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O’Fallon Flashbacks

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

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Copyright 1975 O'Fallon Historical Society, Baker, Montana. Printed by Western printing & Lithography

 

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First home of Emmett and Mabel Jordan on O'Fallon Creek on the present McKay ranch 20 miles south of Ismay. The log house was built by Mr. Jordan in 1907. Logs were cut by Sam Kochel of Knowlton. Mrs. John La Bree [Frances Jordan] was born here and a painting of it done by her won $125 in a contest conducted by the Royal Neighbors of America at Rock Island, Illinois.

He came to the Ismay Country in 1905 and worked for William Fulton and Dan McKay. He squatted on a piece of land on O'Fallon Creek, building a log cabin on it in 1907. The logs for this cabin were cut by Sam Kochel. He returned to Nebraska in the fall where he and Mabel E. Hunter were married, on Feb. 20, 1908 at Harrison, Nebraska. That spring he returned to the homestead and then returned to Nebraska for his bride. In August they loaded their belongings in a buckboard and headed for their future home, cooking and sleeping all the way. They were on the road nine days. They lived on the homestead until 1915, when they purchased a drayline in Ismay and also operated a livery barn. They moved to Miles City in 1942 and took over the Miles City Jordan mail line, hauling passengers, mail and freight. After selling out in 1944, they went to the ranch of son, Matt, south of Lame Deer, Montana to look after the ranch and stock while Matt was in the U.S. Service. Matt was killed in Sheridan, Wyoming when struck by a car in November 1949. After returning to Miles City the Jordans went to Deer

Emmett and Mabel Jordan on their 61st wedding anniversary, 1969.

Lodge, Montana where Emmett worked as a guard at the State Prison under Lou Boedecker for five years. Later they went to Roy, Montana in the Judith Basin, in the spring of 19,54. He served as Deputy Sheriff at Lewistown, Montana retiring in 1958. Then came back to Miles City to live in 1960, where they lived until their deaths.

Mr. Jordan passed away May 1, 1969 and Mrs. Jordan passed away November 10, 1969. Both are buried in Calvary Cemetery at Miles City.

Children of Emmett and Mabel Jordan, early 1920's. On the horse; Mike, Charles, Sadie and Davie. At the head of the horse; Larry and Frances. Matt at the rear.

Of the nine children born to them, six of them are living; Dave of Helena, Montana, Sadie and Mike of Spokane, Washington, Larry of Roy, Montana, Frances (Mrs. John LaBree) near Ekalaka, Montana and Charles of Kirby, Montana. Two children, Margaret Rose, who died at 1 1/2 years and Daniel Patrick, who died at one week, are both buried in the Ismay Cemetery. Matt, who was killed at Sheridan, Wyoming, is buried at Sheridan.

Mrs. Jordan was born at Bodarc, Nebraska, January l4th, 1890. Her father was John Hunter, an early judge in Sioux County, Nebraska. He helped in settling the county and the town of Harrison. The Jordan's first home in Ismay,

Matt Jordan hauling pipe for the gas line out of Ismay in the late twenties or early thirties.

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where they moved in 1915 is the present home of Ray Cooper. Later they moved into the Hanson house where the Leaches now live. They purchased the Cass house which was destroyed by fire and the Jordan's moved to the western end of Ismay, where they lived for many years. During this time Emmett was deputy sheriff in Custer County and also carried mail out of Ismay. The Jordan children all attended school at Ismay, except Frances who attended Sacred Heart Academy at Miles City through the grades. She attended St. Martin's Academy along with three of her brothers, Larry, Matt and Mike for two years.

Emmett Jordan and daughter, Frances, 1927.

 

The Jordan's always gave a helping hand when needed and their house was always open to their friends. After moving into the Robert's house to the east of town they ran a boarding and rooming house. Many of the boarders were young people going to school. Many ranchers who trailed cattle to Ismay for shipping to market stayed at the Jordan's.

Four of the Jordan's sons served their country in World War II; Matt in the Navy and Mike, Dave and Charles in the Army.

DR. R. T. [DOC] JOYCE

I was born in Briggsville, Wisconsin in 1906 to Thomas and Eileen Joyce. In 1910, when I was four years old, my folks came to Fort Benton, Montana and took up a homestead. I attended elementary school at Great Falls, Montana, received my high school education at Geraldine, Montana, and attended college at Marquette University in Wisconsin where I earned my degree in Dentistry in 1928.

 

First dental office

of Ronald T. Joyce, Baker, Montana, 1929

At the age of 22 I went by train to Baker Montana where I worked with Dr. Potterton, another dentist, for six months before I established my own office and became a full-fledged dentist.

As a boy my best recreation was taking part in any type of athletics and when I got old enough I worked to earn my own spending money. I have always been interested in athletics of all sorts such as basketball, baseball and golf. We had town basketball and baseball teams at Baker of which I was a member.

Town basketball team, 1929. Left to right, standing: Ben Owen, Art Strand, R. T Joyce and Howdy Bisbee. Kneeling: Kermit Lighter, Harry Collins and Gerald Hague.

I refereed basketball games around Baker for twenty-two years, helped with the Boy Scout movement, worked and tried to help in the promotion of all types of recreation for young people.

I am a Charter Member of the Baker Men's Club and of the Baker Lion's Club. For years I have played and enjoyed golf and since my retirement and since living in Kalispell, Montana, I try to take time and play more often.

In 1940 Phyllis Nelson and I were married at Plentywood, Montana. Phyllis is the daughter of Martin and Nora Nelson who were homesteaders at Plentywood. They did not raise stock but confined their efforts to wheat farming.

 

 

 

Dr. and Mrs. R. T. Joyce and sons, Jim on the left and Bob on the right, 1972.

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Phyllis attended both grade and high school at Plentywood and then went to the Montana State College at Bozeman where she got her degree in Home Economics. After graduating from college she went to Baker in the fall of 1939, where she taught Home Economics at the Baker High School until we were married the next June.

