In 1881, Clarence Goodell and his bride, Parmelia "Millie" Priest, made the treacherous 300-mile journey from Helena to the Judith Basin. The Goodells built a log cabin there and staked a tree claim on the Judith River. By 1889, the enterprising Clarence was farming and ranching over 3,000 acres. That same year local builder Richmond Jellison began construction of the Goodells' new wood frame residence in nearby Philbrook. There Clarence operated two local stagelines equipped with horses bred at the Goodell farm. Dubbed "Goodell's Folly" by the locals, the Queen Anne/Colonial Revival home was a curiosity among the log cabins of the valley. Though its turret was removed after a windstorm and the porches are now enclosed, the residence appears much as it did when Millie applied her creative touches. Even today her peony bushes and hand-painted interior trim delight the eye. In the 1890s, Clarence served as state legislator and county commissioner while Millie was Philbrook's postmistress. One of the area's first women settlers, Millie often traveled miles to assist in childbirth or tend the sick, and the Goodell home was always open to those in need. The residence and still functional pre-1920s outbuildings symbolize the transition from frontier to farming community. Wood Lawn Farm today is the last thriving remnant of the once-vital settlement of Philbrook and a tribute to these resourceful pioneers.
]]>Scottish-born homesteader Thomas Murray came to the Judith Basin in 1883 and settled on 160 acres running cattle and sheep on the open prairie. By the turn of the twentieth century, the Thomas Murray Ranch, known in its heyday as the Meadow Brook Stock Farm, had diversified to include wheat farming and cattle, hog, sheep, and horse breeding. This early twentieth-century transition from ranching to farming in central Montana reflected both the hard lessons learned by Montana ranchers during the devastating winter of 1886-87 and the coming of the railroads in 1906 and 1908. The railroads promised better transportation to agricultural markets and sparked the growth of new communities, such as Hobson, along with a desire for more substantial dwellings. Murray and his future relatives, the Lilligard brothers, built this splendid Neo-classical Revival style residence circa 1908. Murray’s skillful use of cast stone introduced Hobson to this popular technique. Other structures, including the sheep barn and three-story gambrel-roofed horse barn, were built between 1892 and 1917. After decades of farming and ranching, however, Murray fell victim to drought and horrendous grasshopper and army worm infestations. He and his wife, Mildred, left the ranch in 1924. Today the property retains its original appearance, an excellent example of an early Montana farming enterprise.
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