A true Vaquero story.

I got this note from Jeremy's grandmother about some of his family history. She thought this would be neat to add onto something that is on our website front page. http://www.jbcattleco.com/

I think so too and I will get it added sometime soon...........hopefully. For some reason I have had trouble with motivation lately. I hope you enjoy this story!

Hi Jeremy, Brandie and children: As I was reading your recent message I could not help but want to add a sentence to your wonderful Californio Vaquero story.
Where you say Jeremy has a deep seated respect for the history that is the Californio Vaquero dating back to early California history, you may wish to mention that he is descended from an early California Vaquero; Anselmo Campas, his Great, great grandfather. Anselmo began his Vaquero career at the age of twelve at the Tejon Rancheria. He was also very interested in medicine and he became the person to call for illness or for delivering babies. He was Yaqui Indian and his family lived farther north inthe San Joaquin Valley until the United States government, in the late 1800s, decided to make the Indians go to reservations. The U S hired German Hessian mercenaries to see that the Indians were sent to the reservations.
Anselmo's father did not wish to go to the reservation they wanted him and his family to, (The TuleReservation) he wanted to go elsewhere to another reservation, so to punish him for disobedience, they cut his fingers off. (This is a true fact handed down from Mary Campas Rodriguez, Jeremy's Great Grandmother.) They fled down to the Tejon Rancheria when Anselmo was twelve.
The priest from the Tehachapi area would make occasional trips to the Rancheria to baptize babies, marry people, say Mass and bless the sick and the graves of those who had died. Tehachapi, in those early days did not have a resident priest until 1887 and even then his area to minister to the people extended as far as Needles to the east, San Fernando to the south , Lone Pine to the north.This included towns in between. He rode horseback and later was allowed to ride the trains up in the engine with the friendly engineer, a Patrick Greaney. Consequently, Tehachapi still only saw him periodically.
Anyway, it was so interesting I thought maybe you would like a little more history. Naturally you would not want all the info I gave you but I thought the part about him being a direct descendant of an old time Vaquero might spark some interest for readers. Grandma Pat Gracey