Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 126

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 126

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LBERT E. CAUFIELD .- One of the well A known and distinctly popular citizens of Great Falls is he whose name initiates this paragraph, and a review of his life may most consistently find place in this volume. Mr. Caufield was born at Montauk, Canada, on December 11, 1859, the son of James Caufield, who was a native of Liverpool, To Mr. and Mrs. Caufield have been born four sons and two daughters, namely : Helen Elizabeth, William Edward, George Victor, Royal Alvin, Ethel May Manila and Harold McRobie. The family residence is one of the attractive homes of Great Falls, and is a center of refined hospitality. England, whence he came to Ottawa, Canada, about 1832, and was identified with agricultural pursuits until his death in 1869. He married Elizabeth Leitmer, born in Canada in 1835, and who died at her home in Montauk in 1900. The grandparents on both sides were natives of County Antrim, in the north of Ireland, and the maternal family name was Duncan, thus indicating the Scotch extraction. In his boyhood Albert E. Caufield attended the PATRICK CASSIDY .- From the time when he left his native land in 1859 the life of Patrick Cassidy has been eventful, active, productive and full of interest. He was born at Flyn, County Roscommon, Ireland, on March 14, 1847, the son public schools of Montauk until he was twelve years old, after which he was a diligent student in a pri- vate school at Chelsea, Canada, for about six years. After leaving school. in 1877, he served a three years' apprenticeship at carriagemaking under . of John and Margaret (Kelly) Cassidy, both of Thomas Good, of North Gower. whom died in their native land when Patrick was

In 1880, by which time he had become an ex- pert workman, Mr. Caufield proceeded to Chicago, Ill., and thence to St. Paul, Minn., passing about six months in each place and devoting his attention to work at his trade. In the fall of 1880 he made his way to Winnipeg, Canada, where he worked at the carpenter trade for nine years, and also served as captain of Company I, Central Fire Hall, for seven years. In 1888 Mr. Caufield went to Port Arthur, where he held the position of baggagemaster for the Canadian Pacific Railroad about a year. In the spring of 1890 he came to Kalispell, Mont., and for five months was engaged in carpenter work for the Butte & Montana Commercial Company, after which he came to Great Falls, where he worked at his trade at the Butte & Montana smelter until 1893, when he met with an accident which incapaci- tated him for active labor for some time. Begin- ning in 1894, Mr. Caufield served for four years as clerk of the Great Falls school board for District No. I, and during the same period was secretary of the State Trade and Labor Union for two years, also secretary of the Cascade County Trade and Labor Council for seven years, and secretary of the Carpenters' Union of Great Falls for five years.

Mr. Caufield is very prominently identified with the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World. He is a past chancellor of Cataract Lodge No. 18, in Great Falls, of the former order and a past grand representative of the grand lodge of Knights of Pythias in Montana, being also one of the trustees of Cataract Lodge and recorder of Silver Commandery No. 10, of the uniform rank of the order. He was chosen clerk of the Great Falls Camp No. 67, W. of the W., in 1899, and is still in- cumbent of this position.

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under twelve years of age. Almost immediately subsequent to their death Mr. Cassidy came to America, landing in New York city in 1859, a lad of twelve, and there secured employment in a hardware store, where he remained for four years. In 1863 he removed to San Francisco, and for a few months was engaged in a livery stable. He then went to Virginia City, Nev., where he was occupied in mining until 1866. The next two years he spent in mining at White Pine, Nev., and here had the distinction of working side by side in the mines with the late Marcus Daly. From White Pine he removed to the San Diego mines during the ex- citement, but only remained there a short time, go- ing thence to Los Angeles, where he outfitted and prospected through the San Gabriel mountains un- til 1869. He then prospected across the country and along Silver creek near Helena up to 1876; and since that time has prospected and mined in various parts of Montana and through Colorado.

Mr. Cassidy developed the Calumet, Hecla and Smithville iron mines, twenty-seven miles distant from Salida in Colorado, and sold them to Col. Dodge, then of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway Company, in 1889. But he still has extensive min- ing interests at and near the head waters of Har- vey creek in Granite county, Mont.

