Liz Writes Life
Dec. 28, 2020
Part 2 of Dillman men gathering wild horses
Moving
to Staff Wilson Ranch
In
the fall of 1934, George rented the Staff Wilson house and 600 acres on
Patterson Creek from owner Leland Young for $1,700. It included pasture and
timber land. After his wild horse gathering adventure, Bob went back to
Arizona. He likely took the train. Hearst was still living with Paul Denny, at
Oak Farm, working half-day for Denny earning $1 each half-day. The other half
of the day, Hearst fed and managed the Dillman cattle.
During
the winter of 1935, it snowed and snowed and seemed to Hearst that all he did
was shovel snow off buildings to keep the roofs from caving. Rose Ann remarked
the Staff Wilson house was the coldest place she had ever lived. They did have
running water that flowed through a buried wooden pipe-line from Patterson
Creek. The pipes were hollowed-out logs that were fitted-together with metal
bands.
In
March of 1935, the family received word that Granddad Peter A. Dillman had died
in Elfrida, Arizona. Luckily, the family had decided to drive their car down to
Arizona the previous Christmas, in 1934, visiting family, including Granddad
Peter.
George
gathered 30 head of wild horses
Sometime
during the spring, George rode his horse over to Monroe Patterson’s place to
gather wild horses in Butte Valley. At the time, an untrained horse sold for
$10. Trained horses brought more. The long economic Depression continued to
take its toll. Income was needed.
There
are no specific adventure stories known about this wild horse gathering trip,
but it was successful. George came back with 30 head of horses and mules.
Monroe helped George drive them from Red Rock Valley to Montague in Shasta
Valley through a set of rugged mountains by Goose Nest. From there, George
drove the herd by himself over the next set of mountains into Scott Valley and
on to the Staff Wilson place.
Aside:
I don’t know how to herd 30 head of horses with just one person. This is an
amazing feat! He must have driven them on the dirt county roads. Maybe, the
horses were tired enough to stay on the road and there were few passing
vehicles to cause much of an upset.
Hearst gathers wild horses
Sometime, in 1935 or 1936, Hearst also rode his horse over to
Butte Valley to work with Monroe Patterson gathering wild horses. I don’t know
who else from the valley that may have gone, but certainly a few did.
The cowboys must have camped in the open. I don’t remember my
dad ever using a tent to camp during my life time. They were cooking over a
campfire with not much in supplies. Breakfast and dinner and consisted of beans
-- just beans. Sometimes someone made biscuits baking them in a cast iron pot
in the coals.
So, after a few days the cowboys were hankering for some
meat. Deer were plentiful, so they talked about the prospect of shooting a
deer. (Don’t know much about Buck Season and hunting licenses back then.)
Anyway, Hearst mentioned that he had never shot a doe. Only bucks. One morning
he climbed out of his sleeping bag to relieve himself – it was early, well
before sun-up – and he noticed a herd of deer going over a near horizon. He
quickly grabbed his rifle. Couldn’t see any horns, because the bucks hadn’t
grown them yet (so it must have been in the spring time), but he took a bead on
one and killed it. When they found the deer darned if it wasn’t a male. Hearst
received a good ribbing about his unusual eye sight and being able to see invisible
buck horns!
Now,
the Dillmans had plenty of horses to break-in to saddle and harness. They built
a tall round log corral just for the job near the house. Hearst broke many of
the horses to work as teams, pulling wagons and farm equipment. Because they
didn’t need all of the horses, and they did need the money, quite a few of the
horses were sold to ranches throughout the county. It was really quite a
windfall for the family as the Depression went longer and longer.
Another
incident Hearst recalled: It was a bright early morning and Hearst took-off on
one of his newly-trained horses to ride to the Defaria place up by Callahan.
Just about a mile up the road from home, a hen turkey flew out from under a
tree and startled his horse. It jumped sideways, lost its footing and fell down
landing on Hearst’s leg. His leg wasn’t broken, but was sprained and pretty
bruised-up. Yet work had to be done, so Hearst climbed back on and rode the 10
more miles on up to work and rode back home at day’s end.
Aside:
I remember the log corral. As a child, I played near it with my cousin, Paula
Young. Her family lived in this house. Leland Young was her grandfather. Bob
Young and Betty Jayne Fowler Young were her parents.
Well,
this is the end of this chapter. With the pandemic, counter culture, city riots
and toxic divide in politics during this election year, looking back at life in
the 1930s reminds us of the many comforts of life that we do enjoy. May we
appreciate our ancestors for their dedication, stamina and toughness.
Liz Bowen
began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a
native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan. Columns from the past can be
found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.
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