Fessler: A Man Above Reproach

W.N. and Etta Fessler

W.N. Fessler known as Wilbur was born on February 5, 1866 in Perry, Iowa. He married Etta Bennett on February 11, 1889 and they lived on a farm in Iowa for the next ten years. Next they lived on a farm in North Dakota for nine years. In 1909 the family moved to the Bitter Root for eleven months then took up a homestead three miles west of Philipsburg in the Flint Creek Valley. He settled there on the advice of his brother Dr. Emmett Fessler, who died in 1925. 

In the possession of LouAnn Fessler Sichveland is a notebook full of memories that Nina Eva Fessler recalled and wrote down sometime in the mid century. Born to Etta and W. N. Fessler, Nina began with her birth on Wednesday September 17, 1902 at McHenry, North Dakota; then her sister Leonita Gwendolyn Crystal was born December 18, 1903 also at McHenry, North Dakota. Nina indicated that they lived in North Dakota through 1907. In 1908 all the family “took a trip to Stevensville to visit Uncle Elmer, Dr. in Stevensville. Stayed all winter.” In 1909 they moved to Stevensville and she and Leonita went to the first grade there; “Kermit Wilbur was born there on December 22.” 

The family moved to Philipsburg on a homestead in 1910 and Vinson Bodkin was born on July 4. The middle name Bodkin was his grandmother’s maiden name; “Uncle Elmer Dr. in P’Berg.” In 1912 “Cains bought Dr. Fessler’s Homestead next to us.” Nina did not make any entries again until 1917 when Frank went into the military “and only stayed 6 weeks.” The family story is they could not find his birth records, so sent him home. 

Arthur and Cecil went into the Service on June 1, 1919 and Leonita died on July 22. Leonita’s obituary in the Mail, July 26, 1918 stated: “…14 years old and youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W.N. Fessler died at the family home…after an illness of only a week’s duration. Death resulted from Chorea complicated with endocarditis.” Her funeral was held after Cecil and Arthur were able to return from encampment at Petersburg, Virginia on July 27. 

W.N. Fessler was rural mail carrier on the Rock Creek route April, 1911 through 1917, then route was cancelled because of World War I. “Wilbur worked as a contractor and business man who was above reproach in his dealings.” He contracted pneumonia and died at his home on October 5, 1932. Survivors were: wife Etta, sons, Arthur of Portland, Cecil of Roseburg, and Frank, Kermit and Vinson of Philipsburg; two daughters, Mrs. Nina Drinville and Mrs. Ina Sharkey; a brother Lewis and a sister Mrs. S.J. Ballard of Iowa; and three grandchildren. Internment was in the Philipsburg cemetery. 

Nina Fessler chronicles: “1962- Mom went to Stevensville October 13 came home for Xmas, also Judy (Fessler Naef) and John (Naef) they live in Kent Washington. Mom went back 1st of Jan(uary). 1963- Went to see Mom on Easter. Mom died Fri (April) 19th.” Etta Flora Bennett Fessler was a midwife during the 20’s and 30’s in and around Philipsburg and was the rural mail carrier when W.N. took his vacations. 

Kermit Fessler (1909-1975) married Cecile Porter from Oregon and they had Janet and Judy. Janet married and lived in Oregon with children Heidi and Brent. Judy married John Naef and they live in Washington and Arizona. They had three daughters: Paula, Lisa and Jonna (b.d.1963); three grandchildren and a great grandson Mason. 

Frank Nicholas Fessler known as “Stub” (1892-1967) married Beatrice Beekman (1910-1967). Stub bought the rural school houses when they closed and remodeled them into dwellings, two of which are located near Skalkaho Junction. 

Cecil Fessler and Arthur Fessler did not remain in Montana after the War was over. Vinson (Vince) (d-1987) worked for the Trout Mining Company when he married Maxine (Kopie) Ray (1914-1987) on March 16, 1935. Vince bought property from Joe Porter on the south west corner of Porter’s Lane and worked for years on the ranch plus had a trucking business with his brothers hauling ore for Taylor and Knapp and other mining companies. Their daughter Mryna married Ed Leiphmer. They live in Butte and Georgetown Lake and have four children: Edwin G., Mark, Stacey, and Jill and many grand and great grandchildren. Daughter, LouAnn married Don Sichveland (1937-2008) and remained in Philipsburg as do their sons: Thor and Dirk. Daughter Krista and granddaughter Ashley live in Missoula. 

