Daniel and Mollie Moltzau's place is now a part of George Hell's place west of Fergus.
  Mollie was a sister to John and Odin Romunstad and to Ellen Kaaro and Olga Oquist.
  Moltzaus came to the Central Montana area in 1902, presumably from the Strum, Wisconsin area. They had two daughters and a son.
  Mona Moltzau married Dick Thomas. (see individual history)
  Amy was a very lively girl, "full of fun which was sort of frowned upon in those days," according to Helen Hanson Hartman. She left home at an early age and went out on her own.
  Their son, Romund, attended school in Wisconsin and later taught college there.

  Dr. Matthew M. Patton was in Kendall as an assistant to Dr. Lakey from 1909 to 1910.
  Dr. Frank Rauch Patton had an office in Roy with Dr. White, dentist, from August 6, 1915 to March 29, 1916.
  James Rauch Patton was here from 1910 to 1946. He followed the carpenter trade at Roy and at Fergus from 1910 to 1915 and then farmed north of Fergus.
  Pauline Elizabeth Patton was here from June 18, 1915 to April of 1916. She taught at Fergus, Roy, Hilger and Lewistown. She was the assistant county superintendent of schools from October 19, 1919 to February 17, 1921 and was superintendent from January 2, 1923 to January 1925 and again from January 1933 to January 1943. Her political party was Democratic.
  James and Pauline were brother and sister. Neither ever married. They came from Verden, Illinois and homesteaded at Fergus in 1911. They went to Couer d'Alene, Idaho when they left in 1946. He died at age 88 in August of 1965.

  Antone and Mary Pelot and family came to the United States in 1906, from Austria. (Mary and Mrs. Elizabeth Kuras (Kurns) are sisters). They settled in Wisconsin, with their children: John, born 3 October 1899; Mike, born in 1904; Rudolph and Theodore; two daughters, Ann Pelot Beverly and Sue Pelot Runnings. This family came to Montana in 1911 and settled in the Fergus-Armells area.
  John married Libby Hronek, who had homesteaded with her sister, Emma Hronek Grindheim. Their parents were John and Katherine Hronek, who came from Bohemia. Libby died at her home near Fergus, 5 January 1926, 31 years old.
  John Pelot married Bertie Strausburg Wolfe, 22 June 1928, at Lewistown, the widow of Roy Wolfe of the Fergus community. John was working for the Wolfes at the time of Roy's death in the spring of 1926. Bertie was often teased that she married John to keep from paying him wages.
  They bought his uncle Leonard's place, above the Horse Ranch. Leonard and Lillian Pelot had two daughters, Margaret and Lillian. They attended the Horse Ranch school in approximately 1921. They left in 1935 and moved to Augusta. Margaret remained at Augusta and Lillian moved to Idaho Falls, Idaho.
  John and Bertie ranched until 1959, raising sheep and cattle. They sold the ranch to Bob Strain and moved to Lewistown, where they operated the Corner Grocery at north 7th Avenue and also had some rental property. Bertie died in January of 1973.
  John and Hazel Yuill, widow of Archie Yuill, were married 2 February 1974. John Pelot died, 26 August 1979. He was survived by his wife; sisters, Ann Beverly and Sue Runnings; brothers, Rudolph and Theodore, all of California; 3 step-sons, Roy Lee, Floyd and Harold Wolfe and Dorothy Gilskey, step-daughter. Burial was at Sunset Memorial Gardens. 

  I don't know too much about the Pelots. Aunt Mary was my mother's sister.
  They are all gone now except one boy and two girls and they live in California. The girls came to Montana for a big family reunion that we had in 1988 and that was the first time we met our cousins since we saw them in 1929. ^{P. 174}

  Charles J. Petranek came to the Fergus area on April 6, 1914 and filed on a homestead on the SW 1/4NE 1/4 of Sec. 31, Tn. 20, Rge. 21. He came here from Canada at the urging of his brother, William, who had a homestead in the Winifred area.
  Charles lived in a dugout in a bank until he could get to Roy for lumber and tarpaper to build a typical tarpaper shack. In 1916, his fiancee, Margaret Moore, came to the U.S. from Canada and they were married in St. Leo's Catholic Church in Lewistown.
  For many years, their main source of income was a large garden of five or six acres that they were able to irrigate from springs. They sold their produce in Roy and the surrounding area.
  In the early days, Petranek bought a team and wagon, unaware that the person he purchased it from didn't have a clear title. When he made a trip to Roy, the sheriff tried to take them from him, but Petranek talked him into letting him use them to get his supplies home. He turned them over to the sheriff later, and then bought them at a sheriffs auction, so had to pay double for them. A team and wagon were necessities to Petraneks in order to haul their produce out, pick up supplies and mail in Roy. Charles remembers laying awake at night listening for the clatter of the wagon signifying his father's return home.
  The Petraneks started in the cattle business in 1925, picking up calves at auctions. In 1932 they shipped a carload of 2-year-old steers to Chicago. The steers weighed 26,600 pounds and brought 41/2 cents a pound.
  Charles bought his first truck, a Model T Ford, in 1926 from the Joe Murphy garage in Roy. It cost somewhere between six and seven hundred dollars and carried the magnificent sum of 50 bushels of wheat. Their first car was purchased in 1931, a Whippet.
  In 1934, they got a bum lamb from the Horse Ranch, which was the start of their sheep business.
  The Petraneks had three children: Charles Francis was born on October 6, 1917 in Lewistown, George Andrew on May 12, 1919 in Roy, and Stella A. on January 25, 1922 at the home.
  The children attended the Victory and Horse Ranch Schools, with the exception of Stella finishing the eighth grade at the Fergus School, where she boarded with the Chris Christensen and Louie Rindal families. She then attended Fergus County High School in Lewistown, and worked in Lewistown after her graduation. She married Ervin Weinheimer in September of 1943 and moved to the Danvers area. Ervin and Stella have five children: Charlene Fuglestad, Betty Schmidt, David, Eric and Diane Weinheimer.
  Charles Francis served in the CCC's in 1937 and 1938. During the Second World War, he was in the Seabees. He was in a construction battalion and served in North Africa and the Philippine Islands. He married Catherine Fuhs on April 9, 1957 and they have four children: Thomas Bruce, David Hiram, Sarah Jane and James Earl.
  Charles bought the first new truck that was sold after the war from Gore Chevrolet in Hobson. George married Janet Fritche in June of 1959.
  The Petranek's retired to Lewistown in 1950 and Charles and George took over the operation of the ranch. They have continued to add to their acreage and now have one of the largest sheep and cattle operations in the area.

