Elmer Earl Joslin was born 7 November 1883 at Elwood, Indiana. He married Rose Lens Chalk, 25 December 1904 at Laurel, Ohio. Rose was born at Twelve Mile, Kentucky, 24 February 1887.
  Two daughters were born to them while they lived at Laurel, Ohio. Gladys Charlene, 20 September 1906 and Nellie, born 24 September 1908.
  The Joslins started West, spent some time in Nebraska and New Mexico before coming to Montana to homestead. They chose the above location. Their name "Joslin" was given to the postoffice which was opened one half mile west of them in 1915. This was 16 miles northeast of Roy, where the Rocky Point Trail crossed Big Crooked Creek.
  They left Montana in 1917, to settle in Grady County, Oklahoma. Gladys married Charlie Ransome Wood, 12 November 1920 and I, Rose Wood Norlin and my three siblings were born. We stayed there until the early 1940's when we moved to California to find work and help in the war effort. Gladys, my mother, died 2 February 1974.
  Nellie married Clarence Lightfield in Oklahoma.
  Elmer Joslin died, 29 March 1956, Grady County, Oklahoma and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Chickasha, Oklahoma. Rose Joslin died in 1976 and is buried beside her husband.

  William Kudzia was the 5th of 10 children born to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Kudzia in Poland.
  In 1905 he immigrated to the U.S. enticed by glowing letters written by his sister, Rose Jaromin, who was living in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He arrived in the spring.
  He moved in with Rose. Unable to speak English, he enrolled in night school and three years later was able ^{P.  215} to speak, read and write the language.
  Early in 1908, he married his childhood sweetheart, Helena Medek, who had arrived in this country the year before with her parents, Joseph and Mary Medek, from Poland. It was a typical Polish wedding. The celebration lasted two days.
  In 1909 their son Emil was born.
  William worked in factories in Massachusetts. In 1912 workers were striking; times were tough; William was out of work and his savings were going fast. During that time the eastern papers were carrying glowing accounts of wonderful opportunities in the west. The new homestead act stated that any adult could obtain 320 acres of public land -- free!, provided he had never born arms against the U.S. The homestead act allowed a three-year proving up period plus 5-month absence from the land each year.
  William came west. He hoboed his way out, often riding the rods under freight cars.
  He arrived in Butte the fall of 1913. He found work as a miner in the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. Wages were good; the work was dangerous.
  A year later he had saved enough money to send for his wife and son. They, along with her parents, came across country via train; a long, dusty and tiring trip.
  The Kudzias and the Medeks lived in Butte for three years.
  In 1917 William filed on a homestead. Children, Marie born in 1911, Helen born in 1914 and Edward born in 1916, had been added to the family by then. William also received his citizenship. Wanda was born in 1925.
  The homestead William had filed on was 12 miles northeast of Roy. Roy was a hive of activity when the Kudzia family arrived in 1918. While the family stayed in Roy, William and Grandpa Medek bought a team and wagon, loaded it with lumber from McCain and Johnson Lumber Company in Roy and assisted by 9 year old Emil; Mr. Zahn, a carpenter; and other neighbors, got a house built.
  Logs were hauled from the breaks, 15 miles away, to build the horse barn and for fire wood.
  Establishing a school was one of the first orders of business. Joslin district #52 was created February 25, 1919. The first teachers were Ivy Davis and Flora Sandstrom. This term was from September 2, 1919 to May 7, 1920. The pupils were: Emil, Marie and Helen Kudzia; Edward, Cecil, David, Leonard and Elsie Dunn; Herbert, Wilbert, Arnold and Ernest Zahn; Floyd and Tilford Carter; Olin Baker; Earl and Inez Zelenka; Harold and Leonard Sandstrom; Marie and Dorothy Spinner and Elsi Dunn.
  Raising a family and eking out a living was tough. The family learned to live off the land. There was lots of hard work and doing without. But there was ample food and clothing.
  It was tough years, many lost their lands; hail beat the wheat crops to the ground when it looked as though they would be good.
  Close neighbors were the Maruskas, Heils, Komareks, Spinners, Zelenkas, Zahns, Edwards, Kolihas, Cimrhakls and favorite bachelors, Joe "Shebby" Shebesta and Matt "Aber" Arduser, the Swiss yodeler.
  Twice a week, Mrs. Kudzia would bake bread, 10 to 12 leaves. Shebby and Aber always managed to come visiting on baking day and always took a loaf of fresh bread home with them.
  Some childhood memories of Emil.

-- Milking dairy cows, morning and night. The tinkling bell on the DeLaval cream separator. Turning the handle and watching yellow cream trickle into 5 gallon cans.
-- Dances in the Joslin school house. Girls prepared box lunches which were auctioned off at midnight. Young bachelor ranchers rivaled one another bidding for the chance of sharing a lunch with a pretty girl. -- Watching sisters preparing for the dance by heating a curling iron in the flame of a kerosene lamp to curl their hair.
-- Walking 3 1/2 miles to school, carrying lunch boxes and a water jug, with a cowboy to escort them through some of the herds of cattle run by the Deaton Ranch.

  Anna Good met the Hickey girls, Josie and Bridgie, in Oklahoma and came with them and their brother, M. A. Hickey, to the Joslin area in 1914. She took up a homestead, T. 21N R 24E Sec. 29, 30, adjoining the Hickey's. Anna was capable of doing the outdoor work.
  They had their buildings together, where the homesteads joined. The Hickey girls were gone a good share of the year, teaching in various schools.
  Merl Musselman homesteaded, T 20N 4 24 E Sec. 3. His homestead was north of Jake's Dam. Musselman Coulee, which empties into Sand Coulee, was so named because of where his homestead lay.
  Merl and Anna were married April 7, 1920 in Lewistown. Three children were born to them. They moved away from the state.