Mr. Cassidy married Mrs. Mary (Henry) Gold- rick, a native of Ireland, where she was born in 1843. By a former marriage she had four chil- dren, William and James, who reside in Missoula ; Henry, who lives in Oregon, and Rosa, now a resi- dent of Colorado. Mr. Cassidy is a liberal Demo- crat, and in church affiliations a Catholic. Frater- nally he is identified with the Miners' Union. In the years of his childhood he received a limited common school education in Ireland, but he has been studious in a measure and a close observer of men, so that he is now a man of wide general in- formation and excellent judgment. He has been very industrious and daring, and has exhibited in all of the trials he has been called on to endure a resolute and hopeful spirit, and a resourcefulness ready for any emergency. He is widely acquainted in the west and is highly esteemed.

young men of the state, is a native of Minneapolis, Minn., where he was born on July 9, 1864. His father, George W. Chowen, was born in the vicini- ty of Troy, N. Y., in which commonwealth and that of Pennsylvania he was reared and educated. In 1849 he removed to Minneapolis, Minn., being en- titled to consideration as one of the pioneers of that fair and prosperous city, and he was there engaged in the abstract business for about three decades, and there he died in 1889, secure in the esteem of those who had cognizance of his ster- ling character and useful life. The lineage of the family traces to stanch Scotch-Irish origin. In 1858, at Minneapolis, was solemnized the marriage of George W. Chowen and Miss Susan Hawkins, of Scotch descent, who was born at St. Albans, Vt., and who now makes her home with her son Oscar, who is the present postmaster of Great Falls.

In the public schools of Minneapolis Delos H. Chowen received his more rudimentary education, after which he entered the Pennsylvania Military Academy at Chester, Pa., where he graduated as a member of the class of 1884, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the fall of the same year Mr. Chowen came to Great Falls, Mont., where for six months he was in the employ of the Cataract Flour Mill Company. The following year he was engaged in the feed and produce commission busi- ness for himself, and in 1886 he associated himself with Samuel Dodd in the raising of horses, each of the gentlemen taking up 160 acres of govern- ment land on the Sun river, five miles from Great Falls. Here they conducted operations vigorous- ly and successfully, doing business upon an ex- tensive scale and keeping on the average about 300 head of horses. In 1893 they disposed of the ranch and business to John Hendrager, and in September, 1894, Mr. Chowen took a position at the Boston & Montana smelter in Great Falls, en- tering the electrolytic department, where he was first employed as a weigher and later as assistant foreman. He was thus engaged from 1894 until 1899, and in the fall of 1900 he located a 160-acre claim of government land by homestead entry in Ming coulee, Black Butte district, in the southern part of Cascade county, where he will again engage in the raising of horses upon a large scale. His ranch is located about forty miles from Great Falls. His enterprising spirit and thorough fa- miliarity with the business can not but insure to Chowen affiliates with the Republican party.

D ELOS H. CHOWEN, who is a representative of a family which has been prominently identi- fied with the industrial and public affairs of Cas- cade county for a long term of years, and who is . him a due quota of success. In politics Mr. personally recognized as one of the progressive

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F RANK CHURCH .- Mr. Frank Church is one of the men of this generation over whose early life the shadow of our Civil war fell heavily. His father, Frederick · Church, a Canadian, removed to Ohio in his young manhood and there married Miss Mary Hillson. After the birth of his first son, and not long before that of Frank, he joined the Federal army and was killed in battle. Mrs. Church remarried and with her second husband and her two children removed to Wisconsin. Here Mr. Church passed his school days, and, in 1883, when he was nineteen years old, he came west to Billings, Mont., and began life on his own account as a farm- er. In 1885 he took up a homestead, ten miles west of Billings, and here began raising cattle. This homestead he sold in 1894, and was appointed as a police officer in Billings. During his tenure of this office he had thrilling experiences and narrow es- capes from violent death, as there was a large number of lawless persons in the community. He made many arrests of desperate characters and won high commendation for skill and daring in the discharge of his official duties. He resigned from the police force in 1897, and for the next three years was again occupied in cattleraising about ten miles south of Billings, after which he purchased the ranch of over 200 acres at Grey Cliff in Sweet Grass county, where he now resides. On this ranch, which is well irrigated and under good culti- vation, he has been very successful in raising sheep, cattle and horses, and the food plants best adapted to their support. Mr. Church was married on No- vember 8, 1890, to Miss Ada L. Jones, daughter of John and Sarah Jones, of Iowa. They have three children.

