Heine, Richard Ranch

RICHARD HEINE RANCH

by Dona Eddy

Richard James Heine and Genevieve Alvira Burns were married Sept. 16, 1937 and are the parents of three children, Mrs. Glenda Kay Freeman (Dwayne), Scotts­ bluff, Nebr., whose husband is a school teacher, and the parents of four children; Mrs. Freida Lorraine Joss (Artie), ranchers on the Oliver Hitshew homestead, Keeline, and the parents of two children; and Royce Wayne attending Casper College.

They leased 1440 acres, 10 miles north of Keeline, from Mrs. Pauline Burns in 1939 and purchased the ranch in 1946.

Glenda attended her first two years of school in Douglas staying with her grandmother, Mrs. Burns. The Stallman country school was moved to a more centered convenient location for the families and a bus was then acquired for the Heines. Both Glenda and Freida attended this school until Glenda finished the 8th grade at which time the school was closed and all children were bused to the Manville school.

Other children attending the Stallman school were the children of the Joe and Leo Eutsler families, the Barney Stallmans and Ozro Penfields.

The blizzard of 1949 closed the area. Snowplows arrived at the Heine home about 11 p.m. and told the people in that area they should leave soon if they needed supplies from town as blizzard conditions persisted.  The families waited until daylight and went in a group. The Heines were unable to make it home and spent the night at Leo Eutslers. Glenda and Frieda stayed several days with the Penfields so they could attend school. They missed much school that year, as the snow thawed filling the draws with water making it impossible to cross.

From that year on, the Heine children have been transported to school by their parents until the time they were old enough to drive themselves. All three children are graduates of Niobrara County High School and have been active in 4-H projects winning many awards. Glenda is a graduate of Casper College and Freida of Parks School of Business and was an employee of General Motors in Denver and California for five years.

Richard, better know of Dick, is the son of Leonard John and Nona Pearl Whitshill Heine.

They are the parents of five other children, Genevieve Pauline Manning, Douglas; George Daniel, Casper; Margaret Isabel Hunt, Casper; Mary Josephine Birch, Keeline.

Leonard Heine was born in Germany. At the age of one he accompanied his parents to the United States and settled at Fremont, Nebr. He homesteaded south of Jireh, Oct.30, 1907. All the children attended Jireh grade school and graduated from the Manville High School. They walked the 2-1/2 miles to grade school and during the winter when the snow became 4 to 5 feet deep, walked over fences. They walked past the Experiment Farm where their father worked for a time.

Mr. Heine helped build and also dismantle the Jireh College. The daughter, Mary and husband are now owners of her father's homestead, also those of Charles Ironfield and George Rexroth.

Royal Samuel (Bob) Burns and wife, Gussie Pauline Rogers Burns, came to Manville from Colorado in the spring of 1919 when Genevieve was about one year old and on the Lillian Sherman farm. They were the parents of four other children, Elsie Fern Corn, Cheyenne; Frances Roberts Carlson, Minnesota; Russell Leonard, Colorado; and Roger Clark, Iowa.

Lillian Sherman spent the majority of time in Denver. She came back for occasional visits and would ride side saddle. Mr. and Mrs. Burns lived 13 years near Manville, what is now known as the Andy Nelson ranch.  During the 20's the Burns children had the lastest modern school bus driven by Ted Eutsler with a "kid" wagon and team of horses. It looked much like the old time mail­ wagons of that day, only larger.  When the snow became deep, a sled was used.

Genevieve remembers the many old time blizzards and one time when the snow was exceptionally deep when the horses and sled became stuck and they had to walk the rest of the way to school. The horses had to be unharnessed to get them out of the deep drift. During the winter months, the children would leave home before daylight and arrive home after dark.   In those days the school bus route started at the Ted Eutslers' (now David Bredthauers), north to Burns', further north and east to the Clarence Pinkerton place which was many miles for horses.

