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Temerity Magazine ignites relic and treasure hunters across the world to share their passion with others in each issue. Join us as a reader, author, advertiser or promoter and assist us in sharing our passion for this great addiction.
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http://www.magcloud.com/user/theodoremediallc You can submit your article, photo, Special Edition concept or become an advertiser or Supporter by contacting: Chad T. Everson 32128 160th St Princeton, MN 55371 Editor@TemerityMagazine.com All rights Reserved Š 2012 Theodore Media LLC
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We know that our Temerity Magazine author, Jeanine Menton Reckinger has Temerity and her hero, her aunt, Jessie Belle Menten Morrow embodies temerity so much we here at Temerity Magazine have put her likeness on our logo. Jeanine has been such a blessing to me opening up doors for sites and stories to recover right here in my grizzly backyard that I can not thank her enough. In this great article she wrote for our May 2012 issue of Temerity Magazine, Jeanine makes the case that yes, genealogist are in fact relic and treasure hunters. I hope Jeanine and her story inspire and ignite other genealogists to share their passion for relic and treasure hunting in the pages of Temerity Magazine for many, many years to come. Here in Temerity Magazine we pray we recover for our readers that pioneer spirit that Jessie embodied that built this great nation. Jeanine does a great job telling her families story and each member that set about to obtain the great American dream. In the photo to the left Jeanine our author is playing her aunt Jessie’s accordion a relic and treasure that assists us in telling Jessie’s story. ~Chad T. Everson
Editor@TemerityMagazine.com
editor & Owner of Temerity Magazine Temerity Magazine is a Theodore Media LLC product that reserves all Rights Š 2012 To Purchase print or digital copies of this publication and others please go to http://www.magcloud.com/user/theodoremediallc Website: http://TemerityMag.com
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MY HERO . . . my pioneer aunt, Jessie Belle Menten Morrow by Jeanine Menton Reckinger Let me introduce to you a lady that I never met, but, all my life wished that I had. The note on the back of this picture says:
“Mr. Frank Menten (her brother) Forestdale, MN (believed to be her name for the area around her, no proof that a place of that name existed otherwise.) Hi Frankie, How do you like this snapshot? Some class to our method of doing things. This is the largest timber wolf I heave ever seen. A fine and lovely. Here’e the same to you and yours. Fondly, Jessie” Jessie Belle Menten was born to Peter William and Ella Davis Menten at their farm home on
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Lake Washington, Blue Earth County, MN in November of 1888, the sixth child born to this couple. There were seven younger children including two who died as infants. I was given copies of a few pages from one of the 24 diaries she had. The dates are from 1909 to 1920 and I have placed them here as a way of letting you get better acquainted with Jessie in her own words; this lady for whom I have such respect, but, also the need to learn even more about her!! Some of her comments are very humorous, some are just ho hum; but, it is her own style of writing that adds yet another dimension to this writing. Jessie grew up in a generation when all the kids helped with the farming, housekeeping and any other chores that were given to them whether it was caring for ani-
8 Jessie’s father, Peter Wm Menten’S, parents are Adam and Maria Anna (Sorger) Menten born in Baden, Prussia with a few earlier generations shown in my records as part of an accomplished “task of love;” that being said . . . I have much more work to do there!! The Mentens and the Davises had a serious love of music with both Jessie’s grandfathers being fiddle players: Benjamin Franklin Davis, was a left-handed fiddle player!!
mals, weeding the vegetable gardens, doing field work or helping in the kitchen. This family was no different and Jessie became proficient at anything and everything she set out to accomplish. With this beginning it is no wonder, then, that she was able to live her life out never being unwilling to tackle anything or anybody, or for that matter, any animal!! I don’t think that having three brothers living in close proximity had anything to do with her decision not to return to Mankato to teach school; but, rather, stake a claim for a homestead; although, they were her reason for going north in the first place. Let me first introduce Jessie’s family members to you: Ella Davis’s parents are Benjamin Franklin Davis and Rebecca Sweeney from Pike County, Illinois, with several generations going backward having been researched thoroughly by other members of the earlier families so will not go into that history here.
Peter was born in 1854 at Janesville, Rock County , WI to Adam (B. abt 1827) and Maria (Sorger) Menten. The family, including Adam’s father Martin L, and three other siblings, arrived in the US from Prussia in April of 1853, settled for a short time in Wauwautosa, WI where his older brother, Frank, and his family had arrived and settled earlier. They moved on to Janesville, WI where he worked in a lumber company for a couple of years before moving to the “Kasota Prairie” in about 1856. He farmed and worked for others as a general laborer when he could. In 1860 he enlisted with the MN Mounted Rangers stationed out of Ft. Ridgely. He was supposed to be in charge of the hanging of the Native Americans at Mankato; however, he and his men all got drunk the night before assuming if they were all locked up there would be no hanging . . . they were concerned that those who were being hanged were not necessarily the ones who had been on the rampage. This did not prevent the hanging from happening right on time and even though he was demoted in rank for this action, he never regretted his decision not to participate.
