The Little Crooked post office was named for Little Crooked Creek, a tributary of Big Crooked. Montgomery Marshall ran the post office and store in his house, which was located on the north side of the Rocky Point Trail and the community building and school was directly south. This stood for many years and finally collapsed. Ole Sandstrom and Nels Fritzner headed the construction of this building in 1916.
   Montgomery Marshall went back to Zion, Illinois, after homesteading. Sadie Carter Baker continued to run the poet office until it closed. However, Bakers moved the office to the Spiker house on the south side of Little Crooked Creek, where they lived before moving to Black Butte.

  Little Crooked school was one of several schools in District #101 which was a very large district The furthest school to the west was Baker Springs, west of Armells Creek. There were schools at Bundane; the Woods south of Rasmussen's; in the Bushman and the Fryman houses that were near the Jakes family who had nine children; they also attended Little Crooked and the Byford school. Baker Springs had a large enrollment and had school every year. The small populated areas needed five children in order to receive state aid, so it depended on financial help as to whether there was school or not
 Montgomery Marshall donated the land to build the Little Crooked School and community hall. Logs were hauled from the river breaks with teams and wagons. The logs were hewed on four sides, and every few feet holes were drilled to insert pegs to hold the logs in place This was all done by hand. The banding was about 18 feet by 50 feet Everyone in the area came when it was time to erect the building. N. D. Fritzner and Ole Sandstrom took charge. Women cooked over open fires for the crew. When the hall was completed, a dance was held to celebrate the occasion.
  The first teacher was Flora Sandstrom. The other teachers were B. A. Hickey, Vivian Dickamore Hazel Duncan Ridgeway, Louise Conner, Mabel Larson Woodcock, Marie Skibness Myrle Goheen, Bertha Jenson and Charles Morgan was the last teacher in 1934-35.
  This was a large district with several schools (see Bundane Byford and Baker Springs). The school census for 1917 showed 204 children in this district The school district was abandoned in 1942.

  The Little Crooked 4th of July celebrations became annual affairs for several years. People would come from as far away as Valentine, Box Elder Creek and Musselshell to attend. They came via horseback, wagons buckboards and a few even came in cars.
  Little Crooked was situated out on the open prairie, quite a distance from any trees. One year, celebrants were surprised to find groves of fir trees. The trees had been cut, hauled and "planted" the day before to picnic under. Willis Rainford loaned the community a large silk United States flag to fly on the flag pole.
 The Fritzner and Sandstroms were great organizers and they would have speakers and entertainment come out from Lewistown and other places. If live music for dancing couldn't be found, Mrs. Webbs phonograph player would be borrowed.
 After the big 'Shoot Out' the celebrations slowly began to be phased out. Most people had left or were beginning to leave the country.

  A gala celebration took place at Little Crooked on July 4, 1919. Homesteaders came from miles around to attend and in 1988 those still around who attended were still talking about it.

  Albrecht bought the homesteads of Wm. O'Donahue and Oliver Busick in T 20N, R. 26E, Sec 27, 28, 33, 34 and T 19N, R 28E, Sec 3,4. He lived at this location and Crooked Creek in the 1920's and ran some draft-type horses He got his mail at Little Crooked Post Office and then Wilder. He trapped in the winter and sold his furs to furriers who advertised at the post office. These companies quoted prices, but you took what they gave. In the late 1920's Albrecht planned to go to Medicine Hat, Canada, driving through by team and wagon and taking some horses. He sold Mrs. Webb a grey weaner colt for $12.00 as he didn't want to take it on this long trip. She grew up to be a beautiful dappled grey Percheron mare. Steve Webb broke her to work and she was a good work animal.
  I don't know that he reached Canada, but he was in the Malta area, as he came back by car in the 1940's and sold his land. Mr. Albrecht was an elderly man at this time.

  Charles Allen homesteaded on the east side of Button Butte in the Little Crooked area. He was a blacksmith and shod horses and did other work for homesteaders around the area.
  His wife was Bonnie (Shanklin who had a homestead on the trail just east of her father's place. Bonnie also taught school.
  The Allens and their six-year-old son, Jack, left in 1924 and went to Nebraska so their son could attend school there.

  The three Buck brothers, Walter, Milo and Monte came to Montana from Herrick, Illinois, Shelby County, where they were educated. Walter homesteaded Section 11 T. 20N. R. 25E, Button Butte at Little Crooked, Montana. Milo entered the Service and served in World War I In 1921. Milo married Mildred Effie Martin, daughter of the Lott Martins and her sisters married the other Buck boys. Walter married Jane, and Lenore and Monte Buck were married in 1928.
  Milo freighted from Little Crooked to Lewistown with a four-horse team and freight wagon, from Lewistown to Fort Benton and on to Big Sandy. He told of coming into Lewistown on or near the Fourth of July and it had snowed and mud was hub-deep. He put up the horses at the Day Livery Barn. He was suffering with a toothache and packed his mouth with snow to ease the pain until he could reach the dentist.
  They made many friends and attended the dances at little Crooked and neighboring get-to-gethers. The Charlie Allens were their close neighbors at the Butte. After their marriage Milo farmed and worked on ranches in the Roy area. In 1922, Milo farmed and hayed for Cook & Reynalds on what was known as the Roy Bottom which was above the Smith & Laraway and ran to Fergus. He used mowers, rakes, buckrakes and stacker which were horse drawn and the stacking was done by hand. He knew Frank Gradle and the LaFountain twins worked for him. We bought groceries at Hanson's Mercantile at Roy. A big event in their lives took place when on 8 September 1922 twin girls were

