Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 68

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 68

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In 1900 J. A. and J. E. started an extensive livery and feed stable in the new town of Harlow- ton, which they are still successfully conducting, and in 1901 the three gave a bond and lease on a group of mining claims for the sum of $50,000.

In November, 1890, J. A. Hensley was united in marriage with Miss Alice Tooley, a native of Wyoming, and daughter of P. H. Tooley, now a resident of Two Dot, . Meagher county, Mont. They have two children : Howard and Lillian. In fraternal relations this brother is identified with the Woodmen of the World and the Knights of the Maccabees. Isaac is a Mason and an Odd Fellow, and J. E. belongs to the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. The deceased brother, F. L., was also a Mason.

The Hensley brothers, with the public spirit and enterprise which have characterized them in busi- ness, have also taken a deep and intelligent interest in matters affecting the local 'government and wel- fare of the community, although J. E. seems to have been the only one of them who has ever consented to hold a public office. He served as county surveyor of his home county for a number

of years and had a potential voice in all matters of public improvement. These gentlemen are among the most esteemed and have been among the most serviceable promoters of Montana's de- velopment, having raised the standard of citizen- ship wherever they have lived.

H ENRY F. HUGHES .- The gentleman whose name introduces this article is one of the pros- perous and progressive citizens of Teton county and is closely identified with the best interests of the community in which he resides and wherein he is influential and prominent. He was born at Salem, Mo., near St. Louis, on February 17, 1858. The record of his immediate ancestors will be found in the biographical sketch of his brother, James A. Hughes, in another portion of this work.

In the town of Salem our subject obtained a medium business education at the graded and high schools of the place. The following six years he remained at home, finding employment on his fa- ther's farm and also in various other occupations. In March, 1882, Mr. Hughes, fully realizing the possibilities and conditions of the northwest, came to Montana, visiting Butte, Deer Lodge and Drum- mond. In the vicinity of the latter place he worked for three years on a ranch, and then rented a ranch on Deer Lodge creek and engaged in the sheep busi- ness on his own account, continuing there five years and being in the main quite successful. In 1889 Mr. Hughes went to the Marias river country, Teton county, and here he made a most favorable loca- tion in Schultz's coulee, thirteen miles south of Shelby, where he remained engaged in sheep grow- ing until 1897. At that period he disposed of his stock interests and went to Missouri for a year's visit in his old home, Salem. On his return to Montana he purchased the S T ranch, on the Marias river, comprising 740 acres, together with the advantages of the adjoining free ranges, and since that time he has given his attention principally to the raising of cattle and horses, making it a strong point to produce improved grades.

Mr. Hughes has been married twice. His first wife, to whom he was united at Deer Lodge in December, 1889, was Miss Lillian Perryman, a native of southwestern Missouri, born in 1872. She was called from earth at Schultz's coulee in August, 1896. She left one child, Carrie L., aged eight years. In September, 1898, Mr. Hughes was mar- ried to Miss Callie Stephens, a native of Salem,

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Mo., where the ceremony occurred. She was born in 1862, and passed away at Pondera, Teton county, September 15, 1899. Mr. Hughes takes an active interest in political affairs, regarding the issues from a Republican viewpoint. He served efficiently as justice of the peace for Marias precinct, Teton county, from 1894 until 1896. Fraternally he is a member of Choteau Lodge No. 44, A. F. & A. M.

W ILLIAM F. HUBBART .- An ex-sheriff and a representative rancher of the Flathead val- ley, William F. Hubbart deserves a notice in any work treating of the men of this section of the state. The first American habitat of the Hubbart family was in Maryland, where Richard Hubbart, grandfather of our subject, was born. He left Maryland when a young man, married Nancy Downs and carved out a fine farm from the pioneer wilderness of the forest-covered county of Madi- son, Ohio. In 1837 they sought another pioneer home on the prairies 100 miles south of Chicago, where they passed the rest of their lives. John C. Hubbart, one of the family of nine chil- dren, was born on January 4, 1831, on the Ohio homestead. He lived with his parents until he came of age and later married Delilah Herron. He car- ried on farming in Piatt county, Ill., until his set- tlement in Missouri, in 1865, to become a stockraiser as well as a general farmer. This vocation he pursued for thirteen years and was prosperous. The desire to more extensively engage in stockrais- ing brought him to Bozeman, Mont., in 1879. There he raised horses and farmed until he moved to Horse Plains, where his son William F. was re- siding, and there made his home until 1890, when he came to Flathead valley, where he now is a valued resident.

