Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 166

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 166

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JOHN W. WARD is one of the alert and enter- prising workers who have shown appreciation of the advantages afforded in Montana by casting in his lot here and by industry and good manage- ment gaining a success worthy the name. He is numbered among the prosperous and representative farmers and stockgrowers of Teton county, his postoffice address being Belleview. He was born in Kenosha county, Wis., on November 23, 1852. His father, James Ward, is a native of Jersey City, N. J., and was among the pioneer settlers of south- eastern Wisconsin, where he located about 1838. There he has since devoted his attention to agri- culture, with the exception that in 1849 he joined the throng of argonauts wending their way to Cali- fornia. His wife, whose maiden name was Ann B. Fannan, was born in Ireland, whence she was brought by her parents to the United States when a child. She died at the Wisconsin home in 1883.

John W. Ward, now of Belleview, Mont., at- tended the public schools of Kenosha county until he was sixteen, and when eighteen went to Racine. Wis., and was employed for eight years in the wagon factory of Fish Brothers. In 1881 he came to Cho- teau county, long before Teton county was created. and was employed by the Lyon Brothers for three years. In 1885 he homesteaded 160 acres on Wil-

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low creek, and later secured adjoining lands by making timber-culture and desert land entries, so that his present ranch comprises 'about 1,000 acres, and is devoted principally to the raising of cattle and hay. He has made excellent improvements and has reason to take pride in the success he has achieved. He gives an unqualified support to the principles of the Republican party, while fraternally he is connected with Choteau Lodge No. II, I. O. O. F. In Great Falls, on October 22, 1899, Mr. Ward wedded with Mrs. Elizabeth ( Winstanley) Turton, who was born in Haydock parish, St. Hel- en's, England, in 1869, her father, James Winstan- ley, having been an extensive iron manufacturer of Lancashire. Mrs. Ward is a member of the incor- porated Society of Musicians, and an associate of the Tonic Solfa College, London. Their son, Vin- cent James Ward, was born on September II, 1901. Mrs. Ward has two sons by her former marriage: Rupert W. Turton and Frederic D. Turton. The first Winstanley was Baron de Wynstanley of Win- stanley and Billings, who came over with William the Conqueror in 1066. The ancient ancestral home, Winstanley Hall, was sold to the Bankes family.

G EORGE P. WATKINS, the subject of this sketch, is a native of Hunkeltown, Iowa coun- ty, Iowa, where he was born October 20, 1862. His parents were William J. and Sarah Jane (Hud- son) Watkins, the former of whom was born in West Virginia in 1822, and the latter in Ohio in 1824. She died at Rapids, Yellowstone county, Mont., January 7, 1899. The father removed from his native. state to Henry county, Ind., and from there to Iowa county, Iowa, in 1849. He re- mained at this location until 1882, when he made another move, taking up his residence in Knox county, Neb., where he remained until 1895, en- gaged in farming. From there he removed to Keokuk county, Iowa, where he died in 1898.

Mr. Watkins was educated in the public schools of his native county and remained at home until he was twenty-five years of age, working on the farm. On January 4, 1887, he was married to

Miss Myrtle Secrist, who was born at Harrisburg, Pa,, in 1866. They have one child, a daughter aged twelve and named Georgia Ethlina. From 1887 to 1894 Mr. Watkins was engaged in farm- ing in Knox county, Neb. In November, 1894, he came to Montana, locating at Billings, and

worked on the hay ranch of Henry Struck at Park City for three years, at the end of which he en- gaged in the cattle business for himself. In 1899 he sold his cattle and bought sheep, and has since been actively occupied in handling large flocks of them, having an average of 3,000 head feed- ing on the ranges about Wibaux, Mont.

In political relations Mr. Watkins is a Repub- lican, but has never taken an active part in the contentions of parties or factions. Fraternally he is a Knight of the Maccabees, holding mem- bership in Rim Rock Tent No. 37, at Park City.

