Publisher's Synopsis
American Collage is a book about early Pioneers in the Black hills area of Wyoming and South Dakota. Their stories are illustrated with hundreds of historic photos from The Library of Congress and many other sources. The stories are from events in my life and the offspring of the earliest settlers in the Black Hills. Some stories are fictional such as about cattle drives, sheep herding etc.; but, they are based on actual historical events and my life experiences. If you are mechanically inclined, you are sure to like my Photos, descriptions and stories and drawings of antique farm an ranch equipment; such as blacksmithing, (Such as how to Mount an Iron tire on a wooden Wagon Wheel), Doodle buggies, homemade horse-pushed buck-rakes and different types of hay stackers etc. Also included are first- hand stories, pictures and mentions of many of our friends and neighbors in Crook Co., WY. A few of the stories were written by other people such as Mrs. Merle Sisson who wrote of her family and of her Blacksmith husband, Merle, whom I greatly admired and his interest in Case Steam Tractors. He built a1/4 Scale model of a 50 horse Case Steamer. it was beautiful and restored another one (pictures of Merle and his machine are included). The first section is about growing up on the Rice/Watson homestead at the base of the Bear Lodge Mountains near Sundance, WY. My parents, Sam and Myrta Rice were born in 1893 and 1894. Their parents were some of the earliest settlers in the Black Hills area. This book traces these early pioneers, the Rices (arrived before 1800), Browns (1795), Watsons (1865), Joys, Sleeps, Richardsons, Quicks, Chatfields, Grubbs, Hindmans, Tracys, etc. As for our family, we basically lived a subsistence life; we had a large garden and the usual farm animals and when Bob and I were older we set up traplines and guided hunters to earn money. Many other old-time families in the area are featured in stories and photos. The second section is about brother Bob who was quite a colorful character and the best marksman I have ever known. He was a heavy drinker with a heart of gold and a quick wit with many friends and few enemies. He verbally contributed a large part of stories in this section which I set to print. His specialties were hunting, guiding, logging, shake bolt harvesting and finally jointly, with his wife Carolyn, inherited 1600-acres, half of the Dean Davis ranch near Hullette, WY which he ranched until he died in 2018. The third section, "Beyond the Black Hills", is about some of the details the lives of oldest four of the Rice siblings, Marguerite, Sam Jr. Helen Jane and Chet. Sam and Chet were sailors in WWII. Sam was a Carpenters Mate 1st class; Chet was a Pharmacist mate 1st class (the equivalent of a Physician Assistant today. Some of the stories are about my career with the USPS: "Railway Post Office" {RPO) clerk, Internal auditor, Postmaster, Manager, Accounting etc. I filled in empty spaces at the ends of chapters with humous stories long the way. why waste and empty space? The Fourth section is about the very earliest of my pioneer family with stories and photographs and genealogical history. The price current price is $14.95. To order my book, copy the blue link exactly as shown to your computer task bar: https: //www.amazon.com/dp/1475237375/ There you can read a thorough description of the book and its purpose and browse through parts of the book. Thank you, W.A. (Bill) Rice, Questions, Comments? [email protected].