Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 180

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 180

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PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

leyan University at Helena; Claude, Earl, Ada, Lulu and Errett, all at present attending school. For a number of years Mr. Tuttle has been a trus- tee and clerk of the school board. Politically he is a loyal Democrat, frequently representing his party as a delegate to state and county conven- tions, and in 1900 he was elected county treasurer of Jefferson county, in which office of high trust he is efficiently serving. Fraternally he is a mem- ber of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. There is a prosperous appearance everywhere around the beautiful ranch of Mr. Tuttle. It is evident he has found his highest degree of pros- perity in Jefferson county, and in the community he is a highly valued citizen.

R ICHARD LOCKEY .- It is as a man of af- fairs that Mr. Lockey takes pre-eminence in the commercial and political history of Montana, with which he has been closely identified since 1866. He was born in Yorkshire, England, on June II, 1845, the third of the nine children of John and Mary Lockey. His parents emigrated to the United States in 1846, locating at Dubuque, Iowa. Here their children were reared, and young Richard had such advantages for an educa- tion as were afforded by the schools of a frontier town. Meager as those advantages then were, by diligence and close application he laid a foundation for a business life which has stood him in good stead throughout his active and successful career. Leaving school at the age of twelve he clerked for three years in a country store, after which he worked in the lead mines of Dubuque, with brief intermissions, until the breaking out the Civil war. In 1862, though only seventeen years of age, he offered himself for enlistment and was twice re- fused on account of his youth. He was finally ac- cepted in a clerical capacity, and at Patterson, Mo., was attached to the Fremont Hussars, which, by consolidation with the Benton Hussars, later formed the Fourth Missouri Cavalry. In No- vember, 1862, his command accompanied that of Gen. Davidson's on an expedition into southeast- ern Missouri and Arkansas. In 1863 he was with Gen. Asboth at Columbus, Ky., and with Col. Geo. E. Waring's cavalry command in Kentucky and Tennessee. Early in 1864 he accompanied Gen. Sherman's army from Vicksburg in its march

across Mississippi into Alabama, and, returning to Vicksburg, he joined Gen. Banks' famous Red river expedition. Mr. Lockey then was in charge of the commissary and quartermaster departments of Gen. A. J. Smith's command, the Sixteenth Army Corps. In the fall of 1864 he fell a victim to the unhealthful climate of the south and the ex- posure of army life, and, after recovery from a dangerous illness at Memphis, he returned to 'Dubuque, where he entered Bayliss' Commercial College, from which he was graduated. During the winter of 1865-6 he was engaged at St. Louis in settling up the quartermaster's books and ac- counts of the Fourth Missouri Cavalry and Six- teenth Army Corps. In the spring of 1866 he made the hazardous journey across the plains, traveling by team from Dubuque to Helena, and from the Platte river over the Bozeman cutoff, reaching Confederate gulch on July 4, and arriving in Hele- na July 7, 1866. Here he located and here he was first employed in the building of the Truitt and Plaisted ditch. He then became a clerk in a store, where he remained for three years. He subse- quently read law in the offices of Col. W. F. Sand- ers and Chumasero & Chadwick for eighteen months. On June 5, 1870, he was united in mar- riage at Helena to Miss Emily E. Jeffrey, of Leav- enworth, Kan. They have had five children, two of whom, Mary Isabella and Richard, Jr., are liv- ing.

In 1871 Mr. Lockey engaged in merchandising at Helena and, in 1876, opened a branch store at Bozeman, where he manufactured under contract large quantities of hard bread for the United States military and Indian departments. In 1881 he sold the Bozeman store to his brothers, John and George W., who continued the business as Lockey Brothers, and the Helena store was sold to Wil- liam H. Ulm. He then turned his attention to real estate, insurance and abstracts, and is now among the leaders in that line in Montana. He has large real estate holdings, mines and other enterprises, was one of the organizers and is a director of the American National Bank of Helena, is president of the Lockey Investment Company, and was president of the Helena Trust Company and Helena Rapid Transit Railway, and at present holds important positions in other corporations. His undertakings have been characterized by a knowledge of organization and such zeal and en- ergy that success was assured. Of a mental or- ganization highly deliberative, his plans are never

Richard Lockey.

