The Fergus community received it's start when the Milwaukee Railroad reached the point previously obtained by the Milwaukee Land Company, subsidiary of the Milwaukee Railroad. It was named Fergus as it was midway between the two rather large Fergus ranches and it's post office was to replace the original Fergus post office.
  Previous to the railroad carrying the mail, it was carried by stage coach and left at the local post offices established at most of the major ranches.
  The first Fergus post office was at the William Fergus ranch (Box Elder) with Ellen Fergus Romunstad as the Postmistress. There were local post offices at the James Fergus ranch (Yaegers) on Armells Creek and another at the Gilpatrick ranch. When the post office was moved to the townsite of Fergus, John Kaaro became the first postmaster there.
  The completed townsite included a grain elevator, two dwellings, a store and post office combined, a school, a church, a community hall and a small farmer-owned oil and gas cooperative. I have a fuel ticket from that gasoline cooperative dated January 22, 1945 with gasoline priced at l1 1/2 cents per gallon plus the state tax of 5 cents. The elevator was built by Western Grain & Lumber Co. and had a capacity of 12,000 bushels.
  The Lewistown Daily News of July 27, 1948 lists the population of Fergus at 6. This did not consider the near neighbors.
  A community club organized January 25, 1919 held it's first meeting in the church. The purpose of the club was to "promote the social, intellectual and material welfare of the community." The club became too large to hold their meetings in the various homes so a club building was purchased from near the Armells post office and moved by volunteers to the Fergus townsite. The building, a community building at its old site, was re-roofed and remodeled in 1954 and a "homecoming" was scheduled. Past residents, friends and relatives attended from many areas.
  A yearly harvest dinner was provided by the club members and was well received. This was a Thanksgiving-type meal and enjoyed by many. The home-cooked meal was particularly appreciated by out-of-state hunters who had been eating by campfire.
  A new foundation was provided at the club building, all by volunteer help and today it stands in good condition.
  Farm consolidation took a severe toll of a once very active community. The elevator was dismantled when the railroad abandoned the line in the early 60's. Jess Bilgrien tore it down, part of it is the garage at the old Fergus store and part of it is the old station at the Bohemian Corners. The store and post office was moved near the state highway and later closed. The church was moved to Roy. The townsite now includes the school, which is closed for lack of students, a dwelling and the community club building which is still used occasionally.

  The Fergus district was created in 1914. There were four schools in this district: Fergus, Romunstad, Knob Hill and Horse Ranch. The first trustees were Odin Romunstad, Andrew Fergus and Clamore Maury.
  There was not much information on Knob Hill and Horse Ranch school but they are mentioned in many of the stories.
  The Fergus school was a summer school at first, running from April til September. Mrs. Maude Misner was the first teacher. Pauline Patton taught for many years and later became the County Superintendent of Schools. In 1919 a new building was built, the present building. Milada Walter Smart, who had been an early-day student returned to teach from 1933-39. Other teachers were: Jenny McEneaney, Bertha Huey, Selma Ulsaker and Zelma Gordon. The last teacher was Margaret Cannan in 1977-78. The district was abandoned in 1981 and annexed to Roy. ^{P. 156}
  There were no carpets in this school; no cemented sidewalks and it's a sure bet that classes weren't dismissed because the electricity was off! This school was a part of the Jesse Adams homestead shack. A log house was built on one end that the family lived in. Jimmy White, a homesteader north of the Adams, worked for different farmers in the summer and lived in this homestead shack in winter. School was held in the shack during the summers, for several years. Mrs. Russell Donovan, pictured with her students, also taught in Roy schools for a year or two.

  This district was created in 1930 from part of #127 Fergus. Fannie Young was the first teacher. The first trustees were: C. J. Romunstad, Anton Rindal and Will Landru. Romona Britzius was the last teacher in 1941-42. The district was reannexed to Fergus in 1945.

  Jesse Adams came from Missouri and homesteaded in the Fergus area in 1913. His place lay about five miles north of the Horse Ranch.
  His wife, Ada Mae, and their three year old daughter, Wyvle, came the following year. Five more children were born after they settled in Montana. Georgia in 1915, Earl in 1920, Margaret in 1922, Lois in 1925 and Robert in 1930.
  The Adamses lived in the area for fifteen years before moving to the Christina area in 1928. Jesse passed away in 1962; Ada in 1972. Both are buried in Linley Prairie Cemetery in Fair Play, Missouri where both of them were also born.
Wyvlie married Ernest Egger in 1930 and they lived ^{P. 157} on the homestead for five years; moved to Christina for two years, then to Roy and lived there from 1937 to 1942, when they moved to Lewistown. They had four daughters: Dorothy, Helen, Shirley and Mary Joe.
  Egger passed away in November of 1955. Wyvle then married William Glenn Potterf in 1960. He passed away in 1966.
  Wyvle composed the following story about an experience she remembers from her childhood days on the homestead. She calls it "The Runaway!" My dad was a proud man and took a lot of pride in his horses. He had a young team of sorrel mares that were matched and full of spirit.
  He ordered a kit of new harness with open-faced bridles, and two-seated buggy from a catalog.
  He assembled the buggy and painted it black with yellow wheels.
  We lived fifteen miles from Roy. So we got up early one morning, put on our Sunday best and loaded up the eggs and cream. It was a hot day, so mom said we'd take the umbrella; a big black one.
  My sister and I were riding in the back seat. I was probably eight or nine years old and my sister four or five years old. When we were all loaded, I couldn't wait to raise that umbrella. And I did!
  The horses went crazy and my dad couldn't do a thing with them. They ran down a big steep coulee. The buggy rolled to the bottom, scattering eggs and cream everywhere. My dad jumped as the buggy went over the hill. The cream can hit my sister in the stomach. My mom was at the bottom of the coulee and couldn't walk. My dad packed her out on his back; don't know how he did it as she was a good sized person.
  I was probably hurt the least. I landed on a sage brush with a skinned knee, bawling my head off.
  My folks sent me to one of our neighbors for help. They lived a couple miles from us and I walked there and they brought me home.
  My mom's back was hurt and she spent quite some time in bed and Mrs. McKerlie stayed and took care of us all. We had such wonderful neighbors.
  When they found the horses all they had left was their collars and the neck yoke!

