JOHN LEACH OF BLACKHORSE

     In another serendipitous find on the internet, I chanced on a small 60 page booklet, "Ox Bows and Bare Feet" by John R. Leach. I almost passed it by until I noticed in the seller's description that it contained a couple of pictures of Heppner. Hooked immediately! It arrived in the mail three days ago and I am thrilled!
       Back in 1852, William A. Leach and family left Iowa in a covered wagon for Oregon. The family settled near Harrisburg in the Willamette Valley. In 1871, the second son, James, took his family to Weston in Umatilla County. John Ray Leach, the author of this readable little book, was born there but is very coy about his birthdate and never reveals it. But there are few secrets on the internet, and a Leach family genealogy page spills the beans. He was born March 26, 1882.

     Apparently the family didn't do too well at Weston for in 1884, they packed up a wagon and headed west - 75 miles - to Blackhorse Canyon just east of Lexington. The family filed a homestead claim on 320 acres. Part of this homestead is now incorporated into the Doherty ranch in Blackhorse. Dohertys have been in Blackhorse since 1891.
     The Leaches settled pretty hard. Eight children were raised in Blackhorse. Leaches appear throughout Lexington area history books. Also their clansmen, the Nichols (John's cousin Ina Bertha married Thomas H Nichols who homesteaded nearby in 1905). The Leaches claim kin to William Penland, the Lexington Sheep King (another sheep king!). Although Penland first appeared with a passel of sheep in the Lexington area in 1863, he didn't lay out the town until close to 1885, intending to vie with Heppner for the county seat. In 1884 Morrow County had been split off from Umatilla County and needed a county seat. John Leach says that Penland opened a store in Lexington shortly after the Leaches arrived. Penland's brother Henry married John's aunt Martha Jane Brown. And so it goes.

John Leach is first row, left. Note the halo.

     John Leach tells a lot of Morrow County Stories. Some brief quotations:
     "I boarded at her parents' hotel when the budding countess (Claudia Windsor AKA Mme. Gabriel DuVal IV) was then a fine hash slinger". .... "Claudie is now writing her memoirs and I don't mind telling you that if she puts it all down, it'll be good reading".
     "To me there will always be a Lexington - beautiful women, strong men, luscious watermelons, and vast wheat fields (Lexington is the greatest wheat shipping point in Oregon)".
     "As a small kid I rode up Blackhorse Canyon to a dinky little one-privy school, where the teacher was not selected for his academic knowledge as much as for his ability to handle his dukes against the 18 to 20 year old sons of the sturdy pioneers".
     "When I was 13 I took a very short fling ... in the Palace Hotel in Heppner. .... I soon found myself dubbed "Rear Admiral" in command of all the vessels in the 30 rooms".
     "I was almost born on a  horse, rode the range very young and packed supplies to sheep camps 65 miles from Heppner, back in the Blue Mountains, ran a string of four pack horses and my saddle horse. I also herded sheep a lot and one time had high hopes of specializing in sheep herding".
     "Al Windsor was the best fiddler in the country - he could almost make a fiddle talk. Regardless of the amount or quality of grog, he never missed a beat or got off key. He was truly a wonder, a person any drinking man would just have to admire".
     Henry Heppner: "Mr. Heppner had made his start peddling in the mining camps along the John Day River - particularly Whisky Gulch - now called Canyon City. He has no education. Few could read his writing. He was never sure just what he had written in a letter when confronted with it later. He ate big thick, juicy steaks which he took up in his hands and attacked them like a lion attacks its prey, and not without noise. He owned the hotel and many other enterprises in the town but the hotel manager gave him a private dining room where he could practice his Bill of Rights in his own way".
     "I was a young man clerking in a store when I went through the Heppner Flood of June 14, 1903. In that catastrophe one fourth of the population was wiped out in 20 minutes by a wall of water that came down Willow Creek. It took about half the houses and left the  ground looking as though no human has ever walked on it before".
     "It was hot weather and we had no embalming facilities. We turned Mike Roberts Saloon into a morgue. Crude coffins were made of rough lumber. Nerves were shattered. Grief and fatigue were great. If we thought a body was that of so and so, we listed it and put the name on a board to be stuck at the head. If that person came walking in later it was scratched off the list but nothing was done about the body in the grave on the hill. We opened one box marked "Geo. Conser" (bank cashier) and found his Chinese cook in it. George was alive".
     John Leach died in April, 1972. His fine home in Portland is now the Leach Botanical
Gardens (http://www.leachgarden.org/). I wish I had had the chance to know him when I was young and our years overlaped.
                                                                                                                                        Roger Doherty

