*1904 kirkland, new mexico

it begins

One night about midnight (April 24, 1904) a little blue-eyed tow headed girl was born to Charles Milton Steele and Harriet Virginia (Hattie) Robert. The night a weasel got into the chicken coop and ate all mothers’ little chickens up. This was in a two-room adobe house in Kirtland, New Mexico on the 24 of April. And as you read this book you will find disaster followed me where ever I went and it began with the poor little chickens.

will relate the memories of my childhood on the San Juan River, as I remember them, but not in order because I don't remember them that way. My earliest memories are riding back and forth in a wagon bed on some straw. Papa always got up before daybreak to get ahead of the heat to go down on the San Juan River on a homestead and build a rock house.

nearly trampled
"Kate, I am going to put Charlie in the front yard and I want you to watch him. I will put him in this horse collar," mother said. As I was sitting there watching him, the dogs took a calf and low and behold here came the dog toward me and Charlie and the cow right after him. I run, the cow jumped over Charlie and mama come a running. "Kate, I told you to watch that baby." Well, she picked up the crying baby. Papa called the dogs back and every thing settled down.

*red mesa, new mexico

tent
If I remember right, I was about 7 years old when we moved to Red Mesa. We moved to Red Mesa and Papa had put up a tent house. We lived in the tent house. It was a big tent about 24 feet long and 12 feet wide. I can remember the wind blowing and that old tent flapping and it would first scare me to death. Papa had build or dug a cellar for the milk and I would try to get mother to go down there with me. I don't think she ever did.

That fall, we moved back to Kirtland for school and that winter, Eugene Forest Steele was born (20, Jan. 1912, San Juan, New Mexico). We lived in the tent all winter. In the spring, papa took us back to Red Mesa, Colo. The next winter we moved back to Kirtland, New Mexico. Then we moved back to Red Mesa, Colorado on a farm that papa traded uncle Frank Robert’s for.

Every time papa moved, he took the tent with him. We live in that tent for about three years. Until he built a one-room log house, which was use as a kitchen, we still slept in the tent.

hay
Milton lived on a big hay ranch. We would bail the hay, then stack it, then in the winter he would haul it to Durango to sell. I would sit on one side and poke wire through a little hole in a board to separate the bail. Alvin would tie the wire on the other side. I was around 11 and 12 years old at this time.

first picture show
The first picture show I saw and when probation was passed. Milton and Don come in a boxcar with the cows and horses.

comet

first spanking
Papa had fixed some new screen on the door to keep the flies out and I would swing on it. One morning papa caught me and that was the first spanking he ever give me. I climb up on a big pile of wood that was piled beside the cook stove. I sat there a little while - then fainted away. When I come to, papa was walking the floor and calling - Katy, Katy wake up. That ended up with him buying me some cans of tomatoes and Post Toasties and wouldn't let the other kids eat them. That was the only spanking father give me till I was fourteen years old.

first meteorite
I saw my first meteorite one night just before dark. Milton and Jennie were milking the cows when a big ball of fire came over our heads. The cows started to run and bellow. We all watch it go down over the sand hill. Milton and Jennie went up on the hill to find it. It looked like it landed on top of the hill. They walked all over the hill but never found anything. Later in the year, I read where they found an old meteorite about one hundred miles back in the deserts.

haley's comet
It was about that same time that Haley's Comet was going to sweep the earth with its tail. Aunt Daphne, mother's baby sister, got scared and said if she was going to die it would be in Uncle Roy Cooper's arms. So papa took her to Uncle Roy in Colorado where he was watching sheep. I remember papa waking us kids all up in the middle of the night to watch Haley's Comet fly though the sky. It lasted about five minutes. I don't know how old I was - about 5 or 6 years.

indians

worn shoes
I was tender footed and couldn't go barefooted like the rest of the kids, my brother and sister (Don and Daphne). When papa bought me shoes, I always run them over at the heels and I walked on the side of my feet, and papa would tie them on tight every morning so they wouldn't run over. I can remember when he did this for me - how good my feet felt.

the homestead
The homestead was on one side of the San Juan River and the Indian Reservation was on the other side. There were three Navajo Indians, two brothers and sister, Curly Jim, Bigious and Sena. Their father had been the chief of the tribe, and when we had trouble with the Indians they would intercede in our behalf.

troubling indians
Milton the oldest brother and some of his friends went out to chase some horses that belonged too the Indians. (Why they were doing that I do not know) Milton told Don to stay by the path where the horses would be coming, Milton told Don to turn the horse so they would not run over the cliff (the San June river was below).

I do not know what Don was doing when the horses get to him, but one of the horses went over the cliff (a pinto) into the icy river and the horse drowned. The horses’ head was above all the ice; he froze in the river.

I was worried about Don, because he did not come home. I was beginning to think that the Indians had taken him or he had hurt himself, but he came in late, after Papa gets home. (I think he did not want to face Milton because of the one horse that died.)

“The next day, it seemed to me that the whole tribe came over to take our horse that was hooked to the buggy.”

(Mother and Milton were getting ready to go to town.) Mother held on to the horse and keep telling them to wait till papa come home. I remember the squabble lasted till papa came home and Milton had to give up his only horse.

dunes

hornes
It was on the San Juan River that I started thinking about God. I asked Don where he came from and his answer was - he come from a hollow log. I believed him too. Also, I first learned that I was a Mormon, and they were supposed to have horns. Mine never did sprout, so I come to the idea that I wasn't a good Mormon, because I couldn't grow horns.

sand dunes
One time Don and Daphne wanted to go see some Indian writing that was on some cliffs. We had to go on a narrow trail, and it was sandy and would slide. About fifty feet below the trail was the San Juan River and beside the river was a dike that the farmers had build to get water from the river to water their gardens.

"You and Edith stay here where it is safe," Don said. Daphne and I will go on and look at the writing, so I took Edith's hand and waited till Don and Daphne got out of sight. Then I proceeded to take Edith's hand leading her on the trail. Pretty soon the sand started sliding and we started sliding down the hill. "Stand still," said Don. But it was too late, Edith and I put our arms around each other and started rolling down fifty feet of sliding sand. We stopped on the edge of the ditch. One more inch or two, we could have drowned.

There was a big wash on one of the sand hills where we would go play and dig room’s way back under the sand. I seem to remember we had two big rooms dug way back in the sand and one of the rooms caved in on brother Alvin, who was deaf. Now believe me we started digging to find him when Old Shep started digging with his feet. We figured that the dog would know where his head was and sure enough we found his head, so he could get some air in his lungs. Boy we were sure some scared bunch of kids. We never dug any more rooms back in the wash again.
It was on these sand hills that we would roll our Easter eggs down the hill. Aunt May, mother's sister, had a big family like mother did, so she would color a dish pan full of eggs and with what mother had we would roll and eat Easter eggs all day.

fend for myself
One summer, mother took Charlie and Edith and Don to cook for her brother's, uncle Don and Uncle Frank on the shearing of the sheep. She left Jennie there to take care of Daphne and myself. Papa was riding the ditch for the farmers in Kirtland. He would come home at night and leave early in the morning. Jennie was suppose to feed Daphne and me, but I don't remember her ever cooking a meal. I just pieced on some bread most of the time.