Ina Fessler (1897-1984) married Patrick Sharkey (1893-1975) in September 1918. Their son Cecil (1926-2016) married Dionysia (1926-1995). They are survived by two sons; Jim and Rick; seven grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren. 

W.N. and Etta’s heirs continue life’s above reproach in Granite County and other states.

Heartaches By The Dozen

Josie Walberg, Parfitt, Rupp, Shoblom was a very strong woman as evidenced by the hardship and grief she experienced early in her life and the manner in which she managed a fortune later. Josie was born in 1890 to John (1858-1936) and Anna Ecklund (1863-1938) Walberg. Her parents married in 1884 in Sweden had immigrated to the United States about 1888. John’s obituary states they lived first in Nebraska and then came to Granite County in the 1890‘s, and staked a homestead on lower Rock Creek. Preceding both of them in death was their son Andrew who died at the age of eighteen on November 9, 1911. Survivors were daughters Josie and Violet (Gormley) and grandchildren, Lucille and Vernon Gormley Jr. 

Anna was also survived by sisters: Mrs. Alex McDonald and Mrs. H.K. Westin, both of Seattle, Washington. Anna’s mother Catherine Ecklund had died on January 25, 1905 in Hall. At the time of Catherine’s death there was five children living: Anna Walberg, Mrs. Fred Westin and Mrs. Charles Weaver, of Philipsburg, Albert, of Hall and Andrew of Lincoln County, Nebraska. 

Anna’s father Albert Ecklund died on December 29, 1929. He started out as a rancher in Hall then changed his occupation to mining in 1899 at Georgetown. Albert followed that occupation for thirty years. He became too ill to work three months before his death and was cared for by Anna at the Walberg ranch. Internment was in the Philipsburg cemetery. 

Josie married Henry “Harry” Parfitt Jr. in 1915 and in their three year marriage five children were born. First she had twin‘s: Betty died shortly after birth and Billy died at the age of five days on January 11, 1916. Then their daughter Vivian Josephine died at the age of five weeks in January of 1917. In November 1917 their last child Thomas was born. The Parfitt family also lost Harry’s brother Tom as the first casualty of WWI in 1918. 

In January,1918 Harry left his job at Huffman Grocery and they moved to the Waldberg ranch on Rock Creek. That fall, Harry became ill with the Spanish Influenza. Josie loaded him up in the family wagon and took off from their lower Rock Creek ranch for Philipsburg. While fording Rock Creek the wiffle tree broke as the team attempted to pull the wagon up the steep bank of the creek. Josie, walked back to a ranch house to get another wiffle tree. Poor Harry, remained in the wagon, while his strong wife took care of the crisis. In town Harry appeared to be getting better, then was stricken with pneumonia and died October 21, 1918. 

After Harry’s death Josie worked hard to support herself and little Thomas. But her grief was still not realized. Two year and nine month old, Thomas died at his Parfitt grandparents home on July 17, 1920. On July 9, Thomas had fallen off a fence at the Waldberg ranch cutting his leg on a hoe and blood poisoning set in. There is no headstone, so my assumption is Thomas was buried in one of the siblings graves and Josie did not have the money for a stone. 

Josie (Waldberg) Parfitt circa 1920

Josie began working for Al Rupp as cook in 1920 at his 3,655 acre Willow Creek Ranch located at the Highway 328 and Willow Creek Road junction. Part of theis property was originally owned by Levi Johnson and bought by Rupp and his partner August Greenheck in 1900. 

The bachelor married his cook on July 6, 1929. Al, a prominent pioneer stockman of Granite county. was born in Fon du Lac, Wisconsin in 1863 and arrived in 1889 in Montana. Handsome and wealthy, Al was sought by local females but managed to stay single while involved in many monetary ventures both by himself and with other county residents. 

News articles abound, such as: “Albert Schuh and Albert Rupp arrived last week from the Flathead where they have been ranging some cattle since early last spring. They made a shipment of beef cattle to Spokane a week ago on which they did very well. One steer in the bunch weighed 2010 pounds.” Rupp and August Greenheck operated butcher stores in Granite until 1893; in Philipsburg before and after 1893 and Drummond in 1896, plus a slaughter house for many years along with the cattle ranch(s). Al had also built on Broadway, housing the Central Café by 1928. 

