WILDER

  Rocky Point Crossing on the Missouri River, was just below the mouth of Rock Creek. There was a shale reef at this point which provided a solid bottom and a low-water ford.
  The flat on the south side of the river became one of the many woodchopper camps along the river. The first mention of Rocky Point was in 1868 when Lohmire and Lee were located there. In 1871 fugitives from an Indian encounter sought refuge at a woodchopper's cabin there. In 1873 Joe LaFountain was at Rocky Point. During the election of 1878 there was a polling place at Rocky Point.
  In 1880, C.A. Broadwater, Helena merchant and entrepreneur, moved upriver two bottoms from Carroll to Rocky Point and erected a building. He named the settlement Wilder after Amherst Wilder, his business associate from St. Paul, Minnesota. He requested military aid and a detachment of 19 men was sent to this post probably from Fort Maginnis (1880-1890).
 

  Gold discoveries in Maiden and the Little Rockies increased interest at Rocky Point as a landing point for the mill machinery coming by boat. During low-water periods many larger boats bound for Fort Benton were forced to unload here. These cargoes were either freighted overland, picked up by smaller boats or stored until the next high-water season.
  In 1885, Rocky Point consisted of one store, one hotel, one feed stable, two saloons, a blacksmith shop and the ferry run by Jimmy Taylor. The store was run by R.A. Richie and a warehouse 40 ft. x 90 ft. was run by M.F. Marsh who also ran his bar and hotel.
  In 1886 there were 53 votes in the election and the judges were: Richie, Tyler and Pike Landusky. The official post office was Wilder and Robert A. Richie was postmaster.
  In 1888, Welter S. Collins was postmaster. Marsh's saloon burned down and he rented a building from E.C. Bartlett. R.A. Richie moved to Glasgow where he died of typhoid fever.
  In 1889 Montana became a state. Philander D. Freese was postmaster at Wilder. All of Choteau County south of the Missouri River was traded off to Fergus County for $2500 and Wilder became part of Fergus County.
  Fredrick J. Bourdon became postmaster and then in 1895 A. L. Monroe took the job and three months later James Tyler was postmaster.
  As the century ended, Rocky Point still remained a river crossing with a ferry, an operating store and bar to serve the area. Tex Alford ran a saloon across the river.
  In 1905 Margaret Frost was postmaster. In 1907 Elmer Turner took over the store and post office. He bought the ferry from Tyler, homesteaded and lived there until 1935 when the government purchased the valley for the Fort Peck Dam.
  In 1918 the Wilder Post Office was moved to Luella M. Belyea's homestead on top of the river hill, Mr. Elmer Turner maintained the ferry at Wilder until the winter of 1929 when he used the lumber to roof a new log shop and other woodwork in the building which still stands.
  Elma M. Webb took over the Wilder post office 4 November 1920 and the original handmade boxes, counter and shelves from the river were installed in her home where she ran a store. During Elma Webb's tenure from 1920 to 1935, the mail came from Roy on Monday and Friday of each week.
  Wilder was voting precinct #30 and served as a polling place since it's origin on the river until 1942 when the last election was held at the Little Crooked School house with John Mauland, Edith McNulty and Ray McNulty as judges.
  Upon the death of her husband, Elma Webb leased her place to Elna Brumfield Wright and turned the post office over to her 15 December 1935. Elna put it in charge of her brother-in-law, Stanley Wright, on 4 June 1936. Bertine Mathison leased the Webb place and became postmaster in 1937. Fire destroyed the building and the post office was discontinued 30 November of 1939.

  Wilder district was created in 1924 from district #101 and #124. The first trustees were Erma Trusty and Stanley Novak. The first teacher was Pierce Murphy. The other teachers were Helen Fessenden, Rella Stack, Marie Moran, Eunice L. Andre and Christine Rentschler. Ruth Athern was the last teacher in 1932-33. In 1935 the district was attached to #101. It could have been attached to other districts, but #101 needed the tax evaluation the most.
  Olaf Rindal had two terms of school on the river in 1943 and 1944. The teachers were Winnie Rife and Mary Satterfield.
 

  In 1883, Rocky Point was recognized as a meeting point for thieves. Newspapers from time to time carried accounts of robberies. In 1884, matters came to a head. The papers mentioned a series of crimes: a robbery of $900, 200 horses stolen, stockmen had lynched two half-breeds and stage horses were stolen on the upper Musselshell. The newspapers were suggesting some lead or rope might be the best way to handle the string of robberies and horse stealing that had been happening.
  The stockmen were finally pushed into action by the stealing of a little blue mare from a prospector. The horse thief was a Scotch-Cree Indian half-breed named MacKenzie and was aided along the way by the Indians.
  The prospector was working the south side of the Missouri River, looking for the lost Kies mine and was getting his supper when a stranger walked in saying his horse had run off. The prospector gave him supper and invited him to spend the night. In the morning the stranger was gone along with the little blue mare. The prospector walked ten miles to Wilder where he wired Granville Stuart to be on the lookout for the thief and the horse.
  A group of cowboys and ranchers began scouring the country. One rider topped a ridge and spotted MacKenzie with the blue mare and another horse. The rider captured him and took him to the DHS ranch.
  MacKenzie was given supper. He saw a violin hanging on the wall so he took it down and started to play. He entertained everyone that evening with his playing.
  The next day MacKenzie was taken to the lockup at Fort Maginnis by some of the men.
  On the next morning one of the Stuart boys came and invited the Stuart and Anderson girls to go for a ride in the wagon. He asked them if they would like to see a man who had been hanged and they said "yes" thinking he was joking.
  Topping a rise they saw a grove of cottonwood trees and something among them. He asked if they wanted to go closer but they said "no". In shocked silence they rode back and one remarked sadly, "He did play right well, didn't he?"

