Born in a log cabin near Custer in 1892, Donn Spellman was an old settler of Fairview. He was honored by having his picture on Mon-Dak money. When Donn was born his mother’s first callers were a group of Crow squaws who had come to see the little white baby.

Donn’s unusual spelling of his name was due to the fact that the log cabin, in which he was born, was papered with newspapers, and his mother passed the time after his birth by reading these papers and found the name Donn in a news story about a Spanish diplomat.

Spellman’s father, Tom, was born in Ireland in 1846; he came to America at the age of 8. At the age of 15, he served with the Union Army in the Civil War. When the war was over, he went to Fort Buford working for a hay contractor. He was there when Grant Marsh docked the Far West at Fort Buford and reported the news of Custer’s defeat in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Spellman’s mother was born on a ship coming from Norway, and her parents were early settlers in the Billings area. The Spellman family came to the northeastern Montana area in 1896, spending the first winter at Thomas Point near Savage and then moving to Ridgelawn. Donn was 4 at that time. Then they moved to First Hay Creek where they homesteaded. They were called Hay Creek Springs back then. The Hay Creek Springs flooded a lot of land every time there was high water, and a lot of hay grew there. In the early days, the land was called Government Hay Meadows. People came all the way from Buford to put up hay.

Spellman remembers buying groceries in Williston, N.D., that lasted for a year. They traveled with a team of horses, crossed the steam ferry at Buford and headed into the fort. Ft. Buford looked like there should be someone there, but it had been abandoned two or three years earlier. It looked like the soldiers had just left for the day. The Spellmans put the team up at Buford and went into Williston on the train. The groceries were bought and shipped back to Buford and then loaded up in the wagons, crossed the ferry again and finally hauled another 20 miles back to the homestead on Hay Creek.

On one trip coming back from Buford, Spellman remembered his mom driving the team of horses. One of the mares had a colt, and when there was a cut bank near the ferry, the colt got pinned between the team and cut bank. Spellman was quite concerned as this colt was to be his, and of course didn’t want the colt to hurt himself or be crippled. They couldn’t stop as they were going up a steep hill. But the colt got out, and with quite a bit of scramble and nearly getting run over, made it and was OK.

Later on the log store (Newlon Log Store) was built in Fairview and the long trip to Williston for supplies was no longer necessary.

Spellman remembers living in a log house. Log houses were built right on the ground. They would have lasted longer than they did if they had a good foundation, but the bottom logs usually rotted out.

Spellman attended the Ridgelawn School. After school, Spellman went into the cattle and horse business with his father and brother, Matt, who was a well-known rider.

Spellman married Mamie Ryder Larson of Cartwright in 1919. From this marriage eight children were born.

Donn Spellman recalls all of the trailriders camping above Hay Creek to the building of the Yellowstone Valley Irrigation System to the establishment of Fairview and the building of the bridges over the Yellowstone. He came to the Fairview area as a little boy, lived his life here and, in the process, helped to create a part of this great Yellowstone Valley.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Information compiled from Courage Enough, Fairview News and the Sidney Herald.