ROY PART 8

box set down into the ground with a tight hinged lid. Perishables were kept there such as milk, butter, cream, etc. More than once as a child, a small lizard surprised me when I opened the lid.
  Clothes were always hung on the clothes line after being washed on a wash board in a round tub set on a stand. Mother had a copper boiler in which she boiled white clothes. The tub used for washing clothes also doubled as a bath tub. Hot water for a bath was heated in kettles on a wood-coal stove in the early days.
  Instead of indoor bathrooms we walked down a columbine-lined board walk to an "outhouse". On cold winter nights we had to bundle up first to go outside. 
  There were no light switches to turn on for light at night. Instead, we used kerosene lights which needed filling once a week.
  One of my greatest joys was the day Mom and Dad Reis bought a piano so I could learn to play. At first I had correspondence lessons. Each lesson was like a special Christmas gift. Later there were local teacher's wives who gave me private lessons. In high school I became a music teacher, and planned my own recitals for parents and children. The piano has enriched my life continually. I am eternally thankful to Mother and Dad Reis for this opportunity!
  The 4-H Clothing Club was led by my mother and though I did not like all the ripping I was required to do, I was pleased at the prizes I received at the Lewistown Fair. Later; when I married, I was thankful Mother had taught me to sew well. As she made all my clothes, I sewed for our daughter, Rosalie and she in turn sews for her children.
  Community Life: Everyone knew each other, in this area, and were very caring and supportive of each other. There were always community baby showers for a new baby in a family. Shivaree's were always given for newly-weds. At the latter, everyone brought noise makers, food, and shower gifts. Arriving at the home of the newly-weds the beating of pans etc. brought the new couple to their door where congratulations were loudly voiced. Inside their home socializing with a potluck meal took place followed by opening of gifts.
  Roy citizens built a community hall where all large social functions were held. As a child I learned to dance in this hall.. Once a year local talent provided an excellent minstrel show, blackening their faces and having an interlocutor who had a sense of humor and could project to an audience. Traveling shows, such as magicians and political speeches, etc. were all held in the hall. Vaudeville shows brought their own big tent for performances which were well attended.
  The small building which became the community library was always a fascinating place for me. Every Saturday I checked out books as I was growing up. When I was in high school I was allowed to be an assistant librarian.
  Once a week a steam locomotive train made its way from Lewistown to Roy. Because it came,  jobs were provided for local residents on the section gang. During Lent the Catholic community had fresh fish brought on the train for their congregation. A real treat! As children we always watched the train come in and leave. Fascinating to watch was filling the water tank on the engine from the spout leading from the water tower near the track.
  There was one Catholic and one Protestant church in Roy. From the time I can remember. I was brought up in the Protestant church. That same church is still being used for Sunday School classes, A lay pastor, Rev. Foresman, kept the church and Sunday School alive and growing. Teachers from the school and parents taught classes. I remember the many music programs that were given at Christmas and at other special times. I enjoyed singing and accompanying for the church services as I became older. Attending both the Catholic and Protestant summer Bible School was very stimulating to me. I was able to help with the music for both churches and considered that a privilege.
  I attended school at Roy, from grade 1 to graduation from high school. When an elementary operetta was to be held, the mothers willingly made the attractive costumes from crepe paper or other suitable materials. In one operetta I was cast as the mustard seed. My still dearest friend, Mildred Dunn Biggerstaff, had a beautiful rose costume. Mine was just pretty green leaves. How I longed to be a rose. The mustard seed had the lead part, which didn't impress me at all. The Roy Woman's Club sponsored a yearly declamation contest. Mrs. Eva Murphy, a teacher, coached many of us. The music program was always strong. We had a band and choir in high school.
  Mrs. Lindsay Kalal Wass helped many students with vocal work which indirectly benefited the school and :community. She had a lovely trained voice.
  Gypsies visited Roy in their horse-drawn wagons in the early years. Later they came in cars. As a child I was wide-eyed with expectancy, yet afraid of the long, black-haired women with their voluptuous gay colored skirts and black flashing eyes. Every store owner was notified by word of mouth that Roy had unwelcome visitors. With the door to the street locked, I was brave enough to peek out the window without being seen, to watch them. They were known for stealing anything they wanted and hiding it under skirts. No wonder clerks kept them under close surveillance!
  In 1937 Roy came to know dust storms that made twilight out of day and traveling at night impossible. The thick dust which whirled in the wind made it impossible to drive. This was a difficult time especially for farmers. Other years grasshoppers were so thick they made slick roads to drive on. Farming was a gamble.
  Another nature disaster was when the small creek near the edge of town flowed in the spring, with snow

