Ezear LaFountain, better known as Joe, was born at Big Sandy, Montana, on November 9, 1871, the son of Anthony LaFountain and Madely Ross. He spent his early years in North Dakota and in Canada. Naturalization papers for "Ezre Lafouten" are dated 30 September 1904 (Grt. Brit.)*
  Mary Rose Turcotte was born November 21, 1869 at Dunseith, North Dakota, the daughter of Modess Turcotte and Mary Rose Peltier.
*Naturalization Records, Fergus Co. Montana P. 80
  Joe and Mary were married in 1889 at the Turtle Mountain Agency in Belcourt, North Dakota. They had 15 children all born at home. Mary never went to a hospital.
  The children are: Collins, the eldest, died April 16, 1936. Isadore, born in North Dakota, married Louise Plummer, and died August 26, 1928 at 28.
John, born at Wilder, died June 29, 1977. John always claimed to be the first white child born at Wilder. Ed of Portland, Oregon; Tony, married Lucille Purdy. Albert, born December 28, 1910, died November 14, 1985. He married Martha Bakshos of Winifred.
  Francis, born in Roy in 1915, married Barbara McIntosh. Joseph, twin to Francis, was born in Roy 1915 and died in Billings August 16, 1947, in a rodeo accident.
  James, WWII veteran, died September 20, 1981. Mary, married Robert Stofield in 1920. Emma, married Oscar Stofield in 1923. Martha is Mrs. Lyle Waites. Elizabeth "Tiny" is Mrs. Hedley Arthur. Dorothy is Mrs. Emery Garlick.
  Marcene "Max" LaFountain, who was born on May .22, 1911 and died at the age of 2 years and 5 months at Black Butte. The story is that this child was bitten by a rattlesnake and is buried close to Black Butte.
  Ezear "Joe" passed away in Roy on January 12, 1949 and Mary Rose passed away on May 29, 1963. Of their children, Francis and Dorothy of Lewistown and Tiny of Winifred still survive.

 John LaFountain or La Fontine was a brother to Ezear. His naturalization records are dated 25 March 1897 (Canada)*. His wife, Elizabeth, died in 1923. Isabelle LaRock of Roy was a sister-in-law. John died March 11, 1948 at the age of 72. *Naturalization Records, Fergus Co. Montana 

  Philomane LaFountain was married to Alphonse Demo. Records indicate that they came to the Roy area from Dunseith, North Dakota.
  The Demos lost a son, George, on June 28, 1923 after he was kicked by a horse. The child was born in Roy on December 2, 1915. He is buried in Roy.

  This is the story of Joe LaFountain who came to the Roy country in the early 1880's.
  He was a Meteetse. That is, his grandfather was one of the French Canadians who were the earliest hunters and trappers in the upper Missouri River country.
  I first met Joe in 1910 when my father had purchased three tons of hay, paying for it with a check on one of the banks in Lewistown. Joe came to our cabin and said the check was no good.
  "That's queer," said Dad. "I deposited $2000 in the bank not long ago."
What had happened was another C.F. Anderson had ^{P. 81}taken his money out of the bank, but the bank replaced the money for Dad. The LaFountain's and us became good friends.
  Joe LaFountain died in January, 1949. He was strong and healthy until just before his death. He was married at the time and had several children. Oscar Stephens, asked Joe to take up land on Chamberlain Creek near the Red Barn Ranch, which was headquarters for the Stephens' cattle industry.
  Joe, being half Indian, filed on 160 acres of Indian claims and his children could also have claims on land. Spud Stephens hired Joe to work for him. Joe also had a few cattle and horses of his own.
  In 1935 or before, when the depression was hurting us all financially, Joe lost all his property and moved into the town of Roy. He had no money or horses and wagons and asked another old-time resident for a team and wagon to haul wood on shares -- one load for himself and one load for his friend.
  The next year he asked me for a team and wagon to haul wood on shares. "No, Joe," I said, "not on shares. I have plenty of wagons and horses but no money and must haul wood. I can't buy coal for heat and cooking. You come and get two or four horses and a wagon and I will take four horses and a wagon and we can go together and haul wood. What you haul is then yours."
  We made four trips to the rough lands of Armells Creek and north where years before a fire had killed most of the timber which had dried and become good firewood.
  Those trips took two and three days to complete and we made camp at night. Sitting by the campfire Joe told me a lot of his early doings of which I will write
now.
  He told me how his father saved his life from the Indians. The Indians detested halfblood people as much as the white race.
  His father was trapping animals for their furs when a band of Indians saw him and came for him. He ran up to a ridge where he knew a pond of water was on the other side. He jumped into the pond and lay down where he could easily get his nose up for air.
  The Indians reached the top of this ridge and could not see him, but they could see the country for miles around and knew he had to be in this pond of muddy water. After waiting an hour they believed he died from drowning and left.
  Joe said he helped move the log cabins built at Carroll on the Missouri River in the year 1873 which was where the trail hit the river. The trail was built in 1869 to Helena to supply the old camp. The river with the meandering current was cutting the bank away from the site where those cabins were built so they were moved up river a few miles to another and better site that was called Rocky Point.
  Joe told me that many trophy hunters came up to Rocky Point and he would take them camping and hunting. He had what was called a Red River cart. The carts were made completely from wood and no iron was on them. The tires were rawhide.
  The hunters would shoot and kill all the game they saw and keep only the largest heads and horns, throwing the rest of the bodies away. The buffalo were killed by hunters who were paid by the government so as to control the Indians and they received $1 a hide for skinning them.
  He said he saw dried buffalo skins piled up waiting for boats to take them east -- skins piled as high as could be reached and a quarter of a mile long.
  Joe said, "People call these hard times now (that was in the depression of the 1930's) but they are nothing. I had to sell wheat at 19 cents a bushel and good yearling cattle at $20 a head."
  I asked if he had seen worse times and Joe said, "Yes, when the buffalo were killed off and the deer, elk and antelope were very few. I did a lot of trapping," he said, "and at times I had to eat skunk and coyote meat. Yes, those were hard times. There were very few gardens then," Joe said, "and many times the groceries brought to Rocky Point on steamboats were mostly already sold to someone."

