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Although I was born in South Dakota, I'm really a native Montanan. My husband was born and raised at Crawford, Nebraska. How did you meet a question we've always been asked?

I was born at Frankfort, South Dakota, February 2nd, 1917, to Virgil C. and Cora E. (Trumbo) Wetzbarger, the fourth of a family of five. At this time my folks lived on a farm, with the old type lean to kitchen and tar papered as so many homes were in those days. Those were the horse and buggy days, and the doctor made house calls even in the inclement weather, no matter how cold or deep the snow. The winter of '17 was one of those severe winters with deep snow and it took my dad and uncle Gates hours of digging drifts to and from town to get the doctor there. My aunt Lenora Wandell, Dad's sister, had things under control when the doctor finally arrived. I'm still reminded of uncle Gates request of wanting to see what he had scooped snow all night for?

I was never to have the pleasure of knowing this uncle as he developed pneumonia and passed away leaving a family of six whom I spent many great times with at Redfield, South Dakota.

From farming, Dad took over operating elevators in Tulare and Crandon, South Dakota. Then in the year of 1925 Dad decided to come to Montana, and operate a farm of my mother's uncle, Ed Polbrooks, who lived at Freedom, Montana, which is ten miles south of Jordan. Dad came on ahead to get established, then we followed later in the month of September, my eldest brother, Lester, driving the Model T. Les was only fourteen, but mother had never mastered the driving skill very well. Dad had taken the cloth type curtains off of the Model T. and had a California type top put on, thus glass replaced the Isinglass. Our household goods were sent ahead by railroad car; the only means of transporting goods at that time. Thus we set out from Redfield, South Dakota and Jordan, Montana was our destination. Needless to say there weren't any super-hiways and we were lucky to even have gravel on part of the road. When wet they were really slick. The family consisted of my brothers, Lester, Enid, Dale, myself and Richard, better known as Dick.

We had an extra passenger, my pet cat, Midget, so named because of her size. I'm fond of cats, and she was special, so I wasn't about to leave her behind even though I had to hold her all the way. On one of our stops for a rest period Midget went off into some bushes and to no avail could we persuade her to come out. Mother says we will go on without her, they just as well leave me, too. I finally, with much coaxing, got Midget to come, and she had such an unconcerned look on her face, like "so what?" She didn't realize she was about to be left, or did she know tears have a way of winning.

We didn't have the luxury of Roadside Inns, Motels and Hotels, and with a family of five, money was a scarce item. Our meals were in the lunch box and consisted of unspoilables, homemade bread and peanut butter, and possible an apple or an orange. We spent the night at Lemmon, South Dakota, in a tourist parkway. Those fortunate enough to have a tent slept in tents, mostly they rolled up in bedrolls or in the car. There was a friendly fellow who volunteered a space in his tent for brother Lester to sleep, but Les had his bedroll, and mother didn't want to bother people. This gentleman even assisted with a campfire to heat food and coffee. How nice to meet up with someone so kind and generous, until the next morning we awoke and the nice gentleman was gone and so was our brand new spare tire Dad had gotten before he had left for Montana. The spare tire was mounted on the back end of the car in those days, so we started out without a spare tire and much in prayer that we didn't have any flat tires, thankful to say we never did.

We came through Baker, Westmore and Ismay, needless to say, we felt a long way from civilization, and we children were getting more home sick by the mile. Not even a jackrabbit jumped out to break the monotony. Not a cow or a horse or even a farmstead was in sight. What a relief to finally see the town of Miles City. Now this wasn't so bad after all, if we could have just stopped there. The farther north we went the worse it got, just gumbo buttes and it appeared to even be isolated from God. I think there were six people who would have been glad to turn back, altho' mother wouldn't admit it as someone had to keep up the morale. Mother being a pioneer herself it was easier for her to accept this drastic change we were going to have to become accustomed to. In later years bands of sheep dotted this area but at that time not even a sheep or wagon did we see. It was all open range. Not any fences, except around the small milk cow pasture or buck pasture.

Cohagen was a fair little town then, at least the homes were kept in better repair then they are at present. It's pretty much of a ghost town now, but don't tell them that. In time

to come I was to become much a part of Cohagen and it grew with the school and school enrollment. But our destination was Freedom, Montana, a post office just south of Jordan ten miles, and the school house which was to become a combination of a school house, Community gathering place and church on Sunday.

