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Original Montana Memoirs
The original binder of memoirs hand
written by Yvonne Jensen, given to her Granddaughter Morgan Jones in 2014.
Forward by Morgan Jones
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My Family
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My Parents
from Montana Roots, by Yvonne Jensen from Ted Archer, by Yvonne Jensen 10
My Brother
from Seagoville,Texas, by Yvonne Jensen 12 My Husband from North Texas State, by Yvonne Jensen 14
Generations of Dresses
by Morgan Jones 16
My Children, from Lompoc, California
from Lompoc,Califor nia by Yvonne Jensen 18
My Grandchildren
from Yellowstone and Other Adventures, by Yvonne Jensen
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Forward By Morgan Jones
I cannot remember a time in my life without her letters. They appear everywhere throughout the full stretch of my memory— from my present life to my distant childhood memories. Between those early recollections and today lie years of life— visits to and from Montana and Atlanta, getting older, maturing, celebrating, mourning, sharing, teaching and learning. These all comprise the development of a special friendship with my Grandma, Yvonne Jensen, that I have been blessed with the opportunity to cherish through the years.
In the spring of 2014, I looked back at letters I’ve kept from her, spanning a 14 year range. This time I evaluated them through a designer’s lense. What information about people, time and place do they lend? How? I discovered that collectively, the letters tell a greater story, visually documenting the timeline of our lives and relationship. The following summer, my Grandmother entrusted to me a binder of loose-leaf papers— pages and pages of her hand-written memoirs on her life and family, along with original documentation of family history and photographs. I saw the same creative potential that I saw in her letters to illustrate the development of a relationship through time in a personal, tactile, and visual way, while also preserving family history and my Grandmother’s words for generations to come. This book is the result of a 21 year-old cross-generational friendship, a collaboration of grandmother and granddaughter.
Carrie arrived at the junction with two
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trunks and two crocks of butter in the fall of 1882. She was the first white woman in the Musselshell valley. The story goes that she used a shotgun from her front door to shoot an Indian. She missed but scared him away. Five children were born to Carrie and John. Mina, their first born and my grandmother arrived in 1885. Kittie 1887, Edna 1890, Earl 1894, and Bent 1898. Bent died at the age of 11 from a snake bite. When Mina was born she was the first white baby born in Musselshell Valley. Earl married Vallie, a mail order bride from Wisconsin. I always thought Vallie was a beautiful
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name. In my lifetime, Vallie was the lady I
I feel fortunate I have some memories of ranch life. Our generations today don’t have as many opportunities to see grandparents.
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Montana Roots
knew. She looked wonderful in jeans into her 90’s. She just died a few years ago at 97. John, her son, died a few years later. He was born the same year as I was. We had a family reunion for Vallie’s
By Yvonne Jensen
95th birthday. John was recovering from a
I’m going to begin my story years before
heart attack at the time. He was dressed in
I was born with my first relative in
a nice western outfit but had street shoes
Montana, John Cooley. He was born in
on. I asked him why he didn’t wear cow-
Wisconsin in 1858 and came to
boy boots and he said “Only truck drivers
Musselshell valley in 1881.
wear those f***** boots!” He died a couple
Carrie Cartwright married John in
of years ago from his heart trouble. The
1882. Carrie was from New York and her
Cooley ranch is in the hands of
father had been a stonemason and farmer.
his sons today.
I’m getting ahead of the story.
had ordered east and it arrived by train
The severe winter of 1886-87 was
in Virginia city and then by wagon in
recorded as a very bad time with a new
Musselshell. My dad found it in a
baby Mina. They had to feed their milk
chicken coop and restored it. It had gone
cow with the sod roof to keep her alive.
out of style because it was filled with horse
Mina, my grandmother, was 20 when she
hair. I had it redone by people that
met Theodore Finley Archer, 31. He came
restored furniture for the White House
to Montana to teach school. He was paid
while I was in Virginia. The furniture
$40 a month with room and board $15 a
needs to be in the Roundup, Montana
month. He lasted one year and then began
museum one day.
to ranch. “TF” as the family called him
I have a couple of memories of
married Mina in 1905. Their ranch was
newborn kittens in haystacks and a goat
next to the Cooley source on the
that would pull a wagon if you had a
Musselshell River. Ted, my dad, was born
carrot on a stick.
in 1907 and Laura followed in 1909. Ted
I feel fortunate I have some memories
and Laura rode a mule to school and they
of ranch life. Our generations today don’t
have many stories of the mule getting loose
have as many opportunities to see grand-
and going home without them.
parents in that setting. I was only 11 in
Ted drove a tractor from the age of 5.
