In 1925 my Dad's health was not improving in Virginia City, Ca. just north of Long
Beach. He was warned by his doctor that another bout with pneumonia would probably kill
him. The doctor advised him to move to a drier climate.
About that time Arthur Brisbane, who wrote the "TODAY" column in the Hearst
Newspapers, had an article about "Free Land" that was opening up for
homesteading in the Mojave Desert. My dad and three other fellows drove to Mojave and then
to Barstow and looked over the land available, with the help of Locaters. They decided
upon a section land about 15 miles west of Barstow and 4 miles west of Hodge, in the then
named Juniper Valley, about one mile south of the Old Highway 66. On Frontier Road. They
each homesteaded on 160 acres. It was 1/4 mile wide and a mile long so that each would
have frontage on a dirt trail that ran west of the property, Frontier Road. Gibson's had
the north 1/4 then Cope's, Pool's and the south 1/4 was the Palmer's. It was required that
Homesteaders live on the property for four years, clear about 20 acres, and sow at least
one grain crop. Not much ever came up from this as the birds, (mostly horned Larks) ants
and the lack of moisture kept most of it from ever showing. I do believe that there was
more moisture in the air at that time as the goats we had used to be able to get most of
their feed off the land surrounding our "shack" mostly filerey, a desert plant
that came up all over the desert and made good feed. My next younger brother Jack was
allergic to cows milk so drank the goats milk.
To PROVE UP on the property people used to have some of their friends and neighbors to
sign a paper saying they had built a home or shack, lived on this property for 4 years,
sowed grain as above, done all this, before they could "Prove Up" on the
property. This then made it theirs as long as they paid taxes on it.
The property that we homestead had originally been settled on by a German family who
had cleared about 80 acres of the eastern part for an orchard. But during World War I they
had been known to fly a German flag and talk in a manner that was not becoming an American
citizen so the Government took the property away from them.
The Copes and the Pools did not live very long on their places. None of the four places
had wells on the property. Every time we went some place that had a well, a few five
gallon cans went along to bring some water home. A kerosene lantern was used for lights in
the evenings and the cook stove usually furnished most of the heat.
To build the houses that the four families needed, an old two story house in Compton,
was bought and torn down. The lumber was divided up and hauled to the homesteads. The
lumber that my dad got was enough to build the one main room and wood for the roof of the
screened in porch. The lower part was built up about three feet high of rock and cement
with cottonwood poles from the river bed used for posts and headers. The porch had a
concrete floor.
The place we called home had one large room, about 15 ft. square and a screened in
porch on the south and east sides covered with canvas over the screen wire. The south side
had the beds for the six of us children and the east part had the cook stove, table and
cupboards in it. Mom and Pop slept in the main room. In the summer times beds were often
moved outside because it was cooler there.
After a short time I took the used wash water and mixed it with clay and rocks and
built a small room just a little bigger than a bed. The mud walls were about 3 feet high.
I used old burlap and cardboard for the top half of the sides and old pieces of tin for
the roof. I slept in this room. It was about 75 feet northeast of the house.
We had a rock fireplace where we heated water in a tub when we wanted to take a bath,
usually after dark. We also heated water the same way to wash clothes. We had an old
Maytag Square Tub washing machine. Because we did not have any electricity we had removed
the electric motor. We would back the Model T Ford up near it and jack one rear wheel up
and put a big wooden pulley on a rear wheel, the one that was jacked up. Then a belt from
this pulley to the pulley on the washing machine. It usually required a board or pole
between the car and the washing machine to keep them separated and the belt tight. The
water was well used, first as rinse water then as wash water. We usually had to haul an
extra 50 gallons of water to wash with.
We raised goats, pigs, chickens and some turkeys. The chickens usually furnished the
fresh meat and any extra eggs were taken to town to trade for chicken feed. The goats
supplied us with some milk and once in awhile a little meat. When the pig was butchered it
was mostly ground up into sausage and fried and then put in a large crock jar and covered
with lard, which had been rendered when frying the sausage. We dug a cellar into the
ground about five feet deep, then two ties were put around the edge of the hole and ties
were put across the top and covered with dirt. This is where we kept the sausage, potatoes
and some canned goods. This was the only way or place we had to try to keep things for
future use.
