G. Grant Staples

G. Grant Staples

The History of G. Grant Staples
 
This historical account was taken from The History of G. Grant Staples. He lived his entire life in Eden, Utah. He was married to Erma Shaw Staples (November 19, 1913 - August 14, 2007). Together they had three children: Max Staples, Connie Merrill, and Dee Staples. G. Grant Staples (November 29, 1912 – July 20, 1993) was the firstborn son of George T. Staples (February 5, 1886 - April 8, 1949) and Margie Robins Staples (December 21, 1890 - January 7, 1970). Most of the early history written by G. Grant Staples involves his parents, his brother Claude, and his sisters Muriel and Ruby.
 
Dee Staples organized and edited the history of G. Grant Staples for the preparation of this article. The Ogden Valley News would like to thank the Staples family for this historical contribution.
 
The Homestead

In 1920, the George T. Staples family purchased what was then known as the Alfred Pritchett farm in Eden. Alfred Pritchett had purchased the farm from Heber McBride who was the original homesteader. This property is now often referred to as the “Hinckley Ranch.” G. Grant Staples writes in his history:
 
“After WWI, Father and Mother purchased the Alfred Pritchett farm in Eden. Farms did not come up for sale very often in the Ogden Valley, but the Pritchett farm, which was next to the Hyrum Farrell Ranch, came up for sale. It bordered the Middle Fork Road on the north, joined the John Bachman ranch on the east, and then extended south to the Middle Fork River. There was a dead-end lane from the Middle Fork Road on the west property line that led past Pete Shupe’s home, which was later the Earl Thompson home, to the Pritchett home (the small red homestead house presently located on the Hinckley Ranch). This home was located on the brow of the hill that dropped off overlooking the Middle Fork bottomland. Father and Mother bought this home and 80 acres of land in the spring of 1920. McBride owned the place before Pritchett. 
 
Our lives changed somewhat now that we were settled down on a farm, and our living was to be made from this land, enough money to pay off the debt. Father got a loan from Dr. A.A. Robinson for ten thousand dollars at 10% interest. We really had to try and scratch at times to make the loan payment” (pgs 12-13).
 
During the time that the Staples family was living on the farm, George T. Staples homesteaded 640 acres of land. Forty acres were located at the entrance of Geertsen Canyon at the base of what is commonly referred to as Round Mountain. The remaining 600 acres were located at the top of Geertsen Canyon in the area presently known as Powder Mountain Ski Resort. To again quote from the history of G. Grant Staples:
 
“Father decided to file through the Homestead Act on a section of range land, 640 acres. He knew where the best government land was located close to our farm. Forty acres were available at the mouth of Geertsen Canyon. The Round Mountain was within this 40 acres. The other 600 acres were on the top of the mountain at the head of Wellsville Canyon and Mary’s Hollow. This was prime rangeland. A time period of five years was allowed to improve the land by building a cabin and providing such improvements as fencing, corrals, and living on the land so many days each year. If these requirements were met at the end of five years, the government deeded the land to the homesteader.  
 
It was an exciting time working on this project. Father and Helen Tracy, a carpenter and a good friend of the family, built a cabin at the mouth of Geertsen Canyon, at the foot of Round Mountain. A large rocky ledge protruded out from the base of Round Mountain near the Geertsen Creek. On this good base, the cabin was built with a great view overlooking beautiful Ogden Valley. A good net and barbed wire fence, with cedar posts, was built across the south part of the 40 acres and going north on the west and east sides to the steep ledges above. This helped by keeping the cattle from drifting down out of the mountains. Due to the rough terrain and rocks, it was a big job fencing this area. There was a trail and somewhat of a wagon road from the Browning Ranch to the cabin, but over a period of time, we improved this road well enough to drive our car up to the cabin. 
 