  Morris Rasmussen was born March 3, 1881 in Denmark; the son of Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Rasmussen. He received his education there and came to the United States in 1913, settling in Hardington, Nebraska.
  In 1915 he came to Montana and homesteaded twenty miles northeast of Roy. Here he farmed with horses and worked in the Basin at harvest time to supplement his income, as many of the homesteaders did. He was located between Tom Cope and the Hickeys at the head of Sand Creek. "Pasty", as he was known, made many friends and was a kind, friendly and generous person.
  The depression and the dry thirties forced him to let his place go back to the county for taxes. (This happened to many others at this time). The Fort Peck Dam Project began, offering work. Pasty owned one of the first enclosed Model T coupes in the area. He packed his belongings and went to Fort Peck where he worked until the completion of the dam in 1937. He returned to Roy and purchased the old Wm. Dunn place on Crooked Creek, seventeen miles northeast of Roy on the Wilder Trail.
  He bought an old Fordson tractor and a few pieces of farm machinery and put the creek bottoms into alfalfa where he raised alfalfa seed for about ten years. Pasty had some good seed crops during those years. Charlie Oquist did his threshing each year.
  When he decided to retire, he sold his property to Arnold Zahn and moved to Lewistown. He lived for a time in an apartment then failing health forced him to go to Valle Vista Manor in Lewistown where he passed away January 20, 1977, at the age of 95. He had no relatives in the United States and never married. He was buried at Sunset Memorial Gardens January 24, 1977.
  When Morris Rasmussen's place went to Fergus County for taxes in 1933, John Turner made up this little poem and posted it on the door. 

