I, Lewis W. Paulsen, was born in Lewistown on May 20, 1917. My Dad was George Paulsen. My mother was Edna Lindstrom Paulsen Jordan. My folks starved out and gave up farming, east of Roy, in 1918. My mother went to her folks at Ortonville, Minnesota and my dad went to his folks at Green Bay, Wisconsin. He caught the flu on the train and died a few days after he arrived at Green Bay. A few years later my mother married Rev. L. M. F. Jordan, the Presbyterian minister at Roy.
  Three members of the Lindstrom family homesteaded east of Roy. They were Lennart, Edna and Agnes. Lennart came to Montana about 1907, when he was 21, and took up land in the Highwood Mountains. His dad visited him in May. There was still snow on the ground, so his dad told him to get out and find better land.
  Lennart went to the Roy area and found much land that could be homesteaded. He contacted his two sisters, Edna and Agnes, and on December 10, 1909 the three met in Lewistown and walked to east of Roy to pick out land for homesteads. They planned their trip; bought a supply of food and had plenty of warm clothing for the journey. The first day they walked until it started to get dark and they found an old cabin to spend the night in. Their sack of food was soon gone. They started early the next day and walked until it started to get dark, at which time they spotted a light in the distance. They walked towards the light and found it was the homestead of a family by the name of Al and Laura Swarble, who gave them a warm welcome and remained life-long friends. The next day they picked out the land to homestead.
  Lennart was the first of the three to move on the land. He opened a store and the Lindstrom post office in a log cabin on his homestead. He bought a house in Maiden and used the lumber to build the claim shacks. Agnes and Edna got their homesteads soon after Lennart did.
  The government was also selling land for $1.25 an acre, so the Lindstrom's dad bought several quarters of land. I am not sure how much land my dad, George Paulsen had, but Agnes told me the family had more than three sections.
  Agnes soon took over the post office and store. Times were hard and people did not have any money to buy much of anything. It was cold in the winter and if Agnes had money to get fuel to burn, there was no one to get it for her. Agnes got her land by desert entry so did not have to live on it to become its owner. She ran the store and post office for two years, then left going to Denver, Colorado where she met and married Al Hartwig.
  Edna Lindstrom got her homestead and worked part-time in Lewistown at office work. She graduated from a business college there in 1916. She paid $7.50 for her final homestead proof on 160 acres at the U.S. Land Office in Lewistown on Sept. 17, 1914.
  George Paulsen homsteaded near the Lindstroms. There was rain for a few years and then the dry years set in. Lennart also left. My Mother and Dad stayed until the fall of 1918. I have a letter my Dad wrote December 26, 1917. He said he would try to farm one more year and if no crops he would quit. The fall of 1918 was when my Dad went to his parents home and my Mother and I went to her folks.
  A telegram was waiting for her when she got to her folks place saying that my Dad had died. That was in November of l918.
  Her father, L.W. Lindstrom, went to Roy to set up a sale to dispose of my Father and Mother's properties. Mr. Swarble had a sale and sold the things they had on the homestead. The sale was not good because people had no money to buy and people were leaving their homesteads. L. W. Lindstrom paid the taxes on the land until he died in 1927. He willed all the Montana land to Agnes and Edna. My mother traded some property with Agnes and Agnes became the owner of all the Lindstrom land. She sold all the land about 1940. Edna stayed with her folks in Minnesota until about 1922 when she returned to Roy to take care of some unfinished business and met the Rev. L. M. F. Jordan whom she married in 1924.
  Lennart married a Texas girl and brought her out to the homestead, but it didn't "work out". When times got hard he worked on a railroad in Canada for a while and then in the smelter at Great Falls. There he met Junietta Cable Thornton and they were married December 31, 1920. They returned to his father's farm near Ortonville, Minn., where he worked. The farm became Lennart's after his father died and they worked it until 1942.
  Lennart Lindstrom died at Warroad, Minnesota in 1983 at 99 years of age. Agnes spent most of her life in California, but died at Warroad, Minnesota in 1982 at age 94. Edna died at Azusa, California in 1970 at age 83. (See LMF Jordan)
  I am now the owner of the Lindstrom homestead at Ortonville, Minnesota. It was homesteaded by Lewis W. Lindstrom in 1881. Eleven children were born on this farm. Five lived to be adults and three of these homesteaded near Roy. These three were the third generation of the Lindstrom family to homestead. Their grandfather had his land near Cannon Falls, Minn. He moved to Cannon Falls in 1858 which was before the homestead act was passed. His closest neighbors were the Sioux Indians. ^{P.  247}
  Lindstrom lay approximately 12 miles east of Roy. It was originally Stevens Horse Camp. The post office was in operation for 6 years; from 1912 to 1918. Besides Lindstrom, George Paulsen was also listed as being a postmaster.
  Some of the families that were in that area and probably received their mail there were: Lou Eaten, James Wilson, Harry Willsie, Victor Cannons, the Al Schwarbles, the George Paulsens, Martin Benes, Dick Busse, Polsome, Frank Bare, Jurgen Hansons, William Moores, Ray Semour, (Seymour) Hearalds, Ted Funk, Karl "Little Dutchman" Kupke, George Hartwig, Frank Facher and J.E. Mills.
  Some "Lindstrom Notes" newspaper items from 'way back then' read as follows:

