Blount's Courage A Family's Farm Empire In The American West As Told By The Blount Grandsons

We began 1948 with problems, the soil moisture was too low to plow, there would have been a dust storm had we set the plows to work. We had not planted any winter wheat and now, there was no way we could plant red wheat, corn or rice.

It looked like it was going to be a bleak year.

Stefan and Albert were keeping the pastures green and Albert had purchased pipe to run water to the orchards. We dared not turn the beef herd out on the upper pastures, what little grass was there was too fragile and the summer winds would blow the topsoil away if the grass was damaged by grazing.

The folks at Shady Creek Co-Op called that they were in trouble with their pump and Albert sent some of his mechanics down there to give them a hand. Chuck Dean, the Chief Electrician, came stomping into my office, his face was in a fury.

He told me the motor on the Co-Op's pump had been sabotaged!

The motor was completely destroyed, someone had jammed an iron bar in through the motor vents and the motor shaft was twisted and the laminations of the rotating element had been damaged beyond repair.

The 300-horsepower, vertical motor was a complete loss!

Henry Yee was frantic, the Co-Op had planted for the spring sales and the vegetables were beginning to sprout, without water, they would lose everything. There was a new motor available at Valley Electric, down in Sacramento, but it was $8,000 and they didn't have the cash until the crops sold.

His son, Todd, was my Assistant, so I turned to him and told him to have the Isaac Blount Packet leave immediately to go pick up the new motor.

As soon as Todd went to round up the packet crew, I got on the telephone and authorized Valley Electric to release the motor to Mr. Todd Yee, who would be on the packet arriving about noontime.

Henry just shook his head, "Mr. Steven, now I know where Todd gets it. He told me you would help us out of this mess and I didn't believe it. I was dead wrong!"

I replied, "Henry, we are neighbors, we Blounts and the Co-Op; we either stick together or we all go down together."

I then asked him, "Do you have any idea who stuck the iron bar in the motor?"

He replied, "Not really, the only strangers have been around has been those organizers from that damned Union, would they do that to working folks like us?"

I had no answer for him.

I quietly spoke with all the managers about the problem, if the Union Organizers were upping their activities to violence; we had too many folks depending on us for their safety and their livelihood.

Todd went a step further and advised all the outside foremen to carry a rifle or pistol in their pickups.

I didn't think that was necessary, but I didn't countermand his instructions. It was a good thing; two nights later someone tossed lit gasoline soaked rags onto the roof of the generator house when the generator was running.

PG&E had a transformer blowout just outside Marysville and they told us it would be a couple of days to get it replaced.

I was durned mad, as dry as everything is, that fire could have taken out all of Blount's Bluff!

I called the County Sheriff, he promised to have extra patrols around, but that was all he could do.

Some years ago, Poppa had bought out Robinson Security Service and all those men were now working as security guards for us. Some were permanently over at the schools and the remainder went with Tobias whenever he had to make a bank run or did odd security jobs around the farm. Bill Fowler was their supervisor and he and I got together right after lunch, he didn't hold out much hope in catching the perpetrators, but he would assign two roving pickup patrols to roam around the perimeter fence at night.

Nothing more happened for a couple of weeks, so maybe the roving patrols did do some good.

The next thing to happened, Stefan called Gustav to tell him that water was running down the hill from the old Stallings place. Gustav went driving up there and found the irrigation pipe shot full of holes; water was gushing out and washing the topsoil down into the dairy pasture. There was no way that pipe could have been shot from off the property, now we had trespass to be concerned about also.

I decided we needed to have a management meeting; this was getting out of hand. The soonest everyone could get together was two days from now, on March 3rd.

I invited Henry Yee to attend and Roberta offered to host a light lunch for everyone.

The morning of the meeting started with gunfire at the main gate. Someone shot the lock off the gate and tried to drive a large flatbed truck into the yard. The driver missed the culvert in the half light and the truck tipped over on its side.

By the time we all got there, the driver and whoever was with him had disappeared. The truck itself had been stolen from PG&E and had union leaflets stacked on the seats.

It took PG&E several hours to lever it out of the ditch and have it towed back to their corporation yard in Redding. Their supervisor told me that the company planned on investigating the theft and would prosecute whoever had stolen it.

I went back to the house and finished getting dressed for our meeting, it would be a little late, but I intended to have at least a cup of coffee before facing the day's business.

We finally got started about 9 am and began by listing out all the recent attempts at sabotage. When they were all listed, I was surprised at how long the list had become and knew that we had a bad problem on our hands.

