Yesterday, Gus and Lillie (my paternal grandparents) had a squabble about quitting the horse-trading business and moving to Montana to homestead. Lillie, determined to get her boys (my dad and his brother--ages eight and five) away from the influence of the Mecums, won the argument by threatening to take the boys and go whether or not Gus went with them. She also reminded Gus that her family wasn't the only criminal element influencing the boys. Gus's brother Ed, a drunken bully, had shot to death a colored man seven years before, for no other reason than that he was black, married to a light skinned woman who looked white. Gus had actually named his son (my dad) for this murderer. After the killing, "Uncle Ed" disappeared and was never heard from again, despite all the work done by my older sisters in their genealogy search.

Today, Gus and Lillie will arrive in Montana (at one point, near Wolf Point, fording the Missouri River, which at the time was a nearly free-flowing stream, with all their animals and wagons) to begin setting up their homestead in McCone County.

How did we (my sisters and I) ever turn out "normal?" Amazing!