*san juan river, colorado

We would sit on the banks of the San Juan and watch the Indian women bathe their babies in the water. We would play on the banks and watch all kinds of things float down the river. We had a dog. "Old Shep" we called him. He would swim out in the middle of the river and bring sticks and everything he would give to us.

old shep
We would play along the banks of the river and into the seaweed with Old Shep going along in front scaring out the rattlesnakes. Sometimes at night, he would come in with his fours swollen up where the snakes bit him. He would get them between his teeth and shake their heads off.

sick hen
Mother had a sick hen and told Don to kill it, but Don didn't want to kill her. He thought it better to drown her in the river, so we three, Don, Daphne, and tag along Kate went down to throw this old hen in the river. We got back about half way to the house, and here come the old hen. Down to the river again we went with the little red hen; throw her farther into the river; well, she sure can't get out this time. Sure enough here come the hen. "Don I thought I told you to kill that hen," mother said. "Well, I tried to drown her," said Don. "You kill her," said mother. Don chopped her head off and we took her on top of one of the sand hills and buried her. Along about dark,
we went and climbed the sand hill and dug up the grave, but the little red hen was gone. Can you imagine what three children thought? I think after so long a time, Don figured the Indians saw us bury her and dug her up.

papa's pocket

Our house was between two sand hills and we herded the cows on the hills behind our house. Don, Daphne and I would get to playing and the cows would wander off and when it would begin to get dark we would start hunting cows. I would get tired and make them pack me. They would get tired and tell me if I didn't walk, the boogieman would get me. He was hid behind the hill. Well, I would walk till we come around the bend. Well, no boogieman so I would began to cry and that was when my big sister packed me and my feet dragging, because she was short and chunky and I was tall with long legs. The cows would always beat us home.

horse ride
Don and Daphne always ganged up on me because I was younger than they were. I always wanted to do what they did. One time they were riding papa's horses and I wanted to ride it too -- No, we won't help you on. I'll make him buck you off if you don't let me on. Go ahead Don would say put a stick in his flanks. Well, I found a nice stick and flanked him. Out come his leg and kicked me on the leg. I screamed. Mother and Dad come running to see what had happened to me. Well, the outcome of that was Don and Daphne had to carry me around for a week. Although my leg didn't hurt, but I made them think it did. Another time they were going to be good to me and give me a ride.

“They caught the old mare. We had tied a dishpan on to her tail and put me into the pan. Well, you can see me in the pan - the old mare jumped and kicked the pan - tipped upside down and I thought I was killed.”

Poor mother got another scare when I let out a bloody scream, and she comes running. I wasn't hurt but I sure made her think I was. But do you know she never spanked them kids.

a sliver
I got a big sliver in my finger and she wanted to take it out. No, I don't want you too; I want papa, I cried. You come here and let me take it out she scolded. You can't catch me, I said and starting running. Well, I carried that sliver in my finger all day till papa come home to take it out with his pocketknife. If I had a been mother, I would of blistered my pants good. She didn't

papa sewed me a pocket
Another time mother made us three girls a new dress, Daphne, Edith and myself. I always run the machine for her and sewed the straight seam. I had sat there all day helping her. When we were done, Daphne and Edith had pockets on their dresses and I didn't and I wanted some pockets so bad, but she said no. She didn't have time. I never said no more to her.

“But when papa come home, I told him all about my hurts and he sewed some pockets on my dress. They weren't very pretty, but they were pockets.”

*kirkland, new mexico

It seems along about that time, papa sold the place on the San Juan River and we moved to Redmesa, Colorado on a 160 acres of farmland. There were no schools there, or we had to go too far to school. I don't know which; anyway, we stayed with Jennie in Kirtland, N.M. to go to school. We lived in aunt May's place and started to school in the same grade as Edith, because it was too far for me to walk when we lived on the San Juan River. It was about that time I realized I had a little blacked-eyed sister by the name of Edith. I quit following Don and Daphne around.

Our teacher's name was Mrs. Graham. I never will forget her. She would walk up and down the isles of the schoolroom with a switch that she kept hitting her legs with. I thought she was the meanest woman I ever saw. She had Edith and I sitting together. Edith wanted to go to the bathroom and Mrs. Graham wouldn't let her go. So, low and behold, Edith just let it go all over me and the floor. I had to take Edith home. There was nobody home. Mother was in Red Mesa with papa and Jennie and Don and Daphne was in school. The highlights of that winter were when Papa would come from Colorado and bring us things to eat.

san juan flood
It was that spring that the San Juan River flooded over its banks. It took our house with it. The house was built of big round rocks. It took every thing but the dishes and cupboard. It fell forward on the water and as it went down, the dish cupboard slowly sunk to the floor without breaking a dish. We were living in Red Mesa at the time. Jennie was living in New Mexico at the time of the flood and she found Mama and Papa pictures that were hanging on the wall, they were in pretty good shape

amen

going to church

We lived just a mile from two churches, the Holy Rollers and the Baptist Church. Mama would send us down there if we couldn't make it to our own Sunday school. They would go on their knees to pray, and holler amen. I would jump up and they would all be praying again. I would look around and they would be on their knees a praying so I would knelt down again and someone would holler amen. I would jump up again until Daphne got a hold of me. She held me down on my knees till they all got through praying, which was about an hour I think.

temper
Papa and mama used to go down there at night and listen to them pray and leave Don to take care of all of us and put us to bed. When they would leave, they would always tell us to say our prayer's before going to bed. So one night Don got us all in a circle and was saying the prayer. He had his hands up and he was praying and all at once he said God bless Kate that she might not have any more crying spells.

“ I jumped up out of that circle and I made kids scatter”.

I just kicked and screamed and hollered and Don laughed. He just rolled on the floor and laughed. He thought he had done something big by praying for me to hold my temper. I guess I used to have an awful temper.

papa's preisthood
One time Papa and mama went to one of their meeting and the preacher just about had a heart attack, but none of the people got the spirit and papa said it was because he had the priest hood and the devil spirit could not come in.

log cabin

Papa built another room on the log cabin he had already built. We moved down in there and he moved the tent house down by the log house with two bedrooms. We moved in that. Then he later built another little bedroom on. That was the house we live in. He built a porch from the bedroom to the tent.

lost & found
About that time, mama was doing a lot of crocheting and I always wanted to crochet for her so I would take her things and take off and hide and ruin her crochet work. One day I lost her crochet needle, I hunted and hunted for that crochet hook, but could not find it. I prayed and prayed, thought maybe the lord would show me where it was, but he didn’t, I had to go tell mother that I had lost her crochet hook. One morning we got up early and she came in and said, your prayers are answered, "Papa found the crochet hook in his leg last night". I had left it in their bed. I was sitting in their bed crocheting and I had left it on the bed.

That winter while we were in New Mexico, papa built a one room house on the place and moved the kitchen down in it, but we sleep in the tent house that summer, he built a reservoir to catch the water for the cow and horses to drink.

ride the ditch
Papa got a job riding the ditch for Red Mesa. The people had got together and built a dam on the Platt River so they could get water for their farms. Papa had to regulate the water so the farmers would get their share of water; we were the first one on the ditch. It also was Papa job to keep the ditch clean.

My brother Alvin was irrigating for papa and he'd set the water and went to bed. Next morning instead of crops being watered, the water was going down the big ditch and Alvin got so mad that he sits up all night down on the head gate, to catch uncle Orville stealing the water.

That summer Dad also built another room on the house and moved the tent house down by the two rooms and papa and mother sleep in the front room.

relief society
I don't think we kids went to school that year, I don't remember going to school. I think Don and Daphne must have gone. I remember mother had a miss carriage with the twins, and the relief society came and got some old cloth that people had given her. When they brought them back we all had new cloths to wear.

