The Preacher Epilogue

G. GEORGE OSTROM / For the Hungry Horse News

It seemed an unlikely hope two weeks ago that someone who read the column about traveling preacher "Carlton Thornton" would contact me with information about him. Didn't have high expectations because he gave me those skis 72 years ago and I've had no knowledge of him for at least 70. HOORAY! It happened. A Hungry Horse News subscriber in California, Virginia Mason, phoned while I was away from home and told Iris I had spelled his name wrong. Said it was "Carelton Thoroman." Didn't give Iris a phone number, but did mention she graduated from Columbia Falls High with Corrine Lundgren and Carelton's daughter Phyllis in late forties. Now I was on a hot lead because Corrine is a longtime friend, and founding member of Iris's "Sewing Club."

Corrine said she was close friend with Virginia and still corresponds, but couldn't find a phone number; however, she said another friend of hers from Columbia Falls was Mary Sibley whose son Cal lives at Lake Blaine. Called Cal because Virginia is his aunt. He was glad I called because that reminded him he wanted to talk to her. Said he was going to do it "right now," but gave me her number first. Little later Cal called back and said Virginia was waiting to hear from me.

She said she stays in touch with Carleton's oldest daughter, Phyllis, whom she believes is a college professor in the Midwest. He was a Methodist minister and traveled around northwest Montana preaching at places where they didn't have a minister, but it was not well paying. (That's why he went to work at the Flathead Mine where he "talked" to me after I shot the little woodpecker.) Following World War II, Virginia recalls the family moved back to Indiana. Sometime later Carelton was killed in a car wreck while traveling with his students. Mrs. Thoroman was teacher and had a long career.

A big thing Virginia remembers from school days is going to the Thoroman home where Phyllis proudly displayed her father's large collection of butterflies. They were carefully mounted on panels, preserved under glass, and were "gorgeously brilliant." It was a joy for me, talking to Virginia.

The Sibley family has roots going way back in the settling of West Glacier (Belton) and all the families mentioned here are part of Columbia Falls and Canyon history. I believe Virginia's folks ran a gas station in Hungry Horse in 1946.

Relative to all this, got a surprise call from Sid Goodrich who remodeled the Izaak Walton Inn and put the skis Carelton gave me up on the fireplace. I thought he'd called because I mentioned him in that "woodpecker skis' yarn, but he didn't know about it. Hadn't heard from Sid for a couple of years and been thinking about him. Iris says that could be ESP but isn't really sure. Anway, Sid and I had a long chat and he invited me to a birthday party his son is giving him at Marion on the 27th of this month. Sid lives at McGregor Lake and will turn 90. He seemed perky as ever but Millie had a stroke a few years ago and is in a special care home in Kalispell.

Will wind up this column with a couple of items found in my den files this week. There is an old note from a speech given long ago at the Montana Logger's Convention. I said, "When chainsaws first came on the market, a salesman went out in the wood to sell some and came upon young logger, Clyde Smith, cutting a big log with a crosscut. The salesman showed him a brochure and told Clyde, 'With one of these new tools, you could cut your work in half.' Clyde got all excited and said, 'I'll take two of em'."

The late Clyde Smith was the driving force for the ALERT operation at Kalispell Regional Hospital and of course … had his sons dump a 12,000-pound tamarack butt log on my front lawn. Maybe he did that because of the chainsaw story. The log is still there and I think of Clyde quite often.

Then there is a Ronald Reagan quote, "The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other."

Life is good.

G. George Ostrom is a Kalispell resident and a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist.