Grandpa Moses, just a good ole' boy with a good ole' story!
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| Ralph Moses on his horse Sweetheart |
My Grandpa Moses always had a story to tell. And those stories were usually full of it. But we loved listening to him. It was usually a pretty tall tale. When he was done telling the story I would usually ask "Is that true Grandpa?" He would laugh and laugh. I loved laugh. Maybe that's why I loved hearing his stories. When I read through this it brought back loads of memories. I love you Grandpa and miss you tons.
From Peggy Morgan: This is a copy of a tape that Debra had Grandpa Moses make.
Okay I was born November the 22nd in the year of
1919 my fathers name was George Reuben Moses my mothers name was Mary Wallace
Moses. I was born in Jefferson County. Rigby being the county seat. About oh
say five miles to the east of Rigby, I
was born in a little log cabin there where mother and dad was (winnin) with the
cattle that winter. Well, in the spring in 1920 my first trip to the mountains
of course I was in mother’s arms and everything like that she was driving the
wagon and feeding the cowboys. I was their, I guess I was their helper I don’t
know. But, anyhow the roads was fairly good until we got to (ozone?) and then
from ozone we had a little canyon we had to go through. There was a lot of
times there was rocks on the road dad would have to pull them out of the road,
y know we couldn’t get around them y know. And that and so I see as I go up
that road at this time in my life, I see those big rocks and I wonder if those
is some that dad had to pull out of the way. Then we go on up to bone. The road
was fairly good up to bone and from bone on we just more or less just two
tracks in the sage brush but that’s where we started running into a little
water problem. A lot of snow that spring and comin that water coming down those
canyons why cross the road would be a little too deep and runnin pretty fast so
we would take the horses e’t wagons an go up the creek or up the ridge a’ways
til the water wasn’t so deep and then find the crossing we could make there and
go down the ridge on the other side, that’s the way we got around that one.
There were several of those creeks. there was Oh [there was] ole seventy creek
and mill creek and they’re all named all of em I can’t remember em all. And I
found out later about them you know. Then it was about 11 miles from bone till
we started headin hwere the (shumbines?) lived and the butler boys n tom
callwell n coy n burt Gibson joe laouk and his family, kindof a little
settlement there on deer creek. The roads was not too good to there but little,
not bad. We had a few of those creeks we had to go up the ridge and cross n one
time there wasn’t a guy gonna help gramma find a good place for grandma to
cross I found out later on in life his name was Andrew Newball. And he was
ridin his saddle horse, and I don’t know mom she decided to she’s passin an
awful good one there so she swung them ole ponies down in there and started to
whoopin and a-hollerin an throwin the whip to em n down through the water we
went and up on the ridge on the other side and went on down and ole newball
they said he looked at that and said “that too rough for me” and so he went on
up the creek a little ways up the ridge a little ways and then he crossed an
then caught up to us. Well, we was getting pretty close up to where the butler
boys and tom and all of them lived now and anyhow tom callwell come along and
seen us and of course he had to stop an visit afton…we was all eatin dinner
there up eatin dinner or supper or somethin why it started snowin pretty good
an there’s big ole flakes fallin called them wet snow an we all just kindof
jumped I’the wagon for a few minutes tom looked out there he said I had a fork
trying to catch those snowflakes I was hungry gonna eat em. He told me lot of
times later on “Ralph, always thought you was smarter than tryin to catch those
snow flakes with a fork you should of by (almost) used a spoon.” We had a many
a good laugh tom and I over that. Well, after we get past the butler place and
and uh tom and them we kindof get into a little flatter country we don’t have
so many canyons comin down the waters kindof standing all over there and uh
Cows is grazing along gettin what they could eat. We was wantin to push them
back so we could get back on the south slopes of old devil slide mountain as us
kids had named. Lot of good early feed had hit up in there. And after we had
left the butler place about I think uh six or seven miles on to where we could
get to the home place the cabin and that you know and lot better when we get
out of the wagons into the cabin of course. Mom would get the little cabin
swept out and the fire goin and we sure, sure nice and comfortable there and
that. It was a wonderful big ole, big old two room cabin it was and then there
was a lean to on the side of it. For kind of a bedroom I think there was two or
three bedroom..two or three bedrooms
small bedrooms out there in that. Then of course there was an upstairs
in the big cabin where the us boys slept. As I got later on.