The following story was written by James Sacks and appeared in the December 20, 1981 issue of the Lewistown News-Argus.

  Albert LaFountain spends most of his time these days working on sculptures and drawings. His favorite subject, he says, is wildlife.
  Working with Clarence Cuts-the-Rope in Hays, some of the time, and with his nephew, John Garlick, he passes his time in a quieter way than he once did.
  Starting in the late 1920's Albert LaFountain worked the professional rodeo circuit full-time as a saddle-bronc rider for almost 20 years. He rode his last rodeo in Great Falls in 1956, and didn't retire from working as a pickup man until the early sixties. And LaFountain wasn't just a pro -- he was a success at it. He was recently named to the Rodeo Hall of Fame being built in Calgary, Alberta, north of the Canadian border.
  He doesn't think much of being named to the hall, and calls it "nothing to get excited about." Asked how he thinks he got there, he said, "After you follow the rodeos for as long as I did you just get to be known--people kind of remember you."
  His father ran a livery stable in Roy and worked for the stage lines in those days. He had a homestead on the side, originally settled in 1883. Back then Roy was "at least half the ^{P. 82}  size of Lewistown," LaFountain said, and the town shrank as "the years got dryer and the money got harder."
  As a child, I,aFountain worked with horses and spent much of his time in the breaks of the Missouri River, on what is now the C.M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.
  "My brothers and I spent a lot of our time four or five miles from where the Fred Robinson bridge is today," he said. "That was before they made it into a big lake and it was better country then."
  "We used to trap horses and sell them to the rodeo stock men. Guys like Leo Kramer, he was big back then, would come out and look at the stock and buy the good horses."
  "I guess catching them in the breaks was how I started riding the tough ones," he continued. "We'd catch them mostly in the winter, sometimes by setting up a corral as a trap on top of a ridge. Now they're all gone, but there were a lot of them then, and we'd keep the good ones we caught and ride them. Most of them weren't worth much and we'd get maybe $5 to $10 a head for them."
  LaFountain finished grade school at Roy.
He went to high school for a year and a half, then quit to work full time.
"We didn't have much time for school in those days," he said. "It wasn't like today when you need it for almost everything. School didn't do much good back then."
  LaFountain began riding rodeos when he was about 19, but spent more time doing ranch work, trapping and breaking horses. From 1923 to 1928, he stayed around the breaks riding "smaller rodeos that didn't amount to much."
  "My first rodeo was in Shelby in 1923," he recalled. "I didn't do any good, I got stood on my head, really, but it was an experience.
  "I kept working and mostly rode around here until 1928. If you won, the purses were only around $35, sometimes $15 or $20. Then in 1928 1 was breaking horses for Roy Hanson out at Crooked Creek. He figured I was good enough to ride any horse and took me up to Calgary to prove it that summer.
  "That was my first big rodeo, about 150 cowboys, and my first ride was on a big black horse."
  When the five day event was over, LaFountain had taken second place and brought home $1200. The first-place winner took a $1700 purse, not much, he noted, compared to today, when a top rider can make more than $100,000 a year.
  From then on the rodeo circuit was Albert LaFountain's life. "After that summer I turned pro and stayed on the circuit all the time," he said. "I bought a Model A Ford with a guy named Bill McGuire and we took to the road, riding as many rodeos as we could get to. He got to be the world's top bulldogger in the 1930's.   We went all over; Oregon, Washington, Idaho, North Dakota and all across Montana, but mostly Canada. There were more rodeos in Canada than in the states, and there still are.
  "We tried to ride a rodeo a day, sometimes two," he recalled. "After a while there weren't many horses that could buck me off.
  "Even back then, with gas under 20 cents a gallon, it was pretty expensive to travel. We did okay if we were in the money three out of four times, but it was hard to keep the wolf away from the door.
"That was why I started riding full-time, it seemed like the only way to make money."
  After a few years of riding the circuit; small, local rodeos and larger ones such as the Denver Stock Show, the Calgary Stampede and the Great Falls Fair, LaFountain married Martha Baksah in Winifred in 1933.
  She went with him on the rodeo circuit "quite a little," while they maintained a home north of Grass Range. Eventually they had 12 children, including present Lewistown residents Donna Walraven, Ronald LaFountain and former mayor, Robert LaFountain.
    Another event LaFountain rode in more than once was the large annual rodeo in Madison Square Garden in New York City. "I never did any good there but I got crippled up," he said. "A horse fell on me one time and I was hurt for six or seven months. I didn't like New York or the other cities in the East or the South, but the ones in the West were alright, like Seattle and Portland. And I learned what I do now," he said, motioning to a sculpture of a cow's skull on a nearby table, "when I was crippled after a fall in Wisconsin."
"Rodeo riders only had an expected working life of about 10 years back then," he added. "Not that they'd be killed, they just couldn't ride anymore. I was pretty lucky, luckier than some guys. I didn't drink and spend all my time laid up. Some weren't so lucky, like my brother Joe, who used to travel with me and got killed in 1948 when a horse fell on him in Billings.
  LaFountain eventually won saddle-bronc at the Great Falls four years running in the 1930's. He estimated that in his best year he made about $35,000.
  Asked whether the circuit was rough in those days, he replied, "Not really, most of the cowboys were willing to get along and you didn't really see as many fights as people think. But if you pushed them too far you had your hands full.
  "Like me, I've probably had as many friends as any cowboy ever, except the jealous ones, but I'm rough on my enemies. It's like this," he added, pointing to his artificial leg. "I got this from a police shotgun here in 1973 when some young officer shot me. I'm probably as much to blame as they are, and I shouldn't have ever got into it at all, but I'm not scared of anything. They left me alone at rodeos. They didn't bother good cowboys."
  After LaFountain quit rodeoing in 1962, he kept traveling quite a bit until the early seventies. His house near Grass Range, with all his trophies and rodeo memorabilia, burned down in 1971.
  About his own career, his final comment was, "I had some good rodeos. But there were a lot of cowboys who were better than I was. You never got to be 'the best.'
  "Any guy that thinks he's that good is kidding himself."