1946 when they sold the ranch. Mina and
He tells the story of taking eggs to town to
TF retired to running a nursery in Lovell,
have money for the dances. Ted’s picture is
Wyoming and their graves are there.
Family Tree John Cooley, b. 1850
Vallie
Carrie Cartwright , b. 1858
Mina, b. 1885 Kittie, b. 1887 Edna, b. 1890 Earl, b. 1894 Bent, b. 1898
Theodore “TF” Archer, b. 1874 Laura Ted, b. 1907 Thelma, b. 1909 Yvonne, b. 1935 Donald, b. 1940
John
hanging in the Musselshell school, graduating class of 1928. All my cousins and I have never liked
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The Cooleys
only paid for his tobacco etc. He is the one
Built in 1912, the Cooley house in Mussellshell, Montana had cabin lights and was fur nished with leather fur niture and dark wood pieces.
that “rushed” cattle from his father-in-law
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TF. He was mean to our grandmother. When they went to town he left her thread and things on the counter of the store and
John Cooley. I have Carrie’s “parlor” set of oak furniture in my front room. Carrie
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One of the only pictures I have of Great Grandma Car rie Cooley. It was a visit sometime before I was three with Ted’s Grandmother. Car rie was barely five feet.
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Ted Archer
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I called a boot store in Billings and asked if they could tell the gentleman I was bringing in that all boots were on sale for $39.99.
By Yvonne Jensen
Ted never became the rancher he wanted to be. He was always very good with horses and animals. TF sold the ranch in 1946. Ted resembled the Cooley men that were known for their red hair, slender builds and small feet. He did raise cattle part time later and always wore cowboy boots. 125 was his top weight. I have a story about boots and Ted in St. John’s just before he died. Ted’s ankles were beginning to swell and he needed softer cowboy boots. He already had about a dozen pairs around. I called a boot store in Billings and asked if they could tell the gentleman I was bringing in that all boots were on sale for $39.99. Ted found a pair he liked and bragged to all his friends in St. Johns that he really got a good deal on his new boots. They were actually $300.
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Ted and Thelma
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Ted and T helma on their 50 year wedding anniversar y
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Ted and T helma at their Palace CafĂŠ in Laurel, MT. right after they were married.
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Ted and T helma in Roundup, Just before T helma started having heart surgeries.
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Ted and T helma in St. John’s hospital just before Ted died.
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Seagoville, Texas
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High school was awful because no one ever moved into the school. It was especially bad for me since I didn’t have a southern accent.
By Yvonne Jensen
In the 8th grade they moved to Seagoville, Texas 20 miles from Dallas. Worn out cotton land and pecan farms were everywhere. Also lots of gravel pits because the town was on the Trinity River. Seagoville prison was bigger and Ted was always at work. Food preparation took place at odd hours. Early morning baking for example. The prison reservation and housing for employees was three miles from town and all of us kids rode the bus. We were called the reservation kids. One fun thing in those days happened when us kids watched the latest movies with the inmates. I’m sure the inmates enjoyed having all of us there.
High school was awful because no one ever moved into the school and it was especially bad for me since I didn’t have a southern accent. The boys in school all wanted to be gravel truck drivers or run their folks’ pecan ranches. My roommate and I were the only kids in our graduating class that went to college. Several kids married in the eighth grade and one boy had three kids when he graduated. The one bright spot in those years was being Editor of the annual. Basketball was also fun. We were Texas state champions one year! My brother found all kinds of things to get into. Drinking, cars, and not paying much attention to school.
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He was always a great artist since he was 2 or 3 but trouble was always with him. He found every pitfall there was for humans to get in trouble. He had a massive stroke at 40 from drinking and died in a Missoula hospital thirteen years later. Summer jobs during high school and college were interesting. I worked in Girl Scout camps, private girls camps like Fern in Marshal Texas as a craft counselor. Department stores like Sanger and A. Harris were my next jobs. Then a couple of summers I worked for my uncle in his motel in Billings. I waited tables and helped make beds!
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Donald and Yvonne 1
Together riding horses in Seagoville, Texas
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Yvonne (6) and Donald (2) in Idaho.
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North Texas State
Eldon Jensen was a drafting teacher and before I knew it I was talking to him all the time.
