Homestead Days Essay, circa 1959
Table of Contents
Overview of the Collection
- Creator
- Duffield, Jessie Howard, 1874-1964
- Title
- Homestead Days Essay
- Dates
- circa 195919591959
- Quantity
- 1 item
- Collection Number
- 0054, Collection 0054, MtBC, us (collection)
- Summary
- Duffield was a homesteader who lived in South Dakota, Montana, and Oregon, with family members settled in Fallon County Montana beginning in 1910. Homestead Days is a typewritten essay by Jessie Howard Duffield describing her childhood experiences in South Dakota and her later homesteading experience in Montana.
- Repository
-
Montana State University Library, Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections
Montana State University-Bozeman Library
Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections
P.O. Box 173320
Bozeman, MT
59717-3320
Telephone: 4069944242
Fax: 4069942851
- Access Restrictions
-
This collection is open for research.
- Languages
- Collection materials are in English
- Sponsor
- Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities
Biographical Note
Jessie Howard Duffield was born on December 14, 1874 in Red Oak, Iowa. Her parents moved to a homestead claim near Parker, South Dakota in 1882, and Jessie worked on the family ranch while also attending school. She married Sam Duffield in Amboy, Minnesota in 1896, but when her parents and siblings decided to move to eastern Montana to again establish homestead claims in 1910, Jessie and Sam accompanied them. The extended family filed on several tracts in the Fertile Prairie area of Fallon County, Montana. Jessie and Sam moved to Oregon in 1921, but they returned to Fallon County in 1934 and lived on their son Forrest's ranch. Jessie became a handloom weaver and rugmaker, along with developing her talents as an amateur photographer and writer. She published at least one fiction piece in a national periodical, "Old Paint", in Ranch Romances, v. 134, no. 4, October (September 20), 1946, and many columns in the local newspapers. Towards the end of her life she wrote a short essay on memories of her life as a homesteader, and she died in Baker, Montana on February 24, 1964.
Content Description
Homestead Days is an eight-page typewritten essay by Duffield describing her childhood experiences in South Dakota and her later homesteading experience in Fallon County, Montana. She describes her memories of the great blizzard of 1887-1888 and hardships in keeping the family cabin warm. When she turns her attention to her Montana experiences, Duffield describes farming, community activities, schools, and many local residents, some of which she identifies in a poem about a local dance held at Fertile Prairie on Halloween, 1914. The typescript has been corrected with pencil marginalia.
Use of the Collection
Preferred Citation
[Creator Name], [Date of Creation], [Brief Description of Object], Folder [#], Box [#], [Collection Name], [Collection #], Montana State University (MSU) Library, Bozeman, MT
Administrative Information
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Agriculture
- Agriculture--Montana--Fallon County
- Blizzards--South Dakota--Turner County (S.D.)
- Community life--Montana--Fallon County (Mont.)
- Frontier and pioneer life--Montana--Fallon County (Mont.)
- Frontier and pioneer life--South Dakota--Turner County
- Girls--South Dakota--Turner County (S.D.)--Biographies
- Pioneer children--South Dakota--Turner County--Biography
- Schools--Montana--Fallon County
- Social life and customs
Personal Names
- Duffield, Jessie Howard, 1874-1964
Family Names
- Howard family
Geographical Names
- Fallon County (Mont.)--History--20th century
- Fallon County (Mont.)--Social life and customs--20th century
- Fertile Prairie (Mont.)
- Montana
- Parker (S.D.)
- Turner County (S.D.)--History
Form or Genre Terms
- Biographies
- Biography
- Reminiscences
