THE MULLEN PLACE, Our Yesterdays, Jefferson Co., MT USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Files may be printed or copied for personal use only. "List transcribed and organized by Ellen Rae Thiel, thieljl@aol.com All rights reserved." Copyright, 1998 by Ellen Rae Thiel. This file may be freely copied for non-profit purposes. All other rights reserved. THE MULLEN PLACE It is thought that a man by the name of John Downs homesteaded a 160 acres along the river. The Downs left, Ed and Effie Morgan lived there. Effie was a daughter of W. N. and Ella Davison, another pioneer couple from the valley. Then it was sold to a man by the name of Harris. Harris' step daughter "Babe" Reed, homesteaded another 160 acres on the bench. Then it was sold to Jim Mullen, and is still referred to by many of the older timers as the Mullen Place. Jim came from Nebraska, and his wife was a Martinsdale girl. They had lived in Martinsdale for a time after they were married. Jim and his wife, Maude, worked hard to get some stock together and machinery also. They gradually added more land as they could. They built a nice home and a big barn. The next years were filled with hard work, but pleasure and enjoyment also. The Mullens had three children, two boys and a girl. One winter day, Maude woke up feeling poorly. As the day wore on she felt worse and worse. She had a temperature, her stomach felt queasy and she took to her bed. Jim was very worried and decided he should take her to Whitehall to see Dr. Packard, who said, after the examined her, she must go to the hospital. Jim and the children took her to Butte to the hospital, but, of course, Jim had to leave her and take the children home. The next day, a bad blizzard came, and when Jim was called that his wife was very ill and he should come, the roads were blocked with snow. By the time he could get the children to a neighbor lady to watch them and then get through the drifts to Butte, Maude had passed away. Such a sad time! Jim could not take proper care of three small children and do the ranch work too, so arrangements were made for Jim s mother to take them. This good lady raised them to adulthood. It was very hard for Jim to manage without the help of his good wife so he and a neighbor, Frank Westfall, went in partnership. This partnership went on for several years. When Westfalls moved, Jim Mullen leased the ranch out for several years before he sold it. Jim probably owned this place longer than any other person has. Over the years it has changed hands many times, and is the place where the Wendell Gunthers now live. SUBMITTED BY MR. AND MRS. GEORGE DAWSON