Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 26

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 26

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F RANK LEWIS is one of the most enterpris- ing and successful business men of Belt, Cas- cade county, where he operates extensive coal mines. He is a native of Norwich, Conn., where he was born on St. Valentine's day, 1853. His father, Joseph P. Lewis, was born in the same city, where he is now living retired, being well advanced in age. During his active life he was a stone con- tractor. The maiden name of Frank Lewis' mother was Abbie Church, who was born at Montville on the Thames river, Conn. Her marriage to Mr. Lewis was solemnized in Norwich, where she died in 1854. The family comes of good old Revolu- tionary stock, and both grandfathers were both active participants in the war of the Revolution. His paternal grandfather was a freighter and con- tractor in Connecticut, and the maternal grand- father was a captain of a whaling vessel for years.

Frank Lewis began his education in the public schools of Scotland, Windham county, Conn., but

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at the early age of twelve years he went to Brook- lyn, N. Y., and was for three years employed in a store, in the meanwhile attending night schools. In 1868 he located in Willimantic, Conn., where he was in the employ of Amos Bill until 1876, when he made his way to Bakersfield, Cal., where he was engaged in herding sheep until the fall of 1879, when he brought 13,000 head of sheep for Hedge & Bryant from California to Helena, Mont., where he disposed of them for $3.00 per head. The same year he located at Box Elder, in Choteau county, where he bought 5,500 head of sheep, locating on a squatter's claim and there remaining for two winters, during the last being associated with Sam- uel Dickey, to whom he sold his interest in 1881. He then went to Cora creek, Cascade county, and established a stage line between that place and Barker and Billings. He gave his attention to this line for two years, and in 1883 made a trip to Alaska, where he engaged in prospecting and min- ing for one year. Upon his return he located at Kibbey for a year, and the two years he was em- ployed by J. T. Armington at Armington, and for him he drove large bands of sheep through to St. Paul, returning with cattle. The next two years he engaged in stockraising on shares, being still as- sociated with Mr. Armington. In 1892 Mr. Lewis located the Lewis coal mine at Belt, and he has developed and continuously operated the same, from which he has shipped an average of 100 tons per day to the B. & M. smelter, in Great Falls. He was also the proprietor of the Bateman Hotel, in Belt, from 1892 until 1901. He is a Democrat in politics and in 1893 was registering agent at Belt. He is a man of marked business capacity and ster- ling character, enjoying uniform respect in the community. In Belt, on April 13, 1890, occurred the marriage of Mr. Lewis to Miss Susie Dockery, a lady of great executive ability, who was born at Council Bluffs, Iowa. They are the parents of four children, Joseph (deceased), Frank Thomas, Fred Church and William Russell Lewis.

B ENJAMIN MACDONALD .- One of the most tragic and inexcusable events in Scottish his- tory is the bloody massacre of Glencoe in 1692, in which the MacDonalds of that wild region were brutally murdered by the order of an English king for their loyalty to the unhappy Stuart dy- nasty, to which they believed they owed allegiance.

It is the ofttold tale of persecution for opinion's sake. A few of the unfortunate clan escaped, and among them were the ancestors of Benjamin Mac- Donald, of Bridger, manager of the mercantile department of the Bridger Coal Company. They owned a large tract of land there, and after the troublous times passed returned to occupy it. It was in the possession of the family until the death of Mr. MacDonald's grandfather, when it passed into the ownership of Lord Strathcona, of Canada. Mr. MacDonald was born at Walla Walla, Wash., November 23, 1844, the son of Archibald and Jane (Klyne) MacDonald, the former of whom was born at Glencoe, Scotland, in 1790, and the latter in Canada in 1810. The father came to America in 1814, having been educated as a civil engineer at one of the best colleges in his native land, from which he was graduated with honors, being at the time in the service of the Hudson Bay Company. Lord Selkirk, who was governor of that company at the time, being well pleased with Mr. MacDonald's capacity and agreeable man- ners, attached him to his personal service as private secretary and employed him also in writing up a description of the altitudes, general topography and climate of the country. The sketches thus prepared were extensively used by engineers in locating the Canadian Pacific route. After a few years service in the capacities named Mr. Mac- Donald was promoted to the position of chief trader and stationed at Fort Langley, near the mouth of the Rogers river, and later was promoted to the position of chief factor and stationed at Fort Vancouver, near the mouth of the Columbia river. Sometime after he was removed to Fort Colville, where he occupied the same position, and cultivated,about 4,000 acres of land in the interest of the company. He also built and conducted a gristmill and raised stock, having 400 to 500 milk cows and a large number of hogs. He made his post the supply station of the company for many years, portions of the supplies being furnished for the Hudson Bay posts in Idaho, Montana and Washington. In 1844 he retired from active busi- ness, built an elegant residence on the banks of the Ottawa, named it Glencoe and made it his home until his death, in 1851, at the age of sixty.