  One of my early recollections of years on the farm was of Indians or Native Americans. It seemed whenever we went to do anything they were always there. They could be just over a ridge, along the creek or behind bushes, but they were always there to see what we were doing. A number of times they crawled on their stomachs for nearly a half mile to steal chickens from our chicken house.
  If my mother and we children went any place we had to lay down in the back of the wagon until we were out of their sight, so they would not ransack our place, and we always returned home before dark.
  One night, quite late, we were sitting around the table with our kerosene lamp and my mother jumped up. She was sure she had seen a face in the kitchen window. My father was not home, as he had gone to Roy and would not be home until the next day. Nothing more happened that night, but the next morning she went to check for tracks and there was a long bladed knife under the window. My mothers always said it was the happiest day of her life when the Indians were taken to the reservation.
  My dad worked very hard trying to make the necessary improvements, clearing land and building fences on the homestead. He got TB of the bone in his knee and went to Rochester where they removed part of his knee. I believe he was there for one month and his bill was $200 at Rochester. When he returned home he had no medications but was to expose his knee to the sun for 4 hours a day. If there was no sun in Montana he was to go where there was sun. Some days there was no sun, but this did seem to end the problem.
  My dad borrowed a small amount of money (I believe $50) from the Roy bank and the only security he had ^{P. 175} was our two work horses. In the fall he could not pay it back, but went in to talk to them about it and they made him leave our only 2 horses and only means of making a living or transportation. He had to walk home the 20 miles. In the spring some one paid the $50 and brought our horses back but I can't remember who. What a Noble Deed!
  I remember my mother telling about the time my father went to Roy and Nellie, the work-horse, left her colt behind as it was too small to travel that far. It was locked in the barn. Our barn had mangers along each side the length of the barn. These mangers were about 8 inches off the floor so the cats could have a warm place under them. About 10:00 my mother found that the colt had gotten under the manger and could not get out. My father would not be back much before dark and the colt could not stay there all that time. With a lot of effort she was able to get the bottom out of the manger and the colt was able to stand up, which it did, the rest of the day. When my father arrived home, with the mother, it jumped right out of the manger to be with it's mother.
  I can't remember too well but we would only get our mail about every three weeks. When my grandparents died we always got telegrams (I believe) and someone came and delivered them.

  John was the first of the Rindals to come to America, but was here only a brief time before returning to Norway. It's not known whether he even came to Montana or only to Minnesota. A short time later, in 1910, the oldest son, Anton, came to the Roy area. In 1912, Lars (Louie) and Pauline arrived, followed by their brother, John Jr. in 1921. Two more brothers, Pete and Kristian came in 1922, followed in 1923 by the rest of the family; parents John and Kristi; Pete's wife, Oline, and their son, Leif; Mike, and his wife, Ingeborg, and their two children, Arne and Christine; and Olaf, the youngest son. The Rindal's did not intend to become permanent residents of this country; only wanted to earn lots of money, then go home to Norway. None of them ever did return to Norway, however.
  Anton, Louie, Pauline and Olaf stayed in the Roy Fergus area, so their separate stories will follow.
  When most of the family arrived in 1923, they lived on the Jim Patton place until December of that year. There was not much work in the area so some of them decided to go on to Washington to try to find work in the woods. Louie had a touring car, so Mike, Ingeborg, Arne, Christine, Pete, Oline, Leif, Olaf and Louie squeezed into it and headed for Washington. Olaf remembers it as a cold, miserable trip of about ten days. They broke an axle at one point and had to wait several days for a replacement. Olaf and Kris returned to the Fergus area in the Spring of 1924. Kris returned mainly because of a romantic interest in Margit Haugseth, who worked as a cook-housekeeper for the Romunstads. Louie stayed on in Washington, working in the woods until the Spring of 1925, when he also returned to Montana.
  Kristi Rindal was too ill to make the trip to Washington so she and John stayed on at the Patton place. John worked with Anton. Pete, Oline and Leif returned to Montana by train in the fall of 1924 to care for Kristi. They moved to the Wisokay place and Kristi lived with them there until her death from gallstones in 1924. Pete's family stayed on until the fall of 1926 then returned to Washington taking father, John, with them. They did not return to Montana to live. On John's death in 1945, his body was returned to Lewistown and he and Kristi are both buried in the Lewistown City Cemetery.
  John Jr. and Clarence Darrah went to Washington to work in the woods in 1926. Clarence was killed there in a car wreck in October of 1926. John Rindal stayed on in Washington.
  Kris Rindal married Margit Haugseth in 1924. Margit, a sister of George Knutson, came to the U.S. in 1922 at the age of 21 by herself. She learned the English language from Helen Rindal. Kris and Margit worked for Louie at times, then, they too, went to Washington, where their son, Jim, was born in 1926. They returned to the Fergus area and lived in the little house across from the present location of the Fergus store. Their son, Norman, was born here in 1928 and their daughter, Inez in 1933.
  One cold winter they lost most of their sheep. In 1933, Kris planted spring wheat and it shelled out badly. He harvested it anyway and was short seven bushels of getting his seed back. They then bought turkeys to clean up the shelled grain and the turkeys were all killed in a hailstorm. That was enough for them and they returned to Washington to make their permanent home.

  Anton Rindal was born in Rindal, Norway on October 16, 1889. He came to the U.S. in 1910, the first of the Rindal family to settle here. He homesteaded east of Roy, close to Oquist's, then sold his relinquishment and went to work on the Romunstad Ranch. After working there for about six years and saving his money, he was ready to go out on his own. He bought three yearlings, a team of horses and a wagon, took them and settled ^{P. 176} 
  about a mile north of Cone Butte. On his first night there he lost two-thirds of his herd to wolves.
  On April 26, 1922 Anton married Helena Alma Darrah, a daughter of neighbors, the Joseph Darrah's. Their only child, Alma Pauline, was born April 11, 1923.
  Before Helen married Anton she used to walk from her folks' homestead to visit her Aunt Kate McArty and her husband Charles, who lived a mile beyond the Red Barn Ranch. She remembers being chased by a herd of longhorn cattle on one of her trips there. She threw her parasol at them, then ran to the Miller's house, barely making it to the fence in time. Her route took her across Rattlesnake Butts, but she never saw a rattlesnake there.
  She also remembers attending a party at the Art Jones' house with her parents. Others attending were the McArty's, their children, Emmett and Casper; Clyde and Elsie Miller, and Whisker Davis. A blizzard came up while they were there and they all had to spend the night. They had to depend on their horses to find the way home the next day.
  There were many close calls with rattlesnakes over the years, but they were lucky to escape with no bites.
  They killed at least one right on their porch and Alma even stepped on one. One day, Alma was riding with a girlfriend and they saw a rattlesnake go in a hole. Alma got a stick and was poking into the hole trying to get the snake to come out. She heard a rattle behind her and realized that the snake had come out the back door! Needless to say, the girls moved in a hurry.
  Some of the homesteads incorporated into the Rindal's holdings were: Ryan, Sturdy, Bradley, Keller, John Romunstad, Rodegard, Bilgrien and Tony and Ed LaFountain, the Olean's (two brothers who died in the flu epidemic about 1918), and Tony the Butch.
  Anton raised Hereford cattle, both registered and commercial. When he had no hay or pasture in the fall of 1936 he shipped his cattle by train to Dillon, then to Columbus in the fall of 1937. He trailed them home in the spring of 1938 with the help of Clyde Miller, Jim Gradle and Chink Jordan. It rained every day they were on the trail.
  Anton and Helen retired in 1956, selling the ranch to John Clarke, and moving to Lewistown where Anton died on August 14, 1974. Helen still resides in Lewistown.

