Month: March 2021

The long trek from New Mexico to Montana had not been without hardship and loss for the Brannin family. Their bout with typhoid had lifelong effects, rendering the youngest son handicapped. Heading north from Annabella, Utah, where they had wintered, they were caught in a snowstorm that took about half of their goat herd. 

Almost a year after their departure from their ranch along the Sapillo in New Mexico, they arrived at their Montana destination where two more children were added to the family. However, that was not the journey’s end. 

One of the boys, Ed, and a friend rode into Sweet Grass Canyon in 1898 after checking out mining possibilities in Fergus County. The two young men on horseback followed the trail that led into the Crazy Mountains. As the trail began to descend, they rounded a hill, and it seemed as if a secret doorway opened in front of their very eyes. In the valley below, the river danced and sang a tune as it made its way from the mountains through the horseshoe bend and beyond. They had never seen such a view. Before them lay Sweet Grass Canyon. Immediately Ed knew that his family had to move to the heart of the mountains. 

They crossed the river, and stopped to talk with C. M. Rein, a Norwegian man who had made his home there in 1893. The Reins became valuable neighbors and friends of the family for years to come. They also visited the Tucker family who lived on the Sweet Grass near Melville. The Tuckers, who they had known from Marysville, were more than friends, they became family as well.

• 

After spending the winter in the Crazy Mountains of 1898-99, Ed made his way back to Silver City, Montana, to tell the family of the paradise he had seen. Upon his return, he encouraged the family to move to that paradise. Grandfather Brannin went to look it over, pulled up stakes in 1904, and made the move. Joe had his misgivings because it was too far from a school. Had the matriarch of the family known of future events, she might have had misgivings as well.

The youngest girl, Babe, remembered the trip, “Papa and Joe came to get us and take us to the Sweet Grass and the Crazy Mountains. Papa drove the spring wagon with Mamma, Sid, Bess, Crawford and me in it. Joe drove the lumber wagon and Will Smedley went along to help. I think Gus must have been with Dick over at the new place.” According to Sid, they camped the first night on the Missouri near Helena. The second night they camped along the trail and the third night near White Sulphur Springs. They traveled by way of Deep Creek Canyon and spent the fourth night in Martinsdale. The fifth night was on the Little Elk near Two Dot. When they passed the American Fork Ranch, they knew their destination was within reach.

As the wagons topped the rise and followed the trail into the valley, they saw the horseshoe bend of the Sweet Grass River. Looking into the canyon in front of them, they knew this was home. For the first time in her life, the matriarch felt safe and was no longer afraid to be alone. The mountains called her name, and she answered the call. With her back to the mountains and the valley before her, she found her place of refuge there in the heart of the mountains. She was finally home – a place of safety, surrounded by her family, and neighbors who needed one another. 

Years later, Babe, the young one who rode in the spring wagon at five years old, said every time she came to that place at the horseshoe bend, she thought the same thing, “This is home.”

• 

On the day of Jack’s funeral, a man gave the kids’ mother a dollar to get something special forJack’s younger brother and sisters. They found their treasures at the Big Timber Golden Rule – three fuzzy stuffed bears – a gold one, brown one and green one at 35 cents each. Even the store clerk’s heart was pricked, and he sold the three bears for a dollar. Even though Brownie the bear offered some comfort to Jack’s little brother, loneliness still crept into his world. 

To little brother Buck, that bear was special. In his young mind, that was all he had left of Jack. For a year after his brother’s death, little Buck thought they were all doomed. One night tears slid from his eyes when he said his prayers, “God, let my Teddy Bear be buried with me when I die.”

• 

The little boy carried his bear with him everywhere. One day when he took the bear with him to the outhouse, he set the bear beside him very carefully, but the bear toppled over and fell into the deep pit out of the boy’s reach. Indian Charlie heard him cry and scream all the way up at the sawmill. His mama heard him probably before he even screamed because mamas have premonitions and know things before they actually happen. She ran to the outhouse thinking something terrible had happened. It had.

Little Buck’s mama was a hero. He thought she was an angel. She assessed the situation, got the garden rake, and rescued Brownie, the brown fuzzy bear, out of the dark murky hole. Immediately, she tossed the bear into the horse trough. When the bear came up for air, little Buck grabbed him from his watery grave. His mama brought his teddy bear back from the dead. It was too bad she could not have done the same for his brother Jack. It took years for the little boy to get over the loss of his brother. In fact, it took all of eighty-seven.

Brownie almost lost his life again when Sister Ellen wanted to give her doll funeral rites. Not wanting the doll to be buried alone, she convinced Buck that the bear should be buried, too. It’s a good thing the bear was buried with his ear sticking out. He was soon rescued when he was pulled from the sawdust pile by his ear at the hand of a little boy. 

At the old homeplace way back in the heart of the mountains, the outhouse, known to some as the privy, though it was the smallest “house”, may have been the most important building of all.

It was a place to read the “Monkey Ward” magazine, which was also used for other things. It was a place to think or make up a song. It ranked high as a place of necessity. Someone could sit and rest and hear the water piped from the spring splash into the horse trough and spill over the sides. Little kids learned how to run fast from imaginary bears that lurked behind the privy ready to pounce. In the wintertime it wasn’t much fun having to make the trek to the little house even though grown-ups cut a trail for such emergencies. 

Sometimes privies were used for pranks. On one such occasion Sister Ellen sent sister BJ on a mission to run to the privy and open the door. Little did BJ know the outhouse was occupied. The door flung open and there sat Effie Bowlegs reading Monkey Ward. He didn’t get rescued! I guess he didn’t have an angel watching out for him.