Our beloved father, grandfather and great-grandfather, Charles Leonard Jacobson, 95, of Great Falls, MT peacefully passed into God’s arms Monday, April 22, 2019.
Charles was born in Butte, MT on October 3, 1923, the 3rd and youngest son of Leonard and Minnie Jacobson, and the first to be born in a hospital and not on the family ranch between Wolf Creek and Craig.
His youngest years were spent in the care of both of his grandmothers (one Norwegian and one German) who resided at the home place for long stretches. As a consequence of both of them speaking to him in their native tongues, he did not really know or speak much English until he got to grade school.
One of his earliest memories (when he was about 4) on that ranch was accompanying his brothers to the barn on the hill where the grain was stored to watch his brothers fill a cloth sack full of grain for a neighbor’s stock. He was wearing a set of bib overalls, and as his older brothers were filling up the sack, a mouse ran across the grain and then right up his leg inside his pants. He remembers being so startled that he couldn’t speak and when he did it was in German, and his brothers became quite amused with his dancing and shouting ability at such a young and tender age.
Charles attended school in Wolf Creek through the sixth grade, under the tutelage of Robert Funk, who was also his scoutmaster. He was in the school harmonica band (a mandatory responsibility) which played at many social events in Wolf Creek and the surrounding area.
From 7th grade on, he rode the bus (a 1929 Ford Model T Station wagon which his brother Marvin drove) to Cascade from where he graduated valedictorian of his High School Class of ’42.
The summer of ’42, Charles ran the family farm (900 acres) with a team of horses, no tractor and used the income to help pay for 2 semesters of college in Missoula along with the valedictorian scholarship that he was granted.
With WWII happening, and his two brothers already in the service, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He trained in California and then Georgia, learning to shoot the big cannons of that war, and then was sent overseas to France and then into Germany.
As the war wound down, he was put in charge of a group of POWs in a camp 45 miles outside of Paris. He also delivered mail to other GI’s since he had previous experience helping his mother, Minnie in her duties as Postmistress of Wolf Creek. The remainder of his duties at this time were related to processing and getting our GI’s back home.
After he returned from overseas in 1946, Charles then returned to Missoula in pursuit of a degree in Law. He graduated in 1950 from Missoula and served as a law clerk for the Montana State Supreme Court for a year or so and then went on to practice law in Libby, MT with a fellow classmate, Cy Crocker.
It was in Libby that he first met and then courted his wife to be, Joy Danielson, who was a schoolteacher of Home Economics. They were married in 1954 and moved to Conrad, MT to begin their life together and to start and raise a family of 2 sons and 3 daughters.
It was said that Conrad was their choice of residence because it had sidewalks (compared with Chester, Shelby and Cut Bank). His first law office was at the top of a long, long staircase on the second floor of the old PCA building, right next to Harry Yunck, Dentist.
Charles practiced the law in several northcentral counties, including Glacier, Toole, Pondera and Teton and was even asked to be the city attorney in Cut Bank for a while in the early ’60’s.
Charles felt that everyone was guaranteed equal protection under the law, and if some local family had fallen on hard times, fees were collected in eggs or chickens or half hogs or even just written off.
To read the complete obituary and share condolences, visit the Croxford Funeral Home website.
