Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 4

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 4

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PROGRESSIVE MEN OF MONTANA.

the Jameson ranch and at once began farming. He continued operations until 1899, when he sold out and took a trip to England, intending to re- main until 1901. Crossland Brook is a son by a second marriage of his father. Two sons and one daughter were the fruit of the first marriage, one of the sons, Joseph Brook, being now a resident of Butte. From the second marriage sprang five sons and six daughters. Crossland Brook remained on his father's ranch until he was twenty-one years of age, when he and his brother Henry bought the John Mow ranch and started market gardening, in which they are still prof- itably engaged. Their business is quite extensive and they find a ready market for their produce in Butte, the quality of their goods and their 11D- right methods of dealing finding them a ready sale for all they raise.

On Christmas day, 1898, Mr. Brook was mar- ried to Miss Bettie Peoples, a native of Missouri, and daughter of Robert Peoples, who was born and reared in Illinois, his ancestry being German. Mr. and Mrs. Brook have one child, an infant son named John.

Henry Brook, brother of Crossland Brook and his partner in business, has much the same life story. He was reared on the homestead and has spent his life in agricultural pursuits of one kind or another, and like his brother has succeeded in all his undertakings. He was mar- ried in July, 1893, to Miss Mary Blanding, a native of Wisconsin. The Brook brothers have been active in the development of the community, tak- ing a deep and intelligent interest in all matters affecting its welfare, and have won the high re- gard and esteem of all classes of people around them. Their ranch is a model of thrift and taste, of intelligence in methods and diligence in ap- plication. Crossland Brook is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees, and finds pleasant and profitable entertainment in the meetings of the order.

D R. EDGAR A. BROOKE .- The personnel of the medical profession in Montana is such as to reflect great credit on the young and prosper- ons commonwealth, and among its ablest repre- sentatives in Ravalli county is Dr. Edgar A. Brooke, whose scene of professional labor and place of abode is the attractive town of Stevens-

ville. Nearly all of his life has been passed in Montana, and amid her people he has secured that distinction in his profession to which his close and wisely directed study entitle him, and a high place in the regard and esteem of his fellow men of all classes. He was born at Bettsville, Md., on Feb- ruary 26, 1861, the son of T. M. Brooke, born at Morgantown, W. Va., on April 14, 1830. In July, 1831, he became a resident of Montana, now engaged in stockraising. He was a son of Dr. Thomas Frederick Brooke, a native of Mary- land, who owned Deer Park in that state. He was for many years an eminent medical practi- tioner in Maryland and West Virginia, and served as a surgeon during the war of 1812; his father was also an eminent physician, being a surgeon in the Continental army during the Revolution. He was of English lineage and a direct descendant of the Earl of Warwick. The paternal grandmother of Dr. Edgar A. Brooke was a member of the Gant family, prominent in the history of Mary- land and the war of the Revolution.

Dr. Edgar A. Brooke received his early educa- tional training in the schools of Helena, Mont., and was thereafter engaged in the stock indus- try until 1884, when natural inclination and, per- haps, hereditary predilection, prompted him to prepare himself for the practice of medicine. The accomplishment of his laudable ambition in this regard was not easy, owing to the necessity of dependence upon his own exertions for defray- ing the expenses of his technical course of study. He is not easily appalled by difficulties, however, and having formed his plans proceeded with en- ergy to put them into successful execution. In 1884 he entered the medical department of George- town University, D. C., and later that of the Uni- versity of Maryland, from which he was gradu- ated in 1887 with the degree of Doctor of Medi- cine. He entered upon his profesional studies at Georgetown with the sum of $5.25 in his possession, but he had determined to succeed, and his deter- mination was one of action. He earned money for his needs by clerking in a law office in Washing- ton, and while employed during the days, passed his evenings in assiduous effort toward the at- tainment of his desired end with such energy that at his graduation he was thoroughly pre- pared for his professional duties. After receiving his degree the Doctor returned to Montana, and practiced in the city of Helena until 1891, when he removed to Butte and remained there until

