A Slice of Ranching History, Part One

Everybody's gotta start somewhere. While I'm not familiar with much of my own ancestry, Marlboro Man's family has the advantage of having their family history in a published volume. Aside from being a mighty valuable reference tool in the months preceding our wedding, for me the book has been a wonderful periodic peek into American ranching history.


Here's the original mom and pop, Fred and Addie. They started the line of humans that would eventually lead to my Marlboro Man. And my children.

Fred came to America from Scotland in 1884. Here's a picture of where he lived before he made his journey.

After arriving in American from Scotland, Fred made his way to the middle of the country, where he took a job managing a shop for a local merchant, Old Man Skinner. That particular mercantile business was based on trading with Indians, most of whom spoke only their native language. Fred quickly learned the tribe's language and spoke fluently within a short time, even receiving an Indian name, TS'O-XE, from the tribe with which he developed both a mutual admiration and a lifelong friendship.

Fred married Addie in 1890, shortly after she shopped in the store where Fred clerked. For the first several years of their marriage, Addie sold chickens, eggs, and vegetables to the Indians who traveled to their town to do other business. With her earned money, Addie was able to take care of all the household expenses (including caring for six children), then "sock away"---literally stuff in a sock---all of Fred's salary, which amounted to about $25 per month. All this time, Fred had no idea Addie was socking away money.

A few years later, Fred learned that Old Man Skinner wanted to sell his share in the mercantile business. Ever the ambitious businessman, Fred longed for the chance to be in business for himself. Alas, he didn't have the financing he'd need to make the purchase. After listening to Fred lament the fact that he'd never be able to afford to buy the store, Addie presented The Sock, which by that time held over $1,400. With the money, Fred was able to purchase Skinner's mercantile business, which he eventually sold in order to purchase an even larger mercantile store in another town twenty miles away. Fred and Addie moved their family there and remained there the rest of their lives.

Here's Fred's mercantile store. That's him on the far left. He wasn't a tall man, but by all accounts was a respected and honest businessman.


Eventually, Fred became president of the local bank and the first mayor of the town. It's been said that when Fred died, the line of wagons and buggies of folks attending his funeral stretched over a mile long. And more Indians attended his funeral than any other White Man's funeral at that time. He was a friend to everyone.


Then there was Addie. Here she is in an Indian costume given to her by her Native American friends. Addie was the bomb dot com; she really set the standard for future generations of Pioneer Women, present company included. She was so frugal, she used to save the blood from butchering her chickens and pour it over her vegetable garden as fertilizer. I buy Miracle Grow at Lowes. Addie mastered the art of peeling just the peel from vegetables so as not to waste any part of it. I allowed several of my tomatoes to shrivel on the vine in October because I was sick of picking them. And sweating. Am I going to hell?


Here's Fred in 1910, in the office of his mercantile. That's him on the right. And the boy with the cowboy hat and boots is Fred's son and Marlboro Man's great-grandpa, Big Pa-Pa. After helping his dad in the store, Big Pa-Pa determined that he had absolutely no desire to follow in his father's retail business and had already set his sights on a parcel of land in the area. He wanted to be a rancher. And because his father, a Scottish immigrant, had successfully established a stable business, he was able to help his son---and generations after him---begin his life as a rancher. And the rest...is history.

Soon, we'll compare and contrast Addie's Pioneer Woman to Ree's Pioneer Woman. Shoot, I bet you won't even be able to tell us apart. At all. Really. Yep. I don't see much difference between her and me. Nope. I'm practically a mirror image of the woman.

Keepin' it Real,
Ree
I Have Direct TV
And High Speed Internet
And Air Conditioning
And Toilets
And Four Wheel Drive
And Advil

Comments

[Daniel Edvinsson]

Nice reading. I been watching the serie In To The West by Stephen Spielberg this week. And my heart aces for those natives that was decieved by the white man. Im glad that Fred was, as it seems to me, a man of great honour. And I think his offspings has inherit it :)

Love from Sweden

[Lisa Smith]

Very cool story. I love hearing about people's true historical past. Addie was an amazing woman!!!

By the way, have you seen this? Probably, but I couldn't pass by without mentioning it.
http://www.barbiecollector.com/showcase/product.asp?type=&subtype=&product_id=1003585&series_id=150171

~Lisa

[Vicki]

I have that book also. It's interesting to read of the Oklahoma Ranches and how they started. My husbands Grandpa worked most of them in Osage County at one time or another. He started cowoby'n at age 11.

I'm in love with Addie.

[Morgie]

Was that from the big Osage book?

[Jenni in KS]

That was a neat story! Thanks for sharing it. I love learning about personal family histories and the history of my own area.

We have a rinky-dink little historical museum in our small town and I love to look at the hodge podge of items they've deemed worthy to display. Each one seems to have the name of the family that donated it attached along with a family story. I get a kick out of that!

I'd love to find out more about my own family history. We're planning a trip to New Jersey sometime soon and I hope to find out more about my dad's family while I'm there. Someday I'd like to make it to Vardeman, MS where my granddaddy grew up and there is still a family farm or to New Orleans where my grandmother and several generations of her family were raised. (Why did I have such trouble not ending that sentence in a preposition? That was *tough*!) There are so many interesting stories in our past.