William F. Hubbart was born in Monticello, Piatt county, Ill., October 30, 1858. Until he was twenty years old he had the general experience of country lads, working on the farm and receiving common school advantages of education. In 1879 he came to Bozeman and for five years followed freighting and lumbering. Possessed of an energetic tempera- ment, he thought he would try another field and went to Texas, remaining there for three years engaged in stockraising and ranching. Then he returned to Montana and located at Horse Plains as a farmer and stockraiser. Three years he fol- lowed these vocations and on December 24, 1890, he established a livery stable in the then flourishing

town of Demersville. Two years later he, with other progressive men of Demersville, removed to Kalispell, where he did a satisfactory livery business until 1897, when he sold his business. He had been somewhat active in politics, and in 1896 was nominated and elected sheriff of Flathead county on the Republican ticket. He was chosen to the same office for a second term in 1898 and his cour- tesy and geniality in office, as well as his faithful discharge of his duties, were marked features of his administration. From 1897 he has resided on his home farm of 160 acres, and since his retirement from official position has been engaged in lumber- ing. He is a member of several fraternal organi- zations, having been a Knight of Pythias for eleven years, filling the chairs in his lodge, and is also connected with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Royal Highlanders. Mr. Hubbart was married on the 22d of November, 1887, to Miss Keta M. Shapley.

CHARLES H. FOOT .- There is a virility and force in some individuals and families that will not let them rest in the calm placidity of humdrum civilization, but forces them out into new and un- developed regions to create homes in the wilderness and out of unsettled conditions to prepare the way for others to follow in serenity and peace, in short to become pioneers. What romance, labor, danger and deprivation are represented in that word ; perils from savage foes and wild beasts, perils from the untamed forces and conditions of nature. Life is always a battle and none but the strong indeed can win in the contest. The Foot family has been pre-eminently a family of pioneers, and in this work, intended to preserve for future generations some- thing of the people of Montana of today, it is well to state somewhat of the ancestry of those of whom we write, that the conditions surrounding their birth, their childhood and youth, may be properly understood in the consideration of their lives.

For several generations the Foot family, of which Charles H. Foot, Esq., the pioneer attorney of Kalis- pell, is a member, have been aggressive pioneers. His uncle, Solomon R. Foot, was one of Minnesota's earliest settlers, locating on the shores of that beau- tiful sheet of water that is known as Foot lake. Charles H. Foot, son of Silas and Julia A. (Bar- ton) Foot, was born on May II, 1859, in what is now Kandiyohi county, Minn., where his parents had joined his uncle Solomon to become his pioneer

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companions on the Indian-haunted prairies, seventy- five miles in the van of civilization. They had been pioneers before this. Silas Foot was born in Ohio, his wife in New York. Four years after their mar- riage, in 1849, near Cleveland, Ohio, they made their home in the territory of Wisconsin, near Madi- son, and five years later, in 1858, they took up their line of march for the far west of Minnesota as be- fore stated, passing through St. Paul and on to western Montana, where they located near Solo- mon Foot, who had preceded them by only six months. The lands were still unsurveyed and they became "squatters," Mr. Foot giving his attention to trapping and hunting. The life was apparently an ideal one. The catch of game and fur was highly remunerative and the untrammeled conditions of life in that beautiful land of lakes was highly enjoy- able. Such was their situation when the horrors of Indian warfare, as shown in the Sioux massacre, fell upon them in 1862. Their home was then on the shores of Green lake and from this they fled for safety to St. Cloud. Solomon Foot and family had a desperate struggle with the Indians who attacked his home. He was twice wounded and left to die, but was rescued and brought to civilization by the bravery of a Swede woman. The company with which Silas Foot's family was seeking safety was attacked and two of the party killed. The remain- der reached St. Cloud in safety, but in May, 1863, Silas Foot was murdered by the Indians between St. Cloud and Breckenridge, while driving cattle to the United States soldiers at Fort Abercrombie. Mrs. Foot was thus left in destitute circumstances, but bravely and uncomplainingly took up the task be- fore her of providing for the wants of herself and six children, the youngest being only one year old when his father was killed. Engaged in constant labor she remained in St. Cloud until March, 1869, when the pioneer spirit forced her to take her family back to the vicinity of the home from which the Indians had driven them. Here she entered a homestead on a sixty-acre tract of land. This she, with the aid of her children, transformed from a wilderness tract into a comfortable home, and life assumed an easier aspect. As soon as the children were old enough they went to work for others and added their little earnings to the family fund. The oldest, a daughter, was engaged in teaching and by their combined effort the place was paid for. The educational advantages of this new country were of the rudest character and, in 1876, she again re- moved to St. Cloud to give her children the oppor-

