WE END UP CLOSE TO HOME

There must not be any situation or set of circumstances for which Shakespeare failed to compose something perfectly appropriate, but who would have guessed he anticipated Bascom or Bascomb, Montana, when he put these immortal words into Hamlet's mouth?

In our eighteen years near Roundup we had never heard of the place, so when Publisher Ponte suggested it as a subject for an essay and pictorial attention, we commenced looking around and found both spellings. The more we looked, however, the more that "Bascom" appeared, and if majority rule isn't enough – one never knows; we've stopped having it in this country – then for authority take the road sign off U.S. 12 just across the Rosebud County line. It says "Bascom."

In last week's article, by way of introduction to this, our valedictory column, we mentioned the settlement a few times, and for information sources, we have had the good luck to interview a pair of former residents, Bud Hjelvik and his sister, Joan McCaffree. Further, Bud loaned us facsimiles of old Melstone newspapers, the Messenger and the Graphic, which reserved columns for Bascom happenings.

We've not been successful in discovering who lent his or her name to the village, although Bud recalls a Garth Bascom, who claimed to be descended from the namesake. Jane's picture captures all that remains today of the former train town, and what time and the elements have converted into the sort of roof one might observe in the Whitney or Guggenheim Museum, once covered a barn/garage building. It lies about a mile south of Highway 12 just west of Bascom Road.

What else was there to Bascom? A hotel; a school with a stable behind it; a lumberyard; a railroad foreman's house; Dan Swain's grocery store, also housing the post office; a hall for public gatherings, owned by E.W. Schroeder; and the teacher's home, a shack built by John "Shorty" Midkiff; not to mention various other private residences.

The two-room school included eight grades, but only one teacher, for one of the rooms was never used. Bud, born in 1931, vividly remembers when his first-grade teacher gave him an assignment to use specific colors for completing a picture. Being color-blind, he received quite a beating from Miss Mark for what she interpreted as disobedience.

He remembers that in his years at Bascom School, he was the only pupil in his grade; and the twins were the only pupils in theirs. Not surprisingly, then, the school closed when Bud was about to start the 4th and his twin sisters, Joan and Jean, the 5th. At that point they were schooled in Sumatra, and Bud, before anyone had thought of Driver's Education and barely able to see over the dashboard, drove them all to classes in his family's old Model T Ford. Sumatra, by the way, had a dormitory and a high school before Melstone had one.

The family had a 1929 Chevie, with the roof rusted off and an engine which hardly putted. Uncle Harold planned to use the running gear to make a sheep wagon, but Bud pleaded to upgrade from the Model T. First, he had to fix the engine himself, and that is how he learned about engines and became the family's mechanic. To solve the rusting roof problem, he cut a piece of Formica to fit, winter caused him to install a different heater, later he switched the body, and thus continued driving the Bascom children to school.

The children's father, Iver, came from Norway, near Molde, which is rather southerly in the elongated country, to America in 1917, when he claimed his homestead and also starting working for the railroad. Their mother, Adela Schroeder, arrived in Montana from Wisconsin, and her introduction to the new state was memorable, if not pleasant. She, her mother, and her uncle came by train one night, but for some reason, were let out between stations, and had to spend the night waiting in the dark. In the morning they walked to the train station only to find no one could help them, for these Germans did not understand Norwegian.

As was common elsewhere, the Bascom School was a venue for community social events, and dances were the most popular among those. Ken Mager of the Railroad Museum at Harlowton found a 1919 advertisement for one. Like all capable Norwegians, Bud learned early to dance and remembers when the music consisted of a fiddler and someone to play chords on the piano.

One of Bascom's most dramatic tales involves the Hjelvik family when Bud's sister, Dorothy, was about to be born. They lived on a ranch four miles from town, and Bascom's midwife, Mrs. Grant Eaton, had difficulty walking. Therefore, in the winter of 1936, Mrs. Eaton's son, Roy, using the railroad tracks to avoid gullies laden with deep snow, carried and guided her to the expectant woman.

For the new citizens, the choice of language sometimes posed problems – she, Adela, from German descent; he, Iver, Norwegian. At their wedding the celebrants were carrying on in their native languages, when her Uncle John banged a large fist on a table and reminded everyone that they must use English

It's fair to say that Bascom was created by the Milwaukee Road to satisfy its operating requirements, but, as we'll see from news headlines, little places like these more than repaid the company for their existence. Large quantities of livestock and crops were shipped from these fertile miles, and myriads of good, useful lives were contributed to making ours the greatest of countries.

Bud had a pair of Hjelvik uncles that also emigrated to the United States, and their lives told very different stories. One, Karl, no sooner landed in the New World than he found himself inducted into its Army and sent back to fight World War I in Europe. When he was mustered out, he wasted no time in returning to Norway and stayed there.

Uncle Erik, on the other hand, built himself a small, one-room cabin and lived his life there – no additions, no larger homes – just his one-room cabin, which, as Jane's recent painting shows, continues to stand lonely guard in the great, wide Plains spreading about it. Neither has the little outhouse completely given up.

For several years the area around Bascom was a vital, busy, mainly happy place, but in Bud Hjelvik's own words, "The 1929 crash emptied this country," and driving in it today, one must notice that it remains largely empty. However, there is beauty and security in emptiness, too.