1914

together again
In Feb. 1914 papa took us back to Red Mesa. So Jennie could take care of the family while mother was sick. Jennie and Doris both were pregnant. Iowa was born in March. Doris had little Milton in April. The family was back together again for a little while.

away from home
That summer Milton rented a big hay ranch in Hay Gulch and a woman wanted a girl to help her, so Mother wanted Daphne to take the job, but she did not want to so mother sent me. I had never sleep in a room by myself and she put me in a room off from the main house, one night I head a sound like a screaming woman and I laid there all night. I told them about it the next morning and Mr. Huntington say it was a Mt. lion, they tried to find it, but it was just going through. the county.

Mrs. Huntington took me to Durango and bought shoes and a dress for school, and we went to the fair. Mrs. Huntington had two boys one my age and one Daphne's. She wouldn't leave me alone with them; she helped me grow up a little bit. I was first, like Tootsie and I just grew up. I stayed with her till school started; I picked berries and wash dishes. She was really good to me; She and her husband took me to Durango to the fair and bought me some cloths for school.


baby george

The spring of April, Mother had a little boy he was with us one month, I remember all of us kid standing around papa when little George died, and papa closing his little eyes.

The summer of 1914 papa had the farm pretty well going we had a big alfalfa field and he put in lot of wheat, raised a big garden and we were getting along pretty good. Milton was staying home and helping papa, Alvin was with us in the summer and going to Santa Fe New Mexico to school (school for the deaf) in the winter, Don was getting big enough to help on the farm. Jennie was staying in New Mexico to help Aunt May.

rabid
One summer we had a mad dog scare. One dog went mad and went across the county biting everything close to it. Cows, Horses, Dogs and everybody was afraid, they would worn all us kid to get out of the way if we saw a stray dog. I would go to bed at night and dream about the dog. I bet I climb every fence post along the road in my dreams, I wake up shaking like a leaf.

typhoid
One summer an old cow died on the head of the dike where we got water and everybody that drank it got typhoid fever, mama and papa had five kids down with it at one time, I did not get it because I never drank the water. Mother would fix a bed on the floor in the setting room, lay them all in a row. Then papa would took a long stick and put some paper on it, cut the paper in strips, then make me set there and fan fly off them kids. I would get tired of fanning them and one of them would call out to mother and I would have to start over. I work hard to get the fly’s out of the room and shut the Door. Then they would cry it was too hot for them, after they started to get better we would have to carry them around, they were too weak to walk.

jennies care

That winter Milton get married to Doris Nickels, she was only 16 years old but the county was going to take the children away from her mother, and send Doris away to some school. Milton did not want to give her up so he married her. When we went back to Red Mesa after school was out, Milton and his wife moved in with us to help papa on the farm.

The next winter Jennie took us to Durango for school. She was supposed to go to school and put us in school, Don, Daphne, Kate (me) and Edith. She did not go to school very long but got work to keep us in school so she said. I know she was in love with Steve McCormick, she had work on a ranch near Durango all summer and he was one of their boys. I do know we had a party about every other week and she would have plenty to eat. But the rest of the time we lived on boiled wheat and frozen milk that papa would bring to us and we would boil a big kettle of wheat and breeze the milk on the back porch.

She rented a piano for us girls to take piano lesson; she would give them to us herself. I always had to get up an hour early to practices on it. One night I come home from school and Jennie wanted me to practice and I did not want to. So she sets me down on the stool to make me. She put my hands on the keys and I just drop them off, that went on till she got mad and slap me off the stool.
Well I went to a small hill out side of Durango and on my way I meet Daphne and Edith. I told them if they went home that Jennie would kill them. So they went with me to the hill and we set there on rocks, till we saw papa coming in from Redmesa. We went home and Jennie had a hot supper for us. We were always glad when papa came in, then she had to cook for us.

*cowley, wyoming

my life in cowley

Papa got wondering feet and made a trip to Iowa where his brother was and Mother wanted to get us kids in a better school and Milton had a girl friend in Durango, so Milton picked Mother up and moved us to Durango. Papa was quite mad about it when he came home.

family crisis
I guess you are wondering where Papa has been all this time. In the fall of 1916 or 1917, papa sold the place in Red Mesa and put mama and us on the train for Wyoming and he went to Iowa to see his brothers and sisters. He left Mother to get us to Wyoming all by herself, which I think she did a pretty good job. Mother got us to Wyoming with out too many mishaps.

mother hen
Mother gathered us all together and told us what to do. There were seven of us kids so Daphne was to keep track of Charlie and I had to hang onto Bob. Edith came up with Gene; Mother had Iowa in her arms.

We had to change trains in Denver. I can still see us going into the Denver depot with mother in the lead with Iowa in her arms, then behind her Daphne and Charlie caring a violin, then Robert and me and a bag, then behind me Edith and Forest. It reminded me of a chicken hen and her chickens. I do not know why mother did it but when we got in the restroom there in Denver, Mother took all our cloths out of the boxes and had them scatter all over that restroom. When a little black woman came in and saw all them clothes all over that room, she sure got mad and told mother to gather them up fast.

We got back on the train and we had to go over Berthoud Pass, it was before the tunnel was made and the altitude was too high for me and the Pullman told mother to keep her eyes on me, I was asleep in a second. I guess Mother told Daphne to get me some water and wake me up, all she did was throw the water in my face, well I came up out of that chair fighting like a wild cat. The Pullman had to pull us apart.

“I remember setting on that train looking out the window and wondering what was going to happen to us”.

We got off the train in Cowley, Wyoming on a cold day in January; the wind was blowing snow. I wanted to go back to Durango, Colo.

Jennie was there to meet us in an old car, and took us to her home. She had two big rooms and was taking care of four children that belong to our cousin; his wife had died in childbirth, so you see there was eight of us and five of them in two rooms. (I’ll leave it to you imagination.)

Mother worked cleaning other people houses, and keeps food in our mouth. Daphne, Edith and myself had one good dress apiece for school; mother would wash them pretty often to keep us clean.

confrontation

Mother got Daphne and I a job cleaning the schoolhouse and some how we lost the key to the house. The man that was ahead of the schoolhouse came to get it, well papa was mad and kept yelling at us. Daphne just set there crying and saying that she had given me the key. Well I set there and listen to him scolding. He would not let me say a word, and all at once I yelled at him and said, “if you would stop blabbing off I would tell him.” Boy, he heard me, the next thing I knew I was on the floor with him on top of me. I do not remember how it came out.

I remember back in Red Mesa he and I had a battle. He built a cellar to put milk in to keep cool. Some how somebody had gone down there and split the cream and milk, on the flour I do not know what got into his head, he said that I did it, but I did not, but he tried to make me say I did. But I did not do it and I told him so, he tried every way he know how to make me say I did it, but I never give in, because I did not do it.

bathe & ride

I am going to jot down a few silly and thoughtless things I did while growing up. I can not explain why I did it then, only I never did think before I acted, and everybody paid the price.

We had always lived out in the county and when we moved into town all the kids caught all the diseases that went around in school. So Bob came down with the measles while we were down at Jennies place. Mother told me to stay there with him and she went home. Well Bob did not want to stay and neither did I, so I warped him up good and we went home. It turned out all the young kids came down with the measles. All the Mothers blame me for taking Bob out in the streets; well you know I got told about it.

Another time, I was home alone with the door locked and Bob came home from school and I would not let him in and he kicked the door in, well I got told about it.

