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see her gallery of western performers and others at her site here.
Montana singer, songwriter, musician, storyteller, writer, auctioneer, Model T authority, and fiddle expert Stan Howe shared this unique 1912 eastern Montana homestead photo taken by Olson Bros. and separate details of the photo.
The original is listed currently here on eBay, where you can read more about the photo and bid until February 13, 2008. Stan tells:
Taken about 1912, this shows the Charles May family standing in front of their homestead near Culbertson. Charles and the wife, a little girl about 3 and a little one he is holding who is probably another girl, given her long hair.
It looks to have been taken about the end of June, the horses he has been using today have their nose fly pieces on their bridles, the harness is still on, there is a new stack of hay behind the barn on the left and the binder, which would be used in harvest is parked down by the buggy on the right side of the shed.
Across the draw, you can see some hay that has been cut and raked. There is no hay rack in the yard so it is probably over where he is cutting. There is also no mower in the yard.
If you look to the right of the 1909 shed, there are two new rolls of woven wire so they are planning to build some more fence. Maybe for sheep, maybe to keep the deer out of the hay.
If you look to the left of the shed on the left of the house, there is a fence around that haystack tall enough to keep the deer out. Notice that the shed to the right of the log cabin behind the team is dated 1909 and the barn is dated 1912. They were doing pretty well on the homestead, weren't they?
This is a fascinating look at how a small ranch was set up and run in the early 1900's in eastern Montana. I've sat and looked at this for hours at a time, looking for the small details like the shed up over the hill on the left side, the tools leaned up against the wall of the 1909 shed, the new woven wire, the clothes they wore, etc. I especially like Charlie's hat. No doubt he was a rancher.
Stan Howe has contributed other interesting photos to Picture the West:
Photos and stories from the family ranch in Westmore, Montana
photo by Jeri L. Dobrowski;Stan Howe at Elko, 2007
You can contact Stan Howe: 4433 Red Fox Drive, Helena, Montana 59602, 406-443-5658, email.
Poet and writer Jean Mathisen Haugen of Lander, Wyoming, shared this photo of her grandfather, Walt Mathisen. Eight generations of Jean's family have ranched in the Lander area.
She told us:
This is my grandfather, Walt Mathisen, wearing wooly chaps on horseback at a ranch south of Lander, Wyoming in 1921.
He was born in Kamas, Utah in May, 1899 and moved with his family to Deadman's Gulch south of Lander in 1902. For many years he was a rancher on Twin Creek 20 miles south of Lander and later a horse trader in the Lander area until his death in 1975.
He also drove 20-horse hitch freight wagons with his father, Andrew Mathisen, and brother Sam Mathisen from the railhead at Lander to the Mercantile Store at Atlantic City, Wyoming when he was a boy. At the time this photo was taken he was helping build some of the first highways in the Lander area with his horse team and plow.
Jean Mathisen Haugen has contributed other photos and stories, including:
The story of a tree planted by her family over 117 years ago
A story about her family's brand, "Saga of the Old ND Brand Continues for 123 Years" in our Western Memories pages
Read more about Jean Mathisen Haugen, some additional family ranch history, and some of her poetry here.
Please share your photos.
Send your views of the West.
We need your photos. If you enjoy this feature, help keep it going by sharing your photos.
We're looking for images that give a glimpse of the ranching, cowboy, and rural and working life of the West of today and yesterday. We welcome vintage and contemporary photos: family photos, images of where you live and work, and the area around you.
If you have a photo and story to share, email us.
January 28, 2008
Photographer and journalist Jeri Dobrowski shared the following photos about her grandfather and "all the things he ever rode." She describes the photos:
These photos featuring my grandfather, William M. Janssen, were selected with one purpose in mind: to show that cowboys and ranchers weren't and aren't always horseback. Granddad Bill came to Montana from Iowa in 1910. He made the trip by train. Over the next 67 years, he rode, straddled, drove and navigated a variety of conveyances. He was a homesteader's son who realized his dream of becoming a cowboy, who became a sailor, who became a businessman, who became a rancher. He worked hard in his younger years and put as much effort into enjoying retirement. Here's how I remember Granddad, and all the things he ever rode.
Montana Winter Quarters: 1910-1911
John W. Janssen (left) and sons Sam and 14-year-old William (horseback) in front of their eastern Montana homestead
The three came via the Milwaukee Road to Miles City in an immigrant car from Rockwell City, Iowa. They arrived in Miles City on October 10, 1910. They brought with them the most essential supplies: a team of two horses, a wagon, a buggy, two cows, some household "equipment" and furniture, machinery, tools, food and the dog - a Jack Russell lookin' pooch.
Mr grandfather William "Bill" described building the dugout: "We camped and fixed a home from a dug-out near the creek and covered it with logs and dirt, putting in a door and window in the front, building it on up with sod. We lived in this all winter, where we were warm and fine, except at night occasionally dirt would fall in our eyes." (Note pine trees with branches/boughs still attached, used as roof supports, and buffalo skulls piled on top of dugout.)