  Orr Milton Allyn led a short but exciting life. The young Fergus rancher died May 19, 1936 in a plane crash in front of the Fergus store. Allyn had been flying quite low, greeting friends when the accident occurred. His plane was a small mono style, weighing 550 pounds when fully loaded.
  He was considered the best automotive engineer in the community at that time, and was also an expert motorcycle rider and car driver. He drove truck for two years, making trips to Billings and other points with cattle and horses.
  He was married to Milada Walter, who was a long time resident of the community, and who was teaching at the Fergus School at the time. They had exchanged wedding vows just one year earlier on May 19, 1935.
  Milton was survived by his wife, who was the first to reach the accident, and his mother and sisters at Urbane, Illinois and his grandparents at Modesto, Illinois, his home state.

  John M. Beatty lived in and near the Fergus area for most of his life, except for a time spent in the Geraldine area where he homesteaded and for a time when he lived at Cheadle and at Stanford. At Stanford he made his living as a cigar maker. He had the tobacco shipped in from one of the southern states. His stepson, Jim Wight, remembers him saying that the ones bought over the counter weren't any good. "They had too much paper in them." John was a cigar smoker.
  John was born on May 19, 1887 in Maiden. He had a sister, Nita, who married Pete Patterson, a Lewistown chiropractor, and two brothers, Charles, also a Lewistown chiropractor and Bert. Another sister died in infancy.
  John married Ella Donahue and the couple was living in Stanford when John's only child, a son, Ralph ^{P. 158} Marshall was born on August 19, 1911.
   The Beattys bought the original Blanchard place at Fergus from Cook Reynolds in the early forties and ranched there until the late 70's when the place was sold to Glen Rindal, after John's death.
  The house that is still on the place is the original one built when Blanchard had the place. It is still in excellent condition and current residents are Dave and Wendy Flower who are employed by Glen Rindal.
  John always talked about how bad the weather was during his younger days; how tough it was to walk and to feed the cattle. When he and Ella were newly married they went into the sheep business. Having no paint to mark the ewes and lambs, in the spring, they tried tying baby ribbons on them. It didn't work for long as the lambs were being born too fast to keep up! The sheep business and need for pasture is what originally brought John into the Roy area.
  Ella passed away in January of 1948 after a long battle with cancer. In the fall of that same year John married Myrtie Smith of Lewistown. She had a teenage son, Jim Wight.
  Jim attended school in Roy, graduating in 1951. After his graduation, he worked in Lewistown for a few years and married Phyllis Parks. They later moved to Great Falls where they now reside. He has been associated with NOVCO for many years. They had two children, Kenny and Kathy.
  John passed away on December 29, 1975 at the age of 88 years. Ralph and Myrtie moved into a new mobile home on the place, nearer to the highway.
  Ralph never married. He served in the European and African theaters of war during WWII and was discharged in November of 1945 with a rank of Master Sergeant. He ranched with his dad and after the place was sold he then was in a partnership with Rindal, owning Corner Pocket Pool Parlors in Idaho for several years. Ralph was a Boy Scout leader in Roy during the 1960's. He passed away in April of 1982 at the age of 71, from cancer. Ralph and his parents are buried together in the Lewistown City Cemetery.
  Myrtie still maintains her home in Fergus and keeps active, raising chickens, with crafts and as a member of the once very active Fergus Community Club and the Fergus Women's Club (of which only a few members remain) and in traveling to Great Falls to visit her son and family and to Billings to visit her sister.

  Ernest Burbridge came to Montana with his parents in 1912. They settled in the Suffolk area. He met his future wife, Blanche, when she came from Iowa to visit friends and stayed on to teach school. They were married in 1926 and moved to the Fergus area, to the Harry Danner place (Horse Ranch area) a few years after their marriage.
  The Burbridges had six children: Bradley, born in 1930; Edith in 1932; Judith in 1934; Patsy in 1936; Larry in 1939; and Audrey in 1941.
  Blanche taught Bradley at home his first year since it was too far to go to school. The next year they started Edith early so there would be enough students to have a school class.
  The Burbridges went to Fairfield in 1939 to a new government irrigation project. Blanche passed away in August of 1953 and Ernest in November of 1958.

  William Clegg homesteaded in the Roy area in 1912, coming to Montana from Fayette, Iowa. He farmed in this area for some time. He had four sons: E.L. Clegg of Fayette, Iowa; Quincy of Santa Paulo, California; Harley of Huron, South Dakota and W. Virgil of Lewistown who worked for the Arro Refinery in Lewistown. His daughter, Mrs. James Tuckness lived at Roy at the time of his death. He also had a brother, J. T. Clegg, who was a pioneer rancher on lower Spring Creek and his son, George still lives on the ranch on the Hanover Road.
  William Clegg was in failing health for some time. He passed away April 23, 1926 in a Lewistown hospital. His body was forwarded to Fayette, Iowa for burial.