We have two sons, Robert (Bob) of Kalispell and James (Jim) who lives with his wife, Margaret Coen of Baker, and daughter Stephanie, in Miles City.

While teaching at Baker, Phyllis resided at the Stuart Watt residence which was near the high school. Mr. Watt owned the Watt' s Drug Store in Baker. They had one daughter, Betty Lou, and a niece of Mrs. Watt's, Gladys Turner, lived with them and worked at the Drug Store.

Phyllis was a Charter Member of the Baker Homemaker's Club and was a member of the C.B.C. (Conversational Bridge Club).

Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Watt, 1939.

HENRY JUVE

In response to the "O'Fallon Historical Society Committee" for information about the early settlers or homesteaders of Baker and adjacent areas, I am happy to report a brief review of several years spent in this area and Carter County.

I was born near Ridgeway, Iowa in August of 1885 where I spent my first 22 years on my parent's diversified farm. Dairying was the main source of income together with grain and hogs as supplemented income. On a farm like this plenty of jobs were found for all 10 children in the family, besides spending 9 months in the local grade school and an additional 2 months during the summer attending a Norwegian Parochial School to give us the religious training deemed most important in a settlement of Pioneer Scandinavians.

After completing the 8 grades of the elementary school, my parents sent me to the Luther College in Decorah, Iowa for 4 years.

The summer of 1909 a neighbor boy - Oscar Bergan asked me to go to Montana with him to file on a homestead. I did and we landed in Baker, Montana in September among hundreds of others looking for homesteads. Next we engaged the service of a man acquainted with the country and had knowledge of land descriptions to determine the legal subdivisions we wanted. In our case this man who located us was Christ Ness. After Oscar Bergan and I had decided on the land we wanted, there still was available two other parcels adjoining ours which Mr. Bergan thought his two uncles might wish to file a claim on. He sent for them and the four of us built our cabins on the quarter corner in order that our cabins could be near each other for convenience sake. The names of the four in question are; Oscar Bergan, myself (Harry Juve), Richard Bothner and Olaf Hagen, uncles of Mr. Bergan.

Among the stockmen who had lived in this community for years, I will mention a few; Ed Hamilton and his brother Charles, who lived a couple of miles east of us, Lewis Williams, Dan Harris, Charles Voss, M. A. Shreve, Bob Yokley, Eli Mulkey, Frank Emerson and Charles Emerson.

Among the new settlers or homesteaders near by was Fred Fletcher, Jack Wolenetz, who lived a mile south of us and Ed Blaser and Sikorski west of us. A. H. Webster had a store and was the first Postmaster of Webster, Montana.

The second winter I spent on the claim was a severe, snowy winter that started early in November of 1910 when our only means of locomotion was the use of skis.

To provide for the many items needed to get settled and make other improvements, such as fences, required many trips to Baker with team and wagon and an overnight stay there. Along the way we had places where we watered and fed the horses, as for instance, "Hidden Water" or we would rest the horses a while as we visited with friends like Albert Fost or Henry Bergstrom who lived along the road about half way between Baker and our homes.

After four years spent on my homestead, I decided to make a final proof and accepted a job with Mr. Emerson, the County Assessor whose office was at Ekalaka, then the County Seat. This was before the County was divided, with Fallon County taking the northern part and Baker as its County Seat and Ekalaka remaining the County Seat of Carter. While working in the Assessor's Office, I married Ruth Emerson. Several months thereafter we moved out on the ranch where we spent 30 years before selling it and moving to Pasadena, California, where we have lived for 25 years.

John and Elizabeth Karch, January 2, 1910.

JOHN KARCH FAMILY

I felt there was something much better in life for me than serving in the Russian Army for not much of anything. I was born, raised and educated in New Danzig, South Russia. Even before I reached manhood I dreamed about coming to America. My uncle, Frank Karch, in Eureka, South Dakota

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had been sending the local newspaper to us in Russia. At first my father, Karl, tried to persuade me to stay home, but finally decided to join me. He sold his farm and other holdings and the entire family started to the New World. We reached Eureka, S. D. in 1905.

1 worked for my father a number of years and also got a job drilling wells, but I didn't want to stay there in Dakota. I'd met Elizabeth Hirsch and knew that she was the one girl I wanted for my wife. The trouble was - I didn't have much money and you had to have that. Most of what I earned went to my Dad.

"Free Land" was being advertised in Montana. I thought it wouldn't hurt to see what I could do about it. My father, John and Andrew Wenz, Fred and John Allerdings and I went to Baker June 13, 1909.

Frank Becker and his brother took John Allerdings, John Wenz and me out to the south country where the Shreve ranch was (Herb Straub's now). We had dinner there and got back to Baker at 10:00 that night. Meanwhile Dad, Andrew Wenz and Fred Allerdings went west to where there were some open sections.

We all stayed that night in a building, the Green Dragon now. We slept on the floor. There were a lot of men laying around. It rained hard during the night and rained inside nearly as much as out. They put cans on the floor to catch the drips. It rained so hard that the lake looked about to go out' The Railroad Co. was bringing in rocks to re-inforce the dam' I walked up on the filling there and the water was just about going over the top. The Railroad Co. had a little pump house where the Bank is now. They got water out for the engines.

The next day all of us went west again to look at Section 14 and 10, just a few miles from Baker. I decided on the east half of Section 14 and filed June 16, 1909. My Dad filed on the west half. He relinquished it later and my sister, Lena, filed on it.

It was still raining and the gumbo stuck to our shoes.

Back home in Dakota my future in-laws and my folks tried to discourage me from settling in Montana--ooooh Montana! I was "on the fence" -- what should I do? After harvest there, I came to look it over. Again in October I came back. Gotlieb Klukas and I walked out to John Wenz's place. It was nothing to walk for us in those days. When we got there the sun was up a little. John was putting up a house, one room was livable and a second was being built. While we stayed there, Andrew Wenz, his brother, and another man came. Andrew asked, "Brother, are you going to stay out here?" John Wenz told him, "Yes, I am not going back to Dakota."

