Ansel recalls fellow jockey Don Meade

In 1930 Ansel says he was racing at Brighouse Park, Vancouver, BC. when he broke his maiden (jockey wins his first approved race) on a horse called Salty, the next day Evan Neil broke his, and the third Don Meade broke his. Just kind of odd, Ansel said, that we all three of 'em got it one, two, three, just like that. In the picture above, Salty is being held by Harry Walters, the horse was owned by George Drumhiller, from Walla Walla, Wa. George was a wheat farmer, and Ansel remembers distinctly that George always kept a framed photostatic copy of a check for $1,000,000.00 on his office wall. One particularly good year, he had sold his wheat crop for the one million and he always wanted to remember that milestone.

A week later at Lansdowne Park, Ansel recalls, "I was on a three old, and it was a horse I had no control over, no rein on him. And Don was on one too that he didn’t have much control over. When we came around the first turn we got into each other. I shut him off, and he came around on the outside and passed me and shut me off, and we bumped, he knocked me. Neither of us had any control, the colts we were riding and sure didn’t have much rein on them."

When we got back into the jocks room, we started a fighting and cussing with each other, but each of us, we only weighed 70 lbs dripping wet, so it was pretty easy for the valets to separate us… and they said when they did, “oh if you keep that up in here, you’ll just get fined. So we knocked it off, and we agreed to fight the next day.

So the next day out behind the shed row we met… and I came face to face with him, oh about 5-6’ apart, and I was ready to fight and building to swing, and Don kicked the dirt and said, Oh heck, let’s just go get some breakfast. And that was that, we never did fight.

Don Meade won the Kentucky Derby in 1933 on Broker’s Tip. At the Derby he and Harry Fisher got into it, and I had heard that they went out and fought each other the next day… I never heard how it came out, so one time I asked Don about it, and he smirked and said “well Harry Fisher was in the habit of finishing 2nd”.

Don Meade was a real hot head, later he got ruled off for life , but somehow he managed to get himself reinstated and… so he went to down to Mexico City and rode for my Dad, E.M. Marshall who was training down there. He was doing real well down there and then one day the judge called him in and sat him down, and the judge was telling him about all the things he’d done wrong all his life and how unruly a fellow he was… and Don said "Hipodromo de las Americas didn’t need him and he didn’t need Hipodromo de las Americas, and you can take it and shove it up your arse".

Last I heard of him, Ansel said, he owned a bar and restaurant in Ventura CA.

Another account of that Kentucky Derby finish, taken from “At Churchill Downs, May 15, 1933
Odds on Broker's Tip were 9 to 1. The favorite was William R. Coe's Ladysman. son of Pompey who was beaten by Col. Bradley's Bubbling Over in the Derby of 1926.

At the post last week, Head Play with Jockey Harry Fisher up was nervous. The starter tried to quiet him. then moved him to the outside, which meant an extra 30 ft. to run. It seemed to make very little difference. Fisher got his horse away fast, crossed over to the inside and took the lead going round the first turn. At the half mile, he broke away from the field to a lead of more than a length. Ladysman tried to keep up but could not. Charley O held on going to the second turn but could not overtake the leader. It was then that the crowd of 40,000 saw the shaping of the most exciting Kentucky Derby finish that anyone could remember. A dark brown horse with a jockey in white silk with green hoops had cut in ahead of the field as they turned into the stretch and was gaining on Charley 0 and Head Play. The dark brown horse was Broker's Tip.

Broker's Tip's jockey was Don Meade of California. With spur and whip, he got his horse up to Charley 0 and passed him, went for a narrow opening between Head Play and the rail. For a few moments in the last furlong of the mile and a quarter distance the crowd saw the two of them locked together at close quarters, their jockeys' boots rubbing. As they reached the finish still jammed together at the rail, in the immense uproar of a crowd that wanted the Bradley horse to win, Broker's Tip got the soft part of his nose out in front.


Two strides past the finish. Jockey Fisher stopped whipping his horse and reached over to slash at Jockey Meade. He dismounted, ran up to the judges' stand to protest that Meade had fouled him by holding his saddle cloth before the finish. For a moment everyone in the grandstand could see Fisher, a tiny, wildly excited figure in bright orange silks, waving both arms. The judges—aware that both jockeys had ridden roughly—turned their backs. Jockey Fisher sat down, buried his face in his hands. (Both he and Meade were later suspended.) On the score board, the word "official" appeared beside the results: 1st Broker's Tip. 2nd Head Play. 3rd Charley O. Ladysman was fourth, a length ahead of his stablemate Pomponius. Broker's Tip's time—2:06 4/5—was fair for a muddy track.

