University of Wyoming
The Stout Family were longtime residents in the Big Horn Basin in northern Wyoming. Calvin R. Stout Sr. and Ola Norton were married in 1921. They had five children, Calvin Jr., Joan, Leona, Charles, and Ada. Calvin R. Stout Jr. was born in Hardin, Montana on July 22, 1922. He graduated from Powell (Wyo.) High School in 1940 and was killed in action in France on January 6, 1945 during World War II. Joan Stout was born on November 12, 1923 in Toluca, Montana. She graduated from Powell High School in 1941 and received nursing training at Denver General Hospital. She married Raleigh Schilling in 1945. Leona Stout was born on June 16, 1926 in Powell. She married James Lawson. Charles “Chas” Stout was born in Powell on April 7, 1929. After graduating from Huntley Project High School near Ballantine, Montana in 1948, he joined the U.S. Air Force. He married Lottie Howlette in 1956. He died on March 10, 1977. Ada Stout was born on January 10, 1932 in Powell. She graduated from Huntley Project High School near Ballantine, Montana in 1950. She was a librarian in Sheridan in the 1970s. She married Arlie Howard.
Calvin Russell Stout Sr. was born in Missouri on September 17, 1900. His family relocated to Montana when he was a child. Later, he and his brother Everett settled in the Big Horn Basin. Calvin Stout Sr. died in Cody on October 28, 1958 and is buried in Powell. Bertha Viola “Ola” (Norton) Stout was born on April 22, 1894 in Nebraska. Her parents were Owen and Louisa (Gotschall) Norton. In the very early 1900s the family moved to the Big Horn Basin where her father was the railroad agent at Garland. Ola became a railroad telegrapher for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (C, B & Q.) in about 1917. After taking some time off to raise her family, she returned to telegraphy and retired in 1959, having served at numerous points along the railway in Wyoming and Montana. In 1940, Ola and Calvin purchased a ranch west of Cody near the banks of Buffalo Bill Reservoir. After the death of Mr. Stout in 1958, the family proceeded to sell the ranch. Upon her retirement in 1959, Ola settled in Sheridan. She became ill late in 1977 and died at a Denver hospital on January 13, 1978. After a funeral service in Sheridan, she was buried in Powell.
Ola (Norton) Stout had three sisters, Ada, Zada, and May. Ada was born in 1883 and taught in rural schools in northern Wyoming in the early 1900s and also worked as a telegrapher for the CB&Q Railroad. In 1911 she married Gilbert Halley. They made their home in Sheridan where she died in 1972. Their daughter, Katherine, married a prominent Sheridan businessman, Raymond Zullig. Zada was born in 1885 and married Robert W. Spratt in 1910 in Garland. They lived on the Bay State Ranch near Ten Sleep, and in 1945 they went to Lost Cabin where they lived in and owned the J.B. Okie Ranch House also known as the Lost Cabin Castle. R.W. Spratt was a Wyoming Game and Fish commissioner from the 1940s to the 1960s. He died in 1965 and Zada died in 1957. May was born in 1891. She married George Taylor and spent most of her adult life in Oregon.
The Stout Family Papers consist of material from the members of the Calvin Sr. and Ola (Norton) Stout Family as well as from members of their extended families including the Norton Family. The bulk of the collection spans the 1940s to the 1970s. There are some documents and photographs dating from 1877 to the 1930s. Boxes 1 and 2 contain family files that are arranged alphabetically by family name or subject. This material is comprised of photographs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and legal and business documents. Much of the material relates to Calvin Stout Jr. who served in World War II. Other files pertain to the Stout Ranch near Cody. The files contain business and legal documents that relate to the operation of the ranch. There are several files containing documents related to Ola Stout’s time as a telegrapher for the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad. Photographs include those of family members as well as early photographs of the small Wyoming communities of Garland and Lost Cabin. Box 3 contains diaries and daily planners from Ola Stout from 1940-1976, as well as audiotapes containing oral histories of Ola Stout and her sister Ada Halley that pertain to their life in the Big Horn Basin in the early 1900s. Box 4 is an oversize box that contains a scrapbook of photographs from the 1930s-1970s, and there are maps of the Stout Ranch from 1939-1969.
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There are no known other archival collections created by members of the Stout Family at the date of processing.
The Stout Family Papers were donated to the American Heritage Center by members of the Stout family between 1978 and 2022.
The collection was processed by John Richard Waggener in April 2006 and updated by Jamie J. Greene in June 2024.
Item Description, Box Number, Folder Number, Stout Family Papers, Collection Number 08414, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.