This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Howe, Haugen, Amland, Carefoot-Mowat, Kennedy, Long, Wood, Cox, O'Brien, Roosevelt, Landers, Hatlelid, Caragata Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/idB.2ACE/30 Message Board Post: MARTIN CHARLES HOWE (1882-1965) Martin Charles Howe was born in or near Bergen, Norway on December 11th, 1882, and his original Norwegian name was apparently Ingebrigt Tjerandsen Haugen. In June of 1883, he immigrated to the United States along with his parents, Tjerand and Anna Haugen (nee Amland), and his uncle and aunt, Nels and Bertha Haugen. They all settled southwest of Chicago in the Norwegian community at Morris and Joliet, Illinois. While living in Illinois, the Haugens decided to anglicize their surname to Howe and at the same time Tjerand changed his first name to Charles and his son’s to Martin. Charles and Anna Howe and family moved north to Minnesota in 1890, and then moved again in 1892 when they decided to head west and homestead at Presho, South Dakota. Shortly after the turn of the century, Charles Howe made yet another move and resettled his family on a larger homestead about 100 miles west near Cottonwood, South Dakota. Thelma Carefoot-Mowat recalls hearing her Dad tell some of his friends that he almost perished in a storm when he was a teenager in Presho, South Dakota circa 1898. While tending his father’s sheep and cattle some distance away from home, young Martin occasionally liked to head over to the Sioux Indian reservation nearby and visit with the people there. Not only did he enjoy their company and culture, but while there, he also enjoyed learning how to step-dance and play the harmonica and then do both together. And through his visits to the Sioux Reservation, he became friends with some of the young Sioux teens. After one such visit, Martin headed back to check on the sheep and cattle when a sudden winter storm rose up out of nowhere. Some of the cattle had become mired in a marsh and with the water quickly rising, he had to get them out of there fast. When the blizzard began to rage, one of Martin’s young Sioux friends became concerned and went out into the storm to look for him and found Martin frozen and stuck waist-deep in the snow-covered marsh. He managed to pull Martin free and hoist him up onto his horse and then took him back to the Sioux Reservation where his mother nursed Martin back to health over the next several days. If it had not been for the heroic actions of the young Sioux brave and his saintly mother, Martin Howe would have surely died and would therefore not have married and had any descendants. Page 65 of The Jackson County [South Dakota] History Book contains a similar story included in a short article titled “John & Charles Howe,” an excerpt of which reads: “Anna Howe (Kennedy) and brother Martin Howe homesteaded near the White Water Creek. Martin raised sheep. The spring of 1905 he was caught on the south side of the creek, with his band of sheep, in a rainstorm. Unable to cross them he stayed with them that night and by morning it had turned into a bad blizzard. Martin was found unconscious by Ernest Reed, who took him to his home, where his mother cared for him until he was able to return home. It was several weeks before his family knew whether he was alive or not.” To further his education, Martin took a course in business and law at a college (Morningside?) in Sioux City, Iowa. He would have liked to complete his law degree; however his father wanted him to return home and work on their farm and ranch. When the family moved to Cottonwood in 1904, Martin took up his own homestead in the same vicinity. He enjoyed ranching out on the open prairie near the South Dakota Badlands, where range wars between cattlemen and sheepmen sometimes occurred. He was skilled in the art of backfiring and often helped put out prairie fires which frequently threatened the country. One of his most colorful recollections from this period was his temporary appointment as sheriff to track down and arrest a Dakota outlaw. In 1909, a young teacher by the name of Florence Long came up to Cottonwood from Richland Center, Wisconsin with her sister Leona and grandmother, Amanda Long. While teaching at the Cottonwood School, Florence lived part of the time with her aunt and uncle, Edna and Frank Wood. Her pupils included two of her Wood cousins and also Martin’s youngest sister and brother, Matilda and John Howe. During her four years there, she served as church organist, and she also met and fell in love with Martin Howe. Mae Long Cox once wrote to her sister Florence and recalled: “My husband Eck still talks about the time you came up to visit us when we lived in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We were all visiting at Uncle Tom and Aunt Neal O’Brien’s place and Martin Howe came up to see you, and came suppertime, Aunt Neal [who used to hunt buffalo and make buckskin outfits for President Teddy Roosevelt] said, ‘Where is Florence and Martin?’ Uncle ! Tom replied, ‘Oh I seen them lullagating around down towards Sturgis.’ You and Martin had gone for a walk — don’t remember just where you went. Do you still remember it?.” In the year 1912, Martin and his father became adventuresome and decided to head north and settle down in western Canada where vast open prairielands had been opened up to settlement in the last decade. Upon arriving in southern Saskatchewan, he and his father both took up homesteads and pre-emptions. His father chose land in the Wood Mountain area whereas he chose to settle ten miles further north on a half section (S½-9-7-4-W3). Martin built himself a sod shack and a straw barn, then worked on threshing outfits until harvesting was finished, and in this way he was able to earn the money he would need for future supplies when setting up for farming. He and his father went back to South Dakota for the winter and Martin filled the long cold months by rounding up equipment he would be needing when they returned to Canada in the spring. He bought horses and harnesses, machinery, tools and many other provisions that were necessary for a new home, and all of these he loaded into boxcars. When springtime arrived, they made the trek to the new land. Martin was all enthused about this venture and he worked hard to get things in order. And then it was time to travel over to the bordertown of North Portal to meet his fiancée, Florence Long, who was due to arrive from Cottonwood. Florence Howe wrote: “I must say we were happily married July 3, 1913, in North Portal by a kindly old minister [Rev. Coffin]. As we did not know a soul there, a couple of strangers signed our marriage certificate. Then with the minister’s blessing, we walked over to a restaurant and ordered our wedding supper of bacon and eggs, lemon ! pie and coffee. This seemed to us a most wonderful banquet.” Martin and Florence travelled by train from North Portal to Weyburn and then on to Assiniboia, as the railway had finally reached that far. Martin bought some lumber and also shopped for groceries they would be needing. He hitched up his horses who had been waiting for him in a livery barn, loaded his lumber and provisions and set off for home. It was a long drive, but when they finally reached their humble home, and had their homecoming meal, they were happy and grateful. Martin and Florence worked hard at getting settled in — Florence cleaning and putting up curtains, etc., and Martin looking after his horses, planting his crops and buying some chickens. But the two of them worked together and they were happy, that is until their lost their first baby, Donald Robert (born October 15, 1914) to pneumonia. It was a very sad time for them. Other babies came along and the sadness eased. Martin and Florence had eleven more children: Thelma, Anna, Mabel, Shirley, Martin Jr, Evelyn, John, Bill, Tom, Pat and Jim. Martin and Florence dearly loved their family as it grew and each new baby was greeted with wonder and love. In the early years, Martin helped bathe the children on Saturday nights — it was a very special family time. Martin loved to have one or two of his kids with him when he was out working or driving to town. I can remember when Thelma and I were occasionally allowed to ride on the seeder or binder when we were just five or six years old; however Dad was very careful to see that we were safe. Thelma, the eldest of the family, was the one who helped Dad around the farm in many ways. We were all taught to do many things like pulling weeds in the garden, picking stones, and milking cows as we grew older. But Thelma was the one out with Dad the most and she surprised everyone when she learned to drive the tractor and our Ford car and then the big truck, all by the age of twelve. Dad depended on her a lot. But as the boys grew older, Thelma’s outside jobs lessened. Dad was proud of his family. He was always fair and didn’t show favoritism. When company came to visit, they would want to see us kids, so Dad would tell us to line up by order of age which we did. It was sort of a ritual with us for all our young years. Another interesting occasion was when we were baptized. Dad wasn’t too concerned about our religious education, but Mother was. She taught us prayers and read or told us Bible stories and also sent us to Sunday school in the warmer months when there were church services. But there came a time when the two of them put their heads together and decided to finally have us all baptized. So one bright Sunday