That helped to make up my mind. There would be a friend close by. I made a deal with Wenz's carpenters to build me a 10' x 18' shack on Section 14.

John Karch, Sr., homestead, 1920.

This time when I returned to Eureka, I asked Elizabeth if she would marry me and come out to Montana to live. She said yes and she had headaches! She could have had another fellow -- two of them, but she said yes to me. So we planned to get married Jan. 2, 1910. Her folks didn't like the idea of us coming out to Montana. My father didn't either.

Elizabeth and I reached our little home here Jan. 10, 1910. We came by train - there were three trains going east and three going west, a local, a passenger and a fast train. I think we stayed over night with Knesals the first night. We'd sent a stove, table chairs and other household items out by freight. John Wenz had already taken them over to the little house. Every now and then he would bring us a load of coal in his little sled. I can't figure out how we made it - we lived there all winter. We used to walk over to the Wenzes to visit that winter.

A terrible blizzard came in March with lots and lots of snow. Ranchers lost many sheep. They didn't have any shelter or feed for their stock.

Later in March I went back to Eureka to get some of the things I needed. I was given a team of horses, a wagon and 2 sacks of wheat. My in-laws gave us a brood sow, 3 bred cows and a heifer and 12 chickens. I also got a two-horse drag, a small disc and bought a walking plow from a friend who said I could pay later, which I did in 1912. We bought corn and flax out here, also some oats from Fred Beaber.

As soon as I could I started plowing the sod, breaking up 60 acres. I had to sharpen the plow lays every night by hammering them out on a piece of rail. I seeded by hand. Ten acres I put to wheat, 7 to oats, 20 to flax and 7 to corn. Elizabeth put the corn seed in as I made the furrows.

Drinking water had to be hauled or if I found a water hole I'd dig another one close to it and in time the water would seep into the new one. It was good water, you know. Those water holes held water a long time. I dug two or three wells. I dug a well 40 feet deep right there on the homestead. Mama moved the dirt off. The ground was just as hard as ever. One Sunday, you know, I went down in the hole. It was a 4ft. x 4ft. hole. And when I think of it I could have stayed down there and she wouldn't have found me. I could have died down there. I don't know. I went down to see what kind of dirt was there. So foolish! I looked up - 40 feet up. I started up several times and finally made it to the top. I got out. That's a foolish thing I did.

There was no feed for the horses. I'd turn them loose to graze. Sometimes I found them seven miles south. I'm wondering today why someone didn't steal them - of course they were so poor. There was hardly any grass because the sheep came through every spring for a while to the Dalton's shearing pens at Tonquin of the Sandstone. Sheep were sheared by hand in those days. They ate the grass down to the ground. The cows were out as long as the ground was open. Later then I fed them heavy straw. They ate it and they lived until times got better and there was some hay. How foolish that I didn't break up some sod and put it to oats and cut that green. I did a couple times, but the mice were so bad. They chopped it up like chaff and did it stink!

The first spring the three older cows calved. We got plenty of milk and cream. The sow had a half dozen pigs. Of course we had eggs to eat and enough to set a few hens. I remember Ma had the hens setting right in the corner of the chicken coop. She would come in with the little chickens in her apron.

I built a big sod building before I seeded in the spring. We had to have the cows and chickens some place. It was big enough for 4 cows. I went up on the hill where the ground was just right and broke it. You had to chop it into hunks with force - it was so tough. Then you laid it in place for the building one on top of the other. For the roof I got some

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rafters, poles from the pines and brush from the creek down here. Then I covered that with more sod. Sometimes it rained in there, but not much. Warm - it was so warm in the wintertime!

Later that summer (1910) a huge band of sheep was herded through our place. They got into my cropland - they ate everything for miles. I had no fence put up and no money to buy wire. My letter to my Dad and father-in-law asking for a loan met with, "No, if you'd have stayed here we might help you." I needed money badly. We couldn't sell butter Elizabeth made, nobody wanted farm butter.

The heifer hadn't calved and didn't look like she would, yet was in good shape. I went to Baker to see the butcher about buying her. He came out to see her and said he'd buy her for $30.00. Now a 2-strand fence could be built with the pine posts I'd gotten before and the wire I was able to buy. It kept the wild horses out of my fields, but not sheep.

It was too late to seed any more, but I broke up another 5 acres in June. I let what wasn't seeded lay idle for the rest of the year.

One morning I woke up and there were cattle and horses all over the place. Except in the cropland - it was fenced. Then I went out on over the hill toward where Wild Wood is and there must have been 300 horses and 300 or 400 head of cattle. Livingston was his name -he was a little fellow. He had two cowboys. Bill Hedrick was the name of one. He was a big fellow with a gun. I was scared. He came on a horse and rounded up the horses. He took some off and left the rest all over my place. John Goodmiller came up to our place that day all beaten up. He said when he tried to drive them off his place they beat him. They tried to throw the two Allerdings in the creek. So I went to town - to Prices. I had enough money and I bought a revolver. That night I sat on the southwest hill and watched all night. They didn't ride around in the dark but before daylight came they started to round up the stock. They were following the creeks for water, you know. So I was sitting there all night and in the morning I could hear the birds starting to sing. I didn't know if I'd shoot or not. I was sitting there watching to keep them out, but they didn't do me any harm. Then I saw Jess Sales with a big rifle riding on a saddle horse to their camp right down there a little more than a quarter mile away. His wife, (Livingston's) was in camp cooking and she looked up and saw him. She pulled a gun on him. Ooooh my, there was some cussing! They said she was such a good shot she scared a man by shooting all around him. Jesse stuck his rifle in the door and says, "By sundown I want you out of here." And they cussed! The night before a hundred head of Livingston's horses got into Jess's flax on that 80 west of Wildwood. He went over and got the three Norwegian brothers that lived northeast. They rounded up those horses and put them in Jesse's corral, but Jesse said, "By night I want you out of here." And by night they were out. They went up toward Cabin Creek. Jesse got them out. He came up the next day and asked me if I had any damage and I said no. He said, "All you needed to do is to come down and tell me."

