My Mother's:
My maternal grandmother came from a more well to do family. Great Grandpa Myra and two of his brothers ran horses from the Washington area, for sale to the Army. Two of the brothers settled off the reservation, just south of the river and one settled northwest of Poplar, MT. Myra's only daughter married a Norwegian immigrant homesteader. My Grandpa Elmer was drafted for service in the Great War. He survived and came back to claim 80 additional acres if what was called script land, awarded by the state, to veterans. So he ended up with 240 acres of "Free" land. Upon Elmer's return, he built a home/barn combination building that served as part of "Proving up" a homestead. In 1922, he married the daughter of the "Royalty". Elmer kept the princess barefoot and pregnant, and they had a total of three sons with two surviving, and six daughters. I think the death of the young son, due to spinal meningitis probably pushed grandma over the edge because she left Elmer and the brood and my mother. being the oldest was left to fill in as mother when she was 14 years old. The family truly defined what poor was. Their biggest fear was that the county would come in and break up the family and send them to scattered foster homes.
Long story short, they survived the depression and hard times. 
Nothing much ever came of the homestead, as it sold to someone outside of the family, just like great grandpa's place.

(elmers (full).jpg)

elmers (full).jpg (86KB - 2 downloads)