 born to them in Lewistown. They were named Betty Jane and Bonnie Bell. 
  We lived at the Horse Ranch and I remember Mother saying that when Mrs. John Kaaro came to help her that Jimmy would pull us around in our little red wagon.
  Milo had greyhounds and did a lot of hunting with them. People were amazed at the teamwork these dogs executed in catching coyotes.
  We were out on the homestead off and on during these years.
  Daddy worked for the PN Ranch, haying and gathering cattle for Mr. Wilson. We lived five miles up the Judith River and were at this place for four years. There was good fishing and our father caught some huge sturgeon and we would have a big fish-fry for the neighborhood.
  Our brother, Jack, was born 28 September 1929 and we moved to the Lewistown area. Daddy hayed in the Maiden Valley where we lived and he built houses as well as five or six in Lewistown.
  He worked at the Black Diamond Coal Mine out toward Forest Grove. My sister and I used to go in the mine with him and we would get to ride out on the car pulled by a little team of mules Jack and Jennie. He hauled coal to Lewistown schools. We went to school in Maiden and Lewistown. We were in Zortman in 1936 when the big fire in the Little Rockies destroyed so much timber and threatened the towns. Daddy was working in the gold mines and all the men were sent out to fight the fire.
  I married Ernest Westburg and six children were born to us Verna Ann, 24 October 1942; Claudia Marie 26 September 1944; Milo Ernest, 4 July 1946; Robert Lowell, 26 November 1947; Albert Lester, 10 March 1950 and Patricia Jane, 5 April 1957. My mother passed away 29 December 1956. We lost Robert in an accident 7 August 1968. Milo Buck died 25 October 1976, and my twin sister; Betty on August 31, 1979. Brother Jack lives in Alaska.
   Several of the Westburgs worked in the Roy area. Ike worked for Joe Murphy in his Roy Garage He was a good hand with horses and broke horses for different ones east of Roy in the thirties. John helped the Duboise family move to the Jennings place east of Roy. Clarence was one of the cowboys that worked for Jack Baucke when he shipped in 600 head of Mexican steers by rail to Roy and they trailed them to the river breaks. Later Clarence and his family lived in Roy and he was janitor of the Roy school for several years. Son, Albert and Betty Zahn were married 20 October 1979 and have two sons Dana was born 9 November 1980 and Nicholas was born 28 February 1984.

   In the spring of 1919, Clarence and Sadie Baker with Olin, 9 years and Lola, who was 4, came from Burke, Idaho by train to Roy, Montana. Grandpa Carter met us in Roy with team and wagon. Joslin and his homestead were 16 miles away and about a day's drive. Darkness fell before we arrived. Grandpa Carter came from the Palouse country in Washington and homesteaded just across Crooked Creek, northeast of the store. We crossed the bridge but there was no water under it. He had a typical two room "boxcar" shack. This structure was made by placing the center beam lengthwise of the house and several inches higher than the side plates with the roof sheeting bent over and nailed to the side plates making the rounded roof and covered with heavy roofing paper, which resembled the shape of a boxcar. The sides were the same type of inch lumber used on the roof and nailed to the framework of 2x4s. The outside walls were covered with tar paper and held in place by laths nailed to the boards (The tar paper often blew away the first year.) The inside walls might be covered with cardboard boxes or building paper. There was also a small chicken house, barn, and corral and the usual root cellar for keeping supplies at my grandparent's home. He had fenced a small grain field and pasture. The folks shipped furniture and household belongings from our home at Burke which came later. I remember Mom's high buttoned shoes and our hand cranked Victorola, which played 78 RPM records. Some of the records were: "The Preacher and the Bear" and Al Jolson's "Sonny Boy". Mom also told that she had a small hoard of gold coins that she had saved from Dad's pay check. Gold was legal tender in those days. We moved into a small shack south of the store on Dr. Estabrook's homestead, when we first came. Then moved onto the Joslin homestead about one half mile east. This was a white house with an upstairs and cellar underneath. Mom had a 100 egg incubator in the cellar, where the temperature was steady and hatched chicks. They were put outside in coops and pens where they were fed and watered. Chickens supplied eggs and meat and Mom used some of the feathers for pillows and feather ticks.
  During the first winter in Montana, Grandma and Mom got a fleece which they washed, carded and spun into yarn. They knitted socks caps and mittens This required much work, but they were very warm.
  In order to keep us kids in school the winter of 1920, the folks moved into an abandoned homestead shack, the Fryman place a one-room 12x14' house with a trapdoor

