Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 140

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 140

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Under the excellent discipline of the old home- stead farm in Illinois John Many was reared to mature years, securing his education in the public schools of the vicinity. At the age of seventeen he left school and, being somewhat fond of ad- venture and looking for a change of scene and oc-

cupation, went to the Black Hills, where he found employment with the Northwest Stage & Trans- portation Company, acting as driver and also serv- ing in other capacities. He remained thus em- ployed for a period of three years, at the expiration of which time he went to Fort Benton and entered the employ of Broadwater & McCulloch, the well known firm of post-traders, with whom he remained until 1889, when he received the appointment of head farmer at the Fort Belknap Indian agency ; but resigning this position at the expiration of one year he came to Choteau county and located on his present ranches, the two comprising 640 acres. Here he is extensively engaged in the raising of sheep and cattle with gratifying success, having brought to bear a business and executive capacity that has forwarded the enterprise toward its ulti- mate limits. He is one of the heaviest stockholders in the Fort Belknap Canal & Irrigation Company, which he was largely instrumental in organizing and of which he is the president. He has otherwise shown a public-spirited interest in all that conserves the advancement of this section, and is held in the highest confidence and esteem.

He has maintained an active interest in political matters, being one of the wheelhorses of the Demo- cratic party in this section of the state, and was its candidate for county assessor in the fall of 1900, the exigencies of political fortunes, however, com- passing the defeat of the ticket. In religion he holds to the faith of the Catholic church, in which he was reared. In 1890 Mr. Many was married to Miss Lizzie Bohen, a daughter of Charles B. Bolien, of Minnesota, and they have two children : Syl- vester R. and Loretta.

F 'RANK MARION, of Otter creek and Niehart, Cascade county, has every reason to feel as- sured of present and future prosperity in Montana. His mining interests are extensive and valuable, while his ranch properties lying to the south of Belt, comprising 1,600 acres, have proven a source of considerable profit. Inheriting qualities of a high order from distinguished ancestors and now a west- erner of many years' experience, he is thoroughly equipped in knowledge and ability to command the best results from his numerous enterprises.

He springs from the same ancestral tree which produced his namesake, Gen. Francis Marion, the famous warrior of the American Revolution, and

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was born in Quebec, Canada, on April 3, 1848, the son of Leon and Scholastique Marion. The father was a successful mariner and captain, and a Liberal in politics. Both parents have long been dead.

Frank Marion received an excellent education in various Canadian schools. He early showed re- markable executive ability, and at the age of seven- teen he was in command of a vessel on the St. Lawrence river, continuing in this inland naviga- tion for two years. In 1870 he crossed the inter- national boundary and settled in Pennsylvania, where for two years he was engaged in lumber contract work. Thence he went to California to make there his permanent home, but not finding a suitable location, he went to Washington territory and from thence to Idaho, where he gained success in quartz mining. His next scene of activity was Butte, Mont., where he was engaged for nine months in mining, going later to Fort Custer and securing government contracts in which he was profitably occupied for three years. After this he freighted between Forts Benton, McLeod and Walsh, and made enough money to warrant him in taking a large interest in the Galt Mining Com- pany, which interest he still controls. He gave name to the Galt mine and it has and does repay him with bountiful dividends. For nine years he remained in Neihart, and at one time owned in- terests in twenty mines, although all were not on a paying basis. He is president of the Galt and Commonwealth mines, and treasurer and president of the St. James Mining Company. The princi- pal sources of his present revenue are the Galt, the Commonweath and the St. James mines.

In 1884 Mr. Marion located near Monarch some of the best mines in the world, from which he ex- pects great results. Conditions, however, are not fully established for a proper development of them. In 1898 he engaged in ranching on Otter creek, where he is developing a typical western ranch, a beautiful country home. Here he devotes at- tention to cattleraising, and at one time he had a herd of 400. His property here comprises 1,600 acres, of which 400 acres are cultivable.

Fraternally Mr. Marion is a member of the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, and politically he is an independent. The marriage of Mr. Marion occurred on August 20, 1891, when he was united to Miss Bessie Ford, a native of Boston, Mass., daughter of James C. and Carrie M. Ford, also New Englanders, of old Weymouth and Marshfield stock, and whose American ancestors antedate the

Revolution, tracing back to the early days of the Plymouth colony. Her father was a building con- tractor and, politically, an active Prohibitionist. Both of the parents are members of the Episco- palian church. Mrs. Marion is a lady of education, refinement and culture, who brings the best fruit of New England training to add to the charms and attractions of the mountain home over which she so gracefully presides.