  Montana lost a great and talented artist.. . and this area lost a native son who deserved our pride; was how an editorial expressed the loss of Alex LaFountain after his accidental death, by drowning, on Sunday, August, 22, 1971.
  Alex had gained much recognition as a "foremost" western artist and his work was exhibited throughout several western states as well as in Washington, D.C. where several of his sculptures were displayed in the Senate Office Building. His work was featured in ^{P. 83} Western Horseman as well as other magazines. Two large wall placques by LaFountain, depicting the meeting of Lewis and Clark and the Indians are on permanent display in the Lewistown First National Bank.
Art critics compared his work to that of Charles Russell because of it's authenticity and style. LaFountain never had any formal art training, but he called Russell his best 'teacher'. 
  He died trying to rescue a swimmer in trouble. His greatest ambition, he expressed many times, was to use his talent to bring recognition to his heritage, of which he was very proud.
  Alex was born July 21, 1923 at Roy. He was the son of Isadore LaFountain. He attended school in Roy and moved to Lewistown in 1946. For several years he was a lineman for the REA.
  He served with the Army's 49th Rangers in World War II and received the Silver Star and Purple Heart.
  Listed among LaFountain's survivors were his sons Robert, Wade and Duane; daughters Pennelope and Candace; a sister, Lorraine (Mrs. Don Sandaine) and several half brothers: Monroe, Jim, Oliver, Charles and Ted Davis. A brother,   Alfred, died in Butte on September 18, 1960 at the age of 35.

  My parents homesteaded near Black Butte, south of Roy in 1917. My father, Grover C. "Cleve" McCandless, was born March 5, 1887 in Gretna, Nebraska. He married my mother, Nellie Alice Glover of Springfield, Nebraska on March 16, 1910. Mother was born in Springfield on March 6, 1886. My brother, Howard, was born there. They farmed at Gretna, Nebraska for about 4 years, but Dad had a yearning to go west, so they went to North Dakota, renting a farm at Kempton, North Dakota. Alice was born there and they stayed at Kempton for 2 years.
  Deciding to go on to Montana, Dad arrived at Roy and filed a homestead claim located 10 miles south of Roy at Black Butte, about half-way between Roy and Ft. Maginnis. My brother, Howard, was almost five years old at the time and I was going on three years. The trip wasn't as hard as earlier trips west for mother and us kids, as we could ride on the train, which went into Roy by then. Dad met us in Roy with a team and wagon for the 10 mile ride to our new home, which turned out to be somewhat of a shock, as the only building there was a small one-room shack. Dad assured my mother that as soon as he got a barn built for shelter and care of the animals, he would build a new house. The buildings were built where a creek was close for water. The water for house use, came from the big spring near by.
   With the much appreciated help of neighbors, the buildings were built. Dad also made much of our furniture as time went on. My sister, Marjorie was born in September. She was delivered at home by Grandmother McCandless, who made the trip from Nebraska to be with mother at this time. There was a doctor in Roy, but the horseback ride to get him took too long so Grandmother delivered her.
 I remember the trips to town for supplies and the candy treats that were always given to the children when supplies were purchased. Howard, Marjorie and I would snuggle under heavy quilts and deer and bear lap-robes in the back of the wagon and sleep on the way home. I remember a really bad snow storm that came up on one of the trips home and it was impossible to see where we were going. Dad let the horses take us home, and when they pulled up and stopped, we found ourselves in front of the barn door.
  We had many good times visiting neighbors. Some of those I recall were the Steve Bullock's, Nels Jorgensen, Steve Campain family, the Walter Brasier's, Paul Townsend, and our very good friends, Guy and Edna Townsend and girls. The Steve Bullock's had a phonograph that everyone enjoyed. The records were round and it was cranked by hand. Other memories come to mind, such as the prairie dog towns, and rattlesnakes and Howard worrying the folks by walking and running barefoot when there were so many snakes. Dad made a wagon for Howard, and since we had such strong winds, he made a sail to fasten on it and the wind gave us many a ride. We also entertained ourselves by getting into mischief once in awhile. Howard thought it would be fun to jump off the chicken house using Mother's umbrella to let him down easy. He coaxed me to try it first to see if it would work. I floated to the ground, gently, so he jumped and his extra weight turned the umbrella inside out and he had a bad fall. Several years earlier, the Indians had camp grounds here. Many happy hours were spent by us picking up arrow heads.
  Remembering my Dad brings to mind his playing the violin, which was then usually called a fiddle. He always played and sang to us every night before bedtime. He played by ear, and could remember all the old songs until his death in 1973.
  We went through the bad flu epidemic of 1918 when Dad caught the flu. Mother managed to nurse him through it and take care of everything with Howard, six years old, to help her. The drouth of 1919 wiped out all crops and in order to survive, most of the men had to find jobs. Many found work in the gold mines and for large established cattle ranches.
  Mother taught my brother the first 3 years at home, then when I was old enough for school she moved into Roy for the school term, as daily trips by horse and wagon that far weren't possible. There was a town ^{P. 84} pump in Roy, but the water was so bad we carried water in a bucket from a place at the edge of town. When Marjorie and I would get almost home, a much larger girl had lots of fun spilling our water.
  It became apparent that the homestead land could never provide a living, so our family moved to Lewistown in 1925 when I was ten years old. Dad worked as a carpenter until shortly before his death. Mother passed away January 12, 1973.    Both are buried in the Lewistown City Cemetery.
The history of our family is as follows:
  Howard Perry: born July 31, 1911 and died January 16, 1976, married Agnes McPhee and their children are: Donald and Kathleen.
  Alice Jane: born September 28, 1914, married to Keith Royston and their children are: Penny and Marjorie.
  Marjorie Melvina: born September 12, 1917, married to William Taylor and their children are: William Jr., and James. 

