Lillie & Harry McConnel: She’s the oldest native living in Malta

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By Eva Hallam Solberg

Published in the PCN on February 22, 1979

Lillie was born in Malta on June 11, 1896, to Andrew and Bella Davidson, one of seven children. Her father’s family raised sheep in Scotland, and he decided to come to America and get his own sheep ranch.

Her father and mother were married in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1885, and sailed immediately after the wedding for America.

“Mama had never been out of the city. She didn’t know anything…not even how to boil water!”

Her parents traveled 90 miles in a wagon from Billings to the Snowy Hills near Lewistown, Montana. Her father worked in that area until he saved enough money to come to Malta. At that time the Indians were not very friendly to the white folk, and her mother was frightened of them. However, an Indian woman later delivered her second baby.

Read the rest of this story & many more in
"Looking Back Again: Life Stories from the Prairies of Montana"
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Volume 1
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