ANNALIE HODGE: …1988. We’re sitting in the home of Robert Booker. Mr. Booker, could we have you permission for this tape to be used as part of the Oral History Series at Columbia College?

ROBERT HOOKER: Definitely so.

HODGE: Okay, I understand that your grandfather was an early pioneer on the Blanket Creek area, could you tell us a little something that you remember hearing about in the in the early days?

BOOKER: Well, being very young at the time, my father passed away, I didn’t get too much of the history, that is, of my grandfather. I do have, that is in other words, the diary that he kept when he came west.  The daughter Beverly, now deceased, has, in her high school days, transcribed it as best we could and it is in type-written form.  It’s available, that is in other words, for print.  It has been printed in the genealogical society publications in its early conception and anyone who is interested in transcribing and printing it again, that is in other words, is welcome to do so.  It’s legible.   The original book itself was not legible, but it is quite interesting and it is the transcription of some of the things that transpired on their trip west.  My grandfather was born in Prince Edward County near Farmville in 1824 and 1837, after his grandfather had passed away, the family moved, that is, into Bloom County or in the vicinity of Missouri. In 1850 the gold fever got a part of about fifteen who started west in April. On the Carson River on the Fourth of July of 1850, joining with another party, they embarged a bit with like good sports, as is mentioned, celebrating, that is in other words, the Fourth of July.  In one end of Placerville, in Hanktown, with a total party, they lost one man of the party with a fever outside of S. Joseph in Missouri. They buried him along the trail, but it wasn’t until they got into Hanktown they divided, that is in other words, the things the he had acquired, and they sent the money back, that is in other words, to the family in Missouri.  They lost one animal after they had come up after the Carson pass.  A horse or mule, it wasn’t discernable, was, in other words, stepped in a prairie dog hole and bloke a leg, so they had to shoot it.  After there was thirteen wagon and probably twenty-six to thirty that they came west with and to lose only one on their trip is something, that is in other words, of a record for a troop of that many.  They formed various partnerships, after they got here, mining one time that is on what’s called Bullard’s Bar.  They built one of the first cabins, that is in other words, that the Indian diggings, which is just outside of Placerville toward Coloma, and in the next two or three years, that is in other words, it wasn’t determined just exactly where they went, but they gradually drifted West.  Part of the time, that is in other words, here in Tuolumne County, he checked a store in what is now know, or was then known, as Red Mountain Bar following up towards Jacksonville and finally coming on up the various creeks moving with the gold miner as they work one place out.  The last store that he kept, that is in other words, it was on rough and ready at the place pretty close to where the Mazenti House is now.  And during that time, that is in other words, he somewhat acquired, that is in other words, the ranch property now owned by the Hodge Family and has built a house there.  Let it out the property where he went to a mine over on the Merced River probably meeting his bride-to-be—Mrs. Ferguson—who , at that time, was a part of the family that has the Ferguson mine.  In later years, that is in other words, they’re property was where there present day county Hospital is  at the present time and they built that, that is in other words, that Ferguson family built the old county home as it is pictured, that is in other words, in the hallways of the present day  County Hospital.  The part of his life, that is in other words, most of it was spent ranching.  The various parts of the family, that is in other words, in the days of the mining and building ways a considerable garden on the property of where the house was had ample water, that is in other words, for about three to five acres of garden, and with various boys, that is, during their times, would take wagons—loads of beets, turnips, carrots, any kind of produce, that is in other words, that they had, that is in other words, over the old Sonora Pass, that is to Bodie.  That has been mentioned, I have never been to Bodie myself, but there has been mention, that is, that there was a Booker Flatt that was in Bodie where it was noted, that is in other words, that the various people who had vegetables would come and then the people—the towns people—would come down there and make their purchases and go back to their various homes.  The part, that is in other words, that I miss is some of the details, because I was only sixteen when my father passed away.  My mother and dad were not married until after both of my grandparents on the Booker side, that is, had passed away.  The only grandparent, that is, of my mother’s family that I knew of was Aaron Minners. He lived in various times, that is in other words, with Ed and Mary at the house which is now burned and part of the time, that is in other words, he lived in the cabin, that is in other words, probably a half-mile from the house that is back over toward the Bostater property…

HODGE: towards the east?