Many cold winter mornings Genevieve's feet would have frozen if the bus driver had not set on them the first year she started school. Since the winters were usually long and hard, a favorite date of the children was May 1, when they were allowed to take off their long-handled underwear.

There were many fires in the Manville community where homes and stores burned to the ground. One night a tragic fire oc­curred at the Billy Sherman ranch in which a small boy and his grandmother, Mrs. Sherman burned to death.

The parents of Mrs. Burns, Mr. and Mrs. S.A. Rogers (Katherine), came to Wyoming from Colorado around 1915 and settled near Jireh. They were the parents of three other daughters, Mrs. Nina Bells Keister (Walter); Mrs. Margaret Swisher (Frank) and Mrs. Luch Carpenter (Clarence). The Keisters operated a garage in Jireh around 1923.

During the depression years, Mr. Rogers loaned money to the Joe Stallmans, taking a second mortgage, which was left to the daughter, Mrs. Pauline Burns, thus acquiring the present Heine ranch.  In 1936, at the age of 49, Mr. Burns died from encephalitis.

Mrs. Burns bought 40 acres in 1938 from A.A. Spaugh. After her husbands death, Mrs. Burns made Douglas her home until her death in 1963.

Dick and Genevieve lived in the existing house of the Stallmans for many years. The north part had been used as a school room where Mrs. Eva Stallman taught her own children, as there was not a public school nearby. In 1951, they built their modern home themselves. They made many of the cement blocks and drove the many nails, building and erecting the fine set of ranch buildings.

Some of the homesteaders of this ranch were Rubert A. Lantis and wife Shirley H. Lantis; Con Klint and both Curtis E. Spaugh and his wife, Lizzie E. Spaugh, who were the parents of Clara Estelle Eutsler; and Ada May Hilsmann, who later married Edward R. Grice.

Others who had owned or had been connected with parcels of the ranch at some time were: The Manville Supply Co., Converse County, Wyo., which consisted of Bartlett Richards, Joseph A. Manorgan, Harry B. Card, William McReynolds and Addison A. Spaugh; Walter M. Scott; Samuel J. Joss; Robert Howard; George W. Metcalf; Emily Webel; George Hitshew, wife Mattie Hitshew; Richard Roberts; Ida M. Spaugh, husband Fredrick Rudolph Hilsmann; C.W. Spacht; Elmer J. Claw, executor of estate of Catherine F. Heeb; Nick and Della Smitters; A.A. Spaugh; the Spaugh Land and Livestock Co., consisting of J.A. Manorgan and Clara A. Baker; Harris Livestock Co., consisting of Arthur T. Harris and Josephine B. Harris; Eva G. Stallman, husband Joe Stallman; Mrs. S.A. Rogers and Mrs. Pauline Burns.

The Heines added 160 acres in 1964, bought from Clair Shippen and wife Edna M. Shippen making a total of 1600 acres. In 1971, Dick and Genevieve bought 160 acres of irrigated land near Lusk from Neva and Ira Lamb.

During the early 20s when the Hilsmanns were the owners of the original ranch, the house burned to the ground.They were building a large two-story house with a full basement.  It had three large cement porches and the walls and partitions of cement stood to testify in later years the size of the house.  At that time there was a large three-story barn which blew down during a wind storm. Dick Heines filled in the old basement when they built their house.   Mr. Hilsmann was a banker in Manville and was known as Floyd "Birdlegs" Hilsmann.

When Ida May and her sister Clara Estella Spaugh were young ladies, a wagon trail was made between this ranch and the original Eutsler homestead known as the Black place and now lived on by the Prosper Etchemendys, was referred to as the "courting trail" made by Ted Eutsler as he came to see Clara Spaugh whom he eventually married.

In the last 20 years the Heine ranch has been up-dated with electricity, new buildings, corrals, planting of a wind­ break, a number of water wells have been drilled and the building of several water dams, making it an improved and modern ranch.

Images & Attachments

Related/Linked Records