Baertsch, Montgomery share stories at museum
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POLSON – “Dad came out in 1905 to Proctor to help build the hotel,” Oscar Baertsch said, starting his narrative about his dad, also named Oscar. Oscar himself was born in 1915.
Ethel McAlear Montgomery said her grandparents, her dad and aunts and uncles came to the Mission Valley in late September of 1910.
Baertsch and Montgomery were at the Polson Flathead Historical Museum on July 21 to talk about life as the children of homesteaders and to help celebrate Polson’s Centennial.
The Flathead Reservation was opened to homesteading in 1910 through lotteries. Hopeful homesteaders from all over the United States sent their applications to the Superintendent of the Flathead Project.
Beginning on May 2, 1910, names were drawn every day until 3,000 applicants had been selected. Another lottery was held on Sept. 1 and another 3,000 names were drawn. The drawing location alternated between the Missoula and Kalispell land offices. Then on Halloween night at midnight, all the tracts of land still available were opened to the public, and a land rush followed.
Montgomery’s grandfather, George McAlear, came to Montana without a lottery number. Her grandma Annie and the couple’s six children took a two-and-a-half week train trip from St. Louis to join their husband and father, sleeping on benches. When the train arrived in Ravalli, “there was no George to meet her,” Montgomery said. So the McAlears pitched a tent and waited for three days before George showed up.
The McAlears didn’t have a place to live. Finally, George found a one-room shack for his family, located in the middle of what is now Pablo Reservoir. To make ends meet, George and his sons, Fay, 16, and Harvey, 14, cut wood in Pablo and hauled it over the hill to Polson to sell all that winter.
Baertsch’s story shares the same enterprising spirit. In 1910 his father and mother moved back to Proctor after being married in 1909. Baertsch’s mother, Bertha Rowe, was from Philipsburg. The couple homesteaded 160 acres down in “Hog Heaven” right next to Baertsch’s mom’s brother.
Life was different in those days. People didn’t make trips to the grocery store on a weekly basis or sometimes even on a monthly basis. Baertsch’s family raised pigs, chickens and a big garden for food and canned and preserved everything they could. The family bought ice from Charlie Thomas at Lake Mary Ronan for “three cents a cake,” Baertsch said. After they hauled the ice home, transferred it to the icehouse and covered it with sawdust, the ice surrounded a walk-in room where milk and butter were kept.
Montgomery’s family lived out by Kerr Dam and then in town. By 1923 they had an icebox. However, Montgomery said her mother used the cellar steps for a cooler, too. The bottom step was the coldest.
Montgomery’s mother canned 500 quarts of food annually, buried her carrots, beets and rutabagas in a big tub of sand and dried beans and corn. Polson had a flour mill so they could buy flour.
As far as school goes, Baertsch and his brothers and sisters attended Proctor School. Montgomery and her sister went to school in Polson.
Regarding homework, Baertsch said, “ Naw, I didn’t take no homework home. I wouldn’t have had time to do it anyway.”
A typical child of the times, Baertsch had chores to do at home. He fed the chickens and milked and fed the cows.
Baertsch said his family “got along good with the Indians. Dad knew all of them, even Chief Koostatah.”
Baertsch and Montgomery had many stories to share, so many that PFHM president Lois Hart promised to have another session next year.
The next centennial events include: July 30 - Community Bank’s Centennial Celebration, a community picnic lunch on the lawn behind the Polson branch, 50510 US Hwy 93.
July 31 - St. Andrews Episcopal Church founded in 1910. Open house tour and exhibit from 1 to 3 p.m. 110 E. 6th Ave. Contact Ann Ross at aross@cyberport.net.
July 31 - August 13 People, Places and Time exhibit by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes at the Polson Flathead Historical Museum, 708 Main St.
August 4 - Herman Schnitzmeyer, Homestead Era Photographer with Dennis Kellogg at the Polson Flathead Historical Museum, 708 Main Street, at 7 p.m.
