A Tribute to those with a Pioneer Spirit
Story told by Evelyn Knapp Spaller
The summer of 1920 I was 11 years old. Life seemed very good. Our loved ones, B, Charley and Uncle Babe had come home from the war all well. Uncle Babe had suffered a terrible wound and a long stay in the hospital but after coming home and getting married had regained his health. B came home but would soon start his wandering years. We’d get cards and letters from all over the U. S. Sometimes the harvest fields of Iowa or Kansas and for awhile a small Idaho town where he worked as a telegrapher, but he couldn’t resist the whistle and clatter of the freight trains.
Charley had come home to marry the girl he’d set his heart on many years before. On June 4, 1919 they were married. It was the most exciting and elegant occasion of my young life and I didn’t even see the wedding. Leone, Charley, B and a friend Lillian Herber, a girl that was homesteading in our community, made up the wedding party. They left on the mail stage for Malta the day before, married and came home the next day. We were having a big dinner for them that night, also a dance at the schoolhouse. Fred’s wife, Minnie, came to help mother with the cooking. Minnie was a high-class cook fixing things I had never heard of. Fred was working at the Malta Depot. Damaged packages were just taken by the railroad workers. By some strange fate a crate of strawberries, an unheard of delight, was damaged in the baggage room. So Minnie made strawberry tarts by the dozen – What a joy! We had a big crowd for the feast - relatives and friends. I had scoured the creek banks for wild roses and they were everywhere. We’d borrowed dishes from several people. What excitement when they finally reached home married! Lillian was wearing a gold ring and claimed she and B were also married, but she couldn’t fool us. The dance was a great success. A group of government surveyors were working in the area and their cook brought a big decorated wedding cake that kept everyone talking.
A sad thing for me to have Leone move away. Charley’s homestead was about 50 miles away, but the broad Missouri River was between, making the trip more difficult.
The summer of 1920 Leone had been gone a year. She now had a baby boy I was very anxious to see, so when Buster invited Roy, my cousin, and I to go on a trip to visit them I was very excited. Mother made me two new dresses and some new bloomers I was very proud of. They were tied in a little bundle on the back of my saddle. We would go horse back. I would ride my horse Blue Bird. Our first stop was the Long X Ranch. This was a famous horse ranch run by the Reynold brothers. Horses had been brought from Texas in early days and they grazed over an area of 100 miles. They kept a bunch of cowboys. B had worked there quite a bit. Buster broke horses for them and Leone had worked for Molly, the rancher’s young wife. Molly was a friend. Molly was the daughter of Schyler Leedy. He had come up the river by steamboat in the early days and settled on the river. He married an Indian woman and had two daughters.
Molly greeted us warmly. I was treated special and taken into the ranch house while Buster and Roy went on to the bunkhouse. Molly was a warm, wonderful person. I felt I was a very plain, homely girl. I was tall, skinny and had freckles. During our visit she mentioned how handsome B was. I made the remark that all my family, except me, were so good looking. She told me not to worry, that when I was grown I’d be the best looking one of the bunch. She never knew how much good that did me. No one praised children at that time, they didn’t want to make them vain. Poor Molly’s life was not good to her. Her husband died quite young, her son was a prisoner of war in Germany for a long time. She got M. S. and died after a terrible illness, leaving a teen-age boy and girl by a second marriage. Her son, Jack, came home from his terrible ordeal in bad shape and an alcoholic.
The next morning we made our way to the river. Crossed the river by ferry without mishap, altho my horse, Blue Bird had previously had a bad experience there. Buster was crossing with him. The water was very high and swift and one end of the ferry’s cable broke and left the boat dangling out in the river. They expected it to break loose any minute. Buster went ashore in a rowboat, but poor Blue Bird had to stay on the boat 2 or 3 days until they got him to jump in and swim ashore.
We ate dinner at Gallingers. It was my first meeting with Neelie and we later became very good friends. They made us promise to spend the night on our return trip.
I’ll never forget our trip up out of the Missouri River Brakes – very rough, deep canyons and I’m sure places no one had been to this day. We followed a road. Night came on us, very dark clouds kept drifting across the moon. Seemed very spooky to me as I couldn’t see where we were going. My horse followed along behind Buster and Roy came after me. No one talked, just the clap of the horses’ feet and the night sounds.
We eventually came to Buster’s log cabin. We went in and he lit a lantern. He opened up some thing canned and we ate it. He took down his bedroll, which was tied in a bundle and suspended, from the ridgepole to keep the rats and mice out of it. He divided up the blankets and we lay down to sleep.
We were about 6 miles from Charley so we made it on there for dinner the next day. What a joy to see Leone again and Ralph was a doll. He was about 5 months old and I carried him and danced with him. His first word was "Sissy", my name at that time. We formed a life long attachment.
My little bag of clothes was lost on the ride. Charley went to a little store and got enuf material for Leone to make me a dress so I’d have a change. I wore black sateen riding bloomers. It was several years before I was allowed to wear jeans.
The house had two rooms, a large room for cooking, eating and sitting and a small bedroom. There was a bunkhouse where the boys stayed. Leone had inherited a ready-made family. John was in partners with Charley. He often worked out for neighboring ranchers and helped out financially. Charley’s father had moved to Montana from Oklahoma, with Charley’s stepmother and 4 children. He died and was buried there on the place along the road near the garden. Two big red buttes rose up just beyond the garden. They were a strange formation, the sides so steep one could hardly climb them. After Mr. Sherod died his wife married a neighboring rancher who took in the family of children. She soon died and was buried out in the middle of the wheat field. Homes had to be found for the children. The rancher’s mother took the baby, Clarence, to Washington, Alice went to Oklahoma to relatives, and Charley and John took Mutt and Ed. They were about 10 and 12. Not many young wives could have managed such a family, but Leone could cope with anything. Money was very scarce. They depended mostly on their cow, chickens and a nice garden. Corn was ready and we enjoyed that, but something started eating it in the garden. Buster, always the hunter, laid out in the garden to catch the culprit. It turned out to be a mother porcupine and her family. Buster killed them. He dressed the young ones and Leone fried them. She would cook anything. Everyone said they were delicious. Us kids rambled over the creeks picking wild berries, goose berries and currants. They made good pies. We had a delightful time and hated to see our visit coming to an end.
The night before we left a terrible cloud came up. Such a storm, lightening, wind and hail. Huge hailstones covered everything, beating the wheat and oat crops and the garden into the ground. I never saw such devastation. Some dead chickens that never made it back to the coop.
After the storm passed we all stood speechless and horrified. The crops that were soon to be harvested gone. I’ll never forget the stricken look on their faces. A year’s work gone and no prospects ahead. Leone seemed stunned then she said, "Well, someone go milk the cow. We’ll not let this ice go to waste." So we made ice cream and had a party.
I write this to show the courage and strength of these hardy people who settled up a new country. This is the pioneer spirit, without it America could never have survived. Be proud of this wonderful heritage.