Matt Tuss opened several mines

              Matt Tuss Opened Several Mines
By Dolores Sramek
Dec 20, 1978 newspaper
Matt Z. Tuss came to Great Falls, Mont., in 1899 from Bribir, Jugoslavia [Yugoslavia].
His first job was in the stone quarry between Monarch and Belt, known as Riceville. lt was here
that he sustained a broken back in an explosion. After many months he recovered sufficiently
to move to Lewistown and send for his wife, Mary Plovanic Tuss and his little daughter, also
named Mary, who were still in Jugoslavia.
The family moved to Mecaha near the mouth of the Musselshell River where Tuss worked for
the Abel brothers who had cattle there. (These were the Abel brothers who opened a butcher
shop in Lewistown where the old Lewistown Creamery was located.)
It was there that their second daughter, Regina was born in February, 1903. Ten months later,
Mrs. Tuss died.
About this time Tuss moved to the James Fergus ranch where he went to work. ln 1905 he sent
to Jugoslavia for Catherine Micich whom he had known before coming to the United States.
They were married May 15, 1905 and continued to live and work at the Fergus ranch for some
time.
ln 1906 Tuss took up a homestead on the north fork of McDonald Creek in the Judith
Mountains and a son, Philip, was born. When Philip was a month old, the family moved into
their new home even though it was minus a floor and a door.
The homestead was very brushy and wooded and it took many years of hand labor to get the
land cleared enough to put it into production. Some of the family remembers that a neighbor,
Charles Rich brought his ox team and plow and worked up the ground so that they could put in
potatoes and a garden on May 25, L9LL.
During these years, Tuss opened up and worked in a number of coal mines. He also raised a
large garden and sold potatoes, rhubarb and asparagus and other garden produce to Lewistown
grocery stores.
ln L919 he opened up a coal mine on his homestead where he worked as long as he was able.
Even though he couldn't drive, he bought a used 1907 lnternationaltruck to haul coal up to the
top of the big hill. lt was a two-cylinder chain drive which is still in existence and is sometimes
seen in parades in Lewistown. He did some stone mason work also and built the retaining wall
on his homestead. Three more sons were born to the Tusses Cyril, Vincent and Anton (Tony).