Willard Byam (nee Kirkham) was born December 18, 1889 in Hollister, CA. She homesteaded in Alberta, Canada in 1905. In 1907 she married Charles G. Capps. After the birth of their daughter, Mydas, tthe family relocated to New Mexico due to Charles contracting tuberculosis. Following the death of Charles in 1912, Willard and Mydas moved to California. She worked odd jobs over the years to support herself and her daughter. In 1933 she married Ray Byam. After the passing of Ray, she moved to Missoula, MT to be with her daughter’s family. She passed away on February 20, 1974.

Mydas Capps Zieg was born March 7, 1908, on a homestead in Dogpound, Alberta, Canada to Charles and Willard Capps. After the death of her father from Tuberculosis, her mother and she moved to California. They moved numerous times, which disrupted Mydas’s studies. Despite this, she completed requirements for high school graduation. She went on to attend Santa Ana Junior College and the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a B.A. in English in 1930. After college she took a teaching job in Rapelje, MT teaching English, speech, drama and coaching girls’ basketball. It is here where she met Reuben Zieg, the math and science teacher. Reuben Zieg was born June 15, 1908 in Stockham, Nebraska to George Adam Zieg and Anne Maria Zieg. Reuben had come from Hastings College in Nebraska. They married in 1932 and had five children: Philip, Mydas, Katherine, Carolyn, and Margaret. After teaching for a year in Harlowtown, Mydas joined Reuben in Dixon and then Alberton where he was high school principal. In 1945 they moved to Missoula. Reuben taught math at Missoula County High School while Mydas became active in the AAUW and PTA. She would eventually serve as president of the state PTA. During the 1950s, she lobbied the state legislature to pass laws requiring elected rather than appointed school boards (at which she succeeded). She began a new career in her 60s as Missoula’s Deputy County Superintendent of Schools. Reuben passed away on February 24, 1993 in Missoula. Mydas passed away on April 6, 1998 in Missoula.

Philip Wayne Zieg was born in Missoula on December 26, 1937, the first of five children of Mydas and Reuben Zieg. He began grade school in Alberton, graduated from Missoula County High School in 1955, and enrolled in the School of Forestry at Montana State University (now the University of Montana). He spent the summer after his freshman year on the Indian Graves fire lookout on the Powell Ranger District in Idaho. The following summer, he did government timber surveys in Alaska. Philip joined the US Army Christmas of 1957. He expected to be sent to Europe. Instead, on Febuary 7, 1958, he was admitted to Ireland Army Hospital in Fort Knox, Kentucky, with staphylococcus pneumonia. In a late-night phone call, a doctor urged Philip’s parents in Missoula to come immediately to Fort Knox if they wanted to see their son alive. Philip’s mother flew from Missoula that same night to be at his bedside. His doctors had warned that even if Philip lived, he would likely be severely brain-damaged by the prolonged high fever. Thus, his recovery seemed miraculous. Continued medical treatment took him from Fort Knox to Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. and Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Colorado. Because of the lung damage caused by his pneumonia, Philip eventually received a medical discharge from the Army and re-enrolled in school where he focused on range management. After graduating in 1961 with a Bachelor of Science in forestry, Philip’s career path continued in McCall, Idaho, Prineville and Eugene, Oregon, Las Vegas and Battle Mountain, Nevada, and Richfield, Utah. Philip passed away on December 5, 2014 in Missoula.