Archives West Finding Aid

John Shober was born in Loudon County, Virginia, on January 5, 1832. After attending law school in Cincinnati, Shober was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1852. In 1854 he began practicing law in Minnesota where he participated in the organization of Dodge County. In 1858 Shober moved to Yankton, Dakota Territory. While in Yankton he was elected to the Territorial Council, serving as its president in 1862. Shober participated in the initial formation of the Dakota Territory after his election to the Territorial Council. He served as the Council's president in 1862.

In 1864 Shober joined the Sully Expedition and travelled to Montana Territory, arriving in Helena by September, 1864. He mined in Nelson and Holmes Gulches, while beginning his law practice in Helena. In 1865 he ran for district attorney and defeated Cornelius Hedges. He won that office again in 1867. That year Shober also formed a law partnership with Thomas J. Lowry. Shober, an ardent Democrat with pro-Confederate sympathies during the Civil War, was elected a member of the 1866 Constitutional Convention. In 1894 Shober was elected to the Fourth Legislative Assembly as a Populist.

Shober invested in mining and ranching properties. The Elkhorn Mining Company (established in 1883) and the Montana Mining and Improvement Company (established in 1887) were two of his larger investments. Shober was a pioneer in the formulation of mining and water rights law. John H. Shober never married and was cared for in his old age by his niece Harriet Shober Nolan. Shober died in Helena on August 22, 1925.

John H. Shober, Jr. was born in Dexter, Iowa, about 1870. He was the son of Nerva and Herod Shober and the nephew of John H. Shober. He worked on his father's farm, attended Rathbun's Business College in Omaha, Nebraska (1888-1890), and entered the feed business with his father in Dexter in 1891.

In 1900 Shober left Iowa and settled on his uncle John Shober's ranch near Townsend, Montana. He continued to manage his uncle's property for a number of years, and after the death of his uncle and his sister Harriet Shober Nolan (1929), he moved to Helena where he entered the real estate business. John H. Shober never married. He died in 1952.

Harriet Shober was born in Dodge County, Minnesota, in the early 1850s and moved to Dexter, Iowa, when she was sixteen years old. The teaching certificates she earned between 1876 and 1885 enabled her to teach in the Adair County, Iowa, schools.

In 1887 Harriet moved to Helena, Montana Territory, and lived with her uncle John H. Shober. In 1894 she married Cornelius B. Nolan, a Helena attorney, and involved herself in Helena's social affairs. Harriet Nolan, like her uncle, was active in Democratic politics and served as Democratic National Committeewoman for several years.

Harriet Shober Nolan died at Lake McDonald, Montana, on August 23, 1929.