When Montana and I Were Young: A Frontier Childhood

Mary Clearman Blew writes a most informative intro to this book and its publication history. I found Bell's story after reading Blew's own Montana memoir, All But the Waltz, which I enjoyed immensely. Bell, who was born at the end of the nineteenth century, tells the story of a childhood filled with hardship, heartbreak and abuse. Her own father left when she was very small. Her stepfather, a real nogoodnik, hardly fills that void. He is abusive to Bell, her mother and her stepsisters from the minute he enters the picture. Her mother, literally worked to death, died in her twenties, leaving young Peggy to look after the three younger girls. Beatings and hunger become "ordinary" to Peggy. When Hedge, her stepfather, begins to sexually molest her, she is so innocent that she has no words to describe what is happening, and simply endures it. In her teens, she finally ends up in a convent school in Washington state, where she tries to stay and become a nun, but her health is too poor, so she returns to ranch life with her kind uncle and her grandmother. Always handy with horses and cattle, she regains her health and begins to thrive. This is never a happy story, but it is an important one, and a richly detailed addition to the role and contributions of women on the western frontier of our country. I salute the late Margaret Bell and I thank Mary Clearman Blew for finally bringing us Bell's story. I would recommend this book highly to anyone interested in the field of women's studies. Hell, I'd recommend it to anyone who just wants to read a good story. - Tim Bazzett, author of LOVE, WAR & POLIO

This is a remarkable book. It is a primary account of a child's life growing up in Montana and Canada in the early part of the twentieth century. Margaret (Peggy) Bell's life spanned some 94 years, from 1888-1982, and her story is as exciting and troubling as any account one is likely to read, fiction or non-fiction. That the book is edited by Mary Clearman Blew makes it not only highly readable but lends it undeniable credibility.Bell's account of growing up on the high plains of Montana and Canada is a rare, first person account of life on the frontier with it's numerous hardships, grinding poverty, and ultimate struggle to retain her mind and spirit that will break your heart and make you shout for joy...sometimes within a few paragraphs or pages. In a straight forward, honest, almost stoic manner she describes the many life lessons she learned and discusses a subject that is rarely seen in print in the literature of the period: the abuse, sexual and otherwise, she experienced at the hands of her uncle and stepfather. This is an amazing book that chronicles the life experiences of a resilient woman in a man's world that lived to understand who she was, where she came from, and what it all meant. That she could tell such a story without self pity or sentimental, touchy-feely themes is remarkable. Brutally frank, honest and ultimately uplifting.