BOOKER: Yeah.  He lived in a cabin over there by himself and he (__) a few…his own warden took care of himself, finally, that is in other words, Ed Menners, who became a state fire marshal or warden for this particular area, finally moved into Sonora on the property we sold.  And then his, Ed Minners’s father, stayed in the house with them in Sonora, that is, right across from the, now, Daddy-o’s.  At the time Daisy Higgins and her husband lived in the house and one of the McColluck Family—I think it was Ike McColluck—took care of him until he passed away, that is, in about 1932 or 1933—somewhere in that vicinity or maybe a little bit later.  But, anyhow, we never were really close, although I would see him from time to time.  My grandfather and grandmother Booker, that is, naturally being know to be personally because of the dates of marriage and what not, why, other than those facts, that is in other words, were not even much discussed. 

HODGE: For the record Mr. Booker, what was your grandfather’s full name?

BOOKER: William Henry Booker.

HODGE: And your grandmother?

BOOKER: Francis O’myer  Fergusson.  And, that is in other words, my grandmother on my mother’s side was Pauline Francis Edwards.  Edwards was her maiden name and she married Aaron Minners and my mother was born, that is in other words, on a rodden Ranch that is now near Wonder Hill.  My grandfather Minners, that is in other words, emigrated from Germany—well, it must have been at least in the 1880s or after because he didn’t die until the thirties, so he was well along in years.  He must have been in his seventies, judging from a child’s memory so-to-speak, but in later years we have now found that he had a twin sister still in Germany, Chech Minners, at an inquiry through the county if any of the Minners Family, that is in other words, were still in this particular area.  Because, that is in other words, the people from Germany were trying to trace, that is in other words, the family of Aaron Minners.

HODGE: Oh, that’s interesting.

BOOKER: So, in other words, Ray Minners, who have it good with the Union democrat in years past doing wider incline, went ahead and we corresponded, that is in other words, with this particular party that is from Germany.  Evidently, that is in other words, that they were from a part of the area of where there’s considerable cherries growing was in Germany.  They had, according to the letter that I have a copy of that was received, that is, by either Chet or Ray Minners that they were at about eight hectares, which is equal to about sixty acres of our land size.  The follow up, I haven’ seen Chet Minners for quite some time to see how far he is gone, that is in other words, along with that.

HODGE: your mother name was…?

BOOKER: Lottie Francis. Lottie Hester Minners. 

HODGE: … Lottie Hester Minners

BOOKER: Cauline Francis is my sister’s name taken from her grandmother’s name.  And my sister, that is in other words, at the present time, is somewhere over around Placerville, that is in other words, I haven’t had contact with her for about two years.  It’s one of those unfortunate things that is very…We were raise separate, my sister being an infant at the time of my mother passing in April of nineteen…let’s see, my sister was born on the 28^th of March 1915 and my mother died in June of 1915—never really getting up from the bed of childbirth.

HODGE: Oh, so you were very young at the time.

