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Mary Elberta “Bertie” Bowman Myers

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Mary Elberta “Bertie” Bowman Myers

Birth	:	13 Apr 1857 Missouri, USA
Death	:	Jan 1946 Miles City, Custer County, Montana, USA
Burial	:	Custer County Cemetery, Miles City, Custer County, USA
Coordinate	:	46.3891983, -105.8264008
Plot	:	1946 sec A lot 3 blk 46
Description	:	Wife of George W. Myers, early Montana cattleman and Miles City lawyer. Her brother, Dan Hutchison Bowman (#88163296), is also buried in Custer County Cemetery. A sister, Barbara Summerville (Bowman) Gilliam Hope is Memorial #83754011. Bertie Bowman married George W. Myers on 6 Sep 1877 in Wichita KS. Both were from Andrew County MO. Some of her observations regarding her journey from Missouri to Miles City MT in 1880 via steamboat and train are entered below. This article appeared as a Montana news insert on 13 Sep 1934: [Article found on microfiche at the Montana Historical Society,... Read More	Wife of George W. Myers, early Montana cattleman and Miles City lawyer. Her brother, Dan Hutchison Bowman (#88163296), is also buried in Custer County Cemetery. A sister, Barbara Summerville (Bowman) Gilliam Hope is Memorial #83754011. Bertie Bowman married George W. Myers on 6 Sep 1877 in Wichita KS. Both were from Andrew County MO. Some of her observations regarding her journey from Missouri to Miles City MT in 1880 via steamboat and train are entered below. This article appeared as a Montana news insert on 13 Sep 1934: [Article found on microfiche at the Montana Historical Society, Helena MT] JOURNEY FROM MISSOURI TO MONTANA IN 1880 WAS GREAT ADVENTURE ACCORDING TO MRS. MARY MYERS "The eventful day, July 21, 1880, had come when I was to start on my great adventure. I was going north to join my husband in Montana territory. The year before he had gone west and just recently had written to me to come to Miles City, the town that was to be my home for over half a century. Two carriage loads of brothers, sisters and cousins waited with me in the St. Francis Station in St. Joe [St. Joseph MO] for the train that was to take me to Yankton S. D., on the first stage of my journey. A gay, young crowd we were, dressed in the Victorian styles of the 80's. The girls wore tightly fitted "basques" and pretty light colored straw bonnets. As I was traveling I wore a thin brown wool with the skirt intricately draped and a small brown straw bonnet, a tailored linen dust cloak. All the young men of that day wore small round beards, or long sideburns. The train whistled in and amid a chorus of goodbyes and good wishes, brother Ben gave me last instructions: "Here's your ticket, here's your money, and here's your baby! Take good care of all three. If you need more money, just telegraph George [George Washington Myers, her husband]...On both sides of the railway were dusty yellow corn fields, orchards bending under apples, red and yellow, there were rounded hills covered with oaks, clear streams and comfortable farms. The passenger trains were quite primitive compared to the marvelous air conditioned and joltless trains of today [1934]. They were dingy, noisy, dusty, without vestibules and apparently without springs, but as I remember, we considered them modern and efficient and the dining car service was splendid, even then. Sometime the next evening I arrived in Yankton, where I was to take the boat up the Missouri. It was even then tied at the pier, the famous 'Far West' that four years before had brought back the sad news of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The next morning I boarded the boat with lively anticipations of an interesting voyage. Although I had often seen the palatial steamers that then plied the Mississippi, I'd never traveled on one. This was a smaller boat but fresh and clean with white paint and shining brass railing. The tiny cabins had soft red velvet carpets and comfortable berths with beautiful California blankets...Every day we spent hours on deck, we young women pretending to embroider or crochet while Mrs. Coulson read Dicken's 'Our Mutual Friend' aloud, or we just talked. At four we had tea, then a rest before dinner. After dinner the gentlemen joined us and we gathered in the saloon cabin for a sing-song. The Dakota badlands did not echo our songs but to any stray Indian along the banks of the Missouri the sentimental airs of "Lorena," "Annie Laurie." "The Bridge" and "We'd Better Bide A Wee" must have sounded strangely foreign...opposite Fort Pierre [SD] we transferred to make the next leg of the journey to Bismarck. The Far West returned to the lower Missouri. In Bismarck I said lingering goodbyes to my new friends....I must await the arrival of the smaller boat that would take me up the Yellowstone to my destination...During the four or five days I spent in Bismarck, I felt truly that I was in the far west....the country seemed very bleak and barren, the yellowish brown buffalo grass, the flat never-ending, treeless prairies. In a