  Arizona and James M. Agnew homesteaded in T 21N, R 24E, Sec. 21 and 22. They were the parents of Mrs. Garner (Grace) Brannon and Mrs. William (Elsie) Kleifgen. Agnews were located on the ridge east of Jensons on Sand Creek and six miles directly west of Brannons.
  Garner Brannon homesteaded in Sec. 21 and 22, T 22N, R 25E. He and his wife, Grace, had two little children, Marjorie and William. Their log cabin still stands on the north side of the Wilder Trail.
  William and Elsie Kleifgen homesteaded in Sec. 15 and 22 in T 21N, R 25E. They had two little boys at this time, Casper and William. This family still owns the homestead and their little log cabin remains between Wilder and the Smoky Johnson hill. The following information is given by daughter, Carolyn Kleifgen.
  Agnews, Brannons and Kleifgens came to Montana in 1919 and made cash entry, staying only one year before returning to Indiana.
  After my parents came back from Montana, my father worked for the telephone company until his death from pneumonia. Born after their return were my brother, James M. Kleifgen, July 12, 1921, and me, Carolyn Kleifgen, born December 20, 1927. After my father died, mother went back to teaching and continued until she retired in 1960. My oldest brother, Casper, was a policeman, and then a detective for the Indianapolis Police Department. My brother, James M. was a technical editor for Allison Division of General Motors until his retirement in August of 1980, and I was a Home Economics teacher at North Central High School in Indianapolis until I retired in June of 1987.
  Information on the other family members: Aunt Grace Brannon was a full time homemaker for her family of 7 children (4 still living). Marjorie worked for Eli Lily Company until her retirement and William worked in the construction business.
 

 I cannot recall what Uncle Garner did all those years, but was working at the American Legion National Headquarters here in Indianapolis when he retired.
  In August, 1946, some of my family and I went out to Montana and to the ranch. Those with whom I traveled were: Mother, Elsie Kleifgen Carlisle; her husband, George Carlisle; brother, William Kleifgen and his wife, Helen. This was the first time my mother and brother had been there since they returned from homesteading. We stopped to see Mrs. Elma Webb and her daughter, who were our neighbors at Wilder.
  All those family members who homesteaded are gone now, but these are the ones who were there in 1919-1920: Father - William Kleifgen, died March 2, 1919. Mother - Elsie Kleifgen Carlisle, died October 1, 1971. Brother - Casper James Kleifgen, died October 29, 1954. Brother -William A. Kleifgen, died December 16, 1982.
  The other family members who were in Montana: Grandmother - Arizona Agnew, died June 1934. Grandfather - James M. Agnew, died March 1925. Aunt - Ruth Agnew, died April 2, 1969. Uncle - Garner Brannon, died September 1958. Aunt - Grace Brannon, died December 1, 1951. Cousin - Marjorie Brannon Juday, died February 20, 1984. Cousin - William Brannon, died October 14, 1971. 

  Luella M. Belyea homesteaded Sec. 14 and 24, T 21N, R 25E. She became the Wilder Postmistress when the post office was moved on top of the river hill from Rocky Point in 1918 on March 13. When she made proof, she turned the post office to Elma Webb, 4 November 1920. She went to the Moore hospital, where she nursed for a time. There is no further information.
  Belyea's sister Minnie A. Randolph took up a homestead in Sec. 5, T. 20N, R. 24E. and was located north of Albert Jakes. She and Mrs. Belyea hired Mr. Jakes and his sons to do the farming and some of the improvements necessary to prove up on their property. Mrs. Randolph took her additional of 300 acres a mile south of Mrs. Belyea in Sec. 5, T 21N, R 25E. No more information on Minnie Randolph.
  Wesley Morford gained control of this land through a real estate firm in Washington and his heirs are still in control of it.

   Albert Haines and his son, Sanford, were early homesteaders in the Wilder area, where they filed adjoining tracts of land, each 320 acres. They moved to Montana from Everett, Washington where the Haines family operated a general store.
   These men were industrious and built a good set of log buildings, corrals and reservoirs for water for their livestock. The house was built into the south slope of a hill and the logs for the one room buildings were set upright instead of in the traditional manner; with a steep shingled roof which served as sleeping quarters. There was a window in each end of the attic, the one to the north being at ground level. Wooden packing boxes from the store were nailed up to the logs for cupboards. All their belongings came by immigrant car and they brought horses, good harness, wagons and their cattle which ran on the open range.
   Sanford was called to the service in 1917 and served his country until the end of World War I. He returned to help his father with the ranch, however a disagreement occurred and Sanford went back to the Coast, never to return. His sister notified his father of Sanford's death by registered letter. When he came for the letter, in the traumatic moment as he read it, he told my parents that he and his wife had separated over a foolish argument, (she wanted a car and he didn't) and he and Sanford parted because Sanford had watered his horse out of the dam where they got their drinking water. The fall after Sanford's death, Haines decided to sell the cattle that ran on the open range and he asked my father to gather them. I remember it was cold weather that fall when he was riding for them and these cattle were quite wild from not being handled and reluctant to give up their freedom in the Missouri River breaks. After being gathered, Haines sent them out with a beef herd which was trailed to the Roy Railroad stockyards and shipped to the various Eastern markets.
   Haines neighbored with no one and led a very secluded life; never owning an automobile. He allowed no one on his place or to cross it. He was very prompt to pick up his mail at his mailbox and took many publications. On occasion he came to Wilder Post Office and carried on his trade through the mail.
   His daughter, Bessie McDonald, her husband and son drove out to see him in 1927. They first inquired of his whereabouts at the Post Office. The following day they returned to report that he had given them a poor reception. They had spent the night in their car and had eaten from lunch they carried with them. Bessie asked to be notified if anything happened to her father. She had another brother, LeRoy, who was in the Navy.
   When Mr. Jones, our mail carrier noticed that Haines
 

