Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 94

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 94

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John R. Latimer received rather limited educa- tional advantages in Wayne county, Ohio, and early depended on his own exertions. In 1859 he went to Lee county, Iowa, and tarried one year, after which he was for three years located in Davis county. In 1863 he started on the long and peril- ous overland trip for Walla Walla, Washı., by way of the Platte river and the Oregon route. His party was not molested by the Indians, although companies in advance and behind them were at- tacked. Mr. Latimer was five months on the road before he reached the Walla Walla valley, where he remained about two years, then went to the Wild Horse district of British Columbia, mined one summer and came down into Montana and engaged in mining in McClellan and Washington gulches, from whence he removed to Missoula and located a ranch claim on Grant creek which is now owned by A. Higgins. This, after a season's unsuccessful occupation, he abandoned, and located at the mouth of the Bitter Root, where for three years he engaged in ranching, after which he went to Moss creek, Idaho, and bought and butchered cattle, realizing a profit of $2,000 from his first summer's opera-

tions. Retaining his residence in Missoula, he con- tinued his meat business until the fall of 1870, when he purchased the ranch of 5,000 acres in Glass valley where he now makes his home, an ideal place for a stockman's business, not only affording a fine range but producing hay in ample quantity. Mr. Latimer has been conspicuously identified with improving the character of Montana stock and for this one thing alone is deserving of great credit. His efforts have been well matured, timely and suc- cessful.

As early as 1878 he commenced to breed Nor- man-Percheron horses, being the first to introduce this excellent draft type in northwestern Montana, and his influence and labors have been far-reaching and appreciated. He still raises these horses ex- tensively and there is a quick sale for them. In 1884 he began breeding shorthorn cattle of absolute purity, buying eight head for $1,750, and brought the first herd of these magnificent creatures to Glass valley. He now has 200 head, all eligible for registration. Mr. Latimer is also interested in mining on Eight Mile creek and the Bitter Root river. He is recognized as one of the leading and highly progressive business men of Missoula county, where he is well known and esteemed. In politics he is a strong Republican and in 1895 he represented his county in the lower house of the legislature, rendering very effective service. In 1886 he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners, serving three years as its chairman, and in 1896 was again chosen a member of this body. He was a member of the building committee for the State University, appointed by Governor Smith, and served as chairman of the body. A modest, unostentatious gentleman, Mr. Latimer possesses a winning magnetism that quietly and quickly attracts people and on extended acquaintance they become permanent friends. He is earnest and persistent in his labors, makes no noise or uproar in his proceedings, but steadily moves things to harmonize with his purposes and is successful, as he deserves to be. He is ever in harmony with all that tends to uplift humanity and is a potent factor in the better element of the com- munity, his influence making for progress in all departments of human endeavor.

J OHN WENDEL .- The sturdy German-Amer- ican citizens scattered through the west and northwest have proved important factors in fur-

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PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

thering the substantial development of the coun- try. Strongly appreciative of practical values and intensified by an intellectual development in the land of their adoption not possible under old-world conditions, there is a justifiable pride in tracing one's lineage to such a source. The subject of this review claims the Fatherland as the place of his nativity, and has not failed to display the strong- est and best traits of the German character while essentially American in his progressive methods and loyalty to our institutions. He is recognized as one of the able business men of Helena, and his popularity is shown in the fact that he has served in the office of alderman in the city council, a posi- tion of which he fills with credit at the present time. Mr. Wendel is a native of Wurtemburg, Germany, where he was born November 22, 1865, the son of John and Kate (Heinzelmann) Wendel. The father was a lumberman by vocation and served as alderman of the town of Rodt for twelve years, retiring only when advancing years ren- dered further service too onerous. His father was likewise engaged in the lumber business, as was also the maternal grandfather of our sub- ject. Grandfather Heinzelmann was one of the soldiers who accompanied Napoleon to Moscow and was one of the few that lived to return, re- suming his lumbering operations in the historic Black Forest district. John Wendel received his preliminary education in the public schools of his native province, and also a certificate from the training school, attending its night sessions and applying himself with diligence. There he pre- pared himself for the practical duties of life, for the certificate mentioned was granted after he had passed a careful examination in the city of Freud- enstadt, and gave assurance that his education and practical training entitled him to precedence as a master baker, the diploma having been grant- ed him in May, 1882. Prior to this he had as- sisted his father in his lumbering operations in the Black Forest, but having perfected himself at his trade he continued to follow the same in his native province for one year. In 1883 he went to Mulhausen, Alsace, where he learned the French methods of bakery, becoming an expert in this line as he had in the German school of cookery.

