My Cowboy Uncle

My Great Uncle Phil did not go west on a wagon train.  He ran away from home at age 13, hopped a train, and went west.  He related many adventures from his time away.  He was born Felix Joseph RIVARD on May 15, 1884 to Edouard RIVARD and Rose Ann LEDUC, in Oldport, MI.  With 8 siblings, he decided the small farmhouse was too crowded and there wasn’t enough to eat, so he left home.  When he got out west he worked as a cowhand.  He related one story of being stranded in a line cabin in Montana one winter, with little to eat.  There was a good supply of canned tomatoes though, which sustained him and his partner.  He swore he would never eat tomatoes again!  That saved his life later  during a cattle drive.  The chuckwagon served stewed tomatoes, and he and another cowboy refused the dish.  The tomatoes caused 10 men who ate them to die of botulism.  He later worked at a circus as a horse handler.  He was recruited by the US Army during the Spanish American War to travel to Ireland to purchase horses for the troops.  After his circus days, he worked on a Mississippi river boat, where he met his wife, Clara GOULET. They married in 1911 and continued working on the river boats together, she was a cook and he was a laborer.  Later they bought 80 acres in West Branch, MI and raised two adopted children.  Uncle Phil always had a story to relate.  What a character!