had not picked up his mail for two mail days, he and my father, Steve Webb, decided to go over and see what was wrong. When no one answered their calls at the door, they entered the kitchen, saw a tub of water on the floor where he had bathed. My father climbed up through the opening in the ceiling and found Mr. Haines dead in his bed.
  Mr. Jones, also the Roy undertaker, notified the McDonalds and took the body to Roy for burial. Mr. Albert Haines, age 65 was buried in the Roy Cemetery, November 27, 1930.
  We leased the property until 1933 when Anderson and Mauland bought it to protect their range from invading sheep. It has been in their possession and that of their heirs until 1988 when it was sold to Jeff Willmore.
  I have a couple bits of humor concerning Mr. Haines. Mr. Jones was bringing a large roll of linoleum on the mailroute for Mrs. Hutton and when Haines met the mail, he wanted to know what was in the roll. Mr. Jones told him that Mrs. Hutton was going to put linoleum on her kitchen floor. "What extravagance! That is what is the matter with the country, extravagance!" The other happening was when Harry Halpin, a very friendly neighbor, stopped in while out riding for cattle. He went to the door and called and rapped and received no answer so he opened the door and stepped into the room, where upon he faced a gun barrel poked through the opening in the ceiling and was ordered to "get out!!" Harry lost no time in getting to his horse and riding out of there.

  I could write a book by myself about the 19 years I spent on the Missouri River, as I was raised at Fort Carroll.
  My folks, Tom Hutton and Winifred Fuller, were married in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada 19 January 1911. Two years later, they came to Malta, Montana and went to work for Joe Legg, whose ranch was at the mouth of Beauchamp Creek on the Missouri River, Phillips County.
  As I recall, my father started looking for a ranch and 3 1/2 years later bought our ranch from Mr. and Mrs. Raphael Marcotte. Daddy, with the help of neighbors, and with Mother's good cooking, put up our three-room log home.
  On 1 August 1918, I was born in St. Joseph's Hospital in Lewistown. At the time, Daddy had seven men on a well drilling crew and Lynn Phillips was doing the cooking. Mother came home a week later and Mrs. Belyea came home to help get me started in the world.
  I grew up to seven years of age with a vivid imagination as I fished in the river with Daddy and hunted bunnies with mother. Mother would put me in an apple box on a hand-sleigh and pull me in the snow to go visit Lucille (Grandma) Heitz, who lived up on the bottom above us. She helped make a lot of my clothes. She and Helen Irvine, who lived down the river, were mother's closest lady friends. Mother was an excellent cook, so all the bachelors came to eat at our house.
  As school rolled around, mother made plans for me to go. She took me to board with Jack and Laura Baucke, who lived down the river close to a school. Bauckes had one daughter, Rose and two boys, Bill and Roy. Rose and I were the only girls with six boys. Miss Fezendon was our teacher and Lynn Phillips would ride fourteen miles from our place to see her and take me home on weekends. The next year, I stayed with Ed and Erma Trusty. Their daughter, Esther, and her cousin, Dorothy Mensing, came and stayed one term. Mrs. Trusty did not care for the ranch life (they had sheep), so she and the girls left. I skipped the third grade and spent fourth grade with an old maid teacher, Rella Stack, where I boarded. I was the only girl, that year, and eight Gairrett boys and two Doneys. I learned to be tough. Daddy bought me a pony and the teacher dismissed me early on Fridays and home I went. There were three wire gates to open and close, but I made it, unless there was a blizzard on. I then went to Little Crooked, where I boarded with Clarence and Sadie Baker. Mabel Larson Woodcock was our teacher, and she was super. Miss Scibness, an old maiden lady from Washington taught the next year. Mother moved me to Byford the fall of 1929 and I boarded with John and Ethel Beck, and attended this school for three years. Marie Webb, Warren Willmore and Beck's nephew, Johnny Beck, and I walked many miles together, going to and from the Byford school. I graduated from the eighth grade at Byford and my teacher was Ole Williamson. Really surprising how I ever graduated, having changed schools so many times, but "those were the good old days".
  I went to Roy High School my freshman year and boarded with Mrs. Bell, who had moved in to send her little boys to school. My sophomore year I spent with the Ted Thompsons. Ted was the section foreman at Roy for the Milwaukee Railroad. On Halloween, the high school boys stole Thompson's beautiful Jersey milk cow, "Hazel". We looked everywhere for Hazel the next morning. Mr. Holmstrom, our principal, found her in the basement gymnasium of the school. He made the boys get her up the stairs, carefully and Jean Hutton had to lead her across town to her barn and milk her for Mrs. Thompson. To this day, if they are still living, they thought it was my idea, but I was innocent. In my junior and senior years, I boarded with Tip and Bess
 

