County members of the past tell their stories

The a steady drizzle of rain pushed this year's Phillips County Historical our the H.G. Robinson House and Gardens and into the Phillips County Museum, a crowd of over 60 people attended the annual affair to hear the the life stories of county pioneers from bygone years.

William "Billy" Spencer was played by his son, Vance Spencer; Harry Vagg was played by Orvin Solberg; Clara Veseth was played Rosemary S. Veseth and Pete Zortman was played by Dr. Jim Curtis on the afternoon. Because the festivities were moved indoors, audience members sat in two different sections in the museum and enjoyed refreshments between presentations.

Instead of playing the part of his father, Vance told stories about Billy that he had either heard from his father or was there to witness firsthand.

"My dad was born to a Swede (man) and a German lady in 1901," Vance said. "His dad started out as a 'Johnson' but there was too many Johnsons around so he changed his name to Spencer."

Vance talked about his fathers love for horses – especially breaking the broncs, the tougher the better – and one day, when Vance was about 19-years-old and was out riding the range, he came across Mitch Oxarart, the first time the two met, out near Gumbo Ridge in the Larb Hills. He said Mitch spoke broken English – or broken French, it was hard to tell – and old Mitch made a claim on the land the two gentleman stood on.

"He said to my dad, 'what you do here'," said Mitch (Vance.)

"I am out looking for slicks," Billy said.

"This is my country," Mitch retorted.

"Well, how we going to do this?" Billy questioned.

"We will tie or horses up and wrestle," Mitch decided. "The one who wins gets this part of the country and the other one gets on his horse and rides off."

Vance said that the two men started to wrestle over the land. Vance – a longtime horse rider -- had strong legs and got Mitch's head pinched in a scissor lock, putting the squeeze on him.

"Me thinks we both quit," Mitch concluded.

Vance said he wasn't sure who actually got the territory, but knew for sure Billy and Mitch started a longtime friendship that day.

Rosemary S. Veseth, during her presentation of some of the life and time of Clara Veseth, sat at a chair surrounded by items from Clara's life. Rosemary wore a white shawl Clara had made – one of many – and on the table sat a wedding picture of Clara and Mons Veseth (the couple wed in 1933) as well as Clara made dollies.

Clara (Rosemary) said that in about 1915 her family moved to Montana, packing the household goods in a covered wagon as the family walked from Saskatchewan, Canada to big sky country.

"I was about six or seven years old at the time," Clara said. "And I only spoke French at the time."

Clara became a cook at the Veseth Ranch , cooking from anywhere from seven to 40 men per day, making them all dessert at night and 21 loaves of fresh baked bread early each Sunday morning.

Clara said that she was a multi-tasker (as are most women who work on ranches, then and now) before there was ever such a classification and later in life moved to Malta and enjoyed dancing, crocheting, knitting, playing cards and visiting with people.

"I kept busy and had a happy life," she concluded.

Where Rosemary used no notes during her Clara portrayal, Pete Zortman (Doc Curtis) needed his notes.

"More than half of my story happened when I was dead," Zortman quipped. "I need a few notes."

After striking it rich (for those days) with a mine in Zortman (and after having the honor of having the town named after him) Pete struck out for the world and unfortunately returned to this part of the state as a penniless pauper.

"I lost my wife, I lost my family," Zortman said. "I lost everything."

Zortman died in Big Timber, Mont. in 1933 and was buried in an unmarked grave where the town of Zortman's namesake laid for the next 70 years. In 2003, a group of local Masons and the people of Zortman began looking for Pete and found his body and brought it back to Zortman for a proper funeral.

"I was brought back with dignity," Zortman said. "I was brought back with pride . . . I want to thank you people who took an interest in my history."

Harry Vagg (Orvin Solberg), known as, among many other things, the first merchant to open for business in the town of Saco recalled the wonderful aroma which permeated thorough the establishment on a given day.

"The greatness of being in a general store, the smells were wonderful," Harry said. "We had Arbuckle Coffee and Bull Durham Tobacco and we had salt, sugar, flour and tea, just to name a few."

Harry recalled being at a meeting in which many of the northeastern cities were named by a group of railroad station agents as they sat in a room in St. Paul, Minn. He said a man was blindfolded and sat in front of a globe. Where the blindfolded man placed his finger on the globe, bringing it to s stop, was what the towns across the Hi-Line would be named (Malta, Glasgow, Hinsdale, Saco and Havre, just to name a few.)

"Don't let anyone tell you that it happened any other way," Vagg concluded. "I was there."