It was a happy reunion with Dad, but I'll never forget the picture as we stepped into the huge kitchen, as homes were built in those days. My uncle being a bachelor had all the bachelors facilities, a sheep wagon type stove to cook on and for heat, unless the furnace was going, and he had sage brush for the fire and the draft was poor and the smoke was terrific. He had a pot of beans on the stove and a huge pan o cornbread in the oven, one of those black pans that were so common back in those days. They baked enough cornbread so for supper it was cold cornbread and milk, quite a change in diet for us, but we loved it. My uncle was a tall ruddy complexioned, bald headed man, and the heat and the sudden arrival of a family invading his domain didn't help matters any. Somehow mother soon had things under control, and in days to follow soon had things homey. Uncle lived with us a year before moving to an adjoining place where he could get away from the confusion of kids and the noise. Think mother was happy to eliminate the unpleasant job of cleaning uncle's spittoon. Uncle chewed the Horseshoe plugged tobacco, and for some reason he set the spittoon over by the mop board rather than by his chair, so altho' his aim was quite good, needless to say he did miss, and thus an extra cleanup job for mother besides the spittoon.

The main crops were corn, wheat and oats, we used the "Go-Devil" to cultivate the corn. The shovels were set to throw the dirt away from the corn until the corn got tall enough then they were set to throw the dirt toward the corn. Of course horses were used to do the farming at that time, and the lumber wagon was used to haul the grain to town an all day job. We kids though small had to help set up the grain shocks. If one couldn't lift the bundle two did.

I have many cherished memories of the Freedom days. In the span of three years there were many community gatherings, not only for the special holidays but every Sunday we had Sunday School and church. The local minister had a chicken farm which he and his wife operated along with the Ministerial duties. Their place was also located along the Sandstone and on the Fourth of July this provided swimming and wading place for the children.

The school was within walking distance for two families including us, so it was our job to carry the water, being we were the closest, which was about a quarter of a mile. We carried the pail between us on a stick for easier carrying. The old time coffee pail with the lid was our water pail. Through snow and bitter cold we still carried the water, how perturbed mother got when the teacher who drove down from Jordan and stayed in the teacherage during the week would use the water to fill the car radiator with. We didn't get paid to carry this water, but somehow it seemed my sister got a quarter once.

In the Fall of 1929 we moved to a cattle and sheep ranch seventeen miles west of Cohagen, the owner lived in California. My Midget cat went with me.

My brother "Dick" and I were still in grade school. My oldest brother stayed at a private home in Cohagen to go to high school. He earned extra pocket money doing chores, a milk cow was allowed in town and chickens, too, if kept confined. My sister and brother stayed at the dormitory. They too could do janitor work to help pay for their board.

The school situation was different here, not centralized at all, Dick and I had five and one half miles to go to school and two gates to open along the way, where the Johnson and Coils had a mile and a half and a mile respectively to go. Thus we had to get another saddle horse along with the one we had and until we could find a good broke horse we hitched Trixie our little black horse to the buggy and our first year of school was spent a long hard drag to school and home and care of the horse (to be hobbled at school) and I being older the responsibility was mine and that horse could sure go with even hobbles on, and to make matters worse Charlie Coil run horses in there. They were the wild range horses picked up as mavericks and branded to be sold to horse buyers. Thus a new and different era of my life began. The second horse we got was the gelding from Ray Goodwin that he had used in World War 1. Altho Peaches had age against him he still was a good horse and dependable. His footing wasn't as sure and this could have been a fatal event going to school one day when he rolled end-over-end down a hill with my brother Dick. Guess the bronc type saddle and the fact that he was small saved him. He lost his lunch and his color otherwise not hurt. We shared lunch at noon, the Coils were special that way. No matter how severe the weather I never missed school. My brother turned back many a time. I missed one week when I had the flu. Many the time I would get to school hanging heavy with frost on my face and brows, and to get off and open the gate you could hardly unbend, and being the oldest it was always my responsibility. We hobbled the saddle horses, and then had a time catching them. Many times we were until dark getting home. We tried picketing the horses then they would entangle in the rope. Then too much school time was required to go tend to the horses which never made the teacher very happy. Then the hobbles would ice up and really a job to get them unbuckled.

The yearly range roundup of horses was quite an event as cowboys came from long distance to roundup their own branded horses, which ran the open range, and to gather and brand any slicks and their own colts. Thus I acquired my first saddle horse. They gave him to me as he had a Roman nose which they thought was ugly, but in time he outgrew this to a great extent and Tonto came to be a very dependable and good horse. He took me the rest of my school years along with a bald faced bay mare. The latter only I could ride. She was really fleet of foot and I had many a race with her.

One little Scotty horse I had for a short time, liked to stand on his hind legs. I rode him mostly with just a twine for a bridle. A slight tug on the twine and he would stand on his hind legs. My brothers used to go with the roundup crew to gather up the horses. They needed all the help they could get as they had the mess wagon and cook with them. They used ropes for corrals for their saddle horses. Some were hobbled then a main corral was used for the roundup, and it took a good corral to hold them and then many a time they broke out and got away. Then it was to do all over again.

