NICHOLAS JOHN BIELENBERG
1847-1927
Born: 08 June 1847, Holstein, Germany- Died: 06 July 1927 Deer Lodge, Montana
The following paragraphs are from the book titled:
A History of Montana. Volume 2. Helen Fitzgerald Sanders, Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co., 1913.
Nicholas J. Bielenberg is one of Montana's foremost citizens, not only from the conspicuous character of his identification with the state's development and up-building, but from his long residence therein and the various channels of progress through which his influence, progressiveness and public spirit has been felt. He was but a boy of seventeen when he came to Montana in the spring of 1865, with no other capital than a stout heart, an industrious nature and habits of frugality that his excellent German parentage had naturally endowed him with, yet from this modest equipment he has, by dint of his own efforts, been for years accorded a foremost position among the substantial, high class citizens of the state.
Mr. Bielenberg was born in Holstein, Germany, June 8. 1847, and was but a youngster of four years when his parents, Claus and Margaret (sic (Geshe (Krause)) Bielenberg, with his two brothers, Charles H. and John N., immigrated to the United States. They settled at Davenport, Iowa, where they engaged in farming, and in that state passed their remaining years. The elder Bielenberg was an intelligent, well-educated man who had done military service in his native country. He and his sons swiftly adapted themselves to American ways, and the latter, particularly, became superior American citizens. Claus Bielenberg was of the Lutheran religion, and all of his family inherited his high moral principles. He built and owned business property in Davenport and its vicinity, and was one of its most highly respected townsmen.
Nicholas Bielenberg was given the usual public school privileges, but his lively interest in all practical affairs led him to shorten his period of study in order to join in the vocational activities in which his father and brother were engaged. The details of the butchering trade were learned by him in Davenport and when sixteen years of age he went to Chicago, where he was employed through the winter of 1865. For his first month 5 work he received only three dollars and board. The following spring he returned to Davenport, and made preparations to seek his life's success in the new west.
His trip thither was a most memorable one and worth relating in brief detail. From Davenport the young Bielenberg took a river boat to St. Louis, where he stopped for a few days, after which he took passage on "The Bertrant" up the Missouri river en route to Fort Benton, Montana. About thirty miles above Omaha the boat sank, and although no lives were lost all had to submit to the inconvenience of camping twenty days on the bank of the river while waiting for another boat of the same line. Continuing the voyage neither boat nor passengers met with difficulties until interrupted by a herd of buffalo crossing the stream. This necessitated their waiting for eighteen hours. Their next mishap was occasioned when, having reached a point below the Dry Fork of the Missouri, they struck a sand bar, and in the process of extricating the vessel a spar was broken. The delay thus occasioned was fraught with the most serious circumstance of the entire trip. The party was attacked by Indians, who, in the encounter killed one man, wounded another and carried away two, of whose lives they disposed in the most horrible manner. In sight of the stranded passengers of the Bertrant watching from the deck in desperate helplessness, the Indian squaws carried dry wood, with which they surrounded the captives, held in durance by the male savages. With the victims securely bound in the center, the wood was set aflame and the other voyagers saw them thus pitilessly destroyed. It is hardly to be wondered at that Mr. Bielenberg has ever since had an insuperable aversion for the Indian race. The Bertrant was presently started on her way once more and on June 18, 1865, arrived at Fort Benton, having taken a number of deer and elk on the route and having heard of the close of the war when passing one of the river forts.
After arriving at Fort Benton, Mr. Bielenberg proceeded to consider his immediate future. His objective point was Helena. But, on landing, his exchequer, which had suffered unexpected depletion because of the exigencies of the voyage, amounted to exactly thirty-five cents. On the boat which had brought him to Fort Benton was his supply of butcher's tools, but he was at a loss to defray the cost of transporting them. Youth and ambition often meet with kindly consideration, as the young man found on this occasion. The captain of the boat, to whom he explained his dilemma, gave him clearance for his tools, and instructed the boat's steward to supply him with the necessary provisions for his journey to Helena, free of all charge. Young Bielenberg then loaded his belongings on a mule wagon, at the side of which he walked to his destination, arriving on the first of July. At Helena he learned of a business in his line which was to be bought from Henry Edgar, the first discoverer of Alder Gulch, the richest gulch in Montana. The butcher's establishment was in Blackfoot, Montana, and to that place Nicholas Bielenberg went to buy out the Edgar meat business, his two brothers agreeing to "stake" him. Here he engaged in the butchering business until 1870, when he removed to Helena, and was there identified with the same line of trade until 1872, when he located at Deer Lodge.