  Joe H. Doney was born at Fort Maginnis, 11 August 1888; he died 12 April 1948 and is buried at St. Paul's Mission, Hays, Montana.
  Julia A. Gardipee and Joe H. Doney were married, 24 November 1910. Julia was born at Ft. Maginnis, 5 April 1890; she died 20 March 1970 and is buried at St. Paul's Mission, Hays.
  Their children were: Joseph Walter, born 20 May 1912, died in 1954 at Mesa, Arizona; Margaret Doney Morin, born 14 November 1914; Eugene "Happy" Doney, born 5 January 1918; Marie Doney Morin, born 7 June 1919; Bernice Doney Mount, born 5 July 1922, all born at Roy. Florence Doney Sayers, born 17 January 1925 at Fergus, died 10 January 1976 and is buried at St. Paul's Mission, Hays; Charles "Lindy" Doney, born 26 December 1927 at Lewistown and Mabel Doney Hawley, born 8 December 1930 at Lewistown.
  Marie Doney Morin has four sons: Marvin M. Morin, 31 May 1936; Ronald J., born 27 October 1938; Douglas A., born 30 April 1943 and Dwight F., born 28 August 1948.
  Marie Doney Morin writes that her parents homesteaded southwest of Roy in the early 1900'a and lived there for many years. Her father worked for the Romunstads on the Box Elder ranch for eight years and then the family moved back to Roy. Her parents spent most of their lives in this part of the country. "We went to the Romunstad and Roy schools and got our mail and groceries at either Fergus or Roy. We traveled by team and wagon in the early years. My family left this area in 1933.
  My grandparents were John and Virginia Doney and Eli and Marie Gardipee and had homesteads south and southwest of Roy. John Doney's place was southwest of Roy where Gradles lived. The big tree at the reservoir was planted by my grandmother.
  My grandad, John Doney, is the man who shot Rattlesnake Jake in Lewistown at the July Fourth Celebration in 1884."
  Eli Gardipee's place was near Black Butte, which was later known as the Moulsby place, and still later was owned by Paul Bishoff.
  Charlie LaRocque owned the place that later became Paul Bishoffs home ranch.
  Joe LaRocque owned what is called the "Red Barn" under the ownership of Spud Stephens.
  There were Ambrose and Ralph LaRocque, the LaFountains, Demos, and Davises. All owned land there. Ralph LaRocque was Isabelle LaRocque's husband.
  "I was born in my uncle Gabe Gardipee's log cabin on his place southwest of Black Butte, at the foot of the Butte, along the creek.
  My husband, Michael Morin and I lived in Roy when they were building the new highway - 191 and 19. We lived in a house back of the grocery store for about three months and this was in 1958 or '59.
  Our people are known as the Metes (mixed or half breeds). The first white men to come West were trappers, traders, scouts, ex-soldiers and miners; a good many married Indian girls and most had common names. In contrast to these, there were those who came from the East into North Dakota, then to Canada and back to the United States, who were of French Canadian descent, and mainly had French names. These people were given no land and were called "Landless Indians". They were later given US citizenship and were free to file on government land, which many of them did.
  A prominent name in the latter French Canadians, were the Doneys. Others were Gardipees, LaRocque, LaFountain, LeValle, Fiant, Fluery, Lavadure, Turcotte. to name a few."^{P. 160}

  Edward William Dougherty was born in 1888 at Boulder, Montana. He was orphaned when he was two years old and was adopted, along with his three brothers and sisters, by an aunt who also had four children of her own. The aunt's husband died soon after that and the aunt was hard-pressed to care for all of the children. William went to work on the Fergus Ranch at the age of 15. When he was a little older, he homesteaded near the old Armells townsite.
  Edward met his future wife, Alvina Geilich, in Helena when he went there for his brother's funeral. His brother was married to Alvina's sister, and had been killed in a train accident. Edward and Alvina were married in 1917 and lived on Edward's homestead.
  The Dougherty's had four children. The oldest was Constance, born in Lewistown in 1918. Constance Pryer presently lives in Boise, Idaho. Their second child was John, born on the ranch in 1920. He now lives in Bozeman. Their next child, Ruth, was also born on the ranch, in 1924. Ruth Briody lives in Cut Bank. Their last child, Marian was born in Butte in 1928 where Edward had gone to work for a couple years. Marian Swensen married and lived on a ranch near the Canadian border, out of Cut Bank, until her death in 1976.
  The children attended the Weideman school which was about a quarter mile from their home. Constance attended high school in San Francisco; John went to Fergus County High School and Ruth and Marian went to Roy High School.
  The Dougherty's continued to live on the homestead until 1943 when they moved to a ranch up Armells Creek, over the hill east of Steve Gilpatrick's place. Edward died there in 1956 and Alvina moved to Cut Bank and passed away in 1988 at the age of 95.

