Margaret (Peggy) Olson was born in Great Falls, Mont., in 1888. While she was still a young child her parents divorced and her mother married Hedges Wolfe, a Canadian wrestler. When Peggy was six they moved to a homestead near Sand Coulee, where they spent their summers, while returning to Great Falls for the winters. After Peggy's mother died, her stepfather took them to a homestead in Saskatchewan. They later moved to British Columbia and Spokane, Wash. Peggy's health suffered in the Pacific Northwest, so she finally returned to live with her grandmother at Sand Coulee. In 1906 she married Phillip Criviansky, a Sand Coulee butcher. Peggy raised their five children on the homestead. Phillip and Peggy divorced in 1928. Two years later she married Shadrick Bell. In 1928 Peggy sent her daughter Agnes to beauty school, and together the operated a beauty salon in Great Falls for many years. Peggy was an avid writer, recording many of the events of her life. In 1947 she met the writer Grace Stone Coates and a Montana Institute of the Arts seminar. Together they attempted to edit her manuscript about her childhood, but differed on direction. Eventually the manuscript was published posthumously in 2002 as When Montana and I Were Young: A Frontier Childhood. In 1957 Peggy divorced Bell and married Roy A. Dobin. After his death in 1972 she moved to Simms, Mont., where she died on 19 Sept. 1982.
From the description of Margaret Olson Bell-Dobin collection, 1902-1978 (bulk 1931-1978). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 71208653
