Kuck Family History: One Went West

Henry Lincoln Kuck

After their mother and five siblings died, I don't know much about the lives of Henry who was 16 or younger brother George Kuck aged 10. I know from an article that they both worked in father John's leather shop. I know from a short biography of Henry's life that he worked in Minneapolis, Minnesota for five years before leaving for Oregon. 

Sometime before the age of 25, Henry decided to head west and shows up in Portland, Oregon in 1887 according to city directory records. Most accounts state that he headed slightly east to The Dalles region in 1886 or 88. My interpretation of these overlapping figures is that he headed west, perhaps arriving in Portland in 1886 and then shortly moved on to The Dalles. Again, records show two different paths. One record, complete with a picture shows that Henry set up a saddle shop south of The Dalles in a little town called Shaniko. During my earlier trip to The Dalles, this town had been on my list of places to go if we had extra time. It wasn't higher up because from satellite imagery, there wasn't much to the town anymore other than a few buildings and it was highly unlikely either of these building existed anymore. Other written accounts said he set up shop on the ground floor of a motel in The Dalles. Again, my interpretation is that he first set up shop in Shaniko and then realized that the hub of trade was in The Dalles and moved there. The biography saying he came first to The Dalles was merely told from a The Dalles perspective.


Whatever the exact details, they all come together again in 1891 when the Skibbe Motel where he had been working out of burnt down along with a large chunk of town. Henry used that as an opportunity to relocate a block away to a metal clad building. I don't have any pictures of the outside of the building and it no longer exists today. But there is one picture that exists of the inside of it seen below.


I do have a great mental impression of it thanks to one particular lady named Marilyn Ericksen, who was a niece of Henry's daughter-in-law Helen Huntington. She wrote a book about her Uncle Ernest Kuck, Henry's son, and in research library of the museum, there is a binder of transcripts of various interviews of locals who knew either Henry or Ernie or both Kucks. All the descriptions of the building are pretty much identical. The first third of the building was the sales floor with their leather goods hung on simple hooks across the walls for display until sold. Next was Henry Kuck's office with a large pot bellied stove where many locals talked about sitting and visiting with each other. Henry evidently rarely partook in these sessions as most listed him as a man who was all business but extremely charitable. In the back third of the building was a large table where all the fashioning of leather into sellable goods went on. 

Minnie Anderson Kuck

Henry was soon smitten with a local girl named Minnie whom he married in 1892. Henry was 30 and she was 24 and I'm guessing the picture above was taken not too long after the marriage. She was the daughter of a prominent rancher turned prominent fruit grower in the area after his retirement from the cattle business. One of his first orders of business was to build a new house which he did just two blocks away from his saddle shop.

Seeing this house was one of the highlights of my trip. On the left is the house as it looked in mid to late 1890's. Standing on the porch is Henry, wife Minnie and probably oldest son Harry who was born in 1894. On the right was the house as it was in early July 2022. Although a bit run down looking, nearly all of the architectural details are still there, just painted different colors. One upstairs window was changed from diamond shape to rectangle and the border fence has been removed but remarkably intact for being 120+ years old.

Henry became a pretty successful man. He and wife Minnie had two sons Harry and Ernie and his business soon became a fixture in town. But again, accounts of his business differ. Most of the official biographies written on Henry say he was a noted saddle maker and indeed, there are still many saddles in existence with his makers mark on the back. However, most of the Erickson interview transcripts say that he only made harnesses and that others in his shop "probably" made the saddles and just applied his mark to them. None of those interviewed however, were around in the early days of his shop and only knew Henry later in life when they were just children. So my interpretation is that he probably made them in his early days but probably passed the job onto others as he became more successful and hired more employees.

Henry Lincoln Kuck - State Senator 1900

With success, Henry had a penchant for politics as everyone interviewed agreed upon. He was elected to the City Council from 1895 to 1899 and probably would have been on it a good deal longer had he not been elected mayor in 1900. Henry was also the chairman of the Wasco county central Republican chair for a period of 12 years and elected to the Oregon State Senate in 1928. Above is his official picture and one of the few pictures of him without his trademark mustache. From what I can gather, back then they met only once every two years and so lived in an apartment in Salem and was present at the Congressional sessions of 1929 and 1931. 