After my dad moved to homestead, he did carpenter work on the Decrow home. Also the new
house the Hodge Bros. built after selling their old house and some land to the Arthur
Brisbane family. The Hodge Bros, and Brisbanes were related some how.
"Dad or "Pop", as I called him, also worked at a lime pit across the
river from the Old Trails Service Station, which was about a mile west of our place. He
drove a team of mules pulling a "Fresno Scraper" to move the lime from the pit
to a hopper where it was loaded into a Model T Ford dump truck which then hauled it to a
railroad siding called WILD. It was crushed into a very fine powder and loaded into
railroad cars and hauled down to the citrus orchards and used there. The Fresno scraper
had a long handle on it to control the loading and unloading. If it hit a rock the handle
would swing sideways and Pop got a couple of broken ribs from this swinging handle.
Mildred, my older sister, started to Barstow High School while we lived on the
homestead. The school bus was usually a converted car that had the frame extended and
extra seats added. It came by on the highway a mile north of home. It was my job to crank
the Model T and take her to the bus. In the winter time it was always a tough job to start
a Model T. One rear wheel had to be jacked up and the other wheels blocked, hot water
poured over the intake manifold and carburetor. Then the choke wire was pulled out and the
engine hand cranked, "the armstrong starter method", until it would finally
start.
I trapped for coyotes, foxes and wildcats in the winter time and had my traps along the
road where I took Mildred to the school bus. I would check these along the way. There were
a lot of rabbits out there also. I shot and skinned them. We ate the young ones and cut up
the old and wormy ones and fed them to the chickens. I became an excellent shot with a .22
rifle. Between selling rabbits, coyotes and wildcat hides, sometimes even a skunk, I made
enough money to buy my own shells, guns and some clothes. I wore out two 22 rifles. I used
only 22 shorts as they were cheaper. I sold so many rabbit hides that I had enough extra
money to buy a bicycle. Riding a bicycle anywhere but on the roads usually meant a flat
tire as the miniature cactus which grew everywhere soon would puncture one or both tires.
I tied a gunny sack over the rear fender to carry rabbits home.
We had a dog, part collie and bird dog, that we had got from the Jays as a pup who used
to go with me when I hunted on foot. He could not catch a healthy rabbit but if I would
wound one he would run in the direction of my shot and catch it. One time, Jack, my next
younger brother, wandered off into the desert and Max, our dog, went along with him. When
we discovered Jack and the dog were missing we called for Max and he barked back and we
located them by his barking. He would not leave Jack. This good trait may have saved
Jack's life. The collie part of him, no doubt.
A homemade school bus, usually on a Model T Ford chassis, (they were used for
everything), hauled the kids to the Hodge School. The first year we went to school, there
was a large one room wooden building, with an outhouse out back. Then they built a terra
cota block two story building with two school rooms and two bathrooms upstairs and a large
auditorium and kitchen in the basement. This room was where all the community gatherings,
Sunday School, along with some of the school plays were held. There was also a small two
room house for the teacher to live in west of the school. So many families moved away from
this area after we moved to Barstow, that the school finally was closed and the children
left in that area were bussed to Barstow. The school building was sold and the new owners
converted it over to a family home, (Cofflands) for which it is still used.
