Sheep Families to be inducted

Two sheep families have been selected to be inducted into the Arizona Farming and Ranching Hall of Fame for 2023. They are John and Frances Aleman and the Etchamendy Family – Arnaud, Jean, Jean Baptista (JB) and Martin. Both the Aleman’s and the Etchamendy’s are of Basque descent. John Aleman came from Spain while the four Etchamendy’s are of French descent. Just a little information is given here but more will follow with pictures.

John and Frances Aleman.

John Aleman came to the United States in March 1914 settling in the Winslow area. He was led here by a boyhood friend, Juan Bicondon, who had migrated a year earlier. Juan wrote to John, “a land full of golden opportunities, knee high grass where sheep and cattle grazed as far as the eye could see, and cowboys riding horseback with forty-fives on their hips and Winchesters on the saddle.” John wanted to see this land for himself. He began as a camp cook there before moving to Flagstaff where he went to work for MP Espil and MI Powers at Frisco Mountain Sheep Company. By 1926 with saving his money he partnered with Mike Echeverria in the Cross Mountain Sheep Company. He partnered with Joe and Leon Pouquette also before he started the John Aleman Sheep Company in 1952.

John married Frances Abbie Hendrix in 1936. The couple had met when she came to Arizona and was visting her father’s ranch near St. Johns. Frances became very active in promoting lamb and wool. Along with Ora Chipman, of Utah, they co-founded the Make It Yourself with Wool competition. That competition, now called Make It With Wool, is still strong in both Arizona and Utah and many other states. The competition will be held in November in Arizona. (Pictures to follow once the competition is over.) Winners from each state move on to the national competition held during the national conference of the American Sheep Industry, held in January.

Just one more note about Frances taken from the nomination form submitted by her daughter-in-law. “In 1968 the American Sheep Producers Council started the annual Aleman-Chipman Scholarship Award for the senior winner in honor of their contribution to introducing young people from across the country to the beauty of woolen garments.”

Etchamendy Family.

Arnaud was the first of the family members to migrate to the United States in 1930. He began to work as a sheepherder until he was able to purchase his own sheep company. Once he became an American citizen though he was drafted into the military during World War II which forced him to sell his beloved sheep. After his 27 months of service, he returned to Arizona and purchased more sheep. He brought over his nephew Jean in 1949.

Jean and his uncle worked together for many years. Then Jean partnered with a boyhood friend, Jean Arriage who had come over in 1957. That partnership only lasted a year and then Jean went out on his own. Upon Arnaud’s death, Jean helped his aunt, Ramona with the sheep until her passing in the 1970s.

JB was the next brother to migrate to the United States also in 1957. He began his sheep career in California but within a year he was in Arizona working along side his brother and their uncle. The youngest Etchamendy, Martin would come in 1961. JB and Martin worked many years together until Martin returned to France. Martin would return and begin to run sheep again, mostly in California where he still to this day has a flock of sheep. Martin is 83 years young and still visits his sheep everyday with the exception of vacations and when he is not the grand marshal of the Basque activities in his hometown of Bakersfield, California.

All four of the Etchamendy’s wives were active in the Arizona Wool Producers Auxiliary (its title today) promoting sheep and wool along with Frances Aleman. The men would serve on the various boards of the Arizona Wool Growers’ Association.

There is a great deal more about each of the four Etchamendy’s and John and Frances Aleman and the Make It With Wool competition that can be written about. Over the next several weeks more information will be given with pictures. Hopefully, I will be able to photograph the Make It With Wool, Arizona competition this November.

Baas and Bleats

Continuing from the article written in the Arizona Republic, December 27, 1925, that I posted on an earlier, we find information on angora goats in Arizona. The paper stated that they were “Closely allied with the sheep industry of the state is that of goat raising.” This statement can more fully be understood when the facts are presented.

From other newspaper articles and family stories, I know that goats have been in Arizona for about as long as sheep. Sheep were brought in with Coronado in the 1500s. I don’t know if he brought goats.

A few differences between the raising of sheep and angora goats, the predominate breed, were implicitly given. The principal counties for raising the woolies, i.e., sheep, such as Coconino, Yavapai, Navajo and Apache to name just four, goats were raised almost exclusively in Cochise, Graham, Yavapai, Pinal and Mohave. While sheep were raised for both meat and their wool, goats are raised principally for their mohair. The head count for sheep was approximately 580,000 without counting any owned by the Native Americans and goats totaled about 160,000. The total investment value for goats was close to $800,000 while sheep had a value of $10 million. Unfortunately, the article did not state the annual pounds of mohair produced by these goats.