  Louis C. "Curley" Willmore, eldest son of Caroline Louisa Spicer and Julius Willmore (of Danish and German descent) came from Fessenden, North Dakota to Roy, Montana with his friend, Howard Hart, to homestead in October of 1915. They came, not by wagon and team like most homesteaders, but by car. A novelty....in those days!!! They filed on homesteads, 18 miles northeast of Roy, close to the old King Trail, on November 3rd.
  Curley built a 10 x 10 foot homestead cabin; dug a cellar to keep food in and stayed that first winter. He was close to the timbered breaks and so he hauled wood with a small hand sled. There wasn't much water close by, but small game, such as cottontails and sage hens, was plentiful.
  In the summer of 1916 he worked for a cow outfit, the "Floweree Ranch" on the Missouri and Marias Rivers.
  The following winter, Curley spent a lot of time with a neighbor, Glen Mangle, who had a team and they hauled wood and posts which they sold in Roy.
  Curley went into the Army in 1917 and served in the Signal Corps, until he was injured in a logging accident that the Corps was involved in. He received a medical discharge which enabled him to prove up on his homestead without having to do any plowing.
  The following winter (1918) he spent working in the flour mills at Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where his parents and siblings had moved. Curley did not make the move to Canada because he didn't want to live under the rule of a monarch.
  Returning to Montana, Curley worked at the County Farm in Lewistown during the dry year of 1919. A neighbor, Martha Hanson, who had an adjoining homestead to his, was also employed at the Farm. The two later worked at a logging camp in St. Maries, Idaho. Mart cooked and Curley ran the horse barns, as they logged with horses in those days. During the summer of 1920, they worked on a harvesting crew near Ritzfield, Washington. On August 20, 1920 they were married.
  After their marriage they returned to the homesteads and started to build them into a ranch. They built fences and cleared sage brush and picked rock; clearing land for fields. And they worked out, part time, building the Bank Ranch irrigation system, near Lewistown.
  With the birth of their son, Warren, on November 8, 1921, they settled permanently on the ranch. They acquired horses and 'a' cow. During the following years they moved the Joslin Store and built it into a horsebarn; moved in two good granaries and fixed a shop. They moved Mart's homestead shack from the top of the ridge down to the coulee, closer to water.
  Warren was just old enough to remember this house moving episode. He and his mother had traveled to town, on the train, for a couple of days and the Shorts (Leif and Opal) with whom they had stayed brought them home in their car. When they topped the hill where they normally could have seen the house, there was none in sight. It was a strange, eerie feeling, for a little boy, to come home and not to have it there.
  Warren also remembers pumping a "lot of water" from the nearby well into small buckets and packing them to the house while he was still very young. It probably kept him "busy and out of a lot of trouble!" The well had fair water, the reason why they could remain when so many others left.
  In 1923 the crops were good, but part of it was lost to hail, an occurrence that helped break the spirit of many homesteaders. Between 1923 until WWII life was often very harsh: depression, hail, drought, grasshoppers, intense heat in summer followed by killer blizzards and intense cold in the winters.
  But it wasn't all bad. Neighbors appreciated and relied on each other, not only for support during the tough going but for fun as well. Many good times were enjoyed. There were overnight fishing trips to the river, weekend dances at one school or another, card parties, 4th of July celebrations, Christmas get-to-gethers with neighbors, rare and exciting trips into Lewistown on the train, the first auto and the first tractor.
  In 1925 Mart traveled to Minnesota with 4 year-old Warren and it was on August 22nd, of a very hot and miserable summer, that she gave birth to their second son, Robert Eric, in Brainerd. The trips to and from Minnesota, for Mart, were not good ones, what with the terrible heat, a sick little boy and a baby....plus efforts to see her little girl, Lucille, whom she had not seen in several years, were futile.
  The years following Bob's birth were good ones. Crops were good and there was a steer or two to sell. By the fall of 1926 Curley had bought a tractor and built a hay sled. He could haul wheat into Roy, pulling two wagons with his new tractor, making the trip in one day. Before the tractor it took 8 head of horses to do the job. They moved another 12 x 16 homestead (Cass's) shack onto the house for a front room and bought a big Nash car.
 School was a haphazard affair for the boys. Warren started school in 1927. He boarded with the John Beck's and attended the Byford school. Other pupils that year were Johnny and Thelma Beck, Helen and Lily Jakes. Later the boys attended the Little Crooked, Joslin and Roy schools. They either boarded out or rode horses to school. Mart stayed with them in Roy one year and worked in Sturdy's Cafe. Another time they boarded with the Chet Birdwells. When they were older they lived with Jess Bilgrien or "camped out" by themselves. They usually worked for their board.
  Then came the crash of 1929 and there was no money ^{P.  218} for anything. It was followed by the dry 30's. They bought hay in 1932, the first bales Warren had ever seen. Their hay was always stacked loose in huge barn like stacks. No cattle were sold, as they brought no money, until the fall of 1935. They got 6 1/2 cents for the good steers.
  In 1936 they shipped the first cattle, by truck, to the Billings Auction market, started by Art Langman. The yearling cattle brought $25.00 per head. The Billings Market made a big impact on this area as it became a good place to sell cattle and horses.
  In August of 1936 the Willmores moved their cattle to Kalispell to winter. The railroad offered a 'disaster rate' so the cost of moving the cattle was cheap. In 1937 they bought a place at Brooks and moved their cattle and equipment there. They lost this place in the fall of 1938. Again Warren tried to go to school but when his folks left to go back to western Montana, taking Bob with them, he was left alone and school soon fell by the wayside.
  Mart and Curley bought a gas station and cabins at Trout Creek and later had the liquor store. Curley also had a mail route. They sold their cattle and equipment at an auction and Warren joined his parents and brother in western Montana for a year. He attended his freshman year of high school at Thompson Falls, living in the dorm.
  In 1939 the government, through the Bankhead Jones Act, offered $1280 to buy the homesteads. After much discussion about what to do, they declined the offer and Warren, age 18, came back to the ranch at Roy with his saddle, a few tools, a tractor and 25 head of cattle his dad bought for him and began his ranching career.
  Sam Dennis spent the winter of'40 and '41 with him. They had an enjoyable time; game was scarce so they had to hunt "for days" for fresh meat to eat, but they both enjoyed hunting. They broke horses; rode the 'grub line' (especially at ranches where there were pretty young daughters) and in general had a good time. Sam now lives at Corvallis, Montana.
  Warren batched for 6 or 7 years, except for the winter Sam spent and a year when his folks returned. They had sold the business at Trout Creek and then had to take it back.
  In 1945 they returned to Roy, having finally disposed of the Trout Creek property. The crops were good during the war years and cattle were fat. Warren was rejected for military service because of severe back injuries he received as a child, and so remained on the ranch.
  Bob had left home in 1941, at the age of 16, and had gone to Portland, Oregon where he found employment and went to night school to get his high school diploma. Before the age of 18 he was in the Aleutian Islands with the 176 Army Engineers Special Service working on construction.
  On October 12, 1946 Bob and Vera Sand, of White Pine, Montana were married. They have one son, Larry Roy "Skip".
  Bob worked on construction for many years until the early 60's when they purchased the Burney (California) Sport Shop. Now semi-retired, he does some ranch work and they sell auto supplies. They make their home in Burney.
  Following a dry year in 1952, the Fred Matthews place at Buffalo was leased and Curley and Mart wintered the cattle there. Warren married that fall and he and his bride stayed on the Roy ranch.
  Mart and Curley purchased a home in Lewistown in 1953 and retired. Curley continued to work on the ranch when needed and also did some trucking. Mart thoroughly enjoyed town life with its cemented sidewalks and good running water so she could grow lots of flowers.
  Curley passed away on May 2, 1959 following a long illness. He was 63. His death papers read age 68, because Curley, like a lot of young men in those days, lied about his age in order to get jobs, go into the service or to apply for a homestead.
  Mart passed away, unexpectedly, on September 21, 1966, after a brief illness.

  Warren remains on the ranch his parents homesteaded. In October of 1952 he married Illa LeBrun in Nampa, Idaho. Illa was from Ashland, Oregon. Four children were born to them: Kenneth Wayne, June 19, 1954; Jeffrey Allen, May 19, 1956; Dawn Marie, September 5, 1957 and Ralph "Randy" Lewis on September 6, 1960.
 Ken and his wife, Vicki (Arner) were married in Clark, Wyoming in 1973. They now own and live where once was the town of Fergus. They run a few cattle; the kids have sheep and Ken is employed on the CMR Game Range. They have three daughters: Misty Dawn born September 16, 1973; Roxie May born August 9, 1976 and Hallie Lynne born June 21, 1978.
  Jeff farms and ranches with his dad. He and his family live on the ranch. Jeff and Susan (McCrary) were married in 1980. They have three children: Amber Marie born March 26, 1981; Amanda Dawn born July 9, 1984 and Matthew Allen born November 26, 1987.
  Dawn Marie was killed in an auto accident in 1974.
  Ralph and Shelly (Johnson) were married in 1981. They have two sons, Dustin Lewis born August 14, 1986 and Casey Andrew born October 2, 1987. Ralph is employed by the Montana State Highway Department section at Mobridge. ^{P.  219}