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When Adam and Maria left the farm, he built a new house at Mankato. Shortly after that he had a stroke that slowed him down considerably prior to his death, so did not live many years in this new home. Maria sold the house to her daughter when she went to live at the Old Soldier’s Home at Minneapolis where she died about 1918. Adam’s eldest son, Peter, was 11 years old when he knew his father was to be in Mankato so he went by horse into town to try to see him. Consequently, he witnessed the hanging of the Native Americans at Mankato, but never found his father since he was in the brig. He married Ella Davis who had moved with her parents from Pike County, IL. Ella’s mother had died just prior to this marriage, so this young couple lived on the Davis farm until her younger siblings were grown and gone. Their eldest son, Elmer Ellsworth, was born on this farm. Benjamin sold the farm and moved to MO and Peter and Ella eventually moved to the farm on Lake Washington where the rest of their children were born. Jessie’s oldest brother, Elmer Ellsworth Menten, born in 7O, died at age 22. Even at that young age he was Professor of Music in the Mankato area, teaching music to many which
10 months pregnant and contracted the dreaded influenza. She went into labor birthing a stillborn little red haired girl. Al left to get a neighbor lady who was also a midwife and who lived about three miles away, as he was needing her help. It was a blustery day, turned into blizzard conditions and he wasn’t able to get back for three days. During that time Florence died. The eldest of the children, Vivian, was 11 years old; but, following actions she had watched her mother and father make, she tied a rope from the house door to the barn door to ensure that she could safely go back and forth as necessary to milk the cow; she had the children carry in as much wood as they could store inside their small log house; there included a variety of instruments. In addition, he worked at the St. Peter State Hospital were root crops stored under the beds to cook as a nurse. He had arrived at work one morn- so she stayed busy keeping the children warm ing when he began to feel ill, a doctor exam- and fed until her father returned. At one point she was followed from the barn to the ined him indicating that his appendix had ruptured, and there was nothing he knew to do for him. They hospitalized him and he died there five days later. Albert Lea was her next brother, born March 31, 1881 – he always joked about “if I had born one day later, I would have been a fool!” . He eventually went north to Remer area to “strike out on his own.” He worked in the logging camps in the winter months and had his little farm to go home to in the spring when the logging operation shut down. Some of the logging camps didn’t have bunkhouses so the men always went home at night. He married Florence Agnes Davis in about 1909 and they had seven children: Vivian, Carl, Doris, Maurice, Arnold, Clifford and Norman. In November of 1918 she was eight
11 house by a wolf wanting that fresh warm milk, she literally slammed the door on his foot!!. . My father, Ernest Lon, was the next child born to Peter and Ella in March of 1883. He was born with cataracts on both eyes and lived his entire life with limited vision as those cataracts were never considered operable. He did not allow this to hold him back, however, and he worked for farmers, he played the fiddle/violin with whoever asked or wherever he could. There were members of the Menten family that always had a band wheter in the Mankato area or the Remer/Deer River, MN area. Peter had taken both Ernest and Albert to the same music teacher for violin lessons, and been told he would be wasting his money to bring Ernest because he could never see to read the sheet music. Ernest went along with Al to lessons anyway and learned a tremendous lot just by listening. He loved playing the fiddle, especially loved all of the marches written by John Philip Sousa who he had seen at a performance at a time when Ernest and his family lived at St. Louis, MO for a couple of years. During my years growing up there were many gatherings in our homes and those of others, and there were always “jam sessions’ in one room and the women fixing food in another!
12 ple were transitioning from horse and buggy, he would buy a new car and drive it until it sold, making some money on the deal; then do the same thing over again. He helped everyone he knew with harvesting in the fall. Sometimes they got free rent to live in a house while getting it painted and fixed up in whatever ways needed work. That is the case where I was born . . . it was a house with three cabins and rental boats that had been
Ernest married Grace May Root in August of 1915, they had ten children: Helen b. in SD, Elmer, Marieta, Harold, Elsie, Donald, Marcella, Verla, Jeanine and Carol, all born in the area around Deer River, Remer and Grand Rapids. Ernest and Grace (she also played violin) played for barn dances, wedding parties, etc., on and off over the years, they had a White sewing machine dealership for several years including sewing machine repair, which my mother was proficient at. They raised large gardens and sold vegetables, he was a licensed auctioneer for about ten years until rheumatic fever put him in bed for three years. Before cars were that popular and peo-
13 empty for several years. As he got the cabins and boats repaired and ready to rent, he was allowed to keep that money to use for further expenses on the refurbishing project. It was later named “Walter’s Pines” and carried that name for many years. I recently learned that we moved from that place in anger when the owners (who had inherited the property, and who lived in Indiana) offered to pay my father $10,000 for one of my older sisters since they could not have children of their own!!!
ered what the drawing card was there. In 1910 they moved to MN as James had a cousin who owned a hotel and livery stable at Grand Rapids and had promised to give him work if he came there. Am not sure what their reason was for moving north and west of Deer River but James and Walter did work in the logging camps there. They lived in close proximity to both Jessie’s and Ernest’s homesteads; consequently the music within that neighborhood became a common denominator.
Grace’s parents are Mary Mae Davis and James Root both born in Michigan. Mary became blind as an infant, either born blind, or Along came Susie May, the first little girl!! from a treatment done to her eyes at birth. But she quickly learned to live that rough and James worked for a sawmill and a steam boiler had exploded burning his face and eyes severely, leaving him with only the ability to determine daylight from dark until in his 80s when he announced one day that he could no longer see daylight. Together they raised three children, having lost the eldest as an infant. Their children, Walter, Clyde and Grace, were born in Michigan. James managed to find many different kinds of jobs that he was able to do as a laborer so support his family; along with the fact that this again was a very musical family and that talent helped to support them as well. James had a beautiful tenor voice, Mary played the organ learning her Braille music with one hand and memorizing, then switching to the other hand. Walter played sax and clarinet, Clyde played trumpet and Grace played violin. This family would play for things such as church affairs, barn dances, wedding dances, county fair, street corners . . . whatever it took. In 1907 they set out by covered wagon and moved to Alliance, NB and although I have done lots of research in that area, I have not yet discov-
14 tumble lifestyle growing up with her brothers!! My dad told about how he and Susie would sometimes hurry with their barn chores on Sunday mornings, ride bareback to the Marysville Catholic Church for Mass, then back to finish chores before their father might find out they were missing!! Susie married Claude Clark Payne who was a close neighbor, he was a graduate of the U of M in agriculture, and they lived in the area for abeing few years with some of their children born in MN. From there they lived in KC MO and in St. Petersburg, FL, where he owned a grocery store. They returned to Kansas City, MO with their children: Virginia, Bernal, Arvid, Norma and Maximillian. They both died there. The next child is the subject of this writing, Jessie Belle Menton born November of 1888, I will expound more fully on her later!!
