HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT
Vol. 18 No. 6 June 2003
NO MEETINGS IN JUNE, JULY , AUGUST
At the last board meeting of the Historical Society, it was decided not to have a general meeting with speaker in June. In conformance with our bylaws, we do not have general meetings in July or August. Therefore, out next regular general meeting will be on Tuesday evening, September 16. The next newsletter will be the September issue. Have a great summer!
ANNUAL MEETING
Our annual meeting on May 13 was a great success. We had about 80 people there. The food was good and we had a great speaker! Dr. Remi Nadeau IV spoke drawing on material from his latest book, The Silver Seekers. Elected to the board were Jerry Mumford and Bill Nevins. Based on our first board meeting with them since the annual meeting, they are excellent additions to the board. Immediately after the annual meeting, a brief organizational meeting of the new board was held. Elected as president was Bruce Wertenberger; vice president, Kathy Armstrong; treasurer, Fred Weals and secretary, Marcia Nevins
NEW LIFE MEMBER
At our 2003 annual meeting, immediate past president (9 terms) Lou Pracchia was awarded a life membership in the Historical Society for his many contributions throughout the years. Lou is a charter board member, having served continuously on the board since the Society’s formation in March 1985.
NEW MEMBER
Welcome to our latest new member, Lydia Hill, who lives in Canada. She had an interest in Brown, California; Lou Pracchia and she corresponded by e-mail and a membership ensued. She is our first international member!
IN MEMORIAM
It is with regret that we note the passing of Charles “Chuck” Nilsen, a long-time member of the Historical Society. Our condolences to his family.
WACOM GRANT RECEIVED
The Historical Society was one of a number of recipients at a recent special meeting of the WACOM (Women’s Auxiliary of the Commissioned Officers’ Mess). Proceeds of the sale of merchandise in their Thrift Shop create the funding for these grants. The Historical Society is grateful for this support of the Historical Society.
PRESIDENT’S COMMENTS
At the annual meeting, while I thanked George Silberberg and Fred Kletka, outgoing board members, for their contributions as board members, I forgot to mention and thank past board member, Liz Babcock, for her continuing contributions in creating exhibits for the Historical Society. I also forgot to mention and thank Pat Silberberg, wife of immediate past board member, George Silberberg, for the cards she sent to ailing Society members or to the families of deceased Society members. Thanks again to both Liz and Pat.
Bruce Wertenberger
KOREAN WAR EXHIBIT
If you have not already seen it, your attention is drawn to the recently installed Historical Society exhibit in the vestibule of the Maturango Museum. The exhibit is in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Korean War. One side of the exhibit shows pictures and text about the war itself, the other side details the role of the Navy at China Lake in developing or modifying weapons for use in that war. Artifacts are also on display. The exhibit was created by Liz Babcock. The exhibit will be up until some time this fall, then it will be replaced by an exhibit featuring old hand tools.
BUSINESS MEMBERS
Please patronize the Indian Wells Valley Insurance Co., The Swap Sheet, Ridgecrest Moving and Storage, Inc., Granite Construction – Sand and Gravel and Farris’ The Diner and Italian Gardens.
MEMBER SURVEY
We need to update our information on what volunteer activities our members are willing and able to contribute to the Historical Society. In a fall issue of this newsletter, we plan to include a questionnaire to help us gather this information. Thank you in advance for participating in this information gathering.
A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY
A bit of input from Lou Pracchia.
The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500's:
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and, still smelled pretty good by June. However; they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women, and finally the children...(babies last of all) -By then, the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it; hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water".
Houses had thatched roofs; thick straw piled high with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all, the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice and bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying, "it's raining cats and dogs." There was nothing to stop things from failing into the house. This really messed up your nice clean bed. A bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt; hence the saying, "dirt poor."
The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. This became a "threshold".
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight, and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite awhile. Heard the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot, nine days old"?
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that, a man "could bring home the bacon."
They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead Poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf; the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust".
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Thus began the custom of holding a "wake."
England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of twenty-five coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night, (the "graveyard shift"), to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer".
Now who said that history was boring!
HISTORICAL ARTICLE
MILLSPAUGH
(Following is the second and final installment of an article prepared by John DiPol after researching his library of books about the area. The first installment told of the founding of the camp, as part of a family-owned , not stockholder-owned, business and of the quality construction that went into the buildings, etc. ED)
In early 1900 crews of men were hired to fill, grade and level building sites. Tents with floors and called up sides were put up while the permanent boarding house, residences, offices, etc. were being constructed, all with lathe and plaster, siding, flooring and corrugated iron roofs. Additional family members arrived, such as Grandpa Millspaugh, who came in from Michigan to do the mason work. Employees were hired: Miss Brice as the cook and her brother, Frank, as teamster. Several miners were hired on a permanent basis to work the mines, principally the “Yellow Metal” claim. Wells were dug to provide an excellent supply of water/ A two-stamp mill was installed, powered by a Fairbanks-Morse steam engine, to crush and mill the gold ore in classical fashion. Freight teams hauled material and equipment in from Mojave via Mountain Springs Canyon and Junction Flats. This was augmented by freighting from the terminus of the Randsburg Railroad in Johannesburg.