  When I first came to the ranch in 1952 it was still pretty much as it was in homestead days. No modern highway, so it was not unusual to be snowed or 'gumboed' in for several weeks or even a couple of months. I soon learned to buy groceries to last a winter. One particular winter I remember we ate venison and more venison. We had no deep freeze, so all of our beef was in Roy in the locker, and we couldn't get out to get any. But there was venison, lots of it. It wasn't very good stuff, I'm sure all the deer were living on straight juniper that fall. I haven't really liked venison very well since!
  We had no electricity. Coleman gas lanterns furnished our light; a combination coal and gas stove cooked the meals and heated the house; a gas refrigerator that had a habit of sooting up and blackening the house kept the milk from spoiling and hid the food from the flies. A gas-powered washing machine did the big washes; diapers were washed by hand everyday and in winter dried on racks in the house, close - but not too close - to the stove. The only thing I think I really missed, having come from a land of electricity, was an iron. This was before wash and wear and driers. The gas iron blistered my hands from the heat and the flat irons heated on the stove, burnt the clothes.
  There was running water in the house, piped from the dam north of the buildings to the corrals to water the cows; the line to the house was an after-thought. If the cows drank too much, none came into the house or if they drank too vigorously it created a vibration that pounded the faucet open and a flood would ensue, inside the house.
  It was cold water only, so it still had to be heated on the stove for washing dishes, clothes, kids and floors. I could get a lot of miles out of a couple teakettles of hot water. Wash the kids, then the diapers and then the floors!!
  Baths were taken in a galvanized tub brought in from outside and placed in front of the stove. Then afterwards it had to be packed out and dumped outside. Another use, it watered the trees and a few flowers. In summertime the kids finished their play time in the wading pool with a bar of ivory soap. We hauled our drinking water from town.
  I must mention the slop bucket. One who has never had the privilege of living with a slop bucket in the house can never imagine what a @*#*@*?!@!! it was. Peelings went to the chickens, still do, but used water, used garbage, dish water, grease, baby's potty contents, etc. all went into the slop bucket to be hauled out and dumped far from the house or down the outside HOLE. And it had to be dumped at regular intervals. It was usually hidden from view, behind a door or curtain, and with a lid on that was 'suppose' to allow no telltale aroma escape. Until there were toddlers in the house.
  A slop bucket draws a toddler like honey draws flies! It became a menace to drive me almost insane. Toddlers either liked to dangle in it or drop in their toys or whatever else they could find, or try to climb in it and in the process tip the whole mess over. I am so glad that the slop bucket is just a memory!
  We began to get modernized in our area in 1959 when first the highway went through, then in 1960 when we got electricity and in 1961 telephones. This area was one of the last to receive these advancements. Finally in 1973 we got hot running water in the house.
  The kids went to small, one-room, country school houses; first to Indian Butte school with Speed and Jessie Komarek's kids and then to Bohemian Corner (or Central) school with the Zahn, Peters, Boschee kids and then in 1968 into Roy, as the small schools were finally phased out.
  We still live in the original homestead house. The room I do my writing and painting in is the one that Warren's mother cleared out and filled with wheat, once when the harvesters were here and she had no other place to put it. It's slightly out of square.
  Our front room was another homesteaders shack that set a mile away. It once was home to Mom, Dad and five children. I don't know how they stood it. It's only 12 x 16. I grumble that it is too small.
  An electric stove, heater, refrigerator, freezers and lights have replaced the old appliances, so gone is the chimney protruding into the room -- along with ashes, soot and periodically setting the wall afire from an uncontrollable stove. A good artesian well has replaced other sources of water.
  Gone is the smoke from homesteaders stove pipes, just over the hill and out of sight, and in their place, when the sun goes down, scattered yard lights flicker on in the evening, and to the north instead of darkness, the Little Rockies light up with a hundred bright lights from the mines and miner's homes at Zortman and Landusky.
 There have been drastic changes to this area in the years since I have come. The farms have enlarged, the population decreased. The once absolute quietness, with only the sounds of birds or an occasional vehicle motor is now frequently broken by large semis roaring down highway 191; or by sonic booms from the many planes that fly over head (and sometimes at eye level it seems) on their training flights; or by the incessant drone in the not-too-far distance of one of today's large modern farm implements as it tears up more sod.
  But to this city girl--turned country--it still beats all! ^{P.  220}

