Jessie Clemans, 89

Jessie Clemans passed away Friday, Oct. 3, 2014, at her home on Minesinger Trail in Polson.  

Jessie was born Aug. 14, 1925, to local homesteaders Letty and Otis Sandage. She was the youngest of nine children born into the Valley, and her birth home is one of the remaining log cabins still standing in this area on its original site. She and her husband raised three sons in Polson and she worked 25 years at St. Joseph Hospital, being recognized as a talented cardiac nurse. Jessie graduated from Polson High School in 1943, and completed her nurse’s training at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula before entering the Nursing Cadet Training program in Fort Lewis, Wash.

To meet Jessie you would have been immediately struck by her genuine passion for the land and her intrinsic ties to the Valley and its history. She recognized and accepted the inevitable changes that came to the Valley by putting her time and energy into insuring its rich past was not forgotten. Her efforts were consistent and cumulative, making it difficult to condense the many contributions she made to preserving a unique way of life.

She herself built the log cabin and blacksmith shop still located on her homesite on Minesinger Trail, furnishing both to period. For many years she worked with the Polson elementary schools to schedule student tours to the cabin and shop, forever making an effort that the children would know and cherish their heritage. She took the ultimate step of putting her foothills property into the Montana Land Reliance, further insuring the value and beauty of her part of the Mission Mountains for generations to come.

Jessie was an active board member of the Polson Flathead Historical Museum, intimately involved in the organization and presentation of the museum’s extensive collection. She put in many hours preserving and restoring old tools so they would more properly reflect their place in Polson history. She also served on the board of the Flathead Reservation Area Historical Society, at one time taping verbal recollections of long-time residents of the valley who were World War II and Korean War veterans. She traveled to meet with these individuals, talking with them and recording their early memories of life on the Flathead Reservation. Both the Montana Historical Society in Helena and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., have accepted this series for their respective collections. She was known and respected by staffs of both the Museum of the Americas in Polson and Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana in St. Ignatius.

With a longtime interest in and knowledge of the Hudson Bay Company and its impact on the Valley, Jesse was a part of the grassroots effort to preserve and restore Fort Connah to its original site. Fort Connah was a Hudson Bay Company trading post, established in 1846 and active to 1871. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. For years, Jessie sponsored tours of her log cabin and its antique furnishings as a fundraiser for the Fort Connah effort, enlisting friends and family to dress to period and re-enact the daily life of a homestead family.

Jessie researched and wrote an in-depth history of the Mountain View School for a locally published book, ”In the Shadow of the Missions,” a collaborative effort of Valley residents about families that settled the Valley. Proceeds from the sale of this publication supported the Lake County Country School Historians, and her contribution is now a permanent part of the Lake County Country School exhibit.

Jessie’s loom weaving and hand quilting have long been valued in the local community. What is not as well known is her respected talent in the ancient art of finger weaving. Again, it was her love of history that sparked her to become proficient in weaving the colorful sashes worn by the voyageurs of the Hudson Bay Company era — the same sashes seen in portraits by Charlie Russell. On one of her many road trips to Canada and the Northwest Territories, Jessie noticed and was drawn to the colorful L’Assumption sashes worn by early boatmen, woodsmen, trappers and explorers hired by the fur companies. She expressed an interest in learning how to make these unique sashes and eventually became accomplished in the lost art. Later Jesse was invited to both the Charlie Russell Museum in Great Falls and the State Historical Museum in Helena to authenticate those sashes of Charlie Russell which were finger woven from those woven on a loom. Jessie’s reputation for historical authenticity and quality is well recognized in Canada and the United States. In January 2009, she was honored for her finger weaving by the Montana Arts Council as a member of the Montana Circle of American Masters in the Visual Folk and Traditional Arts.

Jessie was preceded in death by her husband, Ralph; and her son, Patrick.  

She is survived by son, Michael and his wife, Cindy, of Seattle; son, Randy and his wife, Liz, of Missoula; and Caroline Clemans, daughter-in-law, of Polson. She is also survived by eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

A celebration of life will be held next summer.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Polson Flathead Historical Museum or the Montana Land Reliance.