 run-off to flood the town. As water poured into main street, the dray-man, using horses and his dray, rescued shoppers downtown by taking them home on his dray.
  Dad Reis served on the volunteer fire department. As a child it was scary when at night we heard the big bell, mounted on a stand above the town pump, ring loudly summoning all firemen. After Dad had left, Mother and I threw on some clothes to hasten to the site and watch the excitement. The fire rig was small and often unable to put out a burning business on main street.
  The day the Roy bank closed, all the townspeople made a run on the bank to get out as much money as they could. I remember Dad Reis hurrying to the bank. It was the only building in town that had a cement sidewalk around it.
  Quilting on hand-made quilts at home was a social activity that I was drawn into since Mother always took me. As the only child there; I amused myself by playing the player piano.
  I and John Warden, of Lewistown, were married on August 18, 1940. We lived at Shawmut for a year then at Harlowton, and then the next year to Big Timber where our daughter Rosalie, was born. After World War II we moved to Washington where John taught high school music and I taught in elementary grades. We both taught in the Bellingham schools until retirement and we both still do volunteer work with students. I am thankful for the rich inheritance that became mine because I had so many caring and sharing friends of all ages in Roy during its prime in the 20's and 30's.
  My sister Margaret McCrery Toulouse who was raised by Ernest and Marie Jenni Reuss came to Roy to live with our family so she could attend four years of high school. These were precious years for me because we became very close as sisters during this time.  She is now retired from teaching. She is very active in her church in Havre Montana where she lives and she, too, is involved in the Big Brother, Big Sister program. The four children she and her husband, Virgil Toulouse raised are all married with families of their own.

  Harry Rife, his wife Mae and their son, Clarence Pearl, came to Roy with Harry's brother Stewart, but they never homesteaded.
  He leased and farmed various places around the area. The family lived once where the Roy Coulters now live; another time they lived where the rodeo grounds are now and farmed that land. Harry had a dairy at one time when they lived in Roy. They also lived at Fergus for awhile.
  They left this area about 1938 or 39 and moved to the Malta area. Mae passed away there. Harry then moved to Kirkland, Washington where the couple's son had moved.
  Clarence had married Esther Potter, daughter of Anton T. Potter and Clara Adams of Valentine. Esther was born in Valentine on November 8, 1914. The couple was married in Lewistown on March 27, 1934 and they lived in Roy for a time.
  They were the parents of four daughters; Lois, Janette, Faye and Joyce, and one son, Robert. Lois was born in Lewistown, the rest after they left the area.
  They were at Ft Peck for a time when Clarence worked until the dam was finished. They then moved to Harlowton where Clarence tried farming, then moved to Colorado, California and finally to Washington where they settled.
Harry, Clarence and Esther are now all deceased. Clarence passed away in May of 1975 at the age of 64 and Esther in July of 1966 at the age of 52.

  John was born to Earl and Winnie Rife and Dolores was born to Victor and Ellen Sandstrom. We were married in 1952.
  John worked on ranches and did some rodeoing during the first years of our marriage We were blessed with five children: Earl Claude born in October of 1952; Jacquie Lynn, October 1954; Vicki Evelyn, February 1956; Carson James, April 1958 and Bill Orin, July, 1965.
  We lived in Roy and kept busy raising our young family. John was interested in archery and many of our outings and vacations were enlivened by our hunting and sport shooting. John and the boys shot many deer elk, coyotes and bobcats with their bows. All of the family has participated in archery at times. An Archery Club was formed in Roy and many young people joined and continued the sport. Many hunting stories were told at our Thursday night archery meeting, over coffee,
  In 1966 John went to work as a surveyor for the Montana Department of State Highways. We continued to live in Roy until 1963 when his job took us to Roundup, where we stayed for four years. During our stay there we bought 40 acres of irrigated land on the Musselshell river. We had a milk cow, 100 head of sheep, chickens and geese and horses We did some farming and lots of
 

irrigating. With John busy working for the State Highway, Dolores learned how to irrigate and take care of the sheep--real fast! Our children belonged to 4-H and entered in the County Fair with their sheep and horses. Earl won the Grand Champion with his sheep one year and all the children came home with ribbons. It was a great place to raise our family.
  In 1967 we moved back to Roy and bought the Wass Mercantile which we operated for four years. We sold out in 1971 and John went back to work as an engineer for the Montana Dept. of State Highways. We lived in Roy and all of our children graduated from high school there. Later we moved to Lewistown where we bought a home. John commuted to his work from there. Just before he was to retire we spent most of our time in Roundup with his job.
  Our summers and weekends were spent in the Judith Mountains where we have mining claims. We enjoyed camping out, and watching our property develop.
  Our children all live in Montana. Earl and wife, Peggy, and son, Joshua live in Great Falls where Earl is employed with the Civil service and is manager of his office. Jacquie (Mrs. Tom Riebe) has two children, Lisa and Jason. She is employed with Jones Equipment as office manager. Vicki and son Mathew, live in Lewistown where Vicki is employed at the Central Montana Hospital as head stenographer in Medical Records. Carson and his wife, Patti (Emery), live at Fairmont Hot Springs and Carson works for Pegases Gold Corporation as manager of their gold mine there. They have three children: Nicholas Kale and Chelsi. Bill lives in Roy, is unmarried and works for Kendall Ventures, a gold mine near Hilger Montana. He is their plant supervisor.
  John was tragically killed on his job in Roundup in 1988. It seems like our whole world fell apart. Being the good husband and father that he was we miss him so. With the prayers and help from close friends and relatives we are all trying to gain strength to go on.

