Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 44

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 44

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Having arrived at Helena Mr. Hilger purchased mining property, and was engaged in its develop- ment until February, 1865. During the winter of 1864 Edgerton county was created out of Jefferson, with Silver City as the county seat. Mr. Hilger was appointed by the governor, and the appoint- ment was confirmed by the council, "deputy county clerk and recorder of Edgerton county." In the absence of Mr. Eastman Recorder Hilger sum- nioned the county commissioners to Silver City, the new county capital, to qualify, and opened the records. He also notified all new county officials to appear before the county commissioners to qualify for the duties of their respective offices, and give their official bonds. Thus Mr. Hilger became the organizer of the new county of Edgerton. The new county treasurer did not qualify, and Mr.

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Hilger was tendered the office also in connection with his others, but he refused to accept this one.

Sickness in the family at home, however, caused him to resign his offices and return to Minnesota. But in 1867 he came again with his family to this state and to Helena, overland by the northern route, which is now the line of the Great Northern Rail- road. Here he resumed mining operations until the fall of 1868, when he was elected justice of the peace for Helena and served one term.

In 1870 Mr. Hilger was elected (and served with credit for two terms) as probate judge of Lewis and Clarke county, this name having been substi- tuted for Edgerton, and the county seat transferred to Helena. In 1873 he purchased his present ranch of 500 acres on the Missouri river, now called the Gates of the Mountains, one of the most beautiful and picturesque spots in the state and lying only eighteen miles from Helena. On retiring from bis public office he devoted himself, in connection with the development of his important mining interests in other parts of the state, to beautifying and im- proving this valuable property and to stocking it with cattle and horses. In 1868 he purchased a steel steam yacht, which he runs in the summer season on excursions through the Grand Canyon of the Missouri, named by the early explorers, Lewis and Clarke the Gates of the Mountains. Politically the sympathies of Mr. Hilger have always been with the Democratic party, and he has taken an influen- tial part in its councils and work. For many years he was an important factor in the public affairs of Montana, and is now warmly interested in the municipal welfare of his home city and of the commonwealth, which he has seen grow from a wilderness of Indian-haunted territory into a glorious state. Mr. Hilger was reared in the Catholic faith, to which church he adheres. He is a prominent member of the Montana Pioneer Asso- ciation.

In 1847, at Henderson, Minn., he was united in marriage to Susannah, daughter of Nicholas Moersh, a native of Prussia, who emigrated to the United States and settled and died at Henderson. They had ten children : David, now of Lewistown ; Susie, deceased, wife of Edward Dougherty ; Mary, widow of Richard Dougherty; Laura, wife of Ed- ward Chandler, of Lewistown; Jennie, deceased ; William, deceased ; Maggie, wife of R. E. DeCamp; Joseph G. and Nicholas D., on the "Gates of the Mountain" ranch, and Rose Esther. The last four were born in Helena and the others at Henderson,

Minn. The story of Mr. Hilger's life is at once eventful, adventurous and instructive. He is a pioneer hero of two commonwealths, having seen both Minnesota and Montana emerge from ter- ritorial government to join their sisters in the brilliant galaxy of states. Mr. Hilger is well known and highly esteemed for his many superior quali- ties of head and heart.

H ON. ANTON M. HOLTER, to whom Mon- tana owes much for his great business talent manifested in so many ways for the benefit of the state, and particularly for his introduction of con- centrating mining machines for the treatment of its ores, is one of Helena's most esteemed citizens. He was born at Moss, a village on the eastern shore of Christiania Fjord, Norway, on June 29, 1831. His parents were Foien and Berta M. (Flogstad) Holter. He was third in a family of five, having two older brothers and a younger brother and a sister. On the death of his father, who was lost at sea, his mother was left with scanty means of support and he went to live with a maternal uncle with whom he remained on his farm until he was seventeen years of age, learning to read fairly well and to make letters, and thus he was qualified for his confirmation, when fifteen, as a member of the Lutheran church. Although his early ambition was to become a sailor, the fate of his father deterred him from this vocation and he learned the car- penter's trade. At the age of twenty-three years he came to the United States by way of Quebec. While enroute the train on which he was speeding to Chicago, met with a serious accident near Lon- don, Canada, and five passengers were killed. This was in 1854. His stay in Chicago was brief, and he pushed on to Decorah, Iowa, where he secured work at carpentering at $20 per month, while in- ferior workmen were receiving $1.00 per day. Mr. Holter, however, saved money, and by judicious investments soon accumulated $3,000. He then went to St. Louis, and in 1860, with his brother, Martin M., journeyed to Colorado, locating near what is now Idaho Springs and South Clear creek.