  Claude White came to Montana in 1913 on an immigrant train, as a young bachelor. He had tools and machinery with him and drove his team of horses and wagon to his homestead site 18 miles northeast of Roy; T 19N R 23E Sec. 6. He built a small house and put in a crop. He hauled wood from the Missouri River breaks and groceries, mostly coffee and tobacco, from Roy. These trips took two days.
  Claude grew up on a farm near St. Joseph, Missouri, where he broke horses and helped farm the home place. He attended school in St. Joe and after high school went to York, Nebraska for a two-year business course. This is where he met his future wife, Anna Siemens.
  After Claude came to Roy, times were very hard. Crops failed and cash was scarce. He did odd jobs wherever and worked for Marshes at one time. He also worked as a swamper in a bar in Roy. One day he was scrubbing the floor and a gun slinger came into the bar. The man was in an ugly mood and pulled his guns, saying to Claude, "I'm going to shoot you." Claude answered the man, "You wouldn't shoot an unarmed man, would you? Let me go and get my gun." The outlaw let him go and, needless to say, Claude didn't go back.
  Anna Siemens was born in Oregon and as a young girl moved with her family to Nebraska. Her father was killed in 1908 in a haying accident, leaving a widow and eight children. Anna was 12 years old and worked for Dr. and Mrs. Moore. She was treated like one of the family. She continued her education and helped care for the three young children. The youngest son became a doctor, like his father, and lived in Helena, Montana.
  Mrs. Moore was a very talented lady and gave Anna piano, voice and painting lessons. Anna lived with them until her marriage to Claude in 1917, in Lewistown.
  After being married they traveled by train to Roy and then to the homestead shack by horses and wagon. She said she had never seen such a desolate sight; no trees or grass and an unpainted shack. Everything was so different than her life had been in Nebraska.
  The next five years were hard; no crops, with hail storms, grasshoppers and then drouth.
  Anna had returned to Nebraska for the birth of her first two sons, Howard in August of 1918 and John F. in October of 1919, but Bob was born on the homestead as her mother was visiting. Claude had gone to Roy to get the doctor and returned several hours too late. Bob arrived on November 30, 1921.
  Anna told of the many rattlesnakes around their home. One day she put two-year-old Howard on the porch step, with a bowl of bread and milk, and when she later checked on him a rattlesnake was dipping into the bowl and then Howard would take a bite. She grabbed the broom and swept the snake off the porch and killed it with a hoe.
  In the summer of 1922 Anna was struck by lightning while hanging clothes on the line. Claude said there was one tiny cloud in the sky. He wrapped her in the wet clothes, as she was badly burnt. He took her to the hospital in Lewistown; where she was unconscious for days. After her discharge 3 months later from St. Joseph's Hospital they moved to Lewistown.
  Later Claude was the farm operator of the Fergus County poor farm. He farmed the land. He had milk cows, hogs, chickens and a huge garden, raising most of the food for the staff and patients.
  In 1932 the Whites bought the Tim and Ida Crowley farm where they lived until Anna's death in 1945 from cancer believed to have been caused from the lightning burns. In 1946 Bob returned from the war and service in the ETO and bought the farm from Claude.
  Claude died in 1962 from heart and lung disease. Howard passed away in May of 1935. John was lost during WWII somewhere in the Pacific War Zone.
 

  William F. and Catherine Franz Wood came to Montana in 1915. They bought a relinquishment and proved up on it. They had three children: Alice born 1908, Catherine born 1911 and William F. Jr. born 1913, all in Des Moines, Iowa. Clara was born in July of 1916 while they were on the homestead and three others: Mary, Richard and Colleen were born after they returned to Des Moines.
  Wm. Jr. writes, "My father was a grocer in Des Moines, he wanted a rest so we went to Montana. In the two and a half years that we were there he made 75 cents. He had brought a trunk from Roy to a homesteader.
  My mother cried for the first two weeks that we were there, but cried more when we left.
  My folks never got tired of telling about the good times that we had there. They said that the best people in the world lived in Montana.
  William Sr. died in 1962 at age 89, Catherine Sr. passed away in 1983 at age 96, and are buried in Des Moines.

