Will Lawton married Mary Houghton in 1889, and in 1893 their first son Clarence was born, while their second son Clinton followed in 1894. The ensuing May Mary died.
In 1901 Will married Cora Baker Lester. At the time she had three children, Ada born 1884, Raymond born 1886, and Charles born 1887. The family now consisted of Will, Cora, the three Lester children, and the two Lawton boys.
In 1905 Lloyd was born, as was Floyd in 1907, and Clara in 1911. Ada Lester died in 1896. Ray Lester married and left home in 1908. Charles Lester left home and traveled to Lismas in the Glasgow, Montana area to homestead previous to 1911.
So it was that Will, and Clint left northern New York in the spring of 1911, caught a train west alighting in Ernfold, Saskatchewan to homestead. The plan was that they would plant a crop, and provide living quarters for the remainder of the family, Cora, and the three younger Lawton children, who would arrive later in the year. Clarence, working on a neighboring farm, chose not to go.
Will and Clint each were assigned a quarter-section, or 160 acres of land. The two plots joined at one corner. Needing shelter while they plowed and seeded what acreage they could, they dug a sort of cave into the side of a slight rise on the property. When Cora and the three young children arrived in the fall, the dugout was all the living quarters that were available. During that first winter of 1911/12 the six family members lived in the back of the cave, while the family cow and horses were stabled closer to the entrance. I can only imagine how they longed for spring 1912 to arrive. As 1912 passed a simple structure was built adding a degree of comfort to the living arrangements. Their water well was dug on Clint’s property so that each could say they had improved their lots which was a requirement of homesteading the land.
In 1917 Cora’s son, Charles Lester, joined the U S Army to do battle in WW I. While at Fort Colt, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he was injured in a training accident which ultimately proved fatal. He had never married nor had children so consequently he willed his ranch to his mother Cora Lawton. By this time Will and Cora had decided wheat farming in Saskatchewan was not their best choice of a way to make a living so they ceded their land to Clint and traveled to Lismas, Montana to try their hand at ranching.
Their mode of travel was via a team of horses hooked to a canvas covered wagon. A spring seat wagon and a hay wagon each with a team of horses accompanied the covered wagon. As well as Will, Cora, Lloyd, Floyd, and Clara the family dog and a duck went along for the ride. In later years Clara oft told of eating an egg a day from her pet duck. After about a month of cross-country travel the family wagon train made its way to Glasgow, Montana where the family thought their new home was located, only to determine they yet had 40 miles to go.
They ultimately arrived at the ranch to discover it was 320 scrubby acres of land with a small log cabin situated in a cottonwood grove on a hill overlooking the confluence of the Milk and Missouri Rivers. There was no livestock of any sort other than what Will and Cora had brought with them on their arduous journey. They spent the remainder of the summer of 1918 on the “ranch.”
Before that winter of 1918/19 Will met a couple that owned a real ranch with cattle and horses. They wished to go to Florida for the winter so arrangements were made for Will’s family to move to their ranch and take care of it for the season. In the spring the family moved by train back to northern New York where they had begun their sojourn eight years previously.
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