Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 29

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 29

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Mr. Dickinson has contributed a number of per- tinent articles to the press on the work of this in- stitution, its needs and its progress, and in regard to general reformatory methods in schools of this character. In politics Mr. Dickinson is not an ac- tive participant, and his religious sympathy is with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which Mrs. Dickinson also is a member. On July 13, 1900, Mr. Dickinson was united in marriage to Miss Iphigenia Mills, who was born in Stanards, N. Y., the daughter of Chester D. Mills, who is engaged in farming and fruit growing. Mr. and Mrs. Dickinson have one son, Burton, born on the 14th of July, 1901.

T ALLACE D. DICKINSON, one of the po- tent factors in the upbuilding of Great Falls during the past ten years of its marvellous growth, is one of the city's most popular and prominent representatives. Since his advent here he has had the management of the Boston & Great Falls Land Co., the Boston Electric Light & Power Co., and the Great Falls Street Railway Co. To his energy and superior business sagacity is due a vast share of the municipal improvement of the city. Mr.

Dickinson was born in Malone, N. Y., in 1852. His English ancestors settled in Vermont at an early date. W. G. Dickinson, his father, was born in Sheldon, Vt., and was for many years general agent of the Santa Fe Railroad Townsite Co., in Kansas and Colorado. Later he became general manager of the San Diego land and town com- pany. His mother was Miss Sarah King, also a native of Malone. All of their five children are living. W. G. Dickinson, the father, died in 1892. his widow survives him, residing in National City, Cal.

Wallace D. Dickinson, their oldest child, received his early education in the public schools and in 1871 he was graduated with honors from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, and a large portion of his life has been passed in railroading. In early life he engaged in civil engineering and for three years was connected with the Northern Pacific Rail- road. He first came to Montana in 1871, and was employed in the surveys of this division of that road. For three years subsequently he was in Duluth, Minn., with its freight department. The ten years following were passed in Topeka, Kan., most of the time in the employ of the Santa Fe Railroad, but for two years he had charge of a carpet and furniture store. He accompanied his father to San Diego in 1886 and became a partner and sales agent of the firm of C. E. Heath & Co., which conducted a very extensive business, having charge of nearly all the townsite sales. Mr. Dick-

inson came to Great Falls in 1890. He found the street railway and electric light plants in a condi- tion that plainly indicated their primitive origin and infancy, and he heartily engaged in the business of properly developing them. From the first Mr. Dickinson has devoted his undivided attention to their improvement and the splendid results are now manifested. In 1880 he married Miss Marian Wood, a native of Galesburg, Ill. Their children are Adelaide, May King and Arthur Wood.

The Boston & Great Falls Land Co., the Boston & Great Falls Electric Light and Power Co., and the Great Falls Street Railway Co. were all organ- ized in 1890. The officers of these companies were : President, A. S. Bigelow, Boston; vice- president, Leonard Lewissohn, New York; secre- tary and treasurer, Thomas Nelson, Boston. These gentlemen all served five years. On the deatlı of Mr. Nelson he was succeeded as secretary and treasurer by G. L. Nelson, who served until 1900, when W. J. Ladd, of Boston, was elected. Mr.

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Bigelow still holds the presidency. In 1898 Mr.

H. H. Stephens was chosen vice-president. The capital stock of the companies was: Electric Light & Power, $150,000; Street Railway, $200,- 000; Land Company, $200,000. In 1892 the capi- tal stock of the light and power company was in- creased to $225,000. The rest remain the same as at first. The company has ten miles of street rail- way. They laid out the Boston Heights addition to Great Falls in 1891 with 500 acres, of which 200 are platted. Mr. Dickinson has had charge of the company's business since 1894. The street rail- way then went into the hands of a receiver and he was appointed and is still serving. He has added six miles of trackage to the line, two miles in 1900, since he assumed charge. The road belongs to the National electric railway association, also to to the National electric light association. The successful business career of Mr. Dickinson places him among the leaders of those who have brought Montana to its present high position as a common- wealth.