GRANDMOTHER AND THE PIGS

     When I was a youngster, about age 16, my cousin Johnny Kenny told me that our grandmother (my paternal great-grandmother) used to herd pigs on the hills above Iskaheen. I imagined this somewhat to be somewhat like Heidi in the Alps, taking her goats up the mountain in the morning and returning home in the evening. And I had imaginative pictures in my mind of herds of pigs being followed around the hillsides all day by picturesque Irish maidens. But now I know the real story.

     Charles McGlinchey in his book of tales, "The Last of the Name" describes the practice: "In my grandfather's time, that would be about 1800 or thereabouts, people in the different parts of the parish used to take their cattle and pigs to the mountains for the summer months. It was only the women and children went, and Patrick's Day was the time for setting out. They built huts to live in called bothogs and the remains of these bothogs and some old pig houses can be seen about the hills yet [1940s]. There is a place in Clofin bog called the bothogs and it was there that the people from that part took their cattle. William Grant's grandmother [not our Grants] was born in one of these bothogs in Clofin."

     Above is a year 2000 view to the Northwest of Iskaheen, into the hills or "mountains" where my great grandmother may have summered her pigs.

     A short one half mile or so away from the first picture is St Patrick's Church and cemetery at Iskaheen. Here my great grandfather Frances is probably buried, as is Eugene, Son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The plaque on the cemetery wall reads: "Eoghan, Prince of Iniseoghain, Son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Died 465 of grief for his brother Conall. Baptised by Patrick and buried in Uisce Chaoin."
                                                                                                                                       Roger Doherty

THE LAST OF THE NAME by Charles McGlinchey. 1986

     In great luck, I recently found a used, water stained copy of The Last of the Name, by Charles McGlinchey of Clonmany in Inishowen. McGlinchey was born here in 1861, a short eight years before my grandfather's birth in nearby Iskaheen. A weaver and story teller, McGlinchey's chronicles of everyday life in Inishowen has helped me to understand my grandparents and others of their cohort. There is a warm feeling to read the continual references to Dohertys and McLaughlins that stream through this book. The book, first published in 1986, is a good and quick read, and I hope all of my relatives will obtain a copy for their libraries. Here are a couple of excerts:
     "It was a common thing to walk to Derry in times ago and people thought nothing of it. I heard of a Clonmany woman heading for Derry up over Pinch one morning and she fell  in with a banvil [group] of men cutting turf about Lagsalach. She told them her errand was to get a pair of shears. One of them said he'd lend her a pair, but she said when she was that far she'd go on. She was a mile from home at that time and had the best part of thirty in front of her. She was back with the shears before the men stopped cutting that evening. But all the women weren't as far travelled. Some of them never left the townland they were reared in unless to go to chapel. There was a woman from Altahall one time and she got to the top of Pinch. She saw the Swilly and the hills of Fanad beyond. She says, 'Who would think the world was so big? And there's America lying over there, you that broke many a mother's heart'."
And:
     "But my time on this world must be getting short. The people I knew and grew up along with are nearly all gone before me. Over our grave there was always an old quarry flag, but it was getting sunk in the ground with grass growing over it. So ten or twelve years ago I gave an order for a new one to Owen Roddy.The making of it cost 5 pounds, but I was out the best part of 6 pounds to get it erected, with the price of drink and all. A pound doesn't go far on drink these times.
     So, whenever I die, they will know where to bury me. And after my day the grave will not be opened again, for I'm the last of the name. And when I do go and fall in with Paddy Mor Roddy and Ogaster and Eibhlin O Kerrigan and all the rest, sure I'll be no stranger to them."

