of sheep from that section to Red Bluff, Madison county, Mont., and in 1884

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located two squatter claims in the Rosebud valley, then Custer county ; these his brother, Andrew Mc- Cleary Howard, pre-empted later in the year when the two brothers formed a partnership under the firm name of A. D. Howard & Co. To these original claims they have since added vast tracts of the bottom and prairie lands along the Rose- bud, including the old Harris ranch, and brought their holdings up to 2,322 acres, of which 800 acres are in the fertile valley and produce enormous crops of hay and grain, while the surrounding grazing ranges are covered with their live stock, consisting of some 10,000 head of sheep, 500 cattle and from 100 to 200 horses. They make a spe- cialty of high-grade Rambouillet sheep, and are entitled to and accorded a great deal of credit for having raised the standard of this animal in their portion of the state and increased the value of its output.

In political relations Mr. Howard is a Republi- can, but can not be called an active partisan. His first marriage occurred in 1883, at Carthage, Mo., when he was united with Miss Emily J. Estey, a native of Ohio. She died December 16, 1898, at Anoka, Minn., and there, on December 4, 1900, he contracted a second marriage, the bride on this occasion being Miss Josephine Cook, a native of Anoka, where she was born in 1864. By the first marriage Mr. Howard has two children, both sons and named respectively Estey A. and Adonis R.

It has been noted in this review that Mr. How- ard is an extensive landowner in two states. In addition to his ranch property in Montana he owns & fine farm of 270 acres in Hennepin county, near Minneapolis, Minn., and besides this a brick store, a handsome residence and other property in the town of Anoka, Minn., where he is vice-president of the Anoka National Bank and a member of the grocery firm of Campbell & Howard. His ac- cumulations are the legitimate results of his own untiring efforts and skillful adaptation of means to ends. He has had the keenness to see and the alertness to seize good opportunities, and the skill to make them yield up their due and full fruitage. Moreover, his successes have not made him forget his early struggles, or grow indifferent to those of other persons. For the deserving who are toiling upward he has always an encouraging word and an open hand. He is well esteemed wherever he is known as a progressive, upright, far-seeing man, a good friend and neighbor, and a useful and representative citizen.

G EORGE C. HOWARD. - Honored and esteemed by all who know him, and recog- nized as one of the sterling pioneers of Montana, Mr. Howard is one of the prosperous and influen- tial farmers of beautiful Gallatin valley, his fine ranch being located seven miles southeast of the city of Bozeman, his postoffice address. Mr. Howard is a native of the old Empire state, hav- ing been born near the city of Rochester, in 1834. He was but three years of age when he was taken by his grandparents to Grass Lake, a little village in Jackson county, Mich. The father of our sub- ject was George Howard, a farmer near Roches- ter, N. Y., who died there the year George C. was born. The paternal grandfather, Philip S. How- ard, was a native of Germany, whence he emi- grated, coming to the United States when a young man and settling in the vicinity of Ann Arbor, Mich., and followed his trade of stonemason dur- ing his active business life. The maiden name of our subject's mother was Almira Johnston, who was born in the state of New York, whence she accompanied her father on his removal to Onon- dago, Ingham county, Mich., where her death occurred.

George C. Howard was reared in the home of his maternal grandfather, Merritt Johnston, one of the pioneer settlers on Grand river, in Ingham county, Mich., having located midway between the cities of Jackson and Lansing, where he developed a fine farm and continued in agricultural pursuits until his death. George C. Howard received his early educational training in a subscription school in Ingham county, Mich., payment being made for each student in proportion to the number of days' attendance. He attended school in the winter sea- son and assisted in the work of the farm in the summers until he reached the age of fourteen . years, at which tender age he was sent forth to shift for himself and literally to work out his own salvation. In 1848 he went to Saginaw, Mich., and for three years was employed in teaming and sailing on the great lakes. He then went into the lumber camps of Michigan and Wisconsin, and followed the occupation of a teamster until the spring of 1860, when the discovery of gold at Pike's Peak, Colo., led him to make his way to that distant section, where he arrived in the sum- mer of 1860. He there engaged in teaming and freighting for a period of three years, and in 1863 crossed the plains to Alder gulch, Mont., where the gold excitement was at its height, and engaged

