Archives West Finding Aid

This collection consists of a single spiral-bound notebook with a hand-written reminiscence entitled "My 66-odd Years, in Flathead," From 1886 written by Matthew Eccles in 1948. In the manuscript, Eccles describes how his brother, John, homesteaded on the Flathead Indian Reservation in 1886 in Selish (near Somers) and how he (Matt) joined him at the age of fifteen. In the reminiscence Matthew describes in detail the work of homesteading, buying food and other supplies, neighbors, receiving mail, building a cabin, farming, the severe winter of 1887-1888, the railroad coming to Demersville, his hobby of photography, the first threashing machine in the area, buying interest in a grist and sawmill, and the year of the high water (1894). He also writes about his feelings of anxiety following reading in the newspaper about three white men killed by two Indians in 1888, and the resulting posse formed by whites, and about other 'Indian scares,' including the death of a son of Chief Aeneas and the eventual arrival of two companies of 'colored' troops moving into Demersville. The reminiscence covers the years 1886 through 1894 and is unfinished. The photograph is of Matthew and his wife, Ellen, looking at Ellen's prized hollyhocks at their home.