MOHAWK ED — FAMILY HISTORY OR JUST A GOOD TALL TALE?

Edmund Hawes, Sr -- Mohawk Ed -- (1597–1655) 10th great-grandfather
BIRTH APR 1597 • Solihull, Warwickshire, England
DEATH ABT. 1655 • Dedham, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Edmund Hawes came to New Amsterdam, afterwards called New York, the year after the Dutch settled there.

He was a stone mason. His partner was a Dutchman. In Holland these two had been working together for some time. They were employed by the Dutch to come to the New World and assist in construction.

The Dutch West India Company established a fur trading post in New Amsterdam in 1614. At that time there were many Puritans in Holland, driven there from England by religious persecution.

Both of these stone masons brought their wives. After the construction work was done, the Dutchman and his wife returned to Holland. Edmund and his wife remained in New York where Edmund accepted employment with the company as a fur trader.

He seems to have understood Indians from the start. "Squitum Waw Waw Ool Kaw," or Indian words something similar, was his Indian name. The words meant, something to the effect of "the man who makes jumping soldiers."

He used to make little jumping jacks for the Indian children, and in the forests he would gather a few sticks here and there for later use, or would stop and work a little on one of his toys.

The Dutchmen thought Edmund strange, the Indians thought him crazy. Edmund himself probably thought it was a slick way to avoid arrows, war clubs and scalping knives. I know it was, for Indians never injure anyone they believe insane.

Edmund and his wife had one child born in New York, a boy. His wife died from the effects of childbirth, and Edmund placed his boy in charge of a squaw, superintended to a considerable extent by a friendly Dutch family. He named the boy Edmund.

He continued to trade with the Indians and was successful. After the boy was able to get about on his own legs, Edmund's trading trips increased in length.

On one such trip he was gone all winter. This time he went as far as the great falls between two great lakes. (This would have to be Niagara Falls, between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, and not so long after their discovery by the Frenchman who received renown for it.)

Edmund accumulated some money trading for the Dutch.

Finally he heard of the Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth. Later he and his son went to Boston on an English ship which had been blown far off its course to Boston, and which made the port of New York to refit before proceeding to Boston. They arrived in Boston in the early summer of 1635. (This would compare with the date of June 3, 1635, given by one history, also the year other authorities have given; and it would account for his name not being on any passenger list from England.

Edmund and his son lived in Boston and later Dedham until the son made up his mind to marry. A girl named Eliony Lumber (Lombard) was what is called a bound girl. Her people had placed her as security for a debt, which meant she must work out at small wages if she lived long enough.

Old Edmund bought the contract, and left her free to marry his son, which she did at Dedham. Old Edmund then outfitted for a trading trip to the Indians.

He hoped to reach the Mohawks again...but was never heard from afterwards.

SOURCE (edited from): https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/m/y/e/Ron-C-Myers/GENE30-0054.html

OUR WYNGAERT FAMILY OF DUTCH FUR TRADERS

GENERATION 1

LUYKAS GERRITSE WYNGAERT was an Albany mainstay during the last half of the seventeenth century. He was known as "Luykas Gerritse."

His wife was Anna Van Hoesen with whom he had at least nine children. He was a member of the Albany Dutch church.

In 1679, his name was included on a census of Albany householders. In 1681, he joined with other Albany burghers in a petition regarding the FUR TRADE. Over the years, he subscribed to several similar, community-based documents.

Nominally a baker, he probably used that talent to have TRADEABLE COMMODITIES with which to barter for furs. After holding a number of service titles, he was elected assistant alderman for the second ward - first in 1686. He sat on the city council for portions of three decades. In 1702, his first ward home was valued on the city assessment roll.

In 1697, his Albany household included two other adult men in a community where most living units were nuclear.

At the end of October in 1709, Luykas Gerritse Wyngaert filed a joint will with his wife. It named two sons and mentioned seven other children.

In 1720, the name of Luykas Wyngaert appeared on a list of freeholders living in Albany's first ward. The name "Luycas Gerritse Wyngaert" was included on the list of first ward freeholders as late as 1742. He then would have died sometime thereafter.

SOURCE:  http://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov//albany/bios/bioindex.html#w

NOTE: His father-in-law was Jan Fransse Van Hoesen (1608–1665) our 9th great-grandfather; born 11 NOV 1608 in Husum, Nordfriesland, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany; died 29 NOV 1665 in Albany, Albany County, New York, USA.  

