Illuminations, Epiphanies, & Reflections

Family Trees                                

The Hanks Caleb Robert Hank, 1836-1915 Caleb Robert Hank was born in 1836, the fifth son of David and Elizabeth Parsons Hank.  Shortly after his birth, the family moved from Virginia to Springfield Township in Gallia County, Ohio.  Caleb, along with his siblings, was educated in the Gallia public schools of Ohio, and by family accounts he was a very good student, who was always very interested in doing well financially. After finishing school and reaching maturity, Caleb and his older brother, Jehu "John" B. Hank, set out for California in 1859, hoping to become successful miners. They traveled westward from Ohio to Council Bluffs, Iowa and began their overland trek to the coast in a covered wagon pulled by an ox team via the Oregon, Mormon, and California trails.  It took them 112 days to reach Sacramento, California Not surprisingly, the brothers prospected in the northern California mining country around Shasta, now deserted, but then the most important rip-roaring mining boomtown with a population of 3,500. While the brothers never struck it rich in the gold fields, they were apparently still quite successful and had accumulated a considerable fortune through a combination of minor mining successes and wise investments.  After ten years both men decided to return east; John to live in Holden, Missouri with siblings who had moved there from Ohio, and Caleb to visit relatives in West Virginia and Ohio. Family lore has it that Caleb chose to return by rail from Sacramento, and purchased a ticket on the first "regular" Central Pacific train to make the run in May, 1869.  This regular passenger train actually led the special ceremonial train that carried the Central Pacific's president, Leland Stanford, to the Golden Spike Ceremony at the  Promontory Summit in the Utah Territory, and Caleb was present when spike was driven and the telegrapher flashed out his famous message, "done," to the rest of the United States on 10 May. After visiting relatives, Caleb decided to spend some time with the rest of his brothers and sister in Missouri.  There he met America Brown, and they were married in 1871.  It is unclear when they married or how long they remained in Missouri, but it was at least until the summer of 1872 after the birth of their first daughter, Jessie.  What is known, however, is that their second daughter," Jennie, was born in 1877 at a ranch about 70 miles south of Silver City, Idaho, and a third daughter, Olive, was born in Silver City as well.  By the late 1870s, tension had begun to run high between white settlers and the Bannock Indians.  Chief Buffalo Horn--who was angered by what he believed was favoritism shown to the Shoshones by the federal government and who was personally outraged by a local white settler who allowed his pigs to roam free on the range--began to lead war parties against wagon trains and stagecoach lines, as well isolated miners, farmers, and ranchers.  The Bannock War lasted until Buffalo Horn was mortally wounded in a battle near Silver City and the war parties were driven into southeastern Oregon were they were decisively defeated by civilians and soldiers under the command of General O. O. Howard.  During this period, a neighboring rancher was killed in a raid, and Caleb, his family, and his ranch hands had several close calls. Silver City was to the Idaho silver mines what Shasta was to the California gold fields, and Caleb did quite well selling cattle from his ranch to Silver City butchers, eventually earning enough to establish a partnership with James Scott, a long time rancher of Scottish descent.  Together in 1879, they established the Scott and Hank Cattle Company in Northern Nevada with the intent of selling even more cattle to the booming population around Silver City and Boise, Idaho, approximately 250 miles away.  In 1880, Scott traveled to Scotland to purchase and import Hereford cattle for breeding stock, returning with four bulls and twenty heifers.   In time, the men became two of the most prominent ranchers in the state. Their business was also referred to as the Halleck Cattle Company since the ranch was located not to far from old Fort Halleck in Elko County.  Several roads connected the area to Silver City and Boise, the Idaho Central Wagon Road, the Elko and Idaho Toll Road, and the Toano-Boise Road.   After the men purchased the Clover Valley 71 brand, their spread was referred to as the 71 Ranch, and by the time of the 1880 census, the entire Hank family was living there.  Interestingly, Ranch 71 still exists today as working dude ranch.  Some time in the late 1880s, Caleb and James Scott parted ways with the Hanks moving to Ogden, Utah where they lived for over ten years. While in Ogden, a fourth daughter was born in 1887, Edith Elizabeth Hank.  During this time, Caleb obtained some property--where he moved his cattle stock--in central Wyoming  that he named Copper Mountain, southeast of what is now Thermopolis.  He frequently visited the area and built a small cabin there near the confluence of Ditch and Buffalo Creeks.  After seeing a number of families begin to settle in the area, Caleb decided to move the entire family to Thermopolis and use his property to raise horses.  The Hanks left Ogden on the Fourth of July, 1898 and spent thirty days on the 385 mile trip, traveling in a pair of wagons and making plenty of stops along the way to enjoy the country.  They arrived at the one-year-old town of Thermopolis in August.   By that time the population had grown to around 150 people, and there wasn't a house to be bought or rented.  So, the family initially lived in a tent on the east side of the Big Horn River.  Eventually, they moved into what Edith Hank later described as "one of the best, if not the best house in town." At their ranch, the Hanks raised mostly Morgan horses, but also some draught horses bred from stock that Caleb imported from Scotland with the assistance of his old partner James Scott. To Elizabeth Parsons Hank    To Edith Hank Wright