Storytellers: Janie and Willard

Far Guy's Uncle Willard is the story teller, I am only the translator. This entry concerns Far Guys Maternal Grandparents/Great Grandparents A. home place, and since they lived kitty corner from my parents old farm.. it holds special interest for me also.

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Aunt Janie (On my Mothers side of the family) was a storyteller too (from Ohio) she and my Uncle Zach L. (from Wisconsin) came up here in October of 1880 (from Iowa.) Janie was 24 and Zach was 32 years old. They were one of the first three white settlers in this area. They lived just west of Jim M. place. There was a Government Trail that ran from someplace on the corner of the A. property all the way to Verndale. Verndale was the closest settlement, and the end of the railroad. If they went in the winter to get flour, they snowshoed all the way to Verndale, and put their purchases in a toboggan and pulled it all the way back home. ( Cross country this trip is 43 miles as the crow flies. )

Martha and Janie, Photo taken before 1943.

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My Dad's ( Curt A.) family came from Canada in 1889, they were upset with the crown. They were farmers, and there was no working in Canada on Sunday. They didn't like all the crown taxes, if you painted your barn..you got taxed. My Dad was one year old when they came here, he had two sisters Elizabeth and Mae.

The place was nothing but big timber back then, big timber so tall and thick that there was no underbrush. There weren't any deer either. Odd sections of land were Railroad land, even sections were land to homestead. They had to saw down the big timber, and used the saw logs to build the house. (I asked him if what we know as the prairie was heavily wooded too..he said no, the prairie was always the prairie) But that the entire area south of the prairie was big timber mainly pines, and his Dad said it was easy walking.

When Walt G. was about ten years old, he was hunting ducks by Elbow Lake and shot a Lynx. They had to go into the Smoky Hills to hunt for deer. There were Timber Wolves, Lynx and Bobcats.

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Uncle Willards phone calls are very enjoyable, I take notes and he talks..and talks..I think he got a new hearing aid and is putting it to good use. We met him at the cemetery recently, quite by accident, he had brought flowers for all the old graves. We didn't know if he would be feeling up to his annual trip out there..so we were prepared with extra flowers. We had a nice visit, standing within earshot of all the headstones that mark many early pioneers to this area.

I was particularly impressed with the descriptions of the big timber. Here is a photo I took recently, from the edge of the old A. property.. perhaps where the old government trail went through..the water tower in the distance is on the Reservation.:)