After the marriage, and in failing health Al lived at their home in Philipsburg, until his death November 21, 1932 and is buried in the Philipsburg cemetery. 

Josie managed the estate very well including the ranch on Willow Creek, the Helm Ranch on Ross’ Fork and many properties in and around Philipsburg. 

Josie married Herman Shoblom December 17, 1934. When Josie died in 1966 the Willow Creek ranch was inherited by her sister and brother-in-law, Violet and Vern Gormley.

Chickens Can Make Money

The following is a story told by Abbie M. McLain to Garnet Stephenson at Georgetown Lake in 1964: I Abbie May Belyea McClain was born in the green timber land of New Brunswick, Canada Sunday afternoon of January 18, 1885..at 5:00 p. m…My father John Wesley Belyea was a hard working dairy farmer. My mother Mary Elizabeth Delong Belyea who was thirty-nine when I was born was a good farm woman. I was her tenth and youngest child. Four girls and five boys lived to maturity. One child died at birth. My father worked in the lumber woods in the winter. I was one month past five years of age when my father died of dropsy at the age of forty-eight. His body filled up with water and when it reached his heart he passed away…My brothers stayed home to finish paying for the farm. $300.00 was owed on it… I was twenty-three years old when in July 1908, my sister’s husband and oldest boy came to Missoula, Montana. 

The following March I helped my sister bring her seven children to Missoula... I fully intended to go back to New Brunswick where I had done housework for another family for seven years. I was young, pretty and had good clothes. I had blue eyes, a straight nose and cheeks that stole the bloom of the wild rose. I wore my hair in a large bun on the top of my head. I had a fancy pin in it. My tall, slim figure was clothed in dresses of the bustle-mutton-leg sleeve style. The better dresses had long trains that trailed behind. Women often carried the trains over their arms. Shoes were high top button style. I found a job doing housework in a place called Washington Gulch eighteen miles north of Avon. I worked there sixteen months, then I went to Missoula to work. 

I arrived in Missoula December 3, 1910. While I was in Missoula a neighbor, Mr. Gibson used to tease me about a Will McClain. I had never seen Will, but jokingly told him to invite Will down sometime. The Gibson’s had worked for Will and his brother Charlie on their farm in the Bitterroot. I found Will to be a handsome, blue-eyed man of medium build with dark curly hair. We had supper at Gibson’s then Will and I went to a revival meeting. A teacher named Lowry had meetings in a big tent across the tracks. We went to revival meetings often after that. 

Abbie and W.H. McClain

I had been in Missoula exactly one year when Will and I were married December 3, 1911… Will was thirty-eight and I was twenty-six. I, the bride wore a brown suit with an ecru lace blouse. I paid $10.00 for the blouse. On my head was a brown velvet hat trimmed in front with blue net. We drove a buggy from Missoula to the ranch near Philipsburg. Will and I lived on the ranch from 1911 until he died January 26, 1949. Will and I worked hard and over the years we expanded the original ranch of 160 acres to 2,470 acres. 

We had three children. The first was a boy who died when he was ten days old. He was born January 29, 1913. Howard was born eleven months later on Christmas day, 1913. Emily was born December 6, 1917… To make a living we raised horses, range cattle, chickens and milked cows. We sold fifty pounds of butter a week…I have always been fond of chickens but Will never wanted to have any. I took some of my own money that I had earned and put away before my marriage and bought a dozen hens. Later I bought another dozen red hens. When Will saw that I could make money with them he built me a hen house… We milked one cow at first then Mrs. Belleview had cows she wanted to sell. We then bought more from Cleve Metcalf. Fourteen were the most we milked at one time. We both milked and after they were big enough the kids milked. After Howard was three years old, we had a hired man all of the time. 

The years have passed and I am an old woman. I have five granddaughters: Lesa Marjorie Lyon, Charlotte, Mary Etta, Lydia “Gail”, and Nellie McClain and one grandson George W. McClain. The ranch that I worked so hard to help pay for is still in the family. My son Howard operates it. I had my part in the progress of the west and now I relinquish the work to younger, stronger hands.