Charles McGlinchy died in 1954, at age 94.
                                                                                                                                        Roger Doherty

SPRING, 1891, ANTON AND ANNA KINDERKNECHT LEAVE RUSSIA FOR THE UNITED STATES

Kinderknecht Family Reunion, August 31, 2014 in Ellis Kansas

Here is an excerpt from "Unsere Familie, Einst und Jetzt, Kinderknechts", 1982, by Eileen Kinderknecht Doherty. Descendants of Jacob and Otilia Kinderknecht will gather in Ellis, on August 31, to celebrate the family's emigration and settling in Kansas.

     "In the Spring of 1891, Anton and Ann decided to leave Mariental, Russia, for the United States. One of the primary factors leading to this decision was the probability that Nick would be signed up as a recruit in the Russian army in 1893. Under the Reform of January 1, 1874, the Russian government required universal military service from all male citizens in the country. en aged 20 served a term of six years, after which they were registered as reserves for nine years and remained assigned to the militia until age forty.

     "Preparation for the trip to the United States included distribution of personal belongings, finding someone to manage the four mill, and sale of equipment and other items. Belongings which could be carried

Left, Mariental, Russia, 1875. Kinderknechts were probably in this picture.

were brought along and the rest was given to friends and relatives. Jacob (Eileen's grandfather) was responsible for the coffee pot and Catherine was responsible for the goose-down pillows according to family memories.

     "To leave Russia, Anton and his family began by boarding a boat at Mariental on the Karmann River which flows into the Volga River. Once across the Volga

Left, Nick Kinderknecht, age 17. Picture taken in Mariental.

River, they had to walk across the Russian Steppes to the Russia-Poland border. Travel was done in a very secretive and discreet manner because, as Jacob reported, "One word and we would have been shipped to Siberia."
     "Since many of the Russian citizens were migrating to other countries on foot, the government had positioned guards to patrol the border. Some of the guards, however, could be persuaded to allow the emigrants to cross the border.
     "Upon locating a Russian guard who spoke German and was willing to work with Anton, the family waited in the forest until the guard came on duty in the evening.
     "After paying the guard approximately $5 per person for a total of $45 (US$) the guard and his sons assisted the family across a small river near the border. The small children were carried by the guard's sons and the adults walked. Although the river was  not very deep, ten year old Jacob remembered the water as being waist high on himself.
     "Once in Poland, the family was free. However, an item was forgotten (it is not known today what it was) and seemingly, it was significant enough that Nick was sent back across the river to retrieve it. In order to enter Poland for a second time, it was necessary for him to wait until the same guard who had helped the
family earlier was on patrol and pay him the fee. It seems Anna became very worried that Nick would never be allowed to cross the river again, as  it took several days for him to return. But Nick made it and the trip continued.
     "Now the family was ready to cross Poland. This was done by purchasing tickets and boarding the train for Hamburg, Germany.

Left, Anton and Anna Gerber Kinderknecht

     "On November 27, 1891, the family set sail on the ship Bismark from Hamburg, arriving in New York City December 8, 1891. It is reported that life was very difficult as people were seasick, homesick, and in some cases, hungry. For the children, the new diet consisting of white wheat bread was quite different from the black rye bread they were accustomed to in Russia.
     "The family arrived in New York without any money. Through the assistance of an immigration program sponsored by the Catholic Church, Anton sent a telegram to Nicholas and Barbara Hansen for money. When the money arrived, the family once again boarded the train to join their relatives in St. Marys, Kansas." 

