Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 56

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 56

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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resort to drastic treatment and to organize vigi- lance committees. One night Mr. Lovell chanced to pass the cabin of two men, named Moore and Reeves, respectively, and they told him that in case he heard shooting over on Yankee Flat later on it would be best for him to keep away. It trans- pired that these two joined other ruffians shortly afterward and proceeded to shoot Indians for the sport it afforded. Not much attention was paid to this dastardly action for some time, but Moore and Reeves were finally arrested, tried and banished from the town. The troubles continued and Mr. Lovell was familiar with all the incidents concern- ing most of the difficulties and personally ac- quainted with many of those concerned, including George Ives, Plummer and others who were exe- cuted by the vigilance committees. The first man hung in Bannack was convicted for shooting his partner. He was a member of the Catholic church, and as he was being taken through the street to the place of execution Jerry Sullivan, who was of the same religious faith, rode with him and en- deavored to cheer the condemned man, their being no priest of the church in the town at the time. Henry Plummer was the sheriff who erected the gallows and executed this man, and he himself was subsequently hung on the same gallows as one of the worst of desperadoes. Mr. Lovell had many personal experiences of an exciting nature in the early days, and a number of narrow escapes from death. He was present at the first miners' meet- ing in Bannack when it was decided to hang Plum- mer, Stimson and Ray, and he gave his support and influence to the vigilance committee in their efforts to rid the country of the notorious outlaws whose crimes constitute a blot on the fair escutch- eon of Montana. He continued to be engaged in the meat market business at Bannack until 1868, when he took up a homestead on the Beaverhead river, the same being a portion of his present ranch property, now comprising 3,000 acres of valuable land, well improved with substantial buildings, in- cluding an attractive and commodious residence. He devotes his attention principally to the raising of high grade Shorthorn cattle, and secures large yields of hay from his ranch, a considerable por- tion of which is available for cultivation.

Mr. Lovell is one of the prominent and influen- tial men of the county, and is held in high regard as one of the sterling pioneers of the state. He has served two terms as president of the Beaver- head County Pioneers' Society, and maintains a

deep interest in the history and progress of the state where he has made his home for so many years and to whose advancement he contributed his due quota. He was commissioner for Beaverhead county for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, in 1893, and as a member of the state commission did much to give Montana due prominence in that great world's fair. His political support has been given to the Democratic party from his early man- hood, and in 1880 he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners, serving in that important office for a period of six years. He is one of the leading members of the Masonic fra- ternity, being identified with Dillon Lodge No. 30, A. F. & A. M .; Dillon Chapter No. 7, R. A. M., and St. Elmo Commandery No. 8, K. T., of which last he is now treasurer.

On July 19, 1875, Mr. Lovell was united in mar- riage to Miss Ellen McGowen, who was born in Ohio, whence she came to Bannack, Mont., in the early 'seventies. They have no children. Our sub- ject and his wife are both communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church, holding membership in St. James church, at Dillon. In 1880 they made a visit to England, while they pass a portion of each winter in southern California. Their beauti- ful home is one in which refined hospitality is ever in evidence, and their friends are indeed numerous.

JOHN B. McCLERNAN. - Exercising. with marked discretion and impartiality, high judi- cial functions as judge of department three of the district court in Butte, and recognized as one of the able members of the bar of Montana, it is but fitting that record should here be entered concern- ing Judge McClernan. He was born in Albany county, N. Y., on April 23, 1863, the son of Henry and Anna (Fox) McClernan, both of whom were born in Ireland. Their marriage was solemnized in Albany county, N. Y., whither came Henry Mc- Clernan from the Emerald Isle about 1855. He is a blacksmith and he and his wife still reside in the same county where they originally settled.

Judge John B. McClernan was the fifth of the ten children of his parents and, after preliminary education in the public schools, was a student in Albany Normal School from 1878 to his gradu- ation therefrom in the class of 1880. He at once began preparation for the study of law, which he had determined to make his profession. Under

