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O’Fallon Flashbacks

Copyright 1975 O'Fallon Historical Society, Baker, Montana. ALL RIGHTS RESEVED

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Our neighbors were the Atkinsons (grandfather and parents of Richard Atkinson now living in Baker) , the Varners, the Traweeks, the Yokleys and after the coming of the homesteaders, the Charlie Weiss family and the Chris Jespersons. Many of the homesteaders were very temporary and spent only the minimum of time on their claims, just what was necessary to "prove up" and get the deed. Some of the claims were lost to the loan companies, some reverted to the counties for unpaid taxes and some were sold directly to others who "hung on" through the thin years, so the farmers and ranchers now living here have accumulated enough acres so they can both farm and keep livestock and manage to make a good living.

A Sunday at Atkinson's. Mr. Atkinson and Mrs. Emerson in the cart. Riders, left to right, Louise Emerson and Grace Hunter riding double, Mrs. Bill Moscrip, Tom Emerson, Jean Emerson and Mary McConnell.

A few side-lights on ranch life in the early 1900's.

There were amazingly few accidents, which was a blessing, with the nearest doctor, for a good many years, in Miles City. One of the accidents I recall was the time my little brother, Tom, fell into the spring. He was three and I was five years old. He was leaning over the barrel that was over the spring, watching the water bubble through the sand at the bottom and watching the water spiders swimming around, when he tumbled in head first. I rushed to the house for Mother and she fairly flew past me down the path. By the time she got there Tom had "up-ended" and was clinging to the edge of the barrel. As he expressed it, "The water swimmed me up." The water was so cold he could not have hung on long. Mother pulled him out, none the worse; a happy ending to a near tragedy.

In the fall of 1903 Mother took a trip to Scotland for a much needed change and rest. She took Louise along and Dad's sister, Aunt Margaret, who was unmarried, came out from Wisconsin to keep house for the rest of us. However, I spent most of the time (she was gone six months) with my Uncle Frank and Aunt Julia and their two sons, Bert and Charles at the A 0. Each night I kissed each one "goodnight" after I was ready for bed. One particular evening Bert was on his knees in the kitchen cutting "shavings" from a stick of wood to start the fire next morning. As I bent over to kiss him, he made a quick jab at my bare foot with his sharp jackknife and though I'm sure he only meant to scare me, he cut my toe next to the big toe on my right foot, where a hairline scar is still visible. The blood spurted, I howled and I’m sure he was in the "dog house." Whether or not it cured me of the "good-night" ritual I don't recall.

Charlie Atkinson and Grace Hunter with Dan and the cart at Atkinson's about 1908.

One afternoon Mother decided to visit school and hitched our Shetland pony, Dan, to his little cart. What she didn't know was that along side the road was a dead horse, with his legs grotesquely sticking up in the air. One quick look was enough for Dan and he turned so sharply he turned himself, the cart and Mother over. She clambered out, helped Dan to his feet, found the cart was still intact and proceeded on to school. However, no wanting to tempt luck too far, like the wise men of old, she "returned home by a different way." She no doubt had a bruise or two or an extra twinge of rheumatism next day.

One spring our Scottish relatives who "ran sheep", gave us a couple of "bum lambs", which we kept in the yard at the house. We fed them milk from a bottle, so they became pets. One day my mother decided they seemed a bit listless and decided to give them a dose of medicine (what kind I don't know). She asked the hired man to catch them for her. Our yard was quite large and after the man had raced after them a while in vain pursuit and was no doubt out of breath, Mother just called them and they came right up to her (as she knew they would), whereupon she explained to the man that she thought "they would be the better of a little exercise." I've an idea he kept his reply under his breath.

Rising time was at four A.M. all summer and even so, what with the horses to be wrangled, fed oats and harnessed, the cows to be milked, the calves, pigs, chickens, cats and dogs fed, breakfast to be eaten, lunches made and etc. it was seven or eight o'clock before everything was in readiness for the day's program - off to the "desert claim" five miles away to "put up" hay for the men, school for the teacher and us, while for Mother it was baking , churning, cleaning and preparation for the evening meal. The ranch was a veritable beehive of activity. It seemed Mother wakened the men. What her system was I don't know, but one morning she got every one up at three instead of four A.M. which caused one of the men to comment, " "She's sure getting a move on us this morning."

Horses provided our only mode of transportation and, thinking back, I am amazed there were so few accidents. We had what we called the "saddle horse bunch," which were corralled every morning and included both work horses and saddle horses. Each day the ones that would be used were caught and the others turned out to the pasture again. There were twenty to twenty-four horses in this bunch. During the free-range era, Dad had a herd of wild horses, which were corralled only once or twice a year. These were used for saddle horses after they were tamed, trained and "broke", to use the old colloquial expression.

Each horse has its own individuality and many of them are very smart. Mother's private driving horse, a dark bay

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Jean Emerson on Victor, 1915.

Louise Emerson, 1915.

named Pedro, was one such animal. In the summer of 1915 following our sojourn in Long Beach, I was driving home alone from Baker with Pedro and the cart. During the time we had been gone the country had been "settled up" and there were many side roads coming into the main Ekalaka-Baker road. I had not paid too much attention on the way in and as I returned home felt a bit unsure of the correct turn-off, so I just "slacked the reins" and sure enough, when we came to the right one, Pedro trotted briskly to the left. He knew he was headed home and he knew the road that would take him there. I can still recall my feeling of deep relief, as I knew that he knew!