  Ellen Rindal came to America from Norway in 1909 as a single, 23-year-old woman. She took up a homestead southwest of Roy near the area where her cousin, Anton Rindal, homesteaded.
  Ellen had some half-breeds help her build her cabin. She lived mainly in Lewistown where she worked for Dr. Bryce. She bought herself a horse to "commute" from Lewistown to Roy, on her days off from work.
  When asked how she dared to live alone as a single woman she said that it didn't worry her too much because there were a lot of other courageous people out there who were very supportive of each other. However, ^{P. 177}  she did tie the reins of her horse to the doorknob at night, because if there was any activity around her place the horse would get excited, which in turn rattled the doorknob, and it would alert her to that fact.
  In 1914 Ellen married John Haugen who also had immigrated from Norway. John Haugen was a carpenter and building contractor. They lived in Lewistown the rest of their lives. She sold her homestead when she married.
  The Haugens had three children: Trygve, Margrette and Emmett.
  John Haugen died in 1974; Ellen and Emmett both died in 1976. Trygve and Margrette (Turner) live in Lewistown.

  Louie Rindal was born in Rindal, Norway on July 25, 1895, the son of John and Kristi Rindal. Grace Olsen was born in Litchville, North Dakota, on Jan. 10, 1908, the daughter of William and Inga Olsen.
  Louie worked on the Romunstad Ranch for several years after his arrival in this country in 1912. He served in the army for a short time in World War I, then returned to the Romunstad Ranch after the Armistice.
  During the 1920's Louie had a threshing crew, and two of the cooks he employed were Grace Olsen and Leona Bare. Fritz Corth was one of the men working for him. On September 14, 1926, Louie and Grace, Fritz and Leona went to Harlowtown where they were married in a double wedding.
  Times were not easy when Grace and Louie were first married. Louie tried to buy the Knutson place from his brother-in-law, George, and lost it when he couldn't make the payments. They lived next on the Wisokay place, then the Allyn place.
  Louie did custom threshing until around 1938, traveling around the county from Winifred to the Snowy Mountains. Later he also did custom combining and custom haying. He had quite a variety of machinery. One was a Rumely tractor he purchased in 1924 or 25. He custom combined with a l0-foot International combine pulled by an F20 International tractor from 1938 into the 1950's. In 1939 he bought the first Model M Farmall tractor to come into Montana, taking delivery in Great Falls and driving it home from there.
  Melvin remembers an Auburn car that Louie bought from Jimmy Kaaro for $25 and later traded to Martin Noble for a horse named Brownie. Melvin rode Brownie home from Christina. Brownie was a favorite of all the Rindal kids for many years, along with Blizzard, purchased from Joe Komarek.
  In 1946, during a lunch hour, a fire started in the shop adjacent to the Allyn house where Grace and Louie were living at tile-time. Dick Kalina was passing by and saw the fire and helped them to get some of the things from the house, but they weren't able to save very much. Friends and neighbors donated items; clothes, bedding, etc. but the old (Photo) s and mementoes were irreplaceable. Louie had previously bought a place down the creek where Gibsons had lived for many years and where Chris Christensen was living at the time of the fire. Chris was planning on moving to Lewistown shortly anyhow, so left immediately and the Rindal's moved in.
  Louie later bought George Knutson's place after George and Pauline moved to Lewistown, and also the Hickey place and the Jim Ranch from Jack Baucke to add to his other holdings.
  Louie was on the school board at Fergus and then at Roy for many years, serving as Board Chairman for a good share of those years.
  Grace and Louie always milked several cows and had chickens. Grace was an excellent cook and her pies, cakes made with cream, cinnamon rolls, and pancakes in particular were favorites with the many men who worked for them over the years, with their children and then grandchildren.
  Louie passed away on July 29, 1967. He had had Parkinson's Disease for several years and had a stroke that incapacitated him for some time before his death.
  Grace continued to live on the place for a while, then moved into a trailer house closer to Roy, later moving to Lewistown where she now resides in a house formerly owned by George and Pauline Knutson.
  Louie and Grace had seven children, all born in Lewistown. Melvin Louie was born August 18, 1927; Donald Arthur on June 19, 1929; Glen Howard on May 4, 1936; Lucille Ellen on August 31, 1938; Joyce Erleen on August 27, 1941, LeRoy Alan on December 24, 1943 and Phyllis Pauline on February 25, 1946.
  Melvin, Donald, Glen and Joyce's stories will be listed separately as they are either still living here in the area or retain financial interests here.
  Lucille graduated from Roy High School in 1956. She and Kay Wood went to Billings to college for a short time then went to work in a bank. Lucille met Lawrence Eckhardt there and they were married August 17, 1957. Larry worked for Ryniker Steel until joining the Montana Highway Patrol in 1959. Lucille and baby daughter, Lynette, came home to stay with Louie and Grace from the summer of 1959 to the summer of 1960 while Larry traveled around the state working at GVW stations, with Larry spending weekends with them. Larry was then stationed in Custer, then was transferred to Hardin in 1961. In June of 1977, Larry was assigned to the Driver's Exam Office in Lewistown, where they are living now.
  Larry and Lucille have three children, Lynette Ray ^{P. 178} born September 18, 1958, Kevin Lawrence born on March 31, 1961 and Ricky Alan born February 26, 1966. Lynette is married to John Gerstenberger, has three children: Ryan, Kelly and Paul and lives in Oregon. Kevin and his wife Lori reside in Salt Lake City and Ricky lives in Lewistown.
  LeRoy graduated from Roy High School in 1962. He went to Washington where he met Donna Aldrick. They were married in Three Forks, Montana in 1968. They returned to Louie's ranch after they were married, then went to Billings and were later divorced. They had one child, Dalene Anne, born November 27, 1969.
  Phyllis Pauline graduated from RHS in 1964. She attended Eastern Montana College where she met Neal Smith. They were married in June of 1966. They lived for a time in Billings where Neal worked for IBM. Their three children were born there. Shawn was born July 21, 1969, Shane on December 1, 1971 and Shannon on March 5, 1973. Shannon had a congenital heart defect and died on June 17, 1974. Neal was transferred to Anchorage, Alaska; then they moved to Dallas, Texas. Phyllis and Neal were divorced and she married Harvey Logsdon in 1989 and they reside in Plano, Texas.