Before harvest Andrew Wenz and I went to see Mr. Price, the hardware dealer, in Baker. We asked him if we could get a header. He said yes and ordered one. It was $210.00 and we had two years to pay. I made a header box. John Wenz was the driver for it and I worked in the header box. Andrew Wenz was driver on the header. After we finished cutting our little crops we went around to the neighbors and cut theirs. We had a hard time crossing Sandstone to get to Schroths.

One day I heard an engine puff-puffing behind the hills. I looked 'up and saw the three Norwegian brothers coming with their threshing machine. I went out and asked them if they would thresh my little crop. Well, they said they would but they hadn't had anything to eat yet. It was 10:00 in the morning. I went in and told Mama about it. We had some chickens and in no time butchered a couple. By one o'clock we hail dinner. I asked them what they'd charge me to thresh a little stack of wheat and a little stack of oats. They said $10.00 1 didn't have $10.00. So I jumped on a light horse I had and went to my neighbor (I knew he had a little money). I asked him for $10.00 He hesitated a little bit - then he let me have it. The brothers threshed and I paid my bill. They threshed my crops until 1912. Goodmiller and Wenz; bought the outfit then.

That fall I harvested 5 bu. of wheat to the acre. I saved it for seed. The oats and corn we saved for feed. I got enough flax to sell for cash.

October 13, 1910 our first baby, Elizabeth (Betty), was born. Mrs. Matt Ehret came to help Mama. Her grandparents sent her a buggy by freight. It was her bed and we put her in it when we went visiting. I built a sled that could be hitched to the team to go in. One morning when we went visiting in the sled the ground was white, but when we were ready to come home there was no snow.

More friends gathered together this winter. There were the John Goodmillers, John Wenzes, Fred Schroths, John Frieds, and the Fred Fuchs with their sons, Fred, Henry and Martin. We held church services and sang a lot. I played my accordion. It was good to have friends who could talk German. We were learning English but we still didn't speak it very well.

1911 was awfully dry. I couldn't do much breaking. I seeded wheat in the ground I left idle the summer before. That brought 10 bu. to the acre. There was pretty good stubble though. Andrew Wenz told me that Mr. Pepper - he had the livery barn in Baker -had shipped in some winter wheat seed. I decided to try it, so bought 5 bushels. I didn't have a drill, but Matt Ehret 8 miles south of us did. I hitched four horses to the wagon and went down there to get it. I brought the wagon home behind the drill. Well, I drilled that winter wheat right into the stubble.

Mrs. Andrew Wenz helped Mama when John was born Nov. 1, 1911. Now we put Betty and John in the buggy when we went visiting.

John Karch, Sr., John, Jr. and Betty, 1913.

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We always had plenty of coal and wood. For a few years we got the coal from a cut bank on Sandstone. You just had to chop it out and load it. When we needed a little wood to start the fires I got it down here on the creek.

Sometimes the sheepmen gave us bum lambs when they went by. One time, tho', we put the little lambs in a tub in the house while we went away. The puppy must have played too hard with them. When we got home they were dead. We didn't do that again. Sometimes the lambs got in the garden oh, my!

Every year except the first, we used to have melons and melons and sunflowers. How they grew!

1912 was a very good year. That winter wheat went 28 bu. to the acre and the spring wheat went 20. 1 must have had 5 or 600 bushels of wheat. It was 60 cents a bu. I got a little flax, too. From there on times got a little better and we didn't need to ask for help from home.

By this time I had three teams, Dolly and Goliath, Lucy and Bessie and Duke and Frank. Duke and Frank were a good team but they were a little wild. I wanted to cut hay one day and hitched them to the mower. Mama warned, "They'll break up everything!" They almost did. I thought the mower would go to pieces. I'd put some heavy lines on them and I could hold them. After that they worked well. They were a good team.

Charley was born May 12, 1913. Mrs. Andrew Wenz helped Mama again.

There was lots of rain in 1914. Jess Sales broke up that 30 acre flat down there where Green Acres is. He rented the place to me and I put it to wheat. The crops looked so good. Then we had three days of the hot winds and that burned it up. The grain was like chicken feed that fall. There was lots of straw.

That spring (1914) 1 went to see Mr. Himsl, the banker, in Plevna about some money. We needed a bigger house than that little shack. He told me to build a big enough house. I didn't want to spend so much money. I was foolish not to make it bigger. Fuchs, Wenzes and Goodmiller helped me put up the building about one half mile south of the shack. We used rock to set it on. There were three rooms, a kitchen, bedroom and front room. The kids slept upstairs when they were big enough. Mama's brother, Richard Hirsch, was out here then. He helped plaster it. Later we built a barn and chicken coop.

Mrs. Andrew Wenz helped Mama again when Bertha was born Dec. 28, 1914.

Then in 1915 it was so dry, so dry! I tried to plow down there in the flat where Green Acres is. I had Louise Follmer helping. The plow wouldn't go into the ground very good. We plowed it up and the next day I took the drill and put it into wheat. During the last couple rounds the sky was so hazy. It started to rain. I finished seeding it but the drill filled up with mud. We had a good crop. I think I must have got 10, 25 or 30 bu. to the acre.

Jess Sales sold his place to old Jim Walker. Mr. Walker said to me, "You just farm the place."

Then Burts bought that and section 12. They built the Wildwood Dance Hall on the creek and the farmhouse and barn just east on the hill.

In Dec. 23, 1916 Ida was born. This time Mrs. Katie Huether helped Mama.

Our Betty took sick in March of 1924. She was so sick. I went for the doctor in Baker. He couldn't do much for her. She died.