15 The next is Francis Benjamin, born June 1887, who married Ida Oehler. He loved farming and because both had been raised on farms, they followed that lead and raised their family on the same farm where Ida had grown up from the age of ten. This farm was just a few miles from Frank’s childhood home, and he was able to start out his farming operation with the acquisition of Peter Menten’s herd. Their children are Ethel, Stanley, Glenn, Arline, Vera and Wayne, as of now Arline is the only living member of that family. Frederick William Menten was born in October 1891 and though I’ve never heard what his cause of death was, my father told me how very hard it was for him he was only 11 years old. It was very hard for this family to lose this precious child in May of 1894. Just one month prior to the death of little Freddie, Judd Menten was born and died, April 16, 1894. Cannot even imagine how much this event along with Freddy’s death the following month, must have torn this young family in many directions. Ebenezer Ellsworth was born October 1895, he married Hazel Bedbury from Mankato area. Their first child was born there, before moving to Geddes, SD where he worked for his stepfather, Edmond Montagne, from about 1914 to 1917 when they moved to the Remer, MN area where they farmed until retiring. They had five children: Eleanor b. Mankato, Orville who was born in SD, Lyle, Wesley and Leora born in Remer area.
Bird Dewey is the next child and though Grampa had written his name in the family Bible as ‘Admiral Dewey’ that apparently did not go over well with Gramma!! Soon as he could enlist he joined the Merchant Marines, then the Navy, then civilian shipping . . . he lived his life “on the water.” He married Delaware Morgan about 1927 somewhere on the East Coast, but due to a job transfer lived most of their married life in CA. Their only child Joan Ida, was born in 1930 at Ventura, CA. When Bird retired he bought a farm at Becker, MN and did set up a farming operation. I can remember my dad and uncles exclaiming about the grandiosity of that farm
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noting that it had a “three cupola barn!� Soon the sea was calling him and he was back on the water on the East Coat, Eventually Del and Joan moved to GA after she had graduated from Becker high school and had attended business college in Minneapolis, MN. At this point Bird was second mate working with a young man from NY, Walter Egan, who he eventually brought home to meet his daughter . . . Joan and Walter eventually married, Del and Bird moved to Tampa, Florida, Del losing her battle with caner there a short time later. Bird moved back to Remer, MN where he lived for several years, enabling him to spend
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plenty of time with his brothers and miscellaneous nieces and nephews. He eventually moved back to Tampa, FL where he lived with his daughter and her family . . . interestingly, Joan and Walter’s three sons followed in the footsteps of both their father and their grandfather . . . three more mariners in the family. Madison Theodore is the last child born to this marriage. Peter and Ella were divorced when he was a little boy; so, Madison, Bird and Eben spent time between their older siblings’ homes as their mother moved from one to the next but also living some of the time at Mankato. Eben remained there and Bird went into the Merchant Marines when their mother took a job housekeeping in SD for Edmund Montagne, who was widowed with small children to care for, in about 1911. Madison moved there with his mother and attended school there.
18 Edmund owned a “chicken ranch” and he hired both Eben (who was married and had one child) and Ernest. In 1915 Ernest returned to MN to marry my mother, making their home at Geddes, SD, where my oldest sister was born. By the 1920 census Ernest and Grace and family were living at Remer, MN, Edmund had sold his farm in SD and he, Ella and his children moved to Minneapolis, MN where she had sisters. Eben also moved his family to the Remer area. Madison followed his brother Bird into the “life on the water” as soon as he could. He joined the Merchant Marines but also was in
civilian shipping for many years, primarily working for an oil company and sailing on tanker ships, off the east coast but for a number of years until the company bought another company on the west coast and he was transferred there. His brother, Bird and Del, were transferred as well and they were livig at Venture, CA. He met and married Elizabeth Kohler from New jersey. They had been transferred to CA before their son, Theodore Madison, was born. On the 1930 census his mother, Ella and Edmund Montagne, were living with them at San Antonio, CA in Los Angeles County. After they returned to New Jersey their son, Ronald, was born. After retiring from shipping, they owned a confectionary, stationary, cigar store until their retirement, when they moved back near his birth home at Mankato, MN. He got a job working as an engineer caring for the heating systems at Mankato State College for a number of years, during which time he was able to get better acquainted with all his grandkids!! They were another musical family so that seems to be a strong thread woven through all of the families descending from both the Menten and Davis early ancestors, to say nothing of all those who married into these families. After the divorce Peter also married again, to Hulda Hansen Baumgardner who had been widowed some time before. They were five children born of this second marriage for both of them: Clara, Peter, Hulda, Pershing and Bonita. They were all very musical and it might well be that this was the common denominator which kept both families of Peter very close, even though miles separated them.
