Odd Old News: The Herstory of Two Women Sheep Ranchers in Mendocino County

Two women on HorsebackNuggets of old news is served up once a week by David Heller, one of our local historians.

As is the case in much of the sparsely populated North Coast counties, the Euro-American history, and herstory, of the area between Laytonville and Leggett is little known.

Beginning in 1872 Jacob Lahm moved to Mendocino County and began patent claiming parts of ten sections in Township 22 North, Range 15 West for a homestead, eventually accumulating 7000 acres of mixed forest and rangeland. His property was located near Rattlesnake Summit, to the west of the stage route that would become Hwy 101, and about five miles north of James White’s Black Oak Ranch, which is known today as the Hog Farm.

After the death of his wife Elizabeth, Lahm took on the role of raising his two daughters, who as will be seen, became skilled ranchers and outdoors women, defying the stereotypes of the day. As their father aged, they took over running the sheep ranch and did everything that men would do in that position. This week, Odd Old News shares a portrait of their lives that was written by a woman from the city who clearly admired their toughness and ability to function in a “man’s world”.

San Francisco Call
October 31, 1897
Your shepherdess of song and story is a dainty Dresden bit of femininity, with a crook cravated by silken ribbon and a docile flock of animals browsing near to complete the placid picture.

California has a pair of shepherdesses entitled to quite as much distinction; but they wear brown overall and blue jumpers, carry guns instead of crooks and perform deeds that would make their pink and white predecessors faint dead away with terror just to contemplate. Such is the yawning difference between romance and reality.

A few days ago a San Francisco man, traveling by team on the overland road between Ukiah and Eureka, reined in his horses to let a band of sheep pass by in charge of two herders mounted on broncos. Across the back of one of the horses, behind its rider, lay a magnificent deer. The masculine attire of the strangers, who wide sombreros shaded sunbrowned faces, was oddly out of keeping with their musical voices and gentle, ladylike demeanor of when questioned about their antlered prize. And in truth they were no rough men of the mountains, notwithstanding their garb and vocation, but two very remarkable young women, whose home is perched on a Mendocino crag, whose haunts are the forest fastnesses and whose rare bravery and unfailing good temper shame the cowardice of some men and the peevishness of some women. These flesh and blood heroines, although being unspoiled children of nature, they happily are not aware of it, and their names are Gussie and Louise Lahm.

Three decades ago Jacob Lahm took unto himself a wife in Petaluma and went to the northern frontier for honeymoon and home. He was one of the earliest settlers in Mendocino, taking up 7000 acres of wildwood land along the mountain range for a cattle and sheep ranch. But on these wooded acres were other things than giants of the forest in the shape of splendid pines and redwoods reaching skyward, and such wealth of shrubbery as only California yields. There were bears, panthers, coyotes and other wild animals that must be exterminated before the ranch could be stocked. So Jacob Lahm turned trapper and hunter and became the most expert of them all throughout the county.

Two little daughters came to this sky ranch, but the mother did not live to rear them. That duty fell to the father, and who shall say that he was not wise for, having no sons, and knowing that he could not always protect his little ones in their isolated environment, he taught them out of his wonderful knowledge in the open—how to combine the wisdom of a strong, courageous man with the modesty of a woman. The consequence is that these girls, now 19 and 21 years of age, possess a most unusual list of accomplishments.

“Ten-Mile” is a ranch between Laytonville and Eureka, owned by an enterprising, well-to-do young farmer, James White, whose comely wife is famous in that part of the country for her cooking, and whose father, “Bob” White, died at Cahto two months ago, a well-known pioneer. Five miles up the mountainside from the White place live the Lahms, in an almost inaccessible spot. Their property is now worth about $35,000. The father has grown old, and his blithe, willing daughters take entire charge of the place, devoting themselves to their responsibilities and caring nothing at all about the great world of which they seldom hear. They have never even seen a railroad train, and what little education from books they have acquired has been in the district schoolhouse, miles away. Probably almost any two sisters who read this would be thinking they had not much time for lessons either if they had look after a band of 3,000 sheep. In their least busy season, the Misses Lahm don skirts and mingle with the pupils. When school hours are over they ride quickly home, change to the jeans and jumpers in which they feel so much more at ease, coil their thick blonde hair atop of their sensible, shapely heads, pull their leather-trimmed sombreros over their pretty freckled saucy little noses, and away they go to bring those wandering 3000 sheep into the fold before nightfall.

Think of spending the greater portion of your life in a Mexican saddle under the wide blue sky! These California wild flowers of womenkind are superb examples of what an athletic career will do to develop muscles and sinews, yet in no way are they coarsened by their freedom. The fair, rosy skin of the fatherland is tanned, the strong young hands are as brown as sun can dye them, the clear blue eyes, accustomed to penetrating dense underbrush, and far-off bluffs in locating lost sheep, are calm and unafraid. Excepting that the elder is a trifle taller, the sisters look as like as twins.

Every foot of the range, every tree and every bowlder is familiar to them each day they ride a radius of twenty miles. From the time they were big enough to cling to a horse’s mane they have been as much at their ease in a man’s saddle as is a debutante of last season is to-day’s drawing-room.