My summers were spent herding sheep. There weren't any fences and there were large bands of sheep all around us. Some bands of sheep were several thousand, and woe if they got mixed, which never did happen to me or my brother Dale. We somehow inherited the sheep herding job, maybe because we were the in between ages. We also got in on the lambing out time which in those days took place in April, and always came the wet rains and snow. To keep the lambs from chilling we used the horse to pack the sheep tents. They were not very roomy for twin lambs and the ewe, but at times we had to use them and to cut out prospective mothers and leave them there if the weather was inclement.

At green grass time the sheep went on the run to get to the next green draw. We had lots of Buffalo Grass in that area which the sheep really liked, but the cattle weren't too fond of it. The cattle ran on the open range also, but never went the same direction as the sheep, so we always had to see which way the milk cows went so as to get them when it came milking time. We had a fenced in pasture but the grass got

pretty short in dry years with horses and cows both running on it. We had our workhorses too, as at haying time and coal hauling time horses were used. We didn't farm here, Dad tried wheat one year but one taste and the best fence at that time wouldn't hold a sheep out. I raised "bum lambs" every year but came selling time and they went with the rest. I was lucky to get a new pair of shoes for school. Mother made everything over. Many an old suit she ripped up to make coats, skirts, jackets and mittens. I went barefoot until my teens, and many a cactus I picked out of my feet. Mother even made me a pair of shoes from a heavy over coat. Dad had a awl and shoe last with which he repaired many a shoe.

Coal was used for cooking and heating, we had a Monarch range and a coal furnace in the basement. This home was newly built but was the California style house with wallboard inside and lapsiding outside and nothing in between the walls, so you can imagine how cold it was. It was a five-room house equipped with a bathroom but used as a pantry. Our cooler was the cave on the hill, and I was the " run up " and " run downer. " I had a beaten path to that cave as eggs and butter didn't keep otherwise. The milk and cream were stored there also as was the large supply of fruits and vegetables mother canned. We raised a garden, if the hail didn't get it or the armyworms or the hoppers, and the garden was a family project. If the garden failed then Dad made a special trip to the Miles City gardens, which they had at that time, and he brought home produce for mother to can. If he helped pick it he got it for less.

Our main meat was mutton and antelope, cattle were to sell, and didn't get much for them either. It didn't take as much to live in those days. We never went to a doctor, didn't need one. Mother had her famous remedies. They got you well in a hurry. I had my first tooth filled at age twelve, and Dr. Farrand of Jordan is the one who did it, and that filling lasted me for seventeen years.

One winter in particular comes to my mind, altho there were many tough winters and much snow. This one that stands out, was a long severe, cold one. I and my kid brother were still in country school and due to the deep snow they postponed school to be made up in the spring. We ran out of coal so it was up to dad and me to go get some coal. There was a community mine where several families worked in the fall to uncover enough coal for the winter, but it was too far to go to, so we went to a surface coal mine which was about four miles from us. The snow was deep and hard crusted. The horses floundered in it and they were on top, the one leg stayed on top and the others would fall through. It was 30 below zero and bitter cold. We were dressed as warm as possible, the horses were of the best, and very willing. Dad took good care of his horses. We had the bob sled today for the trip after coal, and a wash tub to load it with. When we got to the coal area Dad started a brush fire to heat the coffee in the gallon pail and we had coffee and cold sandwiches which went great. Then came the process of uncovering the coal. I did what I could to help. Then I helped Dad to lift the tubs of coal onto the sled, meanwhile the horses were munching oats. After we got as much as we could haul and not over tire the horses we headed for home. No words can say how bitter cold it was as it was getting on to dusk time of the day. Dad got off and walked a lot but I didn't and I shall never forget how impressed he was at the way I could stand the cold. Home sure looked good that evening, and that coal sure looked good in the once empty bin. At the end of the week my older brother managed to get home and help Dad with the next load. Even this he didn't see how I took it, guess riding five miles to school toughened me in. Sitting out on a hill and keeping up with a band of sheep isn't any snap. We had good sheep dogs that worked well, and I spent many a day out with the sheep when the snow was deep and the weather anything but pleasant. I made many a trail through a snow filled draw to get the sheep to the other side. If I had a lead sheep, fine, if not I went.

Our lighting in those days was a kerosene lamp on the wall in the kitchen with a reflector behind it to throw the light wherever you wanted it which still didn't make much of a light anywhere. A kerosene light in the dining room was our only light for many years. We studied by this light. Now I wonder how we ever saw what we were doing or eating, and mother sat and darned socks and crocheted by this light and didn't the bugs like those lights. Maybe it was a good thing we couldn't see too good!

