Cow Country Winter 2014
Reader's Review: An Improbable Pioneer
By Lois Herbst
Herbst Ranch, Shoshone, Wyo.
Edith Holden was a Boston lady who married Alec Healy, a Utah sheepman who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alec was a reserved engineer from immigrant parents. Edith was nine generations removed from immigrants with reference to the 1620 Mayflower voyage. Marrying her Utah sheepman was an adventure described in the many letters she wrote to her mother in Boston.
I found her letters far more interesting when I started finding little history facts such as the Healy family had a hotel in Ogden, Utah, where the trains didn’t meet. One had to transfer in Ogden if they were traveling east to west.
Edith described their long honeymoon by train. She gives insight into not only transportation aspects, but descriptions of meals. They visited Senator Warren of Wyoming who was Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. From DC they traveled to historic Ft. Monroe; a place I was fortunate to use as quarters with a military brother once.
Edith described everything for her mother especially when arriving at the beautiful settings for sheep camps in the Buffalo, Wyo. area. She also described the treacherous muddy roads. She was impressed with the sheep wagon that was their home in sheep camp. She knew they cost $240 and the company had 14 of them. She described every part of the wagon to her mother.
Edith was also impressed with the organization required to manage 29,000 ewes and 1,000 rams on the range. Shearers were paid nine cents a sheep, and one man did 250 per day. They shipped 4,000 lambs in double-decker railroad cars requiring 77 cars.
The Healy family had also been involved in banking. World War I and the demand for lamb and wool brought high prices. It was during this time the brothers decided to break up their partnership in the sheep business. Alec Healy moved his family to Worland where he was involved in banking. He was thankful that he and brother, Patsy, Jr., had escaped the financial crisis following World War I. Alec served in many community roles and also in the Wyoming State Legislature. Edward N. Wentworth in 1940 interviewed Alec for America’s Sheep Trails.
The family purchased the LU Sheep Co. in 1936 after selling the Washakie Livestock Loan Co., The LU was the first to have a registered herd of Angus in the state, but it was decades before the LU Sheep Co. was allowed to join the Wyoming Cattlemen’s Association.
WSGA readers of this book review will be interested to know that Cathy Healy is WSGA member Mike Healy’s sister. This book is the result of work done by Cathy in compiling family history and should be an encouragement to others to try to bring their family history to print to be saved as an integral part of the history of our ranching industry.
Reader's Review: An Improbable Pioneer
By Lois Herbst
Herbst Ranch, Shoshone, Wyo.
Edith Holden was a Boston lady who married Alec Healy, a Utah sheepman who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alec was a reserved engineer from immigrant parents. Edith was nine generations removed from immigrants with reference to the 1620 Mayflower voyage. Marrying her Utah sheepman was an adventure described in the many letters she wrote to her mother in Boston.
I found her letters far more interesting when I started finding little history facts such as the Healy family had a hotel in Ogden, Utah, where the trains didn’t meet. One had to transfer in Ogden if they were traveling east to west.
Edith described their long honeymoon by train. She gives insight into not only transportation aspects, but descriptions of meals. They visited Senator Warren of Wyoming who was Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. From DC they traveled to historic Ft. Monroe; a place I was fortunate to use as quarters with a military brother once.
Edith described everything for her mother especially when arriving at the beautiful settings for sheep camps in the Buffalo, Wyo. area. She also described the treacherous muddy roads. She was impressed with the sheep wagon that was their home in sheep camp. She knew they cost $240 and the company had 14 of them. She described every part of the wagon to her mother.
Edith was also impressed with the organization required to manage 29,000 ewes and 1,000 rams on the range. Shearers were paid nine cents a sheep, and one man did 250 per day. They shipped 4,000 lambs in double-decker railroad cars requiring 77 cars.
The Healy family had also been involved in banking. World War I and the demand for lamb and wool brought high prices. It was during this time the brothers decided to break up their partnership in the sheep business. Alec Healy moved his family to Worland where he was involved in banking. He was thankful that he and brother, Patsy, Jr., had escaped the financial crisis following World War I. Alec served in many community roles and also in the Wyoming State Legislature. Edward N. Wentworth in 1940 interviewed Alec for America’s Sheep Trails.
The family purchased the LU Sheep Co. in 1936 after selling the Washakie Livestock Loan Co., The LU was the first to have a registered herd of Angus in the state, but it was decades before the LU Sheep Co. was allowed to join the Wyoming Cattlemen’s Association.
WSGA readers of this book review will be interested to know that Cathy Healy is WSGA member Mike Healy’s sister. This book is the result of work done by Cathy in compiling family history and should be an encouragement to others to try to bring their family history to print to be saved as an integral part of the history of our ranching industry.