My father fully enjoyed the life of the "early days" - the independence, the challenge, the freedom of thought and action. He did not seem to mind the grueling work or the things that would be considered hardships today.

After the sort of life Mother had had in Scotland, I sometimes wonder how she ever adjusted. While she was

Jean Emerson and Grace Hunter with Pedro and the cart going for the mail to the V

01 five miles away, about 1910.

brought up on a farm, there were people to be had to do the work, both indoors and out, also the farms were close together and there was leisure for social events. She did her share without complaining, but I never heard her say she wished she were back on the ranch -there was too much drudgery and too little culture. Busy as she was, she always used tablecloths, red and white or tan and white checked ones, so we children would grow up having them. Mother told me that one evening when she had the table set, Louise came along, grabbed a corner and pulled the table cloth with every thing on it to the floor. Another time Mother was coming up the cellar steps with a pan of milk that had been strained into a large, round pan to provide a good sized surface for the cream to rise. Louise dropped through the trap door right into the milk. What a mess! While we were quite small she got a piano, and though she could play quite well, she was too busy or tired to use it much. As an old "cow-puncher" colorfully expressed it, "This country is fine for men and dogs, but hell on women and horses."

Pioneering here is now history and a thing of the past. Looking back on my childhood, I think of it as a good life and a way of life calculated to develop traits of independence, self-reliance and common sense.

I, Jean Emerson, married Alexander Hamilton in Baker, Montana in 1926. "Alex", as his friends called him, was born in South Scotland on June 11, 1891. In 1900, at the age of nine, he came with his parents, William G. and Grace Hamilton, to the Ismay, Montana area and settled on the old

Front view of Emereson ranch house as it looks today. Tom Hamilton is the third generation to live in the house on the original ranch.

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T D ranch (where the TeeDee post office was). There his father "ran sheep" and later raised cattle.

As a boy "Alex" worked on the ranch and went to school at Knowlton and Miles City.

After our marriage we lived on the Emerson Ranch and raised stock. In later years we spent much of our time at our home in Baker and our son Tom ran the ranch. Tom is the third generation to live on the original ranch. "Alex" died in the winter of 1973 at the age of 81. I still live in our home in town.

Besides our son Tom, we had two daughters, Grace Hamilton Cox and Alexandra Hamilton Shepherd.

VIRGINIA HAMILTON

By Virginia Hamilton

Virginia Hamilton was born at Baker, Montana on December 4, 1913. She was one of three girls born to Raymon Sidney and Essie Zietlow Hamilton. The other two girls are; Patricia H. Cheatham of Lakeland, Florida and Elizabeth H. Mc Dowell of Aberdeen, South Dakota.

Patricia was born at Baker December 3, 1917 and Elizabeth was born at Baker on December 26, 1915.

Virginia Hamilton standing on homestead land of her parents on one of her visits back to Montana.

Raymon Hamilton homesteaded at Kingmont, east of Baker and moved later into Baker where the family lived on "Pretty Street" (south second street west) next to the Russells of the Russell Department Store. They lived first in a pink house with an "out house" in the back. The girls grew up as babies there. They had a simple fare of food Virginia recalls especially enjoying milk from a tin cup and Graham Crackers. I (Virginia) remember that we felt rich when we finally moved on "Pretty Street" and I recall playing dolls with Maretta Russell. We lived about 3 1/2 blocks from the school but one day when it was about 50 degrees below zero I froze my hands on the way home from school. We had a wonderful garden on "Pretty Street". There were lots of good carrots. In the wintertime we ate lots of macaroni and cheese and on Sunday we had stewed chicken of which I preferred the wings and the liver. The closest doctor was 80 miles away at Miles City but mother had all three of us and she managed to scrub floors right up to the time of delivery.

We used to go on picnics in an open Model T Ford. I remember seeing some wild horses where we had the picnics and I also remember a Carbon Black Plant and lots of gumbo and plains. Daddy had a real estate and insurance business and bought a farm which has since been sold but he kept the Kingmont homestead. We girls still own the land, which has a partial lease to the Shell Oil Company for oil rights. Daddy always said the land was good for nothing so it must have oil on it. We have always kept it and being that it is part of the

Homestead land at Kingmont-east of Baker. Mr. Hamilton always said there must be oil there because the land was not good for farming.

Williston Basin, it has proven out and may prove to be more. At present the land is let to a Baker man for grazing purposes, for a nominal fee. We still have the deed recorded in an abstract from the President of the United States, Taft I believe.

My mother's parents owned and developed one of the early telephone systems in the west, The Dakota Central Telephone Co. at Aberdeen, South Dakota. Mother was working at the phone company at the time my Dad proposed to her on the post office steps. Daddy was a telegraph operator in Baker and wrote some articles for a magazine (maybe telephone). We lived in Baker until Daddy developed Parkinson's Disease, then we moved to Aberdeen where Mother's folks still lived. We three girls finished high school at Aberdeen, and attended college at the Tallahassee, Florida. State College now the University of Florida. Daddy died in Lakeland, Florida at the age of 53.