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able preceptors he continued his reading of legal text-books at Troy, N. Y., until May 9, 1884, when he was admitted to the bar of the state. He there- after was engaged in legal practice in the cities of Troy and Albany, gaining knowledge, skill and reputation by his close application and careful and able handling of business entrusted to him. He has ever realized that the truest ability in any line comes from hard work, and there have been no meteoric phases in his professional career. In 1892 Judge McClernan came to Montana, and eventu- ally made his home and opened an office in Butte. He soon established a reputation for thorough and comprehensive legal knowledge and for ability to apply it and a due quota of the business of the county and city has come to him. He is a forceful advocate and a conservative counsel. He is a logi- cian as well as a close student, and he has given special attention to criminal and mining law. He appeared for the defendants in the celebrated case of the People vs. Franey and Moody. His clients were charged with holding up, robbing and killing William Paul Kruger, and the feeling against them was very bitter. Although public sentiment was strongly adverse to their clearance Judge McCler- nan defended them with such ability and masterly argument as to secure their acquittal. On May 2, 1901, Gov. Toole appointed him judge of the district court in Silver Bow county, and he is giving a most excellent administration of the af- fairs of this important judicial office. In politics he is a solid Democrat, and was identified with the Herrick wing of the party. while a resident of New York.

EDWIN WARREN TOOLE, an eminent mem- ber of the Montana bar, and esteemed citizen of Helena, was born in Savannah, Andrew county, Mo., March 24, 1839. He is the son of Edwin and Lucinda (Shepard) Toole, who, coming from Kentucky to Missouri, settled at Savannah in 1837. Here they reared a large and respected family, several of whom are now residing in Montana. The mother died in her seventy-seventh year. (Mention of the ancestry of the Toole family is made in the sketch of Gov. Joseph Kemp Toole, in another portion of this work.) Edwin Warren Toole is the oldest living son of his father's family. In the town of his nativity he passed the days of his boyhood, and he was primarily educated in its public schools. This education was supplemented

by a course at the Masonic College, Lexington, Mo., where the Hon. S. B. Elkins and himself repre- sented the Philologian Society, and the Hon. W. Y. Pemberton, ex-chief justice of Montana, and the Hon. Jerry Craven, ex-member of congress from Missouri, represented the Erodelphian Society, in the annual debate at the closing exercises of that institution in 1860. In 1863 Mr. Toole came to Montana. From that time he has remained in the state as a resident, and has achieved a brilliant reputation as one of the foremost and strongest attorneys in practice before the Montana courts. He has been connected, as counsel, with nearly all of the prominent lawsuits of the country, and with most pronounced success. Among these are the Davis will case, in which Hon. Robert G. Ingersoll was one of the attorneys, St. Louis Min- ing Company vs. Montana Company (Limited), involving the extension of the famous Drum Lummon Lode; and the Northern Pacific Railroad Company vs. Richard P. Barden et al. Upon the decision of the latter case depended the right to millions of acres of valuable mineral land within the limits of the railroad grant. Mr. Toole ap- peared on behalf of the state of Montana in this cause celebre, having been retained by Hon. Martin Maginnis, state land commissioner, in the interest of the miners and against the railroad company. He prepared and filed the original brief in the case in the supreme court, which in its decision made this complimentary reference to it :

"As justly observed by counsel for defendant in their very able brief, the reservation in the grant of mineral lands was intended to keep them under Government control for the public good in the de- velopment of the mineral resources of the country. and the benefit of the miner and explorer, instead of compelling him to litigate or capitulate with a stupendous corporation and ultimately succumb to such terms, subject to such conditions and amenable to such servitudes as it might seem proper to impose. The government has exhibited its benefi- cence in reference to its mineral lands as it has in its disposition of its agricultural lands, where the claims and rights of the settlers are fully protected. The privilege of exploring for mineral lands was in full force at the time of the location of the definite line of the road and was reserved and excepted out of the grant to plaintiff."

The firm of Toole, Bach & Toole terminated upon the election of Joseph Kemp Toole as gov- ernor of the state in 1900, since which time the firm

Eswww. Loole

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has been composed of E. W. Toole and ex-Justice of the Supreme Court Thomas C. Bach, under the firm-name of Toole & Bach. The business of the firm is confined exclusively to important cases in the superior courts of the state, United States supreme and circuit courts and circuit court of appeals at San Francisco. Among others, they are retained in the great mining suits between the Mon- tana Ore Purchasing Company and the Amalga- mated Company, and cases connected with this liti- gation in the supreme court of the state; Glass Brothers vs. Bayson & Baystate Mining Company, Helena Water Works Company vs. the City of Helena on behalf of the city, and many other min- ing and corporation cases. Indeed it may be said generally he is a very busy lawyer and the business he has is first class.

