The Ronan pioneer., 1917-04-20

llly years ago lulo opI lug uOLudS
G. Power, young civil engineer who
had been for two Or three years in
the employ of the government, STEP
ped off river steamboat at Fort
Benton and began unloading a small
stock of merchandise for trading
purposes, having determined to make
his fortune in commercial enterprises
in the great northwest. He placed
his stock of goods in a log cabin and
began to barter them for gold dust
and furs, his customers being In
dians, soldiers, trappers, prospectors,
miners from the placer camps and
the rest of the picturesque frontier
population which was sparsely scat
tered here and there over the plains
and in the mountain gulches, and
found their way now and again to
the head of navigation on the Mis-
souri, to buy provisions and equip
ment with which to wrest riches from
the wilderness, also seeking what re-
creation and entertainment the little
river settlement afforded.
From that log cabin store in the
course of half century has devel-
oped a chain of commercial institu-
tions covering considerable portion
of the state, which this year will rec
ord sales of upward of $6,00O,0O0,
and which cover floor space of more
than two miles square.
That log cabin store was a crude
affair, but it served it's purpose, and
form it have sprung scores of modern
mercantile institutions, and it is Mr..
Powers boast today that 70 per cent
of the Power stores and other COM
mercial enterprises a~e housed in
modern, fireproof buildings, each
erected to fill it's particular needs.
Kept Pace With Times.
Not only in the mater of buildings
have the Power concerns kept pace
with the advance of improved facil-
tiles. The OK team of the early days
has been superseded by spanking
teams of horses and where efficien-
cy can be increased the big teams are
giving way to high powered motor
trucks. The shining feature of so
years of progress has been that the
house of Power has at all times been
in the front ranks of the states ad-
vancement
To record the story of commercial
activities of Mr.. Power and his as
sociates would be to review the his
tory of Montana in all that has to
do with commerce and agriculture
Coming into the territory at a primi-
tive stage, the needs of the oncom-
ing stockman, sheepgrower, miner,
homesteader and modern farmer
have been catered to in each step of
transformation of this wonderful
Treasure state, by the ever increasing
stores and supply stations which
have sprouted from that little log
hut on the edge of the ''Old Missou-
ri" at the Fort Benton trading post.
A Bit of History.
Thomas G.. Power, pioneer trader,
merchant, transportation genius, pol
itician and financier, was born in Du-
buque, Iowa, May %, 1889. His ia
ther, Michael Power, was native of
Ireland, and his mother, who was
Catherine McLeer before her mar
riage, was born in Hagerstown,
Maryland.
Michael Power came to America
when a boy and settled in Iowa, at
that time one of the frontier districts,
and in 1886 was married to Miss Nc
Leer in the village of Peru, a suburb
of Dubuque. BY occupation the eld
err Power was a farmer and also was
engaged in the mercantile business
as we'll as lead mining.
He was the true type of industri-
Gus and enterprising emigrant from
the Emerald Isle and did his full
share of introducing civilization into
the middle west. He died in his
fiftieth year, being survived by Mrs.
Power, who reached the ripe age of
rs.
Boyhood on Farm.
The childhood of T. C. Power was
passed on the parental farm in Iowa,
he being the eldest of the children,
and his services were early required
for work about the place. His early
education was much the same as that
of the average farmer boy of those
days, attending the country schools,
where he received the rudiments OF
education but being natural lover
of books, supplemented his early
learning by devotion to studies of his
own choosing.
He was interested in civil engi-
neering and and when the opportu-
nifty presented itself, completed a
three-year course in the Sissinawa
Mound college in Wisconsin. After
leaving college he taught school for
some time before engaging in his
profession as an engineer.
In 1860 he Joined surveying par
ty to work in the Dakotas. The free
life of the plains appealed to him and
he took delight in the pursuit of ex-
ploration of new land. After follow
ing the life of the government sur
veyor for number of years, he
Joined a private party in the ascen-
sion of the Missouri as far as Fort
Benton.