Some memories of pioneer Montana by

This photo taken by my sister Leslie B. (Lederer) Bohm, March 1976.

I came to Conrad Montana May 12, 1911, after a short stay in Oregon where I went with Uncle Martin Brubaker and Aunt Ann, Mother Brubaker. We left Nebraska February 11, 1911. I worked on a hop ranch near Salem, Oregon. I received $2.00 a day while driving horses, paid $3.50 a week for meals, slept in the barn with the other teamsters. The men working at other work slept in the bunk house. While in Oregon, I was offered a chance to go into the retail fish market. All I had to do was buy a table and knife, was offered a location by a store owner.

I bought a bicycle, used it to tour the countryside, as I did not have any other way to go. Several of us men went to Sunday school and church at Independence, a little town near the ranch.

After three months I decided to go to Montana to see brother Joe. I sold my bicycle, and bought a train ticket to Conrad. Arrived in Conrad in the morning at 4:10 then took a ride on the train to Valiler, got a ride out 16 miles with Mr. Mooney (Alice's father, [Joe's father-in-law]) to Robare crossing the main road to Canada, found Joe at home.

Joe said it rained 36 days that June. His wheat looked good with all that rain, but the wheat got snowed down that fall before he got it cut. They cut it with binders going the opposite way from the way it leaned, then going back with the binder out of gear. The grain was frosted so had to sell it for feed.

I went to work for Fred Nelson seven miles up the creek from Joe's on Birch Creek. We hayed for two months. While at Nelson's I would walk down to Joe's Saturday evening and stay over night going back Sunday evening. On one occasion I was over taken and surrounded by Indians on horseback. The had been to town and was feeling pretty good, but I did not lose my scalp. They wanted to know where I was going as it was a bit unusual to see a person walking. They wanted to know if I had been thrown from a horse. I told them I was going to Robare. That was OK by them. That was my first close call with the red skins. Will say that Joe's buildings were close to the road, but he did not lock things up and was there about five or six months and did not lose anything.

Cal Stewart's lived between Nelson's and Joe's I worked for him several weeks helping him finish haying. He had got lumber to build a house near the Creek where his other buildings were, but when he heard about Swift dam being built, he hauled the lumber up on a hill and built his house. The house still is there, at least the flood [1964] did not take it away.

While at Stewart's, the Valier business men put on a big celebration for Labor Day. They invited the Indians in to help draw a crowd. It started to rain on Sunday and Labor Day morning. There was 12 inches of snow on the ground. The city fathers had more Indians than they knew what to do with -- opened several churches and school house, got a few tents, then had to get fuel and food for them. Valier got in the news papers, but that was what they wanted. In the early part of the summer while at Joe's, we heard about the Shearers [who] were not coming back from Washington and wanted to sell their relinquishment. Joe said if I wanted to get a homestead, I better get busy. So I came down to Conrad on the train, made a deal with their agent and filed on the land we are still on. That was August 12, 1911. Filing fee was $15.00. I had to borrow $5.00 from Joe as this was before I want to work. I wrote to the folks in Nebraska for $200. It came by return mail.

When I got through at Stewart's I walked down to the F.D. Kingsbury ranch looking for a job that might last a while. F.D. was looking for enough men to run a thrashing crew as he owned a thrashing outfit. My first work was fixing grain bins for wheat, then we started to thrash. He used ten men as he had a small rig. There was 6000 acres in the ranch at that time (later Wallace Kingsbury claimed 2300 acres owned and leased). F.D. had 60 horses, 45 sheep and 2 milk cows, somehow I got the job of milking without asking for it.

After thrashing was over four men took a job of bailing hay at the ranch. Two men left for other work. All Glor took the cooking job for the winter, and I lost the milking chore to him. I and the other two men Charley Odel (a man with a family and lived half a mile from the main ranch) and Henry Lonevick started to haul wheat.

Al Glor, Henry Lonevick and I lived in the bunk house that was part of the cook house. We put in the winter there.

Joe and Alice were married in December 1911.

