Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 63

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 63

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In 1862 Mr. Millegan met William A. Clark, now United States senator, near Denver, and worked with him on the Bob-tail mine. On November 6, 1863, Mr. Millegan started for the states from Ban- nack, and just outside the latter place he visited Mr. Clark, who was quite ill with mountain fever. Sub- sequently Mr. Millegan went to Salt Lake City and thence to Denver overland by coach, paying $150 as fare from Bannack to Denver. He then went by private conveyance to Glenwood, Iowa. On April 9, 1864, Mr. Millegan was united in marriage to Miss Martha A. Rockefeller, daughter of Theodore and Anna M. Rockefeller, both of New Jersey. Mrs. Millegan was born in Morris county, N. J., on November 14, 1840. They had thirteen chil- dren : Carrie M., Willard L., Hattie A., Martha E., Robert E., James R., G. W., Cora B. and Nina M. are living ; Eleanor, George, Reuben and Edwin are dead.

Soon after his marriage Mr. Millegan outfitted, and within seven days was on the road to Idaho, where he arrived on July 2, going via Omaha, along the north side of the North Platte and by Fort

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Laramie. He then took the Bridger cutoff to Vir- ginia City, and thence to Bannack. They passed the location of Bozeman. Then it was a wild, un- broken country, the habitat of the wolf, the bear and the coyote. They wintered at East Bannack, and here their first child was born. Early in spring Mr. Millegan, with a covered wagon drawn by four cows, started for Blackfoot, Ophir gulch. They were the first family on the ground and they opened a boarding house where regular boarders paid $20 a week and transients $1.50 a meal, which, con- sidering the extremely high price of provisions, was reasonable. The meals were served in a tent, and this dining room was covered with pine boughs. In those days of high prices eggs were $2.00 a dozen, flour $100 a sack, salt $1.50 a pound and potatoes fifty cents a pound. That spring Mrs. Millegan paid $18 in gold dust for two calico dresses and muslin was ninety cents a yard. Mrs. Millegan was the third woman to locate in Ophir gulch, and she paid $6.00 a day for a woman to help with the house work, and twenty-five cents apiece to have napkins washed. In Oc- tober, 1865, they moved by wagon to Helena. Here Mr. Millegan bought out a squatter on his present ranch on which there was a small log house. From time to time he has added to this property and he made application for and filed the thirteenth homestead right in the state, 160 acres, and in 1873 they purchased 160 acres each, four miles northeast of Helena, and the same year bought another 160 acres, where he now lives. He made his present valuable improvements in 1898, but the trees and shrubbery were set out twenty-five years ago. Mrs. Millegan lived in Helena over five months before she saw a white woman. The winter of 1865 was the most severe ever experienced in this locality. His only horse was stolen by the In- dians, and Mr. Millegan found a white man frozen to death near his house. Five hundred dollars was found on the body, but this was claimed by a part- ner. In the spring of 1866 Mr. Millegan began farming. He paid twenty-five cents a pound for seed potatoes and the same price for seed oats.

Mr. Millegan has the oldest water right in this part of the country and is well supplied with water and has been raising cattle and horses during the past few years quite successfully.

Politically Mr. Millegan has been a lifelong Re- publican. He was an inspector of elections in Ida- ho, and voted at the first election in Montana. In 1878 he was elected one of the county commission-

ers for Lewis and Clarke county, and was chosen for the long term, six years.

Fraternally Mr. Millegan has for fifteen years been a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is a man of most exemplary hab- its, never indulging in liquor or any of the vices of the early days in Montana territorial life, and both himself and wife are valued members of the Bap- tist church. Throughout the state he is recognized as a man of sterling character, of sound judgment and the strictest honesty. Possessing broad, pro- gressive views, he has continued to keep step with the march of civilization.

