Title
IGNATIUS BRITTNER
Creator
Adam E. Brittner and Ida Howard
Coverage
TOWNSHIP 139N RANGE 93W
Text
IGNATIUS BRITTNER
Our grandparents, Ignatius Brittner, his wife and children homesteaded two and a half miles east of Taylor and lived there until 1918 or 1919.
Coming from Glendive, Mont. About 1910, our parents, Steve and Mary Brittner started farming three miles northeast of Taylor. Rose, the oldest, was born at Glendive. The rest of us in Stark Co.
Fire destroyed our house at the farm and we moved to Taylor. In 1918 or 1919 our grandparents left their farm and moved to Richardton. We moved onto their homestead and farmed until 1926.
Our grandparents’ homestead house consisted of two rooms built from railroad ties and plastered on the outside with a mixture of gumbo soil and grass, then whitewashed. Later a frame house was added onto the two rooms.
I remember gypsy caravans passing through and camping near the creeks. They would ask for chickens and garden produce.
We went to school at Taylor, to church at Richard-ton until a Catholic Church was started at Taylor. Our parents were charter members there. Our mother organized the first choir.
The school buses were horse drawn covered wagons. One winter we missed school for three days because of a blizzard. The wind packed the snow in drifts very hard. At one place the driver asked us to get out of the bus. We all helped push the wagon to help the horses break a trail through the snow. My toes got frostbitten that morning and I’m sure some of the other children had the same experience.
The older children and Adam helped plant, harvest and thresh the grain. During the summer we herded the cattle along the railroad right-of-way. There were many more trains then. Many hoboes rode the freights or just walked along the tracks. Often, they came to our house asking for food.
Sparks from the trains sometimes set fire to the prairies, lightning did also. Early one morning lightning set fire to our neighbor's wheat stacks. Our father and other neighbors ran to help put out the fire.
When I, Adam, was ten years old, with four horses and a road drag, I dragged the road between Taylor and Richardton after each rain. It then was called the “Red Trail”, later it was Highway 10.
We liked threshing time. It was exciting but hard work for our parents, especially for mother. There were three meals to be served and lunches to be taken to the field in the morning and afternoon.
After the grain was threshed and other fall work finished our father and grandfather went, usually with two wagons, to a coal mine somewhere north of the farm. They mined the coal by hand for a year's supply.
Our mother passed away in 1930. A terrible loss to all of us.
Four of the boys served in World War II.
We were all married and had children of our own when Dad died in 1963. Brother Joe followed in 1964, Florian in 1971, Francis in 1974, Katherine in January 1977.
Rose, married to Mike Marx celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1975. Adam and I live at Portland, Ore. Steve lives at Bowman, N.D. Lucille lives near Missoula, Mont.
Our lives are much easier now than when we were young but we agree that what we learned in those days has helped us even though we thought it hard at the time. We enjoyed many good times; like the Fourth of July picnics, the rodeos, birthday cakes, Christmas, our first car and many other good things.
By Adam E. Brittner and Ida Howard
Our grandparents, Ignatius Brittner, his wife and children homesteaded two and a half miles east of Taylor and lived there until 1918 or 1919.
Coming from Glendive, Mont. About 1910, our parents, Steve and Mary Brittner started farming three miles northeast of Taylor. Rose, the oldest, was born at Glendive. The rest of us in Stark Co.
Fire destroyed our house at the farm and we moved to Taylor. In 1918 or 1919 our grandparents left their farm and moved to Richardton. We moved onto their homestead and farmed until 1926.
Our grandparents’ homestead house consisted of two rooms built from railroad ties and plastered on the outside with a mixture of gumbo soil and grass, then whitewashed. Later a frame house was added onto the two rooms.
I remember gypsy caravans passing through and camping near the creeks. They would ask for chickens and garden produce.
We went to school at Taylor, to church at Richard-ton until a Catholic Church was started at Taylor. Our parents were charter members there. Our mother organized the first choir.
The school buses were horse drawn covered wagons. One winter we missed school for three days because of a blizzard. The wind packed the snow in drifts very hard. At one place the driver asked us to get out of the bus. We all helped push the wagon to help the horses break a trail through the snow. My toes got frostbitten that morning and I’m sure some of the other children had the same experience.
The older children and Adam helped plant, harvest and thresh the grain. During the summer we herded the cattle along the railroad right-of-way. There were many more trains then. Many hoboes rode the freights or just walked along the tracks. Often, they came to our house asking for food.
Sparks from the trains sometimes set fire to the prairies, lightning did also. Early one morning lightning set fire to our neighbor's wheat stacks. Our father and other neighbors ran to help put out the fire.
When I, Adam, was ten years old, with four horses and a road drag, I dragged the road between Taylor and Richardton after each rain. It then was called the “Red Trail”, later it was Highway 10.
We liked threshing time. It was exciting but hard work for our parents, especially for mother. There were three meals to be served and lunches to be taken to the field in the morning and afternoon.
After the grain was threshed and other fall work finished our father and grandfather went, usually with two wagons, to a coal mine somewhere north of the farm. They mined the coal by hand for a year's supply.
Our mother passed away in 1930. A terrible loss to all of us.
Four of the boys served in World War II.
We were all married and had children of our own when Dad died in 1963. Brother Joe followed in 1964, Florian in 1971, Francis in 1974, Katherine in January 1977.
Rose, married to Mike Marx celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1975. Adam and I live at Portland, Ore. Steve lives at Bowman, N.D. Lucille lives near Missoula, Mont.
Our lives are much easier now than when we were young but we agree that what we learned in those days has helped us even though we thought it hard at the time. We enjoyed many good times; like the Fourth of July picnics, the rodeos, birthday cakes, Christmas, our first car and many other good things.
By Adam E. Brittner and Ida Howard