We three men started to haul wheat to Valier. It was a 30 mile round trip. Ninety bushels to the wagon with four horses to each wagon. Wheat was 72 cents a bushel. We could only make four trips a week as that was enough for the horses. If it was storming and 15 below zero, we did not start out. We had to shovel the wheat in to the wagons. Two of us would get in the wheat bin. The other one would stay in the wagon to level the wheat and watch the horses. Each took a turn doing the leveling. That way each one of us would shovel 90 bushels.

On my first trip I unhitched the lead team and led them home from town. F.D. met me when I got to the ranch--wanted to know what was wrong. I said all was OK. He said drive the four all the time loaded or not. In late winter we started to haul bailed hay to Valier.

When field work started we all hitched to discs with our same four horses. About two weeks later two of us started to drill in wheat and oats. F.D. was selling horses when ever he could. While I was drilling he brought a buyer out. He got on the drill with me for a while then bought my wheel team that I used all winter--pail $600 for them. I did not know I was using that high priced a team. I used a team of colts after that.

After seeding was done [in] spring 1912 I borrowed a team and wagon, bought a harness, the team was small but neither had been hitched up before. F.D. helped me hitch each one with a broke horse and gave them a half hour's drive. Two days later we hitched them together and I headed for the homestead as I had to establish my home . . . I had six months to do that after I filed.

Whenever I came to a gate I would tie a rope to the end of the lines so I could hold on to them while I shut the gate. There was quite a few gates on the way down as the trail headed south east most of the way. We crossed spring creek n the old red bridge about 18 miles west of Conrad. While on the homestead that time I picked and hauled rock off of twenty acres with the new team and wagon. Sold the harness to F.D. a short while after I started mowing hay. Three other men were doing the same thing.

After that was done three of us started the binders -- one eight-foot with four horses -- two of us with three horses and seven-foot binders. I had rode a mower three weeks then the binder four weeks. When we were about done I came down on the train as Father, Mother and sister Ruth came out to visit us. Joe and Alice were living on their homestead. Joe was working for a Mr. Whitney on the place A.M. Johnson bought later. While at F.D. I bought a small saddle pony. Her name was Bird so [I called] her Lady Bird. After she was broke proved to be pretty good, so F.D. wanted to trade a nice three-year-old sorrel horse and would sell me a mate to it. So that's what I did. Later he sold ten head of unbroken horses -- asked me if I would take the same price that he was getting. So I sold my first team. Then I bought a gray horse from Charley Sheldon. Her was working there at F.D. I kept him several months then traded him to Charley West for a mare and colt. That fall I sold them, took a check for them and went to cash it at the bank. They said I would have to wait three months as it was a post-dated check. So I waited. When the time was up I went to the bank, and the money was there. So that was something I learned, the next check I got I looked at the pay date.

While at F.D.'s some of the men were going to Valier to a celebration. Al Glore was breaking saddle horses for the ranch use, so [he] took one out and gave it a pretty good ride then changed clothes. When they were all ready to go he was in a hurry and forgot to tighten the cinch on the colt. He got on and the colt started bucking and threw him in the mud, so [he] had to change again. This time he was sure the saddle was tight. He was a good rider, just got in too big a hurry. There were so many things like that happening while I was there but that is just one of them.

Us men would saddle up our horses and ride down to the school house once in a while when they had church in the evening. I had bought a saddle and had a bridle made in Valier. We had the use of a horse at the ranch that we picked out to break for the use of it. No one else would take it unless we said they could. That worked out quite well.

I worked for several of the neighbors at different time while holding down the homestead. They were Len Safford, Al Walters, Will Waters, and Al Miller. I put in one winter taking care of Charley Newman's place while he went to town to Barber. The spring of 1913 I worked for Mr. Mooney (Alice's father). Roy and Alilce had the mumps quite bad. I stayed there till the crops were all planted. Mr. Mooney gave me a colt instead of money. The colt was three years old -- never had a rope on. Joe helped me get him home. He was not hard to break to the saddle.

