Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 143

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 143

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miles west of the town he has been engaged in the sawmill business for the past two years, con- ducting a thriving enterprise in this line. He is engaged in diversified farming and also raises cat- tle of high grade.

In all that has concerned the advancement and material prosperity of the county and state, Mr. Mittower has maintained a distinctively public- spirited interest, and he has not withheld his aid from any worthy enterprise, contributing to the advancement of material, religious, educational and moral agencies. In political adherency he is ar- rayed with the Democratic party, and prior to the time when Ravalli county was segregated from Missoula, he served for seven years in the im- portant office of county commissioner, in which connection he labored with ability and discrimi- nation for the best interests of the people. Such enterprises at the Stevensville Training School and the erection of the new Presbyterian church edifice in Victor, are certain to gain the cordial support and tangible assistance of the subject of this re- view. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order, being past master in the blue lodge and hav- ing also attained the capitular degrees. In Febru- ary, 1892, at the home of the bride's parents, Jo- seph F. and Armeda Williams, in the Bitter Root valley, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Mit- tower to Miss Bertha M. Williams, whose father now holds precedence as an influential farmer and stockgrower. Mr. and Mrs. Mittower have two interesting children, Harry N. and Nettie, who lend cheer and brightness to the beautiful home.

JOHN MONROE, a well known stockman and rancher of Teton county, located on the Black- foot reservation, was born near the Canadian boun- dary line about 1825, the exact year not being defin- itely determined. His father, Hugh Monroe, was a Scotchman, and his mother a Piegan Indian. In what might be termed the "dark ages" of Mon- tana, even before the visit of Lewis and Clarke, Hugh Monroe was setting his traps along the streams of the territory destined to become the great state of Montana, and for many years he had not a white rival in this adventurous and solitary vocation. He died in 1892, at the age of 108 years, and was buried in Teton county at the Holy Family Mission and on the banks of Two Medicine river.

When a young lad Jolin Monroe went to Fort

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Benton, and here, as boy and man, for nearly half a century, he experienced the dangers, the pleasures and the vicissitudes of frontier life, while a young man being employed by the United States govern- ment to carry the mails from Forts Benton and Union to Mandan and other points. This was a perilous business, refused by everyone else on ac- count of its manifold dangers, but Mr. Monroe passed safely through them, although his narrow escapes were many. His last trip was made dur- ing the pendency of the government treaty with the Blackfoot, Piegan, Bloods and Gros Ventre Indians in 1855. Subsequently he was in the em- ployment of the American Fur Company, buying furs from the Indians and paying them in merchan- dise, and during many years of this service he was under Col. Culbertson, and later under Thomas Dawson, manager of the company, both of whom found him an extremely useful employe. He was once also, for some years, in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, in Canada. At one time in his prime of life, and even down to advanced age, Mr. Monroe was an expert hunter of buffalo, elk, deer, antelope and other large game. During the numerous trips of Mr. Monroe among the hos- tile Indians he exercised his highest powers of per- suasion in the interests of the whites, earnestly pleading with them to live in peace with them, and it is a matter of record that his influence in this direction resulted in the saving of many lives. In 1885 Mr. Monroe and family settled on an exten- sive ranch on the Blackfoot reservation, six miles from Browning, where he is now extensively inter- ested in stockgrowing. He has been twice married, and is the father of five children: William, Camp- bell, Victoria, Sophia and Joseph.

H ON. JOHN C. MOORE .- One mile west of Helmville, Powell county, Mont., there is a handsome and well stocked ranch of 480 acres, the present residence of Hon. John C. Moore. He was born in Virginia, March 23, 1838, and comes of a long line of Virginia ancestors. His parents were James Bryant and Elizabeth (Palmer) Moore. James Bryant Moore, the father, was a Virginian by birth and a millwright by trade. But he also owned and successfully conducted a plantation of 600 acres and was, in every respect a well-to-do man of affairs and courteous gentleman. He died in his native state in 1873. Mrs. Elizabeth Moore,

the mother, was born in the same state, and the venerable lady still resides there at the age of eighty-nine years.

