P a g e 3 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r Cornue Homestead Part 1 My second visit to Montana for photography was in February 2007. My cowgirl friend had told me that a lady rancher friend of hers (Lillian is the rancher’s name) had said we could photograph her boneyard where there were numerous old, dead vehicles and other assorted things. But that is a different story than the one I want to tell now. After leaving Lillian’s boneyard we drove by an abandoned homestead that is on property owned by the Bohn family. As such we referred to it as ‘the Bohn homestead’. Years later we learned that the original homesteader was named Harvey Cornue. We decided to return to the homestead later in the day for some photography when there would be better lighting. Also it was lunch time and we were thirsty and hungry. This will be a 2-Part story, with my photographs in Part 1 being from my first visit to the homestead in February 2007. I’ve been to there 4 or 5 times on my many visits to Montana and Wyoming. Here then is Part 1 of the Harvey Cornue homestead story: CORNUE, Harvey [Sec 18-l4—28] Harvey E. Cornue was born in Hebron, Illinois, on January 18, 1887. He had attended a business college, but due to a recession, there was no job for him in the area at that time. He was not needed on the home farm, so he came to Montana to take up a homestead. The property was locatPhoto by Shawn Shawhan ed about four miles north of the present-day Petrolia Reservoir. A one-room tar paper shack served as his home for a few years. To help eke out a living, he hauled freight from Lewistown to the Cat Creek oil field with a six- or eighthorse team or sometimes with mules. The trip would take two days, with one layover at the Winnett Ranch and one at the Ayers Ranch west of Grassrange. Martha Freed came from Ohio to homestead with her brother, Elden Freed. This homestead was about one mile north of the present Petrolia Dam. She was a schoolteacher. Martha and Harvey were married June 2, 1918, and lived in Harvey's homestead cabin. Harvey loved horses, raised Percherons and Belgians, and broke them to work. Each fall he would ship a train carload of horses to his brother’s farm at Hebron, Illinois, and they would have a big sale. All farming was done by horses at that time. When the horse market gave out due to the influx of tractors. Harvey raised more cattle and wheat. Each fall he and others shipped their cattle by train to be sold. Some of the owners always went along, living in part of the train car, to take care of the animals on the trip and to see that they were properly handled at the stockyards in Chicago. Photo by Shawn Shawhan Photo by Shawn Shawhan
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