Their father has made them skillful in shooting, trapping, lassoing, branding sheep and tracking game. A leather riata is always tied to their saddles, and they can lasso a wild steer with unerring success. They brand all their sheep, superintend the shearing and assist the men they employ for that task, saddle their horses, do the cooking, housework, and washing, attend to the shipping of the wool after shearing time is over, pitch hay in the field, set traps for coyotes, and are always cheerful, whether preparing the morning meal before the sun climbs up to smile at them, or out in the teeth of a blinding midnight storm on the mountain, searching for a bleating lamb crying like a motherless babe in the darkness.

There is no grander forest scenery in the world than can be found in the extreme north of California, and no ranch more secluded than that of the Lahms. There are precipitous places in those 7000 acres, but none which these intrepid young mountaineers would not risk their supple necks to reach were a helpless lamb to stray there in its search for tender blades of grass after a rain. Down in the thick timber cattle do not flourish, but between the ranges there are canyon covered with chaparral, manzanita and oak, where they feed on acorns; and on the ranges there are plateaus where they graze.

In the late fall, when grass is short, the girls feed the sheep on hay in the corral. Before the rains come the animals are not too troublesome, but in hunting for grassy tit-bits they frequently get lost, so far away do they wander, and when counted at the corral several may be missing. Then their guardians from home, perhaps in wind and rain, their ears on the alert for a lamb’s distressed bleat. When found, the little four-footed pet is taken up in stout, tender arms and carried a-horseback home, where maybe the dawn has arrived first. Nor do the sisters always accompany each other.

It is a picture to keep in the memory, the sight of these modern shepherdesses driving their might band at twilight into the corral, the big sheep rushing in a riotous herd toward the inclosure, the lambs bleating loudly and the intelligent horses bodying the guidance of small brown hands that can grip like steel.

The Lahms own a number of fine shepherd dogs, valued at $200 apiece, and these always accompany their mistresses in search of the sheep, though their journey take them to the furthermost peak, where the snow flies, or to the bed of a canyon, where the frightened animals had hidden from the fury of a storm.

Sometimes a hungry enemy steals to the Lahm estates and makes a meal of mutton or lamb, and it is then that the protectors of the flock prove their admirable courage. If this foe is a bear—which they can ascertain by his tracks—they take day off, with their hounds, and hunt him to the death. Their dwelling, a plain board house, is handsomely carpeted and hung with trophies of their valor in skins of bears, wildcats, coyotes and panthers.

One of the largest panthers killed in the county was brought low by Miss Gussie recently. He measured eight feet from tip to tip, weighed 200 pounds, and had dined so often at the expense of the Lahms that the young Diana set forth to slay him. Tracking him to a canyon, she shot him with her rifle. Having learned from her father how to load game upon a horse’s back, she secured two stout poles from near-by tree, placed the ends on the ground, slanting against her horse’s side, dragged Mr. Panther to them and gradually rolled him upward until she could swing half of him around squarely across the saddle. The, she unconcernedly led the horse home, a trifling distance of seven miles or so.

When the coyotes get too numerous the sisters set out to silence their insistent howls, loading themselves with heavy steel traps which they convey to different points and place in them meat bait which is then scented to attract its prey.

Once a fire swept the pine woods and crept near the fence. For a distance of a mile the girls tore down the rails to save them, working without a moment’s rest from 7 o’clock in the morning until 10 at night.

Is it any wonder, think you, that every man, woman, and child in the county respects Gussie and Louise Lahm?

Honest and industry count for considerable away up in the redwoods of Mendocino.

Lillian Ferguson

Earlier Odd and Old News:

There are many, but here are the most recent:

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Willie Bray
Guest
3 years ago

🕯🌳That was a good one kept me till the end .

Guest
Guest
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  Willie Bray

I totally agree. Singularly free of the purple prose common at that time.

Bunny Wilder
Guest
Bunny Wilder
3 years ago

Did the women ever marry? Do you know anything of their futures? They must have lived another 60 years +/-. It stands to reason that there were many women like these two. There had to be.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago
Reply to  Bunny Wilder

You could join ancestry.com and let us know Bunny. 😉 It won’t load on my landline and I was hoping someone would add more. Couldn’t find a thing in Pioneering in the Shadow of Cahto Mtn, the three Through the Eyes of the Elders books, or the two volumes of Mendocino County Remembered about them.

Local Truthteller
Guest
Local Truthteller
3 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

Thank you for sharing your knowledge! I am fascinated with local history, but am yet a beginner. Any stories of Spy Rock Area? Good sources?

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago

I do not know much about the spyrock area Local Truthteller, and I am not sure how much is in the 3 volume Through the Eyes of the Elders Laytonville area history books, sold, or that used to be available at the Chevron station in Laytonville. The two volume Mendocino County Remembered oral histories is a wonderful read, but again, not sure how much will be about the spyrock area. Ernie had a fellow named Spyrock commenting on his blog who knew a lot of history about the Simmerlys who had a large holding near the Eel, so you might breeze through ernielb.blogspot.com using his search function. I did hear one good story about a supposed gold find up thar by one of the early successful hippies who has since left, but I never got to ask him more.

