Mary DeVries, 102, recalls a full life and the value of education

Mary Alice DeVries, who celebrated her 102nd birthday at The Springs At Whitefish on July 17, remembers growing up on a homestead nine miles northwest of Winnett and following her husband from state to state as he found work during the Depression. And she understands the value of a good education.

Her family, the Wilsons, moved to Oklahoma in 1907, when it first became a state. She was born the next year. Her father left Oklahoma because of tuberculosis and lived in a tent that first winter while working on the Milwaukee Railroad. The family joined him when Mary was six.

"My first memory of Montana was in the depot at Grass Range, at the end of the long train ride from Oklahoma," Mary recalled.

As in any newly settled country, schooling was difficult. Neighbors were often two or three miles away, and some didn't have children. Mary's sister, Lou, had gone to a teacher training school in Oklahoma, so she began teaching in a little country school in Flatwillow, about 15 miles away.

"Because of the cold winters, school was held in the spring and fall," Mary recalled. "Lou, Ressa and I lived near Flatwillow Creek in a tent, which had a wooden floor and wooden walls about three feet high."

Mary's mother was a hard worker and a good gardener. Once a week in summer, they traveled to Winnett to sell vegetables, butter and cheese.

"The winter of 1919 and 1920 was a terrible time for stockmen in Central Montana," Mary recalled. "An early snow was followed by a light chinook and a quick freeze, which left a glaze of ice everywhere. Daddy had bought 100 head of cattle. His loses were heavy."

The first oil in Montana was discovered near Winnett at Cat Creek. By then, the railroad had come and Winnett changed from a little town of less than 100 to a boom town of 2,000.

"Fresh milk was a luxury and commanded a good price," Mary recalled. "There was no water system in Winnett, so Dad hauled water in a tank placed on top of a wagon and drawn by the two mules. Water sold for 5 cents a bucket. The Winnett boom was short lived. The oil field played out and we moved back to the homestead."

After finishing high school, Mary worked at a restaurant in Kevin and saved enough money to buy a few clothes and get started in college at Bozeman. She stayed at the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority house and fell in love with the college and Bozeman.

"I had a high school scholarship, which paid for my tuition," she recalled. "Spring quarter, I worked in a cafeteria. I also had that job when I came back my sophomore year. This was in the worst of the Depression. Finally in the fall of 1933, I went back to school. Together with my summer savings, working for my room and being able to borrow about $450, I finally graduated in the spring of 1934."

That year, Mary said, only 10 percent of the graduating class got the jobs they had trained for. She had never wanted to be a teacher, but she had decided to take the credits for a certificate and was offered a job teaching English and history in Winnett. Later, she found work with the Animal Husbandry Department at Bozeman.

"My starting salary was $85," she recalled. "Later, as the boss's secretary, I earned $114. This was great. The secretary to the Montana State College president got $125."

Mary met her future husband, Herb DeVries, in 1937 at the St. Patrick's Day Flunker's Hop in Bozeman. He had graduated with a degree in agronomy in 1930. After working on his father's farm near Conrad and selling his interest in the farm to his brother, he had returned to college in 1936.

Herb and Mary were married on Dec. 23, 1937. He soon found work with the Soil Conservation Service in Moscow, Weiser and Doney, Idaho, back to Chinook, Mont., and during World War II with the Extension Service in Cortez, Colo.

"Herb liked his work, and I loved Cortez, but we just didn't see how we could continue without more money," Mary recalled.

Herb found a better-paying position as an agronomist in Toppenish, Wash., but after he was offered a bribe to approve a contract, the family moved back to Chinook, where Herb landed the job as county extension agent for nearly 23 years.

"Each year, the 4H program became stronger, until it was the largest program in Montana," Mary recalled.

Mary said she was happy as a homemaker, but she went to work to help get her four children through college. She taught the upper-four grades in a rural school for four years and worked as a social worker for four years. Their four children, Noel, Gail, Gordon and Kathleen, all graduated from Chinook High School and Montana State University.

In 1970, Herb and Mary sold their home in Chinook and built a house in Polson, which became a vacation home for their children and 12 grandchildren.

"For years, vacations had meant Glacier National Park," Mary recalled. "So Herb and I were on our way there when I suggested that we take a look at the Flathead."

After Herb passed away in 1992, Mary sold the home in Polson. She watched her family grow up and recently traveled to Redding, Calif., for the wedding of her youngest grandchild and namesake, Mary Walker. Another grandchild, Jennie Eckstrom, is a doctor at Glacier Medical Associates in Whitefish.

"Education has always been important to our family," Mary said. "Among my grandchildren are two Ph.D.s and one M.D., as well as several with master's degrees. I am blessed by a loving heavenly Father, a wonderful family and have lived a full life."