Our lunch pails were syrup pails and lunch was home made bread and jelly or jam on it. Even peanut butter was a specialty. Many the time we took left over muffins or biscuits for lunch. We dreamed about fruit in the magazine or seed catalog. Needless to say rattlesnakes were plentiful and out on the prairie it was an every day event to kill several. The coyotes roamed around and many the time we sent the dog after them to scare them off, especially in the spring of the year after a tough winter. They even would invade the bedground if it was heavy with fog, so we had to be early risers. It was very common to go without breakfast so as to go when the sheep went.

If we, as a family, got to go to Miles City once a year we were lucky. We had a 1926 Chevrolet, but the roads weren't graded into Cohagen and trails were our roads. When the water was high we didn't cross the Little Dry creek either as there weren't culverts or bridges.

My Uncle Elmer Trumbo, lives north of Jordan on Hell Creek. We spent many a Sunday visiting him and later his family. If you want to see rough country go up into the Missouri Breaks.

I can still recall how I invariably got in on the churning job. I churned butter in the old style dash churn the barrel churn and the more modern glass churn. The barrel churn held several gallons of cream and we sold a lot of butter. Somehow I was always at the crank. After a few turns the cork at the bottom had to be removed to release the pressure and sometimes it took several times to do this. One time I just didn't release it enough and the lid came unclamped and cream went from one end of the room to the other, needless to say I was sure in the dog house. It never happened again. This churning incident happened at Cohagen where my mother moved in to operate a cafe and put the family in school at the time the new road was being built through to Jordan and Miles City, so mother cooked for all these truck drivers and crew. That was the "dirty thirties" and thistles were hay and the area was a dust bowl. After the hiway was done, business was poor so back to the ranch and I finished my last year at the Coil school and started my high school career. Dick came into town to finish his grades.

It was during my last year of grades that my pet cat Midget died and my brother and I put her in a special burial place.

During this period there wasn't much for entertainment, when the battery was up we had the radio, and the player piano "if you couldn't play," and no teachers to teach you, or couldn't afford it. Then the old victrola got a work out, and we played the records over and over, then there were the many card games some created by the kids. We had great imaginations.

During my high school days I was on the main basketball team, played center and forward. We played Jordan, Brockway, Miles City and Ingomar.

The other entertainment was the community club. The first Saturday of each month each community put on a program and then dancing followed, everyone donated to the lunch, so it was free until too many outsiders started coming then it was bring your own or buy, and not many could buy so brought their own. One night someone got into our car and stole our lunch mother had gone to so much work to fix and so we went hungry. I stayed at the girls dormitory to go to school and did janitor work at the "dorm" and at school to help pay my way. I went to school with a Lee Garber. His mother was a cook at the "dorm" previous to my staying there. I was well acquainted with Dave, Victor and Ruth Garber we are the other cousins of Gene Garber, so it is a small world.

By this time Cohagen had built a large high school and a large gym. Later they added a new dormitory, which now are all in Jordan except the gym. It was during the summer of my freshman year of school that a nephew of the Morris Coils came from Crawford, Nebraska to visit and to try and get employment on the Fort Peck Dam. Being a non-resident, he had to wait a year so he worked around Cohagen at whatever could be found, often at a dollar a day. He helped my dad out one summer. This aunt and uncle lived north of us eight miles and she had been "dorm" matron my Freshman year. Dodd and I went together while I continued my schooling, and he went to work in the tunnels at Fort Peck, but his folks constantly worried about his safety and his mother especially, so my school days and basketball terminated and on Dec. 14, 1935 we were married in the presence of family and relatives at the Emmanual Episcopal church in Miles City. (The church which I was confirmed in.) We started out through deep snow and another new and different life for me.

Nebraska is timber country, mostly Pines, they farm. raise cattle and hogs. It used to be a great corn country but more small grain and alfalfa is grown. Needless to say we didn't have much to start out with, a dilapidated suit case which was Dodd's, a borrowed ten dollars from his uncle, the Model B coupe which wasn't quite paid for, and all the good wishes. I was blessed with wonderful in-laws, a phrase which we soon dropped and became Mother, Dad and Daughter. The year my mother was hospitalized in Jordan with the erysipelas I had to take over as cook so I knew how to bake bread and many other things. I wasn't lost the short while we stayed with his folks and three brothers until spring when we moved onto a rented place just three miles east of Crawford.

We set up house keeping with second hand furniture, plus loaned and borrowed things, a dozen hens which through my never tiring effort built up a flock of chickens to have meat to eat and to buy the meager amount of groceries. Dad Brott gave us a sow pig and we soon had hogs. We let the Model B coupe go and got a 1926 Chevrolet truck which we needed worse then the car.

I used to can Lambs Quarter by the tub full, now they are just called weeds, and don't look appetizing anymore but Ken says they are good. I also canned field corn by the quart. It wasn't anything for me to can four and five hundred quarts of fruits and vegetables plus jellies and jams. Sometimes the hoppers and hail destroyed the garden, then the eating was pretty slim.