And in another account: I read - it said that in the last stretch Don Meade had thrown his reins down and the jockeys were pushing and pulling on each other, and that Broker’s Tip won by the flare of her nose because of the free reins.

A visit to Burns w/Don Slone and Carol Temple

Last week we took a couple of days and went over to Burns. Was nice to not be in a rush and have time to wander around. We stayed with Will and Toni. Their place out is near the fair grounds.

A while back on another trip to Burns, I had taken Ansel to the Harney County Museum to poke around and he showed me the custom made "Centennial Saddle" displayed there, It was made in honor of the 100th birthday of Harney County. Ansel was the 1989 Grand Marshall of the Harney County Fair that year, and he used the special saddle for all of the fair events that he rode in. When I saw the saddle sitting there by it's self, I decided it would be neat if there was a framed photo of Ansel riding the saddle to go with the display in the museum. So one of my "to do's" while we were in Burns this trip, was to go by Ruthie's Jewelry (Ruthie Miller is the unofficial official Harney County photographer) and see if she could go back to her archives of 1989 and come up with a picture that would work for my idear.

Her advice was to go to the Fair Grounds and see which picture of Ansel was on display and get the id number off of the back of it, and that would make her digging through files a lot easier.

So out to the Fairgrounds we went. We found Donnie Slone, long time Fair Manager in the rodeo office and he was thrilled to see Ansel and visit with him. Ansel had been involved with the race meets at the Fair for most of the 48 years they lived in Harney County. He served as Fair Board President back in the 60's, and was the Race Meet Director for 20 years. Don was eager to tell him about the improvements that had been made, a new Vet Barn and two new horse barns.

Then he let us into the Exhibit building so that we could find the photo of Ansel when he was Grand Marshall. Don told us that he remembered when Ansel served as Grand Marshall that Ansel told everyone "I've been just a Marshall all my life... but this if the first time I've been known as a Grand Marshall !"

Don and Ansel check out the "Who's Who Wall" of past Grand Marshalls of the Harney County Fair. That looks like Conly Marshall (no relation) of Drewsey in the center in the white shirt and bolo tie.

HC Fair Court Pictures: Don is showing Ansel the 1951 Fair Court picture of Hilda (Wilkes) Sahlberg (Martina's sister) That was the biggest fair court, they had a queen and four princesses that year. He remembers that the Carlon girls, Betty and Doris were on the court. He thought he remembered that Doris was the Queen. (I didn't look at the picture, when I was there, he was recollecting in the car later) Ansel told us that, Hilda was mounted on their favorite thoroughbred stallion Baggage Chex. I wonder how many fair court gals have been mounted on a stallion? In the picture directly to the right of that one, is Queen Nita (Wilkes) Russell with her 1959 HC Fair Court. (Granita is Martina's niece, her father Sonny, was Martina's brother) Ansel and Martina chaperoned both Hilda and Nita's fair courts. Ansel was telling us of their outfitting Nita to ride in the Rose Parade in Portland, OR on a beautiful palomino complete with a black silver studded saddle, with matching headstall and breast collar. He recalled he and Martina buying her a special $150.00 fringed white western show suit to wear especially for the Rose Parade. I think I have picture of it that I'll find and scan in. Ansel said she was stunning with her long red hair and get up on that handsomely appointed palomino.



Catching up with old friends:


Carol (Otley) Temple is a "life long" friend of Ansel and Martina. The Marshall's purchased the first acreage of their Lawen ranch property in 1946. It was a couple of miles south and a little east of the Lawen store and the south fence line of the Marshall property was shared with the Homer Otley family. Ansel has wanted to catch up to Carol for the last few times we've been in Burns, but she was out of town, until this trip it worked out. So Carol treated us to a nice ranch breakfast, with the most delicious date muffins I've ever tasted.

