Thomas Lockman Greenough was born in Davis County, Iowa, in 1851. He was one of fourteen children born to Christian Greenough and Martha J. Lockman. The family farmed and raised stock in Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. T.L. Greenough received his education in Kansas and Missouri where he learned stone masonry. After working on railroad masonry for a while, he became involved in mining interests in New Mexico and Colorado. He spent four years in the Black Hills of South Dakota where he married Tennie Epperson, a Tennessee native, in 1879. The Greenoughs had five children: Estella, Thomas L., Harry Paul, John Epperson and Ruth.
The Greenoughs left the Black Hills and came to Montana in 1882 and arrived in Miles City in March. In Montana, Greenough contracted and furnished ties for the building of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The Greenoughs traveled to Bozeman, Helena and Deer Lodge and arrived in Missoula in July 1882, which was shortly before the railroad tracks were laid there. After his arrival in Missoula, Greenough continued to work with the railroad and also became involved in the wood cutting industry. At the same time he took a bond and lease on the Morning Mine in Mullan, Idaho, which was later sold to the federal government for $3 million. He then became president of the Snowstorm Mining Company in the Coeur D'Alene mining district in Idaho. He kept other mining interests in Montana, Idaho and Arizona. Much of Greenough's business was conducted out of town. He was director of the Centennial Milling Company, the Old National Bank, the Old National Bank Building Company, the Union Trust and Savings Company, and the Cameron Lumber Company, all of which were in Spokane, Washington. Greenough's brothers, J.W., J.B. and Wilbur D., were also wealthy mining men and capitalists in Spokane.
Greenough had interest in banks in Montana, Idaho, and Washington. He was vice president of Missoula Trust and Savings and was on First National Bank's board of directors in Missoula. Prominent Missoula businessman Andrew B. Hammond, president of First National Bank, often worked with Greenough on his business interests, which included the building of the railroad through Missoula and into the Bitterroot Valley. When Montana became a state in 1889, Greenough was elected to serve on the first two state legislative sessions. He was a Republican.
Greenough also had many real estate interests in the city. Greenough built a mansion in Missoula along Rattlesnake Creek. He owned the land stretching from the home to the foot of Mt. Jumbo. Tennie Greenough donated some of their property along Rattlesnake Creek to the city in 1902 and it became Missoula's first city park. One year previous to his death, Greenough suffered from a serious case of pneumonia and grippe, from which he never really recovered. He died in a Spokane hospital on July 23, 1911.
From the guide to the Thomas L. Greenough Ledgers, 1886-1901, (Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)
