Archives West Finding Aid

Lemuel McClellan Line was born in Boonsborough, Maryland, on November 14, 1861. He began medical school at Rush Medical College and finished his training at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore, Maryland, 1884. He began practicing in Nebraska and moved to Columbus, Montana, in 1894. He became the district Northern Pacific Railway doctor. Dr. Line married Mary Alice Campbell on September 3, 1890. They had two children, Robert Campbell and Ruth Marie. Dr. Line’s Montana business interests beyond his practice included the Columbus Drug Store, Reed Point Trading Company, the Eagle Point Trading Company, and the Lake Basin Trading Company. He was also on the school board and started the Congregational Church in Columbus. Dr. Line died in 1917.

Mary Alice Campbell was born in DeWitt, Iowa, November 5, 1862. She received her teaching degree from the Ohio Normal College and taught for ten years in Iowa and Nebraska before she married Lemuel M. Line on September 3, 1890. After their 1895 arrival in Columbus, Montana, Mrs. Line worked in their Columbus store, assisted on surgical cases, and with her husband, joined in many community activities. She taught Sunday school, was active in the Woman’s Club on a statewide basis, sponsored the Stillwater County Library in 1918 and was superintendent of the Congregational Sunday School for a time. Mary Line died in 1930.

Robert Campbell Line was born to Lemuel and Mary Alice in Ogallala, Nebraska, in 1891. He received a B.A. from the University of Montana in Missoula in 1910, and a master’s degree from Harvard University in 1912. Line began his career as an instructor in Economics at Mount Holyoke College. Line was traveling in Germany in 1914 when war broke out. In 1915 he worked for the Merchants’ Association of New York before he returned to Columbus, Montana, and became the owner-operator of the family chain of stores in Montana until 1927. During that time he was active in merchants’ organizations, wrote business articles, and taught some short courses at the University of Kansas. He then taught at the University of Minnesota before becoming a professor and Dean of the School of Business Administration at the State University of Montana [now known as The University of Montana -Missoula] in 1927. He traveled to Europe with the Army Education Program from 1945 to 1946. Line stepped down from his position as Dean in 1947 but remained a professor until he retired from the university in 1957. He ran the Line Import Company until 1972. Robert Campbell Line married Louise Chapman of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin on September 7, 1918. They had four children: Louise, Harriet, Robert Campbell [Jr.], and David Chapman. For about seven years beginning in 1938, the Lines operated their home, the Robert C. Line Ranch (also known as the Fellfoot Ranch) in Missoula, Montana, as a boys and girls camp during the summer. The ranch was later renamed the Pattee Canyon Ranch. Robert Campbell Line died on October 18, 1982.

Ruth Marie Line graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1921. She worked in St. Paul, Minnesota and by 1930 she was the educational director of H.C. Capwell Company in Oakland, California. She married and had three children.

Louise Chapman Line, born in 1891, grew up in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the daughter of Frederick Leslie and Louise Lovett Sewell Chapman. Her father was a publisher of agriculture related materials in Chicago and he also owned a ranch near Deer Lodge, Montana. Her five siblings were Edward Sewall, Frederick, Margaret, Helen, and Jack Chapman. Louise Chapman Line attended Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, from 1910 to 1911 and Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts from 1912 to1914 earning a B.A. in English. In 1915 she earned an M.A. in English at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. She taught at Centralia High School in Centralia, Illinois from 1915 to 1916, and at New Trier Township High School in Kenilworth, Illinois from 1916 to 1918. After she moved to Missoula, Montana with her husband, Robert Line, Louise Line was active in the University Church Women, the local Cosmos Club, a theosophical study group, the Nonpartisan League, theatrical presentations, the peace movement, and initiated the development of some park systems in Missoula.