Moving to Miles City

In 1948, when I was 5 years old, my parents decided that I should go to school "in town".  The town they selected was Miles City, Montana, about 100 miles east of the farm/ranch in North Dakota.  This was not the nearest possiblity, and was apparently chosen because my grandparents, Hattie and Aud Nunn had already left their homestead ranch and moved to Miles City.

My parents bought a newly constructed house on a south edge of the then developed area. 

This house is located at 2021 Stower Street, on the corner of Stower and S. Merriam.  At the time we moved in there was only one house visible directly to the south out the picture window.  Beyond that was the old river channel and the unknown.  There was development along streets running to the south just to the ease and west.  In the four or five years we lived there we watched the area develop.

During the first summer my parents planted two small trees next to the window and a few flowers along the front.  An awning was necessary to shade the living room from the direct south sun.

Harold and Annanelle settled in a created a home for myself and Tim.  A lawn was planted and trees were put in along the street.

Two more pictures show the east end of the house and the Tim on the back porch.

We lived in this house four or five years, until it was sold, apparently to finance construction of the Custer Apartments, and we moved in with Hattie Nunn during its construction.

The house that Harold built

I sent off the signed documents for sale of Harold and Annanelle's house in Miles City last week.  Closing of the sale will be this week.  So today I am remembering that house.  I am sure there will be many more pictures of the house and area in slides that I get to later.  For now I have a couple of construction snapshots and recent pictures only.

A few years after moving to Miles City they purchased a group of lots on the corner of Fort Street and S. Custer Avenue, diagonally from Lincoln School and half a block north of the home of my grandmother Hattie Nunn.  Since I was in grade school, I don't know many details.  But the sale of our first house, on Stower Street, must have been a part of the process because we moved into the upstairs of Hattie's house temporarily.  Here is a view south from the property, across a small school playground area to one of three houses since removed to expand the playground.  Hattie's was the middle of the three, just past the one you see.  It was moved and still stands out in the Yellowstone valley northeast of Miles City.  South Custer was open though this block until these houses were removed.

First, on the corner, Harold built a six unit apartment house.  I remember only that there were a few complications regarding FHA financing and the design by an architect from Billings.  Construction was done in 1953-4.

When it was completed we moved into a two bedroom apartment on the middle floor, south (right) end.  We used a part of the apartment below as a recreation room.  A multiple car garage was built to the east and another apartment added above that by a later owner.

The house was built just to the north (left) while we lived in the apartment.  It was completed in 1957.

This was one of the first split-level houses in Miles City, so generated some questions and discussion by watchers during construction.  There are actually four levels, including a full basement under the left half.  Harold included several "ahead of his time" innovations including full insulation, windows with built-in storm windows, and double pane glass in the large picture window and the sliding glass door onto the back patio.  There was an automatic garage door opener, again one of the first in town.  And switching of all lighting in the house uses low-voltage relays so multiple switches can easily control a single light.  On the other hand he insisted on actual plaster walls even though dry-wall had become a standard method.  For the fireplace wall on the north he did not want a frame wall with brick veneer.  Instead it is a, three or four brick thick, structural wall.  He hired a German immigrant bricklayer who worked for the hospital during the night running their mechanical system.  Another employee, possibly an electrician, was a refugee from the 1950s attempted Hungarian revolution.  Tim and I 'helped' with the construction and both remember mixing and carrying mortar for the wall.  I did get a very clear understanding of how wood frame construction is done by helping/watching the project.

Harold lived in this house until his death in 1990.  Annanelle continued to live here, with her second husband, Harold's cousin Armin, until she passed away in 2009.  Although the house is over 50 years old it has always seemed current to me since it has never had another owner until now.

