Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 108

Author: Bowen, A.W., & Co., firm, publishers, Chicago
Publication date: [19-?]
Publisher: Chicago : A. W. Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 1092

USA > Montana > Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2 > Part 108

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Robert English, to whom this sketch is dedi- cated, received a common school education in his native province, and gave inception to his indi- vidual effort at the early age of nine years, contin- uing to reside in the vicinity of his birthplace un- til he had attained the age of nineteen years, when he made his way to Manitoba, Canada, where he remained one year, engaged in farm work and re- ceiving in compensation the sum of $20 per month and his board. At the expiration of the period noted he moved on to Prince Albert Mission, where he continued in the same line of work until New Year's day, 1879, when he started on the overland trip to Montana and upon arriving here located first in the Sun River district, where he was

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employed on various ranches for a period of ten years, receiving for his services from $40 to $50 per month. In the spring of 1888 Mr. English came to Lewis and Clarke county, and here made homestead and pre-emption entries for 160 acres each, the tract being located six miles north of Augusta and the same constituting his present ranch property. He has made excellent improve- ments on the place, and 175 acres of the same are eligible for cultivation. He has engaged in gen- eral farming and in the raising of horses, and a due measure of success has not been denied him, while his attitude in all the relations of life has been such as to gain him the esteem and friendship of those with whom he is thrown in contact. In politics Mr. English gives his support to the Democratic party so far as national issues are involved.

M RS. EMILIE LANGE, who is recognized as one of the successful sheepgrowers of Choteau county and a practical business woman of excellent judgment and superior intelligence, resides on her extensive ranch, near Cleveland. She was born at Lubeck, Germany, October 26, 1856, the daughter of H. H. Lehfeldt. He came to the United States in 1870 and, in casting about for a favorable loca- tion, settled in Denison, Crawford county, Iowa, where for many years he was engaged successfully in stockgrowing and general farming, dying in 1898. In 1875 the daughter was married to F. Lange. In 1891 Mrs. Lange came to her present ranch, comprising 600 acres, which is completely fenced and otherwise improved. Since that period she has followed the business of sheep and cattle- growing and this, too, quite profitably. She is the mother of four children : Albert J., Frieda, Herbert and Walter.

Albert J. Lange, her eldest son, was born July 7, 1875, in Iowa, where he was reared and educated in the excellent public schools of that state. With his parents he came to Montana, and is now associ- ated with his mother in the management of the ranch in Choteau county. Politically he is in line with the Republican principles, and is now serving efficiently as clerk of the school board.

PHILIP M. GALLAHER, civil engineer, rail- road constructionist, ranchman and miner, and winning success in each branch of effort, presents a striking illustration of the varied possibilities of 98

American manhood and the boundless opportunties afforded by our country for the proper kind of application. He was born at Williamsport, Pa., February 19, 1852, the son of Thomas and Eliza- beth (Cook) Gallaher, who were also natives of Pennsylvania, and both born in that state in 1810. The mother died at Williamsport in 1852. The father was a farmer by occupation, and removed from his native state to Freeport, Ill., in 1860, and from there to Scott county, Kan., in 1872. He cast his first presidential vote for William Henry Harri- son in 1840, and his last for Benjamin Harrison in 1888. He died in Scott county, Kan., in 1895.

Philip M. Gallaher received a thorough academic and professional education. He attended the public schools in Stephenson county, Ill., the Freeport (Ill.) grammar school, a boarding school at Fair- view, Pa., the Sharpless (Quaker) College in Ches- ter county, Pa., and was graduated in 1872 as a civil engineer from the Polytechnic College in Phila- delphia. His first professional work was on the con- struction of the Chicago, Dubuque & Minnesota Railroad, which lasted two years. The next two he passed as bridge superintendent and division engineer on the Canada Southern Railroad during its construction through Canada, Michigan and Ohio. He was then division engineer on location and con- struction of the Bound Brook road from Philadel- phia to New York; and from that service went to Ashland, Pa., and became interested in a powder mill. He was blown up and severely injured by an explosion there in 1879, which cansed him to quit the powder business. His next move was to Iowa, whither he went to take a position as chief engineer on location and construction of the New Sharon, Coal Valley & Eastern Railroad, which he held until the spring of 1880. The following year he was acting mining engineer at Leadville, Colo., and in the spring of 1882 came to Helena, Mont., and opened a civil engineer's office in partnership with Col. J. O. Hudnut. The firm also secured a 1,300,- acre ranch at Flatwillow, known as the Willowdale ranch, where they were engaged in stockraising for four years. During this period Mr. Gallaher sur- veyed nearly all the government land in the country lying between the Missouri and the Yellowstone, from Sweet Grass on the west to Porcupine and Big Dry creeks on the east. In 1893 he surveyed the boundary lines of Yellowstone Park for the govern- ment. Prior to this time, however, in 1886, he sold his interest in the Flatwillow ranch to his partner and moved to Billings, becoming interested in a pro-

