Christmas present rooted in Christmas past

SWAN VALLEY - Many of us will gather with extended family or friends over the Christmas holiday to share gifts and good will. It seems the way we celebrate Christmas is rooted in Christmas past. A review of the yuletide traditions and events of yesteryear reveal a simple lifestyle of the residents of the region.

Over 100 years ago in 1907 Joseph J. Waldbillig and Ethel Lynn were about to exchange wedding vows on Christmas Eve at the Lynn home near Ovando when an unexpected turn of events caused the ceremony to be forever seared in the memories of those in attendance. In an account about the nuptials in the book Cabin Fever, Mildred Chaffin wrote:

...as luck would have it, the milk cows escaped and while the family was out chasing them, Oscar Lynn lost a shoe in a gopher hole. Oscar, a brother of the bride, was to be an escort for the bridal pair and no shoe could he find. He flabbergasted everyone by appearing among the wedding party wearing one shoe and one rubber-irrigating boot pulled up over his knee outside his pants leg.

Apparently, Ethel Lynn managed to maintain her composure long enough to say her wedding vows, while choking back her laughter over Oscar's antics. Chaffin added, "The bride's sense of humor carried her through the ceremony, as it must have done many times after leaving a family of lively brothers and sisters to take the long, deep plunge into a lonely way of life in the heart of Swan Valley."[where they worked as caretakers at the Gordon Ranch]

In the early days of settlement in the Swan Valley, Christmas gatherings often occurred at the local one-room schools. Long-time resident Gyda Newman remembered one such Christmas celebration in the early 1920s. Her father, homesteader Hans Monrad, skied with his children through the woods to a Christmas party at the Elk Creek School.

In an interview with Suzanne Vernon, Gyda recalled, "My dad stuffed me in a pack sack and packed me through the woods over there. My dad skied and my brother [Jens] stood on skis in front of my dad. That's the way the three of us went." Unfortunately, Gyda reported that her feet were frozen by the time they reached the school. Such were the perils of Christmas time travel in Swan Valley.

Christmas programs at the Salmon Prairie School have been a big community event since anyone can remember. In the book "Montana Voices of the Swan," Leita Clothier Anderson recalled such programs when she was a youngster in the late 1930s and early 1940s: "It was a big deal. We always had a Christmas program. If [students] were old enough to recite a poem, the little bitty things, maybe four years old, they'd be in the program. Have a few lines. Usually had all eight grades in our school. We put on a performance and had gifts, too. As poor as people were, we made gifts. We always made something for our moms."

Leita's sister, Dixie Clothier Meyer recalled that people sometimes came to the Christmas program at Salmon Prairie School with horse and sleigh.

"If it was too cold to go home, they'd stay the night with neighbors. Everyone came and Santa Claus visited with hard candy and nuts. These treats were provided by the Women's Club," she said.

As a student at the Smith Flats School in the 1940s, Gene Miller remembered grand Christmas celebrations. "We students would sing and put on plays or puppet shows. Everyone in the community would attend. They all brought treats to share. The school was filled to standing room only. After the program the adults would visit and we kids would run around and fill ourselves with goodies," he recalled.

In 1937 12-year-old Doris Haasch received a diary as a Christmas present from her mother Nina Holmes. This led to a lifetime of recording daily activities such as cutting ice, milking cows, butchering pigs, grinding grain and participating in horse drives. Her diaries span over 55 years of observations, revealing huge changes in the lifestyle of local residents especially when electricity cam in and a modern highway was built. She grew up in Woodworth, and in 1946 moved with her husband Harold Haasch to the Swan Valley where she lived until 2010.

An untimely turn of events occurred just before Christmas in 1943. Long-time Swan Valley resident Vic Wise received a letter from the President that he was being drafted into the armed forces. In an unpublished memoir, Vic wrote: "With Christmas so close, the news would keep. There was no use spoiling the family Christmas. We would enjoy this one together as a family, then afterwards, I would tell them the news."

Vic Wise's father-in-law, John Erickson had come for Christmas dinner, and sensed that something was terribly wrong. Reluctantly, Vic shared the news of the draft notice with his stunned family. From New Caldonia to the Philippines, to New Guinea, Vic Wise valiantly served in the US Navy until the end of WWII in 1945 when he was reunited with his anxious family.

On a lighter note, valley residents held snowmobile races out in the hay meadow at the Gordon Ranch in the mid-1970s. One Christmas season local outfitter and caretaker of the Gordon Ranch Frank Jette trained his mules to pull a hay sleigh – a hay wagon converted to a sleigh.

Carolyn Jette recalled one wild ride: "We would take the sleigh out with the mules and invited whoever wanted to come. We'd jump on....and head off into the woods and lanes with these mules. And gawd forbid, when they took off! It wasn't long before they would be at the highway but we managed to get them stopped."

Perhaps the most poignant yuletide commentary was written by conservationist Bud Moore when he was camped at the Little Salmon Creek in the Bob Marshall Wilderness on Christmas Eve 1983, "Millions of people will open gifts tonight and millions more will do so tomorrow. It is too bad that I have not been out to get and give gifts for Janet, Bill, Jean and a few other very special people. As for me, my gifts are here in this great wild land and in our homestead and love and life in the Swan."