Well, I don’t know much about now till I get about three
years old but after I got about three years old why that dad and me we was
together pretty much all of the time. He’d saddle his horse and I’d be standin
watchin him and he’d put me in the back of the saddle and I’d stand on his
slick or his coat whatever he had and put my arms around his neck and away we’d
go n we’d ride here n ride there you know and anyhow we lost one of the
mornings a horse uh a one of the horses didn’t come in to…they used to come in
to kindof fight flies down around the old cabin down there below the below the
the house the house set upon a ridge and down below that was the place where
the horses would come in fly and this one horse didn’t come in and dad sa well
we’ll have to go and look for her tomorrow so the next day why reuben and dad
they saddled up about 9:30 10 o’clock or such a matter, I don’t know dad s “you
wanna go,” Sure dad” So I went with him again an here we are riding this one
ridge and then another lookin for this big black mare. Well finally we, dad
says “look over there there’s Reub with his hat off and so we went over there
and sure enough there she lay. That’s the funniest thing I thought I ever saw
in my life. I got off with dad and first I done is took her shoes of she’d been
hit with lightening and round every one of the nail holes in her feet why as
big as lead pencil I could just take her shoes off and I didn’t even have to
pull hard. And then there was a big; she had a great big blade of mouthful of
grass. I said to dad, “ that’s awful that horse didn’t get the chance to finish
that grass, dad.” Then he was all laughin at me concerned over that horse
being, taken her shoes off and couldn’t chew her grass. So they all had a lot
of laughs over it. And well you know too we had an awful big nice spring there
by the cabin an dad had kind of put a board or two by four or something across
there and dug a little trench around the side. He had a little kind of a dirt
roof cellar type over the cabin it was real not too big but it was sure nice
and cool in there all the time. And then this water would come down along the
side there about oh maybe two inches deep and that’s where would could set our
milk or butter or cheese or anything we wanted in there and the water runnin
right underneath kept just almost as good as refrigerator you ever saw the
water so cold and nice and clean and we had that tere and then down below the
cabin there was some big lakes, ponds of water too where we had could play in
the water the meadow creek wasn’t too far and we could go out there and play
fish or look at the fish or anything we wanted. We had a wonderful time and a
lot of fun up in there. Well I’m gonna stop for just one minute now Thankyou.
Well you know there was a lot of (sage hens) a lot of fish
in meadow creek. We sure had a good time. Dad would harness the team, and off
we would go with his shotgun. He had an old 12-gage shotgun an mother would
drive and dad’d take the shotgun. Us kids would ride in the back of the wagon
an we’d get out there in one of those meadows. And dad would take and ride down
along the meadow and a couple of us kids would go on one side and a couple on
the other side and as quick as the chickens started to fly. oh boy us kids
would hit the ground. why dad he had a I think in them days there was 24 shells
in them old shotgun shells in the box. Dad had to get 25 or 26 chicken or he
had-it was a bad box of shells. He always had to get more than the 24. Then
us-as quick as dad would stop shootin. Why he’d holler at us kids and we’d go
out n find the chickens put in the buggy. Then
back to the house and clean the chickens, clean the lot of them. Dad
would call mom and she would put them in containers and set them out there in
the pan or something in the spring. We’d eat chicken four or five days you know
that way and then we’d get tired of chicken we’d go down and fish in meadow
creek. We didn’t use a hook and a line to fish with much. We had kind of a-a
steel piece of copper wire. The wire was shiny and thin the fish didn’t see it
too good or somethin I don’t know an there’d be two of us go and we had to
(have on a big stick) kind of like a broom handle little it was but similar to
that big stick like a broom handle. This loop like a lariat rope would sit down
in the water see n the fish’d come swimming along n we’d put it over kind of
where the pond where the fish was at and as quick as we saw one get in our loop
we’d holler “JERK IT” the guy on the other side hollered “jerk it” we’d throw
the fish clear out on the bank on the other side. A lot of us says, “you didn’t
catch very many fish that way” well we caught quite a few I’ll tell you for
sure last time we fish on meadow creek. That was a lot of fun.
You know when I was getting a little older and bigger why
Gene and Reub they’d be down in the corral workin some cattle or doin somehtin
you know. I’d go on down thereand pretty quick they’d have a calf caught well
now here let’s see you ride this calf you wanna be a bull rider now you gotta
get in practice so you know they’d talk me into it and I’d get on the calf of
course. Nothin to hold on to you know he’d soon buck me off. “Well you rode him
a little further than you did last one, now try this one here. He’s not near as
big and mean as that other one was.”
