THE RANCH AT THE Y, Our Yesterdays, Jefferson Co., MT USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format 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 RANCH AT THE Y The ranch practically at the south end of the valley (at the Y) has been in many hands since its beginning. As the years went by, more and more acres were added to the original homestead. It is most commonly known at the present time as the George Elliott place for George and Grace Elliott and their family lived there about as long, or longer, than anyone else It is thought George Franks, who later moved to the South Boulder Valley where he was a prominent rancher, was the original homesteader. Mrs. Lena Titus, who was the sister of Mrs. Jim Ryan, was the next one who lived there. After a time the Roy Robinsons came. They had no children and both Roy and his wife, Belle, worked hard long hours to get the ranch work done. One fall during harvest time, when their turn came for the thrashing machine which came through doing custom work, they had barely got a good start when black clouds came up and the rain started. Of course, no thrashing could be done until the sun came out to dry the grain shocks. An itinerant preacher had stopped at Robinson's the night before and he was invited to spend the night. The next morning he went out with the harvest crew--which was made up of neighbors who exchanged work with one another--to do his bit to help and also get in a good word for the Lord whenever possible. So when the rain came it seemed to the Reverend a heaven-sent time to sermonize. As some preachers are wont to do, he talked on and on not even noticing when the sun came out and a drying breeze sprang up. Roy and the helping neighbors began to fidget and shuffle. After some time, the preacher took notice of the warm sun shining and said a rambling prayer and dismissed his congregation. Roy, who talked with a lisp, turned to the man next to him and said, "he quit jutht in time or I'd have but a thack over hith heahead!" Roy and Belle Robinson later sold the place to the John Mountjoys. (John Mountjoy was later sheriff of Jefferson County for several terms and was very popular with the people of the county.) After the Mountjoys left, Jess and Bernice Chambers and their family lived on the ranch for a number of years. They were well liked people and good neighbors to all. Since then there have been several different families on this ranch over the years, with the best known one being the George Elliotts as stated before. The present owners are Mike T. Quinn of the valley, who owns part, and the Vinson Dovers, who divide their time between Georgia and Boulder Valley, owning the other part. SUBMITTED BY MR. AND MRS. GEORGE DAWSON