     After paying off their debt to the Hansens, the Kinderknecht family eventually homesteaded in Ellis County and we now credit them with a vast family of  descendants.
                                                                                                                   Eileen Kinderknecht Doherty

North Morrow and Gilliam Counties - TURN OF THE CENTURY SHEEP RANCHING

I recently obtained a copy of "Settlers of Cecil, North Morrow and Gilliam Counties", by Audrey Ellen Wilson, Watermelon Memories, Portland Oregon, 1993, a collection of newspaper clippings from 1900 through 1904. Following are some of the late 1900 and early 1901 entries about sheep raising. It  would seem as though everyone in the industry was either a "sheep king" or the most prominent or finest something or other:
     W. W. Wilson, of Castle Rock, twenty miles up the Columbia River from Arlington, reports that Ed Bartholomew moved his band of sheep into that country for range and he has increased from one band to two bands. Mr Wilson thinks the expansion is due to the McKinley administration. 2 November 1900.
     William Penland, the Sheep King of Morrow County has sold to Arthur Minor, F. F. Hynd and Oscar Minor his big Blue Mountain stock ranch, consisting of 40,000 acres of deeded land and 20,000 head of sheep the land is located south of Heppner, and the total consideration is $120,000. It has all been accumulated from a small start 20 years ago. Mr. Penland retains a one-fourth interest in the property in the property and has bought Arthur Minor's ranch of 3000 acres at the head of Butter Creek, with its 4,000 head of sheep. 9 November 1900.

     Charles McAllister of Croy just returned from the Antelope country where he went searching for sheep. He reports that it is difficult to find any sheep for sale. He made an offer of $3.25 per head for yearling wethers to a prominent sheep man and was turned down. He has a band of 650 head on his ranch at Rock Creek which he considers the finest in the state, some of them weighing as much as 135 pounds. It is his intention to take these lambs to Montana for spring range, preparatory to putting them up for sale. He was offered early in the fall $12 per head for the pick of them. 14 December 1900.
     Mr. Schoolcroft of Willows, was in Arlington last week in pursuit of hobos who helped themselves to what they could find in his sheep camp. 11January 1901.
     It Would Take All the Dogs of the Country to Herd One Band of Cotswold and Shropshire Sheep. D. W. Ralston returned from Portland Wednesday where he delivered sheep purchased in Yamhill county. The sheep raised there are a different variety from those which are ranged in Eastern Oregon and for mutton they are unexcelled. "Eastern Oregon sheep are the best wool producers, they do not have have mutton quality the coarse-wooled sheep do." The Cotswold and Shropshire are coarse wool sheep, and are the principal sheep raised in the valley. This class of sheep is not run in Eastern Oregon because of the fact that they are great travelers and could not be handled in large bands as are run in this country. It would take more dogs than we could get. 11 January 1901.
     George Earhart, of Lone Rock, a  prominent sheep man says the he has not yet sold last year's clip of wool, and it is his opinion that at this time he will not be able to dispose of it before the next clip comes. Condition of sheep, he says, is very good. They returned from the mountains in the pink of it. 22 February 1901.
     Multiple Entries: R. F. Hynds and Ed Dam, two prominent sheepment of Heppner, attended the wool growers convention in Pendleton.....Sheep shearers are coming into the country preparatory to taking up their labors which will soon be on hand. It is probable that in a week or two a good many of the sheep men will be fleecing their flocks.....D. W. Ralston shipped a band of sheep Sunday to Portland.....Charles McAllister went up to Pendleton Monday to be in attendance at the Woolgrowers convention.....R. M. Johnson Finds Scab. Stock inspector for Gilliam county was in the Ferry Canyon country last week inspecting sheep reported to be in a scabby condition. One band was found in which a small number were affected.....A. Smythe & Son, Gilliam County's most prominent sheep men are reported as having sold 500 head of yearling sheep at $4.75 per head. The sale was made at the Chicago stock yards. 3 March 1901.
     Wm. Smith of Hay Creek, owner of one of the finest sheep ranches in Gilliam county, has begun lambing. 22 March, 1901.
     Charles McAllister of Croy is expecting a visit from a Umatilla sheep man to look at his fine bunch of yearling rams and if all goes well he will sell a band of 600. The deal should accommodate from $6000 to $8000.  22 March 1901.
     Charles Cunningham of Pilot Rock accompanied Mr. McAllister to his Rock Creek ranch to see sheep. 12 April, 1901.
     A shipment of 1800 head of yearling sheep left Arlington Tuesday for the Seattle market, being bought of A. Smythe by Frye and Bruhn Monday. Men who know say it is the finest band of mutton sheep ever put on the market in this section. They brought $2.25 a head. 9 April 1901.
     The first wool clip of the season was that of Thomas Seigel of Willow Creek to The Dalles Scouring Mills which brought 8 1/2 cents. The clip consisted of forty-five sacks of slightly inferior quality. Mr. Smith got an offer of 9 1/2 cents for the big clip of A. Smythe and Son but declined. 19 April 1901.
                                                                                                                                          Roger Doherty