19 Now that you have ‘met’ Jessie’s family members, I will tell you more about her life. After growing up on the Menten family farm and developing many skills she would need to survive, she taught school in the Mankato/Lake Washington area Jessie continued to live on family farm until her parents divorced then moved with her mother and younger siblings into town. I do not know whether she had taught at country school and then transitioned into town or if she had always taught in a town school. For awhile Susie and Eben lived in the area so they spent as much time together as they could. One spring when school was out, she decided to go “up north” near Remer and Deer
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21 River to visit her older brothers, Albert and Ernest , who had headed for the logging operations some years earlier. By this time Eb and Hazel’s family were living nearby on their farm. No exact date is known to me about this visit; however, she was residing with her parents in 1900, with her mother and younger siblings at Kasota in 1905 (which narrows down the date her parents were divorced); and, by 1910 she was head of household in Itasca County - she had already ‘staked her claim.’ She had no intention of returning to southern MN after seeing all those big pine forests and the beautiful sunsets on those lakes . . . she was drawn to the north as a moth to a flame!! My father told me that she loved yellow pansies and that she had a lot of them planted around her “shack” as he called her little log cabin in the woods. He said that many years later, probably in the 1940s, when he went to visit her claim and to pick cranberries which grew heavily in the area, when he broke into a clearing and came on all the yellow pansies, he knew that he was in the right place . . . he knew that this had been the site on which her little log cabin had originally been built.
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It is said that Ernest and Al helped her fell the trees on her property in order to build her log cabin. That makes sense to me, as many of the pictures I have from that time period show the men leaning on their axes and helping various families to fell the trees necessary to get enough materials to build their dream homes. In pictures of both the outside and the inside of her little cabin, you can see how much work it was to make a clearing on her property; but, she was up for the task!! When you went inside, her little cabin definitely had a woman’s touch about it . . . all the niceties of a proper lady’s home . . . and probably in the little house out back as well!! Jessie worked many hard and long weeks in readying materials needed to build herself a little log cabin on her stake. And what she did not know before, she quickly learned and one of the first was you need to let the tree age for some time before peeling the logs. I have no evidence in her case; but, do have pictures of her brother, Ernest, helping other
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neighbors in the area to down their trees and make ready to build their homes. I never heard her brothers Eb and Al talk about her taking to living in the woods; but, I would bet that they were in on the building process as well even though they lived some distance away . . . this was their baby sister, after all!! It was a time in history when there was no question, if you saw someone looking at the land, you picked up your axe and walked over to see what you could do to help. Once she had a roof over her head, she looked around the area for some kind of work in order to take care of her needs; but, through it all, she could always rely on her brothers if she needed assistance. Because of her nature; however, she rarely did that, she toughed things out, she was her own doctor, she was her own seamstress, she was the “whole enchilada� as from an old saying.
24 It was a given that even though Madison and Bird may come to visit her during the summer months; made no difference to her, they had school work every day no matter what. I knew her brother Bird very well and he said it was always such a joy to go spend time with her, and that even though they had to work very hard to get through every day, it was always nice to be working alongside her, she made things fun, she
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had a wit and true sense of who she was and could bring out the best in you with little or no effort. He said that Madison also loved going there and did so at every opportunity. There were times that the younger brothers might be with her that she would be invited to move to someone’s home to home school their kids when someone was sick or for some reason they could not attend the nearest school and it might for days or for weeks or seasons. She mentions this once in her diary entries. Bird also told me that there were always rest times built into the day too, it wasn’t just all hard work. Jessie played several instruments as did other of her siblings and so it was not uncommon to have a musical jamboree and play for the wild animals!! I have to include a little side story here, even though it is not a part of Jessie’s life it does go back to the wild animals responding to music . . . so we will fast forward to Bird’s life . . . during his sailing years he purchased an accordion in Italy and brought it into the USA in 1947. In the late 1970s when he had returned to MN from FL for a few years, he gave that accordion to me.. He explained “those two bellows on the front there that have been bent over,
26 back seat and ran around and got in the front seat and left the area as fast as I could! I guess the bellows must have gotten bent over in the tussle.” I cannot tell you the hours I have enjoyed that accordion, it is a beautiful instrument!! It is hard to put events of Jessie’s life in chronological order so I won’t even try to do that. The things that are known is that she was a very hard working lady, she was never without her sidearm, a 399 caliber Smith and Wesson pistol, and her long gun, an 1898 Marlin 30-30. One of Jessie’s grandson told me something I had not heard from anyone before and that is she had to cut off the end of the gun barrel as she was so short and the barrel kept sticking in the ground or snow!!
well, they don’t leak so don’t worry about that.” I asked what the heck he had done to bend them over like that and he said “well, I had been to your folks at Cohasset for the afternoon and was on my home at Remer when i decided I’d stop alongside the road and take out the accordion and play to see if any animals really would come out of the woods. I started to hear something in the underbrush and knew that something was approaching me; but, once I saw that it was a black bear coming to me I turned and tried to scramble up the embankment with that accordion on, got to the car, pulled it off and threw it in the
It makes sense when you consider she was in the woods about 15 miles north of Deer River, MN very close to access onto Bowstring Lake, no close neighbors, and until my dad staked his claim about a mile away, she had no help anywhere near her, so emergency situations just simply were not allowed. Whether male or female, you could not live in this country without protection from animals that might not wish to share the land and its resources with you!! I have all the documentation in her file pertaining to the acquisition and ownership of her land patent claim for 158.59 acres of land in Itasca County, MN, dated May 6, 1912. I cannot substantiate just when Jessie changed the spelling of her surname from Menten to Menton, but she signed most of those forms by the latter. In those days it may not have
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been necessary to file legal documents in order to change name spellings . . . that is not something I have yet learned about. The US Government required completed informational and statistical forms periodically to continue eligibility to hold this claim, one of them being that you were not allowed to be gone from the property for over 30 days out of a calendar year. At one point she went to ND to find work and was gone longer than allowed, nearly losing her claim. Her neighbors were more than willing to sign documentation stating that she did live there but had to go elsewhere to find work for a temporary time; consequently, she was allowed to stay on the land in good standing.