Both sheep and goat raisers, almost 90 percent, are members of the Arizona Wool Growers association, a corporation. Its primary purpose was to protect and foster the wool and mohair industries within the state. The officers of the association and board of directors given for the end of 1925 appeared to be those only owning sheep. The newspaper named: “A. A. Johns, Prescott, president; C. E. Burton, Ash Fork, first vice president; E. H. Duffield, McNary, second vice president; Aubrey Gist, Skull Valley, third vice president; Louise A. Hodges, Phoenix, acting secretary and treasurer. The board of directors are Colin Campbell, Ash Fork, chairman; Lou Charlebois, Wickenburg; H. B. Embach, Flagstaff; T. J. Hudspeth, Seligman; T. E. Pollock, Flagstaff; E. A. Sawyer, Winslow, and Williams Wilkins, Prescott.”

As the sheep make their trek from their winter green pastures to their summer cool air retreat, the office of the association follows. In the winter the office is in Phoenix and the summer it will move to Flagstaff. During the month of January, the winter meeting of the association takes place in Phoenix and the summer meeting is held in Flagstaff. The movement of the meeting to the location of where the sheep and goat men are located makes sense so the majority of them may attend the meetings.

If anyone following this blog had relatives raising goats in Arizona, I sure would like to hear from you. I have some stories; I am always on the lookout for more. A future blog will be on goats! And that is today’s baas and bleats!

Colin Campbell, Part I

As I was reading the minutes of the Executive Board meeting for the Arizona Wool Growers Association for 1927, the death of Colin Campbell was referenced in glowing terms. He was a director of the board and his death resulted in a vacancy. Reviewing these documents help understand problems associated with the sheep industry in Arizona and the records give some details of members albeit through their deaths. It was not unusual to find a nice biographical sketch written by them or at least what had been stated in the obituary of a local newspaper.

The minutes for their October 15, 1927, special meeting read: “The Arizona Woolgrowers Association has sustained a great loss in the death of the Chairman of our Board of Directors, Colin Campbell, which occurred on October 2^nd, 1927. He was also member for Arizona on the Executive Committee of the National Woolgrowers Association.” The special meeting was called to replace him on the board of directors. While not germane, H. C. Caveness, general manager of the Grand Canyon Sheep Company, was nominated to fill the vacancy.

The Wool Growers continued their accolades:

“It is superfluous to state that the name of Colin Campbell was known in every wool growing (sic) section of the country. His name was heard around the campfires of the herders, at the meetings of woolgrowers, at the National Ram sale, and at all places where wool and sheep were discussed.

With a matured judgement on all things connected with sheep raising and the marketing of wool, with a keen understanding of its problems, with wide reading and a retentive memory, his opinions were eagerly sought and the course of action taken by him was generally followed.

He was a pioneer of pioneers in all matters relating to grazing and the preservation of our ranges, in the improvement of breeds and the production of high grade rams.

The esteem in which he was held was shown at his funeral in Flagstaff on October 4, 1927. All classes of the community were present and in fact it was a gathering of the people of Northern Arizona who met to give testimony to his wonderful acquaintance and his sterling worth.

The following editorial from the Prescott Journal Miner, October 4, 1927, is quoted, as representing the feeling of this Board of Directors:

‘Not only Yavapai county but the whole state will feel the loss of Colin Campbell, whom death claimed at Ash Fork, Sunday. Of all the livestock men of this southwest, he was the peer, a pioneer who dared in a country not yet settled, down to the present state of things.

Mr. Campbell was of a family who carved empires out of the wilderness, a sturdy stock that populated the far portions of the earth at times when life was not so easy as it is now. He was a brother of the redoubtable industrialist and political leader, Hon. Hugh Campbell, who for years led the sheep men of Arizona as President of their association and one of their outstanding members. Of no less worth has been the contribution of Colin Campbell to the work of making productive a land scarcely attractive to the farmer, the town builder or the miner.

We know of no man who could gather so many friends about him. He was one of Arizona’s finest.’”

Colin Campbell distinguished himself in the sheep industry in the short time he lived in the state (1890?-1927). Next blog will look at his life in more detail.

Sheep Mentions 1897

Just a few mentions of the sheep industry from the 1897 Holbrook Argus today.

The Holbrook Argus reported that “Navajo county offers excellent facilities for various kinds of manufactories, such as wool scouring plants, woolen mill, tannery and a beet sugar factory. The raw material can be produced in abundance at their doors; water- power for such plants is easily obtained with fuel in easy reach.” I know that a woolen mill was at Tuba City but that is Coconino County. Later in the paper, there is mention of “a wool scouring plant has been built at Concho, which has been operated with profit.” It would be interesting to know how many years it was in operation, those years and what happened to the plant in Concho? More research to do!