  Clyde T. Miller was born on June 12, 1885 at Limerick, Montgomery Co., Pennsylvania. At the age of 14 years he left Pennsylvania and worked his way through the southern states to Utah and came to Montana in the early 1900's.
  He worked for the Morman's in Utah and liked it until they decided it was time for Clyde to marry one of their daughters. It was then he thought it was time to move on!!
  He drove the first stagecoach from Stanford to Lewistown and the Lewistown to Roy stage. At that time the post office was where Bert Sargeant lived. Jim Murphy has it now. Later he worked for Andrew Fergus, at Armells, where he met Dema Marshall, who was the cook at that time, and married her on the 7th of April 1914. She died May 5th, 1925. Clyde never remarried.
  He homesteaded 5 miles south of Roy near Black Butte. While "proving up" on his homestead he worked for Murray Deaton and for Spud Stephens for several years.
  In later years he moved to Roy and worked for John Mayberry at the Roy Bar till the time of his death in July of 1953.
  He is survived by his only daughter Elsie Coulter and four grandchildren.

 Jake Miller lived southeast of Roy. He was married twice. His first wife was a Cowen girl, whom he divorced in 1923. His second wife, Mary?, was a "mail order bride".
  Jake was minus a thumb on one hand. The story is that while working in a granery one day he slipped and fell and got hung up by his thumb. He hung several hours hoping to be rescued and finally he chewed his thumb off in order to free himself.
  Jake passed away about 1958. Mrs. Miller passed away in Stevensville on December 9, 1963. She had been a resident of Roy for 30 years. Her obituary listed a daughter-in-law, Mrs. Prouty, as a survivor.

   Jacob Marion and Mary Jane Myers came to Montana in 1914 with their daughter, Mary Ellen and her husband, Claude Satterfield. The Myers homesteaded 31/2 miles south of Black Butte on the south side of Bear Creek.
  The Myers had several sons who also homesteaded. They were: Harry, Jesse, Charlie, John, and Jim. Another son, Earl, was too young to homestead.
  John Myers married Mae Potterf. They lived in Lewistown for several years. They had four children: Everette ^{P. 85} and Earlene who live in Tonkawa, Oklahoma, and Leo and Clarence who reside in Lewistown.
  Charlie Myers homesteaded near Roy. On January 12, 1935 he married Agnes Johnson. Charlie was a veteran of WWI. He was owner of the Willow Inn and later the Mid-Way Bar in Lewistown.
  Charlie passed away January 7, 1947 at the age of 57. He was born in Harrisonville, Missouri. Among those listed as surviving him were three brothers: James of Red Rock, Oklahoma; John of Tonkawa, Oklahoma and Earl of Pleasant Hill, Missouri; three sisters: Mary Satterfield of Roy, Betty Hawn, Beulah Shortridge and his mother, Mary Jane Myers of New Kirk, Oklahoma.