BOOKER: Oh yeah, I was about three-and-a-half, so, in other words, myself, I had been an orphan since 1917, no, 1927, but I was half orphaned from mid 1915.  So I spent my first year of grammar school in Berkeley—my dada having leased off the ranch and went down to the Bay Area and worked on the street cars being a conductor.  In prior years my dad had evidentially lived in the Bay area as a single man, went to Heels Business College having a good (a very good) hand in penmanship.  But working with the street cars in the younger days used to know Oakland better than I knee Tuolumne County. But when he returned up here, my second year of grammar school started with the first part of it living with a Luna Prairie, which is the second house as you go in on the right hand side, right behind the Joe Francis house in Sonora, and I walked from there, that is in other words, to the grammar school, which was then the Bill Oman…Maggie Fahey was one of the teachers—I think the principle—and on weekends, that is in other words, evidentially she had little chores she liked people to do and on two or three occasions I would go down and walk from there down to past Lion Kill to the Maggie Fahey’s house and I’d bring in wood and put it in the wood box that is in the kitchen, and what not, and do little other things—irrigating and what not—around the place there, and then walk back up, that is in other words, to the place there in Sonora.  The last half of the second grade my dad had purchased a little Nevada mustang buckskinned pony from a Frank Cursey through Charles Myers and I rode horseback, that it, to the school at Curtis Creek.  I had the option of going to Curtis Creek School or going to the Wards Ferry School which was at least two-and-a-half miles walking, that is in other words, down to the P’s place from the school was located down there while riding horseback about two-and-a-half miles, that is in other words, to Standard.  I couldn’t go down to the Ward’s Ferry school horseback because of the walking cross country.  I had to go down and walk with Albert and Ernest Hodge because they both went to school down at the Wards Ferry School down on the… under old P’s place.  The experience—one of the experiences—before I really went to school in one of the barns the pictures they have of the old house setting and what not, that is, of the booker place had a double gate about twenty feet…gates about twenty feet apart, and in between those two gates they had a pig pen.  And this little Nevada mustang, when I was riding her around the corral, decided she wanted to go back home and she got out outside o the bar of the fence and she decided after she got part way up that she couldn’t make it so she tore into, in other words, she literally whirled in the air, and I went over the fence into the pig pen.  You can image, that is in other words, the situation that that presented.  So my second half of grammar school I went to Curtis Creek School.  During the third grade there the school was so crowded, that is in other words, there was four teachers that the third grade had to go, that is, in the afternoon.  And in going to school, that is in other words, at noon, why, the kids was all playing in the present school grounds, and somebody evidentially had a sling shot and they flipped the flank of a horse with a rock or something and my horse turned and went the other way and I went straight ahead—landed on my chin—for which I got about three stitches in my chin.  But other than that, that is in other words, having a horse and going to school, the Woodhams Boys rode from the end o the Woodhams Carrin Road—that is Lester and Harold both rode horseback, that is in other words, so at time we would meet and at times we would, well, generally always, that is in other words, ride to the (___) and the road takes of through present day Bluebell Valley.  They’d need to go over the hill and they went on up to the foot of Buckhorn Hill on their way home.  So, in other words, there were various incidents along that way, that is, there was always company, but in one particular time the little buckskin that I had after you’d get through a gate, why, she had a habit of taking off in a hurry.  And there was one particular time I had to walk about a mile to catch up to her at the next gate.  She was waiting at the next gate for me.

HODGE: Can you describe the house on the Booker Ranch?

BOOKER: The old original house, as I recall it being about four years old at the time, the kitchen area was on the lower floor—the ground floor—and into the north corner of the house.  It was one of the first houses—ranch houses—that had running hot and cold water in it.  (___), that is in other words, the stove was part, that is in other words, for hot water and it had a bathtub.  The water came from a spring about a quarter of a mile diagonal, that is, across country, that is in other words, from a spring through the pipes and what not and in fires in that time, that is, my dad had dug a reservoir on top of the hill, and they strung out the pipe and I remember they had a swimming hole, well, it was a reservoir that kept water, that is, for a garden and what not.  They dug it with a ship scraper—it was about forty feet by forty feet and could have been, if it would have been concreted, up to eight feet deep.  But as a rule, the water never two much over two feet—two-and-a-half feet deep accept in the winter time because of the ground was decomposed granite and greatly lost the water that was put in it.  Of course, the old ranch house had a well in the back end that was twelve to fourteen feet deep with at least twelve feet of it beginning in solid granite rock and even—it must have been my uncle Walter, like my dad said, when they were digging this particular well that it was an afterthought after the cellar portion had been excavated that they found the dampness there so they decided to offset about four to six feet and dig a well there.  Well, they got down to about twelve feet deep, and you could put a case knife blade about six inches into the water seam.  It didn’t have much pressure to it, but it amply cared, that is in other words, for the household needs with the old-fashioned pitcher pump there; and that water was always very very cool, more so, that is in other words, than normal spring water, so the water was pretty well insulated from where it was coming from and it was quite cold.  Very good water, very little mineral content in it, and I guess the ruminants of the well are still there, but I can remember times, that is in other words, after the big house that burned when we had another smaller house, that is in other words, that was built, that is, after the house that burned and most of the time my sister had burned what my dad had built.  The old two-story house had a fireplace on the lower floor.  At the, lest say, southwest corner, or side, it was about two feet off of the ground, that it is in other words, so a person could crawl around under the house pretty well.  There wasn’t any livestock around it—it was fenced off with a picket fence.  It had the main bed room…two main bedrooms on the ground—on the lower floor—a big living room, that is in other words, where the fireplace was and all, as well as…and the kitchen area.  The upstairs was unfinished.  It was spoken of, that is in other words, by members of the family as the “boy den” because that’s where the…all the boys slept upstairs.  I remember three girls, who were the first of the family, slept downstairs and the seven boys, that is in other words, the after family of which my dad was the youngest, all slept up stairs.  The ages starting the first child was born in 1859, which is about a year-and-a-half, that is in other words, after their marriage.  And my dad being the youngest was born in 1879.  So there was about two y…a year-and –a-half to two years between each child as they came along.