  William August Zahn and Anna Meska were born in Germany; William on 5 August 1875, and Anna on 20 May 1883. They came to the United States with their families and settled in the lower part of Michigan and Ohio.
  William and Anna met and were married in Blissfield, Michigan on 4 April 1904. They lived in Michigan where William farmed and did carpentry work.
  While living in Michigan, two sons were born-Wilbert August on 12 June 1905 and Herbert Henry on 17 July 1907.
  William and Anna Zahn left Michigan with their two small sons to settle at Apache, Oklahoma where they planned to farm. Arnold William was born at Apache, 14 June 1909. They lived at this location for about five years.
  Anna and the three boys went back to her family in Michigan for the birth of her fourth child, Ernest John born 20 May 1914. Mr. Zahn had decided to go to Montana to homestead and left Oklahoma with a wagon load of their belongings and a team of mules. Anna and the family came by railroad to Broken Bow, Nebraska, where they met Will and continued with him and the covered wagon to Montana. They came in by Circle and Jordan and followed the 79 Trail across the Musselshell River, arriving at Mrs. Zahn's sister and brother-in-law, the William Gibsons, homestead in July of 1914. Wilbert was 9 years, Herbert 7, Arnold 5 and baby Ernest.
  They moved into a little log cabin on the south side of Crooked Creek just below the Joslin bridge. Mr. Zahn filed on a homestead a mile north of the creek and began constructing their first home of logs that he hauled from the Missouri Breaks. The log house had a dirt floor and they had a tent. The barn and corrals were built next. They picked rocks and plowed a garden spot the spring of 1915. Then a field was cleared for a crop to be planted.
  The country was filling fast as every 160 and 320 were filed on; many homesteaders came with families. The next big necessity was schools for the children. It took a lot of ingenuity to form school districts and build schools, many of which were the result of community effort. By donations, benefit dances and socials, money was raised to buy supplies, with labor being donated by all willing to help on these projects. Lumber had to be purchased and hauled by team and wagon. So it was that Joslin School was built in 1916 with 26 children enrolled the first year. Bridgie A. Hickey, a neighbor lady, taught for several years.
  On the 10 June 1917, Anna gave birth to her youngest son, Howard Clifford. The baby lived only a few hours and was buried on the homestead.
  When Wilbert was about 12 years old, he helped a fellow haul wood and was paid with an old push-button accordian. He learned to play it and played it at dances. Later, he helped build a reservoir to earn money to buy a potato-bug banjo. Mr. Zahn encouraged his sons' musical abilities and bought a fiddle for Wilbert at an auction sale. He carved a violin for Ernest from a maple plank, using horse hair for the bow. Ernest played this at dances when he was 9 years old. The Zahn Band played for dances in surrounding communities for many years. Wilbert played the violin and comet, Herbert the banjo, Arnold the guitar and Ernest was their drummer.
  There were no radios or TVs and self-made entertainment was encouraged by get-to-gethers and dances from one community to the other. The people enjoyed visiting, helping neighbors, and with transportation being slow -- either on foot, horseback or by team and wagon -- distance was limited.
  Along with the good times there was a lot of hard work. The winter supply of wood had to be hauled from the breaks which took a month to cut and haul by team and wagon. Winters were long and cold, getting down to 40 degrees below zero and huge snowdrifts blew around the buildings.
  The Zahn boys all received their eighth grade education at Joslin school. Life-long friendships were made in these communities.
 Anna Zahn was a mother not only to her boys but to ^{P.  222} everyone who stopped by. She was a good cook and it was her custom to feed all who visited. There was a lot of love and respect for her. After coming to Montana, she helped deliver many babies. There are daughters and granddaughters today that tell how their mothers told them about Grandma Zahn's help when a baby came or someone was sick.
  World War I took many of the young single men who homesteaded. The economy, as well as weather conditions, forced many of the inhabitants to not return or to leave the area.
  Mr. Zahn and Wilbert worked at Neihart at the Silver Dyke Mining operation. During this time, Herb, Arnold, Ernest and Mrs. Zahn kept the home going.
  William died at the family home in 1931. This was the beginning of the "Dry Thirties" and the boys maintained the family home; Arnold and Ernest took cowboy jobs and Herb, who was handy with carpentry and machinery continued to ranch.
  In 1936, Ernest bought Matt Arduser's homestead and they moved some of the buildings from the homestead to this place on Crooked Creek. Grandma Zahn lived here until ill health forced her to go to Valle Vista Manor, Lewistown, where she died 31 March 1970. William and Anna Zahn are buried in the Roy Cemetery.

  Ava Mae Kauth was born 21 October 1916 at Roy, Montana, the second daughter of Lawrence and Margaret Kauth. She attended country schools at Valley View, where the family homesteaded, and went to the Waverly Church. Later they moved near Kachia and graduated from the eighth grade with Mrs. Rossiter teaching all through the grades, except for three months when Mrs. Mabel Peoples taught.
  Ava and her sisters attended high school at Roy and she was a star player on the Roy High Girls Basketball Team. Ava graduated with the class of 1935.
  Dances were the most popular entertainment at this time and it was at dances that she and Wilbert became friends, as he was one of the musicians who played at many of the local dances.
  After graduation, Ava was employed at Nicks Cafe in Roy. She and Wilbert were going steady by this time. They were married 2 September 1936 at Lewistown and moved to the old Zahn homestead, where they lived for three years. Their first child, Margie was born 25 August 1939.
  They moved to the former Joslin homestead and have lived there to this date. William was born 6 August 1941, their second child and Wilbert Jr. joined the family 4 October 1943. The children all attended Roy schools.
  Margie married Melvin Campbell and has five children: Florence, Rick, Kathy, Dianne and Dale, William Zahn has two daughters and one son. Gwen, Launa and Guy of Pocatello, Idaho. Wilbert Jr. and Regina Emery were married in 1979 and live at the home place where he farms and ranches.
  Wilbert and Ava celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary in 1986. Wilbert Sr. is still active on the ranch at 84 years and has been at the Joslin location for 75 years. They have numerous grand-and great grandchildren.^{P.  223}

  My mother, Elma Webb, and I came back to Montana the summer of 1938, after leaving our Wilder home in 1935. I had completed my sophomore year of high school in Chicago and mother went back to her nursing profession. We decided to stay at Roy and I completed high school at RHS.
  Ernest Zahn and I had become friends during the two years at Roy and I spent some of my vacation at Zahn's ranch. We were married after I graduated in 1940.
  We built up a ranch on Crooked Creek, part of which was the old Dutch Louis ranch of early fame. We bought several adjoining homesteads which included: Wiley Scott, Charles Jarrett, Wm. Gibson, Jerry Hosnedle, Sophis Martinson, John Wilson and later, T. L. Peterson & son's homestead. The Joslin post office and the school were located on the Estabrook land where we lived.
  We had two daughters: Bonnie, born 5 August 1953 and Betty, born 15 November 1957. Both were born at St. Joseph's Hospital, Lewistown.
  My mother spent the summers with us and did special nursing in Chicago during the winter months. When Bonnie arrived, she gave up her profession and stayed at the ranch with us. Her granddaughters were her pride and joy and they have always been grateful for her loving care through their childhood. She was 94 years when she passed away, 15 January 1974. She was buried at Sunset Memorial Gardens, Lewistown.
  Ernest and I spent 46 years on the ranch and raised horses and cattle. We saw many changes in the country, from the open range we loved to ride, to grazing districts and fenced pastures, The coming of Highway 191, which crossed our land; rural electrification, telephone service; from horse drawn haying machinery to mechanized equipment; and the best improvement of all, an artesian water well, 3800 feet deep, 80^O warm, with a flow of 85 gallons per minute and 60# pressure.
  We are proud of our daughters' accomplishments and our four grandchildren. Bonnie Griffith is a radiologist in Walla Walla, WA., and Betty Westburg is employed by the BLM in Lewistown.
  Ernest's failing health forced us to leave the ranch in March of 1987. Cancer claimed his life, 10 February 1989. He was buried at Sunset Memorial Gardens, Lewistown.
  I have been helping to make "Homestead Shacks Over Buffalo Tracks" a reality.

