Joseph Pouquette

A favorite saying of Joseph Pouquette was “Eat lamb-wear wool.”  It is more than a saying as it was a way of life for the Pouquettes.  Joseph was born January 6, 1888, to French parents in Ventura, California where his dad, Pierre, was in the sheep business in the 1880s. Shortly after his birth, the family returned to their home country of France.  When they did return to the United States, they took up the sheep business in the Ash Fork area.  Joseph married Marguerite Bordenave in 1915 and the couple moved to California for a year.  Within a year, he was back in Arizona where he purchased 3,000 sheep.  During 1918 and 1919 he served in the army during the first World War.

In 1920, he moved his family and sheep to the Williams area setting up his summer home and sheep camp.  He would trail his sheep between Williams and Wickenburg, his winter range.  The family would travel by train with “chickens, wood stove and everything” that would be needed for the summer months in the Williams area.  He had two sons who also went into the sheep business with him, Pierre and Albert.  His grandsons also ran sheep.

Three generations of Pouquettes were proud sheep men in Arizona.

There are other Pouquettes that will be written about in the next couple of weeks such as Albert Pouquette and his sons who were sheep men in the Williams area and Simon Pouquette, who was born in France in 1890, but was naturalized in 1910, is still being researched and his connection to the sheep industry.