From Book 6
We finished up the year, for the first time in several years, we finally had sufficient silo space to store the crops. We did store some of the feed grains down at the Co-op but only to keep them separated. Tobias reported a profit of $22,300,000. Just before Christmas, we lost Uncle Jeff, he passed in his sleep. Tobias and Aunt Carly were devastated. Uncle Jeff had been doing poorly for several years, his arthritis had curled up his hands something fierce and he was in a lot of pain. We buried him the day after Christmas in the Blount Family Cemetery.
Chapter -1- UNREST FROM REDDING
The hate mail continued, off and on. There was no way to discover who was sending it, but we maintained our vigilance. It was mostly against those who had German sounding names, but Danny Ito, down in Shady Grove also began receiving them.
Danny's family came to California from Japan about the time of the Gold Rush and they have farmed ever since. In fact, Danny's Mother was the daughter of emigrants from France. She is still living and lives in a little cottage behind Danny's house, her name used to be Isabel LeGrande.
I asked Danny if he wanted to move up to Blount Farm. Danny is a skilled orchardist and he would be a great addition to us. He said that they would think about it.
The winter was mild and the winter wheat was heading early, we were able to start plowing in late March, I do not believe we had ever started that early before.
We had purchased a small tract of land on the other side of the county road and Josiah had sent Bobby Sutton over with the pan buster to prepare the land. We plan on planting peaches on the acreage, it is slightly rolling, with low hills and good drainage and will add another 3,700 acres to our peach production. California Canners is building a new cannery between Blount's Landing and Marysville and they figure on shipping by barge from the landing.
Bobby came running to the house; he reported seeing smoke from Shady Creek!
Josiah hit the button on the fire horn as he ran out the door. He loaded two flat beds with hands and went racing to Shady Creek to help fight fire.
We heard nothing more for several hours and I was becoming very uneasy, so I commandeered Isaac and his pickup truck and we headed for Shady Creek ourselves.
Four houses were burning, it was evident nothing could be saved from any of them.
Danny Ito was standing, looking at the wreckage of his home. Tears were flooding his face and his wife, Yoshi was trying to comfort him. His mother's house lay in ruins and two neighbors were also burned out. Danny's two teen aged sons, Carl and Albert were standing next to their Father, anger evident on their faces.
I walked up to the oldest, Albert, and asked him what happened.
He replied, "They burned us out, Mr. Steven, they burned everything!"
I grabbed hold of both boys and we walked over to Danny and Yoshi. I said, "Danny, come home with us. We can put you up in the guest cottage and, if you want to stay, we will build you a house at Blount Farm."
I sent Isaac back to bring some more help and several pickup trucks. When they arrived, I set them to sorting through the wreckage for anything that could be salvaged, it wasn't much.
Both Danny and Yoshi were numb, Carl and Albert were still angry, Isaac spoke with them for a bit and then led the two boys over to the truck and took them to our house.
The neighbors, Amanda and Richard York and Mary and Thomas McAndrew decided to stay with friends.
Danny's Mother, Isabel Ito was fuming angry and kept slipping into her native French. Her invective was liberally laced with the word, "merde"!
We finally got them all home to Blount Farm and Ella Marie made them welcome. She had sent the housekeeper, Janey Bartlett, over to the guest cottage to open it up and make sure there were plenty of linens and towels.
We had them over for supper, Danny was a little better, but the boys were still very angry. I took Danny and the boys into my office for a chat, "Danny, boys, I can't do anything to replace what you have lost, as much as I would like to. You have always been good friends to us Blounts and I hate to see you hurting so. The only thing I can do is to offer you a home here with us and, if you wish, there is work for you here, also."
Danny sat on the chair and hung his head, "Mr. Steven, you don't really want dirty Japs working here, do you?"
