Page Two WOOLGROWERS SOUVENIR EDITION HEPPNER GAZETTE TIMES, MONDAY, JANUARY 14, 1935
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Heppner Early History
Interwoven With Industry
HENRY HEPPNER
By JOSEPH BELANGER,
County Agent
(From radio broadcast given over
KOAC Thursday, January 10)
For the first time in twenty
years, the Oregon Woolgrow
ers association is holding its an
nual convention in Heppner, the
county seat of Morrow county.
Heppner is one of the early pio
neer towns of eastern Oregon and
its history is interwoven with the
early history of stock raising.
When the early settlers came into
this territory all of the land which
is now in wheat was in bunch
grass. Early cattle outfits ranged
all the way from the Umatilla
Forest Reserve to the Columbia
River in the winter season and
during the summer would trail
thru Umatilla and Union counties
and even into Malheur. There
were no fences, there were no
wheat fields, there was nothing in
all this open country but bunch
grass. Supplies for the ranchers
were brought up the river on
boats and for the whole territory
now comprising Morrow, Grant
and Wheeler counties, were un
loaded at Umatilla Landing.
God Father Early Day Peddler
Henry Heppner was first known
in this eastern Oregon country as
an itinerant peddler. At first his
stock of goods was carried in a
pack on his own back. Business
was good and he bought a mule.
Soon he was running a pack train.
All supplies that were not handled
by water were handled by pack
train in those days and Henry
Heppner became one of the large
pack train owners that hauled
supplies all the way from the
present state of Washington down
into California. At the height of
his prosperity as a freighter, al
most his entire outfit was stolen
and destroyed by Indians. Fol
lowing this loss he started in a
small way packing from Umatilla
Landing to a small cabin at Stans
bury's Flat at the junction of Wil
low and Hinton creeks. Consign
ments of goods would be taken
off at Umatilla Landing and sent
to Henry Heppner's. Shortly a
settlement grew up around this
trading post and the town of
Heppner was formed. A young
man by the name of Jack Morrow
went into partnership with Hepp
ner in the trading post and when,
in 1885, Umatilla county was di
vided and the west portion made
a separate county, its name be
came Morrow.
Gradually the sheepmen began
to come into this bunchgrass coun
try and with the sheep came the
early cattle and sheep wars. It
would be difficult to say horn many
men were killed and how many
hundreds of cattle and sheep were
A SHEPHERDESS?
E
9T
Mrs. Luke Bibby, then Miss Reita
Neel, as queen of Heppner Rodeo.
Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. R. A.
Thompson, are among Morrow
County's leading sheep operators.
slaughtered before this war was
ended by the Federal Government
when it established its Forest Re
serves and allotted each livestock
man his own territory on which to
run his stock undisturbed. Many
of these old pioneer stockmen are
still living in this county and the
tales they tell read like a book.
Indian Scare Recalled
The early history of Heppner
was far from being a smooth, even
development. In 1878 the Indians
in the Snake River country left
their river territory to join the
Umatilla Indians with the express
purpose of going over into Wash
ington to combine with tribes
there. The purpose was to sweep
down into western Oregon to wipe
out all of the whites. Special in
formation gained from one of the
Indians showed that Heppner was
directly in the path of the pro
posed punitive expedition. For
tifications were built, guns were
shipped in by the Federal Gov
ernment and distributed to the
citizens. One day while forty of
our men had gone over to Long
Creek to help defend that settle
ment, a small group of Indians
did come to Heppner. However,
they proved to be friendly. In a
few days these Indians departed
and later on the same day word
was received that three men on
Butter creek had been found dead,
killed by Indians.
Perhaps the most important sin
gle factor in the development of
Morrow county and Heppner was
the establishment of the branch
railroad into Heppner in 1888.
Prior to that time some wheat had
been grown but only for local con
sumption. The price of wheat was
so low that it would not stand the
cost of freighting as was done
wfth wool. This railroad made
Heppner the shipping point for a
vast interior country. Freighters
hauled, wool from Long Creek,
John Day and even parts of
Wheeler county. In one year
there were three million pounds
of wool shipped from Heppner.