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in the same line of business for two years. He arrived at the gulch (Virginia City) just in time to witness the hanging by the Vigilantes of the notorious desperado, George Ives, and not long afterward had the questionable satisfaction of viewing five more malefactors hanging side by side from ropes suspended from a long pole, which served as an impromptu gallows, they likewise be- ing the victims of Judge Lynch and thus expiated for their many crimes. The names of four of these malefactors were Boone Helm, Hayes Ly- ons, "Clubfoot" George and Jack Gallagher. In 1865 Mr. Howard removed to Helena, and there- after devoted about four years to freighting and running pack trains to the various mining camps. In the summer of 1869 he located at Bozeman, Gallatin county, and continued freighting until about the year 1881, one branch of his business being to haul supplies to the Crow Indian reserva- tion, on the Yellowstone river. For the following nine years Mr. Howard was engaged in transport- ing tourists to the Yellowstone National Park and acting as their guide through this wonderland of the continent. Within this time he formed the ac- quaintanceship of people from all sections of the Union and from foreign lands. While a resident of Helena Mr. Howard located a squatter's claim of 160 acres of land, an unsurveyed tract at the mouth of the Bear creek canyon, near Bozeman, this original location having been made in 1867, and is now known as section 26, township 2 north, range 6 east. He began to make improvements on the place, but in the fall of 1867 the government took the land as a military reservation and there- after held it for several years. After it was abandoned for this purpose and the survey was completed, Mr. Howard made a regular filing on his original claim, in 1891, and still holds the same, in addition to a contiguous tract of 160 acres, which he purchased from the Northern Pa- cific Railroad Company. Here he has one of the finest farms in this favored section of the state, securing prolific yields of wheat, oats and other cereals, as well as the finest grade of potatoes and other farm products. Touching his experiences in the early days, Mr. Howard relates many inter- esting tales. In the summer of 1867, while run- ning a pack train for a company of Montana militia, 400 strong and under command of Capt. Neil Howey, their headquarters were established on the Yellowstone river, at a point where the city of Livingston now stands. There were bands of

hostile Indians in the neighborhood, and Capt. Howey set out with a small escort to find the re- mains of two men who had been killed by the sav- ages, leaving Mr. Howard with the men and teams in the camp. The bare bones of the dead men were found and buried; meanwhile Mr. Howard rode out a mile or more from camp and was sud- denly atacked by a band of about forty hostile Indians, some of whom were provided with rifles and others with only bows and arrows, and Mr. Howard became a target forthwith. He led the savages a wild chase toward the camp and had nearly reached the same when he made a sudden side movement, thus getting out of range and en- abling the men in camp to turn. loose a howitzer on the Indians, thus driving them back. It was a close call for Mr. Howard, and the experience is one which he would not care to repeat. The sol- diers thereafter built a rock fort on Boulder river, near Big Timber, which is still standing, and may be seen on a ranch now owned by a Mr. Stubble- field.

In politics Mr. Howard is a stalwart advocate of the principles of the Democratic party, and he maintains a public-spirited interest in all that con- cerns the well-being of the community and the progress of the state at large. In the city of Hel- ena, then scarcely more than a mere mining camp, in the summer of 1869, Mr. Howard was united in marriage to Miss Martha E. Astle, who was born in Salt Lake City. They have four sons and two daughters living, namely: William C., Frederick A., Charles Edwin, Clara May, George and Flor- ence. Clara May is the wife of William H. Mon- roe, a farmer near Bozeman, and Fred A. was mar- ried in 1899 to Miss Ellen Brown, of Bozeman. Two daughters are deceased : Laura Alice died at the age of four years, and Esther, who died in De- cember, 1899, at the age of sixteen years.

W TILLIAM HUDNALL .- This genial and pop- ular gentleman, accomplished chemist and pharmacist and valued public official, was born near Lynchburg, Va., April 17, 1849. His parents were J. L. and Elizabeth (Wood) Hudnall, also natives of Virginia, who there lived and died, the former in 1881 and the latter in 1885. When Mr. Hudnall was five years old the family removed to Bedford county, and he attended the dis- trict schools until he was seventeen years old. In

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1866 he came to Montana, and passed the first year after his arrival in herding cattle for A. Mussul- man. After that he worked in John T. Murphy's grocery stores in Helena and at Highland gulch ; and while at the latter place the Vigilantes hanged a man for stealing. On New Year's day, 1868, he engaged with R. S. Hale, of Helena, to learn the drug business, and received his first lessons in chemistry from S. W. Langhorn. In 1874 the firm of R. S. Hale & Co. was formed with Mr. Hudnall as junior partner. He was a member of the firm until 1889, when he accepted a position in the drug store of J. B. Lockwood, which he held until March 1, 1901, when he relinquished the posi- tion to accept appointment by Gov. Toole to the office of examiner of state institutions, banks, county officials, etc.