  Stewart Rife and his son, Earl, came to the area from Oklahoma about 1914 and homesteaded north of Roy. Stewart's place is now a part of the Speed Komarek ranch.
  Rife was a blacksmith by trade and he worked for Jim Vickory in his blacksmith shop in Roy.
  Sometime after Earl returned from the service, in WWI Stewart became ill. He consulted doctors who told him he was suffering from gall stones. The problem was not gall stones at all, but his appendix which ruptured and caused his death.
  Earl took his father's remains back to Stewart's birthplace in Kansas for burial. On this trip Earl saw his mother, the last time he saw her.
  After returning to Montana Earl would not go back to the homestead, he refused to have anything to do with it. so he rented what was known as the Hamilton place, south of Roy, and that is where he and his bride, Winnie McNeil, first lived after their marriage.

  Olaf Rindal came to the Fergus area with his parents in 1923.
  Olaf killed the last timber wolf known in the area in 1924. It had been killing sheep at Landru's and bothering Anton's sheep. The wolf had previously been caught in a trap and was minus a foot.
  Olaf worked for Anton in 1925 and 1926. Wages were $25 a month, the first year, and $80 a month the second year. By 1927-28 he had saved enough money to go out on his own. He bought three cows and farmed the Wisokay place. He bought his first car, a whippet, in 1928.
  In 1929 Olaf and Rose Baucke daughter of John and Laura Baucke, were married. They moved to the Chamberlain place and lived there until 1932. They then homesteaded in Petroleum County along the Missouri River. They had a truck garden in the 30's and sold watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes and eggplant in small stores from Winnett to Stanford. Melons were 5 cents each and tomatoes 1 1/2 cents a pound. While on the homestead Olaf built a school with whatever lumber he could find so the older boys could start school. At that time their mail came from Malta to the Ceekay post office across the river and they had to get it by boat or cross
 

 on the ice. The government bought out their homestead in 1938 for Fort Peck Dam.
  They moved to the Joe Dvorak place next and got their mail at Bervie, which was 8 miles up from the mouth of the Musselshell. They later got their mail at the Mecaha (Garfield Co.) post office which was 20 miles up the Musselshell.
  In 1939 they moved to the Halpin place, Rose's parents were living on the Hutton place then, and Rose and Olaf moved there in 1938.
  Rose had a bad experience in a Willys-Knight touring car (only curtains, no windows). She was going down the Dvorak hill with Johnny and Ralph in the car and 7 cats in a box tied on the front bumper. The car slid in the soft shale and turned over 7 times throwing them out, one by one. Olaf was following behind with a team and wagon and Johnny ran back to meet him, crying, "Mama tipped over." When Olaf found Rose she was digging Ralph, who was about four months old at the time, out of a shale bank. The cats all survived too!
  Winnie Rife was one of the teachers at the river school Students were her own children, John and Claudia, and Roy, Vivian and Boots Mathison along with Johnny and Ralph. Mrs. Claude (Mary) Satterfield taught there in 1942 and 1943.
  In 1945, Rose and Olaf bought a house in Roy, from W.C. Beuchner, across the street from the school. Rose was active in community affairs teaching Sunday school, working with Boy Scouts, doing beautiful leather crafts and sewing which she taught to Roy high school students. She was instrumental in starting the Roy TV Tax District. She operated a cafe in Roy for awhile.
  Rose moved to Lewistown in 1965 and operated the first health food store there, Olaf retired in 1979. Olaf and Rose eventually moved to the Charles Cooley home on Casino Creek with an acreage where Olaf could keep some horses.
Rose died on October 2, 1982, of cancer.
  Olaf and Rose had four boys: John born in November of 1931; Ralph born in June of 1933; Robert born in October of 1941 and Dan born in July of 1943.

 John married Joyce Willis in Basin, Wyoming in 1948. He worked there and in New Mexico for about a year before returning to his father's ranch on the Hutton place. John worked for his dad for several years.
  John got a Cat and did some dirt work around the area and farmed Fred Mabee's until about 1959. They then moved to Lewistown where he went into construction work. He worked on the Fred Robinson Bridge. Working on the Lewistown Radar Base was his first big construction job. He stayed in the construction business for about 15 years.
  They moved back to Roy; built a trailer court below the rodeo grounds; bought a trailer house and moved to the trailer court.
  They left Roy about 1964 finally settling in Sand Point, Idaho doing construction work. They lived in Sand Point for about 15 years before moving to Anchorage; Alaska in June of 1983.
  John and Joyce had nine children: Sandra (Townsend) was born October of 1949; Sharon in January of 1951; Barbara (Mach) in May of 1953; Kristi in February of 1956; John Willis in July of 1958; Charles in September of 1960; Johnetta (Sutton) in September of 1963, all in Lewistown; Michelle in October of 1966 in Lovell, Wyoming and James in December of 1968 in Sandpoint, Idaho.
  Sharon died in infancy from pneumonia while John and Joyce were living on the Hutton place. John Willis died when he was about 2 years old, after he got into, and consumed a large amount of baby aspirin.

