Otey Yancey Warren (1860-1907)

From the Anaconda Standard, October 19, 1907.

"Dr. Warren was a giftedly accomplished gentleman, the word being used in the old and true sense. He was both scholar and elementalist. He knew much and said little. He was a diplomat without subservience, he was a courtier without guile."

    Such was the description given by the Helena Independent Record on the character of West Virginia native Otey Yancey Warren, who achieved prominence in both medicine and politics following his removal to Montana in the late 19th century. Despite length of years (he died aged 47 in 1907) Warren rose to become superintendent of the state asylum in Warm Springs, president of the Montana State Medical Association, and for two consecutive terms represented Deer Lodge County in the state house of representatives. Born in 1860 in West Virginia, Otey Yancey Warren was the son of Stuart Irving and Mary Catherine (Johnson) Warren. 

   Referred to by sources of the time under the name "O.Y. Warren", Otey Warren's formative schooling was obtained in the state of his birth and would decide upon a career in medicine at an early age. He studied at the University of West Virginia and in the early 1880s enrolled at the University of Maryland's College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore, graduating in 1885. Sometime following his graduation Warren relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, where he practiced medicine until 1891. In that year, Warren received the appointment as superintendent of the Montana State Asylum at Warm Springs, which, in the late 1870s, started life as a hotel and spa in Deer Lodge County.

  Owned and operated by Drs. Armistead Mitchell and Charles Mussingbrod, these two men won a government contract to use their facility to house mental patients in the Montana Territory. Beginning with thirteen patients in 1877, the original hotel and spa gradually was transformed into a longterm care facility, and through the succeeding years increased not only its total acreage (1640 acres by 1886) but also its buildings, which comprised 32 structures by 1886. Aside from the original hotel building, the facility grew to include patient housing, housing for violent patients, storage houses, a pool, and an icehouse. Until its purchase by the state in 1912,  the asylum at Warm Springs existed as a near self-sustaining institution that saw its "able-bodied and harmless" patients working not only at farming, but also in the facility's dairy, laundry, and gardens.

  Otey Yancey Warren's tenure as Warm Springs superintendent extended from 1891-1906 and during that time introduced "advanced methods of treatment, particularly of diseases induced by alcoholism, the cause of many cases of insanity at the hospital." Under Warren's stewardship the Warm Springs asylum also saw the construction of a new hospital, which, upon completion in 1900, would:

"Represent the newest ideas in hospital construction and in the treatment of diseases of the mind. Expense has not been spared to make the hospital all that is expected of it...Dr. Warren and his associates deserve much credit for the results that they have accomplished."

The hospital at Warm Springs as it looked during Warren's tenure, 1899.

  Active in the masonic fraternity following his resettlement in Montana, Warren was a member of the Valley Chapter No. 4 of Free and Accepted Masons and the Montana commandery of the Knights Templar of Butte. Although not a political office seeker, Warren's name was put forward for state representative from Deer Lodge County in 1896 and in November of that year won the election. Taking office at the start of the 1897-99 session, Warren ran for reelection in November 1898, and, following a victory, was named to the committees on Appropriations, Printing, and State Boards and Officers for the 1899-1901 term. Warren married during his term in 1901 to Katherine Kohrs (1870-1958), the daughter of German immigrant and wealthy rancher Conrad Kohrs. While their marriage may have been brief (lasting just six years), the couple had three children, Robert, Annie Frederica, and Conrad Kohrs Warren (1907-1993).

  After leaving the legislature Warren continued as superintendent of the Warm Springs asylum until stepping down in 1906. In that year he removed to Butte and was subsequently elected as president of the Montana State Medical Association for a one year term. In addition to that post, Warren was selected as the physician for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, serving in that capacity until his death. 

  Ill health marred Warren's final weeks, and a few days prior to his death was attended to by several physicians of local repute, all of whom failed to restore Warren to adequate health. Otey Yancey Warren died of a heart ailment at his Butte home on October 19, 1907, aged 47. Memorialized as one of the "best known physicians and insanity experts in the west", Warren was survived by his children and wife Katherine, who later remarried. Following her death at age 88 in 1958, Katherine Warren Bogart was interred alongside Otey Warren at the Forestvale Cemetery in Helena, Montana.

Warren's obituary from the Butte Daily Post, October 19, 1907.

Wearn Ivey Rowe (1868-1956)

From the Great Falls Tribune, January 18, 1956.