In 1885 Mr. Wendel came to the United States and was employed in New York city until Sep- tember of the following year, when he came to Helena, Mont., where he worked for a few weeks and then located in Butte until July of the fol-

lowing year, but returned to Helena, which has since been his home and the scene of his success- ful business enterprises. He accepted a position in the Reinig bakery, and was thus employed until July 1, 1889, when he rented the bakery and con- tinned the business until June, 1899. Having es -* tablished a high reputation and controlling an extensive · business lie erected his own establish- ment, his main store being located on State street. He also has a store in the Diamond block, which was opened for trade in September, 1889, shortly after he effected the lease of the Reinig bakery, and maintains other well equipped branch estab- lishments. He owns a fine residence property on First street; at the rear of his grounds are lo- cated his finely equipped bakeries, the building being 35x100 feet, having all modern improve- ments and facilities. Still further to the rear Mr. Wendel owns a number of lots whereon are dwell- ings for his employes, requisite stables, wagon- houses, etc. In addition to the large business controlled in the way of catering to the local public, Mr. Wendel is interested in placer mining in Deer Lodge county ; he also owns the Badger nine, in the Warm Springs district of Jefferson county. Ore is being shipped from this mine, and the property is a valuable one.

Politically Mr. Wendel gives radical allegiance to the Republican party, and in 1897 he was the nominee of his party for alderman from the first ward, being defeated by one vote. In 1898 he was again tendered the nomination, and on this occasion was elected by a majority of more than 100 votes ; while at the election in the spring of 1900 he was chosen his own successor to the office. He is chairman of the water and light committee, on streets and alleys, and is a member of the following committees : Taxes and licenses, judiciary, sanitary and garbage and printing. He is deeply interested in all that touches the pros- perity and advancement of the capital city, and he has proved a most capable and worthy repre- sentative in the council, being conservative and discriminating and ever using liis best efforts in fostering the interests of the municipality. Mr. Wendel's religious faith is that of the Evangelical Lutheran church, and in the local congregation has been an active and zealous worker. He has been secretary of the board of trustees since 1892, and gives liberal aid to the church work in a direct way and in the line of benevolences. On February 18, 1890, Mr. Wendel was united

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in marriage to Miss Henrietta L. Reiss, who was born in the city of Syracuse, N. Y., where her father and mother settled upon their emigration from Germany, in 1866. The father was there in the employ of the local gas company for many years, and both parents were consistent members of the German Lutheran church. The great-grand- father of Mrs. Wendel, in the maternal line, bore the name of Shelhorn, and came to America prior to the war of the Revolution, in which he participated, serving under Gen. Washington. The Continental congress awarded him a grant of land, but he never succeeded in gaining possession of the same from the fact that while crossing the ocean to pay a visit to his native land the ship went down with all on board, the papers to the grant being in his possession. Mr. and Mrs. Wen- del are the parents of five children : Edward J., born January 6, 1891 ; Kate S., June 24, 1892; John G., September 22, 1895; Theodore M., Oc- tober 5, 1897, and Henrietta L., April 9, 1900.

