MARGARET BAILEY BROADUS

From 'Fanning the Embers', published 1971, Range Rider Reps, Miles City, Montana

I was born Oct. 29, 1907, at the ranch home to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Bailey. I attended my first eight years in the Davidson School and my first teacher was Rays Lonsberry, who married George Knoblock of Birney. When I was in grade school I took piano lessons in the summer and rode nine miles each Saturday to take music from Ira Snider. I so loved the music that I didn't need to be encouraged to practice Every year there was a rodeo in Ashland and we would talk bad into letting us go to the dances and he would bring us home at one or two in the morning. He had a seven-passenger Cadillac. For high school I attended Forsyth, Ashland and Hardin schools and graduated in 1926. 1 went to Western Normal in Dill on, Mont., Sheridan Business College and later Johnstown Business College and then went to work as a clerk in the Clerk and Recorders office at the court house in Forsyth. On Nov. 9, 1929, 1 married William Broadus Jr., of Broadus, Mont., who was employed by the Northern Pacific Railroad as Special Agent and he was also a deputy in Rosebud County. A year later we moved out by my father's ranch and started ranching for ourselves but we had picked a bad time because of the drouth of the early 30's and the depression. The Government came in and bought our cattle and later we took this money and bought calves and sold them as yearlings. We added to our ranch little by little over the years, clearing out trees and brush from side creeks for meadows. We drilled our first well by the house and the cottonwood trees that we brought from Powder River and planted by the house provided us with shade. We had bad and good times alike. On the first heating stove we had, before we moved into our own home, the ash can was so small that when the bad storms came it had to be emptied about four times during the night, Bill usually did this. He had lots of experiences with broncs to ride as well as to drive. We had one team that just didn't want to be good horses and they were used to feed the cattle in the winter. Each time Bill drove over a sharp jump on the road into the meadow I would watch from the kitchen window and wonder if he would make it. We had three children. Betty Joan graduated from Montana State University and married Dick Imer of Hardin. Hugh William is a natural-born rancher and he married Evelynn Fadhl of Colstrip. Margaret Ellen graduated from the university of Montana in Missoula and is married to Fred Caruso. We have five grandchildren. Five years ago Bill and I built a new home and turned the older one over to Hugh and his family. We bought a Hamond organ and it has been wonderful as I love to play. I have been taking lessons on it for three years now from Mrs. Lysle Finch in Forsyth. I am now living out on the ranch but will probably spend the winter in town to have a little more social life.