We lived on the edge of town and the ditch run on the edge of our place, and the horses running loose would come there to drink. One time Bob run them in the barn, and caught one and was riding him around the place. So he rode up to the door and wanted to know if I wanted to take a ride. “Oh sure says I,” and jump on the back behind Bob, that horse jumped out and run under the cloth line.

“Bob and I picked ourselves up off the ground”

Papa always had a team of horses at home with the milk, we would drive the cows back and forth, and it was about a mile to the ranch.

bathe & ride
One night I came in early from the farm, where I had been helping in the hayfield. All I wanted was a bath and then I wanted to go somewhere on a horse. So when I got home I saddled the horse up and went into take a bath. When I went out to get on the horse Jean was riding it around in the yard. When I asked him to get off, he just laughed at me. Well I tried to drag him off and he would keep just far enough away from me so I couldn’t catch him. I chased him two or three blocks.

“Then he stopped in the middle of a mud hole

and thought I wouldn’t get in the mud hole to catch him”

But I jumped in the hole, grabbed him by the leg and pulled him off and we had it fast and furious till he started crying. Then we were all muddy and the horse had already gone home. Well to make a story short I never went anywhere that night.

flu hits cowley

The year that the flu broke out in Cowley. Daphne and I came down with it first and we were sick up stairs with the windows open. We were sick for a week. When we came down stairs we were so weak we had a hard time walking. We laid around in the sun to get well. Then Mother and the kids all came down with it, we stayed home and help the family get well. So when the town came down with it and the Dr. had more than he could do. The Dr. found out that we were able to go help the families that were sick. now just to let you know I did not know how to boil water I knew nothing about cooking.

The Dr. sent me out in the county to a woman that had lost her husband with the flu, and she and her son about seven years old, shut herself and the boy in a bedroom, shut the blinds and keep a fire in that little room.

When I got there all I had to do was make soup, tea and toast and keep her with firewood.

She opened the door just wide enough for me to hand her what she wanted and the heat and fumes that came out of that bedroom would knock a person down. I had to sleep in the bed where her husband had died.

I stayed there about four days and when the Dr. came out to see her, I told him, she would die in there if she did not get some fresh air, well, he opened up that door and raised the blind and opened the windows. I stayed two more days and got her lots of wood in the house and went back home.

Then he sent me out on the other end of town in the county, where the whole family was down with the flu. Then I had to keep the fires going and keep water in the house and set up all night to see if the kids needed anything and keep the fires going. While there I read the book of Ben Hur. In about a week the husband was able to get around to do the chores.

I was home about a week and the Dr. sent me to a family in town with three children and a baby six-month-old. When I walked into that house, they had quilt and blankets over the windows and it was dark as night. There the husband lay in bed with covers up to his chin. The wife and the children in another bedroom with the window blinds down. The air was so stale it was awful.

The first thing I did was open the two doors and opened up the windows. There he lay yelling at me that I was going to kill him for sure, then I went into the other bedroom and covered the family up warm and done the same thing. When the Dr. came to see them he was yelping about it and the Dr. told him that was the best thing I could have done. I stayed there till he could get up on his feet again. I had to bath the baby every morning and fix then their soup, toast and tea, the washing was sent out.

The schools were all shut down and people were dying like fly’s, but I know Daphne and I lay up stairs with the windows wide open and we did not die. But everybody would shut themselves in a hot bedroom and would not let in any fresh air and I think that was what killed them, that was in the fall 1917 “I think.” In the mean time Daphne was doing the same thing, she liked to nurse the people and she said she was going to be a nurse.

“But I had my fill of it. I never wanted to see a sick person again”.

ice caves

One summer Papa took the family and Milton and his wife and son Billy. I took my three friends, Emma Johnston, Alta Balard and Deloris Blanchet. Emma Johnston mother went with us in a hayrack and we went to the Prier Mountains, where there was an ice cave. It seemed like it took one day to get there and Papa found us a nice grassy place to camp. It was really beautiful up there; the deer would come down to our camp to drink early in the morning.

We roamed all over that mountain till we found a hole to get down into the ice cave. First Milton put a rope on Don and let him down, he had a flashlight, but it was so dark he could not see much. Then they let Gene down and then I went down. we just had a ledge to stand on and Don told us to stand still because there was a big hole that went on down father and he did not know where it went. Then came Emma Johnston, she was quite a large girl, she had a pair of Don’s chaps on that made her bigger. She got about half way through that hole and got stuck, Milton tried to pull her up and she could not move, then Don would pull her down but she was stick in that ice hole. Gene and I was afraid to move because we did not want to fall in that hole and Don said to set down because when they did brake her loose she might come with a bang and knock us down. We were about half an hour, moving her back and forth till the ice melted enough to get her loose, but we finally were able to go on throw the cave. It was sure pretty down there, all kinds of different formation.

“We all left our name in a bottle, so if any of you ever go to Wyoming to Prior Mountain to the ice cave you will see our names”.

are you crazy?
Now all this time I was in love with Guy Spence, when he would come in to town doing the winter months, Daphne and I would have parties at our house or we would gather at his place. His sister kept house for them. Daphne was pairing off with Johnny Large, who was Guy sister son, one night after we had come home getting ready for bed, Daphne asked me to trade partners with her. She wanted Guy and for me to take Johnny. I just look at her and asked her if she thought I was crazy. But she was starting to pull away from the crowed. I still had my three girl friends.

rough crowed

But my crowd was too rough for her. There were four boys that would run around with us, William Tell, Twit Wilcox and I can not remember the names of the other two, so that left me alone. Edith was starting to grow up enough to go with us, I took her all the time, till the girls got together and told me they did not want her. So one day we were all going some place and I told Edith she could not come with us. So we left her looking after us.

I look back at her and there she stood looking after us with tears running down her face. I told the girls to go on I was going to stay with Edith. They did not want to go without me so Edith was with me from then on.

I was the only one that had a buggy and team of horses. So the bunch would get together and take a lunch and go out in the county for a picnic. I do not remember ever asking Papa if I could have that team to go anywhere. All I had to do was take the team and wagon down town and have all the young boys in the wagon, because I always had Robert, Charles and Gene with me. It was always said, "If you are looking for your boys look up Kate Steele." Or

“we know where you were last night, we heard you fighting.”

Everybody know I fought, but I never did anything wrong.

alive & modern
One day when Alta Balard was home alone I went to see her. “Her mother was old fashion and made Alta dresses clear down to her shoe tops, and I keep trying to have her mother shorten her dresses, but her mother would not.” So while she was alone I went down there and shorten every one of her dresses. I think that if Sister Balard could she would have killed me.

dance
Another time I talked Jennie into walking 7 miles to Lovell to a dance. Boy when that dance was over we were too tired to walked home, so she got us a room and caught a ride to Cowley the next day.

initiation day
When I went to High school as a freshman, the school had initiation day for the Freshies. We were all on the stage doing our thing at the end of the program, when in came the sophomores with our coffin all in black. They walked in front of us to a window that was open on the stage, set fire to the coffin and pushed it out the window. I was standing close to the window and I walk over to one of the girls carrying the coffin. As she pushes the coffin out the window, I give her a little push and she started to fall with the coffin. I gripped her legs and held on till a teacher helped me pull her back. We were two stories from the ground. That stopped the sophomores from giving us a bad time.

hang out
At night Edith and I never had much to do but hang around with the kids of the town of Cowley, one night we were out late and mother come after us. All we were doing was setting on the fence watching the moon and singing songs with a bunch of kids with nothing to do. But mother took us home and papa jump on me and had me on the bed slapping me around and trying to make me say that I would not do it anymore. I would not say I would not do it anymore. I think Mother pulled him off, it was the third time he ever spanked me. It was the last time. I guess Papa had gone the limit with me.

nice boy
I started going with a young boy by the name of Tell Aires, he was a nice kid, but was not a religious boy, he did not go to church and he smoked, nothing serious. Papa asked me not to go with him anymore so one night he came to see me with a box of candy. I was alone at the house, Papa and Mother had taken the kids and gone somewhere, so when Tell came I told him Papa did not want him to see me anymore so we set out on the porch and eat candy and talked. When papa came home, there we set, kind of surprised Papa. He said he did not mean for me not to go with him that night.

