Big Sky, Montana
406-995-2160
Augustus Franklin Crail (known as Frank Crail) was born in Decatur County, Indiana in 1842 to Samuel Spencer Crail II and Catherine Weaver. He had two brothers, John and Albert, and a sister Fanny. In 1857, Frank's mother died. His father remarried a year later, fathering nine more children. Seven years later in 1865, Frank Crail left Tipton County, Indiana, and traveled to the frontier at St. Joseph, Missouri. There he joined a wagon train and ventured forth to Miles City in the Montana Territory. Frank was first a farmer, homesteading in the current Springhill section of Bozeman. Then he leased his land and worked as a freighter between Miles City and Fort Benton. In 1886, he married Sallie L. Creek. He served as District Clerk of the 9th Judicial District in Gallatin County from 1896 to 1900, elected on the Democratic ticket against a Republican endorsed by the Populist Party.
In 1902, Crail moved his family to Gallatin Canyon Basin (now called Big Sky), after he purchased a small cabin and a 160-acre homestead from Daniel Inabnit for less than one dollar per acre. Crail and his sons Eugene and Emmett annexed a number of homesteads and ranched a substantial portion of what is now The Meadow area of Big Sky. The ranch had many structures, including barns, a forge, a hay barn for 50-60 tons of hay, a piggery, and a spring house over the creek for cold storage. After 20 years of raising sheep, the Crails started raising cattle. They grew their hay on the east side of the North Fork of the Gallatin River. They also ran a lumber mill. When Frank Crail died in September, 1924, his two sons inherited the land, apportioning the land based upon the acreage they had each owned before their father's death. Augustus Franklin Crail is interred in the Sunset Hills Cemetery in Bozeman.
In 1902, Crail moved his family to Gallatin Canyon Basin (now called Big Sky), after he purchased a small cabin and a 160-acre homestead from Daniel Inabnit for less than one dollar per acre. Crail and his sons Eugene and Emmett annexed a number of homesteads and ranched a substantial portion of what is now The Meadow area of Big Sky. The ranch had many structures, including barns, a forge, a hay barn for 50-60 tons of hay, a piggery, and a spring house over the creek for cold storage. After 20 years of raising sheep, the Crails started raising cattle. They grew their hay on the east side of the North Fork of the Gallatin River. They also ran a lumber mill. When Frank Crail died in September, 1924, his two sons inherited the land, apportioning the land based upon the acreage they had each owned before their father's death. Augustus Franklin Crail is interred in the Sunset Hills Cemetery in Bozeman.
Sallie Creek Crail, prior to marrying Frank Crail in 1886 at age 22, taught music at Daughters College, now William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri. Daughters College had been established for the continuing education of young women orphaned by the Civil War. Sallie taught guitar, piano, and organ. The Historic Crail Ranch Conservancy has a guitar with marked frets that Sallie used when teaching. Sallie also was an accomplished quilter. On display at the Crail Ranch is a quilt that Sallie finished in 1901, which won first honors at a quilting competition in Chicago. The quilt is dated by a phrase stitched into the quilt, "Lilian Crail - 5 years old". Lilian was five in 1901. A second quilt dates from 1886, authenticated by political ribbons stitched into the quilt. The motifs in her quilts tell us that she loved children, flowers, and animals. Sallie Creek Crail died in September, 1914 and is interred in Sunset Hills cemetery in Bozeman.
Eugene Crail was Sallie and Frank's oldest child. He was born in 1887 when his father was 48 years old. Eugene initially worked as a carpenter and joined the carpenters' union at age 17, one of the youngest members. He earned a degree in Steam Engineering from Montana State University in Bozeman. As a Red Cross surveyor and architect during World War I, Eugene was in charge of building Red Cross hospitals in England. Upon his return to Gallatin Canyon, he built the first Ophir School in 1929, the Lone Mountain Ranch Lodge, and the first four cabins at Lone Mountain Ranch, which was then called the B-Bar K.
Eugene married Mary Alice Fowler Phillips, a widow with two boys, Wray Leslie and Leo Winfred. At 48 years of age, Eugene fathered a son, Francis William Crail, the only biological grandchild of Frank Crail.
Eugene left Bozeman in 1943 and worked in Idaho on defense work, and then supervised carpentry in the shipyards in Port Angelis, WA during World War II.