  in the middle of the floor a ladder went down into the cellar. One day Lola came running in from outside when the cellar door was open and down she went! Luckily she was not hurt, only frightened. The school was held in another deserted homestead house which had two rooms, one used by the teacher to live in. The two rooms had been built in such a manner that the two Bushman brothers could live together each on his individual homestead. This was not an unusual practice. Lola was just starting school. It was about a mile but often in the bitter cold winter she would sit down and cry and I would practically have to drag her all the way home. We pulled our desks as close to the stove as possible. Our sandwiches were often frozen, but if we had a jar of beans we could warm them on the stove There was a prairie dog town between school and where we lived, the rattlesnakes would den in the burrows. That spring, I was running home from school and jumped right over a rattler.
  Christmas at school was a great event. Students spent much time preparing songs, skits and poems to present at the big Christmas program, attended by our parents grandparents, friends and neighbors. Everyone sang carols and enjoyed the big Christmas tree with decorations made by the children from strings of popcorn, colored paper chains and cut-outs. The bells and Santa's cheerful "HO! HO! HO! and bag of candy, nuts and popcorn balls for all the good little boys and girls brought evenings entertainment to a joyous close. At home that year, we didn't have a tree but hung up our stockings. I got a whistle that you put in water and blew to make it warble. Another time, I received a knife with a chain to attach to my pants so as not to lose it. One Christmas I was given a dollar watch. These were very special highly valued and remembered by me. It was very difficult for our folks, but we always had clothes and food. The fruit came in dried varieties, and big game was scarce. A sage hen or jack rabbit was welcome meat for the menu. One of the first green things to appear in the spring were the wild onions. Our teacher was often upset when we came to school after picking and eating them. Also the cows milk in the spring would be tainted by them and sometimes it was not useable.
  The Zahn homestead joined Grandpa's on the north. Arnold was about my age and Ernest, a little younger We enjoyed lifelong friendships. We made huts in the willow thickets along Crooked Creek, chased frogs, made lettuce sandwiches and baked potatoes in a campfire. We dug steps in the creek banks to scale those dizzy heights. Years later when I returned, I was amazed how much those high banks had shrunk! We made a few discoveries of ancient things buried in those banks. We dug up whiskey bottles from the site of the Dutch Louie saloon at Joslin.
  While still in the grades, one of my first jobs was for the Hickey's; Bridgie was my teacher for several years. I milked cows cranked the hand cream seperator fed the calves the skimmed milk, built fence and creeps to allow cattle to go under a fence and stop horses from going through. I got $20 a month and my board which was good wages for a kid and I was happy to earn it. I shocked grain bundles for A. J. Anderson, a Joslin neighbor. Here I learned to use a pitchfork and watch where I put my feet as rattlesnakes were common in the fields. There were some close calls, but I learned to recognize that distinct buzz.
  Grandpa Carter was running the Joslin store and post office in 1920, but the post office was discontinued and the Carter's moved to Black Butte in 1921 and we moved onto their place. In the meantime, Dad filed on a claim relinquished by Mr. Leathers which was north of Little Crooked, about 4 miles. That summer Dad and I fenced, planted some fruit trees and built a little reservoir (which never held water due to the soil).
  In the fall, we went to stay on John Deck's place while they took a trip to Illinois for his parent's golden wedding celebration. I went to school at Byford again, with five Jakes children, three Lucas and Lola. Mrs. Bonnie Allen was our teacher.
  Dad traded our Victorola for two cows that winter. We hated to see this happen, as we had spent many hours listening to it's nice music.
  Our homestead was on the east side of the coulee and Uncle Hubert and Aunt Vida Carter had built on the west side. Their only son, Homer was born there. They were going to move to Black Butte and Dad got their log buildings and one became our house. We put in a garden and watered it from holes in Carter Coulee by carrying water in buckets and watering each plant set in cane with both ends cut out. It turned out pretty well and even raised watermelons. We saved two for Dad when he came home from harvest in the Judith Basin that fall.
  We attended the Fourth of July doings at Little Crooked in 1921 and I remember taking part in games footraces and greased pole climb with Harold Ware. Uncle Tilford Carter rode his little horse "Tuesday" in the horse races. The rodeo was real Western. The broncs had been run in off the range, wild, green stock. They roped one and dragged it out of the corral, saddled and the rider mounted. He rode until the horse quit bucking or was thrown. No time limit or rules just who made the best ride won the money (not much prize money involved). There was a fireworks display at dark and a dance followed. It was marked by the sad event in the death of Al Green.
  We were living on our homestead in 1938 and it was a dry summer our garden didn't turn out. When Dad came home from harvest that fall, he found that Mr. Marshall wanted to leave Little Crooked and go back to Zion, Illinois, (Maybe he could see the handwriting on the wall-many homesteaders had left already) He and Dad made the deal and we moved to Marshall's and