tunity of better education. She lived in St. Cloud until 1882, when she married her husband's brother, Solomon R. Foot. After two years' residence at Melrose, Minn., these pioneer spirits again went west, locating then in the Mouse River valley, N. D., and fully two hundred miles from a railroad, and here was ended her earthly life in the spring of 1886. She was a woman of wonderful physique and mentality, and all her life she was a worker and producer, never a spender, and by her motherly solicitude and care brought up her chil- dren with success to useful manhood and woman- hood. They were all by her first marriage and were Caroline E. (Mrs. W. W. Watson), now residing at LaSalle, Flathead county ; May E. (Mrs. George W. Laflin), now residing at Des Moines, Iowa; Clara A. (Mrs. John A. Masters), living near the old home in Minnesota; Eugene S., of Benton county, Minn .; Charles H. and Ida M. (the latter the wife of Peter Anderson, of Belgrade, Minn.) All of these children, notwithstanding their depriva- tion of early instruction, obtained good educations and all were teachers.

Charles H. Foot, up to the age of sixteen, had no school advantages to speak of, as from the age of twelve he was at work for the farmers near his home and handing his little earnings to his mother for her aid. The moving to St. Cloud was an epoch in his life. At the excellent schools there a new world was revealed to him, as the months of school life passed all too quickly. The next season he passed working in a sawmill and at harvesting at his old home. The next winter was passed with his studies in the St. Cloud school, and in the summer he was engaged in farm work near the old home- stead, until the host of incoming grasshoppers con- sumed the crops and drove him to other labor. He hired to help drive a drove of cows from Minne- sota to Lake Winnepeg. This trip used up most of the summer and was fraught with discomfort, ex- cessive labor and even danger. Returning on foot from Lake Winnepeg to Winnepeg City, he contin- ued his northern journey overland fully one hun- dred and ten miles to the Lake of the Woods, where he went to work as a laborer on the Cana- dian Pacific Railroad, just then in process of con- struction. He was soon made a driller and con- tinued at this work until winter, when he returned again to St. Cloud and entered the State Normal School as a student. From that time until his grad- uation, in 1882, he devoted himself to the acquisition of knowledge, teaching, and working at haying and

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harvesting in his vacation periods, acting as janitor and doing all kinds of honorable work during the school terms to eke out his scanty income. Knowl- edge acquired under such circumstances is not lightly valued and the young man made rapid prog- ress. In the summer of 1882 he took what he calls his first vacation or recreation, but it was not a profitless expenditure of time. With a few com- panions he went to central Dakota and took up tree claims. The next and also the succeeding year he taught the school at Gull River, Minn., with success. His summers he passed in looking after the tree claims of himself and friends in Dakota. His third year of teaching was at Paynesville, Minn., and his fourth at Villard, in the same state. In the summer of 1886 he entered the law office of Taylor and Stewart, at St. Cloud, as a student of law and con- tinued study there and acted as law clerk until the next February, when a tempting offer to take charge of the high school at Breckenridge for the balance of the year was accepted. He later continued his law studies and was admitted to practice in St. Cloud in July, 1888. He then remained with Os- car Taylor, successor of the former firm, as clerk and special partner until he removed to Kalispell in April, 1891, to become the pioneer lawyer of the infant city.

He arrived there on the first day of the sales of the Townsite Company, and purchased a lot to an- chor him to this location. On that lot he built a IOXI2 "shack" as house and office until he could se- cure a better location, and returned to Minnesota for his wife, who returned with him in July, 1891. From that time he has been in constant and increas- ing practice, an honored member of his profession and a valued member of society. He has been a Republican in politics, not a seeker of official place, but a valued counselor.

