My July is busy this busy this year. I seems like I have more time on the road than I have at home. First a trip to Myrtle Point over the 4^th of July, that involved seven hours of driving and three days away. Then this weekend, another trip to Myrtle Point for an impromptu class reunion, another seven hours of driving and four days away.

Then on the 25^th of July, during the Coos County Fair in Myrtle Point, I have a celebration for Twin Oaks 4-H club, for 80 years of service to the community. With the fair, there are no accommidations available in Myrtle Point, so we have to back track to Roseburg for a room. Another seven hours of driving and two days away.

That totals nine days away from home for July, but it seems like more, as it always most of a day to prepare to depart and then at least a day to recover from the trip. That makes fifteen days and we won’t speak of the expense. It all adds up to a busy July.

That somewhat explains this weeks blog post. II was written in 1850. Which means little work for me. This is a letter written from by my great-great grandfather. He had traveled to California in the gold rush and this was a letter home.

In another letter, in possission of another portion of the extended family and partially published in the Oakland Tribune on January 23, 1949, he stated that he was coming home with $220 dollars. Not much for such a trip. 

But I hope you enjoy the letter and to make it easier to read, there is a transcription that that follows the scans.

This Transcription by David E. Larsen, July 5, 2025 – Corrections or guesses are in brackets [ ].

***

August 18, (18)50 fifty miles from

Sacaramanto Cittey

My Dear Wife

I am happy to inform thee that I arrived here on July the 28 in perfect good [h]ealth but much tire([d] of traveling having walked and carreyed my pack for near 400 miles the road a considrable part of it) being so bad that I cannot Describe it some placeses for o[v]er 10 miles very Deep sands other places very rockey and stoney alsotremendious hills very ruff and in some places Covered with Snow I me and 3 others left our company and teams near 400 miles back from this place the reason why we did so was our provisions were got very Scarse and we thought of getting in before the teams and get Nobles son to meet them with provision but we got on the [w]rong trak and got into the digg digins one hundred and fiftey or 200 miles from were they went too we have not seen nor heard from them Since onley we heard that they had bought and killed 2 Oxen since we left them the rout that Noble took [h]ad no travle on it this year before he went (we are informed) and had we taken the Same route it is very likley we should[d] have perished for want of food as we Should have had to travel more than one hundred miles withught food the reason why it was so Mr Noble was mistaken in the distance we werel rathe[r] pinched as it was we traveled across the Disert 40 or 45 Miles on a little flower and water and from 20 to 25 miles we had neither flower nor water 2 of our men had some Dificultey in crossing I went 

[next page] before and met them with water Soon after we Crossed the Disert we met waggons with provisions to Sell flower at 2 Dollars pork and hard bread 2¼ per pound we had a little money but we had to be very Carefull how we spent it after Crossingthe Disert 2 of our men were unwilling to proseed so I and a young man from lbennedicts went A head after traveling 2 Dayes we fell in with Mr Woodworth and Vanivea’s boys Mr Woodworth Mr Silvernale Willm Vaniea put there their packes on there backs and Came alonge with us the rest of the boys are Come through and we have all together Since Mr Tu[sr]nock went along with Noble and I have not as yet [S}een him but we think of starting towards w[h]ere he is tom(m)orrow that is w[h]ere we expect him to be the prosppect(t)s are not so flattreing as was gemeraly expected thousands have alreadey wished themselves at home again I saw one man on the road that was Shoott by the Indieans he was Shot in the brest I saw and handled the harrow the man died the same night that I saw him Saw another man Said there was 6 Shot by the Indeans out of his Companey another worked a little below us 2 of [h]is companions were shot 2 Arrows Struck him but the Swifthness of his horse he would have been killed I have worked pritty hard Since I came but have not made much w[h]ere we are [h]as been dug over and over we think of trying to find a better place tomorrow morning thank

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be to god we have had plenty to eat Since we Came in and Injoied good [h]ealthe I have never as yet resented Comming to Callefornea and hope I never Shall do I have had hard things to pass through but the lord [h]as been faithfull to his promise in ssix troubles he [h]as been with me and in the Seventh he [h]as not left me and he [h]as promised that he will niver leave  he will nive[r] forsake them that put there trust in him My Dear Polley let us take Courage and put our trust in him who [h]as promised that we Shall niver be Confounded and altho many are the affli[]tions of the ritious the Lord Deliverith them {o]utof them all I should like to be with thee my dear Children and friends In Salem but as this Can[n]ot be at present let us meet at A throne of grac[e] Thank be to God we can meet here an[d] mingle our[?] prayers in the years of him who is al[w]ayes {ready?]

to answer and bless us I have had Some yea ma{???} preacious Seasons from the presance of the Lord in {??} this wilderness of Sin and wickedness this mornin[g] I feelted the to be very preacious to my Soul wil{?} praying on the hill My Dear Mary pray pray pra[y] and pray in faith and God will Comfort Support pror[?] and bless thee = and I hope and pray that Joseph will may not forget to meet [h]is father and mother at A throne of Grace God willing I hope to be at home nest febuarey {several scratch outs} acept of my Kindes love to thyself and also to all our Dear Children and may God ever bless you all with Grace to Live before him whi[t] the prayer of thy ever faithfull and affectio[nate] Husband Joseph Davenport

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Joseph Can have that Coat that Mr[s Bacon[?] made for me Mrs Bacon Can alter it for him 

John Can have A Jacket made out of that Black Coat and trowsers or anything else that there is

Thou Canst have made up for them I wish I [h]ad

Something to give to thee and my little dauters but you

will be like to wate till I Come may God bless 

and preserve you all amen

Placerville Cal Aug 21                    Paid 40

No 4

Mary Davenport

Care of Josuea Mellor

Libbertey Post Office

Town of Salem

Kenniocha Countey

Wisconsin

North America

My Kindest respects to Uncle Thomas and Aunt Dale

also Brother Hallester Sister Delno Brother & Sister Train

and all the members of the Class

My Kindest respects to Uncle Josuea and Aunt

Sarah also to Mary-Elen also to Brother M Mellor

& Wife Kindest Respects to Mr Mrs Pensory[?} & family

Mr Woodworth & vanivea’s Boyes are all well

D. E. Larsen, DVM

When I came back inside after checking on the medications I had in the car.  Sandy was still on the phone. I was hoping it wasn’t the same call.

“This is Carol,” Sandy said. “She has been talking with Stan over at the feed store. She would like you to look at her steer. I have been trying to explain that you don’t have all your supplies yet and that you don’t really want to be taking calls at this time. Can you talk with her?”

I took the phone from Sandy and sat down at our kitchen table with a notepad. We moved to town a few weeks ago and have been house hunting. We were still cramped in this small apartment with four kids and boxes stacked everywhere.

“Hello, Carol, this is Dr. Larsen,” I said into the phone.

“Dr. Larsen, I have a very sick steer,” Carol said. “I was in the feed store talking with Stan and he suggested I give you a call. I understand from your wife that you are quite ready to be looking at animals, but if you can’t look at him, it will take days for me to get someone out of Lebanon or Albany.”

“If you understand that my inventory is not complete, I will come out and look at your steer,” I said. “What is going on with him?”

“He has a terrible diarrhea,” Carol said. “It has been going on for a couple of weeks now. We have tried everything that Stan has recommended, and it just keeps getting worse.”

Sandy handed me her notes, which included Carol’s address and directions to her place, located out on the highway toward Holley.

“It will take me a little time to straighten up the car, but I will be out there in an hour or so,” I said.

“Thank you, Doctor,” Carol said. “I will be waiting for you out at the barn with the steer. You will see me when you turn into the driveway.”

I hung up the phone and looked at Sandy. 

“It sounds like I will have a lot of education to do here,” I said. “People are the same everywhere. The steer has been sick for weeks, but when it looks like he might die, it becomes an emergency.”

True to her word, I could see Carol standing out by the barn when I pulled into the driveway. The only problem was in her definition of a barn. I would call this building a shed. And that is a stretch.

I stepped out of the car and introduced myself. 
“I have the steer tied in the barn,” Carol said. “I thought he was going to  die when I looked at him this morning, but he looks better this afternoon.”

“I will look him over and then we can talk about what we need to do for diagnosis and treatment,” I said. “Can you tell me what you have treated him with from the feed store?”

“We gave him a worm pill,” Carol said. “That didn’t seem to do much.”

“Do you know what it was called?” I asked.

“No, I don’t think we knew,” Carol said.

“Was it yellow or white?” I asked.

“It was white,” Carol said. “Then, when that didn’t help, we gave him some scour pills. They were yellow. Terra something, I think. We gave him two of those twice a day for five days. That didn’t help either. Then, this weekend, he wasn’t eating well, and my father-in-law looked at him and gave him an oily rag to give him his cud back.”

I looked at Carol and stifled a laugh. I couldn’t believe her last comment.

“Doctor Larsen, don’t laugh at me, I am doing the best I can,” Carol said.

“I’m sorry, Carol,” I said. “It’s just your last comment. I have a book of livestock diseases that belonged to my great-grandfather. It was published in the 1870s, and it states that the practice of giving an oily rag to give a cow her cud back is probably an old wives’ tale, and the practice should be discontinued. I am just amused that it is still being done.”