  After his graduation from RHS Ralph went to work for his dad on the ranch until he joined the Air Force in 1954. He married Bette Atterberry in November of 1954. The couple had five children.
  Phil was born May 8, 1955 in Illinois. He is a RHS graduate; served in the Navy for several years and is presently employed as a welder in South Carolina.
  Viki (Mrs. Tom Maley) was born July 24, 1956 in Illinois. She lives on the west coast and has a son, Corey.
  Lori (Mrs. Bill Adams) was born March 4, 1958 in Lewistown. She has three children: Heather age 11 Owen age 3 and Stephen born in late 1988. She lives near Billings.
  Scot was born May 25, 1964 in Lewistown. He is in the Air Force.
  Jodi was born August 31, 1966 in Lewistown. Jodi is also in the Air Force.
  After leaving the Air Force in 1957 the couple ranched on the Hutton place.  Ralph later, in addition to ranching, worked on construction.  Ralph and Bette separated and Ralph was remarried in September of 1974 to Michele Honeycutt. They have two children; Angus born February 4, 1976 and Olin born October 31, 1977.
  They left Roy in 1981 to ranch at Heath and now live 5 miles east of Lewistown.

  After Bette and Ralph separated she returned to school and became a registered nurse.  She lived in Illinois for a number of years and just recently moved to  Arkansas where she is head of the Obstetric Department in a new hospital.
 

  Robert married Billie McNulty in 1958.  They had 3 children: Karen born in 1958, Lee born in 1960 and Curtis born in 1964.
  In 1971 he married Corrine Syfert in Billings. They have 2 daughters: Tammy and Toni.
  Robert owns his own fleet of trucks and is an independent trucker.
  Karen married Keith Huck and they have 2 children, Kris and Kyle and live in Malta. Lee and his wife, Beth, live in Billings with their 2 sons, Reyn and Joran.  Curtis passed away in 1983.

  Dan and Pat (Honga) Rindal were married on June 16, 1962 in Lewistown, Montana.  They made their home 1 1/2 miles east of Roy and have been in the ranch business all of their married life.
  They have 3 sons: Harley born in October of 1963; Casey born in October of 1968 and Tyler born in May of 1970.  All three boys attended and graduated from Roy High School. All were active in football, basketball and rodeo. 
  Harley married Kathleen Byrne in 1983. They have two children, Denny born in April of 1984 and Darcy born in April of 1987.
  Casey attended one year of college at MSU in Bozeman and is married to Julie Skinner of Winifred.
  Tyler attends Miles City Community College.

  Alton was the son of William Rogers who worked in Peder Hanson's store.  There was also a daughter Hortense.  They once had the place which Ken Siroky now has. The Rogers also lived in Roy.

  Walter Rowland was born 28 October 1864 at Iota, Minnesota. While a child, he moved with his family to Lakemills, Iowa. At this place he married Miss Nellie E. Elliman, 7 October 1884. He was a railroader all his life, working in Iowa, Washington, Idaho, and Montana.
  He came to the Roy area in 1910 and homesteaded the above location. Walter Rowland was a brother to William E. (Bill) Rowland, who homesteaded T 18N R 23E Sec. 32, neighboring on Bear Creek.
  W. A. Rowland became Station Agent at Roy when the Milwaukee Railroad built the branch line to Roy in 1914.  He was station agency and telegraph operator at this post until he retired in 1936. He and Mrs. Rowland lived in the Roy depot building during this time.  Charles T. Plumb succeeded him and they also lived in the building. 
  The railroad was the lifeblood of this area, bringing the homesteaders and their supplies and communication to develop the northeast part of Fergus County. "Dad" Rowland, as he was affectionately known, a cheerful and ambitious person, contributed a great deal to this town and the country for miles around.
  The Rowlands son, Russell, and Walter's mother, Rebecca Rowland, lived on the ranch and operated it for many years. Walter and Nellie celebrated their golden wedding in Roy in 1934. Russell moved with his parents when they retired in 1936 to Spokane, Washington. W. A. Rowland died suddenly, Memorial Day, March 30, 1938, while sitting in his chair, listening to the radio. He was buried in Lewistown City Cemetery.
 