  Ernest E. Egger came to Montana from O'Neill, Nebraska in 1927. We, Wyvle Adams and Ernest, were married June 28, 1930 in Lewistown, Montana.
  Ernie was working on the railroad as a section hand, but got laid off in the fall. This is when the depression hit; there were no jobs to be found. So we took our few dollars and bought $20.00 worth of staple groceries (that lasted all winter), two turkey hens and a gobbler, and moved down on my uncle's homestead, north of the Horse Ranch, for two years. Then we moved onto my Dad's homestead, which was just a half mile away from my uncle's place, for a couple years. Ernie farmed my Dad's place and raised a lot of corn and beans.
  Our first year was rather rough, but with the help of my folks we made it. They kept us in meat, gave us some cows to milk and a dozen hens, loaned us their incubator and, for 10e a dozen for eggs, we raised 100 white leghorn pullets and enough roosters to eat.
  What we had to have in furniture came from the second hand store. We had apple boxes to sit on and orange crates, with a piece of cloth over the front, for cupboards.
  We had four little girls: Dorothy in 1931, Helen in 1932, Shirley in 1933 and three years later Mary Jo came along.
  We moved to Christina for 3 years. Dorothy started to school there. In the spring of 1938 we moved to Roy and left there in 1942. My sister, Margaret Adams, lived with us in Roy for two years when she was in high school. She graduated in 1941, then married Willie Jones.
  While trying to farm three miles east of Christine, on the old Frank Schraeder place where we lived, we had nothing but drouth and grasshoppers. All who lived in that time remembers the dirty 30's. After getting a loan from the bank, for seed to plant for two seasons, and a loan for feed that one winter, we had to have still another loan for feed. The banker said, "No". We had 12 cows. So the banker said, "I'll send a truck out tomorrow to get your cows." We had one 2 year old heifer that was ready to calve and the trucker wouldn't take her, so we got to keep her. She had a heifer calf. We bought a black jersey milk cow at an auction sale. Her ears, tail and feet had been frozen, her feet curled up like horns, but she was a good milk cow. Both cows had heifer calves each year and so we got a start again.
  Ernie worked on W.P.A. and that $30.00 a month seemed like a fortune to us then.
  We moved to Lewistown in the spring of 1942. We brought 4 milk cows, two horses, a pig and chickens with us. I often wonder what our poor neighbors ^{P. 161}
  thought when they saw us moving in with that zoo.
  Ernie went to work with Vic McKerlie's Construction. I raised a big garden. Coming from Roy I could hardly put the hose down, I wanted to water everything. We sold milk, cream, eggs and chickens for spending money.
  Pete Forte lived with us in Roy and moved to Lewistown with us. He used to take the cows to the pasture for me. Pete moved to a nursing home, where he passed away a few years later, when Ernie sold our home and bought a trailer house and we went to Exeter, California for two years.
  We came back to Montana in April of 1950. I went to work at Penney's and Ernie went back to Victor Construction. Later he built our house on the hill west of the City Cemetery. In 1952 we moved in and I'm still there.
  Ernie had a stroke and passed away in November of 1955.
  In February of 1960 Glenn Potterf and I were married. He had four daughters: Glenna, Bev, Irene and Mary Lou. Glenn passed away from leukemia October 1966.
  I have eight daughters, 23 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.

  Our mother, Milena Kodejs Filipi came to Crete, Nebraska from Czechoslovakia in 1908, at the age of 14, with her mother, Marie Kodejs, a sister, Bessie, and a brother, Joe Kodejs. Her older sister, Marie, married Joe Walter in Czechoslovakia and they had come to Crete, Nebraska some time earlier then the rest of the family. Later the Walter family moved to Montana.
  In the meantime our father, Frank Antone Filipi, and his parents, Frank J. and Antonie Filipi, moved from Nebraska to Montana to homestead land in 1916. In 1918, our mother went to Montana to visit her sister and family and she met our father. They got married shortly after, on April 3, 1918.
  Life wasn't easy there. They had no water where they lived and had to haul water from quite a distance. Dad told of a coyote that always followed him when he went for water but never got close enough to shoot. Dad also said one time he helped a neighbor shingle the roof of his house. His wife was expecting a baby and was also helping. When Dad returned the next morning he found out they had the baby over night, but she was there on the roof shingling again.
  Mother talked about having a garden and the potatoes grew so big they wouldn't fit in her shoe box. She wore
  a size 6 shoe. They also talked about being neighbors to an Agnew family. We don't have very much information about their life in Montana.
  They had two daughters while they lived there. Mildred was born on May 19, 1919 and Alice on April 19, 1922. There were eventually 10 children in the family; the rest were all born in Crete or Denton, Nebraska.
  We have a cousin that lives in Lewistown. She is Milada Smart, daughter to the Joe Walter family and they lived close to where our parents lived. Another cousin, Marie Koliha lives in Billings.
  Frank J. passed away on April 30, 1930. Antonie on May 9, 1944. Frank A. passed away on July 14, 1967 and Milena on January 4, 1962. All are buried in Bohemian Cemetery Wilbur, Crete, Nebraska.

[Note: The gathering of the Filipi history was the result of a pen-pal project of an English class in the Roy school, 1988. Kathy Kalina selected the name of Jessica Koll, a student in Nebraska. When Jessica shared her pen pal information with her grandmother, Edna Koll, the fact that Edna's parents were Roy homesteaders was revealed.]

