Charles Russell wrote nostalgically (and with his on brand of spelling) about the passing of the West he knew:

               The population of Montana had nearly quadrupled since Charlie arrived in 1880. Charlie’s resentment toward bib overalls and bow ties increased proportionately. The development of the railroad was hailed across the country as the “Grandest Enterprise Under God”. Railroads had already transformed the east; and men dreamed of building a line from coast to coast. To achieve this, Congress gave railroad companies 6,400 acres of federal land for every mile of track laid. Railroads acquired the right of ways along the miles of track they laid in the public domain. It has been estimated that if you added up all the land thus acquired, it would be roughly the size of California and most of Montana.

              Settlers were sought who would provide business for the freight cars and buy the newly acquired railroad land. Many homesteaders who came to Montana and Wyoming in the early 1990s were drawn by the promise of free land by the government or cheap land from the railroad. They staked their future on railroad pamphlets designed to lure them to the dry plains. Immigrants were wooed by the pamphlets that usually misrepresented the climate and soil conditions. One railroad encouraged settlement by letting immigrants travel across the country on the railroad for $10.00, provided they would settle somewhere along the route. They could rent a boxcar for their goods for about the same amount of money. Between the years of 1910 and 1922, homesteaders settled a large portion of both Montana and Wyoming.

           Understandably, these homesteaders were not welcome by the settlers who had arrived in the area earlier. This influx of farmers meant the end to the open range and the plowing up of the Old West. The new homesteaders were referred to with derision as the “Honyockers”. However, these newcomers proved to be hearty souls who endured the cold, the wind, and the loneliness of the wild land they eventually tamed. Many homesteaders abandoned their land, particularly during the Great Depression and the general decline in grain prices. Only established farmers could afford the capital investment required for powered tractors and other farm equipment necessary for modern farming. However, many “honyockers” persisted and lived to have the last laugh on those who had derided them. Many prospered and some became quite wealthy. Their tenacity and hard work turned the area into one of the largest wheat producing areas in the world.

        My grandfather, Herman Wolf, was typical of the farmers who settled eastern Montana. He left Silesia, a German territory, for the United States in 1882, when he was 16 years old. While he undoubtedly had heard of the free land in the West, he left Germany primarily to escape conscription in the army. He could not speak any English when he arrived at Ellis Island. Eventually he found work in lumber and logging camps in Wisconsin and Minnesota. While in Minnesota, he stayed with his uncle and aunt, Daniel and Johanna Gerlach. He married one of their daughters, Emma. He hired out as a laborer and raised draft horses on the side. In the summertime, he took his horses (that he had previously sold to the Northern Pacific Railroad) to Montana. The railroad would haul his horses to Montana free of charge. In this way, it insured a steady supply of good horses for railroad construction.

        Herman saw the potential in this eastern Montana land; and filed a claim for a homestead in 1906. The land he claimed was on the Huntley Project, about a half mile from an experimental station where new dry land farming techniques were tested. His homestead was also near the Northern Pacific railroad tracks. After relocating in Montana, he hauled logs from the Bull Mountains. He cut some of the logs, and then sawed them into lumber at a local mill. From there, the railroad hauled the lumber to his homestead without a charge. He built a relatively large house that was still standing until the late 1990s.

         The Northern Pacific required a vast amount of timber for ties and for bridge construction; and Herman freighted logs for the railroad from the Bull Mountains. His wagon train traveled out across the country at night and traveled until dawn. Indians were still roaming the country; and he had a persistent fear that he would lose his horses. These fears proved to be groundless. There was an abundance of game in the area; and hunters were sent out from his wagon train for elk, deer or antelope to feed the drivers.

          Herman and his family lived on this homestead for over 5 years. After he proved up on his claim, he sold it and bought land from the railroad in the adjoining Stillwater County, in an area called Silesia. In the words of his son (and my father), “it was one of the nicest farms in the country”. Herman raised wheat and grazed livestock. Here he and his family lived and prospered until his retirement.... and it was there that I was born. The following poem, The Immigrant, is dedicated to him:  Herman Wolf 1866 - 1949.


                                                                  

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