Those were pioneer days, truly, when the sub- ject of our sketch first made his way to Montana. Prior to the initial movements of the War of the Rebellion he had left his Virginia home and come west as far as Illinois, where, for a short period, he located. But in 1862 he decided to cast his lot with the Union forces and, accordingly, he en- listed at Tuscola, Illinois, in the Seventh Illinois Infantry, Company A, of which company he became second sergeant. The regiment was commanded by Col. Reeves and was assigned to Gen. Curtis' division. At the termination of six months' ardu- ous service Sergeant Moore was wounded while engaged in scouting in Missouri. He was then discharged owing to his disabilities, and remained in Illinois until the close of the war, and soon after- wards started for the west. His first objective point was St. Joseph, Mo. From there he crossed the plains to Salt Lake City, Utah, and thence came on to Virginia City, Montana, where he arrived in the spring of 1866. Here our subject worked in the placer diggings for two months, and then came on to Last Chance gulch, now the capital city. He arrived on May 23, 1866. It was at once discovered by Mr. Moore that he had made a judicious change of location. At Last Chance he continued mining operations for a number of years and made con- siderable money. Having been offered a remark- ably good figure for his various claims he sold out and removed to Carpenter's bar. Here he re- sided until 1877, when he came to the Blackfoot val- ley and the eligible ranch upon which he lives.

In 1898 Mr. Moore suffered the loss of his wife. At the time of their marriage she was Miss Man- waring, a native of Indiana. She is survived by seven children, namely : James C., Layard C., John L., Albert R., George H., Edith E. Moore and Mrs. Florence M. Davis.

Politically Mr. Moore is a Democrat. In 1875 he was elected a member of the Ninth session of the Montana territorial legislature. Socially he is a most popular gentleman.

W TILLIAM E. MOORE .- Of all the duties which the legal profession lays upon its prac- titioners, those of a public prosecutor are among the most delicate, important and trying; and they require for their proper performance, with due

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regard for the interests and rights of all parties concerned in the issues, a combination of qualities not always found in men eminent in the profession, or to be produced even by diligent and conscientious application. William E. Moore, the subject of this narrative, displayed those qualities in his ser- vice as county attorney in an unusual degree, as he has since displayed others required in successful general practice.

Mr. Moore was born at Bellefontaine, Ohio, Octo- ber 6, 1867. His father, James Moore, was a native of Kentucky, who removed to Ohio in his young manhood and was there a prosperous farmer. His mother, Mary H. (Timmerman) Moore, was a native of Ohio. They were the parents of eight children, William being the sixth. He attended the country schools near Bellefontaine until he was sixteen years old, and on his seventeenth birthday began teaching in another part of the county, which he continued for two years, earning the money to pay for a three-years course at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. Having chosen law as his profession, he entered the office of Judge William H. West as a student to prepare for its practice. He was fortunate in his selection of an adviser. Judge West was an eminent man in legal and political circles, and was able to give his pupils the benefit of large experience and an intelligent ob- servation which had broadened his own views and ripened his judgment. He was the man who put Hon. James G. Blaine in nomination for the presi- dency at the Chicago convention of 1884. Mr. Moore pursued his legal studies with attention and diligence, and was admitted to practice before the supreme court of Ohio June 4, 1891. Soon after he came west, locating at Philipsburg, Mont., his present home, and was there admitted on motion to the practice of his profession August 10, 1891. In 1894 he was elected county attorney as the can- didate of the Republican party, with which he had always affiliated, and for which he had done yeo- man service on many occasions. He discharged the duties of this office with skill and ability, and in a manner which won him the approval of all classes in the community without regard to party or con- dition. In fraternal relations he is identified with the Improved Order of Red Men. Mr. Moore was married September 10, 1896, at Missoula, to Miss Josie B. Morton, a daughter of Charles and Hannah Morton. Her father is a newspaper man at Missoula. They have two children : Josephine, born October 11, 1899; and Mary, August 18, 1901.

