Some of my favorite stories are those my granddad told of his batchin’ days. He and his batchin’ partner, John, traveled the Montana prairies from place to place as they followed the harvest and worked with threshing crews all the way into Canada. Sometimes his brother, my Uncle Buster, was his sidekick. My granddad had a homestead in Phillips County near his uncles.
His tales took us from Sun Prairie Flats to Malta, the Missouri River Breaks, Landusky, Zortman, the Long X Ranch, to Calgary and many places in between. We heard names such as Kid Curry, Pike Landusky, Granville Stuart and Charlie Russell.
Uncle Buster on his homestead
When he first came to Montana, he landed a job with the B D Phillips outfit north of the Missouri River. Phillips had several bands of sheep. My granddad said, “I got on as Camp Tender. Phillips had several ranches that I worked out of. One was the Black Ranch. It was near the Little Rockies up by the towns of Zortman and Landusky.” Landusky was a wild west town just like its namesake, Pike Landusky, who was killed by Kid Curry in Jew Jake’s Saloon. (That was before my granddad was in that part of the country.) My grandfather said, “Kid Curry came in and slapped Pike on the back and floored him with a punch to the jaw. Landusky raised up and drew his pistol but Kid outdrew him. I don’t know if this was the first time anyone outdrew Landusky, but it was the last time. They carried his corpse to boot hill. It is told that Kid Curry left for Missouri where he joined Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.”
He continued his story, “One old timer I knew had been the corral tender for the Curry outfit. He was the chore boy. He saddled their horses and had them ready for the outfit to ride. One day he said to me, ‘Slim, I want to show you something.’”
“The fellow took me to the barn at the Black place and pointed to a saddle. ‘My saddle,’ the old man explained. ‘I just want you to look at the back of it.’ I looked. By golly it had a bullet hole as neat as a pin. ‘Ever hear of getting your pants shot off?’ the old fellow asked. ‘Part of my job was to drive a team and wagon from one sheep camp to the next. B. D. Phillips had some Swede sheepherders. They were good men who had to have rutabagas.’”
These stories and other tales make Montana history come to life for me. From the time of the arrival of my family into Montana Territory, they have rubbed elbows with those who helped shape the state and have become part of history itself.
One connection was Uncle Buster who worked for a time at Circle C Ranch near Zortman. Circle C was owned by Robert Coburn and his sons, purchased from Granville Stuart, aka “Mr. Montana.” One of the boys was Wallace Coburn. He was a rancher, an actor and author.
Sarah Furnish Redding, mother of Mary Balsorah Redding Logan
Wallace Coburn also had a friendship with Major William Logan who married a cousin of mine, Mary Balsorah Redding, on my father’s side of my family. In 1902, he was appointed supervisor of the Agency of Belknap Indian Reservation on Milk River. The same year, he was given the job of superintendent in charge of road construction in Glacier National Park. The next year, he was appointed the first superintendent and chief ranger for the newly formed Glacier National Park. I imagine some of my family know nothing about this familial connection with one of the greatest National Parks in our country.
Will Logan photo on file at Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming
There is another twist of historical note that may well be controversial, disapproved and pretty much disregarded. It is interesting, none-the-less. A small book, The Battle of Little Bighorn, written by Wallace David Coburn as told by Major Will Logan, gives a different view of this battle event in history.
Each of these relationships, no matter how seemingly insignificant, gives an overwhelming sense of the community of kinship that connects us all.