Very useful and descriptive are news items pertaining to life, work, and culture during Bascom's peak years. The following items are from the Melstone Messenger and the Melstone Graphic, facsimiles loaned us by Bud Hjelvik, and were published originally in the years noted. Spellings of some names varied radically from issue to issue, and square brackets, [ ], are used to insert the present authors' comments. Quotation marks are used for items reproduced exactly; otherwise, a summary is given without quotes. Dashes separate distinct news items.

6 October 1911 "Last Thursday 4000 sheep and 1000 cattle shipped from Bascom." - "The Bascom cribbage club ..." - "School reopened on 25 September after being closed for a week due to an accident that occurred on Sunday, the 17th. Miss Himes [the teacher] was uninjured but one of the children badly hurt but now fully recovered." [The nature of school activities on Sundays was not mentioned.]

13 October 1911 Harvest supper and dance a big success. 40 people. "Dancing was enjoyed until a late hour. Next social gathering on Thanksgiving Evening." - "600 acres of winter wheat in the area."

27 October 1911 "The steam plow has been busy the past week in Bascom." - Beans and potatoes growing in the area.

3 November 1911 "Rev. Ellis preached on Sunday and attended Sunday school. 16 for Sunday school." [perhaps means he conducted Sunday School, Bud Hjelvik recalls that twenty plus years later, the church was in Melstone.]

8 December 1911 "News of the Thriving Village of Bascom" [headline of the Bascom news column] - Thanksgiving dinner and dance for 40 people, 5 p.m. "After the dinner the tables were cleared and dancing was enjoyed until 5 o'clock in the morning." [We are reminded of festive nights and mornings in Norway sixty-five years later.]

26 January 1912 "Miss Hines ["Himes," at other places] has several men putting up her summer supply of ice." [Bud remembers cold winters' providing two-feet thick ice on the Musselshell. Blocks were cut and covered with sawdust in shacks, where they remained frozen for surprising lengths of time. In years of poor ice, the Milwaukee road shipped it to Melstone, and the railroad men gave some to Bascom.]

2 February 1912 "The party that Bascom people had planned to enjoy last week was postponed till this Friday evening for reasons best known to the orchestra." [The orchestra's intrigue may never be known.]

23 February 1912 "Patriotic entertainment and supper given by the Bascom school. Proceeds will go for public library." [Nowhere else is there mention of a public library in Bascom.] - "Miss Blanch Himes who has taught the Bascom school the past year has received her state certificate. She has been re-elected to the school for another year's work."

22 March 1912 "Mr. Swain now has charge of the post office in connection with his store." - "A.H. Silloway made a flying trip to Sumatra Friday." [It seems air travel was available.]

29 November 1912 "Twenty cars of sheep went out from Bascom Tuesday."

6 December 1912 "A. H. Silloway is unloading a car of coal for D. Swain." [Mercantile] - The next train stop east was Hibbard. - "Mrs. S. Himes and daughter Blanche made a business trip to Melstone Saturday." [The teacher lived with her mother.]

13 December 1912 "Mrs. Sarah Himes has been suffering from a severe attack of rheumatism." - "A.H. Silloway [frequently mentioned in civic business] is busy putting up a new fence around the school lot in town this week."

20 December 1912 "Miss Himes is busy drilling her pupils for the Christmas program." - "The Swain Mercantile's has as fine a display of Christmas Candy as anyone would wish to see."

2 January 1914 "Robbers broke into the Swain Mercantile Co. and the post office last week getting about $5 from Swain. Sheriff Moses of Forsyth found some of the coin at Sumatra, so it is presumed they went east." - "Midkiff Bros. received a car of oats last week." - "Seats have been ordered put in the second room of the Bascom school, No. 1." - "Andrew Holman is having built a log cabin opposite the Dimonds' residence on main street." - "Mrs. H.A. Longstaff has been in the Twin Cities for 3 months." [Then, as now, this referred to Minneapolis-St. Paul. There was a local trio known as the Tri-Cities: Sumatra, Ingomar, and Vananda, now all mainly ghost towns.]

8 June 1922 "Bascom Hall Burned." This was a lightning strike, which several men witnessed then acted swiftly to save the piano. The building was owned by E.W. Schroeder [Adela's father] and was used for most public gatherings the town had.

Now, as the beautiful Angel of Music, Sarah Brightman, sings, it's "Time to Say Good-Bye."

Numbers of people deserve our gratitude for this series of articles, and in individual pieces we have thanked some of them by name. There were too many to identify personally, so we extend a word of sincere appreciation to all those that provided us interviews and documents and shared their recollections and stories with us.

Roundup Record Publisher Dave Ponte, of course, made the contributions possible by thinking our proposal a good idea for his newspaper. The number of readers that have thanked and complimented us personally make it appear he made a sound decision.

Jane's sister and webmistress, Dorothy Yetter, of Grant's Pass, Oregon, was a valuable ally to the work, for her file of painting images is more complete and better organized than ours. It was extremely expeditious and convenient to request the picture of XYZ painting and have Dorothy's providing it usually by return email.

These little snapshots of Montana history have been enjoyable for us to present and we hope a source of entertainment to everyone that glanced at them.

Finally, we leave you with two little suggestions. Ask questions and encourage your elders to reminisce on their past and listen to them, for after they pass, the history only they can describe is lost forever. You elders, seize the opportunities to record your memories, if not in writing, then by word of mouth. All these memories put together create the heritage of a family, a community, a city, a state, a nation.

Sincere best wishes from Jane and Larry Stanfel.