His family consisted of thirteen sons and one daughter. Benjamin was the twelfth son. He re- ceived his early education at Carillon Academy, on the Ottawa, which he followed with a course at McGill University, and after completing this

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he went to Fraser river, B. C., and engaged in mining. In company with R. D. Cameron and his brother he located the celebrated Cameron claims on William creek in Caribou, but sold them too soon, being deceived by one of the partners, who concealed the true character of the diggings. He then bought a mule train and engaged in freighting. In 1864 he joined the stampede to Boise, Idaho, but not meeting with success went in the fall to the Kootenai country and wintered at Fort Colville, where his cousin, Angus MacDon- ald, was chief factor, having succeeded Mr. Mac- Donald's father twenty years previously. In 1866 he went up the Columbia river as far as the big bend, mining and prospecting, and returned to the fort to winter, but went back in the spring and was moderately successful. He invested in a steamboat named the Forty-nine, and in the fall she sank. His next venture was in the stock busi- ness on Big Lake at the Okanagan river, which he conducted for a year and then sold out and joined the stampede to Cedar creek, near Missoula, in which he was one of the successful seekers. He wintered at the Flathead Hudson Bay post.

The next year he sold his interests in Montana and returned to Canada, engaging in general mer- chandising at St. Andrews, Quebec, where, on August 14, 1872, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Pyke, of Hudson-on-Ottawa, a daughter of Rev. James Pyke, of Warwickshire, England, and Eliza- beth (McTavish) Pyke, of Scotland. Mrs. Mac- Donald's grandfather, George Pyke, came to Can- ada from England and became chief justice of the province. Mr. and Mrs. McDonald have three children living: Elizabeth Klyne, now the wife of F. C. Salter, eastern general freight agent for the Northern Pacific Railroad in New York; John Angus, living at home, is in the employ of the Bridger Coal Company ; Arthur T. is a student at Ann Arbor University, Michigan; another son, James A., is deceased. Mr. McDonald remained in Canada until 1879, when he removed on account of ill health to Denver, Colo., and there was en- gaged in merchandising and coal mining for seven- teen years. He was very successful until the panic of 1893, when he met with serious reverses. In 1896 he took a position in the employ of W. A. Clark and for the next four years was located in Butte, having charge of the John Caplis Company. In 1900 he took charge of the mercantile depart- ment of the Bridger Coal Company, a position which he still holds. In fraternal relations he is

connected with the order of Freemasons. An in- cident in his life worthy of note is that on the oc- casion of his brother's death, Alexander McDon- ald, chief factor of the Hudson Bay Company, in 1874, he made the quickest trip ever made in the northwest, traveling 1,600 miles in twenty-four days by canoe and portaging, from Lake Superior to Hudson Bay and return, having reached Moose Factory on Hudson Bay a few days after his brother's death.

A LEXANDER J. McKAY, one of the leading merchants and a territorial pioneer of Mon- tana, resides at Whitehall, Jefferson county. He was born at Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, on April IO, 1857. His parents were Alexander and Annie (McLeod) McKay, the former of County Pictou and the latter of Cape Breton, N. S. The father is still living at the age of seventy-three, engaged

in farming. The paternal grandfather, Donald Mc- Kay, came from Scotland as a representative and colporteur of the Presbyterian church in 1809. Al- exander J. McKay received his education in the public schools at Cape Breton, but he had to make his own way in the world and the west appeared to offer superior advantages to him, and in 1878, as soon as he had attained his majority, he removed to Eureka, Nev., where he passed one year in min- ing, and then re-located at Frisco, Utah. Here he was industriously employed in the smelter for two years, locating at Wood river, Idaho, where for six months he actively engaged in business, and then returned to Frisco, Utah.