The Nunn ranch

The main ‘headquarters’ area of the Nunn ranch was 320 acres homesteaded by Audman Nunn, my grandfather.  He completed the requirements and received the patent signed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1917.  Subsequently he purchased adjacent properties including 120 acres to the east, 640 acres to the northwest, and possibly some other tracts.  The original homestead is located in the badlands along the Little Missouri River south, upstream, from Medora, at the mouth of Bullion Creek and at the north ‘corner’ of Bullion Butte.  This butte is a large plateau visible for miles around and appears in many of the photographs taken at the ranch.  My mother, Annanelle, described it as their back yard and playground.  Bullion Butte forces the Little Missouri to make a large loop to the east clearly visible on any map of the area.  The ranch is at its north end.  On USGS topographic maps it is labeled “Griffin Ranch”.

I have not found any explanation for the name, Bullion, of both the butte and the creek.  Mother had never heard of any rumored stash of gold in the area, and was sure that the six kids in her family had explored the area thoroughly enough to have found almost anything.  While doing my search I came upon a real estate listing showing that the ranch, now known as “Roughrider Ranch” is for sale.  In addition to a description and detailed map showing not only the present private holdings but also adjacent state and federal grazing leases, there are several pictures of the present ranch.  The listing was posted on the internet, but the site is no longer active.  I have downloaded and saved a copy with other family documents.  The ranch was also the setting for the movie "The Wooly Boys".  It's worth a look to see the land, but pay no attention to those wooly animals.  Aud would never have allowed them on his property!

Among the pictures in the listing is one of the ‘original homestead cabin’.  I immediately found it familiar.  In the old family pictures are these three showing Annanelle’s older brother Donald, and Annanelle herself about 1918, and with her younger sister Ruth a few years later.

By this time the family was not living in this original cabin. While the ranch house is described by the realtor there is no picture of it.  Since Aud and Hattie had moved to Miles City before Harold and Annanelle, we did not frequently visit the ranch. I have only a vague memory of the place and haven’t yet looked back through our family slides. 

This picture of Ruth and Annanelle at the left, and Hattie at the right, shows the house.

Two othes with Annanelle and Ruth show the screen porch from the outside, and again with their little brother John from the inside.  Bullion Butte is visible through the screen.

Finally this picture of Leighton, the oldest, from about 1913 shows a corner of that house.  And it shows the north end of Bullion Butte.

As mentioned above, the homestead was patented in 1917 when Leighton was 6, Donald 4, and Annanelle 1, but the house was apparently there by 1913.  The pictureof my grandfather Audman at the top of this posting is labelled “Medora, N. Dak, 1905.  My uncle Bub confirms that his father was in the Medora area, working as a ‘cowboy’ for a cattle company prior to his marriage to Hattie in 1907 and presumably filed the homestead claim at that time, building the original cabin to satisfy the claim requirement.  Possibly he built the house prior to returning to Minnesota to be married.  In any case it was there shortly after Leighton was born in 1911.  Some time was required to ‘prove up’ a homestead, showing that it was being used for productive agricultural purposes, and for filing the necessary notices and documents, before it could be patented, giving clear title granted by the USA.  This did not occur until 1917.

Ziebarth side family photo

While scanning more pictures today I found this one of the entire Ziebarth side of the family as listed in the previous posting.

This was taken in Beach on the occasion of Adolph and Addie’s 50 wedding anniversary.  I haven’t yet found clear documentation but I believe this to have been the summer of 1957.

We are/were:

Back row:  Milton, Margaret, Bob, Ken

Middle row:  Cora, Bob Jr., Adolph, Addie, Annanelle, Harold

Front row:  Jimmy, Robin, Gary, Karen, Tim

I am very sure that we were never all together at any other time, so this is a unique document.

And I am also sure that no such picture exists of the entire Nunn side of the family.

The Families

As I said in the introduction, these memories will mainly be from or about members of the Nunn and Ziebarth families, from my and the preceding generation, that I knew while growing up.  For clarity here is a list of those people in my past:

On the Nunn side, my grandparents were Audman (Aud) and Hattie Nunn.  Aud passed away when I was in grade school so I have few memories of him.  Hattie attended our wedding in 1964 and died later that year at age 80.  She lived in Miles City, a block from our house when I was in high school and junior high, so I knew her well.  There were 6 surviving children in the family. 

