5834 South Junett Avenue,
South Tacoma, Washington,
April 14, 1924
Dear Cousins:
Greetings, from the We(s)t Side of Washington!
Montana has been our home for the past twelve years, but we lately decided to make a change to the Pacific Coast region, hence the past three weeks has [sic] found us on the move.
The wintry scenes of old Montana were left behind us as we dropped down over the Rockies into summer sunshine, and, --- Spokane. This is a wonderful little city, -- the old home of my wife, where we enjoyed a several days sojourn. I enjoyed mostly viewing the Lower Falls from Monroe Street Bridge above which the big concrete bridge of the Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul diagonals Monroe Street Bridge and the canyon, the spray from the Falls dashing on us as we stood, -- and the wonderful Davenport Hotel and Restaurant of which I have heard so much, and of which too much cannot be said.
Our trip through the famous Wenatchee Valley and the beautiful Cascades with their abrupt peaks and such masses of dense green foliage, dropping down into Everett and glimpsing the Bay for the first time underneath the setting sun, then following southward along the Bay to Seattle where darkness overtook us, -- was a sight long to be remembered.
From there we came to Tacoma and were entertained in the lovely home of the Congdon Cousins and were shown much of their city and the surrounding country. We also visited the Capitol City and Shelton, deciding later to locate temporarily in South Tacoma, hoping that the fates will favor us here.
In the fall of 1912, being seized with the homestead craze, I left the paternal roof and migrated to the heart of Montana, the fertile Judith Basin country in Fergus County, of which Lewistown is the county seat. There I secured my three hundred and twenty acres of virgin soil and began to establish a stock and grain ranch. There I met a young lady whose homestead adjoined mine, and some eight years ago we decided to combine ranches and travel double harness. We saw great possibilities in the cattle industry,
and worked into horses because we were fond of them.
We have met with varying successes and experiences. Conditions over the whole northwest have been more or less abnormal since the closing of the world war and we have felt this strongly in some sections of Montana until the past year when the usual rainy season of May and June was very pronounced, -- vegetation was abundant, and we feel that Montana has begun to "come back." It is a state wonderful in its resources and, we feel, in its future.
We have two fine healthy youngsters, Elizabeth aged seven, and Donald aged five.1 Elizabeth has been in the saddle since before she was five and can handle her horse or a bunch of stock better than many grown-ups. Saddle horses are the most convenient way of travel in Montana as you can strike a straight line in any direction through coulees or over fences. We all ride a great deal and enjoy it.
I think the Cousins Correspondence is a splendid thing and one father would have taken great interest in had he lived to see it carried out.
Looking forward to reading all your letters in the new edition and hoping this finds the Cousins all in the best of health and spirits, in which my wife joins, I am
1. Tragically. Donald was murdered at age 55 while seated at a restaurant counter. Shot by someone who didn't even know him, but felt like killing someone.--- wbt.
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