St. Clair County
Remnants Of The Past

Note: I'm not sure of the source for this article, but it appears to have been published by the St. Clair County Historical Society.

Clarence Marshall
Homesteader and Veteran

"I was born near El Dorado Springs on May 19, 1894. At the age of 17, I stepped off the train in Mondak, August 16, 1911. Mondak was considered a booming town at that time. Levi Marsen took me by team and buggy out to the Ed Roberts ranch, which was located about 11 miles northeast of Enid. Enid was the only post office for several miles around. A post office was opened up later by the name of Fox Lake, just north of where Lambert is now.
I stayed with the Roberts the first two winters I was in Montana and worked on several ranches in the area. I herded horses for Lew Sensibe the spring of 1912. That all I worked on a sheep and cattle ranch for Herman Reiman.
In the spring of 1913, I rode to Glendive to buy a new saddle. When I arrived, I put my saddle horse in the livery barn and went up town to get dinner. I didn't have any cash on me, but I did have a check on Dr. Armour and my checkbook with an account at the Citizen State Bank in Clubertson. No one knew me so they would not cash either check. I was finally able to borrow $20 on my saddle horse at the livery barn. The next day when I returned to the livery barn, a man by the name of John Gulbrau from Cartwright, N.D. was there looking for some help to drive a bunch of horses down the east side of the Yellowstone through the hills to Cartwright. I told him that I would help him if he would help me cash some checks to get a new saddle. It just happened that Gulbrau needed a new saddle also, so it was agreed. We went to J.J. Stepiks Saddle Shop and bought two saddles and some extra cash to get by with.
Gulbrau had three car loads of horses shipped into Glendive. The time was April and the horses were weak so they didn't make very good time. It took us seven days to make the drive. I quit there and went back across the river over into North Dakota and got a job working for Clark C. Green. He said, "I will give you $70 to herd horses for two months. If you quit before the two months is up, I will pay you off at any price I wish and if I fire you, I will pay you $34 a month and if you stay I will pay you $40 a month through hay harvest and I want you out at four o'clock in the morning and I don't want to have to call you." I needed a job so I said OK and went to work. I herded horses for two months and worked all through haying up until late fall.
One day we were out on a roundup on Alkali Creek. Green asked me if I ever thought of taking up a homestead. He said if I would file on the piece of land we were on and prove it up, he would buy it from me. I wasn't old enough then. The next spring in 1915, I turned 21. So I went over to the Mason Ranch where the US Land Office was located. I had Fred Mason help me file on the land that Clark Green wanted. (This in North Dakota, just across the state line from Sidney.) Then I built a house and barn and stayed there that winter. The next spring in 1916, I broke up 20 acres and put it in flax. It turned out to be a good year as I got 18 bushels of flax to the acre. Well then, I thought that I was a farmer. So the next spring in 1917, I broke up a lot more land, put in wheat, oats and flax. That summer it got hot and everything dried up. I never got anything.
Because of my age, I knew the Army would be getting me, so I decided I would beat the draft by enlisting. I went over to Williston, North Dakota and enlisted in Co. E 164th Infantry of the 41 Division. The last of September we went to Camp Green, N.C. and then on to Camp Miller, New Jersey. On December 12, 1917 we sailed overseas and arrived in Liverpool, England December 24th. I was wounded the night of May 28th, 1918, in the shoulder from a German shell and was sent to the Red Cross Hospital in Paris. I was there until September then I was sent back to the front lines. I was in two more battles (he was a Cpl in M Company, 26th Infantry at this time). After the Armistice was signed November 11, 1918, I was sent to Teier, Germany for guard duty until July 1919. I was shipped back to the states and was discharged July 31, 1919 at Fort D A Russell, Cheyenne, Wyoming. (He carried the shrapnel until he had surgery in 1953.)
Again, I went back to the homestead and went farming. On July 6, 1921, I was married to Mabel E. Frettim in Sidney, Montana."
After that he worked with several different jobs and employers, retiring in 1963 to Billings, Montana.
Clarence was 79 when he wrote this story and his wife was 69. Clarence finally received his purple heart 67 years late, when he was 91 years old, due to the efforts of his family. Clarence was the son of William "Earl" and Rosa Lee (Martin) Marshall of St. Clair County. He died in Billings, Montana March 12, 1988; his wife December 17, 1977. Permission was given to publish Clarence's letter by some of the Marshall family members.