Duffield, Jessie Howard, 1874-1964

Jessie Howard Duffield was born on December 14, 1874 in Red Oak, Iowa. Her parents moved to a homestead claim near Parker, South Dakota in 1882, and Jessie worked on the family ranch while also attending school. She married Sam Duffield in Amboy, Minnesota in 1896, but when her parents and siblings decided to move to eastern Montana to again establish homestead claims in 1910, Jessie and Sam accompanied them. The extended family filed on several tracts in the Fertile Prairie area of Fallon County, Montana. Jessie and Sam moved to Oregon in 1921, but they returned to Fallon County in 1934 and lived on their son Forrest's ranch. Jessie became a handloom weaver and rugmaker, along with developing her talents as an amateur photographer and writer. She published at least one fiction piece in a national periodical, "Old Paint", in Ranch Romances, v. 134, no. 4, October (September 20), 1946, and many columns in the local newspapers. Towards the end of her life she wrote a short essay on memories of her life as a homesteader, and she died in Baker, Montana on February 24, 1964.

From the guide to the "Homestead Days", circa 1959, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)