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1893. He then returned to Washington city for the purpose of taking a post-graduate course, and while so doing was also engaged in active prac- tice. In 1896 he again located in Butte and was soon in control of a large and representative prac- tice. In January, 1897, he was appointed county physician of Silver Bow county, and in the autumn of the succeeding year removed to Virginia City, remaining until July, 1900. He then went to Dil- lon and on February 21, 1901, he was mar- ried to Miss Alice Pierce, of Sheridan, Mont. Seeking a larger field of practice he moved in January, 1902, to Stevensville, Mont., where he is rapidly establishing a reputation as a success- ful surgeon and physician. The Doctor is a close and observant student, keeping up with the best thought and discoveries of his profession, and is recognized as a particularly skillful surgeon, having performed many delicate operations, among the most notable of which was one in Butte in the spring of 1897. A boy had been kicked by a horse in such a way as to cause a por- tion of the fractured skull to press upon the brain and cause idiocy. The Doctor lifted a large por- tion of the scalp, removed the offending section, trephined the skull, inserted a silver plate over the aperture and started the boy on the way to a full restoration of his health and normal senses, which he now enjoys. Dr. Brooke has a natural apti- tude for mechanics that he has employed to good advantage in the invention of a number of valuable instruments for surgical work. He has also in- vented and patented a carriage brake, a most serviceable device and has been manufactured and extensively sold. He is a genial and captivating gentleman and is popular in professional and so- cial circles, while his practice is distinctively rep- resentative in character as well as large in vol- 11me.

In politics he gives his support to the Demo- cratic party ; fraternally he holds membership in the Order of Elks, the Odd Fellows, the Red Men and the Modern Woodmen. He has filled all the chairs in his lodge of Odd Fellows and has repre- sented it in the Grand Lodge. In each of the other orders he has held official stations of high rank, and is examining physician for the Red Men and the Woodmen. Since beginning his profes- sional career it has been Dr. Brooke's greatest ambition to establish and conduct a hospital ac- cording to his own methods. Having permanent- ly located in Stevensville, near the center of the

Bitter Root valley, it is his intention at an early date to open a hospital where he will be better enabled to labor in his favorite work of surgery.

`URTIS

C B. CHITTENDEN .- One of the venerable and highly honored residents of Park county whose life has been filled with "cease- less toil and endeavor," with which he has attained a due measure of prosperity in temporal affairs, Mr. Chittenden was born in Auburn, N. Y., on June 30, 1828, the son of Curtis B. and Armenia E. (Humphrey) Chittenden, natives of Durham, Green county, N. Y. The former was the son of Leveret and Roxelina (Baldwin) Chittenden, born in Guilford, Conn., in which state was also born the great-grandfather, C. B. Chittenden.

Curtis B. Chittenden was educated in the public schools of his native state, and in 1848 he went to New Orleans, thence removed to Memphis, Tenn., where he conducted merchandising for about two years, when he disposed of his interests and returned to New York, locating in Cortland, where he was connected with railroading for about twelve years. Then he was roadmaster for the New York Central Railroad in Albany for the noteworthy period of twenty years, one of the trusted officials of that great company. In 1885 Mr. Chittenden came to Montana, arriving in Big Timber in April. After a brief interval he purchased land on Mission creek adjoining the Crow agency, later securing other land by entry, until he had 520 acres. Here he engaged in the raising of cattle, and success has attended his efforts, it being his custom to winter from 200 to 300 head. From 1885 until 1889 he was interested in the Briggs & Ellis Company. which frequently wintered 8,000 head of cattle. In politics Mr. Chittenden supports the Republican party, and has ever manifested great interest in the welfare of his state and county.

Mr. Chittenden has a beautiful residence of fine- architectural design, thoroughly modern in all its appointments. In this pleasant home he is happily environed, and is enabled to fully enjoy the fruits of his able efforts, while he is recognized as one of the representative men of the county. In Decem- ber, 1850, Mr. Chittenden wedded Miss Harriet Tutton, born in Nichols, N. Y., the daughter of John Tutton, a native of London. Mrs. Chit- tenden was summoned into eternal rest on Octo-

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ber I, 1881, leaving one daughter, Harriet Delta, the wife of W. D. Ellis, of New York City. In De- cember, 1889, Mr. Chittenden married with Miss Hannah C. Hicks, born in Truxton, Cortland coun- ty, N. Y., the daughter of Zephaniah and Mary E. (Samson) Hicks, natives of Connecticut and Massachusetts. The original paternal American ancestors were of English lineage, who located in New England in the seventeenth century, while the Samson genealogy traces direct to Capt. Simeon Samson, a naval commander in the Revolution and a direct descendant of Miles Standish.