Our mother died on January 3, 1969 in Lakeland of coronary heart trouble. She had many friends and still had visitors from Baker and correspondence from some people there. Some Baker people moved to Lakeland and they came to see her where she lived, in a large house her father had left to her, in a beautiful section of south Lakeland. When visitors came she always welcomed them and made them feel at home and shared with them some citrus fruit from our groves here, about 30 acres.

I am in real estate, as my father was, in the central part of growing Florida. I also sell on the east and west coasts of Florida at Vero Beach and Sarasota through cooperating brokers. I am considered quite successful in the better types of properties. I married a phosphate and mining engineer from Philadelphia, Ernest Jacob Mause, a Pennsylvania Dutchman. He died in 1953 of a heart attack. I took my maiden name back for business reasons. I married Jake on August 7, 1941 in Jacksonville, Florida. He worked in phosphates for Smith Douglas Company and also worked for many companies. He contributed to the formula for Morton Salt, in California, the American Cyanamid Company, Coronet Phosphate Company, Western Knapp World Engineer Company and was compared, in his home town of Salisbury, Pennsylvania, to young Herbert Hoover an engineer who became president of the United States.

We had no children but we had dogs. My French Poodle is quite famous and helps me sell real estate. She has been written up in our local papers. I am busy with the Junior Welfare League and local, state and federal boards of real estate activities, charities and political interests concerned with real estate.

Editor's note-Dr. Young was the doctor in Baker in 1913. T.L. Owen owns the house where the Hamilton's lived.

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MR. AND MRS. THOMAS B. HANRATTY

Among the pioneers who came to Southern Wisconsin in early days were Bernard Hanratty and his wife, Mary Haney Hanratty. They settled on farms near by and soon married. The couple then set up housekeeping and farming in a neat log home near Wilton, Wis. where they reared their family. Among their children was Thomas Bernard Hanratty who appeared in the family circle on November 27th, 1879.

Tom did all the interesting things a boy in a large family can find to do on a farm where, trees, creeks, flowers, chickens, sheep and calves and chores abound. He also attended grade school in the rural school in that community.

As he grew older, he sought work away from home and finally went to the "Twin Cities" where his two older married sisters lived, and he worked at various labors, meanwhile attending night school and studying engineering. He learned to operate steam engines and when his training was completed he obtained work as an engineer on a short-line train running out of Duluth, Minn.

While there, he became interested in a young lady while boarding at her parents home, and on July 31st 1906 he was married to Mattie H. Phillips. She was a native of Durbin, No. Dak., having been born there on March 1, 1889. She had gone with her family to Duluth. She had received her elementary education at Durbin, but after grade school, she chose to remain at home, helping her parents and learning the art of homemaking. The young couple lived in Duluth for several years.

In March of 1913, they came, with two young sons, to Baker where Mr. Hanratty had two other married sisters, Mrs. Elmer Hibbard and Mrs. Mike O'Donnell, Sr., already living on homesteads near Baker.

Thomas Hanratty homestead-1913.

They acquired land in the Bad Lands about 12 miles northeast of Baker and preceded to set up in stock raising and farming. They acquired two daughters and another son. It was a good ranch location, with coal and native wood available. They experienced all the successes - and failures - of drougthy years, and drastic winters, and 12 miles over prairie trails for many years was a challenge in itself, but they stayed with it.

Their neighbors were the T. E. McGinnis, the Bob and Berry Morris, the Frank Faust, the Henry Kreager, and the George Jenner families. All the children in the neighborhood attended a sod school house set up by the parents. Later, however a good frame building was erected.

During the first years, Mr. Hanratty put his know-how about steam engines to good use by, operating engines for threshing crews.

As the children grew older the Hanrattys' bought a home in town where Mrs. Hanratty and the children lived during the school year. She also took in other children besides her own. He also purchased and moved onto the homestead a good frame home to replace the old typical homestead home of early days.

They always enjoyed attending school and neighborhood affairs, 4th of July celebrations, branding bees, county fairs as well as visiting and entertaining friends and relatives. They recall with pleasure, the house warming party at the new Nick Madler home.

Close to the buildings is a deep gully with grass and small flats. The men built a small fill across a small draw and from the pond thus formed, they watered a small plot where there were trees, shrubs and a strawberry bed.

Mrs. Hanratty still resides on the home place and keeps house for her eldest son, Percy. Mr. Hanratty passed away in Dec. 1963 after a period of worsening health. Walter, the youngest son, along with his wife, the former Jean Stanhope live on the home place, also, and jointly run it. Mrs. Tom Hanratty still bakes, churns, sews, raises chickens, gardens, and flowers and makes good jelly from native wild fruits. The couple were always kind and helpful neighbors.

Their children are:

Percy, who is unmarried and lives at home on the ranch.

Phillip, and his wife Ida live at Bozeman where he is a logger.

Alice, Mrs. Wendell Holmquist, lives in Bozeman. Mr. Holmquist worked for a few years on the Fallon County Times staff in Baker, where he married Alice Hanratty after she graduated from High School in Baker. They later moved to Bozeman where he worked at the same trade until he passed away.

Catherine, Mrs. Gene Wellenstein, resides in Baker where Mr. Wellenstein is engaged in the banking business with the Bank of Baker.