While residing on his ranch Mr. Church served his people for three years as road supervisor, at a time when there was great contention over the loca- tion of certain roads. In one case, after the right of way had been appraised and condemned, and the necessary warrants issued for damages to the ranchers, one dissatisfied landholder, armed with a Winchester rifle, forbade the supervisors to enter upon his premises, and enforced his refusal with a shot at the intruder which narrowly missed its mark. It is perhaps needless to say that the recal- citrant rancher was legally punished and the road duly established. Mr. Church has been an active and progressive public school trustee, and at times has served as constable. He has a fine residence, well located on the side of a high bluff, and his ranch is conceded to be one of the most desirable in

his section. He is a wide-awake, progressive citi- zen, deeply interested in all that pertains to the wel- fare of his state, and with a record in public and private life which has won for him the respect and esteem of the public. He is a member of the order of Knights of Pythias.

W ILLIAM F. COBBAN .- Prominent and suc- cessful in business circles in several states and a variety of lines, William F. Cobban, of Butte, has made the most of his opportunities and given sig- nal proofs of the firmness of the original fiber of his stock. He was born on September 16, 1856, at Horicon, Wis., the son of William and Mary L. (Hardy) Cobban, the former a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, where he was born on May 9, 1826, and the latter of Groveland, Mass., where her life began in 1831 and ended in 1893. According to family tradition her ancestors came over in the Mayflower and were among the most substantial and influential of the Colonial settlers of New England. The father was brought to Canada by his parents when he was six years old, and after reaching manhood went to Groveland, Mass., where he was married. He then located at Westport, Mo., near the Kansas line, and took a prominent part in the memorable Kansas border troubles of 1852. In 1856 he re- moved to Chippewa Falls, Wis., and was engaged in manufacturing lumber for about six years. In 1862 he joined the Thirty-first Wisconsin Infantry and served two years of the Civil war in the Army of the Potomac, being honorably discharged on account of serious wounds received at the battle of Petersburg on October 1, 1864. He returned to Chippewa Falls and remained in that vicinity until 1879, when he removed to his wife's home at Grove- land, Mass., where he died in 1890.

William F. Cobban, his son, was educated in the schools of Chippewa Falls and vicinity, and in 1877 went to southeastern Kansas, where he was in the lumber trade for two years, and for the next two years he engaged in manufacturing lumber at Eau Claire, Wis. In July, 1881, he came to Montana, and after a few months at Wickes located at Butte, where for six years he was connected with the Montana Lumber & Produce Company, selling his interest therein in 1886. From then until 1889 he was engaged in real estate on his own account. He then formed a partnership with George H. Casey and they carried on the business until 1898 when

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Robert A. Day became a member of the firm and its style was changed to the Cobban, Casey, Day Company. Mr. Cobban's operations in real estate and mines in and around Butte have been extensive and profitable, and he has acquired a large amount of valuable residence and business property in the territory, including the Steamboat block on Soutlı Main street in Butte. During the last fifteen years he has handled much of the land between Mercury street and southern limits of the city. Much of this property was owned by the late John Noyes and was soon placed upon the market in what are known as Cobban's additions. In 1890 he and Mr. Casey purchased the Moonlight mine, now one of the largest properties of the Amalgamated Copper Company. It was bought for $9,000, including surface. About 1896 it changed hands for $6,000,- 000, and a few years later a much larger offer was refused. This is a sample of the magnitude and the character of the transactions in which Mr. Cobban has been engaged. In politics he is a Republican, and in fraternal relations he is connected with the Knights of Pythias, holding membership in Oswego Lodge at Butte. He was married at Bennington, Vt., on June 22, 1884, to Miss Kate L. Hurlburt, who was born in Vermont in 1861, the daughter of H. H. Hurlburt, a New England pioneer who is now (1902) living at the age of seventy-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Cobban have five children, Ray H., Rena May, Ronald H., Marjorie L. and Harvey H.

