Remember When?

40 YEARS AGO • MARCH 26, 1981

HOMESTEAD – AN OLD WORD WITH A NEW MEANING

By Fay Allen

Homestead. An old term that is almost forgotten, a word of another day, and yet a term that has affected many of our lives. A picture comes to mind of a forlorn, tarpaper shack on the prairie. Many older people have expressed the very opposite. This was their life's ambition, their dream, a place to take care of them in return for their labor.

Until the early 1900s, Sanders County was a part of Missoula County and many of the records I examined in the courthouse were not complete, but in discussions with some of the "old timers," a lot of the earlier homesteads were talked about with very colorful descriptions of people, places and happenings.

The Homestead Act was enacted in 1862. This act stated that any citizen who was the head of a family or a veteran that had served 14 days in the armed service of the United States while engaged in an actual war, may upon payment of $10, file a claim on 160 acres of surveyed public domain land. After working the land and living on it for five years and for the payment of from $26 to $34, the settler would receive a patent on the land.

On the Little Beaver Creek Road, 12.5 miles northwest of Thompson Falls, is the Meadows Ranch, operated by Bill and Helen Meadows. The ranch has been in the family since the beginning of the century. Bill's grandfather, Edward Thompson, filed a claim for a 160-acre homestead in 1869. He proved up on the homestead and received patent number 540, March 22, 1897. In 1892 he filed first water rights on Little Beaver Creek, using the creek for water and flood irrigation. The railroad was selling off excess land at this time and Thompson bought 320 acres adjoining his homestead claim and received a deed for these acres in 1903.

Further west on Big Beaver Creek, Nina Blake filed and received a patent on 200 acres. Her patent was granted under a law enacted in 1820 having to do with timber. She received her patent in 1901.

George Thompson and Nina Blake were married in 1903, thus uniting their lives and their lands. It was in the summer and during haying season, so the newlyweds went right back home to hay and cook for the work crews. They were the parents of two daughters, Angie, born in 1905, and Margaret, born in 1909.

In 1907, the large barn, standing and still in use, was built. Two years later a large seven-room, two-story house was built. Angie and Ray Meadows still live in it and have done remodeling and modernization work but the framework is the original.

When the 1910 fire came roaring over the Coeur d'Alene-Bitterroot mountains one fateful afternoon, Thompson was away for the day on business and only Nina Thompson, the two children and Hazel Eliason were at home. Angie said her mother told her she was a big girl of five now so she could mind the baby in the house while mother and Hazel went out to put water on the buildings. They hand pumped water from the creek, wetting the house and barn and finally during the night some men came along to help them. When dawn came the country around the cleared land was blackened, but the house and barn were safe. Angie stated her father was very surprised to find everything still there when he was finally able to reach the ranch.

A custom sawmill moved into the area by the Meadows Ranch and sawed many of the blackened trees into lumber.

George and Nina Thompson died in the time span of one year in the late 1920s and the ranch then belonged to two young ladies in their teens. They rented the ranch out and they lived away from the area attending school. Angie went to Dillon and earned a teaching certificate. She was teaching in Noxon when she married Ray Meadows in 1932. They lived in Noxon and Ray worked for the Forest Service until 1940 when they moved back to the ranch, where they have lived since. They are the parents of two daughters and one son.

Part of the original homestead was sold in 1943 and is presently owned by the Naegelis. Some of the land of Nina Blake Thompson's original patent is owned by George Cunningham. The Meadows Ranch is located on the railroad land.

Ray and Angie Meadows had a herd of dairy cattle for many years and sold them and bought Angus cattle.

Bill and Helen Meadows purchased the ranch from his parents. Bill graduated from the University of Montana with a BA in Chemistry. Helen is a graduate of Montana State University with a degree in Home Economics. They have three children.

It was a great pleasure to visit with the Meadows and bask in their warm welcome.