  Stanley and Opal Folda and family rented and moved to the Blanchard Ranch at Fergus in the spring of 1938. They farmed, ranched and Stan worked for the State Highway Dept. as maintenance man for the Roy-Hilger road. At that time it was graveled only. All of the equipment used to maintain the road was kept in Folda's yard. One of the jobs that Folds did while with the dept. at Fergus was head the WPA crew that built all the snow fences along the highway. Dot remembers it as a fun time, "There was quite a crew, most were from the Roy area and we really had some fun times." The Foldas came to Fergus from Hilger and were only here three years. They left in the spring of 1941 and Stan went to Bozeman where he worked for the Census Bureau. Later he was employed by the Federal Crop Insurance.
  Opal and children moved to Lewistown for a year and later to Moore where the younger ones finished ^{P. 162} their schooling.
  Stan and Opal had six children: Dorthea, Stanley Jr. "Bud", Jessie Wilma, Alice and Opal. Dorthea graduated from Roy High School in 1939. Bud also attended school in Roy. The others went to school at Fergus.
  Dorthea married George Fadrhonc in 1941 and remained in the area.
  In later years Stan Sr. married Gladys Kalal and Opal Sr. married Ed Tews of Moore. Opal passed away in 1984; Stan died in 1986; Bud died in 1981 and Wilma in 1985.

  The Fredericksens, Peter B. and Lens Mortensen, emigrated to America from Denmark and were early homesteaders northeast of Fergus, Montana on Armells Creek where they built up the "Pine Nook Ranch". They had one of the nicest homes in that area. Sections 20 and 29.
  Their daughter, Lillian C. also took up a homestead before her marriage to neighbor, Victor Hallock. His parents were Abraham H. and Fannie Langley Hallock. Lillian's property was in Sections 20, 21, and 29. Victor's in Sections 27 and 29.
  The Roy Enterprise, 24 November 1915 tells of the beautiful wedding on last Wednesday at the Pine Nook Ranch near Roy, when Miss Lillian Christina Fredericksen, daughter of P.B. Fredericksen, and Victor Abraham Hallock were united in marriage. They left on their wedding trip to the old home in the east.
  An inquiry was sent to Jim Hallock, the youngest son of Victor A. Hallock and he writes the following:

   "I can only relate to what my parents told me about Roy, as I was born at Lake Chelan, Washington where my parents made their home when they left the Roy area.
   My Dad was born in North Dakota near the Red River in 1891. His father had been a Civil War Veteran. His family were railroad people. My Mother was born in Iowa in 1890 and her parents emigrated to America from   Denmark.
   There are five members in our family; my oldest brother, Roy and sister, Marie were born at Roy, Montana. The next three were born at Lake Chelan, Washington and are Dan, Lee and Jim (me). I am eleven years   younger than my brother Lee.
  The way I remember my Dad telling it, he traded the property at Roy for an apple orchard at Chelan. When I was growing up, he had ten acres of apples, a section of wheat land and three trucks. We had a nice home and family life. My parents were very devoted to one another. They were active in the Odd Fellows Lodge and Grange. Pop passed away at the age of 77 years and Mom was 84 when she died.
  I remember Pop telling about getting his hip injured on a steam engine on a threshing rig. This was before he met my Mom. He had digestive problems that he blamed on this injury. The water at Roy did not agree with him one of the reasons they left Roy. (Alkali water!) Anyway, he said that he spent two years on crutches.
  My brothers were Veterans in WWII and I served in Korea. My wife and I separated nine years ago. We raised three children; Lia, Jim and Joe. Lia is an air traffic controller in the Navy; Jim is finishing his mechanical 
engineering degree at Laramie, Wyoming and Joe is a physical therapist."

  Steve Ghezzo was born 7 August 1878, a native of Italy. He came to the Armells Creek area north of Roy and homesteaded in 1914 in partnership with Peter Forte where he lived until 1942 when he moved onto property he bought on the north out-skirts of Roy. He resided at Roy until his death 7 May 1953.
  Steve was an exceptionally strong man and had been a miner the greater part of his life. He had been in the Alaska Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1898; he mined in Butte in the copper mines; was in the bakery business in Butte; worked at the coal mines in Roundup as well as being a rancher on his homestead.
  When Bill Lettengarver went to work for him in 1934 on the ranch, he tells of this man building fence in the winter, digging post holes in the frozen ground and he used large trees for posts instead of the usual sized timbers they cut in the Armells breaks. Steve was in his sixties at this time. He also dug a root cellar in a bank and timbered the good sized room, which was also done in the winter months.
  Steve never married. He was seventy-five years at the time of his death when he died at the St. Joseph's Hospital in Lewistown. He had no known relatives in the United States. Burial was at the Lewistown City Cemetery. ^{P. 163}

