Let's Talk Wyoming
A podcast about Wyoming and everything we talk about including the weather, politics, energy & agriculture, sports & everything else effecting our state.
Let's Talk Wyoming
Let's Talk Wyoming - Battling a 0-3 Start, Political Predictions, and Celebrating Pioneers on Honey Hill Farm
What if the Wyoming Cowboys could turn their 0-3 season around despite all odds? Join us on Let's Talk Wyoming as we promise a heartwarming journey through the challenges and triumphs of life in our magnificent state. From the latest weather updates and the community's unwavering support for their beloved football team to the bustling agricultural activities marking this season, we cover it all. We'll also look ahead to the political climate with the upcoming elections and what it means for our state.
Embark on a captivating historical journey with us as we recount the extraordinary lives of Cecilia Hennell and John Hendricks, pioneers who built a legacy on Honey Hill Farm. From their mysterious marriage proposal to overcoming the trials of homesteading, their story is a testament to resilience and love. We'll also honor the pioneering women of Wyoming, whose strength and contributions have left an indelible mark on our state's history. Celebrate their legacy and embody the timeless code of the West with us.
Good morning and welcome to let's Talk Wyoming. I'm Mark Hamilton, your host. Today. We'll be taking a look at our Wyoming weather, along with a little bit of news about the Wyoming Cowboys and their dismal season so far. Talk about politics, of course, and in our history section we'll have a story from wildhistoryorg Homesteader Cecilia Hendricks. Letters from Honey Hill. Thanks for joining us. We hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker 1:Taking a look at Wyoming weather here in the middle of the month of September Today here on the 18th, our weather this morning was actually overcast and windy. We've started into that fall trend right now. We're not officially into fall yet, but we're pretty darn close and getting cool at night, getting a little warmer during the daytime, but that's definitely fall weather. Still lacking a little bit of moisture in the area. The fires are still around the grass fires we had some in here in Hot Springs County here recently Grass fires started by lightning. The smoke has definitely cleared out. In some of the areas it hasn't been quite as bad, but we still have a lot of time left before we start getting any type of considerable potential moisture and snow, snow falls and those late winter rains and snows that we get or I should say not late winter, early winter, so again the weather is still cooperating. Of course, the days are getting shorter, knowing that we're getting the days and days closer, with winter just around the corner.
Speaker 1:It's been a busy year In other happenings in the state. Our poor Wyoming Cowboys are not having a very good start to their season. They are 0-3. They've lost to Arizona State, idaho. Last weekend they lost to BYU and Laramie. They'll be on the road in Denton, texas. I lived pretty close to Denton Texas in Ardmore, oklahoma, for four years. I know the area well. They'll play on North Texas in a game on Saturday. We'll see how that comes up. Maybe the Cowboys can break through and get a victory. The rest of their season looks rather difficult. It's been a trying time for the team and for the fans. The message boards are always busy with people talking about what's going on with the football team. Of course we have a new coach. This is his first time being a head coach Definitely a work in progress.
Speaker 1:I don't have enough time in this segment to talk about the Cowboys, but human performance is something that is a lot of talk on and a lot of people have did a lot of work on it, but it is really something to get people to perform up to their peak abilities. The Cowboys returned a lot of players, but they just don't seem to click. Of course, two of their opponents were Big 12 teams. Arizona State actually came in with, if I remember, the count 40 transfers that they had, so they had a lot of new players on their roster. They have one of the youngest coaches college football as their head coach, but they dominated the Cowboys.
Speaker 1:Then the Cowboys came back and played FCS team Idaho and Idaho won In a blowout. It was a close game. Cowboys just could not score when they needed to. And then last week, of course, with BYU, an old foe of ours for many years. This wasn't probably one of the better BYU teams, but the Cowboy offense just doesn't click. Defense makes some plays and then they have some moments. So it really can't push it down to one thing at this point.
Speaker 1:A lot of talk about changing quarterbacks. Maybe we need to do something along those lines, but I think it's just a matter of right. Now going to the next game, when you're at this point and I've said previously I coach, but I've coached high school basketball and I've coached good teams and not very good teams and when you're losing, well, there isn't what you call a snap your fingers and a quick fix. Sometimes it takes some time to get yourself dug out of the hole, because every time you lose, the team loses a lot of motivation. The kids get down on themselves. You just have to continue on with a new day and keep pushing on, trying to keep the team in a positive mindset. A lot of opportunities for some heart-to-hearts with the team, maybe some life values, life lessons. But I know the people in Wyoming will always be behind the Cowboys. This is one group of fans. I always said that we love our Cowboys. We've been pretty mediocre for a lot of years. I always said I think we love mediocrity. That's just kind of what we're used to and, no matter what, we're going to support our Cowboys through whatever they go through and of course, they've been through a lot of highs and lows through the years. So Cowboys not having a very good year so far. But boy, it's a long season, a lot of games left. Maybe they can get this thing turned around this weekend and we'll see what happens the rest of the way.
