Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Anson Miles Wilder GARRETT
Anson Miles Garrett was born October 12, 1879 in Hurley, South Dakota while it was still a territory. During his early teens, he traveled in a covered wagon through the states from South Dakota to Kansas and Missouri, into the Ozark Mountains with his mother and step-father, who was a Baptist minister, bringing the Gospel to the Hill people there. When he was still very young he ran away from home and went to meet the world head on, as was his way through life. After roaming for a few years, he returned to his native state where he married Sophia Clara Bauer, daughter of Andreas Bauer and Ursula Goetz. She was born March 19, 1876 in Germany. As a very small child, she came with her parents to America and they lived near Sioux City, Iowa, where she grew up. After she married Anson Garrett, they worked on farms around Davis, South Dakota. Clifford Monroe Garret was born in 1899 on St. Patrick's Day, and both Cliff and Clestia were born at Parker, South Dakota.
Anson and Sophia moved to the northern part of South Dakota, to Denham, where Anson's mother and stepfather lived. They had a nursery where they grew trees and shrubs and sold them to other homesteaders. Their house was made of sod and was a large house with walls about two feet thick. The inside walls were smooth and so very white. The deep-set windows were always filled with beautiful flowering plants.
They lived about four miles from the Missouri River. Part of Anson's homestead house was made of sods. This was the home where his wife and children lived, while Anson worked on the Price Cattle Ranch and came home on weekends. All the homesteaders hauled logs and driftwood from the river, for heat and cooking material. There were quiet a few rattlesnakes around that area and Clestia remembers Sophia killing some with a garden hoe. They had guinea hens and the hens used to make an awful racket when they came across a rattlesnake. They would surround it and Sophia would come and kill it.
Anson worked as an agent for the Indian Agency, close to Mobridge, South Dakota, for quite a while, and it was because of his connection to the Indian Agency how his daughter Neoma was named. Before her birth, the chief of that reserve kept calling the unborn child Naoma. Later, in the interest of peace the newest member of the family was named Neoma, this made the child a big success in the area. During this time, Anson played an alto brass horn in the band at Glenham.
Anson and Sophia sold out, left Glenham in 1908 and moved back to the southern part of the state where Sophia's relatives lived. They were all farmers, and after returning to Parker, the children went to school there. Anson did survey work, draining ponds and sloughs, thus making more land available for farming in that area.
In March 1911, Anson's packed up all their belonging on railway box car, all the household effects, horses and machinery. Cliff went with him, and they met Bill Niles at Sweet Grass, Montana. Bill Niles had written such fantastic stories about the wonderful Alberta Country it had provided the incentive for Anson to move. Bill had a homestead just four miles west of Coutts and they moved everything there. The rest of the family came on the passenger train a few days later. (Note often talk to moving to Canada in 1910 in several sources, however obituary states 1911, as does Clestia Sproad's records)
Later that same spring, Anson got a job managing a crew of men to plough a fireguard on both sides of the track from Coutts to Lethbridge. Sophia and the children went along in a covered wagon, and Sophia cooked for the men. After getting to Lethbridge, the children were enrolled in school, and Anson got a big tent for them to live in. He put in a floor, and made partition to give some privacy. They lived beside the railroad tracks in North Lethbridge, then called North Ward.
While in Lethbridge, Anson filed on a homestead for I-17 district on N.E. of 18, I-17-4, without ever having seen the land. The land turned out to be mostly all big hills, sloughs and lakes, but the grass was like a hay meadow. Anson hauled used railroad ties for the foundation of the house, which he built on a big hill in 1912. He also helped ot make the beautiful Galt Gardens.
Sophia and Anson had an extra addition to their family in 1917. Their daughter Clestia had a baby girl named Pearl, and Sophia and Anson agreed to raise Pearl as their own daughter. The was never any adoption papers but Clestia always preferred referring to Pearl as her sister rather then her daughter. Clestia married Ben Sproad November 05, 1917. In 1922, Anson bought a small herd of cattle and leased grazing land about six miles from their original homestead.
Anson and Sophia lived on the farm until 1925, and then moved to Coutts where they bought four lots and built a good-sized house and a smaller one. Anson did carpenter work in and around Coutts and Sophia took in boarders. Sophia was a very good seamstress, and a wonderful cook. She raised a good garden and attended church regularly.
Sophia passed away in a Great Falls hospital on June 21, 1939 and was laid to rest in the Coutts Catholic Cemetery. When Anson was 81, about 1960, he had one leg amputated. He then moved to stay with his daughter Naoma Free in Calgary. He had the other leg amputated at the Milk River Hospital. From there he went to the Southland Nursing Home in Lethbridge. He passed away on February 03, 1974, and was laid to rest in the Catholic Cemetery in Coutts beside his wife. He lived to be 94 years old, from the days of oxen, covered wagons and sod houses, to the space age. The moonwalk he found difficult to believe possible until he witnessed it on television.
=
| HOME | EMAIL | SURNAMES |
Return to The Pennocks of Primitive Hall website.
The information in this database may contain errors. If you find any questionable data, or if you have something to add my findings, please feel free to e-mail me by clicking on the "E-MAIL" link above. Thank you!
Page built by Gedpage Version 2.21 ©2009 on 07 July 2020