SEE: https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2019/03/an-interesting-new-netherland-land.html

GENERATION 2

Jacobus Luycasse was probably was born during the 1670s. He was the son of Luykas Gerritse and Anna Van Hoesen. Later, his family would be known as Wyngaert.

In 1699, he joined his Albany neighbors in swearing allegiance to the king of England. After that, he signed a number of other community-based documents. In 1709, his third ward house was assessed modestly. In 1720, he was identified as a freeholder living in the third ward.

In 1716, he contracted with the city to "set up stockadoes."

In November 1700, he married Maria Quackenbush at the Albany Dutch church. By 1721, nine children had been christened in Albany.

Jacobus Luycasse Wyngaert died in September 1727 and was buried in the churchyard. Several of his children became Albany residents. His widow may have survived into the 1750s.

GENERATION 3

Johannes Wyngaert was born in May of 1703. He was the eldest son born to the marriage of Jacob Luycasse and Maria Quackenbush Wyngaert. He grew up in a large family in a modest third ward home. His father died in 1727 leaving twenty-four-year-old Johannes as the man of the family.

In November 1725, he married Maria "Huyser" at the Albany Dutch church. By 1738, eight children had been christened at the Albany church.

Johannes Wyngaert was a cooper who raised his family in modest homes in the second and then first wards. In 1724, he was named constable for the second ward. At a number of times, he delivered firewood for city use and served on the night watch. In 1757, he owned a house on the south side of the Ruttenkill. He was counted among Albany's freeholders in 1742 and 1763 and his holdings were valued modestly on city assessment rolls.

Without younger Johannes Wyngaerts immediately apparent on the community landscape, this individual may have lived into the 1790s. Asessment rolls continued to value his holdings as late as 1788. The census of 1790 for the first ward of Albany includes the household of "Johannes Wyngardt" in a likely location.

In September 1793 or '94, a notice for the pall and hearse for "John Wyngart" appeared in the manuscript burial records of the Albany Dutch church. This Johannes Wyngaert would have been in his nineties at that time.

ALSO SEE: List of Fur Traders: http://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov//albany/lists/list1660.html

LINEAGE:

Lucas Gerritse(Luykas) Wyngaart (Wyngaert) "Luykas Gerritse" 1645-1709 -- 8th great-grandfather

Jacobus Lucasze (Luycasse) Wyngaard (Wyngaert) 1675-1727 -- Son of Lucas Gerritse(Luykas) Wyngaart (Wyngaert) "Luykas Gerritse"

Abraham Wyngaart (Winegard) 1705-_ -- Son of Jacobus Lucasze (Luycasse) Wyngaard (Wyngaert)

Peter (Pieter) Wyngaart (Wyngart) (Winegard) DNA proven 1741-1790 -- Son of Abraham Wyngaart (Winegard)

James Winegard 1785-1868 -- Son of Peter (Pieter) Wyngaart (Wyngart) (Winegard) DNA proven

Charity Winegard (Weingand) 1819-1874 -- Daughter of James Winegard

Charles Henry Plympton 1845-1925 -- Son of Charity Winegard (Weingand)

Geneva (Neva) Plympton 1870-1939 -- Daughter of Charles Henry Plympton -- great grandmother

Antoine Robidoux - Santa Fe based Mountain Man and Fur Trader

Antoine Robidoux (22 Sep 1794 – 29 Aug 1860) (my 4th cousin 6x removed) was a Santa Fe NM based fur trapper and trader of French-Canadian descent. He was best known for his exploits in the American Southwest in the first half of the 19th century.

(The following is edited from wikipedia)

Robidoux was born in 1794 in Saint Louis, the fourth of six sons of Joseph Robidoux III, the owner of a Saint Louis-based fur trading company, and his wife Catherine Marie Rollet dit Laderoute. 

Antoine spoke English, French, and Spanish. In his early years he helped his father extend his business westward, and by the 1820s was focused on developing trade routes in the intermountain corridors of what was at the time the Mexican province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México. In the summer of 1824, Antoine may have joined a party led by Etienne Provost that traveled to the Uinta Basin to trade for pelts. 

He eventually established a permanent residence in the capital city of Santa Fe, and in 1828, he took for his common-law wife Carmel Benevides (1812–1888), the daughter of a Spanish captain who was killed fighting the Comanche and subsequently the adopted daughter of the provincial governor.