Carter. Theron Conolly and Steve Dotson also stayed there. Theron helped Steve and I with homework every night or we never would have graduated. On weekends, mother would take several of the children to the ranch. I would tell them the history of Fort Carroll. Richard Kalina, who lives in Roy now, can vouch for this. I graduated the class of 1936.
  Family History: My daddy was born in Webber's Falls, Indian Territory to later become Oklahoma. Yes, he was part Cherokee Indian and was one of twins, his brother dying at birth along with their mother. A Negro mammy raised him. He went to Boonville, Missouri to Kemper Military School. He knew Will Rogers, who was also a student there. After graduating, he went to Texas and went to work for the Turkey Track Cattle Company, trailing a herd from Canadian, Texas to Cadillac, Canada. He then worked for the Canadian Pacific Railroad at Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada. It was here that he met my mother. She loved to ice skate, something she had learned from her home town of Milton, North Dakota, where she was born and raised. All the railroad boys went to the rink to pick out a girl and daddy and mother met there.
  Winifred Hutton was born Winifred Fuller of Milton, North Dakota. She was one of a family of eight, four boys and four girls .'When she was in her teens the family moved to Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada. She left the farm and moved to town with friends and went to work.

  The Indian traders used to come to the trading post to get traps, supplies and see the boats steam up the 01' Missouri. The Indian burial ground overlooking Fort Carroll was a sacred spot to my father and he would never give it's location. There were stacks of decaying wood, cut for the steamboats and corded up in the coulees above our house. The River slowly claimed the building spot of Carroll. For many years, one log building remained at the site; this went in the River the spring of 1927 when high water flooded the lowlands and the ever-changing current cut new paths in it's channel. A large timber wolf took refuge in the old cabin and would trip Daddy's traps and eat the bait. The wolf made the mistake of killing Daddy's registered saddle mare's colt one night. Daddy immediately sent for Tex Alford to come and trap him. Several days later, Tex rode in and said, "Don't worry, Tom, I'll get him". He used the rottenest bait you ever smelled and trapped him the first night at the old cabin. Tex refused pay. Mother called Tex "Santa Claus", for every December he would come with his horse loaded with sacks of gifts that he had ordered from the mail order houses. Socks for daddy, fruit cake for mother and a toy or teddy bear for me, when I was small.
  When the Fort Peck Dam was built, it was a sad day for all the ranch people on the Missouri River. We had been used to the river boat saluting Fort Carroll site, but the boat testing the soil to set a price on the ranches, didn't do that. Our horses used to run and play and go to the river bank when the whistle was blown.
  There were many hard working women on the river ranches and mother was one. She helped in the field, raked hay, drove the stacker team, helped butcher beef and taught me to dress chickens. We would dress and can 35 to 40 in one day. She canned beef and pork and we had our own butter and milk the year around. She canned fruit in the fall and bought flour, sugar and coffee in large supply, enough to last for the year. We had a depression in the early thirties, but we never wanted for food. Larry Jordan used to do our chores when we went to town and he said that Mother Hutton's cellar was better than a grocery store.
  We left Montana the spring of 1936, after I graduated from Roy High and bought a motel at Hot Springs, New Mexico as this climate seemed to agree with Daddy's asthma. He had been very ill due to the severe winter.
 

  Austin G. Lance, a native of Trenton, Missouri, came to Wilder and took up a homestead in 1917 making proof April 18, 1923. His land joined that of Paul Larsen on the south. Both first built dugouts to live in. Paul was called "Kid" Larsen and spent much of his time with Lance. Paul was called to the Service and never got his house built, but Lance constructed a good one room log house and some out-buildings. He lived on his homestead until he sold to the Government in 1939. Lance always ran some horses and had just bought a few cows. Water was always a problem, but he had built a couple of good reservoirs, providing it rained, of course. He hunted and trapped in the winter. The bachelors were pretty self-sufficient and baked their own bread as well as the other household duties.
  Lance had a dry sense of humor that was pleasing to his friends and was a very good neighbor. He played the violin, but was shy to show his talent.
  When he sold the homestead he moved down to the Missouri River on the Arlo Williamson place, due to the drought conditions. Arlo had moved up on his parents farm at Dotson when his place was sold to the Corps of Engineers in 1935. The river places were being leased out by the Government and water was no problem there. X Lazy K quarter circle was his brand.
  Illness forced Lance to go to St. Joseph's Hospital in Lewistown and he passed away shortly after on November 18, 1942, at the age of 52 years. His brother ordered his body forwarded to Trenton, Missouri for the funeral and burial.

  Mrs. Marie Kovacich writes:

  John and Mrs. Link homesteaded in Garfield County in 1920 when I started school. Their children were: Tom, John, Jim and Frances. They crossed the river and came to the new Rukavina School. Mrs. Ina Gairrett was our teacher.
  Frances packed her little bag and bid all of us "goodbye" at school--got on her pony and left to a bigger world. I remember that we girls cried to see our red-headed friend go. We never saw her again!
  It was a cold winter day, when Mrs. Link took very sick in 1921. She was diabetic and went into a coma. He put hay in the sled; heated rocks and cowhide covers, laid her there and started for Malta. She never came back, so I don't know if she ever got to Malta, or where she was buried. Old John came back, sold his stuff and left the river. He is buried in the Lewistown Cemetery.