ELMER D. WATROUS .- In the vicinity of Evans, Cascade county, is located the 500- acre ranch of the subject of this sketch, the same being well improved and devoted principally to the raising of cattle and horses. Mr. Watrous was born in Delmar, Tioga county, Pa., August 9, 1861, the son of William M. and Jane W. Wat- rous, natives respectively of New York and Penn- sylvania, their marriage having been solemnized in Potter county, Pa. In 1871 they removed io Virginia, where the father was engaged in farm- ing until 1882, when he took up his residence in West Virginia and became identified with the lum- bering business. In 1884 his sons, Eugene and Elmer D., became associated with him in the cn- terprise, and continued in that relation until 1886, when he withdrew from the firm, after which the two brothers continued the business until the fall of 1886. In 1889 William M. Watrous re- moved to Portland, Ore., and took up pre-emp- tion and homestead claims near by, the principal resource of which at present is the timber ; there he has since made his home. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order. His wife died at Portland at the age of sixty-one years.

Elmer D. Watrous attended the public schools until he attained the age of nineteen years, after which he assisted his father until he reached the age of twenty-three, when, as already noted, he became associated with his father and brother in the lumbering business. In 1887 he secured a farm of 150 acres in Virginia and there was en- gaged in agricultural pursuits until the spring of 1889, when he came to his present location near Evans, Mont., and took up a pre-emption claim of 160 acres, placing forty acres of the tract under cultivation and engaged in the raising of live-

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stock. In September, 1895, he took up an ad- joining homestead claim of 160 acres, while in 1898 he secured a desert claim of equal area and has also purchased twenty-four acres of arable land from Amos Teague. He has been signally prosperous in his stock business, having at the present time thirty head of excellent cattle.

Politically he gives his support to the Repub- lican party. On September 24, 1886, Mr. Wat- rous was united in marriage to Miss Mintie Cook, who was born in West Virginia, the daughter of James and Martha Cook, likewise natives of that state, the former being a member of the Metho- dist and the latter of the Baptist church .. Mr. Cook was a very active worker in the ranks of the Republican party, and for forty-four succes- sive years he held the dual office of clerk and sheriff of Wyoming county, W. Va. He died in 1879 at the age of sixty-seven years, and his widow now makes her home with her son, Gratt, in West Virginia. To Mr. and Mrs. Watrous three children have been born: Grace, who is de- ceased ; and Viva and Mabel.

FRANK WARNER is distinctively a type of the progressive and self-reliant western man, and it has been his lot to be the artificer of his own for- tunes, since he gave inception to his individual ef- forts at the tender age of eight years, and has work- ed his way forward, proving his capacity for suc- cessful effort in various lines of endeavor, and now holds prestige as one of the representative breeders and growers of thoroughbred cattle in Cascade county, his well improved ranch being located eleven miles west of the village of Cascade.

Mr. Warner is a native of Sextonville, Wis., where he was born on the 23d of May, 1860, his parents being Harvey and Mary Warner, both of whom were born in the state of New York, whence the father removed to Wisconsin, where he devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred in 1883, his wife having passed away in 1863, when our subject was a child of but three years. The parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and were folk of ster- ling worth of character. Frank Warner obtained very limited educational privileges in his youth, and, as has been already noted, began to work for wages at the early age of eight years, hiring out on a farm and receiving at first only twenty-five

cents a day, with board. He continued in farm work until he had attained the age of seventeen years, the best wages he received within this time being $13.00 a month and board. In 1877 he made his way to the upper peninsula of Michigan, where he was employed in connection with the great lun- bering industry in that section, receiving $35 per month and board. Mr. Warner continued to be thus engaged until 1882, in the spring of which year he returned to Wisconsin, where he was again en- ployed at farm work until fall, when he entered a commercial college, and there learned telegraphy, gaining such facility in the art that in the following spring he was enabled to secure a position as oper- ator in one of the offices of the Wisconsin Central Railroad. He thereafter continued to devote his at- tention to telegraphy in various parts of the west, and until 1897 was station agent at various railroad stations, the last one being that of the Montana Central at Cascade, having, however, done some prospecting for gold within these years, and having for a time conducted a mercantile business at Wickes, Mont., while in the fall of the year last mentioned he became proprietor of a hotel at Cas- cade, bearing his name, the "Hotel Warner," where he proved a very popular and successful boniface, conducting the hotel until the spring of 1900, when he sold out to Miss Ella Williams.

After leaving the hotel Mr. Warner started into the ranching business, and has devoted particular attention to the raising of thoroughbred cattle, hav- ing at the present time thirty-two head of the polled Durham grade. His efforts in this line can not but have a marked influence on improving the grade of cattle in the state, and he uses much discrimination in the various details of his business. His ranch, "Mountain View Stock Farm," includes about 6,500 acres, under fence, and the same is finely adapted in range, water and essentials to a successful prose- cution of the business of stockraising.

