Northwest of Brockton  1928


The book Home Range reports -

“...the Frye Cattle Co...was leasing Indian land on the Fort Peck reservation near Brockton and Poplar,
and renting it out to farmers.
In 1928 Art rented a couple sections* and bought a Hart-Parr tractor and some machinery and moved to Brockton.
Here he built a small house which he moved to a site about five miles northwest of Brockton.”

Our House - 1928
​​​​*(Since a Section is 640 acres, “section” here probably refers to a much smaller piece of land.
  See “House by the RR Tracks”
  This would have been early in 1928 when I was 3-1/2, not long after the folks lost little Stanley on 1/13/28)
At 3-1/2 years of age I don’t remember any of Dad’s hard work to accomplish all that
but do have vague memories of living there.
It was a small house, one room only I think.  Outside the (only?) door was a small stoop with one or two steps.
We had chickens and one was my pet. 
If this had been written a year or two ago
I think I’d have remembered that chicken’s name.
Findley keeps popping up, 
maybe because Miss Findley was one of the 
school teachers that lived with us south of the river.  

So we’ll call that hen (yes, hen) Mr. Findley (yes, Mr.).
Miss Findley will never know.

When I sat on the stoop, 
Mr. Findley would come and try 
to peck the buttons off my clothes.



​​​Helen Mae with Nadine and "Buttoneater"




​Once, while we were gone,
there was a terrible downpour.
When we got home, there was Mr. Findley
lying dead by our spot on the stoop.
She’d actually drowned in that downpour.

I was heartbroken.
Helen Mae & "Miss Findley"
Dec 1927
​(The Turner Album captions the doll as “Miss Findley”
  and the chicken as “Buttoneater”)​
​Of course we had no plumbing or electricity.
​
Instead it was water from the well outside,
gasoline and kerosene lamps for light,
and a stove for cooking and heat.




​

There was that round tin tub for baths,
a wash basin and water pail with dipper
on a stand, and a path to the two-holer outside.








I recall washing my hair in the wash pan and thinking I’d come up with a really innovative way to rinse
the back of my head by doing a back bend
over the wash pan.







​
For a little kid it wasn’t far to bend.
But it was just a little too awkward
and soon abandoned for the conventional method.​​
​One day Aunt Pearl and Uncle Russell Hulings (Grandma Goss’ brother),
who lived in Sidney, came visiting.
​​Their son, Russell Ross,
and I were playing near that two-holer.
Russell Ross was feeling just a little too adventuresome and announced he was going
to lower himself down one of the two holes.

Well, you can guess what followed.

He hung there with his arms bent over the seat
and couldn’t get out.
I tried to help him, but we both soon realized
it wasn’t going to work.
There was an uproar of crying and screaming
that brought Mama and Aunt Pearl running.

They rescued the adventuresome one from the hole.
Just in time.
His arms were giving out and a worse fate almost befell him -- or he almost fell into a worse fate -- which ever.
Either way, Yuk!

​​It was always double names for both of us:
 ‘Russell Ross’ and ‘Helen Mae’
Back In the Field
Dad on first truck, a Chevrolet - Feb 1928
Dad told that when he was farming, April 2nd was always his day to be “back in the field."
The day before would be too soon since it was April Fool's Day.
But to wait any longer would be "wasting time."  (Even more 'foolish'?).
He acknowledged there was a still a chance of frost, but he was willing to take the risk.
He died on April 2nd
Dad's first Hart-Parr tractor, model 18-36, breaking sod – spring 1928.   Back in the field.
A restored 1928 Hart-Parr, model 18-36
There were prairie dogs or gophers wherever we lived in Eastern Montana, but here is where I remember them most.
One could nearly always spot one of the little critters scampering across the flat prairie,
or head and front paws sticking out of its burrow opening,
or sitting upright on its haunches with front paws held out.

They were cute little fellows that farmers thought were detrimental,
but it turns out their burrowing actually makes better grazing land.
Lunch out in the field – 1928
Harvest Time
P.H. Miller crew, farming neighbors, harvested our crop - 1928.  It was a good year.
Dad reciprocated, helping P.H. with their crop.
(The Miller's were possibly from the community of Mona, about 15 miles SE of Brockton.)
Harvesting crew finishes a good season.  Grain elevators were full, so piled wheat on the ground.
​Allis-Chalmers tractor pulls the Holt combine.
​​(Holt Machinery Co. was the predecessor to
Caterpillar Tractor Co.)
​International truck unloads the wheat.
​Helen, age 3,
is ready to start shoveling.
Dad hauls another load to the grain elevator at Poplar in his new International truck
An abundant crop - Wheat on the ground