The summer of 1925 we moved to the Hogan place, where Walter Huether now lives. Dave Flagg was married to one of Mama's sisters. He came to help us move our homestead buildings closer to good water. We tried putting the house on skids and pulling it with four tractors. That

John Karch children, about 1917. Left to right: Bertha, John, Jr., Ida, Charley and Elizabeth.

didn't work. Finally we had to get Ed Wilson's moving equipment. It didn't take us long then to get all the buildings moved. We dug a good root cellar to keep our potatoes, other vegetables, milk and cream. Art Fried lives there now.

Viola was born at the Hogan place Nov. 10, 1925. Mrs. Freier, E.J.'s mother, took care of Mama. She was licensed to do that.

When John was old enough he got the workhorses in. The pasture was free range and sometimes he had to ride the saddle horse quite a ways before finding them. We always kept the saddle horse up - either hobbled or in the barn. If the workhorses were in the small pasture he could take a bucket of oats out to them and put on their halters ropes while they ate. Tying them together he led them to the barn, put them in their stalls and grained them.

I fed the pigs and chickens while Mama and Charley did the milking. Then John took the cows out to a special pasture about a mile and a half from the house. Mama and Charley separated the milk and fed the calves. I harnessed the horses. The girls were in the house getting breakfast. It was ready for us when we came in from our chores.

After we ate we started the fieldwork - plowing discing and drilling in the spring - haying in the summer and harvesting later. At noon we'd unhitch, lead the horses to water, put them in the barn and feed them before we went in to eat. We always let the horses rest two hours at noon and would work an hour later in the evening.

Our dog, Sporty, didn't like snakes. He used to grab them in his mouth and shake them to pieces. Three different times rattlesnakes bit him. He crawled way under the back porch each time and growled at us when we tried to help him. He always got over the bites.

We had a pet ram for quite a while until he butt Viola and Mama so many times we had to get rid of him. I took him to the stockyard. He stood up on his hind legs and cried so. I could hardly leave him, but he was getting too dangerous to keep.

In May of 1927 we had a bad blizzard, but it was a good year for crops. We had a big straw stack that year. The cows kept eating at it until they made a tunnel all the way through it.

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Results of July 5,1928 storm on John Karch homestead. Left to right, on barn: Bertha Karch, Desolee Schuck, Ida Karch, Marmion Schuck, Charley Karch and John Karch, Jr. Below: Mrs. John Karch, Sr., Bessie Schuck, Viola and John Karch, Sr. and Elmer Schneider.

Times got pretty hard after that. The 30's were so dry. There wasn't any grass and the dust blew a lot. In 1934 we had to sell our cattle to the government.

We leased the Bruce Burt place from Pat Kaiser in 1934 He'd bought it a few years before. In 1939 John, Jr. decided to buy it. That's where he lives now.

Charley married Lily Schell in 1936. Their children are: Arnold, Janice, Bonnie, James, Marilyn, Sandra and Shari.

John served in the 20th Air Force during World War H. He married Carol Rose when he came home from the service.

Ida married Richard Follmer who also was in the Air Force. They have a daughter, Ann.

Viola married Norman Lang. Their two sons are Stanley and Jerry.

We moved to Baker in 1950. Bertha lives with me there. Mama died in 1966.

I have thirteen great grandchildren.

SARA KERR

Sara Kerr was born in a two-room log cabin midway between the villages of Camp Crook and Harding in Butte County, South Dakota, about fifteen miles from the South Dakota-Montana line. The place was known as "The Buttes".

 

Her mother, Electa Padden, had come from Iowa with her parents to the Long Pine Hills. Her father, Jess Kerr, was a Texan. His mother was a granddaughter of David Crockett of Texas fame. Jess Kerr came north with the Hash Knife Cattle Company. He quickly accepted western ways and the life of a cowboy.

When Sara was about a year old the family settled on a ranch a short distance south of Camp Crook, South Dakota. This was their home for many years.

She attended school at Camp Crook and was graduated from high school there. She then went to Spearfish, South Dakota and was graduated from a four year course at what was then called the Spearfish Normal. Her advanced schooling was taken at Columbia University, New York City, and at the Agricultural College at Ithaca, New York.

 

Branding on the Jess Kerr Ranch south of Camp Crook, South Dakota, Jess Kerr far right, 1920.

Jess Kerr Ranch Home, 1920

Hereford cattle at the Jess Kerr Ranch.

Barn at the Jess Kerr Ranch, 1920.

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She chose Home Economics as her life's work with a few deviations. Not only did she serve as Home Bureau Extension Agent, she taught in a grade school and for a time was dietitian in a hospital.

In extension work she first worked in New Mexico and was first to introduce it to Roosevelt County. Later she was Home Demonstration agent in New Hampshire, New York and Hawaii before the latter became a state.

There were obstacles over the years but Sara managed to overcome them.

A very serious one was a broken leg, which took a skilled physician and many months to heal. Altogether she had nine broken bones, so many weeks have been spent in hospitals.

Many interesting trips, some to foreign countries, were enjoyed along with her work in women's organizations and 4H clubs.

From Hawaii she traveled west to southern Europe, sailing to the United States from France. Later an excursion took her to Alaska, another to the World Council of Women in Holland, and again to Puerto Rico. She visited Yugoslavia and several Mediterranean countries.

One of her latest ventures was the Fallon-Carter County Home Demonstration Agent. During that time she established a home in Baker.

When she retired as Home Demonstration Agent she turned her efforts to assisting at the Fallon County Times Office.

In 1972 she finally chose complete retirement and decided to live at Hillcrest, a beautiful retirement home in Bozeman, Montana.

BOB KINSEY

My dad, Jack Kinsey the Wolfer, was raised on the Loup River in Nebraska and came to Montana following the wolves and the trail herds. He was 15 years older than my mother who was 15 years old when they were married. They had two boys, I was the younger. This marriage didn't last. When the wolf camp got too much for Mother, she went back to her folks in Ekalaka. She got a job cooking for a lambing crew belonging to Dan McKay of the Fulton-Bickle-Mc Kay Partnership. We were in the sheep wagon when a band of sheep was killed by drifting snow, right behind the wagon, in a May snow storm of 1909. The next spring found us at the Charley Clark Ranch on Pennel Creek.

