Jason W. Strevell
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Jason W. Strevell (????-1903) was an early day attorney and judge in Miles City. | Jason W. Strevell (????-1903) was an early day attorney and judge in Miles City. | ||
| − | Strevell was born in Albany, New York to Harvey & Elizabeth (Lewis) Strevell, natives of New York. | + | ==Early life== |
| + | Strevell was born in 1832 in a Dutch Reformed household on the Hudson, in Albany, New York to [http://albanyhilltowns.com/wikiBio/index.php?title=Harvey_Strevell Harvey] & Elizabeth (Lewis) Strevell, natives of New York, but [http://www.strevell.com/ descended from German immigrants] named "Strübel" from Beiningen, Würrtemburg. Harvey was a teacher, then a farmer. His grandfather, Woolrick Strevell, was wagon master in Gen. Washington's army during the Revolution, in which he served until the close of the war without injury. He located in the state of New York more than 2 centuries ago. His wife was a niece of Col. Lyman Lewis, an officer in the Continental army of the Revolution. She became the mother of six children, Jason W. Strevell being the fifth in order of birth. Jason W. Strevell was educated in the Rensselaerville Academy, in Albany county, N. Y., and then began reading law with Peckham & Tremaine, prominent members of the Albany bar. His siblings were: Estes H. who was for some years a merchant at Ravena and died there May 22, 1896; [http://albanyhilltowns.com/wikiBio/index.php?title=Strevell,_Amidon_M. Amidon M.]; Emily; William; Edwin. | ||
==Illinois== | ==Illinois== | ||
| − | Strevell migrated to Illinois in 1855. He was admitted to the Illinois bar that same year, and began his practice in Pontiac. | + | [[Image:JasonStrevellYounger.jpg|thumb]] |
| + | Strevell migrated to Illinois in 1855. He was admitted to the Illinois bar that same year, and began his twenty-four year practice in Pontiac. Besides practicing law, Mr. Strevell engaged in merchandising, conducting the first exclusive hardware store in Pontiac, for a time at least, as the partnership "Strevell & Kinsell". This business also involved William J. Murphy. | ||
| − | Strevell | + | Strevell was heavily involved in the incorporation of Pontiac in 1856 and was one of the five first trustees of the village. He was selected to spearhead the selection of land for the first town cemetery. |
| − | + | On 15 August, 1858, Jason was married to Elizabeth Butler Kelly Nettleton, daughter of Dr. John Kelly, a physician and surgeon of Lake City, Minnesota. She was a recent widow with two children and a one month old baby. Their father was Zelas H. Nettleton, probably "Z. N. Nettleton", a founding father of Pontiac, also one of the five first trustees in 1857. Zelas had died in late 1857, after Elizabeth became pregnant. The marriage took place in the bride's home town. Jason moved in to the house that Nettleton had shared with Elizabeth and added on to it. The house has been restored. | |
| − | + | John Nettleton was age 7 when his father died and was age 10 when Abraham Lincoln visited the home. In addition to that house, Zelus Nettleton had owned a lot of farmland and Jason Strevell also assumed ownership of that land. | |
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| + | After being spared by a tornado in May, a strong tornado swept through Pontiac at 4:45 o'clock on the afternoon of [[November 26, 1859]] from the southwest. The roofs of J. W. Strevell's hardware store and four other businesses were blown off. The roof of the court-house, cupulo and gable end were blown down. The two-story Sinsel house was torn to splinters, burying two women and a child, but none was seriously injured. Several other houses were either blown to pieces or were blown from their foundations and turned around. Barns all over the village were demolished. | ||
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| + | Strevell and [[Abraham Lincoln]] were close friends and shared many hours together in conversation. One of the most documented meetings between these two gentlemen occurred on the evening of [[January 27, 1860]] at the Pontiac Presbyterian church. Lincoln, earlier that same day, accepted a standing invitation to speak to the Pontiac Young Men's Literary Society, of which Strevell was president. He was in Bloomington for a trial and took an afternoon train to Pontiac. His speech was not very successful, as Lincoln was exhausted and had only decided to speak a few hours before appearing. After the presentation, Lincoln went to the Strevell house, a blaock and a half away, to spend the night, after a small reception. Strevell and Lincoln stayed up late, talking about politics, slavery, and other national and local issues of the day. During the course of the conversation, Strevell suggested that Lincoln might be selected as the Republican Party's presidential candidate at the upcoming party convention. Lincoln argued that he might be chosen as a vice-presidential candidate, but did not believe he would gain the top spot on the ticket. In less than four months from the time Mr. Lincoln delivered his lecture in Pontiac he was nominated for President of the United States by the republican convention in session in Chicago, on May 19, 1860. | ||
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| + | As the conversation turned to less important topics, Strevell, who was six foot tall, said he did not believe that Lincoln was really 4 inches taller than himself. Lincoln offered to let himself be measured and stood in a doorway in his stocking feet while Strevell made a scratch in the door frame to mark Lincoln's height. Strevell then measured, from floor to the mark on the door frame, and found Lincoln to be exactly, 6 foot, 4 inches tall. One source says that Lincoln did not spend the night, but took the midnight train to Springfield. | ||