  My first memories go back to about 1932. We lived on a place about 2 miles south of the original townsite of Fergus. My dad ran mostly sheep at that time with a full-time sheepherder living in a conventional sheep wagon.
  In 1937 when I was ten years old, Dad bought some cows from Elmer Phipps who lived north of Fort Maginnis. Dad, Anton and I rode to the Phipp's place, arriving about noon. It was wintertime and cold. Phipps helped us through the mountains, then Anton dropped off as we went by his place. Dad and I got home about dark and I was glad to get there.
  I went to elementary school at Fergus. My dad drove us to school except when the roads were blocked by snow. Then I rode a horse and dad pulled Donald on a small sled with a box on it with another horse, or we walked. When we moved to the Allyn place which was only 3/4 mile from school, we walked all the time. Milada Walter was my teacher through the first six grades. She married Milton Allyn while she was my teacher. Wanda Gibson was my 7th grade teacher and Margaret Stephens in the 8th grade. Miss Stephens' mother, who was teaching at Kendall, died in April of that year. Donald and I were the only two students left at the Fergus school, all the other families having moved to the new irrigation project at Kinsey. Miss Stephens took us to Kendall with her each school day and finished out her mother's term.
  I started high school in Roy in 1941. There were four students in my class when we started, but the rest dropped out for various reasons and I was the lone graduate of the class of 1945.
  In December of my freshman year the Japanese invaded Pearl Harbor. A radio was set up in the assembly so everyone could listen to President Roosevelt and congress declare war. Many of the eligible men started enlisting and families moved to the coast to work in war production factories, so our high school dropped in number of students.
  During my junior year in high school the school burned down. High school classes were then held in the present elementary school. Elementary classes were held in various buildings around town, one of them being the Women's Club Building across from Murphy's Garage. The Women's Club Building also burned down. We had two high school teachers at that time, Mr. and Mrs. Squire. Agnes Bauman was the janitor. My graduation ceremony was held in the Presbyterian Church.
  I worked on my Dad's ranch after graduation. In June of 1952 I married Ella Hitchcock and we moved onto a place Dad had purchased from Jack Baucke earlier that year. It was called "The Jim Ranch" by the oldtimers since James Fergus owned it for many years. We purchased the ranch from Dad in 1966.
  We have three children, all graduates of Roy High School.
  Linda Lucille was born March 29, 1953. She attended EMC and earned an associate's degree in office practices in 1973. She and Jerry Bowser were married in August of 1973. They have three children: Melissa and Mindy (twins) and Lance. They are presently living in Helena where Jerry is manager of the Helena Branch of Chen Northern Engineering and Linda is a hostess at Frontier Pies.
  David Melvin was born on April 22, 1954. He graduated from MSU in 1978 with a degree in Ag Business. He married Paula Brown of Exeter, California and they have two children, Emily and Evan. David is assistant manager of Farm Credit Services in Havre and Paula deals in antiques and crafts. ^{P. 179}
  Rodney James was born on May 19, 1960. He graduated from MSU in 1983 with a Civil Engineering degree. He married Lesa Bell of Arvada, Colorado. They presently live in Broomfield, Colorado. Rod is employed by Centennial Engineering in Denver and Lesa by an investment consultant firm in Denver.

  I (Donald Rindal) was born on June 19, 1929 in Lewistown. I went to school at Fergus (town of for 7 1/2 years, finishing the last half of the seventh grade through high school in Roy, graduating in 1946.
  I worked on the family ranch until January of 1953. In January of 1954 I opened the Phillips 66 Bulk plant in Lewistown as a commercial agent. In 1978 I purchased the plant and have operated it since as the Rindal Oil Co. In 1954, when I started, I sold gas for 26 cents and diesel for 12 cents a gallon! I also have ranching interests with Glen, at Roy.
  On August 30, 1968 I was married to Vanda Marlene Gardner Rector in Lewistown and adopted her two daughters, Verna Dot, born in November of 1959 at Fallen and Deborah Ann born September 1961 in Lewistown. Marlene and I have a son, Chris Lee born May 31, 1971 in Lewistown.

  I, Glen Rindal, was born in Lewistown. I lived and grew up in the Roy-Fergus area, attending school at Fergus and at Roy. I graduated from Roy high school in 1954 and married Bette "Dollie" Anderson on June 23, 1956.
  We lived at the old George Knutson place for five years before moving to Roy where we had the Roy Grocery and started a laundro-mat. After 2 1/2 years we moved 1 mile west of Roy to the Hickey place where we lived for 17 years. Then we moved to a house which we built on a hill 3 miles west of Roy. All of this time, to the present, we have been engaged in the ranching business and also have billiard lounges in Montana and Idaho.
  We have 5 children, all who graduated from Roy high school.
  Theresa was born April 14, 1957. She attended college at Eastern and at MSU. She was married September 9, 1978 to James Marty Robbins, also from Roy. They have two children, Kristin and Joshua and are currently living in Tacoma, Washington where Marty is in the Air Force.
  Cathy was born September 11, 1958. She attended college at Eastern and at MSU and was married to Carl Seilstad, from Winifred, on June 17, 1978. They have three children: Cody, Cory and Carl. Carl is employed by Degerstrum and is working at Montana tunnel project at Jefferson City. They live in Townsend.
  Shelly was born January 20, 1962 and is a graduate of MSU. She was married to Bill Dyer from Winifred on August 6, 1988. Shelly is presently employed as a bookkeeper for Buttery's in Lewistown and Bill works for Blue Range Mining. They reside in Lewistown.
  Brian was born June 7, 1968 and is presently attending MSU in Bozeman.
  Chad was born April 24, 1971 and will graduate with the Roy High School class of 1989.

  John Romunstad came to Montana from Strum, Wisconsin, with his brother, Odin, in 1888 when he was about 16 years of age. They worked in various places around Montana; finally settling in the Fergus area.
  John took up a homestead near Fergus and his sister, Ellen, and her husband, John Kaaro, later came from Wisconsin to live with him.
  In 1940 John moved to the Fergus Store where he cooked and kept house for Nels Nelson. After Nels death, John lived and worked with Axel Hage on a ^{P. 180}
small place Axel had on Spring Creek near Lewistown. John never married. He mainly stayed close to home in order to help his sister, Ellen, and her son, Jimmy.
  John is remembered by everyone as a quiet, good, hard-working man. Betty Kaaro remembers John teaching her to cook on a wood and coal range, the likes of which she had never seen when she came here from St. Paul.

  Odin J. Romunstad was a Montana sheepman for many years. His experience was utilized in managing one of the largest ranching outfits in Fergus County, the noted Fergus Sheep Ranch, located six miles south of the Fergus postoffice. Mrs. Romunstad was a daughter of the late William Fergus, founder of this ranch. Mr. Romunstad was born near Eau Claire, Wisconsin, September 28, 1872. His father, Ole J. Romunstad, was a native of Trondjhem, Norway and came to America when a young man bringing with him a knowledge of the trade of blacksmith. For a time he was engaged in railway construction in Wisconsin, then took up a homestead, proved it up and spent the rest of his life as an industrious farmer. He acquired American citizenship, learned the new language, and participated in local affairs with his neighbors, voting as a Republican, and was always loyal to the Lutheran Church in which he grew up. He married in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, Miss Gertrude Olson, who also was born near Trondjhem and came to America with her brothers and sister. Both parents are buried at Strum, Wisconsin.
  Odin J. Romundstad grew up on a Wisconsin farm, attended schools in that state, and his boyhood experience taught him many lessons of farming. He was about fifteen years of age when, in 1888, he came out to Montana with a party of Wisconsin men, both old and young. One of them was his uncle, Pete Romunstad, who after a time moved to Idaho. Odin J. Romunstad made his first acquaintance with Montana life at Lewistown. Lewistown was then a hamlet made up chiefly of saloons, livery barns, and a few wooden stores along Main street. He found work on a sheep ranch east of the city, at the head of McDonald Creek; and after the spring lambing season he worked in a restaurant at Fort Maginnis, for a time, and during the winter of 1890 took a bunch of cattle for Frank Fuller to old Fort Hawley on the Missouri River.
  Not long afterward he made his first working relationship with the Fergus Land and Livestock Company's ranch.
  James Fergus was then the head of this company. Mr. Romunstad was in its employ about ten years, made some capital for himself and while there married a member of the Fergus family, the daughter of William Fergus, who was a half-brother of James Fergus. Mr. Romunstad and Miss Ellen H. Fergus were married October 19, 1904. She was the daughter of William and Helen (Hamilton) Fergus, and she and her parents and all the other children were born in Scotland.
  William Fergus was one of the outstanding ranchers in Montana, building up the great estate at the head of Box Elder Creek, later owned by Odin J. Romunstad. Mr. and Mrs. Odin Romunstad lived there until Mrs. Romunstad's death in 1951 and then in 1953 Odin moved to Lewistown to make his home until his death in 1961. Mrs. Romunstad attended school in Scotland and also had part of her education while living on a Montana ranch and attended a business college in Helena. For a few terms she taught school in the Bad Lands near Winifred and had charge of the first school taught on Dog Creek. Mr. and Mrs. Romundstad had one daughter, Jennie (or Jeanie) born in 1916.
  Mr. Romunstad cast his first vote for a Republican presidential candidate. He was on the local school board for many years. He completed his degrees for Master Mason in Lewistown; and during the World War he did his part in the Red Cross and Liberty Loan Drives. Mrs. Romunstad was one of the purchasers of the "Baby Bonds." The family were Presbyterians, and William Fergus left a legacy for the construction of the present church building at Fergus.
 [Bessie Wiedman who wrote the Odin Romunstad history passed away in 1969.]

