My Sister-Sullenger 1 |
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2,117 words
Livestock History
William Buchanan, Jr.
September 24, 1941
Original Information
My Sister Was the First White Child Born in Fergus County
"I was only about five years old when my sister Minnie, was born. My name, before I got
married was, Millie Jane Sullenger. My Mother's name was the same as mine and dad's name
was Robert Sullenger. There are many things which I don't remember but there are many things
which I do remember as clearly as when they happened.
I remember our trip from Roseburg, Oregon, which was just asmall town. I remember dad
telling my mother all about what awonderful place Montana Territory was and how they could
make a good living with sheep there. I remember how mother was happy to leave Oregon and the
sooner the better because the climate there didn't agree with her. I was little at the time but I can
see just how everything took place.
I remember dad selling all our furniture and with the money, buying some sheep and a
good covered wagon and team of horses. Mother and dad packed up what necessary things were
needed for the trip and bought food and supplies to take along because, in those days, there were
no stores along the route and no roads to follow.
It was in the spring of 1880 when we finally left Roseburg. The grass was green and birds
were singing and everything was wonderful. The weather was warm and made traveling nice. Dad
didn't ride in the wagon with mother and me but rode a saddle horse and was driving a lot of
sheep. I think there were about one or two thousand head. We could not go very far in a day but
we covered several miles every day and at night, we would look for agood place to make our
camp, here there was fresh water to drink. We had been traveling for two or three days when
Object Description
| Rating | |
| Title | My sister was the first white child born in Fergus County [Montana] |
| Description | Six typed pages about the Sullenger family coming to Fergus County in 1880 and about her life in a Lewistown school |
| Creator | Millie Jane Sullenger |
| Genre | documents |
| Type | Text |
| Language | eng |
| Date Original | 1941 |
| Subject (keyword) | Lewistown, Montana; Fergus County, Montana; |
| Subject (AAT) | Schools; |
| Rights Management | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Other contributors | Written as part of the WPA project. |
| Contributing Institution | Lewistown Public Library, Lewistown, Montana |
| Publisher (Original) | Lewistown Public Library, Lewistown, Montana. |
| Geographic Coverage | Fergus County, Montana; Lewistown, Montana |
| Coverage-date | 1880- |
| Digital collection | Central Montana Historical Documents |
| Digital Format | application/pdf |
| Physical format | |
| Digitization Specifications | Canon MX310 300dpi |
| Full text of this item | WPA: Sullenger, Minnie Livestock History William Buchanan, Jr, September 24, 1941 Original Information My Sister Was the First White Child Born in Fergus County "I was only about five years old when my sister Minnie, was born. My name, before I got married was, Millie Jane Sullenger. My Mother’s name was the same as mine and dad's name was Robert Sullenger. There are many things which I don't remember but there are many things which I do remember as clearly as when they happened, I remember our trip from Roseburg, Oregon, which was just a small town, I remember dad telling my mother all about what a wonderful place Montana Territory was and how they could make a good living with sheep there. I remember how mother was happy to leave Oregon and the sooner the better because the climate there didn't agree with her. I was little at the time but I can see just how everything took place. I remember dad selling all our furniture and with the money, buying some sheep and a good covered wagon and team of horses. Mother and dad packed up what necessary things were needed for the trip and bought food and supplies to take along because, in those days, there were no stores along the route and no roads to follow, It was in the spring of 1880 when we finally left Roseburg. The grass was green and birds were singing and everything was wonderful. The weather was warm and made traveling nice. Dad didn't ride in the wagon with mother and me but rode a saddle horse and was driving a lot of sheep. I think there were about one or two thousand head. We could not go very far in a day but we covered several miles every day and at night, we would look for a good place to make our camp, here there was fresh water to drink, We had been traveling for two or three days when dad met up with a man named Mr. Poindexter, who was also coming from Oregon to Montana with sheep. Mr. Poindexter told dad that some of his men had quit him and gone back to Oregon and asked dad if he would help his men take the sheep through to Montana if he would pay him and furnish provisions and supplies for dad and us. Well, being as dad was coming to Montana anyway, he consented and being that dad was older and more experienced than the other three men of Poindexter's, he was to be the boss and pick out the route and when reaching Fergus County, was