1918

The year of 1918 “I think” Daphne went to work for Dr. Welch and Mother got me a job working for one of her friends when they were younger, her last name was Barney. Papa started to work on the water works for the city, and Uncle John was chief. Milton and Don went to work for Mr. Tibbs who had sheep. I would come home weekends so would Daphne.

summer
The summer that I turned 14 years old. Daphne went to work for Dr. Welch wife and mother send me out on a ranch to help one of her old friends, by the name of Barney. They were poor as church mice. I keep the house clean and done the dishes, and help with the cooking.

They had a son by the name of Marian Barney, all he did was set in the bedroom and read. I asked him why he did not help out in the field with his mother and dad, they also had a Francis and Alice, that worked in the field. He told me that he had too much brain to labor in the field. I give him a hard time after that.

Marian had a friend by the name of Earl Dispain that lived with his family in Lovell, Wyoming on a little farm on the White River. He and his mother would pass the Barney farm on their way to Cowley and stop and have dinner with the Barneys. It seems to me they lived on onion and peas that was grown in the garden. The Despain grew sugar beets to sell. I do not know what Barney raised to live on.

Well through the summer I got to know Marion and Earl pretty good, but did not like them very much, I told them they eat so many onion, they smelt like one, so they ganged up on me and made me eat one. I never did like onions but they crammed it in my mouth anyway, that made me hate them more.

I came home Saturdays and Sunday’s and so did Daphne, so we were together on Saturdays and Sundays. But Daphne had grown up on me.

paired up
One Saturday there was a ball game in Lovell and I wanted them to take me too it, Earl had an old Ford car. He told me if I got him a partner he would take me; I was to be Marion partner.

I thought that was fine, I would get Daphne for Earl. We drove into Cowley to pick her up, went to the house and she was not there, so we went to two more places, where I thought she would be, no she was not there. As I was going out the door I saw her looking at me through the door crack where the hinges were, I just walk out and got in the car and told them to take me home. I could not find her and it was too late to go to the ball game.

I stayed at home until she came home and did not say a word to her, but I know she wanted to know who was with me. After awhile she asked me whom I was with and when I told her, she was disappointed that she did not go with us. She said she always had a crush on Earl, they went to the same school and he was two grades ahead of her, and had gone to the army. But the army had discharge him because he had flat feet and could not march.

a long ride

Daphne kept after me to get them to come and take us for a ride in his car. I did not want to because that would pair me off with Marion and I could not stand him.

One Saturday Earl came to the Barney place and asked me to see if I could find Daphne and that we would all go for a ride. I said OK, we picked Daphne up and he drove us to the dry lake outside of Cowley. And Daphne wanted to learn how to drive the car. I never got so tired and board in my life sitting in the back seat with Marion while Earl and Daphne was enjoying every minute of the whole afternoon, riding around on dry like. Well that started the courtship of Daphne Steele and Earl Despain, I never did go anywhere with them and did not know how Daphne got Jennie to go with Marion, but they were together the rest of the summer.

separate ways
We both came home to go to school. Daphne and Earl were still seeing each other, and Daphne and I were growing apart fast. My friends were not good enough for her and she went her way and I went mine.

Papa had rented a farm about three miles from Cowley and had planted sugar beets and we had to go out there and help harvest them beets. The weather was cold and it had been raining for a couple of days, it was the first of October, the wind was cold.

not sorry

Daphne and Jeannie were planning a supper for Earl and Marion, and she was really excited about it. I heard her tell Mama that I couldn’t bring any of my friends because they were not good enough to meet Earl. Now I thought Earl was the scum of the earth. His mother and father had a big family and his mother worked out in the field working beets, and he wasn’t doing much of anything to help. So when Papa made me go out in the field to help the kids in the beet field and Daphne didn’t have to go. I didn’t like it, but I worked all day. Papa told me to come in early and bring the cows. As I drove the cows up the street to the house, here came Daphne, Earl, Jeannie, and Marion in the car, they never said a word to me. Here I was cold, dirty and mad. And they didn’t speak to me. They went on down town.

When I got in the house I wanted to take a bath and get warm. I went to get into the bathtub; there in it were two big fat hens' feathers and all. I picked up them hens and took them out in the road where the cars had made deep ruts and dropped them hens in it. Went in the house and cleaned up, walked down town and gather up my crowd come back pick up the hens and we walked up to the Dry Lake, made a fire and the boys cleaned the hens and we cooked them over the fire. I never got one bite of them.

We were all standing around having fun when here came Earl and Marion in the crowd to let me know he knew what we had done. On my way home mother came out and told me to go right to bed so Papa wouldn’t get on me and make things worse. I never said anything as we went in. Daphne comes in and says to Papa that I couldn’t come in the dining room where they were talking. I figured if I was going to get in trouble I would get it over with. So I went over where Papa was sitting with Gene on his lap, and sat down by him. All he said to me with his eyes twinkling was “ You better go to bed.” All I did was go upstairs to bed. The only thing I was sorry for, was the extra work I put mother through.

From then on Earl tried to make friends with me. He and Daphne would take me down to their place. I always felt like a giant around them, because their whole family was little people, so I just quit going with them. I did every thing I could to break them up

daphne's proposal

One morning as I was coming down the stairs I heard Daphne telling mother that Earl had asked her to marry him. So I walked back upstairs and came running back down yelling to mother “Hey mom do you know that Earl has asked Daphne to marry him?” “How do you know?” says Daphne
“I was right there behind the bush,” says Kate
“What did he say?” says Daphne
“I love you and would like you to marry me” says Kate
“Oh Mama make her shut up” said Daphne
“Are you going to say yes?’ says Kate
Kate, for heaven sake go get dressed for school and shut up, said mother. Daphne started to cry and I left them in the kitchen with mother trying to get her to stop crying that everything was okay.

She set the date for the wedding in the middle of January. I did all I could to break them up till Earl came up to me and said there was nothing I could do or say, they were going to get married and if I didn’t lay off I would make her sick. I asked mother if I could help do the sewing for the wedding, so I helped mother make the nightgown, petticoats, and all the wedding dress.

ghosts

jeannies proposal
Jeannie was still taking care of Mr. Tibbets children, and they had decided not to get married because her divorce hadn’t come through. But Terry Hadlock was writing to her asking her to come to him and be married the same time Daphne was married, so she decided to take him up on his proposal. He had been begging her to marry him for six years. So they left in January for the temple in Salt Lake.

ouija board
When Alvin came home from school He brought a wedgie board with him. He got mad at me when the thing started to move, I would start laughing, and it would quit. Then mother told him it had the spirit of the devil and he wouldn’t play with it, and he told me to give it away. Well I took it over to the Spence girls and told them it would tell their future.