Father was working for the Browning Ranch as Ranch Superintendent before we completed the homestead improvements. Many times, after the day’s activities, we spent the night at the cabin. Claude and I pitched a tent below the cabin near the creek and slept there. The babbling creek lulled us to sleep. That creek was good fishing, and a good supply of willow grouse lived in the area. Those were pleasant and good times to remember.
 
Father applied for certification once he had completed the improvements and requirements for the homestead. William (Billy) Colvin, a neighbor, had filed an objection saying Father had not lived there long enough to qualify. A hearing had to be held, but the judge ruled in Father’s favor. Browning’s attorney, Roy Young, testified that we had lived the required time on the homestead because we traveled past their ranch house to get to our cabin” (pgs 19-20).
 
The homestead was located in the middle of the Browning Ranch owned by the Marriner Browning family. Eventually, it became inconvenient for the Browning family to manage their land with this homestead located in the middle of it. Marriner Browning proposed to buy the homestead from George T. Staples. G. Grant Staples disapproved of this transaction, and in reference to the sell of this homestead, he writes:
 
“Marriner insisted Father sell them our homestead. I objected to this, but Father let them have it for what they offered—$5,000” (pg 57).
 
As part of this transaction, it was agreed that George T. Staples could remove the cabin from the homestead. Therefore, after the transaction was complete, he positioned the cabin on skids made of timbers and pulled the cabin off the mountain to his ranch in Eden.

Hover over images for captions or click to enlarge.

Life on The Ranch

The George T. Staples family bought the Alfred Pritchett Ranch on February 19, 1920 (Source: Weber County Recorder’s Office). It is now known as the Hinckley Ranch. The family lived here until the fall of 1948 when the ranch was sold. 
 
Concerning life on the ranch, G. Grant Staples writes: “There was plenty of work on the Staples’ Ranch. Being the oldest son, I had the job of irrigating, mowing the hay, and running the Jackson fork when stacking the hay in the barn. We also used the swinging derrick when stacking hay in the field. In 1924, Father built a machine shed, double garage in size, on the ranch (Source: Weber County Assessor’s Office). This was a deluxe building. In 1929, Father built us a new barn, a new derrick, and he did some repairs on the house (Source: Weber County Assessor’s Office). James Stallings did the electrical wiring in the barn and installed a good light pole for outside lighting. It was good to have hard surface flooring throughout the stables. There were stalls for ten cows and four horses. The horse stalls had wood flooring to make it softer for the horses to stand on. It still stands today and is in good condition, owned by the Robert H. Hinckley estate. (It is the big red barn that can be seen while driving on the main road in front of the Hinckley property, on the corner between the fork of the highway and Middle Fork road in Eden).
 
The ranch came with an irrigation water right that allowed us to water 32 hours each week. The most interesting thing about irrigating was the number and size of fish that came down the irrigating ditch during the month of June. Every time I turned the water, there were usually several fish flopping in the receding water. It is unbelievable the size and number of fish that came down the irrigation ditch each year. The fish were all Cutthroats [trout], and the largest fish I caught was eight pounds dressed. The only means we had of turning the water from the river for irrigation was to cut a huge cottonwood tree, pull it across the river, and anchor it to the banks on both sides of the river. As the water decreased in flow, we hauled wet hay and manure to tightly shut off the water. During the spawning period, there were enough fish getting past the tree in the river to keep the spawning cycle going. After Pineview Reservoir was installed, the fish soon disappeared. The Fish and Game planted hybrid fish in the reservoir, but they did not adequately reproduce.
 
Our horse pasture was on the east side of the river bottoms where the river ran through our property. There were tall cottonwood trees, numerous chokecherry, current, and berry bushes in this area. The west part of the river bottoms was clear of brush with several springs. The pasture was lush. Claude and I took turns going to the horse pasture to bring the horses to the barn to get ready for work. In the late summer, it was common to see bear tracks in the dusty path by the gate left by a bear raiding the berry bushes. This made one a bit concerned if a bear might still be in the pasture. We could see out of our kitchen window overlooking this area. We often saw deer and coyotes in the early morning hours as they passed through these river bottoms. It was not uncommon to see a mountain lion track in the sand along the riverbed. In the early spring, we could hear the mountain lion cry at the mouth of Geertsen Canyon, just north of our place where they preyed on deer. 
           