 Mom became postmaster, The little store carried a small supply of coffee canned goods tobacco and candy. There was a steel barrel with gasoline and a little container of motor oil-not many cars on the road at this time. Bootleggers frequented this trail and paid well for help when they got stuck in the mud holes.
  Dad went to work at the Anaconda Smelter for added income, We did have school right here, for which we were so fortunate. The Pipes family, neighbors east of Button Butte were the first to have a radio and we used to go hear the program by Henry Fields from Shanandoah, Iowa. Reception was best on clear cold nights, nothing came in during the day time hours. When Pipes' left and moved to Lewistown we put up the hay on their place. Dad sent money to hire help for me and Herb Sandstrom was hired one year and Arnold Zahn came over the next year. We took the stock over there in the winter rather than haul the hay. Another time when there was no water, we leased a dam east of Button Butte and I went to camp and take care of the sheep and cattle. The first evening I set up my tent, unrolled my bed and started a fire to cook my food, the sheep decided to leave. I ran to bring them back to the bedground and when I returned the wind had blown the fire into my bedding. I put out the fire and discovered the sheep were leaving again, so I took the tarp and the dog and stayed down wind with the sheep.  I had a Model T Ford and made regular trips to take Mom a barrel of water and juniper that I cut for wood. She would always have food and clean clothes for me to bring back.
  We moved down on Little Crooked Creek to the Spiker place where there was a good set of buildings and a cistern to hold water. My brother Earl was born in September of 1928. Not long after, the post office was discontinued as most of the patrons had left the area and the 'Dry Thirties' were beginning. John Turner was the last patron. Now there were no post offices between Roy and Wilder and mailboxes were put up along the route. Mail still came twice a week.
  While at Spikers we experienced another fire. Evidently a spark from the cook stove ignited the wood supply which was piled near the house. All our possessions had been carried out in the yard while we battled the blaze. Had it not been for some extra help that day we would never have put out the fire. Luckily the wood pile was all that was lost. We had to haul another winter supply.
  I guess the happiest time of my life at this point was when I helped gather the range horses. Charley Miller boarded at our house and we also gathered the ZA horses. 200 head of them were add to Chappel Brothers and we swam them across the Missouri River at Rocky Point. Owen Davis and I had the job of holding them up on the north side when they came out of the water. (Picture) This herd was taken to a lease on the Indian Reservation. The roundups continued to gather the great herds of horses that grazed the range in this area-they were sold, canned and disposed of to make way for sheep and cattle.
  I graduated from high school in Lewistown. The folks left Little Crooked and moved to Black Butte. I had a riding job for Desbrow and McVey when they came in with cattle in 1934-35.
  The drouth forced more people to leave and Carters and our family moved to St. Ignatius. This has been my home since that time. My parents and my sister, Lola are deceased.

  The Derrer family came to the Little Crooked area from Zion City, Illinois in 1916 with several families. The group rented a box car to bring their belongings to Montana. The other families in the group beckoned by the lure of "free" land were: Mr. and Mrs. Marshall; Mr. Nelson and her son, Bill; her daughter and husband, the Cunninghams; and the Blaine family. They an took up homesteads in the area and moat had moved to Lewistown after the first winter except for the Derrers. Blaines lived on a prairie dog town that was just south of Button Butte. "The sage cocks would gather there to strut, but it was so horribly windy on that flat." 
  Others from Zion that also homesteaded in this area was an elderly couple by the name of Summer. They had evidently been business people. They were "dressed up" most of the time and didn't go around much. They had the nicest house around. Other neighbors were the Sandstroms Fritzners and Spikers.
Lydia Derrer was horn on December 10, 1899 and her brother, Ernest, on May 28, 1901 in Zurich, Switzerland. They were taken to Zion City, Illinois by their parents, Gottlieb and Marie (Wegmann) Derrer in 1903. There they became members of the religious group, the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church of Zion.
 Unfortunately for this group of homesteaders they were among the last to homestead and the land they filed on was worthless for any kind of farming. Part of it is now in the CM Russell Game Range.
  It was in 1916, probably early winter, that Ernest and Lydia witnessed the last big roundup of Longhorn steers in the area. So many homesteaders had begun to put up barb wire fences that the day of the open range was closing. The cattle had been driven north from Texas in the spring to fatten on the strong northern buffalo grass.
 The two had gone over to the Little Crooked Post Office and saw all the dust and activity going on nearby They went over to watch the branding and to visit with the cowboys, who invited them to stay for lunch.
  One thing Lydia remembers vividly is that surrounding the "remuda" (saddle horses) was a large circle that was outlined with a rope. "Not a horse -- and there were a couple hundred -- came outside that circle, while we ate" Ernest explained that usually it took no more than two trippings to educate a green horse to stay inside of that rope corral.
  Another vivid memory was of the Longhorns themselves "They weren't very big animals, hut the size of their horns was tremendous". Ernest thought the cattle were 'Powers Mercantile' cattle (Horseshoe Bar) Two of the cowboys that they remember in particular were Bert McCracken and Freddie Fox. McCracken, a man with a huge white mustache rode circle (about 25 miles) and would stop in to visit with the Derrers. He uttered the first curse words Lydia ever heard. Freddie was a younger man; "Heck of a nice fellow." His folks had a place down on the Musselshell "Oh how he could ride a horse--he was like part of the animal" Ernest says.
  Ernest related the following story about Freddie.

   "One time Freddie went with me to get a cow that had strayed down by Joslin. He rode his own horse and brought one for me. I had tried to get the cow before and she would run along the fence so fast, then cut off and go down in the breaks and stop. In the meantime I would have gone by her. By the time I'd get back, she would have cut through the fence and be gone.
  "Freddie was following behind her same as I was, but when she stopped, his horse jumped pretty near right in the middle of her and he wrapped that ole cow with his rope, and son-of-gun if that old cow didn't just line out and head down the trail for home. Never looked right or left.