Mr. Warner is very fond of hunting, and has an enviable reputation as a Nimrod. Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and the Modern Woodmen of America, while in politics he renders an unswerving allegiance to the principles of the Democratic party.

On the 29th of July, 1885, Mr. Warner was united in marriage to Miss Nellie Frances Tib- bitts, who was born in Wisconsin, being a daughter of John and Katherine Tibbitts, the former being a native of the state of New York and the latter of Germany, and both having been zealous members of

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the German Lutheran church. The father's death occurred December 1I, 1900, his wife having passed away June 15, 1891. Mr. and Mrs. Warner are people of fine artistic tastes and Mr. Warner is an enthusiastic amateur photographer of rare ability ; and many evidences of his skill in this line are presented in the wonderful reproductions of mountain, ranch and river scenery he has made. In their idyllic home in their mountain valley at an elevation of over 4,400 feet above sea level they dis- pense a royal hospitality to their hosts of friends, and to the stranger within their gates.

W ILLIAM SCOTT WETZEL, now deceased, was one of the most prominent and influential business men of Great Falls, Mont., where oc- curred his death on April 29, 1891. He was born in Pennsylvania, on January 3, 1846, the son of John and Anna Wetzel, natives of Germany. His father died at Burlington, Iowa, in 1875, and his mother is now a resident of that state. William Scott Wetzel was educated in the public schools of Burlington, Iowa, remaining at home and materially assisting his parents until the attainment of his ma- jority. In 1867 he came to Helena, Mont., in the vicinity of which he mined and prospected for a year, going thence to Fort Benton, where, in 1868, he opened a small store and engaged in trading with the Indians until 1885. The following year he was associated with Mayor Woodson and Col. DeLacy in the Old Dominion Yeast Company, at Kansas City, Mo. Returning to Great Falls, through the advice of United States Senator Paris Gibson, he invested heavily in real estate and he also engaged in the wholesale liquor trade, which busi- ness he sold in 1889 to Messrs. Bateman & Switzer, and from that time until his death he devoted his superior talents to mining, real estate and to the insurance business, securing interests in valuable mines at and near Barker. His estate still holds a heavy interest in the Belt Mountain Mining Com- pany, composed of J. P. Lewis, J. J. Ellis, William Hanks, George W. Taylor and Mrs. Margaret Wetzel. While residing at Fort Benton Mr. Wetzel, in 1878, erected the Grand Union Hotel, and in 1879 he built the handsomest residence of the city. In the upbuilding and development of Great Falls he played a prominent part, and in enterprise and public spirit he was second to none in that vigor- ous young city. He built the brick block which is

now the home of the Central drygoods store, and an elegant residence on Ninth avenue, between Sixth and Seventh streets. In 1888 Mr. Wetzel secured a pre-emption claim of 120 acres at Rain- bow falls, which has greatly increased in value. He also located 800 acres of land on Belt creek, now the property of Mrs. Wetzel.

In political life Mr. Wetzel was ever an active and influential worker in the interest of the Demo- cratic party, and for a number of successive termis was elected commissioner of Choteau county, in which capacity he served with distinction and satis- factorily to the people. Fraternally he was promi- nent in Masonic circles, belonging to the branches of the order, and was, also, a member of the Knights of Pythias and the United Workmen. On Novem- ber 23, 1875, Mr. Wetzel was married, at Fort Benton, to Miss Margaret Simons, daughter of John Simons, of St. Louis, Mo., who died in that city in 1863. Her mother was a daughter of Stephen Armell, who for many years was promi- nently connected with the North American Trading Company at Montreal, Canada. He became a flu- ent linguist in the Piegan language, and the an- cestors on this side of the house were for several generations chiefs of the Piegan tribe. Mrs. Mar- garet Wetzel possesses a handsome ranch property of 600 acres at Milk river on the Blackfoot reserva- tion, upon which she resides and fully illustrates what a bright business woman can accomplish in the way of financial success. The land is completely fenced, supplied with substantial houses and out- buildings, and stocked with 200 head of cattle and other stock. Her residence is the Milk River post- office, and Mrs. Wetzel is the efficient postmistress. She has three children, Pearl, now Mrs. William Hagerty ; Daisy Frances, Mrs. J. L. Burd, and Wil- liam Scott.