  I am Lila (Rife) Williamson, born December 3, 1925 and live on Bainbridge Is., WA. I am writing this account of my early years in Montana with the collaboration of my Mother, Winnie (McNeil) Rife and one of my sisters, Bonnie (Rife) Sandstrom.
  My first four years of life were lived with my parents, Earl and Winnie Rife and later my brother, Jim (Orin Stewart) who was born July 7, 1927, on a farm a few miles south of Roy which was called the Hamilton Place.
  Jim and I were born in Lewistown. Momma says one of us was paid for with the returns from a load of hogs and the other from the sale of veal calves.
   When my own first memories start we were living at Blakeslee, twenty some miles east of Roy. We moved there in 1929.
  The farm had been built by William Wilke about 1910. It was set in mainly flat land, surrounded by rolling hills. I remember the alkali patches which were powdery white and hard, gleaming in the bright sunshine. Nothing grew on these spots. I remember our Mother, who loves athletics, one time standing on her head on one of these alkali patches, just to show us that she could do it.
  There was a ridge of rimrocks jutting out of the terrain, dividing the ranch. At the end of the rimrocks was a fresh water spring from which my Dad piped water to a tank for the livestock. Our drinking water was pulled up in a bucket from a well on slightly higher ground. The well was cased with rocks.
  We loved to play on the rimrocks. It was a wonderfully interesting place. After a quick summer rain, small pools of rainwater collected in the dips in the rocks. Our favorite wading place. Nature had its hazards, however; those rimrocks were infested with rattlesnakes.
  The farm had a very good barn with hay mow, cow stanchions, horse mangers and plenty of room for hay. Another great place to play.
  There was also a large building, the upper part of a granery with bins for grain. It stood off the ground several feet. It was on a hillside and underneath was a chicken house, shop and space for a car.
  There was also a corn crib, hog shed and the two story house. The house was built on a hillside directly beside a large root cellar, which had cement walls. The ceiling and walls of the house had been plastered but much of it had fallen off.     They had been papered over with old newspapers. Jim and I were intrigued with the pictures of old cars, people, fashions, animals, and buildings. We learned to spell many words from those newspapers.
  When my folks moved to Blakeslee there were immense straw stacks which showed that in earlier days there must have been very good grain crops. These straw stacks greatly helped get the stock through the first of the depression that started that year. There was to come: drouth, army worms, poor crops and even a cyclone. Our brother John was born November 25, 1929. I remember the cyclone.
  Our Dad was out riding and saw it coming, turned homeward and rode as fast as the horse would go. He had lived in Oklahoma and knew a cyclone was coming. He yelled "Get the children, the lantern and blankets and get into the root cellar." Momma grabbed the baby, and ordered Jim and I into the cellar. Daddy joined us.
  Jim and I, each on one side of our Dad, tried to peer out the crack in the door to see what was happening. He watched the destruction. A quarter of the barn roof, the roof off the porch of the house, the corn crib and pig shed all went. I remember Dad saying, "There goes the porch roof." He later repaired the barn roof, but the rest was never repaired.
  Our sister Bonnie was born February 17, 1933. When Jim and I started school we rode double on our Dad's saddle horse, Florie. It was four and a half miles each way. I was almost seven. Our teacher was Adra Neuman. The other students were Hazel and Roy Fleharty, Doug and Dick Delaney, Hugh Straight and an eighth grader with the last name of Freberg.
  In the school yard were the Giant Strides. There was a metal pole with several chains spaced from the top piece which revolved as we children settled into the seats with our legs extended. There were straps around our thighs. We propelled ourselves in unison around and around the pole until we were airborn. I have never seen another "Giant Strides" since that one.
  One lazy afternoon, Jim and I were riding Florie home from school along the rimrock road. Suddenly Florie snorted, side stepped and broke into a full gallop. To this day I do not know how I kept from getting dumped. We had a moment to see, to our horror, a large ^{P. 86} mass of writhing twisting entangled hissing snakes --mostly rattlesnakes. A rattlesnake den. Florie kept side stepping and snorting as she raced homeward for the snakes were coming from all directions.
  At home we told our parents. Our Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bill were there. We all got into the old car. At the site of the den, Bill drove and our Dad straddled the hood and with a shovel, whacked snakes heads off until he had killed those around the car. Then he covered the den with dirt and inserted a pipe attached to the exhaust of the car and proceeded to pump the fumes into the den, the intent to asphyxiate the snakes. The next spring our Dad rode by there and there was no indication that any of the snakes had survived or escaped. 
 Once while at Blakeslee, Momma looked outside just as our Dad's team came running for the barn, dragging part of the cultivator. I still have a sense of her terror, her fear that he had been dragged and injured or killed. Then we saw him, walking rapidly through the field. He had been thrown off the cultivator, startling the team. He was uninjured.
  In April of 1934, our folks purchased a ranch our Dad had long wanted. It lay about half way between Black Butte and Cone Butte. It was owned by L.M.A. Wass and about ten miles south of Roy. Mr. Wass's brother, Avery Wass, was looking after it for him.
   Our Dad hired Willie Jones, who was about fifteen years old, to help drive the livestock. The farm machinery and household goods were hauled in wagons. Momma drove the car with the children and what else she could haul.
 I remember the scene yet. We came to a gate, the last one before reaching the buildings. I got out to open the gate and our Mother pointed to the farm buildings. The house was painted white and stood out from the rest. The scene to our right, was a most beautiful field of alfalfa. The plants were about two feet high and in full bloom. There was this rolling movement of green and purple as there was a slight breeze.
  And so we moved into the house with the hardwood floors. It was on a rounded knoll along side a gurgling creek, which was edged by trees and a variety of other greenery.
  The following three years were very pleasant and enjoyable for we children. I suppose not so always for our parents. It was the depression years.
  We attended the Black Butte School. We walked the two and a half miles each way. Jackie started his school years at that school.
  We had a few horses, some cattle, chickens and pigs. Dad had a nice garden in a lower spot along the creek. I remember his giving each of we children a tin can with coal oil in it and heading us down the rows of potatoes to pick potato bugs and drop them into our cans. He buried the root vegetables in bins of dirt in the cellar. Momma canned the other vegetables.
  Due to lack of grass and hay for the cattle, my parents sold them, keeping only milk cows. They bought some sheep. The horses could forage for grass higher up in the mountains.
  Momma and three year old Bonnie would go out with the sheep each day. Later our Dad and a neighbor leased additional land for grazing their sheep. They took turns staying there with the sheep while the other man caught up on his farm work.
  July 2, 1937 our little sister, Claudia, was born in Lewistown. We four older children stayed alone on the ranch.
  Bonnie remembers that when our parents brought Claudia home, she and I put her in our wicker doll buggy.
  On July 28, 1937 Dad was out taking his week caring for the sheep. A sudden electric storm came up, catching him between two fences. He was struck by lightning and killed. The next day, his Aunt, Uncle, friends and neighbors came up the two mile road to tell us the dreadful news. We thought it was people coming up the road to have a picnic in the mountains. His birthday was August 22. He would have been 43.
   Mother called we children into the bedroom where the baby was sleeping and as gently as she could, told us our Daddy had been killed by a bolt of lightning.
  And so the years have gone by. Momma moved us to Roy for the school terms. Some years we took a milk cow and sold milk. In the spring we eagerly moved back to the ranch. Momma put the sheep out on shares. We had sold most of the horses, but as we got older, there were new horses.
  Momma went back to teaching in 1943. We had been on welfare. Mr. Alva Fink asked her if she would take a teaching job on the Missouri River. They would lose their school district and would have to join another district where the taxes were higher if they didn't hold school. Momma told Mr. Fink that her teaching certificate had expired. Mr. Fink went to the Superintendent and Momma was subsequently issued a permit.
  Jim and I batched in Roy. Momma went the twenty five miles to the river to teach, taking Claudia, Bonnie and Johnny with her. Claudia started school that year.
  Momma remembers the children she taught. There was John Rife, eighth grade; Roy Mathison, seventh; John Rindal, sixth; Bonnie Rife, fifth; Ralph Rindal, fourth; Marvin (Boots) Mathison and Claudia Rife, beginners. She taught that school from February through May.
  Momma then went to Roy Junction School and taught from June through August. Jim worked for Anton Rindal, Johnny worked for Charley Bishop, I worked for Lynn Phillips and Bonnie stayed on the ranch. Jeanne Fox stayed with her.
  Bonnie tells this story of that summer: Anton Rindal's steers had gotten into the grain field. Bonnie and Jeanne were chasing them out. One of them had bloated on the grain and fell into the creek and died, right at the crossing. Bonnie and Jeanne walked to Pat ^{P. 87}  O'Reilly's place where they got a ride with them to Roy. That night they stayed with me at Lynn Phillips. The next morning they walked to the ranch, via the road. They stopped at the Demo Dam to swim.  Then they stopped at Woodard's and Mrs. Woodard gave them a piece of pie to eat. They went on toward the ranch. They were into our field when Momma and Claudia came driving along. They got a ride the rest of the way. They had been so thirsty they drank water out of the horse tracks along the road. Momma threw gasoline on the dead steer and set fire to it. She burned it every day or two until finally it disappeared. She said the flies burned up also, as there were none at the house that summer.
  In September Momma went to the Cimrhakl School where she taught for two years. Johnny boarded with Potterfs all winter. During that first winter Jim was driving Momma, Bonnie and Claudia to the school. Dale Sandstrom was sitting in the front seat with Momma and Jim. Albert LaFountain came over the hill and the cars collided. Momma, Claudia and Jim got bloody noses. Bonnie's knees were bumped. Albert had his ear cut. He put a blanket over his shoulders and walked to Speed Komarek's. Momma wore sun glasses to teach, as she had two black eyes for some time. This event happened in the winter.
   In the summer Johnny and Bonnie rode to Pat O'Reilly's. John worked for Pat in the fields. I remember that summer he made up poetry about his work. It was fun poetry, full of humor and observation of his work. Bonnie helped Arlene take care of Patricia. Pat said Bonnie could pick a calf. She picked a little brockle faced calf. When it was about ready to calve as a two year old it disappeared. Later they found it down by Woodard's and the calf was gone.
  In November of 1944, Momma and I went on the train to Everett. I had graduated that spring. I stayed with my aunt and her family and soon got a riviting job at Boeing.
  In the fall of 1945, the whole family, except Jim, went to Everett. Momma wanted some time with her parents. Johnny, Bonnie and Claudia were enrolled in the Everett schools and Momma worked at several jobs.
  In the spring of 1946 when school was out, we all went back to Montana and the ranch. That July 2nd, our Mother's father, Orin McNeil, passed away in Everett.
  In September she went to teach in the Fergus school. Johnny went to High School in Roy and graduated in 1947. We were all growing up and establishing our own lives and families.
  I feel the deepest appreciation of our Mother, after losing our Father. The courage, stamina, persistance and her devotion to all of us, that has never waned. She has always had a very special enthusiasm and interest in life. Though there have been so many heartaches she is always able to focus on the good side of Life -- loving and inspiring all of us and our families. She now has twenty-seven grandchildren and I do not know the number of great grandchildren.
  On May 18, 1988 our dear brother, John, was killed in an on the job accident. We are still in shock. He was, and is, loved deeply by all of us. 