Todd went around and got a list of all the pistols and rifles that the supervisors had, he intended to make sure that there was a supply of ammunition kept in the office for everyone. Jake Davis, the Range Supervisor suggested we all carry shotguns rather than rifles. He observed that the business end of a 12 gauge shotgun was a whole lot more intimidating than that of a rifle and it made a whole lot more noise.

We all agreed and Todd made a note to purchase 20 shotguns and enough shot shells to start a young revolution!

Roger Dement said that he had heard in town that the Local Union had imported a bunch of organizers from back east and that they had been going around intimidating the smaller operations.

We agreed to build a Guard Shack at the main gate and have it manned by two armed employees during business hours and have Bill Fowler hire some additional security men. All gates leading into the farm were to be locked at night.

Joseph suggested we install another diesel fuel tank in case fuel deliveries were interrupted and we needed to use the diesel generator for power.

I told Todd to order a tank and fuel as soon as the meeting was over.

That was about all we could do to protect ourselves and I hoped we could escape any further confrontations with the organizers.

It was to prove a forlorn hope, by the next morning we would be in armed confrontation with a small army of thugs.

Todd ordered the shotguns and sent two men to get them from the sporting goods store, along with the ammunition he had ordered. Our fuel supplier sent us a tanker full of diesel fuel to park on the property until the tank we had purchased could be delivered and installed and we spent the remainder of the day repairing the damage to the irrigation pipe.

By supper time, nothing had happened and we began to hope for a quiet night.

Just as Roberta was putting the baby down for the night, the front drive erupted in a violent explosion and all the lights went out. I could hear Josef and his crew running for the generator building to start the diesel generator and the lights flickered on and stabilized.

I started hearing explosions at other locations and saw something fly by the window just before the house rocked and the front porch exploded in shattered wood and flames.

There were sounds of the shotguns being fired and screams of pain out at the front gate. Someone turned on the area lighting and there were burning trucks and cars parked in front of the gate and I saw several men laying on the ground with our boys standing over them with shotguns in their hands.

My Army Airmen were taking prisoners!

The phone was dead, so I hoped that the Sheriff knew we were in trouble and would come looking for us. He arrived about 10 minutes later with a dozen deputies.

Fortunately, nobody had been killed, but Doctor Beesom was going to be busy patching up some invaders. I told the Sheriff that we would press charges for trespassing, property damage and attempted murder. There was no sleeping that night, Todd and I made the rounds of all the properties to make sure nobody had been injured and no stranger had gained access to our side of the fence.

The next morning, I called Jeff Stoddard, our corporate attorney and gave him a run down on what had taken place. He said he would file a complaint of Criminal Trespass in Superior Court and see if we couldn't make a Federal Complaint in District Court since it was organized labor attacking us.

I told him that I recognized some of the invaders as the same ones who had thrown bricks through the windows to get us to get rid of our Japanese and German employees just before the last war broke out, when I was a boy.

I told him that Poppa could probably identify them. He knew that Poppa was in poor health and told me he would try to not involve him if at all possible.

There was a big splash in the Redding Newspaper about how we attacked an innocent assembly of union members.

Without even inquiring about the article, I pulled all of our advertising from the newspaper and its sister paper in Marysville; the entire farm, Safe Stores and the dairy products' advertisements were cancelled.

Since we were their biggest advertiser, I wondered how long they were going to support the union line of lies without any of our advertising.

Sheriff Stanley called me to tell me all the union members had been bailed out of jail, so I put Jeff Stoddard on the matter and he got an injunction from Federal District Court that afternoon.

By nightfall, we had twenty armed men roaming the farm and dairies. I didn't want any trouble, but I sure wasn't going to wait until one of our people got hurt or even killed before we took action.

Josiah and Billy were back from their sales trip and both of them were mad as wet cats over the situation. They both took to carrying a pistol in an open holster, making sure everyone saw that they were armed.

During this time, Poppa started having chest pains and we had Dr. Beesom out right away. Mama wasn't handling the situation very well and Dr. Beesom gave her something to calm her down and made sure she took them.

He told me that Poppa's heart was going and there wasn't much he could do, except to make him comfortable and hope for the best.

In the middle of the problems with the union, Poppa passed away in his sleep, Mama's screams alerted us and we all came running. Josiah and Toby were stricken as bad as the rest of us, after Uncle John had died Mama and Poppa were family to them and I considered them both brothers, myself.

The hands lowered the flag and asked to pay their respects, there were few dry eyes among them; Poppa had been Father, Brother and Friend to every one of them.

Roberta stayed with Mama, making sure she took her medicine and kept her calm.

I called over to the Army Base to let them know that Poppa had died; after all, he was a WW1 Hero and had been awarded the Medal of Honor. I then called the Charge d'Affairs at the French Embassy in Washington, as Poppa had been honored by the French Government and had been named a Chevalier du France for his services to that nation.

