Glasgow, Montana

When the family finally arrived at the ranch they found it to be a small one-room log cabin located within a grove of cottonwood trees.  It was attached to between 300 and 400 acres (possibly 320, a half section, or half of a square mile) of barren land, scrub brush, and trees.  The two boys sleeping quarters were on a mattress on the floor of a loft reached by climbing a hand made ladder.  Will and Cora hung a blanket across one end of the cabin to separate their bedroom, while Clara had a bunk in the kitchen.  The entire cabin was heated with the wood-burning cooking stove.

The property was located on a hill overlooking the confluence of the Milk and Missouri Rivers.  At that point the Missouri flows from west to east, while the Milk flows past Glasgow south to it.  The ranch was probably on the north side of the Missouri.

The land was a clay shale and so sticky when wet that the children were not allowed to go outside to play during or after a rain.  One day Clara was sitting at the kitchen table near a window.  When she happened to look up a large cat was staring in the window at her.  Her father, fearing if he ran outside the cat might dive through the window, shot the cat through the window from inside.  They then grabbed a lantern to find that he had shot a large wild bobcat.

As it was 40 miles to the nearest school, in Glasgow, Cora refused to spend the winter on the ranch.  Will met an elderly couple that ran a small horse and cattle ranch just outside of Glasgow.  As the elderly couple wished to go to Florida for the winter, an agreement was made for Will to operate the ranch for the winter, and his family moved into the ranch house.

In the spring of 1919 after the return of the ranch owners, Will sold nearly all of their belongings, including their wagons, and with the money bought railroad tickets for all of the family members, but himself, back to northern New York where they moved in with Cora’s father and his second wife.  Will then worked long enough to purchase the use of a boxcar for his team of horses, loaded them and himself, into the car and made it back to New York, thus abandoning his second homestead in eight years.

Will’s son, Clinton, who had remained in Saskatchewan, ultimately abandoned that land, and by 1922 he also was back in New York.