Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
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Mary Ann McGee was born to William and Margaret McGee on November the 8th, 1889, which, incidentally, was the day when Montana gained statehood. Where Mary started her life on this Earth is not so important to our story as where she ended up and might have become. Both second-generation Irish immigrants, Mary's parents were used to hard work, which was a good thing, for there was plenty to be done as our fledgling nation rounded the curve coming into the 20th century. William had caught the...
Dear Editor, I broach this subject very carefully, with a bit of hesitation and more than a bit of consternation, because it is a rather touchy one! Addiction! Of late, there has been a lot of talk going around having to do with another touchy subject, Politics. This is one of the two subjects, alongside of Religion, that one should NEVER talk about in bars. Both of these subjects, by the way, are VERY closely related, but that may be a subject for another day. Addiction; it would seem almost that certain parts of society today have an addictio...
Since the day the world made her acquaintance, December 19 in the year 1871, "Woozie" had been known for her sweet demeanor. When Winifred Louisa Johnson first greeted this cold, sometimes cruel, world just before Midwinter's Day in the environs of Waukon, Iowa, the town had just received a fresh layer of glittering white snow. Saying the town had just received a fresh layer of glittering white snow is putting it mildly, however. Woozie was delivered by her father, Jack, for neither the midwife...
Technically, Anya wasn't Russian. Though she had lived in a rural area just south of Moscow since she was three, Anya Mussorgsky was actually from the good ole U.S. of A. She had been adopted by Russian diplomat and statesman Maxim Petrov Mussorgsky and his wife, Lady Katarina, during a routine visit to New York City. At the time, New York City was still a gathering point for much of the growing world's political business. As the young couple was not able to have children of their own, they...
She coulda been a contender!! Ginger Woodbridge might have been the first great female boxer, but as the case may be, the little fighter, born Virginia Woodbridge on a cold Winter's day in 1919, would not see past her seventh birthday. From that cold winter's day when she entered this earthly realm, Ginger proved herself a real scrapper. After trying for many years, Robert and Janelle Woodbridge finally produced a living, breathing child; but from the beginning, they had a fight on their hands....
In 1883, especially in North-Eastern Allamakee County Iowa, life was not easy for young Alberta Haney. Born to John and Fanny Haney on September 14th of the year 1867, Alberta, or Bertie as she was commonly known, being the oldest child, had been used to long labors in the fields around Lansing. Lansing had been incorporated three years prior and organized as a second-class city by State law in the year of her birth. Bertie barely missed the failed wheat harvests there in Lansing, but by the...
Sir Robert Moore was born of Scottish ancestry to John and Mary Moore on the official centennial of the birth of this great nation. The family farm was halfway between Lansing and Waukon, on the outskirts of what would soon become the unincorporated community known as Church. John and Mary were heavily involved in the founding of this little community. Born on the fourth of July, at 3:04 in the morning, Robert was a difficult child from day one. First of all, he presented breach and emerged...
Dear Editor, I am not perfect by any means, particularly when it comes to the subject of this letter. At the danger of retracing our steps in what’s probably familiar territory, I again wanted to bring up the subject of Shop Local. I totally understand sometimes it just makes better sense, financially speaking, to shop over the hill in Butte, a bit further in the opposite direction in Bozeman. or up the pass in Helena. Sometimes, if I’m going to be in one of these cities for whatever reason, I might end up doing my shopping at Walmart or som...
Maggie was almost royalty, but she never got the chance. Born Magda Joanna Kowalski, Maggie was the daughter of a distant descendant to the Hapsburgs. Only a lowly lieutenant at the time, her father was unfortunate enough to be stationed aboard a certain mail train traveling between Warsaw and St. Petersburg. It was this train that was the subject of the infamous Bezdany Raid. Even more unfortunate for our little heroine, who was barely ten at the time, she and her mother had accompanied her...
RonLynn Peltzer was born in 1789 to James and EvaLynn Peltzer of Leitch's Station in the Territory soon to become the State of Kentucky. Her father and mother, along with about 18 other settlers, were the first white inhabitants of Campbell County, in what would soon be northeast Kentucky. RonLynn's father had served as a Corporal under Captain David Leitch during the Revolutionary War. In fact, the Peltzers and the Leitchs had become close friends, as both had immigrated from Europe at about th...
On a ridge between the rivers, Haine and Trouille stand the 7th-century city of Mons. In late May of 1889, the man pictured below, possibly the Belgian novelist Henri-Charles Boussuet, was on trial in this capital city of the province of Hainaut as an agent provocateur of the Parti Socialiste Republicain. Posing as a long-lost friend of the group's founder, Alfred Defuissaux, Bousseut had gotten Defuissaux expelled for inciting violence, something the group was trying to steer clear of. The resu...
Dear Editor, Okay, this is me jumping on the proverbial bandwagon. Most, if not everyone, in town knows that I drive an electric vehicle. It’s not quite the same issue as a Tesla or a Prius but still, the principle still applies. There are definitely advantages to traveling in an electric vehicle. For me, maybe one of the most obvious is its operation, which is nearly silent and therefore, more or less stealthy. As an amateur photographer, I really appreciate being able to move about the countryside, although with somewhat limited range, w...
Carlene Switzer, possibly pictured here, might have grown up to become one of the most infamous rum-runners in the South. Now, you might be thinking that should be 'moonshiner', but no, Carlene, better known as Tipsey, dealt in rum. Born on August 27th, in the year 1907, Tipsey grew up in the land of her nativity, deep in the Everglades region of Florida. Her parents were second-generation German immigrants who were instrumental in bringing back into commercialization sugarcane production in...