H ON. JAMES H. MILLS .- The life history of this gentleman is one of patriotic devotion to duty, and replete with those stirring events which time softens to romance. He was born in New Lisbon, Ohio, December 21, 1837. De- scended from English, Irish and Holland ances- tors, seven generations preceding him have lived in America. Through Colonial and Revolution- ary days and in the succeeding years the mem- bers played varied and important parts in the founding of the United States. Both his paternal and maternal ancestors served loyally in the Con- tinental army of the Revolution, when there was no room for the "summer soldier and the sunshine patriot." So far back as the Mills family can trace their history they were Presbyterians. George S. Mills, born in Pennsylvania in 1815, married Susan Davis, a daughter of John Davis, who had removed to Ohio from Pennsylvania about 1814, George S. Mills dying there in his sixty- fourth year, and there also died his first wife, at the age of twenty-eight, leaving but one child, James Hamilton Mills.

Receiving his education in the schools of east- ern Ohio and of Pittsburg, Pa., Mr. Mills was early engaged in mercantile and mechanical pur- suits, continuing in these until the Civil war. His inherited traits of patriotism and loyalty caused his early enlistment, on April 27, 1861, at the age of twenty-four years, in Company G. the Eleventh Pennsylvania Reserves (Fortieth Pennsylvania In- fantry), as a private soldier. With his regiment he participated in twenty-seven general engage- ments of the Army of the Potomac, and "for gal- lant conduct on the field" he was promoted to corporal, first sergeant, first lieutenant and cap-

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tain, and "for heroic conduct in the battle of the Wilderness and Bethesda church" he was com- missioned brevet-major and brevet-lieutenant col- onel. He was mustered out of service at Pitts- burg, on June 13, 1864. That he escaped without a wound is remarkable, for of the more than 2,000 regiments in the Union army, the Fortieth Penn- sylvania sustained the eighth heaviest loss.

After his muster out Mr. Mills for a time en- gaged in the wholesale leather business at Pitts- burg, Pa. Then the "boundless" west offered splendid opportunities and inducements to an ac- tive, enterprising young man, and to avail himself of them Mr. Mills came to Montana in the spring of 1866, and engaged in mining on the Yellow- stone, where he was one of a company which opened a hydraulic claim at Emigrant gulch. Pro- visions were scarce and high and they gave all their money to a packer whom they sent to pur- chase provisions in Bozeman. But the packer "went against the tiger," lost the money and dis- appeared. After weeks of harrowing anxiety the swindled party were obliged to abandon the claim. All the money of Capt. Mills had been sunk in the enterprise, and when he arrived at Virginia City his capital was ten cents in postal currency. How- ever he at once secured a position as a bookkeeper, and this indirectly led to a brighter opening. An article he had written to an eastern journal attracted the attention of D. W. Tilton, and he offered Capt. Mills the editorship of the Montana Post. He accepted the offer and became the third editor of Montana's first newspaper, succeeding Prof. Dimsdale and Judge Blake. He was a forceful and vigorous writer and ably conducted the Post until July, 1869. He then founded the New North- west, at Deer Lodge, which he edited and pub- lished until November, 1891. He was the first president of the Montana Press Association. In 1875 Capt. Mills was united in marriage to Miss Ella M. Hammond, a native of Wisconsin and daughter of Martin Hammond. She came to Montana in 1865 and died in 1899. Their three children were named Mary E., Nellie G. and James H., Jr.

Politically Mr. Mills has been a lifelong and consistent Republican, and he has most efficiently filled important official positions. He was a mem- ber of the first constitutional convention of Mon- tana, and by President Hayes was appointed sec- retary of the territory ; serving four years, he de- clined a reappointment. In 1889 he was again

nominated for the convention to formulate a state constitution, but declined the proffered honor to accept the appointment of collector of internal revenue for the district which included Montana, Idaho and Utah. In this high office he served with distinction until February 28, 1893, when he was appointed commissioner of the state bureau of agriculture, labor and industry, which position he filled until January, 1897. In 1895 he was ap- pointed receiver for the Northern Pacific Railroad, and in 1897 receiver for the Helena Consolidated Water Company. Mr. Mills then became busi- ness manager for the reorganized water company, which position he held until February 1, 1901, when he became clerk and recorder of the newly estab- lished county of Powell. Fraternally Capt. Mills is a member of the Loyal Legion, past senior vice- commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, past grand master workman of the United Work- men and past grand master of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Montana. Financially, socially and politically, the career of the Hon. James H. Mills has won merited success. Thor- oughly known, especially by "old-timers" in all portions of the state, he numbers a wide clientele of steadfast friends. Of great executive ability and business sagacity, he has satisfactorily met every demand made upon his versatile talents and long experience as a man of affairs,

