Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1942-10-16
PIONEER WOMAN
WRITES OF LIFE
in THIS STATE
"A BRIDE GOES WEST" RECOUNTS
MAMIE TIFFANY ALDER
SONS EXPERIENCES

SONS EXPERIENCES
Another Montanan enters the ranks
Of entertaining writers. Mamie Tiff
fanny Anderson who is 80 years old and
spent so years of her life in Montana
has, with the help of Helen Hunting
ton Smith, written the story of her ex-
periences in the west.
Born in the south, Mrs. Tiffany AL
derson came west with her husband
Walter Anderson, in 1883 and began
her life as a bride in what was then
the territory of Montana. Her first
home was log cabin on the banks OF
the Rosebud under the shadow of the
Wolf mountains, in the land of the
Cheyenne Indians.
This daughter of a Virginia slave
owner had been accustomed, even
after the black man had been granted
his freedom. to be waited on by the
sons and daughters of her fathers
former chattels. She remarks casual
ly, in the course Of her story, that back
In Virginia there were always little
colored boys and girls to run errands
on the plantation She who had never
washed a handkerchief or baked any
thing but a hot roll. started life as a
wife in what must have been for her
the hard way, or, for that matter, for
any woman.
Had Plenty To Do
She had to cook for half dozen
cowboys, wash and iron. make her own
clothes, keep a dirt floor in condition.
and maintain amiable relations with
the CHEYENNE Indians who were any
thing but good Indians at times-they
10 to, IA
cause cowboy on the ranch had shot
a hole in chiefs hat to show his
craftsmanship chat story is recorded
in the news dispatches of the Butte
press of the 60's). She babe goodby
to the last sign of civilization" when
she left Miles City on her way to her
husbands ranch on the Rosebud.
Reviewers of her book, which is en-
titled "a Bride Goes West remark
that Mamie Anderson, the author sis
one of the last generation of Ameri-
can women who were pioneers" When
that generation passes those who are
curious about living conditions in
Montana in territorial days will have
to depend, for their information. on
Mrs. Alderson's book.
No Women Companions
Conditions as she describes them
we're certainly tough although she
seems to have adjusted herself to the
new environment except that she
could never accustom herself to speak
of her husband by his first name
because that is the way we address
servants in the south" For months
on months her only contacts were with
her husbands ranch hands or with the
Indians; not a single woman within
miles Of her residence. Her home was
two days journey away from a groc-
cry store. She raised four children on
an isolated ranch where doctors were
q novelty. She learned that lambast-
ing naughty Riddles was resented by
Indian mammas-even when the kiddie
was the child of the lambaster.
Mrs. Alderson's father, Captain
Hugh Tiffany, was killed at the first
battle Of Manassas and was said to be
the first southern officer to fall in the
wa between the states. Her mother
married a second time and her STEP |
brother, Andrew Rowan, won fame in
the Spanish-American war by carry |
Ing the famed message to Garcia.
Helen Huntington Smith, who acts
as Mrs. Alderson's amanuensis, is well
qualified for her task, it is apparent.
She it was who elaborated with |
Teddy Blue, Granville Stuart's cow
boy, and later his son-in-law, in the
of the material in the |
book, 1--WE Pointed Them North
Recalls Many Incidents
Mrs. Anderson, despite her age, is |
credited with a remarkable memory. |
Her recollections include the strike
In the Chicago stock yards, in the 80's, |
as we'll as the big freeze" in Montana,
the manners and dress of the cowboys !
and the behavior of Pack Saddle |
Jack" a range character, her reactions
to her first contact with rattlesnake,
her experiences as patient in the |
hands of an amateur dentist, her first
meeting with a woman of the under
was masquerading as a
of good repute-in Miles City,
the first mule colt foaled on her hus-
bands ranch, the intense cold of an
eastern Montana winter, the loss of .
her silver candle-sticks in the fire
which the Indians started and .
which destroyed her home, the bed
bugs and the pioneer methods of war
ring against them and thousand and !
one other things that made up her |
life on a Montana cattle ranch.
The book, "a Bride Goes West"
should be of particular interest to
Montana women since Mrs. Anderson |
gives an almost month-by-month &C
count of the conditions under which |
wives lived in eastern Montana in the |
days before the Indian was out of |
the ground" No light but kerosene |
lamps, no means of communication |
except by messenger or mail or per-
sonal contact, no means Of travel but !!
horseback. In those days the rancher |
built his own house and made his own |
to a considerable ex-
tent looked after his own health and |
that Of his family.