In 1829, Antoine and his younger brother Louis Robidoux petitioned for and were granted Mexican citizenship, which freed them to trade and settle in Mexican territory without having to worry about expensive tariffs and other international restrictions, as well as near-exclusive license to trap and trade in the Ute country of what is now western Colorado and eastern Utah. 

By 1830, Antoine had become a prominent citizen of Santa Fe in social and economic circles. He was even elected the first non-Mexican alcalde of the ayuntamiento (the municipal council), though his political career was short-lived.

Around the same time, and possibly in partnership with Louis, Antoine established Fort Uncompahgre near the confluence of the Gunnison River (then known as the Río San Xavier) and the Uncompahgre River in west-central Colorado. 

Though the exact date of its completion is unknown, Robidoux's post was arguably the first permanent trading operation west of the continental divide. 

In 1832, Robidoux purchased the Reed Trading Post, a single cabin built by William Reed and Denis Julien four years earlier at the confluence of the Uinta and Whiterocks rivers in northeastern Utah, and rebuilt it much larger as Fort Robidoux, also called Fort Uintah and Fort Winty. The fort was visited by many well-known pioneers and mountain men during its years of operation, including Marcus Whitman, Miles Goodyear, and Kit Carson.

Westwater Canyon inscription

Robidoux spent more than a decade managing both trading posts and exploring the Western interior. He is especially well known for having carved a famous rock inscription on a wall of Utah's Westwater Canyon during this time. Likely ascending a trapper's trail from the canyon's mouth on the Colorado River, Robidoux left the following record of his presence engraved on a sandstone bluff:

ANTOINE ROBIDOUX

PASSÉ ICI LE 13 NOVEMBRE

1837

POUR ETABLIRE MAISON

TRAITTE A LA

RV. VERT OU WIYTÉ

The inscription was not again brought to public attention until 1933, when Charles Kelly first photographed it. It has since yielded many interpretations in attempts to more accurately pinpoint the precise dates of Robidoux's operations in the area. The most direct translation from the French reads "Antoine Robidoux passed here 13 November 1837 to establish a trading post at the Green or Wiyté River", but the accuracy of this translation has been a matter of controversy among historians.

Specifically, it has been suggested that the word "Wiyté" was actually intended to read "Winté", and that deterioration has made the appearance of the third letter ambiguous; though the Green and the White are both names for rivers in Utah, "Winté" may instead be a reference to the Uinta River, which was at the time commonly called the "Winty". If this alternative translation is correct, then the inscription appears to suggest that Robidoux had not yet established a trading post on the Uinta River by 1837. This contradicts evidence that he purchased and rebuilt the Reed Trading Post on the Uinta River in 1832, five years earlier.

A simple solution is that the year engraved in the inscription has also been misinterpreted, and that the original message reads "1831" instead of "1837"; this would be a logical fit with the notion that Robidoux may have been searching for a place to establish a new trading post in late 1831, shortly before he eventually did so when he bought the Reed Trading Post. Yet there is evidence that Antoine Robidoux was actually in Missouri selling furs and procuring supplies in November 1831, making it impossible for him to have carved the inscription at that time.

A third solution is that 1837 is actually correct and that Robidoux was, in fact, planning to build a third, unidentified trading post in a new location at the time, which either never materialized or was built and subsequently lost to history.

Later life

Both Fort Uncompahgre and Fort Robidoux were evidently attacked and destroyed by Utes in 1844, just as the fur trade was declining with changes in the European market. These circumstances prompted Robidoux to quickly abandon his fur enterprise and return east to St. Joseph. 

Over the next decade, he worked in various capacities as an emigrant guide and a U.S. Army interpreter. 

In June 1846, Robidoux enlisted as an interpreter with General Stephen W. Kearny's expedition to California during the Mexican–American War.

The Battle of San Pasqual

The Battle of San Pasqual, also spelled San Pascual, was a military encounter that occurred during the Mexican–American War in what is now the San Pasqual Valley community of the city of San Diego, California. The series of military skirmishes ended with both sides claiming victory, and the victor of the battle is still debated.

On December 6 and December 7, 1846, General Stephen W. Kearny's US Army of the West, along with a small detachment of the California Battalion led by a Marine Lieutenant, engaged a small contingent of Californios and their Presidial Lancers Los Galgos (The Greyhounds), led by Major Andrés Pico. After U.S. reinforcements arrived, Kearny's troops were able to reach San Diego.