In the fall of 1863 Mr. Holter and his partner, E. Evensen, brought a sawmill to Virginia City, Mont., which they put up in Ram's Horn gulch, eighteen miles away. In 1864 they started lumber yards at Virginia City and Nevada City. That summer he and his two partners, Norelius and

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Olson, built the water works of Virginia City, not an easy task. Piping and hydrants were made of logs and they paid $150 each for three-inch augers, made in a neighboring blacksmith shop. In 1864 Mr. Evensen went to Denver and purchased a second-hand planing mill, but being unable to pro- cure saw mill machinery, he loaded his train with flour and other provisions and started for Virginia City. He was snowed in at Snake river, lost most of his outfit and brought what remained on pack animals to Virginia City at a cost of ten cents a pound. But nails were then selling at $150 a keg, in smaller quantities at $2.00 a pound ; flour, which had brought $150 a sack, dropped to $60, and Mr. Holter reshipped the flour to Helena and sold it there for $100 a sack. In 1865 he purchased a second-hand portable steam engine and boiler, and set it up on Ten-mile creek, eight miles west of Helena, in connection with the planing-mill brought by Mr. Evensen from Colorado. This was the first planing mill in Montana. While lumber at Virginia City had brought $125 a thousand for common and $140 for sluice and flume lumber, the Helena price was only $100 for common and this price soon dropped to $40. In June, 1865, Mr. Holter bought Mr. Evensen's interest and took as partner his brother Martin, forming the firm of A. M. Holter & Brother. By the winter of 1865-6 common lum- ber had advanced to $70. The mill was kept busy night and day and they made a little money, but being compelled to operate with inexperienced hands accidents occurred and several men were killed. In the fall of 1866 Mr. Holter went east and was a month on the road to Chicago. The fare to Omaha by stage was $350 in gold dust, or $700 in currency. Deducting stop-overs they made the trip in actual travel of seventeen days and nights, the quickest time then on record. Mr. Holter pur- chased in the east a new steam sawmill, machinery for a sash and door factory, appliances for a dis- tillery and a stock of merchandise. Some of these articles were over two years in reaching their desti- nation.

During his visit to Chicago Mr. Holter was mar- ried, on April 6, 1867, to Miss Mary P. Loberg, a Norwegian girl, and she journeyed to Montana via St. Louis, and on the Missouri river to Fort Benton. Mr. Holter returned on the overland stage of the Smoky Hill route, via Denver and Salt Lake City. Seventeen passengers took the stage at Salina, Kan., and by the provident care of the stage company each man was provided with a rifle and

ammunition. While they were not attacked by In- dians, they found the stage stations along the route burned and the stock killed. Once the passengers laid three days and nights in a haystack. Again they drove the same mule team three stages-seven- ty-five miles-on account of the burning of the sta- tions and the slaughtering of the stock. As they passed one of these stations it was in flames, with the roof just falling in, indicating the close prox- imity of the Indians. After twenty-five days of threatening peril they reached Helena in safety. Mr. Holter, however, was extremely anxious con- cerning his bride. At Salt Lake City he was in- formed that the steamer Gallatin, on which his wife had taken passage, had been captured by the In- dians, while she was told that the overland stage had been attacked and the passengers slain.

On his return to Helena Mr. Holter erected a store on Main street (Last Chance gulch), where the Pittsburg block now stands, and in the fall of 1867 the brothers opened a general store. In 1868-9 the sash and door factory and the distillery were completed, the first plants of their kind established in Montana. The saw and planing mill burned in March, 1869; one month later the first big fire oc- curred in Helena, and the firm lost $40,000. Pecu- liar interest attaches to Mr. Holter's connection with the introduction of concentrators. He was the pioneer in this mining industry. In 1871 the Rumley mine was discovered and, purchasing an interest in it, he opened negotiations with Frederick Utsch, of Cologne, Germany, for his right in the American patent of the Utsch concentrating jig. Mr. Holter still has the document, written in Ger- man, conveying the right, "in consideration of sixty German rix-marks for each machine," to use the jigs in America. Mr. Holter had one of them shipped to Montana, and in the early 'seventies he erected the 'nrst concentrator in the Rocky moun- tains on the Rumley mine. It was soon evident that the machinery erected was not of sufficient strength for the work, and was a failure, except to show what might be accomplished by machinery stronger. The value of these works Montana understands better than any other portion of the world through Mr. Holter's persistency in their introduction. In 1877 Mr. Holter purchased an interest in the Parrot mine, and in 1880 was organized the Parrot Silver and Copper Company; and in 1878 he and Mr. Newell invented and patented a wooden amalga- mating pan. In 1879, to benefit his impaired health, he took a trip of eight months to Europe, spending

