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The Young Nellie Flinn
Nellie Bradford Flinn was born November 11, 1911 in Okaton, South Dakota. Her father, Roland, was a career railroader. His work brought the Flinn family to Alberton, Montana and finally to Deer Lodge, Montana in 1926 where he was a conductor for the Milwaukee Railroad. Raising Nellie and her younger sister, Charlotte, was her mother Azora's, full time work.
Nellie joined right in as a junior at her new high school. She immediately joined the orchestra, Boosters Club, Home Economics Club, helped the Junior Play as Property Manager, and participated in the Music Meet. She also joined basketball, was co-captain her senior year, and high scorer in one game. She and another girl must have had a good time writing the humorous "Class Prophecy" for the seniors in the yearbook. Nellie graduated from high school in 1929.
Money was tight in the Flinn home. Nellie would have liked to attend college but instead worked at the Cockrell Implement Company in Deer Lodge. Here she met a young and ambitious rancher, Conrad Warren. He was just beginning to manage his family's old ranch on the edge of town. Their families both attended the Presbyterian Church. It wasn't long before they were in love.
In 1930, Conrad, while on extended travel, wrote his future bride;
"That splendid quietness that is so much you and much a part of life as I now view it is something that is hard to get along without."
Four years later Con and Nell
married. They honeymooned at the nearby rustic Lindberg Lake Lodge. When
they returned one month later their home, a present from grandmother Augusta
Kohrs, was completed just across the railroad tracks from the original
Kohrs home. Nellie's life as wife, mother, historian, curator, and preservationist
had begun.
Nellie Flinn, age 20, 1931