14 March 1952 By Jay Price Riders, Ropers, Stockmen Left Sherman County When Homesteaders Came to Take Up Land. When in the early eighties it became evident that those newcomers were going to plow up all of the bunch grass, the stockmen began to move out. Some eastern buyers took several droves east; the Pearson outfit took 1,200 head of cattle to the Big Bend, and Orv. Donnell took two or three hundred head of cattle to the Big Bend, as did Jake Minton. The Floyd boys took their horses out south of Prineville; C.I. Helm bought Jim Jenkins' horses, also John Graham and William Lair Hill bands of horses, in all seven hundred head of good horses, and drove them to the Big Bend country. Jap Garrison drove the team and was cook. The riders were Mr. Helm, Ralph Helm, Gene Everet, Dick Johnson, Gene Diggs, and myself. I rode for Helm five years. The last thing I did for him was to deliver 300 head of horses that he had sold to Lumsden on the Fraser River, B.C. Watson Helm bought the Doc. Richardson horses, and drove them to the Big Bend, and some eastern buyers bought horses from Pearson, Eaton, Dunlap and others, and shipped a train load from Grant's station to some place east. So in that way, what had been a wonderful stock coun! try has now become the splendid farming country that it is today. I will name just a few of the first to settle there. About the first was Dr. Rollins in Grass Valley, Gil Woodworth, Henry Jory, Charley Barzee, Owen and Hugh Scott, Corson, Medler, McCoy, the Moores from California, Biggs, Murchie, McPherson, Sink, Belshee, and of course many others moved there before 1885. In any stock country there are sure to be expert riders and ropers. Some of the best riders in that country were Dick Brookhouse, Bill Pearson and Pierre Coucherre. Nate Eaton also was a good rider for a big man. I have seen them all make wonderful rides. The best ropers were Jim Pearson and John Brookhouse. Frank Fulton carried the longest rope, and swung the largest loop. After Jim Pearson went to the Big Bend country, he made a record of 97 throws without a miss catching both hind feet. This was not an exhibition but on the range, during the season. My parents sold the old place in 1883 and moved to Columbus, Washington, later to Yakima, Kennewick and Hood River, and in 1907 to Grants Pass. Mother passed on at the age of 85 and Dad almost 88. In conclusion, I will tell one on myself. When I was 12 years old I was a good rider. One day I was riding a wild cayuse, and he had given up the idea of throwing me, but was not bridle wise. We had drifted over in to Spanish Hollow, two miles below Eatons, when my horse saw some horses and decided to go to them, but there was a deep V-shaped ditch between. I tried to stop him, but he reared and bucked around and fell in the ditch and slid back down in the ditch, with me still in the saddle. He was on my left leg, and the more he kicked the more he crowded me. I could not get out, so I undone the cinch, in hopes that he could get up, but he could not. Soon I heard a horse running and Nate Eaton rode up on the bank and soon pulled the cayuse off of me. He was on a high hill a mile away and saw us fall in the ditch. My leg was badly bruised, otherwise I was alright. I certainly always had a warm spot in my heart for Nate Eaton. Submitted by Sherry Kaseberg.