Camouflaged Ruffed Grouse

     With their colored patterns of browns, grays, and blacks, the Ruffed Grouse blends in nicely with its wooded surroundings.  The chicken-like bird uses its camouflage very effectively, by standing very still.  A person probably would not see the bird unless it moved.  That was the case the other day when I was walking around the pond.  Had the grouse stood still and not moved, I wouldn’t have noticed it, but as I ambled unaware, closer, down the path, it started to quickly walk away.

    Grouse always seem so vulnerable.  They spend most of their time scratching around in the leaf litter on the forest floor, and their brownish coloration doesn’t help them much in the winter, so I am always happy to see the ones that have survived through the winter.  

    I suspect this one is a male, with his spread-out fan-like tail.  Later in the spring, we hear the males  making a drum-like rhythm as they stand on a fallen log, trying to attract a female for mating.

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The Last of Sadie's Montana Homesteading Memoir

     The photo shows the part of the 320 acres of land that Sadie, my grandmother, obtained by homesteading in Montana, beginning in 1911.  The land is now owned by my brother.

    Here is the final part of the short memoir that Sadie wrote about her homesteading experience:

    I often feel like the Oscar winners when they receive their Oscars.  I could not have done my homesteading if it had not been for all of the good people that helped me.  People invited me into their  homes, they loaned me horses, and hauled water to me.  Water was a problem as wells could not be found very often.  In winter I melted snow and in summer I carried water from reservoirs.  This water was full of little crawling creatures and had to be strained and boiled.  

    I remember the time after a big blizzard, I looked out of the window and saw a lone rider coming down the lane.  He said his wife could not sleep because she knew there was a young woman down there alone and she was afraid I needed something  I assured him there was nothing I needed and he wended his way back through the drifted snow.  It warmed my heart.  It was a wonderful gesture that someone cared that much for someone that they did not know or had never seen.

    (Although Sadie never wrote it in this memoir, she once told us that during those frigid winter’s nights, she would often sleep with potatoes under the covers to keep them from freezing.)

    I had an outside cellar and one day during harvesting, I was going in for something and I heard a rustle.  Looking down I saw a large rattler.  I took one leap and was out of the cellar.  I went into the cabin and told the girls who were helping me feed the harvesters.  On of the girls was real brave.  She said she was not afraid to go in.  She started down the steps and she not only saw one snake, but two.  It did not take her long to get out.  I closed the cellar door forever and decided the snakes wanted it more than I did.

    I had traveled back to South Dakota for Christmas, on my last leave of absence and returned to Montana in a blizzard.  When the train reached Havre, the thermometer had dropped “out of sight” so the conductor told us.  I stopped at Great Falls to go to the land office to announce my return then went out to Floweree where I was to pick up some of my belongings that Gertrude Trackwell had borrowed, since she had just filed a claim.  They dropped me off me at my cabin and left.

    When I went in to make my bed, I discovered someone had entered my cabin and stolen all of my bedding.  I had to sit up all night and keep my little stove red hot to keep from freezing to death, as it was bitter cold.  I walked to the neighbors the next day and remained there until I could get to Great Falls and purchase more bedding.  

    I regretted losing my army blankets that kept me so warm no matter how cold it was.  Thats was in February and in May of that year, (1914) I “proved up” on my homestead and the land officially became mine.  You will remember it was to have been five years, but thanks to new legislation that had been passed, the required residency time was reduced to three years.

    The day came when I had to say goodbye to all of the fine friends I had made and we knew that we probably would never see each other again.  I returned home to South Dakota to a very proud father.  My homesteading experience made all that would later come in my life, easy.

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More Homestead Hardships Remembered by Sadie

     In her old age Sadie painted the picture above showing how she remembered her homestead in Montana.  Below her memories continue:

    My second school was about 13 miles from my place.  It was known as Castor School.  I boarded with a family by the name of Howell.  They had two boys, the oldest was a boy in his early teens, and he used to let me ride his pony back to my place on Friday night as it was quite a walk.  

    One Sunday when I returned to their house, he was in bed and his mother told me he was very ill.  I realized that when I heard him moaning.  He was one of my pupils and I knew he was not putting on an act.  This went on for a couple of days.

    His father was a railroader and was not at home.  The mother sat as if she were in a trance.  I realized something had to be done, so I walked over to the home of Mr. Castor who was on the school board and he drove me twenty miles to see a nurse.  We brought her back with us and she said that she felt certain he had osteomyelitis, as his leg had started to turn black.  

    She advised us to get him to the Great Falls Hospital at once.  The mother went with hm and the grandmother came to stay with us.  He was in the hospital for over a year.  The doctors wanted to amputate, but he would not let them.  I learned after I left Montana that he recovered enough to walk.

