William E. Cannon
Missoula County
History of Montana, Sanders, 1913

William E. Cannon one of the successful business men of 
Stevensville, Montana has illustrated in his career the 
opportunities that are presenting themselves to the youth 
of today who are possessed of enterprise, have the ability 
and are not afraid of hard, persistent labor. He is 
president of the Stevensville Trading Company, whose 
operations cover the city of Stevensville and the 
surrounding country, yet only a few years ago he began 
his career with a capital of but a few dollars.  He 
possessed, however, the courage of his convictions, 
and when his opportunity came he instantly recognized 
it and did not hesitate to grasp it.  His confidence 
in the future of the Bitter Root Valley was pronounced 
and unfaltering and this confidence has been justified 
by the development of the prosperous and rapidly-growing 
business of which he is the head.  His success, however, 
has not been a matter of chance, as he is possessed of 
abilities that would, no doubt, have enabled him to 
succeed in whatever line or whatever locality he found 
himself.  Mr. Cannon is a southerner by birth, being a 
native of Gainesville, Georgia, where he was born May 6, 
1867, a son of M.C. and Dicey Smith Cannon, natives of 
Georgia.  His father, who served as an officer in the 
Confederate army throughout the Civil War, eventually 
engaged in agricultural pursuits and died on the 
homestead place in 1902, while Mrs. Cannon passed 
away at the home of her son in Stevensville in 1906.  
They had five children: James T., who is engaged in 
farming in Oklahoma, David l., who is engaged in 
building and contracting in Stevensville; Mary, who 
married James Phelps, a rancher of Ravalli County; 
Luella, the wife of J.C. Brown of Hamilton, Montana 
and William.

William E. Cannon was educated in the public schools of 
Gainesville, Georgia and when just past his twentieth 
birthday left home with only a few dollars for the west 
and arrived at Stevensville, July 10, 1887.  His first 
employment was as a farm hand, and for the greater part 
of two years worked for wages but being ambitious and 
desiring to be his own master and work independently 
took his carefully hoarded savings and leased a farm, 
on which he worked assiduously during the next six 
years at farming and stock raising.  At the end of 
that time he had accumulated enough money to purchase 
a quarter of a section of land one mile north of 
Stevensville, which he sold at a decided profit after 
two years, then buying the noted Napoleon DeMontier 
ranch of one hundred and sixty acres, to which he 
added from time to time until he was the owner of 
six hundred and forty-seven acres of some of the 
finest land to be found in the Bitter Root country.  
As time went on, his holdings increased in value and 
he soon began selling his land, continuing until it 
was all disposed of, and later bought the Edward Weil 
ranch, three miles northeast of Stevensville, which 
he sold in 1908, to Professor E.P. Sansten, for state 
agricultural and scientific purposes.  Mr. Cannon then 
decided to give up the arduous work of the farm, and 
in 1908 came to Stevensville and purchased city realty 
where he erected a handsome modern home.  When the 
Stevensville Trading Company, in which he was a 
stockholder and originally capitalized at 10,000 
was reorganized and capitalization was made 50,000, 
Mr. Cannon became president of this company, the 
officers being Calen Cook, vice-president, Charles 
H. Buck, secretary and John W. Brice, treasurer.  
The business of the company was expanded rapidly 
since Mr. Cannon's incumbency as its head, the 
ability and energy which characterized his operations 
in the agricultural industry being bought to bear 
with like success in the mercantile field.  He is 
recognized as a shrewd, capable man of affairs whose 
operations have always been carried on along strictly 
legitimate lines and his business associates have 
displayed their confidence in his judgment on all 
occasions.  quiet and unassuming in manner, courteous 
and genial to all, with the true southern suavity, he 
is extremely popular in Stevensville, where he has 
numerous friends.  He has identified himself with 
Odd Fellowship, having passed through all the chairs 
in the local lodge, and in political matters is a 
Republican, although he has taken no active part in 
public life.

On June 12, 1902 Mr. Cannon was married at Stevensville 
to Miss Maud A. Manning, and they have one interesting 
son, Charles Clifford.