They would set there in the dark room playing with that thing, while the men were gone. So I got Edith to go with me one night while they were playing with it. We put a long string under the window seal, then we took soap and rubbed the string with it, that would make the window rattle, “you know it scared them poor sister to death." When the men came in, they told them what had happen. So I think Guys brother got rid of the wedgie board.

nature calls

sheep & ione
The summer before Daphne and Jennie were married, Milton and Don quite farming and started herding sheep for Mr. Tibbet, and Papa got a job taking care of the water work, fixing the leaks and Charley helped in digging up the leaks and help fix them. Mother quite taking in washing and had a baby in April. I was there with her when Ione came into the world. I was the first one to hold her. I loved that little thing and had lots of fun making pretty dress for her.

That spring when the boys were in the sheep camps lambing the sheep. I would hitch up the team and would take my girl friends with Forest, Bob and Charley with me, the girls Emma Johnston, Deloris Blassett and Alta Balard, the boys that were with us had all gone to different places to get job so that left just us girls. Just about every weekend we would make the trip. Emma Johnston mother would go with us. I think she was in love with Milton, she was one of the last pural wife and her husband was on his last legs.

“That was when I found out Don was smoking

and I shed a few tears,

and Milton wiped them away with his dirty gloves”.

lambing & laying
That summer after the lambing, Milton took the sheep up on the mountain and I gather the girls up with Daphne and Earl, they had moved in a little house about a block from our place. Alvin and Don were already up there. We also had Earl’s brother and two sisters with us, May and Maud, the brother name was Quail.

The girls get together and took the boys blankets, then the boys took our blankets, this went on until midnight, and the boys ended up with all the blankets. The Despain girls get in bed with Daphne and Earl, Edith went with Milton and Doris and I and Alta get in bed with Don, Alvin and Quail. I was sleeping by Don, then Alta on the outside of me, well when Alvin woke up and saw Alta in bed with him, he was very mad at us. I never know why. That fall the sheep were moved down on the ranch, and Alta was up there with us. Alvin got the Bible out and showed me, if a man lay with a woman he was considered married to her and he was trying to get Alta to say he never laid with her. Alta was crying and did not know what to do. When I found out what it was all about. I told him she laid with me not him.

daring

Milton was working for a Mr. Tippets on a sheep ranch out by Powell, Wyo. Mr. Tippets had a brother on a ranch close by and he wanted a girl to help his wife, who had a new baby, so Milton took me out there to help her. I worked all week and then Milton would take me home for the weekends.

One Sunday I gather up the kids, Bob, Charlie and Gene and had Alta and Edith, the boys had some friend along, and we got in the wagon with a lunch and started up to Cripple Creek for a Picnic, I think it was about five or six miles.

While we were there playing and having our picnic, three young men rode up to us on horse back and of course we invited them to eat. and you know when boys meet girls things happen. While we were enjoying ourselves the kids wanted to go home and I was not ready, so they started to walk home. It was getting along toward evening and we started to go home when the boys asked us to go to the ranch and we would have a dance. Well Alta did not want to go, she said she had to go home or her mother would kill her, so I hooked up the team and started her home alone. The boys said they would take Edith and I home in a car. I had to be out to the ranch Monday morning so they said they would drive me out there.

I heard later that the team got away from Alta. When she got home, the seat had fell down in the middle of the wagon, the rains were dragging on the ground and she was setting in the middle of the wagon crying. The horses went home by themselves.

In the mean time Edith and I went to the ranch house and we danced with them boys till midnight and finely I got then to take us home. We left Edith off at the house and I told her to tell Papa and Mama that I was walking to the ranch, which was about 20 miles from home.

Papa got worried and got on one of the horses bareback and started out on the road to over take me, after papa had left mother finely got it out of Edith what I had done, so Mother started out on foot after papa. Papa decided he could not find me so he turned around and started home when he runs into mother. It was morning when they got home.

I never went home the next weekend but Don did. He was working on the ranch where Milton works, and he told me what had happened and said I had a good whipping coming. Papa had to carry a cushion whenever he set down, but when I got home Dad never said a word to me.

wild ride

Then there was another time that Alta and I were walking around town and two girls that we went to school with drove by us. They were with two boys from Powell, a town near by. They wanted some girls to go somewhere with them and asked Alta and I to go, because the other girls could not go. So dummy us we got in that car with two strange men to go to Powell and back only we had to go way out in the county, about 35 miles.

The trip out there was not too bad but coming back was a bear,

the boys had a station wagon and Alta was in the back with one

guy and he got pretty ruff with her.

I had it pretty nice because Guy Mayer had to drive and all I had to do was hold his hand when it got to wondering. It was getting pretty bad in the back of the car. So I told Guy to make his Uncle behave. I can not remember his name; I told them I had three big brothers that would beat them to death if anything happen to Alta, he said he would if I would hug him all the way home. So thats what I did for thirty-five miles.

“The night that I came home from Powell from that long ride, papa was waiting up for me, and he set there with his arms around me, telling me I was the only daughter he had that worried him so. I could not understand why then, but later on in my life I understood.”

gus rector duncan (bud)
That fall Earl rented a house about a block from us and his sister Maud was going with a young man by the name of Gus Duncan or Bud as he was called and Daphne wanted to give them a party. I did not know the Duncans at the time but I said I would help her. She was getting big with her first child.

When I walked in that house that night, I look at that bunch I was suppose to show a good time and my heart went down to my toes. I thought I had never seen such a bunch in my life. There set, the Duncan bunch on one side of the room and the Despain setting on the other side, I think they were as uncomfortable as I felt.

We finely got them loosen up playing games, along about halfway through the night a car drove up outside and someone wanted me, so I went out there and there set Guy Mayer and a car full of people wanting me to go riding with them. Guy bagged and said he would be good, that I had nothing to fear.

There I was, fed up with the party and wanted to get away, but I know I should not go with them. Then Earl came out to tell them that I could not leave because I had to help with the party. They drove on down the road. Guy came back alone two or three times to get me, but I was always gone.

ranch dance

guy spence

Sometime that summer Milton and Don talked Papa into buying a bunch of sheep with the money he get from the farm in Red Mesa and they had to have a place to winter the sheep so Papa leased a ranch on the Big Horn river. It was called the Spence ranch; it was where Guy Spence was born. His folks owned it at one time and the train stopped there to get water and the stop off was named after Guy Spence father, so that winter Milton moved on the ranch to feed the sheep.

dance the night away
That winter Edith and I went to school in Cowley and the people around Spence would have a dance once in awhile through the winter. Papa would take my girl friends there were three of then and Edith in the wagon about 35 miles to the ranch and we would dance all night and come home the next day. Papa would call the square dances and we really had lots of good times. Don and Alvin were helping Milton with the sheep, so they were always glad to see the girls come with us.

head over heels
Well I fell head over heels with one of the brothers (Guy Spence) and we kind of paired off. But he would always leave in the summer time and that would leave me alone, so I begin to look else where, and there was three young men that the girls and I got to running around with, they did not belong to the better class of people in Cowley. But it worried Papa some, although he had no reason too. The only thing I did was start to smoke but when I caught my self-sneaking behind the barn to smoke, I quit cold turkey. I did not want Papa and Mother to find out.

last time
That fall the Spences moved in a house just down from our place and I started to see Guy Spence again and boy did I think I was in love. Six feet tall, brown eyes and black curly hair. He would still walk me home from school and I would spend as much time over at his place as possible. He would walk me home at night with a goodnight kiss. Boy what a thrill! Mother was too busy with Daphne and Jennies weddings, I don’t think she knew I was around most of the time.
Guy Spences sister had married and she brought her sisters to live with her. They seem to me three of the simplest girls I ever saw.

did I get over him?
This went on till about the last of March and the family was getting ready to go back to the oil fields. Guy walked me home, but instead of going home, he walked out in under the trees. Standing there in the moonlight, he told me if I would let him make love to me, he would think of marring me. If I did not kick through to him it would be the last time we would go together. All I could do is just look at him for a long time, then turn out of his arms and went home, that was the end of 3 years of loving one man. I never saw him again. I can not describe how I felt. I went home, went up stars to bed, mother saw me come in, I guess I look stunned and asked me to tell her what was the matter, I told her nothing that I was OK. Did I ever get over him? No.

cry coyote

Early in the spring, Milton took me out in the toolies to herd his sheep, I think there were about five hundred of them. I had two sheep dogs to help me. I do not remember where Don and Alvin were, because they usually took care of the sheep. Milton moved the sheep wagon out there under some trees and left me a big gun to shoot off if there were coyotes barking.

