Person:Rita Robertson (1)

adopted parents: Gavin Robertson and Anne Lange

From "Recollections by the Ashland Girls", Billings, MT, 1989, as told by Rita to her granddaughters Rocheele and Kristi: On a very cold day in a sod house on Hog Hollow Creek, near Callaway, Nebraska, i was born. Dr. Davis and my mother Anne's sister, Lenna and Theresa, were there to help with the birth. Anne's sisters were there for marale support because she had lost a girl and a set of twin girls in childbirth before me. When I experienced breathing complications, Dr. Davis instructed them to submerge me into cold, then hot, water. This they did for six hours, after which a small, blistered baby wrapped in oil and cotton was handed to Gavin and Anne. My first memory of my mother is never hearing her speak. When she needed me, she would whistle. My first trip was in 1912, at age 5, when I went with my mother to a hospital in Omaha, Nebraksa. The doctor diagnosed Anne as having throat cancer and advised Gavin to movel to a warmer climate. On the trip to Houston, Texas, we camped nights in a tent we took with us. Anne died a few months after we reached Houston. The morning she died I was taken to see her and was told she was sleeping. All I can remember is wanting to comb her long hair like she had let me do many times before. Dad and I returned with mamma on the train to Callaway where mamma was buried. The events surrounding my mother's death still stand out among my strongest memories. A few weeks after the funeral, Dad and I returned to Houston to get our car. On the trip home we ran into bad weather, then into a tree. I was thrown through the windshield, but not seriously injured. Dad and I continued to live in the sod house on Hog Hollow Creek. A man named Henry Shriver lived there with us. The only thing I remember about Henry is he always cooked corn meal mush for supper. Our dog Rover was my watchdog. He never let me out of his sight. Once I tried to trick him by bribing him with ginersmap cookes, but it didn't work and he still got all the cookies. Between the years 1913 and 1915, I would stay with aunts when Dad was on business. During these years I walked three miles to school. During the winter months, Dad would drop me off during his mail route. On weekends the neighbor kids and I would play with the mules. They would get on and ride down a hill. Half way down I would yell "whoa" and the donkeys would put their heads down and off they would fly. My young teacher, Leah Dutton, married Dad in 1915 and we moved to Callaway where Leach's mother Nettie lived with us. The family went to Rosebud, Montana, in 1918 for Gavin's health. We traveled to Rosebud on the train. When we stopped in Billings, we were delayed for hours. At the depot on the loading dock there were 17 caskets of World War I casualties. While visiting Leah's brother Merrel Dutton there, the family decided to stay. Gavin went back to Nebraska to get their belongings. Gavin leased a ranch owned by the Schutz family located at the head of the Buttes. While living there I went to school in a large bus with lots of glass windows. We froze in the winter and roasted int he summer. It was so heavy it was a real horse killer. The end of the school year the horses were just skin and bones. I think they kept it for only a couple of years. Gavin supported his family from a herd of sheep he had bought from Newell G Philbrick. Around 1922 we moved to the Rosebud Ranch on the Rosebud Creek. There I helped out in the fields. One time I was harrowing a field trying to get it done so I could go to a dance. i was running out of time, so I quit early thinking Dad wouldn't notice. But, of course, he did, and I had to finish it the next day. In the fall of 1923 when Ardis started school, I drove the two of us in a one-horse cart. My school activities included basketball and 4-H. Our 1925 basketball team was undefeated. A 4-H demonstration on "How to Wash" won first place at State for me and Stella Nees. The prize was a three week train trip to Sioux city, Iowa, and to Helena, Montana. I met Dale Philbrick in 1923 and we were married three years later. We lived farther up the Rosebud, at a ranch house owned by Dale's father, Newell, once known as the Sabra Post Office. When we first moved in the house was a wreck. It was dirty and none of the walls had been painted. As for furniture, the stove was an old one brought in from sheep camp, one leg was missing so a brick took its place. There was a four poster bed and a kitchen table and chairs. Newell's ranch hands bought us some dishes from Sears and roebuck as a wedding present. For quite awhile it seemed like everything came from Sears and Roebuck. Indians frequently stopped at our house. Dale told me to give them some flour and sugar and not to be afraid. One of the Indians was Two Moons, who came into the house, but his wives and kids stayed in the wagon no matter what the weather. In Indian fashion, Two Moons never knocked -- he would just walk in. He loved to ask for a cigarette, knowing I would have to make him one. He would laugh loudly, watching me try. He would clap me on the back when I finally succeeded. I continued working in the fields, as well as performing my household chores. During lambing I would help herd sheep. This continued for six years until the birth of our son Newell. He was to be our onloy child because of problems which occurred during birth. After Newell was born, things changed drastically: I was housebound. Newell started school in 1939, and Rita drove the school bus for four years until 1943. During the was POW's were held at the fair grounds in Forsyth. We were able to hire some of these men to work on the ranch. Rita became less "housebound" as Newell grew older. At the age of 40 she continued to help Dale around the ranch. "During a fall snow storm I had to open two gates to let the cattle in from the summer pastures. About 350 head of cattle strung out, and I just styed behind. They moved slowly because of the sotrm and the crusted snow. As we neared the ranch, my horse and the cows were leaving a bloody trail behind us." Mary Sinkey came to live with us in 1944. She stayed through high school. Afterwards she attended Eastern Montana college for two years, graduating with a teacher's degree. She accepted a job at the Sawyer School near Lewistown. One night in 1947 Newell came home to say that a girl had to quit school because she had no place to live. Much to Rita's surprise he brought Gracie McClatchy home the next night. Gracie also had a sister Mary. Both of them stayed through high school. Newell's graduation in May 1952, brought changes to the family ranch. He went to mechanics school in California for two years. After graduation he returned to work at the ranch until he was drafted. AFter two years in the Army, he returned for good to the family ranch. During Newell's absences, Rita and Dale continued living and working on the ranch. In 1959, when Newell and Diane were married, Rita and Dale moved to Forsyth. They bought the Tarbox house where Rita continues to live. After Dale passed away in January 1962, Rita continued her interest int he ranch and developed a great interest in watching her grandchildren grow. She also became a world traveler. Her travels begain with a Goodwill Tour arranged through Montana State University. She traveled with professors and other Montana citizens. The countries traveled included the Phillipines, China, Thailand, Taiwan, and Japan. Over the next several years she traveled to England, Scotland, Ireland, Mexico, the Bahamas, and the states of Alaska and Hawaii. She also visited many of the lower 48 states. During August 1983, at a vigouous 75, Rita and Jody Steiger embarked on a five day horseback tour of the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The Stockgrowers' Centennial Parade in Miles City was the last time she roade horseback. She was then 76 years old. In the spring of 1989 Rita joined the Montana Centennial Classic Car Tour. She drove the 1934 Chevrolet she had purchased years before from Mrs. Payne in Forsyth. Comfortably seated behind the wheel on the original mohair upholstery, Rita drove the 1,800 miles tour beginning Sunday, June 18, after breakfast in Miles City and ending Saturday, June 24, at the same place. She was the first place winner.