Dorothy Johnson letters found in Iowa barn
Hungry Horse News
Retired railroad engineer Larry Clanton knew he was onto something when he saw Mel Ruder's name in the junk he was cleaning out of a barn in Iowa.
Clanton, who lives just across the Mississippi River in Prairie DuChien, Wis., said he was helping a friend tear down an old dairy barn in McGregor, Iowa, when he found an old book in a box of papers and bottles.
The book was The Hanging Tree, and it was personally autographed by the author, Dorothy Johnson. Clanton said he'd never heard of the author, but he recognized the name of one of the six pallbearers listed in a memorial for a woman named Louisa Alger, who was buried in the Whitefish Cemetery on Dec. 31, 1961- Mel Ruder.
Clanton, who owns a cabin on the backside of Teakettle Mountain and has a brother in Coram, had long been a subscriber to the Hungry Horse News, so he knew who Mel Ruder was. But not knowing who Johnson or Alger were, he packaged up the book and assorted papers and sent it to his friend Jerry Smalley.
Smalley, it turns out, is not only the "Fishful Thinking" columnist for the Hungry Horse News. He-and Clanton-are members of Trees Forever, an Iowa-based organization that promotes tree planting.
A little historical sleuthing back in Montana followed, and soon the pieces of this long-distance puzzle fell together. Louisa Alger, mother of Western writer Dorothy Johnson, was born in McGregor, Iowa. The owners of the property where the barn was located were Alger's friends, the Denning family.
Shortly after her mother died in Hamilton, Johnson's aunt, Mattie Taggart, provided Johnson with a list of her mother's friends. Johnson typed letters on her Montana State Press Association stationary informing them of her mother's passing.
Mrs. L.L. Denning, of McGregor, Iowa, also received a copy of Louisa Alger's memorial from the Catron Funeral Home, in Whitefish. The letters and other correspondence from Johnson was found inside the book.
Pallbearers included Hungry Horse News publisher Mel Ruder, Whitefish Pilot publisher Gurney Moss, Pilot printer Herb Callies, Columbia Falls resident and Methodist minister Ervin Hanson, along with Cal Bonner and D.P. Dedon.
The soloist was Whitefish music teacher Alfons Olson. Mrs. T.W. Hiatt was the organist, and the Rev. James Dickinson officiated.
Clanton also found several folded newspaper clippings and a handwritten note tucked away in the book.
A June 9, 1957 article headlined "Latest Johnson book released" revealed that well-known Western writer "D.M. Johnson" was a woman named Dorothy Marie Johnson, "a rather gentle lady, and no calf-roping, weather-beaten he-man at all."
The 1957 book review went on to explain "how she knows as much as she does," having grown up "in the small town of Whitefish, just west of Glacier National Park." The author also noted that Johnson owned "a small collection of old pistols" and was "something of an authority on Vigilantes."
The anonymous handwritten note Clanton found read, "Adopted into Blackfeet Indian Tribe at Browning, Mont., and given the name 'Princess Kills Both Places.' An old med. man named her for his grandmother, considered quite an honor, had elaborate ceremonies."
Johnson was the author of 17 books, 52 short stories and numerous articles over a 60-year writing career. Several of her books were made into Hollywood movies.
Born in 1906, raised a widow's daughter, Johnson graduated from Whitefish High School in 1922 and the University of Montana in Missoula in 1928.
Johnson spent 15 years editing a magazine in New York before returning to Whitefish as news editor for the Whitefish Pilot. In 1953, she moved to West Rattlesnake Gulch, in Missoula, taking a position with the Montana State Press Association with an office in the university's Journalism Building.
Clanton said he read "The Hanging Tree" from cover to cover before he sent his discovery on to Smalley in Montana.
"I read every story in the book," he told the Hungry Horse News over the phone. "Smalley told me it was Johnson who nominated Ruder for the Pulitzer Prize."
One thing Clanton wanted to know - was Johnson still alive?
The answer is no. Dorothy Marie "Kills Both Places" Johnson, who made the short list of the most influential Montanans in the state's history, died at 78 on Nov. 11, 1984.