When Claude and I went to the pasture for the horses, we took a bridle and caught Old Buck and rode him bareback, bringing the horses on a dead run down to the barn. Father warned us not to run the horses so fast through the pasture where there were gopher holes. Then one day it happened: Claude was hazing the horses as fast as he could to get them to run to the barn. He had Old Sport, our faithful dog, helping him. Old Buck stepped into one of these holes with a front hoof and he stumbled. As Old Buck fell to the ground, Claude went flying through the air. He landed clear of the horse, but he broke his right arm just above his wrist. We were out in the yard and saw it happen.
 
Logging was also one of my experiences on the ranch. Father, having access to red pine timber on the W. J. Lindsay Ranch, took a few orders for hay dereks. Some of the best derek poles were found in the Red Pine Basin of Middle Fork. The poles for a good derek would bring $50.00. We took with us the front-runners of a bobsled. The job was best accomplished when there was snow on the ground or the ground was frozen. This way, we could load the trunk of the trees onto the bobsled and have the ends of the trees drag on the ground. 
 
It was a big day’s work to leave home at daylight and travel halfway up Middle Fork Canyon. We would turn right into Brown’s Hole and climb a steep ridge into the Red Pine Basin near the top of the mountain. The choice straight trees had to be selected, felled, and trimmed. It then became the job for Claude and me to drag the trees out of the basin. We dragged the trees to the bottom of the canyon where we had left the bobsled. When the trees were to the bobsled and ready to load, a skid was cut and secured to the bobsled. A horse was used to pull the heavy trees up onto the bobsled. After securing the load with chains, then we began the long trek home, often arriving home after dark.
 
Other logging trips were taken to the head of Geertsen Canyon to get logs for our winter supply of kindling wood. We did not take a wagon, but we each rode a workhorse and each of us dragged one tree home. Huge quaking aspen grew at the head of this canyon and many of them died from worms or old age. After they dried, they made excellent kindling wood to start fires in the cook stove. This was a difficult trip because the canyon was steep and rocky. The trees would often catch on the rocks.
 
Claude and I sawed these trees into even blocks using a two-man crosscut saw. It was my job to split the kindling and have it behind the stove for making the morning fire. 
 
Ice cream was a delicacy in the summer, and ice used to freeze the ice cream was scarce. There was an ice shed about a mile from our home at the mouth of Middle Fork Canyon on the Shupe Farm, one in Huntsville on the Winters’ farm, and one at a pond by the Pineview Lodge where Wheeler Creek emptied into the Ogden River. In the winter, when the ponds were frozen, the ice was sawed by hand into square blocks and hauled to the ice sheds and packed in sawdust. With plenty of sawdust packed around it, the ice would last all season. A lot of ice was hauled from the Pineview Lodge pond to the ice sheds in Ogden. We got our ice from the Middle Fork shed. Another way to get snow to freeze the ice cream was to carry it out of the mountains on pack mules. Rock salt was carried by pack mules to the cattle on the summer range. Drifts of snow on the high country would last until late July, so we would deliver the salt and fill the pack bags with snow for the return trip. We would get home with enough snow for a freezer of ice cream.
 
We had plenty of good cream for the ice cream recipe because we separated the cream from the milk that we received from our cows. What we did not use, we sold to Weber Central Dairy. Mother would also churn the cream into butter. I did my share of churning the cream with a hand churn” (pages 21-28).

