Jack
Frusetta (1878-1937)
Jack Frusetta was born April 1, 1878 in New York to Charles and Margarette
(Cullen) Frusetta. Charles was a native of Prugiasco, Switzerland. Margarette
was a native of Kilkenny Ireland. At a young age Jack’s family moved
to San Benito County in California and ranched in that area. He attended
the Platea School riding five miles to and from school every day.
He ranched with his family on the San Benito Ranch and the Syncline Ranches.
At one time he also worked as a cowboy in “Butcher town” outside
of San Francisco where hundreds of cattle were processed. His family believes
this is where he became an expert with the bullwhip he always kept with him
tied behind his cantle when not in use.
It is unknown just when Jack first came to Nevada but once he did, the desert
lured him away from a successful family ranch to the life of a buckaroo in
the high desert. Nevada was home to him. He was a tall wiry, red headed man,
happy go lucky with a grin from ear to ear. His family remembers him as a
real prankster. Always pulling jokes on his nieces and nephews. The cowboys
who buckarooed with him recall him as being a quiet well-liked cowboy.
It is uncertain which outfits Jack worked for. Tom Pedroli seen him and visited
with him at Tom’s brother Pete’s some 15 years before working with
him in May of 1937 on the Circle A wagon. It is presumed he had at one time
worked for Able and Curtner for he knew the Circle A country well. He worked
for the CS Ranch in 1934. Frank Petronvich recalls a team running away with
Jack, the tongue broke but Jack kept hold of the reins, the horses drug him
but he held on until they stopped. In Frank’s words “Jack was fearless
and tough. This was a man that was 56 years old then.”
Jack took great pride in his outfit and was well known for always having
a good outfit. He rode a black D.E. Walker Visalia Stock Saddle with a rose
stamp, Spanish style riggin. He had beautiful silver mounted bridles. One
was a black flat leather headstall with silver conchos in the shape of a
heart, spade, diamond, clover with a horseshoe shaped buckle and silver mounted
spade bit. Another was a round rolled leather headstall with silver conchos
every inch. His spade had silver or copper ferrules rather than the copper
wire. He always used a bosal and mecate. Tex Bonnet recalls when Jack would
run low on cash while in between jobs he would hawk his bridle to Pete Pedroli
for $25.00, Pete would always keep it and Jack would get it back next time
he was in town.
Jack was a reata man using a 70 foot reata, first 30 feet being 5/8 for the
throwing and the last 40 feet being 3/8 in making it easier to dally. He
always carried his reata with a day herder’s loop. (Meaning he had a
half built loop with his coils) He was a beautiful roper. Tom Pedroli remembers
he took long coulee shots, always in the right position. Good head set on
his horses with a nice mouth. He was a good hand.
In May of 1937 Jack was working for the IL Ranch, semi-retired staying at
the winter ranch. Mark Scott asked Jack to be the IL rep in the Circle A
wagon. Jack didn’t want to go. Jay Fowler remembers him arguing with
Scott and wondered why he didn’t send one of the younger cowboys, but
Jack knew the desert better than any of the other hands. Jack agreed to go.
That night he told Lawrence Jackson he had a strange feeling about going
out on the desert again. The next morning Jackson helped him get started.
Jack took 5 saddle horses and a packhorse though he was an experienced packer
that morning he seemed to stall and fumble with the packing. Jackson told
him he’d see him when he got back. Jack shook his head and said “I
don’t know. I don’t know.”
Jack helped the Circle A buckaroos for a couple of weeks or so, gathering
cattle, branding calves and parting out strays. Jack had about 17 head of
IL cattle in a holding field at the Willow Springs. June 3rd he trailed them
cattle to the Little Owyhee field; Frank Sellers and possibly Tom Bodie helped
him. He left the Little Owyhee the morning of June 4th with his cattle and
his cavvy.
Late in the evening of June 17th Fred Bunting, boss of the CS went to the
North Fork Ranch. Joe Bob the Indian that was irrigating told him he had
found a horse up by the fence with the saddle turned and a rope that had
been cut around his neck. Fred walked into the barn and there was Jack’s
saddle. He immediately went to Winnemucca and notified the IL. Coincidently
at about the same time Jay Fowler and some of the other IL buckaroos had
picked up the rest of Jacks cavvy at the Winters Ranch. They notified the
IL headquarters and they had recently heard from Bunting.
June 19, two groups of searchers set out, one group of cowboys came south
from the Little Owyhee and another group went North from the Little Humboldt.
About the time they met half way to Evans Lake Buck Tipton recalls they started
finding articles from the pack, a dress boot and other articles of clothing.
The one party had found the packhorse tangled in the brush a mile or so up
from the Little Humboldt. About 3 miles from the guard corral they found
a stack of brush, a cut rope and the remains of a fire, and what was left
of Jack’s bullwhip.
They surmised that Jack must have been hurt there, used his bullwhip to gather
the sagebrush and to try and mount his horse, when that failed he cut his
horse loose. They were never sure what had happened to Jack whether he was
kicked by the packhorse as he was redoing his pack that had apparently came
undone. Whether his packhorse blew up jerking him from his saddle, or causing
his horse to blow, no one knows to this day.
The cowboys continued to follow Jacks trail as he drug himself along, finding
fires along the way, a dozen or so. At the guard corral they found his final
fire but even after running out of matches he kept dragging himself along
the trail. It had stormed on him giving some relief to the thirst. But the
desert cold that can change to desert heat in a matter of minutes had to
quickly dry things out. The cowboys trailed him another mile or so to find
his body in the protection of some tall brush; they could see where he had
drug himself around the brush, possible seeking shade. At the very end he
still had his pride and his dignity as he laid his spurs neatly beside him
on his gloves and tilted his hat over his face.
Dr. Seymour J. Kranson, physician at the CCC camp in Paradise Valley, Nevada,
gave the report the right hip seemed to have been dislocated and in his opinion
death came from pain, dehydration and exposure to the elements.
Jack lived a Buckaroo life and died as a Buckaroo, in the rugged Nevada Desert
he loved.
Jack Frusetta was inducted into the Buckaroo Hall of Fame in September
1996.
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