R EV. JACOB MILLS, D. D .- A life conse- crated to the service of the Divine Master, a life of devotion and self-abnegation, and yet one that has ever shown a distinct cognizance of those practical and temporal values which are rendered to the children of men as aids in the busy, work- aday world, has been that of Rev. Jacob Mills, D. D. It furnishes a distinct lesson and incentive. He has been unwearied in his labors in the Master's vineyard, and has also so employed the practical utilities of existence as to make himself a worthy power in temporal affairs. He was born in Top- sham, Orange county, Vt., on November 18, 1842, the son of Jacob and Mary Ann (Dickey) Mills, natives of Vermont. His paternal great-grand- father was a participant in the Revolution. The original American ancestors in the maternal line came to New Hampshire from Londonderry, Ire- land, and thus it may be seen that Dr. Mills has been signally favored in the sturdy character of

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his lineage. It was the fortune of Dr. Mills to have received the sturdy discipline of New England farm life, and his character has ever shown the evidences of this elemental training. He attended the public schools and worked on the farm until he had at- tained the age of nineteen years, when came the Civil war. He was an early respondent to the call to arms, enlisting in 1861 as a private in Company D, Eighth Vermont Infantry, his regiment joining the Department of the Gulf, under Gen. Butler. At the battle of Winchester, September 19, 1864, he received so severe a gunshot wound in his left arm as to necessitate its amputation, and he was in the hospital over a year. He had been promoted to first sergeant, and, after the loss of his arm, was tendered the captaincy of his company, but refused this honor. After his muster out of service Mr. Mills returned to his native town, where he was engaged in merchandising for three years and was elected to office, having been county clerk, county treasurer and a justice of the peace while a resi- dent of Topsham. In 1869 he received through Hon. George S. Boutwell, secretary of the treas- ury, the appointment as assistant assessor of inter- nal revenue for the second district of Vermont, re- signing this in a few months to accept a position in the United States customs service on the Canada line, where he was retained eleven years. For seven years of this time he was a deputy collector at Island Pond, Vt., the last three years being cashier.

This position Dr. Mills was holding when he de- cided to follow the voice of his convictions, which prompted him to go forth as a minister of the gos- pel, and he tendered his resignation in January, 1882. The great field for religious work afforded in Montana attracted the attention of Dr. Mills, and he came hither, reaching Dillon on March 23, 1882, and passing his first Sunday in Butte city. Thence, going to Fort Benton, he there remained three and one-half years, devoting himself zealously to the work of the Master. He was enabled to pros- ecute his theological studies in connection with his conference work in Montana, and was ordained a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church at Butte on August 18, 1883. While at Fort Benton he organized a church and built a parsonage. With- in this period he erected a brick church edifice at Sun River crossing and held the initial religious services in Great Falls, Sand Coulee and Belt, his jurisdiction extending over a wide area of country. His was the first sermon delivered in Great Falls, where he was compelled to utilize a saloon as an

audience room, this being the only place available and it being freely and gladly tendered. In 1885 he accepted a charge at White Sulphur Springs, where he effected the erection of a fine brick church and retained its pastorate two years, when a wider field, with a heavier burden of duties, was opened to him. He gladly accepted the responsibilities of this new position of presiding elder of the Bozeman district, with headquarters in the city of that name. The district included all of the southern, eastern and northern part of Montana, and in ministering to the needs of this great field Dr. Mills was compelled to travel 1,000 miles a month during his six years tenure of office. Many of our readers can fully ap- preciate the trials and deprivations which this ser- vice implied, but, sustained by an abiding faith, Dr. Mills did not flinch from any ordeal or any burden imposed. At the expiration of this term of office Dr. Mills accepted the pastorate of the First Meth- odist Episcopal church at Bozeman, over which he officiated two years, the official board unanimously requesting his return.