  John Link, an early-day western cowboy and rancher, came to Fergus County in 1909, died in Lewistown on March 26, 1940 at the age of 80.
  John Link was born near Austin, Texas, December 21, 1859. In 1876, at the age of 17 years, he trailed a herd of Texas longhorns north to Wyoming where, in 1879, he participated in the historical Johnson County sheep and cattle war. The latter part of that year he came to Montana and settled at Harlem on the Milk River, where he lived and worked as a cowboy and rancher until he sold out and came to Fergus County and started ranching in the Wilder section, north of Roy.
  He was married in Chinook in 1897 to Amanda Hurley. He came from a large family of seven boys and four girls. One brother, James, was killed in the big San Francisco earthquake, while another brother, Albert,
 

 was a Spanish- American War casualty.
  John's survivors included three sons: Tom, John Jr., James and a daughter, Frances (Mrs. Harold Fox).
  John Link Jr. and Jim Link both worked as ranch hands in the Roy-Fergus area for many years. John Jr.
  born September 11, 1898 in Chinook, passed away January of 1966 and is buried in Lewistown. He was survived by a wife, Anna of Newell, West Virginia, and a daughter, Amanda LaMantia of Torrington, Wyoming.
  James built the last, log building known of in the Indian Butte area. It is the log barn on the old Umstead place at the top of the river hill - east side of the highway.
  Tom Link married Jennie Wright and bought the DHS ranch, south of Roy, operated today by his daughter and husband, Kitty and Wayne Wyman.
  Some memories of old John Link, who was described as a 'character'.
  He had one wooden leg that squeaked, all the time. His other leg was also minus part of the foot. John would take the 'bandage' that held his wooden leg on and use it to flick the lamp off at night, when retiring --much like one would use a bull whip.
  One time John was staying with John Umstead for the night. He had a really nice saddle horse, which he went out to tend before retiring for the night. The horse wouldn't go out of the corral as John wanted him to do, so he picked up a small stick and tossed it at him. He didn't toss it hard, just enough to scare the horse out of the corral, but that stick hit the horse just right someplace on the head and killed him on the spot.

  Ernest Peters was a longtime resident of Central Montana. He was born January 1, 1890 at Hanover, Germany, the son of Fritz and Sophia Peters. He received his schooling in Germany and came to the United States in 1904 where he lived in Nebraska for a short time. He then came to Montana where he first lived at Lewistown, Hinsdale and other communities before homesteading at Wilder in 1916. He ran the mail route between Wilder and Roy for two years. Wilder was still on the River at this time and was a long hard trip with horses. Peters used a Model T Ford when the roads were dry, but automobiles were not very trustworthy at this date and there was freight to carry as well as passengers along with the mail.
  Peters was a sheep shearer and worked at this job with a partner, Hugo Raw from Hobson. They went out tagging before lambing and shearing was done in the summer for the large bands. Peters ran some horses and his brand was N slash diamond.
  One season he had a band of sheep he ran for Charlie Huffine. He worked on the WPA dams that were built in 1936 northeast of Roy. In 1939 he sold his homestead to the Government and moved to Valentine on the old Clyde Stephens' place. He then went to work for Edna McGuire on Plum Creek and was there until 1971 when he came to Lewistown to live.
  He married Pearl Anderson, April of 1977 and she passed away in October of the same year. Peters was very active and always drove a car, still driving his Volkswagon at the age of 96. He lived at the Meadows, and after a short illness on June 20, 1986, he passed away. He was buried at Lewistown City Cemetery.
 

  My father's parents, Olaf and Johanna Sandstrom, came from Sweden; lived in Pine River, Minnesota and came to Montana in the early 1900's. Our name was changed from Hansen to Sandstrom when my grandparents immigrated to the United States. The name is derived from the Hansens living by a "sandy stream", in Sweden.
  My grandfather had 10 children. The sons were: Oscar, Fred, Herb, Carl, Harold, Victor (my father) and Leonard. Daughters were: Ida, Esther and Louise.
  The following Sandstrom history was taken from excerpts of the book, "Echoes From the Breaks", by Bertine Marie Mathison.
  The Sandstrom homestead was located across the ridge from the Haines place in the Missouri River breaks. My grandfather built the large two story house of logs and was the scene of many gatherings and dances before any other buildings were built in the new settlement.
  My Aunt, Louise Sandstrom, taught at nearby schools and also the Little Crooked School. Uncle Carl Sandstrom's wife, Flora, was the first teacher at Little Crooked School. There were 17 pupils who attended the school.
  My grandfather Sandstrom was an experienced woodsman in building with logs. He became the architect for the Little Crooked School. N. D. Fritzner was his helper. Land was donated for the school by Montgomery Marshall. Donations were taken up to raise monies by having box socials and dances.
  The first dance to celebrate the log raising was a hair-raiser, and the music was furnished by the Sandstrom family orchestra consisting of Carl, violin; Flora, piano; Fred with his guitar and Oscar on the drums. A hastily constructed hitching rack was not securely anchored; and during the height of the evening, several broncs that were tied to it took off with the whole outfit. Bridles were scattered all over. Since a few horses were still tied to various places, it was decided to dance until dawn and locate the runaways the next day.
  My father, Victor Sandstrom, rode the breaks for the Z A when they ran large herds of horses or broomtails.
  One promontory in Carter Coulee is called Old Dukes' Take Off Point. Old Duke, a favorite bald-faced bay, sailed off that point with Vic during a horse roundup. Duke landed, just barely, but still standing; something surely no other horse could do. Running range horses in the Missouri breaks took good horses and hard riding. My father survived many falls. One time he had to cache his saddle over on Big Crooked Creek, as the horse "Highball" blew up and left my dad afoot while chasing a bunch of broomtails. He hoofed it into Crooked in highheeled boots and arrived with sore feet and injured feelings.
  Another story about my dad concerns a horse called "Hyena", a pretty sorrel with flax mane and tail. He bucked right out of the corrals and around the corner of the cabin with my dad; and upon seeing his brother, Herb, he stopped dead still and Dad said, "You know, Herb, I am half scared of this bronc." Herb said, "You know-w-w-w-w-w so-o-o-o-o- am-m-m-m-m I-I-I-I-I-I."