While Mr. Toole has stood at the head of the Montana bar, he has by no means been neglectful of other interests. He is largely interested in mines and mining, and a heavy stockholder in many of the most productive of them. In the real estate of Helena, and elsewhere, he has invested extensively.

Politically Mr. Toole has ever been in active sympathy with the principles of the Democratic party. With one exception, he has at all times de- clined nomination for office. Once, early in the history of the state, he defeated Hon. James M. Cavanaugh, who was quite popular with the Irish people, in his aspirations for a congressional nomi- nation. On this account the Irish vote became dis- affected, and Mr. Toole was, in turn, defeated at the polls. From that time he has refused all political honors, preferring to devote his entire time and attention to his numerous clients. For similar reasons he has never connected himself with any of the numerous fraternal societies. And, because he has been so thoroughly attentive to his duties as a trusted attorney, the people have great confidence in him, and fully appreciate the high po- sition that he holds as a lawyer who fully under- stands and comprehends the law.

In his threefold capacity of citizen, lawyer and business man, Mr. Toole must be considered to obtain a fair estimate of his character. As a citizen he is broad-minded, of liberal, progressive ideas and possessed of the highest integrity. Typically he is a western man, but with the western breadth and breeziness he combines the culture and re- finement of the exclusive east. To him the possi- bilities of the west have been seen with a vision clearer than that accorded to most of the earlier

pioneers. Many of the possibilities that he saw a quarter of a century ago are now accomplished facts, and he has lived to witness the full fruition of his conceptions. Ever a diligent student, he has stored in his eminently judicial mind a vast fund of legal lore, upon which he can draw at will to the confusion of his ablest opponents. In the prepara- tion of his cases he is painstaking, precise and methodical. In their presentation he marshals an invincible host of authorities with a graphic, force- ful eloquence that carries conviction with every argument presented. As a man of affairs, as an eminent attorney and as a personal friend, he has won and holds the respect and appreciation of a wide circle of acquaintances throughout the state and a broader territory.

L LEWELLYN AUGUSTUS LUCE, one of the distinguished members of the Montana bar, is an esteemed resident of Bozeman, Gallatin county. The lines of his life have been cast in channels of great prominence. He was born in Kennebec county, Me., November II, 1837. Ac- cording to the most authentic records his ances- tors were of the most distinguished colonial fam- ilies of New England, and settled there at a very early day in the history of America. His grand- father and great-grandfather, Shubael Luce, Jr., and Shubael Luce, Sr., were soldiers of the war of the Revolution.

He is a son of Atsett Luce, also a native of Ken- nebec county, who resided there during his life, and who died there, in the old home, at the age of seventy years. The paternal grandparents were Shubael and Sally (Atsett) Luce. They were na- tives of Massachusetts, but removed, early in life, to Maine, dying in Kennebec county at an advanced age. It is a matter of note that on both sides of the house of the subject of this biographical men- tion the ancestors were people of unusual lon- gevity, many of them living to the ages of eighty and ninety years, and some exceeding the century mark. The Luces came from England to America as early as the sixteenth century. The mother of our subject, Abagail (Rowell) Luce, was born and died in the old house, in Kennebec, Me., where he first saw the light. She was the mother of nine children, two of whom are still living, our subject and a brother in Massachusetts. The mother died at the age of eighty-seven years.

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It was in the New England life of early days, made memorable and picturesque by the pens of Hawthorne, Thoreau, Longfellow and Mrs. Stowe, that Llewellyn A. Luce passed amid the scenes and environment of the Kennebec home. Here he was reared, working industriously on the farm during the long days of the summer months, and snatching what little he could of mental pabulum from the shorter days of mid-winter in the dis- trict schools. To say that he improved every op- portunity in the way of acquiring the elements of an education is but to emphasize the character of the boy who was father to the masterful man of rare executive ability and determination of char- acter. At about the period before he gained his majority young Luce decided to see more of the great outer world, of which he had read so much and dreamed so often. To decide was to act with him, and the facilities with which to accomplish this object were at hand.