  I was born July 7, 1927 at Lewistown, Montana. I was named after Orin McNeil and Stewart Rife, both my grandfathers who were both early day homesteaders in the Roy area. My parents were Winnie and Earl Rife.
My older sister, Lila, and I started school at Blakeslee, it was 4 1/2  miles to school. We rode horseback when the weather permitted, otherwise we missed school. In 1934 my parents bought a ranch 10 miles south of Roy.
  We were so happy to have a lot of deer and antelope and small game and plenty of good water.
  It was so dry and so many grasshoppers that we had to sell about everything in 1936. A good cow and calf were worth $12.00 a pair, hard to believe now days.
  We rented a house in Roy in 1937 and went to school there, moving to the ranch for the summers. This we did until we were all through school. I went to work driving tractor when I was 12 for $5.00 a month. At 13, I ^P.88 got a job for $10.00 a month working at a garage.
  In 1946 1 joined the Army. I spent most of my time in Japan with the 43rd Engineer Construction Battalion building air bases. When I got out I started ranching again. I batched most of the time because in 1948 Mom took the job as postmaster at Roy.
  In the fall of 1948, my brother, John, a friend, Don Rindal and I made a trip through the Dakotas, and to Oklahoma to visit my dad's brothers, to old Mexico, Arizona, California and Washington to visit my mother's relatives, and then back home. A never to be forgotten trip.
  In 1952 I married Janet Swanson from Lewistown. Our first son, Jamie Stewart, was born July 30, 1954; then Judy Elaine, June 15, 1956; John Frederick, June 24, 1957, Joseph Earl, November 24, 1959. Joey died of cancer at 9 months. Janine Marie, our youngest, was born September 3, 1961.
In 1956 drought and grasshoppers again forced the sale of livestock, so I went to work on construction building roads. In 1959 we invested in a gold mine adventure in Alaska (a sure way to get rich). We moved to Alaska and worked for a year. Beautiful country, but no gold. We came home broke and I went back to work on construction for two years. We then managed to start in the construction business for ourselves.
  We bought the home ranch from the family. All went well, but in 1972 we got the urge to move to a warmer climate. We looked around and bought a ranch at Elkland, Missouri. We rented our Roy ranch and sold most of our construction equipment and made a move we'll always remember. We didn't move until the end of January, 1973, the roads were icy and temperature down to 8 below.
  We spent nine pleasant years in Missouri but decided to return to our families in Montana. Our ranch renter was ready to move, so we returned to the ranch, bought more construction equipment and it's as though we never left.
  At this time all of our children but Janine are married and we have six grandchildren. All in all, life has been very good to us.

