Headstone dedication ceremony honors local matriarch

Sophia Ann Folsom Padden (December 17, 1846 – February 14, 1935), matriarch of the Montana Padden families, was remembered with a new headstone dedication on Saturday, June 5. Sophia Ann homesteaded in the Tie Creek area of Montana in 1886 with her husband Thomas Jimmison Padden and their children: Willard Bernard, Nellie Charlotte and Electa Ann. Sophia Ann had a garden, milked cows, made butter and 15-pound blocks of cheese, fed the Padden Sawmill crews, and rode side saddle as she broke horses, which were sold by Willard to settlers and the French army.

The headstone dedication ceremony hel...