Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 9

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 9

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Cushing, and it is as Cushing that he is gen- by the English, the orthography was changed to ago to correspond with the pronunciation given the original Gaelic form of spelling, but many years French lineage, and the name as here entered is

erally known. Mr. Courchene was born at La Baie du Febore, or St. Antoine de la Baie, in County Yamaska, P. Q., Canada, on March 18, 1851, the son of Joseph and Henriette (Manseau) Courchene, natives of the province of Quebec, where the father passed the greater part of his life in farming, though he was for a time a farmer in Massachusetts. He died in his native province in 1875, his wife having passed away in 1869.

Thomas Courchene was educated in St. David's school, Quebec, and in the public schools of Low- ell, Mass., whither he accompanied his parents in 1859. In the spring of 1869 Mr. Courchene went to Rulo, Richardson county, Neb., re- mained a year, and in the spring of 1870 jour- neyed to Fort Buford, S. D., and he made that post his headquarters for many years. For a time he was clerk in the post trader's store and later entered the employ of the Durfee & Peck Fur Company. In the fall of 1870 his party was at- tacked by the Indians at Poplar creek, while at- tempting to reach Fort Peck, and in the engage- ment he was severely wounded in the shoulder, and was compelled to pass the winter at Fort Bu- ford. During the summer of 187r he was en- gaged in scouting for Col. Gilbert, then in con- mand of the fort, and in the spring ot 1872 he went to trade with the Indians at Fort Peck and on Frenchman's creek in Montana, in the employ of the Durfee & Peck Fur Company, and later in the same year he traded on his own account at Fort Peck. In the winter of 1872 he was again on a trading expedition for the fur company, and in one of three Indian fights in which he par- ticipated he received another severe wound. In the summer of 1873 he was in the employ of Jack Simmons at Fort Peck, spending the winter at Fort Buford. In the spring he went to Standing Rock, where he remained until 1875, and for a year he was engaged in scouting for Gen. Custer from Fort Lincoln, S. D. He passed the summer of 1876 in the Black Hills, taking part in another fierce fight with the Indians, and in the fall he returned to Fort Buford, where Gen. Miles en- gaged his services as guide, scout and interpreter, as which he served two years. In the fall of 1878 Mr. Courchene located a ranch at Cusick Springs, near the Missouri river and forty miles southeast of Fort Buford, and in the summer of 1879 was guide for a cattle outfit, taking it into Canada and he gave up his ranch in the fall of that year.

He passed the winter on the ranch of John

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Culbertson, near the present town of Culbertson, Valley county, Mont., and in the spring established a toll ferry at Fort Buford, where he remained four years. In the spring of 1885 Mr Courchene took up family (Indian) allotment land one and one-half miles east of Culbertson, and in the summer of 1888 he filed on a homestead claim of 160 acres, which now embraces the growing town just named. He was the founder of Culbertson and is still owner of the townsite, which com- prises eighty acres, and was surveyed and platted in the fall of 1899. He still retains his fine ranch property near the town and also owns and oper- ates the stockyards at Culbertson, which is now an important shipping point. He also owns a fine cattle and horse ranch on Wolf creek, twenty- eight miles north of Culbertson, and is recognized as one of the prosperous citizens of Valley county. In politics he accords allegiance to the Repub- lican party, and has taken an active part in pub- lic affairs of a local nature. On January 7, 1885, Mr. Courchene was married to an Indian woman of the Sioux tribe, who died at Culbertson in 1891, leaving three children, Thomas Manseau, Al- fred and Daniel. On January 17, 1894, he married his present wife, who is likewise of the Sioux tribe, and was born at Yankton, S. D. They have two children, Ruby and Peter.

