Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All USU Press Publications USU Press 2008 Old Deseret Live Stock Company W. Dean Frischknecht Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Frischknecht, W. D. (2008). Old Deseret Live Stock Company: A stockman's memoir. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the USU Press at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All USU Press Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Old Deseret Live Stock Company Old Deseret Live Stock Company A Stockman’s Memoir W. Dean Frischknecht Utah State University Press Logan, Utah Copyright ©2008 Utah State University Press All rights reserved Utah State University Press Logan, Utah 84322-7200 www.usu.edu/usupress Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on recycled, acid-free paper ISBN: 978-0-87421-711-7 (cloth) ISBN: 978-0-87421-712-4 (e-book) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Frischknecht, W. Dean. Old Deseret Live Stock Company : a stockman’s memoir / W. Dean Frischknecht. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-87421-711-7 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-87421-712-4 (e-book) 1. Frischknecht, W. Dean. 2. Sheep ranchers--Wasatch Range (Utah and Idaho)--Biography. 3. Ranch life--Wasatch Range (Utah and Idaho) 4. Deseret Live Stock Company--History. 5. Wasatch Range (Utah and Idaho)--Biography. I. Title. SF375.32.F74A3 2008 636.3’01097922--dc22 [B] 2008007384 Contents Prologue 1 1 Expanding Horizons 9 2 Shearing 22 3 The High and Glorious Summer Range 35 4 Great Trail Drives 49 5 Shaping Up for Winter and Shipping to Skull Valley 56 6 Skull Valley 67 7 It Happened During Breeding Season 76 8 Old-Time Range Strategy 85 9 Lambing 93 10 Western Hospitality 103 11 A New Addition 109 12 Timely Moves 115 13 The Big Snow 122 14 Approaching Disaster 128 15 Looking Up 136 16 A Great Recovery 141 17 All in the Day’s Work 147 18 Moving Up 155 19 The Best of Times 162 20 The Dugway Withdrawal 168 21 Major Changes 173 22 End of an Era 182 23 Bad News 188 24 Life’s Big Decisions 193 25 Transitions 199 Index 206 Prologue The Deseret Live Stock Company in northern Utah was organized and incorporated in January 1891. “Deseret” is a Book of Mormon word for “hon- eybee,” a symbol of industry. Brigham Young and many of the early Utah pioneers hoped that the Territory of Utah would become a vast state named Deseret. Those early settlers knew that if they were to succeed in the high dry country of the Great Basin, they would have to work and cooperate like honeybees. In 1896 the Territory of Utah became a state named Utah, in rec- ognition of the ancestral home of the Ute Indians. The Deseret Live Stock Company, though, retained the name early Mormon Utahns had applied hopefully to a large section of the West. Before the company was incorporated, neighboring ranchers from Davis County and other parts of northern Utah laid the groundwork for a large coop- erative enterprise. Led by members of the Hatch and Moss families, a number of woolgrowers sought to join together in a large outfi t with a hired manager. After they had determined the outside limits of a desirably sized ranch in the northern Wasatch Mountains, property owners within the tentative, desired area would be invited to join the larger entity. This idea caught on and, at the time of incorporating, successfully attracted ninety-fi ve stockholders, who jointly owned twenty-eight thousand sheep, a number of horses, and some sheep camp equipment, valued at $90,000. The Deseret Live Stock Company was incorporated with seventy-fi ve thousand shares. The incorporation papers stated that the purpose of the company was to “promote stock raising, slaugh- tering, butchering, mercantile business, and other commercial enterprises in the Territory of Utah and other states of the U.S.” The Deseret Live Stock Company was prosperous, and after six months of successful operations, a 10 percent dividend was paid to all stockholders. The Moss and Hatch families were the largest stockholders, and held the top managerial and executive positions in the company. Substantial profi ts allowed the company to increase the number of sheep it ran to fi fty thousand, to get into the cattle business, and to purchase additional land for grazing and the production of farm crops such as hay and grain. Much of the land was pur- chased in northeastern Utah, from the checkerboard grants the Union Pacifi c 1 2 Old Deseret Live Stock Company Railroad had received from the federal government to subsidize construction of the transcontinental railroad. The company acquired other land from the state of Utah and from