Abbie an unassuming person lived a simple life consisting of hard work, harsh reality, and her legacy: the ranch and grandchildren.

A Crib For The Generations

Earlier this summer at Flint Creek Valley Days, in a conversation with Helen Hauck Shanklin, I asked her if she had any pictures of her maternal great-grandparents, Anna and Charles Kroger. A short time later I was honored to receive not only pictures of the Kroger’s but also a family article written by Catherine Hauck Taylor (daughter of Dora and Lawrence Hauck). 

The following contains excerpts from this family article, written at an unknown date. “ I have wondered what my grandmother, a woman of gentile upbringing from an entirely different environment, thought of the new land where she was to make her home. The names were far from reassuring. Leaving Deer Lodge, they traveled by wagon to the Mouth of Bear, now Bearmouth, hearing of the Hell Gate on down the canyon to the west, then up Bear Gulch high in the mountain country to Beartown. This four year old, rough frontier town consisted of log cabins hastily built, rather close together, to house one thousand miners…Such was the environment which greeted my pioneering grandmother and where she proceeded to make a home for her family for almost five years while they steadily improved their financial standing.” “Two children were born to the Kroger’s in Beartown, Dora Catherine on September 11, 1871 and Walter Wesley on July 11, 1873. My mother was the first white child born in Beartown. 

Anna (Rusch) Kroger

Charles Kroger

This brings to mind two stories. My grandfather bought Grandmother a sewing machine which arrived in time to help her making the layette. One day as she sat at her sewing machine in front of a window, light was cut off suddenly and she looked up startled to see what made the room so dark. The window was filled with the faces of Indians looking at this object of strange magic. Fearfully she continued to sew. After what seemed an eternity, the light returned. The Indians left quietly.” 

“The second story is about a little crib. Originally it was a cradle, but the rockers have been lost through the years. My mother’s coming had created considerable interest in the camp. As a special gift, Mrs. Joaquin Abascal and her husband, recent arrivals who had established a general store in Beartown, sent for the cradle. It came by train to Corrine, Utah; thence to Deer Lodge by freighter and from there to Beartown by packhorse to be delivered by the mail carrier, Mrs. Abascal’s brother W.A. Clark, Sr. (shortly thereafter, Mr. Clark went into other fields, becoming heavily interested in the Butte copper mines. In later years he became Unites States Senator from Montana.) Grandmother told me they used to carry the baby in the crib to dances and other community gatherings where she slept peacefully, not awakening even on the trip home. No baby sitter problems for them! Four generations have slept in the little crib, my mother and her three brothers, my mother’s five children, five of her grandchildren and four of her great-grandchildren. Following is the list: Dora Catherine Kroger September 11, 1871; Walter Wesley Kroger July 11, 1873; Henry August Kroger October 25, 1975; Frederick William Kroger January 22, 1879; Herman Lawrence Hauck November 18, 1894; Catherine Dorothy Hauck September 10, 1901; Elsie Christine Hauck August 13, 1903; Dora Marguerite Hauck April 6, 1905; John Christian Hauck December 22, 1910; Lois Jean Hauck November 4. 1926; Marian Irene Hauck November 2, 1928; Elsie Margaret Taylor June 30, 1929; Dora Catherine Taylor September 27, 1932; Ellen Jean Taylor February 22, 1944; John Ryan McGarvey June 15, 1955; Allan Michael McGarvey June 26, 1957; Michael Dale McGarvey December 12, 1960; Margaret Ellen McGarvey February 18, 1964.” 

“During those early years in primitive Beartown, Grandmother and Grandfather often spoke longingly of their homes in Schleswig-Holstein and their families there. Finally, in 1874, fortified with eight bags of gold dust to finance the trip, they started out on the long trip from Beartown with their two small children, Dora, three years and Walter, one year old, to visit for several months in Germany. I do not know how many months it took for them to get there, but it could not have been an easy trip with such young children. According to Uncle Fritz, mother’s youngest brother, as he had heard the story, ‘the return trip was made with the two small children, three 16 gauge, pin fire shotguns, a large 12 tune cylindrical music box, a medicine chest, miscellaneous boxes and the necessary traveling luggage. By ship to New York, by train to Corrine, Utah and home by stage coach. A trip to end all time.’ Grandmother told me that she and Grandfather took turns holding the precious music box wrapped in a steamer robe.” 

