WILTON (FUZZY) BUFFINGTON

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

Wilton Hale (Fuzzy) Buffington spent all but three of his 62 years in eastern Montana. He was born in Chadron, Neb., Feb. 25, 1895, and came to Montana with his parents three years later. He lived in Miles City for a while, and while still very young went to Forsyth to make his home with the John McKays on Rosebud Creek and attend school there. In 1914 he filed on a homestead north of Jordan in the Snow Creek country, and Mr. McKay gave him a start in business. In 1917 he married a school teacher from Missouri, Opha Kester, who was teaching the Jake Simonsen school on the Missouri River. They had four children: Edith, now Mrs. Clarence Curdy of Bozeman; Lorriene, now Mrs. Barney Murnion of Jordan; Kester of Spokane and Robert who lives with his family on the Buffington ranch at Jordan. On Sept. 3, 1946, at Seattle, Wash., he married Agnes Leedy, who had grown up on the family ranch at Leedy, northwest of Jordan, attended country grade schools, and went on to Lawton, Okla., for high school. She was postmistress at Leedy from 1918 through 1921 while filing on a homestead, was a telephone operator at Malta for several years after that, and also at Ft. Lewis, Wash., during 194244. Mr. Buffinton spent his entire adult life on the Z-P ranch, and at the time of his death Oct. 3, 1957, owned and controlled 32 sections of land and was raising Hereford cattle. Agnes Buffington moved to Miles City in 1958 and for the past five years has made her home at 920 Pleasant St.