1929 Fire Survivor Donated to Historical Society

SWAN VALLEY - In October, Roger Donald generously donated an original homestead cabin to the Upper Swan Valley Historical Society (USVHS). The cabin, locally known as Grandma Whalen's cabin, will be moved from its current location off Kraft Creek Road to the site of the Swan Valley Historical Museum.

Mary Ann McKenzie Whalen and her husband Roderick moved to Missoula from Michigan in 1917. Mr. Whalen was a building contractor with the Northern Pacific. Several of their children were living in the Missoula area at that time. Their daughter Ellen (Whalen) and her husband Bill Deegan who was an engineer on the NP, had homesteaded in the Swan Valley in 1912. Roderick passed away in 1918. Later that year, Mrs. Whalen filed for a homestead adjacent to that of Deegan's.

On Nov. 12, 1923, Mary Ann Whalen received the final documentation confirming she had met the requirements for the homestead described officially as: "Lots three and four and the east half of the southwest corner of section thirty in township twenty north of range sixteen west of the Principal meridian, Montana, containing one hundred fifty-seven acres and five hundredths of an acre."

It is believed that Bill Deegan built the cabin for his mother-in-law on her homestead in either 1918 or 1919. The log cabin is a single 12-foot by 16-foot room with paned windows on three sides. There is a porch with built-in side benches. One of the 1923 homestead documents states "A cook stove, bed, phonograph, two tables, wardrobe, dishes and cooking utensils were in the cabin on the claim."

When Bill was building the cabin, Grandma Whalen insisted that he place a St. Benedict's medal in each corner of the foundation. She held the belief that having faith in the protective intervention of St. Benedict would prevent the cabin from being destroyed by fire.

In the early years of her homesteading experience, there were several fires that threatened the general area. Family lore has it that during one fire, possibly in 1919, as the Deegans were evacuating, they came to Grandma Whalen's cabin but she said she wasn't going to leave because the cabin was protected. Bill told her that the cabin might survive but she wouldn't. One version of the story says she stood her ground and Bill picked her up and bodily put her in the wagon. Mrs. Whalen passed away in 1926.

In 1929 a terrible forest fire went roaring through the area. When the area had cooled enough for access, everything was gone, with one exception. Grandma's cabin and its contents were untouched by the fire. There had been a rail fence nailed to one corner of the cabin. The fence was gone and the nails were melted. In addition to the cabin, another survivor was a lilac bush near the cabin. Great granddaughter, Anne Reinhard, has a heritage lilac from that bush.

The four Deegan daughters, Evelyn Jette, Kay Theisen, Rosemary Stiver and Eileen Hamor spent a great deal of time in the Swan at the two homesteads. Rosemary remembered sleeping at grandma's in her feather bed.

One time the girls were playing dress up and used some of Grandma's flour as face powder. They were reprimanded for wasting precious resources.

The cabin remained on the Whalen homestead until the mid-1950s when it was moved to the Jette property at the highway and Jette Road. At that point it became home for Ellen Deegan, Bill having died in Missoula. There was no plumbing but she had power and a phone. She lived in the cabin until 1966, when she moved into a little modular home set next to the cabin.

It was used for several purposes. Frank Jette, son of Evelyn and Art Jette, housed some of the packers on his outfitting crew in the cabin at various times in the late 1970s. Otherwise, the cabin was generally used for storage from 1966 until 2001, when the cabin was moved back to the original homestead site, then owned by Roger Donald.

During the time Ellen (Nell) Deegan lived in the cabin, it was a favorite place for the grandkids to hang out. She spent most of each winter with daughters in California and Virginia. When Sharon Gressle was at the University in Missoula, she used the cabin almost every weekend.

Barney Jette remembers spending after-school time with Nell watching westerns on TV. Don Jette spent many hours playing cards with Nell.

Dan Theisen remembers staying in the cabin one school year when he and his mom Kathryn Deegan Theisen spent several months in the valley. In fact, we can still see his mark created by carving a tidy little rectangle, with "DAN" in the center in one of the interior logs.

According to Steve Lamar, USVHS president, obtaining an original homestead cabin will fulfill the goal of preserving an important part of Swan Valley's history. It will provide a broader platform for understanding the valley's homestead heritage.

Over the course of almost 100 years, Grandma Whalen's cabin has survived time and elements, fire, two moves and general wear and tear.