Glacier County chief., 1939-06-16

in his tent until the war was over
and one side ran up the white flag.
The spring of 1884 Brown took
wood contract for the Sun River
Cattlemens association to furnish cord
wood at the different branding corrals
on the Sun river and Teton ranges.
After he got this contract he found
himself too busy to take care of it
and he turned it over to me. I got
good money for this job, but earned
it. I had to haul the wood about IS
miles over a rough prairie country.
Dave Brown, once mule skinner, in
very few years rose to be one of the
foremost business men of northern
Montana. He was square and fair-a
man that it was always a pleasure
to meet. Dave is gone, but his record
still exists in the memory of old
timers.
After an absence of about so years
I strolled back to Fort Benton and
noticed many changes in the. old his
toric place. Only very few old-timers
left to greet me-and they with shaky,
trembling hands tried to make me feel
at home. met the late District Judge
John Tatten, whom had first known
in the early seventies as soldier sta
toned at Fort Benton. After getting
his discharge. Tatten launched into
the practice of law-later he was elect
Gu ulSlllCG JuuSe, al OlliSt ilc llelu III
he crossed the great divide. Although
my frame is somewhat bent, and my
hair badly frostbitten, still my mind
runs back to happenings of my boy
hood days when mans safety de-
pended largely on his truSty WincheS-
ter and six-gun.
The ranks of the old-timers of 1874
are thin. Not many of them left to
tell the story of what they went
commonwealth it is today-a safe place
for future generations. The Indian
troubles are all over. The buffalo are
gone from the prairies. The buffalo
grass has also disappeared before the
advance of civilization.
Game Fat Year Around
When I first came to Montana it
few cattle and horses there were here
with waving buffalo grass and
bunchgrass knee high as far as the
eye could reach. Game and cattle those
days were really fat summer and win
ter, in fact at the bottom of that high
grass there was plenty of green grass
I shall never forget my first expert
ence as a cowboy. The fall of 1874,
hired out to the Tingley brothers on
the Shonkin creek, about 20 miles
south of Fort Benton. Being a tender
foot kid, believe I furnished most OF
the amusement for the rest of the boys
on the roundup. The first horse they
gave me to ride threw me so high
that wondered while in the air which
way the power Of gravitation would
take me, but I finally came back to
earth. I tried the horse the SECOND
time and stayed on his hurricane deck.
Cowpunching in those days was q
hazardous vocation. Cattle were wild
and often it took swift horse to
corral them. The country was full of
badger holes and the high grass hid
them so that many riders were in
jured by their mounts falling. Nearly
every day on general roundup some
one had some kind of an accident. If
it was a slight one the other punchers
would joke about it, but If anyone got
badly hurt, he had the sympathy of
the whole gang.
Along about 1878 the late Jack
Harris drifted into the Benton country
and located on Highwood creek, about
Is miles south Of Fort Benton. He
brought with him about 100 head Of