  My first memories of living down around Little Crooked and Wilder are of living at Uncle Fred Sandstrom's homestead. That was before I started school.
  Ivar Mathison lived about the closest, across Marcotte Coulee on Simon Vontver's place. I can remember Dad and Mom taking us kids (Lois and I) on a hand sled in the deep snow across Marcotte to Mathisons. We'd visit and listen to the radio. That was a new thing in those days. When we got ready to go home, Mom would get all my coats on and they would keep talking. They'd lean me against the wall and I would go back to sleep until they were ready. I suppose it was about a mile across to home. I could never figure out how they pulled us on that sled. It seemed heavy to me when I tried to pull it around the house.
  I don't know which winter it was when Abe Phillips died. They lived on the ridge west of us. They were cutting wood, and he chopped into a log a few times and fell there. A heart attack, I suppose. What made me remember so well is that Mrs. Philips came to get Dad to help her. She had the team on a bobsled, and they were running through the snow banks close to the house.
  Later Mrs. Phillips married Tom Cope, and they lived north of Willmores. When us kids stayed with John Becks, the summer of 1938, Becks took us over there. The first time I saw Tom Cope he lived west of Lawrence Kauth's, on the Valentine road. He always seemed like a gruff old guy, maybe he didn't like kids. At the time we lived just north of Lawrence Kauth, on the Forsman place.
  Jenni (Link) and Laura (Mauland) Wright use to ride over at times. Mom had got me a sailor suit somewhere. They liked to tease me about all those buttons. I would run and hide behind the house and look around the corner, to see if they had gone.
  Dad was there when Smokey Johnson shot Al Green. The Green place was just west of Uncle Fred's, across the Wilder road and a little south. Dad showed me one time where the shooting took place. There is a big granite rock. When the crowd was around after the shooting, someone had laid a bottle of whiskey on it. The sun was shining on it and it exploded! They thought someone had started shooting again.
  Lynn Phillips told me about being at the "Little
 

Crooked Store" when the doctor performed the autopsy on Al Green.
  I guess when they had rodeos at Little Crooked, they had no corrals to hold the livestock. Cars and wagons formed the arena. They would drag a horse out and saddle him, snubbed to a saddle horse. Some riders would haze for the rider to keep the horse from leaving the country. After the rodeo, Dad and his brothers thought they would try it at home. They brought in some horses, caught one and got him pulled out east of Granddad's house and tied him to a big post that used to be there. Dad was elected to ride him. Everybody got ready and turned him loose. Dad said, "He bucked some but being a wild horse, decided to leave the country". They spent most of the day chasing Dad and the horse out of the breaks along Marcotte Coulee to get him corralled again so they could get the saddle back. Dad said he thought about getting off several times but was afraid of losing the saddle.
  Uncle Leonard told about Fritzner talking to a man by the name of Dyner or Diner. I think he was a bachelor that lived along the edge of Marcotte Coulee on the east end of the Fritzner Ridge. Fritzner asked Diner if he had seen the runaway he had the day before. "Ya, I seen it, I just thought it was those Sandstrom boys hauling hay out of Marcotte."
  Dad and Jess Woodcock told about the Deaton steers. They would crowd one behind a corral gate to get on. They'd use a rope to hang onto to ride them as far as they could hang on to the rope. Jess lived with some people by the name of Jenson. The house was northwest of the Little Crooked School.
  Dad told about walking home from school with some of his brothers and sisters. A bunch of those Deaton steers caught them out on the flat. They weren't used to people on foot, so naturally the steers came after them. They were lucky to find a deep washout and hid in that for quite awhile until the steers left. I guess they were longhorns that were brought up from the southwest. I can remember the remains of the old dipping vat corrals on the south side of Big Crooked above Cottonwood Crossing.
  After living at Uncle Fred's, we moved over to the Spiker place. It was south of Little Crooked along the road. We weren't there too long. We wintered there, I think. The next spring or summer, Dad and some help gathered all of Fred's horses and corralled them at the Spiker place. Dad said they were Hambiltonians. I can remember them coming up the road to the lane. Most were blazed faced and stocking legged. I suppose I was standing in the corral gate.
  From the Spiker place we went to Cottonwood Crossing. I think it was that fall or the next we moved to the Foresman place. I went to school there that year. Dad had got a small horse from Murray Cottrell for me to ride to school. Dad would chase me away from the barn in the morning. I couldn't make him go very good. I'd make it to Kauths, then Lucille (Komarek), and Edith (Oquist) would chase me and Baldy the rest of the way to school.
  The next summer we spent at Cottonwood Crossing. Then we moved to the Goodman place, east of Ivar Mathison. Then Lois and I went to Little Crooked School that winter. Hard to imagine now, but there were several that went to school. I can remember a Christmas program and a dance.
  We moved to the coast, I think, in 1933. Dad made a trailer out of a big old car, a Hudson Super 6. He drove it for quite awhile and pulled a two wheeled trailer with it. He cut cedar posts and hauled them to Roy and sold them to different people. No one could afford to buy very many in those days, even at ten cents apiece. When we moved to the coast, Dad made a 4 wheel trailer from the
 

