The Woody family: A love of the land is our way of life
| Friday, Jul 30 2010 12:49 PM
Last Updated Friday, Jul 30 2010 12:49 PM
The Kern County Cattlewomen contributed several family histories to the new book "Some California Ranches: Their Stories and Their Brands." The group agreed to share those stories with The Californian. This week: The Woody family.
Our great-grandfather, Dr. Sparrell Woody, and his brother Tazwell, moved out West from Virginia with the lure of gold. Dr. Woody eventually settled in the basin of Kern County, and as my Dad told the story, was flooded out one too many times. Luckily for us, he moved to higher ground in 1862, to the mountains northeast of Bakersfield at the foot of Blue Mountain, above what would eventually be called the town of Woody.
There, he and his wife, the former Sarah Bohna, dry farmed and raised cattle, and also raised five children: two boys, Stonewall and Elmer, and three girls, Eugenia, Nettie and Victoria.
When the ranch passed to Elmer and Stonewall, they had different dreams for their lives. Stonewall became the county auditor and lived in Bakersfield, and Elmer remained on the ranch to marry Francis Weringer and raise a family of two boys, Ward and Robert.
He and Stonewall bought land when it became available and increased the size of the ranch considerably. The cattle raised on the ranch probably looked like the cattle of the day: big, rangy, a cross of Hereford and Durham. Steers were not sold until they were 2 or 3 years old, bulls were run year-round and calves were branded when you found them.
Elmer passed away when Robert was only 9 years old. Francis did what she had to do to keep the ranch. She taught school at Woody and for a time at Panama School in Bakersfield.
As the stories were told by our grandmother, Frances, and my dad, Robert, there were men who were ready to help a widow with two young boys and there were men who were ready to take a ranch away from a widow with two young boys. Being of strong stock as our grandmother was, and with the help of neighbors, the ranch remains in our family.
Ward and Robert continued the ranch as their father had done before them. For a time, they raised registered horned Herefords, dry farmed oat hay in the lower part of the ranch and the meadows at the ranch, and eventually settled with commercial Hereford cattle.
Ward married Muriel Hinds and had two boys, Ronnie and Jerry. Robert married Evelyn Sandrini and had one daughter, Gloria.
They worked hard, enjoyed their lives tremendously, and taught all of us the same love and respect for the land and this way of life.
The ranch continues to raise Hereford cattle but has kept up with the changing trends in the cattle industry.
Even though quad runners have replaced some of the hours spent in the saddle by our fathers, grandfather, and great-grandfather, the history of our family remains in adobe fire stacks and hand-dug wells.
The future is seen in the sixth generation, starting with a 3-year-old and 4-year-old on horseback, chasing cows down the alley, and the bigger ones helping on the ground crew at branding time, learning all that the past generations have learned.
We all have a tremendous appreciation for what the men and women of our family have taken such care of to ensure this way of life for all of us.