Leighton Nunn was the oldest, a few years older than my father.  He married a neighbor, Mildred Johnson.  They lived at Fort Keogh near Miles City when I was in school and we visited them often.  They had 4 children, Larry and Gene are older than I so did not have much interaction as a child.  Irmalyn (Irma) is slightly older than I, but was in high school with me.  Joan(ie) is the same age as my brother Tim.

Donald Nunn was approximately the same age as my father Harold.  He married a neighbor, Viola Wilson.  They lived near us in North Dakota, but moved to Idaho and Washington where we visited occasionally.   Their son Roy was born 10 days after me.  They had two later children, younger than Tim or I.  Jimmy died in a high school football accident.  Their daughter is Kathy.

Annanelle Nunn Ziebarth, my mother, was next.  She married a neighbor, my father Harold.  My brother Tim and I are the rest of their family.

Ruth Nunn Andrews was three years younger than Annanelle.  She married Robert (Bob) Andrews from Power, Montana.  I believe she met him while teaching in that area.  They lived near Fairfield, Montana and we saw them on holidays, often Thanksgiving or when they visited Hattie in Miles City.  They had 4 children, Russell is the same age as Tim.  Deborah (Debbie) is a little younger but I remember her as a child.  Mark and Craig are younger and I did not know them, but met Craig later when he was married in Boulder.

John Nunn was next.  He married another neighbor, LaDelphia Barnhart from Medora.  They lived in Idaho where we visited occasionally, then moved to North Dakota and Canada.  John was in the Air Corps during WWII and flew ‘over the hump’ from Burma to China.  He was killed in a ranch accident.  They had 4 children, Michael (Buck(y)) is between my and Tim’s age.  Twins Lee and Lynn are just younger than Tim, and Susanne slightly younger again.  Susanne (King) is a teacher and lives in Miles City.

Bub (Gerald) Nunn is the youngest.  He married a woman we knew as ‘Pat’.  She had a previous daughter Judy who is my age.  We were in grade school together before they moved to the Winnett, Montana area after about grade 4.  Bub and Pat had 4 sons, Jess, Jerry, Jay, and Joel.  All are enough younger that I did not know them as children.  After Pat’s death, Bub married Winona (Nona).  They later moved to a ranch outside Miles City.  He is now in an assisted living center near Miles City. 

On the Ziebarth side, my grandparents were Adolph and Addie Ziebarth.  They remained on the farm near Beach, North Dakota until I was in high school.  I had a lot of interaction visiting them and remember them well then and after they moved to Beach.  There were 3 surviving children in this family.

Milton Ziebarth was the oldest.  He married Cora Davis from Sidney, Montana who lived with Adolph and Addie as a teacher in the nearby country school.  He was in the WWII military when I was born and they moved to southern California after his discharge.  We visited them several times and they frequently returned to visit.  There are two adopted children Gary and Robin.  Both are younger than Tim or I, so I only knew them then as visiting children.  I have made re-connection with Robin and Gary as adults.  Cora is now in assisted living in the California Bay Area.

Harold Ziebarth, my father, and a twin brother Harvey were the next.  Harvey died in infancy.  Harold married a neighbor, my mother Annanelle Nunn.  My brother Tim and I are the rest of their family.

Margaret Ziebarth Hammar was the youngest.  She married Robert (Bob) Hammar from Nebraska, I believe when she was attending York College.  They moved to Oregon and then southern California.  We visited them several times and they frequently returned to visit.  They had 3 children.  Bob(by)  (Robert Jr,) is a year older than I.  He visited our grandparents during the summer for several years.  Tim and I frequently joined him (separately) in those visits for farm adventures.  Jim(my) was approximately Tim’s age.  He was killed in Viet Nam.  Karen was the youngest.  All three of them lived with us in Miles City for one school year, (possibly grade 2?) while Margaret recovered from difficulty adapting to Bob’s polio and resulting paralysis.

