Day 67 - USA Tour - Glendive, MT

Overnight: Glendvive, MT
Ancestor Research Day

Up early to make sandwiches again for a our second day of ancestor searching. But, we ended up puttering around until time to leave. We knew that the luncheon was not going to start until noon. We did not want to disturb the woman who was a relative while she was trying to prepare the lunch. So, we left at about 10:30 AM; it's an hour's drive to Lambert from Glendive.

When we arrived in Lambert, the door to the museum was open--a good thing. We ventured in and found out that the senior center was accessible through the museum. When we inquired about the relative, we were informed that Kathy & Kenny Thornton, the folks who usually cook, were on vacation. Wouldn't you know it.

But, several folks from the town, who had lived there most of their lives, began to help us search for information throughout the museum and their recollections.

It seems that some of the Thorntons (the maiden name of Dave's grandmother) still live in and around the area. Dave was able to speak with Peggy Thornton. She is married to the great-grandson of one of Dave's grandmother's brothers. Did you follow that? Anyway, she didn't provide any new information. But, said she'd have Kenny (who is in his 80s and the son of his grandmother's brother) call when they got back from vacation on Friday.

Dave thoroughly scoped out the museum for any information. The only advantageous information was contained in some plaques they had about graduates of the high school.



Rueben Leon Migneault's actual graduation picture, not a duplication.

Dave found some pictures of the town's early days. And, he purchased a book that's quite large about the town's descendants. A brother of Dave's grandfather, Henry Migneault, is mentioned as being a resident, but no other mentions are made of the Migneault family except for the graduates (information about Lee and Pete).

We did find out the contact for the list of those buried in the cemetery. So, Dave talked with him. But, no Migneaults are listed. He suggested that we go to a cemetery that is close to the great-grandparent's farm in a city called Three Buttes. Because we were to go to the area to look at the farm land, we headed out at about 2 PM.

We arrived at the cemetery and it took us all of 3 minutes to search. There were only about 10 graves in the cemetery. And, none were Migneaults.

We drove around the area trying to find some remnants of the family's farm. We found the land because we had the documents from our courthouse search a few days ago.

The following pictures with the old building are of the farmland of Captain and Bertha Thornton. They were the parents of Dave's grandmother (Sarah Thornton). The Thorntons were neighbors of Antine and Marie Migneault, who were the parents of Dave's grandfather (Joseph [Sonny] Migneault). We assume that Sonny and Sarah met because they had neighboring farms.

The Thorntons owned about 180 acres (a little more than a homestead) and the Migneaults owned 320 acres (two homesteads).





We only found a trash pile, which contained some building remnants on Dave's father's family farm. The sad thing is that there are several oil wells on the family farm now. Homesteaders of the 1800s had mineral rights to the property.

The following pictures of land and oil wells on land are of Dave's family's farm land.





Our next stop was to drive back to Sidney to visit that funeral home. In Lambert, the keeper of the cemetery list had suggest we check this cemetery as well. Unfortunately, there was no listing for an Antine Migneault. So, the mystery continues as to where he was buried. The funeral director suggested that possibly he was buried on the family farm as that was often done in those days.

Dave did find in the Sidney cemetery the grave sites of his great-grandmother/grandfather on his mother's side: Captain and Bertha Thornton.



Well, by now, we are overloaded with information and our brains needed a rest. So, we drove back to the RV, where I fixed leftovers of the meatball meal I had made last night. It was just as yummy as leftovers.

We have decided to stay another day in hopes of hearing from Kenny Thornton. In addition, Dave has a contact in Billings, MT, from another line of descendants (the Hubleys) that he will call and see if they'd like to get together when we arrive in Billings. Sherman Hubley had responded to Dave's inquiry about family a year ago and written a nice long letter. Sherman shared memories he had of visiting Dave's family on their farm in Lambert.