Tehama County

Biographies

 

 

CURTIS DURKEE BALLARD

 

Notable among the pioneer families of northern California is the Ballard, the first member of which to come to the state was the late Curtis Durkee Ballard, who was one of Tehama county's most respected and revered citizens, a rancher of consequence, and a man of sterling character and unquestioned integrity. Mr. Ballard left much to immortalize his name in the history of California, much of tradition and ideals which his descendants may cherish with pride. Regrettable it is that these sturdy pioneers, as a rule, have not left adequate records of their lives, their experiences and toil, but fortunately Curtis D. Ballard has left for posterity his own account of his career, now in possession of his family, and penned in his own individual style. Before treating of this valuable manuscript, it is well to sketch briefly the vital points of his career.

 

Curtis D. Ballard was born at Machias, Cattaraugus county, New York, January 26, 1840, and died July 25, 1927, at Red Bluff, California. He was a son of Lorenzo and Caroline (Durkee) Ballard, of whom the former was born September 4, 1805, and, with his wife, lived at Homer, Cortland county, New York. The grandparents of Curtis D. Ballard were John and Polly (Pearson) Ballard, both of English descent, and were married January 8, 1786.

Concerning his educational opportunities, Mr. Ballard himself wrote: "The first school I went to was in a log house with long benches. I don't remember any desks. I don't believe we had a school for more than six months. I always went to school when there was one." When Mr. Ballard was a mere infant, his family moved from New York to Ohio, then "I think we went to Michigan in 1845. We went across the Marine Swamp on logs laid down and poles laid across them. In places they would sag down under the weight of the wagon. The family lived on farms awhile in Michigan, and later followed the building of the Michigan Central Railroad from Kalamazoo to Niles. The family later moved to Dowagiac and ran a hotel (1851)." Then in 1859, Mr. Ballard came to California by the overland trail, as noted later.

Curtis D. Ballard was married in 1879 on the Copeland ranch in Antelope valley, near Red Bluff, to Miss Emma Cochran, who was born in Butte county, December 31, 1859, a daughter of Holton and Mary Ann (Reid) Cochran, and died August 1, 1916, at Red Bluff, California. She was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and also an active member of the Antelope Women's Improvement Club for several years. To Mr. and Mrs. Ballard were born the following children: Merrill O., a sketch of whom is given elsewhere in this history; Edna Curtis, Herold Charles, and Kendall Cochran Ballard, who died of diphtheria in 1891, at the respective ages of nine, seven, and four years; and Esther Ballard Cavanaugh, a widow residing at Red Bluff, who is the mother of two children, Roland Hale and Ruth Emma.

Space prevents the presentation of Mr. Ballard's entire autobiography, but interesting portions of it are here quoted. He states: "I have always had money that I made myself since I was ten years old, and clothed myself since twelve. My first money I made was selling boiled eggs to the emigrants. The train came in in the morning. They were in box cars. Another boy sold them milk. We could sell them anything that was eatable. Mother sometimes gave me old biscuits. We used to sell apples on the passenger train which came in about noon. This was in Dowagiac, Michigan.

"I was such a little rustler and small for my age. I started a store in an old shack on Main street, at first in play. I made lemonade, the women came in and patronized me. Made only a few cents a glass. Father filled an ice house every year, packed in sawdust, so had plenty of ice. I had a cow and two steer calves I bought, and was going to have me a yoke of oxen. I had an old razor back sow. The man said she would steal pigs and I would sell them. Everything was sold when father, mother and Carrie went to Machias where I was born. They went on Grandfather Durkee's account, to take care of him. His death was in 1858 as near as I can get it. New (a brother) and I didn't go for some time. I don't know where Charles and Pete were. Louise was in Milwaukee with Uncle Larkins' folks, teaching school. I never saw any of them till years after, till they came to California.

"In the spring of 1859, five of us fixed to go to Pike's Peak, now Denver. The oldest wasn't more than twenty-five or six, I being the youngest, nineteen. I didn't have but a little money. They bought two yoke of oxen and light two horse wagon. We had about seven or eight hundred pounds of freight. Six hundred pounds of flour. Think of hauling flour three or four hundred miles. Could have got the same at the Missouri river. We crossed the Missouri river at Nebraska City. The first thing of note was Fort Kearney and Chimney Rock, a high rock that looked like a chimney standing by itself on the plains. Courthouse rock next, only larger. We were on the north side of the North Platte river. Major Russel of St. Louis was sending freight out to Salt Lake for the troops. We met up with some of their trains, 13 wagons, one big boss schooner wagon, six yoke of oxen to the wagon. Everyone made a corral of their wagons. Guess there were ten or twelve trains. Next was Fort Laramie. Indians came to camp, but were peaceable that year. So we came to California. We met the overland stages and Pony Express.