Other rules were that each time you submitted a completed form, it must contain explanation of yet more improvement to the property. There was a time element involved with how soon you had to be living on the property, so building some kind of shack or cabin or house was one of the first big hurdles. Much of the country being given to homesteaders was heavily treed land so if you were going to plant crops and raise cattle, clearing more land was also of extremely high priority. This was all back breaking manual work,
28 nothing came easy, it was long days and the me. To boot am now the happy possessor of a dog named nights may have been just as long until some “Skeeter” and two small kittens, Snooks and Ikey, quite kind of shelter was acquired. a trio. Had a card from E saying he is on his way home. Suppose he will be here soon. The following entries from her diary will be in italics, this is Jessie speaking to us from the past. There are references to “the kid” or to “Bud” and that would be her little brother Bird!! Her references to “E” are my dad, Ernest Menton. Virgie is her niece, daughter of Susie Menton and Claude Payne. She refers to her homestead as “the woods” or “the farm.” “G” is reference to one of her guns. “Doins of 1910” May 7, 1910: Well, here I am back in the wood after spending nearly two months at Mankato and in Spooner, Wisconsin. The woods looks good to me. Now suppose I will have to stick . WHEW! July 12, 1910 After spending two weeks at the lake am again on the “farm.” Deer were very plentiful at the lake and after slaying one of the elusive beasts returned home feeling OK. Taken as a whole I will say I enjoyed myself only “some people haven’t the mind while on a pleasure trip to be “good.”
August 18, 1910 Virgie’s birthday be gum, and may all her days be as cloudless as this one. As for me, I just got up at 1:p.m. for the first time in two days. Pretty sick. Some better now. Aunt Jenny is at Dolly’s looking fine. Went to see her Sunday. Anna P. too gave me the glad hand. Ernest will be at home again after the 20th. Poor cuss. Wish him better luck. Rail fence philosophy: “The owl isn’t as smart as the bluejay but because he keeps his mouth shut he has created a reputation for wisdom far beyond his deserts.” Surely that saying was penned before our present owl was in existence. For at times one can only sleep with a gun, they are forced to desist. September 2nd, 1910 And the melancholy days are come. Think the name is right be gum. Rained all night and part of today. Have had one frost so far, otherwise weather conditions are just about OK. Al was up and spent two days then took Bud home with him. Al spent a week with me. All is quiet again. Skeeter met his waterloo. G acted as executor. Good job. Also lassoed a skunk and hung him on a pole. Once more, good job.
July 15, 1910 Got a scythe and cut all the grass in sight and brush. I declare it looks better and talk about flowers. I have the swellest flower gardens along the house, believe October 9 1910 Here we are at Deer River. Just got back me! from a two week expedition on B.R. (Boy River). Al and family are okay and I had one good time. Didn’t kill a August 1, 1910 And all is well. Am not feeling the best deer this time. But many. . . in the hand. The kid Bud is with me. Came July 22, found me in town and consequently had to wait five days for
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In this picture you can see that she had put in a good day’s work for herself, she had written on the back “a good day’s work!” She sun dried a lot of meat, fowl, fish and likely vegetables and fruit too . . . for those months during the year when she was not able to have fresh food. She canned as much as she could store, she stored as many root crops for winter use as she had space for. January 3, 1911 Well, here we are, in a brand New Year, one more year has passed into oblivion and nothing more accomplished. Present conditions are as follows: Three puchas doing battle to see whose boss. Foreman crazy. A veto on supplies and peace makers strike. Everything is lovely with me. January 27, 1911 Friday morning after securing my check which is two days more than is due me. One day after or Star’s (logging camp) sold out I walks out at 7 a.m. leaving them about a week without a cook with 50 men, served them right.
January 28, 1911 Seen Deer River today, looks same as ever. Paid my debts, am on my feet once more. February 3, 1911 Am on the farm, kind of like the change, think it will do me good. Snow, 3 feet on the level, Seen Mrs. Ratmark’s boy. He’s a dandy. Camps are running. We can get supplies there. Thursday Eb will be up. Was some surprise when I “arrove” out the claim
30 to find a brand new well, all finished. Martin M. is alright. Alright (she has a cousin Martin Menten) March 10, 1911 Well here we are in March and the snow is really going away. Seems like a joke. But it ain’t no be. Been going to school three weeks, from Madden’s place. Kid and myself. Everything is fine and lovely for us I can see. April 1, 1911 And it looks like winter still, about 5 inches snow. Just spent a week in Deer River, had a fairly good time. Were in town all the time of course. Am leaving NC’s place for home. “Gee, I’m glad I’m free!” Feb 2 6
Money spen for supplies
Feb 28 To mc’dise Overalls
Glasses
.50
Mar 3 Mc’dis
3.50
April To cash
35.00 $55.00
April 5, 1911 and winter still, 6 inches snow last night . . . guess we never will have summer again. Am thoroughly disgusted, seems to me this life is only a farce anyway. Wonder why ma don’t come up. April 14, 1911 Bud is in town today and just got a check for $20 from Ernest, seems like a joke but its true regardless be gum. Al wants me to come up Guess I’ll have to go, haven’t heard from Ma yet. Wonder what’s up. But that Eb spree is a D….pt
$15.00 1.00
April 23, 1911 Just got back today frm a week stay at Superior. Got my watch again, some class to Barney Bob.