Colonel Ben Jefferies called me back from Beal Army Base and told me they would handle Poppa's funeral.

The next morning, Ambassador Charles Montagne of the Embassy of France called to offer his condolences and those of the President of France. He said that he would personally attend Poppa's funeral.

I called Colonel Jefferies back and he said that he would coordinate his plans with the French Ambassador.

Todd blew the fire horn and told all the hands of Poppa's death; he raised, then lowered the Flag to half-mast until after Poppa's Funeral. The old hands at the Retirement Center came and stood guard over Poppa's bed until the undertaker came to prepare the body.

Momma wanted Poppa to be buried in his uniform and Maria and I dug it out of his trunk up in the attic. Todd wrote up the article for the newspaper, his tears nearly kept him from performing this last service to Poppa.

Momma had to be carried down to the Equipment Barn, where we held Poppa's funeral. Colonel Jefferies read the Eulogy and the French Ambassador read a stirring account of Poppa's exploits in France during WW1. Josiah chronicled Poppa's life. Roberta and I had to carry Momma as they lowered Poppa's casket into the grave in the Family Cemetery.

I fear she will be the next Family member we have to bury.

I noticed that Billy was not with us, when I asked, Josiah said, "Later, Isaac, later!"

We all returned to the house, Momma surprised us; she rallied and personally thanked each visitor, who had come to honor Poppa. By nightfall, however, she was exhausted and Roberta helped her to bed.

I cornered Josiah and asked him what was going on and where was Billy.

Josiah replied, "Isaac, there was trouble down at the Pumping Station and Billy has been shot!"

I shouted, "WHAT!"

Josiah held my hands and explained, "Billy is gonna be OK, he just took a bullet in his shoulder, but, we got two dead union men and a dead Deputy, Clint Evers."

He continued, "We are gonna close up the gates tonight and arm the hands. This has gone on long enough!"

I replied, "You are damned right, enough is enough!"

We spent the next week locked down while the Sheriff's Department rounded up the ring leaders of the people who were causing so much trouble. They were not even members of any union; they had been hired to cause trouble.

We never found out who was behind the trouble, but after the ring leaders were residents of Folsom State Prison, we didn't have any further problems.

It was difficult to reorganize after Poppa's death, I was lucky to have Roberta at my side keeping me on an even keel. The boys helped too, they ran interference as much as they could.

At twelve years old, they are not quite adults, but they know every part of Blount Farms and everyone who lives and works here.

I have promoted Todd to Executive Assistant and Vice President of Blount Farms and Josiah is now Vice President of Physical Properties.

Toby is Vice President of Finance and Albert Ito is Vice President of Operations.

I have my eye on some property over at Walnut Grove, there are 30,000 acres for sale, mostly in rice. Josiah and I went over to look at it and we made a bid on it. So far, we are the high bidder. If we are successful, I plan on appointing Carl Ito as General Manager of the Walnut Grove Properties.

I discussed it with his father, Danny Ito, and poor Danny cried.

We are buying new equipment like mad, all of a sudden, it seems like our equipment is wearing out. We had gone a long time with little trouble, so I guess we are paying for that now.

When I told Garner Vance about the possibility of additional rice acreage, his eyes lit up. They had enlarged the brewery and had been scrambling to get additional rice.

There is a good foreign market for rice right now; our government is sending a lot of aid to Japan and Free China in the form of rice.

We started out this year with a reported profit of $27 million and, with the "set asides" for land purchase, we still have sufficient funds to enlarge the hospital in Marysville.

We have taken a majority interest in Manteca Beef and are now the sole supplier of feed to both their feed lots. We have plans on upping their production, we authorized the construction of a flash freezer plant in Manteca and we will begin to distribute pre-packaged meats to our retail customers as soon as it comes online.

With the increase in dairy production, I plan to promote Gustav to General Manager of Dairy Operations at the next Board Meeting; he has turned that division into a major profit center.

Josiah wants us to go down to Ripon next week, there is some vineyard acreage there for sale. I am not sure we want to be in the wine business, but I will at least listen to his ideas.

Who knows, maybe the land will grow wheat?

We are planning on expanding our housing; the Board agreed to offer homes on the property to all our senior executives, down to Foreman and Supervisor. It makes a lot of sense, although I am sure there will be a few who will prefer to live in town.

We are certainly not going to force anyone.

One of the last things that Poppa had wanted was an agreement with Heald's College in San Francisco to train our prospective foremen and supervisors. I just concluded that agreement and I think Poppa had a good idea. I would like to find some sort of training program for our trades, like electricians and machinists, maybe even a night school, where our hands could go and get training for promotions.

I will ask Albert Ito to look into that.

TBC