few days the "Big Horn" came along and I embarked for the last stage. Among those on board was Father Lindesmith, the new [Catholic] chaplain, bound for Fort Keogh, and a saint on earth if there ever was one. He became a close friend of my husband and mine for many years. There was a Lieut. Sibley, inventor of the famous Sibley tent and stove, and his bride, also going to the fort. There were two Ursuline sisters, who would be the founders of the convent in Miles City. All were most congenial and I enjoyed this part of the journey immensely. One reason was I could be completely carefree as I was able to hire a middle-aged colored woman, going as a maid to the commandant in Keogh, to assume full charge of my baby, my clothes and my cabin for the trip...Several times we saw small herds of buffalo along the banks of the Yellowstone [River] and occasionally Indians, but neither was hostile appearing nor did anyone seem alarmed. The boats burned wood and stopped at many places they called wood yards where men had cut and stacked great piles of wood to sell to the passing boats. More and more frequently the crew had to pry the flat bottomed boat from sand bars...there was a good deal of speculation about whether or not the boat would be able to get past Buffalo Rapids, a few miles below Miles City, but evidently they proved no obstacle for we arrived about 2:30 p.., Aug. 11, 1880, the last boat of the season... The landing was made at a small wharf in Old Town, as it was called, after Miles City [the first town site] had picked up its affairs and moved two miles up the river, near the junction of the Tongue and Yellowstone, to be closer to the protecting arm of Fort Keogh. My husband and eldest brother [probably Ben H. Bowman] were on the wharf to meet me and whisk us into a carriage in which we drove swiftly to our temporary home. It was a one-room log cabin...located on Pleasant street somewhere between Fourth and Fifth streets. It was as clean as clean could be with lace curtains over shining windows, a four post bed piled with white pillows and our own soft, heavy California blankets. There were easy chairs, a dining table and the walls were covered with white canvas. It made me feel as though pioneering was no great hardship because, secretly, I had feared that everyone in that western land had gone native and lived in wigwams...When the days grew colder we moved to a two-room shack that had a cook stove and a heater. Here we stayed until the 5th day of November, when it grew so bitterly cold we fled to the hotel [The MacQueen House. Read about this early hotel by reading the memorial for Bertie's daughter Mildred Myers Schlosser, click the link below.] and my husband bought a house then being built and had it hurriedly finished. There were only four or five rooms but it was new and warm and quite pleasant. Ladies called, we were entertained, we went to church, we had friends at the fort, I wasn't at all lonely...Although I saw nothing of the seamier side of a frontier town I shared in the common experience of the flood in the spring of '81 [1881]. Main street was a wide canal down which we rowed at night in a government boat with lanterns at either end clear across a swollen Tongue river to the higher ground on the western side where our good friend the captain had a government ambulance and mules meet us and carry us to the fort. There we spent a merry six weeks before we returned to town. By that time the house had been cleaned, the mud was dry and the huge sage brush that adorned everyone's yard was luxuriant. Indians were always camped in their buffalo hide teepees along the Tongue river. One tribe had recently surrendered to Colonel [Nelson A.] Miles...Sometimes they brought gifts of moccasins and beaded bags, sometimes articles to sell but more often these were begging calls. I remember one old squaw, who would come after supper while we would be sitting on the porch. One evening she sat down on the ground near my husband's chair. She sat there silent for a long time then very sadly and softly said, "No flour, no coffee, no sug', no nothing!" That was too much for my husband's tender heart. Mrs. Lo was served coffee and biscuits immediately and given a gunny sack of groceries to take home. I had never seen an Indian grave, so one of our picnics that spring had that gruesome object as a destination...I remember how green the hills were and how surprising the wild flowers, all were complete strangers to me. I heard larks, too, for the first time. There among the spring flowers was the fourposted last resting place of an Indian grave. At the foot of the grave were his worldly possessions, horn spoons, string of beads, bows and arrows, whetstones and even an old tin cup. The boats came early that spring bringing us letters, packages and newspapers weeks old but eagerly read...Many more people came that summer [1881]. Miles City hummed with business. That fall the Northern Pacific pushed its rails into town and we were no longer the frontier, we were civilization."

