A little bit about my Great Great Grandfather W.W. Gabb:

W. W. Gabb, a merchant in Polson, is an old time westerner, fought Indians in Western Kansas and Montana, and before locating in the Flathead Valley as an expert technical man with several mining industries.

He was born at Cleveland,Ohio, youngest of the five children of William W. Gabb and wife. When he was a boy his parents moved to Allegheny City, now part of greater Pittsburgh, and he received his education in the public schools there. At the age of sixteen he went to new York City, and for three years was employed by the Guion Stemship Company. Returning to Pittsburgh, he worked in the steel mills a year, and since then has lived almost altogether in the West. For seven years he rode the range in Colorado in the employ of the Rochester Stock 7 Pool Company. In April, 1879, Mr. Gabb was one of the sventeen young men who stood off 300 Indians in the fight known as the Eldorado Massacre on the line between Kansas and Colorado. This was a party of Cheyenne and Sioux Indians, and seven of Mr. Gabb's companions were killed and he sustained two scalp wounds, two arrows were driven into his right arm, and a knife thrust entirely through his left hand. He was severely injured, and was seventy-two hours en route to the Denver Hospital. Three years later, in 1882, he had some further experiences with hostile Indians in the Big Horn Basin of Montana He and two companions were sent from the ranch after some cattle, were surprised by Indians and in a running fight one of his assailants used a big war club and broke Mr. Gabb's leg. There were no doctors available, and he rode sixty-two miles across the rough country to what is known as the Bridle Bit Ranch, and there set his own leg and rested three weeks until it was healed. From Montana he returned to Kansas, and rode the range on the Smoky Hill Ranch, alternately engaging in mining in Colorado. He studied mineralogy under George O. Smith, at present director of the United States Geological Survey at Washington. For several years Mr. Gabb was assayer for the Colorado Smelting Company at Pueblo.

He married Miss Mary E. Gray, of Monroe County, Iowa. They have two children: Leslie and John W. He then married Eliza Cook and they had two children Vera and Pearl Irene. Leslie finished his education in the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Both sons were in the United States service during the war, Leslie in the Signal Corps and John in the mechanical department of the aviation Corps, most of the time being spent at Kelley Field in Texas. Leslie was overseas in France, and subsequently with the Army of Occupation at Coblenz, Germany. Leslie married a Missouri girl and has two children. The daughter Vera is a student at the Montana Wesleyan College at Helena, and Irene is in the Polson High School.