"While Mr. Courchene was acting as scout for Gen. Miles, at one particular time his services in all probability saved the command of 350 men at Cedar creek, Mont., from the fate of Gen. Custer. Before the troops met the Indians, and when they were about one mile apart, Mr. Cour- chene was sent out alone to arrange for a coun- cil. The arrangements he made were these: The commands were to remain a mile apart and all of the officers were to meet in the center without arms. He returned and informed Gen. Miles what he had done and he approved of it. Mr. Cour- chene says: 'The Indians I saw meant mis- chief.' Many of the same Indians were there as were at the Custer fight, a number of them wearing full uniforms of the Seventh United States Cavalry, as well as having in their possession their sabers, guidons, flags, etc. The intention of the Indians, as told Mr. Courchene by John Bourger, a half-breed Sioux, then an outlaw and now dead, at a later period, was to up with the troops and when a good opportunity occurred to hammer the troops on the head. Mr. Courchene saw that they did not maintain the condition of the agree-

ment to keep apart, but commenced to mingle with the troops, begging tobacco, matches, etc., as a pretext to close in with them. This the officers encouraged, not suspecting danger. Mr. Courchene first protested and remonstrated with the Indians, but to no avail, they replying that it was all right, that their intentions were friendly. At last when fully 600 Sioux had mingled with the 350 whites Mr. Courchene rode up to Gen. Miles and informed him of his suspicions of in- tended massacre, and the General ordered his bugler to sound an alarm. The officers and men then formed into line, the artillery prepared for action, and the men began to throw entrenchments. The Indians were foiled and had to go. There was a so-called council, but it was a farce. The plan was well conceived. To allay suspicion, they had held a farcical council on the previous even- ing and mingled with the troops in the same man- ner and thought they had fully prepared the way for a complete destruction of unsuspecting vic- tims. At this time Mr. Courchene was off on a scouting duty. The half-breed's statement to Mr. Courchene was later corroborated. How the Sioux war ended is another story, too long to detail here. A number of the officers personally expressed their gratitude to Mr. Courchene and told him that he had undoubtedly saved the lives of the whole command."

W TILLIAM T. CRESAP .- A native of "My Maryland," where he was born August 28, 1843, a descendant of a house long established in that good old commonwealth and with an honor- ·

able record in her history in peace and war, Wil- liam T. Cresap had all the incentives to good citi- zenship and useful industry that can come from birth and training. His father, Michael Cresap. was a prosperous and influential hotel keeper of the old style, on the national turnpike between Balti- more and Wheeling, when the public house was the rallying point of the neighborhood where all ques- tions of statecraft, local politics, great and small business and social affairs were discussed and for the most part settled, so far as the community was concerned. In this way the son was brought into close contact with all manner of men, and was learring the different phases and developments of human nature even from his childhood. His

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mother, Sarah (Hoblitzell) Cresap, was also the descendant of an old Maryland family of the mid- dle class ; prosperous farmers for generations, with true ideas of the dignity of labor and the sterling manhood which it begets. Both parents were members of the Presbyterian church, in which faith they died, the father in 1882 and the mother in 1898, at very advanced ages.

Mr. Cresap attended the public schools of his district until he was ten years old, when he was hired to a farmer, working for $8.00 per month for a few years, and then in partnership with his father taking charge of the farm and conducting it for six years with gratifying success. He then concluded to take his chances in the far west; and leaving Kentucky, whither he had gone to see the country, he crossed the plains with an emigrant train and located at Alder gulch, Mont., where he devoted one year's time to work in the mines for wages, and then moved to Helena. There he secured a freighting outfit and conducted it with profit until 1869. He then went to Oregon, purchased a drove of horses and returning with them to Helena sold out and invested the proceeds in placer mines. These he sold out in a short time and again engaged in freighting from all points, continuing in the business until 1880, when he entered into partnership with Charles Turner and began operations in handling sheep on a large scale. They followed this pre- carious traffic for seven years, sometimes on the mountain tops of prosperity and again in the depths of adversity; but gradually losing ground, owing to the uncertainties of the seasons and the fluctua - tions of the market. In 1887 they found themselves practically bankrupt and quit the business. Mr. Cresap then conducted a stage house at Cora for nineteen years, and by industry and care won back much of what he had lost, and was able to stand erect once more. He decided to return to the oc- cupation of his fathers, and took up a homestead and a desert claim. To the improvement of these and to the rearing of cattle and horses for market he has since devoted his time and energies, and has prospered abundantly. In politics he is a Dem- ocrat, but not an active partisan, preferring the quiet and regularity of his rural life to the turmoil and exactions of political strife. He does not, however, withhold from his party the service he can render as a modest member of its rank and file. And to every public enterprise in his com- munity he gives his share of assistance in counsel and in more substantial aid.