Among those in the battle were the 26 Mounted Rifle Company, and our relative Antoine Robidoux...

26 Mounted Rifle Company, commanded by Acting-Captain (Sgt.) Samual Gibson (later commanded company B of 26th Arkansas Infantry Regiment) and longtime Kit Carson and John Fremont associate, Acting-Lieutenant Alexander Godey: including Antoine Robidoux(interpreter), Philip Crosthwaite, Beatitude Patitoux, William (Col. Owl) Henry Russel, Daniel Sexton, Franklin Sears, Thomas Burgess, Jean Neutral, Private Henry Booker.

Antoine was severely wounded (he had received three lance wounds in the back) at the Battle of San Pasqual in December and later applied for a government pension.

Robidoux died in 1860 in St. Joseph, Missouri, at the age of 65.

1860 Obituary from St. Joseph, Missouri Gazette

Here’s a good tale about Antoine from The State Historical Society of Colorado. VOL. VII. Denver. Colorado, July, 1930. No. 4. “Antoine Robidoux, Kingpin in the Colorado River. Fur Trade, 1824-1844”… https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2018/ColoradoMagazine_v7n4_July1930.pdf

Joseph Robidoux and our ever deepening web of fur traders

JOSEPH ROBIDOUX IV (1783–1868), FOUNDER OF ST. JOSEPH, MISSOURI, MY 4TH COUSIN 6X REMOVED

The following is edited from wikipedia and my family tree…

Joseph Robidoux IV (1783–1868), Founder, established the Blacksnake Hills Trading Post that eventually developed as the town of St. Joseph, Missouri.

His buildings known as Robidoux Row are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This was a center for his family enterprise of fur trading, which he operated with his five brothers along the Mississippi and especially the Missouri River systems.

BIOGRAPHY

Robidoux was the oldest of the six sons of Joseph Robidoux III (born in Sault-au-Recollet, Montreal,12 February 1750-, date of death unknown) and Catherine Rollet (born in Saint Louis, Missouri October 20, 1767, died in 1868). Joseph Robidoux IV was born in Saint Louis, Mo like six of his seven brothers who survived to adulthood. 

He was born August 5, 1783. Joseph Robidoux IV was the grandson of Joseph Robidoux (Born in Laprairie, Québec in 1722) and Marie-Anne Leblanc (date and place of birth unknown). He spent most of his childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, where his father introduced him and his brothers Francois, Pierre Isidore, Antoine, Louis, and Michael to the fur trade at an early age. (Weber, pp. 36) 

In 1799, at the age of 16, young Joseph began accompanying fur traders up the Missouri River.

CAREER

1803–1822

In 1803, Robidoux's father sent him to organize a trading post at Fort Dearborn, the site of present-day Chicago. His early success there annoyed other traders, who engaged Indians to harass the young man and eventually drive him from the area. During this time he fell in love with the daughter of the village blacksmith, but he did not give his permission for the marriage because according to him some of the Robidoux's had surrendered their soul to the devil

In 1805, Joseph's wife of four years, Eugenie Delisle, died. She and Joseph had had two children, a daughter, Messanie, who preceded her mother in death, and a son, Joseph F. Robidoux, who use the given name of Joseph became a trader himself.

In 1809, the senior Robidoux established a trading post near the site of present-day North Omaha, Nebraska. He operated his trading post in the Council Bluffs area until 1822, when the American Fur Company bought him out and offered him $1,000 a year not to compete with them. A later post at the North Omaha site was operated by and named for Jean Pierre Cabanné. 

During the years of the War of 1812, the Robidoux brothers had to pull back their activities to the St. Louis area.

In 1813, the widower Robidoux married Angélique Vaudry, with whom he had six sons and one daughter (Faraon, Julius, Francis, Felix, Edmond, Charles, and Sylvanie).

1823–1842

Robidoux returned to St. Louis, where he worked as a baker and confectioner. In 1826, he was hired by the American Fur Company to establish a trading post at the Blacksnake Hills (near the site of present-day Saint Joseph, Missouri.) He remained their employee for four years, at the salary of $1,800 a year, before becoming an independent trader. Built prior to 1830, Robidoux's home was located on the northwest corner of 2nd & Jules Streets in Saint Joseph. The first building in the settlement, the house was later removed to Krug Park as a historic attraction.