M AJOR EDWARD G. BROOKE is one of the oldest and most highly respected residents of Whitehall, Jefferson county, Mont. He was born at Deer Park, Allegany (now Garrett) county, Md., on September 25, 1819, the son of Dr. Thomas F. and Mary (Coddington) Brooke, the former of Prince George county and the latter of Allegany county, Md. On both sides of the family they came of stalwart, patriotic Revolutionary stock, and Dr. Thomas F. Brooke served in the war of 1812 against Great Britain, holding a commission as surgeon of the Second Maryland Regiment. He was a relative of Capt. Brooke, of the Chesapeake, on which Capt. Lawrence's "Don't give up the ship," was uttered. . Following the war of 1812 Dr. Thomas F. Brooke removed to Morgantown, Va., and resumed medical practice, the demand for his services soon extending throughout portions of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. After his death, in 1836, his widow removed to St. Louis and later to Helena, Mont., where she resided with her son, Benjamin C. Brooke, M. D., until her death in 1877, at the venerable age of eighty-eight years. The paternal grandparents were Richard Brooke, M. D., and Annie (Duckett) Brooke, both natives of Maryland. He was a surgeon in the Revolutionary army. The maternal grandparents were Benjamin and Annie (Crane) Coddington, both of Trenton, N. J. The former was a volunteer in the Conti- mental army, having enlisted with three of his brothers at Elizabethtown, N. J., immediately after the Declaration of Independence. The remaining three brothers joined the army as soon as they were of sufficient age. Benjamin Coddington took part in four battles of prominence, was wounded three times, and rendered good service as scout. He also served in the navy for a time.

When E. G. Brooke was two years of age his 64

father removed with his family to Morgantown, now West Virginia, and there he attended the Monongahela Academy. After his father's death in 1836 he became a clerk in a store, and worked in that capacity until 1840. He then opened business on his own account near the county seat, which, in 1841, he sold and started west. To his new wagon he had attached a brake, a recent invention, and as he moved westward he observed that the brake at- tracted attention and found that his was the first wagon with such an appliance to cross the Mississ- ippi. He was en route for Howard county, Mo., where he had friends in business, and had left Virginia on August 23, 1841, with a two-horse wagon and 1,650 pounds of writing paper. Cross- ing the Ohio at Wheeling the second day out, he overtook two teams from New Hampshire, one horse and three vehicles to each. With the owners he contracted to haul the heaviest wagon for fifty cents a day and everything moved along satisfac- torily until Sunday. Maj. Brooke refused to travel on the Sabbath, and the party claimed that he had engaged to haul the wagon and tried to coerce him, but he was taken with a chill, followed by a fever, and compelled to lay up. The trip was re- sumed on Monday morning.

He arrived in Fayette, Mo., in October, 1841, met his friends, unloaded his goods and went to freighting for ten days, also making about $300 by trading his paper for dried apples, which he carried to Burlington, Iowa, and sold to good advantage. That winter he was occupied in Burlington as a clerk and in the spring returned to Virginia and remained until 1852. The first two years he passed in a store in which he had an interest, then be- came deputy sheriff, serving nearly three years, and then engaged in merchandising and milling. In 1852 he removed to St. Louis, and for a couple of years he was employed in the office of the city weigher. On August 7, 1854, an exciting election took place, with considerable rioting. Mai. Brooke volunteered on the citizens' force com- mittee to preserve order. Previous to the organiza- tion of this committee about twenty people had been killed, but after it got into action no further trouble occurred. On the day following this elec- tion Maj. Brooke was appointed to a position in the city marshal's office, where he continued to serve until 1864. Then his health failed, and, on the advice of his brother, Benjamin C. Brooke, M. D., he removed to Montana, arriving in Vir- ginia City on August 18, 1864.