In politics Mr. Hudnall is an ardent Democrat, active in the service of the party and firm in his faith in its principles. In 1897 he was elected to the city council of Helena as alderman from the Fourth ward and served for two years. In fra- ternal relations he is scribe in the Ancient Order of Pyramids and a member of McRae Castle of the Order of Royal Highlanders. In October, 1882, he was married at Geneseo, Ill., to Miss Harriet M. Arnett, a native of that city, where she was born in 1858, a daughter of George Arnett, a prominent farmer and business man of the place. They have one child, Inez Arnett Hudnall. More than most men Mr. Hudnall has won the regard and cordial friendship of his fellows. He has ex- hibited masterful ability in every line of intellectual activity in which he has engaged; has maintained an elevated standard of manhood under all circum- stances ; has performed with zeal and fidelity every duty of citizenship, and has exhibited toward all men a courteous and considerate demeanor and a charming grace of manner.

R OBERT G. HUMBER .- The honored treas- urer of the new county of Powell, in effecting whose organization he was largely instrumental, Mr. Humber, in addition to being numbered among the sterling pioneers of Montana, has rendered distinctive and valuable service in posi- tions of public trust and responsibility, both in the territorial epoch and also since the admission of Montana as a state. He stands today as one of its representative men and one of the leading citizens

of Deer Lodge, where he has maintained his home for a long term of years. Robert Gano Humber was born in Lincoln county, Ky., on March 25, 1841, the son of Newmeris and Martha (Gano) Humber, natives respectively of Lincoln and Clarke counties, Ky. Jesse Bryan, the maternal great-grandfather of the Powell county treas- urer, was likewise the great-grandfather of William Jennings Bryan. Newmeris Humbert was a farmer, and at an early day he removed from his native state to Platte county, Mo., where he remained until 1854, when he made his home in Leavenworth, Kan. At the time of the Civil war he served as a member of the Kansas legislature. In 1874 he and his wife came to what is now Powell county, Montana, making their home with their son, and here the mother died in 1877, while the father was sum- moned from earthly scenes in February, 1889.

Robert G. Humber was reared and educated in Missouri and Kansas, having been a student in the State University of Missouri at Columbia, when occurred the Civil war. His sympathies were with the southern cause and with the institutions fa- miliar to him from his childhood, and he was thus prompted to leave the university and enter the Confederate army, enlisting in the Second Bat- talion of Gen. Stein's command, with which he participated in the engagements at Carthage and Wilson's creek in Missouri, in which latter battle Gen. Lyon was killed. Later he took part in the conflicts at Lexington and Pea Ridge, and after the last battle he was detailed in other service ; was in New Orleans shortly after its capture and from there proceeded to New York and thence to Mis- souri, where he was captured in the spring of 1864. He was soon paroled and then became identified with a freighting business between Leavenworth, Kan., and Denver, Colo.

In 1865 Mr. Humber came across the plains to Montana with about 500 head of cattle, and he lo- cated and settled in the Deer Lodge valley, about eight miles south of the present city of Deer Lodge. He also established a freighting business between Fort Benton and Helena and became identified with mining enterprises at Butte. He thus conducted a successful business for a number of years, disposing of his interests in the early 'seventies and re- turning to the east. After a two-years stay he came again to Montana, and has since made his home in what is now Powell county. In politics

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Mr. Humber has ever been an active and influ- ential worker in the Democratic party, and during his residence in Montana has figured conspicuous- ly in public affairs and shown himself a capable and faithful official. In 1880 he was elected to the Twelfth territorial legislature, in which he intro- duced an amendment to a bill for the establishing of Silver Bow county, and through the ultimate adoption of this amendment the present line be- tween that county and Deer Lodge county was established. Mr. Humber was also accorded the distinction of having been elected to the lower house of the First legislature after the admission of Montana to statehood for the assembly of 1889- 90, but owing to contests no regular business was transacted at that session. After a compromise was effected between the contending parties .a ses- sion was held in 1891, in which Mr. Humber was an active worker. He was elected speaker pro tem. of the house, and from the illness of the regu- lar incumbent he continued to serve in the chair of speaker until the close of the session, proving a tactful, discriminating and popular presiding of- ficer.

