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AS I REMEMBER - STORIES 2

More stories of the Pioneers who settled Eastern Montana, as told to Mrs. Morris (Gladys) Kauffman Click on the buttons below to read selected excerpts from the As I Remember Stories.
July 1966 When someone asks Joe Kelly from Sidney, "Are you really Irish?" Joe replies, "Well my mother's name was Bridgette Dougherty, and she came directly from Ireland to Glendive. My father's name was Michael Kelly, and he came from Ireland, too. Besides that I was born on the seventeenth of March so if that doesn't make me Irish, I don't know what would." The only reason he isn't Pat is that Pat was here before he was. Joe was the third child of Michael and Bridgette Kelly, Pat was the first.. Go to the story. . . Return to Top
January 1965 Glendive's Jack McNaney is the only son of one of the most colorful and illustrious pioneers of eastern Montana, James McNaney. Jim McNaney was born in Philadelphia, June 22, 1860. He was employed by the United States government as a teamster, and in this capacity he came to the Custer Battlefield the year following the Custer massacre, working with others to clear the carnage from the field. Go to the story. . . Return to Top
August & September 1967 If the train hadn't pulled out of the Poplar station while he stood on the platform talking with Charlie Hilger, chances are Price Vine never would have homesteaded in the Vida country. And if he had been left talking with anyone but Charlie Hilger, he probably would have caught the next train west and still not have homesteaded. But he missed his train, and it was Charlie Hilger with whom he was talking. Go to the story. . . Return to Top
August 1965 Poverty dominated much of Italy in 1900. What peasant would dare dream that he might some day retire in California? A wild dream - but dreams do sometimes come true. Carlo Tomalino heard that across the thousands of miles of land and sea the United States was giving away land in Montana - 160 acres to a man, just for the taking. He wasn't thinking California then, but surely a man with 160 acres could soon accumulate a fortune, come back to Italy, and "have it made." Go to the story. . . Return to Top
October & November 1973 From a mansion in Iowa to a one-room shack on the bank of a creek in Montana - forty miles from the nearest town. What would motivate anyone to make such a move? Perhaps Mrs. Harry Green in the days - weeks - months - years that followed their immigration to Montana may have wondered. Yet hundreds and thousands left the comfort and comparative security of their homes in established communities of the Midwest and the east to "rough it" on the Montana prairies during the homestead era. Go to the story. . . Return to Top
April 1973 Pastor John Franz and his wife had gone one Saturday to a school meeting at the Independent School northeast of Bloomfield. Soon after the meeting convened, a stranger came in and asked Pastor Franz to come outside. The minister complied and was immediately seized and dragged to a waiting car. Go to the story. . . Return to Top
October 1965 All his life Bennie Dawe had wanted to be a cowboy, and he hadn't been in Montana long until he figured he 'had it made'. Bennie had been brought up in Michigan's timber country where his father cooked in a lumber camp. Go to the story. . . Return to Top
1969 With today's emphasis on "tell it like it is" all kinds of experts on every hand can do that, but few and far between are the individuals who can "tell it like it was" - like it was, that is, sixty years ago on Montana's ranges. J.K. (Ken) Ralston of Billings is one of the few who can. Go to the story. . . Return to Top
June 1964 "Oh, my goodness, the world is empty!" was the reaction of Mrs. Adda Eyer when she stepped off the train in Glendive and saw how much there was with nothing in it. Go to the story. . . Return to Top
February 1965 Mrs. R.J. Kennedy has been no stranger to heartache and hardship since she came to Montana, but she says she would be glad to turn back the pages of time and relive those days she shared with her husband and their growing children. Go to the story. . . Return to Top
August 1973 He had never seen bananas before but when someone came around selling some he decided to try one. Unfortunately, he tried eating it peeling and all. The effect wasn't at all pleasant so he threw the banana overboard. Go to the story. . . Return to Top
June 1968 Entonie Benes had never in her life seen such hills as she saw from the window of the train approaching Glendive - and she had seen a lot of country on both sides of the Atlantic. Then she saw Indians on their ponies and became really alarmed. Go to the story. . . Return to Top
May 1966 In 1904, the family moved back to Dickinson again, and that's how it happened that Mr. Beres was rooting for the opposing side when Dickinson and Glendive played that notorious grudge baseball game a few years later, about 1908. Go to the story. . . Return to Top
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