Sadie (Goodman) Robertson

Other Events:

• Race: White
• Name: Sadie Wegner
• Reference Number: 11798
• Birth: Abt 1919, Montana, USA
• Birth: Abt 1919, Montana, USA
• Residence: 1930, Billings, Yellowstone, Montana, USA; Age: 11; Marital Status: Single; Relation to Head of House: Daughter
• Residence: 1935, Yellowstone, Montana, USA
• Residence: 1940, Mountain Home, Musselshell, Montana, USA; Age: 21; Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Wife

Notes:

Notes by Tannya Goodman:
Sadie was first married to Wilhelm Wegner, Jr. He was called Bill. They divorced. She was then married to Agnus (Red) Robertson. They divorced. She was with a companion for several years after that till he went into Vet's home at Buffalo. His name was Carl Bergset. She had no children, just 27 nieces and nephews.

Aunt Sadie wrote this poem for all her family and friends to be passed along at the time of her death.

FOR MY FAMILY
Do not weep for me, all you who have loved me
do not bind me with the bonds of your love;
do not build a prison of walls all around me
denying the view of the heavens above.
But grant me the ecstasy of soaring flight
the freedom to fly where the great eagle soars;
and grant me vision of my gift of sight
to follow the gull to my own waiting shores.
To be free as the wind in the mountain's great canyons
kissing the snows and the meadows of spring;
to sing with the lark after each April shower.
Bursting with love for Creation that sings;
But look for me when the first crocus is blooming
hear me when sighing up high in the trees;
and know that I love you the more for the leaving
to drift on the wind with the last autumn leaves;
And look for me when all Creation is greening
look for me where the wood violet grows;
and know in your hearts that I'll always be with you
keep in your hearts the Great Secret that knows.
Sadie Robertson
Nov 4, 1984
Updated:
7/10/2010

Notes by Tannya Goodman
http://thesheridanpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/20140201FULL.pdf
Page 22

(The following is a news article interview with my Aunt Sadie. I have made notations in [ ]s of clarification of some of the story from family members at the end of the article.)

SHERIDAN PRESS ARTICLE
Saturday, February 1, 2014
By Lois Bell
Sheridan Senior Center

PIONEER DAUGHTERS SHARE POETRY, ART

UNDER PHOTO: Jean Harm, left, illustrated the cover to a book of poetry written by 95-year-old Sadie Robertson. Robertson had approached Harm to design the cover of her latest book of her poetry she had printed in October 2013. The illustration and poems draw on the women’s connection to the outdoors. Both Harm and Robertson are descendents of pioneers who settled in Sheridan County in the later part of the 19th century.

SHERIDAN - She was in her 50s when the poetic muse touched her. Now 95 years old, Sadie Robertson continues to see the world through the eyes of a poet. She published her fourth book of poems in October 2013.

“I write from what I’ve seen and from what I think I’ve learned from what I’ve seen,” Robertson said.

Her inspiration draws often from her experiencing the outdoors. Her Volga German ancestors from Russia connected to the earth when they began farming in Sheridan county in the later part of the 19th century.

“My grandfather, John Goodman, farmed in the area south of Sheridan College,” Robertson said.

Grandfather John may have been Robertson’s inspiration for her poem she titled “The Poet.”
“His gnarled old hands long to hold a
pen to move over a smooth, white paper;
but farming is all he has ever known;”

Robertson’s father also was connected to the outdoors. He worked on ranches and farms in the countryside surrounding Billings. After the Great Depression and the Billings flood of 1937, her father moved back to Sheridan County where he had grown up. He worked on several farms and eventually bought the Pony Track Ranch on Lower Prairie Dog Creek. The place became known as the Goodman ranch and he operated it under his own brand.

Robertson, then Sadie Goodman, had already married a Montana cowboy and stayed in the Billings area. She divorced and moved to Sheridan. Later she met and married Angus Robertson, an immigrant from Canada who led exploration crews looking for oil in the area. His career kept the Robertsons on the move and again connected to the outdoors. It was while they were living in Casper when Sadie began writing her first poems.

“My first collection was called “A Far-Away Country of Apples.” It’s in the Library of Congress. Tom Mercer illustrated the cover and encouraged me to publish it for sale,” Robertson said.

She did but did not like the experience of selling her poetry. “I don’t feel right selling my poetry, they are the deepest part of me. I only want to share them with people who know me or who I would like to know me,” she said.

Robertson wrote and printed her latest collection of poems in October 2013 in her book titled “Under a Western Sky” to share with those people.
She approached one of those special people, Jean Harm, to illustrate the cover.

Harm and Robertson share a common bond as descendents of pioneer families to Sheridan County. Harm, born Jean Wilkes, is the daughter of Sheridan pioneers. Her lineage is rooted with great-great grandparents who settled in the 1880s in the Parkman Five Mile Flats area.

Harm, who was kitchen manager of the dining room at Heritage Towers where Robertson lunched, would illustrate the daily menus. Robertson enjoyed Harm’s drawings.