HENRY F. MARTENS, of Cleveland, Choteau county, is a young man who has made consid- erable progress toward prominence in the way of stockgrowing and general ranching in that vicinity. While by no means one of the early pioneers of the country, he has, during the few years of his resi- dence in the state, developed an aptitude for the business in which he is engaged that bids fair to place him alongside the most successful of the men who are rapidly acquiring fortunes in the stock in- dustry. He was born at Council Bluffs, Iowa, Jan- uary 22, 1870. His parents were Marquard and Mary (Reimer) Martens, natives of Germany. It was in 1863 when the family immigrated to the United States, and shortly after their arrival in New York they came west and located at Council Bluffs, then little more than a hamlet beside the broad Mis- souri river. Here for a number of years the elder Martens engaged in agricultural pursuits, dying in 1879. His widow, and the mother of our subject, resides at Council Bluffs. The children number four, of whom Henry F. was the third born.

Practically his boyhood days were passed on the farm, contributing his assistance to his parents, although he found opportunities during the winter months to attend the district school and acquire a fair business education. At the age of nineteen years he secured employment as clerk in the hard- ware store of Odell & Peterson, at Council Bluffs, where he remained three years, and in 1892 came to Montana and settled upon the ranch he now oc- cupies. The original area of land embraced only 160 acres, but Mr. Martens has since added 600 acres, all of which is under fence and provided with substantial improvements. He has on the range a band of 5,300 sheep, and aside from the care of them he carries on quite an extensive business in the way ,of general farming.

In December, 1896, Mr. Martens was married to Dora, daughter of Hans Braak, of Germany,

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and they have two children : Mammie and Marcus. Fraternally he is a member of the Modern Wood- men of America, and politically in sympathy with the principles of the Republican party. Associated with our subject in his business enterprises is Charles H. Martens, a brother, who was born at Council Bluffs in 1872. He was reared upon the old Iowa homestead and received his education in the common schools. In 1893 he came to Choteau county, and since that time the name of the firm has been Martens Brothers. Both are highly re- spected in the community in which they reside.

JULIUS C. MARTIN, one of the representative farmers and stockgrowers of Cascade county, was born in the beautiful old city of Wheeling, W. Va., on December 13, 1858, the son of John E. and Mary J. Martin, who were born in the same state, where the father owned and operated a sawmill until the spring of 1860 when he removed to Clayton county, Iowa, and there engaged in a similar line of business until 1861. On the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in the Twenty-first Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and was subsequently transferred to the Heavy Artillery, with which he served until August, 1865, when he was mustered out and received an honorable discharge. He then returned to Clayton county, Iowa, where he owned a sawmill on Turkey river, and engaged in con- . Mary C. tracting and building, in connection with his mill- ing business, until 1872, when he purchased a farm in the vicinity of Emmetsburg, Palo Alto county, Iowa, and followed agricultural pursuits until 1864. At that time he leased his farm and again turned his attention to contracting and building, which he followed until 1888, when he retired from active business and is now living at Rodman, Iowa.

The maiden name of our subject's mother was Mary J. Caruthers, the daughter of James and Martha Caruthers, natives of West Virginia. The former died in 1868, at the age of eighty years ; the latter in 1896, at the age of ninety-eight. The mother of our subject passed away at the age of sixty-two years, her death occurring in Iowa.

Julius C. Martin received an excellent common- school education while assisting his father on the farm until 1874. He worked at the carpenter trade for a year and thereafter was employed on a farm for two years, after which he taught school until the fall of 1878. In the spring of 1879 he went to

Fort Benton, Mont., and thence proceeded to Fort Assinniboine, where he assisted in the erection of the government buildings. He was afterward em- ployed on various ranches and eventually engaged in freighting between Fort Benton and Helena, following that occupation until the fall of 1881, when he returned to Iowa and there purchased a farm of eighty acres and continued in agricultural pursuits until the spring of 1889. That year he sold his property and came to Cascade county, Mont., where he took up a homestead claim of 160 acres, purchased an equal amount of land from Henry Poncelet and forty acres of government land. Here he has made excellent improvements, having now under cultivation 115 acres, devoting careful attention to the raising of horses and cattle, having on hand at the present time sixty head of horses and thirty head of cattle.