C 'ONSTANTINE WEBER, whose excellent ranch property is located two miles south of Eden, Cascade county, is one of the worthy sons of the Fatherland who have cast their lot with America, contributing to its best citizenship. He is a young man of progressive spirit, and has been successful since taking up his abode in Montana. Mr. Weber is a native of Wurtemberg, Germany, where he was born on November 2, 1865, being a scion of sterling Teutonic stock. His parents are Jacob and Sophia Weber, natives of the Fatherland, where the father, a man of prominence and influence, was

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at one time mayor of the city of Kirchentellersfurth. Both he and his wife were members of the Presby- terian church. Mr. Weber died in March, 1901.

Constantine Weber attended the excellent public schools of his native land until 1885, when he severed home ties and immigrated to the United States, ultimately locating in Kansas, where he en- gaged in agricultural pursuits until 1890, at which time he came to Montana, locating in Great Falls, where for a time he was in the employ of a mer- cantile establishment, after which he went to work as a stonemason, assisting in the building of the American brewery. In 1895 he took up his present homestead claim of 160 acres, where he has since devoted his attention to farming, his well directed efforts having won for the enterprise a due meas- ure of success. In politics Mr. Weber gives a zeal- ous support to the Democratic party.

JOSEPH A. WHITE .- One of the prominent Lewis and Clarke county ranchers, and one who has made a pronounced success of the enter- prise is Joseph A. White, who was born in St. Paul, Minn., on December 2, 1858. His parents were Sylvanus and Charlotte White, natives of Maine. The father followed milling and millwrighting. He came to Minnesota in 1857 and built the first flouring mill of the state on Eagle creek. For eight years he did a good business and then sold it at a fair profit. The family then removed to Westport, where they secured a 160-acre home- stead claim. During the Sioux outbreak of 1862 the Indians burned the house and stock. Syl- vanus White then enlisted in a regiment organ- ized to fight the savages and after the close of the trouble went south and participated in the Civil war. At the battle of Murfreesboro he was wounded and upon receiving his discharge he re- turned to Minnesota and engaged in farming from 1865 until 1874. He then disposed of his Minne- sota property and went to the Indian Territory where he remained four years, when he came to Montana and settled on Elk creek, where he en- gaged in general ranching near Haystack butte. The family are members of the Congregational church, and politically he is a Democrat.

Joseph A. White obtained a fair education in the public schools and the Minnesota normal school at Glenwood. At the age of seventeen he was engaged in engineering and firing in Nebras-

ka, Oregon and Montana. He came to Montana by the Missouri river to Fort Benton. Going to Sun River crossing he engaged for four years in freighting for George Steele. He then was wagon boss for F. Tingley & Bro. at Fort Ben- ton and later engaged in freighting on his own account to 1882. He then served as deputy sher- iff in Lewis and Clarke county under S. C. Gilpat- rick, for two years. Following this he went to Oregon and engaged in the planing mill business, but in 1892 he returned to Montana and was then an engineer for Denton & Tresetta, with whom he continued until he bought their sawmill in 1897. This mill burned in 1898 when he purchased an- other mill which he moved to his location. This was also burned in 1900 and rebuilt. While run- ning these mills he bought the ranch upon which he now resides, lying in the Rockies, twenty miles southwest of Augusta. On December 20, 1883, Mr. White was married to Miss Natie Strong, a native of Montana, daughter of Havillah B. Strong, who at present resides at Sun River, and a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this vol- ume. To them was born one child, Claude. The mother died in March, 1884. On June 15, 1886, Mr. White was united to Miss Jennie White, who was born in Oregon, a daughter of John and Julia White, natives of Missouri, who went to Oregon as early as 1854 and engaged in ranching and where the father died in 1864. Mr. and Mrs. White have six children, Goalman, Her- man, Sylvanus, Zula, Lila and Joseph, Jr. Fra- ternally Mr. White belongs to the orders of Free- masons, the Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World and the United Workmen, and he votes the Democratic ticket.