"We had to cross a sixty mile desert without water or feed for our cattle. We would carry water for ourselves. I think we went on the mountain side and got a little grass for our oxen. We got some potatoes. These were the first vegetables we had had in months. We paid a big price for them. My, they tasted good. We started over the desert in the evening, can't remember how long it took us. The first water was Granite creek. Our oxen smelled it about five miles. You ought to have seen them speal out. They were dead on their feet before. They never did get over the desert strip. The next was Susan river and then Susanville. One log house with some kind of store in it. Saw the old log house the last time I was in Susanville.

"We landed I think at Millville on the twenty-third of September in the year of eighteen hundred and fifty-nine. The next move we made was to the Sacramento river, a short way up the river from where Redding now stands."

Mr. Ballard first worked at mining when he came to California, worked long, hard hours, for a mere pittance. Shortly he became acquainted with a man at Shasta who offered him a job at thirty dollars a month, which seemed like a huge sum to him. "My," he writes, "I thought I would get rich quick. I didn't know that it was small wages. I had been used to getting ten and twelve dollars back in Michigan." He worked for this employer for a short time, and then again got the mining fever. Accordingly, with a chum and an old miner, he did much prospecting up the Sacramento river, of which he wrote, "We had a rough time packing sluice boxes on our back. One place for a tent we stretched a blanket up against a big rock and put brush around the outside." They ultimately reached Suisun, almost broke. They heard of the Boise mines in Idaho, so shouldered their blankets and struck out for this place. They passed through Yreka, then Jacksonville, Oregon, and took the Willamette trail. They reached the Willamette valley just at the harvest time and stopped to work in the fields. Later, they secured a ride into Salem, Oregon. Mr. Ballard was now entirely bereft of funds, and his predicament was further complicated by his inability to find a job. He went to a hotel with only his blankets as an asset, but stayed anyway. The hotel proprietor eventually sized up the situation and gave Mr. Ballard a job as second cook, and in this humble capacity he remained until spring, when he bought a horse and returned to California. The winter of 1861-62 was a hard one, with much cold and rain, and the stock were depleted in numbers. Mr. Ballard was out of work during most of the winter and stayed with his friend, Mr. Westcott, the first man in California who had given him work, and who finally assisted him to get a place in a store in Trinity county. He later went to Weaverville and there worked in a restaurant. Not until March, 1864, did he come to Red Bluff, where he found employment in the Tremont Hotel, in charge of the dining room. By this time he had accumulated four hundred dollars, had joined the Good Templars lodge, and was enjoying life in the new country. Concerning the period he wrote: "A bunch of us used to go with the girls to social dances and shows. Everywhere the Marys went the lambs were sure to go. That was the best time of my life. I have often wanted to live it over. I didn't save much money, but a little better than some did. I didn't shoot any billiards or pay in the saloons for drinks. Joined the Masonic lodge. Was so proud to be a Mason, had wanted to be one ever since I was a boy but this was the first opportunity I had had. This was in 1865."

Mr. Ballard's health became slightly impaired in 1866 from too much indoor work, so he purchased three yoke of oxen and a saddle horse, and started hauling freight over the mountains to Silver City, Idaho. Others were hauling freight, also, and he accompanied them. Due to the bad roads, a month's time was necessary to go from Red Bluff to Susanville. They would start about the first of May and had to go through deep mud most of the distance. On the return trip, Mr. Ballard and a companion party came by the Hat Creek road and stopped at Clotoe's mill, where he sold his old wagon and stayed there the remainder of the summer, doing odd work such as hauling saw logs with ox team. In the following autumn, Mr. Ballard left the mountains and returned to work at the Tremont Hotel, and by the year 1868 he had saved his first thousand dollars. He planned to buy sheep, but his plan did not materialize, so he managed to buy a piece of land east of Red Bluff, known as the Taber place. With this property, he bought a ferry which crossed the Sacramento river near where the bridge is situated today. He operated this ferry for a long interval. Later in life, however, he became a successful sheep raiser, but sold his stock and became interested in farming and cattle raising near Red Bluff. At the advanced age of seventy-five he retired from active farm work, and moved back to the old home in Red Bluff. This home he had built before he was married to Emma Cochran in 1879, when Red Bluff was only a small hamlet. His home was about the third house west of the railroad at that time. Just a year after his return to town, Mrs. Ballard died suddenly, at the age of fifty-seven. Mr. Ballard survived her for eleven years, his death occurring, as noted before, on July 25, 1927, at the Sisters Hospital in Red Bluff, his fatal illness having been pneumonia. Mr. Ballard was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and his political support was given to the republican party.

Transcribed by Sande Beach.

 

© 2005 Sande Beach.