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Show Cattle Association honors ranchers i following is the first in a series of titles honoring ranchers in this area 1 vt members of the Uintah Cat-1 Cat-1 tns Association and who have j -jsed their 80th milestone. Honorary ilttllme memberships have been ' ,nled these men by the Uintah i (jttlenen's Association. ( Martin Fletcher, 82, was born Jan. 16, ! to William Lee and Sarah Oaks ' Richer at his grandmother Oak's 1 je At the time, the family lived on a i iflch about 15 miles up the White ' fttr, east of Rangely, Colo. He i nrked with his father as a young boy I md then they sold the White River ! such and moved to Vernal. ' J as a young man, Martin helped his 1 with cattle and farmed the j Fletcher Ranch where he still lives. He ; iiso farmed in Lapoint for his father ' ml it was here he married Bertha i telle, April 14, 1919. Home was a one-! one-! mm house and two children were ! The first summer of their marriage, i Hartin became very ill and was sick j cost of the summer. Bertha drove a i team and wagon back and forth the ' line day, two or three times a week for ' ! itetor's care. When Martin regained ; ks strength, he rode horseback six ' nils to a road building project and fed 100 head of cattle to pay the doctor bill ml to provide for his family. He was pid i a day. Softly after this, the crash that Mowed World War I came and Martin ! told his hay at $5 a ton. Through it all, ; tower, he saved and bought a few 1 Were to start his own cattle herd. He i aotinued building his herd throughout j bis I Martin, with his wife and father, built r ." s . . 7 MARTIN FLETCHER the home where he still lives. Bertha died Feb. 17, 1980 at the age of 79. "Building in those days was different," dif-ferent," recalls Martin. "I dug the basement with a pick and shovel and built the cement blocks. Then I cut and hauled the logs from the mountain to a sawmill. But I always paid as I went along and I stayed free of debt." The home has been a place of gathering for his children and grandchildren. Martin's father then bought a place on Blue Mountain and in 1932 Martin homesteaded some land for himself there. Since it was no place for a wife and children in the winter, Martin finished his homestead tenure by taking his wife and younger children to stay during the summer for weeks at a time, traveling to their destination by team and wagon, and later by Model A Ford. Left at home to care for the stock, irrigate and look after the place was Helen, 10, and Norman, 12. Martin later traded this tract of land for the place he owns on Blue Mountain today. He is semi-retired now but still enjoys working with cattle. His son, Terry, has worked closely with his father and owns land near his father's place on Blue. "I've seen some good prices for caiue, acunowieagea mis oiaumer, "but more often I've seen low ones. I remember well the 1930 depression and the drought that went with it. The cattle were starving and the government ordered the ranchers to kill a lot of cows for which they were paid from $2 to $12. We killed close to 100 head. All we needed to collect from the government govern-ment was both ears from each animal shot, so we told folks to come and salvage the meat. People came from as far as Maybell, Colo. "One thing I never did like was the BLM. They took our rights away from us," asserts Martin. Martin and Bertha are parents of Norman, Helen McKeachnie, Vonda Curtis, Terry, Marcia Liebhardt, Vernal and Lynn of Diamond Bar, Calif. His posterity number 30 grandchildren grand-children and 48 great grandchildren. "I have a time keeping track of these last ones," smiled Norman. Active in the LDS church, Martin also served as Utah State Land appraiser for many years. He is a great, independent pioneer of the Uintah Basin. |