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most of the time in Sweden and Norway. In 1882 Holter & Brother erected a sawmill on Stickney creek and started a lumber yard at the mouth of Sun river, on the site of the flourishing city of Great Falls. In 1880 he was one of a company that purchased the Elkhorn mine, at Ketchum, Idaho, and in 1881 he became interested in the Ma- ginnis and Kit Carson mines in Montana and in the Peacock, Helena and White Monument mines in Idaho, and in 1883 in the Helena Mining and Reduction Company, later the Helena and Living- ston Mining and Reduction Company; their smel- ter in East Helena was erected in 1888. In 1884 Mr. Holter was connected with the first street rail- way and electric light plant in Helena; in 1886, with others, he organized the Helena Concentrating Company, with plant at Wardner, Idaho; pur- chased an interest in the Helena and Victor Mining Company ; organized the Livingston Coal and Coke Company, opened its mines and built a washing plant at Cokedale in Park county. In 1887 he es- tablished the Holter Lumber Company and the A. M. Holter Hardware Company. In 1888 he pur- chased the Helena Frisco properties at Wardner, Idaho, and erected a large concentrator (destroyed by the labor riots in 1892, but since rebuilt), and in 1890 he and others organized the Cascade Land Company; in 1892-3 he did development work in the Trail creek district, now Rossland, B. C., and in company with other Helena parties he purchased the Blue Canyon coal mines in 1891 ; he began con- struction work on the Bellingham Bay & Eastern Railway in 1892, and assisted in organizing the Coeur d'Alene Hardware Company at Wallace, Idaho. Mr. Holter is largely interested in the Peck concentrating plant at Corbin and in one at East Helena, whose processes promise to revolu- tionize concentration. In 1898 he was prominent in the organization of the Sand Point Lumber Com- pany. at Sand Point, Idaho, now the Humbird Lumber Company.

In 1892 Mr. Holter, with his family, made a five months' trip to Europe. He has six children now living (one, Austin M., dying at the age of six years) : Norman B., manager of the extensive busi- ness interests of his father ; Clara M., now Mrs. P. H. Kennett ; Edwin O., an attorney in New York city; Albert L., now with the Billingham Bay & Eastern Railway Company; Aubrey and Percy. Mr. Holter is a Republican, but without caring for office, he has been called to hold positions of trust. order. In 1878 he was elected to the territorial

order. In 1878 he was elected to the territorial council ; in 1881 he was a member of the city coun- cil of Helena, and later was elected to the house of representatives of the state of Montana, serving in both the first and second sessions. He was one of the first school trustees elected in 1869, and was the first . Republican elected to this office in Lewis and Clarke county. He was largely interested in the building of the first school house of Helena, which cost $25,000, over $11,000 being realized from the sale of county warrants. This is the story in brief of one of the most active business lives of Mon- tana. Financially, politically and socially his career shows a distinct and unqualified success. His ngh personal character has won the esteem of all, and the consensus of public opinion shows that he is a man of the strictest integrity, broad-minded and progressive, also has won his way to high standing in the hearts of the people of Montana.

C HARLES C. HILL .- While the methods em- ployed in the suppression of crime when Vir- ginia City was a frontier mining camp and the vigi- lance committee handled malefactors with sum- mary vigor, are not now necessary, still Sheriff Hill, of Madison county, finds that his office places sufficient demands upon his time and attention, and he has given an administration that reflects marked credit upon him. He was born in Wash- ington county, Ohio, on September 17, 1856, the son of Matthew and Ann (Colville) Hill. Matthew Hill was born in Pennsylvania and came to Ohio with his parents when young, and there passed the residue of his days as a carpenter and builder. The paternal great-grandfather of C. C. Hill, re- sided in Maryland and was active in the Revolu- tion. The mother of Mr. Hill was born in Scot- land, coming to America with her parents when a mere child.