That was IT, I stood directly in front of Danny, "Danny Ito, we have known each other since we were small boys together, I don't know any DIRTY JAPS, I do know my friend Danny Ito and I say to him, Mr. Danny, if you wish to live here, that house is yours! If you and OR your boys want to work here, the jobs are YOURS, also!"
After we had all calmed down, Danny agreed to become our Head Orchardist and the boys said they would like to apprentice in the machine shop.
I notified John Robertson of the problems and he told me that he had already heard about it and that he would make sure the guest cottage was included on his men's security rounds.
The weather continued fair and we got all our market grains planted before the winter wheat needed to be harvested. The winter wheat was again, a bumper crop and the hands were mighty glad to see the last acre cut.
Josiah had been looking at the inventories and decided to go on a sales trip, Isaac asked me if he could go along, I told him it was alright with me, but he had to ask Josiah.
The two left the following week, Josiah told me that there were 1,200 barrels of olives in the warehouse and they needed to be moved.
They took the packet to Sacramento and then headed east on the train. We got a telegram from Josiah in Chicago with an order number and a Banker's Trust Company release number for 400 barrels of olives to be shipped to Spagnoli & Sons in Chicago immediately.
The next we heard from them, Isaac sent a telegram with order numbers from Bancoli Brothers and DeCimento, Inc. Both were located in New York City and each wanted 200 barrels of olives.
At the bottom of the telegram was a note to Roberta telling her he loved her and reminding her they were to be married in July!
The two wandered down through Atlanta and New Orleans before they returned to Blount Farm, they had sold every last barrel of olives from the warehouse and had pre-sold part of last year's crop that was still aging!
I have thought before that Josiah could sell ice cubes to the Eskimos in Alaska!
Danny Ito came to see me; he wanted to thank me for our generosity to him and his Family. I reminded him that we got the better of the deal, now we have a top notch orchardist and two fine maintenance apprentices!
It makes me so durned mad, what are people thinking, Danny and his Family are 100% AMERICANS!
The hate mail has continued and we are not going to bow down to thugs and bandits.
All the foremen go about their daily business armed and every truck has at least one rifle behind the driver's seat.
It was a relief to have Isaac and Josiah back; I hadn't realized how much Isaac did for me until he was gone! He is well liked by the hands, and the younger ones took him out as soon as he returned with Josiah.
The next morning, he looked like maybe I should not ask him any questions, his eyes were bloodshot and he looked like he would like to scratch his tongue!
I don't believe my son ever touched anything alcoholic again! I guess we all have to learn that lesson, some harder than others of us.
Garner Vance, Caleb's son, was with us as we harvested his rice, he told us of similar hate campaigns against people of German and Japanese ancestry going on in San Francisco.
All I could do was shake my head, folks got no common sense!
As soon as the rice was in, we started on the summer wheat. While they were harvesting the wheat, the hands planted the winter wheat field in barley; we had a full house of feeder beeves and swine again this year.
Gustav was tearing his hair out, someone had let the swine out one night and he was chasing over half the county trying to get them all back. He didn't show me the note that was tacked to the door, when Isaac told me about it I went off like a fire works! I had Jim Robertson and Sheriff Blake in my office.
Isaac told me later he was afraid I was going to pop!
I told them both in no uncertain term that if they couldn't protect Blount Farm, I would arm all the hands and we would do it ourselves! I told them we had 120 employees and every one of them knew how to shoot! It wasn't bad enough that folks were being burned out, that we had to escort our children to school and back and that we had to post armed guards around our homes at night, now they were destroying the livelihood of those who depended upon us for employment!
I told them, "One more incident and the Blounts are going to war!"
Both men promised more patrols and the troubles did stop, for a while.
As Isaac's wedding date got closer, the more nervous he became. On the Friday before his wedding on Sunday, I finally told him to take the day off, I was afraid he was going to break.
Roberta's younger sister, Elizabeth, was running the switchboard and Isaac was told he could not see Roberta until the wedding. He was even walking into doors, he was so jittered!