Robidoux prospered in the years between 1830 and 1843, employing as many as 20 Frenchmen to engage in trade with the Native Americans to the west of his post. When Missouri entered the union in 1821, the state's western boundary was based on the Kaw River mouth in the Kansas City West Bottoms (approximately 94 degrees 36 minutes West longitude). The land where St. Joseph is now located belonged by treaty to the Ioway Tribe and the combined Sac Tribe and Fox Tribe. Robidoux was a licensed trader and legally allowed to be in the area as a trader.

Robidoux was the most spectacular example of several enterprising white settlers who encroached on Indian land. Faced with the possibilities of more encroachment, the tribes in 1836 agreed to sell what is now the northwest corner of Missouri for $7,500 to the federal government in a deal at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It was presided over by William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame). The transaction, called the Platte Purchase, added an area almost the combined size of Rhode Island and Delaware to the State of Missouri.

During this era, one of his slaves, Jeffrey Deroine, sued for his freedom, claiming abuse by Robidoux. Deroine lost the case, but his friends later purchased his freedom, and Deroine rose to prominence for his skills as a trader and linguist, becoming a well-known U.S. Government translator and diplomat.

1843–1868

In 1843, Robidoux hired two men, Frederick W. Smith and Simeon Kemper, to design a town for him. Under Kemper's plan the town was to have been called Robidoux, a feature Kemper thought would appeal to the trader. But, Robidoux preferred Smith's plan, as it featured more narrow streets, thus leaving more land for him to sell in the form of lots.

Plans for the town were filed with the clerk of Common Pleas in St. Louis on July 26, 1843. Shortly thereafter, Robidoux began selling lots, with corner lots going for $150.00 and interior lots $100.00.

Saint Joseph prospered quickly in the years after its founding, growing from a population of 800 in 1846 to 8,932 in 1860. Joseph Robidoux remained a prominent citizen. His early trading offices are known as Robidoux Row; the complex is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. He led in many development issues until his death, at the age of 85, in 1868. Present-day Saint Joseph retains the downtown streets which he named for his children and his second wife Angelique.

FAMILY

Robidoux was an early fur trader. He later transitioned into operating a trading post along the route of western migrants, operating a major trading post in the area of Scott's Bluff from 1849–1851. 

Robidoux had an Indian wife, probably Shoshone, whose tribe would often visit his trading post. His daughter, Mary, married the Ioway chief Francis White Cloud and therefore Robidoux was grandfather to James White Cloud and Jefferson White Cloud, who would also be named Ioway chiefs.

Joseph was married three times. His first wife was Eugenie DeLisle (1704–1805). Joseph and Eugenie had two children:

• Messanie (died early)

• Joseph (b. 1802)

Joseph’s second wife was unknown, but was said to be Native American. The couple had one child:

• Mary Many Days (1805–1884).

Joseph’s third wife was Angélique Vaudry, great-granddaughter of Jean-Baptiste Chevalier, one of the early founders of Fort Michilimackinac. Joseph and Angélique had six children that lived to adulthood:

• Julius (1814–1844)

• Antoine (Faraon) (3 March 1816 – 1840)

• François (b.25 February 1818)

• Felix (5 May 1820 -1873)

• Marie-Agnés (10 March 1807 – 1900)

• Charles (10 July 1831 – 1851).

Joseph had two illegitimate children with Angeline Caroline Jones. Joseph Henry Robidoux Papst born in St. Joseph, MI in 1853 and Madora Rubidoux Papst born in 1855.

Joseph died on 27 May 1868, and was buried at the Calvary Cemetery in St. Joseph. His body was relocated to the Mount Olivet Cemetery in 1908 after the original cemetery was abandoned. Sadly, he did not die a rich man, having a penchant for gambling like his brothers.

Roubidoux is the namesake of Roubidoux Creek, a stream in Missouri.