  Hailing from a state that was last featured here back in December 2016, Wearn Ivey Rowe was a transplant to Montana from Wisconsin. Following his establishing roots in the "Big Sky Country", Rowe operated a ranch in Chouteau County and later won election to the Montana House of Representatives from that county for one term. Born on March 6, 1868 in Wisconsin, Wearn Ivey Rowe was the son of James Henry (1833-1895) and Catherine (Ivey) Rowe (1838-1924).

   Afforded limited education as a youth, Rowe left Wisconsin with his family at age ten, traveling via steamboat to the Montana Territory. The Rowe family established a homestead near old Fort McKenzie in Chouteau County, and through the succeeding years James Rowe built up a livestock ranch in that vicinity. At age 21 Rowe left his family's ranch to strike out on his own, homesteading near his father's ranch. Through the succeeding years Rowe built up a reputation as one of Chouteau County's leading stockmen and ranchers, participating in cattle round-ups and during these sojourns developed a friendship with Charles Marion Russell (1864-1926), later to become notable as an artist specializing in Old West paintings and sculpture.

   A member of the  Society of Montana Pioneers and the Montana Cowboy's Association, Rowe also was a charter member of the Kiwanis Club in Fort Benton. Rowe married on Valentine's Day 1899 to Galena, Illinois native Cora Estella Snyder (1879-1906), who predeceased him. The couple would have three children, Bertha (1900-1996), Frank Kenneth (1901-1991) and Alice (1904-1906). Rowe would lose his wife to an unspecified illness in March 1906 and suffered further tragedy in October of that year with the death of his youngest daughter Alice, who was accidentally killed while playing with a pet calf. In the years following his wife Cora's death, Wearn Rowe remarried to Charlotte Smith (1880-1968), who would survive him upon his death.

  Wearn I. Rowe made his first foray into Montana politics in 1912, when he received the Republican nomination for state representative from Chouteau County. Following his win that November, Rowe served in the session of 1913-15 and held seats on the committees on Livestock and Public Ranges, Railroads and Transportation, State Lands, and Townships and Counties. At the conclusion of his term, Rowe returned to ranching and stock-raising, and in 1918 reemerged on the political scene when he was an unsuccessful candidate for Chouteau County Commissioner.

  Rowe maintained an active schedule well into his senior years, and in December 1946 testified at a Federal Power Commission hearing in Helena, which aimed to "enforce government licensing upon Montana Power units operating on the Missouri river." In 1954 he and his wife retired from their ranch and relocated to Great Falls, where they kept a home until Rowe's death at age 87 on January 17, 1956. Memorialized as a Montana pioneer and a "sterling character, good neighbor and fine friend", Rowe was subsequently interred at the Riverside Cemetery in Fort Benton, Montana.

From the Great Falls Tribune.

Zales Nelson Ecton (1898-1961)

Portrait from the Dillon Daily Tribune, November 4, 1946.

   A prominent name in Montana politics in the mid-20th century, Zales Nelson Ecton represented Montana in the U.S. Senate for one term beginning in 1947. A member of both houses of the Montana legislature prior to his election to the Senate, Ecton's notoriety on the political stage quickly faded after his failed reelection bid in 1952. Despite this loss, Ecton accomplished much good for his state while in office, and was remarked as having been a "bitter foe of reckless spending, corruption and the give-a-way foreign policy."

  Born in Decatur County, Iowa on April 1, 1898, Zales Nelson Ecton was the son of Aaron Smith and Mary Delphia Ecton. The origins of Ecton's unusual first name "Zales" remain unknown, and when age nine removed with his family to Gallatin County, Montana. He would attend school in the city of Bozeman and later studied at Montana State College. During the First World War Ecton trained with the Student Army Training Corps but did not see action. 

  Following his training Ecton resumed his studies, enrolling at the University of Chicago Law School. He married on November 25, 1920, to Vera Harris (1898-1980), to whom he was wed until his death. The couple would have two children, Eloise (1923-1992) and Zales Jr. (1926-2006). 

  Beginning in the early 1920s Zales Ecton was engaged in ranching, making a specialty in grain production and cattle raising. He is mentioned as having owned a "1,000-acre dry land farm" near Manhattan, Montana, and also helped to organize "the first oil and gas cooperative for farmers in Gallatin County." This cooperative later evolved into the Gallatin Farmers Company, of which Ecton would serve two years as president. 

  Ecton actively followed ranching until entering state politics in the early 1930s. Elected to represent Gallatin County in the Montana House of Representatives in 1932, Ecton served two terms in that body and in 1937 began a nine-year stint in the state senate. His near decade-long tenure in the Montana Senate saw him serve as a member of the Republican State Policy Committee and in 1943 was a prime mover in the attempt to pass legislation that would have created the 18th judicial district, "for the benefit of Gallatin County residents."

