Kuck Family History: Son of a Saddle Maker

 

Ernest Anderson Kuck, grandson to original immigrant John Kuck, first cousin to my great grandfather and thus my 1rst cousin three times removed, was born in The Dalles on 29 Jul 1896 to Henry Lincoln and Minnie Anderson Kuck. During my vacation, everywhere I went, people knew who Ernie was and most knew him personally. He was one of those larger than life characters.

He only had one older brother named Harry and all sources agree, they were as different as could be. Ernie ended up being a mirror image of his father in about all regards, while Harry seemed to rebel against that mold and went his own path. As stated earlier, Harry ended up being a newspaper publisher in California where his descendants live to this day. Ernie, however, never strayed from home other than the two years he left to serve in World War I. Being a cowboy, he signed up for the cavalry unit ended up in the gunnery unit upon arrival. According to many sources, he saw quite heavy action during his time in Europe.

Back home, he became a partner in his father Henry's leather and saddle shop and eventually took it over and ended up with a partner by the name of Garth Bonney. But Ernie's love was evidently raising cattle and so he ended up selling his share to Garth and started the ranching life. Even while his father was still alive, Ernie was already buying up land, mostly land that was auctioned off for the back taxes owed. By all accounts, by the 1960's, he had stitched together some 23,000 acres of land by conservative estimates and upwards of 70,000 acres by others. After his father died, he inherited his father's ranch up against the Deschutes river on the south side of the Columbia river and his brother Harry inherited the land north of the Columbia river in Klickitat county, Washington. Everyone seems to agree that Harry didn't have any interest in ranching and that Ernie tried to buy him out but Harry refused. Most seemed to think that this incident plus Harry's fondness for drinking led the brothers to be somewhat estranged from each other. Whether or not this is true, is anyone's guess at this point. Many years ago I tried a few times to reach out to various descendants of Harry living in California but never was able to get a response back so perhaps it still goes on to this day.

Ernie would marry a woman by the name of Helen Huntington who most people would say was out of his league. I gathered that she was quite refined and loved to socialize while Ernie was a quite cowboy. At least at the time of the wedding, Harry was still in good standing with the family because he was the best man at the wedding. 

Life for Ernie was on the right track at this point. He was happily married, had a son named Jimmy who by all accounts was a spitting image of his father and grandfather, and was a successful rancher. But then the Kuck curse that had wiped out his grandmother and five of his aunt and uncles when his father Henry was a young man, struck again. 

Ernie had bought Jimmy a new pair of cowboy boots when Jimmy was just a fourteen year old boy. The boy loved those boots and wore them everywhere to the point he obtained a blister on one foot. That afternoon to cool down he went swimming at the local watering holes and the blister became infected. Over the weeks to follow, the infection spread elsewhere to his body and eventually to his brain, killing him. Ernie never got over the loss of his son, most agreed. But that wasn't all, six years later, Ernie's wife Helen also died at the young age of 49 from brain cancer.

Ernie moved out of his house in The Dalles and lived in various places on his ranch for much of his life thereafter, even after marrying a second time 10 years after the death of his first wife. Ernie was 58 years old by then and his second wife Carrie was 49 so neither were spring chickens and were probably set in their ways by then. So it didn't surprise anyone that they mostly lived apart and just visited each other as the years passed by. 

Cattle were Ernie's love in life as a career but as he stitched together parcels of land that he bought for back taxes, he discovered he owned something much more lucrative, timber. He started selectively selling timber off his various thousands of acres and by all accounts, was handsomely paid for the lumber. I wish I could tell you all the various stories of Ernie and his money that I uncovered during my recent trip but it would fill a month worth of posting. To summarize it though, Ernie loved to make money, was extremely generous with his money and yet lived a simple lifestyle all his life. 

When Ernie died in 1992 at the age of 95, he had previously spent $500,000 of his fortune to purchase the acres where the future historical museum he wanted to see come to the county would be built. After he died and with no heirs, he left the bulk of his estate, $9 million by conservative estimates and upwards of $12 million by others, to build that museum, now named the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Museum. He didn't want the museum named after him and they complied though they did name a wing of the museum after him. 

As I toured the museum, I couldn't help but be at awe to see what I felt was my family history being talked about in the various exhibits and videos. It was very humbling to experience. All told, I spent an entire day there between touring the museum and digging through the research library in an attempt to find a clue as to the identify of my 3rd great grandmother's Swiss parents. I didn't find that clue but what I did find was in a lot of ways, more meaningful.