HODGE: What was his mother’s name?

BOOKER: Leslie Edwards Booker.  And he passed away on the 24^th of April of 1927.  After that time I spent some bit of time, that is, with the Hess family.  Prior to the time, that is in other words, when my dad was still alive, if there needed be an occasion where he was going to be away for a couple of days, why, I’d always spend it with the Hess family.  Either at the location of the present day Sullivan’s Creek (___), which at that particular time was a barn setup and the house was down below the road where they burned the house out of, that is in other words, here in later years.  It was literally a road house at that time, and there were corrals—that is where the cattle drives in the spring and in the fall would spend the night.  The Hess family would feed them and Laura Hess Fitzgerald (___) if she does remember many of those occasions.  I knew the Hess family, that is in other words probably as well as any of the individuals, that is in to her words, throughout the county as a young man—young boy—at the time and it’s ironic—that is in other words, that Laura Hess being a young girl at that particular time herself, and probably in her early teens and early twenties—her first marriage was to a fellow in the name of Crus Rawl.  I believe he  was he either died in the service or shortly after the service because Laura was widowed for awhile and she married, that is, Happy Fitzgerald who was a part of the Fitzgerald family of Peason Fitzgerald, that is, in other words, out from the Blanket Creek area.  Any family became part o our family through the marriage of Ed Minners to Mary Minners who was a Mizenty. I think that Mary was probably the oldest of the Mizenty girls.  There was two marriages there.  Ed and Mary ran off and went over the hill and got married—probably horseback in those days.  But then they had to come back…when they came back they married again in the Catholic Church; of course, them not being catholic, he didn’t frown upon her, but the family did.  So they were actually married twice.  I remember on one occasion while my mother was alive, we went on a camping trip up to Kennedy meadows.  We camped in the flat above the present Kennedy Meadows.  A relief dam had been completed.  There had been a sawmill in the meadow above and right close to where we had our camp, why, there was a big sawdust pile and that was always something good to play in.

HODGE: I’ll bet.

BOOKER: The river there had good gravel and there was a shoot that they had rigged up with a steam engine and cables and what not. But they pulled the gravel out of the river, they screened I to their various sizes, I guess, and took it up, that is in other words, to build to present relief damn.  Ironically, Relief Damn is built with the curvature downstream so the Utah Construction Company, who was the builder, had to turn around and reinforce, that is, Relief Damn with lots of boulders bellow the damn. 

HODGE: I see.