Charles C. Hill, eldest of the five children of his parents, received his educational training in the public and high schools of Ohio, after which he learned the machinist's trade and became an en- gineer, and after following work in this line for eight years in Ohio, in 1882, he went to Kansas, where he engaged in farming until 1888. In 1888 he came to Montana and located in Madison county, where he mined for a time, then for four years was an engineer at the Noble mine, and for the next five years was in the same capacity at the

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Lyter mine. In 1898 he was appointed under sheriff and came to Virginia City. In Januarv, 1899, Sheriff Summers was killed and Mr. Hill was appointed by the county commissioners to fill the vacancy. He at once started to apprehend the as- sassin of Sheriff Summers and outlined the plan of procedure which resulted in his capture. He has since rendered most efficient service in this impor- tant and exacting office, and is intrepid and fearless in the discharge of his duties, feared by the crim- inal class and honored and esteemed by law abid- ing citizens.

Mr. Hill is a vigorous supporter of the Demo- cratic party, and fraternally he is a member of Sheridan Lodge No. 20, A. F. & A. M., of Samar- itan Lodge No. Io, I. O. O. F., at Sheridan, in which he has "passed the chairs;" of Buffalo Lodge No. 151, Knights of Pythias, at Buffalo, Kan .; and of Sheridan Lodge No. 21, A. O. U. W. Mr. Hill is the owner of a fine ranch of 160 acres in the Ruby valley, and is also interested in sev- eral mines and prospects. On December 29, 1878, Mr. Hill was united in marriage with Miss Mary Bothwell, who was born in Ohio, as were also her parents, and to them five children have been born, Walter, Robert, Lena, Harry and Flossie.

D AVID HILGER .- Mr. Hilger has long pro- moted the industrial activities of this section of the state and is honored as one of its representa- tive citizens and business men. Peculiar interest attaches to his career from the fact that he is a representative of one of the sterling pioneer fam- ilies of Montana, where he has passed the greater portion of his life.

David Hilger was born in Sibley county, Minn., on the Ist of January, 1858. He is the son of Judge Nicholas Hilger, one of the old-time and promi- nent citizens of Helena, a full biography of whom appears on other pages of this work, to which we refer the reader for farther data in regard to the family genealogy. David Hilger was not yet ten years of age when he accompanied his parents to Montana in 1867. They were members of the Capt. Davies party, comprising sixty families and 300 single men. This large company of emigrants came from Minnesota by what was known as the northern route and had a number of recruits along the way. They had no encounters with the Indians, but from Fort Union four companies of federal

troops accompanied them as an escort for a con- siderable distance. The journey occupied nearly three months, which was a period of unalloyed pleas- ure to the little lad who is the subject of this re- view. The family located in Helena, and here Mr. Hilger completed his educational discipline and was reared to years of maturity. His business career was inaugurated in the cattle business at the "Gate of the Mountains," in Lewis and Clarke county, but later turned his attention to sheep raising. In 1881, equipped with two horses, a wagon and a small band of sheep, he came to Fer- gus county and located on Dog creek, about twen- ty-five miles north of Lewistown, being the first one to bring sheep into the northern part of the county. He there continued operations until 1893, by which time his enterprise had grown to be one of wide scope and importance.

In the spring of 1894 Mr. Hilger was appointed register of the United States land office in Lewis- town and took up his residence there and has since made that city his home. He was register for four years, and then entered into partnership with George W. Cook in a landoffice and real es- tate business. This association has since contin- ued and has done and is doing a large and im- portant business. Mr. Hilger retains the owner- ship of his extensive ranch properties, but leases them as his other interests demand his time and attention. He is vice-president of the Judith Basin Bank, and was one of the organizers, in 1890, of the Judith Hardware Company, of which he is presi- dent. He has other important connections in Lewis- town, and is ever ready to lend his influence and as- sistance to any worthy enterprise which will advance the industrial and material prosperity of the city and county. Mr. Hilger is one of the leaders of the Democratic party in the county. He was chairman of its first Democratic county conven- tion and the first chairman of the county central committee. He also served as chairman of the first municipal convention of his party in Lewis- town. For fourteen years he has held the state office of sheep inspector and commissioner in the county. Fraternally he is identified with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, being a charter member of Lewistown Lodge No. 456, and one of the most popular men of this organization.