Well I herded them sheep all over those flat land for three days. The first night a Coyote done a lot of yelling so I pull out the old gun and stood in the door of the sheep wagon and shot that gun off, the thing kicked back on my shoulder and knocked me down on my back on the floor. My shoulder was sore for a week, so the next night I let the coyote yell.

frank olson
Milton came out the third day and we drove them sheep closer to the house and got ready to lamb. At the next railroad station the boss had just got married and everybody in the county were getting together to give then a selvere. We were all running around the house they were living in, and it was darker than pitch. Everybody was running around the house banging on old tubs, and making as much noise as we could, as I was going around one corner of the house something hit me on the head. The next thing I know I was laying on the floor, everybody looking down at me. Milton was washing my face with a wet wash rag. Frank Wilson as I became to know him had hit me over the head with a club that he was suppose to be hitting an old wash tub, but I got in the way. That was how I met my first husband, Frank Wilson. We danced all night that night and he told me he and a man by the name of Bobby Coddle were working on the railroad section at Spence across the river from where we lived.

nature calls
The boys were busy night and day staying with the sheep while they were lambing. Edith and I had very little to do, and nature calls, when two men on one side of the river and two young girls on the other side, both men were 15 to 20 years older than us. They started coming over and spending the evenings. Or we would go over there and set around and talk.

names in a bottle

Milton took a bunch of us up on the Big Horn Mountain to go down in a cave; we climbed up the mountain then found the cave. Milton and Don dropped a rope down the cave and Don went down first, then the rest of us climbed down the rope, we found a bottle down there with some names in it and Guy Spence and his brothers name were among them. We all wrote our names and put them in the bottle, I wonder if they are still there.

time pass slowly
After lambing, Milton, Don and Milton wife Doris took the sheep up on the Pryer Mountain for the summer. That left Edith and me in Spence alone with Papa and Mama and the three younger brothers, Charlie, Gene, and Bob. Doris mother came and stayed with us for a month to get well, she had an operation of some kind.

We help mother plant and raise a garden, but time went slow.

shimmy
The section boss had an upstairs in his house with nothing in it but a phonograph, and on the weekends Edith and I would go over there and the four of us would set around and talk and dance. Bobby Caddle and Edith would do the shimmy, which was a dance where you would shake all over; they got pretty good at it.

roam these mountains

Around the first of August Milton came down from the mountain and gathered up a gang of us. Alta Ballad, Daphne and Earl were home for a month. Frank and Bobby and two of Earls sister and took us up in the mountain for two weeks on a vacation.

Frank and I paired off and we roamed all over these mountains, Bobby and Edith was with us. Bob liked to fish so we set around and talk while he done the fishing, we would set around the campfire and sing, play games and just had a wonderful time for two weeks.

school?
When we got back home it was getting close for Edith and I to think about school. So we talked it over and decided to go back to Cowley to go to school and get a small place to live. There was a school close to Spence where Charlie, Robert and Gene could go to school. Daphne and Earl were getting ready to go back to Ogden, Utah, so he could start to school.

Edith and I sleep in the sheep wagon and I had to go in the Kitchen for a drink of water. I heard Earl talking to papa and mother about taking Edith back with them. I heard Earl say that Edith was smarter than Kate and thought it would do more good to take Edith. I heard papa say that he would talk to me about it, to see what I thought. Well the ground fell out from under me for awhile.

I laid there that night wondering what I would do. I know Papa would not let me go to Lovell or Cowley alone to school. I know I would be there all winter alone, with nothing to do or no where to go. I know I would not keep Edith from going with Earl and Daphne. I knew that Frank and Bobby would be laid off of the railroad when it got cold and Frank was leaving for Idaho.

When Papa asked me what I thought, I told him to let Edith go with them. I did not care, but I do not think he and mother know the hate I had in my heart for Earl Despain, and as time went by, he helped mess up Edith’s life. But this is my story. After it was all settled, Papa asked me if I would go into Graybull to buy some cloth to make Edith some new clothes to take with her. I said yes.

new things

There was an old bachelor that lived on a small ranch near the river, and he had been trying to get me to marry him. I would just laugh at him and go on my way. When Papa said he was going into town, I made a trip to see the bachelor, and borrowed twenty dollars off of him, because I knew that Edith would get all the new things.
It took us one whole day to make the trip, after we had got everything that Edith needed, Papa left me alone and went somewhere. While we were in the store I had seen a coat that I liked, so when I was alone I went into the store and bought the coat, put it in the buggy with the rest of the bundles and was just setting there when Papa came back. When we get home I put the coat in the sheep wagon.

1920

lonesome
The spring that I turned seventeen years old, Papa and Mother and family moved to Spence and Earl and Daphne moved to Logan, Utah so he could go to school on the Government. He was in the army, but got a disability discharge because he had flat feet, but he got the money to go to school from the Government.

I often wondered why Papa and Milton rented that ranch; there was no water on the place. We had too haul from the Big Horn river, we had a sled that we used. There was no water to raise anything. Mother raised a small garden but Papa had a wood motor or a steam engine that he pumped water onto the garden, but there was lots of land to graze the sheep on.

We lived in a three room log house on one side of the River and the railroad and station on the other side. We had to cross the river to go anywhere.
There was a big cable across the river that had a go Devil as it was called, it was on the cable and we pulled ourselves across the river, later on Milton put a boat fasten to a rope on it with a rope to pull the boat across. During high water in the spring we could not cross it with the team of horses and we had to use the Go-Devil or the boat. If we wanted to go anywhere on the train we had to flag it down with a flag. They would throw our mail off the train as it went by.

A man by the name of Philip was boss of the section house and he had a wife and two little boys. He hired men to work on the railroad to keep the rails in good shape. About 30 miles on down the line was another section station, I think the name of the place was Trasher, they also hired men to work on the station.

For one week all I did was sew up Edith dresses, petticoats and getting her ready to leave.

“But one night I got away and went over the river, and told Frank all about it. He said then when he got on a ranch he would write to me and he wiped my tears away and I thought he was the only friend I had in the world”.

I am telling you I was one lonesome girl. After everybody left and the boys were in school. I rode horseback all over them hills. There was nothing for me to do; I was one lonesome girl. When a man came to see Milton, I got to talking to him, he asked me to meet him on the road and he would take me to Graybull, so I walked through the canyon where the railroads went and meet him. He took me to Graybull and told me jokes that I did not understand, he got my dinner, and then he drove me back to the railroad to walk threw the canyon alone.

“He was one disappointed man when he found out I was not as lose as I look, or as dumb. I had to walk through the canyon after dark and it was one spooky walk”.

