Northway Residence

This circa 1895 house began modestly, its truncated hipped roof reflecting the use of shorter, less expensive lumber than triangular-shaped gable roofs required. A full-length front porch, later removed, and a rear addition were added before 1903. In 1903 Ida Northway purchased the residence and lived there with her husband Joseph and their son Glen. Women like Ida often held title to family homes because in some circumstances their property could be protected from their husbands’ creditors, a valuable safeguard in Montana’s boom-and-bust economy. Joseph, who had been an open range cowboy in the 1880s, tried several businesses before his election as Rosebud County sheriff in 1902, and he later owned a successful meat market at Tenth and Main. Ida was known as a renowned homemaker, and her 1927 obituary said that home was the dearest place to her and that she kept it as a place where both her family and many friends delighted to gather.

Forsyth, Montana · United States