Carol and Ansel July 18, 2008

Carol and Ansel reminisce while looking at the watercolor painting of the Otley Ranch

Otley Ranch at Lawen, Oregon original watercolor by Frank Tuning

Ansel pointed to the fence line in the left corner of the picture and told us that that was the boundary fence between the Marshalls and the Otleys. He got teary eyed remembering Carol's dad Homer and what a great neighbor he had been. He said the winds could be down right vicious out there on the flat north of the lake. Their 160 acres which was a long skinny parcel was mostly meadow hay, the homestead was on the north fenceline.(so there was almost a 1/2 mile between the houses) The second year they owned it, he had cut all the meadow hay and worked very hard to rake it into windrows for baling the next morning. Late in the evening a fierce wind storm came up and blew like crazy. When the dust settled, the windrowed hay was a horrible mess, and you couldn't tell that it had ever been raked. Ansel was just sick and didn't know how he'd clean it up and get it baled. A crew of neighbors headed up by Carol's dad showed up unannounced with several rakes and made short order of re-windrowing the hay for Ansel to start baling. Ansel was very choked up thinking about how honored he was to be surrounded by such caring neighbors.

Carol noted that the artist added the two trees in the foreground, they really didn't exist. Carol said that Ansel and Martina had the only tree in sight on their property to the north. She said her mother, Hazel tried and tried to get trees to grow out there, but was never successful.

Sadly this Harney County homestead, along with Ansel and Martina's to the north, were casualties of the Malheur Lake flooding of 1985-86.

Two years ago Ansel and I took a ride out to Lawen to look at the property he and Martina had first purchased when they moved to Harney County in 1946. The well casings were there, and there was some cement debris where there had once been a shop building. Other than that, there was no sign there had ever been a ranch headquarters there.

2006 - Ansel on the Marshall Lawen property in front of the skelton of the tree that Carol referred to.

NOTE: We definitely need to write more about the Marshall homestead at Lawen in more depth at another time. I understand that they lived there from 1946 to 1965 with out electricity or running water. They had kerosene lamps, a pitcher pump in the kitchen sink and an outhouse.

New Website for Porter A Willis

It was so theraputic for my soul to write down my memories and thoughts of Big Port, I had so much fun working on it in this blog... that I figured it would be more fun if everyone could add their memories and pictures too !

So I created another blog, dedicated to Porter and family. CHECK IT OUT !!! and send the family(on the blog) your most memorable stories and pictures of and about that infamous Big Port.

http://porterawillispw.blogspot.com/


Hugs and blessings to ALL of Porter's family... there will far fewer laughs around the campfire without Port to tell his stories in person ! So maybe we can preserve a few of them this way.

Farewell Big Port... we'll miss you

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Timmy and Big Port, 1983 Washoe - Payette, ID
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Reunited again July 3, 2008, "in Heaven"

Timothy R Smith 8-2-75 / 8-31-01 ~ Porter A Willis 2-26-23 / 7-3-08

Porter A. Willis, Sr. aka Big Port, Port Sr, Port, Porter passed away yesterday, July 3rd after a valiant 5-6 week fight to recover from a quadruple bypass heart surgery and complications. He was a dear friend and mentor, and the only grandfather my sons, Tim and Eric "really knew". He is the one person in my life most responsible for my foundation in cowhorse - cowboy - cow knowledge.

Seeing this pic of Tim and Big Port after I uploaded it was kind of surreal...

Here I was - happy go lucky sorting through pics of Big Port that were already in digital format on my computer, putting them in folder, uploading them... and then started to write my thoughts. I had just written the title Farewell Big Port and then scrolled down to the first picture... which was the pic of Tim, Big Port and the tractor and I had the realization and visualization for the first time that for Tim, it wasn't Farewell, but "Hello Big Port" and of him greeting Big Port in Heaven...

Branding at Garden Valley, ID

Big Port is roping on Eldebeast, who ended up being sold in Germany.

Tim is carrying the bucket to collect the Rocky Mountain Oysters.

Big Port at Willow Springs, making sure the four wheeler doesn't get away...

Shipping day at the Buckeye Ranch, Tracy, CA

Port and Averyel weigh and tally the steers across the scales.

.The Willis' took me in back in 1980 when Port and Averyel were living on the Oregon Slope and running cattle on the Washoe and son Porter Lynn and Larryann were ranching at Vale, OR... I have been an extended part of their family ever since. In recent years Porter Lynn and wife LarryAnn have been managing the Buckeye Ranch, I'm thinking 10 or 12 years. Big Port and Averyel have their own place there on the Buckeye too. In 1999, I began a tradition of going down to the Buckeye for the Memorial Day weekend to help Port and Larryann, who manage it, gather the yearlings for shipping. Most years my best friends Cindy Jones and Laurie Kemp who both used to live in Burns, OR go down with me. They both had moved away from Burns, Cindi to Portland, and Laurie to LaGrande, (opposite sides of the State) so the trip become our working mini vacation to get together and see each other. As well as spend time with Big Port and Averyel and Port and Larryann. Our Memorial Day visits are always memorable.

