Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1937-07-24

everything they did in those days, and
thought I was in for a tanning. But
I soon learned mother was concerned
for me and was afraid I was badly
hurt.
When the folks moved to Oregon
they took along small corn mills, and
we always ground our own meal. Once
a year father would load sack OF
wheat on a pack mare and ride 100
miles to Oregon City and get it ground.
He would bring back the flour, the
shorts and the bran, and we used 1t
all; it had to last year.
I'VE lived on I've hominy, roast po-
tatoes, corn bread, roast corn, and the
other things we raised or could get WHO
about the country itself. Only when
preacher came occasionally did we have
biscuitS-and how fine they tasted!"
AS Joe grew up he assimilated all
the wild, rough and ready ways OF the
frontier, and, according to his own
statement, he was just about as hard
as any Of the crowd, and the frontier
bred or attracted the hardest charac-
tiers of his generation. Joe was never
inclined to lawlessneSS, but he was able
to take care Of himself in any COM
pany.
In his late teens Joe began punching
COWS in the Columbia river country,
and II wears ago he did his only work
for wages-driving a 10-bull freight
team between Umatilla, Ore, and the
mouth of the Boise river for the late
Frank G. Robertson, then a youngster
in his early twenties but a leading
freighter of the time with a train Of
10 wagons, 100 cattle and more than
a dozen employees.
Mr.. Robertson died near Wilsa1,
Park county, recently at the age OF
95 wears. During the summer OF 1886
w. S. Murphy Of Livingston took
Kenney to Wilsall for a visit with
Robertson, and the two celebrated the
occasion by recalling incidents that had
occurred on the freight road seventy
wears before: events which occurred
before most old men Of today were
born.
Mr.. Robertson recalled that Joe had
gone barefoot along the trail all sum-
mer my feet were so calloused ana
tough that could stand on red-hot
coal for ten minutes without teellng
it, says Joe. II packed a bull whip
with a stock as big as my forearm,
about 10 inches long, and with a lash
about 80 feet long. was just kid, but
1 could make bull bawl at the END
Of that lash. My father saved Robert
sons life in an Indian fight along the
trail that year"
The Keeney family had moved from
Oregon to the mouth of the Boise river
in 1862, and Jonathan Keeney operated
a ferry there along with other pursuits.
He was killed in an Indian fight. and
was buried in the SagebruSh near the
present Oregon-Idaho line.
BY the early seventies Joe was In
California, following the lures OF new
spots along the frontier. He was in the
Sacramento valley when southern
rancherS sent crews north to round up
and brand the scattered horse herds
which wandered far from home places.
The crews would get drunk, carouSe
around, brand about half of the stock
and start for home, leaving the rest OF
the horses to run maverick" They
were worth about $1.50 a head. These
Joe and others drove to Winnemucca,
New, where they found ready mar
ket at around $7 a head. Pretty good
profit Then Joe heard about Montana.
In an Indian fight in Oregon a boy
papooSe was left behind when his band
was driven off, and Joe's mother took
the Indian baby and raised 1t as one
of her own. 1.-THE Indian Boy" as Joe
always called him, was with Joe during
his early manhood. and is now living
with Joe's daughter Mrs. Mabel Mann
lock, in San Francisco.
With a man named Sanburn and
the Indian Boy" Joe gathered up
in 1874 and started to Montana with
them. They spent the winter Of 1874
rs with Joe'S mother at the mouth OF
the Boise, and came to the Gallatin
valley in 1875, selling the horses at
Montana prices for a splendid stake.
This big horse deal got Joe into
trouble with the Bozeman Vigilance