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We Pointed Them North
Recollections of a Cowpuncher
By E. C. " Teddy Blue" Abbott and Helena Huntington Smith
The Lakeside Press of R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co., Chicago, published a series called " The Lakeside Classics", which began in 1903 with The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin . They published one book a year in this series, and it was on Christmas each year that it was given as a gift to employees and special people associated with The Lakeside Press.
This volume, We Pointed Them North was printed in this series - Christmas, 1991. It is a beautiful volume, complete with color and black and white prints including some Charlie Russell's and photos of famous Western ranchers and cowboys, such as Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane - all friends of " Teddy Blue" Abbott. Many prints are from the Montana Historical Society and from the Abbott Family papers, also at the Montana Historical Society.
Helena Huntington Smith, the co-author, came from New York in 1937, a well known author interested in the history of the West. Her husband, Henry F. Pringle, had won a Pulitzer for his biography of Theodore Roosevelt.
She asked a Lewistown lawyer for help in her research and he sent her to "Teddy Blue" Abbott, whose ranch was outside of Lewistown, because he was a famous cowboy and son-in-law of Granville Stuart, the man who organized and led the vigilantes, She realized after visiting with him that he had " a book in his head" ! Everything he said was authentic; complete with dates, names, stories, songs - in short, a history of the hey day of the cowboy and the Texas Trail.
"Teddy Blue" had written manuscripts of his own in bits and pieces, but had never found a publisher. Charles M. Russell had offered to help find a publisher, but died before this was accomplished. Russell also had ideas of a movie of Teddy Blue's life.
The book came together quickly, once started, because Helena was a good listener and a great editor! She knew John Farrar of Farrar & Reinhart, Inc., and so it was published in 1939.
"Teddy Blue" was born in England in 1860. He came to Texas as a small child with his family and rode the Texas Trail from 1871-1886 which extended from southern Texas to the Bow River in Alberta , Canada.
He came to Montana in 1883 with a herd of cattle and wound up eventually spending 50 years on his 3-Deuce ranch in Fergus County, Montana.
He ran away from his home on a ranch in Nebraska, to follow the herds, and was a wild and wooly cowboy for 20 years. He said his wife, Mary, finally settled him down. She was the daughter of Granville Stuart and his Shoshone Indian wife, Awbonnie.
This book is a joy to read and full of humor, history and an authentic picture of what a cowboy's life was really like. One interesting chapter relates how " Teddy Blue " came by his name which stayed with him all his life!
I found it necessary to write about Helena Huntington Smith because without her the book would have remained in Teddy Blue's head and his manuscripts in bits and pieces.
After these extensive remarks on how it came to be written and how this particular edition came to me, I leave it to you to read the whole story of Abbott's life and times as a cowboy, if you are so inclined.
I thank my friend Marilee Gregory, for giving me this book from her husbands collection from his years with Donnelley.
We Pointed Them North first copyright was 1939, by Farrar and Rinehart, Inc.
It was assigned in 1954 to the University of Oklahoma Press.
The next Copyright was 1991 by R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company. Reprinted by special arrangement with the University of Oklahoma Press.
A copy of this book may also be found at the Whitefish, Montana, Branch of the Flathead County Library or placed on hold at the other locations.
Published: R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY
THE LAKESIDE PRESS
Chicago, il 1991
Copyright: © 1939 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc.
Reviewed: 03/30/08 - 251
Copyright: © 2008 by Joan G. Smith
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