Moving from the OLO

Moving from the O-L-O

May 15-25,1947

(Written from what Donna and I remember Daddy telling us and memories shared by Bob Burgess who was one of the cowboys)

Daddy's dream was about to be a reality. After years of working as a hired man or leasing ranches, he was buying a ranch of his own. His years at the Cruthers, Lotspiech, Buck and other places had allowed him to build up his cow herd and now he was buying the “Smith” place.

The Buck place north of Hyannis and the Smith place south of Alliance were about 50 miles apart as the crow flies and that's how they moved the cattle. Daddy had 300 head of cows with young calves plus about 200 on shares with Manning/Finnegan and 30 horses including draft horses, mares and colts and saddle horses.

They left the Buck place May 15^th. They only went a mile or two the first day. Jack Dubs drove a 6 head hitch on the feed sled loaded with camping supplies and food for men and animals. Jack did the cooking. Blackie Neumeyer was the horse wrangler. Bar Gordon, the stud, was tied to the sled so he wouldn't “wander off.” Stanley Burke, Bob Burgess and Daddy drove the cattle. Babe, Daddy's favorite horse and a natural cow horse, kept the stragglers moving without a rider. The drovers rode green broke broncs which were unpredictable. Bob said, “Barney said they needed to be ridden so we rode them.”

As Bob remembers they spent the first and second nights on land leased by Steve Sterns and the third night just south of Jess Lambert's place. He thinks there was another night before they camped on the Star Ranch but he can't remember for sure. (Bob wrote this information down for me in 2012.) They then stopped on the Herian ranch just east of Antioch and crossed the railroad and highway the next day. Bob thinks there was another night and then a night on a hillside where they could see the lights of Alliance. If Bob's memory is right it took them 9 days. He doesn't remember that they lost any calves and some of them were quite small and would ride on the sled occasionally.

One of the stories I remember Daddy telling was that Blackie was upset when Daddy told him to ride my horse, Buck. (I was 6. Buck was a kid's horse. Buck would let me put a bridle on him anywhere. A man had to fight him to lower his head so a bridle could be put on him.) Buck didn't get in a hurry for anything. Blackie complained so Daddy said he could ride Jug. Jug was a smaller draft horse that was also broke to ride. Jug went at a trot all day long. (I can remember hearing his harness jingle when he was on the hay rake.) Blackie rode Buck the rest of the way.

Daddy had had the ranch house moved across the valley so he would have the windbreak of the hills and the vista of the meadow. There was a small pond in front of the house. He made his dream come true.

I don't remember moving. Perhaps that was one of the few times Carol and I stayed with our grandparents. I do remember the delight of having a flush toilet and electric lights like Grandma had.