SHOULD’VE BEEN A COWBOY

 WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? THEY ASK, AND I REPLY… 

SHOULD’VE BEEN A COWBOY

Jerry & Sunup 1996

I've studied my family history for 40+ years and have had a modicum of success.

I am proud to claim a “fur trade and cowboy heritage.”   

My family roots have, for the most part, been tied to the land.

My recent ancestors, the past twelve generations, came to North America from Scotland, England, Sweden and Denmark, Netherlands, Ireland, France, and Norway.

Among them there were Puritans, Quakers, Anglicans, Catholics, Huguenots, Baptists, Presbyterians, and a plethora of other Protestant sects.

Their occupations included farmers, ranchers, loggers, fur traders, teamsters, blacksmiths, saddle-makers, coachmen, horse-traders, canoemen, cavalrymen, soldiers, and builders.

During my 81+ years on planet earth I have been many things… a soldier, carpenter, home builder, canoeist, cowboy folk artist, horseman, movie historian, genealogist, fur trade historian, and a writer.

Brown Family 1950

One of my fondest childhood memories was a 1950 visit to the Lon and Olive Brown family, mom’s aunt and uncle in Montana. They literally lived in the woods several miles out of Kalispell, Montana. Uncle Lon described his home as a ‘stump ranch,’ where he made his living by farming, ranching, logging, hunting and fishing.

During that 1950 visit I learned to ride a horse, and I heard tales about Lewis and Clark’s Voyage of Discovery, stories about cowboys, Indians, and trappers in early Montana. I was hooked and wanted to learn everything possible about such a beautiful and alluring place as Montana. I’ve spent most of my life doing just that…

A few years back my eldest grandson had a college class project that required him to interview his granddad to ask about the changes seen in a lifetime.

Jerry 2024

I responded, in part, by taking my favorite family photos, and putting them in a slideshow that reflects my ancestry and the past 80+ years of my life…

Should've Been A Cowboy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLvqg0dvbzs&t=9s (4:31)

Memories of Rancho Deluxe --Jerry's Cowboy Folk Art

https://youtu.be/oelGU8VHYY0

Jerry's 'Cowboy Chic Furniture' was marketed under the name of Lure of the Dim Trails between 1989 and 2002: https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2021/04/cowboy-chic-funiture-by-lure-of-dim.html

Jerry's books:

"Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas"

Published 2008, Echo Press

ISBN: 978-0-615-21499-3 

AND

"Rendezvous at Boulder Pass - Hollywood's Fantasyland"

Published 2010, Echo Press

ISBN: 978-0-615-21522-8 (Out-of-print)

Video for his grandsons:

Jerry England, whose ancestry can be back-trailed for 12 generations across the mountains and prairies of North America, has been a soldier, craftsman, home builder, Old West antique dealer, cowboy folk artist, writer and above all a horseman for most of his 80 years on planet earth. This is his story...

Jerry's Cowboy Heritage (original slideshow for my grandson... 7:15)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n7fn9wtIh4&t=134s

NOSTALGIC LOOK BACK AT WALNUT ACRES (aka Woodland Hills, CA) between 1953 - 1957

Now in my 82nd year on planet earth, I spend a fair share of my time reflecting on positive memories of the past. I define memory as, “What once was will always be.”

I was a pretty lucky kid... I grew up in the ‘country’ and ‘city’ at the same time.

And, there were some pretty nifty things left over from a colorful and historic past.

It was the perfect combination for a kid with a horse that dreamed of being a cowboy.  

In 1953, my dad built a house on Manton Avenue in an area that was known as Walnut Acres (aka Woodland Hills, CA). Across the street from us there were thousands of acres of rolling farmland with wild oats.

The farmland had once been the Platt Dairy, and before that it was Rancho El Escorpión, a Mexican land grant originally given in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to three Chumash Native Americans.

Here’s what it looked like 70 years ago…

1952 photo of the Woodland Hills, Calabasas Area with El Escorpión adobe barn (red), a friends horse ranch (orange), my home (yellow), and Old Calabasas (Raspberry). Clink on images for a larger view.

1953 me and my bicycle with the remains of Platt Dairy behind.

Me and my bicycle — juxtaposed 1953 - 2022.

1953 view of Platt Dairy (camera North), with El Escorpión adobe barn at the far right (library photo).

Me and my first horse ‘Paint’ in the winter 1954. I out grew this 20 year old gelding, and had a new horse in just a few months. Look beyond us to get an idea of the open space I rode in.

Dirt road leading to El Escorpión adobe barn about 1953 (library photo).

El Escorpión adobe barn closeup as it appeared about 1954 (library photo).

Me and my dad on our horses (Lucky and Sandy), about 1955, on Manton Ave., Woodland Hills (aka Walnut Acres).

c.1950s Title Insurance Co. map of Spanish and Mexican Ranchos. Rancho El Escorpión is on the left, center near the Ox Cart.