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By Yvonne Jensen
Four years of college, I enjoyed every minute. I loved to dance and skipped a lot of classes on Wednesday because that was the afternoon the Union Building had sock hops. Linda Gibson McCaully was a fun roommate. She was always trying to steal the cute boys I found on the dance floor. Denton was only 30 miles from Dallas so I could go home on weekends often. My major was art but in those days everyone suggested strongly that you get a teaching degree “just in case.” I tried hard to do department store windows ($25 a month) or stage scenery (free) but in the end it was teaching. I looked down the list of teaching jobs
after I graduated and found a job that paid well teaching art. I left for Galena Park, Texas without even knowing how to drive a car. The job was 5 classes of art for 7th and 8th and 9th graders. The first year I shared a garage apartment with the high school homemaking teacher. We gave lots of parties and she brought all the teachers at the high school over at one time or another. Eldon Jensen was a drafting teacher and before I knew it I was talking to him all the time. We married the following summer. Our honeymoon was an entire summer spent mostly in Yellowstone on my Uncle’s boat and trailer. Eldon loved the country around Montana as much as I did. After a couple of years we decided we needed to change something because we couldn’t live on just one teacher’s salary. Eldon applied with the Bureau of Prisons as an instructor. The salary was three times what public schools paid (even in the Houston oil area). We got a job in Lompoc, California one year later.
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Eldon and Yvonne Jensen 1
Together on their wedding day
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Eldon and Yvonne around 2000
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Donald, Eldon,Thelma and I in Oklahoma City, 1960
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A Timeline of Dresses By Morgan Jones
As I investigated and worked to preserve my grandma Yvonne’s memoirs through the fall of 2014, I also happened to be planning my own wedding. The two themes ran parallel to each other for a while, before beautifully intertwining when I discovered that my mother had posession of her own wedding dress and her mother’s (Yvonne’s), Grandma had her grandmother Carrie Cooley’s, and of course I had mine! Upon gathering the four dresses together, my family history came to
life. The defining styles of each era— the early 1900’s, 50’s, 80’s, and a contemporary style of the millenium are distinct when juxtaposed alongside one another. The dresses became a more unique, visual timeline of our family history. They also serve as a family tree, documenting the evolution of family names from Hamre, to Archer, to Jensen, to Mooney, to Jones.
October 3,
1987
Vince and Wendy Mooney Yvonne’s Daughter
June 7,
1958
Eldon and Yvonne Jensen
May 6,
1906
Nels and Bertha Hamre Yvonne’s Grandma
November 1,
2014
Caleb and Morgan Jones Yvonne’s Granddaughter
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We arrived in California in a red Carmen Geha with a little dog Phobee and all our stuff on a roof sack.
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Lompoc, California
Marc & Wendy Jensen 1
Marc, Wendy and Yvonne. Both kids were born in Lompoc, CA. in 1962 and 1965, respectively. Here Marc is about 4 and Wendy is 1 year old.
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Marc in the 2nd grade
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Wendy in the 4th grade
We arrived in California in a red Carmen Geha with a little dog Phobee and all our stuff on a roof sack. Eldon taught classes to the inmates and I did substitute teaching. A year later Marc arrived and three years later Wendy arrived. California is like a different country especially along the coastline. Lompoc was a small old Spanish town with Burpee flower fields all around. Beaches were wonderful and we camped out with other couples many weekends. Bridge, Mexican food, ball games and church were some of our activities. We spent ten years here. Several of our friends have visited us here in Red Lodge in recent years. We have also been back many times to visit there.
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Yellowstone and Other Adventures
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Over the years we have had some wonderful adventures with National Parks, especially Yellowstone. The first time I was ever in Yellowstone I was 2 years old in 1938. The pictures from this trip looks like about 3 cars of relatives enjoying the park. Almost every year since then I have spent a short time in Montana and the park, visiting grandparents and relatives, and enjoying the beautiful country. After I met and married Eldon, we spent our honeymoon in Yellowstone, so Eldon fell in love with this area also. The first thing we did since we finally moved out to Red Lodge was set up a trip to the park in December with 10
Being a Grandmother is a pretty good job!
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of our friends. Everyone is still talking about that trip. Since then, we go into the park several times a year by ourselves and with all our visitors. Having lived here in Red Lodge full time since 1995, we are pleased to still be in the charming town. After moving all over I felt I never really had a hometown and all the relatives
I have left in Montana made Red Lodge an ideal choice for retirement. These days Wendy and Vince live in Atlanta with their three kids Morgan, Kendall and Cole. Marc and Temple live in Crozet, Virginia with their two children Matthew and Sophie. Being a grandmother is a pretty good job!
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Vacations 1 2
Eldon, Yvonne and a friend on the historic Beartooth Pass, highway from Red Lodge to Yellowstone Eldon and Yvonne visiting granddaughter Morgan (2) in Beaufort, South Carolina.
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