Walter and his wife, Jean, along with their younger daughter, Roberta, live on the ranch. Their two children grew up on the ranch and helped with the chores.

Mrs. Thomas Hanratty has 11 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild.

The Hanrattys are affiliated with the Catholic Church and have attended many of the activities of it, and have seen many changes both in the church and the country.

MR.

AND MRS. WALTER J. HANRATTY

My parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Hanratty came to this country in 1913 from Minnesota where he was employed as an engineer for the railroad. They decided to come west to homestead as two of his sisters already were here and he had worked as far as Forsyth on the railroad so knew the kind of country it was. I was born at Baker, Montana on June 16, 1929, to join 2 brothers and 2 sisters.

I attended the elementary school in Baker when we lived in town and rode horseback to attend the O'Donnell School after we moved back to the country to our ranch which is 12 miles northeast of Baker. We never had a road built into our place until the 1960's and always just had a trail to follow and had to make our way around the snow drifts and mud puddles.

I did the usual chores at home that a boy on the ranch does and stayed on the ranch to help after I grew up and married Jean F. Stanhope on Sept. 25, 1950 in Miles City, Montana. Her parents, Robert W. Stanhope's had homesteaded on Cabin Creek in 1927 and moved to Baker in 1934 where their family of 8 children grew up and attended school. She was a native of Baker being born there on March 15, 1932. She received her education in the Baker Schools. We

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raised our two daughters on the ranch and they did the chores that are done on the ranch.

We are affiliated with the Catholic Church and take part in its activities such as CCD and KC and Altar Society. Jean served as President of Altar Society and taught CCD for a few years while the girls were attending. She also helped with many wedding receptions and dinners in the church basement. She is also a 4-H leader and both daughters spent many years in 4-H. Homemakers Club is another interest of hers. Several years age we attended square dancing classes and went to a lot of dances. Walt rode in a few rodeos when he was a young man. We took part in the school picnics, 4-H activities and community get-to-gathers.

We enjoy re-loading shells for hunting as we usually go big game hunting each fall in the western part of the state and have had quite good luck.

Jean always has a garden and cans and freezes the food besides making jams and jellies from the wild berries that are abundant some of the years.

Our children are:

Deanna D. Hanratty (Griffith) living in Bozeman now where her husband Duane is attending college.

Roberta L. still at home but working in town.

Beverly Jean, Denice Lorene, and Theresa Anne, who all died at birth.

Albert and Belle Hansen at their home in Baker, 1948.

ALBERT AND ISABELLE CLARK HANSEN

By Audrey Hansen

My parents, Albert and Isabelle Clark Hansen, homesteaded in the Bisher Community south of Baker, Montana. They came here from Cresbard, South Dakota in March of 1910. "Bell's" sisters, Millicent and Abbie Clark, and her brother, Sidney Clark, took adjoining homesteads. Richard Clark later filed on a homestead in the Knobs Community.

 

I was born in Cresbard, South Dakota, and was about one year old when my parents came to Montana. The other children, Fred, the twins Mildred and Milford, and sister, Phyllis, were born in Fallon County. We all completed our

Group picture taken at Millie's homestead. The buggy in back of the group was a surry owned by the Clark family. Back row left to right: Martin Clark [uncle of Millie and Belle], Richard and Nellie Clark, Grandpa [Fred] Clark, Albert and Belle Hansen, Grandma Hansen [Albert's mother], Hattie and Sidney Clark. Front row: Abbie holding Fred Hansen, Grandma [Kate] Clark holding Irene Clark, North Clark, Audrey Hansen and Wade Clark.

eight years of elementary school at the Chimney Creek School. All of us except Fred graduated from the Baker High School. The land for the Chimney Creek School was donated by Abbie Clark, and the school house was completed in 1912. The first teacher was Pearl Trandum. Some early day teachers were, Beatrice Howell, Edwina Eichenberger, Lora Tift, Viola Heying, Euphie Robinson, Mrs. Luis (Cora) Blaser, Hazel Kenoyer, Mae Smith, Sophia Johnson, Jennie Colbo and Etta Paschen. We walked one and one half miles to school when the weather was nice, but when it got too cold and the snow got too deep, our father would take us in the bob sled.

 

 

The Hansens on the homestead grinding feed, 1913 or 1914. Fred and Audrey Hansen, North Clark, Belle and Albert HanSen. King and Cap [horsesj

We were dry land farmers but also raised cattle, hogs, and poultry. We always planted a large garden, but there were times when we had very little crop or gardens due to the lack of moisture, hail storms and grasshoppers.

Our home was heated by coal and wood. The coal was mined by our father from the nearby lignite coal mines and the wood was hauled from the Long Pines near Ekalaka.

Our near neighbors were: Robert Norman, Ray Johnson, Ed Chapman, Ed Varner, Dick Middaugh and other families which I cannot recall.

For entertainment there were always neighborhood gettogethers for dinners, card playing, picnics, country dances and school programs which were a big thing in the early days for both old and young. Basket Socials were fun and the

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Picnic and berry picking.

money raised was used for something we needed at the school.

Millie and Abbie built their claim shacks on the extreme edges of their claims. The two houses were later joined together by a long room when their parents, Kate and Fred Clark, came from South Dakota to live with Millie.

