One day in August of 2023, a man wandered into the Gallatin History Museum research center and introduced himself as Raphael Lang. He was trying to find information on his great-great-grandmother and asked if we could help him. He explained that he was from Bavaria, Germany, and was staying at a Paradise Valley campground.

His English was exceptionally good, and before long he had laid out all the pieces of his history that he had brought with him from Germany. He showed us some pictures that his “2G” grandmother (as he referred to her) had sent to her family in Bavaria after she emigrated to the United States. We recognized the building in one of the pictures as a historic home on the Flying D Ranch in Gallatin Canyon. We explained how to find the ranch, and Raphael began his journey to discover more about Clara Lang’s life in Montana. While exploring Gallatin and Park counties during the summer of 2023, he stopped at the Gallatin History Museum several times, each time bringing us new information that he had discovered. Before he returned to Germany last fall, Raphael wrote a summary of Clara’s life in Montana, incorporating pieces of his own story and his quest to uncover unknown family history. Here is Raphael’s story in his own words, with a few additions for context.

My name is Raphael Lang and I am from Bavaria, Germany. In 1988, I came to Montana for the first time. My father and I were doing some family research and searching for information about my great-great-grandmother, Clara Lang. We stayed for two weeks, and I was sixteen years old at that time. I remember sitting in the car for hours, the beautiful landscape, and some people wearing guns.

Thirty-five years later, in August 2023, I came back to Montana to do more family research in Livingston and Bozeman, but this time I had two months. A lot of pieces of the Clara Lang puzzle are still missing and/or unknown, but what I found out so far is what I am going to tell you now.

Clara Lang, my “2G” (great-great) Grandma, was born October 10, 1870, in Bavaria, Germany, and came to Montana between 1886 and 1892. She left two sons behind in Bavaria, with the plan to bring them to Montana, but that never happened.

On June 29, 1900, she married Andrew Wiedenbauer in Gallatin County. Clara and Andrew homesteaded near the community of Hoffman, located near today’s junction of Trail Creek and Newman roads in Park County.

In 1900, the Trail Creek and Bozeman Pass area was an active coal mining district. Mining in the area began in the 1880s, and several communities grew up around the industry, including the towns of Chestnut, Cokedale, Hoffman, Storrs, and Timberline. At the industry’s height, hundreds of families occupied these communities, which provided schools, company stores, post offices, and of course, saloons. Coal mining in the Bozeman Pass area was short-lived and had mostly ceased by the 1910s.

​In 1901, Andy Wiedenbauer overheard a conversation between two men about a murder. He confided in his wife Clara and kept the secret for two more years before telling a friend. The murderer was arrested and brought to trial in February 1903. 

The murder referenced here was indicative of the rough and tumble existence of those living in the coal mining districts near Bozeman Pass at the turn of the twentieth century. On April 10, 1901, a dispute between two Trail Creek area residents ended in a murder that deeply affected Clara and Andrew Wiedenbauer. According to a Livingston Post newspaper account of the trial in 1903, conflict between the accused murderer Martin Zidmair and victim George Reider began when Zidmair’s daughter started work as a cook at Reider’s sawmill. At his trial, Zidmair claimed Reider had abused his daughter and the resulting distress of those events led Zidmair’s wife to commit suicide soon after.

On the morning of April 10, 1901, Zidmair stated that he confronted Reider at the sawmill and Reider came at him with an axe. Zidmair shot and killed Reider, claiming self-defense. Reider’s body was buried in a pile of sawdust at the mill, and according to testimony, Zidmair threatened several witnesses to keep them quiet about the killing. One of these men was Andrew Wiedenbauer, Clara Lang’s husband. Zidmair was found guilty and sentenced to hang and his execution day was set for September 4, 1903, in Livingston. Sometime during the night before his scheduled execution, Zidmair hanged himself in his cell, thus ending the saga that had captivated Park and Gallatin County residents during the spring and summer of 1903.

Andy Wiedenbauer died on March 30, 1917, and is buried at the Livingston Calvary Cemetery. Around 1920, Clara Wiedenbauer sold the Trail Creek land and moved to Bozeman. On April 24, 1922, Clara married Josef Nicholas Kurt, who was the foreman of the Flying D Ranch for about eleven years. They lived at the Spanish Creek Ranch, close to the horse stables and next to the bunk house. Josef Nicholas Kurt died July 7, 1934, and is buried at the Sunset Hills Cemetery in Bozeman.

Clara remained on the Flying D during the year following Josef’s death. In December 1934, Clara Kurt entertained a group of friends with card games and tricks at her home on Spanish Creek. She loved dancing, music, card games, and tricks. In November 1935, both Clara and a Spanish Creek neighbor, Mrs. Rutledge Hargrove, were planning moves to Bozeman. To say goodbye, thirty-five Flying D employees held a surprise farewell party for both women at Clara Kurt’s home.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Flying D Ranch was owned and operated by Harry W. Child and Charles Anceney II. During Clara and Josef Kurt’s residence there, the Flying D spread across tens of thousands of acres between the Gallatin and Madison Rivers, and was a major player in Montana’s cattle industry. To operate this massive enterprise, Child and Anceney depended on help from tenant farmers and ranchers like the Hargroves, and from ranch foremen like Josef Kurt. While at the Flying D, Clara and Josef Kurt lived at the Spanish Creek Ranch, where owner Harry Child had constructed a large ranch home. Clara sent a photograph of this house back to family in Bavaria.

From 1937 until 1938, Clara worked and lived at the Baltimore Hotel [220 E. Main St.] in Bozeman. In December 1941, she married (at age 71) her third husband, Christian Kuebler. He was a rancher and was employed in Yellowstone National Park doing maintenance for many years. Later, he worked as a custodian at the Emerson School in Bozeman. They were married for twelve years and lived at several different places, including 125 N. Black Avenue (a parking lot today), 514 S. Third Avenue, and Durston Road. Clara died on July 1, 1953, at the age of 82 years. Seventeen years later, her husband Chris Kuebler died on March 26, 1970. They are buried together at Sunset Hills Cemetery in Bozeman.

One of Clara’s two sons in Bavaria was my father’s grandfather. That makes me Clara’s “2G” grandson (great-great grandson). I put my feet where she put hers! Why she came to Montana is still unknown, but since I am here in Gallatin and Park counties, I think I know. It feels just like home!

I would like to thank all the ladies from the Gallatin History Museum, those at the Clerk and Recorder’s offices in Livingston and Bozeman, and all the fantastic people I met: Holly and the Jammin Jackalope Family, Erik and Heidi from the Bear Canyon farm, Alex and Mom from the Firefly Café, the Stern family, Mr. Michael McCleary, and many others.

This summer, Raphael is back in Montana with a few more bits of information he obtained. He is still searching for all he can about Clara Lang, his “2G” grandmother. It has been a fun experience for our staff to help him reconnect with her. If anyone who reads Raphael’s story knows anything about the people, places or events mentioned, please contact Rachel or Charlotte at the Gallatin History Museum at 406-522-8122.