“It was always a delightful little menu board. I always liked to see what (Jean) had done,” Robertson said.

“She (Robertson) told me she was doing one last book and wanted something on the cover that depicted Wyoming skies,” Harm said. “I told her I would do it for the fun of it.”

Harm, like Robertson, drew her inspiration from the outdoors. She went to her
family cabin in the Bighorns to draw in her sketch book. She drew three illustrations in color pencil before settling on the one she felt was the right one for Sadie’s very last book.

Robertson printed 35 copies of her new book locally. She did not sell “Under A Western Sky” reserving it to give as a gift to friends. Robertson retains a passion for the printed word.

“There’s nothing like holding a book in your hand,” Robertson said.
“Of the gifts offered here
if there is one that touches
a special moment in your lives,
then this effort has been successful.”
- Preface to “A Far-Away Country of Apples"

***************
NOTE: Lucille is Pauline's daughter - Pauline is the youngest daughter of John Goodman. Norma was married to Robert - Sadie's brother. My Dad was a brother to Sadie as well and George is another brother to Sadie. Hank was a son of John Goodman and half-brother to Sadie's dad, Adam.

[Aunt Sadie was only 94 years old not 95 as stated in the article. She was born in 1919.]

[I spoke with Aunt Norma, Lucille, and Mom - as well as - my memories from Dad. Uncle Hank {Sadie's uncle - John's son} farmed beets where the Sheridan College Ag Center is now. Per Lucille: she remembers visiting Uncle Hank when they lived on the road they now call the Woodland Park Road. Uncle George {Sadie's brother} rented the little house that sat across the road from where the college is now - (still there - very run down) with Aunt Guyla and daughter, Pat. I remember my Dad telling about that lone tree out front of the house. How a bunch of cattle gathered around that tree during a lightening storm. Lightening struck the tree and killed about 30 head. Lucille said that Grampa John Goodman and his wife, Anna, lived with her mom and dad (Shorty and Pauline Schuman) but they lived south of the "Y" out by where the big brown barn is - where the Powder Horn is now. That was the first year they were married. Shorty worked for the railroad and Aunt Pauline {Sadie's dad's sister} at the laundry in Sheridan.]

[Aunt Norma said in reference to the article Grampa Adam Goodman did not work for others here. He leased the Irwin place then Minnie Martin's place. Both out by Big Horn.]

[Aunt Norma said Uncle Bob remembered his Grampa as always on the screened in porch laying down with a fly swatter in his hand and that he didn't have much to do with the kids. My Dad remembers an old man at Aunt Pauline's but he didn't know he was his Grampa. (My dad was about three at the time.)]

[Aunt Pauline was in the hospital having Lucille in 1934 when Grampa John Goodman died. My dad was 3 years old, Uncle Bob 5 years old.]

[Sadie was married to Bill Wegner the Montana Cowboy in the story.]

{Side Note}
[I don't know if my Dad, Kenneth, remembers his maternal grandparents (Kukes). He was very young (just turned 4) when Gramma Goodman took him on the train to Washington when her dad died. At that time, the trains were only for service men and their families. In order to get back for her father's funeral, one of the service men offered to claim she was his mother to be able to ride the train to get back to the state of Washington. Gramma Goodman told me that Dad cried all the time because he was homesick, so she cut her trip short.]

NOTE:
Sadie wrote: "When I was younger I did quite a lot of publishing in magazines and quarterlies, and two booklets are registered with the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and these two are also in the Wyoming Room of our local library, the Wyoming Room being where articles and books of historical interest to the area are located."

Side note: She told me that when she was married to Agnus and living in Casper, she had an article published in the Denver Post - it was her first published article. When she was about ten, she entered a writing contest in Billings, Montana, and won. The prize was a baby doll. She was so mad. She hated dolls. She had, at that time, six younger brothers and sisters she helped to take care of. Her dad went out and bought her a gift (I cannot remember what now).

Obituary:
Note:
There was none. I wrote this in her guest book page:
"Wanted to record this information here as there is to be no obituary or funeral. Sadie (Goodman) Robertson was born on December 17, 1919, in Billings, Montana, to Adam and Anna (Kukes) Goodman. The oldest of 8 children. She was preceded in death by her parents and her siblings: George, Louis (Stub), Howard (Swede), Virgil (Son), Virginia (Sis), Robert (Bob), and Kenneth (Babe). She is survived by numerous nieces and nephews, 3 sister-in-laws: Jeanne, Norma (Bob), and Ardell, and several cousins. Sadie passed away on August 17, 2014. She will be missed."

Sadie married Wilhelm {Bill} Wegner, Jr on 23 Jan 1938 in Billings, Yellowstone, Montana, USA. Wilhelm (son of Wilhelm Wegner, Sr and Dorothy Smith) was born about 1915 in Montana, USA; died on 3 Dec 1982. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Agnus [Red] Robertson. Agnus was born about 1919. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]