  Lars Grindheim was born in Norway in 1878 and emigrated to the United States about 1905. He worked at Belt, Montana and for William Fergus and Sons near Fergus. He homesteaded at the head of Dry Armells Creek in 1910. He hauled supplies from Hilger and Lewistown. Better known as Louie in the neighborhood, he liked people and enjoyed visiting and talking with anyone. He died in 1936.
  Emma Hronek was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on November 10, 1884 and came to Montana in 1914. She took claim on a homestead that was being vacated. It already had buildings; a log house and a water well. Her nearest neighbor lived a half-mile away and her father, Joseph Hronek and sister, Lib, took homesteads near there later. Emma's hobbies were playing the piano she brought from Iowa and growing flowers.
  Lib Hronek married John Pelot. She passed away while still in her early 20's. Joseph's wife, Katherine was also in Montana for some time.
  Emma and Lars married in 1915 and raised two sons, Norman born in 1916 and Louis "Bud" born in 1918.
  Until the early nineteen twenties there were many helpful and sometimes much-needed neighbors. A neighbor, Pete Larson, told me this many years ago. I was born at home on a very cold January day and Pete drove a team of horses to Roy eleven miles away to get the doctor. My father told him, "Drive them hard but don't kill them."
  Early day close neighbors were: Larson, Strausburg, Wolfe, Pelot, Kaaro, Romunstad, Yensik, Kindred, Bottleson, Gordon, Hronek, Engh, Lucier, Steinbring, Elingson and others whose names I do not know. Many of these moved away by the early 1920's.
  The days and miles were long and travel slow. An all day chore was to go to Roy and back with the lumber wagon. Most supplies were gotten at the grocery and hardware that was established at Fergus after the railroad got into Roy. Mail was gotten at Fergus until that post office was closed in the 1970's. Before the railroad, father hauled from Hilger or Lewistown.
  The neighborhood had good water from wells and springs; timber for fire wood and log buildings.
  There were neighborhood gatherings. We had picnics at home under the old box elder trees. The annual Fourth of July picnic held at the Romunstad's grove provided lots of soda pop and ice cream for us kids. Other activities included: school programs, dances, ball games, Sunday dinners, etc.
  Knob Hill school was half a mile from home. Other children there were: Pelot, Larson, Wolfe, Strausburg, Petranek, Harrell, Cameron, Hano, Stevens, Hackling, Dawson, Tompson and perhaps others.
  About 1924, we got a 1919 Buick car. I remember father's first driving lesson. He had his hands full! In that car we got to see Valentine, Grass Range and a few other distant places.
  I, Norman, lived at the ranch until 1956, except for a stint in the Army from 1942-1945. In 1956 I moved to Lewistown and worked on various ranches until retiring in 1966.
  Mother, Emma, passed away the summer of 1988 at the age of 103 years.

  Louis "Bud" Grindheim, the second son of Lars and Emma, remained on the ranch he grew up on until his retirement in 1983, when he and his wife, Shirley (Corth) moved into Roy.
  Bud and Shirley raised two children, both of whom graduated from Roy High School. Their son Lyle and his family live near Denton.
  Their daughter, Marilyn, married John Gervais in 1978 and took over the ranch when the Grindheims retired. John had previously been manager of the Horse Ranch and after the couples marriage they lived and worked in the Judith Gap area for a short time before moving back to Roy. They are the parents of three sons: Joshua, Travis and Brent. ^{P. 164}

  Axel Olaf Hage, son of Amund Olsen Hage and Mari Oldsdatter Lovsletten, was born on December 28, 1895 in Kvikne, Gudbrandsdalen, Norway. He came to the United States in about 1915 and settled on the Ella Hage homestead north of Fergus, Montana.
  Axel Hage was about 20 years of age when he came to this country, and spent from the time of his arrival until about 1949 on the Fergus homestead.
  This man, Axel O. Hage, was a very well liked person who had a pleasant, unassuming personality and tended to his own affairs in a private and quiet manner.
  In his years at Fergus, his sister, Ella (Hage) Nelson and her family would make frequent trips to his home in order to do his Spring and Fall housecleaning (sometimes in between) because bachelors in those days, and perhaps even now, were not the best of housekeepers. He did keep himself well nourished, however.
  Axel made numerous trips to Lewistown in his one and only vehicle, a pickup truck. He was especially included in holiday gatherings at the Peter Nelson home, and also at the home of his brother, Ludvar Hage and family in Kolin, Montana.
  In the early spring of 1948 or 1949, Axel was unloading a barrel of fuel from his pickup when the barrel fell upon him, pinning him under it's load for several hours. He managed to free himself even though his legs were injured. Somehow, he got to his friends at Fergus, who helped him obtain medical attention in Lewistown. Axel told us that while he was pinned under the load of that fuel barrel, he began thinking that it was not good for a man of his age to be living alone; so very soon he began looking for a small plot near Lewistown on which to move.
  He did, in fact, find such a place about a mile south of Lewistown -- a small house and a few acres for a garden, on Upper Spring Creek. He lived there for several years, but sold it when he married Ellen Ferguson in 1955. The couple then made their home in Lewistown. This marriage lasted only one year and from then on Axel lived for awhile in Kolin near his nephew, John Hage, and then back to Lewistown in 1961.
  His health failed steadily until in 1969 when he died At that time he was living at the Leland Hotel. He is buried in the Lewistown City Cemetery.

  Ella Hage was born on December 12, 1880 in Kvikne Gudrandsdalen, Norway, the daughter of Amund Olsen Hage and Mari Oldsdatter Lovsletten. She came to the United States in 1905, making the journey with her cousin, Marie Bolstad. They came to Lewistown, Montana to live with their Aunt Mary, who was Mrs. Peter E. Anderson.
  Shortly thereafter Ella acquired a homestead near Fergus, Montana and proved up on it. One of her close neighbors was a girl, also proving up on a homestead. This girl eventually became Mrs. Martin Flotlin.
  The two girls stayed together a lot because in those days, it was not wise for a single young woman to stay by herself. Ella told once of the two women being alone at night when a group of rowdy cowboys approached their homestead. In fear, the women barred all of the windows and doors and huddled together until the cowboys left. There was not much sleep that night.
  Transportation was a problem because the railroad was not built to the Fergus - Roy area until 1914.
  Ella Hage was married to Peter Martin Nelson, a ^{P. 165} plasterer living in Lewistown, on November 11, 1911 in Great Falls, Montana. They made their home in Lewistown until their deaths.
  Six children were born to this union: Arnold Nelson, Lewistown; Marie (Nelson) Buck of Portland, Oregon; Harold Nelson of Phoenix, Arizona; Paul E. Nelson of Lewistown; Mildred (Nelson) McLendon of Spokane, Washington and Burton A. Nelson of Bellevue, Washington.
  Ella and Peter Nelson were charter members of Zion Lutheran Church in Lewistown and Ella was the first president of Zion Ladies Aid.
  Ella's homestead was taken over by Axel O. Hage, her brother, who came from Norway and settled on the Fergus homestead.
  Ella Hage died on April 8, 1951. Peter M. Nelson died August 6, 1975. Both are buried in the Lewistown City Cemetery. All of their children are presently living.

