When my grandfather, John August Leistiko died in 1943, I was sent to spend the summer with my grandmother Hedwig Rayter on the homesteaded farm at Power, Montana. lt was there that I began to know my Uncle Gene who lived in a three room cabin on the farm, close to Grandma's house, with his wife Margaret Rose Gunell (1918 - 2OO2) and children, Deanna Jean (1937) , John Bruce (1938 - 1972), twins William Paul and Patricia Ann (1939), and Fred Allen (1941). I was eleven years old. Uncle Gene sensed my loneliness and did everything he could to make the summer memorable. This included giving me the nickname of Dutchy which he called me ever after.
When my father and mother divorced late in 1943, my father's farm at Sun River, Montana was sold to my father's brother, my Uncle Gene. The Sun River farm included irrigation, modern plumbing, and rattlesnakes crawling down the mountain called Square Butte adjacent to the farm, which is another story.
My mother and five sisters moved to Great Falls, Montana about twenty miles from Sun River. Several times my sister June and I rode the train out to Sun River and Uncle Gene would pick us up at the depot for a weekend of riding horses and listening to him sing and play the accordian. We danced the polka, and the schottische in the big dining room while he played. This included Grandma Leistiko, too.
The next two summers I went out to the ranch to work for Aunt Margaret, helping to take care of the house, the cooking, and the children, which now included baby Steven Eugene (1944). A big bonus was being able to ride the horse and swim in the irrigation ditch when the work was done.
I saw very little of Aunt Margaret and Uncle Gene after that. I do know they added Eugene Francis, Jr. (1945), and Margaret Rose (1948) to the family making a total of eight children. After some years they sold the farm and moved into Sun River town, and then to Condon, Montana after the children were grown. Bruce, the second son, died in 1972 at the young age of 34.
Uncle Gene and Aunt Margaret were two of the most fun loving,
caring, kind, and generous people to have touched my life. The road
going past the Sun River farm is now called Leistiko Road.