The garment that keeps on giving

In a day and age when most clothing has a limited shelf life, a garment in Phillips County has been in use, in one fashion or another, for the past 103 years.

On October 26, 1915, Ella Johanson, originally from Norway, married Jens Hammond in Westby, Mont., wearing an elegant wedding dress on a special day. Ella and Jens’ first child, Howard Woodrow Hammond, was born some two years later and one year later, on baby Howard’s first birthday, Jens passed away from the flu epidemic. Ella remarried a few years after Jens’ death to Alvin Olsen and he moved Ella and baby Howard to the farm in Whitewa...