DYER: good morning Mrs. Black. 

BLACK: Good morning. 

DYER: this is the first time that we have had n opportunity to share a cup of coffee and talk about the good old days.  Why don’t we see if we can wrap up this very long and interesting interview by talking a little bit about the Black Ranch.  And in order to help draw thing together, let’s spend a moment and review a little bit and go back to the first owner of the ranch.  Are you sure that it was Mr. Stokesdale who was the first official resident of this area, or do we really know that?

BLACK: Well, I believe he’s the first owner, but whoever lived here before, we have no record. 

DYER: Do you think someone else other then the Indians lived here before Mr. Stokesdale?

BLACK: I don’t believe so. I don’t believe so.   Believe it was Indians. From the trees that were on the ranch when I was a small girl, they must have been older than what Mr. Stockdale really could have had.  They reminded me of the old trees that were in Yosemite Valley when the Indians were there. Where they came from, I have never found out.

DYER: are any of these trees here now?

BLACK: No, all the old trees that were here when my father bought the place have long disappeared. 

DYER: So Mr. Stokesdale officially purchased the place in the 1870s?

BLACK: Yes.  Evidentially he squatted on it, as they used to call it. I don’t know what the definition is now, but my father said that he squatted here and took up several, well, hundred or more acres and then was here five years or more before it was proved up on.

DYER: so he might have been here as early as the late 1860s then. 

BLACK: Well, I would think so because he was an elderly man when the Wigglies took over the ranch.

DYER: Now, when did the Wigglies take over the ranch?

BLACK: the Wigglies bought it in 1904 and they stayed just two years and decided to go back to Texas. 

DYER: So they came from Texas with their family?

BLACK: Well, with their wives.  I don’t believe there was…there were two brother and I don’t believe they had a family that I know of.

DYER: so they were here then from…the two brother were here from 1904 until 1906, and then it was sold to…

BLACK: …to my father and Mr. Harvey—Charles Harvey.

DYER: (softly to himself) …1906…

BLACK: He bought it on April 14^th in 1906.

DYER: and how long did your father retain title to the place?

BLACK: Well, we bought it—Morton and I bought it—in April of 1934.

DYER: (softly to himself) …1934… Now, there is another name that appears in your book of official records, the name is McCauley—the McCauley Family.  Could you briefly explain a little bit about the McCauleys, where they were located, the connection with the Black Ranch?

BLACK: Now, the McCauley Family Ranch was a joining mess.  The old family home is on, what we call, Tuolumne highway now. And it’s just across Curtis Creek Bridge from here going towards Sonora. And the McCauley children—most of them—were raised there.  Then several of the brothers, oh, left and took up parts of ranches and homesteads elsewhere.  Then McCauley—one of the brothers—homesteaded several pieces to the east of this ranch.  And he was a miner—he tried mining.  He didn’t farm this property at all; it show on the property where he was living was just mining holes.  He dug in the hillsides, I imagine, thinking there was gold there; but he did not farm.  But his brother, Arthur McCauley, kept the old ranch and it—I just don’t know that acreage in the McCauley Ranch—but it went over as far as where the Pickering Lumber Company log deck is as you see as you come up Tuolumne Highway.  McCauley Ranch went clear over there and down to Hess Estates—what is now Hess Estates. I believe Mr. Burnett bough part of it—of the Hess Estates—which adjoined the McCauley Ranch.  So then McCauley Ranch bordered us on the north…north and east, I guess. So the two brothers—the McCauleys—surrounded this Stocksdale Ranch, as it was called at that time. And then, one of the McCauley sisters was Mrs. Teresa Lambert.  She married one of the Lambert boys which bounded this ranch on the west—southwest.

DYER: that would be the other side of the creek.

BLACK: Yes, it would be the West side of Curtis Creek. And the original Kinkaid Reservoir was built, oh, in the early 1900s, I guess—about 1905, 1906, something like that.  The old Kinkaid Reservoir was built and half of the lake was on the Lambert property and half on my father’s property—the Harvey Ranch, as it was known later. 

DYER: That’s the Reservoir just south of your home. 

BLACK: Yes…well, no, west. That’s the Kinked Reservoir over here.

DYER: West.  The one South is called…what? Just over here in the field?

BLACK: No, it’s just a pond.  It’s not a reservoir. 

DYER: I see.

BLACK: It’s just a holding pond to divide up the water.

DYER: Okay.

BLACK: But the Kinkaid Reservoir was built by what they called the water...I can’t think of the name of the water company, but it wasn’t PG&E at that time.  It was the Tuolumne County…no… Anyway, it was a water company that built it there; I can’t recall the name of the company that built the reservoir, but it was called Kinkaid Reservoir.  And it was for the purpose of holding water to divide up between the water right holders between Phoenix Lake and Algerine.  That’s where the water division was.

