Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1937-11-20
Fergus Vet Served in Two Wars Fought Reds Routed excans


- NE Of M0ntana's most distin-
Iss43s . wi E i S y ~ s;s y
army after q long and honor
able service career. Colonel willard,
son of an army surgeon who came to
Montana first In 1879 and who later
embarked IN the livestock business, Is
q graduate Of the United States military
academy at West Point a veteran Of
both the Spanish-AmeFican and the
World wars, campaigned In the Philip
pines and Is the pOSsess0E Of a letter
written by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt,
commencing his service while In COM
mand Of troops which queAAed an out
break among the Navajo Indians In
Utah in 1906. He was with the troops
that fought General Obreg0n Of Mex ]
fcO and his Yaqui Indians when they
crossed into Arizona and he was with 1
the punitive expedition into Mexico /
that chased Panch0 villa after his
bandit gang raided Columbus, N. NJ.
Colonel Willard was born at Bremen,
Fairfield county, o., in 1871, the son
Of Or. and Mrs. j. H. willard. When
DR.. Willard was assigned to duty at
Crow Agency, Mont. as an army sur
geon in 1879 young willard made the
trip with his parents, coming up the
Missouri river on the steamer Big Horn
to Fort Benton and travelling from
there overland to Crow Agency in the
southern part Of the state.
After DR.. willard had been at Crow
Agency a year he was transferred to
Of Maiden in what Is now Fergus
county, and there the family remained
until 1885. While DR.. willard was sta
toned at Fort Maginnis, he became in (
terested in the livestock business and
In 1885 he resigned from the army to \
assume the active management OF his
cattle ranch on the east fork OF Spring Il
creek near where the present station
of Dunlap on the Milwaukee railroad
Is located
That year the boy was sent away to N
school. He went first to the Shattuck
military academy IN MINNESOTA, where
he remained for year. He next at
tended school at oxford, Md, for a
year, then high school in San Fran Z,
cisco for q year, at the same time going -
to business college. In 1890 he entered
the old College Of Montana at Deer
Lodge where he remained for two
years.
In 1892 young willard was nomi-
mated for admission to West Point and
successfully passed his entrance exam
nations. He was graduated in 1886, the
first Montanan to finish the course
there after the admission OF Montana
TO statehood.
Commissioned Second Lieutenant
Commissioned a second lieutenant,
was assigned to duty with the
10th cavalry at Fort Custer, Mont. At
that time General Pershing, later to be
in chief of the American
expeditionary forces during the World e.
war, was first lieutenant at Fort As 81
sinniboine near Hayre. Fort Custer was al
abandoned as an army poet in 1897
md Lieutenant willard was trans m
- IL fnF
he was stationed there when the ct
spanish American war broke out. al
Lieutenant Williard's command was sn
,rdered to Chickamauga park, troop co
concentration camp, and assigned to m
he Fifth army corps and within a to
hort time was sent to Cuba. There he 10
with his regiment in the 81
santiago campaign. At the battle of
las Guasimar in Cuba, June "a, 1893, or
Lieutenant willard was IN command or
Il troop B Of the 10th cavalry and be- e
ore the battle was concluded was also
laced in command Of troop x Of the *
'irst cavalry. the officers of which had 20
II been killed or wounded. nc
On the second day Of the battle Of
an Juan, he was severely wounded pc
nd was invaded to Fortress Monroe, be
a., from where he went, when con- col
alescent, to his parents home at ed
ewistown. In the fall Of 1898 he was
rQereQ 10 JOIN a pOIbiOil u uS ACBA- at
tent which was stationed at Fort As the
nniboine. pri
In the spring of 1899 when federal aw
oops were sent into the Couer pla
'Alene country of Idaho to prevent /
olence during labor trouble, Ideuten-- viii
ut willard was detailed for that Mo
Ity. The following fall he was ordered is
rejoin his regiment in Cuba where gro
: did garrison duty at various posts pet
It'll 1902. bar
First Lieutenant due
He was then promoted to a first nlD
.ltenancy and assigned to duty with rep
e Second cavalry at Fort Ethan ava
len and in Lewistown on leave OF
,sence he was promoted to a captaincy Is
ID ordered to the Philippine islands pro
lille there his command was sta ula'
oned on the island Of Luzon. A year ass
ter he was returned to the United woe
atas and did juty at various military pro
,sts. While at Fort Wingate, N. M, ado
here he was stationed from 1905 to age
O8. he took part in the campaign sup
yainst the Navajo Indians, the chief app