  John R. and Lily Schaeffer came to Montana from Indiana, first to the Moore area, then John homesteaded at Winifred. They had five sons: Robert, Roy, Stanley, Homer and Charlie.
  John and Lily were divorced and Lily and the boys came to the Roy area to homestead, close to the Corth's.
   Bertha Corth, who would later marry Roy Schaeffer, would stay with Lily during the summers when the boys were off working, or with their dad, so she wouldn't be alone.
 Bertha remembers Roy coming back to Roy to spend holidays with the Corth's. She and Roy were married when she was 16. They stayed with Frank and Ada Corth for a while and then moved back to Winifred to work with his father. They then moved to Cut Bank. They celebrated their 60th anniversary shortly before Roy's death in 1983. They had four children: Edgar of Winifred, Charley and Wilbur of Cut Bank, and Betty of Helena.
  Charlie Schaeffer had a homestead of his own. He served in World War I and was killed in a train wreck.
  Robert and Lily rented the Miller place for awhile after leaving their homestead while she cooked on area ranches. Lily moved to Lewistown to cook for George Long before moving to Oregon.
  Robert and Stanley went to work in oil fields at Winnett and Cat Creek and Homer moved to Hilger from Roy.

  Oscar Stephens was the leading stockgrower in Fergus County in the early 1900's. He figures prominently in the beginning of the town of Roy and is mentioned in many stories.
 In 1905, a year before his death, he was the largest individual land owner in the county; 25,000 acres, 13,000 head of cattle and 40,000 head of sheep. He was also the largest tax payer that year -- $6,398.95. Stephens was a chief owner of the Cumberland mines at Maiden.
  Stephens was a native of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, where he was raised on a farm. He first came to Montana in the 1870's and worked as a cowboy. ^{P. 89}  He later worked in the mines.
  In 1881 he drove his first band of sheep in from Oregon. Oscar was successful in all his endeavors, from 1881 on he accumulated and soon became a rich man. He never kept a set of books. In conducting his business he relied entirely upon his memory, the loyalty of employees, his checkbook and a vest pocket memorandum book. He knew, to the penny, to whom and how much he owed and how much was owed to him.
  He was brusque and somewhat peculiar in conduct. He had a big heart and stuck by his friends and employees through thick and thin. The 'latch string' was always out, to anyone who came to his door.
  Stephens never married. When he died on June 18, 1906, in Denver, Colorado, at the age of 57, he was survived by several brothers and two sisters and many nieces and nephews. A brother, Alf, was postmaster in Lewistown.
  The bulk of his estate was left to his nephew, Frank Stephens, but everyone received substantial sums, except for a nephew, George Calph, who received one dollar.
  John H. Stephens, one of Oscar's nephews, was sheriff of Fergus Co. from 1917 to 1920. John's son, George, was sheriff from 1959 to 1968 and his daughter, Ruth Stephens Cart married Harry Wright. Other descendents of John Stephens who have lived in Roy were Ruth's daughter, Betty Carr Warneke and family who ran the Roy grocery store until her marriage to Frank McArthur and Jim Warneke and family who ran the Roy Grocery in the early 1980's.

