Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame announces 2017 inductions
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PRESS RELEASE
Recently the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame & Western Heritage Center (MCHF & WHC) announced the tenth class of inductions into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame. The inductees were chosen from a field of candidates nominated by the general public. Inductees are honored for their notable contributions to the history and culture of Montana.
"Our volunteer trustees around Montana vote on nominations that come from the district in which they reside," said Jeff Bolstad, MCHF & WHC President. "It gives the local communities a strong voice in who will represent them in the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame exists to honor those who have made an impact in their part of the state and represent Montana's authentic heritage for future generations."
The MCHF & WHC board of directors has designated 12 trustee districts across the state from which up to 20 trustees may be appointed. Nomination criteria established by the board for the Class of 2017 inductions allowed the election of up to one Living Inductee and two Legacy Inductees from each of the 12 districts.
The 2017 inductees into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame are: District 4 (Blaine, Chouteau, Hill, & Liberty Counties): Living Award – Nicholas Bernard "Nick" Faber, Chinook. Legacy Award – John & Fay (Vercruyssen) Stuker, Chinook, and Ed & Orah (Young) Massie, Great Falls (formerly of Chouteau County).
This week we recognize John & Fay (Vercruyssen) Stuker.
JOHN WILL & FAY LOIS (VERCRUYSSEN) STUKER (1924 - 2001) & (1932 - 2014)
YEAR OF INDUCTION: 2017
DISTRICT OF INDUCTION: 4
John Will Stuker was born July 17, 1924, at home in Paradise Valley, Blaine County, Montana, to John and Sophie (Rausch) Stuker, the second of five children. He attended Paradise Valley School. At age seven, John sat on a flat board to drive a team of horses in the fields to break up the clumps of dirt. At age 10, his mother died. At 12, John farmed while his father, hauled drinking water from their farm to Harlem, a 25-mile round trip. At 17, John was hired by Gustove Vercruyssen then by Prudencio "Prunes" Agorreta, a neighboring rancher, 18 miles south of Chinook on Clear Creek. Prunes ran large bands of sheep and herds of cattle. John made many 85-mile day rides by horse to and from Prunes' to north of Lohman to chase wild horses back into Canada. There were no fences and the grass was needed for cattle.
An Agricultural Deferment requested by Prunes, kept John from the service until January of 1946. John served in the United States Army on the Berlin Airlift, Operation Vittles, in the 252nd Combat Engineer Battalion as a staff sergeant and had his paycheck sent home. John was honorably discharged on December 31, 1948. He returned home to work for Prunes until Prunes' death and his estate was settled in 1950. John remained in the Reserves for four years.
Fay Lois Vercruyssen was born on leap year, February 29, 1932, to Gustove and Marion (Kearful) Vercruyssen, in the Sacred Heart Hospital, Havre, Montana. She was the second of four girls. Fay lived in a homestead log house with a dirt floor, until eight, then her father built a regular wooden house. She had scarlet fever and lost her hair. At nine, during haying season, Fay drove a team of horses on a sulky rake behind the mower and the stacker team while her future husband, John, stacked the hay. The neighbor would hire Fay to drive the stacker team all summer for one dollar. The pony Fay rode three and one-half miles south to Ada School, often ate her lunch from the saddle pack. One summer the family collie rescued her from drowning in an irrigation ditch by pulling her out. Her family raised many sheep and cattle and her job was to take the milk cows out to pasture in the morning and bring them home at night, milk a cow in the morning and night, feed chickens, gather eggs, do dishes and wash clothes on a scrub board with lye soap. When ill, rendered goose and skunk fat were mixed half-and-half and applied to her chest, back and throat. For a cough, kerosene and honey were mixed to swallow. At nine, Fay's parents separated and Fay lived with her grandparents, Jerome and Flora (Tibbits) Kearful, on the Eden Ranch, three miles down creek. Jerome "squatted" his land before homesteading was available, built a log cabin in 1890 and purchased a Sears & Roebuck prefabricated house in 1916. Fay rode a horse three-and-one-half miles north to Sprague School. Fay always liked bees, because her grandparents, Alphonse and Marie (Anssons) Vercruyssen, who lived up the creek, raised bees that they kept in the root cellar during winter to keep from freezing. Fay graduated from high school in three years at the Ursuline Academy in Great Falls in 1948 and with a two-year teaching degree from the College of Great Falls in 1950.
John and Fay married July 29, 1950, at St. Gabriel's Catholic Church, in Chinook, between first and second cuttings of hay. John's father gave them a bred milk cow. They moved north to farm and ranch, first leasing several places before buying. Their first home was a log house and their next, unoccupied a few years, the front door would not close, windows were broken and the chimney crumbled. They moved in before repairs because John insisted. Three children were born: Jerri, John H. and Kenneth.
In 1953, they moved to a ranch 33 miles north of Chinook that they purchased, by the Canadian border, on the Bagan Road that turned to gumbo with rain. Four more children were born: Richard, Ruth, Marion and Leslie. For eight years, Fay, taught their children and neighbor children, at Hydro School two miles from the ranch. John's father lived with them before his passing. Their black and white TV ran off a gas engine, their backyard had clotheslines and an outhouse supplied with catalogs from J.C. Penney, Sears & Roebuck, Montgomery Ward and peach wrappers. Their water well was at the bottom of the hill, water had to be pumped and hauled for bathing, cleaning and the wringer wash machine. The root cellar was used for food storage and storm shelter. The basement held coal, potatoes, jars of canned goods and supplies. Baths were taken in the kitchen in a round metal tub, living room linoleum was turned for a better wear pattern, nails were straightened for reuse, and a large garden, chickens, geese, pigs, horses and Hereford cattle were raised. John once accompanied his cattle on the cattle train back east to sell. Bachelors visited often to eat pies Fay baked. The Rural Electric Association brought electricity into their area about 1958.
