"Our Parents"
Both were born in Vicksburg, Michigan. Our Father, Everit L. Sliter, November 29, 1866, this date happened to be Thanksgiving Day. His Father was Anthony Jason and Mother, Lucy Moffett, her brother Ed lived with us many years - on the ranch at Bigfork. Father had an older brother, Emory, and 2 sisters, Lizzie and Pearl. Lizzie's married name was Young, Pearl married Frank Fish.
Our Mother, Lizzie G. Osborn, was born January 11th 1867. Her parents - Henry Osborn & Maria Thurber, she has two sisters - Sylvia and Lucy, the latter one passed away very young - a victim of diabetis, at the age of about 24 years.
Their child-hood was spent in the home area - Father provided transportation to school, for Mother by the way of his hand sleigh. He left home at the age of 13, to go out into the world on his own. I think there was some enmity between the boys, Father and his brother, Emory. Their Father was a railroad man - so he chose this means of travel, he worked at what ever he could find to do - once he posed as a carpenter, revieled his lack of knowledge of the trade by laying the square on the board the wrong way. He kept on moving West - learning the way of life from men much older than himself.
The roaming took him to Montana, and the Flathead Valley - "I'll make my home there". A city would offer opportunities, so he went to Helena Montana, he acquired a News paper stand & sold pop corn, peanuts, gum, tobacco etc, this must have proven lucrative - he went back to the Flathead and filed on a homestead, the plot consisted of 160 A., timber, cleared areas, and a log cabin with a sod roof. This was his home. He cleared out brush, cut trees down for fire wood, corded it up for future use, but he still needed money to operate. Manage to buy a small store, the only one with in miles, at Holt, there was a hand operated ferry, to cross the Flathead river, leading to farming areas around Kalispell. Father built up a good business, adding more supplies as he could - until his store was a needed and welcome business place for the farmers near Holt, Mont. To make money was one of his accomplishments - if it didn't succeed one way - he'd trie another. Along with the store, he was improving his ranch, gardening and planting fruit trees, buying, selling, trading horses or mules. He had a small fortune - when he desided to go to Michigan and get his child-hood sweetheart. Mother had taught school - in a one room school house,
One morning, one of the larger boys desided he'd go home, he started for the door, but Mother got there first and grabbed the dust pan, ordered him back to his seat - he obeyed - order was restored.
Father chose the winter to travel to Michigan - to get his bride. On his arrival he related all his affairs, his possessions and worth, Grandma Osborn couldn't believe him - she said, "No man can earn all that, honestly. Therefore, No daughter. Mother packed a few cloths, dropped the bag out the window, thus proving their determination, a wedding was planned, and soon were on their way to Montana, & the little log cabin, sparcly furnished, a home made easy chair with cushion of tanned deerskin, the hair made a very slippery seat. One morning, as Mother was preparing their breakfast, she looked toward the window and there was a deer, with his nose pressed against the glass - looking at her.
"Time" produced many changes - the log cabin, became an eleven bedroom "tourist center", stable for horse drawn vehicles, fishing, boating and the style of country living, with a Sunday dinner of chicken & cherry pie, was enjoyed by many Kalispell people.
Oct. 5 Fri.
Dear Everit - as you can tell by this - I'm not a story writer. It may not be just what you expected - in that event drop it all in, "file 13".
In many cases - my wording is bad, maybe my grammer & spelling is poor,
Lets change the subject.
It was nice to see Grata,......