Ancestor Accomplishments

POWELL FAMILY

   Jeannette Bradley’s mother was Martha Katherine Powell, known as Kate. Kate’s parents were John and Harriet Powell, both of whom were born in Franklin County, Virginia. John was 26 years old and Harriet was 16 years old when they married. In 1851, John sold his plantation in Virginia (and his slaves) and traveled by wagon to Baraboo, Wisconsin with his wife, Harriet, his newborn son, William Silas, and his mother, 70 year old Sarah Roe Newbill Powell.
   John and Harriet resided in Baraboo for 16 years and owned 80 acres of land. Five more children were born to them: Martha Katherine, Ashley, John, Charles and Sam.
   The Powell boys were lured to the wide open ranges of Montana when The Free Homestead Act entitled anyone who filed to a quarter-section of land (160 acres) provided that person "proved up" the land. "Proving up" meant living on the land for five years. A few years after their sons went west, John and Harriet followed them to Montana. Kate was the only family member who stayed in Wisconsin. Thirty letters written by Harriet Powell to her daughter Kate between 1889 — 1906 have been preserved and give a glimpse of what homesteading was like in the early 1900s.

   Each of the Powell boys made a life for himself in the west. These interesting men were Jeannette’s uncles.
William Silas Powell - Came to Montana in the 1870s and became involved in ranching and government. Silas was the Montana delegate on the Western Water Ways Improvement Commission in 1886. He was received into President Grover Cleveland’s office, was personally introduced and “received a cordial shake of the President’s hand”. On his trip to Washington, Silas was commissioned by the Montana territorial governor to transport a blind girl to a school for the blind in Baltimore. The amount of $30.10 was included in the Official Report of the Territorial Treasurer for travel expenses. He spent his later years in Spokane, Washington.
Ashley Bassett Powell - Came west in 1879 and took up ranching. In 1903 he located near Lewistown, Montana and started the Powell Dairy which he ran until his death in 1941. He had six children. When his wife, Sarah, passed away, Ashley came back to Baraboo to marry his cousin, Tillie English, who was 23 years younger. 
John Dudley Powell - Came to Montana in 1878 and ranched for a time. He joined with Amos Shaw in 1898 to begin the Shaw and Powell Camping Company, which took tourists into Yellowstone National Park. They were permitted to establish permanent camps and operate stages to transport their guests from camp to camp. This was early “glamping” with luxury tents and hearty meals prepared on site. Customers were promised “elegant coaches, gentle horses and experienced drivers; cozy sleeping tents, hot and cold water, and sanitary dining rooms” for a rate of $35 for five and half days of sightseeing in Yellowstone. John and his wife, Lola, had one son, Hollis, who died at the age of 20. 

Charles Josephus Powell - Came to Montana but moved on to Kellogg, Idaho, where he was in the grocery business (Franklin & Powell Grocery). He later lived in Spokane, Washington, where he was a “confectioner clerk”. In 1905, Charles received patent number 793.869 for a hose coupling he and fellow business partner Edward Franklin invented. Charles had two children.

Samuel Henry Powell - Came to Montana and was a highly respected rancher. He was a bachelor until he was 49 years old, when a school teacher came to board with the Powells. Carrie was 35 years old and swept Sam off his feet. Ten months after their marriage, Carrie gave birth to twin baby girls. Can you imagine a 50 year old rancher, suddenly a husband and father for the first time, with twin girls?!  Sam died when his little girls were only 7 years old.
  One of the Montana letters tells about a grass fire that swept across the prairie and almost burned their home and ranch. Harriet wrote to her daughter, Kate, “Sam went down to dig potatoes, plowed out one row and looked up the river and saw a fire. He and his man grabbed sacks and put his team to the wagon and went as fast as he could. The fire jumped the river but Sam managed to put it out. If he had not it would have got in the thick brush and come right up the hill back of our barn and granary and burned them and perhaps our house too. Sam says he never   
  fought fire so hard in his life.”