Three months later he was in Butte, Mont., and for a year and a half he was in the saw mill business there. He then removed to Missoula, where he passed an active and profitable year and went to Winnipeg, Manitoba, for a few months. This was a money-making era, and Mr. Mckay with rare good judgment improved every oppor- tunity and was substantially benefited. Going to Granville Bay, on the north shore of Lake Super- ior, he engaged in contracting for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and here also he was financially successful. After eighteen months he returned to his old home in Nova Scotia, where he bought a farm, with the intention of there establishing his permanent home. But four months later he was farther west than ever before and in the heart of the Cascade mountains. Here he secured a con-

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tract on the Northern Pacific which resulted dis- astrously to him. Returning to Butte, Mont., he worked in the smelter for two years and then he was in business for himself until 1895, selling out and removing to Whitehall, Jefferson county, where he now resides, and where he has met with most flattering success as the senior member of the extensive mercantile house of the Mckay- Carmichael Company, the ramifications of whose business extend over a considerable extent of country. Mr. Mckay has made a number of im- portant investments in mining properties and has two mines which he is developing with good prom- ise of large returns. On August 3, 1893, Mr. Mckay was united in marriage to Miss Maggie McCarthy, a native of New Brunswick. Politically he affiliates with the Republican party in whose interest he is an energetic and influential worker. Fraternally he is a master Mason and an Odd Fellow. The prosperity that time has brought to Mr. McKay is the result of superior business sa- gacity, rare commercial instinct and the legitimate outcome of honest endeavor and high moral char- acter. He has won the confidence of the people of the community in which he resides and stands in high esteem.

SAMUEL LUTZ .- Among those who have at- tained a due measure of prosperity through taking advantage of the natural resources of Mon- tana is the subject of this review. Mr. Lutz is a native of the old Keystone state, having been born in Butler county, Pa., on the 15th of March, 1846, a son of Daniel and Tena Lutz, who were likewise born in Pennsylvania, where they passed their entire lives, the father devoting his atten- tion to agricultural pursuits, while in politics he was a Democrat. Both he and his wife were mem- bers of the German Reformed church and folk of sterling character. All of their eleven children are living except Tena, Kate and William. The mother passed away in 1862 and the father in 1870. Their surviving children are Mary, Isaac, Elizabeth, Samuel, Joseph, Solomon, Henry and Daniel. Of the number four reside in Montana.

Samuel Lutz, our immediate subject, received little schooling, as he was compelled to depend upon his own resources at an early age. He found employment at farm work, and his first wages were fixed at $2.50 per month. As he waxed strong in stature and in capacity for labor he se-

cured increase in wages, and at seventeen years he became identified with stable work. After devoting his attention to this and other lines of employ- ment in Pennsylvania for about three years, he removed to Illinois, and rented a farm of 160 acres for a year, but securing so unsatisfactory returns that he discontinued his lease, and, in 1868, removed to McDonough county, where he was em- ployed in stable work for two years. He next located in Leavenworth, Kan., for one year, and then went to Salt Lake City, where he soon turned his attention to mining, in which enterprise good success attended his efforts, continued in Utah for four years. He then went to Tulare county, Cal., and drove a band of sheep east to Utah, the trip occupying eighteen months. He passed the win- ter in Utah and in the spring came to Montana with sheep, locating in the Smith River valley in 1877, as foreman of a sheep ranch. A year later Mr. Lutz engaged in freighting, receiving $50 per month for eighteen months, and then conducted the same enterprise on his own responsibil- ity until 1882. Two years previously (in 1880) he had located a homestead on Trout creek, in Fergus county, the same comprising 160 acres. Selling his interests here, in 1881, he located a home- stead one mile west of Garneill, and has since added desert and pre-emption claims, and has now a total area of 400 acres. Somewhat more than half of the property is now available for cultivation, but Mr. Lutz gives his principal attention to the raising of good cattle and horses. In politics he is a stanch Republican, and fraternally a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.