ODIN ROMUNSTAD -- PIONEER FAMILY OF THE FERGUS AREA

  It is not known who wrote the following story. The first two paragraphs have been omitted in this account as they are repeats of Fergus family history. (Box Elder Ranch)
  Odin J. and Ellen Fergus Romunstad made their home on the ranch for many years and operated first with sheep and later with Hereford cattle. Mrs. Romunstad was especially interested in gardening and for many years the ranch was a show place with its natural setting for a truly beautiful landscaping and picnic site that was used by many neighbors for dinners and get togethers. Jean, their adopted daughter, coming to live with them at an early age received her schooling at the school-house, known for many years as the Romunstad school.
  Fanny Young Volt also made her home at the ranch going to school at this rural district and later both girls attended Fergus County High School in Lewistown.
  ^{P. 181} Both married and make their home in California; Fanny Young Volt and Jean Romunstad Howard.
  Mrs. Romunstad passed away in the year 1951, and Uncle Odin, sold the ranch to the Wytana Ranch Company and retired to a home in Lewistown where he lived until 1961, when he met his death in a car accident on his way home from Great Falls.
  The Wytana Cattle Co. later known as the Peerless Gas and Oil Co., built a lovely new western home in the location of the garden plot, which is now occupied by the foreman, Tom Byrne and his wife, Lillian and their three children, Bonnie, Mike and Pat. They have been in charge of ranch operations for years and take an active interest in all community life.
  The Vernon Taylors, owners of the ranch, spend their summer vacations at the ranch, having re-decorated the old Romunstad house in a charming New England style.

  Jess and Alma Pauline Rindal were married on December 16, 1945. They lived on her parent's (Anton Rindal) place until 1953 when they moved to the former Jim Fatten ranch, a quarter of a mile west of Fergus.
  Jess and Alma raised two sons; Eddie Dean born December 1, 1949 and Calvin Wade, born September 8, 1961. The boys both graduated from Roy High School as did their parents; Eddie in 1968 and Calvin in 1979.
  Eddie married Mary O'Reilly. They had a son, Eddie Dean, born May 17, 1968. They lived in Roy for several years and young Eddie attended elementary school in Roy until they moved away. Mary and Eddie divorced and he later married Vicki Baer Wlodkowski. They have a son, Todd Allen, born August 1, 1985. They reside in Lewistown, as does Calvin.
  Jess and Alma retired from ranching in 1986, leased their ranch, and moved to Lewistown.

  Mero and Wilhelmina Siroky farmed and ranched in the Fergus area for several years before selling out and moving to Lewistown. Their three children: Janet, Merlin and Mervin all attended the Fergus grade school.
  Mero is a son of Mr. and Mrs. John Siroky Sr., Roy pioneers, and he grew up in Roy.

  Fred and Emma Steinbring homesteaded six miles north of Fergus on Armells Creek in 1916. They hauled cut wood by team and wagon to Roy residents for supplemental income. They were hard working people of German extraction.
  Fred Steinbring was born 25 January 1867, Toland, Germany. He died 30 January 1948 at the age of 81 years and five days in Lewistown, Montana. Burial at Lewistown City Cemetery.
  Mrs. Steinbring was born 1872 and she passed away suddenly at the homestead of a heart attack on 16 April 1932, age 60 years. She was buried in the Roy Cemetery. There are no known relatives.

  Edwin R. Tait was born 15 June 1898, the son of Ralph and Ida Tait of Grayville, Illinois. The family moved to Oregon in 1911. He was schooled in Illinois and Oregon.
  The Taits came to Montana in 1913 and homesteaded 8 miles east of old Fort Maginnis. Edwin farmed, worked on ranches, freighted and even did some mining at Gilt Edge.
  Florence Iverson was born 14 December 1908 at Osseo, Wisconsin. Her parents, Andrew and Betsey Iverson, bought a section of land at Acton, Montana, northwest of Billings and moved to this location when Florence was eight years old. She was educated as a teacher and taught one room schools over a wide area. She taught the Skaggs school east of Lewistown and the Divide; Pine Ridge, south of Grass Range; Balky Horse, near Suffolk; Two Calf, northeast of Winifred and Fort Maginnis school as well as teaching for two ^{P. 182}  years in the Philippine Islands.
  The Taits were married at Missoula in 1940. They bought 80 acres in Ruby Gulch, northeast of Lewistown, Montana and built a log house that is now owned by the Warren Raitts. Edwin cut the logs and sawed the lumber at a saw mill. They sold this place to Larry Messier in 1949 and bought the Fergus Grocery Store and Post Office.
  Fergus is only a memory now, a big vacant building beside highway 191, seven miles west of Roy. When Taits bought it, the building was in the original townsite of Fergus. Taits moved the big store building out to the highway to make it more accessible to trade. This was a cordial stopping point for transients as well as the patrons who received their mail at the postoffice.
  Florence had exceptional artistic ability and painted local scenery, working in oil and acrylics. Taits made many friends and neighbors during the 27 years they operated the store and postoffice.
  Failing health forced Florence to retire and the postoffice was officially closed 21 September 1976. No one was interested in taking it over.
  Florence died in a Billings hospital at the age of 67 on the 29 September 1976, only a week after she retired.
  Edwin moved to Central Montana Nursing Home at Lewistown, where he died 28 March 1979. He had three sisters and his brother, Lyman Tait of the Teigen Post Office who survive him. The Taits were buried in the Lewistown City Cemetery.

  Dick Thomas and Mona Moltzau were married in Lewistown in April 18, 1924. Mona was the daughter of Daniel and Marie Moltzau, homesteaders in the Fergus area. (Geo. Heil place) She ran the post office and store at Armells for some years. Dick was a Veteran of WWI and they ran the Legion Bar at one time.
  They lived and ran cattle on the Moltzau place during the 30's.
  Mona passed away February 28, 1954 at the age of 51. Dick passed away several years later at Ft. Harrison. No date known. There were no children.