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posed railroad from Billings to Cook City, at the head of Clark's Fork. But after he passed two winters at Washington securing the passage of an act authorizing the construction of the road, its promoters then decided to abandon the enterprise. About this time he discovered and began operations in the Bear creek coal fields, located near Red Lodge. This great deposit of bituminous coal of superior quality, estimated at 400,000,000 tons, is being rapidly developed with machinery, and the building of a railroad for its transportation will make it the coal supply for the entire state of Mon- tana. In connection with his engineering and min- ing operations Mr. Gallaher has, since 1898, been interested in the cattle business, having à ranch on Shell creek in the Big Horn basin, where he has a herd of 700 cattle and produces a yearly crop of some 700 tons of hay.

In politics Mr. Gallaher is a zealous Republican, but has never been an active partisan or seeker of public office. Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order in its several branches up to and including the Mystic Shrine. He has been twice married, first in 1878, at Danville, Pa., to Miss Frances E. Yorks, a native of that city, where she died in 1884, leaving a daughter, now living there with her grandmother. His second marriage oc- curred at Los Angeles, Cal., in 1890, to Miss Helen Dodsworth, a native of Auburn, Cal., where she was born April 1, 1866.

JOHN W. GALLOP, the subject of this review, J

is one of the pioneers of Montana, and his ex- periences in the early days read like the typical romances of the great west, for he devoted much attention to hunting, gaining a reputation as a "mighty Nimrod" and meeting with many thrilling adventures. Mr. Gallop is a native of the old Empire state, having been born at Scipio, Cayuga county, N. Y., on September 21, 1838, being the son of John and Hannah Gallop, natives respectively of Wales and England. The father was engaged in agricultural pursuits until the spring of 1840, when he removed to Michigan, where his death occurred a decade later, his wife passing away in 1852.

John W. Gallop attended the public schools of Michigan and assisted his father until the death of the latter. In 1853 he went to work in the great pine forests and the sawmills, continuing to be identified with the lumbering industry of

Michigan until. 1864, when he made the long trip across the plains to Montana, his destination being Virginia City, where he purchased an interest in a placer mine. Not meeting with success he iden- tified himself with the lumbering business at a salary of $100 per month and board. In the spring of 1865 he went to Helena and engaged in cut- ting logs at the rate of $3.00 per thousand feet. From the fall of that year until 1883 he was en- gaged in various pursuits-working on ranches, operating a circular saw and devoting some at- tention to hunting. He made three great hunting trips, the first with James Downing, Warren Craig, Alexander Rowe and George Smith. They killed a large number of deer, elk, antelopes and wolves, below Beartooth mountain, on the Missouri river. In the fall of 1883 he was associated with three others in a hunt for buffalo, and the party killed 400 of the noble animals. The third hunt occurred in June, 1884, when he went on the buffalo range in company with his brother William, and within the year they brought down 842 buffalo, selling the hides at Dickinson for $1,100, while various por- tions of the meat, weighing 22,000 pounds, sold for $180. In 1866 Mr. Gallop and his brother James left Lewiston, Idaho, with thirty-nine head of cattle, which they brought overland to Horse- shoe Bend. In 1871 he returned to Michigan, where he remained until the spring of 1874, when he went to California and remained until 1875. He then returned to Montana and the following spring went to the Black Hills, where he partici- pated in a fight with the Indians, George Miller, of Gallatin City, being killed in the encounter. This was on the Belle Fouche near and above the noted Devil's Tower. At Deadwood he engaged in mining, and also conducted a livery stable at Gayville. In 1887 he was associated with James Ryan in cutting wood on Spearfish river, selling the product to the quartz mills. In the fall of 1885 he took up a squatter's claim on Eagle creek, near Cave Hills, N. D., improving the land and building a house thereon. In the summer of 1886 he was associated with Benjamin Walton in freighting from Dickinson to Deadwood. In the fall Mr. Gallop sold his claim for $650 and then returned to Michigan for an extended visit. In the following spring he returned to Rapid City, N. D., where he engaged in railroad work, and later worked on the Cheyenne road. In the spring of 1888 he came up the Yellowstone river and worked until fall in the employ of Paul McCor-

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mick. In 1889 he came to Cascade county and took up a pre-emption claim of 160 acres and a homestead of equal area, seven miles southwest of Evans, and here he has since been successfully engaged in stockraising and farming, eighty acres of his ranch being under effective cultivation.