His executive ability having been tested and his powers determined, the trustees of the Montana Wesleyan University, realizing that a man of force and discrimination was demanded to extricate the institution from its financial difficulties, requested the bishop to appoint Dr. Mills as its financial agent. This offered position he at first declined, but was eventually prevailed upon to accept at the earnest request of the board. By the annual conference he was chosen as the delegate to the general confer- ences in 1896 and 1900, the former held in Cleve- land, Ohio, and the latter in Chicago, Ill. Resign- ing the office of financial agent of the university in December, 1896, the Doctor became the pastor of Trinity church in Butte for the remainder of the conference year, when he was granted a season of rest and recuperation, after a decade and a half of consecutive and arduous labor. He accordingly passed the next year in an occupation diametrically opposite to that which had occupied him-the man- agement of one of the most extensive sheep ranches in the state-and this change proved very bene- ficial, and he returned to his clerical duties with renewed vigor, Bishop Mallilieu appointing him to the vacant pastorate of the church at Billings, whose pastor, Rev. George C. Stull, had accom- panied the First Montana Volunteers as its chaplain to Manila. At the annual conference in August, 1900, Dr. Mills was chosen presiding elder of the Helena district, his term extending until 1902. He

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now has his residence in Helena and in the important field committed to his charge is showing the same zeal and consecration which he has shown from the time he first gave his life to the great cause of Christ. In the last Methodist general conference he was a member of the special committee which unified the deaconess movement in the church, a movement which has been a power for good in the work of the church. In 1900 the Montana Wesleyan Uni- versity, as a merited tribute to his scholarly attain- ments and devoted labors, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

In the midst of the manifold duties which have devolved upon him, Dr. Mills has been a close stu- dent, both of theological and secular literature, con- stantly augmenting his fund of knowledge and seeking to give it practical exemplification. As a speaker he has a strongly marked power in dialec- tics, offering truths and arguments in a direct and forceful manner without undue rhetorical effects. Of gracious personality, the Doctor gains the re- spect and friendship of "all sorts and conditions of men." In politics Dr. Mills is allied with the Re- publican party. On November 17, 1870, Dr. Mills was united in marriage to Miss Jennie F. Mills, who, like himself, was born in Vermont. She is the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Laird) Mills, both of whom were born in Scotland, whence they came to the United States in 1848. They have three children : Edward Laird, born March 30, 1875, was graduated from the Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Conn., in the class of 1898, and in 1902 graduated in the theological school of the Boston University; George Dickey, born February 20, 1878, will graduate at the Wesleyan University with the class of 1902; and Edith Forrest, now a student in the Helena high school, her birth occur- ring on September 24, 1886.

ROBERT A. BELL .- That the plenitude of sa- tiety is seldom attained in the affairs of life can be considered a grateful deprivation; where ambition is satisfied and the ultimate aim realized individual apathy must follow ; effort would cease, accomplishment be prostrate and creative talent waste its energies. The men who push forward the wheels of progress are those to whom satiety is un- known; they have labored and found in each stage of progress an incentive for further effort. Such

has been the case with Mr. Bell, who has forged steadily forward, meeting reverses with fortitude and winning success by sheer will power, energy and ability. Mr. Bell is a native of Scott county, Ky., where he was born on August 30, 1853, the son of James Franklin and Mary J. (Wilson) Bell, the former born in the Old Dominion in 1803, while the latter's birth occurred in Kentucky in 1807, a daughter of one of the pioneer physicians of the state, who served with distinction in the Mexican war. The marriage of our subject's parents was solemnized in Kentucky in 1825. In his early man- hood James F. Bell removed to Kentucky, where he was engaged in the raising of horses of the superior Kentucky type. He was unswerving in his support of the Democratic party, and his relig- ious faith was that of the Presbyterian church, in which he served as deacon for forty years. To Mr. and Mrs. Bell twelve children were born, the youngest being Robert A., whose name initiates this review. After attending the public schools at White Sulphur, Ky., he continued his studies in the high school at Shelbyville until he attained the age of seventeen years, when he secured the position of agent at Scott's Station, on the Shelbyville branch of what is now the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, which he retained three and a half years. For one year thereafter he engaged in farming near Shelby- ville, but in 1877 he went to Greenville, Miss., where he had charge of the wage gang on a cotton plantation for four months ; later he was employed in a mercantile establishment in Greenville. In 1879, during the term of court in that place, he served two months as deputy sheriff, and in the summer of that year returned to Kentucky as agent for agricultural machinery and implements until August, when he went to Fort Lincoln, N. D., to accept a position in the quartermaster's department. At the expiration of three weeks, however, Mr. Bell took a position as rodman with an engineering party engaged in surveying the route of the Northern Pa- cific Railroad. He was thus employed until the fol- lowing spring, when he took a contract for the grading of three miles of the roadbed through the Bad Lands, an unfortunate venture, having but ten cents and his blankets to show for his work on com- pletion of the contract. In 1881 he was for three months in the sutler's store at Camptown, and' thence went to Sentinel Butte as bookkeeper for Wilson & McLean, and later with Larson & Mc- Lean, but conducted a general store at the camp at the same time. In two years he thus realized