private individuals. Following the entry of the United States into World War I, livestock producers such as Deseret profi ted greatly from the demand for wool, beef, and mutton by the U.S. government. In 1917 the Deseret Live Stock Company purchased the Iosepa Ranch in Skull Valley, Tooele County, Utah, from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS, or Mormon, Church). This fertile, irrigated ranch would serve as winter headquarters for grazing sheep and cattle seasonally driven out of the high mountains and for the production of hay and grain. This historic ranch in Skull Valley had been purchased by the LDS Church from John Rich in 1890 for $58,000. Iosepa had been created in 1889 as a colony for a group of Hawaiian converts to the church who wished to move to Utah. Church offi cials looked over several possible locations not too far from Salt Lake City before settling on the Skull Valley Ranch. The LDS Church helped build the town of Iosepa there, which became home to 230 Hawaiians. The town was surveyed and laid out in square blocks, and a pressurized water system was installed. A store, schoolhouse, church, and many homes were built. However, the church built a temple in Hawaii during the years 1916 to 1919 on Oahu, across the island from Honolulu. Most of the Hawaiians at Iosepa chose to move back there, although some of the younger colonists moved to Salt Lake City. The church had owned the property at Iosepa and paid the Hawaiians a living wage, which enabled the community to last for twenty-eight years. Soon thereafter, the Deseret Live Stock Company bought the Tom Jones ranch, which adjoined company property along the Utah/Wyoming line, for something over $200,000. This was followed by the 1918 purchase of the neighboring Neponset Land and Livestock Company in northeastern Utah for another $200,000. Deseret continued to prosper and buy more land; by the 1920s it owned nearly 225,000 acres and was said to be the largest private landowner in Utah. After the stock market crash inaugurated the Great Depression in autumn 1929, the early 1930s value of livestock dropped to less than 30 percent of its 1929 value. The days of high profi ts and dividends had vanished. Sales of livestock and wool would not pay production expenses. The company was unable to pay dividends from 1930 through 1938. During this time, several stockholders wanted to sell their stock. Most of this was purchased by an original stockholder and member of the board of directors, James H. Moyle, and his family. Moyle eventually owned two-sevenths of the company, nearly one-third. He had served as undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury in Prologue 3 Author’s Collection Walter Dansie, general manager, left, and James H. Moyle, president, of the Deseret Live Stock Company (circa 1940). President Woodrow Wilson’s administration. His son Walter Moyle, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., became owner of one-seventh of Deseret. In 1933 the Deseret Live Stock Company borrowed $370,000 from the federal Regional Agricultural Credit Corporation. The company’s board of directors agreed that the lender should appoint a new general manager, Walter Dansie, who was an experienced livestock man and broker. He replaced William Moss, who had been the manager for over forty years, but was in his declining years and not in good health. Dansie introduced several worthwhile changes. He closed the three retail stores the company operated. Most of the mercantile business was through a big store in Woods Cross, Utah; however, it had been customary to let cus- tomers charge their purchases, and the store consequently was losing money. Steps were taken to collect overdue accounts, and the store was closed. Dansie moved the Deseret Live Stock business offi ce from Woods Cross to Salt Lake City, and the company concentrated on livestock production. Sheep camps and ranches would thereafter order food using “grub order” sheets, which listed several dozen food items that were available. Each camp and ranch ordered enough food to last six weeks. ZCMI Wholesale Grocery in Salt Lake City fi lled the orders and delivered them to central locations out on the range on a designated “grub day.” 4 Old Deseret Live Stock Company Author’s Collection Will Sorensen and his wife, Margaret, rode horses from the summer range to the Home Ranch, eighteen miles each way, to pick up fresh garden vegetables (circa 1940). Eventually, James H. Moyle became president of the Deseret Live Stock Company. He held that offi ce when I became acquainted with the company, at shearing time in June 1943, while I was working on my master’s degree.