we were told to dress up and we did, and Dad and Mom and all eleven of us drove off to Harwood School where services were held. And we were all baptized then and there. I remember that Dad explained to the congregation and the minister why he and Mother had waited so long. He thought it was important for person! s to be old enough to understand the significance of the baptismal ritual. Martin like to be waited on by his children. He smoked his pipe most of his adult life, and when we were young, we liked to bring his tobacco to him or find his pipe. Also, we’d bring his footstool to him. We used to like it when he played his harmonica, and sometimes when there was peppy music on the radio, he would step-dance for us. We also liked it when he laughed as he had a very unusual laugh, so much so that we would all have a good laugh. We also enjoyed listening to him talk Norwegian to some of our visiting relatives and neighbours. He apparently retained his ability to speak fluent Norwegian. When the drought hit South Dakota in 1929 and wiped out the crops there, George and Anna Kennedy, with no crops to tend to, decided to visit Anna’s three siblings [Sadie, Tillie and Martin] up in Canada. They brought their five children with them and stayed for a couple of weeks with the Landers, Hatlelids and Howes who all lived within about ten miles of each other north of the Wood Mountain Hills in Saskatchewan. When the Kennedys came to visit the Howes in their small four-room home, Florence spread fresh straw mattresses out on the floor of the children’s bedroom, to make sufficient sleeping accomodation for all the Kennedy and Howe children. It was a memorable occasion for the entire family. Martin was very interested in farm movements and supported organizations such as the Grain Growers, the Wheat Pool and Co-operatives. The farmers needed to be recognized. They worked for better grain and shipping prices on all farm products, especially grain. Dad always attended political meetings when they were held in our hometown of Lafleche. And I must tell you that he usually brought one or two of his children along with him. No wonder we all have an interest in current events. Martin was very active in the forming of the CCF (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation) Party (which later became the NDP - New Democratic Party), and was a candidate in our constituency at one time. He didn’t win but he was the best speaker of the bunch. Martin had many good qualities. He was always honest in his dealings and he taught his children to be honest too. He was a good neighbour – always willing to lend a hand if help were needed, or to lend a plow or mower if someone had a breakdown. He taught us all the value of hard work, and the fact that no job should be beneath us. He was a man with lots of courage. And he wasn’t afraid to try something new – such as trying out other crops when he experienced rust problems with wheat, or changing his breed of cattle for a new breed that would bring more profit. Dad was really brave when he drove his cattle 300 miles all the way to Calder, Saskatchewan in the dirty-thirties – 1934-5, since there was no feed for them at home because of the drought. Then in the following year he took them about 200 miles further east to Gladstone, Manitoba where there was plenty of feed. It was difficult but he saved the cattle. Dad made another move which required much faith and courage and that was when he sold the old farm in 1953 and bought a ranch south of Glentworth where he would have access to more grassland, since he wanted to do more ranching and just enough farming for stock-feed. Martin enjoyed ten very happy years at the ranch and he was reluctant to retire. He had enjoyed riding and tending the cattle and then later, driving the pick-up truck through the grasslands to check on them, and in winter, to take feed, if necessary, to the cattle out in the fields and in the corrals closer to home. But he finally agreed to try out city life with Mother as she needed an easier life at this point. Our father, Martin C. Howe, proved to be the stuff pioneers are made of. He had the courage to face the hardships of settling in a new country and he had the will-power and the ability to cope with the many problems as they arose. He was a man who did not easily give up. His attitude toward adversity was “Next year will be better.” It was that hope that kept him going and helped him through his eighty-two years of life. Martin died in Regina, Saskatchewan in January 1965 and is interred at the Lafleche United Church Cemetery. Florence passed away in her 90th year in November 1978 and was laid to rest alongside of him. - by his daughters, Anne Howe Caragata & Thelma Howe Carefoot-Mowat <><><>