Going back to 1912 late fall, I rode a disk for Al Walters on new breaking for about a month then broke a horse to the saddle for him and rode it up to Kingsbury's ranch and took Al Glore's place for a short week at Thanksgiving time, as he wanted to take a trip. While at Newman's, Albert Koenig, Dwight Safford, and I would saddle up our horses and go to Rowcamp's a Sunday evening to play cards, as they had a house full of young people. One evening when we went it was 31 below zero, but the next morning the snow was melting.

While working for Al Walters they had a cistern but no pump. We should take a pail and rope to pull up water for the horses, for house use. Al would take a stone boat (sled pulled over the ground) and two barrels and go up to the springs for water. [This was probably Aldrich springs -- used by many in Pondera and Teton counties.] While working for Len Safford I hauled water from a reservoir and filled his cistern for horses. The water tank I hauled with was the size of a wagon box but only 12 inches deep. We used a pail with [a] fork handle to dip water to fill the tank -- a little slow but it work[ed].

They also had a cistern by the house with a pump. They hauled from the springs. While there, Len helped me hitch Buck to a wagon for the first time.

The winter of 1913 I stayed at Al Miller's taking care of his livestock. His father had passed away in Washington. He stayed there most all winter. {During that time] I helped Mr. Dahlstrom (John Dahlstrom's granddad) butcher several hogs and other work. They lived about a half mile from Al's place.

Spring of 1914 I worked for Will Walters two miles north of my place. Started work in the field quite early that year. Seeded oats the 18th of March. Also broke up some land with six horses on a single-bottom plow. Also used his outfit to plow and disk 16 acres and drilled it to flax. It made me a little money, but 1914 was very dry. The next two years were good. Finished work there in the middle of the summer then worked for a Mr. Jacobson. He had the job of taking twelve inches deep and ten foot wide out of the ditch running from the Muddy creek to the Kropp lakes. [He] was cleaning the old ditch.

That fall I hired some winter wheat seeded in [my land that] was broke. I borrowed a breaking cart to break Buck to drive single. The cart belonged to E.R. Savage, a neighbor. I bought a buggy and single harness. Went to work for John Welstien at the start of harvest -- rode a binder cutting some oats, then winter wheat with three of us each with an eight-foot binder. After that was done we worked at different kinds of work for several weeks then started thrashing. I was hauling bundles, after thrashing, Pat Carmel and I were put to drilling in winter wheat. We had to clean our wheat seed by hand with a little fencing mill. When we got through with that I was paid off and came home as he was only keeping four men. Several days later John came down after me and Bob Kennen had to quit to go the State Fair. We four hauled loose hay from small stacks scattered over the ranch to the ranch for winter feed. He had a lot of sheep and a few cattle. I stayed that time for five weeks. Had one snow storm while there. Had to help hunt a band of sheep and bring them to the ranch buildings. I herded sheep for a week or two so the herder could have a vacation. Then came home. That same fall Louis Rognstead (he had a home southeast of here). He had one horse so we hitched our horses together [and] hauled some coal and other things out from Conrad for the winter. We stayed together for a while. He helped me as we lathed all the inside of my house -- also put in a partition.

In January 1915 Louie went back to Idaho where his folks lived. After they had homesteaded in Montana. Their land joined my place. In February I went to the hospital for an operation. About a month later I went to Nebraska for several months. While there Father and Walter built a new house on land near Pierce, Nebraska.

Late summer I bought Chup and Baldy, also harness, hired another team, drilled in 30 acres to winter wheat. I had bought a new nine-foot grain drill. Also used wagon with hay rack to go on thrashing. After that I went to several sales -- bought a disk harrow, wagon with grain box, two cows, two yearling heifers. Then the grey team and harness, built a 14 by 14-foot barn, dug a hole for cistern. Had to borrow a tank and wagon from A.M. Johnson so I could use the straw stack to bank the west side of a car roofed barn. This was on the south of the other barn.

The car roofed barn was 16 by 32, so I had a bank barn. Used that barn for 14 years -- used the 14 by 14 for hay.

More later

George Lederer , 1967

[retyped in 1997 by Helen Lederer]

Updated May 11,1997

A Lederer Page