On the 20th of October, 1884, Mr. Hilger was united in marriage to Miss Christina Fergus, a daughter of William Fergus, of this county. (See sketch of Mr. Fergus elsewhere in this volume.)

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They have two children, Maude and David J. Two other children were born to them, Eddie and Agnes, who are deceased.

T THEODORE H. HINSDALE. - In the very early days of the colonial epoch the original American ancestors of Mr. Hinsdale, in both the agnatic and maternal lines, were among the citizens of New England, and in that and each succeeding generation have been found men of virilepowersand sterling character and women of gentle and gra- cious refinement. Fortunate, indeed, is he who stands as a scion of worthy ancestry. Such is the happy lot of Mr. Hinsdale, who holds the office of county surveyor of Lewis and Clarke county, and has himself achieved distinction in his profession and been identified with many important under- takings, and who is today one of the popular citi- zens of the capital city, where he has made his home since 1893.

Theodore R. Hinsdale was born in Prince George county, Md., on January 31, 1865, the son of Solomon R. and Julia M. (Jackson) Hinsdale, natives of Connecticut and New York. Both are living, having their home in Washington, D. C. where the father was formerly connected with the federal treasury as special agent of customs. The grandfather of Theodore R. was Theodore Hins dale, a native of Connecticut, a manufacturer of scythes and cutlery, and one of the hrst to engage in this line of enterprise in his state, where he passed his entire life. He was the son of Bissell Hinsdale, a member of a Massachusetts regiment of the Revolution. 'From him the ancestral line traces back to Rev. Theodore Hinsdale (who lived in Hinsdale, Mass., which town took his name), John Barnabas, Barnabas, Jr., and Robert, the original American ancestor, who, a native of Scotland, came to Massachusetts, of which colony he was a freeman in 1639. He and his sons. Barnabas, John and Samuel, were killed by the Indians on Sep- tember 18, 1675, while at work in the cornfield, this being at the time of the massacre of Bloody- brook, near Greenfield. A paternal great-grand- mother of Mr. Hinsdale was Temperance (Pitkin) Hinsdale, a daughter of Rev. Timothy Pitkin, a son of Gov. William Pitkin, of Massachusetts. His paternal grandmother was Jerusha (Rockwell) Hinsdale, whose paternal ancestry traces back through Solomon, Samuel (who died in 1794, in his

old house in Colebrook, Conn.), Joseph, Joseph (2), Joseph (I), and Dea. William Rockwell, who came from England to Dorchester in 1630. From his daughter Ruth, who married a Huntington, Gen. U. S. Grant was descended. Mr. Hinsdale's ma- ternal grandfather was Samuel Jackson, a promi- nent shipbuilder of New York city, where he was born.

Theodore R. Hinsdale passed the major portion of his boyhood in the public schools of Connecti- cut, after which he entered the Rensselaer Poly- technic Institute, at Troy, N. Y., where he gradu- ated in 1886, from which time forward he was asso- ciated with railroading until he took up his resi- dence in Helena. He was connected with the Pennsylvania railroad, the Chicago & Northwest- ern, the Wabash, the Illinois Central, the Free- port, Dodgeville & Northern, and the Fort Worth & Rio Grande, being locating engineer of the last. He was also assistant engineer for the United States war department, in which connection he laid out Rock Creek park, in Washington, D. C. For nine years he was inspector of surveys under the secretary of the interior, and was one of the three engineers who compiled the United States manual of surveys. He was also connected with the surveys of the boundaries of the Yellow- stone National Park; the Colville (Wash.). Indian reservation, the Klamath (Ore.) reser- vation, and the I Red Lake reservation in Minnesota. He has also held other positions of responsibility in connection with his pro- fession, in which he stands as an authority. He had the distinction of being the chief engineer of the first underground trolley electric railway sys- tem in the United States, that installed in the city of Washington. For three years he was the business manager of a Washington, D. C., news- paper, his administration showing executive ability and greatly promoting the success of the enterprise. Coming to Montana, in 1893, Mr. Hinsdale has since been engaged as a civil engineer and in deal- ing in timber and mineral lands and mining invest- ments. His technical education and his experience have made him an expert in engineering, and his services as such have been in great requisition since he has lived in Montana. He is identified with the Rensselaer Engineers' Society, an organi- zation composed of graduates of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Recognizing his peculiar eligibility for the office, Mr. Hinsdale was placed on the Democratic ticket as candidate for county

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 44

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