At his retirement, Eugene was honored by the carpenters' union for continuing to pay his dues to the union for 80 consecutive years, thus designating him the oldest union carpenter with the most consecutive years in the United States. He died in 1985 at the age of 97 and is buried in Oregon.
Eugene married Mary Alice Fowler Phillips, a widow with two boys, Wray Leslie and Leo Winfred. At 48 years of age, Eugene fathered a son, Francis William Crail, the only biological grandchild of Frank Crail.
Eugene left Bozeman in 1943 and worked in Idaho on defense work, and then supervised carpentry in the shipyards in Port Angelis, WA during World War II.
At his retirement, Eugene was honored by the carpenters' union for continuing to pay his dues to the union for 80 consecutive years, thus designating him the oldest union carpenter with the most consecutive years in the United States. He died in 1985 at the age of 97 and is buried in Oregon.
Augustus Franklin Crail in about 1896
Emmett Crail, Augustus Franklin and Sallie Crail's second son, was born in 1888. He worked the Crail homestead until age 60, when he sold the ranch shortly after he married. After a courtship of several decades, Emmett married Butte school teacher Annie Breneman, daughter of David and Annie T. Williams Breneman. Many of the photos held by the Historic Crail Ranch Conservancy depict Emmett accompanied by nieces and nephews from Annie's siblings.
Lilian Crail was born in 1896, just a few years before her parents moved the family from Bozeman to the Gallatin Canyon Basin. Lilian grew up on the ranch. Like most ranch women of her day, Lilian was as comfortable riding a horse and handling a gun as she was with needlework and cooking. Like her mother, Lilian loved animals, as we see in many of the Crail family photos placed with the Historic Crail Ranch Conservancy.
The Crail Children: Eugene, Emmett and Lilian
Emmett Crail in about 1918
After serving an appointment as Floor Director at Cooke County General Hospital in Chicago, Lilian moved to Long Beach, California.
Lilian met Hal DeWaide while working as his mother's private nurse and caretaker. Hal was an aircraft engineer and inventor who worked for Lockheed Corporation. In 1957, at age 61, Lilian married Hal, who had never been married before as well. During their retirement, Lilian and Hal moved to Salem, Oregon where Lilian died in 1981. Her final resting place is Huntington Beach, CA, where her ashes are encrypted with Hal and his family.
Lilian met Hal DeWaide while working as his mother's private nurse and caretaker. Hal was an aircraft engineer and inventor who worked for Lockheed Corporation. In 1957, at age 61, Lilian married Hal, who had never been married before as well. During their retirement, Lilian and Hal moved to Salem, Oregon where Lilian died in 1981. Her final resting place is Huntington Beach, CA, where her ashes are encrypted with Hal and his family.
A Brief History of the Crail Family
Sallie Creek Crail in about 1889
Eugene and Emmett Crail
in about 1896
in about 1896
Once he sold the family ranch to Jack and Elaine Hume of Oakland, California, Emmett and Annie moved to Bozeman Hot Springs, where he worked in a saddle shop before retiring completely. Emmett moved to Salem, Oregon, and eventually settled in Butte, living with a niece of his deceased wife. Emmett died in 1975 and is buried in Bozeman.
Lilian's brothers, Eugene and Emmett, "set up" or annexed land to the original homestead. Eugene purchased 160 acres in 1911 and an additional 160 acres at another point. Emmett bought 160 acres in 1912. When Augustus Franklin died in
Lilian Crail in nursing school
about 1921
about 1921
1924, he willed the ranchlands to his sons proportionate to the percentage of their prior ownership. Lilian did not share in the land as she had received money from her father to fund her study in nursing at the Illinois Training School for nurses, from which she graduated in 1921.
NOTE: Material on the Crail family was assembled from primary and secondary sources by
Anne Marie Mistretta, Ph.D., of Big Sky, and other members of the Historic Crail Ranch Conservators.
Anne Marie Mistretta, Ph.D., of Big Sky, and other members of the Historic Crail Ranch Conservators.
Historic Crail Ranch is operated and administered by the Big Sky Community Corporation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization which exists to promote, acquire, preserve, and maintain land, parks, trails, and easements for the use of the people of the Big Sky Community and general public.
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