Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A S P R I N G | 2 0 1 4 1 8 Gal How did one cope with lonelins, personal ls, dpair, and near financial ruin during the Great Deprsion, then followed by a decade of drought? Pioneer women of the eastern Montana prairie never dreamed that their journey West in search of a homestead would yield a series of trying and tragic events, with the only constant being the unrelenting wind of the prairies. Their stories are part of the great westward migration, over 150 years ago, under the Homestead Act, which offered 160 acres of "free land" to anyone who was age 21 or older, who could live on the land for five years, and pay a $10 filing fee. The original act, signed by Abraham Lincoln, allowed the claiming of over 270 million acres (10% of the area of the United States) by the early 1900s. Homesteads were staked on fertile, highly produc- tive, and irrigable land. The second "Enlargement" Act, passed in 1909, offered a greater incentive of 320 acres for less productive land, suitable for dryland farming. Claims in Montana, North and South Dakota occurred during this era. And in 1916, the Stock- Raising Homestead Act granted 640 acres per claim for ranching purposes. Montana, the nation's largest destination of these pio- neers, offered an acreage allotment of over 34% of the entire state, totaling over 150,000 homesteads on more than 32,000,000 acres. There are many different reasons why these women settled. For men the need for a hard working wife to tend to the daily chores seemed essential for survival. However, some single women came in search of the adventure to build the American Dream, by own- ing their own homestead. Others came in hopes of a fresh start, running from personal woe, financial challenges, or boredom. Most women were not following their own personal dream, but that of their spouse or other family members. What they found and endured was much different than the refined life they left behind. Most of the prime ground was already taken, so the rush for more remote marginal ground in 1910 caused many homestead failures because it was nearly impossible to make a living on only 320 acres of high prairie. One such wanderer was Martha Haftle. She and her sister, Mary, along with their brother, Charlie and Mary's husband Karl, relocated from Eureka, South Dakota, in 1910 and made their homestead claims 40 miles south of Baker, in southeast Montana. Mary's hus- band, Karl Pleissner purchased the Fallon County Times , a local Baker newspaper in 1917. Karl traveled an 80-mile round-trip commute to his city job by horse every week from the family homestead. W o m e n o f t h e W i n d : Martha Haftle

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