Millie Clark standing in the door of her homestead shack, 1911.

Abbie went back to South Dakota after proving up on her homestead. She married Lewis Stuempges and several years later they came back and operated the two farms.

The Clark place was a popular gathering place for parties, as they had a large living room and a piano. There was always lots of music around. Both the Clark sisters-inlaw were piano players and we had a neighbor, Beatrice Howell who was very talented on the piano. Millie and sisters-in-law, Nellie Clark (Richard's wife) and Hattie (Sidney's wife) and Richard, who played the drums, played for dances all over the area. Sometimes they went as far as Ekalaka. These trips were made with horse and buggy and at times took three or four days.

In 1915 my parents bought their first automobile, an Overland Touring Car, from the L. Price Company at Baker. About the same time Millie Clark and her father bought their first car, a Ford Touring Car.

Millie Clark on Oscar Knipfer's shetland pony.

Isabelle [Belle] Clark Hansen and her son Fred sneaking into the picture, 192a

In 1922 the Hansen family moved from the homestead to the Mann place, now occupied by Merle Hayden. They still continued to farm the homestead until 1928, when the Mann place was sold to a family by the name of Brakefield. We then moved to the Clark place and farmed these two farms along with our own, until my father decided to give up the farm and try city life. By then Fred had married and Mildred had gone to Billings, Montana to work.

We lived in Baker until the year before World War 11, when my father decided to try farming again. He and Mother moved to the Ted Bergstrom place in the Willard Community. They continued to live there until 1947, when they bought a home in Baker, but my father continued to

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Group picture taken in front of Millicent [Millie] ClarkLee's house in Baker. Left to right; Belle and Albert Hansen and children, Mildred, Phyllis, Milford, Audrey and Fred, 1945.

farm until he retired in 1959. He passed away February 2, 1961.

At the time my father passed away, I was working as Chief Operator for the Mountain States Telephone Company and living with Millie. Mother came to live with us until she passed away November 6, 1966.

1 worked for the telephone company, as an operator and chief operator until the dial conversion on January 19, 1964. 1 chose not to transfer to Glendive at that time. In November of 1965 1 started as a clerk for the Local Board No. 13 Selective Service and am still holding that position. I am still unmarried.

The other Hansen children have all moved from Montana. Fred, who married Katie Zupanik, lives on a ranch in the Rhame, North Dakota area. They have three children. Mildred, who married Paul Kissel from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, lives in Van Nuys, California. She has no children. Milford works for the County of Los Angeles and lives in Hollywood, California. He has never married. Phyllis, the youngest in the family, married Joseph Liffrig from Melstone, Montana and lives in Anoka, Minnesota. They have four children.

The Clarks have all passed away, excepting Richard who lives with a daughter in Santa Rosa, California. Millie lived with me in Baker until her death in 1973.

Richard Clark owned and operated the first movie theater in Baker, which was located in the building which was the old Commercial Hotel and which later became the Westside Hotel.

Millie Clark Lee devoted many years to giving private violin lessons. During the depression years of the W P A, she taught a large class of pupils on stringed instruments. The lessons were free to the young people and she received her pay from the government.

There were some real hard times but some real happy times, also.

In the country, in the winter time we would be snowed-in for as long as six or seven weeks. Sometimes we would not get any mail for weeks at a time. The neighbors were always willing to share groceries and everyone helped each other in a time of need. Rattlesnakes were a great threat to humans and livestock in the early days. There was a snake den about one and one half miles north of Millie's buildings. The first thing my family did, even before they built their claim shack, was to plow a fire brake around the tracts of land. It was not uncommon to encounter one hundred rattlesnakes in one day. The family slept in tents at first and snakes were often found often found

 

Millie Clark Lee, west side of Main Street, Baker. She had a music store in one side of the beauty shop. Elizabeth Westerfield had the beauty shop.

in the sleeping tents. The snakes would hibernate in this den in. the winter. In the spring as soon as the weather got warm, they would come out in huge balls. The settlers in the neighborhood would put large charges of dynamite in the openings of the den, then they would set off the dynamite. They also used rifles and shot guns to kill the snakes as they came out of the den. Thousands of the deadly reptiles would be killed in the spring before they made their way out on the prairies. Everyone carried some sort of weapon to kill a rattler when out riding or driving. One incident I remember my mother telling about is: She was driving down the road, in her one horse buggy, when she saw a snake in the road. She had two small children and small dog with her. No one wanted to let even one of the rattlers live if it were possible to kill it. The only weapon she had was a stick one and one half feet long. She got the dog to barking at the snake to distract it and was able to get close enough to strike it on the back of its head, which stunned it enough to enable her to finish the job. She took a real chance, as they can coil so quickly and are able to strike for several feet.

INGA HANSEN

I was born in Bud, Norway on November 24, 1890 to Andreas and Anna Martha Kristengaard, and was named Iriga Bertina. I had seven brothers and sisters. I received my schooling in Norway where my father was a fisherman and owned two boats. I began making my own living at the age of nine by working in others homes doing baby-sitting and cooking. Recreation was skiing, skating, tobogganing and boating as we lived very close to the sea. I was baptized at a very early age and later confirmed at the age of 15 at the church in Bud. The church still stands as I remembered it from my childhood days.