  Hudson. He bought a Dodge 1924 or 1925. It had no side curtains, just a top. We loaded everything we had in that trailer and car. We left for Washington and I can't remember how long the trip was. The roads weren't what they are today. Four cylinders and a pretty good load. Dad sold all of the horses to Big Jack Ragenovich in Lewistown. I talked to Big Jack in later years and he remembered buying the horses.
  Something else that happened when we lived on the Goodman place; Dad hauled water in barrels in the wagon most of the summer. We hauled water from a reservoir close to home. It got too low, so we hauled from a good-sized reservoir Ivar Mathison had built in Marcotte Coulee. We had gone after water one evening, Lois and I, with Dad. Going up to the dam was on a fairly steep road; and about half-way up, the pin came out of the double trees. The wagon started back down the hill. Dad hollered to jump. He had jumped and held onto the lines so the team wouldn't leave. I jumped and made it okay. Lois jumped and put her leg between a wire that held the box and the front of the wagon. There she hung! Dad ran and laid down on the wagon tongue and guided the wagon back down the hill, so it wouldn't run off the bank. He wore the toes out of his shoes. They were the only ones he had, so he had to wear them for awhile.
  The rest of the Sandstrom Family: Victor Sandstrom married Martha Ellen Henneman on November 27, 1925. Four children were born to this union: Dale on January 28, 1927, Lois on February 9, 1929, Fred on April 9, 1931 and Dolores on December 31, 1933.
  The Sandstroms all left the area in the early 30's. Olaf and Johanna passed away and are buried in a family plot in Vancouver as is Victor who passed away in 1965. Victor and Martha Ellen's marriage had ended when they left the area, and she later married Leonard Ellis. She passed away in December of 1982 and is buried in The Dalles, Oregon.
  Dale moved back to Roy in 1943 and lived with his Uncle Ray Henneman. He worked on various ranches in the area. In 1950 he married Bonnie Rife. They lived in Roy until 1957 when they moved to Glasgow where he worked for the Federal Fish and Wildlife. Later they moved to Edwards, Missouri, where they now reside. Dale and Bonnie have a large family of eleven children. Terri, Jesse, Penny, and Wayne were all born while they lived in Roy. Nancy, Kenneth, Kelly; triplets: Dennis, David and Duane; and Connie were all born in Glasgow.
  Penny married Don Myers. Terri taught one term at the Fergus School.
  Dolores "Dodie" came to the Central Montana area in the 50's and lived with her sister, Lois, at Moore. Then she came to Roy and boarded with Winnie Rife and graduated from RHS in 1952. That fall she and John Rife were married.

  Stephen Carlock Webb saw some of the greatest changes in our nation, as he was born 13 September 1860 at Cookville, Tennessee, one of the Confederate States of America. His parents were William and Mollie Cooper Webb. William Webb and his brother were large plantation owners and both had slaves. At the end of the Civil War (1865) William died and his wife gathered her children and fled to central Illinois to make their home. Everything must have been lost, for my father had to go to work to help support the family, at age nine. I know of one brother, Uncle Taylor and two sisters, Aunt Lilly Lacy (my father's favorite) and Aunt Nina Lake who settled at Long Beach, California.
  Steve became a professional horsebreaker and trainer for Dillons who were horse breeders and imported blooded horses from France. He was with them for ten years.
  As a young man, he married Mattie B. in Illinois and three children were born to them: Roy M., Zetty E. and Bellva. They moved to Kansas where they lived for ten years while the children were growing up and lived in the Wellington area.
  It was while in Kansas that the Government opened the Cherokee Strip for homesteading. This strip of land was fifty miles wide and 220 miles long and lay between the northwest border of Oklahoma and the southwest border of Kansas. A designated point and time was set for this historic land rush. At the sound of a gun the mad scramble took place to stake claims for homesteading. Steve and some of his neighbors packed camp equipment into his spring wagon and drove to take part. However they found nothing to their liking.
  Kansas was dry and tornadoes were threatening so the Webbs returned to central Illinois. The children married: Zetty married J. D. Brown and lived at Idabel, Oklahoma; Bellva and Jess Tucker were married and went to Washington state; and Roy married Versa Winters and they remained in central Illinois at LeRoy the rest of their lives. Mattie B. was a victim of cancer at age 44 years in 1904. She was buried at Downs in the family plot, where they lived.
  Steve Webb came to Montana the fall of 1913 to homestead in the Roy area. He bought a relinquishment ten miles northeast of Roy on the Rocky Point Trail, T 19N, R 23E. He returned to Illinois to have an auction sale bill. He shipped some of his belongings to Hilger by rail and unloaded a new buggy, bought a team of young black horses from Jack Beebee and headed for the homestead.
  Education was a big priority with my father, and he
 