    In 1946 Zales Ecton announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator from Montana. He would win the Republican primary in July of that year with 66% of the vote and in November faced off against Democratic nominee Leif Erickson (1906-1998), who had defeated longtime Senator Burton K. Wheeler in the state Democratic primary. On election day in November, Ecton won out over Erickson, besting him by over 15,000 votes. Ecton's senatorial win was a watershed moment for Montana Republicans, as he was the first Republican ever to be elected to the U.S. Senate in the state's history.

An Ecton campaign advertisement from the Big Timber Pioneer, Oct. 17, 1946.

   Taking his seat at the start of the 1947 Senate session, Ecton went full bore into his duties as a freshman senator, taking a stand against reckless spending and the ever-increasing national debt. A member of the committees on Appropriations and the Interior and Insular Affairs, Ecton would introduce and sponsor a total of 35 measures during his term, all of which became law. As the Flathead Courier remarked on Ecton's legislation:

"Most of these relate to farm problems, public lands, reclamation, rural electrification, Indian affairs, mines and miners and civil service. He stated, however, that what this country needs most is fewer laws and better administration of those we have."

   In addition to his attention to the above legislation, Ecton also worked closely with anti-communist Joseph McCarthy, being noted as one of the Wisconsin senator's closest allies. Ecton would support the House Un-American Activities Committee (chaired by McCarthy) and in his 1952 reelection bid even had a visit from McCarthy, who had come to Montana to campaign for Ecton.
   In 1952 Ecton announced that he would be a candidate for reelection, and during that year's campaign faced off against Mike Mansfield (1903-2001), who had represented Montana's 1st Congressional district in Congress since 1943. Despite attempts to paint Mansfield as being soft on communist activity in the United States, Ecton was narrowly defeated in his bid for a second term, garnering 127, 360 votes to Mansfield's 133, 109. Mansfield would go on to serve twenty-four years in the Senate (sixteen of those as senate majority leader), and after his last Senate term was named as U.S. Ambassador to Japan by President Carter.
    After his defeat for reelection, Zales Ecton resided in Bozeman, Montana, where he continued with his earlier ranching interests. He died at a hospital in that city on March 3, 1961, at age 62, following an "extended illness." Ecton was survived by his wife Vera, who, following her death in 1980, was interred alongside her husband at the Sunset Hills Cemetery in Bozeman. 

Zales Ecton during his time in the U.S. Senate.

Iullus Greenleaf Denny (1859-1925)

Judge I.G. Denny, portrait from the Nov. 30, 1941 Butte, Montana Standard.

    The inaugural posting for 2015 takes us out west to Montana and "I.G." Denny of the city of Butte. After discovering that his rather hard-to-find initials stood for "Iullus Greenleaf", I immediately set to work trying to locate a picture of the man. After what seemed like hours of searching a 1941 edition of the Butte, Montana Standard yielded the above portrait of Mr. Denny, looking quite intense and grumpy! Facial expression notwithstanding, "I.G." Denny (as most sources refer to him) was a prominent lawyer and political figure in Montana during the early years of the 20th century, serving as Missoula County prosecuting attorney. Shortly before his passing in 1925, Denny served one term in the Montana House of Representatives and in 1924 was an unsuccessful aspirant for Governor of Montana.

   Denny's story begins with his birth on May 19, 1859, in Bethel, Polk County, Oregon, being one of seven children born to Aaron (1823-1903) and Almyra King Denny (1826-1892), who had migrated to the Oregon territory from Indiana. As mentioned earlier, nearly every available source on Denny's life records him by his initials, except his biography in 1913's A History of the Montana Vol. 3, which denotes his first and middle names as "Iullus Greenleaf." His first name also has a slight variation in spelling, being given as "Iulius".

    As the son of pioneer settlers in the Oregon territory, I.G. Denny was "reared to the sturdy discipline of the pioneer farm" and commenced his education in the village school of Bethel, Oregon. After unsuccessfully applying for enrollment at West Point Denny enrolled at the University of Oregon, where he studied for one year. He would leave that school to begin the study of law in the offices of Daly and Butler, where he remained for about a year. Denny decided upon a career in law during this time and earned his law degree from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon in the class of 1888.

    Soon after graduating, Denny was admitted to the Oregon bar but within a short period decided to remove to Montana. He first settled in Ravalli County but later moved to Missoula, where he would enter "vigorously upon the practice of his profession." In the succeeding years, Denny would gain a "substantial and lucrative practice" in his new hometown and in 1889 made his first attempt to gain public office, being the Democratic candidate for Missoula County prosecuting attorney. He would be defeated for that office by Republican Frederick Webster by just two hundred votes. 