On March 7, 1887, Mr. Lutz was united in mar- riage to Miss Sarah Schaffer, who was born in Butler county, Pa., the daughter of George and Sarah Schaffer, who passed their lives in Penn- sylvania, where the father was in the sawmill and lumber business. He died in 1894, his wife having passed away in 1889. Both were members of the German Reformed church. Of their twelve chil- dren all are living except three. Mr. and Mrs. Lutz are members of the Methodist church and highly esteemed in the community.

P ETER MACDONALD, the efficient city jailor of Great Falls, comes of good old Scottish stock and has many of its characteristics. He was born in Franklin county, N. Y., on October 6, 1853, the son of Allen MacDonald, a native of

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Inverness, Scotland, where he was born in 1816, and, coming to the United States in 1828, he lo- cated in New York, where he was engaged in merchandising at various points until 1854, when he removed to County Glengarry, Canada, where he was a merchant until his death, in October, 1865. The maiden name of his wife was Sarah MacDonald. She was born in Inverness in 1826, and her marriage to Mr. McDonald was solem- nized in Franklin county, N. Y., in 1849, and her death occurred in County Glengarry, Canada, in 1885.

Peter MacDonald was educated in the public . schools of Glengarry, and the academy at Alex- andria, Ontario, until he was fifteen years old, when he was employed about six years as clerk in a mercantile establishment at Lancaster, On- tario, and in 1874 enlisted in the mounted police of Montreal, serving for six years in the North- west Territory. In 1879 he came over into Mon- tana, entering the service of I. G. Baker & Co. in their general store, and being with this firm during the building of Fort Assinniboine. From there he removed to Butte, was employed in a grocery for two years, and in March, 1887, he came to Great Falls.

Here he engaged in the express transfer. busi- ness, his outfit being known as express wagon No. I, and in this connection he handled the transfer business for the Wells-Fargo and American Ex- press Companies for two years. The succeeding two years Mr. MacDonald was with Wetzel & Co., wholesale liquor dealers, and in 1891 he was ap- pointed a member of the city police force, serving one year, while in 1892 he was elected constable, serving in this capacity until the close of 1894. From 1895 to 1897 he was deputy sheriff of Cas- cade county, was thereafter clerk in the Milwaukee house, and since the spring of 1900 has been in- cumbent of the office of city jailor, giving careful and efficient service in this position. In politics Mr. MacDonald is a Republican, and fraternally he is identified with Cataract Lodge No. 28, I. O. O. F., and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He was married on October 6, 1879, and has one daughter, Frances Amelia.

PROF. THOMAS S. McALONEY, superin- tendent of the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind, located at Boulder, in Jefferson county, though young in years, has accomplished incal-

culable good and has before him a most promising future. It is his mission to assist that class of the afflicted and unfortunate who are deaf, dumb and blind and to brighten their pathway through life. In this work he has been eminently successful, his abilities receiving the heartiest recognition in two countries. He was born in County Antrim, Ire- land, on June 26, 1869, the son of James McAloney, who was born in the same county in 1839 and died there in 1880. His mother was Eliza Jane (Simp- son) McAloney, also a native of County Antrim where she still resides. In the family were four boys and four daughters, all of whom are educators of ability. James McAloney was principal of the Derry (Ireland) Model School for many years, while previously he was national school superin- tendent for his native county.

Prof. T. S. McAloney, the young and progress- ive educator, was instructed at the model school taught by his father, and subsequently took a course at the Royal University of Ireland. He was then appointed a teacher in the Belfast Insti- tute for the Deaf and Blind, where he remained seven and a half years. An offer of instruction then came to him from the directors of the National Deaf-Mute College, of Washington, D. C., where he received a fellowship. He arrived in the United States in September, 1892, representing Great Brit- ain, having been chosen from amongst all the members of the profession in that country. Here he remained a year and was graduated in June, 1893. Being offered a position in Bellville, On- tario, in the School for the Deaf, he taught there for one year, when he received a flattering offer from the Deaf and Dumb Institute at Talladega, Ala. This position he accepted, and here he first introduced the oral method of teaching the deaf. With this institute he remained five years as teacher and editor of the school paper. In 1899 he became head teacher and assistant superintend- ent in the School for the Deaf, located at Danville, Ky., with twenty-six teachers under him. In May, 1900, he accepted the position of superintendent of the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind.

