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Greetings and Welcome to The 405 Coffee Break with O.K. Solberg
New episodes tend to air over the local KMMR radio station @ 5 minutes past 4PM each M-F. And have been doing so, nearly every week since Sept 2018.
New episodes appear here usually within a few hours after that KMMR air time and been striving to post new releases here by 4:30PM.
I want to again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Guys, middle of the week, get you a cup of coffee, glass iced tea, bottle of water. Let's see what's happening.
OK Solberg:Spring wheat $6.71 a bushel. 550lb steer calf, and they are starting to move here pretty quick. $4.70 a pound on the top end and a 100lb fat lamb in Billings at $3.10 on the top end. Well, guys, there's more much more.
OK Solberg:Okay. Okay. Today I'll share another segment from the book loaned to me by Dick Dale written by Walter Phillips, the son for whom this county was named, his father being B. D. Phillips.
OK Solberg:This book is so interesting, but this will be my last segment from the book as I need to get it back to Dick. For you see, others wanna read it as well and I don't blame them and I can't hog it forever. So, again, thank you, Dick, Dick Dale, for loaning me your book.
OK Solberg:Today, a portion from chapter 26 that you and I will both find rather interesting. And I quote, During the 1890's and early 1900's all land in Montana except for a relatively small acreage was still in the public domain.
OK Solberg:So in order to expand, my father as well as thousands of other ranchers openly encouraged friends, relatives, ranch hands, etcetera to use their 160 acre homestead rights or desert rights to file undesirable tracks.
OK Solberg:In my father's case, he would lease from the respective parties with the understanding that after the land was proved up, he would pay a standard price of $6 per acre if the owner wanted to sell.
OK Solberg:And as much as $6 per acre was a very generous price at that time, the new owners almost always chose to sell. My father took practical view that it was a citizen's right to make use of his land filing rights to his own best interest.
OK Solberg:As a 160 acres of raw land was not enough acreage for an economic unit as present day ranchers know, the only practical answer was to sell. However, the government took the position that his procedure was defrauding the government and in about 1905 indicted my father under this charge no doubt selecting him as a whipping boy because of his prominence.
OK Solberg:At this time he owned about 10,000 acres. In about 1913, the case was brought to trial by the government. The trial resulted in a negotiated settlement between my father's attorneys, The United States attorneys, and the court by which my father pleading guilty to one charge was fined $1,000 and the case was dismissed.
OK Solberg:Still active in politics to some extent, my father took some part of the county division fight in which Phillips County was created in 1915. Though not soliciting the use of his name for the new county, my father felt highly honored by the choice.
OK Solberg:I am convinced that the choice of his name was a prime factor in winning the fight. As to the above charge by the government, my father was vindicated by the electorate, the people of Phillips County who knew him best.
OK Solberg:As is the case with practically all prominent people, my father has been the subject of several derogatory press releases since his death in 1926 by lesser persons trying to detract from one of Montana's great pioneers.
OK Solberg:I chose not to dignify any of these releases by specific reference. These releases have been either part truth, completely untruth, part omission, part air, or gross exaggeration and cowardly from the standpoint that my father has not been here to defend his name.
OK Solberg:There I end the quote from Walter Phillips, son of B.D. Phillips for whom our county was named. Again, I thank you Dick Dale for loaning me this interesting and educational book on local history. I'll close with a bible verse.
OK Solberg:It comes from the book of Proverbs chapter 18 and verse 17. The man who states his case 1st seems right until others come and examine him. Proverbs 18:17
OK Solberg:If we only hear one side of a story, we only have half of the picture. Well, this we know is true. We live in Phillips County. Our number on the license plate is 11, and our county was named in honor of B.D. Phillips. Those are facts.
OK Solberg:So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.