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PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

quickly conceived or chimerical in character, but always the emanation of a deductive analysis peculiar to the trained thinker. Mr. Lockey is prominently and actively identified with the various branches of Masonic character, including Knights Templar, Scottish Rite and Mystic Shrine, and he has officiated in many of their higher offices. He is an active member of the Odd Fellows, Sons of St. George and other so- cieties. He has served three years as grand re- ceiver of the grand lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen of Montana. In 1868 he as- sisted in the organization of the Good Templars' order in Helena, and officiated in all of its higher offices.

He is one of the largest contributors to the Montana Wesleyan University, and is vice-presi- dent of its board of trustees. He is justly esteemed for his public spirit in the gift of Lockey Avenue park to the city of Helena, and he was one of the principal owners of the land which was donated to the state of Montana for the capitol building site. Recently he was the largest con- tributor to the fund for enlarging the Lewis and Clarke county courthouse square or park. A life- long Republican, in 1892 he was elected a member of the Montana legislature, where he distinguished himself as a man of patriotism, breadth of mind and progressive ideas. He has also served in the city council of Helena, has been twice a member of the city board of education and has furthered the interests of the community in other important positions. He is known throughout the state as the Duke of Last Chance, from the fact that he has for nearly a quarter of a century been the presid- ing officer of the "House of Lords," a burlesque legislative assembly which was organized in Vir- ginia City many years ago and removed to Helena when the capital was transferred thither. His natural adaptation for presiding over such an as- sembly is marked. Nature made him a humorist of a quaint type, and, possessing thorough knowl- edge of parliamentary law, he is quick and incisive in his rulings. . His assumed gravity is never dis- turbed by the mirth and hilarity of this assembly, and by his serious demeanor he gives a grave dig- nity to the scenes enacted in this mock tribunal, in which no objectionable features have ever been permitted by him. It has given him a reputation in the northwest and the influence of this body upon real legislation has been wholesome and sal- uttary.

)D. TWOHY .- In his origin but one genera- tion removed from the Emerald Isle, Patrick D. Twohy, the captivating, conscientious and ac- complished treasurer of Deer Lodge county, bears ever about him the evergreen of good-fellowship and the fragrance of sincere and hearty manhood which are so suggestive of all that is best in old Ireland's contributions to American citizenship. His useful life began something less than half a century ago at Copper Harbor in northern Michi- gan, where his father, Dennis, and his mother, Margaret (Casey) Twohy, had settled after their marriage in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in 1850. They were both natives of Ireland, who had emigrated to America at the first opportunity that came to them after they grew up, the father arriving in New York about the year 1846. They sought the promised chance to win Dame Fortune's smile in the comparatively untrodden fields of the west, removing to Michigan about 1851, and there pros- pering and raising a family of five children, of whom the Treasurer was the eldest. He secured what school advantages were available under the circumstances, in the winter months of his boy- hood years, and when he was nearly grown adopted the vocation of his father and farmed for a short time. When he was twenty years old he located in St. Paul, Minn., where he entered the employ of the old St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company, now the Great Northern. He was so faithful and strict in his attention to business, and so intelligent and skillful in the discharge of his duties, that he was soon promoted to the position of foreman of the freight department of the road. In this new responsibility he won the esteem of the men who worked under him and the increased confidence of his employers. For seven years he served them with zeal and fidelity, and then re- signed the post in order to engage in the retail grocery business with his brothers. In 1892 the persuasive voice of Montana, calling for men of force and capacity to come and aid in the devel- opment of her resources, and promising good re- wards for faithful service, reached his ear and moved him to seek the guerdon at her hands. He reached Butte in November of that year, and within a short time secured a contract for con- structing a part of the grade of the B. A. & P. Railway. He completed this in two years, and then assumed the management of the Warm Springs livery stable in Anaconda. This business occupied him profitably until he was elected

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county treasurer in November, 1898, receiving a majority of 1,400 votes. He bore himself so mod- estly in this office, and withal discharged its duties with such conspicuous fairness, intelligence and consideration for all interests, individual and gen- eral, that at the end of his term he was unanimous- ly re-nominated by his own party and endorsed by every other in the field except the Republican, and was triumphantly re-elected by a good majority, which in the general upheaval of the time and disintegration of parties was a very gratifying tribute to his course as an official and his worth as a man.