OUR LINEAGE FROM JOSEPH ROBIDOUX IV:

Joseph Henry Robidoux IV 1783-1868 -- my 4th cousin 6x removed

Joseph Marie Robidoux III 1750-1809 -- Father of Joseph Henry Robidoux IV founder of St. Joseph, Missouri

Joseph Robidou II 1722-1771 -- Father of Joseph Marie Robidoux III

Joseph Robidou 1701-1778 -- Father of Joseph Robidou II

Guillaume (William) Robidou 1675-1754 -- Father of Joseph Robidou

Andre Robidou dit L’Espagnol 1643-1678 (my 9th great grandfather) -- Father of Guillaume (William) Robidou

Jeanne Robidoux 1673-1736 -- Daughter of Andre Robidou dit L’Espagnol

Marie Anne Lemieux 1706-1777 -- Daughter of Jeanne Robidoux

Marie Josephe Poupart 1725-1799 -- Daughter of Marie Anne Lemieux

Pierre Barette dit Courville 1748-1794 -- Son of Marie Josephe Poupart

Marie Angelique Baret (Barette) dit Courville 1779-1815 -- Daughter of Pierre Barette dit Courville

Marie Emélie (Mary) Meunier Lagassé (Lagace) 1808-1883 -- Daughter of Marie Angelique Baret (Barette) dit Courville

Lucy Passino (Pinsonneau) 1836-1917 -- Daughter of Marie Emélie (Mary) Meunier Lagassé (Lagace) -- 2nd great grandmother

BROTHERS ROBIDOUX

Six sons Joseph Robidoux III and Catherine Rollet were all famous fur traders and explorers:

• Antoine Robidoux, 4th cousin 6x removed, Trader Santa Fe NM: had a trading post in southwest Colorado and was at the Uinta river in Utah in 1837. He also worked around Taos, NM and Santa Fe.

• Francois Robidoux, 4th cousin 6x removed, early California explorer: trapped and traded in Indian villages, attended business in St. Louis, and traded on the northern plains of Kansas and on the Yellowstone.

• Joseph Robidoux IV, 4th cousin 6x removed, St Joseph Founder: became the most well known of these as he was the eldest and took over his father's fur business. This business took the Robidoux brothers far into the lands to the west. In 1826 Joseph established a trading post at the site of St. Joseph Missouri. In 1843 he platted a town out at this site and named it "St. Joseph".

• Louis Robidoux, 4th cousin 6x removed, Riverside CA Founder: began trading over the Santa Fe Trail as early as 1822. He settled in Santa Fe about 1824. Here he married Guadalupe Garcia. He built a couple of flour mills in Santa Fe. In 1844 he moved to California (near Riverside) and operated the Rubidoux mills in the community of Rubidoux. The mill was discontinued in 1862.

• Michel Robidoux, 4th cousin 6x removed, Trader at Fort Laramie: worked as a trapper in the Gila River region in New Mexico and Arizona and to Ft. Laramie in Wyoming in the 1830s.

• Pierre-Isidore Robidoux, 4th cousin 6x removed, Trader Nebraska Territory: traded on the plains of northern Kansas and upon the Yellowstone river and in Santa Fe. He headed wagon caravans along the Platte River to where the north and south Platte joined, and along the north Platte to Ft. Laramie.

Tribute to ol' Montana

My view of early Montana... a painting by Charles M Russell,
"When White Men Turn Red"

I’ve had a love affair with Montana for over 70 years.

My first visit to ‘Big Sky Country’ was in 1950 when my folks went to visit mom’s aunt and uncle near Kalispell.

I have deep roots in Montana…

My 2nd great-grandparents, John Galway Brown and Lucy (Pinsonneau) Brown, settled their before 1900.

My great-grandparents, Abraham Lincoln Brown and Neva (Plympton) Brown homesteaded in Creston about 1905.

My grandparents, Frank and Lydia, married and homesteaded in Kalispell in 1912.

Mom was born in Kalispell in 1914.

My Montana Association

I’m a long time student of Montana history. For the past fifty years I’ve collected and read everything I could find by authors including: James Willard Schultz, Frank Bird Linderman, Charles Marion Russell, Will James, B.M. Bower, Con Price, Teddy Blue Abbott, Granville Stuart, Will James and Ivan Doig.

I’ve become a huge fan of Charles Marion Russell’s cowboy, Indian and mountain man art. It was his art that inspired me to spend more than a decade as a Western folk artist.

In addition, my study of family genealogy has led me to discover ancestors and relatives with a fur trade connection between Montana and French-Canada.

Finely, in 1995, I bought a Montana born and raised horse in Cody, Wyoming. I brought him to California in 1996, and ’Sunup’ lived with me until his death in 2013.