In 1883 Mr. Martin led to the marriage altar Miss Mary E. L. Walker, who was born in Grant county, Wis., the daughter of John and Catherine Walker, natives of England, whence they emi- grated and located in Wisconsin; later the father died in Colorado at the age of fifty-three, his remains being interred at Pike's Peak. The mother now maintains her home at West Bend, Palo Alto county, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Martin became the parents of seven children, one of whom, Maggie, died in Iowa. The surviving children are: John C., Claude A., Myrtle L., Rose E., Ray S. and

G EORGE S. MARTIN, M. D., the efficient gov- ernment physician at the Blackfoot agency in Teton county, now residing at Browning, was born in Saline county, Mo., on August 25, 1867. His father, George Thomas Martin, was a native of Clark county, Ky., born in 1841, who with his father removed to Missouri when a boy, where they both engaged in farming. The mother of Dr. Martin, Mary E. (Francisco) Martin, was born in Saline county, Mo., in 1843. The excellent liter- ary education received by Dr. Martin was acquired in the graded and high schools of Blackburn, Mo., and this was supplemented by special scientific and technical instruction at the Kansas City (Mo.) Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1889. He engaged in the active practice of his pro- fession at Grand Pass, Mo., where he remained until July, 1893, during that year entering the

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service of the United States government, and he has since been stationed at the Blackfoot Indian agency as government physician. The position occupied by Dr. Martin is one involving grave re- sponsibilities, but these he meets with professional ability of a high order, and in the execution of his duty he receives the merited appreciation of all. At Blackburn, Mo., in March, 1890, Dr. Martin wedded Miss Mary M. Small, a native of that place, born in 1873. They have three children, Genevieve, Thomas Raymond and Earl Van Dorn, aged ten, four and two years. Fraternally Dr. Martin is a member of Grand Pass Lodge, A. O. U. W., of Grand Pass, Mo.

W ALTER MATHEWS, who is incumbent of the office of county surveyor for Teton county, and is also a United States commissioner, is recognized as a representative young business man, and thus a review of his career is incorporated in this compilation. Mr. Mathews was born on March 4, 1869, in Fayette, Fayette county, Iowa, the son of Amos and Mary E. (Folsom) Mathews. The former was a native of Potsdam, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., in 1828, while the latter was born in 1837 at Tunbridge, Vt., her ancestors having come to America in the Mayflower. Their mar- riage was solemnized in Fayette, Iowa, about 1866, the father there engaging in farming until 1895, when he and his wife removed to Eldorado Springs, Mo., where they now reside. Walter Mathews was graduated from the Fayette high school at the age of sixteen and upon his leaving school he came west in 1886 to the Dakotas, and thence to Kansas in 1887, there joining a party of engineers in constructing the Denver, Memphis & Atlantic Railroad from McCracken, Kan., to Pueblo, Colo.

In the spring of 1888 Mr. Mathews came to Helena, Mont., and was employed for one season by Cummings & Hovey, civil engineers. In 1889 he entered the employ of W. B. Raleigh, of Helena, and was thus engaged for three years, working in that gentleman's mercantile establishment and in his placer mines on Nevada creek. In 1892 Mr. Mathews began placer mining on his own account at French Bar, and continued operations there for eighteen months. In 1893 he went to Fort Benton, in the employ of M. S. Darling, then county sur- veyor of Choteau county, and in the fall secured two claims of valuable land on Pondera coulee,

making homestead and desert land entries for tracts of 160 acres each. Mr. Darling simultaneously located two claims of similar character in the same vicinity, and the two gentlemen formed a part- nership association and engaged in the raising of hay and live stock until January, 1901. These claims, which they still retain, are valuable, and were discovered while they were running the line between Choteau and Teton counties.

Mr. Mathews gives his political allegiance to the Democratic party, and at the election in the fall of 1900 he was the candidate of his party for the office of county surveyor of Teton county. He was the only county candidate of his party elected to office, and gave effective service, his practical ex- perience and technical knowledge eminently quali- fying him for the discharge of the official functions. On April 9, 1901, Mr. Mathews was also appointed to the office of United States commissioner, the preferment coming through the interposition of Judge Knowles, of Helena. His term in this of- fice will extend over a period of four years. George A. Mathews, a brother of our subject, was elected delegate to congress from the territory of Dakota in the autumn previous to Montana's admittance as a state and is now a representative attorney of Brookings, S. D. On August 28, 1900, at Fayette, Iowa, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Mathews with Miss Josephine Pella Finche. She was born in the vicinity of Fayette, on October 10, 1868, the daughter of Clay Finche, who was formerly an extensive farmer in that state, but who is now retired from active business. Mr. and Mrs. Mathews have an attractive home in the village of Choteau, where they manifest a liberal hospitality and enjoy marked popularity.