About this time Mr. Bielenberg became connected with the line of business that started him on the road to the great success that he has achieved, the stock business. Here he engaged in stock-raising, and in buying cattle for the Chicago market, which was reached by driving the stock through to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and there shipping by rail to Chicago. For several years he carried on an important business in this connection. In 1877 he established a meat business in Butte, which became one of the leading industries of its kind in the northwest. A modern cold storage plant was erected, and a large wholesale trade was thus supplied. The growth of the business was substantial, and eventually assumed such proportions that it was deemed advisable
to incorporate it, which was done, the name given to it which concern has being the Butte Butchering Company since directed the enterprise.
About 1884 Mr. Bielenberg became associated with his half-brother Conrad Kohrs, in an extensive cattle business. Shortly afterward he carried on the same line of business as an individual, but later became interested with Joseph Toomey, and they developed, in this line an enterprise of immense proportions for that time. They handled more than one hundred and thirty thou-sand head of sheep in one year, and their flocks were to be found in various parts of Montana, while they also transacted a large business in buying and shipping sheen and cattle from the northwest, their operations extending from Washington to North Dakota, and contributed largely to the development of the live-stock industry in this section of the country.
We quote from an appreciative article previously published: "It can be safely said that Mr. Bielenberg and his associates were the fathers of the sheep industry in northern Montana, and their operations were the first of any importance in the state. Mr. Bielenberg was the first shipper to discover the value of screenings in the feeding of sheep in transit, and his discovery has grown to be a valuable industry in the handling of mutton for the eastern markets."
For more than forty years Mr. Bielenberg has been identified with the stock-raising industry of Montana, and probably no other man in the state has given greater impetus to an industry that has brought equal renown and distinction to the Treasure state. His interests are varied and extensive, including valuable mining, real estate and industrial holdings. His investments have been made with discrimination, showing marked business capacity and foresight. Interested in any movement of benefit to the community, and always on the side of progress and advancement, there is no better example of the type of men, who have not only lived to see Montana take her place among the great western states, but have largely contributed to the transformation.
Mr. Bielenberg from the time of casting his first vote up to 1912 was one of the staunch supporters of the Republican Party, taking a prominent part in its councils, and was one of its advisers in his section of the state. In 1892 he was a delegate to the national convention at Minneapolis, and many times served in similar capacities in state and county conventions. In 1912 he joined the Progressive movement, and at once took a prominent place among the organizers of that party in Montana. The principles of the Progressive party were only those with which he had been in sympathy for a long time. His influence has been strong in this movement toward cleaner politics in state and nation. Mr. Bielenberg presided at the mass convention meeting held in Helena July 29, 1912, for all people of the different counties of Montana whose third party sentiments were strong and clearly defined. He was a delegate to the National Progressive Convention at Chicago in August, 1912, that nominated Theodore Roosevelt for president.
Mr. Bielenberg has been a resident of Deer Lodge for over forty years, completing his beautiful modern home in this city in 1910. It was here that he married, on the 14th of March, 1872, Miss Annie Bogk, a native of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and a daughter of Augustav and Margaret Bogk, natives of Germany, who came from Wisconsin to the Deer Lodge Valley in the early days, and passed the remainder of their lives in this section. Mr. and Mrs. Bielenberg have been the parents of five children. The eldest. Alma Margaret, born July 15, 1874, is now Mrs. W. I. Higgins, of Deer Lodge. Howard Zenor, born on the 26th of November. 1876, married Annie Winkelman, engaged in the garage business in Deer Lodge, and they have one son, John Howard. Augusta Kohrs, who was born on the 16th of December, 1880, died on January 4. 1901. Anne Marie, who was born on April 16, 1883, attended the Deer Lodge schools and schools in the east for two years, and now resides with her parents. Claude Nicholas, whose birth took place on the 26th of October, 1888, is engaged in the ranching and stock-raising business. He was married on September S, 1912, to Ethel Catherine Marcum.