  Olive Tindall and her son, Vaughn, came to Montana from Indiana. Olive homesteaded at Valentine and Vaughn helped his mother for a while, then went to Hanover to work in the new cement plant there.
  Ernestine Bennett came with her parents from Wisconsin to homestead in the Winnett area. Mrs. Bennett ran a boarding house and cafe. After Ernestine finished her schooling she went into nurse's training and became a nurse at St. Joseph's Hospital in Lewistown. She and some of her friends became acquainted with several of the bachelors employed at Hanover, among them Frank Stepan and Vaughn Tindall, who was by then foreman of the Portland Cement Factory. Vaughn and Ernestine were married at Hanover in August of 1922.
  The cement plant closed within a year or so of their marriage so they went back to Vaughn's mother's homestead for a time. Ernestine was having a difficult pregnancy, so went by train to Greenacres, Washington where her parents were then living. Her mother was a trained mid-wife and Ernestine stayed with them until Vickie Ruth was born.
  The Tindall's had two more children; Fay Marie and Raymond Joseph.
  Olive Tindall sold her homestead in 1925 and moved to Butte to live with her younger son, Mike, who was employed at the mines there.
  Vaughn and Ernestine rented the Allyn place southeast of Fergus in 1925 and lived there two or three years. They had one beautiful crop of grain while they were there, but only harvested one round before being hailed out.
  They next moved to the Flotlin place, northwest of Fergus, leasing it from Northwest Life, who had repossessed it some years before. The children attended the Fergus Grade School and Roy High School.
  The Tindalls left the Fergus area to go to an irrigated farm they bought at Kinsey, Montana in 1940. They lived there until 1949 then moved to Billings where Ernestine went back to nursing and Vaughn worked as a painter for Continental Oil Co. for seven years. They then bought a place at Victor. Ernestine did special nursing at the Marcus Daly Hospital in Hamilton. After an unsuccessful hip operation, Vaughn was confined to a wheelchair so they went to Seattle to live near their daughter, Vickie. Vaughn died in September 1967 and Ernestine in September 1981.
  Vickie Ruth went to EMC, then was employed by Northwest Airlines for 38 years, first as a stewardess, then in sales. She is married to George Stumpf who was a manager in Manufacturing, Research and Development for the Boeing Co. of Seattle until his retirement this year. They have one son, Dana, also employed by the Boeing Co. of Auburn, Washington.
  Fay Marie married Leo Labrie, a rancher at Harlowton. They had two daughters, Cherie, (Mrs. Robert Jones) of Harlowton; Marcella (Mrs. David Barnhill), of Helena. ^{P. 183} 
  Leo Labrie died in 1968 and Fay Marie in October 1988.
  Raymond Joseph Tindall was born at Fergus, Montana and attended grade school there. He moved with the family to Kinsey and was graduated from Custer High School at Miles City. He was employed by the Milwaukee Railroad as a locomotive fireman. He went into the military in the Army Engineers and saw duty in Korea and also on Adak in the Aleutian Islands.
  Raymond married Ann O'Neal in 1950. They had two children, Kenneth Raymond and Virginia Kay.
  Ray has been in business many years as a partner in H & T Machinery Co. of Billings where he resides. He and Ann are divorced.
  His son Ken, is a doctor of biochemistry, and is P.H.D. at the National Institute of Health and Environmental Science and Research at Triangle Park, North Carolina. Dr. Ken Tindall resides in Raleigh, North Carolina with his family.
  Virginia Kay lives in Ft. Collins, Colorado and is very active in the arts in Ft. Collins and does designing and costuming for the theatre group there. She also has her own business of specialty designed clothing.

  We moved to the ranch near Fergus in February, 1912. We left Lewistown with my stepfather, George Van Cleave, driving a four-horse sled and I driving a 2-horse sled, with all the household goods and furniture. It took all day to get to Hilger where we stayed all night and took all the next day to get to the ranch. The snow was as high as the fence posts.
  My stepfather also bought the homestead next to us, making the ranch 320 acres.
  We went down in the breaks for dead logs for wood and put it close to the toilet, so every time we went we brought back an arm load for the house, as Mother sure burned a lot of wood.
  The four Stephens children and two Moltzau girls and I first went to school in a cabin on the upper end of the Blanchard place. We all rode horseback. One noon, at recess a skunk was in the yard and we chased it under the school. Joe Stephens and I crawled under to chase it out, and every time, the kids outside chased it back in. When school took up, the teacher didn't seem to like our presence and sent us home. Our mother didn't either, and we got a bath and our clothes were buried in the garden.
  The next place we went to school was in a log school on the Horse Ranch road; then in a homesteader's house on the upper end of our ranch. Some of the Larson family went there also. Next we went to school in the church at Fergus.
  On the fourth of July, there was a picnic at the Romunstad Ranch with games. When it got dark they had a dance in the barn and the children were put to sleep on blankets on hay in one end. They danced until sunrise and then went home.
  Hanson ran the store at Fergus. Most of the people around were Norwegian and chewed snuff. They would buy about six rolls, then open them and put in a teaspoon of rum and put it in the cellar so it wouldn't dry out.
  Once a year Hanson shipped dried ludefisk and soaked it and everyone bought some.
  The Van Cleaves had four boys: Jack, George, Charles and Bob. The last two were born after I left the ranch in 1918.
  Florence Van Cleave, my mother, died Christmas day, 1988. She was preceded in death by Jack and Lester Hall.
  Joe Dubois, August Diamond, whose father ran a furniture store in Roy, and Frank Southworth went to high school in Lewistown at the same time as I did.

  Florence was 104 years old at the time of her passing. She was born January 4, 1884 in Maiden, to Allison and Elizabeth Frame. From the age of 13 to 17 she lived in Lewistown and did housework, in exchange for board and room in order to attend school.
  On July 18, 1901 she married George Hall, a Spanish American War veteran. Two sons, Erwill and Lester were born of this marriage. George was killed in 1909 in a train accident.
  Florence and George Sherman Van Cleave were married in 1910. He died in 1925 and she and her sons moved to Oregon in 1927. She was living in Portland at the time of her death. Her sons; George, Charles, Robert and Erwill survive.
^{P. 184}

  My father, Finis Vestal was born November 17, 1879. My mother, Mary E. Neil (affectionately known by all as Mollie) was born March 14, 1886. Both were born in Macon County, Missouri.
  In 1914 Finis was working on the railroad in Montana. Mollie came west and they were wed, August 7, 1914 in Fergus County, Montana. (Probably in Roy).
  They homesteaded; living in the log cabin they built. The railroad job was short lived so Millie spent most of the weeks alone in the cabin while Finis tended bar in Roy.
  Homesteading neighbors were Kate and Rudolph Weise, who later returned to the Chicago, Illinois area. They had 3 children: Ruth, Warren, and Nan. We were in touch with the Weise's for many years. In fact, after my parent's deaths, I corresponded with Kate each Christmas up until a few years ago, when I assume she passed away.
  Anticipating a new member in the family, my parents built a new home, which was completed and moved into when they brought me home. I was born August 17, 1919 at St. Joseph's Hospital in Lewistown.
  I recall being told of my father's close call with "Spotted Fever" when I was still a baby. Seems that what kept him alive, until the doctor finally got there, was my mother pounding on his chest for a matter of hours. He was, fortunately, one of the rare people who survived the dreaded disease in those days.
  Childlike, I managed to be in the right place at the wrong time on occasion, like the time I was thrown by "Black Beauty", a spirited wild horse, presumably broken or tamed (whatever the term is) by my father. Also there was the time a defensive mama sow gave me a run for my life.
  All these stories went with us when, around 1924, we motored, in an open car with Snap-On curtains, to Missouri. Quite a car full -- the three of us plus Grandpa and Grandma Vestal (who had been visiting us from Missouri) and Grandmother Neel from South Dakota.
  My parents decided to re-settle in Missouri, but were very reluctant to sell their Montana property. When they did sell it, Dad said he retained the mineral rights.
  Macon, Missouri became our home and my parents resided there for the rest of their lives. My dad owned a bar for several years and later invested in farm and rental properties.
  My mother passed away August 12, 1959, at which time I moved back from San Francisco, California, where I had lived since 1944. in 1960 I acquired a wonderful husband and a college bound son, whom my dad adored. In 1962 Dad became incapacitated with heart problems and came to live with us, until his death May 1, 1964.
  We have lived here in the desert (Indio, Calif.) since early 1965, and our son, Gary, his wife and four daughters live in Glendale.
  Thanks for including my pioneering, "Homesteading" parents. They were pretty wonderful! - and courageous!