H ON. JOHN PIPER BARNES, son of George W. and Martha (Thomas) Barnes, was born in Boone county, Mo., January 28, 1832. His father, George W. Barnes, born in Culpeper coun- ty, Va., removed with his parents to Kentucky when he was three years old. They were pioneers, settling there in 1797, and there the grandfather of John P. Barnes died in 1810 at the age of 103 years. He had six sons by his first marriage, all of whom served in the Revolution. There were five sons and four daughters by the second marriage, George W. being the youngest. All the sons of the second marriage served in the war of 1812 under Col. Johnson, in Gen. Harrison's army. George W. Barnes was the bugleman of the troop of mounted infantry, and an incident worthy of note in this connection is that at the battle of the Thames an order to blow a retreat was understood by him to mean blow a charge, which he sounded, the result being that the forces rushed forward to victory instead of backward to defeat. George W. Barnes settled in Missouri in 1820, studied medicine and was long in practice in Clay and Platt counties. He married there Martha Thomas about 1826, and they had six children, Richard T., Sarah F., John P., Elizabeth R., Margaret J. and Mary. Richard T. died at Helena, Mont., in 1898, aged seventy years, and John P. is the only member of the family

now resident in the state. The Doctor's wife died in 1852, and he accompanied the family of his son John to Montana in 1865, and died a year later at the age of seventy-two.

John P. Barnes had the common school advan- tages of his day and location, supplemented by a short term at a high school, and acquired a prac- tical knowledge of business in his father's drug store. He engaged in merchandising, first as a clerk until 1852, then in trade for himself at Park- ville until the breaking out of the Civil war, when, throwing business to the winds, he followed his state in the cause of the south and enlisted as a lieutenant in Gen. Price's army. After serving one year, on account of a severe attack of typhoid fever he resigned his commission at Memphis, Tenn., when he was in command of his company. He was succeeded in the command by R. S. Kelly, well known to Montanians as United States marshal of this state under Cleveland. Mr. Barnes was ill and confined to his room at the time of the capture of the city, and witnessed much of the fighting from his window. On recovering his health sufficiently to travel, he secured a pass from Gen. Lew Wal- lace, the Union commander, and came up the river by steamboat to his old home. The Federal author- ities were then in control, and Mr. Barnes was placed under bonds and given no opportunity to leave that part of the country until 1864, when he came west in the employ of a man named Couch, having charge of a drove of cattle and some freight wagons, the Federal commander giving him a pass for this purpose. He arrived at Virginia City on September 12, 1864, the trip being accomplished in 120 days, said to be the best time ever made on the route.

After prospecting for a few weeks, Mr. Barnes settled for a short time on a ranch in Jefferson val- ley, and on December 24, 1864, he came to the pres- ent site of Helena, took up a claim in Grizzly gulch and mined with fair success until the fall of 1865, when, on the arrival of his family from the east, he moved across to the New York mining district. He continued mining and milling in the New York, Eldorado and Helena districts for ten years, until 1874, with varying success, in company with W. W. Arnold, who was his companion in his trip from the east. In 1867 and 1868, in company with A. G. Clarke and Alexander Kemp, he constructed the Eldorado ditch from Trout creek to Eldorado bar. This cost $103,000 and proved to be a losing

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PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

proposition. They then engaged in the sawmill business near Helena and in the construction of a mining flume on Clancey creek in Jefferson county. During a portion of this time, 1870 and 1871, Mr. Barnes resided in Helena and was in charge of a lumber yard. He then removed to the flume on Clancey creek and remained there until the fall of 1874, when he purchased a ranch on the Spokane, and made it his home until 1882. Then he and Mr. Arnold sold their mining properties and divided their other possessions, Mr. Arnold retain- ing the ranch and Mr. Barnes taking the stock, which he removed to the Judith basin and located on a ranch near Philbrook, entering a homestead of 160 acres. He added 160 acres to this tract by purchase, and made it his home until he removed to his present residence in Lewistown in 1894. It is now the property of Alexander Raw.

Always stanchly Democratic, Mr. Barnes has been an active force in the ranks of his party, and has been honored with important official trusts, which he has discharged with fidelity and advan- tage to the people whom he served. In 1867 he was appointed by Gov. Green Clay Smith one of the commissioners to organize Meagher county, including all the territory between the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers as far south as Flathead Pass. In the fall of 1868 he was chosen one of the first members of the legislature from this new county, and the next fall was elected to represent Choteatı, Meagher and Gallatin counties in the upper house. Having removed to Jefferson county, in the fall of 1871 he was elected the joint representative of Lewis and Clarke and Jefferson counties in the council, and in 1877 was nominated as a member of the same body for Lewis and Clarke county, but, giving no personal attention to the canvass, ivas defeated by A. M. Holter by the small majority of sixty votes. In 1886 he was one of the commis- sioners elected to organize Fergus county, and held the office for three years until the first election of state officers under the state constitution in 1889. On July 1, 1894, Mr. Barnes took possession of the office of receiver of the United States land office at Lewistown, to which he had been commissioned on the preceding 24th day of May. He held this office for four years and discharged its duties with satisfaction to the people. When the city of Lewis- town was incorporated he was elected its first mayor, but refused to be a candidate for a second term. In 1850 he joined the Methodist Episcopal church, and consequently has been a member of that