Waiting on the trucks to ship the Buckeye cattle.

Laurie, Cindi, (my girlfriends from Oregon) Greg Kent (ranch owner) and Big Port

Big Port and I at Kelly Flat Trap

It's about half way between Willow Springs (the gathering spot for the upper fields) and the shipping corrals at the Headquarters where Porter and Larryann and Big Port and Averyel live. There's a spring fed trough for the cattle to water at and we, (specially the ones of us who have other day jobs) enjoy using the rest stop to air our horses backs ;o)

Goodbye pictures at the end of another fun Memorial Day weekend Buckeye gather.

Me (Cyndy), Big Port, and Laurie Kemp - May 2006

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The Porter A. Willis Family 2006

Celebrating Porter and Averyel's 60th Wedding Anniversary

Rob, Alan, Dean, Averyel, Porter, Marilee, and Porter Lynn

Port and Averyel, my living room Burns, Oregon

I think this was when they came to look after me, after my neck surgery... Porter and I enjoyed watching a lot MBL baseball that trip. Over the years he always teased me about my Red Sox and he pretended to be a Yankee fan to get my goat. In 2004, during the AL East Pennant race, the Sox were getting pummeled by the Yanks, the series was 3-0 Yanks and the Yanks were in the process of winning game 4 and Big Port called me during the game... He mentioned the game in progress, and I announced vehemently, We will NOT talk baseball !!! He obliged, and we chatted about other things. After we hung up history was about to be made... Game 4, the Sox were down by one run in the 9th inning, tied it and went 12 innings until Red Sox slugger Big Papi (David Ortiz) hit a 2 run walk off home run ... the Sox truely "Cowboyed Up" and won the last four games to beat the Yankees and win the ALCS Pennant. They went on to sweep/beat St. Louis in the World Series and win their first Championship in 86 years. After the last pitch of the 2004 World Series winning game... (I had watched at home alone, too pessimistic to believe they would actually win) I was sobbing in unbelief watching the celebration on the field... thinking about all the die hard Sox fans who had died, and had not been able to see them win a World Series... particularly my mother who slept with a transistor radio under her pillow listening to all the games. Big Port waited 15 minutes after the last pitch... and then telephoned me and his opening words were " "well Cyndy girl, can we talk baseball now ? Of course we couldn't because I was sobbing again. ;o)

The rest of the Cyndy and Willis Family story:

read From Cape Cod girl to Eastern Oregon Woman - on the Porter A Willis blog.

I originally wrote about my memorable journey from Cape Cod beaches to Eastern Oregon rancher here. It told how I went from being raised on Cape Cod to becoming a capable rancher in Eastern Oregon via meeting, living with and being trained by the Willis family.

After a bit of writing, it occured to me that the story really belonged in the Porter Willis blog, and it made sense for me to move it all over to that one. So if you are interested to read about my (cyndy marshall) evolution from Cape Cod beach girl to Eastern OR cowboy click on this link:

http://porterawillispw.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-willis-met-cyndy-tim-eric.html

Getting Ansel back out to the Barn

You might have noticed in the last few pictures, that posing with Ansel are a pair of crutches. About a week ago, he woke up with some equilibrium issues, and some pain in his right hip. He swears that he didn't fall and that it is an old injury that is flaring up.

He asked me to find the crutches right away and he started using them around the house. Then he asked me to feed for him. He wouldn't leave the house, except to get in the car. He had me do all the feeding for him and said he couldn't. For the first couple of days that was ok, I didn't mind, but then I knew it wasn't going to be good a sign, if he didn't get back out there, so this post is about my crusade to get him back to the barn and talking to and patting his horses again.

We go to Dr. McCleery for sort of a "well check" once a month, and he is noticing a definite decline in Ansel's mobility in the last year. (Ansel has been going to him for 20 years) Those of you who know our situation, I have done many things around the place to make it easier and safer for him to get around. The golf cart and the drive through gates to name a few. Any way Dr.'s biggest advice was to emphasise getting into "Fall Prevention Mode". Which actually I have been being thoughtful about since we got married.