At the age of 19 I worked in a hospital in Molde doing work in the kitchen. I met Harry Tronstad, a young man from Spjelkaving, Norway, and we became engaged. Harry and his brother, Peter, left for America in the early spring of

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Inga Kristengaard, age 22, taken in Norway, 1913.

1911, joining their older brother, Hans , in the Webster community. He took a homestead in the Knobs area on what is now a part of the Art Tronstad holdings.

After Harry left for America I went to work in a factory that manufactured fishing articles and took sewing lessons in the evenings. I happened upon a want ad in the paper for a young girl with sewing skills to come to America to work on a sheep ranch, taking care of children and sewing. The fare would be paid in full, to be worked out later. The lady I was staying with was a relative and therefore I was recommended for the job. I boarded an ocean liner, the White Star Line, in Frondheirn in early March of 1913. The ocean trip took approximately three weeks and we landed in Quebec, Canada on April 17, 1913. From Quebec I went by railroad to Chicago then on to Glendive, Montana. Mail service was poor and my employers hadn't received my letter telling them that I was coming. Not being able to speak or understand but a few words of English, I indeed felt lost. While inquiring at the ticket office about my destination, an old man came to me and told me to wait right there. He went after the mailman who was going my way and knew the people for whom lwas to work, and also spoke Norwegian. He was hauling mail to Circle, Montana with a triple box farm wagon and four horses. I stayed at Circle a week before the Art Sems came for me. I worked at the ranch nine months paying for my trip over here and acquiring some new clothes. From the ranch job I went back to Circle where I went to work for a storekeeper who had ten children.

After three years of separation, Harry came to Circle for me, and we were married in Glendive on July 3, 1914. We came back to his homestead where we raised six children; Bertha Tronstad Chesmore, Arthur, Einer, Margaret Tronstad Bertic, Olga Tronstad Madler, all of the Baker area, and Henry Tronstad of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My husband, Harry, passed away January 6, 1924 of cancer.

In 1925 1 married a local bachelor, Andrew Anderson and my seventh child, Mads Anderson, now of Lakewood, Colorado, was born. We continued to farm and ranch, by joining the two homesteads into one, until Mr. Anderson passed away December 26, 1927 of pneumonia. I stayed on the ranch raising my children, living through the drought, the depression and many bad winters. My neighbors were the Urvin Coxes, the John Nichols, the Berney Hayings and the Howells.

 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Harry Tronstad, taken in 1914 at their homestead at Knobs.

 

When the children were grown, I married for the third time. Charles Hansen and I were married in February, 1943. We resided on what was the Millicent Clark place, which I later purchased . We continued farming until 1946 when we purchased a home in Baker and retired. Mr. Hansen passed away in January 1951 of cancer, after which time I have continued to live in Baker.

I have 21 grandchildren and 27 great grandchildren. My church home is the First Baptist Church of Baker. I enjoy company and my time is spent making quilts, crocheting and knitting. In many years of baby-sitting, I've become known as "Grandma" to many children.

Hans Hanson, 1911, threshing in the Webster community.

HANS AND ANTHONY HANSON

Hans Hanson came to Montana in 1909 to homestead in the Webster community from Ulen, Minnesota. He had a big tractor and did much of the first plowing in that community. His threshing machine also was a first and the young men

 

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Mrs. Hans Hanson, left and her sister Mrs. Gussie Munday, cooks at O'Peechee Park near Ekalaka. 4 H Club 1930.

were anxious to get on his crew. A brother Emil, and family were neighbors for a few years.

Mrs. Anthony Schour and son, Harry, of St. Louis, Missouri who were here visiting her sisters, Mrs. Mary Poderjay and Mrs. Louise Nogade, and their families, hired out to help when illness was in a family. Mrs. Hansons health grew worse and Mrs. Schour was her companion.

Hanson decided to move back to Minnesota in 1918 and with him he took his new wife and son Anthony. A son, Marvin, was born in Minnesota. In 1928 the family came back. They lived in the Willard community farming and then retired to Baker. Mrs. Hanson was a noted cook and with her sister Mrs. Gussie Munday cooked at 4-H camps by Ekalaka. The Hansons put on many community dances at the Willard Hall and their neighbors always could find a social evening of cards at their home.

Mrs. Hanson passed on in 1939 and in 1941 Mr. Hanson died.

Harry and Marion Fost Hanson and sons, Russell and Randall

HARRY AND MARION FOST HANSON

Harry Hanson was the son of Mrs. Hans Hanson and came to the Webster community with his mother in 1916. He lived with the Martin Tommerdahl family. The first year he attended school his teacher was Miss Edwina Eichenberger. Some of his school mates were the Wolenetz, the Williams, the Schorschs. In 1918 his mother and step father, Hans Hanson, moved to Minnesota returning again in 1928 and lived in the Willard community. They farmed the L.F. Bruggerman place formerly the Henry Bergstrom homestead. There he met his wife. The family lived in the granary until the house was repaired. His mother invited Mrs. Albert Fost and daughter, Marion, from across the road for afternoon coffee and delicious sponge cake.

 

Marion was the daughter of Albert and Ella Roget Fost who both came and homesteaded in 1909. She attended Willard School along with her younger brother, Raymond, Edward Moscrip, and Everal Stenerson. Raymond and Marion went all through grades and then Baker High School together. Attending high school during the depression of the 30's meant very little money for extras. It meant living in town five days a week, sharing rooms with friends and apartment cooking.