We sometimes used to go to Victorville by the way of wild wash following the old wagon
road to just beyond this point and then turn south to Victorville. The Highway or Old 66
was not paved at that time as not too much difference in roads and not having rocks thrown
up by passing cars on the Highway. The school enrollment reached 22 one time. I remember
some of the families who had children in school. There were the Peterson's girls, Mary
Jane and Bernice, who lived up near where the Wild Wash Off Ramp where the freeway
now is; Georgia and Dorothy Cope; Marjorie Pool; Alice Decrow, Mildred, myself, Frances
and Betty Gibson; Marjorie Smith; plus Elynor, June and Andrew Mains; Albert Rupert;
Robert and Clara Heckley; Henry and Dudley Jay; Laura Teames; Francis and Lenora Brooke,
Thelma Thomas; the Section Foreman's daughter; Montry Luce; the Station Agent's son, Don
Lee Nickerson; two boys from one of the Mexican section hands families, David and Mauricio
Avila; and Mildred Slagle. There was also one Colored family who had a boy and a girl, Eva
and Roy Sheafer, who were in school a year or so. One teacher taught all eight grades in
one room, as was the case in most small schools at that time. Some of the names of the
teachers were: Mr. Walker Miss Violet Gifford Owens, Mrs. Nickerson, (not the station
agent's wife), and Miss Esther Sparkman. Albert Rupert and Elynor Mains, were my age and
in my grade of school.
Albert Rupert lived on a ranch on the north side of the river across from the Hodge
Bros. Ranch. His mother had married a man by the name of Windsor Mc Lain, who was
trying to run an alfalfa ranch there. It did not have very good fencing around the alfalfa
fields and the jackrabbits ate more of the hay than he harvested. They had two men working
for them sometimes and paid them $30.00 a month plus room and board. Bill Griffith and
Slim Shay were two I remember. No school buses went to the north side of the river so
Albert rode his horse, "Dolly", to school most of the time. The Mc Lain place
had originally been planned to be a dairy ranch as a milk barn remains were there and a
tall silo, which still stands, could be seen for miles. With the forty or so acres of
alfalfa to water a large reservoir was used to store up water. A pump ran almost
constantly pumping water into it. Between the pump and the reservoir there was a building
which had a place where the water ran through a round pit and food was kept in the water
as it was about 58 degrees.
There were lots of cottonwood and mesquite trees along the river then and the river
usually ran on the surface most of the winter months. We got lots of our stove wood there
along with old railroad ties that the section crew left along the railroad tracks. They
knew that the ties would be put to good use and not wasted. I hunted in the woods along
the river and sometimes I would come upon "small whiskey stills" hidden among
the trees. I left them as found. I did not feel these were anything I should be fooling
with.
At home it was my job to cut and split wood for the stoves and haul it into the house,
feed the animals, haul water and drive my sisters to school when there was not a school
bus. I learned to drive a car when I was about 10 or 11 years old. Besides my work at home
I had a part time job first for a Mr. Albright, who lived about 1 1/2 miles south of us
and was raising turkeys. My job for him was raking up rocks for him to use in making
concrete. This was not too profitable a venture for him, so that job did not last long. I
then went to work for the Hodge Bros. irrigating alfalfa and shocking hay, which was
bunching it up so it could be put into the baler. I also helped bale hay and on my first
morning doing this I was warned to put the hay up on the baler and then quickly get my
pitch fork out of the way of the "Chinaman", a wooden plunger that came down
from above and pushed the hay in the baler to be compressed. Well, I was too slow and the
"Chinaman" caught my fork and I had to walk back to the barn for a new fork. I
never let that happen again. Al Heckley and John Mains also helped in the bailing of hay.
Once Mildred and I drove the Model T to Minneola, a place about 3 miles west of
Daggett, to visit some friends, the Thompsons. Mildred was a good looking girl and had
lots of boy friends. That day one of the Thompson boys offered to drive Mildred home. Said
he could beat me, just to get rid of me so he could be alone with Mildred. I think I left
first and drove the Model T as hard as it would go toward home. I got it so hot it would
quit running at times and then it knocked all the rod bearings out plus burned the clutch
bands up. Well I beat Mildred home but the engine in the Model T had to be scrapped it was
in such bad shape. Mildred and I both got into trouble over that, Mildred for egging me on
and not coming home with me, and me for driving it so hard. This was just after the Mains
died and had left their Model T at their place so we borrowed the engine from that car. I
drove that Model T, after making many modifications to the engine, brakes, gearing,
springs, and body. It hauled many a school friend around, till about 1933, when I traded
it in on a 1925 Chevrolet Roadster.
I was tall for my age. At 13 I was 6 ft 1 in. and about 145 pounds. I could and did
work like a man, and probably ate like one too.
