Interview with Roy Wilhelm, December 24, 1992
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[[Carl LeRoy Wilhelm|Roy Wilhelm]] Talks Family History | [[Carl LeRoy Wilhelm|Roy Wilhelm]] Talks Family History | ||
| + | *[[Interview with Roy Wilhelm, December 24, 1992]] | ||
| + | *[[Interview with Roy Wilhelm, February 28, 1993]] | ||
| + | *[[Interview with Roy Wilhelm, Summer 1993]] | ||
| + | *[[Interview with Roy Wilhelm, October 31, 1993]] | ||
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==Pa and Andrew Maxwell== | ==Pa and Andrew Maxwell== | ||
| - | Well, on the way to Arizona, another family . . . was on a wagon train, comin' through and the Wilhelms signed on that same wagon train to come to Arizona. It was the Maxwell family. There was an Andrew Maxwell; he was nine years old, like [[Zemira George Wilhelm|Pa]] . . . they were best friends on that trip . . . travelled together, and when they was off helpin' drive cattle along the side, they teamed up and did it together and they was chums all the way. It took six weeks to make the trip, and when they came to the place where the road forked, and the Wilhelms was to take the Concho road, and the Maxwells was called to go to Round Valley, they stopped and cooked dinner and had a little friendly ceremony. [[Zemira George Wilhelm|Pa]] and Andrew Maxwell vowed that they would never lose track of each other; they'd stay in touch. So he lived up there and was raised there, [[Zemira George Wilhelm|Pa's]] folks went up to [[Vernon, Arizona|Vernon]], and it was sixty-two years, or something like that, before they met again. Andrew Maxwell got to be cattle inspector and he had some deal in connection with his job to go to Show Low so he took the trouble of comin' by the ranch. That's the funniest thing you ever seen, two old guys puzzlin' . . . over each other! They was still friends. Took a long time to get back together. | + | '''Roy''': Well, on the way to Arizona, another family . . . was on a wagon train, comin' through and the Wilhelms signed on that same wagon train to come to Arizona. It was the Maxwell family. There was an Andrew Maxwell; he was nine years old, like [[Zemira George Wilhelm|Pa]] . . . they were best friends on that trip . . . travelled together, and when they was off helpin' drive cattle along the side, they teamed up and did it together and they was chums all the way. It took six weeks to make the trip, and when they came to the place where the road forked, and the Wilhelms was to take the Concho road, and the Maxwells was called to go to Round Valley, they stopped and cooked dinner and had a little friendly ceremony. [[Zemira George Wilhelm|Pa]] and Andrew Maxwell vowed that they would never lose track of each other; they'd stay in touch. So he lived up there and was raised there, [[Zemira George Wilhelm|Pa's]] folks went up to [[Vernon, Arizona|Vernon]], and it was sixty-two years, or something like that, before they met again. Andrew Maxwell got to be cattle inspector and he had some deal in connection with his job to go to Show Low so he took the trouble of comin' by the ranch. That's the funniest thing you ever seen, two old guys puzzlin' . . . over each other! They was still friends. Took a long time to get back together. |
==Concho, Arizona== | ==Concho, Arizona== | ||
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'''Roy''': Yeah, old man Graham Cowley. These guys just carried on the business. | '''Roy''': Yeah, old man Graham Cowley. These guys just carried on the business. | ||
| - | '''John''': Well, is that about when your [[Zemira George Wilhelm|Dad]] and [[Bateman Haight Wilhelm, Jr.|Uncle Haight]] decided to go homestead at Vernon? | + | '''John''': Well, is that about when your [[Zemira George Wilhelm|Dad]] and [[Bateman Haight Wilhelm, Jr.|Uncle Haight]] decided to go [[Wilhelm Homesteads in Vernon, Arizona|homestead at Vernon]]? |
'''Roy''': Yeah, when this breakup come. It was all over there for them. Their friends, the people they were raised with, they were all movin' out. They were on the range see, and they had learned to, incidentally, [[Bateman Haight Wilhelm|Grandpa]] still had a remnant of his cows and when he got out of this here "captain of the guards," he'd lost his squatters right up at Valle Bonito, the old Goodman set, so he made a deal with the Mexicans at Mineral. Rented a house and moved his cattle up there, that was his headquarters. Well, while they were there and Haight and Grandpa was still riding herd on this big bunch of cattle, the Mexicans had raised down in the Scott place, that meadow down there, they'd raised a barley patch, a big barley field and they didn't have the way of gatherin' it that we have nowadays and time they got through mowin' and gatherin' up there was about, well, just too much of this crop still down there but it was just goin' to waste so anybody was welcome to go pick it up by hand and my Dad found out that it was worth five dollars a hundred pounds and that he could thresh it by hand, gather it up by hand and thresh the stuff by hand and eventually git him five dollars, so he did that. Well that's quite a chore for a little kid to do that, see. He wanted the money, he'd seen a pair of boots down to St. Johns or Concho in a store and that's what he was aimin' at. Those boots were five dollars, red boots, red leather boots. So when he got it done he says to his Dad when he went for supplies, he says, "I saved this up, a hundred pounds here and I want those boots. Will you sell this barley for me and bring back the boots?" And Grandpa told him yes, throwed the sack in and never said anymore about it. Pa never heard of the boots anymore and there was a gap between him and his Dad like there was between me and Pa, see, so they didn't talk things over, see, and Pa held that against his Dad till the day he died. | '''Roy''': Yeah, when this breakup come. It was all over there for them. Their friends, the people they were raised with, they were all movin' out. They were on the range see, and they had learned to, incidentally, [[Bateman Haight Wilhelm|Grandpa]] still had a remnant of his cows and when he got out of this here "captain of the guards," he'd lost his squatters right up at Valle Bonito, the old Goodman set, so he made a deal with the Mexicans at Mineral. Rented a house and moved his cattle up there, that was his headquarters. Well, while they were there and Haight and Grandpa was still riding herd on this big bunch of cattle, the Mexicans had raised down in the Scott place, that meadow down there, they'd raised a barley patch, a big barley field and they didn't have the way of gatherin' it that we have nowadays and time they got through mowin' and gatherin' up there was about, well, just too much of this crop still down there but it was just goin' to waste so anybody was welcome to go pick it up by hand and my Dad found out that it was worth five dollars a hundred pounds and that he could thresh it by hand, gather it up by hand and thresh the stuff by hand and eventually git him five dollars, so he did that. Well that's quite a chore for a little kid to do that, see. He wanted the money, he'd seen a pair of boots down to St. Johns or Concho in a store and that's what he was aimin' at. Those boots were five dollars, red boots, red leather boots. So when he got it done he says to his Dad when he went for supplies, he says, "I saved this up, a hundred pounds here and I want those boots. Will you sell this barley for me and bring back the boots?" And Grandpa told him yes, throwed the sack in and never said anymore about it. Pa never heard of the boots anymore and there was a gap between him and his Dad like there was between me and Pa, see, so they didn't talk things over, see, and Pa held that against his Dad till the day he died. | ||
