tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post3130368815510270738..comments2024-03-11T05:03:14.020-07:00Comments on Ernie's Place: Nona JamesErnie Branscombhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06391160783604462511noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-47113702887017911772019-06-23T21:48:21.362-07:002019-06-23T21:48:21.362-07:00I am a cousin of Nona's (Alice Maria Wood Reed...I am a cousin of Nona's (Alice Maria Wood Reed my great grandmother). My Aunt Adrienne Campbell was just speaking of her last weekend and how far she could spit. I met her while she was in Northbrook care facility. She couldn't speak well but I knew she was related. when I told her who I was she grabbed my hand and held to her cheek and cried. Then when I tried to feed her string beans I could hear the cussing and she spit them right out. Other CNAS were scared of her and you could hear her cuss them girls! Luckily I got to meet her daughters Bobby and Billy before they passed. My cousin Leslee Cann Luna was married to her Nephew Charlie Cann. So there the N9na references But sadly all those people I trusted the most are leaving this World . I miss all their stories and Thanks for printing this.Gary Smithnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-43865655001561674302017-01-10T22:29:24.993-08:002017-01-10T22:29:24.993-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Aimeenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-39224762341461072412011-03-27T21:09:04.978-07:002011-03-27T21:09:04.978-07:00Tom Murphy was married to my grandma grace simmerl...Tom Murphy was married to my grandma grace simmerly nye's cousin etta patton. tom was considered to be one of the finest hunters around in those days. especially bears. tom was friends with saxon pope who was ishi's doctor and the father of modern bowhunting. so i found my ishi connection. tom's wife was the daughter of milo and sarah patton. milo with his brother james ran a 5000 acre ranch for george white at alderpoint. frank asbill in last of the west said that the pattons were known for their horsemanship. of course, frank lived with them as a boy when he went to school. i found a picture of "kink" dick patton wearing his cowboy hat sidesaddle which may have been the style back in those days. kink was dragged to death by his horse.spyrockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03685726716755909658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-64863083655709295692011-03-27T21:01:23.878-07:002011-03-27T21:01:23.878-07:00This story was told by Tom Murphy to Dr. Saxton Po...This story was told by Tom Murphy to Dr. Saxton Pope and is related in his 1928 book, "Hunting with the Bow and Arrow." - Beverley Windbigler<br /><br />In the early days in Humboldt County, there lived an old settler named Pete Bluford, who was a squaw man. He shot a female grizzly with cubs within a quarter of a mile of what are now the town limits of Blocksburg. The beast charged and struck him to the ground. At the same time she ripped open the man's abdomen. Bluford dropped under a fallen tree, where the bear repeatedly assulted him, tearing at his body. By rolling back and forth as the grizzly leaped over the log to reach him from the other side, he escaped further injury. Worried by the hunter's dog, she finally ceased her efforts and wandered off. <br /><br />The man was able to reach home in spite of a large open wound in his abdomen with protruding intestines. This was roughly sewed together by his friend, Beany Powell. He recovered from the experience and lived many years with the Indians of that locality. As an example of Western humor, it is related that Beany Powell, when sewing up the wound with twine and a sack needle, found a large lump of fat protruding from the incision, of which he was unable to dispose; so he cut it off, tried out the grease in the frying-pan and used it to grease his boots. <br /><br />Old Bluford became a character in the country. He was, in fact, what is colloquially known as 'an old poison oaker.' This is an individual who sinks so low in the scale of civilization that he lives out in the backwoods or poison oak brush and becomes animal in type. His hair grew to his shoulders, his beard was unkempt, his finger-nails were as long as claws and filthy with dirt. Rags of unknown antiquity partially covered his limbs, vermin infested his body and he stayed with the most degraded remnants of the Indians. <br /><br />One cold winter they found him dead in his dilapidated cabin. He lay on the dirt floor, his ragged coat over his face, his hands beneath his head, and two house cats lay frozen, one beneath each arm. These old pioneers were strange people and died strange deaths.spyrockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03685726716755909658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-44143417439630532122011-03-26T19:51:03.202-07:002011-03-26T19:51:03.202-07:00i