Ranch History Page 2

"The torn up Check"

The Reyman Ranch consisted of 5120 acres but only had about 420 acres of meadow ground to produce hay.  This is why the ranch could never pasture more than a cow herd of about 200.  Claude B did not plan it this way but an unfortunate incident happed which robbed him of a whole section of good grass land which joined the family ranch.

It happened this way.  There was a man by the name of Mac Eldery who owned this section of grass land and had it for sale.  He told Claude B he would sell it for $600 so Claude B wrote him a check on Saturday night saying "we'll go to town and do the legal work on Monday to finalize the deal.  This happened in the early days about in 1900.

But before Monday arrived Dad got the bad news from Mac Eldery that he had torn up Claude's check and accepted cash from our closest neighbor - McNare.  Claude B was furious!  He suspected that McNare had given him more money than Claude's check and it happened he was right.  Anyway, the story goes that Claude B threatened Mac Eldery with a shot gun in order to make him know he deal he had made with him.  But Mac Eldery notified the sheriff and was going to have Claude B arrested, but the problem was they couldn't find him.  The sheriff search the place with no avail.

Minnie Reyman tells the story of how Claude B hid in the attic for about a week.  There was no stairway or trap door on the pantry ceiling which the sheriff didn't notice when he searched the house.

If Claude B had known the law maybe he could have brought suit against Mac Elderly and made him honor Claude's check, but perhaps he had no proof of the deal in writing or any witnesses to testify in his be-half.

The family would not have known about this story except that the three older children in the family kept asking mother, "why did papa hide in the attic".  They had taken Claude B food and blankets and it seemed a long while before he came down and joined the family.