SOURDOUGH BISCUITS RUSSELL Charles Marion Russell was born on March 19, 1964 (that's what it says, must be 1864). His mother was Elizabeth Mead and his father Charles Silas Russell. The Russell family owned seven farms and a number of mines. They were very wealthy family, prominent in business and public affairs since the beginning of the United States. There was one girl and five boys in the family. Charles was the second boy. Charlie's father was a Yale graduate. He was secretary of the Parker-Russell Mining and Manufacturing Company, one of the largest fire brick makers in North America. Charles Grandfather, James Russell, had been a member of the Missouri Legislature and Judge of the Saint Louis County Court. His other grandfather, Silas Bent, had been chief surveyor of the Louisiana Territory became chief justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri Territory. In the Revolutionary War Charles relatives, ""Rifle Jack" Acker was a captain of Cromwell's Roundheads, a tough fighting outfit and Solomon Mead served with the French. Charlie Russell was mainly of English descent with a little French mixed in. Charlie's parents felt that he would graduate from college with honors and take a solid job with one of the family businesses. Charlie was first taught by his mother and she realized that he was stupid. Then in 1972 his mother tried the Reverend John Norton Chesnutt, and Episcopal minister. The minister found that Charlie was stupid for sure. Charles was then sent to the Clinton and Oaks schools. He was simply no student at all and could not begin to get through high school. In 1879 he was sent to a military school, Burlington College at Burlington, New Jersey. They would take anyone who would pay the tuition. He barely was tolerated through the first term. That ended Charlie's formal education. Charlie went to Montana when he was sixteen years old. He arrived in Montana by stage; there were no railroads in 1880. Bands of Indians roamed over the territory, deer and antelope were very plentiful. Charlie bought a used Winchester Model 66 rifle and did lots of hunting. He wanted a stronger cartridge so he sold the Winchester 66 and bought a Winchester Model 73 rifle. For 11 years he hired out as a cowboy. He stopped being a cowboy in 1893. Charlie liked to sketch and paint for his own amusement. His first request for a painting was from James Shelton, a saloon keeper at Utica, Montana. Charlie painted him a picture with house paints on a slab of pine. Today it is worth nearly $100,000. In 1886 Charlie submitted a painting to the ST. Louis Exposition. He began painting pictures for the saloon owners and wealthy people of Montana. Charlie was a hard, steady drinker and took most of his saloon paintings out in trade. Charlie did most of his painting in Great Falls, Montana. In the fall of 1895 Charlie visited his friend Ben Roberts at Cascade, Montana. An attractive seventeen-year-old girl named Nancy Cooper was staying with the Roberts family. Charlie was now thirty-two. A year later on September 9, 1896 Charlie married Nancy. They lived in a small shack on the Roberts property, then moved to Great Falls, Montana and built a house on the "right side" of town. Nancy got Charlie to drink only 2 drinks a day instead of the couple of dozen a day he had been drinking. In 1903 Charlie and Nancy visited New York. Many of the New York magazines gave him orders for western paintings and for story illustrations. Russell stated, "The bartenders in New York saloons won't drink with you. Now I like to have the bartender drink with me occasionally out of the same bottle, just to be sure I am getting whiskey fit to drink. They won't even take your money over the bar. Instead they give you a check with the price of the drink on it and you have to walk yourself sober trying to find the cashier to pay for it." Charlie Russell was quite a conversationalist, especially when he had been drinking – and this was most of the time. One of his favorite sayings was, "A woman can go farther with a lipstick than a man can with a Winchester and two Colt .45's." Russell's paintings continued to mount in value until they reached $10,000 the highest sum of the time ever paid to a living American artist. When World War I broke out, one of his friends asked Charlie what he thought of the European position. "My wife and I tried it and I couldn't walk for a week." In 1923 Charlie developed sciatic rheumatism. In 1926 he had to have a large goiter removed. On October 24, nine minutes before midnight, 1926 Charlie died of a heart condition. Burning the candle at both ends and in the middle had finally nailed him. He left no children. Charlie had desperately wanted children but Nancy did not to go through the long nine month period of carrying a child, nor pushing one out. Charlie Russell was witty, a great Western painter and one of the best Western saloon drinkers. He was also noted for his cooking by both whites and Indians. His sourdough bread, biscuits and pancakes were famous throughout Montana. Here is his recipe for sourdough biscuits. Put 1 cup of bubbling sourdough into a large mixing bowl. Add 2 cups of milk and 2 cups of flour. Mix together well. Cover with a warm, damp towel and put in a warm place, preferably a covered box. Let raise for 12 hours or more. Put the soft dough out on a floured breadboard. Put 3 cups of flour, 2 level tablespoons of sugar, 1 1/2 level teaspoons of salt and 2 level teaspoons of baking soda into a bowl and mix together. Then sprinkle the mixture over the dough and mix in with your hands. Knead a little with the heel of your hands to get smooth consistency. Roll out on a floured board to one-half inch thick. Cut out round biscuits with a biscuit cutter or the open mouth of a tin can. Dip each biscuit on both sides in melted butter or bacon drippings. Put the biscuits on a cooky sheet and cover with a damp, warm towel, preferably a covered box. Take the scraps of dough and with your hands form them into breadsticks or into biscuits and add them to the others. Let raise until double in bulk or more, at least one-half hour. Bake at 375 degrees F. until lightly brown. Usually takes 30 to 35 minutes. Makes about 30 biscuits or enough for four average hungry men. If berries are in season such as blueberries, crowberries, salmonberries, thimble berries or raspberries, you can add some to the dough before rolling out flat. Raisins soaked in water until plump can also be used if desired. I do not have any of Russell's paintings but I do hove one of his early guns. He engraved every gun he ever owned.