Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 16

6 RENO EVENING GAZETTE November 17, 1956 The Matley Family I If A Story of rogress 7wrrftev --1 By FLORENCE S. BURGE She involuntarily cringed as the prolonged "shooooshooosh" of a jet taking off overhead pen etrated every fiber of Martha Matley's body and her clear, youthful blue eyes clouded with pain. "You see what it's like? In thirty seconds that jet will be in Virginia City," she said. "It Mi took us seven hours by horse drawn bus when Reno High's i'. senior class nTade the trip in air national guard jets on sprawling Reno municipal airport.

189.. Fred Rulinson, Delle Boyd FIELD HANDS ONCE LOADED OR UNLOADED HAY Matley ranch but now huge four engined airliners land and embark passengers or ground" crews service 1 -2 aitd Jessie Beck are still around. thev'd remember it too." PROGRESS Res I PAPA BOUGHT LAND Mrs. Matley's eyes came back The Eastman ranch was also "Papa was always going to fix to life as she recalled the past an "To up the house," says Isabelle Mat- the scene of an early day ro with its alternate turmoil and peace, life and death. Fifty-eight ley Murphy, "but he never got mance.

Widowed Mrs. Peckham, is. of her eighty years had been around to it. He always had to buy more land." spent in this century old house In 1919 they bought 800 acres rearing a family and building a mother of George Peckham, came to run the boarding house for the mill workers. Here she met Thomas W.

Norcross, a millwright who had been brought in by Eastman to build the mill. They married and later moved to the site of the present Fife cattle business from scratch. The iets were forgotten for the in Sierra Valley for pasture and feed and in 1926 the 9600 acre Winnemucca ranch was pur moment. CANNING APPLES A large woman, only her body chased. They ran the stock on all three places but always lived on the "home ranch" in the Truckee Meadows.

ranch on South Virginia road and hands betrayed her age a i where' their little white house body that no longer responded still stands and where Charles Mechanization in the logging quickly to movement and hands and Frank Norcross were born. camps in the late '20's and '30's that failed to hide hard labor Hands that had lovingly minis Charles Norcross grew up to become the first director of the lessened the demand for work horses. "Robert" was their last tered to the sick and dvine. both Percheron and with a final fling human and animal. Hands that Agricultural Extension division of the University of Nevada and Frank Norcross became a federal milked, planted and harvested at raising the English bred "Shires," John and Martha Mat 4 that peeled and canned thousands of fruits and vegetables.

Hands judge. ley abandoned the project. that today were canning apples By now the beef herd, grown to 1600 head, was sufficient to The story of Martha Matley HAYING CREW making stack on site of present Reno Municipal Airport where Nevada Air National Guard lands jet planes and United and Western Airlines craft set down. Stacks were 40 feet high and 65 feet long and placed three in a row, two deep. and the rancN Dart of which is be self-supporting.

John Marshall Clifford L. and Wayne C. Matley all stayed on at the now covered f.y Reno municipal airport runways, is a segment of 1 the history and evolution of transportation, industry and ranching ranch managing the cattle and building their separate homes. Theodore, the Matley's eldest son, left to establish an auto in the Truckee Meadows. Soon a new crew of men will arrive to move the house.

But they won't have to be fed; there won't be time. apples. She's trying to ignore the of his life. Not famous, John Matley was certainly a successful man in every, sense of the word. Shortly after Mr.

Matley's death, progress in the form of the supply business in Oakland, Calif. Born Martha Steinberger in Milford, where her father SURVIVE DROUGHT The 1934 drought that brought operated a flour mill, the family soon moved to the Willow ranch. MARTHA MATLEY whose ranch on the Truckee Meadows is now a part of Reno Municipal airport, and whose story is a segment of the history and evolution of transportation, industry and ranching in this valley. grief to so many ranchers was easily weathered by the Mat- i United Air Lines runway whit leys. There's a high water table new peopled by the town of Doyle.

James Milton Steinberger had brough his family across the plains in '63 and had run the tled away 16 acres of the ranch. And that was only the beginning. A couple of years ago over 100 acres was swallowed up to become the Nevada Air National that section of land where the sewage plant now stands and they simply sunk two wells there and pumped in the water needed. mill at Milford marketing the Mrs. Matley and her sons are all waiting.