Roy Enterprise, May 29, 1919

  The little two and a half year old girl of Mr. and Mrs. George Parker, who live on the Epperson place north of Box Elder, strayed away Sunday afternoon and was found by Mrs. James Dobeus, two miles up the creek. The little one disappeared about four o'clock.  She had followed the older children who were riding a pony in the pasture, and the supposition is, lost them in a coulee, turning west when they went east. Mrs. Parker hunted for her and sent an older child for her husband when it became evident that she had gone some distance. Ed and Jack Ryan and eventually others joined in the hunt.....Mrs. Dobeus did not know a child was lost and was out in the pasture after the cows when she heard what sounded like someone crying and on investigation found the youngster standing in the creek wet and shivering with cold.  She was taken to the house, warmed up and brought to town, where Mrs. Diamond, who knew nothing of the child being lost, recognized it by its resemblance to its father. Its discovery was one of those fortunate things that frequently occur at the opportune moment as the child was in a portion of the pasture infrequently visited and might otherwise have remained out overnight and perished.  As it was, had she gone into the creek a few feet to one side she would have drowned. 

  Edwin O. Sandbo and his wife, Florence, lived in Roy from 1913 to 1926. He received his education in Minnesota and was a registered pharmacist.
  The Sandbos had three children: Preston, born September 6, 1914; Shirley Marie, born December 15, 1916 and Patricia Ann born December 12, 1920. The children attended school in Roy. Preston was in the 7th grade and Patricia a first grader when they sold out and bought a drug store at Stanford, which they ran until 1945 when they sold it.
  Edwin 0. was born June 6, 1887 in Hills, Minnesota. He died January 19, 1961. Florence was born February 9, 1885 in Laverne, Minnesota. She died December 28, 1982. Their daughter, Shirley (Mrs. Paul Hammer), passed away November 12, 1976. All are buried at Stanford.

  My father, E.O. Sandbo, established and owned his 1st drug store in Roy, possibly in 1913. I was born at home September 6, 1914. I was delivered by a nonpracticing chiropractor, by the name of Jack Stephens who lived just west of Fergus.
  My dad sold his store to A. A. Johnson who had a small pharmacy in a grocery store run by a man named Weedell. My dad sold his store in early 1926 when we moved to Stanford where my dad bought a drug store. I finished the 7th grade at Stanford and graduated from high school there in 1932.
  My dad's store at Roy burned to the ground about 1920 or 21 during the winter. He rebuilt there using the same floor plan--store facing on main street with house back of the store, all one building.
  At the back of the lot and bordering on the alley was a storage shed and coal bin. According to the story, I picked up by overheard conversation, rum runners using the old whiskey trails from Canada, would come in late at night and leave cases of whiskey in the shed. A panel would be removed from the back of the shed and cases of whiskey would be stacked along the back wall. My dad left space by stacking his pharmaceuticals forward of the wall and whiskey was stacked in the space. My dad, I heard, was arrested as part of the "gang", but did not serve time. Someone of the "gang" paid his fine in court at Great Falls. Dad also sold a few shots of whiskey (I saw this!) and some bottles of liquor. Years later I discovered several bottles of Canadian Club in the garage at Stanford. Whiskey from my dad's shed was picked up late at night and taken into Lewistown.
  My folk's second car was a Hupmobile which dad sold to a barber whose only name I can remember was "Pinky". Pinky was said to use the car in rum-running. What happened to him remains unknown to me. Pinky ran a one chair shop and had a club foot and wore a special shoe with a thick sole.
  My mother and several other musicians used to play for dances during the winter. Mother played the piano; Reed West, the cornet; a man whose last name was Rose, violin; the Milwaukee station agent the drums. There may have been another musician whom I don't remember. The dance hall was near the Catholic Church, at the south end of Main street and on the west side of the street.
  There was a May Day celebration in the summer of 1921 in the dance hall. My two sisters helped wind crepe paper ribbons around a May Pole.
  There was a harvest festival one fall with a man who later became a noted aviator, Charles Lindberg. He and a friend were barnstorming and did some aerobatics in Lewistown. My dad and others talked Lindberg and his partner in to bringing their World War I vintage bi-plane
 