“Well, my husband’s father is a very opinionated old man,” Carol said. “It doesn’t surprise me that he is living back in the 1870s.”

“Looking at this steer, his tail is soaked with manure, so he has had some watery diarrhea. The stool in his colon has some form to it, so maybe he is on the mend,” I said. “I will draw a blood sample and submit it to the lab, along with a stool sample. Since those results will take a few days, I will go ahead and treat him today.”

“What do you think he has, Doctor?” Carol asked.

“I think he probably has BVD,” I said. “That is bovine viral diarrhea. It could be something else, which is why we need to do the lab work. If this is BVD, he will probably get well or not, regardless of what I do for him. If this is an acute infection, it typically resolves within two to three weeks. We are almost at that time now. So, if I give him a shot today, and he is well in a couple of days, it doesn’t have anything to do with the shot.”

“What if he doesn’t get better?” Carol asked.

“If this is BVD, there are several things that can happen,” I said. “He can recover in two or three weeks, he can die almost at any time along the way, or, maybe worse of all, he can become persistently infected. Those animals that are persistently infected serve as a source of infection for the rest of the herd and other animals.”

“Well, at this time, there are no other animals,” Carol said.

“Just remember this guy,” I said. “Before you bring other cattle onto this place, just make sure they are vaccinated. If you are interested, I can send you a copy of my recommendations for routine herd vaccinations and preventative treatments.”

“Yes, that would be nice,” Carol said.

I treated the steer with antibiotics, which probably did little good, sent in samples to the lab, and left electrolytes for his water.

The lab samples came back positive for BVD. 

Luckily, the steer steadily improved and was back to normal the following week. Carol became a good client and a huge supporter, despite my laugh. I am not sure she ever believed that it wasn’t me who saved her steer.

Photo Credit: Tahir Osman on Pexels.

I always enjoyed my trips to Alice’s ranch. Not so much for the veterinary work, but the people-watching was the fun part. They were quite a pair. It was a lovely spring day to be working outside.

“I called you out here to check an eye on one of our cows,” Alice said as I stepped out of the truck. “I think it is nothing to worry about, but Daddy here thinks it needs to be checked. This is one of our best cows. She gives us one of the top calves in the herd every year.”

I could see they had the cow in the crowding alley. She looked like a nice Hereford cow of 5 or 6 years of age. The right side of her face was wet and dirty from the eye-watering and running down the side of her face.

I grabbed my bucket and filled it with warm water.

“Let’s go get a look at the old girl,” I said.

“She’s not an old cow,” Robert said.

“Don’t make a big deal out of his comment, Bobby,” Alice said. “He was just using a figure of speech. Lucy is going to be fine.”

Alice was a real battle axe. She was both taller and heavier than Robert. And she dominated every conversation. Those were the only words I expected to hear from Robert today.

We moved Lucy into the chute and put a rope halter on her to secure her head to the left side of the chute so I could get a good view of the right eye.

Looking at the eye, there was cauliflower-like growth on the surface of the third eyelid. I leaned against Lucy’s head and neck to help immobilize it. Then, using a forceps, I grasped the third eyelid and pulled it away from the surface of the eye so I could make sure we were looking at an isolated lesion.

“What do you think, Doc,” Robert asked.

The question surprised me, coming from Robert. I am not sure he has ever asked me a question.

“I think this is most likely a cancer eye,” I said, “We don’t see many cases here in the Willamette Valley, but in Colorado, it was very common. The good thing is that this lesion is currently isolated to the third eyelid. We can remove her third eyelid and probably be done with the problem.”

“That’s good,” Robert said. “Why don’t we do that right now?”

“Now, just a minute, Bobby,” Alice said. “I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to rush into any surgery or anything expensive.”

“Alice, this is a cancer,” I said. “It is going to continue to grow. If it spreads beyond the third eyelid, we will have to remove the eye. That will be a lot more expensive. And if we wait too long, this cancer will spread beyond the eye, and then you may not even be able to salvage this cow.”

“This is our best cow,” Alice said. “We are sure not going to be talking about salvaging her.”
“That’s right,” I said. “That is why the best course of action right now is to remove this third eyelid. Lucy can get along well without the third eyelid. The procedure is simple. Just some local anesthesia, remove the third eyelid with scissors, and place a few sutures. Along with some fly control, that’s all there is to it.”

“How can you be sure that this is a cancer?” Alice asked.

“I am going on experience,” I said. “I have seen many of these cases. Once we remove the third eyelid, we can send it to the lab and get a final diagnosis. Even if it turns out to be a simple wart, removing the thing now is the best course of action.”

“Well, I talked with Tom, up on Turbyne, you know, he used to pull calves before you came, and he said that he thought it sounded like pinkeye,” Alice said. “If it is pinkeye, we should be able to cure it with some powder or something.”