The folks were worried sick when I got home. They did not know what had happened to me. It was not long after that papa called me into the house and asked me if I wanted to go stay with Daphne and Earl and take a dress making class, he said Earl would send me the train ticket. I told him yes, but I was meeting the train every night waiting for a letter from Frank, and about that time he sent me his address and where he was. So I wrote him and told him what Papa and Earl had fixed up for me and when I would be leaving on the train.

To this day I do not remember how we managed it but he was to meet me at Bozeman, Montana. There was no big trip in to Graybull to buy me new things, so I got what I had and mended the things together the best I could, and when they put me on the train I bought out my new coat.

“Where did you get that coat Papa asked me and I told him where I had got that money and when I bought it, he just looked at me and never said a word”.

I meet Frank Wilson at the Bozeman train station and from there to the court house and was married Sept. 27, 1921, that is when I found out that Franks real name was Milford Oliver Olson.

life w "frank"

my life with milford oliver olson, "frank wilson"

The next morning or afternoon, I caught the train for Logan, Utah and Frank took half of my money and went back to Idaho.

vulnerable
I was setting on a seat all by myself about half asleep when a little guy about 30 years old set down beside me and started talking. Well as the day wore on, I told him I had just got married the day before, I guess he thought he had a county girl on his hands anyway he invited me to have dinner with him on the train and I said OK. But do you know they served us with half of a chicken on a plate, and I mean half a chicken, it had its head and its feet still on. I told him I could not eat that chicken with it looking at me. As the day went on, I told him that Earl was going to pick me up at the train station. He wanted to take me home to his Mama, he said he know she would just love me, I was so sure that Earl would be there that I told him I would go home with him if Earl was not there, well to my surprise Earl was not there. There he was behind me, I was looking for someone I know, so I know I had to do something fast, so I jumped in a taxi cab, the driver was surprised when I told him to move fast before that guy caught up with me. We left there while the little guy was waving his arms at me and cussing up a blue strick. I know the little guy was a (pimp) picking up girls for mama’s house

Then the taxi driver wanted to know what it was all about.

I told him what had happened.

surprise!
When I walked into the house there set Daphne and Earl and Edith so surprised to see me, they did not even know I was coming, they had not got mother’s letter yet.

I stayed at Daphne and Earls for a week. Earl treated Daphne like dirt and was making love to Edith, so I took a train to Ogden, Utah where Jennie lived, while I was there Daphne called me and said Frank was coming to Logan so I left Jennies and went back to Logan.

jobless

expecting
We moved into two rooms that Daphne did not use. But it seemed like Frank could not find a job, so he left and went to Spence where Papa and Mother lived. Somehow they got the money to send for me. So there we were, Milton, Doris, Frank and I, Mother and Dad and kid all living in a four-room house. The rest of the winter, I keep busy making quilts. I was going to have a baby.

hay scare
One-day papa asked Frank to go down the river and pick up a load of hay for the stock, so I went along with him. He loaded the hayrack with hay. We started back, it was cold, and the wind was blowing snow. We set in the middle of the load when it started sliding off the wagon, I just set there and slid off with the hay and never hurt me a bit, but it scared Frank half out of his wits, he was afraid I was buried under the hay. Frank get all excited after he gets the horse stopped. He started yelling “where are you Kate, where are you.’ I was just setting there in the haystack laughing that was the funniest feeling. Finally he gets up and he had to reload the hay. We went back to Spence.

'til the babies

Spring came and Dad rented a farm in Cowley and Milton got a job-herding sheep. Dad had the house in Cowley, and Frank and I moved into it, but he left to find a job and Alvin came to stay with me and he walk to Lovell 7 miles morning and night. When Alvin got a place to rent in Lovell, I moved out on the ranch with my folks. Daphne came home from Logan and we were there, till the babies were born. Tootsie was the first (July 17, 1922) and three days later Daphne had little Robert.

In August of 1922 Frank sent me the money to meet him in Bozeman, Mont. so I picked up my little girl and left for Bozeman. He took us out on a farm.

the farm
The man had a daughter and his wife had a daughter, two different girls, the mans daughter was a raw bone and freckles, the ladies daughter was a little dainty girl, and from what I saw the little girl got the best end of the deal. The house was a big two-story house and the girls and I had bedrooms upstairs. At night I could hear the mans daughter crying in her room. One night I went to talk to her, her mother had just been dead about a year, and the old man had married again, and the second wife had just about pushed her out of her own house.

One night as I was going to bed I heard screaming and yelling out in the hall, but went back to bed and things quitted down. But the next night I heard the girl crying in her bedroom so I went in to see what was the matter. She told me that the men had been killing some hogs for winter meat, she took one of the hogs kidney and put it in the others girls bed, she was put on probation and some of her privileges had been taken away.

Frank got a job making cement blocks, there was a lot of sand in that area for the cement blocks. The plant was located about half way between Crowley and Graybull. Frank came and got me. We lived in a two- room shak. I told Frank that I was pregnant and we needed to put Toots on regular cow’s milk. Frank quiets his job and I went back to papa and mama. Frank went to Graybull and gets a job at the refinery. Frank rented a house on a hill above Graybull, and then he came and got me.

1923

I do not know how it came out because Frank was laid off and we move into a small town in a one large room next to a gambling hall. There was just a wall between us. Frank left us there for about a week, without very much to eat; I had a hard time washing dirty dipper to keep Toots clean.

invironment

The landlord came over and said that he would keep the noise down so it would not wake Toots up and I set there with not much to eat for three or four days. The Gambler came over and asked me to move in with him and be his housekeeper and that he would take care of me. I would not do that, I said that I would stick it out for awhile longer.

Had not heard from Frank and did not know where he was. In about a week he came in with a ticket for me to go to Bozeman, Mont. He brought me a few things to eat and told me to get on the train to Bozeman and then he left again.

I pack everything I had in the trunk. I had no way of getting my trunk to the train station so I pulled the trunk out to the road and I set on it until a man in a wagon came by. I stop him and ask him if he would take my trunk and me to the train station, which he did. He loaded the trunk and on loaded it for me and made sure that the trunk and myself were on the train.

I think we were in Bozeman for about two month. Frank could not find work or something; he was gone all the time. Frank rent a little house and we stray there, and one night he came in with a billy club. I asked him what he was doing with a billy club, and he said that he join the police force. He took it upstairs and put it in a drawer, I never seen the billy club again. Two days later he came and put Toots and me on a train to Cowley, Wyo. Toots and I stayed with papa and mommy who were living on the Steven’s place. I was pregnant with Johnny at that time.
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johny is born
Mama came to stay with us, so she would be there to help when Johnny was born. Mommy was there about 10 days. The night that Johnny was born, (September 7, 1923) we had a big storm; the river came up over the bridge. It flooded all the homes that were by the river. Frank could not get home because of the flood. He was gone for three days. The doctor was there. He must have came before the river flooded.

neighbor
After the flood, Frank moved us into a house that was outside of Graybull. There was a prostitute that lived across the street from us and Frank said that I was not to have anything to do with her. I did not have any thing to do with her until one night when Johnny was about 6 month old, he get very sick and I thought I was going to lose him, he could not breath. I went over and get that prostitute to see if she could help me with Johnny. She came over and gave Johnny some eppeakat. It made him throw up all that plume. She stayed there and worked with Johnny until he fell asleep, then she went home. She saved Johnny life.

Then we moved into a two-room house in Greybull. We stayed there for awhile. Right across the street is where the Duncan’s lived. Don and Maggie were living there with her parents.
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