Mr. Twohy' is unmarried, but is by no means devoid of admirable social qualities which find expression in part in the good-fellowship engen- dered by the fraternal orders. He is a member of the order of Elks and of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, in both of which he takes great inter- est. There is a dash of sporting blood in him also, which makes him fond of good horses, and a keen and discriminating judge of their merits. It is safe to say that no man in Anaconda has more friends than P. D. Twohy, and that no man de- serves friends better.

H ENRY UTLEY .- One of the successful and highly-honored ranchers of Madison county is Henry Utley, who was born in Wayne county, Mich., on September 25, 1833, the son of Ephraim H. Utley, who was a native of Vermont and a practical New England farmer. He went to Michigan in 1821, and there was principally en- gaged in looking up lands for eastern investors and there he made his home until his death in 1861. Henry Utley when only fourteen years old as- sumed his individual connection with the respon- sibilities of life, and worked at lumbcring until he was twenty-six years old. At the time of the Civil war his patriotism was enkindled, and he three times enlisted for service in the Union ranks, but on each occasion was rejected on ac- count of impaired health. He removed with his family to Montana, and in 1880 located on his pres- ent ranch, which is situated just north of Page- ville, Madison county. Here he has a finely im- proved property and has been successful in his ranching operations. Politically Mr. Utley has ever been a stanch Republican, and, while a resi- dent of Michigan, served as deputy sheriff and as

highway commissioner. For nineteen years, from the time of the establishing of the school district of Pageville, he has been school trustee, taking a deep interest in educational affairs and in all else that tends to aid the welfare of the community, and, with his wife, belongs to the Baptist church. On July 22, 1855, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Utley to Miss Elmina C. Page, who was born in Ellington, Chautauqua county, N. Y. She is a sister of Hon. J. M. Page, of Twin Bridges. Mr. and Mrs. Utley are the parents of four children, Charles Leslie, born in 1858, is married and has a ranch near the homestead of his father; Blanche died at the age of seven years; Maytie R., born in 1868, is engaged in teaching, and Belle, born in 1875, is the wife of T. C. Mills, of Helena.

M RS. ELIZA J. VAN BROCKLIN .- The no- ble pioneer women of Montana have borne bravely the privations and vicissitudes of life on the frontier, enduring dangers with courage and fortitude and contributing to a greater degree than is often appreciated, to the establishment of a great commonwealth, for the center of true national greatness and prosperity is the home, and of the home the true woman is the presiding genius. One of this number is Mrs. Van Brocklin, who was born on November 3, 1830, in Canton, Ohio, which was so long the home of President McKin- ley. Her parents, Louis and Sarah (Snyder) Kyle, were natives of Pennsylvania. They re- moved to Ohio in 1829, the father there following the carpenter's trade and farming. In the family were nine children, of whom six are living, Mrs. Van Brocklin having been the third in order of birth. She attended the public schools of Ohio, and there, in 1851, was solemnized her marriage to Jerome Neely, who was born in Pennsylvania. They took up their residence in Illinois, but failing health compelled Mr. Neely to go to California, where his death occurred in 1852, only one year after his marriage. He left one son, James, who has ever been the companion and mainstay of his mother, of whose fine ranch property he now has entire supervision.

Mrs. Van Brocklin, after the death of her hus- band, removed to Iowa, where she resided with her uncle on his farm for over ten years. She re- moved to Denver, Colo., in 1863, and in the fall was united in marriage with Adam Van Brocklin,

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PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

who was born in New York, and whom she ac- companied to Montana in the spring of 1864. They located in Nevada City, Alder gulch, re- mained five years, and then came to her present home, taking up government land in the Ruby valley, at a point two miles south of the village of Laurin. The ranch comprises 360 acres of fertile land, is thoroughly equipped with the best of im- provements and is practically all available for cul- tivation. Mr. Van Brocklin was summoned from earth in 1881, but his widow and her son have con- tinued to reside on the old homestead. Mr. Van Brocklin was a Republican in politics, and James Neely, the son of Mrs. Van Brocklin, gives his support to the principles of the same party. He has never married, but devotes to his mother filial care and solicitude. Mrs. Van Brocklin has a wide circle of friends in the community where she has lived so many years. Her religious faith is that of the Society of Friends, in which she is a birthright member.