religious body for over half a century. He was made a Mason in Compass Lodge No. 63, at Park- ville, Mo., in January, 1858, and is now affiliated with Lewistown Lodge.

In the fall of 1887 Mr. Barnes purchased a one- half interest in three mining claims in the North Moccasin mountains, and in 1888, with his son C. E. Barnes, he bought the other half interest from A. D. Harmon. He developed these and added others to them until they had a group of fifteen claims, known as the Barnes-King group of mines. Their mill, nominally of 100 tons capacity, had really a capacity of 300 tons, and they easily run through 100 tons in eight hours. The ore has an average value of $10 to the ton. The Barnes-King group was bonded to an Eastern syndicate in De- cember, 1901, for $1,000,000.

Mr. Barnes was united in marriage February 23, 1853, with Miss Rosetta L. Beeding, a daughter of Craven P. and Rosetta L. (Lackland) Beeding. She was a native of Hagerstown, Md., from whence her parents removed to Parkville, Mo., in 1844. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes have reared six children, Clarence E., John S., Martha E. (Mrs. Joseph Wunderlin), Anna M. (Mrs. R. L. Neville), Loretta (Mrs. M. L. Woodman), and Carlotta (Mrs. John L. Raw). Mrs. Barnes died in March, 1899, aged sixty-five years. Mr. Barnes con- tracted a second marriage on May 8, 1901, being then united with Mrs. Jennie Larson, whose maiden name was Sheridan. She was born in Lindley, Steuben county, N. Y., in 1855.

Mr. Barnes is one of the rare specimens of man- hood whose modesty has kept him from the full measure of honorable station to which he might probably have aspired. It has been said of him, by one who knows him well, and who is an excellent judge of character, that he might have had any office in the gift of his people if he had aspired to it. But while he has not pushed himself forward in official lines, he has held responsible positions with great ability, has dignified and adorned every walk of life in which he has been found, and has been an inspiration and example to good men of all classes.

H TON. W. W. DIXON .- The qualities which command the largest measure of material success in human affairs are a clearness of under- standing that brings into view from the beginning the definite end and the most available means of

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reaching it ; a force of will tireless in its persistency, and a quickness of decision that instantly utilizes the commanding points in any case. In the ratio in which they possess such qualities men are great and are the leaders of their fellows from the right- ful sovereignity innate in their individual nature. There may be oratorical power-depth of thought and grace of diction-in the conjunction. Sub- tlety in dialectics and copiousness of technical learning may not be wanting. If so, these are added powers. It is the men of action who move the world forward in its destined course-especial- ly in this intensely practical age. Hon. William W. Dixon, of Butte, is essentially a man of this kind-clear in perception, resolute in pursuit, quick and firm in decision. These qualities have given him force and leadership among men, and wrought out for him a record in public and profes- sional life creditable alike to himself and to the people in whose service it has been made. He was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., June 3, 1838, the son of George C. Dixon, who emigrated from Eng- land to the United States in his boyhood and set- tled in New York, where he became a lawyer and attained prominence in the profession. Here also he married Miss Henrietta Gourgas, a lady of Swiss parentage. With their two young children they later removed to Illinois, and subsequently to Iowa, where the father died at the age of sixty years. The mother had already passed away in her forty-eighth year. The daughter has also died, leav- ing William W. Dixon the only survivor of the family.