    It seemed as if everything happened at this place.  I killed my first Diamond-back rattlesnake as it was sunning itself in the yard.

    One Sunday when I was out on a picnic with some of the young folks, the lightning struck the house where I was boarding, and tore off the front of the house.  I had to take my belongings (what was left of them, as some were destroyed by fire) and hunt for a new boarding place.

    I remember once when I was riding the pony home and feeling pretty lonely (as my days sometimes looked, as if there was nothing good in sight), I happened to glance up and see a lonely bird winging along.  My students had been memorizing the poem, “To A Waterfowl” and that last stanza came to my mind:

    He, who, from zone to zone,

    Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,

    In the long way that I must trace alone,

    Will lead my steps aright.

My paintings can be seen at:  davidmarchant2.ca

More of Sadie's Montana Homesteading Memories

      I remember, as probably others do, of a night in winter when we had gone to church to some function and a blizzard developed.  We were not able to go home and someone suggested we go to Mr. Ainley’s store and spend the night.  We made coffee and sandwiches and played games until morning.

    One Saturday morning Rosemary Trackwell and I started the hike to my cabin.  We had gone about four miles when we saw a wagon approaching.  The two men stopped and asked us if we wanted a ride.  Rosemary was getting tired so we climbed up on the high spring seat atop several side boards.  We had not gone far when we noticed a motorcycle coming, (an almost unheard of thing in those days).  We asked the driver if his horses would be afraid of the machine and he said he did not think so.

    When that motorcycle got closer to us, those horses when crazy.  The driver was thrown from the wagon and the other man jumped out, leaving Rosemary and I stranded in the racing wagon, pulled with wild, runaway horses.  I saw we were headed toward a deep coulee and I yelled for Rosemary to jump. 

    We leaped from the wagon and I hit the ground with such force that I just doubled up.  I could not get my breath and they carried me up to the hotel at Carter.  I was put to bed where I remained for the day.  I did not seem to be hurt, but I was in shock.

    The horses had veered their course and straddled a barb wire fence, and finally hit a telephone pole.  One horse was so badly cut from the fence that it died.

    I had such wonderful neighbors.  The nearest was Mrs. James Cullen from Wisconsin.  We had an understanding - if I needed anything I would hang a white sheet outside my house.  Some other good neighbors were the Jim Morarity’s from Chicago.  Little Mrs. Morarity never quite adjusted to the rugged life.  She was always wishing she could be walking down Madison Avenue in a white suit with a bouquet of violets pinned to her lapel.  

    One winter’s day after a big blizzard when through, when the snow was very deep, she saw me walking across the country to Carter and remarked to her husband, “I do not believe that Miss Carr has any feeling, going out on a day like this”.  What she did not know was that Miss Carr had to sit in the dark the night before because she was out of coal oil.

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1911: Sadie's Homesteading Adventure Continues

         This blog continues with the story I started yesterday about my grandmother, who at the age of 21 set out on her own, to homestead in the prairie of Montana.

    It was a lot of fun to fix up my cabin.  I stenciled curtains for the windows, and made bookcases and cupboards out of the wooden boxes and creates that my good were shipped in.  It was my first, very own home and with 320 acres of land which would be mine someday — I was happy.  I could go to bed when I pleased and get up when I pleased (something I could never do at home).

    My first school was near Floweree.  I boarded with Mr. and Mrs. Trackwell, who had a daughter named Rosemary.  They were a fine Christian family and welcomed me into their home.  My school room was a cabin that belonged to a young man who turned it over for a school during his absence.  I had students from many different states which made the job very interesting.

    Usually I would go over to my cabin on Friday nights and spend the whole weekend.  One Sunday I had been promised a ride back to my boarding place but the ride did not materialize.  About four o’clock I began to get worried and decided to walk.  My boarding place was about eight miles from my homestead.  When I reached Carter, the lady at the hotel told me if I would take a certain path it would cut off a few miles, so I decided to do that because it was getting late.  

    It was early October and I was dressed warm.  I carried a hand bag with with a week’s supply of of clean clothing.  I never did find the path, since it had long grown over.  I stopped and looked in all directions.  There was nothing in sight, not even a cabin.  I had never seen this part of the country before.  Suddenly it dawned on me that I was lost and almost as suddenly it was dark.

    I just just kept going in the direction I thought was right.  It seemed as if I was climbing up, then down.  I would run into a herd of range cattle, and they would scamper off.  They were more afraid of me than I was of them.  I could hear coyotes howling and I had no desire to spend the night on the prairie.  