W ILLIAM MOORING .- Only a few years ago all the conditions of early pioneer life existed in the Flathead valley. It was one of the last portions of the state to receive the benefits of intercourse by rail with older countries, and the difficulties attending a journey into the valley pre- cluded rapid emigration, so over its grassy prairies the elk and wild deer browsed, and the swift run- ning streams were alive with trout. Such was its condition on July 10, 1885, when William Mooring came hither "looking for pioneer life." He found it, remained, and is now an "old timer" in the land and one of its leading citizens. He was born at Columbus, in the province of Ontario, Canada, on August 22, 1861, a son of Isaac Mooring and Annie (Colby) Mooring. Isaac Mooring was born in Yorkshire, England, and his father was a na- tive of Scotland. Isaac Mooring, a manufacturer, in 1853 crossed the ocean and made his home in Columbus, Canada. His wife died in 1870, leav- ing six children: Sarah, who died in 1875, Thomas, who was last heard of in 1889 in Colorado, and the following, who became residents of Flat- head county, Mont .: Charlie, who came to the val- ley in 1889, is now residing at DeKalb county, Ill. ; Nellie, now the wife of J. O. Wiles, a flourish- ing farmer and stockraiser; Fannie, now Mrs. W. H. Ryther, whose husband is a prominent contrac- tor and horticulturist; the other one is William Mooring, the subject of this memoir.

From a lad Mr. Mooring had a love of adven- ture and of the free wild life of new lands. Until he was fifteen years old he attended common and high schools, spending his vacations on a farm. His time was later given to contracting, and not until 1882 was his desire for pioneer life in the states gratified. He came at that time to Mon- tana and took part in the construction of the first railroad entering Butte and was employed in the construction department of the Union Pacific for three years, and then he came to Flathead county, where he at once made a location for his future home on the tract where he now resides, known as the "Cold Spring ranch," by pre-emption, home- steading and purchasing a large tract of land, he devoted himself to cattleraising and did an exten- sive business for years. At present he is engaged in real estate, mining transactions, money-loan- ing and other financial operations, which absorb all of his timc. In 1889, while serving as dep- uty sheriff, in company with four others, Mr. Mooring made a daring raid on some Indian mur-

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derers, who had successfully evaded the United States troops and a sheriff's posse, capturing four who were afterwards hanged at Missoula, for this act of gallantry receiving a handsome reward from the state. Mr. Mooring was also among the first promoters of roads and schools in this valley, in which connection he was very active. A sterling Republican, he was a candidate for the legislature in 1896, but had no hope of overcoming the large vote of the opposition, and was defeated. He has taken part in various state and county conventions. Fraternally he is affiliated with a number of secret orders. He was reared in the Episcopal faith, in which denomination his parents were communicants.

Mr. Mooring was united in marriage on Novem- ber 4, 1894, with Mrs. Minnie (Beager) Gardener, the second daughter of Wendel and Fredricka Beager. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and received her education on Euclid avenue and in other leading schools in that city. She came with her first husband to Butte, Mont., in 1888, and they engaged in merchandising in the Flathead valley. Mr. Gardener died on December 24, 1890.

LENN MORGAN .- In our land of opportun-

G J ity, and especially in this western part of it, men live rapidly, in the better sense, and need not have the dignity of age before they acquire that of respectable standing and consequence among their fellows, as is abundantly illustrated by the short career and prominent position in his community of the immediate subject of this sketch. He was born on October 27, 1873, in Leavenworth county, Kan., a son of Z. S. Morgan, who is a brother of Weck Morgan, whose family history is given in another part of this work. Glenn Mor- gan came to Montana with his father in 1880, when he was but seven years old, and when the long trip must have been to his youthful fancy one of marvel and adventure. They made the journey by wagon train to Red Rock, and from there by Virginia City and Bozeman, to the banks of the Flathead river, where the father located a ranch and engaged in cattleraising, but he later removed to Meagher county and located on Battle creek, and there followed the same enterprise for eight years, when he returned to the Flathead val- ley, where he has since resided, owning several sections of land and being extensively engaged in profitable cattleraising. He has the respect and

confidence of the whole community for his ster- ling manhood and progressive methods.