really like the fact that nona stood up for her ...i really like the fact that nona stood up for her friend maude and then told what really happened that frank asbill pushed her down the stairs and killed her and that frank asbill was a big ahole and a liar and that his book was full of bull. also, from a woman's point of view of the indian raids where the white men would kill all the indian men and come home with a young wife and all the half breed children their are up there. this makes more sense to me and one of the reasons i wound up here. i met an indian at cloverdale back in 1971 at the foster freeze. he came up to me like he knew me real well and asked me where i had been. he said he was being taken back to covelo. my cousins in ukiah, the four foord brothers look a lot like me. they were uncle guy's grandkids. uncle guy was married 3 times. i think all of them were school teachers. but i think uncle guy maybe had a few more kids in covelo that i'm related to. his son howard let an indian lady live on his land in spyrock back in the day. we were related to some dunlaps and a bunch of other people in covelo. joe never married, frederick had several boys, frank and fred knew bill rathjeans and played cards with him at his gas station. who knows how many indians i'm related to.spyrockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03685726716755909658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-4463490908934458252011-03-25T22:29:25.058-07:002011-03-25T22:29:25.058-07:00OMR
You are the only one that noticed. I was so im...OMR<br />You are the only one that noticed. I was so imgrossed in my trip down memory lane that I just assumed that she was repeating herself.Ernie Branscombhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06391160783604462511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-74028991549541003922011-03-25T16:36:51.747-07:002011-03-25T16:36:51.747-07:00I am so sorry for being a doofus again and duplica...I am so sorry for being a doofus again and duplicating a paragraph in Ernie's Nona post, from a different source. I just reread the orginal Nona interview post and went Doh! I need a spring break. <br /><br />Sorry.tired olmanrivernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-54085533731895063352011-03-24T21:25:26.252-07:002011-03-24T21:25:26.252-07:00Ernie,thanks for the memories. My mom used to get ...Ernie,thanks for the memories. My mom used to get her hair done by "Sammy"for quite a few years!<br />I also remember Emmit Harris,I think he used to stand out in front of the"store"???<br />I don't remember Nona,but I do remember Mrs. Hittlebittle,sorry if i didn't spell it correctly??<br />Those log trucks up on the Bell Springs Road,causing the dust, I think my dad had something to do with that! LOL!Ross Sherburnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-89129259024205989242011-03-23T14:52:43.716-07:002011-03-23T14:52:43.716-07:00“WWI: Well, we had a dance here after they come ho...<i>“WWI: Well, we had a dance here after they come home.”</i><br /><br />The place that they probably had their dance would have been in the Wool Growers Association warehouse, which was the warehouse to the old Peter Pan Market, which is the present home of Branscomb Refrigeration. Small world huh? <br /><br />A few years back, a dear friend of mine, Rae Mathews was in the beginning stages of dementia, but still quite competent, she came into my shop and looked around at the floor and the walls and the ceiling, and said: “you have no idea what memories this building brings back to me, I danced here more than you can ever know.” She is probably the last one to be alive at the time to have danced here. (My office is in the old produce walk-in of Peter pan and that is where I’m typing this comment.Ernie Branscombhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06391160783604462511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-23481897595897372812011-03-23T11:23:15.767-07:002011-03-23T11:23:15.767-07:00The post office that Nona referred to as “a little...The post office that Nona referred to as “<i>a little tar shack right where I think Wards is now. Or maybe Sears.”</i>. is the area just north of the Garberville theatre. The “Wards store” was run by Hardy and Theda Wallan. It was located where Treats Ice cream parlor is now. The “Sears Store” was owned by my wife Janis and I, and it was located where The Bootleg is now.Ernie Branscombhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06391160783604462511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-4223452879113502702011-03-23T09:36:46.663-07:002011-03-23T09:36:46.663-07:00“Sam Cush” that Nona talks about was really Sam Ma...