Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1909 — Shirt Collar Bill Ranch in Montana. [ARTICLE]

Shirt Collar Bill Ranch in Montana.

The ranch on which Mr. and Mrs. Ed F. Mills reside In Montana is known as Shirt Collar Bill Ranch, and its new owners, Boyce & Mills, have retained the old name. The legend that accompanies the naming of the r&nch relates to the time a “way-down-easterner” went to Montana, and astonished the natives by wearing a white collar. He bought a ranch, his name was Bill and the native ranchmen were quick to adopt the name which is not so very elegant but has the advantage of distinction. Mrs. Mills wrote to her mother,-Mrs. Julia A. Healey, a few days after her arrival, and a part of her letter is here quoted: “The boys are swamped with work, having only 220 trees planted of 1,000 that they have purchased. They are also planting 45 bushels of potatoes. I believe I am fairly acclimated now. The first three or four days I was here I could scarcely get my breath and a short walk completely exhausted me, but now I scarcely notice it. I have started on a hot bed for tomato and cabbage plants and have planted lettuce,' radishes, beans and peas in the garden. “We are having a porch built on the east end of our house and from it we can look many miles up the valley and the isvery beautiful with the Rocky mountains furnishing a background for the gradually rising foothills. At the west we have the Bitter Root moun-. tains only three miles away, and some of the peaks almost a mile high. To the north is Rt. Mary’s Cay, a high peak that is snow capped the year round. Yesterday we could see a snow, storm up in the mountains and here in the valley it raiued. I am enclosing two native flowers, one being the star flower and the other the mountain lily. They grow only in the mountains. We entertained our first guest last night. A Harvard, graduate who was roughing it m the west. Our household goods had not yet arrived and we ate oft some boxN es with a limited number of dishes, but we wanted to help our Harvard friend rough it. Our goods are now at Hamilton and will be installed post haste."