Messer Has Strong Roots in Richland County

Lifelong Richland County resident Leslie Messer is justifiably proud of her heritage, which includes pioneers Lossie and Lavenia Dawe and John and Myrl Willian Westerdale.

Lossie Dawe was born on August 14, 1868 to William T. and Rebecca Dill Dawe at Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. William was born in Cornwall England, and moved to Canada at the age of 12. After William's father died, the family moved to Pennsylvania. William spent three years in active service in the Civil War and participated in many historic battles. One such battle claimed the lobe of his right ear.

From Pennsylvania William moved the Dawe family to Macomb County, Michigan. Some years later he moved to Texas where he spent three years living with the Choctaw Nation. Tiring of the south, William returned the family to Michigan remaining there until the latter years of his life when he followed his son Lossie to Montana to engage in ranching. Rebecca passed away in Glendive, Mont. November 1908 and William died in Livingston May1919 at age 81.

Lossie Dawe was one of Richland County's earliest pioneers and avid supporters.

Arriving in the late 1900s, Dawe first worked on the ranch of Sears and Davidson, sheep men on Sears Creek, for two years. He also worked for Charley Smith, another sheep man, for about six months. A year and a half were spent on the McCone (later Senator) Ranch. It was during this time that he met the love of his life, Miss Lavenia Gloriana Blakeslee who was teaching in the area.

Mr. Dawe had been in the area four years, and in partnership with C.G. Larson had accumulated a bunch of T25 head of cattle, and the two began ranching for themselves. The partners located on open range on the north fork of Burns Creek, above the N.P. Ranch. "They erected the necessary sheds and corrals and built a cabin for themselves, hauling the logs from the river and erecting a dwelling 14 by 16 feet, and while its room space seems small at the present time, it on one occasion accommodated overnight seventeen men, Mr. Dawe slipping in last and out the first in the morning to make room for the others to move."

The partners remained there until 1895 when Mr. Dawe married. When the partnership was dissolved in 1897 they sold 175 head of cattle, and with his share of the sum, perhaps $1500, Mr. Dawe started the cattle business in partnership with his wife.

They began their career together as stockraisers with a cow and a calf and a bull, and remained at the old ranch. From 1898 to 1903, the Dawe home housed the new Enid post office, named after their infant daughter.

They lived on at the ranch for several years, then moved to Sidney where their four children, Enid, Glen, Eva and Mary could be educated. The Dawe Ranch, as it came to be known, was subsequently sold to J. Thomas Neese,

Purchasing the Stockwell Ranch on the southeast quarter of section 28, township 23, range 59, at Sidney, Mont, in 1904, the family of six now occupied a comfortable stone residence of six rooms rather than a dirt-roofed cabin. His stone barn was the first of the large complete barns to be built in the community, and was erected by C.L. Stockwell. Dawe began raising registered Herefords but changed to Holsteins for dairy purposes, selling milk and cream for several years. Sheep finally followed the Holsteins on the Dawe Ranch.

Lossie Dawe moved his family to Sidney when it contained only one log store, the post office, and a Methodist church and parsonage. He built the third business of the town, which became the Johnson-Mercer Hardware Company, in 1906. In 1910 Dawe became a partner with E.A. Kenoyer in the lending and real estate business under the firm name of the Montana Eastern Land & Investment Company. In 1915 the firm dissolved partnership, and Dawe resumed farming.

He was a member of the company which built the telephone system of Sidney and extended the line to Fairview, Savage and Crane, installing exchanges at all the places. Mr. Dawe served as the president and one of the directors of the company for a year. The Mountain States Telephone Company later bought the system.

When the First National Bank of Sidney was chartered, Mr. Dawe purchased some of the stock, and was a member of its board of directors.

"When Richland County was created from the boundaries of old Dawson he gave an active support to the movement, and thus took part in one of the most spirited county-division battles ever waged in the state. He also cast a ballot for the location of the state's capital in Helena. Mr. Dawe has been one of the most active workers Montana has ever had for a prohibition country. He was one of the original members of the prohibition party in this locality, voting that ticket when it was a known lost cause, and he has lived to witness the accomplishment not only of the state prohibition but of a national one, and now that the question is settled and part of the country's organic law he gives political affiliation to the republican party."

Lossie Dawe donated the land where the old Deaconess/Community Memorial Hospital stood, plus the land where the Sidney Middle School is situated.

Lavenia Dawe died of a stroke Christmas Eve, 1920. On March 25, 1923, Lossie died, perhaps hastened by the great and heartfelt loss he recently suffered. At his request, Lavenia was exhumed, and the two are buried together, forever holding hands.

Their youngest daughter Mary is Messer's grandmother who married William Lowry and had a son Bill Lowry Jr., Leslie's father.

On her mother Linda's side, Leslie's grandparents were Leila (Rasmussen) and Delmar Willian whose stepfather John Westerdale came to Montana in 1906 and worked on the construction of the irrigation canal, He later homesteaded across the river east of Savage. Westerdale had lost his first wife and he married a widow, Myrl Jennings Willian who had two sons, Delmar and Carroll.

Messer feels fortunate to live in Richland County and that her job as executive director of Richland Economic Development allows her the opportunity to continue to grow Richland County, just as her ancestors have done.