Prior to homesteading, the Janssens had been share cropping in Iowa. John W. worked as a carpenter and stonecutter, while two of his sons, William and Fred, did the farming. The landowner increased the share of the crop that he required from 2/5 to 1/2. John W. decided he needed to find another way to provide a living for his family and began thinking about moving west.
A train promoting Montana passed through Rockwell City in May 1910, displaying wheat, barley, flax, hay, apples, vegetables and other crops grown in Montana, and encouraging people to settle there. John W. looked at land in South Dakota and Montana before purchasing 2-1/2 sections of land 60 miles south of Miles City.
He and two boys went ahead to prepare a home for the rest of the family. John's wife, Anna, sons Fred and Albert, and daughter, Carolyn "Carrie", arrived in March 1911. All of the children, including Carrie, would establish homesteads of their own.
Show Off: 1911
As a teenager, Granddad taught this horse to rear. He gave instructions to his buddy, Mac, who owned a camera, to be ready to catch the action.
If he had had wheels, he would have been popping wheelies. Alas, they weren't readily available at the time.
Riding the Rails: 1912
Bill, at 15 years of age, riding the Soo Line Railroad
He and brother Sam worked the harvest fields in "Dakota" that summer and fall, ending the season by picking corn in Iowa. They moved from town to town by hitching a ride in open boxcars.
This photo taken at Aberdeen, S.D. Grandma Hallie, whom Bill married in 1920, gave me this real photo postcard image and a Soo Line dining car spoon that Granddad found along the rail bed.
John W. Janssen opened a post office at Coalwood in 1912, stocking tobacco, paper, pencils and ink for the locals. As demand grew, the inventory expanded. By 1915, he was running a full-fledged general store: Janssen Mercantile.
John W. found work for his sons, either on the home place, in the mercantile or working out. Bill felled trees for logs, built cabins, worked at a truck garden in Miles City, put up hay at a "hay camp," worked for ranchers, broke ranch horses and polo ponies, and rode on cattle.
He also attended the Montana Institute, a Miles City business college, for two winters. He and his brother bunked in a stable, eating and cleaning up at the YMCA: "We stayed at Neal Harding's livery stable and slept in the barn. J.M. Holt was shipping cattle and had a large herd out on Tongue River. These cowboys would come into the barn to change shifts and come in and go out. We didn't sleep much but it was interesting to us, as Sam and I wanted to be real cowboys!"
Wild Horse Rider: 1917
William Janssen, at 20 years of age, shortly before enlisting in the Navy
He enlisted prior to American's official involvement in WWI. Just days before leaving, he filed on a homestead claim and took his cattle to his brother's place to be cared for. He was working as a freighter at the time. Here's how he got into the freight business, which enabled him to purchase his first cattle:
"In 1914, I went to Miles City with my brother Fred on a freight wagon. It was during the rodeo, and I took my last $5 and spent it to enter the wild horse race. I got second place and won $50. I bought a team of large unbroken horses from Jones & Bell (livestock dealers). I gave them the $50 from the Chamber of Commerce (who were sponsoring the rodeo), and they took my note for the balance. I broke another team for Anna K. Murrey, and then I started hauling freight from Miles City to Coalwood and vicinity. I bought eight 2-year-old heifers from Jess and Sam Hudson, which they had shipped in."
He could haul 4,000 lbs of freight and got $1/cwt: $40 for a trip. He and a couple other young fellas traveled together, freighting around the area. They joked about being $40 millionaires, "because when we'd get $40, we felt like millionaires!"
Riding the Waves: 1918
William (left) aboard USS Illinois during WWI. (A note on the back of this photo indicated those are 13-in guns in the background.)
The Illinois was used for Midshipman's training cruises in 1913 and 1914. Inactive during WWI due to her age, she was used as an accommodation ship from 1917 to 1919.
William served aboard the USS Saranac, which was a mine-laying ship working the North Sea. Granddad was hospitalized in Scotland for a portion of his 22-month enlistment, sidelined with pneumonia.
Shopkeeper and Postmaster: Circa 1920
Bill behind the counter at Janssen Mercantile (a.k.a. The Coalwood Store)
When he returned from the war, Bill built a house on his homestead and "went to farming."
In 1920, John W. retired from the family business due to poor health. He and Anna moved to Miles City. When John W. regained his health, he once again worked as a carpenter. He and Anna also operated Fair Price Grocery.
Bill bought the Coalwood Store and Post Office and was appointed postmaster. In July of that same year, he married Hallie Warkins. The Warkins family arrived in Montana on Easter Sunday 1913, homesteading a few miles south of Coalwood.
Bill and Hallie lived in a small building that had previously housed the post office. He described it as being 10x10' with rough lumber interior walls. Grandma said it was 8x10'. (In her defense, I suppose it felt smaller. Granddad was a busy kinda guy who found it hard to sit still.) They eventually moved the house from his homestead to Coalwood and added to it as their family grew.
BIll and Hallie ran the store and post office for 14 years, while also raising horses, cattle, four kids and several large gardens. Bill continued to work with horses, noting that he broke a lot in his lifetime, and he was a 4-H leader.
