DNRC/Montana Historical Society Oral History Project
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1. Interviewee: Doris Bishop
2. Interviewer: Lorrie Grosfield
3. Date of Interview: August 22, 2016
4. Location: AU Bishop Ranch, Brady, Montana
Introduction
This interview highlights Doris Bishop’s experiences farming and ranching near Brady, Montana. The oral history provides fascinating details about Doris’s childhood living on a homestead in Montana during the 1930s-1940s and later raising her own family in rural Montana. Doris’s experiences help provide a much clearer understanding of the important role women have played in Montana’s agricultural and ranching history.
Interview
[00:00:00] Lorrie Grosfield: Good morning, this is Lorrie Grosfield from Pondera County Conservation. I'm at the AU Bishop Ranch outside of Brady and I'm interviewing Doris Bishop on August 22, 2016. Doris, can you tell us a little bit about where you were born, and the date of birth, and if you were born on a ranch?
[00:00:28] Doris Bishop: My name is Doris Bishop, I was born Doris Helibust [unclear] my parents were immigrants from Norway and they homesteaded in North Hill County. I was born out on the homestead on the 19th of February 1926. That makes me the big Nine-O (90) this year which is pretty special to live to see the things, the privilege of seeing and enjoying the family and the children and the grandchildren. What a gift from God. I really am grateful.
My parents like I said were engaged in Norway. My father came in 1910 and my mother came in 1912. She and her brother were booked on the Titanic, but he chopped his little finger off. He and his brother were chopping wood before they left and they said “you better not go on that boat, the Titanic, because they will put you in the infirmary when you get to the states and you might even be sent back.” So, they waited two months for that to heal up and went the next time. That was kind of a traumatic beginning. They settled on a homestead and had six of us children. A seventh child died at birth. Those times on the homestead were pretty hard, especially for schooling, for the young people who wanted to go to high school. My siblings were all very quick learners. I think I was the 5th in line and then I had a younger sister and she and I were separated from the older siblings by four and a half years because a child died in the middle there. Our older brothers and sisters had to go to town and stay with families for board and room. If parents could afford it they would have a little apartment, but it was not a good situation. It's just too hard. Finally, my mother moved into town and my dad stayed on the farm and went back and forth.
Those were hard years. The 1930s, there was dust bowls and grasshoppers and drought. I think the hardest part was not having any hope. You don't see any chance for it to be better. About 1934 my parents joined the Montana Farmers Union. They were working at the time in developing cooperatives. People could help each other by joining together to buy oil and gas and elevators to sell their wheat. Before that time no farmers knew you could get paid for protein. The elevators and grain companies never let anybody know. Then they formed their own cooperatives and that was a leap ahead to get paid for protein, which was a big plus. They persevered, my folks stayed strong. I comprehend only a little bit, you are too young to be able to comprehend it all, but those were hard times. God carried us through those times and we had a good life, really. I've had an exceptional life. I've been blessed in so many ways I'm almost overwhelmed by it. It's so good. I've had mentors, I've had pastors, I've had people who were exceptional, who have given me open doors and been exceptional for me. I just can't be thankful enough.
[00:05:37] Lorrie Grosfield: That is wonderful. I'm thankful to hear it, to hear someone say that. I know you said you're Norwegian. Your parents were born in Norway. They were farmers?
[00:06:01] Doris Bishop: One was a farmer. My mother had come from a farm, but my dad didn't. Even my husband's parents who came from Virginia to Montana didn't have a clue, they didn't have any idea. My husband stayed on the farm helping; he never got to go to high school because he was needed. He worked until he was going to be drafted into the army. He didn't want to go to the army so he went and joined the Marines in 1942. He was 27 at that time. That was a traumatic time for him. In the 1940s when we were in war it was like everybody was in it. Now, you have a few, a fighting force, and we don't have anything to do with them. At that time everybody, school kids, you saved things, you bought bonds, and it hasn't been that way lately.
[00:07:21] Lorrie Grosfield: I presume your grandparents, have you ever met them?