A captain, Robert Crockett, who had married a cousin of young Luce, took him on board his ship, and away to sea he sailed, with every prospect of having his ambition gratified. He sailed to New Orleans coastwise, and then across to France, where he had the pleasure of witnessing the coro- nation of Napoleon. He saw much, learned a great deal and treasured it all. He was abroad for some time, at the expiration of which he returned to the quiet homestead in Maine, and back to his books, his schools and academy at Sequoit, N. Y. He was then matriculated at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary. Subsequently his education was sup- plemented by the attentions of a private tutor for several years. He then began the study of law with one Emory O. Bean, a man of great local promi- nence in' Maine at that period. Soon after Mr. Luce turned his attention to school teaching, and for a number of years taught successfully in the territory around the place of his nativity. During this period he was assistant principal in a private boarding school. On his resignation of the pro- fession of school teaching he returned to Clay- ville, Oneida county, N. Y., and assumed the po- sition of general manager of his brother's store, where he remained two or more years.

In 1865 Mr. Luce removed to Milford, Del., and engaged in the real estate business. While there he assisted in laying out a new town in Sussex county, of that state. Two years later he removed to Martinsburg, W. Va., in Berkley county, and again went into real estate quite heavily, specu-

lating judiciously and profitably. Here he com- pleted his course of law studies, under Prof. Black- burn, and began the practice of his profession there in 1872. Desiring a larger field Mr. Luce went to Washington, D. C., and remained there with flattering success for ten years. During the last two or three years of his time in the national capital he was in the office of the assistant attorney- general for the department of the interior and upon his shoulders devolved the hard and arduous por- tions of the important work of that office. In 1881 Mr. Luce was chairman of a commission sent out by the United States government to treat with the Crow Indians for the right of way through the Crow reservation for the Northern Pacific Rail- road. That important treaty Mr. Luce consum- mated in just three hours,-the shortest time on record for the completion of such work, where it is customary to hold daily pow-wows for weeks, accompanied by "heap big talk." Following this gratifying fruition of able diplomacy the govern- ment directed Mr. Luce to appraise the Fort Dallas military reservation, following which service he returned to Washington.

It was during this trip to the far west that he saw the conditions and realized the vast possibili- ties of the great empire of Montana. The follow- ing year, 1882, he removed with his family to the city of Bozeman, and formed a law partnership with Judge F. K. Armstrong, a biographical sketch of whom appears in another portion of this work. This professional connection lasted five years, at the termination of which period it was dissolved by mutual consent, and Mr. Luce, our subject, took his son, John A. Luce, into partnership, and the success of the law firm of Luce & Luce was an accomplished fact. It continues to this day, and is one of the best and most favorably known in the state. It is a matter of note that they attend strictly to the practice of law, and not politics, although, as showing that L. A. Luce has not always avoided such "entangling alliances," it may be mentioned that he served as a member of the constitutional convention of Montana in 1889. His son, John A. Luce, also, has been county attorney of Gallatin county.

Politically both members of the firm are Demo- crats. Judge L. A. Luce cast his first vote for Hon. Stephen A. Douglas. Subsequently he voted for Abraham Lincoln, for his second term; for U. S. Grant, for his first term, but since that era he has confined himself to the Democratic ticket, so

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far as national politics are concerned. As illus- trating the popularity of Judge Luce, it may be mentioned that in 1894 he was nominated for the supreme bench in Montana, and ran several hun- dred votes ahead of his ticket. He was defeated by a purely local combination. Of the more pernicious politics of other nations Judge Luce has been an eye witness. While on his travels, during his youthful days, he made a stop at the island of Cuba, shortly after the execution of Lo- pez, who was put to death by the fearful means of the garrote.

On September 15, 1863, Judge Luce was united in marriage to Miss Lucretia W. Jones, of Sara- toga county, N. Y. To them were born four chil- dren, three of whom are still living, viz : John A., a partner of his distinguished father. He is a law graduate of the class of 1885 at the Columbia Uni- versity, of Washington, D. C. He is married and has a son six years of age. He is considered one of the most brilliant of the younger members of the Montana bar. The second child is Lena A., now married. The third child is Gertrude R.

Fraternally Judge Luce is a prominent Mason, having been initiated into the order nearly forty years ago. He has filled every office up from junior deacon to junior grand warden. Finan- cially, professionally and socially the life of this leading citizen has been eminently successful. Called to fill many offices of public trust, he has ever risen to the occasion, and demonstrated his high ability as an executive officer, a man of affairs, and one of superior judgment and sagacious busi- ness instinct. Of high moral sense and of unimpeachable integrity, he has won the respect and esteem of a large number of friends and business associates.