In politics he is a stalwart Republican ; frater- nally he is identified with the Modern Woodmen of America. In 1860 Mr. Gallop was united in marriage to Miss Sarah West, daughter of Ben- jamin and Sophia West, natives of the state of New York. . Her father, whose death occurred in 1894, was a farmer by occupation, his widow sur- viving until 1897. Our subject and his wife are parents of two children: James H., who is de- ceased, and George.

AMES W. GEARY .- Among the successful J merchants and general business men of Montana none stand higher in the estimation of their neigh- bors and friends than the subject of this article, James W. Geary. The gentleman is one of quite a number of the same name in Powell county, all prominent men of affairs and successful in many business enterprises. His residence is at Helmville. He was born in County Waterford, Ireland, the son of Thomas and Bridget (O'Brien) Geary. They were both born and died in County Waterford. The father was a farmer.

In 1876 James W. Geary came to the United States. It appears that the renown of the far west had already reached his ears in far off Ireland, for on his arrival in New York he immediately pushed on to Montana and at once located on a ranch near Helmville, then in Deer Lodge county. Here for eight years he worked industriously and profitably. Mr. Geary then removed to Anaconda, where he was employed as a night watchman for three years. In 1887 he returned to Helmville, where he estab- lished the general mechandise business of the James W. Geary Company. Since that period the business of the house has steadily increased until it now amounts to $25,000 a year in sales, and it bids fair to rapidly increase. The store room is commodious, up to date in every respect and supplied with all modern conveniences for the transaction of a much larger business. Mr. Geary was married to Miss Catherine Laherty, a native of this state, having been born at Blackfoot City. They have four chil- dren : Katie B., John, Edna Z. and Daniel L. They

have lost one child, Thomas E., who died at the age of less than two years. In 1896 Mr. Geary was elected a county commissioner of Deer Lodge county for a term of four years. For the last ten years he has been a notary public. Politically he affiliates with the Democratic party.

S ILAS GAMBLE .- The old Pine Tree state of Maine claims as a native son this represent- ative farmer and stockgrower of Choteau county, since he was born in Eastport, that state, on the 20th of June, 1861. His father, John Gamble, was also born in Maine about 1836, and followed a seafaring life, his death occuring in 1862, at East- port. His wife, formerly Helen Murphy, was born in Maine, about 1840, and she died in 1861, leaving her son Silas an infant. So he was doubly orphaned and never knew a parent's fostering care. With scarcely any educational advantages Mr. Gamble's alert mentality has enabled him to gain a large fund of valuable knowledge by ob- servation and experience, and he is a well-in- formed man today, better than many of good educational opportunities. When but fifteen, in 1876, he came to Helena, Mont., and was employed on stock ranches in the Yellowstone and Mussel- shell valleys for about eight years. In 1887 he went to Jefferson county, and was manager of a cattle ranch owned by Thomas Crane for six years.

In 1889 Mr. Gamble came to Choteau county and took up a squatter's claim in the Milk river valley, one mile south of Coburg station, on the Great Northern Railroad, and in 1895 he filed entry on homestead and desert claims adjoining his original claim, and he now has a fine ranch of 320 acres, and is successful in the raising of high- grade horses. From a large portion of his ranch he secures large yields of hay. His postoffice ad- dress is Dodson. It is a pleasure to note the prog- ress and success of one who has had to depend upon his own efforts from the age when the average boy is tenderly guarded and guided in the parental home, and to such an one all the more credit and honor is due. In politics Mr. Gamble supports the Republican party. At Placer, Jef- ferson county, in 1889, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Gamble and Miss Leona Hammond, who was born in Helena in 1868, the daughter of John Hammond, a pioneer of Last Chance gulch. He built several of the first houses erected in

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Helena, and died at Placer many years ago. Mrs. Gamble died in 1894, leaving three children, Silas, Jr., Daisy and William.