31 He sure is a dandy guy. Then I like motor cars too. April 30, 1022 Some farmer me.
Making garden this past week.
May 10, 1911 Everyone is happy ad Ernest is filing on some land near me. Will probably have one friend in the country at least . Invited R.V. up for the 4th of July, hope he comes. Town meeting at Lynd’s today, about 500 men on the scene.
September 17, 1911 Arrive Cass Lake at the Endion Hotel and it is raining. Taken as a whole it is not overly “pleasant.” But am writing some letters then think I will retire for the night. The royal bunch are here. Had supper with them and they sure are delightful people. September 19 Susie and Claude are here spending several days. We are all enjoying the simple life and Claude succeeded in killing some ducks. Bud and myself are going to Mankato for awhile.
\September 28, 1911 Have proved up at last. Gee!! Monday June 5, 1911 Just spent about three weeks at I’m glad I’m free. Think I will spend hunting season on Al’s, of course they have a boy. Ernest “arrove” from the Bow String lake. Sprained my foot last evening but it will sunny south while at Al’s and we all came home together. be OK in a day or two. (“prove up” might mean she (Maurice Menton was born April 24, 1911 to Albert Lea is now eligible to yet the land patent deed to her homestead claim) and Florence (Davis) Menton) June 26, 1911 Big day today at Danielsons. “The blow October 4, 1911 Mrs. Kennedey and Jack were with me to that killed” & father, not sure be gum. One week fun for ______ and got my fruit sold to Mrs. K. for 10 cents us. Bought a launch and brought it to B.B. landing. But per pint. Sr.G. is a thing of the past something better in sight. Suits me to a T. October 9, 1911 Am looking for Frank and Ida then I’m going with when they go home. But they say they are not coming so its me for the west. July 18, 1911 We are all out at the lake. Boy River Everyone seems to be happy. Yesterday I drove the mower several times around the field and even went so far as to use November 11, 1911 Spent over three weeks very pleasantly the pitch fork in shocking some hay. Some class to us I at Uncle Sid’s. (her mother’s brother lived just east guess. and south of Jessie’s homestead) Have been in Devils Lake since Wednesday – today is Sat. (I think) am at September 14, 1911 Everything of the past has come to a Huesgans (Harrigans) and gee I hope something happens rare finish. But I am happy as a clam. Will take delight pretty soon. Would like to see uncle awfully well. Just in showing the roundheads where to head in at. Will prove got a letter from Eb saying “if you go on the rocks just write me for fifty” He sure is some kid be gum. up
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December 5, 1911 And everything is as it should be January 2, 1912 Well, Christmas is now a thing of the far as I can see. Am night cooking in The Aberdeen – I past and we are really started in a brand new year. If I guess Devil’s Lake will do for awhile at least. Got a reach youse once think I am good for the balance of the small purse from Barney Bob. He is one trump. Don’t hear from uncles very often. Sorry to hear of Julia’s misfortune. Have been working since Nov 18, at $40 per month. Not perhaps cause near being quarantined with scarlet fever. December 20, 191 Christmas is nearly here once more. Never was crazy about it either. Had a card from mother saying “Do come home for Christmas” nothing doing, am too far away.
33 time. OK. Received a few nice presents Christmas and everything is fine and lovely.
him on the 1910 census living at Devils Lake, ND working at a restaurant.
She cooked in the logging camps during the winter months but when there were men sick and they needed someone to drive a team or shoe a horse, she was your lady to call!! The men lovingly referred to her as “Big Red” or “Big Jack” depending on which camp she was working in. This must have been their sense of humor showing because she was a very petite woman with long dark auburn hair. Remember the information regarding her Marlin rifle barrel?
January 29, 1912 “I see everything differently now” was married January 18. Happy as a clam be gum. Wish I had done so long ago. April 7, 1912 Went out to the claim – seen Ernest and Clare. Stopped in Grand Rapids overnight also seen friends in Deer River and Cass Lake. April 23, 1912 Just got settled in Antler. Like it well enough so far. Don’t hear from the folks much. Guess they are OK though.
I do not know how close the logging camps were located to her, but it seems apparent that she did not always live there for lengths of time. During the summers she cooked in Went bump at Antler and left about September 3. Came hotels in the area of Deer River, Bena, Ball Club, Cass Lake and one summer went as far to Rugby and went threshing. Was off my feed for two away as ND to find a hotel cooking job. months and boarded at the Northern Hotel. Some fierce, I guess. Left Rugby about the 3rd of November, got settled in Minot November 6, 1912. Sam is working on the road. at some point traded her boat for a larger one Bud came up December 3rd. Ma is with Ernest on the and became a “for hire” to take people on claim. guided fishing trips or hunting trips. They would pack a lunch, and spend the day on the lake, spending some time going along the shoreline to show her clients as much of the wonderful area as she could, going ashore to introduce them to people she might know along the way. January 18, 1912, she married Sam Morrow. Even her grandchildren have never heard just how, or where, it was that she met Sam. In her diary entries I found two references to “Barney Bob” and I am suspicious that might have been reference to Sam since I find
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September 10, 1913 Still in Minot. Sam is working uptown. We have a boy four months old. Everything is fine and lovely. Ma is in South Dakota. (Jessie’s mother was housekeeping and caring for the children of Edmund Montague who owned a large chicken farm near Geddes, SD) Their oldest child, Forrest Ward Morrow was born May of 1913 at Minot, North Dakota (he died September 28, 1945 at Cook County hospital, IL as the result of an accident aboard a grain ship which had permanently paralyzed him some months earlier). During the months at Minot, not only did both Bird and Madison come and spend time with her; but so did her mother who was work both
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of Jessie’s brothers had a vacation visit with her family as did her mother. It is a puzzle to ascertain what took Jessie and Sam to Florida, it seems it must have been just a vacation to begin with; it may have been a visit that turned out to be a life changing event. Jessie and Forrest had gone alone but after some time passed Sam joined them there . . . did he move their possessions there at that time? Who can say for sure. August 20, 1915 Well here we are in Florida. Came by auto and train October 20, 1914. Lived at St. Petersburg two months then Sam came from Minot and we all moved to Clearwater. Claude is in the grocery business, Sam is delivering for him. I like the country quite well, but the heat is awful. Forrest is a healthy little redhead over two years old and can say everything. Ma has been happily married a year this fall.
