THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Continuing
the saga of Vandiver's life in the West
On May 3 my column focused on
the memoirs
of John Joseph Vandiver who left Union County, Georgia with his
parents, John
Floyd Edward Vandiver and Lucinda Souther Vandiver in 1895, making a
stop for
awhile in Drake's Creek, Arkansas, and then moving farther west.
By way of explanation, I wrote
about this
family in February, 2005. This is not an effort to repeat that story,
nor is
this account written in exactly the same manner. Then, this column was
not
available online to many who have since "found" the weekly "Sentinel"
newspaper online. I have had numerous requests from descendants of the
Vandiver
family to repeat those stories. That is why, almost two and one-half
years
later, in modified format, the memoirs of John Joseph Vandiver again
appear in
this column.
Between 1895 and 1898, jobs were
scarce for
a young man of nineteen in Drake's Creek, Arkansas. John Joseph Vandiver
worked on his
father's farm at the "Old
Lollard Place" and supplemented his farm
earnings by cutting railroad crossties and transporting them eight
miles across
a mountain to sell them for $1.10. In 1898, John Joseph's father bought
his son
a ticket to Greeley,
Colorado. John's older
brother, Bill, was
already there. They worked for awhile at Charles Robinson's farm for
$20.00 per
month. Then the brothers launched northward to Laramie, Wyoming,
where they heard "big game" was available for the hunting.
Circumstances turned them in another direction.
At the Kuster Hotel in Laramie, the
Vandiver brothers learned that a
Mr. Thornton had been in town looking for ranch hands. Traveling 60
miles west
of Laramie
to
the Thornton Ranch at Rock River, the
Vandiver
lads were hired and worked herding cattle and sheep.
Then it was off to become hands
on the
Union Pacific Railroad survey party, where they worked the whole winter
of
1898-1899. In the spring of 1899, John Floyd Edward Vandiver sold out
in Arkansas
and moved his
family to Rock Creek,
Wyoming. Prospects for
making a living
seemed better there. In 1900 the Vandivers moved again to Little
Medicine and
the John J. Burnett Ranch. John Joseph Vandiver wrote in his memoirs:
"It
was hard going in those times. About all the work that could be had was
herding
sheep. I spent two winters making railroad ties in southern Wyoming near
the Colorado
line in about three feet of snow. I
went down the Medicine Bow River on
the
tiedrive in the spring of 1902."
In June of 1902, John Joseph
Vandiver went
to Seattle, Wash., where he found work in a
brick yard,
at Moran's Sawmill, and at a logging camp at Moon's Canal.
In the fall of 1902, when it was
too cold
to continue outside labor, John found a job at the Fry-Brulm Packing
House,
driving a meat wagon, remaining there until spring.
In April, 1903, he made another
move to Yakima, Washington
where he signed on as a hand at the Bear Ranch. In the fall of 1903, he
went to
Okanogan, Washington.
John Joseph Vandiver's parents
sold out at
Little Medicine, Wyoming
and went to Okanogan, again joining
their son
already there. The elder Vandiver paid $800 for some land in Pleasant Valley
near Malott, Washington. The family lived in a
log cabin
on the land. In another log cabin, built for a schoolhouse, the
Vandiver
children still at home were enabled to attend school. One could wish
that John
Joseph had written more in his memoirs about who taught the school. He
wrote
only that those younger siblings still at home at the time were Sarah,
Nell,
Hartwell, Calla and Jess. In the fall and winter of 1903-1904, both
John Joseph
and Bill were at Pleasant
Valley with their
parents.
Then came "Last Chance." With a
name like that, one would think "desperation!"
John Joseph and Bill Vandiver
worked at the
Last Chance mine about ten miles from Pleasant Valley.
There they cut firewood for the mine, working about two months, a job
that paid
them about $3.00 per day.
When spring planting time came,
the
Vandiver brothers returned to Pleasant Valley.
They helped their
father on the ranch during 1904 and 1905, and got additional work at
their
neighbor's ranch (Mr. Malott) at hay harvest time.
By the spring of 1906, no doubt
thinking
that if he ever landed a significant career, he would certainly have to
launch
out on his own, John Joseph Vandiver went back to Seattle, Washington.
The remainder of his story will be told in the next episode of this Union County
native's call to the west to live and work.
[Source: John Joseph Vandiver's
Memoirs
written in 1959 and published in Watson B. Dyer's "Souther Family
History," 1988, pages 266-268.]
c2007 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published May 10, 2007 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator, freelance wirter,
poet, and historian. She may be reached
at email edj0513@windstream.net; phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood
Road, Milledgeville, GA 31061-2411
Updated May 27,
2009
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