  November 26, 1914 -- George G. Paulsen and Miss Edna Lindstrom of Roy, Montana were united in marriage on Wednesday, November 25, 1914 by Rev. Paul E. Meyer, Evangelist Lutheran minister at the parsonage in Lewistown. Mr. Paulsen is a well known contractor and has a homestead in the Roy section. Miss Lindstrom is a daughter of the postmaster at Lindstrom, Mont.
July 22, 1915 -- Charles Wilde, the blacksmith at Lindstrom, is kept very busy every day sharpening plows lays, shoeing horses and smithing pans.
   A petition was signed by upwards of 100 people, protesting against the building of the Roy-Valentine road across Allbough Hill, was presented to county commissioners this week, on the grounds that said road will be unsatisfactory to the public.
   Contractor Lee Hilliard is camping with the road crew below the Swoboda ranch and is approaching us with a brand new road.
   We are now enjoying mail service three times a week. It will be carried from Roy to Valentine on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and will return to Roy on the other days, arriving at Lindstrom at 10 a.m.
August 30, 1917 -- The Lou Eaten ranch, which is located just one-half mile east of Lindstrom postoffice, changed hands this week. James Wilson the purchaser -$25 per acre. Mr. Eaten and family will return to their native state, Nebraska, and will continue to farm there. 
January 10, 1918 -- Frank Bare made a raid on the jack rabbits last week, killing over 100 and shipping 42 to St. Paul.
   The present storm is hard on stock and fuel in this vicinity is scarce. The thermometer registered close to 40 below, last Wednesday night. 

  In the year, 1914, Hugo Busse from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, traveled to Montana and homesteaded about 15 miles east of Roy, Montana and 2 miles from Lindstrom, Montana.
  After Hugo (a carpenter) built a house on his homestead his mother, Pauline Busse, and his two sisters, Mary and Lena, came out from Milwaukee and lived with him for four years.
  In 1920 Hugo sold his homestead to Joseph Gerig. Gerig was a school master and taught at the Weaver School and at other schools before buying the Busse place.
 Busse moved back to Wisconsin.

  Edward Holoubeck came to Montana at an early age, about 1913, and worked for many local farmers. He was born in Czechoslovakia on March 13, 1902; the son of Anton and Cecelia Holoubeck.
  About 1921 he purchased a homestead about 2 miles from Blazej Lelek's place and about a mile north of the Lindstrom post office and store. Mrs. Lelek (Mary) was a sister to Edward.
  He was drafted for military service in 1943 so he sold his farm, livestock and machinery. He was rejected for being over age so he went to Seattle and worked for Boeing Company in the drafting department. After his retirement from Boeing he followed his second trade in the stock market.
  Edward was one of five children. His parents are both buried in Czechoslovakia as is one sister, Agnes. His two brothers, John and Joe, also emigrated to the United States. They are deceased and are buried in Omaha, Nebraska.
  Edward lives in Seattle, Washington. He never married. ^{P.  248}

