This Week In History - March 27
Author: Linda Huth, Broadwater County Musuem Curator
“What Happened this Week in History”
Submitted by Linda Huth; Sponsored by: The Broadwater County Historical Society and the Cotter Foundation
March 27
1941
“Mr. and Mrs. Mike Massa and little daughter, Madeline, and Mrs. Madaline Antonetti spent Sunday in Willow Creek visiting Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Flaherty and family.
Mr. and Mrs. Allan Graveley have broken ground for a new camp on Deep Creek. They chose a plot of ground at the foot of Cedar Bar opposite the Magruder camp and intend to have a small rustic building erected.
Mr. and Mrs. Hadley Rice plan to move into their new home on Walnut Street Monday. The home is being finished by Geo. Bickford who is applying the last coats of paint to the walls and woodwork at present. The Rice home is one of Townsend’s new modern small houses and numbers among its best. It is equipped with the latest type oil furnace and most modern electric equipment in kitchen and basement. Carl How superintended its construction.
Visitors in Bozeman Tuesday were Mrs. L.J. Anders, Mrs. Albin Quist, Mrs. Frank Murray and John Quist.
Mr. and Mrs. John Morgan and family of Helena spent Saturday here visiting relatives. Mrs. Morgan left on Wednesday for Alaska to visit her father, Bob Doggett, who recently suffered a stroke. Mr. Doggett is a brother of the late Jeff and Charles Doggett and a former resident of Townsend and Helena.
Mr. and Mrs. Loris Zimmerman and family who have been visiting relatives here the past week left today for their home in Bremerton, Washington.
Nick Helner has been appointed tender for the Montana Ditch company for the season. Mr. Helner, himself a user, will have charge of the cleaning and water distribution during the season.
1958
“Radersburg News”
Mrs. John Williams and Mrs. Oppie Smith were business visitors in Butte Wednesday.
Mr. and Mrs. W.G. Williams and children of the longhorn ranch north of Townsend were here Thursday visiting relatives. Mrs. Williams, Kathy and Dennis attended the Silver Tea at the schoolhouse.
The children of the lower grades at the Radersburg school were hosts and hostesses at a Silver Tea at the schoolhouse Thursday afternoon, at which time nearly everyone in the community went and were served dainty sandwiches and their choice of coffee, tea or Kool-Aid in return for silver given. Master Devin Miller was in charge of coffee service, Miss Marsha Miller pouring tea, and Master Paul Harris taking care of those preferring Kool-Aid. The children took in over $10 for their project.
The children of the upper grades conducted a bake sale at the store during the afternoon and took in over $27.
Mrs. Jack Ralls and daughter, Terri, were in Helena on business Saturday
Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Williams and daughter, Joanne, of Helena, were Sunday visitors at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Williams.
Mr. and Mrs. K.P. Thurston attended the 25th anniversary reception honoring Mr. and Mrs. Paul Green in Townsend Sunday.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnny Ragen and children of Townsend were Sunday guests of Mr. and Mrs. John Williams and Tom.
Mrs. Mary Grandchamp accompanied Mrs. Alfy Doughty to Townsend Monday for the day. Mrs. Doughty is serving on the jury.
Mr. and Mrs. Art Roberts and children of Townsend were Wednesday visitors at the home of Mr. and Mrs. O.J. Allen.
Mr. and Mrs. Jack Ralls and son, Steve, were Bozeman visitors Monday.
1975
“Board Plans Library Week”
Broadwater County Library Board is busy making plans for National Library Week to be held April 13 through 19. This year, the board plans to involve the community through a coffee hour and crafts from school children. The Library is open weekdays 12:00 noon until 5:00 p.m., Wednesday evening 7 p.m. until 9 p.m., Saturday morning 9 a.m. until 12:00 noon. Everyone is invited to make use of the County Library and see all of the new books. There is a selection of paper-back books, also. If anyone is interested in making donations of paper-back books, the board would greatly appreciate it. The library board members are Terry Love, librarian; Susie Mattson, board member; Marion Kitto, secretary; Thelma Heberle, assistant librarian; Peggy Pritchard, vice chairman; Agnes George, chairman; Esther Hollaway, assistant librarian.
“Toston News”
Debra Lohr is one of the behind the scenes workers on the junior Class play.
Gary Flynn graduated from the professional Ferrier course at Montana State University and received the Top Hand Plaque.
Mr. and Mrs. Wally Rauser and family attended the 4-H Speech Contest at the Courthouse on Saturday. Connie was one of the contestants.
Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Grimm visited with Mr. and Mrs. Al Olsen and family in Harrison last week.
Mr. and Mrs. Louis Anzik were in Butte on Thursday.
Frank Beyers, Berly Boster and Annissa visited with the Robert Beyers family in Dillon last Saturday and Sunday.
Allen Hunsaker of Ogden, Utah visited with Mr. and Mrs. E.L. Hunsaker and family Friday through Sunday.
1997
“The Legacy of Sylvia, a Beer Drinking Pig”
As local legends go, perhaps none is more celebrated than that of Sylvia, the beer drinking sow who roamed the streets and the White Beaver Bar of Toston throughout the 1970s. Her portrait now hangs at the Bunkhouse Bar, where she is revered as one of the tiny community’s most well-known figures.
And, weighing somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 pounds, what a figure that was.
“There’s people who still come up and ask about her,” says Gary Olsen, one of the three Olsen boys - Greg, Gary and Tom – who took Sylvia, Alice and Martha as pay for labor for local pork producer, George Rauser. It was the summer of 1971 when the three piglets became members of the Jim and Marge Olsen household.
Syvia was the tamest of them all,” Gary says. “The veterinarian from Three Forks told Dad that if we gave them beer, just throw it into a bucket with some oats, they would put on weight fast. They started getting bigger and bigger, and we didn’t know how to build a fence to keep them in. They kept getting loose.”
On one such occasion, sylvia ditched her less social sisters and headed straight to the White Beaver, which the Olsen family owned. Behind the bar was a 5-gallon pickle bucket which contained the dregs of unfinished beers and cocktails. A little Pyrex bowl was set out and filled for Sylvia, who soon became a regular.
Her siblings wound up in Radersburg, with the Diehl family, but the Olsens would not part company with Sylvia, whose barroom behavior became a tourist attraction and ultimately a story in the Seattle Post Intelligencer and an invitation to appear on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. “People came from all over to see Sylvia,” says Gary. “She remained with us as a pet and ran all over Toston. She’d hang out at the post office quite a bit too. She just liked attention. She was just like a dog.”
A really, really big dog.
Gary remembers weighing her in October 1978. Nine-hundred pounds. “And she lived two or three years after that.”
They figure she was close to 1,500 pounds when she died,” said Marge Sherwood of Townsend, Gary’s mother. “She was so big we had to take her to the beet dump to weigh her. Even vets we talked to said a pig never gets that big.”
Some people were afraid of her because she was so big,” Gary says. “But she never bit anyone or knocked anyone down.” He explained that the only time Sylvia got testy was when someone at the bar wanted to see her after her bedtime. And even then – though she was not quite her normal self – she made appearances and had a few drinks just to be sociable.
Like her girth, Sylvia’s reputation grew.
Jack Pennant, a friend of the Olsens and a writer for the Seattle Post Intelligencer, did a piece entitled “Sylvia’s a Beer-guzzling Hog”, published July 13, 1975, and carried on the United Press International wire.
In 1979 Sylvia slipped on the ice and broke something. She had to be euthanized with a shot. She was discussed on the Tonight Show by Johnny Carson, but her brush with fame was undermined by a slip on the ice of Toston, where she is remembered, perhaps forever.
