Loren Jenkins has given "the Mountaineer" a sheaf of stories written about old timers as a school project many years ago. This week, we feature The Blacksmith by Kevin Skaalure.
A few horses, a cow, blacksmith's tools, household goods and furniture filled the "Immigrant Car" from Burton, Wisconsin to Big Sandy, Montana. In the midst of the animals in the shadows of the boxcar, at checkpoints, but keeping Archie company the rest of the way, was a stowaway named Charles Beck. (Later he was to become a shoemaker behind Chauvet's store). James Hill's "Immigrant Car" was a boxcar rented to any prospective homesteader. While Archie and his companion rode in the boxcar, the women rode in a passenger car. (Grandma Butler, Ethel Reed who was later to become Mrs. Chris Skaalure, Violet Reed who was later to become Mrs. Henry Chauvet (Kenneth Chauvet's mother) and Mrs. Archie Reed made up the women travelers.
Leaving Wisconsin to come to Montana was prompted by relatives. Uncle Joe Hurst had written Archie with the news that there is still some good land to be had. Times were rich in Wisconsin, too rich for the Reed family. Socializing was a great problem among the people and maybe with a more sparsely populated land, the blacksmith would not have felt obligated to help greatly increase the number of people visiting the doctor because of various illnesses. Violet, fourteen years old, also helped the move when she told that the Montana climate would help her illnesses. Arriving in Big Sandy on May 1, 1913 the Reeds soon confirmed their belief that there is really a town out there. But the hope of May flowers from April showers was a fallacy. Sixteen-year-old Ethel cried and wanted to go back to Wisconsin when the snow, rain and wind met her eyes.
Setting the farm up was a most difficult job. Twenty-one miles southeast of Big Sandy was where Archie was to build his homestead. For three months, Archie and Joe Hurst hauled poles to construct the house. Each morning Archie, using his feet for locomotion, would embark six miles from a friend's house to where he was building.
After he built the house and moved the family, Archie worked next on breaking the ground. Using a team of horses Archie broke up the first forty acres, hauling rocks out by the ton. Those forty acres out of the 320 were enough for the wheat had to be cut by hand and put into bundles to dry. When the wheat was taken to town, eggs also went along to be marketed. The milk cows and chickens helped out greatly in the harder years.
Obtaining enough water and fuel were other forms of providing work besides the wheat crop. Before the sixty-foot well was hand-dug, water was hauled in a stoneboat from a spring four miles away. A stoneboat was a sled-type affair with a barrel attached to the top to hold the water. Buffalo chips (cow manure) was the main fuel before the roads made use of the Mackton and other coal mines.
After the work was completed and winter started, visiting with the neighbors was more common for the Reeds but going to town was not. It took a good day to get to town in the wagon so the trips were not very frequent. Ethel and Violet never went to town once for a whole year but they did walk up the road six miles to visit the Courtnage place. Walking on the ground enabled a person to know the Courtnage and the Kornor house (another neighbor) for their houses were made of sod.
The elements were a source of many a tale of homestead life. One winter Archie tied a rope around himself and to the house just to walk out and do the chores. The snow reached outlandish proportions, for at times the drifts were as high as the buildings. Another weather related story occurred when Archie and his wife went to the mountains for a load of poles. One the way a blizzard blew up and they were forced to seek refuge in a small shack a few miles from the house. In the morning the sun revealed a large hold in the shack's floor not far from where the two had stayed the night before.
In the years to come the Reed farm was sold to Ethel's sons, the Skaalure brothers, Dale and Glen. The Reed place is now enclosed in their operation. The hard-working days of the homesteader will not be forgotten for those who lived in those days, nor by those who hear of time.