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October 1, 1915 We now have Howard Stanton. Came September 3rd, weigh 9.5 pounds, a fine healthy little chap. Two boys now and may they be a credit to us. November 7, 1915 My birthday, 27 years old and I feel every year of it. Have rheumatism mighty bad. Howard Stanton Morrow was born September 3, 1915 at Clearwater, Florida; died January 10, 1983 Stephenson, MI). Sam had been living and working in North Dakota prior to their marriage and apparently they preferred this area over staying any longer in and around the area of Jessie’s homestead. Sometimes it is not the pull of relatives living nearby, or the absence of relatives, that calls a person to a certain area; but, they can be a huge influenc-
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ing factor. Samuel James Morrow was born to Martha and Hugh Morrow about 1888 in Wisconsin. By the 1910 census they were living at School District 17, Valley County, Montana. Sam, along with his older brother Herbert, was farming with his father, there were eight younger siblings with their parents as well. The January 9, 1920 census, shows Sam and Jessie and two little boys living at Cuthbert, Roosevelt, MT. It must have been immediately after this census was taken that the couple, with their children, motored to Minneapolis, Min-
39 nesota to visit Jessie’s mother and miscellaneous other relatives. Whether she became ill on the trip is not known to me; however, at some point during this visit she contracted the dreaded influenza. She fought and struggled but won that battle. There are various stories about what happened in the following days: my younger sister told me that our father told her that Jessie then decided to take a job cooking at the Leamington Hotel at Minneapolis in order to build up their cash fund for the return trip to Montana. They had likely not planned to be gone from their home this long and had spent their money, so it is easy to understand the need to replenish and this was likely the quickest way to accomplish that. I do not know for sure whether she did, in fact, take that job cooking; however, she became ill again and according to her death certificate she died of “bilateral pneumonia as a result of influenza.�. The last entry in diary 24 of 24: February 4, 1920 MORROW, Mrs. Samuel of Culbertson, Montana died Wednesday, age 31, at 715 Plymouth Avenue No, Minneapolis, Hennepin Co., MN. Funeral service will be held from Knaeble and Scherer Funeral Parlors Friday at 3 p.m. Interment Crystal Lake Cemetery, Minneapolis, Hennepin, Co., MN. This once strong, vivacious, robust and willing woman who now had the husband and children that she had recently
40 realized that she had always wanted, had succumbed to a teeny tiny bacteria on February 4, 1920, at a much too early age for this young mother. Who would have thought this could be possible, this young woman with the iron constitution!!.
right” as time goes on and more information becomes available, sometimes it changes the complexion of what we have learned to this point.
For those who may read this and find themselves related by blood or marriage to this wonderful young woman; please remember, that some of the details included in this writing could still be found to be “not quite
After typing, re-typing, removing, adding and sifting through pictures, I have to tell you my favorite is still the picture with the timber wolf she shot, which was a record wolf shot in Itasca County for many years. I could not
Much of what I know is what I have heard from my dad and his brothers, some informaOnly on her death certificate does her name tion from the grandchildren has struck a note appear as Jessie Isabelle . . . had she changed of familiarity and suggest that “this ties to her middle name? Was it always Isabelle but that” . . . but cannot say that with certainty . . she just liked the shortened version of Belle . for instance: One of them was asking me better? I have not yet captured her birth cer- when DID their grandmother work at Yellowtificate, that is still on my list of “relics to ac- stone Park? And I said “what? I’ve never quire.” heard anything about that!” I thought about that question on and off over a period of time and then I remembered . . . AH YES, rememThere were three pictures in my father’s ber those yellow pansies my dad mentioned things that were numbered on the back, I could not find the first picture but it is a tell- that grew profusely around her cabin? ing message from the other two: It would be just like the Aunt Jessie that I “2) the boys F & H, poor little fellows miss their mother and Sam isn’t home but seldom. know and love to call her homestead Wish he would get married Had a nice letter “Yellowstone Park” just because she was who she was!!! I did do some checking on Yellowfrom Mrs. Morrow and Forrest wrote in it. stone Park and it was first recognized by ConHe said no one could take pictures but his gress March 1, 1872 so she would have known mother, so they never have of it for sure. So DID she call her place Yel“3) any more taken. Wish they lived near so I lowstone Park?? Or did she really work there could see them and it would be a comfort to at some point after she married and lived in them. Say can you smell lily of the valley in MT? I don’t know. In the few pages of her vase on table by me? Some sweet “schmelle.” diary entries she did not refer to it, so it will always be an unknown in her story!! Even It appears to be Susie Menton Payne’s hand- though we will never know for sure, we can writing and I might think it was to Ella Mon- still add it to other anecdotes surrounding her life just the same!! tagne, their mother.