    I tried to follow a light, but it would disappear.  Finally after walking and running for five hours, the light suddenly loomed up in front of me, and I saw a house.  Through the window I could see children playing.  I thought I was in Great Falls, it seemed as if I had walked that far.  I rapped on the door and when they opened it, I staggered in, exhausted.

    They removed my clothing which was soaked with perspiration and put me to bed.  This was the Ainley family.  Mr. Ainley was the grocer in Floweree.  The next morning Mrs. Ainley drove me to school.      This was the most harrowing experience that I had during my homestead years.  I learned one lesson—never again to take a short cut that I know nothing about.  I had wandered thought what was known as the Big Black Coulee.  There were deep ravines and holes I could have fallen into and no one would have known what had happened to me.

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Sadie Takes A Leap Into The Unknown

         Yesterday I blogged about “The Children’s Blizzard.”   One of the reasons I had chosen that novel was because of my Grandmother, at the age of 21, also homesteaded in the prairies.  She left her family to head to Montana, to homestead and take up a teaching job in an isolated one-room school in the undeveloped prairie.

      I have always felt a special kinship to my grandmother, because of what she did when she was a young lady.  Like her, I left my family when I struck out to Canada, but I was married, she was alone, and she was a female, which made things a whole lot more difficult for her.

        Here part of what Sadie wrote about her homesteading adventure:

                                                        Homesteading Memories

                                                                          by 

                                                            Sadie Carr Marchant

    On an Easter Sunday morning in 1911, my father looked up from his paper and said, “Sadie, here is an opportunity for you.”  He was reading an Aberdeen South Dakota paper, and he had read a letter from a Mr. Truax of Big Sandy, Montana, who told of what a wonderful country it was and of the land yet to be filed on,

    Some of my school teacher friends had gone out across the Missouri River in South Dakota and taken up homesteads, and I, too, had been thinking of this fore some time.  My father offered to help me finance a claim if I wanted to go.  I wrote to Mr. Truax that very day and soon received an answer.  He gave such a glowing account of the country that it make me even more anxious to go.

    At the time, at the age of 23, I was teaching school and my term ended in a few days.  I closed school on Friday and the following Monday, went into Redfield to see when there would be an excursion to that part of the Montana.  The depot agent told me there was one that day, and if I could leave that night on a freight train that would take me to Aberdeen, he could give me the cheap excursion rates. 

    I knew deep down in my heart that if I did not leave that day, I would in all probability, not go at all.  I went home, talked things over with my father.  He had planned to go with me, but circumstances were such that he could not leave at that that time, but he advised me to go anyway.

    I packed my suitcase, stopped at my County Superintendent’s office to get a recommendation and left on the six o’clock train.  I was young, it was spring, and I was off on a great adventure.   How great it would be, I did not realize.

    The depot agent had advised me to buy a ticket to Great Falls.  This was good advice for when we came to Big Sandy, my heart sank.  It was not at all as I had pictured it, so I decided to go on to Great Falls.  

    After three days and nights on the train, crossing the great barren plains, Great Falls looked like an oasis in the desert.  I checked in at the beautiful new Rainbow Hotel.  Everything about Great Falls impressed me.  Here was a city with street cars, beautiful parks, beautiful falls, the great copper smelter, and there was land to be homesteaded not far away.

    I had become acquainted with a land agent on the train (the very thing Mr. Truax had told me not to do,)  This man came to the hotel and persuaded me to come out to the areas around Carter and Floweree and let him show me the land.  I had gone to the land office in Great Falls and they had just shoved a map out in front of me and told me nothing.

    I went out to Carter and put up at a little hotel and the land agent took me out with some others.  The land he showed me was thirty or forty miles out of town.  I knew I could not go out there as it would cost a fortune to have my provisions hauled.  He then showed me a claim that was available about six miles away from Floweree, and three miles from Carter, on the Missouri River.  

    We rode around this 320 acres on horseback.  Everything was green and beautiful, as there had been a great deal of rain.  It was evening and off across the river I could see the beautiful Highwood Mountains.  I decided that this was just what I wanted.  I went back to Great Falls, filed a claim and had my cabin built right away so I could establish the needed residence required as part of the Homestead Act, before I left for home.  

    I borrowed a cot and blankets from the hotel and the first night I slept in the cabin, there was a terrific storm.  The top of one side of the cabin had not been completed and it rained on my bed, drenching me.  As I walked over to the hotel the next morning the folks were all out on the veranda waiting for me.

    I knew what they were thinking, “I’ll bet this fixed her and she will have had enough of homesteading.”  

    I’ll admit I had been frightened, as storms and rattlesnakes were something I feared very much, but it had not daunted me.  I waited to have the cabin completed then stayed in it several nights before leaving for my home in South Dakota. 