Prof. McAloney was the first to introduce into Montana the oral method of teaching, whereby the deaf are taught to read the lips and speak. He also introduced industrial training for the blind, consisting of piano tuning and repairing, ham- mock and carpet-weaving, typewriting, etc. He has also organized an orchestra for the blind. The attendance at the Montana School for the

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Deaf and Blind has doubled under his able and judicious superintendency, and its future is most promising. Into his work the Professor has thrown his rare gifts of energy and enthusiasm. To this country he has brought valuable attain- ments, and the people of Montana are to be highly congratulated on having secured his services. He is a Knight of Pythias and an Odd Fellow, having passed the chairs in each order. He is also a member of the Fraternal Mystic Circle. He was state treasurer of the Alabama Christian Endeavor Union for three terms, and was tendered the presi- dency of the union, but declined. He is a frequent contributor to educational journals and is now en- gaged in a special course of study under the direc- tion of the Indiana Central University. He was united in marriage on November 2, 1898, to Miss Mary B. Holt, daughter of Samuel D. Holt, senior partner in the firm of Holt, Agee & Co., wholesale grocers and cotton brokers, of Selma, Ala.

H ON. FRANK H. WOODY .- One of the dis- tinguished citizens of Montana, a gentleman who has exemplified her highest type of citizen- ship at home and given her prominence and re- nown abroad, is Hon. Frank H. Woody, of Missoula, who has the distinction of being one of her earliest pioneers and most capable jurists ; and who, after a long useful and honorable career in her service is now enjoying, for what must neces- sarily be the brief remainder of his days, the sweet content that comes only to private life.

Judge Woody is a native of Chatham county, N. C., where he was born December 10, 1833. His father was of Quaker ancestry and his mother of Revolutionary stock. They were people of high character, but of moderate means, and were unable to give their offspring many educational advantages. The Judge was reared on the farm, and at the age of eighteen, after a rather frag- mentary and irregular preparation in the element- ary schools of the vicinity he entered New Garden Boarding School, now Guilford College, a Quaker institution located near Greensboro. Compelled by circumstances to leave the college at the end of a year he removed to the eastern part of the state and spent six months teaching one of the public schools in that section. From there, in 1853, he went to Indiana, attended another Quaker school during a part of the year and taught public

school again until the spring of 1855. Con- vinced by this time that the great west offered su- perior opportunities to young men of capacity and energy, he made his way to Kansas and subse- quently joined an overland merchant train bound to Great Salt Lake, and traveled with it to a point some distance west of old Fort Laramie. From there he journeyed with an emigrant train en route for Shoalwater bay, Washington territory. At Independence Rock on the Sweetwater river he was taken ill and forced to remain there for several days. Eventually he fell in with a party of Mormons on their way to Salt Lake, and he accompanied. them to that place, which they reached August 15, 1855. It was a harbor of refuge for his storm- tossed barque, and gave him a chance to rest and refit, for he was sore distressed-feeble in health, destitute of means and seemingly alone in the world, but sustained by his own lofty courage and unyielding resolution. He remained in Utah until the fall of 1856, and then joined a party of men who were coming to the Flathead country to trade with the Indians. Near the middle of Oc- tober he arrived at Hellgate river, near where the city of Missoula now stands. Since that time, for nearly half a century, he has been a resident of what is the present state of Montana, con- tributing in large measure to make her history, aiding in her struggles and helping to win her triumphs. During the first ten years of his resi- dence within her borders he occupied himself with whatever business came his way, and in the main prospered at all. He freighted, mined, sold mer- chandise and engaged in politics. In 1866 a va- cancy occurring in the office of county clerk and recorder of Missoula county, the board of county commissioners appointed him to fill such vacancy, and at the succeeding general election he was chosen to the office by an almost unanimous vote. He held the position continuously until the fall of 1880, when he resisted the importunities of the people and declined a further tenure. During his tenure of the office it was consolidated with that of probate judge, and Mr. Woody discharged the duties of that position; and in addition, was for eight years deputy clerk of the Second judicial court of the county. While occupying these offices and dealing necessarily with questions of law, he was naturally attracted toward the profession and began an assiduous and exhaustive prepara- tion for its practice. He was admitted to the bar

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 26

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