Sunday finally rolled around and we were going to hold the wedding outside, under the trees.
At 10 am, the hands, all cleaned up in their best jeans and shirts, started to assemble.
Josiah was going to be his Best Man and Elizabeth was Maid of Honor. Naomi was the flower girl and little Billy was the Ring Bearer. They both had asked that their name be changed to Blount after their adoption was made permanent and they adored their big brother, Isaac and big Sister Marie.
I noticed there was a line of hands standing towards the gate and they were all prominently armed, they were not about to let someone disrupt their friends' wedding! As it turned out, there was no problem; they both ran out from under the trees in a hail of rice as Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Steven Blount. That sounded nice to me, I don't remember my own mother, she was the last Mrs. Isaac Blount and she died when I was born.
The happy couple was escorted to the landing and The Isaac Blount took them to San Francisco, where they were booked in the Grand Suite at the San Franciscan Hotel.
We didn't see them again until they returned two weeks later.
When they walked into the parlor, they both were red faced and shy.
Isaac returned to his job and Roberta took over the switchboard again. In less than a month, Roberta was losing her breakfast each morning. Yep, I was going to be a Grandfather!
Tobias closed out 1939 with a profit of $24,000,500 on the books, we voted to continue funding the hospital in Marysville and adding a new surgical wing and maternity ward.
We were down to 4 teen boys at Blount House and the hands offered to settle them in one of the bunkhouses so we could refurbish the house.
Constance Williams had asked if we could replace the heating system in the elementary school and install a fire alarm system. I had not realized there were no fire alarms in the school, we voted to replace the heating system and install an ADT fire alarm system. While we were at it, we also connected the school to the Blount Switchboard and reseeded the ball fields.
I asked that we buyout Robertson Security Company and operate it ourselves. That, also, was voted and approved. The next order of business was very dear to my heart, I told the family that times were coming where our folks of German and Japanese ancestry were going to be severely threatened, I wanted safe homes built inside our gates where these people could have safety and security.
We agreed to build 10 homes on the other side of the equipment barn. There were trees there and it was well away from the fence.
The year ended quietly, Roberta told Ella Marie that she was going to deliver sometime in May and that Dr. Besom swears he hears two heartbeats! Well, twins DO run in the family!
1940 opened to terrible news, Germany was invading France and England was considering declaring war on Germany. Poland was gone; it was now part of Germany and Russia. Japan was committing awful atrocities in China and our government has started restricting trade with Japan.
The hate mail and slogans written on fences and the sides of buildings increased, Danny's wife, Yoshi, refused to go into town anymore and we started escorting our older teens to high school every day and back home.
The nightly news on the radio kept saying that President Roosevelt says there will be no war for America, but I knew in my heart that war was coming. I ordered the maintenance department to start stockpiling vital machine parts and raw materials and had cook lay in a supply of sugar, flour and other staples.
Josiah mentioned fuel, so I had an underground tank dug in to hold 10,000 of gasoline and an above ground tank installed for diesel fuel.
Crop wise, the year was only fair, while the price was up and demand strong, yields were down. It was fortunate that we had hold-over from last year of barley and oats otherwise we would not have been able to feed all the feeder animals.
Gustav was running himself ragged conserving feed.
Garner Vance snapped up his rice in a matter of days, it was fortunate because a government buyer came around with a directive that he was to have priority rights in any grain sales at a government fixed price. He didn't seem to catch on that we also had corn and wheat and I surely did not tell him.
We didn't see him again, so I wasn't going to worry about it.
We heard that troops were building up at Camp Beale Elle Marie and I worried mightily about our young boys. An officer came over from Camp Beale, inquiring about myself and John, neither of us was "fit for service" and he went away, not asking about anyone else.
