S. S. Hobson was an early-day cowboy and rancher who owned the Campbell and Clendenan ranches on the Judith River between present-day Hobson and Utica.
As homesteaders crowded into the area, Hobson prospered and businesses grew. One of these was a house of ill repute that was run out of a tar paper shack near the stockyards. Since the Milwaukee owned the land the shack was on, the leaders of the local women’s club asked the railroad to shut the house down and evict the two sisters running it. When the railroad refused, a mysterious fire destroyed the shack. Unfazed, the sisters rebuilt on the same land a larger house with a solid foundation. The club women, now faced with the prospect of a permanent business, pressed the railroad again to evict the sisters. This time the company agreed. The sisters, undaunted, put their house on wheels and moved it to the main street of town directly across from the post office. Proudly denying they had been evicted, they claimed they were simply moving closer to their clientele.
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