BOOKER: It was, in my memory, can’t say that I have a photograph but I have had a photograph, that is, of my mother and myself, that is in other words, standing on the brink of the damn looking down into the water of Relief Damn when it was nearly full at that particular time.  Bob Edwards, who ran the fax station at Kennedy Meadows for quite a number of years, evidentially that was his pioneering project up there, that is, before he started running the back station, that he we went up there and we went into Kennedy Meadows—or Kennedy’s Lake.  I remember that my dad wasn’t with us, but there was Bob Edwards, his wife, Kate Edwards, Maggie Cavanero, my mother and myself, Doc and Kerry Turner…I think it was a compliment, that is in other words, but anyhow we went up to Kennedy’s Lake.  Getting there, I found a little water snake.  It happened to be, that is in other words, I wasn’t satisfied until somebody got rid of that water snake (laughing).   But I do recall, that is in other words, with times, that is in others words, in my later years that Bob Edwards, being quite a fisherman as he was, he got a, it must have been, a twenty-eight or thirty-inch trout out of Kenney Lake.  It was an immensely big trout and knowing him as a fisherman, he could catch fish where somebody else had starved to death.  One story that they told of him was: He was fishing on one side of a stream and a would-be-fisherman was fishing on the other side of the stream and he was catching fish right out from under his feet.  This guy got so mad about it that he threw his pole in and turned around and went home. 

HODGE: Oh, there’s so many men who would do that.

BOOKER: I do remember, that is in other words, that Ray Minners came up there.  I spent about two weeks up there; I don’t recall exactly the year, but I went up with Ed Minners in a Model T Ford that was Bob Edwards’s taking provisions up.  But I came back on the hay truck when they came back empty.  And the nearer we got to the Charlie Myers Place, the more homesick I got.   

HODGE: Getting back to this home, can you tell us a little bit about the kind of props that were rolling around in that area.

BOOKER: Well, primarily, that is in other words, all of the grains—eric, barley wheat, oats.  Primarily oats was raised for hay because in the early days, that is in other words, there was a lot of horses around and the need was for a lot of hey.  They would put in a crop of hey in one field this year, let it follow the next year, and then plow it up and put it in the next.  That is in other words, you had every-other-year you would use your various fields and give them a chance, that is in other words, to replenish, that is, all the vitamins.  In the year of 1922, I believe it was, the Price Fires, they called it at that time; the fire started bellow Quartz and Stand, it started there at ten o’clock in the morning, or there abouts, and by night fall, that is in other words, that it burnt the area clear through the present Wards Ferry Road and there was fire literally on three sides of the grain field.  It was still standing that my dad hadn’t had a chance to harvest this yet.  They used what they call a stripper, which is a forerunner of a present day header. I don’t know that there is any of the strippers, that is in other words, available in any of the antique harvesting equipment.  It was in a straight and patent and they had a comb in the front and a beater that beat the heads off of the comb off of the grain.  The comb itself was raiseable and lowerable with a screw.  It was a three wheel contraption wit one wheel having cross-lugs on it, similar to what a person would say tire chains today.  That was the drive wheel.  It was pulled by four horses.  The grain was beat off of the heads of…about six inches below the head itself in other to take care of the lower growing heads. And it went through a concave and a convex about three-eighths by three-eighths  beater, that is in other words, it further beat up the heads of the grain and turned around and put it into a storage bin behind it.  Later it was taken to a central station where it was taken out and put through a fanning mill, which is nothing more than a glorified glore as we would have it, but today the grade separated from the chaff and the chaff itself was used for feed, that is in other words, for dry animals or small livestock because it still had food content in it.  As good as hay, but not quite as good as the grain itself would be.  And, of course, the animals that were raised was my dad raised goats, sheep, pigs, they always kept, that is in other words, five horses on the place—one being for a buggy at the time for the buggys.  Id o remember, that is in other words, coming home from town this particular time and the buggy hoola gave out at about the sight of the present day Merlow field over here. So we latterly shored up the field with bailing wire, and got home the next day or so when we went to town, and that was the first Model T or the first automobile that we had.  It was quite an experience, that is in other words, for lower Ralph, that is in other words, on sale for Charlie Gultz to give a demonstration of how to drive an automobile.  Being young, I was to convey…to learn what he had said and then to convey it to my dad when he became metal blocked as to what to do next to get the machine to go. We had to crack them and during the winter time, that is in other words, it was always a case of getting up the hot water and putting it up on the manifold to warm up the manifold so the gasoline would ignite a little better.  Then later years they had what they called a hot-shot battery that you used instead of the magneto on the Model T Fords and on many occasion, why, you’d let the car roll down the hill in hopes that it would start.  If it didn’t you pulled it back up with a horse and let try it try it again. It was always, that is in other words, a problem starting, that is in other words, using a 1914 Model T Fords, which that was. It had been previously owned by the supposedly honorable J.T.B. Warren who literally raped, that is in other words, the people of Mono County that is out of the water over there, that is in other words, the Owens (___) people over there that has hated him from one end to the other, but when he was in Los Angeles he was put up like a king because he made the metropolitan water district what it is today.  The Owens Valley was literally a beautiful place at one time.  You could see that it had been, but with the city of Los Angeles buying out a few of the places in the places requiring their water rights, why, it literally made a desert out of the Owens Valley.