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| + | He was ordained and installed as an elder of the Presbyterian church in 1861. | ||
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| + | He served as a Republican in the lower house of the state legislature for four years (1864-1867). This was during Lincoln's second term, at the end of the civil war. | ||
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| + | The news of the assassination of President Lincoln [[15 Apr 1865]] was received in Pontiac with feelings of abject horror. Never in the history of Pontiac was there such universal mourning. True, most all of the male population of the village were in the army, but their wive's and children remained, and when word came that the special train bearing the body would pass through Pontiac on the afternoon of May 2, 1865, business was entirely suspended, schools were dismissed, and the entire population of the village and of the surrounding country marched to the Alton depot to pay their last respects. After remaining at the depot for about two hours, word came over the wire that the funeral train would not leave Chicago until 9 p. m., and the assemblage broke up and wended their way homeward. However, when the special train bearing the body of the martyred President arrived in Pontiac at midnight, there was a large gathering at the depot, as there was at nearly every station between Chicago and Springfield, giving evidence of his hold upon the heart of the nation and the universal sorrow which his revolting assassination had produced. | ||
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| + | He supported Grant as president in the 1868 election and allowed 10 year old son Charles to march in the back of the Republican marching club "Grant's Tanners", dressed in leatherette caps and capes and waving a smoky kerosene torch. | ||
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| + | He served as a member of the senate 1869-1872. | ||
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| + | He was a member of the electoral college that elected Hayes to the presidency in 1876. | ||
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| + | In 1969, when John was about 19 years old, he went on a [[Nelson Buck massacre|surveying adventure]] that almost cost him his life. A local town founder, who was a surveyor, obtained a contract to survey Indian land west of [[Fort Kearney]], Nebraska. He recruited 8 local boys to accompany him, none older than 17 years old. The traveled by rail to the Fort, but there were no soldiers available to escort them. Buck made the mistake of being impatient and set out anyway. After journeying two days westward and encountering many of the Sioux tribe, Mr. Buck became alarmed and sent young McGregor and Nettleton back to Fort Kearney with a request to the Colonel that he send an escort at once. The boys returned to the fort and delivered the message, but no troops being available they waited and finally decided to go back home. Many weeks later it was determined that the party had all been killed by Indians and the bodies were never found. | ||
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| + | John Nettleton, married Olive Potter in Pontiac in 1870. In 1871 he and Olive had a son name Wilson. However, in 1872 he filed suit in Livingston County as the oldest son and rightful owner of the farmland. He was granted ownership of the land, plus was given a monetary settlement for a share of the crops raised and sold over those years. John then packed up his family and moved (60 miles NNE) to the Joliet-Plainfield area (SW of Chicago outskirts). | ||
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| + | In 1874, Strevell built a store room on the north side of the town square, as part of a building boom. | ||
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| + | Before the Strevell's left Pontiac, they removed the door jam which was marked with Lincoln's height, and it was subsequently placed in the Salt Lake City museum started by Charles Strevell. Strevell's home in Pontiac has recently been purchased by the Livingston County Historical Society and is currently undergoing restoration with the goal of turning it into a local history and Lincoln museum. | ||
==Montana== | ==Montana== | ||
| + | [[Image:JasonStrevell.jpg|thumb]] | ||
| + | [[Image:ElizabethKellyStrevell.jpg|thumb]] | ||
| + | Strevell considered moving west. Part of the reason was to live in a drier climate for his son Charles, whose health was still affected by a year of recovering from [[typhoid fever]]. It is also probable, like so many others, Jason was attracted to the [[opportunities]] to become much more wealthy in a frontier town. Pontiac was fairly well established and any increases in wealth would be hard fought and subject to luck. After an exploratory visit, the family moved from Pontiac to Miles City in autumn of 1879, where he and Charles reestablished themselves as a involved citizens of Miles City. When they left Chicago, Jason told the family that with the new start, they would drop the final "e" from "Strevelle". | ||
| − | + | On the way to St. Paul, they stopped they stopped in Minnesota for a day to visit Elizabeth's father, Dr. [[John Kelly]]. Kelly had made his fortune the [[California gold rush]]. | |
