The perfect Christmas gift - still

Time is running out for finding the perfect Christmas gift. Christmas is just around the corner. A gift for an adult sibling? A grandchild? A good friend? Someone who loves Montana history? Someone who has connections to the "Out North" Country?

Look no further than "In the (Even More) Days Gone By"! This recently published book was updated from a book written in 1964 about the homesteaders in the Simpson and Cottonwood areas north of Havre. It includes the first book "In the Years Gone By" with added stories and information about the second and third generations. It also includes documentation on the schools, churches and cemeteries as well as information about homesteading and the infamous Long George Francis.

Below are some excerpts from the book that I shared with the Annual Meeting of the H. Earl Clack Museum and Foundation on October 15, 2023. I shared the first part of my talk in the Nov. 6 Senior Living portion of the Havre Daily News. Here is the "rest of the story."

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But was there fun? "You betcha there was fun!" From dances ... to card parties ... to debates ... to rodeos ... to ballgames ... the homesteaders used every opportunity to get together, visit and just have a good time.

There were probably 600-700 homesteaders at the beginning. Yes, some came with family and friends, there were quite a few single women and many bachelors. Nearly all were lonely and longed for companionship.

Many stories tell of ballgames where teams came from all over to play. There was a lot of competition with neighboring communities says the story of the Magnus Peterson family "in this sport of baseball. On the second and the fourth Sundays, we would have services at the Cottonwood Lutheran Church. On these Sundays in the summer time, we could hardly wait for services to end so we could get to Kramer's Corner."

And dances were held often with Rose Dance and Violet LaBonne playing, Martha Miller remembered. "We found all the people in the neighborhood to be sociable and friendly; there didn't seem to be the class differences that there were back east. Here they were all one class, all part of the community." Martha was impressed with the dances at Cottonwood. "Back east when a couple got married, they didn't go to dances anymore. Here they would line up their kids on the bench and dance until morning, married or single."

At one Fourth of July some bachelors made a cake but instead of using sugar they used salt and pepper. Some of the ladies tasted it and made horrible faces, but they were too polite to say anything but they furtively threw the rest of the piece on the floor. The men were watching them and thoroughly enjoyed the ladies' reactions.

On holidays the neighbors would take turns at entertaining their friends. Halloween was the time for a Mulligan Stew party. "Everyone would bring a pot of stew and set it on the back of the stove, and then there would be dancing or cards would be played until early hours of the morning. Everyone would bring their own dishes and silverware to any of these parties, because no one had enough of their own to care of a crowd, as there would usually be at least 30 people at these get-togethers," Maud George said.

Mrs. Earl Kennedy said, "We were married July 24, 1917. Whaley's and Buntin's came to our shivaree. They came late and stayed all night. We managed beds for the kids but the grownups sat up." She added, "My first Christmas dinner was at the Buntins, Whaley's were there, too. They had a wonderful dinner, a goose and a turkey cooked in a wash boiler with dressing. They also had mashed potatoes and gravy, and a vegetable. For dessert, I believe they served dried fruit and a cake. We had been to the store, and we stopped there, and they asked us to stay for dinner. That was sure for a wonderful gift, otherwise our Christmas would have been mighty lonely." That was 1917. Forty-seven years later, when she wrote the article for the first book, she could still remember the menu but much more than that she would remember the hospitality and generosity of her homesteader neighbors.

Most often, I believe the card games were whist. I never learned to play pinochle ... or bridge. But my parents taught us how to play whist. It's not a difficult game to be learned and as you play you develop more and more skills. My sister Myrna, when she was only a child, was recruited by my grandparents to be the fourth member with their neighbor Mrs. Joe Holodnick.

We played whist at the Care Center when I was the activity director. My daughters loved coming and playing with the residents. My activity aides learned how to play whist and loved it, too.

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Some of the 1964 stories are just too good not to share. Take for instance Earl and Elva Knapp. I remember them well. Earl and Elva were not homesteaders. They came to visit Earl's father Jesse ... and stayed. Earl and Elva recall that they were two true greenhorns when they arrived in 1920. They were told they could sleep in the shack of Earl's dad, Jesse, and his dad, Jesse would stay in the shack of his sister. His dad told Earl there was a stove there and some fire wood in the box right beside the stove. Well, they went to the shack and try as hard as they could, they were not able to find any wood. So, they went to bed and froze all night. In the morning his dad explained to them that the fire wood he had referred to was actually cow ships that were in the box and that is what they used for burning.

Elva shares in the book, "In the spring Jesse had about sixty acres to burn off and he made a fire guard around it. After explaining how to do the burning he had Earl and Elva do this job. Earl said they got the fire going really nice and he and Elva sat down to enjoy the flame and remarking how pretty it was. After a while they returned home and found his dad and aunt really fighting fire, as it had jumped the fire guard in several places and Earl said here, they had burned the whole country to the Wild Horse Lake."

One of the worst hardships my grandmother Agnes encountered was the extremely hard water which required large amounts of lye to soften. She had to scrub all the clothes on a scrub board. She would rub until her hands would bleed, sit down and cry a while and then go back and scrub some more until the clothes were finished. By the time her hands had almost healed, it was time to wash again.

One of the most heart-wrenching and touching stories was written by Fred Taylor. He had married a fellow homesteader, Irene Meyers. They lived on her homestead. Irene passed away in 1958. Fred wrote in 1964, "I have lived here alone since that time. I do not have any desire to move anymore, although I am very lonely. I have some wonderful neighbors, many of whom have been born, grown up and are raising families since I moved here. I hope I will be able to remain here as long as it is possible, without being a burden to anyone. It is my wish that when my time comes, I will be laid to rest beside Irene. My wish for my friends and neighbors will be the five essentials which make life worth living namely: Health, Happiness, Love, Children and Prosperity. In the future, may all remember me as Fred."

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Gone are the days of tar paper shacks, community baseball games, even card parties.

Still are the days of -35 blow! Global Warming? Not on those days!

But my question is "Does anyone want to play whist? Come on over!"

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I appreciate so much my daughter Beth being here today. We don't have internet. Her help in receiving information and sending information for the book was invaluable. Blessings to Elaine Morse and Arleen Morse and to the others on our committee: Don Greytak, Sandy Patera Spinner, Julie Greytak Faber Verploegen, Leroy Keller and Pete Velk. Together, we did it!

Beth, I want you to have Grandpa Sid's chair and to pass it down to your daughter Janessa. Please tell Janessa how it arrived in Montana and lived in a tar paper shack, fighting the cold off with walls covered with the Saturday Evening Post and Montgomery Ward catalog. Tell her how her Great-Grandpa Wesley sat in it as he watched his mother scrub clothes on a washboard. Tell Janessa how her Great-Great-Grandma Agnes's hands oozed with blood.

The homesteaders came for a better life. Why? Not only for themselves but for my father, his brothers and sister. They did it for me and my brother and sister.

And they came for you, Beth, and your sisters. And yes, they came for Janessa. They sacrificed, worked from sun up to sun down, endured the heat of the day and the freezing weather.

Pass it on. Generation to generation to generation. May we never forget.

"We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praise worthy deeds of the Lord, His power and the wonders of He has done." Psalm 78:4

"In the (Even More) Years Gone By" may be purchased at the H. Earl Clack Museum #2 Fifth Avenue, Havre, Montana 59501 for $60. For an additional $10, they can be mailed. 406-265-4000

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Ila McClenahan is a retired chaplain and activity director living in the Amos area north of Havre. She keeps busy writing, directing Christian Camps for children, volunteering and speaking at various events, She and her husband Rod have four daughters and oodles of blessings (grandchildren).