I could not resist this, this is a blurb about my family I thought you might like to read. All of it is not correct. Charles Phillips was from Kentucky where his father owned a plantation. When the plantation was either sold or went into an estate, Charles settled for some horses and some money and left. He went to Texas where he was a Texas Ranger for a period of time. In 1904 Charles and his wife, Elizabeth, came to Montana with their sons. They homesteaded along the Missouri River, later moving to the Forest Grove area where he had a coal mine and the boys, Hardee, Ray, George, Milton, Leon and Lynn, all grew up and went to school. Charles and Elizabeth moved to Columbia Falls when they left Forest Grove. He passed away in 1937 and she died sometime in the late 40's. Roy Lynn Phillips was born on July 21, 1896 in Lexington, Oklahoma. Except for a time spent in the service in WWI and working in the mines at Neihart, Lynn grew up and lived and ranched in the Roy and Zortman area all his life. Lynn homsteaded along the Missouri River about 1915 or 1916. In 1928 Lynn was the owner of a new Chevrolet truck which he used to haul alfalfa seed from his ranch, and for others, along the Missour River bottoms into Roy. On the return trip he would haul groceries back, for the ranchers along the river. During the 20's and 30's, until Ft. Peck covered the productive river bottom lands, many thousands of dollars of seed was raised. >Lynn made his living as a cowboy. He did do some rodeoing, but just at local shows. He rode broncs because that was a way of life; you rode them to break them to use in your work. It was said of Lynn that, "nothing could ever buck him off". He participated in many roundups and cattle drives and was foreman for Roy Hanson on many of the big roundups In 1929 he was married to Martha Marie Yecha (Their spelling not mine.) (Jecha), whom he met when she was working in the cafe in Roy. Martha had come to Roy, from Kansas, to visit with her aunt, Mrs. Frank Martinec, and stayed on. The young couple lived on the ranch along the river. Their first child, a girl, died soon after birth in 1931. She was buried in a grave on the river bottom. The grave was later moved to some bluffs higher up when Ft. Peck Dam began to cover the bottoms. Eventually Lynn and Martha had four boys and another little girl. The government bought Lynn out for the Ft. Peck project, and the family moved to Landusky in 1934 where he worked in the mines and became forman of the Ruby Gluch mine. It was while living in Landusky-Zortman that tragedy hit the family. It happened on a chilly day in October of 1940. Martha tried to start a fire in the stove with distillate and an explosion occurred. She died from the burns received. Lynn was severly burned trying to rescue her. Martha is buried in the cemetery in Malta. Lynn was left with five small children to raise. Charlie was 9, Jimmie 7, George 5, Betty 2, and Billie 5 months old. The first winter after Martha passed away their grandmother, Elizabeth Phillips, cared for them as she did off and on at later intervals and others also helped Lynn care for the youngsters. Lynn left Landusky and went to Belt where he worked in the mines at Niehart for 2 years. Again tragedy struck. This time Lynn's back was broken in two places in a mine cave-in and he spent a year in a Great Falls hospital. Doctors said he would never walk again. But Lynn was tougher than they reckoned and with guts and determination he proved them wrong. He had practiced his own brand of therapy and had walked in secret for a time before he surprised the doctors and showed them what he had accomplished. After this episode his hip hurt him continually until an old paint horse bucked him off and injured his leg. He practiced more therapy. He had his sons, Charlie and George, pull on the leg to stretch it and the two boys must have done things right, because after two years of numbness everything felt normal again. Lynn moved back to Roy in 1942 and bought part of the Hickey place and the Stendal house and got his family back together again....... This was printed a book published in Montana. I do not have the book, but this was sent to me. BETTY