Remember When

PIONEERS AND EARLY SETTLERS OF PLAINS, MONTANA

Researched by Ann Miller

THE BIERWAGEN FAMILY

William Bierwagen was born Feb. 25, 1888 in Kurridchikai, Bessarabia, South Russia to John Bierwagen and Carolina Wolfe.

The family arrived in Canada about 1900, and from there they moved to the United States, settling in the New Leipzig, North Dakota area. There William met Mary Pahl and they were married Oct. 8, 1916. To this marriage the following children were born: 1] Viola M; 2] Bernice E.; 3] Raymond W.; 4] Hermie B.; 5] Curtis; 6] Martha R.; 7] Vitalis Gordon; 8] Kathlenne (Died July 16, 1955 while swimming in the Clarks Fork River 17 miles NW of Thompson Falls. Buried in the Thompson Falls City Cemetery); 9] Donna June; 10] Roy.

After several years of drought conditions, the constant blowing of wind and dust and very little hope for improvement in farming conditions, William with his eldest son Ray, left the family in 1936, traveling west to look for better land to farm that would have water. He found that on Swamp Creek west of Trout Creek.

Sending for the family, he also arranged for a nephew of his to accompany the family and their belongings to Trout Creek. Loading their possessions onto a farm wagon, they towed it behind their Whippet car.

When Bill went to borrow money at the First State Bank to build a house, Mr. Barto, the president of the bank, talked him into buying the place on Blue Slide that had good water and some farm ground, which he did. There he and Mary raised their large family and William farmed, supplementing his income by working at various other jobs. For a while he was a rural mail route carrier and also worked as a county rodent control agent.

The farm was found to be a good place to raise vegetables and Mary soon became known for her ears of corn. William even had a write up in the local newspaper about the size of his potatoes.

William McNorton, was a neighbor of theirs and Mary and he did a lot of exchanging of crops. He grew grape leaves that she used in her meals and her corn grew better than his.

Gordon was listed in the Thompson Falls school records 1937.

William died July 7, 1969 at Hot Springs, Montana, with burial in the Thompson Falls City Cemetery. Mary died Sept. 10, 1987 and is also buried in the Thompson Falls City Cemetery.

The oldest son, Ray would relate to family and friends that the trip from North Dakota to western Montana with nine people in a car wasn’t the difficult part of the trip, instead it was the last few miles down Blue Slide Road which was nothing but a two-lane trail at the time.

Ray worked for the U.S. Forest Service and Northern Pacific Railroad before joining the U.S. Army in 1941. While working for the Forest Service, he ran mule trains on trails to lookouts in the Vermilion drainage and served as a forest guard on lookouts during the forest fire season. After the service he worked as a surveyor in the construction industry. He and his brother, Gordon, worked their first big job as surveyors on the Noxon Rapids dam in the 1950s.

70 YEARS AGO • MARCH 10, 1948

ELK PLANTED

On March 4 a truckload of elk, consisting of eleven cows and one 3-year-old bull, was liberated in Fishtrap Creek. These elk were obtained from the National Bison Range at Moiese, Montana, through the efforts of the Western Sanders County Rod and Gun Club. The State Fish and Game Commission is cooperating with the local club in this plant. The area planted will be closed to hunters for two years. It is the plan of the club to get another load or two next year.

The elk were hauled from Moiese by Conrad Bentley, Sr., with the help of Don Beroth and District Forest Ranger Roy Clover. It was reported that no trouble was encountered in the loading, unloading or hauling and there were no injuries.

It is hoped that everybody will cooperate with the local sportsmen and game warden to see that no poachers start working on this small herd.