George
Fredrick Raker (1895-1951)
Born on July 24, 1895, in Susanville, California, George was the eighth child
of ten born to George Franklin and Edith Gertrude Long-Raker.
In the early 1870’s, after the Civil War, Christina Raker and his brother,
William, both of whom were born in Germany and migrated to Knox County in
Illinois, moved west with the many emigrants along the wagon trails and settled
in Honey Lake Valley near Susanville at a small community, Milford on the
east side of the Sierra Mountains in northern California.
With a background in farming from Germany and Illinois, they raised livestock
and farmed the rich soil of the Honey Lake Valley. Christian brought with
him a son, George Franklin, the oldest of seven children, who was born in
Knoxville, Illinois, in 1855. The other six children were born in Knoxville
or Susanville after the migration.
The Rakers became prosperous selling fattened oxen and fresh livestock to
the following wagon trains who came west through Winnemucca via the Blackrock
Desert on the Noble Emigrant Trail that would take them to Honey Lake before
heading north and west over the Sierras and on to California. Along with
other prosperous ranchers of the valley, they earned the nickname, “The
Neversweats” because of the ease with which they turned a profit from
trading with the many wagon trains that had little choice but to trade livestock
if they were to be successful in reaching California before winter set in.
At around age 26, George Franklin married Edith Gertrude Long of the Susanville
area and they began their family with their oldest daughter Mary, born in
1882. A daughter Christian had died in 1874, shortly after arriving in Milford
and the home place was inherited by George Franklin. George Fredrick Raker
was the third boy of the ten children but eighth in order of birth. He had
a cousin a year or so older, who was also named George, so he became Fred
and remained so all his life.
Of the Raker boys, Fred and younger brother Ray stayed on the ranch and became
well known in the newly popularized rodeos held in ranching communities all
over the west. Fred’s picture of him riding a white faced bull in 1922
at the Susanville Fair became the advertising poster used to publicize the
fair for many years. (Brahma bulls were introduced as bucking stock later).
Ray was noted for riding a famous saddle bronc called Midnight at the 1928
Pendleton Roundup.
Fred eventually acquired the home ranch at Milford and courted and married
Alice Olds of the nearby Tule Mountain Ranch in Nevada, just west of Pyramid
Lake, in 1923. Sons Lee Fredrick born in 1925 and Donnel Ray born in 1928
made up the family at the Milford place at the start of the country-wide
national disaster then labeled “the depression.” By the early
1930’s Honey Lake dried up, coinciding with the bank calling in the
loans on the Raker ranch, and the Fred Raker family looking for employment
joined the depression.
Alice was by then a “normal” graduate of the University of Nevada
at Reno, and qualified to teach school. Where Fred found work, Alice taught
school in rural ranch communities throughout northern Nevada; grades one
through eight in a one room school house.
Fred worked where he had expertise, in working with livestock and working
with people. During the balance of the 1930’s ranch work opportunities
presented themselves at the Jackson Mountain Ranch, west of Winnemucca, Nevada,
The South fork Ranch in Elko County on the Humboldt River, before it became
part of the Indian Reservation, Spanish Ranch in Independence Valley, north
of Elko, Stewart Ranch in Paradise Valley, Abel and Curtner and the Lucky
7 in McDermitt. Alice taught school at the Spanish Ranch, Tuscarora, Paradise
Valley, Central School at Willow Point and at Shelton Lane. She also taught
at Dyke at the foothills of the Pine Forest Range and McDermitt.
Working in various capacities on the ranches, Fred's knowledge of ranching
operations lead to “cow boss” responsibilities, taking the cattle
to the range in the spring and for the fall roundup. Summers were spent running
the hay crew, installing water troughs on the open range and fixing the thousand
things that was required on a working ranch.
While working in the Paradise Valley area, buckaroo camps like Hardscrabble,
the Forks, Harvey Camp and others were frequented every year as the cattle
were taken out in the spring. The camps were moved every few days by chuck
wagon. The cattle moved along slowly and spread over the range, and the cavvy
was tended to by the wrango Boy. On many spring rides to the back range,
Alice was the camp cook and sons Lee and Don helped out with bringing in
the firewood, helping the wrangler, riding drag when moving the hers, or
fishing and getting into mischief.