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In the spring of 1866 he decided to return to St. Louis by the river. A party of nineteen per- sons who had recently arrived, advised him to de- lay his trip as the Indians were decidedly hostile. Nothing daunted the Major started on the journey and when below Livingston Indians fired on the boat, killing one man. The rest of the party liastily landed on the other side of the river and returned to Virginia City. Maj. Brooke then lo- cated on a ranch in the Beaverhead valley, above Twin Bridges, where he remained about a year, and came to Whitehall. This was the only white frame house between Virginia City and Helena. Maj. Brooke called it "Whitehall," and from this chris- tening the present flourishing town acquired its name. The house is still owned by the Major and later he kept here a hotel, the Whitehall House, which he conducted until 1893, deriving a good income therefrom. He also engaged extensively in cattle and sheep ranching, and in his eighty-third year is enjoying excellent health and is apparently as vigorous as are many men at forty. He can ride any horse (buckers excepted), and is ready any day to demonstrate his ability to ride the sixty-five miles to Helena, and he did so by daylight in the summer of 1900. Hc recently rode to Boulder and back the same day, sixty-two miles.

On April 9, 1846, Maj. Brooke was united in marriage at Morgantown, now West Virginia, to Miss Eliza Kiger, a native of Virginia. She died on September 14, 1847, leaving a son, Fielding L., who died at the age of seven months. On May 10, 1852, he was married, in St. Louis county, Mo., to Miss Elizabeth Wolverton, also a native of Vir- ginia, who died on April 19, 1855, leaving one son, Walter C. W., now in the employment of the North- ern Pacific Railroad. On December 31, 1857, he was married to Miss Rachel Wolverton, also of Virginia. By her he has had three children, Mary B., now Mrs. Noble, of Whitehall; Marvin, de- ceased at the age of thirteen, and Lulu L., now the wife of Rev. E. J. Stanley, located in Bitter Root valley. The financial, political and social life of Maj. E. G. Brooke has been successful in an emi- ment degree. Among the people of Whitehall and the surrounding country he is highly respected and he enjoys the confidence of all. This confidence is well illustrated by the fact that he has served three terms in the territorial and state legislatures of Montana. Fraternally he is a Mason, having taken the master mason's degree in 1843. He became a Knight Templar in 1860, and is a stanchi member of the Methodist church South.

JOHN H. BROWN .- Of an old Colonial family,

long resident at Fulton, Oswego county, N. Y., where he was born April 16, 1846, on a homestead which has been in possession of the family from a period prior to the Revolution, John H. Brown, of near Absarokee, Mont., has been well prepared by nature and training for the duties of American citizenship in its best form, and in his busy and varied life has been true to the traditions of his family. His parents were William and Achsa (Blanchard) Brown, also natives of Oswego coun- ty, N. Y., the home of their parents. The Browns came from England to America among the early settlers of the new world, and found a secure and agreeable abiding place on soil where they flour- ished through many generations, the homestead on which they have lived so long being in the pos- session of the oldest brother of Mr. Brown. The elder Brown died at the age of forty-six ; and his widow in 1899, aged ninety-six. Mr. Brown's oldest brother, William, served in the Union navy during the Civil war, and at its close returned to the old homestead, on which he has since con- tinued to live.

John H. Brown was educated at the public schools of his native county, remaining at home until he was twenty years of age. He then started west, locating at Cleveland, Ohio, and for three years was in the employ of a railroad com- pany as a conductor between that city and Toledo. He then removed to Chicago and passed six years in that city, one in the employ of the Parmalee Omnibus Company, and the other five in the coach and livery business which he purchased after the great fire and continued to conduct until 1875. He then sold out, and, removing to Omaha, engaged in the hotel business ; but after nine months sold out and went on the stampede to the Black Hills, where he remained six years engaged in conduct- ing a hotel, making money in that enterprise and losing it in mining speculations. In 1882 he sold all his interests in that section and came to Mon- tana, locating at Cook City and going vigorously to work in mining enterprises. He still has valu- able holdings in mining claims at that place, some of which promise well. In 1899 he bought a ranch on the west fork of the Stillwater and began oper- ations in cattleraising, which he is still conduct- ing. He has had the varied experience of adversi- ty and prosperity ; has encountered dangers and adventures of thrilling interest, but has ever car- ried with him "a heart for any fate." He is uni- . versally esteemed where he is known, exhibiting

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toward all comers a courteous and genial manner and having the miner's considerateness and hospi- tality for all his fellowmen.