| + | At St. Paul, they met with [[Jules Hannaford]], then general freight agent of the [[Northern Pacific Railroad]] and later its president. Most of the inventory for their future hardware sales would be shipped by this railroad, only part way, at first. A visit to Jules would become an annual event. They then continued by train to Bismarck and waited for their belongings to catch up to them via teams that had left Illinois traveling overland before and during the family's train travel. When they arrived, the journey continued, crossing the [[Missouri River]], passing through [[Mandan]] country (where Lewis and Clark had enlisted the previously kidnapped [[Shoshone]] [[Sacajawea]]. They came to the [[Yellowstone River]] about where the [[Powder River]] flows into it. At some point, they experienced a buffalo hunt, securing a head as a trophy, as well as an Indian scare. | ||
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| + | Arriving exhausted at Miles City, they checked in to the [[Yellowstone Hotel]] and soon found a small almost finished house to move into. It had no domestic water, so [[Looney Roach]] was hired to dig a well on the lot. | ||
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| + | Judge Strevell practiced law in Miles City for many years until his death. He homesteaded a tract of land on the east side of town, where the Veterans' Hospital now stands -- in fact his residence was right in the middle of what is now Wibaux Park. | ||
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| + | In 1893, he was one of three attorneys who assisted in the defense of [[Alvah Tilton]], the young cowboy who killed [[James Pym]], a decorated veteran of Custer's campaign (he was in Reno's fight, went for water). | ||
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| + | [[Image:HelenStrevellMiles.jpg|100px|left|thumb|Helen Strevell Miles]] | ||
| + | [[Image:GeorgeMMiles.jpg|100px|left|thumb|George M. Miles]] | ||
While not primarily a farmer, a record exists of a planting of sugar beets in 1898, which includes an accounting of his costs, but (as he laments) the yield record was lost, though he waxes exurberantly about the yield being as good as anyone ever saw. | While not primarily a farmer, a record exists of a planting of sugar beets in 1898, which includes an accounting of his costs, but (as he laments) the yield record was lost, though he waxes exurberantly about the yield being as good as anyone ever saw. | ||
| − | Besides Charles, Jason and Elizabeth had a daughter [[Helen Strevell Miles|Helen]], who married [[George M. Miles]] in 1880. Strevell partnered with his son-in-law in livestock (with Hawes) using a range 100 miles from town. He undoubtably financed part of Charlie's hardware store partnership with Miles. | + | Besides Charles, Jason and Elizabeth had a daughter [[Helen Strevell Miles|Helen]], who married [[George M. Miles]] in [[22 December, 1880]]. Miles was also active in the Presbyterian church. Strevell partnered with his son-in-law in livestock (with Hawes) using a range 100 miles from town. If he ran livestock independently, he had closed out those interests by 1902 or so. He was a director of the [[First National Bank of Miles City]] and the owner of real estate in Montana and in Phoenix, Arizona, and Tacoma, Washington. He undoubtably financed part of Charlie's hardware store partnership with Miles. Helen Strevell Miles died in [[11 July 1887]]. George Miles remarried. |
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| + | Jason's son, [[Charles Nettleton Strevell]], married Elizabeth Crawford in 1881 in Pontiac, Illinois, and then moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. where he devoted his life to archeology, after partnering with his sister's husband in hardware stores ("Miles & Strevell", then "Miles, Strevell & Ulmer", which later was just [[Miles & Ulmer]]. They also had a store in Odgen, Utah). Charles N. Strevell was one of the organizers of Strevell-Paterson Hardware Company and was the president for many years before his retirement in 1912. He became well known for his essay, " Dinosauropodes," which was published several times during the 1930s. | ||
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| + | Since coming to Montana Mr. Strevell took little part in politics. He was actively concerned in the first presidential nomination of William McKinley in 1896. | ||
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| + | Mr. Strevell was a Presbyterian, an elder in the local church. He was three times a delegate to the general assembly of the church and a regular attendant of the synod and presbytery. While still in Pontiac, he was the first superintendent of their Sunday school. He enjoyed reading good literature and traveled to Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, and Europe. | ||
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| + | Elizabeth died [[11 July, 1902]], 15 years to the day after Helen died, and after 14 years of being an invalid, the last few years being bedridden. Her church group would meet in her home for much of that time. Strevell died [[27 February, 1903]] (less than 8 months after his wife) and his remains were brought to Chicago for burial beside those of his daughter Nellie. In 1899, she had published a book of short religious poems dedicated to her daughter Helen Strevell Miles. | ||
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| + | Jason argured cases before Supreme Courts of at least two states and the United States. | ||