If you live in this area today I hope you enjoy my NOSTALGIC LOOK BACK AT WALNUT ACRES.

ps

If you'd like to know what Walnut Acres and Calabasas looked like in 1956 have a look at these short YouTube clips taken from an old 8 mm home movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IWMXJwflfc AND https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcD2ztO7jC8 (ETI riders gathering for a trail ride to Chatsworth and back).

Happy Trails.

DNA CONNECTION, THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR AND PRESIDENT FRANKLIN PEIRCE

I’ve been trying to learn the ancestry of Marcus Morton Pierce, our 2nd great-grandfather, for the past 25 years. SEE “Cowboy Legacy -- The short, tragic life of Marcus Pierce”

https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cowboy-legacy-short-tragic-life-of.html

Then a few weeks ago I got a ancestry (dot) com DNA match to William Pearce (Pirce), our 5th great-grandfather, 1770–1841. 

From that connection I was able to piece together my PIERCE ancestry back to Thomas Pierce II, Sergeant, immigrant ancestor, 1608-1683, my 10th great-grandfather.

There I found an interesting "Family Relationship.” It seems Thomas Pierce II, Sergeant, immigrant 1608-1683, was the 3rd Great-grandfather to Franklin Pierce 14th U.S. President.

After considerable additional research I was able to discover our relationship to President Franklin Peirce.

OUR LINEAGE TO PRESIDENT FRANKLIN PEIRCE:

Franklin Pierce (14th POTUS, US Rep, US Senator, Brigadier General) 1804-1869
4TH COUSIN 7X REMOVED

Governor Benjamin Franklin Pierce 1757-1839
Father of Franklin Pierce (14th POTUS, US Rep, US Senator, Brigadier General)

Benjamin PIERCE or PEIRCE Sr 1726-1764
Father of Governor Benjamin Franklin Pierce

Stephen Pierce 1679-1749
Father of Benjamin PIERCE or PEIRCE Sr

Stephen Pierce 1651-1733
Father of Stephen Pierce

Thomas Pierce II, 10TH GREAT-GRANDFATHER, Sergeant, immigrant 1608-1683
Father of Stephen Pierce

Thomas Peirce III 1645-1717
Son of Thomas Pierce II, Sergeant, immigrant

Col. Timothy Pierce 1673-1748
Son of Thomas Peirce III

Nathaniel M Pierce 1701-1775
Son of Col. Timothy Pierce

Jedediah Pierce 1746-1826
Son of Nathaniel M Pierce

William Pearce (Pirce) (DNA Match) 1770-1841
Son of Jedediah Pierce

William Pearce (Pierce) (DNA Match) 1794-1875
Son of William Pearce (Pirce) (DNA Match)

James L Pearce (Pierce) 1819-1847
Son of William Pearce (Pierce) (DNA Match)

Marcus Morton Pierce 1842-1882
Son of James L Pearce (Pierce)

Lillian Amanda Pierce, GREAT-GRANDMOTHER, 1867-1957
Daughter of Marcus Morton Pierce

PLAUSIBLE EXPLANATION FOR JAMES L. PIERCE JOINING THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR

Not only are we related to President Franklin Pierce, but there is an 1846-48 Mexican-American War connection that may explain the question of what happened to James L. Pierce.

For many years the question of what happened to James L. Pierce (3rd great-grandfather), father of Marcus Pierce, went unanswered. 

Then a few years back I found a James L Pearce (Pierce) who was born about 1819 in Foster, Providence, Rhode Island. That James L Pearce died in 1847, at Sea en route to Mexico during the Mexican-American War.

Perhaps he was encouraged to follow Franklin Pierce, his relative, who was gathering a New England brigade to fight in the Mexican-American War.

The timeline fit, and would explain why Marcus was without a father at age 7 on the 1850 US census.

BRIGADIER GENERAL FRANKLIN PIERCE

Source: Wikipedia

Franklin Pierce was born in 1804 with the militia tradition in his veins, the son of a hero of the American Revolution who was among Washington's most trusted combat officers. 

Young Franklin attended Bowdoin College in Maine and, while there, formed a life-long friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne, later one of his biographers. Upon graduation, he returned to his native state of New Hampshire and read for the law. 

Politics caught his fancy and his ambitions. He was a stirring orator and a tireless worker, and his progress was rapid: a member of the state legislature by 1828; its speaker by 1831. That same year he was appointed a colonel in the New Hampshire militia and served as the governor's aide-de-camp. 

He retired from Congress in 1842 and returned to state politics and his law practice in Concord, New Hampshire. 

The 1846-48 Mexican War took him into active military service as a brigade commander in General Winfield Scott's army. Pierce brought his troops in good order from New England to Veracruz and then overland to join Scott in the field before Mexico City. He participated bravely in numerous engagements, acquiring a bullet hole in the brim of his hat, and showed himself to be his father's son. 

In 1853 Franklin Pierce became the 14th president of the United States of America