The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1909-05-08
PROMINENT POLITICIAN AND
COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS
PASSES AWAY.
.BA|R MAY SUCCEED HIM
Federal Official Who Has Been Active
in Business and Political Affairs of
Montana for Many Years Succumbs
to Ravages Of Brights Disease
Sought Nomination for Governor.

| Helena, May IA special to the
Record from Great Falls says that
Charles M. Webster, collector of the
port and prominent in republican pol
| itics, died suddenly. With party of
| friends he attended the theater last
evening in apparently the best of
| health, For a number of years he had
been sufferer from Bright's disease.
| He was native of Zumbrota, Mimi,
| and was 81 years old.
Upon being graduated from the
University of Minnesota in 1892, he
| married a daughter of former Cover
nor Pillsbury of Minnesota and for a
time engaged in the practice of law
! in Minneapolis. With the death of his
wife he came to Montana. where he
has been a noted figure in political
and legal circles. He came within a
few votes of securing the republican
nomination for governor last fall.
Biographical Sketch
Charles M. Webster was of Vermont
parentage and of early colonial New
England extraction. The family in
America sprang from John Webster,
who came from County Suffolk, Eng
land, and settled at Ispwich, Mass,
in 1884. His grandfather, Alpha Web
ster was in his day one of the lead
ing citizens of Vermont. Charles Car
roll Webster, born in Vermont in 1924
was the father of Charles M. Webster,
and Elizabeth Drew also of Vermont
was his mother She was a woman of
refinement and great energy and am
bition. She was born in 1881, and died
in Montana, at the home of her son,
in 1897 surviving her husband, who
died in Minneapolis in 1893 They
reared and literally educated five chill
dren, whom they lived to see we'll es-
tablished in life
Charles M. Webster was born in
Zumbrota, Mimi, on April u, 1858. He
was educated in the public schools of
Red Wing, Mimi, the preparatory de-
partment of Oberlin college, and at
the state university of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, where he was graduated
in the classical course with the class
of 1882. While in the university he
helped pay his way through by news
paper work and teaching. He studied
law and was admitted to the bar in
Minneapolis in December, 1883, and
became member of the firm of Keith,
Thompson & Webster. In October,
1884, he was married to his class1nate
and friend of his youth, Miss Addie
Pillsbury, daughter of Governor John
S. Pillsbury of Minneapolis. She died
before she was six months a bride.
Mr.. Webster withdrew from the law
firm in April, 1886, and came to the
then new town of Great Falls, Mont
In 1856 he edited the Great Falls Tri-
bune. From 1887 to 1890 he was secre-
tary of the Great Falls Water Power
& ToWnsite company. The town grew
rapidly and Mr.. Webster made an am
Pile fortune there. principally in real
estate. He organized many business
enterprises and erected numerous
buildings
One Of Founders.
He was one of the founders of the
Great Falls free library and one of
the builders of the splendid opera
house there. In the fall of 1890, with
others, he organized the Security bank
of Great Falls, and was made it's
picolucIlt DuIlHS the panic OF 1888
Mr.. Webster kept his bank open by
the sacrifice of his private fortune,
and put the institution through volun-
tary liquidation in the fall of 1895,
after paying every obligation in full
Mr.. Webster was always a staunch
republican. as his father and grand
father were before him. In 1883 he
was made chairman of the Cascade
county republican committee. the
party's first republican organization
in that county In 1889 he was mem.
Der of the constitutional convention |
From 1889 to 1891 he was president of
the Great Falls city council from
1891 to 1892 school trustee, from 1892
TO 1898 mayor, and mayor again from
1895 to 1897. In 1896 he was the nomi-
nee of his party for the office of state
treasurer. Though defeated he ran |
from 1,500 to 1000 votes ahead of his |
ticket. In 1897 he was appointed COL |
lector of internal revenues for Mon
tana, Idaho and Utah, which place
he resigned in 1901 to accept the col
lectorship of customs for Montana |
and Idaho, with headquarters at |
Great Falls. In May. 1892, he mar
ried Miss Helen Eloise Pettitt. daugh-
ter of S. I. Pettitt of Faribault, Mimi |
They have two children, boy and a |
girl. In the last state campaign Mr. |
Webster was a candidate for the re-
publican nomination for governor. but |
was defeated by Edward Donlan Of |
Missoula |