Glenn Morgan remained on the homestead un- til 1895, and was meantime being well educated in the public schools and Bozeman College. After leav- ing college his father purchased for him the Frisco ranch of 480 acres, lying four miles northwest of Bozeman, and there he made his home. The land is practically all under irrigation and is in a high state of cultivation, showing the effects of in- telligent supervision and skillful husbandry. It is well improved, it having an excellent resi- dence and also other buildings and appliances, and produces annually abundant crops of hay and grain, wheat being the principal one, of which he frequently harvests 10,000 bushels. Oats are also produced in quantities, but not so extensively. The ranch is also noted for its fine and large herds of superior shorthorn cattle. Mr. Morgan was mar- ried February 7, 1900, with Miss Laura Jackson, of Gallatin valley, a daughter of Dorman and Laura (Maynard) Jackson, the former a native of Canada and the latter of New York. Her par- ents came to Montana in 1878 and located in the Gallatin valley, where they engaged in ranching un- til 1890, when they removed to Fergus county. Mr. and Mrs. Morgan have one child, Agnes. Mr. Morgan is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and is an energetic, progressive farmer, who puts brain into his business and makes it tell, and who also gives proper attention to the affairs of public and social life, being well esteemed for good judgment and other valuable qualities. He is a cousin of L. J. Morgan, of whom extended men- tion is made elsewhere in this publication.

Z ADE S. MORGAN, of Gallatin county, was born in Vermillion county, Ill., on May 18, 1845, a son of Josiah Morgan, whose history is given at some length in the sketch of Weck Mor- gan, elsewhere in this work. In 1849 the family removed to Garden Grove, Decatur county, Iowa, where they engaged in farming and stockraising, and where Mr. Morgan passed his school days, remaining on the homestead until 1869. He then went to Leavenworth county, Kan., and for eleven years was farming and stockraising on his own account. Owing to drouth and other unfavorable climatic conditions, he was only moderately suc- cessful in Kansas, and in 1880 left that state for

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Montana, journeying by rail to Red Rock and stag- ing from there to Bozeman. He remained about a year in the Gallatin valley, and then removed to Meagher county, locating near White Sulphur Springs, where he engaged in stockraising for eight years. Then, for the purpose of securing better educational advantages for his children, he re- turned to the Gallatin valley and, buying railroad land, he now has about 2,000 acres in his ranch and also owns a fine residence in Bozeman. On the ranch his principal crop is fall wheat. He has also been raising numbers of shorthorn cattle and Norman horses.

Mr. Morgan recently purchased in the east the nucleus of a herd. of thoroughbred cattle, and intends to go into the breeding of them on an extensive scale, being well fitted for this business by reason of the quality and location of his land, the completeness and superiority of his buildings, and the fullness and accuracy of his knowledge on the subject. Mr. Morgan was married on October 13, 1872, to Miss Martha V. Mason, a native of Missouri and a daughter of Albert and Sarah Mason, who removed to Kansas during her child- hood. Mr. and Mrs. Mason have three children, living, Glenn, who is mentioned elsewhere in this volume; Albert, who is married to Miss Grace Gifford, and Frank, who is still at home. A daughter, Agnes, is now deceased. Miss May Smiley, a niece of Mr. Morgan, also makes her home with them. In the public affairs of the com- munity Mr. Morgan has been most helpful and in- fluential. No matter of public benefit fails to get his active and forceful aid. He is a promoter of telephone lines and kindred improvements, and in all respects is enterprising, progressive and pro- ductive. He is physically a gentleman of com- manding appearance, being over six feet tall and well proportioned. He is still in the prime of life and has the promise of many years of usefulness be- fore him. For some years he has served his people as county commissioner and in other capacities.

M C. MORRIS .-- This gentleman, who is now the manager and editor of the Billings Times, one of the excellent weekly newspapers of Mon- tana, was born on a plantation nine miles distant from the village of Griffin, Ga., on November 13, 1852, the son of Joseph Morris, a farmer, mer- chant and slaveowner. His wife, Martha (Howell)

Morris, was the daughter of John Howell, who was born in Scotland, whither he removed to Georgia, where he became the owner of a large plantation and led the life of a courteous country gentleman of the old school. M. C. Morris had a fine educa- tional discipline in a private school, and in 1867, at the age of fifteen, he entered the office of the American Union, at Griffin, and began to learn the printer's trade, to which he has devoted his at- tention for the greater portion of his life. He con- tinued in the employ of one man for seven years, within which time that gentleman had removed to Topeka, Kan., where he published the Daily Blade. To fully qualify him to take charge of the mechanical part of that paper, Mr. Morris passed nine months working under instruction in the city of New York. Upon arriving in Topeka he became the foreman of the Blade office, and on May 16, 1874, he assumed the same position with the Leavenworth Times, and was thus engaged until October, 1878, when he accepted the state agency for Kansas of the Travelers' Accident Life Insurance Company. He traveled for this com- pany for a few months and in January, 1879, went to Leadville, Colo., where he engaged in mining until the following September, when he returned to St. Louis, Mo., with greatly impaired health. He was there advised to go to Hot Springs, Ark., where he received advantageous treatment for three months, within which time he associated himself with M. C. Harris, now of San Antonio, Tex., in leasing the Hot Springs Daily Gazette. which they published during the three months Mr. Morris passed at the springs.