  In 1916 William Schulze and his parents, Fredrick and Fredrika, and four brothers, left Park Falls, Wisconsin by train, bringing their tractors and threshing rig. William homesteaded a quarter of a mile from Lindstrom, Montana. This was their post office until 1918. Gust Schulze homesteaded on what is known as Bear Creek, about five miles south of Lindstrom. Fred Schulze homesteaded about three miles south of William's place.T 18N R 23E Sec. 23.
  In the early years the Schulze brothers threshed for many of the neighbors, as they had the only threshing machine in the area at that time. August Schulze did not homestead but moved on to work in the oil fields in Wyoming and California and eventually went to Texas where he lived until his death in September of 1987. Otto never homesteaded. He lived in the area for awhile as a young man. He left and farmed in the Acton area. He returned in the 30's, lived on the Bare place and herded sheep for his brother until retiring and moving into Roy. Born in Germany, he died in Lewistown on December 1, 1968 at the age of 92. Fred and Gust sold their homesteads and moved to North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada, where they bought a farm and raised wheat. Both of them passed away in Canada.
  William and his parents stayed on. In July of 1918, William entered the army and served in World War I. After he was discharged he returned home. He purchased the land from Lindstrom in 1920. Their address was then Roy, Montana.
  On March 1, 1926 he married Mary Busse. They continued to live on the ranch, gradually buying more acreage as some of the homesteaders sold out in the dry years of the 1930's.
  Mary and William had three daughters Gloria, Dorothy and Deloris. They attended the East Box Elder School (a rural school approximately 1 3/4 miles from their home) for eight years and attended high school in Roy.
  Mr. and Mrs. Schulze sold the ranch and moved to Lewistown in 1955 where they resided until the time of their deaths; Mary on December 24, 1957 and William, August 1, 1961.
  Their daughters still reside in Lewistown. Gloria works as head cook at the State Home for the Aged. Deloris owns and operates the Beauty Spot. Dorothy is a teacher and elementary principal at the Moore School in Moore, Montana.

  Frank Spoon, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Titus Spoon, was born July 22, 1888 in Albert Lea, Minnesota. He originally homesteaded in the Garneill area on a place adjoining his father's. He sold that homestead, moved to Roy and bought the Devine place. He married Eva Mae Sullivan in 1915 in Roy.
  Eva was born January 3, 1875 in Astabula, Ohio. She had been married before to Albert Sullivan in 1889, in South Dakota. They had 6 children; Mildred, Frank, John, Bert, Clarence and Howard.
  She had a homestead in the area. After the Spoons marriage the couple lived on the homestead which was south and east of Roy. While on the homestead the Spoon's home burnt down and they lost everything. Frank was quite badly burnt, especially his hands, trying to save some of their belongings. In the spring of 1923 they leased their place, sold their possessions and moved into Roy.
  One time, while in Roy, Frank interceded when a man rudely shoved a young boy off of the side walk. He was attacked with a knife and severely wounded for his efforts. When he came to, he was in the hospital.
  Frank is remembered for being a trader, "a natural born trader!"
  Eva passed away at her home in Roy on August 2, 1946. She had been in ill health for several years. She was survived by her husband, four of her children; Mildred (Woodruff), Frank, John and Bert, all of whom were living in Washington at that time; and several sisters, one of them was Mrs. Ed (Alice) Fegert of Roy. Eva was buried in Shelton, Washington.
  Frank married Mable Anderson, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C.F. "Spokane" Anderson of Roy. Mable was a nurse. The ranch was sold to Frank's cousin, Harvey Fogle, when he returned to Roy after WWI and the Spoons left, moving to Oregon.
  Mable passed away in Portland on December 5, 1949 at the age of 40. She was survived by Frank and two brothers, Con Anderson and Theodore Anderson and a sister, Julia Oquist. She was preceded in death by her first husband, Bill Anderson.
  Frank worked for Coos Bay Lumber Company for many years and was retired when he passed away on February 11, 1964. Frank was buried in Lewistown. Listed among his survivors was a sister, Mrs. Avanelle Sullivan of Coos Bay, Oregon. ^{P.  249}