Speaker 1:Other news we're getting to that point of year. Farmers have been busy. Of course barley harvest is in the books Right now. Corn is being chopped, corn silage is taking place around the area. Some of the areas. You'll be seeing some, and you may already be in some of the areas. I have not seen it yet in Moorland, but you'll be seeing that early beet harvest will be starting up shortly. Beet harvest is ahead so that time of the year where the farmers are starting to kind of wind things up with their crops and kind of getting ready for winter season.
Speaker 1:So many of the people in the area feed cattle, involved in something to do with cattle. A lot of cattle come in a lot of aftermath up in those fields that their cows are brought in to feed on. That's something that we never saw back when I was a young kid here in the basin. But now we've got year-round type of activities in the agricultural community. As we know, we are finishing up in September. We're less than two months away from our presidential election and our general elections here in the state of Wyoming. It's going to be a interesting time ahead.
Speaker 1:I just tell people that if you've heard my show, you pretty well know my leaning on the election. But I always tell people use some critical thinking. Take a look, ask yourself are we better off than we were three and a half years ago when the current administration comes in? Is your life better now than it was before? Are you paying less for food in the store than it was before? Are you paying less for food in the store? Are your costs down? Are interest rates down? Are you able to afford a house? There's so much stuff going on.
Speaker 1:The part that worries me the most is what's going on outside of our little realm. Here in Wyoming Just heard today that there was another attack into Russia, and the Russians have said they know that if they go long-range missiles into Russia, the only way that the Ukrainians can use these is with the assistance of the US or the Brits, with satellite. Russia considers that an attack by NATO, and then there's take the gloves off and it could go anywhere. That's the part that I'm scared of. We're sitting here worrying about what the cowboys are doing and what else is going on, when the world could change overnight. But when you're looking at voting, don't listen to people around you sometimes Go to different sources and ask some questions. But, critically thinking, are you better off? Do you feel like we're better off and do you feel like the future one party is offering versus the other party is going to be better for you and your family and then vote accordingly? Today in our history section we're going to be taking a look at a story from my favorite wildhistoryorg Homesteader, cecilia Hendricks. Letter from Honey Hill Late in 1911, john Hendricks, writing from a farm in Wyoming, proposed to 28-year-old Cecilia Hennell in Indiana.
Speaker 1:She noted in her diary I got a letter today from someone who signed himself John Hendricks, asking me if I would consider a proposal of marriage from him. I should like to know who he is and how he got my name. He must be somebody pretty fresh. Several months later, on April 21st 1912, she wrote in her diary that she learned from her aunt that she'd actually met Hendricks before. Cecilia Hennell by then had taught school to earn enough money for college and by 1908 had earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in English from the University of Indiana at Bloomington and began teaching there, working both as an instructor of English and assistant editor of the university publications. She and her sister Cora were so homesick, even when they were apart for only a few days, that they wrote each other daily.
Speaker 1:John Hendricks, 37 years old at the time of his proposal, had been injured in the Cuba-Spanish-American War in 1898 and left disabled. His sciatic nerve was permanently injured and he depended on crutches for the rest of his life, in and out of the veterans' hospitals. For the next decade he knew he could never do regular farm work. He took many correspondence courses and eventually adopted beekeeping as a hobby. In February of 1911, he moved to Wyoming to establish a honey farm because he discovered that Wyoming was the best place for his health. That year the US Reclamation Bureau completed a dam on Tichon River in northwestern Wyoming, later renamed the Buffalo Bill Dam. By 1915, 2,700 acres were irrigated for the project. For the first several years. Sweet clover was the best crop to grow and this attracted professional beekeepers. Hendricks was one of the first to file for a homestead on the project In February 1911, about a mile southwest of Garland, a hamlet on the Burlington Railroad, five miles east of the Park County town of Powell, wyoming.
Speaker 1:On May 26th of 1912, cecilia noted in her diary that she received another letter from the Wyoming Poor man. He is dreadfully lonesome. I never had a letter that made my heart ache, so that he is a real hero. His life in Cuba and more especially since, has shown. It seemed to me that if anyone deserved honoring a Memorial Day it was him. Consequently, I wrote him a Memorial Day letter. It's more worthwhile to send flowers to a live hero than a dead one. John and Cecilia were married in Indiana on December 30, 1913. Her friends told her she was wasting a good education to become a farmer's wife. But Cecilia felt that they were wrong and that she needed her education all along. Through Cecilia's letters to her mother we gain a picture of life on the Honey Hill Farm.