Two more families were burned out, one in Shady Creek and the other in Marysville, neither were of German or Japanese decent. Oswald Ghorman had emigrated from Switzerland as a child and Hector Yee was Chinese! Hector and wife said that was all they could take and they went back to San Francisco to live with his parents. Ozzie and his family had nowhere to go, he had worked for us off and on for several years and Danny swore he was a good orchardist, so we offered them a home at Blount Farm and a job working with Danny Ito.
There were several incidents in Redding and we took the precaution of posting two security men in the store and Emporium, it was to prove to be a wise move before the year was out.
Grain sales were brisk and the price high, despite our lower yields this year, Tobias says revenues are running well ahead of last year.
Danny and his crew finished planting the new acreage with young peach trees. The crop in the old orchard looked to be above normal. As we started picking, the cannery reported that their tires had been slashed and they were unable to transport the fruit. Josiah ran out 6 flatbed truck and started hauling fruit bins to the cannery.
They encountered a picket line across the county road, cowboys do not take being intimidated well, the picket line disappeared when a dozen or so 12 gauge shotguns were pointed in their direction!
The trouble continued throughout the crop season, some of those picketing merely wanted jobs, but they were led on by agitators trying to make anti German and Japanese statements.
The troubles became so severe, the night that a brick came flying through the window of the store made us decided to close both the store and the Emporium in Redding. I was a bit hesitant to do so, as the store was the only source of foodstuffs for most of the town, but when they tried to storm the store, that was enough and we closed it down, I wasn't going to endanger our employees by trying to keep the store open.
On May 29th, Roberta and Isaac presented Ella Marie and myself with two, brand new Grandsons, Elijah Steven and Jeffery Isaac Blount! They both had Roberta's fiery red hair and no end of volunteer baby sitters!
I saw Uncle Tim sitting on the couch, holding the two boys and I thought to myself, "The oldest and the youngest among us Blounts!"
We started harvesting the grains in early June, the winter wheat was disappointing, but the rice was near normal and the corn was a bit spotty, but near normal overall. The red wheat was well below normal yields and the barley and oats were scarcely enough to feed the animals.
Dairy production was the only bright spot in our businesses, Gustav was shipping 30 crates of cheese a week and orders were outstripping production. Were it not for the greens we received from the folks at Shady Creek, the dairies would have been in trouble.
Despite the disappointing yields, we ended the year in good shape; Tobias reported net profit of $24,670,200.
We voted to construct a heavy duty fence around Blount's Bluff Elementary School and also around our housing area. With a war looming on the horizon, we decided to purchase several new tractors and 10 additional Dodge Flatbed Trucks. Isaac suggested we install a generator to supply the buildings and refrigerators in the dairies. We approved that as well as storage for additional fuel and two walk in freezers to store food for ourselves and employees.
Mrs. Williams tendered her resignation as Elementary School Principal and we hired Eleanor Mable Jones to replace her.
Christmas was fun again, I sat on the floor with my new Grandbabies; they were just old enough to be attracted by the bright lights on the tree and the shiny wrapping paper on their presents.
All was right with our world, but I feared it was not to last.
Chapter -2- LULL BEFORE THE STORM
1941 Began cold, wet and stormy, we even had a smattering of snow on the ground.
The hands performed maintenance on all the machinery and we began stocking the new freezers with foodstuffs.
Our decision to close the Redding Store and Emporium was met with cries and howls from Redding residents, but we held fast, we were not going to endanger employees by keeping the store open as a target for the hate mongers. We had been benefactors of the town for a hundred years, only to have bricks thrown through our windows and slogans painted on the walls.
We told the town council that enough was enough and we would not reopen until they could guarantee the safety of our employees and buildings.
Isaac and Roberta bought Ella Marie and me a big radio for the parlor, it was a Magnavox and we could hear the speaker all the way across the room.
We would sit and listen to the news in the evenings; they were wrangling in Congress about a big government project in Tennessee and some treaty that our country had agreed to about the size of our Navy ships.
I knew about a Navy Yard down in Vallejo, but they were talking about building a new one at a place called Hunter's Point near San Francisco.