 Wonderful stories!

Dora (Rusch) Lehsou, Anna (Rusch) and Charles Kroger, John Lehsou

Munis (Munesi)

South of the Mungas ranch on East Fork Road was located their cousin’s ranch owned by George and Annie Munis (Munesi) (Unknown when the spelling changed). The November 1, 1912 Mail, listed registered voters of Granite county with George Munesi living at Sec. 24, T5N, R15W. 

Born in 1881 in Yugoslavia, he came to America in 1900 and moved to Philipsburg in 1903. The homestead was taken up in 1910 and he married Anna in 1912. 

Annie and George (Joe) Munis 1912

Born to Annie and George were Nick, John, George, Mitchell and Robert. George’s (often known by Joe), headstone in the Philipsburg cemetery states George Joe Munis. 

Annie Parich (Perish, Perich) born 1887 in Yugoslavia came to the Flint Creek valley in 1912 when she married George and moved to the homestead. She lived there continuously with sons George and Robert after becoming a widow, until her death in 1954, at the age of sixty-seven. 

Their son Nick, born in 1913, was under-sheriff for Bryan Hynes beginning in 1946. He continued the position when Fritz Lueck was elected to the Sheriff office and when Fritz left the office Nick was acting sheriff until the 1954 election. He won the election and served as Sheriff until he retired in 1980. Prior to under-sheriff, Nick worked on the family ranch, logged, worked the Sapphire Mines, the Anaconda Smelter and the East Fork Dam Project. He held the Philipsburg Chief of Police position and resigned as of February 1, 1953. Apparently, he was filling the job of under-sheriff and chief of police at the same time. Nick lived on the Mitchell Munis ranch after he retired until his health forced him to move to the Granite County Memorial Nursing Home. He was an active member of the Flint Creek Masonic Lodge and The Montana Law Enforcement Association. He died at the Nursing Home July 10, 1996. 

Robert (Bob), born in 1931, worked for eighteen years for the Granite County Road Department and then ranched with his brother George. He died at the age of fifty-three, in 1985 from a motor vehicle accident at the junction of Highway 38 and what is now Highway One. 

John, born in 1914 married Bessie Terkla in 1937 and went to work in the local mines. On January 18, 1944, John enlisted in the Army and served during WWII until 1945. In 1947, John and Bessie bought the Miller ranch located just off the Skalkaho Highway in Section 5 and he ranched there until his death in 1994. He was a member of the Maxville Veteran of Foreign Wars and served on the Philipsburg School Board. Survivors were: wife Bessie; sons John and wife Peggy (Mungas) of Billings and Michael and wife Nancy of Manhattan; grandchildren Dr. James Munis of Boston and Bonnie Sue of Concord, New Hampshire and five great grandchildren; Bessie continued living in Philipsburg until her death on December 18, 2002. 

Mitchell, born in 1917 began to learn the trade of raising purebred Hereford cattle at a Wyoming Hereford ranch at the age of seventeen. Next he was herdsman at the ranch of Governor Dan Thornton of Gunnison, Colorado. He was drafted into the Army in 1942 and discharged after serving in France, North Africa and Germany in 1945. Mitchell returned to the cattle business in Colorado and Wyoming, being involved in the first sale of a $100,000 bull at the Baca Grant Ranch disperser sale. He married Rosalie Moore ( a telephone operator) in Gunnison, Colorado in 1953. 

They moved back to Philipsburg in 1956 and leased then, bought the Ed Heimark ranch in 1959. They had two children: William and Betty (New). Mitchell died in Missoula at St. Patrick’s Hospital in 2001. 

Mitchell and Rosalie’s son William “Bill” (1955) graduated from Montana State University with a degree in Agriculture Mechanic and died at the age of fifty at St. Patrick’s Hospital in Missoula in 2006. Survivors were: his mother Rosalie and sister Betty New of Boise, Idaho. Rosalie lived in assisted living near her daughter Betty in Boise her final year and died in 2016. 