  When Anna Buric of Pderbrady, Czechoslovakia, came to the United States in 1912 at the age of 17, it was like a dream come true.
  Life for Anna had been very hard since the death of her father when she was only three years old. She and her brother began working when she was not quite six years old, hoeing beets and working at harvest time, and helping in the barns feeding cattle, in order to help their mother feed the family.
  The family all worked for a wealthy "baron" or farmer, and they lived on the farm. She had very little schooling, only five or six grades, because, when there was work to do, it came ahead of school.
  So, when friends, who were already in the United States arranged for her passage, she said "Goodbye" to her mother and brother, not even knowing if she would ever see them again.
  It was not an easy trip for young Anna, who could not speak a word of English. She said all of the emigrants were herded onto the boat like a herd of cattle. The boat was very crowded and several shared the available cabins. Many of them were seasick and in the crowded conditions, it wasn't very pleasant. But Anna was young and her spirits high. Nothing could dim her happiness because she was coming to America.
  The boat landed at New York after many long days and the emigrants were taken in charge by an agent who saw that they got on the right trains to reach their final destinations, which for Anna was Stanford, Montana.
  At Stanford she was met by her uncle, John Sramek, who lived at Coffee Creek. The ride from Stanford wasn't much easier than the boat trip, since she and her cousin, who also came to meet her, had to ride on top of a load of lumber in a lumber wagon. But at last she had arrived, regardless of the discomforts, she was very happy.
  Anna stayed with her relatives for about a week and then she went to work on the Strouf Ranch where she remained for several months.
  She hadn't done much cooking up to this time, so she had to learn. Her big task was making bread for 50 hired hands, plus the family. She also had to learn other household duties, since she had always worked outside in Europe. Washing dishes and setting tables were major tasks. As soon as the dishes were washed they were turned over and put back on the table in preparation for the next meal.
  Her next job was with the Jim and Joe Vanek families. It was there that she met Joseph Sramek, and on October 28, 1913, Sramek and Anna were married.
  Their wedding trip was a ride to their homestead near Roy in a lumber wagon, which hauled all of their belongings, plus two pigs, some cabbage and potatoes, which the Vaneks had given them for a wedding present.
  Their new home was a two-room cabin with a lean-to shed in which they stored their vegetables. The new Mrs. Sramek made sauerkraut from the cabbage and put it in a barrel in the lean-to for storage. It froze solid during the winter and she had to dig it out in chunks when she wanted some for a meal. Water was hauled about two miles by stoneboat in two barrels. One time the horses ran away and both barrels and water were lost.
  Times were very hard for the young Srameks in the seven years they lived on the homestead. It was very dry and very little of anything grew. Sramek put in 13 acres of barley and harvested only a small part, because it was spoiled by smut.
  To keep warm and to cook, Mrs. Sramek gathered sagebrush for fuel. Her husband had to work out and often times she was alone for a week or more. Her neighbors were far away. Only one family lived anywhere near. The rest were all bachelors, who like the Srameks were homesteaders.
  Mrs. Sramek was alone when her first child, a baby girl, was born. Her husband had gone to the mountains to get wood. She tried to get to her neighbors but couldn't and the baby was born. It only lived a short time and there is a little grave on the homestead to mark the spot where it was buried.
  Two more children were born at Roy, Martha and Frank. While Martha was still a baby, her parents fixed a box on the binder and she rode along with them while they cut the grain. Many times the grain would be too short to make a bundle, so Mrs. Sramek would take the grain off the platform and lay it in a pile, to be threshed later.
  Bad luck seemed to pursue the Srameks in those first years of their marriage.
  Sramek lost a pig that he had bought from the Vaneks while he was bringing it home. It jumped out of the wagon and he looked everywhere for it, but it was never found.
  A cow which he had purchased for $75 and which had just produced a calf, was killed by lightning.
  The white mare that he bought from the John Srameks at Coffee Creek wandered off or was stolen. A man who was hauling grain from Winnett, camped near the homestead one night, and his horse got away and went to the neighbors who recognized her as the ^{P.  250}  mare the Srameks had lost. When the man came to get her, they told him she didn't belong to him, and he left without an argument, so they got their mare back.
  One day when Mrs. Sramek and a friend were on their way to Roy to do some shopping (Roy was quite a little city in those days), they very nearly had a runaway. A motorcycle came roaring down the road and the frightened horse reared and started to run. Mrs. Sramek yelled to her friend to jump out of the cart, but about that time the motorcycle rider saw what was happening and pulled his machine off the road and waited until they got past.
  In 1919 the Srameks bought a place on Plum Creek and moved there to live, after renting the homestead. They also rented land from a man named Comstock who was living in the cabin on his place.
  No one had seen the man for several days and when Sramek went to investigate he found him dead. He had
committed suicide, it was surmised, by taking poison. His sister who had been his housekeeper had died a short time before.
  The Srameks decided to clean up the cabin and move into it since it was in better shape than the old granary that they had been living in and they still had the lease on the place.
  In one of the cupboards, Mrs. Sramek found a jar or glass containing a brown liquid like molasses. She decided to pour it in the pig slop. They had just bought four pigs and had borrowed a boar from one of the neighbors. They had about nine others besides. All of them died but one little one who couldn't get to the feed. The jar had evidentially contained the rest of the poison that Comstock hadn't taken, and there was enough of it left to kill the pigs.
  Now what to do about the borrowed boar? Sramek thought quickly and decided to go ask his neighbor if he would sell the boar for $15. The man agreed, the money was exchanged, and no one was wiser.
  In 1922 Srameks bought two houses in Kendall and moved them on their place. From the two they built a nice roomy house. The Roy home, a 12 x 14 structure was moved from the homestead to Plum Creek and was used as a wash house and later a chicken house. It is still in use.
  Times got a little better and a John Deere D tractor replaced the four horse team that had done the field work so faithfully for so many years.
  Another invention appeared on the scene, a Model T Ford. Before they got the car, trips to Lewistown were made by wagon and took a good long day, and sometimes two days. The horses were tied in the lot area now occupied by the post office, and it was a meeting place for the farmers and ranchers in the surrounding country.
  The car wasn't as faithful as the horses, the Srameks soon found out. It wouldn't go through snowdrifts and one time when the family was on the way to a wedding at Hilger, they hit an icy stretch going up the hill known as Foster Hill. When the car started to slide, Sramek slammed on the brake. The car turned square around in the middle of the road. He hollered "whoa" but the car didn't respond like the horses. He never cared too much about driving after that and Mrs. Sramek did most of the driving.
  In 1950 Mr. and Mrs. Sramek retired from the ranch and moved to Lewistown. Joe Jr., who was born in 1925, remained on the ranch, and is still there. Sramek didn't get to enjoy his retirement. He died suddenly of a heart attack just after they had moved.
  In 1959 Mrs. Sramek had a chance to see her homeland again. She and her daughter, Martha, returned to Czechoslovakia and spent three months visiting there. Few of her relatives were still living. Her mother had come to the United States earlier and had died in Minnesota.
  Mrs. Sramek remains in the home she and her husband bought when they moved to town. She is 81 now, but still drives her car. She has a small garden which produces more than most big gardens and her house is surrounded with flowers. She mows her big lawn, picks apples from her two trees and even prunes the trees when they need it.
  In the wintertime, she makes quilts and crochets afghans and pillow tops to pass the time. But come spring, before the snow is hardly off the ground she is out in her garden planting seeds again, long before most people even think of a garden.
^{P.  251}