frequently asked questions (FAQ):

Where is Mary Elberta “Bertie” Bowman Myers's memorial?
Mary Elberta “Bertie” Bowman Myers's memorial is located at: Custer County Cemetery, Miles City, Custer County, USA.
When did Mary Elberta “Bertie” Bowman Myers death?
Mary Elberta “Bertie” Bowman Myers death on Jan 1946 in Miles City, Custer County, Montana, USA
Where are the coordinates of the Mary Elberta “Bertie” Bowman Myers's memorial?
Latitude: 46.3891983
Longitude: -105.8264008

Family Members:

Parent

Spouse

George W. Myers

(1851 - 1931)

Siblings

Barbara Summerville Bowman Gilliam

(1853 - 1934)

Daniel Hutchison Bowman

(1863 - 1956)

Children

Flowers:

Nearby Cemetories:

1. Custer County Cemetery
Miles City, Custer County, USA
Coordinate: 46.3891983, -105.8264008

2. Calvary Cemetery
Miles City, Custer County, USA
Coordinate: 46.3816986, -105.8249969

3. Old Calvary Cemetery
Miles City, Custer County, USA
Coordinate: 46.3807600, -105.8246500

4. Eastern Montana State Veterans Cemetery
Miles City, Custer County, USA
Coordinate: 46.3807564, -105.8246536

5. Pine Hills School Cemetery
Miles City, Custer County, USA
Coordinate: 46.4077988, -105.8167038

6. Fort Keogh Cemetery
Custer County, USA
Coordinate: 46.3800011, -105.8874969

7. Pine Crest Cemetery
Custer County, USA
Coordinate: 46.4564018, -105.7789001

8. Hathaway Cemetery
Rosebud County, USA
Coordinate: 46.2616997, -106.2185974

9. Powder River Supply Depot Cemetery
Terry, Prairie County, USA
Coordinate: 46.7302900, -105.4350800

10. Rosebud Cemetery
Rosebud, Rosebud County, USA
Coordinate: 46.2689018, -106.4381027

11. Rock Springs Cemetery
Rock Springs, Rosebud County, USA
Coordinate: 46.7847800, -106.1411500

12. Prairie County Cemetery
Terry, Prairie County, USA
Coordinate: 46.7881012, -105.3443985

13. MacKenzie Family Cemetery
Custer County, USA
Coordinate: 46.1569500, -105.1448000

14. Knowlton Cemetery
Custer County, USA
Coordinate: 46.3210983, -105.0710983

15. Little Flat Community Cemetery
Fallon, Prairie County, USA
Coordinate: 46.4598000, -105.0291700

16. Forsyth Cemetery
Forsyth, Rosebud County, USA
Coordinate: 46.2689018, -106.6528015

17. Cottonwood Cemetery
Custer County, USA
Coordinate: 46.4294014, -104.9674988

18. North Stacey Cemetery
Powder River County, USA
Coordinate: 45.7569008, -105.8814011

19. Fallon Cemetery
Prairie County, USA
Coordinate: 46.8168983, -105.1327972

20. Little Flat Community Cemetery
Fallon, Prairie County, USA
Coordinate: 46.7659300, -105.0487600

21. Lutheran Cemetery
Fallon, Prairie County, USA
Coordinate: 46.8320800, -105.1120100

22. Bean Cemetery
Rosebud County, USA
Coordinate: 45.8535995, -106.4011002

23. Mildred Cemetery
Mildred, Prairie County, USA
Coordinate: 46.6850204, -104.9543457

24. Brown Cemetery
Colstrip, Rosebud County, USA
Coordinate: 45.8321991, -106.4180984