JOHN O. ROWE
1895-1981
John Rowe (known as "John O.") was born in Solano County on a farm that was part of the Armstrong Estate (half of which is now part of UC Davis). He started milking cows at the age of 9 or 10 - hand milking. In the Fall of 1909 he entered the Farm School, directly out of grade school. The first classes toward a 3-year degree had been held on the campus 1 semester before he enrolled. He graduated from UCD in 1913. The total enrollment was 75 when he started and 188 when he graduated.
When John O. was 21, he and his brother and father bought the 'the old Wilson Ranch', 160 acres at $100 an acre. It is now known as Innisfail Farm. Two years later he entered the Army and was scheduled to go to France but ended up in Camp Lee, VA after the Armistice.
On returning to the farm he leased (1919), then bought (1924) the Innisfail herd of Milking Shorthorns previously owned by Alexander & Kellogg. While showing Milking Shorthorns at the International Livestock Show in Chicago in 1922, he met fellow showman, Lillian Barrett Wood. They were married in Indiana on December 4, 1927.
John O. was president of the Woodland Production Credit Association for 2 years and director for 24 years. He was active in Farm Bureau, helping bring the headquarters from Berkeley to Sacramento, becoming a charter member of the Yolo County Chapter in 1914, and of the Solano County chapter in 1915. In 1932 he became president of the American Milking Shorthorn Society. He worked with Charlie Hawkins to try to start the Cow Palace. In 1941 the first building was finished; the WPA and city of San Francisco got together to build it. The Army took it over after Pearl Harbor. The first Livestock Show in the Cow Palace was held in 1946.
John O. Rowe judged cattle at the Pacific International (Portland), American Royal (KC), Chicago International, Idaho State Fair, Oregon State Fair, Arizona State Fair, many county fairs in California, and the Eastern States Exhibition (Springfield, Mass).
Four hundred people attended John O. and Lillian's 50th wedding anniversary party in December, 1977. Today Innisfail Farm is still a premier Milking Shorthorn facility, run by a son and grandchildren of John O.
From UC Davis website.
I was one of those 400 people. There weren't supposed to be presents; Rowes had enough stuff. But my dad turned a myrtlewood bowl and carved the outside with a herd of individual animals that Rowes had owned when he worked for them. When we went in the house, Dad just quietly set the package on top of a cupboard, to be found later. When the gathering had wound down to mostly family, one of the grand kids reached up, brought the package to John O. and Lillian "open it". "Oh, there's Chess, and Lily 31st....." Of course, the recognition brought out stories of those animals, and others.
Chess' name was actually Wassuchetts Chess. He was a huge, extremely gentle, white bull. My dad would ride him, like a horse. He would bellow when someone he didn't know came in the yard. One evening, after dinner, they heard a bull bellowing, got up to look, and there was nobody there. This continued to happen, so John O said to my dad "Glenn, you'd better go see what's bothering Chess." Wasn't Chess at all - it was one of his sons, back of the barn, out of sight of the drive, trying out his voice. Chess had been sold as a calf to someone who put horn weights on him. Shorthorn's horns are suppose to curve up, but when Rowes got him back, his were closer to a Hereford's curve. John O. loved horns. The prospect of hornless cows would bring out "Good God, man, you wouldn't cut their tails off!" De-budding calves became a necessity, but I doubt John O. ever managed more than acceptance of what seemed to him an evil.
Descent of the Shorthorn breed is traced through cow families. There were a lot of Lilies. Dad did a carving of one who was a particular favorite of John O's. She was a spectacularly beautiful cow. But they also talked of one Lily who was a chow hound, would slick up the grain when she came in to be milked and look for more; had to be watched so she didn't gain too much weight. There was one that John O and Lillian's kids called old banana horns. Her horns looked like bananas.
John O. and Lillian B. Wood-Rowe were far more than simply married. Lillian was an excellent advisor, every bit his partner in the herd. During the Depression, the family came home from church one day, dispersed to do necessary chores before dinner, when Lillian realized that there was a heifer calving in a corral, needed help. All the men were busy, so she removed her (only?) church dress, shoes, stockings, carefully hung them on a fence post, and, ever the perfect lady, in her slip, proceeded to help the heifer. Even after John O was gone, the sons and grandsons turned to mom, even asking her to take trips to check out a certain animal they were considering adding to the herd, or using for artificial insemination. There were times she told them 'no, not this one, because....' and she was right.
Lillian's family had Chinese cooks. One, when he was new, told the family that if they didn't eat all their dinner, they'd get it in the biscuits in the morning. Sure enough, the scraps from dinner showed up in the next morning's biscuits. The family looked at the biscuits in bemusement and dismay. Lillian's mother took the cook aside and explained to him that, in their family, the scraps went to the chickens, and if he wanted to keep his job, he'd better stick to that.
Every once in awhile when we were growing up, Dad would look at our plates and tell us that if we didn't eat it, we'd get it in the biscuits in the morning. I may have gotten that the most because I passionately hated vegetables. Interesting how silly little family stories have a life of their own. I just told my 16 month old grandson "You'll get it in the biscuits in the morning" then had to explain to my daughter.
Dad had known them for years, but when I was probably 7 or 8, discovered a facet of Lillian he hadn't known. He had worked with Percheron draft horses when he worked with Rowes. I loved the stories he used to tell about them. He decided to carve some draft horses, but was having trouble finding pictures of any. One day when we were at Rowe's, he told them how frustrated he was at the lack of pictures. Lillian said, "Well, Glenn, what do you need?" She went into the office, brought back some folio sized books, and proceeded to spread them on the table, where she and Dad spent several hours going through them. They were stud books. Dad went home somewhat stunned. He hadn't known that, before her marriage, in an era when ladies didn't actively participate in the breeding of animals they owned, Lillian B. Wood had been a very active, very much hands-on breeder of purebred Percherons!
John O's instructions for after his funeral were that you couldn't get that many people together without having a party - with ice cream. John O believed that ice cream was the perfect food. And LOVED parties.
John O and Lillian's kids commissioned Dad to carve a perpetual trophy in honor of their parents, to be presented as a citizenship award to outstanding Milking Shorthorn breeders. It was presented to the family in Pomona and the fall of 1982.
The farm that used to be Innisfail's home is now gone, victim to the encroaching towns and state regulations. John O and Lillian's son John Stuart and Emily Rowe bought a farm in Capay, near Orland, that already had the necessary "improvements" required by the state of California - that had nearly bankrupted the farmer they bought it from. Most of the herd was sold. Rowes kept the best for themselves. My dad told me that John Stuart Rowe Jr. intends to take over when he retires.
Thank you for sharing your memories of my grandparents!
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