  William Ray Waits was born on June 23, 1875, the first white male child to be born in Frontier Co. Nebraska. Bertha Finley was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on December 18, 1882. The couple was married on May 23, 1900.
  Eight children were born to the couple: Lloyd, September 7, 1902; Earl, March 31, 1904; Lyle, November 9, 1906; Dale David, September 3, 1908; Lovella Ellen, July 24, 1910 all born in Nebraska; and Bernice Pearl, February 11, 1917; Darlene, December 5, 1919; Glenn Clyde, January 3, 1921.
  Darlene, Bernice, and Glenn were all born on the homestead northwest of Roy. All are deceased except for Lovella and Bernice.
  In the winter of 1920 we all came down with Scarlet Fever. Mother took care of us all. Glenn was born in January of 1921 when we were all down. Bless Mother and Dad; they took care of all of us besides having Glenn. He never got the Scarlet Fever, but Darlene just couldn't get over it. The doctor from Hilger came out several times. Darlene left us in the evening of February 3, 1921 and was buried in Roy.
  My parents homesteaded in 1912, 18 miles northwest of Roy. We children attended the Horse Ranch School.
  The Horse Ranch was a big cattle ranch. They had a few boxes on their porch where they put all the mail for the homesteaders. Some of them went to Fergus or Armells once a week. Later on, my folks got their mail at Christina; that was only 14 miles away, but they had to make their own road and there were 13 gates to open along the way. Our clothes were ordered out of the catalog and Dad went to town once a month for groceries. Mother made most of our clothes. She also made her lye soap and yeast cakes to make bread; butter and cheese.
  The winter of 1918 was such a cold one and Dad had to get hay for the cows and the team of horses that he drove. Maybe some days he'd only get 1 bale. He made 3 or 4 trips a week then. He went to Hilger, Suffolk, Roy, and Christina; that was a hard winter on the folks. ^{P. 185}
  We moved to Plum Creek, Montana in the fall of 1921 and never went back. I don't know what ever happened to the homestead.
  Dad passed away on October 19, 1949. Mother died November 17, 1960. Both are buried at Zillah, Washington.

  Lyle was about 6 years old when he came to Montana with his parents. He spent his early years farming, ranching and breaking horses.
  In 1931 he and Martha LaFountain were married. They had been married 53 years when she passed away in 1984.
  The family moved to Portland, Oregon in 1949, where he was employed as a plumber; on a gravel crushing outfit, and was brakeman and engineer for the Milwaukee Railroad.
  The couple had nine children: Betty Joy (Housel) of Sweet Grass; Doris (Jeffrey) of Winifred; Billy, deceased 1953; Ervin of Portland; Peggy (Folda) of Idaho; Richard, Patty Jo (Lei), Roberta and Birdie (Kirk) of Portland.

  My parents, Joseph and Marie Walter, were early homesteaders in the Fergus community. They came to the United States from Hostivice, near Prague, Czechoslovakia. My father came in 1905 and Mother in 1906. They were married in 1907 in Wilber, near Crete, Nebraska and farmed near Pleasant Dale. My sister, Marie, and I were born on this farm.
  In 1913 my father decided the free land in Montana, created by the Homestead Act, sounded like a good idea. He could prove up on it and it would belong to him. He came to Lewistown and chose 80 A. two and a half miles north of the little town of Fergus. He built a tar paper shack on it and made required improvements as specified by the Homestead Act.
  In the spring of 1914 he moved our family by immigrant car, by railroad, as far as Hilger. That was as far as the railroad went. From there we had to move by wagon and horses. We had brought a team, wagon, household goods, some machinery, milk cow, chickens, and a dog, just the necessary things to start living in Montana on our prairie homestead.
  With the help of friends and neighbors Dad built a big room onto the tar paper shack. We had to haul water from a spring two miles away until with the help of friends and neighbors a well was dug. Water was drawn with pulley, rope and a bucket. We were lucky to get real good water. It must have been a lonely time for all of us away from relatives and old friends we left in Nebraska. Our neighbors, though, were friendly people and glad to help in any way they could. Pauline Patton and her brother, Jim, were our closest neighbors. Miss Patton was our teacher for many years. From her we learned a lot about pioneering.
  North of us, in the timber, lived an elderly couple, the Steinbrings. They cut wood and hauled it by wagon and four horses to Roy to sell. Many time we could hear him coming by after dark with wagon creaking and harness clanking. He was a happy soul and a good singer. I guess he sang to himself all the long way home. Often he would stop for a drink of water or to pass on some news.
  In 1913 Marie and I started school at Fergus. Our schoolhouse was the little Presbyterian Church. We had to walk those two and one-half miles to school. Our first teacher was Mrs. Maude Misener. She was a very patient lady because we had to learn to speak English. A new school was built in 1919-20. Dad bought us a saddle horse to ride to school. We rode double in the saddle. He was the best horse we ever had. We could take the saddle off when we got to school and let him loose. He would graze all day. After school we could catch him easily and ride home.
  We had chores to do on the farm such as taking care of the sheep and putting them in the barnyard so the coyotes wouldn't get them. The coyotes were very brave. They'd come right up to the house and howl at us. Dad would have to chase them away with the shotgun. We did build up a band of sheep and a cattle herd. We started the sheep with bum lambs that Mr. Romunstad gave us. He pastured his sheep, summers, on land owned by Cook-Reynolds next to ours, so gave us girls orphaned lambs. We raised them to quite a band. We made ponies out of the first two we got and rode them with binder twine bridles and gunny sack saddles. We used to visit with the sheep herder, Mr. Novak, and his two dogs.
  In summer Mother and the two of us would walk over the hills about two miles into the timber and pick wild strawberries, gooseberries, and chokecherries. In the fall the folks would take team and wagon and go into the timber and gather dry wood for our winter supply. That was all we had to heat our house and fuel to cook with. We rarely got any coal. Our old homestead was pretty well built up by 1924.
  Some years from 1915 to 1925 we had crops and some years we didn't. Dad rented some land from a fellow who owned land next to us, a Mr. McLaughlin, to raise grain and hay. In 1919 there were no crops and no ^{P. 186} money. The winter was severe with no hay available for livestock. Dad went to Lewistown and got a job on a bridge gang on the railroad to earn money to keep things going on the farm. Mother and we girls had to take care of things at home without him. We'd drive to Roy in the spring wagon, drawn by our two saddle horses, after groceries and some hay. We were allotted a few bales that the train brought in. By that time the railroad had been built, a spur, from Roy Junction to Roy. We made a little money selling chickens, turkeys, cream and butter.
  We moved to Lewistown so we girls could go to high school. At that time there was no school in Roy.
  In my recollections the Fergus store was built by Nels Hanson and his family in the early teens. A man by the name of Burdick had the post office. Then George Harrod and family ran the store when the Hansons left.
  T.E. Rice and Lucy lived at the store in the middle 30's. T.E. Rice was Mrs. Harrod's father. Lucy was confined to her wheel chair, but was a pleasant lady. Then Harry Grimmet and his wife came. She was a relative of the Pattons. A.G. Nelson had the post office many years; in fact, he died there. He was Nels to most everyone in the vicinity and well liked. Jim Kaaro ran the store in the early 40's and then Glen Irish. Taits had the store when it was moved down by the railroad crossing.
  There are very few people living around Fergus today, in 1988. Our farm buildings on the old homestead were taken down when the folks moved to Billings in the 1930's. They built a house and other buildings with the lumber on a little acreage on Billings Bench. They ran a small truck farm there for a number of years. I imagine it would be hard to find the exact spot where our homestead buildings used to be.