George born in 1916 spent his entire life on the ranch, except for WWII. He was as a sharpshooter from 1941 to 1945 with the 18th Infantry Brigade, Company F and earned the combat Infantryman’s Badge. He was wounded, received a Purple Heart and was discharged with the rank of Sgt. George married Mary Diane Sward in 1957 and they had: Brian, Joe, David, Stephen and Jennifer. They later divorced. The ranch specialized in registered Herefords and Black Angus cattle. George died in the same house he was born in at the age of ninety in 2006.. 

The fourth generation of Munis families continue to manage the ranches.

Who was the Mungas Hill and Willow Creek Mungas Named After

Mike Mungas circa 1914

One family instrumental in the development of the Trout creek area was Mungas. Water was the life blood of ranching and the following article in the Mail October 15, 1937 discussed the long standing battle waged to protect what was needed to ranch effectively: “A complaint, praying for the adjudication of the water of the East Fork of Rock Creek, was filed in the District Court on October 9th . Rock Creek Ditch and Flume Company, a corporation, John Hickey, George Munesi, Mitchell Mungas and George Mungas are named as plaintiffs and The Flint Creek Water User’s Association, State Water Conservation Board et al are named as defendants. The complaint alleges that plaintiffs appropriated 1000 miners inches equivalent to a flow of 25 cubic feet of water per second, on or about July 18, 1910. …plaintiffs were denied the right to transport their irrigation water through the canal and water system constructed by the defendants as provided for in an agreement.” As you can see by the date the issue started about 1910 and when the law suit was filed in 1937 this action was long lived and ended up with most of the Trout and Flint Creek valley involved in the action, making water a very contentious and precious product. 

The very first settlement I found regarding water rights was in 1905 and pertained to the rights in Flint Creek. The suit was by the Montana Water, Electric Power and Mining Company versus Mary Schuh et al. This suit was settled in the circuit court of Helena and published on the October 6, 1905 issue of the Mail. The settlement gave the power company 1200 miners inches of water and “that on average one and one-half inches of water per acre is ample and sufficient to properly irrigate the said lands of the defendants.” The East Fork water issue was thought solved in an item published in the June 12, 1914 Mail with the headline “Water from Rock Creek is now flowing over the divide.” The article stated: “Water from East Fork of Rock Creek is now flowing through the Mungas ditch and down the Trout Creek slope toward Flint Creek… With irrigation the fertile bench lands of this section will become the most productive in Granite County. The idea of bringing the water from the East Fork of Rock Creek over the divide to irrigate thousands of acres along the Trout Creek is not a new one. Such a project was planned and surveys made more than twenty years ago. But the cost of the enterprise proved a barrier; it was more than most of the ranchers could afford to put into an irrigation scheme. Finally M. Mungas became interested and to his enterprise and persistent effort is due the successful completion of the project. It makes intensified farming in the Trout Creek district a possibility and in a few years will bring a complete transformation to the upper valley. While the cost of the big ditch has been a small fortune its value to the district is inestimable. Mr. Mungas has earned distinction as an empire builder. 

I am not certain when Mungas located on East Fork. Reference in the Mail November 5, 1909 stated “W.B. Ritz who worked at the Mungas saw mill in Sluice Gulch was brought to town with his left hand so badly lacerated it had to be amputated.” Sluice Gulch is located north of Antelope Gulch in Township 6, so was a number of miles north of the Mungas homestead. Mike Mungas made homestead entry No. 05516 on N½,S½ section 12 Township 5, North, Range 15 West, on October 20, 1914 and his Notice of Publication was March 8- April 15, 1918 in the Mail. Witnesses were: John Hickey, William Carey, George Carey and Axel Sandin. 

According to Michael’s obituary, he was born in Dubrave, Yugoslavia March 17, 1858 and immigrated to the United States in 1888, Michael first settled in West Virginia where he worked in the coal mines for about one year then returned to Yugoslavia. In 1895 he returned to the United States and was employed at the Anaconda Reduction Works for a few months before he came to the Philipsburg area where he was employed at cutting stulls for “a number of years.” Then Michael became a prosperous rancher in 1912 on upper Trout Creek. Michael died in St. Ann’s Hospital in Anaconda on March 14, 1944 just three days before his eighty-sixth birthday. Survivors were: widow Mrs. Christine (Boja) Mungas, sons George and Mitchell and grandson George M. Jr., who all lived on the home ranch. Mike’s wife Christine (Boja) Mungas died in 1947 and is buried next to him.
                               