This edition of the paper has many unreadable portions and thus it is hard to write about all the sheep happenings. It mentions that in the Show Low area Henry (Huning) had a magnificent ranch and he managed an extensive sheep and cattle interest. I put Huning as Henry’s last name as it is only possible to read Hun. Bert Haskett’s “History of the Sheep Industry in Arizona” listed Henry Huning from Navajo County. Huning is listed several other places in newspapers so I am fairly certain that I have the correct last name. Heber was listed as a thrifty community with sheep men. Linden and Pinedale were reported as having excellent grazing in the surrounding timbered region where sheep flourished.

Two more towns were mentioned. Linden and Pinedale lie in a westerly direction from Show Low. In both of these places crops are raised without irrigation. Excellent grazing is afforded in the surrounding timbered region: stock and sheep flourish.

One of the four general merchandise companies in Holbrook was A. & B. Schuster. They were on the 1903 list of the Arizona Wool Growers’ running sheep in the St. Johns vicinity.

That concludes our look at 1897 for today. Next will be stories on James Scott, J.X. Woods, and Ben Schuster. But there will be more stories too.

Courtesy of the Navajo County Historical Society, Holbrook, Arizona

Where do I live?

In the June 11, 1920 Holbrook (Arizona) News an interesting article about H. H. Scorse appeared. As I was scanning the newspapers for 1920, I had noticed an ad that had appeared for several weeks for H. H. Scorse, but never gave it much thought. It does not say much as one can see.

I always look at the advertisements in the old newspapers because many times the store will be selling woolen products for both men and women. They also may sell wool, pelts, or fleeces. It does not mean that the owners of these stores are in the wool growers’ business, but they may have connections to those that do. Patterns for woolen outfits have been given which are always interesting to look at them. Once in a while, there would be an advertisement for selling of sheep. Pierre Aguirre, located in southern Arizona and written about previously, was a sheep man and he was selling fine thoroughbred bucks. The advertisement below was placed in the Tucson Citizen.

But, getting back to Scorse, not remembering his name as a member of the wool growers’ association, I did not assume that he was a sheep grower and did not pay much attention to his ad. I only went back and copied the ad after reading this about H. H. Scorse:

“H. H. Scorse, a sheep grower, went before the State tax commission to find out where he lived. It was a question whether he lived in Pinal or Navajo counties, inasmuch as his flocks (emphasized added) ranged in both counties. The question of residence arose when Scorse paid his taxes in Pinal county lasts year, remitting a portion to Navajo county. Navajo refused to accept the payment and the matter was carried to the tax commission. The commission decided Scorse shall pay his taxes in Navajo county. That county, however, will make proper distribution of taxes to other counties, according to an affidavit to be submitted by Scorse showing the time during which sheep ranged in other counties.”

Further research found that Hasket, in his “History of the Sheep Industry in Arizona” published in The Arizona Historical Review, 1936, lists Scorse as having sheep in the Navajo County between 1891 to 1906 period. At no time in my research have I found what was the name of his sheep outfit, the number of sheep he had or the trail he may have used to bring his sheep up to Navajo County. His name does appear as an attendee for the joint Cattle Growers’ Association and the Wool Growers’ Association that was held in July 1920 in Flagstaff. I will be writing more about this joint meeting as soon as I have put all the puzzle pieces together for the many complaints and resolutions that the two organizations agreed upon at the meeting.

I am finding that early sheep raisers also were involved in other businesses such as owning a store, banking, or were a local politician. Wool growers’ were involved in their communities as I stated when I wrote the family histories in Where Have All the Sheep Gone? Sheep Herders and Ranchers in Arizona-A Disappearing Industry.

One Hundred Years Ago

Just out of curiosity I decided to look at the sheep industry one hundred years ago, June 1920. There will be further articles I will write about, but I thought this was apropos for what is happening in the meat industry. It was astounding that what was happening in 1920 is still going on today. Looking at only the sheep industry the imports for July 1, 1919 to June 30, 1920 were as follows:

Wool 427,578,038 pounds

Mutton and lamb 16,358,299 pounds

Sheep (live) 199,549

(I will do a comparison of these numbers with July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020 statistics when they are available)

In looking further into the year, the July to Oct the imports were as follows:

Wool 44,435,248 pounds

Mutton and lamb 64,623,776 pounds

Sheep (live) 94,960

Lambs waiting for their mothers being sheared.

