E. F. (FRANK) CROSBY

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

By Helen Crosby Badgett

E. F. Crosby was born Sept. 1, 1852. He came riding into Montana from Dakota Territory, behind a bunch of horses in 1890, with his two oldest boys, Emmett and Harvey (Hod). Hod was only 12. I can well remember him telling about his blind grandmother who lived with them, on the upper Michigan Penninsula. He could never understand how she could tell when he took a puff on her pipe when he lighted it for her with a coal from the fireplace. He chuckled mightily when he told it for he knew when he grew up there was nothing wrong with her nose. E. F. Crosby married Martha Davis at Menominee, Wis. They had seven children before coming to Montana: Emmett, Hod, Libbie, Mont, Sylvia (Syd), Bill and Bessie. Carsie was born in Montana. Grandpa Crosby was fiddle-footed enough that they moved from Stump Creek to Maxwell Butte, then back to Powder River, then to Knowlton and back to Powder River, finally to Canada, then to Miles City. During the years from 1902 to 1906, E. F. Crosby was County Assessor for Custer County. Besides his ranch interests and livestock, he was an astute trader and a musician. E. F. Crosby died in 1923, and Martha Crosby born Nov. 30, 1854, died in 1928. The picture below of Knowlton was taken in 1904, built by E. F. Crosby. The store, family home, store room and blacksmith shop and community hall. East of the hall is the home of Doc Knowlton, first postmaster, prior to 1900.