Old photographs which have survived show a camp perfect in layout, orderly, clean, well managed. By 1901 it was in full operation. A stage line, operated by Charles Anthony ran a regular schedule between Darwin and Ballarat, carrying passengers and mail. Normal operation of the mines and camp continued until the spring of 1902. A fire broke out in the mill building. Due to the smoke and flames, the water hose and pumps inside could not be reached and the building was a total loss. Work commenced to clean up the debris. Although the concentrating table burned and the collection plates had to be replaced, the mill and other machinery were undamaged. Engines, pumps, etc. were taken apart, cleaned and reassembled. Lumber and corrugated iron were brought in and rebuilding began at once, including the addition of a new cyanide plant. By summer the first mill run was made. In 1904 and 1905 additional tunneling and deeper shafts in the Yellow Metal mine exposed more ore. In the following years, the camp had its ups and down. The ore bodies were pinching out. An effort was made on a prospect a mile away, but to no avail. The work continued on and off until 1910. By that time many of the staff and camp residents had moved away. In September 1909 a cloudburst wiped out the road down Shepherd Canyon, cutting off any means to reach Ballarat. the mail service was from Ballarat. The mail contract was to terminate on July 1, 1910. In order to keep the mail service going for the remaining months, arrangements were made to pick up mail at the town of Brown (in the Indian Wells Valley) which had been newly established with the arrival of the railroad from Mojave. Young Elizabeth Mecham, now 18 years of age, volunteered to be the courier, making the 90 mile round trip by horseback. She made three round trips per week. The book SAGA OF INYO COUNTY shows a photograph of a pert Elizabeth astride here handsome, clean-limbed filly “Chevette,” ready to start her last trip.
The few remaining residents continued the yearly assessment work on the claims until 1914. At that time all the buildings and much of the equipment were sold to Summers and Butler who had recently purchased the freight station and cow camp at Junction Flat. Many of the buildings were moved from Millspaugh and hauled to Junction and to other line camps.
The conclusion of the Millspaugh Camp story is best described by Elizabeth Mecham in her unpublished manuscript written in 1963:
“And so ended the finest and most beautiful camp and home one could desire in a wonderful country. Before World War II, the scrap-iron scavengers descended upon our desert country and hit the jack-pot at the camp. Engines, pumps, smokestack, every piece of iron, even to old horse shoes was hauled away, but none of them could get the boiler out of the mason work after repeated efforts and now that is all that is left of the beginning and the ending. Now the Navy has my beloved home in it Range. More cloudbursts have roared down the canyon, through camp, taking out Shepherd’s Canyon road and it became impassable. but the stone walls still on the grade coming into camp. the memories flood over me of those happy years and of the ones who helped build and who lived there; all gone now except this writer and maybe it is later than she thinks!”
(Sources: MILLSPAUGH–THE BEGINNING AND THE END, Elizabeth Mecham (unpublished manuscript); BALLARAT, Hubbard, Bray, Pipkin: SAGA OF INYO COUNTY, Southern Inyo American Association of Retired Persons, Chapter 183; MOJAVE DESERT RAMBLINGS, S. Lofinck; SILVER SEEKERS, R. Nadeau IV; THE BEST OF THE ALBUM, J. Fisher)
John DiPol
DIRECTORS
Bruce Wertenberger, President, Jerry Mumford, .
375-2369 e-mail: brucew@ridgenet.net 375-5876, e-mail j.mumford@mchsi.com
Kathy Armstrong, Vice pres., Dir. Oral Hist Ron Hise, Exhibits, 375-1967
375-2643 e-mail: ronald_hise@ridgenet.net
Marcia Nevins, Secretary, William Nevins
375-3356 e-mail: keln@mchsi.com 375-3356 e-mail: keln@mchsi.com
Fred Weals, Treasurer, Co-Director for Mbrshp. Lou Pracchia, Dir. for Collections
375-5249 e-mail: weals@mchsi.com 375-7385,
Andrew Sound, Dir. for Public Relations
371-1795, e-mail: asound@ridgenet.net
Bruce Wertenberger (375-2369)
Bulletin Editor e-mail: brucew@ridgenet.net
HSUMD Web site: http://www.Maturango.org/Hist.html
Janet Westbrook, Webmistress
HSUMD PHONE NO. (760) 375-8456
E-MAIL ADDRESS: hsumd@ridgenet.net
Annual dues are $15.00 per family for the calendar year.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE
UPPER MOJAVE DESERT
P.O. Box 2001
Ridgecrest, CA 93556
FIRST CLASS
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
NO MEETINGS UNTIL SEPTEMBER 16, 2003
HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!