Regarding the mercantile, Bill commented, "In 1933 and '34, business got pretty slow. A lot of our business was delivering relief food for the government: meat, wheat, etc."
In 1934, they traded the store and post office for a section of land on Pumpkin Creek and concentrated on farming and ranching. Of that year's crop, Bill said, "I raised 1,700 bushels of wheat and sold it for a little over $300, delivered to Miles City."
If it Had Four Feet: circa 1930
Bill astraddle a horned Hereford bull out front of the family home at Coalwood, Montana
Times were hard, but Granddad found fun where he could. "We tried to sell out but couldn't find a buyer," he explained. "Then, the farm program came along, our crops got better, and cattle prices went up. We bought some tax deed lands from the county, everything seemed to get better. We were able to eat something besides beans.
"For several years, we were paying bills with the money we took in, then when March came along, we would have to borrow to pay income tax. Some of this time, I worked all day and some of the night. We got things straightened up. At one time I owed five years' taxes."
Puttin' up Hay: circa 1945
Stockmen in the north put up hay to feed their livestock. Yep, it's true. Real ranchers put up hay!
Here's how Granddad did it during the 1940s.
Stout Mounts: 1952
Uncle Lew, Granddad Bill and my father, John M. Janssen
The horses they are riding clearly show traces of the U.S. Cavalry Remount breeding program. Granddad raised horses for the military, delivering/trailing them to Fort Keogh near Miles City, Montana.
After the military market dried up, there was still a call for horses. I have a 1947 photo of my father, taken as he headed for Miles City with a herd. The note on the back indicates they were delivering them to a buyer in the South, that a lot of horses were going to the southern states.
Granddad Bill leased the ranch at Coalwood, along with the cattle, to Lew and Dad in 1946.
Driving in Style: 1952
Granddad's Cadillac outfitted for an upcoming parade in Billings, Montana
Granddad was partial to Cadillacs and drove them right up until the time he died. He had a Chrysler Imperial once. He also drove a red Willie's Jeep. That was his fishing and farming rig. No matter what he drove, he always went too fast.
I don't know if Granddad ever rode a camel. If he didn't, it was only because he never came across one. He was game for anything.
(Taken with a new-fangled Polaroid camera. Granddad loved his Polaroid cameras! He was into instant gratification when it came to pictures. He would have been the first in line for a digital camera.)
Ride Him, Bill: circa 1954
Fanning a roping dummy at the Campbell Ranch on Powder River (my maternal grandparents' ranch)
Shuffleboarding Champion: circa 1955
After Bill and Hallie leased the ranch to their sons, they began wintering in Florida. Several others from the area also wintered there, including Carl Emmons (left) and Harry Allen (third from left). Granddad is on the far right.
Although he frequently went deep-sea fishing and played shuffleboard, Granddad always wore cowboy boots and a Western hat. It was easy to pick him out of a group picture of fishermen proudly displaying their catch on the dock!
Granddad described their retirement years like this: "Hallie and I have a nice trailer house to live in and we enjoy it. I think Powder River County was pretty good to us. We know how to appreciate living and playing now. We like to go back to Montana in the summer, raise a little garden, do a little farming when I feel like it, and do some trout fishing once in a while." (He also liked to be on hand for branding, making sure they got back home in time for all the action.)
Granddad Bill and Grandma Hallie raised quite a large garden. They shared the bounty with others and delighted in entering exhibits at the Powder River County Fair in Broadus. Granddad brought a lot of sweepstakes trophies home for his garden produce. Grandma Hallie won her share of arts and crafts trophies.
Peddle Power: circa 1972
Riding in Trade Winds Trailer Park, Bradenton, Florida
Granddad Bill was like a kid with a new toy with this set of wheels. You would have thought it was a Harley Davidson. (He sent Polaroid pictures for all of us to see!) I suppose he went this route so he wouldn't have to trade his cowboy hat for a helmet.
Granddad's last trip home from Bradenton was aboard a commercial aircraft--in a casket. He died in Sarasota Hospital from complications of brain cancer surgery in the spring of 1977.
His body was flown home for burial in the Custer County Cemetery, Miles City. He was laid to rest alongside his daughter, Virginia.
Jeri Dobrowski has contributed many other interesting photos to "Picture the West," including:Family photos of generations of veterans and some additional World War I photos
Family photos from Yellowstone, from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s
Jeri is working on a family history book of photos and stories. She comments, "'Picture the West' has inspired me to find out more about my family...What a way to view history and incorporate the written accounts that I am so fortunate to have!"
Read Jeri Dobrowski's Cowboy Jam Session and more about her here.
See her gallery of western performers and others at her site here.
Share your photos.
If you enjoy this feature, help keep it going! Share your photos.
We're looking for images that give a glimpse of the ranching, cowboy, and rural and working life of the West of today and yesterday. We welcome vintage and contemporary photos: family photos, images of where you live and work, and the area around you.
If you have a photo to share, email us.
See Page 1 here with the current photo of the week.
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