Out of McDermitt the camps were Coyote Creek and Cannonball. One trip required
was a day fishing on Louse Creek, a tributary to the Owyhee River and a couple
of times to the buckaroo bath tub. This was a hot spring that had formed
a natural tub as it cooled and ran down into the Owyhee River.
Fred and Alice never let their loss of the Milford Ranch bear on their ability
to look forward to a positive future. Anywhere they were found, you could
bet there would be a party soon. Saturday night generally found them both
involved in dancing and lots of laughter. While Alice was a good storyteller,
Fred enjoyed a practical joke. If not at someone else’s expense,
occasionally on him.
In the summer of 1940, while buckarooing in the Owyhee desert for
McCulloch’s Lucky 7, Fred and young hand Jim Anderson had an ongoing
debate about whom weighed the most. Fred was 6’ 1’ and around 185
pounds. Jim was almost as tall and obviously broader and maybe heavier. Since
they were on the desert for several weeks before getting back to the ranch
at McDermitt. The debate became a daily issue. Back at the ranch where the
bet was to settle, they agreed to meet right after breakfast at the grainery
where there was a scale. Fred detoured past the blacksmith’s shop and
“loaded” his boot tops with ten pounds of horseshoes, carefully
pulling his Levis tight over the boots to hide the evidence of skullduggery.
Fred weighed first and confidently tipped the scales at 195. Now it was
Jim’s turn, and not suspecting anything, Fred watched the scale bump
up to 199 pounds. The laugh was on Fred, even more so when he revealed his
conniving.
July of 1940 brought the start of the second family for Fred and Alice with
the birth of Alice Jean Raker, later Mrs. Ed Mentaberry of McDermitt, followed
by a son John E. Raker in 1943, recently living in Reno, Nevada.
In early 1941, Fred decided to hang up his spurs and became an entrepreneur
by opening up the long closed Paradise Valley bar, The Roundup. With two
other bars already going, that was not exactly what the small town needed.
But, World War II started in December 1941 and provided new opportunities
in defense work. Fred took his family and everything he owned on a truck,
sold the rest and moved to Henderson, Nevada, where Fred provided support
for the war effort as a security guard for the Basic magnesium plant there.
For the first time Alice taught school in a graded school and picked the
elementary level as her choice. Fred and Alice made their home there and
for the first time in their lives they lived in a house with running water
and an inside toilet. Fred was pleased, no wood to chop, coal to bring in
or ashes to haul out. And you could go to the toilet in the winter without
freezing your butt!
Fred’s avid interest in horsemanship and people stayed with him all
his life as he and Alice always had horses and Fred was always sought out
for his expertise in training and working horses or in shoeing them.
Labor Day weekend of 1951 found Fred and Alice in Winnemucca, Nevada to watch
sons Lee and Don ride Bareback broncs in the rodeo, along with nephew Dean
Johnson. Brother-in-law Virge Buchannan, a long time cattleman in Humboldt
County, and his wife, Jessie (Alice’s sister) hosted a bunch of the
family. Long time local Buckaroo’s Lynn Kimball and wife Martha
(Alice’s sister) and Tex Bonnet and good friends of Fred and Alice’s
were there. Also, Al Olds and his wife Mae (Alice’s brother) was a long
time area Buckaroo and Miner.
Alice had to teach school right after labor Day, so on the early morning
of September 5, 1951, Fred and Alice headed out to paradise Valley to say
goodbye to newly married sons and spouses, Don and Mary Raker, and Lee and
Norma Raker. At sunup, just east of Paradise hill, Fred and Alice were killed
in a head on car crash by a car leaving Paradise Valley, headed toward
Winnemucca. They left a legacy of how to live a full life with expectations
that everything will be all right. Don’t worry about things over which
you have no control. It was always a positive experience and a lot of fun
being with Fred and Alice.
George Fredrick Raker was inducted into the Buckaroo Hall of Fame
in 1990.
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