Mr. Dixon was educated in the public schools, and read law under the direct instruction of his father, who was a most conscientious and exact- ing tutor, being careful above all things that the training of his pupil should be thorough and his knowledge of legal principles comprehensive and exact. His studies having run the prescribed course, he was admitted to the bar of Iowa in 1858. After practicing there a short time he removed to Tennessee and later to Arkansas. In 1862, desir- ing a still newer field, and shrinking from no per- sonal discomfort or danger to secure it, he made the long and perilous trip across the plains to Cali- fornia. He remained there but a brief period, however, and then went into Nevada. After pass- ing nearly four years there, in 1886 he located at Helena, Mont., and was one of the earliest settlers in the historic Last Chance gulch. Here he formed a law partnership with W. H. Clagett. They prac-

ticed law successfully together for a number of years, achieving an eminence and a success unusual in the unsettled conditions of the pioneer period. From Helena Mr. Dixon removed to Deer Lodge, and in 1879 he went to the Black Hills, where he was in practice two years. In 1881 he located in Butte, where he has since continuously resided. He has built up a very large and profitable legal busi- ness, distinguished alike for the number and the character of its clientage. His success at the bar is unqualified, but it is not accidental or due to fortuitous circumstances. It is based upon sub- stantial, manifest, oft-demonstrated, genuine merit. No lawyer in the state, and perhaps none out of it, surpasses Mr. Dixon in thorough knowledge of the common law or the code practice. That he is the leading attorney of a number of the largest mining companies in the west is proof positive of his pre- eminent position in the profession, for organized capital is ever keen-scented for what is best in any field wherewith its interests are connected. It needs scarcely to be added that Mr. Dixon is well quali- fied for the financial side of his business, and has not worshipped at the shrine of Themis without substantial results.

It is a logical and inevitable sequence of his bent and his genius for large affairs, that Mr. Dixon should take an ardent interest in affairs political. His affiliation is and always has been with the Dem- ocratic party. £ Seeing in its principles, when properly applied, the utmost, and perhaps the only, real guarantee of popular government, he has given his energies without stint to perfect and maintain a successful organization on the lines of his con- victions. He has frequently borne his people's high commission, issued at the ballot box, to speak and do their will in legislative halls. He repre- sented Deer Lodge county in the territorial legis- lature, and was chairman of the judiciary commit- tee in the house in which he sat. In this position he was able to render great service to the com- monwealth. He was also a prominent and influ- ential member of the two notable constitutional conventions of Montana, and gave zealous and con- scientious attention and his best powers toward shaping the present constitution of the state. In 1890 his universally recognized ability and eminent fitness made him the choice of the people as their representative in the Fifty-second congress of the United States. In the larger forum, as in every other, he bore an intellectual lance which no ad- versary ever despised or was over-eager to meas-

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ure, and filled the office with great credit to him- The Dodge family, for at least four generations, self and advantage to his constituents. In 1874 were farmers. Following the middle of the eigh- teenth century they began to push out from their old homesteads, and are now found all along the way from New England to the Pacific. Some have occupied the highest ranks in the field of phi- lanthropy; some have achieved military fame, many have acquired literary distinction, and they are found in the clergy, the medical and legal professions, and as professors in colleges, but rarely seekers after public office. Mr. Dixon married with Miss Ida N. Wilcox, a native of St. Louis, Mo. Four children have blessed their union, but the "insatiable archer" has claimed them all. One of the sons, William W. Dixon, Jr., was cut off in the very opening of a promising young manhood and while making a brilliant record as a student in the law department of Georgetown University, D. C. Mrs. Dixon is a devout member of the Catholic church, and both she and Mr. Dixon are favorites in the leading social circles in which they live.

CHARLES G. DODGE .- Now a prominent, C a progressive and a representative resident of Helena, Mont., and descended from a long line of ancestors, Charles E. Dodge himself and his career are worthy of note. Earwaker's history of East Cheshire, England, says :

"The Dodge family was connected with Offerton for many generations. The name was first spelled Dogge (the g's being pronounced soft) and some- times Doggeson. One of the earliest records of thein is reference to a curious grant of arms, which was granted to Peter Dodge, of Stockport, so early as the 34th Edward I, 1306."

One William Dodge was the first of his name to come to America. He settled in 1629 in that part now Beverly, but until 1868 lived in Salem, Mass. It is supposed that he returned to England, married and came to Salem the second time accompanied by his brother Richard, as no trace of Richard can be found there until October 29, 1638, when he was received as an inhabitant. Previous to this he had lived on land belonging to his brother Williamn. November 12, 1638, he was granted ten acres of land, and on November 26, 1638, forty acres addi- tional. On December 3, 1641, the town granted him forty acres more. On May 5, 1644, he was re- ceived into the church at Salem. Twenty-three years later he was one of the founders of the First Church of Beverly, and one of the most liberal con- tributors. That he had a high appreciation of the value of education is apparent from the fact that in 1665, in a list of twenty-one subscribers to Har- vard College, the name of Richard Dodge ranks first. He dedicated a piece of ground to a burying ground, which is now known as the cemetery on Dodge Row, and on June 15, 1671, he died in Beverly.