ILLIAM F. BROWN, the treasurer and manager of the Western Hardware Com- pany, of Great Falls, of which city he is a promi- nent citizen, was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, on May 31, 1857. His father, William V. Brown, who is still living, was born at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, in 1837, where he was long engaged in the law and insurance business and very active and prominent in all public affairs, holding for many years the office of magistrate at Yarmouth, where he was once a candidate for the Canadian par- liament. He is now residing at Berwick, Nova Scotia, retired from active business. His grand- father, William Brown, a native of Londonderry, Ireland, was, during the Revolution, private secre- tary to Lord Howe, with the rank of colonel. He removed to Nova Scotia after the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. William V. Brown's father, Charles Brown, was a farmer and trader in Nova Scotia, where he died in 1870. His mother, Agnes (Churchill) Brown, was a direct descendant from the famous Duke of Marlborough. The mother of William F. Brown, Sarah (Murray) Brown, was born at Liverpool, Nova Scotia, in 1837, and was the daughter of Rev. P. F. Murray, a Baptist min- ister. She died at Port Lorne, Nova Scotia, in 1859.

William F. Brown received his education in the Yarmouth schools and the excellent high school of Boston, Mass., from which he was graduated in 1877. Between the time of his leaving Yarmouth and his entering the Boston high school, Mr. Brown passed three years as a sailor in the mer- chant service. He returned to Yarmouth from Boston and for a year was a clerk in a grocery. In 1879 Mr. Brown went to Minneapolis, where for eight years he was head bookkeeper for the large hardware house of Miller Bros. & Fletcher, and from 1887 until 1890 he was in the hardware business on his own account at Anoka, Minn., about fourteen miles from Minneapolis. In De- cember, 1890, Mr. Brown came to Montana, locat- ing at Great Falls. Here he became treasurer of the Great Falls iron works, and for seven years held that position. In January, 1896, he formed a partnership with John A. Collins in the hardware

and plumbing business, as Brown & Collins. In 1900 this business was incorporated as the West- ern Hardware Company, and from that time Mr. Brown has been its treasurer and the manager of the hardware department.

In 18844, at Stillwater, Minn., Mr. Brown was married to Miss Nellie Benner, daughter of H. F. and Jane Benner. They have three children, Inez L., aged fifteen ; S. Bernice, aged thirteen, and Her- man V., aged eleven years. Politically Mr. Brown is a Democrat and has always taken an active in- terest in municipal affairs and in the political cam- paigns of the state. Fraternally he is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order, being junior war- den of the grand commandery of Montana, and he is a past high priest in the Royal Arch Masons. He is a past grand in the Odd Fellows' brother- hood, and is past advisor and lieutenant in the or- der of the Woodmen of the World, also a member of the United Workmen and of the Canadian American Society of Montana. Financially and socially Mr. Brown's career in the state of his adoption has been eminently successful. He is a man of great executive capacity, and stands high in the estimation of a large circle of.acquaintances.

A MOS BUCK .- With a genius for public affairs and mercantile pursuits which has enabled him to give attention to both with very gratifying success, Amos Buck, of Stevensville, has found in the northwest opportunity for the full play of his productive faculties. He is a native of Bellevue, Sandusky county, Ohio, born on February 26, 1844. He was the twelfth of the thirteen children of George and Susan (Shell) Buck, natives of Pen11- sylvania, who had early taken up their residence in Ohio and afterward removed to Monroe, Mich., when Amos was eight years old. Mr. Buck be- gan his education in the public schools of Monroe, Mich., and when sixteen he entered the high school which he attended for two years, finishing it at the state normal school at Ypsilanti, Mich., from which he received a teacher's certificate, but in- stead of teaching he went to clerking in a store at Bellevue, Ohio, where he remained for three years.

In 1864, seeking a wider field, he came to Mon- tana, arriving at Alder gulch on September 5, in the midst of its great mining excitement. In May, 1865, he went to Helena and followed mining

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until the next spring. He then mined at Califor- nia gulch until fall, when he for four years mined successfully at Lincoln gulch. His brothers, Henry and Frederick, had now joined him, and they built a boat and went down the Big Blackfoot river to Cedar creek, where they engaged in min- ing for three years, coming to Stevensville in 1876. Here they bought a merchandising establishment and conducted business as Buck Brothers for ten years, when Mr. Buck sold his interest to his brothers, and entered into partnership with another brother, George, who had come from California, and they engaged in merchandising for three years as Amos Buck & Co. By that time a nephew, Frank J. Burrough, had come from Michigan, and the three incorporated the Amos Buck Mercantile Company, in which they are doing an extensive and constantly expanding business, which has compelled them to add a new sawmill to their plant within the last few months.

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 4

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