There weren't any sheep right in this locality, and no saddle horses, so nothing to ride unless you wanted to ride a workhorse which they did if need be. There wasn't any coal. Wood was used for cooking and heating I sure could shovel coal better than chop wood. Dodd worked in the timber on the timber gang, got to be foreman. Those were the W. P.A. days. People Want Work days?? Those were the years of the hopper infestation, and chickens were raised on hoppers and what they could pick up around. My chicken house was a single boarded lean-to, and to make it warmer I lined it with cardboard boxes. Wheat was scarce and when we ran out of that there wasn't anything to feed the chickens, so carried them out by the tub full as they froze and starved to death. Might have gotten a quarter each for them if I would have sold them, but they were to buy the few groceries, at eight and ten cents a dozen you didn't buy much. With salmon 25 cents a can we ate a lot of that as it kept without refrigeration. I had a covered hole at the well where I kept the butter, milk and cream. At this time we milked a cow Dodd purchased for $35 with calf at side. There wasn't a basement or root cellar on this place so no place to store anything or canned goods. Our pork was salted down or cured and the brine. Even fish that were caught were put into a brine of salt. This was in the cold part of the year so kept very well. My ironing board was the table and I still have the sad irons I used to iron with.

My wash machine was the bushel measure. I heated the water in it and then proceeded to wash and then rinse after all was washed as the bushel measure was the largest container I had. We used P and G bar soap and no bleaches, the clothes were scrubbed until clean, and hands became callused and red and hands not used to the washboard became blistered. At seeding time my wash machine went to the field to be used to measure grain so I had to wait until it was available before I could wash clothes and overalls and bedding weren't easy to wash. In December 24th, 1937, a daughter Norita was born. Dr. B.F. Richards was the attending physician. We didn't have all the special care and hospital facilities as this was an apartment house turned into a private hospital. Mostly Obstetrics, any other doctoring was transferred to another city. When I was at home I had used the old style and action machine until Dad mounted a motor on it, then later mother had a gas machine. She spent many hours on a scrub board too, now I knew what she had done as there were three to wash for and in winter time the only way to get them dry was to stretch a rope across the room and let the heat from the Airtight stove dry them out. The old Airtight heater looked like an over size wash boiler and it cooled off just as fast as it got hot and never held fire. We would keep pitch wood around for that quick fire when we came home and the house was cold. Many a time that stove fairly danced it was so hot and one time in particular Dodd stood ready with a pail of water to douse on it should it get out of hand.

Dodd started out farming with a 1926 Fordson and two bottom plow and borrowed machinery from his dad to get by. This Fordson was unpredictable. The hired men could never start it but it would start right off for Dodd, guess he had the right touch! In 1936 Dodd purchased a new F12 McCormick Deering Farmall tractor. It had the mounted type equipment, but it could hardly pull itself let alone the attachment equipment. He traded it off for a Model A John Deere tractor a 1937 model. He wasn't too happy with this so traded it off for a Farmall tractor. It was next to the Farmall 20 in size. In 1937 Dodd purchased a 1918 model McCormick grain binder, which took a man on the binder to operate the lever controls. My brother Dale was visiting us and hiring out at threshing time, which was all as new to him as it was to me.

In December of 1936 Mother and Dad Brott decided I was a wee bit home sick so the four of us paid a visit to Montana in their Model B, 1932 Ford sedan. They were oil burners and the fumes came into the car. I always had that carsickness problem so this really made me green; nevertheless it was good to see the folks, and they in turn could visit Mother Brott's sister the Morris Coils.

In the spring of 1939 we moved from the valley to the tableland, up in the pines and on a place completely isolated from neighbors. A canyon was the only way of getting in or out of there. We walked home many times when it was icy, muddy or snow packed. These were the years of hopper infestation and they even tried to eat the fence posts. We got poisoned grain from the government to put out for the hoppers, but seemed a million moved in to take their place, and some didn't bother to poison so their hoppers run out of food and moved in to eat us out. This was also hard on the birds.

Dodd's folks had an ice house where it was an annual winters job to cut and store ice. Dad Brott had a sawmill where they got the sawdust to pack around the ice. The older the sawdust the better. Dad Brott sawed many a board feet of lumber. He built their huge two-story barn with it and it still is one of the best barns in the country. Many a Sunday we enjoyed family get togethers at home or on the flowing creek with every variety of shade tree.

