Montana 3/2009

Montana May 2009

Although our main motive for this road trip was to honor Magdalene Winslow by attending her 95^th birthday party, the fact we retraced family footsteps meant so much. Yes, this history stuff is ever so much more interesting as we age!

I remember Mom speaking so fondly of her time in Red Lodge, MT. She loved the fresh air, sweet water and lifestyle of this small town surrounded by snow capped mountains. When I received a copy of Heidi, I imagined Red Lodge was a lot like Switzerland.

From reading the history of Carbon County, it would seem Mom attended The Field School, as this was the elementary school 1908-1952. In 1910, the Lincoln School was built to serve the southern side of the town, so this is a possibility as well? We located the William R. Freeman home at 514 N Platt. I have a photo of Pattie, Jerry, and Mom in front of this pretty blue home, so Mike took my picture there as well.

The John Thomas Flaherty home, listed in the directory as 423 S. Hauser, is probably the home photographed from this same trip Mom, Jerry and Pattie took although there is no house number on the rundown home which occupies the place it must have been. Moving homes due to changing work situations (i.e. one mine closing) was common.

Flaherty died in 1926 in Red Lodge, so maybe James M. Freeman family then used this as their summer home as labeled on the photo?

Although the area coal mining ceased in the 1970’s, Red Lodge remains a viable old western town attracting visitors, offering the remodeled Pollard Hotel (once the Spottford), which our friends say is a great place to stay. In contrast, Washoe is just a handful of old homes on the side of the road. Smith Mine #155 which is listed as a residence for the Freemans may have been the company house that has since been moved or destroyed.

We visited the Red Lodge main cemetery. (There is a second cemetery in town for some of the families that have lived there forever. The bookstore clerk mentioned : Chapman, Meyer, Scanlin. This is not the right cemetery for our family). When you drive into the cemetery, the mausoleum is directly in front of you. Look to the right and you’ll see a large Freeman stone marking William G. Freeman’s and his wife, Marianne Robinson’s graves nearby. Then, go back and face the mausoleum and walk several yards to the left. Pass a clump of trees with an elaborate monument with Crucifix. James M. Freeman and Anna Cecilia Flaherty Freeman’s stone is just to the left. The cemetery is larger than one would imagine. It is near the golf course. We didn’t have enough time to locate the grave of John Thomas Flaherty.

Understandably, EVERYONE in Red Lodge remembers February 27,1943 when 72 miners lost their lives in the Smith Mine. Sitting in the Montana Room of the Billings Pubic Library and reading Jeffrey Edward McNeish’s A Smith Mine Disaster Chronicle (2007) was a sobering experience.  My jolly, lovable, kind Grandpa was Manager of the Montana Coal and Iron Company at the time. He was going to California, so he assigned someone else to replace him and his brother, William, who was the Superintendent of the mine. Grandpa wrote that he wanted to close a part of the mine due to the scarcity of glass caps keeping methane from leaking into the mine. He offered to double shift the Foster Mine. The Federal Inspectors said he could not stop the mining during wartime.  Something ignited the methane and the mine blew. There are detailed records of the investigations. My explanation is hampered by ignorance of mining operations, I’m afraid. The company records show a concern for safety. The road sign near the mine tells of miners trapped and writing last messages. Very, very sad.

Tom Buller, Wendy Winslow’s cousin, lives in a perfect log cabin in a forest of aspens and cottonwood trees. He joined us at the Grizzly Grill in Roscoe, MT for their famous hamburgers. The restaurant is nestled in the aspen and cottonwood trees and approached by crossing a pretty little bridge over the running stream. Lovely site. Charles Kuralt considered the highway from Red Lodge to Yellowstone Park to be the most scenic in the USA. Our drive from Missoula to Billings was a glorious parade of snow-capped mountains, rolling hills, running streams, long winding rivers, and a funky, bushy tree that’s everywhere in this section of Montana.

Along the way we saw alternate groupings of mule deer and antelope. This, in addition to lots of cattle, horses and sheep.  When it warms up, there will be wildflowers including Mom’s favorite, Indian Paintbrush.

When we first approached Billings going east on I-90, it was confusing.  Where was it? How could one hide a city with a population of 102,00? We drove through West Billings and still saw no city. Finally, we see a huge rocky ridge backdrop and then the town itself. Mom’s high school home, at 1101 N. 30^th St. is “sheltered” by this looming ridge. It is also surrounded by medical buildings and a hospital complex. The house sits on the corner and is well maintained. The porch we saw in an old photo has been removed. It is almost in downtown, now. City directories in the library show Grandpa owned the house for many years. They must have kept the place while traveling to Red Lodge and Washoe in between? We walked there from our center city hotel, the Crowne Plaza.

Grandpa loved the Northern Hotel and entertained clients there. Our family stayed there in December, 1984 when I-90 was closed due to snow! The Northern remodel is temporarily halted by the recession.

We walked from the home to Mom’s high school, Lincoln High, noting the separate entrance for seniors! We copied Mom’s high school pictures for three of the Kyote Yearbooks. I think she skipped one grade in high school. She graduated in 1932. This entry lists: Carbon County High School 1,Camera Club 2, Secretary Latin Club, Honor Society,3,4; Chemistry Club 3, Activity Club, 3,4, Kyote Annual 4. This school was relocated and renamed “Billings High School’. The old school now houses  “Lincoln Center.”

  

Memories of Grandma and Grandpa Freeman-

During my childhood, we saw Grandpa more frequently as he would be in Spokane for business meetings. He always wore a hat, a white shirt and tie, a suit  (usually gray) and an overcoat. His huge shoes were black, more like sturdy boots than dress shoes. He had the beefy hands and stocky build of a Welshman although he was born a ways away in Wigan, England. His rosy nose was bulbous with visible veins. I remember him always approachable and always in a good mood. He’d come into our house in Spokane, take out his paper sack and spill candy bars onto the dining room table! We each took turns choosing our favorites:

Idaho Spud, Mountain Bar, U-Nos, Butterfingers, etc. Grandpa loved maple sugar candies and brought them and Aplets/Coplets as gifts.

He’d settle into a chair after dinner and sing songs to us. “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean “ and “I Miss My Swiss” were favorites. Sometimes he took the Great Northern train from Billings to Spokane.

Grandma was much smaller and shorter. She had naturally curly gray hair. I remember making cookies with her. She wore an apron and was so patient. Like my mother, she welcomed us into the kitchen even though everything took longer with our inexperienced help. Grandma had some kind of needlework; knitting or needlepoint. She was also even-tempered and approachable. She studied photography and was a lifelong learner. She looked like a “grandma” in the nicest, coziest sense of that term.