A STORY ABOUT NEARLY EVERYTHING - STEFAN AND STEFFEN RANCHES

Have we got a next story for you? Did Jack have a beanstalk? Did Mary have a little lamb? Does Musselshell County Government need an abacus or two to end the audit and taxation fiasco?

Along with the usual beautiful illustrations, this story has parental wisdom, filial duty, romance, disappointment (mixed up with romance), religion, rodeo, guilt, retribution, charity – it even has two continents, and – well, rather than telling you about it, why don't we just get on with it?

Henry Stefan worried that his son was a bit of a wild boy, and to tame the young man, he decided to buy him a piece of land and set him to working it. There's nothing like back-breaking labor to take the fun out of life. Perhaps it was to keep himself clear of the fall-out from a failed experiment, but he didn't purchase a parcel in La Cross, Wisconsin, where they lived, but – you guessed it – out west, Dawson County, Montana. Father got in touch with the railroad, bought the property, and shipped Son off to make his fortune.

The testimony to what became young Stefan's ranch is the somber painting, "Field of the Forgotten" – a rusted, antique vehicle looks artistically gloomy in a field of wild grasses – and while Stefan set our tale rolling, he, unlike his car, will quickly vanish from it.

Once settled out here in 1914, the young man's cousin, Margaret Rusche, traveled to visit him, met the Steffen brothers, Ferdinand and William (known as Fred and Bill, respectively), and voila! love blossomed. Much to Bill's chagrin, it was Margaret and Fred that became the couple.

Why chagrin? There appear to have been several components to Bill's opposition. For one, Margaret would be breaking into the ranching partnership the brothers enjoyed. Their homesteads were diagonally situated, adjoining at a point, and their sisters homesteaded the land between. Since we believe Bill and Fred helped ranch that land, too, there had been a solid wedge of Steffens working together. Bill's pique was exacerbated by the fact that the lovely, but intrusive, woman happened also to be Catholic, which disturbed him on theological grounds, especially as Fred proceeded to follow her into that faith. Finally, the fact that Bill never married proved to his nephews, who spoke with us, that the captivating Margaret would have been his choice, too.

Now, Bill Steffen is no stranger to our series. We met him last New Year's Eve in a tableau of bachelors hoisting their jugs and bottles in a festive salute to something or other that had become lost in the years. Bill was the jolly-looking, handsome celebrant on the far right, proof positive that he was not perpetually morose. However, among the other settlers, he became quite a unique character. First, the two brothers shared a shanty sitting equally on both their lands, but after Fred chose the female over him, he felt no reason to build a house for himself but lived in a cave. Finally, he built himself a shack where he lived the rest of his life. There were lovely women for him to court, the two young ladies in "Comin' for a Visit" are evidence of that, but no one captured his heart.

Ethel Sansborn, left, and Laura Quick Andersen were best friends and neighbors to the Steffens, whom they would ride over to greet. Horses were the mode of transportation there at the turn of the 20th century, and these were capable horsewomen. Otherwise, there could have been no visits.

Ethel's father, Sam, homesteaded on land adjoining Bill's. She arrived from North Dakota a few years after her dad, and, prior to marrying Bun Brody, did the woman's work on their ranch. It's almost certain that after the wedding, Bun found plenty more of the same practice for her.

Just turning nine, Laura, her elder brother, Gail, her father, and their housekeeper left Cooperstown, North Dakota to claim their homestead outside Glendive. Her mother had died, and, provisioned with furniture, assorted belongings, and animals, their trip from Circle fluctuated between harrowing and outright disaster. Snow hampered their journey, and before it was over they had to abandon their calf and a share of the furniture. Finally, there was a surprise awaiting them when they arrived at their cabin – another family in residence! So that all might have shelter for the winter, they quickly helped the squatters complete a place of their own, but the Quick's new home was not enviable. With only a tar paper roof, everyone awoke dusted by snow, and for heat they crouched around their tiny, laundry stove, which burned the buffalo chips they gathered. Lacking a well, they trekked to a spring for water, and their trusty horse slept next to their bed. Small wonder that stealing a person's horse was a serious crime; without it, he might even freeze to death.

Proper food was scarce, but the housekeeper, Amanda, somehow always kept them fed. LuLu's dad married that resourceful woman, clearly an improvement over a horse for a bed partner, but after two years of bad luck and poor crops, they jettisoned the homestead idea. As sheriff of McCone County, he returned to his former occupation.

And what of Fred and his future bride? He lacked even the slightest intention of allowing his wife to inhabit such humble and primitive lodgings as those he shared with his brother. He contracted to build for her the first home north of the Yellowstone River with indoor plumbing and modern heating. Lignite powered their steam radiators, which still functioned perfectly at the time of our tour. The home was beautifully furnished with turn-of-the-century furniture. The dining room was particularly elegant, and the kitchen was stocked with cooking and dinner ware which would make any homeowner happy. The front door had a beveled glass window to welcome guests.

The house was beautifully protected by the lovely hill where their three children, John, Clarence and Kathleen, loved to play, and thanks to later WPA work, their creek was dammed and protective trees planted.

The grounds included a cattle shed made of rock, a smokehouse, and the shack which belonged to one of their sisters. Fred and Bill's had burned to the ground in their bachelor days, and the brothers moved this one to their land and shared it until Fred married. In one of the fields to the left of the house was a large corral, used for rodeos when Margaret and Fred's son, John, was a baby.

As a runner-up to Margret, Fred's other passion was photography. John preserved the pictures from his dad's hobby, and these made possible some of the paintings Jane executed.

Now that we've introduced the Steffens to their places in geography and history, it's time to examine the interesting futures awaiting them and their descendants. This we begin next week.