the Homestead History
- 1864-

The Story Beneath Our Feet

As a child growing up on this property, I always knew it held history. This land was the original heart of the homestead, still home to several outbuildings and a barn from another era. There were overgrown graves tucked into the backyard, and handwriting etched into the walls of the chicken coop—marks left by someone who had lived and worked here long before us. Some said it was the oldest homestead in the area.

When we purchased the property, my curiosity deepened. I wanted to know who was buried here. I wanted to know whose handwriting still lived on the walls of our coop. I wanted to understand the story this land was holding. So I began researching—connecting fragments of the past with the present.

One evening, while out to dinner with a childhood friend and her family, I mentioned the name Curtis, recounting pieces of the story I had uncovered. Her mother recalled working years earlier with someone who had ties to this area and whose maiden name she believed was Curtis. After a few days of digging, she found a phone number. As it turned out, the woman she contacted was a great-granddaughter of the family who originally settled our homestead. That conversation led to connections with other descendants and helped bring the story into fuller focus.

The Curtis Homestead

Montana was named a U.S. Territory on May 26, 1864. In early spring of that same year, a man named William Wallace Curtis, along with his father and two brothers, left Wisconsin and traveled west into the Gallatin Valley. They crossed the Bozeman Pass as part of the first wagon train to arrive in the valley, guided in part by Jim Bridger. The Curtis men parted ways with Bridger in what would become the city of Bozeman and continued down the valley, crossing the West Gallatin River. On July 11, 1864, they settled on this very property.

Between the father and three sons, they arrived with just twenty-five cents among them. They immediately set to work, cutting native grasses with scythes and drying them by hand to make hay. Once ready, they made the seventy-five-mile journey to Virginia City—then booming with gold mining activity—where they sold the hay to the U.S. Cavalry for fifty dollars per wagon load. The journey took nearly twelve days each way. With those earnings, they returned with supplies and cattle, eventually growing their herd to over three hundred head, which free-ranged across the land.

Growing Communities and Changing Times

In the years that followed, small rural communities formed nearby. One was named Moreland, after the Moreland irrigation canal, and another Hamilton. These towns were eventually purchased by Henry Altenbrand and a group of New York businessmen who planned to grow malted barley for their breweries.

Moreland was renamed Manhattan, and Hamilton became Central Park. Several buildings from Hamilton were relocated to Manhattan using bull teams. The businessmen established the Manhattan Malting Company, shipping beer by train back to the East Coast. As barley production expanded across more than 13,000 acres, Dutch settlers arrived to manage farming and irrigation.

This shift in land use forced the Curtis family to reduce their cattle herd, as free-range grazing became limited. When Prohibition passed, barley production ended, the land was converted to flax, and the Manhattan Malting Company closed in 1916.

Family, Home, and Legacy

William Wallace Curtis was an active and well-known figure in both Manhattan and Central Park. During periods of tension with local tribes, he was said to have had several encounters but was respected, in part due to his beard. Once the danger had passed, he dismantled the town stockades and hauled the logs back to the homestead, using them to build a two-story home on the property.

In 1882, William Wallace married Anna Bell Cole in front of the old stone church located nearby. Together they raised five daughters and two sons in the home he built. In the backyard are graves believed to hold a set of stillborn twins—assumed to belong to William and Anna Bell, though this cannot be confirmed.

As the children married, the land was divided into parcels so each family could begin their own homestead. William Wallace passed away in 1929, and Anna Bell followed in 1932.

Ouidi’s Time

The homestead remained with their eldest daughter, Ouidi (pronounced oo-dee), and her husband, Tom Campbell. They raised their children here. Ouidi milked her cow, Bambi, in the old barn that still stands today. Inside the chicken coop, her story remains etched into the walls—dates, tallies of hens, hatches, and losses recorded in her handwriting.

The granary and old garage still stand as well. The garage once housed wagons before automobiles replaced them. After a fire in the 1930s, it was rebuilt.

Following the deaths of Ouidi and Tom, ownership passed to their son James, who was living on the property at the time. After a dispute among siblings over ownership, the homestead was sold. It changed hands three times before my parents eventually purchased it. With each transfer came change.

Returning Home

The first sale resulted in further subdivision of the land. The two-story home William Wallace built was torn down and replaced with a more modern house. After that owner passed away, the property was sold again, briefly held, and eventually purchased by the family who sold it to my parents.

By the time my parents bought the property, the remaining thirty-five acres had been split into two parcels. As they began renovations, they uncovered an old root cellar—still holding blue glass jars filled with preserved food, left behind from Ouidi’s time on the land.

The land remembers. And, so do we