Now we were in the timber country where wood was easily available, and dry wood was the best as it was ready to burn. The green wood had to cure for a year before it could be used. It was an annual job to cut timber then the crew went from place to place to saw it up into proper lengths for the heating stove and the cook stove, then it had to be split. I split enough wood in the next eight years to fill that huge barn of Dads, Come threshing time I split wood while the crew was elsewhere so as to have enough wood to run the two weeks it usually took to thresh. The weather didn't always

cooperate, and there were other things to do. All the water had to be carried from up on the hill and I was now in the chicken business bigger, but still setting hens. Straw for nests and floor was only available up until the time before the stock was turned into it. Once the stock was into it, it wasted and ruined and then it was difficult to use old hay or what was available to use in the chicken house. From the grocery man to the creamery company to Safeway and then to Brentwood I delivered eggs. It was work. In 1941 our son, Gary, was born. Now I got my first wash machine. Was I happy to chuck that wash board. That Speed Queen was a washing machine and pea sheller. I shelled many a bushel of peas with it. I was glad to finally have a root cellar which later on we put cement in and around it like a jug. At that time Nebraska was a great corn country too, and after hand picking came the Indians we hired from Pine Ridge, South Dakota to help shock grain and to help haul bundles at threshing time. I had seventeen men to cook for for two weeks, and no meat and no way to keep it, so we dressed chickens. Somehow they never got tired of home grown fried chicken. A beef roast was a treat, altho' mother Brott had canned beef most of the time and shared with me many a time, as they did the potatoes. Usually men stayed over to care for the teams of horses then I would have eight to ten extra for breakfast. We just had wood floors and used paraffin oil on them to make them easier to clean. We had the Indians for three summers. Willie Running Horse was the only Indian in the community that was hired that would work and stay with a job. The whole family of seven lived in a tent close to the place so as to have water. Space won't allow me to elaborate on the many stories I could tell. We even heard from them since we came to Montana that they wanted to pick our corn. In 1944 Dodd purchased a new Model G John Deere and a John Deere two row mounted type corn picker, which he even did custom work with. In 1940 he had purchased a new McCormick Deering grain binder; in 1944 he purchased a model C Case combine then in 1946 he purchased a new K Case combine. Times were getting better as the hopper infestation was kinda letting up and the years not quite so dry.

Nebraska.

Norita's first two years of school were at Sawlog where she had to walk a steep canyon road. There were three in school. Then we had school in our home for two years taught by a native Canadian lady who had taught Dodd in his 2nd grade. We moved a small building into the yard at home and had school there. There were now four pupils. I boarded the teacher and fixed noon lunch for two pupils who walked a

canyon hill to come to school. The only telephones were the crank type and didn't reach all areas. Dodd's folks lived on a telephone line, and the so called party line. Each home had a different ring and everyone knew whose ring it was and news really traveled fast.

In 1946 the landlord put in a cistern and pitcher pump into the house so we had cold water which was an asset. He also built me a new hen house - 40 X 20 - for my now increased flock of chickens.

We raised hogs and Hereford cattle. We ran around a hundred head of hogs, mostly Hampshire. Dodd fed the ear corn to them and also soaked the grain for them which was quite a chore and when he was away custom corn picking with the mounted type picker the slopping of the hogs was my job, and with that job everything got slopped! The water had to be carried from a stock tank and the ice had to be chopped out of the trough before you could slop the hogs or water them, and they sure lived up to their name. I always tried to stay ahead of them, I said tried!!

The last timber we cut for firewood I helped Dodd on the crosscut, and we had quite a time finding dry timber and help was scarce even at sawing time as everyone was going to gas and fuel oil. The combines coming in made help hard to find to thresh so did the change over from wood as help was exchanged during this fall and winter chore. It was a difficult thing for Dad Brott to park his threshing machine after a life time of running one and use a combine. There sure were many pros and cons.

In 1947 Dodd got me the O'Keefe and Merritt gas range and we went to using fuel oil for heat, and the Servel Refrigerator was my first workable unit. We tried some of those first gas type models (second hand ones) but all they did was give trouble and throw off a terrible odor.

We had made several trips to Montana while Norita and Gary were growing up, and to Seattle, Washington, where my folks had moved to be close to my brother, Dick, and his wife. Dick gave his life for his country in 1944, and now rests in the National Cemetery at Brest, France.

Dodd had always had the desire to come back to Montana to live. Not me as I loved the pine hills of Nebraska, and I could only see that north country, and being isolated, and couldn't see leaving a wonderful family relationship, and the many friends we had there in Nebraska, but Dodd won out and much to his folks dismay, purchased the Christ Schuetzle place in the fall of 1948. 1 wasn't doing any pushing so we stayed on there until February of 1949, and as you know that was the winter of the big blizzard. We were snowed in, we had sold the cattle and livestock all except the two Jersey milk cows. The hay was all down on the creek. Only way they could get hay to the cows was by building a sled, so with tin for a runner and the hired hand and Dodd as the team they managed to get enough hay up the canyon to feed the cows. We had sold our team of horses and the saddle horse. Dodd and a neighbor walked to town for supplies several trips. It was nine miles down the railroad track. I walked once and helped to carry supplies, and about froze my nose. It was difficult walking around the place doing the chores which was all the walking I had done, so struggling through deep snow and up and down huge drifts was some different. For two days I had great difficulty bending and when I got bent a real sore task to unbend, and in a way funny. Norita took sick with pneumonia so the Snow-weasel came and got her and took her to the doctor. Then she spent several days with her grandparents, the Brotts, who had purchased a place within four miles of Crawford. Then on a delivery of potatoes and gas the Weasel brought her on home. The airplanes were busy air lifting hay to stranded cattle. It was something to see them fly over and drop out hay to the cattle in the canyons. We stored the eggs in the root cellar, even then some froze but they still bought them. Some had kept their eggs too warm so weren't any good. We had over seven cases of eggs on hand.