JOHN VANDERBILT .- Much of romance lingers about the pioneer epoch in Montana, and, in retrospect, this element preponderates over the hardships and privations endured by the sturdy, true-hearted men who laid the foundations for our great commonwealth, building better than they realized at the time. The life history of none of these sterling pioneers should fail of perpetual record, and among them John Vanderbilt has a prominent place as one of Montana's honored pio- neers. Mr. Vanderbilt comes of Knickerbocker stock, and of the well-known Holland family of which Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt was a' most conspicuous member, Abraham H. Vander- bilt, father of our Montana Vanderbilt, being an own cousin of that able business man.

John Vanderbilt was born in Wayne county, N. Y., on June 1, 1837, the fifth of the ten children born to Abraham H. and Julia (Paton) Vanderbilt. His father, a native of New Jersey, was for years a resident and a farmer in western New York. John Vanderbilt was identified with farming and educated in the common schools in New York un- til he had attained his legal majority, when, in 1858, he came to the west, locating in Kansas, where he learned the carpenter trade and re- mained until 1860, when he joined the throng of gold-seekers making their way westward. He

visited the sites of Pueblo and Colorado Springs and thence went to Denver, then a primitive min- ing camp, and on to Central City, where he re- mained two years. In April, 1862, Mr. Vander- bilt started across the plains and over the moun- tains to Oregon. His party made its way into Idaho territory, of which Montana was then a part, and stopped about twenty-five miles from where Boise now stands. Here he and his fifteen companions manufactured pack saddles and started for the Florence mines. They employed a guide who agreed to pilot them through in three days. On the 4th of July the party encamped on top of the Salmon mountains, then covered with snow, and there cooked and ate their dinner under somewhat extraordinary conditions. They con- tinued their journey to a small stream and here they lost their guide who mysteriously disap- peared; they, however, went on to the Salmon river and thence up the Big Hole river, where they met Judge M. H. Lott and his brother John, the well-known pioneers. The party exhausted their provisions, and proceeded to Fort Owens, from which Mr. Vanderbilt made his way to the Bitter Root valley, and worked at cradling wheat. In December, 1862, he crossed the Mullan pass on his way to Bannack in deep snow, standing guard at night to keep the wolves at bay while his com- panions slept. He reached Bannack on Decem- ber 27, and there followed placer mining for a time and then engaged in cutting timber during the re- mnainder of the winter.

In the spring of 1863, in company with Gov. Hauser, James Stuart and thirteen others, Mr. Vanderbilt started for the Wind river, and this expedition has been fully described by Gov. Hauser in published articles. It is sufficient here to re- call the fact that the party had a sharp fight with Indians on the Big Horn river, two of the number being killed and another shot by accident, while Mr. Vanderbilt received a slight wound. After this battle the party went east across the Big Horn mountains up the Wind river to the South pass, where they struck the emigrant road. Provisions came to a low point on the way and they had to eat raw buffalo meat. They returned to Bannack by Lander's cutoff, and soon after- ward received the news of the rich gold discov- eries in Alder gulch. Mr. Vanderbilt at once went to Virginia City and was very successful in his mining operations there, as were the major- ity of those who worked placer claims. In 1866

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PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

he took up his residence on a ranch in the Jef- ferson valley, but the grasshoppers destroyed his crops, and in the fall he worked in the erection of buildings for the Midas Mining Company, re- ceiving $10 per day for mason work. In 1868 he mined in Norwegian gulch and in 1869 de- voted much of his time to prospecting. In 1870 Mr. Vanderbilt did the stone work on the Heyman mill on Ruby river, and in 1871 he was engaged in successful freighting from Fort Benton to the mining towns. In December, 1871, he returned to his home in New York and for two years was in the east, passing a portion of the time in Mis- souri and Indiana. He has never married, and now resides in the pleasant little village of Nor- ris, where he still works at his trade of a car- penter and builder and where he is held in the highest esteem by old and young. In politics he supports the Democratic party, and his religious faith is Presbyterian.