They'll have to be moved soon, no one knows just when. A JOB TO DO And the jets that fly overhead? They have a job to do. They're training men for the air force and soon there'll be more men to train and perhaps more land needed. Just recently 375 instructors and trainees were on their once-a-month duty at the Nevada Air National Guard field. In the big hangar, ground crews were servicing planes, doing maintenance and administrative work.

Outside, it took only 45 minutes for each pilot to go from the field to the Black Rock Desert Gunnery Range, go through his target practice and return to the field. And tragedy was barely averted when a pilot safely crash-landed flour in Virginia City. "I'm surprised father didn't Grief again struck the family Guard jet. field and municipal airport extension, and a little later another 138 acres was re fret held uo on his trips to Vir in when John Benjamin Bieber Paper Is Suspended SUSANVILLE, Suspension of publication of the Adin Big Valley Argus-Gazette at Bieber was announced by the publishers, I. R.

and Helen Delbon, in their issue of Nov. 2. In part the announcement said "Plans have been made whereby The Lassen Advocate at Susan-ville will take ever our subscription list, thus assuring our readers of a continued newspaper Matley was killed at the age of 72 as he descended a haystack. ginia City," Martha said. "There were lots of hold-ups.

But he always got back safely carrying the heavy gold in a sack in the A former altar bov born in Fifty years later the Eastman ranch was the setting for another romance when Martha Steinberger married John B. Matley who had previously worked for her father. "Milt" Steinberger hadn't lived to see his dreams come true, for two years after buying the ranch he died of typhoid. For a while, Mrs. Steinberger tried to run it, then Martha and John rented it from her.

BUILD IP HERD Starting with a horse, two mares and a few milk cows, they devoted the next eleven years in putting every breath and all their muscles to work building a beef cattle herd and the ranch which they later bought. Martha Matley's hands were never still. There were always cows to be milked. The soil was excellent, the water plentiful and each year they planted more potatoes, onions and garden vegetables. The apple orchard flourished so that when enough apples were canned for the family, the rest were marketed.

By now the family of eight children was well started. Sorrow plagued Martha and John along the way many times but never so much as when two of tfeir lovely little daughters died. But there was work to be done and as the five boys and a girl grew, each assumed a place in the heavy working schedule of a ranch where the family did all of the work. The water wheel from the old mill was removed from the ditch and hung in the barn to suspend the beef when they were slaugh Kriene, Germany, John's father had locked his mother in the wagon." LEFT THEIR MARK basement in order to spirit the boy away and force him to board But "Milt" Steinberger's trips leased for the same purpose. Since then everything has been at a standstill.

They can no longer summer the cattle on the home ranch. Cattle, like people, have nerves and lose weight so they're pastured on the Hardscrable Ranch at Pyramid and the Set-tlemeyer Ranch on Tule Mountain. What is left of the old Eastman Mill, the barns, the house and down the old stagecoach road a snip bound for the United at 100 miles an hour shearing off States. The 12 -year -old boy landed in New York, a complete over Stone and Gates Crossing and through the lush Truckee Meadows left their mark. He was stranger unable to speak a word the wheels and undercarriage.

At the ranch house Martha Matley's hands are busy paring sing-song "Wheeeyee" overhead. never able to forget the natural Baffin Island covers 197,000 square miles and is the largest of the Canadian Arctic islands. ot English, and from then on he made his own way for the rest green pastures And plentiful water. It took him over twenty vc-ars of farming the Willow ranch to save enough so he could move his family down the valley early in the Spring of 1899. "Mama and I hitched up the ANNOUNCING THE APPOINTMENT OF one horse buggy, father drove the spring wagon and we shipped the furniture on the Nevada California Oregon narrow gauge." Mrs.

Matley recalled "It took us all day to reach the Eastman ranch, our new Ml JOE tered. Building a beef herd into The "new home" and remnants of a lumber mill were already nearly fiftv years old for C. a paying proposition however, was slow work and took money, so Martha assumed the added job of raising registered Percheron horses. Eastman had purchased the ranch from William Steele in the late 50's or early 60's. Just south of the river crossing and "They were hard to raise," and Martha's west of the stagecoach road caressed and again as she soothed a foal Eastman put in a boom, mill talked.

