In the fall of 1906, Howard Boles, his sons Claud and Fred Boles and son-in-law Mark Deming, (married to Ethel Boles at Carthage, S.D, whose father was George Boles) arrived by rail at Glendive. It had been reported that land was still available for homesteading in eastern Montana. They learned land was still available near Fairview, a place more than 60 miles down the valley. So they engaged a driver and two-seated buggy to take them to the valley. They made it to Ridgelawn the first day where they secured meals and lodging at a hostelry operated by the Benoits.

Having located their claims, Howard and Fred returned to South Dakota to prepare the rest of the family including Mark Deming’s wife and sons Roscoe and Robert for the big move to Montana.

After loading their immigrant cars with their belongings consisting of household goods, chickens, a team of horses apiece, a cow or two and a few farm implements, they boarded a train with tickets to Mondak. They had the misfortune to reach Mondak just when the Missouri was breaking up, and it was impossible to cross the ice and unsafe to crossing a boat. Staying in Mondak was an experience. It was loud and rowdy with fights breaking out day and night. The only available place to stay was the rowdiest hotel of them all. After a few nights, Mr. Eastman, owner of the boat service, finally agreed to cross the Missouri. Eastman had to maneuver around the ice and not let it hit them or they would tip over in the river. During the crossings, the oarsman had to stop his small craft repeatedly to avoid collision with ice chunks. Then he would have to row quickly ahead in order to dodge the next one.

The crude cabin they lived in that first year provided a warm, dry dwelling place. It had a dirt roof and rough floors. Blankets had to be spread on the floor before the babies could be let down to play. When the rains came in June, an oilcloth was suspended from the rafters over the bed and another was hung above the stove.

That following year the Demings moved to their homestead two and a half miles west of town where Deming had constructed a comfortable four-room frame house. A few years later he added two ells to the house, expanding it to an eight-room dwelling. By this time four more children were born: Dorothy, Harry, Bill and Margaret.

George Boles and Deming operated The Log Store around 1913 on State Street.

Around the first World War (1917) Mark’s brother, Will, came to Fairview. Will Deming had experience working for a livestock remedy firm at Aberdeen, S.D. He had acquired a formula that would destroy bots in horses. Bot flies are not like the average housefly. They look and buzz like a plain old housefly, but bot flies are myiatic flies. That means they invade the living tissue and organs of humans and animals and burrow into the skin when they are in the larvae stage. When they’re adults, species like the Horse Stomach bot fly look like honeybees.

Under a gentlemen’s agreement, Will brought the formula to Fairview to develop a business, and the Fairview Chemical Co. in 1918 was organized. The firm manufactured and distributed veterinary remedies. Doc and Bert Frankl also invested in this enterprise for many years. Later, the Demings bought them out.

At one time 35 people were working for the company and enough medicine was being mailed to other cities, that it raised the class of the Fairview post office. At its peak, the company supplied five veterinarian laboratories in the Midwest with capsules. Mark Deming served as the president and had sales representatives in 48 states. In the beginning, the Chemical Company was on State Street. They bought the building, which later housed the Fairview News and operated their business until the late 1920s. The Demings had also established a Fairview Chemical Co. in Regina, Sask., Canada, which they sold later.

The war and tractors had developed difficult times for the horse business, and the company was moved to Humboldt, S.D. Their best year was 1936 as tractors were still second fiddle to horses there. That year the Demings moved to Humboldt and remained there for 11 years until 1947 when they returned to Fairview and the homestead on the hill.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Information compiled from Courage Enough and the Fairview Times.