  Evert McClemens Harrell was one of these early pioneers. He was born August 7, 1888 to Alexander Harrell and Sara Ann Bright in Lovington, Illinois.
  Evert was raised in and around the Lovington area where he received most of his schooling. He was born into a large family of seven boys and three girls. The farms there were small so he worked out at a very young age and went to school when work was scarce. He managed to complete the tenth grade, which was pretty good at that time.
  Evert and Hester May Eastin were married August 22, 1911 and lived on a small farm. Evert and his brother Aaron rented a small farm also and they worked it together. Most of the crops raised at that time was broom corn and small grains.
  After farming a few years the urge was "GO WEST YOUNG MAN, GO WEST." Aaron came to Lewistown and found a place near Suffolk where they could homestead. He returned to Illinois to harvest the crops and let Evert go to Montana and prove up on the place. So they loaded two teams of horses, two cows, pigs, chickens, farm equipment and household furniture into a box car, which took about two weeks to get to Suffolk, Montana. When he unloaded from the train in Suffolk, with the help of two other homesteaders, he had two wagon loads.
  It was very hard living on a homestead in a one room cabin with three little boys.
  Hester and their three boys came on the train about three weeks later. Having to change depots in Chicago by a horse drawn cab was something else. The driver turned the team too sharp, tipping the cab over. Luckily, no one was hurt. The police and red caps helped, but in the confusion a man tried to steal one of her bags. A red cap caught him and so another scary ordeal was behind them. Everyone was so good to help.
  Arriving in Lewistown at 10 P.M. it was good to see Evert waiting for them. But they had a time getting a room in the hotel for the night. Everyone was very nice here in the West though.
  Evert's brother, Aaron, never did come from Illinois. His wife had an accident by spilling kerosene on a hot stove and burned herself so badly she died. She was able to save her two small children before help arrived. Aaron stayed on the farm in Illinois.
  After drought, hail, and the death of a baby girl plagued them they sold what they could and gave up the homestead. Moving to a ranch near Kendall they lived, ranched and added five more children to their family.
  School was in Kendall at that time. There were about 3,000 people in Kendall during the gold mining days. After school the kids could ride their sleigh down the Kendall hill, almost to home.
  Then there was school in Hilger until people like Joe Peters, Charles Ille, Hasslers and the Harrells got together and had the little school on the Charles Ille place restored. Evert was a school board member there for 10 years.
  Evert also leased the Fergus Horse Ranch for three years, but it was slow getting it back to production again. They did lots of haying there and ran cows on pasture ground around. Then in 1930's they moved to Idaho and returned to Montana in 1948. He did odd jobs until 1952 when he bought his own farm at Roy and at 80 years of age was still farming and raising cattle. They lived in Roy until their retirement in 1968.
  Family members still living are: Ernest Harrell, Marie Hall and Lucille Kalal all of Lewistown; Harold Harrell and James Harrell of Idaho and Ruby Tull of Roundup. Wilfred (Jake) and William (Butch) are deceased. Jake's wife, Frieda Harrell, lives in Phoenix, Arizona and Butch's wife, Virginia Burnham Harrell lives in Lewistown. (The baby girl who died was Martha Ann, born in October of 1918 and died March of 1919. She is buried in Roy.)
[After Lucille Kalal did the above story, of her father and family, a history that Evert himself had written (at the age of 97) was discovered and submitted.] ^{P. 166}

