Homestead on the Kootenai

Trains were still new to Libby in the spring of 1898 when Jacoba Boothman arrived, as a bride of nineteen, in that new mining town in the northwest corner of Montana. Everybody who could possibly be present was on hand to welcome the daily Great Northern train and give every newcomer a thorough looking over. This day the crowd was perhaps a little larger because word had gone around that Harry Boothman was bringing home his new wife. Gallantly he helped her down the steps. People of every description-mostly men- filled the station platform and, to a man, every one of them removed his hat and stood at attention--as if in deference to royalty. Then, flushed and proud, Harry began to introduce to her one after another of his friends.This was her welcome to the Kootenai River country. Here she was to live for the major portion of her life. Her home was to be a log cabin in a clearing by the river, and here she was to become the mother of ten children. Only in after years, when her family was all grown, would she begin to chronicle the story of her brood and of this homestead by the river. This is a fascinating and colorful narrative, giving a good picture of family life in a far corner of the Pacific Northwest in the early years of the century. There are accounts of farming activities, of experiences with the Indians, tramps, and pets, of fishing trips and expeditions for huckleberries, of Libby's first circus, of memorable Christmases and Fourths of July, and of one major struggle with the rising waters of the Kootenai River.