The Army Air Corps was building a big airfield in Hawaii; they were calling it Hickam Field.
It sounded like a big war buildup to us, despite President Roosevelt's claim that America was not going to get in the war!
The rains ended in March and by the end of April we were able to start preparing the fields for planting. The rice went in first and then the red wheat. After a slight delay, to ensure that there were no more frosty nights, we got the corn seeded.
Diesel fuel was getting a bit hard to obtain, but so far we had kept the tank full. I decided that we needed someone to work full time buying commodities needed by Blount Farms and feisty Isabel LeGrande came to mind, she was Danny Ito's Mother and she was a real warrior! I had seen her face down a drunken cowboy and she wasn't a bit afraid to say her mind, so I asked her and she jumped at the chance.
After a while, I began to feel sorry for our suppliers, we used to let delivery dates slide a bit, not Mrs. Isabel LeGrande! To her, a date was a promise and there had better be a VERY good reason why it wasn't kept!
I heard later that some of our suppliers referred to her as Madam Le Grande Tiger!
In late June, we harvested the winter wheat, the yields more than made up for the low yield of the last year; we had wheat coming out our ears! We filled two silos and then decided to screw the grain directly into the rail cars before we had no room for the corn and red wheat.
In August, the corn was demanding to be harvested and we put the hands to running the harvester and shucker-huskers. The maintenance crews spent many nights repairing those infernal machines so they would be ready for use again the next morning.
They were hardly finished with the corn when the red wheat heads began to tip; it was a steady stream of trucks delivering wheat to be screwed into the silos.
Gustav had laid in 15,000 feeder beeves plus 9,000 swine and he was now running a crew of 30 men and boys, trying to keep ahead of the animal's hunger.
The oats and barley came in just in time, the silos were about to run dry.
When it was time to sell the feeder stock, we told Valley Slaughter that we wanted 10 beeves and 20 swine held out for our own freezers. It was a decision we were forever thankful as there would be meat restrictions in the near future.
By November, we were able to slow down and we were doing regular maintenance just trying to recover from a frantic harvest season.
Joel Sterns came to see me, he ran a cattle spread up the county road from us.
He said, "Steven, I am getting too old to run the cattle anymore and my sons have all gone their own way. I surely do not want my sister's husband getting my spread; would you Blounts buy it from me?"
I asked, "How many acres are there?"
He replied, "36,000 acres, a stream and my old house."
He continued, "If you will let me live in the house until I die, I will sell the whole shootin' works to you for $100,000."
I told him to let me think about it and to talk to my Family. It seemed like a pretty good deal to me, the back end of Joel's place butted up to our peach orchard and, at least some of the land was good for farming. Everyone agreed and Tobias told me there was the cash available, so I rode over to Joel's place with Isaac and Josiah and we made the deal.
Sunday morning, Ella Marie and I were lazing around, playing with the grandbabies when Isaac came running into the room, "Poppa, turn on the radio!"
We listened in horror as we were told of a Japanese sneak attack on Hawaii, that our Navy Base there, Pearl Harbor, was destroyed, our ships sunk and the Army Air Corps Base, Hickam Field, burned and destroyed.
I held my grandbabies, praying that they would not be involved, yet knowing their Daddy would be. As the day passed, we learned more, the Philippines and Guam had fallen, our Navy was in ruins and the Army was fleeing for its life.
Isaac stepped out on the porch and blew the fire horn, calling all the hands to assemble. I related to them all that we knew and told them to go home and pray for all our people in peril. I knew there would be more and worse yet to come, but that was all I and our people could handle right now, the future would come soon enough.
It did!
TBC
The story will continue in THE WAR YEARS, The Family Blount takes the safety of its folk and townspeople seriously. They draw strength from each other as they realize another war is taking their young men from them. They help their neighbors as they struggle through deprivation and terror of war on two fronts, Europe and the Pacific.