 to Roy to offer rides at what may have been $15 a person a flight. There were two cockpits ahead of the pilots. I was a single rider in the front cockpit and the pilot had to caution me, in flight, not to lean out so far. Trips went over the north bench with stalls to thrill the riders. To conclude the show there was wing walking and hanging from the undercarriage by one of the pilots.
  Joe Murphy, mechanic for "Dad" Lewis in his garage, had a motorcycle. One evening, after supper, Joe was giving boys rides from the garage the length of Main Street to the railroad tracks and back. We boys rode between the handlebars ahead of Joe. On my ride, we hit a culvert near the north end of the street and my right foot got stuck between the fender and tire on the front wheel. I spent a month in St. Joseph Hospital the summer of 1925. The cast came off about two weeks before school. I heard several men wonder why the culvert was put in, as there was no apparent need for it.
  The two brick buildings were occupied by banks. My dad, Reed West, and others were interested in the bank about 3 lots south of my father's store. Almost at the rear of this store was an open-mouthed cylinder about the size of a 46 ounce can of orange juice. Extending from the center of the bottom of the cylinder was a rather small tube leading into the bank. Rainfall was measured in a gauge, in the bank. One afternoon, following an extended dry period. I climbed a ladder at the rear of the building and poured water into the cylinder. The next day a bank employee announced that the gauge had measured a three inch rainfall. It took some convincing him there had been no rain.
 My mother directed a play a year or two after WWI about the war. The stage was on the second floor of the grocery store of Lindsay Wass. This store was directly across the street from my dad's drug store.
  My dad was on the school board at one time. I know there were two church groups; a Lutheran Church on the south edge of town and the Roman Catholic Church near Dad Lewis' garage.
  Roy had a weekly newspaper briefly. The newspaper stories were set by hand.
  The bank my father was interested in closed before the other bank did. The bank building became the post office and then the Catholic Church. The other bank was headed by a Mr. Stevens.
  The town pump had a platform over it with a railing. I remember a summer celebration with a very small brass band playing.
  I remember a celebration with a tug of war, possibly between the homesteaders and townspeople. It was then that I saw my first negro, a woman married to a man by the name of Johnson. (Not the Johnson in the next paragraph.) Most people were wearing coats because the weather was cold.
  Bill Johnson and others started a coal mine at the end of a promontory just south of town. I remember Johnson, who had a hardware store, saying the coal had too much ash. He had tried burning the coal in his store which was at the northeast corner of the intersection where the town pump was. Johnson's hardware store building had been a saloon until prohibition was voted in. 

  James B. Sarjeant, who was known as Burt, came over on a freight boat from England. He was eighteen and wanted to get away from two old maid sisters that were raising him. His uncle was on a freight boat and stopped in England, Belgium and France and also took freight to New Orleans. Burt decided to get a job on this boat and finally left from Antwerp, Belgium and sailed to New Orleans in 1888.
  He deserted the boat and looked for a job. The first one was picking cotton and pulling a long bag to put it in. There are stickers in the cotton boles and it takes practice to pick much cotton in a day. Women who were picking cotton knew he was a greenhorn and they would put a handful in his bag every little while. He would accumulate enough cotton to just get by.
  Finally he decided to quit and go to Texas. He walked and caught rides and arrived in cattle country. He had to learn to ride and cowboys had fun with him; putting him on horses that would buck him off. He gradually became a good cowboy and joined some other cowboys, taking cattle up the old Chisholm Trail, through Kansas and into Montana. White Sulphur Springs was his first stop in 1891. He worked on cattle ranches and eventually found his way to Lewistown. It was a very small town at that time. He found work on the William Cliff ranch digging for coal. There were seventeen men working there at that time. This is where he met my mother.
  Mrs. Cliff got so lonesome for her family in England that she wrote to my grandmother and begged her to send someone in the family over to Gilt Edge, Montana. The only one who was foot-loose was my mother. She was working as a lady's maid for a wealthy family in Liverpool. She agreed to make the trip and stay two years.
  There were no cars so she was met by several members of the Cliff family and rode to Gilt Edge with a horse and buggy. She found the cold winters very severe and went down with inflammatory rheumatism and was in bed for awhile.
  Gilt Edge was a wild west town with shootings and fights at night, down-town. The Cliff Ranch was 3 or 4 miles east of town but the miners would go into town to see the excitement.
  My mother stayed the winter at the ranch and then went into Lewistown and found a housekeeping job at the Lehman home. Burt and Emily got acquainted at the Cliff Ranch and Burt finally coaxed her to marry him and stay in this country.
  They were married in 1901 and went into the Roy country that same year. They purchased 158 acres from a widow, Anne Wight. This was known as the meadows of Box Elder Creek. Later on they sold 40 acres to the Milwaukee Railroad which they platted into the Roy townsite. The town didn't develop until the coming of the railroad.
  They continued to purchase parcels of land which eventually developed into two ranches. The original adjoined the Roy township and the second was 3 miles south over the ridge. Their brand was V Bar E issued in 1901.
  In 1935, my husband, Bill and I, and our two children, Bill and Dorothy, moved to Roy and ranched the home place, staying until 1940. My father eventually moved to Lewistown and sold the ranch to Joe Murphy in 1944.
  I, Julia, was born in 1903 in Lewistown. The nurse set mother up in bed to see the first Jaw Bone train come into town. My brother was born in 1905. Due to an accident, he was born crippled in the back. Some cowboys were driving a herd of cattle through our yard to a homestead south of us. There was a bull in the herd and riders got to pushing the cattle too fast. The bull turned on one of the riders and gored the horse in the chest. The rider was badly injured too. This happened right in front of mother and she almost lost the baby then. When the little boy was born he was crippled and died at 5 months of what they called summer complaint.
  My little brother, Albert Ernest, was the first child born in Roy. There were no doctors or nurses to help. He was put into a homemade box, Mother read some prayers over him and he is buried up on top of a hill west of the log barn. Jim Murphy and Dick Kalina know where it is. It is marked and is inside the fence.
 I grew up with no children to play with until I was about seven years old. I played with the tame animals and my dog. Once in awhile, a wagon or riders would come by. Our house was the only place to stay anywhere, so travelers put up their horses in our barn and generally slept in our house on their own bed rolls. My Mother cooked for them. Then they would go on to the ferry over the Missouri River, to Zortman and Landusky. I can remember when every space was filled with beds, on our floor.
  Once a criminal, running away from the sheriff, came and stayed over night, and went on to the breaks of the river to hide. None of them ever harmed mother, although she was alone a lot. My dad kept the dirt road to the west of us in repair, putting in culverts and wooden bridges. He would be gone 2 or 3 weeks at a time.
  In 1910 droves of settlers started to come into the Roy area. They would take up their homesteads; then some couples stayed with us till they got their cabins built.
  About 1907, Burt and Emily were asked to take the post office. There weren't many customers till the homesteaders came. Then people from all around the area would drive or ride to our place for the mail. At first, it was brought in with a light wagon and team, twice a week. Finally the Ford car did the job. I can remember all the people who gathered at our place to wait for the mail. It was an outing for them and they got to visit with a lot of neighbors, and I would get to play with some white children then. Otherwise I played with Indian or part-Indian children.
  There was what they called 'chautauquas' that came to small towns. They put on programs. On the 4th of July, there were rodeos with real old-time cowboys riding in them. This was after Roy was a town.
 Gypsies used to come. My mother watched that they
 