    I had all that summer in South Dakota to think about it and my father, who was beginning to have second thoughts about having his young daughter homesteading, tried in every way to discourage me.  He was willing to lose the money he had given me, if I would only give it up.

    I did a lot of praying over it and did not know myself how I was going to endure the five years of residency required before that land became mine, but I was determined to go.  The settlers in Montana had  promised me a school, so when August came, I packed my belongings, and ordered a laundry stove, table, chair, and folding cot from Sears & Roebuck to be delivered.  My friends gave me a farewell shower and finally amidst sad farewells, I left for Montana. 

        Sadie’s adventure continues tomorrow.

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The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

     The theme for the month’s Book Club was “Prairie Homesteading”.  I did some online searching to find something I might want to read, and happened upon this book, which I then read.  I was sure glad I had picked it, because it is both insightful, engrossing, and gripping.  Here is a review:

    This novel uses as its base, what is often called the “School Children’s Blizzard” or the “Schoolhouse Blizzard,” an extreme and devastating winter blizzard that swept through Nebraska and Southeastern Dakota on January 12, 1888.  It officially killed 235 people, but there were probably a lot more, since Indians weren’t counted and many of the corpses were not discovered until the spring when all of the snow melted.   

            The blizzard killed many homesteaders in the short distance between their homes and their barns, when people were unable to find their way through the blinding snow.  The name of the blizzard usually includes “children”, because most of those killed were kids.  

            Benjamin’s novel not only tells of the experiences of some of those children, but also gives a good deal of information about the difficult lives of those homesteaders on the prairies, who were sucked in by the unrealistically rosy propaganda put out by the railroads, in their attempts to sell tickets on their trains. 

    The lives of the homesteaders were usually very bleak, as they faced the hardships of building dwellings for themselves, poverty, isolation, loneliness, crop failures, and of course, the horrendous winter weather.  Sixty percent of those homesteaders gave up, abandoning their dreams of owning land.  Most men seemed to enjoy the struggle of building their own farm, but life became extremely disappointing and laborious for their wives, who had expected something better.  

    Benjamin centers her novel around two sisters in the Olsen family, homesteading immigrants from Norway.  Education for their children was a priority for the struggling homesteading communities, but it was difficult to find teachers for the isolated, poorly insulated, one-room schools.  

          The two teenaged Olsen girls took up the job and the responsibility of being teachers while still in their teens.  Eighteen year old Gerda, taught in a one room school in South Dakota, while her 16 year old sister, Raina, taught in a different community, across the border in Nebraska.  The two teenage teachers each lived in a different situation, boarding with families within the school areas where they taught.  

    Gerda lived with an older couple, who kept a close eye on her.  Despite this, she had become infatuated with a flighty, young  man who longed to be a cowboy.  On the day of the blizzard, her guardians had traveled to stay overnight in a nearby town while buying supplies.   

             Gerda had planned to take advantage of her guardian’s absence by dismissing school early, and having her boyfriend pick her up in his sleigh and take her back to the house for some intimate time.  When she dismissed her students, they started the long hike back to their homes, shortly before the extraordinarily strong blizzard began to hit.  

           Even though it was mid-January, the day had begun, by being  unusually warm, over the whole area where the blizzard hit.  This prompted both the teachers and the students to forsake their normal winter gear, and they had all dressed lighter.

    Sixteen year old Rainy, who was more conscientious, saw the dark threatening clouds and felt the temperature begin to plummet, and recognized the existential threat of the sudden blizzard, so she  immediately called her students in from their recess, into the school.    There they huddled together, inside the uninsulated schoolhouse.  Soon, as the temperature inside became very cold, it was discovered that there was very little firewood left.  

          None of the class had worn their winter gear to school. The snow outside was blowing with great fury which caused one of the glass windows of the school to break, and snow began blowing into the building through the window.  

    Sixteen year old Rainy had to figure out what to do to save the children.  She realized that the frigid school would soon become a death trap, but the only other solution that Raina could come up with, was to try to hike the kids through the blinding, freezing blizzard, in the dark of night, to a house, closet to the school.  She tied her students along a line, using their aprons, and bravely she led them out into the blizzard. 

    The novel becomes a harrowing tale of survival and death, brought on by one of nature’s most dangerous weather events.  It deals with the struggles of the two teenaged sisters during the blizzard, and also with its aftermath.   It shows the the personal repercussions of the two, who had survived the blizzard, but whose lives were profoundly effected differently by the event.  

           The Children’s Blizzard was an extremely engaging book, that was hard to put down.  It really gave the reader a thought provoking look at what life was like for those struggling homesteaders who settled the prairies.  

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