DYER: Well, in a little bit I’d like to introduce some topics related to public works in the area, so maybe we’ll get back to that and maybe the name will come when we start talking about that.  But we were talking then about the neighbors and to the north and the east of the Stokesdale Ranch we have the McCauley Family and he was a miner…?

BLACK: Oh, Dan McCauley.

DYER: …Dan McCauley was a miner.  And then to the west and south…?

BLACK: …south, I guess.

DYER: …the Lambert Ranch.

BLACK: …the Lambert Ranch.

DYER: Was there another Ranch southeast adjoining the…

BLACK: No, not right close. The next one would be quite a ways down towards Sonora. But old Arthur McCauley, the other brother, farmed his place.  He raised grain and had chickens, and was quite a farmer for a good many years. And then, of course, when Pickering Lumber company or Standard Lumber Company started up, he went to work for them and worked for then for about twenty-five years. But his ranch was quite large; I don’t know the exact acreage of it.

DYER: What about the acreage of Stockdale’s ranch? Do you recall the size of it?

BLACK: Well, my father said it was more the a hundred acres.  And it seems like this ranch was as far over as what is now known as the Tinnen.  And as you’ll notice, in the records, there’s a name by Elmer Hill.  Did you notice that in the records? Elmer Hill.

DYER: …Elmer Hill. I really didn’t.

BLACK: He owned what is now the Paul Ranch where the big deer fence is. Elmer hill owned that.  But it seems like MR. Stokesdale had a portion of the field that was once known as the Elmer Hill Ranch.  And evidentially he—the country road went through there—so he must have sold it to Elmer Hill because the ranch, when my father bought it, just went as far as the county road.

DYER: Has there been any significant division of the Black Ranch at all into smaller parcels?

BLACK: Not until about 1962 or 4 when we had sold it to our sons, Wilbert, and at that time the dairies were sort of going out of the county.  So he gave it up and sold portions of it to Dr. Kent, and Mr. Corolo, and Mr. Wilmire purchased the land, and the other forty-five acres across Curtis Creek were sold to Joe Martin Jr. and Robert Conley Jr. And now it is into a trailer park called the Cascade Mobile Home.  And the other parts have been sold into just little homes with about six acres each. 

DYER: these would be the small estates surrounding us on Wards Ferry. 

BLACK: that’s right—small estates.  There’s several people who have bought and built homes on it.

DYER: and many of them are members of the Black family.

BLACK: yes. Yes there’s…our daughter lives on an acre, and a half and our son lives on fourteen acres, and our daughter has an acre, and my brother, Sorrel Harvey, has an acre and a half. So the family is still on part of the ranch.  And we have an acre and a half on the home here, and three acres further up the road. 

DYER: So actually from approximately 1860, or the 1960s when Stokesdale probably settled here as a squatter, until approximately 1960 the ranch was kept intact as an estate of over a hundred acres then. 

BLACK: That’s right; it had 135 acres for all those good many years. 

DYER: During any significant period of time there must be some financial setbacks.  As you recall talking to your father and to others, do you recall period when there were financial setbacks?

BLACK: As far as Mr. Stokesdale and Mr. Wrigley, I don’t believe they had any.  They had no children or families, and the property here probably supplied them with as much food as they needed and the money they needed.  Taxes didn’t seem to be very high, and the assessed evaluation of the property wasn’t as high as it is today or even when my father had it.  The school started up and, as I understand, this property at one time, as the old book shows, it was four public schools; so that taxes would not have been as high as some other parts of the county where it was mining or something. But my father was the first one, as far as I can recall, that had any financial setback.

DYER: did he lose the property?

BLACK: Well, we didn’t think he was going to at first, and the old family friend that loaned him the money to purchase things that he needed or as he mortgaged some of the property, or the property, for money that he might have needed was old friends, and their name was Sanguinetti, as most anyone in this county knows the family.  And they were very good about it. His interest was low rate, and he was able to pay right up until my mother passed away.  When my mother died in 1921, it seemed to set him back.  He was not able to work probably as hard as he would have, and with no one to give him...what do I want to say…

DYER: …encouragement?

BLACK: …encouragement. That’s right.  And there were six children.  So a man left with six children with no one to help in the house except myself—and I was only thirteen at the time and that’s very young to take over a family and cook and all.  So he just lost interest, I imagine, until late years and he though one of the boys might take over with him, but they found other interests where more money was available.

DYER: Well, Mr. Sanguinetti actually purchased the place then at public auction was it?