                                         "Zatesalo is Much Too Cumbersome"
In 1890 twenty three year old George Zatesalo left his wife Mary and infant son Peter in Yugoslavia to find a better life in America. He arrived in New York, then went to relatives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he began work in the steel mills. George worked across the country until he arrived in Anaconda, Montana and worked for the smelter. At an unknown date he started working for Mike Mungas and on March 17, 1913 a 160 acre homestead on upper Willow Creek was recorded for George Zatesalo Mungas. Mike had told George that “Zatesalo was much too cumbersome” and suggested George change his last name to Mungas (Anne Luthje, “Upper Willow Creek”).

George built a two room log cabin on his homestead and sent for wife Mary and now seventeen year-old son Peter. Within the first year after arrival Mary gave birth to a daughter named Emma. Life was hard but the family never gave up. Peter worked at home and on the other ranches helping put up hay and calving. In his thirties he met a young seventeen year old girl through a friend in Anaconda. Anjah (Angela) Kosanovich immigrated from “the old country” at the age of sixteen.

Mary, Emma George and Peter (standing) Zatesalo Mungas

Anjah and Peter married and had two son’s: George (1922) and Peter (1924).  Father George was involved in a wagon roll over and his team went on to the Luthje ranch without a driver. Henry Luthje found George lying in rocks with a broken hip. George refused care and was crippled the rest of his life. Mary died of pancreatic cancer in 1936 at the age of sixty-nine. Grandson Peter was run over by a vehicle in India, while serving in World War II and died July 4th, 1945 and Grandpa George died later that year of prostate cancer.

After the Spring Creek School house was moved to Willow Creek on 1.7 acres George had provided, the school teachers boarded at the Mungas ranch. That is how young George fell in love with Miss Dorothy McGrath and married her. Born to this marriage was Peggy (1943), James (1944). Bob (1947) and Dan( 1952).

Emma completed teacher’s college and taught in a rural school west of Kalispell. She died in 1981 and is buried next to her husband in Kalispell. Anjah died in 1955; Peter died in 1970.

While George ran the family ranch, Dorothy taught school in Philipsburg for many years. In 1973, George and Dorothy sold the ranch. Peggy married John Munis; Bob married Andrea; Dan became a Doctor and married Theresa; James became a Doctor and married Carol. James died from ALS January 2011 in Great Falls. Dorothy and George died December 2008-January 2009.

And that is how there became the Mungas Hill and Willow Creek Mungas’s.

Now back to the second generation living on Mungas Hill: It is apparent the monetary aspect of the Mungas ranch was being managed by the son prior to Michaels death as taxes for George M. Mungas for the year 1927 were $637.38. George was president of the Montana Stock Growers Association; a legislative assembly delegate from Granite County in 1937; Secretary of the Rock Creek Grazing Association; a charter member of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame; a member of the Montana State College Experiment Station Advisory Board; director of the Deer Lodge Bank and Trust; school board member; Granite County chairman of the U.S. Savings Bond program; State Legislative Representative for Granite county in 1937; a member of the Masonic Lodge and Shrine; a lifetime member of the Rotary and attended the Episcopal Church.

George born in 1888 in Austria, died September 13, 1976 at St. Patrick’s Hospital in Missoula. Survivors were: wife Margaret, son and wife: Mr. and Mrs. George M. Mungas Jr.; three grandchildren: Michael, Mona Gaye and Craig and cousins: Nick, John, George, Mitchell and Robert Munis.

Mitchell Mungas, made homestead entry No. 05517 on October 20, 1914 at the age of 21. Mitchell was a member of the Flint Creek AF&AM. Born on October 15, 1893 he died on March 25, 1970 of a heart attack.

George and Margaret’s son George M. Mungas Jr., born November 4, 1943 took over the 2T Ranch after his father died in 1976. He attended University of Montana and studied Business Administration. After serving in the Army, George returned to the ranch and married Dana Skoglund in 1964. They had Mike and Mona, then divorced and George married Sharon Barkell in 1975. Craig and Joe were born to this marriage.

George and Sharon started The Mungas Company in 1981 and built a thriving business in mine reclamation and construction. George died May 16, 2006. The family continues to manage the property and business.