Fosco Garfield and Rosco Raymond Simons

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Fosco Garfield &

Rosco Raymond Simons

L > R: Fosco and Rosco Simons

Fosco Garfield and Rosco Raymond¹ were the twin boys born to Elizabeth and George Simons on February 20^th 1891 in Brent, Washington. The boys were preceeded by eight children, six living, four brothers and two sisters. They were eleven years old at the time of their mother’s death.

Fosco went to school in the Brents area either at Mountainview school or at the Brents school. He also learned to farm and handle horses at an early age.

Fort Peck Indian Reservation area of Montana, 1904, from Wolf Point, Montana Memories

As a young man Fosco moved to Montana. He married Frances Horvick (commonly called Fanny) sometime before 1817. On his 1817-18 draft card, Fosco is listed as living in Richland County, Montana, married to Fanny and with one child. Fosco and Fanny had three children in total: Genevive, Alice and Gladys. In the 1920 federal census, Fosco and family were living in Roosevelt County, school district 55. Along with his children, Fosco’s nephew Virgil (Harry’s son) was also living at their home and working for his uncle as a farm labourer.

Fosco and Fanny continued to farm and live in Montana all their lives. Fosco died on August 22, 1956.

Sheepcamp ca. 1900, take from Wyoming Tales and Trails

            Rosco Raymond was the twin brother of Fosco. At a very early age, probably four or so, he was injured in an accident in which he lost two fingers on his right hand. Family stories say that it happened either with a saw or an axe while wood was being cut. Because of this injury Rosco received the nick name of "Stub." Gwen Simons, Elmer’s daughter and Rosco’s neice, tells the story that when the Simons family took group pictures they asked ‘Stub’ to hold his hand flat on his knee so they could tell who he was in comparison to his twin Fosco. Reflecting on this, Gwen questions whether this was hurtful to ‘Stub.’

            By the age of eight or nine, the boys were expected to do a man’s work. Rosco left home to work at least by the age of nineteen, for he is no longer listed in the 1910 census with their father and younger siblings.

            As a young man, Rosco went to Montana and worked for the Barbre family, farming and raising cattle. When the ranching and farming weren’t paying off, Stub advised the Barbres to go into sheep, which they did and grew wealthy. According to Gwen, the Barbres thought a lot of Rosco.

            On July 24, 1916, Rosco Raymond married Delilah Haviland in Butte, Montana. On his 1917-18 draft card he was listed as a self-employed farmer living in Oswego, Montana, with his wife Delilah. By the 1930 census he is living in Wolf Point, Roosevelt County, Montana with his wife and three children, Viola, George, and Mildred. Some time shortly after 1930, however, Rosco and Delilah were divorced.

            Rosco might have moved back to Washington State around this time. Gwen Simons Martin recalls that Rosco would visit their family (Elmer Simons’) at least once a year at that time. One Christmas he brought the family a crate of oranges. Gwen recalls that she had hardly ever seen an orange and that the family filled up on oranges that Christmas.

            Around the years 1936-37 Rosco must have lived and worked around the Spokane area because he would visit his homesick niece Gwen when she was studying at Kinman Business College in Spokane.

            In the fall of 1949, Stub was back in Montana shepherding on the Montana badlands. Gwen and her husband Tommy Martin, sought out her Uncle Stub at his sheep camp. They travelled over dirt track roads and dry creek beds about twenty miles from Miles City, Montana. Stub and another man, each with a covered sheep wagon, lived out in the grazing land among the sheep. Gwen and Tommy were hosted in Stub’s wagon and he shared the other wagon with the other herder. This remains as a happy memory for Gwen, up to today.