Memories of the old Freight Road. You can't make it without an Old Timer. Memories are a wonderful thing. There's a time in my life, 60 and more years ago that's clearer than what happened 60 days ago.

The Old Freight Road to Cabin Creek went north-west of Baker, right through where Bill Geving lives and on down through the Red Hills to Charley Clark's Ranch (Dan Thielen's place) on Pennel Creek, then north along the divide to Adam Scheibers, then across the gumbo to the Cabin Creek Crossing, then over a low divide to the North Fork where was the Rife Brothers Ranch. This ranch was built in 1901.

Mother and we two brothers were at the Clark Ranch. Mother had hired out to cook for the Rife's at $25. per month. A four-horse freight outfit coming through from Baker, which was the rail head at the time, loaded with general supplies and sacked oats, picked us up and we headed north. It was the first of March and it was cold. The snow was gone though drifts remained and the wind was cold. The frost was out of the ground and I remember how hard the horses worked to get us through. The mud was half way to the hubs at times. The driver was Frank Pitts who stuttered badly and we boys were afraid of him because we had never heard a man stutter before. He was kind though for he made a wind break of sacked oats for us.

We made it to Adam Scheibers the first night. It was a one room dugout with a dirt floor but it sure looked good to us after sitting all day cramped up in the cold. It sure got us in out of the wind. Well, he fed us. He was a bachelor and not too clean but this don't bother much when you've missed a meal and it's cold. I don't remember much about the night. I expect nobody but us kids got much sleep. I know there were four men there and I remember they were pulling on a broomstick. It was a game with them. Two men sitting facing each other on the floor, hands on the broom stick between them trying to out pull the other.

Well another cold day with snow flurries and tired horses and a scary crossing at Cabin Creek as it was nearly bank full. Well I remember my first entry in the old log ranch house. Boy! Was it warm and it seemed like a castle to me. Marshall Rife was in the south-room, feet up on the big wood burning heater and a Bird Dog asleep beside his chair. I wasn't long getting behind that stove. Well, Mother soon married the Boss and he raised us kids.

The old R.B has been home to me I have hung my hat on many a tree But none have been the home That was the Old R.B. As Charley Russell said I'm old but I'm glad I lived when I did.

Marshall Rife Ranch house in 1901, where Bob Kinsey grew up.

Marshall Rife on the right and Frank Castleberry, Mrs. Kinsey/Bob's mother]and Ida Castleberry on the left.

I married Dollie Ferrel at Baker, Montana in 1927.

Dollie's folks were George and Lizzie Ferrel who had homesteaded 22 miles north of Baker in the Wills Creek community in 1910. They had a homestead cabin with sod on the sides to keep the house warm.

Dollie was born in this cabin in 1910. She grew up as a country girl and attended the Sunny Ridge country school.

After our marriage she was a housewife and mother. We have five children; Bryce, Ina, Sybil, Jack and Matt. There are fifteen grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

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The cabin where Dollie Ferrel Kinsey was born in 19-10. Mrs. Ferrel is in the door holding son, Allie. Son, Emil is standing in front of her. The men from left to right, Herb Hauens, Mr, Sabens, Rube Hauens, George Ferrel and seated is Bob Hauens.

Dollie Kinsey and the two oldest children, Brice and Ina.

Poem by Bob Kinsey

LIFE

It's twenty below and a blowin'

The snow's going by with a rush

The horses are in the warm stable

The cattle are huggin' the brush.

The cowboys are all playin' poker

And thinkin of calf brandin' time

The cook's got the beans on a boiling

And thinkin' of women and wine.

Well it won't be long till it's over

Spring will come with a rush

The country will be covered with water

The gumbo with mud and with slush.

Them bad storms all will be over

They will be water under the bridge

The Buck Deer will be sheddin' his horns

The old coyote will bark from the ridge.

It's a time every one lives for

A good thing winter don't last

The calves will lay in the sunshine

The cows will be pullin' up grass.

The boys will be roughin' out ponies

Getting ready for calf-brandin' time

When they all gather for roundup

A few faces ain't gonna be there.

It won't be the young and the husky

But the old with the grey in the hair.

This is the way that it should be

The good things in life never last

There' a long windin' trail out behind them

And it' led them up over the pass.

Rocking chair Butte Country, taken about 1911 or 12 Florence Dunning, one of the Rife's neighbors.

 

MICHAEL KIRSCHTEN [SR.]

Mike was born at Bourscheid, Luxemburg, on Nov. 6, 1893, to Franz and Marguerite Huberty Kirschten.

As a small boy his task was watching the family milk cows graze before and after school. The people lived in villages and their land lay in the outer areas with no fences; only hedges separating the fields.

His father was a weaver, also, and wove much material for those in the community. When he came to America he had two shirts made of white linen which had been completely home produced. They raised the flax, spun the thread and wove the cloth. His mother then fashioned the shirts.

Later, he went to an aunt and uncle in a near-by village to complete his schooling. Following this he worked until he had saved sufficient funds for his trip to America.

He landed at New York City, and after passing customs, immediately entrained for Baker. His family and Theodore Braun's family were of the same community, and as, prearranged, he went to work for Theodore Braun in Fertile Prairie a few miles east of Baker. This was in the spring of 1914, and he was 21 in the fall.

Here he worked until he had accumulated enough means to get a start in horses and machinery to launch out on his own. He rented some land, got a few milk cows, and after a

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time had acquired the means to expand and start the nucleus of a beef herd.

During these bachelor years he studied and secured his citizenship papers. By this time he had learned the language, owned a white saddle horse, cowboy hat, chaps, spurs, boots and a pair of tooled leather wristlets. So now, he felt he belonged! Ha! Ha!