[00:07:28] Doris Bishop: Never met. No, we didn't have any family here, just a couple of uncles that were one in Seattle and one in Michigan.
[00:07:39] Lorrie Grosfield: When you were born on the homestead can you tell a little bit about what that was like? Your childhood? You mentioned it was hard.
[00:07:54] Doris Bishop: It was hard. I comprehend that I didn't feel the harshness of it like my parents or my older brothers and sisters. We went to country school, my sister and I. All of us kids went to country school of course. When we went into town I was in the 5th grade. You know, my mother worked hard. They churned butter and sold it. They sold anything, all the eggs, anything you could make a little bit of money on.
[00:08:40] Lorrie Grosfield: Cream.
[00:08:41] Doris Bishop: Yes, eggs and cream. Absolutely, cream is a big deal.
[00:08:48] Lorrie Grosfield: Do you remember any of your jobs at the farm? Things that you did that other children today might not?
[00:08:59] Doris Bishop: Oh my, well there was the coal buckets and the ashes out and coal in, those kinds of things. One of the things was cleaning the lamp chimneys. You had to be so careful and use a piece of newspaper to clean the lamp chimney. I was never trusted to do the wick. You had the ordinary things you took care of. We didn't have possessions like we do now. We are overrun with possessions in a lot of ways. You picked up, but you didn't have much stuff to scatter. As a kid, Ruthy and I, my younger sister and I, we had an enjoyable life. We kept each other company, you know, it was good, very good.
[00:10:08] Lorrie Grosfield: It sounds wonderful. Was it a little kindergarten through 8th grade?
[00:10:14] Doris Bishop: No kindergarten in those days. My older brothers and sisters all went through grade school in six years because school was easy for them and they went through it. My birthday was in February, and they would graduate out of grade school by the time they were about twelve, you know. Then you'd go to town to high school as a little twelve year old. That's way too young. My mother didn't want that to happen so she kept me out until I was seven and a half. When I did get to go to school I cried because it was two weeks for Christmas vacation and I loved school. We liked it. We rode horseback a mile and a half in the winter. If the snow was too deep for us to ride the horse my brother would put us on a sled. My dad had made a sled out of skis with a nice little platform on them. My brother would pull us to school and back. At one time in 1935, I believe it was, when it was 54 below for two weeks in a row. My mother said that in the community it even killed the bed bugs. Not even bed bugs could live through that.
[00:12:00] Lorrie Grosfield: I know you mentioned your husband didn't go to high school.
[00:12:05] Doris Bishop: No, he stayed on the farm and helped and worked until he was [unclear].
[00:12:16] Lorrie Grosfield: You yourself, did you go into town?
[00:12:19] Doris Bishop: Then we moved into town. My mother decided, the farm was ten miles out, she decided she had to be there. Our country school closed, and so that necessitated the moves. She and the children moved into town and my dad came back and forth. They had to do something different.
[00:12:51] Lorrie Grosfield: It's very good Doris. I'm going to go on to your married life. I know your husband was a farmer. I know you mentioned you were working for Farmer's Union.
[00:13:08] Doris Bishop: Yes, the educational department.
[00:13:09] Lorrie Grosfield: Can you tell a little memory during your courtship?
[00:13:21] Doris Bishop: When I worked for Farmers Union I did a lot of recreation work and folk dancing. Even going to the high schools in Jordan and places like that, we had an evening of recreation for the kids and things like that. It was very enjoyable to do and I liked doing that. I'm trying to think of a good story about our courtship. We were married in September 1947. I can say when I moved out here to the farm, I though I had lots of stuff, a carful maybe, I don't know how much. I jokingly said to my husband, "Well, if you get tired of me I guess you'll have to leave or move because I'm here to stay, I don’t want to move all this again."
[00:14:24] Lorrie Grosfield: You were in.
[00:14:25] Doris Bishop: So I'm still here!
[00:14:34] Lorrie Grosfield: Did it take a lot to run your farm when you first got married? Did you have to help a lot?
