Dutch Ed, the northern Montana pioneer, seems not to have recovered from his wife Olive’s death. The five children were raised by Olive’s parents and siblings in Iowa, and didn’t have much contact with their father. Ed took to gambling and drinking.
There are claims that the house he built for Olive became haunted. Footsteps were heard from upstairs, doors blew open, and sheepherders were said the have disappeared.
Dutch Ed’s second wife left him. He died in 1945.
Olive and Ed’s second daughter, Helen, lived until 1999. She died in Santa Ana, Calif. and was buried alongside her younger brother Jack who died there in 1995.