Charles G. Dodge is a lineal descendant of Rich- ard, the emigrant, the line being Jonathan (6), Grover (5), Nehemiah (4), Parker (3), Samuel (2) and Richard (1), and Grover Dodge, his pater- nal grandfather was born at New Boston, N. H., on September 2, 1780. He was a farmer boy, edu- cated in the common schools, and a captain in the militia. In April, 1819, at Hopkinton, N. H., he was united in marriage to Miss Lydia Brown, a native of France, born April 27, 1792. She died July 17, 1848. They had seven children. The sec- ond wife of Grover Dodge was Sarah Hoyt, of Warren, N. H. Jonathan Dodge, son of Grover, was born April 4, 1822, at Hopkinton, N. H. He graduated at Hopkinton Academy and served in the city council of Manchester, N. H., to which place he removed in 1863. He was long a manufacturer of cotton goods, and superintend- ent of the mills. He now resides at Concord, N. H., retired from business. On June 23, 1846, he was united in marriage to Jerusha, daughter of David and Sarah (Swain) Edgerly, of Sanborn, N. H. Their children are Lizzie M., wife of C. D. Boynton; Emma F., wife of C. F. Good; Charles G., and Nellie B.

Charles G. Dodge was born at Manchester, N. H .. on July 11, 1862. He received his early education in the public schools and graduated from the Man- chester high school in 1881. He then entered the Boston Dental College, where he obtained a thor- ough knowledge of his future profession by dili- gent study and intelligent experiment. Following his graduation from this institution he commenced dental practice in his native city. In 1891 he came to Montana and located at Helcna. Here he has followed his profession with gratifying suc- cess, and it can be said that he is today the lead- ing dentist in the city. Fraternally Dr. Dodge is a member of the Masonic lodge, chapter, council and commandery of Manchester, N. H., and of the mystic shrine, of Helena. He is also a men-

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ber of Myrtle Lodge No. 2, K. of P., Helena, Woodmen of the World, Camp Garnet, Helena, and Lodge No. 193, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. October 18, 1884, in Manchester, N. H., he was united in marriage to Miss Minnie E., daughter of J. C. Ricker, of Helena. Politically Dr. Dodge affiliates with the Republican party, although by no means is he an active partisan. Socially he is a member of the leading circles of Helena society. Throughout the state, as well as in Helena and its vicinity, he is recognized as one of the ablest members of his profession. He is popular with all with whom he is brought into association, and is esteemed for his intelligence, force of character and kindliness of heart.

`HARLES O. DORR .- A scion of that old fam- C ily of this name which has long been so con- spicuous in New England, and whose members have been found somewhere in the front of every advancing movement, Charles O. Dorr, a success- ful and prosperous miner of Pony, comes honestly by the qualities which mark him as a superior man, and have won for him the regard and esteem of all his neighbors and friends. He was born at Taun- ton, Mass., September 29, 1842, a son of Alvin and Hannah (Howard) Dorr, the former a native of New Hampshire and the latter of Massachusetts. His grandfather, Asa Dorr, of New Hampshire, was an emigrant from England to America in Colonial days, and was soon well established in the good opinion of his fellow citizens of the old Granite state in which he settled. Mr. Dorr's father, then a young married man, in 1843 re- moved to Illinois, locating in Kane county, and making it his home until his death, which occurred in 1898 when he was ninety-four years old. He was a well-to-do farmer, and stood high in the community. Mr. Charles O. Dorr spent his school days in Illinois, and, with the patriotic feelings which have always distinguished his family, on August 20, 1861, enlisted as a member of Company A, Thirty-sixth Illinois Cavalry, under Colonel Grousel. He was mustered into service at Aurora, and his regiment was at once sent to Missouri. It received its first baptism of fire at the battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas, and was subsequently en- gaged at Iuka, Corinth, Vicksburg and Jackson ( Miss.), Morganza Bend and Vermillion (La.), and innumerable skirmishes. In all of these Mr. Dorr

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 29

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