I firmly believe that the fact that he keeps going and keeps feeding the horses every day is the reason he is so healthy at one month shy of 94 years old. The only prescription he has is eye drops for the glaucoma. Anyway, last week when he didn't want to feed or go see the horses, I got really worried. So I started trying to figure out what we needed to do, to make it safer for him in the barn, so that he would feel comfortable out there. In my mind it was imperative to get him back out there as soon as possible.

Two of the horses, Misty and the filly are in or at the wooden barn, he feeds them in their stalls from the inside of the barn. The walkway which was a dirt floor with misc boards put down for no rhyme or reason was covered with 18" to 2' of hay and that was very hard for him to navigate. So I felt like that was the biggest obstacle to his feeding and I came up with the idea to build a solid smooth wood floor with some hand rails, thinking that at a minimum he could at least still feed them their grain. So I called Paul and he came over and figured out how we could build the floor mostly from materials from around the place. When I told Ansel what we were going to do, he said it had to be HORSE SOLID, meaning that it had to be built strong enough to hold an errant horse that might wander into that area of the barn even though they weren't supposed to.

The alley way floor now has a 4x4 and 2x6 frame with 18" runners, topped with double sheets of 1/2" plywood. Interestingly enough... the plywood has a story. It used to be the roof of the sawmill building at Edward Hines Logging in Hines, Oregon. Ansel bought several bundles of it as well as other misc used lumber when they tore down and salvaged the building. He tried to remember for me what year that he bought it, but he couldn't remember... The banded bundles of used lumber sat at their place in Burns for years and when they finally sold the home place in 1994 and moved everything to Bend, Ansel wanted that salvage lumber too. As a matter of fact, Ansel borrowed Will Brown's antique 1948 or 49 Chev 2 ton green antique truck to haul it from Burns to Bend... Will remembers warning Ansel that it was too big a load for the truck, and he should off load some of it... but Ansel said awe it'll make 'er and set out for Bend. Well he never made it, the truck broke down somewhere between Hampton and Millican in the heat of summer with that big load of lumber...

Anyway back to the barn floor; so this pile of used plywood has been in the Bend wooden barn since 1994, we guess that the sawmill building was torn down in late 70's or early 80's. The sawmill itself was built in 1930. So what we do know is that it's very old, technically antique... but still usable and did the job quite well by doubling it. The best part was that it gave Ansel a great sense of accomplishment, that we used the old plywood instead of buying new.

Interesting photo I found on the internet of Edward Hines Lumber Mill which was built in 1930. The photo is courtesy of the Harney Co Historical Society and Martin Morisette. The sawmill that the plywood came from is the building to the right of the wigwam burner and left of the iconic smokestack. (still standing all by itself as a monument of an era gone by)

I tripped across this really cool website called High Desert Rails, it had a section named Oregon & Northwestern Railroad, Edward Hines Lumber Company. It has some excellent history of the logging industry in Harney County. http://www.trainweb.org/highdesertrails/onw.html

OK back to the barn floor project... so Paul and Robert Hirsch built the floor for me. Who's Robert?Robert was raised in Burns, and spent most of his working career in the woods logging in one form or the other. He said he remembered his grandfather telling him that he built the Edward Hines Sawmill building. Robert's mom Sharon is married to Bill Williams. Bill was a cousin to Martina and his family grew up in the Lone Pine area near the Wilkes too.

OK... back to the floor... here are some pictures of the before and after...

I really should have taken a picture with the 18" of hay floor before we started.

Paul on the left, Robert on the right...

Almost done... still a few more things like a railing down the alley way, and one to double as a saddle rack and keep him from falling off the raised floor. I put an electric fence gate across the doorway for him to use to prevent the outside horses from going in the barn while the doors open and he's feeding.

Ansel was very pleased with our improvements... and has been going out to do the feeding again... I set the flakes of hay in front of the horses for him every morning and every night so he doesn't have to try and walk with it and that seems to work good for him. You can see I've moved the grain barrels where he has easy access to feed from, and he can walk down to the filly's stall holding on to the railings.

The finishing touch. Often the door often gets caught by the wind, and I came up with an idea to thwart that possibility. This piece of one inch pipe is attached by a ring to door, when it's dropped to the ground will jill-poke and not let the door come forward, it can be pushed back as far as he wants. Then in the up position, it is cradled by the upper bracket. Much more reliable than the shovel or ax that has traditionally been employed for holding the door open.

He's getting along very well with the improvements. He drives the cart from the front door of the house through the drive through gates, out to the barn, then parks next to the barn, and uses the wall to get to the door, and then uses the hand rails and walls to feed. He was very very complimentary of the door poke.