Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1942-10-30
MISSIONARY WAS
BILLINGS AREAS
INITIAL FARMER
NESPER FARM. MILES WEST OF
CITY, WAS FOUNDED By
REV. b. F. SHUART

have q good night here, stranger.
Therere q lot Of people In town and
It ought to be q good take II you have
. good show"
This Is how the Rev. b. F. Shuart
was greeted In Coulson upon his ar
rival there early in the spring Of 1922
in q "one-horse shay loaded to the
brim with Bibles" when he was met by
. Montana gambler who offered to
help him out of his wagon and tie up
his horse in front Of saloon.
There was a show scheduled in
Coulson that night and a sleight Of
hand artist from down the river was
due to arrive to perform and the
gambler was anxious to greet him to
the booming trading post.
Upon the discovery Of his mistake
that the magician" he was well
coming to the last stop of the river
boats was not a gambler at all but a
Congregational missionary, the gambler
threw down the reins and pointing to
the south, said, go over the hill,
pardner. There's bunch of religious
MiSsourians over there"
Took up Farming Instead
The Rev. Mr.. Shuart, in spite Of dis
enlargement, didn't go over the hill
but decided to take up farming in the
Yellowstone valley. That was how
Hesper farm, eight miles west Of Bill
lings, was founded-the only land
within 100 miles of that city that grew
anything but wild hay until 1884.
The missionary stayed on Hesper
farm for four years, and beside doing
pretty well as farmer, was the initial
minister of the First Congregational
church in Billings and erected the first
church structure there. AS recalled by
I. D. ODonnell pioneer Of the valley
and owner of the farm since 1886, the
Rev. Mr.. Shuart who was the only
minister in the upper part of the yell
lowstone valley for five years, married
many couples at the farm who came
to him from as far away as Bozeman
on the west and Forsyth on the east.
ODonnell said the Rev. Mr.. Shuart's
wife used to tell of the minister COM
ing in from the barn on occasions to
perform marriages and leave his COWS
half MIXED, and other times when he
got the urge to write sermons or for
publications he would leave his horses
standing in the middle of field to
come to the house and sit down at his
desk.
An Able Writer
HE was a writer of quite some note"
ODonneu said, land had numerous
articles published in eastern news
papers on livestock raising and diver
sified farming He also had several
articles published in magazines.
Hesper farm has always been noted
as being an experiment farm, and even
in those early days, ODonnen said, the
Rev. Mr. Shuart raised several forage
crops that were previously unknown to
Montanans, including the successful
growth of alfalfa hay in 1883. O'Don-
nell planted several acres of alfalfa In
1882 near Lewistown, but said both he
and his employer called 1t failure.
From that time on alfalfa production
in the state grew until 1t became Mon
tana's biggest crop and the winter
feeding of livestock became leading
industry.
The first milk that was sold in Bill
lings and the first dairy butter came
from Hesper farm when the missionary
established a dairy herd in 1883. He
fed the herd through the winters on
his alfalfa crop.
Russian varieties of hardy fruit were
planted on about an acre Of ground in
1884 on Hesper farm and was the val
ley's first orchard. The trees were
planted IL feet apart with native trees
planted between the fruit trees for
protection, ODonneu said, and some
Of the original orchard and native
trees still stand, though superior types
of fruit producing trees have replaced
most of the original orchard.
It was also on Hesper farm that the
Rev. Mr.. Shuart invented crude land
leveler of wood. Later when he moved
to Ohio with his family so that his
children could be placed in school,
the Shuart land leveler was patented
and sold to an Ohio implement firm,
which manufactured the leveler under
that name for time, and in recent
years, with improvements, was manu-
featured as the Little Yankee land
leveler.
Hesper Farm Sold in 1886
After ODonnell had walked into
Billings from Lewistown, he worked
on the Billings farm which had been
started by Frederick Billings in 1883
when the Northern Pacific built its
railroad through here. In partnership
with E. G. Bailey, nephew of Billings,
he purchased Hesper farm in 1886.
Hesper farm was named at the sug-
gestion of ODonnell while it was still
owned by the Rev. Mr.. Shuart, and
the name was recorded with the state
to protect the name rights. The mis-
sionary wanted to name the farm
"Hesper rancho" O'Donnell recalled,
and his wife chose to give it some
other name. but because of ODonnell's
suggestion "that any land which IS
under irrigation should be called a
farm" the name Hesper farm was
agreed upon as compromise. Hesper
means western"
A few years after ODonnell and
Bailey purchased the farm, ODonnell
purchased Bailey's interests in the
property and the Hesper Farm COM
pany was formed, with ODonnell, his
wife and their six children owners of
the property. At that time the farm
consisted of $40 acres though now the
section has been divided into six
smaller farms. For As years the entire