Nathaniel “Than” Wyland
b. 30 January 1874, Tippecanoe Township, Kosciusko County, Indiana, to Jonathan and Rebecca (Bowman) Wyland
d. 13 November 1961, Walla Walla, Washington

m. 23 September 1906, Weston, Umatilla County, Oregon
Anna Myrtle Key
b. 1887, Weston, Umatilla County, Oregon
d. 1970, Rainier, Thurston County, Washington

Children with Anna Myrtle Key:

• Evert Hezekiah
• Dolly Leta
• Dovie
• Tiny
• Sylvia

“Than” Wyland moved to Emmet County, Michigan, about 1897, worked in lumber for four years, and then moved on to Weston, Oregon.

Daniel Wyland, Nathaniel’s brother, stated in his memoirs that “Than” had a hard time finding a wife. Daniel wrote:

“I was told that he (Nathaniel) got him a long Prince Albert suit and a high silk plug hat and that he would dress up and walk on the streets of Pilot Rock Saturday nights and Sundays and that the boys there would hoot him sometimes but were careful to keep him from getting hold of them…

On Sundays he would enter the church edifice with his plug hat held high on his manly chest and march clear to the front to the amen corner and took [sic] on the appearance of piety. Here he met a girl of quite well-to-do people. They married, and at long last he had himself a wife.”

About 1932, “Than” and Anna Myrtle moved to Montana where they ranched near Hilger until retiring in 1954. In Montana, they owned a 680 acre farm and leased 700 acres of land from the federal government for cattle grazing.

Submitted by:
Valerie J. Boggs
Pierceton IN