[Brooke]

Thanks for the history lesson Ree...I love this kind of stuff. Can't wait for part II....I totally think you and Addie are a lot alike. :)

[cecedon]

cool story. So are you saying you don't save the blood from your chickens and pour it all over your rose bushes to counter act the acid in the pee? What are you thinking woman?

[Brian]

How about a rap song this morning?

Very cool Ree
Nice to meet
the family.
back in
1884
a man came here
for something more.
He found a home
and space to roam
a friend to all
they had a ball.
met a girl
with a lovely curl
married soon
shot for the moon.
to be
a pioneer
it's perfectly clear
that Ree's the man
err..the wo-man.

[Brandi]

Great story. bomb dot com is a trademarke, or has a copyright or something.

[Di]

That was a great story! I love peeking into the past like that!

[Lawyerish]

I love family histories. How cool to have MM's in a bound volume, no less!

I think I would prefer the modern version of ranching. With DirecTV and Internet access.

[PAMELA]

YES! This was great. I do these kind of posts off and on for my kids.

My mama always talked about how frugal my dads mother was. She even fried the chickens head and feet. Then when she butchered a pig she used "everything but the squeal!"

Those women were tough, strong, amazing and made our country what it was.

[Beth, No, Jan Brady, whatever...]

These are my favorite kind of stories. I'd say that you are a lot like Addie...and to think it all started with her socking all of the earnings away...wow...I'm impressed.

[Beth, No, Jan Brady, whatever...]

I think you may be channeling Addie along with Lucille Ball and Sylvia Path....

[Bethany Leeuw]

Very enjoyable post. Thanks Ree!

[Heidi]

I love this! I love history and old photos and it's such a buzz to learn where your family came from. I'm looking forward to hearing more about the beautiful and intelligent Addie!!

We Mennonites are geneology freaks. My dad's mother collaborated on about three huge geneology books.

As for then and now...I admit, one of my requirements for my future piece of land is accessability to high speed internet! I'm so old-technology in so many ways but I can't deal without my hi-speed!!!

[Stacie]

This was fascinating Ree! I love reading about American history, especially that about ranchers, farmers, cowboys and native americans. I have many books about the old west that I used to read daily. The Lincoln County Range wars especially fascinated me and anything Pony Express as well. This peek into your family history is wonderful!
Stacie

[Robin]

What a heritage...what a legacy. Who had the foresight to put together MM's family history? That is the type of treasure that accompanies you and your children when your house is burning to the ground...maybe even WITH your camera and BEFORE the laptop ;).

A lovely epitaph, "a friend to everyone". Addie reminds me of a Steel Magnolia, albeit a mid-western version.

You cracked me up with your "concern" about why you just might go to hell for wastefulness & complaining--I sometimes muse the many reasons my passport earns another "stamp" for the transport :/ (stuff like letting tomatoes rot on the vine...). Did you get that sentence? I hope it made sense.

Three more things to add to your "keeping it real" list popped into my head as I was scrolling down to comment: toilet paper, tampons & epidurals...looks like I'm fixated on the "nether regions".

[sasha]

Wow, what a story! Are your kids as fascinated as we all are?

My mother's great-grandmother (I think I have that right) was one of the Utah pioneers who walked across the country with all of her posessions on a handcart. Some of her belongings are on display in the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers museum in Salt Lake. It brought tears to my eyes to see the needlework of an ancestor I'll never know, and to fantasize that maybe some of my craftiness was handed down from her?

That's where the similarity ends, though. I don't even like to walk to the store.

[momto3cubs]

I wish you had been my history teacher.

Loved it; thanks for sharing.

[James Cooper]

So... incredibly... jealous...

I have a few pieces of interesting family history that I know of but nothing documented nearly so well. The most interesting point on my family tree is a fellow by the name of Pat Garrett, who had a certain relationship to William H. Bonney aka Billy the Kid. That relationship being that he was once a member of Billy's gang and later became the man who caught and killed the Kid.

One of these days I ought to do a story involving him somehow...

[Joan in Mississippi]

Wow! I can't wait for the rest of the story. I'm hooked, so please don't keep us in suspense. You have the best blog in blogland!!!

[Pam]

Awesome. I too absolutely ♥love♥ old photos. My fav is the one of them sitting in his office because it's a candid...something very difficult to do back in the day. And the gal sitting in the middle of that photo...she's sporting a 'Gibson Girl' hairstyle. MY FAV!!

Best part about being a home health nurse is getting to see everyone's old photos. You don't see too many people our age or younger with old photos on the wall. Such a shame. I have 5 generations of photos/tintypes and a quasi-accurate history printed by my maternal grandmother.
♥Pam

[wetsy]

Hold on just a minute here. You totally skipped over Attila the Hun. Where does he fit in?

[Kristie]

Well, the history is fascinating and I can't wait to hear more. I'm quite jealous as I have no idea where my ancestry lies, and frankly, I'm too lazy to look it up.

And while I'll give props to Addie for her resourcefulness and all-around-pioneer-coolness, *YOU*, my friend, entertain vast numbers of us out here in blogland ... and you know that's something *she* didn't do!!! (never mind about technology not even being available back then, she wouldn't have had time, what with the sock-stuffing and saving of the chicken's blood and all that)