S AMUEL MARTIN is another one of the popu- lar successful ranchmen of Cascade county, his place being located not far from the village of Evans. He was born on July 11, 1870, at Ironton, Ohio, the son of Joseph and Margaret (Sargeant) Martin, the former of whom was born in South Carolina, and the latter in Virginia, to which latter state the father had removed in 1850 and there was engaged as a slave dealer until 1861, when he enlisted in the Confederate army at Richmond, Va., and served until the close of the war. In 1866, he was employed by Means, Kyle & Co., who were engaged in the coal business at Hanging Rock, on

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the Ohio river, with whom he remained until 1882, when he came to Fort Benton, Mont. During the summer season he was engaged in work on the ranch of his son, and in the winter was employed as an engineer at Barker, thus continuing until 1893. He is now associated with his son, William J., in ranching operations at Belt, Mont. His son, Samuel Martin, whose name initiates this review, attended school at Hanging Rock, Ohio, until 1882, when he came to Montana, engaged in ranch work until 1884, and then went on the range and assisted in rounding up horses. In the spring of 1885, in company with J. H. Evans, Xavier Belledeaux and Zach. Lawson, he went to Fort McLeod, North- west Territory, for the purpose of securing twenty head of horses which had been stolen from John O'Brien by the Indians. At the mouth of High- wood creek they reported to the mounted police and eventually secured the horses which they turned over just at the time the Canadian militia were mustered out at Fort McLeod. In 1889 Mr. Mar- tin took up his present homestead claim of 160 acres, of which he has placed forty under cultiva- tion. Here he has engaged in stockraising and been very successful in his efforts, his property at the present time being valued at $2,500. In politics he gives his support to the Republican party; fra- ternally he is identified with the Modern Woodmen of America.

G EORGE MAURER is a progressive, wide- awake German-American, who has served this country faithfully in the army and fought bravely against hostile Indians on the plains and among the mountains of Montana. He is now one of the prominent cattlegrowers of Cascade county, hav- ing a fine ranch near Kibbey. He was born at Wurtemberg, Germany, on August 22, 1848. the son of Ludwig and Louisa Maurer, residents of Wurtemberg. The elder Maurer was a forger in the iron mills of his native town, but in 1878 he was pensioned by the German government and now leads a retired life in Wurtemberg. Both himself and wife are members of the Lutheran church.

George Maurer was an industrious student in the public schools until he was fourteen and then he entered the iron mills where his father held employment as an assistant, receiving at first only $3.00 per month. In six years' time he was re- ceiving $30 per month. The outlook was not encouraging, and on November 14. 1868, George

landed in New York. Going to Jamestown, Pa., he became a puddler in the rolling mills, receiving $50 a month, which, two years later, was increased to $100 a month, and he worked five years longer in the mills. For a year or two after this he engaged at various occupations until 1875 when he enlisted in Company F, Seventh United States Infantry, serving nearly three years. In the famous fight at Big Hole, Mont., and Mr. Maurer was severely wounded by the Indians, and on this account he received his discharge. In 1878 he turned his at- tention to mining until 1884, but was not favored by fortune and prospected unsuccessfully. He lo- cated his present ranch, thirty miles south of Belt, also in 1884. He has since added 320 acres to the original claim, making in all 480 acres, and here he is developing a fine ranch and successfully raising cattle and grain. His marriage occurred on May 7. 1887, when he wedded Mrs. Ellen Adams, a native of England. She is an Episcopalian, while he is a member of the Lutheran church.