The year was 1930. Even with all the hubbub going on further east over the stock market crash of the year previous, the jazz scene in Milwaukee was going strong! Now known as Bronzeville, the jazz district would later host greats such as Duke Ellington and Herbie Hancock; less well-known perhaps, but no less remarkable, was little Harriet Smith, now known as Hattie Smythe. When Harriet's parents passed away within less than a year of each other, Harriet was just turning 18. This was in 1922 and...
Harriet Peregrin Smith, Hattie for short, possibly pictured here, was born to a mixed couple in Georgia. Her parents, Reginald and Darlene Smith, had been approved for a marriage license after special consideration, even though the ban against interracial marriage remained in effect at the time. One may wonder at the strings that must have been pulled. Fortunately for Hattie, the strings were pulled and thus her birth was legitimized! Hattie was possibly three-months-old when this photograph was...
For an Irishman at the turn of the century Chicago, young Tom Thumb (Thomas O'Malley) had his work cut out for him! The dapper young fellow possibly featured in the photograph might later have become one of the most infamous inhabitants of the Windy City. However, for the purposes of this story, we'll focus instead on his earlier life in this melting pot. Thomas was a fairly recent immigrant from the Emerald Isles, having sailed into New York Harbor on January 1st, 1892, under the watchful eye...
The year was 1905. Several years previous, Hans and Gisela Grothe, recent immigrants from Germany, had become the proud parents of twin girls, Sylvie and Monika. Monika was the darker-haired of the two, with a head of hair that could almost have passed for raven. Her sister, Sylvie, being somewhat lighter in complexion, had lighter, but deep auburn hair. If one caught her in the right light, they would almost think she was a flaming redhead! Monika was technically the older of the two, having em...
Tomas and Sylvia Svoboda had just recently arrived in America. They had sailed aboard the sail steamship City of Adelaide from the Port of Shanghai to San Fransisco. Being a distant member of the Bohemian royal family, newlywed Tomas was now near the end of a whirlwind world tour with his new wife. Having passed over many dangerous usually very rough roads through Europe and Asia, the Svobodas finally arrived in Shanghai on April 9th, 1893. After roughly a month at sea, the semi-royal couple fin...
Dear Editor, These are just a few thoughts running through my head for a couple of years now. What if the recent so-called pandemic (some say Plandemic) has been a blessing in disguise?! Now, whether one believes there’s anything to all these conspiracy theories floating around or not, one must admit though it has been quite painful, much if not all of what has been revealed in the past years is eye-opening. And that is, to say the least! When this pandemic hit our shores back in early 2020, after spreading waves of terror around the world, d...
Her parents might have had an inkling, but when little Destiny Phantasia Fairchild first appeared on the scene in September of 1871, she looked like a fairly normal newborn baby. Douglas and Antonia Fairchild obviously knew something, blessing her with such an ostentatious name. In that day and age especially, what with the fledgling nation still reeling from its first civil conflict, people were ready to grasp the slightest little ray of hope. It didn't take long, then, when she emerged on the...
Persephone, Lilith, and Phantasia. Poor little girls! The first two names weren't so bad; they could be condensed to Percy and Lily (thought Percy sounded a bit boyish.) But Phantasia? What could possibly be done with that? Phanty? Fanny? Tase? Tasia? Not much better! The Houseman girls really didn't have any choice. Their mother was of Greek heritage, while their father was, of all things, an Askenazi Jew of Belarussian descent. The world into which these particular girls were born, 1840s New...
Frederich Charles Blumenfeldt was born to Frederich and Florence Blumenfeldt, German immigrants who had settled on Makee Ridge in the area of what would become Waukon, Iowa. The town itself would not be incorporated as such for several decades. So Fred, as he was known, born in the fall of 1846, did not technically grow up in Waukon, though he probably knew its environs better than anyone! Along with the famous Shattuck family, the Blumenfeldts were among the first white settlers who dared venture into this region of the brand new state of...
Marbella and Dinae Washington were, respectively, both the daughters of a mixed-race couple from Panora, Iowa, in what has now been designated a Guthrie County Historical Village. Just a hundred feet or so from the Middle Racoon River, the Washington girls were both born water babies, even though Dinae was adopted by the Washingtons just before her fifth birthday. Even though Marbella was a couple of years older, Dinae soon all but surpassed her sister with her readiness to the water! Grover...
"That's it! I'm done!" Bella felt these words to the bottom of her bottomless soul. She wanted to say them so badly, but this was unheard of in 1860s New England. So what Cymbelminne Rickmeister actually said, in a most humble and obedient manner, was, "Yes, Father! Yes, Mother!" The Rickmeisters, two of Montpelier's leading citizens, were not actually her parents, though they had taken very good care of her. As teenagers will be though, Bella was not always very appreciative. Orphaned at the te...
Born Mary Jane Wheeler, this mischievously beautiful person emerged kicking and screaming into this cold cruel world on the third of July, 1842. The second daughter of William and Janelle Wheeler, Mary Jane lived most of her life on the family farm in the hills surrounding what is now the sprawling metropolis of Butte, Montana. A second-generation American, William had migrated westward in 1839, leaving behind his own parents in Iowa. Unbeknownst to William and his new bride at the time, they be...
