Nettie GRANT

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1900, Living with father in Mission, Chelan Co., Washington

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1875, Living in Gordon, Todd Co., Minnesota
• Census: 1880, Living in Dawson County, Montana
• Census: 1900, Living in Mission, Chelan Co., Washington
• Census: 1910, Living in Cashmere, Chelan Co., Washington
• Census: 1920, Living in San Juan, San Juan Co., Washington

Notes:

Name:
Excerpt from "An Uncommon Journey, The History of Old Dawson County, Montana Territory. The Biography of Stephen Norton Van Blaricom".

It was George Grant and Emmet Dunlap who got the first irrigation project going on a small scale up on Grant's Prairie in 1883. They built a ditch and diverted Grant Creek into it. George and Emmet only had about ten acres apiece under water, but, over time, Emmet kept enlarging his area until it covered nearly a full quarter section. Because of Emmet's success, the local took to calling the creek "Dunlap Creek," and "Grant Creek" eventually fell into disuse. The agency farmer at Wolf Point up north on the Fort Peck Reservation got some irrigation water going there in 1884....

Early irrigation projects: The Grant-Dunlap irrigation scheme near Tokna on Grant's Prairie was the first commercial irrigation scheme developed in the original Dawson County. George Grant was a buffalo hunter who came into Montana in 1873. He had settled on the lower Yellowstone in 1878, originally locating about a mile south of John Burns on Burns Creek. In 1879 he moved to the flat adjoining what is now the settlement of Savage. The area was early known as "Grant's Prairie." George Grant was the son-in-law of Eben and Louisa P. Slawson. He was married to their daughter, Imogene, who, after marrying Grant in Minnesota in 1873, accompanied her parents to Dawson County in 1879. (In Courage Enough and contemporary newspaper accounts, Mrs. Grant's first name is seen spelled as "Emogene" or Emigene." Her tombstone in Cashmere, Washington, cemetery, however, reads: "Imogene Grant, May 17, 1853--July 18, 1898". consequently, the spelling of "Imogene" has been used throughout this text.)

Emmet Dunlap had worked on the construction of the NPRR between Bismarck and Glendive. In 1881 Grant met Dunlap in Glendive and encouraged Emmet to move himself and his family to Grant's Prairie. Dunlap liked the idea and the location and took Grant up on the proposition. By 1883, the two men had completed a diversion dam on what became known as Dunlap creek (on Grant's Prairie) and initially built a small canal from which they could collectively irrigate perhaps one-hundred acres between them. Shortly after completing their canal, Grant and Dunlap got into Dawson County's first "water fight" and wouldn't speak to each other for a number of years. Their wives, however, stayed relatively close and they served as the "water mediators" until Mrs. Dunlap's death in 1888. Following her death, the two men seem to have worked out the water rights deal and were good neighbors thereafter.

By 1889 Emmet Dunlap had enlarged his end of the small canal and was irrigating one-hundred-and-sixty acres. Grant, whose irrigated property in 1884 was reported to cover an eight-acre garden and a small orchard, was stated to have been "using water from the same ditch." Emmet Dunlap was still residing on his home place as late as 1897. In 1974 the Dunlap ranch was owned by Bob and Ida Seeve.

The Grant family sold their place to Augustus Alfred Frederickson, the Glendive-Ridgelawn mail carrier and stagecoach driver, late in 1896. On 1 January 1897 they departed the lower Yellowstone and moved to Old Mission (now Cashmere), Washington. This move put them back near Imogene's parents, Eben and Louisa Slawson, who had sold out along the Yellowstone and had gone to Old Mission in 1888. Imogene(Slawson) Grant died in Old Mission, Kittitas County, Washington, on 18 July 1898 at the age of forty-five...

George married Imogene J. SLAWSON on 17 May 1873 in Osakis, Douglas Co., Minnesota. Imogene (daughter of Pvt Ebenezer SLAWSON and Louisa Polly GREEN) was born on 17 May 1853 in Delaware County, New York; died on 18 Jul 1898 in Cashmere, Washington; was buried in Cashmere Cemetery, Cashmere, Chelan Co., Washington. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1860, Living with parents in Tompkins, Delaware Co., New York
• Census: 1870, Living with parents in Gordon, Todd Co., Minnesota
• Census: 1875, Living with husband in Gordon, Todd Co., Minnesota
• Census: 1880, Living with husband in Dawson Co., Montana