On November 6, 1926 he was married to Lorene Hibbard. Her uncle, Mr. Elmer Hibbard, had passed away the previous year, and Mrs. Hibbard, being in poor health, decided to go to Minneapolis to live with a widowed sister.

So the newly-weds took over the management of the Hibbard estate on a share basis. Later, Mrs. Kirschten inherited the home place and they have lived there until the home was destroyed by fire in January, 1971.

During the years, Mike acquired more land and built up the herd. He now (1972) commutes from Baker to the place about six miles east of Baker in the Fertile Prairie area. Here he works, together with his eldest son, James, who, with his family now resides on the home place.

His experience with work, problems, rain, snow, hail, drought, depression, pleasures and successes or failures, he thinks have followed the line of a majority of others in our

area.

He declares his ocean voyage, the long train ride from New York to Baker, and the meeting of new people, was his greatest adventure. Another great pleasure was his trip along with Mrs. Kirschten to Missoula in 1955 to the graduation of their son, Francis, from the University there. This, they always declared, was their long delayed Honeymoon trip! And, of course, getting married and raising a family is always a great adventure.

He took part in Community Activities and many branding bees; served as Trustee on school board of District No. 50, and was a member of the U.M.B. Club (Unmarried Brothers Club) of Fertile Prairie, and is a member of St. John, the Evangelist Church of Baker.

He saw another period of bachelor living during the winter months of the Depression when the family was getting through the Baker Schools. The summers of those years were joyous ones when all were together.

MRS.

MIKE KIRSCHTEN

[Lorene E. Hibbard]

I was born at Cataract, Wisconsin, July 10, 1895. 1 arrived in this vicinity March 13, 1909 and I became 14 in the July following. We came by train and were located on the SE 1/4, Section 10, Township 7 North, Range 60 East; about four miles east of Baker in the Fertile Prairie area (known at the time as "Starvation Flats") five and a half miles by present roads.

I was making my home with Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Hibbard, as my own mother, Clara Lily DeLap Hebard had passed away when I was a little girl and my father, William Charles Hebard had remarried and now had a second family. Elmer, an older brother of my fathers had adopted the American spelling of the name of Hebard of Welsh origin.

During my earlier years in Wisconsin I lived the "life of Riley" rambling among the birds and trees, the flowers and clear sandy-bottomed creeks of Southern Wisconsin.

Then at the age of 10, 1 went to St. Paul, Minnesota to make my home with the Elmer Hibbards, my aunt was an elder sister of Mrs. Mike O'Donnel and Thomas Hanratty. With them I came to Baker as stated above, in the spring of 1909.

There were six in our party; Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Hibbard, my uncle and aunt, and myself; Mr. and Mrs. Ed Hanratty and six year old son, Bernard. This latter family remained only long enough to prove up on their land, and then returned to St. Paul.

The two men had come out in February, built the two shacks and partially completed the digging of two wells. They arranged with a neighbor to haul a supply of firewood from the Bad Lands, plow up and fence a garden spot. They came to Terry to meet us where we changed trains.

Well-, at about 4 a.m. on a typical windy, chilly, overcast March morning, the train slowed to a halt on the wide open prairie about 5 miles southeast of Baker, and we dismounted onto the railroad embankment.

Waiting there with a wagon and a team of buckskin broncos was Tony Hythecker. He was ready to convey us to our new "home on the range," two tar paper covered shacks with boxcar roofs about three miles north of the tracks.

Tony stood up front to drive; the two ladies occupied the one seat, with the sleepy lad between them. I sat on the small gray valise, filled with our childish treasures. The two men took up their stations in the rear of the wagon box.

A few wagon tracks led off across the sage brush covered flat, decorated here and there with dirty banks of lingering snow, although the ground was frozen hard on this morning. We bounded merrily along until we came up against a frozen hummock and I found myself air-borne off my valise, and making a three point landing on the floor of the wagon box, and then a particularly vicious swoop of the southeast wind wrenched Minnie's (Mrs. Ed Hanratty) hat loose from the bun of hair where she had it anchored with a long hat pin, and it went rolling away toward Baker, coming up against a sagebrush where it helpfully nestled until her husband, Ed, could retrieve it. Tony, who had never seen her before, said "Whoa girls! We gotta get Minnie's hat" as he jerked the broncos to a jarring halt.

We frightened a bunch of horses, which went charging away over the frozen gumbo with a great clatter of hooves; our first glimpse of a herd of horses.

Well, suffice it to say it didn't take Tony long to bring up at the two shacks standing lonely - lonely, surrounded by a sea of grassy hills, still spotted with a few dirty patches of unmelted snow and a necklace of freshly plowed sod which, we were told, was a fire-break to protect us in case of prairie fire.

Tired, cold, hungry, amazed, we entered and soon had fires burning. We were "Home on the Range" and our adventure had begun.

Elmer Hibbard and Ed Hanratty, having gotten us settled and arranged as best they could for our welfare, returned to St. Paul to resume work with the N. P. Railroad Co. there and save a little more for operations. So we two ladies and kids were left to "hold down the ranch" meantime. We had no horse, no cow-only a dog and a rifle (22) for protection. Ha! But we had near neighbors and great expectations. Did our sewing by hand. The well was a good one and we secured the water via pulley with an iron bound oaken bucket that first year.

Some of our neighbors were Robert Dean, Win. H. Young, Shorty Shear, Barry Morris, Oakes Ames, Theodore and John Braun, Tony Hythecker, James and Mike O'Donnel, Tom Ridgway and Jones Griffith. Mrs. Dean would sometimes wave a tablecloth as a signal that they intended to come into town so we could walk over there to go along. They also took us along to dances nearby. We mostly used canned milk (tin cow). Soon however, we acquired a milk cow and my uncle brought out a long geared buggy horse and a buggy, so we had old Jerry.

Try as we and some of our neighbors would, nobody could get that horse to do anything except haul that light buggy and jog lazily along when I rode him. Most of the

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time he was a lovable old pet, but he had a habit of taking off before I got into the saddle or of backing instead of going ahead after he had been tied for awhile.