There will be pictures and more details about many of these people as the blog proceeds.

My First Home

I was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, the state capitol, for reasons not clear to me.  I have asked my aunt Cora Ziebarth, who was living with my grandparents AJ and Addie at that time while her husband, Milton, Harold’s brother, was in the WWII Armed Forces.  Unfortunately Cora’s memory does not include the reason for Mother’s being in Bismarck for my birth.  I do know that there had been an earlier pregnancy which ended in miscarriage, possibly in connection with some incident involving a sleigh ride.  It seems likely that her doctor advised hospitalization prior to delivery.  But why this was as far away as Bismarck instead of closer, possibly Dickinson or Glendive where my brother Tim was born a few years later, I probably will never be able to find out.

After my birth, April 20, 1943, we lived on a farm/ranch near Harold’s parents, AJ and Addie, south of Sentinel Butte, North Dakota in the house shown in this picture taken a few years  later in the 1940s. 

This house is on 320 acre property originally homesteaded by Michael Jesok in 1915, later sold to Robert Sonnek, then apparently foreclosed on so that Harold purchased it from the State of North Dakota in 1947.  How they could have lived there before the purchase is not clear, but perhaps the property was leased from the state, or purchased on a contract allowing occupancy during its term.  Harold also owned an adjacent 160 acre property purchased from Andrew and Bridget Gamrath in 1939.  I remember outbuildings, including the warehouse/granary shown in this picture,

on that property, but no house.  And Harold had also purchased a nearby 640 acre property from Gust Burke in 1943, shortly after my birth.  There was a house on that property that I’ll write about later, but we never lived there that I remember.  And Harold purchased one other property, an adjacent 160 acres from First Minneapolis Company in 1944, making his total holding 1120 acres.

In the early 1990s, on the way back from picking up our daughter Jennifer from college, we visited the North Dakota area where her grandparents had lived.  This first house is still there, still occupied, and still as isolated as before.  No one was at home so we could not investigate further.  I may have taken a photo that I will find later in my project.  Jennifer could not conceive that her prim and fastidious grandmother could ever have lived in such a location.

Introducing "Things I Am Rembering"

Since the death of my mother a year ago, and while going through photographs and other extended family memorabilia from her house, I have again realized that she was one of the last of her generation in our families.  Only her brother Bub Nunn and sister-in-law Cora Ziebarth remain.  And neither of them is a reliable and accessible source of memories and information.  Therefore I have decided to use this format to write down the ‘things I am remembering’ while reviewing these materials and thinking about the stories and memories that were passed to me so that if anyone in the generations after mine is interested, some records from those times will be left.  These will be my personal memories, including those from and about members of my parents’ generation, Dad’s brother and sister and Mother’s brothers and sister and their respective husbands and wives.  They are the ones from whom I heard the stories of the families’ past.  I do not remember any of my grandparents as great story tellers.  So there will memories about them but not many from them.  Except for my brother Tim there has not been much contact with others of my generation since childhood.  Memories from our childhoods about cousins in the Ziebarth and Nunn families are about all I can expect.  If any of them, or others, become followers of this process and send me additions, corrections, or embellishments those could be included later.

I don’t expect these postings to be in any logical or chronological order.  I intend to make them as I am triggered to remember, by pictures I am scanning or reviewing, conversations with my brother Tim or my wife Charlotte, or whatever other memories occur.  Free association from one memory to the next will be expected and frequent.  I will try to include dates when possible so possibly they can be reorganized chronologically some time.  When a specific picture or document is the source I will include that, or at least a link to a source location.  Pictures are being stored in the Picassa program and may be uploaded as Web Albums.  I don’t work on scanning with any regular schedule, so postings will be sporadic.  I am likely to get on a roll and add something every day or so for a while, and then to get distracted as life happens for a while.  But among the materials from Mother’s house, other extended family pictures, and my own family pictures and materials from our house there will always be something for me to review and remember.