Strutt Family Tree

Bert and wife Amelia took their possesions and livestock and boarded a freight train in Avoca, Wisconsin and moved to Montana for a drier climate because Amelia had tuberculosis. She died after seven months in Montana. Bert farmed and worked in a mercantile store. In 1912 he and oldest son, George went to Crane, Montana and acquired 160 acres of land, built a home,harvested, stacked and fenced-in a crop of hay. In the spring of 1913, Bert came and moved his children to theri new home northwest of Crane, Montana When they arrived, all of their fences had been destroyed and all of their hay stacks had been eaten by range cattle and horses. Bert Edam was a farmer moving into area that , up to this time, had been used mostly as open range for cattle. He owned the area's very first tractor and theshing machine. The lived close to the railrod tracks. Sparks from passing coal fired steam locomotives often ignited the parched prairie grass in surrounding pastures and hay fields. Theis caused prairie fires that had to be fought until Ber, George, Wilbert and theri neighbors extinguished them. Thile the prairie fires were being fought, Alice was instructed to remain inside the houe with her sister Mamie. Nighttime prairie fires were especially worrisome for Alice and Mamie who were contantly concerned for the safety of theri family hnd home. One autumn day Bert Oliver Edam and his children were in the garden digging potatoes. Alice noticed there were trains approaching from the east and the west. The problem was, there was only one set of tracks and both trains were on it - headed towards each other and destined for destruction. Alice immediately called the impending disaster to the attention of her dad. Bert instructed his sons, George nd Wilbert, to start tunning towrds one train, while he ran towards the other train. By waving their arms and handkercifs like flags while running towards the trains, they sucessfully alerted the engineers of the two approaching locomotives, in time for them to safely avoid the potentially fatal consequences. Since they prevented this accident the trains began throwing coal off their trains in the winter as they passed the Edam family home. Coal, for heating the pioneer famiy home, was a precious commodity. The Edam family appropiately used this coal for cooking emals and heating their modest home on the frozen Montana prairie. One and one-half years after he moved his motherless family to their new home Bert Oliver Edam was killed in a wagon accident. This is when the two girls went to Dodgeville, Wisconsin to live with their half-sister Ella Edam-Perkins