The Hansons lived in Glendive, Montana and Hettinger, North Dakota while Harry worked at the mechanic trade. They bought a garage business in 1946 in Baker and in 1949 bought the Willard store and Marion began her career as Postmaster. Two sons were raised. Russell was in the Navy and later went into oil field work. Randall attended college taking Agri-business and came back to assist his father in farming and garage work.

Social life centered around gatherings at the Willard Hall, school programs, 4H work, Homemakers Club and the Lutheran Church. The family attended the 1962 World's Fair irL Seattle. They visited the Black Hills, Yellowstone Park, went fishing in Minnesota and never missed a Fallon County Fair. Many home products were taken to display. Marion's hand made crafts also served as pin money when sold in their country store. She also organized arts and crafts workshops and several day long hobby displays in Baker. Learning dressmaking from her mother, she made many outfits and as 4H leader taught dressmaking.

The family spent a couple years watching for aeroplanes and reporting them to the government. Civil Defense courses were given at the Community Hall and the family all took part. First aid was also a family project.

Having a country store adds up to many sad and interesting events. They were called out during the night to an accident on the highway, to assist or make a phone call for help. One time a young man came with his clothes in shreds in need of a phone. It took a day to find his car in the deep Bechtold cuts. The shop door was opened for a customer for bolts and a skunk came in behind. A young child had fallen off a step. Her mother brought her in on a tractor and a rush trip was made to the hospital. A little old lady in her 90's wouldn't drive another mile to Ekalaka because of the icy roads and spent the night at the store. Several times the highway was blocked. Sometimes it was over one or two nights. Another time 26 people spent 10 hours at the store.

The 35 years of family life saw many improved changes, better travel, modern home, T V for a quiet evening, easy telephone service and R E A with everything on electric power. The retiring years will be easier than the last generation.

MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM HARRIS

by Reva Harris Leise

My father, William (Bill ) Harris, was born in Cassel, Ontario, Canada in 1879. He moved to Wisconsin where he met and married Pearl Kramer. They moved to Baker in 1910 when my older brothers were small. Their first home was a 12x24-foot cabin on a homestead five miles south of Baker on Deep Creek. Their neighbors were the Moscrips, the Hamiltons and the Coldwells. The first winter was hard on my mother, as many times she was stranded due to the cold and snow. One time she ran out of coal and had to walk across

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the fields to the nearest neighbor carrying Bill, who was quite small and trying to help Don and Norman through the deep snow. With below zero temperature and a strong wind blowing, she was lucky to have made it. My dad was working in Baker and could not make it home because of the deep snow. He hauled mail and express for many years with a wagon or sled. Many people will remember the two little black Missouri mules, Jack and Pete, that he drove. When the dray line graduated to trucks, the mules were sold and that was a sad day in our house. We had them so long, they were like part of the family.

When the boys were school age, my folks moved to town into a shack by the old Creamery, across the tracks from the depot, and later down the street to the house that I was born in.

My mother and my aunt, Lena Marks, owned the Harris and Marks Dress Shop which was first located on Main Street next to the Baker Hotel and then in the building where the Dry Cleaning Shop is now located. They sold out in 1934 because of Aunt Lena's poor health. In 1936, my folks bought the News Stand between Russell's store and Lawler's Drug and my mother ran it until her death in 1939.

My childhood years in Baker were happy times, bicycle riding, sleigh rides, swimming in and skating on the Baker Lake, County Fairs, Chautauguas, picnics at Medicine Rocks, dances in the Legion Hall and the usual school activities. Since my sports activities were somewhat limited by a growth under my knee cap when I was 12, my extra curricular activities were mostly in the music field - piano, band (in which I played the tuba) and Glee Club. Highlights of those years were the trips we made to Music Festivals at Glendive, Montana, basketball games and etc.

I had five brothers; Donald, Norman, Bill, Roger and Lloyd. Don worked in the Keirle Garage and later for the Mountain States Power Company. He passed away in 1967 in Casper, Wyoming where he was District Manager for Pacific Power and Light Company. Norman went into the Army and after his discharge from the service, worked many years at the Ordinance Depot at Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Washington, until his death in 1965. Bill is currently working for the Montana Dakota Utilities Company at the Cabin Creek booster plant at Baker. Roger is driving truck in Alaska and brother Lloyd was killed during World War 11.

I attended school in Baker, elementary through high school. When I graduated from High School in 1938, 1 worked in the News Stand and as an usher in the Lake Theater for one year and went to Billings, Montana to attend Beauty School. In February of 1940 I was offered a job in a Beauty Shop in Seward, Alaska. When I phoned to tell my dad, he felt it was too far away and not at all sure it was a move I should make. He and Lloyd arrived in Billings the next morning and Don and his family arrived that afternoon. Don and Lloyd thought it was a great opportunity and we finally convinced my dad. The only time I had any misgivings about the trip was when the Alaska Steamship that I was on left Seattle and I could no longer see my brother Norman standing on the dock. For the next few minutes I was completely alone and then a sales lady who made the trip from Seattle to Seward many times asked if I was traveling alone and within a very short time had introduced me to quite a few other passengers. It was my first trip on a ship and for the next seven days I had a great time visiting the Alaskan villages that the boat stopped at, dancing, playing cards and etc. I arrived in Seward on March 1, 1940. The Beauty Shop was on the ground floor of an apartment building; small but very clean and modern. I worked there until my marriage to Robert Leise on March 10, 1941.