P IERRE WIBAUX .- Human history is full of heroes from Nimrod to Napoleon-from Salamis to Manila Bay-and each has cost the world a terrible price in blood and anguish, in orphanage and widowhood. The story of that other class of conquerors, whose tearless victories redden no river and whiten no plain, is yet, for the most part, to be written. They build their em- pires not of the wretched and bleeding fragments of subjugated states or dismantled dominions, but of realms redeemed from the primal wilderness and planted with beneficent activity-of arid wastes made fruitful as the gardens of God, laugh- ing, clapping their hands, pouring forth in spon- taneous abundance everything brilliant and frag- rant and nourishing. A race of such heroes has made America great ; and we may well challenge Old Romance to furnish anything to match the realities of the nineteenth century which heroes have wrought in this western world that may not be styled the great charity of God to the human race. Conspicuous in this number is Pierre Wi- baux, the "Cattle King of Eastern Montana." He is a native of the land of song and of story, of gallant men and gracious ladies-sunny France, where he was born in 1858, at Roubaix, a city in which his family had for a century been prominent in the manufacture of textile fabrics. Nothing in

the way of facilities for a liberal and technical edu- cation was denied him, as it was designed that he should take his place in the hereditary business of the family and be properly equipped for the work. But the fond hopes of his father were not to be realized. Far across the sea a land was calling for captains with brains and nerve to come and officer the great army of industry she was assembling to reclaim her waste places and unbosom her hid- den treasures; and he obeyed the call. After spending a year in the army, as is the custom of young men in France, and acquiring therein habits of discipline and system that have been of great service to him in his subsequent career, he was sent to England on a two-years tour of inspection through its manufacturing districts, charged with a study of its methods and machinery; and while on this mission Fortune approached his door with a double knock, introducing him to the lady who has shared his toils and his triumphs, and blessed him with her helpful companionship; at the same time making him acquainted with the wonderful opportunities of the range stock business of the great northwest.

He must have realized the angelic nature of his visitant, for he at once determined to come to "the States" and look the cattle business over. His determination was resolutely opposed by the family, but by persistence he at length wrung from his father a reluctant consent to the venture and $10,000 in money for the purpose. It was in the in the early part of 1883 he first looked upon the place of his future dominion-the neighborhood of the "Bad Lands" in eastern Montana. He was pleased with the outlook, "stuck his stake," com- pleted the formalities necessary to secure him the rights of a settler, and started for Iowa and Min- nesota to buy his cattle. Did space allow, fancy might halt to paint the scene. The highest prod- uct of the old world civilization having turned his back upon the pleasures of a gay and promis- ing life in the capitals of Europe, surrounded with all that wealth could buy or artistic skill could fashion for his comfort, deliberately choosing to live on the wild llanos of America; to burrow in a "dug-out", to rear and traffic in cattle, to con- sort with range-riders and cowboys. What recks he! The great soul does not sell its greatness- does not ask to dine nicely or sleep warm. He exults in his choice for the freedom it gives, the independence it assures, the spice of adventure it supplies and the hope of fortune it holds out.

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As a preliminary to success in buying, Mr. Wibaux spent the few weeks at his disposal in the muck and filth of the Chicago stock yards, watching and studying the daily transactions of that great mar- ket ; learning what he could of estimating class and quality, weight and age-everything, in fact, that helps to make "a good judge of cattle." Then he gathered his first herd and got them to his ranch around his dug-out on Beaver creek in Dawson county; and, with characteristic en- terprise and self-denial, concluded to be his own foreman until he could learn, in the hard school of experience, all the details of his business. During the next five years he faithfully adhered to this resolution and rode the range with the hardiest, winter and summer, doing more of the work than any man he had hired to help him. The rest of the story is mere matter of detail, except where the golden thread of senti- ment gleams in its woof. His first thousand dol- lars of profit came slowly but surely ; the next more easily and readily by help of the former ; the next, of course, more readily still ; until now he adds thousands to his store with little apparent effort or care. Mr. Wibaux returned to Europe in 1884, married, and procured the necessary cap- ital for desired enlargement of his business. It had been his intention to prepare a commodions and well equipped modern residence for the re- ception of his bride, but this had to give way to the sterner demands of business; and so Mrs. Wi- baux, like her husband, was called upon to brave a great reversal in her home life, exchanging a mansion in England for a "shack" in Montana- a little log cabin with a sod roof and a muslin ceiling. But she accepted her portion in their lot courageously, even cheerfully, and set about to make a home of the humble shack. As an incident of this hard life of privation on the prairies, per- haps not often duplicated but too rich and too suggestive to be lost, it should be noted that the first Christmas dinner of these voluntary exiles, served in the log shanty that sheltered them, was eaten in all the "pomp and circumstance" of full evening dress, Mrs. Wibaux appearing in a strictly modish Paris gown, with the necessary concomi- tants, and her husband in "the conventional black." The mansion has replaced the shack ; all latitudes are under tribute to its commissariat ; its cellars are bountifully supplied and of a quality above criticism ; Parisian gowns and dress suits are mat- ters of almost daily experience; servants are at