  "When we got to Byford he said, 'Let's get some candy.' He had some money.
  "I said,' What about that cow?' I thought she'd run back.
  "He said, 'Don't worry about her She ain't going to move' She didn't either!"
  The Derrers built a two-story, two-room house The walls were double with the dirt in between, but still it was cold and frost formed on the ceiling of the upstairs bedroom and sometimes on the bedding.
  Ernest helped build the Little Crooked Schoolhouse which he attended. Lydia attended high school in Lewistown. The first year (Sept of 1916) she worked as a 'mother's helper' for the Hodges He owned the town drug store. There were three little ones from age 3 down and another on the way. Much, too much, was required of Lydia with no remuneration, not even enough to eat so her mother went in and got her and took her home at Christmas time.
  She contacted the principal of the high school, Mr. Cummings and told him how much she wanted to go to school. A dormitory was under construction, and he had her come and live with his family until it was completed. She worked for her room and board at the dorm and "really enjoyed" her life there. It was there she met her lifelong friend, Murna Martin Southworth.
  The family was here during the worst drought years. The only thing they were able to raise was some squaw corn which they and their animals ate. They could raise so little on the land that Gottlieb had to return to Chicago to work in machine shops just to make enough money to make the annual required improvements and

 every fall Ernest would go to the Judith Basin to work in the harvest to earn the winter "grubstake." Gottlieb also worked as a bull cook for a construction crew building a tunnel near Lewistown, at one time. Once when he was working on this crew he came home and walked from Roy to the homestead in the middle of the night about 30 miles distance.
  For fruit they had one box each of oranges and apples, to last a year There was a cow for milk and butter but in the spring when the wild onions grew (the only thing that seemed to grow) the milk took on such a flavor they couldn't use it. They would find a few chokecherries, service berries and buffalo berries. Wild rose haws were made into jelly. They ate lots of beans and cornbread. When the war came in 1918 they had to bake sugarless, eggless cakes and bread with flour that was almost all bran (shorts) and would not rise.
  Water was a big problem. Little Crooked Creek was alkaline so they hauled water from the Missouri River in rain barrels (for drinking). They had to pull the barrels up the river breaks hills and by the time they reached the top, much had splashed out. On a trip hack to Montana and a visit to the homestead, several years later, the Derrers asked for a drink of water on a ranch they visited, and were directed to the familiar water barrel sitting by the side of the house the water was warm from the afternoon sun and a host of mosquito larvae wriggled in it. It was a memory they had forgotten, up until then!
  Another problem was the gumbo--when it did rain. It would take a four-horse team to pull the mail through. The gumbo rolled up, filled the spokes and accumulated to the point where the horses could not even pull the cart.
  They would attend dances held down along the river where the ferry ran. There was a store there and that's where the dances were held. It was a two or three day trip. Lydia recalled one dance where she walked from their house to the Fritzners, a distance of about five miles. She spent the night and the next day they all went down to the river. The dance lasted all night, so they didn't return home until the next day. Ernest remembers that particular dance. He had ridden down with another fellow. "There was lots of good food, lots of people dancing and a big story going around about some outlaws and four or five 'crazy guys' got in a rowboat and went across the river"   In 1918, at the age of 18, Lydia married a neighboring homesteader, Bert Johnson (see Bert Johnson). The families struggled for a few more years but in the early 20's they left Montana, except for Ernest, and headed  for California. Marie Derrer passed away in 1937 and Gottlieb in 1949. Both are buried at El Cerrito, California.
  Ernest stayed on in Montana for a few years longer. He worked for a fellow near the oil fields, in the Winnett area.
  One experience Ernest had was getting caught in a in a storm, west of Roy. He struggled and fought deep snow for a couple of days and finally made it into Roy. The hotel was full of men who had been waiting for five days for someone to open the road. They couldn't believe he'd made it through. Ernest went to stable his horse and when he went back to the hotel to get something to eat the fellows had all left and gone home.
  Ernest and Lloyd Henneman were batching down in the breaks one time. It was cold, 40 below, and when one of the fellows stepped outside for a moment and then came back in he could smell something burning. Opening the trap door upstairs, they found everything was all smoke and flames. Henneman grabbed a pan of water off the stove and managed to carry it up the ladder and splashed water all around, by hand, and got the fire out. The feather tick on the bed had gotten up against the chimney. There were feathers scattered everywhere. They collected up what they could, poked them down in the tick and tied a knot. Outside of some burned hands, all was well. At least, at 40 below, they still had a house to sleep in.
  Another memory Ernest had of his days in the Little Crooked country was of the "rum-runners".
  Spikers were the first to leave the country. Abe Phillips took over the place. These "rum-runners" and their girls, "supposedly their wives," would stop and stay at the Spiker house. Their cars would be parked out behind so when the revenue officers would drive by they could not see any cars. 
  Ernest left the area about 1924. He too, settled in California. Both Ernest and Lydia live in the Santa Rosa area (1988), She is 88, he is 87. Ernest loves to talk about Montana better than anything else to the point where his friends have an nicknamed him "Montana". 
  Gottlieb continued to pay the taxes on his homestead for many years after he moved to California in 1928.