to let Mr. Poindexter know where his sheep could be found. There were about 10,000 head in Mr. Poindexter's flock. There were also several head of Percheron horses that dad owned and was bringing with him. After dad consented to help Mr. Poindexter, it made traveling much more slower and we never got to Fergus County until late in the fall of 1880. All along the trip, we were always meeting bands of Indians; they didn't seem to be on the warpath but dad was never a man to take chances. Whenever we would meet with Indians, Dad would always light a long pipe and after greeting the Indians, would offer the pipe to them. This seemed to be very effective with them and they never gave us any trouble. After the pipe had been smoked, dad would kill some sheep and give them to the Indians as a peace token. After reaching Fergus County, dad found it had cost him almost two hundred sheep but Mr. Poindexter, when he finally came to Fergus County, gave dad the two hundred sheep and some cash, I don't know just how much. The route dad took from Roseburg was long and there were a number of rivers that had to be crossed, all of which were forded except one. That river was the Snake River, and being in the spring, the river was overflowing and treacherous. Dad was afraid to try and make the sheep swim the river but instead, he and the other men, cut logs and bound them together as a raft and put poles upright, in every corner. Then they took ropes and roped around the poles, making a kind of enclosure, so the sheep could not get off of the raft. The raft was large enough to hold quite a number of sheep at time and was poled across the river until all the sheep, horses and our wagon was safely across. It took us about a week to get everything across the river because the raft had to be pulled up the river each time it went across because the flowing water would carry it downstream quite a ways. After we crossed the Oregon-Idaho line into Oregon, we forded the Payette and Boise rivers in Idaho and crossed the Madison River in Montana, from there on to Fergus County, we came by way of Livingston and White Sulphur Springs, which was the county seat of Montana Territory then, then through the Judith Gap and into the great Judith Basin. After getting into Montana we encountered large herds of buffalo and some of them were killed by dad and the men so we could have a change of meat. lt got tiresome eating beef all that time and the buffalo meat was like a treat to us. Mother had to be very careful on the trip because she was sick and when we got to Fergus County, she told dad that there was going to be a new baby soon and dad was very glad, At that time there were no white people living in Fergus County who were going to have babies and so my mother gave birth to the first white baby born in old Fergus County. The baby was born in October, 1880 and it was a girl. I was so thrilled to think that I had a baby sister that I just cried for joy and so did mother. But having babies in those days did not keep women from their work like it does nowadays. No, there was work to be done and Mother did it without thinking anything about it. We were the first white family to locate on Spring Creek and it was two years after we located on that creek before another family located there. Their names were Day, George Day. Our home was only about two miles from Lewistown and every morning I walked to school, I met Mr. Day's daughter, Emily, and she was the first white I met in Fergus County. This was in 1882 and we were both about the same age and went to the same grade in school. We were the only white children in the school, the others being half-breeds but we all got along fine, The first schoolhouse in Lewistown was old log cabin with just one room to it. It was a big room but there were no desks or chairs, only a puncheon floor, where all of us children had to sit and study our lessons. The roof was a dirt roof and the inside of the building was finished with clay, which was used in place of plaster. The first teacher of the school was named Mr., Brassey and the school was located where the James Kane residence is now standing, almost directly across the street from the new Federal Building, on Third Avenue, in Lewistown. My second teachers name was Mr. Oliver Gutrash. This was in 1882, when me and Emily were going to school, He was of French nationality and it was sometimes hard for us to understand him because his English was not so good. The school had also been moved that year and it was then located near where the Methodist church is now. The school was quite a bit larger than the other one but had no benches or desks making it necessary or us to still sit on the floor. In 1883, the school board took over a frame building on Main Street and put in desks and chairs and we had a board floor. Miss Winifred Shipman was our teacher then and taught the school for the next few years, when my little sister was old enough to start in the first grade and where she went all the way through school and shortly after the completion of her course, was married to an eastern cattle buyer and moved from Lewistown to Omaha and the last we heard she was living in Chicago