Life on The Ranch - Horses

The following entry in the History of G. Grant Staples describes life working on the W.J. Lindsay Ranch before the Staples family purchased the Pritchert Ranch. At the time, G. Grant Staples was a young boy. He writes:
 
“Some of the most pleasant memories of ranch life as a youngster was traveling during the summer months to the Jones Cabin. This cabin was the summer headquarters for the W.J. Lindsay Ranch. We would leave the ranch in Eden and visit the sheep camps in the mountains on our way to the Jones Cabin. There were usually about 20 sheep camps and about 40,000 head of sheep on the summer range. Mother would ride with father through the mountains visiting the sheep camps. I rode a gentle brown horse named Old Hogup. I rode with a rope around his neck and through his mouth, which served as a bridle. I sat on a packsaddle with a blanket for a seat.  Claude was positioned on a pillow on father’s saddle. Most of the herders were Spanish Basques. Father could speak some Spanish and could understand them quite well” (pg. 6).
 
The rest of the entries in the History of G. Grant Staples take place after the family purchased the Pritchert Ranch. He describes his experiences with horses on the ranch as follows:  
 
“It was now that I really began to enjoy the horse that Father had given me for my very own. She was a beautiful mouse colored mare that showed Arabian breeding. She turned gray as she aged. One hard winter while Father was on the Nevada desert with the W. J. Lindsay sheep operation, he roped seven young wild horses and tamed them. My mare was the preferred choice of the seven. Horses were very important in those days because they were the main source of transportation, and they were used for farm and ranch work. There were very few tractors and cars in those days.
 
We always had three workhorses and three or four saddle horses. We purchased more if needed. Feed was a major issue, so horses were not kept if they were not needed. A beautiful span of mares was our main team. One was coal black and was named Bess. The other, Old Star, was a light bay with a star on her forehead. Their weight was between 1,650 and 1,750 pounds. They were very gentle and good to pull. Old Star was the best on the derrick used to pull hay up into the barn or in the field on the derrick pull. Old Mary, our third workhorse, was a beautiful black mare weighing about 1,400 pounds. She was very gentle and was used as an all-around horse. She was used as the third horse when plowing, harrowing or leveling. She was also used as the derrick horse. She was also used on the buggy and surrey, and she was sometimes ridden in the mountains as a saddle horse. The surrey was used most of the time to travel to school, church and community events during good weather months. 
 
Old Buck was our main saddle horse, a beautiful buckskin with a dark strip down his back with a dark mane and tail. He was an outstanding saddle horse—very gentle and a good cow horse. We also worked him on the buggy. I can remember leaving Eden with Claude and mother early in the morning with Old Buck hitched to the buggy headed down Ogden Canyon to get fruit in Ogden City. I also remember the John Wheelwright delivery stable and wood yard on Kiesel Avenue between 23rd and 24th Streets. This is where we often left Old Buck to be fed and watered while we shopped. John Wheelwright was a good friend of father’s and this friendship continued over the years. 
 
Driver Brothers Drug Store on Washington Boulevard between 23rd and 24th Streets on the west side was a landmark in Ogden. It was a meeting place for many of the farmers throughout Weber County. The driver brothers were very friendly and accommodating.
 
I experienced interesting trips hauling loads of loose hay down Ogden Canyon to be delivered in Ogden to feed stores and delivery stables. Ogden Valley hay was considered choice feed. The hay was loaded on the hay wagon the day before delivery. The wheels had to be well greased for the long trip. I can remember making some of these trips before the road was asphalted. It was better to use a lighter team for these long trips, as it was very hard on the large heavy teams. I will never forget the one morning when father hitched Old Mary, our trusted third horse, with a white horse that he had bought at the Ogden horse sell. The loaded hay wagon had been left overnight by the side of the barn. The ground was a little soft and the white horse balked, refusing to pull. Father hurriedly harnessed Old Bess, who was trustworthy to pull, and hitched her to the white horse’s neck. I mounted Old Bess to guide her and father took the lines and gave the command to go. The white horse reared and refused to go, but he had no choice. When he threw himself, I just kept going, dragging him along until we were on solid ground. We put Old Bess back in the barn and started on our way. The white horse never refused to pull after that.