"I spent hours getting RENO- IFSID ii SEED CO. pond and mill and built the the foals to take the nipple, or house. EXTERIOR OF EASTMAN BARN built in the late 1850's or early 1860's. One of the mill buildings, the "ice house" collapsed in a torm in the 1920's and the rest of the original buildings burned several years ago. feeding them when they Cut in the Sierras around what is now Verdi, logs for the mill wedge guided by little boats down the river and through the Pioneer ditch to the mill where EVADA RENO, INI they were processed.

Supply wouldn't. The veterinarian maintained he'd rather work with me than anyone in the valley." PROUD OF HORSES Her eyes glistened with pride as she went on telling about some of their prize horses that had filled the now empty corrals. Heavy, sturdy horses with a fine neck and head, Percherons were in demand in logging camps and on the ranches and there ing lumber for the growing town of Glendale and the thriving Comstock, the mill later furnished lumber for Reno as it began to grow after Lake's AS DISTRIBUTOR FOR crossing was put in. LI MBER FOR RENO 1 was also a certain glory in those The first load of lumber for Reno's first public building was hauled by oxen team 2 Ms miles from Eastman's mill to First Ul that won prizes at shows. There was two thousand three hundred ten pound "Hochet," imported from France, who won second prize at the Chicago Fair.

And six matched dapple grays 0 and Center streets by Silas Ross' father. fx Known as the4 "Investment Building," it was later moved with white manes sired by "Medoc" brought a fancy price. out to the race track to make Then along came "Matineux," an way for the old "City Hall" and CLIFFORD MATLEY showing "Robert" as a four year' old in 1937. The 1900 pound Dapple Gray was Matley 's last Percheron. the old structure has since dis appeared with time.

imported Percheron that took first prize and reserve champion in the 1915 San Francisco Pan-American Exposition. But the most famous of them High Analysis all was a black named "Londri- cetous" bought in 1918. He sired numerous colts and by the time he died John and Martha Matley had over 100 brood mares. One of these mares, "Rosedale" raised 19 colts some of which ran well over a ton. Purebreds sired by "Londricetous" won prizes all over the west.

Income from the horse raising always went back into building up the ranch, buying more range, and more cattle. The purebred 11-48-0, 61-20-0, 13-39-0, 23-23-0 24-20-0, 27-14-0 Nitraprills (ammonium nitraf e)-Ammonium Sulphate Triple Super Phosphate ii fr If i horses brought from $300 to $400 each and 30 to 40 "grades" were sold yearly to the logging camps for around $300 each. "Grades" were horses sired by a registered stallion bred to an unregistered mare. tkMAJL lUMrt? ,,4 4,1, j. Jfcl iiJitiZ hJLl, Ready availability, high water solubility and high analysis in a free-flowing uniform pellet-sized product give Elephant Brand users the best results with greatest BUILT BY C.

IL EASTMAN about 1860, the with bay window on left with original blinds Matley family home is soon to be moved. Room saw much activity when mill was operating. formerly of Winnemucca, will Machinery Firm Has New Branch AUCTION CITY Hi-way 404 Miles West of Reno AUCTIONEER JOHN RHODEHAMEL SUNDAY 2:00 P.M. $1,000 in New Tools Sell en Consignment W. Buy Sell Trade OPEN WEEKDAYS 9:30 a.m.

lo 6 p.m. Drive a Little Save So Much serve as agricultural sales manager. A-D Machinery was founded in January, 1952, when Anderson Balfour, Guthrie Limited San Francisco, California Exclusive U. S. Sales Agent for Elephant Brand Fertilizer and Ralph Druehl purchased the ELKO.

Harold Anderson, owner of A-D Machinery Co. here, has announced the opening of a. branch of -the company in Las Vegas. He said the company has served the eastern portion of the state for several years, and has had representatives perman ently stationed in Las Vegas since last November. Ray Jones will serve as branch manager and Raymond (Red) Grey will be service manager at the Las Vegas branch.

Both men were transferred from the main store here in Elko. Don Jones, machinery department of C. W. Paul Co. here.

Anderson bought Druehl's interest in the firm in 1 rif" iriVmtz rts November, 1953. i i x. f..