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$10,000, what he designates as his "first raise." In the spring of 1883 Mr. Bell removed his business to Gardiner, Park county, Mont., and invested in mines, losing all that he put in, but continued his mercantile business until 1885, when he disposed of the same and came to Helena and engaged as bookkeeper for Larson & Keefe, contractors for the construction of the line of the Montana Central Railroad between Helena and Great Falls. In 1887 he was in charge of the construction of the Marysville branch of the North- ern Pacific Railroad under the same firm, and the next year was similarly employed by Kirkendall & Larson. In September, 1888, Mr. Bell accepted the position of bookkeeper for the Empire Mining Com- pany, near Marysville, and in February of the fol- lowing year was installed as manager. When the mines closed down in October he came to Helena and engaged in the general agency business, han- dling safes, vaults, school furniture, mining stock, etc. In 1892 the firm of R. A. Bell & Co. secured the contract for the erection of the fine county jail of Lewis and Clark county, sub-letting the contract for the stone work and completing the structure ac- cording to plans and specifications. In the follow- ing year Mr. Bell secured an option on the Little Nell mine, in Lump gulch, beginning operations on the property in March, 1894, and continuing until May, 1896. This mine produced $135,000. Mr. Bell finally sold his interests to advantage and im- mediately effected the purchase of the East Pacific mine, at Winston, Broadwater county, carrying gold, silver and lead, with sulphide of zinc blende. He has continued to operate this mine, one of the large producers of this section of the state. He also owns the B. & G. mine, in Jefferson county, which gives excellent returns. He has invested $60,000 in the developing of mining properties in this section, and owns fine copper prospects near White Sulphur Springs. In the capital city he owns a fine, modern residence, located on Ewing street, five houses in the city of Butte and other unimproved realty, while his other mining and real estate interests are of an important order. He has great capacity for affairs of wide scope; is indefatigable in his efforts and uses wise discrimination in his numerous business enterprises. To men of this type Montana owes her progress and material prosperity. In politics Mr. Bell contents himself by observing the duties of citizenship in the exercising of his right of fran- chise, giving his allegiance to the Democratic party. He has been a liberal contributor to the Baptist 21

church in Helena, and at all times maintains a broad-gauged and public-spirited attitude, lending his aid and influence to worthy causes.

On the 23d of October, 1889, Mr. Bell was united in marriage to Miss Sally A. Viley, born in Scott county, Ky., and their beautiful home is graced and brightened by two children-Mary Louise, born September 3, 1890, and Viley Bell, born May 2, 1892.

DR. W. P. MILLS .- One of the most eminent physicians and surgeons of the state, Dr. W. P. Mills, of Missoula, commands the universal respect of his medical brethren because of his professional attainments and skill, and of all other classes of the community because of his high char- acter, generous devotion to the public weal, and superior social qualities. He was born in Pettis county, Mo., on September 27, 1857, a son of James H. and Catherine E. (Porson) Mills, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Virginia. The father removed to Missouri with his parents when a boy, and remained at home un- til he was eighteen years old. In 1849 he went to California and occupied five years in mining and merchandising, then returned to Missouri, and remained there until 1883. In that year he came to Montana, locating at Missoula and was engaged in farming until his death in 1896. The mother, a daughter and two sons are residents of Mon- tana. The Doctor's grandfather, Christian Mills, a native of Kentucky, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and made there a very creditable record. After the war he removed from Missouri to Mis- sissippi, but later returned to Missouri, where he passed the rest of his days.

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 63

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