Mr. Foot married on April 28, 1890, Miss The- resa Polley, daughter of John C. Polley, of Aiken, Minn. She was born in Anthem, Minn. Through her maternal ancestors she descends from old colon- ial Virginia stock. She is a woman of energy, abil- ity and education, and it was while she was the offi- cial stenographer of the law office at St. Cloud that Mr. Foot made her acquaintance. Mr. and Mrs. Foot have six children : Dorothy, born November 12, 1891 ; Eugene, born February 19, 1894 ; Jessie, born June 8, 1896; Katherine, born January 22, 1899; Isabel, born July 27, 1900, and Mary, born Decem- ber 22, 1901.

Mr. Foot is a Unitarian in religious belief, and

belongs to two fraternal societies, having been a Maccabee since 1896 and a Yeoman since 1900. We have somewhat minutely followed the life course of Mr. Foot, as it shows strongly how steady perse- verance, good morals and application to attain a fixed ideal in life will win success even under the most unpromising circumstances and discouraging environments. The story of his life should be a stimulant and an inspiration to all aspiring young men who read these pages.

ILLIAM N. GAINES .- The story of two en- terprising and successful young men who did not come to Montana in the early "boom" times is certainly instructive and profitable as illustrat- ing, for other men, the possibilities of this young yet progressive state. And the whole secret of their success lies simply in a certain combination of the qualities of energy, industry and force of character which should be the endowments of any wide-awake, progressive American citizen of today. William N. Gaines, one of the subjects of the fol- lowing mention, was born in Dent county, in the southern part of Missouri, July 24, 1872. His father, R. T. Gaines, was a native of Kentucky. While still a small boy he accompanied his parents to Missouri, and since his school days in Dent county he has continued to follow the business of a blacksmith, and at times also engaging prof- itably in general farming. His wife, the mother of our subject, V. A. (Nelson) Gaines, was born in Missouri and is still living.

Until he attained his majority William N. Gaines remained at home and materially assisted his par- ents, his early education having been gained in the public schools of Dent county. When he was twenty-one years of age he began farming for him- self, which he continued for three years, by this experience thoroughly perfecting himself for the work of the future which lay along these lines. He was industrious, frugal and ambitious. The west seemed to him to still offer worthy attrac- tions to the aspiring young man, and to this sec- tion he came, in 1897, settling in Montana. Dur- ing the following three years he worked on ranches in the vicinity of Pondera, Teton county, and the Marias river. In the spring of 1900 Mr. Gaines removed to Sweet Grass hills, twenty miles north of Shelby, Teton county, where he secured homestead and desert claims to the amount

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of 320 acres, besides having the advant- age of the thousands of acres of free range. Here, in partnership with Mr. Albert Harold, he is successfully engaged in the growing of cattle and sheep, carrying on an average a band of 3,000 sheep and twenty-five horses.

The domestic life of Mr. Gaines dates from February 27, 1895, when he was united in marriage to Miss Lila Leonard, a native of Dent county, Mo., born in 1879, and the daughter of Wesley Leonard, one of the most prominent farmers of that vicinity. To them have been born two chil- dren, Martha Adeline, aged three years, and Will- iam Flura, six months old. Politically the affili- ations of Mr. Gaines are with the Republican party.

Albert Harold, the partner of Mr. Gaines in the ranching business, was born in the southern part of Michigan, December 25, 1870. His father, Albert Harold, was born in the same place and died there in 1899. The mother of our subject, Della Harold, is now residing with her son at the Sweet Grass ranch. Mr. Harold came to Mon- tana in 1890, and resided at Pondera, Teton coun- ty, until he made his permanent location at Sweet Grass hills, in 1900, and formed the business as- sociation with Mr. Gaines.