   Frances Link Fox and Harold Fox moved from Forest Grove, Montana in a wagon to Little Crooked Creek in 1933. Frances' father John Link Sr., moved with them. They had a few head of cattle which John drove, We camped along the way; it took about seven days.
  There were four girls in the family: Arlene, 13; Virginia, 12; Juanita, 4; and Jean, 2. We lived on the Green Place that summer. I Arlene finished the eighth grade that spring in the Little Crooked School Mrs. Jenson was the teacher.
  There was a sheep camp near Button Butte. Virginia and I would walk down there and get bum lambs, after school.
  In the fall, we moved to the Spiker place This was

 during the depression and work was scarce, Daddy worked for some of the farmers near Valentine and cooked on the chuckwagon for Desbrow and McVey when they were gathering cattle.
  Two sons were born: Harold Jr. born in December of 1933, and Tommy in October of 1935.
  The folks accumulated some sheep and Daddy worked for Fred Machler and ran his sheep with Fred's.
  Mother and we kids lived in Roy during the school year after 1936. They bought Harry Wright's place, north of Roy, in 1942 and took their sheep and cows there.
  Harold Jr. "Pinky" died in April of 1945.  The next year, Daddy sold the place and moved into town with the kids. He was a janitor at the school for awhile and he tended bar at the Legion Club until Tom graduated. 
 We all graduated from Roy High School.
  Daddy worked on ranches until he retired. He died in 1961. Jean died in 1949 and Juanita died in May of 1988.  Mother is living in the Eagles Manor in Lewistown.

[The Fritzner family homesteaded in the Little Crooked area. They came from Minnesota. The family consisted of N. D., his wife, Celia, and their children: Lulu (Sandstrom), Alvin, Flora (Sandstrom), Millie (Casteel), Edwin and Isabel (Casteel)
  We landed in Roy about the 26th of October 1914. The first night we camped near the stockyards. Not far away was a (as nice people would call it) house of ill repute. They celebrated till all hours and the next morning when Mother found out who our neighbors were, we moved, in a hurry!
  Dad went to the Mercantile Store to find oat if we could possibly rent a place. A clerk named Jimmy O'Toole, said we could use his homestead, about three miles northeast of town. Just a tar-papered shack about 12 x 16. At least it had a cookstove and table; so they pitched the tents for sleeping quarters.
  I remember one tent was so big, it held five full-sized beds and had a big corner left for a heating stove. We needed all that room, as there were two families-five in our family and six in the Sandstrom family.
  One evening a group of us were in the tent playing cards and a quick puff of wind came along. It literally lifted the tent and let it fall. We had a good fire in the stove, so the boys jumped up and lifted that corner away, put the fire out, and reset the pegs of the tent. Well, this scared Esther and I so we moved into the shack and slept on a cot in the corner.
  On December 6th, Dad had our tar papered one-and one-half story house done so we loaded up everything and set out. Two hours on our way it started to snow; a good wet snow. We herded about 15 cows along. Some of us walked, so we had frost-bitten toes. This was one of the coldest winters for years.
  In spring, we ourselves had three cows alive out of the 11 we had in the fall. We managed till the next winter even though a big cattle company drove a herd of 6000 cattle through. They just went through the fenced gardens as tho they weren't there. That winter; another bad one we nearly ran out of money; so when it got awfully cold, the men went out and butchered a beef which was cut up and shared by several families. In fact, they did this twice that winter. They belonged to large cattle companies and we called them slow elk. It was either that or go hungry.
  A man who lived upon the flats had planted a lot of potatoes. He intended to sell them; but an early big freeze ruined the crop, so he told us we could have all we wanted. He said not to dig enough so they would thaw out before we could use them, because they would turn black and spoil. If the men had not been able to go to Lewistown and work in the harvest in the Judith Basin, I don't know what would have happened to us all.
  In 1915 a sheep company brought thousands of sheep in. Those that were too weak were left behind. So we gathered them up, a few at a time till we must have had 30 or more. Dad learned how to shear them (after a fashion), and Mother and Lulu (my oldest sister) carded the wool to make quilts.
  When I was 16, I went to Wilder only a few miles north of us to work for the people who ran the hotel and ferry. It ended up, I not only had had the dirty work to do but also ran the ferry when they would go to Lewistown. I had just met George and he was about to enter the Army. When he came to see me the last time, he made me promise never to run the ferry again. About three weeks later, the rope cable broke and the ferry loaded with cattle (about 12) went down the river for three miles before it landed on a sand bar Glad I wasn't on it, the man who was nearly died of fright.
  Our transportation was by a team of horses until my dad and brother-in-law bought an old Overland car in Hilger. It was the first car I ever drove, at least I steered it, and Dad shifted gears. It's sure funny to think about it now, about 80 years later and a lot more driving experience. I've driven from east to west coast and north