and had two children of her own, I guess she still lives there although I haven't heard a word from her in over ten years. We didn't have any high school courses but in those days, an education was not needed like they are today. The school was then located where the old Montana Saloon was, on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Main Street. Miss Shipman taught until 1888 when Mr. Darling took over and taught. Every evening, as soon as school was over, I had to go right home and help Mother with the housework and when my little sister was big enough she had to help too. It was nice in the early days but not nearly as convenient as now because we never had the things then that we now have. But there were birds singing, warm sunshine and very good and true friends, which meant a lot to the pioneers. To a pioneer, a good friend, was worth more than money. These days, one don't find many true friends like there were in the early days. Emily Day and me grew up together and were lifelong friends, until she died, a few years ago. She was married a couple of years before I was and lived about six miles on up spring Creek from us, I was married, when I was nineteen years old to Thomas Conway, who owned a homestead near my own home. We moved there and we are still there. We are getting pretty old but still find life worth living and we still have our health and our home and a little money. I remember another incident in mine and my sister’s life. It was when my sister was just two years old and I was only seven. We were living on Spring Creek and one night, about eight o'clock, dad and mother and my sister and me, were scared about out of our wits by cries and war whoops, which were made by Indians on the warpath. Instead of grabbing his gun, dad got out his old peace pipe and lit it. Mother made us children hide in a pantry with her. Dad opened the door and went outside and held up his hands in a sign of peace and the Indian chief did the same, after a few minutes that seemed like hours. The Indian called to some of his braves and they came forward and after much talk, they all smoked the pipe. After they gave the pipe back to dad, dad took several of the braves to a sheep pen and killed twenty-five head of sheep and gave them to the Indians as a token of peace, The Indians took the sheep and departed without another word and we were never bothered by any Indians after that. Us kids and mother were sure scared for awhile, let me tell you. We didn't know what was going to happen but when dad came back in the house we forgot all about being scared after he told us what had taken place. Mother told dad that while he was talking to the Indian chief, she stepped to a window and counted 552 Indians, in war paint and feathers. Dad laughed and told her she was crazy but she swore, up and down, that she counted that many wondered just what would have happened if dad had not been able to make peace with them.' (From an interview and a re-interview with Mrs., Thomas Conway, at her home on Spring Creek, seven miles southwest of Lewistown) |
| Local Identifier | SC 6.0 Sullenger, Robert |
Description
| Title | My Sister-Sullenger 1 |
| Type | Text |
| Contributing Institution | Lewistown Public Library, Lewistown, Montana |
| Digital Format | application/pdf |
| Digitization Specifications | Canon MX310 300dpi |
| Full text of this item | 2,117 words Livestock History William Buchanan, Jr. September 24, 1941 Original Information My Sister Was the First White Child Born in Fergus County "I was only about five years old when my sister Minnie, was born. My name, before I got married was, Millie Jane Sullenger. My Mother's name was the same as mine and dad's name was Robert Sullenger. There are many things which I don't remember but there are many things which I do remember as clearly as when they happened. I remember our trip from Roseburg, Oregon, which was just asmall town. I remember dad telling my mother all about what awonderful place Montana Territory was and how they could make a good living with sheep there. I remember how mother was happy to leave Oregon and the sooner the better because the climate there didn't agree with her. I was little at the time but I can see just how everything took place. I remember dad selling all our furniture and with the money, buying some sheep and a good covered wagon and team of horses. Mother and dad packed up what necessary things were needed for the trip and bought food and supplies to take along because, in those days, there were no stores along the route and no roads to follow. It was in the spring of 1880 when we finally left Roseburg. The grass was green and birds were singing and everything was wonderful. The weather was warm and made traveling nice. Dad didn't ride in the wagon with mother and me but rode a saddle horse and was driving a lot of sheep. I think there were about one or two thousand head. We could not go very far in a day but we covered several miles every day and at night, we would look for agood place to make our camp, here there was fresh water to drink. We had been traveling for two or three days when |
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