OHN E. CLOSTON .- One of the leading and influential men of Madison county, where he located in 1873 and where he maintained his home until his life's labors were ended, John E. Closton was of German lineage, and was born in Norway, Vt., on March 19, 1819, the son of John Closton, who removed to Vermont in an early day, married there his wife Mary, who was a Vermonter by birth, and there they passed the remainder of their lives, becoming the parents of five children. In religious faith the father was a Universalist and in politics an oldline Whig. Our subject received an academic education in his native town, and at- taining his majority he removed to Boston, Mass., where he engaged in the manufacturing of furs for twenty-five years, when impaired health led him to come west to Iowa City, Iowa, where he re- mained until 1866, when he removed with his fam- ily to Montana, crossing the plains and making

their home at Rochester for five years, and for a time he was at Salmon river. The family home was eventually located on the ranch in Madison valley, which Mr. Closton developed, improved and for twenty-five years made the scene of his activities. He gave much attention to the raising of horses and cattle, and as his ranch was conveni- ently located for the accommodation of the public, his house became and was for years a popular ho- tel. The disastrous cloudburst and cyclonic storm that swept over this section of the country in 1879, found on the ranch of Mr. Closton a place of its most terrific action, sweeping everything before its fury and doing damage amounting to thousands of dollars. He was a· broad-minded, liberal man of high ideals and had the elements of more than or- dinary popularity. In religion he was a Universal- ist and fraternally was a member of the Masonic order. He gained a wide acquaintanceship among the pioneers of Madison county, and was held in high esteem. He served for a number of years as justice of the peace, and in all respects was pro- gressive and public-spirited. His death occurred on the homestead ranch on November 24, 1881.

After the death of her husband Mrs. Closton assumed the management of the property and, al- though her health has been delicate and the ex- actions demanded by the exigencies of her situa- tion were enormous, still her business ability and executive force have been such as to enable her to attain the maximum of success. The fine ranch property is devoted principally to the raising of cattle and horses, while diversified farming is also carried on, the ranch being one of the productive places of this locality, and improved with excellent buildings. Mr. Closton was united in marriage at Des Moines, Iowa, to Mrs. Hattie (Stevens) Ord- way, widow of C. H. Ordway, who was killed at Hoosick, N. Y., five years after their marriage: Mrs. Closton was born in Bangor, Me., on August 8, 1834, the daughter of Capt. Benjamin and Sally (Piper) Stevens, the former of whom was an of- ficer in the war of 1812 and a man of prominence in Maine, where he had served as judge and select- man. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Closton was a prominent lawyer, banker and merchant of Bangor, Me. Mrs. Closton attended the public schools in her native city and continued her studies in the high school at Boston. She then resided with her uncle, Joseph Stevens, who was at the head of the wholesale millinery house of Joseph Stevens & Co., of Bangor, and she eventually had

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charge of one of its departments for six years. By her first marriage Mrs. Closton had two daughters, Ida and Lenora. In 1866 the elder daughter was united in marriage to Dr. Mahan, of Iowa City, and there he died in 1880, leaving one son, Charles Closton Mahan, who, with his widowed mother, re- sides on the homestead with Mrs. Closton, as does also the younger daughter, who is unmarried. The Doctor's ancestors came from Ireland to America in an early day and settled in West Virginia, where he was reared and educated, receiving his technical course of study in the medical college at Wheeling, that state. He eventually removed to Iowa City, where he was engaged in the practice of his pro- fession until his death. Mrs. Closton and her family occupy a prominent place in connection with the social life of the community. She passed the year after her husband's death in Salt Lake City, has since visited California and other parts of the Pacific coast in search of health, and their friends are in number as their acquaintances, while their ranch is a center of gracious hospitality.

ARDAMAN A. COCKRELL .- Cut off by an untimely death at the age of fifty-eight years, when all his faculties were in full vigor and his usefulness was productive and appreciated, Var- daman Allen Cockrell was not permitted to com- plete his plans for the service and benefit of his fel- low men, but even in the comparatively short time of his activity he achieved as much as many who die in the fullness of years. He was born at Platt City, Mo., on September 11, 1843, the son of Jere- miah V. and Louise (Mayo) Cockrell, the former a native of Kentucky, and the latter of Virginia, and a descendant of Lord. Mayo of Ireland. The fath- er removed to Missouri when a young man and be- came a prosperous hemp farmer and did a great deal of government trading. He owned much real estate and a large number of slaves, dying in 1859. Mr. Cockrell was educated in the public schools and at Plattsburg College, and at the age of nine- teen came to Montana, locating at Alder gulch, where he engaged in mining until December, 1863, when he went to Utah with Vivian & Dorison's ox train. While on the return trip, at Beaver canyon, he assisted Neal Howey and Billy North in arrest- ing Dutch John, the notorious road agent, and the next day a terrible blizzard killed so many of their cattle that they were obliged to winter in camp.

