The West Old & New Vol. III Issue II February 2014 | Page 13

real people lived here. The children were immediately given chores after the tent was put up unloading the wagon, and hauling
pails “water, water, always more water.” There was talk of building a “shack,” and Ruth spent the whole next day with her family
getting rocks and putting them in place for a foundation. Her mother was a woman she considered a real pioneer. “…if she had any
qualms or fears, we young ones were unaware of them. She loved to hear the coyotes howl and we soon learned to tolerate them.”
May Page's parents, aunt or uncle had never done any kind of farming. “The men didn’t know how to hitch up a team. They
knew nothing about what to look for in buying livestock. Their first purchase of horses didn’t last long -- Jock died of old age in a
few months and his team mate was a big placid mare.” May says their next team had “Cayuse” blood and ran away at every opportunity. To do gardening the sage brush had to be removed using a grub hoe. “The sage brush was tall and tough. It was a big job
because the valley was covered with a dense growth. Then the ground had to be plowed with a walking plow pulled by a team,
harrowed and planted. The crops planted were grain, mostly wheat. “
Martha Cook Taylor and her mother began proving up in May 1910. “We liked this country from the very first, not withstanding a few hardships -- like carrying our drinking water from a spring about one and a half miles away.” The women came into
Pineville to the post office walking a distance of four miles and made it a day by staying for a bath. “There were two tents with
wooden bath tubs, one for men and one for women. We always brought a small brush to clean the tub (and soap) although the Natives said, “No germs ever lived in that water.” After taking our bath and eating lunch we would walk home and call it a good
day.”
The Musters settled on Camas Prairie and raised pigs, cattle, chickens, turkey, a garden, grain and hay. Virginia Erchul says,
“…like all settlers in a new, raw country, they saw promising crops dry up and die or get hailed out. They saw good crops sell for
poor prices or not at all, but they managed to pull through these times and raise their family
The Campbell’s planted their first gardens in a “draw” west of the house -- actually a shallow depression that had a little more
moisture than the surrounding flat ground, and certainly not enough to keep plants growing very long. The Campbell’s, from Scotland, planted the seeds most familiar to them: potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, carrots, and cabbage. Mrs. Campbell and her sister
planted black currants, red currents and gooseberries but it wasn’t until the irrigation project was completed in 1921 that the trees
didn’t have to struggle to survive. In 1915 they planted an orchard, of apples. They kept the trees alive for several years by carrying buckets of water from the well. It took ten years for the trees to bear fruit.
Duncan Campbell made coffins for people who had died. Mary C. Page says her parents would work far into the night to get it
done. “Dad would cut and plane the boards, bend them by placing them in the copper boiler filled with steaming water, put them
together, then stain the outside. Mother would line the inside with soft white material. This was all carried out in the kitchen, and it
was mysterious and awesome experience for us kids.” Her father assisted at the funeral, as well, playing the bagpipes.
Otto Spies, his wife and two little girls came from Chicago in September 1910. They had a wagon bring them to the reservation in a day long trip of twenty-one miles. Making their homestead of sage brush Otto Spies said, “Here we are!” According to
Gladys Spies Weltz her mother just about fainted. “All she could see was sagebrush and she was pregnant with the first little girl
born on this part of the reservation.”
According to Nancy Rhoades Marques and Lenora Brown their mother’s sister, a school teacher from Kansas visited in the
early days of the ranch. “My father and uncle were digging a root cellar in a bank at the time. Many hawks were preying on our
chickens so a gun was kept handy for use. My aunt was sure the gun was for protection against the Native’s who rode by on occasion. She thought they were in danger of being separated from our scalps. Also, she took a dim view of the riders who use to stop.
They were given lunch and coffee and many times lodging for the night. My father knew these men as he’d rode the roundups with
them while we were living in Plains. My aunt had never seen such “characters” with their big hats, boots and chaps and many
times a revolver hung around their waists. Needless to say her visit was short.” After she was safely back home in Kansas, their
father received a letter from his mother asking why he had moved the family to such an uncivilized country.
All that remains of the “rock house” near Big Bend is a small heap of rocks and cement. Alleged at one time to have been a
social center for the early homesteaders it history is vague. It is believed Mr. Stillman built the house for his bride but they didn’t
stay long. Elegant for the day, with panoramic views it is said to have been roomy and large, ideal for dances. The story goes Stillman sealed a jar containing .35 cents in pennies in the corner of the house. At one point the Winburn’s lived there, the woman dying after coming in from a hard days work and cooking up a pot of rhubarb greens. Some say the Scarces family was living in the
house when all but the father drown in the river.
Mrs. Markle worked for some time before marriage at the Sister’s Hospital and like nursing and later as a midwife delivering
several babies for early settlers. On the reservation the closest doctor was twenty miles away. She always went when called upon,
strangers or not. She delivered nineteen out of twenty-five of her own grandchildren. Her greatest pleasure was fishing. In 1928
she won the pole, line and reel for catching the largest fish in Lake Mary Ronan, during t