MARY'S GENEALOGY TREASURES
Annie Elizabeth Mernaugh Armstrong
A History of Del Bonita and
Surrounding Districts, Pages 260 - 261
written by Eula Rasmussen
Hank, as he was better known by his family and friends,
was born to Obediah and Hannah Mariah (Dening)
Armstrong on March 5, 1890 at Rigby, Idaho.
His mother died when Hank was three days old and his
father married Phebe Jane wood. She raised him and
his brother Frank and sisters Emilie and Hazel as her own.
Obediah and Phebe had eight children, among them
Irene and Belle. Irene was my mother.
In the spring of 1902 at the age of twelve he moved from
Rigby, Idaho to Alberta, Canada with his dad and
stepmother, Phebe Jane. Hank and his brother, Frank,
rode horseback bringing the cattle.
It was raining when they arrived at the U.S.Canada border
at Taylorville, and they were stranded there for three days.
My mother, Irene (Armstrong) Henrie, told me that everything
inside and outside the tent was soaked. She said it was
the most miserable time she had ever spent.
They stayed in Taylorville the first winter after arriving in
Canada. They rented an old shack that their mother, Phebe,
called poverty shack.
Irene tells of one of the old shacks in which they lived.
It had two rooms with a kind of pantry hall between them.
She said that when they woke up one morning after it
had been blizzarding all night, the snow had drifted into
this narrow hallway, and it was filled right to the top.
The only thing they had to dig it out with was a coal
shovel.
The family moved back to Idaho in the fall of 1908 and
Hank stayed on in Alberta and went to work for the
Eldridge Ranch. He was foreman there for about
eighteen years. He was also foreman at the Joe Peters
Ranch and lived in the old rock house just above the
Milk River in Whiskey Gap. His sisters, Irene and Belle
cooked for him at this ranch.
Hank also had a homestead in the Ross Lake area, near
the Jim Smith farm, where Dean Berezay now lives. He
had it for several years and then sold it.
He well knew about cattle and horses. It was said that
Hank had the best saddle horses in the country, and his
team and buggy was just as good.
Hank was a medium sized man with brown eyes and light
brown hair. He was proud and gentle, and respected all.
Gene Plunet tells of him going to his folks' house to court
the school teachers who boarded there. He said that
never once was he anything but a gentleman and a good
friend. He used to look forward for him to come. Gene
said Hank was a friendly person, and a friend to everyone.
The kids of the community looked up to him and respected
him highly.
Cyril Nelson says that Hank had a few bad traits, but his
good ones offset the bad ones. He says that he was
the biggest hearted guy that he ever knew, and that you
never saw Hank when he didn't have his pockets full of
candy. He told of how Robert, his brother, always got
his cap for him to put the candy in, and it was always
a couple of handsful. There wasn't a stingy thing about
him and he was a money-maker and very ambitious.
My dad, Ellis Henrie, tells of a time when he first built
the barn. It was a large building with a hayloft. After
it was finished they decided to have a barn dance.
This was on Dominion Day so he tells. There was a
creek that ran behind this barn which was full of water.
Anyway, here came Hank and some of his buddies
(feeling no pain). They decided to jump the creek on
their horses. They jumped into this creek and went
nearly out of sight. Old Hank never did lace up his
shoes and he lost one in the creek and they couldn't
find it. So he danced all night in a pair of Dad's gum
boots. When morning came, Hank fried eggs for all the
gang.
Hank returned to the United States and went to Long
Beach, California. He married Annie Elizabeth Mernaugh.
They adopted a little girl. Hank farmed and had some
dairy cattle and raised chickens.
Annie died January 10, 1942 and is buried in the Holy
Cross Cemetery, West Los Angeles, California.
Hank died July 7, 1952, and is buried in Torrance,
California.
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Mary Tollestrup