Montana Discoveries

For seven decades I’ve visited ‘Big Sky Country’ in an effort to learn more about its history. 

I’ve studied her cowboys, her Native Americans, her gold rush, and her fur trade.

I’ve visited her capitol, her museums, her monuments and Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks numerous times.

I even floated on a 150 mile solo canoe trip down the upper Missouri River.

My mare Kasidy moves to Montana (2019)

We are now in our late 70s, and change seems to be happening at warp-speed.

We’ve been an equestrian family for the past 30 years, but sadly my wife’s horse died in June, so I sent my horse to live with a friend in Missoula in August. Horses should not live alone and we were too old to buy another horse for a companion.

More Memories of Old Montana

Grandma at Cayuse Prairie school, 1907

Granddad's record elk, c. 1912

Aunt Stella and her class in a log cabin school, c. 1908

Granddad (left) and brother Len deer hunting, c. 1912

My grandparents Kalispell homestead #1, c. 1914

My grandparents Kalispell homestead #2, c. 1914

Granddad hauling firewood, c. 1915

Frank and Len in Montana Militia, c. 1908

Granddad (left) logging with a sled, c. 1916

Mom and sister Hazel in Creston, c. 1926

Yours truly with the biggest fish at Strawberry Lake, 1950

A stump ranch - the richest folks I ever knew

Hangin' out with Lon and Dale in Kalispell, 1950

Ridin' with mom and dad in Kalispell, 1950

Thanks for the memories

2024 Update...

I spend too much time thinking about the good ol' days, and that's okay 'cause I don't see a very good future for America. 

Trust in God and keep your powder dry.

End of an era and a cowboy lifestyle

Zinger and Joyce in Chatsworth, 2004

On June 28th of this year we said good-bye to Zinger, a beautiful paint horse, who had been part of our lives for 20 years. 

Zinger had lived an exceptionally long life in horse years. He was 33 years old when he left us.

Kasidy May and yours truly, 2013

With Zinger gone our little home ranch was a mighty lonesome place for Kasidy May, my 16 year-old Quarter Horse mare.

During the past 19 years we’ve shared our Chatsworth home with lots of equine pals. Three others have passed away in the last six years.

Our little herd on a cold, windy day, 2009

For the past 25 years we’ve had every sort of cowboy adventure you can image. We’ve been on thousands of trail rides, ridden many parades, been on more than a few horse camping trips, and have participated in every kind equine event held in Chatsworth.

Biggs and his cart in Chatsworth, 2005

Now in our late 70s, and between Joyce’s battle with non hodgkin's lymphoma (now in remission for 3 years) and my osteoarthritis neither of us have ridden in the past year.

Last month a good friend offered to bring Kasidy May to Montana, so she can retire with her horses in a beautiful pasture.  

We accepted the offer, and during the past six weeks I’ve sold off our horse trailer, all our saddles, bridles and other tack.

Looking back over the years — it’s been quit a ride…

I learned to ride in 1950, on my uncle Lon’s ranch in Kalispell, Montana when I was just seven years-old.

Dad bought me my first horse in 1953, and during the next decade I rode all over California.

During the 1980s and 1990s I bought, sold, and traded cowboy antiques and horse trappings around the West, and in 1995 I bought a horse in Cody, Wyoming. 

I brought him home to California in 1996, and Sunup (above) lived with me for the next 18 years. He died in our backyard in October 2013.

Zinger (above) was actually Joyce’s horse, but he and I had some wonderful adventures together. In the photo above we are in the surf at Morro Bay, California.

I bought Kasidy May (above left) when she had just turned four in 2007. Cash (above right) came to live with us in 1997. He died in 2014.

Kasidy May and I participated in Cowboy Mounted Shooting during 2007 and 2008. 

I bought her in Missouri, and we traveled together in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado, as well as California. 

She’s had quit a life… she was born in Kentucky, and has lived in Missouri, Colorado, and California, and is now going to retire in Montana.

With Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch Englander, 2018

During the past 25 years I’ve been very active in the ‘Horse Community’ and in 2018, I was honored for starting the “Chatsworth Day on the Horse” fifteen years earlier.

So ends an era and my cowboy lifestyle. 

My heart is heavy, but I know I have left a legacy for others who are interested in Chatsworth’s equestrian history.

The West is dead, my friend

But writers hold the seed

And what they saw

Will live and grow

Again to those who read.

-- C.M. Russell