BLACK: Well, that’s the way it shows in the book.   He was preparing to take it over for the mortgage on it, but Warden and I were fortunate in finding the Federal Land Bank through Mr. Sherrard who was out agricultural commissioner in Sonora at the time, came out and told us that he had found a way for us to save the ranch.  So Warden and I went in immediately and applied for the Federal Land Bank loan.  So Old Jack Danbacker was our sheriff at the time and people in those days, when they saw someone in need of help, or something was going to take away from them, they sort of held back a little bit so that the ranches, or the properties, or homes wouldn’t  be immediately pulled out from under them.  So, Jack Danbacker and the Sanguinetties sort of strode up until the  mortgage was—the money from the Federal Land Bank—would come through.

DYER: So actually, then, the Sanguinetties never took title.

BLACK: No, they didn’t.  They had to foreclose because the taxes and the mortgage was overdue.  So it was really sold at an auction at the courthouse steps in Sonora, but it was never taken out of the courthouse.  It was just sold back to Sanguinetti, but immediately our load came through and paid Sanguinetti off.  So it had to go through those channels, but it was not taken away from the family.  So they didn’t really lose the ranch, and we never had to move out of the home.

DYER: So after you acquired the loan in, what, 1934 then, …

BLACK: …yes

DYER: …then you repaid your father’s indebtness to the Sanguinetties. 

BLACK: that’s right.

DYER: I see.

BLACK: and we paid anything that he might had owed on cattle or feed for the cattle, hay, or whatever.  We paid that.  And no one put in any other owing debts.  If my father owed any other debts, they were never foreclosed on, or no one else came forward with any outstanding bills or anything—only those that we had or record. And we paid those, and paid the mortgage, and paid the back taxes, and received the title for the ranch.

DYER: When did you start the dairy?

BLACK: the dairy was always here.  Evidentially Mr. Stockdale had cows; what he did with the milk, I don’t know. I never did find out.  The Wrigley’s had cows, and I believe they were the ones that started selling milk.  And then my father took it over and made quite a dairy out of it. He had a good many cows, and he sold milk to the people that lived in Standard.  He had a regular milk rout.  And then with the extra milk, he shipped cream down to this little creamery that was on Stockton Street.  Someday I’m going to look into that.

DYER: It’s not there now.

BLACK: No, it certainly isn’t.  It’s right where that little road goes up to Bank of America parking lot—that’s where the creamery was—right down there.

DYER: during the years that you have been here, Mrs. Black, I’m sure that you have seen significant change in the roads and water and utilities. Could you give us an idea of what the road, Old Wards Ferry, was originally like?

BLACK: Yes.  First, I might say, this road is real name is Blanket Creek Road. 

DYER: Originally called…

BLACK: Always known as Blanket Creek Road.  And why they changed it in the last three years, I don’t know, I didn’t go in and inquire; but this road here is Blanket Creek Road, and our taxes show Blanket Creek Road, our electricity line shows Blanket Creek Road, but the county changed it for some reason or other. Anyway, this was Blanket Creek Road.  The old Wards Ferry Road is out by the radio station in town, and then Tuolumne Wards Ferry road is out of Tuolumne.  However, they all three lead to Ward’s Ferry. But this was known as Blanket Creek Road because of Blanket Creek, which is down by the Hodge place—that’s Blanket Creek Road.  Then Rough-N-Ready is by the Blanket Creek school house. So there’s three different roads, and they all lead to Wards Ferry. 

DYER: No, old Wards Ferry—the one that starts near the radio station KBML…

BLACK: that’s the original Wards Ferry.

DYER: That’s the original road.  And Wards Ferry—New Wards Ferry—actually then goes from Tuolumne road to old Wards Ferry.

BLACK: That’s right.  It... they meet, and they all go down to the bridge.

DYER: and the road from where Wards Ferry meets old Wards Ferry and goes down to the bridge—what is that called?

BLACK: Um…

DYER: Is that Blanket Creek?

BLACK: Well, it should be, but it’s still Wards Ferry.

DYER: That’s the Wards Ferry too?

BLACK: That’s all Wards Ferry now.  They have take Blanket Creek off completely.

DYER: Maybe we ought to talk tour supervisor about going back to the original.

BLACK: Well, I’ve been told to go in and see about it, but I’m not one to make trouble.  But I don’t like it because it’s originally Blanket Creek Road, and it had no right to have Wards Ferry on it because Blanket Creek meets Wards Ferry.

DYER: I’m one to go and talk to my supervisor about that.

BLACK: (Laughing)

DYER: We’ll talk about that later. What did the road look like, though, in the early day?