 boundary to the south line never an accident or a ticket.
   I remember our second winter in Montana. The folks didn't have enough money to buy coffee; so Dad bought a bushel of wheat and had it ground. A certain amount we used for cereal; the rest Mother toasted in the oven till it was dark brown and the old folks used it for coffee. When the cows were fresh, we had milk and butter, otherwise we did without. Same with the hens.
  I went to the Little Crooked School for lack of some thing better to do. Ed and I walked to school, about four miles. My father helped to build the school house. The men in the area also made the desks and seats for the school; also the blackboard. My sister taught at the school.
  Mail was delivered as far the Little Crooked Post Office. that was managed by a man called Mr. Marshall. We had to haul our supplies and groceries (except for what we grew) from Roy.
  Our amusement was all in the old Little Crooked Hall. It was used for church, when a traveling minister would come along also for school and dances. We had brought our organ from Minnesota and used it at the dances to chord on to accompany the fiddle and guitar players. The ladies would each bring a cake or sandwiches, and we had coffee sometimes. They passed the hat to give Be musicians something for their efforts.
  We used to get a bunch of us in a sled and drive down the river on the ice to the Athearn place to dances too. The first sort of boyfriend that I had was none other than Lynn Phillips. He was a good looking cowboy and a nice person, as was his older brother Milton. Their mother thought I'd be her daughter-in-law. They had five boys, and she wanted a daughter to spoil, I think. She too, was a good person. We used to like to go to rodeos at Byford and at Big Crooked and on to Winnett and were at the one at Little Crooked when Johnson killed Al Green.
  One thing I'll say for us early settlers, we weren't welcomed by the stockmen and the elements. 
  It either dried out or hailed us out or there were grasshoppers.
   Water? There wasn't any. Everyone on 320 acres tried to dig a well. They. like my family, had come from places where one could find water at 15 - 35 feet. When anyone left (gave up) their homesteads we kids (myself, Esther and Victor Sandstrom, and my brother. Ed) took a team of horses and barrels, churns and cream cans and a pail with a weight on it and drove to all the empty places to see if could get a little water. What we did get was so full of alkali, I can't see how we drank it. We always had water barrels at the corner of the house, so when it rained we'd catch some. Also, just below on house was a little coulee. Dad made a dam there too, as he had in other gullies for the stock. The cows got into that to. I told this to a college professor out here. He just looked at me and said cows weren't very particular. I said, neither were we, when that was all there was! He is a city man from Boston.
  During the winter we had a barrel standing by the kitchen range full of snow. We melted water in a wash boiler and poured it in the barrel; added more snow, and so on. At least the water was soft.
  During the summer we hauled water in the barrels from reservoirs, but always had to strain the bugs out of every pail full. Those were the days we washed our clothes on a wash board and hung them on lines to dry or freeze dry.
  We did without doctors, mostly. If someone was deathly ill and weather permitting, they took them to Lewistown, but hardly anyone could afford a doctor. The mothers did the best they could but we all seemed to survive. Lulu's oldest son was born on their homestead there. This would be Oscar Sandstroms oldest son. My mother delivered him. No one expected anything else. Things did not always turn out the best; my sisters have four little ones buried in the old Roy Cemetery.
  After the first year of homesteading a lot of people gave up and went back to the midwest. We were a hard up bunch but still had fun. We didn't need drinks either to have a good time.
  We moved to Washington in 1954 but still had Montana in our blood and moved back the next spring; not to farm though. George and his brother, Roy, worked on the railroad.
  I am the last survivor of my family and the Sandstroms too. 

  John Gallagher, a native of Pennsylvania, came to Montana in 1917 with his wife, Katherine and son, Jack.
  He homesteaded between Little Crooked and Wilder They farmed in the Fergus and Brooks neighborhoods between 1925 and 1936, when they sold out and he and his wife returned to Pennsylvania.
  Their son Jack, a machinist, worked for Dowen Chevrolet in Lewistown for a number of years.
  John J. Gallagher died at Coudersport, Pennsylvania 19 May 1938, where he was buried.
  Mrs. Katherine Gallagher died at Yakima, Washington 12 June 1966.

James Albert Green was born at Wheelersburg, Scotia County, Ohio, 9 August 1861. He married Susan Malone at Blair, Nebraska, 7 August 1886. Eight children were born to them: Ralph E. Green, Washington; Myrtle Stricklett, Long Beach, California; Mrs. H.E. Hineline, Blair, Nebraska; Mrs. Kit (James) Hineline, Iowa; Mrs. Frances Andres (nursed at Fergus County Farm and Warm Springs); Dewey Green of California; Mrs. Ruth (John F.) Athearn, Deer Lodge; and Harland Green of Lewistown.
  Ruth and Harland were the only family members who resided in this area. Ruth was a teacher and was teaching at Benchland when she married John Athearn. Harland and Marjorie Green were married 26 June 1935 at Lewistown. They had two children: Joan, who married William Jess Woodcock (the son of Jess Woodcock, who was Harland's close friend at Little Crooked when they were young men) and their son, Gary Green.
  Susan Malone Green was in an accident as she was coming from the Athearn ranch on the Missouri River. She was traveling by team and wagon, darkness overtook her and the team left the road and the wagon over-turned. She was forced to spend the night outside and developed pneumonia. She died, 10 November 1929, 62 years of age. She was a native of Harrisburg, West Virginia. Burial was in the Lewistown City Cemetery.
  Jim Green was a carpenter by trade and never lost his touch. He helped build many of the area's homestead buildings. After his wife died, he lived with Harland and his family. James Green died 14 September 1949 at the St. Joseph's Hospital in Lewistown at age 88. He was buried at the Lewistown City Cemetery.
  Harland Greens resided in Stanford and Lewistown before they purchased the Grass Range Cafe and Bus Stop, where they lived for a number of years. Harland was in poor health, suffering from emphysema. He died 1 September 1959. Harland was born, March 1902 and reared in Nebraska. He came to Little Crooked with his parents in 1916. He was buried at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Lewistown.
  Marjorie Green makes her home in Lewistown, Montana, a brave lady who has had many handicaps in later life.

  The Curtis house was a neat. Square roofed cottage that set beside the Rocky Point Trail and Greens entrance turned to the west, crossing the Curtis land.  Curtises did not stay on the Little Crooked homestead long. Greens were in charge of their place and no one lived in the house as long as Greens were there.  Grandma and Grandpa Henneman lived in the house the winter of 1934-35.