Mr. Bielenberg is one of the extensive owners of high-class ranch property in the Deer Lodge Valley. He is president of the Deer Lodge Water Company, and was one of the builders of the magnificent hotel property in Deer Lodge, a structure that would do credit to a city many times the size of Deer Lodge. Among his other executive offices he is president of the Butte Butchering Company, vice-president of the Tuolme Mining Company, and is a director in the Pilot-Butte Mining Company.
Mr. Bielenberg has been a successful man, not only as regards the accumulation of property, but as a citizen of high character and a business man of strict integrity and fairness. He enjoys the comforts and pleasures of life, has reared an excellent family in keeping with a high social standing, and has contributed liberally to all worthy projects, whether of a charitable, civic or religious character. Fraternally he belongs to the Masonic order, affiliating with the Helena Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templar, and Algeria Temple, Mystic Shrine, at Helena. He is also a member of the Elks.
His acquaintance includes many of the prominent men of the state, not only of today but for the past twenty-five years. Few men in this section of Montana are better known than "Nick" Bielenberg, as he is called, not from any lack of respect but from a most friendly and jovial disposition, and the faculty of making and retaining friends.1
Obituary Notice:
Nicholas J. Bielenberg, pioneer of Montana for 62 years, well known all over the state as a highly successful business man and livestock grower, early resident of the Deer Lodge valley, died at his home at Deer Lodge on the night of died 06 July 1927 at 9 o'clock after a short illness. He was over 80 years of age, and had been active nearly all of his long life. News of his death was received by The Independent by telephone last night. Mr. Bielenberg had been often in Helena, and had many acquaintances here. At the time of his death, the surviving relatives include two sons, Claude and Howard Bielenberg of Deer Lodge, and two daughters, Mrs. W.I. Higgins of Butte and Miss Annie Bielenberg, who is in California. The wife of the deceased pioneer died in 1917. The funeral will take place at Deer Lodge from the family home on Milwaukee Avenue at 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon. He was in the stock business there for a while, then in the meat business at Butte, and in 1884 went extensively into cattle raising with his half-brother, the late Conrad Kohrs. Later he and Joseph Toomey were associated, and their business became one of the largest in the northwest. They handled 130,000 head of sheep in one year. Mr. Bielenberg and his associates have been called the fathers of the sheep industry in northern Montana.
Mr. Bielenberg was prominent in republican part councils in his part of the state, and was delegate to the republican national convention at Minneapolis in 1892. Since early days Mr. Bielenberg was a leading citizen of Deer Lodge, and leaves many friend s there (obit).
He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, in all of its bodies; also of the Elks. In the Masonic Order he was a member of Deer Lodge, lodge No. 14, Valley Chapter, No. 4, R. A. M., Ivanhoe Commandery, No. 16, Knights Templar and Algeria Temple of Mystic Shrine. He was the first treasurer of the Ivanhoe Commandery, when chartered in 1916. He was also a member of the Society of Montana Pioneers.
References
1. A History of Montana. Volume 2. Helen Fitzgerald Sanders, Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co., 1913.
Children of Nicholas J. Bielenberg and Annie (nee Bogk) Bielenberg
ALMA MARGARET BIELENBERG (1874-1962)
HOWARD ZENOR BIELENBERG (1877-1953)
AUGUSTA KOHRS BIELENBERG (1880 -1901)
ANNE MARIE BIELENBERG (1883-1960)
CLAUDE NICHOLAS BIELENBERG(1887-1955)
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