HODGE: That’s sad.  Fortunately Blanket Creek isn’t quite a desert yet.

BOOKER: No, not quite, but it’s very much so.

HODGE: It had its dry summers.   Mr. Booker, can you tell us about the school system in Blanket Creek from the very earliest that you recall?

BOOKER: Well, in my time, that is in other words, my first school before the Wards Ferry School, was down on the P’s place. Prior to that time, that is, the original school that was built was a Blanket Creek School which was out on, I don’t know the properties name, that is , specifically, but in behind where Ralph Field now lives at the time it was the Bostader property or  one of the adjoining properties back there.  Probably from Ralph Field house probably three-eighths to half-mile to the actual south and southwest from his house on the point of the hill there, because it was literally on the center of the populated area at that time.  My aunts and my dad, that is in other words, in his earlier years, that is in other words, I can’t say that he went to that school, but he went at least to the blanket school after it had separated and one at the Wards Ferry school was down on the P’s place and the blanket creek school was where Albert Woohams now lives.  My earlier recollections of that: the building was standing and in about 1923, 1924, maybe 1925 the building literally collapsed and my dad, that is in other words, salvaged the lumber and put up a reasonably sized, I would say about probably a twenty-by-thirty, two-room cabin that he use for wood choppers head quarters, that is in other words when he had the ranch going.  He sold wood to the county—had the county wood contract.  Supplied wood to the county jail and court house and the old county hospital for at least three-years and William Mozenti was one of the drivers.  Over a Sunday, my dad would load the wagon and William would start out from the ranch.  He’d come back and he would have his wood allocated, why, he could go to town, unload the wood, come back and load up on the short one—a short load.  He’d make four loads in five days.  Then it would come out, that is in other words, some of it went out to Fort chambers in Rushland and cut wood there, that is in other words, as you went into the old chambers in Ruthford Ranch there, why, that is in other words, he acquired wood from them and had wood cutter out there. Well then he’d make a short run and then he’d make a long run and then he’d make two short runs in succession—you see, he’d have two long ones and two short ones and he’s make the third a short one, making the five trip out of six days. 

HODGE: Now, was that done with a horse and wagon? 

BOOKER: Four horses. Four horses and a wagon.  Henry Beck, and old character around the area, used to also drive for him.  A Eugene Blancherd drove for him.  I just recall the name, I can’t say that I remember the person, but it is the name, that is in other words, that I knew my dad had and the Blancherd name is more or less today a person the is a community, that is in other words, Lake Don Pedro is what is Blancherd area today and he came up from down there and well, I don’t know, that is in other words, he evidentially didn’t stay too long, but I remember that is William Mozanti and Henry Beck, that is in other words, primarily supplied, that is in other words, the (______) for that in one of the earlier years of the movie making, at the time of the filming of the Covered Wagon, my dad’s team, that is in other words, being with the wood haul were in exceptional shape.  He kept his stock well fell, well showered, and never abused.  He had the wagon in good shape and when they were filming the Covered Wagon, they started out at…Poker Flat in an area there, that is in other words where they had the cover fridge and then they came up, that is in other words, to Reynolds Ferry, then they were at Malones, and then they had a fall scene—they needed a snow scene—and they got into, they finally went into Russian meadows on the upper end Myan Stand.

END OF TAPE

General Information:

Interviewer: Annalie Hodge

Interviewee: Booker, Robert

Name of Tape: Blanket Creek (booker_r)

When: 1988

Transcriber: Ariella (11/25/08)