“I can assure you, Alice, this is not pinkeye,” I said. “There is an old saying in veterinary medicine about cancer surgery. It goes something like cut early, cut wide, and cut deep. Oftentimes, our best chance of curing cancer in an animal is with surgery. I think we should remove this third eyelid now. We can worry about the diagnosis after we have this lesion off of her eye.”

“I think we should we should remove it now, also,” said Robert from behind the chute.

“You just keep your thoughts to yourself, Bobby,” Alice said, “I am making the decisions around here. And I think we are going to watch this for a little while.”

“Okay, but I think that is a big mistake,” I said. “I see people watch things, and they always wait too long. But let me give Lucy a shot in the eye and clean up her face a bit.”

“No, you have done what we called you for,” Alice said. “We have some medicine for the eye. I will call you if it gets worse.”

---

It was late October when Alice called again.

“Doc, I think you better get another look at Lucy’s eye,” Alice said. “I don’t think this pinkeye medicine is doing what it is supposed to do.”

“I can get out there tomorrow afternoon,” I said.

“I don’t know, Doc,” Alice said. “I think it is sort of an emergency,”

“Alice, it has been almost six months since I looked at that cancer eye,” I said. “A few more hours isn’t going to change things much.”

“I will have her in the chute in the morning,” Alice said. “Can you get her taken care of first thing?”

“Okay, I will move my schedule around and be out to your place at eight in the morning,” I said. “How is this eye looking?”

 “It’s looking pretty bad, Doc,” Alice said. “I don’t think I can see the eye anymore.”

“Her only chance will be to remove the eye at this point,” I said. “And her prognosis will be guarded. Are you going to be up to that?”

“Yes, Robert and I talked it over,” Alice said. “We want to do what we can. She should be calving next spring, so we don’t want to lose her now.”

---

As promised, Alice had Lucy waiting in the chute when I pulled into the barnyard. I could see Robert and Alice coming from the house when I glanced into my rearview mirror.

Lucy’s eye looked terrible. Cancer tissue was bulging from the eye socket. That tissue had pushed the globe back in the socket, and you could not even see that an eye existed.

“I’m sorry we kept you waiting, Doc,” Alice said. “We were just finishing up with our breakfast. What do you think now?”

“I think we should have removed that third eyelid last spring,” I said. “You remember, I said people tend to wait too long. Looking at this eye, this has been too long. Let me check and make sure she is pregnant. We should be able to buy her enough time to raise a calf, then you should try to salvage her.”

“Why do you say salvage?” Alice asked.

“At this point, this cancer has gone elsewhere,” I said. “If you send her to slaughter, they will accept her as a suspect. They automatically condemn the head. Then, if the inspector finds any cancer beyond the head, they will tank the entire carcass. You will end up paying a slaughter fee and not getting anything in return.”

“What if we just make hamburger out of her with a mobile slaughter outfit?” Alice asked.

“That’s your choice,” I said. “I guess it depends on how hungry you are. It won’t kill you, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Why do you want to check her pregnancy?” Alice asked.

“If she is not pregnant, it probably isn’t worth removing this eye,” I said. “I would recommend just sending her to salvage.

“She always has a calf,” Alice said. “But if you think it is necessary, go ahead and check her.”

I pulled on an OB sleeve and ran my left arm into her rectum. I easily retracted her uterus into her pelvis. That was a sure sign she was not pregnant. She should be four or five months along at this point. I carefully examined the full length of her uterus. Not pregnant.

“She is not pregnant,” I said as pull my arm out and removed the sleeve.

“How could that be?” Alice said. “She is always one of the first to calve.”

“This eye has been pretty stressful,” I said. “Without a pregnancy, you have to get two years of survival to get another calf. That makes holding her over a poor decision. Add to that the surgery expense and the only viable option is to salvage her now.”

“I’m not sure about your math, Doc,” Alice said. “I just hate to think of losing our best cow.”

“That’s okay, Doc,” Robert popped up from behind the chute. “We are not going to put her through surgery and a possible cancer death just because Alice couldn’t believe you in the first place. I will call Mohawk and have them pick her up in the morning.”

“How dare you overrule my decisions!” Alice screamed at Robert as she wheeled around and headed for the house.

“She will be okay, Doc,” Robert said. “She is just upset that she didn’t listen to you in the first case.

Lucy went to Mohawk Slaughterhouse the following morning. The cancer had progressed to the point that it was found in the lymph nodes in the neck and in the chest. Her carcass was discarded by the rendering company. 

Robert stood a little taller after finally standing up to Alice. I am not sure that Alice fully recovered from the events.

Photo Credit: Photo by Lukas Kosc on Pexels.