 didn't steal her poultry and even little pigs. They begged at the doors for vegetables out of the garden or anything else they could get.
  Bill Lane was an old timer and he trapped wolves. One time, I can remember he held up a hide that measured 10 foot from tip to tip.
  In 1911 when I was 8 years old, my mother had a complete nervous breakdown. She was in the hospital in Lewistown for several months. Two years later, mother had another spell but was fairly good after that, although her feet were crippled.
  I rode 2 1/2 miles to school. It was south of Roy and a country school. Gracia Rowland taught that school. Later, the town got started and there was a school. It sat where the Woman's Club building was. A new school was built two or three years later and I finished eighth grade in it.
  As a young girl I rode and helped my dad with branding, herding cattle and other cow puncher jobs. I rode until my marriage and have not been on a horse since.
  In the early 1900's Roy was a rough town. Texas cowpunchers would bring in cattle to be sold, be paid off and stay until they were broke. I don't recall any real violence, just fights, riding horses into saloons, chasing a pretty girl with a horse and shooting to scare her. Many carloads of cattle were shipped from Roy and I helped to load cattle into stock cars.
  Children didn't get to start to school until they were 8 or 10 years old. That first school in Roy had big boys and girls, as old as 16, and the teachers had to be awful strict to keep order. One man teacher stayed out of town a little ways and every morning he would cut three or four willow sticks. He would walk up and down the aisles with a stick in his hand. He would tap you on the hand or knee if you were not in your seat straight and studying.
  The first store in Roy was a small tar paper shack. It was the beginning of Peter Hanson's store, that was so much bigger. The town grew into a nice community, had a nice hotel, two banks, two drug stores, a couple of grocery stores, clothing stores, blacksmith shop, filling stations, 2 story railroad depot and real estate offices.
  I got ready for high school before there was a high school in Roy, so I started in Lewistown in September of 1918. The next year, a high school building was built, but had four pupils, I believe. It was not accredited at first, so I graduated in 1922 from Fergus County High School.

  William and Hilda Nygren Schrank came to Roy to homestead in 1914, from either the Chicago, Illinois or Peshtigo, Wisconsin area.
  They left Roy and moved to Lewistown in 1920. She was a clothes designer and seamstress for many years and was active in Republican activities.
  William was a well known chef in Lewistown cafes.
   William passed away December 2, 1929 in Tampa, Florida. He is buried in Peshtigo. Hilda died on August 1, 1973 in Great Falls where she is buried. There were no children.

  James Simkins was born in Bloomington, Illinois. His wife, Blanche (Brown) was born in Utica, New York. They came to Lewistown, Montana in 1910 on an emigrant train with their four children; Les, Marie, Morris and Murel, who were all born in Kansas. A son, Brice, was born in 1911 on the Fryberger Ranch, south of Lewistown.
  In 1912 the family moved to Roy and homesteaded about a half of a mile out of town, just a quarter of a mile west of the J.B. Sargeant ranch. Another son, Glen, was born in 1914 at Roy.
  Brice Simkins, who lives in Lewistown, recalls several incidents that occurred during those homestead days.
  His first teacher was a Mrs. Debold and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades were held in a building downtown near the Montana Lumber building. He thinks the other grades were held in the little white school house that is still in operation. This was about 1917. His older sister had taught him at home, so his first grades were no problem to him. The old white school building at that time had a fenced in pasture in back of it in which to keep the horses kids rode to school.
 An auto trip to town in Murray Deaton's Dodge Touring car, with Deaton and his father, stands out in his mind. The road to Lewistown, which ran about a half
 