It took two crawler tractors three days around the clock to clear the road and to get up that canyon as it was full and no place to push the snow, and get the truck in that was to move us to Montana.

We had eighty mile an hour winds with this and when I took care of the chickens it about took my breath away to carry the grain from the granary to the chicken house and as usual nothing was ever handy.

Montana was experiencing a severe winter that year too, and we made the trip without a stop only for gas and a snack to eat as we had the chickens in crates and hoped to keep them from freezing. It would be late on the other end of the journey. We were a weary bunch. No sleep and always on the alert as driving was hazardous. Dodd had the truck with tractors on it, the G. tractor had been driven through earlier.

When we arrived here the roads were blocked and no way could we get the truck in there with the chickens on it so they had to carry them in and took two guys with a lot of man power to carry those heavy crates of chickens.

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Holger Bach, who lived on the Larson place at that time used his little crawler tractor to open up the road as much as he could anti to help get the truck in here that had the household goods on it. That night we put the mattresses down on the floor to sleep on. The only heat we had was the range left in the house, and the place had been vacant for several years, so no coal for the furnace and wood wasn't available, other then old boards which had to be chopped up. Dodd managed to get to town for some sacks of coal which didn't last very long in that severe weather and this big house. My years of using a coal and wood range came in handy as the gas wasn't in and would be a while before we could dig ditch and install gas lines. Some of that Nebraska timber would really have come in handy now. The water system wasn't working either so I melted snow to use. The cold water was piped in but froze up and then there was a flowing well so did manage to get water at the well but once again Norita, Gary and I were longing for good water and Nebraska.

We had 32 volt electricity before we left Nebraska, so brought the Kolar motor along with us and used it up until the REA went in, then sold it to my uncle Elmer Trumbo who lives in the Missouri Breaks, better known as Hell Creek. It is close to Snow Creek a tributary of Fort Peck Dam.

Dodd purchased a Case tractor and a John Deere G and also a John Deere manure spreader to ease a terrific chore. I still use the spreader and H tractor to clean the chicken house with, as it replaced the wheelbarrow I used for so many years. They have wanted to trade the H. tractor off but it was always so faithful to start for me no matter how cold the weather. Altho it has to be cranked by hand it had never let me down and when the flock was big it was an every three-day job to clean that forty by twenty chicken house, especially in the spring of the year when the frost came in.

For many years eggs were shipped to Brentwood then Marvin Moore of the Miles City hatchery set me up to bring him hatching eggs. That I did for three years. That is really a chore, then for seven years I kept the Log Cabin in eggs until they changed the egg system. That's when I quit the chickens down to just a normal size flock and after twenty-five years it is a great relief not being pressured by that chore.

We went into the milch cow herd, too, when we first came up here and used two Surge Units, but after two years and the birth of a son, Ken, on Sept. 22, 1951, the herd had to go, so only two cows were milked for several years and now none. The one cow would only tolerate me, and I could use only a milking unit on her, guess that's why she went to town.

In the succeeding years Dodd had a L.A. Case, a H.D. 5 Crawler tractor which was noisy and dirty, then came the canvas feed type John Deere combine, the pull type swather, which was short lived, the New Holland Hay baler, New Holland swather, and the New Holland bale wagon replaced the John Deere mower and Side Delivery rake.

We tore down a lot of old buildings and replaced some buildings and did a lot of remodeling on the house; insulated and installed storm windows of which the original were the old take off put on type and I never could quite reach the second story. We also replaced the old coal furnace with a new fuel oil furnace. I sure hated the coal shoveling and ash carrying job, I never could stay clean with that job and seemed the ashes were a never ending chore. We also installed hot and cold water and the bathroom fixtures, and just recently our son Gary put in a washer and drier, so I can really enjoy that; quite a change after the bushel measure.

Dodd has replaced fence lines and built a lot of new fence, also a new board corral which we painted white. The most recent addition is the quonset to house the machinery and so they have a good place to work on equipment.

Our daughter, Norita, graduated from Plevna high school in 1956 and that June became Mrs. Elmer Fried. They now have three children; Larry, Eileen and Brett.