Bob and I went to work for the Civil Aeronautics Agency, now known as the Federal Aviation Administration, as a communicator team in January 1943. We moved to Anchorage, Alaska to begin communications training and in October were sent to Yakutat on the southeast coast of Alaska. In the next eighteen years we moved eight times to various stations from Juneau to Nome and points in between. Some of the stations were in small villages and some were completely isolated.

I taught our oldest daughter first grade by Calvert Correspondence Course because at the time we were living at Moses Point in the Bering Sea where there was no school. The next year we transferred to Nome so the two oldest girls would have a school to go to. We had to order staple groceries to last a year so they could be brought in by boat before the port froze over. Any fresh groceries that we got had to be flown in as it was the only means of transportation. Needless to say, they were rather expensive.

In 1960 we moved back to Anchorage and stayed there for the next seven years, while the girls finished high school. Roberta, the youngest of the four, graduated in 1966. In 1967, with all the girls grown and living in the "South 48" we decided to give it a try too. Bob transferred with FAA to Washington D.C. and we are currently living just across the Potomac River from D.C. in Alexandria, Virginia at 19 East Myrtle Street.

MR. AND MRS. FRED HASTY by Alvin Hasty

Fred Danial Hasty, my father, came to Montana in the late 1890's. He ran a jerk line freight outfit from Wibaux to Ekalaka. The jerk line was from two to five loaded freight wagons chained one behind the other with six to twenty horses hitched to the front one. On steep grades the wagons would be unhooked and pulled up one at a time and then hooked together again at the top of the grade.

When the Milwaukee Railroad had the dam built, what is now Baker Lake, he had several teams working there. The horse camp was located on Sandstone Creek just north of the dam. One evening, a flash flood drowned a lot of horses before the men could get them untied from the feed racks.

At one time Dad had an interest in a saloon and cafe in Lorraine and later in a livery stable.

He homesteaded just east of where the M.D.U. power plant is now. His sister's, Martha Houston Murphy, homestead joined his. Part of his parents homestead is now part of the Stanhope Addition to Baker. Two other sisters, Mrs. R.O. Dean (Addie) and Mrs. William Damon (Margaret) were on ranches to the east and northeast . A brother, Frank, had a way-station southeast of Glendive where freighters could get meals and feed and water their horses and mules.

Mr. John P. Braun staked a homestead claim northeast of Kingmont in the fall of 1907. Early in the spring of 1908, he left Minnesota on an emigrant car loaded with furniture, lumber, farm machinery, tools, seed and stock. Mrs. Alice Lehmann Braun (my mother) and their two children, Viola and Victor, followed in a passenger train as soon as they could.

Mr. Braun's brother and several of my mother's cousins homesteaded in the vicinity which became known as Fertile

During that first year, they built a house, dug a well, got some of the land broke up, a crop seeded and fenced and made shelters for the stock. The grain was cut with a reaper, then tied in bundles by hand with straw that had been soaked in water for ties, and then set in shocks. They hauled their fence posts and fire wood from the badlands, where cedar trees were found on the north side of the buttes. Lignite coal was dug and hauled from an area called Pretty Buttes. These are

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Mr. and Mrs. Fred Hasty, 1914.

scoria topped buttes over to the northeast, close to the Little Missouri River.

Later, those homesteaders with children, chipped together and built a school house on Mr. William Young's homestead. It was called the Young School. Planks and benches were used for desks.

After Mr. Braun died, my mother stayed on the place and hired the farm work done for a while. Later she had an auction sale, leased the farm and went back to Minnesota. The homestead patent was issued to her October 24, 1913.

In 1914, she returned to Montana and married my dad. Their two children were Glenn Leslie and Alvin Fred.

Fred Hasty with Cypard, registered percheron stallion.

They farmed and raised horses (two hundred head at one time) and some cattle. They had a big black registered Percheron Stallion. The railroad stockyard at Kingmont was used for branding. Most of the gumbo south of Kingmont

Hasty farm in the early 20's after the house had been rebuilt in 1917.

was still open range. Seven or eight horses were used to pull a gangplow, which was a two bottom-riding plow. When help was hired in the spring, I can remember seeing four plow teams at once in our east field. Most of the green broncos Were broke to work because they could be placed so gentle horses were on each side of them.

In 1916 the house burned. They started rebuilding in the fall and the present house was finished in 1917.

Steam rigs did most of the threshing. Threshing crews were large then. One man, with a helper, fired the steamer, another took care of the separator, one man and a team was kept busy hauling water for the engine, six to ten bundle wagons were used and three or four grain wagons were generally brought along by the neighbors who exchanged work, as the threshing crew moved from place to place.

By the early 1920's, gas tractors started to edge out the horses for farm work, so the need for good work teams diminished. The drought during the thirties just about eliminated them.

Dad was a lifetime member of the 10OF Lodge and Mother was a member of the REBECCAS.

Fred Hasty, life member of 10OF Lodge.

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