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locate anyone now who knows about such records, so because I cannot give you a current boys!! report, we can just let her keep that credit!! Octoer 1, 1915 We now have Howard Stanton. Came September 3rd, weigh 9.5 pounds, a fine healthy little chap. Two boys now and may they be a credit to us. One would think that February 4, 1920 was the end of Jessie’s story; but, when we go back and take another look at this one journal entry for where she says “Two boys now and may they be a credit to us,” well it just tells me that it is not quite finished until we know what happened with those two young
Sam took the boys to MT where they spent their time between their grandparents and with their dad. It seems that Sam was working at something that took him away from home a lot during those years. Forest’s last residence was Frankfort, MI and he was working on the grain boats that sailed the Great Lakes. In 1943 there was a terrible accident that caused him to fall into a vast area where they were dumping grain and he was injured severely, resulting in a broken back forcing him to spend the rest of his life
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in a wheelchair. He lived at the Marine Hospital at Chicago until his death, where family members and friends did visit him now and then. He died September 28, 1945 and is buried at Stephenson, Menominee, Michigan where Howard and his family lived. Soon after Forrest’s accident, his father arrived from Montana to visit him. as he left the hospital he was hit by a truck. His obituary says: “Samuel James Morrow was born January 18, 1887 in River Falls, Wisconsin, located on Hy 35, 7-9 miles south of Rte. 94, about 20 miles east of Minnesota border. The family moved and the children attended school in Thompson, North Dakota. (His father, Hugh's, obit says they moved in 1888, when Sam was one and stayed there for 18 years.) He moved (with his parents) to Culbertson, Montana in 1906. He married in 1912 in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, but made his home mostly in Mon-
tana. His wife, Jessie, died in 1920, leaving him with two small boys. He went to visit his oldest son in the hospital in Chicago. On Friday, Dec. 3, 1943, about 11:30P.M., he was leaving the hospital and was struck by a truck driven by George Davis of the Clark Street Fruit Market. Samuel never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead the following day, Saturday, December 4. His son, Howard, escorted the body to Culbertson for burial.” Another news clip says, "The funeral will be at the Culbertson Armory, on Friday at 2:00 PM, and conducted by Rev. H. D. Simpson. The Clayton Funeral Home will have charge of the body." He is buried at Culbertson in an unmarked grave. The funeral was billed to Ivan Morrow, his youngest brother; but, was paid by Martha Morrow, his widowed mother.
43 Howard Stanton Morrow graduated from high school at Culbertson, MT; he met and married Fern Clontz and they lived their adults lives at Stephenson, MI where they raised five children: James, Lorraine, Janice, Richard and Sam, In a recent note from his son, Sam, I noted this comment which was known not only to his children; but, to anyone
who ever came in contact with him: “Whatever Dad did, he made sure it was
above reproach and an example we should try to match.� One would have to compare
Howard’s work ethic and love of nature to his mother . . . that apple surely did not fall far from this tree!!
44 NOW, the story of Jessie Belle Menten is finished . . . she was about 32 years of age when she died, Forrest about age 30, Sam about 55 years . . . “family history” takes some very interesting dips and dives; however, first we must go on that “treasure hunt” which may take us hither, thither and yon searching for those wonderful “relics” that make it all much more real to us!! ~ Jeanine
45 Started collecting memorabilia when I was seven or eight years old when a neighbor lady gave me an empty all occasion card box with pretty flowers on it, "to keep my valuables in" she said. I started tucking things into the box such as napkins from weddings, and remember when there were always personalized matchbooks on the tables at every wedding reception??? Saved those too!! As I got older that box turned into several of those little boxes and things were now categorized. Once I was married then it was graduation announcements, wedding invitations, baby showers, thanks yous, memorial cards from funerals . . . by the time I got my first computer and started organizing this stuff I had a toilet paper box in a closet!!! I had all the relatives' children's school pictures, wedding pictures, baby pictures . . . it kept growing. When I started printing out all the statistical data that I had accumulated in that box, it seemed rather stuffy and dry so I decided to add pictures to tell a more complete story of each person's life . . . BUT, I didn't have any .. . . and so the hunt was on!!! I now have seven 5" notebooks of information ( and growing!!) and my husband has informed me that those will never fit in my casket with me!!!!
Author's bioJeanine Marie Menton Reckinger
Many people believe that tangible items are THE most important thing they can locate, retain and leave behind. From my perspective THE most important thing that I can leave behind is the short stories about each of the family members that I strive to gather, to learn more about them and how they lived and the stresses they had to live with. That is my legacy to future generations.
born to Ernest and Grace (Root) Menton in 1938 just north of Grand Rapids at a place which later became known as Walter's Pines. I especially loved when relatives came to visit as I knew that sooner or later all conversation would turn to a musical jam session!! Inside my notebooks I Loved listening to their stories and still continue put- have a page that states ting those stories on paper as I can. Their visits were "We gossip not in order to harm anyone; we the highlight of my year!! I was never fortunate gossip so as to learn to enough to meet three of my grandparents, and met know them better." my maternal blind grandfather when I was 15, only and that is, for me, the one time. Oh oh, do I see another magazine article crux of it all . . .. on the horizon??? A blind couple who raised three wonderful children, my mother being the youngest??????
~Jeanine