Our son, Gary, graduated from Plevna high in 1959. He is married and lives in Miles City and they have two children, Rick and Terri. Gary is a carpenter, thus my source of remodeling. I do a lot of carpenter work myself, I'm always fixing something, as Terri says she knows where daddy gets his carpenter ability, "From grandma."

Son Ken graduated from Plevna high in 1970 and thus far is our great helper on the farm, and we really need him as Dodd had so much major surgery the past few years that it has slowed him up a bit.

We run Angus cattle and have hay wagons to grind hay into and feed the calves out until spring; have been feeding out hogs also so have two electric stock tanks and self feeders SO the feeding isn't too difficult, but it is still a big chore.

I have a John Deere 140 riding mower that I mow the whole place with and keeps me busy if it is a wet year, the water level has dropped off so what used to be a flowing well we had to put the pump direct on it.

Dodd traded the John Deere G off for a 420 Farmall which he used the loader on. (Duall).

When we came to Montana the farming was quite different, we had started the summer fallow method in

Nebraska and winter wheat was the main wheat grown, but here in Montana they were mostly spring wheat growers and with the Pony Drill and Packer. Now this method was all new to us, Dodd purchased a Pony Drill and Packer and believe he used it two years, and then he went to the standby winter wheat. Many a kidding but now winter wheat is the mainly grown wheat in the area and every where else. The first few years were very dry, and a five bushel crop was about the limit possible then in some areas; also the grasshoppers were bad, they go along with dry years. We had smut hit our wheat one-year, due to dampness in the early morning.

The winter of the big blizzard we were fortunate not to lose any livestock. We've survived terrific hail storms, baseball size here and in Nebraska, the loss of chickens and a calf or two plus the many broken windows and other damage was a real big clean up job, as many know.

Dodd worked for twelve years at the Pine Unit gas plant north of Plevna. That was a swing shift job so called for all hour duty for home as well as on the job. A farmer's and rancher's wife can be no Pansy; at calving time especially when I really was on full time duty. Dodd regrets he didn't get to put in another three years but I didn't have any regrets at all.

Just recently my brother Lester came from California and he and I attended the class reunion at Cohagen of 1923 to 1948. The first reunion they had ever had. In 1948 the high school closed. There were former school mates there from all over the United States that we hadn't seen for thirty seven years and longer for Les, We really had a great time reminiscing.

My brother Dale was killed in a pedestrian car accident at Seattle, Washington in 1967. Mother Brott passed away at age 82 in 1967. Dad Brott passed away at age 84 in 1970. My 'dad passed away at age 78 in 1969. My mother is staying at a private home in Miles City where we brought her back to from Seattle when Dad passed away. Mother will be 91 in December 26, 1972. She is in good health and we bring her down often to spend a week with us. She is in a wheel chair, since a hip injury in 1968.

All six of the Brott family are living; eldest Hazel, Dodd, Tom, Fred, Rolland and James.

I have been active in the Plevna Congregational Church for a good many years now and also teaching in the Sr. High

class for five years. Having taught Norita and Gary each Sunday during their growing up years has helped me a lot. The pleasant fellowship I enjoy with the members of the Congregational Church is helpful personally as well as Spiritually. I don't want to forget to give much credit to the Pastors.

Aaron and Ellen Brownson came to Montana in 1915. They were both born and raised in Wayne County, Ohio-Aaron in May 1867, and Ellen in June 1866. They were 49 years of age when they came to Baker on the Milwaukee Railroad. They located on the Newton Eicher homestead. Aaron always had a desire to go west, so in the spring of 1915 when Newton Eicher drowned in the Little Red Butte Creek that ran through the place, Newton's Dad, Uncle Abe Eicher called Aaron in Ohio and said here was his chance to come west. He needed someone to take over the place. Against all reasons why he shouldn't take his large family so far away into such a wild country, he accepted Uncle Abe's offer and came to Baker.

He finished putting in the crop and then started to build a new house for the family. Mark and Ethel came in July 1915, and Mrs. Brownson came in time for the children to start school. Mary and Leona came some time later and three of the children were already married and stayed in the East.

They experienced many hardships. In the summer of 1916 they were building a new barn. It was almost finished when a big wind storm demolished it, so they had to start over again. This also was a poor crop year.

In the spring of 1920 they moved to the L. Price Ranch east of the 101 on Little Beaver Creek. It was March and time to move, so they had to dig out of one of the biggest snow storms on record. They spent the rest of their active years on this ranch and then their son Mark took over the management when they retired in the 30's. Mark and his wife, Inez Corey, ran the ranch until they moved to Baker in the early 40's. He was Partsman and Foreman in the John Deere part of the L. Price Co. until he retired and moved to Bozeman.