 mile south of the present highway, was muddy and the gumbo as sticky as ever. "That Dodge car just kept a going: kachuga, kachuga, the whole distance." At Armells Creek they drove it into the water, rolled up pant legs, got out, cleaned the tires off and then proceeded on to Hilger where they finally hit gravel roads.
  Another gumbo'y event was going with his dad to a farm some distance from Roy to borrow a plow. They had to clean the tires at regular intervals in order to keep going.
  There was a Dr. Hedges who lived at Hilger during those years. Hedges would make periodical trips, especially during the flu seasons, to area homesteads, to check on the people and to see if anyone needed medical attention. He often stopped in at the Simkins for a meal.
  One time Brice was riding in the back of the wagon that his dad was driving home from a field of hay he was cutting with a scythe. The scythe was laying in the wagon box, and Brice was running back and forth in the wagon as it traveled over pretty bumpy roads. He fell or tripped in the wagon and cut his leg severely on the scythe. His dad took the chew of tobacco from his mouth and applied it to the wound, a procedure he repeated the next day. When Dr. Hedges showed up about three days after the accident he checked the injury and then told Mr. Simkins, "I couldn't have done a better job myself" The wound healed nicely.
  The Simkins had a homemade sled that consisted of two logs hewed to make runners and a "box" set on the runners. They went everywhere in winter in that sled, way out in the country and all over to attend dances.
  Brice loved to watch the fiddle players at the dances; they enthralled him. His dad, aware of the interest, contacted Joe Wright, who was going to Chicago with a load of cattle. He gave him $15 and asked him to buy a fiddle for Brice while he was back there. Brice still has that wonderful fiddle.
  One winter when Brice was about four years old there was a bad snowstorm that built a snowbank up against the windows and door of their homestead shack. Brice was hoisted up and pushed out over the snowbank to get a shovel so that they could dig their way out of the house.
  Brice also remembers many hilarious and exciting incidents. Take the time the dipping vat caught fire.
  The kids had just been dismissed from school for the day when the vat blew and down to the stockyards they all shot to watch the action.
  The cowboys had been running cattle through the vat and one 'ole' cow wouldn't go in. So she was assisted with a poke from one of the early day electric prods, which set her hair afire. Into the vat she went and her hair ignited the dipping solution, the end result being that all the corrals etc, burnt up. [Note: The vat was unharmed and new pens were built and the dipping vat was put into use again. According to Ernest Harrell who also remembers dipping times, the prods used were quite different than todays. Joe Murphy had one set on the end of a long bamboo pole; a piece of metal attached to a 6 volt battery with a coil. He could reach out and zap a critter from several yards away!]
  One of the most hilarious events Brice remembers seeing occurred when the Revenuers came to Roy and broke up the still that was in the old red livery barn. They threw everything out, including the fermented mash. The town cats, dogs, chickens and pigs all came to feast, resulting in the funniest sight he ever saw. Drunken animals were falling and staggering all over town, barking, yeowling, oinking and crowing as never before!
  The wooden sidewalks that were in Roy in those early days were about a foot or more off the ground and provided youth with many hours of entertainment. Kids spent quite a bit of time crawling around underneath on their bellies looking for money that people had lost between the slats. Sometimes they would 'Hit it rich' and find a coin or two.
  The family moved away in 1924 and went to Hanover. Blanche passed away in 1950 at the age of 70 and James in 1956 at the age of 76. All of their children are now deceased except for Brice and Morris, who resides in San Mateo, California.
  Brice and his wife, Judy, live in Lewistown during the summer and in Arizona in the winter. He worked as a trucker, mainly for the Great Northern Railroad, for years and Judy managed the 3B's store in Lewistown for many years.

  Most of my memories of Roy revolve around farm life.
  In the spring: planting crops and gardens, baby animals; calves, horses, sheep, chickens, turkeys and kittens at the barn.
  Summer was a time for get-togethers: men hunting sage hens, the women cooking them and then a big picnic with watermelons and ice cream too; visiting Charlie and Louise Bishop and getting a taste of his many wines; wading in the creek.
  Fall was harvest time. We were very self sufficient in providing food of all kinds. We had cherry, pear, apple and plum trees in the backyard and all kinds of berries for jam; a garden for all kinds of vegetables and pickles. Then we had beef, pork, chickens, turkeys, mutton. We made our own lard, etc. The milk was separated and the cream used for butter and milk for cottage cheese. The milk truck picked up the excess and the milk check was used for staples like flour, sugar,

PHOTOS-DESCRIPTION

• Earl Rife stationed in Maryland during WWI.
   
• Alton Rogers--1923
   
• The E.O. Sandbo Family
   
• Burt and Emily Sarjeant
   
• The Simkins family. Back row L. to R. Murel, Les, Morris. Front row: James, Blanche, Marie, Glen, Brice.

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