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- Note: California Death Index gives his date of birth as 1 Jan 1877. Charles and Anna Alles Jarrett are shown on the 1920 census in Winnett, Fergus Co. Montana, with their two daughters. He gives his occupation as "hotel proprietor." The following account of his life was sent to this researcher by his grandaughter Sue Hamilton: "When I was growing up my mother absolutely refused to answer any questions about her father (Charles) and told me never to ask my grandmother about him. I always assumed it was because they were divorced at a time (in the 1920's) when divorce didn't happen in nice families. When I started trying to delve in tho the past a few years ago, I discovered that written on the back of a photograph of Charles in his Spanish American War uniform was "Charles Jarrett, Jarrett Hotel, Winnett, Montana." I wrote to Winnett (population about 100 now), and got connected with the town librarian and her mother, the town historian, and discovered all sorts of information, mostly unpleasant. Charles and Anna went to Winnett from Hettinger, ND, where my mother (Lucille) was born in 1908, shortly before Leona was born in 1914. Leona ws the first child born in the as yet unincorporated town of Winnett. Oil had been discovered in the area and the population swelled to almost 3,000. Grandfather owned the hotel and a local bar. He was a very respected founding father of Winnett. However, somewhere around 1922, he posted bail for a man named Newton (Tex) Jackson, who had been arrested on a charge of bank robbery. The charge couldn't be proved, but grandfather had put up a substantial amount of money. Jackson persuaded him they could get his money back by going to a town called Roy, about 40 miles northwest of Winnett, and robbing the bank there. They entered the bank, and while Jackson held a gun on the bank clerk, grandfather scooped up about $3,000. They shut the clerk up in the safe, and ran out the back door, jumped into grandfather's Studebaker, and took off. But they were observed by the townfolk who had noticed the strange car in town. A posse immediately took off in pursuit in another car. Because the Studebaker had four different tires on it, following the tracks wasn't difficult, and soon the posse caught up and began firing. Grandfather stopped the car, but Jackson pitched out the passenger side and started shooting back. One of the posse was hit, and the posse took him to another nearby town to be treated. The next morning the posse resumed and followed the tracks right into Winnett, whose sheriff informed them that Charles Jarrett owned a Studebaker. Part of the posse went in search of Jackson, and the Roy sheriff went to grandfather's. Grandfather willingly took him out back to the garage, telling him that everyone in town knew if they needed to borrow a car, they could borrow his, so he never knew who had it when. They opened the garage door, and the Roy sheriff pointed out the bullet holes in the trunk. At this point grandfather evidently did a "gosh darn, I never noticed those" routine, but because he was at least six feet one inch tall and carried over 200 pounds, he was readily identifed by witnesses. Grandmother testifed he was home all day, and my mother (then age 14) said she'd seen him in the bar-turned soda parlor around 6:30 in the evening, when presumably he would have still been roaring back to Winett in the Sudebaker. Two other townspeople testified they'd been with him all day. Of course, I wonder if Mom were made to lie, and that was part of her animosity toward him. But the evidence proved otherwise. Before the trial, the wounded posse member, who was expected to recover, developed blood poisoning and died, so the charges included murder. Grandfather was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and Jackson to life. At this point, grandmother packed up the two girls and moved to Deer Lodge, Montana, where the state prison was. (This address was in Frederick Alles' estate papers). Grandfather was released for good behavior after around seven years. He became a travelling salesman, but fell back on bad behavior and took to burglaring, so went back to jail. Somewhere around this time, grandmother divorced him. " Sue Hamilton also indicated that her father died in 1941 in Napa, California. Her aunt Leona had visited him prior to his death, but presumably neither Lucille or Anna ever saw him again.
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1880 - 1941 (60 years)