AMES H. LYNCH .- It is not an easy task to J describe adequately the career of a man who has led an eminently active and busy life and who has attained to a position of high relative distinction in the community with which his inter- ests are allied. It is, then, with a full appreciation of all that is demanded, and yet with a feeling of significant satisfaction, that we essay the task of touching briefly the salient points in the life his- tory of one of Butte's most progressive and hon- ored citizens. James Henry Lynch was born on April II, 1853, in Galena, Ill., the second of

the ten sons of John and Mary (Manley) Lynch and one of the eight now living. John Lynch was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, in 1814, and when he was twenty years of age he accompanied his parents to America, his father, Terry Lynch, be- coming one of the pioneers of Galena, where he lo- cated prior to the Blackhawk war, and where his son John became an intimate friend of U. S. Grant. There was also solemnized the marriage of John Lynch and Miss Manley, and there he was for some time a miner. In 1869 he removed to Vermillion, S. D., as one of the early settlers in Clay county, where he became the owner of a large ranch property where he engaged extensively in stockgrowing. He and his eight sons took up land aggregating 3,000 acres, and the estate, now a most valuable one, is owned by the sons. The father died in 1881, and the mother in 1884. They were folks of spotless integrity and com- manded respect and esteem by their honorable and useful-lives.

James H. Lynch received his educational dis- cipline in his native city, graduating from the high school with the class of 1869. He engaged in peda- gogic work in South Dakota at the age of nine- teen years. His business career also had its in- ception there, for he entered the employ of Thomp- son & Lewis, at Vermillion, selling agricul- tural implements, buying and shipping grain, etc. His position was one of responsibility and and his operations at this formative period in his life had marked influence in developing that business acumen and mature judgment which have so sig- nally distinguished him in later years. He here remained from 1874 until 1876, when, in December, he went to the Black Hills, the district being still in the Sioux reservation and under military rule. The party of which Mr. Lynch was a member comprised three hundred persons and they pro- ceeded from Yankton, by way of Fort Pierre. Mr. Lynch associated himself with Dudley, Cald- well & Co. in establishing the first sawmill put into operation in the Black Hills region, where he had its charge for two years. He was under sheriff of Lawrence county, S. D., for an equal length of time, and was also for two years deputy assessor.

In February, 1882, he came to Montana, locat- ing in Butte, and entered the employ of Parron, Wall & Co., as manager of their extensive lumber business, retaining this incumbency until the fall of 1883, when he removed to Anaconda, then a city of tents, only a few permanent buildings having

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been erected. Here he represented the Montana Lumber and Produce Company, and also joined Giles Brownell in erecting and conducting the Ana- conda stables, the first livery establishment of the new city. Mr. Lynch, with C. W. Mather, formed the firm of Lynch & Mather, and opened the Homestake Hotel, an extensive hostelry, af- fording accommodations for 500 guests, and they were frequently unable to meet the demands made upon its resources. In the winter of 1883-4 Mr. Lynch disposed of his interests in Anaconda, except his real estate, and went to Eagle City, in the Coeur d'Alene country, where the gold excitement was at its height, and there his experience did not smack of the life of a sybarite, as he recalls the fact that he paid one dollar a night for the privilege of sleeping in a pit covered with snow. He there became interested in and manager of the Eldorado Mining Company, and he and his partners re-located prop- erties on Pritchard creek, which had been taken up the year before, by power of attorney, for non-resi- dents. Mr. Lynch was one of the first to make bona- tide locations, and litigations followed, and when the various cases came up for trial their case, McQueen Brothers vs. the Eldorado Mining Company, was the first on the docket. The best legal talent was re- tained on both sides, and the contest was a spirited one, and tried before Judge Buck, and for the first time in the history of Idaho the power of attorney in connection with the locating of placer claims was defined and established. The case was on trial for ten days, resulting in a decisive victory for the defense, and soon afterward the company brought in two car loads of machinery and began development on these claims, but they could not be made to pay, and the work was abandoned. In the fall of 1884 he returned to Butte, purchased and conducted a very successful wholesale liquor business until February, 1892. He then became a prominent real estate dealer, and by his aid much has been done in the way of the best permanent improvements. In 1893 he erected the Lynch block, later built the Silver block, with John H. Curtis, while he has now in course of erection the Park block, one of the finest office buildings in Butte. He was an organizer and one of the largest stockholders in the Silver Bow National Bank, being one of the original directorate and still serv- ing on the board. He is vice-president of the Butte Mining & Development Company, organized in 1900, and to this corporation and to his valuable

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 56

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