His two children, Harry and Ernest, evidently were as different as oil and water. Harry would become a newspaper publisher who evidently got into a pickle in the 1920's with a couple big libel suits filed against him. According to the interview transcripts, Henry had to use his political clout to clear his son of charges but wasn't very happy to do so. Many described Harry as a functioning alcoholic which may have played a part since Henry was a teetotaler just like his father John. Sometime after the suits, Harry would leave Oregon for California and the newspaper business there. He would have one daughter who with marriage, was the end of the Kuck surname in that line of the family tree. Younger son Ernest or Ernie as he was locally called, was just like his father and grandfather. Everyone agreed that he was always all business, never drank anything other than the occasional crème de menthe cocktail after dinner. Later when Henry died, I got the distinct sense that Ernest and Harry didn't get along too well. But I will save the story of Ernie for a separate post.

Without modern ways to invest money like we now have, Henry sunk his profits into land as the years went by buying up land and creating a decent sized ranch east of The Dalles along the Deschutes River and across the Columbia River where the Deschutes empties into it in Klickitat county, Washington. Most of Henry's ranch was devoted to livestock and wheat. Above is some of his wheat being harvested with the Deschutes River in the background.

Based upon old maps, I was able to track down the main part of Henry Kuck's Ranch, until recently still being run by a company by the name of Kuck LLC, and drove out for a visit. For several miles, all the land between the car and the Deschutes River, beyond the hill in the background, had once belonged to Henry. There still is a house and outbuilding up in that grove of trees to the right but not knowing who it anyone lived there, I didn't proceed further down the driveway than the spot where I took this picture. Henry never lived on the ranch though he surely visited whomever did live in that house.


Both sons served during World War I for a period of two years and upon their return, son Ernest went into partnership with his father. The name was changed to Kuck and Son and it began a new phase. Automobiles were now making their way to The Dalles and the need for saddles declined. Henry focused on making other leather goods while son Ernest would focus on the local native American population. Evidently Henry didn't have the knack for dealing with them like Ernie did.

Although it seemed clear at one time, I no longer remember the order of things but at one point, Henry had a partnership with a man named Ralph Bonney who did indeed make saddles. I don't recall if this was before or after Ernest became part owner and the name of Kuck and Son was created. I do know that eventually Ernest would become partners with Ralph's son Garth Bonney and the saddle shop was renamed to Kuck and Bonney Saddles. Around that time, another fire swept through town and the shop was moved into another location. Ernie didn't stick in the leather business for vary long and soon sold his share to Garth and from that point on, it was just the Bonney Saddle Shop. It relocated eventually to the above building that was formerly a saloon at one point called the Baldwin Saloon. There it remained until finally going out of business I believe in the 1950's. Sometime after that point, it became a restaurant that it is today and for lunch one day, we ate in the Baldwin Saloon.


By random chance, we were seated at a table right next to the above safe that once belonged to Henry Kuck and according to the interview transcripts, was part of the sale of the building when Garth Bonney sold his business. It still gives me some goosebumps looking at the picture. Of course I knew that the safe was in the Baldwin Saloon restaurant due to internet sleuthing prior to our trip but the cash register also belonging to Henry that was supposed to be there wasn't anymore. I asked the waitress and she said that it had been for awhile but recently had been moved across town to another business.


That business turned out to be a winery owned by the same people who owned the restaurant and so I drove to the winery whose staff looked puzzle when I wasn't interested in their wines but wanted to see a cash register. The owner came out and told me it was in storage but gave me permission to go photograph it in the presence of one of her staff when I told them the history connection. It was a huge monstrosity of a cash register but will fit in with the décor of the winery sampling room that was full of... you guessed it, antique cash registers.


Henry Lincoln Kuck would pass away in 1935 at the age of 72 after a protracted three year illness and was buried in the local cemetery up on the hill. I was able to drive to the cemetery one morning and though I had forgotten my maps back at the motel, with my intuition and my daughter's sharp eyes, we found his grave in short order and thus completing his story for me. We said a brief prayer over his grave as per our tradition in the hopes that because his name is still spoke, he still exists somewhere. 


 

Comments

  1. Their stories are so fleshed out; you've done excellent work in your research. How exciting to find the places and things that figured in their lives! (and have a great trip to the PacNW as well)

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