Mr. Cockrell returned to Alder gulch in the spring, secured employment on Blacktail Deer creek in herding cattle until fall when he removed to the Gallatin valley, and in December located his recent home in that region. In 1865 he began to improve his farm and raised his first crop. In 1870 he bought cattle and horses, and started a stock business which he conducted successfully until his death. He also bought the Central Park property at this time and owned it until 1880. His mind was of an eminently scientific turn, and he found full scope for its powers in the study and de- velopment of the stock interests. He was stock commissioner for Gallatin county for a number of years and gave the people of the county excellent service. He was also heavily interested in mines and mining in different parts of the state, and was at the front in every line of business in which he engaged, being broad-minded, public-spirited and progressive. In 1876 Mr. Cockrell was united in marriage with Miss Marthena Smith, a daughter of Capt. John T. Smith, a prominent banker and merchant of Kirksville, Mo., and also an energetic and successful ranchman of Montana, of whom ex- tended mention is made on other pages of this work, and whose wife, born Sarah Goode, was of a prominent Virginia family, descended from the McNab family of Scotland, members of which emi- grated to America in 1730. Mr. and Mrs. Cock- rell were the parents of one child, Irvin, born at Central Park, Mont., on November 10, 1878.

J AMES COCKRILL .- This gentleman was born on August 31, 1867, in Nashville, Tenn., the son of James and Mary Cockrill, and the father still resides near Nashville, near which city he also was born, devoting his attention to agriculture. His wife, who was born at Decatur, Ala., died at the Nashville homestead about 1874, and on both sides James Cockrill comes of old southern lineage. After receiving his elementary scholastic discipline, James Cockrill entered the Montgomery Bell Academy, at Nashville, where he was graduated with the class of 1884, and two years later he came to Montana, and to Choteau county where he lo- cated on the Middle Marias river, at the mouth of Willow coulee, and took up homestead and pre- emption claims, and has here devoted his attention since to the raising of high-grade horses for the eastern market, keeping an average of from seventy-

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five to 100 head. His postoffice is Beatrice, and his ranch comprises 320 acres and is well improved and particularly adapted to the industry here con- ducted. Mr. Cockrill is an earnest supporter of the Democratic party, and in the community he is highly esteemed, being known as an enterprising business man. He is not married.

B F. DAWSON .- Born and reared in a region which was within the memory of men now living the far and untamed frontier of this great country, and himself becoming a pioneer, Mr. Dawson was born at Leavenworth, Kan., on No- vember 25, 1860. His parents, A. J. and Sarah (Osborn) Dawson, who are still living at Leaven- worth, are natives of Missouri, where the father was born in 1829 and the mother in 1839. They are old-time citizens of Leavenworth, having located there forty-six years ago, and where the father has long conducted a prosperous business as a carpenter and builder. Mr. Dawson received intellectual training in the public schools until he was seven- teen years old, when he left the paternal roof to- make his own way in the world. His destination was Denver, Col., where he remained for a year and passed the next six months in mining at Lead- ville. In 1879 he went to Oregon and there drove cattle from Oregon to Wyoming for Ryan Brothers, extensive stock dealers. From Wyoming he went to Idaho where the firm bought cattle and sent him with them to Musselshell, Mont., crossing in the trip two-thirds of the length of the state. He re- mained at that place in the employ of the Ryans until 1897. In the meantime he purchased a drove of cattle for himself, and in the spring of 1897 brought them to Burns creek in Dawson county, where he has since been living, engaged in raising cattle and horses. In his business ventures Mr. Dawson has been successful, exhibiting a keen in- sight into mercantile conditions and good judg- ment. He has been equally successful in winning and holding the regard of all who know him either in a business or a social way. In political faith he is a stalwart Democrat, at all times interested in the success of his party. Fraternally he is identi- fied with Glendive Lodge No. 37, I. O. O. F., and with the Order of Yeomen at Burns creek. He was married at Glendive in 1898 to Mrs. May Gay- nor, who was born in Iowa in 1862. The family consists of the two children of Mrs. Dawson by her first marriage, Myrl and Willah.

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 126

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