Along about 1929 Elynor Mains died suddenly from eating some home canned meat that had
turned to poison. Shortly after that her mother died and then her father. This left June a
girl of about 11 with the responsibilities of taking care of two younger brothers and two
younger sisters. Her dad had belonged to the Yeoman Lodge which maintained a children's
home called, Yoeman City of Childhood, at Algin, Illionis. Different people volunteered to
take different ones of the children. But the father, before he died, said he did not want
the children separated, so the five all went to live in this home until they were 18 years
old. Then they went out on their own. June being the oldest was the first to leave and the
others usually came to be with her when they left home until 'they' got started on their
own. While we lived at Hodge somebody shot a wild burro for food north of Hodge so several
of us went hunting but did not see or get any. I usually hunted with a 22 rifle, using
shorts, but this time I, borrowed Bill Griffith's 30/30.
My dad had a double barreled 12 gauge shotgun. I borrowed it one time and went rabbit
hunting. Not knowing too much about shot guns I had fingers on both triggers when I aimed
it at a rabbit. It nearly knocked me down and only broke a hind leg on the rabbit. I think
that was the only time I ever fired a shotgun.
One day when we came home from school neither my dad or mother were home. A note told
us that they were over on the eastern part of our property. They were dreaming about
building another home on ground that might grow things and be closer to water, if we were
ever able to have a well dug.
I had spent many an hour digging a hole about 100 ft. south of the house as the start
of a well, but I was only able to dig it down about 21 feet.
As many of you know Sears and Roebuck catalogs served many a purpose and many hung on
the walls of Outhouses and were used for a good purpose, as ours did.
The old REO touring car, the car we came to California in, finally had to be discarded,
as it had one bad fault, the connecting rods would give up and then the crankshaft would
hit a connecting rod and drive it out the side of the block through the crankcase, making
a hole that was hard to repair. The proper kind of hinge pins were hard to find so after
many a repair job on the crankcase my dad finally gave in and had to stoop to buying and
driving a Model T. He hated them. As soon as he could he bought a Buick touring car and
then a Dodge Sedan, our first closed in car. Both the Buick and the Dodge had electric
starters which was a big improvement over the Model T.
While we lived at the homestead the Old Ford Tri Motor airplanes used to fly over,
usually not very high either. They had fields every 50 or so miles. One was beside the
road about 5 miles from the top of Cajon Pass, Miller's corner, and another at Lenwood
where they would stop and gas up and let the passengers out for food or drinks and
restrooms. A trip in those days to San Bernardino was a whole days job and mostly two.
Service stations were about every 5 miles along the way as frequent repairs, water, oil
and tires were needed. Before going down Cajon Pass one stopped at the top and checked the
tires and brakes. The road was steep and very twisty as it followed the outline of the
hills. Many a car went over the side and the remains could be seen from the road. The road
was not too wide so it was very slow driving. When you met somebody going the opposite
direction you usually stopped and let them go by, or visa versa.
My Dad's health improved after coming to the desert, but he still would have attacks of
asthma and I remember my mother having to give him shots so he could breathe. He still had
trouble with asthma and emphysema till he died, but lived till he was 88.
My youngest brother, Lewis Lee "Lewie", was born at the homestead in 1929. He
was the first of the seven children of Fred Gibson Sr. and Cora Gibson to die. He passed
away on Labor Day in 1984 at the age of 55 from a massive heart attack. He left a wife,
Myrna, and a son, John Arthur Gibson, age 19 years.
In 1930 when I graduated from Grammar School we moved into Barstow. There was not
enough time for me to do a11 the work for the Hodge Bros. that summer. During the
Christmas vacation I went back out to the homestead and trapped, I did not have very much
luck. Mr. Jay had been trapping and had caught a coyote that had ran off with the trap, he
asked me to help him track it. We went out after an hour or so we found the coyote up in
the hills across the river, he jumped up and started to run off, as usual I had my trusty
old 22 along and sent one shot off in his direction and luckily I hit him in the neck on
the first shot. I hunted an awful lot and had become an excellent shot and seldom missed.