The legislative career of Mr. Humber was far- ther extended, for in 1900 he was elected to repre- sent Deer Lodge county in the Fifth legislative assembly of the state, where he did most effective work in advocacy of the bill to erect the new county of Powell from the northern part of Deer Lodge county, with the city of Deer Lodge as its county-seat, and the final passing of the bill, in Feb- ruary, 1901, was in large measure due to his in- defatigable and well directed efforts. In 1883 Mr. Humber was elected county treasurer of Deer Lodge county, giving so excellent an adminis- tration that he was held to be the normal can- didate for the office at the next election in 1885, when he was chosen as his own successor and thus served two terms. Upon the organization of Powell county, as an incidental provision of the legislative enactment creating the county, he was appointed its treasurer, and is now incumbent of the office. He is rendering valuable aid in shap- ing the affairs of the new county and in establish- ing its finances upon a substantial and conserva- tive basis. He still retains ranching interests in this section, and also has an attractive home in the city of Deer Lodge. On January 29, 1865, Mr. Humber was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Williams, who was born in Madison county, Ky., the daughter of John A. and Lydia E. (Hart)

Williams, both of whom were native Kentuckians. Mrs. Williams, who is a niece of ex-Gov. Shelby, of Kentucky, now makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. Humber, her husband having died in his na- tive state. Nine children comprise the family of Mr. and Mrs. Humber, Irvine (deceased), Mary B., Martha G., Robert Hart, Lydia (deceased), Jessie, Lillian, Newmeris (deceased) and Roland R.

A LEXANDER HUNDLEY .- After arduous service in the Civil war and occasional scraps with the Indians, and after much toil and hardship and numerous disappointments, Alexander Hund- ley, one of the progressive and prominent ranch- men of Carbon county, has secured a comfort- able relief from the cares and apprehensions of life, and is safely fixed in the regard and esteem of his fellow men. He was born in Hawkins county, Tenn., May 27, 1838, the son of Joseph and Mary F. (Phelps) Hundley, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Virginia. His grandparents were Jordan and Betsey (Brown) Hundley, both of Irish ancestry. The Browns emigrated from the north of Ireland in Colonial days, and several members of the family distin- guished themselves on the Colonial side in the war of the Revolution. An uncle of our subject, John Phelps, was conspicuous for gallantry in the Mexican war. In 1847 Mr. Hundley's father re- moved to Iowa, where he remained until 1858, then transferred his residence to Missouri, locating in Vernon county, and making that his home until 1865. Subsequently he went into Barry county, and there engaged in stockraising and farming until his death.

Alexander Hundley passed his school days in Iowa, and removed with his parents to Missouri. remaining at home until 1860, when he started in business for himself. On June 8, 1861, he en- listed in Company F. Second Missouri Volunteer Infantry, under Col. Clinton Hunter, and was in the thick of the fights at Dugg's Springs, Wil- son's creek and Prairie Grove, besides a large number of skirmishes. At Wilson's creek a pass- ing bullet burned his face, another scorched his left shoulder, and still another plowed a furrow through his scalp. This was his nearest approach to being seriously wounded in the war. But he was twice taken prisoner-was exchanged after the first capture and escaped after the second. He

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was then taken home on account of illness, but re- mained only a short time. On May 14, 1865, he started for Montana by a wagon train from Atchison, Kan., and arrived at Bear gulch without incident worthy of note. There he engaged in mining for a time, and later at Lincoln gulch, where he remained until 1871, then located in Madison valley, where he worked for two years. From there he removed to the Yellowstone and engaged in hunting and trapping for a time owing to poor health resulting from exposure and priva- tion during the war which incapacitated him for hard labor. He relieved the monotony of this life by an occasional scrap with the Indians. In 1877 he located two miles above Columbus on the Yellowstone, and engaged in cattleraising for some years, and then sheep, continuing this business until the panic of 1893, during which he lost most of his property and stock, but managed to save sufficient to start again on Rocky Fork creek, locating first at Red Lodge and after a year or two selling out and purchasing his present place three miles and a half up stream from Carbonado and three quarters of a mile from the old Fort F. C. Smith crossing on Rock creek. All the land of this ranch is practically under irrigation and in a high state of cultivation. It is a well located, well sheltered and well improved property, and worthy of the pride which Mr. Hundley justly has in it.

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 176

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