   Denny made another run for Missoula County prosecuting attorney at the next election and was successful. He would serve two more terms as county attorney (1899-1901 and 1901-1903) and was also headhunted by Montana Democrats to be a potential nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives from his district. Denny had married in February 1892 to Beatrice Reynolds, to whom he was wed until her death in 1906. Two sons were born to them, Robert M. (born 1892) and Thomas R. (born 1894). 

   Sometime after his time as Missoula County attorney Denny relocated to Butte, Montana,. where he continued to practice law. Sources of the time also give note to the "I.G. Denny Law School" located in Butte. Sadly further information regarding this school remains at a minimum, although it receives prominent mention in a November 30, 1941 article on Denny featured in the Butte, Montana Standard. The Standard notes that he:

"Established what was believed to be the only private law school in the northwest, from which many Butte young men graduated and later were admitted to practice by the Supreme Court. His school was in his law offices on the Silver Bow block. Most of the classes were at night due to the fact that most of his pupils were employed during the day."

From the Montana American, May 15, 1925.

   Despite the scant information available on the I.G. Denny Law School, it is known that it produced one notable graduate from its ranks, Dimitre A. Batchoff (1888-1968), who served as U.S. Marshal for the District of Montana from 1949-1953.

   Late in his life, Denny won election as one of Silver Bow County's representatives to the Montana General Assembly, serving in the session of 1923-24. He is recorded by the Big Timber Pioneer as having been one of the legislators to introduce a bill providing for the "appropriation of $15,000 for the construction of a tannery at the state penitentiary at Deer Lodge."

   In the 1924 election year, I.G. Denny threw his hat in the ring in the race for Governor of Montana. As one of five candidates vying for the Democratic nomination during the primary season, Denny faced an uphill battle, and on primary election day placed fourth, garnering 6, 340 votes. The winner of the Democratic primary, John Edward Erickson (1863-1946), would go on to defeat Republican incumbent Joseph Dixon in November and began the first of three terms as Governor, later serving a short stint as U.S. Senator from 1933-34.
   Following his unsuccessful bid for Governor Denny continued to practice law in Butte, and in early May 1925 became afflicted with appendicitis, which in turn necessitated an operation. Denny died shortly after undergoing the operation on May 16, 1925, at age 67. He had been preceded in death by his wife Beatrice and following his passing he was interred alongside her at the St. Patrick's Cemetery in Butte (note the misspelled first name on Denny's Find-A-Grave page!)

From the Baker Sentinel May 29, 1925.

Wilbra Hamlin Swett (1860-1936)

Portrait from the "Manual of Legislative Procedure for the state of Montana", 1895.

   One of only five strange-name political figures from Montana to receive a profile here on the site, Wilbra Hamlin Swett served two terms in the Montana Legislature in the mid-1890s, being elected as House Speaker during his second term. Wilbra H. Swett was born on October 17, 1860 in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, being the son of Eli Chamberlain (1826-1901) and Sarah Hersey Swett (born 1832). The first two decades of his life were spent in the town of his birth. He would attend the public schools of Wolfeboro and was later a student at the Friend's School in Providence, Rhode Island. In the mid-1880s he traveled west, eventually settling in South Dakota, where he would reside for about five years. Swett married in Davison County, South Dakota on June 19, 1888 to Ella Priscilla Stearns (born 1861), a native of Cleveland, Ohio. The couple is recorded as being childless throughout their marriage. 

   A few years following his marriage Wilbra H. Swett moved to Butte, Montana, where he would find work as an engineer with the Butte and Boston Mining Company. Aside from his mining interests, Swett also found time to tread the political waters, and in 1892 was nominated by the Republicans of Silver Bow County for a seat in the Montana State House of Representatives. He won the election that November with 2,679 votes and took his seat at the beginning of the 1893 term. As a first-term legislator with no previous experience in public life, Swett proved to be no slouch during the 1893-95 session, being noted by the Anaconda Standard newspaper as a "workingman who works." This same paper also relates that Swett:

"Proved an earnest and convincing debater, and speedily became one of the leaders of the house. In an atmosphere of corruption there was never a breath of suspicion of the integrity of Mr. Swett as a citizen or of his loyalty as a party man" 

   After a successful first term, Swett was renominated in 1894 and won a second term that November, garnering 3,406 votes. At the beginning of the 1895-97 session, Swett was selected by his fellow legislators as Speaker of the House,  serving in this capacity until the close of the session. 
   Despite his success in mining and politics in Montana, Wilbra Swett left the "Treasure State" in the late 1890s and returned to the place of his birth, Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. Here in 1904, he purchased a hardware business and later became one of the organizers of the Wolfeboro National Bank, entering into the position of bank cashier in 1906. In 1911 Swett and his wife removed from Wolfeboro to California, where they would reside for the remainder of their lives. Swett had a home in both Garden Grove and Long Beach, dying in the latter city on November 22, 1936 at age 76. A burial location for both Swett and his wife is unknown at this time.