A TTANAS VIAUX, leaving the peaceful shades of St. Martine, near Montreal, Canada, the home of his childhood and youth, where he was born May 2, 1847, and remained until he was nineteen years old, in obedience to the loud voice of the far western territory of the American Union for volunteers in her great army of conquest over nature, plunged into the midst of hardships, dangers and toil to which he was not accustomed, con- fronting savage beasts and still more savage men in deadly combat, Attanas Viaux, our subject, had he not been made of stern stuff and possessed the real grit of true manliness, would have faltered in his course and returned to the home of his youth. But he persevered in his determination to win a home and a name among this new people at whatever cost of personal peril and sacrifice, and has succeeded beyond his expectations.

His father was Ernstine Viaux, an amiable and prosperous farmer at St. Martine from early life to the end of his days, which came in 1875. Atta- nas was reared and educated on the homestead, and in 1866, when he was nineteen years old, he started with a freighting outfit for Colorado. The outfits which preceded his had trouble with the Indians and had men killed in fights with them. This fact determined his party to change its destination and go to Montana, which they did by way of the Bozeman cutoff, arriving at the city of Bozeman

September 25. Mr. Viaux remained there a short time, and on Christmas day, 1866, he went over to the Yellowstone and began herding cattle, fol- lowing this occupation until April 16, 1867. That night and the night previous. Col. Bozeman, who had promised to take one Tom Coover over to the Big Horn Fort, lodged at the Viaux cabin, in com- pany with C. L. Smith. On the morning of the 17th they left the cabin about eight o'clock to proceed on their journey, and the herders hooked up their horses and started to Bozeman. They traveled about six miles, and then camped for the night. The next morning Mr. Viaux rose early and went back over the road they had traveled the day before to bring up some cattle that were too poor to keep in line. On the way he met a man who proved to be Coover, who fired his gun into the air to show that he was not hostile, and when he came up said that while he and Bozeman were camping for dinner on Bridger creek three Indians came up and made signs for a conference with them. Coover did not wish to let them come to the cabin, but Bozeman said he knew one of them and permitted him to approach. Bozeman soon saw that he was mistaken, and Coover started for the horses, two of which were saddle horses and one a packhorse. At this juncture the Indian who was talking to Col. Bozeman stepped aside, and one of the others shot at the Colonel, striking him in the breast. He shouted to Coover, "I'm shot," and raised his gun to shoot the Indian, but before he could do it another shot struck him within two inches of the first, and he died within a few min- utes. The Indians then shot at Coover, grazing his left shoulder, but he escaped into the brush, re- maining hidden until after the Indians had looted the camp and left. They took nearly everything of valne, including the horses, the ammunition and Col. Bozeman's gun, which they afterward threw into the creek. When they had gone Coover re- turned to the camp and found that Col. Bozeman was dead. He took from the body a watch and some little money which the Indians had left and started for the camp where they had spent the pre- vious night to get help for burying the Colonel's remains. He struck the wrong place for fording the river and had a narrow escape from drowning. Mr. Kinzie loaned him a horse on which he rode into Bozeman and obtained a party who went back and buried the Colonel near where he was killed. Some years after the body was removed to Boze- man and buried in a manner commensurate with

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the standing of the man in the community and the service he had rendered to this whole section of the country.

After this tragic event Mr. Viaux put in four years at saw milling, and then engaged in freighting for several months with a fair degree of success. He followed this with eight years of prosperous farming, and then went to the mouth of Galla- tin canyon and took up a homestead on which he has since lived. He has increased his ranch to 853 acres, on which he erected, in 1897, a fine stone residence and a full complement of barns and other outbuildings. The residence is built in mod- ern style and equipped with all desirable conven- iences. The buildings are well located, and the place is altogether a very attractive and pleasing one. It shows evidence of the most progressive spirit in its owner, and marks him as one of the leading men in his line in the neighborhood. He has been engaged mainly in raising superior breeds of horses and cattle, preferring Norman horses and shorthorn cattle. He is well thought of by his as- sociates, and has contributed his share to the growth and development of the county and that portion of the state.

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 180

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