They’d put me on that-n they’d give me a tail to hang onto. I could hang
on to the tail lean forward you know and that way I could go a little further
they said so. Anyhow mamma would see what was goin on n she’d come down and
give em a little trouble not much. Dad he was always, if he’d seen it, he was
always kindof laughing thinking that was good time and good fun. Course the old
corral was always kinda dusty and dirty you know half manure n half dust n half
dirt a lot of times it didn’t taste too good if I did-had-did get bucked off
and had ma mouth open, but anyhow it was a lot of fun.
One time we was down there in the corral. Venetta come in
with we didn’t uh after the we went up the hills a little while a lot we’d go
back into the valley why a lot of them farmers would have all of their spring
work done n they’d have four or five head of work horses that they didn’t want
to keep around there for summer so they’d talk us into takin them back into the
mountains. Of course you know back in there that time it was all free range you
could do just as you wanted too. There was a law against getting too close to a
homesteader or something like that. It was called the public domain ya had to
stay within half a mile or something, you couldn’t camp with in a half a mile
of a homestead because that homesteader he had to have rights for his stock
too. Well anyhow we’d get (buns) an I remember one year the folks sayin they
had to watch 75 head of work horses back
on those way back upon the mountain there was a big spring there an a lot of
feed down along the creek and then uh the day time when they’d get hot why the
horses would wind would come upon that old bear ridge an them ponies would come
up there an theyd’ fight flies and a little breeze a blowin and they’d stand
ina bunch. And you ever seen, they wasn’t seen too many flies and that. Well
this one bunch of horses they got spooked and was kindof heading for the valley
and vendetta was having to see em and she was just breaking a heck of a nice
little buckskin three year old colt. Oh he was the prettiest little thing I
ever saw. And anyhow she run over and got them horses just a little ways an
brought them back and put them in the coral.
”dad” She says “ I’m gonna leave them there for two days and get them hungry
and dry so they’ll stay back on the mountain.”
Dad says “alright go ahead.” Well, You know shed run the
horses in the coral and the bars was just down and they never had no gate or
nothin we’d pull poles out of one end and the’d lay on the ground amd when
Venetta jumped the bars with her little colt, why he kept right on jumpin. He
thought he was gonna do some fun there. of course Venetta had on a pair of tho
little old dollar and a half ok spurs they was sharp mean little things and dad
would holler “hook him sis hook him. And every time that old colt hit the
ground them old spurs would hit him right there in the point of the shoulders
about three or four jumps he’d throw his head in the air he didn’t want no more
of htat so bak and forth across those bars she’d put them about half a dozed
times and he never made another jump. Well, (mom) she seen of course the buckin
and she come runnin down there “Somebody’s gonna get hurt, now somebody’s gonna
get hurt.” Dad he never said a word. Heck, Sis had a hold of the reigns and the
other hand in the air a waving at him. He never even loosened up the saddle a
bit she was a pretty good bronc rider I’ll tell you for sure. And mom she was
scared somebody was gonna get hurt but dad he, he always just kindof took it at
a laugh and that was all there was too it.
Well So we had a garden up there in the summertime we’d
raise, we couldn’t raise potatoes we raised a lot of spuds and peas and stuff
like that but corn and tomatoes or stuff like that of course you know we
couldn’t grow none of them but boy them big red spuds used to grow in that
mountain soil up there they was just as solid after you cooked them as the
spuds are today that we dig from the ground nowdays. They was just solid and
firm oh they was good spuds. Mom always had oh a big row of em and two and we’d
have that to warm up in the pan after the fried the chicken talk about
good-I’ll tell you they were delicious. Well that’s all for a few minutes bye.
Continuing from Dorothy’s computer:
I can remember one
trip down to the valley there was, we come down with ole midnight and prince an
and uh afton and mother and I come downt hat time and we was goin back up.
