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Note: , relating to his land acquisition:
June 2, 1908, Homestead Entry #21263 for
E1/2 SW1/4, Lots 3, 4 (149.9 acres), Sec. 19, Township 11 N, Range 14 E, Black Hills Meridian Proof, 1915
Dept. of Interior U.S. Land Office nNotice of Allowance
October 8, 1917 Serial No. 036673
SE1/4 NW1/4 W1/2 NE1/4, Se 1/4 Ne1/4, (160 acres), Town ship 11 N.
Range 14 E, Black hills Meridian Proof 1920
Beltran wrote the following history on Mar. 3, 1965, in response to a request from his niece, Helen Forrester Stuppplebeen (146), that they tell her some of his family's story.
The spring of 1883 Father, Mother, and we 4 children came to our new homestead home at Armada (Nebraska) Township and Post office. shortly after, the Armada graveyard was established, in which now my grandfather, Oliver Cromwell Forrester, also father George and mother Harriet are buried. In 1900 I, Eldafanso B. Forrester, went over the mountains to work 2 summers for Henry James in the wheat. Henry's father was a full brother of Jesse James of outlaw fame. This was a family of fine people, highly respected at Dayton, Washington, being very large wheat farmers.
In 1901 I came home and worked the home farm for about five years, at which time i came to South Dakota in the spring of 1909 (with Mary Daughety as my wife and Olin, our fist baby) to accept uncle's bet that we could not stay on that quarter fourteen months to prove it up and claim it as our very own. Well, he very nearly won, but we stayed it out= but did we. In 7 years we claimed it. Now Uncle is giving us back our money invested int h form of Soil Bank.
After 50 years on the claim we moved to Sturgis, South Dakota, our county seat, and have now been here 8 years. Mary is down with cancer and I am paralyzed on the left side but able to get around. Olin, Glen, George and Neva have married here and are doing well in every way.
Th8is winter of 1964 has been a very rough season, but at a time when stock men had plenty of hay. though it is only on of many bad winters in our 55 years. With blizzards, hail, drought, grasshoppers, etc. we have been tried to the limit.
he was still a young man when he wrote, in a letter to his mother at the time of his father's death, 'How do we know but that a person' greatest reward is in thel east number of days he has to spend here. S why lament?'
Mary taught school in Opal an was active in community affairs. She was the Opal correspondent for an area newspaper. Beltran played the guitar and harmonica
Note: According to friends they lived in Opal, South Dakota, from 1909 to 1957. After retiring, they moved to Sturgis. Documents of the Land Office of the U.S. Department of the Interior show the following
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