hand to execute the lightest wish. Yet it may be safely questioned if any dinner ever served in the ambitious edifice, with the stateliest ceremonial and under the witchery of electric lights, gave half the pleasure to the master and mistress of the feast they found in that first Christmas banquet in their lowly cot by the flickering and malodorous light of a tallow dip.

One of the first essentials to Mr. Wibaux's business was a convenient railroad shipping point, and soon after locating on Beaver creek he induced the Northern Pacific to build stock yards and ship- ping conveniences at his most convenient station, then a straggling collection of uncanny shacks called Mingusville. This he took hold of with en- ergy, awakened in it a spirit of improvement, and in time had it transformed into the present beauti- fied, thriving and promising village; and the state legislature, appreciating his enterprise in the mat- ter rebaptized the now comely bantling, giving it the name of its foster father-Wibaux. It is thirteen miles from the home ranch, and conse- quently Mr. Wibaux has an office there, which is in effect a residence too, being provided with sleep- ing rooms, a kitchen and other appurtenances, beautiful grounds-everything to give him the comforts of a home when it is necessary to spend a few days in the town, as is frequently the case.

Mr. and Mrs. Wibaux have one child, their son Cyril, born in 1885, whose education is now engag- ing their attention, and in consequence he and his mother are handsomely installed in apartments located in the fashionable quarter of Paris, France, where Mr. Wibaux spends his winters. It is not to be supposed that in the romantic, picturesque and highly interesting career here briefly outlined there have been no disappointments or reverses-there have been many. If there had been none the story would lack much of its grit and fiber. But acci- dents ordinary and extraordinary, the rage of the elements and the rage of man, human infirmities and the law's delay, have been invoked in vain by adverse fate, and the progress of the "Cattle King" into larger dominions has been rapid, steady, ir- resistible.

In addition to his ranch and cattle business in Montana, which includes large herds on the north side of the Yellowstone, not hitherto men- tioned, he owns some 200,000 acres of land in Texas on which he has upward of 8,000 head of cattle, many of which he brings to Montana to feed ; he also has some in North Dakota. More-

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over, he is the president and principal owner of the State National Bank of Miles City, has invest- ments in Mexico, California and the Klondike region ; and is connected with large business inter- ests in France, which claim a good portion of his time during his annual visits to that country. An- other source of enormous revenue is the Clover Leaf gold mine in the Black Hills, of which he is the principal owner. He is the president of the company which is working the mine, and gives its affairs his personal attention ; and under its present skillful management, which has in operation a sixty-stamp mill and all the best methods and appliances known to the business, it is yielding large quantities of gold. . Here, too, Mr. Wibaux's strong personality has so impressed the commun- ity that the town near the mine, which is its out -. growth, has been named Wibaux in his honor.

Notwithstanding his great wealth and command- ing influence, in dealing with his fellows, even the humblest of them, Mr. Wibaux is generous, con- siderate and courtly. In business affairs he is exact and exacting ; in religious and political mat- ters, broad minded and tolerant ; in social life, an inspiration and an ornament ; in all things honor- able, high-toned, manly-a worthy product of the best age and the best traditions of his native land ; a worthy representative of the best elements of his adopted country.

G EORGE T. WICKES stands as a representa- tive of prominent New York families that for several generations were identified with the prog- ress and development of the state, and since making his home in Montana has attained distinc- tion in the line of his profession and the productive activities of the state. Mr. Wickes was born in the picturesque village of Ballston Spa, Saratoga county, N. Y., on April 3, 1845, the son of Rev. Thomas S. and Julia (Penniman) Wickes. His father was a clergyman of the Presbyterian church, but by reason of impaired health he re- tired from active work in the ministry and passed the remainder of his life in quietude and ease. The grandfather of the subject of this review was Eliphalet Wickes, an able attorney and influential citizen of the old town of Jamaica, Long Island, which district he represented in congress .. He was a son of Thomas Wickes, who was a resident of Long Island during Colonial days and rendered

valued service in the patriot army during the war of the Revolution, serving under Washington. The mother of our subject was born in the city of Al- bany, N. Y., her ancestors having been early set- tlers in the Empire state, while representatives of the name were active participants in the war of the Revolution.