 About 1945 or 1946, I remember W.E. Jones, our mailman carried mail on the Wilder Route for a long time. Then Bill Marsh had the route for a number of years.
 I recall that they always ran errands and brought groceries for old John Turner, as he was an old hermit that lived below my grandmother's (Anna Zahn) homestead, 17 miles northeast of Roy. He never went to town.
  I recall about 1950 that a big den of rattlesnakes was dug out of a section of land below the old Cottrell place and between my folks; Wilbert and Ava Zahn, along with Herb and Arnold Zahn and some neighbors killed 144 rattlesnakes in one day. Old John Turner came ^{P.  224} from his place to help and he would walk through the area with just a long stick and kill one snake after another and never get bitten!! Sure helped to cut down on the snakes in that area.
  During haying season in the summer I remember my job was to drive "Pat and Toots"; (Arnold's team of horses) back and forth putting up the bucked up load of hay. The hay had been laid on the forks of the overshot stacker by the buckrake. I raised it up to the top of the hay stack so it could be layed out and topped, then the rain and the weather would not mold and spoil it. This was livestock feed for winters in Montana. I started school, boarding with Frances and Wesley Bru, at the Cimrhakl school. The Bru's had a daughter my age. Her name was Josie (Josephine). My first grade teacher was Margaret Stephens and my second grade teachers were Mrs. Walter Braiser and Mrs. Claude Satterfield. From the third grade through the fifth grade, we took correspondence courses at home. From grade six on I attended school in Roy and boarded out.

  Born 17 July 1907 at Blissfield, Michigan, Herb went to Apache, Oklahoma with his family where he lived for five years.
  Herbert received his education at the Joslin School under the tutelage of B. A. Hickey, Flora Sandstrom, Ivy Davis, Eudora Bontrager, Mrs. Vivian Dickamore, and Josie Hickey.
  He was a talented banjo player and a member of the dance band that he and his brothers organized. Dances were the main entertainment from the late teens through the thirties and they played throughout northeast Fergus County for over thirty years.
  Herb learned carpentry from his father, was handy at blacksmithing and always involved with machinery.
  He remained at the family home, caring for his mother throughout his lifetime. He helped her with her gardens, of which she was very proud and when they moved down on Crooked Creek, Herb began raising alfalfa on the creek bottoms and had some very successful seed crops. Fishing was a sport he enjoyed a great
deal and he liked to go to the Missouri River.
  Herbert died at home 4 January 1965 of a sudden heart attack. He was buried at the Roy Cemetery beside his father.

(Photo) 
Herbert Zahn helping to put up hay on the Zahn ranch along Crooked Creek - 1943. Notice the 'Fly nets" on the horses.

  Arnold Zahn was born 14 June 1909 at Apache, Oklahoma.
  He received his education at Joslin school. Arnold enjoyed the life of a cowboy and rancher.
  He was called to the service in World War II and left Lewistown April 15, 1942. He was with Company C 343 Corps of Engineers, trained at Camp Clairborne, Louisiana and left the USA from Fort Dix, New Jersey, going first to England and European action (Italy, France, Germany and North Africa). He received his discharge October 1945.
  He ranched at the family home and never married.
  He died at the Central Montana Hospital 21 May 1984, a victim of cancer. Burial was at Sunset Memorial Gardens of Lewistown with Military Honors.

  Frans Zelenka, a native of Prague, Czechoslovakia was born there on November 27, 1866. He came to America, as a young boy, with his parents. On November 12, 1891 he and Mary Pavlik were married at Bellevilla, Kansas. The family moved from Kansas to Oklahoma and then to Roy in 1914 to farm. Their homestead was northeast of Heils T 19N R 23E Sec. 13.
  There were six children in the family: Ernest, October 23, 1892-June 25, 1966; Frank, March 31, 1894-April 29, 1975; Mollie, June 3, 1897-December 24, 1978; Elsie, July 1899-September 1, 1979; Earl, June 24, 1902 November 17, 1978 and Inez born in 1910.
  Frans and Mary moved to a farm near Hilger and then about 1928 they purchased a farm near Lewistown. Frans died May 5, 1941. Mary was remarried after Frans death to Ben Devivier, in 1946. She passed away in 1951 in ^{P.  225} Lewistown.

  Ernest homesteaded north of Joslin in 1915 or 1916. His homestead joined that of his brother, Frank's. He was a veteran of WWI.
  Ernest married Sylvia Wyland of Hilger. They moved to Scio, Oregon where he passed away. Their children are: Toodie, Leonard, Ray, Albert, Esther, Susan and Patricia.