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY AND CHARLES CUNNINGHAM

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY AND CHARLES CUNNINGHAM - AUGUST 5, 1864

One Hundred and Fifty Years Ago

Following some earlier preparations and a landing on Dauphin Island to deal with Fort Gaines, early in the morning of August 5, 1864, Admiral David Farragut's Union fleet steamed into Mobile Bay. The fleet was lead by the Tecumseh and other monitors, and followed by a line of wooden steamers, lashed together in pairs. Of the line of fifteen steamers, the last two were the Oneida and the Galena. The Galena was a 738 ton ten gun ship which was once iron clad. At this time the iron had been removed and it was lashed to the larger 1,032 ton nine gun ship Oneida. The fleet was moving in a narrow channel between a field of mines on its port (west) side and the guns of Fort Morgan on the starboard (east) side.

There was a furious exchange of cannon between the fleet and Fort Morgan, with the forward ironclads and steamers engaging the smaller Confederate fleet of one ironclad and three wooden gunboats.The cannon exchange had not let up as the Oneida and the Galena passed through the channel. The Oneida, lashed to the Galena and exposed to Fort Morgan cannon took heavy damage. Her boilers were hit and exploded, her steering gear damaged, and she was on fire.She was saved by the Galena, which pulled her through the channel. The Galena was also hit, suffering two gaping holes from ten inch guns. Two sailors were wounded and a third died.

Galena, after removal of iron plates.

Charles Cunningham was born in 1846, probably in Tuam, County Galway. Orphaned about age 12, Cunningham arrived in New York City in April, 1864, a raw youth of 18. With no relatives or contacts in America, Cunningham soon enlisted in the Union Navy and served as a messenger boy on the Galena in the Battle of Mobile Bay. As luck would have it, he was wounded on this last ship to run the gauntlet, and spent two months recovering on a hospital ship - a baptism by fire in his new adopted country. What happened afterward, however, made Charles Cunningham a legendary figure in the Doherty (Blackhorse) family in Oregon.

Discharged from the Navy after his hospital stay, Cunningham made his way to Alameda County in California, where he stayed for four years, and in 1869 relocated to Umatilla County, Oregon. In partnership with Jacob Frazer he went into the sheep business, later continuing on his own. In May, 1883, he married Sarah Doherty of Iskaheen, County Donegal. Shortly thereafter, he assisted his wife's two brothers, sister, and mother to immigrate to America. Sarah's brothers were employed by Cunningham until they got on their feet and went into the farming and cattle business. One brother, James G. married Catherine Doherty of Ballylosky, County Donegal and the sister, Mary married Mike Kenny. Between them they started great tribes of Dohertys and Kennys in Oregon. Cunningham went on to be known as the Sheep King of Eastern Oregon. In his later years, he built and operated the Hotel Cunningham in Pasco, Washington.

Charles Cunningham, about age 30.

To the Dohertys and Kennys, Cunningham is a legend. No significant biography has been written about him, but generations of these families remember that they owe this orphan and sheepman their fortune in this country!
                                                                                                                                        Roger Doherty