[00:14:37] Doris Bishop: Well, we didn't have indoor plumbing yet. I think that the woman, and this is my opinion, I think that the woman pretty much sets the tone for the family life. You either get optimistic or you get dragged down. You can go up or down. I think you set the tone because you are with the children all the time. You influence how they look at life, how they treat one another, all kinds of things. We eventually had four girls and one boy, and I think I was more concerned in a way that he would have a good wife because I've seen cases where, and I'm not trying to put anybody down, but if a man gets a good wife it makes a whole difference in the world and everybody blossoms. When you encourage one another and you are helpful...Argyle was very frugal and could do most anything and I was frugal too. We worked together very good. Our children were exceptionally willing to help all ways. I think all of that is catching. I think on a farm when you can create your own environment and you just really have that privilege of doing that it makes it so important that you do these things, that you give a strong positive feel.
[00:16:57] Lorrie Grosfield: Wonderful Doris.
[00:17:00] Doris Bishop: That's my feeling. Argyle and I worked together very good.
[00:17:05] Lorrie Grosfield: We're back, we just had a brief interlude, Doris and I, and we were talking about her and her husband Argyle, that's a beautiful name. It sounds Scottish.
[00:17:21] Doris Bishop: It is Scottish.
[00:17:24] Lorrie Grosfield: I’m just going to ask a couple things. You mentioned how much the mother, the wife, her optimism. I believe that was a big part of your parenting philosophy. You mentioned one son.
[00:17:50] Doris Bishop: The fifth child, born in the car on the way to town. We were in a rush.
[00:18:00] Lorrie Grosfield: Was there an obvious division of chores for the girls and the boys?
[00:18:06] Doris Bishop: Trudy and Twila and Tana were two years apart, and then there was four and a half years, and then Tami and Todd. The girls all pitched bales, drove tractor, did everything that was needed to be done. Drove trucks and helped with harvest and everything. Finally when Todd became old enough I remember him being a little bit insulted that his older sisters would tell him how to back up to empty the grain in the auger. He had it pretty well figured out. He has been exceptional as a son. All of the kids have been exceptional. They worked hard in school. I give Argyle a huge amount of credit; he was the best dad our children could ever have had. We were so hugely blessed. They have been exceptional. All five have had the twenty-fifth anniversaries and now they are working on almost their fiftieth now.
[00:19:24] Lorrie Grosfield: Goodness, that's remarkable.
[00:19:24] Doris Bishop: We're so thankful. We are very thankful. I have four sons-in-laws and a daughter in-law you just couldn't beat. They are so wonderful.
[00:19:39] Lorrie Grosfield: What a huge blessing. How many grandchildren do you have?
[00:19:43] Doris Bishop: We have eleven grandchildren. One little grandchild died of SIDS at two months, but we have eleven grandchildren. I don't know, I think the great grandchildren are coming now, the oldest one is seven. I think there are about ten of them, I'm not sure. I count them up and then I forget how many there are.
[00:20:14] Lorrie Grosfield: Are any grandchildren interested in farming?
[00:20:14] Doris Bishop: Yes, Todd's son, the youngest grandson, Andrew, loves the farm. I'm so thankful. Many times young people, all of our kids got their degrees, some advanced degrees at the universities. Todd has his engineering degree, and Andrew has his engineering degree, and we have several teachers, a doctor, an architect, I think a daughter-in-law that is a lawyer. We're pretty well fixed. We're thankful. They have been really exceptional. Andrew loves the farm. He worked five years in Billings at the refinery, did a terrific job, and was then offered the job in Great Falls and happened to have a girlfriend there and so he's there now. He also in the last two years has started to make tables out of Russian olive wood. He's made some incredible tables out of Russian olive wood. People want to pay prices that boggle my mind for that. Because we are now without reservoir water we can't have cattle, they are starting to work on the barn to put a cement floor in the barn so he can use it as a wood shop. The barn will turn into a wood shop. It's so exciting, really.