H ON. MICHAEL GEARY, of Helmville, Powell county, is among the members of the last session of the Montana legislature who carved the new county from Deer Lodge, thus adding a new star to the state's cluster of minor common- wealths. He was born in County Waterford, Ire- land, June 29, 1845. His parents, Patrick and Alice (Cleary) Geary, were natives of the same county wherein they both died. At the age of nineteen years Michael Geary, resolved to leave the over- crowded population of his native country, and ac- cordingly decided to join the vast throng of enter- prising fortune seekers who had set their faces to- ward the new world. "Westward" was the watch - word of his aspirations. Consequently he entered the west of his anticipations by taking the way of the Isthmus of Panama, landing at San Fran- cisco. In 1864 he came to Placerville, Idaho. Here he remained three years, coming to Deer Lodge county, Mont., in 1867, and locating at Washington gulch not many miles from his present attractive home. Here for three years he followed the occu- pation of mining. This was prosecuted with more or less success, at many times with "less," and Mr. Geary drew the sensible and judicious conclusion that what others had accomplished in the way of stockraising he could. Accordingly he purchased his present ranch, finely located, one-half mile north of Helmville, containing 640 acres of excellent range property. He has also three sections of land in other portions of the state, making 2,500 acres in all. The greater portion of it is in the Blackfoot valley.

In the fall of 1900 Mr. Geary was elected a mem- ber of the Seventh Montana legislature from the county of Deer Lodge (now Powell county). It was at this session of the legislature that the new county was carved from a portion of Deer Lodge. Mr. Geary was a member of the committee on fed- eral relations, on appointment and representation, as well as a number of other important committees. At the time of the organization of his school dis- trict, in 1876, Mr. Geary was made one of the school trustees, which position he held for sixteen years continuously. The immediate political success of Mr. Geary during the November election of 1900 was saddened by the death of his wife, which oc-

curred at Helmville, October 11, 1900. She was a Miss Anna Mclaughlin, a native of Hancock, Mich. Eight children survive her, viz .: Alice A., Michael C., Patrick J., Clement C., Mary, Anne I., Viola and James C. The subject of this brief bio- graphical sketch enjoys a wide circle of acquaint- ances, all of whom speak in the highest terms of his- universal popularity, broadmindedness, liberality and public spirit.

JACOB A. GAMBON .- In the beautiful Milk river valley, in Choteau county, is located the fertile ranch estate of Mr. Gambon. Born in a far distant land and dependent upon his own resources from an early age, he has had varied experiences and has attained success by his industry and well directed effort. Jacob A. Gambon was born in Switzerland on August 15, 1864. His father, Matthew Gambon, for many years has been a mer- chant in the old city of Chur, capital of the can- ton of Grisons, in the upper Rhine valley, and there he is now living. His wife, formerly Kather- ine Steif, was also born in Switzerland, and there she died in 1879.

Jacob A. Gambon attended school until he was fifteen, when he began a seafaring life, passing two years on steamers and sailing vessels plying between Germany and America. In 1883 he took up his permanent residence in the United States at Livingston, Mont., working on the North- ern Pacific Railroad during the summer and pass- ing the winter in Helena. In the spring of 1884 he went to Sun River Crossing and on to Augusta, where, and in its vicinity, he passed four years, working on ranches in the summer and devoting the winters to hunting expeditions. In the spring of 1888 Mr. Gambon came to Choteau, and in the Milk river valley, at the mouth of Peoples creek, he took up a squatter's claim where he lived for two years. In 1890 he took up a similar claim on Woody island, forty miles from Harlem, this mak- ing him, in fact, the first settler in the now cele- brated Woody Island country, noted now for its excellent beef and mutton and, in the older times, for its vast herds of buffalo. Two years later he- sold this property to W. S. Cowan and, in 1893, he located on his present ranch, also in the Milk river valley, near Savoy station, on the Great Northern Railroad. Here he has 240 acres of well watered arable land, devoted to general farm-

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ing and to the raising of live stock. He has made good improvements and his energy and pro- gressive methods assure him success. His post- office address is Harlem.

AMES GIBSON .- From the great manufactur- J

ing and commercial emporium of Philadelphia, a center of the highest civilization and culture on this continent, to the untrodden wilds of Montana where no white man lived, was a wide sweep both in longitude and social conditions ; but it was one that Mr. Gibson made with a determination to carve out of those wilds, by perseverance and determined efforts, a home and a competence. The complete success of his efforts is attested by the mark he has made on the community, the esteem in which he is held, and the monuments to his enterprise in set- tling the country to be found in names he has given to the streams, hills and coulees of the land. He was born in Philadelphia, Pa., on June 9, 1846, the son of John and Sarah (Sharp) Gibson, the former a native of Ireland, and the latter of Philadelphia. The father came to the United States when a young man, locating in the Quaker city, where he was engaged in the grocery business for a number of years, and where he died in 1874. The mother had preceded him to the spirit world in 1858. James Gibson attended the public schools of his native city until he was ten years old, then went to work on a canal boat as first mate, the boat be- longing to the Lehigh canal fleet. After some years' service in that capacity he worked as a farın hand in New Jersey until 1862, when, at the age of sixteen, he joined the Union army as a member of the One Hundred and Sixty-second New York Infantry. He saw three years of active warfare, being in the field all of the time with Gens. Banks and Sheridan in the Shenandoah valley campaigns and rose by merit to the rank of sergeant. It is claimed that he was the youngest soldier of these commands who actually carried a gun and fought in the ranks.