  In the fall of 1940, Carl and Peggy Wight came to the Fergus area. They purchased three tracts of land; one from the state, one known as the Larson place and one from Finis Vestal. They lived in the house built by Finis Vestal until 1944 when Carl went into the service. They sold their ranch to Carl's brother, Tom, a single man. Tom lived there about four years then sold it to Vernon Taylor and moved to Lewistown.
  When Carl returned from the service, they purchased a tract of land from Jimmy Kaaro at the Fergus town site, and built a garage there. Carl operated the garage until 1951 when he leased the Edwards place. He returned to the garage about a year later. In 1953 they sold their house at Fergus to Mrs. Florence Tait's mother and the garage to Mike and Mary Jordan. They then leased a garage and service station in Roy.
  Peggy moved to Lewistown in 1954, divorced Carl and later married Charles Miller. Miller passed away in January of 1985 and Peggy continues to live in Lewistown. Carl left Roy in 1954, went to Utah and remarried.

  Roy Wolfe was born, 24 July 1885 (of German descent) and came to Montana from Missouri. Bertie Strausburg was also from Missouri, but were not acquainted until they came to this area.
  Roy and Bertie were married, 15 November 1915 and first lived on the Smith & Laraway ranch. Four children were born to them: Floyd, Harold, Roy Lee and Dorothy. They moved to the Fergus area and lived there until Mr. Wolfe's death, 17 April 1926 from pneumonia. The children attended Knob Hill and Roy schools. Roy Lee graduated from RHS, class of 1938 and Dorothy in 1941. Dorothy took nurses training at St. Joseph's Hospital in Lewistown, graduated and kept up with her profession during the years. She married Bernard Gilskey and they ranched north of Hilger. They have two sons, Tim and Terry. Bernard died in 1980 and Dorothy lives at her ranch home.
  The three Wolfe boys were WWII servicemen. Floyd is a barber and is semi-retired as he still helps at one of the local shops.
  Bertie Wolfe and John Pelot were married, 22 June 1928 and continued to ranch in the Fergus - Armells area until 1959 when they moved to Lewistown to make their home. She died in January of 1973.

  D. Archie Yuill was born on May 8, 1904 at Winifred, the son of Robert and Elizabeth Watson Yuill. He attended the Flax school, north of Winifred.
  Hazel Kennedy was born on May 17, 1902 in Ashtobula, Ohio, the daughter of Benjamen and Minnie Bulfinch Kennedy. She came to Montana in 1915 with her mother and two brothers who homesteaded in the Winifred area.
  On November 17, 1928 Archie and Hazel were married. They ranched in the Winifred area until 1941 when they moved to the Chris Christensen place (formerly Jack Stephens ranch) at Fergus. They ranched there until November of 1958. Archie also worked in construction and Hazel worked as a nurses aide in Lewistown for 18 years. She was an avid horsewoman and liked hunting and fishing. ^{P. 187} 
  Archie passed away on May 30, 1961 at the age of 57. Hazel remarried in the 1970's to John Pelot. Hazel was widowed again a few years later. She passed away on July 23, 1986. Both Archie and Hazel are interred in the Lewistown City Cemetery.
  Archie and Hazel had three children: Kay, Clifford and Kennedy.
  Kay married Dorman Jackson Jr. and took over the ranch at Fergus. The Jacksons had three children: John A. born August 16, 1957, Bonita L. born September 4, 1958 and David M. born June 5, 1964.

DITTMAN-- June 1914 the Roy Enterprise reported on a dancing party held at Dittman's Restaurant at Fergus. 

E.B. FRAME-- A Box Elder rancher in 1917 was working on boundaries of a new school district. The school house was built at Frame's Crossing.

J.V. GREEN AND SON, SAMUEL-- left in March of 1916 to introduce the people back home in Toulen, Illinois, to Montana Lands. 

NEWTON AND OPAL KENNEDY-- lived on the Allyn place. Mrs. Kennedy was an Allyn. The place is now a part of the Glen and Don Rindal Ranch. The Kennedy's four children were: Ruth, Gordon, Lucien and Robert.

HARRY OQUIST-- Harry Oquist came to Roy a little before 1910. His brother, Charley was already here. Harry was the adopted son of the John Nilanders. Olga Romunstad came in 1910; filed a homestead in the Fergus area and lived with the Kaaros. Harry met her there and they later were married. Harry was a barber in Roy. They left Roy soon after their marriage for the Moccasin, Montana area. (Information from Gertrude Gates, daughter).

LENA AND GLADYS SHARPE-- Lena and Gladys homesteaded a mile west of Petraneks. Gladys went back to Nebraska after Lena married Harry Danner. After Lena's death, about 1920, their two children went to Nebraska to live with Lena's parents. The homestead was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Elza Roberts. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts divorced and she married Harry Danner. They moved to Suffolk after their marriage. Both died in the late 20's.

ALBERT AND BELLE TRIMBLE-- The Trimble's came from Missouri at approximately the same time as the Adams'. Belle was a sister to Jesse Adams. They built a nice log house and a big red barn between Adams and Petranek's. Belle got sick and they went back to Missouri. Their place was sold to someone back east and eventually it was purchased by the Petraneks.

• Antone and Mary Pelot
• Anton and Helen Rindal's first home. This is now the Reefer Ranch. 
• Helen and Anton Rindal
• John and Ellen Rindal Haugen
• The Lars Rindal family on June 21, 1952. Back row: Lucille Ellen, Glen Howard, Melvin Louie, Donald Arthur. Front row: LeRoy Allen, Grace Ceclia, Phyllis Pauline, Lars Johnson and Joyce Erleen.
• Melvin Rindal 2 yrs. 10 mo., and Donald Arthur I year old. Photo taken June 19, 1930.
• John Romunstad and Anton Rindal.
• Jess and Alma Satterfield - 1945.