It did not get better for the sheep men in the next quarter of the year, 1920 as the above numbers revealed. Prices for wool averaged for the July 1, 1919 to June 30, 1920 about $0.48 per pound, with the highest price at $0.50 and the lowest at $0.44. A drop of six cents can be a lot of money to a wool grower. Using 100,000 pounds of wool for illustrative purposes: 100,000 pounds of wool at the 50 cents a pound price, $50,000 is made at the sale of the wool. But at $0.44 he loses $6,000. Some of the sheep men relied on the wool to pay their expenses for the year. Those expenses would include the herders pay and their room and board, grazing fees, other expenses for the outfit such as shearers and transportation of the wool to the purchaser and expenses for their own family, taxes, etc. At about 6 pounds per sheep that 100,000 pounds means the sheep grower had more than 16,000 sheep which only a few sheep men had that many sheep. Most flocks averaged about between 5,000 and 7,500 sheep from what can be garnished from the wool growers’ records.

It was also suggested by J. R. Howard, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, writing to the extension director of Arizona, “There is no reason to believe that the demoralized condition of the wool market is more than temporary, and we suggest that you immediately get this report to every county agent and county farm bureau and urge them to advise their members to avail themselves when necessary, of credit extended through the federal reserve bank agreement and to pool their wool and hold it until the market becomes stabilized.” Unfortunately, the price of wool dropped further in 1920, selling at $0.28 a pound in the third quarter and decreasing another two cents in the fourth quarter of 1920. Looking at the wool market today, sheep growers have no market for the wool and they must hold onto it, paying for storage and other costs. Some sheep owners could not sell their lambs for a decent price either this year. They could not afford to hold onto the lambs so had to take the reduced price.

How true it is that in an article written in February 1921, it stated, “It doesn’t require an expert to realize just how much the above free competitive imports (see list above of imports of wool, sheep, mutton and live animals) have discriminated against our farmers and stockmen, and their consequent losses thus occasioned.“ The article further stated that it was about time that the American farms and ranches products have priority so a living wage can be paid” and “we must so arrange our tariff schedules on such products and substitutes as will equalize our cost of production with that of foreign countries.” It seems we do not learn from the past. Tariffs were eliminated over one hundred years ago hurting the American farmer and rancher and it is still going on today. Farmers and ranchers are not paid fair wages for their products. The consumer of these products are paying more; the additional price paid goes to middle men and not the farmer or rancher.

A Thumb Nail Sketch

Browsing through old territorial newspaper one can find short little tidbits of information about people and an industry that help paint a picture. It’s what I call a “thumb nail sketch”. Searching keys words brings up other newsworthy articles about the topic being searched that may otherwise go unnoticed. There isn’t always a great deal of information found this way, but it may give the researcher new names to look for. Those names or stories can be crossed referenced in other newspapers of the time. Other archives may be searched leading to a more complete record of the industry.

Take for instance obituaries. The information in an obituary can give us a little information such as where and when the person was born, arrival in the country and/or into Arizona, their age at death, and their occupation. While that may not seem like a great deal of information what it does is add names to those who were participants in Arizona’s sheep industry which may not have been known before. It may add other areas of the state to the distribution of the sheep and how many sheep were in the state at a given time. From these obituaries there may be enough information to track them through Ancestry.com and learn more about the person. Here are just four obituaries found in the Arizona Wool Growers’ Association files:

Tom Jones, born in Wales came to the United States in 1908 and shortly after arriving in New York City made his way to Mesa. In his obituary in the Arizona Republic, May 9, 1967, it states that he was a retired sheep rancher. He died at the age of 82. A footnote to the obituary that was attached to a paper in a file of the Arizona Wool Growers Association, it noted, “Tom shipped wool through the Arizona Wool Growers Ass’n (Association) in 1951 and 1952, and thus held membership in the association. He was an “expert herdmen.”

Frank Ybanez was a Buckeye sheep company foreman who passed away May 12, 1967 at the age of 65 years. He was from France and was about to retire and return to his native country where he had a sister and two brothers. Frank was an early arrival to the state coming in 1920. It was stated in his obituary that he worked in the sheep industry in Arizona for over 40 years.

Frank Pina, 75, was in the sheep shearing business with his brother between 1926 and 1946. He died in Mesa Sunday, February 4, 1969. He was born in San Angelo, Texas in 1894 and arrived in the Mesa area in 1924.

In an obituary for Henry Albers from the Arizona Republic, Thursday, December 10, 1970 there is no mention of his involvement in the sheep industry. The obituary was attached on a piece of paper along with a typed footnote. It seems Mr. Albers had a small sheep outfit in 1907 when the then secretary of the Arizona Wool Growers Association arrived in Arizona. Albers range was between Government Hill and Sitgreaves Mountain, north west of Maine Station on the Santa Fe. It is believed that in 1908 he sold his outfit to Charlebois.

Tomorrow, I will share what I learned about the sheep industry in the southern part of our state from two different stories.