“Sam Cush” that Nona talks about was really Sam MacCush. He was the local beauty shop operator. His beauty shop was in the Thorson’s Variety Store, on the mezzanine, in the north east corner of the building that is now Jacob Garber Square. Sam was very flamboyant and effusive, he was the quintessential Hollywood hairdresser. He had a wall sized picture window in the front of his shop, and when we were kids we would watch him prance around and fluff and pat the ladies hair. It was better than going to the movies. But, the ladies loved him and it was concidered to be a coup to be included in his group of customers.<br /><br />Sam was from a very old family in the Piercy area. His family was involved in some local skullduggery according to Nona.Ernie Branscombhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06391160783604462511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-76274189397874034522011-03-23T08:55:07.129-07:002011-03-23T08:55:07.129-07:00I have read this interview maybe ten times and I s...I have read this interview maybe ten times and I still get a chuckle out of it.<br />Ernie and I vetted the idea of using the interview online with three of Nona's relatives and got permission.<br />I believe their comment was that the stories here were kind of tame for Nona stories. <br /><br />Mary Anderson wrote an unpublished paper on the opening of 101 where she stated that "octogenerian Nona James claimed the right of first passage on the stretch of highway between the Bell Springs cutoff and Garberville. She and her husband, Harry James, had a ranch at Bell Springs and Nona had taken her new Dodge touring car on the Bell Springs Road to Ukiah to get supplies. On her way back to the ranch, she stopped to visit with the flagman stationed at the cutoff to direct the construction traffic and keep the public from venturing down the as yet uncompleted roadway." The flagman asked her if she would like to go home on the new highway and she took the challenge.<br />"'I made it,' she told me, with the matter of factness that's beyond pride. 'Course, I was younger then. Oh it was a rough road, I'll tell you. No pavement. In fact, it wasn't even gravelled yet. And you didn't meet anyone. No traffic. But it was still 26 miles to the home place after reaching Garberville and there wasn't no traffic there either. I met one car the whole way."<br /><br />The year would be around 1920, at a time when G'ville had maybe 300 people.olmanrivernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-5152744143319781862011-03-23T05:25:44.479-07:002011-03-23T05:25:44.479-07:00Nona had a 25-20 I wanted, it was a model 94 I thi...Nona had a 25-20 I wanted, it was a model 94 I think with a saddle ring on it to boot. She was asking $20 for it and I struggled for over a year to come up with the money, never did but I still to this day think about that rifle.<br />I talked with Nona often as maybe Ernie did and she, like many of the old timers always had me mesmerized with the stories that only the elders could tell.<br />I remember one time I stopped to visit and she was in an uproar. I shuda kept going. She had just got back from the ranch and she said the last time she was there she set several mouse traps and this last time up there the traps were still there but had a mouse in each one. She was so mad at those guys for not cleaning the traps and she told me all about it in her colorful language. <br /><br />OregonAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-52261939291718525332011-03-22T22:34:58.378-07:002011-03-22T22:34:58.378-07:00i really liked this story and i know she is tellin...i really liked this story and i know she is telling the truth. i like the part about her being friends with my relative maude and how she felt about frank asbill. i liked the part about people having to be mean to survive up there. i know that part well. she is a great character. thanks for sharing her story.spyrockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03685726716755909658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-17116847365366450342011-03-22T22:33:06.877-07:002011-03-22T22:33:06.877-07:00I loved the line "What you coloring up about...I loved the line "What you coloring up about? Got hippie blood in you?" What a corker!<br /><br />I loved hearing the old names roll off the page and into my ears---the the Azbills and the Woods, the Jewett's and the Johnsons.<br /><br />I've read some of this before but not the whole thing. Thank you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-54967345169367053242011-03-22T21:03:16.170-07:002011-03-22T21:03:16.170-07:00well, I hope that you read the whole thing. I know...well, I hope that you read the whole thing. I know it was long but I could write a paragraph about every sentence that Nona wrote. There is tons of history in that piece.<br /><br />I knew all of the places, and who all of the people were. I actually knew most of them personally.Ernie Branscombhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06391160783604462511noreply@blogger.com