D EWITT C. WHEELER .- Having borne his share of the dangers and hardships of the Civil war and wearing the marks of its burdens, DeWitt C. Wheeler, of Rosebud county, has been as industrious and faithful to duty in peace as he was brave and serviceable in war. He was born at Pomeroy, Meigs county, Ohio, September 10, 1845, the son of William and Caroline (Bissell) Wheeler, natives of New York state, who re- moved from there to Pennsylvania and later to Pomeroy, Ohio, where they died, the latter in 1863 and the former in 1867. Mr. Wheeler attended the schools of his native town until he was thirteen,

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when he went to Arkansas to work as a clerk and salesman in a store belonging to his brother, Henderson Wheeler. He remained with his brother until the spring of 1862, when he enlisted in the Union army as a member of the Tenth Ohio Cavalry, and served under Gen. Judson Kilpat- rick, to the end of the war, being mustered out of service at Cleveland, Ohio, in July, 1865. He was with Sherman in his march to the sea, and participated in every engagement from Chatta- nooga to Savannah and through the Carolinas. After leaving the army he engaged in steamboat- ing on the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers during 1866 and 1867; and, locating at Fort Ben- ton in the summer of the latter year, lived for twelve years along the Missouri between Fort Claggett and Bismarck, hunting, trapping and supplying wood to the steamboats on the river between these points. In 1876 he came to the Yellowstone valley, and in the summer of 1877 settled on a ranch near the town of Rosebud, where he was engaged in raising horses until 1890. In that year his wife took an Indian allotment claim on the north side of the Yellowstone, oppo- site the town of Rosebud, where he has since re- sided and gave his attention to raising cattle and hay.

During the early years of his residence in the west Mr. Wheeler was married to an Assinniboine woman, the marriage being contracted according to the Indian fashion-by purchase. He was afterward married to her adopted daughter, Mennia, in conformity with the form in use among civilized people. She died in 1898, leaving three children : Joseph, Carlon and Mary Hope. His faithful first wife still lives with him, and is known to the older settlers of the valley as "Auntie Bab- bett." She is a hopeless cripple, but bears her affliction with composure and cheerfulness.

W TILLARD H. WHITEHILL .- From the Green mountains of Vermont, in sight of which he was born in Caledonia county, on Octo- ber 20, 1848, Willard H. Whitehill drew in the air of freedom and patriotism with his first breath of life; and also stimulus and inspiration for that spirit of fortitude, self-reliance and independence which the mountains give their children. He was the son of George and Emily (Heath) Whitehill, the first a native of Vermont and the second of Canada. When he was six years old his mother

died and he was bound out to a farmer in the county. While, young as he was, he was obliged to bear his portion of the labors of his new home, the farmer and his family treated the orphan well. They pro- vided him with those comforts of life which they themselves enjoyed and regularly sent him to school so that he secured a good common school edil- cation. When the Civil war occurred his father joined the Federal army. In the active service which followed he was captured by the Confederates, and died after languishing for months in Anderson- ville prison at Richmond. Fired with patriotic zeal and perhaps eager to avenge the sufferings and death of his father, the son also, as soon as he was old enough, enlisted in the Federal army in Novem- ber, 1863, as-a member of Company B, Sixth Ver- mont Infantry, and served during the greater part of his term of service in the Army of the Potomac, being in every engagement of the closing campaigns of that great military body. He was in the thickest of the terrible struggles at Cold Harbor and Spottsylvania court house, and went through the deluge of death in the wilderness. He was en- gaged also in many other battles and skirmishes, but escaped unhurt and was mustered out of ser- vice in the summer of 1865, at Burlington, Vt.

Mr. Whitehill then took up his residence in Lowell, Mass., where he was employed for the next four years, then, after a year's stay in Vermont he determined to try his fortune in the west and selected Montana as the place for the trial. He ar- rived at Deer Lodge on April 25, 1870, and soon turned his attention to mining, which he followed for sixteen years, working in a number of placer mines in different parts of the state. He then con- cluded he had enough of mining and opened a blacksmith shop at Avon. This he operated for three years, meanwhile determining to get from mother earth in due time the sustenance she never refuses to man when properly invoked, so he bought a ranch of 480 acres about a mile north of Avon, and in 1890 here made his home. He has lived on it continuously from that time, raising stock and farming, enjoying the life and prospering. Re- cently he has bought two sections of land adjacent to his first purchase, which gives him an estate of 1,760 acres and enables him to engage largely in raising cattle and horses, which he does with steadily increasing numbers and proportionate profits. Mr. Whitehill was married in April, 1889, to Miss Isabel Armes, a native of Vermont and daughter of George and Abigail Armes, also natives

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 166

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