BLACK: Well, it was very very narrow, for one thing.  And it was just a dirt road.  And the county kept them drained—they had men on the roads draining it.  How well I remember Mr. Eastman and Mr. Garsol were two of the men that kept the road well drained so there was no ruts from the heavy rain. And out there in front of our house, the road was very deep.  It went down form where my daughter—Millard Montgomery—lives.  There was quite a steep hill there.  And it came right down in from of our house with a creek.  There was a small ravine that really flowed heavy it the winter time.  And it came down.  The road crossed the creek, went up the hill here, and it was very steep. It was so steep, that the farmers bringing a load of, well, grain, or wood, or whatever they might be hauling, rested their horses half way up the hill. So it was that steep.  And right now it’s been cut down from the hill quite a bit because there’s a big cut up there now which was a hill.  And they went up over that and it was quite steep.  And there was one…

DYER: Now, that would be, let’s see, just the other side of the entrance to Cascade Mobile Park then.

BLACK: Yes.  That was right flat down low. It was even with the field across from the road.  [to herself]: Oh, I’m going to shut that off.

DYER: Now, we’re still talking about the name of the road out here and I’ve discovered something new: The road originally than meandered form—or south from—Tuolumne Road and then went to where Tin road is now located?

BLACK: That’s right.

DYER: And then where did it go?

BLACK: It went right on down to the crossroad where it meets Old Ferry Road at the crossroad down at the end of Tinnen Road. 

DYER: and the area just south of you, where the road now goes to Old Wards Ferry—there was no road then?

BLACK: Not at all.  That was just a field—a green field.

DYER: I see.  And that’s, what… was Wes Tinnen’s property…?

BLACK: That’s right.

DYER: where he ran the cattle.

BLACK: Yes.  We might go back a little bit on that.  Wes Tinnen’s property, it is now, or is being, subdivided.  But before it was Wes Tinnen, it was Houper and Elmer Hill.  There were two people that had that ranch before Tinnens—one was Elmer hill, had part of it, and then the Houper Ranch was own where Wes Tinnen lives now.  And evidentially Mr. Houper bought the biggest part of the 190 acres, I believe, was in that big field.  And it’s called the Tinnen Field now, but it was….Elmer hill had it for some time and it was connected to the…Paul—where Paul is now.  That was all one big ranch.  But Houpers bought his 190 acres over here.  So Wes Tinnen bought the Houper property, it took in this 190 acres which is being subdivided now.  So the old Tinnen Ro—the Tinnen Road that is marked Tinnen road now—was the Blanket Creek Road.  And it went down just about a mile, and connected with Old Wards Ferry—the real Wards Ferry Road.

DYER: But Blanket Creek is farther south, isn’t it?—The actual stream bed.

BLACK: Yes. That’s right.

DYER: but this road was named after the creek farther south, along old Wards Ferry. 

BLACK: Yes, that’s right.  Blanket Creek is just this side of the old Morgan chapel down there.  That’s Blanket Creek.

DYER: When did they first pave the road approximately?

BLACK: During the depression in 1932.  The WPA project, if you remember that, and I forget the other initial…C…

DYER: CCC?

BLACK: …CCC or something.  At that time they made this road all new and they filled in the bed that was down here and they put in a culvert—a huge culvert—in there, and its level now.    When I was small it was a deep ravine here, right in front of the ranch and then up a steep hill.  So the WPA came along and cut the hillside down on both sides of the ranch and made it almost, well, a very small grade now to go up. 

Dye: Do you remember the old covered bridge on Tuolumne Road crossing the creek?

BLACK: Yes, quite well.   It was the third bridge up to what it is now. The new bridge that’s there now was just built recently.  Then the old bridge still stands there—the old cement bridge.  Then just above the old cement bridge the indentation is still there from the old covered bridge.  And I can well remember—I was just a small girl—but I can well remember going across the old covered bridge.  And what fascinated me more than anything was we would always make our mother make the horse trot going across it so that we could hear the hooves on the boards.  And it was getting quite warn when I was small.  Some of the boards were off the side and you could see that it was wearing.  So that was in 1914 when I was about six years old.  So the bridge had been many years before that and just above it was the remains of that old lumber mill that I told you about some time ago.  I can’t think of the name of it; there’s several people trying to look into it.  Carl Deferrari is defiantly looking into the old Sawmill.  He’s found some record that there is a small sawmill about that old covered bridge. 

DYER: Hmm.  Along the creek there?

BLACK: …Along the creek. It was probably off to the side of the creek somewhere.  But all I remember is my father and Mr. Dunton—old Charlie Dunton—telling me or talking about the sawmill.  However, I don’t know that name of it or the year it was there.  But I do know that the covered bridge was still there in 1910 at least. 

END OF TAPE

General Information:

Interviewer: Dyer, Richard

Interviewee: Black, Agnes

Name of Tape: Agnes Black on the Black Ranch (black_a_5_0)

When: 1973 or 1974

Where: Wards Ferry Road

Transcriber: Ariella (3/5/09)