I Remember
seated:Genevieve Wedekind Nagel and grandaughter Marilyn Nagel
standing: Sophie Louise Nagel and Helen Grant Nagel
abt. 1933
Montana pioneers
by
Sophie Lou Nagel
home
surnames
buclau@gulftel.com
I should begin from the very beginning, which starts from the few tales Ma told of the real
old pioneer days in Montana. I do not know how to write these in true story form, so I'll
leave that part to you. The dramatic gestures, inflections, accents and etc, I'll skip the
details, but when Ma first went to Montana, Pa was still in the army and being sent out on
Indian Campaigns. On one trip Pa was riding on one of the wagons and his foot went to
sleep . Just about then, the Indians attacked and he gave a leap out and his leg almost
went out from under him. It gave him a badly sprained knee, but he managed to take
cover . Said it was a lucky thing his leg didn't break or they would have had his scalp for
sure. However, when they chased the Indians off, Pa came home with the old chief's
coup stick and buffalo robe and a pair of U.S. Army field glasses still in the case. (Earl
has them) The old chief must have scalped an army. Officer never heard if Pa took them
from the old chief or if in his rush to escape, threw the things down, which I imagine he
did.
One battle took place on the Little Big Horn. which runs through Thermopolis to join the
famous old Wind River a few miles further down from Thermis. That is where this battle
was fought
I do not know just when he left the army to go ranching, but those were the days when
the sheep and cattle men were at each other's throats and together did their best to drive
out any settlers that dared to come in. But, Pa bought a ranch about six miiles out from
Cascade. Their place was close to the foothills from which they looked out over the prairie
with old crown Butte and Square Butte jutting up from the middle of it. They had a big
four room cabin. Aunt Martha had come up from the south to visit Ma and while there,
met and married Uncle Ezra Brown.Martha and Ezra in later years
(Elsie's father and mother)
Well, one night when Pa and the men went into town for two or three wagon loads of
supplies ( It took them a couple of days) There came a knock on the door. Quick as a
flash, Aunt Martha blew out the light and called out who was there, and a man answered,
said he had come for his blankets. (crazy excuse!) Aunt Martha knew then he had been
sent to scare the women to pieces so they would make their hubbies move out to a more
civilized part of the country, but not Aunt Martha. She never wanted a gun. Her weapons
were red pepper and her hatchet, always kept just where she could put her hand on 'em,
even in the dark. She knew he would come to the window , so she was ready for him,
even pulled the bar from the window so he could slide it back, which he did. It was pitch
black, but she could just make him out and as he started to climb in. She threw the pepper
right in his eyes. He screamed bloody murder and ran. She hopped out the window so
she had a free
swing of her arm and although she couldn't see him ,she let fly with her hatchet. The next
day when the men got back they found the hatchet buried to the hilt in the post just where
he went over. His footprints were there!!
During one of the annual roundups, they hired a tough of Irish woman to do the cooking
and she always cooked a big iron kettle of potatoes to fry for breakfast . One morning
when she went out on the porch to get them, she lifted off the lid and the old pot was
empty. She let out a string of cuss words that would burn the ears off old Maud, the
mule. What she called those cowboys and what she was going to do to 'em would fill a
book, so she lit into them when they came in for breakfast. (which they didn't get) They
swore they never saw the spuds! She called them all kinds of liars and the battle of words
went on. Well, a few days later, Pa was comming from the barn and happened to look
up, and under the eaves there was the spuds all sitting in a row on the beam. An old pack
rat had put them up there, but they never figured how he did it without knocking the old
lid off. So before the boys let up on her she had to give them breakfast deluxe and bake
each one of them a pie!
Uncle Ezra had a ranch near them and one Sunday morning, a perfect day, he was reading
about that Johnstown flood when he happened to look up . He leapt out of his chair and
grabbed the baby out of her crib (cousin Geneveive, their first baby) and yelled "run for
your life, cloud burst!" He tried to get to his saddle horse that was tied to a small tree, but
the water was up to his waist so had to get to higher ground nearby before the second
wave hit them.! Aunt Martha stopped long enough to kick over the little chicken thing that
held the mother hen and her little chicks. They were swept away, but the old hen flew up
on something. Uncle Ezra's fine saddle horse couldn't break loose so was drowned!
Once when Doc was only about seven years old, he had to climb aboard his pony (ask him
what his name was) and herd cows out in the prarie (there were wolves in those days)
Anyhow, Doc didn't come home as usual and Ma was scared stiff, as they all were. So
they went looking for him. They thought for sure the wolves had gotten both him and his
pony. By then it was about *1 a.m. and not a sign of him or the pony. So, they were
holding a consultation on who should beat it into town for more men to search, when who
should should come poking along but the pony with Aug. half asleep and about half
frozen. He got so tired he laid down in the tall grass and fell asleep and as dark
approached. The pony stayed right there with him. that is why they couldn't see them
and Aug was so sound asleep he didn't hear them calling. The cold woke him up and
finding his pony still with him, climbed aboard and the pony brought him home.
I imagine the state they were all in, especially Ma by that time.!! You could turn that one
into a thriller for the kids.
Sophie Lou Nagel
December 6, 1885-December 13, 1980
* Sophie had P.M.
Montana
Email: buclau@gulftel.com