George T. Wickes received his preliminary edu- cation in private schools and matriculated in the Polytechnic School at Troy, N. Y., where he stud- ied civil engineering until the school edifice was de- stroyed by the great fire. He then removed to Chi- cago and engaged in mechanical drafting for the- Chicago and Freeport shops of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. Early in the 'sixties he- went to Kansas and for six months was rodman with the engineering corps engaged in making the survey of the Union Pacific Railroad, eastern divi- sion. He was then placed in charge of a party of engineers when the road was completed to Law- rence, and was soon promoted to the position of lo- cating engineer, being then but eighteen years of age. In this capacity he made the preliminary sur- vey from Lawrence to Denver and from Leaven- worth to Lawrence. This was the first survey chained and leveled across the plains, the work be- ing accomplished about 1865. He then returned to New York and opened the magnetic iron-ore mines in the Ramapo ridge. In 1869 he removed to South Carolina, where he purchased a rice and cot- ton plantation, in the old "Middleton Barony," the deeds bearing the signature of King George IV. This was during the period of reconstruction, and finding it impossible to keep the negroes at work on the plantation Mr. Wickes disposed of the property and went to Virginia, where he opened the iron properties of the Low Moor Iron Com -- pany, of Virginia, and built their furnaces and coke ovens, remaining with the concern for a period of seven years. The furnace thus con- structed by Mr. Wickes is still in operation.

In 1882 Mr. Wickes came to Montana as man- ager of the Wickes mines and business in the town of Wickes, founded by his father's cousin, W. W. Wickes. Later he was made engineer for the Helena & Livingston Smelting and Re- duction Company, which office he has since re- tained. He located and opened the Cokedale coal and coke mines, the Bull mountain coal region, and made the preliminary examination and sur- veys for the Rocky Fork coal mines for the- Northern Pacific Railroad. He has also been con --

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spicuously concerned in the surveying and opening of many important gold, silver, copper and iron mines in the state, and prior to going to the iron regions of New York he was engaged to exam- ine mines in Missouri. While engineer on the line of the Union Pacific during the progress of the Civil war, Mr. Wickes and all other engineers of the corps were drafted into the service to assist in repelling Gen. Price, then on his famous raid into Missouri. During the early days he encoun- tered many exciting experiences with the Indians, the vigilance committees and the border ruffians. It is safe to say that no man in the state has been more prominently identified with the development of Montana's great mining industries, the basis of her progress and material prosperity ; and the able services of Mr. Wickes are held in no light estima- tion by the people of Montana. His cousin, W. W. Wickes, founder of the town of Wickes, Jef- ferson county, there erected the first smelter ever built in the state.

In politics Mr. Wickes gives support to the Re- publican party, while his religious faith is that of the Protestant Episcopal church, in which he is a communicant and junior warden of St. Peter's church, Helena, which has been his home since 1884-5. Fraternally Mr. Wickes has ad- vanced to the maximum degrees in both the York and Scottish Rite bodies of Masonry, and is also identified with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. On March 31, 1868, Mr. Wickes was united in marriage to Miss Fanny Webster, of Chi- cago, the daughter of Gen. Joseph Dana Web- ster, one of the most distinguished citizens of the western metropolis. He was born in the old town of Hampton, N. H., on August II, 18II, and his death occurred in Chicago, March 12, 1876. He completed his literary education in Dartmouth College, where he graduated as a member of the class of 1832, after which he read law in New- buryport, Mass. In 1835 he was appointed United States civil engineer, and on the 7th of July, 1838, was promoted to the office of second lieutenant, topographical engineer corps. He served with dis- tinction in the Mexican war ; was promoted first lieutenant in 1849 and captain in 1853. He re-

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 1, Part 94

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