In January, 1880, Mr. Morris went to Little Rock, was for a time employed on the Gazette, and thereafter for two months engaged in issuing a paper at Gainesville, Ark., for Johnson & Camp. He then returned to his old home in Georgia, ar- riving there on April 8, 1880, after an absence of a decade, and so changed in appearance that even his mother failed to recognize him. Six months later he returned to Hot Springs, where he was the city editor of the Evening Telegraph until January, 1881, when he accepted a position at the case in the office of the Little Rock Gazette, remaining there until September, when he became the revising edi- tor of the Encyclopedia of the New West, a book of 1,000 pages. After the completion of this con- genial labor, in January, 1882, he was at Galveston, Tex., until June, when he again assumed connec- tion with the Little Rock Daily Gazette as its as-

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sistant foreman. He was thereafter identified with newspaper work in Little Rock for nearly twenty years. Then he came to Montana, arriving at Bill- ings on November 28, 1898, and taking charge of the Billings Times, in the following February, as its editor and manager. He has made the paper a strong factor in the local field, managing its af- fairs with discrimination and ability, and through his able and timely editorial utterances wielding a marked influence in the sphere of local politics. He has been successful in this connection, and this has been achieved by worthy means, so that he re- tains the confidence and esteem of the public. Since October, 1882, Mr. Morris has been a member of the New York Typographical Union, No. 6, and he is an earnest and indefatigable advocate of the cause of labor and is in favor of effective or- ganization in this line. Fraternally he holds membership in Ashlar Lodge No. 29, A. F. & A. M., with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Ancient Order of United Work- men, the Printers' Union and the Trades Feder- ation. In politics he gives a stanch allegiance to the Democratic party, while his religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal church. On Janu- ary 26, 1886, at Little Rock, Ark., Mr. Morris was united in marriage with Miss Rosa Silverstein, the daughter of Wolf Silverstein, of Fort Worth, Tex., and of this union five children have been born : Ralph Losekamp, Joseph Wolf (deceased), Miriam Martha, Wallace Dickinson and Horace Mitchell. Mrs. Morris is a member of the society of B'Nai Israel.

S TEPHEN W. MOSHER .- While it is true that the stock ranges of Montana are growing smaller owing to the steady increase of population, there are some left of quite respectable proportions. Stephen W. Mosher controls one of them. It is located near Clemons, in Lewis and Clarke county, and contains 5,350 acres. Stephen W. Mosher is a native of Gorham, Cumberland county, Maine, where he was born on June 9, 1864, the son of Rufus and Martha Mosher, also born and reared in the Pine Tree state. The father was a fairly successful farmer and a man of worth and sterling integrity. He died in July, 1889. The son, Steph- en, secured a limited education in the common schools of his native county, and while a mere boy began to contribute to the assistance of his parents.

He remained with them until he was in his twenty- third year, when he decided to try to improve his fortunes in the far west, and in the spring of 1877 he came to Montana and took up a pre-emp- tion claim of 160 acres in the vicinity of Clemons, his present residence. To this he subsequently added homestead, desert and timber claims and pur- chased lands until the entire property now em- braces 5,350 acres, and 1,000 acres are susceptible of profitable cultivation. The ranch is devoted to general farming and stockraising,' sheep being the principal resource. On March 6, 1895, Mr. Mosher was married to Miss Gertrude I. Converse, a native of Monroe county, Wis., from whom he secured a divorce on October 30, 1901. She is a daughter of William A. and Helen D. Converse, now resi- dents of Lewis and Clarke county. A sketch of Mr. Converse appears in another portion of this work. Fraternally Mr. Mosher is a member of the Odd Fellows, Masons and Woodmen of the World. His political belief is Republican.

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 143

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