Speaker 1:Between 1910 and 1920, the number of family farms and ranches in Wyoming increased. From family farms and ranches in Wyoming increased from 10,987 to 15,784, a jump of nearly 45%. Most of these operations were between 250 to 500 acres. Farmers raised beef, cattle, sheep and pigs. Crops included oats, wheat, corn and sugar beets. Many farms and ranches also had a milch cow. By 1920, 49% of all Wyoming farms were mortgaged. From 1913 to 1918, wyoming farmers prospered due to wartime demand for potatoes, wheat, oats, hay cattle and horses. Many used their profits to buy war bonds. Many used their profits to buy war bonds which were sold 1913 to 1919.
Speaker 1:In February 1914, the Hendrixes got a rocky start with the failed honey sales. John bartered honey for produce, hay and coal. However. Then, unexpectedly, a Minnesota dealer bought the remainder of their honey. John surprised Cecilia with 84 quarts of tomatoes, 60 quarts of peaches, 45 of plums, 15 gallons of canned apples, three or four gallons of apple butter and 21 glasses of jelly. He didn't do the canning himself but contracted with neighbors. Cecilia also canned beef. In February of 1914, she reported churning a batch of butter in 15 minutes. Like many other farmers and ranchers, they had a Jersey cow, so there was plenty of milk and cream. In 1916, they sold 5,000 pounds of honey. By 1918, they had in their cellars canned peas, beans, corn, carrots, asparagus, greens and tomatoes as well. They had picked vegetables and fruit plus dry beans. Vasilia also planned to can more beef. In 1921 she reported that they also had flour and fresh eggs. We could go a long time without ever seeing the inside of a store, she wrote. Also, in 1918 john bought a tractor.
Speaker 1:The hendrixons produced both comb honey and extracted honey. To retard granulation, the extracted honey had to be heated. For railroad shipment the honey had to be packed in straw bales to protect it from jarring. By the mid-1920s they would be selling honey by the rail car load. On May 23, 1926, cecilia wrote we have had some very nice compliments on our honey recently. We have sold the car the past two seasons to Dad and Sons, the firm that is about the most expert in the whole country. Some time ago they wrote us about the cars of honey they got from us in 1924 and 1925, asking about what system of heating we use as the honey did not granulate for months and months. They spoke again of our honey and said they wanted another car this year. Comb honey had its own protocol. It had to be graded first choice and second there was also weight and color requirements. The cases in which they were packed had to be glass-fronted.
Speaker 1:Busy as she was, celia found time to watch sunrises and sunsets, about which she raved to her mother. In addition to producing honey, they also grew sweet clover about 35 acres in 1915. In early October of 1916, cecilia, eight and a half months pregnant, began drafting a short form letter to clover buying companies, using a Burlington Railroad Directory of Industries to find these companies. October 26, their daughter, also named Cecilia, was born. Apparently, honey Hill Farms has begun to prosper, thanks in no small part to water from the Shone Dam project. Day after Cecilia's birth, john presented his wife with a solitaire topaz ring, possibly an entire carrot. The thought and the ring are the most beautiful thing I've ever known. For a long time Cecilia wrote. Although she no longer had time to write to her mother daily, she continued sending frequent letters. From these we learned that in November of 1917, when the small Cecilia was about 13 months old, the Hendrixes netted almost $1,396 from clover seed sales.
Speaker 1:On Christmas Day a check of $3,238.85 arrived, representing honey exported to Europe for the Allies. This shipment slid under the wire of the December 1st federal embargo on overseas honey shipments. John and Cecilia were in debt and paid down much of it with the money. However, unlike many Wyoming farms and ranches, they had no mortgage. Cecilia documented their 1918 earnings on a January 20, 1919 letter. All told, they had received more than $40,000 for honey, clover seed, fruit and potatoes. The expenses were about $3,800, plus another $3,000 for hired labor. So I'm afraid we'll have to be at home this year when the income tax man appears.
