White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1935-05-23

going to own this whole country He
knew he had coming idea. I wish
he could have been here to see that
bunch of cattle shipped up to Butte
yesterday. I had one weighed out sep
arately; 1920 pounds, grass-made!"
The Flying D COW camp is fifteen
miles up the valley from the home
ranch where the breeding and show
herds, some five hundred head In all,
are stabbed. We drove up to the camp
and built ourselves a fire In the big
stone fireplace Of the lodge. Anceney
had been talking Of Harry Childs, his
partner-"Wonderful fellow!" Now he
said:
"You take your pencil and I'll tell
you some more about my Old Man,
about how strong he was for good cat
tie. He brought brand new idea out
to this country All the way from
France, he and my mother, In sail
ing vessel; then across the plains, driv
ing three Jokes Of COWS and yoke Of
oxen. New York to Pennsylvania to
Missouri to Denver was born at
Denver in '67-to Virginia CITY,, He
bought old Major Campbell, the first,
shorthorn bull ever brought into Gal
latin City, and started right in raising
Shorthorns. commenced riding range
with him when / was just a little chap
eleven years old. We used to close
herd those Shorthorns, so there would
not be any mixed blood, and give them
salt; and that, mind you, was way be-
fore the pasture days.
"He was getting, even then, 500
apiece for pure-bred bulls at weaving
time And he was looking ahead
to the end of free range Way back
then he'd say: Some day all this
country is going to be fenced and
farmed. The man who's really in the
cattle business is going to own his
land
"a fellow named Cole came along.
He sure was fast trader. We asked
him fifty dollars a head for our whole
1400 head. He just about cried. But
he took them.
"All out of cattle, we took flyer
on sheep. That was in '84. We bought
five hundred wonderful wethers, and
started running them on upland
patches. When cold weather came they
got scabby. We dipped 'em that fall,
and all through the winter we hand
dipped them. That's when I learned to
love a sheep! We trailed them to Bill
lings on the twenty third day of July
and broke even. I've never owned a
sheep since.
Our first real experience on the
open range came in the winter of ~.
We borrowed a, lot of money and
bought $4,000 head of range cattle up
in Oregon. We unloaded and branded
at Billings and started turning loose
fifty miles north. We got a permit to
put them across the Yellowstone late
in November, a f1ve-day drive. The first
three days it was warm and nice; then
it turned bitter cold and showed. You
could ride a horse at lope on the
crust. We came out with seventy-six
head.
"That put us way in debt, but the
only thing we could do was to stick
on. A friend of ours sold a mine and
went in with us. This time it was
horses. We bought a thousand head
of Percherons- fifteen, sixteen, seven
teen hundred pound stuff-the cleanest
lot of horses you ever saw. We took
over 1900 acres in the Gallatin valley
and stock up to 2,400 head in all. We
gave ten-year mortgage at 1871 per
cent interest. The principal was $685.
600.
cat the end of twelve years we had
paid up $4,000 and kept up the in
terest. Then it developed that the
owner had nephew who wanted to
have a horse ranch. Along comes the
sheriff with an attachment. Well, sir,
we walked off that ranch with $5.75
between us. had the seventy five
cents, my Old Man had the five dol
lars
I'VE walked into Bozeman and Dor
rowed $4,000 on our name and nerve.
Father took the train to st. Paul to
see about getting some sections of rail-
road land. / took a horse and rode
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