E LMER E. CRAWFORD .- Organizer and man- ager, directing force and chief inspiration of the Bloomington Land & Livestock Company, at Shawmut, Meagher county, Mont .. an enterprise of imposing magnitude that he has built up from almost nothing by his energy and skill, Elmer E. Crawford is an impressive illustration of what Is possible to industry intelligently applied in this great northwest. He was born October 17, 1861, at Cumberland, Md., a son of James and Elizabeth (Hinkle) Crawford, the former a native of Penn- sylvania and the latter of Maryland. The father was a farmer in Maryland until 1864, when he removed to Illinois and lived for ten years at Ottawa, then removed to Normal, a suburb of Bloomington, Ill., where he engaged in the live- stock and butchering business. Mr. Crawford passed his school days in Ottawa and Normal, and after leaving school was associated with his father in business until the fall of 1880, when he came to Montana and located in Helena, where he had an elder brother, Asbury, engaged in floriculture and market gardening. He went into his brother's em- ploy and remained eight months ; then went to work at carpentering, spending the summer in Butte. In the fall he returned to Helena and formed a partnership with his brother which continued until 1883, when in company with another brother, George S., he located his present ranch and settled thereon, located about half way between Harlowton and Lavina. They continued to conduct a flourish- ing business here until 1897, when they formed the outfit into a joint stock company, known as the Bloomington Land & Livestock Company. Ow- ing to ill health George disposed of his interest and retired, now being at Kendall and interested in mining in which he has a particularly bright out- look, his brother Elmer taking the position of gen- eral manager and resident representative of the company in conducting the ranch. In 1893-4 the brothers bought $50,000 worth of cattle, but owing to the severity of the winter, for which they were not then prepared as now, and also to the financial panic, they were heavy losers. The Bloomington1 Land and Livestock Company owns 30,000 acres of land, and it has 10,000 acres under lease. It usually has from 2,000 to 3,000 well bred cattle, Herefords being the favorite, and during the past two years the company has taken the prizes at Chicago in competition with other western feeders. It has 1,500 acres of land under irrigation and cul- tivation, and raises large crops of hay, alfalfa and

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grain, having 5,000 bushels of grain in 1901. The property has been selected with a view to water and shelter, and is probably as good for the stock busi- ness as can be found in the state. It is improved with excellent buildings and all the appliances us- ually found in a first class stock outfit. The com- pany also has a band of fine Norman horses.

In June, 1887, Mr. Crawford was united in mar- riage to Miss Georgia B. Broderick, a native of Little Falls, N. Y., and daughter of Dwight Brod- erick, a prominent contractor and builder now lo- cated at Wilton Center, Ill. Their children are : Dwight E., Bertha W., Howard B. and Dorothy H. Mr. Crawford is the postmaster at Shawmnt and is most highly esteemed throughout the community, and with all with whom he may have business or social relations.

JAMES M. CROFT .- This gentleman, the - treasurer of Fergus county, is recognized as one of the able and progressive citizens of this section of the state. He is a native of Waterbury, New Haven county, Conn., where he was born on the 3d of January, 1858, a son of Edward and Martha (Packard) Croft, the former of whom was born in Waterbury, Conn., and the latter in Ashfield, Mass., both of old New England families. Edward Croft was a machinist, was superintend- ent of large manufactories at different times, and in politics was a stanch Republican. He died on February 6, 1885. His wife was a member of the Congregational church, and was called from earth on the 24th of November, 1872. Mr. and Mrs. Edward Croft had five children, all now liv- ing except Margaret, who died in 1888. The survivors are James M., Marian, Edward and Martha.

James M. Croft received a public and high school education. Leaving school when seventeen he se- cured a clerkship in a mercantile establishment in Waterbury, and followed this line of occupation for six years. In the spring of 1881 he came to Montana and was in the employ of the Dearborn Sheep Company, on the Sun river, until the spring of 1882, when he came to the Judith basin, and, in partnership with Ben Maltby and N. E. Met- calf, located lands near Stanford, and here they have since conducted sheep raising upon a quite extensive scale. They control 1,300 acres of land and are numbered among the leading ranchmen of this section.