  When Frank returned from the service after WWI, he farmed both his and his brother, Ernest's places, until the government bought Ernest out in 1938. Frank lived in a dug-out (house) until he moved to Ernest's place. Frank's homestead is now a part of the Wilbert Zahn Ranch.
  About 1939 or 40 Frank purchased the Nellie Pierre (Nelson) T 20 R 23 north 1/2 of Sec. 26 and Ira Davis, T 20 R 23 south 1/2 of section 26, places and farmed there until he retired and moved into Lewistown in the early 1960's.
  The buildings on Frank's place are history themselves--all were moved in. The only thing he built was the root cellar. For the first two years he lived in Nellie Pierre's house. His permanent residence was the house of Bill Schultz (north of Roy) which was moved in, in 1942. Joe Medek's house was moved in, in 1945 and was used for storage. A tall house, moved from the west with the help of Charles Oquist was used as a granary. The rest of the buildings were moved in from A.J. Andersons, Henry Edwards and Nellies 10 x 10 foot house, all used as grain bins. A garage was also moved in but a tornado took it in July of 1949. Most pieces of it were never found. Outside of the house that Oquist helped move in and the garage, Warren Willmore helped Frank with his building moving operations. They used two 15.30 IHC tractors and skids to get the jobs done.
  Frank had a dry sense of humor. One harvest he hired Eleanor Cottrell to cook for himself and one or two others. Eleanor made a cherry pie one day, but forgot to pit the cherries. Frank ate the pie, never saying a word. When the cook got around to tasting her pie she discovered the error. Frank thoroughly convinced her that he had eaten the pie and he never noticed any pits. She never could find any either, because he'd slipped all the pits into a pocket on the leg of his bib overalls and disposed of them when he got back out in the field.
  Many cottontails lived around his buildings and Frank fed them all. One in particular developed a taste for Frank's cooking and often came in the house and ate with him. If she couldn't get in she'd jump up and down outside the window at meal time until he would finally feed her.
 Frank never married.

  Mollie married Frank Herdina and they lived in the Hilger area, later moving to a farm near Belgrade. Their children were: Elmer, Gladys (Fred Tubb), Glenn and Ralph.
  Elsie married Gus Janda and they made their home in Nebraska on a farm. Their children were: Dale, David and Pearl. (There may have been more children).
  Inez married Melvin Oakes. They lived in the Lewistown area and later moved to Washington state. They have one girl, Ann.

Earl married Bertha A. Dickson from Minnesota. They farmed in the Valentine area until 1935 or 36. Then they moved to the Maiden area and later to Lewistown. Earl will be remembered for his fiddle, as he played for many of the dances in the Roy area.
  Bertha rode the train out to Roy in 1924 or 25 to teach at the Joslin school. She married Earl in 1926.
 Earl and Bertha's children are: Beatrice (Everette Bullis), Jean (Lyle Hassler) and Donald. Bea and Everette have three children: a son Terry and two daughters, Carol and Linda. Donald has Robert, Ronald and Ranae. Bea lives at Hardin, Don at Helena and Jean at Hilger.
  We lost Mom on August 19, 1978. The following poem is one that she wrote about Dad.

LESTER McKEVIN-- did custom plowing for homesteaders. He had a steam engine.

JOHN METTIER--went to Valle Vista Manor in Lewistown when Matt Arduser (who took care of him) died. John Mettier was born in Devos, Switzerland, 9 February 1887, where he was schooled. He was married at Beldon, Nebraska in 1911, and had one daughter, Margaret Heck of Palouse, Washington and two sisters living in Switzerland. Mettier farmed in the Roy area during homesteading days, T 20N R 24E Sec. 13. Mettier died at Valle Vista Manor, at the age of 83 years, 2 February 1971. He was buried at the Lewistown City Cemetery.

MR. AND MRS. CLEVELAND SPINNER-- homesteaded in the Joslin area. In October of 1917 he was working in the Hanover Cement Plant and was paid 37 1/2 cents an hour for 10 hour days, common labor. Carpenters received 62 1/2 cents  per hour. Board was $1.00 a day.

• Larry and Helen Jordan, Newlyweds.
• William and Helena Kudzia
• Anna Good Musselman
• Morris Rasmussen
• May 1929. Building the ranch up. The Joslin store has been attached to the barn, marking a place for the horse stalls.
• Curley, Bob, Mart and Warren. 1953.
• First living quarters on the William Zahn homestead. The tent was used for sleeping and the log house for living and cooking quarters. Barrel in front of the house was to haul water as there wasn't any source of water before a spring was dug out.
• taken 1915 or 1916.
• William (Will) and Anna Zahn about 1930 on the homestead.
• The Zahn Brothers Band From left to right: Wilbert, Herbert, Arnold and Ernest.
• Taken about 1925 on the homestead place.
• "Dude" and "Croppy" push the IHC bull rake to load the hay which was then pushed onto the overshot hay stacker. The overshot then was lifted by a pulley system with another team of horses (not shown) and the hay thrown on the stack. Herb Zahn built this stacker, shown. One of the first overshot stackers in the area was purchased by Tom and Ray McNulty in 1927. These photos were taken about 1942 on the W. Zahn place.
• Rattlesnakes den up when the weather is cold and stay until spring. This photo, taken about 1950, shows the rattlers that were killed when a den was 'cleaned' out below the old Cottrell place - Joslin area - northeast of Roy. In one day 144 were killed.
• Earl and Bertha Zelenka on the occasion of their Golden Wedding anniversary in 1976. Taken at their home in Lewistown.
• Mary and Franz Zelenka with their son in law Melvin Oakes. Taken in 1937.
• The Earl Zelenka home at Roy about 1935-36.
• Frank Zelenka in 1967.