The Matti Hen House
Sketch by Shirley Northern
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Samuel Matti came to this country from Switzerland when he was 18. He met Kathryn Adams from New Jersey when he was mining gold in Montana. They decided to settle southwest of Eastman on DuCharme Creek in 1880. Harrison Matti remembers when he, his brother, George, and Sam, their father, built this log corn crib in 1905. They built it out of butternut logs. In addition to storing corn, this building was used to break up setting hens. Hens that weren’t producing would be locked in here for 4 to 5 days without water and with very little feed. This got them laying again.
Sam Matti’s specialty in farming was having a terribly big garden, but he also raised cows, pigs, bees and sorghum. It was not unusual in those days (1910) to have Indians camping on Matti land. Nettie Matti remembers when a cow got into the clover, became bloated and died. Just as they were about to bury it, some Indians came up and wanted to buy it. The Indians were glad because it meant that they would have meat for the winter. This hen house was donated by Charles Tresch who had purchased the land from Kathryn Matti. |