E 'DWARD MARTINEAU was born on July 31, 1856, in Clinton county, N. Y., and re- ceived the education of the common schools of that time. His advantages were limited, how- ever, for he was called upon to assist his par- ents at a very early age, which he did, by enter- ing the Chateaugay Iron Works as an appren- tice, and where he applied himself with diligence and perseverance for fifteen years. In 1889 his aspiring nature brought him to the west. He stopped at Granite, Mont., and engaged in sup- plying cord wood for shipment, and continued that industry for thirteen months, with fairly good suc- cess. He was always on the alert for advantages and advancement, saw and availed himself of the opportunity afforded of contracting for railroad grades on the Great Northern, and also held the position of foreman on the same road, where he stayed until 1895, when he removed to Elliston, and took up a homestead of 160 acres and located six miles south of Elliston on the Little Blackfoot mountains. Through industry and enterprise he has made his farm an ideal place, the land yield- ing bountifully good crops. He has also been suc- cessful in raising horses and cattle. He is an active Republican and a member of the Modern Wood- men of America. On September 12. 1881, Mr. Martineau was married to Miss Delima Senecal,

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daughter of Felix and Eugenia Senecal, natives of Canada, who early settled in New York, where Mr. Senecal became a successful contractor. Of their nine children eight are now living, Foster, Felix, Adolph, Frederick, Delima, Hattie, Leona and Zeno. The family are members of the Catholic church. In politics Mr. Senecal was a Republican. He died on January 3, 1902.

Joseph and Louisa Martineau were natives of Canada and came to the United States when the father was nineteen and the mother eleven years old. Mr. Martineau became a prosperous con- tractor for the Chateaugay Iron Works in New York. His mature life bears witness to the value of his early integrity and industry. He has retired from business and is living a quiet peaceful life, respected by all who know him. This worthy couple had fourteen children and ten are living, Joseph G., Louis, Engene, Oliver, Victor, Edward, Albert, Exilda, Louisa and Frankie, and all are members of the Catholic church. Mr. Edward Martineau had nine children, of whom four died in infancy. Frank, Oldimevens and Josephine, twins, and Marie L. The surviving children are Eddie J., Felix, Delima, Hazel and Hattie. Mr. Martineau and family are members of the Catholic church.

W H. MATSON, superintendent of the Black- foot agency school at Browning, Teton county, is one of the best known and most popular citizens of that district. It can be said that he is experienced in Indian affairs, having served ef- ficiently under seven regularly appointed Indian agents. He was born at Centerville, Ohio, on March 20, 1846. His father was Aaron Matson, a native of Marion county, Ohio, and born March 20, 1823, who, until 1857, followed the occupation of a merchant, but in that year was ordained a min- ister of the Methodist Episcopal church, which he served in Minnesota up to 1888, when he took a superannuated relation and moved to South Da- kota, remaining in that state ten years. In 1898 he removed to Fitzgerald, Ga., where he engaged in fruitgrowing until his death on May 2, 1901. His widow was born in Belmont county, Ohio, in 1826, and is now living at Fitzgerald, Ga. From the public schools of Albert Lea, Minn., Mr. Mat- son enlisted for the Civil war in March, 1862, and was subsequently assigned to the Twenty-first Iowa Infantry, in which he served until peace was de-

clared as principal musician of the regiment, being mustered out on June II, 1865, at Shrevesport, La. Following this event he returned to Austin, Minn., and near that city and in Iowa lie passed the succeeding five years engaged in farming. In 1871 he joined a surveying party in North Dakota, but from the fall of that year until 1876 he was a student at Cornell College, located at Mt. Vernon, Iowa. He then entered the ministry of the Min- nesota Methodist Episcopal conference and in 1883 was transferred to the Dakota mission conference.

In 1889 Mr. Matson was elected a member of the South Dakota constitutional convention from Kingsbury county, which convened at Sioux Falls, and in the fall of that year was elected a member of the South Dakota legislature on the Republican ticket, and during his term of service he introduced and helped to secure the passage of the prohibition bill which became the law of the state. His con- nection with Indian reservations and schools dates from 1900, when he was appointed by the United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs as superin- tendent of the Yankton agency Indian boarding school, and after two years of valuable service here he was transferred to the Blackfoot agen- cy school at Browning, Montana, where he is at present stationed. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, holding membership at Austin, Minn. Mr. Matson was married at Fari- bault, Minn., in December, 1878, with Miss Mary C. Rogers, a native of Kokomo, Ind., born in 1851. They have three children, Charles Elmer, aged twenty-two; Vincent Virgil, aged fifteen ; and War- ren Haven, aged eleven. Mr. Matson enjoys the confidence of all with whom he is acquainted, and is a man of unimpeachable integrity, God-fearing and honorable.

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 140

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