Folks who live in our Seeley-Swan Valley fall into several categories: old timers, newcomers, “medium timers” and people who returned after many years. One person who returned after many years was Mabel Stilwell. Born Mabel Lundberg in the Swan Valley in 1917, she may well have been the first baby of white settlers born in these parts. Let’s take a closer look at the Swan Valley during these years, and where Mabel’s life took her.
During the years around Mabel’s birth, the Swan Valley had homesteaders moving in, drawn by the beauty and amazed at the isolation of the place. In 1919, Mabel’s father, Charles, filed his intent “to make a three-year proof” on 160 acres in the upper Swan Valley. Under federal laws at the time, if he worked and improved the land during these years, he would receive title to it at the end of three years. In 1922, the patent deeded the acreage to him, signed by the then-president Warren G. Harding. We also learn that in 1930, he sold the land, as it was not uncommon for smaller homesteaders to find working the land too difficult. Selling their homesteads for jobs, either locally or in a nearby town, sometimes offered a better future during those hard times.
Mabel attended the local Swan Valley school, which was called the Roll School. The Roll School closed in 1929 and students then attended the Pine Ridge School starting in the 1930s. There are interesting notices in the Missoula papers in the 1920s listing graduates of the rural schools, as well as those who have perfect attendance. Mabel frequently was in this perfect attendance category, and one reporter noted that rural students had excellent attendance records, despite the adverse weather and bad roads.
Mabel grew up to be a teacher in several rural Montana schools. She was a 1936 graduate of Missoula County High School, and she earned her teaching certificate from Western Montana Teacher’s College in Dillon. She first taught at the Wise River School in Wise River Montana, and in the 1940s was at the DeSmet school west of Missoula.
She and her second husband, Clarence Stilwell, moved to Sandpoint, Idaho in 1958. She continued her involvement with teaching, and after her death in 2004 an educational scholarship was established in her name.
Mabel certainly had the love for our valleys that brings many of us back. In 1973 she returned to the Swan and built a log cabin on the Swan River. She moved to Sandpoint in 2001 for health reasons, but certainly brought a wealth of memories of the Swan Valley and what it was like to grow up in our area. We can only imagine how many students she taught about the experience of growing up in the early days of the upper Swan Valley. Life was challenging, schools were small and at times difficult to get to. But, perfect attendance, hard work and a desire to help others made for a rewarding life.
Mabel is an example of those who start here, leave and then return. They know the value of where we live, and they certainly find that coming back to the Seeley-Swan can be a renewal of the things they value in life.
This story was updated on Oct. 26 at 11:30 a.m. to correct the spelling of Mabel's maiden last name (Lundberg, not Lundgren), and to correct the spelling of Roll School (not Rolls) and clarify its history.
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