Isbell Searcy McQuitty (1876-1948)

From the "Yesteryears and Pioneers", 1972.

  The state of Montana is severely underrepresented here on the site, so underrepresented in fact that over the past two and a half years only two oddly named political figures (Decius Spear Wade and Vardaman Allen Cockerill) have received a biography here. I'm proud to announce that two has turned into three with the addition of one Isbell Searcy McQuitty, a native-born Missourian who went on to find success in both business and politics in both Meagher and Wheatland County, Montana. 

   Born in a log cabin in Columbia, Missouri on November 17, 1876, Isbell Searcy McQuitty was the eldest of two sons born to James and Annie Dysart McQuitty. His middle name is incorrectly given by some sources as "Searey", and the correct spelling of "Searcy" is listed on both his World War I draft registration card as well as in his biography in the 1972 History of Wheatland entitled "Yesteryears and Pioneers." While his first name "Isbell" is certainly peculiar, McQuitty himself looks to have preferred going by the initials "I.S. McQuitty" as far as his public life is concerned.

   "Mac" McQuitty and his brother Ewell Fielding "Dick" McQuitty both attended school in Columbia and after graduating from the local high school enrolled at the University of Missouri in the late 1890s. The brothers partnered together around 1900 to engage in railroad construction work, and this period of employment eventually took them to Montana in 1906, where they worked on a continuation of the Milwaukee Railroad. Two years after reaching Montana under the employ of the railroad, work was finished, and the McQuitty brothers began to plot their business future in the town of Harlowton. 

   In 1908 they began construction on a two-story concrete building that would eventually become known as the "McQuitty Block". In April 1909 construction was completed, and soon after the building became home to the Harlowton Grocery Company, a business that both brothers ran successfully for many years afterward. Early in his Montana residency, Isbell McQuitty married in July of 1905 to another native of Missouri, Ida Emma Kyger (1879-1954), and the couple is recorded as being childless through the duration of their marriage.

   While successful in their business pursuits, both brothers became involved in local politics, with Ewell McQuitty being elected as the Mayor of Harlowton. Isbell McQuitty took an active role in Democratic politics in Meagher County, being a delegate to the county Democratic Convention in September 1910. At this gathering, he received the nomination for representative to the Montana State House of Representatives, and in the November election proved successful, gaining "a handsome majority and running ahead of his ticket." The Harlowton News of November 11, 1910, reported on McQuitty's victory, and also ran an announcement from him, in which he remarked of the "splendid support accorded me in the recent campaign." That announcement is shown below.

   Taking his seat at the state capitol in Helena, McQuitty served on the house committees on Federal Relations and Military Affairs during his term. After leaving the legislature in 1913 he returned to his business activities in Harlowton and also was a longstanding member of both the local Odd Fellows Lodge and the Masons. During WWI he became active in the Liberty Bond drive in Harlowton and took part in similar fundraising efforts during WWII.

   Several years after his term in the state house "Mac" McQuitty became a leading figure in the establishment of Wheatland County, Montana, formed in 1917 from portions of both Meagher County and Sweet Grass County. McQuitty was the chairman of the new county's first board of commissioners in 1917 and 1918 and five years later was elected to the Montana State Senate from Wheatland. He served four terms of two years each and left the Senate in 1931. Two years later he was named as the postmaster of Harlowton, and after four years in this post resigned to take the position of State Purchasing Agent for Montana in the administration of Governor Roy E. Ayers. The Helena Daily Independent lauded McQuitty's appointment to the post in July 1937, noting that:

"Through 31 years of experience in Montana in business related to that handled by the state purchasing agent, Mr. McQuitty has gained a valuable background for this important position."

From the Helena Daily Independent, July 1, 1937 edition.

   McQuitty resigned as state purchasing agent in January 1941 and for the remainder of his life remained a prominent figure in Harlowton, even seeing his younger brother Ewell win election to the Montana state senate in 1939, where he would serve for sixteen years. Isbell Searcy McQuitty died shortly before his 72nd birthday on October 31, 1948. His brother "Dick" followed him in death in November of 1960 and both were subsequently buried at the Harlowton Cemetery in Harlowton, with "Mac" being interred under a headstone that states "A Missourian By Birth--a Montanan By Adoption--And A Democrat".