In 1898 James M. Croft volunteered for service in the Spanish-American war, in Company I, First Montana Regiment, which he accompanied to the Philippines. He was in active service at Manila until the regiment was mustered out at San Fran- cisco, on the 17th of October, 1899. He is a mem- ber of the Spanish-American War Veterans' Asso- ciation, and is also identified with the blue lodge of the Masonic fraternity and with the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World.

In politics Mr. Croft has ever been an unwaver- ing Republican, and an active worker in its cause. In 1894 he was elected assessor of Fergus county and was chosen his own successor in 1896, while at the election in November, 1900, he was elected treasurer of the county, in which he is giving an efficient and discriminating service. He made his residence in Lewistown upon asuming the duties of this position.

On the 20th of November, 1889, Mr. Croft was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Capewell Shelly, who was born in Staffordshire, England, the daughter of George Shelly. Mr. Shelly was long connected with offices of high rank in the Eng- lish army, his death occurring in the prime of his life. Mrs. Croft died on the 27th of March, 1894, leaving three children-Margaret, Miriam and James S. She was a member of the First Con- gregational church of Waterbury, Conn., and a woman whose gentle grace of character endeared her to a large circle of friends.

W M. CRISP, whose death occasioned universal regret in this community, was for a long time one of the leading citizens and most prosperous and progressive ranchmen of Montana. He was the scion of two old North Carolina families, but him- self a native of Monroe county, Tenn., where he was born January 10, 1822. His parents were Abel and Polly Ann ( Porter) Crisp, both born and reared in Burke county, N. C. The father was a farmer by occupation, and had many changes of location in his time. W. M. Crisp remained in the south until he was twelve years of age, attending school as he had opportunity, and working on the farm with his father. In 1834 he accompanied the family to Indiana and later to Illinois, where he remained until 1864. He then made the momentous and dan- gerous trip to Montana, traveling by way of the

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Missouri river and arriving at Virginia City on June 10, 1864. He at once went to Brown's gulch, and after a short experience in mining removed to Red Mountain City. There he struck a very rich lead which subsequently became known as the "Only Chance," from which he took a great quan- tity of the precious metal, working it profitably for a number of years. In the fall of 1870 Mr. Crisp took up a homestead on the South Boulder, which he largely increased by subsequent purchases, and here he made his home for the rest of his life, farm- ing it skillfully and raising excellent crops of hay, grain, potatoes and other agricultural products, and also raising numbers of fine cattle and horses, us- ually wintering some 200 head.

On October 9, 1852, Mr. Crisp was united in marriage to Miss India Ann Kelvin, a native of Brown county, Ohio, and daughter of Samuel Kel- vin, a prosperous farmer of that county. Mrs. Crisp survives him and enjoys the same exalted de- gree of respect and esteem in the community that was his in life and added so much to his happiness. For more than thirty years Mr. Crisp was a Master Mason, and was held in the highest esteem by the members of the order. Although deeply inter- ested in public affairs he was never a witness in a court or served on any kind of a jury, such duties being very distasteful to him. This good, useful and upright man is a pleasing theme over which the pen of the biographier fain would linger. His life was a stimulus to generous endeavor in others, and was in every way worthy of close examination and diligent imitation. The influences of such men does not end with their lives. It is a vital force which survives their mortal frames and goes on multiplying in goodness and usefulness.

P ROF. W. L. CRONK, principal of the ex- cellent training school of Townsend, and a prominent member of the United Workmen, in which he has held important official positions, was born at Bunker Hill, Ind., on July 5, 1856. He is the only son of Henry and Elizabeth (Long) Cronk, both natives of Indiana. Henry Cronk was killed during the Civil war, but his family have never secured reliable details regarding the time or place of his death. In September, 1867, Mrs. Cronk removed with her young son to Atchison, Kan., where they resided until 1873, when they went to Lawrence and later to Chanute, in Neosha

county. Prof. Cronk here received educational advantages of the public schools, but, always of a studious disposition, he aspired to a more ad- vanced course, and matriculated at the University of Kansas at Lawrence, eminent for its scholas- tic advantages, and from this noted institution he was graduated in 1873. For seven years after his graduation he was a commercial traveler and col- lector for the wholesale house of H. B. Treat & Co., of Atchison, Kan.