After leaving the army, in 1865, an honorably discharged veteran at the age of nineteen, he went to Atchison, Kas., and joined a party of 200 emi- grants bound westward across the plains, many of the number being discharged soldiers. It was the first party to make the trip over the Big Horn route, and occupied six months in the transit, and much of the time they were fighting their

way through hostile Indians. They finally reached Virginia City, Mont., where Mr. Gibson spent a few months, after which he removed to Helena, and remained there from 1866 to 1872, mining for awhile and later clerking in William Brown's to- bacco store. In the summer of 1872 he went to the Blackfoot reservation, then extending from Sun river to British Columbia, and was employed as head farmer for a short time. In 1873 he filed on a homestead government claim on the Teton river near the present town of Choteau, being the first white man to make a home in that locality. There he engaged in the cattle business, driving the first cattle on the northern range and being the first ac- tual settler in what is now Teton county. His resi- dence there covered a period of thirty-three years, during which he has seen Deer Lodge and Teton counties segregated from the original Choteau and many minor subdivisions made. Mr. Gibson be- came identified with the Masonic fraternity early, when he was only twenty-one years old, and has held membership in that order continuously since that time. He is now a member of Helena Royal Arch Chapter No. 2, and also belongs to Sheridan Post No. 18, G. A. R., at Great Falls, and to the Union Veterans' Union, of Spokane, Wash. He was married at Sun River, in 1883, to Miss Jennie Fleetwood. Mr. Gibson and Ed Dennis, as the first settlers gave the names they now bear to the streams, hills and coulees of the section of their occupancy. He has seen the land of a large area redeemed from the wilderness and made subservient to the wants and happiness of man and blossoming now with the evidences of civilization, supporting in peace, com- fort and happiness on its productive soil a great, growing and aspiring people.

BAPTISTE GAREPEE .- Among the various peoples that have materially assisted in the de- velopment of Montana's industries none deserves greater credit than the French Canadians, among whom were some of its earliest pioneers. They bravely came hither when it was perilous to do so, and they trapped, hunted, freighted and scouted throughout the northwest, and in every way aided the Federal government to open to civilization the vast resources of the Treasure state. Among them was the one of whom we now write, Baptiste Gare- pee. He was born in Winnepeg, Canada, on July 3, 1832. His father, Louis Garepee, was a French

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Canadian, and his mother, Rosette Duchon, was a half-breed Indian, who died in 1871 on the Marias river, Mont. Baptiste Garepee attended a French school at White Horse Plains, Canada, for two years, and this closed his scholastic education, al- though he has acquired in the school of life a practi- cal business experience that richly compensates for the lack of the other. Until his father's death, in 1856, he remained at home indus- triously working on the farm, and after this he became a noted buffalo hunter in Can- ada, which occupation he followed until 1868, when he came to Montana 'and located at Fort Ben- ton, which he made headquarters for buffalo hunt- ing until 1882, when the American bison practically ceased to exist and his occupation was gone. But he was equal to the emergency and in that same year secured a ranch on the upper Teton river, eighteen miles from Choteau, Teton county, and for twelve years engaged in stockraising. This property he sold in 1896, and from that time he has resided with his son, Eli, who has a fine ranch on Cut Bank river, and with his daughter, Emily, the wife of Adolphus Fellers, living near Dupuyer, Teton county. Mr. Garepee, al- though advanced in years, is still healthy and ac- tive, and has a number of plans mapped out for hunting and trapping in the mountains. He has seven children : Mrs. Emily Fellers, Magdaline, now of North Dakota; Johnnie, at St. Peter's mission ; Charles, living on the Teton river; Mary, married and residing in Canada; Eli, owner of the ranch on the Cut Bank river, and Josephine, wife of Gabriel Selwood, now living on the Upper Depuyer river.

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 108

Author: Bowen, A.W., & Co., firm, publishers, Chicago Publication date: [19-?] Publisher: Chicago : A. W. Bowen & Co. Number of Pages: 1092

Author: Bowen, A.W., & Co., firm, publishers, Chicago
Publication date: [19-?]
Publisher: Chicago : A. W. Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 1092