Homesteading

On April 16th members of Jim and Helen Billmayer’s family gathered at Sweet Nursing Home, where they now live, to share some family memories with other residents and staff. There are four generations in the picture—Jim and Helen, their daughter Linda Petrie, granddaughters Shannon Van Voast and Stephanie Silva and great granddaughter Gaya Silva. Helen is wearing a dress that was her Gramma Wallin’s.

Helen’s father, Christ Christiansen, was born in Norway on February 15, 1888. He immigrated to the United States in 1907 and applied for citizenship in 1911. He received his citizenship in 1916 and filed a land claim in 1917. He enlisted in the army in 1918 and served during WW1. He was discharged in 1920 and received a Victoria medal.

Helen’s mother, Selma Wallin, was born in Sweden on February 27, 1889, and immigrated to the United States in 1907. Traveling alone, she docked at Boston Harbor with a wicker basket that her mother had packed with some food and some of her prize possessions, including her Bible.

She went to work in Chicago for a family by the name of Wilson, doing seamstress and nanny work. She worked hard to learn English. She left Chicago for Steele, North Dakota where her oldest brother had settled and then came by train to Harlem, Montana where she knew there was land to be settled. She boarded a buckboard and headed north to Twedte, Montana and filed papers on 320 acres of land. Two of her brothers came and built her a homestead shack. She received her citizenship in 1918. Her parents sold their farm at auction in Sweden and came to the U.S. with the last of her siblings. They filed for a homestead two miles north of hers. Helen remembers that her grandparents never did speak English. There was a Swedish speaking pastor who lived in the area who came to their home and conducted church services.

Christ’s land was two miles west. He and Selma were married February 22, 1921. They had two daughters, Helen, and her older sister, Irene.

The first legal document that was given on a piece of land was a patent. You had to dig a well on the land, which was no easy task. It was all done by hand and shovel, someone going down into the well and filling buckets up with dirt and pulling the buckets up by rope.

When you got the patent, you took it to the courthouse where they gave you the deed and then you started to pay taxes. In 1930 Helen’s parents could not pay a tax bill of $25.11 and their place went up for sheriff’s sale. No one else had any money either. The next year her mom’s sister who lived in Spokane loaned them $35 to pay the back tax.

Jim’s grandparents, Frank and Eleanor Billmayer, also homesteaded during the 1920’s near Savoy. Eventually their homestead house was moved into the town of Hogeland. His mother’s family, the McGuires, homesteaded south of Harlem.

Jim and Helen were married on May 18, 1949. They will celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary next month. Their four children, Gene, Linda, Larry and Mark were raised on the same land that Helen’s parents and grandparents homesteaded, and now some of the fifth and sixth generations continue to live there and farm the property.

Farming is a bit different now than it was in those days. We have a picture taken in 1916 of a threshing crew that Grampa Wallin was part of. Compare it to the picture taken from a drone of Mark Billmayer in a combine with a 36-foot header. On a good day combining wheat he could cut 150 acres. This picture was taken in a camelina field last fall. The taxes on that property are a bit higher than they were in 1930 also.

The residents at Sweet enjoyed hearing about the Billmayer family history and eating some traditional Scandinavian treats. No doubt others have interesting family stories also. If anyone else who has family members there would be interested in sharing some of your family history, please get ahold of Michelle at 406-344-0866 so she can get you on the calendar.