One day my aunt and I came into town for mail and groceries. When we started home, he decided to go into his backing routine. I suppose he was weary of waiting for us. As we backed away from the hitching rail, he refused to go ahead and reversed us up against the south side of the tiny bank building which stood where the National Bank now stands. At least, we had good backing. I got out of the buggy and led him for a ways toward home. Then I ran around behind, and managed to vault into the back of the buggy box and climb over into the seat. There were spectators so it was an embarrassing affair. My aunt was so embarrassed and disgusted that the cantankerous old boy got a real workout that day.

Another time my aunt, and her sister (later on, Mrs. Mike O'Donnel) drove over into the Badlands northeast of Baker to visit at a friend's home. It was fall and there was a light covering of snow on the ground, but it was pleasant weather.

When they brought him from the stable to hook him up to come home, he jerked away, vaulted the barnyard fence and hit for home. (A distance of five miles or so.)

So they started on foot. It grew dark and they got lost. They walked and walked and finally came to a gate that they recognized. It was not too awfully far off bounds and they had a fence to follow. My uncle and I became worried about the delay. Then we saw a dark object down by our gate and lane entrance. When my uncle went to investigate, here was old Jerry in his harness, standing and waiting to be let in.

Oh boy, were we in a dither. We waited a short time to see if the women would arrive. My uncle was just about ready to set out in search, when we heard voices coming from the opposite direction which we recognized as theirs. In a few minutes they were there and no damage done except weary and somewhat damp.

After my Uncle Hibbard had saved some more money, they moved everything from St. Paul out here that they thought would be of any use to us, built on more rooms and settled down to farm and raise stock. He started with three or four horses, a walking plow and a couple of milk cows. Acreages were small to begin with, so he and other neighbors would take their horses and hay racks and head for the Beach country during the threshing season. At other times, he would work on the road crews as roads were being built everywhere by then. It was all a part of Custer County until 1913. Gradually he got his place and herd built up as every other settler did. We used a hand pump until the fall of 1913 when we put up a windmill. I was proud to contribute $30 from my first paycheck as a teacher to help on the windmill project. Pumping by hand for horses and cows is real good for biceps development, of course.

Some years were bitter- some were sweet. Some winters open-some buried in snow. Both Elmer A. Hibbard and wife, Mary Julia Hanratty Hibbard were born on Wisconsin farms of pioneer farm families. My uncle did not live to see the Great Depression years as he passed away in 1925. In 1926 Mrs. Hibbard turned the operation of the place over to Mike Kirschten and went to Minneapolis to be with a widowed sister. She was in poor health. Though later she returned here and made her home in Baker for a time. She passed away in 1936. Both my uncle and aunt are buried in Bonnievale Cemetery.

Mrs. Hibbard did much practical nursing in the earlier days. She accepted what was offered, often receiving little or naught, but this did not deter her in her services in the least.

Both were active in the community affairs of those days.

PROBLEMS

Kirschten

In the summer of 1909 there was bounteous moisture and seemed to be sufficient in the two or three following years. 1912 and 1915 were really good years but then things were somewhat less promising and 1919 was a really dry, thistly time. Some people gave up and moved out. The winter of 1926-27 began with snow on November 7th and not all of it went off. The 10th of May, 1927, brought a bad blizzard which killed livestock as a late March blizzard had done in the spring of 1920.

During the depression years, things got rough as there was a cycle of poor years and low, low prices; besides there was illness in the family.

Mike worked on a couple of Government projects, and Mr. Gullidge, Baker School Superintendent, invited me to act as Librarian in the High School. Later, I also taught classes in Junior High and a course in Montana History.

Distances were not a great problem as we had no water shortage, being blessed with good wells right at home. Baker was not far away. In earliest days we mined lignite and hauled fence posts from the Badlands, a distance of 7 to 9 miles away, also, our firewood, that fragrant, brightly and warming cedar wood. All this hauling from the Buttes was by teams and wagons. Later coal was hauled by trucks from the old Storm King Mine this side of Miles City, and in more recent years, simply from a coal car right here in Baker.

We did make a few trips by team or "tin lizzie" to visit friends in Dakota.

SOCIAL AFFAIRS

Kirschten

Many of the neighbors as well as ourselves, possessed organs, pianos and Edison Phonographs. Every community always seemed to have a few talented ones, so song-fests were a popular pastime. Dances were held every month or so at some ranch house and it wasn't long before schoolhouse were built and became centers for social events. Shortly, a community hall was erected. At first, local talent was used. They played for whatever the crowd "chipped in" for the music. There were an organ, guitar, mandolin, violin and triangle. Later, at Fertile Prairie Hall music from Baker was sometimes hired. We'd also attended dances in Baker.

There were always the School programs and picnics; soon churches were built and there were the church organizations and activities. A minister from Baker would sometimes come to our school or Fertile Prairie Hall for services.

Of course, there were the rodeos and 4th of July picnics, horse back rides, and picnics in the Badlands, berry and plum picking expeditions. Whenever young blades gathered there was sure to be baseball, horse racing or swimming.

After the County Fair was established and after people owned cars, there were trips to Miles City, Roundup and to Medicine Rocks. Always there were the beckoning, mysterious Badlands and the impromptu neighborhood gatherings, birthday parties and card parties.

Fertile Prairie had many clubs. There were the Fertile Prairie Farm Association and the Womens SLC (Social Literary Club). They strove to keep up on current issues and things of interest to women in general; there was the U.M.B. Club (Unmarried Brothers) though we facetiously dubbed them the Useless Montana Bums or the Umbrella Boys. Ha!

There were the Jolly Neighbors, a Birthday Club and Whist Club, and we must not forget the Teenager Club. It had a fine sounding name, "The Forum." We did give reports, learned parliamentary procedure and studied current events as well as playing a game called "Flinch" with an occasional sleigh

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