All kinds of supplies came to
Heppner to be freighted to this
interior country. So truly was
Heppner the outlet for several
parts of Umatilla, Grant and
Wheeler counties that a bill was
introduced into the legislature en-,
larging Morrow county to include
all of the country south to the
John Day river. This bill passed
the lower house but was too late
to be considered by the senate. At
the present time, in Morrow coun
ty, sheep have very largely re
placed cattle until now there are
about 3000 beef cattle in the
county and upwards of 150,000
ewes. , 1
Sheep Raising Today
Sheep are ordinarily handled in
units of 1200 ewes, commonly
called a band, although any one
operator may have all the way
from one to six or more bands of
sheep. Most of the Morrow coun
ty sheepmen lamb all the way
from February into April on their
home ranges here in Morrow
county. Sheep and lambs are
grazed on the home range until
the latter part of May or into June
and are then moved into the
mountains. As more and more
sheep have come into this western
country, ranges have become
crowded and our sheep men have
been forced to go farther and
farther afield for summer range.
Some of our men trail their sheep
150 to 200 miles into Wallowa
county others range in Grant,
Umatilla, Union and Baker coun
ties, in addition to the thousands
of acres of Government grazing
land in the southern part of Mor
row county. Of late years we
have been sending many carloads
of ewes and lambs to Montana
W' Aj;- .w
Heppner's God-father, early day
merchant prince. From a wood
engraving of his time.
for summer grazing. This move
ment has assumed such propor
tions that already Morrow county
sheepmen own thousands of acres
of summer range land in Mon
tana. With this deeded land, of
course, go many thousand more
acres of forest reserve land. - In
the fall the sheep are trailed
back to the home ranch, this
movement taking place anywhere,
from the middle to the last part
of September, to the middle of
November, depending on the sei
son and the condition of the grass
on the range. These conditions,
of course, vary considerably from
year to year and from one locality
to another. Ordinarily sheep
grazed in Montana will be able
to stay on the range until Novem
ber. Most of the wether lambs
and some of the ewe lambs in
these Montana outfits are shipped
direct from the range to the east
ern markets as fat or feeder
lambs. The balance, of course,
are brought back by train to the
home ranch here in Morrow county-Morrow
county sheepmen or
dinarily sell from one and one
quarter to one and three-quarters
millions pounds of wool each year,
making us the third highest wool
producing county in the state.
Heppner, the host for ,the 38th
annual Oregon Woolgrowers con
vention, is the center of all this
vast sheep industry.
U. S. D. A. yearbook for 1934
gives Oregon sheep and lamb pop
ulation of 2,391,000, valued at
$3.90 per head, a total investment
of $9,310,000.
; $-$
The United States in 1932 had
the second largest sheep popula
tion of any country in the world,
53,155,000. Australia led with
110,619,000.
s-$
The five-year average price for
lambs in Oregon, 1929-1933, was
$6.02 a hundred pounds. The av
erage price in December, 1934,
was $4.60.
-
The U. S. D. A. reports the five
year average price for lambs,
1909-1914 (the pre-war period) at
$5.87 a hundred pounds; average
price for sheep for the same per
iod was $4.53. This was compared
with $5.01 for lambs and $2.66 for
sheep in December, 1934. The
figures represent weighted aver
ages for all the United States. .
$
The five-year average price for
sheep in Oregon, 1929-1933, was
$4.20 a hundred pounds. The av
erage price in December, 1934,
was $2.70.
. -s-s .
Heppner is permitting ewe
turns during the convention.
. s-s
Many old-time cattlemen are
now running sheep. There's Dil
lard French, for instance.
111 ICE 1
We are proud to have been able to serve
the sheep industry within Heppner's large
trading territory these many years, and we
are proud of the large, modern establish
ment their friendship has helped make
possible.
May You Enjoy Your Stay in Heppner!
GILLIAM & BISBEE
Hardware & Sheepmen's Supplies
HAPPY NEW YEAR to the
Wool Growers of Oregon
We appreciate the support you have given the PACIFIC WOOL GROWERS for the
past fifteen years, and are doing our level best to discharge this responsibility
in a manner satisfactory to you.
Wool growers marketing their wools through the PACIFIC their own marketing
organization have the seasoned, experienced service of an agency which has
specialized in Northwest wools for FIFTEEN YEARS.
The PACIFIC does not buy or speculate in wool for its own account. It is purely a
growers' agency, strictly cooperative, where
MEMBERS ELECT and DIRECTORS DIRECT
Let Us Serve You in 1935
E. A. McCornack
J. G. Barratt
L. B. Pierce
J. T. Alexander
Carlyle C. Eubank
R. A. Ward, Manager
DIRECTORS
Fred W. Falconer
R. L. Clark
Remie DeRuwe
Mark Maynard
G. A. Sandner
Fred A. Phillips
C. E. Grelle
J. 0. Sorenson
Edwin Bunnell
L. A. Robertson
Edgar L. Ludwick, Asst. Manager
PACIFIC WOOL GROWERS
1205 N. W. Davis Street, Portland, Oregon
Telephone Broadway 2631