  A. F. Jack Woodard came to Montana from Missouri, to Missoula. He was born March 2, 1885 in Austin, MO. He met Mary Jane Harris, a born and raised Montanan at Bonnet, Montana. Mary was born in Missoula on October 15, 1888. They were married in 1915. In 1916 they took up a homestead, southeast of Roy, on what is now part of the Delany ranch.
  In order to have money to stay on the homestead they took turns working out. Dad cooked in Denton, Lewistown or where ever he could work for a month, then Mom would go. She talked about working in the Bright Hotel and for the Waite family at Utica.
  They said that World War One was over for a long time before they got word.
During the winter of 1918-19, after a dry summer, they trailed their cattle into Roy. A train load of hay was shipped in from the Dakotas. It turned out to be swamp grass and the cows died anyway. Walt Haney leased them some grass so they survived with some of the cattle.
  Their homestead shack burned to the ground and I was in the house alone. Blaine ran to get Mother, who was milking the cows. She saved me, a basket and an old Indian beaded glove.
  Neighbors and friends donated furniture and money so they could set up housekeeping. They were generous because no one had much to spare. The folks were always grateful.
  Dad won the lease to the Red Barn Ranch in a poker game with Spud Stephens. They then moved from the homestead in 1925 to the Red Barn. The Red Barn was then bought from the Chan Cook and Reynolds Company in the thirty's. The folks raised purebred Herefords.
   The center of entertainment during that time was Stubbins Hall. In the summer they enjoyed baseball games, picnics, dances, box socials, visiting and occasionally a traveling preacher. They always found time to go.
 We went to the Black Butte School. Teachers I remember were: Mrs. Fred Corth. She probably ran one of the first school buses. She picked up kids on the way in her car. Mrs. Bill Hinkley, Miss Blair (later married a Burnett at Fort Maginnis). Also Adelphia Koliha Naylor.
  One thing I remember is, in August when the sage-hens would move onto the meadows at the Red Barn, around those Big Springs, it would be black out there. They came by the hundreds.
  Mom died on March 16, 1949 and Dad bought a ranch at Grass Range. (Blaine later moved onto the place.) He then bought a place on Casino Creek, out of Lewistown. He sold this and bought a place on Warm Spring Creek by Danvers. That was sold when he quit working at the age of 79 and moved into Lewistown.
  Jack and Mary were members of the American Hereford Association. Jack worked with L.M.A. Wass to bring relief and W.P.A. in the Roy area when things were so depressed. He promoted the sale of U.S. Savings Bonds during World War II. He also became a member of the Lewistown Chamber of Commerce when it was getting started.
  Jack passed away on October 17, 1968. ^{P. 90}

  Blaine was born December 1, 1919 at Blakeslee. He moved to the Grass Range ranch after he came back from the Army. He served with Patton in Germany during WWII. He married and raised four girls: Joannie, Debra, Christie, Nancy and two boys, John and Robert. He is now retired and makes his home at Roundup, Montana.
  Theresa Woodard Burch was born July 5, 1922 at Blakeslee. She graduated from St. Joseph School of Nursing. She joined the Army and served in England and Germany in an evacuation hospital. She married Ed Burch; they raised three girls: Donna, Terry and Jodie. Theresa continued to work until she and Ed retired and now spend their time between Cottage Grove, Minnesota and Mesa,  Arizona. 
  Virginia Woodard Meckling Norskog was born on May 17, 1924 at Blakeslee. She and her husband, Bud Norskog, moved to Stanford from the Winifred-Roy area in 1980 to another ranch. Ranching has always been a way of life for me. Roy and the Missouri River are still my roots. (See Meckling-Norskog)
  Judith Woodard Wallinder was born on December 2, 1926 in Roy. She became a beauty operator in Lewistown. She married Peter Wallinder and they moved to Billings. They had two girls, Carol and Kim. After Pete passed away, Judith took over their business, the Farmer's Insurance Group, and continues to operate it.
  A.J. "Jackie" was born in January of 1929 in Roy. He married Lois Jackson in June of 1950 and they lived at the Red Barn Ranch with their family. They had five children: Sherry born in 1952, Greg in 1954, Steve in 1955, Carla in 1958 and Paula in 1963.
Jack and Lois separated in 1965. The Red Barn Ranch was sold and Jack left the area. He now resides in Orville, Washington where he works as a carpenter. 

• Standing from left to right in front of the Iowa Bench school are: mother, Sena Larsen, Amy, father Chris Larsen, Helen and Chet. 
• John LaFountain and Julia Oquist. John always claimed to be the first white child born at Wilder. 
• Mary holding twins Joseph and Francis. Others unidentified.
• Grover "Cleve" and Nellie with the children: Alice, Marjorie and Howard. 1924. 
• Winnie McNeil Rife with the sons and daughters she raised all by herself, after the loss of her husband, when they were still very young. From left to right: John (Jack), Claudia McMartin, Bonnie Sandstrom, Winnie, Lila Williamson and O.S. (Jim) Rife. Picture taken in 1981.
• The Jim Rife family from L. to R.: Back row: Jim, John, Jamie, Janet. Front: Janine and Judy. 
• Marie (Mary) and Jack Woodard 
• Blaine, Virginia, Marie, Judith and Theresa.

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