used to say that he was on three school boards at the same time when he first came to the area and spent much time helping to get schools established for the children of surrounding communities. Sure enough, I find his name on the records at the County Superintendents Office some seventy years ago.
  Some of his close neighbors were Charlie Neff, the John Sirokys, Dick Komareks, Cimrhakls, Mrs. Neary and Sons, Frank Vodickas, Maruskas, Frank Mouchkas, as well as Jim Petersen and Nick Bonnesen from Chicago. Jim Petersen and Steve became dear friends and Jim introduced Steve to his sister, Elma. A courtship followed.
  World War I broke out and all the young men went to the Service, as did Jim and Nick. Nick never returned, but his family kept his place. Jim came back and went to college at Bozeman. Elma Petersen became a registered nurse in 1906 and worked at her profession for twelve years in Chicago. Chicago had a terrible flu epidemic. Her mother died in 1918 and she made plans to come to Montana and marry, but she first wanted to homestead. In 1919 she found a location she liked at Wilder. Mr. Hessick was an elderly man who had started to file on it, but sold his relinquishment to her on 440 acres. Steve and Elma were married in Lewistown, 2 August 1919 at the parsonage of Reverend Hurst.
  After making a trip to Washington, they moved to Wilder that fall. A large one-room log house was on the property and they hired Jim Green and Ernest Peters and added two more rooms to the house. All the outbuildings had to be built, corrals, fences etc.
  They bought the George and Lucille Heitz place on the Missouri River. T 21N, R 26E., (bottom below Rocky Point) and she applied her additional 200 acres to this property to make up the 640 which she was allowed to homestead at this time. Frank Harnois was also on this bottom and owned the lower southeast part next to the hills. There were eighty acres of school land between the places which Heitz leased and turned over to Webbs.
  The following year, 1920, Elma Webb became postmaster of Wilder as Luella Belyea had made proof on her homestead and was leaving. Webbs bought the two frame buildings where she had the postoffice and moved them to Mother's homestead. One became the bunkhouse and the other was used for a storeroom. The post office furnishings were moved into Webbs home, where it remained until 1938 when the building was destroyed by fire.
  The Webbs became the parents of a baby girl ,Marie Antoinette, 13 April 1922.
  Country stores and a post office were a necessity in the days of slow transportation. People walked or rode horseback many miles for mail and a few groceries. Tobacco and candy were good sellers. Wilder store and post office served residents on both sides of the Missouri River for many miles in each direction. As cars became more numerous in the late twenties and early thirties, this enabled people to go to town for supplies. It used to take my father three days with team and wagon to haul freight for the store, a trip of thirty-five miles each way. Mail was heavy in those days for the stage, as much parcel post came from the mail-order companies. There were four post offices on the Wilder route in the late teens, as well as mail sacks for the mail boxes enroute. Passengers also rode the stage.
  The fall of 1935 made some big changes not only for Webbs, but the entire community. The Corps of Engineers bought all the river places for the Fort Peck Dam Project and nearly all the river people were moving away. Steve Webb died 13 October 1935 of a heart attack. Elma leased the Wilder property to Elna Brumfield Wright and turned the post office over to her 15 December 1935 and continued to lease the river land from the Government. Elma Webb and Marie went to Chicago where Elma had two sisters and three brothers. Steve Webb was buried at Downs, Illinois.
  By 1935 the country store business was a thing of the past and also the out-lying post offices were being discontinued. Wilder post office was discontinued in 1939, in favor of mail routes from Roy. Country schools took the same route -- gradually they were consolidated into Roy schools as population decreased.
 

  Clerk Perkins received a letter Monday from D. J. Nichol at Wilder chronicling the death near his place of two Finlanders on July 1st. Mr. Nichol's account of the affair is very meager. He writes that three Finlanders, names unknown, visited his place for something to eat, stating that they were floating down the river. Some three hours after the party had left, one of them returned and said the boat had struck a snag, turned over and his two partners were drowned. Mr. Nichol says that he went at once to Legg's place, in company with the latter, and Johnnie Servant found one of the bodies on a sand bar and after thoroughly searching the remains buried them. They found on the body a 32-calibre pistol, cartridges, pocket knife, comb, chewing tobacco, key and bandanna handkerchief. What became of the body of the other Finlander or of the Finlander whose life was saved, Mr. Nichol does not say. He adds, however, that perhaps Mr. Perkins had better send down the coroner; but as the man was buried 25 days before the letter was received and twelve days before it was written the coroner considers his attendance would be rather tardy.

PHOTOS-DESCRIPTION

• Wilder's Ferry, Missouri River at Rocky Point, Montana. Louis Goslin, Zortman, came to the area around 1904. He soon had three stage lines in operation: one to Malta, one to Lewistown and Harlowton and one to Billings. The larger coaches carried twelve passengers. On is on display at Great Falls and one at Billings. The smaller coach accommodated eight persons comfortably and is on display at Malta. Ruel Horner, driver for Goslin Stage Coaches, is pictured on the Wilder Ferry. (Photo Courtesy of the Montana Historical Society, Helena, Mt.)
   

• This is the Broadwater Trading Post and Post Office at Rocky Point.
   

• The Wilder Post Office as it looked when Elma Webb was the postmaster in 1928.
   

• The site of the original Wilder post office. The buildings are barely visible in the center of the picture, south side of the river, Turner Bottom.
   

• A building on the homestead of Garner and Grace Brannon.
   

• The homestead log house of Bill and Elsie Kleifgen.
   

• The Tom Hutton house on the Missouri River as it looks today, 1988.
   

• Sod roofs on some old buildings on the Hutton Bottom, 1988.
   

• Austin Lance holding rope in foreground. "daddy" Hutton branding; other man is unidentified.
   

• Jack Link Jr. Last 'saddle-bum' on the river
   

• Arnold Zahn on the left and John Link Sr., down at the Missouri River. Old John always wore his dark brown felt hat, summer and winter, in the same manner. One could tell from a distance who it was by the shape of his hat.
   

• From left to right: Tom Hutton, John Mayberry, John Mauland and Ernest Peters.
   

• Ellen Sandstrom holding her son Dale and Mrs. Carl (Ethelda) Sandstrom. Taken in 1928 down along the Missouri River.
   

• The Herb and Elva Sandstrom family taken about 1948.
   

• Louise Sandstrom Clark and her husband, Ed, taken in 1958 at Ft. Peck.
   

• Taken in 1922 at Wilder, L. to R. Winnie McNeill Rife; Elma Webb, Wilder postmaster; Steve Webb holding daughter Marie (Zahn); W.E. Jones, mail carrier 1922-1947 and Marguerite Pratt Simkins.
   

• Marie Webb Zahn with her "school bus". [horse]