  My father, Joe Swoboda, was born in Veseli, Minnesota, March 21, 1887. He came to Montana to homestead in 1911. His homestead lay 8 miles east of Roy, between where the Frank Siroky's place and Joe Kalina's place was. Mail and groceries were gotten at Lindstrom.
  In those years the homesteaders were mostly bachelors, which my father was at that time. The bachelors needed only a homestead "shack" as they were called then. Dad, with his team of horses and wagon, drove to Hilger and got a load of lumber. He knew how much lumber to get for a particular size shack. He built several homestead shacks in the area for different people, one of which still stands and is very visible now. It is the little house of Alois Docal that Perry Ed Kalal has moved next to the highway and made into a useable shed.
  In January of 1914, Dad went back to Minnesota and he and my mother, Julia Kuchera, were married on the 21st of that month in Glenn Lake. They came back to Montana and lived on the homestead until 1918.
  Three children were born in Roy. Myself, Marcella, in October of 1914; Martha who died the day after she was born in January of 1917 and is buried in the Roy Cemetery and Charles who was born in July of 1918.
  Dad raised grain on his homestead and had a few milk cows which he and Mom milked. They sold the cream to Lanes Creamery in Roy. Mom would hitch up a team of horses and would load up the cans full of cream and the eggs from the poultry she raised and off to Roy we went.
  When we would walk every morning and again every evening to the barn to milk the cows, there was a rattling sound along the path every time we went by. One day, as I was walking behind my parents, Dad surprised a rattlesnake which was outside it's hole, so Dad took care of him! There was no more rattling sounds from then on.
  We lived on the south side of the road and had to cross the road to get water for the house from a spring on Box Elder Creek, about a half mile away. One day, Mom discovered a hair snake in her bucket of water.
Dad immediately gave orders; a clean cloth, a dish towel, had to be taken along to the spring, and a dipper pan to strain all the water before coming home with it!
  My mother told me, many times, about a time when I was very small, not yet walking, when she had cleaned me up and had scrubbed the floors and as she moved a pile of sage brush (used for fuel) a lizard came crawling towards me. She grabbed me out of the way. No wonder I'm still leary of lizards! And there are still plenty of them around where we live.
  A big treat for me, was when my parents went visiting with our team and wagon, over to Auntie and Uncle Vondracek's. Auntie always had a fresh kolache and she cooked coffee in an enameled kettle and added lots of cow's milk for me. For a child less than four years old, that was indeed a big treat.
  In 1918, Dad had a chance to sell the homestead and move. I was four, Charlie only a few months old. Dad got an immigrant car and off to Ballentine he went. Mom, Charlie and I were taken to the train depot by Joe Kalina, who bid us farewell and we left to join Dad.
  We lived in Ballentine until 1925, when we went back to Minnesota for a year; returning to Montana in 1926 where the folks settled in Billings.
  Rudy was born in Billings and twins, Robert and Raymond, were born in Belle Plain, Minnesota.
  I married James Horyna on November 2, 1938, four years to the day that I first met him. Although my folks knew the Horyna's, I did not meet any of the family until we came back to Roy to visit with Joe and Emma Kalina. My Dad and Emma were cousins.
  I met Annie there at their house. Jim was there, but he and Joe were out working in the fields, surveying. Later that fall I came to visit the Kalina's and went over to see Annie and there met Jim. We will have been married 50 years in 1988.
   My brother, Charlie, was killed during WWII in Africa.
 Dad passed away, at age 80, in 1967. Mom is now 93 (in 1988) and has spent the last several years at the Valley Nursing Home in Billings.

