American Collage is a book about early Pioneers in the Black hills area of Wyoming and South Dakota. Their stories are illustrated with hundreds of historic photos from The Library of Congress and many other sources. The stories are from events in my life and the offspring of the earliest settlers in the Black Hills. Some stories are fictional such as about cattle drives, sheep herding etc.; but, they are based on actual historical events and my life experiences. If you are mechanically inclined, you are sure to like my Photos, descriptions and stories and drawings of antique farm an ranch equipment; such as blacksmithing, (Such as how to Mount an Iron tire on a wooden Wagon Wheel), Doodle buggies, homemade horse-pushed buck-rakes and different types of hay stackers etc. Also included are first- hand stories, pictures and mentions of many of our friends and neighbors in Crook Co., WY. A few of the stories were written by other people such as Mrs. Merle Sisson who wrote of her family and of her Blacksmith husband, Merle, whom I greatly admired and his interest in Case Steam Tractors. He built a1/4 Scale model of a 50 horse Case Steamer. it was beautiful and restored another one (pictures of Merle and his machine are included). The first section is about growing up on the Rice/Watson homestead at the base of the Bear Lodge Mountains near Sundance, WY. My parents, Sam and Myrta Rice were born in 1893 and 1894. Their parents were some of the earliest settlers in the Black Hills area. This book traces these early pioneers, the Rices (arrived before 1800), Browns (1795), Watsons (1865), Joys, Sleeps, Richardsons, Quicks, Chatfields, Grubbs, Hindmans, Tracys, etc. As for our family, we basically lived a subsistence life; we had a large garden and the usual farm animals and when Bob and I were older we set up traplines and guided hunters to earn money. Many other old-time families in the area are featured in stories and photos. The second section is about brother Bob who was quite a colorful character and the best marksman I have ever known. He was a heavy drinker with a heart of gold and a quick wit with many friends and few enemies. He verbally contributed a large part of stories in this section which I set to print. His specialties were hunting, guiding, logging, shake bolt harvesting and finally jointly, with his wife Carolyn, inherited 1600-acres, half of the Dean Davis ranch near Hullette, WY which he ranched until he died in 2018. The third section, "Beyond the Black Hills", is about some of the details the lives of oldest four of the Rice siblings, Marguerite, Sam Jr. Helen Jane and Chet. Sam and Chet were sailors in WWII. Sam was a Carpenters Mate 1st class; Chet was a Pharmacist mate 1st class (the equivalent of a Physician Assistant today. Some of the stories are about my career with the USPS: "Railway Post Office" {RPO) clerk, Internal auditor, Postmaster, Manager, Accounting etc. I filled in empty spaces at the ends of chapters with humous stories long the way. why waste and empty space? The Fourth section is about the very earliest of my pioneer family with stories and photographs and genealogical history. The price current price is $14.95. To order my book, copy the blue link exactly as shown to your computer task bar: https: //www.amazon.com/dp/1475237375/ There you can read a thorough description of the book and its purpose and browse through parts of the book. Thank you, W.A. (Bill) Rice, Questions, Comments? sundanerice@msn.com.
About the Author: About The Author William "Bill" Rice was born in Sheridan, WY. At an early age the family moved to a ranch inherited from his mother's Parents. The first five and a half years of Bill's schooling was in a cabin his dad built next to the ranch house. At the time, the only two children in the district were Bill and his brother Bob. In 1948, three new families moved into the Houston Creek Community near the regular schoolhouse, three miles north of the ranch. This was to be Bill's school for the next year and a half This accommodation lasted only until the blizzard of 1949/50 drove the new families out. He graduated from Sundance High School in 1956 after which he moved to Spokane, WA where he met and married his wife Lynn in 1958. They have four children and nine grandchildren. They love to travel in their fifth wheel and have made five trips to the Atlantic shores to fulfill a lifelong quest to visit every state. Bill is an avid reader and amateur historian; consequently, they have visited countless historical places and countless museums. He served three years in the Army and then worked for the Post Office. While working at the Post Office, he attended Eastern Washington State University and received a degree in economics with a minor in German. His hobbies are writing, photography, hunting, traveling and handyman work and eating. He and Lynn enjoy going out to eat at various buffets with friends on a weekly basis. Bill regularly attends the morning "Old Fogies" coffee klatch where they contemplate the universe; tell lies, tales of youthful exploits and other "war stories." Some of these stories are woven into the fabric of An American Collage. This is Bill's first book; it started as a jumble of short stories written over a period of 40 some years. During the winter of 2010 and 2011, he organized it into a book and self published it under the title of "Peone Publishing."