In 1890 he took charge of the office of the Ne- osha county superintendent of public instruction for two years. Coming then to Montana in 1892, he located at Townsend, becoming the principal of its public schools. This position he held with marked ability for two years, leaving then to accept the same position in the schools of Castle, Meagher county, in which he remained three years. He had previously wedded with Julia May Cole, daughter of J. W. Cole, of Chanute, Kan. Their three children are Opal, Ruth and Clyde.

The desire to complete a law course was still strong within him. Accordingly he returned to Kansas, and, after consultation with his family, it was decided to make the trip by private con- veyance, and in this manner the family began the long but highly enjoyable journey of nearly 1,800 miles and of over two months duration. The weather was pleasant and they added much to the excitement of the trip by fishing and shooting.

On September 5, 1897, Prof. Cronk entered the law department of the University of Kansas. As he had previously acquired a general knowledge of law, he having heretofore assiduously continued his reading for three years, he was enabled to take his degree after one year's study in the more ad- vanced and technical branches of the course. The family then returned to Townsend, where he prac- ticed law successfully for one year, then, at the urg- ent solicitation of the most influential citizens, he opened the Townsend Training School. Up to this time the children of that city, after passing the eighth grade of the schools, were com- pelled to seek other localities for instruction in the higher branches. Prof. Cronk opened his school on October 23, 1899, with eighteen pupils. On September 19, 1900, the second term of this valuable educational institution opened with a class of fifty-three pupils. The school opened with a much larger enrollment the second year, Mr. H. Record, of Thayer, Kan., a former pupil of Prof. Cronk's, becoming a partner in the work.

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Prospects for the coming school year are excep- tionally bright. The courses for the coming year are common school, high school, normal, business, select, training and musical. Board and liv- ing expenses have been reduced to the minimum. This school is turning out some of the brightest and best young teachers in the state, as well as competent persons from the other departments. The training school has been furnishing about fifty per cent. of the common school graduates of Broadwater county. Prof. Cronk stands high in educational circles and he is considered one of the most prominent educators of the state, while the work to which he has devoted himself wins hearty recognition and support.

H OWARD CROSBY, assistant postmaster of Great Falls, Mont., has for many years been prominent in the business affairs of that city, and throughout the state he is widely known. As county clerk and ex-officio recorder of Cascade county, and in numerous other positions of trust he has rendered most efficient service. He comes from one of the oldest Colonial families in Amer- ica, and was born in New York city, on July I, 1853. He is a direct descendant in the eighth gen- eration of Simon and Ann Crosby, who sailed from England on the good ship Susan and Ellen, in April, 1635. Locating at Cambridge, Mass., they soon became large landholders and prominent in the colony. They had three sons: Thomas, born in 1635, Simon in 1637 and Joseph in 1639, and within a year from the birth of Joseph his father closed his earthly career.

Howard Crosby descends from Thomas, the eldest of the three sons, who graduated from Har- vard in 1653 and was a Congregational minister, preaching for many years at Eastham, Mass., and dying in Boston, on June 13, 1702. He married a Brackett, and had a son John, born on Decem- ber 4, 1670, and died on May 25, 1714. The dis- tinguished Thomas Brackett Reed is a descend- ant through Sarah Brackett. John Crosby's son David, born on April 13, 1709, and married on June 19, 1735, to Rebecca Hopkins. He removed from Eastham, Mass., to Southeast, N. Y., in 1750, and died there on February 25, 1788. His son David, born on September 6, 1737, died on Novem- ber 16, 1816. His wife, whose maiden name was Bethia Hopkins, died on July 2, 1776, at the age of

forty-one. Their son, Peter Crosby, Howard's grandfather, was born in Southeast, N. Y., on September 4, 1763, and married Ruth Waring on January 25, 1783. He was sheriff of Putnam county, N. Y., in 1813, 1814 and 1815, and his death occurred on November 9, 1831, and that of his wife on July 31, 1830. Peter Crosby, the youngest of their eleven children, was born in Southeast, N. Y., on November 26, 1807, and on March 4, 1850, he married Elizabeth Petty, of Southampton, L. I. He served an apprenticeship to the jewelry business in New York from the age of sixteen until he was twenty-one. His wife died on August 10, 1861, when she was thirty-one years old and her husband survived her until November, 1878. Their two children were How- ard and George, born on March 20, 1855.

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Progressive men of the state of Montana, pt 2, Part 9

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