Mother would always take something back up a shovel handle or a rake handle or
a halt of ropes or something you know that we needed and well this time we was
takin and I think she had a big axe an axe handle in there anyhow we got up
after we crossed the Portneuf river and it kind of flattened out a little bit
why looked back and here we was still on the reservation and here come this
darn cyote following right along behind us pretty close. That time there was a
little bit of rabbis in the country anyhow mom she stood up in back of the
white top she says “Afton you hole them horses right down the middle of the
road and she says if he goes to come up along the side im gonna throw this cub and try to break a leg or try and do
anything I can to kill him. Because he might be rabbi” Well he stayed with us
for oh quite a while, quite a ways there and the team was travelin right up the
road. Pretty quick he disappeared just like he showed up we went on into,
talked about it, went on into the homestead that night. Made it in there fine
and dandy no problem whatsoever. But, I-uh then I think the next spring, why uh
dad and ave? gardner, bishop ave gardner got together and uh that’s who we was
rentin the farm from. And uh I don’t know whether dad was rentin it or tryin to
buy it then or what but anyhow it was the same place he traded the homestead
for that farm a-down there there we got a pretty good price out of the
homestead I don’t remember how much or anything of course I didn’t know nothing
about it you know but anyhow after we bought the place an dad went to make the
the payment why there was another payment due too and ol bishop Gardner never
told us there was a second mortgage on the place of course dad kindof, (mumble)
friend you know been with us for a couple of years why dad kinda took him as
his word I guess anyhow it made dad feel pretty bad to think that that man had
cheated him out of about 2500 or 5000 or 2500 dollars and you know in them days
that was quite a lot of money, but anyhow we was gonna make out alright still
on it and do pretty good then that spring, the next spring why, dad (Pulled?)
this colt of mine I started to ride him when he was still nursing his mother we
was down digging spuds that fall I was riding this colt scatterin sacks for the
spud pickers and everytime dad would stop the spud digger why this colt would
run for the digger so he could get something to eat from his mother she was
workin on the outside you know. And I would sit there while he was nursin his
mother and dad would start out again, why i’d go back to my work scatterin
sacks on my colt you know sometimes he’d be kindof onry and miserable and he’d
be goin someplace and lopin along pretty good and he’d decide to make a quick
turn of course I always (mumbles) sortof didn’t turn with him a lot of times. I
got kind of sick and tired of that but anyhow after dad passed away why we had
a, Mom went to Scotland and that’s when my education life really went to pot, I
Harold, he stayed with keith and Adeline and he finished school there the
eighth grade and I don’t know how come I I sure had a awful time with school
from then on I I started school in groveland and then went, mother went to
Scotland and that fall and so Reub and I went down and stayed with Venetta n
Jim and reuben worked in the potatoe warehouse of course it wasn’t very much
goin on but we made it alright an mother came home in march uh Uncle John’s
mother Aunt Annie came with her an they uh, mom had a little money saved up so
she made kindof a payment on a little home an uh out there in riverside the
house wasn’t worth a hoot but mom thought we could might remodel the house and
get by with it, but anyhow it was kindof a rock house an lumber house and one
thing an another an we just couldn’t do much with it a’tall you couldn’t do
much remodelin with that old rock part of the house we didn’t have money to
tear that down an start over so after we’d made the payment rented and stayed
there that summer I started school in groveland tehn I went to Aberdeen then I
come back and a couple (Tape errors) didin’t go to school, runnin around with
mother and aunt annie an then I started school in riverside and finished that
year there then the next fall I started in Riverside an mother says “well
there’s a lot of work up in rigby for uh the horses and we could go up there
and milk the cows this winter so we loaded everything on the hay rack we put
the little blue mares on the hay rack and up the highway we went. The guy
trucked the cows up we milked seven head of cows up there in the barn that
winter an got by real good. The next spring mother says: “why thiss no good up
here I don’t like it let’s, let’s go back to blackfoot.” So back to riverside
we come an we found a little place out there Wilson so there was another school
I had to change I only went to three
that year so you can see my schooling wasn’t very good. An uh I was at
riverside, or Wilson there for a couple of years I think I did finish I think I got one year
there at Wilson and then we left there and I had to go over to Groveland well
over in Groveland finished and then the next year why I Uh Well I didn’t quite get to finish in
Groveland though we moved to town and I had to ride my bike from town out to
Groveland to finish school. Well I made it just after the seventh grade so when
the eighth grade come along Why I stayed
in town and I got to finish that eighth grade of school first time I’d ever
finished a, had one complete year in one buil-in one school room an I made the
basketball team we had a lot of fun playin basketball that year and stuff like
that but uh Well I’ve gotta stop for a little while now. Bye
That is the end of this tape