Speaker 1:She wound up Two days before she assessed the Spanish influenza situation, mentioned almost no serious case in the area, attributing this to the quarantine of Powell from the beginning of the pandemic. In late fall or early winter of 1919, the Hendricksons received a $1,300 payment for coal money, with another $6,000 arriving on December 21st and another $600 to come. We still have our hand $2,000 to $3,000 of extracted honey. She wrote the next day, now that John and Cecilia were prospering, they began building a new house. Now that John and Cecilia were prospering, they began building a new house by July 16th of 1920, construction had begun With a scary November 1920 call when a small Cecilia contracted woofing cough. She recovered. The next main event was moving into the new house on December 30th of 1920. Their prosperity up to this time was probably due in part to no bad winters and no drought. Their son, jules Ord, was born June 4th of 1921, the answer to small Cecilia's prayers for her brother. And a second daughter, anne, was born August 12th of 1923.
Speaker 1:Most agricultural prices fell steeply after World War I. The price of potatoes, for example, plummeted in 1921. Life became substantially more difficult for small operators in Wyoming because banks refused them new or additional loans, denied them more time to pay off those loans and required additional security. Banks began failing. The pace of bank failures reached its peak in 1924. The irrigation project may have protected the Hendricks' from severe drought which swept much of Wyoming in 1919, and the demand for their honey seemed to have remained strong. John estimated their 1921 honey crop at between 25,000 to 30,000 pounds, but neither he nor Cecilia mentioned a hoped-for price. In 1921, the Garland Bank failed, but Cecilia noted this only in passing, so apparently she and John lost no money in the failure.
Speaker 1:Cecilia seemed to keep her eye on local, state and national politics. In 1914, she noted that four western states had recently passed prohibition laws. Adding In 1922, she became much more active. That year John and Cecilia ran for public office. John ran to represent Park County and the Wyoming House of Representatives and Cecilia, full of ideas from her years of teaching in public schools and at the university, ran for the state superintendent of public instruction, a position that is elected by voters statewide. Both won in the Democratic primary but lost the general election in the fall. Neither of us feels that least bit badly about being defeated. The price one would have to pay is really too much, she wrote.
Speaker 1:Also that year the Cheyenne lawyer, william B Ross, ran for governor on the Democratic ticket. In an August 20, 1922 letter, cecilia urged Democratic state committee men and county chairmen to support Ross in the primary election two days away. Ross won the general election in the fall and began pursuing his progressive agenda, but he died unexpectedly in October of 1924. His wife, nellie Taylor Ross, ran in a special election to replace him and won, becoming the nation's first woman governor. Cecilia spoke in her support in Garland and the next day in Powell.
Speaker 1:When Ross ran for re-election in 1926, cecilia was extremely active in her campaign, writing letters to prominent women around the nation seeking financial support. At the same time, cecilia ran again for state superintendent on the Democratic ticket. It was noted that Hendricks may have worked harder on Ross's campaign than she did on her own. Both women lost, the state was swinging back to the Republican party and up to that point no Wyoming governor had ever been re-elected. And three days after the election Hendricks wrote Ross a long letter musing on the politics and the role of women in public life. I feel personally she wrote, in spite of defeat, that there is a great deal of comfort to be derived from, particularly in a campaign where one counts all the increased information about our state, the contact with fine people everywhere, the friendships made and, above all, the knowledge gained. That will be the basis for better work in the future, one must feel it is all for more than worthwhile.
Speaker 1:On May 25, 1922, ten years after she began to love John, cecilia was visiting her parents in Bloomington and wrote to John you have risen higher and higher as I have learned to know you better and better. For ten years now I have loved you. They have been the happiest years of my life. From honeyhill, john replied the ten years since that day, 1928,. Cecilia wrote to her mother. 15 years ago tonight, john and I were on our way to Evansville, indiana, apparently to get married at the time. My, it does not seem like 15 years ago.
Speaker 1:Cecilia continued the tradition of educated farm and ranch women in Wyoming in the early years of the 20th century who wrote about their experiences. Others include Eleanor Pruitt Stewart, ethel Waxham Love. Others include Eleanor Pruitt Stewart, ethel Waxham Love and Florence Blake Smith. They all worked hard and helped their neighbors whenever called upon. John died on December 14, 1936, in Billings, montana. Cecilia then returned to Bloomington where she taught English for 28 years, founded the Indiana University's Writers Conference and retired in 1953. Outliving John by 33 years, she died on July 5th of 1969. Presumably they were happy for the duration of their marriage.
Speaker 1:Just another great story about the early years here in Wyoming and there's so many of these accounts of all these people that came here and blazed a trail and the other part. You see so many of these women, how strong they were and all the things that they did through their years for the state and for women around the world. Thanks for joining us today and we hope you enjoy our podcast. As per the code of the West, we ride for the brand and we ride for Wyoming. We'll be right back. Go go, we go, go, go, go go. © BF-WATCH TV 2021.
