She married Thomas Arnison in the fall of 1888. He had rebuilt his business after the Great Depression, using wool insulation in every structure, and had become one of the most successful small business owners in the Judith Basin.
Together, they managed a herd of over 1,000 sheep. They had four children, all of whom survived to adulthood, a remarkable achievement for the frontier. She died in 1930 at the age of 67, in the cabin she had built. Her children found her the next morning, sitting in the chair next to the stove, as if she had simply fallen asleep and never woken up.
The wool insulation she had installed in that cabin was still intact. When his grandchildren dismantled the structure in 1952, they found the wool compressed but intact, and the lanolin still faintly present after 65 years.
In the winter of 1886-1887, the temperature in central Montana dropped to 63 degrees below zero. 40 centimeters of snow fell in 16 hours. The wind blew ice crystals through every crack in every conventionally constructed wall. Elias Croft, the White Sulphur Springs merchant, looked at a young Norwegian woman with seven dollars in her pocket and told her bluntly that those who had made it had received help. Those who hadn’t… he didn’t finish the sentence. There hadn’t been any need.
But in a 12-by-14-foot cabin on the Musselshell River, lined with 60 pounds of raw sheep’s wool, a woman who had never insulated a wall in her life kept the deadly cold at -9 degrees. She saved a man who had hiked 10 kilometers through the worst blizzard in Montana history. She kept 225 sheep alive while 60% of the livestock in Judith Basin died on the spot.
She survived with two cords of wood when experts said seven were needed. She survived alone when skeptics said she needed
of a husband. She survived by lining her walls with what everyone told her was scrap material.
Ingred Torsdaughter had no help. She had no money. She had no luck. She had wool. And when the spring of 1887 finally arrived in Musselshell Valley, she was still there to see it.
For complete cooking times, go to the next page or click the Open button (>), and don’t forget to SHARE with your Facebook friends.