ALICE M. RAGLAND HANSON
T 20N R 27E Horse Camp

  Alice daughter of Robert Smyly Ragland, who was born in Winchester, Illinois, 5 May 1866 and died 18 July 1916 at Nederland, Colorado with burial at Pueblo, Colorado. Mother Nellie Garritty Ragland, born 9 July 1883 at Coolidge, Kansas and died 1963 and buried at Billings, Montana.
  Three children were born to the Raglands Alice Mae; born 9 December 1910 at Pinniacle, Colorado. She married Roy Hanson, 23 November 1926; Alice Hanson died 19 September 1986, buried at Billings, Montana.
  Ray Clinton, born 4 September 1913 at Oak Creek,

 Colorado. He died 28 October 1921, age eight, dragged to death by a horse, buried at Lewistown, Montana.
  Doris Myrtle, born at Oak Creek, Colorado on 4 September 1915. Married Ted Putro, in Montana and buried at Casper, Wyoming.
  The Raglands came to Montana by wagon in 1916.
  Roy Hanson was born 7 November 1888 at Lake Benton, Minnesota to Mr. and Mrs. Hanson. Mr. Hanson Sr. was a clock and watch maker in Lake Benton. Roy rode a pinto horse to Montana in 1910 when the family came to homestead. Roy died 23 April 1965 at Billings, Montana where he and Alice resided.

  Bertha Schyer Woodcock came to Montana in 1909 with her husband, Doctor G. A. Woodcock and their son, Jesse, who was born 25 November 1902, in Tame, Iowa. Bertha Woodcock was a native of Evanston, Illinois, where she attended college and became a teacher.
  Jesse was seven years old when they came to Montana. He was an energetic youngster who gained many friends wherever he lived and went to school He became a cowboy as his school days ended and he became interested in ranching.
  Bertha S. Woodcock began teaching school at Kendall, 18 September 1914, after she and Dr. Woodcock were divorced. She became principal of Kendall school from 1914 until 1920.
  She married Ralph N. Jenson in Great Falls, 2 September 1916. Ralph was working in Kendall at this time. However, before their marriage, they both filed on homesteads on Sand Creek, where they began a stock ranch -- both cattle and sheep. Later they acquired more homestead lands that joined theirs.
 After moving to the homestead, the Jensons built a two-story frame house in the picturesque bottom of Sand Creek, which was the nicest home in the area.
  Although occupied by the ranch and stricken with rheumatoid arthritis, Mrs. Jenson continued her teaching career. She taught at Roy and in the fall of 1930 she began teaching the Little Crooked School. She taught three consecutive terms which ended in May of 1933. She was on crutches at this time, but with her strong will and deliberate determination, she educated her pupils and gave each child individual instruction. Although this was a small school she gave a superior education to all. She cared for the personal health and well-being of her pupils and was truly a great instructor. She lived in the back room of the school building, doing the janitor work as well. Ralph was very supportive to her needs and would carry in wood to last for the week. There were two fires to tend with wood for fuel, as well as other chores for her to do. She also boarded one pupil, Marie Webb.
  Mrs. Jenson graded State Examination papers for the County Superintendent of Schools. At this time seventh graders took state exams in hygiene and geography and the eighth graders were given the standard examination papers in all subjects which were sent out by the County Superintendent, in order to graduate. These were returned and the final marks were sent out from this office.
  Mrs. Jenson did the ranch bookkeeping, was a wonderful cook and carried on her household duties, in spite of her ailments and handicap. Jensons always had at least one hired man and Frank Jakes, Ed Jakes and Al Snooks were some of their regular employees. 
  Jesse and Mable Larson were married in 1927. Mabel taught until 1929, when they went back east. Jesse lost his arm in an industrial accident; their first born Jesse William, joined the family in 1934 and the Woodcocks

• Little Crooked School-June 1973.
   

• Little Crooked School 1928-29: Ms. Skibness - teacher: L. to R. Frankie Stroble, Annie Stroble, Marie Webb Zahn, Lola Baker, Edith Brumfield, Alice Stroble.
   

• Bucking contest at Little Crooked 191.--With no visible corrals, only people and horses forming the arena, a bucking horse contest took place.
   

• Miss Gallagher, Miss Bridget Hickey, Miss Good and Jesse Woodcock enroute to the big doings at Little Crooked.
   

• The ladies gathering at the Little Crooked Community Hall and Schoolhouse.
   

• Dressed up in their Sunday finery and taking it easy are Frank Jakes (on far left with white shirt, hands in his pockets), Bridgie Hickey in the white blouse on the left, ?, and on the far right is Josie Hickey.
   

• The crowd assembles in front of the Little Crooked Store.
   

• The Little Crooked Store and Post Office with Clarence Baker, SadieBaker and Lola standing front of it. This picture was taken in 1924.
   

• Swimming horses across the Missouri River during one of the roundups.
   

• The Frank Cater homestead shack with Frank "Granapa" Carter, Tilford "Tip" Carter, Mrs. Carter and Hubert Carter standing in front of it.
   

• Tommy Fox
   

• Isabel (Mrs. George) Casteel  was 85 when this picture was taken in 1988. She resides in Vancouver Wash.


 

• Roy and Alice Hanson with Jack and Lee.
   

• Jesse Woodcock and his parents, Bertha and Ralph Jenson.
   

• Mrs. Jenson with the wonderful kerosene refrigerator that she won in a jingle writing contest for a new soap product in 1936.

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