NATHAN GODFREY .- The subject of this sketch, a prominent member of the legisla- ture of 1900, is a typical son of the grand old sea-girt state of Maine which has sent, far and wide, many sons, trusty and leal, to lay the foun- dations of other commonwealths which should be as historically true to the spirit of liberty as she has ever been. On August 19, 1859, far in the east, at the very portals of our country, he came to his parents, Otis S. and Susan E. (Lawrence) Godfrey, of Cherryfield, Washington county, who were natives of that place and of good Colonial stock claiming English descent. His father, for many years a lumber manufacturer there, moved to Milton, Mass., and there engaged in the lum- ber and coal business until he died in 1883, having been prominent as a selectman and a merchant. The son was but eleven years of age when they removed to Milton, so he practically laid the foundation for his present success in the fine pub- lic and high schools of that place. In the spring of 1877 he came to the Smith River valley, Mont.,

to gain a practical knowledge of the sheep in- dustry. He continued this work for two years, when he returned to his old home and was soon exhibiting the public spirit of his father by serving on the board of health and in being assistant chief of the fire department for ten years. In 1890 he came again to Montana, buying 160 acres on Haymaker creek, Meagher county, six miles from Two Dot. He has continuously added to his pos- sessions until he now owns 25,000 acres and is extensively engaged in the sheep business, hav- ing a band averaging 18,000 head.

Here, as in the east, devotion to business did not quench his inborn public spirit, and so politic- ally he is a stanch supporter of the Republican party, zealously guarding its interests at all times, but particularly as a member of the legislature of 1900, representing Meagher county, did he serve loyally and efficiently on the railroad and transportation committee, on that of highways, as one of two members on fish and game, for framing a special law, and also, by appointment of the speaker, as a member of the steering com- mittee. His fraternal relations are with the Ma- sons of Boston, Mass., and with the Elks of Hel- ena, in both of which he takes a lively interest and is a valued member.

Mr. Godfrey was married in Milton, on Decem- ber 25, 1880, to Georgiana N. Twombly, daughter of Josiah and Susan A. (Furness) Twombly, na- tives of New Hampshire, and has two children, Otis I. and Florence L. Though naturally Mr. Godfrey cannot be classed among the pioneers of Montana, he can easily be ranked among her representative men of today, and must, for his large business interests alone, setting aside his valuable legislative ability, be considered one of the strong pillars of the state, having, as he does, . the confidence and esteem of the community in which he resides and of the various political factors throughout the state.

JOHN S. GALBRAITH .- The subject of the following article, unlike many of the progres- sive and enterprising men whose biographical sketches are embalmed in this work for the benefit of posterity and the preservation of family records, came from the west, instead of the east. He was born at Oswego, Ore., January 1, 1854. Ushered into the world on New Year's day, he has since

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successfully kept pace with the world, and now, near Browning, Teton county, he is enjoying a fair share of the world's prosperity. His father, Samuel Galbraith, was a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1814, and by occupation a farmer. Dur- ing the Mexican war he served as a soldier under Gen. Winfield Scott. In 1852 and 1853 he lived at Oswego, Orc., and in 1854 he removed to an- other locality in the same state, where he divided his time between agricultural pursuits and car- pentering, working at Portland and other cities in Oregon until his death. His wife, Sarah (Spencer) Galbraith, was born in Van Buren county, Iowa, where she was married to the father of our sub- ject. She passed from earth at Forest Grove, Ore., in 1880.

The public schools of the celebrated Willamette valley, Ore., afforded educational facilities to young Galbraith, the subject of our sketch. But as early as 1867 he went to the Florence mines, in Idaho, and remained in the vicinity of Lewis- ton for two years. He came to Missoula, Mont., in 1870 and returned to Lewiston, Idaho, where. he was engaged in freighting with pack train into Florence, Warrens, Orofino and Salmon river counties. Returning to Montana in 1873 he was employed for some time in buying and selling horses. He began ranching on the Teton river in 1880, engaged in the cattle business in 1884, and has since followed that business. He removed to his present location in the northern part of Teton county near the boundary line in October, 1890.

At Robare, Mont., Mr. Galbraith was united in marriage to Mrs. Eliza Sampler. They have no children. Politically Mr. Galbraith is an ardent Republican and a man of considerable influence in Republican circles. He has won the confidence of the community in which he resides and is highly esteemed.

LEXANDER GIBSON .- Among the living A pioneers of Montana there can be but few indeed whose arrival antedates that of the hon- ored citizen of White Sulphur Springs whose name initiates this paragraph. He made his advent in what is now our prosperous commonwealth more than forty years ago, and here he has since made his home with but short intervals of residence elsewhere. His experiences in the early days in the northwest were varied and often thrilling, characteristic of the life on the frontier, and when

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 68

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