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Left to right, Alida, Pauline, Curt, Mike, Luella and Minnie (Children of Elmer Guernsey)

Our cousin, Susan Masters, recently shared this story about her grandmother, Minnie Guernsey Innes:

 Minnie could ride a horse, shoot a gun, herd and cut cattle, work hard on a farm, and still be very feminine.  She rode horses trained by cowboys to start off at a dead run the minute you put your foot in the stirrup.  Papa wouldn’t allow the children to shorten the stirrup, because “some man might need that horse in a hurry.”  Minnie would cling to the side of the horse, hanging onto the horn for dear life until it slowed down and short little Minnie could get into the saddle.

Those cow ponies would rear up on their back legs in order to turn.  Sometimes it was so unexpected that Minnie would slide off and hit the ground with a thump.  The horses were very smart to be able to cut a particular cow out of the herd when the rider indicated which one they were after.  Minnie could do it with the best of them.

Minnie was always able to size up a situation and take quick action.  She could shoot a rifle very well, as this story illustrates. 

When Minnie was about 14 years old, Papa had gone to the city and Minnie was home alone at night with Mike (about age 8 or 9 at the time) and his cousin Virgil.  Minnie felt a draft in the house.  She knew that someone must have opened the kitchen door on the north side,  to create that draft. 

Quickly she grabbed her rifle and loaded it as she walked from the bedroom, through the living room and family room, toward the kitchen.  As she walked, Minnie called out, “Mike, Virgil, come quick!  Someone’s in the kitchen!”  Mike and Virgil were just boys in grade school, but Minnie wanted the intruder to think there were men in the house. 

The intruder ran out of the house and down to the corral.  It was a moonlit night, and Minnie could see the man run and hide behind the big corner post of the corral.  He crouched down behind it. 

Minnie pumped a few shots into the corner post.  Then she yelled, “If you come back again, you’ll get those bullets!”

I had heard a similar story about Aunt Minnie chasing off an Indian with a shotgun.  I am wondering if the “intruder” in Susan’s story may have been the same Indian?

(Curt, John, George what do you think?)  This land had belonged to the Cheyenne-Arapaho Indians until another “treaty” took the land away.

Again, hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and gives thanks for our heritage.

Jim Lee