  When I lived on the flat and farmed, Roy was my town, not far from my homestead. My close neighbors were: Mr. and Mrs. Jessie Adams on the east of me, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Petranek on the west of me and Mr. and Mrs. Charley May on the south of me. All good neighbors. Also on west were Mr. and Mrs. McFadden, where the children went to school. They had school in a homestead shack that they moved in on Jessie Adams place... I think Mrs. Donovan was the teacher.
  When I came to this country I came in a box car. I loaded all my things in a railroad car in Cadwell, Illinois, where I lived and farmed. I had two days to load my car. It was a big furniture car. So I loaded all my farming tools and my 4 horses and cow and calf in one end of the car and my household furniture in the other end of the car and 2 dozen chickens and 2 pigs and my bed in the middle between the 2 doors and I paid them for the car.
  They billed me for Suffolk, Montana. I was 2 weeks on the road. I had to unload the horses every 24 hours, so it took me awhile to come.
  When I got to Suffolk, Montana they set me off on a side track and went on to Winifred. When they came back they said I was over loaded and I had to pay $47 more or they would take me back to Lewistown, Montana. So I paid them and went on unloading. Two men came and helped me unload.
  I had brought 2 wagons with me and we put them together. One was a wagon with a box and the other was a low iron wheel wagon with a hayrack on it. We loaded everything on the two wagons and I started for the homestead. I put the 3 year olds on one wagon and the 2 yearlings on the other; they had been worked some. I tied the cow and calf on back of it and started east. I had never been out to the homestead but the men that helped me unload the car told me to take the road east of Suffolk and I did. The first five miles was up one hill and down the other till I got on the bench and then it was miles that was level. I had to put 4 horses on a wagon to pull the hills. I would put all 4 horses on a wagon for a few hills and then go and get the other one. I done that till I got to the bench about 5 miles and it began to get dusk. One man came along and said he lived about 5 miles on up the road, or trail, after I got on the bench. So I tied one team, hitched to the one the hayrack was one to the one I was driving and started on east up the road till I got to the house that man and wife lived in. It was dark then so I stopped and put up for the night. I tied my horses to my wagon and unharnessed them and fed them and slept in his granary.
  I got up early and fed and harnessed them and ate my breakfast and hitched all my stuff together and started east on the trail. About noon I met Mr. McFadden. I was close to the end of the bench, or flat, and he pointed out the cabin across Murphy's Coulee.
  I was close to a corner on top of the hill and a steep hill it was going down into Murphy Coulee or ravine. I had to tie my back team and wagon to the fence and rough lock my wagon wheel with a chain for it was a steep hill.
  I took one wagon down and came back after the other one. I took it down and at the bottom of the hill there was a big pine tree, so had to turn out around the tree. There was a big root running on top of the ground and when I run over the root with the hind wheel of the iron wheel wagon it upset my load and scattered my furniture and other stuff all over the ground. It broke my couple pole in pieces so I had to cut a fir sapling, or little tree, and hew it down so it would go through the hounds of the back wheels, or back part of the wagon that holds the front and back part of the wagon together, and make a big hole that the coupling pin had to go through in front of the pole and get my brace and bit out and make a hole large enough for the coupling pin to go through an inch hole. I got it made and got my wagon together and it was a 2 man job to put the rack back on the wagon. But I did manage to get the rack on the wagon and all the stuff on the rack. It was getting late and it was dark when I got the two wagons to the log cabin (shack), or hut. I had not had anything to eat or drink nor had the horses had nothing.
  I unloaded the wagon with the wagon box on it. Mr. Bare lived a half mile on east but I had to go up a little hill to see his house. I had not seen it before dark and he had no window in the west side of the house. So I just run on to it before I could see it. I had my two barrels in my wagon. I knocked on his door and he came to the door and said he was not looking for me yet. I asked him if I could get some water some place.
  He said he had just got through supper and said for me to come in and eat. So I did and he said we could go over about 1 miles south and east. He got his lantern and we went to a good spring and filled our barrels and went back home.
  I had unloaded some bed springs in the cabin and bedding, so I unhitched and watered my horses and cow and calf and tied all the horses and cow to my wagon for there was not a post any place. I went in and made my bed on the springs and let the coyotes sing me to sleep, with my dog on my feet, and that was my first night in my log cabin. I hoped every day would not be like my first day was.
  My wife and 3 little boys came out on the train in November. I drove to Suffolk and put my horses in the livery barn and took the train to Lewistown when she said she would be there. She came that night about 10    cont'd.

• Fergus Community Hall
• Fergus School picnic held in May of 1931. Standing in the back row are: Lincoln Jones, Earl Christensen, Mrs. Vaughn Tindall, Margit Rindal, Irene Christensen, and Grace Jones. Middle row: Robert Jones, Jimmy and Norman Rindal. Front row: Raymond Tindall, Fay Tindall, Jimmy Kaaro, Bud Grindheim, Grace Deueraux, Mrs. Kaaro. Girl standing by Mrs. Kaaro is Lavera Jones.
• Students in the picture from L. to R. are: Dorothy Rowe, Scott McFadden, Agnes McFadden, Frances Donovan, Wyvle Adams, Georgia Adams, Ernest Harrell and William "Butch" Harrell.
• L. to R. Marie Doney, Ruby Doney, Ruth Mitten (teacher), Jean Romunstad, Fannie Jo Mitten.
• Back row: Patsy Bancroft (teacher), Lovinia Jane Sweet (teacher), Marie Doney, Eugene Doney, Henry Edwards, Jean Romunstad. Front row: Betty Mae Mitten, Bernice Doney, Fannie Jo Mitten, John Henry Mitten.

Margaret Adams and Alene Willis when they were attending high school in Roy.
• The Trimble School. Back, Alice Knowles, the teacher. Wyvle and Georgia Adams; Ernest and Butch (William) Harrell; Frank (Charles) and George Petranek; Earl Adams.
• John and Myrtie Beatty
• John Beatty and son Ralph
• Eugene "Happy" Doney, Bernice (Mount) and Marie (Morin), the Children of Joe H. Doney 
• Ernie and Wyvel Egger with their daughters: Mary Jo, Helen, Shirley and Dorothy.
• Emma Grindheim on her 1OOth birthday in 1984 surrounded by members of her family. In the back row from I. to r. are Lyle Grindheim, Louis "Bud" Grindheim and Marilyn Grindheim Gervais holding her son, Joshua. Middle row: 1. to r. Shawn Grindheim and Shelly Grindheim. Front row: 1. to r. Shari Grindheim, Emma and Shane Grindheim.
• Axel Hage
• Ella Hage