  My uncle, Jerry P. Swoboda, came to homestead in Roy after Dad did. With Joe's help he built his homestead shack near Box Elder Creek several miles east of Roy. His homestead is now part of Frankie Siroky's place.
  He did some farming and when World War I came, he was drafted into the Army. He returned to his homestead after the war, but he didn't stay long and moved to Billings, Montana.
  He married Rose Cernohlavek. They had one son, Jerry John, who was a plumber.
  Jerry P. outlived his son by seven years. He passed away March 22, 1985 at the age of 90.^{P.  252}

CHARLIE BLAHA- Marcella Horyna remembers him., "Charlie was a single man, a homesteader and a neighbor OF OURS.  When I was a little girl he brought a tin cup for me to drink from.  Up to then I had only a tin can."  Marcy does not know what happened to him.

JOE GERIG(GUERSIGT) A teacher who taught at Coal Hill Boulevard and trunk schools. His homestead was near the Schultz place.  He died of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.  He was born in Germany.

MR. AND MRS. GEORGE HARRELL-They ran a hotel, restaurant and boarding house at Lindstrom for a short time.  The children went to School in Roy.  Sons Edgar  and Roy both became Texas Rangers.  They also had a daughter.

JOHN TOBIAS- T 18N R 23 E Sec. 10 John Tobias homesteaded in the Lindstrom area.  His place was just north of the Walter Buechner place.  In 1966 Tobias was living in Dike, Iowa. 

• Blazej Lelek and his brother-in-law Ed Holoubeck binding wheat in the 1920's.
• The Sramek family at Roy. Joseph and Anna with their children; Martha and Frank.