Jdruhf
Guest
Jdruhf
3 years ago

You misspelled “history”

Guest
Guest
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  Jdruhf

It was a pointed refaming. Which I suppose could be the possible for your comment too.

Trashman
Guest
Trashman
3 years ago

Apparently there were no animal rights nitwits then.

Guest
Guest
Guest
3 years ago

A lovely written article from Ms. Ferguson, who herself merited attention. The link include a bit of information about her. https://www.mvhistory.org/history-of/history-of-homestead-valley/lillian-ferguson/

Guest
Guest
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Found another article on the ladies- c Apparently they all pretty well known, although the authorship of Ward’s article is not -ahem- credited. Seems Ms. Ferguson’s predated Ward’s though.

Willie Bray
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  Guest

🕯🌳I went looking to found some interesting stuff on the family.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Great finds, nice to see the ladies’ faces! Thanks Guest.

Mary Ann Machi
Guest
Mary Ann Machi
3 years ago

Gussie & Louise

Mary Ann Machi
Guest
Mary Ann Machi
3 years ago

Gussie, 5’10”

Mary Ann Machi
Guest
Mary Ann Machi
3 years ago

Louise, 5’8 1/2″

Mary Ann Machi
Guest
Mary Ann Machi
3 years ago

Gussie with dogs and mountain lion

The Observer
Guest
The Observer
3 years ago

Those were the days!

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
3 years ago

They strongly remind me of Nonie James, ( a local female ranch owner of yore). I wonder if there is any relationship there. I want the rest of the story!

Mary Ann Machi
Guest
Mary Ann Machi
3 years ago

Ernie,

I remember Nonie from back in the 1970s. She’d come by the Sheriff’s Substation to see Sgt. (later Lt.) Frame. Might she have been packin’ a gun? Maybe not. What a character! I’ve no doubt she could match if not exceed anything those gals.

No one seems to have noticed the Lahms raised lambs……………

I like stars
Guest
I like stars
3 years ago

There are still plenty of badass ranch women in our hills and all over the western US.

Black Rifles Matter
Guest
Black Rifles Matter
3 years ago
Reply to  I like stars

Not sure about “plenty”. I think we could use a lot more of them. Ranching As an industry is dying. People don’t appreciate Ranchers or where there food comes from anymore. In fact they despise us ranchers and want our industry to go away, but they still want their in-n-out and they want it often.
Most of us ranchers don’t do it for the money….. it’s the lifestyle, the good people in the industry, and the legacy of tradition and family. When they say ride for the brand. It is a true statement. It is to me at least.
You want to know how to become a millionaire ranching??
Start off as a billionaire!

thetallone
Guest
thetallone
3 years ago

Great story, tho it’s not redwood country.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago
Reply to  thetallone

No redwoods just north of Big Rock, thetallone? I don’t know the area well, so I am just asking. I would think that the writer Ms. Ferguson would know a redwood, being from Mill Valley.

thetallone
Guest
thetallone
3 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

I’ve never seen any around the Rattlesnake summit area. Firs, oak, madrone. Not coastal enuf.

b.
Guest
b.
3 years ago
Reply to  thetallone

The description: West of the stage coach route and north of the Black Oak Ranch, “Township 22 North, Range 15 West” and “parts of 10 sections”, “uphill” puts it around the Tenmile Creek canyon near where it flows into the South Fork Eel. There are some redwoods in the canyon although there may have been more on the uplands of what’s called Brush Mountain, though given the name, maybe not.
This link might take you there on the USGS map site: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/ht-bin/tv_browse.pl?id=cf3c4b2aa2c8d189cdad39e9ba7da3fb
Look on the lower right corner of the map (1953).
A USGS map of the same area from 1920 shows how much had not been mapped: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/ht-bin/tv_browse.pl?id=32386093e68bf3e0df9c312189d4e399
The 1920 map was surveyed in 1916 and the State Highway in Leggett does not connect with the stagecoach route, which still climbs up the Bell Springs route.

b.
Guest
b.
3 years ago
Reply to  b.

Just north of Bell Springs (3 miles) is the Drewry Ranch, the homeplace of a young rancher, Jerry Drewry, who used to ride his horse to Round Valley to court a young woman, June Marie Bauer back in the late 1940’s. I’ve always wondered where the ranch was since June Marie told me the story of his long rides more than a decade ago. Out over the ridges, down into the Eel Canyon, back up across the ridges and into Round Valley. That’s dedication (and a good horse).

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago
Reply to  b.

Maps!! thank you b.– that 1920 one is very cool. Compared to what is available for Humboldt County (Forbes, Lentell, Denny, and Belcher maps), Mendocino County doesn’t have much.

TD
Guest
TD
3 years ago

Love these old stories. One of the best things about this website. The 19th Century style of writing brings a smile. Perhaps we’ve lost something with the more modern “get to the point and use as few words as possible”.